International business in the United States and Europe, as well as Ukrainian state institutions, were among those affected by cyberattacks on Tuesday. The virus locked digital files and demanded payment for help to restore access to them. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Month: June 2017
Tech Innovations for Developing Countries
While technological revolution is changing much of the world, there are still areas that have seen only very small benefits, or none at all. There, people still live without electricity, clean water and basic healthcare. At a competition recently held in Washington, innovators presented affordable new devices, specially designed to help improve the lives of the world’s poorest. VOA’s George Putic reports.
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Skin Patch Vaccine Protects Against Influenza
Scientists have developed a skin patch that may soon take the “ouch” out of being vaccinated.
Every year, in the United States, less than half of the adults who should get a flu vaccine actually get the shot. That’s a problem because while most people tend to think of influenza as a mild disease, the infection can be deadly, especially in the elderly, young children and people with compromised immune systems.
To help raise that percentage researchers have developed a self-administered skin patch to protect against seasonal influenza as well as a shot. Researchers who developed the vaccine patch said it has a lot of advantages over an injection.
Nadine Rouphael was principal investigator of the patch at Emory University School of Medicine in Georgia where she’s a professor of infectious diseases. “The patch looks more like a Band Aid, like a nicotine patch, and then it has multiple very small needles that contain, in this case, influenza vaccine. Those microneedles completely dissolve into the skin and there will be no sharp waste afterwards,” said Rouphael.
The flu vaccine is currently administered by an injection into the muscle of the upper arm. It is painful and can leave some redness and swelling, which is why an estimated 60 percent of adults do not get immunized against seasonal flu.
In the first human clinical trial of the patch at Emory’s Hope Clinic, 100 participants aged 18-49, tested the effectiveness of the vaccine patch.
The trial, reported in the journal The Lancet, took place in June 2015. None of the participants had received a flu vaccine during the previous influenza season. The participants were divided into four groups. In one group the patch was administered by a health care provider, in the second it was self-administered by each participant, a third group received the vaccine via injection and a fourth group got a placebo.
Rouphael said the patch, whether it was put on the skin by a health care provider or by the participants, was as safe and effective as the intramuscular injection. Side effects were limited to mild redness and swelling that lasted for a few days. More importantly, the researchers found the immune responses were present in both the patch group and those who received the injection six months later, meaning they offered comparable protection.
Rouphael added the participants who used the patch liked it. “We do have a lot of people who are typically scared of needles and they were more prone or more excited as being part of this clinical trial so they could try the microneedle instead.”
The patch would only have to be put on the skin for a few minutes and then thrown away. Rouphael said 70 percent of those who received the patch in the trial indicated they would prefer it over an injection.
Because it does not need refrigeration, Rouphael said the patch could be bought off a store shelf or mailed to patients. The fact that it is painless, said Rouphael, means more people are likely to get vaccinated against the seasonal flu virus. The patch’s manufacturer, Global Center for Medical Innovation in Atlanta, is investigating using the device for other vaccines, including for measles, mumps and rubella.
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AP Explains: What is Ransomware?
Computers around the world were locked up and users’ files held for ransom in a cyberattack Tuesday that paralyzed some hospitals, government offices and major multinational corporations.
Here’s a look at how malware and ransomware work and what people can do if they fall victim to attacks.
What is malware and ransomware?
Malware is a general term that refers to software that’s harmful to your computer, says John Villasenor, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Ransomware is a type of malware that essentially takes over a computer and prevents users from accessing data on it until a ransom is paid, he says.
How does your computer become infected with ransomware?
In most cases, the software infects computers through links or attachments in malicious messages known as phishing emails.
“The age-old advice is to never click on a link in an email,” said Jerome Segura, a senior malware intelligence researcher at Malwarebytes, a company based in San Jose, California, that has released anti-ransomware software. “The idea is to try to trick the victim into running a malicious piece of code.”
The software usually is hidden within links or attachments in emails. Once the user clicks on the link or opens the document, their computer is infected and the software takes over.
But some of the major ransomware attacks recently, including last month’s WannaCry and the one spreading Tuesday, borrowed leaked National Security Agency code that permits software to spread quickly within an organization’s network.
How ransomware works
“Ransomware, like the name suggests, is when your files are held for ransom,” said Peter Reiher, a UCLA professor who specializes in computer science and cybersecurity. “It finds all of your files and encrypts them and then leaves you a message. If you want to decrypt them, you have to pay.”
The ransomware encrypts data on the computer using an encryption key that only the attacker knows. If the ransom isn’t paid, the data is often lost forever.
When the ransomware takes over a computer, the attackers are pretty explicit in their demands, Segura says. In most cases, they change the wallpaper of the computer and give specific instructions telling the user how to pay to recover their files.
Most attackers demand $300 to $500 to remove the malicious ransomware; the price can double if the amount isn’t paid within 24 hours. The demand in Tuesday’s attack was $300 per computer, according to security researchers.
