VOA - CONNECT
[AIR DATE: 03 16 2018]
[FINAL TRANSCRIPT]
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((Banner))
Bad Axes
((SOT))
“Definitely in the first couple of times that I tried this, I was terrified.”
((Animation Transition)
((Banner))
Right to Privacy
((SOT))
“There is a trade-off between privacy and a sense of security.”
((Animation Transition))
((Open Animation))
BLOCK A
((Banner: Hijab in America))
((ANIMATION W/ GFX, CAPTIONS, PHOTOS))
MACY’S CLOTHING LINE
((Courtesy Chyron: Macy’s))
Retail Giant Macy’s has launched a “modest fashion” line
meant for Muslim women who prefer the style.
The Verona Collection comes from fashion photographer Lisa Vogl.
Globally, consumers spent $254 billion in 2016 on Muslim attire.
Others are also tapping into the growing Islamic clothing market.
((PKG))
NEW YORK FASHION WEEK
((Banner: New York Fashion Week))
((Reporter/ Camera: Anshuman Apte))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((NATS))
((VIVI ZUBEDI, DESIGNER, VVIZUBEDI))
“This is about me and this is about what I believe and this is about my hijab. And I really feel confident about modest wear nowadays because a lot of people are using hijab and also modest wear. I think it will be one of the kind of fashion that people will love.”
((NATS))
((VIVI ZUBEDI, DESIGNER, VVIZUBEDI))
“Wearing modest wear, that’s it. I mean we are no different. We are all the same, just the human beings. Between Muslim or non-Muslim, you are still human. That’s it.”
((HEBA JALLOUL, FASHION BLOGGER))
“The first time I saw Vivi it was in Indonesia and it was amazing to see her here again. I saw her last season, this was her second time and I just loved everything. And it’s just amazing to have hijab on the runway, especially in New York Fashion Week. That’s really cool to finally be seeing that.”
((PKG))
HIJABI ANCHOR
((Banner: Seeing it on TV))
((Reporter/ Camera: Kane Farabaough))
((Locator Map))
((NATS))
((TAHERA RAHMAN, TV REPORTER, CBS AFFILIATE WHBF-TV))
“I love the way that you can craft a story with TV news. You get to write. You get to do it in the words of the people themselves. And you get to create the video that goes with it.”
((NATS))
((TAHERA RAHMAN, TV REPORTER, CBS AFFILIATE WHBF-TV))
“It has, like, a lot of elements of storytelling that I really enjoy doing.”
((NATS))
((Banner: Tahera Rahman is the first full-time broadcast TV reporter in the US to wear the hijab))
((TAHERA RAHMAN, TV REPORTER, CBS AFFILIATE WHBF-TV))
“Growing up I always looked up to my mom. I mean I still do, but like, that’s also the reason why I just felt like I was ready. I really wanted to wear it and so around 6th grade, that’s when I put it on. It seemed normal to me because I was just following in the footsteps of my mom. I think when you are younger, it’s all about fitting in, and when you are in elementary, middle school, especially high school in America, you just want to be like everyone else. You don’t want to celebrate diversity. I think I’ve made more of a conscious effort as I have grown older to connect more to my heritage. I have a lot of family members who don’t wear a head scarf. My mom wears one and a couple of my aunts also do.”
((MIKE MICKLE, NEWS DIRECTOR, CBS AFFILIATE WHBF-TV))
“We realize that she is the first, but if she had been the 30th or the 300th or the 3000th, it would not have made a difference. We did it because she is Tahera and she has earned this opportunity and she is doing a great job for us.”
((NATS))
((MIKE MICKLE, NEWS DIRECTOR, CBS AFFILIATE WHBF-TV))
“I will tell you that the majority of the phone calls that we have received have been, I wouldn’t necessarily say they are from the Quad Cities. They have been from outside the area talking about what a big moment for the Muslim community that this is. But yeah, there are supporters right here in town.
