{"text": " 49 After playing with the iPhone 5C, I played with the new iPhone 5S that includes a faster A7 SoC and M7 sensor fusion hub, fingerprint sensor home button, improved 8 MP camera with 1.5\u00b5m pixel pitch, F/2.2 optical system, and dual LED flash. 27 The iPhone 5S also comes in two new colors, a space gray, and gold color which complement the white color that was previously available. 23 What's interesting about the 5S is of course that touch ID sensor which includes a fingerprint sensor inside the home button. 27 There's no rounded application rectangle icon inside the circle, instead the home button is clear and topped with a flat sapphire cover glass material. 23 There's a complementary settings option where you can train the system to use your fingerprints and control what fingerprints are stored. 30 Tapping and holding your finger on the button quickly unlocks the device, there's a tiny bit of lag but it's still faster than entering a passcode. 49 The two new iPhone 5S colors are striking as well, I expected the space gray option to just be a renamed black option from the 5, but it actually has different aluminum anodization and looks like a different color around the edge and back metal parts. 33 Of course there's a dramatic change with the gold colored iPhone 5S, which actually is quite subtle in person and not nearly as dramatic as I thought it would be. 23 It manages to be gold but still elegant and not tacky, I'm impressed with the way Apple tuned this anodization. 18 The materials feel the same as they did on the 5, which is to say excellent. 42 Dual LED color temperature flash firing\n\nThe other giveaway on the backside are the changes to the flash system, which now includes two different color temperature flashes which the ISP can change to balance the color temperature of the scene. 31 While I'd still argue you shouldn't be using on-camera flash ever and still prefer natural light, the iPhone 5S's system looks to be a substantial improvement. 20 Correspondingly there's a new 720p120 \"slow-mo\" option in the camera application which takes videos at 120FPS. 54 In the gallery there are sliders on the playback scrubber bar which control when the 120 FPS video plays back at 30 FPS, for the slow motion effect Apple is going for, but it looks like you can also just get at the higher framerate video played back at normal speed. 15 The rest of the camera improvements we'll have to wait and see with. 29 Speed through iOS 7 the 5 was already great, playing around with a few games and especially Apple maps with 3D buildings manages to feel even faster. 22 I'd say in maps with flyovers especially the 5S feels amazingly fast and doesn't hitch or stutter at all. 19 I also played with the leather cases on the iPhone 5S which come in a variety of colors. 21 These are also suede lined inside and feel rigid, and I was told these are actual leather as well. 27 There's a lot more to talk about on the 5S side and I'd encourage you to check out our hands on video as well."} {"text": " 23 It\u2019s been a pretty quiet summer on the recruiting trail for Auburn, at least in the verbal commitment department. 24 Auburn went two months without a commitment before Shedrick Jackson broke the drought last Monday (this is about to get confusing). 10 Auburn has now had two commits in two weeks. 26 Jackson\u2019s commitment did not come as much of a surprise as the talented Hoover wideout had been an Auburn lean for some time. 12 Quindarious Monday\u2019s commitment Tuesday night was the exact opposite. 27 The talented 6\u20193\u201d safety had Auburn as his leader all the way up until his \u201cdream school,\u201d Clemson, offered. 23 After that, it just seemed like it was a matter of when not if Monday would announce for the national champs. 41 Monday even admitted as much Tuesday night as reported by Benjamin Wolk over at SECCountry:\n\n\u201cI was going to commit to Clemson on the 21st, but I saw what coach [Kevin] Steele had to say. 12 They really brought it out of me,\u201d Monday said. 15 \u201cMost coaches are not going to keep it real with you like that. 9 They told me the real life of recruiting. 10 Coach Steele is the only one that did that. 24 It really touched me.\u201d\n\nI don\u2019t know what Kevin Steele said but he needs to keep saying it to recruits. 41 After Monday\u2019s visit on Tuesday (not confusing at all), he decided to pull the trigger and shock everyone by choosing the orange and blue Tigers, something that did not sit well with Clemson fans. 34 It should sit very well with Auburn fans as Monday helps fill a huge need in this recruiting class and will have a very real chance at cracking the safety rotation in 2018. 24 It should also be noted that Monday is friends with Justin Fields as they both play on Cam Newton\u2019s 7v7 team. 5 Just a fun fact. 7 Auburn might not be done either. 24 Two names to keep an eye on over the coming weeks are 4* WR Matthew Hill and 4* LB Michael Harris. 36 Yes, I know I have been beating the \u201cHill is going to commit to Auburn soon\u201d drum for probably over a month now but it seems like a decision could be near. 39 He\u2019s visiting today with 5* QB Justin Fields and 4* WR Kearis Jackson (more on that later) and I wouldn\u2019t be shocked if he finally decided to pull the trigger. 27 Even if he doesn\u2019t today, it\u2019s still looking like Auburn might land the big time wideout in the very near future. 14 As for Harris, Crystal Ball picks have been rolling in for Auburn. 24 It\u2019s not the volume of picks that should have Auburn fans feeling hopeful, it\u2019s whose doing the picking. 18 Auburn, Ohio State and Georgia insiders have all put in Harris to Auburn picks this week. 30 Those are the three teams battling for his services so it\u2019s usually a good sign when the insiders for those teams are all saying the same thing. 19 If the Tigers do in fact land Harris, that would be another huge commitment for Travis Williams. 26 I personally think Harris is the best linebacker in the southeast and the thought of pairing him with that 2017 linebacker class is very exciting. 23 Oh and his teammate 4* OT Dylan Wonnum is a top OT target as well that could be announcing soon too. 11 Bottom line, things are getting busy on the Plains. 29 After two months of 0 commits there\u2019s a chance Auburn could leave the month of July with four or more new names on the commit list. 8 That would be a pretty fun month. 14 Thursday\u2019s Visitor List\n\nToday is a big day for Auburn recruiting. 24 The Tigers are once again hosting the now #1 overall player in the country, according to 247, in Justin Fields. 24 The elite quarterback will be throwing for Chip Lindsey today and then spending the night before heading on to Athens the next day. 28 Fields won\u2019t be alone either as close friends Matthew Hill and Kearis Jackson will be on hand too catching passes from the 5* stud. 30 Fields has said he wants to make another round of visits to his top schools before committing so this could be Auburn\u2019s last shot before Fields announces. 21 The Tigers showed Tuesday that they can close on top targets and will be looking for a repeat performance today. 36 No, I don\u2019t think Fields is going to surprisingly commit after his visit as Monday did but I do think Auburn could really put themselves in great position with a strong visit. 29 As I have said before, Fields is a giant domino that could change a team\u2019s class from good to elite if it falls their way. 18 As for Jackson, Georgia has long seemed like the obvious destination for the 4* wideout. 26 He\u2019s visited UGA more than any other school and has had plenty of positive things to say about the Dawgs in the past. 16 But as Jeff Sentell of DawgNation reported, Auburn is very much in this race. 9 What keeps Kearis Jackson coming back to Auburn? 5 That answer is two-fold. 14 \u201cI just like their receivers coach a lot,\u201d Jackson said. 11 \u201cI like coach [Kodi] Burns a lot. 6 We have a good relationship. 44 I can see the things he is trying to do at Auburn, plus that quarterback [Jarrett Stidham] they just got over there at Auburn is pretty good.\u201d The big reason is there in plain sight for all to see. 4 That depth chart. 18 \u201cThat depth chart is not so loaded, either, or full,\u201d Jackson said. 20 Having Fields, Jackson and Hill all on campus at the same time is a big plus for Auburn. 25 It could be even more positive if Hill decides to commit but again I am not all that certain it will happen this week. 42 Either way, Auburn is carrying a lot of momentum into this visit after Monday\u2019s commitment and have a great chance at putting themselves in the top spot for Fields while also making up ground on Jackson this week. 44 It\u2019s going to be a battle though for Fields with the likes of Georgia, Florida and Florida State all pushing hard but as of right now I honestly do like Auburn\u2019s chances to land the top signal caller. 18 Official Visitor This Weekend\n\nFinally, there is one other visitor to take note of this week. 10 That\u2019s junior college offensive tackle Badara Traore. 20 The 6\u20198\u201d 315 lb monster will be making an official visit this weekend to the Plains. 19 Auburn is a strong contender to land the 4* OT but have some serious competition in LSU. 26 Offensive tackle recruiting has been a bit of a struggle this cycle but if Auburn can reel in Traore that would change in a hurry. 22 Right now, I think LSU is the team to beat but that could change with a great visit this weekend. 3 War Eagle!"} {"text": " 20 Britons will make a momentous choice on Thursday that could matter more for their future than any ordinary election. 40 They will decide whether to remain in the European Union, as Prime Minister David Cameron has urged, or to leave, as favored by many members of his Conservative Party, including some of his cabinet ministers. 26 The debate around this referendum on a British exit, or \u201cBrexit,\u201d has been long, repetitive, emotional and sometimes vicious. 25 It has centered on different estimates of fear \u2014 fear of economic damage from leaving versus fear of uncontrolled immigration if the country remains. 61 Many Britons talk of being torn between heart and head, with the heart wanting to vote for British exceptionalism and full control over the nation\u2019s laws and borders, free of the European Union and its obligations, while the head is deeply wary of the economic risks that Britain would face if it goes it alone. 29 There are also deeper questions of identity \u2014 the nature of parliamentary sovereignty, the character of towns with large migrant populations, the depth of English nationalism. 16 But there are concerns, as well, for the fate of the United Kingdom. 48 If Britain as a whole votes to leave, Scotland, which strongly supports remaining in the bloc, will want another referendum on independence, which could lead in time not only to the breakup of the European Union but also that of the United Kingdom. 38 Rarely has any nation been confronted with so simple yet consequential a choice, with young and old, rich and poor, urban and rural, north and south all given a hand in making history. 3 \u2013 Steven Erlanger"} {"text": " 26 Von Thomas Pany\n\nam\n\nLibyen: General Haftar will 17 Milliarden von der EU f\u00fcr die Grenzsicherung\n\nEine weitere NGO stellt ihre Seenot-Rettungsmission vor\u00fcbergehend ein. 7 Wie wird das Schleuser-Business darauf reagieren? 35 Nach der franz\u00f6sischen NGO \u00c4rzte ohne Grenzen und der deutschen Sea-Eye hat mit der britischen Organisation Save the Children die n\u00e4chste Nichtregierungsorganisation ihre Seenot-Rettungsmission eingestellt (siehe Libyen: NGOs ziehen Rettungsschiffe vorl\u00e4ufig zur\u00fcck. 20 In ihrer Erkl\u00e4rung f\u00fchrt auch diese NGO die Warnung der libyschen Marine an, k\u00fcnftig h\u00e4rter gegen NGO-Schiffe vorzugehen. 8 Man bangt um die Sicherheit der Besatzung. 5 Der Stopp sei vorl\u00e4ufig. 34 In der Stellungnahme der NGO taucht zum ersten Mal eine Angabe dazu auf, wie weit sich die \"Such-und Rettungszone\" vor der K\u00fcste Libyens, auf welche die libysche Marine bzw. 36 K\u00fcstenwache ihre Souver\u00e4nit\u00e4ts-Anspr\u00fcche erhebt und durchsetzen will, erstrecken soll:\n\nEs wird berichtet, dass die libyschen Beh\u00f6rden ihre SAR(search and rescue)-Zone von 12 Seemeilen auf 70 Seemeilen vergr\u00f6\u00dfert hat. 13 Das ist, wie viele argumentieren, eine Ausdehnung auf internationales Gew\u00e4sser. 24 Save the Children\n\nDas Schiff der NGO, Vos Hestia, sei auf dem Weg nach Malta, hei\u00dft es in der Erkl\u00e4rung. 4 Dann werde beraten. 14 Nach einer englisch-sprachigen Meldung der italienischen Nachrichtenagentur ANSA vom Montag, den 14. 19 August, soll derzeit nur mehr ein NGO-Schiff SAR-Aktionen vor Libyen durchf\u00fchren: die Aquarius von SOS Mediterranee. 11 Zahlen-Kino\n\nOb dem so ist, muss ich noch herausstellen. 22 Es sind noch andere Organisationen mit SAR-Missionen im Mittelmeer befasst, die auf der Liste der Identit\u00e4ren noch nicht durchgestrichen sind. 13 Dort freut man sich \u00fcber die Reaktionen der von ihnen geschm\u00e4hten NGOs. 15 Der ANSA-Bericht enth\u00e4lt \u00fcbrigens eine Information, die der \u00fcbertriebenen Zahlen-Darstellung der Identit\u00e4ren zuwiderl\u00e4uft. 19 Diese machen damit politisch Kampagne, dass die NGO-Schiffe \"Hunderttausende von Migranten\" nach Europa bringen w\u00fcrden. 11 Die ANSA-Angaben relativieren die Aussagen des Politik-Kinos der rechten Gruppierung. 13 Demnach haben die NGO-Schiffe im vergangenen Jahr 46.796 Menschen aus Seenot gerettet. 17 Das mache etwa 38% aller derjenigen aus, die in vergangenes Jahr in Italien ankamen. 22 In den ersten vier Monaten 2017 seien es 12.646 Migranten gewesen, die aus Seenot gerettet und nach Italien gebracht wurden. 8 Das entspreche ungef\u00e4hr 35 Prozent der Gesamtzahl. 33 Die Operation Sophia\n\nNun kann man aufgrund der Erfahrungen der letzten Jahre mit Zahlenangaben zu Fl\u00fcchtlingen und Migranten argumentieren, dass solche Angaben oft vorl\u00e4ufig sind, ungenau und sp\u00e4ter korrigiert werden. 14 Allerdings ist der Unterschied in der Dimension - Hundertausende gegen\u00fcber Zehntausenden - ersichtlich. 22 Mehr oder weniger unterschlagen wird von den Zeloten der \"Verteidigung Europas\" der Anteil der EU-Operation Sophia an der Seenotrettung. 23 Vergangene Woche rettete das irische Schiff L\u00c9 William Butler Yeats weit mehr als Hundert in Seenot geratene Migranten vor der K\u00fcste Libyens. 15 Das Schiff operiert im Rahmen der Operation Pontus, die zur Operation Sophia geh\u00f6rt. 14 In den letzten beiden Jahren Jahr retteten alleine irische Marineeinheiten fast 16.000 Migranten. 47 Dass sich die rechte Kampagne gegen die \"Abholer\" v\u00f6llig auf die NGOs konzentriert, hat mehr mit einer kulturk\u00e4mpferischen Entwertungs-Kampagne gegen das \"Gutmenschentum\" zu tun (Woher kommt der Hass auf die Seenotretter als mit einer politisch genauen Sicht auf die Verh\u00e4ltnisse. 51 De Maizi\u00e8re und Alfano f\u00fcr einen kompromisslosen Kurs\n\nGleichwohl: Auch der italienische Au\u00dfenminister Alfano und der deutsche Innenminister de Maizi\u00e8re d\u00fcrften nicht ungl\u00fccklich \u00fcber den vorl\u00e4ufigen Missionsstopp der NGOs sein und - auch in der \u00d6ffentlichkeit gibt es Beifall, wie an Kommentaren unter entsprechenden Berichten zu sehen ist. 13 Alfano und de Maizi\u00e8re haben den kompromisslosen Kurs gegen die NGOs abgestimmt. 11 Die libysche Regierung unter Sarradsch hat entprechend ihrer Abh\u00e4ngigkeit gehandelt. 12 Sie ist in gro\u00dfem Ma\u00dfe abh\u00e4ngig von Italien und der EU. 15 Alfano verweist auf erste Erfolge eines Schwenks in der Politik gegen\u00fcber Migranten aus Libyen. 7 Die Zahlen waren im Juli r\u00fcckl\u00e4ufig. 37 Die Frage ist nun, ob das eine Ausnahme war oder ob die h\u00e4rtere Gangart, deren wichtigstes Element darin besteht, so viele Migranten wie m\u00f6glich nach Libyen zur\u00fcckzubringen, auf l\u00e4ngere Frist Erfolg hat. 8 Wie stehen die Erfolgsaussichten gegen das Gesch\u00e4ftsmodell? 54 Die NGOs sagen voraus, dass es mehr Tote geben wird, was hei\u00dft, dass ihrer Ansicht nach das Abschreckungssignal (\"Die Schlepper k\u00f6nnen sich nicht mehr darauf verlassen, dass ihre seeuntauglichen mit Migranten \u00fcberladene Boote gerettet werden\") nicht so stark funktionieren wird, wie dies propagiert wird. 20 Die Frage ist allerdings, ob sich ein extrem erfolgreiches Gesch\u00e4ftsmodell wie das der Schlepperei, davon abschrecken l\u00e4sst. 21 Laut einem Papier der Crisis-Group bringt das Schleusergesch\u00e4ft durch Libyen j\u00e4hrlich Eink\u00fcnfte von gesch\u00e4tzt zwischen 1 und 1,5 Milliarden Dollar. 7 Davon profitieren mehrere Milizen und St\u00e4mme. 34 Eine Hypothese des Papiers lautet, dass man von au\u00dfen gar nicht so viel Geld hineinbringen kann, um direkt und unmittelbar den Profit zu kompensieren, den Beteiligte am Schleusergesch\u00e4ft bereits haben. 29 Als Beispiel wird von einem Journalisten, der dem Tebu-Stamm angeh\u00f6rt, der Verdienst eines Taxifahrers genannt, der Migranten von der libysch-nigerischen Grenze zum Handelsknotenpunkt Sebha bringt. 23 In einem Monat verdiene er damit etwa vier Mal so viel wie ein Polizist, 500 Dollar, wird am Anschauungsbeispiel erkl\u00e4rt. 35 Wobei hinzugef\u00fcgt wird, dass die regelm\u00e4\u00dfigen Einnahmen dem Fahrer bald erlauben, sich selbst ein Auto zu leisten und sein eigenes Gesch\u00e4ft aufzumachen, das sehr schnell einen Return f\u00fcr die Investition einf\u00e4hrt. 32 Die Hauptthese des Papiers der Crisis-Group besteht darin, dass der S\u00fcden Libyens eine schwierige, weil von vielen Interessen, Milizen, St\u00e4mme und Ethnien umk\u00e4mpfte, lukrative Zone ist. 16 Durch Fezzan l\u00e4uft der der Hauptstrom der Migranten, die an die libysche K\u00fcste wollen. 8 Geordnete Verh\u00e4ltnisse sind erstmal nicht in Sicht. 17 Auch in diesem Papier wird General Haftar als derjenige genannt, dessen Truppen ein Machtschwergewicht bilden. 25 Insgesamt sei der S\u00fcden Libyens aber durch ein staatliches Machtvakuum gekennzeichnet, das vielen Milizen den Anreiz gibt, dort ihre Vorteile zu sichern. 7 Diese sind mit dem Schmuggelnetzwerk verbunden. 33 Haftar selbst erkl\u00e4rte in einem Interview mit der italienischen Zeitung Corriere della Sera, dass er von dem Ansatz der italienischen Regierung und dem Chef des Pr\u00e4sidentenrates, Sarradsch, nichts halte. 11 Die Verst\u00e4rkung der K\u00fcstenwache durch die italienischen Schiffe sei illegitim. 32 Abgesehen von politischen Machtrangeleien zwischen ihm und Sarradsch, die im Interview erneut deutlich werden, betont Haftar, dass die Migration aus Libyen an der s\u00fcdlichen Grenze gestoppt werden m\u00fcsse. 5 Darum gehe es haupts\u00e4chlich. 26 Er bietet sich als dank seiner Machtstellung - \"Ich kontrolliere mehr als drei Viertel des Landes\" - als Mastermind f\u00fcr einen Masterplan an. 14 Die 17-Milliarden-Liste\n\nDen Plan habe er, ihm w\u00fcrden nur die Mittel fehlen. 43 Auf seiner Forderungsliste an Macron stehen Waffen, Munition, gepanzerte Fahrzeuge, Hubschrauber, Nachtsichtger\u00e4te und befestigte Anlagen, die alle 100 Meter an der 4.000 Kilometer langen Grenze im S\u00fcden Libyens aufgestellt werden m\u00fcssten, um eine effektive Kontrolle auszu\u00fcben. 12 Kostenpunkt f\u00fcr die EU laut Haftar: etwa 17 Milliarden Euro. 27 Das sei keine \u00fcberm\u00e4\u00dfige Summe, da sie sich auf 20 bis 25 Jahre verteile und die EU dies ja in einer kollektiven Anstrengung aufbringen k\u00f6nnte. 10 An die T\u00fcrkei werde mehr bezahlt, so Haftar. 7 Was macht Libyen mit den Migranten? 10 In Haftars \u00c4u\u00dferungen gibt es noch einen interessanten Aspekt. 39 Er begr\u00fcndet seine Ansicht, dass das Problem mit den Migranten nicht vor der K\u00fcste Libyens gel\u00f6st werden k\u00f6nne, damit, dass die Migranten, wenn sie nicht mehr \u00fcbers Meer abreisen k\u00f6nnen, in Libyen bleiben. 7 \"Wir m\u00fcssen sie dann behalten. 11 Das ist eine Sache, die nicht m\u00f6glich ist.\" 16 Das deutet auf Probleme hin, die bislang noch kaum in der \u00f6ffentlichen Debatte sind. 25 F\u00fcr die Europ\u00e4er, vor allem f\u00fcr Italien ist erstmal wichtig, dass die Zahlen der Migranten, die nach Europa wollen, abnehmen. 9 Die libysche Regierung sieht die Sache etwas anders. 17 Sie kann erheblich unter Druck geraten, wenn sich die Zahl der Migranten im Land erh\u00f6ht. 26 Dazu kommt, dass die Milizen, die im Business sind, so viel Geld haben, dass sie sich Waffen und Bestechung leisten k\u00f6nnen. 17 Das w\u00e4re ein Kontramoment zu den Absichten etwa der deutschen Regierung, das Land zu stabilisieren."} {"text": " 48 FOR the blogosphere, the most entertaining part of the Federal Reserve's meeting today was Ben Bernanke's defence during the press conference against Paul Krugman's charge that he has betrayed his academic past in failing to ease more aggressively and aim for higher inflation. 17 Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. 18 That is a pity because while it was great theater, it obscured a more important revelation. 32 Not only is Mr Bernanke still a dove, he is increasingly an isolated dove, and that isolation has significant consequences for monetary policy, the economy and the markets. 81 The statement released by the FOMC was largely as expected and a non-event for markets: \u201ceconomic growth [will] remain moderate over coming quarters and then \u2026 pick up gradually,\u201d inflation will fall from its temporarily elevated levels to 2% or lower, and the Fed expects to keep interest rates \u201cat exceptionally low levels \u2026 at least through late 2014.\u201d\n\nThe projections released along with the statement were far more interesting. 18 FOMC members reduced their forecasts for the unemployment rate, and nudged up the outlook for inflation. 33 That hawkish combination was made doubly so by the fact that just four of the 17 FOMC members think the Fed should start tightening after 2014, down from six in January. 44 The hawkish impression was reinforced by Mr Bernanke's defence against Mr Krugman (whose name never came up but whose New York Times Magazine article, judging by the questions, had been read by all the reporters in the room). 54 Mr Bernanke flatly rejected the accusation that he is acting inconsistently from the advice he gave the Bank of Japan over a decade ago, noting that Japan was in deflation then and America is not now, in no small part thanks to the aggressively easy monetary policy the Fed has pursued. 39 He went on to argue that deliberately targeting higher inflation as Mr Krugman advises (because it would reduce real interest rates) in pursuit of a slightly faster fall in unemployment was a \u201creckless\u201d tradeoff. 19 Judging from my twitter feed, Mr Krugman's partisans outnumber Mr Bernanke's by a hefty margin. 40 Mr Krugman himself dismissed Mr Bernanke's response as \u201cDisappointing stuff.\u201d\n\nYet look past the proxy fight between Mr Bernanke and the future Nobel laureate he lured to Princeton in 2000 and you get a different picture. 95 On multiple occasions Mr Bernanke emphasized the Fed was willing to ease again: it was \u201centirely prepared to take additional balance sheet actions \u2026 [and] will not hesitate to use them should the economy require that additional support.\u201d He helpfully offered a benchmark for his expected pace of job growth (150,000 to 200,000 per month), strongly suggesting that a few more months like March, when payrolls rose just 120,000, will put a third round of quantitative easing (QE3) firmly back in play. 65 He rejected one reporter's suggestion that the 2% inflation target was a ceiling; \u201cit's a symmetric objective.\u201d Both today and at his January press conference he made it clear he would tolerate inflation above 2% if unemployment wasn't falling quickly enough, the exact opposite of the message that emerged from his defence against Mr Krugman. 38 That's not bluster; it's precisely what he's doing: both headline and core inflation are at or above 2% but the only policy option on the table is easing, not tightening. 25 And he implicitly dismissed the FOMC's more hawkish outlook by in effect saying he didn't share it so it didn't matter. 33 Asked to define \u201cexceptionally low,\u201d he said he personally thought it meant close to the present level of the federal funds rate (between zero and 0.25%). 31 This means, judging from the projections, that 13 of the FOMC's 17 members want to tighten sooner than he does, and none want to tighten later. 44 Mr Bernanke's dovish rhetoric may not have registered on twitter, but it certainly did in the markets; it's why the long bond yield, after initially rising on the FOMC statement and projections, ended the day little changed. 31 Markets, then, have surmised that Mr Bernanke retains an easing bias, and that will drive Fed policy, not the weighted average of his colleagues' views. 14 This view is largely correct; but there are two problems with it. 35 First, as the ranks of doves on the FOMC dwindle, the balance of Fed chatter between meetings will become more hawkish, which will cause markets to periodically price in tighter policy. 11 That will make financial conditions and thus monetary policy tighter. 25 Recall how publication of the March FOMC minutes tanked the bond market when it disclosed only isolated, and tentative, support for QE3. 21 This almost certainly overstated the shift in Mr Bernanke's own views but markets had no way of knowing that. 31 The second problem is that even if Mr Bernanke's views prevail while he remains chairman, the odds are that he no longer will be after January, 2014. 41 He is unlikely to be reappointed even if Barack Obama is re-elected (even if wanted the job, a big if, he probably couldn't be confirmed), and certain not to be if Mitt Romney wins. 13 So someone else will make the call on when to start tightening. 36 Whoever that person is will feel the burden of every newly installed central banker of demonstrating his or her anti-inflation credentials and independence from the person who appointed them, which biases them to tightening. 14 Being dropped onto a committee already stacked with hawks only increases the pressure. 15 Bernanke vs Krugman is fun to watch, but it's a false dichotomy. 21 For those who want a more aggressive and easier Fed, Mr Bernanke is the best ally they've got. 7 (Picture credit: Wikimedia Commons)"} {"text": " 35 The 89th Academy Awards, aka The Oscars, was broadcast by ABC live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday night, hosted by late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. 32 As with other award shows of late, politics reared its ugly liberal head and showed us exactly why Hollywood is often referred to derisively as \"La La Land.\" 22 Thank you to singer Justin Timberlake for performing a musical number without any political overtones as the show\u2019s opening. 19 Then late night show host Jimmy Kimmel came on to host the evening and crapped it all up. 65 He spoke of the millions of Americans watching and those in \u201c225 countries that now hate us.\u201d Noting that he wouldn\u2019t be able to fix the division in the country, he referenced actor/director Mel Gibson by saying that there was only one \u201cBraveheart\u201d in the room but he wasn\u2019t going to bring everyone together either. 15 He also said, \u201cI want to say thank you to President Trump. 15 Remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist?\u201d Sigh. 56 Kimmel did a recurring bit where he went on and on about how \u201coverrated\u201d (as President Trump tweeted) actress Meryl Streep is, and even had the liberal sheeple in the audience give Streep a standing ovation for being nominated for the twentieth time for an Oscar to tweak the president. 21 Then he asked if her dress was \u201can Ivanka,\u201d referencing the First Daughter\u2019s clothing line. 7 Who writes his lame stuff anyway? 47 He finished the monologue saying, \u201cSome of you will get to come up here on this stage tonight and give a speech that the president of the United States will tweet about in all caps during his 5:00 A.M. Bowel movement tomorrow.\u201d Classy. 66 After a commercial break, Kimmel came back by asking CNN, The New York Times or any outfit with \u201dTimes\u201d in their name to leave the room \u2013 he said, \u201cWe have no tolerance for fake news,\u201d in reference to the kerfuffle caused when some news organizations were excluded from a gaggle at the White House last week. 24 Earlier Sunday, President Trump had tweeted about the ad (commercial) The New York Times bought to run during the Oscars. 27 He tweeted: \u201cFor first time the failing @nytimes will take an ad (a bad one) to help save its failing reputation. 21 Try reporting accurately & fairly!\u201d\n\nAn Iranian film, The Salesman, won for Best Foreign Language film. 23 The producer, Asghar Farhadi, boycotted the ceremony due to the travel ban and had a statement read by Anousheh Ansari. 33 It seems like if he was really such a warrior for peace and love, he\u2019d work against the killing of gays or mistreatment of women in his own country. 4 Just a thought. 40 The Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Javad Zarif, tweeted out his approval of the boycott: \u201cProud of cast & crew of \"The Salesman\" for Oscar & stance against #MuslimBan. 29 Iranians have represented culture & civilization for millennia.\u201d (The Tweet has since been deleted)\n\nAnsari: I will be reading a statement from Mr. Farhadi. 16 It's a great honor to be receiving this valuable award for the second time. 25 I would like to thank the members of the academy, my crew in Iran, my producer, Amazon and my fellow nominees. 10 I'm sorry I'm not with you tonight. 35 My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations whom have been disrespected by the inhuman law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S. 6 Dividing the world -- thank . 13 Dividing the world into the us and our enemies categories creates fear. 8 A deceitful justification for aggression and war. 17 These wars prevent democracy and human rights in countries which have themselves been victims of aggression. 19 Filmmakers can turn their cameras to capture shared human qualities and break stereotypes of various nationalities and religions. 8 They create empathy between us and others. 10 An empathy which we need today more than ever. 8 Thank you on behalf of Mr. Farhadi. 3 Thank you. 2 Really? 26 A man from Iran is lecturing US on dividing the world into us versus our enemies, aggression and war, democracy and human rights? 33 And when was the last time he spoke out about \u201cthe inhuman law that bans entry of\u201d Israelis or anyone who has an Israeli stamp in their passport into Iran? 33 Some other highlights (or lowlights):\n\n\u201cThis is for all the immigrants,\u201d said the winner of the make up and hairstyling award, in his heavy accent. 12 It sounded like typical leftist confusion between illegal and legal immigrants. 10 The winner of Best Documentary Feature falsely equated O.J. 24 Simpson\u2019s murder victims, Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman, with other alleged victims of police violence and racism. 4 The documentary O.J. 16 : Made in America was turned into a vehicle for social justice warriors in Hollywood. 2 Really? 52 I thought it was the story of a violently deranged black retired athlete who killed his white ex-wife whom he had abused for years and her friend, a waiter who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time delivering glasses that were left at a restaurant. 67 Kimmel introduced the President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as \u201ca president who believes in both arts and sciences.\u201d President Cherly Boone Isaacs went on to say that \u201cart has no borders,\u201d no single language or any single faith, and brings us together \u201cregardless of country of origin.\u201d Ok, then. 9 Viola Davis won Best Supporting Actress for Fences. 23 She arrogantly said that people in the arts are in the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life. 2 Wow. 16 What about doctors and nurses, religious leaders and followers, to name a few? 28 The Mexican presenter for Best Animated Film decided to let everyone know he is against a wall with Mexico, in a random and uncalled for remark. 9 \u201cFlesh and blood actors are migrant workers. 24 We travel all over the world, we build families, we construct stories, we build life that cannot be divided. 61 As a Mexican, as a Latin-American, as a migrant worker, as a human being, I'm against any form of wall that wants to separate us.\u201d I think President Trump has American security and sovereignty in mind, not worrying about the feelings of an open borders loving actor earning a nice living in America. 36 The filmmakers of the winner in the Best Documentary Short Subject, The White Helmets, asked the audience to stand so everyone would see how many people care about ending the war in Syria. 31 It was a meaningless gesture for a feel-good liberal audience who didn't seem to care all that much about the war and refugees when Obama presided over it all. 19 Two hours into the show, Kimmel noted that the president hadn\u2019t tweeted about it yet. 33 He live tweeted at President Trump, \u201cU up?\u201d and \u201cMeryl says hi.\u201d\n\nAnd what\u2019s an award ceremony in Hollywood without some sanctimonious fashion choices? 8 A few celebs sported blue ACLU ribbons. 36 Meanwhile Dakota Johnson and Oscar winner Emma Stone both wore Planned Parenthood pins, and a few actresses Tweeted out pictures of themselves in Trayvon Martin hoodies to commemorate the 5th anniversary of his death. 24 Oscar nominated director and screenwriter, Ana DuVernay, decided to make a political statement by choosing a Muslim designer for her dress. 12 Seriously, this is how lame the event was Sunday night. 7 The Oscars were a snooze fest. 14 The best part was the candy drops from the ceiling throughout the show. 13 No doubt the sugar buzzes were needed to keep the audience awake. 8 Until the very end, of course. 20 A truly bizarre ending to the show happened when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway presented the Best Picture Award. 32 Warren Beatty announced the winner as La La Land only to have to admit the true winner was Moonlight after the La La Land people were on stage giving their speeches. 2 Awkward! 103 There was no discernable difference between - we went from one group of rich liberals saying in their acceptance speeches that they wanted to use love \u201cto create and champion bold and diverse work, work that inspires us towards joy, towards hope and towards empathy\u201d to another group of liberals saying they wanted to inspire \u201cpeople, little black boys and brown girls and other folks watching at home who feel marginalized.\u201d\n\nLa La Land might not have won the Oscar for Best Picture, but it remains the liberal fantasy world lefty celebs live in."} {"text": " 36 August 8, 2017\n\nPutin Still in Denial over the Loss of Ukraine By Peter Dickinson\n\nWhen Kremlin proxies in eastern Ukraine declared the foundation of \u201cMalorossia\u201d in mid-July, most people laughed. 34 This bizarre attempt to replace Ukraine with a \u201cLittle Russian\u201d vassal state was seen as one more indication of how hopelessly out of touch Russian policymakers are with Ukrainian public opinion. 15 However, at least one man in Moscow failed to see the funny side. 37 Key Putin aide and Ukraine curator Vladislav Surkov called it a way of sparking debate within Ukraine while emphasizing that the Donbas is not fighting to separate from Ukraine but for the country\u2019s future. 11 \u201cKyiv wants a pro-European utopia,\u201d he commented. 52 \u201cThe Donbas responds with Malorossia.\u201dRussian President Vladimir Putin voiced similarly optimistic sentiments during the July G20 summit in Hamburg, where he accused the Ukrainian leadership of \u201ctrading in Russophobia\u201d and blamed a handful of Kyiv politicians for driving an artificial wedge between Russia and Ukraine. 66 \u201cI am absolutely convinced the interests of Ukraine and Russia, of the Ukrainian and Russian people, fully match,\u201d he claimed, before accusing the West of preventing Ukraine and Russia from moving closer together \u201cat any cost.\u201dThese developments provide insight into Moscow\u2019s apparent delusions over the catastrophic loss of Russian influence in Ukraine since 2014. 44 The Kremlin clings to the idea that a silent majority of pro-Russian Ukrainians lies ready and waiting, poised to take over the reins in Kyiv at the right moment and steer Ukraine back into the Kremlin orbit.Such wishful thinking is nothing new. 30 On the contrary, it is consistent with Moscow\u2019s historic characterization of the Ukrainian independence movement as the work of an extremist minority and their foreign backers. 22 However, the events of the past few years have left Kremlin notions of Slavic solidarity looking more anachronistic than ever. 49 Although Putin refuses to admit it, the sun is setting on centuries of Russian preeminence in Ukraine, and he has only himself to blame.When historians look back at the collapse of Russia-Ukraine relations, they will likely pinpoint the invasion of Crimea as the decisive moment. 32 The 2014 military takeover of Ukraine\u2019s southern peninsula and the subsequent Kremlin-led hybrid war in the east have forced Ukrainians into a fundamental reassessment of their attitudes toward Russia. 31 It has poisoned bilateral ties and transformed what was essentially a trade dispute into the geopolitical divorce of the century.On a personal level, the impact has been particularly painful. 18 Thousands of extended families living on both sides of the border are no longer on speaking terms. 11 Lifelong friendships have fallen victim to the polarization of propaganda. 