12/13/2017 | UPONSOFT

British Baby With Heart Outside Body Survives 3 Surgeries

By Uponsci | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Science

English hospital officials said Wednesday that a baby born with her heart outside her body had survived three surgeries to mend her condition.

Glenfield Hospital in Leicester said Vanellope Hope Wilkins was born in late November with her heart growing on the outside of her body. The unusual condition is called ectopia cordis.

She underwent the first surgery to put her heart back inside her body within in an hour of her birth.

Dr. Nick Moore said the baby was in the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit.

Only eight babies in 1 million are born with ectopia cordis. The vast majority are stillborn or die within three days.

Cardiologists said they didn’t know of another case in Britain in which a baby had survived this condition. Several babies have survived the surgery in the United States, including Audrina Cardenas, who was born in Texas in 2012.

The English baby’s parents, Naomi Findlay and Dean Wilkins, told BBC news that they named their daughter after a character in the Disney movie Wreck-It Ralph.

“Vanellope in the film is a real fighter and at the end turns into a princess, so we thought it was fitting,” Findlay said.
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Microsoft Updates Bing Search to Highlight Reputable Results

By Uponsil | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Microsoft on Wednesday rolled out new features on its Bing search engine powered by artificial intelligence, including one that summarizes the two opposing sides of contentious questions, and another that measures how many reputable sources are behind a given answer.

Tired of delivering misleading information when their algorithms are gamed by trolls and purveyors of fake news, Microsoft and its tech-company rivals have been going out of their way to show they can be purveyors of good information — either by using better algorithms or hiring more human moderators.

Second-place search engine

Microsoft is also trying to distinguish its 2nd-place search engine from long-dominant Google and position itself as an innovator in finding real-world applications for the latest advances in artificial intelligence.

“As a search engine we have a responsibility to provide answers that are comprehensive and objective,” said Jordi Ribas, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for AI products.

Bing’s new capabilities are designed to give users more confidence that an answer is correct and save them time so they don’t have to click through multiple links to validate it themselves.

“You could be asking, ‘Is coffee good for you?’ We know that there are no good answers for that,” Ribas said. But the new search features side-by-side opposing perspectives. One source emphasizes coffee’s ability to increase metabolism and another shows it can raise blood pressure. Similar questions can also be asked on more sensitive topics, such as whether the death penalty is a good idea.

Digestible doses

On more complicated questions — is there a god? — Bing doesn’t have enough confidence to provide a pro-con perspective. But on questions that involve numbers, it boils information down into digestible doses. Iraq, for instance, is described as “about equal to the size of California.”

Search engines have evolved since Google took the lead at the turn of the 21st century, when rankings were based on “link analysis” that assigned credibility to sites based on how many other sites linked to them. As machines get better at reading and summarizing paragraphs, users expect not just a list of links but a quick and authoritative answer, said Harry Shum, who leads Microsoft’s 8,000-person research and AI division. To test its technology, the company has compared its machine-reading skills to the verbal score on the SAT.

“We are not at 800 yet, but we bypassed President Bush a long time ago,” Shum jokes.

Sophisticated searches

The demand for more sophisticated searches has also grown as people have moved from typing questions to voicing them on the road or in their kitchen.

“If you use Bing or Google nowadays you recognize that more and more often you’ll see direct answers on the top of search result pages,” Shum said. “We’re getting to the point that for probably about 10 percent of those queries we’ll see answers.”

Shum is hesitant to over-promise Bing’s new features as an antidote to the misinformation flooding the internet.

“At the end of the day, people have their own judgments,” he said.

The search engine features were announced along with updates to Microsoft’s voice assistant Cortana and a new search partnership with the popular online forum Reddit.
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Ultra-rare Prince Vinyl ‘Black Album’ Resurfaces

By Uponent | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

One of the world’s rarest records has resurfaced — several vinyl copies of Prince’s “Black Album,” which the eccentric pop legend had demanded destroyed 30 years ago.

Recordmecca, a collector’s site owned by a former executive on Prince’s Warner Brothers label, on Wednesday was selling a coveted sealed vinyl copy of the album for $15,000.

