Month: September 2017

Bombardier Tariff by US Is ‘Attack’ on Canada, Quebec Premier Says

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

The 220 percent tariff imposed by the United States on Bombardier Inc’s CSeries jet is an “attack” on Quebec and Canada, the province’s Premier Philippe Couillard said on Wednesday.

“Quebec has been attacked. And Quebec will resist. And Quebec will unite. All together, we will protect our workers. All together, we will be proud of our engineering,” he told reporters at a news conference.

The government of Quebec has taken a $1 billion stake in Bombardier’s CSeries jet. But Couillard said Wednesday the company had received “not a cent” in government subsidies.

The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday slapped preliminary anti-subsidy duties on Bombardier’s CSeries jets after rival Boeing Co accused Canada of unfairly subsidizing the aircraft, a move likely to strain trade relations between the neighbors.
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NSA Invites Students to ‘Hack Us!’

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Ever think about hacking into the U.S. government’s data system? Wanna try?

 

If you can develop a network signature for an intrusion detection system (detect hacking), or perform forensic analysis of a compromised endpoint (detect hacking before it collapses the system), the National Security Administration wants you to try.

 

Registration is open for the 2017 Codebreaker Challenge. The contest asks college students to use reverse engineering or the ability to take apart code and fix from scratch a fictional break-in of a government data system. The scenario helps the Department of Homeland Security disarm an improvised explosive device using cybersecurity skills to prevent civilian casualties.

 

“Reverse engineering is a crucial skill for those involved in the fight against malware, advanced persistent threats, and similar malicious cyber activities,” the NSA website says. “As the organization tasked with protecting U.S. government national security information systems, NSA is looking to develop these skills in university students (and prospective future employees).”

 

Each year, undergraduate and grad students who compete to master six tasks will receive a small token of appreciation from the NSA for being among the first 50 finishers, and possible credit from the student’s college or university.

 

Setup a test instance of the system (Task 0)
Analyze suspicious network traffic (Task 1)
Develop a network signature for an intrusion detection system (Task 2)
Analyze critical system components for vulnerabilities (Tasks 3 and 4)
Perform forensic analysis of a compromised endpoint (Task 5)
Craft an exploit for the botnet server and devise a strategy to clean the infected endpoints (Task 6)

Registration for students with a valid email address ending in .edu started September 15 and continues until December 31.

This year, some have gotten close, but no one has completed all six tasks, so far, says the Codebreaker Challenge website. As of September 25, students from 335 colleges and universities have tried.

 

The most participants in 2016 came from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, with 149 students taking the challenge, but only five completing all six tasks, which also ranks first for most successful participants.

 

In addition to Georgia Tech, three students from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, completed every task; as well as three from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. one from University of Maryland, College Park, one from Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., one from Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., and one from Williams College in Williamstown, Mass.

 

Last year, 3,325 students from 481 colleges and universities attempted to finish all six tasks; only 15 students were successful. Robert Xiao from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh completed every task in just under 18 hours, which was nearly two and a half days quicker than the next fastest finisher.

 

“I find computer security to be a fascinating subject, and I was really lucky to be accepted at Carnegie Mellon, which has an excellent computer security reputation,” said Xiao, who was born and raised in Canada.

 

Carnegie Mellon ranks in the top 20 for cybersecurity schools in the U.S. and is known nationwide as a pipeline for future computer security experts. Xiao is on the Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP) hacking team at CMU and says the team, “participates in worldwide computer security competitions and does very well.”

 

That’s not an understatement. In fact, the PPP hacking team has won eight straight virtual capture-the-flag competitions at New York University’s Cyber Security Awareness Week and won the World Series of Hacking college competition four of the past five years.

 

The 2017 Codebreaker Challenge “is very challenging and covers a wide range of subjects … but it takes a lot of time and effort at first,” Xiao says. “Don’t get discouraged if it seems too hard, that’s totally normal at first.”

 

Xiao is doing a Ph.D. in what he calls “human-computer interaction,” in which he wants to merge computer security and human interaction.

 

“The subject of ‘usable’ human-friendly security is really important and only a handful of people are thinking really hard about it,” he said. Essentially, Xiao wants to expand the use of computer security for those who might not be the most adept at using computers; in other words, make computer security easier for the everyday user.

 

Instructions and storyline for this year’s challenge can be found on the Codebreaker Challenge website.

 

Can you crack the code?

What do you think about the National Security Administration’s invitation? Please share your suggestion in the Comments here, and visit us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, thanks!
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US Durable Goods Orders up 1.7 Percent in August

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

Orders for long-lasting manufactured goods rose a modest 1.7 percent in August, reflecting a rebound in the volatile aircraft sector. A gauge of business investment was up for a second month, providing hope that a revival in manufacturing is gaining strength.

 

Last month’s advance in orders for durable goods followed a 6.8 percent plunge in July, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. Both months were heavily influenced by swings in orders for commercial aircraft, which surged 44.8 percent in August after having plunged 71.1 percent in July.

 

A closely watched category that serves as a proxy for business investment posted a 0.9 percent gain in August after a 1.1 percent increase in July. Economists believe that U.S. factory output should continue rising in coming months, reflecting a rebound in the global economy.

 

Manufacturing has been improving since the middle of 2016, following a two-year slump caused by cutbacks in the energy industry and a strong dollar that made U.S. goods costlier overseas. Prospects are brighter now with the dollar weakening in value this year, which makes U.S. exports more competitive on overseas markets, and a rebound in energy drilling.

 

The overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, expanded at a solid 3 percent rate in the April-June quarter after a tepid 1.2 percent gain in the first three months of the year. Analysts believe activity in the current July-September quarter will likely slow a bit, in part because of the devastation caused by hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

 

For August, orders excluding transportation were up 0.2 percent after a stronger 0.8 percent rise in July.

 

Demand for machinery rose 0.3 percent while orders for computers and related products fell 2.3 percent. Orders for autos and auto parts rose 1.5 percent after a 2.1 percent drop in July.