57 As the conflict has dragged on, rivers of hate have created an entirely new topography, obliterating the blurred borders and casual sense of community that once drew Russians and Ukrainians together as kindred spirits in a wider world.On the national level, survey after survey has reflected a massive shift in Ukrainian public opinion. 24 Formerly solid support for closer ties with Russia has evaporated, while membership of the European Union and NATO have become increasingly appealing. 28 The war has proved a watershed moment in Ukraine\u2019s nation-building experience, forcing Ukrainians to address issues of national identity after decades of post-Soviet ambiguity. 23 Record numbers now self-identify as Ukrainians, with the rising profile of Russian-speaking Ukrainians one of the major social breakthroughs since 2014. 30 Nobody talks about Russian fraternity anymore, except in the most bitterly sarcastic of terms.Many in Moscow will no doubt hope this violent swing in public opinion is reversible. 17 After all, history is full of warring nations that rebuilt ties once the bloodletting stopped. 25 France and Germany fought two world wars in the twentieth century before going on to serve as the twin engines of a united Europe. 24 Britain and America came to blows in the late eighteenth century before eventually returning to the common ground that had once united them. 47 Time will also eventually heal the wounds of the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, but when the relationship does finally resume, it is likely to be on a strikingly different footing.One of the key problems facing the Kremlin in Ukraine is the loss a pro-Russian electorate. 18 Moscow-leaning former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych relied heavily on voters from Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions. 13 This electorate now finds itself disenfranchised by Putin\u2019s hybrid war. 30 Even if it proves possible to reintegrate Donetsk and Luhansk into the Ukrainian political system, these regions are unlikely to remain as uniformly pro-Russian as they once were. 48 With almost two million internally displaced people currently experiencing different regions of Ukraine for the first time, the post-war political landscape in the Donbas is likely to be far more pluralistic.Generationally, the clock is also ticking against any future Ukrainian return to the Russian orbit. 39 In both business and politics, Ukraine is currently in the hands of the last Soviet generation, many of whom were born in Russia, studied in Moscow, or did their Red Army service alongside Russians. 14 This shared Soviet experience is foreign to the emerging generation of young Ukrainians. 38 For them, the current conflict will serve as the definitive point of reference for all things Russian.Beyond politics, Russia finds itself without many of the levers it traditionally used to maintain its position in Ukraine. 44 The Ukrainian government\u2019s ability to wean the country off its addiction to Russian gas has denied the Kremlin its weapon of choice, while Russia\u2019s own embargo policies have robbed Moscow of the incentives inherent in blossoming bilateral trade. 27 Losing access to Russian markets has been a painful and expensive experience for the Ukrainian economy, but there are signs that the worst is over. 12 Ukrainian exporters are finding new partners in the EU and beyond. 55 As they broaden their economic horizons, they will be in no hurry to return to Russian partners who operate as the business wing of the Kremlin.Russia\u2019s political and economic reach in Ukraine are both in freefall, but the greatest setback for the Kremlin has come in the soft power sphere. 17 Until the outbreak of war in 2014, Russia enjoyed enormous soft power influence in Ukraine. 10 Ukrainians watched Russian TV channels and Russian-made TV serials. 16 They flitted between Russian and Ukrainian websites while favoring Russian email and social media services. 12 The Russian and Ukrainian celebrity worlds functioned as a single entity. 22 Pop stars from both countries would perform on the same concert circuit before starring together in joint New Year gala celebrations. 35 In this sense more than any other, Kremlin assertions that Ukraine was part of a wider \u201cRussian world\u201d were largely accurate.Over the past three years, this situation has changed dramatically. 25 Ukraine has banned Russian TV channels and social media platforms, while Ukrainian channels face severe restrictions on the Russian-made content they can broadcast. 28 Many Kremlin-friendly Russian pop stars are no longer welcome in Ukraine, while Ukrainian stars who choose to continue touring Russian cities risk pariah status at home. 10 None of these bans is absolute, of course. 19 For example, many Ukrainians continue to access Russian social media and Russian TV content through online resources. 54 However, the boundary between Russian and Ukrainian media landscapes is now clearer than ever, while the prevailing mood in Ukraine is encouraging more people to opt for homegrown media.It is not difficult to imagine why Moscow is so reluctant to recognize the decisive decline of Russia\u2019s position in Ukraine. 26 Since assuming the presidency in 1999, Putin has sought to reassert Russia\u2019s superpower status and the regional dominance lost during the 1990s. 17 Losing control over Russia\u2019s most important imperial outpost does not fit into this narrative. 13 Nevertheless, the odds appear stacked against any Russian revival in Ukraine. 18 In the short term, this will mean a continuation of the low-level fighting in eastern Ukraine. 24 In the longer term, the eclipse of Russian domination offers Ukraine the opportunity to reach its true potential as a sovereign nation. 35 Russia may have lost the war of Ukrainian independence, but Ukraine has yet to win.Peter Dickinson is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council and publisher of Business Ukraine and Lviv Today magazines. 5 He tweets @Biz_Ukraine_Mag."} {"text": " 17 Working with Geospatial Data in MongoDB\n\nMongoDB is a NoSQL database that is rapidly gaining popularity. 12 All data is stored in JSON which works awesome on Node.js. 11 MongoDB is capable of geospatial queries when set up properly. 14 A few weeks ago I started a web mapping project with a partner. 16 We are building a web app that displays government mining information on a cool map. 10 This project is being built with Node.js and MongoDB. 18 Our data comes from the government of British Columbia and comes in the form of a shapefile. 15 Unless you have experience with GIS you probably haven't worked much with shapefiles. 14 They are a data format developed by ESRI, the makers of ArcGIS. 19 Shapefiles are a vector file format meaning that they contain information that describes points, lines or polygons. 13 As opposed to raster data such as aerial photos, or terrain. 6 They also contain a database. 9 Naturally mongo does not recognize a shapefile directly. 18 We need to convert it into GeoJSON, which is a form of JSON for GIS data. 16 There is a linux utility that can achieve this via the command line called ogr2ogr. 13 To install OGR in Ubuntu you need to add the repository first. 19 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable && sudo apt-get update\n\nThen install the gdal set that includes OGR. 15 sudo apt-get install gdal-bin\n\nAfter that you are ready to run the conversion command. 26 ogr2ogr -f GeoJSON -t_srs \"EPSG:4326\" -geomfield geom -nlt POLYGON -dim 2 2dclaims_satPM.geojson *.shp\n\nThere is a lot going on with this command. 20 This tool is capable of translating several different formats, we need to tell it exactly what to do. 15 The -f GeoJSON option tells ogr to output the data in the GeoJSON format. 9 The next one is a little more complicated. 15 Digital map data has several properties that are needed to display map data correctly. 16 The projection is the way that the 3D earth is displayed on a 2D map. 26 The earth is approximately a sphere, to put that into a map you essentially peel the surface like an orange and lay it flat. 7 The projection is the orange peel. 19 Different map projections can retain certain features of the true 3D earth, but none can preserve all. 15 Those features are Conformality (shapes), Distance, Area, and Direction. 16 Our source data has the projection \"NAD_1983_BC_Environment_Albers\" which uses a metric coordinate system. 11 A shapefile actually consists of four files with different extensions. 10 They are .shx, .shp, .prj and .dbf. 8 The .prj file contains the projection information. 155 Here's the .prj file from my data:\n\nPROJCS[\"NAD_1983_BC_Environment_Albers\", GEOGCS[\"GCS_North_American_1983\", DATUM[\"D_North_American_1983\", SPHEROID[\"GRS_1980\",6378137 .0,298.257222101]],PRIMEM[\"Greenwich\",0.0],UNIT[\"Degree\", 0.0174532925199433]], PROJECTION[\"Albers\"], PARAMETER[\"False_Easting\",1000000.0], PARAMETER[\"False_Northing\",0.0], PARAMETER[\"Central_Meridian\",-126.0], PARAMETER[\"Standard_Parallel_1\",50.0], PARAMETER[\"Standard_Parallel_2\",58.5], PARAMETER[\"Latitude_Of_Origin\",45.0], UNIT[\"Meter\",1.0], AUTHORITY[\"EPSG\",3005\"]]\n\nThe last part AUTHORITY[\"EPSG\",3005\"]] give us the SRID which is a 4-digit code that defines the map parameters. 18 The standard for web maps is \"EPSG:4326\" which uses Lat/Lon coordinates and the WGS84 datum. 16 In our org2ogr command above this option defines the SRID, -t_srs \"EPSG:4326\" . 14 -geomfield geom tells org which column in the database holds the geometry data. 9 -nlt POLYGON sets the data format to polygon. 8 -dim 2 sets the data to 2D. 16 That took me a while to figure out, MongoDB does not support 3D data. 10 This options will remove the Z-axis from your data. 19 The next two parameters define the output file name and input file, 2dclaims_satPM.geojson and *.shp respectively. 14 One you have created your GeoJSON file it can be imported into MongoDB. 46 To do that you run the following command, from the terminal (not from the mongo console):\n\nmongoimport --db claims --collection docs --file 2dclaims_satPM.geojson\n\nThat will create the collection \"docs\" within the database named \"claims\". 8 You need to create the database first. 25 You can create it by running this from the mongo console:\n\nuse claims\n\nGreat, so now the data is loaded into mongo. 13 We can query the database and return a result including the geometry. 9 In our case the file has 41,000 records. 139 Here is an example of what one looks like in the database:\n\n{ \"_id\" : ObjectId(\"56d2a20a1c601e547e112e0b\"), \"type\" : \"Feature\", \"properties\" : { \"OWNER_NAME\" : \"GUST, NICHOLAS\", \"OBJECTID\" : 39472, \"CLAIM_NAME\" : \"AU GROUP\", \"CLIENTNUM\" : 278107, \"ISSUE_DATE\" : \"20141002233529\", }, \"geometry\" : { \"type\" : \"Polygon\", \"coordinates\" : [ [[-120.74498469014414,49.42069474093248], [-120.74498449094528,49.41652804563313], [-120.75123475545085,49.41652783718137], [-120.75123493680732,49.420694540352734], [-120.74498469014414,49.42069474093248] ]] } }\n\nAt this point we have a functional geospatial database that can be used in a mapping application. 13 Here is a shot of MongoDB in action in our Node.js app. 16 There are a couple more steps to reach Mongo's full potential with map data. 11 Mongo needs an index to allow searches based on location. 7 This is a special geospatial index. 11 The command for that is run from mongo's console. 9 From the command line you just run mongo . 51 $ mongo MongoDB shell version: 2.6.10 connecting to: test > use claims switched to db claims >\n\nTo create the 2dsphere index run this command:\n\ndb.docs.ensureIndex( { \"coordinates\" : \"2dsphere\" } );\n\nYou should get an output that looks like this. 37 { \"createdCollectionAutomatically\" : true, \"numIndexesBefore\" : 1, \"numIndexesAfter\" : 2, \"ok\" : 1 }\n\nIf \"ok\" is not 1, something is wrong. 8 In our case it's all good. 14 Now we have a fully set up geospatial MongoDB database ready for anything. 13 I'll give you an example of a geospatial query in mongo. 91 db.docs4.find({$and: [{'properties.CLIENTNUM': 278107}, { \"geometry\": { $geoWithin: { $geometry: { type : \"Polygon\" , coordinates: [[ [-121.57814025878906, 49.651181832527826 ], [ -121.57814025878906, 49.80652967700498 ], [ 121.28734588623047, 49.80652967700498 ], [ -121.28734588623047, 49.651181832527826], [ -121.57814025878906, 49.651181832527826 ] ]] } } } } ] } )\n\n$geoWithin will find anything that matches the search criteria inside the defined polygon. 13 In this case we are looking for records where CLIENTNUM = 278107. 10 You have to define the polygon for the search. 14 It is important that the first and last coordinate pairs are the same. 5 That closes the polygon. 14 You can create these searches dynamically in javascript but that is another topic. 15 Check out the MongoDB docs for more info on geospatial queries, MongoDB Docs."} {"text": " 42 One of the secret appeals of studying psychology is the possibility that it will turn you into a sort of Sherlock Holmes: Able to use extremely subtle cues to make inferences about other people\u2019s personalities and behavioral inclinations. 3 \u201cMr. 10 Jenkins is obviously something of a lothario, Watson. 78 I was initially suspicious at his of a mauve cravat, but my suspicions were confirmed by the pattern of wear on his walking stick.\u201d\n\nClinical psychologists hope to learn subtle predictors of whether a person will become depressed, organizational psychologists hope to find quick indicators of whether a applicant will do well on the job, and psychologists hope to discover hidden signals of whether a person will buy a particular product or not. 60 One of the behavioral inclinations that an average male psychology major often hopes to predict is whether a woman will sleep with him on the first date (for female psychology majors, this is usually a non-problem, akin to predicting whether a rat deprived of food for 48 hours will press a bar for a food pellet. 22 For more on this basic difference, see my earlier post: The 7 worst things about being a male). 21 Christian Rudder is a young entrepreneur with a Harvard degree in mathematics, cofounder of a free website called OKCupid. 40 The site has been tremendously successful, and has, according to Rudder, produced data on \u201chundreds of millions\u201d of user interactions, as well as the various dating preferences and social attitudes of those users. 22 Rudder has applied his mathematics training to analyzing these data, and he writes about them in amusing and informative ways. 22 In \"ten charts about sex\" he demonstrated an ability to graphically depict complex data in lovely and simple ways. 27 There\u2019s a colorful dynamic graph depicting the relationship between a woman\u2019s self-professed body weight (skinny, full-figured, obese, etc. 9 ), self- , age, and sex-drive. 37 Although it sounds complex, the graph nicely demonstrates that a woman\u2019s sex drive rises dramatically until her late 30s, then drops just as dramatically, whereas her self-confidence steadily rises with age. 37 Women who self-describe as \u201ccurvy\u201d are decidedly more interested in sex, and more self-confident, compared to women who say they are \u201cskinny,\u201d a trend that holds throughout the lifespan. 51 In one of his postings, titled \",\" Rudder analyzed millions of answers to the question \u201cWould you consider with someone on the first date?\u201d The single best predictor of saying \u201cyes\u201d was whether or not the person liked the taste of beer. 21 And this question was a good predictor whether the respondent was a man or a woman, gay or straight. 44 I suspect this link may have something to do with the links between sex, and recreational drug use, and I discussed some research on this link in a blog titled: \" Is opposition to pot-smoking really just fear of sex? 48 For those who might be interested in after the first date, Rudder also delved into the data set to find the three questions that best predicted whether couples actually hit it off with one another, and went on to become involved in a long-term relationship. 13 He also checked to see what people thought were the best predictors. 48 According to popular opinion, the best questions to predict whether you\u2019d hit it off were: 1) Is God important in your life?, 2) Is sex the most important part of a relationship?, 3) Does disgust you? 15 Indeed, the answers to those questions predicted relationship satisfaction significantly better than chance. 40 But the data suggested that you could predict compatibility more than twice as well by asking the following three questions: 1) Wouldn\u2019t it be fun to chuck it all and go live on a sailboat? 8 2) Do you like horror movies? 12 And 3) Have you ever traveled around another country alone? 46 Those of you who have studied psychology will recognize those questions as linked to a personality trait called \u201c .\u201d Rudder's data suggest the startling possibility that incompatibility on sensation-seeking may be even more important than incompatibility on , sex, and smoking. 49 Although I\u2019d be careful about jumping to so broad a conclusion without more data, it\u2019s clear that questions about sensation-seeking are a good way to determine your future compatibility with a partner, regardless of whether you both share a taste for beer. 33 My thanks to Becca Neel (whose research I discussed in a recent blog title Men Steal Anger, Women Steal Happiness), who pointed me to this interesting data set. 34 Douglas Kenrick is author of Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life: A psychologist investigates how evolution, cognition, and complexity, are revolutionizing our view of human nature. 12 Related posts\n\nIs opposition to pot-smoking really just fear of sex? 9 The 7 worst things about being a male. 9 The 7 BEST things about being a male. 11 In responses to complaints about my whining in the above. 12 The cost of a woman vs. the cost of a man. 19 \u201cTen charts about sex\u201d Christian Rudder\n\n\u201cthe best questions for a first date\u201d Christian Ruder"} {"text": " 24 Syria was expected to respond on Monday to a plan put forward by the Arab League aimed at settling unrest in the country. 22 Arab foreign ministers met in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Sunday with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in attendance. 25 \"The meeting was serious and straightforward,\" Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who headed the meeting, told reporters. 36 Jassim, who also serves as foreign minister, declined to disclose the content of the plan but said it was serious about \"ending all acts of violence and killings\" in the country. 17 He said that Damascus was aware that it needed to act \"seriously and swifly.\" 10 \"We reached a working paper tackling all issues. 25 The Syrian delegation asked to give a reply tomorrow (Monday) after discussing the paper with the Syrian leadership,\" said Jassim. 29 Syrian protesters are now calling for a no-fly zone like that in Libya\n\nA meeting of the Arab League is expected to take place in Cairo on Wednesday. 20 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a Russian newspaper on Sunday that he was prepared to talk to opposition parties. 24 \"We will cooperate with all political powers, both those who existed before the crisis and those who arose during it.\" 28 Regional fault lines\n\nHowever, he had previously warned the West that it would foment an \"earthquake\" if it intervened in his country's affairs. 19 Assad said such a maneuver would also risk fanning the flames of anti-Western fervor in the wider region. 35 In an interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Assad warned of \"another Afghanistan\" if foreign forces engaged in the seven-month-long civil unrest and resultant government crackdown on dissent in Syria. 24 \"Syria is the hub now in this region,\" the paper quoted Assad as telling one of its journalists in Damascus. 32 \"It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake - do you want to see another Afghanistan, or 10 Afghanistans? 11 \"Any problem in Syria will burn the whole region. 20 If the plan is to divide Syria, that is [sic] to divide the whole region.\" 43 Calls for a no-fly zone\n\nDemonstrators demanding greater freedoms and an end to the Assad regime have most recently taken to the streets calling on the United Nations to impose a no-fly zone over their country, as it did over Libya. 38 The Arab League is to meet again in Cairo on Wednesday\n\nAssad's comments came amid reports that at least 20 soldiers were killed in clashes with army dissenters late Saturday in the hotbed city of Homs. 14 More than 50 people were said to have been injured in the fighting. 21 On Friday, 37 people were believed to have been killed in clashes in Homs and the governorate of Hama. 21 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths occurred when forces pounded the area with heavy machine gun fire. 17 Homs has risen as one of the focal points of opposition to Assad's 11-year reign. 15 His father, Hafez, had ruled Syria for 29 years until his death. 24 More than 3,000 people, including at least 187 children, have been killed in the government crackdown, according to UN estimates. 19 Assad has repeatedly said he was using legitimate means to confront foreign-backed militants bent on fomenting sectarian strife. 16 Author: Darren Mara, Richard Connor (AFP, Reuters)\n\nEditor: Andreas Illmer"} {"text": " 32 President Trump's personal lawyer on Wednesday forwarded an email to government officials and conservative journalists that said \"there is no difference\" between Robert E. Lee and George Washington. 31 \"You cannot be against General Lee and be for General Washington,\" the email reads, \"there literally is no difference between the two men.\" 64 John Dowd, who leads Trump's legal team, sent the email to members of the media and government officials as a way to bolster Trump's stance on the violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., in which the president defended those who had gathered to protect a statue of Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general from the Civil War. 31 The email, the contents of which were reported by The New York Times, contained the subject line: \"The Information that Validates President Trump on Charlottesville.\" 29 The email's author, Jerome Almon, runs websites alleging government conspiracies and arguing that the FBI has been infiltrated by Islamic terrorists, the Times said. 27 Almon, who is black, also claimed in the email that the group Black Lives Matter \"has been totally infiltrated by terrorist groups.\" 32 News of the email comes after Trump suggested Tuesday that a push to remove Confederate monuments could lead to an erasure of history, and statues of Washington also being removed. 26 \"Many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee,\" Trump told reporters Tuesday. 11 \"So this week, it is Robert E. Lee. 10 I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down.\" 12 \"I wonder, is it George Washington next week?\" 14 Trump added, noting that Washington and Thomas Jefferson were also slave owners. 15 In his email, Almon listed reasons explaining why Lee is similar to Washington. 21 \"Both rebelled against the ruling government,\" the email reads, adding, \"Both saved America.\" 26 In an interview with the Times, Almon said he sent the email to Dowd hoping it would be spread widely, and reach Trump. 12 The Times said there is no evidence Trump received the email. 20 Almon sent the email to Dowd after the two spoke on the phone last week about a different matter. 44 He said had called Dowd to offer damaging information about James Comey, the former FBI director, and to provide information pertaining to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's election interference, and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. 52 Dowd received the email on Tuesday night, the Times said, and forwarded it on Wednesday morning to more than two dozen recipients, including a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security, the Wall Street Journal editorial page and journalists at Fox News and the Washington Times."} {"text": " 27 The final Caseking of the Hill by Alpenf\u00f6hn tournament, called King of Kings, has been announced with a 7,500\u20ac prize purse and eight teams. 32 With five Caseking of the Hill by Alpenf\u00f6hn tournament set to still be held, the organizers have decided to change the format and combine them all into one big tournament. 36 In addition to the 5,000\u20ac of prize money that was still going to be given out in the five remaining CKoTHs, an extra 2,500\u20ac will be added for a total prize purse of 7,500\u20ac. 33 The previous three kings, namely NiP, fnatic and Natus Vincere, have been directly invited to the King of Kings by Alpenf\u00f6hn tournament, set to be held in mid-November. 21 iBUYPOWER, despite being crowned kings earlier, will not be able to play due to being in North America. 70 Five more teams have been invited, and split into two groups as follows:\n\nGroup A Group B Natus Vincere Natus Vincere fnatic fnatic NiP NiP Virtus.pro Virtus.pro LDLC LDLC Titan Titan Epsilon Epsilon London Conspiracy London Conspiracy\n\nGroup stage will feature the same format as Fragbite Masters, meaning GSL-style groups with the first round played in best-of-one, and the rest of the group in best-of-three. 72 Groups will be played out on Tuesday through Friday, November 11-14, while the finals for the top four teams have been scheduled for Sunday, November 16:\n\nNovember 11-12 Group A November 13-14 Group B November 16 Finals\n\nStay tuned to HLTV.org for full coverage of King of Kings by Alpenf\u00f6hn, set to take place on November 11-16 with 7,500\u20ac in prize money and casting by RoomOnFire."} {"text": " 20 A Russian man is praying to have a local street called \u201cGodless\u201d renamed after President-elect Donald Trump. 24 Sergey Bizyukin of Ryazan has launched a petition to rename the alley Donald Trump Street, saying almost 300 people had already signed. 14 \u201cSome saw it as a joke and signed because it was fun. 32 Some stood for normalization of US-Russia ties, and some signed because they don\u2019t like the current name of the street,\u201d Bizyukin, 34, told CNN. 17 The alley received its atheistic moniker during the years of Communism, when religion was rejected. 39 \u201cLike any other towns, Ryazan has its share of problems in economy, with infrastructure,\u201d Bizyukin said about Ryazan, which is about 125 miles southeast of Moscow and has a population of 500,000. 31 He said his campaign \u2014 whose slogan is \u201cMake Ryazan Great Again\u201d\u2014 is based on Trump\u2019s popularity after singing the praises of President Vladimir Putin. 12 \u201cThey have good ties,\u201d one man told CNN. 26 \u201cVladimir Vladimirovich Putin respects Donald Trump exactly the same way Donald Trump respects Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.\u201d\n\nAnother man said he also admired Trump. 12 \u201cHe\u2019s positive, good,\u201d he said. 13 \u201cI think they will be friends and everything will be fine. 4 I like Trump. 16 I like his family, his ties with children, wife \u2014 all of that. 15 He does not want to go to war, he wants to make friends. 17 What\u2019s bad about it?\u201d\n\nBut not everyone is bigly on the proposal. 18 \u201cI don\u2019t think it makes sense to rename it,\u201d one man said. 34 \u201cWhat\u2019s going to change?\u201d\n\nBizyukin\u2019s plan already faces a roadblock because the local law says streets cannot be named after people who are still alive."} {"text": " 35 A Djibouti security official carries a young girl down a gangway as people fleeing Yemen arrive aboard a dhow on April 14 at a the port of Djibouti after crossing the Gulf of Aden. 31 (Tony Karumba/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)\n\nAs if Somalia wasn\u2019t faced with enough challenges as of late, a new crisis is brewing on the horizon. 63 Some brief background: The fragile country of 10 million continues to be plagued by the terrorism of the Islamist group al-Shabab, is facing a serious threat to its financial lifeline due to banks shutting down the servicing of remittance flows from Somalis abroad, and is still facing endemic poverty \u2014 one in seven children die before their first birthday. 31 Somalia, which suffered from civil strife and a total political collapse in the early 1990s, endured a catastrophic famine only a few years ago that killed 260,000 people. 57 But right now, according to Somali Foreign Minister Abdusalam Omer, \u201cThe biggest challenge is Yemen.\u201d\n\nSaudi Arabia\u2019s airstrikes in March against Houthi rebels in Yemen have caused many civilians to start fleeing the country, with many traveling by sea to the breakaway region of Somaliland and the Puntland region. 18 According to UNHCR, nearly a thousand people have arrived in Somalia from Yemen, including Yemenis. 25 The agency is making contingency plans to to receive up to 100,000 refugees to Somalia in the next six months and 30,000 in Djibouti. 22 Since the political collapse in 1991, huge masses of Somalis have taken to the sea to seek refuge in Yemen. 20 \u201cWe have 250,000 Somali refugees in Yemen who are under the care of UNHCR,\u201d said Omer. 17 \u201cSo now the situation is reversed, where we have to welcome [Yemenis]. 14 They welcomed us when we were in need; they accepted our people. 17 So we will accept their people.\u201d\n\nHe continued: \u201cBut here is the problem. 10 We don\u2019t know who is coming back. 9 The Somalis who are radicalized will come back. 52 Yemenis who are radicalized by ISIS and Al-Qaeda will come back, and that is a big challenge, that will reverse the gains we have made.\u201d\n\nIndeed, African Union forces and U.S. airstrikes have severely undermined al-Shabab\u2019s capacity to control large swaths of territory in Somalia. 32 But the group (which Omer argued is actually weakening) is increasingly launching guerrilla-style attacks on soft targets, such as hotels and ministry buildings in the capital of Mogadishu. 38 The group\u2019s international profile has violently resurfaced, thanks to the gruesome attack it launched on a university in Garissa, Kenya, this month, that killed nearly 150 people, including 142 students. 46 In the past two weeks in Somalia alone, 10 people were killed in an attack on Somalia\u2019s education ministry, four UNICEF staff members were killed in a car bomb blast in Garowe, and a senior military officer was gunned down. 9 Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for all these attacks. 36 As the terrorist group has reportedly been receiving strategy tips, weapons and fighters from al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen, an uncontrolled flow of migration from Yemen could absolutely strain the regional effort against al-Shabab. 26 However, many of the refugees are arriving in Somaliland and Puntland, regions that the Somali government doesn\u2019t have full control over. 27 Additionally, Somalia\u2019s weak economy and infrastructure can barely provide services for its own population, much less handle a flood of new refugees. 88 According to the United Nations Development Program, about 857,000 Somalis are in need of \u201curgent and life saving assistance, and an additional 2 million are are on the margin of food insecurity.\u201d\n\nOmer said that the Somali government is appealing to the United States and other countries to support the UNHCR\u2019s and the International Office for Migration\u2019s efforts dealing with the influx of refugees from Yemen, and to assist in relocating refugees to coastal areas such as Djibouti. 29 \u201cThere are already refugees as far as Kismayo, which is below the equator, so you can imagine, it\u2019s a nervous time.\u201d"} {"text": " 108 MUMBAI: Three Gujarati industrialists \u2014 the Ambani brothers and Gautam Adani\u2014alone committed investments to the tune of Rs one lakh crore or about half of the total investments commitment of Rs 2.25 lakh crore made during the first day of Madhya Pradesh Global Investors Summit 2014, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani announced investments worth Rs 60,000 crore in coal, power, cement and telecom by 2020 while his elder brother and Reliance Industries chairman announced that he would invest Rs 20,000 crore in the next two years in CBM blocks, retail and fourth generation broadband infrastructure. 27 Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani too committed investments of Rs 20,000 crores in the next five years in building world-class grain storage houses and power projects. 37 \"Taking an inspiration from our Prime Minister's call of \"Make in India\" mission, we are not only going to \"Make in India\" but \"Make in Madhya Pradesh.\" 74 We are committing ourselves to double our investment in the state from current Rs 30,000 cr to Rs 60,000 cr by 2020 in our four key growth areas,\" said Anil Ambani chairman of Reliance Group, the largest investor in the state.Prime Minister Narendra Modi and MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan with industrialists Cyrus Mistry, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani during Global Investors Summit 2014 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. 22 (PTI Photo)RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani also aspires to make Madhya Pradesh, the digitization capital of the country. 53 'I firmly believe that in today's world, to change our education for youth, to change our healthcare, to change our govt services, to change the financial infrastructure, digitization is a prerequisite and to my mind, digitization also creates more jobs,' Ambani said. 21 The group is in the midst of a major investment programme in MP which ends in the next 18 months. 70 RIL has made significant investments in CBM blocks in Madhya Pradesh and is likely to start commercial production soon.Prime Minister Narendra Modi while inaugurating the \"Invest Madhya Pradesh - Global Investors Summit - 2014\" at Indore, said that following his recent summit level interactions with Japan, China and the US, \"investment worth 100 billion dollars had applied for a visa to India.\" 14 It is now upto the states to grab a share of this investment. 33 \"Reliance ADAG Group chairman Anil Ambani, Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistri, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and others at the Global Investors Summit 2014 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. 45 (PTI Photo)Besides, Ambani's and Adani, Sashi Ruia chairman of Essar Group, which has major investments in Gujarat in form of its refinery and steel plant has committed investments of another Rs 4000 crore in its CBM exploration. 45 Essar Group has already invested Rs 9,000 crore in power generation, transmission, steel and BPO.Similarly, B K Goenka led Welspun India with major processing facilities in Gujarat has committed to invest Rs 5,000 crore in the state's renewable energy space. 35 Other prominent industrialists who attended the meet included Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry, Larsen and Tubro chairman A M Naik, Godrej Group chairman Adi Godrej and Suzlon chairman Tulsi Tanti amongst others."} {"text": " 8 The technical term is penile plethysmography testing. 13 In layman\u2019s terms, it\u2019s an erection-measuring device. 28 Thursday, a federal court ruled that probation officers had no business hooking up released sex offenders to one just to see how they react to pornographic. 93 In scathing language, the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit concluded that penile plethysmography testing of sex offenders \u201cis unduly intrusive and bears insufficient relation to correctional or medical treatment, the protection of the public, or deterrence of crime, and that the district court\u2019s decision to impose this condition was an abuse of discretion.\u201d\n\nAccording to court filings, David Mclaurin was convicted of producing child pornography after taking a picture of his 13-year-old daughter with her chest exposed. 13 He was required to register his address as a federally-convicted sex offender. 18 He missed a registration and was sentenced to 15 months in prison and five years of probation. 19 As a condition of his release, McLaurin was required to participate in sex offender evaluation and treatment. 11 Erection-testing was done at the direction of the probation officer. 67 Penile plethysmography is a procedure that lasts two to three hours and involves placing 13 a pressure-sensitive device around a man\u2019s penis, presenting him with an array of sexually stimulating images, and determining his level of sexual attraction by measuring minute changes in his erectile responses, Judges Guido Calabresi, Jos\u00e9 A. Cabranes and Barrington D. Parker noted in the ruling. 30 \u201cThe Government is unable to say, except with vague generalities, how the use of the device amounts to \u2018treatment,'\u201d the judges wrote. 54 \u201cIn other words, the Government has made no showing that this exceedingly intrusive procedure has any therapeutic benefit, and none is apparent to us.\u201d The judges concluded that probation officials and the state could not explain how testing led to lower rates of recidivism or helped identify would-be offenders. 29 And the testing could not be used to mete out additional punishment, were a subject somehow to fail the exam, because sentences had already been served. 66 \u201cIn any event, we also find it odd that, to deter a person from committing 20 sexual crimes, the Government would use a procedure designed to arouse and excite a person with depictions of sexual conduct closely related to the sexual crime of conviction,\u201d the judges noted in considering deterrence as a justification for the use of the testing. 30 Describing the procedure as having no compelling state interest, the ruling said that \u201cA person, even if convicted of a crime, retains his humanity.