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China’s Shadowy Trademark System Means Knock Offs Of Everything, Even Big Banks

Finance

China is well known for pirating everything from Rolex watches to the latest Hollywood (or even Bollywood) blockbuster, and now it has added giant financial institutions to that list.

Just across from the Hong Kong border in Shenzhen, you will find Goldman Sachs (Shenzhen) Financial Leasing Co. – a knock off of the New York-based financial giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Not satisfied with just having a name very, very close to the real thing, it has also copied Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s claim to being one of the largest of something – claiming on its website it is Shenzhen’s largest financial leasing firms.

Reporters calling the Shenzhen company talked to a receptionist who would not reveal her name but who readily acknowledged the company wasn’t affiliated with the U.S. bank. The employee refused to say how it got its name. She said she had never been asked about the similarity in company names.

Documents filed with the Shenzhen government show the company was supposedly formed in May 2013, and that it uses the exact same Chinese characters – gao sheng – as the authentic Goldman Sachs, and a similar font to that used by the U.S bank.

Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs, Connie Ling, said there was no connection between the company she worked for and the Shenzhen company. She said Goldman was investigating the matter.

According to Paul Haswell, a lawyer with Hong Kong law firm Pinsent Masons, the pirating of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is not an isolated incident.

“There have been quite a few cases where Chinese individuals or organizations have registered in China the trademark of an existing and established overseas brand,” said Haswell, who added legal action against offenders was very unlikely to result in prosecution or cease and desist orders.

“It’s notoriously difficult for an overseas claimant to persuade the Chinese courts that there has been trademark infringement,” said Haswell. “There’s still a practice of whoever registers first wins.”

Even Super star basketball legend Michael Jordan lost his cases against a Chinese sportswear company using a version of his name.

Under Threat Of Severe Sanctions South Sudan Signs Peace Agreement With Rebels

Entertainment News

After more than 20 months of fighting between the South Sudanese and rebel forces, the leaders of both parties have signed a peace deal that will hopefully end the torrent of violence in the region. The agreement calls for the establishment of a government with top officials from both groups.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir will remain president and rebel leader Riek Machar will serve as vice president and top deputy. The accord also calls for a demilitarized Juba, the capital of South Sudan. Although Kiir signed the agreement, he voiced his concerns about doing so.

Specifically, Kiir feels the peace deal was pushed upon him by world leaders exhibiting unreasonable pressure. He believes some of the terms of the deal “are not in the interest of just and lasting peace . . . We had only one of the two options, the option of an imposed peace or the option of a continued war . . . We are here talking about peace.”

Several groups welcomed the deal and also warned that there would be ramifications for those who return to arms. White House spokesman Josh Earnest stated that, “President Kiir made the right decision to sign the peace agreement today, but we should be just as clear that the United States and the international community does not recognize any reservations or addendums to that document.”

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni echoed those sentiments stating that, “You are fighting for the sovereignty of the people of South Sudan to make their own decisions. That cannot be realized in war. When you have war it is not the people who made decisions. It is the gunmen who make decisions and these are not necessarily mandated by the people. Therefore you need to get out of this trap, remove the guns and give back power to the people so that the people can vote for what they like.”

United Nations chief, Ban Ki-moon, pointed out that, “Now is the time to ensure that this agreement translates into an end to the violence, hardship and horrific human rights violations witnessed throughout the conflict.”

The fighting in the region has resulted in the killings of thousands of people and the displacement of more than 1.6 million people. Young girls have been raped and burned alive. The U.N. has reported that since April, “the intensity and brutality of the violence” has increased drastically. Earlier this week, Doctors Without Borders reported that two of its staff members were killed last week.

Still, despite the brutal war, Kiir pointed out at the signing ceremony that the rebels had launched an attack and raid as recent as that day. “Now you can see who is for peace and who is for continued war.”

All organizations believe, however, that enforcing the agreement and making it work will take a lot of effort on everyone’s part to stop the fighting.

Netflix Viewership Is About To Be Tracked Which Could Mean Higher License Fees And Less Profit

Finance

Netflix has always been tight-lipped about the viewing statistics for its streaming service, but Nielsen ratings is starting to reveal clues about just how well Netflix’s shows are doing.

Interestingly for the company, which must bid on all the non-original content it streams, the results, which cover both original and licensed programming, may provide content creators with more leverage when licensing their shows to streaming services – Netflix or other.

Netflix has justified its secrecy over ratings by illustrating that it doesn’t have to please advertisers like traditional television, so such numbers are irrelevant. Nielsen has nonetheless started to track the numbers for Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, giving major TV studios information on total viewers for an episode, and age and gender demographics.

The three streaming services will spend $6.8 billion this year to license reruns from network studios, who say that they have seen strong revenue growth in their streaming deals. Armed with a more detailed picture on the viewing stats, those media firms may push for a harder bargain.

Netflix doesn’t confirm any ratings statistics and was generally dismissive of Nielsen’s efforts, partly to maintain some bargaining power when dealing with the media firms that license content to the streaming service. For the same reasons, media firms have been just as secretive about viewer statistics when dealing with producers and actors.

When more detailed statistics do become available, Netflix may have to deal with more expensive media contracts as well as increased scrutiny on its current stock valuation which. at a price-to-earnings ratio of 247, is ridiculous by any standard.

The recent Nielsen statistics do not include viewing on tablets and mobile devices, which is a big flaw considering how much easier it can be to navigate the service on a touch screen, and then simply broadcast to one’s TV using Roku or AppleTV. According to Nielsen, this data will be included in future statistics.

Despite Netflix’s general secrecy, the streaming service has provided studios with larger deals at the company with data about the number of streams per month for a particular show and the percentage of viewers that continue to watch a show over multiple episodes.

9/11 Victims’ Fund Nearly Broke Despite 70,000 Heroes Still Needing Pricey Medical Care

News

The fund set up to cater for 9/11 survivors and their litany of medical bills is running out and authorities believe it will be long over by next year. The fund covered medical bills of the survivors of 9/11 including firefighters and paramedics who contracted illnesses years after the terrorist attack. As the number of claimants increases and their illnesses worsen, authorities are concerned a majority of them now may not be able to get health care.

The World Trade Center Health Fund was established in 2010 after long years of battling between the government and the victims/survivors. Congress had set up the fund with $4.2 billion to cover health conditions that were shown to be tied to the patient’s presence at Ground Zero.

The fund was instrumental in according specialized treatment to the survivors of 9/11, many of whom contracted illnesses much later on. One such example was Marcy Borders, famously known as “dust lady.” Her name came about after she was photographed next to the debris of the World Trade Center while covered in dust.

Borders contracted stomach cancer some time afterwards. Her illness was attributed to the toxic substances that were in the dust that covered her. These included ground glass, asbestos, gypsum, lead and calcite.

Borders was fortunate to receive medical care from the fund until her untimely passing on Wednesday at age 42. However, if the fund runs out, other survivors may not be so lucky.

Dr David Prezant who helps head the fund said, “At that time, which is one year from now, there will be approximately 70,000 enrolled patients or persons or members … who are in that program who have had documented exposures that were certified by the federal government who will no longer have coverage under that program unless it is re-certified.”

Prezant says of the 16,000 currently covered a majority are emergency medical office personnel and firefighters.

Concern for those affected has led New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to sponsor a bill geared toward renewing the fund. On her website, the New York Democrat said, “More than 33,000 9/11 responders and survivors have an illness or injury caused by the attacks or their aftermath, and over two-thirds of those have more than one illness.”

She goes on to say, “Many are disabled and can no longer work. They are suffering from a host of chronic diseases: asthma, obstructive pulmonary disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, cancer and many more, caused by exposure to toxins and carcinogens at Ground Zero.”

