In South Africa, HIV’s Patients Survive Disease But Are Weary of Its Toll
South Africa has the world’s largest antiretroviral therapy program with over 4 million people receiving treatment. But the ARV drug therapy, regarded by many as a panacea for HIV, is complicated and comes with its a number of side effects, both physical and mental. As VOA’s Zaheer Cassim explains from Johannesburg, perceptions of those side effects and the complex nature of the treatment has brought a new serious problem: many people just do not want to take the drugs anymore.
…
California Researchers Working on Tomorrow’s Battery
Batteries have been around for hundreds of years, but don’t go thinking this technology is old hat (old fashioned). Batteries are the future. A team of California Scientists with support from the National Science Foundation are on the cutting edge of building a battery that lasts longer and holds more energy. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…
Renaissance Master Tintoretto’s 500th to Travel to US
A Venetian cloth dyer’s son, Tintoretto spent his entire career in Venice, becoming widely considered the last great painter of the Renaissance.
The lagoon city’s churches and palazzi essentially serve as a permanent retrospective of this native son’s formidable talents in using dramatic color, bold brushstrokes and daringly innovative perspective on often-enormous canvasses.
Still, curators here have encountered challenges when mounting tributes this year to mark the 500th anniversary of his birth.
Some of Tintoretto’s paintings couldn’t be included in the main exhibition, hosted at the landmark Palazzo Ducale (Doges’ Palace), because they couldn’t fit through its 16th-century stone doorways.
And several Venetian churches, where the painter did much of his best work, balked at loaning their masterpieces. Not surprisingly, they are eager for visitors making the Tintoretto pilgrimage to visit their venues and not just the stellar show, which, since opening in September, has drawn more than 100,000 visitors.
On to Washington
After it closes here Jan. 6, the exhibition travels to the National Gallery of Art in Washington for a four-month run starting March 10. That will be the first Tintoretto retrospective outside of Europe.
When Venice last hosted a Tintoretto retrospective, in 1937, church paintings were cut out of their frames, rolled up and carted off to the exhibition. That method would be met with horror by today’s art world, especially since nearly a score of Tintoretto paintings were recently restored, thanks to the Save Venice organization.
“The churches generally felt, and we understood, it didn’t make sense to move his masterpieces across the city,” said Robert Echols, a Boston-based art historian who is one of the curators. Some of those church works will go to the U.S. exhibition, however.
Weeding out impostors
Some of Tintoretto’s greatest works can never travel, of course, and are being celebrated here.
In the Chapter House in the Scuola di San Rocco, admirers can lie on their backs to see Tintoretto’s work, which has been likened to the monumental achievement of Michelangelo in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. Thanks to new lighting and strategically placed mirrors, the Chapter House last month had its own renaissance of sorts. Now visitors can see details in what before had seemed like a gloomy, cavernous room.
Echols and co-curator Frederick Ilchman, chair of European art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, devoted much of their art historian careers to weeding out paintings that had been dubiously attributed to Tintoretto, whittling down what had been a list of 468 works to just more than 300 paintings of his authorship.
“Tintoretto, to some extent, is a painter who was a victim of his own success,” Echols said.
Tintoretto, a pseudonym of Jacopo Rubusti, obtained so many commissions, particularly in his later years, that he farmed out some work, notably to his son, Domenico. While his genius was acknowledged in his own day, some works done by imitators or his workshop had been incorrectly attributed to Tintoretto in successive centuries.
Tintoretto cleverly maneuvered to snag commissions from nobles and churches during the heady years of the sea-going Most Serene Republic of Venice.
“The Shakespeare play is not the ‘Merchant of Florence,’ it’s the ‘Merchant of Venice,’” Ilchman noted, recounting how Tintoretto sometimes offered discounts to ensure commissions didn’t go to his rivals, which included Tiepolo, Titian and Veronese.
Scandalous at times
Tintoretto’s imaginative use of perspective and his dynamic, inventive interpretations of mythological and religious themes are on convincing display, including one that sparked scandal in his day. In “St. Louis, St. George and The Princess,” a dragon’s head emerges from between the legs of a woman and from under her billowing, burnt-orange gown.
In the “The Abduction of Helen,” the kidnapped woman, with a nipple poking out above her blouse, seems to be tumbling out of the frame toward the viewer.
