Posts - Americans

California Is Now Under Attack From Two Different Types Of Swarming Insects

Culture

At a California gas station the ground covered with the tiny winged insects. Heaps of carcasses, running inches deep, are brushed to the sides.

On the highway, they rained onto car windscreens. They flew in thousands toward even the tiniest sources of light, and move stealthily along kitchen tables and windows.

Such has been the stark reality for the past couple of months in the communities at the base of the Sierra Nevada’s eastern hill, where inhabitants have seen a sudden surge of the red-and-black seed insect species Melacoryphus lateralis.

Such epidemics have been experienced in Arizona’s Sonoran desert next to Tucson, but researchers say it’s the first one they have been recorded in California.

According to David Haviland, an entomologist with the University of California Cooperative Extension in Kern County, the invasion has been triggered by extreme weather and a mild winter, which provided tastier plants for the nutrient-sucking insects.

According to Nathan Reade, agricultural commissioner for Inyo and Mono counties, the insects’ flight toward homes, towns, cars and businesses might be associated with the drying up of indigenous plants in the drought and the heat of summer.

To the north, a different kind of bug is swarming the site of the well-liked Burning Man counterculture carnival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. State officers are working to classify the green, coin-shaped bugs swarming the open-air venue and biting employees setting up for this year’s occasion, which begins August 30th.

Jeff Knight, an Entomologist, with the Nevada Department of Agriculture, said the insects aren’t parasites and don’t pose any health risk.

In California, the explosion of fingernail-sized seed insects is the main subject of conversation in the bug-ridden communities.

A publication in a Lone Pine motel hall warned customers to shut their doors tight, and a hotel employee advised clients to keep their vehicle windows up, especially if lights are on. An Inyokern Dollar General Store started closing after nightfall to avoid dealing with the hoards of insects.

Rest areas and Gas stations along Highway 395 are major insect targets because of their lighting. After nightfall, the bugs whirl like bizarre artwork below the overhead lights of the gas stations.

According to Haviland “the amount of biological control is really insignificant compared to the millions of insects that are out there.”

So for the moment residents will have to take cover and hope winter comes quickly.

French Bakers Were Just Allowed To Go On Vacation And Paris Now Has A Bread Shortage

Entertainment News

This summer, for the first time in more than two centuries, Parisian bakers can go on vacation whenever they choose following the French government passing legislation intended to “simplify corporate life,” including getting rid of rules mandating that bakers in Paris stagger their summer vacations.

The tradition dates back to the French Revolution.

Set into proper law in 1970 and updated in 1995 and renewed every year since, the law mandated that half of the 1100 bakeries in Paris stayed open in July and the other half in August. Bakers who broke the law were fined $12 a day.

But now that lawmakers have gotten rid of the law, more bakeries are opting to shut down in August. With the regulations now gone, no official numbers exist on how many bakers are open and how many closed at any one time.

Pascal Barillon, vice president of the Professional Chamber of Parisian Bakers said his members had “no interest in all leaving simultaneously, even though many bakers are taking a break, you can still find bread pretty easily in Paris.”

Last weekend there was an on-going line out the door of Coquelicot, one of only a few bakeries still open in the heart of Montmartre, a quaint neighborhood popular with tourists and locals.

Owner Sylvie Fourmond described trying to keep up with demand that day as “infernal.”

“There was a moment when we ran out of bread, there’s nothing I could do about it. But people don’t understand. People have this idea that we make bread in five minutes,” she said.

Fourmond doesn’t equate a constant stream of customers as a good thing. She fears the quality of her products won’t be as high when her staff are pressurised to bake faster and have deal with annoyed customers “tapping their feet in line, demanding faster turnaround”.

Fourmond said she would welcome a return to the vacation mandate or even more coordination among colleagues to make August run more smoothly. “We passed so many years with a Napoleonic law that meant the prefecture told us when we could close,” she said. “And now, all of a sudden, people are taking off when they want for the first time. Maybe we need to organize amongst ourselves a little better.”
Paris resident Patrick Lucas was unfazed by the line and wait for bread and felt that even though bread is a French national right, so is time off.

“We’re in France, and there are also laws requiring that all people deserve vacation,” Lucas said “Even if commerce shuts down, it’s absolutely fair.”

Apple Is Preparing New Bands That Turn Its Watch Into A Powerful Health Tracker

Finance

The tech industry has known some time that Apple’s pricey smartwatch was supposed to have a lot more sensors packed inside it as the company sought to create a breakthrough product that revolutionized the digital health.

Due to durability and reliability problems, compounded by strict FDA guidelines, the sensors were removed from the final product that’s currently on sale.

Though we may still see an extra health-conscious model when the next edition is officially launched, it appears like Apple has an answer in the short-term: watch bands.

According to a statement from industry sources, Apple is looking at creating watch bands equipped with medical sensors that would give the currently available Apple Watch the functionality the company originally intended.

The innovative bands would contain a respiratory rate sensor, blood pressure sensor, blood oxygen sensor and even a body heat sensor, and feed that data into Apple’s Health app.

Apple has been increasingly focused on the healthcare market with initiatives like ResearchKit, and the Apple Watch.

Including the bands equipped with sensors would make the device appealing to a number of industries outside of the customer market.

It’s not clear how these innovative bands, which are slated for launch in early 2016, will work exactly but they will likely make use out of the small analytical port concealed where the band connects to the main Apple Watch.

While Apple has yet to comment on the speculation the company will without a doubt want to make the watch’s health capabilities bigger, and if the company couldn’t get these sensors to function properly inside the watch itself, making use of the band seems like a logical step to take.

Airbnb’s New Dynamic Pricing A Win For Hosts But Will Consumers Tolerate Higher Prices?

Finance

The makers of room-for-rent app Airbnb had in the past discovered that hosts’ ability to find the right price for their rental postings was a tricky proposition. To address the problem the company recently released a new automated pricing system called Aerosolve, which incorporates dynamic pricing, where rental prices change in response to market conditions.

Pricing algorithms for companies such as eBay are simple – the user picks from the displayed prices for similar items. Just as easily, ridesharing firms Uber and Lyft generally set prices from the top, though do use dynamic price setting in periods of high demand.

Airbnb has to incorporate factors like address, size, décor, time of rental, and so on, which is perhaps why it has taken over a year for the company to release its new dynamic system, which came out in June.

The Aerosolve system responds appropriately to these wide array of factors, dropping prices on rentals that have stayed vacant, or raising them in markets of high demand.

Aerosolve has improved hosts’ ability to price their listings more accurately, so that they get the most out of their rental. The key attributes about a host’s rental posting are the location, similarity, and recency.

Location data is based off mapping research that Airbnb commissioned, marking the boundaries to neighborhoods in top cities for the purposes of grouping similar listings.

Similarity includes factors like room count, structure type, and number of reviews. High review count turned out to be very important for those looking to book rentals, and users would pay a premium for these postings.

Recency accounts for the latest available pricing data for the posting, because travel is often highly seasonal.

All of these factors in the pricing model existed before Aerosolve, but they were static. Now the company posts a new pricing tip for hosts each day, based on the changes in these main factors as well as including hundreds of other attributes about a listing.

