Month: February 2018

Saudis Promised Double the Fun in Drive to Lure Back Tourist Dollars

Posted on 02/22/2018 by Coeco

Saudi Arabia will stage more than 5,000 shows, festivals and concerts in 2018, double the number of last year, as it tries to shake off its conservative image in a drive to keep tourist dollars at home and lure in visitors.

The state wants to capture up to a quarter of the $20 billion currently spent overseas every year by Saudis seeking entertainment, lifting a ban on cinemas and putting on shows by Western artists.

U.S. rapper Nelly performed in Jeddah in December, albeit to a men-only crowd, and Greek musician Yanni played to a mixed-gender audience.

The gradual relaxing of gender segregation risks causing a backlash from religious conservatives, but public objections to a wider program of reforms have been more muted in recent months after several critics were arrested.

At an event to launch the 2018 entertainment calendar, Ahmed al-Khatib, chairman of the state-run General Entertainment Authority (GEA), said infrastructure investments over the next decade would reach 240 billion riyals ($64 billion), including an opera house to be completed around 2022.

That will contribute 18 billion riyals to annual GDP and generate 224,000 new jobs by 2030, the GEA said.

“The bridge is starting to reverse,” Khatib said, referring to the causeway linking Saudi Arabia with more liberal Bahrain where many Saudis flock for weekend getaways.

“And I promise you that we will reverse this migration, and people from Dubai, Kuwait and Bahrain will come to Saudi.”

However, on Thursday night, the Minister of Culture and Information said Khatib’s opera plans were an infringement of the role of the General Authority for Culture, a separate government body, the Saudi Press Agency said.

Economic hopes

The entertainment plans are largely motivated by economics, part of a reform program to diversify the economy away from oil and create jobs for young Saudis.

The Vision 2030 plan aims to increase household spending on cultural and entertainment events inside the kingdom to 6 percent by 2030 from 2.9 percent.

“We are bringing the most exciting and famous events to Saudi Arabia this year,” Khatib told Reuters in an interview, adding that state-sponsored entertainment events would be staged in 56 cities.

“We are creating new local events with local content,” he said. “Almost 80 percent of the calendar [events] are for families.”

Saudi Arabia lifted a 35-year ban on cinemas late last year, with plans for regional and global chains to open more than 300 movie theaters by 2030. The first cinemas are expected to start showing films in March.

Last year, the country announced plans to develop resorts on some 50 islands off the Red Sea coast and an entertainment city south of Riyadh featuring golf courses, car racing tracks and a Six Flags theme park.
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Troubled Latvian Bank Faces ECB Deadline to Avoid Closure

Posted on 02/22/2018 by Coeco

The European Central Bank has set a deadline of Friday for Latvia’s third-largest bank to plug a financing hole, the country’s finance minister said, as the Baltic state faced its worst financial difficulties in almost a decade.

Earlier, ABLV said it had asked for a 480 million euro ($591 million) emergency loan from the country’s central bank as part of efforts to reopen for business after being forced to halt all payments in the face of money laundering accusations.

The request for credit comes amid frantic efforts by ABLV’s management to keep the bank afloat after U.S. authorities singled it out for money laundering and moved to block it from doing financial deals in dollars.

ABLV has denied any such wrongdoing. “We want to give an opportunity … for the bank to ensure its short-term liquidity, so that it can continue operating,” the Baltic state’s finance minister, Dana Reizniece-Ozola, told a news website, Delfi.lv.

The ECB has imposed a moratorium stopping savers withdrawing their funds or making payments. It declined to comment about the deadline.

In an interview with Reuters, a senior ABLV executive appealed for the group to be spared closure.

“We believe that the bank has a future, on the basis of a substantially reduced business,” Vadims Reinfelds, deputy chief executive, said.

“What we are looking for here is a medium term or even longer term solution. If that is not possible, then resolution is the alternative,” he said, referring to a possible winding down. “The business can be restructured without resolution,” Reinfelds said, adding the bank was solvent.

He warned the bank was “systemic” — a reference to its significance for the financial system and an indication that its problems could spill over to affect others.

The finance minister, however, played down such concerns.

The crisis at ABLV comes alongside a separate police investigation into whether the head of Latvia’s central bank took a bribe of more than 100,000 euros.

Ilmars Rimsevics has dismissed the allegations and said he is the victim of a smear campaign, while the Ministry of Defense has suggested that disinformation may be to blame.

The ministry did not say who was behind this but drew parallels with campaigns before the U.S. elections in 2016. Russia has denied it was behind those campaigns and says it does not meddle in elections in the West.