Tintoretto had an impressive production of portraits. The exhibition displays many of his finest in a long, narrow hall, as if in a noble family’s own palazzo.
Riveting self-portraits — one of Tintoretto in his 20s on loan by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and another of Tintoretto as an old man sent by the Louvre — open and close the retrospective.
The Venice show to honor Tintoretto’s birth anniversary began in 2018. The companion Washington show starts in 2019. The different years are fitting, for, while the year of his death, 1594, is undisputed, and his grave prominent in a Venice church decorated with some of his masterpieces, historians aren’t sure just when he was born. The artist’s birth year is often written as 1518/1519.
…
Christmas Lights Bring In Holiday Spirit
During the Christmas season, nights are bright across the United States, as families, businesses and churches put up outdoor light decorations — a simple string of white lights along a roof edge, to elaborate displays with moving figures and music. VOA’s Deborah Block shows us a few of the beautiful light displays in the Washington area.
…
Maryland Junkyard Business Breathes New Life Into Old Cars
A father-son business in Damascus, Maryland, is achieving success by restoring old, rusty cars into magnificent-looking vehicles. This is thanks to the work and inspiration of Bobby and Andy Cohen, who are featured in a multiseason television show “Junkyard Empire.” Maxim Moskalkov filed this report for VOA.
…
A Small Device with a Big Impact for Blind and Visually Impaired
Some 1.3 billion people live with some form of vision impairment, according to the World Health Organization. A team of innovators at an Israeli technology company has developed a small device to help them. As Laura Sepulveda reports from Jerusalem, the device connects to regular glasses and helps people with visual limitations identify people and products, and read in more than 14 languages.
…
Spacex Halts Launch of US Military Satellite due to Winds
Elon Musk’s SpaceX scrapped Saturday’s launch of a long-delayed navigation satellite for the U.S. military due to strong upper-level winds.
The next launch attempt will be on Sunday at 8:51 a.m. EST/13:51 UTC, according to Space X officials.
The launch would have been the rocket firm’s first national security space mission for the United States.
…
Marine Wonderland Revealed in Pitch-Black Ocean off Australia
Scientists have discovered a colorful “underwater garden” at depths of up to 2 kilometers during a recent research voyage south of Tasmania in Australia.
The researchers used special cameras to probe 45 undersea mountains, finding more than 100 unnamed species of corals, lobsters and mollusks. The expedition also discovered bioluminescent squids, deep-water sharks and basketwork eels.
Experts spent a month onboard the research vessel Investigator, which is operated by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or the CSIRO. It is an independent Australian government agency responsible for scientific research.
Scientists have been exploring the Tasmanian cluster of ridges known as seamounts in Australia’s Tasman Fracture and Huon marine parks.
The coral they found is soft, which means it is different from the coral in a tropical reef.
The expedition’s chief scientist is Alan Williams from the CSIRO.
“Quite amazingly at these kinds of depths there are coral reefs that in many ways look similar to the kinds of reefs you see in shallow tropical areas, and so what we were seeing on our screens delivered in real time from the cameras were just absolutely fantastic images of these extensive, delicate, colorful and very rich coral reef systems,” he said.
The research teams also saw images of the lasting damage inflicted on the ocean-floor by fishing crews. Trawl fishing was banned in the 1990s but much of the region’s coral is still to fully recover.
Experts say science knows more about the surface of the moon than it does about the deep sea. Despite their research south of Tasmania, they still do not understand why bright corals can survive in a pitch-black world far beneath the surface of the ocean.
…
Native American Museum Hosts Artists From Across the Americas
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington recently hosted a two-day art market offering visitors a chance to purchase artworks by some of the finest Native American artists from across the hemisphere. The hand-crafted items in traditional and contemporary styles included silver and semiprecious jewelry, ceramics, fine apparel, handwoven baskets, traditional beadwork, dolls, paintings and sculptures. VOA’s Julie Taboh spoke with a few of the artists about their work.
…
Cirque de Soleil Presents a Circus on Ice
A combination of ice, snow, lights and exciting acrobatics are what characterize “Crystal,” Cirque du Soleil’s new show, which opened in Washington recently. Iacopo Luzi went behind the scenes of this unique display of acrobatics to learn the troupe’s secrets for putting on a show.
