Two Russian fighter jets escorted a pair of U.S. strategic bombers over the Black Sea and away from Russian territory, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation said in a news release. The mid-air altercation took place a day after the U.S. Secretary of Defense slammed the Kremlin for “destabilizing activities” in the region.
While the U.S. had not responded specifically to Russian’s declaration that it had steered the bombers away from its borders as of this posting, it had put out a news release on Tuesday with the headline, “Bomber Task Force Europe: B-1s thunder through Black Sea for maritime mission.”
“Two B-1s executed a counter maritime mission while integrating with NATO allies and partner forces to enhance interoperability and provide training opportunities to U.S. bomber aircrew deployed to the theater,” the air force statement said.
In its statement released on Wednesday, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation said that two Russian Su-30 fighters from its Black Sea Fleet Air Defense and Naval Aviation Duty Force escorted two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer supersonic strategic bombers over the Black Sea.
Part of that interaction can be seen in footage released by the ministry, which appears to show a Russian fighter jet guiding a U.S. bomber that is undergoing aerial refueling away from the Russian mainland.
The escort was carried out in full accordance with intentional law and was initiated because U.S. bombers were approaching Russian airspace, the defense ministry said.
“Russian fighter crews identified the aerial targets as two US Air Force supersonic strategic B-1B bombers, accompanied by two KC-135 refueling planes, and escorted them over the waters of the Black Sea,” the ministry said. “After the foreign warplanes had been turned away from Russia’s state border, the Russian fighters safely returned to their home airbase.”
One of the B1-B Lancer bombers was refueling when Russian fighters approached over the Black Sea. (Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation/Zenger)
The incident came a day after U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Ukraine and made several critical comments about Russia’s “destabilizing activities” in the Black Sea.
Austin’s visit focused on major regional issues such as the Russian occupation of Crimea, the alleged militarization of its eastern border with Ukraine, and the Kremlin’s movements in the Black Sea.
“So we again call on Russia to end its occupation of Crimea, to stop perpetuating the war in eastern Ukraine, to end its destabilizing activities in the Black Sea and along Ukraine’s borders, and to halt its persistent cyber-attacks and other malign activities against the United States and our allies and partners,” Austin tweeted.
The Costa Rican Coast Guard seized a submarine carrying nearly 4,000 pounds of cocaine and arrested three crew members with drug trafficking.
The incident took place in the Pacific Ocean, near the country’s border with Panama, on Oct. 18.
The Costa Rican Coast Guard said it seized 1,788 packets of cocaine onboard the semi-submersible, each weighing around 2.2 pounds.
The Costa Rican Ministry of Public Security shared footage of the bust on social media and said: “The Minister of Public Security, Mr. Michael Soto Rojas, referred to the recent coup against drug trafficking, where the Costa Rican Coast Guard intercepted a semi-submersible with a drug shipment and captured a crew 40 kilometres [25 miles] off the coast of Golfito in Puntarenas in the South Pacific.
“As part of its work with other countries … the Costa Rican Coast Guard received information from the Colombian authorities and deployed an interceptor boat to the sector where the suspicious vessel was located.”
Costa Rican police stand on a narco-sub, a semi-submerged vessel, which captured 4,000 pounds of cocaine. Three crew members were arrested in the seizure. (Ministry of Public Security of Costa Rica/Zenger)
Two of the arrested crew members were Colombian nationals and the third was Ecuadorian.
The Costa Rican authorities identified the suspects operating the narco submarine as Montano, Colombian, 46, Mina, Colombian, 30; and Vargas, Ecuadorian, 27. None of the men had a criminal record in the country.
The police also described the vessel that had smuggled the drugs. It said “authorities confiscated the low-profile, gray semi-submersible boat, 45 feet long, without name or flag, and three engines of 75 HP each, as well as electronic navigation and communication equipment.
“The three detainees were presented to the Public Ministry for the apparent crime of drug trafficking.”
Police intercepted a vessel with a drug shipment of 1,778 packages of cocaine. (Ministry of Public Security of Costa Rica/Zenger)
Costa Rican security forces also carried out two seizures on March 16 and 18, 2021, seizing 3.2 tons of cocaine in the Limón province, on the Caribbean coast, according to the Costa Rican Ministry of Public Security.
The operation was coordinated with intelligence support from Colombia, Panama and the United States. “This cocaine enters the national territory, it is stored … and it is what we sometimes find when inspecting containers that are bound for Europe” said Soto Rojas, Minister of Public Security.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Northland also successfully intercepted several suspected drug smuggling ships in September in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The patrol resulted in the seizure of 7,833 pounds of cocaine.
A luxury Lamborghini ended up in a lake after the Swiss driver apparently mixed up the accelerator and the brake pedals while putting the car into reverse.
The driver, whose name was not reported, was trying to reverse the luxury supercar when he accidentally drove it into Mondsee Lake in Austria on Oct. 19.
Austrian police said the driver was traveling from Mondsee toward Unterach am Attersee with a friend when the accident occurred. The passenger got out of the car while the driver attempted to exit a parking lot that backed onto Mondsee Lake.
“He must have mixed up the brake and accelerator pedals and drove backwards into the Mondsee,” police said. “The vehicle sank about 15 meters [49 feet] from the bank to a depth of about 5 meters [16 feet].
