Month: April 2019

In a First, Bedouin Women Lead Tours in Egypt’s Sinai

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Corts

Amid a stunning vista of desert mountains, a Bedouin woman, Umm Yasser, paused to point out a local plant, and she began to explain how it was used in medicine to the group of foreign tourists she was guiding.

Umm Yasser is breaking new ground among the deeply conservative Bedouin of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Women among the Bedouin almost never work outside the home, and even more rarely do they interact with outsiders. But Umm Yasser is one of four women from the community who for the first time are working as tour guides.

“It is against our culture, but women need jobs,” the 47-year-old Umm Yasser said. “People will make fun of us, but I don’t care. I’m a strong woman.”

They are part of Sinai Trail, a unique project in which local Bedouin tribes came together aiming to develop their own tourism. Founded in 2015, the project has set up a 550-kilometer (330-mile) trail through the remote mountains of the peninsula, a42-day trek through the lands of eight different tribes, each of which contributes guides. The project has been successful in bringing some income to the tribes, who often complain of being left out of the major tourism development of the southern Sinai, home to beach resorts and desert safaris.

Until now, all the project’s guides were men. Ben Hoffler, the British co-founder of the Sinai Trail, felt it was not enough. “How can we be credible calling this the ‘Sinai Trail’ if the women aren’t involved?”

But even after years of trying by Hoffler, almost all the tribes still reject women guides. Only one of the smallest, oldest and poorest tribes, the Hamada, accepted the idea.

There are some conditions. The tourists can only be women, and the tours can’t go overnight. Each day before the sun sets, the group returns to the Hamada’s home village in Wadi Sahu, a narrow desert valley. The organizers also urge the tourists to photograph the guides only when they are wearing a full veil over the face that covers even the eyes with mesh.

Umm Yasser was the first to join. She said she started hiking when she was a child and knows the mountains and the valley by heart. She convinced the families of three other women to allow them to work as guides.

Their tribe is a poor one, living in small concrete houses strung along the Wadi Sahu. Electricity runs no more than five hours a night and there is no running water. It is isolated deep in the mountains of south Sinai, far from the tourism centers in Sinai along the Red Sea coast or near the famed Saint Catherine’s Monastery. The men often leave the village to find work, either at resorts or in mines further south.

“We need money to help support our families for basic necessities,” Umm Yasser said. “We need blankets, clothes for the children, washing machines, fridges, books for school.”

The Sinai Trail came together in some of the hardest years for tourism. It was launched as an Islamic State group-linked insurgency intensified in the northern part of Sinai and a year after a Russian passenger plane crashed, killing all 224 passengers on board in a likely militant bombing. The violence has stayed far from southern Sinai, where tourist resorts are located — but the industry has had to push hard to win tourists back.

On a recent tour joined by the Associated Press, 16 female tourists — from Korea, New Zealand, Europe, Lebanon and Egypt — were led by Umm Yasser and the other three women guides, Umm Soliman, Aicha, and Selima, through the rugged landscape in and around Wadi Sahu.

“I think south Sinai is safe especially when you are in the care of Bedouins. … This is where I feel at home. Every corner there is scenery and another beautiful view,” said Marion Salwegter, a 68-year-old Dutch woman who travels to southern Sinai every year alone to escape the winters in Holland.

During the two-day tour, the group hiked across an endlessly broad landscape of mountain peaks and valleys of dry riverbeds. While male Bedouin guides range far from home, the women tend to move closer, with an exceptionally rich knowledge of the surrounding mountains. The guides talked about the local plants and herbs, the history and legends of the area and pointed out the borders of the area’s tribes.

In the evening, the group returned to the Hamada tribe’s village. The women sat on the floor of Umm Yasser’s home and the tourists asked the guide about life in the village, marriage and divorce.

Umm Yasser is skeptical other Bedouin women will join her as a guide or in working in general any time soon. But, she said, “There is no shame in working. This is what I believe in, and it makes me strong.”

Some attitudes are changing. Mohammed Salman, an elderly man from the Aligat tribe, said he thought the guides project was a great step for women. “If a woman wants to work, she should be able to have the right to,” he said. “Many men say no, a woman’s place is at home. But I’m sick of this ideology. She’s a human being.”

Younger Bedouin girls tagged along with the group and talked about wanting to be female guides in the future.

“This trip is going down in history and will be talked about,” said Julie Paterson, a facilitator for Sinai Trail who often works with Bedouin women. “It might also go into Bedouin oral history.”

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US Independent Bookstores Thriving and Growing

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Corts

Small, independent bookstores in neighborhoods across the United States are places to discover new books and make new friendships. But about 20 years ago they were rapidly closing because of competition from big box chain bookstores and on-line book sales. Then about 10 years ago something remarkable happened as indie bookstores came back to life, many thriving and growing every year.

At One More Page Books in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC, customer Cheryl Moore likes the personalized service that she does not get at large corporate-owned bookstores.

“I think they pay attention to the kinds of books people like to read. They have book clubs, so I don’t think it’s a place where people just buy books, but make friends here.”

Kate Oberdorfer browses through the unusual assortment of books that range from mystery novels and cookbooks, to biographies of famous people.

“It’s a great hole in the wall store where you can find independent titles,” she said.

Oberdorfer chats about a couple of books with Lelia Nebeker, the book buyer for the store that opened eight years ago in the upscale neighborhood.

“I do think it’s a special place for people to come,” said Nebeker, who lives nearby. “When people come in and share their experiences about a book or an author, it can foster a sense of community where people can meet other people who share their interests,” she explained.

After almost withering away, indie bookstores grew by 35 percent between 2009 and 2015. And according to the American Booksellers Association, sales at the more than 2,400 bookstores in the United States rose about 5 percent over the past year. Among them is Hooray for Books, a children’s bookstore that started 11 years ago in Alexandria, Virginia. Owner Ellen Klein thinks part of her success has been providing a wide variety of books to the diverse neighborhood.

“In this community we have a lot of mixed race families,” she said, “and so we’re trying to serve them as well, and it’s wonderful seeing more books with mixed race characters.”

