Most Recent Posts: 2014-11-30

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In The Italian Alps, Stradivari's Trees Live On

Antonio Stradivari, the master violin maker whose instruments sell for millions of dollars today, has been dead for nearly three centuries. Only 650 of his instruments are estimated to survive.

But the forest where the luthier got his lumber is alive and well. And thanks to the surprising teamwork of modern instrument makers and forest rangers, Stradivari's trees are doing better than ever.

These spruce trees have been growing for hundreds of years in the Fiemme Valley, the same corner of the Italian Alps where Renaissance luthiers such as Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati hand-picked the trees that would be turned into some of the world's finest instruments. Thanks to a serendipitous combination of climate and altitude, these have come to be called "Il Bosco Che Suona" — The Musical Woods.

Marcello Mazzucchi, a retired forest ranger with an uncanny knack for spotting timber that's ideal for instruments, walks among the trees, tapping on their trunks.

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Luthier Cecilia Piazzi crafts a violin in her Northern Italian workshop. It takes months to complete a single instrument that can cost more than $10,000. A Stradivarius including wood from the same forest can go for more than $10 million.

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Like a sculptor, Piazzi lathes away fine layers of lumber to eventually reveal a finished violin.

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The Fiemme Valley is home to spruce trees, some over 300 years old. Due to a serendipitous combination of climate and altitude, it has been called "Il Bosco Che Suona" — The Musical Woods.

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Marcello Mazzucchi has an uncanny knack for spotting trees that are ideal for instruments. He goes from tree to tree, crossing flawed candidates off his list in search of the perfect timber, and the perfect violin.

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Forest rangers look for saplings before chopping down a tree for instrument lumber. The practice ensures the livelihood of the forest, and the future of musical instruments from the valley. Today, these woods are healthier than in Stradivari's day, according to the forest service.

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Marcello Mazzucchi, who's known as "The Tree Whisperer." "I've felled one million trees in my career," he says. "But in their place, 100 million more have grown up."

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Sunlight is key to a tree's health. Before chopping one down and turning it into an instrument, forest rangers must make sure there's a sapling nearby. With the old tree gone, the new tree can come out of the dark and thrive.

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Once a forest ranger marks a suitable tree, lumberjacks chop it down and cart it to a lumberyard like this one in the Fiemme Valley, where the spruce is milled into sections.

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Once the lumber has been milled into sections, experts can tell how a piece will resonate just by flicking it.

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The Fiemme Valley is one of Italy's most prosperous areas, thanks in large part to these Musical Woods.

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Mazzucchi's skill has led some to call him "The Tree Whisperer," but he laughs off that nickname. "I'm really more of a tree listener," he says. "I observe, I touch them, sometimes I even hug them. Look carefully and they'll tell you their life story, their traumas, their joys, everything. Such humble creatures."

He goes from trunk to trunk, crossing flawed candidates off his list.

"This one over here was struck by lightning," he says. "Who knows what kind of sound its violin would make?"

Then he finds a contender: "It shoots up perfectly straight. It's very cylindrical. No branches at the bottom. If you ask me, there's a violin trapped inside."

Mazzucchi takes out a manual drill called a borer, and twists it like a corkscrew through the bark. He listens carefully to the knocking sound the borer makes each time it hits a new tree ring.

Pulling out a core sample shaped like a pencil, he concludes the tree is an excellent specimen. A lumberjack chops down trees like this one and carts them to a lumberyard nearby, where the spruce is milled into sections.

Local instrument maker Cecilia Piazzi examines a piece of that milled wood, and declares it "magnificent."

"We use it for making the table — that's the beautiful part on the front of a violin or cello, with the soundholes on the surface," Piazzi says. "Yes, this piece is the right piece. I can tell just by flicking it."

It takes months to complete a single instrument, which can cost over $10,000 — a bargain, when you consider a Stradivarius that came from the same forest can go for over $10 million.

But it's enough to keep this community humming. The Fiemme Valley is one of Italy's most prosperous areas, thanks in large part to these musical woods. And it's going to stay that way because people like the Tree Whisperer take care of it.

"I've felled one million trees in my career," Mazzucchi says. "But in their place, 100 million more have grown up."

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Stradivari, Amati and Guarneri made the world's most prized violins and cellos with wood from Italy's Fiemme Valley. Graziano Panfili for NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Graziano Panfili for NPR

Stradivari, Amati and Guarneri made the world's most prized violins and cellos with wood from Italy's Fiemme Valley.

Graziano Panfili for NPR

Before a tree hits the chopping block, Mazzucchi looks around to see if there are any tiny saplings struggling to grow nearby. If so, removing an adult tree will let more sun in and actually help the babies mature.

Bruno Cosignani, the head of the local forest service, explains that light is the limiting factor on tree growth.

"As soon as a tree falls down, those who were born and suffering in the shadows can start to grow more quickly," he says.

And centuries from now, those trees, too, might become musical instruments.

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For World's Oil Exporters, Falling Prices Have A Domino Effect

Imagine you're sitting back one evening, planning your holiday shopping list, knowing that every day you wait to get to the shops, the value of your money will be losing ground.

That's what's happening in places like Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria and other nations that rely heavily on oil exports.

Oil was more than $100 a barrel at the start of the summer. Now it's around $70 a barrel, and many forecasts say it could go lower still.

Falling oil prices have been good news for consumers and businesses here in the U.S. and in the many countries around the world that import oil. But it's having a domino effect in oil-exporting nations. Government budgets are strained. Economies are struggling. The currency is crashing.

The Russian ruble was trading at around 35 to the U.S. dollar this summer. But the ruble has been heading south ever since oil prices started tanking. Now it takes more than 50 rubles for a dollar.

The swift drop in oil prices caught many producers off-guard, says Caroline Freund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

"Over the last few years, oil producers had gotten used to a situation where oil was above $100 a barrel," she says. "So what had happened in these countries is they just had money to burn, so they're spending money on handouts to the public, keeping people happy, exploiting their resources even more ... and that's now on the decline."

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People walk past a display with currency exchange rates in Moscow on Wednesday. Falling oil prices have contributed to a number of economic problems, including a currency that has fallen from 35 rubles to the dollar this summer to more than 50 rubles to the dollar now. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Freund says oil producers with large populations used to government subsidies are being hard-hit. So too are those countries without the financial cushion to ride out the price crash.

"It's hardest for these countries that don't have reserves, really high reserves, like a Venezuela or an Iraq or an Iran, as compared with a Saudi Arabia or a [United Arab Emirates] or Kuwait, where they've really piled up the reserves and can hold out for quite some time," she adds.

Part of the reason oil prices are so low right now is oversupply, which is linked to slowing demand in countries such as China. It's also due to a strong dollar, says Donald Dony, an energy analyst in Victoria, British Columbia.

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"At this point right now, the U.S. dollar, the U.S. economy is definitely hands and feet over top of just about anybody else out there, certainly better than Europe, and is stronger than most of the Asian economies," he says. "So as the U.S. dollar goes up, other currencies start to go down."

And commodities like oil are linked to the U.S. dollar. So countries with a weakened currency are likely to buy less oil, which in turn affects the exporting nations.

Parallels

Why Does Saudi Arabia Seem So Comfortable With Falling Oil Prices?

While the current price of oil is at its lowest level since 2010, it's been much lower in the past three decades, says Brenda Shaffer, an energy expert and visiting professor at Georgetown University. Even when compared with today's prices, oil-dependent nations have always managed to get by.

"These countries, they've seen it when it's been up, when it's been down. Even President [Vladimir] Putin himself has been president of Russia in every type of oil price — the low, the high, the crisis," Shaffer says. "I think it's nothing new for these governments."

Still, Shaffer says countries that depend on a certain oil price to balance their budgets could be vulnerable to instability. But Shaffer says it's premature to think that nations will fundamentally change their foreign policy behavior.

"Things like Russia pulling out of Crimea, or Iran changing its stance on the nuclear program, things that these countries see as national interest, they're not going to give up because of the oil price," Shaffer adds.

She says there's an intricate relationship between oil prices and geopolitics: It's like a kaleidoscope, where one change can set off unintended consequences. She says Washington may take satisfaction that Russia is feeling a financial pinch, but low oil prices could also signal a slowing in the global economy.

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As Hackers Hit Customers, Retailers Keep Quiet About Security

As the holiday buying season approaches, retailers remain open to the same attack — called a "point of sale" attack — that hit Target and Home Depot, security experts say. Those analysts say that retailers have their fingers crossed, hoping they're not next.

And leading companies are keeping very tight-lipped about what, if anything, they're doing to protect customers.

Is This Store Hackerproof?

It's easy to spot a scratched face on a watch. It's much harder to tell if the checkout machine that you swipe to pay for that watch is defective.

