Children love the song. Parents call it an “earworm” because once they hear it, it continues to pop uninvited into their heads: “Baby Shark” is a two-minute music video that has been dubbed into 11 languages and endeared itself to toddlers across the world.

Now, a 12th version is in the works, dubbed into Dine bizaad­—the language of the Navajo—one of the largest Native American tribes in the U.S.

The project is the brainchild of Manuelito “Manny” Wheeler, director of the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Arizona, part of a part of a 54,000-square-foot center that works to preserve and interpret the Navajo culture through art, archaeological materials, photographs, film and recordings—including Navajo-language versions of major Hollywood motion pictures.

“We dubbed ‘Star Wars Episode IV’ and ‘Finding Nemo’ into Navajo. And we are just finishing up the classic Clint Eastwood Western [film], ‘Fistful of Dollars,’” said Wheeler.

Watch: a clip from the Navajo version of the 1977 movie “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope”:

Each of these film projects was geared to a different Navajo demographic, Wheeler explained. It’s all part of an effort to preserve and revive a language that, like many Native American languages, is endangered, and unless something is done, could face extinction in the coming decades.

“We want to stem the tide before the tide is irreversible, because it is changing,” said Wheeler. “We needed something that was geared for early childhood. And what better choice than ‘Baby Shark?’”

“Baby Shark,” is more than a song; it’s an international phenomenon. Produced by the South Korean entertainment company SmartStudy’s educational brand, Pinkfong, in 2015, it instantly went viral. Since then, Pinkfong has created spinoff videos—including “Baby Shark Dance.” Together, they have been viewed more than 3 billion times on YouTube.  

“We’re working closely with the Navajo Nation Museum for this project,” said Kevin Yoon, SmartStudy’s marketing communications manager, in an email statement. “Pinkfong will be producing the audio and video recording, but the Navajo Nation is advising us throughout the whole process, including localization [translation] and the audition for voice actors.”

The Navajo Nation Museum will host an open casting call Sunday, December 8. Wheeler hopes to announce the final selection of five voice actors by mid-December and launch the final project in time for Christmas.

Future collaborations are possible

On March 1, the first “Baby Shark Live” tour will open in Independence, Missouri, and for the following three months will travel to 100 U.S. cities, including many in states with large Native American populations, such as California, Oklahoma, Montana, New Mexico, and Washington state, to name a few. 

Does Pinkfong have plans to meet with any other Indian tribes during the tour to discuss producing other Native language versions?

“Right now, we’re focusing all of our efforts on the Navajo ‘Baby Shar’k (Łóó’ Hashkéii Awéé’) project,” said Yoon. “While we don’t have future plans at this point, we are open to possibilities to collaborate.”

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Most students and their families quickly dive into rankings when searching for the “best colleges and universities.”

However, Georgetown University, itself on many of those “best college” lists, has veered from rankings based on grade-point averages, admission rates and SAT scores, and come up with a new metric, ranking institutions of higher education based on the financial return students receive from their investment in the school.

Traditional private, four-year schools that offer bachelor’s degrees have the highest returns on investment not just immediately after graduation, but 40 years after enrollment, Georgetown’s report on the ranking says.

“For example, Babson College, a private college in Massachusetts, ranks 304th in net present value at the 10-year horizon, but ranks seventh at the 40-year horizon,” Georgetown’s University Center on Education and the Workforce said. Its detailed project included 4,500 schools that offer degrees and certificates.

Tops on the list for return on investment over 40 years was Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, a private nonprofit institution that costs about $50,000 per year. It was calculated to return $385,000 at 10 years, $1.3 million at 20 years, and $2.72 million on that investment to the graduate after 40 years.

By comparison, the private, nonprofit, four-year Stanford University in California that ranked No. 5 on the Georgetown list would return $307,000 in 10 years, $1.013 million in 20 years; and $2.068 million in 40. Tuition and fees are about the same as Albany College of Pharmacy.

Those calculations are published prices and do not include financial aid discounts.

“Everyone is asking, ‘Is college worth it?’ and we set out to try to find an answer,” said Anthony P. Carnevale, lead author and CEW director in a statement. “Not only will it help students, but this kind of information on the costs and benefits of higher education holds institutions more accountable.”

Carnevale served for a decade as vice president for public leadership at the Educational Testing Service, the largest private nonprofit testing service, which administers the SAT and other tests that are required or highly recommended for admission into higher-education programs.

