iNews Briefs & Community Events
Community Events
MAY 12
West Bay District Health Centre Closure
The Cayman Islands Health Services Authority is notifying the public that the West Bay District Health Centre will be closed at 2:30 pm on Tuesday 12th May to facilitate necessary works by the Cayman Water Company.
CHHS Graduation Meeting
The CHHS Graduation Meeting is Tuesday (12 May) at 5:30 p.m. at the Further Education Center Auditorium.
It wasn’t Cayman Islands notorious landfill ablaze again last Sunday (10)
At 10am last Sunday black smoke rose into the air and enveloped Esterley Tibbetts Highway.
“Not again,” Cayman’s residents cried. “The George Town landfill (The Dump) is on fire again!”
However, they were wrong. It was a scrapyard close to the dump that was on fire.
Garbage caught fire that spread to a pile of scrap metal and used cars on land behind the Ready Mix Concrete plant near Camana Bay.
Three fire trucks battled the blaze that was brought under control around 1 p.m. Firefighters used excavating equipment from the landfill site to move piles of scrap metal in an effort to finally put the fire out.
A section of the Esterley Tibbetts Highway was closed for an hour between 10.33 a.m. and 11.33 a.m.
This is the self-driving sci-fi Chevy we’ve all been waiting for
By Benjamin Zhang
IMAGE: Chevrolet FNR ConceptChevrolet
General Motors and its Chevrolet brand kicked off the 2015 Shanghai Auto Show in style with the introduction of the Chevrolet FNR Concept. According to GM, the FNR is an autonomous electric-driving concept that is meant to give us a glimpse of what mobility will look like in the future.
The menacing concept is also part of a celebration to commemorate Chevrolet’s 10th anniversary in China.
The 2015 Shanghai Auto Show runs April 22-29.
Castro: Pope Francis so impressive I might return to church
By Frances D’emilio, Associated Press From WRAL.com
VATICAN CITY — Cuban President Raul Castro paid a call Sunday on Pope Francis at the Vatican to thank him for working for Cuban-U.S. detente — and said he was so impressed by the pontiff he is considering a return to the Catholic church’s fold.
“Bienvenido (welcome)!” Francis said in his native Spanish, welcoming Castro to his studio near the Vatican public audience hall. The Cuban president, bowing his head, gripped Francis’ hand with both of his, and the two men began private talks. The meeting lasted nearly an hour, as the Argentine-born Francis and Castro spoke in Spanish.
Francis will visit Cuba in September en route to the United States.
After leaving the Vatican, Castro, the brother of Fidel, the revolutionary leader who brought the Communists to power in Cuba, gushed with praise for Francis.
The pontiff “is a Jesuit, and I, in some way, am too,” Castro said at a news conference. “I always studied at Jesuit schools.”
“When the pope goes to Cuba in September, I promise to go to all his Masses, and with satisfaction,” Castro said at a news conference at the office of Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, whom he met with after the Vatican talks.
“I read all the speeches of the pope, his commentaries, and if the pope continues this way, I will go back to praying and go back to the church, and I’m not joking,” he said.
It was a startling assertion for the leader of a Communist country, whose crackdown on dissidents in the past had drawn sharp Vatican criticism.
“I am from the Cuban Communist Party, that doesn’t allow (religious) believers, but now we are allowing it, it’s an important step,” Castro said.
Speaking about Francis, Castro said he has been “very impressed by his wisdom, his modesty, and all his virtues that we know he has.”
Over 3,000 persons have viewed CODEPINK video “exposing Cayman Islands tax scandal
On Thursday, December 13, over 100 Americans with CODEPINK and The Nation Magazine marched to the Ugland House, the location where some 18,000 corporations hide their tax dollars, to demand that corporations pay their fair share of taxes.
A video appeared on YouTube titled “Exposing the Cayman Island Tax Scandal – CODEPINK & The Nation take on Corporate Fat Cats”. To date it has 3,193 views.
It is very funny.
