Artificial Intelligence Improves Microscopes

Machine learning helps some of the best microscopes to see better, work faster, and process more data

From:  European Molecular Biology Laboratory

May 9, 2021 -- Collaboration between deep learning experts and microscopy experts leads to an significantly improved data-intensive light-field microscopy method by using AI and ground-truthing it with light-sheet microscopy. The result is the power of light-field microscopy available to biologists in near real time vs. days or weeks, AND the expansion of biologists' ability to use this microscopy for many things more things requiring the most detailed observation.

To observe the swift neuronal signals in a fish brain, scientists have started to use a technique called light-field microscopy, which makes it possible to image such fast biological processes in 3D. But the images are often lacking in quality, and it takes hours or days for massive amounts of data to be converted into 3D volumes and movies.

Now, EMBL scientists have combined artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms with two cutting-edge microscopy techniques -- an advance that shortens the time for image processing from days to mere seconds, while ensuring that the resulting images are crisp and accurate. The findings are published in Nature Methods.

"Ultimately, we were able to take 'the best of both worlds' in this approach," says Nils Wagner, one of the paper's two lead authors and now a PhD student at the Technical University of Munich. "AI enabled us to combine different microscopy techniques, so that we could image as fast as light-field microscopy allows and get close to the image resolution of light-sheet microscopy."

Although light-sheet microscopy and light-field microscopy sound similar, these techniques have different advantages and challenges. Light-field microscopy captures large 3D images that allow researchers to track and measure remarkably fine movements, such as a fish larva's beating heart, at very high speeds. But this technique produces massive amounts of data, which can take days to process, and the final images usually lack resolution.

Light-sheet microscopy homes in on a single 2D plane of a given sample at one time, so researchers can image samples at higher resolution. Compared with light-field microscopy, light-sheet microscopy produces images that are quicker to process, but the data are not as comprehensive, since they only capture information from a single 2D plane at a time.

To take advantage of the benefits of each technique, EMBL researchers developed an approach that uses light-field microscopy to image large 3D samples and light-sheet microscopy to train the AI algorithms, which then create an accurate 3D picture of the sample.

"If you build algorithms that produce an image, you need to check that these algorithms are constructing the right image," explains Anna Kreshuk, the EMBL group leader whose team brought machine learning expertise to the project. In the new study, the researchers used light-sheet microscopy to make sure the AI algorithms were working, Anna says. "This makes our research stand out from what has been done in the past."

Robert Prevedel, the EMBL group leader whose group contributed the novel hybrid microscopy platform, notes that the real bottleneck in building better microscopes often isn't optics technology, but computation. That's why, back in 2018, he and Anna decided to join forces. "Our method will be really key for people who want to study how brains compute. Our method can image an entire brain of a fish larva, in real time," Robert says.

He and Anna say this approach could potentially be modified to work with different types of microscopes too, eventually allowing biologists to look at dozens of different specimens and see much more, much faster. For example, it could help to find genes that are involved in heart development, or could measure the activity of thousands of neurons at the same time.

Next, the researchers plan to explore whether the method can be applied to larger species, including mammals.

Artificial intelligence makes great microscopes better than ever: Machine learning helps some of the best microscopes to see better, work faster, and process more data -- ScienceDaily

Why Birds Engage in Preening

Preening is a maintenance behavior found in birds that involves the use of the beak to position feathers, interlock feather barbules that have become separated, clean plumage, and keep ectoparasites in check. Feathers contribute significantly to a bird's insulation, waterproofing and aerodynamic flight, and so are vital to its survival. Because of this, birds spend considerable time each day maintaining their feathers, primarily through preening. Several actions make up preening behaviour. Birds fluff up and shake their feathers, which helps to "rezip" feather barbules that have become unhooked. Using their beaks, they gather preen oil from a gland at the base of their tail and distribute this oil through their feathers. They draw each contour feather through their bill, nibbling it from base to tip.

Over time, some elements of preening have evolved to have secondary functions.  Ritualised preening has become a part of some courtship displays , for example. It is also a displacement activity that can occur when birds are subjected to two conflicting drives. Though primarily an individual function, preening can be a social activity involving two or more birds – a behaviour known as allopreening. In general, allopreening occurs either between two members of a mated pair or between flock members in a social species. Such behaviour may assist in effective grooming, in the recognition of individuals (mates or potential sexual partners), or in reducing or redirecting potential aggressive tendencies in social species. Most allopreening is confined to the head and neck, smaller efforts being directed towards other parts of the body.