The episode has cast a shadow over Latvia, which belongs to the euro zone and whose top officials hold influential posts both at the European Commission and European Central Bank.

Experts have said the events raise questions about the ECB, which is responsible for supervision of ABLV and other banks around the euro zone. The ECB has said it is not its responsibility to police money laundering.

Latvia was one of the hardest hit countries in the global financial crisis, falling into recession as the government sought an international bailout, nationalized Parex Bank and made spending cuts amid a wave of emigration.

($1 = 0.8141 euros)

Reporting by John O’Donnell and Gederts Gelzis.
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Work on Afghan Section of TAPI Gas Pipeline to Begin Friday

Posted on 02/22/2018 by Coeco

Afghanistan will host leaders from Turkmenistan, Pakistan and India on Friday for the ground-breaking ceremony of the Afghan section of a much-delayed multi-billion dollar gas pipeline connecting the four nations.

The $10 billion mega project, known as Turkmenistan-Pakistan-Afghanistan-India, or TAPI, will connect Central Asia with South Asia and is expected to become operational this year.

The 1,814-kilometer pipeline will carry an estimated 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually for the next 30 years from the world’s fourth-largest reserves in Turkmenistan.

Officials say India and Pakistan would buy around 14 billion cubic meters each, while the remaining five billion would go to Afghanistan.

Friday’s inaugural ceremony will take place in the western Afghan city of Herat where President Ashraf Ghani, his Turkmen counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and India’s Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar will be in attendance.

Turkmenistan launched construction of its section of the pipeline in December 2015.

Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan and India have since deteriorated over allegations Islamabad is not doing enough to stop terrorist groups from using its soil for attacks against the neighboring countries.Pakistani officials deny the charges.

But despite the tensions, energy-deficient India is showing renewed interest in TAPI and pushing for its operationalization, according to Indian media reports.

“Today, given the energy requirements in India, there are several gas pipeline proposals before us. We are, however, strongly committed to TAPI pipeline project,” Akbar was quoted as saying.

The project is more than the sum of four nations’ interests and creates a benchmark for regional cooperation, he added during an implementation committee meeting in Turkmenistan.

Economic milestone

The Afghan government and business community also see the pipeline as a milestone in the war-shattered country’s economic development. Kabul is expected to earn up to $500 annually in transit duties and the project will help create as many as 25,000 jobs, local media quoted Afghan analysts.

The pipeline mostly runs through parts of southwestern Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgency controls or influences many districts. But a spokesman for the insurgent group, Zabihullah Mujahid, says it supports the project and will ensure the pipeline’s protection.

Herat Governor Mohammad Asif Rahimi told VOA the Afghan and Turkmen presidents will additionally inaugurate work on the construction of a railway link between the two countries, as well as fiber optic connection along the TAPI route.
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Superagers’ Brains Offer Clues for Sharp Memory in old age

Posted on 02/22/2018 by Cosc

It’s pretty extraordinary for people in their 80s and 90s to keep the same sharp memory as someone several decades younger, and now scientists are peeking into the brains of these “superagers” to uncover their secret.

The work is the flip side of the disappointing hunt for new drugs to fight or prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

Instead, “why don’t we figure out what it is we might need to do to maximize our memory?” said neuroscientist Emily Rogalski, who leads the SuperAging study at Chicago’s Northwestern University.

Parts of the brain shrink with age, one of the reasons why most people experience a gradual slowing of at least some types of memory late in life, even if they avoid diseases like Alzheimer’s.

But it turns out that superagers’ brains aren’t shrinking nearly as fast as their peers’. And autopsies of the first superagers to die during the study show they harbor a lot more of a special kind of nerve cell in a deep brain region that’s important for attention, Rogalski told a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

These elite elders are “more than just an oddity or a rarity,” said neuroscientist Molly Wagster of the National Institute on Aging, which helps fund the research. “There’s the potential for learning an enormous amount and applying it to the rest of us, and even to those who may be on a trajectory for some type of neurodegenerative disease.”

What does it take to be a superager? A youthful brain in the body of someone 80 or older. Rogalski’s team has given a battery of tests to more than 1,000 people who thought they’d qualify, and only about 5 percent pass. The key memory challenge: Listen to 15 unrelated words, and a half-hour later recall at least nine. That’s the norm for 50-year-olds, but the average 80-year-old recalls five. Some superagers remember them all.

“It doesn’t mean you’re any smarter,” stressed superager William “Bill” Gurolnick, who turns 87 next month and joined the study two years ago.