“The driver was able to free himself from the vehicle and swim to the bank,” police said.
It took fire crews and divers three hours to extract the Lamborghini from Mondsee Lake in Austria. (AFKDO Mondsee, C. Stoxreiter/Zenger)
The driver reportedly mixed up his pedals. Instead of pressing the brake, he hit the accelerator and sent the Lamborghini backward into the lake.
The extent of the damage to the vehicle is not yet clear.
Bernhard Strobl, from the Innerschwand Fire Brigade, said: “A lot of care was required to recover the valuable sports car, but together with five fire service divers, a recovery balloon and a crane truck, my team managed to carefully pull the vehicle out of the lake.”
Divers and crew search for the Lamborghini in Mondsee Lake. (AFKDO Mondsee, C. Stoxreiter/Zenger)
The recovery took about three hours and involved 31 members of the Mondsee and Innerschwand fire brigades, the fire department said.
The driver was taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries.
The price of a Lamborghini, the Italian luxury vehicle, can start anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000, depending on the model, according to dealerships.
“The history of ‘Lamborghini Automobili’ officially starts in 1963,” according to lamborghini.com. “Nevertheless, we must consider the far-off roots of this event, and they are the roots of Ferruccio Lamborghini. Born in 1916, this capable, impetuous, strong-willed Taurus was the leading character in the foundation of the company and the early phases of its extraordinary history.
“By the time he decided to build a factory of luxury sports cars, Ferruccio was already a very wealthy man. In the period following World War II, he founded his tractor factory, which he launched with energy and determination, creating a major point of reference in this industry. Other businesses followed, and he amassed his fortune at the perfect time, before his 50th birthday.
“By the early ’60s, Lamborghini was a powerful and successful man who knew exactly what he wanted, but when he said he would build a super sports car to compete with Ferrari, many people thought he was mad.”
A 23-year-old man is accused of secretly filming girls while he hid in a bathroom stall and used a pen camera attached to his sneaker. After he was arrested for that incident in August and released on bail, he was arrested again this month when police said they found video evidence of child pornography in his possession.
Jacob M. Guerrero from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, who is a delivery driver for Amazon, was arrested by Wrentham, Massachusetts, police following a lengthy investigation, police said on Oct. 19.
“The initial incident and subsequent investigation began August 24, 2021 when Wrentham Police received a call from customers at the Wrentham Outlets reporting a person who appeared to be a man dressed as a woman acting suspiciously in the public ladies bathroom,” the police statement says.
“The suspect, wearing a blonde wig, reportedly entered the ladies room and occupied stalls next to adjoining stalls that women and younger girls, estimated to be 12-15 years old, were using.”
Jacob M. Guerrero faces 12 counts of possession of child pornography. (Wrentham Police Department/Zenger)
By the time officers arrived, the suspect had left the area, police said. Their investigation revealed that “the suspect appeared to have a pen camera fastened to his sneaker.”
Pen cameras are easily concealed surveillance cameras, police said. “They have the ability to record video and photos on Micro SD cards contained within the pen. The photos or video captured can then be transferred to any device, including cellphones and computers.”
Police were able to identify the suspect’s vehicle and his identity and obtained an arrest warrant for the August incident.
The warrant was executed on Sept. 2 during a motor vehicle stop, and Guerrero was charged with photographing an unsuspecting nude person. He was released on bail later the same day, police said.
The police investigation into Guerrero’s activities continued, including a search warrant for his personal vehicle and cellphone, police said. “That [search] uncovered sufficient evidence to secure a second arrest warrant for 12 counts of possession of child pornography.
“The evidence obtained from the search warrant includes 12 videos where the unsuspecting victims were either nude or partially nude. Five of the 12 victims were under the age of 18. Of the victims under 18 years old, several are estimated to be between 8 and 11 years old. In at least one case, the evidence suggests the suspect secretly recorded a young girl through her bedroom window as she undressed,” police said.
The investigation is ongoing, police said, and includes several law enforcement agencies in more than one state.
Healables, a startup developing home-based “electroceutical” treatment for pain and inflammation, is designed for a variety of conditions using a programmed app.
It is a “remote treatment of sports injuries, chronic illness and chronic pain,” the startup’s website says.
The device delivers microcurrent electrotherapy to legs or arms through a port snapped onto an e-textile sleeve with built-in electrodes. Activated by a smartphone, it causes a mild pins-and-needles sensation, and the intensity can be dialed up or down with the flick of a finger.
The flexible, machine-washable sleeve is made in an Israeli factory that manufactures big-brand American sports apparel.
“We tried to make our solution as easy as taking a pill but without any side effects or potential for addiction,” said Moshe Lebowitz, the company’s CEO. “By docking with textiles, the treatment is simply like getting dressed.”
Wellness and medical models
Healables is building two products on its technology platform: ElectroGear, a sports-and-wellness model for athletes, to be sold directly and through physical therapists and sports teams; and a medical model to be available by prescription, pending regulatory approval.
ElectroGear is Healables’ consumer model. (Abigail Klein Leichman)
A clinical trial of the medical model soon will begin on patients with knee osteoarthritis, led by Dr. Hadar Oz, chief of sports medicine at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.
