Category: Featured

Weeks after storms and flooding destroyed much of southeast Louisiana, one actor’s frustrated post went viral.

‘Dukes of Hazzard’ actor and Louisiana resident John Schneider’s post about conditions in the state has reached countless people, seemingly overnight.

Schnieder played the part of Bo Duke in the beloved television series, which ran seven seasons from 1979 to 1985.

Now, however, the actor is living in Louisiana and suffering along with the other residents whose belongings were destroyed in the flooding earlier in the summer.

Schneider’s home and studio in Holden were both damaged in the flood.

Five weeks after the initial flooding occurred, he shared a post expressing his frustration with the lack of progress being made on the recovery efforts.

“We are five weeks and counting into what’s going on here, so when you hear someone saying we’re doing all we can, they’re not telling you the truth,” said Schneider. “The fact that all this stuff is still here is terrible. It smells.”

Leaders in Livingston Parish have reported that approximately 125 trucks are working to pick up all of the debris scattered around the area.

Earlier this week, one finally visited the area near Schneider. He reported that he was extremely happy to see even one truck picking up debris in the area.

While the ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ actor works to further the flood relief efforts, those ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ fans in Niagara Falls, NY are also getting a taste of the classic show.

If someone was speeding through Hazzard County, Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane would probably be behind the wheel of his police car in no time.

However, the driver of a 1981 Chevrolet Caprice, complete with red and white emergency lights on the hood, is a man named Wallace Friesman, who lives in Niagara Falls, NY.

Friesman has built the car to look exactly like the 1989 Chevrolet that was used in the movie version of the hit classic show.

He said that the car was “basically junk” when he initially purchased it, and that practically every part of it is brand new. The car is so important to him that nobody else is allowed to drive it.

Friesman also said that although the car may look finished on the outside, he’s not done working on it yet.

While Friesman brings a bit of joy to those fans in Niagara Falls, cleanup efforts can hopefully bring a bit of joy back to Louisiana residents.

“I think people need to know that there are people who care, I think people need to turn into people who care. I’m trying to be a better friend because of what’s going on here,” said Schnieder.

A new study has found a scientific reason to get involved in the arts: an increased awareness of and sensitivity to the emotions of others.

Given the very nature of ballet — expressing emotion through physical movement — it only makes sense that its participants would be highly attuned to the emotions of others and how they are expressed. But the study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, now proves that dancers tend to be more sensitive to emotional response.

During the study, two different groups were shown short ballet video clips. One group was made up of professional ballet dancers, and the other was a control group with no dance experience. The clips were black-and-white and silent, with the dancers’ faces obscured. Participants had to rate their emotional response to the brief clips based only on the shapes of the dancers’ moving bodies.

Although both groups “read” the emotional responses correctly and were able to identify whether the clips made them happy or sad, the difference was most apparent in the participants’ sweat response, detected by fingertip electrodes.

The dancers were found to have much stronger emotional reactions to the clips. Not only did they recognize the emotions displayed in the clips more accurately, their bodies displayed a more sensitive, emotional response in kind. Their bodies were found to differentiate between the emotions of the clips. Participants in the control group were not found to have this reaction.

Of course, this finding was not surprising. In fact, it’s exactly what was expected. Because dancers are trained to express and recognize physical manifestation and expression of human emotions, they are therefore more sensitive to them. Researcher Julia F. Christensen believes these findings show why everyone should dance.

Christensen also hypothesizes that involvement in dance could actually make dancers more empathetic. Because they are trained to recognize emotion, dancers may learn to automatically react to the expressions of others. However, this theory needs to be tested further — perhaps with video clips that do not directly involve dance.

The study gives credence to the idea that involvement in the arts could play a significant role in empathy training. Though empathy training programs are still in their infancy — mainly because replicating results is not a completely understood science — they do show great promise. More and more corporate businesses are embracing the idea of empathy training in order to improve management and retain employees.

Involvement in the arts and empathy training are incredibly useful in various areas of professional life. It can assist in anything from public speaking to making a good first impression at a job interview. And since nonverbal cues can have over four times the impact of nonverbal ones in a first impression, having additional emotional awareness and training could benefit both employer and potential employee.

Although the effect of arts and performance training on emotional awareness is in need of more time and study, the future seems promising — and it gives those of us who are creatively inclined yet another reason to stay involved in our art of choice.

In 1950, Morton Sultanoff invented a high-speed camera that took frames at one-millionth of a second. Since then, photography has advanced to the point where now, NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has been able to provide data that allows researchers to observe and study the activity of black holes.