The Purple Rain star, then at the height of his fame, in December 1987 sought to release music like no one had attempted before — sending it to stores completely secretly, without his name or any art on it.

Warner, with which he had legendary feuds, discouraged Prince but eventually relented and ordered the pressing of the vinyl — which has no actual title but was informally called the “Black Album” for its blank, dark cover.

But Prince soon afterward declared that he had a spiritual revelation that the album was “evil” and demanded the destruction of all copies.

Warner largely succeeded in seizing and destroying the more than 500,000 copies at their factories. But Recordmecca owner Jeff Gold, who worked with Prince at Warner, said he was recently contacted by a fellow former executive who came upon five copies.

Gold said that the executive, who requested anonymity, had been sending records to his own daughter, who had bought a first turntable amid vinyl’s rebirth.

Sifting through his collection, the executive discovered two envelopes distributed within Warner. Inside were five copies of the “Black Album.”

“For 30 years, the two mailers had sat unopened among their other boxed-up vinyl,” Gold wrote.

The former executive decided to sell three copies. Gold was offering one copy online, saying he already sold another one directly and would list the third one later.

Gold said he would attach certificates of authenticity.

Prince in late 1994 finally released the “Black Album” on limited-edition CDs and cassettes but not vinyl, making the record a holy grail for record collectors.

Prince resented Warner’s constraints and in the 1990s changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in hopes of getting out of contractual conditions.

He finally made peace with Warner in 2014 in a deal that gave him control over his classic albums. He died two years later at his Paisley Park estate in Minnesota from an accidental overdose of painkillers.
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Glacier National Park Offers More Than Glaciers

By Uponent | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

There was a time — in this northwest corner of Montana — when glaciers ruled the land.

Crown of the Continent

The abundance of the massive rivers of ice — and their runoff — created “a land of striking scenery.” That’s how American anthropologist, historian, naturalist and writer George Bird Grinnell described Glacier National Park, nine years before the land was set aside as a national park on May 11, 1910.

Today, there are far fewer icy behemoths. And they’re all shrinking.

“There are currently 26 glaciers in Glacier National Park,” says national parks traveler Mikah Meyer. “I can’t remember the exact number that there were when it was founded but it was vastly higher,” he added. “The glaciers are melting and the snowfall is not restoring their size in the way that they have in past years.”

Melting glaciers

But the glaciers – both those long gone and those that still remain — have left their mark. As they started melting 10,000 years ago, they carved out majestic mountains, lush valleys, and pristine lakes.

Glacial waters are the headwaters for streams that flow west to the Pacific Ocean, south to the Gulf of Mexico, and east across the continent to Hudson’s Bay, according to the National Park Service. It emphasizes that that runoff “affects waters in a huge section of North America.”

With more than 760 lakes and nearly half a million hectares of parkland, it’s easy to see why Mikah has returned.

“Five years ago I stood on this exact same spot; at the end of the dock on Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park,” he said as he stood in front of a landscape so serene, it could have passed as a painting.

“It was one of my first experiences with the National Park Service site and I was hooked,” he admitted.

Waters from those melting glaciers also feed Iceberg Lake — another popular attraction in the park. “It is very cold and very windy and lots of little icebergs floating back there by the snow,” Mikah said as he braved the winds to capture the scene with his camera.

But despite the cold, nearby wildflowers were in full bloom, creating a pastoral setting. As Mikah walked through a field of bear grass, he said he felt like he was “in some fairytale land.”

The elegant white blossoms are a common wildflower in Glacier National Park, which this year grew in prolific numbers. They provided a perfect environment to view the local wildlife, including deer, moose, marmots and mountain goats.

Generous tour companies

Mikah got lucky when several tour companies offered him a chance to explore the park from a variety of perspectives. With Red Bus Tours, Mikah got a nice overview of the park from their vintage 1930s buses.

“It’s a massive park — it takes an hour and a half just to cross it,” he noted. “So it’s a guided tour that allows you to focus on looking at the beauty of the park instead of having to stay on these tiny mountain roads.”