Law enforcement officials have discouraged people from paying these ransoms.
How to avoid these attacks
The first step is being cautious, experts say. Users should also look for malicious email messages that often masquerade as emails from companies or people you regularly interact with online. It’s important to avoid clicking on links or opening attachments in those messages, since they could unleash malware, Villasenor says.
But Villasenor says there is “no perfect solution” to the problem.
Users should regularly back up their data and ensure that security updates are installed on your computer as soon as they are released. Up-to-date backups make it possible to restore files without paying a ransom.
WannaCry and Tuesday’s attack exploited vulnerabilities in some versions of Microsoft Windows. Microsoft has released software patches for the security holes, although not everyone has installed those updates.
Even so, the new malware appears to have a backup spreading mechanism, so that even if some computers were patched, they can still be hit if one or more machines in a network weren’t patched.
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From Prague to Mongolia, Wild Horses Return to the Steppes
A quarter-century-old project to repopulate the steppes of Mongolia with wild horses was kept alive as four animals made the long trip back to their ancestral home from the Prague Zoo.
Driven to extinction in their homeland in the 1960s, the Przewalski’s horses survived in captivity before efforts began to re-introduce them to the arid desert and mountains along Mongolia’s border with China.
Zoos organized the first transport to Mongolia of the strong, stocky beasts in 1992.
For the past decade, Prague Zoo has been the only one continuing that tradition and it holds the studbook of a species whose ancestors – unlike other free-roaming horses such as the wild mustangs of the United States – were never domesticated.
The zoo completed its seventh transport last week, releasing four mares born in captivity in the Czech Republic, Germany and Denmark in the Gobi desert. They will spend the next year in an enclosed area to acclimatize before being freed.
“All the mares are looking very well, they are not hobbling, they are calm, eating hay and trying to test the taste of the new grass,” Prague Zoo veterinarian Roman Vodicka said after making observations a few days after the release.
Prague has released 27 horses in total and officials estimate around 190 are now back in the wild in the Gobi B park, where the most recent arrivals were sent.
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US Library of Congress, British Royal Archives to Host ‘Two Georges’ Exhibit
A new exhibition will examine the overlapping worlds of two figures bound together by history on different sides of the Atlantic — King George III and President George Washington.
Britain’s Royal Archives and the U.S. Library of Congress said on Wednesday that a new “Two Georges” exhibit, to be first shown in Washington in 2021, would tap into the libraries’ rich sources of historic knowledge to find parallels and contrasts between the two men.
A venue in Britain has yet to be decided.
“Linked and then ultimately separated by empire, the two Georges offer a distinctive perspective on this vital historical period,” the institutions said in a statement.
The first president of the United States and one of its founding fathers lived from 1732 to 1799. Washington is believed to have earned the respect of George III, his rival, who lived from 1738 to 1820 and was defeated in the American War of Independence.
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LA City Council OKs Plans for George Lucas Museum
The Force was with George Lucas on Tuesday as the Los Angeles City Council moved with lightsaber speed to clear the way for a $1.5 billion Museum of Narrative Art the Star Wars creator plans to build down the road from his alma mater.
After hearing from Lucas himself, the council voted 14-0 to approve an environmental impact report and other requirements for the museum’s construction adjacent to the University of Southern California.
“For a very brief time I actually grew up here,” said Lucas, who earned a degree in film from USC. “That’s where I learned movies. That’s where I learned my craft. Basically where I started my career was in school here.”
Lucas said his museum won’t just focus on movies, however, but on the entire history of narrative storytelling, from the days of cave painting to digital film.
“I realized that the whole concept of narrative art has been forgotten,” he told the council.
With Tuesday’s approval, plans are to break ground in Exposition Park, south of downtown, as early as this year and open the museum to the public in 2021. The city says the project will cost taxpayers nothing because Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, are footing the bill.
“It is the largest private gift in our city, in our state or in our nation’s history,” said Councilman Curren D. Price Jr., whose district takes in the park.
It will feature all forms of narrative storytelling, said the museum’s president, Don Bacigalupi. He said its exhibits will include story boards, costumes, props and various other elements that went into making Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz and other classic films.
And, yes, there will be plenty of cool Star Wars stuff there, too.
“Everything from Luke Skywalker’s first lightsaber to Darth Vader’s costume and helmet,” said Bacigalupi.
The Lucas-Steven Spielberg Indiana Jones films also will be represented.
Interactive programs
Numerous interactive programs for children, film students, academics and others will be offered.
Lucas said he hopes the museum will serve as inspiration to people of all ages, but especially to children, encouraging them to create a better world.
Popular art, he said, is the glue that holds people together, that teaches them that while we may have differences, we have similar aspirations.
In addition to USC, the Museum of Narrative Art will be within close proximity to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the California Science Center and the California African American Museum.
