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Researchers Looking To Attract Wild Jaguars Find Strange Solution: Obsession By Calvin Klein

Culture

Researchers that study the wild jaguars of Guatemala have long had difficulty taking a census of the number of animals in the 8,100 acre Maya Biosphere Reserve. They recently discovered a new method to help their study from an unlikely source, Obsession for Men cologne by Calvin Klein.

Researchers applied the fragrance near their motion-activated camera systems, which led to the cats approaching and rubbing against the scent long enough to be recorded.

Cats engage in a “rubbing” behavior in order to deposit their own scents as well as acquiring the scents that appeal to them. It turns out that Obsession contains Civetone, a chemical that was previously obtained from the nocturnal civet, and vanilla. The combination of these two is believed to be causing the attraction of these jaguars who seek to replace the civetone scent with their own by licking off and then rubbing against it, in what is likely to be a territorial display.

Roan Balas McNab of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Guatemala stated, “We’re just starting to get an idea of how jaguars behave in their habitat. Before we used Obsession for Men we weren’t able to get these images at all. What we thing is that the civetone resembles some sort of territorial marking to the jaguar, and so it responds by rubbing its own scent on it.”

The fragrance from Calvin Klein is unique, because many other scents that were tested could only hold a large cat’s attention for a few seconds, while Obsession was shown to work on cheetahs at a Bronx Zoo for around 11 minutes.

Jaguars are difficult to study due to their solitary nature, roaming in areas of up to 25 miles. This, coupled with the jaguar’s 2000 psi bite, form the reasoning for the camera observation strategy used by researchers.

BBC To Launch Radio Service In North Korea

Entertainment News

With its goal of expanding “democracy and the free press,” the British Broadcasting Corporation (“BBC”) plans to launch radio broadcasts to North Korea for the first time and commence new television and/or digital services in Russia. The BBC claims there are “democratic deficits” in these countries and the massive media conglomerate wishes to fix the problem.

The announcement to push into North Korea and Russia comes at a time when the BBC is under increasing political pressure to justify its size in an all-encompassing digital age. The company also faces severe budget cuts.

Tony Hall, the BBC’s director general stated that, “[The World Service] is a service we want to strengthen and expand. My own strong view is that this is one area where the country’s voice could be much stronger – especially in the Middle East, India and Russia and the states that used to make up the Soviet Union.”

The launch of this new initiative also comes at a time when state-sponsored rivals such as Al-Jazeera and RT (previously known as Russia Today) have risen on the scene. Both of these entities now have extensive operations in the United Kingdom.

A BBC source proffers that, “This is about Britain’s place in the world. It is above the politics of the debates about the BBC’s future. It has to be a national priority. Other news outlets are growing globally and many do not share our traditions and values. We have a strong commitment to uphold global democracy through accurate, impartial and independent news. There should no longer be any no-go countries for the World Service.”

As part of this plan, the BBC seeks to strengthen and expand its digital presence in Russia utilizing YouTube or its Russian counterpart RuTube, and will explore the possibility of establishing a Russian satellite television channel.

With respect to North Korea, the BBC hopes to emit short wave radio broadcasts in the country. Presently, North Korea’s citizens are cut off from the rest of the world almost completely as they have no access to the worldwide Internet and they are unable to make calls outside of North Korea. The United States-funded Voice of America (“VOA”) and Radio Free Asia (“RFA”) both make unauthorized broadcasts in Korean to the country. However, those that are caught listening to such unauthorized foreign broadcasts can be punished severely.

Unlike the United States and South Korea, North Korea does not view the United Kingdom as such a threat. The BBC hopes that its plans might not trigger such a harsh reaction from the communist state.

The BBC, which is 93 years old, is facing a major revamp as the British government criticizes the company for stifling commercial competition and for airing unbalanced political coverage. In fact, earlier this summer, the British government stated that it planned to look at whether the BBC should be scaled back and whether its major source of funding – the $222 license fee paid by users – should be restructured.

Hall stated that despite its grand vision with the Worldwide Service, he acknowledges that some of BBC’s services will be reduced or eliminated altogether. He further stated that BBC’s rivals will soon have access to some of BBC’s material and platforms.

Iraq Uses Newly Purchased U.S. F-16s To Strike ISIS Targets

News

Iraq has used its new U.S. acquired F-16 fighter jets to conduct air strikes against ISIS for the first time. The U.S. fighter jets will mark a turning point in Iraq’s offensive against a terror group keen on establishing a caliphate within the country and ultimately the world.

Iraq defense officials confirmed the use of the first four U.S. made F-16 fighter jets against ISIS on Sunday. Lt. Gen. Anwar Hama Amin said “Fifteen airstrikes were carried out in the past four days.” The airstrikes were made in the regions of Salaheddin and Kirkuk, north of the capital city, Baghdad.

Defense minister Khaled al-Obaidi said the strikes had achieved “important results” and that the jets would make “an impact on the conduct of operations in the future.”

The four supersonic jets were the first among 36 fighter jets the U.S. had pledged to sell to Iraq last year. The planes had been a major source of tension between the two countries with Iraq accusing the U.S. of delaying their arrival into the country.

However, U.S. officials had sighted a number of concerns inhibiting the jets’ arrival in Iraq. One of which was that no Iraqi air force soldier had been trained to fly the machines. This resulted in the U.S. converting its Arizona air base to an F-16 training ground for Iraqi pilots.

Insecurity in Iraq, where Balad Air Base was not considered safe, and the delay in equipping the F-16s with full range missiles and artillery also contributed to their prolonged arrival.

Iraq ambassador to the U.S. Lukman Faily had said in July that the jets would mark a critical turning point for the country’s spirited battle with the insurgents. “As Iraqi security forces, popular volunteers and local tribal fighters begin a major offensive to liberate key towns in Anbar, the arrival of the F-16 jets provides a much-needed boost to our air power capabilities that will allow us to target Daesh bomb-making factories and terrorist training camps,” he had said, referring to ISIS with their local name.

The U.S. has affirmed its commitment to partnering with Iraq against ISIS. From a statement by Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook on Sunday, “The United States is committed to building a strategic partnership with Iraq and the Iraqi people and we will continue to work with the Government of Iraq on the delivery of the remaining aircraft as they become available within the framework of the production schedule.”

The F-16 fighter jets will mark a new dawn for Iraq’s fight with a well-armed enemy. Previous airstrikes were performed using the outdated Sukhoi Su-25 jets, the Cessna Caravan turboprop and several helicopters. The new war machines will see Iraq mount a better campaign against an enemy threatening to break up the entire Middle East but it remains to be seen if it will be enough to stop the rapidly expanding terror network.

This Week’s Launch Of Apple TV Will Show A Strategy Shift From Streaming Into Gaming

Finance

It seems it isn’t just tech heavyweights like Google and Amazon that are making big pushes into the lucrative world of online gaming. According to reports over the weekend smartphone giant Apple will make gaming a key piece of its new and improved Apple TV product, which it is expected to unveil on Wednesday.

Sources briefed on Apple’s plans revealed that the new product is expected to be priced at around $150 and will contain a better graphics processor, a new remote control that doubles as a controller and an app store specifically for purchasing games.

While the general consensus of Wall Street analysts is that Apple would have considerable difficulty in luring users from high end gaming consoles like the Xbox and Playstation it appears Apple understands this and will go after casual gamers who do not want, or need, a high-end console.

At its event on Wednesday Apple is widely expected to release new iPhones and a new version of its Apple TV television streaming box.

Apple refused to comment on the latest rumors.

