Women still lag far behind men when it comes to careers in the fastest growing technology fields. Recent studies show fewer than 20 percent of women will pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics or STEM for short. Two sisters in Maryland have started their own summer camp to get more women interested in STEM careers. Cristina Caicedo Smit reports.
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Tucked away in an industrial block in the New York City borough of Queens is an ordinary-looking warehouse containing an extraordinary treasure: a quarter-million sheets, shards and pieces of multicolored and iridescent glass that together make up the largest collection of Tiffany glass, The Neustadt Tiffany Glass Archive.
Magnificent windows
While stained glass has been produced since ancient times, the colorful cathedral windows created during the 15th century of the Renaissance period are perhaps the best known. But the art was transformed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Louis Comfort Tiffany, an American artist and designer who used his unique talent to essentially create paintings out of glass.
Lindsy Parrott, executive director and curator of the collection, holds up a medium-sized piece of glass as she explains its uniqueness.
“This is called dichroic, rippled glass and so it’s one color — this greenish color — in reflected light. But then look at this,” she says, as she holds it up to the window. “When you illuminate it, it becomes a wonderful reddish-yellow glass.”
And that’s what is significant bout The Neustadt Tiffany Glass Archive, she says. “It documents this unbelievable chapter in the history of stained glass, by introducing all of these incredible colors and textures, various patterns, different opacities of glass.”
Distinctive style of glass
Tiffany glass derives its name from the distinctive style of glass produced by Tiffany and his team of designers from 1878 to 1933. Working out of the Tiffany Studios in New York, Tiffany became famous for the color-infused, leaded glass lampshades and stained glass windows that have come to define his name.
The Neustadt Collection was founded in 1969 by collector Egon Neustadt and his wife, Hildegard, who discovered their first Tiffany lamp in 1935. That $12.50 purchase inspired a lifelong passion.
“This one wonderful daffodil lamp kicked off an entire collection,” Parrott says. The Neustadts became deeply passionate about Tiffany lamps after that initial purchase, transfixed by their beauty, and spent the rest of their life building a massive collection.
A passion for Tiffany glass
The couple would eventually amass more than 200 Tiffany lamps, each one unique, including the purchase in 1967 of a huge cache of Tiffany glass left when the company’s furnaces finally closed in 1937.
“Tiffany’s furnaces were originally located in Corona, Queens, and so much of the glass that you see here was made here in New York City,” Parrott says.
The collection represents a variety of forms of glass, from drapery glass meant to mimic a flowing robe, rippled glass meant to represent water, and pressed glass jewels and 3D glass jewels to adorn lamps, mosaics and windows, all carefully sorted and ordered by color, size, texture and type.
The warehouse containing the Tiffany Glass Archive will open to the public for exclusive monthly tours later this year. And The Neustadt will provide a sneak preview of some of these glass treasures in a new exhibition in their dedicated gallery at the Queens Museum, opening October 7.
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Tucked away in an industrial block in the New York City borough of Queens is an ordinary-looking warehouse containing an extraordinary treasure: a quarter-million sheets, shards and pieces of multicolored and iridescent glass that together make up the largest collection of Tiffany glass, The Neustadt Tiffany Glass Archive.
Magnificent windows
While stained glass has been produced since ancient times, the colorful cathedral windows created during the 15th century of the Renaissance period are perhaps the best known. But the art was transformed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Louis Comfort Tiffany, an American artist and designer who used his unique talent to essentially create paintings out of glass.
Lindsy Parrott, executive director and curator of the collection, holds up a medium-sized piece of glass as she explains its uniqueness.
“This is called dichroic, rippled glass and so it’s one color — this greenish color — in reflected light. But then look at this,” she says, as she holds it up to the window. “When you illuminate it, it becomes a wonderful reddish-yellow glass.”