…
Christmas Tree Farmers Urge Americans to Buy Real Trees
This time of year, all across the United States, empty lots are turned into miniature forests as live Christmas trees are displayed for sale. But The Christmas Tree Promotion Board worries that more Americans are opting for artificial trees as they become more realistic-looking. So Christmas tree farmers in the U.S. have launched a social media campaign to get Americans to buy real trees this season. Faith Lapidus reports.
…
Gender Neutral Toys Moving Into Toy Markets
The Christmas season is in full swing here in the United States, and that means shopping for the kids. Economists say consumers are spending lots of money, but when it comes to traditional gifts for small kids, it looks like the days of blue for boys and pink for girls are long gone. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…
Most Babies Born With Cleft Condition Could Die Without Surgery
One of the most common birth defects in the world is a cleft lip. It’s essentially a gap in the upper lip where the skin didn’t grow together. Babies with cleft lips may also have a cleft palates, where the roof of the mouth is split. Both can be repaired surgically. But unless that’s done, this birth defect can cause significant disability or even death. More from VOA’s Carol Pearson.
…
Tons of Dead Fish Wash Up in Rio de Janeiro Lagoon
Residents of a high-end neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro woke up to the unpleasant smell of 13 tons of rotting dead fish floating in the city’s Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon.
Biologists believe the extreme heat caused by El Nino killed the fish overnight and caused them to wash ashore Friday.
The lagoon played host to several events during the 2016 Olympic games and is a tourist attraction.
Rio’s environment ministry released a statement saying it has been on alert since Thursday morning when oxygen levels in the body of water began to fall sharply.
Biologist and ecosystem specialist Mario Moscatelli says that he inspects the lagoon every year and is convinced that climate change is causing temperature increases.
…
Alba the Albino Orangutan Returned to Jungle in Indonesia
The world’s only known albino orangutan climbed trees, foraged for food and began building a nest after being released into a remote Borneo jungle more than a year after conservation officials found her starving and dehydrated in an Indonesian village.
The Borneo Orangutan Survival foundation says the great ape, called Alba after thousands worldwide responded to an appeal for a name, has tripled in weight since being rescued in April last year. Her name means “white” in Latin and “dawn” in Spanish.
Alba and another rehabilitated orangutan, Kika, were released inside Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park on Wednesday after a more than 24-hour journey from their rehabilitation center by vehicle, boat and hiking.
The foundation originally planned to create a 5-hectare (12-acre) “forest island” for Alba rather than a release into truly natural habitat because of health issues related to her albinism including poor sight and hearing and the possibility of skin cancer.
But the government’s Natural Resources Conservation Agency and other agencies decided it was appropriate to release Alba into the wild because of her strong physical condition and intrinsically wild behavior.
She will be electronically tracked and regularly monitored by a medical team.
“Alba has no inferiority complex as we imagined before. She is very confident compared to other orangutans,” said veterinarian Agus Fathoni.
“I think the real threat actually comes from humans. What we’re worried about is poaching where this very special condition makes her a target,” he told The Associated Press.
Patrols of Alba’s new home by national park and conservation agency staff will aim to deter poachers, though they admit the number of personnel is limited.
“We don’t have enough to cover all the area of the national park but we’re confident of covering all the patrol lines that we have set,” said national park official Wirasadi Nursubhi
Orangutans, reddish-brown primates known for their gentle temperament and intelligence, are critically endangered and only found in the wild on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and on Borneo, which is divided among Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which declared Borneo’s orangutans critically endangered in 2016, says their numbers have dropped by nearly two-thirds since the early 1970s as plantation agriculture destroyed and fragmented their forest habitat.
The Sumatran orangutan is a separate species and has been critically endangered since 2008.
Alba, approximately five years old, was given final medical tests and anesthetized for the journey to Bukit Baka Bukit Raya.
Workers shouted “Alba’s going home” as her cage was lifted onto a truck at the Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation Center in Central Kalimantan province on Borneo.
“It’s true this is a big gamble but we hope that with our collaboration we will win the big bet we have made today” said the orangutan foundation’s chief executive Jamartin Sihite after releasing Alba from her cage.