ESPN Blames Cord Cutters For Low Viewership But Is Political Programming To Blame?

Finance

One thing is clear. ESPN is losing large numbers of viewers every year. What is not so clear is the main reason for the loss of viewers. While many analysts believe that the phenomenon of “cord cutting” – the practice of cancelling expensive cable and satellite subscriptions in favor of other more inexpensive platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc. – is the primary reason, other analysts believe that as ESPN spends more of its programming time offering political commentary rather than simply airing the games and pure sports commentary the new focus is driving users away.

It seems like ESPN now devotes less airtime to Sportscenter’s Top 10 Plays and the actual games themselves than it does to news commentary of the political issue of the day. The trend is being followed by many in the sports business in an effort to diversify their product and broaden the appeal.

One of the most egregious examples of this “political football” was actually not aired on ESPN but on NBC Sports. But, it illustrates what is taking place on ESPN and other sports networks.

A few years ago on NBC Sports during a nationally televised NFL game, Bob Costas spent several minutes offering his political views regarding gun control in America. Rather than just tuning in to watch the game and spend a few hours escaping the reality of the mundane, viewers were “treated” to political commentary on a sensitive political issue.

The question becomes: Should a sports program really devote time to something that is not about the game? Are sports viewers tuning in for news commentary?

Apparently, many ESPN viewers are responding to that question in the negative. This is illustrated by the fact that many ESPN viewers are simply not watching the network anymore. If viewers were watching the network on alternative platforms, ESPN and its parent company Disney, would be sure to point that out.

But they are not.

Viewers are not tuning into the network on other services or alternative platforms, they simply are not viewing the network anywhere.

And while cord cutting is likely the reason many viewers are not viewing ESPN anymore, it is hard to ignore the fact that many viewers are not watching the network because of the near-constant news and commentary on issues such as domestic violence, gun control, and the like.

Not that these are not important issues – because undoubtedly they are.

But, watching a game, the highlights and the sports commentary related to the game is not as it used to be. Rather than spending a few hours going nuts over a team, escaping reality and becoming the best armchair quarterback ever, viewers are subject to the often depressing and draining politically charged news topics of the day.

So, it seems that viewers are not simply cutting the cord, they are tuning out altogether.

Police Find That One Third Of The Meat Sold In China Is From Smuggled Endangered Species

Culture

More meat from endangered animals is being smuggled into China than ever before according to new police reports. Consumers would be shocked to realize most of their meat was actually smuggled into the country, despite almost always being labeled as locally bred. China’s meat market is the largest in the world and has attracted a number of illegal meat smuggling rings that do not draw lines between endangered species meat and allowed meat.

Police in Yongjia county in Zhejiang province, eastern China, recently busted an illegal meat smuggling ring responsible for distributing over $15.7 million in rare wildlife. The meat, which included live giant salamanders, turtle doves, leopard cats and pangolins, was distributed to more than 10 provinces in China. Frozen animal limbs and bear paws also featured in the assortment of game.

Police across the country have been shocked to discover that more than 20 per cent of the country’s leisure farms and restaurants were actually involved in the trade, far higher than initially expected.

The findings mean that about one in three Chinese restaurants and small-scale meat suppliers are engaged in the illicit trade of endangered animals.

Chinese authorities reported that the illegally distributed game was first purchased from the ring in the regions of Guangdong and Guangxi before being delivered to restaurant kitchens and markets. Before the journey, the smuggled animals would be tranquilized so as not to be discovered. They would then be revived after crossing the border by being injected with stimulants. Frozen animal meat would have their appearance improved by bleaching with hydrogen peroxide, illustrating both the environmental and food safety concerns with the smuggling.

Plenty of endangered species meat is smuggled into mainland China under Pu’er city in southwestern Yunnan, bordering Vietnam. In China’s Guangzhou market, you can find plenty of wild game offerings including Vietnamese crocodiles. It is estimated that approximately 100,000 Vietnamese crocodiles were eaten in Guangdong last year alone, 70 per cent of which were illegally smuggled.

The meat smuggling business has earned a reputation for being especially lucrative. Pangolin meat delivered alive to Zheijang province can be sold for $220-250 a kilo. Bear’ meat can fetch $250 a kilo and frozen game $95 a kilo. A restaurant purchasing a macaque at $63 from the illegal rings can sell the same for $157.

Police busts on the illegal rings have increased by up to three times this year. The scale of smuggling has become so rampant it is infuriating legal meat importers. They are now urging the government to get rid of excise duty levied on their imported meat as it results in theirs being up to 60 per cent more expensive than the smuggled meat.

“You have people stuck with meat on the Vietnam side of the border they can’t sell. They start taking it up and down the river and breaking it into smaller units to bring it in,” said one trader.

The illegal trade in live smuggled meat is causing a severe wildlife crisis among China’s neighbors and fuelling health concerns among Chinese authorities. While authorities seem to be doing more the scale of the problem is so vast it will take significant time and investment to have a material impact on the trade.

Scientists Uncover Hidden Stone Monuments Just Feet From Famous Stonehenge

Culture

Archaeologists in England say they have discovered remains of a previously undetected stone monument within two miles of the famous Stonehenge. Using ground penetrating radar, a series of nearly 90 standing stones were found hidden under three feet of earth near a former discovery known as Durrington Walls. The discovery adds another chapter to the extensive network of monuments in the English countryside.

Located above the new discovery, Durrington Walls is believed to have been built one century after Stonehenge, and dwarfs its more famous neighbor. The original Stonehenge is believed to date back 4,500 years and the new monument is believed to have been built during or before the same time period.

Discovered as part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project (SHLP), the discovered stones measure up to nearly fifteen feet in size, dwarfing those at Stonehenge which measure just under seven feet. They are found along the south-eastern border of Durrington Walls in a c-shaped design. The material of the stones is currently unknown, but is suspected to be sarsen sandstone, the same material that composes the monoliths at Stonehenge.

Professor Vince Gaffney, who is a leading archaeologist with the project stated, “We’re looking at one of the largest stone monuments in Europe and it has been under our noses for something like 4,000 years…These things are theatrical. They’re designed to impress and impose; to give the idea of authority to the living and the dead.”

Current theories about such monuments hold that they were centered around the summer and winter solstices, due to their alignments with these astronomical phenomena. Remains of animal teeth near the Durrington Walls were isotopically analyzed and support the theory that individuals may have travelled from as far away as the Scottish Highlands in order to take part in the ceremonies.

Facebook Sued, Again, For Building A Secret Database Of ‘Faceprints’ Without Informing Users

Finance

For the fourth time this year, a lawsuit has been filed against social media giant Facebook with regards to the company’s face-recognition software. The class action lawsuit, filed in Illinois, claims that Facebook’s use of biometrics violates a unique Illinois privacy law entitled the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”).

Essentially, the plaintiffs claim that Facebook violates BIPA because it collects and stores faceprints of its users without obtaining informed written consent. The lawsuit is federal because the proposed class of plaintiffs number in the millions, Facebook’s headquarters are located in California, and the user bringing the suit resides in Illinois.

In fact, the latest lawsuit is brought by a person who does not even have a Facebook account. He insists, however, that Facebook unlawfully created a template of his face when a Facebook user uploaded a picture of him.

The complaint states that, “Facebook is actively collecting, storing and using – without providing notice, obtaining informed written consent or publishing data retention policies – the biometrics of its users and unwitting non-users . . . Specifically, Facebook has created, collected and stored over a billion ‘face templates’ (or ‘face prints’) – highly detailed geometric maps of the face – from over a billion individuals, millions of whom reside in the State of Illinois.”

