Waching daily Aug 30 2018

The United States Census Bureau is reporting two major developments involving education.

For the first time in history, 90 percent of Americans over 25 years of age have finished

high school.

In addition, more than one-third of Americans over the age of 25 have a college degree or

higher.

That is a big change from 1940.

At that time, a Census Bureau study found that less than 25 percent of the U.S. population

had completed at least four years of high school.

It also found that just 4.6 percent had earned a four-year bachelor's degree or taken additional

classes after completing a study program at a college or university.

The new study found that, in 2017, 54 percent of Americans who did not complete high school

were born outside the United States.

The numbers are even higher among Hispanic men and women.

Seventy-six percent of Hispanics born overseas did not have a high school degree.

Higher percentages of foreign-born people from all race and ethnic groups have not finished

high school.

Yet nearly the same amount of foreign-born Americans as people born in the United States

have a college education.

Thirty-four percent of U.S.-born Americans have a four-year college degree.

That rate is similar to the 33 percent of those born in other countries.

The value of a high school degree has changed a lot since the 1940s.

Today, a high school education is often required for workers in the U.S. job market.

The Census Bureau information showed that the 2007 to 2009 recession led more Americans

to go to college.

During the recession, there was a 33 percent increase in students registering at two-year

colleges.

Those new students may have decided to return to school to improve their skills or learn

new ones during a time when labor market conditions were worsening.

Twenty-nine percent of all students were registered at two-year colleges in 2010, but that number

had dropped to 25 percent in 2015.

As the labor market improved, fewer Americans left their jobs to go to college.

However, the number of students registered at two-year colleges was still 10 percent

higher in 2015 than in 2006.

The Census Bureau found that people can earn more money if they go to college.

In 2016, people with high school degrees earned an average of $35,615 per year.

Those with a four-year college degree earned $65,482, and people with advanced degrees

took home an average of $92,525.

There is still a big difference between men and women.

Men with a college degree earned an average of $79,927 in 2016.

Women with the same level of education were paid an average of $50,856.

I'm Phil Dierking.

Lionfish are known for their beauty and unusual look, a common choice for people showing off

the colorful creatures in fish tanks.

But lionfish are also poisonous, with extremely long and separated spines to carry and shoot

poison.

The native environment for lionfish includes the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.

However, sea experts say lionfish were at some time released into the Atlantic Ocean,

likely by people who had kept them in tanks.

Lionfish are currently considered a great threat to coral reefs and related sea life

in coastal waters of the southeastern United States and Caribbean.

Scientists say the fish is a top predator that competes for food and space with native

fish in the area.

Lionfish kill off and eat many other kinds of fish that are important in helping coral

reefs grow and stay healthy.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says lionfish reproduce

very quickly and are continuing to expand.

NOAA scientists predict further reef damage as lionfish keep attacking fish populations

already threatened by the effects of climate change, pollution and overfishing.

Now there is a new solution for fighting back.

University researchers are developing an underwater robot to hunt down, kill and collect lionfish.

A student-led team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts developed the robot.

The team recently demonstrated the device and is continuing to test and make changes

to it.

The team says it used machine learning, advanced computer vision libraries and brain like networks

to develop the robot's vision.

It is also equipped to operate underwater without human control.

The robot is designed to recognize the lionfish, chase it and shoot the animal with a spear.

The spear then separates from the robot and floats the fish to the surface for collection.

Craig Putnam is a computer science professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a director

of the school's Robotics Engineering Program.

He says the robot was built to simplify the process of hunting down and collecting this

aggressive fish.

"The goal is to be able to toss the robot over the side of a boat and have it go down

to the reef, plot out a course, and begin its search," he said.

Putnam notes the robot will be required to follow a complex path to avoid the reef, other

sea creatures – and people - to reach and catch its target.

But his team is hopeful the fishlike vehicle can "be a part of the environmental solution"

to limit further damage.

Putnam said his team trained the robot system by showing it thousands of images of lionfish

in different colors, from many directions and under different lighting conditions.

The robot can correctly identify lionfish about 95 percent of the time, he added.

The head of the university's Robotics Resource Center, Kenneth Stafford, said he is glad

the development team was not afraid to take on such a serious environmental problem.

"This is a real-world problem and the students attacked it," he said.