To view it go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VnwRodMiBwA
Cybersecurity firm accused of staging data breaches to extort clients
By Mariella Moon from engadget
Have you ever heard of a cybersecurity firm called Tiversa? No? Well, you’ll likely be hearing about it a lot in the coming weeks, because an ex-employee is accusing it of fraud. Richard Wallace, one of its former investigators, has recently testified against the firm in a Washington DC courtroom. During the proceeding, he claimed Tiversa’s employees would hack potential clients to force them to pay for the firm’s services. The CEO, Bob Boback, would apparently even order them to look for IPs of known identity thieves using Tiversa’s close ties to law enforcement agencies. They’d then tell the companies they were targeting that those IPs are breaking into their computers as an additional scare tactic.
In the transcript CNNMoney obtained, Wallace spoke of how Tiversa ruined a particular cancer testing center in Atlanta called LabMD. He admitted to breaking into the center’s computers to steal medical records. After that, Tiversa allegedly warned LabMD that it got hacked and offered its “incident response” services. When the clinic wouldn’t pay up, the cybersecurity firm reportedly threatened to notify the FTC of the (fake) security breach — and it did, since the center refused to give in. The FTC ended up taking LabMD to court in a lengthy legal battle that’s not even over yet, forcing the company to let go of all of its employees in 2014.
But that’s not all: Wallace also said some of Tiversa’s fake schemes made national news in the past. Those schemes supposedly include fabricated info that Iran stole the blueprints of the President’s helicopter, the Marine One, in 2009. Tiversa’s head honcho has denied all these allegations, telling CNNMoney that this “is an overblown case of a terminated employee seeking revenge.” It’s worth noting, however, that US Representative Darrell Issa asked the FTC way back in December to look into some corporate blackmail accusations against the firm.
[Image credit: Getty/alexskopje]
For more: http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/09/tiversa-whistleblower/?ncid=rss_truncated
Democratic Governance and Justice Reform in Latin America and the Caribbean
From Tetra Tech
Democratic Governance and Justice Reform
Strong democratic governance, accountability to civil society, and safety and security are key to the economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean that will help reduce poverty, promote equality, and maintain citizens’ trust in democratic systems.
Tetra Tech helps developing and transitioning countries establish and strengthen institutions and programs for democratic, accountable governance and effective justice systems that are essential for equitable economic growth, social development, protection of human rights, and security.
Tetra Tech’s international development experts strive to understand each country’s unique characteristics and practices and develop programs that facilitate transparency, decentralization, rule of law, and civic participation. Our approach builds the skills, knowledge, and capacity of communities to implement meaningful democratic reforms and sustainable, long-term development.
Tetra Tech’s services in this sector include:
Anti-corruption, transparency, and accountability
Human and institutional capacity building
Decentralization and improved local governance
Land tenure and property rights
Public administration reform
Rule of law and human rights
Legislative strengthening
Security and stabilization
Anonymous benefactor gives $4.5M to Case Western Law
By Karen Sloan, From The National Law Journal
Case Western Reserve University School of Law has received its largest donation ever—$4.5 million from an anonymous donor.
The gift, which will become available through the donor’s estate, will endow two professorships and allow additional student scholarships, co-interim dean Michael Scharf said. Although the donor requested anonymity, Scharf confirmed that he is a law school alumnus.
The Cleveland law school has enjoyed a lucrative fundraising year. It secured a $3 million donation from the Spangenberg Family Foundation in September to bolster the intellectual property law center. Meanwhile, giving to the school’s annual fund has hit a record high, Scharf said, speculating that an improved stock market might be encouraging alumni to write checks.
“Our alumni have been extremely generous this year, and we’re very grateful,” he said.
The anonymous donor is bequeathing a total of $6 million to the university, with the rest endowing a faculty position in the music department.
The gift will allow the law school to boost its endowed professorships from 16 to 18. “The endowed chairs allows us to reward our super faculty, and helps us keep them from moving to other schools,” Scharf said. “They also help us to attract fantastic faculty.”
The gift will add to the school’s $88 million endowment and free an estimated $250,000 per year for student scholarships.