Hosts can then choose to go higher or lower than that price suggestion, but booking a room with Airbnb is now easier than ever.

While the new pricing scheme will benefit hosts it remains to be seen if the scheme will be embraced by consumers. Uber’s surge pricing receives constant backlash as a ‘surge price’ can result in a fare 100 times higher than the normal price.

Airbnb also faces competition from real hotels and their associated discount travel sites. As Airbnb rentals creep up in price to the level of a regular hotel, users may just opt for a hotel rather than an Airbnb.

Despite Negative Press, Cheaters Website Ashley Madison Is Now More Popular Than Ever

Finance

Revelations that extra marital dating site Ashley Madison had been hacked, with personal details of 30 million of its members and their activities being published on-line, has massively increased interest in the site rather than harmed it.

Analytics website App Annie reports the adultery website’s official app has experienced an upwards boost in Apple’s App store sales this week, even after member’s personal data began appearing on the Dark Web when a hacker group, known as the Impact Team, released the personal information. Leaked details included GPS location information of home addresses, emails and credit card numbers.

The group announced in July it had hacked into the website and that it would begin leaking information unless Ashley Madison’s Toronto, Canada based parent company, Avid Life Media Inc. shut down the site.

In British Apple Store app sales charts, the Ashley Madison app soared 483 places from 1,198th to 715th. The store contains 1.6 million apps.

In the Social Networking section of the store, it jumped to 51st position, its highest placing ever.

Traffic to the Ashley Madison website has also risen – up 22 percent since the incident occurred.
Relationship and social media experts say the exact reasoning for the boost in not clear but it could be suspicious partners wanting to see what the app is all about, while some others may have heard about the Ashley Madison service for the first time because of this week’s media reports.
The relationship experts said one thing that is obvious is that the fear of ending up on an online “cheaters” database was not necessarily a deterrent for would be adulterers or double timers.

One thing’s for sure though – the age old saying “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” still appears to hold.

Pentagon Report Reveals China Has Secretly Built A Massive Military Base In The Disputed South China Sea

Entertainment News

China has laid claim to more land in disputed territory in South China Sea’s Spratly islands than has previously been known, according to a report released by the Pentagon on Friday.

The report says China is also building a runway on one of the seven man made posts in the area which would potentially make it an alternative runway for aircraft carrier-based planes, allowing “sustained operations” in the area.

China’s only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, has been carrying out exercises in the South China Sea but according to experts is yet to be fully operational. Experts believe China will have deployable, domestically built aircraft carriers by 2020 as part of its development of an ocean-going “blue water” navy.

The Pentagon report entitled the “Asia-Pacific Maritime Security Strategy” said that at the Spratly Island site, China had excavated deep channels and built new berthings for larger ships.

“The infrastructure China appears to be building would enable it to establish a more robust power projection presence into the South China Sea,” read the report.

China has said the Spratly Island outposts will have undefined military purposes, as well as help with maritime search and rescue capabilities.

Although China claims most of the South China Sea, which is a major shipping route, Vietnam, The Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia also have overlapping claims

China’s reclamation efforts appear to have dwarfed those claims according to the Pentagon report.

China has reclaimed 17 times more land in 20 months than the other claimants have over the last 40 years, accounting for 95 per cent of all the Spratly’s reclaimed land.

The report said “China is unilaterally altering the physical status quo in the region, thereby complicating diplomatic initiatives that could lower tensions.”

U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, earlier this month accused China of restricting overflights and navigation. China denied the allegation.

Jeb Bush’s First Major Policy Is Pushing For Total Spying On Law Abiding Americans

News

Jeb Bush, former Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate, believes the government should be able to snoop more on Americans. Bush is pushing for private technology firms to work closer with government spying agencies against “evildoers.”

The frightening remarks were made at a national security forum in South Carolina on Friday.

Bush’s comments flew against the views of Republican congressional leaders who voted earlier this year to end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone records, though the program still continues to operate thanks to legal acrobatics.

Bush said Congress should revisit changes it made to the Patriot Act, dismissing concerns of civil libertarians who say the Act violated citizens’ constitutionally protected privacy rights.

“There’s a place to find common ground between personal civil liberties and NSA doing its job,” Bush said “I think the balance has actually gone the wrong way.”

Bush also attacked private technology firms for providing encryption for their customers and thus making it harder for them to be spied upon.

“It makes it harder for the American government to do its job while protecting civil liberties to make sure evildoers aren’t in our midst,” he said.

He said companies such as Google should ignore customer complaints about not enough encryption.

He said “market share … should not be the be-all-end-all,” calling for “a new arrangement with Silicon Valley in this regard.”

American technology companies have already lost significant business from foreign governments after it was revealed by Edward Snowden that the NSA had spied on virtually every major American technology company.

Bush also said he believed the U.S. should send more equipment and troops troops to eastern European nations in response to Russia’s aggressive moves in the region in order to show Russian President Vladimir Putin that his “adventurism” comes with “a price to pay.”

“Rather than reacting to the bad behavior, I think we need to be more forward-leaning as it relates to what the consequences will be,” he said.

Political experts say Bush’s comments were part of his ongoing efforts to push an aggressive foreign policy as a way of making his mark and to break clear of a crowded Republican presidential primary scrum.

Bush is looking to close the gap on the party’s leading candidate, Donald Trump.

A Court In Massachusetts Will Soon Decide If The Right To Bear Arms Includes Modern Weapons

News

Legal experts are once again debating the Second Amendment but this time the controversy surrounds whether or not “modern-age weapons” fall under constitutionally protected “arms.”

Such weapons include stun guns, tasers and homemade 3D printed firearms, categories which are not explicitly defined under constitutional law. This loophole could see Americans’ right to bear arms be vastly curtailed in the age of digital weapons.

Experts say the last serious ruling on weapons came in the 2008 Heller case, when the Supreme Court threw out a District of Columbia statute banning handgun possession in the home. The Supreme court ruling said such a law violated the Second Amendment.

But now some experts question if electrical arms like stun guns, which were invented in 1972, are covered under the same line of Supreme Court reasoning.

They have asked the Supreme Court to decide through a case challenging the Massachusetts ban on the private possession of a stun gun, or a “portable device or weapon from which an electrical current, impulse, wave or beam is designed to incapacitate temporarily, injure or kill.”

The case concerns Jaime Caetano, who is appealing a 2013 conviction on Second Amendment and self-defense grounds. She claims she has a constitutional right to possess a stun gun for protection against what she has said is “an abusive father of her children.”

She was caught with a stun gun outside a Massachusetts store after allowing authorities, who were looking for a shoplifter, to look through her purse. The penalty for breaching the law carries a maximum jail term of two and a half years.

The case hinged on prosecutors arguing the stun gun is a “thoroughly modern invention” not covered by constitutional protection.

The court pointed out that Caetano could have just applied for a handgun license and carried a firearm instead of the stun gun.

“Barring any cause for disqualification the defendant could have applied for a license to carry a firearm,” the court ruled.