 

 
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Climate Change May Spell Hotter Summers for Southern Europe

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Researchers say the likelihood of scorching summer temperatures in southern Europe is increasing because of man-made climate change.

Hotter-than-usual temperatures in the Mediterranean region – including an August heatwave in Italy and the Balkans dubbed ‘Lucifer’ – resulted in higher hospital admissions, numerous forest fires and widespread economic losses this summer.

The World Weather Attribution team says it combined temperature measurements and computer simulations, concluding that greenhouse gas emissions linked to human activity have increased the chances of such heatwaves four-to-tenfold.

They warned Wednesday that summers like this one could become the norm in the Euro-Mediterranean region by 2050 if emissions continue to rise.

The team’s techniques are widely accepted among scientists as a means of determining whether climate change plays a role in extreme events.
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App Makers Aim to Prove World’s Poorest Children Can Educate Themselves

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Can children who have never been to school teach themselves basic reading, writing and math skills using only a tablet computer?

Elon Musk and XPRIZE are betting $15 million on the idea.

“It’s a little bit out there, it’s a little bit of a crazy idea,” said Matt Keller, senior director of the Global Learning XPRIZE, a competition funded by the XPrize Foundation, a non-profit that spurs inventors to tackle global problems such as climate change and universal healthcare.

The inaugural Global Learning XPRIZE competition awards $10 million dollars to the team or company that develops the best educational app for children who have never set foot in a classroom. According to UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics, approximately 263 million children around the world are not in school.

“Can you develop something that’s so intuitive, so inferential, so dynamic that you give it to a child who is illiterate in a very remote part of the world — she picks it up, she touches it and she begins to learn how to read? That’s the challenge we put out to the world,” said Keller.

The finalists

At least 198 teams were up to the challenge. From that pool, five finalists were recently selected and awarded $1 million dollars each.

The finalists will begin testing their educational apps this November. Nearly 4,000 children from 150 villages in the Tanga region of Tanzania will use tablets donated by Google to access the apps and teach themselves.

A subset of students initially will be tested on literacy and numeracy comprehension using the early grade reading assessment (EGRA) and early grade math assessment (EGMA) models. After 15 months, the same students will be re-tested. The grand prize of $10 million will be awarded to the developer team with the highest proficiency gains among students. 

XPRIZE is working with UNESCO, the World Food Program, and the government of Tanzania to distribute and maintain the tablets.

“Most development organizations and most aid agencies and most governments are focused on building new schools and training new teachers,” Keller told VOA News, “What we’re saying is there are a lot of kids out there who don’t access school and there are a lot of kids out there who access really bad schools. So, can you give technology to a child that’s so good that it doesn’t supplant, but supplements a learning process that she may or may not have?”

Goals for the future

By 2030, the world will need to recruit 68.8 million teachers in order to meet the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal of universal primary and secondary education, according to a 2016 report by UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics.

“That’s simply not possible,” said Jamie Stuart, co-founder of educational non-profit Onebillion, which is one of the five Global Learning XPRIZE finalists. “So we have to look for radical alternatives in terms of children’s learning,” said Stuart.

Developers at Onebillion already have field-tested their app, Onecourse, for the past 10 years in Malawi. The app is designed so that children can use it with little or no adult assistance, and teaches children reading and numeracy using a teacher character that speaks their language.

Testing brings many challenges, the least of which involves working with populations that often never have interacted with a tablet before.

“Keeping it simple, keeping it focused on the individual needs of the child, and adapting to how they learn are the key ingredients,” said Stuart.

The other finalists are Curriculum Concepts International (CCI), a lesson-based app that incorporates games, videos and books, Chimple, which focuses on play and discovery-based learning, Kitkit School , which originally was designed for special needs children, and RoboTutor, which was developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, incorporates artificial intelligence and machine learning.

“If we can prove that a child needs no instruction other than what’s on that device, then we begin a series of events that will lead inexorably to a device that is designed for that child, in that part of the world, with a teacher on it,” said Keller.
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50 Years Since the Arrival of Birth Control, Many Can’t Get It

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

According to U.S. government statistics, nearly 40 percent of all pregnancies around the world are unwanted or unplanned. And yet the means to prevent every unwanted pregnancy in the world exists, and has existed for more than 50 years. VOA’s Kevin Enochs looks at the history of birth control on World Contraception day.
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US, Mexico Expand Pact on Managing Overused Colorado River

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

The United States and Mexico have agreed to renew and expand a far-reaching conservation agreement that governs how they manage the overused Colorado River, which supplies water to millions of people and farms in both nations.

 

The agreement to be signed Wednesday calls for the U.S. to invest $31.5 million in conservation improvements in Mexico’s water infrastructure to reduce losses to leaks and other problems, according to officials of U.S. water districts who have seen summaries of the agreement.

 

The water that the improvements save would be shared by users in both nations and by environmental restoration projects

 

The deal also calls on Mexico to develop specific plans for reducing consumption if the river runs too low to supply everyone’s needs, said Bill Hasencamp of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies water to about 19 million people in and around Los Angeles.

Major river consumers in the U.S. would be required to agree on their own shortage plan before Mexico produces one, he said.

 

The deal will extend a previous agreement that both countries would share the burden of water supply cutbacks if the river runs low, Hasencamp said.

 

The International Boundary and Water Commission, which has members from both countries and oversees U.S.-Mexico treaties on borders and rivers, declined to release a copy of the agreement before Wednesday’s signing ceremony in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

 

Officials with the Mexican foreign ministry said in an email Tuesday they had no immediate comment, but U.S. officials who have been briefed on the details said the deal will help both sides.

 

“It’s good news for both nations, for water users in the U.S. and Mexico,” said Chuck Collum of the Central Arizona Project, another Colorado River user that will help fund the infrastructure improvements in Mexico.

 

The agreement provides more certainty in how the two countries will deal with the risk of a shortage and recognizes the danger the river faces, he said.

 

“It’s an acknowledgement that the U.S. and Mexico both share risk due to a hotter and drier future,” Collum said.