According to NASA, when black holes swallow stars, they release a burst of energy in the form of a flare containing high-energy radiation. The flare consists of space dust, which is only able to survive further out from the origin point of the flare.

However, the human eye doesn’t have the capacity to see that flare. Now, thanks to data from WISE, researchers have been able to observe it for the first time.

Using this data, researchers were able to measure the radiation this “hot dust” gives off.

The dust “shell” formed from the flare extends several trillion miles from the black hole. That’s about half a light year away, according to NASA.

“The black hole has destroyed everything between itself and this dust shell,” Sjoert van Velzen, postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University, said in a NASA news release. “It’s as though the black hole has cleaned its room by throwing flames.”

However, space may be seeing a new addition, including human life, in the not-so-distant future.

China has just launched its second small Tiangong space station into orbit.

Tiangong-2 lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on September 15, aiming for an orbit 240 miles over Earth’s surface.

Beijing’s effort to establish a long-term human presence in space has been noted as commendable, but technologically, China has only just accomplished what the U.S. and Russia did in the 1970s.

“China is currently doing nothing in space that the U.S. hasn’t done already, much sooner, and often with a much higher level of technological sophistication,” said Joan Johnson-Freese, professor at the U.S. Naval War College and space expert.

When compared to the International Space Station, the single-unit stations China has launched simply seem tiny.

However, Tiangong-2 is an improvement from China’s first attempt at a station, Tiangong-1, which could only support two crew for just eight days in 2012 and 12 days in 2013.

Like its predecessor, Tiangong-2 is designed to be temporary. Although China does plan on launching a larger, permanent station around 2020.

Unlike NASA, China is in no hurry to launch their next project.

NASA may not be focused on the space race anymore, but their studies into black hole activity have only amplified excitement.

“Our study confirms that the dust is there, and that we can use it to determine how much energy was generated in the destruction of the star,” Varoujan Gorjian, an astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and co-author of the paper, said in the news release.

According to a new report by the Society for Human Resource Management and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the upcoming shift in U.S. workforce demographics will open up opportunities for Latino workers in the near future.

The report, which covers the Latino “skills gap,” highlights two distinct trends – baby boomers entering retirement in record numbers, creating a major void in the workforce, and 80 million millennials entering the workforce.

According to the State of Aging and Health in America, the last baby boomers will turn 65 in 2030 and one in five Americans (about 72 million people) will be considered an “older adult.”

The report states that “as the fastest-growing U.S.-born ethnic segment, Hispanics are a culturally rich, highly motivated demographic poised to address the void left by the baby boomers.”

While Latinos currently comprise 16% of the U.S. labor market, the report says that they will account for one out of every two new workers entering the workforce by 2025. Authors of the report suggest that as long as Latinos are equipped with the right tools and resources, they could be a boon to employers, particularly in areas with major skills shortages like the science, technology, engineering, and math fields.

“Our community must do something so that our young people are prepared for the job market of the future, so that they can embark on their careers and be successful,” said CHCI President and CEO Domenika Lynch. “We are committed to the idea that this report does not become another ‘white paper’ in Washington. We want it to be a call to action, and to show companies what they can do towards recruiting, training, and retaining Latino workers.”

Unfortunately, Latino college completion rates are still lagging behind those of other demographics. Among Hispanics between the ages of 25 and 29, only 15% have achieved a bachelor’s degree or higher. Deborah Santiago, chief operating officer of Excelencia in Education, believes that this issue should concern all Americans.

“If Latinos are limited in what they can achieve, this limits our entire economy,” she said. “Latino educational attainment should be seen as something with potential, as something with a significant ROI – that is an incentive for people to act.”

Following a string of foodborne illnesses connected to the restaurant chain last year, Chipotle Mexican Grill has been quietly settling over 100 lawsuits out of court in recent months.

More than 500 cases of E. coli, norovirus, and salmonella were linked back to Chipotle last year, which significantly hampered the burrito chain’s food safety reputation. Every year, approximately 48 million Americans, or one in six people, contracts a foodborne illness; around 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 people die. Chipotle temporarily shut down several locations after two different outbreaks of E. coli spread across more than a dozen states.

Each case brought against Chipotle had a medically-confirmed diagnosis of food poisoning, said attorney Bill Marler, who has represented more than 100 people so far. All but one of his clients have so far settled out of court, he added.

“The way that Chipotle has been handling the legitimate claims has been textbook appropriate,” Marler told Reuters last week. “They’ve taken responsibility.”

Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold said in a statement: “We are a company that does the right things for our customers and we simply believed settling these claims was the right thing to do.”

