TCR Volume 3 Number 11 by The CenSEI Report

Fires across Sumatra are wreaking havoc on millions of people in the region and destroying the climate. ~ Greenpeace Indonesia forest protection advocate Bustar Maitar

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Volume 3 • Number 11

Strategic Analysis and Research by the Center for Strategy, enterpriSe & intelligenCe As the president, I apologise and seek the understanding of our friends in Singapore and Malaysia.

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~ Indonesian President Bambang Yudhoyono on Sumatra fires bringing heavy smog to its neighbors

June 24 - July 7, 2013

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Through a PRISM Steathily

The U.S. National Security Agency’s PRISM cyber-surveillance program has the planet wondering how secure and private people’s online lives are

HEALTH

Fighting Death from the Womb A vaccine against cervical cancer is saving girls and women from the scourge — if they can get it

perspective

what’s hot what’s cool

BUSINESS

• Vaccine primer: Things to know about the human papillovirus and its nemesis

Aquino’s Quest for Jobs and Peace

• Immunity for men: Inoculating men against HPV is in the labs

Despite Asia-pacing economic growth, Philippine unemployment hit a threeyear high, while highly touted peace talks are snagged. What should the President do? • To build or not to build: Is there a property bubble in the country?

Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence provides expertise in strategy and management, enterprise development, intelligence, Internet and media. For subscriptions, research, and advisory services, please e-mail report@censeisolutions.com or call/fax +63-2-5311182. Links to online material on public websites are current as of the week prior to the publication date, but might be removed without warning. Publishers of linked content should e-mail us or contact us by fax if they do not wish their websites to be linked to our material in the future.

Perils of the Night Overnight workers in business process outsourcing bring in $16 billion in export earnings every year. But the health costs may be equally staggering

• The threat of cyber-war: Targeting state secrets and systems • Protecting your privacy: How to stay a step ahead of the cyber-snoops

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• Big risks in the graveyard shift: Heart ailments and obesity are the top problems • Getting the timing right: There are ways to better manage work shifts

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you gotta see this supergraphic body lab wow tech

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perspective

Asian Center for Journalism Visual Literacy Applications The application deadline for Visual Literacy in the Newsroom, the first course under the Certificate Program in Visual Journalism program, has been moved to Friday, 28 June 2013. Classes begin July 1 and end August 31. The course is designed to provide students with a solid grounding on visual literacy. All class sessions in this nine-week course will take place via the learning management system Blackboard. Filmmaker and academic Isabel E. Kenny will handle the course. She is a faculty member of the Department of Communication, Ateneo de Manila University and has previously taught at Boston and Emerson Colleges in Massachusetts, Loyola University of New Orleans and Montclair State University in New Jersey.

Syrian civil war spawns charges, counter-charges of atrocities

On June 7, the British newspaper The Telegraph ran an Agence France-Presse (AFP) story of an eyewitness account of a June 5 massacre in Al-Kubeir, a Sunni enclave in the Syrian province of Hama, at the hands of pro-regime militiamen from Asileh and other Alawite-dominated villages.

“I saw something you cannot

According to the witness, pro-regime militiamen, locally known as shabiha, entered the village after Syrian troops shelled Al-Kubeir from around 2 PM until 8 PM. “They had guns and knives ... They went there from nearby villages like Asileh, which is Alawite,” he said. According to the report, Alawite is the offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family belong.

The bodies of some young men from the village were reportedly taken to Asileh, the witness reported, adding that, “I heard from people I know in that village that last night (Wednesday)

The Certificate Program offers stand-alone courses that focus on the use of visual images in cross-platform journalism. It seeks to raise the bar for journalism in Asia through short-term university-based training designed for reporters, editors and professionals in allied fields. The two other courses under this program are Mobile Journalism, and Visual Story-telling.

imagine. It was a horrifying massacre ... People were executed and burned. Bodies of young men were taken away,” the witness was quoted as telling AFP by phone.

According to the AFP report, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 55 people were killed in the assault on the hamlet (updated on June 7 to between 78 and 100). The report also had United Nations observer chief Major General Robert Mood saying, on the day after the reported massacre, that both the army and local residents were preventing his men from reaching the village to verify the massacre claims.

Reports of the massacre in Al-Kubeir prompted former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to charge, in a separate Telegraph report, that Assad has “doubled down on

the shabiha militiamen drank and danced around their corpses, chanting songs praising Assad.”

To download the application form, visit the Certificate Program in Visual Journalism page (http://acfj.ateneo.edu/?page_id=1737).

his brutality and duplicity, and Syria will not, cannot, be peaceful, stable, or certainly democratic until Assad goes.”

On June 16, on the eve of the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland, The Telegraph carried a pooled agencies report where Russian president Vladimir Putin, whose country has continued to support the Assad regime, said, in reaction to previous comments by British Prime Minister David Cameron that those who arm the regime had “the blood of the children of Syria on their hands.”

“The blood is on the hands of both parties. There is always a question as to who is to blame for that. One should hardly back those who kill their enemies and eat their organs,” Putin was reported as saying, in reference to a rebel fighter captured on film with the liver of a dead Syrian soldier. Such support, according to Putin, was “hardly in relation to the humanitarian and cultural values Europe has been professing for centuries.” At the same time, he claimed that “Russia supplies arms to the legitimate government of Syria in compliance with the

norms of national law.”

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• June 24 – July 7, 2013

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u.s. secret cyber-surveillance uncovered

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U.S. Secret Cyber-Surveillance Uncovered The CenSEI Report reviews key reports and discussions of U.S. and global fallout, including the threat of cyber-warfare and how people can protect their privacy online By Marishka Noelle M. Cabrera

June 6, The Guardian and The Washington Post filed reports that have placed the United States government under fire. The reports show that the country’s National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of telecom giant Verizon. According to a June 6 Guardian story, a top-secret court order issued in April “requires Verizon on an ‘ongoing, daily basis’ to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries” for a 90-day period. The document, the report notes, shows that under the administration of President Barack Obama the communication records of American citizens are “being collected indiscriminately and in bulk—regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.” That report is part of an explosive expose on U.S. phone and online surveillance, which is stirring alarm in the country and across the globe. The European Parliament is debating whether U.S. intelligence is violating the privacy and other rights of European Union citizens, reports German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. Asian dissident groups, including those supported by Washington, worry about how the U.S. would use information gathered online, according to Reuters.

STRATEGY POINTS Reports reveal that the United States’ National Security Agency is collecting the telephone records of millions of customers of telecom provider Verizon Another security leak involves PRISM, an NSA surveillance program, and its access to data from some of the biggest U.S. tech companies, e.g., Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Yahoo The extent of the U.S. government’s surveillance powers at home and abroad raises questions about digital snooping, with concerns over abuse of power, diminution of civil liberties, and the lack of proper oversight

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The trans-Atlantic expose also affected U.S. President Barack Obama’s first meeting with the new head of the leading power from across the Pacific. He meant to raise cyber attacks and spying with visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping, but the reports on Washington’s online snooping have made it harder to press Beijing on the issue, as The Scotsman relates. It doesn’t help that Obama has also ordered security agencies to draw up a list of targets for cyber-attacks.

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‘Telephony metadata’ collected under court order. Under the terms of the blanket order

granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA) to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as well as location data, time and duration of the call, and unique identifiers. Details of the conversation itself are not covered. The communications provider is compelled to give to the NSA electronic copies of “all call detail records or ‘telephony metadata’ created by Verizon.” The whistleblower in one of the biggest leaks in U.S. political history is 29-year old Edward Snowden, a former technical assistant for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and current employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, according to The Guardian’s June 9 report. He fled to Hong Kong, where he revealed details about confidential government activities. Snowden has been working at the NSA for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors.

PRISM, the secret surveillance program.

But what seems the more interesting and more significant revelation involves an NSA surveillance program code-named PRISM. The Washington Post reports the NSA and the FBI “are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document” that was obtained by the newspaper. A June 8 statement from Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper clarifies that PRISM is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program. It is, rather, “an internal government computer system used to facilitate the government’s

• June 24 – July 7, 2013

u.s. secret cyber-surveillance uncovered

statutorily authorized collection of foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under court supervision, as authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.”

The PRISM slides may shed light on the breadth of U.S. electronic surveillance capabilities, which involves leading software and online service providers

Twitter does not hold a lot of private data on its 200 million users that create over 400 million Tweets each day. Then again, Twitter has a history of “being uncooperative, and often antagonistic, when the government asks for user data.”

A June 8 New York Times story says many of the biggest Internet companies have “cooperated at least a bit” when government officials came to them for negotiations about “developing technical methods to more efficiently and securely share the personal data of foreign users in response to lawful government requests.” The negotiations, the report posits, illustrate how intricately these tech firms and U.S. spy agencies work together for the latter to obtain the vast trove of information for intelligence. Under the

Bloomberg sources, meanwhile, suggest that there is indeed widespread cooperation between U.S. tech companies and its government intelligence agencies. A June 15 report reveals thousands of Internet, finance, and manufacturing firms pass sensitive information to national intelligence agencies about vulnerability details and hardware and software specifications. In return, says the report, the agencies give these companies access to classified information.

FISA, companies such as Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, AOL, Paltalk, Google (which owns YouTube), and Microsoft (which owns Hotmail and Skype)—are legally required to share data with these agencies.

Software giant Microsoft, for instance, reportedly gives intelligence agencies information about bugs in its software before it publicly releases a fix. This window of opportunity can allow the U.S. “to exploit vulnerabilities in software sold to foreign governments.” A spokesman from Microsoft clarifies in the report that the releases were designed to give the government “an early start” in risk assessment and mitigation.