The fund covers over 50 different diseases including lung disease, stomach cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Many of the survivors of the 9/11 attack are either permanently disabled or retired as a result of illnesses attributed to exposure to harmful substances. For many, the fund was their sole source of support from the effects that followed. Many Americans are strongly in favor of renewing the fund lest more of our nation’s heroes die from lack of medical aid.

Online Bookmakers Show Jeb Bush As The Far And Away GOP Frontrunner Despite Recent Trump Surge

News

It appears online traders aren’t buying into the hype as a survey of online betting sites shows that Jeb Bush is the preferred Republican Presidential candidate for traders and not Donald Trump. Though Trump has a clear lead in polling, online traders are placing their money on Bush to grab the GOP ticket against all odds.

Bush leads the pack for the Republican Presidential ticket in online trading predictions with a convincing 40 per cent. The former Florida governor has beaten his next rival by a resounding 25 per cent, according to the results from PredictWise.

His Florida counterpart, Senator Marc Rubio, comes in second with 15 per cent while billionaire businessman Donald Trump is third with 14 per cent.

PredictWise works by aggregating six prediction markets where bets are placed on events in the fields of sports and even elections. According to PredictWise boss David Rothschild, these trading markets offer better and more accurate pictures of track records as compared to traditional polling.

Building the case for Bush, Rothschild said, “Jeb Bush has been steady at the top at between 45 percent and 40 percent, where he is now. He certainly hasn’t fallen off noticeably.”

At PaddyPower, an Irish bookmaker, Bush remains the clear favorite with 13/8 odds of clinching the GOP ticket. Spokesman Rory Scott, in support of the tables said, “Jeb Bush has drifted a tiny little bit, probably because of the rise of Trump, but he’s still the favorite and he’s been pretty stable.”

Recent polls have shown Trump as the favorite in the Republican presidential ticket race. In polls by Real Clear Politics, Trump is on top with 22 per cent followed by Bush close in at second with 17 per cent. .

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Trump at 30 per cent with a double digit lead over his closest rival. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee placed second with 10 per cent while Bush was tied at third with former neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 8 per cent each.

On the Democratic front, Hillary Clinton remains the clear winner with a convincing 72 per cent chance of winning the Democratic nomination. Vice President Joe Biden comes in at second place with 14 per cent, even though he is yet to formally announce his bid.

Trading tables traditionally offer more accuracy than polls which are often unstable and prone to error. The results of trading bets shows that traders are increasingly convinced that Bush would grab the GOP ticket and that Trump would fade away as voters become more serious on who they want as their next president.

‘Blood Antiquities’ Looted By ISIS Are Now Flooding The U.S. Market

Entertainment News

The FBI is warning U.S. art dealers against selling artifacts purchased from the Middle East as they could have been plundered by ISIS. Evidence collected shows that these artifacts and ancient antiquities are quickly finding their way to U.S. soil and sold openly to consumers who are unaware they are indirectly sponsoring the terror group.

Concerned that art lovers in the U.S. may be inadvertently supporting terror networks, the FBI warned in a statement read by Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, the head of FBI’s Art Theft Program, “We now have credible reports that U.S. persons have been offered cultural property that appears to have been removed from Syria and Iraq recently.”

Gardiner urged buyers to be vigilant by checking for the importation documents on an artifact’s provenance and other documents. She said, “What we’re trying to say is, don’t allow these pieces that could potentially support terrorism to be part of the trade.”

ISIS, a terror group fighting to establish a caliphate in Syria and Iraq, has grown from obscurity to become the richest terror organization in the world. The feat has been achieved through the control of vast oil reservoirs in northern Iraq and recently, through the sale of ancient artifacts on the black market.

Syria and Iraq form part of Mesopotamia, the ancient cradle of civilization. The region is a giant archaeological site. It is where the first cities were built and the region is overflowing with treasures from the ancient cities of Rome, Greece and Byzantium.

ISIS fighters, since taking over, have photographed themselves on numerous occasions pillaging and destroying the ancient artifacts in UNESCO sites including the Roman era Baal Shamin Temple in the old Syrian city of Palmyra. UNESCO, the UN’s cultural agency, has condemned these destructions, calling them war crimes.

Not all ancient artifacts are destroyed. Most are sold in the black market to fund the group’s terror activities. Though authorities have tried stemming the flow of these artifacts now labeled “blood antiquities” in the U.S. and Europe, their efforts have proven to be ineffective.

Neil Brodie, from the Scottish Center for Crime and Justice Research reckons destroying the networks will be ineffective as new ones always emerge, spurred by demand. He opines the solution is permanently blocking demand. He said, “If no one was buying, people wouldn’t dig it up.”

The sale of blood antiquities in the U.S. and Europe is funding the terror activities of the ruthless group and inevitably leading to the loss of thousands of live. Citizens can play a role in fighting the group by stopping the purchase of undocumented artifacts from the Middle East.

Wal Mart Announces It Will Stop Selling Semi Automatic Rifles

Finance

In a decision tinged with politics yet supposedly based solely on customer demand, Wal-Mart has announced that it will stop selling semi-automatic rifles including the AR-15. The news comes a day after a graphic shooting in Virginia on live television.

Presently, the company sells such weapons in about one-third of its 4,600 stores. Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg claimed that, “[The decision] is done solely on what customer demand was. We are instead focusing on hunting and sportsman firearms.”

Despite Wal-Mart’s statements, some analysts believe that the mega-company must be taking into consideration public opinion of gun use across the nation. Semi-automatic rifles have been used in a number of recent shootings including the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and the theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

Retail consultant Burt Flicking believes that Wal-Mart’s move likely is a result of public opinion since the sales of ammunition and guns remains very solid in the United States. He opined that, “It shows that the Wal-Mart of this decade is quite different from the prior four decades.”

Michael Bazinet, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation also pointed out that demand for semi-automatic rifles continues to remain strong. He proffered that, “Modern Sporting Rifles are extremely popular with an estimated 10 million of them in the hands of Americans since 1990. Wal-Mart’s decision was based on what its management sees as best for their business.”

Despite the sentiments, Wal-Mart is sticking to its story. Lundberg stressed that the decision was not political and that, “It’s similar to what we do with any product. Being what it is, it gets a little more attention, but it’s the same process for any other product. . . We wanted to make sure when customers are coming and looking to purchase [popular shotguns and rifles], they see the products they want. We see more business from hunters and people shooting clay.”

Some analysts believe that Wal-Mart is telling the truth. Jason Maloni, a crisis communications expert, pointed out that, “Big retailers don’t make decisions on a whim, and it would appear that they are responding to their market. This seems to be a strategic decision of Wal-Mart to address customer desires.”

Whatever the real reason Wal-Mart has decided to stop selling semi-automatic weapons, it is clear that the company has come under pressure to do so in recent times. Shareholders, including Trinity Church on Wall Street, have pushed the company to reduce or hopefully eliminate the sale of guns. The church recently filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart after the company chose not to hold a shareholder vote on a proposal for the board of directors to review policies on the sale of products that could “endanger public safety and well-being” or hurt the company’s reputation. Ultimately, a United States District Court ruled that the shareholders do not have to consider the proposal if they do not wish to do so.

The Reverend William Lupfer, rector of Trinity Church, released a statement Wednesday that the church was “pleased to hear Wal-Mart will no longer sell the kinds of weapons that have caused such devastation and loss in communities across our country. We continue to believe that corporate boards have the responsibility to oversee the creation of policies that will guide decision making on marketing and other issues that could have momentous impact on the safety and well-being of society and to shareholder value.”