“For these patients we have many kinds of treatments and one of them may be the Healables device,” Oz said. “There is a similar treatment available, but it needs a very large machine. What they did is make it very small and incorporate it into a flexible knee brace. We hope this device will work to lessen the pain and thus allow them better active daily living.”
Another trial will start at Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem on patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy, a common and painful leg, foot or hand complication of diabetes.
The Healables app-controlled electrotherapy device is being tested at Wolfson University Medical Center on patients with knee osteoarthritis. (Courtesy of Healables)
As for the sports-and-wellness model, Stade Français Paris Rugby Club selected ElectroGear for a pilot through the HYPE Global Sports Accelerator. Healables is recruiting professional sports teams for additional pilots in the U.S., EU and U.K.
The CEO, who wears traditional garb, has rabbinic ordination from a yeshiva in Israel, where he has lived since 1997.
He was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications and user interface/user experience from Towson University in Maryland.
Healables CEO and founder Moshe Lebowitz with the electrotherapy sleeve fitted on a mannequin’s leg. (Abigail Klein Leichman)
Long interested in technology, in 2002 Lebowitz launched a website builder, but the technology wasn’t mature enough yet.
“I learned that timing is really important in startups,” he said.
Soon after ending that venture in 2007, Lebowitz suffered a traumatic brain injury. During his long recovery, he tried a range of complementary treatments, including Chinese medicine, that helped him heal.
Locating practitioners and traveling to and from sessions was tiring and time-consuming. He pondered how to bring effective treatment modalities into the home through user-friendly connected wearable devices.
The wearables he saw on the market were mostly tracking health parameters rather than treating conditions.
Lebowitz wanted a wearable that could treat the body with electrotherapy and — using data collected from those sessions — treat the mind with personalized behavioral health coaching.
“As a rabbi, I know there’s a body and a soul, and to treat the whole person you have to look at both,” said Lebowitz. “Even on a biological level, the effect of mental health on immunology is something people have really noticed recently with corona.”
Lebowitz founded Healables in late 2007 to realize his vision. He received his first investment in early 2019, a grant from the Israel Innovation Authority.
Healables has raised a total of $2.5 million from the IIA and BioJerusalem and is seeking funding from sports-tech and biotech investors. “We will be collaborating with Leonhardt Ventures as well,” he said.
Lebowitz finds his yeshiva background advantageous.
“Talmud study is about connecting with God, but as a side effect it improves your mental capacity and ability to think creatively. People really respect that.”
After all, he said, “Startups become unicorns by solving problems differently.”
Unique in electrotherapy
Physical therapists already are familiar with electrotherapy machines to ease pain and accelerate healing.
Some examples are millicurrent devices like TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation), microcurrent devices like MENS (microcurrent electrical nervestimulation) and electro-acupuncture devices.
While TENS effectively prevents pain signals from reaching the brain, it doesn’t address the source of pain. Microcurrent, 1,000 times less than millicurrent, actually aids healing.
Studies show microcurrent increases the body’s production of ATP, a compound that fuels many cell processes.
It stimulates metabolic activity, improves cellular function, and recruits immune-system cells, growth factors and other proteins that foster wound healing. Microcurrent also decreases systemic inflammation, the underlying cause of many chronic conditions.
However, three drawbacks have hampered the wide adoption of this electrotherapy, said Lebowitz.
“One, it’s too complicated for many home users and even professionals to feel comfortable with selecting the right settings, and it often takes multiple appointments to figure out the appropriate treatment for each patient.
“Two, it’s too restrictive because the patient usually needs to be confined to a treatment table for an hour with sticky electrodes and wires that pop off if you move the wrong way.
“And three, it’s too time-consuming because the patient needs to travel to a clinic multiple times a week.”
The Healables app programs electrotherapy sessions at a customized and adjustable intensity. (Abigail Klein Leichman)
Healables was designed to overcome all three drawbacks, integrating smart textiles, electronics and software to reduce inflammation, accelerate healing and relieve pain, while eliminating travel time.
The same device with different settings can treat different conditions.
“Some conditions require half an hour a day, some two hours a day, but you can be doing other things during the treatment. You just press a button on your smartphone and it goes. For an athlete, you can be treating your leg while working out your arms in the gym.”
The Healables system is HIPAA-compliant and includes artificial intelligence for personalizing and improving treatment based on response data. Later, this will also be used to power the behavioral health coaching component.
A family affair
The company’s chief scientific officer, retired U.S. Army Col. George Lowell, was director of laboratories at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, former chief security officer of BioDefense at GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, and current board member of BiondVax Pharmaceuticals.
Lowell is also Lebowitz’s father. He had Anglicized the family name, and Moshe changed it back to the original after relocating to Israel.
Most of the startup’s crew of 14 are Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox, including Chief Medical Officer Andrew David Shiller, a physician specializing in treating acute and chronic illness and pain.
Healables staff, from left: Dr. Andrew David Shiller, CMO; Moshe Lebowitz, CEO; Yehuda Barbasch, COO/CFO; Avrohom Khalimsky, electrical engineer; Arye Ziberlit, software engineer; and Avichai Guberman, mechatronics engineer. (Abigail Klein Leichman)
Before moving to Israel in 2015, Shiller saw “some astonishing results” when he started using microcurrent technology in his practice.
