02/04/2019 | UPONSOFT

Tech Women in Silicon Valley Likely to Be Foreign-Born

By Uponbiz | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Business

Pushpa Ithal may not fit the stereotype of the typical Silicon Valley CEO — she’s female, foreign-born, and a mother.

Nevertheless, Ithal is an entrepreneur, living the Silicon Valley dream of running her own startup.

Like her, many foreign-born tech women are finding a place in the Valley — as tech companies have become more and more dependent on foreign-born workers to create their products and services.

Silicon Valley, the global center for high-tech innovation, could be renamed “Immigrant Valley.” When it comes to technical talent, the engine of Silicon Valley is fueled by foreign-born workers, many of whom are from humble roots. And having worked hard to get here, many have ambitions beyond their day jobs.

One of them is Ithal.

On Sundays, she and her two children, ages 5 and 10, pick out the clothes the kids will wear the coming week. Each outfit is placed on a labeled hanger. Then she does the same with the week’s snacks.

“So there are no surprises for the kids,” Ithal said.

Being organized is one of Ithal’s strategies for juggling parenting and running her own startup. And while that juggle is commonplace in Silicon Valley, Ithal is part of a distinct club — foreign-born women in tech.

Hailing from countries such as India and China, these women make up the majority of all women in certain Silicon Valley fields and are often the only females on male-dominated teams in tech companies.

Their uniqueness does not stop there. Foreign-born women in tech are more likely to be married and have children than their U.S.-born female coworkers.

Immigrant Valley

Born in Bangalore, India, Ithal has worked for big tech companies and startups. Her husband, also from India, has built successful startups. Starting her own firm, however, was a leap.

“I came here all the way, let’s risk it,” recalled Ithal, founder and CEO of a company called MarketBeam, which is an AI-driven social marketing company.

More than 60 percent of tech workers in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, home to Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and other U.S. tech firms, are immigrants, according to the Silicon Valley Institute of Regional Studies. Immigrants work at all levels of the industry. Many are executives, company founders and venture capitalists.

But foreign-born women stand out. In an industry where women make up about 20 percent of the technical workforce, many of these jobs are filled by foreign-born women.

Technical roles

Nearly three-quarters of all women in their prime working year and in technical occupations in Silicon Valley are foreign-born, according to the institute. In computers and mathematics, foreign-born women make up nearly 80 percent of the female workforce.

The numbers surprised Rachel Massaro, vice president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley and senior researcher at the institute. It’s her job to contribute to an annual index of Silicon Valley that looks at housing, transportation and population.

“I double-checked, triple-checked the number just to make sure it was even real,” Massaro said.

Many things contribute to foreign-born women dominating tech — the dearth of women seeking a technical education in the United States, and an emphasis on tech education for girls in other countries, with many seeing technical skills as a path to financial independence and possibly a work visa in the U.S.

There are also stereotypes of what women can and should do with their lives both in the U.S. and overseas.

Working and raising children

Looking more closely at these women, Massaro found a few other surprises — 71 percent of foreign-born female tech workers ages 25-44 are married, compared to 39 percent of native-born female tech workers.

And they are more likely to be mothers — 44 percent have children, compared to 27 percent of U.S.-born female workers.

One of those women is Lingling Shi, who was born in China. She saw studying computer science as her ticket.

“Computer science, for most of us, it’s easier to apply for a green card,” she said. “It’s not my main interest, I’ll be honest.”

But Shi has succeeded in each of her jobs — she brushes up on any new technical areas online in the evenings — and is now vice president of digital banking technology at East West Bank. With her husband, who is also from China and in tech, she is raising her son.

“I guess for Chinese, the family building is most important thing,” she said.

No amount of career success would fulfill her parents’ desire for grandchildren. The message from family is clear, Shi said — “Oh, you are VP of Engineering now, but you don’t have a kid?”

Many women from India and China are “under a set of cultural expectations and norms that they will have a family right away — and they will excel in their careers,” said AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Information, who has written about immigrants in tech.

“These women are really kind of super women in the tasks that they take on,” she added.

As Silicon Valley looks to bring more women into the technical workforce, these women provide a model of how to thrive.
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Check Your Compass: Magnetic North Pole Is on Move

By Uponsci | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Science

True north isn’t quite where it used to be.