MIT Study suggests current solar power tech is good enough
By Terrence From engadget
The standard line about solar power is that while good in theory, the technology just isn’t there to keep our lights on and our Netflix streaming. But a new study from MIT (PDF) suggests that’s not the case. According to the massive report (an epic 356 pages) current crystalline silicon photovoltaic technology is capable of delivering terawatt-scale power by 2050. That would be many times larger than Topaz facility California that generates 550 megawatts. While there is certainly room for improvement in efficiency, the MIT study says that the biggest hurdle isn’t tech, it’s investment. The authors called out the lack of funding for research and development, but focused more on poor governmental policies. Subsidies generally go to other energy sources, like oil and natural gas, and trade policies set by the federal government have driven up prices by restricting imports of cheaper solar parts in order to boost domestic production.
For more: http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/09/current-solar-power-tech-is-good-enough/?ncid=rss_truncated
Hollande’s rant against migrant trafficking not enough to mark end of slavery, say activists
By Christina Okello From rfi
France’s President François Hollande hit out on Sunday against Europe’s migrant crisis, comparing people smugglers in the Mediterranean to “slave drivers”. His comments were made on International day for the remembrance of the slave trade on May 10, but have been viewed by some critics as a way of avoiding the issue of reparations.
It was during a state visit to French Caribbean island Guadeloupe on Sunday that François Hollande added his voice to other European leaders, to say that the migrant crisis had become “the new slave trade”.
The analogy is not inappropriate. The majority of slaves used to arrive in ships crammed to the rim in ports in South America and the Caribbean Islands, rather like the migrants crossing the Mediterranean today.
But invoking new forms of modern slavery, distracts from remembering the slavery of the past, argue some critics.
And even if Hollande has forked out a 80-million euro figure to inaugurate a new slavery memorial on the site of a former sugar refinery in Guadeloupe, he still won’t budge on the issue of reparations.
Several activists’ groups in the French West Indies and in France have launched legal cases for compensation for the trade, claiming that whole companies benefitted from slave labour.
Yet picking apart who owes what to whom and how much, is a legal nightmare in the waiting, and perhaps explains why European countries like France prefer to rescue than repair.
“The real reparation I think is justice,” says Alain Jakubowicz, head of the International league against racism and anti-semitism. “To have justice, you need the truth and to convey that message you need education.”
Jakubowicz wants the history of slavery to be stepped up and put on the same level as lessons on the Holocaust.
Other activists like Patrick Lozes, the founder or rights group CRAN, warn against creating a competition between victims. “No memory should take precedent over another,” he told RFI.
What’s happening in my home country
From Walk Free.Org
My name is Bandi Mbubi. When I first came to the UK from the Democratic Republic of the Congo over 20 years ago, I was homesick. I missed my family and the friends I left behind; communication was extremely difficult. Today it’s so much easier. My two sons can talk to my parents and get to know them using their mobile phones.
Like many of you I’m sure, I’m dependent on my phone, my laptop and other electronic equipment for so many things I want to do. But I’m also concerned because I know from experience that these wonderful and necessary products are causing unimaginable suffering back in my home country.
That’s why I’m writing to you now. Conflict minerals — minerals that are mined, and fuelling conflict, in areas such as the Congo — mean that a huge range of electronic products could be tainted by forced labour, sexual violence and children forced to fight by armed groups. But we have an opportunity to start to change that.
Please call on European Parliamentary leaders to support strong laws to tackle the trade in conflict minerals.
Why Europe? In just a few days the European Parliament will vote on a proposal that could mean companies are legally bound to check their supply chains for conflict minerals and start to address the harm they cause.
Europe is one of the largest economies in the world and responsible for almost a quarter of the global trade in tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold.1 If European decision-makers vote the right way and show leadership on this issue, it has huge potential to positively impact the trade in minerals and set a precedent for tough action elsewhere around the world. Your voice is needed right now to encourage them to take this step.
