Day: May 8, 2017

Canada Political Pressures Force PM’s Hand on US Trade Disputes

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

Canada escalated a trade dispute with United States by making threats Washington called inappropriate in part because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under pressure to secure support in a key region ahead of the country’s 2019 elections.

Washington last month slapped tariffs on timber imports, prompting Trudeau to say he was considering a ban on exports of U.S. coal through Pacific ports.

As well as lumber, the administration of President Donald Trump has targeted Canadian dairy farmers, while Boeing Corp. launched a trade challenge against Montreal-based planemaker Bombardier Inc.

All three are vital to the economy of Quebec, Canada’s second most-populous province. And Quebec is seen as vital to Trudeau’s hopes of maintaining a strong grip on power in a national election set for October 2019.

As contentious talks on renegotiating NAFTA draw closer, Trudeau has little choice but to defend dairy farmers and offer help to the lumber industry, even though that is likely to prompt fresh U.S. challenges.

“Quebec is the key,” said one senior Liberal organizer.

The predominantly French-speaking province holds 78 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons and Liberals acknowledge they need to win extra seats there to offset expected losses elsewhere in 2019.

The challenge is that they captured 40 seats in Quebec in 2015, which was far more than expected.

The Liberals say they can take another 10 to 15 seats, but only if everything goes their way. This means showing support for the dairy industry – and its influential lobby – amid fresh attacks from Washington.

No Choice?

The United States has long complained about Canada’s system of domestic protections for its dairy industry, which bars most imports and keeps prices high. Trump last month branded the industry “a disgrace.”

The system is unpopular in large parts of Canada, where people complain about high prices for milk and cheese. Trudeau, however, has little choice but to defend it.

Leger Marketing pollster Christian Bourque noted there are dairy farms in every part of Quebec.

“If you’re seen as attacking farming and the land, it’s probably easy for the farmers’ union to get Quebeckers onside.

You don’t necessarily want to forget farmers,” he said.

While observers see little risk of Trudeau being defeated outright in 2019, the danger for the Liberals is losing their majority, forcing them to rely on opposition parties to govern.

This would inevitably mean political compromises and a diluted policy agenda.

The Liberals have so far tried to maintain calm as tensions ratchet up, relying on visits from cabinet ministers and to key states to press the message that trade benefits both sides.

Bark vs Bite

The outreach efforts will continue, according to a source familiar with official strategy, adding that Ottawa will show its teeth where necessary.

“Do people honestly expect the Canadian government just to say ‘We accept these lumber duties, we will move on and pay the price?'” asked the source, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.

In Washington, White House spokesman Sean Spicer dismissed talk of a trade war.

“That’s why we have dispute settlement mechanisms to do this in a responsible way,” he told reporters on Monday.

In a sign of the mounting pressures on Trudeau over lumber, former Quebec Liberal premier Jean Charest said Ottawa should consider loan guarantees to affected firms.

“It is very black and white now: either the government supports them or they will just close down,” he said in an interview.

Although giving such aid could prompt fresh U.S. challenges, insiders make clear Canada has no option.

Trudeau last week met with Quebec’s timber unions and tweeted “supporting softwood lumber producers in Quebec and across the country is a priority.”

In the short term, he faces few immediate threats. Polls show the Liberals well ahead of the opposition Conservatives and New Democrats, both of which have stand-in leaders and will not choose permanent replacements until later this year.

“He’s had an exceptionally long honeymoon, he’s still having a honeymoon, but that has a lot to do with the absence of opposition,” said pollster Nik Nanos.

Although being seen to openly favor one province or region over another can be politically fatal in Canada, Liberal sensitivity toward Quebec is clear.

When it came time to deciding on aid to Bombardier – which has received billions in subsidies from Ottawa – the Liberals made clear the only question was not if, but how much.

Party operatives also admitted relief once became clear Ottawa would not have to decide before the election on whether to allow TransCanada Corp. to build an oil pipeline across Quebec.

Environmentalists and aboriginal activists had promised protests that Quebec Liberals said they feared could hurt the party’s chances.
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What You Need to Know About EB-5 Visas

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

What is the EB-5 Visa?

The EB-5 program allows entrepreneurs and their families to apply for green cards (permanent residence) if they 1) make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States, and 2) plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.

How much is the necessary investment?