Her lawyer has asked that the court to find in her favor “so the court can make clear that the ‘core’ of the Second Amendment is the individual right to keep and carry a bearable instrument—such as a stun gun—for self-defense in case a confrontation, and that this right may exist outside the home.”

Constitutional law expert Eugene Volokh said the Massachusetts court should lay down a decision which would allow stun guns and other modern weaponry to have Second Amendment protection. Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Hawaii, ban the possession of stun guns.
A ruling either way will have significant implications for the Second Amendment and could make its way to the federal Supreme Court.

The Massachusetts Supreme Court is likely to announce its decision early next month at the latest.

Mystery Behind Mona Lisa’s Uncatchable Smile Finally Solved

Entertainment News

The famous Mona Lisa’s smile has been commented on, speculated about and discussed adnauseum, but now British researchers may have finally found the answer to the question of why she smiles when viewed at one angle and not at others.

The Mona Lisa, a portrait of a Milanese nobleman’s daughter painted by Leonardo da Vinci, is one of the most famous paintings in the world. There has always been mystery as to why when one looks at the painting, focusing on the subject’s eyes, the lips appear to slant upwards in what has been described as a “tentative” and “enigmatic” smile, but when one looks at the mouth directly, they appear flatter.

Researchers from Sheffield Hallam University say the have solved the mystery of the smile by cross analysing the Mona Lisa with La Bella Principessa, another recently discovered da Vinci painting.

The team found “intriguing clues” as to how the Renaissance artist painted the Mona Lisa.

They believe that in both paintings, the same effect was achieved by a painting technique called “sfumato”, in which subtle shades and colors around the mouth of the subjects deliver a clever optical illusion, exploiting differences between peripheral vision and direct sight.

The researchers added another description to the smile, calling it “uncatchable.”

They organized several experiments in which viewers were asked to look at the Mona Lisa and La Bella Principessa from different angles and distances. The viewers were also shown digital copies of the paintings, blurred to different degrees.

The blurring copied the effects of peripheral vision, where objects are seen less distinctly. The more blurred the images were, the more the paintings subjects looked to be smiling.

In a paper published by the researchers, they said “La Bella Principessa’s mouth appears to change slant depending on both the viewing distance and the level of blur applied to a digital version of the portrait. It was found that a perceived change in the slant of La Bella Principessa’s mouth influences her expression of contentment.”

The researchers also viewed images of the two women with their eyes or mouths blacked out. In the images with the mouths blackened, viewers said that they couldn’t discern any changes in expression which suggested the key lay with how the lips were painted.

Da Vinci painted La Bella Principessa before the Mona Lisa. It had long been believed the earlier painting was the work of a German artist from the early 19th-century, but recently it was attributed to da Vinci and thus enabled the groundbreaking research into one of art’s most enduring mysteries.

New Digital Tattoos Turn Skin Into Mobile Displays

Finance

The world’s first E Ink and app controlled tattoo system has been developed – giving one the ability to have ever changing tattoos on their bodies that can be controlled from a smartphone, or just made to disappear by being turned off when one wants to be tattooless.

Technology and tattoo experts have called the technology E Ink and it has been developed by digital think tank Emerge Interactive. Although not exactly new, as prior to E Ink there had been prototypes which were less effective due to needing a constant source of “electricity”, the new and improved E Ink can create a “skin screen” that can display images using a tiny amount of energy.

The process works by “subdermal bistable” pigment first being implanted just below the epidermis, creating a grayscale display “screen” along a 4-inch by 6-inch area of the forearm. This screen can then be controlled by an app via any Bluetooth compatible iPhone or Android device.

Once “implanted” the tattoo image can be changed using the app’s database of tattoo art – one day a rose, the next an ancient Maori warrior motif. The only limitation is the number of designs in the data base.

The really exciting thing about the technology is that it also allows the “screen” to be used like a whiteboard or calendar for notes and memos, be synced up to show the current time and date, be used to display incoming call numbers and even SMS messages, or even the current track and artist being played on one’s smartphone. The use and possibilities are virtually endless.

The E Ink technology has been trialed for six months and it is expected to be available for purchase “over the coming months”, delivered as a surgery kit which can be implanted by any tattoo artist with a basic medical background.

If you’re worried about the price, how about offering an advertiser a deal – display their logo on your forearm at events and at certain times of the day, in exchange for them paying for the kit and app.

North Korean Internet Goes Down In Suspected Hack Attack As Tensions Continue To Rise

Entertainment News

In the midst of escalating tensions between the two Koreas, North Korea’s Internet has gone offline twice in the past 12 hours. The Internet outages follow a series of moves and countermoves by North and South Korea.

Two South Korean soldiers were severely injured by North Korean landmines while South Korea’s blasting of propaganda through loudspeakers into North Korea has angered dictator Kim Jong Un.

The two countries traded artillery fire for the first time in years and the entire Korean peninsula remains on high alert as a result.

It is unknown at this time, however, if South Korea had anything to do with the interestingly timed Internet outages.

North Korea’s Internet is not like that in the rest of the world. Some North Koreans do have access to the Internet – but only a smaller version of it. In fact, the North Koreans that go online only have access to about 10% of the full Internet’s information. For a majority of the users, it is actually an internal intranet consisting of web pages copied from the larger web that are blocked off so that users cannot access the “outside.”

According to the Internet registry RIPE NCC, the North Korean Internet outage could have been the work of hackers. RIPE stated that, “There are a number of possible causes for this kind of outage. We can’t rule out a cyberattack. Tensions are running high in the region, and this is the second time in 12 hours that North Korea has been disconnected from the Internet . . .We only know of a single connection that links North Korea to the wider Internet, so if anything were to wrong with that, it would affect all Internet connectivity within the country.

The first outage occurred on August 20th at about 7:30 p.m. local time and lasted until 10:30 a.m. on August 21st. The second outage occurred later on the 21st.

Stock Market Plunges 531 Points In Biggest Loss Of The Year

Finance

America’s stock markets suffered a dramatic selloff Friday and posted their biggest loss of the year.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 531 points, and had its worst week since 2011. That performance was replicated around the world, where virtually all major indexes also fell for the week. Most global indexes are now in the negative for the month of August.

Investors appear concerned that China’s economy is slowing down more rapidly than its government has reported.

Also weighing on investors’ minds is whether the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise its benchmark interest rate in September. This was previously assumed to be happening but the central bank appears to be sending mixed signals. Markets are notoriously wary of uncertainty.

Another significant development today is that oil prices dropped below the key $40 level and are now at their lowest point since 2009.

The Dow is now officially in a correction, having fallen 10 percent from its most recent high point reached on May 19th.

The broader S&P 500 was also down, losing 5.7% for the week. It was its worst weekly performance since 2011. The Nasdaq too was down and is also nearing correction territory. It fell 6.8 percent for the week.

Poor performance across the world’s markets seem to be indicating a worldwide economic slowdown, as the two engines of the global economy, the United States and China, continue to disappoint.

China’s government reported Friday morning that its manufacturing activity, a key indicator of economic performance, reached a six year low in July. This fits with anecdotal reports of India continually stealing manufacturing business from China, a key policy implemented by new Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

This report added to fears raised by last week’s surprise devaluation of the Chinese yuan.

