Wednesday, February 28, 2018
At least 15 people have died after a 7.5-magnitude earthquake hit Papua New Guinea
BusinessInsider.com - At least 15 people were killed and dozens more injured after a 7.5-magnitude earthquake hit Papua New Guinea on Monday, a local governor confirmed to Associated Press.
Local media originally reported up to 30 people had died, but officials are still investigating reports of fatalities and are examining the extent of damage after landslides were triggered.
The quake hit early Monday about 55 miles (89 kilometers) from the central city of Porgera in the Pacific nation. The area is remote and dense with forests.
Several tremors and aftershocks were felt across the country, including a 6.2 quake the following day, according to the US Geological Survey.
At least one house collapsed in Mendi, the capital of the Southern Highlands, killing four people, according to the governor.
Reuters earlier reported a landslide killed 12 people, citing a nurse at Mendi General Hospital.
Mining and power infrastructure on the island were damaged and tremors caused gas giant ExxonMobil to shut operations in its $19 billion liquefied natural gas plant. It is unknown how long operations will be inactive.
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said in a statement that defense forces are prepared to deploy "when the extent of damage has been confirmed."
"We know that there have been houses lost, roads cut by land slips and disruption to services," he said.
Papa New Guinea's disaster management office said it was verifying reports of deaths but that it could take days to confirm an official death toll, Reuters reported.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Germany Paves Way for Diesel Ban, Dealing Blow to Auto Makers
BERLIN—A German court rang the death knell for certain diesel cars on Tuesday, striking a blow to the country’s flagship auto industry that could now be forced to spend billions to upgrade or replace millions of cars.
Rejecting an appeal of a lower court decision, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled the German cities Stuttgart and Düsseldorf could ban diesel vehicles from urban traffic as a way to reduce pollution.
Ultimately, the ruling could result in the hometowns of auto icons Mercedes-Benz, BMWAG BMW -0.06% and Audi banning some of those manufacturers’ flagship products.
Germany’s blue chip DAX index fell sharply on the news as the stocks of auto makersVolkswagen AG VLKAY -2.76% , Daimler AG DMLRY -0.51% , and BMW AG came under pressure.
The closely watched ruling is likely to accelerate the demise of a technology that German auto makers have pushed as a panacea that provides solid driving performance, fuel economy and low greenhouse gas emissions, but which has been largely been discredited in the wake of widespread emissions-cheating scandals at Volkswagen and other car makers.
The next German government also will face a tough decision in the wake of the ruling. The government may have to force car makers to shoulder an estimated €8 billion in costs to refit diesel vehicles, weakening the country’s flagship industry at a time when it must invest heavily in electric vehicles and self-driving car technology—potentially endangering a crucial segment of the German economy. Or the government may make the unpopular decision to use taxpayer money to finance the repairs, potentially alienating voters.
The fumes from diesel fuel, which enjoys tax subsidies across Europe, have also been revealed to be more damaging to health than thought years ago.
Before the 2015 Volkswagen affair, more than half of new cars sold in Europe were equipped with diesel engines. Now, it is around 44%, largely made up of corporate fleet cars, craftsmen and delivery businesses, according to analysts, who predict that by 2025 just 20% of new cars sold in Europe will have a diesel engine.
Rejecting an appeal of a lower court decision, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled the German cities Stuttgart and Düsseldorf could ban diesel vehicles from urban traffic as a way to reduce pollution.
Ultimately, the ruling could result in the hometowns of auto icons Mercedes-Benz, BMWAG BMW -0.06% and Audi banning some of those manufacturers’ flagship products.
Germany’s blue chip DAX index fell sharply on the news as the stocks of auto makersVolkswagen AG VLKAY -2.76% , Daimler AG DMLRY -0.51% , and BMW AG came under pressure.
The closely watched ruling is likely to accelerate the demise of a technology that German auto makers have pushed as a panacea that provides solid driving performance, fuel economy and low greenhouse gas emissions, but which has been largely been discredited in the wake of widespread emissions-cheating scandals at Volkswagen and other car makers.
The next German government also will face a tough decision in the wake of the ruling. The government may have to force car makers to shoulder an estimated €8 billion in costs to refit diesel vehicles, weakening the country’s flagship industry at a time when it must invest heavily in electric vehicles and self-driving car technology—potentially endangering a crucial segment of the German economy. Or the government may make the unpopular decision to use taxpayer money to finance the repairs, potentially alienating voters.
The fumes from diesel fuel, which enjoys tax subsidies across Europe, have also been revealed to be more damaging to health than thought years ago.
Before the 2015 Volkswagen affair, more than half of new cars sold in Europe were equipped with diesel engines. Now, it is around 44%, largely made up of corporate fleet cars, craftsmen and delivery businesses, according to analysts, who predict that by 2025 just 20% of new cars sold in Europe will have a diesel engine.
Monday, February 26, 2018
Atlantic Sixgill Shark: Scientists Confirm New Shark Species After Years Of Debate
inquisitr.com - Scientists recently confirmed the Atlantic sixgill shark as a new and distinct species of shark, following extensive genetic analysis that separated them from their relatives in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Citing a study published in the journal Marine Biodiversity, Science Dailywrote the species was confirmed “after decades of uncertainty,” as researchers weren’t quite sure what to make of the Atlantic sixgills, which share many similarities with their relatives from the Indo-Pacific. The Atlantic species, however, is noticeably smaller, with a maximum length of 6 feet, as compared to the Indo-Pacific sixgills, which can grow to lengths of more than 15 feet. Atlantic sixgill sharks also have “saw-like” rows of lower teeth, slightly setting them apart from their relatives.
Sixgill sharks, in general, get their name from the fact that they have six gills, as opposed to most other shark species, which have five. They are among our planet’s oldest animals, as their ancestry dates more than 250 million years ago, or a few tens of millions of years prior to the emergence of dinosaurs. According to Science Daily, the creatures have long been difficult to study, as they typically can only be found in deep waters, sometimes as far down as a few thousands of feet below surface level.
In the new study led by Florida Institute of Technology assistant professor of biological sciences Toby Daly-Engel, researchers conducted an in-depth analysis of the Atlantic sixgill shark, taking over 1,300 base pairs of two mitochondrial genes to determine whether it is a distinct species or not. Ultimately, it was found that there were enough differences between the Atlantic sixgill’s genes and those of sixgills found in the Indian and Pacific oceans to consider it a new species, which was given the scientific name Hexanchus vitulus. ContinueReading
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Proposal to Scrap China's Term Limits Could Allow President Xi Jinping to Stay in Office
(BEIJING) — China’s ruling Communist Party has proposed scrapping term limits for the country’s president, the official news agency said Sunday, appearing to lay the groundwork for party leader Xi Jinping to rule as president beyond 2023.
The party’s Central Committee proposed to remove from the constitution the expression that China’s president and vice president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms,” the Xinhua News Agency said.
“Xi Jinping has finally achieved his ultimate goal when he first embarked on Chinese politics — that is to be the Mao Zedong of the 21st century,” said Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, referring to the founder of communist China.
Xi, 64, cemented his status as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao in the 1970s at last year’s twice-a-decade Communist Party congress, where his name and a political theory attributed to him were added to the party constitution as he was given a second five-year term as general secretary.
It was the latest move by the party signaling Xi’s willingness to break with tradition and centralize power under him. Xi has taken control of an unusually wide range of political, economic and other functions, a break with the past two decades of collective leadership.
“What is happening is potentially very dangerous because the reason why Mao Zedong made one mistake after another was because China at the time was a one-man show,” Lam said. “For Xi Jinping, whatever he says is the law. There are no longer any checks and balances.”
Xi is coming to the end of his first five-year term as president and is set to be appointed to his second term at an annual meeting of the rubber-stamp parliament that starts March 5. The proposal to end term limits will likely be approved at that meeting.
Term limits on officeholders have been in place since they were included in the 1982 constitution, when lifetime tenure was abolished.
Political analysts said the party would likely seek to justify the proposed removal of the presidential term limit by citing Xi’s vision of establishing a prosperous, modern society by 2050.
“The theoretical justification for removing tenure limits is that China requires a visionary, capable leader to see China through this multi-decade grand plan,” Lam said.
“But the other aspect of it could just be Mao Zedong-like megalomania; he is just convinced that he is fit to be an emperor for life,” he said.
Hu Xingdou, a Beijing-based political commentator, said while Xi might need an extra five-year term or two to carry out his plans, the country is unlikely to return to an era of lifetime tenure for heads of state.
“President Xi may be in a leading position for a relatively long time,” Hu said. “This is beneficial to pushing forward reforms and the fight against corruption, but it’s impossible for China to have lifetime tenure again.”
“We have drawn profound lessons from the system of lifetime tenures,” Hu said, referring to the chaos and turmoil of Mao’s 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.
Xi’s image dominates official propaganda, prompting suggestions that he is trying to build a cult of personality, and evoking memories of the upheaval of that era. Party spokespeople reject such talk, insisting Xi is the core of its seven-member Standing Committee, not a lone strongman.
At last year’s party congress, Xi hailed a “new era” under his leadership and laid out his vision of a ruling party that serves as the vanguard for everything from defending national security to providing moral guidance to ordinary Chinese. At the close of the congress, the party elevated five new officials to assist Xi on his second five-year term, but stopped short of designating an obvious successor to him.
Political analysts said the absence of an apparent successor pointed to Xi’s longer-term ambitions.
Sunday’s announcement on term limits came before the Central Committee was to begin a three-day meeting in Beijing on Monday to discuss major personnel appointments and other issues.