Private tech firms are under scrutiny. The

role of private tech firms is under intense scrutiny as more security leaks are brought to light. When the news of PRISM broke out, officials from these companies, such as Facebook, Google, and Apple, denied that they knowingly participated in the program. Micro-blogging site Twitter, however, has managed to evade PRISM. A June 13 piece in The Verge reiterates that unlike Google or Facebook,

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Many tech companies, Bloomberg continues to say, voluntarily provide intelligence agencies with “access to facilities and data offshore” that would have required a court order if it had been done in the

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U.S. This practice could potentially give the agencies access to overseas facilities and data, and even allow them to hack into private data. Tech companies, including Google, Facebook, and, more recently, Microsoft and Twitter, have called on the government to grant them permission to publish more detail about government requests they receive for user information, The Guardian reported on June 12. They are currently not allowed to acknowledge, let alone publish, that they have, in fact, received FISA requests. The Electronic

Who Has

Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights group, has published in its 2013 report an assessment of online service providers regarding their privacy and transparency practices. By examining policies, the EFF was able to determine how the firms fared in terms of: requiring a warrant for content of communications; telling users about government requests; publishing transparency reports; publishing

law enforcement guidelines; fighting for users’ privacy in courts; and fighting for users’ privacy in Congress. Based on its chart, Twitter seems to be the most concerned about user privacy. The assessment for Dropbox, LinkedIn, and Google is also favorable.

Domestic surveillance in the U.S. President

Obama has defended the federal government’s ability to carry out intelligence-gathering operations in secret, according to a Business Insider report on the president’s June 18 interview with Charlie Rose. In relation to the NSA leaks, Obama says the operations were legal, had proper Your Back? oversight, and were necessary to protect Americans for overseas terror threats. “We could not have carried out the [Osama] bin Laden raid if it was carried out on the front page of the papers,” he says.

Graphic from Electronic Frontier Foundation’s 2013 report

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• June 24 – July 7, 2013

Asked whether the FISA court provided an effective check on executive power in overseeing the programs, Obama reiterated that the process is balanced and sufficiently transparent. In the report, Obama added that he “has

u.s. secret cyber-surveillance uncovered

instructed the intelligence community to determine how much more of the programs can be declassified without compromising the program.”

Civil liberties groups remain unconvinced. For instance, Privacy International says in its blog, “The unearthing of this top-secret court order shows that even in a country that prides itself on checks and balances, and is governed by the rule of law, that government and law enforcement agencies operate within a murky legal framework hidden from public scrutiny.”

For ordinary Americans, a recent CBS News poll shows that most Americans disapprove of the government collecting the phone numbers of ordinary Americans. They do, however, approve of its monitoring of suspected Technology terrorist activity. brings new According to opportunities a CBS News for state story on the surveillance. results, there Then again, it is is broad not only the support for the U.S. that has been government caught spying monitoring on its citizens. the Internet A United Nations activities of report finds that those living as communications in foreign systems have United States President Obama says the work of the NSA countries. advanced, nations is necessary and noninvasive CBS News When asked across the globe if the are increasingly government has logging and gone too far in infringing on people’s privacy in its monitoring communications data, though many do fight against terrorism, 46% say the balance is just so without just cause, according to a June 6 piece in about right, while 36% claim the government has The Atlantic. gone too far. Findings from a June 6-9 Pew Center-Washington Post survey indicate that a majority of Americans saying the NSA program tracking phone records of citizens is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism, while 41% say it is unacceptable. At the same time, 62% say that it is more important for the federal government to investigate terrorism, even if it intrudes on personal privacy.

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According to the April 13 report of the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and expression: “Communications data are storable, accessible and searchable, and their disclosure to and use by State authorities are largely unregulated.” The report further warns that analysis of this data can be “both highly revelatory and invasive, particularly when data is combined and aggregated.” It posits that changes in technology

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are coupled with changes in attitudes toward communications surveillance. “In many countries, existing legislation and practices have not been reviewed and updated to address the threats and challenges of communications surveillance in the digital age,” the report laments. Technological innovations have provided new opportunities for state surveillance and intervention. A report on surveillance by Reporters Without Borders in March elaborates on five states—Bahrain, China, Iran, Syria, and Vietnam—that the group considers “enemies of the Internet.” The report talks of the monitoring and spying done by state authorities in order to control dissidents and prevent the dissemination of sensitive information to head off potential destabilization. It warns that online surveillance is a growing danger for journalists, bloggers, and human rights advocates. The report also mentions the “corporate enemies of the Internet,” or software firms whose products are used by these “authoritarian regimes.” A June 10 article in Quartz talks of other countries doing some spying as well, citing a report from The Globe and Mail in reminding readers that Canada’s defense minister approved a plan similar to PRISM back in 2005, and renewed it in 2011. The plan was instituted through the country’s executive branch and without legislative approval. The program of Canada’s version of the NSA, the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), collects metadata from phone and Internet communications. The Quartz article also reported that in Italy, a directive was issued that essentially grants the government the power to raid private data banks in the name of Internet security. India’s government, meanwhile, is “setting up a vast surveillance system with the express purpose of spying on its citizens.”

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Its Central Monitoring System gives the government access to all telecom traffic—calls, text messages, and mobile Internet—the article notes.

How America can spy on other countries.

The Guardian reported in a June 11 piece that it has acquired confidential documents about the NSA data-mining tool called Boundless Informant, which “details and maps by country the voluminous amount of information it collects from computer and telephone networks.” Rather than the content of emails and instant messages, this NSA tool focuses on counting and categorizing the records of communications or metadata. The report says: “A snapshot of the Boundless Informant data, contained in a top-secret NSA “global heat map” seen by the Guardian, shows that in March 2013 the agency collected 97bn pieces of intelligence from computer networks worldwide.” The global heat map gives each nation a color code that shows how extensively it is subjected to NSA surveillance. Iran was the country where the largest amount of intelligence was gathered, the report says, with more than 14 billion reports in that period, followed by Pakistan with 13.5 billion. Jordan, one of America’s closest Arab allies, had 12.7 billion, Egypt with 7.6 billion, and India with 6.3 billion. Already, the explosive revelations about NSA activities are putting a strain on America’s relations with other countries. According to a June 13 Guardian report, China warned that the alleged electronic snooping of U.S. intelligence agencies on a massive scale will “test developing Sino-US ties,” given that their relationship is “constantly soured on cybersecurity.” On June 13, ZDNet reported that European Union (EU) Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding warned U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder of “grave adverse

• June 24 – July 7, 2013

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consequences” should European citizens become targets of the NSA’s PRISM program, amid reports that U.S. authorities were accessing EU citizens’ data through U.S. companies.

Dangers of surveillance.

A June 6 entry in The Economist’s Democracy in America blog discusses the “legitimate fear” that arises when the government collects such immense amounts of data, which may or may not include personal information. One is the possibility of “illegitimate pressure based on information we didn’t intend to be made public,” and the other being “the fear that a pattern of circumstantial activity will lead us to be falsely incriminated, or to suffer administrative penalties that don’t even require any actual indictment.”

Further, the article warns, giving intelligence agencies like the NSA “a vast database of phone calls, and inviting them to search for correlations that might be predictive of terrorist activity, is likely to generate a massive number of false positives.” Without the proper safeguards, domestic surveillance can trample on civil liberties. As the U.N. Special Rapporteur

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Gearing up for major cyber-warfare

remain aggressive and capable collectors of sensitive U.S. economic information and technologies, particularly in cyberspace.”

United States President Barack Obama wants the U.S. to draft a list of foreign target for possible cyber-attacks, based on the latest document in the string of leaks published in the U.K.-based Guardian in June. The October 2012 top-secret presidential directive, uploaded on the Guardian site on June 8, calls for U.S. senior national security and intelligence officials to prepare a plan that “identifies potential systems, processes and infrastructure against which the U.S should establish and maintain OCEO (Offensive Cyber Effects Operations capabilities).” Such operations “can offer unique and unconventional capabilities to advance U.S. national objectives around the world with little or no warning to the adversary or target and with potential effects ranging from subtle to severely damaging.”

Scott Borg, director of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, said the U.S., China and Russia are leading the race in building cyber-weapons capable of seriously damaging other nations’ critical infrastructure, as cited in a February 2013 NBC News report. Borg, the chief of the nonprofit institute that advises the U.S. government and businesses on cybersecurity, said the big three “have built arsenals of sophisticated computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses and other tools that place them atop the rest of the world in the ability to inflict serious damage on one another, or lesser powers.” Behind them are the four U.S. allies: Great Britain, Germany, Israel and perhaps Taiwan.

This revelation was published the same day Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss the future of U.S.-Chinese relations and key issues, including cyber-security, the Guardian reported on June 8.

Although China and Russia have equal capacity to cause destruction, Borg says the two have different priorities and expertise. “Russia is best at military espionage and operations” while “China’s main focus is stealing technology.” Borg adds that China has the biggest workforce, but it is not as innovative or creative as the two superpowers. Meanwhile, he said the U.S. can counter cyber-attacks from China and Russia by shutting down the power grid of “any of its adversaries” and causing severe physical damage.

China has been accused of launching several cyber-attacks against U.S. computer systems. The U.S. Department of Defense’s annual report to the U.S. Congress on “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China in 2013” states: “In 2012, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military.” In Feb., U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant issued a report alleging that a secret Chinese military unit in Shanghai had been stealing data from over 140 U.S companies for years, as reported by Fox News. China disputed the Mandiant report, also saying that the country has also been a victim of hacking, much of it traced to the U.S.