$1 million or $500,000 if the money is invested in a high unemployment or rural area, considered a targeted employment area (TEA). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says approximately 97 percent of all investments by EB-5 petitioners are made in TEAs at the reduced amount of $500,000.

DHS proposed in January increasing the minimum investment amount required for the EB-5 program from $500,000 to $1.35 million for projects in TEAs; from $1 million to $1.8 million for developments in low-to-average unemployment areas.

What is purpose of program?

Congress created the EB-5 Program in 1990 to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. Under a program initially enacted as a pilot in 1992, and regularly reauthorized since then, investors also may qualify for EB-5 classification by investing through regional centers designated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

What are regional centers?

Regional Centers are federally approved third parties that “connect foreign investors with developers in need of funding, and take a commission.” Regional centers are usually private, for-profit businesses that are approved by the USCIS.

What kinds of businesses can I invest in?

EB-5 investors must invest in a “for profit activity formed for the ongoing conduct of lawful business,” which was established after Nov. 29, 1990. If the enterprise was established before that date, it must have been restructured and expanded.

How many EB-5s are available every year?

There is a cap of about 10,000 annually. However, many EB-5 visa holders bring family members with them, and they are included in the count. So, the actual number of visas issued is much lower than that. Before the 2008 recession, DHS says the EB-5 program received fewer than an average 600 EB-5 petitions per year.

Since then, the program has received an average of more than 5,500 petitions per year. Between FY 2014 and FY 2015 alone, more than 25,000 petitions were received. As a result, demand for EB-5 visas by investors has now outpaced the annual supply, resulting in visa backlogs.

Who gets EB-5s?

In 2014, 85 percent of the 10,692 EB-5 visas issued were for Chinese nationals.

What is the future of the EB-5 program?

The EB-5 visa program has just been extended in its current form through September. What happens after that will depend on a review being conducted by the Trump administration and Congress. White House spokesman Sean Spicer says the administration is looking “over the entire visa program, all the various visa programs, and whether or not they are serving the purpose they intended to, whether or not we’re making sure we’re doing what’s in the best interests of the American worker.”

Both parties in Congress have expressed an interest in revising the program.
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Austerity Remains a Bitter Pill for Greeks to Swallow

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

The prospect of an economic doomsday for Greece may have diminished in the past week, but citizen Angelika Dinkel doesn’t much care.

Following months of negotiations, the Greek government last week agreed to further austerity measures in order to access loans from its $94 billion bailout program..

But as she waits in central Athens for a church to open and a hoped-for handout of maybe $5 — or even $10 if she’s lucky —  the 60-year-old’s mind is focused on day-to-day survival.

There may be talk of a light at the end of the tunnel for a country traumatized by seven years of economic turmoil, but on the streets of Athens they seem a world away from everyday reality.

“There’s no reason to pay attention. Things are just getting worse,” says Dinkel, who struggles to scrape together the $50 a month she needs to stay off the streets.  

“No one thought it could be this bad.”

A disconnect

The race is now on for Greek officials rushing to create a bumper package of new legislation agreed to during the negotiations.

These include a cut in taxes, the opening up of energy markets and a further slashing of pensions.

Pending approval from the Greek parliament in the coming days, it is expected the agreement will be ready for the next meeting of eurozone finance ministers on May 22.

There, hopes are that $8 billion in rescue loans will be approved, allowing the country to make a crucial debt repayment in July.

The markets have been largely cheered by the news, while there have been other positive signs too — last month, the country posted its first overall budget surplus in more than two decades.

Yet little of this is being felt on the ground, where poverty and homelessness remain all too prevalent.  

“I don’t think [the latest agreement] will improve the daily lives of people,” claims Aliki Mouriki, a sociologist and senior research fellow at the National Center for Social Research in Athens. “People are seeing further cuts in things like their pensions, so why would they be happy? Some segments of the Greek population and businesses may be happy over [the reforms] as the economic climate has less uncertainty, but this is not reflecting on daily lives.”

Sense of betrayal

The Greek leftist ruling party Syriza and its leader Alexis Tsipras may have emerged with a deal, but the moves have already sparked new protests.

Meanwhile, many consider these latest steps just another act of weakness or betrayal by a party that swept into power on an anti-austerity ticket in 2015.

Though emergency funds from the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) helped pull Greece back from the brink of collapse in 2010, this is the third such bailout, and many Greeks are of the opinion that the country’s supposed medicine of reforms and austerity is actually proving to be its poison.