\u201d"} {"text": " 68 Sapper David Wood to be memorialised as Afghanistan casualty following suicide\n\nUpdated\n\nLifeline: 13 11 14\n\nKids Helpline: 1800 551 800\n\nMensLine Australia: 1300 789 978\n\nSuicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467 Map: Casino 2470\n\nA young war veteran who took his own life after suffering from post traumatic stress disorder will be honoured at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. 29 People came from far and wide to help scour bushland from Casino in the Northern Rivers to the New England regions of New South Wales in May 2013. 18 Sapper David Wood, a 22-year-old veteran who completed two tours of Afghanistan, had gone missing. 38 Ten days after his family raised the call to help in the search, Mr Wood's body was found in bushland not far from his home at Casino, after he had taken his own life. 24 Now, he will be memorialised on the Australian War Memorial's Roll of Honour as a casualty of the war in Afghanistan. 34 His grandfather Roger Wood said Mr Wood had suffered from PTSD and was being treated for depression, but it was only in hindsight his family realised how deeply he had been affected. 7 \"It's the old story. 18 If we knew then what we know now we'd still have David,\" he said. 43 \"People who have [PTSD] deeply and people I've met since \u2014 Vietnam vets who are still with us and who helped us when we were searching for David \u2014 [they know] PTSD is a mental dysfunction. 28 \"For the bearer of PTSD it is quite logical for them to consider that the only solution for them is to take their own life.\" 28 Changing the culture\n\nAccording to his family, Mr Wood was a compassionate, reflective young man with a passion for ancient history and the natural world. 13 He had told his family he wanted to study archaeology or palaeontology. 27 \"But then out of the blue, 'I'm going to join the Army,' and he did,\" his grandfather said. 31 He said that as a combat engineer, David had been exposed \"to the worst of it\", including when a seven-year-old Afghan girl died in his arms. 30 \"We lost David when the little girl died in his arms; that was when we lost him,\" Mr Wood said about the onset of PTSD. 24 He said two soldiers who had served in similar roles as David and had died in Afghanistan were already on the honour roll. 22 That will change on Tuesday when his family takes part in a private ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. 28 \"They'll unveil a bronze plate that will show our David as being number 42, the 42nd casualty of Afghanistan,\" Mr Wood said. 41 An Australian War Memorial spokesperson said in a statement that the Australian War Memorial Council's criteria for inclusion on the roll stated that the death must have been due to war service, and did not exclude psychological injury. 20 Mr Wood's family has taken some comfort in knowing similar sacrifices made by others now will be remembered. 25 \"We're very proud of him, but we were proud of him before he lost his life,\" his grandfather said. 25 \"I think what it means to us is that Sapper David Wood has changed and modernised part of the culture of Australia.\" 9 Topics: veterans, suicide, casino-2470\n\nFirst posted"} {"text": " 38 In yet another crowdsourcing effort, NASA is asking members of the public to help with the design of the Astrobee \u2014 a free-flying robot the space agency is making to live aboard the International Space Station. 26 Specifically, NASA wants help creating a robotic arm for the Astrobee, which the robot will use to interact with the space station environment. 17 Those interested in submitting designs for the arm can register through a newly opened Freelancer.com contest. 30 The Astrobee will autonomously roam throughout the ISS cabin\n\nThe Astrobee builds upon MIT's SPHERES project \u2014 three free-flying robots that have lived on the station since 2006. 30 Scheduled to launch in 2017, the Astrobee will autonomously roam throughout the ISS cabin, using sensors to conduct inspections or cameras to film the astronauts at work. 24 The robot is also going to have a tiny arm that it can use to perch on surfaces or interact with small objects. 27 NASA is working on its own design for the arm, but the space agency wants to see what other ideas people might have in mind. 17 The Freelancer.com contest, called the NASA System Architecture Task, is already open for entries. 41 Participants must first register for the contest by filling out a survey that assess their academic merits and how much free time they have to devote to the project; more than 1,500 people have submitted the form so far. 19 Eventually NASA will select 30 of the people who have registered to go on to complete the task. 26 Those who are selected will receive $10 and a finalized breakdown of all the elements they must deliver to NASA in order to win. 31 The finalists who fulfill all these requirements will get $100 each, but there's no word yet on how much the winner (or winners) will get. 13 It's also not clear how NASA will incorporate any winning concepts. 26 This is just the latest in a number of contests that NASA has hosted on Freelancer.com, as part of the NASA Tournament Lab Challenges. 40 Last year, NASA used the website to ask for potential smartwatch applications that the astronauts could use on the station, and the space agency has hosted many Freelancer.com contests to get new logos for its various projects. 4 More from theverge.com:"} {"text": " 14 A 61-year-old Sherbrooke, Que., man ended his life legally last week. 51 But Jean Brault got a doctor's help to die only after starving himself for 53 days and refusing water for eight days \u2014 at last arriving at a point so close to death he satisfied his doctors that he'd met all the criteria under Quebec's assisted-dying law. 24 Brault spoke to CBC/Radio-Canada on April 5, when he made a plea for loosening the rules to qualify for a doctor-assisted death. 24 Asked how he felt after learning he'd been pronounced eligible to get medical help to die, his voice choked with emotion. 9 \"I felt liberated,\" Brault said. 9 \"It is as simple as that.\" 18 \"It's as if a heavy weight has been lifted off [my] chest.\" 13 Brault died with medical assistance two days later, on April 7. 21 A long decline\n\nBrault lived a full life, despite a debilitating handicap for most of the last 42 years. 18 He was an athletic 19-year-old when a blood clot near his brain stem left him partially paralyzed. 15 At the time, doctors told him he would never again walk or speak. 21 Jean Brault (middle) was an athlete before suffering a blood clot on his brain stem at age 19. 8 (Radio-Canada) He proved them wrong. 11 He regained some movement and learned how to speak again. 38 But when he lost the ability to move his legs after a prolonged hospital stay a decade ago \u2014 and slowly began losing the ability to talk \u2014 he started to look for a way to die. 16 Brault said the loss of independence was a devastating blow to his sense of self. 12 \"It was like Chinese water torture,\" he said. 21 \"You take it, you take it, but then at some point \u2014 bang, it's over. 9 That's what it was like for me. 14 That's when I tried to take my own life two times.\" 11 Suicide attempts thwarted\n\nFive years ago, Brault stopped eating. 28 He refused food for close to two months, long enough that when he landed in hospital, doctors threatened to transfer him to the psychiatric ward. 7 So he agreed to resume eating. 18 When that first attempt failed, he decided to go to Switzerland to seek a doctor-assisted death. 17 In the years leading up to his death, Brault lost the use of his legs. 22 (Radio-Canada) But that plan was thwarted because he couldn't manage to get all of the required medical documents. 20 So Brault staked his hopes on Quebec's landmark end-of-life care law, which came into effect last December. 15 He was told he met all criteria except one \u2014 he was not dying. 9 In February, Brault launched another hunger strike. 8 \"I self-mutilated,\" he said. 19 \"I had to push things to the limit, so that they'd listen to me.\" 33 After 53 days without food and eight without water, Brault's body had deteriorated to the point of no return, and he was told he was eligible for doctor-assisted death. 14 The news \"was like total and absolute freedom,\" he said. 16 \"As soon as it's done, it'll be over, finished.\" 16 \"My heart is happy,\" he said, 48 hours before his death. 23 Law needs to change, say advocates\n\nIn some of his last words, Brault criticized Quebec's rules for doctor-assisted dying. 31 The head of Dying with Dignity, Shanaaz Gokool, believes Quebec's end-of-life care law is at odds with the 2015 Supreme Court decision on access to doctor-assisted dying. 18 (CBC) \"The way government works, it doesn't bend,\" he said. 9 \"It needs to be more flexible.\" 20 The end-of-life care advocacy group Dying with Dignity acknowledges that Quebec's end-of-life-care law was pioneering legislation in Canada. 30 However, the group says the law's rules are more restrictive than what the Supreme Court justices set out in their 2015 ruling known as Carter vs. Canada. 15 \"The Carter decision doesn't restrict to people who have a terminal illness. 22 It looks at people who have a grievous and irremediable medical condition,\" said Dying with Dignity CEO Shanaaz Gokool. 22 \"From our perspective, the Quebec law is not in compliance with the Carter decision and should be amended.\" 27 In order to comply with the Carter decision, the federal government is facing a strict deadline to create its own law allowing for doctor-assisted death. 11 It's expected to be tabled in Parliament this week. 26 Quebec government not budging\n\nQuebec Health Minister Ga\u00e9tan Barrette said on Monday that amending the law is not a priority for the Philippe Couillard government. 19 \"We have our law, our boundaries, our parameters, our limitations,\" he said. 15 \"I believe right now that Quebec's population is satisfied with it.\""} {"text": " 20 Citizens of Sweden\u2014a welfare-state society\u2014probably never thought that they would see the day when shantytowns dotted their major cities. 34 Recent years have seen an enormous influx of beggars from other European countries; in the past year alone, the number of vagrants from Romania and Bulgaria has doubled, to 4,000. 61 Their arrival is a consequence of the European Union\u2019s principle of the free movement of persons\u2014a well-meaning policy but one that, at least in this case, has produced the sight of scores of beggars sitting outside supermarkets, drugstores, and upscale boutiques, hoping that someone will leave a coin in their 7-Eleven coffee mugs. 30 They beg in the most affluent districts, where the social contrast between the person kneeling in the street and the passersby toting Luis Vuitton bags becomes almost perverse. 21 In the evenings, the indigent\u2014some with terrible physical disabilities\u2014retreat to the shantytowns or to some other form of shelter. 24 Some may be victims of human trafficking, as suggested by the \u201crent\u201d they pay criminal compatriots for their begging spaces. 11 Sweden has had beggars before but in much smaller numbers. 14 An entirely new phenomenon is the presence of street children from North Africa. 16 Some 200 such children, the youngest being just nine, now reside in Stockholm. 18 They have arrived in the last two years, \u201cunaccompanied,\u201d in the official term. 14 Like the adult beggars, they have no future or security in Sweden. 26 According to police, North African street children are both the victims and the perpetrators of most juvenile crime in Stockholm\u2019s inner city. 22 It is obvious that the new immigrants live in squalor and danger, and that they are generally regarded as unwelcome. 45 Many Swedes feel that their sense of home is deteriorating because of the rise in crime, vandalism, and homelessness, and the loss of public space: parks, libraries, and other public institutions are increasingly used as places of shelter. 26 The tragedy is that this state of affairs has been tolerated and in fact encouraged by most politicians and opinion makers across the political spectrum. 70 As one libertarian author put it, \u201cit is often better to live in a shantytown on the outskirts of Stockholm than on the outskirts of Mogadishu.\u201d That may be true in the narrowest sense, given the horrors of places like Somalia, but it shouldn\u2019t serve as the guiding principle for allowing beggars to continue sleeping in the streets or in Johannesburg-style shantytowns. 28 The Left, which traditionally has championed the welfare state and the abolition of poverty, now defends the \u201cright\u201d to beg in the streets. 15 Degradation is reinterpreted as empowerment and getting a leg up in a prosperous society. 17 Sharing this worldview, Swedish political elites are reluctant to vacate the shantytowns and discourage begging. 34 Instead, they pledge additional public resources that will serve only to enable the begging behavior and ensure that the problem continues to grow, to the real detriment of the social fabric. 25 Even Sweden\u2019s largest center-right party recently announced that it supported criminalizing \u201corganizers\u201d of begging but keeping the act itself legal. 46 Sweden shows every sign of repeating the destructive story of many American cities a generation ago, as Myron Magnet chronicled in his 1993 book, The Dream and the Nightmare: in which elites churn out the dreams, but society pays the cost."} {"text": " 20 This insane video of an Estonian punk band performing on national TV went viral today, and, obviously. 29 The band is Winny Puhh, or 'Winnie the Pooh' in Estonian, and they sound kind of like Overkill crossed with Thundercats and Cirque de Soleil. 35 The blogs are eating up the fact that the video seems edited with the intent to give you a seizure and that the front man boasts both a mean beard-face and a high-pitched squeal. 9 But I say we look at everything else. 18 Starting with the production here: The choreographed performance, the upside-down drums, the wild-ass spectacle. 44 The clip is from EESTI LAUL, the televised competition for Estonia's slot in the Eurovision song contest, and if any show even offered a hint that it would ever air anything like this again I would watch it every week. 12 This is what the future of American Idol should look like. 50 There are currently approximately four dozen performance pop reality shows, and they are all exactly the same\u2014rotating casts of vapid celebrities, embarrassingly bad/oh wow good performances, and the same dumb, empty stage upon which the same dumb, empty performers belt out mediocre pop songs. 6 That's not the future. 4 That's 2002. 24 Forget the Voice, America's Got Talent, American Idol, whichever one it is that currently has Simon Cowell on it. 8 That's the over-hyped, under-produced past. 24 I want eyeball-incinerating stadium rock and levitating punk bands and wall-climbing drums and fur-faced maniacs that sound and look like nothing before them. 25 It feels like I've been waiting my entire life to write this sentence: The future of reality TV is Winnie the Pooh."} {"text": " 12 Enda Kenny has been called many things during his political career. 8 Political genius is not one of them. 9 Yet internationally he is held in high esteem. 23 The Conservative Party in the UK love him, whilst the EU hold him up as the poster boy of enforced austerity. 27 Austerity \u201cthat has worked.\u201d Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Democrats and Republicans cannot get enough of his bowl of shamrock every March. 21 Enda Kenny even made the front cover of TIME magazine in 2012, the first Irish leader since Se\u00e1n Lemass. 29 Here in Ireland, we wince when we see him on the international stage, where he is let loose from his handlers and is often gaffe prone. 35 Domestically, he rarely does interviews and is probably one of the most sheltered politicians in Irish politics\u2026 When he\u2019s not opening a new business or celebrating a jobs announcement of course! 25 Nevertheless\u2026\n\nHere we are the eve of a general election, his party has inflicted brutal cuts to public services and public sector wages. 43 Nurses and midwives will be on the picket line ready to strike as Ireland\u2019s Accident & Emergency departments are overflowing whilst Ireland proudly stands as having the longest waiting times in hospital A&E\u2019s in the EU. 22 Over 400,000 people are on hospital waiting lists whilst his government, in the end, scrapped their own health policy. 18 That\u2019s right, the Irish government in its final year had no functioning health policy. 21 But Fine Gael lead in the polls\u2026\n\nSchool classrooms are overflowing, property tax and water charges have been introduced. 31 Ireland is in a grips of a housing and homelessness crisis as Enda Kenny\u2019s government has been inept at finding a solution to Ireland\u2019s housing needs. 16 Yet they lead comfortably in the polls\u2026\n\nNeverthelss Enda Kenny is an astute political operator. 23 He skilfully survived a coup in 2010 and on entering government he brought many who conspired against him around the cabinet table. 7 Here he could command their loyalty. 16 On forming a coalition with the Labour Party, he too has been politically savvy. 11 Former Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore became Minister for Foreign Affairs. 26 The man, whilst both in opposition, made Enda Kenny look irrelevant whilst taking on Ireland\u2019s most incompetent government in its history. 38 Working together in government, Gilmore often worked abroad where he became absent from the public glare on trade and development missions, whilst any good economic news that reached Irish shores was lapped up by Kenny. 39 Then comes the Minister for Social Protection, a position held by the current leader of the Labour Party Joan Burton, who had to dish out the most unpalatable cuts to Ireland\u2019s most vulnerable citizens. 13 Unbridled \u2018cuts\u2019 have been solely attributed to the Labour Party. 25 Cuts to child benefit, children\u2019s allowance, lone parents, mental health services, carers allowance, learning support in schools. 6 All became synonymous with Labour. 7 Not Enda Kenny and Fine Gael. 16 Enda Kenny has had to endure numerous controversies and scandals during his time as Taoiseach. 30 The removal of the Garda Commissioner, IBRC, Dennis O\u2019Brien, the debacle that was the creation of Irish Water are to name but a few. 5 None have really stuck. 22 In the case of Irish Water, this was one cabinet position which was conveniently swapped between Fine Gael and Labour. 25 It is Labour\u2019s Deputy Leader Alan Kelly that is feeling the heat for Ireland\u2019s part-privatisation of its public water utility. 34 So here we are\u2026 Enda Kenny, barring an electoral shock, is destined to to go down in history and become Fine Gael\u2019s first ever leader to win back-to-back elections. 31 Under his stewardship Ireland is creating 1000 jobs per week, tax revenues are regularly above estimates and the first tranche of tax cuts have hit people\u2019s payslips. 29 He may be an atrocious public speaker, but he is managing to sell Fine Gael\u2019s goal of \u2018American style tax and public services\u2019. 6 This should worry us all. 17 His back-room team have brought over advisers from the UK Conservative Party to discuss election strategy. 35 We should all be prepared for the repetitive mantra of the \u201clong term economic plan\u201d and \u201ceconomic stability,\u201d whilst stoking fear into the hearts of anyone who wants change. 6 It worked in the UK. 5 It will work here. 8 This wily politician is mocked by many. 3 Myself included. 12 It is Enda Kenny however who will have the last laugh. 6 Perhaps he is just popular. 7 Perhaps he has just been lucky. 8 Perhaps\u2026 he\u2019s a political genius. 12 Let\u2019s see if the Irish electorate see it way. 24 Author:\n\nPatrick Jay\n\nFollow via:\n\nTwitter \u2013 @ViewFromAttic\n\nFacebook \u2013 A View from the Attic\n\nLike this: Like Loading..."} {"text": " 29 LUS Fiber is a municipally owned subsidiary of Lafayette Utilities System providing Cable Television, Broadband Internet, and Telephone services to the citizens of Lafayette, Louisiana. 32 It is notable for being the first municipally owned company providing Fiber-To-The-Home services in the state of Louisiana, and one of the first municipally owned FTTH companies in the country. 33 History [ edit ]\n\nIn the late 1990s, the Lafayette Utilities System (Lafayette's municipally owned utilities company) needed to upgrade its outdated microwave system for connecting their substations. 9 LUS chose to upgrade with Fiber Optic technology. 33 In 2002, after installing the system for their needs, they used the surplus fiber optic strands to provide wholesale service to hospitals, universities and the Lafayette Parish School System. 37 In 2003 during the campaign for City-Parish President, candidate Joey Durel expressed in a Chamber of Commerce debate with his opponent that he would not be in favor of LUS competing in the private sector. 20 However, once taking office, Joey Durel led the charge for a citywide fiber to the premise initiative. 23 As he often said, \"I begged the private sector to do it so that we wouldn't have to.\" 12 With the incumbents refusing, local government was the only option. 27 In 2004, the city announced its proposal for a municipal fiber network providing broadband internet, cable TV telephone services to the City of Lafayette. 20 70 percent of residents, and 80 percent of businesses responded positively to a market survey conducted by LUS. 24 The questions asked and the raw results of the telephone poll were requested by interested parties in the public but were never released. 30 The announcement of the project came within 4 months of Durel's inauguration, just one day after the closing of submission of new bills in the state legislature. 45 This would presumably prevent a challenge in the state legislature by the incumbent phone and cable provider, as there are many laws on the books regulating phone and cable TV providers, but no laws regulating a local municipality entering such business sectors. 56 Representatives from the ILEC (Incumbent Local Exchange Provider) Bellsouth (now AT&T) were able to lobby representatives in the legislature to modify an existing bill (since new bills could no longer be submitted) to establish rules that would allow some regulation over a municipal entity entering into telecommunications. 43 Prior to this, there were no laws on the books preventing a municipal entity from subsidizing a telecom business with proceeds from a true monopoly utility system (such as the monopoly utility system operated by the City of Lafayette). 29 This bill, negotiated between representatives from Bellsouth, Cox Communications, LUS and reportedly Governor Kathleen Blanco herself became the Local Government Fair Competition Act of 2004. 27 As per the requirements of Local Government Fair Competition Act (LGFCA), LUS conducted a Feasibility Study and presented the study in November 2004. 28 The Lafayette City-Parish Council voted to adopt the study and proceed with the sale of bonds by resolution in December 2004 and opted to forgo a referendum. 19 This resolution resulted in a petition for a referendum in January 2005 and a subsequent lawsuit in February. 12 The petition was conducted by a non-profit group calling themselves Fiber411.com. 30 The group was founded by 3 citizens of Lafayette who spoke out at the public hearings against the Feasibility Study and later joined by other volunteers and concerned citizens. 50 While some accused the group of being shills for Bellsouth and Cox, the three were of backgrounds in oil and gas leasing, home building and oilfield engineering respectively, had never met prior to November 2004 and had no ties to the communications industry nor local government. 21 The petition was participated in by members of Fiber411.com and community volunteers as well as volunteers from Bellsouth and Cox. 18 The petition was highly contested by the administration and was ultimately not recognized as a valid petition. 21 Fiber411.com, being a volunteer group, decided not to sue to enforce the petition due to lack of funds. 9 Bellsouth filed suit over the petition and won. 32 The decision was based on the judge's determination that the City had used the incorrect set of Louisiana State laws to seek sale of bonds that precluded a referendum mechanism. 31 The district court decision further ruled that the petition used by Fiber411 was written to appeal to the correct set of state laws that the City should have been using. 23 The City of Lafayette then had to decide if it would try again for to sell bonds with or without a referendum. 8 The City decided to have a referendum. 38 The Council members of the City-Parish Government prior to 2005 had stated that they did not want a \"media bloodbath\" between the City and he incumbents and that was their reason to deny a referendum. 24 In the end, the City of Lafayette hosted a series of \"Town Hall\" meetings where the Fiber project was discussed. 23 Local Political Action Committees calling themselves LafayetteYes and LafayetteComingTogether made up largely of political allies of the Administration, consultants, etc. 10 raised and spent over $300,000 for media campaigns. 13 Fiber411.com spent approximately $10,000 and Bellsouth spent less than $5,000. 8 Cox spent $0.00 on the campaign. 11 As such, the media campaign was very one sided. 14 On July 16, 2005, the proposal was put to a vote. 23 By a margin of 62% for and 38% against, the residents of Lafayette approved of the City's plan. 13 [1] The City's legal troubles weren't over however. 19 In order to raise money for the project, the city had to borrow money through tax-exempt bonds. 21 Again the state cable association and BellSouth sued Lafayette, alleging the bond ordinance didn't comply with state law. 54 The suit was won by the city in district court but an appellate court panel ruled 3-0 that the City's ordinance to sell bonds violated the Local Government Fair Competition Act's requirement that the money to fund the fiber project must not be subsidized by funds from the existing utilities system. 15 Lafayette followed up the court loss with a new ordinance that amended the original. 14 Two citizens of Lafayette sued (known as Elizabeth Naqui et al.) 5 as well as Bellsouth. 19 Bellsouth inexplicably declined to pay court costs for submission of the suit and ended up dropping the suit. 4 Naquin et al. 2 remained. 34 LUS won in district court, but the appeals court again decided 3-0 that the City's ordinance violated the Local Government Fair Competition Act in a similar manner as the original ordinance. 15 [2] This time the City appealed to the Louisiana State Supreme court. 31 The high court decided that the appeals court's ruling to enjoin (prevent) the city from selling bonds was based on a brief that was filed too late. 22 When the high court threw out this brief, the argument that had succeeded in appeals court was no longer allowed. 16 A unanimous ruling by the Louisiana State Supreme court reversed the appeals court's decision. 20 [3] This allowed the City to proceed with the sale of the bonds to fund the project. 12 In 2007, Lafayette was finally able to start issuing bonds. 19 Construction started in 2008 on the network, and the first customers were receiving service in February 2009. 17 Services [ edit ]\n\nLUS Fiber provides Video, Internet, and Phone Triple Play services. 12 The company provides basic analog cable along with a digital option. 18 They offer HD TV, DVR, Video on demand, and Pay-per-view with the digital option. 8 They also offer their TV Web Portal. 20 The portal allows users limited access to the internet through the TV, without the use of a computer. 15 Broadband internet is provided to homes and businesses from 3 Mbps to 10,000 Mbit/s. 18 [4] The service is symmetrical, meaning the download and upload speeds are the same. 18 Many current telecommunication companies provide asymmetrical speeds, having a high download speed and lower upload speed. 27 LUS Fiber's 100% fiber optic network also allows for peer-to-peer transfers at speeds up to 1000 Mbit/s for all of its internet service customers."} {"text": " 15 The source code for this article is available at the Gigi Labs BitBucket repository. 13 Routers\n\nIn Akka .NET, a router is like a load balancer. 24 It is a special actor that does not handle messages itself, but passes them on to other actors who can handle them. 30 For this reason routers are the only kind of actor that can deal with several messages concurrently (whereas normal actors process messages sequentially, one by one). 17 The way routers forward messages to handling actors depends on the type of router you use. 13 Some common routing strategies include broadcast, round robin, and random. 12 In this article, we will deal with the ConsistentHashing router. 21 Consistent hashing means that messages with the same (arbitrarily defined) key are always handled by the same actor. 19 Another important distinction between routers is that they fall under two categories: Group routers and Pool routers. 37 \u201cPool\u201d means the same as in the context of \u201cThread Pool\u201d or \u201cConnection Pool\u201d: it is a dynamic set of resources that can adaptively grow and shrink as needed. 24 A Pool router creates the actors that it will forward messages to for handling, and as such, it also supervises them. 18 Group routers, on the other hand, passed a set of actors that are created beforehand. 31 As such the handling actors are fixed in number and detached from the router; the Group router does not supervise them and often does not know when they die. 12 For this reason Pool routers are preferred for most use cases. 11 There is a lot more to be said about routers. 12 However, this section is intended only as a brief background. 14 For more comprehensive references, check the links in the Further Reading section. 26 Consistent Hashing Example with Currency Pairs\n\nIn the financial industry, currency exchange is defined in terms of a currency pair, such as EUR/USD. 11 This currency pair has a price, such as 1.1087. 11 This means that 1 Euro is worth 1.1087 US Dollars. 18 The currency exchange market is very volatile, and these prices can change several times per second. 12 In our example, we will be generating fictitious currency prices. 15 We would like to have a pool of actors to handle these price updates. 17 We would also like each currency pair to be always be handled by the same actor. 180 As always, we first need to install the Akka NuGet package:\n\nInstall-Package Akka\n\nThen, in our Main() method, we will first add some trivial setup code:\n\nConsole.Title = \"Akka .NET Consistent Hashing\"; var random = new Random(); var currencyPairs = new string[] { \"EUR/GBP\", \"USD/CAD\", \"NZD/JPY\", \"EUR/USD\", \"USD/JPY\", \"NZD/EUR\" };\n\nOur program logic goes like this:\n\nusing (var actorSystem = ActorSystem.Create(\"MyActorSystem\")) { var pool = new ConsistentHashingPool(3); var props = Props.Create() .WithRouter(pool); var router = actorSystem.ActorOf(props, \"MyPool\"); for (int i = 0; i < 20; i++) SendRandomMessage(router, random, currencyPairs); Console.ReadLine(); }\n\nHere we\u2019re setting up a Pool router using the Consistent Hashing strategy. 14 A pool of 3 actors will be created, supervised by the router. 29 We can send a message to the router as we would with any other actor, but it will actually be handled by one of its child actors. 8 The child actors are of type CurrencyPriceChangeHandlerActor. 28 This type of actor simply writes the received message to the console, along with its own path so that we can distinguish between the child actors. 17 The path is dynamically generated by the Pool router and we have no control over it. 60 public class CurrencyPriceChangeHandlerActor : TypedActor, IHandle { public CurrencyPriceChangeHandlerActor() { } public void Handle(CurrencyPriceChangeMessage message) { Console.WriteLine($\"{Context.Self.Path} received: {message}\"); } }\n\nThe message handled by this type of actor is a simple combination of currency pair and price. 13 In line with best practices, the message is immutable by design. 7 More importantly, it implements IConsistentHashable. 17 This allows us to provide a key that will be used for the consistent hashing algorithm. 11 In our case, the key is the currency pair. 92 public class CurrencyPriceChangeMessage : IConsistentHashable { public string CurrencyPair { get; } public decimal Price { get; } public object ConsistentHashKey { get { return this.CurrencyPair; } } public CurrencyPriceChangeMessage(string currencyPair, decimal price) { this.CurrencyPair = currencyPair; this.Price = price; } public override string ToString() { return $\"{this.CurrencyPair}: {this.Price}\"; } }\n\nNote: this is just one of three ways how we can specify the key to use with consistent hashing. 8 Refer to the documentation for more information. 12 All we have left is the implementation of SendRandomMessage() . 16 It picks a random currency pair and a random price, and sends a message. 10 It also introduces a random delay between each message. 18 Without this delay, you\u2019ll see a lot of the same currency pairs in sequence. 121 private static void SendRandomMessage(IActorRef router, Random random, string[] currencyPairs) { var randomDelay = random.Next(100, 1500); var randomCurrencyId = random.Next(0, currencyPairs.Length); var randomPrice = Convert.ToDecimal(random.NextDouble()); var currencyPair = currencyPairs[randomCurrencyId]; var message = new CurrencyPriceChangeMessage( currencyPair, randomPrice); router.Tell(message); Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(randomDelay)); }\n\nHere\u2019s what we get when we run the program:\n\nYou can see how although all three handling actors are in use, there is a direct correspondence between the currency pair and the actor that handles it. 22 For example, USD/CAD is always handled by actor $c, whereas NZD/EUR is always handled by actor $b. 9 This is what is implied by consistent hashing. 20 As far as I can tell, control of which actors handle which keys is up to the router. 19 I would have liked to, for instance, create an actor to specifically handle each currency pair. 24 But I don\u2019t think that is possible, even with Group routers (correct me if I\u2019m wrong). 15 Just let the router worry about how to allocate the keys to the actors. 2 Further Reading"} {"text": " 36 PNG asylum seeker deal: Barrister details High Court challenge\n\nPosted\n\nLawyers acting on behalf of an Iranian asylum seeker who has been sent to Manus Island have set out the details of the case. 33 It is the first legal challenge to the Government's policy to send asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat to Papua New Guinea, which was announced a month ago. 23 Barrister Mark Robinson SC says his client is being held at Manus Island detention centre and his removal from Australia was invalid. 25 He said the man can only be identified as S156 of 2013, the High Court number given to him when proceedings commenced today. 30 Mr Robinson told the ABC's PM program soon after the man, who came from Iran, claimed refugee status he was sent to PNG against his will. 37 He said the man had a \"well-founded fear of persecution because of his race, religion, or his political opinion, and believes he is a refugee in accordance with the Refugee Convention\". 26 Mr Robinson said the case was referred to him after the man's cousin, who has residency in Australia, sought help from lawyers. 58 The barrister said: \"We're seeking the declaration ... that PNG is a regional processing country, we want that set aside - so, declared invalid - and we want the client returned to Australia so that he can be processed, his refugee application can be processed, in the normal course.\" 23 He said there were factors the Immigration Minister, who signed the declaration last October, had failed to take into account. 34 \"The minister expressly said that he's not going to take into account issues relating to the domestic law of PNG or the international obligations of PNG,\" Mr Robinson said. 29 \"Now, those things are plainly relevant, and it's incredible to believe that he can make a lawful decision without regard to those factors.\" 26 'No interruption to transfers' while the case is ongoing\n\nMr Robinson said he was unable to comment on the broader ramifications of the action. 46 \"As I understand it, the only source of authority for Australia to be sending boat people to Manus Island and then the mainland of PNG is by reference to this declaration ... the same declaration that we are attacking,\" he said. 24 Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the Government is confident the policy will withstand a legal challenge and it will vigorously defend the challenge. 29 He also said there would be \"no interruption to ongoing transfers, and Australian Government policy will continue to be fully implemented while this matter proceeds\". 20 Papua New Guinea's opposition has also relaunched a legal challenge to the immigration processing centre on Manus Island. 20 Opposition leader Belden Namah claims the transfer, processing and possible resettlement of asylum seekers in PNG is unconstitutional. 13 Topics: refugees, government-and-politics, law-crime-and-justice, australia, pacific, papua-new-guinea"} {"text": " 22 Irresponsible millennial Caitlin\u2019s got an easy gig hamster-sitting for her nieces at her sister\u2019s cushy suburban pad. 7 Everything goes all right\u2026 at first. 18 Bored, Caitlin kills her afternoon eating her relatives\u2019 food and ignoring a home repairs issue. 28 But when one of the hamsters stages an escape, Caitlin has to reach deep down\u2014or maybe up\u2014to find something else that\u2019s warm and fuzzy. 50 Award-winning writer and filmmaker Adam Bertocci has been praised by Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, The New Republic, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Back Stage, Broadway World, E!, Maxim, IGN, Wired, Film Threat and more. 30 Here, for the first time, he adapts one of his short films into prose, in a comedy about finding grace and other things that get away. 5 -----\n\nApprox. 