China, Russia identified as cyber-threats to U.S. Along with China, Russia is identified as a cyber-threat to the U.S. The Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive’s “Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage, 2009-2011” says “the governments of China and Russia will

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aim to launch a cyber-attack against critical infrastructures in the U.S. and its allies, including energy infrastructures, financial institutions, transportation systems, and others.” The paper regards Iran as “one of the most advanced nations in the field of cyberspace warfare, with capabilities … to install malicious code in counterfeit computer software … to develop viruses and tools for penetrating computers to gather intelligence ... and tools with delayed action mechanisms or mechanisms connected to control servers.”

More cyber-threats this year. This year,

The Iranian cyber-threat. Iran has demonstrated cyber-war capacities, staging some big attacks over the last year. In August 2012, a virus erased data on three-quarters of computers of the national oil company of Saudi Arabia Aramco, as recounted in a blog post by Sreeram Chauli, the Dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs in India. Chauli said, “it was a symbolic counter-attack by Iran against the economic lifeline of a US ally and a deadly rival in the Middle East, and also a payback for the Stuxnet virus that America and Israel deployed a few years ago to disable Iran’s nuclear centrifuges.” According to the 2012 paper “Iran’s CyberWarfare” uploaded by the Institute for National Security Studies, “in a case of escalation between Iran and the West, Iran will likely

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suspicions about state-sponsored cyber-attacks is expected to grow further. So says McAfee in its “2013 Threats prediction” that examines key trends in mobile ransomware, large scale attacks and hacktivism, which predicted that the “nation states and armies will be more frequent actors and victims of cyberthreats.” Unfortunately, the U.S. is more vulnerable than any other nations to cyber-attacks, according to Richard Clarke, as cited in the 2013 paper “Cyber War: the Challenge to National Security.” The former counterterrorism White House advisor gives four characteristics of the U.S that heighten its susceptibility: greater dependency on cybercontrolled systems to run critical national infrastructure (e.g. electrical power, pipelines, airlines, railroads, and banking); military dependence on civilian infrastructure; having the majority of critical infrastructure privately owned (corporate owners can prevent government regulations in their industries); and the vulnerability of its military to cyber-attacks. As cited in The CenSEI Report’s “Cyberspace: The Next War?” (Vol. 2, No. 10, March 12-18, 2012), Clarke paints a catastrophic picture of a cyber-attack, saying that it could disable trains all over the country, blow up pipelines, cause blackouts and damage electrical power grids, wipe out or scramble financial records, damage the financial system, disrupt traffic in urban areas, and even wipe out medical records. Pia Rufino contributed this box.

• June 24 – July 7, 2013

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H O T

Until another leak is brought into the open, we can only do so much to protect ourselves from what we don’t know.

Amid the cyber-snooping accusations in the United States and the threat of domestic surveillance in other countries across the globe, one might be wonder “online privacy” has become an oxymoron, a self-contradicting phrase. Believe it or not, privacy is something that netizens still have some control over, with ways to limit the information we share online or even to opt out of systems that track online activities.

For a few (million) dollars more.

Futuristic fastness makes it off automakers’ drawing boards, courtesy of Car and Driver’s comparisons of three so-called “hypercars” of 2014 – Ferrari’s LaFerrari, McLaren’s P1, and Lamborghini’s Veneno. As writer Daniel Pund puts it: “We call these supercars or hypercars, but they are not, in any conventional sense, cars. They are idols, expressions of an ideal, advertising, fodder for bedroom-wall posters.” Which is how they’ll stay, at least for the multitudes of people who, like ourselves, aren’t likely to find the $1.3 million to $3.9 million necessary to commission the production of these babies.

One effective way to protect personal data and conversation in e-mailing is through encryption, according to the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, who participated in an online question-and-answer session sponsored by the U.K.-based Guardian newspaper, as discussed in a June 19 CNN report. According to Snowden, encryption is a method of securing files, including e-mails, by encoding them, so that the intended recipients can read it, while anyone intercepting the message along the way cannot. One way to encrypt email is using the program Pretty Good Privacy, while for instant messaging, one can try Off The Record (OTR), says Erik Cabetas of Include Security in a June 17 CNN Money report.

If you’re wary of using Google for online searching, one most recommended website with secure browsing is DuckDuckGo, which does not record any information about your searches. According to Cabetas, one other way to hide is to use anonymizing networks like TOR (The Onion Radar), which pushes browsing traffic to a network of anonymous hosts. Meanwhile, the site prism-break.org provides a convenient list of all sorts of proprietary applications, from operating systems to e-mail services, instantmessaging, maps, and social networks, among others, with freeware and open-source alternatives for consideration, including a recommended “newbie’s choice” in each category, for less tech-savvy users. Jerome Balinton contributed this box

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Pump up the volume, pump up the paint. A recent entry in Scientific American’s Symbiartic blog features the sonic sculptures of Martin Klimas, an artist and photographer based in Dusseldorf, Germany, who dropped paint over a tight membrane stretched over a speaker as it

Another way to keep Web-browsing activities secure is to turn “http” into “https,” through the plug-in HTTPs Everywhere, according to Cabetas. This plug-in, according to the Gizmo’s Freeware site, forces many sites that have the option to encrypt your connection to actually encrypt it. Therefore the connection with these sites will be much more secure. However, HTTPs Everywhere only works if the website supports HTTP encryption. (Firefox and Chrome are two browsers that support this program, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.) Another extension that may be used – aside from HTTPs Everywhere – is “Do Not Track Me,” which allows users to opt out of being tracked by third-party Web trackers.

In a 2012 paper, “The Dangers of Surveillance,” Neil M. Richards, professor at St. Louis’ Washington University School of Law, warns that surveillance can chill the exercise of civil liberties, giving “the watcher power over the watched.” It can also breed a variety of abuses, such as coercion, discrimination, blackmail, and the threat of selective enforcement. He posits that while there are laws that protect U.S. citizens from government surveillance, “secret government programs cannot be challenged until they are discovered.”

How to keep the snoops off your data

suggests in the report, there is an urgent need “to further study new modalities of surveillance and to revise national laws regulating these practices in line with human rights standards.”

50 ways to use coconut oil. It’s good to see coconut oil getting some love again, after years of self-serving ignorance from manufacturers/ processors of vegetable oils, with this handy, onestop compilation of 50 uses for coconut oil, courtesy of Swanson Health Products’ Health Blog touting all sorts of uses from cooking with it to caring for your skin, hair, and teeth. The late Dr. Conrado Dayrit, longtime local advocate of coconut oil, would have been proud.

played songs from a variety of artists, from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana and Miles Davis’ Pharaoh Dance to Massive Attack’s Angel, Pink Floyd’s On the Run, and the Velvet Underground and Nico’s Run, Run, Run. The results: Music that looks as striking as it sounds. The

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• June 24 – July 7, 2013

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the Quest for Jobs and Peace

The Quest for Jobs and Peace At midterm, age-old challenges still test the Aquino administration By Ricardo Saludo

hings may be getting a bit tougher for the government and the nation. Just when the economy seems to be poised for takeoff after over a year of Asia-pacing growth — 6.8% last year and 7.8% last quarter — and soon after midterm elections handily won by the administration coalition, potentially serious problems are emerging on the economic and political fronts. While the economy is tipped to maintain strong expansion this year, with First Metro Investment projecting 7.3% increase in gross domestic product (GDP), there are signs that the boom isn’t benefiting poor, jobless Filipinos as it should. As detailed later in this report, unemployment, hunger and poverty data are worse now than in 2009, when global recession and mega-floods squeezed growth to 0.9%.

The plight of the destitute may get even worse if recent concerns about the global economy prove prescient. The quantitative easing (QE) policy of monetary expansion in developed countries, which has boosted investment in financial and property assets worldwide, looks set to be wound down in the United States, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke explained in his June 17 press conference. China, too, clamped down on years of easy credit the day after Bernanke’s speech, pushing interbank rates to as high as 25% — in effect, closing that lending window — and triggering fears of a financial crisis and a market and property crash. Monetary authorities loosened up somewhat on June 24, but the People’s Bank of China told lenders to better manage their funds and control lending.

The end of easy money. With generous credit

PHILIPPINE TAKEOFF? Economic Performance and Forecasts by First Metro Investment and University of Asia and the Pacific 2010

STRATEGY POINTS With joblessness, hunger and poverty up despite growth, the challenge is turning the boom into gains for the poor Emerging political and security worries should be contained to keep investors, tourists and property buyers coming

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Inflation (percent)

3.8

2011

2012

2013

4.5

3.2

3.0

Peso-Dollar 43.89 Rate (end-yr)

43.93

41.50

41-43

Gross Int’l Reserves ($ billion)

62.1

75.4

84.5

95.0

GDP Growth (percent)

7.6

3.9

5.8

7.3

11.2

4.1

5.5

8.0

Services (percent)

6.9

5.3

6.5

7.0

Industry (percent)

Table from First Metro Investment-University of Asia and the Pacific report by Victor Abola

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due to end in the world’s top two economies, global markets slumped as investors feared that stocks and bonds would fall with less money going around. A June 20 Royal Bank of Scotland report, cited by

cfoinnovation.com, warned that “regional asset prices would come under significant pressure should the Fed phase out QE.” On June 21 the Philippine exchange lost massively over the Bernanke speech, more than did the neighboring bourses. Three days later the market index fell below 6,000 to its lowest level since January. In fact, the Manila market had been retreating since the index peaked at 7,403 on May 15, as global investors pulled funds out of emerging markets — $2.7 billion from Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand in the first two weeks of June alone — to invest in the U.S. and Japan, where economic prospects are improving. The bigger question is whether real estate and construction, a main driver of economic growth, would follow south as overseas investors retreat (see boxed story on next page).