He said that before earning his medical degee at Duke University in North Carolina and doing residencies at Harvard-affiliated hospitals, he studied mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“I was always interested in putting engineering together with what I learned about complementary healing, but I never got around to it until I joined this company,” he said.
Inflammation is the fundamental process that drives most chronic illness such as diabetes, autoimmune disease, cardiovascular disease and degenerative brain disease, Shiller said.
“It’s not about red-hot swelling but about low-grade protein shifts in the blood that don’t always show up in clinical tests. People treated with microcurrent are getting better with their pain but also decreasing pro-inflammatory proteins like the cytokines IL-6 and IL-1. This is a stunning potential game changer.”
Clinical results
Shiller revealed results of testing the sports wearable on several people.
One was a 50-year-old woman with disfiguring osteoarthritis. One ankle was giving her excruciating pain even after surgery and physical therapy.
“We tried the device once and she stopped using crutches. After three sessions she has almost no ankle pain,” Shiller said.
Another tester was a soldier from a special forces unit, sidelined because of knee pain. “He has bone marrow edema associated with chronic trauma, and he was using oxycodone and Celebrex just to sleep at night,” said Shiller.
After one session, he was able to stop taking drugs. “He’d find the pain creep back after a week, so we gave him a device and sleeve to test at home, programmed for him. He’s using it several times a week. I hope at some point he’ll have no pain,” said Shiller.
“Whether they are completely better or not, there is significant improvement and it’s very gratifying to see that with our device.”
Shiller said the Healables protocols will be refined with the help of collected data and outcomes of clinical trials.
“Our initial studies are studying two conditions but there’s a whole potential world of treating chronic inflammatory problems with wearable microcurrent electrotherapy, which is kind of thrilling,” he said.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Mobility in Mexico City is complicated for citizens and authorities alike. The city is one of the five largest in the world, and the second-largest in the Americas, according to UN data.
One environmentally friendly option is Bamboocycles, Diego Cardenas’ company. It offers bicycles — made of 85 percent bamboo, a resistant, sugar cane-shaped root tropical plant.
Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) reports there were 6,149,969 vehicles registered in Mexico City in 2020, almost three times more than in 1980. Traffic has become unbearable in many parts of the city, especially during the week.
Bamboo is a resistant root that comes from a tropical plant. (Courtesy of Diego Cárdenas)
Cárdenas offers a cutting-edge solution. He says he has found high-quality bamboo that is resistant, long-lasting and environmentally friendly. It also absorbs vibrations.
“Bamboo does not suffer from fatigue. Fatigue is what happens to metal when you bend it over and over, like a piece of wire. Carbon fiber is an ultralight material, but if you hit it hard enough, it can crack. Bamboo is more resistant,” he told Zenger.
Cárdenas, an engineer graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, started this project in December 2007. He made his first bicycle out of bamboo as part of a school project. He found a bicycle from 1890 made of bamboo and thought he could improve on the technology.
After working for three months on his first successful model, which captured people’s attention on the road, Cárdenas decided to specialize in producing bicycles in 2010. He gets the bamboo from southeastern Mexico and does not impact the environment.
“The bamboo plant produces 30 percent more oxygen than other trees. When you plant bamboo, you are actually pruning. You’re not killing a tree, like with other types of wood. In just three years, bamboo reaches maturity, unlike a pine or oak tree that takes some 15 to 40 years. I think that’s important,” he said.
Since launching Bamboocycles, he has sold 2,000 bikes and has exported to 28 countries. There are different models, with prices ranging from $195 for the “Bicinino,” a bike for children, to $1,890 for more specialized models, such as the “Loma,” for adults. The model that sells the best is the “Durango,” for $1,350.
Bamboocycles are another option for getting around the city. They are also more environmentally friendly. (Courtesy of Diego Cárdenas)
People enjoy riding them.
“I have a bike that is light and is good for training in the mountains. I also use it to get around. Its geometry makes it very comfortable. It’s efficient and versatile. People really notice it; they ask if it’s a stick or guadua bike [a type of bamboo],” Laura Rojas, a Colombian living in Mexico City, told Zenger.
Bamboocycles also holds workshops in Mexico City. On the weekend, people can learn how to build their own bike, for $300. Through these types of activities, Cárdenas has been able to travel and offer his products in other countries, finding out what his clients need.
“We’ve found the business model. Hoping everybody wants the same thing doesn’t work for these types of products. A lot of clients are not great bike riders, and I guide them and find the way to adapt and give them what they’re looking for,” he said.
Cárdenas offers workshops where people can build their own bike. (Courtesy of Diego Cárdenas)
What started as a school project is now a thriving business. Cárdenas’ former classmates are happy about his success.
“I learned about his project in school. I thought it was a crazy idea,” Luis del Castillo, a former assistant of Cárdenas, told Zenger. “Then, I worked at Bamboocycles for two years, and I saw how Diego’s idea really had an impact. He proved that a sustainable, handcrafted product is not just a great idea, but also a profitable business.”
The project began when Cárdenas got fed up with driving in the city. It took shape in a summer course in France on how to use bamboo. Today, he hopes to raise awareness and break stereotypes about car usage.
“The goal of Bamboocycles is to show that biking around the city is incredible. I hope more people realize it. This product saves time and money and brings you health and happiness,” he said.