My organisation Congo Calling,2 along with Walk Free, business leaders, faith leaders and many others are united in this struggle to address the exploitation and modern slavery fuelled by conflict minerals. Can you take a moment to join us?
In solidarity,
Bandi and the whole Walk Free team
P.S. We all have the ability to make change happen. Once you’ve taken action, why not visit Congo Calling’s website to see how we’re working to raise awareness of the problems facing people in the Congo and find out how you can get involved?
1 https://www.globalwitness.org/campaigns/conflict-minerals/conflict-minerals-europe-brief/
2 http://www.congocalling.org/
SOURCE: www.walkfree.org
Protect yourself when sourcing from China
From Smart Sourcing
Committed to helping you source more effectively
In this issue of the Smart Sourcing newsletter, find out how you can protect yourself when sourcing from China. Read experts’ advice on avoiding fake suppliers, fraudulent documents, and other scam techniques.
Checklist:
Make sure the supplier is legit
Check that bank account matches the name on the contract
Link payments to supplier’s performance
Cheated by China. Check your insurance
If you have been a victim of the “new bank account to pay us” scam, you should check your insurance policy and call an insurance coverage lawyer because all may not be lost.
Fake suppliers in China: Scammers within the law
The typical fake supplier in China registers a company, draws up documents under some peasant’s name, creates a website with a professional look and hires a few English speaking sales people (unaware their employer is a scam).
Beware of brand name scam in China
Are you a small-scale buyer fond of brand name electronics? Watch out because a lot of scam artists in China might prey on you.
Best ways for a small buyer to avoid scams in China
Looking to buy just a few pieces of customized products? Don’t go factory direct because you might be scammed. Do this instead.
How to dispute a case of wrong shipment
Getting the wrong items shipped to you is definitely a cause for stress. Check details of your Purchase Order and agreed Incoterms to help you make your next move.
3 essential steps to protect yourself when buying from China
Put simply, if buyers take the following three actions, they will avoid 90 percent of the common China sourcing problems.
SOURCE: www.globalsources.com
Church-cum-mosque causes controversy at Venice Biennale
From Business Insider
Rome (AFP) – Iceland sparked controversy on the opening day of the Biennale art fair in the Italian city of Venice Saturday by turning a disused church into a mosque.
Entitled “La Moschea”, the installation was created in the Santa-Maria della Misericordia, a former Catholic church that was rented to Iceland’s national pavilion by its private owner.
Heralding the initiative as promoting religious tolerance, several Muslims came to pray at the building.
Leaving their shoes at the door, the worshippers faced Mecca and knelt to pray whilst around them visitors toured the exhibition.
The installation, by Swiss artist Christoph Buechel, aims to draw attention to the absence of a mosque in the historic centre of Venice — a city with historic trading links to the Muslim world.
But city authorities expressed reservations, citing, among other things, the risk of the building being attacked by anti-Muslim elements — or, at the other side of the spectrum — Islamist radicals.
The president of Veneto region, Luca Zaia, called the installation a “provocation”.
“The real issue”, he said, was “not freedom of religion but respecting the rules” of an international art exhibition.
The 56th Venice Biennale runs through November 22.
The jury on Saturday awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation to Armenia for a pavilion about the Armenian diaspora.
The Golden Lion for Best Artist went to Adrian Piper of the United States for “The Probable Trust Registry: The Rules of the Game #1–3”.
Silicon cities: How local governments can support the tech industry
By Megan Ranney From Mashable
For local governments, fostering digital growth and advancing new technology isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity.
Mashable and the United Nations Foundation’s upcoming Digital Beltway conference is designed to explore this intersection of government and technology.
In a panel moderated by Mashable CMO Stacy Martinet, Bloomberg Associates Principal Katherine Oliver, Kansas City Chief Innovation Officer Ashley Z. Hand and Los Angeles Chief Technology Officer Peter Marx will discuss how local governments can support the tech industry to create so-called “silicon cities.”
“A ‘silicon city’ possesses a strong talent pipeline, a vibrant and visible tech community supported by local businesses, government and residents, robust early-stage and growth capital investment, and quality and flexible infrastructure,” said Oliver.