Ingestion of pollutants or disease-causing organisms during preening can lead to problems ranging from liver and kidney damage to pneumonia and disease transmission. Injury and infection can cause overpreening in caged birds, as can confining a bird with a dominant or aggressive cage mate.

Importance of Preening

Preening is a maintenance behaviour used by all birds to care for their feathers. It is an innate behaviour; birds are born knowing the basics, but there is a learned component. Birds that are hand-reared without access to a role model have abnormalities in their preening behaviours.  Despite spending considerable time in their efforts, they do not use proper techniques to groom effectively and may do a poor job overall as a result.  Displaced feathers can cause birds considerable trouble; such feathers might become damaged, could interrupt the smooth flow of air over a flying bird, or might allow the bird's body heat to escape. Preening allows a bird to reposition such displaced feathers. There is evidence that filoplumes specialised feathers buried under a bird's outer covering of contour feathers, help to signal when contour feathers have been displaced.  Mechanoreceptorsat the base of the filoplumes only fire when contour feathers are displaced or the filoplume moves.  Preening enables birds to remove dirt and parasites from their plumage, and assists in the waterproofing of feathers.  During moult, birds remove the sheaths from around their emerging pin feathers while preening.

Because feathers are critical to a bird's survival – contributing to insulation, waterproofing and aerodynamic flight – birds spend a great deal of time maintaining them.  When resting, birds may preen at least once an hour.  Studies on multiple species have shown that they spend an average of more than 9% of each day on maintenance behaviours, preening occupying over 92% of that time, though this figure can be significantly higher.  Studies found that some gull species spent 15% of daylight hours during the breeding season preening, while another showed that common loons spent upwards of 25% of their day preening.  In most of the studied species where the bird's sex could be determined in the field, males spent more time preening than females, though this was reversed in ducks.  Some ratites, which are not dependent on their feathers for flight, spend far less time on maintenance behaviours. One study of ostriches found that they spent less than 1% of their time engaged in such behaviours

Preen Oil

Fully grown feathers are essentially dead structures, so it is vital that birds have some way to protect and lubricate them. Otherwise, age and exposure cause them to become brittle.  To facilitate that care, many bird species have a preen or uropygial gland, which opens above the base of the tail feathers and secretes a substance containing fatty acids, water, and waxes. The bird gathers this substance on its bill and applies it to its feathers.  The gland is generally larger (in relation to body size) in waterbirds, including terns, grebes and petrels, but studies have found no clear correlation between the size of a bird's gland and the exposure to water that its lifestyle dictates.

Preen oil plays a role in reducing the presence of parasitic organisms, such as feather-degrading bacteria, lice and fungi, on a bird's feathers.  One study of Eurasian hoopoes showed that the presence of symbiotic bacteria (Enterococcus faecalis) in their preen oil inhibited the growth of the feather-degrading bacteria Bacillus licheniformis.  Enterococcus faecalis did this by releasing a bacteriocin.  Female hoopoes transfer preen oil onto their brood patches and eggs, which results in the transfer of bacteria as well. Preen oil and bacteria are rubbed into microscopic pits on the surface of the eggs during incubation.  This alters the colour of the eggs (darkening them) but there is also evidence that the bacteria may help to protect the developing chicks.  Other studies have shown that removing or restricting access to the uropygial gland typically results in a higher bacterial parasite load on the plumage, though not necessarily of feather-degrading bacterial species.  Preen oil may play a part in protecting at least some species from some internal parasites; a study of the incidence of avian malaria in house sparrows found that uninfected birds had larger uropygial glands and higher antimicrobial activity in those glands than infected birds did.  There is even evidence that the foul-smelling preen oil of hoopoes and wood hoopoes may help to repel mammalian predators.

Preen oil helps to maintain the waterproofing of a bird's plumage. Though the oil does not provide any direct waterproofing agent, it helps to extend the life of the feather – including the microscopic structures (the barbs and barbules) which interlock to create the waterproof barrier.