The team said one of the hardest parts of the project was designing a container for

the robot's electronics system.

It had to protect it from the harmful effects of saltwater.

In the coming months, the team will be working to perfect the robot's satellite guidance

system.

The researchers hope that in addition to helping reduce reef damage, the system can also provide

economic help.

They say that since lionfish are a popular food item, fisherman could use the robots

to safely catch the fish and sell it to local restaurants.

I'm Bryan Lynn.

Experts say China could face problems if the United States stops supplying some technologies

needed for Chinese companies.

Such a move could hurt the competitiveness of Chinese industries.

Scott Kennedy is the Deputy Director of the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center

for Strategic & International Studies based in Washington.

He said China may be forced to change its industrial policies to deal with a developing

situation.

"It will put a lot of pressure on China to increase domestic consumption and domestic

investments to replace the loss of opportunities with the United States and that could put

pressure on (Chinese President) Xi Jinping," he said.

The U.S. has placed heavy duties on a number of Chinese products.

Experts say that the taxes on Chinese exports have affected China's investment in fixed

assets such as big roads or railway projects and factories.

Chinese investment in such projects grew six percent in the first half of the year.

However, that is down from earlier periods.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has said it wants to stop the unfair

movement of U.S. technology to China.

It points to the large trade deficit the U.S. has with China, which reached about $375 billion

in 2017.

Observers suggest that U.S. efforts to limit technology going to China are in response

to the "Made in China 2025" development plan.

That plan sets high goals for China to be competitive in fields such as electric cars,

robots and other important technologies.

Earlier U.S. administrations have shown concern over so-called "dual-use" technologies.

These are technologies that have both civilian and military uses.

The Trump administration has shown it is willing to limit other technologies as well.

Kennedy said the U.S. may be trying to limit the Chinese development plan and also to "move

supply chains out of China."

China is concerned about its supply of semi-conductor technology from U.S.-based companies Intel

and Qualcomm.

China's huge electronics industry depends on U.S. semiconductors.

Lourdes Casanova is director of the Emerging Markets Institute at Cornell University's

S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management in New York.

She notes that, "China still buys a lot of semi-conductors from [the] U.S."

However, she added, "China is investing a lot of money to make its own semi-conductors

and be less dependent on Intel."

China's traditional strength in manufacturing has been its low cost of labor.

However, new technologies are replacing some labor-intensive jobs.

Technologies that are doing this include artificial intelligence, robotics, three dimensional

printing and highly connected devices known as the "internet of things."

China has made technology a main part of its long-term development plans.

However, some commentators in China say technology could continue to be a point of disagreement

with the West.

They even suggest that the U.S. and Europe may seek to cut off China from these areas.

I'm Mario Ritter.

Iran's efforts to influence internet users around the world are larger than experts have

thought, reports Reuters news agency.

Reuters said that Iran has a group of anonymous websites and social media accounts in 11 important

languages.

Facebook and other companies said last week that social media accounts and websites were

part of an Iranian campaign.

The goal was to influence public opinion in other countries.

Reuters studied 10 other websites and many accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and

YouTube.

The American internet security company FireEye and the Israeli company ClearSky studied Reuters's

research.

The companies said that technical evidence showed a web of sites and social media accounts

called the International Union of Virtual Media, or IUVM.

Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, took down some sites and

accounts linked to IUVM last week.

IUVM spreads information from Iranian state media and other media providers supportive

of Iranian policies on the internet.

Often the provider makes it difficult to find out where the information first came from.

Some of these media providers include Iran's PressTV, FARS news agency and al-Manar TV,

which is linked to the pro-Iranian militant group Hezobollah in Lebanon.

Representatives from those media companies or the Iranian government did not answer Reuters'

requests for comments.

Since 2016, U.S. officials and media have been looking into possible Russian interference

into the presidential election that year.

In July, a grand jury in the United States brought charges against 12 Russians.

They were accused of being intelligence officers trying to hack computer systems of political

groups in 2016.

Russia has denied the charges.

U.S. officials also have warned that Russia could attempt to influence congressional elections

in November.

Ben Nimmo is with the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council in Washington

D.C.

He said the Iranian operation was a large-scale one.

"This shows how easy it is to run an influence operation online, even when the level of skill

is low."