And that’s what is significant bout The Neustadt Tiffany Glass Archive, she says. “It documents this unbelievable chapter in the history of stained glass, by introducing all of these incredible colors and textures, various patterns, different opacities of glass.”
Distinctive style of glass
Tiffany glass derives its name from the distinctive style of glass produced by Tiffany and his team of designers from 1878 to 1933. Working out of the Tiffany Studios in New York, Tiffany became famous for the color-infused, leaded glass lampshades and stained glass windows that have come to define his name.
The Neustadt Collection was founded in 1969 by collector Egon Neustadt and his wife, Hildegard, who discovered their first Tiffany lamp in 1935. That $12.50 purchase inspired a lifelong passion.
“This one wonderful daffodil lamp kicked off an entire collection,” Parrott says. The Neustadts became deeply passionate about Tiffany lamps after that initial purchase, transfixed by their beauty, and spent the rest of their life building a massive collection.
A passion for Tiffany glass
The couple would eventually amass more than 200 Tiffany lamps, each one unique, including the purchase in 1967 of a huge cache of Tiffany glass left when the company’s furnaces finally closed in 1937.
“Tiffany’s furnaces were originally located in Corona, Queens, and so much of the glass that you see here was made here in New York City,” Parrott says.
The collection represents a variety of forms of glass, from drapery glass meant to mimic a flowing robe, rippled glass meant to represent water, and pressed glass jewels and 3D glass jewels to adorn lamps, mosaics and windows, all carefully sorted and ordered by color, size, texture and type.
The warehouse containing the Tiffany Glass Archive will open to the public for exclusive monthly tours later this year. And The Neustadt will provide a sneak preview of some of these glass treasures in a new exhibition in their dedicated gallery at the Queens Museum, opening October 7.
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About 250,000 pieces of multicolored and iridescent glass sit in a warehouse on an industrial block in Long Island City, Queens, which houses the largest collection of Tiffany glass. It’s a welcome tribute to Louis Tiffany, an American artist who many believe transformed the history of stained glass with his unique artistry — essentially creating paintings out of glass. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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About 250,000 pieces of multicolored and iridescent glass sit in a warehouse on an industrial block in Long Island City, Queens, which houses the largest collection of Tiffany glass. It’s a welcome tribute to Louis Tiffany, an American artist who many believe transformed the history of stained glass with his unique artistry — essentially creating paintings out of glass. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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Uncertainty reigned in Venezuela Saturday after President Nicolas Maduro unveiled a major economic reform plan aimed at halting the spiraling hyperinflation that has thrown the oil-rich, cash-poor South American country into chaos.
Ahead of a major currency overhaul Monday, when Caracas will start issuing new banknotes after slashing five zeroes off the crippled bolivar, Maduro detailed other measures he hopes will pull Venezuela out of crisis.
Those measures include a massive minimum wage hike, the fifth so far this year.
But analysts say the radical overhaul could only serve to make matters worse.
“There will be a lot of confusion in the next few days, for consumers and the private sector,” said the director of the Ecoanalitica consultancy, Asdrubal Oliveros. “It’s a chaotic scenario.”
‘Pure lie’
The embattled Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, said the country needed to show “fiscal discipline” and stop the excessive money printing that has been regular practice in recent years.
The new currency, the sovereign bolivar — to distinguish from the current, and ironically named, strong bolivar — will be anchored to the country’s widely discredited cryptocurrency, the petro.
Each petro will be worth about $60, based on the price of a barrel of Venezuela’s oil. In the new currency, that will be 3,600 sovereign bolivars, signaling a massive devaluation.
In turn, the minimum wage will be fixed at half a petro (1,800 sovereign bolivars), starting Monday. That is about $28, more than 34 times the previous level of less than a dollar at the prevailing black market rate.
Maduro also said the country would have one fluctuating official exchange rate, also anchored to the petro, without saying what the starting level would be.
As it stands, the monthly minimum wage, devastated by inflation and the aggressive devaluation of the bolivar, is still not enough to buy a kilo of meat.