Nor can he credit protective genes: Gurolnick’s father developed Alzheimer’s in his 50s. He thinks his own stellar memory is bolstered by keeping busy. He bikes, and plays tennis and water volleyball. He stays social through regular lunches and meetings with a men’s group he co-founded.

“Absolutely that’s a critical factor about keeping your wits about you,” exclaimed Gurolnick, fresh off his monthly gin game.

Rogalski’s superagers tend to be extroverts and report strong social networks, but otherwise they come from all walks of life, making it hard to find a common trait for brain health. Some went to college, some didn’t. Some have high IQs, some are average. She’s studied people who’ve experienced enormous trauma, including a Holocaust survivor; fitness buffs and smokers; teetotalers and those who tout a nightly martini.

But deep in their brains is where she’s finding compelling hints that somehow, superagers are more resilient against the ravages of time.

Early on, brain scans showed that a superager’s cortex – an outer brain layer critical for memory and other key functions – is much thicker than normal for their age. It looks more like the cortex of healthy 50- and 60-year-olds.

It’s not clear if they were born that way. But Rogalski’s team found another possible explanation: A superager’s cortex doesn’t shrink as fast. Over 18 months, average 80-somethings experienced more than twice the rate of loss.

Another clue: Deeper in the brain, that attention region is larger in superagers, too. And inside, autopsies showed that brain region was packed with unusual large, spindly neurons – a special and little understood type called von Economo neurons thought to play a role in social processing and awareness.

The superagers had four to five times more of those neurons than the typical octogenarian, Rogalski said – more even than the average young adult.

The Northwestern study isn’t the only attempt at unraveling long-lasting memory. At the University of California, Irvine, Dr. Claudia Kawas studies the oldest-old, people 90 and above. Some have Alzheimer’s. Some have maintained excellent memory and some are in between.

About 40 percent of the oldest-old who showed no symptoms of dementia in life nonetheless have full-fledged signs of Alzheimer’s disease in their brains at death, Kawas told the AAAS meeting.

Rogalski also found varying amounts of amyloid and tau, hallmark Alzheimer’s proteins, in the brains of some superagers.

Now scientists are exploring how these people deflect damage. Maybe superagers have different pathways to brain health.

“They are living long and living well,” Rogalski said. “Are there modifiable things we can think about today, in our everyday lives” to do the same?
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The Road to the Red Planet Runs Through Omani Desert

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Cosc

Under the bright sun of a remote desert in Oman, a group of astronauts and scientists is simulating Life on Mars. They hope their experiments today will pave the way for an actual trip to Mars, the red planet, within decades. Faiza Elmasry has this story narrated by Faith Lapidus.
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US Companies Urged to Issue ‘Clearer’ Cyber Risk Disclosures

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Cobiz

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday updated guidance to public companies on how and when they should disclose cybersecurity risks and breaches, including potential weaknesses that have not yet been targeted by hackers.

The guidance also said company executives must not trade in a firm’s securities while possessing nonpublic information on cybersecurity attacks. The SEC encouraged companies to consider adopting specific policies restricting executive trading in shares while a hack is being investigated and before it is disclosed.

The SEC, in unanimously approving the additional guidance, said it would promote “clearer and more robust disclosure” by companies facing cybersecurity issues, according to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, a Republican.

Democrats on the commission reluctantly supported the guidance, describing it as a paltry step taken in the wake of a raft of high-profile hacks at major companies that exposed millions of Americans’ personal information. They called for much more rigorous rule-making to police disclosure around cybersecurity issues, or requiring certain cybersecurity policies at public companies.

Commissioner Robert Jackson said the new document “essentially reiterates years-old staff-level views on this issue,” and pointed to analysis from the White House Council of Economic Advisers that finds companies frequently under-report cybersecurity events to investors.

The SEC first issued guidance in 2011 on cybersecurity disclosures.

“It may provide investors a false sense of comfort that we, at the Commission, have done something more than we have,” Commissioner Kara Stein, another Democrat, said in a statement. Significant breaches have included those at Equifax Inc. consumer credit reporting agency, and at the SEC itself.

The agency announced in September its corporate filing system, known as EDGAR, was breached by hackers in 2016 and may have been used for insider trading. The matter is under review.

The new guidance will mean that corporations disclose more information about cyberattacks and risks and take steps to ensure no insider trading can occur around those events, said several attorneys who advise businesses on the subject.

“This essentially creates a mandatory new disclosure category — cybersecurity risks and incidents,” said Spencer Feldman, an attorney with Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP.