While most species have a preen gland, the organ is missing in the ratites (emu, ostriches, cassowaries, rheas and kiwis) and some neognath birds, including bustards, woodpeckers, a few parrots and pigeons.  Some species that lack a preen gland instead have powder down feathers which continually break down into a fine dust that the birds apply to their contour feathers while preening.  These powder down feathers may be scattered throughout the bird's plumage or concentrated into dense patches. As well as helping to waterproof and preserve the bird's feathers, powder down can give a metallic sheen to the plumage.

                      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preening

Capitalism and Modern Morality

Examined in a new book by Donald Devine

Amazon Summary

Western civilization fashioned a capitalism that created a worldwide economic cornucopia and higher standards of living than any other system, yet its legitimacy is often questioned by its beneficiaries. Boston University Emeritus Professor Angelo M. Codevilla, proclaims Donald Devine’s The Enduring Tension between Capitalism and the Moral Order, “the best answer to this question since Adam Smith’s. Like Smith, Devine shows the mutually sustaining nature of morality and economic freedom, and provides a much-needed clearing away of the confusion with which recent authors have befogged this essential relationship.”

Devine begins with Karl Marx setting capitalism’s roots in feudalism and the implications of that traditionalist inheritance, finally transformed by Rousseau’s “Christian heresy,” which turned the vision of heavenly perfection into an impossibly perfect ideal for earthly society.

To unravel this capitalist enigma, Devine identifies the roots of the confusion, critiques the rationalized responses, and identifies the remedy―the revival of an historical Lockean pluralism able to fuse a moral scaffolding sufficient to hold the walls and preserve the best of capitalist civilization.

Editorial Reviews

"Why does history record prosperity for the mass of ordinary people only within Western civilization and in the context of free markets? Donald Devine’s exploration of the enduring tension between capitalism and the moral order is the best answer to this question since Adam Smith’s. Like Smith, Devine shows the mutually sustaining nature of morality and economic freedom, and provides a much needed clearing away of the confusion with which recent authors have befogged this essential relationship."―Angelo M. Codevilla, Professor Emeritus, Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University

In this profound and sweeping study, Donald Devine illuminates the foundations of our liberal order, takes its serious critics seriously, and answers them in their own terms―which he demonstrates are ultimately moral terms, in the deepest sense. This is an essential book for understanding the prospects of our politics.―Yuval Levin, American Enterprise Institute

Too many defenses of the market economy focus on narrow economic considerations alone. To make a deep and compelling case requires an understanding not only of economics, but of broader issues in ethics, political science, history, and philosophy. Few are qualified to do this, but Donald Devine certainly is, as The Enduring Tension demonstrates. ―Edward Feser, Professor of Philosophy, Pasadena City College

Donald Devine provides an invaluable guide to the sometimes solid, sometimes dreamy ideas about economic and social life we will have to contend with if we want to build and sustain a humane world. Drawing from history, political philosophy, theology, and a practitioner’s wisdom, he concludes that there can be no vibrant capitalism without a robust moral tradition. We must take his insights to heart and work to fortify that tradition.―Joshua Mitchell, Professor of Political Theory, Georgetown University

In an era of new challenges, Donald Devine reveals the historical roots and the moral necessity of pluralism and capitalism. The Enduring Tension is an essential book for a dark time.―Samuel Goldman, Associate Professor of Political Science, George Washington University

The Enduring Tension isn’t just a book that makes the moral case for capitalism―it’s a whole library in one volume. Donald Devine channels a lifetime of experience and scholarship into this indispensable work, where his erudition is matched only by his passion and eloquence.―Daniel McCarthy, Editor, Modern Age

When capitalism’s legitimacy faces an onslaught of naysaying, Donald Devine does the necessary work of reconciling human freedom, capitalism, and morality. Edmund Burke counseled us to stand on the shoulders of giants, and Devine is one of those sagacious giants.―Rachel Bovard, Policy Director, Conservative Partnership Institute

About the Author

Donald J. Devine is Senior Scholar at the Fund for American Studies, an academic, columnist; lecturer, and author of nine previous books. Dr. Devine is the last of the dozen intellectuals once identified as the “leading lights” of the post war fusionist re-evaluation of conservative and libertarian thinking. For a quarter-century he was a professor of government at the University of Maryland and Bellevue University. He was a longtime advisor to Ronald Reagan and served as his Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during his first presidential term.

https://www.amazon.com/Enduring-Tension-Capitalism-Moral-Order/dp/1641771518/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1F72CLY9J61BO&dchild=1&keywords=the+enduring+tension+capitalism+and+the+moral+order&qid=1620274050&s=books&sprefix=The+Enduring+Tension%2Caps%2C203&sr=1-1

Is College a Waste of Time and Money?

