Day: July 13, 2017

Malaria Genome Study Reveals Savvy Parasite

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

The malaria parasite owes its devastating success to a finely tuned genome that can survive attacks and evade human immune defenses because it retains only the bare essential genes it needs to thrive, scientists have found.

In a detailed study analyzing more than half the genes in the genome of Plasmodium, the parasite that causes malaria, researchers found that two-thirds of those genes are essential for survival. This is the largest proportion of essential genes found in any organism studied to date, they said.

The scientists discovered that the parasite often disposes of genes that produce proteins that give its presence away to its host’s immune system. This allows malaria to swiftly change its appearance to the human immune system and hence build up resistance to a vaccine, posing problems for the development of effective shots.

“Our study found that below the surface the parasite is more of a Formula 1 race car than a clunky people carrier: The parasite is fine-tuned and retains the absolute essential genes needed for growth,” said Julian Rayner, who co-led this study at Britain’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Good and bad

He said this discovery, published Thursday in the journal Cell, had both positive and negative implications.

“The bad news is it can easily get rid of the genes behind the targets we are trying to design vaccines for, but the flip side is there are many more essential gene targets for new drugs than we previously thought,” he said.

Malaria kills about half a million people a year, the vast majority of them children and babies in the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Beyond that, almost half the world’s population is at risk of becoming infected with malaria, and more than 200 million people fall sick with it each year, according to World Health Organization figures.

Despite decades of scientific endeavor, the genetics of Plasmodium parasites have proved tricky to decipher.

This is partly because they are ancient organisms and about half their genes have no similar genes — homologs — in any other organism, Rayner’s team explained, making it difficult for scientists to find clues to their function.

Francisco Javier Gamo, a malaria expert at GlaxoSmithKline, a British drugmaker active in this field of research, said the highest achievement for malaria scientists would be to discover genes that are essential across all of the parasite life cycle stages.

“If we could target those with drugs, it would leave malaria with nowhere to hide,” he said.
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Venezuela Oil Exports to Cuba Drop, Energy Shortages Worsen

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

Venezuela’s crude and fuel deliveries to Cuba have slid almost 13 percent in the first half this year, according to documents from state-run oil company PDVSA viewed by Reuters, threatening to worsen gasoline and power shortages in the communist-run island.

Cuba’s government since 2016 has reduced fuel allocations 28 percent to most state-run companies, and has cut electricity consumption. Public lighting was cut 50 percent, while residential electric use was spared.

Beginning in March, Cubans also have reported minor gasoline and diesel shortages at service stations.

Cuba’s economy depends heavily on Venezuelan crude shipments under a series of bilateral agreements started in 2000 by the South American country’s late President Hugo Chavez. In return, the island nation has provided Venezuela with Cuban doctors and other services.

Venezuela’s shipments of crude for Cuba’s refineries dropped 21 percent to 42,310 barrels per day (bpd), the documents showed. Last year, Venezuela made up for a shortfall in crude shipments by sending Cuba more fuels, but this year’s data showed refined products sent to Cuba remained almost unchanged at around 30,040 bpd.

In total, PDVSA sent Cuba an average of 72,350 bpd of crude and refined products in the first half of 2017, down almost 13 percent from the same period of last year, according to the data from internal PDVSA trade reports.

“Cuba needs at least 70,000 bpd from Venezuela to cover its energy deficit and avoid deeper rationing. A larger or total loss of the Venezuelan supply would have a high political and financial cost for Cuba,” which has been gearing up to welcome more tourists, said Jorge Pinon, a Cuban energy expert at the University of Texas in Austin.

Cuba suffered severe energy rationing in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, an ally that had provided cheap fuel. In 2016, Cuba’s economy went into recession for the first time since those days, declining almost 1 percent as shrinking export earnings left it short of funds to import oil on the open market and replace declining Venezuelan supplies.

With Venezuela’s crude production sliding in 2017 for the sixth year in a row, the OPEC nation has had less oil to send Cuba and other customers in regions from Asia to North America and the Caribbean.

Cuba, which produces extremely heavy crude used by industry and power plants, received 103,226 bpd of oil from Venezuela in the first half of 2015, according to the same data.

PDVSA, whose full name is Petroleos de Venezuela SA, did not reply to a request for comment.

Venezuela’s oil shipments to Cuba have been falling since 2008, when they peaked at 115,000 bpd mainly due to a decline in crude exports. The poor shape of Venezuelan refineries cut into fuel exports this year, and Venezuela has also had to boost fuel imports to meet domestic demand.

Cuba, in addition to rationing fuel, is seeking oil cargoes from other producers including Russia, something it had not done for more than a decade.

In one of several recent shipments, the Ocean Quest tanker loaded with fuel oil at Russia’s Tuapse terminal, arrived in Havana on July 9 and is waiting to discharge, according to Reuters vessel tracking data. The Tuapse terminal is operated by state-run Rosneft.

Cuba’s three aged refineries have been operating at reduced rates since last year due to a shortage of light crude, which also affects Venezuela’s 1.3-million-bpd refining network.
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Panel to FDA: Review Safety of Opioid Painkillers

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

An expert panel of scientists says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should review the safety and effectiveness of all opioids and consider the real-world impacts the powerful painkillers have, not only on patients but also on families, crime and the demand for heroin.