As customer Sarah Reidl scans the shelves of children’s books she said, “You just can’t really browse on the Internet. I like to be able to browse and look for things in person that catch my eye.”

For people who are passionate about reading, independent bookstores sometimes become a home away from home.

Kristen Maier from Missouri often comes to Hooray for Books when she is in the Washington area for work. She doesn’t think electronic books can replace the feeling of physically holding a book.

“If you don’t have a nice book to pass down to your grandkids or their grandkids, you just kind of lose that sense of history and tradition for your family.”

But to survive, today’s indie bookstores know they have to sell more than books. One More Page also draws in customers with bottles of wine and chocolate they can take home along with a book.

“We are a place where you can come for events, you can meet authors, get books signed, and buy books you might not necessarily stumble upon on your own,” said Nebeker.

Including by local author Ed Aymar, who is talking before a packed house about his latest thriller The Unrepentant. A singer also performs songs that relate to the story.

“Usually, authors are just reading out loud,” he said. “Something like this gives a different perspective and provides more entertainment for the audience.”

Angie Kim, another local author, came to support Aymar.

“I’ve been here for 5 events just in the last couple of months,” she said. “I think it’s just a wonderful way to show the bookstore that we care about spaces like this and that we want them to continue.”

“We’re going to keep doing what we do well, and hope that our community loves having us around enough to support us,” Nebeker added.
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‘The Stakes Are Too High’: Christian Faithful Take up Climate Protest

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Coeco

Cloaked in black and carrying white buckets filled with artificial blood, the group filed in silence to the entrance of London’s Downing Street, behind a troupe of child and teen activists.

Ringing a bell as they walked, the 45 adults — all participants in Extinction Rebellion, a protest movement seeking rapid action to curb global warming — formed an arc facing the British prime minister’s residence and poured out their buckets, turning the surrounding road into a sea of red.

The liquid, they said, symbolized “the blood of our children,” on the hands of politicians who have failed to act on climate change and stem its impacts, from worsening floods and droughts to growing poverty and water and food shortages.

Among those at the protest in March were three members of Christian Climate Action, a small group of retirees and students who say their religious faith is compelling them to take an increasingly active role in trying to stop climate change.

Climate change “is leading to a social collapse. We need to respond in more caring and collective ways,” said Phil Kingston, 83, a Catholic church member from Bristol who took a train to London to participate in the Downing Street demonstration.

As climate change protests pick up in London and around the world, they are drawing an increasingly broad range of protesters, from students following in the footsteps of 16-year-old Swedish “school strike” leader Greta Thunberg to grandparents concerned about the growing risks their grandchildren face.

Religious groups — from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim and other faiths — are among those joining the protests, out of concern, in some cases, about the moral and spiritual implications of human-driven climate change.

Christian Climate Action took shape about six years ago, initially with just a handful of active members from a range of Christian denominations, said Ruth Jarman, 55, one of the group’s original members.

But as it has become involved with Extinction Rebellion — an emerging movement that uses nonviolent protest to demand action on climate change — interest in the Christian action group is growing, especially among younger generations, members say.

“Finding Extinction Rebellion really fitted in with our values so well. It’s very clear on using nonviolence, being motivated by values of love and care rather than anger,” said Jarman, who lives in Hartley Wintney in Hampshire.

Since November, Christian Climate Action activists have disrupted traffic, spray-painted government buildings with political messages and the Extinction Rebellion hourglass symbol, blockaded entrances — and prayed for action, Jarman said.

An Anglican parishioner, she has been arrested five times for those protests — a risk not all Christians are willing to take, she admitted.

But “for me, it’s the first verse of the Bible that hits home: If God created all that is, what does it mean for us to be destroying it?” she asked. “For us to be participating in its destruction is sacrilegious — not something believing Christians should be doing.”

Faith in action

Faith groups, in Britain and around the world, have taken a growing role in pushing action on climate change, with some churches, mosques and temples pulling their investments out of fossil fuels, championing efforts to cut food waste and raising awareness about climate risks.

Last July, the Church of England’s governing body, the General Synod, voted to disinvest by 2023 from fossil fuel companies that fail to meet the aims of the Paris climate agreement.

Under that 2015 deal, world governments agreed to hold global average temperature hikes to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius.

Because faith groups around the world control trillions of dollars in assets, such pledges can help drive action in companies that fear losing investment, or push much-needed cash to greener investments.

Experts say religions, which connect with people’s emotions and personal lives, could help mobilize them in the fight against climate change where facts and politics have failed.

Kingston, of Christian Climate Action, points to Laudato Si – Pope Francis’ 2015 papal encyclical that called on the world to unite against climate change impacts, particularly on the poor and powerless – as one of his motivations for taking action.

Most members of Christian Climate Action have a history of campaigning against climate change by writing letters to politicians, doing charity work or walking in marches, Jarman said.

But over time, they saw their efforts produce little action — one reason the group has stepped up its tactics, she said.

“As Christians, we should be prepared to make any sacrifice necessary to serve and protect God’s creation,” Jarman said.

Father Martin Newell, 51, a Catholic priest who works with the Congregation of the Passion, a religious order devoted to serving vulnerable communities, has been committed to activist causes for decades, having previously advocated against nuclear arms and weapons trading.

These days, however, Newell — who lives at Birmingham’s Austin Smith House, a shelter for refugees and asylum seekers — is also working with the Christian Climate Action.

“I realized when someone asked what keeps me up at night [that] I was having nightmares about climate change,” he said.

When the group asked Newell, who has been arrested many times as part of protests, how to get started taking a more active role in climate campaigning, “I thought this is maybe an answer to my prayer,” he said.

The priest has since educated members of the group on how to effectively use civil disobedience tactics and has become an active member of the group.

In late February, Christian Climate Action held a training session in London that featured everything from prayer and discussions about what the Bible says about non-violent action to practice with protest tactics, according to a flier for the event.

At such events, 83-year-old Kingston said he has “gained much clarity about the nuances of non-violent direct action,” including how to best interact with the police and other authorities.

“Being respectful in word and deed to all persons is the essential component,” he said.