Translated by Melanie Slone; edited by Melanie Slone and Fern Siegel
Many people in Mexico go house to house, picking up garbage, separating it and selling what they can to recycling centers to lessen environmental impact.
“Some of us go house to house collecting garbage, and we have a better standard of living than, say, a taxi driver. But we work hard and spend hours separating garbage, and we know where to sell the cardboard, wood, metal and clothes that sometimes people give as a kind of tip,” he said.
He said that, as a volunteer, he does not always get along well with the garbage collectors in the large trucks the government sends.
“Sometimes there are money issues, and that affects the people who give us their garbage. For example, if a homeowner wants to get rid of a couch, we have to ask for extra money to take it, because we push a cart with two cans, and it’s hard to transport that,” he said.
“We give the couch to the truck [employees], who ask us for, say, 3 dollars to move it, and we have to ask the homeowner for 4 dollars, so we can earn something, because that’s how we make a living.”
He says a couch has material that can be sold, like wood, wires and cloth, if it is in good shape. “So the earnings are not so fair anymore,” said Linares.
Garbage provides jobs to those who see value in lessening environmental impact. (Andrés Vargas Reynoso/Zenger)
A bulletin published by the National University’s (UNAM) Social Communications Department notes that in 2017, there were close to 8,322 volunteer garbage collectors. Together, they cover almost seven miles a day on foot in Mexico City.
No more garbage mafia
Unlike what was said at the end of the 20th century, when people talked about a garbage “mafia,” today there is a difference, said Ulises González Miranda, an environmental engineer from the UNAM.
“That perception is slowly changing. We’re seeing more and more projects on different platforms and websites that promote the recovery of recyclable material and getting the citizens who produce waste involved,” he said.
Beyond the relationship between the people who work with garbage when it leaves homes, he said there is still “a lot of disinformation about the logistics of handling [garbage], the health and environmental effects of waste production and a correct or incorrect handling of it.”
Because of this disinformation, there is an unequal treatment of garbage in Mexico City, said González Miranda.
“It is different, depending on the area’s infrastructure. In Mexico City, we see neighborhoods where people hand over their garbage separated as it should be, and the organic [waste] is not in a bag. But at the same time, in some places, cans of insecticides or fertilizer are thrown into rivers and canals, polluting the water and ground. There are also places where people burn garbage because there is no collection. There is still a lot to be done in treating waste,” he said.
A poor handling of garbage can lead to environmental damage and health problems. (Andrés Vargas Reynoso/Zenger)
Ecological awareness, lessons from kids for their parents
González Miranda says that to change citizen mentality, it is important to offer more environmental education to children. They, in turn, can create awareness in their parents and the message can be more impactful.
“We must invest in awareness campaigns beyond what companies do as part of their marketing strategy (greenwashing). For example, both citizens and large garbage producers should be charged for their waste. Then, we would be much more careful, more responsible and less wasteful,” he said.
Another important point is to separate waste correctly.
“In Mexico, some materials are separated well, like PET [polyethylene terephthalate] or metals, although metals can lead to vandalism, such as the theft of pipes or copper or drain covers. But we still need to do more in separating organic waste and materials, such as building debris, tires, electronics. It’s important to ask ourselves where everything we throw away ends up,” he said.
Family tradition
Saúl Moreno has been a garbage collector for about eight years, a job he inherited from his father.
“My dad made a living this way. There are good days and bad days, but the important thing is to keep working,” he said.
Garbage collection is a job like any other, says Saúl Moreno. (Andrés Vargas Reynoso/Zenger)
Moreno says there are many steps in the work.
“The first and most important step is for people to separate the garbage at home and give it to us like that. But there is also a need for more factories [garbage treatment facilities] so that everything takes less time,” he said.
As regards issues between house-to-house collectors and the garbage-truck employees, Moreno says it depends on attitude.
“It’s a work relationship like any other. I get along with everyone and do my job the best I can, so I won’t have problems,” he said.
He talked about the myth that garbage is gold to many people.
“We don’t get a salary for this work; we’re volunteers. What you earn depends on how much effort you put into it. In other words, you can make a good living, but it depends on how and how much you want to work.
“If we do well one day, great, and if not, oh well. Tomorrow will be another day, and there is always going to be garbage,” he said.
Translated by Melanie Slone. Edited by Melanie Slone and Fern Siegel
Hundreds of people undressed for a nude photo shoot last week to bring attention to the Dead Sea, a unique body of water bordered by Israel and Jordan at the lowest point on Earth — 1,380 feet below sea level.
The Dead Sea (Salt Sea in Hebrew) is the deepest hypersaline lake in the world, 27 times denser than Utah’s Great Salt Lake.
Tourists and Israelis alike love bobbing in the mineral-rich water, slathering on its healing mud and using cosmetics made from its extracts. The water and even the ambient air have proven health benefits for everything from asthma to psoriasis.
Spencer Tunick prepares for photographing as his photo installation is unveiled on Oct. 17 in Arad, Israel. Around 300 people took part in the nude photo installation Tunick designed to highlight the importance of preserving and restoring the Dead Sea. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
The problem is that the Dead Sea has been shrinking at an alarming pace, losing more than a meter (some 40 inches) of water per year for a total of 25 meters since the 1970s, according to EcoPeace Middle East. Giant sinkholes have swallowed up several beaches.