 

The Colorado River is in the midst of a prolonged regional drought, and some climate scientists have said global warming is already reducing the amount of water it carries.

A study published in February by researchers from the University of Arizona and Colorado State University said climate change could cut the river’s flow by one-third by the end of the century.

 

The river begins in the mountains of Colorado and winds 1,400 miles (2,250 kilometers) to Mexico, although heavy use means it usually dries up before it reaches its delta on the Gulf of California where Mexico’s Sonora and Baja California states meet.

 

Along the way, it supplies water to about 40 million people and 6,300 square miles (16,300 square kilometers) of farmland in the United States alone. Equivalent figures for Mexico weren’t immediately available.

 

The deal being signed Wednesday, known as Minute 323, is an amendment to a 1944 U.S.-Mexico treaty that lays out how the two nations share the river. The treaty promises Mexico 1.5 million acre-feet (1.9 billion cubic meters) of water annually.

 

The U.S. uses the rest. The average annual flow in the river is about 16.4 million acre-feet (20 billion cubic meters), according the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the river in the United States.

 

One acre-foot (1,200 cubic meters) is enough to supply a typical U.S. family for a year.

 

The new agreement, which will be in force for nine years, does not include a repeat of the historic 2014 “pulse” that sent about 105,000 acre-feet (130 million cubic meters) of water surging into river’s delta in Mexico, the U.S. water officials said.

 

That was an environmental experiment that brought water and life to the dried-out delta for the first time in years.

 

But the agreement does include up to 210,000 acre-feet (260 million cubic meters) for environmental restoration projects, according to a briefing from Southern California’s Imperial Irrigation District, one of the funders of the Mexican infrastructure projects.

 

Details of those projects were not immediately available.
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With Irma — And a Power Failure — Miami Gets a Taste of Deadly Heat

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Miami is a city that lives on air conditioning. When it fails, people can die.

After Hurricane Irma knocked down power lines and disconnected the cooling system at a nursing home north of Miami this month, 11 residents perished when temperatures inside soared.

Florida Governor Rick Scott blamed management at the facility for allowing patients to endure sweltering conditions as the heat index — a measure of combined heat and humidity — passed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

But public outrage has also targeted the local utility company for not restoring electricity fast enough, and the city for not ordering and assisting with an evacuation.

In this often sweltering southern city, widespread use of air conditioning makes it easy to overlook the growing risks of extreme heat. But the risks are there — and they can be just one power failure away.

Around the world, a surge in extreme weather events, including storms, floods and droughts, has focused attention on the risks associated with global warming.

But one of the biggest threats — and a particularly serious one for already hot countries and cities — is worsening heat waves, which remain an under-estimated risk, experts say.

In the United States, Florida is predicted to experience the greatest increase in the deadly combination of heat and humidity over the next decades.

The number of extreme heat days, when the heat index is above 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.6 degrees Celsius), is expected to jump to 126 a year by 2030 and 151 by 2050 in Miami, according to a study by Climate Central, a U.S. nonprofit science and media organization.

In 2000, Miami saw 24 such extreme heat days, the study noted.

Miami’s sweating residents — particularly those who spend a lot of time outside — say they’re noticing the difference already.

“I’ve been here all my life and working in construction, and I can tell you: It’s getting hotter every year,” said Rai Finalet, as he moved barriers along Little Havana’s Flagler Street, which is being repaved.

On a summer day in early September, there was not even a hint of fall in the air. Instead it was 93 degrees, with a heat index of 107 degrees.

Finalet’s long-sleeve shirt, which he needed to protect his skin from the scorching sun, had been soaked since he started his shift at 8 a.m., he said.

Taking frequent breaks and drinking “gallons” of water is his secret to surviving an outdoor job, even as most Miami residents try to avoid stepping out of air-conditioned spaces.

Tourists wilt

With only a thin canopy of trees and a location far from Miami’s breezy shores, densely populated Little Havana often registers the city’s hottest temperatures.

In the summer, which effectively lasts from April through October, the average temperature is often above 86 degrees and very few locals venture out on the streets around midday.

But Nolvia Hernandez, parasol in hand, had rushed out to pick up her son from school.

“I avoid going out during the hottest times of the day, and when I do, I take my umbrella,” she said. Asked why she was wearing a long-sleeve shirt, she said the air conditioning is kept very cold at her workplace.

Tourists regularly brave the heat to experience iconic Little Havana, where hundreds of thousands of Cuban immigrants settled over the decades, opening quaint cigar shops, lively restaurants and salsa clubs.

At the Ball and Chain, a traditional bar with a live salsa band playing most days and evenings, a powerful misting system along the facade offers visitors an inviting respite from the heat.

Next door, the Azucar ice cream shop, with its powerful air conditioning, is another spot where tourists can take a break from suffocating temperatures outside.

Veronica Agudo, Lucia Beth Marcoleta and Tatiana Harder walk in and breathe a big sigh of relief as the cold air sweeps over them. The friends from Chile sit on a bench and slouch against the wall, sweat trickling down their faces.

“This humidity is killing us,” said Marcoleta. “We want to walk around and see all the sights, but it’s just so hot.” “It’s better to stay on Miami Beach, in the water, for our entire vacation,” Agudo joked.

One outdoors spot in the heart of Little Havana where temperatures are cooler is Maximo Gomez park, also known as Domino Park. It’s a small green oasis with lush trees where residents play dominoes and chess on tables under gazebos fitted with ceiling fans.

Leo Diaz, one of the players, lives in a building with a new central air system, but prefers to spend time outdoors. He worries about Miami’s future as climate change boosts temperatures.

“This city is building more, paving more areas, and we can all feel that the climate is changing. Soon we won’t even be able to stand being here. I hope I don’t see that in my lifetime,” said the former radio announcer who arrived in Miami from Cuba almost 30 years ago.

‘Immune’ to heat

Already heat is the top weather-related killer in the United States — but it is a silent one, with heat-linked illnesses often diagnosed as other disorders, said Laurence Kalkstein, a climatology professor at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.