In the capital Caracas, residents were skeptical about the new measures.
“Everything will stay the same, prices will continue to rise,” 39-year-old Bruno Choy, who runs a street food stand, told AFP.
Angel Arias, a 67-year-old retiree, dubbed the new currency a “pure lie!”
1 million percent inflation
The International Monetary Fund predicts inflation will hit a staggering 1 million percent this year in Venezuela, now in a fourth year of recession, hamstrung by shortages of basic goods and crippled by paralyzed public services.
Maduro blames the country’s financial woes on opposition plots and American sanctions, but admits that the government will “learn as we go along” when it comes to the currency redenomination.
His government pushed back Saturday against criticism of the economic reform plan.
“Don’t pay attention to naysayers,” Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said. “With oil income, with taxes and income from gasoline price hikes … we’ll be able to fund our program.”
Electronic transactions are set to be suspended from Sunday to facilitate the introduction of the new notes.
Economy in turmoil
Oil production accounts for 96 percent of Venezuela’s revenue, but that has slumped to a 30-year low of 1.4 million barrels a day, compared to its record high of 3.2 million 10 years ago.
The fiscal deficit is almost 20 percent of GDP while Venezuela struggles with an external debt of $150 billion.
Venezuela launched the petro in a bid for liquidity to try to circumvent US sanctions that have all but stamped out international financing.
But there’s a good reason the redenomination hasn’t generated renewed hope or investor confidence: Venezuela has done this before.
Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez stripped three zeroes off the bolivar in 2008, but that failed to prevent hyperinflation.
Also, Cryptocurrency rating site ICOindex.com has branded the petro a scam, and the U.S. has banned its nationals from trading in it.
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Uncertainty reigned in Venezuela Saturday after President Nicolas Maduro unveiled a major economic reform plan aimed at halting the spiraling hyperinflation that has thrown the oil-rich, cash-poor South American country into chaos.
Ahead of a major currency overhaul Monday, when Caracas will start issuing new banknotes after slashing five zeroes off the crippled bolivar, Maduro detailed other measures he hopes will pull Venezuela out of crisis.
Those measures include a massive minimum wage hike, the fifth so far this year.
But analysts say the radical overhaul could only serve to make matters worse.
“There will be a lot of confusion in the next few days, for consumers and the private sector,” said the director of the Ecoanalitica consultancy, Asdrubal Oliveros. “It’s a chaotic scenario.”
‘Pure lie’
The embattled Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, said the country needed to show “fiscal discipline” and stop the excessive money printing that has been regular practice in recent years.
The new currency, the sovereign bolivar — to distinguish from the current, and ironically named, strong bolivar — will be anchored to the country’s widely discredited cryptocurrency, the petro.
Each petro will be worth about $60, based on the price of a barrel of Venezuela’s oil. In the new currency, that will be 3,600 sovereign bolivars, signaling a massive devaluation.
In turn, the minimum wage will be fixed at half a petro (1,800 sovereign bolivars), starting Monday. That is about $28, more than 34 times the previous level of less than a dollar at the prevailing black market rate.
Maduro also said the country would have one fluctuating official exchange rate, also anchored to the petro, without saying what the starting level would be.
As it stands, the monthly minimum wage, devastated by inflation and the aggressive devaluation of the bolivar, is still not enough to buy a kilo of meat.
In the capital Caracas, residents were skeptical about the new measures.
“Everything will stay the same, prices will continue to rise,” 39-year-old Bruno Choy, who runs a street food stand, told AFP.
Angel Arias, a 67-year-old retiree, dubbed the new currency a “pure lie!”
1 million percent inflation
The International Monetary Fund predicts inflation will hit a staggering 1 million percent this year in Venezuela, now in a fourth year of recession, hamstrung by shortages of basic goods and crippled by paralyzed public services.