Peace talks stall as rebel attacks rise. Aside

from money flows, political stability and security are another key factor affecting property and other long-term investments. In this area, challenges are increasing too. Snags in peace talks with communist rebels and Muslim separatists have already spurred an escalation in attacks by the New People’s Army (NPA), which recently forced Philex Mining to stop Negros Occidental operations. Chief communist negotiator Luis Jalandoni threatened continued insurgency till the end of President Aquino’s term.

Challenges to Philippine real estate cited by Jones Lang LaSalle

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For its part, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front recently criticized what it called “government backtracking”

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the Quest for Jobs and Peace

on highly touted agreements signed last year. It also warned that MILF commanders are losing hope in the peace process. Chief government negotiator with the MILF Miriam CoronelFerrer contended that a final peace accord was possible before August. Also causing concern is renewed activity by the terrorist Abu Sayyaf, including the kidnapping of two Muslim women filmmakers, reported on June 24. The bandits had teamed up with Muslim rebels in the past. Meanwhile, continued tensions and incidents with rival claimants in disputed islands and waters add external defense pressures to the formidable internal security threats. The recent incident over the killing of a Taiwan fisherman by the Philippine Coast Guard has been partly resolved by collaboration between Manila and Taipei in investigating the incident and the recommendation by Philippine investigators to charge the servicemen. But the two governments have yet to forge a fishing agreement covering their overlapping maritime economic zones. Further on territorial issues, there is continuing news on the incursion by more than a thousand followers of the Sultan Jamalul Kiram III of Sulu in March and April, to assert the sultanate’s ownership of Sabah. Malaysia’s Eastern Sabah Security Command denied Philippine news reports of some 400 more of the Sultan’s followers entering the state and igniting new hostilities. At least 60 Filipinos died in April when Malaysian armed forces with tanks and planes attacked the Sulu group in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

Bishops raise strongman fears. Going

to the main political arena, the big question

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To build or not to build, that is the question There have been recurring concerns over a possible real estate bubble, which prompted the Bangko Sentral to take preventive steps as early as last September, asking banks for property lending details to encourage “more self-restraint,” as one central bank official put it. The following month came a seminar titled “Is a Bubble in the Philippine Real Estate Sector Developing?”, given by regional director and country manager David Leechiu of international property consultants Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) and University of Asia and the Pacific business dean Winston Padojinog. The latter pointed to “a growing surplus of 400,000 units [priced at] ₱3 million and above, the low- and mid-income sector.” The De La Salle University DBA further reported even more construction in OctoberDecember, with building permits up 13.5% over a year before. Total cost of projects hit ₱67 billion, higher by about 50%, with combined area of 6.52 million square meters, 39% more. In December, Filipino-American realtors Joe Salcedo and Ian Mariano warned of a housing property crash similar to the one during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In its March report on the Philippine property market, JLL cited the “need to prevent a bubble from forming in the real estate sector” among the challenges to the industry. Indeed, in its market forecast, while supply in key property sectors show robust growth, demand increase is moderate, while rents and prices are expected to rise minimally (see Market Trends map). Property consultant Ramon Cuervo III urged in his online blog that “we need to focus on things that make the Philippine real estate unsinkable” — overseas Filipino workers (60% of OFW remittances is invested

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in property), business process outsourcing (BPOs take up half of Metro Manila office space), and new families and young employees, including nearly a million BPO workers, needing homes. In its March presentation, Jones Lang LaSalle chief operating officer Lindsay Orr also banked on OFWs, BPOs and the broader economy. Her presentation cited bullish projections, anchored on the steady increase in tourist arrivals and BPO staffing since 2001, despite political and economic concerns. Indeed, offshoring and outsourcing is forecast to gross $15 billion to $25 billion by 2016, employing between 680,000 and 1.3 million Filipinos. The 18.7% increase in Metro Manila office stock projected this year is second in Asia only to Hanoi, and is tipped to grow 25% to 8 million square meters

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by 2016. More homes are expected to be built in the six years to 2018 than in the 14 years from 1999 to 2012. Construction projects for 14,830 hotel rooms are to be launched or planned till 2016, most of them in Newport City near the airport’s Terminal 3, with another 1,250 expected in the waterfront Entertainment City. That’s five times the 2,870 rooms built in Metro Manila in the past two years. If those unprecedented forecasts happen, the Philippines will see even more growth fueled by construction and its multiplier effect on jobs and consumer spending. But if property slumps due to the exodus of foreign money, the emergence and bursting of a property bubble, or the old bogey of political and security disruptions, growth and jobs would shrivel in

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is over the Senate network, and the top leadership. survey outfits. The Palace and administration Controversy may also senators are intensify over the pushing for recent polls, which Senator Franklin watchdog groups Drilon, a longtime have criticized for loyalist of the dispensing with President’s family legally required and most recently, safeguards for the campaign manager automated election of Aquino’s Liberal system. The CBCP’s Party in last National Secretariat Enrile quits as Senate President: One archbishop month’s midterm for Social Action warned of ‘virtual dictatorship’ ABS-CBN elections. Drilon’s (NASSA) called the rise moved closer polls “questionable” in when opposition its May 28 statement, stalwart Juan Ponce Enrile quit as Senate President and declared: “This so-called automated election with its malpractices will be perpetuated in the on June 5. coming elections if we do not loudly clamour for accountability.” Already, an outspoken former president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, AES (Automated Election System) Watch and other civil society groups have been critical of the has warned of “virtual dictatorship” if an Aquino man heads the Senate, widely seen as the only Commission on Elections and Comelec Chairman remaining national institution not subservient to Sixto Brillantes Jr., one of two former Aquino poll the Palace. Cruz called for vigilance against possible lawyers on the body’s governing board. Five of its constitutional amendments, while fellow prelate seven members were appointed by Aquino. Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles worried about the possible return of U.S. military bases, which would require charter change. The other half of Congress, the House of Representatives, has been pork-barreled into submission since 2010, while the Judiciary is under former Aquino schoolmate Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, who also heads the Judicial and Bar Council selecting nominees for court judges. Also seen as largely supportive of Aquino are the three top newspapers, the leading broadcast

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In early July, the CBCP meet for their semi-annual plenary, always keenly watched for its pastoral statement to the Filipino faithful, who make up 85% of the nation. While open confrontation against the state is unlikely, the Church cannot keep silent on contraception, poverty, elections, and land-reform issues, about which they have been speaking out for years. That includes the longdelayed distribution of the vast Hacienda Luisita of the President’s Cojuangco clan before the agrarian law expires in a year.

soaring oil prices, tough fiscal reforms, and election fraud allegations led protesters and even some of her Cabinet to call for her resignation.

If the foregoing slew of economic and political troubles come together, President Aquino may have to deal with a perfect storm of problems in the typhoon months, just when disasters further strain the populace and the public sector.

Turning growth into jobs. One lesson to

Lessons from the Arroyo crisis. His

predecessor, Gloria Arroyo, faced a similar confluence of challenges in 2005, when crises over

Arroyo survived that difficult episode as her tax initiatives fueled an economic surge, which lifted the Philippines from Southeast Asian laggard to one of the region’s growth leaders. Now, it could be Aquino’s turn to grapple with multiple challenges on the road to the long-hoped-for national takeoff.

learn from Arroyo’s troubles is the imperative of keeping the economy humming. That means not just generating growth, but jobs too, especially for the poor. In this imperative to translate economic expansion into employment, there may be a further lesson to learn from the past administration’s success in keeping joblessness and hunger down even when growth is minimal.

LOOKING FOR WORK Philippine Unemployment Rate, 2008-April 2013 percent of labor force, quarterly data

How will the Catholic leadership, especially the CBCP, respond to these issues, especially the plight of the poor, the conduct of elections, and the feared Palace control of major institutions and media? Not to mention the continuing tussle over the administration’s Reproductive Health Law (Republic Act 10354) promoting birth control, which has spawned fears in the Catholic Church that divorce, same-sex marriage, illicit gambling, and even abortion may be legalized.

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Chart from tradingeconomics.com based on National Statistics Office data

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since 2006, just before Arroyo fiscal reforms lifted confidence and growth, and pared average SRP down year after year until she left office in mid-2010.

WHEN MORE IS LESS Growth, Unemployment, Hunger and Poverty, 2009/10 and 2012/13 All data in percent (%)

2009

2012

0.9

6.6 (7.8 in 2013-Q1)

7.3 Jan. 2010, down 0.4

7.5 April 2013, up 0.6

Labor Force Participation Rate

64.5 Jan. 2010, up 1.2

63.9 April 2013, down 1.2

Average Hunger Incidence Moderate Hunger Severe Hunger

19.1 15.1 4.0

19.9 15.6 4.3

Average Self-Rated Poverty Self-Rated Food Poverty

49 39

52 41

GDP Growth Unemployment

Average poverty incidence, however, rose again in Aquino’s first two full years. This despite over ₱50 billion in direct stipends for the poor since mid2010, now supposed to benefit more than 3 million families, or 15 million indigent Filipinos. Self-rated food poverty incidence, the percentage of families unable to buy enough food, averaged 41% in 2012, up from 39% in recession-hobbled 2009 (see Table 2 in SWS poverty charts).

Sources: GDP from National Statistical Coordination Board, Unemployment from National Statistics Office, Hunger Incidence and Self-Rated Poverty from Social Weather Stations

In January 2010, after a year of 0.9% growth due to global recession, Philippine unemploment managed to fall slightly to 7.3% from 7.7% twelve months earlier. The dip was even more remarkable with more Filipinos looking for work: the labor participation rate rose 1.2 percentage points to 64.3%. That’s nearly half a million added to the workforce.