2 5500 words"} {"text": " 33 Bell unveiled its debut in the content streaming race on Wednesday with CraveTV, which the media conglomerate says isn't meant to replace cable television, but rather add to it. 47 Starting Dec. 11, CraveTV will be available to anyone who's currently a TV customer of Eastlink, TELUS Optik TV, Bell Fibe TV, Bell Aliant FibreOP TV and Bell Satellite TV at launch, with Northwestel and others coming on board later. 16 The service will cost $4 per month, on top of your cable bill. 53 The service will be available immediately to cable TV subscribers via set-top box, but the company says they plan on rolling out new ways to watch, including mobile apps, access via video game console, and through select so-called \"smart TVs\" that can access the internet directly. 30 Executives at a launch event in Toronto were coy on the timing, but said they expect the service to be available to Rogers and Shaw television customers soon. 24 \"We think this is a service their customers are going to be clamouring for,\" Bell Media president Kevin Crull said. 40 It will not, however, be available to anyone with just a high-speed Internet connection, meaning it's not an obvious alternative to so-called cord cutters who have left cable behind in favour of online-based content services. 42 That also likely means it's not a true rival to Netflix, the U.S.-based streaming service that has gobbled up customers in Canada by offering thousands of hours of TV shows and movies for a monthly fee of $9. 23 Netflix is available to anyone with an internet connection; there's no need to pay for any sort of television service. 31 A few months ago, Rogers and Shaw teamed up to create Shomi, a streaming service that offers thousands of hours of programming in much the way Netflix does. 39 The catch with Shomi was that you must be a Rogers or Shaw customer to get it \u2014 but you could do it just with an internet connection, making it a little closer to the Netflix model. 20 At least in the early going, Bell is clearly going in a different direction with its streaming service. 20 \"Ninety per cent of Canadians have a TV subscription,\" Crull said at Wednesday's Bell launch. 37 \"We think that gives us a fantastic base of customers to subscribe to,\" he said, noting that more Canadians pay for some sort of television service than pay for an Internet connection. 19 CraveTV to have hundreds of titles\n\nCrull also said the service would be free of advertising at launch. 29 In the streaming game, content is king \u2014 and one of CraveTV's big gets at launch is access to HBO's entire back catalogue of programs. 54 The ability to offer unlimited viewings of award-winning shows like The Wire, The Sopranos, Sex And The City, Six Feet Under, Band of Brothers, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Big Love, Entourage, Oz, Rome and Deadwood is something no other streaming service in Canada currently offers. 30 CraveTV will have about 300 titles at launch, but says that figure will double within the first year and collectively add up to thousands of hours of programming. 17 About two-thirds of the content on the service will be exclusive to CraveTV, executives said. 35 Another new twist is that CraveTV will also offer \"first looks\" at new stuff \u2014 the ability to watch certain premium content ahead of when it will be released via other media. 23 \"We think it'll be a special treat for others who want to get a first peek,\" Crull said."} {"text": " 12 sameAs.org is a great service on a number of different levels. 22 It provides a much needed piece of Semantic Web infrastructure and it achieves that through a simple clean interface and API. 18 You don\u2019t even need to know anything about RDF to get value from the service. 21 In short it\u2019s one of those nice web services that do one thing and do it really well. 18 I use the service as a frequent example in my talks and training sessions on Linked Data. 33 For example, while it\u2019s useful to review techniques for linking together datasets, in practice you can achieve a lot by simply doing a series of look-ups against sameAs.org. 20 I\u2019ve had some happy experiences of discovering connections between datasets without having to do any manual linking. 38 More than a few times recently I\u2019ve been thinking that it would be useful to repeat what Hugh Glaser and Ian Millard achieved with sameAs.org, but for a number of other common RDF predicates. 23 In my opinion there are a small number of general predicates that will act as the backbone for the web of data. 36 At the head of the predicate long tail we\u2019ll find properties like: owl:sameAs , but also useful properties like dc:subject , foaf:knows and foaf:primaryTopic . 35 The topic based predicates ( dc:subject , foaf:primaryTopic , foaf:topic , et al) are particularly useful for discovering documents and material that relate to a specific resource. 21 An index of these would be extremely useful for inter-linking between content from different news and media organisations for example. 28 I\u2019d envisage that \u201ctopicOf.org\u201d might index a range of different topic related predicates and expose some useful discovery tools, relations and equivalencies. 14 Dan Brickley has a nice diagram that shows how these different predicates inter-relate. 15 \u201ctopicOf\u201d is currently top of my list of these predicate based services. 10 But the same approach would work in other contexts. 17 For example a service that indexed foaf:knows would be useful for social networking applications. 14 But I think that this area is already well-served by existing services already. 15 But what about:\n\n\u201creviewsOf.org\u201d \u2014 find reviews about a specific resource. 31 I believe Tom Heath has thought about doing something like with for Revyu\n\n\u201cdepictionsOf.org\u201d \u2014 find pictures of a specific resource ( foaf:depiction ), e.g. 19 person, place or thing (and reliably, not like the Flickr Wrapper)\n\n), e.g. 57 person, place or thing (and reliably, not like the Flickr Wrapper) \u201cmadeBy.org\u201d> \u2014 find documents, photos, or other resources that were made by a particular person ( dc:creator , foaf:maker )\n\nI can think of all sorts of useful purposes for these services. 27 I also think that they could offer additional ways of engaging with the broader developer community and getting them to buy into the Linked Data vision. 12 Anyone want to have a crack at implementing some of these?"} {"text": " 44 Google Chief Executive Larry Page's push to narrow the tech giant's focus and streamline operations continued on Friday with the announcement that the company was shutting down 9 projects and Aardvark, a side company that built a social search site. 41 \"Technology improves, people's needs change, some bets pay off and others don't,\" said Alan Eustace, a senior vice president at Google, in a blog post titled \"a fall spring-clean.\" 22 Eustace said some of the products would be killed off, while others will be merged into existing products as features. 18 The employees working on the affected companies and projects will be reassigned to new positions at Google. 21 \"This will make things much simpler for our users, improving the overall Google experience,\" he said. 25 \"It will also mean we can devote more resources to high-impact products -- the ones that improve the lives of billions of people. 15 All the Googlers working on these projects will be moved over to higher-impact products. 35 As for our users, we'll communicate directly with them as we make these changes, giving sufficient time to make the transition and enabling them to take their data with them.\" 31 Page announced the company-wide refocusing in July when Google pulled the plug on Google Labs, a website that let users test out new products with which engineers were experimenting. 22 Google Labs was where Gmail and Google Docs got started and was at one time an important piece of the company. 28 The Google CEO and co-founder described the moves in a statement made during a Google earnings call as as putting \"more wood behind fewer arrows.\" 26 Last month, Google also shut down Slide, a side company that made social apps mostly for Facebook, MySpace and Apple's iOS. 41 Most of Slide's employees were rolled into other parts of Google, but Slide's founder, Max Levchin, who is well known as a top engineer with a solid understanding of social networking, left the company. 29 Eustace said that while Google is axing some companies it has purchased over the years and ending other products, it won't keep Google from being creative. 23 \"We've never been afraid to try big, bold things, and that won't change,\" he said. 18 \"We'll continue to take risks on interesting new technologies with a lot of potential.\" 28 Here's Eustace's rundown of the companies and projects in Google that have been shuttered:\n\nAardvark : Aardvark was a start-up we acquired in 2010. 19 An experiment in a new kind of social search, it helped people answer each other's questions. 26 While Aardvark will be closing, we'll continue to work on tools that enable people to connect and discover richer knowledge about the world. 10 : Aardvark was a start-up we acquired in 2010. 19 An experiment in a new kind of social search, it helped people answer each other's questions. 26 While Aardvark will be closing, we'll continue to work on tools that enable people to connect and discover richer knowledge about the world. 38 Desktop : In the last few years, there's been a huge shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing, as well as the integration of search and gadget functionality into most modern operating systems. 14 People now have instant access to their data, whether online or offline. 32 As this was the goal of Google Desktop, the product will be discontinued on September 14, including all the associated APIs, services, plugins, gadgets and support. 37 : In the last few years, there's been a huge shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing, as well as the integration of search and gadget functionality into most modern operating systems. 14 People now have instant access to their data, whether online or offline. 32 As this was the goal of Google Desktop, the product will be discontinued on September 14, including all the associated APIs, services, plugins, gadgets and support. 23 Fast Flip : Fast Flip was started to help pioneer news content browsing and reading experiences for the web and mobile devices. 30 For the past two years, in collaboration with publishers, the Fast Flip experiment has fueled a new approach to faster, richer content display on the web. 13 This approach will live on in our other display and delivery tools. 21 : Fast Flip was started to help pioneer news content browsing and reading experiences for the web and mobile devices. 30 For the past two years, in collaboration with publishers, the Fast Flip experiment has fueled a new approach to faster, richer content display on the web. 13 This approach will live on in our other display and delivery tools. 28 Google Maps API for Flash : The Google Maps API for Flash was launched to provide ActionScript developers a way to integrate Google Maps into their applications. 39 Although we're deprecating the API, we'll keep supporting existing Google Maps API Premier customers using the Google Maps API for Flash and we'll focus our attention on the JavaScript Maps API v3 going forward. 23 : The Google Maps API for Flash was launched to provide ActionScript developers a way to integrate Google Maps into their applications. 39 Although we're deprecating the API, we'll keep supporting existing Google Maps API Premier customers using the Google Maps API for Flash and we'll focus our attention on the JavaScript Maps API v3 going forward. 25 Google Pack : Due to the rapidly decreasing demand for downloadable software in favor of web apps, we will discontinue Google Pack today. 26 People will still be able to access Google's and our partners' software quickly and easily through direct links on the Google Pack website. 23 : Due to the rapidly decreasing demand for downloadable software in favor of web apps, we will discontinue Google Pack today. 26 People will still be able to access Google's and our partners' software quickly and easily through direct links on the Google Pack website. 44 Google Web Security : Google Web Security came to Google as part of the Postini acquisition in 2007, and since then we've integrated much of the web security functionality directly into existing Google products, such as safe browsing in Chrome. 18 Although our previous sales channel will be discontinued, we'll continue to support our existing customers. 41 : Google Web Security came to Google as part of the Postini acquisition in 2007, and since then we've integrated much of the web security functionality directly into existing Google products, such as safe browsing in Chrome. 18 Although our previous sales channel will be discontinued, we'll continue to support our existing customers. 24 Image Labeler : We began Google Image Labeler as a fun game to help people explore and label the images on the web. 18 Although it will be discontinued, a wide variety of online games from Google are still available. 22 : We began Google Image Labeler as a fun game to help people explore and label the images on the web. 18 Although it will be discontinued, a wide variety of online games from Google are still available. 24 Notebook : Google Notebook enabled people to combine clipped URLs from the web and free-form notes into documents they could share and publish. 24 We'll be shutting down Google Notebook in the coming months, but we'll automatically export all notebook data to Google Docs. 23 : Google Notebook enabled people to combine clipped URLs from the web and free-form notes into documents they could share and publish. 24 We'll be shutting down Google Notebook in the coming months, but we'll automatically export all notebook data to Google Docs. 21 Sidewiki : Over the past few years, we've seen extraordinary innovation in terms of making the web collaborative. 16 So we've decided to discontinue Sidewiki and focus instead on our broader social initiatives. 28 Sidewiki authors will be given more details about this closure in the weeks ahead, and they'll have a number of months to download their content. 20 : Over the past few years, we've seen extraordinary innovation in terms of making the web collaborative. 16 So we've decided to discontinue Sidewiki and focus instead on our broader social initiatives. 28 Sidewiki authors will be given more details about this closure in the weeks ahead, and they'll have a number of months to download their content. 28 Subscribed Links: Subscribed Links enabled developers to create specialized search results that were added to the normal Google search results on relevant queries for subscribed users. 37 Although we'll be discontinuing Subscribed Links, developers will be able to access and download their data until September 15, at which point subscribed links will no longer appear in people's search results. 49 RELATED:\n\nGoogle says it's winding down Google Labs\n\nGoogle shuts down Slide, Max Levchin departs\n\nGoogle agrees to $500-million settlement over online drug ads\n\n-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles\n\ntwitter.com/nateog\n\nImage: A screen shot of Vark.com, the website of the social search engine Aardvark. 3 Credit: Aardvark/Google"} {"text": " 28 THE PENALTY POINTS whistleblower has rubbished the findings of an internal garda investigation and has invited Taoiseach Enda Kenny to meet with him to discuss his allegations. 38 The garda sergeant\u2019s claims of malpractice in the force sparked an internal review of procedures for terminating road traffic tickets and led to a complete overhaul of how the Pulse System is operated by gardai. 25 The investigation, sanctioned by Justice Minister Alan Shatter and overseen by Assistant Commissioner John O\u2019Mahoney, found no evidence of corruption. 19 However, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against three gardai while a fourth officer faces prosecution over fraud charges. 19 The whistleblower\u2019s dossier questioned the termination of more than 50,000 points over a four year period. 23 But O\u2019Mahoney\u2019s internal review reported 72 incidents which were not \u201cstrictly within the correct administrative procedures\u201d. 38 Invitation\n\nIn an email seen by the TheJournal.ie, the Midlands-based garda asked Taoiseach Kenny to review evidence which he claims shows widespread cancellation of points and directly contradicts the report published by Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan. 22 \u201cAre you not concerned that either me or the Garda Commissioner is wrong?\u201d he wrote in the email. 25 \u201cI have lodged a complaint with the Standards in Public Office and I have complained about two senior members of An Garda Siochana. 35 I have also submitted to them a sample of hundreds of corrupt terminations out of tens of thousand that don\u2019t seem to be in Assistant Commissioner O\u2019Mahony\u2019s report. 30 The Justice Committee will be provided with this evidence when I give my evidence.\u201d\n\nI invite you to meet with me and to see the evidence for yourself. 23 If I am wrong there are avenues open to you regarding discipline and prosecution if you feel I have lied or misled. 27 In the email dated 27 May, the whistleblower said he believes his figures are correct and he is \u201dstanding firm\u201d over his allegations. 18 A spokeswoman for the Taoiseach\u2019s Department said they would not be commenting on the invitation. 35 Internal review\n\nThe officer was not interviewed as part of the internal garda review ordered by the Justice Minister and he was not given a right to reply to the findings of the report. 34 On publication of the report, Minister Shatter said he was concerned that \u201cclearly laid out procedures\u201d were not followed especially in relation to senior gardai cancelling points outside their jurisdictions. 32 A number of new protocols aimed at tightening the rules on penalty point cancellations were introduced and the findings of the report were sent to the Oireachtas Justice Committee for review. 26 However, Minister Shatter was critical of the whistleblower following publication of the internal garda investigation saying concerns must be \u201creal and genuine\u201d. 32 He said the officer\u2019s allegations were in many instances \u201cseriously inaccurate and without any foundation in fact, or else involved an incomplete understanding of the facts\u201d. 21 The garda officer was not asked to respond to these statements before or after they were made by Minister Shatter. 37 Check point\n\nMinister Shatter has faced a barrage of criticism since he revealed private details about a road traffic incident involving independent TD Mick Wallace during a live televised debate on RTE\u2019s Prime Time. 27 The Justice Minister later revealed that Garda Commissioner Callinan provided him with information about his political opponent during an official briefing on the penalty points controversy. 27 The Minister was also forced to give a detail explanations of incidents where he was stopped at garda check points while he was an opposition TD. 27 Minister claimed he was not able to provide a breathalyser sample at a check point on Pemebroke Street in Dublin around 2008 because he has asthma. 10 There was no Garda report generated on this incident."} {"text": " 41 BIN JAWWAD, Libya \u2014 A sustained counterattack by Libyan government troops sent overmatched rebel fighters fleeing eastward for almost 100 miles Tuesday, erasing many of the weekend gains by opposition forces trying to overthrow Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. 23 Panicked, hundreds of rebels sped away from the front to escape fierce rocket barrages by Gadhafi\u2019s soldiers and militiamen. 21 Rebel gun trucks raced three abreast and jostled for position on a coastal highway choked with retreating fighters and civilians. 15 At one point, rebels surrendered 70 miles of terrain in just four hours. 31 It was a humiliating rout for a volunteer fighting force that had advanced 150 miles in 24 hours over the weekend behind allied airstrikes that pummeled government troops and armor. 23 But by Tuesday afternoon, those same rebels were in headlong retreat from Bin Jawwad, which they had seized only Sunday. 18 Many fled 25 miles east to Ras Lanouf, the oil city captured by the opposition Saturday. 20 By nightfall, the city and its refinery were under government assault as the rebel retreat spilled farther east. 20 There was no sign of allied airstrikes, which had cleared the way for the rebels\u2019 weekend advances. 36 The fighting underscored the dilemma facing the U.S. and its allies in Libya: Rebels may be unable to oust Gadhafi militarily unless already contentious international airstrikes go even further in taking out his forces. 28 In London, a gathering of world leaders agreed Tuesday that Gadhafi should step down but made no decisions about what additional pressure to put on him. 41 With the possibility of a prolonged military deadlock looming, some 40 foreign ministers, the heads of NATO and the U.N., and representatives from the Arab League met to decide how to help Libya into a post-Gadhafi future. 64 Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the international community must support calls for democracy sweeping Libya and its neighbors but warned that \u201cthese goals are not easily achieved.\u201d\n\nItalian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini pushed a plan for a cease-fire, exile for Gadhafi, and a framework for talks on Libya\u2019s future between tribal leaders and opposition figures. 35 Frattini said that negotiations on securing Gadhafi\u2019s exit were being conducted with \u201cabsolute discretion,\u201d though he said there could be no promise of immunity for Gadhafi from international prosecution. 10 Gadhafi has shown little sign he might choose exile. 42 German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said it \u201chas to be made very clear to Gadhafi: His time is over.\u201d But Germany and other countries have expressed reservations about the military intervention in Libya, let alone expanding it. 8 France has struck a more forceful tone. 27 Defense Minister Gerard Longuet told France-Inter radio that France and Britain believe the campaign \u201cmust obtain more\u201d than the end of shooting at civilians. 23 The Obama administration was engaged in an internal debate over whether to supply weapons to the rebels, senior officials said Tuesday. 27 Some within the administration were fearful that providing arms would deepen U.S. involvement in a civil war and that some fighters may have links to al-Qaeda. 31 Some administration officials also argue that supplying arms would further entangle the U.S. in a drawn-out civil war because the rebels would need to be trained to use any weapons. 27 The swift battlefield reversal Tuesday underscored the mercurial nature of the war in the east, where neither side seems strong enough to vanquish the other. 28 Nearly a month of fighting has raged back and forth across a 220-mile stretch of coastal wasteland in a nation with a coastline of nearly 1,100 miles. 5 \u201cWhere is Sarkozy? 27 Where is Obama?\u201d asked Hussam Bernwi, 36, an exterminator wielding an assault rifle, referring to French and U.S. warplanes and missiles. 10 \u201cI\u2019m disappointed,\u201d Bernwi said. 31 \u201cWe can\u2019t win without those planes.\u201d\n\nThe headlong retreat from Bin Jawwad marked the second time in 23 days that government forces had routed rebels there. 25 The town is on the fault line between eastern and western Libya, with several tribes in the area split between the two sides. 22 By nightfall Tuesday, some rebel gun trucks had retreated all way east to Uqaylah, 45 miles from Ras Lanouf. 21 Some fighters acknowledged that they felt helpless against the BM-21 Grad rocket systems that pounded rebel positions throughout the day. 26 \u201cWhen the Grads hit, we all ran,\u201d said Abdelsalam Ali, 37, a taxi driver armed with an assault rifle. 33 \u201cThey\u2019re too strong for us.\u201d\n\nGadhafi\u2019s forces have built well-defended fortifications about 50 miles east of Sirte, which has been attacked by the Western-led alliance. 26 But even after airstrikes routed Gadhafi\u2019s men from eastern Libyan cities, government troops remain better armed and better led than the rebels. 27 The defense of Sirte is important to Gadhafi because it is the last major pro-Gadhafi redoubt between the current front and Tripoli, 275 miles west. 15 The city is dominated by well-armed members of the leader\u2019s Gadhadhfa tribe. 12 Los Angeles Times,\n\nThe Associated Press,\n\nThe New York Times"} {"text": " 31 When I set out to create a program built around training high school 400m runners, I sent out a survey to ask coaches specifically what you want to know. 14 Below is a video of me answering the first 10 of those questions. 8 Below that is the question I posed. 17 And below that are the specific questions I\u2019m answering in today\u2019s video. 9 They are presented exactly as they are written. 14 The only exception being I took out people\u2019s names and locations. 31 \u201cWhat do you want/need to see specifically addressed in a program built around coaching the high school 400m runner?\u201d\n\n1. the facilities in which athletes train\n\n2. 13 How to give 400m Training for High school students meet time\n\n3. 31 In trying to develop speed speed endurance, and special endurance during the short 12week season with mid week and Saturday meets, how do you get it all in? 2 4. 20 Goodmorming Coach, My 400m runners also play basket ball here.We are a small school ,about 100 boys. 40 I usually do not see him until the 2nd or 3rd week of March.This makes for an even shorter season for him.I tried Clyde Hart but it didnot work out.Best time in middle of May 53 or 54 seconds. 19 I have him run the 200 and 4\u00d72 during the week but only 400m and 4x400m on weekends. 3 Short Season! 21 RELATED: Annual Plan video showing how to plan training when your athletes are coming to you from another sport. 2 5. 10 Specific traning of 100, 200, 400m race? 2 6. 16 How to get out of shape runner ready for the first competition Saturday the quickest? 2 7. 18 Should the 400m runner be training over distance intervals, for instance running repeat 600\u2019s? 2 8. 17 How much aerobic sessions are needed during general/ specific preparation periods even into pre- competition period? 17 Also what weight training sessions are needed during these periods and what should one focus on? 2 9. 15 What has the workout philosophy for the two weeks before the State Championship meet? 2 10. 16 I had a girl finish 1st in the 400m at the State meet this year. 21 I always seem like I\u2019m battling shin splints and have to train gingerly to prevent or with them. 15 Is this related to the quantity and quality of training periodized through the season? 4 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-\n\n\u2013 Latif Thomas"} {"text": " 10 Americans aren\u2019t moving back to the cities. 5 Just 20- and 30-somethings. 15 But actually, not all 20- and 30-somethings are moving back to the cities. 16 Only those with a four-year college degree and incomes in the top 40 percent are. 25 And not even all 20- and 30-somethings with a four-year college degree and incomes in the top 40 percent are moving back into cities. 8 Mostly the ones without school-age kids are. 38 And if you thought that was it, it turns out that not all 20- and 30-somethings with a four-year college degree in the top 40 percent of income without school-age children are moving back into cities. 11 It\u2019s mostly just the ones that are white. 21 Such is the Russian nesting doll of myth-busting from the housing researcher Jed Kolko in a post today on urbanization. 38 There was a period, shortly after the collapse of the housing bubble, when it really did look like the United States might collapse back into dense cities, in a dramatic return to pre-1950s America. 17 Instead, it turns out that America isn\u2019t ready to abandon the suburban project. 9 They just like sun and space too much. 18 In fact, most American cities wouldn\u2019t even be growing today if not for immigration. 22 If the U.S. is returning to any previous period, it\u2019s looking like another Gilded Age\u2014one based on geography. 20 The richest 10 percent of households were most likely to move into dense urban areas between 2000 and 2014. 9 The poorest 10 percent fled cities the fastest. 23 Meanwhile, the U.S. is becoming much more urban for the white childless elite, and much more suburban for everybody else. 28 The fastest growing suburbs are the most prototypically suburban: They have the lowest density, the greatest need for cars, and the most single-family neighborhoods. 29 Meanwhile, the fastest growing urban areas among this privileged demographic are the most dense\u2014places like Manhattan and Brooklyn, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C."} {"text": " 24 Joss Whedon's show, Firefly was cancelled after only 14 episodes, but its mix of sci-fi and western connected with fans. 30 OF ALL of the brilliant TV shows created by Joss Whedon, none of them have as devoted a fandom as Firefly \u2014 yes, more devoted than Buffy. 29 A clever fusion of sci-fi and western about a ragtag group of smugglers, Firefly was yanked around by its network before getting unceremoniously axed after 14 episodes. 36 If it was just your average show, that\u2019s where Firefly\u2019s story would\u2019ve ended, relegated to the footnotes of TV history as some quaint series someone vaguely remembers. 42 Instead, 15 years to the day since it premiered, Firefly is still being lauded for its must-watch story of space underdogs, regularly included in \u201cbest of\u201d lists and topping most \u201ccancelled to soon\u201d remembrances. 30 The tale of Mal Reynolds (the eternally charming Nathan Fillion) and his crew, Firefly was a brilliantly written genre series before the era of peak TV. 31 In its short run, it managed to be a layered, fully realised world with compelling characters you want to root for \u2014 a remarkable feat considering its constraints. 21 After its cancellation, its fans, called Browncoats, lobbied and lobbied and lobbied for some kind of rescue. 30 After healthy DVD sales, the cavalry came in the form of movie studio Universal, who gave Whedon $30 million to make a film sequel, Serenity. 14 It gave fans the resolution the series wasn\u2019t allowed to entertain. 31 Set in a post-Earth future, humans have colonised space but it hasn\u2019t managed to do much about that pesky wealth gap between the rich and the poor. 28 Before the start of the series, the flush central planets wage war on the plucky and much poorer independent planets, bringing them under one rule. 21 The independents (the Browncoats) was the side Mal and his first mate Zoe fought on and lost with. 42 Whedon was inspired by the American Civil War in crafting his narrative \u2014 though not the unsavoury slavery aspect \u2014 about what happens to those on the losing side who won\u2019t be brought to heel by a central government. 20 Firefly mostly takes place on the outskirts of this world, where technology is sparse but injustice is rife. 14 Hence the western part of the show \u2014 it captured that frontier almost-lawlessness. 27 A decade and a half on, the series still stands up, cementing its place in the pantheon of all the great TV that followed. 49 Of course, some of the performances weren\u2019t as great as you remembered, or one or two characters feel a bit clunky \u2014 all things that would\u2019ve settled if Firefly had been given a chance at, say, three or four seasons. 26 But the one facet of Firefly that is jarring to 2017 eyes is its treatment of race \u2014 specifically, its lack of Asian representation. 24 In the in-universe history of the \u201cEarth-that-was\u201d, the United States and China eventually formed an alliance before the mass exodus. 45 Consequently, the cultural milieu of Firefly is heavily steeped in Asian influences \u2014 the characters often swear in Chinese, there is Chinese writing in a lot of signage, they eat Asian food and the costumes and d\u00e9cor have an Asian aesthetic. 7 Yet there are no Asian characters. 25 There is the occasional Asian actor in the background, generally in party scenes such as at the society ball in \u201cShindig\u201d. 10 But no one of Asian appearance gets any lines. 33 Even worse is that there are characters with Asian surnames played by white actors \u2014 Simon and River Tam (a Chinese/Vietnamese surname) are portrayed by Sean Maher and Summer Glau. 40 Of course, this is all from our 2017 perspective, with the last two years having been particularly active in pointing out \u201cwhitewashing\u201d in Hollywood, from the likes of Ghost in the Shell to Aloha. 28 Just in the last month, Ed Skrein quit his role in the Hellboy reboot after it was pointed out that the character is of Asian descent. 8 He was replaced by Daniel Dae Kim. 29 When Firefly was made in 2002, Asian representation was far from the mainstream cultural consciousness and the now-glaringly obvious omission would\u2019ve barely been noticed then. 15 Context matters, even if it makes for awkward cringing in a 15-years-later re-watch. 34 And Firefly certainly had more than its share of representation highlights, chief among them the character of Zoe, a highly competent, no-nonsense warrior woman played by Cuban-American actor Gina Torres. 20 But a re-watch is necessary because it is such a brilliantly written show with shade and morally compromised heroes. 28 It was dead funny, in large part because of the lyrical cadence to its unique dialogue, and hearing those words again will take you back. 8 Above all, it was about family. 31 It was about doing everything you can for the people you love and respect, even when the easier choice was to give up on them or give them up. 22 At a time of shifting global tensions and social friction, we all need a little something as unifying as Firefly. 12 Yep, it\u2019s all about those warm and fuzzies. 51 Such is the outsized impact of Firefly, one of its actors, Alan Tudyk (Rogue One, Suburgatory, Zootopia) has gone on to create Emmy-nominated satirical web series Con Man, based around a fictionalised version of himself and his experiences in the fandom of Firefly. 11 Check it out on iTunes \u2014 it\u2019s excellent. 41 In Sydney last month to promote The Tick, Ben Edlund, a producer and writer who penned Firefly episodes \u201cJaynestown\u201d and \u201cTrash\u201d, nailed it when asked why he thought Firefly had such staying power. 16 He told news.com.au: \u201cI was really so fortunate to be part of it. 24 It didn\u2019t get a lot of airtime but that sci-fi universe has a real amount of depth, it was great. 16 \u201cPeople still like to live in that world because it\u2019s got dimension. 26 It\u2019s lasted and only become more illustrious.\u201d\n\nFirefly\u2019s 15th anniversary DVD and Blu-ray edition will be released on September 27. 18 Firefly is also available through digital platforms such as iTunes while Serenity is streaming on Foxtel Now. 9 Continue the conversation on Twitter with @wenleima."} {"text": " 13 For Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, the hyperbole has turned into reality. 23 Those who gushed over him in the preseason, lavishing over-the-top praise, have found those compliments to be just and warranted. 26 As the fourth-round rookie has led Dallas to a 10-1 record and taken franchise quarterback Tony Romo's job, he has earned it all. 32 So while respected trainer Tom Shaw used to whisper the comparisons he saw between pupils Patriots QB Tom Brady and Prescott, he now no longer feels compelled to keep quiet. 33 \"I had Tom Brady coming out of college as a rookie and then the first seven years of his career,\" Shaw told NFL.com over the phone on Wednesday night. 14 \"And I had the opportunity to work with Dak before the draft. 23 What I noticed about Dak was, this guy had the same desire, work ethic, the same traits as Brady. 9 Nobody wants to be compared to anyone else. 30 But he was the hardest worker, guys gravitate towards him, he was the first one there...\"\n\nShaw trailed off, but his point was clear. 9 No, they aren't the same player. 30 Brady has three Super Bowl MVP awards and two regular-season MVPs, while Prescott is merely a rookie who has the Cowboys a win away from a playoff berth. 16 But when you examine the way they carry themselves, Shaw believes they are identical. 42 \"I told his agents Rick (Roberts) and Jeff (Guerriero) 'I'm not saying he's going to be the next Tom Brady, but he has all the intangibles to do exactly the same thing. 9 All Dak wants is to be the best. 14 When he wakes up in the morning, that's what he wants. 15 The most important thing for him was to learn how to play football.\" 19 Using his performance center Wide World of Sports at Disney World, Shaw has trained countless elite athletes. 7 Brady was among his first proteges. 20 The former Patriots speed and conditioning coach, Shaw worked under Mike Woicik and won three Super Bowl rings. 9 But it's not just running and lifting. 17 The Prescott you'll see tonight is polished, with 18 touchdowns and just two interceptions. 11 He didn't throw one in the month of November. 8 But it wasn't always that way. 7 Shaw brings up another Brady connection. 35 Dick Rehbein was the Patriots QB coach in 2000 and 2001, and he passed along to Shaw a drill involving placing targets for every route across a field, set up with strings. 20 A bucket-size target for a go-route, a smaller target for a comeback, different size for a curl. 26 Prescott would make his drops and throw 200 footballs at the targets, go pick up the ones he missed, then throw 200 more. 13 The more you missed, the more you have to pick up. 19 \"If you can hit a target, you can hit a receivers hands,\" Shaw said. 13 \"And by the end, Dak was hardly missing any.