Maduro blames the country’s financial woes on opposition plots and American sanctions, but admits that the government will “learn as we go along” when it comes to the currency redenomination.
His government pushed back Saturday against criticism of the economic reform plan.
“Don’t pay attention to naysayers,” Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said. “With oil income, with taxes and income from gasoline price hikes … we’ll be able to fund our program.”
Electronic transactions are set to be suspended from Sunday to facilitate the introduction of the new notes.
Economy in turmoil
Oil production accounts for 96 percent of Venezuela’s revenue, but that has slumped to a 30-year low of 1.4 million barrels a day, compared to its record high of 3.2 million 10 years ago.
The fiscal deficit is almost 20 percent of GDP while Venezuela struggles with an external debt of $150 billion.
Venezuela launched the petro in a bid for liquidity to try to circumvent US sanctions that have all but stamped out international financing.
But there’s a good reason the redenomination hasn’t generated renewed hope or investor confidence: Venezuela has done this before.
Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez stripped three zeroes off the bolivar in 2008, but that failed to prevent hyperinflation.
Also, Cryptocurrency rating site ICOindex.com has branded the petro a scam, and the U.S. has banned its nationals from trading in it.
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People in big cities around the world typically enjoy a wide range of public transportation options. Those who own smartphones also have the choice of using some of the increasingly popular ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft. And now, Kabul residents in Afghanistan can, too. VOA’s Haseeb Maudoodi takes a look at Kabul’s newest online taxi service called Buber, which means ‘take me’ in Dari. Bezhan Hamdard narrates.
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People in big cities around the world typically enjoy a wide range of public transportation options. Those who own smartphones also have the choice of using some of the increasingly popular ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft. And now, Kabul residents in Afghanistan can, too. VOA’s Haseeb Maudoodi takes a look at Kabul’s newest online taxi service called Buber, which means ‘take me’ in Dari. Bezhan Hamdard narrates.
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Google has been in the headlines recently, and the news was not good. The technology company left the Chinese market eight years ago to protest Beijing’s censorship, but now appears ready to return with a new search engine. But the project is shrouded in secrecy, even as Google’s employees demand transparency. Meanwhile, the company tries to defend itself against accusations it has been invading user’s privacy, despite claiming it doesn’t. Faiza Elmasry has the story. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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Google has been in the headlines recently, and the news was not good. The technology company left the Chinese market eight years ago to protest Beijing’s censorship, but now appears ready to return with a new search engine. But the project is shrouded in secrecy, even as Google’s employees demand transparency. Meanwhile, the company tries to defend itself against accusations it has been invading user’s privacy, despite claiming it doesn’t. Faiza Elmasry has the story. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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The world’s oceans are filled with trace amounts of uranium, the primary fuel for nuclear power reactors. The trick is extracting it from the seawater. Now, scientists in the U.S. say they have done that using yarn, and extracted 5 grams of the powdered form of uranium used to produce reactor fuel. Faith Lapidus reports.
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The world’s oceans are filled with trace amounts of uranium, the primary fuel for nuclear power reactors. The trick is extracting it from the seawater. Now, scientists in the U.S. say they have done that using yarn, and extracted 5 grams of the powdered form of uranium used to produce reactor fuel. Faith Lapidus reports.
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A budding trade war between the U.S. and Turkey over a detained American pastor is having global consequences. A sharp drop in Turkey’s lira, inflation and the threat of loan defaults, could drag down other economies, particularly in emerging markets. Turkey’s troubles are causing ripple effects in countries as far away as Argentina and Indonesia, while weighing on Asian currency rates and triggering currency fluctuations. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
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A budding trade war between the U.S. and Turkey over a detained American pastor is having global consequences. A sharp drop in Turkey’s lira, inflation and the threat of loan defaults, could drag down other economies, particularly in emerging markets. Turkey’s troubles are causing ripple effects in countries as far away as Argentina and Indonesia, while weighing on Asian currency rates and triggering currency fluctuations. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
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Turkey’s currency this month has suffered heavy falls triggered by U.S. Turkish tensions over the ongoing detention of an American pastor. Washington’s threat to impose new economic sanctions sparked another steep currency drop Friday. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul on the economic fall out for people in Istanbul.