A representative from Facebook states that the lawsuits are without merit and that the company will defend itself vigorously. However, as the issue is largely untested as there is no legal precedent, the case could play out in a handful of different ways.

Mary Dixon, legislative director for the ACLU of Illinois stated that Illinois “[was] ahead of the curve” in passing BIPA. “I think it’d be hard to pass similar initiatives now given the intense lobby against some of the protections [Illinois] [was] able to advance.”

Indeed, there have been several efforts to create some sort of federal regulations regarding the commercial use of biometrics. However, earlier this year, a number of privacy-rights groups withdrew from discussions on how to create and draft guidelines for face-recognition technology.

Essentially, after months of negotiations, the groups grew very frustrated by the efforts of industry trade associations that would not agree to even the slightest of personal protections, including a regulation that would require companies to obtain the written consent of individuals before collecting and storing faceprints of consumers. Alvaro M. Bedoya, a Georgetown University Professor, points out that, “When not a single trade association would agree to that, we just realized we weren’t dealing with people who were there to negotiate. We were there to deal basically with people who wanted to stop the process, or make it something that was watered down.”

As Illinois is only one of two states (the other being Texas) that have some sort of law regulating biometrics practice, other states are watching the lawsuit closely as they hope to gain some guidelines for drafting their own regulations.

As Bedoya aptly points out, “You can’t turn off your face. Yes, it’s 2015, and yes, we’re tracked in a million different ways, but for most of those forms of tracking, I can still turn it off it I want to.”

Canadian Doctors Are Now Legally Able To Prescribe You Exercise

Health & Wellness

Doctors in the Canadian province of Quebec have added a new tool to their long list of prescribable remedies: They can now give prescriptions for exercise to patients. The doctors are seeking new ways of combatting the country’s huge obesity problem, one that is eating away at the country’s young and old in equal measure, that doesn’t require drugs.

Quebec’s over 8000 general practitioners will each get general prescription pads where they will give patients direct instructions on which exercise to do and for how long. The initiative, a program from the Quebec Federation of General Practitioners and the nonprofit organization Grand Defi Pierre Lavoie, seeks to encourage healthier living among the province’s old and young.

The unique pads will allow doctors to recommend which types of exercise to give patients in form of “exercise cubes.” The cubes are the measure of 15 minutes of physical activity. An average dose involves two cubes a day, amounting to half an hour’s exercise, five days a week.

According to Quebec doctors, the program will also help patients reduce their risk of contracting high blood pressure, stroke, cholesterol and higher risks of heart attack.

Dr. Mark Roper said, “It’s as powerful as some of the pills we give, and less side effects.”
Patients get to choose their desired form of physical activity which may include swimming, cycling, walking and kayaking. The prescriptions will match the patients’ physical activity abilities, with regard to health and fitness level. All age groups will be subject to the exercise cubes prescription and in some schools in Quebec, the program is already active.

Doctors predict that in some cases, the exercise programs will take away the need for traditional medicines. Dr. Roper said, “We actually take them off medications because they’ve come down 20 lbs. (and) they don’t need their blood pressure pills.”

Quebec’s health ministry said researchers would follow the program for up to three years to monitor its results.

Montreal Heart Institute director of prevention Martin Juneau said, “Doctors are showing that they take this seriously. It’s not just advice. This way, it’s a medical prescription.”

Canada’s obesity problem is worrying. One in four adults and one in 10 children are clinically obese. These are six million Canadians requiring clinical prescriptions to get rid of excess weight. Doctors have blamed the excess weight for various lifestyle diseases including type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis and cancer.

Exercise prescriptions are an ingenious way of curbing growing obesity figures while simultaneously warding off lifestyle diseases. The province of Quebec will see an increased uptake of physical activity among their people.

Traditional West Point First Year Pillow Fight Marred By Violence

News

The annual first year cadet pillow fight at the renowned West Point military academy is likely to have a new set of rules introduced after this year’s event turned into a bloody brawl.

Thirty cadets were treated for injuries including concussion, dislocated shoulders, wounds, and broken bones, when the annual rite of passage event which is meant to celebrate the end of summer training and classes, and foster class spirit, got out of hand.

An academy spokesman said the annual pillow fight, a tradition which dates back to 1897, went wrong when some cadets reportedly stuffed the helmets they are encouraged to wear inside pillow cases, and beat their classmates with these.

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Kasker said “West Point applauds the cadets’ desire to build esprit and regrets the injuries to our cadets. We are conducting appropriate investigations into the causes of the injuries.”

Any hope the academy had of keeping the incident under wraps went out the window when some cadets posted the pillow fight on YouTube. Photos of bloodied cadets were also posted on Twitter.

Kasker said upperclassmen who oversee the event require cadets to wear helmets but the posted video shows many did not.

Many cadets were unfazed by the injuries. One female cadet told media that “At first the body count, people were joking about it. My friends were really excited. And right after, when we learned how many people had gotten hurt, everyone felt totally hard-core. I know it looks weird from the outside, but it really bonds us.”

Another first year cadet said he had been told by his upperclassman commander “If you don’t come back with a bloody nose, “you didn’t try hard enough.”

Kasker said there were no plans to end the yearly brawl even though this was not the first year things had gone astray. The 2013 annual pillow fight was cancelled in 2013 after some cadets were injured the previous year when an overzealous cadet put a lockbox in his pillow case.

Hackers Find Yet Another Way To Take Control Of Most Modern Vehicles

Finance

New research has found that the laser ranging systems (lidar) used by a majority of self driving vehicles, as well as used for blind spot detection, to sense objects and obstacles can be hacked by a system costing just $60. The vehicle hacking is not only limited to manual vehicles but even self driving cars who rely heavily on the technology.

The latest findings show, simply, that no American vehicle is safe from hackers.

A security researcher working with Security Innovation, Jonathan Petit, established the new system of hacking self driving vehicles. Petit said he had developed a system that took echoes of fake cars or from a pedestrian or a stationary wall, and used them to trick a driverless vehicle to think that something was directly ahead of it.

The self driving vehicle would be forced to slow down or even stop altogether. Petit said they could also ambush the car with multiple signals, totally confusing it to the extent it could not move at all.

Petit described the setup he used in a paper he is due to present at the Black Hat Europe security conference this November. He said, “It’s kind of a laser pointer, really. And you don’t need the pulse generator when you do the attack. You can easily do it with a Raspberry Pi or an Arduino. It’s really off the shelf.”

Petit said all he had to do was record the pulses from a IBEO lux lidar system, encrypt and encode them, then play them at a later point. Through this system, Petit could make multiple spoof copies of vehicles, walls and even pedestrians from 65 feet to a fifth of a mile away from the exposed lidar unit.

The attacks were as effective when carried out in front of the vehicle as they were at its side and even behind.

The researcher said that the sensor systems of self driving vehicles were actually their most vulnerable points. Just recently, other security researchers had hacked vehicle GPS devices and wireless tire sensors.

Petit said, “This is a key point, where the input starts. If a self-driving car has poor inputs, it will make poor driving decisions.”

Petit has said that the aim of his research is to enhance security for passengers on the road, especially when all control is given to machines. Petit is calling for the adaptation of strong misbehavior systems to cross check real and fake signals in self driving vehicles.
The future of our roads will be driverless. However, that future will be compromised if humans have to cede control to machines that can be hacked randomly. Self driving car manufacturers have got to place passenger security before anything else.

