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Health January 22, 2016

Bernie Sanders Revives Debate Over Single-Payer Health Care

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Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has revived the debate over a single-payer health care system. NPR explores the arguments for and against it.

Business January 22, 2016

IKEA Executive On Why The West Has Hit 'Peak Stuff'

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IKEA’s Chief Sustainability Officer Steve Howard tells NPR’s Ari Shapiro how his company plans to keep expanding even while he says many in the Western world have lost their appetite for more stuff.

Sports January 22, 2016

Skier, Olympic Gold Medalist Bill Johnson Dies At 55

In 1984, Bill Johnson won gold in the men’s downhill competition in Sarajevo — the first Alpine gold medal for an American man. Steve Powell/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Steve Powell/Getty Images

Bill Johnson, the skier who was the first American to win Olympic gold in a downhill event, has died, the U.S. ski team says. He was 55.

“His passing closed the final chapter in a tumultuous lifetime that saw him rise to the highest level in his sport,” the team said in a statement.

Johnson died in an assisted living facility in Oregon, after several years of deteriorating health following a stroke.

The Associated Press explains that the skier rose to fame with a series of victories that were unprecedented for an American male skier — and cemented his iconic status with a brash prediction. As the news service tells it:

“Johnson, who was born in Los Angeles, grew up racing at Bogus Basin, Idaho, and Mt. Hood, Oregon.

“Caught stealing cars as a teenager, the judge gave him a choice: Attend ski school or head to jail. So he went to Mission Ridge Ski Academy in Washington, where he developed his talent.

“Johnson established himself on the global scene when he won the Lauberhorn downhill in Wengen, Switzerland, in 1984 in his second year on the World Cup circuit.

“A month later, Johnson went to Sarajevo and cockily predicted that he would win, annoying his European rivals. He came through, beating silver medalist Peter Mueller of Switzerland by 0.27 seconds.

” ‘What he did that day was amazing at the time,’ said Bill Marolt, former president and CEO of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. ‘In retrospect, it’s still amazing.’ “

Johnson’s victory at Lauberhorn was the first American men’s downhill World Cup win of the modern era, the U.S ski team says. His gold at Sarajevo was the first time an American man had won gold in Alpine skiing.

Later, Johnson struggled with knee and back injuries, the AP says. He attempted a comeback in 2001, at age 40, but crashed while training and was critically injured.

“He sustained a traumatic brain injury that erased nearly a decade of memories,” the AP writes. “He had to learn how to walk, talk and eat again.”

Then, in 2010, Johnson suffered a stroke. The years that followed were difficult, as the AP’s Pat Graham reported in 2015:

“Most days are a struggle for American downhill great Bill Johnson as he rests in bed at an assisted living facility in Gresham, Ore., watching his favorite television shows.

“He can’t move his arms or legs anymore. He can’t really speak, either, in between bouts of coughing and choking fits. And lately, Johnson’s left leg has been going into painful spasms with no warning.

” ‘He’s deteriorating,’ D.B. Johnson said of her son’s health, which has been on the decline since a stroke nearly five years ago. ‘He’s frozen in himself.’ “

The American ski community, aware of Johnson’s ill health, celebrated his 55th birthday last year by sending him videos, notes and messages. On Friday, they marked Johnson’s death with an outpouring of remembrances, calling the champion a trailblazer, a pioneer and an inspiration and legend.

As it did on his birthday, the U.S. ski team shared a video of Johnson’s history-making Olympic run in 1984.

Bill Johnson – 1984 Sarajevo Olympics – Gold

The man, the myth, the legend. Ski in peace, Bill Johnson.

Posted by U.S. Ski Team on Friday, January 22, 2016

You can watch a legend born in real time.

“The youngster’s been cocky, he’s been calm, he’s been cool — and he has backed it all up right here,” announcer Frank Gifford says in awe.