Although Lucas’ affection for USC is clear — he and his foundation have given the school tens of millions of dollars over the years — it was once assumed he’d put his museum in his hometown of San Francisco. Or if not there, then his wife’s hometown of Chicago.
But when it came time to clear away all the bureaucratic hurdles, it was Los Angeles that prevailed.
“I wanted to put it in my hometown. They said no. Mellody wanted to put it in her hometown. They said no. We were both basically heartbroken,” Lucas said.
“And then we said, ‘All right, let’s clear the boards and find a place that really wants it.’ ”
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U2 Bassist Clayton Thanks Band for Helping Him Through Addiction
In a frank and heartfelt speech, U2 bassist Adam Clayton thanked his bandmates of four decades for their support during his treatment and recovery for alcohol abuse years ago, and then joined them for a rollicking rendition of a few hits.
“We have a pact with each other,” said Clayton, 57, who was receiving an award from MusiCares, the charity arm of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. “In our band, no one will be a casualty. We all come home, or none of us come home. No one will be left behind. Thank you for honoring that promise, and letting me be in your band.”
He ended by quoting lyrics that Bono, U2’s frontman, had written when the band was starting out: “If you walk away, walk away, I will follow.” At that, his bandmates came out to join him, performing “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of,” “Vertigo” and, fittingly, “I Will Follow.”
The evening at the PlayStation Theater in Times Square also featured performances by rapper Michael Franti, Jack Garratt, reggae singer Chronixx, Macy Gray, and the Lumineers, who are currently appearing with U2 on their “Joshua Tree” tour.
‘I had to leave it behind’
Clayton was introduced by British record producer Chris Blackwell as someone who “lived through addiction and came out the other side, and has been courageous enough to admit it.”
Taking the stage, the bassist quipped: “I’m not used to achieving anything on my own.”
Turning serious, he said: “I’m an alcoholic, addict, but in some ways that devastating disease is what drove me towards this wonderful life I now have. It’s just that I couldn’t take my friend alcohol. At some point I had to leave it behind and claim my full potential.”
He said part of the reason he had a hard time quitting drinking was that “I didn’t think you could be in a band and not drink. It is so much a part of our culture.”
It was Eric Clapton, he said, who finally told him he needed help.
“He didn’t sugarcoat it. He told me that I needed to change my life and that I wouldn’t regret it,” Clayton said. He credited another friend, the Who’s Pete Townshend, for visiting him in rehab, where he “put steel on my back.”
As for his bandmates, Clayton said, “I was lucky because I had three friends who could see what was going on and who loved me enough to take up the slack of my failing. Bono, the Edge, and Larry [Mullen] truly supported me before and after I entered recovery, and I am unreservedly grateful for their friendship, understanding and support.”
Access to treatment
Clayton received the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award for his support of the MusiCares MAP Fund, which offers musicians access to addiction recovery treatment.
Arriving at the theater earlier, he told reporters the fund was especially important given the current epidemic of opioid addiction. “MusiCares … really provides funding for a lot of people to look into those things and find help,” he said.
He added that his bandmates had been supporting him for 40 years.
“You know, I guess they loved me before I knew how to love myself,” he said. “So it’s really important that they share this with me.”
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Not Just for Gamers and Techies, HoloLens Gets Down to Business
Tech enthusiasts may be drawn to HoloLens, the head-mounted holographic computer from Microsoft, but company executives say businesses also should consider how it can help improve their bottom line.
The wearable device allows users to interact with holograms using their gaze and simple hand gestures. Virtual interfaces are superimposed onto the immediate environment, combining the real world with a digital one. It’s a form of mixed reality that Microsoft executives say offers more than just entertainment value — it can be put to work in business scenarios.
“We’re seeing mixed reality broadly as a new kind of dimension, literally, of how we’re going to interact with information,” said Greg Sullivan, director of communications for the Windows and devices group at Microsoft.
Companies like German elevator maker Thyssenkrupp have begun experimenting with HoloLens. In a promotional video, an elevator repairman dons a HoloLens headset to begin a work order. The computer assesses the repair situation and displays holographic guidance, along with the ability to conference in an associate located remotely.
The associate can interact within the repair technician’s virtual workspace, “She can sit in her office in Germany and scale her expertise literally around the world … see what they’re seeing, guide them and even ink on their display,” Sullivan said.
WATCH: High-tech HoloLens in Action
Cirque de Soleil
Data visualization is another potential use for HoloLens.
“You can walk around the 3-dimensional representation of that data and it gives you powerful new insights, because as humans, we live in a 3-D world and we understand things better … if we interact with them in three dimensions,” Sullivan said.
That can be useful for creative industries. At Microsoft’s recent “Build” conference for software developers, set designers from Cirque de Soleil demonstrated how holographic versions of their theater sets allowed them to plan ahead. Team members wearing HoloLens could walk around and interact with true-to-scale holograms of their set designs, even inserting virtual avatars of real-life performers.