In places like Florida, there is low awareness of heat risks because people expect days to be hot, and the state is relatively well-equipped to deal with high temperatures, he said.

“Heat-related mortality isn’t very common here, so most people believe they are immune to it,” he noted. “But we have a growing vulnerable population — of aging people who don’t sweat as efficiently, and others like the homeless, obese people, or those on certain medications.”

In steamy Florida, high humidity makes it harder for sweat to evaporate, preventing the body from cooling off. That’s what can cause heat exhaustion and potentially deadly heat stroke — and what may have contributed to the deaths at the nursing home.

Climate change has already given Florida a lot to worry about, with many officials so far more focused on dealing with rising sea level and worsening flooding than heat threats.

But cities in Florida also have created “resilience” offices to try to adapt to and plan for coming changes, including worsening monster storms — and rising heat.

“Heat is an issue for low-income communities and more vulnerable individuals, [such as] the elderly population,” Jane Gilbert, the chief resilience officer for the city of Miami, said in an interview before Hurricane Irma.

“We want to understand better if there are places where people can’t afford to have air conditioning, and to have an efficient plan for the more vulnerable groups to evacuate to shelters in case of power outages,” she said.

Miami is also working to increase the number of trees in neighborhoods such as Little Havana, and to guarantee that key facilities, such as hospitals, gas stations and supermarkets, have alternative power sources when electricity fails, she said.

After Irma, more than 12 million people lost power. Many had already evacuated to other areas, fearing the aftermath of being stuck at home for days without air conditioning or working refrigerators.

Air conditioning boom

The invention of air conditioning has in many ways made modern Florida possible, fueling a population boom after World War II, according to a history book by the University of South Florida.

The state’s famed tourism industry, its top revenue generator, for instance, only took off after most hotels invested hefty sums in efficient cooling systems by the 1960s.

Now nearly everyone relies on air conditioning — and plenty of it.

Silvana Giuffrida, an architect in Miami, has three units in her townhouse-style condo in the luxury Brickell neighborhood, one on each floor.

She keeps her home’s remote-controlled shades down as much as possible to reduce the heat that floods into her sun-bathed home facing spectacular Biscayne Bay.

“I try to keep the temperature around 78 degrees, which is also the best level for energy efficiency,” she said.

Drinking a lot of water, wearing light-colored clothes and avoiding going outside in peak temperature hours are also part of her routine to beat the heat, she said.

For the most vulnerable, however, state authorities have decided to step up protections after the nursing home tragedy exposed the dangers of extreme heat.

Governor Scott issued an emergency order requiring nursing homes to have generators that can keep air conditioners running for up to four days.

Kalkstein, of the University of Miami, said the deaths highlight the risk that heat poses for Miami — and for many more cities.

“What we all need to realize is that these excessive heat events will happen more and more often, all over the world, and we all need to be more aware of the potential health impacts,” he said.
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US Slaps 220 Percent Duty on Canada’s Bombardier Jets

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

The Commerce Department slapped duties of nearly 220 percent on Canada’s Bombardier C Series aircraft Tuesday in a victory for Boeing that is likely to raise tensions between the United States and its allies Canada and Britain.

Commerce ruled that Montreal-based Bombardier used unfair government subsidies to sell jets at artificially low prices in the U.S.

“The U.S. values its relationships with Canada, but even our closest allies must play by the rules,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said.

Canada ‘strongly disagrees’

Canada responded by saying it “strongly disagrees” with the U.S. move.

“This is clearly aimed at eliminating Bombardier’s C Series aircraft from the U.S. market,” said Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s minister of foreign affairs.

 

Bombardier, meanwhile, called the decision “absurd … U.S. trade laws were never intended to be used in this manner, and Boeing is seeking to use a skewed process to stifle competition.”

In April, Boeing charged that Bombardier had received at least $3 billion in subsidies from the governments of Britain, Canada and the province of Quebec. The Chicago-based aircraft manufacturer asked the Commerce Department and the U.S. International Trade Commission to investigate the alleged “predatory pricing.”

Specifically, Boeing said that Bombardier last year sold Delta Air Lines 75 CS100 aircraft for less than it cost to build them.

 

“Subsidies enabled Bombardier to dump its product into the U.S. market, harming aerospace workers in the United States and throughout Boeing’s global supply chain,” Boeing said Tuesday.

Boeing upset with Delta deal

 

But Delta has said Boeing didn’t even make the 100-seat jets it needed.

“Boeing has no American-made product to offer because it canceled production of its only aircraft in this size range — the 717 — more than 10 years ago,” Delta said in a statement Tuesday.

President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to get tough on trade. He has repeatedly criticized Canada, saying it unfairly blocks U.S. dairy products and subsidizes its softwood lumber industry. Trump also has threatened to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement if he can’t negotiate a better version with Canada and Mexico.

Boeing’s complaint against Bombardier drew a backlash even before Tuesday’s decision. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau threatened this month to stop doing business with Boeing, which is in talks to sell Canada 18 Super Hornet jet fighters. British Prime Minister Theresa May has discussed the case with Trump. Her concern: Bombardier employs more than 4,000 workers in Northern Ireland.

Connecticut lawmakers concerned

Connecticut Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Christopher Murphy last week wrote a letter urging U.S. government officials to “refrain from taking action that will endanger the many jobs in Connecticut that depend upon Bombardier.” Engines for the C Series aircraft are made by Pratt & Whitney, based in East Hartford, Connecticut.

Commerce’s findings Tuesday aren’t the end of the matter. The department is expected to announce its findings in another case against Bombardier early next month. Then the International Trade Commission — an independent federal agency that rules on trade cases — will decide early next year whether to uphold Commerce’s duties.

Bombardier could appeal any sanctions to a U.S. court or to a dispute-resolution panel created under NAFTA. The Canadian government could also take the case to the World Trade Organization in Geneva.

 
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Bike Boom Nibbles on Asia Gasoline Demand Growth

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

It is not quite going back to the horse, even if the bicycle was the first contraption to replace beasts as a means of personal transport.

