Month: August 2017

China Sends ‘Hack Proof’ Code From Satellite to Earth

eWPLLeave a comment

China has sent an unbreakable code from a satellite to the Earth, marking the first time space-to-ground quantum key distribution technology has been realized, state media said Thursday.

China launched the world’s first quantum satellite last August, to help establish “hack proof” communications, a development the Pentagon has called a “notable advance.”

The official Xinhua news agency said the latest experiment was published in the journal Nature Thursday, where reviewers called it a “milestone.”

Quantum key technology

The satellite sent quantum keys to ground stations in China between 645 km (400 miles) and 1,200 km (745 miles) away at a transmission rate up to 20 orders of magnitude more efficient than an optical fiber, Xinhua cited Pan Jianwei, lead scientist on the experiment from the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences, as saying.

“That, for instance, can meet the demand of making an absolute safe phone call or transmitting a large amount of bank data,” Pan said.

Any attempt to eavesdrop on the quantum channel would introduce detectable disturbances to the system, Pan said.

“Once intercepted or measured, the quantum state of the key will change, and the information being intercepted will self-destruct,” Xinhua said.

The news agency said there were “enormous prospects” for applying this new generation of communications in defense and finance.

China lags in space

China still lags behind the United States and Russia in space technology, although President Xi Jinping has prioritized advancing its space program, citing national security and defense.

China insists its space program is for peaceful purposes, but the U.S. Defense Department has highlighted its increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing adversaries from using space-based assets in a crisis.
…

China to US: Be Prudent on Aluminum Duties

WPbizLeave a comment

China urged the U.S. government Thursday to act “prudently” to avoid damaging economic relations between the two countries, in a strongly worded response to Washington’s preliminary decision to place anti-dumping duties on Chinese aluminum foil.

In a statement posted on the Ministry of Commerce’s Wechat account, the government said the United States had ignored cooperation offered by Beijing and Chinese companies in making its ruling this week.

The statement, attributed to Wang Hejun, head of the Commerce Ministry’s trade remedy and investigation bureau, was more strongly worded than typical responses to trade disputes with the United States.

The statement said there were no grounds to accuse China’s aluminum producers of benefiting from subsidies.

 
…

Breastfeeding Center Helps Ugandan MP’s Juggle Work, Motherhood

WPScienLeave a comment

The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for a baby’s first six months and continued breastfeeding up to two years of age. Uganda’s parliament has been promoting breastfeeding with a free, day care center for female legislators and staffers. Halima Athumani reports for VOA.
…

Embryo Gene Editing is Still a Long Way Off

WPScienLeave a comment

A study published this month in the online scientific journal Nature stunned the world: Scientists were able to fix a hereditary genetic mutation in a human embryo. The milestone achievement was quickly tempered by the ethical question: Will this lead to the making of designer babies?’ VOA’s George Putic explains.
…

Low Tech Startup Transforming Sewage Into Fuel

eWPLLeave a comment

The planet has a bit of a waste problem. Every year, at least 200 million tons of raw sewage goes untreated. This is an environmental and health crisis. But one enterprising startup in Kenya is turning all that waste into fuel. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…

In the Fight to End Modern Slavery, Machines May Hold Key

eWPLLeave a comment

More than 20 million people are working as modern slaves, and a technology developer is hoping artificial intelligence can help clean up the world’s supply chains and root out worker abuse.

Developer Padmini Ranganathan said mobile phones, media reports and surveillance cameras can all be mined for real-time data, which can in turn be fed into machines to create artificial intelligence (AI) that helps companies see more clearly what is happening down the line.

“The time to do this now is better than ever before, with so many countries and companies focusing on modern slavery,” she said. “At the start of the decade, the driving force for compliance was fear of being penalized. Now companies are looking at social impact and saying they want to do this.”

​More scrutiny of modern-day slavery

Modern-day slavery has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, putting regulatory and consumer pressure on companies to ensure their supply chains are free from forced labor, child workers and other forms of slavery.

Almost 21 million people are victims of forced labor, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), with migrant workers and indigenous people particularly vulnerable.

But Ranganathan said there are new digital ways to stamp out exploitation, given humans have failed to end modern slavery.

“The technology can filter over 1 million articles a day using forced labor specific key words and highlight potential areas of risk in a supply chain,” she said.

Ranganathan works for information technology services company SAP Ariba, which helps companies better manage their procurement processes.

She said a new program could map weak links in corporate supply chains by culling data from a host of sources, from surveillance cameras to non-profits and other agencies.

“Artificial intelligence and machine learning can use these huge volumes of data and extract meaningful information,” she said.

Forced labor worth $150 billion

Forced labor in the private economy generates $150 billion in illegal profits per year, according to the ILO.

Ranganathan hopes her new program will curb that market and help create “supply chains with a conscience.”

For instance, she said it could help detect if child labor was used to pollinate cotton, which in turn was used to produce a branded shirt. Or it could help monitor labor conditions on cocoa plantations, giving companies “real-time exposure” so they can purge their supply chains of abuse right away.

“The convergence of technology will make things more transparent and real-time exposure can be created,” she said.