Disapproval

Not all of the Christian Climate Action protesters have had the support of their churches, and some say they have faced strong disapproval.

Kingston’s priest, for instance, was “rather horrified” when the parishioner was sent to court in 2016 for criminal damage, stemming from a protest during which Jarman and Newell were also arrested and fined, Kingston said.

The activists had targeted the Department of Energy and Climate Change building in London, to point out that the U.K. government’s action at home on climate change didn’t match its rhetoric at talks leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement.

“We painted whitewash — it’s from the Bible, it comes from Jesus talking about hypocrisy — on the building, and we painted in black paint, ‘Department for Extreme Climate Change,'” Jarman said.

“Then we kneeled down on the pavement and prayed, and got arrested.”

Kingston subsequently was banned him “from any kind of public face with the parish” by his priest at the time, the activist said.

But he has pushed ahead, contacting other parishioners through his private email and becoming increasingly public with his views.

“I don’t care — the stakes are too high. The church should be much more upfront and brave,” he said.

The protester said he began seeing climate change as a serious threat when his first grandchild was born nearly two decades ago.

He realized that “my grandchildren and all their generations in front of them … are voiceless” despite being likely to face climate change’s worst impacts, he said.

“It’s a justice issue. The upcoming generations need life, and we are creating tremendous suffering” by destabilizing the planet’s climate, he said.

He said having older protesters working alongside young activists in the Extinction Rebellion protests has its particular benefits.

“What we’ve realised is neither the corporations nor the government want to arrest us,” he said. “We are a liability in terms of health.”

The activists say their protests aim to achieve a few things in particular: big cuts in Britain’s climate-changing emissions, more honesty from politicians about climate threats, and the creation of a formal parliamentary “Citizen’s Assembly” to discuss needed changes to climate policy and advise the government.

The assembly is crucial in order to “do what is right rather than what is politically acceptable,” Jarman said.

But the protest movement is having a secondary effect as well, Jarman said, in bringing together people who might not otherwise have met and joined forces.

Mothiur Rahman, a legal strategist who works with Extinction Rebellion, for instance, said protesters who are members of faith groups have asked their churches to house out-of-town participants arriving to take part in a new round of protests set to begin April 15.

“One church has given their support and will have their doors open for us to sleep over in, and I am speaking to a mosque as well,” Rahman added.

Newell said he thinks faith-based protesters have found a solid welcome among more traditional environmental activists, and have a role to play as climate protests grow.

“The people who started Extinction Rebellion, and environmentalists, tend to be more secular. But they understand faith and trusting God and are open to people joining them,” the priest said.

“We appreciate them and they appreciate us,” he said.

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Fishermen Turn to Maps as India’s Coasts Cleared for Tourism, Industry

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Coeco

After generations of trawling the same waters, the fishermen on the coast of Tamil Nadu in southeastern India know where to cast a net or park a boat without resorting to signs or GPS maps.

But their customary rights over this common space – a right won by families who have fished it for centuries – are under threat as the demands of modern life threaten age-old livelihoods and their once fertile habitat.

First, families’ land and precious sea access was usurped by factories and ports. Now, their rights are under fresh attack by a newly amended Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) law.

“Governments have treated the coastline as an empty space that economic actors can take over, forgetting that it is common property of coastal villages, towns and cities,” said Kanchi Kohli, a researcher at think tank Center for Policy Research.

“The changes to the law negate the socio-ecological uniqueness of this space and opens it up to mindless real estate development, mass-scale tourism and industry,” she said.

R.L. Srinivasan, who lives in Kaatukuppam – one of half a dozen villages by Ennore Creek near the city of Chennai – is typical of the fishermen under threat.

The Ennore Creek is drained by two seasonal rivers that empty into the Bay of Bengal through a network of canals, wetlands, salt marshes and mangroves, where villagers once harvested salt, caught crabs and filled their nets with fish.

Home to about 300,000 people, the area was protected by state and federal coastal zone laws, which banned construction, reclamation or alteration of the course of the water bodies.

But as Chennai expanded and industries fled the city, the state greenlighted ports, coal-powered thermal plants, and petroleum and chemicals factories, which destroyed the salt pans, polluted the water and killed the fish and the crabs.

“The Creek has been our life, our livelihood for generations,” said Srinivasan.

“Yet for the government, it is just land that can be used as an industrial zone and a dumping ground. The lives and livelihoods of the fishers do not matter,” he said.

Millions at risk

It is a scene playing out in thousands of coastal settlements dotting India’s 7,500-kilometer- (4,660 mile-) shoreline, from remote rural hamlets to bustling urban colonies.

With reduced no-development zones, and laxer rules for real estate and commercial projects, the new CRZ opens up common-use spaces such as beaches, salt marshes, and boat parking areas for tourism and industry, according to analysts.

More than 4 million people in India are estimated to make a living from fishing and related activities. They are often among the nation’s earliest inhabitants, yet have few formal rights over the land or the water on which they depend.

Amid urbanization and industrialization, India’s coasts have become dumping grounds for sewage, garbage and factory waste, even as they fight the rising threat of erosion and flooding.

The Congress party-led government sought to protect the fishing community and preserve their ecology by enacting the CRZ law in 2011.

But several states diluted it, so as to promote tourism and industry and generate jobs. In 2014, a new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a review of the CRZ.

Despite protests from coast dwellers and environmentalists, a cut in the no-development zones was announced in January, allowing eco-tourism and waste treatment in sensitive areas.

The government says the law was amended to “conserve and protect the unique environment of coastal stretches and marine areas, besides livelihood security to the fisher communities and other local communities in coastal areas.”

But life is about to get much harder for Srinivasan and his fellow anglers, said Pooja Kumar at the advocacy Coastal Resource Center in Chennai.

“Coastal communities are hanging by a thread,” she said. “The communities have fished and lived in these areas for generations, but with no record of their common spaces, their fishing grounds, they are extremely vulnerable.”

Mapping

Their one hope may be the modern mapping methods they once shunned.

The Coastal Resource Center began mapping coastal villages in Tamil Nadu about five years ago, using handheld GPS devices to mark common spaces – including where fishermen parked their boats and dried the catch – then plotting the spots on a map.

