Month: February 2019

Most of 2030’s Jobs Haven’t Been Invented Yet

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Up to 85 percent of the jobs that today’s college students will have in 11 years haven’t been invented yet.

That’s according to a panel of experts assembled by the Institute for the Future, although an exact percentage is impossible to predict.

The IFTF, a nonprofit that seeks to identify emerging trends and their impacts on global society, forecasts that many of the tasks and duties of the jobs that today’s young people will hold in 2030 don’t exist right now.

“Those who plan to work for the next 50 years, they have to have a mindset of like, ‘I’m going to be working and learning and working and learning, and working and learning,’ in order to make a career,” says Rachel Maguire, a research director with IFTF.

By 2030, we’ll likely be living in a world where artificial assistants help us with almost every task, not unlike the way email tries to finish spelling a word for users today.

Maguire says it will be like having an assistant working alongside you, taking on tasks at which the human brain does not excel.

“For the human, for the people who are digitally literate who are able to take advantage, they’ll be well-positioned to elevate their position, elevate the kind of work they can do, because they’ve got essentially an orchestra of digital technologies that they’re conducting,” she says. “They’re just playing the role of a conductor, but the work’s being done, at least in partnership, with these machines.”

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says today’s students will have eight to 10 jobs by the time they are 38.

And they won’t necessarily have to take time away from any one of those jobs for workforce training or to gain additional certifications related to their fields. Instead, they’ll partner with machines for on-the-job learning, wearing an augmented reality headset that will give them the information they need in real-time to get the work done.

“It eliminates the need for people to step away from income generating opportunities to recertify in order to learn a new skill so they can level up and earn more money,” Maguire says. “It gives the opportunity for people to be able to learn those kinds of new skills and demonstrate proficiency in-the-moment at the job.”

And forget about traditional human resources departments or the daunting task of looking for a job on your own. In the future, the job might come to you.

Potential employers will draw from different data sources, including online business profiles and social media streams, to get a sense of a person and their skill set.

Maquire says there’s already a lot of activity around turning employment into a matchmaking endeavor, using artificial intelligence and deep learning to help the right person and the right job find each other.

In theory, this kind of online job matching could lead to less bias and discrimination in hiring practices. However, there are potential pitfalls.

“We have to be cognizant that the people who are building these tools aren’t informing these tools with their own biases, whether they’re intentional or not,” Maguire says. “These systems will only be as good as the data that feeds them.”

Which leads Maguire to another point. While she doesn’t want to sound melodramatic or evangelical about emerging technologies, she believes it is critical for the public to get engaged now, rather than sitting back and letting technology happen to them.

“What do we want from these new technological capabilities, and how do we make sure we put in place the social policies and the social systems that will result in what it is we all want?” she says. “I have a deep concern that we’re just kind of sitting back and letting technology tell us what jobs we’ll have and what jobs we won’t have, rather than us figuring out how to apply these technologies to improve the human condition.”
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Measles Spreading in US, Mostly Among Unvaccinated Children

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Measles is spreading in the U.S. As of Feb. 5, there were 50 cases in Washington state and five in Houston. New cases are being added daily. Health officials, including the U.S. surgeon general, are urging parents to get their children vaccinated.

Measles was eliminated in the U.S. 19 years ago. The cases that occur here now are imported from other countries. But that is happening in the U.S. with greater frequency. Dr. Camille Sabella is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Cleveland Clinic.

“Measles is incredibly contagious,”he said. “Once it gets around the community it’s very difficult because it’s airborne.”

18 state allow exemptions

Eighteen states allow parents to not vaccinate their children if they have moral, personal or philosophical objections to it.

A measles outbreak in the U.S. northwestern state of Washington has state health officials scrambling to contain it. Dr. Jason Hanley sees emergency cases at the medical center, PeaceHealth.

“I hope I’m wrong, but I think the cases are going to get more frequent and spread throughout the country from this epicenter,” he said.

Rural areas in the U.S. tend to be have higher numbers of unvaccinated children. But there are significant numbers in cities such as Houston, Austin and Seattle, where immunization rates are lower than in other U.S. cities.

Houston just reported two new cases of measles in children younger than 2, bringing the total to five as of Feb. 6.

Doctors, including U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, are urging parents to get their children vaccinated.

