I consider myself to be a vintage-camera-loving nerd of sorts. You can definitely find me geeking out over silly things like Holgas, cheap Lomo cameras from Urban Outfitters, and even apps on iOS like Instagram that boast that same old school looking feel. In fact, I’ve even shared my love of cool, retro-inspired gadgets like the Wood Camera iPhone 4 case by Photojojo on The Next Web — though these next beauties take the cake in terms of MacGuyver-esque retro awesomeness.
Jason Hull, a photographer based in Oakland, California has repurposed his collection of old film cameras into unique nightlights. You may not be as excited as I am by this old school take on interior design, but these gadgets will certainly add more character to my apartment than this 99cent Target light bulb.
Rare camera or not, the result is a creative and original new way to light up your space at night. My only question now is, where can I get one? According to Hull, he’ll soon be constructing more of these gizmos to sell off in the future.
For the rest of us still waiting to get our hands on one of these cool creations, we always have these pictures to drool over.


Two brothers from Peterborough and a market trader from Watford who brought six million cigarettes into the UK through a Waltham Abbey industrial yard, without paying £1.3 million duty have been convicted of evading customs duty.
Now they must wait to hear their fate. Sentencing was adjourned at Chelmsford Crown Court until next month.
The crates were transported from Holland through Dover and Customs officers raided the Essex yard as the Yeoman European B.V. truck was being unloaded.
Driver Colin Yeoman, (53), of Ayres Drive, Peterborough, and Brian Yeoman, 50, of Hanbury, Orton Goldhay, Peterborough, who helped with the planning, have been on trial at Chelmsford Crown Court for over a week.
They were joined in the dock by market trader Bernard Levy, 51, of Willoughby, Bushey.
All three pleaded not guilty to being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of customs duty between 1 and 31 July 2014.
The jury of nine women and three men returned majority guilty verdicts of 11-1 for the two Yeomans and unanimous against Levy.
Judge David Turner QC adjourned sentence until 7 April and remanded the defendants on bail.
A fourth man who had already pleaded guilty and will be dealt with at the same time. He is David Hall, 51, of Selborne Road, Southgate, north London. He led Colin Yeoman to the yard and was loading some of the cigarettes into his van when Customs raided.
The prosecution alleged the Yeomans set up a bogus collection order from Creed Foodservices based in Cheltenham to deliver 30 pallets of “croissants” from Holland to Dairy Crest.
Levy, who did give evidence in his defence, said he thought the crates contained sports goods.
The court heard that Levy, a market trader based at Howard House industrial unit, Waltham Abbey, was being paid “a couple of thousand” to help unload and store some of the crates in containers he owned and rented out at the yard. Howard House was owned by his son, it was said.
The prosecution claimed the Yeomans carried out an “elaborate charade” - pretending emails had been sent by Creed and pre-preparing documentation.


Regulators determined to let Mexican trucks on U.S. roads under a trade deal have downplayed safety shortcomings with companies in a border-crossing pilot program, according to safety, trucking and labor groups.
Trucking authorities violated their own rules by letting one company keep operating over the border after its safety rating was lowered, and overlooked other carriers’ failures to disclose affiliations with unsafe operators, according to protests filed with the U.S. government by advocates, trade groups and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union.
President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon signed an agreement in March 2011 to end $2.4 billion in Mexican tariffs on U.S. products, in exchange for opening the border to Mexican trucks meeting American safety and environmental regulations. The tariffs were imposed after the U.S. canceled a previous program to allow Mexican trucks.
U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico fell 26 percent to $5.55 billion in 2009 after the tariffs were imposed on products including wine, pork, apples and onions. They had increased every month in 2008 from the same period a year earlier.
Mexican companies allowed into the U.S. under the latest agreement have been cited for thousands of violations, records show.
One truck belonging to GCC Transporte SA de CV, the company that’s crossed the border most often, was stopped for violations 18 times between August 2012 and August 2013.
It was found to have defective or missing axle parts, brake defects, a cracked frame, inoperative signals, oil and grease leaks, non-working lights, windshield-wiper defects and a tire- tread separation.
Servicio de Transporte Internacional y Local SA de CV, the Mexican company that’s been inspected the most, was cited for 44 violations on a single day — July 31, 2013. Citations included tire separations and leaks, oil and grease leaks, inoperative signals and a brake-compressor violation.
Its driver-fitness score of 99.2 percent indicates fewer than 1 percent of U.S. carriers have worse records. Almost all of the violations are for drivers who aren’t fluent in English, according to government records.
Mexican drivers must be able to read and speak English well enough to understand U.S. highway signs and signals, respond to official inquiries and fill out regulatory reports, according to an April 13, 2011, Federal Register notice. U.S. truck and bus drivers have similar requirements.
There have been no fatal crashes involving Mexican trucks in the past two years and one involving injuries, according to regulatory data compiled by Bloomberg. Servicio has been involved in three crashes that resulted in vehicles needing to be towed away, records show. The records don’t say who was at fault.
The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates truck and bus safety, set up a pilot program to help determine whether Mexican companies met the agreement’s requirements. It estimated in 2011 it would need 46 participants to generate enough inspection data to show the Mexican industry was safe enough to fully open U.S. roadways.
Almost two years into the three-year border-crossing test, which stemmed from the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, only 13 companies are participating.
Opponents of Mexican trucks are making “a ridiculous attempt” to impede the pilot program because they don’t want the border opened, said Porter Corn, a veteran U.S. driver who lives in Mexico and publishes the website Mexico Trucker Online.
Mexican companies’ safety scores are lowered by paperwork violations that don’t relate to safety, he said in an interview. All of the companies have a clean record on the most important indicator of all — crashes, Corn said.
GCC Transporte and Servicio de Transporte Internacional account for almost 80 percent of the border crossings and 82 percent of inspections under the pilot program, according to FMCSA data.
GCC accumulated 1,160 vehicle maintenance violations in a two-year period, according to Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a Washington consumer group connected to the insurance industry. Another applicant to the pilot program withdrew when a similar number of violations was disclosed, the group said.
GCC’s vehicle-maintenance record places it in the lower 33 percent of carriers in the U.S. While regulators don’t usually intervene at companies not in the lowest 20 percent, they flagged GCC for added attention because of violations within the past year that were enough to take its trucks out of service, the agency’s website indicates.
GCC is a subsidiary of Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua SAB de CV, a building products company with operations in Mexico, the U.S. and Bolivia. It maintains a U.S. headquarters in Denver.
Enrique Jaurrieta, GCC’s operations manager in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, who is listed as a company contact on documents filed with FMCSA, didn’t respond to two e-mails seeking comment.
Servicio, also based in Juarez, ranks in the lowest 4 percent of trucking companies for vehicle maintenance, according to regulatory data. In 7,357 inspections, there were 11,700 violations.
It was cited for 1,372 driver-fitness safety violations in the two years ending Aug. 23, according to the trucking regulator’s website.
“Advocates cannot fathom why the FMCSA is not extremely concerned with the ability of STIL to adhere to U.S. safety regulations, and why the agency is not more skeptical regarding STIL’s failure to voluntary disclose its affiliates,” the consumer highway safety group said in its public comments when Servicio’s application to the pilot was pending.
Hector Mendoza, Servicio’s president, didn’t respond to two e-mails seeking comment.
Maria Garcia, who is listed as an agent for both GCC and Servicio in FMCSA records, didn’t respond to two phone calls and an e-mail seeking comment.
Advocates has filed comments with the FMCSA protesting its approvals of seven Mexican companies for the pilot program.
One, Tristan Transfer, is part of a brother-sister combination with another company, Trujillo Transfer. Trujillo uses trucks owned by Transportes Cel, which had the worst record for repairs of any U.S. carrier tracked by the FMCSA, Advocates said in its public comments. None of these ties were disclosed in Tristan Transfer’s application, the group said.
Tristan trucks have operated in the U.S. 18 times, agency records show.
Ruben Martinez Cruz, listed as the company contact on Tristan Transfer’s application, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment. Trujillo Transfer and Transportes Cel didn’t respond to e-mails seeking comment.
Ram Trucking SA de CV of Laredo, Texas, shares a website, a physical address and a manager with Zaro Transportation LLC, a company that has more driver violations than 99.1 percent of the U.S. trucking industry and more maintenance violations than 94.4 percent, according to regulatory data. Ram has crossed the border once during the pilot program.
Jorge Gutierrez, who identified himself as Ram’s safety manager, said in an interview that Zaro set up Ram as a separate company with a new truck and separate drivers. The company has a good track record, he said.
Seven of the 13 Mexican companies failed to disclose ties to U.S.-registered companies, and five of those seven have ties to carriers with bad safety records, said Shaun Kildare, research director at Advocates.
The regulator’s application for the pilot program states, in English and Spanish, that companies must disclose any relationship they’ve had with another trucking company, broker or freight forwarder in the last three years.
Applicants undergo a rigorous clearance process, and those selected to participate are monitored to ensure they operate safely, said Marissa Padilla, a FMCSA spokeswoman.
Mexican companies in the pilot are subject to the same regulatory standards used to determine whether affiliated U.S. carriers are legally tied, Padilla said.
The trucking regulator’s second-highest official, Bill Bronrott, said in an Aug. 14 letter to Advocates President Jacqueline Gillan that companies in the pilot program have passed exhaustive safety reviews and are operating safely.
Bronrott defended the agency’s decision to allow Transportes Monteblanco SA de CV to remain in the pilot program after having its safety rating lowered from “satisfactory” to a temporary “conditional” after an audit. The rating was returned to “satisfactory” 30 days later. Transportes Monteblanco has crossed the U.S. border 192 times, according to regulatory data.
The agency provides all carriers the opportunity to improve their safety ratings by correcting deficiencies, he said in the Aug. 14 letter.
Transportes Monteblanco was audited, made changes and is now rated “satisfactory,” Juan Carlos Fuentes, a company manager, said in an e-mail.
“We made the corrective actions for the items identified on the period requested for any transport company,” Fuentes said.
The performance of an affiliated carrier, by itself, is not generally grounds to deny a Mexican company’s application, Bronrott said in his letter.
Opponents say that counters the agency’s position behind its crackdown in the U.S. on “reincarnated” carriers.
Mexican carriers can’t be allowed to use the pilot program “as an opportunity to reincarnate,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, based in Grain Valley, Missouri, which joined the protests and lawsuit.
“It not only goes against Congress’s intent for the pilot program, but is opposite to the very foundation of our highway safety laws,” Spencer said.
The owner-operators and Teamsters lost legal challenges to the program in April. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington ruled Congress decided Mexican truckers with valid commercial licenses were qualified to drive on U.S. roads, the court ruled.
Did anyone honestly think that the Mexican trucking companies we're going to even come close to USA trucking standards? PLEASE!!!!