Swan Mountain Outfitters donated a horseback tour for an eight-hour trek to Cracker Lake, an eye-popping turquoise body of water which is also fed by melting glacial waters.

Mikah described the scene: “You crest over this hill on the horses and you’re in the middle, surrounded by bear grass and trees and flowers and these large gray mountains in the background, and it just pops like nothing else.”

And thanks to Montana Whitewater Rafting, Mikah got to experience those glacial waters up close during a rafting tour on the Middle Fork River — a 150-kilometer river in western Montana that forms the southwestern boundary of the park.

“It was a very clear river,” Mikah said, since the water was a combination of glacier melt and snow runoff. “So you could see down through the water to the bottom, see the rocks, and the fish, so very pure, very clear water.”

Mikah was pleased to have experienced the park from the depths of the water as well as from the top of a ski lift where he could see “where it all started.”

Mikah, who’s on a mission to visit all 417 national parks in the U.S., says he hopes to come back again one day, even if the glaciers are gone.

“Even if the physical glaciers don’t still exist because they melted away, it can still be Glacier National Park because that’s what created this amazing landscape.”

Mikah invites you to follow him on his epic journey by visiting him on his website MikahMeyer.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
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A Landscape Carved in the Last Ice Age

By Uponent | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

How many places are there in the U.S. where visitors get to see nature in all its abundance within a single setting? National parks traveler Mikah Meyer thinks Glacier National Park, in northern Montana on the border with Canada, comes pretty darn close. He shared highlights of his experiences with VOA’s Julie Taboh.
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US Central Bank Raises Interest Rate Slightly

By Uponbiz | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Business

The U.S. central bank raised its key interest rate slightly Wednesday, but left the level low enough to continue stimulating economic growth.

The Federal Reserve pushed up rates a quarter of a percent to a range between 1.25 and 1.5 percent. The increase leaves the benchmark rate below historic averages.

The Fed slashed rates nearly to zero during the recession in a bid to boost the economy and fight unemployment by making it cheaper to borrow the money needed to build factories, buy equipment and hire people.

Janet Yellen, at her last press conference as chair of the Federal Reserve, said economic growth is “solid” as business investment and overseas demand grow. She said the impact of tax changes working their way through Congress is “uncertain” but would probably give a “modest lift” to the economy over the next few years. Fed officials are expected to continue raising interest rates gradually.

The recession ended and expansion resumed in 2009. Unemployment was cut from 10 percent to the current 4.1 percent and the Fed eventually decided the recovering economy needed less assistance and started raising rates. Leaving interest rates too low for too long could overstimulate the economy and spark a sharp increase in prices.

The newest U.S. inflation data came out Wednesday, showing that prices rose 2.2 percent during the past 12 months. Outside the volatile areas of food and energy, the overall economy expanded at a 1.7 percent annual rate. That so-called “core” rate remains below the 2 percent rate that Fed experts think is best for economic growth.

Some analysts predict the Fed will raise rates a couple more times next year as experts balance the need to boost growth against worries that inflation could jump out of control.

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Trump Administration Calls for Government IT to Adopt Cloud Services

By Uponsil | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

The White House said Wednesday the U.S. government needs a major overhaul of information technology systems and should take steps to better protect data and accelerate efforts to use cloud-based technology.

“Difficulties in agency prioritization of resources in support of IT modernization, ability to procure services quickly, and technical issues have resulted in an unwieldy and out-of-date federal IT infrastructure,” the White House said in a report.

The report outlined a timeline over the next year for IT reforms and a detailed implementation plan. The report said one unnamed cloud-based email provider has agreed to assist in keeping track of government spending on cloud-based email migration.

President Donald Trump in April signed an executive order creating a new technology council to overhaul the U.S. government’s information technology systems.

The report said the federal government must eliminate barriers to using commercial cloud-based technology. “Federal agencies must consolidate their IT investments and place more trust in services and infrastructure operated by others,” the report found. Government agencies often pay dramatically different prices for the same IT item, the report said, sometimes three or four times as much.

Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Corp’s Google and Intel Corp are making big investments in the fast-growing cloud computing business.

A 2016 U.S. Government Accountability Office report estimated the U.S. government spends more than $80 billion on IT annually but said spending has fallen by $7.3 billion since 2010.

In 2015, there were at least 7,000 separate IT investments by the U.S. government. The $80 billion figure does not include Defense Department classified IT systems and 58 independent executive branch agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency.

The GAO report said U.S. government IT investments “are becoming increasingly obsolete: many use outdated software languages and hardware parts that are unsupported.”

The GAO report found some agencies are using systems that have components that are at least 50 years old.

Agencies typically buy their own IT systems independently, the White House said Wednesday. A “lack of common standards and lack of coordination drives costly redundancies and inefficiencies.”

The White House said in June that most of the government’s 6,100 data centers can be consolidated and moved to a cloud-based storage system.

Various U.S. government systems have been the target of hacking and data breaches in recent years. In September, the Securities and Exchange Commission, America’s chief stock market regulator, said cybercriminals may have used data stolen last year.
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Half of World’s People Can’t get Basic Health Services: WHO

By Uponsci | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Science

At least half the world’s population is unable to access essential health services and many others are forced into extreme poverty by having to pay for healthcare they cannot afford, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

Some 800 million people worldwide spend at least 10 percent of their household income on healthcare for themselves or a sick child, and as many as 100 million of those are left with less than $1.90 a day to live on as a result, the WHO said.

In a joint report with the World Bank, the United Nations health agency said it was unacceptable that more than half the world’s people still don’t get the most basic healthcare.

“If we are serious – not just about better health outcomes but also about ending poverty – we must urgently scale up our efforts on universal health coverage,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement with the report.

Anna Marriott, health policy advisor for the international aid agency Oxfam, said the report was a “damning indictment” of governments’ efforts on health.

“Healthcare, a basic human right, has become a luxury only the wealthy can afford,” she said in a statement.

“Behind each of these appalling statistics are people facing unimaginable suffering – parents reduced to watching their children die; children pulled out of school so they can help pay off their families’ health care debts; and women working themselves into the ground caring for sick family members.”

The WHO and World Bank report did have some positive news: This century has seen a rise in the number of people getting services such as vaccinations, HIV/AIDS drugs, and mosquito-repelling bednets and contraception, it said.

But there are wide gaps in the availability of services in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, the report found. In other regions, basic services such as family planning and child immunization are more available, but families are suffering financially to pay for them.

Yong Kim said this was a sign that “the system is broken”.

“We need a fundamental shift in the way we mobilize resources for health and human capital, especially at the country level,” he said.
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Sweet Victory: French Candymakers Win China Legal War

By Uponbiz | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Business

Revenge is sweet for the makers of France’s traditional “calisson” candies, who have won a months-long legal battle with a businessman who trademarked the product’s name in China.

The lozenge-shaped sweets, made of a mixture of candied fruit and ground almonds topped with icing, are widely enjoyed in France’s southern Aix-en-Provence region.

Their makers were none too pleased when Chinese entrepreneur Ye Chunlin spotted a sweet opportunity in 2015 to register the “Calisson d’Aix” name for use at home, as well as its Mandarin equivalent, “kalisong”.

The trademark was set to be valid until 2026, sparking angst among Provence’s sweetmakers who worried Ye’s move could have barred them from entering the huge Chinese market.

But China’s copyright office rejected Ye’s claim to the brand name in a decision seen by AFP on Wednesday, which said his request to use the label “could confuse consumers on the origin of the products”.

Laure Pierrisnard, head of the union of calisson makers in Aix, hailed the news as “a real victory”.

The union has fought the case for months in the name of 12 sweetmakers, accusing Ye of “opportunism.”

It is not uncommon for Western brands to try to crack the Chinese market only to find that their name or trademark has been registered by a local company.

An enterprising Chinese businessman in 2007 registered the brand name “IPHONE” for use in leather products, to the great displeasure of Apple, which lost a court case against him.

The courts similarly backed a Chinese company that wanted to use the name of sneaker brand New Balance.