…
NASA Satellite Will Measure the World’s Forests
Forests are often called the lungs of the planet because they produce so much oxygen. But they also store huge amounts of carbon. NASA scientists want to know exactly how much carbon, and so they have just launched a satellite that will finally give them an exact measurement. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…
UK Airport Chaos Highlights Difficulty in Stopping Drones
When drones buzzing over the runway forced London’s busy Gatwick Airport to shut down, many travelers wondered why it’s so hard for authorities to stop such intruders.
Shoot them down, some said. Jam their signals, others suggested.
Experts say it’s not that easy.
Britain and the U.S. prohibit drones from being flown too high or too close to airports and other aircraft. In Britain, it is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
Still, there is little to stop a drone operator bent on disrupting air traffic, which British officials say was the case with the Gatwick incident that began Wednesday evening.
The number of close calls between drones and aircraft has increased dramatically in recent years as the popularity of drones has soared. Basic models for amateurs sell for under $100; larger, more sophisticated ones can cost hundreds more.
Britain had 120 reports of close encounters in 2018, up from 93 last year. In 2014, there were six, according to the U.K. Airprox Board, which catalogs air safety incidents.
In the United States, there were nearly 2,300 drone sightings at airports in the year ending June 30, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. Runways have been temporarily closed, but an FAA spokesman said he could not recall drones ever leading to the shutdown of a U.S. airport.
Drone dangers
A drone hit a small charter plane in Canada in 2017; it landed safely. In another incident that same year, a drone struck a U.S. Army helicopter in New York but caused only minor damage.
“This has gone from being what a few years ago what we would have called an emerging threat to a more active threat,” said Patrick Smith, an airline pilot and author of askthepilot.com. “The hardware is getting bigger and heavier and potentially more lethal, and so we need a way to control how these devices are used and under what rules.”
Even small drones could cause severe consequences by damaging a helicopter’s rotor or getting sucked into a jet engine. A drone could also crash through a windshield, incapacitating the pilot, though that’s mainly seen as a risk to small aircraft.
“On an airliner, because of the thickness of the glass, I think it’s pretty unlikely, unless it’s a very large drone,” said John Cox, a former airline pilot and now a safety consultant.
Drones that collide with planes could cause more damage than birds of the same size because of their solid motors, batteries and other parts, according to a study released by the FAA.
Stopping drones
Authorities could capture drones with anti-drone “net guns” that fire lightweight netting, but such equipment can be pricey and have limited range, and it is not widely used.
As for taking one down with a rifle, hitting a small, fast-moving object like a drone would be difficult even for a marksman, and the bullet could hit someone, experts say. There’s also the risk of damage or injury from a falling drone.
Jamming systems could disrupt the signals between drone and operator, but that could interfere with the many vital communication systems in use at an airport, said Marc Wagner, CEO of Switzerland-based Drone Detection Sys.
Local laws might also prevent the use of such electronic countermeasures. Wagner said it is OK in Switzerland to use jamming systems, while Britain and the U.S. prohibit them.
Dutch police experimented with using eagles to swoop down on drones and pluck them out of the sky over airports or large events, but ended the program last year, reportedly because the birds didn’t always follow orders.
“The only method is to find the pilot and to send someone to the pilot to stop him,” Wagner said.
That can be done with frequency spectrum analyzers that can triangulate the drone operator’s position, but “the technology is new and it’s not commonly used,” said Wagner, whose company sells such gear and other counter-drone technology, including radar, jammers and powerful cameras.
China’s DJI Ltd., the world’s biggest manufacturer of commercial drones, and some other makers use GPS-based “geofencing” to automatically prevent drones from flying over airports and other sensitive locations, though the feature is easy to get around.
DJI also introduced a feature last year that allows authorities to identify and monitor its drones. It wasn’t clear what brand was used in the Gatwick incident.
British authorities are planning to tighten regulations by requiring drone users to register, which could make it easier to identify the pilot. U.S. law already requires users to register their drones and get certified as pilots.
But Wagner warned: “If somebody wants to do something really bad, he will never register.”
…
Then One Foggy Christmas Eve, Reindeer Got Connected
Rudolph and friends no longer need to rely on the famous reindeer’s red nose to avoid getting lost. Now they have wireless technology.