“As United States Surgeon General, I want everyone to know that the best protection is getting vaccinated,” he said.

The measles vaccine is almost 100 percent effective. Doctors recommend that children get two doses.

“With one dose of vaccine, about 95 percent of children will become protected against measles. The reason that we give a second dose is because about 5 percent of children do not respond to the first dose. So with two doses over 99 percent of children are protected against measles.”

Measles can be fatal

Measles makes people very sick, and it is especially dangerous for young children. At Children’s National Medical Center, Dr. Roberta DeBiasi works as an infectious disease specialist.

“One-third of those cases will end up hospitalized, and that may be due to a variety of complications,” she said.

Complications such as pneumonia or encephalitis, a swelling of the brain, can be fatal or lead to permanent disability.

That’s why doctors urge parents to get their children vaccinated.
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Green Roofs Benefit People, Environment

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Excess rainwater flowing into streams and waterways — carrying pollutants and contaminants — is a problem for urban areas across the country. To combat it, an increasing number of cities across the U.S. are initiating programs like rooftop gardens to help absorb the rain, and in some cases also grow food. VOA’s Julie Taboh takes us to a rooftop garden in Washington, a city with one of greatest numbers of green roofs.
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Virtual Reality Training Prepares Volunteers for Urban War Zones

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

There is no real preparation for dealing with the reality of being in a combat zone. But training helps, and that’s the idea behind a virtual reality exercise that the International Committee of the Red Cross is providing to field employees. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Part of Keystone Oil Pipeline Remains Shut After Potential Leak

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

A portion of TransCanada Corp’s Keystone oil pipeline remained shut on Thursday for investigation of a possible leak on its right-of-way near St. Louis, Missouri, a company spokesman said.

TransCanada shut the pipeline on Wednesday between Steele City, Nebraska and Patoka, Illinois and sent crews to assess the situation, spokesman Terry Cunha said in an email.

The 590,000 barrels-per-day Keystone pipeline is a critical artery taking Canadian crude from northern Alberta to U.S. refineries.

Two pipelines operating near the release site will be excavated on Friday to determine the source of the leak, said Darius Kirkwood, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The agency is monitoring the response to the reported leak, he said.

Canadian pipelines are already congested because of expanding production in recent years, forcing the Alberta provincial government to order production cuts starting last month. Canadian heavy oil has attracted greater demand following U.S. sanctions against Venezuela’s state oil company.

The discount on Canadian heavy crude compared to U.S. light oil widened to $10.15 per barrel on Thursday morning from $9.40 earlier, according to Net Energy Exchange.

TransCanada shares eased 0.2 percent to C$55.98 in Toronto.

An official with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources said on Wednesday that the release of oil had stopped and it planned to find the leak on Thursday.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

 
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Bezos: Enquirer Threatening to Publish Revealing Photos

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says the National Enquirer is threatening to publish revealing photographs of him unless his private investigators back off the tabloid.

Bezos detailed the revelations in a Thursday post on Medium.com. He accuses the Enquirer of “extortion and blackmail.”

The National Enquirer published a story last month that included lurid texts between Bezos and former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez. Since then, private investigators have been looking into how the Enquirer got the texts.

Bezos says the Enquirer’s parent company tried to get him to agree to a deal for the tabloid not to publish the explicit photos.

As part of the deal, Bezos would have to release a public statement that he has “no knowledge or basis” to suggest the tabloid’s reporting was politically motivated.
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Frank Robinson, Baseball’s First Black Manager, Dies at 83   

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Legendary baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, the first black manager in the U.S. major leagues, died Thursday in Los Angeles at 83.

He had been suffering from bone cancer and was in hospice care at his home.

Even if he had not become baseball’s first African-American manager, Robinson’s feats on the playing field would have been enough to earn him a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

During his career as an outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, California Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers, Robinson hit 586 home runs, played in 14 All-Star games, helped lead the Orioles to three straight World Series, and was an outstanding and aggressive fielder.

He was named Rookie of the Year during his first season in 1956 playing for the Reds. 

Robinson is the only player in major league history to win the Most Valuable Player award in both the American and National leagues.

He made history in 1975 when the Cleveland Indians hired him as a player-manager, the first black manager in the major leagues. He made an impressive debut, hitting a home run on the first day. 