Africa’s Vultures, The Janitors Of The Wild, Are Being Poisoned To Extinction And The Effects Are Shocking

Culture

Poisoned by poachers and herding locals, the vulture population in Masai Mara – the janitors of the wild – are fast disappearing from the skies of the African plains. The deaths are leaving no one to mop up the dead carcasses that are slowly turning the beautiful Savannah into a stinking death pit.

Every summer, 500,000 wildebeests plunge to their death during the treacherous migration from the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya, a phenomena recently declared a wonder of the world.

Traditionally, in the African wild, the deaths signaled a feast for vultures, not any longer.

During the recent migration, hundreds of thousands of wildebeests were trampled to death by their colleagues in the migration. The deaths were normal. The carcasses days after the event were not.

Anthony ole Tira, co owner of the local Matira bush camp said, “Ten years ago, this would have been cleaned by now. There are a lot of places along the Mara River that are not as clean as they once were because there are not enough vultures.”

Conservationists have reported that the total population of Pan African vultures has declined by over 62 per cent in 30 years, according to Dr Darcy Ogada from the Peregrine Fund. Seven of the vulture species had reportedly reduced by over 80 per cent.

Vultures in Africa are targeted by poachers and locals. The poachers poison carcasses of dead elephants and rhinos so as to kill the vultures which circle over the carcasses and signal park rangers. It takes, on average, 20 minutes for vultures to spot a dead elephant. It takes poachers roughly an hour to saw off the elephant tusks.

Locals on the other hand, poison dead carcasses so as to get back at the lions and hyenas that come to kill their livestock, their only source of livelihood. Inevitably, vultures come to feed and are poisoned in the hundreds. A single carcass of a dead cow can feed up to a hundred vultures.

Ole Sairowa, the local village elder said the poisoning began ten years ago when the government gave them a dangerous white powder to kill feral dogs. Ten years later, there were no vultures in the sky. “Now we are worried they are not coming back.”

Munir Virani, director at the Africa and South Asia programs at the Peregrine Fund has been at the forefront of a campaign to end the killings. Having witnessed the near extinction by over 97 per cent of India’s vultures in the 2000s, he and his team work tirelessly to save Africa’s carcass cleaners.

Munir says, “Everyone forgets about the Ugly Bettys of this world. We are told all the time by the authorities that they are so busy working to protect elephants and rhinos and other animals that when it comes to the vultures, they are exhausted.”

Conservationists are now calling on the cooperation between governments and the locals to stem the killing of mother nature’s cleaners . Through this mutual cooperation, Africa’s vultures may just be saved from imminent extinction at the hands of man.

Facebook Is Working On A Voice Activated Digital Assistant To Take On Google And Apple

Finance

Sounding like an actor from a James Bond movie, M is set to become Facebook’s individual digital assistant, joining the likes of the dominant Google Voice, Microsoft’s Cortana and Apple’s Siri.

M will exist inside Facebook Messenger and purports to take simulated intelligence a notch higher. Rather than just assisting you to create calendar entries or find information, M will supposedly execute tasks on your behalf.

Once launched, M will be capable of booking restaurants for you, purchasing shopping, and other tasks. It will also be possible to use it to seek advice – such as looking for a place to visit close by, or gift proposals and Facebook claims the AI behind M is “trained and supervised by people”.

Facebook spokesman David Marcus indicated that the social media network is presently testing M, insisting that things were only at the initial stages. He gave a sample of a few screenshots, all of which reveal M in use on a smartphone, and it’s unclear if the service will make its way to the desktop edition of Facebook as well.

Marcus said that, “Unlike other AI-based services in the market, M can actually complete tasks on your behalf. It can purchase items, get gifts delivered to your loved ones, book restaurants, travel arrangements, appointments and way more.”

He added, “This is early in the journey to build M into an at-scale service. But it’s an exciting step towards enabling people on Messenger to get things done across a variety of things, so they can get more time to focus on what’s important in their lives.”

There’s no information on how long it will take before M is officially established, nor confirmation of whether M is a nickname or what it will really end up being named.

Facebook has also not exposed whether there will be an open testing program ahead of the formal launch.

It also remains to be seen if the service can outwit competitors, especially Google’s dominant voice search. Google’s product is leaps and bounds ahead of competitors and already able to answer some of the toughest questions you can throw at it. It seems logical that the features envisioned by Facebook would be the next step for Google and its Android smartphone operating system.

Polish Officials Confirm Existence Of Long Lost Nazi Gold Train

Entertainment News

A military train used by the Nazis during World War II has been found in Poland. Polish officials confirmed on Wednesday that the find had been made but were unclear on whether the train was laden with loot or gold. Stories of a lost train full of gold from the Nazi regime have been rife in the region and the new find definitely adds historical significance to the myths that have thousands of locals treasure hunting.

Last week, two treasure hunting locals had approached Polish authorities through their lawyer, after finding a German Nazi train deep in the tunnels of Walbrzych, just a few miles off Poland’s border with the Czech Republic. However, the two had stated they would only tell authorities where the train was if they were guaranteed a ten percent finder’s fee for whatever was inside the train.

On Wednesday, Polish officials confirmed there was indeed a Nazi train find.

Deputy town mayor Zygmunt Nowaczyk said, “The city [of Walbrzych] is full of mysterious stories because of its history. Now it is formal information — [we] have found something.”

Officials, however did not reveal the exact location of the find and would not detail the contents of the train.

In the last days of World War II, frustrated by allied air strikes, the Nazis built multiple tunnels underground, up to five feet high, to protect them from the strikes. The Walbrzych tunnels, for example, are unseen from the air due to the dense Silesian forest above. Some of these tunnels were used to transport loot and weaponry to Nazi stations. To this day, there are Nazi artefacts littering the tunnels.

Historical myths have it that a rogue German official loaded one of the trains with weapons and gold and disappeared with it somewhere in the tunnel in 1945.

So popular is the legend that tour guides narrate it to thousands of visitors every year, sending thousands of gold seeking excursions into the tunnels every year.

Local officials have held several crisis meetings urging residents not to go on the treasure hunts as the tunnels could be booby trapped. Walbrzych governor Jacek Cichura said, “Our priority is the safety of the public. If the gold train actually exists, then it is probably mined. There is also the possibility of methane.”

The find adds a significance to Walbrzych’s historical legends. Though authorities have not revealed the contents of the train, their reluctance could cause anxiety among the locals, smitten with folk legend and tales of trains full of gold. More unwarranted hunts will be the consequence.

Study Finds Countries Gaming Carbon Credit Schemes To Actually Create More Pollution

Culture

A new study has revealed that a majority carbon credits generated by Russia and its neighbor Ukraine were not actual carbon emission cuts, instead represented an increase in emissions by up to 600 million tons.

The offset scheme not only undermines efforts to reduce carbon emissions, but also highlights the reluctance of nations to meaningfully combat climate change.

Researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute analyzed 60 projects in the countries and realized that up to 73 per cent of the offset credits claimed did not meet the vital criteria of “additionality.”

This meant that the controversial projects would have occurred even without the carbon credit finance. What the countries simply did was claim compensation for projects they had provided for long before.

Vladyslav Zhezherin, a coauthor of the study said, “Some early projects were of good quality, but in 2011-2012, numerous projects were registered in Ukraine and Russia which had started long before and were clearly not motivated by carbon credits. I would say that many of them were fake.”

Researchers believe in some instances, chemicals known to increase carbon dioxide emissions were produced and then destroyed, to claim carbon credits. Zhezherin said, “This was like printing money.”

The credits were then sold to the EU’s flagship Emissions Trading Scheme. This may have compromised the EU emissions by up to 400 million tons of carbon dioxide valued at $2 billion in current exchange rates.