((NATS))
((MOHAMAD EL-ZAIN, PRESIDENT, MUSLIM COMMUNITY OF THE QUAD CITIES))
“So the Muslim community here is about a thousand people altogether and you see those during the big Eid celebration. Mostly Indo-Paks - India, Pakistan. A lot of Arabs. That’s the majority of the people. It’s empowering to our kids to see anybody with a veil anywhere, because our kids struggle going to high school. So imagine this young lady being in front of a public audience on TV. So the pressure on these children is high because it’s okay in high school to be popular and wearing clothes that show everything on your body but it’s not okay for a young lady to wear a veil in high school. So, I don’t get it.”
((NATS))
((TAHERA RAHMAN, TV REPORTER, CBS AFFILIATE WHBF-TV))
“We are taught in Islam that it is a choice. It comes with, especially post 9/11 era, comes with a political statement. You know you are going into it with some backlash, at least a little bit. And I saw that actually growing up, being in the car with my mom and seeing people next to us stop and make rude gestures and things like that.”
((MOHAMAD EL-ZAIN, PRESIDENT, MUSLIM COMMUNITY OF THE QUAD CITIES))
“I read somewhere where people are criticizing her for what she is doing. And to me I was like, in America? This happens in America? I mean in this country, one of the few countries you can be anything you want to be. So what’s the big deal if a person is wearing a hijab, a veil, and is a reporter. I don’t get it.”
((TAHERA RAHMAN, TV REPORTER, CBS AFFILIATE WHBF-TV))
“Actually just the past couple of days I have gotten two or three emails just about how my religion is the religion of the devil and I should reconsider.”
((MIKE MICKLE, NEWS DIRECTOR, CBS AFFILIATE WHBF-TV))
“As cheesy as it sounds, this truly is a family atmosphere and everybody is looking out for Tahera. We look out for each other. Sure there will probably be more messages. There will be more phone calls. If we keep the percentages as they are, 98 percent to 2 (percent), I’ll take that. You know the only pressure we are under right now is the number of media friends that we have coming to visit and it’s allowing Tahera to share her journey with others which we really want her to do but at the same time she has a deadline and she is expected to meet it.”
((TAHERA RAHMAN, TV REPORTER, CBS AFFILIATE WHBF-TV))
“I do think that this is a huge moment. But at the same time, day in and day out, nothing has changed. Just because you got to where you want to go, doesn’t mean you work any less.”
((NATS))
((TAHERA RAHMAN, TV REPORTER, CBS AFFILIATE WHBF-TV))
“I think that if you work hard, people will see that. People will see that you are deserving of it because you have a talent or you are the right person for the job.”
((NATS))
((ANIMATION W/ GFX, CAPTIONS, PHOTOS))
A CONSTITUTIONAL REMINDER
1st Amendment:
It’s guaranteed in writing
Government can’t touch these:
Religion, speech, press, assembly and petition
Congress may not:
Favor one religion over another
Limit the free exercise of religion
Exceptions allow government regulation of certain practices:
Human sacrifice, Drug use, etc.
Congress may not:
Curtail the freedom of speech
Restrict freedom of the press
Exceptions include regulation of:
Obscenity
Fighting words
Advocating illegal action
Commercial speech
Congress may not:
Prohibit peaceful assembly and petition of the government
Exceptions allow regulations to address social concerns:
Time, place and manner of protest
Taken together, First Amendment freedoms protect self expression:
Personal, social and political.
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up….
((Banner))
Facial Recognition
((SOT))
“My biggest privacy concern is actually not the government. It’s the big companies where there are really no limits on how they can share data, what they can use it for, how they can exploit it.”
BREAK ONE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK B
((ANIMATION W/ GFX, CAPTIONS, PHOTOS))
((Banner: Detective Work))
Machines are talking on Twitter.
They are called bots.
Bot: Software designed to perform a task.
Some tasks are good: Public safety alerts
Other tasks are shady: Spread false information
Some websites analyze Twitter accounts
and report on the likelihood they are connected to a person or a bot.