He later managed the Orioles, Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Montreal Expos, and Washington Nationals. He was named Manager of the Year in 1989 when he was with the Orioles.

Robinson worked as a baseball executive after retiring as a manager in 2006.
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Apple to Contribute to Teen’s Education for Spotting FaceTime Bug 

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Apple Inc. on Thursday rolled out software updates to iPhones to fix a privacy issue in its FaceTime video calling service, and said it would contribute toward the education of the Arizona teenager who discovered the problem. 

The software bug, which had let users hear audio from people who had not yet answered a video call, was discovered by a Tucson, Ariz., high school student Grant Thompson, who with his mother, Michele, led Apple to turn off FaceTime group chat as its engineers investigated the issue.

The technology giant said it would compensate the Thompson family and make an additional gift toward 14-year-old Grant’s education.

Apple also formally credited Thompson and Daven Morris from Arlington, Texas in the release notes to its latest iPhone software update.

“In addition to addressing the bug that was reported, our team conducted a thorough security audit of the FaceTime service and made additional updates to both the FaceTime app and server to improve security,” Apple said in a statement.

Two key U.S. House Democrats on Tuesday asked Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook to answer questions about the bug, saying they were “deeply troubled” by how long it took Apple to address the security flaw.

The company said last week that it was planning to improve how it handles reports of software bugs.
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Woody Allen Sues Amazon for $68 Million for Breach of Contract

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Filmmaker Woody Allen has filed a $68 million lawsuit against Amazon for breach of contract, accusing the streaming giant of canceling a film deal because of a “baseless” decades-old allegation that he sexually abused his daughter.

Allen says Amazon sought to terminate the deal in June, and has since refused to pay him $9 million in financing for his latest film, A Rainy Day in New York, his lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan allege.

That film was one of several to be produced with the Oscar-winning director under a series of agreements reached after Allen made the Crisis in Six Scenes program for Amazon, which was then a new content provider.

He is seeking that $9 million along with minimum guarantees owed him for other films, totaling “in excess of $68,000,000,” according to a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in New York and obtained by AFP.

He says Amazon told him the deal had become “impracticable” because of “supervening events, including renewed allegations against Mr. Allen, his own controversial comments” and the refusal of actors to work with him.

Allen has been accused of molesting Dylan Farrow, his adopted daughter, when she was seven years old in the early 1990s.

He was cleared of the charges, first leveled by his then-partner Mia Farrow, after two separate months-long investigations, and has steadfastly denied the abuse. But Dylan, now an adult, maintains she was molested.

In June last year, the same month that Amazon apparently terminated his contract, Allen backed the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment — and said he should be its poster boy.

“I’ve worked in movies for 50 years, I’ve worked with hundreds of actresses, and not a single one has ever suggested any kind of impropriety at all,” he said in an interview with Argentina’s Canal 13 television network.

“I — who was only accused by one woman in a child custody case, which was looked at and proven to be untrue — I get lumped in with these people.”

In recent months, a string of actors who have worked with Allen have distanced themselves from him, and said they would no longer work with him.

Amazon did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
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Researchers Seek Fuller Picture of First Africans in America

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

The first Africans to arrive in North America were so little noted by history that many are known today by only their first names: Antony and Isabella, Angelo, Frances and Peter.

Almost 400 years ago, they were kidnapped and forcibly sailed across the ocean aboard three slave ships — the San Juan Bautista, the White Lion and the Treasurer — and then sold into bondage in Virginia.

Now their descendants, along with historians and genealogists, are seeking recognition for a group of 20-some Africans they describe as critical to the survival of Jamestown, England’s first successful settlement in North America.

“We need to reclaim our history. We need to tell our story,” said Calvin Pearson, head of Project 1619, which is named after the year those first Africans landed near what became Hampton, Virginia.

A few historical markers and records mention these early slaves, but there’s been scant research on their lives. Pearson and others are working to learn more.

Before the slaves arrived, Jamestown was starving. “Basically all of those people were right off of the streets in England,” said Kathryn Knight, who in May will release a book titled “Unveiled – The Twenty & Odd: Documenting the First Africans in England’s America 1619-1625 and Beyond.”

Those colonists “didn’t know how to grow anything. They didn’t know how to manage livestock. They didn’t know anything about survival in Virginia,” Knight said. The Africans “saved them by being able to produce crops, by being able to manage the livestock. They kept them alive.”