This is a new two-wheeled animal, though, that millions of consumers in Beijing, Taipei, Singapore and cities across Asia are renting via phone apps to cover the last mile of journeys, leaving cars and motorcycles at home, and forgoing taxis.

The two-year bike-share boom has put over 16 million bikes in China alone, according to its Ministry of Transport, with more than 100 million riders registered, eating into car use and gasoline demand growth already expected to stagnate by 2025.

“I often use bike-sharing services because it’s very convenient. I can find it anywhere and will not worry about losing the bike,” said life-long Beijing native Wei Zhang, 36, who uses a shared bike several times a week on her commute, riding 5 km or more.

Analysts can’t keep up with bike numbers, let alone estimate how much gasoline consumption growth has dropped off due to the rapid rise in bike-sharing. But it is clear from industry estimates, government reports and a Reuters survey that bike services are resulting in fewer trips by motor vehicles.

“Bike-sharing has been crazy since late last year. … The general belief is that [it] boosts the utilization of public transport as shared bikes help to complete the journey,” said Harry Liu, downstream consultant with IHS Markit.

Even before the number of bike-share units began growing by multiples, analysts had already been saying greater fuel efficiency in autos and the rising use of electric cars meant gasoline’s big growth story was over.

China’s gasoline demand growth is expected to slow to nearly 4 percent this year, compared with 6.5 percent growth last year, said Sri Paravaikkarasu, head of East of Suez oil at FGE.

And Chinese demand for gasoline is expected to peak as early as 2025, according to state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.

“There used to be long queues of taxis waiting for customers outside train stations, but I don’t see them anymore,” said a Beijing analyst, who took part in a Reuters survey of bike-share users and wanted to be known only by her surname Wang.

Just in the past month, Chinese bike-sharing startup Mobike introduced its services in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Bangkok, Thailand, as well as in U.S. capital Washington, D.C. Mobike, which launched in April 2016, and China-owned rival Ofo have attracted combined funding of more than $2 billion from venture capital and private equity firms that include Temasek Holdings, Tencent Holdings, DST Global and Ant Financial.

Ofo — which has more than 10 million bikes globally to Mobike’s 7 million — says it is on track to increase its global bike units to 20 million over the next three months.

The investments “demonstrate investors’ confidence in the global bike-sharing industry,” said Lawrence Cao, head of Asia Pacific business for Ofo.

Consultancy Roland Berger said the “unforeseeable” amounts of venture capital put into bike schemes made it almost impossible to estimate the growth potential of bike operators, particularly in China, over the last two years.

Taiwan, where the government backs a bike-sharing scheme, is aiming to have bikes account for a 12 percent share in trips to work by 2020, up from about 5 percent now.

The Taipei city government is expanding bike-sharing program Youbike — which uses docking stations — to have a bike station within a 10-minute walk of every citizen by 2018.

Singapore-owned Obike and U.S.-based VBikes — both free-range systems — are also operating in Taiwan.

Four wheels bad

A survey done by Mobike of 100,000 customers across 36 cities in China found that car trips among the respondents had more than halved since its service was introduced.

A report from the Transport Commission of Shenzhen, one of China’s richest cities, said more than 500,000 bike-share units there had replaced nearly 10 percent of travel by private car or 13 percent of gasoline consumption.

Bike-sharing could pose a risk to gasoline consumption “if a stronger state push to reduce carbon intensity and improve air quality translates to more drivers replacing shorter-distance driving with bike rides,” said Peter Lee, an oil and gas analyst at BMI research.

Chinese growth of passenger car sales, which grew an average annual rate of 10.1 percent over 2011 to 2016, is expected to slow to 2.5 percent over the next five years, said BMI’s Lee.

Still, mismanagement of bike numbers and misuse of some bicycles may attract legislation that could curb their use. New shared bikes were recently banned in some areas in the Chinese cities of Wuhan, Shanghai and Guangzhou, because of bicycles being discarded in public spaces.
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US Fed Chief Backs Gradual Rise in Rates

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

Despite concerns about low inflation in the United States, the head of the U.S. central bank says raising interest rates gradually would be the most appropriate policy stance for the Federal Reserve.

“It would be imprudent to keep monetary policy on hold until inflation is back to two percent,” Fed Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday, while speaking to the National Association for Business Economists (NABE) in Cleveland, Ohio.

Inflation, a sustained increase in the price of goods and services, has remained consistently below the Fed’s target rate of 2 percent. But even with uncertainty about the possible reasons for the low rate of inflation — from misjudging the strength of the labor market to the impact of foreign competition on the global supply chain — Yellen said the Fed “should be wary of moving too gradually.”

The Federal Reserve has kept its benchmark lending rate near record lows since the 2008 financial crisis to stimulate the U.S. economy. It has raised its interest rate three times since last December. The federal funds rate, the interest rate the central bank charges banks on overnight loans, currently sits in a range between one and one-and-one-quarter percent.

Ellen Zentner, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, says her biggest takeaway from the Cleveland speech was Yellen’s confidence that “a strong U.S. labor market would ultimately drive inflation closer to the Fed’s two percent goal over the next few years.”

Equity markets, which have benefited from low borrowing costs, anticipate a fourth rate hike in December, and possibly three more next year. Starting next month, the Fed says it will begin the process of “unwinding,” or selling off, the massive holdings of bonds and securities it has acquired since 2008.

But Yellen’s longer-term goals may be subject to change. Her four-year term as the nation’s top banker ends in February. President Donald Trump has not said whether he plans to re-appoint Yellen or overhaul the central bank’s seven-member board of governors.

Zentner believes there is a 60 percent chance Yellen will be named to serve a second term. “The longer the president waits, the greater the probability that Yellen will be re-appointed,” the bank economist said.  