In a sweeping report Thursday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine pushed the FDA to bolster a public health approach that already has resulted in one painkiller being pulled from the market. Last week, the maker of opioid painkiller Opana ER withdrew its drug at the FDA’s request following a 2015 outbreak of HIV and hepatitis C in southern Indiana linked to sharing needles to inject the pills.

“Our recommendation is for a much more systematic approach, integrating public health decision-making into all aspects of opioid review and approval,” said Dr. Aaron Kesselheim of Harvard Medical School, a member of the report committee. “It would be an ambitious undertaking.”

The report details how two intertwining epidemics — prescription painkillers and heroin — led to the worst addiction crisis in U.S. history and provides a plan for turning back the tide of overdose deaths.

Gateway drugs

Prescribed, legal drugs are a gateway to illicit drugs for some, the report says. Other users start with pills diverted to the black market. Crush-resistant pills and other restrictions have unintended consequences, shifting use to heroin and illicit fentanyl.

The epidemic’s broad reach into rural and suburban America “has blurred the formerly distinct social boundary between use of prescribed opioids and use of heroin and other illegally manufactured ones,” the report says.

The authors say it will be possible to stem the crisis without denying opioids to patients whose doctors prescribe them responsibly. But long-term use of opioids by people with chronic pain should be discouraged because it increases dangers of overdose and addiction.

Requested by the FDA last year under the Obama administration, the report was greeted by FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a Trump appointee. Gottlieb said in a statement that the opioid epidemic is his “highest immediate priority” and he “was encouraged to see that many of [the] recommendations for the FDA are in areas where we’ve already made new commitments.”

Still, no immediate review of opioids as a class of drugs is planned by the FDA, other than the agency’s routine safety surveillance. Gottlieb said the FDA re-evaluates the safety of approved drugs with post-market information required from drugmakers and other sources.

“We will continue to consider what additional information is needed to ensure we have the right data to make important, science-based decisions,” he said.

Other strategies

Beyond the FDA, the report recommends:

— Better access to treatment for opioid addiction, including use of medications such as buprenorphine, in settings including hospitals, prisons and treatment programs.

— Year-round programs that allow people to return unused opioids to any pharmacy at any time, rather than only at occasional events. Some pharmacies, including Walgreens, have installed kiosks where people can get rid of pills.

— Insurers pay for pain control that goes beyond opioids to include non-drug treatment. The report doesn’t specify which treatments insurers should cover, but it does outline what early evidence exists for acupuncture, physical therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness meditation, calling them “powerful tools.”

— More research on the nature of pain and dependency on opioids and development of new non-addictive treatments.
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UN Experts Tell Peru to Halt Oil Talks Until Pollution Remedied

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United Nations human rights experts on Thursday called on Peru to suspend negotiations on a new contract for a large oilfield in the Amazon until past pollution was cleaned up and the rights of indigenous groups respected.

Canada’s Frontera Energy Corporation now operates Block 192 in the Peruvian Amazon and is in talks with Peru about renewing its contract once the current one expires in September.

U.N. Special Rapporteurs Baskut Tuncak and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, independent experts tasked with investigating human rights issues, said Peru had failed to clean up pollution from oil spills in the region and was not doing enough to ensure indigenous groups had a voice in talks.

“The Peruvian Government must suspend the direct negotiations with companies until the right to free, prior and informed consent is guaranteed, and all environmental damage has been remedied,” Tuncak and Tauli-Corpuz said in a statement from the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The remarks will likely be welcomed by indigenous rights activists in Peru who say a law requiring the government to include native groups in talks on projects affecting them has not been fully enforced.

Peru’s environment ministry and energy and mines ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In previous years, the government has declared several environmental emergencies in the region due to oil pollution.

Frontera did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Peru’s government has been trying to jump start investments in the country’s oil industry that have dropped sharply since global oil prices fell and a series of ruptures largely shuttered the main pipeline serving the sector.

The aging pipeline, operated by state-owned oil company Petroperu, suffered a new rupture this week, Petroperu said Wednesday. The company has blamed most of the dozen spills from the pipeline last year on attacks from unknown parties.

In June, Frontera reached a deal with indigenous people who had occupied Block 192 in a land-use dispute. The company agreed to pay them for use of land and finance community projects.

Block 192 has produced an average of 2,565 barrels of oil per day this year, a sharp drop from previous years when it churned out some 10,000 bpd, according to data from state regulator Perupetro.

U.S. oil company Occidental Petroleum produced oil from Block 192 for decades before Argentine energy company Pluspetrol took over operations in 2001. Frontera was awarded a two-year contract in 2015.
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Federal Reserve Chief Calls Risks of Inflation ‘Two-sided’

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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Thursday said she believed the risks concerning inflation are “two-sided,” stressing that price gains could both accelerate or slow down.

 

Testifying for the second day before Congress, Yellen sought to expand on remarks she had made Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee in an apparent effort to adjust views in financial markets.

 

In her House comments, Yellen discussed the possibility that a recent slowdown in inflation could persist longer than the Fed expects. The comments helped trigger a big market rally, with the Dow Jones industrial average hitting a record high. Investors saw the remarks as a signal that the Fed, which has raised interest rates three times since December, might slow the pace of future interest rate increases.

 

But on Thursday, Yellen said that she believed it would be “premature” to conclude that a recent slowdown in price gains meant that the Fed would not be able to achieve its goal of 2 percent annual inflation.

 

After keeping its key policy rate at a record low near zero for seven years, the central bank began raising rates gradually with one quarter-point hike in December 2015, another one last December and two more in March and June of this year. It is now in a range of 1 percent to 1.25 percent. Many economists believe the Fed will raise rates one more time this year, in either September or December.