Entertainment January 21, 2016

Today in Movie Culture: 'Star Wars 7.5,' Historical Inaccuracies in Disney Movies and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Movie Science of the Day:

In the latest episode of Because Science, Kyle Hill explains how the baton wielded by the TR-8R Stormtrooper from Star Wars: The Force Awakens works:

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Fan Comic of the Day:

In Stephen Byrne’s Star Wars: Episode 7.5, Rey, Finn, Poe and BB-8 hunt and battle Sith Lord Jar Jar Binks, seen below. Check out the rest of the comic at Geek Tyrant.

Anecdote of the Day:

Watch an animation depicting Questlove‘s story of when Prince replaced him as a DJ with a copy of Finding Nemo:

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Cosplay of the Day:

Animal cosplay just keeps getting better with this cat dressed as Ruby Rhod from The Fifth Element (via Fashionably Geek):

“Freeze those knees, my chickadees!” #RubyRhod #TheFifthElement #CatCosplay #cats #cosplay #SuperGreen #5thelement #Lootcrate #INVASION #Ruby #DJ #SciFi #catsofinstagram

A photo posted by Cat Cosplay (@cat_cosplay) on Jan 20, 2016 at 7:36am PST

Movie Studio Takedown of the Day:

Mental_Floss points out 24 historical inaccuracies in Disney animated features:

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Vintage Image of the Day:

Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan have a seat on the set of The Kid, which had its NYC premiere on this day 95 years ago:

Video Essay of the Day:

For Fandor, Kevin B. Lee looks at the Best Actor race at the Oscars and explains why Michael B. Jordan should have been nominated and also why he should have won:

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Movie Ranking of the Day:

CineFix kicked off a new year with a ranking of the top 10 opening shots of all time:

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Supercut of the Day:

Who doesn’t love seeing New York in the movies? Here’s a Big Apple montage for 1.000.000 Frames:

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 20th anniversary of Shine‘s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Watch the original trailer for the movie, which would go on to win the Best Actor Oscar for Geoffrey Rush‘s performance, below.

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Business January 21, 2016

Is Netflix Chill? Kenyan Authorities Threaten To Ban The Streaming Site

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Netflix iStockPhoto hide caption

toggle caption iStockPhoto

When Netflix announced its expansion to 130 countries, including Kenya, Nairobi-based IT specialist Mark Irungu says he was thrilled.

He had never failed to find ways to stream Netflix, even when it was blocked in Kenya.

But, he says, touching his heart, “that morning, when I saw that Netflix is global? I can’t compare it to anything else.”

And then he delivers one of the sweetest analogies about media access I have ever heard: “Think of it as a child who tries to get sugar from the sugar bowl. And they’re doing it illegally when Mom’s not looking. And one day Mom says, ‘Hey, you can have all the sugar you want.’ “

His sugar? It’s the Netflix drama Narcos, which follows the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar and his Colombian drug cartel. Irungu finished watching Season 1 in a day.

His joy that day wasn’t just about the convenience of being able to stream legally or the superior quality that his legitimate subscription bestowed. It was about feeling invited, included in the global community.

And then Kenya’s film ratings agency threatened to take that sugar away.

The chairman of Kenya’s Film Classification Board Jackson Kosgei threatened to block Netflix for inappropriate content. Netflix countered that parental controls are part of the site.

The board, which regulates what films and TV shows can be shown on Kenyan media, also said that Netflix had failed to seek a license to broadcast its content in Kenya.

But it’s not even clear the Kenyan agency has the legal authority to ban the streaming site. It depends on whether Netflix is classified as a traditional broadcaster or an online platform like YouTube.

Legal issues aside, the film board’s threats sparked national debate.

Newspaper columnists are debating the pros and cons of binge watching. Pro: It’s incentive for your kids stay home at night, a good thing in a dangerous city like Nairobi. Cons: They’re binge-watching.

And then there’s concern about the future of Kenya’s nascent film industry, which has often struggled to compete for a local audience against foreign films.

On the set of the TV show Pendo (Love), the cast and crew were on break because the power was out. Again.

The show’s director Gilbert Lukalia is working with a tiny budget and can’t afford a good generator. And he says can’t compete with the high-quality productions on Netflix.