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Turkey’s currency this month has suffered heavy falls triggered by U.S. Turkish tensions over the ongoing detention of an American pastor. Washington’s threat to impose new economic sanctions sparked another steep currency drop Friday. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul on the economic fall out for people in Istanbul.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is vowing he won’t back down in the deepening dispute with Washington.
“They were not able to make us collapse and they never will. If they have their dollars, we have our God. We will walk toward the future together with firm steps,” Erdogan said to thousands of party members at the national congress of his ruling AKP Party in Ankara.
Turkey’s currency plummeted this month following Washington’s trade tariffs and sanctions, as bilateral tensions escalated. Those tensions intensified Friday when a Turkish court ruled for the continued detention of American Pastor Andrew Brunson.
Brunson trial
Brunson, who is being tried on terrorism charges, is a big part of the disagreement between the two NATO allies. Before Friday’s ruling U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, “Turkey has taken advantage of the United States for many years,” adding, “We will pay nothing for the release of an innocent man, but we are cutting back on Turkey.”
Strain over Brunson’s ongoing detention cased the Turkish lira to fall Friday. Further declines of the Turkish currency are anticipated because of expected additional U.S. sanctions. “We have more that we are planning to do if they don’t release [Mr. Brunson] quickly,” said U.S. Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday.
The Turkish lira has lost nearly 40 percent recently, with roughly half of the losses this month.
Istanbul’s Kadikoy neighborhood is the heart of the Asian side of the city. Shops and traders are struggling to come to terms with the wild gyrations in the currency’s value.
Imported goods
Stores depending heavily on imported goods are among the hardest hit.
“Ninety percent of the goods we sell are imported goods,” said Taylan Akcora, a sporting goods shop owner in Kadikoy.
“They are all brands [we sell] and imported to Turkey from the Far East,” he continued. “There are firms who import them [shoes], we buy all our goods from the Turkey distributor of the brand. They will surely put up the prices.”
Turkey is no stranger to a currency crisis, all of which invariably resulted in a surge in inflation and unemployment. The country’s heavy dependence on imports is exacerbating the impact of the currency depreciation. Energy-poor Turkey imports more than 90 percent of its oil and natural gas.
Aslan Yuce runs a tea shop on Kadikoy’s main street. Yuce claims fear of the future is stalking the streets.
“No one is feeling secure. There is no one looking at the future with hope,” he said. “I am a shop owner here, and I see people passing by, everyone looks grim, or thoughtful as if they all lost their hopes about their lives. There is such a psychological situation here,“ Yuce added.
Pharmacy sector
However, it’s the sick who could be the first to suffer. “The rise in the value of the U.S. dollar and the general foreign exchange rate will drastically affect our pharmacy sector, which is so dependent on imports,” said Guliz Kaptan, who has owned a pharmacy in Kadikoy for 30 years.
“Turkish pharmaceutical producers will not even be able to purchase the active ingredients for the current selling price of the medicine on the shelf,” Kaptan added.
Much of the medicine used in Turkey is paid for at least in part by the government. President Erdogan expanded a social security network, especially for health. With rapid currency declines, however, cutbacks already have started.
“Another effect, under precautionary economic measures taken by the government,” Kaptan said. “The national health insurance has stopped paying for best-selling imported medicines, including anti-depressants.”
Further cutbacks could be in the offing with the uncertainty about the Turkish lira and for the broader economy. Two international credit rating agencies recently downgraded Turkey’s sovereign debt further into junk status.