\" 35 He also points out that Brady's left hand is often in front of his face while throwing to keep his motion together ... \"And Dak does it, too\" Shaw said. 8 Follow Ian Rapoport on Twitter @RapSheet."} {"text": " 31 There are early adopters of social media, clinical informatics, and educational technologies, and then there\u2019s Dr. Nick Genes \u2013 a man wise beyond his years. 22 Nick had one of the very first blogs in Emergency Medicine called Blogborygmi, which he started way back in 2003. 10 Compare this with ALiEM which I started in 2009. 39 So I am not surprised that he is working alongside the giants of EM, such as Professor Tintinalli in his role as a senior editor at Emergency Physicians Monthly, and doing amazing things in clinical informatics. 18 Nick kindly has carved out some free time to share some of his tips for working smarter. 55 Name: Nicholas Genes, MD, PhD\n\nNicholas Genes, MD, PhD Location: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai\n\nIcahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Current job: At Mount Sinai my duties are split between emergency medicine and clinical informatics \u2013 I\u2019m now board-certified in both! 23 Through our electronic health record (EHR) I work on departmental research projects, improved throughput, and clinical decision support. 13 For the hospital, I evaluate new health IT applications and partnerships. 26 Beyond that, I\u2019m senior editor at EP Monthly, reviewing new articles and helping Prof. Tintinalli achieve her vision for the publication. 29 I also research the potential of social media for emergency preparedness and response \u2013 hopefully you\u2019ll be hearing a good deal more about this in 2015. 22 At Mount Sinai my duties are split between emergency medicine and clinical informatics \u2013 I\u2019m now board-certified in both! 23 Through our electronic health record (EHR) I work on departmental research projects, improved throughput, and clinical decision support. 13 For the hospital, I evaluate new health IT applications and partnerships. 26 Beyond that, I\u2019m senior editor at EP Monthly, reviewing new articles and helping Prof. Tintinalli achieve her vision for the publication. 29 I also research the potential of social media for emergency preparedness and response \u2013 hopefully you\u2019ll be hearing a good deal more about this in 2015. 18 One word that best describes how I work: Dispositive\n\nDispositive Current mobile device: iPhone 6. 29 In my white coat I also carry an iPad mini 2 with a few dozen clinical apps \u2013 a practice I first described after the original iPad debuted. 3 iPhone 6. 29 In my white coat I also carry an iPad mini 2 with a few dozen clinical apps \u2013 a practice I first described after the original iPad debuted. 28 Current computers: iMac mid-2011 running OS X Yosemite at home, Dell Optiplex running Windows 7 at the office\n\nWhat\u2019s your workspace setup like? 19 My office and home workspaces are similar \u2013 two big screens, and an otherwise mostly empty desk. 29 The current project is front-and-center, with other windows pushed off to the second screen for reference, running reports, listening to music, or perusing feeds. 13 What\u2019s your best time-saving tip in the office or home? 8 Keep looking for ways to get unstuck. 22 That means reading books on time management and self-discipline, monitoring productivity blogs and app reviews, and staying in motion. 34 If I\u2019m using the exact same techniques and workflows a year or two from now, that means either technology\u2019s come to a standstill, or my career has. 11 What\u2019s your best time-saving tip regarding email management? 36 Lots of others in this series have touted inbox zero \u2013 [Lin\u2019s HIWS post, Weingart\u2019s podcast, Tumblr site about Inbox Zero] and that\u2019s great advice. 39 I\u2019d add that, if you can\u2019t turn off your email, \u201csnoozing\u201d them can help you achieve that creative, unburdened state without actually replying to messages as they come in. 20 Mailbox was the first great app to do this and they\u2019ve introduced a desktop version for Mac. 24 If you\u2019re obligated to use MS Outlook, try Acompli for iOS which has a lot of the same snoozing capabilities. 36 And as smartphone mail management apps have shot ahead of desktop clients, I learned something: most email is best managed from a phone, even if you\u2019re sitting at your desk. 17 Phones encourage brevity, whereas on a desktop, email often becomes an end unto itself. 11 What\u2019s your best time-saving tip in the ED? 23 I\u2019d like to stay totally focused on patient care while on shift, but that\u2019s not always possible. 44 My director might pop by and ask me to run a report, a colleague may identify a potential bug in our EHR, or I\u2019ll try to remember a reference to look up and send to one of my residents. 34 I\u2019ve found Siri is more than capable of scheduling reminders \u2013 or even meetings (and if you use Omnifocus, your Siri reminders can end up in your Inbox). 24 So at the speed of dictation, you can schedule that task for a later time, and get back to patient care. 29 ED charting tips\n\nKnow what goes into the E/M (evaluation/management) levels, and be mindful of what downstream clinicians will want to learn from your documentation. 40 If you have specific, restrained macros for sprained ankle exams or URI review of systems, or canned text about why your patient doesn\u2019t meet the threshold for a CT, great, use \u2018em. 35 I\u2019d bet, though, that many folks use comprehensive macros that achieve E/M level 5 chart \u2013 even for simple encounters where a coder can\u2019t bill above level 3. 28 These folks probably generate canned text that protects them from perceived medicolegal risk, while making it harder for colleagues to decipher what they were actually thinking. 30 Overly comprehensive macros and verbose canned text might save a few seconds per chart, but raises suspicions \u2013 and that might ultimately cost you a lot of time. 20 What\u2019s the best advice you\u2019ve ever received about work, life, or being efficient? 55 I read Pressfield\u2019s The War of Art and Godin\u2019s Poke the Box at a fortuitous point in life, when I was nearing the finish line of training and ready to think about what kind of career I wanted, and what kind of impact I was hoping to have. 26 These are short reads that are worth returning to every year or two, especially when you might feel adrift or caught up in distractions. 17 Is there anything else you\u2019d like to add that might be interesting to readers? 17 Some aspects of emergency medicine encourage academic and administrative pursuits \u2013 but many don\u2019t. 36 The unpredictable schedule, the short-term, checklist-oriented mindset while on shift, and the comfort with frequent interruptions make us good EPs, but can impede creative project planning or thoughtful, scholarly work. 20 I try to be conscious of this handicap, and look for ways to compensate for our EM tendencies. 36 I want to hear from:\n\nDavid Newman: I\u2019ve been a huge fan of his writing, speaking and clinical acumen, and a few months ago we started sharing an office. 21 I thought just by proximity I\u2019d absorb some of his wisdom, but so far, no insights. 9 Maybe an entry in this series would help. 27 I\u2019ve been a huge fan of his writing, speaking and clinical acumen, and a few months ago we started sharing an office. 21 I thought just by proximity I\u2019d absorb some of his wisdom, but so far, no insights. 9 Maybe an entry in this series would help. 34 Bryan Vartabedian: He\u2019s a Pediatric Gastroenterologist that I met through social media \u2013 and he\u2019s become a leading voice in defining professionalism for physicians in this new age. 31 He\u2019s a Pediatric Gastroenterologist that I met through social media \u2013 and he\u2019s become a leading voice in defining professionalism for physicians in this new age. 28 Rick Bukata: I spar with him regularly in the pages of EPMonthly, but have immense respect for what he\u2019s accomplished in his career. 34 While most of the people in this series talk about productivity and efficiency in terms of their digital workflow, I suspect I can learn something from his (presumably different) perspective. 7 Share This Facebook\n\nTwitter\n\nPocket\n\nPrint\n\nInstagram"} {"text": " 30 Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is concerned about the drinking habits of the Thai people, especially among young people aged 15-19, government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said on Sunday. 50 Lt Gen Sansern said Gen Prayut's concern was based on a World Health Organisation (WHO) report that said Thailand was ranked fifth in the world in terms of alcohol consumption and the average number of drinkers in the 15-19 agegroup was rising 4.96% per year. 38 The report said Thai people could reach a shop selling alcoholic drinks with an average walk of 4.5 minutes, indicating it was very easy for them to get a bottle of liquor, said the spokesman. 21 \"Alcohol is the main cause of road accidents, especially during festivals and long holidays,\" he said. 18 \"Alcohol also leads to other social problems such as family violence, brawls and crimes.\" 29 Lt Gen Sansern said the government is seriously implementing the 10-year national strategy on alcohol (2011-2020), and the alcohol control law has been enforced strictly. 30 For instance, alcohol sales and consumption are prohibited at more places, including bus terminals, boat piers, train stations and around education institutes, he said. 10 Sales of alcoholic drinks are prohibited on religious days. 27 The purpose is to cut back consumption of alcohol, slow down the increase in the number of new drinkers and reduce violence, he said. 29 \"On the occasion of the beginning of the Buddhist Lent, the prime minister wants the Thai people to refrain from drinking alcohol during the three-month period. 55 A previous campaign showed that 81.2% of those who refrained from taking alcohol could reduce household spending, 80.5% enjoyed better physical health, 50.2% had better mental health, and 31.1% were able to reduce family problems and have a happy family life,\" Lt Gen Sansern said. 14 \"The prime minister would like to thank everyone for their cooperation.\""} {"text": " 28 Returning privacy to E-mail Returning privacy to E-mail The key to deploying encrypted mail is to make it happen with close to zero involvement by the user. 18 This is hard, and requires some security compromises that have made cryptographers uneasy in the past. 40 However, I have come down to the view that getting encryption widely deployed, even with some minor flaws, is better than getting perfectly designed encryption (if that's even possible) that hardly anybody uses. 20 The reason is that I exchange mail with tons of people, not just my closest linux-using nerd friends. 18 If I want my mail to be private, I have to get the general public encrypting. 36 This is a particular concern with new laws just passed granting U.S. law enforcment the power to read the \"header\" of a message -- including the subject lines of E-mails without a warrant. 40 In addition, other nations have always had such powers, and on top of it all, most ISP backbones and mail servers are poorly secured from snooping by almost any system cracker trying to invade your privacy. 52 To make this happen, several people have advocated a system where all mail you send out contains a special header revealing that you can do encryption and signing, what method you use, a one-time string, and your key, or a fingerprint and URL for your key. 10 (Among such systems are pps and Herbivore.) 17 If you send mail to somebody your mailer doesn't know, you include this header. 20 If they also have an encryption tool, and they see this header, their tool records the information. 14 Then, any reply to you they send is encrypted with your key. 8 And the first reply contains their key. 26 After you get that encrypted reply, you know their key and they know yours, and all future mail is encrypted, and signed. 33 It's private, and nobody else can access it, and you can be sure the mail you get is coming from somebody with access to the E-mail address it says. 27 Now it turns out that the vast bulk of E-mail out there is replies, and only a very few messages are first-time-ever messages with people. 18 As such, this system quickly starts making most mail encrypted, at least among its users. 28 In order to work, this system must first be deployed on Windows, and work with popular Windows mailers like Outlook Express, Eudora and Netscape. 22 Most cryptographers, who more commonly use linux or the Mac, have tried to put their software on those platforms. 5 This is not sufficient. 27 Most of my mail is to and from people who use Windows, so my mail isn't private until those people are running encryption software. 14 To get them to run it, it must have zero user interface. 17 That's something people have almost never done in crypto, because it involves some compromises. 17 The users must not need to understand anything about the crypto or need to configure it. 16 They should be able to get it by downloading a program and running it once. 8 After that they should have encrypted mail. 4 No key generation. 5 No getting a certificate. 26 Even better, the function should be installed by default into their mail tool, so they don't even have to run a program. 17 That, however, is up to Qualcomm and Microsoft or the vendors who sell machines. 17 The EFF is interested in organizing and endorsing an open source project to create such tools. 34 If you are a programmer willing to work (without pay, alas) on such tools with skills in C/C++, cryptography and/or E-mail protocols, contact me at brad@eff.org. 18 Those wishing to donate money to the EFF for this or any other efforts are always welcome. 20 Should a major donor appear, I will be able to take out the \"without pay\" above. 25 How to get zero UI To do this, the program must see what mailer the user has and configure to work with it. 36 One way to work with most mailers is to have the program function as a proxy for the various mail protocols, known as SMTP (for outgoing mail) and POP/IMAP for mailbox access. 29 In this case, the program would pretend to be the user's mail server, and it would talk to the real mail servers for the user. 21 The program would alter the configuration of Outlook or other mailers to get into the middle of the mail chain. 19 If the user created a new mail account, it would detect this and intercept that traffic too. 21 The only time the user would have to work with the encryption program would be to stop this from happening. 27 A more advanced program could interface directly with the mailers using protocols like Microsoft's MAPI, but the proxy system is required as a minimum. 23 As noted, a toolkit should also be available to work inside popular mailers, including ones on Linux and the Mac. 6 What is the security weakness? 26 This sort of \"opportunistic encryption\" is subject to a sophisticated attack called a \"man in the middle\" (MITM) attack. 38 If somebody is able to intercept all your communications, coming and going, in a way to be able to rewrite them as they go in and out, they can intercept and alter your mail. 29 That's because they can see you send out the first key with the magic header, and they can change the header to be their own key. 26 After that they can rewrite all your mail to make it look like they are you, and thus get copies of all of it. 26 To do this they must be intercepting and rewriting your traffic the first time you use the system, and every time you use it. 12 They must be able to rewrite your traffic forever after that. 21 If they ever stop or goof up, an error will occur that you and the other party can see. 26 Of course that doesn't always help you with the privacy invasion that took place earlier, but it makes the job harder for them. 31 If they can just snoop, and not rewrite your mail, they can see your first mail message to somebody, and other people's first messages to you. 13 They can't see the text of any of the subsequent ones. 14 There are tricks that can stop them from seeing even your first mail. 26 Of course, if they can tap directly into your own machine, or the machine of your recipient, they can see your mail. 32 For example, if they get you to download a trojan horse program, or exploit a security hole in a browser, they can still take control of your machine. 21 If they break in to a correspondent's machine, they can see your mail to and from that person. 11 Every single crypto system in the world has this flaw. 40 In particular, if they truly have control over your internet connection, they can alter any piece of software you download in order to make it a trojan horse that listens to your every keystroke if they like. 11 They could even intercept the download of the mail encryptor. 12 (Though it will be signed to help prevent that.) 15 But this is hard work, and as such it's an acceptable risk. 34 To avoid it, you need an independent channel to introduce your mail programs to each other and a layer of scrutiny of what you download that's beyond 99.99% of users. 31 A good intermediate step is for one or both parties to go to a trusted 3rd party and get an electronic \"certificate\" of authenticity for a crypto key. 29 This is a good system, and such systems have been around for some time, but people are, for better or worse, not using them. 26 (However, this system would allow those willing to deal with a UI, and possible fees for services, to do that.) 20 Another minor weakness is that if somebody can read your E-mail box, they can pretend to be you. 37 The authentication portion of this system relies on the fact that if you send a mail to user@domain.com, only that person has the password to read it to send back the right response. 20 You use that fact to, in the future, assure that the mail is really coming from them. 19 If they have weak security on their mailbox, other people can pretend to send mail as them. 25 The popular terminal session program SSH is also subject to the MITM attack, but has attained good success and improved security for many. 4 What about forging? 31 A third potential flaw is that if two people have never exchanged E-mail, I can send a forged E-mail to one of them pretending to be from the other. 11 So I send mail to Alice pretending to be Bob. 12 She records the key I sent as the key for Bob. 17 Now Bob can't send her mail because he doesn't know the key I used. 15 This can be fixed with a challenge and response that the user never sees. 28 When Alice gets the first mail purporting to be from Bob, her mail tool (without her involvement) sends back a quick challenge to Bob. 16 That goes to Bob's real mail system, not to me, the forger. 33 Bob's system gets this and notices he never sent a mail to Alice, or that the response doesn't match a secret string he put in the mail to Alice. 14 Both Alice and Bob can be alerted that something funny is going on. 27 This also means that if you send a mail, your next mail will be encrypted even if you don't get a personal reply yet. 11 The automatic reply can be enough to establish the keys. 25 So if you are extra cautious your first E-mail can say just \"hello\" and the 2nd e-mail can have the private message. 31 Viral Spreading To make the system spread, enthusiastic users would configure the program to add some text to replies they send to users who didn't include a key. 38 This text, added as a signature on plain mails, would say \"Did you realize that all your mail is being sent unprotected, like a postcard that anybody else along the way can read? 12 I want my mail to and from you to be private. 34 Consider going to to see how to really easily arrange for all your mail to and from me and others can be automatically secured with no work from you.\" 6 Or words to that effect. 12 People might sign up just to stop getting the signature lines! 16 (Though the program would be polite and not send this message every time.) 21 Web based mail and encrypting mail servers One could also support this protocol directly in a web based mail tool. 8 Some companies already do something like that. 11 And the web based access can be encrypted through SSL. 30 Similarly, an ISP or mail provider could provide mailbox and SMTP services which automatically perform this encryption, and encourage the use of SSL encrypted SMTP and POP/IMAP. 31 This is good but not a substitute for it being on the local machine, because if the mail server is tapped, the unencrypted mail can be intercepted there. 17 However, it still is safe from being read at any other point along the line. 20 The biggest flaw If you have zero UI, the user is not even aware the encryption is there. 9 That means the PC does all the work. 19 This means that if the PC is lost (hard disk failure) then the keys are lost. 25 In turn that means unread mail from prior correspondents sitting in the user's remote mailbox can no longer be read -- by anybody. 31 However, error replies can go out on it to tell the other person they need to contact you (not via E-mail) to arrange resending of the mail. 20 The crash recovery procedure, fortunately, does not have the zero UI requirement, as it's rare. 19 You also can't easily roam, which is to say read your E-mail from a different computer. 14 To do that you would need a strong (non guessable) password. 21 (Your keys, protected with the password, would be kept in an invisible message in your mailbox.) 35 However, if you do have a password, then your mail is safe from crashes, and you can roam from computer to computer, as much as you trust the other computers. 39 Another, less secure option for those who truly want zero UI, is to generate the password from the local machine configuration, using information that would survive a crash, but which is not publicly guessable. 15 However, some have debated just how non-guessable you could make such a password. 28 This allows recovery from hard disk failure (though not from a totaly machine swap) but users would still be recommended to instead create a password. 29 The mailbox password could also be used as a zero-UI password, but it is of course available to anybody with access to the mail server you use. 12 Better than no security, but a much more significant risk. 23 Some UI Now while the system must work with no user interface, for the more advanced users it can have some. 30 For example, users may wish to know when mail is secured and when it is not, and when it is authenticated, and when it is not. 20 This can actually just go into regular E-mail headers, though a web browsing tool could also be developed. 27 In addition, while zero-UI users face some flaws, there is no reason to not design the system to allow some UI for greater security. 34 For example, those who do go and get a certificate (through PGP key signing parties, or from various professional certificate issuers) could use them to stop some man-in-the-middle attacks. 44 And a system for public key distribution (such as standard locations for getting certified public keys via challenge-response) could make even the first email secured to people who use it, and prevent people from faking mail to disrupt the system. 42 However, those become targets for attack, and the sad truth is that a truly clever man-in-the-middle can take over the machine of anybody who doesn't use perfect download hygene, and bypass all crypto protection at this level. 21 In the Servers Some other projects exist to provide server to server encryption in the mail-transport-agent, such as Sendmail. 21 Some use S/MIME and certificates for pairs of servers that trust one another or have a certificate system set up. 15 One plan, called SSMail (PDF File) provides opportunistic encyption between servers. 18 Finally, servers that use IPSEC tools like FreeS/WAN will of course encrypt what travels between them. 10 These are also great approaches and should be encouraged. 6 They can both be used. 26 The server to server approach requires no action by the users, which is great, though it currently requires significant effort by system administrators. 18 (Over time, this can be reduced if it becomes pre-installed with mail transport agents.) 13 Unfortunately, users often have no control over what gets in servers. 57 In addition, if your server is not under your control, server to server encryption (which still worthwhile) is vulnerable to any compromise of the server, and if SSL is not used in all client/server channel, it is vulnerable to any compromise of the pathway from the user to the server. 24 Anti-Spam Note that the system will immediately distinguish between mail from people you know who use the system and those who don't. 22 This is a good first step for use in tools that sort your mail based on how likely it is spam. 17 The mail from people you know is almost surely not spam and can be read first. 45 In addition, in a manner similar to my Viking system, the user could turn on a challenge/response tool to challenge unknown users, or demand some sort of proof that they're not a spammer or spent some CPU on the message. 10 Identity based keys Another option is identity based encryption. 22 In such a system you would simply provide a very simple tag that indicates you accept mail encrypted in this form. 26 One could even make a rule that if your email address contains a magic token, it can be assumed to be ready for this. 14 With identity based encryption, you form the key from the e-mail address. 19 The recipient has to go to a special CA, and prove that they own the E-mail address. 15 They can then get their real private key that correponds to their E-mail address. 15 (One usual trick is that the CA mails that key to the address. 22 This is not particularly strong but does demonstrate that, at the time, the party could read that mailbox.) 11 More on this type of encryption can be found here. 20 Such a system would avoid the need to include keys in mail, but does need a central agency. 11 The patent status of these algorithms is not yet researched. 17 Beyond E-mail The next step is to slightly alter web server tools to do opportunistic SSL. 23 For web sites that have some spare CPU, it would be nice if traffic were encrypted as a matter of course. 27 Today 99% of web surfers can do SSL, but nobody uses https: URLs except when going to a sensative and deliberately secured application. 27 Servers should be configured to notice if the user is coming in to http with a modern browser, and redirect from then on to https. 25 This would be very simple to do in most servers, such as Apache, but as of yet the team has been uninterested. 8 Technical Notes Here are some Technical Notes."} {"text": " 28 While speaking to Anderson Cooper on CNN this week, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a very good point about the 2020 presidential election. 27 Bloomberg suggested that the Democratic Party will be torn apart by the far left which is struggling for a dominant position of power in the party. 66 Zero Hedge reported:\n\nMayor Bloomberg: Democrats Will Lose In 2020 Because \u201cParty Is Going To Be Torn Apart\u201d\n\nLast night, in CNN and Anderson Cooper\u2019s effort to desperately avoid discussing the Democratic debacle unfolding in Georgia, Cooper decided to pivot his discussion with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to focus on the 2020 election cycle. 78 We can only imagine the thought process: \u2018ignore Georgia, surely there must be some silver lining for Democrats if we just look far enough out on the horizon, right Mike?\u2019\n\nTrending: CNN Told By South Korean Official: \u201cClearly Credit Goes To President Trump\u201d (VIDEO)\n\nUnfortunately, Bloomberg didn\u2019t offer up the reassurances that Cooper, and his employer, were so desperately seeking. 33 Instead, he pegged Trump\u2019s re-election odds at 55% and predicted the entire Democratic party would be in complete disarray by the time the next election cycle rolls around. 27 Cooper: \u201cI think recently you gave the chance that Trump would be re-elected of 55%.\u201d\n\nBloomberg: \u201cYeah, sure. 33 The incumbent always has an advantage.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd the Democratic Party is going to be torn apart by the left and the centralists.\u201d\n\nWatch the video:\n\nIs he right? 9 Let us know your thoughts in a comment."} {"text": " 47 Verizon Picks The Worst Possible Person To Try To Bullshit Into Unnecessary Upgrade\n\nfrom the smooth-move-exlax dept\n\n\"While some might want to chalk this us to an isolated incident, or an over zealous sales rep, that\u2019s not the case at all. 21 I called in three times and spoke to three different reps, plus one online and got the same pitch. 28 Clearly this sales tactic is being driven by those higher up in the company and isn\u2019t something a sales rep made up on their own. 28 And two years ago, Verizon tried to pitch me the exact same story, promising better quality Netflix streaming if I upgraded my Internet package.\" 37 It's no secret that ISP support reps will consistently tell you whatever you'd like to hear when trying to sell you on more expensive packages, even if the claims are miles from reality. 35 Sometimes that's just a support rep going rogue to meet numbers and try to make a sale, and sometimes it's part of a consistent, scripted effort to mislead the consumer. 75 Frost and Sullivan analyst Dan Rayburn says he ran into the latter recently when he called to renegotiate his FiOS triple play bundle rate with the telco, and was informed, repeatedly, that he needed to upgrade his speed from 50 Mbps to 75 Mbps if he wanted Netflix to stream properly.That wasn't the brightest move on Verizon's part, since Rayburn covers the streaming video sector for a living. 25 Rayburn was quick to highlight that Ookla data shows that the average bitrate delivered to a Verizon customer last month was around 3.5 Mbps . 26 Even in a household full of streaming video fanatics, there's really not much that 75 Mbps will provide that 50 Mbps won't. 33 And while Rayburn warns that uninformed users can easily fall into Verizon's trap, it should only take the average consumer about five minutes of Google use to avoid this pitfall. 38 Netflix's website informs users the company's standard definition streaming service eats about 1 GB of data per hour per stream of standard def video, and Netflix recommends roughly 3 Mbps for standard def content . 23 High definition video meanwhile consumes around 3 GB per hour, per stream, with Netflix recommending 5 Mbps for HD video. 36 Even if you're part of the tiny number of people with a 4K set looking to stream Ultra HD, you'll only need a connection of around 25 Mbps, according to Netflix. 123 Of course this requires the average consumer to know what a gigabyte is, which is no safe bet Rayburn proceeds to document that this wasn't just a one-off situation, but that Verizon lied about his need for 75 Mbps to obtain \"smoother\" Netflix streaming numerous times:The biggest irony here, unmentioned by Rayburn, is that he's consistently been one of only a few analysts on Verizon's side during the company's recent interconnection scuffle with Netflix , blaming Netflix, not giant ISPs, for most of the congestion issues that magically started popping up over the last year or so as ISPs like Verizon started pushing Netflix for direct interconnection fees. 39 In other words, Verizon not only tried to bullshit someone who spends their life discussing streaming issues, but it managed to annoy one of the company's few allies on the net neutrality and interconnection front. 7 That's quite a double play. 14 Filed Under: bandwidth, dan rayburn, upgrades\n\nCompanies: netflix, verizon"} {"text": " 13 The year was 1897, and the region of Bennett, B.C. 7 was roamed by the Tlingit people. 57 They were organized into Crow and Wolf clans, hunted game as small as squirrels and were so attuned to the land that they passed on a story of a girl who nurtured a woodworm\u2014breastfed the worm, even\u2014and mourned over its death for one year until her brothers held a ceremony to celebrate its life. 20 It was on this Tlingit land, amid gurgling rapids and porcupine droppings, that the Trump empire began. 26 \u201cI think he\u2019s lost touch with his roots,\u201d says Jennifer Ingram, a tourist from Delaware visiting Bennett in June. 39 After prospectors found gold, \u201cB City\u201d became the hub of the Klondike Gold Rush, prompting 100,000 Americans and Canadians to attempt a trek so tough that about 60 per cent turned back or died. 60 Friedrich Trump, Donald\u2019s great-grandfather, joined the bandwagon\u2014with no wagon, but rather hired Indigenous locals to carry much of his load\u2014and established the Arctic Restaurant and Hotel, which also served as a brothel, and which Parks Canada and the Carcross Tagish First Nation are now restoring to be part of an interpretive tour. 28 The current U.S. president may own resorts on four continents, but his ancestral fortune began with a two-storey outfit selling swan meat and sex in Canada. 19 \u201cEverybody\u2019s gotta start somewhere,\u201d says Donna Laperle, a tourist from California. 25 The Tlingit had little use for gold\u2014it\u2019s too malleable to make tools\u2014but the metal promised money for one German man with drive. 41 Trump had moved from Kallstadt, Germany in 1885 and started cutting hair in Manhattan, but he was no wealthy barber, and when he heard buzz about Bennett, he came, he saw, and he capitalized. 71 Trump\u2019s trunks contained, among other necessities, more than his weight in bacon, and he would\u2019ve needed to hire Tlingit pack carriers, who translated \u201cnewcomers\u201d as \u201ccheechakos.\u201d The Arctic Hotel offered an omnivorous menu of moose, goose, caribou and cranberries, but most of the profit for Trump and his business partner came from alcohol and prostitution. 35 \u201cLadies of the night\u201d often hiked the trail in skirts, and they stayed at the Arctic Hotel to entertain gold diggers, using a scale to weigh gold powder for payment. 70 \u201cI would not advise respectable women to go there to sleep,\u201d wrote a reporter for the Yukon Sun in April 1900, \u201cas they are liable to hear that which would be repugnant to their feelings and uttered, too, by the depraved of their own sex.\u201d\n\nIn Tlingit culture, girls were considered critical to a community\u2019s spiritual good fortune. 90 At puberty, girls were secluded to a tent for two months to two years so their menstruation wouldn\u2019t bring bad hunting luck to their people, and so they could learn skills like sewing, according to My Old People Say, an iconic work by Catharine McClellan, who spent three decades working with and gathering stories from Yukon elders (girls sometimes snuck out of the \u201cpuberty camps\u201d to dance or play with other children, but they would be forgiven). 26 Powerful white women also came to Bennett to find adventure, farm cattle and run a competing hotel that was fancier than Trump\u2019s. 19 Six weeks after opening his establishment, Trump was already scoping out his next location: in Whitehorse. 25 Spotting another boomtown, he and helpers would lift his hotel onto a barge and floated it by river to the future capital city. 36 Before gold yields dropped, Trump returned to Germany to find a wife, Elizabeth Christ, and moved back to New York to have three children and buy real estate on the west coast. 74 Trump\u2019s exploits in Bennett were just a footnote in the Gold Rush, and to the Tlingit people, the entire rush was merely, as Parks Canada historian David Neufeld puts it, \u201ca wild weekend party that came and, thankfully, left.\u201d\n\nCruise ships now bring cheechakos to Bennett from Japan, Sweden and beyond, most of them not expecting to find a Trump franchise. 23 \u201cBelieve me, we didn\u2019t come to see that,\u201d says Gary Graff, a visitor from Kentucky. 51 \u201cWe\u2019re grateful that Canadians even let us into the country, given the man in the executive mansion.\u201d The region also attracts cross-country skiers to the Buckwheat Ski Classic, an annual race that began with the explicit purpose of luring beautiful women in the winter. 36 Bennett\u2019s national historic site protects plants as exotic as the Northern Bastard Toadflax, and the town has only one resident, a Tlingit woman who maintains her family\u2019s trap line. 30 She lives up the shore from the Arctic Hotel reconstruction project, where artifacts still lie on the lawns\u2014a shriveled mattress spring; a women\u2019s salmon-coloured shoe."} {"text": " 7 A sport is not a business. 44 You can make a business out of a sport, in the same way you can make a business out of sex or alpaca hair or tomatoes, but you\u2019ll be selling something that\u2019s tangential to the sport itself. 19 The NFL doesn\u2019t sell \u201cfootball\u201d; it sells access to the best football players. 11 Fans buy that access in the form of game tickets. 48 NBC buys it in the form of broadcast rights, then airs the game to attract a TV audience whose sports-captivated attention it can sell to a sports-advertising firm hired by Gatorade, which is selling a drink people might choose to consume while playing a sport. 13 Sport generates economic activity, but sport isn\u2019t inherently economic. 9 Sport is just some people playing a game. 33 You could argue that playing a game is always an economic activity on some grad-studenty, breathing-is-an-economic-activity level, and you\u2019d probably be right, I don\u2019t know. 18 I have a PhD in economics, but I made it myself, out of graham crackers. 94 The point is that if you got rid of the whole system of professional American sports, just handed it over to the North Koreans and let Kim Jong-un plumply deliver his Glorious Leopard Make Wrong Sunday Ticket Decree, football would still exist, would still be played, would still saturate the culture in all kinds of ways, even though there would be no NFL and Football Night in America would draw a Nielsen rating that could only be represented by a drawing of a bomb landing on a sheep. 