Rebel Kulture Magazine

06/08/2019

Nobel prize-winning American novelist Toni Morrison died on Monday at 88 years old.

Morrison was the first black American woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She is well-known for shedding light on black American life through her novels, historically and culturally. Some best sellers and fan favorites include Beloved, Song of Solomon, Sula, Jazz, and Tar Baby.

Her 1987 novel, Beloved, the story of a former enslaved person who is haunted by the child she killed, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and was named the best work of American fiction of the late 20th century by The New York Times in 2006.

Morrison's was a renowned author, editor, literary critic, and activist. She influenced leaders of different generations and backgrounds. Many of whom took a moment to honor her life and works.

24/04/2019

Save Money and the Planet: 7 Easy Ways To Cut Down on Food Waste Today

Remember the last time you brought home a copious amount of fresh fruits and veggies only to find the strawberries turn overnight, the spinach wilt in the fridge and the bananas become a fly magnet. It can be frustrating and not only a waste of food but a waste of money.

According to the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA), in the United States alone, over one-third of food produced goes uneaten, through loss or waste. That’s an estimated 133 billion pounds (over $161 billion) of edible food wasted each year. This adds to our landfills, the production of greenhouse gases and is a major contributor to climate change.

Most food waste is traced to homes and consumer-based businesses. Fortunately, we have come up with some clever ways you can use to fight food waste and save money.

http://bit.ly/CutDownonFoodWaste

18/04/2019

DHS Facial Recognition Tracks Visa Holders’ Faces As They Leave the Country

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says it expects to use facial recognition technology on 97% of departing passenger flights within the next four years.

For the full story: bit.ly/DHSFacialRecognition

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says it expects to use facial recognition technology on 97% of departing...

10/04/2019

A near unanimous gun-law is set to pass this week in New Zealand following the horrific terrorist attack on two mosques in the city of Christchurch. The Arms Amendment Bill will remove semi-automatic and military styled fi****ms from circulation and use by the general population. It prohibits the importing, selling, supplying or possession of these weapons.

New firearm offences will be created – some punishable by 10-year maximum jail sentences.

Friday will mark four weeks since the Australian attacker murdered 50 people last month. Six days after the shooting, Prime Minister Jacinda Arden detailed her plans on gun reform with a bill introduced to parliament on April 1st.

Gun laws in New Zealand have not undergone major change since 1992 following a shooting spree that killed 14 people in the town of Aramoana in 1990.

There is estimated to be 1.5 million guns in New Zealand. A process for a gun buyback is currently being developed, determining compensation for gun owners who hand over weapons. High-capacity magazines and gun parts will also be accepted.

The Australian man accused of carrying out the attack was formally charged with 50 counts of murder and 39 attempted murder counts. He is due to reappear in court on June 14, after a mental health assessment.

09/04/2019

Since Cyclone Idai landed in March near the African port city of Beira, Mozambique, at least 600 people have been reported killed by the storm. Across the countries of Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique over 239,000 homes were damaged or destroyed with the U.N. estimating more than 130,000 people are still in temporary shelters.

Widespread hunger could be the areas next issue as floodwaters that left a large part of the inland covered are draining, having destroyed low-lying rice and maize fields in fertile regions. More than 1 million acres of crops were flooded according to Mozambique’s disaster management agency.

In addition to the devastation caused by Cyclone Idai, the Ministry of Health declared a cholera outbreak on March 27th. Mozambique has confirmed more than 3,100 cases in the wake of the storm. Six people have died from the disease in the past two weeks after the floods left tens of thousands of people stranded in camps with few toilets and little clean water. On April 2nd, health workers in the city of Beira carried out mass vaccinations. A delivery of nearly 900,000 doses, funded by Gavi, arrived and were given out less than 24 hours later.

05/04/2019

Amazon is in the early stages of launching 3,236 satellites into low-Earth orbit to provide internet access to millions of people worldwide. The supposed ‘Project Kuiper’ came to light last week when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filed paperwork on Amazon’s behalf with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), who will have to sign off on the operation.