Data from some obvious affordable schools CEW could not gain access to include the U.S. service academies. Those schools do not collect tuition and fees, and students are given stipends to pay for expenses like dry cleaning, barbers and laundry. Admission and graduation is exchanged for service in the U.S. military after graduation.

And who’s who in Georgetown’s Top 20? Some names you don’t typically see in the popular annual rankings and careers that you won’t find on many other lists. (Hint: Get your sea legs on.)

Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (N.Y.)
St. Louis College of Pharmacy (Mo.)
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (Mass.)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Mass.)
Stanford University (Calif.)
Maine Maritime Academy (Maine)
Babson College (Mass.)
Harvard University (Mass.)
Georgetown University (D.C.)
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (N.Y.)
University of the Sciences (Pa.)
St Paul’s School of Nursing-Queens (N.Y.)
Massachusetts Maritime Academy (Mass.)
Harvey Mudd College (Calif.)
Stevens Institute of Technology (N.J.)
University of Pennsylvania (Pa.)
California State University Maritime Academy (Calif.)
California Institute of Technology (Calif.)
Colorado School of Mines (Colo.)
Bentley University (Mass.)

No, that’s not a typo, you are reading correctly: Pharmacy and maritime schools offer excellent return on investment along with notable STEM colleges and universities.

For-profit and certificate schools scored the lowest return on investment, and include beauty, rabbinical, ethnic and arts schools.

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Bleak news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that Americans are dying younger and that life expectancy in the U.S. is falling. It might be time to call dogs to the rescue.

Dogs are so attuned to humans that many people think of them as family, Sandi Shrager fits in that category.

“I can’t imagine my life without them,” she said. “They’re just a big part of my life.”

According to a pet owners survey, there are some 90 million pet dogs in the United States. The University of Washington is recruiting 10,000 of them for a study on aging. Professor Daniel Promislow at the university’s School of Medicine explains.

Aging in dogs

“The goal is to follow dogs for their entire lives, young, old, big, small, males, females, all dogs all around the U.S. to understand how the biology and the environment shape healthy aging in dogs,” he said.

The University of Washington, which is on the West Coast of the U.S., is partnering with veterinarians like Dr. Kate Creevy at Texas A&M University.

“By studying aging in pet dogs living in human environments,” Creevy said, “we can learn things that will translate to human health as we age, in a shorter period of time, and we’ll also directly benefit companion dogs along the way, which is extremely important to me as a veterinarian.”

Dogs and humans age in much the same way. They have a similar genome and get the same diseases as they age. Cancer is a big one. As pets, dogs share our environment so they are exposed to the same toxins as we are. Researchers plan to examine the dogs’ lifestyle factors that also affect humans such as diet, activity level, and where the dog lives, in addition to genetics and medical history.

New approach

Matt Kaeberlein is one of the researchers at the University of Washington. He says one of the goals is to find out how to prevent age-related diseases.

“Traditionally in medicine, we have waited until people are sick and then we try to do something about it. We try to cure the disease, or we at least try to alleviate the symptoms,” he said. “The goal here is to really keep dogs and people healthy as long as possible before they get sick. And I think this is a really important aspect of targeting the biology of aging directly, rather than targeting individual diseases as they happen.”

The researchers plan to make the study’s findings available to all scientists.

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Chinese telecom giant Huawei has filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court to throw out a Trump administration rule that bans phone carriers in rural areas from using money from an $8.5 billion government fund to purchase Huawei’s equipment.

The lawsuit says the Federal Communications Commission acted improperly when it imposed the ban last month on Huawei and its domestic rival ZTE, citing national security concerns.

At a news conference at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen Thursday, Song Liuping, Huawei’s chief legal counsel, said the FCC made its decision without any evidence that Huawei posed a national security threat.

This is the second lawsuit filed by Huawei to combat U.S. government claims that it presents a threat to U.S. national security. The company first filed suit in March challenging the legality of a law passed by the U.S. Congress last year that bars government agencies and contractors from doing business with the tech giant.

Huawei is also involved in a separate legal fight involving Meng Wanzhou, its chief financial officer and the daughter of founder Ren Zhengfei. Meng was arrested in Canada last December on a U.S. warrant seeking her extradition to face charges of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.