The son of a famed communist elder, Xi rose through the ranks to the position of Shanghai’s party leader before being promoted to the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee in 2007.
When Xi did assume the top spot in 2012, it was as head of a reduced seven-member committee on which he had only one reliable ally, veteran Wang Qishan. He put Wang in charge of a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown that helped Xi eliminate challengers, both serving and retired, and cow potential opponents.
Xi, whose titles include head of the armed forces, has lavished attention on the military with parades and defense budget increases. But he’s also led a crackdown on abuses and a push to cut 300,000 personnel from the 2.3 million-member People’s Liberation Army, underscoring his ability to prevail against entrenched interests. ContinueReading
The party’s Central Committee proposed to remove from the constitution the expression that China’s president and vice president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms,” the Xinhua News Agency said.
“Xi Jinping has finally achieved his ultimate goal when he first embarked on Chinese politics — that is to be the Mao Zedong of the 21st century,” said Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, referring to the founder of communist China.
Xi, 64, cemented his status as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao in the 1970s at last year’s twice-a-decade Communist Party congress, where his name and a political theory attributed to him were added to the party constitution as he was given a second five-year term as general secretary.
It was the latest move by the party signaling Xi’s willingness to break with tradition and centralize power under him. Xi has taken control of an unusually wide range of political, economic and other functions, a break with the past two decades of collective leadership.
“What is happening is potentially very dangerous because the reason why Mao Zedong made one mistake after another was because China at the time was a one-man show,” Lam said. “For Xi Jinping, whatever he says is the law. There are no longer any checks and balances.”
Xi is coming to the end of his first five-year term as president and is set to be appointed to his second term at an annual meeting of the rubber-stamp parliament that starts March 5. The proposal to end term limits will likely be approved at that meeting.
Term limits on officeholders have been in place since they were included in the 1982 constitution, when lifetime tenure was abolished.
Political analysts said the party would likely seek to justify the proposed removal of the presidential term limit by citing Xi’s vision of establishing a prosperous, modern society by 2050.
“The theoretical justification for removing tenure limits is that China requires a visionary, capable leader to see China through this multi-decade grand plan,” Lam said.
“But the other aspect of it could just be Mao Zedong-like megalomania; he is just convinced that he is fit to be an emperor for life,” he said.
Hu Xingdou, a Beijing-based political commentator, said while Xi might need an extra five-year term or two to carry out his plans, the country is unlikely to return to an era of lifetime tenure for heads of state.
“President Xi may be in a leading position for a relatively long time,” Hu said. “This is beneficial to pushing forward reforms and the fight against corruption, but it’s impossible for China to have lifetime tenure again.”
“We have drawn profound lessons from the system of lifetime tenures,” Hu said, referring to the chaos and turmoil of Mao’s 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.
Xi’s image dominates official propaganda, prompting suggestions that he is trying to build a cult of personality, and evoking memories of the upheaval of that era. Party spokespeople reject such talk, insisting Xi is the core of its seven-member Standing Committee, not a lone strongman.
At last year’s party congress, Xi hailed a “new era” under his leadership and laid out his vision of a ruling party that serves as the vanguard for everything from defending national security to providing moral guidance to ordinary Chinese. At the close of the congress, the party elevated five new officials to assist Xi on his second five-year term, but stopped short of designating an obvious successor to him.
Political analysts said the absence of an apparent successor pointed to Xi’s longer-term ambitions.
Sunday’s announcement on term limits came before the Central Committee was to begin a three-day meeting in Beijing on Monday to discuss major personnel appointments and other issues.
The son of a famed communist elder, Xi rose through the ranks to the position of Shanghai’s party leader before being promoted to the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee in 2007.
When Xi did assume the top spot in 2012, it was as head of a reduced seven-member committee on which he had only one reliable ally, veteran Wang Qishan. He put Wang in charge of a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown that helped Xi eliminate challengers, both serving and retired, and cow potential opponents.
Xi, whose titles include head of the armed forces, has lavished attention on the military with parades and defense budget increases. But he’s also led a crackdown on abuses and a push to cut 300,000 personnel from the 2.3 million-member People’s Liberation Army, underscoring his ability to prevail against entrenched interests. ContinueReading
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Japan Just Approved a New Drug That Can Kill the Flu Virus In Just One Day
Fortune.com - As the worst flu season in a decade rages on, a potentially groundbreaking new drug that can kill the flu virus in just one day has won regulatory approval—in Japan.
Japanese officials granted an accelerated approval to the treatment, Xofluza from pharmaceutical maker Shionogi, last week. It could soon prove to be a significant competitor to Swiss drug giant Roche’s Tamiflu, one of the most common antivirals used to treat the flu. But it could also take until at least 2019 for Xofluza to reach the U.S. market.
Xofluza sets itself apart from Tamiflu in several key ways, according to Shionogi. For one, it requires far fewer doses—just a single pill, in fact, compared with the five-day, two-doses-per-day regimen required by Tamiflu. That could be significant given that infections tend to linger if you don’t follow through on the entire prescribed course of a medicine.
And then there’s the timeline. Xofluza was able to kill off the flu virus within 24 hours (compared with the nearly three days it takes Tamiflu to pull off the same feat) in trials. Admittedly, that rapid flu virus destruction doesn’t mean that your flu symptoms will subside just as fast; in fact, complete symptom elimination probably takes about the same time as Tamiflu does. However, symptoms begin to dissipate faster and aren’t necessarily as pronounced with Xofluza treatment, Shionogi says.
The company touts Xofluza’s unique action mechanism as the secret behind its success. Unlike other flu antivirals, Xofluza actually stops virus replication in its tracks by inhibiting an enzyme that the flu virus needs to multiply. That may sound like a major blow to Roche and Tamiflu; but the Swiss drug maker is actually allied with Shionogi, and will have the rights to commercialize the treatment in markets outside of Japan (including the U.S.) if and when it wins regulatory approval abroad.
Flu pandemics tend to put vaccines in the spotlight—especially this year, when the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has found that the current flu vaccine is just 36% effective (and even less so against the nasty, most common strain going around, H3N2). But the development of more effective antivirals for people who have already been infected is a key element of fighting influenza, too. ContinueReading
Friday, February 23, 2018
Fed agency now serves 'Americans,' not 'nation of immigrants': report
foxnews.com - America a "nation of immigrants"? Not anymore. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service has eliminated the phrase from its mission statement, according to an internal memo.
The document, obtained by the Washington Post, also says that those seeking immigration benefits will no longer be called “customers.”
The new mission statement reads:
“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.”
By contrast, the old statement claimed that “USCIS secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.”
The document, obtained by the Washington Post, also says that those seeking immigration benefits will no longer be called “customers.”
The new mission statement reads:
“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.”
By contrast, the old statement claimed that “USCIS secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.”
The memo’s contents were confirmed by a USCIS spokesman who said the new mission statement is effective immediately, but denied the move was directed by the Trump administration.
"The White House did not direct USCIS to change its mission statement. It was developed and debuted within the agency by USCIS Director [Lee] Cissna during his first senior leadership conference with USCIS staff, and reflects the director’s guiding principles for the agency,” the spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
“The new mission statement also has the support of the secretary of Homeland Security,” it added.
Cissna, 51, who started in the job in October, told the agency’s employees that the new statement is “simple, straightforward” and “clearly defines the agency’s role.”
“The American people, through Congress, have entrusted USCIS with the stewardship of our legal immigration programs that allow foreign nationals to visit, work, live, and seek refuge in the United States,” Cissna wrote in the memo. “We are also responsible for ensuring that those who naturalize are dedicated to this country, share our values, assimilate into our communities, and understand their responsibility to help preserve our freedom and liberty.”
According to Cissna, the term “customers” was scrubbed because it promotes the view that the agency’s purpose was to provide “the ultimate satisfaction of applicants and petitioners, rather than the correct adjudication of such applications and petitions according to the law.”
He added: “Use of the term leads to the erroneous belief that applicants and petitioners, rather than the American people, are whom we ultimately serve.
“All applicants and petitioners should, of course, always be treated with the greatest respect and courtesy, but we can’t forget that we serve the American people.” ContinueReading
"The White House did not direct USCIS to change its mission statement. It was developed and debuted within the agency by USCIS Director [Lee] Cissna during his first senior leadership conference with USCIS staff, and reflects the director’s guiding principles for the agency,” the spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
“The new mission statement also has the support of the secretary of Homeland Security,” it added.
Cissna, 51, who started in the job in October, told the agency’s employees that the new statement is “simple, straightforward” and “clearly defines the agency’s role.”
“The American people, through Congress, have entrusted USCIS with the stewardship of our legal immigration programs that allow foreign nationals to visit, work, live, and seek refuge in the United States,” Cissna wrote in the memo. “We are also responsible for ensuring that those who naturalize are dedicated to this country, share our values, assimilate into our communities, and understand their responsibility to help preserve our freedom and liberty.”
According to Cissna, the term “customers” was scrubbed because it promotes the view that the agency’s purpose was to provide “the ultimate satisfaction of applicants and petitioners, rather than the correct adjudication of such applications and petitions according to the law.”
He added: “Use of the term leads to the erroneous belief that applicants and petitioners, rather than the American people, are whom we ultimately serve.
“All applicants and petitioners should, of course, always be treated with the greatest respect and courtesy, but we can’t forget that we serve the American people.” ContinueReading
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Who knew? The race to colonize Mars is ‘patriarchal,’ akin to Columbus’ rape of America
- It’s certainly something you would expect to come out of an “institute for gender research”: The latest leg in the space race — traveling to, and then eventually colonizing, the planet Mars — is the personification of … patriarchy.