Architecture and engineering
Other industries that utilize 3-D modeling, like architecture and engineering, potentially can benefit from holographic computing, too. Trimble, a company specializing in GPS technologies, developed an application for HoloLens that allows architects and contractors to manipulate 3-D holographic designs and models in real-life environments, such as construction sites.
“You can have multiple people sharing an experience in mixed reality, look at a digital version of the project … and then make those changes in real time and all see them, and then go ahead and move right into production much, much quicker,” said Sullivan. “The efficiencies that are gained are really profound.”
Chris Silva, research director at Gartner, agrees. “3-D models in health care, extremely complex design documents … they’re a natural fit for something like HoloLens, where stepping into the data really can help get the job done better,” Silva said.
Big investment
But like many new technologies, HoloLens’ price tag initially may deter widespread adoption. The device retails for $3,000 for a developer edition and $5,000 for a business edition that comes bundled with enterprise applications.
“The biggest risk is making an investment in this technology and not having a plan for how it gets used,” Silva said. “These are devices that are two, maybe even three, times the cost of the average laptop, and much more expensive than a mobile device. They’re new, and therefore the organizations aren’t always sure how they’re going to use them.”
Silva recommends that companies take a pilot approach to the technology by introducing it to a single group, picking one process to improve upon and analyzing the subsequent results.
Microsoft’s long-time presence on office desktops means HoloLens eventually could transform everyday workspaces.
“When we look at the average worker model, where this type of technology starts literally replacing people’s monitors on their desks, somebody like Microsoft is well positioned to capture that,” Silva said. “They can plug HoloLens into the way they’re doing business today.”
Overall, Silva is excited for future developments in the mixed reality space.
“This is definitely the next frontier of mobile devices … this could be the next thing that replaces the desktop PC, the iPad, the smartphone in your pocket.”
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Review Shows Concussions Ignored in World Cup
Professional football players are still not getting properly checked for concussions, despite a pledge by the sport’s governing body. That was obvious from a review of footage from the games in FIFA’s 2014 World Cup, the international men’s football championship held every four years.
The review, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that out of 81 head collisions there were only 12 assessments that fit the minimum requirements.
Co-author Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, told VOA, “There were only two collisions [where] I could be happy and confident that a proper assessment was actually done.”
According to the 2012 Consensus Statement on Concussion in Sport, of which FIFA was a signatory, players showing any sign of concussion should immediately be withdrawn from play and assessed by a health care professional on the sideline. But players in the World Cup only received that full assessment 15 percent of the time.
More than half of the time, an assessment was done on the field or by a referee or another player. And 26 percent of the time, they received no assessment at all, despite showing as many as three signs of concussion. Those symptoms include being slow to get up, disorientation, obvious disequilibrium, unconsciousness, seizure-like movements, and head clutching.
The impact of concussions can accumulate over years and may lead to trouble with memory, attention, depression, anxiety, and early onset dementia. In rare cases, repeated blows to the head over a short period of time, even mild ones, can lead to death.
A concussion ignored
There was obviously something wrong with Christoph Kramer during the final game of the World Cup. The German player was struck on the side of his head by a shoulder and thrown to the ground. Following a brief assessment on the pitch, he was returned to play, despite showing at least three signs of concussion. After 13 minutes of strange, confused behavior, he was removed from the game.
A referee later told the Gazzetta dello Sport, “Shortly after the blow, Kramer came to me asking: ‘Ref, is this the final?’” The referee told teammates, but Kramer continued to play.
“Had he been injured to his knee and couldn’t walk there would be no doubt that he would have been taken off,” Cusimano said, “so why are we treating people with brain injuries any different than people who have, say, a leg injury?”
In response, FIFA soon created a policy to allow referees to stop play for as long as three minutes, so that players can receive an on-pitch assessment by health care personnel. But it is only at the discretion of the referee. This is not enough for Cusimano. He points out it was an on-pitch assessment that failed to catch Kramer’s apparent concussion, and it takes at least seven minutes to properly diagnose the condition. So he wants to see mandatory assessments on the sidelines, just as the 2012 Consensus advises.
‘Whole world is watching’
FIFA declined a request to speak with VOA, but shared a written statement highlighting their recent rule change, and their participation in the most recent International Consensus Conference on Concussion.
“Protecting the health of football players is and will remain a top priority in developing the game,” it said.
Researchers decided to analyze the World Cup because of the size of the audience. Over a billion people tuned in. That means that the World Cup provides an opportunity to set an example for how to handle concussions. They hope that better policy at the premier sporting event might not just protect those playing in the World Cup, but those playing in little leagues too.
“The whole world is watching,” said Dr. Cusimano. “FIFA has all the ability to do this properly.”