Social Weather Stations hunger survey in March, households that missed one or more meals over the previous three months rose to 19.2%, up from 16.3% in December, despite first-quarter growth. SWS also reported 19.9% average hunger incidence last year, lifted by a record 23.8% in March 2012 (see Table 1 in SWS hunger charts).

Fast-forward to April 2013. After 6.6% expansion in gross domestic product (GDP) last year, No. 2 in the region, and Asia-leading 7.8% growth in the first quarter, helped by election, infrastructure and property outlays, unemployment surged to its highest in three years, leaping to 7.5% from 6.9% a year before. This despite lower labor participation as more than a quarter of a million stopped stopped searching for jobs.

That average was even higher than the 19.1% mean in 2009, when families suffered from world recession and riceland devastation in the Ondoy and Pepeng mega-floods. Moderate hunger averaged 15.6% last year, compared with 15.1% in 2009, while severe hunger was 4.3%, against 4.0% three years before.

More mismatches between growth and welfare. There are more mismatches between

growth and welfare in 2009 and 2012. In the latest

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Another SWS measure is self-rated poverty, the percentage of families who consider themselves poor, last surveyed also in March. In high-growth 2012, SRP averaged 52%, significantly higher than the 49% recorded in near-recession 2009 (see Table 1 in SWS poverty charts). Last year’s mean was the highest

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Government data affirmed the unimpressive SWS poverty figures, with official poverty incidence little changed from 22.9% in 2009 to 22.3% in the first quarter of 2012, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board report in April. President Aquino wondered then whether the comparison used wrong population data. But NSCB Director-General Jose Ramon Albert respectfully pointed out that the poverty statistics were based on direct surveys and not computed from population numbers.

Focus on the governance challenge.

Rather than downplay worrisome data, it would be far more productive to focus on the governance challenge emerging from the foregoing GDP, jobs, hunger and

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poverty numbers: translating economic growth into employment and upliftment for the poor. So instead of putting down its predecessor, the Aquino administration would do well to search for lessons to learn, especially from seemingly better results under then-President Gloria Arroyo. She managed to contain unemployment, hunger and poverty, despite lower GDP growth, a virulent global recession, and devastating Luzon storms that destroyed over ₱200 billion in assets and output in the country’s economic core.

Having served in the Arroyo government from the second month of her presidency in 2001 until it ended on June 30, 2010, this former Cabinet member sees three key factors that helped generate jobs, put food on the table, and alleviate poverty even in \ adverse economic circumstances.

Set clear, time-bound employment targets.

First, Arroyo gave paramount priority and constant attention to a clear, time-bound employment target: a net increase of 1 million jobs nationwide every year. She announced that overarching goal upon her election as president in 2004, and made it the focus of the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan covering her elected term from 2004 to 2010. Thus, when faced with the choice of a balanced Social Weather Stations chart

• June 24 – July 7, 2013

you gotta see this

the Quest for Jobs and Peace

We really don’t know clouds at all. From the memolition budget or deficit spending in 2009, Arroyo chose the latter to keep jobs generation on track. For his part, President Aquino has announced no employment target. Instead, his top objective has been to win investment-grade rating, which depends mainly on cutting deficits and raising revenues. Thus, he opted for underspending in 2011, though it held back growth and infrastructure needed to create jobs.

The key is monitoring and follow-up.

Next lesson is the adoption and sustained monitoring of a broad menu of initiatives to address the vast complexities of both hunger and job generation. Underscore monitoring. More than adopting an ambitious plan, the real challenge is making sure key components are being implemented as envisioned.

the AHMP included short-term jobs, free rice for poor students, special road lanes to reduce food transport costs, backyard vegetable gardens, microfinance, and other measures. Like job generation, hunger mitigation was constantly followed up by both Arroyo and the Presidential Management Staff. The third factor that helped drive employment and anti-poverty work was, ironically, negative media. Unlike the current regime, the Arroyo government did not enjoy largely favorable coverage trumpeting administration gains and downplaying its failings.

blog, here’s a set of 23 striking photographs of unusual cloud formations from different photographers around the world, organized in a cloudclassification system we’ll bet most of you didn’t know existed until now. These clouds, in response to an exhortation in an old Simon & Garfunkel song, will show their face and bend your mind.

Nor were public trust, approval and satisfaction ratings constantly at high levels, which could breed complacency.

To hit the jobs target, the Arroyo government adopted the Super Regions strategy of providing infrastructure, funding and training to those sectors and regions with high growth potential and solid competitiveness: agriculture in Luzon and Mindanao, industrial and logistics ventures in Metro Manila and Regions 3 and 4A, tourism in Central Philippines, and business process outsourcing in major cities. Among other achievements, two legacies stand out: the “nautical highway” network of roads and ports boosting tourism and trade, and the BPO industry, which grew exponentially into a $8-billion-a-year export behemoth when her administration ended (it has since doubled in gross export earnings). Similarly, the Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program (AHMP) addressed point by point the major factors contributing to the problem, rather than relying mainly on one flagship program like conditional cash transfers. Thus, besides CCT,

Photo credit: JΩSH and memolition.com

Under constant pressure from both Malacañang and media, the Arroyo Cabinet and its agencies had to deliver against tough odds. Now, it’s Aquino’s turn. On June 17, the day the foregoing jobs, hunger and poverty comparison appeared in The Manila Times, President Aquino convened a Cabinet meeting to conduct a “midterm review of the economic considerations of the Republic of the Philippines ... The President ordered that, as we are approaching the middle of his term, he wanted a very detailed and a full-blown review of the past three years, looking at questions about the economy,” said Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras.

Photo credit: Steve Mills and boredpanda.com

Photo credit: Jason de Graaf and boredpanda.com

Hyper-realistic paintings, painstakingly rendered. From photographs so impressionistic that you’d be forgiven for thinking they were

When Congress opens on July 22, political watchers will likely be looking closely at who sits beside President Aquino as Senate President. But most people, especially the poor and jobless, will be listening intently for what the Chief Executive and his administration will do to bring food, jobs, and a better life to Filipinos.

paintings, we go in the opposite direction now, with boredpanda.com presenting a collection of paintings so reallooking you’d swear they were photographs, done in a wild assortment of styles from an assortment of artists. Photo credit: Diego Fazio and boredpanda.com

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MANAGING HEALTH RISKS FACED BY BPO WORKERS

Shift work carries increased medical risks

Perils of the Night: Keeping the BPO Worker Healthy

notes that these problems are clearly related to the high turnover rate in this industry, “as high as 100% annually in some companies.”

That’s a must for the $16-billion-a-year outsourcing industry By Victoria Fritz

A tailor-made recipe for stress-related hazards. Apart

from heavy and variable workloads combined with performance targets, relatively low levels of job discretion (particularly in call centers), tight rules, procedures enforced via electronic monitoring, and monotonous and unpleasant work tasks (such as dealing with difficult customers over the phone) constitute a tailor-made recipe for stress-related hazards.

STRATEGY POINTS: Various studies have found that the stressful nature of business-process outsourcing puts the health of industry workers at risk Guidelines and healthy lifestyle choices can be applied to help manage health risks related to working non-daytime hours

a May 8 post in the Huffington Post’s Impact X blog, Michael Chertok of Digital Divide Data reports that the business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry is now worth US$300 billion worldwide, and employs several million people in different countries, primarily India, the Philippines, and China. In India, the BPO sector has grown from 1.2% of GDP in 1998 to 6.4% in 2011, while in the Philippines, it has created more than 700,000 jobs.

With the client market mostly in the West, on time zones anywhere from seven to 13 hours behind Asian time zones, BPO firms commonly entail night work in order to accommodate Western schedules. According to the executive summary of “Offshoring and working conditions in remote work,” a book published in

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2010 by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Palgrave Macmillan, “BPO employees face heavy workloads backed by performance targets combined with tight rules and procedures,” making for a generally stressful environment. (The book, a collection of studies that includes reports on India, the Philippines, Argentina, and Brazil, can be purchased for US$100, UK₤67.60, or €75.) The book’s editors, Jon Messenger and Naj Ghosheh, conclude that while working standards are good in the BPO industry, in terms of wages, hours of work and other benefits, heavy and variable workloads dictated by performance targets, tight rules and procedures and monotonous and unpleasant tasks (such as dealing with irate customers over the phone) constitute a stressful working environment. The study

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The Department of Health conducted its own study in 2012, where 1,500 call center agents underwent a “bio impedance analysis,” as reported in The Philippine Star on May 25. The DOH found that 60% of the respondents have higher metabolic ages than their actual chronological ages, which is attributed to their bodies being under a lot of stress. Also in May 2012, Amrita Gupta, a doctoral student at the Indiabased International Institute for Population Sciences, presented a research paper, “Health, Social and Psychological Problems of Women Employees in Business Process Outsourcing: A Study in India,” on women BPO workers in India, at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America.