Amazon is not the first company to tackle the challenge of full internet access across the globe. Competition is fierce from SpaceX with the Starlink constellation, OneWeb, whose investors have committed over $3 billion to fund their satellite system, and Facebook looking to launch their own. Amazon aims to provide internet access to 95% of the world’s population.

There is no time frame for when the project will begin, but it will need approval from the FCC. Orbital debris has become of larger concern as congestion increases in the space around the planet.

04/04/2019

UK designer Hana Tajima unveils her latest 2019 Spring/Summer collection with international lifewear brand UNIQLO. The collaboration began in 2015, stemming from her approach to what she describes as “understated fashion”. The looks are intentionally loose, breezy, with vibrant colors and floral motifs recalling her native roots in England and Japanese background.

The designs are meant to be accessible to all women. A priority was placed on comfort, light breathable fabric and loose silhouettes designed to move with you, adapting to your lifestyle. Hana also designed the companies first hijab 4 years ago, made of Uniqlo’s proprietary AIRism fabric.

See more from the collection:
http://bit.ly/HanaTajima-Uniqlo

03/04/2019

New York lawmakers have passed the state budget which includes a ban on single-use plastic bags.

After weeks of negotiations, the New York state legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed off on a $175 billion budget that includes a ban on single-use plastic bags. New York will join California and Hawaii as the only states in the country with such legislation.

The ban is expected to go into effect March 2020 and will apply to most single-use plastic bags provided by supermarkets. The provision allows individual counties to opt-in to a 5-cents fee for paper bags, where 2-cents will go to local government and 3-cents to the state’s Environmental Protection Fund.

The Department of Environmental Conservation says New Yorkers currently use 23 billion single-use plastic bags annually. Their convenience has led to much concern about the environment as more plastic ends up in our oceans and water ways.

01/04/2019

Over 2 million credit card and debit card numbers have been stolen from Earl Enterprises' restaurants. Customers from Planet Hollywood, Buca di Beppo, Earl of Sandwich and other locations were impacted.

The parent company, Earl Enterprises, confirmed they experienced a data breach after security researchers discovered over 2 million stolen credit card numbers being sold online back in February. Hackers used “malware installed on its point-of-sale systems” to steal card numbers, expiration dates and cardholder names from individual restaurant locations in 40 states.

Earl Enterprises states that the breach took place between May 23rd, 2018 and March 18th, 2019 and that “the incident has now been contained.” The company recommends that customers examine their statements for suspicious activity, and to notify their issuer if they find fraudulent transactions.

30/03/2019

Legislation outlawing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy won final approval Friday in the Georgia General Assembly. House Bill 481, called the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, bans abortions once doctors can detects a “heartbeat” in the womb. Current Georgia law allows abortions up until 20 weeks.

The Republican-majority house narrowly voted 92-78 to approve the legislation. Gov. Brian Kemp has until May 12th to sign HB 481 and is expected to do so after vowing to sign “the strictest abortion laws in the country” during his 2018 campaign.

The bill has drawn much opposition from Georgia Democrats and actors in the film and TV industry, threatening to take their work elsewhere as Atlanta is currently a central hub for entertainment.

29/03/2019

At a House committee meeting earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez railed against claims that the was an "elitist" idea.

Let us know your thoughts.

28/03/2019

The maker of OxyContin and the company owning Sackler family agreed to pay $270 million to the state of Oklahoma to settle allegations that they aided in creating the nation’s opioid crisis through deceptively marketing the power of the painkiller. This agreement with Oklahoma resolves all the state’s claims against Purdue.

Much of the settlement, $102.5 million, will fund the establishment of the National Center for Addiction Studies and Treatment at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa. Also, $20 million worth of medicines to support the center and $72.5 million will be accessible to counties and cities in the state to abate the effects of the opioid crisis.