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A Visit to Dr. Yum Means a Checkup and a Cooking Class
Imagine going to the doctor and getting a cooking lesson! That’s what happens at a doctor’s practice near Washington D.C. Dr. Yum Pediatrics is half doctor’s office, with waiting area and exam rooms, half kitchen. Food is an important part of her approach to treatment.
In the exam rooms, she explains to her patients and their parents the crucial importance of eating nutritious meals. In the kitchen, she shows them how to prepare those meals.
Dr. Fernando’s goal is to help children establish good eating habits and inspire families to prepare nutritious meals with the ingredients they have in hand.
Food for good health
Fernando has seen first-hand the connection between what kids eat and their well-being.
“In the first glance, you think of diet-related illnesses, mainly just pediatric obesity, and it’s true that 30 percent of kids in our community and nationwide are obese. And that’s a pretty staggering number,” she says, adding, “but as I paid more attention to a lot of the symptomology that I was seeing in kids who even weren’t obese or overweight, I was seeing that those symptoms often traced back some way to the diet.”
To help change that, the pediatrician co-authored a book, Raising a Healthy, Happy Eater: A Parent’s Handbook. She also started a blog and a website.
“I simply posted recipes on that website and when I would see patients in the office and felt like I didn’t have enough time to go over the nutrition topics with them I would point them to that website.”
In 2012, she went a step further, co-founding the Dr. Yum Project. She developed a curriculum that preschool teachers can use to introduce nutrition lessons in their classrooms. Inside her practice, Fernando leads cooking classes.
Cooking with your doctor
Young patients, their parents and members of the community are invited to cook with Dr. Fernando and her team. They try different recipes and use different tools that make cooking an easy, fun everyday experience.
“Maybe it’s using our menu planners to see how they can make meal planning easy for them,” Fernando explains. “Maybe it’s using budget-friendly recipes to figure out how to eat really healthy on a budget. Maybe it’s our baby food options so that they can see how they can feed their babies the same food they’re eating.”
Yara Esquivel, a working mother of two, has been taking cooking classes with Dr. Yum for more than three years. “Even my husband and I are eating better because we’re making sure the kids are eating better,” she says.
Almost all of the ingredients used in the cooking classes come from the clinic’s garden.
“As part of our classes, we really want to create a playful experience around feeding and eating,” Fernando says. “We also want to create a rich sensory experience. So taking kids out to the garden where they can grow food, plant food and harvest it and bring it to the kitchen, then cook it with their own hands, it really inspires them and makes it easier for them to accept new foods because they’re invested in it.”
Delicious, Healthy Meals Made Easy
Dr. Yum co-founder, Heidi DiEugenio, says all the recipes are taste-tested and posted online. “Every single recipe is tasted by our families and we have the real feedback from some families, parents and kids about the food. We tagged all those recipes, making it very easy for them to find.”
The ultimate goal of this project is to change the culture around kids’ food.
“There is a lot going in the media, kinds of advertising and things going around that say kids food, like ‘lunchables,’ kids like processed food, kids wouldn’t eat fresh carrots, they would eat Doritos,” DiEugenio says. “You have to remember that these messages are out there because those companies are trying to make money. But it’s not necessarily the case. It’s a matter of being able to be patient with your kids, you have to learn how to try new foods all the time.”
The Dr. Yum team hopes to inspire pediatricians around the country to start cooking lessons to help families enjoy real, nutritious meals.
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Small Farm, Meet Big Data
It’s one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century: how to feed a growing population without ruining the environment. Farmers may get some help from artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. As VOA’s Steve Baragona reports, falling costs and advancing technology may put precision agriculture in reach for more farmers worldwide.
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Food: Kid Tested, Pediatrician Approved
Doctors encourage their patients to eat a healthful diet, and often give them tips on how to do that. But a pediatrician in Spotsylvania, Virginia, is doing even more. Dr. Nimali Fernando is showing her young patients and their parents how to eat healthy by offering them a variety of cooking classes, from baby food for parents to cooking with preschoolers and older kids. Faiza Elmasry has the story. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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EU Fines Google $2.7 Billion
EU antitrust regulators fined Google $2.7 billion Tuesday for unfairly boosting search results for its online shopping service.
The European Union said Google began efforts in 2008 to boost the service now known as Google Shopping by making its results show up higher in search results, while demoting the search results of rival companies.
The result, according to regulators, was the most highly ranked rival services appeared on average on the fourth page of the results, an area few consumers ever reach.
EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Google has created many innovative products, but in this case abused its market dominance in internet searches.
Google said it will review the EU decision as it considers an appeal to the decision.
“When you shop online, you want to find the products you are looking for quickly and easily. And advertisers want to promote those same products. That is why Google shows shopping ads, connecting our users with thousands of advertisers, large and small, in ways that are useful for both,” Kent Walker, a Google senior vice president, said in a statement.
Vestager said Google denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate, and denied European consumers a genuine choice of service.
