He's one of the subcontinent's most exciting literary talents. His new book 'Noon' explores violence in South Asia. Son of Pakistani politician Salman Taseer, assassinated after defying Islamist groups, Aatish Taseer speaks with Srijana Mitra Das about nations, truth, lies and ties that bind - or break - people.

The South Korean government on Wednesday started to relax its strict social distancing rules but only in line with a set of guidelines referred to as the 'distancing in daily life' policy.

British Geological Survey submits application for geoenergy observatory in Cheshire  ThinkGeoEnergy

A Washington, D.C., think tank issued a report that says California Virtual Acadmies, a major online school network, has had more dropouts than graduates in most years.; Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

A report released Thursday by a labor group-affiliated Washington think tank is questioning the education provided by an online public school program that says it is in a union fight.

The report by In the Public Interest, a group funded by unions, says the thousands of students enrolled in the California Virtual Academies online public school known as CAVA are receiving a  substandard education by most measures.

"So in every year since CAVA began graduating students, with the exception of 2013, it has produced more dropouts than graduates,” said Shahrzad Habibi, who authored the report.

She said state test score data show that 71 percent of California public schools performed better than the virtual academies.

The report calls on California officials to investigate the online schools’ administration and finances.

California Virtual Academies enrolls about 14,000 kindergarten to 12th grade students through 11 sites, including those in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Fresno. It is run by a national for-profit company called K12 Inc.

In a written statement, California Virtual Academies did not dispute the reported low student performance numbers, but denied other allegations in the study, which it called “inaccurate and deeply flawed.”

“The report relies primarily on misinformation from the California Teachers Association — the union currently engaged in a coordinated and well-funded distortion campaign to unionize the eleven independent California Virtual Academies charter schools.”

In the Public Interest, which supports the work of labor unions, partnered with the American Federation of Teachers last year on a website to track for-profit charter school companies.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Recipients of the 10th annual Communication Awards were announced today by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine.

Emily Quinn speaks from the TED stage at TEDWomen 2018; Credit: /TED

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode The Biology Of Sex

Artist Emily Quinn is intersex. She's one of over 150 million people in the world who don't fit neatly into the categories of male or female. She explains how biological sex exists on a spectrum.

About Emily Quinn

Emily Quinn is an artist and activist. She worked at Cartoon Network on the Emmy Award winning show, Adventure Time. While there she partnered with interACT and MTV to develop the first intersex main character in television history. She came out publicly as intersex in a PSA alongside the character's debut. She later worked as the Youth Coordinator for interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth.

As an activist, she speaks about intersex issues before audiences and through her YouTube channel: intersexperiences. As an artist, her most recent projects include a genderless puberty guidebook and a portrait series of intersex people that will be exhibited at medical schools across the U.S. in 2020.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Audrey Hepburn I am not, but every once in a while, a girl’s gotta go for the gamine look, right? The ankle-length or capri trousers, the ‘50s pink and black color scheme. This is not the ‘’Breakfast at Tiffany’s” Audrey Hepburn, but the 1957 “Funny Face” Audrey, the intellectual beatnik girl who agrees to do a photo modeling shoot for Fred Astaire in exchange for a trip to Paris, where she can to worship at the feet of her “empathicalism” guru, Professor Flostre, who turns out to be just another “mec” on the make.
 
Of course I had to sneak in some commentary in this ensemble: the shirt in sweetheart-pink with stylized black silhouettes of classic runway shapes over the years …  and the shoes, with the pink-and-black face of a sassy manga girl. This one I like. Some of the sex-bomb manga girl illustrations look more like teen boy fantasy porn versions of those classic Keane portraits of solemn-faced, big-eyed children.
 
If you think Meryl Streep was a tough cookie in “The Devil Wears Prada,” check out the original: Kay Thompson and her star turn as the glamorous, tyrannical fashion mag editor in “Funny Face”! [Why do the handbags carried by women in the movies always look empty? Par for the fantasy, I suppose.

The only woman who comes close to achieving the empty handbag is the Queen, who, if rumor is believed, carries only a handkerchief and lipstick and eyeglasses in hers, maybe one or two other items, and on Sunday some money for the church collection plate. I’m convinced she keeps it handy mostly as a prop. Poor lady: it’s always a sedate British-made Launer handbag and she orders four new ones a year. Maybe at least in her imagination she goes online and buys a Stephen Sprouse Louis Vuitton neon graffiti bag, just for the heck of it.]
 
The Harry Potter cast did a little bit about the Queen’s handbag for her 80th birthday:

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Emily Quinn speaks from the TED stage at TEDWomen 2018; Credit: /TED

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode The Biology Of Sex

Artist Emily Quinn is intersex. She's one of over 150 million people in the world who don't fit neatly into the categories of male or female. She explains how biological sex exists on a spectrum.