 

Some senators asked Yellen whether she believed the Trump administration’s goal of lifting economic growth to 3 percent is realistic. President Donald Trump has pledged to boost growth through a combination of tax cuts, regulatory relief and tougher enforcement of trade laws.

 

Yellen said hitting 3 percent growth in the next five years “would be wonderful. … I would love to see it. But I think it would be challenging.”

 

On a regulatory matter, Yellen said that the Fed had the power to remove directors of banks, but she did not give a specific commitment to do so when pressed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

 

Warren, D-Massachusetts, wants to see those directors of San Francisco-based Wells Fargo replaced if they were responsible for the bank’s creation of fake accounts.

 

“Time after time, big banks cheat their customers, and no actual human beings are held into account,” Warren told Yellen.

 

Yellen described the actions at Wells Fargo as “unacceptable.” She said the Fed needs to conduct a full investigation to understand the root causes of the problems at the bank. Yellen said the central bank is prepared to take appropriate enforcement actions but did not say whether that action would include removal of any bank directors.
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Poverty in Italy at Worst for Over a Decade in Blow for Ruling Party

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The number of people living in poverty in Italy climbed to its highest level for more than a decade in 2016 despite a modest economic recovery, data showed on Thursday, in a report that could hurt the ruling Democratic Party (PD).

Those living in “absolute poverty” rose to 4.74 million last year, or 7.9 percent of the population, up from 7.6 percent in 2015 and the highest since current records began in 2005, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported.

ISTAT defines absolute poverty as the condition of those who are unable to buy goods and services “essential to avoid grave forms of social exclusion.”

Italy emerged from a long recession in 2014, but the report shows that the slow growth posted since then has done little to help the poorest sectors of society.

Gross domestic product is forecast to rise by around 1.1 percent this year, up from 0.9 percent in 2016, but leaving Italy in its customary position among the eurozone’s most sluggish economies.

The country faces elections next spring, and opposition parties were quick to blame the PD and its leader, Matteo Renzi, for the record poverty levels.

“When a government is unable to provide for people’s basic needs, we can undoubtedly say it has failed,” said Giovanni Barozzino, a senator for the Italian Left party, which split from the PD in 2015, complaining Renzi had dragged it to the right.

In the underdeveloped south of Italy, 9.8 percent of people were living in absolute poverty, compared with 7.3 in central regions including the capital Rome, and 6.7 percent in the wealthier north, including the business capital Milan.

ISTAT said Italians living in “relative poverty,” or those whose disposable income is less than around half the national average, also edged up in 2016 to 8.5 million people, or 14.0 percent of the population.

That compared with 13.7 percent in 2015 and was the highest since current records began in 1997.
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Moon Dust Collected by Neil Armstrong to be Auctioned in New York

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Moon dust that Neil Armstrong collected during the first lunar landing was displayed Thursday at a New York auction house — a symbol of America’s glory days in space now valued at $2 million to $4 million.

The late astronaut brought the dust and some tiny rocks back to Earth in an ordinary-looking bag.

It’s one of 180 lots linked to space travel that Sotheby’s is auctioning off July 20 to mark the 48th anniversary of the pioneer lunar landing on that date in 1969.

The moon dust is the first sample of Earth’s satellite ever collected.

The bag has had a storied existence, a decades-long trajectory during which it was misidentified and nearly landed in the trash. About two years ago, it appeared in a seized assets auction staged on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service. The owner, whose name has not been made public, purchased the treasure and sent it to NASA for testing.

After a legal tussle, a federal judge granted the owner full rights over the curiosity. 

Other items on the block are Armstrong’s snapshot of fellow Apollo 11 astronaut “Buzz” Aldrin standing on the moon, with an estimated value of $3,000 to $5,000.

A documented flight plan astronauts used to return to Earth is valued at $25,000 to $35,000.

In a photo valued at $2,000 to $3,000, astronaut Gene Cernan from Apollo 17 is seen rolling around in the lunar rover through a valley on the moon.

Capping the sale is a touch of humor: The Snoopy astronaut doll that was the mascot of the Apollo 10 crew, at an estimated pre-sale price of $2,000 to $3,000.

Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. He died in 2012 in Ohio.

The first human to venture into outer space was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who orbited Earth in a spacecraft in April 1961.

Gagarin’s description of the planet — translated from Russian — is being offered as part of his observations on being in space, at an estimated price of $50,000 to $80,000.

Calling it “a magnificent picture,” he wrote: “The Earth had a very distinct and pretty blue halo. This halo could be clearly seen when looking at the horizon. It had a smooth transition from pale blue to blue, dark blue, violet and absolutely black.”
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Scientists Investigate Link Between Pesticides and Bee Death

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For about a decade, scientists have been investigating a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids as one of the culprits behind the worldwide loss of domesticated honeybees. Now, a pair of new studies has people on both sides claiming victory.

Neonicotinoids, or neonics, were developed in the 1980s and ’90s and became one of the most widely used insecticides. Recently, however, there has been concern about its effect on honeybees. Roughly one-third of the world’s crops benefit from pollinators like honeybees.

Studies in the lab have shown inconsistent effects of neonics on bees. Amro Zayed, a biologist at York University in Toronto, says that could be because bees aren’t exposed to the same levels of neonics across studies.