While Chinese officials insist the economy grew 7% in the first half of this year, many experts suspect its notably worse.

“There’s nobody that really believes that China is growing at 7%,” stated Tim Anderson of MND Partners in New York. “They’re afraid to say to what degree their economy has really slowed down.”

While China appears to be a primary driver of the latest selloff the American economy remains another key issue. Interests rates, a key signal about true economic performance, look to be steady throughout September. No rate hike implies the federal reserve has less confidence in the U.S. economy.

The central bank released minutes from its July meeting earlier this week, which appeared to show some members are on board with a rate hike while others are concerned about the lack of inflation in the U.S. as well as the global economy.

Both factors have clearly left investors feel skittish and record low oil prices seem to confirm that worldwide economic activity has notably slowed.

ISIS Second In Command Assassinated By U.S. Drone Strike

News

The number two commander of terror group ISIS, Haji Mutazz, was reportedly killed in a drone strike on August 18th near Mosul, Iraq.

The news was released by a U.S. National Security Council spokesperson on Friday.

Spokesman Ned Price confirmed that Mutazz was killed while traveling in a car with an Islamic State media coordinator named Abu Abdullah.

Mutazz was the head of ISIS operations in Iraq and was a high ranking military planner. Defense intelligence sources believe that Mutazz was also deeply involved in the terror network’s financial operations.

Mutazz was a shadowy and deeply paranoid figure who lived in constant fear of assassination. He used many names, such as Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, and has been reported killed before.

Several news organizations reported his death at the end of last year after a senior U.S. administration official announced he had been killed.

It later became apparent that the United States had wrongly identified him at that time.

“Al-Hayali’s death will adversely impact ISIL’s operations given that his influence spanned ISIL’s finance, media, operations, and logistics,” Price was quoted as saying. ISIL is the term the pentagon uses to describe the ever-morphing terror network.

Because of its sensitivity details about the drone strike are not being released.

The only details to have emerged thus far is that the U.S. received “actionable intelligence,” that Mutazz was in a particular area at a specific time. This indicates that the U.S. has intelligence assets in and around the terror group.

Rare Newspaper Outburst Hints That China’s President Recently Lost Standing Within The Communist Party

Entertainment News

Chinese president Xi Jinping’s comprehensive push for reforms, covering everything from the military to politics to corruption, has had to face “unimaginably” fierce opposition, according to hastily worded remarks carried by national media on Thursday.

In abnormally strong words, the statement said the proposed changes were at a serious stage and had encountered huge difficulties, affecting long-entrenched interest groups.

The timing and forcefulness of the remarks come just a week after the deadly Tianjin chemical disaster which killed over 100 people and injured hundreds more. Lax safety standards combined with corruption led to hundreds of tons of toxic chemicals being stored near residential housing.

The incident is a black mark on China’s international reputation and it appears Jinping is keenly aware of the implications – both foreign and domestic.

The statement also comes after a recent meeting of China’s communist party, in which the country’s powerful decision makers allocate responsibility to politicians. The fact Jinping has taken to the media so forcefully has led to speculation he has been rebuked by party elders.

The article said, “The in-depth reform touches the basic issue of reconfiguring the lifeblood of this enormous economy and is aimed at making it healthier.” It went on to say, “The scale of the resistance is beyond what could have been imagined.”

The statement was attributed to “Guoping”, an obvious pen name used by national media to make remarks on major Communist Party and state issues, which in this case referred to the Chinese president.

It appeared in national media including the CCTV and Guangming Daily websites.

According to observers the statement suggested that the reforms had not attained the desired outcomes and were being held up by an assortment of powerful groups.

According to Xu Yaotong, a political science professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, the publication appeared amid the concerns that the anti-corruption crusade, which had aimed at a number of top politicians and armed forces officials, was diminishing and that other proposed changes had attracted criticism.

“The tone [of the commentary] reads furious,” the political science expert said, adding, “I feel that the central leadership has started to worry, based on the message indicated in the Guoping article.”

He said the criticism could be coming from any of three influential groups: cadres whose influence had been undermined, retired leaders who wanted to exert power, and civil servants discontented with strict rules.

The article comes after a sequence of People’s Daily publications this month condemning retired cadres for insisting on exerting power in the dark. It also comes after the end of the yearly agenda-setting meeting of the communist party elite.

Beijing-based political observer Zhang Lifan said the remarks were a sign that “things are not going well”.

“Obviously they did not reach any consensus at the political activities in Beidaihe. Different groups are pursuing their own ways,” said Lifan. “This is a test of the leadership’s ability to execute its mission,” he added.

Zhang said the objective of having the market play a central role in the “allocation of resources” was one case of an objective that was still a far from realization.

“The reform has to address politics and the economy at the same time. If the political system does not change, then inertia in the bureaucracy will just send the reform around in circles,” said the political commentator.

Zhang Ming, a political professor at Renmin University, said the push for reforms had not only failed to yield results, but was also retrospective.

“There’s resistance not just to the reforms, there’s other resistance too,” Ming said.

Colorado Just Began Building A Massive Solar Farm That Will Change The Energy Market Forever

Finance

Construction has begun on Colorado’s largest solar farm which energy experts say is a symbol of renewable energy’s growing competitive edge over natural gas and a glimpse into the future of the U.S. energy market.

The 156-megawatt Comanche solar farm, which is being built and will be operated by SunEdison Inc., will provide power to Excel Energy Inc.’s Public Service of Colorado utility under a 25-year agreement. The contract was awarded by the utility after an open solicitation call to all power source providers, including gas.

SunEdison’s chief strategy officer Julie Blunden said the contract demonstrated that renewable energy is able to increasingly compete on price with fossil fuels. She said public utilities that were interested in planning for power demand in the future are now looking more seriously at wind turbines and solar energy, which will become cheaper over the coming decades because they have no associated fuel costs.

“We actually can offer solar and wind that’s cheaper than gas. It’s such an important inflection point. We can sell power without any fuel-price risk,” she said.

According to North Carolina’s Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, buying power from the Comanche solar farm would assist Public Service of Colorado meet State policies requiring investor-owned utilities to obtain 30 percent of their power needs from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Submissions for the power supply called by Public Service of Colorado showed that although gas may be cheaper than renewable energy today, projections showed its price would rise fairly dramatically and that as a long term investment, it was not as competitive as solar power.

Solar photovoltaic power supplied over a 20 year period was priced at between $5.90 – $5.96 per million British thermal units, compared to natural gas estimates exceeding $6 by just 2020. According to Intercontinental Exchange Inc data, natural gas delivered today in the Denver area was $2.55 per million British thermal units.

Huge Study Finds 30 Percent Higher Risk Of Stroke, Heart Disease, From Working Long Hours

Health & Wellness

Researchers have reported that workers who spend more than 55 hours a week on work are at a far greater risk of suffering heart disease and stroke. At a time when the ordinary American is working over 40 hours a week, sometimes in more than two jobs and under constant pressure, the results show just why employers need to take employee health more seriously.

The new research is by far the largest report on the link between long working hours and stroke and cardiovascular disease. The research was conducted on 600,000 individuals in the U.S., Europe and Australia.