A pioneer of farm-to-table cuisine shares how he spread this growing trend nationwide.
In the following video, we hear from Fedele Bauccio, founder and CEO of Bon Appetit Management. His company has built its reputation on locally sourced, seasonal, healthy foods and is actively involved in sustainability issues affecting every aspect of the food industry.
As it began to expand beyond the fertile valleys of California, Bauccio's company faced new challenges in its mission to work with fresh, seasonal, locally sourced food. We discuss how Bon Appetit has dealt with those challenges by working with local farmers and institutions to both grow and preserve more food.
Isaac Pino: I'm just curious. Being located in Silicon Valley or the San Francisco area, a very fertile region, within 150 miles you can find all types of foods. What is your experience when you go to other areas that might have a monoculture or might only be suitable for certain types of crops?
Fedele Bauccio: Yeah, that's a good question. As we started to move to the Midwest and to the East, it was much more difficult for us to work with local suppliers, so we had to change our thinking and say to ourselves, "In order for this to work, we have to even be more seasonal. We have to focus really on root vegetables in the wintertime."
I am such a purist that if I didn't have to serve tomatoes in the wintertime I never would serve them, but I can't get away with that. I have to serve them. They taste like ... they're horrible in the winter time, as you know.
What we have done is we've worked with local farmers to build greenhouses and hothouses to grow vegetables. We've done some experiments on canning, so in the summertime we're canning and preserving fruits and vegetables that we can use in the wintertime.
We've created gardens on college campuses, and even in corporations. At eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), for example, we have a huge garden that runs year-round that our chefs tend, and so forth.
On the East Coast, we've worked with them to create hothouses, and we've tried to change our menus in such a way so that we can still purchase at least 30 to 40% of our product locally. There's not enough product in the United States for us to buy everything locally. It's impossible.
Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFM) can't do it; probably John Mackey told you that. Chipotle (NYSE:CMG) can't do it. Those sustainable companies that are in our space, there's just not enough supply, so we've got to hope that, over time, that this is going to change.
I think it is. We're creating more regional food sheds in different areas, and so forth, slowly, but it's not easy to do this.


Starting in Arrow season 4, Oliver and his crew will have a new headquarters from which to protect Star City. Entertainment Weekly spoke to Arrow co-showrunner Marc Guggenheim about the new lair, known as the "Arrow Bunker."
Arrow Season 4 premieres October 7 on CW.


The 2019 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival in Indio, California has no age limit. But some people think it should.
On Saturday a troll told Kyle Richards on Instagram she was 'too old' to attend the event which often sees youngsters like Kendall Jenner, 23, and Hailey Baldwin, 22, attend.
The 50-year-old RHOBH star was at the festival with Lisa Rinna and Teddi Mellencamp.
In the post, Kyle had on slightly tinted Barton Perreira aviator sunglasses with large gold hoop earrings and red lipstick with her black hair worn down.
The women have been taking in concerts at the festival. And on Friday night they hit NYLON's Midnight Garden Party.
Earlier Lisa also took the time to plug Amazon. She got into the Chella spirit as she flashed her bikini top while at the Amazon Lockers.
The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills airs on Bravo on Tuesdays.