“People criticize these experimental studies by saying that the authors used too much neonicotinoids or they treated bees to neonicotinoids for a much longer period of time than would be found in the field,” Zayed said.

Zayed tried to address that question in the first of the two studies published in the journal Science. It focused on how much of the pesticide bees were exposed to in the fields. In Canada, neonics are coated onto corn and soy seeds and spread throughout the plant as it grows. The bees pick it up in the pollen.

The researchers studied six sites near cornfields.

“We tracked them for the whole season. And we were able to monitor the neonicotinoids coming into the colony,” Zayed said.

The researchers found that the bees brought in pollen tainted with neonics for as long as four months beyond the growing season — much longer than they had expected. They also examined the pollen to determine from which plants it was collected.

“And what we found was a big surprise,” Zayed said. “There was actually almost no pollen coming from corn and soy.”

This means that the pesticide was being washed away from cornfields and absorbed by other plants. Zayed warns that these neonics probably will stay in the environment for several years.

The researchers then exposed bees in the lab to the same level of neonics found in the field. That shortened the life span of worker bees by 25 percent.

Conflicting results

In the second study, researchers from the Center for Ecology and Hydrology in England monitored hives at 33 fields across the United Kingdom, Germany and Hungary in one of the largest such studies.

They found that neonics generally hurt colony health in the U.K. and Hungary. However, in Germany, the neonics had some positive effects on bees. For example, the count of egg and larval cells was elevated in Germany, while it was reduced in Hungary and unaffected in the U.K.

Researchers point to the local environment to explain the difference. Germany had more flowers by the fields, perhaps providing the bees with a better food source. This variable could explain why some studies have shown negative effects, while others show positive ones.

The European study was funded by two neonic producers, Sygenta and Bayer CropScience. They also manufactured the neonics used in the study.

Sygenta scientist Peter Campbell noted that the vast majority of variables in the study appeared to be unaffected by the neonics. He said that the beneficial findings cast doubt on the results. 

“I do struggle to rationalize a positive beneficial effect of an insecticide on honeybees,” Campbell said. “And so, therefore, my next worry is: Is that a real positive effect? And if the positive effects aren’t real, I then worry about the negative effects.”

Campbell said that the alternatives to neonics are far less effective.

The result, then, is that there is still no consensus on what role neonics play in the deaths of honeybees, nor what impact ending their use would have on agriculture.
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US, Mexico Eye Closer Energy Ties as NAFTA Talks Loom

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The U.S. and Mexico are looking to boost energy ties as the two countries ready for a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry visited Mexico on Thursday to meet with his counterpart, Pedro Joaquin Coldwell. Perry called Mexico “a very, very important partner” on energy.

Joaquin Coldwell said his country plans two pipelines to import U.S. natural gas in addition to the 17 that already exist.

Mexico’s energy sector was wholly state-run for decades until a 2013 energy overhaul allowed some private-sector activity, and Perry noted that NAFTA did not cover energy when the trade pact was implemented in 1994.

He said renegotiating NAFTA “is good for all participants, particularly in the energy sector.”

The talks will also include Canada, NAFTA’s third partner.
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‘Walking on the Moon’ in Idaho

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Before America put the first men on the moon in 1969, NASA astronauts prepared for their lunar missions on the volcanic terrain at a national park.

Lunar landscape

National parks traveler Mikah Meyer says he now knows why those astronauts visited Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in south-central Idaho.

“The area was the site of immense volcanic activity in the past,” he explained, so what’s left “is a kind of a ruins of volcanic rock…” — which, with its vast ocean of lava flows and islands of cinder cones, resembles the surface of the moon.

Mikah got a great 360-degree view of the surreal landscape after hiking to the top of the Inferno Cone – a massive mound of cinder that rises out of the ground like a black mountain.

“It looks like a mountain but it’s a cinder cone with this really loud, crunchy, sharp volcanic rock,” he said. “All throughout the park, whether it’s the big Inferno Cone or smaller volcanoes, you’re basically walking around on this black volcanic lava that was once magma and is now hard rock.”

Otherworldly encounters

Since much of the moon’s surface is also covered by volcanic materials, in 1969, NASA sent astronauts Eugene Cernan, Joe Engle, Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell to Craters of the Moon to learn the basics of volcanic geology before their lunar missions.

Becoming familiar with the materials would help them when collecting samples of different rocks on the moon, and, since only a limited amount of material (385 kilos total in 6 moon landings) could be brought back, it was important that they know enough geology to pick up the most scientifically valuable specimens and be able to describe the surface features they were exploring to geologists back on Earth.

In 1999, astronauts Mitchell, Engle and Cernan returned to Craters of the Moon to help celebrate the site’s 75th Anniversary, 30 years after training there. Alan Shepard had passed away in 1998.

A window into the past

Apollo 14 lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell said their purpose and training “was to sample virtually all types of volcanic activity and the processes that go along with volcanism, because we had to be the eyes of the geological community on the moon and be able to accurately describe the various types of flows.”

He noted that the surreal lunar landscape was also quite beautiful. “It has this peculiar, eerie beauty, like these flows do here, that are magnificent. I mean, they excite your imagination.”  

Shuttle astronaut Joe Engle noted that it wasn’t known before the Apollo missions what kind of rocks were on the lunar surface, “so Craters of the Moon was one of the really valuable places to come and look at and study lava flows.”

Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, in December, 1972, described Craters of the Moon as “a spectacular place… an ideal place to study a high, broad range of the geologic impact.”