Chrysa Lazaridou, who runs a bakery not far from the city’s towering ancient Acropolis, has been keeping an eye on recent developments.

Despite the inclusion of “counter measures” against the austerity — including rent subsidies for low income families — she feels the agreed package represents more of the same when it comes to Greece’s current place in the world.

“I thought [Alexis] Tsipras would be different, but in practice he’s not,” she said.

“All the decisions made here are made outside of Greece in the European Union, while politicians and businessmen will be the ones to profit.”

Vanishing savings

Meanwhile, other signs of progress remain tentative.

Amid the bailouts, reforms and austerity, the unemployment rate has declined from a peak of nearly 28 percent.

However, in recent months it has climbed once again to 23.5 percent — still the highest in Europe — while Friday the European Commission is set to revise its prediction of growth in Greece over 2017 from 2.7 percent to 2 percent.

Panagiotis Lappas, approached by VOA in central Athens, is a banking lawyer who often deals with families overcome by debt — something he sees with increasing regularity.

“Their savings have vanished after seven years,” he explained.

He was circumspect about the latest agreement, stating it was neither “pleasant nor necessary, but maybe now we have no other choice.”

However, in Lappas’ view, the time for austerity is over. More needed to be done, he thought, to stimulate growth and attract investment by lowering business rates.

He also called for debt relief, an issue still at the heart of the debate among creditors regarding Greece, and a pre-condition demanded by the IMF for its participation in this bailout.  

Eyes abroad

Tsipras has talked up the deal as “balanced and sustainable,” but he may find the Greek public even harder to convince than his own party, or those holding the purse strings.

Syriza is badly lagging behind its competitors in the polls, though the true test will come in the country’s elections in 2019.

Meanwhile, for one teenager not yet old enough to vote, the answer may not lie with Tsipras, or any of his political rivals.

Clutching his skateboard in Athens’ Monastiraki neighborhood, 17-year-old Alberto Frangou feels little allegiance to the idea of the EU and is scornful of Greek politicians.  

“I hate them, they’ve not helped us,” he said, telling VOA that he feared entering a job market where youth unemployment was measured at 48 percent in January.

Instead, he is considering another option, one that potentially spells more trouble for Greece in the coming years.

Between 2008 and 2016, around 450,000 mostly young and educated people left the country in search of a better future.

“If things don’t get any better, then I will just have to go elsewhere,” he told VOA.
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Kenya Health Officials Issue Alert Over Dengue Fever Outbreak

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

An alert has been issued in Mombasa County, Kenya, in response to an outbreak of dengue fever, a potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease.

More than 100 people have been infected in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa, according to government health officials in the county by the same name. In recent statements, authorities say dengue has spread to different parts of the county, with cases confirmed in major hospitals.

The county director of medical services, Dr. Khadija Shikely, says that according to past statistics, dengue has been more prevalent in Mombasa compared with the rest of Africa.

Shikely says that children who go to school and people attending college are most affected by dengue fever. Officials and institutions of learning are working together to clear the mosquitoes’ breeding sites. In addition, posters have been released and information has been disseminated via social media to inform people of various preventive measures.

According to the World Health Organization, dengue is transmitted by the female mosquito of Aedes aegypti, the same species that transmits yellow fever and the Zika infection.

The dengue infection causes a flu-like illness and occasionally develops into a potentially lethal complication called severe dengue, or dengue hemorrhagic fever.

The disease is more prevalent in areas that are crowded and unhygienic. Recent rains in the region are said to have created breeding grounds for the insects.

Health authorities say dengue was first reported in Mombasa in 2013, with 197 suspected cases. Thirty-eight cases were positive. They also say 589 dengue cases were reported last year.

Shikely outlined some efforts taken to control the spread of the disease.

She says that for the past two months, even before the start of the rainy season, prevention and control efforts have included chlorination and spraying, and those steps have been repeated because of rains. She says community health workers are also engaged in health promotions.

County health officials have also outlined other prevention efforts, such as encouraging people to use mosquito repellents and sleep under mosquito nets.

Mombasa is one of Kenya’s top tourist destinations. The thousands of tourists who visit each year contribute largely to the country’s economy. Tourism in Kenya is the second-largest source of foreign exchange revenue.
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Trump Administration Hollows Out EPA Science Integrity Board

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

The Trump administration will not reappoint half the expert members of a board that advises the Environmental Protection Agency on the integrity of its science, the latest in a series of moves that could benefit industries whose pollution the government regulates.