By the Blog Author

No!  Not if you take the right courses.”

Take freshman chemistry for a year -- including the lab!

Take "College Algebra" also called "Advanced Algebra."

This is the 21st century.  You are going to be conned and treated like a beast if you don't take these two courses that will get you familiar with the scientific method and make you an expert at something that will never, ever betray you -- the “periodic table of the elements.”

Beg, beg, beg the Philosophy Dean into establishing a course based on Jaques Ellul's book Propaganda, which is deservedly back in print.  Also take at least two Shakespeare courses, because he was and still is the grand master of human nature.

Take the freshman year of basic accounting and the next year of intermediate accounting.  This is the language of business and of modern survival.

Take the absolute dead minimum of social science courses.  These are fields that haven't been invented yet.  Waste.  Like setting fire to fresh thousand dollar bills.

STAY OUT of gender and race relations studies.  They are fairy tales.  They cannot bear the truth:  "It is all family."

Do not "follow your dream."  All dreams become laughable in the long run.  And you don't know yourself well enough to know what you will value in your forties and beyond.  Study the brilliant geniuses as taught to you by respectful profs.  “Try to see it my way…we can work it out,” as Sir Paul McCartney sang.

Wish you well in your quest.

-- Edward Binns, retired MBA/CPA

edbinns@gmail.com 

 Groundwater Is the Most Critical Environmental Issue

Dry Wells May Spark Wars In the 21st Century

Scientists find many wells at risk of running dry around the world (azcentral.com)

Molecules That Clean the Earth’s Atmosphere

Scientists have found that lightning bolts and, surprisingly, subvisible discharges that cannot be seen by cameras or the naked eye produce extreme amounts of the hydroxyl radical and hydroperoxyl radical.

From:  Penn State

April 29, 2021 -- The hydroxyl radical is important in the atmosphere because it initiates chemical reactions and breaks down molecules like the greenhouse gas methane.

Lightning bolts break apart nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the atmosphere and create reactive chemicals that affect greenhouse gases. Now, a team of atmospheric chemists and lightning scientists have found that lightning bolts and, surprisingly, subvisible discharges that cannot be seen by cameras or the naked eye produce extreme amounts of the hydroxyl radical -- OH -- and hydroperoxyl radical -- HO₂.

The hydroxyl radical is important in the atmosphere because it initiates chemical reactions and breaks down molecules like the greenhouse gas methane. OH is the main driver of many compositional changes in the atmosphere.

"Initially, we looked at these huge OH and HO₂ signals found in the clouds and asked, what is wrong with our instrument?" said William H. Brune, distinguished professor of meteorology at Penn State. "We assumed there was noise in the instrument, so we removed the huge signals from the dataset and shelved them for later study."

The data was from an instrument on a plane flown above Colorado and Oklahoma in 2012 looking at the chemical changes that thunderstorms and lightning make to the atmosphere.

But a few years ago, Brune took the data off the shelf, saw that the signals were really hydroxyl and hydroperoxyl, and then worked with a graduate student and research associate to see if these signals could be produced by sparks and subvisible discharges in the laboratory. Then they did a reanalysis of the thunderstrom and lightning dataset.

"With the help of a great undergraduate intern," said Brune, "we were able to link the huge signals seen by our instrument flying through the thunderstorm clouds to the lightning measurements made from the ground."

The researchers report their results online today (April 29) in Science First Release and the Journal of Geophysical Research -- Atmospheres.

Brune notes that airplanes avoid flying through the rapidly rising cores of thunderstorms because it is dangerous, but can sample the anvil, the top portion of the cloud that spreads outward in the direction of the wind. Visible lightning happens in the part of the anvil near the thunderstorm core.

"Through history, people were only interested in lightning bolts because of what they could do on the ground," said Brune. "Now there is increasing interest in the weaker electrical discharges in thunderstorms that lead to lightning bolts."

Most lightning never strikes the ground, and the lightning that stays in the clouds is particularly important for affecting ozone, and important greenhouse gas, in the upper atmosphere. It was known that lightning can split water to form hydroxyl and hydroperoxyl, but this process had never been observed before in thunderstorms.