“The public and private sector each have a role in fostering sustainable and inclusive tech hubs to power 21st-century innovation.”
When asked why the creation of silicon cities was important, she answered “It’s no secret that tech is where the jobs are. The digital sector is fueling economic development in cities. Investing in tech will help sustain and build a tech ecosystem that ensures opportunities for residents and strengthen a city’s economy.”
Registration for Digital Beltway is now open through Event Farm. The event, which will be held at the Newseum Knight Conference Center in Washington, D.C. on May 15, will take a look at how technology and digital resources are driving dialogues about U.S. and global policies like never before.
For more information, follow @MashableEvents on Twitter. To inquire about speaking opportunities, contact Sophie Oreck.
BP Says Subsidiary will go broke if spill fine tops $2.3B
By Amanda Bronstad, From The National Law Journal
BP PLC for the first time has identified in court papers the amount its subsidiary should pay in civil fines for its role in the Deepwater Horizon spill, claiming that anything more than $2.3 billion could result in insolvency.
The oil giant in court papers filed on Friday specified the dollar amount in arguing what BP Exploration & Production Inc. is liable for under the Clean Water Act for its negligence in causing the 2010 spill. The U.S. Department of Justice, in its own filings on Friday, continued to push for the maximum penalty of $13.7 billion—or, at the very least, more than $12 billion.
BP Exploration & Production, which already spent $35.7 billion in claims payments and a massive cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico following the spill, said imposing too high a fine under the Clean Water Act would discourage other companies from doing the same.
“Imposing a penalty on BPXP anywhere near the amount suggested by the United States would dis-incentivize future operators from engaging in a robust and sustained response like that mounted by BPXP,” wrote BP spokesman Geoff Morrell in an emailed statement, referring to BP Production & Exploration. “Furthermore, a [Clean Water Act] penalty above the low end of the statutory range would threaten BPXP’s solvency and have a significant negative impact on BPXP’s expenditures in the Gulf region.”
The Justice Department also is seeking more than $1 billion against Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which co-owned the well where the rig exploded. “Given the unprecedented seriousness of the violation, the defendants should justify why they should not pay the maximum penalty available,” wrote Steven O’Rourke, senior attorney at the Justice Department’s environmental enforcement section.
The filings were made following the final phase of trial in New Orleans to determine how much BP and Anadarko should end up paying in Clean Water Act penalties. Reply briefs are due April 24.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier of the Eastern District of Louisiana already has found that BP’s subsidiary was grossly negligent and 67 percent responsible for the Deepwater Horizon rig’s explosion and spill, which killed 11 people. He also ruled that any Clean Water Act fines against BP should be based on $4,300 per barrel but that the spill left 3.19 million gallons of oil, not an estimated 4.19 million, in the Gulf of Mexico.
In its brief, BP urged Barbier to consider its massive cleanup effort
“BPXP’s spending since the incident has exhausted its own resources,” wrote R. Keith Jarrett, managing partner of New Orleans-based Liskow & Lewis. “Indeed, since 2010, BPXP has needed to rely on capital infusions from its parent companies to remain solvent.”
Both sides disagreed as to whether Barbier should consider the assets of BP PLC, its London-based parent corporation, which reported $32.8 billion in annual operating cash flow on Feb. 3.
Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle declined to comment.
IMAGE: Vessels equipped with water cannons try to fight the devastating Deepwater Horizon fire. Photo: US Coast Guard via Wikimedia Commons
ResearchKit an “Enormous Opportunity” for science, says breast cancer charity
By Natasha Lomas From Techcrunch
In March Apple bundled a big announcement inside it’s long awaited Apple Watch ‘Spring Forward’ event. Namely the launch of ResearchKit: an iOS software framework that lets people, currently U.S.-based only, volunteer to join medical research studies. This is arguably a lot more interesting than expensive, Internet-connected wrist wear.
