11/09/2017 | UPONSOFT

Philippine Outsourcing Industry Braces for Artificial Intelligence

By Uponsil | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

The outsourcing industry in the Philippines, which has dethroned India as the country with the most call centers in the world, is worried that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) will eat into the $23 billion sector.

AI-powered translators could dilute the biggest advantage the Philippines has, which is the wide use of English, an industry meeting was told this week. Other AI applications could take over process-driven jobs.

The Philippines’ business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is an economic lifeline for the Southeast Asian nation of 100 million people. It employs about 1.15 million people and, along with remittances from overseas workers, remains one of the top two earners of foreign exchange.

“I don’t think our excellent command of spoken English is going to really be a protection five, 10 years from now. It really will not matter,” said Rajneesh Tiwary, chief delivery officer at Sutherland Global Services.

The Philippines, which was an American colony in the first half of the 20th century, overtook India in 2011 with the largest number of voice-based BPO services in the world.

“There’s definitely reasons to be concerned, because technology may be able to replace some of what could happen in voice,” Eric Simonson, managing partner of research at Everest Group, a management consulting and research firm, told Reuters.

AI, which combs through large troves of raw data to predict outcomes and recognize patterns, is expected to replace 40,000 to 50,000 “low-skilled” or process-driven BPO jobs in the next five years, said Rey Untal, president and chief executive officer of the IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP).

Contact centers make up four-fifths of the Philippines’ total BPO industry, which accounts for 12.6 percent of the global market for BPO, according to IBPAP.

U.S. is biggest customer

BPO firms in the Philippines list Citibank, JPMorgan, Verizon, Convergys and Genpact among their clients. While the United States remains the biggest customer for the industry, demand for BPO services from Europe, Australia and New Zealand is also growing.

The Philippines’ share of the global outsourcing pie, estimated to reach about $250 billion by 2022, is forecast by the industry to reach 15 percent by that year.

To get there however, the Southeast Asian nation must prove to the world it has more to offer than just a pool of English-speaking talent. BPO executives said the country has to take on high-value outsourcing jobs in research and analytics and turn the headwinds from artificial intelligence into an opportunity.

The key to staying relevant and ahead of the competition, they said, is to ensure workers are trained in areas like data analytics, machine learning and data mining.

“You will see in the next few years more automation coming in the way we do things in IT and the BPO industry, robotic processing, the use of chat bots,” Luis Pined, president of IBM Philippines, told Reuters.

“If we are ahead of the game, we will be at an advantage where people will give us more work, because we are cheaper and productive,” Pined said.

IBM Philippines divested its voice business in 2013.

IBPAP has projected a rise in the number of mid- and high-skilled jobs, or those that require abstract thinking and specialized expertise, which should bring the overall head count in the BPO sector to 1.8 million by 2022.

Augmenting the English language skills of the Philippines with technology will be a “game changer,” said Untal, the head of the association. “Who else can compete with us?”
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Clue, Wiffle Ball, Paper Airplane Enter Toy Hall of Fame

By Uponent | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

The board game Clue, the Wiffle Ball and the paper airplane are the newest inductees into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

The trio was honored at the upstate New York hall on Thursday. The Class of 2017 takes it place alongside more than 60 previous honorees, including the dollhouse, jump rope and Radio Flyer wagon.

The winners are chosen on the advice of historians and educators following a process that begins with nominations from the public.

To make the hall of fame, toys must have inspired creative play across generations.

This year’s other finalists were: the board game Risk, Magic 8 Ball, Matchbox cars, My Little Pony, PEZ candy dispenser, play food, sand, Transformers and the card game Uno.

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Pennsylvania Tree to Adorn Rockefeller Center for Christmas

By Uponent | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

It will soon look a lot like Christmas in New York City thanks to a tree from Pennsylvania.