Deborah L. Swackhamer, chairwoman of the Board of Scientific Counselors, confirmed Monday that nine of the 18 outside experts on her panel will not serve a second three-year term.

The affected board members’ terms expired April 30.

 

Experts are limited to serving two terms on the board, and Swackhamer said that in the past those completing their first term would typically have been reappointed. Four other board members just completed their second terms, meaning 13 of the 18 seats on the panel are now vacant.

 

EPA spokesman J.P. Freire said the agency’s new leadership wants to consider a wider array of applicants, potentially including those who may work for chemical and fossil fuel companies. He said former board members may also be considered.

 

“We are going to look at all applicants that come in, because this is an open and competitive process,” Freire said. “EPA received hundreds of nominations to serve on the board, and we want to ensure fair consideration of all the nominees.”

 

Swackhamer said she was not aware of how or when the “hundreds” of nominations Freire mentioned were collected. To her knowledge, there has not yet been any public call for applicants to fill the newly vacated positions.

 

“There’s hiring freeze, so we can’t actually replace them until EPA says it’s OK,” said Swackhamer, who taught environmental health sciences at the University of Minnesota. “We’re kind of hobbled, to say the least. … They have essentially said they will look to industry scientists for much of their advice.”

 

Members of the Board of Scientific Counselors are typically top academic experts tasked with helping ensure the agency’s scientists follow well-established best practices. The positions are paid, and would be subject to the same ethics and conflict-of-interest screening as other federal appointees.

 

In a separate development, the Interior Department says it has launched a wide ranging review of more than 200 boards and advisory committees. Spokeswoman Megan Bloomgren said that some of the boards being looked at had not met in years, and that no current members were being dismissed.

 

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has long been a fierce critic of the agency he now leads, saying its scientists often fail to weigh the cost of implementing new regulations on businesses.

Pruitt, a lawyer who previously served as Oklahoma’s elected attorney general, has moved in recent weeks to roll back Obama-era limits on toxic pollution from coal-fired power plants and countermand a push to ban a pesticide that peer-reviewed studies indicate may harm the developing brains of young children.

 

Pruitt also disagrees with the consensus of climate scientists that man-made carbon emissions are the primary cause of climate change, saying that limits on burning coal costs jobs.

 

Robert Richardson, one of the scientific counselors not reappointed to a second term, said Pruitt’s public comments reflect a misunderstanding of the role of scientists, which is to impartially collect data and report what the evidence shows.

 

“The science will show the impact of a particular chemical or toxic substance, but we would never say it should be banned or regulated in a particular way,” said Richardson, an ecological economist at Michigan State University. It is up to policy makers, Richardson said, to recommend new regulations and consider whether the benefits outweigh the costs.

 

“The EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment,” he said. “It is not to minimize cost to industry.”
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Study: Marijuana Ingredient Improves Memory in Aging Brains

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

The psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that produces the “high” sought by users has been shown to reverse memory problems in aging mice. Researchers, who’ve been looking for ways to slow the effects of brain aging, hope it could have the same effect in older humans. 

German and Israeli researchers showed that the memories of aging mice became nearly as sharp as those of young, two-month-old rodents when the older animals were given low doses of the marijuana compound known as THC.

“Old animals remembered as well, learned almost as well, recognized almost as well as young ones,” said neuroscientist Andras Bilkei-Gorzo of the University of Bonn. He is lead author of the study of THC’s effect on memory, published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Mice, which have a life expectancy of two years, have significant difficulty remembering and learning new things by the time they’re one year old.

Bilkei-Gorzo and his team administered low doses of THC to mice at two months, 12 months and 18 months of age. 

After stopping the drug for periods ranging from seven days to one month, they put the rodents through a series of experiments testing their memories. Researchers wanted to see whether the rodents recognized mice they had been exposed to previously, and if they could find their way out of a small pool of water.

The older mice that received a placebo had trouble remembering previous objects and scenarios despite repeated exposures. The adult mice treated with THC performed nearly as well as young rodents. 

THC imitates the effect of cannabinoids produced naturally in the body, which fulfill important functions in the brain. But with age, the cannabinoid system deteriorates, resulting in cognitive declines. The marijuana ingredient, says Bilkei-Gorzo, rejuvenates the system.