Ye, who is from the eastern province of Zhejiang, did not respond to the French sweetmakers’ objections to Chinese authorities.

But he insisted in late 2016 that he acted in good faith, telling AFP he was “a salesman who does business within the rules.”

As far as French producers are aware, calissons have never rolled off a factory line in China.

Some makers, dreaming of the international success enjoyed by their rival the macaron, are seeking to expand abroad, including to the enticing Chinese market.

The Roy Rene chain – owned by Olivier Baussan, the entrepreneur behind Province’s best known brand internationally, L’Occitane cosmetics — has stores in Miami and Canada, and is eyeing Dubai.

The company says it has been contacted by several investors over the course of the Chinese court case seeking to bring the sweets to China.

The affair has also re-energized makers of the dainty candies in their bid for special European status as a product that comes specifically from Provence.

Beijing has already recognized the status of 10 such European foods, including France’s Comte and Roquefort cheeses and Italy’s Parma ham, as well as 45 different wines from Bordeaux.

Aix-en-Provence produces about 800 tons of calissons every year.

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Hollywood Actor Bamba Reveals Secret: He’s Undocumented

By Uponent | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

Actor Bambadjan Bamba may be on the verge of stardom because of his role in the upcoming comic book superhero film Black Panther. But lately, he has been making headlines by revealing a secret he has kept for many years.

“I’m a black immigrant … and I’m undocumented,” said Bamba who plays a military leader in Black Panther.

Bamba who has film and TV credits under his belt, said he was a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. An administrative program set up during the administration of former President Barack Obama, DACA gives undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children temporary protection from deportation and lets them legally live and work in the country. But even with DACA protection, navigating Hollywood has been sometimes frustrating for Bamba.

“There were really a lot of opportunities missed because sometimes I get scripts and offers from outside the country, and I can’t go. Sometimes there are movies that are shooting in Canada, and I can’t even audition,” he said.

Even when an acting job comes his way, Bamba has found much of Hollywood to be unfamiliar with DACA.

“They’re like, ‘What is DACA?’ ” Then I tell them what DACA is. They’re like, ‘You know what, do you have a green card? Where is your passport?’ I’m like, I don’t have any of that. All I have is what the government requires for me to work legally,” Bamba said.

The decision to make his immigration status public comes with professional risks, but Bamba said not speaking out might be worse.

“I decided honestly to share my story when the [Trump] administration decided that they wanted to end DACA. I just knew that there were no other options for me — so either go out fighting or go out in fear.”

Bamba’s story

When Bamba was 10, his parents left their home in Ivory Coast in West Africa. The times were turbulent.

“When the first president passed away, the situation in Ivory Coast became very unpredictable, became a little crazy.” Bamba said. “The country was divided for a long time. There was a civil war. Thousands of people died. I had friends that died. I had family that died.”

The Bamba family moved to the South Bronx in New York City. He learned English by listening to hip-hop and watching television. He was a popular teenager in high school, known for his acting skills. His immigration status did not become an issue until it was time for college.

“So I started applying to different schools, and that’s when I found out that my financial aid didn’t get approved or doesn’t work out. So that’s when I had the conversation with my parents, and they kind of told me,” he said.

Bamba worked his way through college as a cabdriver in New York City, and eventually found work in Hollywood.

Trump, DACA and Hollywood

“You have some absolutely incredible kids, I would say, mostly,” President Donald Trump said in February in reference to DACA recipients, known informally as “Dreamers.” “They were brought here in such a way — it’s a very, very tough subject. We’re going to deal with DACA with heart.”

But in September, the president rescinded the DACA program and gave Congress until March to produce a legislative solution.

“Mr. President, you made a promise to the Dreamers. You told us that you will find a solution for us. So, we just want to hold you accountable to do that,” Bamba said.

A petition through the organization Define American asks Hollywood to support undocumented immigrants such as Bamba.