The Sackler family pledged $75 million of the settlement over five years to the National Center at OSU. Court filings show the family has made more than $4 billion from OxyContin sales from 2008 through 2015.

27/03/2019

UPS has partnered with autonomous drone startup Matternet to introduce the first commercial drone delivery in the U.S. Tuesday’s first flight carried a medical sample between WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Matternet’s M2 Quadcopters can carry a payload of up to five pounds over 12.5 miles. The drone has completed more than 3,000 flights for health-care systems in Switzerland.

The WakeMed drone delivery program will be overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the North Carolina Department of Transportation. A medical professional will load a secure drone container, such as a blood sample. The drone will fly along a predetermined path, monitored by a trained Remote-Pilot-in-Command (RPIC), to a fixed landing pad.

The program will be ongoing as UPS and Matternet use the data to consider how drones can be applied to improve transport services at other medical facilities across the U.S.

Air space regulations present hurdles for companies that want to launch commercial drone services. Regulators continue to debate allowing companies like Matternet to operate drones beyond a pilot’s visual line of sight, at night, and over heavily populated areas.

26/03/2019

Peter Tabichi, a Kenyan science teacher at Keriko Secondary School in Pwani Village, has won the Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize of 2019, crowned the world’s best teacher and awarded a $1,000,000 prize.

Tabichi, 36, teaches math and physics to students, situated in a remote, semi-arid part of Kenya’s Rift Valley. The school is poorly resourced, lacking internet connection, having only one computer and a student to teacher ratio of 58:1. Despite this, Tabichi started a “talent nurturing club” and expanded the school’s science club, helping students design research projects that now qualify for national competitions.

He gives 80% of his monthly income to the poor and local community projects. Much of his time is spent teaching families how to grow drought resistant crops and leading the Peace Club where students from diverse backgrounds and tribes can connect and come together.

“Africa will produce scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs whose names will be one day famous in every corner of the world. And girls will be a huge part of this story.” - Tabichi

25/03/2019

Homeland Security Department’s Office of Inspector General has found that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released the private data of 2.3 million survivors of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the California wildfires in 2017.

The breach occurred when FEMA was working with an outside contractor to provide shelter for those affected by disasters, under the Transitional Sheltering Assistance program (TSA). Some information, names, last four digits of a Social Security number are required to confirm eligibility. However, FEMA released more than 20 additional areas of information not required by the contractor including bank names, electronic funds transfer numbers and bank transit numbers.

Acting Inspector General John V. Kelly states in a management alert report that FEMA “placed approximately 2.3 million disaster survivors at increased risk of identity theft and fraud.” Under his recommendations FEMA has begun to enact controls to only send required data and are assessing the extent of the privacy incident to properly destroy any sensitive information of registered disaster survivors.

24/03/2019

A lawsuit was filed against Harvard University, accusing the institution of continuing to profit from slavery. Tamara Lanier says she is a direct descendant of two slaves, a father, Renty and his daughter, Delia. In 1850, both were stripped to the waist and forced to pose for photos commissioned by Harvard Professor, Louis Agassiz. The photos were used to "support" Agassiz’s theories of racial inferiority and justifications of slavery.

In as recent as December 2017, then Harvard President, Drew Gilpin Faust acknowledged the university's extensive ties to slavery that continued until emancipation. Lanier says she wrote a letter in 2011 to President Faust detailing her ancestry to Renty and Delia. According to the lawsuit, his response was "evasive and vague, making no mention of Ms. Lanier's invitation to discuss her heritage."

After Agassiz’s death the images were lost until Harvard found them in 1977. The University has since used the photos, also charging a heavy license fee for any reproduction of the images.

Ms. Lanier’s lawyer, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, stated “These photographs make it clear that Harvard benefited from slavery then and continues to benefit now... Renty is 169 years a slave. When will Harvard finally set him free?"