The researchers however, pointed out that in some countries, the carbon emissions credit finance program was a complete success. In Poland and Germany, where similar credits were subject to stricter criteria, significant emission reductions were recorded.

Anja Kollmuss, a coauthor of the study said, “We were surprised ourselves by the extent, we didn’t expect such a large number. What went on was that these countries could approve these projects by themselves there was no international oversight, in particular Russia and the Ukraine didn’t have any incentive to guarantee the quality of these credits.”

The report, which has been approved by the UN and published in the journal Nature Climate Change, has not been taken lightly by Russian authorities. Michael Yulkin, an official at Russia’s Environmental Investment Center completely dismissed the report saying, “That’s just not true. All the projects have been validated and the additionality has been proved – it was all following the rules and if the rules allowed them to be in, so you have them in.”

By bending the rules to claim compensation for no work done, Russia and Ukraine benefited illegally from a program that was meant to stem the emission of climate hurting carbon dioxide. To make it worse, their actions led to an actual increase in emissions by millions of tons, complicating the world’s atmospheric balance and completely wiping out years of progress in reducing carbon emissions, both for themselves and their EU neighbors.

Survey Of American Mobile Phone Use Shows More Awareness Of Etiquette Yet Less Courteous Behavior

News

Researchers have found that more Americans are substituting physical conversation with virtual indulgence and using their cell phones in most of their social gatherings despite a majority saying the use of these phones is unwarranted and frankly interferes with conversation.

The recent research by Pew Researchers noted that Americans were spending more time on their phones during social gatherings, instead of following along with the conversation. In the survey, of 3,217 people, 3,042 were cell phone users who were polled on different aspects of mobile usage.

The results showed that some 92 percent of U.S. adults have a phone of whom 90 percent said their phones are always with them. A shocking 45 percent said they never turn their phone off.

So much entrenched in cell phone usage are Americans that 77 percent of adults reckoned it was okay to use cell phones while walking down the street, 38 percent thought phone usage in a restaurant was okay while 5 percent of Americans do not mind mobile usage in meetings.

The “always-on” mentality reared its head even in social gatherings, where physical attention was vital. Most Americans said that their use in meetings hurt the flow of the group conversations, even when they themselves were anxious to use their own.

When asked whether mobile usage hurt their conversations, 82 percent acknowledged that it did while 33 percent said the use actually contributed to the group’s conversation.

The results also indicated that women were more likely to feel hurt from cell phone usage in groups (41 percent) than men (32 percent). For those over 50, 45 percent saw it as inadmissible in social gatherings while only 29 percent of the younger generation concurred.

The statistics did reveal that more people are becoming conscious of mobile usage in gatherings.

Overall, more people felt their use hurt the conversation than those who did not.

When asked whether they had used their cell phones during their last social gathering, a shocking 89 percent said they had used their phones. In addition, 86 percent reported that someone else in the group was also using their phone.

The results revealed a form of social influence that made it easier and eve more admissible to use cell phones where another member of the group was also using theirs.

When initially asked why they were using their phones, the responses varied immensely. Of those polled, 16 percent said they did so because they were no longer interested in the conversation, 10 percent sad they were avoiding participating in the group.

However, it was more often than not that they were doing so for reasons connected to the meeting.

Up to 45 percent said they were on their phones to post a video or picture of the gathering, 41 percent did so to share something that had occurred in the gathering, 38 percent sought information on a topic they were discussing while 31 percent used their cells phones to connect with other not in the group.

Overall, 78 percent used their phones for these “group contributing” reasons as compared to 30 percent who were retreating from the group.

Phone etiquette in America is evolving. It is increasingly becoming admissible to use cell phones in almost all aspects of human life even when one’s absolute attention is required. More shocking was that the general trends in usage were similar across different demographics such as age and sex. Soon, all of America may just turn into phone staring zombies, completely oblivious of their surroundings, a phenomenon that isn’t actually science fiction: Researchers in Japan have documented this behavior, where mobile usage is regarded as being five to ten years ahead of North America.

Over Half A Million Protest In India Over Discriminatory Affirmative Action Programs

Entertainment News

The Gujarat State in India has been hit by massive demonstrations led by an influential high-caste clan that wants an end to affirmative action by the authorities. The central government instead responded by imposing a curfew and deploying paramilitary forces.

The demonstrations took place in the city of Ahmedabad, approximately 450 kilometers north of Mumbai. Approximately half a million people, who were members of the Patel or Patidar community protests. Their major demand was that the Indian administration, which in their view unjustly favors factions at the lower end of India’s social caste system, has to make and implement to stop discriminating against them.

Chaos broke out following the arrest of the movement’s head, Hardik Patel, with police firing tear gas and baton-charging protesters.

On Tuesday, 22-year old Patel told a congregation in the city that the demonstration set for the following day could become violent if the tribe’s demands did not get a positive response.

Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Hardik said, “Our agitation will end the day the government will indicate that it is willing to give us reservation.”

“If you do not give our right, we will snatch it. Whoever will talk of the interest of Patels will rule over Patels,” Hardik Patel added.

He also said that he was ready to go on a hunger strike unless he was personally assured by the Gujarat principal minister Anandiben Patel that they would acknowledge the Patel community’s grievances.

Authorities condemned the violent behavior in Ahmedabad, adding that the demonstrating masses had caused extensive damage.

Speaking to Reuters, PC Thakur, Gujarat’s top police officer, said, “The agitators clashed with the police and members of the lower castes. They have burned down nine police stations and over three dozen buses.”

He added, “We had to impose a curfew to control the clashes. Offices, trading houses and educational institutions will not open today.”

Meanwhile in a televised speech, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised protesters to demonstrate peacefully.

“I appeal to the people of Gujarat to maintain peace,” Reuters quoted Modi as saying. “Violence will never achieve anything.”

The Patels have helped financial growth in the India and have traditionally controlled the diamond trade, the textile industry and oil processing.

However, they say that affirmative action by the Indian administration to give more opportunities to lower-caste citizens have gone too far and their clan members were not being given adequate opportunities to find administration jobs and join universities.

The protests could challenge the authority of Prime Minister Modi and have certainly caused a headache.

Virginia Shooter Who Killed Innocent Journalists On Live TV A ‘Human Powder Keg’

News

Just moments after he shot two innocent journalists to death on live TV and before shooting himself, Bryce Williams said, in a message, that “I’ve been a human powder keg for a while….just waiting to go BOOM.”

The gunman wrote the words in a chilling fax sent to ABC News, according to a statement released by network. The Virginia shooter sent the manifesto after killing WDBJ-TV journalists Alison Parker and Adam Ward, resulting in a manhunt that concluded when officers closed in.

The manifesto cited the Charleston shooting as the trigger point for the plotting of the savage attack.

While the shooter, who formerly worked as a reporter for the Roanoke station, is now dead, the investigation is far from over.

The manifesto, as well as the gunman’s other efforts to reach out to journalists and his social media posts just after the attack will be key pieces of information investigators will use to piece together what happened and why.

Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton said authorities are looking at his past employment at WDBJ as well other evidence to attempt to determine a motive for the killings.

“Many of you have gotten a lot of the correspondence, emails that had been sent out. It’s obvious that … this gentleman was disturbed in some way of the way things had transpired,” and that “at some point in his life, things spiraled out of control,” Overton stated.

FTC Launches Crackdown On YouTube Celebrities Over Undisclosed ‘Pay To Play’

News

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is turning the heat up on YouTube celebrity gamers in a new round of crackdowns on disclosure of advertising fees on social media. The FTC is concerned that the online celebrities are violating disclosure regulations while making a lot of money from their high subscription viewerships.