In addition to the fine, Google is required to give rival comparison shopping services equal treatment, and the company must explain how it will accomplish that.
your ads here!The Heaviest Deadweight in the World
When we’re buying groceries by weight, being a few grams off may not be a big deal. But we do expect the store scales to be calibrated to show the exact measure. The situation becomes more complicated when we want to know the exact measure of something weighing a hundred tons or more. VOA’s George Putic visited a lab that calibrates large-force instruments.
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Flower Lovers Flock to Vermont Bog for Wild Orchids
Each spring and summer, a Vermont bog yields a rare spectacle — hundreds of wild orchids in bloom, drawing visitors from around the country.
The bulbous pink and white showy lady’s slippers (Cypripedium reginae) are on full display among the ferns, bushes and chirping birds at Eshqua Bog in Hartland.
This particular orchid, considered rare in Vermont and a number of other states and different from the more common pink lady’s slipper, thrives in Eshqua, because of the wet, sunny conditions, with soils containing peat and lime.
Mary English drove about an hour from Landgrove, Vermont, to see the orchids on Thursday. When she arrived, she had the bog to herself.
“I just wandered through by myself. It was very special. It’s like being in a South American country,” she said.
A boardwalk allows visitors of all ages and abilities access to the bog and an up-close look at the plants.
“Gosh, aren’t they beautiful?” said Heather Crawley, of Maryville, Tennessee, as she studiously photographed the orchids with a special lens on Thursday. “To think it’s natural, too.”
Visitors can also walk a half-mile trail.
The area is technically a fen because it’s less acidic than a bog and fed by groundwater containing nutrients like calcium and magnesium from the area bedrock, according to the Nature Conservancy, which owns and manages the preserve along with the New England Wild Flower Society. The sanctuary includes an 8-acre (3.2-hectare) wetland and 33 surrounding acres (13.4 hectares).
Other orchids also bloom, like yellow lady’s slipper in late May and early June and the white bog orchid around now.
The lime-rich groundwater also helps to yield pitcher plants, insectivorous sundew and other plants.
But the orchids are typically the main show for visitors.
“The orchids love it at Eshqua, and people love to see the orchids,” said Rose Paul, of the Nature Conservancy.
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Trial of Chinese Billionaire in UN Bribery Case Opens
Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a Chinese billionaire accused of bribing United Nations diplomats to gain their approval of a U.N. conference center he wanted to build.
Ng Lap Seng has pleaded not guilty. He has posted $50 million bail, but is restricted to a luxury New York City apartment that he owns, where he is under guard around the clock. He is allowed to leave his apartment only to visit his doctors or his lawyers.
Ng, who is 69, is accused of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes for the center he planned to build in Macau.
Prosecutors say some of the money reached former General Assembly president John Ashe and a former diplomat from the Dominican Republic, Francis Lorenzo.
Ashe died last year in a freak accident while lifting weights at his home.
Lorenzo pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors in the case against Ng.
Ng’s lawyers contend the charges are politically motivated, aimed at trying to curb China’s influence over developing countries that might have used the Macau conference center.
If prosecutors and defense lawyers can agree on selection of a jury without delay, the judge in the case estimated the trial would last a month or perhaps longer.
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Thirteen EU Nations Back Plan for Talks With Russia Over Pipeline
Thirteen EU nations voiced support on Monday for a proposal to empower the bloc’s executive to negotiate with Russia over objections to a new Russian gas pipeline to Germany, despite opposition from Berlin.
At an informal debate among EU energy ministers, Germany’s partners in the 28-nation bloc spoke out against Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline plan to pump more gas directly from Russia’s Baltic coast to Germany.
EU nations are expected to vote in the autumn on the European Commission’s request for a mandate to negotiate with Russia on behalf of the bloc as a whole.
Germany, the main beneficiary of the pipeline, sees it as a purely commercial project, with Chancellor Angela Merkel last week saying she saw no role for the Commission.
The plan taps into divisions among the bloc over doing business with Russia, which covers a third of the EU’s gas needs, despite sanctions against Moscow over its military intervention in Ukraine.
In private, EU officials say they hope direct talks with Russia would delay the project past 2019, depriving Russian state gas exporter Gazprom of leverage in talks over transit fees for Ukraine, the current route for most gas supplies to Europe.
Germany, Austria and France – which have firms partnering with Gazprom on the project – declined to take the floor on Monday, EU diplomats said.
“We had 13 delegations intervening, with all of them being supportive of the Commission’s approach,” Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic told Reuters by telephone after presenting the EU executive’s case to member states. “I am definitely optimistic about getting the mandate, but I know this is just the beginning of the debate.”
The Commission found support from Italy as well as Nordic, Eastern European and Baltic states, EU sources told Reuters.
“Germany has commercial interests, but it needs to explain itself,” one senior EU official said.
With the pipeline expected to reroute Russian gas supplies around Ukraine to the north, Italy voiced concerns it would increase gas prices for customers further down the line.