Workers on Thursday will cut down a 75-foot (23-meter) Norway Spruce at the State College home of Jason Perrin that was chosen as the 2017 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

The tree, which weighs between 12 and 13 tons, will be hoisted onto a trailer and arrive Saturday in New York City. There it will be decorated with more than 50,000 lights and topped with a Swarovski star.

It is the 86th tree to adorn the plaza and the third from Pennsylvania.

The tree will be illuminated on Nov. 29 and remain on display until Jan. 7. It will then be recycled and donated to Habitat for Humanity to be transformed into lumber for building homes.

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Dance Star Akram Khan Prepares for Swansong Tour

By Uponent | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

One of Britain’s most celebrated dancer-choreographers, Akram Khan, is tackling the rise of xenophobia in his latest work, which he says will be his last as a leading performer.

The production, “Xenos”, is Khan’s tribute to the Indian soldiers of the British Empire who fought in World War One. It focuses on the story of a shell-shocked Indian soldier, but also tackles contemporary political issues.

“Xenos means a foreigner or alien or stranger in Greek, i.e. xenophobia, and it just seems apt and relevant to my reflection of the world today and how xenophobia is growing,” he told Reuters.

Khan, 43, will dance a segment from “Xenos” at the opening night of the Darbar Festival, an annual festival of classical Indian music, on Thursday in London.

Following its full premiere next year in Athens, Xenos will tour Australia, North America, and Europe, with a staging at Sadler’s Wells theater in London in 2018.

Born in London to Bangladeshi parents, Khan was awarded an MBE in 2005 for services to dance. His style is a hybrid of Indian classical, traditional Indian kathak and contemporary dance.

Khan says he is going to step down from dancing in full-length productions as a lead, but will still dance smaller roles. Besides wanting a respite from physical demands of dancing, he wants to focus on other areas.

“I want to focus more on choreography. I‘m working a lot on film. I‘m fascinated by film and that medium and what movement, how you can tell stories through the camera,” he says.

“There just came a time where I felt: ‘OK, enough is enough’. You know, I’ll keep training but not to the severity or the intensity that I do to prepare myself for a full-length solo.”

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Study: No Cancer Link to Monsanto Weedkiller

By Uponsci | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Science

A large long-term study on the use of the big-selling weedkiller glyphosate by agricultural workers in the United States has found no firm link between exposure to the pesticide and cancer, scientists said Thursday.

Published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI), the study found there was “no association between glyphosate,” the main ingredient in Monsanto’s popular herbicide RoundUp, “and any solid tumors or lymphoid malignancies overall, including non-Hogkin Lymphoma (NHL) and its subtypes.”

It said there was “some evidence of increased risk of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) among the highest exposed group,” but added “this association was not statistically significant” and would require more research to be confirmed.

Lawsuit against Monsanto

The findings are likely to impact legal proceedings taking place in the United States against Monsanto, in which more than 180 plaintiffs are claiming exposure to RoundUp gave them cancer, allegations that Monsanto denies.

The findings may also influence a crucial decision due in Europe this week on whether glyphosate should be re-licensed for sale across the European Union.

That EU decision has been delayed for several years after the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed glyphosate in 2015 and concluded it was “probably carcinogenic” to humans. Other bodies, such as the European Food Safety Authority, have concluded glyphosate is safe to use.

Agricultural Health Study

The research is part of a large and important project known as the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), which has been tracking the health of tens of thousands of agricultural workers, farmers and their families in Iowa and North Carolina.

Since the early 1990s, it has gathered and analyzed detailed information on the health of participants and their families, and their use of pesticides, including glyphosate.

Reuters reported in June how an influential scientist was aware of new AHS data while he was chairing a panel of experts reviewing evidence on glyphosate for the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in early 2015.

But since it had not at that time been published, he did not tell the experts panel about it and IARC’s review did not take it into account.

The publishing of the study Thursday comes more than four years since drafts based on the AHS data on glyphosate and other pesticides were circulating in February and March 2013.