The slaves’ arrival marked the beginning of the region’s fractured relationship with blacks. More than two centuries later, Virginia became home to the Confederate capital, and in the last week its governor has been pressured to resign for appearing in a racist photo in a 1984 yearbook.

The new arrivals were Catholic and many spoke multiple languages, according to Ric Murphy, an author and descendant of John Gowan, one of the Angolan captives.

They came from a royal city and “were quite informed and educated, and several of them, based upon what they did in the latter part of their years, clearly were leaders in the community in one form or the other,” Murphy said. “Many of them became landowners, which is quite different from the false narrative of what an enslaved person was.”

In Jamestown, historian Mark Summers leads tourists down paths that Angelo — also known as Angela — walked after being sold to a Captain William Pierce.

Like many of that first group, her life is largely a mystery. In fact, her entire known biography “could probably fit on a 3×5 index card,” Summers said. But being able to show people where she lived and walked is a spiritual experience for some, he said.

For African-Americans, “this is the same thing as going to Plymouth Rock,” said Summers, who works at the Historic Jamestowne park. “Here’s a place where you can stand and say, ‘We set foot here, and we can still walk this ground.’”

The first Africans were among more than 300 taken out of the Ndongo region of Angola, a Portuguese colony of mostly Catholic Africans, on the San Juan Bautista bound for Mexico. That ship was attacked and plundered by the White Lion and the Treasurer, which together seized about 60 slaves. After stopping in the Caribbean and trading some of the slaves for provisions, the White Lion sailed for Virginia with its human cargo.

Englishman John Rolfe, who would later marry Pocahontas, documented the White Lion’s arrival at what was then called Point Comfort.

“He brought not anything but 20, and odd Negars, which the Governor and Cape Merchant bought for victualle,” Rolfe wrote in a letter in January 1620, meaning that the colony purchased the slaves with provisions.

A 1620 census showed 17 African women and 15 African men in Jamestown.

Although sold into servitude, many of those original Angolans fared better than the millions of African slaves who came to North America later, said John Thorton, a Boston University professor of African American studies and history.

“They had a better chance at a better future than almost anybody who followed them because they were the first,” Thorton said. “A lot of them ended up owning property, and they ended up owning slaves of their own.”

By intermingling with the English colonists, some had children who ended up passing for white and merging into early colonial society, Thorton said.

Some, like the Catholic John Pedro, met with tragedy, Pearson said.

Pedro “ended up owning quite a bit of land in Virginia. When the English Civil War broke out, it was Protestants versus Catholics,” Pearson said. Pedro moved to Maryland to live with other Catholics, but he was captured in a battle and executed.

Antony and Isabella became servants for a Captain William Tucker, gained their freedom around 1635 and started a homestead in Kent County, Virginia, Pearson said. Around 1623, they had a son named William Tucker who “became the first documented African child born in English-occupied North America.”

Descendants of Antony and Isabella are buried at a Hampton cemetery that has been in use since the 1600s, Pearson said.

Knight has a different interpretation of those early records, concluding that Frances gave birth to Peter first, making him the first African child born in Virginia.

Described in later records as a “Negro carpenter,” Peter married and received his freedom with the promise of paying 10,000 pounds of tobacco to his master around 1676. He made the last payment in 1682, Knight said.

Murphy, who wrote “Freedom Road: An American Family Saga from Jamestown to World War,” said it’s important for black people to know about these first Africans because it “helps us have more ownership of American history.”

Pearson, whose organization plans to honor the anniversary of the Africans’ arrival on Aug. 24, agrees.

“From here, we see the beginnings of the Africa imprint on what would become the United States of America. It’s worth remembering.”
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Apple Puts Modem Engineering Unit Into Chip Design Group

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Apple Inc has moved its modem chip engineering effort into its in-house hardware technology group from its supply chain unit, two people familiar with the move told Reuters, a sign the tech company is looking to develop

a key component of its iPhones after years of buying it from outside suppliers.

Modems are an indispensable part of phones and other mobile devices, connecting them to wireless data networks. Apple once used Qualcomm Inc chips exclusively but began phasing in Intel Corp chips in 2016 and dropped Qualcomm from iPhones released last year.

Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, took over the company’s modem design efforts in January, the sources said. The organizational move has not been previously reported.

Srouji joined Apple in 2008 to lead chip design, including the custom A-series processors that power iPhones and iPads and a special Bluetooth chip that helps those devices pair with its AirPods wireless headphones and other Apple accessories.

The modem efforts had previously been led by Rubén Caballero, who reports to Dan Riccio, the executive responsible for iPad, iPhone and Mac engineering, much of which involves integrating parts from the company’s vast electronics supply chain.

Apple declined to comment. Technology publication The Information previously reported that Apple was working to develop its own modem chip.

The Cupertino, California-based company has posted job listings for modem engineers in San Diego, a hub for wireless design talent because of Qualcomm’s longtime presence there and a place where Apple has said it plans to build up its workforce.

Apple’s effort to make its own modem chips could take years, and it is impossible to know when, or in what devices, such chips might appear.

“When you’re Apple, everything has to be good,” said Linley Gwennap, president of chip industry research firm The Linley Group. “There’s no room for some substandard component in that phone.”

5G on horizon

Apple’s investment in modem chips comes as carriers and other phone makers are rolling out devices for the next generation of faster wireless networks known as 5G.

Rival handset makers Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd already make their own modems.

Making its own modem chips would likely cost Apple hundreds of millions of dollars or more per year in development costs, analysts said, but could save it money eventually.

Modem chips are a major part of the cost of Apple devices, worth $15 to $20 each and likely costing Apple $3 billion to $4 billion for the 200 million or so iPhones it makes a year, said Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon.

Apple may also benefit by combining its modem chips with its processor chips, as Samsung, Huawei and most other phone makers do. That saves space and battery life, two important considerations if Apple introduces augmented reality features into future products.
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Melania Trump to Anti-drug Group: ‘Recovery is Possible’

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Melania Trump, addressing an anti-drug conference, says “recovery is possible.”

The first lady traveled to Maryland on Thursday to address the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s annual youth leadership forum. Her signature “Be Best” campaign focuses on a number of issues, including the opioid crisis.

Mrs. Trump spoke about a former opioid and substance abuse addict who joined her for Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

The first lady says Ashley Evans received treatment at an Ohio facility, has been in recovery for over a year and looks forward to being reunited with her daughter.

Mrs. Trump says Evans’ story shows “recovery is possible” and that community programs can help make a difference.

The first lady was also visiting the Office of National Drug Control Policy for a briefing.
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WMO: 2018 Was 4th Hottest Year on Record

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

The World Meteorological Organization says 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record confirming, what it calls a clear sign that long-term climate change is going on.

Of the four past record-breaking years, 2016 was the hottest. The World Meteorological Organization says temperatures that year reached a global average of 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.  It says the increased warming in the atmosphere was influenced by a strong El-Nino event, which causes sea temperatures to rise in the tropical Pacific.   

Temperatures in 2018 dipped to 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.  But meteorologists say the ranking of individual years is less important than the long-term temperature trend in gauging climate change.

The WMO says other factors besides temperature are involved in changing climate.  WMO spokeswoman Claire Nullis says extreme weather events also play an important role.

“Obviously, as we continue in 2019, we are seeing more extreme weather… in different parts of the world, including dangerous and extreme cold in North America, record heat and wildfires in Australia, high temperatures and rainfall in parts of South America,” Nullis said.

While Australia was baking in its warmest January on record, a cold weather front was gripping parts of the eastern United States. Nullis says freezing temperatures do not disprove climate change is happening.

“We do not just have climate change.  We have the daily weather.  It is summer in the southern hemisphere right now.  So, we do expect to see high temperatures.  It is winter in the northern hemisphere.   We expect to see cold temperatures.  But, in the southern hemisphere, we have seen extreme heat.  A lot of records broken,” she said.  

Nullis added that every single heat wave cannot be attributed to climate change.  But she noted that extreme heat is one symptom of climate change.  It is one of the phenomena expected from a changing climate.

 
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Germany to Restrict Facebook’s Data Gathering Activities

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Facebook has been ordered to curb its data collection practices in Germany after a landmark ruling on Thursday that the world’s largest social network abused its market dominance to gather information about users without their consent.

Germany, where privacy concerns run deep, is in the forefront of a global backlash against Facebook, fueled by last year’s Cambridge Analytica scandal in which tens of millions of Facebook profiles were harvested without their users’ consent.