Interestingly, he says, THC seemed to worsen the cognitive abilities of young mice because it over-activated their normal brain circuits. The effect is probably similar to marijuana’s high in young people.

“The treatment made the young brain old and the old brain young,” he said. “So that was something that was above our imagination.”

Researchers hope to begin human trials of low doses of THC this year. 

If it is shown to help the memories of aging adults, Bilkei-Gorzo says the psychoactive ingredient could be taken in the form of an herbal tea. 
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Baltic States Agree to Link Their Power Grids to EU Via Poland

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said on Monday they had agreed to link their power systems to other European Union members through Poland as they look to reduce their dependence on Russia.

Power grids in the Baltic countries, formerly part of the Soviet Union, are still integrated with those in Belarus and Russia.

The three Baltic countries have been members of the European Union and NATO since 2004.

The Baltic governments see the continued dependence on Russia as a threat, partly because of what they say is a lack of transparency on upkeep of the network in Russia, which they say makes it hard to rely on its stability.

“We would want to desynchronize the Baltic States from Russia. And first priority is desyncronization which will be done through Poland,” Estonia’s Prime Minister Juri Ratas told reporters in Tallinn after meeting his counterparts from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

“All four of us agreed that we will try to get clarity on division of [duties] between all four countries by the end of the year,” Ratas said.

Russia has never cut power flows to the Baltic states or threatened to do so, but Lithuania lists its power system’s synchronization with Russia as one of the top national security risks.

The countries will still need to find a way to accommodate Russia, whose Kaliningrad enclave power network is currently synchronized with mainland Russia through the Baltic states.

Decoupling from the Russian system, originally projected for 2025, was delayed as countries debated whether to synchronize using power links between Lithuania and Poland, or undersea power cables which would be laid between Estonia and Finland.

A recent study by Joint Research Center, the European Commission’s science and knowledge service, suggested synchronizing through Poland as the most economically viable and reliable way, Lithuania’s Ministry of Energy spokesman told Reuters.
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A Look at Disney World’s New Pandora-World of Avatar Land

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

It’s not a movie set, but visitors to Disney World’s new Pandora-World of Avatar land are in for a cinematic experience.

The 12-acre land, inspired by the “Avatar” movie, opens in Florida in late May at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. It cost a half-billion dollars to build.

 

The marquee attraction is Flight of Passage, where a 3-D simulator plunges riders into a cinematic world. You feel like you’re riding on the back of a banshee, a bluish, gigantic, winged predator that resembles something out of the Jurassic era. Wearing 3-D glasses and straddling what resembles a stationary motorcycle, you’re strapped in, then the lights go out, a screen in front lights up and you’re swooped into a world of blue, gigantic aliens called Na’vi, with moon-filled skies, plunging waterfalls, jumping marine animals and towering ocean waves.

 

The ride provides an enchanting and intoxicating five minutes that touches all the senses. Blasts of air and spritzes of mist hit your face, and as you fly through a lush forest, a woodsy aroma wafts through your nostrils. A visitor could go on the ride 20 times and not catch half the visual details.

 

Disney designers are quick to say the new land is the star of the action, not the backdrop. “The character is being portrayed and played by the place itself and that’s different than a set,” said Joe Rohde, the design and production leader of Pandora — World of Avatar.

Flight of Passage is ride’s highlight

Other aspects of Pandora can’t quite compete with the excitement and immersion of Flight of Passage. Much of Pandora, at least during the daytime, is hard to distinguish from the rest of Animal Kingdom, Disney’s almost 20-year-old zoological-themed park with lush landscaping, an emphasis on conservation and a Noah’s ark range of animals.

 

At night, though, Pandora transforms into a sea of color with glowing lights on artificial plants and even in the pavement.

 

The enormous blue Na’vi aliens from the “Avatar” movie appear sparingly, really just on Flight of Passage and a second attraction called Na’vi River Journey. Before going on Flight of Passage, visitors walk through a tunnel in a faux mountain until they stumble upon a laboratory that includes a Na’vi floating in a tank.

 

“It’s not as simple as a guy in a costume painted blue walking around out here,” Rohde said of the aliens. “We know they are culturally present around us but we will meet them when we go on an excursion.”