In a summary conclusion of the results, the researchers, led by Laura Beane Freeman, the principal investigator of the AHS at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, reported that among 54,251 (pesticide) applicators in the study, 44,932, or 82.9 percent of them used glyphosate.

“Glyphosate was not statistically significantly associated with cancer at any site,” the conclusion said.

The researchers said they believed the study was the first to report a possible association between glyphosate and AML, but that it could be the result of chance and should be treated with caution.
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At Climate Talks, US Like an Unhappy Dinner Guest

By Uponsci | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Science

How’s this for awkward? The United States has a delegation at international climate talks in Bonn that will be telling other nations what they should do on a treaty that the president wants no part of.

President Donald Trump has promised to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Paris climate pact where nations set their own goals to reduce the emissions of heat-trapping gases, but because of legal technicalities America can’t get out until November 2020.

“It’s like having a guest at a dinner party who complains about the food but stays anyway,” said Nigel Purvis, who worked climate issues in the State Department for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and dealt with a similar situation.

In 2001 Purvis was a climate negotiator for the U.S. State Department when the new president, George W. Bush, pulled out of a landmark global warming agreement the previous administration had championed.

The U.S. position is not just awkward, it’s potentially bad for the environment, scientists say.

Weaker rules

Most of the Bonn meeting will be coming up with rules on how countries report emissions of heat-trapping gases and how transparent they are. The United States used to be the leading force in pushing for tougher rules and more openness, Purvis and other experts said. The rules probably won’t be as strong now, Purvis said.

“If it’s left to Chinese leadership, which is what’s left, you will have less transparency,” said Massachusetts Institute of Technology management professor Henry Jacoby, who co-founded the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

The United States government is becoming increasingly isolated on climate change. On Tuesday, the Syrian government, mired in war and the last United Nations country not to sign the Paris accord, announced it would sign the pact. That means the United States will be alone when it pulls out.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert responded to the Syrian decision by attacking its government.

“If the government of Syria cared so much about what was put in the air, then it wouldn’t be gassing its own people,” she said.

In a not-so subtle jab at Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron plans a separate “One Planet Summit” in Paris to push his “Make Our Planet Great Again” agenda on Dec. 12, the anniversary date of the climate accord. He invited more than 100 world leaders to his event, but not Trump. Instead, he invited lower level U.S. diplomats.

“The rest of the world needs to get on and negotiate … and treat the U.S. as more of an observer in the process and the U.S. should act that way,” said Greenpeace International Director Jennifer Morgan, who has been at these negotiations for more than 20 years.

That’s not what the U.S. plans.

US ‘will engage’

As meetings started Monday, U.S. negotiator Trigg Talley said, “The president has made clear that we will engage countries on energy and climate change related issues and we look forward to working with colleagues and partners to advance the work here over these two weeks and beyond.”

The administration is hosting a panel on “the clean and efficient use of fossil fuels and nuclear power,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said Tuesday. “It is undeniable that fossil fuels will be used for the foreseeable future, and it is in everyone’s interest that they be efficient and clean.”

Of the major fossil fuels, coal is by far the biggest climate change culprit. In 2014, coal accounted for 46 percent of the globe’s carbon dioxide emissions, but was only 29 percent of its energy supply, according to the International Energy Agency.

Other Americans

Three U.S. governors, some mayors, corporate leaders and students will also be attending the Bonn talks.

“We have one major major player who is on the sidelines,” California Gov. Jerry Brown told The Associated Press. “The rest of us will do everything we can to keep advancing efforts and keep doing what is needed to reduce carbon emissions. There is no time to wait.”

Nashville, Tennessee, Mayor Megan Barry said, “the power lies within cities … we know that we can make a significant difference with or without the federal government.”

If the U.S. remains out of the Paris accord and tries to dismantle President Obama’s initiatives to curb emissions, the Earth will warm by an additional one or two tenths of a degree, said Glen Peters, a Norwegian scientist who is part of the Global Carbon Project.

Scientists say that even a few tenths of a degree of warming can have dramatic impacts on ecosystems and day-to-day life for people.