Previously, long working hours had been linked through research to heart disease, but never to stroke.

Dr. Urban Janlert, a professor at Umea university, said of the study link to strokes, “That’s surprising. Earlier studies have pointed to heart attacks as a risk of long working hours, but not stroke.”

Mika Kivimaki, university College professor of epidemiology, with his colleagues, combined the results of various studies on long working hours to look for things that may skew the results while including unpublished information into their analysis.

Seventeen studies on stroke on 528, 908 adults were tracked for over 7.2 years. In the period, 1,722 fatal and nonfatal strokes were recorded. After controlling factors such as drinking, smoking and cholesterol, the findings revealed that the workers who worked for more than 55 hours a week faced a one third greater risk of getting a stroke than those who worked for 35 to 40 hours a week.

The results thrust into the limelight the increasing health risks being faced by most Americans. According to Dr. Janlert, “Long working hours are not a negligible occurrence.”

Dr. Kivimaki also added that the results were the same regardless of differing demographics. He said, “we found no differences between men and women, or between older people and younger ones, or those with higher or lower socioeconomic status.”

According to the former president of the American Heart Association, Dr. Ralph Sacco, the consistency in results only makes the findings more convincing.

The research on coronary heart disease included the survey of 683,838 workers. The results revealed that after 8.5 years, 4768 had been diagnosed with heart disease. The researchers did account for age, sex and socioeconomic status.

The link between long working hours and stroke is still baffling doctors worldwide.

With the mounting evidence on the health risks attributed to long working hours, it remains to be seen whether the new information will discourage workers from seeking new sources of revenue despite harsh economic times.

NASA Throws Cold Water On Social Media Astroid Rumor

Culture

In response to rumors rampantly spreading across the Internet, NASA issued a statement on Friday that planet Earth is indeed safe for the foreseeable future – at least from asteroid or meteor destruction.

Recently, doomsday “prophets” predicted that a “2.5 mile-wide comet” will come crashing down to Earth sometime between September 15th and 28th, causing mass destruction and wiping out the United States.

NASA, however, has other things to say about that.

NASA actually has a program that’s function is to monitor asteroid and meteoroid activity and the possible impact on earth. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program – otherwise known as Spaceguard – claims that no asteroid will strike Earth in September.

The program utilizes telescopes on Earth and in space to spot, identify and track asteroids made of rock and comets composed of frozen frock, gas, dust and water which travel within a 30 million-mile radius of Earth.

The statement released from Spaceguard’s laboratory in Pasadena, California stated that the persistent rumors regarding an imminent strike required a response from NASA.

Paul Chodas, manager of the lab, stated that, “There is no scientific basis – not one shred of evidence – that an asteroid or any other celestial object will impact Earth on those dates. If there were any object large enough to do that type of destruction in September, we would have seen something of it by now . . . There is no existing evidence that [any] asteroid or any other other celestial object is on a trajectory that will impact Earth. In fact, not a single one of the known objects has any credible chance of hitting our planet over the next century.”

This is not the first time NASA has had to squelch rumors about the Earth’s destruction due to objects catapulting through space.

In 2012, NASA dismissed allegations that the comet Elenin was on its way to destroy Earth. The space agency described the comet as a “trail of piffling particles.” The agency also proved right when it predicted that the world would not come to an end when the Mayan calendar ended.

Looks like Earth is safe for now – at least from space.

Four New Fires Erupt At Scene Of Deadly Tianjin Chemical Explosion

Entertainment News

Firefighters rushed to contain four new fires that erupted at the site of two huge chemical blasts that killed 116 people last week in the northeastern port city of Tianjin.

Chinese media report one of the “combustion points” was an automobile logistics center near last week’s explosion site, while the other three were within last week’s central blast area. No cause has yet been given for today’s fires.

Authorities say because the area had been evacuated last week, with permitted limited access, they were not expected many casualties, if any.

Last week’s explosions occurred in a giant warehouse used for storing chemicals at a industrial park in Tianjin. Authorities confirmed 700 tonnes of the deadly chemical sodium cyanide were stored at the Tianjin warehouse that blew up.

As well as those killed, 700 people were injured, many seriously, and thousands more were evacuated due to the risk from chemicals stored at the site. Authorities say 60 people are still unaccounted for.

Last week’s deadly blast forced Chinese authorities into action and highlighted lax safety standards across the country.

The Government order nationwide inspections of facilities handling dangerous chemicals and explosives were ordered by China’s State Council, with 100 chemical firms in seven provinces ordered to suspend or shut down operations due to safety violations – 39 in Zhejiang province, 19 in Hubei province, 26 in Anqing city in the southeastern province of Anhui, and two in China’s capital Beijing.

Although only two companies were ordered to shut down in Beijing, Beijing Work Safety Bureau authorities revealed they had found major safety hazards at 70 percent of companies handling dangerous chemicals in the capital.

In Beijing alone, an inspection of 124 sites that stored dangerous chemicals found hazards at 85 firms, Xinhua said late on Thursday, citing Beijing’s work safety bureau.

The State Council said all chemical companies must now start complying to safety standards and investing in and using the most advanced equipment available and hiring the best expertise in order to “prevent major environmental incidents in the future.”

In Germany, Taking Pictures Of Food You Purchased Is Now Illegal

Entertainment News

For many years there have been different stories about cooks who think that people taking photographs of their food are “stealing” something.

According to a recent publication, it appears that this is not just a matter of beliefs in Germany, but in fact an established German law.

The law states, “In individual cases, shared pictures may be illegal. At worst, a copyright warning notice might come fluttering to the social media user. For carefully-arranged food in a famous restaurant, the cook is regarded as the creator of a work. Before it can be made public on Facebook & Co., permission must first be asked of the master chef.”

The absurd situation traces back to a judgment made by a German court in 2013, which widened the laws on exclusive rights to include the creative and applied arts.

As a result of the judgment, the minimum requirement for copyrightability was lowered significantly, with the practical outcome that it was easier for chefs to take legal action against those who posted photos of their works without consent.

German publication Die Welt notes that this prohibition can apply even to obviously un-artistic mounds of food dumped callously on a plate if a café owner simply puts up a note refusing consent for photos to be taken of its cooking.

This repressive kind of ownership attitude has been embraced by the courts of Germany yet with it comes a lack of innovation.

According to a 2010 Techdirt article, there’s plenty of proof that it is specifically the lack of exclusive rights in food that has triggered continuing innovation – just as it has in other areas that manage to go on without this picky intellectual domination, notably in style and fashion.

By allowing absurd ownership claims both creativity and innovation are held back while at the same time courts are burdened with ridiculous lawsuits over unimportant matters.

Iranian Women Fight Medieval Dress Code Laws With Silent Online Protest

Entertainment News

Long hair for males was seen as an anti-establishment symbol in the hippie era of the 60’s and now women in Iran are using their hair as a protest against a strictly enforced Hijab law.

Women in the Shiite lead middle eastern country, since 1979, have been forced by law to cover their hair in public with a Hijab, a head covering scarf or shawl.