To keep track of their animals in Lapland, Northern Finland’s vast and remote snow-covered forests, reindeer herders are turning to technology by fitting them with internet-connected collars.
Herders who previously spent weeks searching for their reindeer in sub-zero wilderness can now instantly see where they are on a mobile app that receives up-to-date location data.
“In all sectors of society, this (tech) efficiency is playing a big role. It’s the same in reindeer husbandry,” said Seppo Koivisto, whose hundreds of reindeer roam Lapland’s 4,000 square-kilometer (1,545 square-mile) Palojarvi District.
Lapland’s reindeer are the main source of livelihood for about 1,500 herders, so there’s high interest in technology that can help manage them. Koivisto is using the latest generation of wireless collars made possible by a group that includes Helsinki-based communications firm Digita and Finland’s Reindeer Herding Association. The association is based in Rovaniemi, which bills itself as the “official hometown of Santa Claus.”
“We have fewer workers, so their actions should be more and more efficient all the time,” and this technology lets them do that, said Koivisto. Since he started using the technology, he has only had to hire half the usual number of workers.
The technology can also help herders account for attacks from predators such as wolverines and lynx that roam across the Russian border.
At least 5,000 reindeer are killed every year, according to the herding association. Most that die in Lapland’s forests are never found. Koivisto says he loses about 8 percent of his herd annually.
The collars, which use GPS satellite positioning and special long-distance wireless networks, help herders find reindeer corpses so they can claim valuable compensation from the Finnish government.
If a collar-fitted reindeer doesn’t move after about four hours, its icon changes from green to red on the app, signaling a potential attack.
To best locate groups of reindeer, which are bred for their meat, milk and fur, the trackers are fitted on the herd’s female leader.
“In the old days, we roughly knew reindeer locations, in which part of the district they were,” said herder Jarno Konttaniemi. “But today, with this technology, we know exactly where they are.”
Digita built the long-range network, which it says is the world’s most northerly “Internet of Things” network. The “Internet of Things” refers to the next generation of devices and everyday objects that are connected to the internet.
While reindeer herding has roots going back hundreds of years, “at least some of the reindeer owners are really up-to-date when it comes to using technology,” said Ari Kuukka, Digita’s head of “Internet of Things” services.
The herding association has been working for years on a reliable GPS reindeer tracking system. The main challenge was coming up with a device that was cheap but had a long-lasting battery.
The third and latest prototype is the size of a deck of cards, stays charged for about a year, and costs about 90 euros ($102).
The herding association hopes to eventually shrink the transmitter down to a coin-sized microchip that can be attached to a reindeer’s ear, said Matti Sarkela, the herding association’s head of office who has previously helped develop a mobile app that alerts drivers to reindeer near Finland’s often icy roads.
He hopes embracing new technologies can inspire the younger generation to carry on the herding tradition.
“It has brought a lot of young people into our industry all the time,” said Sarkela. “It’s a really positive thing.”
your ad hereStorms Halt SpaceX’s First US National Security Mission
Thunderstorms forced Elon Musk’s SpaceX to postpone Thursday’s launch of a navigation satellite for the U.S. military, which was poised to be the rocket company’s first national security space mission for the United States.
SpaceX said its Falcon 9 rocket and payload, a roughly $500 million GPS satellite built by Lockheed Martin Corp, were “in good health” and that it was now targeting a Saturday morning launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral.
The cancellation, which followed two previous launch attempts this week that were scrubbed for technical reasons, came as thunderstorms and wind gusts swirled around the launch site.
Patrick Burke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said the weather might not clear up until Saturday.
A successful launch would be a significant victory for Musk, a billionaire and Tesla Inc chief executive, who spent years trying to break into the lucrative market for military space launches, long dominated by Lockheed and Boeing Co.
It would have marked SpaceX’s first so-called National Security Space mission, as defined by the U.S. military, SpaceX said.
SpaceX sued the U.S. Air Force in 2014 in protest over the military’s award of a multibillion-dollar, non-compete contract for 36 rocket launches to United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed. It dropped the lawsuit in 2015 after the Air Force agreed to open up competition.
The next year, SpaceX won an $83 million Air Force contract in 2016 to launch the GPS III satellite, which will have a lifespan of 15 years.