Cyber thieves are taking advantage of shoppers this holiday season with a devious email scam that can prove costly.
According to a report by Internet security company Malcovery, hackers are spamming email accounts with phony order confirmation messages claiming to be from popular retailers like Home Depot (NYSE:HD), Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), Target (NYSE:TGT) and Costco (NASDAQ:COST). The notifications are sent with company markings to appear as though they are authentic.
The fake messages contain a tainted link which, if clicked, takes the victim to an infected website laced with malware that powers the infamous ASProx spam botnet. A botnet is essentially a network of infected computers which are used to carry out a variety of cyber attacks.
According to security blogger Brian Krebs, ASProx is a nasty Trojan that collects email addresses and passwords from its victims and then turns the infected machine into a “zombie” for relaying spam messages. Trend Micro reports that ASProx emerged in 2007 and has since been responsible for a significant portion of the world’s spam.
Security experts urge users to exercise caution when opening links embedded in emails, even if they appear to be from legitimate senders.
Cyber security expert and Social-Engineer.com “chief human hacker,” Chris Hadnagy told FOX Business that email scams such as these are all too common.
This latest scam is just one of many that shoppers should be on the lookout for this season. Security experts warn that hackers use the holiday buying rush to take advantage of unknowing consumers, often with great success.
Hadnagy urges consumers to be vigilant about checking their online bank statements, and to be particularly wary of suspicious transactions in the lower dollar range.
In an emailed statement to FOX Business, Wal-Mart said it will update its customer security webpage to include this “order confirmation” email scam.
“We encourage customers to exercise caution when receiving suspicious email and we recommend frequently updating the antivirus software on their computer,” Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Toporek said.
FOX Business has also reached out to Target, Home Depot, and Costco for comment.


Events continue unabated at the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development.
If you’re not in Rio, take a look at our behind-the-scenes shots on our Rio+20 photostream for a flavour of all the action.
Technology, social media and global leaders will gather together for Rio+social, a global conversation focusing on topics related to social good and how new media can help foster positive solutions to the world’s biggest problems. Participants include Mashable, Richard Branson and many more. The event will be webcast live.
How and why is the negotiation process – which includes many more voices, not just those of diplomats – different for Rio+20? Join a live Google+ Hangout on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in Rio (8:30 am NYC, 2:30 pm Paris) with Brice Lalonde, Executive Coordinator of the Conference. Twitter users can ask questions using #Riodialogues.
Online audiences are also invited to follow @UN_Women to put questions to panelists during Tuesday’s Women Leaders’ Forum on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment for Sustainable Development, starting at 9.30 a.m. Rio time.
An expert panel, including High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme Achim Steiner, will address how human rights and the environment play an integral, indivisible role in achieving sustainable development. Twitter users can follow the event – which starts at 3.30p.m. Rio time – via @UNrightswire and use #RightsRio to put questions to the panel.
Several events will focus on water, making Tuesday Rio’s unofficial “water day.” Twitter users can follow @UN_Water for updates.
Forests are also taking centre stage at Rio, and the award-winning International Forest Film Festival is back! Submit your story and find out about a side event on Tuesday concerning the right balance between development and our forests.


A BUILDING RENOVATION AND MAINTENANCE COMPANY REQUIRES FIELD BASED SALES STAFF FOR MARKETING AND SALES OF ITS SERVICES IN ISLAMABAD AND RAWALPINDI AREA. EXPERIENCED, RESULT ORIENTED, SELF-MOTIVATED AND CONFIDENT CANDIDATES ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY WITH FULL CONFIDENCE. QUALIFICATION OF THE CANDIDATE MUST BE GRADUATE. SEND YOUR CV"S AT AZAN_AHYAN@YAHOO.COM, ON OR BEFORE 20TH JANUARY 2019. ATTRACTIVE SALARY AND COMMISSION.


According to Nielsen Fast National Data, CNN’s AC360: Guns in America: Obama Town Hall (8-9:15pm) was #1 in cable news last night in the demo 25-54 and 18-34. Hosted by Anderson Cooper, the Town Hall outperformed the combined delivery of Fox News and MSNBC in the demo 25-54 and 18-34. In 25-54, CNN averaged 845k, +83% more than Fox News’ 463k and +272% more than MSNBC’s 227k. In 18-34, CNN had 277k, Fox News trailed far behind with 73k and MSNBC had 40k. In total viewers CNN averaged 2.389m, Fox News had 3.032m and MSNBC posted 955k.
The post-program, A Presidential Town Hall Special (9:15-10p) also ranked #1 among 25-54, averaging 613k, Fox News followed with 405k and MSNBC trailed with 265k. In 18-34, CNN registered 197k vs. Fox News’ 65k and MSNBC’s 46k, ranking #1 in cable news in its time period and outperforming the combined delivery of its competitors.
The President Obama Town Hall was up +372% and the post-show +241% among the demo 25-54 vs. prior four Thursdays.
Source: The Nielsen Company, Fast Nationals time period-based data for Thursday 1/7/16, program-based historical data. All data based on Live+SD.


David Lee tore his hip flexor in Saturday's playoff game against the Nuggets, an injury that will keep him out for the rest of postseason. Despite his rocky history with Lee, Pacers center Roy Hibbert was sad to see one of his fellow players go down with an injury, so he sent Lee a tweet expressing his condolences. And also his hatred.
It's nice to see Lee and Hibbert exchange pleasantries while also embracing Twitter for what it is: a place to snark people you don't like. Maybe someday they'll even learn how to subtweet each other.


Love and modern sustainable design bloom in Bridgeport.
If you need evidence that Sarah Dunn and her partner, Martin Felsen, are two of the city’s most promising new design talents, consider the case of Hannah’s Bretzel. For the restaurant’s second location, in Illinois Center, the architects chose materials as crunchy as the menu’s organic fare. “We used woods actually made of multigrain wheat, so the walls will look just like bread,” says Dunn.
She traces her passion for urban planning and design to a childhood growing up in New York, Tokyo, and Singapore. “I told my mom I wanted to be an architect when I was five,” she says with a grin. While studying architecture at Columbia University’s graduate school, she met Felsen, a D.C. native. He ultimately headed for Chicago, and she went to the Netherlands to work for Rem Koolhaas. In 2000, she joined Felsen in Chicago, and they founded their own firm, UrbanLab.
Dunn and Felsen, who are both 38, have experimented with green principles in their prefab glass-and-steel loft in Bridgeport, which serves as their home and UrbanLab’s office. To build it, they knocked down an old grocery store and used the resulting debris to create a mound of prairie grass, which rises to meet the second-floor residence. Other eco-strategies include a green roof of succulents over the office, radiant heating in floors, and a rotating suspended fireplace.
It was in the middle of building the loft, in 2004, that the pair married in an impromptu ceremony. “We realized we’d have one week free during a slow spot in construction,” says Dunn, “so we called our parents and told them we were getting married next Saturday.” Not surprisingly, the forward-thinking duo have since stayed busy. They haven’t yet found time to take a honeymoon.