Purivs said “countries will be frustrated and resentful” toward the Trump administration at the negotiations. But he added: “Many nations will understand the rules of the Paris agreement are going to be more important and more durable than any U.S. administration and there will be a strong desire to get it right.”
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Kevin Spacey Being Removed From Upcoming Film

By Uponent | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

The mounting allegations of sexual assault involving Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey are taking a mounting toll on his career.

Sony Pictures says it will remove Spacey from its upcoming feature film, All the Money in the World, and replace him with another veteran Oscar winner, Christopher Plummer. Director Ridley Scott is rushing to reshoot the new scenes with Plummer in order to make the film’s scheduled release date of Dec. 22.

Spacey played the late oil tycoon J. Paul Getty in the film, which dramatizes the 1973 kidnapping of his grandson, John Paul Getty III, and the elder Getty’s refusal to pay a ransom for his release.

Sony had announced it was pulling All the Money in the World from the upcoming American Film Institute film festival in Los Angeles.

Spacey has suffered a rapid fall from grace since actor Anthony Rapp, who starred in the 2005 musical Rent, accused Spacey of making sexual advances toward him in 1986 when Rapp was 14. Spacey announced he was gay in a statement apologizing to Rapp, while claiming he did not remember the alleged incident.

The actor has since been accused by more than dozen men of either sexually harassing or assaulting them. The allegations have led to his firing from the hit television series House of Cards by the streaming service Netflix, which has also refused to release a film in which Spacey stars as the late American writer and critic Gore Vidal.

The latest accusation against Spacey came Wednesday, when a former television news anchor accused him of sexually molesting her son last year when he was 18.

Heather Unruh told reporters Wednesday the alleged incident occurred in a restaurant on Nantucket island, a popular Massachusetts tourist spot.

She says a criminal investigation is under way. But Nantucket police will not confirm or deny an investigation, saying Massachusetts law bars them from discussing sexual assault allegations.

British news reports say London police are also looking into an alleged sexual assault there in 2008.
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Games Add Levity to Vietnam Seminars Against Trafficking

By Uponbiz | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Business

The quiz games and ring tosses at factories around Vietnam are more than just amusement; charity workers are using them in their efforts against human trafficking, with the support of foreign governments and corporations.

Factory workers play these games as part of training workshops to raise awareness about trafficking, held by the nonprofit Pacific Links Foundation. The organization partners with multinational companies that buy products from manufacturers in Vietnam, such as Walmart and the makers of Abercrombie & Fitch, Express and Victoria’s Secret.

In the workshops, Vietnamese learn about the tactics of traffickers who target them in industrial parks. It’s a heavy topic, though the instructors bring some levity with the entertainment, which can include prizes for participants who answer quiz questions.

“Through our work with survivors, we’ve seen a growing trend of victims being recruited from industrial zones,” Pacific Links co-founder Diep Vuong said in explaining the foundation’s focus on young people and factory workers, who are susceptible to those who offer dubious work abroad.

She said human trafficking is “stealing the future away from our youth and workers.”

Social responsibility

Victims can be misled by the promise of tantalizing jobs in foreign countries, only to arrive and find that wages are lower than were advertised, passports are confiscated, or they are in insurmountable debt because of travel and agent fees, anti-trafficking activists say.

For companies, participation in campaigns like this has become one way to meet their corporate social responsibility goals.

“Vietnam is a very important sourcing market,” Walmart executive vice president for global leverage Scott Price said at a press conference with Pacific Links Friday. He added, “We ultimately want to be in a place where we are able to prevent forced labor in the first place.”

Walmart is supporting the Pacific Links workshops, which are collectively known as the “FACT” program and were launched in March. Besides contributing money and volunteers, the company sponsors related projects like tuition and bicycles donated to Vietnamese girls to help them stay in school, especially for rural families who sometimes prioritize boys when they cannot afford to educate all their children.