The United States and others worry that technology companies located in countries with governments like China’s could be subject to state influence, making the networks insecure. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in May that bars American companies from using telecommunications equipment that is made by companies that pose a national security risk.

But the administration has since granted a series of limited reprieves so Huawei can continue to provide equipment to carriers that provide wireless networks in rural areas.

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The world may be heading for an even greater oversupply of oil, and that possibility — which could drive down fuel and energy prices — is hanging over members of the OPEC cartel as they head into negotiations Thursday.

The oil-producing nations will decide whether to stick with production cuts they’ve endured for the past three years, relax them or deepen them in the hopes of propping up prices.

They’re negotiating through a tangle of tensions driving members in competing directions.

Saudi Aramco’s stock market debut, which will get off the ground Thursday when the state-run oil giant prices its shares, has put Saudi Arabia in a precarious position as it bets on what volume of oil production will hit a sweet spot for prices, with the added pressure of considering the interests of its shareholders. The nation is already bearing the burden of the largest share of OPEC’s production cuts.

But some nations such as Iraq have been ignoring the agreement and producing more than their allotted amount.

“If people are already not complying to the current agreement, what’s the point to those that are complying cutting more? So the others can go on cheating?” said Bhushan Bahree, executive director of global oil at research group IHS Markit. “I think the Saudi position is they’re willing to cut more if needed, but they want better compliance.”

Production cuts 

Brent crude oil hovered around $61 per barrel Wednesday afternoon. Prices have fluctuated throughout the year, reaching nearly $75 per barrel in April after U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela limited world supply, but lingering trade tensions between the U.S. and China dampened economic expectations, pushing prices back down.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark crude, was trading at around $56 Wednesday afternoon, and its price followed a similar trajectory throughout the year.

As it stands, OPEC nations have agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day through March 2020, and most analysts expect OPEC nations to extend those production cuts until at least summer.

“If they just keep the existing situation, then you get this massive oversupply,” said Jacques Rousseau, managing director at Clearview Energy Partners.

Rousseau believes OPEC nations will cut production by an additional 400,000 barrels per day to keep supply and demand in balance during the first half of next year, with the cuts made mainly by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But substantial cuts may be difficult to achieve with some OPEC members following their own agendas.

“Iraq has exceeded its production target every month this year,” Rousseau said. “Granted, there’s some unrest going on in the country, but I don’t think they’ll voluntarily reduce.”

Russia

Meanwhile, Russia, which is not part of OPEC but has been following its lead on production limits in recent years, has indicated it wants its oil production re-calculated in a way that’s in line with OPEC nations. That could enable it to produce more oil.

And even if members of the cartel cut production, there’s more oil coming online from non-OPEC nations including the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Norway and Guyana, which will more than make up for any drop in production, according to IHS Markit.

The dynamic to watch will be whether Russia and Saudi Arabia will come to an agreement on production levels in the early and middle parts of next year, said Heather Heldman, managing partner at Luminae Group, a geopolitical intelligence firm.

“If something goes awry with Saudi production in the next few months, and there’s a fairly good chance something will happen … Russia’s going to be the first party looking to fill that gap,” Heldman said. “And I think the Saudis know that.”
 

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The Czech Republic’s prime minister is facing fraud charges after the country’s chief prosecutor overturned a previous decision to drop the case.
                   
Pavel Zeman announced the move Wednesday after evaluating a September finding to dismiss the charges despite a police recommendation to indict Babis.
                   
The case involves a farm that received European Union subsidies after its ownership was transferred from the Agrofert conglomerate owned by the prime minister to members of his family. The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing.
                   
The EU subsidies were meant for medium-sized and small businesses and Agrofert would not have been eligible for them. Later, Agrofert again took ownership of the farm.

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Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador prayed for the safety of the country with the relatives of nine U.S. dual citizens slaughtered in northern Mexico last month and assured them “at least four” suspects have been detained, a family member said.

Julian LeBaron said that during the family’s Monday meeting with López Obrador and his Cabinet at Mexico City’s National Palace, the president pledged to visit the region where the Nov. 4 massacre took place.

Mexican politicians traditionally avoid open displays of faith, and López Obrador has been unusual in recent comments referring to himself as a “follower of Jesus Christ.”

“We just bowed our heads” and “prayed for the president and the country, for peace and goodwill, and to protect our loved ones, and protect our country,” LeBaron said Tuesday.