Over the past few years there has been an explosion of interest in watching videos of professionals and other playing video games and commenting on the action. What was once a bedroom past time is now serious business, earning YouTube celebrities hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Through investigating these violations, the authorities hope to entrench disclosure regulations permanently in the online community, a segment that has for long existed virtually unregulated.

The FTC is alarmed that some YouTube gamers are endorsing video games on a compensated basis without disclosing such facts. A specific situation that has sparked the regulator’s interest is in the case of the new horror video game “Dead Realm.”

The recently launched game was developed with YouTubers in consideration. Developers sought to make the game as fun to play as possible and also as intriguing to watch as was possible. To ensure this was the case, they invited the cream of YouTube celebrity gamers Tom Cassell (TheSyndicateProject), Adam Montoya (SeaNanners) and Evan Fong (VanossGaming).

These three celebrities then went on to publish videos of themselves playing the game while talking about how fun it was. They, however, failed to disclose their relationship with the game’s makers and that they were receiving payment for their relationship, against FTC regulations.

Mary Engle, associate Director of Advertising Practices at FTC said, “Generally speaking, if an advertiser or a marketer is paying someone to write favorable reviews, the reviewer needs to disclose that and that disclosure should be clear and conspicuous, and should be upfront and easy to see where the viewer won’t miss it.”

Engle added, “What we say is that it should be easily seen or viewed (or heard in the case of audio) by the consumer or by the viewer. It should be made within the endorsement message, and within the review. We don’t prescribe particular words or phrases that need to be used, but some people might say ‘this is a compensated review,’ or ‘I got this free to try.'”

The FTC does have the authority to investigate suspected fraud and make a determination whether the nondisclosure was made in violation of the FTC Act.

While this particular case involves only three celebrity gamers, the virtual video sharing platform is home to dozens more celebrities who do not disclose compensated endorsements. Though no one is against earning a living from making endorsements, authorities emphasize that relevant disclosures must be made in such cases, the failure of which would be fraudulent.

Competitive Gaming Business Forces Angry Birds Publisher Rovio To Fire 260 Employees

Finance

The games business is tough. Its a hits driven industry where what is cool and amazing one year is decidedly less so just 12 months later. Once famous for its Mafia Wars and Farmville games, Zynga has taken a turn for the worse and has been doing nothing but firing and downsizing in the years since its peak success.

Angry Birds maker Rovio appears to be suffering a similar fate after it announced plans to lay off 260 employees, mere weeks after releasing its much anticipated Angry Birds 2 mobile game.

While the game is well regarded its also been deemed annoying.

Almost every game play mechanism has a paid element to it, which amounts to Rovio extorting users at every turn with no option to pay one fixed price to just enjoy playing.

The constant nagging demonstrates the financial pressure Rovio is under.

The Finnish mobile games developer and would-be entertainment company announced on Wednesday it will cut roughly one third of its work force in an effort to narrow down its focus to its core games and media businesses.

Rovio CEO Pekka Rantala called it a “personally difficult decision.”

“However, it is certain that a leaner and more agile Rovio is absolutely necessary to move forward and take the company to new successes in the future. We will work with and support all our employees through this period of change.”

Rovio was founded as a family business by the Hed family, and saw its fortunes soar when, in 2012, it made a stunning $63 million profit on the back of its hit game Angry Birds. It has since struggled to deliver another title that matches the success of Angry Birds.

Rantala took over the CEO role from co-founder Mikael Hed last year in a bid to turn the company around.

Rantala admitted in the latest announcement that the company’s decision to turn Angry Birds into a merchandising juggernaut have backfired.

“Rovio’s growth and eagerness to explore new business opportunities over the past few years has been exceptional,” Rantala stated.

“As a result, we did too many things. In our current financial condition we must now put focus on where we are at our best: in creating magnificent gaming experiences, in producing an amazing animation movie, and in delighting our fans with great products.”

After years of delay the animated Angry Birds movie is, tentatively, set to be released in May of 2016.

U.S. Markets Rebound And Post The Biggest One Day Gain Since 2008

Finance

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average exploded 619 points higher on Wednesday, posting its biggest gain since the 2008 financial crisis and the third largest in its history.

The huge rally is a dramatic rebound after six days of panicked selling driven by concerns about China’s slowing economy and how it will impact the rest of its trading partners.

The broader S&P 500 jumped a whopping 3.9 percent on Wednesday, notching its biggest single-day percentage gain since 2011. The tech heavy Nasdaq rebounded 4.2% higher.

According to S&P Dow Jones Indices, an eye-watering $2.1 trillion of value was wiped out from the S&P 500 in the last six trading days.

Investors were clearly aware that bargains were to be had as the recent declines were the first time in four years all the major U.S. indexes had declined more than 10 percent, which is generally viewed as a correction.

While the one day pop was badly needed, there remains plenty of reason to remain cautious. The weakened Chinese economy will likely persist for some time and its effects will be slow to propagate through the global financial system.

“There’s a moderate-sized storm brewing that will keep the market in check here over the next 60 to 90 days,” Federated Investors vice president and portfolio manager Matthew Kaufler was quoted as saying. “We’ve probably absorbed the worst of the volatility in terms of magnitude but I don’t know that we’re done with the volatility. I think the correction phase will continue, just at a lower amplitude than before.”

Researchers Just Proved That Google Could Pick The Next U.S. President

News

America’s next president could be decided based on a manipulated algorithm and rankings on Google’s search engine it has been revealed. Based on research conducted that shows a direct impact of search engine rankings and voter appeal towards a specific candidate, researchers now believe Google could determine the fate of the coming elections and the future of the U.S.

New research done by psychologist Robert Epstein from the American Institute of Behavioral Research and Technology, shows just how much influence is wielded by search engines, particularly with regard to undecided voters in swing states.

In the research, voters were split into three groups, with each group being exposed to a different search ranking for two candidates: A and B. One ranking favored candidate A, the other candidate B and the other neither candidate.

Each group was then allowed to conduct a 15 minute search on the candidates on a search engine similar to Google called Kadoodle. Each group had 30 search results from where they could click freely on real websites from past elections. After the searches, the participants were asked to vote.

The votes cast revealed that the votes, opinions and measures shifted in favor of the candidates with favorable rankings in the search results. The researchers reported that they were able to bolster the results of a candidate by between 37 to 63 per cent just by granting them a favorable ranking.

Granted that Google’s search arithmetic exposes voters to a certain ranking for much longer than 15 minutes, the search engine’s influence is far greater than one could imagine, barely short of handing a candidate a direct pass to their swearing in ceremony.

According to psychologist Epstein, three possible tactics can be deployed by Google to influence the coming 2016 election. One would be the Western Union scenario. Through a monopoly of communications in the 1800s, Western Union was able to ensure only positive news was spread about America’s 19th President Rutherford B. Hayes, effectively granting him an easy win. The same could be applied with Google who have a great relationship with the Democrats.

Six of President Barrack Obama’s top tech administration officials are former Google employees. Google representatives visited the White House reportedly ten times more frequently than other companies and in 2012, Google donated $800,000 towards Obama’s re-election campaign and only $37,000 to Mitt Romney.

An alteration of search rankings in Hillary Clinton’s favor would effectively put her miles ahead of competition. And she knows this, having hired one of Google’s executives, Stephanie Hannon, as her head technology officer.

The second way Google could affect the elections is through a rogue employee manipulating search results in favor of a candidate.

In 2010, when Google was caught sweeping private data from more than 30 countries by unprotected Wi-Fi networks, the blame was put on one employee, engineer Marius Milner. The company was not put at fault and, five years later, their scapegoat still works at Google.