So says Marci Bianco, the communications manager of Stanford University’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research, whose article titled “The patriarchal race to colonize Mars is just another example of male entitlement” is featured — ironically — on the NBC News website’s “Think” section.
Bianco derides the efforts of mega-rich Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos (Amazon), and Richard Branson (Virgin) to get into space, and makes an all-too predictable jab at President Trump in the process (because, again, patriarchy!):
“It is the same instinctual and cultural force that teaches men that everything — and everyone — in their line of vision is theirs for the taking. You know, just like walking up to a woman and grabbing her by the pussy.”
So overwhelmed with the amorphous academese of gender “theory,” the basics of space exploration and colonization elude Bianco. She refers to Musk’s comments about colonizing other worlds to save humanity as a “Columbusing attitude” (Christopher Columbus), meaning that only “rich white men like himself” will stand to benefit from such.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Study: Drinking Alcohol More Important Than Exercise to Living Past 90
RAISE A GLASS TO THE golden years.
Making it past 90 years old may boil down to drinking a couple of glasses of alcohol a night, according to a study on members of the oldest demographic in the U.S.
The 90+ Study, started in 2003, focuses on the fastest growing age group in America – the "oldest-old" – to determine what habits lead to quantity and quality of life, according to its website. This year, researchers at the Clinic for Aging Research and Education in Laguna Woods, California, focused on what food, activities and lifestyles are commonly featured among those living longer.
Analyzing more than 1,600 nonagenarians, the study results showed that people who drank two glasses of beer or wine a day improved their odds of living longer than those who abstained by about 18 percent.
Dr. Claudia Kawas, a neurology specialist and head of the 90+ Study at the University of California, presented her findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science'sannual conference in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 17.
“I have no explanation for it, but I do firmly believe that modest drinking improves longevity,” Kawas said in her keynote address.
Exercising regularly and partaking in a hobby for two hours a day were also associated with longer lives. Surprisingly, people who were overweight, but not obese, in their 70s lived longer than normal or underweight people did.
"It’s not bad to be skinny when you’re young, but it’s very bad to be skinny when you’re old,” Kawas said at the meeting. ContinueReading
Making it past 90 years old may boil down to drinking a couple of glasses of alcohol a night, according to a study on members of the oldest demographic in the U.S.
The 90+ Study, started in 2003, focuses on the fastest growing age group in America – the "oldest-old" – to determine what habits lead to quantity and quality of life, according to its website. This year, researchers at the Clinic for Aging Research and Education in Laguna Woods, California, focused on what food, activities and lifestyles are commonly featured among those living longer.
Analyzing more than 1,600 nonagenarians, the study results showed that people who drank two glasses of beer or wine a day improved their odds of living longer than those who abstained by about 18 percent.
Dr. Claudia Kawas, a neurology specialist and head of the 90+ Study at the University of California, presented her findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science'sannual conference in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 17.
“I have no explanation for it, but I do firmly believe that modest drinking improves longevity,” Kawas said in her keynote address.
Exercising regularly and partaking in a hobby for two hours a day were also associated with longer lives. Surprisingly, people who were overweight, but not obese, in their 70s lived longer than normal or underweight people did.
"It’s not bad to be skinny when you’re young, but it’s very bad to be skinny when you’re old,” Kawas said at the meeting. ContinueReading
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Venezuela Decides to Hold Presidential Elections, the Opposition Chooses to Boycott Democracy
- The Venezuelan opposition is seriously divided and cannot agree on an electoral tactic much less a platform other then getting rid of Maduro.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gave a media conference on Feb. 15 that brought us to date on the Venezuelan government’s position to several important events that have occurred recently.
The openness of the media conference could be inferred by the fact that Maduro gave a very short introduction and immediately allowed questions from reporters. The first two reporters to ask questions were one from the Washington Post and another from Reuters. At the time of writing I have not seen reports from those outlets. But the content of what Maduro had to say was more important.
Some observers have reacted to Maduro’s announcement that he will attend the Summit of the Americas in Lima in April “come rain, thunder or lightning!" despite the unwelcome message by Peru. That is sensational news that has gained him the label of “party crasher.” However, Maduro’s confirmation of holding early elections is more deserving of attention for its relevance to all Venezuelans, for the immediate future of the country and possibly the region, and for all those who believe in democracy.
The stalled dialogue by the Venezuelan opposition in the Dominican Republic did not stop Maduro from unilaterally signing the agreement with the terms agreed on. This allowed the National Electoral Council, CNE, to announce the date established in the agreement for April 22 of this year.
Maduro has announced his candidacy for a second term 2019-2025. He stressed that he offered to achieve peace with the National Constituent Assembly and peace was achieved. “Now,” he said, “I offer to get out of the economic war and achieve [economic] recovery after the elections.”
But the Venezuelan opposition is seriously divided and cannot agree on an electoral tactic much less a platform other then getting rid of Maduro. Seemingly, they are caught between two not edifying alternatives. One is participating in the elections with the fear of being defeated by what appears to be a large support for the governing party, and then having to claim electoral fraud repeating the pattern of past elections. The other alternative is not participating and pre-empt the whole process with claims that the elections will be fraudulent. This can only be construed as a boycott.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gave a media conference on Feb. 15 that brought us to date on the Venezuelan government’s position to several important events that have occurred recently.
The openness of the media conference could be inferred by the fact that Maduro gave a very short introduction and immediately allowed questions from reporters. The first two reporters to ask questions were one from the Washington Post and another from Reuters. At the time of writing I have not seen reports from those outlets. But the content of what Maduro had to say was more important.
Some observers have reacted to Maduro’s announcement that he will attend the Summit of the Americas in Lima in April “come rain, thunder or lightning!" despite the unwelcome message by Peru. That is sensational news that has gained him the label of “party crasher.” However, Maduro’s confirmation of holding early elections is more deserving of attention for its relevance to all Venezuelans, for the immediate future of the country and possibly the region, and for all those who believe in democracy.
The stalled dialogue by the Venezuelan opposition in the Dominican Republic did not stop Maduro from unilaterally signing the agreement with the terms agreed on. This allowed the National Electoral Council, CNE, to announce the date established in the agreement for April 22 of this year.
Maduro has announced his candidacy for a second term 2019-2025. He stressed that he offered to achieve peace with the National Constituent Assembly and peace was achieved. “Now,” he said, “I offer to get out of the economic war and achieve [economic] recovery after the elections.”
But the Venezuelan opposition is seriously divided and cannot agree on an electoral tactic much less a platform other then getting rid of Maduro. Seemingly, they are caught between two not edifying alternatives. One is participating in the elections with the fear of being defeated by what appears to be a large support for the governing party, and then having to claim electoral fraud repeating the pattern of past elections. The other alternative is not participating and pre-empt the whole process with claims that the elections will be fraudulent. This can only be construed as a boycott.
Monday, February 19, 2018
Terracotta army: Chinese officials demand punishment for American accused of stealing thumb off of ancient statue
independent.co.uk - Chinese officials are demanding punishment for the alleged theft of a thumb from an ancient terracotta warrior statue on display at an American museum.
The FBI has charged 24-year-old Michael Rohana with snapping the thumb off of the 2,000-year-old Chinese sculpture during an 'ugly Christmas sweater' party at the Franklin Institute, the Philadelphia museum that is currently displaying 10 of China’s famed terracotta warriors.
The agency claims Mr Rohana walked into the exhibit through an unlocked door during the party on 21 December. He perused the dark exhibit using the light from his cell phone, then posed for a selfie with the statue in question, according to an arrest affidavit. Before leaving, he tore off the statue’s thumb as a souvenir, the affidavit said.
An attorney for Mr Rohana could not immediately be reached for comment.
Wu Haiyun, the director of the government-run organisation that loaned the statues out, criticised the Franklin Institute for being "careless" with the statues, according to CCTV.
"We ask that the US severely punish the perpetrator. We have lodged a serious protest with them," he said. ContinueReading
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Scientists Grow Sheep Embryos With Human Cells To Revolutionize Organ Transplant
techtimes.com - Researchers have successfully grown sheep embryos that contain human cells, a breakthrough that may someday save the lives of many patients who need an organ transplant.
Pablo Ross, from the University of California, Davis, and colleagues announced at this week's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Texas that they have grown sheep embryos with human cells.
Researchers have been using genome editing technique to produce animal embryos that do not develop pancreas. The objective is that human cells introduced to these embryos would grow to replace the missing organ.
Researchers have already worked on pig embryos but there are several advantages for using sheep embryos, one of which is that these can be easily produced by IVF. Fewer sheep embryos are also required for an experiment.
"For a pig we typically transfer 50 embryos to one recipient," said Ross. "With the sheep we transfer four embryos to one recipient."
Sheep also have heart and lungs that are similar to those of humans. They also produce organs that are about the right size for the human body. Depending on the organ a patient needs, organs are typically matched using characteristics, which include the size of the organ needed.
"The sheep is a good model for many human conditions," Ross said. "The size of the sheep organs is similar to human size, some of the organs are physiologically similar between sheep and humans and a lot of cardiovascular research is done in sheep because it has some similarities to humans in terms of heart shape."
Ross and colleagues transplanted human stem cells into the preimplantation embryos of sheep. The embryos are then allowed to grow for a week before these were implanted into a surrogate sheep. The researchers are currently allowed to let these chimeric embryos develop for 28 days so the surrogate animal is slaughtered after 21 days.