Earth’s north magnetic pole has been drifting so fast in the last few decades that scientists that past estimates are no longer accurate enough for precise navigation. On Monday, they released an update of where true north really was, nearly a year ahead of schedule.

The magnetic north pole is wandering about 34 miles (55 kilometers) a year. It crossed the international date line in 2017, and is leaving the Canadian Arctic on its way to Siberia.

The constant shift is a problem for compasses in smartphones and some consumer electronics. Airplanes and boats also rely on magnetic north, usually as backup navigation, said University of Colorado geophysicist Arnaud Chulliat, lead author of the newly issued World Magnetic Model. GPS isn’t affected because it’s satellite-based.

Magnetic north has military uses

The military depends on where magnetic north is for navigation and parachute drops, while NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Forest Service also use it. Airport runway names are based on their direction toward magnetic north and their names change when the poles moved. For example, the airport in Fairbanks, Alaska, renamed a runway 1L-19R to 2L-20R in 2009.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and United Kingdom tend to update the location of the magnetic north pole every five years in December, but this update came early because of the pole’s faster movement.

The movement of the magnetic north pole “is pretty fast,” Chulliat said.

Pole’s pace has increased

Since 1831 when it was first measured in the Canadian Arctic it has moved about 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) toward Siberia. Its speed jumped from about 9 mph (15 kph) to 34 mph (55 kph) since 2000.

The reason is turbulence in Earth’s liquid outer core. There is a hot liquid ocean of iron and nickel in the planet’s core where the motion generates an electric field, said University of Maryland geophysicist Daniel Lathrop, who wasn’t part of the team monitoring the magnetic north pole.

“It has changes akin to weather,” Lathrop said. “We might just call it magnetic weather.”

The magnetic south pole is moving far slower than the north.

In general Earth’s magnetic field is getting weaker, leading scientists to say that it will eventually flip, where north and south pole changes polarity, like a bar magnet flipping over. It has happened numerous times in Earth’s past, but not in the last 780,000 years.

“It’s not a question of if it’s going to reverse, the question is when it’s going to reverse,” Lathrop said.

Flip will take time

When it reverses, it won’t be like a coin flip, but take 1,000 or more years, experts said.

Lathrop sees a flip coming sooner rather than later because of the weakened magnetic field and an area over the South Atlantic has already reversed beneath Earth’s surface.

That could bother some birds that use magnetic fields to navigate. And an overall weakening of the magnetic field isn’t good for people and especially satellites and astronauts. The magnetic field shields Earth from some dangerous radiation, Lathrop said.
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Angelina Jolie Visits Rohingya Camps in Bangladesh Ahead of Funding Appeal

By Uponent | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Entertainment

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie on Monday visited the world’s largest refugee settlement, home to nearly one million Rohingya Muslims, in a bid to put their plight back in the headlines ahead of a United Nations $920 million funding appeal.

More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Buddhist-dominated Myanmar 18 months ago in the wake of an army crackdown described as “ethnic cleansing” by U.N. investigators and they are now living in camps in neighboring Bangladesh with no sign of moving.

A spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said Jolie, a special envoy for the organization, would spend three days visiting the camps to “assess” the needs of the Rohingya and the challenges that Bangladesh faced as a host country.

Jolie, 43, will also meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has garnered global praise for committing not to repatriate any Rohingya unwillingly, and the Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen.

The UNHCR spokesman said Jolie’s talks would center around “the need for safe and sustainable solutions to the plight of one of the world’s most persecuted minorities, the Rohingya.”

The spokesman said the visit came ahead of the launch of a new appeal seeking to raise $920 million to continue meeting the basic needs of the Rohingya. Last year, U.N. agencies launched a $950.8 million appeal for the Rohingya influx.

While this was Jolie’s first visit to Bangladesh, she met Rohingya refugees in Myanmar in 2015 and India in 2006.

The Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commission (RRRC), a government organization created to deal with the Rohingya crisis, welcomed Jolie’s visit.

