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topic: Tim Cook (5 articles)

Tim Cook on Facebook

March 11, 2021, 7:52:12 EST

Tim Cook on Facebook

You have written to me about how your disapprove of their business model

Facebook|Tim Cook

https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/tim-cook-may-have-just-ended-facebook.html

Tim Cook has just given a speech and said:

"Technology does not need vast troves of personal data stitched together across dozens of websites and apps in order to succeed. Advertising existed and thrived for decades without it, and we're here today because the path of least resistance is rarely the path of wisdom."

"If a business is built on misleading users on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise. It deserves reform."

"We should not look away from the bigger picture. In a moment of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says all engagement is good engagement, the longer the better, and all with the goal of collecting as much data as possible."

"Too many are still asking the question 'How much can we get away with?' when they need to be asking 'What are the consequences?'"

"What are the consequences of prioritizing conspiracy theories and violent incitement simply because of the high rates of engagement?"

"What are the consequences of not just tolerating but rewarding content that undermines public trust in life-saving vaccinations?"

"What are the consequences of seeing thousands of users joining extremist groups and then perpetuating an algorithm that recommends even more?"

"It is long past time to stop pretending that this approach doesn't come with a cost. A polarization of lost trust, and yes, of violence."

"A social dilemma cannot be allowed to become a social catastrophe."

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Touchy, touchy

Mon, Jan 31 2000, 11:00:02 pm GMT

Andre Milewski|Betinho Schmitz|Gordon Rigg|Jim Page|John Aldridge|Sarah Fenwick|Tim Cook|WPRS

A few (English) folks seemed to think that I was implying that Saran Fenwick was biased toward the British in my last article on the World pilot ranking system. I had assumed that my sophisticated readers would not draw that implication.

Sarah does her best to get everyone to get CIVL sanctioning for their meets. It just seems that it takes a bit more for some meet organizers to wise up. A bit more than it takes the British and some European meet organizers (the Americans seem to do OK). Sarah has pestered these recalcitrant meet organizers, but I guess they needed to see the picture.

The manipulation that I was referring to is, of course, quite above board. Get your meets sanctioned, and get your team to sanctioned meets. That's the ticket for getting WPRS points.

If you do this you have a much better chance of getting your pilots in the higher echelons of the ranking system, without accurately reflecting their relative skills. You also, of course, bring the ranking system into disrepute when folks begin to catch on to the trick.

The English write in:

John Aldridge, <john@theleague.force9.co.uk>, writes:

You mention early on that the British have recognised the benefits of having a meet sanctioned and add that Sarah Fenwick is English.

It is difficult not to read this as implying that we are manipulating the system - and even that Sarah is being a little partisan in carrying out her duties for CIVL. Unfair.

May I make it clear that, YES, we recognised the benefits of getting our events sanctioned. The main (and intended) benefit to us was that a competition gaining ranking points should be more attractive to high quality international pilots. This enhances the competition and benefits not only our own top pilots but also up and coming ones who do not often compete in such a high quality field. We are serious about this approach and, when practical, also try to run our comps in locations that will attract the top guys - Ager before '95 Worlds, Hungary before '96 Europeans, Monte Cucco in '97 & '98.

We submitted results to Andre Milewski for the PIRS rankings before the advent of the CIVL system. The spin-off of greater opportunities for our own pilots to gain points was also recognized, but has never been the reason we pay the sanction fee - although one pilot did suggest (with his tongue firmly in his cheek) that we open the comps we run in Scotland or Wales to international pilots. He suggested that paying the small fee involved would ensure some startling rankings for our own pilots.

It seems others are now seriously considering similar measures! And we agree that the scheme needs some tweaking. Gordon Rigg has already expressed good humoured amazement at his and Allan's current ranking (Allan is in NZ and out of contact at the moment). Our competition panel will be instructing our CIVL rep on our consensus view of changes needed before the plenary meeting.