About one in 10,000 cells in the sheep embryos that the researchers developed are human. Nonetheless, they said that more work is needed to raise the proportion of humans cells in the chimera. continueReading
Pablo Ross, from the University of California, Davis, and colleagues announced at this week's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Texas that they have grown sheep embryos with human cells.
Researchers have been using genome editing technique to produce animal embryos that do not develop pancreas. The objective is that human cells introduced to these embryos would grow to replace the missing organ.
Researchers have already worked on pig embryos but there are several advantages for using sheep embryos, one of which is that these can be easily produced by IVF. Fewer sheep embryos are also required for an experiment.
"For a pig we typically transfer 50 embryos to one recipient," said Ross. "With the sheep we transfer four embryos to one recipient."
Sheep also have heart and lungs that are similar to those of humans. They also produce organs that are about the right size for the human body. Depending on the organ a patient needs, organs are typically matched using characteristics, which include the size of the organ needed.
"The sheep is a good model for many human conditions," Ross said. "The size of the sheep organs is similar to human size, some of the organs are physiologically similar between sheep and humans and a lot of cardiovascular research is done in sheep because it has some similarities to humans in terms of heart shape."
Ross and colleagues transplanted human stem cells into the preimplantation embryos of sheep. The embryos are then allowed to grow for a week before these were implanted into a surrogate sheep. The researchers are currently allowed to let these chimeric embryos develop for 28 days so the surrogate animal is slaughtered after 21 days.
About one in 10,000 cells in the sheep embryos that the researchers developed are human. Nonetheless, they said that more work is needed to raise the proportion of humans cells in the chimera. continueReading
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Discovering alien life probably won't freak us out, studies say
cnet.com - Much of sci-fi tells us that when humanity is faced with incontrovertible proof of the existence of life beyond Earth, we're going to freak out and burn everything down like we just won the Super Bowl.
But now there's some scientific evidence that when that big news breaks, humans might actually remain pretty chill.
"If we came face to face with life outside of Earth, we would actually be pretty upbeat about it," Arizona State University psychology professor Michael Varnum said in a news release.
Varnum makes this conclusion based on an analysis of newspaper articles covering past potential discoveries of extraterrestrial life. Specifically, he and his colleagues looked at articles about the weird dimming of so-called "Tabby's Star," Earth-like planets around the star Trappist-1, and the potential discovery of Martian microbe fossils from 1996. They found language in the stories demonstrated much more positive emotion than fear or other negative emotions.
In a second study, the team also surveyed over 500 people, asking them to guess how they and humanity would react to an announcement that alien microbial life had been discovered. In the case of both their own reaction and everyone else's, the participants hypothesized responses that were more positive than negative.
Friday, February 16, 2018
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau begins 7-day India visit on Saturday to boost ties
timesofindia - NEW DELHI: National security advisers of India and Canada met here this week, ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's seven-day visit to India from tomorrow (Feb 17) which is aimed at further boosting strategic ties with a focus on defence and counter-terror cooperation.
The two NSAs prepared the ground for Trudeau and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intensify defence and security cooperation, and India's concerns over rising Sikh radicalism in Canada are understood to have figured in the meeting held a couple days back, Canadian diplomatic sources indicated.
On trade, the sources said Canadian investments in India were likely to decline in absence of a mechanism to protect them and Trudeau and Modi may deliberate, during their talks on February 23, on making forward movement in firming up the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between the two countries.
The negotiators of both the countries met last week to overcome the hurdles in finalising the pact, the sources said, adding Canadian investments in India were around USD 15 billion in the last couple of years, and a free trade pact will further encourage investors from that country.
In 2017, two-way merchandise trade between Canada and India amounted to USD 8.4 billion, split equally between exports to and imports from India (USD 4 billion each).
A number of Canadian pension funds are also keen to invest in India.
The sources said the objective of the Canadian prime minister's visit here would be to expand overall ties between the two countries with a focus on defence and security, counter-terror cooperation, trade and investment and tackling climate change.
Both sides are also expected to deliberate on enhancing cooperation in civil nuclear sector. ContinueReading
The two NSAs prepared the ground for Trudeau and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intensify defence and security cooperation, and India's concerns over rising Sikh radicalism in Canada are understood to have figured in the meeting held a couple days back, Canadian diplomatic sources indicated.
On trade, the sources said Canadian investments in India were likely to decline in absence of a mechanism to protect them and Trudeau and Modi may deliberate, during their talks on February 23, on making forward movement in firming up the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between the two countries.
The negotiators of both the countries met last week to overcome the hurdles in finalising the pact, the sources said, adding Canadian investments in India were around USD 15 billion in the last couple of years, and a free trade pact will further encourage investors from that country.
In 2017, two-way merchandise trade between Canada and India amounted to USD 8.4 billion, split equally between exports to and imports from India (USD 4 billion each).
A number of Canadian pension funds are also keen to invest in India.
The sources said the objective of the Canadian prime minister's visit here would be to expand overall ties between the two countries with a focus on defence and security, counter-terror cooperation, trade and investment and tackling climate change.
Both sides are also expected to deliberate on enhancing cooperation in civil nuclear sector. ContinueReading
Thursday, February 15, 2018
UK blames Russia for cyber attack, Moscow decries Western campaign
LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Britain blamed Russia on Thursday for a cyber-attack last year, publicly pointing the finger at Moscow for spreading a virus which swept across Europe and beyond, hitting companies and other users after initially targeting Ukraine.
Russia denied the accusation, saying it was part of “Russophobic” campaign that it said was being waged by some Western countries.
Two sources familiar with the matter said later on Thursday that London’s announcement had been coordinated with the United States and other countries, some of which were expected to follow up with their own statements about who was responsible for NotPetya in the coming days.
The so-called NotPetya attack in June started in Ukraine where it crippled government and business computers before spreading around Europe and the world, halting operations at ports, factories and offices.
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Zuma Remains Defiant as South Africa's ANC Moves to Oust Him
Bloomberg.com - As Jacob Zuma’s nine-year tenure as South African president entered its final hours, he remained defiant, calling the ruling party’s push to remove him “unfair.”
The African National Congress intends passing a vote of no confidence in him in parliament on Thursday if he ignores an order from the party’s National Executive Committee by refusing to quit. His probable replacement, new ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa, could take office late tomorrow or Friday. If the motion succeeds, the entire cabinet must also resign.
“It’s clear for us as the ANC we can no longer wait beyond today,” ANC Treasurer-General Paul Mashatile told reporters in Cape Town on Wednesday after a special meeting of the party’s parliamentary caucus. “My message to the caucus is they must proceed with the parliamentary process. A decision has been taken, it must be implemented.”
The ANC wants a quick transition so Ramaphosa, a 65-year-old lawyer and one of the richest black South Africans, can move to fulfill pledges to revive the struggling economy, clamp down on corruption and rebuild its image ahead of elections scheduled for mid-2019. Any delays in parliament and establishing a new government will harm the party’s chances.
Cyril Ramaphosa, elected South Africa’s new president, confronts woes of Zuma legacy
The African National Congress intends passing a vote of no confidence in him in parliament on Thursday if he ignores an order from the party’s National Executive Committee by refusing to quit. His probable replacement, new ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa, could take office late tomorrow or Friday. If the motion succeeds, the entire cabinet must also resign.
“It’s clear for us as the ANC we can no longer wait beyond today,” ANC Treasurer-General Paul Mashatile told reporters in Cape Town on Wednesday after a special meeting of the party’s parliamentary caucus. “My message to the caucus is they must proceed with the parliamentary process. A decision has been taken, it must be implemented.”
The ANC wants a quick transition so Ramaphosa, a 65-year-old lawyer and one of the richest black South Africans, can move to fulfill pledges to revive the struggling economy, clamp down on corruption and rebuild its image ahead of elections scheduled for mid-2019. Any delays in parliament and establishing a new government will harm the party’s chances.
Cyril Ramaphosa, elected South Africa’s new president, confronts woes of Zuma legacy
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
New antibiotic family discovered in dirt
BBC - US scientists have discovered a new family of antibiotics in soil samples.
The natural compounds could be used to combat hard-to-treat infections, the team at Rockefeller University hopes.
Tests show the compounds, called malacidins, annihilate several bacterial diseases that have become resistant to most existing antibiotics, including the superbug MRSA.
Experts say the work, published in Nature Microbiology, offers fresh hope in the antibiotics arms race.
Drug-resistant diseases are one of the biggest threats to global health.
They kill around 700,000 people a year, and new treatments are urgently needed.
Drugs from dirt
Soil is teeming with millions of different micro-organisms that produce lots of potentially therapeutic compounds, including new antibiotics.
Dr Sean Brady's team at New York's Rockefeller University has been busy unearthing them.
They used a gene sequencing technique to analyse more than 1,000 soil samples taken from across the US.
When they discovered malacidins in many of the samples, they had a hunch it was an important find.
They tested the compound on rats that they had given MRSA and it eliminated the infection in skin wounds.
The researchers are now working to improve the drug's effectiveness in the hope that it can be developed into a real treatment for people.
Dr Brady said: "It is impossible to say when, or even if, an early stage antibiotic discovery like the malacidins will proceed to the clinic.
"It is a long, arduous road from the initial discovery of an antibiotic to a clinically used entity."
Prof Colin Garner, from Antibiotic Research UK, said finding new antibiotics to treat gram-positive infections like MRSA was good news, but would not address the most pressing need.
"Our concern are the so called gram-negative bacteria which are difficult to treat and where resistance is on the increase," he said.