What confused Brune's team initially was that their instrument recorded high levels of hydroxyl and hydroperoxyl in areas of the cloud where there was no lightning visible from the aircraft or the ground. Experiments in the lab showed that weak electrical current, much less energetic than that of visible lightning, could produce these same components.

While the researchers found hydroxyl and hydroperoxyl in areas with subvisible lightning, they found little evidence of ozone and no evidence of nitric oxide, which requires visible lightning to form. If subvisible lightning occurs routinely, then the hydroxyl and hydroperoxyl these electrical events create need to be included in atmospheric models. Currently, they are not.

According to the researchers, "Lightning-generated OH (hydroxyl) in all storms happening globally can be responsible for a highly uncertain but substantial 2% to 16% of global atmospheric OH oxidation."

"These results are highly uncertain, partly because we do not know how these measurements apply to the rest of the globe," said Brune. "We only flew over Colorado and Oklahoma. Most thunderstorms are in the tropics. The whole structure of high plains storms is different than those in the tropics. Clearly we need more aircraft measurements to reduce this uncertainty."

Other researchers at Penn State include Patrick J. McFarland, undergraduate; David O. Miller, doctoral recipient; and Jena M. Jenkins, doctoral candidate, all in meteorology and atmospheric science.

          https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210429141949.htm

A Look at Stakeholder Theory

The stakeholder theory is a theory of organizational management and  business ethics that accounts for multiple constituencies impacted by business entities like employees, suppliers, local communities, creditors, and others.  It addresses morals and values in managing an organization, such as those related to corporate social responsibility, market economy, and social contract theory.

The stakeholder view of strategy integrates a resource-based view and a market-based view, and adds a socio-political level. One common version of stakeholder theory seeks to define the specific stakeholders of a company (the normative theory of stakeholder identification) and then examine the conditions under which managers treat these parties as stakeholders (the descriptive theory of stakeholder salience).

In fields such as law, management, and human resources, stakeholder theory succeeded in challenging the usual analysis frameworks, by suggesting that stakeholders' needs should be put at the beginning of any action.  Some authors such as Geoffroy Murat tried to apply stakeholder's theory to irregular warfare.

History of Stakeholder Theory

Concepts similar to modern stakeholder theory can be traced back to longstanding philosophical views about the nature of civil society itself and the relations between individuals.  The word "stakeholder" in its current use first appeared in an internal memorandum at the Stanford Research Institute in 1963.  Subsequently, a "plethora" of stakeholder definitions and theories were developed.  In 1971, Hein Kroos and Klaus Schwab published a German booklet Moderne Unternehmensführung im Maschinenbau (Modern Enterprise Management in Mechanical Engineering) arguing that the management of a modern enterprise must serve not only shareholders but all stakeholders (die Interessenten) to achieve long-term growth and prosperity. This claim is disputed.  US authors followed; for example, in 1983, Ian Mitroff published "Stakeholders of the Organizational Mind" in San Francisco.  R. Edward Freeman had an article on Stakeholder theory in the California Management Review in early 1983, but makes no reference to Mitroff's work, attributing the development of the concept to internal discussion in the Stanford Research Institute. He followed this article with a book Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. This book identifies and models the groups which are stakeholders of a corporation, and both describes and recommends methods by which management can give due regard to the interests of those groups. In short, it attempts to address the "principle of who or what really counts. In the traditional view of a company, the shareholder view, only the owners or shareholders of the company are important, and the company has a binding fiduciary duty to put their needs first, to increase value for them. Stakeholder theory instead argues that there are other parties involved, including employees, customers, suppliers, financiers, communities, governmental bodies, political groups, trade associations, and trade unions.  Even competitors are sometimes counted as stakeholders – their status being derived from their capacity to affect the firm and its stakeholders. The nature of what constitutes a stakeholder is highly contested (Miles, 2012), with hundreds of definitions existing in the academic literature (Miles, 2011).

Development

Numerous articles and books written on stakeholder theory generally credit Freeman as the "father of stakeholder theory."  Freeman's Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach is widely cited in the field as being the foundation of stakeholder theory, although Freeman himself credits several bodies of literature in the development of his approach, including strategic management, corporate planning, systems theory, organization theory, and corporate social responsibility. A related field of research examines the concept of stakeholders and stakeholder salience, or the importance of various stakeholder groups to a specific firm.