But Davi Ottenheimer knows how. He's a security researcher at EMC, a Hopkinton, Mass.-based data storage company. He's been auditing retail for a decade. And we're looking at how "hackerproof" stores are this holiday shopping season.

We walk into a Rolex Store in San Francisco, and the diamond-studded watches don't catch Ottenheimer's eye. A tablet that's sitting by the counter, with a little square card reader plugged in, does.

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"They're not even looking at us," he says as a sales representative walks away. "We could replace the card reader with our own card reader. I have several of those at home."

Never mind that an armed guard is patrolling the door. This store is ripe for a microscale cyberattack. Sure, it would just get a few dozen customers. But, Ottenheimer says, "they spend a lot of money, so if I want to get high-value cards, this would be a place where I could get them."

Rolex and Tourneau, the company managing the store, did not respond to NPR's request for comment about on-site security.

Over at Macy's, Ottenheimer wanders over to an empty corner and stares at a lonely register. He points to a little green icon that's blinking on the hard drive. "It has a network light on the front," he says.

That means it's speaking to other machines that are grabbing card numbers.

Ottenheimer is concerned that crooks could use this unprotected machine to try to break in. "They came over to help us with the jewelry but not with the fact that we're standing and staring at a PC in the corner," he says.

NPR reached out to Macy's to ask what it's doing to protect the customer information feeding into these machines. Is the retail chain scrambling and encrypting card numbers? Is it cordoning off the financial data, so that people with access to one point of entry can't break into others?

Macy's declined to provide a single detail about the most general security measures it's taking.

'Security By Obscurity'

Orla Cox, a security expert at Symantec, helps retailers behind the scenes. And while she can't name her clients because of nondisclosure agreements, she criticizes companies for acting like they can achieve "security by obscurity."

"A lot of times, a lazy approach to security is just to make information difficult to get," she says. "Just because you're not talking about it isn't actually making you any more protected."

According to a recent Symantec report, hacks have gotten bigger and more frequent. Cox and other security insiders say that just about every retailer remains open to the exact same attack — a point-of-sale attack that lifts information from credit card readers — that got Target and Home Depot.

“ Just because you're not talking about it isn't actually making you any more protected.

- Orla Cox, a security expert at Symantec

It's not clear if or when that'll change. NPR contacted two dozen of America's largest retailers — which include Sears, Kohl's, Best Buy, Dollar General, the TJ Maxx company — and none of them would indicate whether their budget for online security has increased in this last year of megabreaches.

"I would think that it's fairly innocuous information anyway," Cox says. "Giving a number out there shows that you're taking it seriously."

A Lack Of Incentives

Visa and MasterCard are nudging retailers to take on a bit more liability. By October 2015, merchants who don't have the more up-to-date EMV chip card readers could have to pay for certain credit and debit card theft in stores.

"There is no silver bullet," says Ellen Richey, Visa's chief risk officer, who's on a national campaign to get retailers to invest.

But, many say, there aren't enough incentives for retailers to address the issue.

Retailers make tiny margins — say 2 percent. They don't want to spend on IT support. When credit card data are stolen, they don't typically have to pay. Even if the retailers' lax network security is at fault, financial institutions typically pick up the bill.

That includes credit unions, like LGE Community Credit Union in Georgia. Its president, Chris Leggett, says he is tired of paying for replacement cards after a hack. "It sure would be nice if the merchants would be willing to share in the cost of cleaning it up due to their lax security," he says. "The issuers are paying the brunt of the expense."

The Credit Union National Association is asking lawmakers to intervene, so that retailers are held to stricter security and disclosure rules.

Card Thefts Become Routine

Among victims, a kind of fatalism has set in. People have come to expect the theft.

Kate Anderson in Minnesota has had to replace her cards five times in the past year. "It always seems to happen on a Friday or a Saturday. So usually that's kind of when I kind of really get like, 'Well, should I really go shopping or not?' " she says.

Now, she and her husband know the drill: "Reset all of our passwords and our PIN numbers and every place that we do auto debits from."

Texas resident Hunter Hargrave has replaced his cards twice following hacks. "I wouldn't be surprised if it happened again," he says.

The 25-year-old is turning away from the world of plastic and using old-school money a lot more. "Whenever I get paid, I take out the vast majority in cash, and then I put the rest on a debit card. But the debit card's only for emergencies," he says.

Even if people ditch their cards, they're not ditching the stores. While the cost of cleaning up a hack is climbing, according to a recent survey by the Ponemon Institute, the cost of doing nothing — and hoping for the best — is not.

Sales at Target and Home Depot have been exceeding expectations. Experts say that as long as we're spending, retailers don't have to spend on protecting us.

Firm Accused Of Illegal Practices That Push Families Into Foreclosure

The fallout from the housing crisis isn't over.

According to Moody's Analytics, there were 700,000 foreclosures last year. And some of those people probably didn't need to lose their homes. Even now, more than six years after the housing crash, lawyers for homeowners say mortgage companies are still making mistakes and foreclosing on homes when they shouldn't be.

Ocwen Financial Corp. is facing an investigation by regulators and a new lawsuit over its treatment of homeowners facing foreclosures. The class-action suit alleges that Ocwen has been charging marked-up, illegal fees and unfairly pushing homeowners into foreclosure.

Ocwen, one of the nation's largest mortgage servicers, collects mortgage payments from American homeowners.

'Helping Homeowners Is What We Do'

There's some irony in Ocwen's case because for years the company claimed to be better than the country's biggest banks at avoiding foreclosures. Ocwen even trademarked the slogan "Helping homeowners is what we do!"

As a "specialty servicer," the company's executives said it had computer systems and policies that were specially designed for working with homeowners who had fallen on hard times and were having trouble paying. Since the housing crash, Ocwen's chairman, William Erbey, has become a billionaire as the company has grown.

But now regulators are investigating Ocwen — not for helping homeowners, but for hurting them.

New York state's top financial regulator, Benjamin Lawsky, recently expanded an investigation into the company. One issue: thousands of back-dated letters that made it appear that homeowners had missed their window to get help avoiding foreclosure.

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Ocwen has pledged to work with regulators and fix the back-dated letter problem. But the investigation has sent Ocwen's stock price swooning — down more than 60 percent year to date. And now there's this new lawsuit on behalf of homeowners.

'It's Robbery'

The lawsuit alleges that Ocwen has been charging marked-up and illegal fees as well as engaging in deceptive business practices.

Phyllis Nugent is one of the plaintiffs, and the lawsuit says Ocwen has been unfairly pushing her into foreclosure. "They just keep sending us bills with erroneous amounts on there and then charging us all these different fees," she says.

Nugent lives with Chad Hopkins and their two children in their house in Lewistown, Ill. He's a roofing contractor. She's a nurse. And the couple says they've always made their mortgage payment — at least until things went haywire back in 2011.

They bought the house in 2002 for about $100,000. Chad Hopkins says they could afford that. "We've lived here 12 years. We've raised our two daughters here along with two of Phyllis' sons," he says. "Not only have we lived here and paid our bills, we have dumped a bunch of money into this place."

But then in 2011, Ocwen discovered that there'd been a paperwork mix-up where some property taxes hadn't been paid a number of years back.

Documents show that Ocwen then added fees and demanded a lump sum payment of $18,000. The couple says they couldn't pay that. And they say they couldn't tell how much of that was taxes and how much was fees tacked on by Ocwen.

At that point, Ocwen refused to accept their normal monthly payments. And Nugent says the company started charging them additional fees that didn't seem to make any sense.

"They charged us fees for property preservation" when the couple was clearly still living in the house and taking care of it, she says. And Nugent says Ocwen also charged them for "force-placed insurance when we always paid our insurance with my insurance man that I've had since 1996."

When taken all together, these fees were not small. In fact, Ocwen claims the couple now owes more than they borrowed in the first place. They borrowed $98,000. But an Ocwen bill cited in the lawsuit claims the couple now owes $150,000 despite a decade of making their mortgage payments.

When they'd call to try to sort all of this out, Nugent and Hopkins say, Ocwen routed them to a call center in India. They say they couldn't get their questions answered. And they were told to just pay the bill.

"We still get bills saying we owe outrageous amounts," Hopkins says.

Meanwhile, Ocwen is now moving to foreclose on their house. "Oh, yeah," Hopkins says, "they've sent foreclosure notices and they've filed here at the federal courthouse in Peoria, Ill."

Gary Klein is one of the lead attorneys representing the homeowners in the case, which has been filed in a federal court in Florida and is seeking class-action status.

Klein says there's a pattern. It usually starts with a small, fixable problem — a mix-up with an escrow account, or a homeowner misses a few payments.