((PKG))
BAD BOTS
((Banner: Bad Bots))
((Reporter: Michelle Quinn))
((Camera: Deana Mitchell))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((NATS))
((ASH BHAT, CO-FOUNDER, ROBHAT LABS))
((ROHAN PHADTEARE, CO-FOUNDER, ROBHAT LABS))
“My name is Ash Bhat, and my name is Rohan Phadteare and we are the co-founders of Robhat Labs and we are at Berkley, California.
((ASH BHAT, CO-FOUNDER, ROBHAT LABS))
“It is really interesting to see how the network actually reacts to these different current events. What especially botcheck.me does is that we have like a search bar where you can essentially type in any username and then we also have a dashboard that essentially we’re tracking 1500 different bots. We take all their tweets from the last 24 hours and then we calculate the top hashtags, the top tweeted accounts, the top two-word frequencies, the top single word frequencies.”
“So, we’re looking at different statistics like that. These are automatically generated.”
“We have crossed out over 200,000 suspicious accounts.”
“So, this is an example of an account that seems pretty suspicious in terms of bot-like activities. The account was created pretty recently. This is something that we see often with bots. Their following and followers’ numbers will be pretty similar.”
“When you look at the proportion of tweets to retweets, the account actually has a majority of retweets.”
((ROHAN PHADTEARE, ROBHAT LABS))
“So, we have buttons like this that appear underneath every single account on Twitter once you install our extension. Essentially you can click it and as soon as you click it’ll give you a classification. We’ll be able to give you a quick and easy way of understanding whether an account depicts patterns of a bot or not. In this case, the propaganda bot-like patterns were found and so we have this dialogue box that pops up.”
((ASH BHAT, ROBHAT LABS))
“So, there’s two ways, two big ways that we’ve seen bots actually being created. One, it’s actually being created on Twitter. Someone signs up for an account and automates it. Automation is when an account starts tweeting by itself without a human actually publishing the tweets him or herself.”
“We’ve also seen a second method that’s a lot more scary where people are actually buying compromised accounts. So, these are accounts that used to be owned by real humans and that’s sold on different black markets, things like that.”
“We sort of see these bots evolve, and the scary thing for us is like if we aren’t like keeping up with their technological progress, at some point it’s going to be impossible to tell the difference.”
((ROHAN PHADTEARE, ROBHAT LABS))
“Yeah, there’s always new bots that are coming in. If you look at these new bots that are coming in that are joining about a month ago, or two months ago, some of them are a few weeks ago, you can already see that they’re retweeting constantly of these new topics on Twitter. And so, there’s always going to be more bots coming in on this Twitter network as we’re trying to explain and detect the old ones.”
“It’s almost like an equilibrium. That’s why we need to actually look at a way to prevent some of these bots from appearing on the Network rather than just detecting them.”
((PKG)) FACIAL RECOGNITION
((Banner: Detecting People))
((Reporter: Elizabeth Lee))
((Camera: Elizabeth Lee, Hong Yi))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((COURTESY CHYRON ON ALL DEMO CLIPS: FaceFirst))
((HAO YUAN GAO, HORIZON ROBOTICS))
"For surveillance, you can catch the face in the public and find what you want to find. And for commercial use, you can find the VIP (very important person) when they come to a store and so you can make special server for them."
((PETER TREPP, FACEFIRST))
“We install a complete solution that allows our customers to be able to match people who are entering the facility against a database that already exists of bad people. So, if there’s a match that occurs, we are able to send an alert to a mobile device like an iPhone or android phone near real time.”
((STEVE KAROLY, TRANSPORTATION SAFETY ADMINISTRATION))
"We're always looking at technology, processes, even doctrine changes on how to better our security at an airport."
((PREM NATARAJAN, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA))
"My biggest privacy concern is actually not the government. It's the big companies where there are really no limits on how they can share data, what they can use it for, how they can exploit it."
((PETER TREPP, FACEFIRST))
“There’s this tradeoff between privacy and a sense of security. If you were to go to a concert or attend a public event, people have an expectation that that event and the facilities are being secured properly.”