The photo shoot by the Dead Sea Revival Project was intended to spur action and celebrate the opening of a virtual Dead Sea Museum meant as a forerunner to an actual museum in nearby Arad.
Several experts talked about the Dead Sea’s troubles and what can be done to ensure the beloved lake won’t disappear.
Some of their answers may surprise you. Spoiler alert: The Dead Sea surely is shrinking, but it is not dying.
First here are the problems and the proposed solutions, followed by experts’ predictions about the future of the Dead Sea.
Why is the Dead Sea shrinking?
“The main problem is a lack of freshwater coming into the Dead Sea, in which natural evaporation is strong,” said Isaac Gertman, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Oceanography at the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research in Haifa.
This happened because the landlocked Dead Sea primarily depends on the lower Jordan River, which in turn depends on the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret), to get replenished. Much of this freshwater has been diverted to provide for drinking, farming and industry in Israel and Jordan.
A lack of freshwater coming into the Dead Sea is one problem, experts say. (Itay Peer/Unsplash)
About 700 million cubic meters of water would be needed to restore the sea level to where it was in 1900, said Gertman, who has studied the Dead Sea since 1994.
“Natural runoff, including precipitation and floods, was about 300 million cubic meters per year. Now it’s about 100 million cubic meters per year,” said Gertman.
A lesser factor is the mineral-extraction industries in Israel and Jordan.
Potassium chloride and magnesium chloride are mined in large quantities by Dead Sea Works and the Arab Potash Co. at the southern end of the Dead Sea. The evaporation ponds used in this process are responsible for about 35 percent of the depletion of the Dead Sea.
What causes sinkholes?
Gidon Baer, former coordinator for Dead Sea studies at the Geological Survey of Israel, said sinkholes form due to cavities developing underground because fresh groundwater from the Judean mountains is dissolving a salt layer deposited in the Dead Sea about 10,000 years ago.
That salt layer now sits 10 meters to 15 meters below the surface at the shoreline, covered by newer sediments.
“Until the 1980s, this salt layer was soaked with salty water that infiltrated from the DeadSea. But as the Dead Sea water level drops, the interface between the salty subsurface water and the fresh groundwater dropped as well, and the salt layer encountered freshwater, which led to the dissolution,” said Baer.
Eventually the cavities collapse and form sinkholes. Flash floods in the winter drain directly into the subsurface salt layer of the sinkhole, dissolving it much more quickly than when fresh groundwater reaches the sinkhole.
“We expect that in the coming 20 to 30 years, the fresh groundwater level will become lower than the salt layer, so the only freshwater that will reach the salt layer will be from flash floods. We are now studying the effect this will have,” said Baer.
The Geological Survey set up a sinkhole early-warning system monitored with satellite- and airborne-based measurements.
“Sometimes we can predict the collapse five years ahead, sometimes two weeks ahead. We mark all places where we see it happening and share that information with road authorities and other planning authorities so they can mitigate the consequences.”
This system forecasted the sinkhole that formed along the main road north of Ein Gedi in 2015, about three years in advance. That gave local authorities time to build a bypass road and close the main road, avoiding a disaster.
Are there solutions?
Gertman said that one idea was to connect the Dead and Mediterranean seas, sending runoff from the Med to the Dead and building power plants along the way. But this is not feasible economically or logistically.
About 10 years ago, another idea was floated: Building a channel from the Red Sea in Eilat to the Dead Sea, bringing desalinated water mainly to Jordan and sending the end desal product, brine, to the Dead Sea. The addition of brine could slow the rate of decrease in water level and thereby postpone the development of related problems.
However, it’s doubtful the project will go forward due to economic and political considerations.
“It would be very expensive and difficult to build. The World Bank agreed to give some money to study this project and to build it, but it’s still at the idea stage because we need close cooperation with Jordan to make it happen,” said Gertman. “It’s easy to talk about but hard to do.”
Many Israeli scientists agree with Gertman that it may be better to build desal plants on the northern Mediterranean coast that would replenish the Kinneret with freshwater and at least partially restore the natural flow from the Kinneret to the Jordan to the Dead Sea.
Dr. Clive Lipchin (Courtesy of Arava Institute)
Clive Lipchin, director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies’ Center for Transboundary Water Management, believes the Dead Sea could never again be adequately fed by the Jordan River because the water is needed by people on both sides of the border.
“This is a water-scarce region. Even with 100 more desalination plants, freshwater will always be the most sought-after resource,” he said.
The Arava Institute strives to build cooperation in the region to solve water-related issues.
“It’s critical to understand that any potential solution has to have collaborative foundations. You need regional cooperation, and that is our best and most valuable role,” Lipchin said.
“We have strong partnerships in Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. But the reason nothing is moving forward to save the Dead Sea is a lack of such cooperation at the governmental level. Israel and Jordan signed agreements on Red-Dead 10 years ago but until the governments get their act together nothing will happen.”
The future of the Dead Sea
Contrary to popular belief, research indicates that the Dead Sea will never dry up entirely, said Gidon Baer of the Geological Survey of Israel.
“The rate at which the level is dropping will lessen and eventually it will stabilize. The Dead Sea will not disappear,” he said..
This is because the rate of evaporation declines as salinity increases. “Eventually, the rate of loss will equal the rate of inflow of water,” Baer said.