Craig A. Newman, a partner with Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, said the SEC guidance “makes clear that it doesn’t want a repeat of the Equifax situation.”
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Cigars, Pipes Tied to Same Risks as Cigarettes

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Cosc

Cigarettes are not the only type of tobacco products that can lead to premature death or fatalities from smoking-related cancers, a U.S. study confirms.

While people who exclusively smoke cigarettes have twice the risk of premature death from all causes compared to people who avoid tobacco altogether, exclusive cigar smokers have a 20 percent higher risk of early death, researchers report in JAMA Internal Medicine.

When it comes to fatalities from specific cancers that have been tied to tobacco use, cigarette smokers have four times the risk of people who never used tobacco, but cigar smokers are 61 percent more likely to die of these cancers and pipe users have 58 percent higher odds.

“We knew exclusive users of cigars and pipes were at greater risk of disease than people who do not use tobacco,” said lead study author Carol Christensen of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products. “However, this study provides information that reflects today’s patterns of tobacco use.”

These data “underscore the importance of complete quitting,” Christensen said by email.

For the study, researchers examined nationally representative survey data, collected starting in 1985, from 357,420 participants who were followed through 2011.

Overall, 203,071 people, or about 57 percent, never used tobacco at all. Another 57,251 participants were current daily cigarette smokers, while 9,414 said they had a less frequent habit and 77,773 were former cigarette smokers.

In addition, 531 people were current daily cigar smokers, while 608 individuals used cigars less frequently and 2,398 had quit.

For pipes, 1,099 participants had a current daily habit, while 78 people used pipes less often and 5,237 had quit.

During the study period, 51,150 people died of all causes.

With a daily cigarette, cigar or pipe habit, people had an elevated risk of death from tobacco-related cancers including malignancies of the bladder, esophagus, larynx, lung, mouth and throat, and pancreas.

Nondaily users

Even with a nondaily cigarette habit, people were more than six times more likely to die of lung cancer than individuals who never used tobacco. They also had more than seven times the risk of dying from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, more than four times the odds of death from oral cancers, and 43 percent higher odds of death from a circulatory system disorder.

Current cigar smokers had more than three times the odds of dying of lung cancer, and for current pipe smokers the risk was 51 percent higher, compared with never-smokers.

The results were limited, however, by the relatively small numbers of cigar and pipe smokers in the sample, the authors noted.

Another limitation was that survey questions about tobacco use changed over time and didn’t determine how often nondaily smokers might have used cigarettes, cigars or pipes.

Even so, the results suggest that doctors may need to broaden how they discuss smoking with patients to make sure people understand they’re at risk even when they don’t have a daily habit, said Dr. Michael Ong of the University of California-Los Angeles and VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare

System.

“Patients often do not associate occasional use of cigar or pipes with health risks, but this study shows that current, particularly daily, cigar use is associated with increased overall risk of death,” Ong, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

Doctors also need to broaden their message about smoking and cigarettes to include other tobacco products that are becoming more popular, said Judith Prochaska, a researcher at Stanford University in California who wasn’t involved in the study.

Traditionally, doctors have asked just whether people smoked cigarettes, but they should instead be questioning patients more broadly about tobacco use, Prochaska said by email.

“The tobacco landscape has been changing dramatically,” Prochaska added. “While cigarettes remain the primary tobacco product used, cigars, smokeless tobacco, e-cigarettes, hookah, and even pipe tobacco have seen gains in use, while cigarette use in the U.S. has been declining.”
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‘Get a Grip’ – Jennifer Lawrence Offended Over Plunging Dress Furor

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Corts

Jennifer Lawrence on Wednesday blasted a controversy over a photo of her wearing a plunging black dress outside on a cold London day as sexist, ridiculous and “not feminism.”

The Oscar-winning star, 27, said in a Facebook posting that she was also “extremely offended” by what she called the “utterly ridiculous” reaction on social and mainstream media to the photo, taken as part of promotions for her upcoming movie “Red Sparrow.”

The picture, taken outdoors on a bitter winter’s day in London earlier this week, showed a bare-shouldered Lawrence wearing a black gown, while actor Jeremy Irons and three fellow cast members donned thick wool coats.

Many commentators saw the photo as a reflection of the pressure on women in Hollywood to look good, particularly given Lawrence’s previous outspoken criticism of the gender pay gap in the movie industry.

“True equality means either Jennifer Lawrence getting a coat, or Jeremy Irons having to pose for a photo call in assless chaps,” tweeted London journalist Helen Lewis.

Australian journalist Stephanie Peatling remarked on Twitter that it was “cold enough that the bloke actors have to wear coats and scarves to their press call and yet poor Jennifer Lawrence is wearing a small amount of fabric some might call a dress.”