The extended LeBaron family has lived in northern Mexico for decades and identify as part of the Mormon tradition though they are not affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. Dual nationals, they were hotly criticized by some for asking U.S. President Donald Trump to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, something Trump said he would do.

“We think we should all be humble enough, and that’s something we discussed with the president, to recognize that we have an immense problem on our hands and we need help,” LeBaron said. “Of course, we wouldn’t like to see a military invasion.”

Three young mothers and six children were killed in the attack near the border of the northern states of Sonora and Chihuahua. Officials have said a drug cartel is suspected in the attack, but they initially suggested that one of the mothers’ vehicles was set afire unintentionally, when a bullet hit the gas tank.

LeBaron said officials have confirmed to them that the killers filmed the attack themselves and set fire to the SUV in which one mother — LeBaron’s cousin — and her four children died. He said family members have seen the video.

LeBaron is now trying to press for the kind of local anti-crime organizing that his community in Chihuahua state put together in 2009 after a previous attack by drug cartel gunmen.

He envisions communities allowed to form a posse, deputize citizens and bear arms to fight cartel incursions.

“We’ve been invaded by criminal terrorist organizations within our own country, within our own communities, and our government has absolutely failed to stop the thugs,” said LeBaron. “At some point we have to assume responsibility as citizens to put a stop to it.”

“The whole western United States was basically built on a structure that worked for communities, what we call the Wild West was never the wild West,” he said. “Within the community they basically had all the powers to hold people accountable. The whole town could be deputized to bring criminals before justice.”

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Georgia’s governor choose a wealthy businesswoman over a key Trump ally to fill an upcoming vacancy in the U.S. Senate.

Republican Governor Brian Kemp announced his selection of businesswoman Kelly Loeffler on Wednesday. Trump allies in the state wanted the governor to appoint Representative Doug Collins, one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s staunchest defenders in the House Judiciary Committee that is overseeing the impeachment inquiry.

The selection is believed to be an appeal to moderate suburban voters in the state of Georgia. Loeffler’s supporters believe she can appeal to women and suburban Atlanta voters, who have drifted from the party since Trump’s election.

Some Republican leaders pushed for the appointment of Collins instead due to his strong support for Trump, gun rights and anti-abortion efforts.

The businesswoman attempted to bring in support from the president during her remarks after the announcement. “I make no apologies for my conservative values,” she said, “and will proudly support President Trump’s conservative judges.”

Loeffler will succeed three-term Senator Johnny Isakson, who is stepping down at the end of the month because of his health. Isakson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015 and recently underwent surgery to remove a cancerous growth from one of his kidneys.

The financial executive will serve for the final two years of Isakson’s term until the November 2020 special election. Also on next year’s ballot will be Republican Senator David Perdue, who is running for a second full term.

Loeffler’s appointment has been strongly supported by Senate GOP leadership. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said she was a “terrific appointment.”

Loeffler’s background

Loeffler is the co-owner of the Atlanta Dream professional women’s basketball franchise and CEO of financial services company Bakkt, which offers a regulated market for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

She was previously an executive at Atlanta-based financial trading platform Intercontinental Exchange, which was founded by her husband, Jeff Sprecher.

Intercontinental Exchange owns the New York Stock Exchange. Her company Bakkt is a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange.

Democrats hope to break the GOP’s hold on the Deep South in 2020 when both senate seats are up for grabs during a presidential election year.

Georgia is undergoing demographic changes making the state less rural and more diverse, which could make the state more competitive for Democrats than it has in the past.
 

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A spokeswoman for Jimmy Carter says the former U.S. president is already feeling better after being treated for a urinary tract infection.

Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said Monday that the 95-year-old was admitted to Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus over the weekend.

“He is feeling better and looks forward to returning home soon. We will issue a statement when he is released for further rest and recovery at home,” her statement said.

Carter’s recent health challenges have included surviving cancer and hip replacement surgery. He helped build a Habitat for Humanity home in October despite hitting his head in a fall, and then fractured his pelvis in another fall. He was released last Wednesday from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after surgery to relieve bleeding on his brain.
 

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Zimbabwe’s former President Robert Mugabe left behind $10 million, 10 cars, a farm and several homes, but apparently no will, his estate revealed Tuesday.

The state-run Herald newspaper reported Tuesday that Mugabe’s daughter, Bona, registered the estate with the High Court on behalf of the family.