“We can compete on one small element and that’s a story — we have good stories,” say Lukalia.

Still, Lukalia is himself is a Netflix fan. He’s opposed to a ban on Netflix and says the film board should spend more time promoting Kenyan talent.

And maybe, as his country beings to produce bigger and better shows, a platform like Netflix could help bring binge-worthy Kenyan stories to the rest of the world.

Sports January 21, 2016

Buffalo Bills Appoint First Female Full-Time Coach In The NFL

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The Buffalo Bills have appointed the first female full-time coach in the NFL. Kathryn Smith will be a quality control assistant coach on special teams. But whether this position means more future integration of women in the league remains unclear.

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

For the first time, a woman will be one of the full-time coaches in the National Football League. The Buffalo Bills made the historic move by hiring Kathryn Smith as a special teams coach. She had been an administrative assistant with the Bills. NPR’s Tom Goldman reports, her promotion is part of a larger trend in traditionally male-dominated professional sports.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: For 30-year-old Kathryn Smith, her new job as quality control special teams coach actually is a promotion. A Buffalo Bills press release says, for years, Smith has worked in football administration and assisted the assistant coaches, first for the New York Jets and most recently with Buffalo. For fans of the TV show “The Office,” her job titles might sound a bit like Dwight Schrute’s eternally frustrating assistant to the regional manager, but nfl.com reporter and columnist Judy Battista says Smith’s quality control job hardly is a dead-end position.

JUDY BATTISTA: It is the first foot in the door. I mean, they’re breaking down film, they’re providing scouting reports. It’s grunt work, but it’s the entree into the coaching world.

GOLDMAN: Smith will be third in the special teams coaching hierarchy, after the coordinator and his assistant. You won’t see her calling plays on the field, which for some may temper the enthusiasm about her first-ever position, especially when compared to NBA female assistant coaches such as San Antonio’s Becky Hammon and Sacramento’s Nancy Lieberman. Both have been visible on sidelines coaching men. Again, Judy Battista.

BATTISTA: Nancy Lieberman and Becky Hammon were great professional basketball players so that’s a much more natural transition for them, and there’s a much bigger pool of women who might naturally say, you know, my playing days are over, I think I want to go into coaching. There’s not that big a pool in football.

GOLDMAN: The lack of playing experience may limit the numbers of potential female football coaches, but it certainly shouldn’t limit the ability to coach. So says Amy Trask. She’s former CEO for the Oakland Raiders and now a football analyst for CBS Sports Network.

AMY TRASK: Inquiring whether stating one needs to have played the game in order to coach is akin to saying one needs to have had open heart surgery in order to be a heart surgeon or whether one needs to have been a criminal defendant in order defend criminals. The answer to each of those questions is no.

GOLDMAN: Trask is the first female chief executive in NFL history. She notes she began her nearly 30-year groundbreaking career with the Raiders as an unpaid intern. Since she resigned as Raiders CEO in 2013, there’ve been several notable female hires in the NFL – Sarah Thomas as a full-time official, Jen Welter as an assistant coach during training camp for the Arizona Cardinals and now Kathryn Smith, which Trask calls terrific news.

TRASK: And yes, I do consider it significant. But what will truly be significant is when such things are no longer significant.

GOLDMAN: In a statement, Buffalo head coach Rex Ryan said Smith deserves the promotion based on her knowledge and strong commitment. Tom Goldman, NPR News.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

Health January 21, 2016

Childhood Vaccination Rates Climb In California

Julie Brand holds her 1-month-old daughter as she receives a hepatitis B vaccine at Berkeley Pediatrics in Berkeley, Calif. Jeremy Raff/KQED hide caption

toggle caption Jeremy Raff/KQED

Maybe it was last January’s big measles outbreak at Disneyland that scared more California parents into getting their kids vaccinated. Or maybe health campaigns have become more persuasive. Or maybe schools getting stricter about requiring shots for entry made a difference.