((STEVE KAROLY, TRANSPORTATION SAFETY ADMINISTRATION))
“We’re trying to obviously increase our security effectiveness as well as our security efficiency as well as also include the passenger experience. We want to make all those things better.”
((PREM NATARAJAN, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA))
“These companies can now collect information about you that is time stamped, that is geo stamped, that is temporarily continuous. There’s a visual of you, who you’re with. So it’s no longer just about your privacy, whoever you’re with, the photos you’re taking of them, it’s like, you know, second-hand smoking. So everybody you take a selfie with et cetera, you’ve compromised as an individual their privacy too in some sense, and we’re not seeking consent from any of them.”
“Take a case, you know, you’re at a theme park, your favorite theme park. Your child is lost in the crowd. Maybe if you have lots of cameras and you have a photo of your child either on your phone or a photograph, maybe this makes it possible one day to scan through all the things and say where is this person?”
((PETER TREPP, FACEFIRST))
"Where this is going is very exciting. We think about everyday items that we have that are going away. Our house keys, our car keys, our ATM cards, our passwords are all starting to go away. And instead, we're going to be using facial recognition. Smartphones, of course, are now using facial recognition. Laptops have facial recognition on it."
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up….
((Banner))
Taking Aim
((SOT))
“So, similar to bowling, you've got to hit the target and a variation of points, and you try to hit the bullseye every time.”
BREAK TWO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK C
((PKG))
SUPERSTRONG WOOD
((Banner: Supernatural Strength))
((Reporter/Camera: Steve Baragona))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((NATS))
((Locator: University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland))
((TENG LI, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND))
"Wood has been existing on Earth for more than a million years. And human beings have been using wood for furniture and construction for more than 10 thousand years. And then the more we worked on this material, we realized indeed, we have never fully exhausted the potential of this amazing material. The major component of wood is actually called the cellulose. And in this process we developed, we demonstrated that we can improve the toughness and the strength of the natural wood more than 10 times.”
((NATS))
((LIANGBING HU, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND))
"So we are actually in the process of making super strong wood. This is the first step called delignification, basically to remove the lignin from natural wood by this chemical soaking process. So the lignin is like a binder. To be able to densify the wood completely, we have to remove some of these binders."
((NATS))
((TENG LI, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND))
“So this is the hot press machine. You have the two plates here. You put the wood sample after the first step in between of the two plates. You can apply the pressure here, and also we heat it up. So, under the high temperature and also the high pressure, after about a day, will make the natural wood eventually into this final product, super wood.”
((NATS))
“It’s like metal!”
“And that’s the same wood, basically?”
“Yes.”
“So that piece, became the smaller piece?”
“Yes.”
“That’s amazing.”
“What uses do you see for this?”
((LIANGBING HU, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND))
“So this super wood can be used for replacing steel, replacing carbon fiber, replacing even Kevlar, for lightweight vehicles, for building materials, for airplanes, for wind turbines. So it really can enable a lot of emerging technologies using this low cost, earth abundant material.”
((TENG LI, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND))
“The process we demonstrated here, we showed, is actually universally applicable for many species of wood. So it doesn’t matter what kind of wood you use, because we are getting out of the fundamental, intrinsic, amazing property of the wood.”
((PKG))
THROWING AXES
((Banner: Plain Old Strength))
((Reporter/Camera: Arash Arabasadi))
((NATS))
((REBECCA SEARS, COMPETITIVE AXE THROWER))
“This is throwing axes. So similar to bowling, you've got to hit the target and a variation of points, and you try to hit the bullseye every time.”
((NATS))
((OMAR “OMEAZY” COOPER, AXE MASTER, BAD AXE THROWING))
“First you let them, like, experience failure a couple of times, and then you just kind of like press their buttons a bit of times. Sometimes you actually got to agitate them. Alright, that same agitation that you have, you're just rushing with that throw, tell them, “throw it like that board took your tax return.”
((OMAR “OMEAZY” COOPER : “That was just a little high, just a little high. It was good though, it was good.”))