7 A sport is not a business. 50 I\u2019m working my way through this point because I\u2019m about to talk about two of my least favorite things \u2014 Sepp Blatter and the question of whether soccer will ever make it in America \u2014 and I want to get a little armature in place. 18 Over the weekend, Sepp Blatter alienated, or re-alienated, or re-re-re-re-alienated, American soccer fans. 31 He did this by making a couple of brief remarks, at the end of an interview with Al Jazeera, about MLS and the state of the American game. 6 These remarks were not flattering. 37 They were also not that big a deal, but when the president of the world organization governing your sport turns his stupid-beams on you, it\u2019s only natural to flip out a little. 22 Here\u2019s what he said:\n\nThe problem in the United States \u2014 it\u2019s a little bit different. 22 Don\u2019t forget that soccer, as they call football there, is the most popular game in the youth. 13 It\u2019s not American football or baseball; it is soccer. 9 But there is no very strong professional league. 22 They have just the MLS, but they have not these professional leagues, which are recognized by the American society. 21 It is a question of time, I thought when they had the World Cup in \u201994, 1994. 17 But \u201994 \u2014 now we are in 2012, it\u2019s now 18 years. 8 So it should have been done now. 6 But they are still struggling. 37 So, OK. What bugged MLS fans about this was pretty much what bugs everybody Blatter decides to distraction-troll; at 76, the dude simply plays with an impossibly well-crafted blend of cluelessness and malice. 14 He\u2019s the Johnnie Walker Blue of grandfatherly, passive-aggressive smack talk. 36 You never know whether he\u2019s misinterpreting facts because he\u2019s unacquainted with them or because he\u2019s working some Big Lie\u2013type long con and it suits him to deny a trend. 88 So, for instance, if he doesn\u2019t know that MLS is now the third-ranking American pro sport in terms of live attendance, or that (as league commissioner Don Garber emphasized in his response) it has recently signed personal-best sponsorship and TV deals totaling $230 million, or that it\u2019s well along in its successful long-term program of stadium-infrastructure improvement \u2014 that\u2019s maddening, because he\u2019s the president of FIFA and he should know stuff. 38 If he knows it and he\u2019s deliberately ignoring it, that\u2019s maddening because he\u2019s the president of FIFA and he shouldn\u2019t be a smug, puffy liar, probably. 54 It\u2019s a mark of the truly great cultural trolls, the Trumps and Becks and Morgans, that they make you hate them for being stupid enough to be as wrong as they are while simultaneously making you hate them for being smart enough to exploit the stupidity of their audience. 29 Blatter takes the confused-moron-but-also-evil-genius routine to a whole other plane, though, because you can\u2019t even say whose stupidity he\u2019s trying to exploit. 9 He\u2019s rousing no rabble \u2014 brilliantly. 28 He\u2019s hosting history\u2019s most appalling drive-time talk show for an audience of zero, and somehow he keeps signing bigger and bigger contracts. 11 And then \u2014 as if that weren\u2019t enough! 14 \u2014 there\u2019s the fact that he\u2019s kind of right. 28 Not really right, not right on the level of detail, but right in a big, soft way that\u2019s hard to argue with. 19 MLS\u2019s 13-year trend under Garber has been one of gradual, steady, intelligently managed growth. 11 You can point to a hundred measurables that confirm this. 16 On the other hand, has the league been embraced by Tonight Show American society? 3 Obviously not. 40 And yes, it\u2019s crazy to assume we should have reached that stage in 18 years, given that there are a couple of other sports over here that compete in a small way for public attention. 36 But by the time you say all that, you\u2019ve already conceded Blatter\u2019s main point, and he just sits there, smiling his dumb smile at you, twinkling horribly. 31 Anyway, what got me about Blatter\u2019s interview fragment was what it said about his, and by extension FIFA\u2019s, view of soccer in general. 26 FIFA, and try not to laugh as you read this, is technically a nonprofit organization that exists to support soccer at all levels. 40 A 6-year-old practicing with a ball in an alley is, and don\u2019t forget to download my comedy podcast on iTunes here, technically as important as the Premier League, as far as FIFA is concerned. 29 FIFA is inevitably going to be involved with the commercial sphere around soccer, but the group\u2019s main concern is supposed to be the game itself. 7 A sport is not a business! 41 And yet: Blatter looks at America, sees a country where soccer is the most popular youth sport, and calls that \u201cstruggling\u201d because they don\u2019t run MLS spots during How I Met Your Mother. 19 Well, \u201cFIFA is about the money\u201d isn\u2019t exactly a moon-landing headline, news-wise. 29 This would be a pretty minor entry in the old anti-FIFA account if it didn\u2019t so instructively misrepresent what\u2019s actually happening in American soccer. 33 Because the thing is, the quarterly report of a pro league is only one way to measure the state of a sport; it doesn\u2019t tell the whole story. 25 And where American soccer has grown the most over the past decade is in the area where sport exists outside the business of sport. 11 Or at least outside the traditional benchmarks of the business. 48 To understand a sport\u2019s place in a culture you have to look beyond TV and even outside stadiums \u2014 you have to look at playgrounds and mall concourses and the jokes people you haven\u2019t talked to in 12 years are making on Facebook. 30 And I\u2019m sorry, but by those measures, the condition of soccer in America is roughly a billion times healthier than it was 18 years ago. 7 It\u2019s countless little things. 9 You see grown-ups playing soccer in the park. 13 You see college bros in Messi jerseys killing time at the airport. 17 Manchester United shows up on the front page of nytimes.com \u2014 not once, but regularly. 9 Strangers you meet know about the Champions League. 27 I hope this doesn\u2019t sound too anecdotal/Thomas Friedman\u2019s\u2013cab\u2013driver\u2013ish, but the whole point is that you can\u2019t really measure it. 18 Soccer is just much more of a steady everyday presence than it was a few years ago. 4 It just is. 11 And isn\u2019t it naive to expect anything else? 29 The NFL and superhero movies are all that\u2019s left of the monoculture these days, and the Internet means France is right next door to everybody. 23 It\u2019s the fate of almost every interest to be carried along by complex, dedicated, decentralized groups of fans. 39 You don\u2019t know them because their One Big League suddenly starts throwing off billionaires, you know them because you see three matching T-shirts in the subway one week and realize that this is a thing. 36 In America, soccer fans are painting their faces for MLS games and/or streaming gray-market Blackburn matches and/or hanging out in soccer bars and/or arguing with Spanish fans about Thierry Henry on Barcelona message boards. 17 There\u2019s no real rubric for evaluating the success of that kind of diffuse participation. 42 Maybe someday someone will figure out how to fuse it into a consolidated moneymaking operation, but regardless, is it even debatable that the game as a game is in better shape here than it has been in 80 years? 23 That fans, whether or not they\u2019re also customers, are having a better, easier, less isolated experience? 7 The World Cup is a business. 5 FIFA is a business. 6 Sepp Blatter runs a business. 5 Soccer is something else."} {"text": " 21 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is an outstanding esport, and deservedly recognized as the top competitive shooter on the market. 30 But despite the community\u2019s best efforts, it didn\u2019t quite make the shortlist for Steam\u2019s coveted Best Use Of A Farm Animal award . 27 If you\u2019ve ever fired up CS:GO's deathmatch mode, you\u2019ve probably noted an epidemic of chickens plaguing the server. 24 Relegated to target practice in most players' minds, it\u2019s about time these long-running birds got the recognition they deserve. 31 From zombification to the time a chicken got a professional player killed, let's reflect on the ways our feathered friends have embedded themselves in Counter-Strike\u2019s history. 24 Festive feathers\n\nWith the changing of the seasons, so too comes the inevitable swathe of holiday updates for our favourite online games. 26 But where others run huge events, reworking levels or modes and adding unique player skins, CS:GO has, well, chickens. 26 Since Halloween 2013, Valve has patched the little mascots to match the mood, festooning chickens with all manner of spooky or festive gear. 22 Starting with an adorable, bed-sheet ghost costume , chickens have donned Christmas jumpers, pumpkin heads, antlers and more. 23 Each update included its own quirks, from bunnyhopping chickens at Easter, to death-confetti for CS:GO\u2019s anniversary. 56 The most impressive change came on Halloween 2014, when patch notes ominously listed: \u201cWhen there\u2019s no more room in chicken hell...\u201d Players soon discovered that chickens no longer remained dead when shot, rising from the grave in ghoulish green to stalk both the battlefield and your nightmares. 15 Okay, it was mostly adorable, but they\u2019re trying their best. 36 A history of hens\n\nCounter-Strike\u2019s love-hate affair with these iconic birds stretches far back to the days of CS 1.6, where two chickens could be found feeding in cs_italy\u2019s market. 15 These early birds were incapable of moving, pecking on the spot until killed. 14 However, despite their limitations, players quickly took a shine to them . 21 Chickens returned in Condition Zero\u2019s singleplayer, Deleted Scenes, which contained two hidden chickens as easter eggs. 35 Sadly, upon the release of Counter-Strike: Source in 2004, the popular birds were nowhere to be found, and Counter-Strike\u2019s mascot appeared to be plucked from the game forever. 9 Until the 2012 launch of CS:GO. 21 The long-awaited return was a clear point of celebration to the development team, who announced their appearance before release . 20 It\u2019s clear to see why, as the bold little birds had come far in the transition. 13 Free-range, chickens could roam the map and react to player shots/movement. 32 Now found on the competitive Inferno, Cobblestone, Italy, Militia and Rush maps, chickens will also spawn anywhere during deathmatch, and even score 1 point when killed. 21 In homage to 1.6\u2019s originals, two butchered chickens can be found hanging in Italy\u2019s market . 57 Take a look through the offices of the updated Nuke, and you\u2019ll find a message informing staff to \u201cstop letting chickens in the facility.\u201d Since release, chickens have also been included in many of the game\u2019s Operations, requesting the player eliminate them through a variety of means. 20 Even CS:GO\u2019s bots appear to take umbrage at their smaller companions, voicing their disgust . 30 Valve has done much to accommodate the influx, patching a henhouse into Inferno\u2019s T-side spawn, and even allowing players to claim chickens as their own. 24 Press E on a chicken and she\u2019ll follow you until death , even teleporting to spawn if she survives the round. 19 When killed, your period of ownership is reported, letting you remember the good times spent together. 30 Fowl play\n\nThe inclusion of livestock to the competitive world was always a risky proposition, and on more than one occasion they\u2019ve interfered with professional play. 13 When first added, chickens would run away and squawk when approached. 29 In Dreamhack Winter 2013, this led to the death of Recursive\u2019s star sniper kennyS, when a fleeing chicken caused his opponent to fire early. 34 Professional AWPers are trained to react with split-second timing, and the unwitting bird triggered Skadoodle to fire right as kenny prepared to peek, killing him through the corner of a wall. 30 When Keyd Stars faced rampageKillers in the R1SECUP, 2015, Fallen found himself a personal chicken bodyguard, casually blocking SHOOWTiME\u2019s sight to soften the blow. 19 Unfortunately, rampageKillers went on to win the round, proving this bird\u2019s sacrifice in vain. 35 Following a number of professional\u2019s complaints, Valve eventually patched chickens, reducing their responsiveness to player movement and the volume of their clucks, citing professional suggestions in the patch notes. 11 When asked directly, however, professional opinions are mixed. 18 While some only want to save their feathered brethren, others simple want to kill them all . 14 Despite the complaints, some chickens still take that extra step for attention . 30 Popular poultry\n\nThe popularity of chickens with the game\u2019s fanbase has inspired a plethora of entertaining fan art, in-game stickers, videos, and even mods. 20 1.6\u2019s chicken attack mod transformed one side into bloodthirsty birds intent on pecking the opposition to death. 22 Global Offensive\u2019s offerings gave players the chance to race chickens , or attempt to defuse bombs strapped to them . 34 Source Filmmaker and the Saxxy awards sparked the creation of some amusing chicken clips, most notably the 2014 entrant, Defuse on the Fly (above), by Deviant Pictures Films. 20 It would seem, however, that chickens don\u2019t want to be limited to just canon fodder. 32 Chiken, a silver ranked player, has gained legendary status by infiltrating not only a large number of big CS:GO streamers, but even a LAN tournament semi-final. 19 Joining the lobbies, the infamous Chiken was initially friendly, stating that he only wanted to play. 45 However, following the inevitable kicking that followed, chiken has become more ominous, finally leaving the message: \u201cThis is only the beginning.\u201d With security measures tightened up, the return of chiken at future events remains to be seen."} {"text": " 38 German Chancellor Angela Merkel was overheard on a hot mic confronting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over anti-immigrant posts, amid complaints from her government that the social network isn\u2019t doing enough to curtail racist comments. 36 The two were overheard exchanging words on a live transmission broadcast on the United Nations website, as participants took their seats at a U.N. development summit in New York on Saturday, Bloomberg reported. 30 After Ms. Merkel asked Mr. Zuckerberg about offensive posts on the refugee crisis, the Facebook CEO said \u201cwe need to do some work\u201d on the issue. 17 \u201cAre you working on this?\u201d Ms. Merkel asked in English, Bloomberg reported. 15 \u201cYeah,\u201d Mr. Zuckerberg reportedly responded, before the transmission was disrupted. 25 A surge of Syrian refugees seeking asylum in Germany has spurred a spate of attacks on refugee centers and anti-immigrant sentiment, Bloomberg reported. 37 Earlier this month, Facebook vowed to clean up racist content on its German website by partnering with a German Internet watchdog, called Voluntary Self-Monitoring of Multimedia Service Providers, to monitor suspected hate postings. 24 \u201cWe are committed to working closely with the German government on this important issue,\u201d Facebook spokeswoman Debbie Frost told Bloomberg. 45 \u201cWe think the best solutions to dealing with people who make racist and xenophobic comments can be found when service providers, government and civil society all work together to address this common challenge.\u201d\n\nCopyright \u00a9 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. 6 Click here for reprint permission."} {"text": " 58 Petaluma City Council to vote on \u2018sanctuary\u2019 resolution\n\nThe night after Petaluma\u2019s Feb. 6 City Council meeting was a restless one for Councilman Dave King after having listened to community members beseech the council to adopt an \u201cIt Won\u2019t Happen Here\u201d declaration safeguarding the equal rights of all people. 36 In response to the public outcry that night, that included a petition signed by 875 community members, Mayor David Glass named King, Teresa Barrett and Kathy Miller to draft a formal resolution. 28 King finished the resolution\u2019s first draft the next morning, and with input from Barret and Miller, it was sent off to the city. 39 Tonight, the council is expected to pass the resolution that, among other provisions, states the city \u201cwill refuse to cooperate with any demands from the federal government to institute detentions, deportations, registries . 1 . 1 . 2 imprisonment . 1 . 1 . 16 based on immigration status, race\u201d or other protections under state and federal laws. 48 In addition, the proposed resolution states Petaluma law enforcement will not detain an individual eligible for release from custody on the basis of an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold, unless the person has been convicted of crimes specified in the 2014 California Trust Act. 30 The resolution is similar to others passed by cities across the nation in reaction to President Donald Trump\u2019s crackdown on immigration and divisive statements about undocumented immigrants. 25 Similar votes have been taken by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, and the city councils of Santa Rosa, Healdsburg and Sebastopol. 49 A resolution is forthcoming in Sonoma, and a bill has been put forward in the state Senate to declare California a \u201csanctuary state.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat bothers me the most about what\u2019s happening is what the impact is on families,\u201d King said. 65 \u201cIt impacts a lot of people, but when it starts impacting children and young adults, it crosses a line of fairness and what I think our country should really stand for.\u201d\n\nInitially, Glass was hesitant about the city adopting such a proposal, concerned about the impact it might have on the millions in federal funding the city receives. 6 He now backs it wholeheartedly. 30 \u201cI\u2019ve come to the conclusion that we\u2019re the same as the rest of California whether we do this or not,\u201d he said. 12 \u201cHow do you rationally think about an irrational chief executive? 78 It\u2019s more important to let our community know that \u2014 to the degree we\u2019re capable of it \u2014 they\u2019re not vulnerable as a result of us (not taking action).\u201d\n\nIn an emotional speech before the council chamber on Feb. 6, newly sworn-in Petaluma Police Chief Ken Savano took a few minutes to make his own thoughts known about undocumented immigrants and other minority communities in Petaluma. 36 \u201cThe City of Petaluma is open to everyone, no matter where you come from, what language you speak, who you love or how you worship,\u201d he said to applause. 84 \u201cAs your police chief, I want to reaffirm our commitment to working together to keep our community safe and healthy and to taking care of all community members and their families, regardless of citizenship.\u201d\n\nSam Tuttelman and Chuck Scher, longstanding community activists who had a hand in bringing the \u201cIt Won\u2019t Happen Here\u201d resolution before the council, are intent on making sure this isn\u2019t the end of the movement in Petaluma. 30 Two community engagement fairs, like one held last month in Santa Rosa that drew thousands, are in the works, likely to be held in the summer. 40 \u201cIn general there are a lot of groups spontaneously forming in Sonoma County and in Petaluma to try to counteract what we view as the vitriolic and bigoted agenda that Trump has put forward,\u201d Scher said. 12 \u201cIt requires a response from all people of good will. 14 In my humble opinion, that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing. 28 People are coming out of the woodwork to ask what they can do.\u201d\n\nYou can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. 5 On Twitter @SeaWarren."} {"text": " 22 If you travel a lot, you\u2019ll be used to absurd roaming charges when you use your mobile phone. 60 But sometimes your phone\u2019s an absolute necessity \u2013 those of us at the Foundation can\u2019t really go overseas for work or for holiday without paying those charges, because we need to be in touch with the office and with a lot of other people around the world who need to talk about things Pi. 13 (And we like to be able to phone our mothers.) 16 Holger Leusch, Benjamin Reichel and Karina Hochstein have found themselves with a similar problem. 44 Worse still, Holger travels to Cambodia a lot, and his German phone provider doesn\u2019t even have a roaming agreement with any of the Cambodian telcos, so he\u2019s not able to use his phone there at all. 18 He found VoIP unusable in Cambodia, with patchy calls, lousy bandwidth, delays and dropouts. 14 Like us, he needed to be in constant touch with his office. 14 Enter (you knew this was coming, didn\u2019t you?) 3 the Pi. 17 Many of those in Holger\u2019s position would look into buying a SIP-based GSM gateway. 36 GSM gateways are expensive things: Holger\u2019s research found that a single GSM port (and you\u2019ll need two, one at each end) was priced between \u20ac200 and \u20ac400. 56 \u201cFor this to pay off, I would have to make a whole lot of phonecalls.\u201d So he, Benjamin and Karina built their own, using a Pi running RasPBX; a Huawei dongle for 3G; a Chan dongle which works as an Asterisk channel driver; and a USB modeswitch. 7 The whole kit came to \u20ac75. 34 Holger says:\n\nNow when a caller in Europe calls my german GSM number, first my domestic Snom phone rings, then after 5 seconds, my Cambodian mobile phone gets called. 63 As a sideffect, my Cambodian friends from now on can call and SMS my German phone back at local rates of a few cents\u2026\n\nThe connection quality over the 10.000 km spanning 64 kbps Asterisk SIP trunk between both gateways actually is so amazing that none of the callers even noticed that I was out of the country at the time! 18 Please be aware that in some countries, telecoms law around GSM gateways is a bit fuzzy. 41 In the UK, Ofcom says:\n\nOfcom has recently clarified that it is entirely legal under UK law for end-users (whether businesses or ordinary consumers) to buy, install and use GSM gateways for their own use. 51 However it is currently illegal under UK law for anyone to use GSM gateway equipment to provide a communications service by way of business to another person or organisation, irrespective of where the gateway equipment is located, or how many or few end-users are connected to each gateway. 40 This prohibition on \u2018commercial\u2019 use applies equally to the mobile network operators (MNOs) as to other organisations, since the MNOs\u2019 licences do not currently extend to the installation and use of GSM gateways. 25 Basically, you can build a gateway yourself in the UK \u2013 but woe betide you if you try to sell or lease one. 64 The mobile network operators sometimes take this even further (for reasons which you might, when you consider all the lovely money that results from those roaming charges, think to be a bit\u2026venal): for example, if Vodaphone suspects you\u2019re using one of its sim cards in a GSM gateway it says it will disable the card. 18 So be sure to research what the local rules are carefully before you implement something similar yourself. 19 You can read more about Holger, Benjamin and Karina\u2019s setup at Carrier Connect Shout Out."} {"text": " 13 The antistate views found on the right are anchored in rural life. 33 It\u2019s an antigovernment impulse born of skepticism of a state that often feels remote and, when it comes around to collect your taxes or regulate your guns, invasive. 15 In contrast, the antistate feelings for the next-generation left simmer among educated urbanites. 42 In their case, it seems to be more a matter of being seduced by the idea of competition and the market in this age of globalization, personal brands and thinly regulated, self-organized bed-and-breakfast, car-service and crowdfunding platforms. 21 Their parents may tell stories about union membership or \u201cfreedom rides\u201d to register African-American voters in the South. 18 But the educated young now come of age in an era dominated by business-speak and business thinking. 14 They massage personal brands as though they were the marketing department of Coca-Cola. 11 They wear movement-measuring wristbands and track and improve their performance. 28 They are entrepreneurs, with what a friend of mine calls \u201cside hustles\u201d \u2014 selling things on Etsy and renting out spare rooms on Airbnb. 23 Though some may fight it, they cannot, in the main, escape Amazon and its cutthroat brand of capitalism. 6 The stuff is so cheap! 5 And arrives so fast! 38 They have come up during a wave of intensive globalization, and many have resigned themselves to its logic of everything being made in the cheapest place, with the cheapest workers, for the cheapest price. 51 When they fight against that logic, it tends to be personal, not political: the locally foraged mushrooms on menus in Brooklyn and the Mission District in San Francisco are a small-scale elite secession from the ways of ruthless global trade, not a political resistance of it. 40 Saru Jayaraman, a labor activist for restaurant workers, has written of urbane consumers in nice restaurants who are more worried about the lives of the animals they eat than of the workers who serve up the animals. 41 \u201cSustainability,\u201d she has written, \u201cis about contributing to a society that everybody benefits from, not just going organic because you don\u2019t want to die from cancer or have a difficult pregnancy.\u201d"} {"text": " 11 Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are bosom buddies, apparently. 14 New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts fans, meanwhile, just threw up. 21 Manning told reporters Wednesday that his one-time nemesis gave him regular support during his recovery from neck surgeries last season. 44 \"He plays for another team, and he reached out to me and said, 'Hey, anything I can do to help the rehab, miss seeing you out there,' \" Manning said, according to The Denver Post. 28 \"When you're injured, and you're not out there playing, you kind of find out who's with you and who's not. 11 Tom consistently throughout the season would check in with me. 5 \"I appreciate that. 6 It says a lot.\" 18 Brady said Manning did the same for him after he suffered a season-ending knee surgery in 2008. 16 What's next, shopping for Uggs, skipping rocks and singing Harry Nilsson songs? 22 Maybe it's easier to acknowledge these things now that Manning is with the Denver Broncos, not the Indianapolis Colts. 24 Still, isn't life more fun when Roddy White is insulting Victor Cruz and Jim Schwartz is shaking hands with Jim Harbaugh? 2 Sigh. 8 Follow Kareem Copeland on Twitter @kareemcopeland."} {"text": " 48 Cattle Consumption Goes Down, Leather Prices Go Up\n\nBreaking news: It should come as no surprise to Clearly Veg readers that supply and demand drastically affect the agriculture industry, but one that doesn\u2019t seem to get much attention is the leather market. 52 Bloomberg\u2019s recent article, \u201cYour Salad Lunches Are Killing American Leather\u201d are a testament to the frailty of the long-standing system:\n\nThe article\u2019s author, James Tarmy, introduces the reader to Lisa Howlett, owner of Auburn Leather, a 152 year-old company. 24 Most of Tarmy\u2019s narrative revolves around Auburn Leather\u2019s current dliemmas \u2013 a leather shortage inspired by a cultural shift. 67 While this is certainly bad news for Howlett, who has been forced to ensure that resources are used as efficiently as possible, something that was essentially unheard of in the company\u2019s history, it continues a dialogue that Americans are having with long-standing American industries like agriculture, given a series of environmental and moral dilemmas that impose dramatic, fast-acting restrictions. 67 This isn\u2019t the sort of breaking news that insists the veg community give business owners like Howlett a pat on the back for her efforts, noting that her business exists because, \u201cthose who make leather don\u2019t want to be the bad guy\u2026do you know where it [leather] would be if it wasn\u2019t on my feet? 64 In a landfill.\u201d This is the sort of breaking news that serves to let the veg community know that we vote with our dollars day-in and day-out, and that this kind of dent in an animal product industry that has been around for thousands of year is proof-positive of a mission that can succeed and perhaps even eventually end animal suffering. 9 Click the link below for the full story. 9 Original article & image source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-05-27/your-salad-lunches-are-killing-american-leather"} {"text": " 31 Written by Jess Macdonald Voices Letter to my hometown: Norwich, on the road to nowhere Hey Norwich, Jess Macdonald has something she needs to say to you. 46 No, don\u2019t walk off\u2026\n\nIt\u2019s considered the done thing to sneer at the place you grew up, and in your case, you make it easy with the slogan you\u2019ve adopted: \u201ca fine city\u201d. 38 It\u2019s alright, I s\u2019pose, if you like that sort of thing, it\u2019s OK, it\u2019s fiiine\u2026 Growing up here, I didn\u2019t love you. 14 You were just there, being normal, being Norwich, being fine. 26 In as much as I ever considered you as a place, you just happened to be the city that housed Topshop and Miss Selfridge. 17 And then we moved back here, five years ago, after 12 years in Fenland. 21 Let\u2019s be honest, after 12 years hard labour in Bogmaggot Land, anywhere would be an improvement. 22 But, oh my city, oh my place of birth, I fell for you, and I fell hard. 14 It was like realising that you are in love with your best friend. 12 I saw you with new eyes and now I adore you. 25 It\u2019s not just that you are beautiful, with your castle, your cathedrals, your perfect patchwork spread of market stalls. 40 It\u2019s not just the endless joy of your twisting alleyways, passages and yards (Labour in Vain Yard, possibly the best place name ever, although St Gregory\u2019s Back Alley might quibble). 26 It\u2019s not just your 31 medieval churches within the city walls, or the fact that you have an area known as Tombland. 20 It\u2019s not even the fact that you have the best high street in the UK, officially. 10 \u201cNo one ends up in Norwich by accident. 47 If you\u2019re here, it\u2019s because you\u2019re meant to be.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s the fact that you are an independent city, a bolshy, thriving, bustling little city that never cares what other people think about you. 30 We get laughed at, Norwich, because we are provincial, we\u2019re the city in the sticks, we\u2019re on the road to nowhere. 21 There\u2019s a reason Alan Partridge comes from Norwich and that\u2019s because it\u2019s a joke. 9 Other cities might get The Arse about that. 7 What do you do, Norwich? 35 You mount a huge social media campaign to get the world premiere of the Alan Partridge film in a manky cinema in the crumbling and universally unloved remains of the Anglia Square shopping complex. 9 And of course, Norwich, you win. 11 Steve Coogan even turns up in a helicopter for it. 9 No one ends up in Norwich by accident. 17 If you\u2019re here, it\u2019s because you\u2019re meant to be. 18 There\u2019s no other reason, no way anyone can happen to be just passing through. 25 Located as we are in the bump of Norfolk that juts out into the North Sea, we stand alone, we stand apart. 8 Some might say that makes us insular. 3 I disagree. 18 When you are the only city for miles and miles around, you attract the different ones. 13 The ones who never really fitted in with their town or village. 13 They come to the nearest city and they find their place here. 17 I see them, the various tribes, in every place I visit in this city. 33 No one judges them, no one talks about them, no one really even notices them; they\u2019re just left to get on with whatever floats their wherry boat. 15 They\u2019re not welcomed, obviously, Norwich doesn\u2019t do hugs. 7 What it does do is respect. 29 The motto of the university, city, and county is \u201cdo different\u201d (which is also a bit of an insight into Norfolk dialect). 27 And wherever you go in this little jewel, studded in Norfolk\u2019s fecund, rolling, glorious countryside, you\u2019ll see that. 63 The reams of independent shops, the exhibitions, the festivals, the literary heritage, the green plaques adorning so many buildings that pay eloquent homage to the rich and varied history of this city, from the tiny Adam & Eve pub dating back to 1241, right up to the soaring glass majesty of The Forum on Millennium Plain. 28 It\u2019s there in Stranger\u2019s Hall, so named after the Dutch religious refugees who were welcomed to the city in the 16th century. 29 It\u2019s there in the huge public party that was organised to counter an EDL march a few years ago, greeting hatred with a mass lovebombing. 30 It\u2019s there in Head in the Clouds, a trippy, dippy, hippy headshop, that\u2019s a rite of passage for most Norfolk teenagers. 110 It\u2019s there in the graffiti in an underpass that ended up being an argument over several weeks:\n\n\u201cARE WE FREE?\u201d\n\n\u201cDefine \u2018we\u2019, define \u2018free\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re free if we say we\u2019re free, it\u2019s that simple\u201d\n\n\u201cI WASN\u2019T ASKING YOU\u201d\n\n\u201cBut I\u2019m free to answer, so yes, we\u2019re free.\u201d\n\nAll written in three different hands and left there for anyone else who feels the need to respond (personal favourite underpass graffiti: \u201cI like nonconformity. 10 But only if you don\u2019t\u201d). 6 Norwich, you never tubthump. 27 You never shout out loud who you are; you just get on with it, and let everyone else get on with their stuff too. 20 You\u2019re beautiful, you\u2019re special, you\u2019re fierce and you\u2019re alright. 8 You say that you\u2019re fine. 18 To my eyes, you are a mighty fine city, and goddammit, I love you. 23 @jessikart\n\n10936 Views\n\nWritten by Jess Macdonald Jess Macdonald is a quite sweary blogger and mother of two with Scottish hair. 3 http://putupwithrain.blogspot.co.uk"} {"text": " 46 The CTC is holding a debate tomorrow on how the law can make cycling safer, and we want your views\n\nCourt cases of road crimes involving cyclists who have been killed or severely injured often end with incomprehensibly soft sentences for the offending driver. 20 Sentences, in the eyes of cyclists, too often simply don\u2019t seem to match the crime. 39 Recently, a driver was given a six-month suspended sentence, 200 hours of unpaid work and just a one-year ban for killing a cyclist who she\u2019d had 11 seconds to see before ploughing into him. 9 This is an all too familiar news report. 26 It\u2019s not only the readers of these news stories who can\u2019t fathom how bad drivers can be treated with such leniency. 25 Victims are regularly left completely mystified as to how an incident that has caused so much suffering can end in such a paltry punishment. 41 One road crash victim, Sarah-Charlotte from Oswestry, who suffered severe leg injuries after she was hit while cycling, says:\n\nYou can get more for a minor theft conviction than for what the driver did to me. 11 I simply don\u2019t understand the logic in that. 9 Maximum sentences for driving offences are quite substantial. 32 For example, an offender can be sentenced to 14 years in prison for causing death by dangerous driving, but actual sentences imposed seldom come anywhere close to the maximum. 24 Minimum mandatory driving bans that judges have to impose are extremely short; a mere one to two years for offences involving death. 28 And judges rarely disqualify drivers for much longer than the minimum \u2013 one to three years is the average ban for a causing death by driving offence. 28 Raising the maximum fines for driving offences, a plan announced by the Ministry of Justice this week, won\u2019t have much impact on sentencing. 25 Magistrates can already impose fines of up to \u00a35,000 for certain motoring offences, yet average fines don\u2019t come near the maximum. 13 In 2013, the average fine for careless driving was just \u00a3160. 6 So what should be done? 14 What changes could be made to ensure sentences are both effective and just? 11 Sentences should punish and deter, while protecting the public. 42 To start with, judges should be encouraged to impose more and longer driving bans \u2013 a real risk of losing your licence, potentially for a long time, would make people respect the law and the safety of others. 29 Substantial driving bans are a deterrent to offenders but also protect everyone \u2013 cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists alike - by taking bad drivers off the road. 39 Driving bans and other sentencing options will be discussed by legal experts, road safety campaigners and road crash victims at a debate held by CTC, the national cycling charity, tomorrow, this Friday 13 June. 6 Let us hear your views. 25 Send us your questions and ideas for the panel of legal experts using the Twitter hashtag #CTCdebate, or in the comments below. 15 \u2022 Rhia Weston is the road safety campaign coordinator for the national cycling charity CTC"} {"text": " 27 Showing The Weather In Tmux\n\nThe weather is unpredictable here on the North coast of Poland where I live, especially around this time of year. 42 On those infrequent occasions when I do leave my apartment (I work from home), I\u2019m never sure how warmly I should dress or how careful I should be on the road \u2014 cold-snaps are increasingly frequent. 