The third way is if the search arithmetic itself favors one candidate over others. Here, Google’s workers are innocent, but their ‘software’ is flawed and biased. The computer program itself will determine our next president and there is no regulation in place to prevent that from happening.

Search engines such as Google owe a duty to the people of the U.S. and in the spirit of democracy to allow free, fair and unbiased elections. This starts with their role in unbiased rankings. Should the company prove otherwise, government regulation should be put in place to correct it, lest the fate of America be decided by a compromised arithmetic.

Dawn Of Self Driving Cars Leading To Tough Questions About The Future Of Law

News

When and it what capacity can and should law enforcement direct the actions of those vehicles? A recent report published by the RAND Corp. attempts to identify and ponder these questions that will likely arise when law enforcement is confronted with self-driving vehicles.

While the report indicates that these questions are new and emerging, similar questions arose when the first vehicles hit American roadways.

The RAND report presents a hypothetical scenario as follows: “The police officer directing traffic in the intersection could see the car barreling toward him and the occupant looking down at his smartphone. Officer Rodriguez gestured for the car to stop, and the self-driving vehicle rolled to a halt behind the crosswalk.” Should the officer’s direction for the vehicle to stop be allowed under current laws and regulations regarding vehicles?

It seems that the question should be answered in the affirmative. In today’s world, drivers are required to stop when directed to do so. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that self-driving cars should do the same.

The issue arises, however, as to where to draw the line. When is a slippery slope created? Should police officers be able to direct self-driving cars to stop if they suspect a crime has been committed? And, if the passenger does not want the car to stop – can he or she override the car’s program to stop or does the direction by the officer control? All interesting issues.

The report also raises additional issues such as whether under current stop, search and seizure laws, police officers should or should not be able to direct a self-driving vehicle to identify its occupants and history of its locations.

What if a person is or is not in the vehicle? Who makes sure that the police officers have gone through the proper “judicial controls” before conducting such a search? The report points out that, “the dark side to all of the emerging access and interconnectivity is the risk to the public’s civil rights, privacy rights, and security.” Again, it would seem that these types of questions are answered on a daily basis when defendants inquire as to whether an officer had the requisite reasonable suspicion, probable cause, etc. in order to stop and question a driver.

The RAND report does not attempt to answer these “new” questions – it instead questioned a panel of 16 experts in technology and criminal justice to identify new technological developments in vehicles that may impact current law enforcement procedures and policies. According to the panel, these types of questions are already on the minds of law enforcement. And the questions will become more imminent and crucial as self-driving vehicles hit the roads sometime in the future.

The lead author of the RAND report, John S. Hollywood, reports that police currently are not pushing for enforcement control of self-driving and Internet-connected vehicles, but rather that, “developing policies and procedures for self-driving unmanned and automated vehicles” were a first priority. In fact, “Develop[ing] an interface for officers to directly take control of unmanned vehicles” was at the bottom of the priority list.

It appears that the current policies and procedures that govern law enforcement will have to be tweaked in the future when self-driving cars are a reality. However, it may surprise us that the new questions might have very similar answers to the old ones.

Upstate New York Interest Groups Are Trying To Form The First New State Since 1959

News

At least a dozen factions in support of hydraulic fracturing and gun rights are planning a rally on Sunday to organize support for converting upstate New York into an independent state.

At the root of their ire is Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and his backing of the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013. He also sponsored a resolution last year to order state controllers to ban fracking for natural gas.

“Why secession? Secession is about reclaiming the economic opportunities upstate has lost and restoring the liberties Upstate residents once enjoyed,” Shooters Committee on Public Education, the gun group, said in a statement, adding “Downstate has dominated upstate for decades, and upstate has no future in a state controlled by New York City’s needs and desires.”

The groups selected Bainbridge, N.Y., a community of not more than 1,500 residents approximately 25 miles north of the Pennsylvania boundary, for their two-hour public meeting running from 1 to 3 p.m. ET on Sunday. It is situated in part of the Marcellus shale configuration that contains vast natural gas reserves and extends into New York.

The separation effort is not the first time campaigners have asked to divide the state in two. GOP state Sen. Joseph Robach of Greece, N.Y., tabled bills in 2009 and 2011 to let counties have an opinion vote on the thought of seceding.

The bills have not made past the committee. Long Island policymakers also pitched the thought of a different state for their counties at the beginning of this year.

This time the pro-secession factions are considering two options:

The first is creating a minor New York state administration with a couple of independent regions, upstate to be referred to as New Amsterdam and downstate to maintain the name New York. That would need either governmental approval or a lawful convention.

The second is requiring the legislatures of New York and Pennsylvania to approve the split as well as Congress.

What the factions may not have evaluated is income.

The Center for Governmental Research in Rochester, N.Y., established that upstate New York gains from the tax income sent to Albany from the City of New York and its affluent neighborhoods. Wall Street alone accounts for about 19% of all state income.

Secession has been successfully achieved before, but not for some time.

Maine broke away from Massachusetts in 1820 after inhabitants launched a 35-year crusade for statehood; Vermont broke away from New York in 1777, ultimately becoming a formally recognized state in 1791; and West Virginia became an independent state in 1863 after the rest of Virginia decided to join the Confederacy during the Civil War.

The factions planning Sunday’s occasion include Red Dragon, Deposit Gas Group, Americans for Restoring the Constitution, Shooters Committee on Public Education, Upstate New York Towns Association, New Yorkers United for Kids, NY2A, Oath Keepers, Landowner Advocates of New York, Divide New York State Caucus, Sapbush Road Group, We the People of New York and Tri-County Tea Party.

California Just Saw A Rise In Home Schooling After Passing Mandatory Vaccination Law

Health & Wellness

California homeschooling organizations are seeing a sharp uptick in interest following passage of a law mandating vaccines for any student in public or private school. The law was passed in a rush following the Disneyland measles outbreak earlier this year.

As of 2012, over 3% of children between 5 and 17 were home schooled, up from about 2% in 2003.

The mandate was co-authored by Senator Richard Pan, with backing by the California Medical Association, and was marked by protests at the state capitol in the lead up to its passage. Pan received death threats over the law and it is currently in the process of a referendum aimed at its repeal.

Many parents who would not have normally considered home schooling are now investigating the option in order to avoid the mandate.

Not all are so called ‘anti-vaxxers’, but view some of the 10 specific vaccinations mentioned in the law as not worth the risk. Medical studies claiming to link autism to vaccines have been discredited or retracted, but some still cite the studies as the reason behind their decision.

Doctors state that the decision not to vaccinate has allowed pockets of very low immunity to develop in some communities. Infectious disease expert Dr. Dean A. Blumberg commented on the issue, “The majority of the state does the right thing, but you have these clusters of really low rates, and if there’s a vulnerable population in any way there, you can have serious problems quickly.”

The law does not go into effect until the fall of 2016, but some parents have chosen to begin homeschooling this year.

Teresa Fitzpatrick, president of the California Homeschool Network, stated that the organization has seen an increase in calls related to the new law.

California joins West Virginia and Mississippi, which both have similar vaccine laws. The California law eliminates exemptions for personal belief and religion, but does allow for medical exemptions.

Coca Cola Announces Its Entire Operations Will Be ‘Water Neutral’ By The End Of The Year

Finance

Coca-Cola Co. and its partners announced they expect to be restoring 100 percent of the water utilized in their plants by the end of this year, reaching an old conservation objective five years ahead of schedule.

The beverage company, which declared the replenishment goal in 2007, said it’s currently “balancing” approximately 94 percent of the water. That implies that Coca-Cola is counterbalancing each gallon it utilizes by conserving or recycling a gallon somewhere else in the world.

The organization relies on a combination of systems to achieve this, including waste management at its plants and tree-planting projects that help reinstate watersheds.