The country’s antitrust watchdog objected in particular to how Facebook pools data on people from third-party apps — including its own WhatsApp and Instagram — and its online tracking of people who aren’t even members through Facebook ‘like’ or ‘share’ buttons.

“In future, Facebook will no longer be allowed to force its users to agree to the practically unrestricted collection and assigning of non-Facebook data to their Facebook accounts,” Federal Cartel Office chief Andreas Mundt said.

Facebook said it would appeal the decision, the culmination of a three-year probe, saying the regulator underestimated the competition it faced, and undermined Europe-wide privacy rules that took effect last year.

“We disagree with their conclusions and intend to appeal so that people in Germany continue to benefit fully from all our services,” Facebook said in a blog post.

In its order, the cartel office said Facebook would only be allowed to assign data from WhatsApp or Instagram to its main Facebook app accounts if users consented voluntarily. Collecting data from third-party websites and assigning it to Facebook would similarly require consent.

If consent is withheld, Facebook would have to substantially restrict its collection and combining of data. It should develop proposals to do this within 12 months, subject to the outcome of appeal proceedings at the Duesseldorf Higher Regional Court that should be filed within a month.

If Facebook fails to comply, the cartel office said it could impose fines of up to 10 percent of the company’s annual global revenues, which grew by 37 percent to $55.8 billion last year. Antitrust lawyer Thomas Vinje, a partner at Clifford Chance in Brussels, said the Cartel Office ruling had potentially far-reaching implications.

“This is a landmark decision,” he told Reuters. “It’s limited to Germany but strikes me as exportable and might have a significant impact on Facebook’s business model.”

Vinje said it would be tough for Facebook to persuade the court that the Cartel Office’s definition of the market for social media, and its dominance, were misguided. This is a battle that many firms have fought in court and lost, he added.

Implications

German Justice Minister Katarina Barley welcomed the ruling. “Users are often unaware of this flow of data and cannot prevent it if they want to use the services,” she told Reuters. “We need to be rigorous in tackling the abuse of power that comes with data.”

The German antitrust regulator’s powers were expanded in 2017 to include consumer protection in public-interest cases where it could argue that a company — such as Facebook — had so little competition that consumers lack any effective choice.

Facebook has an estimated 23 million daily active users in Germany, giving it a market share of 95 percent, according to the Cartel Office which considers Google+ — a rival social network that is being closed down to be its only competitor.

Facebook said the cartel office failed to recognize the extent of competition it faced from Google’s YouTube or Twitter for users’ attention, and also said the regulator was encroaching into areas that should be handled by data protection watchdogs.

Facebook is considering appealing on the data protection issues to the European Court of Justice, but here the Cartel Office may also have the upper hand, said Vinje, the lawyer.

“It seems to me that the Federal Cartel Office is informed by data protections, but not dependent on them, and that it has based its decision squarely on competition law,” he said.

The European Commission said: “We are closely following the work of the Bundeskartellamt both in the framework of the European Competition Network and through direct contacts.”

“The European legislator has made sure that there is now a regulation in place that addresses this type of conduct, namely the General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR],” it added.

As part of complying with the GDPR, Facebook said it had rebuilt the information its provides people about their privacy and the controls they have over their information, and improved the privacy ‘choices’ that they are offered. It would also soon launch a ‘clear history’ feature, it said.

Mundt also expressed concern over reports that Facebook, which counts 2.7 billion users worldwide, plans to merge the infrastructure of its Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram services.

“If I understand things correctly, this move would intensify the pooling of data,” said Mundt. “It’s not very hard to conclude that, putting it carefully, this could be relevant in antitrust terms. We would have to look at this very closely.”

Facebook has said that discussions on such a move are at a very early stage.
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Berlin Filmfest Rolls Out Red Carpet for Women Trailblazers

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Europe’s first major film festival of the year, the Berlinale, kicked off Thursday making a statement against entertainment industry sexism by welcoming an unprecedented line-up of female directors.

The 11-day event prides itself on being the most politically engaged of the A-list cinema showcases, presenting 400 movies from around the world, most on hard-hitting topical themes including rising extremism and economic exploitation.