"People have a relatively small and manageable default, something that they could correct, but because Ocwen adds charges in such large amounts, the problem becomes almost unsolvable," Klein says.

The lawsuit alleges that some of those fees Ocwen is charging are illegal. It says Ocwen charged Nugent and Hopkins late fees that it wasn't permitted to charge under the terms of the mortgage. The suit says Ocwen also forced upon the couple a second insurance policy through one of its own affiliates. And it alleges that the company has been improperly steering profits to itself through this affiliate company.

Meanwhile, Ocwen has been asking for larger and larger sums of money from the couple. One exhibit in the lawsuit is a recent monthly statement asking for a payment of $73,000.

"It's robbery," Chad Hopkins says. "Every day you think about ... am I going to have to pack up my stuff and lose all this investment?

"When you have small children and stuff, this is the only home they've ever known," he says. " ... [It's] very frustrating. And I know if it's happening to us, I know it's gotta be happening to other people."

Back-Dated Letters

Benjamin Lawsky, the top regulator at the New York State Department of Financial Services, recently released documents about his department's investigation.

Those documents show that regulators are looking into thousands of loan-modification letters that likely caused homeowners "significant harm" because Ocwen back-dated them. Back-dating the letters made it look like the homeowners had missed their chance to try to avoid a foreclosure.

On an investor conference call, Erbey, Ocwen's chairman, pledged to work with regulators. "One of our goals is to keep people in their homes whenever possible," he said. "Ocwen is creating a review and remediation process for borrowers potentially impacted by the letter-dating mistake the company has made."

As far as the homeowner lawsuit, Ocwen offered the following statement: "Ocwen is currently reviewing the lawsuit and will vigorously defend itself against the claims asserted. Because the litigation remains pending, Ocwen declines to comment further at this time."

Turning 21? Here's How To Avoid A Big Hike In Health Premiums

For young people, turning 21 is generally a reason to celebrate.

If they're insured through the federal health insurance marketplace that operates in about three-dozen states, however, their birthday could mean a whopping 58 percent jump in their health insurance premium in 2015, according to an analysis by researchers at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Many 21-year-olds who qualify for premium subsidies will be able to sidestep the rate increase if they re-evaluate their coverage options on the federal marketplace before Feb. 15, when the annual open enrollment period ends.

If they don't, they'll generally be automatically renewed into the same plan and with the same premium tax credit they had in 2014.

"If they don't come back to the marketplace, they're going to get a premium tax credit that's based on their age rating as a child, and that premium difference is going to hit them," says Judith Solomon, a vice president for health policy at the budget center.

Families with federal marketplace plans whose now 21-year-old children are covered as dependents will face a premium jump as well.

Under the health law, insurers can no longer base premiums on people's health or pre-existing medical conditions. Instead, insurers are permitted to apply just four premium rating factors in their calculations: age, where someone lives, how many people are going to be covered and whether someone uses tobacco.

The law also prohibits premiums for older adults from being more than three times higher than those for younger adults.

Because of age rating, premiums for most adults will rise slightly every year as they get older. But with children, it's different. Insurers apply the same age-rating factor to all children when computing their premiums. When people turn 21, however, the insurer begins to compute their premiums based on an adult age-rating factor, which results in that 58 percent premium increase.

Young people who go back to the marketplace to shop for a 2015 plan can generally avoid any age-related premium increases. They likely qualify for premium tax credits that are available to people with incomes between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($11,670 to $46,680 for an individual). If they return to the marketplace, their premium tax credit will be adjusted to cover the higher age-related premium for their 2015 coverage.

"We've been encouraging everyone to update their profiles on HealthCare.gov so they can ensure that they have a tax credit that reflects what they should be getting," says Jen Mishory, executive director at Young Invincibles, an advocacy group for young people.

Affordable Care Act

Health Insurance

When Big Money Leads To Diplomatic Posts

When describing her qualifications for the job, the newly confirmed U.S. ambassador to Hungary cited a "product" she helped develop that is exported to "more than 100 countries, for daily consumption with more than 40 million viewers."

The product Colleen Bradley Bell produced is the soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful.

She was confirmed yesterday by the U.S. Senate, along with Noah Bryson Mamet. In his confirmation hearing, he acknowledged he had never visited Argentina, the country where he will serve as U.S. ambassador.

The big political donor who becomes an ambassador to a relatively small country is something of a Washington punch line and also a tradition. Presidents have done this for decades. But critics say the Obama administration has taken it too far.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Bell and Mamet each raised at least $500,000 for President Obama's campaign in 2012.

At Bell's confirmation hearing, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., asked her about America's strategic interest in Hungary. The answer that followed could best be described as a word soup.

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"Well, we have a strategic interest," she said. "In terms of what are our key priorities, in Hungary. I think our key priorities are to, um, improve upon as I mentioned the security relationship, and also the law enforcement and to promote business opportunities, increase trade ..."

McCain wasn't impressed. He cleared his throat and asked the question again.

"It's really disgraceful," said McCain following the confirmation vote, which fell neatly along party lines.

Especially, he says, because Hungary is in a perilous state politically, teetering between the influence of Western democracies and Vladimir Putin's Russia. As for Bell's qualifications, White House press secretary Josh Earnest grasped for words at yesterday's press briefing.

"Well she certainly is somebody again, that, that is, has, has had her own distinguished private sector career," said Earnest.

According to the American Foreign Service Association, in Obama's second term a little more than 40 percent of ambassador nominees have been political rather than career diplomats. In recent past administrations the share has been less, 30 percent.

When author Kati Marton was 5 years old, growing up in Hungary, the first American she met was the U.S. ambassador. Her parents, journalists, were deemed enemies of the state and jailed, she says.

"Ambassador [Christian M.] Ravndal made a point of looking after my older sister and me who had been left as, well, political orphans," said Marton, recalling a defining moment in her childhood.

She says he visited them, pulling up in a big Buick with an American flag on the front, a deeply symbolic move in Cold War Hungary.

"The American ambassador in countries that are often forgotten by Washington can play an enormous role, a symbolic role, standing in for what America stands for," said Marton.

Marton is the widow of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and says she knows rewarding donors is part of the way Washington works.

This year the American Foreign Service Association, which represents career diplomats, came out with four simple qualifications for an ambassador.

"Relevant international experience," explains Bob Silverman, the group's president. "High-level government or other high-level policy articulation experience, good management skills. Good leadership skills."

He opted not to say whether Bell, Mamet and the other recent donor ambassadors met that standard.

Another donor-nominee still awaits confirmation. But George Tsunis faces opposition from a few Senate Democrats, which makes his confirmation to be ambassador to Norway less likely.

Obama Taps Ashton Carter As Defense Secretary Nominee

Updated at 11:19 a.m.

President Obama named Ashton Carter, a former No. 2 Pentagon official, as his pick to succeed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

Obama described Carter today as one of the "nation's foremost national security leaders."

"He was at the table in the situation room. He was by my side navigating complex security challenges that we were confronting," Obama said. I relied on his expertise and I relied on his judgment."

Carter called the nomination an "honor and a privilege."

He said he accepted the offer because of "the seriousness of the strategic challenges we face, but also the bright opportunities that exist for America if we grab hold of them."

He said, if confirmed, he will give Obama "candid" strategic and military advice. And, in a message to the U.S. military, he said, "I pledge to keep faith with you and to serve our nation with the same unflinching dedication that you demonstrate every day."

Carter's name began to surface this week as a possible replacement for Hagel, who announced Nov. 24 that he would step down once a successor is confirmed. NPR's Eyder Peralta noted that Carter, though unknown to the public, is "regarded as having a great intellect."

He is expected to enjoy bipartisan support during the nominating process.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said earlier this week that he supports Carter "very strongly."

If confirmed, Carter will be Obama's fourth defense secretary (after Robert Gates, Leon Panetta and Hagel).

A Rhodes scholar, Carter has a doctoral degree in theoretical physics from Oxford University. He would inherit the Pentagon as the U.S. faces many global challenges, including the fight against the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria, a resurgent Russia and unrest in other parts of the world. He also faces newer challenges such as cyberthreats.

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A Syrian Entrepreneur Looks To Build The Amazon Of The Arab World

When Ronaldo Mouchawar was working in a Boston engineering firm he dreamed of moving back to the Arab world. Born and raised in Aleppo, Syria, he had come to the U.S. to study, then got a high-paying job, but he believed he "owed something" to his home region.

It turned out his ticket back was a smart idea at the right time.

He founded Souq.com in 2006 and settled in Dubai, the financial capital of the United Arab Emirates. Now he's the CEO of what's considered the most successful e-commerce site in the region. He recently raised $150 million in capital to expand. The 44-year-old entrepreneur says commerce is part of his DNA.