The ‘Homeland’ star sported a chic, understatedly elegant low ponytail and at The 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. Get the step-by-step breakdown directly from her hairstylist, here!
Claire Danes, 33, brought all the attention to her neckline with her one-shoulder Givenchy dress and chic, low ponytail with a soft side part. Her hairstylist, Peter Butler, said to her, “If we try and make this Hollywood, it just won’t work,” so he kept the look fresh and cool but still elegant with soft pieces falling around the face. “The dress is very sharp looking and I wanted to soften it by giving her a cool ‘New York girl’ style,” he said.
• Starting with wet hair, Peter applied Matrix Amplify Foam Volumizer evenly throughout hair to provide hold, texture and volume and Matrix Total Results Blonde Care Flash Filler Sheer Mist to ends so that they would smooth out nicely and look finished and polished.
• Claire’s hair was blown out with a medium round brush.
• Brushed hair into a side part and lightly ran BIOLAGE Exquisite Oil Replenishment Treatment over hair to smooth flyaways.
• Applied Matrix Design Pulse Mega Dust to roots at the crown of her head and lightly teased to provide height to the pony.
• Gathered hair at the nape of the neck, leaving out some angles in the front, and secured with a bungee elastic, joining the two hooks underneath the pony.
• Pulled out small pieces around her ears to keep the look ethereal and not too done.
• Lightly sprayed Matrix Total Results Amplify Hairspray to keep it all together, while not looking too stiff or finished.
• Finished off the look with a few sprays of Matrix Total Results Blonde Care Flash Filler Sheer Mist as a shine spray to bring out and enhance her blonde hue.
While she was getting her hair done, Maulawizada applied Laura Mercier Lip Silk to Danes’ lips to smooth and nourish them.
· Once her hair was complete, he contoured and shaded the lips using Laura Mercier Lip Pencil in Coffee Bean followed by Laura Mercier Lip Pencil in Deep Wine.
· First, Maulawizada prepped Danes’ skin using Laura Mercier Foundation Primer to create an even canvas and ensure her makeup stayed flawless throughout the evening.
· Then, he applied Laura Mercier Repair Eye Serum generously over her cheekbones.
· Next, Maulawizada applied Laura Mercier Crème Smooth Foundation in Warm Ivory to lighten Claire’s complexion.
· On her cheeks, he applied Laura Mercier Crème Cheek Colour in Blaze ($24) followed by Laura Mercier Loose Setting Powder in Translucent ($35) to set the look.
• Maulawizada defined Danes’ eyes by applying Laura Mercier Tightline Cake Eye Liner in Bleu Marine ($22) to her lash line.
• Then, he layered a combination of Laura Mercier Metallic Crème Eye Colour in Rose Gold ($22) and Laura Mercier Metallic Crème Eye Colour in Burnished Copper ($22) on her eyelids.
• Next, he applied Laura Mercier Shimmer Bloc in Golden Mosaic ($38) to further enhance the eyes.
• Maulawizada added the final touch of glamour by applying multiple coats of Laura Mercier Faux Lash Mascara ($24) to Danes’ upper lashes.
HollywoodLifers, do YOU love Claire’s side ponytail?


French Polynesia's shipowners' association has spoken out against a government-backed project to set up a yellow fin tuna fish farm at Hao atoll in the Tuamotu islands.
They say the project at a cost of just under 20 million US dollars is a huge financial risk.
The group says the shipping industry has been hurting because of a lack of fish since late 2002.
It has told the Tahitipresse news agency that it is hypocritical to fund the Hao project while ignoring the plight of the shipping industry which has many of its boats in port.
The territory's president, Oscar Temaru, last week returned from a trip to Japan where he visited tuna fish farms accompanied by opposition MPs including the mayor of Hao, Temauri Foster.


RadioIO (OTCMKTS:RAIO) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations and valuation.
60.2% of Facebook shares are owned by institutional investors. 40.4% of RadioIO shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.3% of Facebook shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
This table compares RadioIO and Facebook’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
Facebook has higher revenue and earnings than RadioIO.
This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for RadioIO and Facebook, as reported by MarketBeat.
Facebook has a consensus price target of $191.13, suggesting a potential upside of 16.30%. Given Facebook’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Facebook is more favorable than RadioIO.
This table compares RadioIO and Facebook’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
RadioIO has a beta of 3.45, meaning that its share price is 245% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Facebook has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Facebook beats RadioIO on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.
Radioio, Inc. operates an Internet media platform that provides streamed music to targeted audiences. Radioio broadcasts 140 streaming channels, and offers Internet radio services, including customized channels with various genres of music ranging from high-brow classical to acid rock. The company also provides a background music and messaging ecosystem for large franchise businesses and other vertical markets, such as retail, hospitality, and health and wellness. In addition, it offers Radioio live channels that stream live and pre-recorded talk radio content over the Internet to individual customers via advertising. The company was formerly known as ioWorldMedia, Incorporated and changed its name to Radioio, Inc. December 2013. Radioio, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is based in New York, New York.
Facebook, Inc. provides various products to connect and share through mobile devices, personal computers, and other surfaces worldwide. The company's products include Facebook that enables people to connect, share, discover, and communicate with each other on mobile devices and personal computers; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and messages; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, groups, and businesses across platforms and devices; and WhatsApp, a messaging application for use by people and businesses to communicate in a private way. It also provides Oculus, a hardware, software, and developer ecosystem, which allows people to come together and connect with each other through its Oculus virtual reality products. As of December 31, 2018, it had approximately 1.52 billion daily active users. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
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Investigators say they do not know why the woman's vehicle suddenly veered from the roadway.
(ARLINGTON, Ore.) -	 A Spokane Valley, Washington mother and her 12-year old daughter died, and her 10-year old son received non-life threatening injuries, Sunday afternoon in a single vehicle rollover crash on Interstate 84 about eleven miles east of Arlington.
Oregon State Police Sergeant Julie Wilcox says that at approximately 4:19 PM, a 2000 Subaru Forester station wagon driven by 33-year old Heather Scrum of Spokane Valley, Washington, was eastbound on Interstate 84 at milepost 148.
Most people believe Carmen Gronquist got the short end of the stick.
(SALEM, Ore.) -	 She may no longer be the Mayor of Arlington, Oregon, but Carmen Gronquist is increasingly becoming a national celebrity since media sources outed her lingerie photo from MySpace, showing a healthy tan and plenty of tone.
Today she was featured on NBC's Today Show live, talking about the recent struggle to retain her office in spite of the fallout from the photos, in this small, conservative eastern Oregon city.
142 people in Arlington voted in favor of the recall, while 139 voted against it.
(SALEM, Ore.) -	 The Mayor of Arlington, Oregon, Carmen Kontur Gronquist, has been recalled from office over a photo she posted of herself on her personal MySpace page. The photo showed her wearing what appears to be lingerie, or possibly a two piece bathing suit.
The photo had been taken before her election to office, but that didn't stop the townspeople in this conservative eastern Oregon city from recalling her from office over it. Some cited the fact that the picture was taken by a city fire.
Arlington "Home of the Honkers" has a slight image problem.
(ARLINGTON, Ore.) -	 It is the "Home of the Honkers" and it is hard to miss the irony. A scantily clad image of the city of Arlington, Oregon's mayor is making the rounds on the Web today after news agencies lifted the image from her public MySpace page.
Arlington, Oregon's Mayor Carmen Kontur Gronquist did what many people do in the new Millennium; she posted images of herself on MySpace wearing lingerie. Maybe posing on a city fire vehicle was pushing it a bit, but then I lived in Las Vegas for five years where calendars feature the city's "sexiest firefighters."