“In the AI world, techniques are being piloted where we could arm the lowest level supplier with a mobile app, ensure hotlines in factories, use of surveillance cameras and make this all a part of the contract.”

Ranganathan conceded that mapping the “last mile” of any supply chain was the hardest part, with many outsourcing work to homeworkers and small units, where data was harder to gather.
…

Efforts to End Viral Hepatitis in Indigenous People Show Promise

WPScienLeave a comment

Many indigenous populations suffer from high rates of viral hepatitis, and are 2 to 5 times as likely as the surrounding general population to contract it. But efforts to eliminate the diseases have begun to show promise, some researchers say.

Globally, 71 million people have hepatitis C and 257 million have hepatitis B. The viruses cause inflammation of the liver and can lead to cirrhosis and, especially with hepatitis C, liver cancer.

Most cases come from contact with infected blood, drug use, tattoos with unclean needles, or sexual transmission. Before the screening of blood in 1992, blood transfusions were a frequent source. The infection also can pass from a mother to her newborn child.

At the World Indigenous People’s Conference on Viral Hepatitis this week in Anchorage, Alaska, scientists reported on the problem and the efforts to solve it, including one of the first efforts to eliminate hepatitis C from a population.

​Reasons for high rates of infection

Homie Razavi and Devin Razavi-Shearer, epidemiologists from the Polaris Observatory, examined why infection rates were so high among indigenous communities. In Canada, hepatitis B rates were five times higher than the general population, and hepatitis C, three times higher. In Australia, indigenous people were four times as likely to contract hepatitis B and three times as likely to contract hepatitis C.

The researchers said the rates were likely because to “disproportionately high rates of poverty, injection drug use, and incarceration in indigenous populations. This, in combination with the lack of access to health care and prevention measures, greatly increases the risk and thus prevalence of hepatitis C.”

But great progress is being made. In the 1980s, vaccination programs began to cut infection rates of hepatitis B.

Dr. Brian McMahon, director of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, told the conference that new surveys have shown that the disease has been virtually eliminated in young indigenous people in Alaska.

Eliminating infection

Jorge Mera, director of infectious diseases for Cherokee Nation Health Services in Oklahoma, reported on an effort there to eliminate hepatitis C.

“Of the people we think have hepatitis C in the community, we’ve treated one-third of them,” he told VOA, “and that’s pretty good for a program that we started two years ago.”

That program is the first effort in the United States, and one of the first in the world, to attempt to wipe out the virus. Treatments for hepatitis C have improved dramatically over the past decade, making these efforts possible.

Mera said there are many programs around the world in the planning stages, and he pointed to a number of things those programs can learn from the Cherokee Nation’s effort.

“Most of the patients that we’re detecting positive are coming in through the urgent care and emergency department,” he said, “so if you have limited resources, these are areas that I would focus on.”

Health officials in the Cherokee Nation are screening everyone between the ages of 20 and 69. This effort includes screening people during dental appointments.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended screening older adults, but Mera said there were high rates of hepatitis infection in people in their 20s and 30s. He suggested that others setting up elimination programs first determine the prevalence of infection in their respective communities before deciding whom to screen.

He said history has led to high rates of hepatitis in indigenous populations. 

“When you have a population that has been oppressed or traumatized for centuries due to the nature of how the Western colonization process developed, those are factors that may lead substantial portions of that population to seek some relief in nonconventional ways like intravenous drug use,” Mera said.

Preventing transmission is crucial to eliminating hepatitis C, Mera said. One way to combat transmission, he said, is to legalize and expand needle exchanges and opiate-substitution programs.
…

With ‘Watch,’ Facebook Takes Big Step Toward TV

WPEntLeave a comment

Facebook on Wednesday made its biggest move to date to compete in the television market by expanding its video offerings with programming ranging from professional women’s basketball to a safari show and a parenting program.

The redesigned product, called “Watch,” will be available initially to a limited group in the United States on Facebook’s mobile app, website and television apps, the company said.

The world’s largest social network added a video tab last year, and it has been dropping hints for months that it wanted to become a source of original and well-produced videos, rather than just shows made by users.

Reuters reported in May that Facebook had signed deals with millennial-focused news and entertainment creators Vox Media, BuzzFeed, ATTN, Group Nine Media and others to produce shows, both scripted and unscripted.

Daniel Danker, Facebook’s product director, said in a statement Wednesday: “We’ve learned that people like the serendipity of discovering videos in News Feed, but they also want a dedicated place they can go to watch videos.”

Facebook said the shows would include videos of the Women’s National Basketball Association, a parenting show from Time Inc and a safari show from National Geographic. Facebook is broadcasting some Major League Baseball games and that would continue, the company said.

Eventually, the platform would be open to any show creator as a place to distribute video, the company said.

The company, based in Menlo Park, California, faces a crowded market with not only traditional television networks but newer producers such as Netflix and Alphabet’s YouTube as well as Twitter and Snap.
…

Migrant Boy Called ‘Little Picasso’ Shows Works in Serbia

WPEntLeave a comment

A 10-year-old refugee, who has been nicknamed “the little Picasso” for his artistic talent, is holding his first exhibition — and donating all the money raised to a sick Serbian boy.