23/03/2019

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first drug specifically designed to treat parents with Postpartum Depression. Brexanolone will be sold as “Zulresso” by Sage Therapeutics, Inc. It is administered intravenously over the course of 60 hours with patients feeling relief from depressive symptoms, typically within 48 hours.

Postpartum Depression (PPD) affects the bond between a parent and child, with mothers being the most at risk for depression and thoughts about harming themselves or their baby.

Patients must be monitored during the 60 hours in a supervised healthcare facility due to the risks and side effects observed in the clinical studies: dizziness, headaches, nausea, excessive sedation or loss of consciousness.

According to Sage Therapeutics, the drug will likely go for about $7,450 a vial, which amounts to approximately $34,000 before discounts or insurance. This excludes the costs that come with staying in a medical center for a couple of days. The drug is expected to be available June 2019.

20/03/2019

The U.N. has allocated $20 million in funds to aid victims of Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. U.N. humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock said while the funds will kick start the assistance needed in Mozambique, the worst hit, the amount will be insufficient for the increasing need and urged donors to contribute.

Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi told journalists that 200 people were confirmed dead and his government expects the death toll to rise to more than 1,000. Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk as torrential rain and flood water continues to rise.

Survivors in Buzi, a district in Mozambique’s central Sofala province, have been clinging to rooftops, holding on for rescue, as aid workers rush to save them before the area is submerged.

Save the Children's response leader Machiel Pouw said “thousands of children” live in the area where the water is so high no treetops or roofs are visible above the flood waters.

Donations can be made to Save the Children, the Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders.

19/03/2019

Consistent drinking of sugary drinks such as soda, diet soda, and sports drinks can contribute to an early death, particularly for women, according to a study published Monday in the journal Circulation.

The study analyzed research from 80,647 women and 37,716 men, taking place over three decades. After adjusting for diet and lifestyle factors, the research showed that women who consumed more than 2 sugary drinks a day had a 63% increase in premature death while the percentage for men was much lower, showing only 29%. The main causes of death were cardiovascular disease followed by cancer.

Lead author of the study, research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Vansanti Malik said her team’s findings give consumers reason to cut back or eliminate the high sugar drinks and replace them with “water, to improve overall health and longevity."

The American Beverage Association released a statement in defense of their products, stating “The sugar used in our beverages is the same as sugar used in other food products. We don’t think anyone should over consume sugar.”

19/03/2019

Yellow Vest protesters in Paris, France have continued demonstrations for the 18th consecutive week.

Initial opposition came from a planned rise in fuel tax as a part of President Emmanuel Macron’s Green Agenda, encouraging a transition towards greener forms of energy. The measure has since been cut from the 2019 budget, but the Gilet Jaune (Yellow Vest) has gained momentum, with demands to increase France’s minimum salary, improvement in living conditions, criticizing the elites and a call for Macron’s resignation. The movement that began on social media has grown to over 100,000 protesters nationwide.

Since Saturday’s riot in the famed Champs-Elysees Avenue that left buildings burned and luxury shops ransacked, the French prime minister has announced a ban on yellow vest protests in the area and in two other French cities.

17/03/2019

Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa are dealing with the aftermath of the powerful snowstorm from a week prior. The “bomb cyclone” hit the central US last week with hurricane-like winds and blizzard conditions. As the weather shifted, heavy rain along with snow-melt caused massive river flooding.

Two men have been confirmed dead in Nebraska and Iowa. James Wilke, a 50-year-old Nebraska farmer, died on Thursday after attempting to use his tractor to save others who were stranded. Aleido Rojas Galan, a 52-year-old Nebraska resident, was swept away in a vehicle Friday night in southwestern Iowa.

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts has stated that, “this is the largest widespread amount of flooding we’ve had in the last half century.”

Nebraska state authorities have rescued over 200 people and more than 20 pets. Locations on the Missouri River are expected to continue to flood through Thursday.