An anticipation of such concepts, as part of Corporate Social Responsibility, appear in a publication that appeared in 1968 by the Italian economist Giancarlo Pallavicini, creator of "the decomposition method of the parameters" to calculate the results are not directly economic activity of enterprise, regarding ethical issues , moral, social, cultural and environmental.

More recent scholarly works on the topic of stakeholder theory that exemplify research and theorizing in this area include Donaldson and Preston (1995), Mitchell, Agle, and Wood (1997), Friedman and Miles (2002), and Phillips (2003).

Donaldson and Preston argue that the theory has multiple distinct aspects that are mutually supportive: descriptive, instrumental, and normative.  The descriptive approach is used in research to describe and explain the characteristics and behaviors of firms, including how companies are managed, how the board of directors considers corporate constituencies, the way that managers think about managing, and the nature of the firm itself.  The instrumental approach uses empirical data to identify the connections that exist between the management of stakeholder groups and the achievement of corporate goals (most commonly profitability and efficiency goals).  The normative approach, identified as the core of the theory by Donaldson and Preston, examines the function of the corporation and identifies the "moral or philosophical guidelines for the operation and management of the corporation."  Since the publication of this article in 1995, it has served as a foundational reference for researchers in the field, having been cited over 1,100 times.

Mitchell, et al. derive a typology of stakeholders based on the attributes of power (the extent a  party has means to impose its will in a relationship), legitimacy (socially accepted and expected structures or behaviors), and urgency (time sensitivity or criticality of the stakeholder's claims).  By examining the combination of these attributes in a binary manner, 8 types of stakeholders are derived along with their implications for the organization. Friedman and Miles explore the implications of contentious relationships between stakeholders and organizations by introducing compatible/incompatible interests and necessary/contingent connections as additional attributes with which to examine the configuration of these relationships.  Robert Allen Phillips distinguishes between normatively legitimate stakeholders (those to whom an organization holds a moral obligation) and derivatively legitimate stakeholders (those whose stakeholder status is derived from their ability to affect the organization or its normatively legitimate stakeholders).

Implementation in Other Fields

Stakeholder theory succeeds in becoming famous not only in the business ethics fields; it is used as one of the frameworks in corporate social responsibility methods. For example, ISO 26000 and GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) involve stakeholder analysis.

In the field of business ethics, Weiss, J.W. (2014) illustrates how stakeholder analysis can be complemented with issues management approaches to examine societal, organizational, and individual dilemmas. Several case studies are offered to illustrated uses of these methods.

Stakeholder theory has seen growing uptake in higher education in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  One influential definition defines a stakeholder in the context of higher education as anyone with a legitimate interest in education who thereby acquires a right to intervene.  Studies of higher education first began to recognize students as stakeholders in 1975.  External stakeholders may include employers.  In Europe, the rise of stakeholder regimes has arisen from the shift of higher education from a government-run bureaucracy to modern systems in which the government's role involves more monitoring than direct control.

Criticism of Stakeholder Theory

The political philosopher Charles Blattberg has criticized stakeholder theory for assuming that the interests of the various stakeholders can be, at best, compromised or balanced against each other. Blattberg argues that this is a product of its emphasis on negotiation as the chief mode of dialogue for dealing with conflicts between stakeholder interests. He recommends conversation instead and this leads him to defend what he calls a 'patriotic' conception of the corporation as an alternative to that associated with stakeholder theory.

According to Mansell (2013), by applying the political concept of a 'social contract' to the corporation, stakeholder theory undermines the principles on which a market economy is based.

                      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_theory

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Afterword by the Blog Writer

The stakeholder religion is a direct attack on property rights through a fatuous and pridefully mobocratic philosophy typically based on the thrill of feeling angry resentment.  The religion itself worships chaos.  It considers the threat of destruction by the unruly to be virtuous conduct.

Stakeholders want to control what they do not own and haven’t the professionalism to manage.  Their conceit is energized by a mirage of superior morality, which is regarded as inarguable and above that of any property owners.  The goal is to intimidate the propertied into accepting the ersatz superiority of stagnation when demanded by a mob of outsiders.

Stakeholders have done massive damage in dumbing down higher education in America.  In a separate war, bankers have pretended to be subject matter experts and have corrupted American accounting standards since the inception of the Financial Accounting Standards Board of 1973.  The kind of power exercised by a stakeholding parasite corrupts dangerously and thoroughly.