Farhad Nouri’s drawings and photographs were put on display Wednesday in Belgrade, where he has lived in a crowded migrant camp with his parents and two younger brothers for the past eight months.

The family was forced to flee conflict and poverty in their home country of Afghanistan two years ago, traveling through Greece and Turkey before arriving in Serbia.

The boy’s gift for art was spotted during language and painting workshops in Belgrade that were organized by local aid groups for refugees and migrants.

“We quickly realized how talented he was and sent him to a painting school as well as a three-month photography workshop, so this is a retrospective of what he learned there,” said Edin Sinanovic from the Refugees Foundation, a local NGO.

Among Nouri’s works exhibited in the garden of a Belgrade cafe were his drawings of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Harry Potter. His photographs mostly include scenes from around Belgrade.

In addition to holding his first exhibition, “Farhad wanted to help someone, so he chose to dedicate it to a six-year-old Serbian boy who needs funds for his therapy after brain cancer,” Sinanovic said.

Nouri, who is dreaming of one day moving to Switzerland to become a painter and a photographer, said he wanted to help someone else as well to show how important it is to be good to other people.

“We all need kindness,” he said.
…

Harsh Rhetoric Between North Korea and Trump Worries Investors

WPbizLeave a comment

The exchange of threats and harsh rhetoric between North Korea and Donald Trump has rattled many investors. Stock prices fell in Asia, Europe and the United States, while demand rose for safe-haven investments like gold.

Key stock indexes in Hong Kong, Germany, and France were down by one percent or more. U.S. stocks were down as much as four-tenths of a percent in Wednesday’s mid-day trading. Before Tuesday’s angry exchange of words, U.S. stocks had been setting a series of record highs.

Demand for gold, a traditional way of protecting assets in troubled times, pushed up the price for the precious metal by about one percent in Wednesday’s trading. Oil prices also posted gains.

South Korea is home to more than 50 million people and major companies like Samsung and Hyundai. World Bank data show South Korea has a $1.4 trillion economy, which is nearly two percent of global economic activity.
…

Author of Google Diversity Memo Files Labor Complaint After Firing

eWPLLeave a comment

A former Google software engineer, who wrote an internal memo criticizing the company’s diversity policies, has filed a labor complaint, saying he was wrongfully fired.

In a statement emailed to news agencies, James Damore said he filed the complaint with the National Labor Relations Board prior to his termination and that, “It’s illegal to retaliate against the NLRB charge.”

Damore said he was subjected to “coercive statements” while working at Google. According to the Associated Press, a Google spokesperson said the company could not have retaliated against Damore because it was not aware of the complaint until hearing about it in the news media after he was dismissed.

Damore caused an uproar after the website Gizmodo published a leaked copy of the memo he wrote, encouraging Google to “treat people as individuals, not as just another member of their group,” and questioning the effectiveness of diversity programs at the company.

Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive officer, criticized Damore’s memo in an email for “advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace.”

In the 10-page internal memo, titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber,” Damore asserted that fewer women are employed in the technology field because they “prefer jobs in social and artistic areas,” while men are more inclined to become computer programmers — a fact he said was due to “biological causes.”

Danielle Brown, Google’s new vice president for diversity, integrity and governance, said the memo “advanced incorrect assumptions about gender” and promotes a viewpoint not encouraged by the company.

“Part of building an open, inclusive environment means fostering a culture in which those with alternative views, including different political views, feel safe sharing their opinions,” she said. “But that discourse needs to work alongside the principles of equal employment found in our Code of Conduct, policies, and anti-discrimination laws.”

The controversy comes as Silicon Valley faces accusations of sexism and discrimination. Google is in the midst of a Department of Labor investigation over allegations women there are paid less than men.
…

Cholera Threatens to Sweep Across South Sudan During Rainy Season

WPScienLeave a comment

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is calling for rapid action to prevent a cholera epidemic in South Sudan from spiraling out of control as the rainy season in the country progresses.

More than 18,000 cases of cholera, including 328 deaths have been reported in South Sudan since June 2016. The International Organization for Migration warns the number of cases and deaths is likely to grow as the rainy season this year will leave as much as 60 percent of the country inaccessible by road.

IOM spokeswoman, Olivia Headon, tells VOA a combination of factors including the ongoing crisis, the rainy season and the movement of displaced people across the country is making it extremely difficult to contain this deadly disease.

“So, if you are maybe infected with cholera or someone in your family if you come in contact with this and then you move to a different part of the country, you are also bringing the infection with you,” she said. “We hope that it does not spiral out of control and IOM with other partners in the U.N. and NGO [non-governmental organization] implementers on the ground are working so it does not.”

IOM reports the scale of needs in this conflict-ridden country is unprecedented, with more than 7.5 million people dependent on humanitarian aid. The agency says disease outbreaks, such as cholera, are particularly dangerous for displaced and vulnerable populations. This includes children under five, thousands of whom are severely acutely malnourished and at risk of dying without therapeutic help.