These maps are then sent to district and state officials for their approval, so they can be integrated into official maps under the coastal zone management plan.

Kumar and her colleagues have mapped about 75 of Tamil Nadu’s 650 coastal villages so far.

Not all their maps have been integrated with official survey maps, but they have been used to resolve disputes between fishing communities, and helped stop the construction of a road that would have passed through a coastal settlement, she said.

“The mapping gives the community a sense of confidence and security. They are seen as people with rights, rather than as encroachers,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “There is an urgent need to map the coastal commons. It is the most effective tool for assertion of the community rights.”

Of some 677 ongoing Indian land conflicts documented by research organization Land Conflict Watch, nearly a third involve commons, including forests, grazing lands and coasts.

But with no legal protection for the coastal commons, mapping them and having the states recognize them will still not protect them under the new CRZ notification, said Kohli.

The Congress party, in a manifesto released ahead of a general election starting on April 11, has vowed to reverse the dilutions of the CRZ, and preserve the coasts without affecting the livelihoods of fishing communities.

That may be Kaatukuppam’s only hope, after the state in 2017 released a map that did not show most of Ennore Creek. In its place stood land earmarked for a petrochemical park.

“We have seen the crabs disappear, the fish disappear. We had never seen a river disappear,” Srinivasan said. “But it is not just us who are suffering; people should realize this sort of development hurts everyone.”
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Living the Dream: Young Pakistani Wins Over Family to Let Her Sing

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Corts

Twenty-year-old Sana Tajik managed to convince her parents to allow her to follow her childhood dreams and become a singer, but she realizes the dangers of being a woman, let alone a woman entertainer, in tribal northwest Pakistan.

The Pashtun singer grew up in Lower Dir, once a Taliban stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where performing arts were widely considered to be un-Islamic. She realized early on that violence against female artists was common.

In 2018, five female singers were killed in the northwest and in March this year, a popular Pashtun stage singer and actress was shot and killed near Peshawar, allegedly by her husband.

But two years ago, Tajik’s family moved from their ancestral village to the state capital Peshawar where she managed to convince her parents to allow her to sing.

“At first, there were a lot of objections, from family, as well as people in our village. But now, with the passing of time, and after seeing my videos and songs, things have become normal again,” Tajik told Reuters at her home.

She has released her songs over social media and said she already had a fan following in Pashto-speaking areas of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. Her second song, “Halaka Charta Ye,” which means “Oh boy, where are you?,” was a great hit.

“I was extremely happy because so many people were listening to my songs and liked them. My passion for music increased further, and I decided to make more and more songs and videos,” she said.

Despite her success, Tajik says she often feels nervous about security because the Taliban’s influence in the region can still be felt. During the 1996-2001 Taliban regime in Afghanistan, music was considered the handiwork of the devil, particularly if the artist was a woman.

Pakistan’s port city of Karachi is home to an estimated 7 million Pashtuns, the largest urban Pashtun population in the world, including 50,000 registered Afghan refugees. Even though it’s the other end of the country, Sana Tajik’s music is known, though not accepted by all.

“If this lady sang hymns and devotional songs, that would have been better. It would have sent a good message to the Pashtun people,” said resident Iqbal Swati.

“Instead, she is wearing half-sleeved clothes while singing; this is not at all nice. This is not our culture.”

Tajik’s music teacher, Safdar Ali Qalandri, said he often warns her of the dangers ahead.

“One, she is a female. And secondly, this is Peshawar, where, as you know, extreme ‘purdah’ (covering of women) is observed. Taking up singing while living in this society is extremely tough.”
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White Supremacist Content Challenges Social Media Companies

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Cobiz

The live-streamed video of the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shooting last month highlighted the continuing struggle by social media companies to police extremist content on their platforms. Facebook and Google representatives told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday the effort to balance free speech with oversight of white supremacist content is ongoing. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.
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Finding New Books, Friends at Indie Bookstores

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Corts

Small, independent bookstores in neighborhoods in the United States are considered places to discover new books and make new friendships. But about 20 years ago they were rapidly closing due to big box chain bookstores and on-line book sales. Then about 10 years ago, independent bookstores came back to life and are now thriving and growing each year. VOA’s Deborah Block visited two shops in the Washington area where customers are happy to see them in their neighborhoods.
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This City is the Global Energy Transition in Miniature

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Cosc

As the planet heats up, experts say we need to stop burning the fossil fuels that have powered civilization for centuries, and switch to renewable energy. In that upheaval, there will be winners and losers. VOA’s Steve Baragona went to Holyoke, Massachusetts, a small town at the heart of the energy transition.
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Green Machines? Flying Taxis Could Slash Emissions for Long Journeys

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Cobiz

Futuristic electric flying taxis like those seen in the movie “Blade Runner” could offer a more sustainable – and much faster – way to travel long distances than traditional car journeys, academics at the University of Michigan said on Tuesday.

Several firms are working to develop car-sized vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (VTOLs) that can lift passengers above congestion, cruise at over 100 miles per hour (160 km), and land in small spaces within crowded urban centers.

The vehicles could slash greenhouse gas emissions in half for three people on a 100-km (62-mile) trip, said researchers, though much of the savings come by assuming passengers will be more willing to share their space than they are in cars.

“It was very surprising to see that VTOLs were competitive with regard to energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in certain scenarios,” said Gregory Keoleian, from the university’s Center for Sustainable Systems, in a statement.

“VTOLs with full occupancy could outperform ground-based cars for trips from San Francisco to San Jose or from Detroit to Cleveland, for example.”

Academics working with researchers at the carmaker Ford found that VTOLs require a large amount of energy to take-off and climb but they were more efficient than cars once cruising.

As a result, they produced more emissions than land vehicles over short trips of the type which account for most journeys, but were more efficient over longer distances, according to the study in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers also argued each seat in a flying taxi is likely to be sold separately, as is the case with planes, meaning they would normally be fully occupied unlike cars which have an average occupancy of about between one and two people.

A flying taxi holding one pilot and three passengers could make a 100-km trip in about 27 minutes, said researchers.