"I studied engineering, my dad was a really strong trader merchant, so the combo was a no-brainer for me."

Setting up a business in many Arab countries is difficult, which made business-friendly Dubai an obvious base. Internet penetration had reached 20 percent in the UAE by the time he moved there. His e-business took off a few years later when the regional cell phone revolution connected millions more to the net.

"Suddenly, you go from 30 million users to 130 million users" in the Arab world, he says in his glass-walled office in Dubai. This meant potential customers in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. "The Arab world massively embraced mobile technology. There is 70 percent penetration in the Gulf. That was prime territory for us."

A Quiet Transformation

In a region where war, political turmoil and oil prices dominate the headlines, technology quietly is transforming the Middle East, says Mouchawar. He recognized the potential early and is riding the wave. Now, Internet start-up companies in Dubai attract millions of dollars from venture capitalists who come from Silicon Valley and from the Middle East.

"For those of us who sit in the middle of it, we already feel it," says Fadi Ghandour, the founder of Aramex, a logistics company based in Amman, Jordan. He moved his operation to Dubia and spends most days listening to start-up pitches. He's now a full-time investor in a movement he believes will reshape the region.

"You can feel the crescendo," he says. "People will start to feel that energy that you saw in Tahrir Square, in Egypt," he says, referring to an Arab democracy movement that started in 2011. "This is the energy of the start-up community across the region."

Technology is embraced by the young generation in a region where 60% of the population is under 35. "Youth empowerment, this was a driver for us," says Mouchawar.

Jobs for this generation are scare. Youth unemployment is in double digits in all Arab states. Tech jobs can change the statistics by leveling the playing field for educated tech specialists in a part of the world where family connections are often the key to a decent job.

Creating A 'White Friday'

On the day I visit the offices, the workspace for hundreds of young employees is decorated with black and white balloons. The open space floor plan, with the soft clatter of keyboards and clustered meetings, has the vibe of any tech company. But it is striking to see so many young women monitoring computer screens and heading planning meetings.

The balloons?

"It's a very tough day," says Mouchawar, as he gives me a tour, "so just to make sure we have some fun."

There is an all-nighter ahead for the entire team in the countdown to the biggest shopping day of the year. It's a first for Souq.com. Think Black Friday.

Mouchawar rebranded the shopping day. He calls it "White Friday," a more fitting name for Arab culture. "We wanted to own it, to own the brand."

He explains that it makes cultural sense. In the Arab world, Friday is the traditional day of prayer. A "black" Friday doesn't work in Arabic.

In the highly competitive world of e-commerce, Mouchawar has localized and Arabized a successful business model that has already proven successful in the West.

"One of the challenges is how we Arabize millions of products, product descriptions, build a proper catalogue index, but that's our edge," he says.

He walks into the "war room" where another team is watching large computer monitors in the lead up to the start of White Friday.

"We have screens to see traffic, sales, Twitter feeds, what customers are saying," he says.

Saudi Arabia is big on Twitter but in Egypt the favored communication tool is Facebook. The team follows all the social media feeds in real time for feedback on what customers are saying about quality and price.

For Mouchawar, e-commerce is a platform that can build a new Middle East. It could create badly needed jobs for young people and boost the businesses that are the backbone of Arab economies.

"If you see where the jobs are, it's got to come from small and medium businesses," he says. E-commerce can provide distribution for these merchants for the first time and open markets across the Middle East.

"Imagine the access this merchant can have from a street in Cairo to a customer base in Saudi Arabia, to the UAE. If we can connect all these dots, you will have an incredible customer base."

He explains that the company handles the "last mile" deliveries even to places with no dependable mail service or a postal address.

Mouchawar met his goal of driving 10 million users to the website with White Friday sales, partnering with product giants including Microsoft, Apple, Samsung and Sony, to offer deep discounts. It's another step in building a brand.

The start-up culture took off in 2011, just as Egyptian protesters went to the streets of Tahrir Square in Cairo. That energy for political change has been diverted and exhausted. The tech revolution continues as the more promising Arab Spring.

Middle East

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A Burger Joint Pays $15 An Hour. And, Yes, It's Making Money

Fast-food workers rallied around the country Thursday, calling for a minimum wage of $15 an hour. But in suburban Detroit, a small but growing fast-casual burger and chicken chain has already figured out how to pay higher wages and still be profitable.

When Moo Cluck Moo opened its first location almost two years ago, the starting pay for all workers was $12 an hour. The idea, according to co-founder Brian Parker, was to train everyone to multitask.

No one is just flipping burgers. All of the workers are expected to be jacks-of-all-trades: They bake buns from scratch daily, they house-make aioli and prepare made-to-order grass-fed burgers and free-range chicken sandwiches.

And, now, says Parker, the investment is paying off. Revenue is up at the chain's two locations. And workers are sticking around. And their pay now? It's up to $15 an hour. By comparison, a typical fast-food worker in the U.S. makes about $8 or $9 an hour.

"Because of our low turnover, and the fact that people are really into their jobs, $15 an hour wasn't a big stretch," Parker says.

Parker says there are savings in not having to constantly train new hires, and his workers are empowered because they're given so much responsibility.

The Salt

Across The Country, Fast-Food Workers Rally For $15-An-Hour Pay

When we stopped in for a visit this week, manager Dan Chavez was standing at the grill preparing a made-to-order Moo Burger. He has been cooking in restaurants for 15 years, so he knows how to move quickly from the grill to the fryer. He also oversees baking and talks to customers.

"It's more fun than I've had at other jobs, because we get to do everything ourselves," he says.

And Chavez says the higher-than-average wages are a big part of his job satisfaction.

"It feels good just to be able to pay my bills and enjoy a little of life," Chavez says.

In the beginning, Parker wasn't sure the higher wages would be sustainable. But now the restaurants are thriving. "We're ... going to show a profit in the last quarter," Parker says. And he and his partner are planning to add new locations.

Now, in order to make this model work, customers have to pay a little more.

Grass-fed Moo Burgers on a homemade bun start at about $6. This compares to a Big Mac, which retails in the U.S. for about $4.80. That's a price differential of just over a dollar.

In starting the company, the founders say, they were motivated by the lack of options. "We couldn't find an affordable place to take our kids and grandkids that didn't have hormones, preservatives," they write on the company's website.

They now vet their suppliers to make sure all the food they buy meets their specifications, and they source their beef from Joseph Decuis Wagyu Farm in Indiana.

"We're building a brand," Parker says. And part of getting Moo Cluck Moo out there is telling people about its sourcing of beef and chicken, and talking about its commitment to paying people a living wage.

"I'm not driving around in a six-figure sports car," Parker says. But he does have his eye on the future.

So are small burger chains like Moo Cluck Moo — which are willing to pay workers more and serve more upscale menus — going to put pressure on the giants such as McDonald's and Burger King to raise wages?

"No, I don't think so," says Michael Strain, an economist at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

Strain says there are two different models here, and two different kinds of customers. These new chains appeal to people who are willing to pay more for food prepared from scratch. But, he says, traditional fast-food chains are not going to go away.

"McDonald's appeals to people who like the Dollar Menu, and to people for whom that price point is appealing," he says.

And McDonald's will likely continue to offer its Dollar Menu, and other value pricing, as long as it can find people who are willing to work for the kind of wages it currently offers.

But if workers become too expensive, Strain argues, we'll start to see more automation — and fewer fast-food jobs.

"Imagine if some machine gets invented that can operate the french fry machine at McDonald's, " Strain says. That's one less worker needed at the fryer.

This automation has been happening for a while, Strain says. When he was a kid, it was a person — not a soda machine — that filled his cup.

fast food workers

A 'Wild' Trek Made A Bit Too Neatly

With a backstory that includes heroin use and zipless you-know-whats, Wild is a daring foray for its star and producer, the usually prim Reese Witherspoon. As an excursion into the untamed stream of human consciousness, however, the movie is less bold.

Wild was adapted by About a Boy man Nick Hornby from Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, the best-selling 2012 memoir by Cheryl Strayed. (The former Cheryl Nyland's adopted surname is her pithiest literary accomplishment.) Versatile Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallee, who directed Dallas Buyers Club, treats the tale as something of a cinematic fever dream. But the movie, unlike a genuine nightmare, usually telegraphs its next disturbing vision.

The fragmented narrative begins on the trail, where Witherspoon's Cheryl is having a disagreement with a long-distance hiker's most important companions: her boots. She's making painfully slow progress on her California-to-Oregon quest, in part because she's carrying far too much gear. But the principal obstructions are frequent flashbacks, which reveal the traumas Cheryl seeks to walk away from.