Success stories

Nguyen Le Anh Thu is one of the beneficiaries of these scholarships. She described her earlier struggles, when making a living, rather than school, was the main concern in her family. For $1 or $2 a day, she would help her mother peel fruit for sale and save money for her grandmother’s medication.

“I thought, education is the only way I can get out of poverty,” said Anh Thu, who wins over strangers with her shy pauses and frequent smiles as she practices the English she has now learned.

The idea is to reach out to vulnerable populations before human traffickers do and work with them to achieve more economic stability so that they have less incentive to take illegal jobs abroad.

“Prevention measures, such as monitoring labor recruitment programs, community resilience and economic empowerment, and awareness-raising campaigns, are hugely important to help educate at-risk communities and strengthen their protections against future cases,” said U.S. consul general Mary Tarnowka, whose office in Ho Chi Minh City hosted the conference.

Pacific Links said it works on preventive measures, such as increasing financial literacy so families manage their household budgets consistently, as well as reactive measures, such as sheltering and reintegrating trafficking victims who return to Vietnam. According to the foundation, a worrying aspect of the problem is that many human traffickers used to be victims themselves, meaning they go on to bring more people into the same labor trap that they faced.
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Trump Skirts ‘Great Firewall’ to Tweet About Beijing Trip

By Uponsil | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

U.S. President Donald Trump went around and over the “Great Firewall” of China in a late-night tweet in Beijing as he thanked his hosts for a rare tour of the Forbidden City and a private dinner at the sprawling, centuries-old palace complex.

Many Western social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are banned in China. A sophisticated system has been built to deny online users within China access to blocked content.

That was not an issue for Trump, known for tweeting to his 42.3 million followers at any hour of the day, Wednesday, the day he arrived in Beijing.

“On behalf of @FLOTUS Melania and I, THANK YOU for an unforgettable afternoon and evening at the Forbidden City in Beijing, President Xi and Madame Peng Liyuan. We are looking forward to rejoining you tomorrow morning!”

Trump even changed his Twitter banner, uploading a photograph of himself and Melania with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, during a Chinese opera performance at the Forbidden City.

The Twitter banner upload did not go unnoticed by Chinese state media, with state broadcaster CCTV flashing screenshots of the photograph Thursday.

Trump’s visit was also the third-most talked-about topic on Chinese social media platform Weibo over the last 24 hours, trailing only the birthday of a singer in a Chinese boy band and a weekly Asian pop song chart.

Many people wondered how Trump managed to evade China’s tough internet controls.

“I guess he must have done it via WiFi on a satellite network,” said a user on Weibo.

Many foreigners log on to virtual private networks (VPNs) to access content hosted outside of China. Another option is to sign up for a data-roaming service before leaving one’s home country.

Not all of Trump’s tweets in China were bright and cheerful.

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Garth Brooks Wins Entertainer of the Year at CMA Awards

By Uponent | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

Garth Brooks continued his winning streak as entertainer of the year at the 2017 Country Music Association Awards, beating out Luke Bryan and Keith Urban.

Brooks, who has won the top prize six times, also beat Chris Stapleton and Eric Church on Wednesday at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

“We’re a family,” he said about the country music community when accepting the honor.

Though he ended the awards show on a happy note, the night was marked by emotional and political moments.

Carrie Underwood broke down while singing during the “In Memoriam” section after photos of the 58 people who died at a country music festival in Las Vegas were shown. Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman quoted Maya Angelou when the foursome won vocal group of the year, while bandmate Karen Fairchild told the audience, “Kindness is an attractive quality.”

“Tonight should be about harmony, about what we can do together to change things,” Fairchild said.

That sentiment was present throughout the three-hour show, which aired on ABC.

While paying tribute to Charley Pride, filmmaker Tyler Perry said now is the time we have to all “find some common ground.” And the show opened with a performance by Church, Urban, Darius Rucker and Lady Antebellum honoring the victims of the recent mass shootings, as well as the tens of thousands of people affected by hurricanes in recent months.