“[Jolie] will definitely have a message to take back from here. We hope that the humanitarian community understands the kind of crisis the Rohingya are in through her,” RRRC commissioner Abul Kalam said.
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Zimbabwe Teachers to Strike, Ignoring Government Appeal

By Uponbiz | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Business

Zimbabwean teachers will go ahead with a national strike from Tuesday after last-ditch negotiations with the government failed, unions said, risking more unrest after violent protests last month.

The main public sector union backed down last week on its plan to strike for better pay, citing a volatile situation after security forces cracked down on protesters in January, but teachers said they would go ahead with a work stoppage.

Government officials met teachers’ unions on Monday in Harare to try to dissuade them from walking out, and to continue negotiations, but without success.

The country’s 305,000 government workers are demanding wage rises and payments in dollars to help them to deal with spiraling inflation and an economic crisis that has sapped supplies of cash, fuel and medicines in state hospitals.

The Zimbabwe Teachers Union and Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), the two biggest teachers’ unions, said their demands had not been met and the strike was on from Tuesday.

“There is no going back, the strike is indefinite. But if government concedes to our demands tomorrow, we will call it off,” said PTUZ secretary general Raymond Majongwe.

Education Minister Paul Mavhima said he had pleaded with unions to give talks a chance as the government seeks ways to address some of their grievances.

“They should be guided by considerations of the bigger national interests and in this case it is the welfare of learners,” Mavhima told reporters.

Zimbabwe was thrown into turmoil last month when a three-day stay-at-home strike against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s decision to raise the price of fuel by 150 percent turned into violent anti-government protests.

The government introduced a subsidized bus service in major cities, forcing public taxis, which had hiked prices threefold, to cut fares.

But on Monday bakers hiked the price of bread by 60 percent, according to new prices displayed in shops. The increase follows that of other basic goods like cooking oil, rice, maize meal and beef last month.

Last week private doctors set new charges in U.S. dollars.

Zimbabweans say Mnangagwa, in office since 2017, is failing to deliver on pre-election promises to provide accessible healthcare and education and to boost employment, leading to growing frustration that analysts say could trigger further unrest.

Mnangagwa and government officials, without giving evidence, accuse Western governments of funding the opposition to cause violence and unrest, an echo of the era of former President Robert Mugabe, when authorities blamed the West for most of its troubles.
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US, China Will Be Big Losers in Tit-for-Tat Trade Wars, UN Report Says

By Uponbiz | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Business

A new report from U.N. Conference on Trade and Development warns the U.S.-China trade wars will negatively impact international trade, with the two economic superpowers emerging among the biggest losers.

U.S.-China trade discussions are underway. If no agreement is reached by March 1, tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods will increase from 10 percent to 25 percent. A new UNCTAD study warns the repercussions on international trade will be massive, leading to a downturn in the global economy and instability in commodities and financial markets.

Pamela Coke-Hamilton, director of UNCTAD’s Division on International Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities, said small — and lower — income countries will suffer, as their exposure to external shocks will make it very difficult for them to maintain any level of resilience.

“Stagflation leading to job losses and higher unemployment and more importantly, the possibility of a contagion effect, or what we call a reactionary effect, leading to a cascade of other trade distortionary measures because everybody then will get in the game, and it will be very difficult,” Coke-Hamilton said.

The study predicts higher tariffs will trigger currency wars and devaluation. It warns the impact on global value chains and intermediate suppliers will be devastating. For example, the U.N. report says the relocation from East Asian value chains will result in a reduction of almost $160 billion to the region.

Coke-Hamilton said the retaliatory tariffs imposed by the United States have not achieved their intended effect. She says they have not resulted in increased domestic production, but rather will lead to a diversion of trade to third countries.

“If the tariffs rise to 25 percent,” Coke-Hamilton said. “What will occur is simple — they will limit trade from China. However, it will not be effective in protecting domestic firms. So, suppliers in the rest of the world will be more competitive. Trade diversion affects in favor of third countries.”

U.N. economists said the European Union will emerge as the biggest winner, capturing about $70 billion of U.S.-China bilateral trade. They said Japan, Mexico and Canada will each capture more than $20 billion.
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Report: Norway’s Arctic Islands at Risk of ‘Devastating’ Warming

By Uponsci | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Science

Arctic islands north of Norway are warming faster than almost anywhere on Earth and more avalanches, rain and mud may cause “devastating” changes by 2100, a Norwegian report said on Monday.