Headon says IOM and partners are leading oral cholera vaccination campaigns across South Sudan. She says they are distributing cholera kits, including jerry cans, water treatment supplies and soap. She says aid workers also are repairing boreholes and conducting hygiene promotion in cholera-affected areas across the country.

 
…

US Push for Freer NAFTA e-commerce Meets Growing Resistance

WPbizLeave a comment

A U.S. proposal for Mexico and Canada to vastly raise the value of online purchases that can be imported duty-free from stores like Amazon.com and eBay is emerging as a flashpoint in an upcoming renegotiation of the NAFTA trade deal.

Vulnerable industries like footwear, textiles and bricks and mortar retail in Mexico and Canada are pushing back hard against the proposal by the U.S. trade representative to raise Mexican and Canadian duty-free import limits for e-commerce to the U.S. level of $800, from current thresholds of $50 and C$20, respectively.

For the Mexicans, the main worry is that such a move could open a back door for cheap imports from Asia and beyond. For Canadian retailers, the fear is that e-commerce companies will undercut their prices.

The U.S. plan was unveiled in July as part of the Trump administration’s goals to renegotiate the 25-year-old treaty.

While Mexico and Canada are still formulating their responses, Mexico City is leaning strongly against the proposal in its current form, and Ottawa may not be far behind.

The proposed $800 level “opens a completely unnecessary door” to imports from outside the NAFTA trading bloc, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Thursday on the sidelines of a NAFTA-related event, calling it “a very sensitive topic.”

The growing controversy over how to account for a burgeoning regional e-commerce sector dominated by the United States highlights a rare area where the Trump administration is pushing to liberalize trade rules rather than tightening them.

Much of Trump’s criticism of NAFTA stems from his belief it has decimated U.S. manufacturing as companies shifted production to Mexican factories with cheaper labor, creating a U.S. trade deficit with Mexico worth more than $60 billion.

Top priority

But Mexican and Canadian business leaders fear the rule change could make their industries vulnerable, arguing that unless online retailers can show products are made in North America, they should not be exempted from duties levied on other imports.

“We can’t open the door to inputs from outside the region coming in tax-free when we’re talking about the need to reduce the deficit and create jobs,” said Moises Kalach, who fronts the international negotiating arm of Mexico’s CCE business lobby. “It goes completely against that.”

Guajardo said Mexico’s retail group the National Self-service and Department Store Association, which includes powerful members such as Wal-Mart de Mexico , had visited him last week to express concerns about the proposal.

He said the group’s representative brought to the meeting a $250 jacket bought on the internet as evidence that violations to the existing limit were already threatening members’ businesses.

“Suppose there was an $800 free limit. Can you imagine how many shirts Vietnam could send to Mexico in a packet below that price? They could easily flood us with packets of 100,” he said, while recognizing the need to smooth customs processes.

Complicating efforts to agree on a common set of rules is a tangle of diverging regulations on tax and how the restrictions on imports differ in the region depending on whether they enter by air, sea or land.

Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. declined to comment for this story.

eBay has previously said it supports an increase to Canada’s low-value customs “de minimis” threshold for ecommerce to promote seamless access to the global marketplace.

Increasing the threshold “absolutely” is eBay’s top priority in the NAFTA renegotiation, a person familiar with the matter said.

Canadian opposition is being led by retailers, whose industry association said it was concerned about “the behavioral shift that would inevitably result if shoppers can buy a far wider range and higher value of goods tax-free and duty-free.”

The Retail Council of Canada said in a submission to the government that clothes, books, toys, sporting goods and consumer electronics would be among the items most affected, and expressed confidence Ottawa would fend off such requests.

Not from other nations

“eBay in particular has lead this charge to three different finance ministers in a row — Jim Flaherty, Joe Oliver, and Bill Morneau — and in each case they have failed,” said Karl Littler, a spokesman for the Retail Council of Canada.

“The U.S. raised this quite frequently in the TPP [Trans-Pacific-Partnership trade] round and they also failed to secure this concession,” he added.

There have been hints from Canada’s government about a compromise under which a higher limit would exempt products ordered from e-commerce from duties but not sales taxes.

“When it comes to waiving duties and taxes, we need to carefully consider the impact that would have on Canadians and on Canadian businesses,” said Chloe Luciani-Girouard, a spokeswoman for Morneau.

Mexican firms could accept a higher import limit for goods produced in the NAFTA region — but not from other nations, said Alejandro Gomez Tamez, executive president of the Chamber of Commerce for the footwear industry in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, a hub of textile manufacturing.

“When a product comes in, even if it’s packaged and sent from the United States, if it’s from a third country, it should pay duties,” he said.
…

WHO in Myanmar Says Swine Flu Outbreak Not an ‘Unusual Event’

WPScienLeave a comment

The World Health Organization in Myanmar says a recent outbreak of H1N1 in the country is not unusual for the time of the year, and while there may be more cases in the future the available data suggests it is not a cause for panic.

Myanmar’s state media reported on Wednesday that since July 21 there have been 166 confirmed cases and 17 deaths from the virus, known commonly as swine flu after a global pandemic in 2009 was found to have originated in infected pigs. The respiratory infection is now considered a normal human flu.