DEA Claims Victory After Two Pakistani Nationals Extradited To U.S. For Aiding Colombia’s FARC Rebels

News

Two Pakistani citizens have been extradited to the U.S. to face narco-terrorism charges after a lengthy legal battle. The two Pakistanis nationals are accused of conspiring with a foreign based terror organization, which according to U.S. law necessitated their immediate arrest and extradition.

Pirzada Khawaja Abdul Wahab Chishti and Przada Khawaja Abdul Hameed Chishti were both arrested in Spain back in 2014. The two were arrested with codefendants Ali Danish and Sohail Kaskar.

The U.S. had been seeking the extradition of all the accused. However, only those of Wahab Chishti and Hameed Chishti have been secured. The two appeared before a federal Manhattan court judge on Friday.

On Friday, U.S. prosecutors alleged that the two had been attempting to provide material support to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a group flagged by the U.S. authorities as a terror organization.

The assistance is said to have included the sale of several pounds of heroin and also Russian-made missiles to aid the organization’s drug trafficking business.

Prosecutors allege both Wahab Chishti, 49, and Hameed Chishti, 47, had met with members of the terror organization on various dates between 2013 and 2014. Their identities were given by undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informants posing as members of the group.

A statement from the DEA Special Agent in charge Mark Hamlet said, “Hameed and Wahab Chishti illustrate once again that drug trafficking and terror conspiracies often intersect, support, and facilitate each other’s dangerous and potentially deadly plots.”

The charges the two will face include conspiring to commit narco-terrorism, providing material foreign support to a terror organization, selling of surface to air missile launching systems and the importation of heroin. If convicted, the two will face life in prison.

The U.S. is still seeking the extradition of the other two co defendants Sohail Kaskar and Ali Danish.

The U.S. has put its foot down on the fight against drug cartels aiding terror organizations through funding and sale of armory. To make the world a better place, narcotics gangs have to be stopped before their ties with terrorists grow so deep it is impossible to differentiate the two.

Canada Joins Growing List Of Countries That Allow Environmental Lawsuits To Be Launched By Foreigners

Finance

The Supreme Court of Canada yesterday gave the go-ahead to a group of Ecuadorian villagers to ask an Ontario court to assist them in collecting a $9.5-billion judgment against oil giant Chevron Corp which they obtained in Ecuador.

The villagers claimed that Texaco Inc., a company that was bought by Chevron in 1993, polluted 1,500 square kilometres of Ecuadorian Amazon water and land between 1972 and 1990.

The unanimous ruling, upholds a similar finding reached by the Ontario Court of Appeal in 2013 over the 20 year long legal battle.

The court found the original lawsuit was legally and properly brought in Ecuador and that the Ecuadorian plaintiffs had the right to bring the judgement claim against Chevron as it had been able to serve the claim at Chevron’s office in Mississauga, Ontario.

“Traditional, presence-based jurisdiction is satisfied,” Justice Clement Gascon wrote in the seven-judge ruling.

The court threw out Chevron’s arguments that because the company did not have many assets in Ontario it would not be right to hear the case there.

“In today’s globalized world and electronic age, to require that a judgment creditor wait until the foreign debtor is present or has assets in the province before a court can find that it has jurisdiction in recognition and enforcement proceedings would be to turn a blind eye to current economic reality,” Justice Gascon wrote.

A spokesman for the Ecuadorian villagers, Humberto Piaguaje, said the Supreme Court decision meant the “beginning of the end of Chevron’s abusive and obstructionist litigation strategy” to avoid paying the judgment, although the decision does not mean the villagers yet have money in the bank.

Justice Gascon wrote “A finding of jurisdiction does nothing more than afford the plaintiffs the opportunity to seek recognition and enforcement of the Ecuadorian judgment.”

Legal experts say the case will now return to an Ontario judge, who will decide if the Ecuadorian judgment will be legally recognized and enforced in Canada.

Rise Of ‘Predictive Policing’ Raises Fears Of Computer Generated Discrimination

News

In the 2002 blockbuster, Minority Report, the character played by Tom Cruise is a police officer who arrests people for the crimes they are about the commit rather than the crimes they have already committed. Such an ability to predict crimes before they happen is something law enforcement would love to possess, and it appears that some semblance of crime prediction is now a reality.

Certain police departments across the nation have systems where algorithms produce lists of previously arrested and convicted individuals that are most likely to commit another crime in the future. One major benefit of using such a data system is that the program lacks the bias oftentimes found in humans – either consciously or subconsciously.

For example, the Chicago Police Department is working with engineers at the Illinois Institute of Technology to create a predictive formula that will create a list of 400 individuals having the greatest chance of committing a violent crime in the future. Such a list will allow the department, with its limited resources, to concentrate where it needs to.

The algorithm evaluates a number of factors, including a person’s arrest histories, arrest histories of that person’s acquaintances and whether any friends or associates of that person have been a shooting victim. The algorithm’s developers state that the formula uses no ‘racial, neighborhood, or other such information’ and that it is ‘unbiased and quantitative.’

Others see the use of predictive algorithms as dangerous because the algorithms themselves may reflect biases inherent in the factors that are analyzed.

After all, the programs “learn” from examples provided and inputted by humans. So, if race is disproportionately represented in the data fed to the algorithm, the algorithm may infer and use race in making a decision regarding an individual.

Moreover, the number one factor used by the algorithms is poverty, and as of now, poverty is an issue that affects blacks more than any other population in America.

Despite these perceived problems, the algorithms can quickly and easily be modified and adapted to interpret large amounts of data and spit out predictions in real time. Some departments that used predictive algorithms have reported significant reductions in crime.

Most importantly, at a time when racial tensions and police mistrust are so high, law enforcement must be transparent about its efforts in fighting crime, including its use of predictive algorithms.

Google Will Let China Censor Its App Store In Order To Re-Enter The Lucrative Mainland Market

Finance

Google is making plans for a comeback presence in China with a version of Google Play that will comply with all Chinese censorship requirements in order to do so.

The company famously left China in 2010 following cyber-attacks that were sourced to the Chinese Government. At the time Google vowed to end censoring Chinese search results and redirected Chinese searches through Hong Kong. But now the experts say Google has indicated that to get back into China to gain control over its operating system, it was prepared to work with Chinese censorship laws, including blocking apps that the government deems “objectionable.”

Google has said it will also assist international app developers sell their “approved” products in China and help Chinese developers distribute their apps internationally.

The experts say Google wants to make a “Google-blessed version” of Android attractive to Chinese phone makers by offering “new incentives to upgrade Android phones to the latest versions of the operating system,” though it has not yet said what these incentives will be. Google initiatives like Android One and the Android Update Alliance offered in other countries have not done very well, so the experts say it’s not clear what Google would do in China to get better results.

Famous discount Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi uses a highly customized version of Google’s Android that contains no Google products and hence makes the company no money from hundreds of millions of installs.

Sources say that another Google wish list item is to introduce Android Wear into China where there are already a lot of non-Google Android made wearables, but they are without the official licensed version of Wear which uses Google Play Services.

Google’s move into China, say the experts, could take place as soon as this Fall and would give the company a foothold in the lucrative Chinese Android marketplace, even though there would be stiff competition from local companies like Xiaomi, who are unlikely to revert to a Google-made version unless given considerable incentives.

U.S. Pressure, Checkered Past, Led To Downfall Of Guatemalan President

Entertainment News

Former Guatemalan president Otto Perez was pressured by the U.S. this year to eliminate corrupt officials in his administration in a move that appears to have led to his accusation of corruption in recent weeks. He resigned Wednesday after making the now ill-fated decision of allowing the country’s Commission Against Impunity to continue operations.