The thaw on the remote Svalbard islands, home to 2,300 people and where the main village of Longyearbyen is 1,300 kms (800 miles) from the North Pole, highlights risks in other parts of the Arctic from Alaska to Siberia.

Average temperatures on Svalbard have leapt between three and five degrees Celsius (5.4-9.0 Fahrenheit) since the early 1970s and could rise by a total of 10C (18F) by 2100 if world greenhouse gas emissions keep climbing, the study said.

Almost 200 governments promised in the 2015 Paris climate agreement to limit a rise in average global temperatures to “well below” 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times by 2100. Worldwide, temperatures are up about 1C (1.8F).

On Svalbard, the envisaged rise in temperatures would thaw the frozen ground underpinning many buildings, roads and airports, cause more avalanches, “slushflows” and landslides, melt glaciers and threaten wildlife such as polar bears and seals that rely on sea ice to hunt.

“A 10 degree warming, with the implications for Arctic nature, ice-dependent species, will be devastating,” Climate and Environment Minister Ola Elvestuen told Reuters.

Norway will have to increase investment to relocate buildings from avalanche paths and drill deeper infrastructure foundations as permafrost thaws, the report said.

Two people died in 2015 when an avalanche destroyed 10 houses in Longyearbyen.

Many other parts of the Arctic, especially its islands, are also warming far quicker than the world average as the retreat of snow and sea ice exposes darker water and ground that soaks up ever more of the sun’s heat.

Temperatures on Svalbard would stay around current levels only if governments make unprecedented cuts in global emissions, the report said. Not enough

“No one is doing enough” to limit greenhouse gas emissions, Elvestuen said of government actions. “We have to do more … The use of oil and gas has to go down.” Norway is western Europe’s biggest oil and gas exporter.

Inger Hanssen-Bauer, head of the Norwegian Centre for Climate Services, which produced the report, said the findings were a warning for the rest of the Arctic.

“The main message is that these changes are happening so fast,” she told Reuters.

Ketil Isaksen, a lead author at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, urged researchers to pay more attention to landslides as the permafrost melts. “There is now a lot of focus on snow avalanches, but landslides in summer should be taken more into account,” he said.
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Social Media Giants Blamed for British Teenage Suicides

By Uponsil | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

“She had so much to offer.”

Ian Russell is speaking of his 14-year-old daughter Molly, the youngest of three sisters, who committed suicide in 2017, leaving a note that read, “I am sorry. I did this because of me.”

After Molly’s suicide, her parents examined the teenager’s social media use and discovered she was interacting with other teenage users caught in the grip of depression and who were suicidal and self-harming. The users were almost grooming themselves and goading each other to take drastic action.

“I have no doubt that Instagram helped kill my daughter,” Molly’s father told the BBC in an explosive interview that drew a public apology from U.S. social media giant Facebook, owner of the photo sharing site Instagram, as well as a promise to do more to tackle suicide and self-harming posts.

“We’re going to look at this from top to bottom and change everything we’re doing, if necessary, to get this right,” Nick Clegg, a former British deputy prime minister and now Facebook’s head of global affairs, said in a statement.

The promise, though, has done little to tamp down criticism.

In the past eight years, the suicide rate among British teenagers has nearly doubled. Last year around 200 schoolchildren killed themselves. Tech giants do not bear all of the responsibility for the deaths, their critics say, but they are abetting them by not doing enough to help stop them.

Amid growing public uproar, the British government has said next month, it will unveil groundbreaking legislation designed to enforce a legal duty of care on such firms.

“Social media companies clearly need to do more to ensure they are not promoting harmful content to vulnerable people,” said a government official.

The British plan to order social media providers to protect users against material that promotes suicide methods and self-harm will be watched closely by policymakers in other European countries, who are also grappling with how to cope with malign consequences of social media use.

Germany is cracking down on what Facebook does with users’ personal data. In France, the government is “embedding” regulators inside social media companies to investigate how they combat online hate speech.

Since January, Facebook, in particular, has been targeted for criticism in the United States. The company operates a unique suite of apps, but U.S. critics say the social media giant is too casual about social responsibilities.