June 29, 2015 bars/clubs/alcohol, Beer, brunch, dining, Food, Food events, food trends, lifestyles, pulsefeed, restaurants, Things to Do.
Independence Day makes us think about drinks by the water. Here’s a look back to an ode to that very-Florida phenomenon, the waterside tiki bar.
You think you’re at a tiki bar.
There’s a frilly tropical drink in your hand and steel drum music looping over the expensive sound system. The only boat in sight hangs from the bamboo rafters. The waitresses are in grass skirts, and you kind of, sort of, can see the water through the picture-frame windows.
The air-conditioning is set at 74 degrees.
Bad news: You are not at a tiki bar.
You’re at a theme restaurant dressed as a tiki bar.
A tiki bar is not fussy. It’s slotted safely above the biker bar, comfortably below the cocktail bar. But there have to be rules.
First, a tiki bar must have tiki huts. This is not negotiable.
Inside the tiki bar, Led Zeppelin is playing. “Fool in the Rain,” or “D’yer Mak’r.” There may be reggae. There definitely will be Jimmy Buffett.
It helps your status as tiki bar if you serve some kind of rum beverage out of a bucket. All the beer must be pale yellow, and it must nearly freeze the second you pop the cap.
There are no craft beers here.
A tiki bar does not have valet service.
You get a discount if you come by boat. You bring your own catch, the tiki bar will cook it for you. If the place puts on a Sunday pig roast like Panama Hattie’s Rum Bar, it will become a legend among tiki bars.
There will be Christmas lights.
Shorts, flip-flops and tank tops are OK at the tiki bar. (To call them wife-beaters is not. What’s wrong with you?) Slacks, black oxfords and dress shirts with the sleeves rolled up: fine. They won’t judge you. But don’t make a habit of it.
If you go to the tiki bar at noon, people will already be there. Hiding from bosses. Or spouses.
The tiki bar does not smell like piña coladas and sunscreen. It smells like sulfur, salt and fried food.
“Try to keep the beers icy and the food hot,” says Chris Howell, who both manages Tiki 52 in Jupiter and runs the forklift to pull boats out of Blowing Rocks Marina. His ruddy skin is sun-cured and his eyes are icy blue. Every tiki bar will have a guy like this.
Every tiki bar needs a cat. It’s even better if the cat is named Piglet. When the charter boats — the Narcosis or the Vamonos! II — pull into the marina at the Tiki Waterfront Sea Grill in Riviera Beach, they’ll call Piglet over for fish heads.
Piglet does not like to be pet.
At the tiki bar, you will meet the kind of people you only meet in Florida. There will be couples like Virg ‘n’ Mary (Virgil Alonso and Mary McLoughlin) who will be retired but doing something bizarrely entrepreneurial, like, say, bottling their own pesto.
They are the reason places like the tiki bar exists. For people who need a break from reinventing themselves.
“You see my hair blowing?” Mary says.
“You feel this breeze?” Virg adds.
The tiki bar welcomes tourists but does not cater to them. There are no Florida-themed tchotchkes for sale here. The tourists keep the tiki bar busy from October to May. But it’s the locals who keep them in business.
The tiki bar, though, is going away.
Panama Hattie’s Rum Bar may be bulldozed for new development. A few years ago, the city ordered the tiki bar at Sailfish Marina enclosed. And the city of Riviera Beach has deemed a similar fate for the Tiki Waterfront Sea Grill, which closes Sunday and may or may not reopen as an air-conditioned restaurant as part of the new plan at the other end of the marina.
An enclosed, metal-roof tiki is no tiki, at all.
“The reason people come to Florida is because it’s different. Why change it?” said Jim Seagraves, a 1969 Forest Hill grad and Waterfront regular who sometimes goes by the name Elvis.
A tiki bar should feel like it will always be there, although it should always feel remote, like you’re finally off the grid.
Like you’re at the last tiki bar in the world.
This award-winning story originally appeared in the Palm Beach Post on July 4, 2014.


The Church of England owes Charles Darwin an apology for its hostile 19th-century reaction to the naturalist's theory of evolution through natural selection, a cleric wrote on an Anglican Web site launched Monday.
The Rev. Malcolm Brown, who heads the church's public affairs department, issued the statement to mark Darwin's bicentenary and the 150th anniversary of the seminal work "On the Origin of Species," both of which fall next year.
Brown said the Church of England should say it is sorry for misunderstanding him at the time he released his findings and, "by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand [Darwin] still."
The Church of England said Brown's statement reflected its position on Darwin but did not constitute an official apology.
The church's stance sets it apart from fundamentalist Christians, who believe evolutionary theory is incompatible with the biblical story of the Earth's creation.
Darwin was born into the Church of England, educated at a church boarding school and trained to become an Anglican priest.
However, his theory that species evolve over generations through a process of natural selection brought him into conflict with the church.
The Church of England did not take an official stance against Darwin's theories, but many senior Anglicans reacted with hostility to his ideas, arguing against them at public debates.
At an Oxford University debate in 1860, the bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, famously asked scientist Thomas Huxley whether it was through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed to be descended from a monkey.
Critics included the Rev. John Stevens Henslow and Adam Sedgwick, both scientists who had taught Darwin at Cambridge.
Sedgwick wrote that he found some of Darwin's ideas "utterly false and grievously mischievous."
Brown said that from a modern perspective, it was hard to avoid the thought that the reaction against Darwin was based on what would now be called the "yuck factor ... when he proposed a lineage from apes to humans."
Brown called for a "rapprochement" between Christianity and Darwinism.
The bishop of Swindon, Lee Rayfield, who also is an immunologist, said religion and science were not mutually exclusive.
He said he opposed Christians for whom "evolution is equated with atheism" as well as Darwinists who felt ideas about evolution "completely undermine any kind of credibility for God."
"That's completely wrong," he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "It's a false polarization."
This is not the first time a cleric or a church has been pressed to apologize for past actions. In 1992, Pope John Paul II said the Roman Catholic Church was wrong to condemn astronomer Galileo Galilei for maintaining that the Earth is not the center of the universe.
The Church of England said sorry two years ago for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Still, a descendant of Darwin's said the Anglicans' latest bout of soul-searching served little purpose.
"Why bother?" the scientist's great-great-grandson Andrew Darwin was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail newspaper. "When an apology is made after 200 years, it's not so much to right a wrong, but to make the person or organization making the apology feel better."