The pressure on Perez began during visits by U.S. officials this year, which were related to $20 billion in aid money that was being requested for the “Alliance for Prosperity.” The initiative aims to help prevent child migration from central american countries including Guatemala.

Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador were the main source of a mass influx of unaccompanied minors at the U.S. southern border this year, which led to the U.S. visits.

President Obama apologized in April in recognition of previously harmful policies that the U.S. pursued in the region, including the CIA’s support of the Contra rebels in Nicaragua during the 80s, as well as actions in Guatemala.

Perez came to power in Guatemala in 2012 using a platform that included promises of drug legalization, amid widespread agreement on the failure of the United States government’s War on Drugs.

During the 1980s, Perez was an acting general in the country’s military, engaging in genocidal policies against Mayan populations there as part of a civil war which lasted from 1960 to 1996.

Perez denied accusations related to the matter in 2012, despite the fact that only small portions of a 1999 report detailing the actions were translated into Mayan languages.

Regarding the recent resignation of Perez, a Guatemalan official familiar with the matter stated, “”I’m not justifying that they impose conditions on us, but they’re right. The corruption in Guatemala is intolerable. At the end of the day, they do it for our own good – but it hurts.”

Toyota Just Announced Its Making A Huge Push Into Artificial Intelligence For Its Cars

Finance

Toyota, the largest car maker in the world, has announced that it plans to pave the way to the future of vehicles by heavily focusing on the research and development of artificial intelligence (“AI”) with applications to safer, smarter vehicles.

The company, mirroring a trend within its home country of Japan, is also looking at designing to improve lives at home. The company states that its major push into AI and robotics is critical for addressing the challenges that society faces both now and in the future.

Toyota stresses that its primary, immediate goal is to improve vehicle safety and save lives on the road. The company further points out that its goal is not to create a fully autonomous car, like the ones Google, Apple and Uber are developing. Rather, Toyota is working on “assistive autonomy,” where vehicles will continuously sense and interpret the environment around the driver, ready to intervene once it detects a harmful or dangerous situation.

Toyota is going all in and the director of this research, Dr. Gill Pratt, stated that, “Our long-term goal is to make a car that is never responsible for a crash.” He further proffers that such intelligent cars will “allow older people to be able to drive, and help prevent the one and a half million deaths that occur as a result of cars every single year around the world.”

Dr. Pratt will collaborate and work with Professor Daniela Rus, head of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (“CSAIL”), as well as Professor Fei-Fei Li, director of Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (“SAIL”).

In fact, Toyota has pledged $50 million over five years to the two laboratories, funding specific lines or research which Dr. Pratt amounts to “a very strong effort in terms of R&D.” Dr. Pratt will oversee the collaborative research and will “direct and accelerate these research activities and [their] application to intelligent vehicles and robotics.”

It is unusual to hear companies make such strong claims but Toyota and Dr. Pratt reiterate that, “Our goal, which is a little different than the approach that other take, is to build intelligence to help the car be really a guardian angel for you and keeping you from having a wreck. We want to enhance the fun of driving for the human being while making it far more safe.” The company hopes to do this by improving and expanding on already-existing safety features and to invent new ones.

So, rather than direct its immediate efforts towards developing and producing a self-driving car, Toyota is focused on the central AI component of autonomous driving. The “substantial” scope of Toyota’s commitment will be necessary for the significant work needed to create a “vehicle that will never crash.”

Google’s Waze Division Accused Of Stealing Data From Competitors

Finance

In an interesting intellectual property lawsuit between two mapping services, we get a glimpse of how far companies will go to protect their work. Specifically, the Google-owned app, Waze, which offers information on traffic learned from crowdsourcing, is under fire for stealing data from competitor PhantomAlert.

The mapping service PhantomAlert touts on its website that it “is a must-have to keep you safe and ticket-free. Audible and visual warnings alert you of known road hazards and potential traffic ticket environments.” The company now asserts that prior to Google acquiring Waze in 2013 for $1.1 billion, someone from Waze stole information from PhantomAlert’s proprietary mapping database.

One reason this case is so interesting is because of the evidence that PhantomAlert will use to attempt to prove its case. Basically, digital map makers embed into their maps certain “paper towns.” These paper towns are in fact fake and made-up landmarks and locations that do not exist in the real world. The purpose of placing the paper towns in their digital maps is so that companies can determine if any other company or entity has stolen their proprietary information. Essentially, if a company’s fictitious location shows up on a competitor’s map – it knows data was stolen.

This is what is alleged in the PhantomAlert case against Waze and Google. PhantomAlert claims that it was able to find its paper towns in the Waze map app, using both the Apple and Android operating systems.

PhantomAlert’s complaint states that, “Among other methods, PhantomAlert determined that Waze had copied its Points of Interest database by observing the presence of fictitious Points of Interest in the Waze application, which PhantomAlert had seeded into its own database for the purpose of detecting copying.”

PhantomAlert claims that Waze allegedly stole information sometime during 2010. That year, Waze had reached out PhantomAlert and suggested the two companies share mapping databases. PhantomAlert declined the offer, stating that Waze’s database was too small.

In the lawsuit, PhantomAlert is requesting the court to award not only economic damages, but also to order that Google shut down the Waze app altogether.

The First Low Cost Chinese Smartphone Maker To Enter The U.S. Just Took 8% Of The Market

Finance

The crowded U.S. market for cell phones has witnessed a rapid rise to fourth position in sales from Chinese manufacturer ZTE. This should strike fear in the hearts of those, such as Samsung, Motorola and HTC, that currently do a brisk business stateside.

Why should it strike fear? Because Xiaomi, Huawei and a host of other ultra low cost Chinese manufacturers haven’t entered the market yet. ZTE is the first but by no means last and all look set to enter within the next 12 months.

ZTE’s current $60 model, the “Maven,” sports hardware only a couple years behind the iPhone 6. And it is, again, just $60. That price is without subsidies and the company’s phones are currently available at T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint.

One year ago the company controlled four percent of the U.S. smartphone market, which has now risen to eight percent. Head of ZTE’s U.S. operations Lixin Cheng stated, “We came from nowhere, and now we are a solid force.”

Previous presence in the U.S. market was limited to the company’s routers and mobile operator switches. The U.S. House Intelligence Committee accused the company in 2012 of using that technology as a vector for Chinese spying, along with Huawei Technologies.

Cheng claims that ZTE was unfairly implicated in what was really a Huawei issue, and is betting that American consumers will not remember or care about the issue.

ZTE’s start in the U.S. was with prepaid phones and smaller carriers like MetroPCS, eventually moving up to offerings in major stores like Wal-Mart and Target. Although smartphone brands are prolific in China, ZTE is currently the only potential U.S. contender from the nation as its competitor Xiaomi has instead focused on emerging markets in Brazil and India. For the moment, at least.

Xiaomi is rumored to be thinking of entering the electronics market with a cut rate Chrome-based laptop early next year. The company currently sells headphones and its super-successful portable battery packs via an online store.

As part of its marketing campaign, ZTE has recruited the NBA’s Houston Rockets along with the Golden State Warriors and New York Knicks. More importantly, it has dramatically increased its lobbyist budget, which grew from $170,000 to $950,000 in the last four years.

The company was able to dramatically increase its smartphone shipments in 2015, but that has not translated into equally impressive revenue growth, which increased from $354 million to $369 million. Once the company’s presence becomes more established, it’s higher priced offerings may be able to have a better effect on revenues. For now it and it alone is dominating the low end of the U.S. smartphone market.