Seasonal event

Dr. Stephan Paul Jost, WHO’s country representative in Myanmar, said in an interview the consensus based on the evidence so far is that “this is a seasonal event, it’s a seasonal influenza, and there are likely to be also more cases because it is seasonal. And it is not in itself a cause for alarm.”

“Influenza of course can be a serious disease and people can also die from it,” he added. “It happens in every country in the world in the flu season and sometimes even outside it.”

The damp and slightly cooler conditions of Myanmar’s rainy season are also favorable for the influenza virus.

But Jost said the numbers are generally in line with what WHO is seeing in countries in the region.

“It is not in itself an unusual event. Of course we are keeping a close eye on it,” he said.

Monitoring

Dr. Than Htun Aung, the deputy director of the public health department with Myanmar’s Ministry of Health and Sports, said the government is in the process of stepping up monitoring and that it’s too early to say whether the virus has tapered off.

“Now we’re controlling. We are waiting [for] more information from the surveillance. We can’t say now,” he said. “I think we can control like other countries did. USA was the same, they had more patients than we had. Now we’re learning what they have done and planning procedures.”

WHO is providing technical support in terms of specific guidelines, consulting with regional experts, and facilitating samples to be sent to laboratories abroad.

It has also worked with Facebook representatives in the region and locally to look at various messaging and discussion about H1N1 on social media, which some believe contributed to an unnecessary panic over the outbreak, with large numbers of people in the commercial capital Yangon donning surgical masks as a main line of defense.

“We’re looking at the different terminology used in Facebook for influenza and for this particular outbreak to see whether we can work together to get more systematic and authoritative messages out that are quite simple but … recommended by WHO,” Jost said, adding it was an ongoing process. “We are still working together on this to actually find the best way forward.”

A representative for the social media platform in Singapore was not immediately available for comment as August 9 is a public holiday in the country.

Surgical masks

Jost described the use of surgical masks in Myanmar as perhaps a “bit overdone,” in particular N95 masks, which are not recommended for the public as they are difficult to wear and better for hospital environments and health workers.

However, light surgical masks that fit easily on the face can be useful in some situations, he said, especially if you know you have the flu. They may even cut down on transmission in crowded places like buses.

“Influenza is transmitted by a fine droplet. It’s not airborne, you don’t get it just by breathing air. It’s fine droplets, by sneezing and coughing, that are dispersed, that’s transmitted, and that’s usually then also by hand, either by shaking hands or it lands in your hand and you rub your eyes and it enters your system,” he said. “So even masks would not protect from that. You could have a mask and you are rubbing your eyes and you are still getting it.”

“But if you are sick [and wearing a mask] you are preventing then the dispersal of these fine droplets to others. That is definitely helping. That is good,” he added.

One of the other issues that arose in response to the outbreak was a lack of past data that could help authorities assess the scope of the problem.

Jost said WHO had suggested health officials could strengthen the surveillance of cases so “a picture would really emerge that is more consistent, more complete than what is currently available and would give us a better idea historically, what is the historical activity of the influenza viruses in the country.”

He said Myanmar had a lot of cases in 2010, the year after the worldwide outbreak, and also in 2014.

“But how complete this information is we are not as sure as perhaps we could be. And that’s true for many countries,” he said.

Jost also complimented Myanmar’s health officials and government partners on the outbreak response, saying it was “very encouraging.”

Aung Naing Soe contributed to this report.

 

 
…

Trump Vows US Will ‘Win’ in Fight Against Opioid Crisis

WPScienLeave a comment

U.S. President Donald Trump says the United States had no alternative but to defeat an epidemic of opioid drug use, which kills more than 100 Americans daily. Speaking from New Jersey, Trump promised measures to combat the “scurge,” including tougher prosecution of drug-related crimes, better controls at the southern U.S. border. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has a report.
…

‘Despacito’ Opening Doors for Spanish Songs on English Radio

WPEntLeave a comment

“Despacito” is easily the song of the summer with the success of the hit stretching beyond Spanish-speaking audiences to make it the year’s most recognized song in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s song, which has topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 13 weeks and counting, set a record as the most streamed song on Spotify and is the first YouTube video to reach 3 billion views. The song also has opened the door for other Spanish tracks to get airplay on American radio.

“The beauty behind (‘Despacito’) is that it was never meant to be a crossover song. When I sat down with my guitar to write this song, I just wanted to write a great song that people would automatically connect to, and dance to, and really enjoy, so it was so nice to see how — in a very organic way — the whole world just connected to it,” Fonsi said in an interview from Spain, where he was set to perform the worldwide hit.

 

“It wasn’t really forced, it wasn’t gimmicky … it’s sort of an accident if you will,” he said. “There’s something magical in that melody and in the beat and in the production … and people in Russia and Australia and U.K. and France and U.S. and South America — everyone’s just dancing.”