Indoor river ride

The other main attraction, Na’vi River Journey, is an indoor river ride in the dark, lit up by glowing creatures and plants. The ride culminates with a Na’vi animatronic woman beating on drums as a chorus of voices reaches a crescendo. Images of the Na’vi riding horse-like creatures appear behind lush foliage, glimpsed in the distance from the river.

 

Disney has been building attractions themed on movies since Disneyland opened in 1955 with rides inspired by Snow White, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. Often, as with Pandora, the attractions open years after the movies debut. “Avatar” came out in 2009. Director James Cameron’s sequel isn’t due out until 2020. Lands based on “Star Wars” are scheduled to open in Disney parks in California and Florida in 2019.

 

Pandora-World of Avatar isn’t tied to a narrative from the film but rather tells a story set in the future, after humans degraded the jungle through industrial folly and a resurgence of nature overtakes the human-built environment. That theme is a recurring architectural motif, for example with a beverage stand and cantina made to look like they were built for industry by humans but then overrun by plant life.

A mix of real and artificial plants

 

Throughout Pandora, real plants intermingle with artificial plants that resemble alien pods or Dale Chihuly glass sculptures. It’s difficult to distinguish what is real.

 

“We were trying to get as close as possible to fool the eye,” said Zsolt Hormay, a Disney creative executive.

 

At the entrance, visitors hear a cacophony of bird chirps and animal cries. A circle of drums connected to faux tree roots allows visitors to drum and then get a response of drumming or pulsing lights.

 

The focal points are a 135-foot (41-meter) mountaintop where Flight of Passage is located as well as “floating mountains” that appear to be suspended in air but are actually made of concrete. Engineers use tricks to make the park appear bigger than it is. The artificial foliage gets smaller as it goes higher on the mountain to give it the illusion of distance.

 

 

New way to order food

Disney also is testing out a new way to order food at Pandora. Before going to the park, visitors can pull up a menu on the My Disney Experience mobile app, order lunch and go about visiting the park. When it’s time to eat hours later, they can go to the canteen, tap on an app a button that notifies the cooks they are present. Several minutes later their food will be ready in a special line.

 

Jon Landau, the executive producer of the original movie, says he hopes Pandora does for visitors what the film did for movie-goers.

 

“I hope when people come to Pandora and their eyes will be open and they will look at the world a little differently when they go back across the bridge,” Landau said.

 
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Life Expectancy Gaps Growing in US

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Life expectancy in the United States depends on what county one lives in, a new study suggests.

According to the study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle, “The gap between counties with the highest and lowest life expectancies is larger now than it was back in 1980 – a more than a 20-year difference in 2014 – highlighting massive and growing inequality in the health of Americans.”

For example, in Owsley County, Kentucky, one of the poorest counties, life expectancy fell from 72.4 in 1980 to 70.2 in 2014, researchers said.

In some counties, such as Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, which is home of a Native American reservation, the life expectancy is lower than that of Iraq. The county’s life expectancy was 66.8 in 2014 compared to 67.7 in Iraq.

Some of the counties with the highest life expectancy were in the state of Colorado. Summit County topped the list at 86.8 years, followed by Pitkin County (86.5) and Eagle County (85.9), the study showed. These were better than the country of Andorra, which has the highest life expectancy in the world at 84.8.

“These findings demonstrate an urgent imperative, that policy changes at all levels are gravely needed to reduce inequality in the health of Americans,” said Dr. Ali Mokdad, an author on the study. “Federal, state, and local health departments need to invest in programs that work and engage their communities in disease prevention and health promotion.”

More money doesn’t appear to buy more life expectancy, the study showed.

The U.S. invests more per person on health than many developed countries, spending $9,237 per person in 2014. That compares to $4,032 spent by Australia with a life expectancy of 82.3 and Japan, which spent $3,816 and has one of the highest life expectancy in the world at 83.1.

“The inequality in health in the United States – a country that spends more on health care than any other – is unacceptable,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, the IHME director. “Every American, regardless of where they live or their background, deserves to live a long and healthy life. If we allow trends to continue as they are, the gap will only widen between counties.”

Separately, all counties saw deaths before the age of 5 drop and differences among counties with the highest and lowest levels of under-5 mortality narrowed.

“Looking at life expectancy on a national level masks the massive differences that exist at the local level, especially in a country as diverse as the United States,” said lead author Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, a researcher at IHME. “Risk factors like obesity, lack of exercise, high blood pressure, and smoking explain a large portion of the variation in lifespans, but so do socioeconomic factors like race, education, and income.”