"Gram-negative bacteria cause pneumonia, blood and urinary tract infections as skin infections. We need new antibiotics to treat this class." ContinueReading
The natural compounds could be used to combat hard-to-treat infections, the team at Rockefeller University hopes.
Tests show the compounds, called malacidins, annihilate several bacterial diseases that have become resistant to most existing antibiotics, including the superbug MRSA.
Experts say the work, published in Nature Microbiology, offers fresh hope in the antibiotics arms race.
Drug-resistant diseases are one of the biggest threats to global health.
They kill around 700,000 people a year, and new treatments are urgently needed.
Drugs from dirt
Soil is teeming with millions of different micro-organisms that produce lots of potentially therapeutic compounds, including new antibiotics.
Dr Sean Brady's team at New York's Rockefeller University has been busy unearthing them.
They used a gene sequencing technique to analyse more than 1,000 soil samples taken from across the US.
When they discovered malacidins in many of the samples, they had a hunch it was an important find.
They tested the compound on rats that they had given MRSA and it eliminated the infection in skin wounds.
The researchers are now working to improve the drug's effectiveness in the hope that it can be developed into a real treatment for people.
Dr Brady said: "It is impossible to say when, or even if, an early stage antibiotic discovery like the malacidins will proceed to the clinic.
"It is a long, arduous road from the initial discovery of an antibiotic to a clinically used entity."
Prof Colin Garner, from Antibiotic Research UK, said finding new antibiotics to treat gram-positive infections like MRSA was good news, but would not address the most pressing need.
"Our concern are the so called gram-negative bacteria which are difficult to treat and where resistance is on the increase," he said.
"Gram-negative bacteria cause pneumonia, blood and urinary tract infections as skin infections. We need new antibiotics to treat this class." ContinueReading
Monday, February 12, 2018
Russians scour wreckage for clues in plane crash that killed 71
abcnews.com - Hundreds of emergency workers are combing through a field in deep snow today for wreckage from a Russian passenger jet that crashed shortly after taking off from Moscow Sunday, killing all 71 aboard.
Saratov Airlines flight 703 was flying to the city of Orsk in central Russia but crashed minutes after leaving Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, plunging into the countryside about 40 miles from the city, authorities said.
Russian authorities have confirmed the plane's 65 passengers, including three children, as well as six crew members, died in the crash, which left debris across a field close to the village of Stepanovskoye. A day of mourning has been declared in Orenburg, the region where Orsk is located and where many of the passengers were from.
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said today rescue operations at the site near Moscow had been called off and that the focus now was on recovering remains and debris from the crash as part of an investigation to determine what caused it. DNA analysis is being conducted to identify the remains of those killed.
Workers have found at least one of the plane’s flight recorders. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, said in a statement that the plane’s data recorder, which preserves information like speed, altitude and direction, had been located. The search for the plane’s cockpit recorder is continuing, the committee said.
The cause of the crash still remained unknown. Russian investigators have opened a criminal probe into whether negligence could have led to the crash but they have said they are still examining all possible versions, including weather conditions, technical failure or human error, among others.
Although terrorism has not yet been ruled out, police have suggested it is not being considered a likely cause. ContinueReading
Saratov Airlines flight 703 was flying to the city of Orsk in central Russia but crashed minutes after leaving Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, plunging into the countryside about 40 miles from the city, authorities said.
Russian authorities have confirmed the plane's 65 passengers, including three children, as well as six crew members, died in the crash, which left debris across a field close to the village of Stepanovskoye. A day of mourning has been declared in Orenburg, the region where Orsk is located and where many of the passengers were from.
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said today rescue operations at the site near Moscow had been called off and that the focus now was on recovering remains and debris from the crash as part of an investigation to determine what caused it. DNA analysis is being conducted to identify the remains of those killed.
Workers have found at least one of the plane’s flight recorders. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, said in a statement that the plane’s data recorder, which preserves information like speed, altitude and direction, had been located. The search for the plane’s cockpit recorder is continuing, the committee said.
The cause of the crash still remained unknown. Russian investigators have opened a criminal probe into whether negligence could have led to the crash but they have said they are still examining all possible versions, including weather conditions, technical failure or human error, among others.
Although terrorism has not yet been ruled out, police have suggested it is not being considered a likely cause. ContinueReading
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Coca-Cola, PepsiCo Try New Ways to Combat Soda Slump
wsj.com - Coca-Cola Co. KO 0.07% , PepsiCo Inc. PEP 0.94% and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc.DPS -0.19% have been remaking themselves for the past decade, adding products like kombucha tea and coconut water as consumers migrate to less sugary drinks.
But the three drink giants, set to report their fourth-quarter earnings this week, have recently embraced different strategies to combat the long slide in soda sales.
PepsiCo said Thursday it is launching a colorful seltzer water brand called Bubly, making it the latest drink company to go after a larger piece of the flavored sparkling water market. The market grew by more than 15% last year to $2.4 billion, according to research firm Euromonitor International, led by National Beverage Corp.’s La Croix.
PepsiCo will need Bubly and more to reinvigorate its North American beverage unit, its largest, whose profit dropped 10% last quarter. The company blamed disappointing results on cooler summer weather and too much marketing focus on healthier brands. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the segment to report fourth-quarter revenue of $5.9 billion, down from $6.3 billion a year ago.
To offset the drop, PepsiCo has leaned on its snack business, which includes brands such as Doritos and Sun Chips, and a companywide cost-cutting initiative that has yielded annual savings of around $1 billion. But analysts worry the Purchase, N.Y.-company is making things worse for itself by not keeping drink prices in line with those of competitors.
Dr Pepper, the smallest of the three drink rivals, revealed plans last month to merge with Keurig Green Mountain, a company best known for its single-serve coffee pods, in a $19 billion tie-up that has industry-watchers both stumped and intrigued.
Executives from the two companies say the deal will allow Keurig and its owner, the European investment firm JAB, to add their coffees to Dr Pepper’s distribution network and strengthen Dr Pepper’s e-commerce capabilities.
While it could give Keurig’s sales a needed boost, implications are less clear for Dr Pepper’s faltering soda business, which includes brands like A&W Root Beer and 7UP. When Dr Pepper reports earnings Wednesday, its investors will want to know what to expect, beyond a $103.75 per share special cash dividend.
“I’m not sure anything they say will matter for the stock, given the M&A,” Bernstein analyst Ali Dibadj said. “But I think we’d like to see if there’s any sign explaining why this sudden sale.”
Coca-Cola is betting four new flavors of Diet Coke in sleeker cans with names like “Zesty Blood Orange” will help it hold on to soda drinkers a little longer.
The Atlanta-based company’s Diet Coke sales have dropped every year since 2006, though Coca-Cola managed to keep its soda volumes flat last quarter. The results were helped by Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, which like Diet Coke is artificially sweetened and calorie-free.
While Diet Coke is still the third-largest carbonated soft drink brand in the country, according to industry publication Beverage-Digest, the new flavors are competing with a larger-than-ever bevy of alternatives including fizzy waters and other flavored no-calorie and low-calorie drinks.
The new drinks hit shelves after the fourth-quarter ended, but Coca-Cola might hint at early results when it reports earnings Friday. Investors will also want to see how much refranchising bottling operations boosted the company’s operating profit margin last quarter.
But the three drink giants, set to report their fourth-quarter earnings this week, have recently embraced different strategies to combat the long slide in soda sales.
PepsiCo said Thursday it is launching a colorful seltzer water brand called Bubly, making it the latest drink company to go after a larger piece of the flavored sparkling water market. The market grew by more than 15% last year to $2.4 billion, according to research firm Euromonitor International, led by National Beverage Corp.’s La Croix.
PepsiCo will need Bubly and more to reinvigorate its North American beverage unit, its largest, whose profit dropped 10% last quarter. The company blamed disappointing results on cooler summer weather and too much marketing focus on healthier brands. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the segment to report fourth-quarter revenue of $5.9 billion, down from $6.3 billion a year ago.
To offset the drop, PepsiCo has leaned on its snack business, which includes brands such as Doritos and Sun Chips, and a companywide cost-cutting initiative that has yielded annual savings of around $1 billion. But analysts worry the Purchase, N.Y.-company is making things worse for itself by not keeping drink prices in line with those of competitors.
Dr Pepper, the smallest of the three drink rivals, revealed plans last month to merge with Keurig Green Mountain, a company best known for its single-serve coffee pods, in a $19 billion tie-up that has industry-watchers both stumped and intrigued.
Executives from the two companies say the deal will allow Keurig and its owner, the European investment firm JAB, to add their coffees to Dr Pepper’s distribution network and strengthen Dr Pepper’s e-commerce capabilities.
While it could give Keurig’s sales a needed boost, implications are less clear for Dr Pepper’s faltering soda business, which includes brands like A&W Root Beer and 7UP. When Dr Pepper reports earnings Wednesday, its investors will want to know what to expect, beyond a $103.75 per share special cash dividend.
“I’m not sure anything they say will matter for the stock, given the M&A,” Bernstein analyst Ali Dibadj said. “But I think we’d like to see if there’s any sign explaining why this sudden sale.”
Coca-Cola is betting four new flavors of Diet Coke in sleeker cans with names like “Zesty Blood Orange” will help it hold on to soda drinkers a little longer.
The Atlanta-based company’s Diet Coke sales have dropped every year since 2006, though Coca-Cola managed to keep its soda volumes flat last quarter. The results were helped by Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, which like Diet Coke is artificially sweetened and calorie-free.