In an official statement, CEO Muhtar Kent said “As a consumer of water, the Coca-Cola system has a special responsibility to protect this shared resource.”

The plan is meant to make certain that the corporation will have adequate water to meet its demand, as well as restoring confidence in customers who may be concerned about severe drought in California and other regions. Coca-Cola had initially intended to be water-neutral by 2020.

Through 209 developments in 61 nations, the Atlanta-based organization and its bottling associates have restored about 40.57 billion gallons of water. The organization’s system has also reused 33.47 billion gallons after waste management. Collectively, these numbers can meet the company’s objective by the end of this year based on 2014 revenue.

In an interview, global director of water stewardship at Coca-Cola, Greg Koch, said that the plan isn’t charitable so much as a tactical business move. Domestic water availability is vital to Coca-Cola’s victory, he said, since “the price point that we sell our products demands that we manufacture and distribute locally.”

When water availability is strained, “that presents risks, risk to those communities, those ecosystems, and all businesses operating there — including ours,” Koch stated.

However, there are some aspects of Coca-Cola’s water consumption that may not be featured in the statistics, said the director of the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Paula Rees. The organization’s agricultural water utilization, for example, may not be entirely known, she argued.

“There’s so much water that goes into a single product that it’s hard to capture all of the water footprint,” Rees said, adding, “All of the water that’s used to grow the corn — that goes into the fructose that sweetens the Coca-Cola.”

As part of its conservation endeavors, Coca-Cola has joined hands with other companies to increase water availability and look after river basins.

“There are still watersheds — regardless of how much we’ve replenished — that have stress and therefore are risks to ecosystems and those communities and economies that we’re a part of,” Koch said, adding, “We have to continue to do work well beyond any percentage of our sales volume because it is a vital business risk and a fundamental of our business model.

Rare ‘Living Fossil’ Found Again After Thirty Years

Culture

Earlier this month, biologists from the University of Washington encountered a rare species of nautilus that has not been seen in over thirty years. A nautilus is a marine mollusc that has a shell and is closely related to squids and cuttlefish.

In 1984, the rare Allonautilus scrobiculatus was found and identified off the coast of Ndrova Island in Papua New Guinea by researchers Peter Ward and Bruce Saunders. The species was seen by Saunders again in 1986, but has not been seen since.

The nautilus is considered a “living fossil” in that animals extremely similar to today’s nautiluses are found in the fossil record dating back to 500 million years ago. And, even though nautiluses saw the age of dinosaurs come and go, today’s overfishing may end the existence of the sea creatures. Ward pointed out that, “As it stands now, nautilus mining could cause nautiluses to go extinct.”

The Allonautilus is different than other nautiluses in that it has a hairy, thick, slimy covering. It is speculated that the slimy coating may help to prevent predators’ sharp teeth from getting a good grip on the mollusc.

In conducting his research this time around, Ward and his team used the “bait on a stick” method to collect various species of nautilus. Essentially, fish and chicken meat were suspended on a string at various depths of the ocean and – after time – the creatures attach to the meat. Ward’s crew filmed activity surrounding the bait for 12-hour periods. The nautiluses were then slowly brought to the water’s surface – in cool water since they do not like the heat – and studied by the scientists before being returned to the depths of the ocean. Every day, the team would watch the footage taken the night before at super speed.

Through these studies, the researchers learned that most nautilus communities are completely isolated from each other because each population only inhabits a narrow band of ocean depth. Ward observed that, “They swim just above the bottom of wherever they are. Just like submarines, they have ‘fail depths’ where they’ll die if they go too deep, and surface waters are so warm that they usually can’t go up there. Water about 2,600 feet deep is going to isolate them.” These depth restrictions mean that populations in different areas are often ecologically and/or genetically different from each other. Ward pointed out that, “Once they’re gone from an area, they’re gone for good.”

Ward described Allonautilus as possibly “the rarest in the world” as it has only been found near the one tiny island. “We need to know if Allonautilus is anywhere else, and we won’t know until we go out there and look.”

Trump Says Chinese President Should Have McDonald’s Instead Of State Dinner

News

Donald Trump, the Republican party’s front runner in the Presidential nomination race, has continued his China bashing during an appearance on The O’Reilly Factor, where he continued attacking the Obama administration’s plans to hold a state dinner for Chinese leader Xi Jinping when he visits the U.S. next month.

“I would not be throwing him a dinner. I would get him a McDonald’s hamburger and say we’ve got to get down to work because you can’t continue to devalue,” he said. “We’ll give him a state dinner and what he has done is suck all the jobs, suck all the money right out of our country.”

Later the candidate, popularly known as ‘The Donald”, softened his stance – blaming China’s influence on the world economy as being President Obama’s fault. When asked about ‘trade wars’ between the U.S. and China, Trump praised the IQ of the Chinese leadership.

“Their leaders are intelligent. Ours aren’t. We don’t know what we are doing,” he said.

Trump’s comments are part of his continuing rhetoric about China holding the upper hand over the U.S. in trade matters, and for stealing jobs from U.S. workers.

In the first televised debate between Republican presidential candidates, Trump several times cast China as “the winner” .

“We don’t win anymore. We lose to China. We lose to Mexico both in trade and at the border. We lose to everybody,” he said.

Trump is not the only one angry about Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to the U.S. Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s Republican Governor and Trump’s opponent in the presidential nomination race, has also called for the cancellation of the State dinner for the Chinese leader..

“Why would we be giving one of our highest things a president can do – and that is a state dinner for Xi Jinping, the head of China – at a time when all of these problems are pending out there?” said Walker.”We should say those … honors should only be bestowed upon leaders and countries that are allies and supporters of the United States, not just for China, which is a strategic competitor.”

There has been no reply to either Trump’s or Walker’s comments from Chinese authorities.

As for the state dinner menu – there has yet been no word from the White House, or McDonalds.

Four Brokerages Accused Of Stock Market Violations Amid Chinese Market Meltdown

Finance

Four Chinese securities brokeages and employees of its securities regulator are under investigation for alleged stock market offences.

China’s official News Agency, Xinhua, reported that three of the brokerages have confirmed they are being accused of failing to confirm the identities of clients, and that eight employees of another brokerage are suspected of illegal securities trading.

Xinhua also reports that one former and one current employee of the China Securities Regulatory Commission have also been accused of insider trading.

The news report said a journalist is also being investigated on suspicion of spreading fake futures trading and fake securities information.

In July, Chinese authorities said they were investigating possible breaches and misconduct within China’s securities market following the sudden end to a stock price boom.

The authorities said brokerages, among other things, may have been allowing clients to trade without revealing their real names and other violations. They gave no indication on whether the cases were connected.

However some China watchers say at this stage the charges and investigation may not hold any substance, and may be a desperate effort by the ruling Communist Party to deflect blame for the latest economic downturn.

Meanwhile Chinese and Hong Kong markets stabilized today after two days of a downward spiral, closing mostly higher. Experts say Beijing’s latest rate cuts restored some confidence in the market after days of brutal losses. Along with the interest rate cuts, Beijing eased bank lending limits as a measure to stop panic selling bringing them to an eight month low.

China’s Premier Li Keqiang is reported today as saying although current global economic conditions were “bewildering, creating volatility in global markets” the Chinese Government has room to respond innovatively and deploy the correct tools to reach its economic targets.

U.S. Central Command Under Investigation For Faking ISIS Progress Reports To Congress

News

Anonymous officials within the United States Defense Intelligence Agency (“D.I.A.”) have reported that the military headquarters overseeing America’s campaign against ISIS are “overstating” its results.