About Emily Quinn

Emily Quinn is an artist and activist. She worked at Cartoon Network on the Emmy Award winning show, Adventure Time. While there she partnered with interACT and MTV to develop the first intersex main character in television history. She came out publicly as intersex in a PSA alongside the character's debut. She later worked as the Youth Coordinator for interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth.

As an activist, she speaks about intersex issues before audiences and through her YouTube channel: intersexperiences. As an artist, her most recent projects include a genderless puberty guidebook and a portrait series of intersex people that will be exhibited at medical schools across the U.S. in 2020.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

What do you think of Science for Environment Policy? Tell us your thoughts with our online survey. The survey aims to assess how the service has diversified and responded to audience needs. Many thanks for your valuable feedback.

Sustainability in the production of goods and services could be encouraged by replacing value-added tax (VAT) with ‘DaVAT,’ a damage and value-added tax, a new study suggests. This tariff is partly based on a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of goods and services and varies from high (products deemed to seriously harm the environment and human health) to low (those with a lesser impact). The researchers propose a novel way to convert VAT into DaVAT and provide a new policy tool, based on LCA, that can be applied by any country wishing to reform its consumption tax system and move towards a more sustainable future.

To solve the problem of food waste we need to radically rethink how our food is produced and consumed, researchers argue in a recent study. They propose a new framework that considers how to reduce wastage throughout the supply chain. Preventing excess levels of food production and consumption in the first place is its most important step.

A circular economy (CE) is one in which materials retain their value and are reused, minimising waste. Cities and councils could act as CE trailblazers by embedding this approach whenever possible into their public purchase of products, services and works. This study explored different approaches to circular public procurement (CPP), and identified possible opportunities to promote CE via appropriate procurement policy and criteria.

The Art of Connecting is Rethinking the Risk. Be clear on where you stand with BT Security

Belgrad, Daniel, author

Grey turns to pen and paper, Myke switches to Todoist, and they both share what they wanted to be when they grew up.

Watford legend John Barnes has urged restraint for the return of the Premier League and said footballers should only return to work when the rest of society does.

'What Were You Thinking?' is a podcast series that showcases real-life stories of adolescents who made life-altering choices.

Study finds that only 17 percent of children create deep imaginary worlds but they also exhibit higher levels of creativity.

Video shows a motorcyclist in Belgium stopping to rescue a kitten from the road.

Kermit pops into ‘Saturday Night Live’ to discuss the school lunch standards.

Automakers who wanted 2010 bragging rights had to field their cars this week or risk getting the news swallowed up by the Christmas rush. So a whole lot of peop

Thanksgiving feasts and Christmas treats will be here soon, but being proactive can help you win the battle of the bulge.

Community fridges are like Little Free Pantries, but with electricity. They are one more solution to hunger and food waste.

We can't just build better; we have to change the way we live.

Conservation photographer Ben Von Wong's striking photo campaign aims to raise awareness of how microfibers from our clothes pollute the world's water.

A new feature added to Project Sunroof, a free solar mapping tool from Google, makes keeping up with Joneses even easier.

Schools are phasing out dodgeball and other sports in favor of exercises that get kids moving for a lifetime.

Before clean air laws were passed in Pittsburgh, smoke left buildings in a nighttime shroud all day, yet air quality issues aren't really in the past.

How well-versed are you with our planet's fascinating geology? Test your knowledge and find out.

Reality can never be perfectly simulated if you take into consideration quantum complexity.

Animals at Australia's Mogo Zoo were saved from wildfires by savvy staff.

The animated short "Bao" is about a Chinese mother overprotecting a dumpling, and it speaks to anyone who has ever been a mom or had a mom.

Mercury, bloodletting, corpses, radioactive water and even heroin are just some of the treatments doctors used to prescribe patients.

Muncie, Indiana, police department lets residents pay off parking tickets with donations to the local animal shelter.

Want to know what young girls really think about the media, girls' fashions, and teen idols like Nicki Minaj? Watch this video to find out.

As the GOP frontrunner tries to hold on to support in New Hampshire, he continues to walk a fine line when it comes to what he really believes about environment

Your virtual carbon footprint may be bigger than you think. You telecommute, while your friends idle in stop-and-go traffic on the way to work, but don’t feel

Turns out that how—and how often—you wash your clothes makes a huge difference.

Find out what green architect and Mainer Chris Briley thinks about sustainable design, passive home heating, and the cost difference between conventional and gr

Now there's science to prove what many women have been feeling for years.

John Addison says finding your inner calm will get you more than halfway there. His new book shows you how.

Robots are taking jobs from tax-paying, product-consuming human beings and a lot of people are talking about it. How will these people live?

The Rainforest Alliance offers five suggestions for making Valentine’s Day traditions more earth-friendly.

You wouldn't leave the shower on for 42 minutes, right? When you think about food waste that way, it's more tangible.

Think ahead to ensure that you're getting local foods for as much of the year as you can.

Dr. John Bradshaw decodes cat behavior and explains what felines really think of us.

A recent Harvard study finds that neural activity is a new player when it comes to human aging.