Keith Urban earned a rousing applause when he debuted a song called “Female,” which he said was inspired by the dozens of allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Harvey Weinstein.

The CMA Awards also paid tribute to some of the genre’s brightest stars who have passed away. Glen Campbell, who died in August, was honored during a touching performance of “Wichita Lineman” by Little Big Town and Jimmy Webb, who wrote the song.

Rascal Flatts and Dierks Bentley also paid homage to Troy Gentry, one-half of the popular country duo Montgomery Gentry, who died in a helicopter crash in September. Eddie Montgomery later joined in for the performance of “My Town,” as some audience members sang along with tears in their eyes.

“This has been a year marked my tragedy … Tonight we’re going to do what families do, come together, pray together, cry together and sing together, too,” said Underwood, who co-hosted the show.

“This show is dedicated to all those we lost,” fellow host Brad Paisley said.

Paisley and Underwood celebrated their 10-year anniversary — as hosts of the CMAs. They joked at the top of the show about CMA sending restrictions to press about what to ask singers on the red carpet, saying they shouldn’t ask about politics or guns. They also riffed on politics, taking shots at both President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

“Maybe next time he’ll think before he tweets,” they sang to the beat of Underwood’s massive hit, “Before He Cheats.”

One person they didn’t joke about was Taylor Swift. And though Swift is releasing her second pop album this week, she’s still being awarded for her contributions to country music.

Swift won song of the year — awarded to songwriters — for penning Little Big Town’s No. 1 hit, “Better Man.” Swift will release her sixth album, “reputation,” on Friday.

“She couldn’t be here tonight but Taylor, wherever you are, thank you for this beautiful song,” Fairchild said onstage.

Swift wasn’t the only pop star who had a presence at the CMAs. Pink sang her slow tune “Barbie,” backed by several musicians and singers, while One Direction’s Niall Horan performed a duet with Grammy-winning singer Maren Morris, fitting right in with the country crowd and showcasing his singer-songwriter side.

Winners at the show included Miranda Lambert (female vocalist of the year), Brothers Osborne (vocal duo of the year) and Jon Pardi (new artist of the year). Campbell and Willie Nelson won musical event of the year for “Funny How Time Slips Away.”

Stapleton won male vocalist of the year and album of the year for his sophomore effort, “From a Room: Volume 1.”

“I’m always humbled by getting these things,” said Stapleton, who thanked his wife Morgane, who is pregnant with twins and was in the audience.

“I want to thank my kids and my kids that are on the way,” he added.
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Pokemon Go’s Niantic Taps ‘Harry Potter’ Magic for New AR Game

By Uponent | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

Fantastic beasts, wizard adventures and magic spells will come to life in a new “Harry Potter” augmented reality mobile game from Pokemon Go developer Niantic and Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, the companies said on Wednesday.

“Harry Potter: Wizards Unite” will bring author J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World to mobile phones and use augmented reality (AR) to create a real-world scavenger hunt, allow players to cast spells, find artifacts, team up and encounter magical beasts and characters from the popular book series.

The game’s use of real locations is similar to Niantic and Nintendo Co Ltd.’s Pokemon Go, which became the first mass market adoption of AR in July 2016 and allows players to “catch” animated characters that appeared in their real surroundings.

No release date was given for the “Harry Potter” game, but Niantic and Time Warner’s Warner Bros. said more details would be available next year.

Warner Bros. Pictures, which produced the $7.7 billion-grossing “Harry Potter” film franchise, will release “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2” in November 2018, the second installment in a new series of films that expand the world Rowling created in her Potter franchise.
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Congress, Silicon Valley Seek Common Ground on Social Media Interference

By Uponsil | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Executives from Google, Facebook and Twitter faced anger from lawmakers last week over their platforms’ roles in Russian interference into the 2016 election. But for Silicon Valley, the biggest challenge lies ahead as tech companies look for ways to work with a U.S. Congress intent on closing legal loopholes before 2018 midterm elections.