Song about falling in love

“Despacito” is the first mostly Spanish song to top the Hot 100 since Los del Rio’s “Macarena” in 1996. The smooth jam about slowly falling in love has become a pop culture phenomenon since its release in January, selling more than 7.7 million tracks — based on digital sales, audio streaming and video streaming — according to Nielsen Music. It has spent 27 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin songs charts, and while some believe Justin Bieber helped make the song a hit when he jumped on its remix, it’s quite the opposite.

“Technically, the reason why Justin Bieber discovered the song was because it was so popular already,” said Rocio Guerra, Spotify’s head of Latin culture.

“Despacito” had reached the Top 40 on the Hot 100, and following the Bieber remix — which includes the pop star singing in Spanish —the song reached No. 1. The remix spent 14 weeks on top of Spotify’s global chart until last week when it was supplanted by J. Balvin’s “Mi Gente” — another Spanish song finding success on U.S. radio and the pop charts.

‘Mi Gente’ the next big hit? 

“Mi Gente,” a collaboration with Willy Williams, is No. 30 on the Hot 100 after just a month on the chart.

“I don’t think this is just something that happened overnight … it’s something the Latin music industry and creative community, we’ve been working so long toward this direction, and I don’t think specifically only in the U.S., it’s a global momentum,” Guerra said. “Platforms like Spotify are giving access to the same songs at the same time everywhere, so that’s allowing us to have more (Latin) artists on the (global) chart.”

“There has been a domino effect,” added Guerra, who said there are currently eight Latin songs on Spotify’s global chart, which includes 50 songs. “The more songs that we put on the global chart, people are getting more used to listening to songs in a different language.”

She said that Spotify has spent the last two years pushing Latin music in regions outside Latin America: “We’re proactively trying to push its consumption in countries like Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the U.K. (and) obviously the U.S.”

And there’s proof it is working. Daddy Yankee became the first Latin artist to reach No. 1 on Spotify in June, taking the spot from Ed Sheeran, and the Latin genre is third overall globally on Spotify, just behind pop and hip-hop.

Latin beat on English hits

The Latin beat can be heard on current English-language hits as well, including DJ Khaled and Rihanna’s “Wild Thoughts,” which samples Carlos Santana’s 1999 megahit “Maria, Maria,” and French Montana’s “Unforgettable,” which has a reggaeton vibe (J. Balvin appears on its Latin remix).

Fonsi said he doesn’t want to take credit for the success of Latin music on pop radio, but knows “Despacito” has helped set the mood.

“I hope that it’s a door that will stay open for a long time. I think it’s bigger than just this summer. I think it was (over)due for Latin music to get this attention and I love the fact that we’re all collaborating in different languages,” he said. “It’s not about where you’re from or what language you’re singing in, it’s about bringing cultures together and different styles, and it’s good for music in general.”

‘I think this is a hit’

Erika Ender, who co-wrote “Despacito” with Fonsi at his home in September 2015, said the song felt special when they created it.

“There are some songs that come with a special spark, and I think it’s got it. … We looked at each other and said, ‘I think this is a hit,’” she recalled.

Ender also credits the song’s success with Fonsi’s decision to get out of his comfort zone.

“People used to see him like a (balladeer) or a pop singer, and he went out of his way to bring something new to the audience,” she said.

 
…

Trump Promises to ‘Win’ Fight Against Opioid Abuse in US

WPScienLeave a comment

President Donald Trump vowed Tuesday that the U.S. would “win” the battle against the heroin and opioid plague, but he stopped short of declaring a national emergency as his handpicked commission had recommended.

Trump spoke at an event he had billed as a “major briefing” on the opioid crisis during a two-week “working vacation” at his private golf club in New Jersey. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, senior adviser Jared Kushner and first lady Melania Trump were among the attendees.

“The best way to prevent drug addiction and overdose is to prevent people from abusing drugs in the first place,” the president said at his golf club in Bedminster. “I’m confident that by working with our health care and law enforcement experts, we will fight this deadly epidemic and the United States will win.”

He said federal drug prosecutions had dropped but promised he would “be bringing them up rapidly.”

Last week, the presidential opioid commission, chaired by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, urged Trump to “declare a national emergency” and noted that “America is enduring a death toll equal to September 11th every three weeks.”

It recommended, among other things, expanding treatment facilities across the country, educating and equipping doctors about the proper way to prescribe pain medication, and equipping all police officers with the anti-overdose remedy Naloxone.

Trump did not address any of the recommendations. Instead, the president repeated that his administration was “very, very tough on the Southern border, where much of this comes in.”

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids were involved in more than 33,000 U.S. deaths in 2015, the latest year for which data are available, and estimates show the death rate has continued rising.

But a new University of Virginia study released Monday concluded the mortality rates were 24 percent higher for opioids and 22 percent higher for heroin than had been previously reported.

Some information for this report came from AP.
…

Prospective Opioid Crisis Solutions Vie for Grants in Ohio

WPScienLeave a comment

A call by Republican Governor John Kasich for scientific breakthroughs to help solve the opioid crisis is drawing interest from dozens of groups with ideas including remote-controlled medication dispensers, monitoring devices for addicts, mobile apps and pain-relieving massage gloves.