Specifically, it is alleged that the United States Central Command has reported false or at least tweaked intelligence assessments prepared for Congress and President Obama in order to make it seem that America is having greater success against ISIS than is actually the case.

The allegations regarding “skewed intelligence assessments” have resulted in an investigation conducted by the Pentagon’s inspector general and raise questions about the government’s current tactics for fighting the war against ISIS.

While differences in opinion among top security officials are encouraged, an investigation by the inspector general is highly unusual. The investigation suggests that the reported claims are more serious than just differences in opinion.

Under federal regulations, intelligence officials have a mechanism to report wrongdoings by security officials to the inspector general. If the inspector general finds the allegations credible, he or she is required to report the findings to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

Col. Patrick Ryder pointed out that “The [inspector general] has a responsibility to investigation all allegations made, and we welcome and support their independent oversight.” He further stated that it was customary for a number of different agencies that produce intelligence assessments regarding the Iraq war to make suggested changes to one another’s draft reports. He also stated that each agency makes the final decision about what is included in its final drafts and that, “ . . . the multisource nature of our assessment process purposely guards against any single report or opinion unduly influencing leaders and decision makers.”

Senior military officials repeatedly report that generally, America’s campaign against ISIS has been successful thus far. Others believe that a limited bombing campaign rather than boots on the ground will never defeat ISIS. The latter view seems to be somewhat legitimized by the “whistleblowers’” allegations that classified documents report that little has been accomplished in the war against ISIS’ militant fighters. Moreover, this past year, the group has expanded its terror into Central Asia and North Africa.

The D.I.A. was created in the early 1960s in order to create a check and balance system between itself and various service declarations (i.e., claims made by the Air Force, Army and Navy). For example, the D.I.A. repeatedly reported that a sustained military presence was unlikely to beat the North Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam War – despite the claims by commanders that the United States was winning the war.

Paul R. Pillar, a retired senior Central Intelligence Agency analyst describes the system best by stating that “There’s a built-in tension for the people who work at D.I.A., between dispassionate [objective] analysis and what command wants. You’re part of a large structure that does have a vested interest in portraying the overall mission as going well.”

What the inspector general’s findings reveal regarding reports about the war against ISIS remain to be seen – but it is likely it may shape the continuing efforts against the terrorist group.

Virginia Shooting Suspect Shoots Himself After Authorities Confront Him, Dies In Hospital

News

Updated: Authorities now confirm the Virginia shooter has died in hospital. He was previously in critical condition after shooting himself in a suicide attempt.Vicki Gardner, the third victim in the attack, is now listed in stable condition after undergoing surgery.

Authorities have confirmed that shooter in this morning’s graphic live TV killing of two journalists, Vester L. Flanagan, shot himself in the head after a police chase.

The incident occurred on I-66 in Virginia after authorities surrounded his vehicle. Flanagan was a former employee of TV station WDBJ and knew his victims, Alison Parker and Adam Ward.

The subject of the interview, Vicki Gardner, who is the executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, was wounded in the back and is remains in surgery.

A massive manhunt was launched for the gunman by The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with the FBI and local law enforcement.

The FBI is conducting an investigation of the incident, which occurred at Bridgewater Plaza near Moneta.

Flanagan posted graphic video of the incident to Twitter, under an assumed name.

Police have not yet disclosed a motive for the senseless slaying.

Huge Manhunt Underway After Two Journalists Were Just Murdered On Live TV

News

A massive manhunt has been launched for a gunman who shot a local news reporter and photographer on live TV. The fatal shooting occurred during an interview being conducted in Moneta, Virginia, Wednesday morning.

Victim Alison Parker was conducting an interview with a woman at approximately 6:45am when shots rang out, prompting both women to scream.

The cameraman, Adam Ward, was fatally shot and as the camera rolled to the ground, viewers caught a brief glimpse of a man pointing a gun at the fallen cameraman.

The station cut away to a shocked anchor, Kimberly McBroom, back in the studio.

The incident occurred at Bridgewater Plaza near Moneta.

The subject of the interview, Vicki Gardner, who is the executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, was wounded in the back and is now in surgery.

WDBJ, the station conducting the interview, said that the gunman fired six or seven times.

Area schools are on lockdown as the gunman remains on the loose.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with the FBI and local law enforcement are participating in the manhunt.

The FBI is conducting the investigation.

Authorities have confirmed the identity of the shooter as former WDBJ employee Vester L. Flanagan.

Kraft Heinz Recalls Two Million Pounds Of Oscar Mayer Bacon

Health & Wellness

Food giant Kraft Heinz announced late Tuesday that it is recalling more than 2 million pounds of bacon that while fresh on the shelves could spoil prematurely, well ahead of the best before date printed on the package.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said that exactly 2,068,467 pounds of Oscar Mayer brand turkey bacon “may be adulterated because it may spoil before the ‘Best When Used By’ date.” According to the the USDA, the company became aware of the problem after it received “spoilage-related consumer complaints.”

The recalled turkey bacon was produced between May 31st and August 6th of this year, and carries the following brand names:

Oscar Mayer “Selects Uncured Turkey Bacon”

Oscar Mayer Turkey Bacon “Smoked Cured Turkey Chopped and Formed”

This recall carries a ‘Class II’ designation, the middle level of three. The USDA defines this as “a health hazard situation where there is a remote probability of adverse health consequences from the use of the product.”

Consumers can return the affected products to their local grocery stores for an exchange or refund.

China Caught Supplying South Sudan With Weapons It Knew Would Be Used For Genocide

Entertainment News

A Chinese government owned military arms supplier has been identified as having sold $20 million worth of weapons to the South Sudanese government, just several months after a brutal and deadly escalation in the civil war that has been raging in the country for the last 18 months.

A United Nation’s (UN) report says the 2014 sales were made at a time when it was widely known that government forces were burning people alive, raping children and committing other horrific acts.

The report identifies China North Industries Corp (Norinco), a Chinese State owned and controlled company, as selling,1,200 missiles, 100 anti-tank guided missile launchers, 10,000 automatic rifles, 24 million rounds of various types of ammunition, and 2,400 grenade launchers, to the South Sudanese Government.

Although South Sudan’s military forces have also acquired four attack helicopters since the civil war began, the UN report did not identify who had supplied them, revealing that it had started an investigation into the supply of the helicopters and other weapons, along with looking into “the financing channels used by the government and the opposition to prosecute the war and into those individuals and entities who gain financially from the continuation of the conflict”.

The civil war began in December 2013, after a split within the South Sudanese military amongst tribal factions, turned into a violent rebellion led by Riek Machar.

The UN Security Council has said if the South Sudan government does not sign a peace deal this week, it would impose an arms embargo, and experts say despite earlier resistance, Sudan’s President Salva Kiir is expected to comply with the UN demand.

The UN report showed both sides in the internal conflict have targeted civilians saying that as from April “the intensity and brutality of the violence aimed at civilians are hitherto unseen, in what has already been, without a doubt, an exceedingly violent conflict.”

Government controlled forces have adopted a “scorched earth policy” burning entire villages, sometimes with people still in their homes, are abducting children for use as child soldiers, and are raping women and young girls..

Stephen O’Brien, the UN’s aid chief said the level and scope of attacks against civilians “suggests a depth of antipathy that goes beyond political differences”.

“A witness from Rubkona County has said that she saw government forces gang-raping a breastfeeding mother after tossing her baby aside,” he said,

Although not saying how many civilians have been killed in the Civil War, the UN has said it was thousands and that 1.6 million people had been displaced so far.

Although being oil-rich, the civil war has plummeted South Sudan into huge public debt. When the country gained independence in 2011 it had zero debt, but as of June, 2015, it stood at $4.2 billion, the UN report said.