Congressional scrutiny showed U.S. law has fallen behind the rapid growth of social media. Without rules governing paid political advertising on social media, foreign agents were free to post false or inflammatory material in an attempt manipulate public opinion. But lawmakers remain optimistic about the opportunity to learn from the past.

“If there is a place that has ever understood change, it’s Silicon Valley. It is based on disruption. It’s based on people taking risks,” Representative Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat, told VOA.

Greater transparency

Eshoo, whose congressional district covers part of Silicon Valley, has been a longtime advocate for greater transparency in the more traditional fields of TV and print political advertising.

“When citizens know who has paid for something, it has an effect on their thinking,” Eshoo said. “It doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t still be Americans that would like that divisive ad. But at least they’ll know where it comes from, and you can have a much clearer debate about who is saying what and what they are attempting to do.”

The HONEST Ads Act, a legislative proposal recently introduced in both houses of Congress, follows along those lines.

If passed, the bill would regulate online political ads under the same rules as broadcast advertisements, requiring companies to keep a public database storing those ads and providing information about their funding.

“Americans deserve to know who’s paying for the online ads,” Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a co-sponsor of the bill, said last month. “Even if the Russian interference hadn’t occurred, we should still be updating our laws. Our laws should be as sophisticated as those who are trying to manipulate us.”

“Creating a database like that is going to be hard and complicated and messy. It’s a good idea that’s going to have a tough execution,” Dave Karpf, a professor of political communication at George Washington University, told VOA.

Karpf said that while there are no perfect solutions, it’s important to recognize the tech companies for what they’ve become.

“Facebook and Google are media companies — they’re just different media companies then we’re used to seeing,” he said. “They’re not broadcasters, but they are information platforms. And they’re quasi-monopolies — even a benevolent monopoly is a bad thing for public discourse and public knowledge.”

But none of the social media heads would fully commit to support of the bill as it now stands during their congressional testimony, appearing instead to favor a self-policing approach.

Battling fake news

Addressing paid political advertisements on social media platforms is just one part of the puzzle. The 2016 election revealed a vast ecosystem of fake news that will be almost impossible to police.

“What’s an even greater problem is that the Russians and others are setting up sites to deliberately disseminate misinformation — false news, fake news, what have you — they are not identifying themselves as Russian-sponsored,” said Mark Jacobson, a professor at Georgetown University and co-author of an October 2017 report on Russian cybermeddling.

“This is the larger problem for Facebook and other social media companies — how to handle the deliberate disinformation — and I’m not so sure the solution is legislative,” Jacobson said.

Eshoo downplayed talk that these challenges signal a downturn for tech innovators, saying it’s time lawmakers, companies and citizens took on a shared responsibility.

“We need to do a much better job with this,” she said. “We’re going to need them to cooperate with us. I don’t think that there has to be a slugfest on this.” She said the social media companies need to tell Congress how, in terms of their engineering and their algorithms, they can best accomplish what lawmakers set forth.
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An Amazing Corn Maze in Pennsylvania

By Uponent | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

In the United States, strolling through a corn maze is a popular family activity in the fall. The annual maze at Cherry Crest Adventure Farm in Pennsylvania is considered one of the best in the country. Located on a family farm, visitors can explore the winding pathways, while piecing together a map that shows the maze’s unique design. VOA’s Deborah Block takes us to the amazing maze.
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Computer Worries If ‘You Sound Tired’

By Uponsci | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Science

A recent national sleep foundation study found more than half of all drivers report driving while drowsy. And U.S. government statistics show nearly 72,000 accidents and 800 deaths in the United States were caused by drowsy driving. But some new technology could help solve this public health problem, VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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VR Provides Unprecedented Look Inside the Great Pyramid

By Uponsil | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

The ScanPyramid team made news last week when they announced the discovery of a ‘void’ inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. And while the void may remain a mystery, the team’s detailed map of the pyramid now allows visitors to roam its depths from anywhere in the world. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Congress, Silicon Valley Look for Common Ground on Social Media Interference