Whatever the reasons, childhood vaccination rates last fall went up in 49 of 58 counties in California, according to data released Tuesday by state health officials.

The California Department of Public Health annually reports vaccination data for kindergartners from nearly all public and private schools statewide. For the 2015-2016 school year, 92.9 percent of kindergartners were up-to-date on their shots — an increase of 2.5 percentage points from the previous term.

In California, as in the rest of the nation, 2015 was a year of heated debate around vaccines. It started last January with the first reports of a measles outbreak tied to Disneyland. Then, in early February, state lawmakers introduced a bill to eliminate the personal belief exemption, which has allowed California parents to easily refuse vaccines on behalf of their children.

The repeal of that exemption became law, to take effect in July 2016. But the percentage of parents citing personal belief exemptions is already declining in California, the newly released data show — from 2.54 percent of incoming kindergartners in 2014-15 to 2.38 percent this year. In addition, the percent of children receiving both doses of the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella — or MMR — has increased from 92.55 percent to 94.59 percent statewide.

“I can only assume that this is in part a response to … the measles outbreak and the publicity that that received,” says Dr. Art Reingold, head of epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. “It’s unfortunate that fear or outbreaks of disease are necessary to get people to do what we’d like them to do, but I think that’s human nature.”

Even Marin County, a hotbed for the anti-vaccine movement, saw its personal exemption claims drop — from 6.45 percent last year to 5.97 percent this year. The county’s public health officer, Dr. Matt Willis, calls the decline in Marin’s rate “great news,” and notes that this is the third year in a row of increasing vaccination rates. “We haven’t seen this many children vaccinated in Marin County since 2007,” he says.

Still, a decline in the number of parents formally refusing to vaccinate their kids isn’t the only reason for the statewide improvement in vaccination rates, according to James Watt, chief of the division of communicable diseases in the state’s department of public health. Another big factor, Watts says, is a decline in what are known as “conditional admissions” to schools.

These are kids who show up on their first day of school having received some — but not all — of the required immunizations. Often, schools go ahead and allow these children to start class, with the understanding that their parents will make sure the students get the remaining shots as soon as possible. But that’s not what the law demands.

“If those children could get a dose ‘today,’ they’re not supposed to be admitted to school,” Watt says. The problem, he explains, is that lots of kids have been enrolling with “conditional entry” who don’t go on to get the rest of their shots.

By working with parents and school districts to explain and enforce the rules — and vaccinate more kids — the state was able to reduce the overall number of conditional admissions from 6.9 percent of all enrolled kindergartners in 2014-2015 to 4.4 percent this year.

“The outbreak of measles was a real wake-up call for all of us around this issue,” Willis says. “It gave us a chance to speak openly as a community about what vaccination does for us. It gave us a chance to understand vaccination as a matter of community responsibility.”

Dr. Olivia Lang, a Berkeley pediatrician, said she’s seen a change in her practice, too. “There were a lot of families who had been waffling on vaccines, but perhaps were not strong believers in anti-vaccination ideals,” she says. “But now they’re saying, ‘Well, I guess we’re going to have to do it,’ ” and so they are getting their children vaccinated.

Starting with the 2016-2017 school year, all kindergartners and seventh-graders in California will need to be up-to-date on their immunizations to enter school. Only those children who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons will be exempt.

A version of this story first appeared on KQED’s State of Health blog.

Entertainment January 20, 2016

Today in Movie Culture: 'Cast Away' Meets 'Star Wars,' Actors Who've Acted Opposite Themselves and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Mashup of the Day:

Tom Hanks is an X-Wing pilot who crash lands on a desert island with his droid BB-Wilson in Cast Away: A Star Wars Story (via Reddit):

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Cosplay of the Day:

This is both cosplay and a fan build: AR500 Armor’s Boba Fett-inspired combat gear (via Fashionably Geek):

Supercut of the Day:

Burger Fiction compiled a montage of actors playing opposite themselves in movies, including Moon, The Parent Trap, Back to the Future Part II and, most importantly, Big Business:

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Pixar Easter Egg of the Day:

How did Pixar slip its obligatory Pizza Planet truck into the prehistoric setting of The Good Dinosaur? If you can’t see it below, then head to /Film for the answer.