It would produce about 52 percent less greenhouse gas per passenger than two petrol-powered vehicles making the same journey by road, they calculated, and 6 percent less than two electric cars.

However, if the VTOL had just one occupant, the emissions savings would be reduced to 35 percent compared to one petrol car and would be 28 percent higher than one electric vehicle.

Despite the appeal of flying cars, it is “a fantasy” to imagine they could offer sustainable mass transport, said Jemilah Magnusson of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.

“A much more efficient and easier way to improve the state of long-distance car travel is to provide public transit options and to provide incentives for people to not drive solo in their cars,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The University of Michigan study did not offer a timeline of when to expect VTOLs to take passengers on their first flights.
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Green Machines? Flying Taxis Could Slash Emissions for Long Journeys

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Cobiz

“VTOLs with full occupancy could outperform ground-based cars for trips from San Francisco to San Jose or from Detroit to Cleveland, for example.”

Academics working with researchers at the carmaker Ford found that VTOLs require a large amount of energy to take-off and climb but they were more efficient than cars once cruising.

A flying taxi holding one pilot and three passengers could make a 100-km trip in about 27 minutes, said researchers.

It would produce about 52 percent less greenhouse gas per passenger than two petrol-powered vehicles making the same journey by road, they calculated, and 6 percent less than two electric cars.

However, if the VTOL had just one occupant, the emissions savings would be reduced to 35 percent compared to one petrol car and would be 28 percent higher than one electric vehicle.

Despite the appeal of flying cars, it is “a fantasy” to imagine they could offer sustainable mass transport, said Jemilah Magnusson of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.

The University of Michigan study did not offer a timeline of when to expect VTOLs to take passengers on their first flights.
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Facebook Tweaks Tools for Remembering Dead Friends

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Cobiz

Facebook says it will use artificial intelligence to help find profiles of people who have died so their friends and family members won’t get, for instance, painful reminders about their birthdays.

The social network said Tuesday that it is also adding a “tributes” section to accounts that have been memorialized, that is, designated as belonging to someone who has died. Friends and family members will be able to write posts and share photos in this section to remember their loved one.

Facebook is also tightening its rules around who can memorialize an account. Until now, anyone could do this by sending the company proof that someone had died, such an obituary. Now, it will have to be a friend or family member.

The company made the changes in response to users’ experiences with seeing their loved ones’ profiles pop up on Facebook after they had died. Sometimes, the company said people might not be ready to memorialize a person’s profile immediately after their death — it can feel like a big step they are not ready to take. Facebook says it will use AI to prevent that profile from showing up in places it might cause distress, such as in birthday reminders.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, whose husband died unexpectedly in 2015, is one of those users. She said seeing tributes to her late husband on Facebook have helped her cope with her grief.

“I want his memory to stay alive,” she said. “Remember specific and wonderful things.”
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Facebook Tweaks Tools for Remembering Dead Friends

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Cobiz

Facebook says it will use artificial intelligence to help find profiles of people who have died so their friends and family members won’t get, for instance, painful reminders about their birthdays.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, whose husband died unexpectedly in 2015, is one of those users. She said seeing tributes to her late husband on Facebook have helped her cope with her grief.

“I want his memory to stay alive,” she said. “Remember specific and wonderful things.”
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US Agents Smash Billion-Dollar Health Care Fraud Scheme

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Coeco

U.S. federal agents have smashed a worldwide medical care scheme that defrauded U.S. taxpayers of more than $1 billion.

The Justice Department said Tuesday 24 people have been charged, including doctors, telemarketers and the heads of companies that provide back, wrist and knee braces.

“This Department of Justice will not tolerate medical professionals and executives who look to line their pockets by cheating our health care programs,” U.S. Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said Tuesday.

The extensive and complex scheme stretched from the U.S. to call centers in the Philippines and across Latin America.

Telemarketers would phone patients offering them free medical braces. When call centers verified that the patients were covered by Medicare, they were transferred to telemedicine companies, where doctors — who never examined the patients — would prescribe the braces even if there was no medical reason to have one.

The medical equipment companies would bill the government and kickback a portion of the funds to the others in the scam.

The fraud was detected last year when a number of Medicare beneficiaries smelled what sounded like a scam and called a government hotline.

The FBI, Health and Human Services, and Internal Revenue Service investigated.

“The breadth of this nationwide conspiracy should be frightening to all who rely on some form of health care,” IRS investigations chief Don Fort said. “The conspiracy … details broad corruption, massive amounts of greed and systemic flaws in our health care system that were exploited by the defendants.”
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At Just 14, Marsai Martin a Hollywood Mogul in the Making

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Corts

You might have heard the story by now: That Marsai Martin pitched “Little,” a modern spin on “Big,” to Universal Pictures at age 10. It’s true, she did, but that precocious move was preceded by another, more impressive act of rebellion and a pivotal moment in putting her on the path to becoming the youngest executive producer ever: She fired her agents after the first year of “black-ish.”

The ABC show, in which she plays the Johnson’s whip-smart daughter, Diane, was on its first hiatus and Martin and her family wanted to know what opportunities there were.

“They were like, ‘You should just stick to “black-ish,” just chill, take a break,'” Martin said.

Besides, the agents explained, there weren’t any roles for a young black girl out there. But the Martins persisted and suggested creating something themselves.

“They kind of just laughed at us. They didn’t see the vision. But I think they didn’t see it because they saw what I looked like: A little black girl that no one would want to see,” Martin said. “So, we fired them.”

Four years later, it’s almost ancient history for the now 14-year-old sitting in the conference room of Genuis Productions, the company she founded, as she prepares for “Little” to hit theaters nationwide Friday.

The office space is a projection of Martin herself, with accent walls in her favorite color blue, her and her baby sister’s preferred snacks in the break area (Goldfish crackers, rice crispy treats, etc) and a PS4 in the lobby (as well as her NAACP Image Awards). Her own office is well on its way to having the Alice in Wonderland-feel she wants with “grand plants” and colorful throw pillows. There’s also a very teen-appropriate Polaroid wall, and a perfect view of the Universal sign out the window.