My personal view is that the main failing of the current scheme is that it fails to take account of field quality. The PIRS system required a minimum of 10 pilots from the current top 100 to compete before a competition's results could qualify, the CIVL system requires only a payment. I suspect that re-introducing this criteria would go a considerable way toward addressing the failings. It is also simple but might be unpopular with CIVL if it meant refunding sanction fees to those comp organisers who did not manage to attract sufficient top quality pilots

Jim Page, <jimp@videologic.com>, writes:

I think that's (the word manipulate) a bit strong actually. The word 'manipulate' is usually used to imply malicious intent. I don't think there's anything in this situation that indicates that - our competition pilots and organisers just did what everybody else should have done. Nobody here is pretending that the results truly reflect things as they should be. The UK pilots in the CIVL top ten I have talked to regard the situation with amusement tinged with embarrassment.

If I were Allan, Steve, Gordon, or any of the other UK pilots implicated in this dispute, I would deeply resent your implication that I had been conniving to unfairly maximise my ranking by 'devious' means. They all put their heart and soul into these competitions, and they work extremely hard at it and fly damned well.

Gordon Rigg, <Rigg@btinternet.com>, writes:

I see from our distribution list you already got some comments from the UK. I can assure you that our competition organisation has had no significant contact with Sarah although I sent her one email last year about the ranking and the one attached below when the current ranking was published. The response I received from her was very similar to that which you have already published.

You can find previous comments of mine on how misleading the ranking is, published in the UK Skywing mag (repeated at my website http://www.hangpoints.cjb.net)

I just wanted to point out that our competition at Monte Cucco was arranged at that location and time to attract international pilots, and many came. It would have scored highly in the old PIRS as well - but that doesn't mean I agree that it was worth twice as much as the US Nats or Wallaby!

The intention was to attract top class pilots, and we did. Unfortunately the late published Kitzbul competition clashed after it was too late to move our comp and though Betinho entered, others showed up a day late. It was suggested that we score a separate to the UK championships international without the day 1 scores, but unfortunately this was impossible with the limited resources we had available (we run a competition with 100 pilots, with one meet head, one scorer and two or three volunteer marshals, and it worked well as usual)

Ironically Oleg and Manfred chose not to enter our comp late and score a zero on day 1 in case it caused a bad world ranking score (Manfred actually gave that reason!). In fact if they had entered and finished 800 points behind the winner (Steve Cook) then he might well have scored enough ranking points to place number 1. I'm just pointing out the irony here, not defending the over simplistic ranking system. Please go on to read my comments below.

Its worth a plug for our competition this year at this point: The British International Open will be at St. Andre in France in late 30th July to 5th August, (shortly after the Euros) There'll be lots of world ranking point available no doubt! You can find out about how to enter at the UK comps web site: http://www.theleague.force9.co.uk/welcome.htm

We once had a respected ranking list run by Andre (PIRS) which was very complicated because he'd fiddled with the formulae until the pilots were listed in an order that most agreed was realistic. Now we have an official ranking list, but competition organisers are failing to get their comps on the list of competitions. This may be due to having to put their details before hand, or just because they have to pay a fee. Either way, some comps ranked previously were not ranked last year (Bassano?). So I fear the ranking system is falling rather than gaining popularity!

There does appear to be a problem with the values of the comps relative to each other varying too much, while the difference in the pilots scores at the same comp is too small. i.e. when A beats B at one comp there is a very small points difference, completely masked by the fact that A went to another comp that only scored 30 points for the winner while B went somewhere else that scored 60 for the winner. We thus have Allan ahead of Manfred when Manfred beat Allan twice (plus once at Bassano). Also I beat Allan twice (plus once at Bassano) but didn't compete against him at Algodonales. Cook beat Allan three times (worlds, UK Open, 98 Europeans). Just an example - I'm not trying to knock Allan Honest!

I strongly suspect that a system that works for PG with their stronger international series and more full time pilots, might not work for hang gliding without adjustment.

The other problem is the poor take-up by organisers. I suspect the system would have got going better if it was subsidized for one or two years to the level of not costing a fee, and the organiser of the ranking having a small budget to pursue the results with. Then when we had lots of comps ranked and the pilots and organisers interested, introduce a fee if necessary.