SAN FRANCISCO -- The USGA left the fun at Congressional CC. This year's U.S. Open, says Graeme McDowell, is anything but that.
"My day was as equally un-enjoyable as yesterday," McDowell said after shooting a two-over 72 Friday at the Olympic Club that left him at one-over 141 and right in the thick of things after 36 holes. "It's just tough to have fun out there, I got to be honest with you. It's just a brutal test of golf."
The 32-year-old from Northern Ireland hasn't done much in the major championships since winning the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach GL in 2010 -- four missed cuts in seven majors, a T-12 at the 2012 Masters his best finish -- but despite a bogey at his last hole Friday, he likes his position at Olympic.
"If you had offered me one-over par [through 36 holes] starting on the first tee yesterday having seen what I saw yesterday morning, I would have probably snapped your arm off for it," McDowell said. "Very happy to be where I am. I think I played some really nice golf the last two days [and] made enough birdies [six] to kind of offset some mistakes, which I think is key."
McDowell won at Pebble Beach with an even-par total after 72 holes. That type of result sounds good to him this weekend. "Level-ish, level-ish," he said when asked to forecast a winning score. "I don't see it getting much away from that. There's no rain forecast. It's up to the USGA, really. They can have whatever they want. If they want five-over to win, 10-over to win it, they can hide these pins, but I would have to imagine around level par."
Even if USGA officials don't make the exacting set-up any meaner over the last half of the championship, it will still require all a player has. As McDowell says, "I feel there's a fine line between 68 and 78, there really is. And it's just missing a fairway there and missing the green on the wrong side here and just sort of not holing out well enough. Honestly, 72 can escalate into a 78 in a heartbeat."
The examination plays to the strengths of a relentless golfer such as McDowell. "Those guys," said Nick Watney, referring to McDowell and veteran Jim Furyk (139 after 36 holes), "are definitely tough, and they're able to grind when they need to. Pebble Beach was brutally tough when Graeme won. The same names keep popping up. I think that's for a reason."
The laughs come only after the labor at a U.S. Open, and there are two hard days of work left.
"You've just got to be so much more patient and respect the word 'par,' " McDowell said. "You really got to give par a huge amount of respect. It's a tough mindset to get into, but it's a mindset you have to get into."


Kidderminster Harriers head coach Dave Hockaday says Chester's controversial equaliser on Tuesday night was a match-turning decision in their 3-1 defeat.
"Goals change games," he told BBC Hereford & Worcester. "We feel a bit hard done. The referee had to stop the game as it was a head injury but he didn't, and instead of it being 1-0 at half time it was 1-1."
Harriers had enjoyed their first win of the season 10 days before against Woking, but losing to former boss Steve Burr's side leaves them eight points adrift of safety.


A campaign which aims to install an enterprise culture among young people in the UK has appointed two PR consultancies.
The ‘Make Your Mark' campaign has selected Colman Getty and Frank PR, following two separate pitches.
The campaign is run by not-for-profit organisation Enterprise Insight.
Colman Getty has been briefed to target print, broadcast and online media. It will look to communicate a four-part strategy based on inspiring young people, informing them about next steps, connecting them to networks and influencing policy. Nicola Dodd, senior account director, will lead the account for Colman Getty.
Meanwhile, Frank PR has been appointed to deliver creative project support for the campaign. It will explore new areas for the charity to enter, as well as coming up with a fresh PR platform to change youngsters' attitudes. MD Andrew Bloch will head the account.


Anti-terrorist officers are today searching a second property close to the home of a suspected al Qaeda operative.
Officers executed a search warrant on the property at 1am this morning.
The shop on Barton Street, directly opposite a police station was shut up but the floral curtains of its first-floor flat were open. The property was not cordoned off.


Managing the increased volume of inventory during the holidays is an issue most supply chains are forced to deal with every year.
However, this year, it seems United Parcel Service, Inc. is experiencing especially difficult obstacles with the fulfillment of on-time delivery, The Wall Street Journal's Laura Stevens reported, mainly due to the rise in online orders.
The distribution delays aren't mild, either. The source reported that, based on a ShipMatrix Inc. analysis, the transit times of ground packages delivered by UPS have fallen by as much as 91 percent compared to its normal delivery times.
As more consumers begin shopping online, many major retail companies are finding it necessary to adjust supply chain operations to support the exponential growth in e-commerce activity. Unfortunately, this is a complication made even more difficult during the holiday season, when U.S. consumer spending is at its highest.
According to Reuters, the Commerce Department has revealed customer spend steadily rose the last few months, with an estimated 0.6 percent surge in retail sales and 0.4 percent non-auto inventory increase in October alone.
More than two-thirds of America's economic activity can be attributed to consumer spending, Reuters reported, and this activity has brought the consumer sentiment index from a 91.3 in November to this month's 91.8.
The strain UPS' supply chain faces is due, in large part, to an insufficient number of employees and not enough warehouse equipment to manage the accumulating volume of inventory, Stevens noted.
"Volumes are coming in much higher than planned," Spend Management Experts CEO John Haber told the source. "You can only process so much volume so quickly."
Part of this issue, a UPS representative said to Stevens, is that there are particular locations in which the company has received higher inventory rates than it originally anticipated having.
Due to? the overwhelming demand for extra pick-ups and deliveries along the supply chain, UPS has already begun trying to resolve the issue. Stevens reported that the company has relocated managers from its Atlanta corporate headquarters to delivery facilities in Texas and New York.
Another example of how the carrier is trying to remedy the problem was recounted by Andrew Barrall of Albany, New York, who told Stevens that after ordering garage door openers online over Thanksgiving, his package was ultimately delivered by a manager "at 8:30 p.m. in a rented truck one week after arriving at the delivery facility 5 miles from [his] house."
Though Stevens said the details of FedEx and the United States Postal Service delivery rates are not as clear, together, these three companies are responsible for shipping approximately 1.5 billion packages throughout the holiday season.
The WSJ article also revealed that UPS is likely working hard to avoid the same supply chain issue that plagued it in 2013, when the carrier company, along with FedEx, was unable to manage on-time delivery operations because of overloaded systems.
Since 2013, UPS has managed to enhance supply chain volume proficiency by 6 percent, exceeding cost predictions by a couple million dollars.