Lawrence, one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood, was having none of it.

“That Versace dress was fabulous, you think I’m going to cover that gorgeous dress up with a coat and a scarf? I was outside for 5 minutes. I would have stood in the snow for that dress because I love fashion and that was my choice,” she wrote on Facebook.

“This is sexist, this is ridiculous, this is not feminism,” she added. “It’s creating silly distractions from real issues. Get a grip people.”

“Red Sparrow,” a thriller in which Lawrence plays a Russian spy, opens worldwide next week.

Ivanka Trump to Attend Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony in South Korea

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Corts

Ivanka Trump is set to attend the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in South Korea on Sunday in the latest high-profile visit to Games which have been dominated by the North Korea crisis.

The trip by U.S. President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter — who is also one of his advisers — comes in the wake of a visit to the Pyeongchang Games by North Korea’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam and Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un.

“The upcoming visit by adviser Ivanka is intended to celebrate the successful hosting of the Pyeongchang Olympics and highlight the mutual understanding of the South Korea-US alliance,” Noh Kyu-duk, spokesman for the foreign ministry in Seoul, said Tuesday, according to the Yonhap news agency.

Trump is expected to arrive in South Korea on Friday, the agency added, quoting Noh as saying her detailed itinerary will be released by the United States.

When asked if North Korea would be on the agenda for any potential talks during Ivanka Trump’s visit, Noh said, according to Yonhap: “Issues of mutual interest could naturally be on the table during the process of the visit.”

There has already been a high-profile meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the North Korean delegation, during which Kim Jong Un’s sister passed on his invitation for Moon to visit Pyongyang for a summit.

Despite the thaw in ties between the two Koreas, Washington has said it will maintain its campaign of “maximum pressure” on Pyongyang, and insists there are no differences with Seoul on how to handle the North.

The Games’ opening ceremony saw US Vice President Mike Pence and the North Korean representatives seated in the same box, but they did not interact.

They had planned to meet secretly while in South Korea, but US officials said Pyongyang scrapped the plan after Pence denounced North Korea’s “murderous regime”.

Tensions rose rapidly last year over the North’s development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles, with President Trump and Kim Jong Un exchanging personal insults.

But the North’s participation in the Games has led to an easing in tensions on the Korean peninsula in recent weeks.
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Chef Jose Andres Writing Book on Hurricane Maria Relief Work

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Corts

Award-winning chef Jose Andres is working on a book about his efforts to help Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

Ecco told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it has acquired We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time. The book is scheduled for Sept. 11 and is co-written by Richard Wolffe. A portion of proceeds will be given to the Chef Relief Network of Andres’ nonprofit World Central Kitchen. We Fed an Island will be released through Anthony Bourdain’s imprint at Ecco.

Andres says he wanted to provide the “inside story” of the relief work by himself and World Central Kitchen last fall.
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European Space Probe Prepares to Sniff Martian Atmosphere

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Cosc

A European space probe has swung into position around Mars in preparation to analyze its atmosphere for possible signs of life.

The European Space Agency said Wednesday its Trace Gas Orbiter successfully performed a delicate maneuver known as aerobraking that involved dipping into the red planet’s upper atmosphere to slow the probe.

The agency says the orbiter will start looking for trace gases such as methane, which can result from biological or geological activity, in April. It will also search for ice that could help future Mars landings.

A NASA-made radio on board will also help relay signals from U.S. rovers on the surface back to Earth.

Europe plans to land its own rover on Mars in 2021. A European test lander crashed on the surface of Mars in 2016.
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US Panel Recommends New Adult Vaccine Against Hepatitis B

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Cosc

A federal advisory panel is recommending a new vaccine against hepatitis B.

The vaccine called Heplisav-B was licensed in November and is the first new hepatitis B vaccine in 25 years.

Hepatitis B vaccines have been in childhood shots for decades. The new vaccine is for adults.

The hepatitis B virus can damage the liver and is spread through contact with blood or other bodily fluids. Cases have been rising, a trend linked to the heroin and opioid epidemic. Meanwhile, researchers found older vaccines falter in diabetics and older adults.

The new vaccine uses an additive that boosts the body’s immune response. It is two shots given over one month.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices endorsed the vaccine Wednesday in Atlanta. The government usually adopts its recommendations.

Bollywood Menstruation Movie Sparks Conversation on Taboo Subject

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Corts

Drafting a menstrual hygiene program to be taught in schools in India’s western Maharashtra state posed a challenge: How to train teachers to become comfortable talking about a subject that is never openly spoken about, even inside homes, and has long been surrounded by taboos.