Yellen spoke in Cleveland as the Conference Board released a survey that showed consumer confidence declined in September. The global business research group reported consumers’ views about the strength of the U.S. labor market have weakened and home sales have dropped to an eight-month low due to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in the states of Texas and Florida. 
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US Picks Companies to Help Make Rules for Advanced Personal Health Monitors

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Digital devices designed to monitor the wearer’s health in much greater detail than current models will need regulatory approval, and Apple, Fitbit and seven other companies will take part in a program to speed the approval process, the U.S. health regulator said Tuesday.

The firms will take part in a program that could make it faster for digital health devices to come to market by requiring less information to be sent to regulators ahead of time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.

Current devices, like the Apple Watch or Fitbit Blaze, measure things like motion and heart rate. But to take further measurements like blood oxygen or glucose, future devices might full under regulatory review. That review can take months or years, which is far slower than the pace of software updates from most technology firms.

Because of the potential for lengthy reviews, consumer technology companies have been reluctant to wade directly into territory regulated by the FDA. Apple, for example, has tended to partner with existing health researchers and companies such as DexCom Inc, a conventional medical device firm, for uses of their products that involve regulatory oversight.

But under President Donald Trump, the FDA has been moving to relax some of its requirements. The FDA in July created a pilot program that would pre-certify certain companies so that they have to submit less information before marketing a product.

The initial participants in the pilot program also included Samsung Electronics, Alphabet’s Verily biotech unit, Johnson & Johnson and Swiss biotech firm Roche AG, among others. The FDA said in a statement it was also considering whether companies in the pilot program “may not have to submit a product for premarket review in some cases.”

“Our method for regulating digital health products must recognize the unique and iterative characteristics of these products,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in the statement.

One major difference in the pilot program from existing regulations is that it will evaluate companies based on how well their software-design systems work, rather than looking at each product and its accompanying software individually.

“We are hopeful this will allow us to accelerate FDA regulated features and software development, bringing new capabilities that could positively impact health outcomes to market more quickly,” Fitbit CEO James Park said in a statement.
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Mexico Tallying Economic Cost of Big Earthquake

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

Mexican officials are tallying up the economic losses of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that caused widespread damage in the capital, as the number of buildings that may need to be pulled down or need major repairs rose to 500.

 

The death toll in the quake rose to 333, with 194 of those deaths in Mexico City. Authorities pledged a return to normality, but many streets in the capital were still blocked by construction equipment and recovery teams looking to extract the last remaining bodies from the rubble. Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said 40 to 50 people are still considered missing.

 

The city government announced a plan of reconstruction loans and aid for apartment dwellers who lost their homes or who may lose them as teetering buildings are pulled down.

 

But for city businesses like the downtown restaurant Guapa Papa, the result is already all too clear.

 

Sitting in the entrance of his restaurant Monday, surrounded by caution tape, Antonio Luna said: “This is a bust. It’s already closed due to structural damage to the building.”

 

He had to let go the three dozen employees at the 1950s-themed restaurant and is just trying to salvage whatever furniture and equipment wasn’t damaged.

 

“In the end the company let everyone go because it couldn’t continue having expenses,” Luna said.

 

Mancera said that the city, in alliance with private developers, would handle repairs on buildings that needed touch-ups or minor structural work to be habitable. He offered low-interest loans to apartment owners whose buildings would have to be demolished and rebuilt.

However, it is unclear to what extent the city can force owners to demolish buildings. Some that were damaged in the 1985 are still standing, in part because court challenges can stretch on for years.

 

Moody’s Investors Service said in a report Monday that the Sept. 19 earthquake that caused damage and deaths in the capital and nearby states “has the potential to be one of Mexico’s costliest natural catastrophes.”

 

Alfredo Coutino, Latin America director for Moody’s Analytics, said they were still collecting data on losses, but a preliminary estimate was that the earthquake could knock 0.1 to 0.3 percentage point off growth in Mexico’s gross domestic product in the third and fourth quarters.

 

For the full year, the impact on gross domestic product should be about 0.1 percentage point. “The impact on the year’s growth will be small, particularly considering that the reconstruction work will compensate for some of the total loss in activity during the fourth quarter,” Coutino said.

 

Money is expected to pour into the economy as Mexico City and the federal government tap their disaster funds. As of June, the city’s disaster fund stood at 9.4 billion pesos (more than $500 million), making it slightly larger than the national fund, according to a Moody’s Investors Services report.

 

Of course, the national fund also has to deal with recovery from the even stronger Sept. 7 quake that has been blamed for nearly 100 deaths, mostly in the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas.

 

There will be months of work ahead from demolition to repairs and reconstruction.

 

Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said that 500 “red level” buildings would either have to be demolished or receive major structural reinforcement. An additional 1,300 are reparable, and about 10,000 buildings inspected so far were found to be habitable.

At least 38 buildings, including apartments and office buildings, collapsed during the earthquake.

 

Mexico’s education ministry also has 1.8 million pesos (about $100,000) to spend on school repairs. In Mexico City alone, only 676 of the city’s 9,000 schools had been inspected and cleared to resume classes, Education Secretary Aurelio Nuno said Monday.

 

AIR Worldwide, a Boston-based catastrophe modeling consultant, provided a wide range for industry-insured losses, but noted they would be only a small part of the total economic losses. It put the insured losses at between 13 billion pesos ($725 million) and 36.7 billion pesos ($2 billion).

 

A graceful traffic roundabout encircled by restaurants, cafes and shops is now a sprawling expanse of medical tents, piles of food and other relief supplies, and stacks of building materials. While relief work went on outside Monday, men were busily wrapping furniture in foam and plastic inside the Antiguo Arte Europeo store.

 

Stone panels on the building’s facade appeared cracked or were altogether missing. Saleswoman Luisa Zuniga said the owners were waiting for civil defense inspectors to certify there was no structural damage to the building before reopening to the public.

 

Meanwhile, they were moving furniture that could still be sold to their other branches.

 

“Then we’ll see how long it takes to fix everything,” she said. “It is important to get back to work.”

 

Edgar Novoa, a fitness trainer, went back to his job Monday after working as a volunteer following the earthquake. Around midday, he stopped his bicycle at a cleared foundation where a building of several stories had stood near his home.

