Monthly Archives: February 2017

Top 5 Transhumanist Technologies With Major Implications – The Merkle

Posted: February 28, 2017 at 5:43 am

Transhumanism is one of those technologies that boggles most peoples minds. Do not be mistaken in thinking this has anything to do with being transgender, as transhumanists seek to improve their human capacities beyond what is assumed to be possible. They do so by using top-of-the-line technologies, rather than gadgets or other electronics. Most of these technologies go by unnoticed, which is why we have compiled a brief list below.

Some people may have heard of this technology before. Cryonics is a high-fidelity preservation of the human body after death. The primary reason why anyone would enter a cryogenic sleep is to anticipate a potential future revival. This technology has been widely available for some time, albeit it is rather on the expensive side. Through cryonics, it is feasible to stop cells from decaying. Moreover, the process requires no electricity to do so.

Tampering with the human bodys genes sounds rather risky, but significant advancements have been made in recent years. Gene therapy effectively replaces bad genes with good ones, which allows us to manipulate our genetic code. Scientists have discovered a way to remove genes coding for specific metabolic proteins, ensuring the host remains slim and fit at all times.

Anti-aging therapy is heavily influenced by gene therapy as well and it is believed scientists will eventually reach the longevity escape velocity soon. As a result, humans may become subject to indefinite lifespans. Whether or not that is a positive development, remains to be seen, though.

Introducing cyber enhancements to the human body remains a very risky business to this very day. Implants and other electronics can address a lot of problems our bodies are faced with. Cybernetics are designed in such a way they will be invisible to the casual observer, as they reside beneath the hosts skin. Most current bio modifications are all external, as we have covered in a previous article. Cybernetic systems will improve our everyday experience and even boost the economy as humans will be able to do more work in less time.

While a lot of people are concerned over what the future will bring in terms of robotics, self-replicating robots may be the least of our concerns right now. Replacing manual labor with robots doing the task for us seems like a no-brainer, albeit it will cause some job losses. Self-replicating robots, on the other hand, would be quite beneficial. For example, they can turn uninhabitable areas into living spaces, clean up waste generated by us humans, or even pave the way for human colonization of space.

As creepy as this concept may sound at first, mind uploading or nonbiological intelligence can be quite valuable to our society. Implementing cognitive processing on anything that is not human would be a massive breakthrough. The general public is not too keen of this concept, even though our minds are by far our greatest assets. Synthetic brains are not impossible to achieve by any means, although a lot of research is required before this can become a reality.

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These 12 superbugs pose the greatest threat to human health, WHO says – Washington Post

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The World Health Organization published a list naming 12 superbugs that pose the greatest threat to human health on Feb. 27, in a push for more research and drug development to fight these pathogens. (WHO via AP)

The World Health Organization announced its first list of antibiotic-resistant priority pathogens on Monday, detailing 12 families of bacteria that agency experts say pose the greatest threat to human health and kill millions of people every year.

The list is divided into three categories, prioritized by the urgency of the need for new antibiotics. The purpose is to guide and promote research and development of new drugs, officials said.Most of the pathogens are among the nearly two dozen antibiotic-resistant microbes that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in a 2013 reportcould cause potentially catastrophic consequences if the United States didn't act quickly to combat the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant infections.

This list is not meant to scare people about new superbugs, said Marie-Paule Kieny, an assistant director-general at WHO. It's intended to signal research and development priorities to address urgent public health threats.

[The superbug that doctors have been dreading just reached the United States]

Superbugs that the WHO considers the highest priority are responsible for severe infections and high mortality rates, especially among hospitalized patients in intensive care or using ventilators and blood catheters, as well as among transplant recipients and people undergoing chemotherapy. While these pathogens are not widespread, the burden for society is now alarming, she said.

Included in this highest-priority group is CRE,or carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, which U.S. health officials have dubbed nightmare bacteria. In some instances, it kills up to 50 percent of patients who become infected. An elderly Nevada woman who died last year contracted an infection caused by CRE that was resistant to all 26 antibiotics available in the United States.

Also in the first-tier group is Acinetobacter baumannii; the infections tied to it typically occur in ICUs and settings with very sick patients. The other bacteria tagged as a critical priority:Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can be spread on the hands of health-care workers or by equipment that gets contaminated and is not properly cleaned.