The consequences of the shrinkage will continue causing economic and environmental impacts, not all of them bad.
“When the water level drops it exposes new land at the shoreline, more salt is deposited and sinkholes form,” he said. “These features have both negative and positive aspects.”
For tourists, one negative result is that the sinkholes have destroyed several Dead Sea beaches and make it difficult to reach the waterline of surviving beaches. This could be managed by finding or building alternative routes, Baer said.
On the other hand, tourism could benefit from the situation.
“The features exposed have never been seen before, and the beauty of the Dead Sea is even enhanced,” said Baer.
“Before the 1980s, salt wasn’t deposited along the shoreline in such variety and quantity, and now you see it both on the shoreline and in the water. People can take advantage of that by bringing tourists to see those features.”
Israel could, for example, build a safe trail around the sinkholes for tourists.
Another advantage of the newly exposed features is the opportunity for scientific study that could shed light on similar places in the world.
Living with the problems
Ben-Gurion University professor Jiwchar Ganor (Dani Machlis/BGU)
At least for now, with no sure solution in sight for the Dead Sea’s woes, we may have to view the situation the way we are starting to view the Covid pandemic: learn to live with it.
That’s the opinion of Jiwchar Ganor, a professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and former dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences.
“The decrease in sea level is of course human caused, but people need to drink and eat,” he said. “There is a huge population in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. These areas are starving for water. They use all the available water, and the result is a drop in the Dead Sea level.”
Ganor said the net effect of the mineral-mining industry is more salinity. It’s not possible to stabilize both the salinity and the water level.
“We can stop the sea-level drop by adding seawater or desalination brine, but if we do that, we will make the surface water much less salty on the top and this will cause more sinkholes,” he said.
“We can stabilize the salinity, but if we do that the water level will go down. All we can do is slow the rate of decrease by adding a limited amount of water from the brine of desalination in the Gulf of Eilat.”
The reality, said Ganor, is that the problems cannot be solved completely.
“We have a huge need for freshwater. And we have an industry that is a very important source of foreign currency for Jordan, and for Israel is the major employer in the south.”
However, he agrees with Baer that the salty lake will be with us forever.
“The Dead Sea will shrink but not disappear,” he said.
“Find something that nobody’s talking about. Research the hell out of it. Then write on it.”
That’s the advice from onetime speechwriter for former President George W. Bush and now Atlantic columnist David Frum on how to get media coverage in 2021.
It’s sound advice for small business owners, who are hard-pressed for the time to research topics, develop messaging and get coverage in the press. Only media which drives sales, improves marketing and creates brand positioning is worth pursuing — but how do you separate the wheat from the chaff?
You can get some solid ideas by following the strategies a trio of media personalities used to built their own brands.
The first step is to find your passion. If you don’t love it, nobody else will. Or as award-winning Washington Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary told Zenger, “I believe the most success comes from a natural interest or skill in a particular area.”
The second step is to be unique. If everyone else is doing it, you’ll never stand out — which means you’ll waste resources that could have been directed to more productive pursuits. Zenger also interviewed former CNN senior reporter Chris Moody on how being unique helped him create a brand that has sustained his career even while he and his wife left East Coast cities to travel America in a RV.
Finally, you must have a media strategy which turns your unique passion into real results.
Michelle Singletary, financial columnist at the Washington Post, says, “I did the work first, and put people first. The opportunities came because of that work.” (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
Find your passion
“I didn’t choose this niche. It was chosen for me.” This is what Singletary returned to over and over again in an e-mail interview with Zenger. “Much of my financial wisdom came from my grandmother, whom I called Big Mama. She died in 1995, but her financial legacy lives on. It was her teachings that I would talk about to my colleagues and editors in the Washington Post Business section that resulted in a focus on personal finance.”
Singletary said that her passion started with “helping people become better stewards over their finances.” The awards, TV show, radio appearances, and four books came because she “developed and honed my passion,” and took the wisdom of her frugal grandmother into the marketplace of ideas. “Not one of my book deals came because I pitched a publisher, and I never sought to be the host of my own show,” she explained. “I did the work first, and put people first. The opportunities came because of that work.”
“I’m not writing for the industry,” Singletary concluded. “I’m writing for real people” — such as her Big Mama and others in Singletary’s life. “I learned about money management from a Black, southern-born grandmother who, when she held a penny, Lincoln would scream!”
Former CNN correspondent Chris Moody (left) says, “it’s much easier to pitch stories to editors you used to drink with than to send cold pitches to strangers.” (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Be passionately unique
Until 2018, Chris Moody followed a straight path to journalism success. He got his start at the Daily Caller, covered the 2012 elections at Yahoo News, and traveled the country as CNN’s senior digital correspondent during the 2016 elections.
“I spent most of my career in Washington and New York, which provided opportunities to grow relationships with reporters and editors in person,” Moody told Zenger. “We all worked on Capitol Hill or traveled on campaign busses for months at a time. We swapped stories after work at restaurants and bars,” Moody said.
Then 2018 hit, and so did layoffs at CNN. Moody and his wife have since traveled America in a RV, living everywhere from a Catholic monastery to New York City. Moody has become a freelance journalist published at outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The News Station. He attributes his continued success to a passion for politics and relationships he’s built over the years.