Lira plummets
The ratings agencies both voiced fears about the management of the economy. “Over the last two weeks, the Turkish lira has exhibited extreme volatility,” said Standard and Poor’s rating service in a statement Friday. “This follows Turkey’s prolonged economic overheating, external leveraging, and policy drift,” S&P added.
Erdogan insists the Turkish economy remains strong, and the currency drop is a result of “economic missiles” from Washington. Economists warn even if the Turkish president reverses his stance and adopts steps called for by international investors, a painful road awaits Turkey. “It’s too late,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.
“You can solve the currency problem. You can solve the political problems, but it’s too late to save the economy. A Brazilian type of recession has started. For the next year or two, Turkey will not grow. It will shrink in some quarters, a quarter of a percent of growth in some others. However, it’s going to be extremely painful,“ added Yesilada.
Twitter users are blocking companies like Pepsi, Nike and Uber on Twitter to pressure the social media firm to permanently ban American broadcaster Alex Jones for what they say are his abusive tweets.
Meanwhile, Twitter reportedly is facing a shutdown in Pakistan because of a government request to block what it deems objectionable content.
The moves come as U.S. internet companies take a harder look at their policies that have promoted free expression around the world. The companies have a mostly hands-off policy when it comes to curtailing speech, except when it comes to inciting violence and pornography. But that largely permissive approach is getting a new look.
Twitter and Alex Jones
Twitter recently slapped a seven-day ban on conservative American radio host Jones for violating its policy on abusive speech, when he appeared to call for violence against the media, something he denies.
On his show this week, Jones noted that Twitter had removed his videos.
“They took me down,” he said. “Because they will not let me have a voice.”
Earlier this month, Apple, Spotify, Facebook, YouTube and other social media limited Jones and his InfoWars media company from their sites. But InfoWars’ live-streaming app can still be found at Google and Apple’s app stores. The on-air personality has put forth conspiracy theories calling some U.S. mass shootings hoaxes.
WATCH: Tech Companies Struggle With How to Curtail Offensive Speech
No more hands off
Internet firms are moving away from the long-held position that they didn’t want to monitor expression on their sites too closely, Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics Program at Santa Clara University, said.
“The companies are stuck in the middle and no longer trying to avoid responsibility in a way that I think they were even a few years ago when they were saying we are just neutral platforms,” Raicu said. “They are increasingly taking a more open role in determining what content moderation looks like.”
It’s not just in the U.S. where the internet companies are having to make hard decisions about speech. The firms are also grappling with extreme speech in other languages.
Comments on Facebook have been linked to violence in places like Myanmar and India. A recent article by the Reuters news agency reports that negative messages about Myanmar’s Rohingya minority group were throughout its site.
Some call on social media companies to do more to target and take down hate messages before they lead to violence.
“If Facebook is bent on removing abusive words and nudity, they should be focused on removing these words as well,” said Abhinay Korukonda, a student from Mumbai, India, who is studying at the University of California, Berkeley. “This comes under special kinds of abusive terms. They should take an action. They should definitely remove these.”
Objective standards
Ming Hsu studies decision-making at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He is researching how to come up with objective standards for determining whether certain speech could lead to real-world dangers against people both in the U.S. and across the globe.
“We don’t have actionable standards for policymakers or for companies or even lay people to say, ‘This is crossing the boundaries, this is way past the boundaries and this is sort of OK,’” Hsu said.
Those calls are even harder when looking at speech in other languages and cultures, he added.
“We don’t really have any intuition for who’s right, who is wrong and who is being discriminated against,” Hsu said. “And that gets back to relying on common sense and how fragile that is.”
Tech companies are known for constantly tweaking their products and software. Now it seems they are taking the same approach with speech as they draw the line between free expression and reducing harm.
VOA’s Deana Mitchell contributed to this report.
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Tech companies like Google’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have long been global platforms for free expression but are increasingly facing calls to respond to offensive and abusive comments on their sites. Michelle Quinn reports this is an issue both in the U.S. and throughout the world.
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