The launch would be the first of 32 satellites in production by Lockheed under contracts worth a combined $12.6 billion for the Air Force GPS III program, Lockheed spokesman Chip Eschenfelder said.
Air Force spokesman William Russell said: “Once fully operational, this latest generation of GPS satellites will bring new capabilities to users, including three times greater accuracy and up to eight times the anti-jamming capabilities.”
The launch was originally scheduled for 2014 but has been hobbled by production delays, the Air Force said. The next GPS III satellite is due to launch in mid-2019, Eschenfelder said, while subsequent satellites undergo testing in the company’s Colorado processing facility.
…
Sex Abuse Case Against Movie Mogul to Proceed
A New York judge on Thursday refused to dismiss sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood movie mogul who came to symbolize the MeToo movement which exposed sexual harassment by powerful men against women in the workplace.
Weinstein’s lawyers had sought to get the charges dismissed, claiming that the case against him was “irreparably tainted” by a police detective who allegedly coached a potential witness and one of the accusers. Prosecutors said there was plenty of evidence to proceed with the case.
Judge James Burke denied the defense request and set the next hearing in the case for March 7.
“We are obviously disappointed that the charges were not dismissed today,” said Weinstein’s lawyer, Ben Brafman. He predicted that Weinstein, who faces life imprisonment if convicted, will be “completely exonerated.”
Weinstein, 66, who faces five charges linked to an alleged rape in March 2013 and a forced act of oral sex in 2006, has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex. More than 80 women have accused him of sexual misconduct.
After allegations against the powerful movie producer first surfaced, dozens of women throughout the U.S. made their own public accusations of sexual abuse against men in their lives, often bosses in the corporate world, the media and academia.
As the MeToo movement took hold, powerful men across the country were forced to apologize for their actions, with many of them resigning or being fired from their positions.
…
US Adults Aren’t Getting Taller, But Still Putting on Pounds
You don’t need to hang the mistletoe higher, but you might want to skip the holiday cookies.
A report released Thursday shows U.S. adults aren’t getting any taller but they are still getting fatter.
The average U.S. adult is overweight and just a few pounds from obese, thanks to average weight increases in all groups — but particularly whites and Hispanics.
Overall, the average height for men fell very slightly over the past decade. There was no change for women.
One factor may be the shift in the country’s population. There’s a growing number of Mexican-Americans, and that group tends to be a little shorter, said one of the report’s authors, Cynthia Ogden of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The findings come from a 2015-16 health survey that measures height and weight. More than 5,000 U.S. adults took part.
CDC records date back to the early 1960s, when the average man was a little over 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed 166 pounds. Now, men are almost 1 inch taller and more than 30 pounds heavier. But today’s average height of 5 feet, 9 inches is about a tenth of an inch shorter than about a decade ago.
The average woman in the early 1960s was 5 feet, 3 inches and 140 pounds. Now, women are a half-inch taller and about 30 pounds heavier, on average. The average height is about the same as it was a decade earlier: 5 feet, 4 inches.
Other survey findings
- In the last decade, the average weight of men rose about 2 pounds, to 198. For women, it rose 6 pounds, to nearly 171.
-
Men have 40-inch waistlines, on average. Women’s waistlines are a little under 39 inches.
-
The average height of black men and white men has been holding about steady, at a little under 5 feet 10.
-
Mexican-American and Asian-American men are roughly 3 inches shorter than whites and blacks, on average. There was a similar height gap in women.
In 2016, about 18 percent of the nation’s population was Hispanic, up from about 13 percent in 2000, according to U.S. Census figures. Mexican-Americans account for nearly two-thirds of the Hispanic population.
…
Virginia House With Over-the-Top Christmas Spirit
Christmas is a time for giving. For one man that means decorating his house with over-the-top Christmas displays to warm people’s hearts. It’s a family tradition that Kurt Farmer took over from his father. VOA’s Deborah Block takes us to the home full of Christmas spirit in Alexandria, Virginia.
…
Normal Life Possible with Cleft Lip or Palate
Even before Daniel Truglio was born, his parents knew he had a cleft lip and a cleft palate.
John Truglio, Daniel’s father, said he and his wife, Roblyn, were nervous and scared.
“The first thing I thought about was, ‘Here? In the United States? Is it possible? That only happens in other places in the world,’” Truglio said.