“It’s a creative spot for me and a place where I can express how I feel and just get my mind in a cool place where I can just come up with anything I want,” Martin said. “I’m very grateful and doing it with my family is even better.”

After the break with the agents, “black-ish” creator Kenya Barris helped nudge Martin in the right direction, securing a meeting with his friend, producer Will Packer, who’s been behind such high-profile hits as “Girls Trip” and “Night School,” to hear her idea.

“I didn’t expect much, because, you know, I hear a lot of pitches and most of them aren’t great. I said ‘Listen, I’m sure she’s sweet. I’ll do it as a courtesy,'” Packer said. “And she comes in and she’s got this fully thought out, really coherent, cohesive narrative, with characters and themes. I was like,’She’s how old again?'”

Her story would be about bullying and female empowerment.

“We wanted it to be as authentic as possible… even though it’s a fantasy, body-swap film,” Martin laughed.

She stars as the young Jordan Sanders, a science-obsessed teen who is bullied so much in high school that she grows up to be an insufferable bully herself, as the head of a major tech company. The adult version of Jordan is played by Regina Hall, who Martin had worked with on “black-ish.” Rounding out the cast is “Insecure’s” Issa Rae (“a creator like me”), as Jordan’s undervalued assistant.

Martin loved the whole development process and is glad that it took a few years for filming to start, allowing her to mature a little bit into who she is today. And then, this past February, something even bigger came along: Martin got a first-look deal with Universal, too.

“It was so exciting, but to be honest, I didn’t even know what it meant at the beginning,” Martin said. “I was like, ‘Oh cool! What is that? Like, OK, this seems very professional. Am I in it now? Like is this some Jordan Peele-type stuff?'”

When she realized that it meant the studio gets first dibs on anything she creates, she was thrilled.

“I was like, ‘Oh, OK! So I can create whatever I want?’ I thought that was so cool because this mind has a lot of things,” she said. “I can keep creating things that people don’t get to see often.”

She knows it’s unusual to be wielding this much creative power in Hollywood at this young age, but she also enjoys catching people off guard.

“It’s like, ‘Oh, snap, THIS girl, created this film?’ And it’s kind of shocking,” she laughed.

Her life is pretty crazy right now promoting “Little” and developing new films and television projects. She’s home-schooled with a tutor, which she prefers, and she doesn’t have any regrets about missing out on the high school experience.

“I used to be the shy kid who would barely raise her hand or speak her mind,” she said.

Even now she suffers her own share of self-consciousness.

“That’s something that I have to work on: Self-confidence and loving myself,” she said. “Your girl gets a lot of anxiety. It’s OK. It’s a learning process. I feel like a lot of kids my age get it, whether they’re in the industry or not.”

When she does have a moment to unwind, she plays “gruesome” video games like “Mortal Combat,” gets facials, massages, cooks and sometimes just watches YouTube. But even then her wheels are spinning about possible collaborations with her favorite YouTubers.

Down the line, she wants to direct and write and, basically, do all the things.

Packer, for one, is convinced she will.

“She’s got a long, strong career ahead of her. And if she chooses to continue in movies and television, you better watch out because she’s going to make a serious mark,” Packer said. “But she’ll make a mark wherever she ends up.”
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Trump to Seek to Stop States From Delaying Energy Projects

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Coeco

President Donald Trump will issue two executive orders in the heart of the Texas energy hub on Wednesday seeking to speed gas, coal and oil projects delayed by coastal states as he looks to build support ahead of next year’s election.

Trump’s orders will direct his Environmental Protection Agency to change a part of the U.S. clean water law that has allowed states, on the basis of environmental reasons, to delay projects such as pipelines to carry natural gas to New England and coal export terminals on the West Coast.

Trump will issue the orders at a training center for union members in the petroleum industry in Houston, an event sandwiched between fundraising events in Texas for the 2020 campaign.

“Outdated federal guidance and regulations issued by the EPA have caused confusion and uncertainty leading to project delays, lost jobs and reduced economic performance,” a senior administration official told reporters in a conference call. “We are not trying to take away power from the states, but we are trying to make sure that state actions comply with the statutory intent of the law.”

An environmentalist decried the planned orders. “Trump can try to rewrite regulations in favor of Big Oil, but he can’t stop people power and our movement,” said May Boeve, the head of 350.org.

The orders will direct the EPA to review and update guidance issued during the administration of President Barack Obama on the so-called 401 provision of the Clean Water Act. The measure required companies to get certifications from states before building interstate pipelines approved by the federal government.

New York state used it to block pipelines that would send natural gas to New England, forcing the region at times to import liquefied natural gas from countries including Russia.

In 2017, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat and 2020 candidate for president, denied a water permit for the Millennium Bulk Terminal, a coal export facility that would have expanded the ability of companies to send western coal to Asian markets.

‘Energy Dominance’

The executive orders are part of the Trump administration’s policy of “energy dominance” to increase oil, gas and coal production, but forcing the EPA changes will take time. The official said the agency would have to follow normal procedures, including a comment period, and that projects already tied up in litigation “are obviously a much longer-term issue.”

One of the orders will direct the transportation secretary to propose allowing liquefied natural gas, a liquid form of the fuel, to be shipped in approved rail cars, a change that could increase its flow between terminals and markets.

The executive orders could also speed projects in Texas.

Energy investors vying for permits to build oil export terminals along the Gulf Coast say they have worked closely with Trump officials in a bid to speed regulatory reviews of facilities capable of loading supertankers.

U.S. and state agencies overseeing permit applications have taken too long to approve projects, the investors said, adding they were worried their projects would miss the most profitable years of the U.S. crude export boom.

Four energy groups led by Trafigura AG, Carlyle Group, Enterprise Products Partners LP and Enbridge have applied to build terminals in Texas.
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How Measles Is Making a Return in New York and Elsewhere

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Cosc

New York City declared a public health emergency Tuesday and ordered mandatory vaccinations for measles in a part of Brooklyn that is home to a large Orthodox Jewish community.