While Diet Coke is still the third-largest carbonated soft drink brand in the country, according to industry publication Beverage-Digest, the new flavors are competing with a larger-than-ever bevy of alternatives including fizzy waters and other flavored no-calorie and low-calorie drinks.
The new drinks hit shelves after the fourth-quarter ended, but Coca-Cola might hint at early results when it reports earnings Friday. Investors will also want to see how much refranchising bottling operations boosted the company’s operating profit margin last quarter.
Saturday, February 10, 2018
China seeks ‘healthy’ ties with troubled Maldives amid India rivalry
- Beijing has called for its partnership with the Maldives, where it has channelled significant aid and investment, to develop “in a healthy manner” as it vies with India for influence over the troubled Indian Ocean archipelago.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the Maldivian president’s special envoy Mohamed Saeed in Beijing that China was closely watching the political crisis in Male, the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
“The international community should play a constructive role in promoting the Maldives’ stability and development on the basis of respecting the Maldives’ wishes,” Wang said.
“China has poured in unconditional aid and assistance for the Maldives’ socio-economic development. The cooperation between China and the Maldives benefits all people in the Maldives and we hope the cooperative partnership of the two nations can be developed in a healthy manner.”
Wang’s remarks came after Maldives President Abdulla Yameen announced a 15-day state of emergency in the luxury tourist hotspot on Monday, triggered by a Supreme Court ruling last week to free political prisoners and opposition politicians. Yameen rejected the ruling and detained two judges.
The Maldives sent envoys to China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to brief them on the political crisis, but no envoy went to India because the dates were not “suitable”, according to the Maldivian embassy in India.
The bid for support from Beijing came as the Maldives’ exiled former president Mohamed Nasheed – who was expected to stand for election under the opposition party later this year – called for military intervention from India, which has joined the United States and Britain in calling for Yameen to abide by the court ruling. ContinueReading
Friday, February 9, 2018
Cautious Optimism as Scientists Grow Human Eggs From Immature Cells in the Lab
gizmodo.com - In a scientific first, researchers from the US and the UK have taken early-stage human egg cells and grown them to full maturity in the lab. It’s an important proof-of-concept that could eventually yield new infertility treatments for women.
Growing egg cells to full maturity in the lab isn’t anything new. Scientists have already done this with mice, where lab-grown oocytes, or developing female sex cells, have resulted in the birth of live offspring. Also, human eggs have been grown to full maturity in the lab before—but from cells that were already at a late stage of development. What makes the new study special is that it’s the first time scientists have achieved this with early-stage human eggs cells, setting the stage for fertilization by sperm—at least in theory.
Developed by researchers from the University of Edinburgh and the Center for Human Reproduction, the technique could eventually be administered to women whose eggs don’t develop fully in their bodies, and as a way to preserve a cancer patients’ ability to have biological offspring in cases where chemotherapy or radiotherapy has made them infertile. Conceptually, this breakthrough means a girl’s immature eggs can be recovered from her ovarian tissue, matured in the lab, and then cryogenically stored for future in vitrofertilization. Currently, a piece of ovary is removed before chemotherapy and then re-implanted after the treatments are done, but this introduces the risk of putting cancer cells right back into a patient’s body.
Thursday, February 8, 2018
Hague court opens examination into Philippines drugs war deaths
MANILA (Reuters) - International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors have opened a preliminary examination into Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”, which has led to the death of thousands since it began in July 2016.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensou said on Thursday the examination was a review of whether crimes against humanity had been committed and whether the Hague-based court might have jurisdiction to eventually bring suspects to trial.
About 4,000 mostly urban poor Filipinos have been killed by police in the past 19 months in a brutal crackdown that has alarmed the international community. Activists believe the death toll is far higher.
”While some of such killings have reportedly occurred in the context of clashes between or within gangs, it is alleged that many of the reported incidents involved extra-judicial killings in the course of police anti-drug operations” Bensouda said.
Duterte spokesman Harry Roque said the court would accuse the president of crimes against humanity, but Bensouda’s statement did not identify potential suspects.
Roque dismissed the action as “a waste of the court’s time and resources”.
Roque said he had discussed the ICC issue for two hours the previous night with Duterte, a former prosecutor, adding that the president is more than willing to face trial.
“He’s sick and tried of being accused,” said Roque, an international law expert. “He wants to be in court and put the prosecutor on the stand.”
Since it was set up in 2002, the ICC has received more than 12,000 complaints or communications, just nine of which have gone to trial.
A preliminary investigation is the first formal step the prosecutor takes when considering whether a situation in one of the ICC’s member states could eventually lead to charges.
Bensouda will now begin a process that may take several years, gathering information on whether any crimes were committed, whether they are serious enough to be admissible at the court, and whether the court has jurisdiction, since it can only prosecute crimes when a member state itself fails to do so.
If Bensouda then wishes to open a formal investigation, she would first seek approval from international judges.
Separately, she also announced a preliminary examination into whether Venezuela’s government forces used excessive force against protesters last year. ContinueReading
Prosecutor Fatou Bensou said on Thursday the examination was a review of whether crimes against humanity had been committed and whether the Hague-based court might have jurisdiction to eventually bring suspects to trial.
About 4,000 mostly urban poor Filipinos have been killed by police in the past 19 months in a brutal crackdown that has alarmed the international community. Activists believe the death toll is far higher.
”While some of such killings have reportedly occurred in the context of clashes between or within gangs, it is alleged that many of the reported incidents involved extra-judicial killings in the course of police anti-drug operations” Bensouda said.
Duterte spokesman Harry Roque said the court would accuse the president of crimes against humanity, but Bensouda’s statement did not identify potential suspects.
Roque dismissed the action as “a waste of the court’s time and resources”.
Roque said he had discussed the ICC issue for two hours the previous night with Duterte, a former prosecutor, adding that the president is more than willing to face trial.
“He’s sick and tried of being accused,” said Roque, an international law expert. “He wants to be in court and put the prosecutor on the stand.”
Since it was set up in 2002, the ICC has received more than 12,000 complaints or communications, just nine of which have gone to trial.
A preliminary investigation is the first formal step the prosecutor takes when considering whether a situation in one of the ICC’s member states could eventually lead to charges.
Bensouda will now begin a process that may take several years, gathering information on whether any crimes were committed, whether they are serious enough to be admissible at the court, and whether the court has jurisdiction, since it can only prosecute crimes when a member state itself fails to do so.
If Bensouda then wishes to open a formal investigation, she would first seek approval from international judges.
Separately, she also announced a preliminary examination into whether Venezuela’s government forces used excessive force against protesters last year. ContinueReading
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Polish President signs controversial Holocaust bill into law
(CNN) Polish President Andrzej Duda signed Poland's controversial new Holocaust bill late Tuesday ahead of it being assessed by the country's Constitutional Tribunal.
The law would make it illegal to accuse the nation of complicity in crimes committed by Nazi Germany, including the Holocaust.
It would also ban the use of terms such as "Polish death camps" in relation to Auschwitz and other such camps located in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Poland's President Andrzej Duda announces he would sign the controversial Holocaust bill into law.
Violations will be punished by a fine or a jail sentence of up to three years.
Duda's spokesman, Krzysztof Lapinski, confirmed the bill had been signed.
The President's office says the majority of the legislation will take effect 14 days after it appears at the country's Journal of Laws -- which could happen as early as Wednesday. The rest of the legislation will come into force within three months.
The bill will also be reviewed by the country's Constitutional Tribunal to ensure it doesn't breach the Polish constitution.
The decision to sign the bill into law has already attracted criticism from the US, Israel and France.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the law "adversely affects freedom of speech and academic inquiry."
In a statement, he added: "The United States reaffirms that terms like 'Polish death camps' are painful and misleading. Such historical inaccuracies affect Poland, our strong ally, and must be combated in ways that protect fundamental freedoms. We believe that open debate, scholarship, and education are the best means of countering misleading speech."
On Tuesday, Duda told a news conference that he was aware of the "sensitivities" around this bill, including a "fear that it will not be possible to tell the truth -- that it will gag the survivors." ContinueReading
The law would make it illegal to accuse the nation of complicity in crimes committed by Nazi Germany, including the Holocaust.
It would also ban the use of terms such as "Polish death camps" in relation to Auschwitz and other such camps located in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Poland's President Andrzej Duda announces he would sign the controversial Holocaust bill into law.
Violations will be punished by a fine or a jail sentence of up to three years.
Duda's spokesman, Krzysztof Lapinski, confirmed the bill had been signed.
The President's office says the majority of the legislation will take effect 14 days after it appears at the country's Journal of Laws -- which could happen as early as Wednesday. The rest of the legislation will come into force within three months.
The bill will also be reviewed by the country's Constitutional Tribunal to ensure it doesn't breach the Polish constitution.
The decision to sign the bill into law has already attracted criticism from the US, Israel and France.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the law "adversely affects freedom of speech and academic inquiry."
In a statement, he added: "The United States reaffirms that terms like 'Polish death camps' are painful and misleading. Such historical inaccuracies affect Poland, our strong ally, and must be combated in ways that protect fundamental freedoms. We believe that open debate, scholarship, and education are the best means of countering misleading speech."
On Tuesday, Duda told a news conference that he was aware of the "sensitivities" around this bill, including a "fear that it will not be possible to tell the truth -- that it will gag the survivors." ContinueReading
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Canada's Trudeau corrects woman for using 'mankind' at town hall
FoxNews.com - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau corrected a woman on her language when she asked a question during a town hall Friday.