The study was published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
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Bill Clinton and James Patterson Co-Writing a Thriller

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Neither Bill Clinton nor James Patterson has ever tried something like this before.

 

The former president and the best-selling novelist are collaborating on a thriller, “The President is Missing,” to come out June 2018 as an unusual joint release from rival publishers — Alfred A. Knopf and Little, Brown and Co. In a statement Monday provided to The Associated Press, the publishers called the book “a unique amalgam of intrigue, suspense and behind-the-scenes global drama from the highest corridors of power. It will be informed by details that only a president can know.”

Knopf has long been Clinton’s publisher, and Patterson has been with Little, Brown for decades. “The President is Missing” is the first work of fiction by Clinton, whose best-known book is the million-selling “My Life.” For Patterson, it’s the chance to team up with a friend who knows as well as anyone about life in the White House.

 

“Working with President Clinton has been the highlight of my career, and having access to his firsthand experience has uniquely informed the writing of this novel,” Patterson said in a statement. “I’m a storyteller, and President Clinton’s insight has allowed us to tell a really interesting one. It’s a rare combination — readers will be drawn to the suspense, of course, but they’ll also be given an inside look into what it’s like to be president.”

 

“Working on a book about a sitting president — drawing on what I know about the job, life in the White House and the way Washington works — has been a lot of fun,” Clinton said in a statement. “And working with Jim has been terrific. I’ve been a fan of his for a very long time.”

 

A political release from the 1990s had a similar arrangement: Random House and Simon & Schuster jointly published the nonfiction “All’s Fair” by husband-and-wife campaign consultants James Carville and Mary Matalin.

 

Knopf and Little, Brown declined to offer any more details about the book, including whether it refers to President Donald Trump, who last fall defeated Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton. Financial terms for the novel, which the authors began working on late in 2016, were not disclosed. Clinton and Patterson share the same literary representative, Washington attorney Robert Barnett, who negotiated the deal. “The President is Missing” will be co-written, co-published and co-edited — Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group chairman Sonny Mehta is working on the manuscript with CEO Michael Pietsch of Hachette Book Group, the parent company of Little, Brown.

 

“This is a blockbuster collaboration between two best-selling authors,” Mehta and Pietsch said in a joint statement, “and the pages we’ve read to date are riveting, full of intricate plotting and detail. This is a book that promises to entertain and delight millions of readers around the world, and we are thrilled to be working on it together and with our esteemed houses supporting us.”

 

Presidents and ex-presidents have been turning out books for a long time, but novels are rare. Jimmy Carter, a prolific and wide-ranging author since leaving the White House in 1981, released the historical novel “The Hornet’s Nest” in 2003. A presidential daughter, Margaret Truman, had a successful career with her “Capital Crime” mystery series.

 

Clinton’s other books include “Giving” and “Back to Work.” Patterson and various co-authors complete several works a year, ranging from young adult novels to the Alex Cross crime series.

 

Penguin Random House — which has published both Clinton and Patterson — has U.K., Commonwealth and European rights to the collaboration.

 

“This unprecedented collaboration with its compelling mix of insider knowledge and edge-of-the-seat suspense is utterly irresistible,” said Susan Sandon, divisional managing director at Penguin Random House in a statement.

 
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Meet the Iranian Who Looks Like Lionel Messi

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

An Iranian student who happens to look uncannily like soccer great Lionel Messi, nearly ended up in jail for disrupting public order.

A photo event in Reza Paratesh’s home town of Hamedan attracted so many fans that police had to close it down, according to AFP.

Paratesh’s brush with fame came after his father convinced him to pose for a photo wearing Messi’s number 10 Barcelona jersey and send it to a sports website.

That worked out well as Paratesh became a popular television guest and even got a modeling job.

“Now people really see me as the Iranian Messi and want me to mimic everything he does. When I show up somewhere, people are really shocked,” he said. “I’m really happy that seeing me makes them happy and this happiness gives me a lot of energy.”

Paratesh is not a professional soccer player, but he’s reportedly working on some dribbling tricks to make his impersonation more realistic.

He said he’d like to meet Messi face to face someday.

“Being the best player in footballing history, he definitely has more work than he can handle. I could be his representative when he is too busy,” he said.
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Buffett’s ‘Carnival’ Draws Shoppers, Sleep-deprived

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

Katie Ryerson and her father took a train from their hometown of Columbus, Ohio, to Omaha, Nebraska, for her first Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholder meeting, a weekend the conglomerate’s billionaire chief Warren Buffett calls “Woodstock for Capitalists.”