U.S. lawmakers accuse Facebook of doing too little to stop Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential race, and along with YouTube and Twitter, it has been attacked for being slow in taking down jihadist posts and videos.

Laying the groundwork for the British measure, the country’s chief medical officer will announce this week that Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp figure as important links in a dangerous chain leading from self-harm to suicide.

Sally Davies will urge parents to be more alert and to limit, as well as monitor, their children’s screen time.

The legislation is likely to be based on recommendations from a British parliamentary committee which wrapped up an inquiry last week and concluded social media use is disrupting young users’ sleep patterns, distorting their body image and leaving them exposed to bullying, grooming and sexting.

The panel said that self-regulation will no longer suffice.

“We must see an independent, statutory regulator established as soon as possible, one which has the full support of the government to take strong and effective actions against companies who do not comply,” the committee said.

Clegg said some of the criticism is over-wrought. In a television interview last week, he said the company had “saved the lives” of thousands of potentially suicidal users by flagging them to authorities.

Recent academic studies, including one by psychologists at Oxford University, suggest that social media use has no major adverse impact on mental health. The Oxford University study concluded that “wearing glasses has more negative effect on adolescent mental health.”

But the academic studies are not assuaging critics, and some lawmakers cast doubt on their overall accuracy, saying they do not look closely enough on teenage girls, who seem the most vulnerable.

“Worryingly, social media companies — who have a clear responsibility toward particularly young users — seem to be in no rush to share vital data with academics that could help tackle the very real harms our young people face in the virtual world,” said lawmaker Norman Lamb.

More than 30 British families have complained that social media giants have blocked or hindered their access to social media data after their children’s suicides. A requirement on firms to share data which can help identify and protect teenagers at risk will likely be among the new legal requirements the government unveils, officials said.

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Fears of Street Riots as British Economy Takes Brexit Hit

By Uponbiz | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Business

British lawmakers are debating new proposals on the European Union Withdrawal Agreement this week, amid a series of stark warnings over the consequences of Britain crashing out with no deal on 29 March.

Prime Minister Theresa May hopes to negotiate changes to the Withdrawal Agreement in meetings with Brussels in the coming days, after a majority of British MPs backed calls to change the deal last week. The European Union has flatly rejected reopening the talks.

There are growing signs that uncertainty over Brexit is starting to hit investment, as Japanese car giant Nissan has announced Sunday it is moving production of the X-trail — one of its most popular SUV models — out of the UK. The decision reverses a pledge made by Nissan in the wake of the 2016 referendum.

It’s emerged that Britain offered Nissan over $100 million in 2016 to persuade it to keep its operations in the UK. The reversal was met with dismay by British lawmakers.

‘”It concerns me that they have noted the uncertainty around Brexit and I think that is a serious signal to all of us in Parliament, that now is the time to resolve that uncertainty,” Business Minister Greg Clark told reporters Sunday.

As Britain’s ties stumble, Japan and the European Union are celebrating the entry into force of a trade deal, covering a third of global GDP. Visiting Tokyo Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a Brexit deal was still possible.

“But we need to know from Britain — and this is the critical point — what it envisages,” Merkel said in a press conference.

The threat of a no deal Brexit is growing starker by the day. Government contingency plans leaked to British media purportedly entail evacuating the Royal Family from Buckingham Palace. Worst-case scenarios envisage rioting on the streets amid food and medicine shortages, as waste export restrictions create mountains of garbage.

Alberto Alemanno, a professor of EU Law at HEC Paris, says neither Britain nor Europe can accurately predict the consequences of a no-deal exit.

“Obviously it’s a very complicated scenario, which entails incredible implications for citizens, for businesses on both sides of the Channel. But the other option is to rethink the Withdrawal Agreement. But not entirely — it’s just about arranging the process that might lead the Withdrawal Agreement to finally find a majority in the Houses [of Parliament].”

That might not be enough. Britain is demanding changes to the so-called “Irish backstop” clause, which seeks to keep Britain tied to EU rules until a trade deal is in place — aimed at preventing a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, which will become the EU’s external border.

But the EU is unlikely to budge, says analyst Anand Menon of the UK in a Changing Europe program at Kings College London.