Experts Say That Contrary To Headlines Europe Can Easily Handle Influx Of Migrants

Entertainment News

As Europe’s migrant crisis continues to bite, analysts are coming forward to affirm that Europe can comfortably handle the surge in their refugees without a problem. Migrant experts have said Europe is well endowed beyond its own population’s capacity and that it can bear to maintain the influx in migrants.

Yet despite countries like Spain facing both decreasing and ageing populations, there seems to be considerable backlash in Europe to accepting migrants.

Human rights and migrants experts are now warning that the dramatic announcements of the surge in migrant population is being used to hide a clear fact, that Europe can comfortably accommodate the incoming refugees. According to the experts, though the numbers are growing, they are still not enough to crowd Europe’s capacity.

Ryan Schroeder, communications director at the International Organisation for Migrations Brussels, said, “From the images we see and a number of people we see it seems like the whole world is knocking on the door of Europe. Comparatively the European Union has the size, the population, the wealth and the resources to handle these increased flows. If Turkey and Lebanon are managing, one would think the EU as a whole can do that as well.”

According to statistics drawn from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, over 300,000 migrants travelled across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe this year. 200,000 have landed in Greece and 110,000 in Italy. From there, many have sought asylum in other more accommodative countries like Britain, Germany and Sweden. Comparatively, last year, 219,000 migrants came to Europe, the single largest displacement recorded since World War II.

To Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch executive director, the issue in question is politics, not capacity.

He said, “This ‘wave of people’ is more like a trickle when considered against the pool that must absorb it. The European Union’s population is roughly 500 million. The latest estimate of the numbers of people using irregular means to enter Europe this year via the Mediterranean or the Balkans is approximately 340,000. In other words, the influx this year is only 0.068 per cent of the EU’s population. Considering the EU’s wealth and advanced economy, it is hard to argue that Europe lacks the means to absorb these newcomers.”

He compared Europe’s influx to the U.S.’s 11 million undocumented immigrants, who account for 3.5 per cent of the country’s population, saying the “fear-mongering” was being used to dilute moral obligation.

Researchers Find Zoo Chimps Carefully Planned Attack Used To Take Down Research Drone

Culture

After studying video of chimps capturing a drone that was flying around their enclosure, animal researchers say the primates have more ability to pre-plan than had been thought. They say the video, which was taken in April at the Burgers Zoo in Holland, also confirmed Chimps have excellent tool use.

The research confirms that rather than being randomly bothered into taking action the Chimps carefully planned the attack using tools.

The video shows that when the drone had finished flying through and around the enclosure and had left, several chimps collected branches and then climbed with them to a spot where the drone had hovered the most. When the drone reappeared the chimps were ready, holding up their long branches to knock the drone to the ground, where after examining it closely, they destroyed it by ripping it apart.

According to primatologists, the video shows looks of exertion on the faces of the chimps, but not fear, which indicated they were not just flailing around in terror at the drone, but were acting deliberately.

Primatologist Jan van Hoof, who has been studying the zoo’s chimps for some time, said “The use of the stick as a weapon in this context was a unique action. It seemed deliberate, given the decision to collect it and carry it to a place where the drone might be attacked.”

He said the tool use of the chimps was impressive when one took into consideration they had not been taught how to use the branches as tools to capture the drone.

By studying the drone attacking chimps, the researchers have found the primates, simply by watching humans at the zoo, have figured out how to use 13 unique tools and which ones to use for particular tasks.

Van Hoof said the drone incident adds to increasing evidence, that chimps plan in advance when it comes to using tools.

Danish Commuters Can Now Take Public Electric Cars Using Their Transit Passes

Entertainment News

Public transit users in the Danish city of Copenhagen are being treated to the next iteration of ride-sharing thanks to the city’s new partnership with German ride sharing company DriveNow.

Commuters will be able to use their existing public transit cards in order to rent one of the newly purchased fleet of 400 BMW i3 electric sedans.

The new program will give users access to 600 charging ports across the city, which will be powered with renewable energy. If that wasn’t enough, it will soon be possible to book a connecting mode of transportation within the car.

DriveNow’s app is easy to subscribe to, only requiring a photo of both the user’s driver’s license and themselves to be submitted as well as a one-time fee. The app displays the nearest available vehicles on its map feature, and users are able to leave the vehicle in any public parking space in the city. Future plans will integrate DriveNow with the nation’s regional public transport system app known as Reiseplanen.

The company estimates that a car will be within 330 yards of any location at a cost of $0.52 per minute of use.

DriveNow also provides service in London, San Francisco, and various cities in Germany, where the company was founded. Although San Francisco’s 70 vehicle fleet was off to a slow start, its popularity has reached a level that may soon merit doubling that number, according to DriveNow CEO Rich Steinberg.

DriveNow’s worldwide fleet of vehicles is over 2,400, so it is not yet in direct competition with Uber or other rideshare companies. The requirement to drive the vehicle is also a distinguishing factor, but it is easy to envision a combination of the two company’s business models once the technology arrives. Once driverless cars become commonplace, consumers will be able to open their DriveNow or Uber app and simply order a car to show up at their doorstep.

New Legislation Proposed To Curb The Use Of Fake Cell Phone Towers By Law Enforcement

News

U.S. officials have introduced new legislation aimed at clamping down on law enforcement agencies use of cell-site simulator technology that tracks criminals and monitors their cell phones, citing concerns that it also invades the privacy of innocent citizens.

The technology, often referred to as ‘Stingrays’, is basically fake cell phone towers that can pinpoint a suspected criminal’s where abouts by locating their cell phone signals, and can then monitor and collect information from those phones.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates said effective immediately, agencies will need to apply for a search warrant before they can use the technology to track suspected criminals.

She said that although Stingrays are a valuable crime fighting tool, their ability to collect information from people other than suspected law breakers, had forced the legislation’s introduction.

“Cell-site simulator technology has been instrumental in aiding law enforcement in a broad array of investigations, including kidnappings, fugitive investigations and complicated narcotic cases,” she said.

“This new policy ensures our protocols for this technology are consistent, well-managed and respectful of individuals’ privacy and civil liberties.”.

The legislation is aimed mainly at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) , the United States Marshals Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Although it doesn’t affect local police forces, some states, including Virginia, Utah, Washington and Minnesota have imposed warrant requirements.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been a long time critic of the technology that it says is used in 21 states by 53 law enforcement agencies. Although welcoming the legislation, ACLU lawyers say it was still not enough.

They say the law should apply across the board to all agencies and that it contained too many loopholes that will allow enforcers to use Stingrays without first obtaining a warrant.

The cell phone snooping technology is also used in other countries. GSMK Cryptophone, a German security firm, says it has evidence it is used in Great Britain but British police have yet to confirm or deny the claim.

Hacker Claims To Have Hillary Clinton’s Deleted Emails And Promises To Sell Them To Highest Bidder

News

A hacker has put emails allegedly belonging to Hillary Clinton during her time as Secretary of State on sale for a not insignificant amount of money. The hacker has offered the emails of the Democratic front runner to the highest bidder, promising that their contents will permanently damage Clinton’s campaign and even compromise America’s security.

The hacker has claimed that 32,000 emails belonging to Hillary Clinton are on sale with a starting price tag of $500,000. The hacker revealed he was in possession of the emails in a private conversation with RadarOnline.