The Truglios had four healthy children. They learned that cleft lip and cleft palate are two of the most common birth defects worldwide.
What is cleft lip or cleft palate?
A cleft is a gap in the lip or roof of the mouth. Some babies have both a cleft lip and a cleft palate. Depending on the severity, it can be life-threatening.
With a cleft lip, milk may come out of the baby’s nose while feeding. That’s because the barrier between the mouth and nose may be missing. Because of problems feeding, these children can be malnourished and have stunted growth. These babies can also face serious breathing, feeding, speech and hearing problems. They may not be able to suckle.
Children with a cleft palate often have frequent ear infections that can lead to hearing loss. They often have problems with speech. Children born with these defects are often stigmatized and subject to bullying.
Genetics can play a role, but no one knows why many babies are born with this defect. Scientists suspect environmental factors play a role.
Babies can have surgery to repair a cleft lip in the first year of life, ideally by the time they are 3 months old. Babies can have a cleft palate repaired between the ages of 18 months to 2 years.
Operation Smile
More than 35 years ago, Bill McGee, a dentist and plastic surgeon, traveled to the Philippines to treat children with this condition. He eventually founded Operation Smile to help even more.
“When people don’t have access to surgery, their life is really going to be affected,” McGee told VOA.
Operation Smile relies on volunteers to bring this life-changing surgery to children in developing countries. Over the years, McGee says the mission has changed.
“Up until about 1999, all of our volunteers pretty much came out of the United States,” he said.
Today, he said, 80 percent of the organization’s volunteers are from the 70 or 80 countries that the charity serves.
Finding a cause
Other volunteer groups now do much the same work. Over the years, Operation Smile has branched out into research. Because of its work, scientists have been able to zero in on a gene that causes the cleft. Volunteers found two sisters and their brother with cleft lip and palate.
Researchers at the University of Southern California studied their genes to see if they could find one that all three children shared. Dr. Yang Chai led the study.
“Normally, you would only see one child in the family of three or four children that develop this birth defect. Finding this birth defect in every single child in a family is like catching lightning in a bottle, because it allowed us to pinpoint the gene mutation that is probably responsible,” Chai said.
Researchers also found the children’s father had the same genetic mutation. He, too, had a cleft lip and cleft palate. Researchers then replicated the genetic abnormality in mice.
“You discover a mutation in a human study, (but) then you go to an animal model to basically mimic the same mutation, and … if the animal model also develops the same birth defects, you have some proof this (genetic mutation) is really responsible.”
All of the pups born from the mice with this genetic mutation had cleft lip and cleft palate.
Other causes
Chai said his research can help parents prepare for their children’s surgery. Ultimately, Chai hopes scientists will one day prevent children with this mutation from having cleft lip or palate. But that’s a long way off, and there are other risk factors.
Genetics plays a role in 30 percent of the cases of cleft lip and cleft palate. Scientists are still searching for other environmental risk factors.
Last spring, Daniel Truglio had his cleft palate repaired and another surgery on his mouth. He is getting speech therapy. Daniel was born with other associated birth defects and still faces more surgeries.
His parents want other parents to know that Daniel is as lovable as their other children, and their hopes for him are the same as their hopes for the others.
Roblyn Truglio said their only desire is that Daniel has a happy, wonderful life, and that he’s able to accomplish his dreams.
…
DC Sues Facebook Over Cambridge Analytica’s Data Use
The attorney general for Washington, D.C., said Wednesday that the nation’s capital had sued Facebook over reports involving Cambridge Analytica’s use of data from the social media giant.
“Facebook failed to protect the privacy of its users and deceived them about who had access to their data and how it was used,” Attorney General Karl Racine said in a statement. “Facebook put users at risk of manipulation by allowing companies like Cambridge Analytica and other third-party applications to collect personal data without users’ permission.”
The lawsuit came as Facebook faced new reports that it shared its users’ data without their permission.
Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign at one point, gained access to personal data from tens of millions of Facebook’s users. The D.C. attorney general said in the lawsuit that this exposed nearly half of the district’s residents’ data to manipulation for
political purposes during the 2016 campaign, and he alleged that Facebook’s “lax oversight and misleading privacy settings” had allowed the consulting firm to harvest the information.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
…
ePUMB skype chat