16/03/2019

A jury in Oakland, California awarded a woman $29 million in her lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant, Johnson and Johnson. Teresa Leavitt claimed the use of the company’s baby powder caused her to develop mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. The company has been frothed with lawsuits since 2013, awarding women who were diagnosed with ovarian cancer due to prolonged use of the powder.

The largest payout so far was in 2018 when the company was ordered to pay $4.69 billion to 22 women with ovarian cancer. The company still faces 13,000 pending lawsuits with allegations of the same nature.

An examination of internal documents in December revealed that scientists and company executives knew about the baby powder testing positive for asbestos for decades, but did not remove the powder from shelves or warn the public. Despite the known danger, the company also increased marketing of their product, particularly to African-American and Hispanic demographics.

15/03/2019

A four-story building containing a school of young students collapsed in Lagos, Nigeria early morning Wednesday. The building had been listed for demolition, with the school operating illegally on the top two floors.

The aging building had given way without warning, trapping children and adults under the debris. There are at least eight confirmed deaths with 41 rescued alive.

Members of the community and rescuers from Lagos State Emergency Management Agency worked together to save those trapped. Lagos State Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode, stated "the building [was] not technically a school; it [was] a residential building that was actually accommodating an illegal school, so to speak, on the second floor."

Rescue operations have ended as no more survivors were found.

Photo Credit: Afolabi Sotunde

14/03/2019

Amid a measles outbreak in Rockland County, NY that infected 146 people, U.S. District Court Judge Vincent Briccetti denied a request that would have allowed 44 unvaccinated children to return to school on Wednesday.

Rockland County has faced one of the longest measles outbreaks since the disease was declared eradicated from the U.S in 2000. The outbreak has largely affected people of the Orthodox Jewish communities within the county, who may not seek vaccinations for religious purposes.

Last December, amidst the outbreak, public health officials took the step of barring unvaccinated children from schools with less than 95% vaccination rates. Parents from Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, NY filed a lawsuit stating the order violates families' religious objections to vaccinations.

Judge Briccetti denied the temporary injunction while the county is facing an "unprecedented measles outbreak."

13/03/2019

California Governor Gavin Newsom will sign an executive order later today to halt the use of the death penalty in the state, sparing the lives of 737 death-row inmates, the largest in the nation.

The order will close the ex*****on chamber in San Quentin Prison, grant reprieves to all inmates on death-row and withdraw the state’s lethal injection protocol, the procedure for carrying out ex*****ons.

In 2016, California voters opposed and defeated Prop 62, which if passed, would have repealed the death penalty. Gov. Newsom, along with 46% of voters, supported the proposition. He has stated, “our death penalty system has been — by any measure — a failure. It has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, black and brown, or can’t afford expensive legal representation. It has provided no public safety benefit or value as a deterrent. It has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars.”

The order will effectively impose a moratorium on ex*****ons in the state for the duration of Gov. Newsom’s time in office.

12/03/2019

12/03/2019

The creative agency Virtue along with collaborators Copenhagen Pride and EqualAI are challenging gender-stereotypes by designing a third option in digital voice technologies. Meet the gender-neutral voice assistant “Q”.

Nowadays, there are only two options when selecting your virtual assistant: female or male. Most notable are Siri (Apple), Cortana (Microsoft) and Alexa (Amazon), who all use a female-based voice to provide a sense of warmth and helpfulness to users. While machines like security robots tend to have a male voice to denote authority. This binary choices exclude those who do not identify as female or male, and who want their voice assistant to mirror their identity.

The team blended the voices of non-binary speakers, those who don’t identity as male or female and pitch-shifted the recording between 145 and 175 hertz, a range that research shows is perceived as more gender-neutral. After sending the voice to over 4,000 people for feedback, the team finalized, and this became the basis for Q.

The creators of Q hope to get the attention of major platforms working with AI to provide a gender-neutral option for the technologies we use every day.