On the trail, Cheryl faces hunger, thirst, injury, men who might be rapists or murderers, and the inevitable rattlesnake. (The rest of the fauna is unfailingly cute.) In her pre-hike life, she experienced divorce, drug abuse, anonymous sex and — above all — the death of her beloved mother from cancer at 45.

As Cheryl's upbeat and "unsophisticated" mom, Bobbi, Laura Dern is the only supporting player who matters. Bobbi is Cheryl's true soul mate, and only becomes more so as a late-blooming student of feminism and women's literature. (Yes, mother and daughter do hesitantly discuss Fear of Flying.)

Dern and Witherspoon are just nine years apart in age, but lighting and makeup help the latter appear younger when the two are on screen together. The actresses also establish an interesting psychological contrast, with Cheryl as the one who can't get past her disappointments and Bobbi as the one who doggedly can and has.

Like many writers, Cheryl defines herself by what she reads. Her absurdly oversized backpack is heavy with books, and she writes lines of Frost and Whitman in the trail logbooks where hikers sign in. The literary quotations help shape her reputation as "the queen of the Pacific Crest Trail," although being a lone woman probably has more to do with it.

Along with snippets of memories, mostly bad, come scraps of dozens of songs, from the Shangri-las and the Hollies to Leonard Cohen and multiple renditions of Simon and Garfunkel's "El Condor Pasa" and (of course) "Homeward Bound." One nice touch is that recorded versions of the tunes are largely restricted to flashbacks; on the trail, they're sung or hummed by the characters.

Many of the songs are from the 1960s, but the death of Jerry Garcia locates the story in 1995, and '90s pop-grunge star Art Alexakis has a cameo as the inker who gives Cheryl and her ex their matching divorce-day tattoos. (There is a bit of so-hip-it-hurts Portlandia in Strayed's latter-day-hippie odyssey.)

Vallee periodically emulates the styles of Alain Resnais and Nicolas Roeg, whose frantic editing simulated mental disorientation with stunning intensity. Yet the final psychological set piece, when Cheryl can no longer suppress memories of a grisly act, is tidy even at its most hallucinatory.

The movie is closer to such recent backwoods misadventures as 127 Hours and Into the Wild, whose menace only brushed against madness. If Wild is an interesting trek, for both its star and its viewers, it's hardly a feral one.

Sapiosexual Seeks Same: A New Lexicon Enters Online Dating Mainstream

This post was updated at 11:10 a.m. ET for clarity.

How would you — or do you — identify on online dating sites? Gay? Straight? Bisexual? Well you're about to have many more options on OkCupid, one of the most popular sites for people seeking love and connection.

OkCupid has about 4 million users, and within the next few weeks the site will give all of them brand-new options for specifying their gender and sexual orientation — options like androgynous, asexual, genderqueer and questioning.

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"Young people like the idea of fluidity," says psychology professor Ritch Savin-Williams. He runs Cornell University's Sex and Gender Lab and studies identity and relationships. He says young people are far more likely to look beyond gender binaries and see sexual orientation on a continuum.

"I think the new categories are pretty great," says a 21-year-old TJ. That's the name on his OkCupid profile. TJ has checked off OkCupid's boxes for straight and male because those are closest to how he sees himself. But with the new options, TJ says he'll probably identify as trans man, transsexual and transmasculine, meaning he's a masculine man born biologically female. He also plans to update his sexual orientation to queer and heteroflexible, which means he mostly goes for girls — with exceptions. (Right now, all of those terms are in TJ's written profile. That's been the only space users have had to express more nuanced gender and sexual identity.)

Mike Maxim, chief technology officer at OkCupid, says the dating site wasn't originally designed to handle dozens of terms and hundreds of variables. "The site was definitely constructed around, you know, just men and then women; and, you know, men ... looking for women."

And of course women looking for men. Some of these new identifiers won't appeal to a huge market, but Maxim says why leave people out? And why not add a little cutting-edge cachet by helping to bring a new lexicon into the mainstream? Still, adding so many new terms was a technical challenge.

"That was probably the primary reason we haven't done this earlier," Maxim says. "You know, this has been a feature that's been requested now for, I don't know, years."

And OkCupid isn't alone. Earlier this year, Facebook added more than 50 new terms for selecting gender identity. But terms can fall in and out of fashion. Savin-Williams notes that "bicurious," which used to be a fairly commonplace identifier on dating sites, is now considered uncool. And he hears new vocabulary all the time, like while teaching a gender and identity workshop at a high school.

All Tech Considered

Facebook Gives Users New Options To Identify Gender

"One young woman defined herself as 'squiggly,' " he says. "And there was silence and everyone was saying, 'What exactly is that?' And then she said, 'Well, I feel like that's what I am in terms of my gender and sexuality. I'm squiggly.' A lot of people began to shake their heads and said, 'Yeah, that's pretty good. I feel that way too.' "

OkCupid doesn't currently plan to add squiggly to any of its categories, but single NPR fans, please take note: Apparently, sapiosexual, which refers to people who are attracted to intelligence, is one of its most popular new terms.

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Is The Food Babe A Fearmonger? Scientists Are Speaking Out

In an age when consumers have become increasingly suspicious of processed food, the Internet has become a powerful platform for activists who want to hold Big Food accountable.

One of the highest-profile of these new food crusaders is Vani Hari, better known by her online moniker, Food Babe. Among her victories: a petition that nudged Kraft to drop the artificial orange color from its mac and cheese, and another one that helped get Subway to do away with the common bread additive azodicarbonamide — which Hari noted was also used in making yoga mats.

To followers on her website and on social media, who are known as the Food Babe Army, Hari is a hero. And with a book and TV development deal in the works, her platform is about to get a lot bigger.

But as her profile grows, so too do the criticisms of her approach. Detractors, many of them academics, say she stokes unfounded fears about what's in our food to garner publicity. Steve Novella, a Yale neuroscientist and prominent pseudoscience warrior, among others, has dubbed Hari the "Jenny McCarthy of food" after the celebrity known for championing thoroughly debunked claims that vaccines cause autism.

The Salt

Subway Phasing Out Bread Additive After Blogger Flags Health Concerns

Hari is a self-styled consumer advocate and adviser on healthful eating. Her website, FoodBabe.com, offers recipes, tips for nutritious dining while traveling, and, for $17.99 a month, "eating guides" that include recipes, meal calendars and shopping lists. But she's best-known for her food investigations, frequently shared on social media — posts in which she flags what she deems to be questionable ingredients.

Take, for example, Hari's campaign urging beer-makers to reveal the ingredients in their brews. Among the ingredients that concerned Hari was propylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze. But, as cancer surgeon and blogger David Gorski writes, the product used in some beers to stabilize foam is actually propylene glycol alginate — which is derived from kelp. "It is not the same chemical as propylene glycol, not even close. It is not antifreeze," he wrote.

Another beer ingredient that got Hari up in arms? Isinglass, or dried fish swim bladders, which may sound, well, fishy, but has been used to clarify beers for well over a century. Such mix-ups prompted historian Maureen Ogle, the author of Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer, to dissect Hari's claims, point by point, in a post on her site titled "What's In YOUR Beer? Or, The Dangers of Dumbassery."

The Salt

Just What Is In Pumpkin Spice Flavor? (Hint: Not Pumpkin)

Hari's approach capitalizes on growing consumer distrust of both Big Food companies and their unfamiliar, industrial-sounding ingredients, and of regulators' ability to oversee them effectively. Some of these chemicals and additives may indeed be questionable, but food scientists would argue that nearly all are safe. So why do food companies respond to her demands, if they have nothing to hide?

Because, Gorski writes, "companies live and die by public perception. It's far easier to give a blackmailer like Hari what she wants than to try to resist or to counter her propaganda by educating the public."

Critics note that Hari lacks credentials in nutrition or food science; she's a former consultant who studied computer science. Hari declined to be interviewed for this story; through her publicist, she told NPR she isn't speaking to media until her new book is released in February. But when the Charlotte Observer asked her about such criticisms, Hari answered, "I've never claimed to be a nutritionist. I'm an investigator."

But that lack of training often leads her to misinterpret peer-reviewed research and technical details about food chemistry, nutrition and health, says Kevin Folta, a professor of horticultural sciences at the University of Florida and vocal online critic of Hari. "She really conflates the science," he tells The Salt.

"If anything, she's created more confusion about food, more confusion about the role of chemicals and additives," Folta says.

More recently, as we've reported, Hari's attacks on the lack of pumpkin in Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice lattes prompted the Institute of Food Technologists to release a video explaining the chemicals that replicate that squash flavor in a cup of Joe.