30 I spend most of my day staring at my terminal, so that\u2019s where I\u2019d like to keep all of the information I care about. 26 My Tmux status bar currently contains my laptop\u2019s remaining battery life, the current time and date, and now the local weather. 28 Here\u2019s how that looks:\n\nWe\u2019re Not In Kansas Anymore\n\nThe first thing we need to do is find our approximate geographical coordinates. 19 I say approximate because I\u2019m not willing to pay money for a high level of accuracy. 8 Kinda-sorta where I live is good enough. 24 Curiously enough, Google\u2019s geolocation API seemed to be broken for me and \u2014 after some research \u2014 many other people. 8 I found a free service called IP-API. 15 As the name suggests, it returns your location based on your IP address. 29 The service allows up to 150 requests per minute which is plenty for our needs \u2014 we won\u2019t be making requests more than once per second. 90 Running the following command gives us a collection of values about our geographical data, separated by commas:\n\ncurl --silent http://ip-api.com/csv success,Poland,PL,PM,\"Pomeranian Voivodeship\",Gda\u0144sk,80-009,54.3608,18.6583,Europe/Warsaw,\"Neostrada Plus\",\"Neostrada Plus\",,\n\nUsing the cut command, we can split the comma-separated values on those commas, and the -f flag allows us to choose which field we\u2019re interested in. 27 For my script, I\u2019m pulling fields six, eight, and nine to grab the city, latitude, and longitude values respectively. 78 LOCATION=$(curl --silent http://ip-api.com/csv) CITY=$(echo \"$LOCATION\" | cut -d , -f 6) LAT=$(echo \"$LOCATION\" | cut -d , -f 8) LON=$(echo \"$LOCATION\" | cut -d , -f 9)\n\nYou\u2019ll notice I\u2019m being careful to wrap each of those $LOCATION variables in double-quotes to prevent word-splitting. 19 If you start writing more Bash scripts (and you should), this should become a habit. 22 If you don\u2019t move around much, you can skip the geolocation step and just hard-code your geographical coordinates. 21 I do travel quite frequently, so I want the weather in my status bar to reflect the weather outside. 22 Show Me The Data\n\nNow that we have our location, we need to ask another service for our weather data. 37 There are a number of services online that provide an API for querying weather data, but again, I am not willing to pay actual money for this; it\u2019s just for fun. 11 I found a service for querying weather data called OpenWeatherMap. 33 You\u2019ll need to register an account with them to obtain an API key, but they allow up to 60 requests per minute which again is enough for our needs. 31 If we send a request to OpenWeatherMap with our geographical coordinates and our API key, the service returns a big lump of JSON full of the data you need. 31 Parsing this JSON string is too hairy a task for any native UNIX tools, but you can use your favourite package manager to install a JSON parser called jq. 19 Accessing fields with jq is syntactically the same as looking up array indexes and object properties in JavaScript. 65 WEATHER=$(curl --silent http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather\\?lat=\"$LAT\"\\&lon=\"$LON\"\\&APPID=\"$API_KEY\"\\&units=metric) CATEGORY=$(echo \"$WEATHER\" | jq .weather[0].id) TEMP=\"$(echo \"$WEATHER\" | jq .main.temp | cut -d . 86 -f 1)\u00b0C\" WIND_SPEED=\"$(echo \"$WEATHER\" | jq .wind.speed | awk '{print int($1+0.5)}')ms\" ICON=$(weather_icon \"$CATEGORY\") printf \"%s\" \"$CITY:$ICON $TEMP, $WIND_SPEED\"\n\nI only care about whole numbers for temperature and wind speed, so I\u2019m using cut and awk to truncate and round those values respectively. 25 I truncate the temperature instead of rounding it because I am originally from London, which means I have pessimism as a hereditary trait. 12 The weather_icon function simply maps weather category IDs to some emoji. 11 You\u2019ll see it in the full script below. 17 You\u2019ll notice too that I\u2019m asking for the data in metric units. 13 You can switch that to imperial if you\u2019re so inclined. 41 Get In My Status If You Want To Live\n\nThe last step is to save the script somewhere appropriate \u2014 for me it\u2019s under ~/.bin/weather \u2014 and then run a chmod u+x ~/.bin/weather to make the script executable. 12 The weather script can now be called from your Tmux configuration. 108 When I open up my ~/.tmux.conf file, I have these lines:\n\nset -g status-right-length 50 set -g status-right '#[fg=green][#[default]#($HOME/.bin/weather)#[fg=green]] #[fg=green][#[fg=blue]%Y-%m-%d #[fg=white]%H:%M#[default]#[fg=green]] #[fg=green][#($HOME/.bin/battery)#[fg=green]]' set -g status-interval 1\n\nThe first line sets the available length for the right-side of my status bar. 26 I\u2019m not sure what the default length is, but it isn\u2019t long enough to display everything I want without truncating. 9 The second line is my literal status line. 20 I use a combination of colours, whitespace and punctuation to separate the different parts of my status line. 24 The third line tells Tmux that I want to update my status line every second, which is important for telling accurate time. 10 And that\u2019s all there is to it! 57 For completeness, here\u2019s the entire weather script:\n\n#!/bin/bash # # Weather # ======= # # By Jezen Thomas <[email protected]> # # This script sends a couple of requests over the network to retrieve # approximate location data, and the current weather for that location. 21 This is # useful if for example you want to display the current weather in your tmux # status bar. 15 # There are three things you will need to do before using this script. 4 # # 1. 16 Install jq with your package manager of choice (homebrew, apt-get, etc.) 3 # 2. 16 Sign up for a free account with OpenWeatherMap to grab your API key # 3. 38 Add your OpenWeatherMap API key where it says API_KEY # OPENWEATHERMAP API KEY (place yours here) API_KEY=\"\" set -e # Not all icons for weather symbols have been added yet. 23 If the weather # category is not matched in this case statement, the command output will # include the category ID. 11 You can add the appropriate emoji as you go along. 176 # # Weather data reference: http://openweathermap.org/weather-conditions weather_icon() { case $1 in 500) echo \ud83c\udf26 ;; 800) echo \u2600\ufe0f ;; 801) echo \ud83c\udf24 ;; 803) echo \u26c5\ufe0f ;; 804) echo \u2601\ufe0f ;; *) echo \"$1\" esac } LOCATION=$(curl --silent http://ip-api.com/csv) CITY=$(echo \"$LOCATION\" | cut -d , -f 6) LAT=$(echo \"$LOCATION\" | cut -d , -f 8) LON=$(echo \"$LOCATION\" | cut -d , -f 9) WEATHER=$(curl --silent http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather\\?lat=\"$LAT\"\\&lon=\"$LON\"\\&APPID=\"$API_KEY\"\\&units=metric) CATEGORY=$(echo \"$WEATHER\" | jq .weather[0].id) TEMP=\"$(echo \"$WEATHER\" | jq .main.temp | cut -d . 60 -f 1)\u00b0C\" WIND_SPEED=\"$(echo \"$WEATHER\" | jq .wind.speed | awk '{print int($1+0.5)}')ms\" ICON=$(weather_icon \"$CATEGORY\") printf \"%s\" \"$CITY:$ICON $TEMP, $WIND_SPEED\"\n\nn.b. 34 I realise I could just stand on my balcony to see what the weather is like, but what kind of nerd would I be if I didn\u2019t script it somehow? 1 !"} {"text": " 25 Rising from the floor of Gale Crater on Mars, a stack of sedimentary rock called Mount Sharp towers 5.5 kilometers above the ground. 27 The mountain is only a little shorter than North America\u2019s tallest peak, Alaska\u2019s Mount Denali (nearly 6.2 kilometers high). 22 Monstrous mountains on Earth are usually created by colliding plates of the planet\u2019s outer shell or by erupting volcanoes. 25 But Mars does not have this kind of plate activity and its volcanoes have probably not been active for at least 500 million years. 23 So planetary scientists have been stumped as to how Mount Sharp\u2014and dozens of other giant peaks that rise from various Martian craters\u2014formed. 20 It has been an enduring puzzle since NASA\u2019s Viking spacecraft first spotted these mounds in the 1970s. 59 Now research lends support to the idea that winds in Mars\u2019s thin atmosphere, which can gust up to 95 kilometers per hour, built Mount Sharp over billions of years by carving away surrounding rock that once filled the crater to the brim, like an artist scraping a sculpture from a block of stone. 14 The findings were published on March 31 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. 35 Mackenzie Day, a geology graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin and her colleagues attacked this mystery using an old elementary school science project method: They built a miniature crater. 28 Theirs was precise, 30 centimeters wide and four centimeters deep, and loaded with damp sand to represent the sediments that likely once filled the crater. 17 The scientists then placed their small facsimile in a wind tunnel and turned on the fan. 20 The wind first formed a crescent-shaped gash in the damp sand, its ends pointing away from the fan. 19 That gash then widened until it became a ringlike moat, leaving the sand in the center intact. 36 Over time the moat deepened until it reached the crater\u2019s floor, but the high pile of sand in the middle remained\u2014an indication that wind erosion can form what scientists saw on Mars. 21 \u201cThat was clear enough,\u201d says Gary Kocurek, Day\u2019s advisor and a geologist at U.T. 2 Austin. 18 \u201cBut it\u2019s one thing to have a simple little model in a wind tunnel. 37 We wanted to get a better quantification.\u201d So Day, Kocurek and their colleagues then built a computer model to better picture how airflow interacts with the crater\u2019s rim in a Martian environment. 31 The top row shows different Martian mounds that are likely in different stages of erosion whereas the bottom row shows the results of the crater model in a wind-tunnel experiment. 10 Warm to cool colors indicate high to low elevation. 34 Credit: Mackenzie Day\n\nRalph Milliken, a geologist at Brown University who was not involved in the study, is impressed by the way the team integrated physical models with numerical simulations. 22 \u201cIt\u2019s pretty rare to see that sort of thing in the planetary science world,\u201d he says. 41 Although the models cannot disprove another wind-driven theory\u2014that breezes built these mounds up by carrying rock grains to them, rather than carving them out\u2014they do nicely explain certain features that the other theory has yet to account for. 28 For instance, Kristen Bennett, a geology graduate student at Arizona State University in Tempe has found that many Martian mounds are off-center within their craters. 17 \u201cThis [model] shows that wind erosion can do that,\u201d she says. 22 Once the central mound has been dug out, the pelting wind will push it toward one side of the crater. 18 On Earth these gradual effects are often obscured by faster-moving forces, like plate tectonics and volcanism. 13 \u201cWind is powerful but it's slow,\u201d Day says. 46 \u201cOn Mars these craters have been exposed to the surface for three billion years so there's a lot of time to do that work and to get that material out of there in a way that we've never really seen on Earth. 48 So it's a result that speaks to the power of wind in a way that we've never really seen before.\u201d\n\nThe mounds also provide an excellent view of Mars\u2019 evolution from a wet habitable world to the dry inhospitable one we see today. 32 The layers of Mount Sharp shift from rocky strata at the bottom, laid down in wet times, to other layers at the top, put down in dry periods. 47 Although a change from a water-driven world to a wind-driven world can be seen in specific places on Earth (the iconic sand dunes of the Sahara Desert, for example, are river deposits reworked by the wind), it occurred globally on Mars. 20 \u201cSo that's what we see in these mounds\u2014it's the whole scenario captured,\u201d Kocurek says. 14 In one spot, scientists can study the transformation of an entire planet."} {"text": " 9 Predator recognition is a prerequisite for antipredator behaviour. 32 Although species level predator recognition is well documented, there is emerging evidence that some birds, including corvids, can differentiate between individual humans that pose different levels of threat. 44 Other predator cues such as gaze direction may offer additional important information regarding the likelihood of an attack, but it is unknown whether wild animals can integrate information about the individual identity and gaze direction of a predator when perceiving threat levels. 22 Here we measured wild jackdaws' responses to human head orientation, directed towards or away from their nestbox containing chicks. 64 To test whether aversive responses to gaze direction were integrated with information about human identity, the human presenting gaze cues wore one of two masks: a \u2018threatening\u2019 mask that had previously been worn when handling the jackdaws' chicks and a \u2018neutral mask\u2019 that had previously been worn when walking by, but not disturbing the nest. 30 Latency to return to the nestbox was significantly higher when the threatening mask rather than the neutral mask was worn, but it was not influenced by head direction. 38 However, once a jackdaw landed outside the nestbox, there was a nonsignificant trend for it to be quicker to enter the box when the human was gazing towards, rather than away from the box. 35 These results indicate that wild jackdaws can recognize different individual humans and thus differentiate between those wearing a threatening and a neutral mask, and respond defensively by guarding their chicks from potential threat. 22 Jackdaws may integrate both predator identity and gaze cues; however, predation risk is primarily perceived through individual human recognition."} {"text": " 33 Originally scheduled for December 2017, the election may be held earlier if the Constitutional Court decides to force 64-year old Park out of office, as overwhelmingly demanded by the public. 51 Lee, mayor of a city near Seoul called Seongnam, has advocated policies to reduce the income gap between rich and poor as well as plans to break up chaebols, the family-run conglomerates that dominate South Korea's economy and are frequently embroiled in bribery and corruption cases. 25 Hailing from the liberal Minjoo Party, Lee said in a recent Facebook post that he wanted to be called a successful Bernie Sanders. 21 The 52 year-old was ranked third with 18 percent support in a Gallup Korea poll of presidential hopefuls released Friday. 33 Tied for first place were Moon Jae-in, former head of the Minjoo party, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is expected to represent Saenuri, with 20 percent each. 14 But out of the three, only Lee has officially declared his bid. 26 \"Lee was one of the biggest critics of Park very early on and that has served him well in the minds of the public. 35 We've been looking at people like Moon Jae-in and Ban Ki-moon as the front-runners but Lee has really come out of nowhere,\" noted Scott Seaman, Eurasia's senior Asia analyst. 13 \"It's shaping up to be a very interesting race.\" 12 Others also echoed how Lee has benefited from the anti-Park sentiment. 48 \"Lee's growing popularity is partly the result of dissatisfaction with Park in particular, as well as the fact that the leftist opposition hasn't really coalesced around a single candidate yet,\" said Justin Hastings, senior lecturer at the University of Sydney. 16 National sentiment aside, strong credentials also underpin Lee's candidacy, according to observers."} {"text": " 11 Esquire, December 1997\n\nRadovan Karadzic is on the phone. 11 He is wounded and in search of a little understanding. 8 \"Why does America hate me?\" 3 he pleads. 8 \"What did I do wrong?\" 52 The fugitive Bosnian Serb leader, indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague in 1995 for genocide in the war that killed two hundred thousand people, sounds tired, with just a touch of whine, some manufactured outrage, and real fear in his toast-master's voice. 6 His English is pretty good. 15 \"How can they call me the worst war criminal in the world?\" 8 Things have gotten way out of hand. 7 It's all a terrible misunderstanding. 5 Others are to blame. 7 \"I was a moderate!\" 3 he cries. 11 \"We didn't kill any prisoners of war!\" 21 He never imagined that this day would come, and now he wants to meet somewhere and set things straight. 7 \"I'm not in charge. 7 I wasn't in charge then. 18 I'm not a magician; I can't make more than a million\n\npeople follow me. 11 I can't stop them from committing acts of violence. 4 \"Uugghh!\" 5 he groans, exasperated. 9 \"Where can I get a fair trial? 9 They are spitting on me in America.\" 35 \"He's got smoker's foot,\" Bosko's young wife says as her husband, a former New York City gangster, spurs our puny car around a dark mountain curve. 46 We're on a road somewhere in Yugoslavia, slewing on thin tires downward toward an isolated border crossing into Bosnia, toward the town of Pale and Radovan Karadzic, whose thugs in the secret police are waiting for us on the other side. 4 Smoker's foot? 6 \"His feet are numb. 20 The doctor says that if Bosko doesn't stop smoking, they'll have to cut them off.\" 16 She turns toward me in the backseat, her blond hair cascading onto my hand. 11 \"Promise me you'll keep him from smoking.\" 32 Our driver, Bosko Radonjich, fifty-four, a squat bear of a man with thick black hair and a mad, triumphant smile, is a fugitive from American justice. 30 He is wanted by the FBI for fixing the jury in the 1987-racketeering and murder trial of his close friend John Gotti, head of the Gambino crime family. 41 Bosko, through a Serb, was also a boss of the Westies, the murderous Irish gang that served as enforcers for the Gambino family and controlled a good chunk of New York's West Side in the 1980s. 19 Bosko fled the United Stets in 1990, just weeks before Gotti and several associates were indicted again. 21 The Serbian mafia that Bosko currently runs out of Belgrade has won him certain privileges and some very powerful friends. 30 During the Bosnian war, he provided Karadzic and the deadly Serb paramilitary with millions of dollars in cash and weaponry and became one of Karadzic's close advisers. 29 Now Bosko has a secret plan to save Karadzic, the man he describes as \"my angel, my saint,\" but time is running out. 11 He's afraid that it might be too late already. 19 Tim Buckholz, an ex-U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, is squeezed in beside me on the backseat. 9 Seventeen years on covert missions for your government. 11 Now he's a freelancer and considers Bosko his friend. 6 Buckholz doesn't look military. 12 His hair is sandy, his face kind, almost innocent. 25 In 1978, when he was eighteen, he was an army medic assigned to bag bodies in Guyana after the Jonestown mass suicide. 18 The Special Forces sent him to school to knock the military out of his gait and speech. 12 He specialized in counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and close-quarters combat. 27 I am here to talk to Karadzic, who, until very recently, was the least sought, most wanted war criminal in the world. 18 Why does a psychiatrist wake up one morning and decide it's time to kill his neighbors? 12 And how has he managed to keep the world at bay? 34 Two weeks ago, NATO came calling, and a British team killed indicted war criminal and Karadzic crony Simo Drljaca, the police chef of Prijedor, in a botched snatch attempt. 21 The White House had given the green light, and another indicted war criminal was successfully captured the same day. 14 Just days before, Karadzic was breezing through NATO checkpoints in his Mercedes. 58 I am also here because I happened to meet Tim a couple of years ago at the Pub, a netherlounge of military spooks, conspiracists, and soldiers for hire, just outside Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Tim invited me to Belgrade to meet Bosko, who wants to broker a meeting with Karadzic. 24 The last time Bosko escorted an American to visit Karadzic was when Jimmy Carter came to negotiate a cease-fire during the Bosnian war. 30 This time, Bosko wants to prove again that he's an international fixer, and he seems to think that my story will give Karadzic a new reputation. 15 At the border, the three of us get out of Bosko's Honda. 17 It is 3:30 A.M., pitch-black, and the early August air is damp and chilly. 14 Bosko's wife, Sabrina, turns around and heads back into Yugoslavia. 7 Their car has Florida license plates. 31 \"I could have FUCK USA on my license plate, but I don't, because I love America,\" Bosko growls in his gravelly Serbo-New Yorker accent. 9 \"Even though the cocksuckers betrayed me.\" 4 Bosko steps gingerly. 8 \"Damn, my feet hurt.\" 13 His hand is on my elbow, steering me toward the crossing. 15 Up ahead is a guard shack is illuminated by a milky, fluorescent light. 9 Tim walks behind us, covering our backs. 8 Two armed Yugoslav guards step toward us. 15 They each, in turn, hug Bosko and kiss him on both cheeks. 8 Tim and I produce our American passports. 29 Bosko, wearing tennis shoes with no socks, shiny sweatpants, and a jacket with BOSS emblazoned across the front, never bothers to show his papers. 14 We walk across the border toward a Volkswagen Golf idling in the darkness. 28 We are now inside the self-declared Republika Srpska, an \"ethnically cleansed\" area the size of Vermont that is home to nine hundred thousand Serbs. 16 To a nationalist like Bosko, this land, blood-soaked by war, is Palestine. 14 He has dreamed his whole life of a Serbian state independent of Yugoslavia. 8 Tim has stood on this border before. 45 In 1994, when the Serbs were winning the Bosnian war and when Yugoslavia was trying to convince the world that it wasn't helping them do it, the United Nations Security Council hired independent contractors like Tim to monitor this very crossing. 13 Only medical supplies, food, and used clothing were allowed through. 13 Unless, of course, you were a VIP or a smuggler. 12 That's when Tim and Bosko first came to an understanding. 23 Along with a handful of other ex-Special Forces soldiers on the same detail, Tim became sort of an honorary Serb nationalist. 35 As an unpaid favor to Bosko, in his spare time he helped train several bodyguards for Karadzic, who was just being isolated by the West as the Maximum Villain of the war. 11 \"It was standard executive-protection training,\" Tim says. 12 \"Route planning, countersurveillance, that kind of thing.\" 6 Did they follow your advice? 5 Tim raises an eyebrow. 9 \"He hasn't been caught yet.\" 37 At the end of his last stay here, in July 1995, Tim was asked to leave Yugoslavia, having been informed by the U.S. State Department that his safety could no longer be guaranteed. 3 Why not? 8 \"Because of my association with Bosko. 16 The chief of the mission asked, 'Do you know who you're dealing with? 10 This is the man who fixed the Gotti trial. 11 He's been convicted of blowing up embassies in America. 10 He was involved in Jimmy Hoffa's murder.' 7 \"\n\nTim's response: Cool. 21 As we head down a winding mountain road into the strange new country of Srpska, we are being tailed. 6 \"Friend or foe?\" 9 Tim asks, checking the headlights behind us. 7 \"Friend,\" Bosko affirms. 36 Earlier that night, at Club Boss, his mountain casino an hour from the border, Bosko told me that we'd be escorted by a \"war criminal\" into the Serb enclave. 11 \"They hate Americans down there,\" Bosko said. 5 \"Nobody is safe. 9 I'll need to go with you.\" 29 When I asked Bosko the name of our resort, he traced a finger down the middle of his face and across his lips\u2014the mob sign meaning silence. 40 In the aftermath of a war with mass murderers on all sides, men who committed unspeakable atrocities, that any one man's name could inspire such caution, even in someone like Bosko, chilled the room. 15 In the escort car behind us now is that faceless, nameless war criminal. 12 He is providing us safe passage into the darkness of Srpska. 29 Dogs, yelping wildly, race our car into the sleeping town of Visegrad, where we see in the beam of our headlights the face of Karadzic. 11 Blown up poster-size, it is pasted on every shopwindow. 26 His silver hair, usually an unruly bouffant, has been combed; the cleft in his chin looks the size of a bullet hole. 18 In red, under each of these color portraits, are the words DON'T TOUCH HIM! 23 Karadzic is hiding out somewhere in this country, protected by his most trusted soldiers, surrounded by mines and antiaircraft weapons. 9 Bosko says that Karadzic has ten different hideouts. 20 Eight thousand American soldiers are currently in Bosnia, the largest continent in a NATO force of thirty-one thousand. 25 Even though Washington denies it, Tim believes that an American snatch team has been training secretly since the spring to bring him in. 16 Karadzic has instructed his guards to shoot him rather than allow him to be captured. 21 Visegard, a garrison of hard-line Serbs, was one of the first towns to be cleansed of its Muslims. 14 Fourteen thousand just vanished, deported or executed in the summer of 1992. 9 A laboratory of killing, Bosko calls it. 7 My homework, he calls it. 16 He doesn't say what he means by that, but he knows this town. 11 Visegrad is where he went to school as a boy. 15 Our driver turns down an alley and stops at a bar called Cafe 10. 18 A half dozen men, mostly former soldiers and paramilitary men, step out of the darkness. 11 Each one greets Bosko with an embrace and a kiss. 15 It's 4:00 A.M., but they have kept the lights burning for us. 9 Inside, we crowd into a corner booth. 7 Our driver pulls out his wallet. 9 I see the flicker of his secret-police badge. 16 No one uses names, and it is understood that we are not to ask. 14 The bartender opens a bottle of slivovitz, the local homemade plum brandy. 16 Tim, who is not much of a drinker, figures it's 400 proof. 10 Even Bosko must hammer his chest with every swallow. 12 After three shots, Bosko throws a heavy arm around me. 23 \"You'll put in a good word for me with our friends in Virginia when you return,\" he says. 22 \"You know, Bosko,\" I answer carefully, \"the CIA no longer recruits journalists or priests.\" 15 Still, he slides the bottle of slivovitz over me to consecrate the moment. 16 \"You are the voice of America,\" he says, pulling me closer. 7 \"You can help the Doctor. 7 My angel is getting bad advice. 7 It's my advice he needs. 6 I know the double game. 19 America is after him, but these fuckers here are ready to kill Americans if they try it. 21 We need to convince America that Radovan Karadzic is the only hope for stability in this whole fucking godforsaken country. 14 We need to show the whole world the good man he is.\" 5 Bosko raises his glass. 12 \"Somebody put dirt on the Doctor,\" he says. 10 \"We've got to make the Doctor clean. 16 You put in a good word for me and make me clean, too.\" 22 It's almost dawn, and Bosko Radonjich, John Gotti's fixer, wants to mediate this grave international crisis. 6 He wants to save Karadzic. 7 He wants to save American lives. 11 But most of all, he wants to save himself. 28 He wants to go home to New York, where he lived in a $5 million townhouse on the East Side and drove a Rolls-Royce Corniche. 26 He misses his \"work\" for the CIA, and he surely doesn't want to be here if the war breaks out again. 13 The Serbs at the table seem not to comprehend Bosko's agenda. 23 They are soldiers in a lost war, unready to concede defeat, willing to kill again, expecting to kill again. 22 They sit now with their arms draped easily over one another's shoulders, their young faces spent and teeth broken. 28 \"If they try to snatch Karadzic, that is war,\" says a young Serb quietly, not a hint of bravado in his voice. 9 \"We will kill every soldier we see. 9 We will pile American bodies to the sky. 11 We'll start with you if we have to.\" 16 At daybreak, having killed only two bottles of slivovitz, we leave the bar. 16 Mist is rising off the Drina River, which runs through the heart of Visegrad. 25 A massive stone bridge, built in 1510 by Turks during the days of the Ottoman Empire, spans the river's jade water. 12 At one end of the bridge is Bosko's old school. 19 \"Don't let the beauty fool you,\" Bosko says as we drive over the bridge. 20 So many Muslims\u2014he calls them Turks\u2014were executed on this stone bridge during the war that the Drina turned red. 20 And I now see in the hills beyond the bridge what had been hidden from view in the night. 14 \"Them is all the houses of Turks,\" Bosko says sleepily. 7 Each charred house is a tombstone. 10 We pass hundreds in the hills above the Drina. 27 Tim, seated again beside me in the backseat, checks for the tail car, but the faceless war criminal is no longer behind us. 19 Bosko snores in the front seat as our driver races at drunken speeds toward our rendezvous with Karadzic. 38 In the mountain village of Pale, the seat of Karadzic's power, the Minister of Fear plants three kisses on Bosko, Serbian style, one on each cheek and then back to the first. 23 As head of the Republic of Srpska secret police, Dragan Kijac is one of the most feared men in the country. 7 Bosko introduces Tim and then me. 5 \"This is Daniel. 17 He was with me and the Irish in New York,\" he says, lying. 9 \"So you want to see Dr. Karadzic? 19 If only you had come a few days earlier,\" the minister says, stiffing us fast. \" 11 Now even I cannot know where he is.\" 20 The minister, who looks a bit like Bobby Kennedy, is saying something else to me in Serbo-Croatian. 21 \"He wants to know,\" Bosko translates, \"how big is the circulation of your magazine?\" 22 His final words to me before this meeting had been \"Lie, lie, lie\u2014everything is a double game.\" 8 \"Seven million,\" I answer. 18 The Minister of Fear, who I suspect speaks perfect English, raises his eyebrows, impressed. 5 But then I falter. 31 \"Well, uh, actually, it's a couple million, if you count, like, people who, you know, pick it up in bus . 1 . 2 .\" 7 I don't dare look up. 10 I can feel Bosko's glare, his disappointment. 16 \"And he'll appear on TV,\" he says confidently, stepping in. 9 \"CNN, CBS, all the networks. 9 He's the greatest writer about postwar countries. 8 He is the voice of America.\" 8 The Minister of Fear shakes his head. 7 A period of awkward silence follows. 22 Tim, who has been sitting quietly nearby, playing the role of my bodyguard, reaches for his business card. 17 In America, Tim is a partner in Spartan Security out of Mamers, North Carolina. 30 Recently, his firm, made up of a couple of other ex-Special Forces buddies, bought a $45,000 copier and added \"International\" to its name. 7 Now Tim is after high-stakes contracts. 21 The first proposal Spartan printed on the new copier is entitled \"Current Training Programs Available to Serb People.\" 18 \"Right now, America is arming your enemies,\" he tells the Minister of Fear. 22 \"Hell, former associates of mine are training the Muslims and Croats with $100 million from the United States. 16 When the American troops leave here next summer, you're going to be slaughtered. 7 It'll be Serb season.\" 10 For Tim, it's an avalanche of words. 18 It's his Hail Mary pass, a way to save me and sign up a client. 20 Tim's prospectus offers \"cutting-edge hostage-rescue and surgical-strike operations\" and proposes training for \"worst-case scenarios.\" 23 With forty thousand police on his payroll, the largest armed force in the Republic of Srpska, the minister perks up. 13 \"I live one step away from treason,\" Tim winks. 30 The Minister of Fear directs us to a ruin of a hotel at the top of the mountain, Hotel Paranoia, where we are to await further instructions. 9 At twilight, we settle into a room. 5 Tim opens a window. 10 Outside, NATO helicopters are flying patterns over Pale. 17 And higher up, Tim figures, there are at least four satellites watching this area. 8 Bosko hunches down in front of me. 13 I've been kicking myself since we left the Minister of Fear. 10 \"So you fuck up,\" he says. 6 \"Forget about it.\" 13 The phone rings and Bosko answers, switching between Serbo-Croatian and English. 12 \"That was Karadzic,\" Bosko says, hanging up. 29 Former U.S. assistant secretary of state Richard Holbrooke is touring Bosnia, trying to salvage his Dayton Peace Accord, and he is making Karadzic's life hell. 6 Our meeting has been postponed. 14 \"But he's got a package for you,\" Bosko says. 10 \"Something he wants you to advise him on. 11 He'll call you next week at the casino.\" 5 Bosko is in pain. 11 \"You have to help me,\" he says. 7 There is fear in his eyes. 8 He's very worried about his feet. 11 He wants to be healthy for our meetings with Karadzic. 16 We are now in Zlatibor, a spa on the Yugoslavian side of the mountains. 12 He's been getting therapy for his feet here all summer. 29 \"The capillaries have all collapsed,\" his doctor tells him as Bosko pulls of his shoes and stretches out on the bed, his feet naked. 16 A nurse hooks Bosko up to a machine that sends electric pulses into his feet. 17 \"He's only fifty-four years old,\" says the doctor, shaking her head. 9 \"We don't amputate the feet here. 7 They do that in Belgrade.\" 11 Bosko's feet are numb, swollen, and blue. 23 But he is in good cheer, and the staff of women, all wearing white, brighten when they see him. 4 He introduces me. 5 \"This is Danny. 9 He's writing the screenplay about my life. 9 He knows things about me I forgot.\" 23 After these treatments, we wrap ourselves in towels and head into the Truth Sauna, where no lies can be told. 15 He's not talking of Bosnia, but of New York and the mob. 21 \"When Eddie came back from Attica,\" Bosko says, \"he put a cock on the bar. 9 Somebody's fucking cock he had cut off. 24 'Anybody who be a stool pigeon,' \" he says, affecting an Irish brogue, \" 'will be like this.\" 6 That's what Eddie says. 9 Shit, the Irish were good killers.\" 15 Bosko believes that if we understand New York mobs, we'll understand Bosnia. 5 Maybe even the world. 10 It's his Hell's Kitchen school of diplomacy. 12 \"America is the Boss of Bosses,\" Bosko says. 24 \"The Serbs, Croats, and Muslims are three rival gangs\u2014no matter who started the damn thing, everyone has spilled blood. 14 When you have a turf war like this, you separate the gangs. 8 That's why Dayton won't work. 9 You don't ask them to live together. 11 Not after boundaries have been set in fresh blood.\" 51 Bosko is not one to offer up his own history easily, but in these Truth Saunas, I hear of his relationship with death, a relationship that started early, with the killing of his father, who was shot by communist police when Bosko was a toddler. 23 Soon after, his brother was imprisoned for his anticommunist beliefs, and then one day came a knock at the door. 13 Bosko and his older sister were home when the secret police entered. 12 The two agents wore black trench coats; they had pistols. 10 They were in the basement, scraping the walls. 14 \"They were looking for a radio transmitter, a channel to America. 6 I was just a kid. 9 I didn't' know what they meant. 16 I thought maybe behind our wall there was a long tunnel across the ocean.\" 10 Finding nothing, the police pistol-whipped Bosko's sister. 11 Two days later, she died from a blood clot. 12 Whenever he needs fuel to fight, Bosko remembers that scene. 10 When he was twenty-seven, he fled to America. 14 \"Without America, the world is shit, do you understand?\" 3 he says. 12 \"Without that dream, without that beautiful fucking Constitution.\" 28 Granted political asylum, he arrived in Manhattan, Hell's Kitchen, in 1970 and joined New York's Serbian underground, becoming an explosives expert. 24 In 1979, Bosko pleaded guilty to bombing the Yugoslav consulate in Chicago and served three years in Allenwood Federal Prison in Pennsylvania. 15 He got out of jail in 1982 and soon after took over the Westies. 21 \"If you're a freedom fighter,\" he says, \" you have to love the Irish.\" 11 After the sauna, Bosko cannonballs into the swimming pool. 44 Suddenly, out of nowhere, his former high school teacher arrives poolside with two glasses and a guitar, pours us slivovitz, and, in honor of Bosko's American patriotism, strums \"When the Saints Go Marching In.\" 39 At his Casino the next evening, Bosko sits near the piano and plays host to a constant parade of customs officials, Serbian film stars, military judges, basketball stars, cops, and war criminals. 16 All come to pay homage and to seek favors of the man they call Boss. 18 A young Serb, returning from South of Africa, unfurls the gist of a zebra skin. 8 Tonight, Bosko cooks spaghetti for twenty. 33 Before dinner, he makes everyone watch Getting Gotti, a video that tells the story of how Bosko's jury tampering kept the crime boss from going to prison in 1987. 15 \"The actor playing me looks like Boris Fucking Yeltsin,\" he complains. 14 Three weeks after Bosko left America in 1990, Gotti was arrested again. 20 Sammy \"the Bull\" Gravano, the number-two man in the organization, later turned state's evidence. 29 Gotti was eventually convicted of ordering the murder of Paul Castellano, his former boss in the Gambino family, and was sent away for life without parole. 24 Gravano also testified that Bosko had paid $60,000 to a member of Gotti's first jury, a man named George Pape. 28 Pape had been an usher at Bosko's wedding, had testified on Bosko's behalf in his Chicago trial, and had visited him in prison. 20 \"There were people in high places who knew that he was my best friend,\" Bosko says. 16 \"Somebody wanted Pape on that jury, just like somebody wants Karadzic in power. 21 One man does not hold off the superpowers of the world unless someone wants him to remain in power.\" 15 Belmondo, one of Bosko's self-named errand boys, joins us for dinner. 18 He has a pistol in his waistband and the swagger of a young thug on the make. 20 Also slurping spaghetti at our table is a man with a pronounced underbite who is known as Mr. Fun. 26 A former police chef and bamboo-furniture executive, Mr. Fun always wears a suit and will cross a room to light a lady's cigarette. 