“I think Hollywood could do so much more just because of the power that we have in the media to shift the conversation.” Bamba continued, “[It is] the studios and the big production companies that I’m trying to encourage to have more skin in the game. You hire so many immigrants.”
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Tanzania Orders Tighter Controls on Currency, Bank Crackdown as Growth Slows

By Uponbiz | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Business

Tanzanian president John Magufuli ordered the central bank on Wednesday to tighten controls on the movement of hard currency and take swift action against failing banks in a bid to tackle financial crimes and protect the local shilling currency.

The move comes as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called on Tanzania to speed up reforms and spend more to prevent a slowdown in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Magufuli pledged to reform an economy hobbled by red tape and corruption and begin a program to develop public infrastructure after he was elected in 2015.

“We now have some 58 banks in Tanzania, the [central] Bank of Tanzania should closely monitor these banks and take swift action against failing institutions. It’s better to have a few viable banks than many failing banks,” he said in a statement issued by his office.

“I also want restrictions on the use of U.S. dollars. As I speak, $1 million cash was confiscated at the … [main] airport in Dar es Salaam and there is no explanation on the movement of this money into the country. We have to be careful.”

Magufuli said his government was taking several monetary policy measures to improve lending to the private sector, and this had already started to ease pressure on shilling liquidity.

The IMF said late on Tuesday that Tanzania’s banking sector remained well-capitalized, but some small and mid-sized banks face a sizable reduction in capitalization ratios.

It said that progress has been slow, while a lack of public spending — coupled with private sector concerns over policy uncertainty — was curtailing growth in East Africa’s third-biggest economy.

“Improvements in the business environment — policy predictability based on a strong dialog with the private sector, regulatory reforms, timely payment of value-added tax [VAT] and other tax refunds, and eliminating domestic arrears — must be pursued with urgency,” the IMF said late on Tuesday.

Tanzania’s economy grew at an annual rate of 6.8 percent in the first half of this year from 7.7 percent in the same period in 2016.

The economy has been growing at around 7 percent annually for the past decade, but the World Bank said in November growth will likely slow to 6.6 percent in 2017.

The IMF said a sharp fall in lending to the private sector, prompted by high non-performing loans, pointed to a continued slowdown in growth.

In June, the IMF said Tanzania may have to delay implementing some of its infrastructure projects because its revenue expectations for 2017-2018 may not be achieved.

In a bid to profit from its long coastline, Tanzania wants to spend $14.2 billion over the next five years to build a 2,560 km (1,590 mile) railway network, part of plans that also include upgrading ports and roads to serve growing economies in the region.

The IMF said subdued government revenue collection and delays in securing financing for projects have held back development spending and hurt economic growth.
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Rock Hall 2018 Class: Nina Simone, Bon Jovi, the Moody Blues

By Uponent | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Entertainment

Iconic singer Nina Simone and New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi lead the 2018 class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, which includes four first-time nominees.

The Cars, as well as first-time contenders Dire Straits, The Moody Blues and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, also are part of the 2018 class announced Wednesday. They will be inducted on April 14, in Cleveland, Ohio.

The six inductees were chosen from a group of 19 nominees, including Radiohead, who were expected to enter in the Rock Hall in their first year of eligibility, but didn’t make it.

Tharpe, a pioneering guitarist who performed gospel music and was known to some as “the godmother of rock ‘n’ roll,” will be inducted with the “Award for Early Influence.” She died in 1973. The other five acts will be inducted as performers.

The jazzy and soulful Simone, also a first-time nominee, was a leader in pushing for civil rights and influenced the likes of Alicia Keys and Aretha Franklin before her death in 2003.

The Cars, founded in Boston in 1976, combined New Wave and classic rock sounds. This year marked the band’s third nomination.

Bon Jovi, first nominated in 2011 and again this year, have sold more than 120 million albums and launched No. 1 hits with “Livin’ on a Prayer,” ”You Give Love a Bad Name,” ”Bad Medicine” and “I’ll Be There for You.”

Rock Hall voters have recently opened their hearts to progressive rockers, which benefited “Nights in White Satin” singers The Moody Blues. English rockers Dire Straits, which includes brothers Mark and David Knopfler, blended blues into their music.