The company is still struggling to recover from the outbreaks, both in terms of their stock trading prices and their reputation in the public eye. The quiet handling of these cases over the past six months indicates their continued attempts to put the embarrassing gaffe behind them.

“The last thing that they want is a battle in the courtroom over paying these people money because that keeps it in the news,” said Howard Penney, managing director for Hedgeye Risk Management, a research firm that follows Chipotle.

Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ended its investigations into the restaurant, Chipotle still faces federal questioning over whether management misled investors about food safety protocol practices.

Credit cards are fairly common in the American wallet: about seven in 10 consumers have at least one of them. Usually, they’re nothing to get too excited about — but a new card offering from JP Morgan Chase has a certain niche of customers clamoring to get their hands on one.

Last month, JP Morgan revealed its Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, a high-end card with a wealth of travel rewards that seeks to stand among the ranks of competitors’ offerings, like the American Express Black Card or the Citi Prestige.

Hundreds of applications for the Sapphire Reserve poured in to Chase’s website before the launch was even official, and the credit card company soon ran out of its run of metal-alloy card material, having to issue temporary plastic ones instead.

“I have never seen such interest in a credit card, and I’ve been doing this for 15 years,” travel blogger Gary Leff told the Associated Press.

Leff is exactly the kind of demographic the new card appeals to: travel buffs. Its sign-up rewards include 100,000 travel points, and triple points are offered for spending on travel and dining anywhere in the world.

“It’s an incredible deal,” said another travel blogger, Ben Schlappig, to the New York Times. “The card is almost too good to be true. I think a lot of people are scared that some of the perks will be cut.”

Significantly, a majority of the Sapphire Reserve cardholders are Millennials, a demographic that has been statistically resistant to making purchases on credit.

The perks do not come without a price tag, though. The annual fee for the new Chase card is $450. Yet, its cult status already appears to have bolstered consumer interest and confidence.

“It significantly exceeded our expectations,” said Amy Bonitatibus, a spokesperson for Chase. She added that the company has no plans to change any of its loyalty or points programs for the card.

Workplaces seem to be steadily unsafe in Connecticut. Within one year’s time, the number of workplace injuries in the state of Connecticut have risen by eight percent. It would seem that the Land of Steady Habits is nothing if not consistent. According to a recent report by UConn Health, this marks the seventh straight year that the rate of work-related illnesses and injuries remained above the national average.

In a report based on workers’ compensation records, doctors’ statements, and surveys conducted by the Connecticut Labor Department and Bureau of Labor Statistics, Connecticut’s rate of occupational illnesses was 18.7 illnesses for every 10,000 workers — seven percent higher than the national average. In fact, ever since the statistics for the national workforce illness average was made available, Connecticut’s rate has hovered above it.

Some of the highest rates of illnesses and injuries are found in the manufacturing and transportation/utilities sectors, which found 53 and 44 cases per 10,000 workers, respectively. Typically, these jobs are among some of the most dangerous, but they also may reflect better reporting practices. Even so, workers in these industries need to take extra precautions to ensure their safety while on the job.

Although the financial implications of these workplace illnesses and injuries were not included in the report, studies have shown that reducing accidents by even 10% can result in an annual savings of nearly $60,000. Since the rate of incidents in the Connecticut report includes preventable illnesses, there are definitive steps companies can take to ensure safety, including office improvements and the use of safer chemicals. Although not every accident or illness can be prevented, the use of proper safety equipment and following workplace safety guidelines can often eliminate the risk of job site accidents.

Two United Airlines pilots were arrested this weekend after attempting to board their transatlantic flight intoxicated. Police arrived at the Glasgow Airport as the pair tried to pass through a staff check-in before their 9 a.m. flight to Newark, New Jersey.

“Concerns were raised and the police were called,” said an unnamed source. “There was a fair police presence as it’s a sensitive and highly secure part of the airport. Staff are subject to intensive and thorough security procedures in just the same way as passengers. No chances are taken nowadays.”

The plane was grounded for most of the day, finally taking off at 6:30 p.m.

A police spokesperson reported, “We can confirm two men, aged 35 and 45, have been arrested and are presently detained in police custody in connection with alleged offences under the Railway and Transport Safety Act (2003) Section 93.”

Section 93 refers to the prohibited act of “carrying out pilot function or activity while exceeding the prescribed limit of alcohol.”

This incident followed a similar occurrence from six weeks ago in which two pilots suspected of being over the alcohol limit were arrested at the same airport just moments before their plane was due to take off. Police boarded the cockpit of the AirTransat plane and removed the men around 1 p.m. on July 16.