“The volcanic activity that occurred on the moon is not dissimilar to the kind of thing we have seen here… the geology that’s exposed here, it’s just an open window into the past and this is what we were looking for in trying to learn something about geology… and this is the kind of place where we were able to do something like that.”

Ancient rocks, new grass

Craters of the Moon formed during eight major eruptive periods between 15,000 and 2,000 years ago. Today its lava field covers 1600 square kilometers.

The site continues to be an important setting for space science research. In 2014, two research projects — FINESSE and BASALT — were launched at the park.

In the meantime, the lunar-like landscape continues to inspire visitors like Mikah. Looking out from the top of the Inferno Cone, he said, “You see the majestic contrast between the black dirt, the snow-capped mountains, and the older cinder cone which now have sagebrush and other grass and greens growing on them… it’s quite the beautiful juxtaposition.”

Mikah, who’s on a mission to visit all 417 units within the National Park Service, invites you to learn more about his travels across America by visiting him on his website, Facebook and Instagram.
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Ravens Show Unique Ability to Plan Ahead

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

More than 170 years after Edgar Allan Poe’s fictional raven croaked, “Nevermore,” scientists are reporting that real-life ravens think about the future.

In a series of tests, ravens showed signs of a general planning ability that previously had been documented only in people and great apes. Even monkeys have failed to show it.

It’s not like you could ask a raven to arrange your wedding: Ravens showed they could plan by setting aside a tool that they suspected would get them a tasty treat later. And they prepared for future bartering, too.

Still, it’s impressive. Ravens, along with crows, jays and others, belong to a bird group called corvids. Some corvids have shown that in hoarding food, they do some planning for the future instead of just acting on natural urges. But does such foresight appear only for that behavior, as has been proposed? Or can corvids, like people and great apes, apply it to other activities?

This more general planning ability results from the combination of several skills, and if it appears in both corvids and great apes, it must have evolved more than once, the Swedish researchers said.

The researchers, Can Kabadayi and Mathias Osvath of Lund University, tested five captive ravens in two tasks they don’t do in the wild: using tools and bartering with humans. They reported the results in a paper released Thursday by the journal Science.

The birds were shown a box that had a tube sticking out of the top, plus three stones. They learned that they could use a stone as a tool. If they dropped it down the tube, the box would release a coveted doggie treat. They also learned that some other familiar objects, like a small wooden wheel and a ball, would not work.

Now the fun began.

In one experiment, the ravens were shown the box, but without any stones available. Then the box was taken away. An hour later, in another location, they were presented with a tray containing a stone plus three objects the birds knew would be useless for releasing the treat.

They were allowed to choose one thing from the tray. Fifteen minutes later, the box would show up again. Sure enough, in 14 cases of encountering the tray and later seeing the box reappear, they usually chose the stone and proceeded to use it correctly.

The same thing happened in another experiment, when the box didn’t show up again until the next day, a delay of 17 hours.

Further work showed the ravens would pass up an immediate reward if they could get a better one by waiting a while.

Bartering

The ravens also showed they could barter for what they needed. The birds learned that they could exchange a blue plastic bottle cap with one of the experimenters for the favored doggie treat. When the experiments were repeated with the bottle cap replacing the stone, and an experimenter instead of the box, the results were basically the same.

The work presents “compelling evidence” of planning ability that goes beyond stashing food away, Markus Boeckle and Nicola Clayton of Cambridge University wrote in an accompanying commentary. 

Although the evidence is new, the ability of ravens to see ahead has long been suspected: In Greek mythology, they are associated with the god of prophecy; an old term for a group of ravens is “conspiracy”; and in Game of Thrones, a three-eyed raven appears in a prince’s prophetic visions. 
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FIFA’s Chuck Blazer Dies After Exposing Corruption He Profited From

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

The charade only ended in the final years of Chuck Blazer’s life.

 

Stripped of his extravagances, soccer’s gregarious and greedy dealmaker was forced to admit to his years of corruption and confined to a New Jersey hospital.

The eccentric bon vivant who once strode across the global stage being flattered by sport and political leaders eager to capture his World Cup hosting vote died in disgrace on Wednesday at age 72.

However much Blazer elevated the status and wealth of soccer in North America over several decades, any achievements were polluted by the ravenous appetite of “Mr. 10 Percent” to seek bribes and siphon cash from deals into his personal account.

Blazer did go on to play a central role exposing soccer’s fraudulent culture, which led to FIFA President Sepp Blatter being toppled. But he turned only when presented with little option but to become a cooperating witness.

The impact of Blazer’s death on the FIFA prosecution in the United States —  where three South American soccer officials are set to go on trial in November — is unclear. Many of the more prominent figures who might have faced him as a star government witness have already pleaded guilty.

Any recordings Blazer made after agreeing to become an FBI informant and wear a wire could still come into evidence without his testimony, said Timothy Heaphy, a former U.S. attorney now in private practice.

Even if Blazer didn’t record the defendants, prosecutors could have tried to “call him to testify generally about the ways and means of the corrupt practices, as pseudo-corruption expert,” Heaphy said. But Blazer’s absence, he said, “is like one brick removed from the wall. It won’t make the edifice come crumbling down.”

Blazer was driving his mobility scooter on a Manhattan street in 2011 when he was stopped by U.S. government agents and threatened with arrest.

It was the failure to fill in tax returns for years that put Blazer on the radar of the Internal Revenue Service. He became a government informant in 2011, using his role on FIFA’s already-tainted executive committee to secretly record conversations with associates in soccer’s governing body.