The unidentified woman asked Trudeau whether the Canadian government could ease regulations on volunteering with religious organizations, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
"So, that’s why we came here today to ask you, to also look into the policies that religious charitable organizations have in our legislation so that it can also be changed because maternal love is the love that’s going to change the future of mankind,” said the woman, who was reportedly affiliated with the World Mission Society Church of God.
Trudeau immediately corrected her.
“We like to say ‘peoplekind,' not necessarily ‘mankind,' because it’s more inclusive,” he said.
The crowd clapped after Trudeau’s comments.
The Canadian government has cracked down on language inclusivity over the last week.
Canada’s Senate passed a bill Thursday to make the country’s national anthem gender neutral. The bill changes the second line of “O Canada” from “true patriot love, in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command.” ContinueReading
Monday, February 5, 2018
Astronomers identify first planets outside the Milk Way
Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Astronomers have for the first time identified extragalactic exoplanets -- planets outside the Milky Way.
Using telescopes at NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and an observation technique called microlensing, scientists at the University of Oklahoma discovered a population of exoplanets inside a distant galaxy.
"We are very excited about this discovery. This is the first time anyone has discovered planets outside our galaxy," astronomer Xinyu Dai said in a news release. "These small planets are the best candidate for the signature we observed in this study using the microlensing technique. We analyzed the high frequency of the signature by modeling the data to determine the mass."
Microlensing is the magnifying effect caused by the gravitational influence of intermediary objects. As light from distant objects travels past an object on the way to Earth, the gravitational phenomena magnifies the faraway light.
Scientists were able to observe the magnified signatures of extragalactic exoplanets. Astronomers identified a planet as small as Earth's moon and as big as Jupiter.
"This is an example of how powerful the techniques of analysis of extragalactic microlensing can be," said postdoctoral researcher Eduardo Guerras.
Dai and Guerras published their discovery in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
"This galaxy is located 3.8 billion light years away, and there is not the slightest chance of observing these planets directly, not even with the best telescope one can imagine in a science fiction scenario," said Guerras. "However, we are able to study them, unveil their presence and even have an idea of their masses. This is very cool science."
Last year, scientists identified several extragalactic comets.
(Source)
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Results of cellphone radiation study come back mixed; human implications unclear
- The long-awaited results of a $25 million National Institutes of Health study on the effects of cellphone radio frequency radiation exposure on animals is out, and the results are mixed. They showed a higher risk of tumors, DNA or tissue damage and lower body weight in some groups of rodents, but no obvious ill effects in others, and no clear implications for human health.
John Bucher, a senior scientist involved in the 10-year study, was cautious in his interpretation of the results in a conference call with journalists Friday. Given the inconsistent pattern of the findings, the fact that the subjects were rats and mice rather than people, and the high level of radiation used, he said he could not extrapolate from the data to potential health effects on humans.
“At this point we don’t feel that we understand enough about the results to place a huge degree of confidence in the findings,” he said.
Bucher also said that, “I have not changed the way I use a cellphone, no.”
The study by the National Toxicology Program is believed to be the most comprehensive assessment of the health effects of such radiation on rats and mice and involved 3,000 test animals. A draft report was released Friday for public comment and peer review, in advance of an external expert review from March 26 to 28. Among other things, reviewers will examine whether some of the results might be statistical noise.
The issue of cellphone radiation’s impact on human health is one that has been hotly debated for years. In 2010, the Federal Communications Commission came under fire after it dropped a long-standing recommendation that consumers buy phones with lower radiation emissions. And in 2015, the city council in Berkeley, Calif., approved a disclosure ordinance that directed sellers to let buyers know of the risk of carrying devices too close to their bodies. The CTIA, which represents the wireless industry, has sued, saying the warnings are “ill-informed” and violate retailers’ First Amendment rights.
The strongest finding in the new study involved male rats — but not female rats or male or female mice — which developed tumors in the nerves surrounding their hearts. Researchers also saw increases in damage to heart tissue in both male and female rats. If these results are confirmed, Bucher said, they appear to suggest that this type of radiation could be a “weak” carcinogen.
The male rat tumors were so-called malignant schwannomas. Based on limited research that shows a potentially elevated risk of schwannomas near the brain in people, the International Agency for Research on Cancer currently lists radio-frequency fields as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”
The new NIH study showed tumors in rats and mice in other parts of the body — the brain, prostate, liver and pancreas — but the scientists said it was unclear if these were related to the radiation.
The experiment involved placing rats and mice into special chambers and exposing them to different levels of radiation that mimic 2G and 3G phones, which were standard when the study was launched, for 9 hours a day. Bucher emphasized that even the lowest levels used in the study were much higher than the maximum exposure even a frequent cellphone user would get. While the United States has transitioned to 4G, 4G-LTE and 5G networks in recent years, the 2G and 3G frequencies are still used in voice calls and texting.
In addition to cancer, the study looked at other health effects, such as evidence of tissue damage from the heat of cellphones, DNA damage and changes in body weight. They said they found some tissue and DNA issues but “we don’t feel (we have) sufficient understanding to comment on their biological significance.”
For example, Bucher said, “The patterns of damage to brain in tissues in these animals are not particularly consistent with tumor outcomes.”
As for the weight issue, they saw changes in newborn rats and their mothers when exposed to high levels at the time of pregnancy and lactation. But they said the study was not designed to tease out whether this was a direct effect on the babies or if it affected how the mothers cared for their young.
“We don’t have any idea really,” Bucher said. On the other hand, he added, the babies did grow to normal size.
Some health and environmental groups immediately seized on the findings as more evidence of the dangers of cellphones. The Environmental Working Group’s Olga Naidenko, a senior science adviser, for instance, in a news release said the study “should raise alarms for policymakers and awareness for all Americans.”
The CTIA had a different interpretation, pointing out that when partial results of the same study were released in 2016 numerous international and U.S. health organizations “maintained their long-standing conclusion that the scientific evidence shows no known health risk due to the [radio-frequency] energy emitted by cellphones.”
The response from the Food and Drug Administration, which commissioned the study in the first place, was more muted.
Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement that the agency’s preliminary understanding of the results “is that the study found mostly equivocal, or ambiguous, evidence that whole body radio-frequency energy exposures given to rats or mice in the study actually caused cancer in these animals.” He noted some additional unusual findings in the study, and said his team is continuing to assess them, but emphasized that based on all available scientific information the agency does not believe there are adverse health effects in humans caused by cellphone radiation.
”Even with frequent daily use by the vast majority of adults, we have not seen an increase in events like brain tumors,” he said. “Based on this current information, we believe the current safety limits for cellphones are acceptable for protecting the public health.” ContinueReading
John Bucher, a senior scientist involved in the 10-year study, was cautious in his interpretation of the results in a conference call with journalists Friday. Given the inconsistent pattern of the findings, the fact that the subjects were rats and mice rather than people, and the high level of radiation used, he said he could not extrapolate from the data to potential health effects on humans.
“At this point we don’t feel that we understand enough about the results to place a huge degree of confidence in the findings,” he said.
Bucher also said that, “I have not changed the way I use a cellphone, no.”
The study by the National Toxicology Program is believed to be the most comprehensive assessment of the health effects of such radiation on rats and mice and involved 3,000 test animals. A draft report was released Friday for public comment and peer review, in advance of an external expert review from March 26 to 28. Among other things, reviewers will examine whether some of the results might be statistical noise.
The issue of cellphone radiation’s impact on human health is one that has been hotly debated for years. In 2010, the Federal Communications Commission came under fire after it dropped a long-standing recommendation that consumers buy phones with lower radiation emissions. And in 2015, the city council in Berkeley, Calif., approved a disclosure ordinance that directed sellers to let buyers know of the risk of carrying devices too close to their bodies. The CTIA, which represents the wireless industry, has sued, saying the warnings are “ill-informed” and violate retailers’ First Amendment rights.
The strongest finding in the new study involved male rats — but not female rats or male or female mice — which developed tumors in the nerves surrounding their hearts. Researchers also saw increases in damage to heart tissue in both male and female rats. If these results are confirmed, Bucher said, they appear to suggest that this type of radiation could be a “weak” carcinogen.
The male rat tumors were so-called malignant schwannomas. Based on limited research that shows a potentially elevated risk of schwannomas near the brain in people, the International Agency for Research on Cancer currently lists radio-frequency fields as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”
The new NIH study showed tumors in rats and mice in other parts of the body — the brain, prostate, liver and pancreas — but the scientists said it was unclear if these were related to the radiation.
The experiment involved placing rats and mice into special chambers and exposing them to different levels of radiation that mimic 2G and 3G phones, which were standard when the study was launched, for 9 hours a day. Bucher emphasized that even the lowest levels used in the study were much higher than the maximum exposure even a frequent cellphone user would get. While the United States has transitioned to 4G, 4G-LTE and 5G networks in recent years, the 2G and 3G frequencies are still used in voice calls and texting.
In addition to cancer, the study looked at other health effects, such as evidence of tissue damage from the heat of cellphones, DNA damage and changes in body weight. They said they found some tissue and DNA issues but “we don’t feel (we have) sufficient understanding to comment on their biological significance.”
For example, Bucher said, “The patterns of damage to brain in tissues in these animals are not particularly consistent with tumor outcomes.”
As for the weight issue, they saw changes in newborn rats and their mothers when exposed to high levels at the time of pregnancy and lactation. But they said the study was not designed to tease out whether this was a direct effect on the babies or if it affected how the mothers cared for their young.
“We don’t have any idea really,” Bucher said. On the other hand, he added, the babies did grow to normal size.