The family’s lawyers say they are still searching for a will but if one is not found, the estate will be divided between former first lady Grace Mugabe and four children.

Mugabe died in September at a Singapore hospital two years after he was forced out of office by his Zanu-PF party and the military.

Mugabe has long been rumored to have amassed a massive fortune during his 37-year rule.

A 2001 diplomatic cable sent by the U.S. Embassy in Harare and released by WikiLeaks said Mugabe was rumored to have more than $1 billion worth of assets in Zimbabwe and overseas, which “include everything from secret accounts in Switzerland, the Channel Islands and the Bahamas, and castles in Scotland.”

News of his wealth comes days after the United Nations warned that millions of people in Zimbabwe are facing food insecurity.  

“Zimbabwe is on the brink of man-made starvation,” and the number of people needing help is “shocking” for a country not in conflict, Hilal Elver, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, said.

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Carbon dioxide emissions rose in 2019 for the third straight year, according to the latest Global Carbon Project estimate, and do not look set to fall before the end of the next decade.

This is more bad news for United Nations negotiators in Madrid to consider as they aim to hammer out rules for implementing the 2015 Paris international agreement on limiting climate change.

This year’s 0.6% growth in CO2 emissions is slower than the previous two years. Steep declines in coal use in the United States and Europe, combined with weaker global economic growth, were behind the slowdown, the report says.

But slowing growth is not enough. A recent United Nations report said emissions must decline by at least 2.7% per year to keep the planet from overheating. 

Emissions look likely to continue in the wrong direction for years to come, according to Stanford University Earth scientist Rob Jackson, chair of the Global Carbon Project, the international research consortium that published the findings Tuesday in Earth System Science Data. 

“I am, I have to confess, not very optimistic that in a five-to-year timescale, we’ll see a peak in emissions,” he said. “I hope I’m wrong. I really hope I’m wrong.”

Widening gap

The data follow a bleak report from the United Nations on the widening gap between what the world needs to do to prevent the worst impacts of climate change and what countries actually are doing to meet their Paris pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Under the Paris agreement, countries aim to limit global warming to “well under” 2 degrees Celsius and to “pursue efforts” to keep it to 1.5C over pre-industrial times. Currently, the planet has warmed about 1C, raising sea levels and producing more weather extremes, including heat waves, droughts, and heavy storms.

The U.N. Emissions Gap Report finds that the world is headed for 3.4 to 3.9 degrees of warming by 2100. If all the Paris pledges are met, temperatures still will warm by 3.2 degrees, with potentially devastating impacts on food security, water supplies and public health.

The report says countries need to triple their greenhouse gas reductions to reach the 2-degree target and cut them five-fold to reach 1.5 degrees.

That report is based on 2018 data. The new report released Tuesday offers the first look at 2019.
 
Coal, oil

The good news is that, compared to last year, the world burned less coal, the most carbon-intensive fuel. Coal emissions were down 0.9%, mostly from sharp falls in the United States and Europe (both about 10%). China and India increased coal emissions (0.8% and 2%, respectively), but less than in recent years.

Oil makes up the second-largest share of greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from transportation. Unlike coal, however, emissions from oil have been growing steadily for decades and show no signs of decreasing. They were up 0.9% this year.

Electric vehicle sales are rising, but not nearly fast enough to offset the growing global fleet of gas and diesel engines.

For example, more than a million electric vehicles were sold last year in China, the world’s largest auto market.

“They led the world in electric vehicle purchases,” Jackson said. “But they still put 20-million-plus new gasoline-based vehicles on their roads.”

Natural gas

The decline in coal CO2 emissions also was partly canceled out by rapid growth in natural gas. It’s the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. More than one-third of the increase in global CO2 over the last decade has come from the rise of natural gas.

Burning natural gas produces 40% less carbon dioxide than coal, and the switch from coal to gas has played a major role in reducing emissions in the United States.

Globally, however, most natural gas is fueling new power plants, not replacing coal, Jackson said.

“We’re not taking fossil fuels offline,” he added. “We’re just adding new production.”

The same pattern is true for renewable energy, he said. While increasing amounts of wind and solar power are coming online, they mainly are meeting demand growth, not replacing fossil fuels.

“Public policies need to place far more importance on directly cutting back the use of fossil fuels,” the report says.
 

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