Eastern European and Baltic states fear it will increase their dependence on Gazprom and undercut Ukraine.
Nordic nations, meanwhile, have security concerns over the pipeline being laid near their shores under the Baltic Sea, where Russia has bolstered its military presence.
However, many EU nations have yet to take a stand.
“It is quite toxic. Many member states are quite wary of advertising their position,” one diplomat told Reuters.
There are also differences among EU member states over what aims to pursue in potential talks with Russia.
Speaking in Paris on Monday, Ukraine’s foreign minister said the draft EU proposal did not go far enough to secure guarantees from Russia, warning Nord Stream 2 would have “dangerous consequences” for the bloc.
Adding to tensions is the threat of new U.S. sanctions on Russia that would penalize Western firms involved in Nord Stream 2: Uniper, Wintershall, Shell, OMV and Engie.
Several EU diplomats said the measures proposed by the U.S. Senate have already backfired against their stated aim of bolstering European energy security.
“It’s a divisive measure,” one senior official said. “It’s easy for the U.S. to go after Russian gas of course, they don’t use it. … We are trying to make the best of a bad thing by balancing the interest of different member states.”
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Pakistani Farmers Get Tips via Text
The latest farm tools on the job in Pakistan are cell phones and satellites. A new program is using satellite data to estimate how much water a field needs, and then texting this information to farmers.
The hope is to prevent overwatering. A 2013 report from the Asian Development Bank called Pakistan “one of the most water-stressed countries in the world,” with a 30-day storage capacity, well below the recommended capacity of 1,000 days. The per capita water resources are on par with those of Syria, where drought has helped to fuel a civil war.
The water crisis is being driven by several factors: climate change, an expanding population, local mismanagement and a greater demand on farmers. It threatens to destabilize relations between Pakistan and India, who share the Indus River.
Turning off the spigot
Overwatering is costly for farmers trying to make ends meet. While Pakistan continues to suffer from chronic fuel shortages, farmers must use diesel motors to pump groundwater onto their fields. The lower the water table, the more fuel it takes to pump it to the surface.
And overwatering also reduces crop yields. But many older farmers learned their trade at a time when the water ran freely, and the risks of under-watering are so great that farmers still err on the side of too much irrigation. The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) found that rice farmers were using more than three times as much water as they needed to.
The PCRWR reached out to the Sustainability, Satellites, Water, and Environment research group (SASWE) at the University of Washington, hoping to use science to inform irrigation choices.
Pakistan’s program started last spring with a 700-farmer pilot. As of January, 10,000 farmers were receiving messages like this one: “Dear farmer friend, we would like to inform you that the irrigation need for your banana crop was 2 inches during the past week.”
The messages come from a fully-automated system that does everything from downloading publicly available satellite data and distributing the text messages to using models to compute how much each farmer needs to irrigate.
A nationwide effort
PCRWR plans to scale up the program for use across the nation, and expects millions of farmers to participate. But first they are reviewing the system. They want to know how easy it is for farmers to use, and how many actually follow the irrigation advisories. And they want to know how accurate it is and how effective it is at saving farmers money.
They are collecting feedback from farmers over the phone.
“I haven’t seen any report yet,” Faisal Hossain of SASWE told VOA, but “we got a story last month from one of the farmers who was telling us how he was able to get, I think, for every acre 700 kilograms more of wheat than his neighbor.” The farmer credited the irrigation advisories.
There are challenges to expansion. They may need to do more work to persuade farmers to trust the technology. As more farmers use it on smaller farms in areas with more varied terrain, the satellite data resolution may not be precise enough for accurate measurements. And small farmers may not be comfortable relying on cell phone technology.
But for the most part, cell phones already are fairly ubiquitous in Pakistan. Last year, the Punjab government reported that it would be giving out 5 million smartphones to farmers.
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Cuban Farmland Lies Fallow, Production Languishes, Govt. Report Shows
More than half of Cuba’s arable land remains fallow nearly a decade after a government pledge to cultivate it, and food production is sluggish, according to a government report.
Cuba has yet to publish an overall figure for last year’s agricultural output. But the report released over the weekend by the National Statistics Office indicated only minor improvement in 2016 over the previous year.
The state owns 80 percent of the land and leases most of that to farmers and cooperatives. The remainder is owned by private family farmers and their cooperatives.
Despite the leasing of small parcels of land to some 200,000 would-be-farmers over the last decade, the report said just 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres) out of the 6.2 million hectares (15.3 million acres) of arable land available were under cultivation.
The Cuban government often blames bad weather, a lack of labor and capital for poor land use and production, while critics charge it is due to a lack of private property and foreign investment, rickety infrastructure and the Soviet-style bureaucracy.
President Raul Castro made increased food production and reducing the Communist-run Caribbean island’s dependence on imports his top priority after taking office in 2008 from his then ailing and now deceased brother, Fidel.