The

Many BPO workers, who service clients from different time zones, work at night or at irregular hours. Various studies have shown that shift work raises the risk for illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity. A survey of 34 studies published in July 2012 in the British Medical Journal shows that shift work raises the risk for vascular diseases. Shift work was defined as evening shifts, irregular or unspecified shifts, mixed schedules, night shifts and rotating shifts. According to the survey, whose studies surveyed a collective total of 2,011,935 people, shift work was associated with a 23% increased risk of a heart attack and a 24% rise in coronary events. In particular, night shifts were linked with the highest increase of 41% for A study led by Dr. Christopher Morris of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School shows that peak glucose levels were 16% higher during one night of simulated shift work, as reported on June 5 on the mid-day.com website. The study, reportedly published in the journal Sleep, concluded that people who work at night have an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Another study of night-shift work found that working at night is related to the incidence of obesity. The April 2012 study, published and available for purchase in Chronobiology International, surveyed 1,206 Brazilian poultry-processing plant workers between the ages of 18 and 50, and found a higher prevalence of overweight (42.2% vs. 34.3%) and abdominal obesity (24.9% vs. 19.5%) than what was found in day-shift workers. After adjusting for sociodemographics, parental overweight status, behavioral characteristics and sleep characteristics, prevalence ratios for overweight and abdominal obesity were within 95% confidence levels. An April 2012 article posted on the site of the Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund of North America offers an explanation as to why night-shift work causes obesity. The human circadian rhythms program the body to release melatonin late in the day, making people sleepy at night. Those who do not heed this urge because they have to go to work wreak havoc on their metabolism. Also, night-shift workers eat when their bodies are not prepared to do so, when levels of the hormone leptin, which signals fullness, are low, and levels of ghrelin, the hormone that stimulates appetite, are high. So they eat more. In addition, the confused metabolism encourages the intake of highly caloric sugary foods. All of these can lead to cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

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MANAGING HEALTH RISKS FACED BY BPO WORKERS

POINT & CLICK Access online research via your Internet connection by clicking pictures, graphics, and words in blue

Gupta’s paper cited a 2006 study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India on 272 women working on night shifts, which found that high percentages of the women were found to have the following problems, as listed in the chart across the page. The study also mentioned that the respondents, who worked night shifts, had a difficult time getting sleep during the day due to household and parenting duties.

Proposed BPO worker protection legislation filed in 2012. Citing the aforementioned 2010 ILO

study, Kabataan Party-list Representative Raymond Palatino filed House Bill 2592, “BPO Workers Welfare & Protection Act,” in 2010, noting that BPO workers have a greater risk of contracting sleeping disorders, depression, eye strain, vocal complications, and other similar health problems. Section 22 of the bill proposes that “BPO workers shall be entitled to a medical examination free of charge upon entry in the BPO company and not merely upon regularization, and every year thereafter during his/her tenure of employment…” Section 23 stipulates that “An occupational safety and health policy shall be formulated by each BPO establishment addressing the safety and health concerns in BPO workplaces…”

of Labor and Employment and of Health (DOH) launched the “SEX” (Stress-free, Eat the right food, and Exercise) program for a safe and healthy lifestyle among BPO workers, as reported in the Philippine Star on May 25. The project – since renamed “Live Well, Work Well,” following call centers’ reported objections to the “SEX” acronym – will be piloted this June in 30 companies covering 200,000 call center agents. Under this program, teams of experts will go to BPO companies to conduct a 30-minute lecture about healthy lifestyles before office hours. According to Ethelyn Nieto, a former DOH undersecretary serving as chairperson of the iCare Healthy Lifestyle Office Caravan project technical working group, which handles the three-year project, initial on-site lectures will be followed by return visits to assess workers after three months, and then after six months.

Government agencies try to address situation.

In response to findings that BPO workers have higher metabolic age than their actual age (meaning their bodies are older than their real age), the Departments

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Backaches

45% Respiratory Illness

60% Sleep Difficulty

55% Cold & Headache

50% Digestive Disorders

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• Eat well and exercise. Since many of the risks of shift work are tied to obesity and metabolic syndrome, step up efforts to prevent them. Exercising regularly, eating well, and maintaining a healthy weight could make a difference.

50%

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60% High Blood Pressure

Information from “Health, Social and Psychological Problems of Women Employees in Business Process Outsourcing: A Study in India,” paper presented by Amrita Gupta at Population Association of America 2012 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, May 5, 2012.

Shift patterns: avoid permanent shifts. Permanent shifts should be avoided when possible. When inevitable, ensure that staff is aware of risks involved and provided information.

Shift timing: avoid permanent night shifts if possible. Afternoon shifts are better as there is less disruption to the body clock.

Menstrual Problems

• Get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation has its own health risks, and studies suggest that shift workers sleep less effectively than day workers. Part of the problem is that even brief exposure to light during the day naturally wakes up your body, making it hard to sleep.  Shift workers should make sure to block out the light in the

Covering the more general category of shift work, the United Kingdom’s Office of Public Sector Information offers the following guidelines for managing shift work, as adapted from its Health and Safety Executive publication.

If it is possible to rotate shifts, do so every 2-3 days. This way, the body clock does not adapt. Weekly/fortnightly shifts are not recommended. They are the most disruptive as the internal body clock starts to adapt and then has to restart again. If fast rotation is not possible, then a much slower rotation over at least a 3-week period is the next best thing.

medical advice site webmd suggests the following common-sense habits workers can adopt in order to counter the effects of night-shift work:

In May 2012, Bayan Muna Party-list Representative Teddy Casino filed House Bill 6073, as reported in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which would designate occupational health and safety workplace representatives to monitor the work environment in BPO firms, among other provisions.

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Give them a break

What workers can do on their own. Popular

This bill is significant in that in focuses on the unique situation of BPO workplaces, and requires companies to address the unique needs as such.

HEALTH PROBLEMS OF WOMEN EMPLOYEES IN INDIAN CALL CENTERS

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Rest breaks within shift: 5-15 minutes every 1-2 hours. If possible, let the workers decide when to take a break. A short period of sleep, around 20 minutes, has been advocated as a way of coping with fatigue on night shifts. Take a break away from the work station, as this is more beneficial.

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supergraphic

MANAGING HEALTH RISKS FACED BY BPO WORKERS

bedroom with room-darkening shades or with a sleep mask.

• Change your schedule. While moving

to daytime shifts might not be possible, making changes to how you work at night could help, too. For instance, some experts think that working stable rather than rotating shifts might be healthier.  Many industries are also experimenting with different approaches to shift work, e.g., shorter shifts and scheduled nap times.

• See your doctor. Have regular checkups. Doctors might suggest medicine either to help you stay awake during shifts or to help you sleep when you get into bed. If your health is obviously suffering -- if you’re gaining weight and your blood sugar is rising -- it could be an obvious sign that you need to consider a new line of work. If your doctor doesn’t see any problems, you could perform your shift work with more confidence. Timothy Morgenthaler, M.D. of the Mayo Clinic offers the following advice for night-shift workers, to promote better sleep during the day.

• Avoid stimulants, such as caffeine and nicotine, before bedtime. If you’re working nights and need to sleep from morning until afternoon, you might try to avoid caffeine after midnight.

• Create a restful environment. To

promote uninterrupted sleep, turn off or unplug your phone and hang room-darkening shades on the windows. You might also wear an eye mask and post a “Do not disturb” sign on your bedroom door — and possibly your front

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The first global map charting violence against women

door as well. Schedule appointments and other activities outside of your sleep period, and train your family and friends to leave you alone while you sleep.

• Take a short nap before your shift.

Napping for up to 30 minutes just before work or on a break may increase alertness and enhance your performance, including quicker reaction time, better memory, less confusion, and fewer accidents and mistakes — especially if your daytime sleep period was cut short. Keep it short, though, because the longer you nap, the more likely you are to feel groggy afterward.

• Stick to the routine. Going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day helps promote good sleep. Be as consistent as possible, even on weekends and days off.

• Make healthy lifestyle choices. Eat a healthy diet and include physical activity in your daily routine. If exercise seems to energize you, plan to work out after you wake up rather than before you go to sleep. Resist the temptation to use junk food or nicotine to stay awake, or alcohol to get to sleep.

Graphic from World Health Organization and National Geographic News Watch

If these tips don’t seem to help, consult your doctor or a sleep specialist. Sometimes an underlying sleep disorder or some other medical issue might need to be addressed.

A June 20 entry on National Geographic’s News Watch blog reports on the release of the first-ever global study into the prevalence of violence against women. The Supergraphic below is the global map from the World Health Organization (WHO) study “Global and regional estimates of violence against women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner violence.”

What both sites agree upon is that it is possible to address the risks of working at night. Good daytime sleep is possible if that is what your work entails.

According to the WHO study, 35% of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of intimate or non-intimate partners combined, and 30% of all women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner. The study also provides regional estimates of violence against women, with WHO’s South-East Asia Region registering the highest prevalence rate (37.7%), followed by the Eastern Meditteranean Region (37.0%), and the African Region (36.6%).

People need not quit their BPO jobs en masse because of the health risks involved. They should just be aware of the risks and what steps they can take to address those risks.

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“These findings send a powerful message that violence against women is a global health problem of epidemic proportions,” the National Geographic report quoted Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO’s directorgeneral, as saying in a press release prefacing the release of the study.

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Fighting Cervical Cancer with the HPV Vaccine

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Fighting Cervical Cancer with the HPV Vaccine

High costs still a prohibiting factor in the developing world, however

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 60% of oropharyngeal cancers — cancers of the throat, tonsils, and the base of the tongue — are linked to HPV. The CDC, nonetheless, noted that the most common HPV-associated cancer is cervical cancer, with almost all cervical cancer caused by the virus. Based on data from the CDC, 12,357 women in the U.S were diagnosed with cervical cancer, with 3,909 women dying from the disease in 2009.

By Marishka Cabrera and Pia Rufino

Here’s the good news: new research suggests that HPV vaccine works in reducing HPV infection rates in young women, the CDC said in a statement in June 19. Findings from the study, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, show that “since the introduction of the vaccine in 2006, vaccinetype HPV prevalence decreased 56 percent among female teenagers 14-19 years of age.” Also reporting on the results of the study, Reuters said the HPV vaccines include Gardasil and Cervarix.