Blazer swept up evidence that formed the foundations of a Department of Justice case against world soccer executives who embezzled cash from commercial contracts and sought payments in return for backing countries as World Cup hosts.

At a November 2013 court hearing where his treatment for rectal cancer, diabetes and coronary artery disease was disclosed, Blazer entered 10 guilty pleas. He admitted to sharing in a $10 million bribe scheme with others to support South Africa’s bid for the 2010 World Cup, and facilitating a kickback linked to Morocco’s failed bid for the 1998 World Cup.

Blazer’s guilty pleas were only unsealed by a New York court in July 2015 after the American investigation into FIFA exploded into public view with a raid on a Zurich hotel ahead of the annual gathering of soccer nations.

Since then, U.S. prosecutors have brought charges against more than 40 soccer officials, marketing executives, associates and entities, while the Swiss attorney general has been conducting parallel investigations.

“Chuck hoped to help bring transparency, accountability and fair play to CONCACAF, FIFA and soccer as a whole,” Blazer’s lawyers said in a statement late Wednesday. “Chuck also accepted responsibility for his own conduct by pleading guilty and owning up to his mistakes. Chuck felt profound sorrow and regret for his actions.”

While some sports executives try to shirk the limelight, Blazer relished the status gained through his 16 years on FIFA’s executive committee until 2013.

For a suburban soccer dad, Blazer gained unimaginable influence and access. Journeys into the heart of power across the world were cataloged on a personal website inspired by Vladimir Putin during a 2011 meeting with the Russian leader.

When he wasn’t traveling the world, Blazer was cutting deals from an office and apartment in Trump Tower where he lived a chaotic life surrounded by cats and a pet parrot.

Blazer started in soccer by coaching his son’s club in New Rochelle, New York, and joined boards of local and regional soccer organizations. He was the U.S. Soccer Federation’s executive vice president from 1984-86. He helped to form the American Soccer League, a precursor to Major League Soccer in 1998 before entering regional soccer politics.

 Blazer urged Jack Warner to run for president of CONCACAF in 1990. When the Trinidadian won, he made Blazer the general secretary — a position he held until 2011.

In 1991, Blazer created the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the organization’s national team championship that is played every two years, and he rose within FIFA to become chairman of its marketing and television advisory board.

Blazer turned on his boss, Warner, who also served with him on FIFA’s executive committee.

Corruption had been rumored for years within world soccer before Blazer provided evidence, accusing Warner and Mohamed bin Hammam of offering $40,000 bribes to voters in the 2011 FIFA presidential election.Bin Hammam, a Qatari who headed the Asian Football Confederation, had been the lone challenger to Blatter, who was elected unopposed to a fourth term after Warner and bin Hammam were suspended. Blatter was elected to a fifth term in 2015 before resigning after the raids in Zurich.

Blazer’s conduct was as corrupt as the actions of the people he accused.

Blazer pleaded guilty in November 2013 to one count each of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and willful failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, and to six counts of tax evasion.

A separate CONCACAF investigation report released in 2013 said Blazer “misappropriated CONCACAF funds to finance his personal lifestyle,” causing the organization to “subsidize rent on his residence in the Trump Tower in New York; purchase apartments at the Mondrian, a luxury hotel and residence in Miami; sign purchase agreements and pay down payments on apartments at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.”

“His misconduct, for which he accepted full responsibility, should not obscure Chuck’s positive impact on international soccer,” his lawyers said. “With Chuck’s guidance and leadership, CONCACAF transformed itself from impoverished to profitable.”

While Blazer was banned for life from soccer by FIFA in 2015, he was awaiting sentencing when he died.

There were almost no public tributes from FIFA or CONCACAF after his passing; CONCACAF merely said it extended “sympathies and condolences” to Blazer’s family and loved ones. The only acknowledgement of Blazer’s death by U.S. Soccer was a comment in a news conference by national team coach Bruce Arena.

“I’ve known Chuck for a lot of years. He did a lot for the sport. Sorry about all the issues regarding FIFA,” Arena said. “But he was a good man.”
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China Reducing Massive Influence of Social Media Celebrities

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

China is trying to contain the awesome influence of social media celebrities, some of whom have tens of millions of followers that dwarf more Western media icons like Oprah Winfrey. For example, the top 10 Chinese celebrities on Internet have between 67 million and 90 million online followers.

Recent weeks have seen the closure of social media accounts of several celebrities while the Beijing Cyber Administration (BCA) shut down the accounts of 60 celebrity gossip magazines. It also asked Internet portals hosting these accounts to “adopt effective measures to keep in check the problems of the embellishment of private sex scandals of celebrities, the hyping of ostentatious celebrity spending and entertainment, and catering to the poor taste of the public.”

Analysts said the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) has reason to worry about the massive influence of celebrities, according to Bill Bishop, who runs the widely read The Sinocism China Newsletter.

Money and values

“The Party is really pushing hard on Socialist Core Values and very few of the popular Internet celebrities are paragons of those values,” he said. “Individual media creators are much harder to control, and one of the core pillars of the CCP is propaganda and ideological control,” he said.

Celebrities are an important tool for marketing and advertising, and thousands of companies depend on them to disseminate product messages. The size of Internet marketing by Chinese celebrities was estimated at $58 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $100 billion in 2018, according to Beijing-based research agency Analysus.