WHO's list follows a summit on superbugs that world leaders held last fall only the fourth time they had addressed a health issue at the U.N. General Assembly.

[Dangerous antibiotic-resistant infections on the rise for children in the U.S., study finds]

The list's second and third tiers the high and medium priority categories cover bacteria that cause more common diseases, such as gonorrhea and food poisoning caused by salmonella. While not associated with significant mortality rates, they have a dramatic health and economic impact, particularly in low-income countries, Kieny said.

Although there has been renewed interest and research investment in antibiotics because of the growing threat that antibiotic resistance poses, much of the work is more focused on antibiotics with a broad range, she said.We have to focus specifically for a much smaller range of bacteria, targeting the three highest-priority pathogens, Kieny said.

Drug companies have also tended to focus more on Gram-positive bacteria that tend to colonize the skin of healthy individuals and generate less resistance, said Evelina Tacconelli, who heads the infectious diseases division at the University of Tbingen in Germany, which helped develop the WHO list. By comparison, Gram-negative bacteria more frequently colonize intestinal reservoirs and can cause sepsis and severe urinary tract infections, especially among elderly patients.

[Common weed could help fight deadly superbug, study finds]

There have been no new classes of antibiotics discovered that have made it to market since 1984, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts antibiotic-resistance project. And there aren't enough drugs in the pipeline to meet future needs, Allan Coukell, senior director of health programs at Pew, said Monday.

Of the 40 antibiotics in clinical development in the United States, fewer than half even have the potential to treat the pathogens identified by WHO, he said. And based on history, most of those will fail to reach the clinic for reasons of efficacy or safety. So the outlook is grim.

Historical data show that generally only one of five drugs that reach the initial phase of testing in humans will receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration.Developing antibiotics to treat highly resistant bacterial infections is especially challenging because only a small number of patients contract these infections and meet the requirements to participate in traditional clinical trials.

Public health experts welcomed the announcement, including the need to address the problem in a comprehensive fashion.

While research and development are essential, we cannot just discover and develop our way out of this crisis, said Helen Boucher, an infectious diseases doctor at Tufts University and a spokeswoman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Prevention, the appropriate use of antibiotics and surveillance are all necessary as part of a coordinated approach, she said.

In the United States, antibiotic-resistant infections kill an estimated 23,000 Americans each year, according to the CDC. Global estimates are difficult because there is no uniform way to include antimicrobial resistance in causes of death. But experts say that drug-resistant infections, especially those caused by the WHO's highest-priority pathogens, double or triple the risk of death.

We are talking about millions of people affected, Tacconelli said.

Tuberculosis, whose resistance has been growing in recent years, was not included in the list because it is targeted by other dedicated programs, WHO said.

Here is the list from WHO:

Priority 1: Critical

1.Acinetobacter baumannii, carbapenem-resistant 2. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, carbapenem-resistant 3. Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenem-resistant, ESBL-producing

Priority 2: High

4.Enterococcus faecium, vancomycin-resistant 5.Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant, vancomycin-intermediate and resistant 6.Helicobacter pylori, clarithromycin-resistant 7.Campylobacter spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant 8. Salmonellae, fluoroquinolone-resistant 9.Neisseria gonorrhoeae, cephalosporin-resistant, fluoroquinolone-resistant

Priority 3: Medium

10.Streptococcus pneumoniae, penicillin-non-susceptible 11.Haemophilus influenzae, ampicillin-resistant 12.Shigella spp., fluoroquinolone-resistant

Read more:

1 in 3 antibiotics prescribed in the U.S. are unnecessary

New global coalition launched to create vaccines, prevent epidemics

Trump is energizing the anti-vaccine movement

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Are Humans Inherently Selfish? | The Huffington Post – Huffington Post

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President Donald Trump has been dogged by questions about conflicts of interest. He has declined to divest himself of his assets or put them in a blind trust, as is customary for presidents, news reports say. He has tweeted in defense of his daughters clothing line. And taxpayer money may go toward the Department of Defense leasing space in Trump Tower the presidents property to remain close to the president when he is in Manhattan, CNN recently reported.