But its red carpet promises a steady stream of glamour too with Christian Bale, Diane Kruger, Tilda Swinton, Catherine Deneuve, Jonah Hill, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Casey Affleck all awaited in the frosty German capital.

French Oscar winner Juliette Binoche, 54, is leading a six-member panel choosing the winner of the prestigious Golden and Silver Bear prizes, to be awarded at a gala ceremony on February 16.

Last year, with the #MeToo movement against abuses of power roiling the industry, the innovative docudrama “Touch Me Not” about sexual intimacy by Romania’s Adina Pintilie clinched the top honours.

For the first time this year, seven out of the 17 contenders are women — a more than 40-percent share that eclipses rivals such as Cannes and Venice, which have come under fire as chummy men’s clubs.

The top festivals have long faced pressure to boost their female representation as they serve as gatekeepers to international distribution, awards and box office cash.

‘Big step forward’

Binoche welcomed the more diverse selection, saying it was long overdue and sent a message beyond the world of cinema.

“I think that’s a good step forward, 10 years ago was not like that,” she told reporters. “Open minds — it’s a good sign.”

British producer, director and actress Trudie Styler, 65, who is also on the jury, said the Berlinale had long championed films by underrepresented groups but that this year’s selection was “not only courageous but a big step forward.”

Denmark’s Lone Scherfig, who made the Oscar-nominated coming-of-age tale “An Education” in 2009, will start the festival with the premiere of her film “The Kindness of Strangers” on Thursday evening.

The bittersweet drama stars Zoe Kazan (“The Big Sick”) as a mother of two who has to rely on her fellow New Yorkers for help, in a cast including Andrea Riseborough (“The Death Of Stalin”) and Bill Nighy (“Love Actually”).

Scherfig, 59, said she was proud her film would be opening the last Berlinale under Kosslick, who is passing on the baton after 18 years.

“It’s a milestone edition so I’m really looking forward to presenting the film there,” Scherfig told film industry bible Variety.

Polish veteran Agnieszka Holland will unveil the Stalin-era thriller “Mr Jones” starring James Norton (“Happy Valley”) while France’s Agnes Varda will premiere a new autobiographical documentary out of competition.

Acclaimed French director Francois Ozon will present his controversial new drama “By the Grace of God” based on real-life cases of sex abuse allegedly committed by a French priest.

A cardinal, Philippe Barbarin, is currently on trial in Lyon on charges he covered up the assaults, allegations he denies.

‘World’s biggest festival’

Kosslick, 70, is credited with expanding the Berlinale and boosting its international profile with high-wattage guests ranging from the Rolling Stones to festival regulars Swinton and George Clooney.

“Our fans have stayed true to us and grown so much that we can say we’re the world’s biggest film festival in terms of audience,” Kosslick told AFP, with around a half-million tickets sold each year.

Kosslick will be handing over the reins at a time of growing competition from streaming services but said he saw scope for cinemas to “co-exist” and thrive.

After winning the Golden Lion top prize at the Venice film festival in September with “Roma”, Netflix will enter the Berlin race for the first time with gay marriage drama “Elisa and Marcela” by Spain’s Isabel Coixet, based on a true story.

In June, Kosslick will be succeeded by Carlo Chatrian, the current head of the Locarno film festival, and Mariette Rissenbeek, the Dutch director of German Film, which promotes homegrown movies abroad.

For his last edition, Kosslick has opted to make a parting political statement, offering to buy tickets for leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany party to a screening of “Who Will Write Our History?”, a documentary about the Warsaw Ghetto.
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Twitter Profit Soars as User Base Shrinks

By Uponsil | | No Comments | Silicon Valley

Twitter said Thursday profits rose sharply in the fourth quarter, lifted by gains in advertising despite a drop in its global user base.

The short-messaging platform said it posted a $255 million profit in the final three months of 2018, compared with $91 million a year earlier, as revenues rose 24 percent to $909 million.

But Twitter’s base of monthly active users declined to 321 million — a drop of nine million from a year earlier and five million from the prior quarter.

Twitter said it would stop using the monthly user base metric and instead report “monetizable” daily active users in the US and worldwide.

Using that measure, Twitter showed a base of 126 million worldwide, up nine percent over the year.

“2018 is proof that our long-term strategy is working,” said chief executive Jack Dorsey.