Some health and environmental groups immediately seized on the findings as more evidence of the dangers of cellphones. The Environmental Working Group’s Olga Naidenko, a senior science adviser, for instance, in a news release said the study “should raise alarms for policymakers and awareness for all Americans.”
The CTIA had a different interpretation, pointing out that when partial results of the same study were released in 2016 numerous international and U.S. health organizations “maintained their long-standing conclusion that the scientific evidence shows no known health risk due to the [radio-frequency] energy emitted by cellphones.”
The response from the Food and Drug Administration, which commissioned the study in the first place, was more muted.
Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement that the agency’s preliminary understanding of the results “is that the study found mostly equivocal, or ambiguous, evidence that whole body radio-frequency energy exposures given to rats or mice in the study actually caused cancer in these animals.” He noted some additional unusual findings in the study, and said his team is continuing to assess them, but emphasized that based on all available scientific information the agency does not believe there are adverse health effects in humans caused by cellphone radiation.
”Even with frequent daily use by the vast majority of adults, we have not seen an increase in events like brain tumors,” he said. “Based on this current information, we believe the current safety limits for cellphones are acceptable for protecting the public health.” ContinueReading
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Colorado teacher accused of assaulting student who wouldn't stand for the Pledge of Allegiance
LAFAYETTE, Colo. -- A teacher with Colorado's Boulder Valley School District was placed on paid administrative leave following an alleged incident at the middle school, the school district said Thursday. CBS Denver confirmed the Lafayette Police Department is investigating reports that teacher allegedly assaulted a student who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Karen Smith, Angevine's physical education teacher, was placed on leave Thursday.
The school's principal, Mike Medina, sent a letter home to parents Thursday evening notifying them there had been an "incident" involving Smith but said he could not elaborate.
The Lafayette Police Department responded to an incident at the school around noon Thursday.
A parent waiting to pick her child up at Angevine Friday afternoon told CBS Denver that her daughter knows Smith as a "strict" teacher but has never had an issue.
Two other parents who spoke to CBS Denver off camera said they believe the story has been "blown out of proportion" and expressed disappointment.
The school is working closely with the Lafayette Police Department on the investigation. For now, it has hired a substitute teacher to take Smith's place.
No charges have been filed.
Karen Smith, Angevine's physical education teacher, was placed on leave Thursday.
The school's principal, Mike Medina, sent a letter home to parents Thursday evening notifying them there had been an "incident" involving Smith but said he could not elaborate.
The Lafayette Police Department responded to an incident at the school around noon Thursday.
A parent waiting to pick her child up at Angevine Friday afternoon told CBS Denver that her daughter knows Smith as a "strict" teacher but has never had an issue.
Two other parents who spoke to CBS Denver off camera said they believe the story has been "blown out of proportion" and expressed disappointment.
The school is working closely with the Lafayette Police Department on the investigation. For now, it has hired a substitute teacher to take Smith's place.
No charges have been filed.
Hidden Ancient Mayan ‘Megalopolis’ With 60,000 Structures Discovered in Guatemala Using Lasers
yahoonews - Archaeologists in Guatemala have uncovered an unprecedented network of 60,000 ancient Mayan features such as palaces and elevated highways, according to an exclusive report by National Geographic. The discovery is being called a “megalopolis,” and suggests that we’ve been vastly underestimating the sophistication of the Mayan civilization at the height of its power 1,200 years ago.
Researchers owe the breakthrough to the cutting-edge remote sensing method Light Detection and Ranging, better known as LiDAR. Usually taken aerially, LiDAR recordings channel light into laser pulses that measure the distance from the air down to a given point on the surface of the Earth, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
These particular images covered a region of more than 800 square miles of the Maya Biosphere Reserve of northern Guatemala. All together, it's the largest LiDAR dataset ever to be used in archaeological research, according to National Geographic.
“The LiDAR images make it clear that this entire region was a settlement system whose scale and population density had been grossly underestimated,” Thomas Garrison, an Ithaca College archaeologist and National Geographic Explorer who specializes in applying technology like LiDAR, told National Geographic.
LiDAR allowed the archaeologists to digitally erase the jungle's top canopy layer from aerial images, essentially photoshopping them out. Without the canopy in the way, the massive pre-Colombian civilization was revealed for the first time in centuries.
What the researchers saw upends assumptions about pre-Columbian life. “We’ve had this western conceit that complex civilizations can’t flourish in the tropics, that the tropics are where civilizations go to die,” Tulane University archaeologist Marcello Canuto, also a National Geographic Explorer, told National Geographic. "But with the new LiDAR-based evidence from Central America...we now have to consider that complex societies may have formed in the tropics and made their way outward from there.”
The Mayan culture was at its peak from roughly 250 A.D. to 900 A.D., according to the MesoAmerican Research Center. During that era, known as the Maya Classic period, the civilization was twice the size of medieval England—and much more densely populated than previous researchers had suspected, according to National Geographic. ContinueReading
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Discovery In India Suggests An Early Global Spread Of Stone Age Technology
- Somewhere around 300,000 years ago, our human ancestors in parts of Africa began to make small, sharp tools, using stone flakes that they created using a technique called Levallois.
The technology, named after a suburb of Paris where tools made this way were first discovered, was a profound upgrade from the bigger, less-refined tools of the previous era, and marks the Middle Stone Age in Africa and the Middle Paleolithic era in Europe and western Asia.
Neanderthals in Europe also used these tools around the same time. And scientists have thought that the technology spread to other parts of the globe much later — after modern humans moved out of Africa.
But scientists in India recently discovered thousands of stone tools made with Levallois technique, dating back to 385,000 years ago. These latest findings, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggest the Levallois technique spread across the world long before researchers previously thought.
The Indian team uncovered these tools at one of India's best known archaeological sites — Attirampakkam, which is located near the present-day city of Chennai in southern India.
"It has a very, very long history of occupation of different prehistoric cultures in this one site," says Shanti Pappu, an archaeologist at the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education in Chennai and one of the lead authors of the new study.
The oldest artifacts from the site — big hand axes and cleavers — date back all the way to 1.5 million years ago, and are associated with the older Acheulian culture of the Early Stone Age.
The more recent tools, which date between 385,000 to 172,000 years ago, are small and clearly made with Levallois technique; it relies on first creating a starter stone in the shape of a turtle shell, then hitting that preformed stone to create a flake with sharp edges.
The flakes were used as knives and scrapers, scientists say; the technique gave the toolmakers more control over the size and shape of the tool.
"It's a very specific technology, very clearly identifiable and very similar to what you see in Africa," says Pappu.
The more than 7,000 artifacts discovered at the site run counter to what's been the prevailing theory about when the technology first reached the region.
"It was believed that this particular cultural or behavioral package perhaps came to India about 125,000 years ago, by modern humans dispersing out of Africa," says Pappu. Another hypothesis suggested that the technology came even later to India, around 70,000 years ago.
"The findings of this paper clearly knock those ideas out of the water," says paleoanthropologist Rick Potts, the head of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, who wasn't involved in the study. "It has to be earlier."
"This is a marvelous discovery," says Michael Petraglia, at the Max Planck Institute for The Science of Human History, who also had no role in the recent research. "It fills a very important gap in our knowledge of cultural history of humans in South Asia between 400,000 to 175,000 years ago."
The team in India found no human or hominin fossils at the site, which makes it hard to know what ancestral human species lived here and made these tools. ContinueReading
The technology, named after a suburb of Paris where tools made this way were first discovered, was a profound upgrade from the bigger, less-refined tools of the previous era, and marks the Middle Stone Age in Africa and the Middle Paleolithic era in Europe and western Asia.
Neanderthals in Europe also used these tools around the same time. And scientists have thought that the technology spread to other parts of the globe much later — after modern humans moved out of Africa.
But scientists in India recently discovered thousands of stone tools made with Levallois technique, dating back to 385,000 years ago. These latest findings, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggest the Levallois technique spread across the world long before researchers previously thought.
The Indian team uncovered these tools at one of India's best known archaeological sites — Attirampakkam, which is located near the present-day city of Chennai in southern India.
"It has a very, very long history of occupation of different prehistoric cultures in this one site," says Shanti Pappu, an archaeologist at the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education in Chennai and one of the lead authors of the new study.
The oldest artifacts from the site — big hand axes and cleavers — date back all the way to 1.5 million years ago, and are associated with the older Acheulian culture of the Early Stone Age.
The more recent tools, which date between 385,000 to 172,000 years ago, are small and clearly made with Levallois technique; it relies on first creating a starter stone in the shape of a turtle shell, then hitting that preformed stone to create a flake with sharp edges.
The flakes were used as knives and scrapers, scientists say; the technique gave the toolmakers more control over the size and shape of the tool.
"It's a very specific technology, very clearly identifiable and very similar to what you see in Africa," says Pappu.
The more than 7,000 artifacts discovered at the site run counter to what's been the prevailing theory about when the technology first reached the region.
"It was believed that this particular cultural or behavioral package perhaps came to India about 125,000 years ago, by modern humans dispersing out of Africa," says Pappu. Another hypothesis suggested that the technology came even later to India, around 70,000 years ago.
"The findings of this paper clearly knock those ideas out of the water," says paleoanthropologist Rick Potts, the head of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, who wasn't involved in the study. "It has to be earlier."
"This is a marvelous discovery," says Michael Petraglia, at the Max Planck Institute for The Science of Human History, who also had no role in the recent research. "It fills a very important gap in our knowledge of cultural history of humans in South Asia between 400,000 to 175,000 years ago."
The team in India found no human or hominin fossils at the site, which makes it hard to know what ancestral human species lived here and made these tools. ContinueReading
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)