According to officials from the site, the emails appeared to have sample subject lines for “what appear to be legitimate messages.” The subject lines shared include:

“H Libya security latest. Sid” (with attachment)
“H FYI, best analysis so far of hearing Sid,’ about the latest security in Libya”
“H Algeria latest French Intel on Algeria hostage Sid”
“H Latest French Intel in Algeria hostage Sid” (with attachment)
“H Latest Libya intel internal govt discussions high level” (with attachment)
“H HIGHLY IMPORTANT! Comprehensive Intel Report on (with attachment)”

The “computer specialist” who purports to have the emails said that Hillary, or someone from her camp, erased the outbox containing her emails, but forgot to erase the emails that were in her sent box.

He went on to warn, “If these emails get out to the public domain, not only is Hillary finished as a potential Presidential nominee, she could put our country’s national security at risk.”

The March revelations about Clinton’s use of private emails to send confidential security emails has erupted into a scandal that could just destroy her bid for America’s highest office. In August, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) launched an investigation into the security of Clinton’s private email server. If investigations find her culpable, she will be tried under a criminal charge, meaning her campaign would have been futile.

Clinton has admitted to sending office emails through her private server, something she said was “for convenience” and that she was “ill advised.”

Already, a poll done by Rasmussen Reports showed that 46 per cent of Americans believe the former first lady should suspend her campaign until the scandal is cleared.

Clinton’s campaign team has, however, downplayed the whole case, referring to it dismissively as a “civil matter” that would be handled and her name cleared.

Clinton’s email-gate has refused to die down, months after it first came to light. New evidence of the emails will surely tear apart the Democrat’s campaign or even worse, erode the confidence bestowed on her by the people of the U.S.

New Google Mapping Project Exposes China’s Deep Pollution Problem

Culture

Google will now display pollution reports from across China in collaboration with University of California Berkeley scientists using data from 1,500 sites around the nation. The new online map uses results published last month in PLoS One, which is the world’s largest peer reviewed scientific journal, and showed that heavy pollution areas were not limited to the nation’s major cities or low-lying areas.

Current statistics estimate that 1.4 million people in China die each year from air pollution alone and the map makes it easy to see why.

The vast majority of the country lives with health-affecting levels of pollution.

The data showed that over 90 percent of the population experienced at least 120 hours of unhealthy air over a four month period in 2014. The color-coded map is produced based on sub-2.5 micron particulate concentrations, which are considered to be the most damaging to humans.

The new data comes amid recent changes by China to its Air Pollution Control Law, which will aim to cover previously unregulated shipping activities. China is home to eight of the top ten shipping ports in the world, and these areas heavily contribute to the nation’s air pollution problems. The new rules provide for a legal foundation for the government to control shipping emissions, in a first for the country.

Bilateral talks in June between the U.S. and China involved the exchange of industry best practices in the pursuit of cleaner air at shipping ports. The U.S. also invited representatives from Jiangsu’s Environmental Protection Bureau for a fall 2015 showcase of various technologies and practices for air quality control. Other discussions resulted in the promise by China to promote the use of clean cooking stoves in at least 40 million rural households by 2020 as part of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves world goal of 100 million.

New terminals at Chinese ports will allow ships to be powered by shore-side electric power so that their diesel engines are not needed, and all ships will need certification to meet national air emission standards. China will also pursue a policy of controlling high pollution areas using new authority granted to its Ministry of Transport, to enforce stricter regulations on so-called Emissions Control Areas (ECAs). The U.S. only recently adopted a similar policy as a result of a 2009 agreement.

ISIS Militants Claim To Have Now Smuggled 4,000 Battle Hardened Fighters Into Europe

Entertainment News

ISIS operatives have claimed that more than 4000 trained and radicalized gunmen have crossed into Europe from Syria. The radical Islamic terror network has declared war on the west and has threatened to use all resources within its disposal to cause the massive deaths of western citizens.

Are the migrant terrorists their first act of war?

An ISIS operative, in his mid 30s, revealed the smuggling of thousands of trained gunmen into the west. The operative, who spoke to BuzzFeed on condition of anonymity, confirmed the smuggling of the operatives. He claimed they had more than 4000 covert gunmen “ready” all over the EU.

The operative said the smugglings were part of an undercover operation aimed at retaliating for the US-led airstrikes in their region. He said, “If someone attacks me then for sure I will attack them back.”

ISIS extremists took advantage of the EU’s softened stand on migrants to cross into the countries along various border points illegally. Turkish authorities have claimed that more than 1.5 million refugees have crossed into Turkey alone to escape the bloodshed in Syria. The radicals then move by ship from the port cities of Mersin and Izmir, into Italy and from there, to Britain, Germany and France.

Two ISIS operatives confirmed the smuggling claims. One said he had personally smuggled ten battle hardened gunmen into Europe under the pretense of asylum seekers. He went on to say, “I’m sending some fighters who want to go and visit their families.”

“Others just go to Europe to be ready. It’s our dream that there should be a caliphate not only in Syria but in all the world and we will have it soon, God willing.”

The operative agreed to meeting the journalists at the granting of permission by his immediate superior in ISIS, an unnamed “emir.” However, he was only allowed to divulge certain information. He said, “There are some things I’m allowed to tell you and some things I’m not.”

The new revelation comes only days after an ISIS jihadist called for terror attacks by muslims in the west. In the video, he said, “We repeat our call to Muslims in Europe, the infidel West, and everywhere to target the Crusaders in their home countries and wherever they find them.

“We will be enemies, in front of God, to any Muslim who can shed a drop of blood of a Crusader and abstains from doing that with a bomb, bullet, knife, car, rock or even a kick or a punch.”

Turkish officials have claimed they are not aware of any smuggling of ISIS operatives into their country or into the west.

ISIS has declared war on the west for its air strikes on their Syrian control towns. The group has lined up its vengeance through continued smuggling of “ready” gunmen into the EU for revenge attacks. These reports have not been confirmed by authorities and it remains to be seen whether the ISIS claims are indeed accurate

Migrant Trafficking Is Now A Bigger Business Than Drugs For Gangs In Eastern Europe

Entertainment News

Europe’s migrant crisis is not only a humanitarian crisis: It’s now a multi-billion dollar business worth more than the illicit trade of drugs and weapons.

Authorities have expressed concern over the worsening migrant crisis in Europe that is threatening to destabilize the region’s economy by straining its resources, flooding dirty money and attracting criminal gangs, all while inflicting a horrific human toll.

The business of ferrying immigrants across the Balkans and into Europe has grown substantially into a multi billion dollar business. According to Gerald Tatzgern, head of the Austrian police service fighting human trafficking, “It has developed into a business worth billions.”
The trade has attracted hundreds of criminal cartels eager to get a piece of the pie. Tatzgern reported that in Greece alone, 200 such cartels have emerged.

Head of Europe’s police agency (Europol), Ro Wainwright, said on an Irish network that up to 30,000 people were involved in the human smuggling trade.

Tatzgern said that the smugglers were spread throughout the Balkan region, in Hungary, Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria.

Officials at Frontex, which monitors the EU’s borders, said the groups varied in size and level of sophistication. The groups hire agents, of Syrian or Afghan nationality, to work on the ground in contact with likely clients eager to get to Europe. They target train stations and border points, moving freely within crowds and offering train rides for hundreds of dollars.

Izabella Cooper, Frontex spokeswoman said, “If a migrant has a lot of money, smugglers can get them a forged passport or a stolen ID card with a visa, together with a plane ticket to a chosen European country. But this option is affordable only for a handful of people.”

These migrants then have routes plotted out for them from Turkey all the way to Hungary, passed on from gang to gang until they get to their final destination.