“It is a very inhibiting environment,” said Bharathy Tahiliani in Mumbai, who helped design the teaching modules for the program spearheaded by United Nations Children’s Agency. “It puts a lot of fears in the hearts and minds of girls.”

Now a Bollywood film, Padman, dubbed the world’s first feature film to address the subject of menstruation, could make it easier to confront the stigma that surrounds the hushed topic. Winning accolades and a huge audience since it opened this month, the movie has helped catapult words such as sanitary napkins and periods into newspaper articles, television debates and social media.

Starring a top hero, Akshay Kumar, the film is based on the true-life story of a social entrepreneur in South India who set out on a mission to make low-cost sanitary napkins after he discovers his wife uses rags.

In one scene, Padman shows him cycling around a village wearing a sanitary napkin he has made and using animal blood to test if it leaked. It also depicts the horror in the small town as he openly talks about menstruation.

Dozens of Bollywood actors and actresses have joined in to spread the message: In a country where shopkeepers discreetly pack sanitary napkins in black plastic bags under the counter so that they are not visible, they have tweeted photos of themselves holding up sanitary pads.

“It is fantastic,” the overjoyed film director, R. Balki, told VOA after witnessing the reaction of some viewers. “There were men with their wives and they were coming out of the theater and talking about just not the film, they were talking about a pad as if it is an everyday conversation. Just to make that come out in the open is a big, big deal.”

Social activists say the buzz generated by the movie could help efforts to tackle the issue of menstrual hygiene and sanitation in villages, slums and other low-income communities.

Targeting myths, taboos

In India, as in several countries, the myths and taboos about menstruation are many: Women cannot visit temples, take part in religious ceremonies or prepare food. The greater challenge is that an estimated 20 percent of adolescent girls drop out of school after puberty, and unhygienic practices lead to infections.

Pointing out that this reinforces gender inequalities, Tahiliani said education is the key to correcting misconceptions. But she said that for a very long time, “who owns the subject” was itself a challenge, with few willing to wade into a hyper-sensitive topic. That has been slowly changing in recent years, and several states like Maharashtra are implementing menstrual hygiene programs in schools and communities, often in partnership with voluntary groups.

One of them, the Center for Advocacy and Research, has been helping set up adolescent forums in slums and low-income areas in cities like Delhi and Kolkata to create awareness.

A member of a forum in the eastern city of Kolkata, 20-year-old Rehana Khatun said she was hesitant to attend programs on menstrual awareness when she was young. “People used to discourage us,” she said. “Why do you go there? They teach you dirty things.” Now, she is on the frontlines of those going around schools and communities to talk about it. “Young girls should not get scared the way I did, I thought I had some illness,” she recalled about the onset of puberty.

Another volunteer, Mohini Khatun, hopes the conversation that Padman has generated will bring the subject out of the closet, especially within families.

“Our adolescent group will go and watch it,” she said. “It is essential that our mothers and fathers should also go.”

Into rural India and beyond

However, while the movie is helping generate discussions in cities and towns, it remains to be seen whether it will do the same in rural India.

The makers of Padman say they are trying to take the film to tens of thousands of villages across the country. “The problem is there are lots of places where there are no theaters. We are trying to tie up with various foundations to screen this film in lots of villages free of cost,” said director Balki.

And although Bollywood movies are a rage in several Asian countries, it is uncertain how this film will fare outside India, where similar sensitivities exist. The challenge will not be easy. Already Pakistan’s censor board has banned the film, saying that the movie is about a taboo subject and releasing it would go against culture and tradition.
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Vice President Brings Advisory Group to Kennedy Space Center

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Cosc

Vice President Mike Pence has brought a newly revived advisory group to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center for a rundown on how best to get Americans back to the moon, a half-century after NASA’s Apollo heydays.

Pence convened the meeting Wednesday morning inside the building where NASA once prepped pieces of the International Space Station.

This is the second meeting of the National Space Council. Pence, its chairman, named a group of candidates to advise the council that includes Buzz Aldrin and other former astronauts and aerospace industry leaders.

Wednesday’s meeting focuses on the Trump administration’s plan to return astronauts to the moon and get them to Mars and “worlds beyond.”

Pence toured Kennedy last summer just as the space council was being re-established after two decades.
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Drought Over: US Women Win 1st Olympic Cross-country Gold

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Corts

The long Olympic drought is over for the United States in cross-country skiing.

Jessica Diggins and Kikkan Randall became the first Americans to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport on Wednesday by shocking powerhouses Norway and the Sweden in the women’s team sprint at the Pyeongchang Games.