11/03/2019

Amid an outbreak of the viral infection known as 'mumps', detention facilities across the U.S have quarantined over 2,000 detained migrants. Mumps is a contagious disease, typically beginning with a fever and muscle aches. Then swelling of the salivary glands occur, giving the infected noticeably puffy checks and swollen jaw.

In early January, a mumps outbreak at the privately-run Pine Prairie U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center in Louisiana forced hundreds of detainees into lockdown. With the amount of people currently held at facilities under the Trump administration and with that number steadily increasing, immigration advocates raise concerns about future outbreaks and resulting quarantines limiting access to legal services.

In Texas, immigration facilities have seen 186 mumps cases since October, the largest outbreak in recent years, according to Lara Anton, the press officer for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Since February, 357 people have been quarantined following eight confirmed and five suspected cases of mumps detected at the Aurora Contract Detention Facility near Denver, CO.

As of March 7th, a total of 2,287 detainees were quarantined around the country.

10/03/2019

An Ethiopian Airline's craft carrying 157 people crashed Sunday morning, 6 minutes after takeoff. Officials say there were no survivors. The Boeing 737 Max-8 aircraft was routed to Nairobi, Kenya and went near Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

A spokesperson for the airline said at least 35 nationalities were on the flight, including 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians, eight Americans, eight Italians and seven UK nationals. The plane was carrying 149 passengers with 8 crew members.

According to Ethiopian Airlines CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam, the pilot of the plane had 8,000 hours of flight time with an excellent “flying record”. He was given clearance to return to Addis Ababa Airport after placing a distress call.

The cause of the crash is not known at this time. The last accident involving an Ethiopian Airlines flight happened in 2010, when a plane traveling to Beirut went down killing 83 passengers and seven crew members.

09/03/2019

On March 29th, NASA will have its first all-female spacewalk. Astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch will make history. Both women were part of NASA’s 21 astronaut class in 2013 and completed training in 2015.

The walk will take place outside of the International Space Station (ISS), where Koch has been since December of 2018. McClain will join her later this month. The mission will be to replace batteries on the station that were installed last summer. According to NASA, the walk will last about 7 hours.

The spacewalk will also be supported by lead flight director Mary Lawrence, lead spacewalk flight controller Jackie Kagey, and a third woman flight controller, Kristen Facciol, who will provide support from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX.

08/03/2019

Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for President Trump was sentenced to 47 months with 9 months served, for tax and bank fraud.

The light sentence is a far cry from the recommendations of special counsel Robert Mueller and his team who had argued before Judge T.S. Elliot, that Manafort should receive 17 to 24 years.

During court proceedings, Elliot told prosecutors “you don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud. What you really care about is what information Mr. Manafort could give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment.”

Manafort is scheduled to go before Judge Amy Berman Jackson on March 13th for sentencing on conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges. Mueller’s office is recommending a sentence of 17-24 years. Jackson has the latitude to decide whether the sentences will run concurrently or one after the other.

07/03/2019

FDA approves new nasal spray medication for treatment-resistant depression; available only at a certified doctor’s office or clinic

A nasal spray developed to treat depression has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Spravato, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, is a trailblazing breakthrough for those suffering with major depression. Unlike other medications that can take weeks for results, it is able to provide relief in hours.

Spravato is for patients with "treatment-resistant depression" who have tried at least two other medications with ineffective results. It can only be administered by an approved healthcare provider in a doctor’s office or medical facility.

The ketamine-like drug has received praise from many in the medical community, who hope it will be able to combat depression in patients who have not responded to current prescribed treatments. "This is potentially a game changer for millions of people," said Dr. Dennis Charney, Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. "It offers a lot of hope."

Despite the praise, the FDA is requiring that a warning label be included letting patients know they "are at risk for sedation and difficulty with attention, judgment and thinking (dissociation), abuse and misuse, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors after administration of the drug."

For more information visit: go.usa.gov/xEfbs

FDA approved Spravato (esketamine) nasal spray, in conjunction with an oral antidepressant, for the treatment of depression in adults with treatment-resistant depression