However, not all of them make it to Europe.

Some gangs exploit the migrants’ desperation with phony travel packages then end up abandoning them in the woods or by remote roadsides. Recently, a group preying on migrants stuck at Keleti train station promised them rides to Austria. After paying, the migrants were locked in a windowless van and driven around in circles in Budapest before being dumped at a suburban shopping mall with gates that resembled border crossings.

Zoltan Bolek, head of Hungary’s Islamic Community said, “The smugglers are so tempting. Taxis willing to take them to the Austrian border are everywhere. It costs 1,000 euro, and if they are lucky, they actually get there.”

Only recently were the bodies of 71 migrants found decomposing in a stationary van by the roadside in Austria. The search for a better life, away from the ravages of war and famine, have sent many families into Europe through illegal means and by paying top dollar. The question authorities are facing is whether to legalize and even assist migrants into Europe as the only way to stop them from turning to preying criminal cartels.

Police Use Of Body Cams Turning Into Yet Another Gouging Opportunity By Contractors

News

Police departments have experienced great results using body cameras on their officers, but they are finding it difficult to keep up with the rising costs involved. During the last two months the police department in Birmingham, AL has employed 319 body cameras. Over this time, citizen complaints in that area have fallen by 71%, while the use of force by officers has decreased by 38%. The police department is extremely pleased with the result, and their plan is to incorporate another 300 body cameras into their system. Eventually, the department hopes to have a body camera on every officer wearing a uniform.

However, this success comes at a cost. Petabytes (1 million gigabytes) of video footage is being uploaded nationwide, and file management is becoming a major concern. Additionally, the vast amount of footage is causing cloud storage costs to rise. The cameras themselves also cost money. In Birmingham, the cameras value at around $180,000 in total. The Birmingham Police Department is due to exceed its five terabyte storage limit in less than six months. Going over the limit will cost the department millions of dollars to upgrade their storage plan.

The use of body cameras by police departments has been growing nationwide. Two major manufacturers of body cameras, Taser and VieVu, claim to have shipped cameras to 41% of the America’s police departments. However, most of their income is obtained through cloud storage rather than the cameras themselves. According to Taser, last year their margin on storage was 51%, while their margin on hardware was only 15.6%. On average, police departments are estimated to pay Taser $25 to $30 per officer on a monthly basis.

Police departments have often been unable to keep up with these costs. Because of this, the departments are forced to make hard decisions when deciding which evidence to keep and which evidence must be deleted in order to free up space. It varies how long exactly a certain video will need to be retained, but some evidence, such as evidence relating to a murder, must be kept indefinitely. Lawsuits and civil litigations are also forcing evidence to be retained for longer periods of time. Maintaining these records and keeping them easily accessible is becoming increasingly costly for the police departments.

The camera manufacturer Taser has experienced fantastic growth as a result of this phenomenon. This year alone, more than one petabyte of police videos have been uploaded to the Taser storage system. A new police video is uploaded approximately every 2.9 seconds. According to the company, sales are up by 170% from last year. Taser estimates that its current sales for the year so far have reached $30.6 million.

The reason for the increased usage of body cameras by police departments stems from political pressure. The fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO caused a significant shift in dynamics. Since the incident, requests for trial units of body cameras have increased by more than 75%.

Despite the costs involved, police departments have been pleased with the result. Studies have indicated that officers are less likely to use force, and citizens are less likely to issue complaints. By wearing cameras, officers are believed to be more careful in performing their duties. So far, most police departments have found that the costs are worth the results. The number of lawsuits has decreased, and police departments are saving money in the long run. It can be expected that the usage of body cameras by police departments will continue to increase in the future.

Five Months Later, Nepal Has Yet To Actually Spend Any Earthquake Aid Money

Entertainment News

In April and May of this year, Nepal suffered the worst natural disaster in the country’s history when huge twin earthquakes destroyed many buildings, homes and roadways. The quakes killed almost 9,000 people and left approximately three million survivors with nowhere to live – except in plastic tents – and desperately needing food, water, shelter and medical care.

Despite the dire needs of its people, the Nepalese government has yet to use the $4.1 billion it received from foreign countries and relief agencies. The government has not provided relief to the citizens of Nepal and no efforts have been made to clean up the debris strewn about or to tear down dangerous remains of buildings – let alone rebuild.

Chief executive officer of the recently created National Reconstruction Authority, Govind Raj Pokharel, stated that the Nepalese government was unlikely to start using the money until late fall because of continued delays in plan approvals. There is also concerns regarding starting construction during the monsoon season. Pokharel acknowledges the delays and that, “The government’s response has been slow. I accept that.”

Nepal has been criticized for both its failure to prepare for the quakes and with its relief efforts following the quakes. Experts predicted that earthquakes were imminent, but the government did not respond accordingly. Moreover, four months after the quakes, the mess is everywhere, and citizens are living in squalor getting eaten by bugs.

Pokharel points out that disputes among ministers has caused the government’s failure to utilize the funds. The ministers have yet to sign off on rebuilding and aid distribution plans. Another major problem is that the Nepalese government is attempting to pass a new constitution aimed at creating a new political system and dividing the country into different, new regions. These decisions have led to severe clashes between officials. The government argues that the new constitution will help the reconstruction of the country by creating a more stable nation.

However, the government should have focused first on the needs of its people rather than trying to create a new constitution. Pokharel stated that, “We would have liked it if they concentrated on the reconstruction first. That would have been better. We have lost time and now we need to catch up.”

Mobcrush, A Company You’ve Never Heard Of, Is Radically Re-Shaping eSports Media

Finance

In the video game industry, companies are quickly recognizing the market potential in the ever-increasing popularity of video game live-streams. In hopes of tapping into that market, the leading video-sharing website, YouTube, has launched a new website and app for live- streaming video games called YouTube Gaming. The offering joins an ever-crowded field that is now seeing upstarts like Mobcrush get in on the action with live streaming offerings.

YouTube Gaming was launched to the public earlier this week after several months of beta testing. The site hosts pages for greater than 25,000 video games. Users of YouTube Gaming can locate fellow gamers live-streaming their games. They can also find all sorts of media related to their favorite games. Additionally, users can upload their gameplay live-streams to the service for others to view.

Google, the owner of YouTube, first announced the new service earlier this summer when the company stated that the service is “built to be all about your favorite games and gamers, with more videos than anywhere else.”

Google also seeks to compete directly with the live-streaming video game service, Twitch. Google reportedly try to buy Twitch in 2014, but Amazon outbid Google and purchased the service for about $970 million.

A rapidly expanding market within this space is mobile game live-streaming – a facet of the live-streaming experience that does not exist quite yet. And relatively unknown company Mobcrush is looking to become the market leader.

Mobcrush is a community focused service that offers a way for users to stream and watch mobile gameplay from their handheld devices. Its a service similar to YouTube gaming or Twitch but with a focus on mobile-only games, which are usually more casual yet can still be highly entertaining.

The service also focuses on live streams, where users watch in real time rather than view the archived clips.

Since there are about one billion mobile gamers that play, Mobcrush recognizes the industry as having significant growth potential. In fact, the company has raised $11 million in its first significant round of venture capital fundraising. Mobcrush boasts that it had about 20,000 simultaneous viewers, watching a total of one million minutes of gameplay, during a Hearthstone tournament recently held in Boston.

With all of these forays by large companies into the video game live-streaming industry, it illustrates just how much people across the globe are willing to commit to their favorite games and underscores the rise of a whole new form of media.