"What she does is exploit the scientific ignorance and fear of her followers," says Kavin Senapathy, an anti-pseudoscience blogger who frequently challenges the assertions in Hari's posts. "And most of us are in agreement that we simply can't accept that."

Senapathy and other online critics, using parody names like Science Babe, Chow Babe and Food Hunk, have taken to Twitter and Facebook in an organized effort to engage with Hari's followers and counter her scientific claims.

So why not simply ignore Hari? Because her reach is growing: Last month her op-ed was featured in The New York Times' Room for Debate section. In October, Experience Life magazine, a health and fitness publication, featured her on its cover. That decision prompted critics to bombard the magazine's Amazon page with single-star reviews for putting "an uneducated fearmonger" on its cover.

And this fall, Hari addressed the University of Florida as part of a lecture series for freshmen on "The Good Food Revolution." That talk prompted Folta to write a scathing blog post about her visit in which he accused her of being "afraid of science and intellectual engagement."

He was angry that her talk didn't include a question and answer period in which he could challenge her on some of her scientific assertions. "When you bring in a self-appointed expert, a celebrity more than a scientific figure, it does have the effect of undoing the science we are trying to instill in our students," Folta told me.

Ultimately, Folta says, he thinks Hari's heart is in the right place. "She does seem to come from an honest intention of wanting people to think about good food choices and health." But, he says, "it's a question of science."

Other critics are less generous in their assessment, noting that Hari isn't just raising the alarm about food additives. Through affiliated marketing partnerships, she is also making money by referring her website readers to organic and non-GMO food brands, as Ad Age has reported. Indeed, the Food Babe brand, a registered LLC, has become a full-time job for Hari, who also earns fees from speaking appearances.

"Unfortunately, the Web is cluttered with people who really have no idea what they are talking about giving advice as if it were authoritative, and often that advice is colored by either an ideological agenda or a commercial interest," Yale's Novella writes on his blog. "The Food Babe is now the poster child for this phenomenon."

Hari has brushed off such questions about her motivations and scientific proficiency. "I know that I'm doing the right thing," she told the Observer. "I'm trying to help people understand things that no one else has spoken out about."

But the message of Hari's campaigns boils down to "this toxic secret thing they are putting in my food is making me [sick]," says John Coupland, a food scientist at Penn State, in an email to The Salt.

"I personally think this is largely a distraction from more real concerns" about the food system, says Coupland. Problems, he says, like advertising aimed at kids, the environmental impacts of food production, food waste and hunger.

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'Dying Of The Light': A Disputed Production, A Disappointing Product

It's been a rough few weeks for Dylan Thomas. If Christopher Nolan's repeated use of "Do not go gentle into that good night" to portentously hammer home the significance of Interstellar wasn't lamentable enough, now comes Dying of the Light, which, title aside, takes a somewhat subtler approach in its appropriation of Thomas' poem, but does so to no less disastrous results.

Normally I would have introduced the movie as "Paul Schrader's Dying of the Light," but the assignation became complicated in September when Schrader announced that the film had been re-edited, re-scored, and re-mixed without his participation. Schrader claimed he had been removed from the project against his will; the film's producers stated that Schrader had quit because he disagreed with changes they wanted to make to his first cut.

Things escalated further in October when Schrader posted photos of himself, executive producer Nicolas Winding Refn, and stars Nicolas Cage and Anton Yelchin wearing t-shirts bearing the non-disparagement clause included in each of their contracts. The clause allows Lionsgate, the production company behind Dying of the Light, to sue if any of them make statements about the film that can be deemed derogatory, a clause has prevented Schrader from speaking further about the film or his accusations.

It's a sad but familiar turn of events for Schrader, who similarly clashed with producers when making Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist. And given how his previous film, The Canyons, became defined largely by coverage of Lindsay Lohan's behavior on set, the debacle surrounding Dying of the Light also continues an unfortunate trend where conversations about Schrader—the writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and director of American Gigolo—shift away from his actual films.

That isn't to say, however, that Dying of the Light represents the best opportunity to adjust the lens and turn the focus back to the work. The film is so awkwardly paced, so slight intellectually, and so dull as a political thriller that the effort wouldn't do anybody any good.

At its center is Evan Lake (Cage), a CIA employee who, 22 years after being captured and tortured by a Muslim fundamentalist named Muhammad Banir (Alexander Karim), receives two pieces of life-altering news. First, a diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia from his doctor, who warns that Lake will soon begin experiencing mood swings and pronounced losses of focus, among other symptoms. Second, intelligence suggesting that Banir, who has been presumed dead since Lake's rescue over two decades earlier, is alive in Kenya, though in very poor health due to a rare blood disease. The CIA isn't much interested in catching Banir, though, so with the help of Milton (Yelchin), a CIA colleague, Lake decides to go rogue and find Banir himself.

Schrader's claim that Dying of the Light was re-edited—regardless of the extent to which its true—does get to the heart of what ails the film. Particularly in its last third, the movie's basic construction is conspicuously amateur. Rather than fluidly building to a suspenseful climax, the plot culminates with a spasmodic series of scenes that feel cut short or randomly inserted but never cogently weaved together.

The rushed and often inchoate execution means there's little in the film that gets the benefit of more than a moment's reflection. That leads to a sometimes unbelievable plot—Milton at one point becomes an expert makeup artist in a matter of hours in order to help Lake surreptitiously meet with Banir. But it also leaves unexplored much of what, superficially at least, makes Dying of the Light seem interesting. This is, after all, a movie where the sinister terrorist villain is so ill that he can barely get out of his chair without help, and the cunning intelligence officer is on the edge of permanently losing his mental capacities. There's potential there, at the very least, for a twist on the action genre, but that potential is never mined. And whatever interesting political commentary might be contained in the premise is overshadowed by a vigorous patriotism concerned only with lamenting an America that has lost a vaguely-defined set of "values."

Lake first mentions these values in an inspirational speech to new CIA recruits, whom he commends for joining the agency even when people are declaring that it has lost all its moral bearings. But it soon becomes clear that Lake shares a similar concern; for him, the symptom of America's lost values is a CIA that doesn't pursue terrorists doggedly enough. It's not the politics that are distasteful here, but their abusively blunt expression. In one early scene, Lake blames the CIA's director for the Iran-Contra affair, 9/11, Benghazi, and more. Shortly after that tirade, we get a shot of a charred American flag that hangs in Lake's living room. A frail Lake pulls into focus, reflected in the flag's glass frame. Dying of the light indeed.

Without a separate cut for comparison, or more detailed notes about what was changed, it's impossible to completely separate Schrader from the film, to determine what he would've done differently had he maintained full control. We can, however, refrain from judging his talents—or Cage, Yelchin and Refn's for that matter—based on a movie everyone acknowledges he did not finish. And we can regret the fact that a film Schrader wrote and directed is being released in a form that, for whatever reason, he regards as unacceptable. That, more than the mess that is Dying of the Light, merits criticism.

A Year After Typhoon Haiyan, The Philippines Braces For Another Big Hit

Super Typhoon Hagupit, briefly downgraded before regaining strength, is set to smash into the Philippine coast on Saturday. The massive storm is already forcing tens of thousands of people to flee its predicted path, which might include a direct hit on the capital, Manila.

Hagupit, which revved up to "super typhoon" status earlier this week, is expected to hit the Southeast Asian country late Saturday, making landfall as a slightly downgraded Category 4 storm, with sustained winds of 150 mph. It's forecast to make landfall only about 100 miles north of the spot where the devastating Typhoon Haiyan came ashore 13 months ago.

BREAKING: #Hagupit (#RubyPH) strengthens to super #typhoon again. 150 mph max sust'd winds, per latest JTWC advisory. pic.twitter.com/NqsUipuvG5

— Hurricane Central (@twc_hurricane) December 5, 2014

Hagupit currently tops out the Saffir-Simpson Scale as a Category 5 tropical cyclone. At sea, Hagupit is generating waves in excess of 45 feet high. However, by the time Hagupit makes landfall, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center, or JTWC, expects to downgrade it to Category 4 — still a powerful and destructive storm.

As Hagupit approaches, memories of Haiyan — which killed more than 7,300 and prompted an international rescue and relief response — are still fresh in the Philippines.

"I'm scared," Jojo Moro, who lost his wife, daughter and mother in Haiyan last year tells The Associated Press. "I'm praying to God not to let another disaster strike us again. We haven't recovered from the first."

The JTWC, based in Hawaii, says the path of Hagupit will pass directly over Manila, but the Philippine weather agency, known by its acronym PAGASA, forecasts the storm to track slightly south of the capital.

Reuters reports:

"Ports were shut across the archipelago, leaving more than 2,000 travellers stranded in the capital Manila, the central Bicol region and Mindanao island in the south, after the coastguard suspended sea travel ahead of the typhoon.

"Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific cancelled some of their flights to central and southern Philippines.

"The eastern islands of Samur and Leyte, which are still recovering from last year's super typhoon Haiyan, could be in the firing line again."

And, the Weather Channel says:

"PAGASA has issued public storm warning signals for 34 geographic areas, spanning from southeastern portions of Luzon (the main northern island) through the Visayas (central Philippines) and northeastern parts of Mindanao (the main southern island).

"PAGASA has placed a large part of this region in Public Storm Warning Signal No. 2, meaning 61 to 100 kph (38 to 62 mph) are possible 'in at least 24 hours.' Metro Cebu, the second-largest metropolitan area in the country after Metro Manila, is included in Public Storm Warning Signal No. 2."

Typhoon Haiyan

typhoons

Philippines

A Year After Typhoon Haiyan, The Philippines Braces For Another Big Hit

BREAKING: #Hagupit (#RubyPH) strengthens to super #typhoon again. 150 mph max sust'd winds, per latest JTWC advisory. pic.twitter.com/NqsUipuvG5

— Hurricane Central (@twc_hurricane) December 5, 2014

As Hagupit approaches, memories of Haiyan — which killed more than 7,300 and prompted an international rescue and relief response — are still fresh in the Philippines.

Reuters reports:

"Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific cancelled some of their flights to central and southern Philippines.

"The eastern islands of Samur and Leyte, which are still recovering from last year's super typhoon Haiyan, could be in the firing line again."

And, the Weather Channel says:

Typhoon Haiyan

typhoons

Philippines

Pentagon Says It Failed In Rescue Of American Hostage Last Month

The Pentagon says it launched a mission in Yemen last month to snatch hostages from al-Qaida-affiliated captors, but that they failed to rescue British-born American Luke Somers among others because they "were not present at the targeted location."

In a written statement released today, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said the operation involved ground and air components and was conducted in cooperation with the Yemeni military. It said details of the operation remain classified.

"We are only acknowledging the fact of the operation now to provide accurate information given that it is being widely reported in the public domain," Kirby said in the statement.

Earlier today, we reported on the emergence of a video purportedly showing Somers, a 33-year-old journalist who was allegedly kidnapped last year in Sanaa. In it, a member of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, warns the U.S. to end drone strikes in Yemen and airstrikes elsewhere in the Muslim world within three days or "the American hostage will meet his inevitable fate."

According to The Associated Press, "a Yemeni official said an American journalist and a Briton were moved before the raid."

AQAP

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For World's Oil Exporters, Falling Prices Have A Domino Effect

Imagine you're sitting back one evening, planning your holiday shopping list, knowing that every day you wait to get to the shops, the value of your money will be losing ground.

That's what's happening in places like Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria and other nations that rely heavily on oil exports.

Oil was more than $100 a barrel at the start of the summer. Now it's around $70 a barrel, and many forecasts say it could go lower still.

The Russian ruble was trading at around 35 to the U.S. dollar this summer. But the ruble has been heading south ever since oil prices started tanking. Now it takes more than 50 rubles for a dollar.

The swift drop in oil prices caught many producers off-guard, says Caroline Freund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

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itoggle caption Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Freund says oil producers with large populations used to government subsidies are being hard-hit. So too are those countries without the financial cushion to ride out the price crash.

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For Ebola Orphans In Liberia, It's A Bittersweet New Beginning

Ebola has "orphaned" about 2,000 children in Liberia, health authorities say. Some children are being looked after in two shelters in the country's capital, Monrovia. Reuniting the kids with their relatives, or finding them foster homes, can take time.

“ They need more love, definitely. Losing your parents is hard. It's very hard to take, so we need to give them more love.

- Hawa Sherman, who supervises a shelter for Ebola orphans

These are kids who have come into contact with sick people but aren't showing signs of Ebola themselves. The children must be monitored for 21 days — the cycle of the Ebola virus — in a care center to ensure they are also not infected, says Anthony Klay Sie of ChildFund Liberia, the nonprofit running the shelters.

"Children are placed in a group of three. If a child starts to show signs and symptoms of Ebola, that child is immediately isolated," he says. "The entire essence of this center is to help break transmission of the virus within family settings."

So far, the shelter has recorded five cases of Ebola among the children, Klay Sie says. Three died, and two have survived.

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Those who are healthy have to go through a two-stage process before they can be reunited with family. Once they've completed the first observation period, the children move to a second shelter. After at least 21 days there, they are eligible to go to their new home or to extended family.

Today is that day for 18 children.

Cars wait outside the shelter as Sienna Wisseh, assistant director of Liberia's Family Welfare Division, gives out orders. She is helping to supervise the children's departure.

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Sienna Wisseh of Liberia's Family Welfare Division (center) directs the packing of supplies that will be given to families adopting or reuniting with children. John W. Poole/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption John W. Poole/NPR

Sienna Wisseh of Liberia's Family Welfare Division (center) directs the packing of supplies that will be given to families adopting or reuniting with children.

John W. Poole/NPR

"The six bags, they go in the car with the children — and a blanket and a bucket, everything," Wisseh tells the staff.

Each child is given clothes, toiletries and a blanket, along with about 55 pounds of rice and cooking oil. They're also given colorful mattresses, Klay Sie says.

All of the items are part of the reunification packages provided by the government and other nonprofits.

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After Losing Parents To Ebola, Orphans Face Stigma

"Normally, children who come from a family that had an infected person, their belongings are all burned," Klay Sie says. "So upon their return, they may find it difficult to start life over."

Some of the children have been here for as long as two months, like the Togba sisters: 13-year-old Lovetee and 12-year-old Tray. Both are wearing delightful bobble hairstyles and broad smiles. But these turn to nervous, sorrowful looks as the girls remember the loved ones they've lost to Ebola.

"We were [a family of] seven," Lovetee remembers. "My father, my grandma, my auntie, my uncle and my brother died."

Lovetee calls the uncle who died her Pa, or her father, because he was the one looking after the Togba sisters and paying their school fees.

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Makutu Jabateh hugs her daughter, Mabana Konneh, 5, as the little girl returns home to her neighborhood in Jacobstown, Monrovia. John W. Poole/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption John W. Poole/NPR

Makutu Jabateh hugs her daughter, Mabana Konneh, 5, as the little girl returns home to her neighborhood in Jacobstown, Monrovia.

John W. Poole/NPR

"The first time I came to this place, I was sad because the place was strange to me," Tray says through Siatta, a Liberian journalist who was with us. "It was just my sister and I."

It's a bittersweet moment, says Hawa Sherman, the supervisor of the children's shelters. "I'm very happy, and I'm sad because over the months we have got so used to them," she says. "We are happy because they are going to be reunited with their families, and we will also miss them, too."

"They need more love, definitely," Sherman adds. "Losing your parents is hard. It's very hard to take, so we need to give them more love."

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A family receives a mattress, a bag of rice, cooking oil, blankets and bleach for each child it adopts. John W. Poole/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption John W. Poole/NPR

A family receives a mattress, a bag of rice, cooking oil, blankets and bleach for each child it adopts.

John W. Poole/NPR

When the cars set off, there's a short delay as a couple of the colorful mattresses, heaped onto the roof of one vehicle, get caught on the gate.

First stop is Jacobstown, a neighborhood at the end of a dirt road on the outskirts of Monrovia.

After the cars arrive, Ebola survivor Makutu Jabateh squeals with delight as she hugs her newly returned 5-year-old daughter, Mabana Konneh.

More than 800 children have been resettled in Liberia to date, UNICEF says. The children have to be reintegrated into the community.

"So many times, you notice that the communities are afraid of the children," says Sienna Wisseh of the Family Welfare Division. "So many communities don't even want to associate themselves with the children."

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"Thank you for taking care of my children," Weah Korveh says, as she reunites with her 3-month-old son, Sekou Dukely, in Jacobstown. Korveh recovered from Ebola but lost several family members to the disease. John W. Poole/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption John W. Poole/NPR

John W. Poole/NPR

Stigmatization of Ebola survivors and those whose family members have died from the virus has been a problem in Liberia. Jacobstown's community leader, Oscar Wisseh Sr., has a brief word with the small, happy gathering.

"We do not stigmatize the parents, and we will not stigmatize the children," he tells them. Then papers are signed and certificates delivered.

Ebola survivor Weah Korveh, who lost six family members, has just been reunited with her 3-month-old son, Sekou Dukely. She starts to cry as she thanks those who have looked after her baby boy.

"Thank you for taking care of my children," she says between sobs. "So many of my people passed away."

Baby Sekou's mother breaks down as she talks, but she gets her message across.