17 For laughs, he slaps his face like Curly and stuffs his necktie into his mouth. 13 On the Hague list of indictments, he is murderer number seventy-four. 8 I have a copy of the list. 8 Mr. Fun circles his name for me. 15 When Karadzic finally phones, a waiter whispers the news into Bosko's ear. 13 Bosko waves me through swinging doors into the casino's back room. 16 \"I knew Daniel back in New York,\" Bosko lies into the receiver. 7 \"He was with Mr. Gotti. 11 He's a journalist now\u2014on TV, in the magazines. 19 You must tell them you're a friend of America, that you are anticommunist you whole life. 14 It's only in America that you could get a fair trial.\" 12 He hands me the phone: \"Say hello to Dr. 3 Karadzic.\" 4 This is strange. 19 Somewhere, the most wanted man in the world has found the comfort to chat on the phone. 9 I look at the receiver for a moment. 4 \"Hello?\" 21 \"I was sorry I didn't have the pleasure of seeing you in Pale,\" he tells me. 11 No satellites could scramble the energy out of that voice. 11 \"I've been having a few security problems.\" 15 He asks about the package he sent: \"You read my blue book. 6 What did you think?\" 22 His gift had been an advance copy of The Case of Dr. Radovan Karadzic, a defense written on his behalf. 12 In the literature of shifting responsibility, it is a masterpiece. 27 Truly the thinking of a psychiatrist, a man whose specialties were depression and paranoia, a man who once hypnotized the entire Sarajevo soccer team. 13 \"Dr. Karadzic, I wonder what's not in the book. 14 In order to indict you, The Hague must have strong evidence.\" 24 \"They arrested two Serbs, took them to The Hague, and then had to send them home,\" he says. 7 \"They had the wrong men. 11 And another one they sent home for lack of evidence. 7 The Hague is a political institution. 5 They respond to pressure. 5 They make mistakes.\" 44 A number of legal scholars had told me that the second indictment against Karadzic, for the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995, in which as many as eight thousand Muslim civilian men were executed, will be very difficult to prove. 39 In his book Karadzic is eager to implicate Slobodan Milosevic, the president of Yugoslavia, for devising and carrying out the military plan that led to the genocide, No wonder he is afraid for his life. 29 The threat he poses to Milosevic, or any of the other leaders America has kept off the Hague list, could earn him a bullet from anyone. 5 Even his own people. 18 He says he wants to meet but explains that he can't appear to grant an interview. 9 \"He says I can't talk.\" 3 Who says? 5 \"Richard Holbrooke.\" 12 \"Is the promising you something if you stay quiet?\" 8 There is silence on the other end. 7 \"Do you trust him?\" 8 Bosko is whispering into my other ear. 9 Tell him you're a psychiatrist, too. 17 Tim has told me that every syllable of this conversation is being sifted somewhere, analyzed. 13 Somewhere, an analyst can hear the fear in Karadzic's voice. 13 Even on the phone, I can feel it in his breath. 8 This is a man counting his days. 11 Recalling that he likes chess, I suggest a game. 12 \"The loser goes to The Hague,\" I say. 3 He laughs. 9 \"I'm very good at chess.\" 15 Finally, he says, \"If you wanted to do a fact-finding mission . 1 . 2 .\" 13 Yes, I say, yes, a fact-finding mission sounds perfect. 11 \"That wouldn't be regarded as an interview.\" 3 Absolutely not. 6 There's a real distinction. 11 \"When we meet, you can ask me anything. 14 You, of course, can't say that you were here.\" 11 This is Bosnia, and everything is a double game. 20 It was all a matter of language, of finally detecting the nuance of what he was driving toward. 8 I pass the phone back to Bosko. 24 Karadzic tells him, \"We will have to blindfold Daniel, and he'll have to walk deep into the mountains.\" 21 \"He'll go naked if that's what it takes,\" Bosko tells him as he hangs up. 18 We can't tell the Minister of Fear about this, Bosko says, turning to me. 7 \"It would make trouble.\" 13 This means we have no guarantee of safe passage across the territory. 12 In fact, now we have to evade the secret police. 6 Tim opts to stay behind. 16 \"By now, they'll have checked up on me,\" he says. 8 \"My background is just too suspicious. 15 If they think we're a snatch team, we're all dead.\" 14 He kindly instructs me on what to expect from Karadzic's security detail. 11 \"They'll most likely put a hood on you. 17 They'll remove your watch, electronics, anything where a transmitter can be squirreled away. 8 And they'll make you change clothes. 8 They'll be worried about magic dust. 19 The KGB used to use a kind of radioactive dust when they were trailing people in Washington.\" 14 I'm a little worried and don't quite know what to say. 10 I have gotten used to Tim watch my back. 22 \"It's in their best interest for you to come out alive,\" he says, punching my arm. 9 \"Just don't do anything stupid.\" 23 Bosko and I hit the road again that night, leaving the casino at 2:00 A.M. Karadzic's voice compels us forward. 20 Belmondo, the wiry thug who during the war was in the deadliest Serb paramilitary, is riding shotgun. 12 We're in a black jeep, heading back into Srpska. 11 \"This is a black operation,\" Bosko says. 10 \"Nobody can know we're going in.\" 12 Again we arrive at Hotel Paranoia, following Karadzic's instructions. 14 I am trapped with Bosko and Belmondo in a room with orange bedspreads. 9 Karadzic will contact us with the next move. 14 From our window, I watch refugees picking mushrooms on the ski slope. 24 The next day, we don't venture from our room, wary of alerting the Minister of Fear that we are here. 13 Bosko is lying supine, with his feet up on a pillow. 21 An arm covers his eyes, and he is moaning in pain as he drifts in and out of sleep. 11 It is more than either Belmondo or I can bear. 5 Something must be done. 5 We flip a coin. 3 I lose. 20 \"I'm going to try to put some life back in these dogs,\" I tell Bosko. 39 Back at the casino, during off-hours, I had seen a Serb bartender take out a bottle of slivovitz, the good stuff, and pour it over Bosko's feet before he began to massage them. 7 My technique is not so inventive. 10 I drape a white towel over Bosko's feet. 23 He winces at first as I dig my thumbs into the ball of his foot, but then he begins to relax. 18 \"When I was a boy, I had a dog named Jack,\" he says. 13 \"One day, a cop asks me the dog's name. 12 I tell him, you know, 'It's Jack.' 12 The copy says, 'That's a fucking capitalist name.' 6 He takes out his pistol. 5 He shoots Jack.\" 13 And with that Bosko's eyes roll back and he is snoring. 33 Belmondo and I wait a few minutes, and then, despite Bosko's warning to stay out of sight, we head to the hotel bar, dying for a drink. 27 We order and look up to see that seated not twenty feet away, with a blond at his side, is the Minister of Fear. 11 He has a wary smile and lifts his hand slightly. 21 Belmondo orders a drink for the minister, who, leaving his date behind, walks over and joins us. 6 He speaks smugly in Serbo-Croatian. 18 \"He is sorry that your interview with the Doctor is not possible,\" Belmondo translates. 9 \"Please call again in a year.\" 14 The minister sniffs, downs his drink, and returns to his table. 7 Belmondo and I finish our drinks. 4 It's over. 13 Upstairs, we lie in the dark, listening to Bosko snore. 13 Neither of us wants to wake up and deliver the awful news. 5 So you fuck up. 17 Those are Bosko's first words in the morning, said with a devil's smile. 4 Forget about it. 11 No one knows about our meeting except us and Karadzic. 6 Bosco says he's sure. 6 \"I hear his voice. 3 Only me. 4 And you.\" 27 At the gates of Karadzic's compound later that day, Bosko and I are surrounded by soldiers, all heavily armed and wearing bulletproof vests. 6 A guard asks for identification. 13 \"My cock is the only identification you'll ever need!\" 3 Bosko thunders. 12 The guard retreats into his shack and dials the rotary phone. 13 When he comes out again, his hands are up in apology. 16 And now a hand is gently on each of our backs, ushering us in. 9 Karadzic's compound is the Famos truck factory. 8 Inside, everyone is on high alert. 10 But no one has taken away my backpack yet. 7 No naked trek through the mountains. 4 No magic dust. 5 We're walking in. 19 We're escorted past another guard station and then upstairs and down a hall to the end office. 4 Karadzic's office. 11 A very familiar photo of him is on the wall. 18 His secretary hands me a document She says it was drafted last night by Dr. Karadzic himself. 53 Reading it, I am at first puzzled:\n\nCOMMITMENT\n\nI, Daniel Scott Voll, herein confirm that I have made a commitment concerning my visit to the Republic of Srpska, as follows:\n\nI have been in a \"fact of finding mission\" in the Republic of Srpska. 55 During the visit, I have met Dr. Radovan Karadzic under strict conditions that he give me only some knowledge useful for my mission, and that under no conditions can I quote him, or publish any kind of interview, because he forbids to be interviewed, or considered to be interviewed. 13 I have made this commitment with my full moral and material responsibility. 9 This was the double game at its best. 18 Even I had to wonder, upon signing it, if I had perhaps already met Karadzic. 10 \"Do we get to see him now?\" 9 I ask, looking into Karadzic's office. 11 \"Come back next Tuesday,\" I am told. 31 Bosko takes a copy of the letter from Karadzic's secretary, rolls it up, and walks out, holding it as if he were the Statue of Liberty. 9 He's one step closer to his dream. 3 Brokering peace. 5 Winning a get-out-of-jail-free card. 9 Me, I want this business over with. 24 Sick with a hacking cough and a fever a few nights later, I fear I am becoming as toxic as this place. 43 \"I know just what you need,\" Bosko says, and off we go, driving hours through the rainy night to Belgrade for the after-midnight floor show at Club Lotus, a red-velvet den of iniquity on the Danube. 11 The place was an SS bordello during World War II. 5 Bosko owns it now. 12 The Exhibitionist is dancing in the cage, doing her striptease. 32 In an effort to cure my fever, Bosko orders snifters of warm cognac, and after I've had a couple, he offers his apartment upstairs for the night. 8 He'll sleep elsewhere, he says. 16 At 4:00 a.m., sleeping fitfully, I hear a key turn in the door. 5 Footfalls cross the floor. 12 And then a hand on my shoulder, touching me lightly. 7 Now a hand on my face. 27 I turn over, disoriented, and then I see these legs, beautiful, long legs, dancer's legs, sheathed in black silk. 3 The Exhibitionist. 6 A finger against my lips. 21 In this light, away from the stage, I see the circles, like bruises, under her eyes. 9 He kisses my cheeks, kneels beside me. 7 \"I'm your bodyguard.\" 9 \"I don't need a bodyguard.\" 7 \"Bosko says you do.\" 7 \"Did Bosko send you?\" 13 \"I told him I wanted to come and see you.\" 9 \"But he gave you the key.\" 3 \"Yes. 16 And he told me not to fall in love or he would kill me.\" 9 Now both her hands are touching my face. 10 I close my eyes and take a deep breath. 7 She lies on top of me. 15 \"I had a boyfriend once before the war,\" she says quietly. 10 Her mouth is on my lips, my neck. 10 And then her head is resting on my chest. 16 Her mother, she tells me, is a Serb, her father a Croat. 9 Her Serb boyfriend was killed during the war. 7 Her brother fought for the Croats. 16 She'd worked as an interpreter for the UN before she started dancing for Bosko. 10 \"He is my protector, my daddy.\" 13 And then she adds softly, \"Be careful of Bosko.\" 29 \"Do not underestimate how dangerous this world is,\" Bosko says the next day as we stroll through downtown Belgrade, trailed by his male bodyguard. 8 \"We are surrounded by killers.\" 10 Bosko is waiting for the details of last night. 9 I can see it in his sly smile. 7 He likes to get folks dirty. 21 He once got a rival gangster in New York addicted to cocaine, took him right out of the picture. 7 He likes to control his world. 12 But when I remain silent, he takes a different tack. 11 \"You're a good boy,\" he says. 7 \"I taught you well.\" 4 I stop walking. 7 He wanted to set me up. 6 \"Fuck you, Bosko. 10 I'm not going to play your game anymore. 7 I'll go to Karadzic myself. 7 Or I'll go home.\" 3 He shrugs. 4 Lights a cigarette. 2 Squints. 14 \"Bosko, what did you mean that Visegrad was your homework?\" 6 \"It's a joke. 15 Like when I say, 'I want a donkey to fuck you.' 6 It's a joke.\" 6 I'm sick of jokes. 21 This morning, my editor in New York faxed me a newspaper article about a killer names Lukic from Visegrad. 24 According to the article, Lukic is responsible for killing more Muslims with his bare hands than any other individual in the war. 14 Lukic has been so well protected that no journalist has ever seen him. 10 \"Bosko, do you know Milan Lukic?\" 8 He stops, waves his bodyguard away. 8 For a moment, he's off-balance. 12 \"It's no good to say his name out loud. 5 Them's killers.\" 7 \"Do you know him?\" 7 \"Sure, I know him. 4 So do you. 14 Lukic arranged for your safety the first night we crossed into Bosnia.\" 4 \"What?\" 5 Now I am off-balance. 15 \"He is the one I called to make sure you would be safe. 11 He was in the tail car,\" Bosko says. 13 \"You sat with him on our last trip across the border. 6 At the caf\u00e9 in Visegrad. 5 He bought you coffee. 5 You liked him.\" 12 Bosko grits his teeth; a cloud passes over his eyes. 8 \"Don't fuck up, Daniel. 10 You are here for Karadzic, not Milan.\" 7 He pauses, lights another cigarette. 9 He is shaking his head, watching me. 8 \"I do things wrong, yes. 4 Maybe I killed. 6 Maybe I did other things. 5 But Karadzic is honest. 4 I know devil. 5 He is inside me. 8 But Karadzic is angel to my people. 14 \"But he was president during the entire war,\" I say. 12 \"His own blue book shows that he had command control. 5 And what about Srebrenica? 25 If a mob boss orders a hit, he's still guilty of murder, even if he didn't pull the trigger.\" 12 \"He didn't know all the killings would happen.\" 7 \"How do you know?\" 6 \"I know goddamnit!\" 28 On the night before we are to meet Karadzic, American troops storm the Minister of Fear's police barracks in several towns along the Bosnian border. 8 Crowds are retaliating with stones and firebombs. 7 Tim calls from America, worried. 10 Don't go back to Srpska, he warns. 26 Bosko composes a fax to Karadzic, telling him that we have information vital to his safety and that he must still meet with us. 4 The double game. 15 \"It's the only way to get his attention,\" Bosko says. 16 An hour later, at Bosko's apartment above Club Lotus, the phone rings. 4 It's Karadzic. 15 \"It's a very bad time,\" Karadzic says before hanging up. 8 \"This is not a safe phone. 5 Be in Pale tomorrow. 8 My office will make the arrangement.\" 17 \"We're going to need some protection down there,\" Bosko says to me. 9 \"They're handing out long guns.\" 6 I am Bosko's hostage. 13 For the first time, I feel like I am in trouble. 13 The jeep has been making a clanking sound since we left Belgrade. 20 I have ignored it, but now, on a dangerous mountain road, Bosko makes me pull over. 12 Almost all the lug nuts have been sheared off our wheels. 7 \"Sabatoge,\" Bosko says. 5 \"Because of you. 6 I saved your life.\" 33 As we approach Pale, Bosko's sources report that Italian troops, who control this NATO sector, have a snatch team on the ground, ready to move on Karadzic. 6 Everyone is on snatch alert. 12 We turn a corner and face the cannon of a tank. 14 Armored personnel carriers and UN trucks with whip antennae are parked on overlooks. 23 We are invited inside Karadzic's compound for dinner, which is served in a private salon by waiters in black tie. 4 Brandy is poured. 14 Our hosts for the evening are Karadzic's Ministers of Rationalization and Denial. 20 \"If they storm the compound, we'll give you a gun,\" one says, smiling. 10 \"You'll have to shoot the Italians.\" 14 \"Dr. Karadzic sends his apologies,\" says the Minister of Denial. 16 He is unavailable and has asked me to provide you whatever help you need.\" 15 The rumor is that Karadzic has fled to another country, at least temporarily. 7 Bosko lectures the ministers in English. 6 Their strategy is all wrong. 11 \"He's charged with genocide\u2014you can't rationalize genocide! 9 You can't hide from that charge!\" 3 he yells. 11 \"He's got to show his face to America! 4 Show his heart! 7 It can make him clean!\" 10 The Ministers of Rationalization and Denial trade nervous glances. 13 The Yugoslav border guard asks me to step away from the jeep. 5 My visa has expired. 6 I cannot leave Srpska. 3 Bosko shrugs. 4 It's dark. 6 \"It's Friday night. 12 It might take me a couple days to get you out. 10 I'll start making some calls in the morning. 8 Belmondo will stay behind with you.\" 32 As we get into a border guard's car for the complimentary ride back into Visegrad, Belmondo turns to me: \"You're chief, I'm security.\" 17 Milan Lukic sits on the terrace of his caf\u00e9, which commands a view of downtown. 6 He is surrounded by cops. 14 \"Milan trusts no one,\" Belmondo as we climb the stairs. 11 \"We must let him know we're here.\" 13 The last time they met, Lukic kissed Belmondo on both cheeks. 9 Now he gives him only a slight nod. 17 Wearing shirtsleeves, jeans, tennis shoes, the Butcher of Visegrad doesn't look remarkable. 21 He is in his thirties, tall, with an athletic build, just a little fleshy under the chin. 8 He runs his hand through his hair. 6 The cops talk in whispers. 5 Belmondo is very nervous. 8 Without Bosko, the rules have changed. 14 Whatever his own killing tally, he is no match for this crowd. 21 During the cleansing, Lukic walked these streets with a megaphone, exhorting, \"Rise up, Serb brothers. 5 Kill the Muslims.\" 4 He killed thousands. 10 Most of his work was done on the bridge. 19 Daily, he would herd groups of Muslims there, garrote or shoot them, and laugh maniacally. 11 So many bodies were swept downriver that the dam clogged. 8 He incinerated hundreds more inside their houses. 16 Lukic is not on the published Hague list; investigators may never even reach Visegrad. 9 Hhis terror was not limited to this town. 12 At Srebrenica, survivors remember Lukic requesting refugee Muslims from Visegrad. 20 Now Lukic walks over, taps Belmondo on the shoulder, directs him inside, where they sit alone. 8 I hear anger in Lukic's voice. 13 He wants to know why Belmondo has brought this American back here. 24 When Belmondo comes out, he puts a hand on my shoulder and says quietly, \"We must go, Friendo.\" 8 I risk a last look at Lukic. 12 He nods his head, smiles, and shows his teeth. 12 They are discolored, pushed slightly inward, shark's teeth. 14 We take a room at a hotel in the hills above the town. 20 Filled with amputees, mostly war veterans here for therapy in natural sulfur pools, this is Hotel Sorrow. 22 On a terrace a few hundred yards downhill, accompanied by an accordion, an aging blond sings Serb nationalist songs. 10 We join them, and Belmondo begins downing drinks. 12 \"I am not a quisling,\" he keeps repeating. 7 \"I was in the underground. 9 I spend seven years fighting for this country. 12 What the fuck do I have to show for it?\" 21 The blond singer comes to our table, and Belmondo gives her a hundred deutsche marks to keep her singing. 7 A circle of veterans joins us. 14 All seems lost to them but the words to these melancholy war songs. 22 A man with bushy red hair tilts his head back like a hungry bird and sings, his voice barely audible. 22 Another man puts his hand on my shoulder before we leave and says, \"Please give my heart to Dr. 3 Karadzic.\" 12 Belmondo is smashed and tries to pick up the hotel receptionist. 23 He tells her that during the war, he once killed four Muslims upriver and then returned to this hotel to sleep. 14 A few hours later, he knocks on my door, appearing sober. 16 He tells me he is afraid Lukic will come in the night and kill us. 7 \"Much paranoia\" Belmondo says. 6 \"Milan much paranoia.\" 6 Neither of us has slept. 12 \"We can walk across the border,\" he offers. 5 \"You and me. 9 I know a secret route along the river. 8 I know it from the war.\" 5 Yes, I say. 5 I want to leave. 10 I don't want to die in Hotel Sorrow. 17 Back at Bosko's casino in the mountains of Yugoslavia, I am packing to leave. 19 \"Always he has been in the company of killers,\" his wife, Sabrina, says. 14 \"In New York, forget about it, they were all killers. 12 When I met Bosko, he thought I was a spy. 6 Sabrina was born in Zagreb. 13 \"Isn't it strange, Super Serb marries a Croat?\" 23 They met at the Women's National Republican Club across from Rockefeller Center in New York, where Bosko had an office. 16 She was a concert pianist, spoke six languages, and modeled on the side. 14 After Bosko fled America, she sold their townhouse and followed him here. 11 \"I felt sorry for him,\" she says. 14 I apologize for keeping Bosko away on the night of their tenth anniversary. 18 \"During the war,\" she said, \"he would be gone for weeks.\" 3 Doing what? 3 \"Operations. 4 He was training. 7 I had my own work.\" 10 Sabrina points to a hotel up on the hill. 12 \"During the war, I ran the casino up there. 18 Some nights, I had $250,000 in my pocket, and I'd carry three pistols. 9 The town was full of soldiers then.\" 3 She pauses. 6 She is struggling with something. 27 \"Daniel, the night before Srebrenica, Bosko and I had two hundred soldiers locked in the casino, all of them wearing black masks. 9 Nobody in town could know they were here. 6 They left in the night. 7 There were buses and bulldozers.\" 7 She gets quiet, looks away. 6 \"It was awful.\" 11 Then she hands me a photo of a magnificent rottweiler. 9 \"The dog is a trophy from Srebrenica. 8 I got her as a gift.\" 30 I am just beginning to comprehend what she has told me: This place had been a staging area for the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. 12 \"Only five living creatures were left when it was over. 8 The dog was one of them.\" 11 She looks at the picture, and her face brightens. 7 \"Isn't she beautiful?\" 26 My bus to the airport departs from Uzice, the town where Bosko was born and spent his childhood and where his family was killed. 13 As we stand at the station, he looks at me grimly. 9 His grand plan has failed in every respect. 42 When I last spoke to Karadzic, Bosko's angel sounded to me like an unsaved man, a man trying desperately to compose some contemporary version of the Nuremburg defense, a man signing off as the world closed in. 12 Bosko stands facing me now and looks himself to be unsaved. 19 He couldn't save Gotti, can't save Karadzic, won't be able to save himself. 13 As we were escaping Visegrad, Belmondo told me a few things. 25 He said that Bosko is furious that I came to know of his familiarity and ease with such a prolific killer as Milan Lukic. 15 Bosko meant to show me one thing, but instead he showed me another. 19 By introducing me to this world of killers, he knows that he has made Karadzic frighteningly comprehensible. 69 And he fears that I'm actually not CIA, as he had continued to believe, and that there's a chance my handlers at Langley won't come through with that new, clean passport that shows how much the United States of America appreciates his work and his devotion and all of that mob unpleasantness in New York City is a thing of the past. 6 Come on home, Bosko. 22 For such an intimidating, exuberant, even winning figure, Bosko seems, like his country to be completely lost. 21 He knows that when the war breaks out again, it will be Serb season, just as Tim said. 15 And they will never be able to kill enough to keep that from happening. 13 The look in his eyes says, Get me out of here. 10 He has a request before I board my bus. 23 He reaches into his pocket, and as he does, he says, \"You'll put in a good word. 12 Tell them I'm ready to go to work again.\" 14 He hands me six unsmiling passport photos of himself, taken this morning. 15 And six copies of his signature on a neatly folded sheet of white paper. 20 As always, his feet are hurting him, as if just standing on this ground is killing him. 11 \"You can make me clean,\" he says. 6 \"Make me clean.\""} {"text": " 54 Claims its NBN plan is sound and that the Coalition assumptions are wrong\n\nMinister for finance and deregulation, Senator Penny Wong, and minister for broadband, communications and the digital economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, have slammed the assumptions underpinning the Coalition\u2019s costing of Labor\u2019s NBN. 32 At the Joint Committee for the National Broadband Network, Wong reaffirmed the robustness of NBN Co\u2019s corporate plan, which was independently verified by KPMG and Greenhill Caliburn. 33 \u201cNBN Co. CEO, Mike Quigley, has demonstrated its corporate plan is sound and that the Coalition assumptions about the cost of the project are wrong,\u201d she said. 46 Conroy highlighted three disparities:\n\nThe actual cost of building the NBN to each home and business is between $2200 to $2500 per premise, not $3600 per premise as claimed in Coalition communications spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull\u2019s policy document. 20 NBN wholesale prices will fall in real terms, not triple as stated in Turnbull\u2019s policy document. 22 The NBN remains on track to be completed by 2021, not 2025 as claimed in Turnbull\u2019s policy document. 22 \u201cThis evidence proves that the assumptions underpinning the Coalition\u2019s costing of Labor\u2019s NBN are a fraud. 25 If Turnbull had any credibility at all, he would admit that he has based his costing on a lie,\u201d he said. 29 According to Conroy, Turnbull should immediately stop misleading the public about the prices people pay for the NBN now and what people will pay in the future. 46 \u201cIf he doesn\u2019t, it\u2019s just another sign that Turnbull will say anything to hide the fact that his plan would leave Australia with the broadband equivalent of the Sydney Harbour Bridge with only one lane,\u201d Conroy added."} {"text": " 52 In Another Case Of Unnecessary Moral Policing, A Man Was Thrown Out Of A Police Station For Wearing Shorts\n\nIn Another Case Of Unnecessary Moral Policing, A Man Was Thrown Out Of A Police Station For Wearing Shorts\n\nMoral policing and shaming people is a common practice in India. 24 People in public transport, your own neighbours, acquaintances and basically anyone who can speak is always ready to slap their opinion. 21 Also read: A Teenager's Kickass Response To Shobhaa De Body Shaming Kate Middleton Is Winning The Internet Today! 27 But one can always diss and ignore the statements of those who don't matter, but how will you fight someone who is in power? 18 The story of Mangesh Desale is easy to understand, but something we all can relate to. 28 On Saturday evening, Mangesh Desale, a resident of Kalyan in Maharashtra, went to Khadakpada Police Station to get police verification done for his passport. 21 Mangesh/Facebook\n\nBut over and above getting his work done, Mangesh was instantly schooled by the officers for wearing shorts. 24 As one can clearly see in the video, Magesh is being pushed by the officer and is called out for behaving indecently. 43 Don't Miss 1.3 K SHARES 1 K SHARES 4 K SHARES\n\nAlso read: Jokes On Colour, Body Shaming Should Not Be Encouraged, Says Radhika Apte\n\n\"I was wearing shorts so they started shouting at me for that. 16 I asked them if there is any rule of dress code in the police station. 22 They did not show me any rules but said this is India, not America,\" he writes on Facebook. 36 His post, which has been shared over 1.7k times resonated with a lot of people, because most of us have either been at the receiving end or have at least witnessed such behaviour. 22 Also read: Policeman Fired After He Returns To Work After 15 Yrs, 217 Days Of Leave Without A Valid Reason"} {"text": " 33 When David Haye recently announced his probable retirement from boxing following an extensive shoulder operation, it seemingly exposed a dearth of suitable challengers to the Klitschko brothers in the heavyweight division. 22 Fellow Briton and potential contender Tyson Fury is now seeking a new opponent after his planned bout with Haye was cancelled. 31 After becoming dominant as a cruiserweight, Haye decided to face the heavyweights and showed astute tactical awareness when beating the 7ft Russian Nicolai Valuev to claim the WBA title. 37 A toe injury was blamed for his reduced mobility when outpointed by Wladimir Klitschko in 2010, but there have been recent reports of him seeking another title fight with his conqueror or tackling brother Vitali. 37 The planned fight with the Fury was billed as a possible eliminator for meeting either of the Ukrainians but an eye injury followed by this latest shoulder problem has created a vacuum for the unbeaten Mancunian. 35 As the boxing world seeks a viable alternative to the Klitschko domination, Fury must also find and defeat a credible substitute opponent to be then considered worthy a fight for the heavyweight championship. 17 Latest rumours indicate that a bout with the unbeaten American Deontay Wilder may now be scheduled. 28 Not since the days of a younger Mike Tyson in the late 1980\u2019s have the USA produced a fighter capable of dominating the heavyweight division. 27 Evander Holyfield briefly tried but Tyson earned his fearsome reputation with quick knock-outs and seemingly endless aggression before succumbing to countless distractions out of the ring. 38 In his 30 professional fights, Wilder has never ventured beyond the fourth round and his record is reminiscent of Tyson in his formative years when under the wing of mentor and coach Cus D\u2019Amato. 27 The difference is that Wilder is more experienced at 28 years old and has a more settled lifestyle with a wife and two daughters to support.. 23 The American has yet to be tested in the boxing ring and disposed of Briton Audley Harrison inside 70 seconds during April. 21 It has also been reported that he recently sparred with David Haye and more than matched him in the ring. 10 Tyson Fury will certainly underestimate Wilder at his peril. 49 Besides the American, there is also the unbeaten Cuban Luis Ortiz to consider who is less spectacular but has finished 17 of his 20 bouts inside the distance and Bryant Jennings who has won all 17 of his contents but appears to lack a genuine knock-out punch. 31 Hopefully, 2014 will be the year when the Klitschko supremacy is seriously challenged with several unbeaten heavyweights capable of enlivening a division which has appeared stale for several years."} {"text": " 51 Evan Blass, the man behind the famous account @evleaks posted the images of the first BlackBerry Android Phone dubbed as \u201cVenice.\u201d The images presented a part of the curved display of the phone by Blackberry which was quite similar to Samsung\u2019s Galaxy S6 Edge. 16 The rumored phone by BlackBerry is dubbed as Venice and will probably have a slider. 25 According to the sources BlackBerry Android Phone Venice would be available on US carrier AT&T for an official launch later this year. 49 Expected Specs of the first BlackBerry Android Phone dubbed as Venice:\n\nIf we go with the rumors, the first BlackBerry Android Phone dubbed as Venice will possibly have a 5.4-inch screen with QHD resolution, 3GB RAM, 18MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing camera. 23 It is said to be powered by a 64-bit 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 hexacore processor and will also have a slide-out keyboard. 1 . 13 @akrnsv Not at all \u2014 Venice is actually quite the looker. 46 pic.twitter.com/ToFgYNOuLw \u2014 Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 3, 2015\n\nThe Android Phone market is having cut throat competition, but it lacks with the phones with solid physical keyboards, particularly if a user is looking for a phone with latest specs. 24 So, the move to include a slide-out keyboard in the BlackBerry\u2019s first Android phone could prove beneficial for the company. 44 John Chen, Chief Executive Officer of BlackBerry is banking on BES12- the new device management system that allows government and corporate clients to manage not only BlackBerry devices on their internal networks, but also iOS, Android and Windows powered devices. 26 So, the first BlackBerry Android Phone dubbed as Venice would be alluring for the folks who are still clinging onto their old BlackBerry devices. 28 BlackBerry won\u2019t be able to take over the Android smartphone market overnight, but it will help them to get a foot in the door. 13 It is expected that Blackberry will release the phone by November 2015."} {"text": " 37 A mentally ill young man who shot himself in the head in a suicide attempt suffered a brain injury that apparently eliminated his phobia of germs and his obsession with washing his hands, doctors say. 39 The .22-caliber slug destroyed the section of the brain responsible for his disabling obsessive-compulsive behavior without causing any other brain damage, his doctor said in a report in Physician's Weekly, a British journal of psychiatry. 16 Victims of the disorder typically have an inexplicable compulsion to repeat activities over and over. 41 The afflicted man, now a straight-A college student, tried to kill himself five years ago, when he was 19 years old, said Dr. Leslie Solyom, a psychiatrist at Shaughnessy Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia. 29 Effects of His Behavior\n\nThe man, identified only as George, washed his hands hundreds of times a day and took frequent showers, Dr. Solyom said. 15 The behavior had forced him to drop out of school and quit his job. 20 Advertisement Continue reading the main story\n\nDr. Solyom treated him for more than a year before he tried suicide. 26 ''George was also very depressed and told his mother that his life was so wretched that he would rather die,'' Dr. Solyom related. 21 ''She said, 'So look George, if your life is so wretched, just go and shoot yourself.' 20 So George went to the basement, stuck a .22-caliber rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger.''"} {"text": " 25 Ann Coulter was back in the news again this week following racist comments she made during an interview with Fusion TV host Jorge Ramos. 54 Coulter claimed the Mexican culture is \u201cdeficient\u201d and went on to claim that part of Mexican culture includes \u201cuncles raping their nieces.\u201d Such quotes are nothing new for Coulter, who uses her mainstream popularity as a platform to spread white nationalist messages and ideas to a large audience. 29 Over the past few decades, other white nationalist ideologues such as Pat Buchanan and Sam Francis (before his death) have been publicly denounced and marginalized. 20 The main question for TV networks and newspaper columns is why are they not doing the same to Coulter? 24 If one looks at her quotes throughout the years, many strikingly similar things have been uttered by neo-Nazis and hardcore white nationalists. 7 Yet Coulter remains in the mainstream. 25 In an interview with Sean Hannity last year, Coulter scoffed, \u201cBut unfortunately for liberals, there is no racism in America. 11 There is more cholera in America than there is racism. 15 But they have to invent it.\u201d Sadly, Coulter is very much mistaken. 18 Racism is alive and well in America today and Coulter is doing her part to spread it. 40 Below is a selection of racist quotes from Coulter juxtaposed with similar quotes from other members of the radical right:\n\nOne may assume the new majority will not be such compassionate overlords as the white majority has been. 23 If this sort of drastic change were legally imposed on any group other than white Americans, it would be called genocide. 25 Yet whites are called racists merely for mentioning the fact that current immigration law is intentionally designed to reduce their percentage in the population. 21 (From AnnCoulter.com)\n\n\u201cWhy can\u2019t European-Americans be concerned with this genocide [of white people]? 34 Is it racial to say that?\u201d \u2013 Gordon Baum, former head of the white nationalist group Council of Conservative Citizens\n\n\u201cI think there are cultures that are obviously deficient. 28 And if they weren\u2019t deficient, you wouldn\u2019t be sitting in America interviewing me \u2014 I\u2019d be sitting in Mexico.\" 60 (Coulter in Politico)\n\n\u201cMulticulturalism, which subordinates successful Euro-American culture to dysfunctional Third World cultures, keeps gaining ground against surprisingly weak opposition.\u201d \u2013 White nationalist John Vinson, founding member of the neo-Confederate hate group League of the South\n\n\u201cYou fled that culture because there are a lot of problems with that culture. 16 We can share our culture with other nations without bringing all of their people here. 13 When you bring the people here, you bring those cultures here. 34 That includes honor killings, it includes uncles raping their nieces, it includes dumping litter all over, it includes not paying your taxes, it includes paying bribes to government officials. 8 That isn\u2019t our culture.\" 119 (Coulter in Politico)\n\nStatistics repeatedly prove that ILLEGAL ALIENS, first committing a criminal act by violating our borders and then bringing their values and culture to our midst, are major contributors to our mounting financial burdens as well as moral and social decay.\u201d \u2013 Barbara Coe, former head of the anti-immigrant hate group California Coalition for Immigration Reform\n\n\u201cI think our motto should be, post-9/11, 'Raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.\u201d (Coulter in CNSnews)\n\n\u201cA bunch of towel head/sand niggers put our great White Movement to shame\u201d \u2013 Neo-Nazi Rocky Suhayda\n\n\u201cBut unfortunately for liberals, there is no racism in America. 11 There is more cholera in America than there is racism. 12 But they have to invent it.\u201d (Coulter in Newshounds)"}