Many of the social media celebrities come from the world of cinema, television, and sports. But there have been a large number of upstarts who have emerged from nowhere.

Their claim to fame is their ability to raise sensitive social issues, such as the neglect suffered by some so-called “leftover women” who have not found husbands. One such celebrity is Teacher Xu, a popular internet celebrity, who runs a hugely popular account on the WeChat platform.

Almost all celebrities make sure they do not cross the government’s policy line in their posts in texts and videos, said Mark Tanner, Managing Director of China Skinny, an internet based marketing company.

“Everyone in China knows that if you want to be a successful and effective voice in China, you need to toe the party line. So right to Pappi Chang to the little guys on the road, they know what to say and what not to say,” he said.

Analysts say the immense popularity of these high profile individuals is itself seen as a challenge to the authorities even if they do not take up political issues. A lot of what they talk about is indirectly connected to governance issues like the environment, and this is what bothers top officials.

Censor troubles

“Celebrities happen to hold a powerful microphone to speak to society, and in CCP leaders’ eyes, that alone is threatening no matter how non-political most of them may be,” said Christopher Cairns, a Cornell scholar.

The government also has things to worry at the technological level, where the popularity and content production of celebrities seem to be running far ahead of the government’s technical ability to control them.

“A lot of it has to do with lack of control. It is really hard for them to censure real time video. the software hardware for voice and video is just not there yet,” said Jacob Cooke, CEO of Web Presence in China. “And still, a lot of the system depends upon real-time monitoring. So, there are a lot of vague rules in terms of censorship including harming feelings of the Chinese people.”

The censors are using other reasons to crack down on celebrities they don’t like.The BCA reportedly told executives of Internet companies the new cybersecurity law required websites “to not harm the reputation or privacy of individuals.”

The government has said the new law is necessary for security reasons, but many analysts fear it can be used to surpress freedom of speech on the Internet.

 
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McDonald’s Sees Its Future: Be More Convenient

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

McDonald’s is hoping to make a difference in its future seven seconds at a time.

 

The company that helped define fast food is making supersized efforts to reverse its fading popularity and catch up to a landscape that has evolved around it. That includes expanding delivery, digital ordering kiosks in restaurants, and rolling out an app that saves precious seconds.

 

Much of the work is on display in an unmarked warehouse near the company’s headquarters in suburban Chicago, where a blowup of a mobile phone screen shows the app launching nationally later this year. McDonald’s estimates it would take 10 seconds for a customer to tell an employee their order number from the app, down from the 17-second average of ordering at the drive-thru, a difference that could help ease pileups. Elsewhere at the Innovation Center, the digital ordering kiosk shows how customers can skip lines at the register.

 

“Five, 10 years ago, we were the dominant player in convenience, as convenience was defined in those days,” CEO Steve Easterbrook said last month. “But convenience continually gets redefined, and we haven’t modernized.” 

 

The push come as McDonald’s Corp.’s stock has hit all-time highs as investors cheer a turnaround plan that has included slashed costs and expansion overseas. Yet the asterisk on the headlines is the chain’s declining stature in its flagship U.S. market, where it is fighting intensifying competition, fickle tastes and a persistent junk food image.

 

In an increasingly crowded field of places to eat, the number of McDonald’s locations in the U.S. is set to shrink for the third year in a row. At established locations, the frequency of customer visits has declined for four straight years, even after the launch of a popular “All-Day Breakfast” menu. 

 

The chain that popularized innovations like drive-thrus in the 1970s acknowledges it has been slow to adapt, and is scrambling to better fit into American lifestyles. 

 

Running to keep up

 

Lots of once-dominant restaurant chains are feeling the pressure of people having more eating options.

 

An estimated 613,000 places were selling either food or drink in the U.S. last year, up 17 percent from a decade earlier, according to government figures. Supermarkets and convenience stores are offering more prepared foods, and meal-kit delivery companies have been expanding. 

 

“Better burger” places like Shake Shack and Habit Burger Grill don’t come close to McDonald’s roughly 14,000 U.S. locations, but they’re growing. And even if Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts don’t serve burgers and fries, they are among those promoting food more aggressively.

 

“They’re still taking customers from the same market pool,” said Nick Karavites, a McDonald’s franchisee with 22 locations in the Chicago area and chairman of a regional leadership committee.

 

Richard Adams, a former McDonald’s franchisee who is now a consultant to those businesses, has questioned whether the chain can return to the height of its popularity in such a fragmented marketplace. He also noted that many of the new offerings the company is pursuing, such as delivery, are already available at other places.

 

Still, McDonald’s needs to make changes to keep customer visits from falling further. 

 

‘Turning a very large ship’

 

One main focus is the drive-thru, where McDonald’s gets roughly 70 percent of its business. 

 

Customers who place orders on the mobile app, for instance, could also pull into a designated parking spot where an employee would bring out their order. That would theoretically ease backups at the drive-thru, which in turn might prevent potential customers from driving past without stopping during peak hours.

 

Then there’s the partnership with UberEats to offer delivery. McDonald’s gives an undisclosed percentage of the sale to UberEats, in addition to a fee of about $5 that customers pay. So a risk is that delivery could draw from in-store sales, eating into profitability.

 

So far, however, McDonald’s says delivery is bringing in new business during slower times at the roughly 3,500 locations where it has rolled out since the start of the year. 

 

Either way, such changes aren’t likely to transform operations overnight, since most of McDonald’s customers might prefer to order the way they always have. 