“They won’t give us a time-limited backstop, because as the Irish keep staying, if it’s time-limited it’s not a backstop,” said Menon.

Reopening the Withdrawal Agreement could see other EU member states request their own changes, notably Spain’s demands for talks on the sovereignty of Gibraltar.

“Some member states could have some possible claims, certainly Spain might be one of them. But also the political context in Europe is also moving, and very fast, ahead of the next European elections,” notes Professor Alemmano.

It is a reminder that the current deadlock is just the beginning of Britain’s recasting its relationship with a fast-changing Europe — a process that could take years, if not decades.
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Demi Lovato Deletes Twitter Account Over 21 Savage Backlash

By Uponent | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Entertainment

Singer Demi Lovato has deleted her Twitter account following criticism that she was laughing at memes about 21 Savage.

The Grammy-nominated rapper was taken into federal immigration custody in the Atlanta area early Sunday. An official says the rapper is a British citizen who overstayed his visa and is also has a felony conviction.

Lovato had tweeted: “So far 21 savage memes have been my favorite part of the Super Bowl.” She later clarified she wasn’t laughing “at anyone getting deported.”

The rapper Wale tweeted he didn’t get the joke and rapper Migos wrote it wasn’t funny.

Some users thought it was wrong for others to criticize Lovato, who was hospitalized in July following a drug overdose.

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Grammy-Nominated Rapper 21 Savage Arrested, Faces Deportation

By Uponent | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Entertainment

UPDATE 2-Grammy-nominated rapper 21 Savage arrested, faces deportation

Grammy-nominated Atlanta-based rapper 21 Savage was arrested on Sunday by U.S. immigration officials, who said he was illegally in the country and a convicted felon.

The rapper, whose real name is Sha Yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, came to the United States from the UK in 2005, overstaying his visa to settle in Atlanta, said Bryan Cox, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Cox said Abraham-Joseph, whose 21 Savage Facebook page shows several upcoming concerts, was in custody in Georgia and faced deportation proceedings in federal immigration courts.

He said Abraham-Joseph was convicted on felony drug charges in Georgia in 2014, and was arrested on Sunday as part of a targeted operation with the cooperation of local law enforcement.

“Our staff are in contact with the lawyer of a British man following his detention in the USA,” Britain’s Foreign Office said in statement. British officials only get involved in such cases if the person involved is a British passport holder.

The rapper’s lawyer, Dina LaPolt, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Sunday, but told the entertainment publication Variety that Abraham-Joseph was a “role model” who was working on financial literacy programs aimed at helping underprivileged youth.

“We are working diligently to get Mr. Abraham-Joseph out of detention while we work with authorities to clear up any misunderstanding,” she said, according to Variety.

Cox said he did not know whether Abraham-Joseph, who media reports said is 26, would have been eligible for protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, which protects “Dreamers”, young immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children. DACA does not cover people convicted of felonies.

Variety said the rapper performed as recently as Thursday in Atlanta as part of the run-up to Sunday’s Super Bowl game in the city. His most recent album, “I Am > I Was”, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, the publication said.

An ICE official told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that when Abraham-Joseph was arrested in 2014, ICE was not aware of his immigration status. It only learned later that he is allegedly from the UK, the official said.

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Africa’s Growing Economies, Youth Create E-Waste Challenge

By Uponsil | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Silicon Valley

A new report says the world produces at least 50 million tons of electronic waste each year, and that number is expected to double 30 years from now. The impact of all that electronic junk is especially felt in Africa.

Mobile phones are increasingly common gadgets across Africa. You can get a phone for as little as $10 in the streets of Nairobi.

Most Kenyans, however, don’t know how to safely dispose of their old phones when they get a new one.

“I have a spoiled phone. I have kept at home maybe for future use or dispose it one day…mostly if it’s not working, I can decide to throw it away. It depends on how it has spoiled. I throw it away,” Winnie says.

It’s this kind of behavior that has environmentalists concerned, as many phones, once thrown away, end up in rivers and oceans.

The U.N. Environmental Program estimates that 50 million tons of electronic waste was produced in 2018. It says that number could climb to 120 million tons by the year 2050.

One half of so-called e-waste comprises personal devices like computers, smartphones and tablets.