It the moment I find my ranking embarrassingly high. I hope Allan can cope with the embarrassment better than me!

Click on the individual results and you will see that our League was nearly as important as the worlds and the US Nationals and Wallaby ranch scored about the same as Venezuela. For reasons unknown Bassano didn't count (pity! That's how Allan's ahead of me!).

The over simple formulae do not provide enough separation within a comp (Worlds, Manfred 98 points, Rigg 94 for 5th even though he rather thrashed me!) whereas making the mistake of going to Wallaby (27 points for winning) or the US Nationals (29 points for win), rather than the British League Open (65 point win for Cook)

Anyway, I suggest we just rename our league the world series!

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British Nationals – not just for Brits »

Wed, Jul 28 1999, 4:00:02 am GMT

Betinho Schmitz|Claudio Deflorian|Francoise Mocellin|Gordon Rigg|Grant Crossingham|Jim Bowyer|Jim Lee|Kathleen Rigg|Richard Walbec|Robin Hamilton|Tim Cook

By Jim Bowyer

Monte Cucco Day 3 We actually got a met forecast today. It said weather same as yesterday (which was a boomer), no wind and no clouds. Bad weather coming from the north late in the day but probably will not reach the central area of Italy until Tuesday. To contradict this there was a moderate SW breeze on launch, although this did get a lot lighter while pilots rigged. Local advice is that there was likely to be very little wind away from the hill and the forecast was probably accurate.

The task was set as a 53 km run to Trevi in the south, followed by a 40 km northeast run across new territory to Camerino before flying into the Tre Pizzi goal field. This proved to be an error as the wind proved to be a stiff south westerly and height was difficult to gain.

The attrition rate was high in the early part of the course with the Fabriano gap claiming a lot of gliders and the Nocera Umbra area a lot more. Even top pilots were not immune and Jim Lee was an early casualty at about 30 km. However enough pilots got around the first turnpoint and most of the way to the second to give the task a high validity - although most of those decked it somewhere between 85 and 95 km of the 109 km course.

Steve Cook was the only pilot to prove that the task was do-able and he managed it in just under 4 hours. New boy Grant Crossingham was second at 93.4 km with yesterdays task winner, Richard Walbec, down just behind him at 93 km. Betinho came in 3rd.

The overall positions now show Steve as the overall leader, 130 points clear of Richard Walbec with Betinho Schmitz in third place with Gordon Rigg the next Brit in 6th place, Shaun Kimberley at 8th and Robin Hamilton 9th. This gives Steve a clear lead in the British Nationals at this point. Kathleen Rigg is now leading the ladies with Francoise Mocellin in second and Susi Van Kessel in third place.

Claudio Meijo did not have a good day; she finished up in the bottom landing field and compounded her misfortune by dropping her drogue 'chute in front of her base bar. Concussion followed by a trip to Gubbio hospital was the result. Let's hope she's back fit and well before the end of the comp.

Day 4 High winds cause the cancellation of the day.

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United Kingdom World Team

Fri, Jun 4 1999, 10:00:02 pm GMT

Allan Barnes|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jim Bowyer|John Fennell|Justin Needham|Kathleen Rigg|Robin Hamilton|Ron Richardson|Steve Elkins|Tim Cook

Jim Bowyer writes:

The first round of the British Nationals was a complete washout, 5 days, no valid tasks and very little flying. But the competitions panel did sit and meditate over team selection for the Worlds - the result:

UK WORLDS TEAM
Allan Barnes
Glider: Laminar ST02
Home Club: Pennines

Born in New Zealand Allan's dedication to competing has seen him climb the British rankings to become British Champion in 1998. Despite his serious accident in St. Andre in 97 in which he broke his leg, Allan made a good enough recovery to fly the worlds in Australia that winter, and followed that with a remarkable performance in the British Championships taking the title by a comfortable margin. Allan is still troubled with his leg injury but even if he must fly with base bar wheels and choose his launch cycle for a bit more facing wind he's still likely to set a fast pace to goal!