But now London based Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad has begun a passive and silent on-line protest against that law.

She has started a Facebook page where Iranian women are posting photos of themselves showing their hair, and not wearing Hijabs.

She began the anti-Hijab campaign by posting two photos of herself – one wearing a Hijab and the other bare-headed. The postings set off a flood of support and similar posting of from both young and middle aged women, accompanied by text expressing their feeling about the Hijab rule.

The Facebook page received 500,000 likes within a month.

Esmail-Ahmadi-Moghaddam, the Head of Iran’s National Security Forces, said in 2014 Iran’s Morality police found 3.6 million women guilty of wearing ‘inappropriate’ dresses.

All were warned, and many fined and arrested and even flogged.

“It is clear from the response that Iranian women wanted to express themselves and voice their opposition to the compulsory hijab,” said Alinejad who is being labelled an anti-revolutionary by the State controlled Iranian media. She and her Facebook campaign have been condemned and criticized by prayer leaders in Tehran, Iran’s capital.

“The hijab is about control,” Alinejad said. “And the Iranian regime would never want to lose control”.

Alinejad was forced to leave Iran for her anti-Government reporting during the contentious 2009 elections. She said that while a journalist in Iran, she she had been imprisoned, physically abused and was the victim of smear campaigns.

She said if she ever returned to Iran under the present regime, she would be jailed.

China Caught Turning Its Massive Cyber Spying Operation Against Regional Rival India

Entertainment News

A sophisticated cyberespionage group, likely based in China, is capitalizing on India’s fragile cyberdefenses to burrow deep into the computer systems of government departments and educational institutions. The group has specifically been focusing on diplomatic information, according to a top United States network security company.

According to FireEye the faction has also launched attacks on other Southeast and South Asian nations, as well as Tibetan campaigners outside the country during the past four years.

Yet the group seems unusually concerned with India and its boundary differences with neighboring nations.

In an interview, Bryce Boland, FireEye’s chief technology officer for Asia Pacific said, “It is most likely Chinese.” He added, “We don’t have a smoking gun, but all roads lead to China.”

The report is likely to spark suspicion between Asia’s two most heavily populated countries, which engaged one another in battle in 1962 and maintain a dispute over huge sections of their 2,500-mile boundary.

India’s boundary with Pakistan is also uncertain and greatly militarized, though India resolved another border disagreement with Bangladesh recently.

India and China are increasingly global competitors, with India luring manufacturing jobs from China and both nations racing each other in the field of space exploration.

According to FireEye, the cyber faction sent spear-phishing e-mail messages to its intended ‘prey’, with attachments of Microsoft Word documents containing details on regionally sensitive issues.

The attached documents contained a draft called WATERMAIN that when executed created a backdoor that would grant the hacker unrestricted access to the victim’s system.

According to Boland, the attackers exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s software that have been well-known for three years. The fact that dozens of hacking attempts were victorious underlines India’s incapacity to sense and guard itself against such attacks, Boland said.

The group was careful not to leave traces that could pinpoint where the attacks were coming from. But the operation, which runs throughout the week and round the clock, appeared sophisticated and well-resourced.

In the past, Chinese cyberspies have given themselves away by, for example, using the same IP address used in hacking attacks to access social media accounts or even post photographs.

But the group targeting India appeared to have good operational security, Boland said, indicating a disciplined and well organized team.

The attacks highlight that the United States is not the only victim of Chinese cyber-war. It also potentially indicates that China is targeting other nations with weaker IT security after meeting increased resistance from U.S. government agencies and corporations who have invested heavily in IT security in recent years.

Once Ridiculed Hyperloop Transportation System Is Quickly Becoming Reality

Finance

Elon Musk’s vision for the future of transportation has taken another step toward reality, as Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) announced a serious new contract to work with Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum (OLV) and engineering firm Aecom in the construction of a passenger-ready Hyperloop.

Construction for the capsule-in-a-tube transportation system will break ground in 2016, with the promise of travel at speeds of over 600 mph.

OLV and Aecom will receive stock in HTT as part of the deal, joining engineers from Boeing and SpaceX, who are already at work on the project.

The concept of the design involves moving a passenger capsule through a nearly evacuated tube and was detailed by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in a 2013 white paper. A five mile loop prototype will be built in Quay Valley, situated between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The new contract with OLV and Aecom means a great deal to HTT CEO Dirk Ahlborn who said, “It’s a validation of the fact that our model works. It’s the next step.” Ahlborn went on to say there were several potential investors in the project.

OLV specializes in vacuum technologies and has previously worked on the large hadron collider at CERN.

Head of business development at OLV, Carl Brockmeyer, said the project would not be most challenging they had done, “We are used to much higher and harsher applications.” Brockmeyer and his team have so far been running simulations to determine the energy and cost requirements to bring the Hyperloop tube to almost zero pressure.

Construction firm Aecom was similarly optimistic, and they have the pedigree to back it up, having already worked on the planned 73-mile addition to London’s Underground known as “Crossrail.” VP of new ventures at Aecom, Andrew Liu, said that all the required technology to pursue the project exists.

Elon Musk is often accused of being more of a salesman than anything else, but with so many of his visions becoming reality, such a position looks less and less accurate by the day.

ISIS Executes 10 Afghanis For Conspiring With U.S. Military To Launch Drone Strikes

News

Jihadist group Islamic State (ISIS) released a video recording revealing the brutal killing of 10 people in Afghanistan for ‘apostasy.’ In a formal statement, the terrorist faction has claimed that it blew up the ten men as punishment for planning to execute a drone attack against the militant group in a plot that was allegedly sponsored by the United States.

According to the statement released by the extremist group, the 10 men were from three different ethnic groups from Nangarhar, Afghanistan. A number of elders of the ethnic groups were among those cruelly executed, the jihadist group said.

In the ISIS video recording, the Afghan victims can be seen being compelled to kneel down on active landmines that then exploded, killing the men instantly.

Following the publication of the disturbing video, ISIS faced harsh criticism from more than a few quarters, including the Taliban, which described ISIS as ‘ignorant and irresponsible.’ ISIS has now given explanation for its action.

In an announcement that appeared on social media, the Sunni jihadist group has clarified that the 10 men were punished for organizing drone attacks against the group, with the help of the United States.

U.S forces operate extensive drone patrols in Afghanistan’s rugged mountains.

According to the terror group members of three ethnic groups met with Afghan officials and the Taliban, conspiring to drive ISIS out from Afghanistan’s Mamand region.

The announcement, which has been extensively shared among ISIS supporters and sympathizers on social media, says that the tribal factions agreed to accept the help of United States drones during the planned attack on Mamand.

In recent months, the jihadist group has been expanding in Afghanistan, where a number of Taliban members have worked closely with the Sunni group. The encroachment into Afghanistan, the traditional stronghold of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, has caused skirmishes between the two groups as they battle for supremacy in the region.

Thanks To Relentless Poaching The Sumatran Rhino Is Now Extinct In Malaysia

Culture

In a sad dose of reality, the Sumatran rhinoceros has been declared extinct in its native country of Malaysia by scientists. Primarily found in the Asian country, scientists have not seen a Sumatran rhino in the wild since 2007, except for two female rhinos captured in 2011 and 2014.