The state has received project ideas from 44 hospitals, universities and various medical device, software and pharmaceutical developers that plan to apply for up to $12 million in competitive research-and-development grants. The grant money is being combined with $8 million for an Ohio Opioid Technology Challenge, a competition similar to one spearheaded by the National Football League to address concussions.

Research grant-seekers in Ohio, which leads the nation in opioid-related overdose deaths, proposed solutions aimed at before or after an overdose.

Tactus Therapeutics, for example, seeks $2.2 million to develop an improved tamper-resistant opioid, while other applicants seek money to pursue technological advances in the administration of naloxone, a drug used as an overdose antidote. One is a “rescue mask.”

Other grant-seekers propose migrating away from pills altogether to find new ways of fighting pain.

In the Ohio city known for innovations in rubber and plastics, the University of Akron is looking to polymers. It seeks $2 million to advance development of implantable therapeutic meshes loaded with non-opioid pain medications capable of alleviating postsurgical pain for up to 96 hours.

Another company, Cleveland-based Innovative Medical Equipment, seeks $810,000 to make engineering improvements to a medical apparatus that uses heat to fight head pain, headaches, muscle and joint pain, and pain after surgery.

Neural therapies, virtual reality

Additional proposals look to neural therapies, electrical impulses, even virtual reality as ways to overcome or outwit pain. Osteopath Benjamin Bring, of suburban Columbus, seeks $75,000 to develop a prototype of a special glove that helps relieve chronic muscle pain through massage therapy.

Some proposals are specific to particular medical issues, such as chronic low back pain or amputations; others are focused on specific groups, including mothers, children, veterans and dental patients.

Many applicants propose ways of using smart technology to prevent overdose deaths by approaching the problem through the patient, doctor or community.

Ideas include apps for better coordinating medical treatment or addiction care and wearable devices that would speed help in cases of a potential overdose by linking people at risk of addiction with family, emergency workers and other caregivers.

Ascend Innovations seeks $1.5 million to develop an app and sensor system using technology contributed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. The app would allow patients to regularly report their medications, pain levels and states of mind, while the sensor would be gathering health indicators, including respiration, heart rate, eye tracking and pupil dilation, and sending them to a central location.

Another firm, iMed MD, seeks $150,000 to continue development of a secure, programmable medication dispensing system that allows doctors or hospitals to remotely limit the amount of medication a patient can receive at any one time.

The Third Frontier Commission selected NineSigma on Tuesday to manage the technology challenge. The Cleveland firm has managed similar competitions at the federal level for NASA and the Department of Homeland Security.
…

Glen Campbell, Superstar Entertainer of 1960s and ’70s, Dies

WPEntLeave a comment

Glen Campbell, the grinning, high-pitched entertainer whose dozens of hit singles included “Rhinestone Cowboy” and “Wichita Lineman” and whose appeal spanned country, pop, television and movies, died Tuesday, his family said. He was 81.

 

Campbell’s family said the singer died Tuesday morning in Nashville and publicist Sandy Brokaw confirmed the news. No cause was immediately given. Campbell announced in June 2011 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and that it was in its early stages at that time.

 

“Glen is one of the greatest voices there ever was in the business and he was one of the greatest musicians,” said Dolly Parton in a video statement. “He was a wonderful session musician as well. A lot of people don’t realize that. But he could play anything and he could play it really well.”

 

Tributes poured in on social media. “Thank you Glen Campbell for sharing your talent with us for so many years May you rest in peace my friend You will never be forgotten,” wrote Charlie Daniels. One of Campbell’s daughters, Ashley, said she was heartbroken. “I owe him everything I am, and everything I ever will be. He will be remembered so well and with so much love,” she wrote on Twitter.

In the late 1960s and well into the ’70s, the Arkansas native seemed to be everywhere, known by his boyish face, wavy hair and friendly tenor. He won five Grammys, sold more than 45 million records, had 12 gold albums and 75 chart hits, including No. 1 songs with “Rhinestone Cowboy” and “Southern Nights.”

His performance of the title song from “True Grit,” a 1969 release in which he played a Texas Ranger alongside Oscar winner John Wayne, received an Academy Award nomination. He twice won album of the year awards from the Academy of Country Music and was voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005. Seven years later, he received a Grammy for lifetime achievement.

 

His last record was “Adios,” which came out in June and features songs that Campbell loved to sing but never recorded, including tunes made famous by Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt and Johnny Cash. Ashley Campbell, also a musician, made a quest appearance and said making the album was “therapeutic.”

 

Campbell was among a wave of country crossover stars that included Johnny Cash, Roy Clark and Kenny Rogers, and like many of his contemporaries, he enjoyed success on television. Campbell had a weekly audience of some 50 million people for the “Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour,” on CBS from 1969 to 1972. He gained new fans decades later when the show, featuring his cheerful greeting “Hi I’m Glen Campbell,” was rerun on cable channel CMT.

 

“I did what my Dad told me to do — ‘Be nice, son, and don’t cuss. And be nice to people.’ And that’s the way I handled myself, and people were very, very nice to me,” Campbell told The Telegraph in 2011.

He released more than 70 of his own albums, and in the 1990s recorded a series of gospel CDs. A 2011 farewell album, “Ghost On the Canvas,” included contributions from Jacob Dylan, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick and Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins.