Simon Omengo uses unorthodox means to dispose of his electronic gadgets.

“Since its motherboard failed then automatically I disposed it. I threw it in the toilet. I burn it, I break into pieces because it’s useless to me now,” Omengo says.

Winnie says the government needs to come up with ways to safely dispose of old devices.

“Our government (needs) to come up with a place where we can take all the gadgets, especially the phones which are spoiled. We go and dispose them there and they will know how they will dispose them, rather than just scattering around because some of the people they just throw them in the dust pin and its hazard to the environment,” Winnie says.

Experts say electronic devices are becoming complicated to repair and some don’t last long.

With more devices being thrown away, one Kenya-based group, Enviroserve, is trying to change how Africa’s e-waste is managed by stripping down re-useable metals and plastics from phones. Some materials remain in Kenya, while other parts like batteries are shipped abroad.

Shaun Mumford, the head of the company, says old phones have been simply dumped in Kenya for years.

“It wasn’t done in a way that is useful, and also it was staying here. So what we are able to do instead of Africa being the dumping ground, which historically been the case, we are able to deal with what makes sense here and send back out of the country things that need to be dealt with properly,” Mumford says.

More than half the population is under the age of 30 and the demand for the latest electronics – and dumping the old ones – is only growing.
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New England Patriots Win Low-Scoring Super Bowl

By Uponent | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Entertainment

The New England Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in Sunday’s Super Bowl in Atlanta, capturing their third National Football League championship in the span of five years.

For Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, the victory was his sixth in a Super Bowl, extending a record he already owned.

The 41-year-old star has struck down talk that he might retire after having now played in his 19th NFL season, saying during the postgame trophy ceremony, “How could this not motivate you?”

Both teams struggled to score throughout the game, with the Patriots holding a 3-0 lead at halftime and scoring the game’s only touchdown with seven minutes remaining in the final quarter.

Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman was named the game’s most valuable player after catching 10 passes for 141 yards.

”He deserves it,” Brady said. “That was one of the best games he ever played.”

The Super Bowl is one of the most-watched television events each year, as many Americans host or attend parties to watch the game.

For many, the commercials shown during breaks in the action are a bigger draw than the game itself. Many companies roll out new television ads created especially for the big game, and they pay big money to get those ads in front of viewers. This year a 30-second advertising spot cost more than $5 million, according to AdWeek.

The halftime show is also another big draw for many people. This year the NFL had some difficulty finding big-name performers for the show. Several performers, including Jay-Z, Cardi B and Rihanna, spurned the league’s offer to appear at the event as a show of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick is a black player who accused the NFL of conspiring to keep teams from signing him over his protests of racism and police brutality during the national anthem played before games.

Rappers Travis Scott and Big Boi, as well as the pop group Maroon 5, eventually signed on to perform, but Scott and Maroon 5 agreed to appear only after the league agreed to make contributions to various charities.
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Grammy-Nominated Rapper 21 Savage Arrested in US

By Uponent | 02/04/2019 | No Comments | Entertainment

Grammy-nominated Atlanta-based rapper 21 Savage was arrested by U.S. immigration officials on Sunday, who said he was illegally in the country and a convicted felon.

The rapper, whose real name is Sha Yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, came to the United States from the UK as a teenager in 2005, overstaying his visa to settle in Atlanta, said Bryan Cox, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Cox said Abraham-Joseph, whose 21 Savage Facebook page shows several upcoming concerts, was in custody in Georgia and faced deportation proceedings in federal immigration courts.

He said Abraham-Joseph was convicted on felony drug charges in Georgia in 2014, and was arrested on Sunday as part of a targeted operation with the cooperation of local law enforcement.

“We are working diligently to get Mr. Abraham-Joseph out of detention while we work with authorities to clear up any misunderstanding,” she said, according to Variety.

Cox said he did not know whether Abraham-Joseph, who media reports said is 26, would have been eligible for protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, which protects “Dreamers,” young immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children. DACA does not cover people convicted of felonies.

Variety said the rapper performed as recently as Thursday in Atlanta as part of the run-up to Sunday’s Super Bowl game in the city. His most recent album, “I Am > I Was,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, the publication said.

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Day: February 4, 2019