Scientists believe there are less than 100 of the magnificent creatures left roaming across Southeast Asia. There are nine others that are safely secure in captivity – three of them located in the Malaysian state of Sabah.

The conclusion of extinction was reached by a team of scientists from the University of Copenhagen’s Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate and was published in the conservation journal Oryx.

The authors state that, “As of June 2015, no further signs of the species have been found in Sabah, and it is safe to consider the species extinct in the wild of Malaysia.” Borneo Rhino Alliance head Junaidi Payne indicated the rhino’s extinction was inevitable because of a lack of breeding and the relentless hunting by poachers.

Payne does have some hope for the species. He believes every Sumatran rhino still living must be closely managed with the efforts of the international community. He stated that, “We should certainly be thinking of boosting Sumatran rhino numbers through a single program that is not based on nationalistic thinking.” Payne, one of the authors of the study, is currently working with the government of Sabah, Malaysia in an effort to impregnate the protected female rhinos through in vitro fertilization.

The study’s lead author, Rasmus Gren Havmøller echoed Payne’s analysis and stated in a press release that, “It is vital for the survival of the species that all remaining Sumatran rhinos are viewed as a metapopulation, meaning that all are managed in a single program across national and international borders in order to maximize overall birth rate. This includes the individuals currently held in captivity.”

The researchers included in their study a number of suggestions that may improve the species’ plight over time.

One possible solution includes the creation and development of management zones where the rhinos can be moved. These areas would have high-level security in order to protect their existence.

Co-author of the study and director of the Rhino Foundation of Indonesia Widodo Ramono stated that, “Serious effort by the government of Indonesia should be put to strengthen rhino protection by creating Intensive Protection Zones, intensive survey of the current known habitats, habitat management, captive breeding, and mobilizing national resources and support from related local governments and other stakeholders.”

Saudi Arabia Just Blasted American TVs With Anti-Iran Nuclear Deal Propaganda

News

U.S. Citizens are being lured to call their Senators to oppose the recently struck nuclear deal with Iran by a series of television commercials paid for by an organization calling itself the American Security Initiative (ASI). Reports say ASI has so far poured $6 million into buying ad space from TV stations throughout the country.

Although ASI is not revealing where the money is coming from, records show the president of the recently formed group, Norm Coleman, a former Republican Senator for Minnesota, is a registered lobbyist for Saudi Arabia.

His company, Hogan Lovells, is paid a monthly retainer of $60,000 from the Saudi Arabian monarchy. Documents from July 2014 described Coleman’s work as “providing legal services to the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia” on such issues as “legal and policy developments involving Iran and limiting Iranian nuclear capability.”

ASI co-chairs include former Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., former Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. , and former Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. Chambliss is also employed by another lobbying firm contracted by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia to influence U.S. policy.

The anti Iran nuclear deal advertising campaign is just part of an all-out effort to convince U.S. senators to support legislation which is against international lifting of economic sanctions in exchange for inspections of Iran’s nuclear industry. The senate is expected to vote on the issue in September.

The Saudis and other Sunni dominated Persian Gulf governments view Shiite led Iran as a regional enemy. Middle East experts believe an underlying factor in the bad relations is fear that Iranian oil experts would compete with Saudi Arabia’s dominance in the international oil market.

The Syrian and Yemen crises which have opposing support from Iran and Saudi Arabia is also fueling bad relationships between the two nations.

Although U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has claimed senior Saudi officials have expressed support for the Iran nuclear deal, the experts say that behind the scenes Saudi Arabia is trying to kill the deal. Anonymous Saudi Officials have told Newsweek they oppose any deal with Iran and Saudi media with close ties to the Saudi Royal family have also criticised it.

Mars Rover’s Selfie Shows Hard Working Robot Is Beginning To Show Its Age

Entertainment News

The Mars exploring, miniature laboratory known as the Curiosity rover landed on Mars in 2012 and has been working hard ever since collecting samples and taking selfies to send back to NASA engineers.

Earlier this month, Curiosity took another magnificent selfie at a different angle than previous photographs and gives us another perspective of the rover that hasn’t been seen before. The image shows us just how much the rover has aged in the past few years and it also shows that a small rock has lodged in the left middle wheel – an annoyance for sure, but not something that should affect the overall operation of the machine.

The selfie was snapped on August 5th at “Buckskin” at the Marias Pass site located in the foothills of the 3 ½ mile-high Mount Sharp. NASA released the image this week. The vehicle was able to shoot several low-angle photographs because of the slant of the terrain, thus giving us a new look at the machine.

The rover takes its selfies like most people do – holding the camera out in front of it and snapping away. Specifically, Curiosity is equipped with a Hand Lens Imager known as MAHLI. It snaps several shots and then NASA engineers piece the images together to produce the final image released to the public.

In final form, the photograph gives the illusion that the rover set up its own tripod and set a timer.

The rover’s work at Buckskin was the first full-on drilling operation to take place since February, when a short circuit was observed in the drill’s hammer. Steven Lee, deputy project manager for Curiosity at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory stated that, “[NASA was] pleased to see no repeat of the short circuit during the Buckskin drilling and sample transfer.”

The Buckskin and Mount Sharp areas are of great interest to scientists as evidence from the areas indicate there was water present several billion years ago.

The dirt and rock deposits show that flowing water must have fed the lake that is now a deep crevice on the surface of Mars. Scientists speculate that conditions on Mars at that time could very probably have allowed bacterial and other microbial life to thrive – if it ever existed – on Mars.

Igor Mitrofanov of the Space Research Institute in Moscow stated that, “The ground about one [yard] beneath the rover in [the Buckskin] area holds three or four times as much water as the ground anywhere else Curiosity has driven during its three years on Mars.”

Up next for Curiosity is a trip southwest, where it will continue to collect samples and take pictures. Since the rover landed on Mars in 2012, it has travelled 6.9 miles.

As it continues to climb Mount Sharp, Curiosity should find evidence of the planet’s drying since Mars is now barren and cold. Scientists want to understand how Mars went from a “wet planet” to what it is today.

North Korea Enters ‘State Of War’ As Tensions Continue To Mount On The Korean Border

Entertainment News

Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of North Korea, has ordered front-line armed forces units to enter “a wartime state” after a fire exchange with South Korea, reported Korean Central News Agency on Friday.

The statement, employing belligerent language characteristic of North Korea, adds to the tense situation in the region.

According to the South Korean Defense Ministry, the two sides exchanged artillery fire over their greatly fortified boundary on Thursday afternoon.

Describing the exchange, the ministry said that two shells came from the North Korean side, and South Korea responded with dozens of shells.

There were no casualties reported from the exchange.

Jong Un led a crisis meeting of the Central Military Commission of the North on Thursday, issuing a directive that the military’s “front-line large combined units” should “enter a wartime state to be fully battle ready to launch surprise operations,” KCNA reported.

According to the report, he also directed that “the area along the front be put in a semi-war state.”

The procedures will take effect from Friday 5 p.m. local time.