They were part of a crowd expected to top last year’s estimated 37,000. Shareholders filled the downtown CenturyLink Center’s 18,000-seat arena, plus overflow rooms, on Saturday for the meeting itself with the man dubbed “the Oracle of Omaha.”

“My dad bought shares of Berkshire for me when I was born,” said Ryerson, a student at Michigan’s Hillsdale College.

“It is amazing,” she said in an exhibit hall where stockholders thronged to buy products made by Berkshire units.

“So many people are dedicated to the same thing. I’m kind of overwhelmed.”

Buffett and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger taught and entertained shareholders as they answered more than five hours of questions at the meeting, the weekend’s main event.

It was also a time for many to shop and eat.

The Fruit of the Loom unit erected crowd-control barriers after crowds overwhelmed its display area last year. A line to get inside early on Friday afternoon stretched 150-deep.

“Very interesting, like a carnival atmosphere,” Les Magee, a retired accountant from Gainesville, Florida, who was attending his first meeting, said as he waited on that line. “It’s like Disney, because of the lines.”       

See’s Candies sold most of the 21,714 pounds of confections it brought. And by the time doors were closing on Saturday afternoon, Dairy Queen was down to two boxes of unsold frozen treats. It had brought 25,000 dessert bars and Blizzards.

Buffett got his usual vanilla-orange bar for free this year.

“We’re always going to buy a few things,” said Joseph Schwartze, a retired carpenter from Omaha, after he purchased Ginsu knives. “We never go to the meeting. He starts talking about derivatives, and I would go to sleep.”

Other shareholders get little sleep. As usual, several hundred lined up before daybreak on Saturday to enter the arena, many to get good seats.

They are not allowed to hold places once inside. But that is not the rule outside, where Mark Hughes, an investment adviser from Ashton, Maryland, attending his 26th meeting, said he got on line at 2:15 a.m.

“I’m here with a lot of friends,” he said. “I don’t trust them to get up in time to get a good seat.”
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Facebook Removes Accounts in Fight Against Fake News

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Facebook says it has deleted tens of thousands of accounts in Britain ahead of the June 8 general election in a drive to battle fake news.

 

The tech giant also took out newspaper advertisements in Britain’s media offering advice on how to spot such stories. The ads suggest that readers should be “skeptical of headlines,” and “look closely at the URL.”

The company says it has made improvements to help it detect fake news accounts more effectively.

 

Simon Milner, the tech firm’s U.K. director of policy, says the platform wants to get to the “root of the problem” and is working with outside organizations to fact check and analyze content around the election.

 

Milner says Facebook is “doing everything we can to tackle the problem of false news.”
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Controversial Cartoon Frog Croaks

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Pepe, the green, cartoon frog who some believed was a symbol of white supremacy, is dead.

The creation of cartoonist Matt Furie, Pepe was shown in a recent comic strip dead in an open casket with his imaginary friends gathered around to mourn his death.

Pepe first appeared online around 2005, and was associated with the phrase “feels good man.” The character was the subject of countless memes, most of which were innocuous and apolitical.

During the brutal 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, many Donald Trump supporters used images of Pepe for political memes.

One prominent example of a Pepe meme was posted by Donald Trump Jr. It had a photoshopped version of the movie poster for “The Expendables” showing instead Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, alt-right icon Milo Yiannopoulos and Pepe the Frog branded as “The Deplorables,” in reference to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s claim that many Trump supporters were deplorable.

In response to that and other memes which showed the frog with a Hitler moustache and another in which the frog donned the white robes of the Ku Klux Klan, the Anti-Defamation League declared the green frog a hate symbol, saying it had been appropriated to express racist views on the internet.

“The mere fact of posting a Pepe meme does not mean that someone is racist or white supremacist,” the ADL said. “However, if the meme itself is racist or anti-Semitic in nature, or if it appears in a context containing bigoted or offensive language or symbols, then it may have been used for hateful purposes.”

At the time, Furie attempted to launch a “save Pepe” campaign, telling Time magazine “It’s completely insane that Pepe has been labeled a symbol of hate […] but in the end, Pepe is whatever you say he is, and I, the creator, say that Pepe is love.”
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