“Politics is the topic to which I return. It’s where I started, and no matter how hard I try to escape politics, it always reels me back in,” Moody told Zenger. “But I’ve never approached journalism from a partisan or ideological lens. The editors at the Caller sent me to Capitol Hill to find stories. By the time I was given the opportunity to cover the 2012 presidential race for Yahoo News, I had built a number of contacts in Republican and conservative movement worlds that Yahoo was specifically seeking.”
While Moody said that writers “must continually come up with smart pitches, meet deadlines, and produce clean copy,” he also said that “it’s much easier to pitch stories to editors you used to drink with than to send cold pitches to strangers.”
Turn your unique passion into real results
Frum, Singletary, and Moody have all taken different paths to media success, but they each started with passion and developed a uniqueness driven by that passion.
They then did the legwork to continually produce what made their passion unique — Moody maintained contacts and kept his reporter skills sharp, Frum launched a website and wrote books, and Singletary’s column regularly cites the day-to-day economic challenges and opportunities faced by her readers.
David Frum speaks onstage during Politicon 2018 at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 21, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Politicon)
Here’s how small business owners can create that same foundation for success:
What’s the passion that led you to start your company? Singletary writes about 401Ks, home ownership, and other critical finance topics — but always with an eye toward her real target market — average people striving to create financial success – not the investors, accountants, and bankers most people think of when the word “finance” comes up.
What is nobody else talking about related to that passion? Frum is a former member of the GOP establishment who has become a prominent critic of the direction of the party. This has become a popular position in recent years, but he was ahead of that trend. Agree or disagree with his positions, he’s turned that brand into long-standing media influence.
What media outlets most need your unique passion? Picking the right outlet for your passion is hard. You’ve got to pick one(s) that:
Your target markets read, watch, or listen to.
Have the tone and style you want affiliated with your brand.
Are the right medium for you. Pet stores and animal shelters should use TV to show off animals’ cuteness; people with a face for radio should stick to that medium. And people with quieter, more deliberate personalities may want to use the written word instead of more fast-moving mediums like podcasts, TV, and radio.
Don’t have what you’re offering. Yahoo News needed someone with the right contacts at the right places at the right time. Moody was the answer to their pain point.
Don’t rush — prepare for the right exposure
The Internet lives forever, so take the time to get your passion, uniqueness and targeted outlets in order.
Research a few topics ahead of time to give yourself a running start, and prepare your marketing so that it can maximize your media placements. It might take a few weeks or months, but that’s OK — better to take the time to get it right than to get it fast— and wrong.
How about the roar of a little Martian wind to sleep to? Or the sound of gravel crunching under NASA’s Perseverance Rover? Or its motors whirring across the Red Planet?
Two microphones aboard the Rover have captured these sounds and many more and beamed them back to Earth since Perseverance touched down on the Martian surface on February 18.
“It’s like you’re really standing there,” said Baptiste Chide, a planetary scientist who studies data from the microphones at L’Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie, an astrophysics research lab in Toulouse, France.
“Martian sounds have strong bass vibrations, so when you put on headphones, you can really feel it,” Chide said.
Envision rocking out on Mars? How about zapping?
The Perseverance SuperCam studies rocks and soil samples by zapping them with a laser and then analyzing the resulting water vapor.
The laser pulses hundreds of times on each target, creating opportunities for the microphone to pick up the ‘”zapping” sounds.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover carries two commercial-grade microphones, including this one on its chassis. (NASA, JPL-Caltech/Zenger)
So far, the microphone has recorded more than 25,000 of these “zaps.”
The recordings are teaching experts about the Martian atmosphere.
As sound travels through the air, the SuperCam mic monitors “microturbulences,” which adds to the ability of scientists to study the planet’s atmosphere.
The mic adds to the rover’s wind sensors, which form part of the suite of atmospheric tools called Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA).
NASA said in a statement released Oct. 18 that the rover is the first spacecraft to record the sound of the Red Planet using dedicated microphones.
The microphones are not cutting-edge million-dollar pieces of equipment but commercially available off-the-shelf devices.
One of the mics rides on the side of the rover’s chassis. The second mic sits on Perseverance’s mast as a complement to the SuperCam laser instrument.
According to NASA, the mic lets researchers study how sound travels on Mars. They previously knew that because the atmosphere is less dense on the Red Planet, higher-pitched sounds, in particular, would be hard to hear.
As a result, several scientists were surprised when the microphone picked up the Ingenuity helicopter’s buzzing rotors during its fourth flight, on April 30, from a distance of 262 feet.
Information from the helicopter’s audio allowed researchers to eliminate two of three models developed to predict how sound travels on Mars.
The super laser camera on NASA’s Perseverance Rover shown in a screenshot from a video. (NASA, JPL-Caltech, LANL, CNES, CNRS, IRAP, DPA/Zenger)
“Sound on Mars carries much farther than we thought,” Nina Lanza, a SuperCam scientist who works with the microphone data at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, said:.
“It shows you just how important it is to do field science.”
Sound can also be used to improve the maintenance of equipment on Mars as it gives crucial clues to engineers about how the machinery is working.
“We would love to listen to these sounds regularly,” Vandi Verma, Perseverance’s chief engineer for robotic operations at JPL, said.
“We routinely listen for changes in sound patterns on our test rover here on Earth, which can indicate there’s an issue that needs attention.”