During a time of heightened anxiety in the area in 2013, North Korea declared it had entered “a state of war” with South Korea. However, that state of affairs didn’t result in military conflicts.

According to Jamie Metzl, an Asia expert for the Atlantic Council in New York, the present crisis may not go much further.

“North Korea has more to gain from Conflict Theater than from a conflict that would quickly expose its fundamental weakness,” said Metzl.

South Korea, a chief United States ally and where approximately 28,000 U.S. troops are based, announced that it’s on high alert after the fierce exchange.

According to Cmdr. William Urban, a Defense Department spokesperson, the Pentagon is also keeping an eye on the state of affairs.

South Korea has blamed the North for intentionally planting landmines, an accusation that Pyongyang denies.

Seoul declared a “harsh” reaction to the mines and resumed loud propaganda messages over the boundary from massive loudspeakers last week.

The decision enraged North Korea’s rotund leader, who called the propagation “a direct action of declaring a war.” The country threatened to destroy the South Korean loudspeakers and also cautioned against “indiscriminate strikes.”

A top United States official told CNN that the U.S. thinks that North Korea destroyed a South Korean speaker on Thursday.

According to South Korea, around 5 p. m on Thursday, North Korea sent a written message threatening armed action if Seoul doesn’t discontinue the propaganda announcements within two days and take away the speakers.

On Friday, An official from the South Korean Defense Ministry warned that Seoul would hit back strongly to any further provocation from North Korean.

On Monday, North Korea came up with its own propaganda messages over the boundary, the same day the South started armed forces exercises with other countries, including the U.S.

According to Pyongyang the drills are a prelude to an invasion.

Treasure Hunters Find Long Lost Nazi Gold Train Yet Questions Continue To Swirl

Entertainment News

Two men in Poland claim to have discovered a legendary Nazi train, though details about the find remain sketchy despite making international headlines.

No images or details of the find have been released and virtually no details about the supposed find have been released publicly.

The legendary Nazi train, according to local legend, was filled with gems, valuable art and gold yet disappeared into a system of mysterious underground tunnels as the Germans ran away from encroaching Soviet troops at the end of the Second World War

According to historians, the reality of the train has never been convincingly established.

Yet local authorities are not passing up this opportunity at possibly recovering the precious contents of the train that have sparked the thoughts of local people for many decades.

The rumored contents could be valued as high as $30 billion.

Marika Tokarska, an official in the southwestern Polish district of Walbrzych said, “We believe that a train has been found. We are taking this seriously.”

She told members of the media that her office had received a couple of letters this month from the legal representatives of the two men, a German and a Pole who are remaining anonymous.

The letters seek 10 percent of the total worth of the contents of the train for disclosing its location.

Her office believes that engaging a law firm gives trustworthiness to the men’s claims, as do signs that they are familiar with the contents of the train. Tokarska did not specify what details were disclosed in the letters to suggest the men were familiar with the precise contents of the train.

The district governor has already organized a meeting of police, firefighters and other experts to explore how they can carefully handle the train and its contents, if it is located.

Not only could it be equipped with explosive materials, but underground methane gas could spark an explosion.

“It could be dangerous,” said Tokarska.

Local lore says that he train could have vanished in May 1945.

Myth says it was loaded with treasure and armed before it disappeared after getting into a complex of unknown tunnels under the Owl Mountains, an underground project referred to as “Riese” — meaning Giant — which the Nazis never completed.

Back then, the area was controlled to Germany but currently lies in Poland.

Ashley Madison Faces A Wave Of Lawsuits After Hackers Leak Database Of Cheaters

Finance

A nationwide class-action lawsuit has been launched for Canadian subscribers to Ashley Madison, the infamous dating company who recently had their private client list disseminated to the public.

Ontario-based class action heavyweight Sutts, Strosberg LLP and Charney Lawyers announced they will file proceedings against the companies that control AshleyMadison.com – Avid Life Media Inc. and Avid Dating Life Inc.

Elliot Shore, an Ottawa widower who is disabled, is the plaintiff. After 30 years of matrimony, Shore joined the website in an attempt to find company after losing his spouse to breast cancer but did not manage to meet anyone in person from the website.

Shore was one of thousands of Canadian citizens whose private information was disseminated following a data breach at AshelyMadison.com.

Users’ individual names, home addresses, emails and text message history were accessed by hackers in July and made public on Tuesday and Thursday in two separate data dumps.

Many clients paid an extra fee to remove their user information from the site, but found out that the data was left in one piece and exposed following the hacking.

The class action suit is not being filed against the hackers, referring to themselves as Impact Team, who have proudly claimed liability for the leak.

A press statement regarding the lawsuit persuades both current and former users of AshleyMadison.com who live in Canada to get in touch with the law firm.

The move comes after a U.S. lawyer filed a lawsuit late last month for an unnamed female claimant from Maryland Heights, Mo., who had paid $19 so Ashley Madison would eliminate her private information from its site in a strange process called a “paid-delete.”

It is alleged that parent company Avid Life Media, based in Toronto, “failed to adequately analyze its computer systems for vulnerabilities that could expose cardholder data.”

Reports surfaced early Friday that a similar lawsuit will be undertaken in the United Kingdom though details were not released.

Bush, Cheney And Former NSA Director Hayden Sued For Using Blanket Surveillance During 2002 Winter Olympics

News

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, Ex-US president George W Bush, and senior police officials have been sued in a class-action court case for approving blanket email, phone and text message surveillance of law abiding citizens of Utah during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

In 2001 the NSA and FBI engaged in a deal with Qwest Communications for extensive surveillance reporting in Salt Lake City during the 2002 Olympics.

Ross “Rocky” Anderson, Salt Lake City’s mayor at the time, has now taken control of the case and has made a formal application for a class action lawsuit.

Anderson said, “This is the first time anyone knows of that a surveillance cone has been placed over a specific geographical area in the United States.”

Explaining further, he said, “What was so alarming was that they were reading the contents of the text messages and emails.”

Anderson, who served as mayor between 2000 and 2008, said he had held talks with a source who had been a principal staffer in the NSA at that time.

He gave details of how the agency had performed secret metadata collection during the 2002 event on all citizens, while people who had also been identified as primary targets also had their emails read and phone calls recorded.

Anderson said that he went to the ACLU and EFF and asked for assistance with the court case, but they responded saying that they were too occupied. Undeterred, he found “an amazing summer clerk” who worked tirelessly to get the suit filed before the statute of limitations ran out.

There are presently six plaintiffs, including former Salt Lake City Council member Deeda Seed, Utah State Senator Howard Stephenson (R-Draper), and local historian Will Bagley. In addition to the presidential pair, the suit mentions Cheney’s legal representative David Addington, who endorsed the surveillance and former NSA Director Michael Hayden.

The suit is going to prove remarkable, if it proceeds.

It could potentially expose just how the extensive surveillance started days after the September 11 attacks, and – significantly – if there was proper legal justification to do so.

When in power, Anderson was a vocal challenger of the local surveillance plan executed by the administration and was a fierce critic of the Bush administration. He called for Bush’s arraignment over the controversial Iraq War and has been vigorous in investigating surveillance overreach cases.