Filmmaker in Focus:

David Fincher‘s filmography is summed up in two minutes in this supercut tribute (via Cinematic Montage Creators):

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Vintage Image of the Day:

David Lynch, who turns 70 today, poses with David Bowie on the set of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me in 1991:

Casting Call of the Day:

As if auditioning for a gender-swapped remake, here are Seth Rogen, Paul Dano, Jake Gyllenhaal and Bradley Cooper doing a line-reading for the lead role in Clueless:

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Scene Recreation of the Day:

It’s only taken 17 years for the most clever recreation of one of The Matrix‘s most iconic shots to hit the internet (via Lord Arse!):

Movie Comparison of the Day:

Couch Tomato shares 24 reasons Jurassic World is the same movie as Predator:

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Sundance premiere of Paul Thomas Anderson‘s feature debut, Hard Eight (aka Sydney). Watch the movie’s trailer below.

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Business January 20, 2016

Business Travelers Often Skip The Rental Car, Use Uber Instead

Uber driver Karim Amrani sits in his car parked near the San Francisco International Airport in July. Jeff Chiu/AP hide caption

toggle caption Jeff Chiu/AP

Business travelers increasingly are relying on Uber and other ride-hailing services, often more than car rentals or taxis, according to new data.

Say you landed at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. You’ve got a work meeting 20 minutes away. You might head to the rental desk to pick up a car. Or, you might call an Uber instead.

“More transactions coming through our system are in Uber than there well in all the rental car transactions,” says Bob Neveu, CEO of Certify, a company that businesses use to book travel and track receipts.

Certify analyzed millions of client transactions, and in the last quarter of 2015 Uber represented 41 percent of total rides, rental cars 39 percent, and taxis 20 percent. (The analysis does not include Lyft rides, which grew more than 700 percent over the last year but is still a fairly small portion, according to Certify data.)

“So if you think about it as a simple popularity contest, Uber is much more popular than using rental cars or taxis,” Neveu says.

While ride hailing has put some cabs completely out of business, Neveu doesn’t think rental cars face the same fate. “There’s always going to be a need for that marketplace when you have to drive longer distances, further away,” he says.

Technology analyst Alexandra Samuel says the car rental industry needs to catch up: People don’t want to be locked into a reservation days in advance; they want convenience (an app that knows your credit card number, not a form that makes you type it); they want to write emails in the car.

Samuel says incumbent companies — take Hertz, for example — should consider offering rentals that come with drivers. And she asks, “Why do I have to go to a Hertz parking lot and pre-book and make sure there’s a car there? Why can’t I just use a Hertz app and find a Hertz car anywhere in the city?”

Automakers are moving in that direction. Today General Motors announces it’s rolling out a new car rental service (called Maven), starting in Ann Arbor, Mich., where customers can use smartphones to reserve nearby cars and get in without keys.

And earlier this month, Lyft announced a new partnership with General Motors that includes a new service for Lyft drivers to rent vehicles, instead of using their own.

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Articles by admin

Best of the Week: First 'Wonder Woman' Footage, Sundance Film Festival Guides and More

Bernie Sanders Revives Debate Over Single-Payer Health Care

IKEA Executive On Why The West Has Hit 'Peak Stuff'

Skier, Olympic Gold Medalist Bill Johnson Dies At 55

Today in Movie Culture: 'Star Wars 7.5,' Historical Inaccuracies in Disney Movies and More

Is Netflix Chill? Kenyan Authorities Threaten To Ban The Streaming Site

Buffalo Bills Appoint First Female Full-Time Coach In The NFL

Transcript

Childhood Vaccination Rates Climb In California

Today in Movie Culture: 'Cast Away' Meets 'Star Wars,' Actors Who've Acted Opposite Themselves and More

Business Travelers Often Skip The Rental Car, Use Uber Instead