Who is Rush Holt?

A: He’s the scientist/lawmaker who beat Watson at Jeopardy and just launched his first New Jersey Senate campaign video.

Watson Goes to Medical School

The following is from Congressman Rush Holt's newsletter:



The last time I crossed paths with IBM’s Watson, we faced off in a round of Jeopardy!. Since then, Watson has grown up and gone to medical school: The computer system is now working with doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, learning how to suggest treatment options for lung cancer.

IBM scientists stopped by my office this week to demonstrate Watson’s new skills. They hope that, within just a few years, Watson will be deployed to doctors’ offices around the country.

What sets Watson apart from most computer systems is that it doesn’t simply look up facts in a massive database. Rather, it learns. Much as Watson once learned Jeopardy!-style trivia by analyzing millions of books and websites, it is now learning medicine by reading thousands of journal articles, monitoring patients, and listening to the input of patients and doctors.

These are the kind of breakthrough technological developments that are hard to predict in advance but which almost inevitably result from private and public investments in R&D. Such discoveries will help drive economic growth and job creation for years to come.


Big Oil Doesn’t Need Our Bailouts

If you or I were to walk into a neighbor's yard and douse their grass with motor oil, a court would hold us personally liable for the full cleanup costs. But that’s not the way America’s legal system works for Big Oil. Under current law, Big Oil’s liability for offshore oil spills is capped at just $75 million.

This figure is absurdly low. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill is estimated to have caused at least $42 billion in damages – more than 500 times the current liability cap! In New Jersey, our fishing and tourism industries, which could be devastated by an offshore spill, are responsible for $12 billion in economic output and more than 200,000 jobs. And let’s be clear: Big Oil doesn’t need taxpayer bailouts to support their drilling. In the first quarter of this year alone, the five largest oil companies reported more than $30 billion in profits.

Together with Sen. Bob Menendez, I recently reintroduced the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act, which would abolish the offshore oil spill liability cap once and for all. Big Oil should play by the same rules as everyone else.

Teacher Appreciation Week

This is Teacher Appreciation Week, a time to recognize all of the educators in New Jersey’s schools, from our kindergarten classrooms to our college campuses.

As a former educator, I know a teacher’s work isn’t easy – especially at a time when Gov. Christie and some Tea Party lawmakers in Washington keep cutting support for education. But the job of educating the next generation is vital, and teachers’ efforts are deeply appreciated.

I hope you’ll take a moment this week to thank a teacher who made a difference in your life. If you are a teacher yourself, you may be considering ways to continue your professional development in the summer months. I encourage you to consider the New Jersey Council for the Humanities’ Teacher Institute, which is available tuition-free. Offerings include a seminar on the connections between environmental sustainability, literature and history, and another on civic engagement for youth. The application deadline is May 22.

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress

Catching Up On The Past Few Days; Watson, Brookdale, Rally in Trenton and Jobs

A lot has been happening over the past few days that I've been meaning to comment on but I have been a little under the weather and haven't been feeling up to blogging. So now is my chance to get slightly caught up, in no particular order.

Congressman Rush Holt (who does by the way, happen to be a Rocket Scientist) who on Monday of this past week, beat IBM's Watson Computer System in a simulated Jeopardy exhibition. But the match wasn't just a battle of networks versus neurons, as Holt put it in his newsletter to constituents:

... " To me and my colleagues, this was an important opportunity to raise awareness of serious issues concerning U.S. global competitiveness, the positive impact of technology on society, and the need for greater investments in math and science education.

Watson represents a major step forward for computer science. With its combination of sheer data processing power, natural language recognition and machine learning, the system demonstrates that technology has the potential to help humans improve the performance of many endeavors – everything from medicine to education to traffic safety to environmental protection. There is no limit, save for our imagination, to the impact on our society of innovations like Watson."....

There were two major car accidents this past week that claimed the lives of a couple Middletown youths, the first last Sunday and the second just last night and still under investigation.

Yesterday, Brookdale Community College's Board of Trustees suspended College President Peter Burnham without pay because they found some irregularities in his expense reports while auditing his books. The suspension came as a total surprise to Burnham, who felt "Bowled over" by the accusations and wouldn't comment further. And now today, we find out that the Board of Trustees have contacted the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office to look into the matter for possible criminal charges.

As news of this latest info has started to make it's way out to the public Freeholder Amy Mallet has called on Brookdale's Board Chairman Howard Birdsall to resign and suggests that term limits be put on those that serve as trustees for the college.

I find this all very interesting, in a "how the mighty have fallen" sort of way. If Peter Burnham would have kept quite and not tried to blame the Monmouth County Freeholder for an 8% tuition hike a few weeks ago, none of this would have transpired. Freeholder John Curley, who acts as the liaison between the Freeholders and Brookdale, would have went about his business as usual and would not have said a word. But because he was angered and perhaps embarrassed by Burnham, Curley decided to make public Burnham's contract and exploit it for all it's worth, which has lead to all this "dirty laundry" being exposed and possible criminal charges being filed against Burnham.

Curley is being portrayed as some great white knight for exposing the excesses in Burnham's contract, which is not the case. He acted out of anger and revenge for being called out by Burnham. If Curley and other Freeholders before him, that have acted as the liaison between the school and County governing body had done their oversight properly over the years, Peter Burnham's excessive contract would have been taken care of years ago instead of now. There wouldn't have been this dramatic call for change on the Board of Trustees and criminal charges against Burnham would not be pending, which is how the Trustees have chosen to cover themselves from allegations pointed at them.

It's a real shame and embarrassment if you ask me.

There was a big rally in Trenton on Thursday attended 15,000 members of the Police, Firefighters and other first responders protesting Governor Christie's efforts at health, pension and collective bargaining reform. Did it do any good or send the big guy a message? Probably not.

Finally, yesterday came good new for the economy. There was a big jump in the number of private sector jobs last month, a 192,00 jobs were added in February on top of the 63,000 that were added in January. The jobs report shows that even though the economy is still a little shaky and could be set back by the troubles in Libya and other mideast countries, it is growing and heading in the right direction. Unemployment is now down to 8.9% nationwide, falling below 9 percent for the first time in nearly two years.