The scheduled flight to Toronto, Canada was grounded for the rest of the day and passengers were put up in hotels overnight. Inconvenienced passengers have also been promised up to 500 British pounds (about 653 U.S. dollars) in compensation.

These recent incidents are just the latest in a series of pilot scandals plaguing the airline industry. Last year, a pilot was jailed for flying an executive jet after a three-day binge. Ian Jennings was detained at Norwich airport after landing the chartered plane transporting millionaire Andre Serruys and a woman and three teenage girls. His blood alcohol level was found to be three times the legal limit and he was locked up for nine months.

Last April, a Jet Blue pilot was charged with flying while intoxicated with 151 passengers on board a flight from Orlando to New York.

Last August, four of the five crew members on an AirBaltic flight failed alcohol tests while transporting 109 passengers. The co-pilot was seven times over the alcohol limit.

Every day, more than 8 million people travel via airplane, which is why the drink-fly limit is so stringent. In the United Kingdom, the blood alcohol limit for commercial pilots is 20 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of blood – less than half the driving limit in Scotland.

“The dangers for air crew are the same, if not worse, as those presented by [drunk driving],” said aviation expert Martin Greenfield. “It’s all about safety – this must be paramount at all times. I personally would have no sympathy with any pilot who would take a chance with their alcohol level. Pilots and ground staff who fall foul through their own misjudgment face heavy sanctions both in terms of the law and their career.”

Malaria is one of the most historically devastating diseases this world has ever seen. Recent advancements and developments in the medical field have helped to bring the deadly parasitic condition close to eradication, but a new finding has researchers concerned.

According to Wellcome.ac.uk, resistance to two drugs widely used to treat and prevent malaria have been found to be developing in people near Thailand-Myanmar. Specifically, genetic mutations in the kelch gene are believed to causing the malaria parasite to become resistant to the drugs mefloquine and artusenate.

“This study demonstrates for the first time that artemisinin resistance leads to failure of the artemisinin partner drug, in this case, mefloquine. This means that the first-line artemisinin combination therapy introduced here in 1994 has finally fallen to resistance,” said Professor François Nosten, Director of Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU).

According to a recent study published in the journal Nature and co-authored by researchers at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, efforts to fight malaria across the continent of Africa have cut the rate of infections in half since 2000. These positive efforts could be at-risk if this strain of resistance spreads to the African sub-continent or it naturally develops on its own there as well.

These findings are part of a ten-year study of 1,005 patients with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria on the Thai-Myanmar border. So far, this is the only reported location where this particular resistance has developed, but the possibility of years of work towards global eradication has some of the world’s leading authorities more than a little concerned.

“The evidence is clear: Artemisinin resistance leads to partner drug resistance and thereby the failure of artemisinin combination treatments,” said Oxford Professor Nicholas White, Chairman of the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) and chair of the Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN). “The spread of artemisinin resistant Plasmodium falciparum is perhaps the greatest threat to our current hopes of eliminating malaria from the world.”

The late Muhammad Ali, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 74, was known principally for his athletic prowess in the boxing ring and his passion as an outspoken social and civil rights activist. Many didn’t know, however, that Ali was also a visual artist.

Five pieces drawn and signed by Ali are up for auction as part of a larger estate sale from New York’s RoGallery. They date from 1979 and deal with a wide range of subjects, from his religious faith in Mosque II to his career in Sting Like a Bee and his political activism in Let My People Go — the last of which was originally commissioned by the World Federation of United Nations Associations.

The sale had been planned since before Ali’s death. The works come from the personal collection of Baird Jones, a routine figure in New York’s art and nightclub scene. Jones also ran with everyone from Andy Warhol’s Factory and Studio 54 before passing away in 2008.

The auction will take place online, where more than 71% of collectors have made art purchases, and will also feature unique pieces from other well-known celebrities and public figures who aren’t famous for visual art, including musician Phil Collins, author Henry Miller, and serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

RoGallery owner Robert Rogal described the Muhammad Ali prints as the man’s “personality, his life, in visual form.”

“I knew the Muhammad Ali was a hit from the day I got it,” Rogal told Artnet. Originally priced at $200, these limited edition and signed prints have gone for as much as $2,900 at auction — “and that was before he passed away,” Rogal added. Other items in the auction have starting bids ranging from $50 to $2,000.

The unique style of Muhammad Ali’s drawings is emblematic of Ali himself, Rogal said. “He was not trained in poetry; he was not trained in drawing… he had a natural talent.”