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Global Health

Pentagon Says It Failed In Rescue Of American Hostage Last Month

"We are only acknowledging the fact of the operation now to provide accurate information given that it is being widely reported in the public domain," Kirby said in the statement.

According to The Associated Press, "a Yemeni official said an American journalist and a Briton were moved before the raid."

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Yemen

Al-Qaida

The Man Argentines Love To Hate Is An American Judge

For an American, it probably would be a really hard Jeopardy question, but in Argentina, pretty much anyone you stop can answer this: Who is the judge in New York at the center of Argentina's default crisis?

Pablo de Luca, a systems engineer walking along a downtown Buenos Aires street recently responded easily: Judge Thomas P. Griesa.

"Griesa is an enemy for us," he says.

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Georgina Segui, an office secretary stopped while she was doing errands, also knew the answer.

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"We are constantly bombarded on TV with the name Griesa, Griesa, Griesa," she said.

One of the main people doing the "bombarding" is Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez.

"No financial vulture nor judicial raptor is going to extort money from this president," she said in her most recent speech.

In Argentina, posters with his image, with a vulture on his back, have been pasted up along the streets. There also have been endless articles about the judge, whose office declined to speak with NPR.

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Graffiti in Buenos Aires depicts Griesa and vultures behind bars. Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images

Graffiti in Buenos Aires depicts Griesa and vultures behind bars.

Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images

The Argentine media constantly cite a little-known U.S. website called The Robing Room, where lawyers give anonymous reviews of the judges they appear before. Griesa's weren't exactly complimentary to begin with, and since the Argentina case exploded into the headlines, others have written in, excoriating him for his rulings. In Argentina, the comments have been taken as evidence that he is unfit for the job.

"These things happen, and all of a sudden these people become household names," says Alan Cibils, the chair of the political economy department at the National University of General Sarmiento in Buenos Aires.

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In many ways, rightly or wrongly, Cibils says, Griesa has become a symbol in Argentina of all the problems of the international financial system. He notes that whatever you think of Griesa's position, his rulings were supported by the U.S. appeals court, and the Supreme Court refused to hear Argentina's case.

So this is the backstory to the unlikely infamy of a federal judge in his 80s who reportedly plays the harpsichord: Argentina defaulted on its debt in 2001, essentially declaring bankruptcy and saying it couldn't pay its creditors. At the time, Ciblis says, so-called vulture hedge funds swooped in and bought Argentina's bonds — some of which were issued in New York — for pennies on the dollar.

"These guys really are bottom feeders: They go out there, they buy bonds of countries as they are about to default or after they've defaulted, and then cash in — or litigate to cash in — on the full amount," says Ciblis.

Griesa's ruling supporting their claims has had far-reaching effects: Some countries, including Mexico, have changed the language in new bond contracts to make it harder for vulture funds to target them — and according to Ciblis, developing nations are less likely to issue their bonds in New York, where they might be vulnerable to one judge's opinions.

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James Bond Will Be Back Next Year вЂ” And He's Battling An Old Enemy

SPECTRE, as James Bond fans will know, stands for Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. It's the organization 007 has battled since his first screen outing in Dr. No in 1962.

It's also the name of the new Bond movie, the 24th installation in the franchise, director Sam Mendes announced today.

Daniel Craig will return as Bond for the fourth time. Mendes also directed the 23rd Bond film, the hugely successful Skyfall.

"A cryptic message from Bond's past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization," a statement from Sony Pictures said. "While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE."

The movie will take Bond from his base in London to Mexico City, Rome and Tangier and Erfoud, both in Morocco, as well as locations in Austria.

Spectre's cast includes Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, best known for Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained; actresses Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux will play the "Bond girls." Returning cast members include Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw and Rory Kinnear. Also part of the movie — a new Aston Martin DB10.

The film is set for release Nov. 6, 2015.

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For World's Oil Exporters, Falling Prices Have A Domino Effect

Imagine you're sitting back one evening, planning your holiday shopping list, knowing that every day you wait to get to the shops, the value of your money will be losing ground.

That's what's happening in places like Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria and other nations that rely heavily on oil exports.

Oil was more than 100 dollars a barrel at the start of the summer. Now it's around 70 dollars a barrel and many forecasts say it could go lower still.

Falling oil prices have been good news for consumers and businesses here in the U.S. and in the many countries around the world that import oil. But it's having a domino effect in oil exporting nations. Government budgets are strained. Economies are struggling. The currency is crashing.

The Russian ruble was trading at around 35 to the U.S. dollar this summer. But the ruble has been heading south ever since oil prices started tanking. Now it takes more than 50 rubles for a dollar.

The swift drop in oil prices caught many producers off guard, says Caroline Freund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

"Over the last few years, oil producers had gotten used a situation where oil was above 100 dollars a barrel," she says. "So what had happened in these countries is they just had money to burn so they're spending money on handouts to the public, keeping people happy, exploiting their resources even more ... and that's now on the decline."

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itoggle caption Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Freund says oil producers with large populations used to government subsidies are being hard hit. So too are those countries without the financial cushion to ride out the price crash.

"It's hardest for these countries that don't have reserves, really high reserves, like a Venezuela or an Iraq or an Iran, as compared with a Saudi Arabia or a [United Arab Emirates] or Kuwait where they've really piled up the reserves and can hold out for quite some time," she adds.

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"At this point right now, the U.S. dollar, the U.S. economy is definitely hands and feet over top of just about anybody else out there, certainly better than Europe and is stronger than most of the Asian economies," he says. "So as the U.S. dollar goes up, other currencies start to go down."

And commodities like oil are linked to the U.S. dollar. So countries with a weakened currency are likely to buy less oil, which in turn affects the exporting nations.

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While the current price of oil is at its lowest level since 2010, it's been much lower in the past three decades, says Brenda Shaffer, an energy expert and visiting professor at Georgetown University. Even when compared to today's prices, oil-dependent nations have always managed to get by.

"These countries, they've seen it when it's been up, when it's been down. Even President [Vladimir] Putin himself has been president of Russia in every type of oil price - the low, the high, the crisis," Shaffer says. "I think it's nothing new for these governments."

Shaffer says there's an intricate relationship between oil prices and geopolitics. She compares it to a kaleidoscope, where one change can set off unintended consequences. She says Washington may take satisfaction that Russia is feeling a financial pinch, but low oil prices could also signal a slowing in the global economy.

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A Burger Joint Pays $15 An Hour. And, Yes, It's Making Money

Fast-food workers rallied around the country Thursday, calling for a minimum wage of $15 an hour. But in suburban Detroit, a small but growing fast-casual burger and chicken chain has figured out how to pay higher wages and still be profitable.

When Moo Cluck Moo opened its first location almost two years, the starting pay for all workers was $12.00 an hour. The idea, according to co-founder Brian Parker, was to train everyone to multitask.

"Because of our low turnover, and the fact that people are really into their jobs, $15 an hour wasn't a big stretch," Parker says.

Parker says there's savings in not having to constantly train new hires, and his workers are empowered because they're given so much responsibility.

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When we stopped in for a visit this week, manager Dan Chavez was standing at the grill preparing a made-to-order Moo Burger. He's been cooking in restaurants for 15 years, so he knows how to move quickly from the grill to the fryer. He also overseas baking and talks to customers.

"It's more fun than I've had at other jobs, because we get to do everything ourselves," he says.

And Chavez says the higher-than-average wages are a big part of his job satisfaction.

"It feels good just to be able to pay my bills and enjoy a little of life," Chavez says.

Now in order to make this model work, customers have to pay a little more.

Grass-fed Moo Burgers on a homeade buns start at about $6. This compares to a Big Mac, which retails in the U.S. for about $4.80. That's a price differential of just over a dollar.

In starting the company, the founders says they were motivated by the lack of options. "We couldn't fine an affordable place to take our kids and grandkids that didn't have hormones, preservatives," they write on the company's website.

They now vet their suppliers to make sure all the food they buy meets their specifications, and they source their beef from Joseph Decuis Wagyu Farm in Indiana.

"I'm not driving around in a six-figure sports car," Parker says. But he does have his eye on the future.

"No, I don't think so," says Michael Strain, an economist at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

"McDonald's appeals to people who like the Dollar Menu, and to people for whom that price point is appealing," he says.

And McDonald's will likely continue to offer its Dollar Menu, and other value pricing, as long as it can find people who are willing to work for the kind of wages it currently offers.

But if workers become too expensive, Strain argues we'll start to see more automation — and fewer fast-food jobs.

"Imagine if some machine gets invented that can operate the french fry machine at McDonald's, " Strain says. That's one less worker needed at the fryer.

This automation has been happening for a while. Strain says. When he was a kid, it was a person — not a soda machine — that filled your cup.

fast food workers

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