Castro began leasing land, decentralizing decision-making and introducing market mechanisms into the sector. But most of the effort has faltered and the state has backtracked on market reforms, once more assigning resources, setting prices and controlling most distribution.
Cash-strapped Cuba imports more than 60 percent of the food it consumes at a cost of around $2 billion annually, mainly for bulk cereals and grains such as rice, corn, soy and beans, as well as other items such as powdered milk and chicken.
Last year, $232 million of the imports came from the United States under an exception to the trade embargo that allows agricultural sales for cash.
The country does not produce wheat or soybeans, though experiments are underway to produce the latter. Over the last decade the government has poured millions of dollars into corn, rice, beans, meat and milk production in hopes of reducing imports, but with little success.
Unprocessed rice production was 514,000 tons in 2016, up more than 20 percent from the previous year. But that figure, representing just a third of national consumption, barely surpassed the 436,000 tons reported in 2008 and was less than the 642,000 produced five years ago.
Beans weighed in at 137,000 tons, up more than 15 percent from the previous year and compared with 117,000 in 2012, but little changed from the 2008 figure of 127,000 tons.
Corn, at 404,000 tons last year, was up some 10 percent over 2015 and the 360,000 output of 5 and 10 years ago, but again just a third of national consumption.
Pork and beef production have increased, while milk, chicken and egg production have stagnated.
Export crops, from coffee and citrus to tobacco and sugar cane, have not increased significantly, and in some cases declined.
Tonnage for root and garden vegetables has improved some 15 percent over the decade and reached 5.3 million tons last year, an increase of 200,000 tons. Bananas and plantains increased some 15 percent to a million tons in 2016 compared with an average of around 850,000 tons over the decade.
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Vintage Disneyland Concept Map Sells at Auction for $708,000
A hand-drawn map that shows Walt Disney’s original ideas for Disneyland has sold at auction for $708,000.
The founder of Van Eaton Galleries in Los Angeles says a private collector cast the winning bid Sunday. Mike Van Eaton says it is the most expensive Disneyland map ever sold.
Walt Disney commissioned an illustrator to create the map in 1953 to drum up interest and investments in his new amusement-park concept. Many of the ideas shown on the map became realities when Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California, in 1955.
Utah resident and Disney collector Ron Clark owned the map for more than 40 years and dreamed of it being returned to Disneyland.
The name of the American collector who bought the map Sunday was not revealed.
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At Platform 9-3/4, Harry Potter Fans Mark 20 Years of Magic
Twenty years to the day after the first book in the Harry Potter series was published, fans gathered online and in the real world to express their enduring love for J.K. Rowling’s magical creation.
Since Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone came out in 1997, with a first print run of just 500 copies, the series of seven novels has sold 450 million copies worldwide in 79 languages and spawned a blockbuster movie franchise.
The book appeared in the United States a year later as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
On Monday, some fans took the day off work to celebrate the anniversary, heading to significant locations such as King’s Cross train station in London, which in the stories is one of the gateways into the world of witches and wizards.
The real-life station features a mock-up of Platform 9-3/4, the departure point for trains to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The mock-up is a bustling spot where tourists and fans queue to pose for photos wearing Potter-themed scarves or costumes.
“Harry Potter, I think, still means so much to so many people even though it’s 20 years now,” said Clara Carson, whose job at the nearby souvenir shop involves taking photos of the fans and holding up the scarves to achieve a windswept effect.
“I’m a fan myself, so it’s really nice to come in and be with people that are all into the same things that you’re into,” she said. “Whether they’re kids or my age or even adults, they’re always just so excited.”
Childhood friends Charlotte Keyworth and Joanne Wylie, both 26, had come down to London from northern and eastern England for the occasion.
They were part of the first generation of Potter fans, having read the first volume as young girls and then endured the agonizing wait for each new episode as they were published over a period of 10 years.
“We’ve grown up with it, with Harry Potter,” said Keyworth, who was sporting a Hogwarts T-shirt. “We’re planning on going to the studio tour this afternoon and celebrating in our own little way,” she said, referring to the studios where the Potter movies were shot.
Wylie, who has a permanent tattoo on her forearm of the Deathly Hallows symbol, an important element in the story, said the Potter stories still bring her joy and comfort.
“It was always something that just sort of boosted your spirits and made you realize you could get past the dark points,” she said.
Her sentiments were widely echoed on social media, with legions of fans posting their favorite quotes or video clips, or just thanking Rowling for the happy memories.
“After all these years… Always!” wrote Twitter user Anu — a reference to a moving moment in the story when it is revealed that Harry’s nemesis Severus Snape had always loved Harry’s dead mother, Lily.
Rowling, who has 10.8 million followers on Twitter, also took to the medium to mark the anniversary.
“20 years ago today a world that I had lived in alone was suddenly open to others. It’s been wonderful. Thank you,” she wrote.
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