While the question of what problem the Apple Watch specifically fixes continues to preoccupy commenters, ResearchKit’s raison d’être is clear: medical research needs data, and iPhones offer the promise of a populous pipeline that can get more data flowing to the scientific community.
The first group of apps developed using ResearchKit — and announced on stage at Apple’s event — are for studies on asthma, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
ResearchKit is open source. Apple says it intends to release the framework next month, allowing researchers to contribute to specific activity modules, such as memory or gait testing within the framework, and share them with the global research community to advance disease research.
This is not just about leveraging iOS device connectivity as an alternative to administering tedious and time-consuming paper-based studies. But also using specific sensing hardware that people already have in their pocket as a diagnostic testing tool — be it data inputted via the touchscreen, or via measurements from the accelerometer (for instance to test physical gait stability) or even the microphone (as way to gauge lung capacity).
The consistency of iOS hardware (when compared to the far more diverse Android ecosystem) is likely to be helpful in a research scenario — certainly to some types of studies that rely on taking measurements from mobile device sensing hardware. ResearchKit apps work on iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and the latest generation of iPod touch devices.
Studies can also be extended beyond iOS hardware via gathering data from third party health-monitoring wearables and other devices that are connected to Apple’s ecosystem via its HealthKit framework. (Apple’s own Health app was already taking a granular approach to personal medical data, with some sixty types of health data contained in its repository.)
The big promise of ResearchKit is scale, given that research studies will have the chance to reach more people than they might otherwise, with iOS users running into the multi millions globally.
“iOS apps already help millions of customers track and improve their health. With hundreds of millions of iPhones in use around the world, we saw an opportunity for Apple to have an even greater impact by empowering people to participate in and contribute to medical research,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s SVP of operations, in a statement at the launch. “ResearchKit gives the scientific community access to a diverse, global population and more ways to collect data than ever before.”
The app format also minimizes obstacles to participation in research studies, compared to, say, asking participants to submit information via paper forms. Studies delivered via apps can also utilize established mobile tools, such as push notifications, to maintain engagement from participants — so might be able to run for longer, or pull in more consistent data (in theory).
Early signs are promising for ResearchKit uptake, although it will be interesting to see what happens with apps that are launched outside the halo of an Apple product announcement. And once more studies are live competing for participants.
Signing up to a ResearchKit study is done with a digital signature, via a finger on the touchscreen. And researchers can use the ResearchKit framework to present what Apple describes as “an interactive informed consent process”.
Concerns about this process have already been raised — given that there’s nothing to stop minors lying about their age, for instance, in order to sign up to studies without gaining parental consent (as The Verge notes there’s no age verification as yet, albeit that’s something that could be added in).
But this is exactly the sort of balancing act that ResearchKit apps will have to strike: increasing participation in medical research by mobile means inevitably requires some loosening of controls over how participants join a study, since they are not attending a clinic in person. However for the data to be meaningful — and ethical — some checks and balances are obviously needed.
(It’s worth noting that Apple has updated its developer guidelines since the launch of ResearchKit, to specify that developers conducting human research must comply with applicable laws for each territory the app is made available, and must obtain consent from participants (or from parents or guardians in the case of minors).)
Users are also able to choose which studies to participate in, including sharing only partial data with a particular study if they wish. That element of user control may also help increase participation.
When it comes to privacy, Apple has emphasized it is not itself party to any of the data being shared. That’s a key point, given that medical data is pretty much the most sensitive category of personal data there is. But again concerns have been raised about how rigorously ResearchKit data is being anonymized, and where it might end up.
Sage Bionetworks, which has made several of the early ResearchKit apps and is anonymizing the data before sending it on to the research institutions involved in the first group of studies, told The Verge “we can’t promise perfect anonymity”, adding:
The biggest risk in these studies is to your privacy; we’re going to de-identify it, but because we’re going to make it available for lots of research, there exists a chance that someone could re-identify you.
That’s the sort of caveat we’ve come to expect from digital services handling and sharing user data. The issue here is the data in question is both extremely sensitive and intended to be widely shared for research purposes — amping up the risks if it can indeed be de-anonymized.