At the heart of any conflict-of-interest situation is the question of whether to act in your own best interest or do what is best for the greater good. Trumps issues might make a cynic shrug. After all, dont we all look out only for ourselves?

Psychological research suggests the opposite: that self-interest is far from peoples primary motivation. In fact, humans are prone to act for the good of the group, many studies have found.

In the past 20 years, we have discovered that people all around the world are a lot more moral and a lot less selfish than economists and evolutionary biologists had previously assumed, and that our moral commitments are surprisingly similar: to reciprocity, fairness and helping people in need, even if acting on these motives can be personally costly for a person, Samuel Bowles, an economist at the Santa Fe Institute and author of The Moral Economy: Why Good Incentives Are No Substitute for Good Citizens (Yale University Press, 2016), wrote in an email to Live Science. [No I in Team: 5 Key Cooperation Findings]

Philosophers have been arguing about whether people are inherently selfish since there has been such a thing as philosophers. In Platos Republic, Socrates has a discussion with his older brother Glaucon in which Glaucon insists that peoples good behavior actually only exists for self-interest: People only do the right thing because they fear being punished if they get caught. If human actions were invisible to others, Glaucon says, even the most just man would act purely for himself and not care if he harmed anyone in the process.

Its the sort of argument that might have appealed to Thomas Hobbes, the 17th-century English philosopher famous for saying that the natural state of mans life would be nasty, brutish and short. According to Hobbes, humans must form social contracts and governments to prevent their selfish, violent tendencies from taking over.

Not all philosophers have agreed with this dour point of view, however. Philosopher John Locke, for example, thought that humans were inherently tolerant and reasonable, though he acknowledged humanitys capacity for selfishness.

So what does the science say? In fact, people are quite willing to act for the good of the group, even if its against their own interests, studies show. But paradoxically, social structures that attempt to give people incentives for good behavior can actually make people more selfish.

Take a classic example: In 2000, a study in the Journal of Legal Studies found that trying to punish bad behavior with a fine backfired spectacularly. The study took place at 10 day care centers in Haifa, Israel. First, researchers observed the centers for four weeks, tracking how many parents arrived late to pick up their children, inconveniencing the day care staff. Next, six of the centers introduced a fine for parents who arrived more than 10 minutes late. The four other centers served as a control, for comparison. (The fine was small but not insignificant, similar to what a parent might have to pay a babysitter for an hour.)

After the introduction of the fine, the rate of late pickups didnt drop. Instead, it nearly doubled. By introducing an incentive structure, the day cares apparently turned the after-school hours into a commodity, the researchers wrote. Parents who might have felt vaguely guilty for imposing on teachers patience before the fine now felt that a late pickup was just something they could buy. [Understanding the 10 Most Destructive Human Behaviors]

The Haifa day care study isnt the only one to find that trying to induce moral behavior with material incentives can make people less considerate of others. In a 2008 review in the journal Science, Bowles examined 41 studies of incentives and moral behavior. He found that, in most cases, incentives and punishments undermined moral behavior.

For example, in one study, published in 2000 in the journal World Development, researchers asked people in rural Colombia to play a game in which they had to decide how much firewood to take from a forest, with the consideration that deforestation would result in poor water quality. This game was analogous to real life for the people of the village. In some cases, people played the games in small groups but couldnt communicate about their decisions with players outside their group. In other cases, they could communicate. In a third condition, the players couldnt communicate but were given rules specifying how much firewood they could gather.

When allowed to communicate, the people in the small groups set aside self-interest and gathered less firewood for themselves, preserving water quality in the forest for the larger group as a whole. Regulations, on the other hand, had a perverse result over time: People gradually began to gather more and more firewood for themselves, risking a fine but ultimately putting their self-interest first.

People look for situational cues of acceptable behavior, Bowles said. Literally dozens of experiments show that if you offer someone a money incentive to perform a task (even one that she would have happily done without pay), this will turn on the Whats in it for me? way of thinking, often to such an extent that the person will perform less with the incentive than without.

Though cooperation is ingrained in the human psyche to some extent, its also obvious to anyone who has worked on a team that not everyone approaches group activities with the same attitude. An increasing focus on individual differences in humans reveals that some people tend to cooperate more than others.