 

He knelt and prayed while others left flowers and candles at the site.

 

The government has said that nine foreigners, including five from Taiwan, died in the quake. One of the buildings that collapsed in the quake housed a business listed as Asia Jenny Importaciones, SA de CV. A South Korean man was also confirmed dead.

 

A Panamanian woman died, as did one man from Spain and one from Argentina.
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Twitter to Test 280-character Tweets, Busting Old Limit

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

The days of Twitter limiting messages to 140 characters, a signature of the social network since its launch in 2006, may be numbered.

Twitter said on Tuesday that it would begin a test with a random sample of users allowing them to send tweets that are as long as 280 characters, double the existing cap, in most languages around the world.

The San Francisco-based company has stood by its short messages as a defining characteristic – like chirps from a bird, which is the company logo – even as users found ways around the limit, such as posting photos of text.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Twitter said its emphasis on brevity would never change but that it had been wondering whether people could express themselves easily enough, hurting the service’s popularity.

“Trying to cram your thoughts into a Tweet – we’ve all been there, and it’s a pain,” Twitter project manager Aliza Rosen and senior software engineer Ikuhiro Ihara said in the post.

The employees acknowledged some users may have an “emotional attachment” to the current limit.

News reports in January 2016 said that Twitter was running internal tests for longer tweets and considering a limit as high as 10,000 characters.

Though Twitter is ubiquitous in media because of frequent use by U.S. President Donald Trump and many celebrities, the company has struggled financially. For the second quarter, it reported a loss of $116 million and zero growth in the number of users, at 328 million people. Facebook Inc has 2 billion users.

A higher character limit was inspired by how people use Twitter when writing in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, the company said.

Characters in those languages can often express more than Roman characters can, meaning those users already, in effect, have a higher limit. They also use Twitter more often.

“In all markets, when people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people Tweeting,” the two employees wrote.

The test of 280 characters will run for an unspecified number of weeks in all languages except Chinese, Japanese and Korean, Twitter said. The company declined to say how many people would be included in the test.

The 140-character limit originated from the use of SMS text messages. Twitter’s founders, including Chief Executive Jack Dorsey, wanted a limit just below the SMS cap of 160 characters.
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Businesses Give $300M Toward K-12 Computer Science Education

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

A coalition of businesses including Amazon, Google and General Motors has agreed to give $300 million to boost K-12 computer science programs across the U.S.

Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman announced Tuesday that the private-sector contribution will come in over the next five years. Beckerman led a panel discussion at a downtown Detroit high-rise that featured President Donald Trump’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump.

Her visit to Detroit came a day after the president announced a plan to spend at least $200 million annually on competitive grants so schools can broaden access to computer science education.

“Knowing how to code is really foundational toward success in any industry, not just tech narrowly defined,” Ivanka Trump said.

Just before Ivanka Trump arrived on stage, Beckerman announced the private-sector contribution.

Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce.org are giving $50 million apiece; Lockheed Martin is promising $25 million; Accenture is committing more than $10 million; and General Motors and Pluralsight have pledged $10 million toward the effort. Additionally, Detroit-based Quicken Loans announced that it will work to make sure that 15,000 Detroit Public Schools students receive computer science training.

Ivanka Trump said it is crucial that young people, especially girls and racial minorities, learn how to write computer code and study computer science.

“We have to do better. We are going to do better, and this is a giant leap forward in that direction,” she said during the panel discussion, which also included Dan Gilbert, chairman of Quicken Loans; Hadi Partovi, CEO of Code.org; Rob Acker, CEO of Salesforce.org; and Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin.

Gilbert said teaching schoolchildren computer science “isn’t one of these things where maybe this will work.

“This is the answer. This is flat-out the answer,” said Gilbert, who also owns the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA.
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Diwali Festivals Grow in US, from Disney to Times Square

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

The holiday of Diwali is starting to light up mainstream America.

Diwali, a festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and others in India and other countries, has long been observed in immigrant communities around the U.S.

But now public celebrations of the holiday are starting to pop up in places ranging from Disneyland and Times Square to parks and museums.

The Times Square event is the brainchild of Neeta Bhasin, who says that while many Indian immigrants have found great success in the U.S., “still people don’t know much about India. I felt it’s about time that we should take India to mainstream America and showcase India’s rich culture, heritage, arts and diversity to the world. And I couldn’t find a better place than the center of the universe: Times Square.”

Bhasin, who came to the United States from India 40 years ago, is president of ASB Communications, the marketing firm behind Diwali at Times Square. The event, now in its fourth year, has drawn tens of thousands of people in the past. It’s scheduled for Oct. 7, from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., with dance performances, Bollywood singers, a bazaar of food, saris and other goods, and a lighting ceremony.

While Diwali celebrations are held throughout the fall, the holiday’s actual date is Oct. 19. Also called Deepavali, it’s an autumn harvest festival held just before the Hindu new year. Celebrations include lighting oil lamps or candles called diyas to symbolize “a victory of knowledge over ignorance, light over darkness, good over evil,” said Bhasin.

The Diwali celebration at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, includes performances of traditional Indian dances and a Bollywood dance party for guests. It’s part of a festival of holidays at the theme park reflecting cultural traditions from around the world. The Disney festival begins Nov. 10 and runs through Jan. 7.

San Antonio, Texas, has one of the nation’s largest city-sponsored celebrations of Diwali, drawing more than 15,000 people each year. The 2017 event, scheduled for Nov. 4 at La Villita, a historic arts village, will be its ninth annual Diwali celebration with Indian dance, entertainment, food, crafts, fireworks and the release of lighted candles into the San Antonio River along the city’s River Walk.

New York City’s Rubin Museum will mark Diwali with an overnight Ragas Live Festival featuring more than 50 Indian classical musicians performing amid the museum’s collection of sacred Himalayan art. The event begins Oct. 21 at 10 a.m. and continues all day and night through Oct. 22 at 10 a.m. Chai and mango lassis will be served, visitors will have access to all the galleries and pop-up events like meditation and sunrise prayer will be offered. Special tickets will be sold for the opportunity to sleep beneath the artwork.