Each year, between five and seven acts usually make it into the Rock Hall following a vote by 1,000 people, including performers, music historians and industry experts. Fans also were able to vote on the Rock Hall’s website. All of the inductees had to have released their first recording no later than 1992 to be eligible.

The 33rd annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be held at Public Auditorium. Tickets will go on sale in January and the event will later air on HBO and be heard on SiriusXM Radio.
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Growing Levels of E-Waste Bad for Environment, Health and Economy

By Uponsil | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

A new report finds growing levels of E-waste pose significant risks to the environment and human health and result in huge economic losses for countries around the world. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from the launch of the International Telecommunication Union report in Geneva.

The global information society is racing ahead at top speed. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) reports nearly half of the world uses the internet and most people have access to mobile phones, laptops, televisions, refrigerators and other electronic devices.

But ITU E-waste Technical Expert, Vanessa Gray, said the ever-increasing expansion of technology is creating staggering amounts of electronic waste.

“In 2016, the world generated a total of 44.7 million metric tons of e-waste—that is, electronic and electrical equipment that is discarded,” Gray said. “So, that basically everything that runs on a plug or on a battery. This is equivalent to about 4,500 Eiffel Towers for the year.”

The report found Asia generates the greatest amounts of E-waste, followed by Europe and the Americas. Africa and Oceania produce the least.

Gray warned improper and unsafe treatment and disposal of e-waste pose significant risks to the environment and human health. She noted that low recycling rates also result in important economic losses, because high value materials – including gold, silver, copper – are not recovered.

“We estimate that the value of recoverable material contained in the 2016 e-waste is no less than $55 billion US, which is actually more than the Gross Domestic Product in many of the world’s countries,” Gray said.

The report calls for the development of proper legislation to manage e-waste. It says a growing number of countries are moving in that direction. Currently, it says 66 percent of the world population, living in 67 countries, is covered by national e-waste management laws.
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Drinking Coffee May Prolong Life

By Uponsci | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Science

We have heard it before, but new research reconfirms that coffee is a healthy drink. But some of the other habits associated with the ritual of drinking coffee are not. VOA’s George Putic explains.
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Italian Laser Device Detects Potentially Dangerous Food Fraud

By Uponsil | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

‘Food Fraud’ costs the food and beverage industry an estimated $30 billion every year. Food fraud is the deliberate substitution or misrepresentation of food products for economic gain. It can be as harmless as selling watered down olive oil, or as dangerous as substituting starch or plastic for rice. But a new laser test developed in Italy can spot the fakes with incredible accuracy. VOAs’ Kevin Enochs reports.
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EmTech at MIT: Where Technology’s Future First Appears

By Uponsil | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Every year hundreds of the most famous names in high tech gather on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or M.I.T, for the EmTech Conference, an opportunity to discover future trends in technology that will drive the new global economy. This report by VOA Russsian Service reporter Evgeny Maslov is narrated by Bob Leverone.
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Waddling into History: Huge Ancient Penguin Inhabited New Zealand

By Uponsci | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Science

Scientists have unearthed in New Zealand fossil bones of what might be the heavyweight champion of the penguin world, a bird nearly 6 feet tall (1.77 meters) that thrived 55 to 60 million years ago, relatively soon after the demise of the dinosaurs.

Researchers said on Tuesday the ancient penguin, called Kumimanu biceae, weighed nearly 225 pounds (101 kg), and was much bigger than the largest of these flightless seabirds alive today, the emperor penguin, which grows to about 4-1/4 feet (1.2 meters) and about 90 pounds (40 kg).

The only ancient penguin yet discovered that might have been larger than Kumimanu is known only from a leg bone, said ornithologist Gerald Mayr of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt.

“Gigantism in penguins evolved more than once,” Mayr said.

Kumimanu, named after a creature from Maori folklore and the Maori word for bird, is the second-oldest known penguin. The older one, also from New Zealand, was 61 million years old.

Kumimanu’s partial skeleton lacks the skull. Mayr said other fossils indicate that the earliest penguins possessed much longer beaks than their modern relatives, useful for spearing fish.