"Tony will confirm that he learned how to fist-bump and dance to Drake's 'Hotline Bling' by hanging out with me," Stephen Williams tells THR.
A bald man with killer instincts, a sharp gaze and an even sharper knife searches a mysterious world for answers to life's greatest questions: purpose, existence — and above all else, destiny.
Does that description apply to the Man in Black of Westworld or John Locke of Lost? You be the judge. In either case, director Stephen Williams certainly knows a thing or two about both characters.
Williams, who directed several episodes of the erstwhile island drama, was the man behind the lens on Sunday's episode of Westworld, called "Trace Decay," featuring a more vulnerable side of Ed Harris' brooding gunslinger. As the Man inches closer to the maze he seeks, other characters on the board further unravel in their own right: Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), shell-shocked in the wake of discovering he's a host; Maeve (Thandie Newton), now capable of rewriting other hosts' programming with nothing more than voice commands; and Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), no longer sure where or when she is.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Williams opens up about all of those storylines and more, including comparisons between Westworld and Lost, and a side of Anthony Hopkins the world desperately needs to see.
As an extremely detail-oriented show and world built on an elaborate mystery, Westworld has earned more than a few comparisons to Lost. As someone who worked on both shows, do you see the comparison, and did you feel it at all as you worked on episode eight?
That's an interesting observation. Really, there are similarities. Just in terms of the overall construction of a huge, epic narrative that has, in many ways, a series of Russian nesting egg mysteries at its core that need to be peeled back by an ever attentive audience and viewership. There are similarities in that regard for sure. They're both complex, epic narratives.
Last week's episode ended with the bombshell reveal that Bernard is really a host. This is the first full episode where we know the truth. What were your conversations like with Jeffrey about how best to show this new side of Bernard?
The first thing to say about Jeffrey Wright is that he is a legend among actors. He's literally capable of doing anything. There is a subtlety and intelligence to everything he does and everything he brings to the screen, and his essaying of a role. We talked first and foremost about the fact that killing Theresa is horrifying to him. It's a betrayal of everything he was. He genuinely had real feelings for her. The sadness and horror of his manipulation makes that feel even more real. Our discussions were in general terms about how to portray that. But Jeffrey shows up with an incredible actor's toolbox. He needs very little in the way of direction.
Ford remarks that the only thing more sublime than a host's array of emotions is the ability to silence those emotions in an instant. It's certainly sublime within the world of the show, as much as it is in the context of Westworld as a show and as an acting challenge — Evan Rachel Wood refers to these scenes where hosts lose and gain emotional affect on a loop as "the acting Olympics." What were your observations of these performances, from your side of the camera?
Both Jeffrey and Evan are actors that have amazing access to a deep and seemingly endless emotional reservoir. At the same time, they are incredible technical actors. They can turn on a dime. It's really quite astonishing and mesmerizing to watch. What's really cool in that moment in this episode is you're reminded at the same time about the immense power Ford commands as the creator of this place. There's an extraordinary power there. With Tony there, you just don't ever quite know where you stand with him, because of that power and him wielding that power. In many way, it's a symbiotic actor moment.
Bernard asks Ford if he's ever hurt anyone other than Theresa. Ford says no, and as he does, Bernard experiences a vision in which he's choking Elsie. Some are taking that as confirmation that Bernard killed Elsie (Shannon Woodward). Is that the right read?
Very nicely done. (Laughs) Let me refer you to your earlier question about Lost. There's a form of storytelling that I happen to be somewhat partial to, which embraces the thrill of ambiguity. So I will only say this: I will answer your question with this question. Are we in fact sure that that was Elsie?
Elsewhere in the episode, The Man in Black and Teddy (James Marsden) encounter one of Wyatt's minions, someone who looks like Westworld's answer to The Mountain from Game of Thrones. Can you confirm that this is not indeed The Mountain?
That's hilarious. (Laughs) I can neither confirm nor deny.
What did you want to accomplish with the staging of this fight between the Man in Black, Teddy and this mountain man?
The overarching idea is that the Man in Black is on this quest for the maze. The further out from the epicenter of the park he goes, the greater the ante is upped in terms of the dangers he faces. He can be seriously affected, hurt and impacted by the park. In a way, that huge mountain man as you call him is a reflection of the increasing jeopardy that the Man in Black faces as he continues his quest for the maze, using Teddy as his guide to Wyatt, which he thinks will be a key that unlocks his path toward the maze.
We see several of Wyatt's minions at the end of the episode, shrouded in darkness but clearly covered in fur and animal parts. Can you shed any light on Wyatt's followers in terms of character design?
Our costume designer Ane Crabtree is brilliant. She does a huge amount of research into the costumes that everybody wears on the show. She takes great pains and care in having them constructed, the materials that are used. In this particular case, it speaks to the outlier nature of this group of marauders. It's all meant to create a scary and terrifying and feral no-holds-barred, no-rules kind of environment that our heroes confront.
The Man in Black opens up about his dark past and reasons for playing Arnold's game in what's easily the most revealing scene about the character so far. It's a heavy story he tells, about killing Maeve and her daughter, but he says that he felt "nothing" after the act — and there's an absence of emotion, a weariness or resignation, in how he tells the tale. Was that an active part of your conversations with Ed Harris about how best to relate this story about an atrocious act that made him feel nothing?
I don't think that's actually true. I think he does feel something. I think it resonates and lands with him in a way that only confirms for him his need to continue on this quest. Like so many of the characters on Westworld, he's on a journey of his own self-discovery. While he's outside the confines of this park a titan of industry, and as we got a clue in an earlier episode he's a philanthropist on the outside, he's nonetheless aware that there's a darkness in him that he doesn't quite understand, that he grapples with, and is desperate and needful of unraveling and deciphering and figuring out. He tells that story because it really held a mirror up to himself. The experience he had with his wife and his daughter outside the park really held the mirror up to himself about this dark mystery at his core. He's trying to figure out what that all means.
Throughout the episode, Maeve experiences old memories of her life on the homestead with her daughter, before it was ruined by the Man in Black. These are incredibly emotional scenes, a stark contrast to the modern Maeve, mostly in control of her emotional affect. What are your memories of how Thandie played these scenes?
You mentioned earlier this analogy between athletes and actors. There's an analogy to be had. If in fact being a thespian is analogous to being a creative athlete, then Thandie Newton is an Olympian, straight up. She plays a full spectrum of emotions. She is so in touch with her interior landscape. As a character, Maeve is looking outward and trying to figure out and understand the larger context of this world. She's trying to find meaning in her own story and free herself and come into a knowledge and awareness of herself. Her journey takes her from strength to vulnerability and back again. Thandie is just an amazing actor.
Maeve also gains the power to "write her own story," changing hosts' programming at will, with little more than voice commands. There's a theatricality to it, as Maeve waltzes through Hector's heist and rewrites the hosts. It's dark in many respects, but it's also one of the lighter scenes of the episode.
Right. That whole sequence was tricky to achieve, tonally. We shot it in long takes, particularly once Hector and his gang arrive. But the idea was that Thandie has obviously talked Felix (Leonardo Nam) and Sylvester (Ptolemy Slocum) into updating her core code, which allows her to do two things: one, actually hurt, harm or potentially even kill humans; and secondly, actually impact the behavior of other hosts in a way that beforehand we really largely only saw Ford was able to do. As she tries out this new skill set, this new ability, as she practices it in the real world — and I use that term advisedly — we get to see her shape the narrative that we've seen in previous episodes play out in a particular way. Her growing awareness that she can have that impact is one that obviously pleases her, because it speaks to her ability to assemble the team she's going to need in order to ultimately secure her own freedom. You see her go through that cycle of being tentative at first, trying it out, then growing in confidence and satisfaction as she confirms for herself that she can now actually effect these narratives and rewrite stories in the way we see her do in this episode.
Returning to Lost, you directed "Lockdown," which fans will always remember as the episode with the elaborate blast door map. I can't tell you how many hours I invested in analyzing that thing. Even if it's not a visual, is there something in this episode you feel is worth poring over in as much detail as the blast door map — a scene, a performance, an image, something else?
How about everything? (Laughs) That episode, "Lockdown," the equations that appear on the blast door in the hatch were in fact co-created by Zack Grobler, our production designer on Lost. He's also our production designer on Westworld [alongside Nathan Crowley, production designer for the pilot]. He and his wife cooked up that series of equations. So that's a good place for fans to start: Hit Zack Grobler's e-mail up relentlessly, and hopefully it'll shake something loose from the trees. (Laughs) I also want to mention Jeffrey Wright. He's an actor I have admired for ages. Just before I went off to be a producing director on Lost, Jeffrey generously agreed to appear in an indie movie that I was on the verge of doing, which ultimately we didn't make because of a scheduling conflict with Lost. But I had wanted to work with Jeffrey since 2004, so this was an amazing connection of the circle. And then there's my main man, Tony Hopkins. I have to say, we have become very close. Tony will confirm that he learned how to fist-bump and dance to Drake's "Hotline Bling" by hanging out with me. It's an honor and a privilege to not only work with this material that [showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy] have constructed so elaborately and so painstakingly and so thoughtfully and so carefully, but to have a chance to make all of their hard work manifest with this amazing cast and crew has been an insane opportunity.
Does an Anthony Hopkins "Hotline Bling" video exist somewhere on the planet? How do we see this?
(Laughs) Maybe on the DVD extras of season one.
Follow THR's Westworld coverage for more interviews, news and recaps.