Justin Needham
Glider: La Mouette Topless
Home Club: South East Wales

Justin's youthful appearance and attitude hide the fact that he has been around for a long time - a member of "the league" since 1985! That's a couple of years more than Gordon! Justin's turned the commitment up a few notches in the last couple of years and puts a lot of miles in each year driving to where he thinks the weather will be best in Britain, and almost as many on his Topless. Justin will be hoping to fill the space along side his team gold medal from the 1992 European Championships in Norway.

Ron Richardson
Home club: Southern
Glider: Avian Cheeta

After an indifferent performance at our League in Monte Cucco last year Ron slipped out of the top three selection places for the team. Since then Val's allowed him an overdraft on the Brownie points! Placing second highest Brit at the pre worlds was followed by good performances in Australia, Venezuela, and Bassano. He'll certainly be a familiar face to the other world's competitors, even if his wife has trouble recognizing him at the moment!

Robin Hamilton
Home club: either Aberdeen or New Orleans!
Glider: Laminar ST

Robin has racked up the air miles to come back to Europe for the foreign league meet ever since his job in oil exploration took him Stateside. He's the longest serving member of our world's team, and he's got the team medals to prove it. He was also the highest placed Brit in the last worlds in Australia. Robin's been doing some competitions in the Americas recently placing third in last years US nationals and winning a meeting in Mexico.

Steve Cook
Home Club: Southern
Glider: La Mouette Topless

"Cooky" was our highest placed pilot at last years Europeans in Slovakia. Despite a set back in last years League when he had a lucky escape after a mid air, Steve was right back on the pace just a few days later. After an extended winter trip to South Africa Steve has already put some miles in off the Dyke. Steve is the acknowledged low save kid and often gets back up from the sort of height where others are preparing to flare!

Gordon Rigg
Home club: Derbyshire
Glider: Laminar ST02

Thinking about it, it seems I've done 4 category one team comps now which makes me the longest serving team member not to have any medals! I'm looking to balance my side of the mantelpiece as Kathleen's got a truck load of gongs from Women's Worlds!

John Fennell Team Manager
Home Club: Thames valley
Glider: Xtralite

John was British Team Manager at the first ever Monte Cucco international competition. He's found time from his latest occupation (delivery driver of obscenely fast sports cars) to take some of the administration work load off our pilots. The team manager's job is an essential one - making sure we all have all the information from the briefings, checking we've not been diddled out of any points, opening the cold beers for us at goal etc!

Waiting in the wings…

1st reserve Shaun Kimberley
2nd reserve Gary Wirdnam
3rd reserve Steve Elkins
sorry!… I fully intend to stay in one piece this time lads…

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Current World Pilot Ranking

Thu, Mar 11 1999, 11:00:00 pm GMT

Allan Barnes|Francois Isoard|Gerard Thevenot|Gerolf Heinrichs|Manfred Ruhmer|Mario Alonzi|Oleg Bondarchuk|Sergio Bernardi|Tim Cook|WPRS

Oleg Bondarchuk, factory pilot for Aeros, makers of the Stealth glider, did well in Australia this year. So well that he moved up to number one in the world ranking. Allan Barnes also did well in Australia and that moved him into the top ten.

You can find the current world ranking for hang glider and paraglider at the CIVL web site at http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/rankings/rankings.asp?id=1.

CIVL updates their pilot ranking after major competitions. We will be doing the same for US HG pilots on my web site, at least, and perhaps on the USHGA web site also. Previously only the pilot ranking as of the end of the previous year was available.

You can find the current pilot ranking for the 2000 US World team at http://www.davisstraub.com.


Place Name Points
1 Bondarchuk Oleg 495
2 Gehrmann Guido 486
3 Heinrichs Gerolf 388
4 Ruhmer Manfred 351
5 Cook Steve 313
6 Thevenot Gerard 312
7 Gerard Jean-Francois 304
8 Alonzi Mario 293
9 Barnes Allan 290
10 Bernardi Ignazio 286

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