It has been known for quite a while that people differ quite a lot, and they differ in all kinds of behavioral tendencies, said F.J. Weissing, a theoretical biologist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. But when people conducted experiments, they typically looked at the average behavior and not so much at the variation between subjects. [Top 10 Things that Make Humans Special]

That variation among subjects turns out to be quite important. In 2015, Weissing and his colleagues published a paper in the journal PNAS in which they allowed people to play a game where they could choose to seek out either information about the choices of other players, or information about how successful those other players were. People were remarkably consistent about the kind of information they sought, the researchers found: Two-thirds always asked for the same kind of information, whether they preferred information about choices or success.

Then, the researchers split people into groups based on which information they preferred, with some groups comprising only people who liked choice information, some groups made up of only people who liked success information, and some mixed. These groups then played games in which cooperation benefited everyone, but a selfish strategy could elevate an individuals fortunes while hurting the group.

People who fixated on the success of their teammates were more likely to behave selfishly in these games, the researchers found. This finding shows that this strategy comparing others successes and failures prompts people to engage in behaviors focused on their own gain, the researchers said.

In contrast, people who focus on how the rest of the group is acting, regardless of individual successes, might be more prone to working together, the researchers said.

Both cooperation and selfishness may be important behaviors, meaning that species may be most successful if they have some individuals that exhibit each behavior, Weissing told Live Science. In follow-up experiments that have not yet been published, he and his colleagues have found that in some economic games, mixed groups perform far better than groups made up only of conformists or only of those who look out for themselves. [7 Thoughts That Are Bad for You]

Very fundamental physiological differences between people may be at the root of these different social strategies, Weissing said, including differences in hormone levels and organization of the central nervous system. However, he agreed that situational factors can subtly push people toward cooperation or self-interest. More realistic studies of cooperative and selfish behavior are needed, he said.

In real life, cooperation looks very, very different from these very, very simplified lab contexts, Weissing said. And the dominant factor is not really money, but something else. I think that makes quite a difference.

Original article on Live Science.

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Human fly takes plea deal for climbing Trump Tower – New York Post

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The Donald Trump fan busted for scaling Trump Tower in a bid to see the then-presidential nominee up close took a plea deal Monday in Manhattan court for the wild stunt.

Stephen Rogata, 19, copped to misdemeanor reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct for climbing 21 floors of the Fifth Avenue skyscraper last August using giant suction cups and rope.

The human fly must continue mental health treatment, stay in college and abide by an order of protection in favor of the president.

If he complies with the conditions for one year, hell have no record and face no jail time, prosecutors said.

Weve spoken to the Trump Organization, and they have indicated they are comfortable with the peoples offer, said Assistant District Attorney Pierre Griffith.

Judge Joanne Watters warned Rogata that he was to have no contact with Donald J. Trump or the deal could be rescinded, and hed face up to one year in jail.

The Virginia resident told investigators that he made the daring Aug. 10 ascent to offer the real estate tycoon crucial advice on how to tackle his job as leader of the free world.

My intention was to get a meeting with Mr. Trump to give him secret information, he allegedly said.

The three-hour spectacle, which attracted hundreds of onlookers in the street below, ended when cops yanked the daredevil off the glass facade and dragged him inside the building.

Several items fell from his backpack during the climb, including a laptop, officials said.

Defense lawyer Paul Shechtman was satisfied with the resolution. Were very pleased that the district attorney handled the case in the way it did, and that it understood the mental health issues that underlie the case, he said.

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Proof That Human Alex Jones Is Most Certainly Not Part Reptile – Huffington Post

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02/27/2017 04:12 pm ET

Video-making mega force Super Deluxewants to raise awareness about the biology of alternative facts master Alex Jones, specifically the idea that he might not be fully human.

Alex Jones has made a name for himself by giving a voice to fringe journalism. But just so were clear, and as this video proves, Alex Jones is definitely human, and not a froth-snarling creature of reptilian origins.