By Uponsil | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

After pledging to do more to combat foreign interference on social media platforms, the heads of Facebook, Google and Twitter will have to work with Congress to find a way forward. VOA’s Congressional reporter Katherine Gypson sits down with California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, who represents Silicon Valley, to learn where the debate over the role of social media in American politics heads next.
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ESPN: UCLA Basketball Players Arrested in China Could Stay for Months

By Uponent | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

The three UCLA men’s basketball players arrested in China for allegedly shoplifting a day before U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit cannot leave their hotel until the end of the legal process, which could last months, ESPN reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.

The three University of California-Los Angeles players, freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, were arrested Tuesday, according to several media reports. Ball is the younger brother of National Basketball Association rookie Lonzo Ball of the Los Angeles Lakers.

The U.S. State Department and UCLA athletics officials declined to address how long legal proceedings might take. A State Department official said the department was aware of reports of three American citizens arrested in China and stood ready to provide assistance but had no further comment because of privacy considerations.

The Chinese government reported the incident to U.S. officials, Chinese Foreign Ministry officials previously said.

Chinese authorities have up to 37 days to decide whether to pursue official approval for an arrest, Margaret Lewis, a law professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey who researches China’s legal system, told the Los Angeles Times.

An arrest would prompt an investigation that could take up to two additional months before prosecutors bring formal charges, Lewis told the newspaper.

High conviction rate

In China, the conviction rate is more than 99 percent and punishment would be based on many factors, including merchandise value, the players’ cooperation and any appearance of repentance, Lewis told the newspaper.

The players were questioned about stealing from a Louis Vuitton store and released on bail Wednesday, ESPN reported.

Chinese President Xi Jinping led Trump on a private tour of the Forbidden City to kick off his visit on Wednesday.

Reached by telephone at his hotel on Wednesday, Ball declined to comment. In a video posted Wednesday on Twitter by ESPN writer Arash Markazi, LaVar Ball said his son LiAngelo would be fine.

The players will not play in Saturday’s game against Georgia Tech, UCLA athletics spokeswoman Shana Wilson said.

The UCLA team arrived in China on Sunday and then traveled to Hangzhou, about three hours by bus from Shanghai, to visit the campus of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., sponsor of the game in China.
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Mnuchin to Fill Fed Vacancies, Awaits Yellen’s Decision

By Uponbiz | 11/09/2017 | No Comments | Business

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that Janet Yellen has not said yet whether she plans to remain on the Federal Reserve board when her term as chair ends in February, but the administration is moving ahead with filling other vacancies.

There are three vacancies on the seven-member Fed board and there could be a fourth if Yellen decides to leave. Her term as a board member does not end until 2024.

In an interview on Bloomberg TV, Mnuchin said he had breakfast with Yellen on Wednesday from which he came away with the impression that she had not made a decision about her future at the Fed.

Last week, President Donald Trump announced he would nominate Fed board member Jerome Powell as the next Fed chairman, bypassing Yellen.

If Yellen did stay on the board, she would be only the second former chair to do so. Marriner Eccles, whose name is on the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, remained on the board for three years after he was not nominated for another term as chair by Harry Truman in 1948.

Mnuchin said the goal was to fill the vacancies quickly, but the administration did not necessarily see a need to pick someone with a PhD in economics for the vice chair position even though Powell will be the first person to lead the Fed without a degree in economics in nearly four decades.

“I think our priority is that we are going to fill these positions quickly. Our focus was on the chair,” Mnuchin said. “Now that we have resolved that issue, we are already looking at people for these positions. So I am comfortable we will have the jobs filled.”

Before Trump’s announcement last week, Yellen had declined to say what she might do if she was not tapped for a second term.

“I have said that I intend to serve out my term as chair, and that I’m really not going to comment on my intentions beyond that,” she told reporters in September.
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Day: November 9, 2017