Other places hosting Diwali celebrations include Cary, North Carolina, in Regency Park, Oct. 14; Flushing Town Hall, Queens, New York, Oct. 29; the Seattle Center, Oct. 21; the Dulles Expo center in Chantilly, Virginia, Oct. 7-8; and Memorial Park in Cupertino, California, Sept. 30. In Columbus, Ohio, the Ohio History Center is hosting a photo exhibit about the city’s fast-growing population of immigrants from Nepal, Bhutan and India, with a Diwali event Oct. 8.

Bhasin said Diwali’s message is particularly timely now. “It is extremely important to be together and showcase to the world, not only Indians, but the entire immigrant community, to be together with Americans and to show the world we are one, we are all the same human beings,” she said.
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Residente Leads Latin Grammys Nominations With 9 Nods

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Puerto Rican rapper Residente’s first solo album post-Calle 13 has received a leading nine nominations for this year’s Latin Grammys, including for record, song and album of the year.

Colombian sensation Maluma follows him with seven, Shakira’s comeback gathered six, and Juanes, Mon Laferte and producer Kevin Jimenez ADG received five nominations each, the Latin Recording Academy announced Tuesday. The announcement was delayed by nearly a week after last year’s devastating earthquake in Mexico and hurricanes Irma and Maria, which have devastated the Caribbean.

This year’s ceremony could provide Juanes with the opportunity to break his record tie with Calle 13: Both acts have won 21 awards each.

Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s megahit “Despacito” got four nominations: record and song of the year, as well as best urban fusion/performance for its remix with Justin Bieber and best short form music video for its clip. The video, the most watched on YouTube with over 3.8 billion views since its January release, was produced and directed by Carlos R. Perez and highlights the color and beauty of now devastated Puerto Rico, which was hit by a Category 4 hurricane, Maria, less than a week ago.

Ten acts are vying for album, song and record of the year, unlike the traditional Grammy Awards where five nominees compete. Album of the year nominees also include Ruben Blades with Roberto Delgado & Orquesta, Antonio Carmona, Vicente Garcia, Nicky Jam, Juanes, Mon Laferte, Natalia Lafourcade, Shakira and Danay Suarez.

The record of the year list is comprised by a diverse group of artists, genres and collaborations that include Residente’s “Guerra,” ″Amarrame” by Mon Laferte, featuring Juanes; Shakira and Maluma’s “Chantaje”, “El Ratico” by Juanes with Kali Uchis, Jorge Drexler’s “El Surco,” Maluma’s “Felices Los 4,” Blades’ “La Flor De La Canela,” Alejandro Fernandez’s “Quiero Que Vuelvas” and Ricky Martin’s “Vente Pa’ Ca,” also featuring Maluma.

The Latin Grammys will air live on Univision on Nov. 16 from Las Vegas.
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Guitarist Joe Walsh, Friends Stage VetsAid Concert

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Joe Walsh is known for his guitar skills as a member of The James Gang and later as a member of the rock super group, The Eagles.  He has received multiple Grammy awards, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and was a Kennedy Center honoree.

But not many people know Walsh is also the son of a flight instructor who was killed while on active duty in Japan in 1949. 

The 69-year-old guitarist told VOA that because of his own history, he wanted to help the families of veterans, especially those coming home from Afghanistan.

“We’re at war, Walsh said. “This is an ongoing war with no end in sight.  And there are more and more troops coming home. And the transition back to civilian life is almost too big of a mountain to climb.  And I just decided that I can do something about it to help.”

A little help from his friends

Walsh contacted others in the music industry to try to organize what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of the FarmAid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson.

The guitarist and singer says finding acts to perform was more difficult than he thought – until he called country entertainer Keith Urban.

“Keith called up and said ‘You know I could actually do it, but I can’t really get my band there in time, but I could come and if like there’s a house band, I’ll be there.” And then he called up and said ‘I’m bringing my whole band.'” Walsh said.

“And Gary Clark, Jr. had a commitment on the West Coast, and so I had written him off, but he called up and said ‘you know I’d much rather be there with you than doing what I am supposed to be doing out here. So I’ll be there.’ ” Walsh added. “And Zac [Brown]. He’s so hot right now. But he said ‘I gotta be there, too.’ So he changed his tour around.”

Blues, Country, and Rock for Vets

Blues musician and singer Gary Clark, Jr. started the show to a crowd of around 7,500 fans.  Clark, called “The Chosen One” for his guitar skills, included a cover of the Beatles “Come Together” in his set that had the fans cheering.

Keith Urban had the crowd on its feet with several of his hits, including “Sweet Thing,” “Blue Ain’t Your Color,” and “Wasted Time.” 

Country superstars and multiple Grammy winners The Zac Brown Band performed several of their hits, including “Colder Weather” and “Chicken Fried.”  The players showed off their virtuosity by covering two guitar anthems – “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen and the Charlie Daniels’ Band’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Senator urges support for charity

Before Walsh took the stage, Illinois Democratic senator and combat wounded veteran Tammy Duckworth – who lost both legs when her helicopter was hit by a rocket propelled grenade in Iraq – urged the crowd to support Vets Aid.

“So tonight I am so grateful for my friend Joe Walsh, and I am proud to introduce him,” she said. “And I’d also like you to join me in dedicating tonight’s performance to the memory of his father, Lt. Robert Newton Fiddler. And now, the great Joe Walsh!”

Walsh gave the fans what they came for – playing several of his hits including “Life’s Been Good,” “In the City,” and covering an Eagles’ hit “Take it to The Limit.”  Gary Clark, Junior, Keith Urban, and Zac Brown then joined Walsh on stage for the final song.

Several charities – including Operation Mend, Warrior Canine Connections, Stop Soldier Suicide, TAPS, and the Semper Fi Fund – will benefit from the concert.  Walsh says his goal is for veterans to realize they are not alone, and hopes that realization can be the beginning of healing.
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