 

The documentary “Glen Campbell … I’ll Be Me” came out in 2014. The film about Campbell’s 2011-12 farewell tour offers a poignant look at his decline from Alzheimer’s while showcasing his virtuoso guitar chops that somehow continued to shine as his mind unraveled. The song “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” won a Grammy for best country song in 2015 and was nominated for an Oscar for best original song.

 

Campbell’s musical career dated back to the early years of rock `n roll. He toured with the Champs of “Tequila” fame when the group included two singers who formed the popular ’70s duo Seals & Crofts. He was part of the house band for the ABC TV show “Shindig!” and a member of Phil Spector’s “Wrecking Crew” studio band that played on hits by the Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers and the Crystals. He played guitar on Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers In the Night,” the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer” and Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas.”

 

“We’d get the rock ‘n’ roll guys and play all that, then we’d get Sinatra and Dean Martin,” Campbell told The Associated Press in 2011. “That was a kick. I really enjoyed that. I didn’t want to go nowhere. I was making more money than I ever made just doing studio work.”

 

A sharecropper’s son, and one of 12 children, he was born outside of Delight, Arkansas, and grew up revering country music stars such as Hank Williams.

 

“I’m not a country singer per se,” Campbell once said. “I’m a country boy who sings.”

He was just 4 when he learned to play guitar. As a teenager, anxious to escape a life of farm work and unpaid bills, he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to join his uncle’s band and appear on his uncle’s radio show. By his early 20s, he had formed his own group, the Western Wranglers, and moved to Los Angeles. He opened for the Doors and sang and played bass with the Beach Boys as a replacement for Brian Wilson, who in the mid-’60s had retired from touring to concentrate on studio work. In 1966, Campbell played on the Beach Boys’ classic “Pet Sounds” album.

 

“I didn’t go to Nashville because Nashville at that time seemed one-dimensional to me,” Campbell told the AP. “I’m a jazzer. I just love to get the guitar and play the hell out of it if I can.”

 

By the late ’60s, he was a performer on his own, an appearance on Joey Bishop’s show leading to his TV breakthrough. Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers saw the program and asked Campbell if he’d like to host a summertime series, “The Summer Brothers Smothers Show.” Campbell shied from the Smothers Brothers’ political humor, but still accepted the offer. He was out of the country when the first episode aired.

 

“The whole lid just blew off,” Campbell told the AP. “I had never had anything like that happen to me. I got more phone calls. It was awesome. For the first couple of days I was like how do they know me? I didn’t realize the power of television.”

 

His guests included country acts, but also the Monkees, Lucille Ball, Cream, Neil Diamond and Ella Fitzgerald.

 

He was married four times and had eight children. As he would confide in painful detail, Campbell suffered for his fame and made others suffer as well. He drank heavily, used drugs and indulged in a turbulent relationship with country singer Tanya Tucker in the early 1980s.

He is survived by his wife, Kim; their three children, Cal, Shannon and Ashley; and his children from previous marriages, Debby, Kelli, Travis, Kane and Dillon. He had 10 grandchildren.

 

In late 2003, he was arrested near his home in Phoenix after causing a minor traffic accident. He later pleaded guilty to “extreme” DUI and leaving the scene of an accident and served a 10-day sentence.

 

Among Campbell’s own hits, “Rhinestone Cowboy” stood out and became his personal anthem. Written and recorded by Larry Weiss in 1974, “Rhinestone Cowboy” received little attention until Campbell heard it on the radio and quickly related to the story of a veteran performer who triumphs over despair and hardship. Campbell’s version was a chart topper in 1975.

 

“I thought it was my autobiography set to song,” he wrote 20 years later, in his autobiography, titled “Rhinestone Cowboy.”
…

New York Film Festival Selects Gerwig, Baker, Varda for Main Slate

WPEntLeave a comment

Films by Greta Gerwig, Sean Baker and Agnes Varda are headed to the 55th New York Film Festival. The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the selections of 25 films for its main slate on Tuesday, including eight directed by women.

The festival, held annually at Lincoln Center, is one of the most prestigious of the fall season. Among the films selected are Baker’s acclaimed Cannes entry The Florida Project, the 89-year-old Varda’s Faces Places and Gerwig’s directorial debut Lady Bird. Gerwig’s frequent collaborator and romantic partner Noah Baumbach will also return to the festival with his Netflix release The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected).

Many of the selections, as usual, include previous festival standouts. Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name and Dee Rees’ Mudbound will come to the festival after lauded debuts at Sundance. Other Cannes hits include Ruben Ostlund’s Palme d’Or winning comedy The Square and Robin Campillo’s AIDS activist drama BPM (Beats Per Minute).

The festival previously announced its three galas, all of which are Amazon Studios releases. Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying, a kind of sequel to Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail, will open the festival. Todd Haynes’ Brian Selznick adaptation Wonderstruck is the centerpiece, and Woody Allen’s 1950s Coney Island tale Wonder Wheel will close.

The New York Film Festival runs Sept. 28 to Oct. 15.
…