The city took the unusual step amid a surge of 285 measles cases in the city since September, most in one densely packed neighborhood where people now have to get vaccines or risk a $1,000 fine.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported there have been 465 cases so far this year, two-thirds of them in New York state. That compares to 372 cases in the U.S. for all of last year. Besides New York, there have been outbreaks this year in Washington state, California. Michigan and New Jersey.

The disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, which means it was not being spread domestically.

But cases have been rising in recent years, in part the result of misinformation that makes some parents balk at a crucial vaccine.

Most of the reported illnesses are in children. The CDC says roughly 80 percent of the U.S. cases are age 19 or younger.

Here are some questions and answers about measles:

Question: How dangerous is measles?

Answer: Measles typically begins with a high fever, and several days later a characteristic rash appears on the face and then spreads over the body. Among serious complications, 1 in 20 patients get pneumonia, and 1 in 1,000 get brain swelling that can lead to seizures, deafness or intellectual disability.

While it’s rare in the U.S., about 1 in every 1,000 children who get measles dies, according to the CDC.

Question: How does it spread?

Answer: By coughing or sneezing, and someone can spread the virus for four days before the telltale rash appears.

The virus can live for up to two hours in the air or on nearby surfaces. Nine of 10 unvaccinated people who come into contact with someone with measles will catch it. Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, recently called it “one of the most contagious viruses known to man.”

Q: Is a problem outside of the U.S.?

A: Measles is far more common around the world — the World Health Organization said it claimed 110,000 lives in 2017. The WHO says there’s been a 30 percent increase in measles cases in recent years. Unvaccinated Americans traveling abroad, or foreign visitors here, can easily bring in the virus.

For example, a huge outbreak in Madagascar has caused more than 115,000 illnesses and more than 1,200 deaths since September. But you don’t need to go as far as Madagascar — common tourist destinations like England, France, Italy and Greece had measles outbreaks last year. Nearly 83,000 people contracted measles in Europe in 2018, the highest number in a decade.

Q: How many U.S. children are vulnerable?

A: Overall about 92 percent of U.S. children have gotten the combination vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella, known as the MMR vaccine. Two shots are required, one around the first birthday and a second between age 4 and 6. Full vaccination is 97 percent effective at preventing measles.

But the CDC says 1 in 12 children do not receive the first dose on time, and in some places vaccination rates are far lower than the national average. For example, an outbreak in Washington state is linked to a community where only about 80 percent of children were properly vaccinated.

Q: Is the vaccine safe?

A: Yes. In the late 1990s, one study linked MMR vaccine to autism but that study was found to be a fraud. Later research found no risk of autism from the vaccine.

Q: Why isn’t everyone vaccinated?

A: Some people can’t be immunized for medical reasons — including infants and people with weak immune systems — and most states allow religious exemptions. But while vaccination against a list of contagious diseases is required to attend school, 17 states allow some type of non-medical exemption for “personal, moral or other beliefs,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In Washington state, lawmakers are debating ending that personal or philosophical exemption, as are several other states. California ended a similar exemption in 2015 after a measles outbreak at Disneyland sickened 147 people and spread across the U.S. and into Canada.

Q: Why so many cases in New York’s Orthodox Jewish communities?

A: Most families in Brooklyn’s Orthodox enclaves do have their children vaccinated, and most rabbis say there is no religious reason not to get them. But anti-vaccine propaganda has found an audience among a larger than usual percentage of parents in a community used to cultural clashes with city officials. It is also a community whose members travel frequently to other countries where measles is more prevalent.
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Century-Old Bacteria From Sick Soldier Offers Clues to Cholera Epidemics

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Cosc

Scientists have mapped the genome of a strain of cholera extracted a century ago from a sick British soldier during World War I and found clues to how some cholera bacteria strains cause epidemics today.

The bug – thought to be the oldest publicly available sample of the V. cholerae bacterium – was isolated in 1916 from the soldier’s “choleraic diarrhea” while he was convalescing in Egypt, the researchers said.

But their analysis of its genetic code showed it was a non-toxigenic strain and that the soldier was probably sick with some other infection.

The strain was, however, distantly related to strains of cholera bacteria that are causing current outbreaks and have sparked epidemics in the past.

“Even though this isolate (bacterial sample) did not cause an outbreak it is important to study those that do not cause disease as well as those that do,” said Nick Thomson, who co-led the study at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, U.K.

“Studying strains from different points in time can give deep insights into the evolution of this species of bacteria and link that to historical reports of human disease.”

Cholera is a severe diarrhoeal disease caused by eating or drinking food or water contaminated with toxigenic cholera bacteria. It can spread rapidly in areas with poor sanitation and has cause several historical global epidemics, or pandemics.

Experts say one of these outbreaks, known as the “sixth pandemic,” coincided with World War I.

Outbreaks of cholera are currently spreading in several countries including Yemen and Mozambique. The World Health Organization says the disease is “a global threat,” and experts estimate there are between 1.3 and 4.0 million cases and between 21,000 and 143,000 cholera deaths worldwide each year.

Matthew Dorman, who co-led the research, said the analysis of also revealed the 1916 strain had certain faults, including lacking a flagellum — a thin tail that enables bacteria to swim.

“We discovered a mutation in a gene critical for growing flagella, which may be the reason for this,” Dorman said.

The research was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal on Wednesday.
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Virgin Galactic’s 1st Test Passenger Gets Commercial Astronaut Wings

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Cobiz

Virgin Galactic’s first test passenger received her commercial astronaut wings from the U.S. aviation regulator on Tuesday after flying on the company’s rocket plane to evaluate the customer experience in February.

Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor, Beth Moses, who is a former NASA engineer, became the first woman to fly to space on a commercial vehicle when she joined pilots David Mackay and Mike Masucci on SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity.

The wings were presented to the three-person crew at the 35th Space Symposium in Colorado by the Federal Aviation Administration’s associate administrator for commercial space, Wayne Monteith.

“Commercial human space flight is now a reality,” he said.

The February test flight nudged Richard Branson’s space travel company closer to delivering suborbital flights for the more than 600 people who have paid Virgin Galactic about $80 million in deposits. Branson has said he hopes to be the first passenger on a commercial flight in 2019.