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Proof That Human Alex Jones Is Most Certainly Not Part Reptile

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BREAKING: Elon Musk And SpaceX Are Sending Humans to the Moon – Futurism

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The Age of Commercial Spaceflight

Rocket science isnt easy. Ask any engineer. Rocket science isnt cheap. Just ask NASA. Fortunately, in recent years, a number of commercial spaceflight companies have stepped up to the plate in order to help national space agencies extend their reach into the final frontier.

Innovative companies like Elon Musks SpaceX and Jeff Bezos Blue Origin have accelerated the development of reusable rockets exponentially. In so doing, they have dramatically reduced the cost of leaving our pale blue dot, improving both our ability to explore the cosmos and scientists capacity to conduct research beyondEarth.

To be more specific, in 2012, SpaceX became the first private space company to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). Previously, this monumental feat was something that had only been achieved by world governments.

At the present time, the company is working on the Crew Dragon, a next-generation spacecraft that is designed to ferry humans to the ISS. One day, SpaceX even plans to land on Mars, and if Musk has anything to say about it, humans will be on the Red Planetpossibly living there for goodin the next decade or so.

Ultimately, private spaceflight companies are leading our charge into the cosmos. This is because successfully reusing boosters is a critical part of bringing down the cost of launchesand its something that the worlds governments have failed to produce.

With this technology, we wont have to build a completely new rocket for every single mission. According to SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell,reusability could lower the cost of rocket launches by a staggering 30 percent.

Likewise, Musk asserts that such rockets are the key to a truly economically viable space industry: A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space. If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred.

And Blue Origin echoes these sentiments, with Bezos calling such technologies the Holy Grail of rocketry. After the first landing of Blue Origins New Shepard resuablerocket, Bezos wrote, I believe this is a new Golden Age of space exploration. The first Golden Age was the 60s. We have been treading water for a long time. We are on the verge of a new Golden Age in rocketry. I believe one day all rockets will have landing gear.

This means that we can have more frequent and cheaper launches. This, in turn, means faster progress in both commercial spaceflight and our off-world research and exploration. In short, private spaceflight is ushering in a new age in our voyage into the cosmos.

Yesterday, Musk stated that SpaceX would have a breaking announcement today at 4pm EST (1pm GMT). And he just revealed thatSpaceX will be sending two private citizens around the Moon.

The space company said in a statement that the two individuals have already paid a significant deposit to do a Moon mission. Initial training, along with health and fitness tests, are set to occur later this year, SpaceX continued.

Ultimately, this is the first flight to the Moon with a crew in more than 45 years, and SpaceX went to lengths to point out the significance of this work: Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration.

SpaceX also outlined the nature of the project and clarified the timeline:

SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year. They have already paid a significant deposit to do a moon mission.We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year. Other flight teams have also expressed strong interest and we expect more to follow. Additional information will be released about the flight teams, contingent upon their approval and confirmation of the health and fitness test results.

To break this down, to begin, SpaceX plans to launch the Crew Dragon (Dragon Version 2) spacecraft to the ISS without people on board this year, and then a subsequent mission with crew will fly in the second quarter of 2018. From there, the company will head to the Moon, an important milestone as they work towards the ultimate goaltransporting humans to Mars.

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Two New NASA Institutes Will Prepare Us to Live Away From Earth – Futurism

Posted: at 5:42 am

In Brief

With $30 million leaving the bank account over the next five years, NASA plans on setting up and supporting two institutes dedicated to extending humanitys reach in our solar system.

These Space Technology Research Institutes (STRIs) will each receive $15 million in NASA funding to develop technologies in biomaterials and biomanufacturing. Universities will lead multidisciplinary research programs in hopes of obtaining credible outcomes in the next five years. While the research is focused on expanding our species into space, the STRIs look to finding applications beyond just aerospace for the work.

Of the two STRIs, one is the Center for Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space (CUBES)which will focus on incorporating microbes into food, fuel, materials, and pharmaceuticals. This research is intended to ease the journey of space travel, by providing biomanufacturing for astronauts who can be more self-sustained.

The other of the two STRIs is the Institute for Ultra-Strong Composites by Computational Design (US-COMP), which aims to develop lightweight and super strong aerospace material with carbon-nanotube technology.

CUBES will be led by Adam Arkin Ph.D., a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, while US-COMP will be led by GregoryOdegard Ph.D.of Michigan Technological University.