STRATEGY POINTS: Introduced in 2006, the vaccine designed to protect women from cervical cancer has reduced human papillomavirus infections, U.S. health officials report Deaths from cervical cancer highlight global disparities in access to health care Vaccination, access to basic screening, adequate prevention and treatment methods can help developing countries lower mortality rates

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June 2, The Guardian reported that American actor and producer Michael Douglas said that his throat cancer was caused by a sexually transmitted virus, the human papillovirus (HPV), which he acquired through oral sex. Later, Douglas’ spokesperson denied the UK newspaper’s report, stating that the 68-year-old husband of Catherine Zeta Jones did not say that oral sex was the specific cause of his personal cancer. Despite the misunderstanding, however, it is true that you can get throat cancer from HPV.

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“This report shows that HPV works well, and the report should be a wake-up call to our nation to protect the next generation by increasing HPV vaccination rates,” said CDC Director Thomas Frieden, noting that only a third of U.S girls aged 13-17 have been fully vaccinated with HPV vaccines. About 79 million Americans, most in their late teens and early 20s, are infected with HPV, with about 14 million people getting newly infected ever year, as noted by the CDC.

Low- and middle-income nations account for more than 85% of cervical cancer deaths. In most developing nations in Asia, the

figures are far from ideal. A 2013 World Health Organization (WHO) report on “Comprehensive cervical cancer prevention and control: a healthier

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Key facts about HPV vaccines The following findings are taken from the World Health Organization report, “Comprehensive cervical cancer prevention and control: a healthier future for girls and women”: • 70% of cervical cancers worldwide are caused by only two HPV types (16 and 18) • Two vaccines against HPV are licensed in most countries • Both vaccines prevent over 95% of HPV infections caused by HPV types 16 and 18, and may have some cross-protection against other less common HPV types that cause cervical cancer. One of the vaccines also protects against HPV types 6 and 11, which cause anogenital warts • Both vaccines work best if administered prior to exposure to HPV • The vaccines cannot treat HPV infection or HPVassociated disease • The WHO-recommended target group for vaccination is 9–to-13 year-old girls who have not yet become sexually active • Both vaccines require three doses administered over a period of six months • Safety of these vaccines is being closely monitored, and thus far, is very reassuring • HIV-infected individuals can be vaccinated

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Fighting Cervical Cancer with the HPV Vaccine

future for girls and women” notes that every year, more than 270,000 women die from cervical cancer, and more than 85% of these deaths are in low- and middle-income countries. Insufficient financial resources, weak health systems, and limited numbers of trained providers have made high coverage for cervical cancer screening difficult to achieve, it stresses. “Introducing and scaling up delivery of HPV vaccine to girls who are 9 to 13 years old is a unique opportunity to develop synergies between national programmes of immunization, cancer control, sexual and reproductive health, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, adolescent health, and women’s health,” the WHO report recommends.

Disparity in health care. The mortality rates

According to a paper on the burden of cancer in member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention in 2012, there were an estimated 724,699 new cancer cases (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) and 500,439 deaths in the ASEAN region in 2008. Of all new cases, 46% were in males and 54% in females, but 52% of deaths occurred in men. Among women, the paper notes, breast cancer had the highest incidence, followed by cervical cancer and colorectal cancer. It concludes that most, if not all, of these countries will undergo economic growth, and with it, an aging of their populations and increase in the burden of cancer. As such, policy and funding priorities must be geared toward the planning and strengthening of their health systems. A March 2012 presentation by Kimberley Fox, MD, MPH, from the Expanded Programme on Immunization of the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office shows that 11 countries in Asia and the Pacific have conducted or are currently

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undertaking pilot HPV-vaccination projects. These nations are: the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Bhutan, Cambodia, Fiji, Kiribati, Mongolia, Nepal, and Papua New Guinea. Meanwhile, 19 countries in Asia and the Pacific have already introduced HPV vaccine into their national immunization programs, including Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan.

from cervical cancer are significantly higher in the developing world than those in more developed nations. This trend underscores a striking disparity in global access to health care, according to a 2011 article posted by the Harvard College Global Health Review. Based on the article, the disease kills 274,000 each year, with over 80% of the deaths from developing countries, driven by the lack of access to screening procedures, prevention and treatment methods. (On the next page) “The absence of widespread screening programs explains the more than eight-fold difference between the highest and lowest incidence rates of cervical cancer worldwide. Since screening, early diagnosis, and treatment technologies are beyond the reach of many developing countries, prevention is of the utmost importance,” author Dylan Neel explains in the article.

Cost of HPV vaccine still a hurdle for the developing world. One challenge, Neel cited, is

that the vaccine for HPV—the virus that causes 70% of cervical cancer—is expensive: a single course of vaccine costs US$300. Moreover, many developing countries lack infrastructure and trained staff to administer the vaccine. In a paper published in the June 2012 issue of the journal Viral Immunology, cost is still seen as a

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barrier to the implementation of HPV vaccination strategies, particularly in developing countries. Alternatives must be explored to achieve the goal of reducing “the burden of HPV-related disease in the most efficacious and financially feasible way.” Screenings, for instance, are relatively less expensive than vaccines. Thus, Pap smears may be a more cost-effective way to detect, mitigate, and prevent cervical cancer in women from the developing world.

CERVICAL CANCER DEATHS ARE HIGHER IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

The paper underscores the desperate need for a cheap, but accurate testing procedure that requires little infrastructure, especially in economically disadvantaged areas. An effective screening program would still entail steady financing, and would have to adhere to cultural and economic norms in the target country to ensure compliance. In India, researchers reported that a simple screening program for cervical cancer using vinegar and visual exams helped reduce deaths caused by the cancer by 31% in a group of 150,000 poor Indian women. A June 3 Reuters story published in GMA News explains participants aged 35 to 64 were randomly assigned to either an education program

Chart from the World Health Organization, as posted in the 2011 article “An Exercise in Economics: Cervical Cancer Prevention in the Developing World,” Dylan Neel, Nov. 15, 2011, Harvard College Global Health Review.

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• June 24 – July 7, 2013

Fighting Cervical Cancer with the HPV Vaccine

to teach women how to recognize symptoms of cervical cancer or a screening program wherein a vinegar solution is applied to the cervix, which can turn pre-cancerous tissues white and visible to the naked eye in just one minute. If the program is implemented broadly, the report states, it could lead to the prevention of 22,000 cervical cancer deaths in India and 72,000 deaths in the developing world yearly. Last month, the manufacturers of the HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix announce it would cut their prices to the world’s poorest countries below US$5 per dose, The New York Times reported. The lower prices, negotiated through an association that aims to deliver more vaccines to the world’s poor, will initially apply to a few million doses for demonstration projects in Kenya, Ghana, Laos, Madagascar, among others. The alliance hopes to provide vaccines to 30 million girls in 40 countries at the reduced price or even less by 2020.

in the International Journal for Equity in Health states: “Parents worry that their children may interpret their acceptance of the vaccine as approval of sexual activity. Parents are concerned that their children may see HPV immunization as blanket protection against the effects of sexual risk-taking.” The article also identified “high vaccine costs, inadequate delivery infrastructure, and lack of community engagement to generate awareness about cervical cancer and early screening tools” as barriers to vaccine implementation.

created the vaccine, says it is also the world’s first vaccine that prevents cancer.

Resistance to vaccination. Another

hurdle in the widespread implementation of the HPV vaccines is the people’s notion that “immunizing young girls against HPV is a form of sterilization,” based on the aforementioned Harvard article. In addition, other people think HPV vaccination encourages promiscuity. A June 2011 article “Global challenges of implementing human papillomavirus vaccines”

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HPV vaccination in males Whereas before it was only women who were encouraged to avail of the vaccine, now males are also being asked to consider getting immunized against HPV as well. According to an article in the June 2012 issue of the journal Viral Immunology, potential benefits of including males in HPV- immunization programs are: the reduction of the burden of HPV prevention on the shoulders of females, an increase in herd immunity to HPV, and a decline in the prevalence of HPV-related morbidities, especially in men who have sex with men (MSM). However, the economics of HPV vaccination of males should be considered as well. While numerous studies have proven the effectiveness of the HPV vaccine in producing

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Meanwhile, a recent study that looks at parent responses to questionnaires collected through a national survey of teens from 2008 to 2010 finds that many parents are cynical about having their teens vaccinated, according to a May blog post in CNN’s The Chart health blog. The study shows that the concerns of parents about the safety of the HPV vaccine grew each year, from 4.5% in 2008 to 16.4% in 2010. The number of

Moreover, the authors noted: “In emerging economies (e.g. Malaysia) and high-income

Gardasil is the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine, developed at University of Queensland Diamantina Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine in Australia in 2006. The Institute’s Director Professor Ian Frazer, who

Asian economic regions (e.g. Hong Kong), cervical screening can still be hampered by embarrassment surrounding sexually transmitted infections and gynecological examination, as well as inadequate awareness about HPV-related risks and protections.”

immunological resistance to the virus in both males and females, preliminary findings suggest that “the cost-effectiveness of vaccinating males is expensive at best,” at least in the context of preventing cervical cancer as the only endpoint for vaccination. This, therefore, becomes a significant inhibiting factor when considering the inclusion of males in vaccination strategies. While the authors hypothesize the completion of adequate cost-effectiveness modeling that factors in HPV-related cancers in men will eventually make it cost-effective to vaccinate men, their actual findings suggest that girls-only vaccination programs show consistently lower costs in relation to benefits than those in programs that include both girls and boys. In the end, the article recommends the allocation of resources at present be committed to vaccination of females and MSM..