“It would have been very impressive: as tall as many people, and a very solid, muscly animal built to withstand frequent deep dives to catch its prey,” said Alan Tennyson, vertebrate curator at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, another of the researchers in the study published in the journal Nature Communications.

“It would not have been the kind of bird that someone could catch alive. It would have been considerably more powerful than a person.”

Kumimanu and other early penguins had already developed typical penguin features including flipper-like wings and an upright stance. Studies suggest early penguins were brownish, not the trademark black and white of today’s penguins, Mayr said.

Penguins are thought to have evolved from a flying ancestor perhaps resembling a cormorant, Mayr said. The asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago also eliminated the large marine reptiles that dominated the seas, clearing the way for fish-eating divers like penguins.

Kumimanu lived long before Antarctica’s glaciation. At the time, New Zealand and Antarctica were subtropical.

“It’s a common myth that penguins only live in very cold environments such as the Antarctic region,” Tennyson said.

“Today, Galapagos penguins live at the equator, and many fossils show that early forms of penguins lived in warm seas.”
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US, EU, Japan Slam Market Distortion in Swipe at China

By Uponbiz | 12/13/2017 | No Comments | Business

The United States, European Union and Japan vowed Tuesday to work together to fight market-distorting trade practices and policies that have fueled excess production capacity, naming several key features of China’s economic system.

In a joint statement that did not single out China or any other country, the three economic powers said they would work within the World Trade Organization and other multilateral groups to eliminate unfair competitive conditions caused by subsidies, state-owned enterprises, “forced” technology transfer and local content requirements.

The move was a rare show of solidarity with the United States at a World Trade Organization meeting dominated by differences over U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” trade agenda and U.S. efforts to stall the appointment of WTO judges.

It reflected growing frustration among industrial countries over China’s trade practices, along with concerns that other developing countries will follow Beijing’s lead.

The statement said protectionist practices “are serious concerns for the proper functioning of international trade, the creation of innovative technologies and the sustainable growth of the global economy.”

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said China’s industry subsidies, including for aluminum and steel, were flooding global markets and hurting European workers in a “very, very dramatic” way.

“There’s no secret that we think that China is a big sinner here, but there are other countries that are as well,” Malmstrom told reporters on the sidelines of a business forum.

In the opening session of the WTO ministerial conference in Buenos Aires on Monday, the United States and Japan criticized a lack of transparency in some WTO members’ trade practices, a thinly veiled swipe at Beijing.

China, meanwhile, appealed for members to “join hands” and uphold WTO rules to protect globalization in the face of rising protectionism.

The joint statement came after Japan approached the European Union and the United States about overcapacity, according to an EU source, with both Tokyo and Brussels concerned about the possibility the Trump administration could act unilaterally.

“There is a thought that if we bring them into the fold, and can work jointly with them, then it reduces the risk of them going alone,” the source said.

’Playing by the rules’

Washington, Brussels and Tokyo have previously raised complaints about China’s excess production capacity in a number of industrial sectors that has pushed down world prices and caused layoffs elsewhere.

The United States recently sided with the EU in arguing that such distortions mean the WTO should not grant China market economy status, a move that would severely weaken their trade defenses.

“We have been … reaching out to China to tell them they really must start playing by the rules,” Malmstrom told reporters.

The EU’s and Japan’s willingness to cooperate with the Trump administration comes despite disagreements over the role of the WTO and the future of multilateral trade deals.

Trump has expressed his preference for bilateral negotiations, and his trade rhetoric has cast a cloud over the WTO meeting.

Efforts on Tuesday to make progress on a ministerial statement from all 164 WTO members were unsuccessful, since one country could not agree on the language, WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told reporters, declining to name that country.

U.S. officials last month blocked WTO efforts to draft a statement of unity over the “centrality” of the global trading system and the need to aid development.

A spokeswoman for the office of the U.S. trade representative could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Trump administration is considering several unilateral tariff actions on steel, aluminum and China’s intellectual property practices that are likely to draw disputes from WTO members.
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Day: December 13, 2017