“Our efforts to improve health have delivered important results, and new product features like a single switch to move between latest and most relevant tweets have been embraced by the people who use Twitter. We enter this year confident that we will continue to deliver strong performance by focusing on making Twitter a healthier and more conversational service.”

Twitter shares sputtered and then fell sharply after the report, dropping as much as eight percent in pre-market trade.

Jasmine Enberg of the research firm eMarketer said the earnings were nonetheless positive.

“Twitter’s Q4 earnings prove that the company is still able to grow its revenues without increasing its user base,” she said.

“The falloff in monthly active users is likely a continuation of Twitter’s efforts to remove questionable accounts.”

Twitter, which has struggled to keep up with fast-growing rivals like Facebook and Instagram, said it changed the measure for its user base to reflect “our goal of delivering value to people on Twitter every day and monetizing that usage.”

 

 

 
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Is the Urban Jungle the Answer to Helping Some Endangered Species?

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

In Southern California, there are some special creatures that have adapted and thrived in an urban environment. Some advocates for conservation and the environment say a city may be the perfect man-made space for some endangered species. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from Los Angeles.
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Report: Kenya’s Stringent Laws Limit Access to Safe Abortions

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Kenyan health officials say unsafe abortions are common in the east African nation with nearly half a million in one recent year. 

Abortion is prohibited unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger. 

Advocates for less restrictive policies argue that unsafe abortions contribute to a high level of maternal deaths.

One woman’s story

Meet Martha Hope, that’s not her real name. She was married with three children when she became pregnant again in 2010. The 33-year-old woman said her husband told her he was not ready to bring up another child in poverty. 

At six months, she visited a neighborhood clinic that was willing to provide an illegal abortion. The doctor mixed some concoctions for her to take.

Martha says she started bleeding and that she sat in a bucket full of cold water.

“I was sweating and losing strength, the fetus came out, but now the problem was that the placenta did not. I passed out,” she said.

Martha is now on medication for depression as a result of the trauma she experienced.

Thousands of unsafe abortions

A 2018 report indicated that nearly half a million unsafe abortions occurred in Kenya in 2012.

Josephine Kamau, a nurse at Provide International Hospital in Dandora, says back alley abortions are all too common.

“We get three to four cases in a month in our facility,” she said, “but remember, there are others who die at home, who may have no one to bring them to the facility. Maybe they opted not to tell anybody.”

Maternal health services

For the last 30 years, the Marie Stopes organization has provided a wide range of maternal health services including family planning, safe abortion and post-abortion care in Kenya.

The organization says seven women in Kenya die daily from unsafe abortions.

“There are multiple causes for this,” said Dana Tilson, the Marie Stopes’ Kenya country director, “including restrictions in the law for safe abortion including lack of information on where to get safe services. There are also particularly for young people, limited access to contraception, and when you have a situation where contraception is limited, there is a stigma around younger people getting pregnant and having sex before marriage.”

Last year, the Kenya Film Classification Board banned a Marie Stopes media campaign that sought to raise awareness about unsafe abortions. 

According to the board, the campaign encouraged teenagers to obtain the procedure. Marie Stopes was then temporarily banned from providing safe abortions in that country.

Adoption

Virginia Nehemiah of Crisis pregnancy, a faith-based, Christian organization in Kenya, says her group helps women make a different choice.

“The issue of choice only considers two choices: carry or abort,” she said. “There are other choices, but people don’t always talk about them. There is adoption. How many families are out there not getting babies and they want children…”

Tilson, of Marie Stopes, says women terminate pregnancies for various reasons.

“When they have an unwanted or an unintended pregnancy, they are often desperate and they do not know where to go, and no matter what, they are going to terminate that pregnancy; they will do anything to do that and often they will go to a backstreet abortionist and these quacks are very dangerous,” she said.

Loss of US funding

For decades, the U.S government has been a big donor for family planning services in Africa; however, the global gag rule that President Donald Trump signed when he took office in 2017 bans the U.S. from giving any money in development aid to any overseas organization that promotes or provides abortions. 

This has affected operations of NGOs such as Marie Stopes.

When the gag order was signed, Marie Stopes said it lost about $30 million for multiple countries where it had been receiving U.S. funding for family planning.

The World Health Organization estimates 25 million unsafe abortions take place globally each year with almost all in developing countries.
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