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parents who said they would not vaccinate their children for HPV increased from 39.8% in 2008 to 43.9% in 2010. “These vaccines are safe and effective and people should really have their teens get them,” says Dr. Paul Darden, lead author of the study and professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. “Parents say pediatricians are telling them about the vaccines, yet they just don’t seem to understand why they are necessary or are skeptical about their safety.”

HPV vaccination can protect against other cancers. When Michael Douglas

appeared to blame his throat cancer on oral sex in his June interview with The Guardian, his comments drew attention to the prevalence of HPV cancers in men. The National Cancer Institute says HPV is a group of more than 150 related viruses, and more than 40 of these can be easily spread through direct skin-to-skin contact during vaginal, anal, and oral sex. There are two categories for sexually transmitted HPVs: low-risk HPVs, which can cause genital warts, and high-risk or oncogenic HPVs, which can cause cancer. Both the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics are recommending that both girls and boys be vaccinated against HPV, especially since HPV is also being linked to certain cancers. “We are clearly seeing an epidemic of HPV-related head and neck cancer -- the numbers are rising dramatically. HPV is a cause of many cancers, so it is really important to support endeavors to vaccinate,” says Robert I. Haddad, MD, disease center leader of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s head and neck oncology program, in a June 7 Science Daily report.

• June 24 – July 7, 2013

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Fighting Cervical Cancer with the HPV Vaccine

Haddad says HPV infection is a major cause of oropharyngeal cancer, affecting the base of the tongue, tonsils, and the walls of the pharynx. He emphasizes that, a decade ago, patients with head and neck cancers were smokers or heavy drinkers. Now, however, only 20% are smokers and drinkers, while 80% of oropharynx cancer cases are caused by an HPV infection. “HPV has more than 100 strains, including HPV-16 and-18, which are aggressive, high-risk, sexually transmitted, and have been linked to certain types of cervical or head and neck cancers,” the report also notes.

HPV vaccine results in herd protection. Immunization

HPV has more than 100 strains, including HPV-16 and-18 ... which are aggressive, sexually transmitted, and ... linked to certain types of cervical or head and neck cancers

can also help protect others in the community who are not vaccinated. The vaccine was found to have resulted in what is called herd protection, per the results of a study from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital set to have been published in the July 2012 issue of Pediatrics. Herd protection is the decrease of infection rates among unimmunized individuals, which occurs when a critical mass of people in a community is immunized against contagious disease.

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They found, the report says, the prevalence of vaccinetype HPV decreased by 58% overall, from 31.7% to 13.4%. And while the decrease was high among vaccinated participants (69%), results were also substantial for those who did not receive the vaccine (49%).

The report notes, “Dr. Kahn says the decrease in vaccine-type HPV among vaccinated participantswas “especially remarkable,” given that participants were sexually experienced, many were exposed to vaccination-type HPV before vaccination, and only one dose of the vaccine was required to be considered vaccinated.”

In a July 2012 ScienceDaily report citing the study, Dr. Jessica Kahn, MD, MPH, a physician in the

Adolescent Medicine division at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and lead author of the study, and her colleagues recruited 368 young women between the ages of 13 and 16 in 2006 and 2007. The young women had sexual contact, but none were vaccinated. In 2009 and 2010, researchers then recruited a different group of 409 young women in the same age range. More than half of them had received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Sensor technology could lead to early detection of diabetes, lung cancer In apparent proof of the old adage that brilliant minds think alike, there are two independent reports, within a day of each other, of scientists in the United States and Korea developing sensor technology that could diagnose possible disease through monitoring one’s breath.

which are characteristic of periods of glucose deficiency. The scientists are reportedly working on a prototype of the sensor, and from there, they hope to test it on human breath samples. The findings were published June 5 in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).

A June 10 report in Phys.org discusses the development of sensor technology by chemists at the University of Pittsburgh, who combined titanium dioxide with carbon nanotubes to measure acetone vapors,

A June 11 report from Daejeon, South Korea, as published in Science Codex, discusses the development by scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology of a breath sensor that can be mounted

Kahn, however,stresses vaccination of all women between the ages of 11 and 26 is vital to maximize the vaccine’s health benefits.

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on smartphones for users to diagnose serious diseases such as diabetes or lung cancer simply by breathing into the sensor. The sensor utilizes nanotubes made from tin dioxide that are coated with catalytic platinum nanoparticles, and is said to show high sensitivity to acetone gas molecules. According to the report, acetone is an example of a volatile organic compound produced in the body to signal the onset of a particular disease (diabetes in this case), along with toluene (lung cancer), and ammonia (kidney malfunction). The scientists are reportedly developing an array of breathing sensors combining various catalysts and semiconducting metal oxide fibers to provide patients real-time diagnoses of other diseases.

The big news here, courtesy of a ScienceDaily June 17 report, is that a study establishes that a combination of two drugs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration can boost synapses – connections between neurons – in the brain that were lost to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The decade-long study, which was conducted on animal models as well as brain cells derived from stem cells, showed that the experimental drug NitroMemantine – a

New drug restores brain connections in Alzheimer’s

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combination of nitroglycerin and memantine – enables memantine to bind to NMDA (N-methylD-aspartate) receptors to slow hyperactivity in the pathway between diseased neurons in the brain, and to restore lost synapses. “These findings actually mean that you might be able to intercede not only early but also a bit later,” Stuart Lipton, MD, Ph.D., professor and director of the Del E. Webb Center for Neuroscience, Aging, and Stem Cell Research, and a practicing clinical neurologist, was quoted as saying, as the report also pointed out that focusing on amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles have shown little success. The findings hold out the hope that Alzheimer’s patients may be able to have synaptic connections restored even with plaques and tangles already in their brains. The study and its findings (link is to an abstract of the study) were published June 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

• June 24 – July 7, 2013

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The Internet of things comes to airplanes. With all the talk (some might say “hype”) of the coming of the Internet of things, where machines are supposed to exchange information with each other in the ether and do everything for us, it’s good to get some news about how it’s actually moving forward to solve actual and potential problems.

Graphic from “Now Departing: New Industrial Internet Company Taps Big Data to Help Airlines Turn Planes Around,” GE Reports, April 16, 2013.

The world is your touch screen. One of the main attractions of smartphones and tablets has been in allowing users to access information and open applications by simply swiping or touching device screens. But what if you didn’t need a smartphone or tablet screen to do that? What if you could project a screen in open air and then manipulate it? A June 17 dispatch from Michael Keller in the online magazine Txchnologist reports on Displair, “an air-screen technology that projects digital 3-D images into open space and allows interactive multitouch gesture recognition.” The dispatch cites Displair’s website in reporting that the image is projected onto fog made of ultrafine water droplets, after which infrared sensors and cameras enable the user to interact with the projections.

On June 18, General Electric’s GE Reports site announced that Taleris, a joint aviationservices venture of GE Aviation and Accenture, would be tapped by Etihad, the United Arab Emirates’ flag carrier, to help it monitor its planes in real time, reduce fuel costs, manage plane maintenance, and spot problems before they happen. All through what GE calls the “industrial Internet,” a network of computers, machines, and sensors that combines connectivity with advanced software analytics. The report quotes Andy Heather, Taleris’ vice president for engineering, in describing the company’s basic approach to aircraft optimization and maintenance, which makes use of the hundreds of sensors already inside new planes. “Most modern aircraft already have many thousands of parameters flowing around their digital networks,” he said. “Our goal is to integrate the aircraft data in a broader environment with the rest of the airline IT.”

TheVerge.com Chinese supercomputer now world’s most powerful. From portable personal-computing devices, we move on to computers that are anything but. According to a June 17 CNet report, a new Chinese supercomputer, the Tianhe-2, with 3.12 million processor cores enabling it to perform more than 33 quadrillion calculations per second, is now the world’s most powerful supercomputer. The Tianhe-2, which is installed at the National University of Defense Technology in China’s Hunan province, topped the International Supercomputing Conference’s Top500 list, which is updated twice a year. Its sustained performance of 33.86 petaflops (a quintillion mathematical calculations per second) is nearly twice that of the previous top supercomputer, the Cray Titan XK7 system (17.59 petaflops) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. According to the report, the new supercomputer also arrived two years ahead of Top500 researchers’ estimates.

All in one, or pretty damn close to it. The Verge reports on the June 20 launch of Samsung’s Ativ Q convertible laptop-tablet, which runs both Windows 8 and Android 4.2.2 in a dual-boot system, with a 13.3-inch, “insanely high-res” (3200x1800) screen. In addition to the dual-boot system, the Ativ Q also comes with SideSync software that allows users to share data between the two operating systems, to back up a Samsung Android phone to one’s computer, and to use the PC keyboard to type on the phone. All this, with the promise of up to nine hours of battery life, courtesy of Intel’s Core i5 Haswell microprocessor, which we highlighted two issues ago. Forget the Swiss Army knife, this might very well be the whole Swiss Army of portable computing, and quite possibly the shape of things to come, as discussed in the BBC’s own report on the launch.

As the report describes, supercomputers’ mammoth systems are typically used for calculation-heavy, graphics-intensive work, such as modeling nuclear weapons explosions and forecasting global climate changes. Not to mention the fastest game of Hearts you’ll ever play.

If you’d prefer to see to believe, Displair inventor Maxim Kamanin discusses and demonstrates his technology in the following video.

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Jack Dongarra and CNet