 

“That’s like turning a very large ship,” said Karavites, noting the range of company efforts intended to build sales over time. At his remodeled restaurant in Chicago where delivery was recently launched, he said sales are climbing. 

 

To bring more people in over the short-term, the company is promoting $1 sodas and $2 McCafe drinks. Glass cases displaying baked goods are also popping up in stores. And at about 700 locations, the company is testing “dessert stations” behind the counter where employees can make sundaes topped with cake or brownie chunks. 

 

Those stations could eventually handle an expanded menu of sweets.

 

Junk food image

 

At the same time, McDonald’s is trying to shake its image for serving junk food, especially since its appeal to families with children has long helped keep it ahead of rivals like Burger King and Wendy’s.

 

It’s made changes to its Happy Meal, and made a high-profile pledge to offer healthier options. It plans to start using fresh beef instead of frozen patties in Quarter Pounders. But as other chains emphasizing quality or health keep emerging, it may get harder for McDonald’s to hold onto families or change perceptions. 

 

Larry Light, a former chief marketing officer at McDonald’s, says the company strayed in recent years by chasing customers who may have been going to places like Chipotle, but that it is refocusing on burgers and fries. He thinks that will help get people visiting more often.

 

“You cannot build an enduring, profitable business on a shrinking customer base,” Light said.

 

And Bernstein analyst Sara Senatore cited the changes the company is pursuing in raising her rating on McDonald’s to “buy” in April.

 

“I wouldn’t underestimate the power of scale,” Senatore said.
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Business is Booming for Sleep Technology

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

New research published this week in the journal Brain suggests that the lack of quality sleep could raise your chances of contracting Alzheimer’s disease. And the Centers for Disease Control reports that more than 30 percent of Americans do not get enough sleep. That problem is creating a whole new tech market promising ways to get some sleep. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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New Non-Invasive Treatment Provides Depression Relief

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

The World Health Organization says that there are over 350 million people worldwide who suffer or have suffered from depression. They classify it as the leading cause of disability around the globe. There are all kinds of therapies, and a lot of drugs, designed to provide relief to people who suffer. One new therapy uses magnets, and seems to work. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Trump Steps In to Ensure Afghan Students Can Come to US Robotics Contest

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

President Donald Trump has personally intervened to allow a team of Afghan women students into the United States for a major global robotics competition, VOA has learned.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul had denied visas for the girls earlier this month, for unknown reasons.

However, VOA’s White House bureau chief, Steve Herman, reported Wednesday that Trump granted the girls what is known as a parole — reversing the earlier decision to bar them from the U.S. — that will allow them to come to Washington for 20 days.

A student team from Gambia also was granted visas last week after initially being rejected.

Former lawmaker behind contest

The president of FIRST Global, which organized the robotics competition, is former Democratic congressman and retired U.S. Navy Admiral Joe Sestak.

“I truly believe our greatest power is the power to convene nations to bring people together in pursuit of a common goal and prove that our similarities greatly outweigh our differences,” Sestak said.

He thanked the White House and the State Department for clearing the obstacles to the Afghan and Gambian students’ travel to the U.S.  Teams from all 157 countries that have entered the competition now will be taking part, he added.

Event is held yearly 

The three-day robotics competition begins Sunday in Washington.

FIRST Global Challenge holds the yearly contest to build up interest in science, technology, engineering and math across the world.

The group says the focus of the competition is finding solutions to problems in such fields as water, energy, medicine and food production.

Steve Herman contributed to this report
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Art Exhibit in Poland Shows Auschwitz Through Inmates’ Eyes

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

A new exhibition in southern Poland shows the brutality of the Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz through the artistic work of its inmates. Some of the artworks are being shown publicly for the first time.

The “Face to Face: Art in Auschwitz” exhibition opened last week at the Kamienica Szolayskich (Szolayski Tenement House) of the National Museum in Krakow to mark 70 years of the Auschwitz Museum. The museum’s task is to preserve the site in the southern town of Oswiecim and to educate visitors about it. More than 2 million people visited the museum last year.

The curator of the Krakow exhibit, Agnieszka Sieradzka, said Wednesday it includes clandestine as well as commissioned drawings and paintings by Jews, Poles and other citizens held at Auschwitz during World War II.

“These works help us see Auschwitz as the inmates saw it and experienced it,” Sieradzka told The Associated Press. “We stand face to face with the inmates.”       

The Nazis sometimes ordered talented inmates to make paintings for various purposes. One such painting is a portrait of a Roma woman that pseudo-scientist Josef Mengele experimented on. Mengele ordered portraits like this from inmate painter Dina Gottliebova, a Jewish woman from Czechoslovakia.

The task helped Gottliebova survive. After the war, she traveled to the U.S. and started a family. She died in 2009 in California under the name Dina Babbitt.

Among the clandestine art is the so-called Auschwitz Sketchbook by an unknown author. It has 22 drawings of scenes of beatings, starvation and death. It was found in 1947, hidden in a bottle in the foundation of a barrack at Birkenau, a part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. It is the first time it is being shown to the general public. It is housed at the museum and only shown on request. 

Also being displayed is the original “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets You Free) gate top that was stolen and retrieved in 2009 and is now kept under guard at the museum. 

From 1940 to 1945, some 1.1 million people, mostly European Jews but also Poles, Roma and Russians, were killed in the gas chambers or died from starvation, excessive forced labor and disease at Auschwitz, which Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland.
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