While many outspoken voices on humanitys survival state that we need to leave Earth, one of the most compelling reasons was given by Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk. He believes that an extinction event isinevitableand that we must spread our species out if we aim to survive.

Others like Stephen Hawking are even more specific.Hawking believes that we only have 1000 years left on the Earth, and our only chance at survival is by setting up colonies elsewhere in the universe. Unlike Elon Musk, Hawking is skeptical of our ability to land on Mars in the next 200 or so years and behooves us to make steps to more fully address climate change, threats of nuclear war, and antibiotic resistance.

All in all, projects created by the STRIs will bring us closer to one-day extending humanitys reach.

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The Price of Solar Has Dropped 58% in the Last 5 Years – Futurism

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58 Percent Cheaper

According to a recent report by Australian non-profitthe Climate Council, solar energy is now cheaper than retail power in most capital cities in Australia, with prices dropping 58 percent globally in the past five years. With costs expected to drop between 40 to 70 percent more by 2040, we can only expect a rise in adoption and usage in that country and others around the globe.

We are seeing more and more industrial-scale solar coming online across the country and the world. Hospitals, airports, farms and a variety of other businesses have embraced smarter and cleaner power, Greg Bourne, expert Councillor with the Climate Council, told SBS.

Nearly 7,000 solar batteries were installed in Australian homes last year, and that number is expected to triple in 2017. The Council adds in its report that industrial-scale solar plants are now providing cheaper power versus traditional coal plants. Twenty solar power plants are scheduled to be built around Australia, which will see an additional 3,700 megawatts of solar energy thats enough to power 600,000 homes. This will no doubt helpAustralia achieve its goal of reaching 20 gigawatts of solar generation in the next two decades.

Transitioning to renewable energy is not only necessary as we continue to see and feel the effects of climate change, it also makes economic sense.

For a country like Australia, where sunshine is abundant, supporting the growth of solar energy can create new jobs and new industries.More than 8,000 Australians already hold jobs in the solar industry, ranging from salespeople and manufacturers to electricians and installers. Projections expect that with renewable energy reaching 50 percent by 2030, Australia alonewill benefit from 28,000 new jobs.

Globally, 2.8 million people have jobs in the industry, which is more than those with coal jobs. In fact, in the United States, solar accounts for double the number of jobs as coal. The era of coal is over and global investment has moved firmly to renewable energy, added the Climate Council in a statement. Solar power is cheaper, has no fuel costs, is non-polluting and it is clear that it will be a key of Australias future.

Along with Australia, countries like China, the U.S., and Japan are at the forefront of renewable energy, with many other countries around the globe following suit. In 2015, a study showed that the U.S. could be completely powered by renewable energy by 2050. In 2016, almost all ofCosta Ricas electricity was generated using renewable sources. Germany, in an effort to phase out nuclear energy, is also well on its way to making other renewable energy sources more viable. As these individual efforts and global ones like the Paris Agreement take shape, we will hopefully see a tangible impact on our environment.

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Monitoring group documents Turkey-backed profiling in Netherlands – Turkey Purge

Posted: February 26, 2017 at 11:48 pm

The Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoan have extended the ongoing oppression on critics to abroad by using government institutions, quasi-official structures and front NGOs, areport released byStockholm Center for Freedom (SCF)has revealed.

The report, drawn from a case study on the Netherlands where close to half a million Turks live, exposes how the current government in Turkey, has intensified spying, intelligence gathering and profiling of critics that at times led to harassment, intimidation, hate crimes and even physical attacks including arson attempts.

We mapped out ways and means of how Turkish government has been pursuing its critics and opponents in foreign countries, exporting divisiveness and stirring troubles, said Abdullah Bozkurt, the President of SCF.

Frankly, this amounts to a hostile, unfriendly and unlawful practices especially in the Netherlands, a country that is a NATO ally of Turkey, he added.

Although critics from all walks of life including Kurds and Alevis were targeted in general in this stigmatizing effort by the Turkish government, members of the Glen movement, which the Turkish government accuses of masterminding a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, have borne the brunt of this major campaign of witch-hunt.

The movement denies any involvement.