((LINDSAY ROUTT, COMPETITIVE AXE THROWER))
“Definitely the first couple of times that I tried this, I was terrified. Did not want to touch them. Did not want to pick them up. The whole time I wanted to just kind of pause and freeze. You're flinging this thing forward. On the first rotation the blade goes by your face. So that, for me, took a little bit to get used to for sure.”
((NATS))
((OMAR “OMEAZY” COOPER, AXE MASTER, BAD AXE THROWING))
“We are throwing blades around. These are sharp objects. We have these fences and everything set up over here in the aisles and everything. So unless you're throwing it with, like, Olympic gold medalist-type strength maybe, it won't pop out that far. It definitely shouldn't.”
((VOICE IN BACKGROUND))
“Step up! Three, two, one.”
((LINDSAY ROUTT, COMPETITIVE AXE THROWER))
“So that's been one of the most surprising things, how evenly the participants are matched male to female. Really nice slope between men and women.”
((OMAR “OMEAZY” COOPER, AXE MASTER, BAD AXE THROWING))
“There you are.”
“It feels like you're becoming one with yourself like you really get in tune with yourself, so, I feel like it even uplifts your posture, once you start doing it for a while. Like, if you look at the people in our leagues, these people walk in here like they've just conquered and defeated tigers.”
((NATS))
((REBECCA SEARS, COMPETITIVE AXE THROWER))
“It's crazy but it's a good time. It feels safe the entire time.”
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up….
((Banner))
Clean Streets
((SOT))
“I never thought my last day would be so emotional for me. He is crying. They are crying. I am crying watching them cry. I’ve been very lucky because he’s been the best partner I ever had.”
BREAK THREE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK D:
((PKG))
STORY CORPS / CLEAN STREETS
((Banner: Clean Streets))
((Directed by: The Rauch Brothers))
((Credits))
((BANNER))
Sanitation workers Angelo Bruno and Eddie Nieves worked together for nearly ten years on the same garbage route in Manhattan’s West Village.
After 31 years on the job, Angelo retired.
At StoryCorps, the pair remembered their days on the route.
Eddie Nieves (EN): Everybody would just come out just to talk to you.
Angelo Bruno (AB): People would say, “Oh, good morning Angelo.” “Good morning Eddie.” “You want a cup of coffee?” “You want lunch?”
EN: And the nuns kissing us, too. We got nuns on our route. You know, I never had that before.
AB: The younger guys would ask me, “How did you get that?” It’s just a little, “Good morning. Have a nice weekend. Hey, you look great today.” I could do 14 tons of garbage. I can’t lift a baby carriage off a step and carry it down or hold someone’s baby when they went to get their car.
EN: The garbage ain’t going nowhere. You know? The garbage will be there a half hour from now, an hour, so when you get it, you get it.
AB: He made a statement one day that he does all the work and I do all the talking.
EN: It came out wrong.
AB: Look how he’s getting out of this, “It just came out wrong.”
EN: I deserve it.
AB: When I first came on the job, there was one old timer. I remember, Gordy Flow his name was. One day, he stopped the truck. He tells me, “Angelo, you look down this block first. See all the sidewalks are all crowded up with garbage?” So I think nothing of it. My father always told me to respect my elders. I get to the end of the block, and he stops me again. “Get out of the truck, look back. Nice and clean right? People could walk on the sidewalk. Guys can make deliveries. Be proud of yourself.”
EN: The day that people learned that you were going to retire, we went, maybe a block or two blocks, and six people came up to him saying, “You’re crazy. What am I going to do when you leave?”
AB: I’m a little bit of a marshmallow anyway, but I never thought my last day would be so emotional for me.
EN: He’s crying. They’re crying. I’m crying watching them cry. And I’ve been very lucky because he’s been the best partner I ever had. We used to try to take the same vacation and try to have the same day off. And I miss my partner.
AB: I feel the same way, Eddie. I’ll be honest with you. I miss it terribly. I’m like the little kid looking out the window now when I hear the truck. I think I could have done another 31 years.
((Credits))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
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SHOW ENDS