He said the Iranian operation depended on quantity not quality but still stayed secret

for years.

Facebook spokesman Jay Nancarrow said the company is continuing to investigate accounts

and pages linked to Iran.

The company, he said, took down more pages on Tuesday.

Twitter tweeted that it had removed 486 accounts for violating its terms of use since last

week.

Twitter said it had suspended 770 accounts recently and of those "fewer than 100" had

been based in the U.S. YouTube blocked the IUVM TV page after Reuters

contacted the company with questions about it.

Reuters has sought comments from IUVM, but has not received answers from the company.

However, the company does not hide that it supports Iranian causes.

IUVM operates in languages including English, French, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Pashto, Russian,

Turkish and Spanish.

I'm Mario Ritter.

Over the years, Tajikistan has taken numerous steps to control the lives of its citizens.

The government has rules restricting how long men can grow their beards and the length of

women's clothing.

It also limits how much food Tajiks are legally permitted to prepare.

Now, the government is trying to control how its citizens are memorialized after they die.

Tajikistan is restricting the size of markers in the country's burial grounds.

News of these restrictions come from an official with the government's Committee on Religious

Affairs and Regulation of National Traditions.

He spoke with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

The official said that the rule is meant to limit public signs of the wealth of the dead

person and his or her family members.

The state-controlled Jumhuriyat newspaper first reported on the memorial stone rules

in February of 2017.

But few people paid attention at that time.

But in late August 2018, RFE/RL published a story about the rules.

Now they appear to be the talk of the mostly Muslim country.

The Jumhuriyat report said that cemetery stones could be no more than 1.5 meters long, 1 meter

wide, and 50 centimeters tall.

Abdukarim Mustafozoda, an official with the government's religious affairs committee,

made the announcement.

The official who spoke with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said the measurements were established

by a government declaration.

He added that local officials had been told to explain the rule to the public.

There is "no penalty...yet for violating the policy," the official added.

Last year, the government announced measures barring people from crying loudly at funerals,

a traditional way of mourning in Tajikistan.

Officials have also set restrictions on the amount of money families can spend on funerals

and other family events.

One family in southern Tajikistan last year had food for a wedding party seized by officials

who said a "wasteful" amount had been prepared.

Concerned about what they consider religious extremism, officials have tightened rules

over Islamic organizations and the open expression of religious beliefs.

The government already has rules for the length of men's facial hair, baby names and how women

tie their head coverings.

The cemetery stone rule, however, is more in agreement with the traditional simple markers

found in many Islamic cemeteries.

In announcing the rule last year, Mustafozoda wrote that Tajik cemeteries have become a

place for people to show that they are rich.

"(It) is not only wrong, it's also against Islam," he wrote, adding that it was "wasteful

and unnecessary."

He said families sometimes compete to put up the biggest possible stone.

I'm Susan Shand.

Zimbabwe has a new president.

Emmerson Mnangagwa was officially sworn in on August 27 following a ruling by the Constitutional

Court declaring Mr. Mnangagwa the winner of the July 30 presidential election.

The court dismissed a legal challenge brought by the political opposition, Movement for

Democratic Change Alliance.

The United States urges all parties to respect the Zimbabwean constitution and the rule of

law.

The IRI-NDI Zimbabwe International Electoral Observation Mission reported "several improvements

to the electoral process compared to Zimbabwe's past elections, though equally important problems

gave rise to deep concerns that the process thus far has not made the mark."

Further reforms are necessary to meet standards Zimbabweans expect and deserve and which reflect

regional and international best practices for democratic elections.

The United States remains concerned over politically motivated human rights violations and abuses,

and acts of post-electoral retribution in Zimbabwe.

"Violence and unlawful activity should not be part of the political process, and those

responsible for such transgressions must be held accountable," said State Department

spokesperson Heather Nauert.

"Human rights and fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of expression and association,

must be respected, and victims and witnesses of human rights violations and abuses deserve

protection under the law.'

The United States encourages the government of Zimbabwe to hold substantive discussions

with all stakeholders and implement electoral and broader political and economic reforms.

The United States stands ready to continue its dialogue with Zimbabwe's political, economic,

and civil society leaders to foster inclusive democratic governance for the betterment of

all citizens.