Diggins passed Norway’s Marit Bjoergen, the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time, on the final lap and out-sprinted Sweden’s Stina Nilsson to the finish. Diggins screamed as she crossed the finish line, setting off a huge celebration for the red, white and blue.

As Diggins collapsed to the ground, Randall jumped on her and American teammates cheered from behind the wall guarding the entrance to the course. Soon they all joined together in one huge celebration.

To put the victory in perspective, the United States had never won a medal of any kind in women’s cross-country skiing prior to the race.

The only American to previously win an Olympic medal in the sport was Bill Koch, who took silver in the 30-kilometer race in the 1976 Winter Games in Innsbruck.

The Americans posted the fastest time in the semifinals to start on the front row in the final. Diggins passed the Swedes and the Norwegians on the final lap to secure the elusive win. Sweden took silver and Norway finished with a bronze, which allowed Bjoergen to secure her record 14th medal in the Winter Games. That broke her tie with Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjourndalen for most medals in the Winter Olympics.

To Get a Ride, Uber Says Take a Walk

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Cobiz

The latest variation of an Uber ride will require a short walk.

In eight U.S. cities, the ride-hailing company is rolling out a service called “Express Pool,” which links riders in the same area who want to travel to similar destinations. Once linked, riders would need to walk a couple of blocks to be picked up at a common location. They also would be dropped off at a site that would be a short walk from their final destinations.

Depending on time of day and metro area, Express Pool could cost up to 75 percent less than a regular Uber ride and up to half the cost of Uber’s current shared-ride service called Pool, said Ethan Stock, the company’s product director for shared rides.

Pool, which will remain in use, doesn’t require any walking. Instead it takes an often circuitous route to pick up riders at their location and drops them at their destination. But that can take longer than Express, which travels a more direct route.

Uber has been testing the service since November in San Francisco and Boston and has found enough ridership to support running it 24 hours per day. Within the next two days, the around-the-clock service will start running in Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Miami, San Diego and Denver. More cities will follow, Uber said.

The new service could spell competition for mass transit, but just how much depends on how well it works and how good the mass transit is, said Mark Hallenbeck, director of the Washington State Transportation Center at the University of Washington. If buses or subways are overcrowded and Uber can provide service for a similar price, that will help with mobility.

“If, however, you are cannibalizing transit that’s not over-subscribed, then that becomes a bad thing,” Hallenbeck said.

Also, if the ride-sharing service pulls people off mass transit and creates more automobile traffic, that will add to congestion, he said.

The service could complement Uber X, the company’s door-to-door taxi service — or draw passengers away from it.

Stock said the system should work well with public transit, providing first-mile and last-mile service for transit riders and by providing service to low passenger volume areas where it’s not cost effective for public transit to serve. He also says it will reduce congestion by cutting the number of personal vehicle trips.

Express already has ride-sharing competitors such as Via, which operates in New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Express Pool will have normal-sized cars, at least initially, and optimally will carry a maximum of three passengers so riders aren’t crammed into the vehicles. It could be expanded to six-passenger vehicles, Stock said.

It will take one to two minutes for Uber’s computers to match a rider to a driver and other riders and select a pick-up point, Stock said.

The lower cost of the service should help Uber grow, Stock said. “More riders can afford to take more trips for more reasons,” he said. Already Uber Pool accounts for 20 percent of Uber trips in the cities where it’s available.
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US Men’s Hockey Team Eliminated, Vonn Ends Olympic Ski Career with Bronze

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Corts

The Czech Republic won a stunning 3-2 shootout victory over the United States in the men’s hockey quarterfinals match-up.

Wednesday at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Petr Kouka scored the game-winning goal for the Czech Republic, while goalie Pavel Francouz stopped a total of 18 shots, including five in the shootout. The Czech Republic will now move on to face the Russian squad, who advanced after posting a 6-1 quarterfinal rout of Norway.

In women’s figure skating, 15-year-old Russian Alina Zagitova scored a world-record 82.92 points in her short program, besting the 81.61 mark set just minutes earlier by 18-year-old teammate Evegenia Medvedeva. The performances put the Russians in commanding position to win the first gold medal for a delegation that is competing under the neutral Olympic Athletes from Russia banner after the national team was banned over a major doping scandal.

The U.S. trio of Mirai Nagasu, Karen Chen and Bradie Tennell struggled with early mistakes in each of their programs. Nagasu was ninth with Chen and Tennell right behind her.