According to the SCF report, Turkish embassies, government agencies including intelligence service and non-governmental organizations affiliated with the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government have all involved in profiling and harassment of the Gulenists.

This persecution is personally sanctioned by the Turkish President himself who stated that no country in the world would be safe for members of the movement, vowed to pursue them wherever they are. His propagandists have even suggested assassinating and abducting critics abroad, and offered bounty on their heads.

To its credit, the Dutch government has so far taken some counter-measures including legal and diplomatic actions to prevent such blatant interference by Turkish government into the countrys internal affairs and protect people from the long arm of Erdogan.

SCF has documented many cases in this report, mostly from open sources and interviewed some victims. There have been other cases for which the victims do not want to report incidents for fear of further reprisals by the Turkish government such as jailing of victims relatives back in Turkey or unlawfully seizing their assets.

SCF believes that the information presented in this research is accurate to the best of its knowledge and declares that it remains open to make corrections, updates if further information becomes available.

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Transport groups hold nationwide transport strike to protest government’s PUV modernization program – CNN Philippines

Posted: at 11:48 pm

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) For the second time this month, jeepney operators and drivers hold a nationwide transport strike and commuters are feeling the crunch.

The members of transport groups PISTON, Stop and Go Coalition, and No to Jeepney Phase-out Coalition are expected to gather at the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan City to kick off today's nationwide transport strike.

According PISTON President George San Mateo, this jeepney strike is not only happening in Metro Manila, but in over 20 cities and municipalities across the country.

San Mateo said this is their response to the government's inaction to their plea to scrap the current version of the jeepney modernization program of the government - which they believe is a phase-out.

The same groups also organized a similar nationwide transport strike last February 6.

The previous transport strike was resolved when officials of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) called for a dialogue which was attended by the transport leaders.

However, transport groups were unsatisfied with the results of the dialogue, and on the same day declared their intention to organize a much bigger strike the one happening today.

San Mateo apologized to all affected commuters, but threatened if the government continues to be dismissive of their pleas, their groups will organize regular monthly strikes like this.

The jeepney groups are against the provision of the Transportation Department's order that will disallow jeepney models that are 16 years and older from plying their routes.

San Mateo said if they disallow these jeepney models, the government is actually phasing them out. He called this move a clear oppression of small jeepney operators and drivers, which will ultimately deprive them of their livelihood.

Apart from jeepneys, this modernization program also affects other types of public utility vehicles like buses and vans.

Commuters in several parts of the Metro are feeling the effects of the strike this early in the day.

There are fewer jeepneys arriving in Philcoa, along Commonwealth Avenue as of six in the morning.

The jeepneys passing along the area are mostly full.

Passengers say that their Monday commutes are usually difficult, but it's made worse today because of the striking jeepney drivers.

The members of PISTON from Quezon City came here as early as 2 a.m., to express their grievances.

This group will be converging with other PISTON members all over Metro Manila in Mendiola before lunch time today.

The police and personnel from the MMDA have positioned themselves in the area ready to assist the commuters.

In Monumento, the number of jeepneys ferrying commuters is growing smaller as the day progresses.

Some passengers here have been walking around, chasing available jeepneys. Others have been waiting for over 30 minutes hoping to get a ride.

Sonny Magalang, a commuter, said, "Lalo na mamayang ala-sais, agawan na 'yan tapos hindi na sila magpi-pick up... Inagahan ko para makapasok, pero hanggang ngayon hindi pa rin ako nakakasakay."

[Translation: Come 6 a.m., it will be difficult to get a ride. People will jostle each other to get a ride, but then jeepneys won't pick up passengers anymore... I got up early to go to work, but I haven't been cable to catch a ride up to now.]

The LTFRB and the Metro Manila Development Authority have pre-positioned government vehicles to offer free rides.

The LTFRB has also commissioned some buses to ferry commuters for minimal fees.

Some MMDA personnel and members of the police are also assisting passengers.

Class and work suspensions in several areas nationwide were declared on Sunday to ease the burden on commuters.

READ: #WalangPasok: Class and work suspensions for Feb. 27 due to transport strike

CNN Philippines correspondent Yumi Lugod contributed to this report.

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Transport groups hold nationwide transport strike to protest government's PUV modernization program - CNN Philippines

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