The 90-minute flight, during which passengers will be able to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the Earth’s curvature, costs $250,000 — a price that the company said will increase before it falls.

Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are also in the space tourism race. Blue Origin has launched its New Shepard rocket to space, but its trips have not yet carried humans.

SpaceX last year named Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa as its first passenger on a voyage around the moon, tentatively scheduled for 2023.

Moses, who as a NASA engineer worked on the assembly of the International Space Station, is designing a three-day training program for Virgin Galactic’s future space tourists.

“I gleaned a lot of firsthand information that we can roll into the design and then also into the training,” she said on her return to earth in Mojave, California, in February.

The passengers, some of whom have been signed up since 2004, will train in a mock-up cabin at New Mexico’s Spaceport America before their flights.

Moses told Reuters she aims for customers to arrive in space “not wondering what noise they just heard or being surprised by the G they just felt.”

Virgin Galactic’s Branson will also receive the annual Space Achievement Award at the symposium in recognition of the company’s two crewed test flights, the first from U.S. soil since the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011.
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Virgin Galactic’s 1st Test Passenger Gets Commercial Astronaut Wings

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Cobiz

The wings were presented to the three-person crew at the 35th Space Symposium in Colorado by the Federal Aviation Administration’s associate administrator for commercial space, Wayne Monteith.

“Commercial human space flight is now a reality,” he said.

Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are also in the space tourism race. Blue Origin has launched its New Shepard rocket to space, but its trips have not yet carried humans.

SpaceX last year named Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa as its first passenger on a voyage around the moon, tentatively scheduled for 2023.

Moses, who as a NASA engineer worked on the assembly of the International Space Station, is designing a three-day training program for Virgin Galactic’s future space tourists.

“I gleaned a lot of firsthand information that we can roll into the design and then also into the training,” she said on her return to earth in Mojave, California, in February.

The passengers, some of whom have been signed up since 2004, will train in a mock-up cabin at New Mexico’s Spaceport America before their flights.

Moses told Reuters she aims for customers to arrive in space “not wondering what noise they just heard or being surprised by the G they just felt.”

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Top Senate Democrat Says Trump’s Fed Picks Unqualified

Posted on 04/09/2019 by Coeco

Rob Garver contributed to this report

The top Senate Democrat says President Donald Trump’s picks to fill two vacant seats on the Federal Reserve Board are unqualified for the job.

Trump has nominated former pizza chain boss Herman Cain and conservative economic commentator Stephen Moore for the Fed — posts that need Senate confirmation. Both are strong Trump supporters.

“I don’t see the qualifications of Cain or Moore fitting in with the mission of the Fed, which is to conduct monetary policy and not be political,” Sen. Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.

Cain is best known as the former CEO of the Godfather’s Pizza chain and a failed 2012 Republican presidential candidate.

He had several top positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. But local Fed boards do not set monetary policy and do not have the global impact that the main Federal Reserve has.

Stephen Moore was a Trump campaign economic adviser and is a TV commentator and columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

Opponents to their nominations say they could compromise the Fed’s credibility as an independent policymaking body that responds only to economic trends, not politics.

Chief White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNN television that Cain and Moore are both “very smart people” and said Trump has “every right to put people on the Federal Reserve board … who share his philosophy.”

But Cain has faced charges of sexual harassment, which he denies, and Moore owes more than $75,000 in back taxes. He was once found in contempt of court for failing to pay $300,000 in alimony and child support.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has not commented on the qualifications of either man, only saying “We’re going to look at whoever the president sends up.”
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US Senators Introduce Social Media Bill to Ban ‘Dark Patterns’ Tricks

Posted on 04/09/2019 by Cobiz

Two U.S. senators introduced a bill on Tuesday to ban online social media companies like Facebook and Twitter from tricking consumers into giving up their personal data.

The bill from Mark Warner, a Democrat, and Deb Fischer, a Republican, would also ban online platforms with more than 100 million monthly active users from designing addicting games or other websites for children under age 13.

The bill takes aim at practices that online platforms use to mislead people into giving personal data to companies or otherwise trick them. The so-called “dark patterns” were developed using behavioral psychology.

“Misleading prompts to just click the ‘OK’ button can often transfer your contacts, messages, browsing activity, photos, or location information without you even realizing it,” Fischer said in a statement issued by both senators.

Restrictions on how social media companies collect information about users could hurt their ability to sell advertisements, a key source of profit.

A website aimed at tracking dark patterns identifies behavior, such as a website or app showing that a user has new notifications when they do not.

Warner said in an interview on CNBC that the legislation could be included in a federal privacy bill that lawmakers in the Senate Commerce Committee are drafting. Congress has been expected to take up privacy legislation after California passed a strict privacy law that goes into effect next year.

Warner noted that Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, Google and others have expressed support for privacy regulation.

“The platform companies are now going to have an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is, to see if they support this legislation and other approaches,” he said.

The bill would bar companies from choosing groups of people for behavioral experiments unless the companies get informed consent.

Under the terms of the bill, social media companies would create a professional standards body to create best practices to deal with the issue. The Federal Trade Commission, which investigates deceptive advertising, would work with the group.

Facebook, Google, Twitter and other free online services rely on advertising for revenue, and use data collected on users to more effectively target those ads.
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US Senators Introduce Social Media Bill to Ban ‘Dark Patterns’ Tricks

Posted on 04/09/2019 by Cobiz

Two U.S. senators introduced a bill on Tuesday to ban online social media companies like Facebook and Twitter from tricking consumers into giving up their personal data.

Restrictions on how social media companies collect information about users could hurt their ability to sell advertisements, a key source of profit.

A website aimed at tracking dark patterns identifies behavior, such as a website or app showing that a user has new notifications when they do not.

Warner noted that Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, Google and others have expressed support for privacy regulation.

“The platform companies are now going to have an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is, to see if they support this legislation and other approaches,” he said.

The bill would bar companies from choosing groups of people for behavioral experiments unless the companies get informed consent.

Facebook, Google, Twitter and other free online services rely on advertising for revenue, and use data collected on users to more effectively target those ads.
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