Meanwhile, Italy’s Sofia Goggia won the gold medal in the ladies’s downhill ski event, beating silver medalist Ragnhild Mowinkel of Norway by just nine hundredths of a seconds. American Lindsey Vonn, in the final Olympics of her career, won the bronze medal to become the oldest female medalist in Winter Olympics history at the age of 33.

Canada’s Brady Leman took home the gold medal in the men’s ski cross event, with Switzerland’s Marc Bishofberger taking the silver medal and Russia’s Sergey Ridzik winning bronze.

And the United States won its first ever Olympic gold medal in women’s cross-country skiing, upsetting Sweden by .19 seconds. Norway finished in nearly three seconds later to win the bronze.
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A Black Panther Themed Pop-Up bar Immerses Fans in Wakanda

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Corts

A Black Panther themed pop-up bar in Washington, D.C., offers fans an interactive entrance into the make-believe land of Wakanda. The four-day event provided more than just a space for Marvel fans, but also a chance to pay homage to the movie that they say breaks the mold on stories about the black experience. Jesusemen Oni has more.
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Greenpeace Scientists on Fact-Finding Antarctic Mission

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Cosc

A group of scientists aboard a research vessel at the “bottom of the world” are examining the effects of climate change in Antarctica. The nonprofit, environmental watchdog group Greenpeace sent the team to gather data to help build international support for declaring a part of the continent a sanctuary from industrial fishing. Arash Arabasadi reports.
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Researchers Harness the Power of Algae to Generate Really Green Energy

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Cobiz

Fuel made from plants like corn, soybeans, even algae have been around for decades. Now, researchers have developed an algae-powered fuel cell that is ,self-repairing, self-replicating, biodegradable and much more sustainable than existing models. Faith Lapidus has details.
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Ursula K. Le Guin Wins Posthumous Prize for Essay Writing

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Corts

The late Ursula K. Le Guin was among the recipients of literary honors presented Tuesday night by PEN America.

The science fiction/fantasy author’s “No Time to Spare” won a $10,000 prize for best essay writing. Le Guin died last month at age 88 and her award was announced during a New York ceremony hosted by PEN, the literary and human rights organization.

Poet Layli Long Soldier’s debut collection “Whereas” won a $75,000 award for the year’s best book. Jenny Zhang’s story collection “Sour Heart” received a $25,000 prize for best debut fiction and Alexis Okeowo’s “A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa” won a $5,000 award given to outstanding works by “authors of color.”

“This year’s awardees represent the near and far corners of the literary landscape, including writers who have shattered barriers of race, class, ethnicity, geography, gender and sexual orientation to bring stories to new audiences, unlock empathy and take places of distinction within our collective canon,” PEN America Executive Director Suzanne Nossel said in a statement. “In times of challenge great literature offers a desperately needed window onto other possibilities.”

Lifetime achievement awards had been previously announced and were given to Edmund White, who won the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for American fiction, and Edna O’Brien, winner of the PEN/Nabokov Award for international literature.
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S. Korea’s Cryptocurrency Industry Welcomes Regulator’s Dramatic Change of Heart

Posted on 02/21/2018 by Coeco

South Korea’s cryptocurrency industry is anticipating much better times as the market regulator changes tack from its tough stance on the virtual coin trade, promising instead to help promote blockchain technology.

The regulator said Tuesday that it hopes to see South Korea — which has become a hub for cryptocurrency trade — normalize the virtual coin business in a self-regulatory environment.

“The whole world is now framing the outline [for cryptocurrency] and therefore [the government] should rather work more on normalization than increasing regulation,” Choe Heung-sik, chief of South Korea’s Finance Supervisory Service (FSS), told reporters.

FSS has been leading the government’s regulation of cryptocurrency trading as part of a task force.

Cryptocurrency operators have drawn a new optimism from Choe’s comments, seeing them clearly indicating the government’s cooperation in their plans for self-regulation.

“Though the government and the industry have not yet reached a full agreement, the fact that the regulator himself made clear the government’s stance on cooperation is a positive sign for the markets,” said Kim Haw-joon of the Korea Blockchain Association.

Wednesday’s news is a stark reversal of the justice minister’s warnings in January that the government was considering shutting down local cryptocurrency exchanges, throwing the market into turmoil.

Instead, South Korea banned the use of anonymous bank accounts for virtual coin trading as of January 30 to stop cryptocurrencies being used in money laundering and other crimes.

Bitcoin, the world’s most heavily traded cryptocurrency, is now changing hands at a three-week high of $11,086 on the Luxembourg-based Biststamp exchange after falling as low as $5,920.72 in early February.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung has already started production of cryptocurrency mining technologies, local media reported in January.
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