A union representing more than 20,000 engineering workers at Boeing Co. is accusing the company of being lax in tracking its foreign workers, which could put the delivery schedules for defense and commercial work at risk.
"We continue to uncover a pattern of abuse of foreign contract labor at Boeing facilities," said Ray Goforth, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, which is Local 2001 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. The organization represents 21,500 engineers and technical employees at Boeing.
"This is bringing the mistake of outsourcing, which continues to delay the 787, right into Boeing offices and factories," Goforth added.
Boeing's 787 Dreamliner commercial jet, which is being built with international partners, has been delayed because of production problems. In one setback, an Italian partner working for Boeing in South Carolina damaged a center fuselage piece in June.
In addition, union officials said, 300 contractors from Russia were working at Boeing under the B-1 visa program, which is typically reserved for visitors on business trips.
Boeing officials defended the company's strategy.
"The use of non-Boeing labor has long been a part of our business plan and one that SPEEA understands and has helped develop and guide over the years," Boeing officials said in a statement released by Tim Healy, spokesman. "In this specific case, SPEEA has asked some questions and raised some concerns about some of these non-Boeing engineers, and we're in the process of investigating the facts relating to those concerns. We have been sharing and will continue to share information with SPEEA as our investigation proceeds."


In my childhood memory, the first two politicians I ever recognized were Nixon and Goldwater, and Nixon spooked me enough that I was one of only two in our 35-student first grade class who chose McGovern in our election day show-of-hands straw poll of 1972 - and I always thought that the girl who also raised her hand only did so because she liked me. I remember feeling as though Goldwater looked like the strictest principal I could envision, and now I come to find that he had the strictest principles one might envision.
I find it enlightening that your use of the idea of "conscience" in speaking of the senator dovetailed so closely with my reading of Christopher Hitchens' illuminating language in his Ratzinger article that "the man who modestly considers himself the vicar of Christ on Earth maintains a steady attack on the idea that reason and the individual conscience can be preferred to faith." I feel as though a great deal of what ails this administration is that our leader, who undoubtedly considers himself a vessel of Christ on Earth, maintains that same, steady attack. And though we might like to find in our current political landscape a Goldwater-styled defender of principles, even McCain has caved to the broader faith-based puppeteers whose grip on our democracy MUST be loosened if we are to advance our shared Constitutional freedoms.
It is surprising to me that I never before joined the two words individual/conscience in my assessment of my own, non-faith/religion-based beliefs. I hold no book to be the word of God, and I presume no church to be the church of God, but I presume every individual to have developed an individual conscience that defines them more truly than any book that they might carry, or any religion that they may promote. Hypocrisy is the truest barometer of an eroded conscience, and our world strains against the raging current of it that washes over all of the earth's shores.
This is no typo. Ratzinger has long disowned the notion of an individual conscience as we have long understood it in the West, as I explain at greater length in my forthcoming book. His view is that if your conscience goes against anything that the Pope says at any time, then it isn't really your conscience. It's a false conscience in a mirror of the Communist idea of "false consciousness". Your real conscience, Benedict insists, is always in agreement with the Pope. It's just that you are too befuddled by sin to recognize it. This Pope speaks eloquently of using reason in faith. And yet, no post-war Pope has waged a more ferocious war on the use of reason in the Catholic church than Ratzinger/Benedict. Maybe he should take the mote out of his own eye before he excoriates the beam in others'.


Could Plug-And-Play Be The Future Of Healthcare Diagnostics?
As healthcare is moving toward greater consumerization, devices used for diagnostics are keeping pace and becoming leaner, meaner and even cheaper. Radiology, the “darkroom” of the healthcare world, is now coming into the light and directly into patients’ hands… so as to speak.
New-age diagnostic devices are changing the way we have conventionally diagnosed and understood diseases, and are no longer restrained to “just diagnosis.” Traditional radiology diagnosis involving CT, MRI, ultrasound, etc., included bulky, room-size equipment costing millions of dollars. However, in the past decade or so, new technology has unleashed a wave of creativity and innovation for both software and hardware, and is reshaping these products significantly.
The latest innovations at this year’s Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Annual Meeting in Chicago were primarily focused on smarter and safer diagnosis using smaller equipment. For example, the ultrasound that used to be as bulky and heavy as a refrigerator is now the size of a handheld “phablet” (Philips’s VISIQ), and yet it does the same job it did before, if not more. How simple is that? As simple as plugging an iPod into a speaker.
The future of the ultrasound will be plug-and-play devices that capture exceptional quality images. In fact, ultrasound technology is becoming smarter with software enhancement tools (e.g., Toshiba’s premium ultrasound called Platinum). With such tools, an ultrasound scan can be used as an initial diagnostic tool for identifying cancer and other diseases, which was not the case before. As ultrasound doesn’t require surgery to obtain the cancer tissue (biopsy) or using radiocontrast agent in CT/MR (which is hazardous and unsafe), it will significantly reduce the pain and cost of treatment for cancer patients.
Clinicians, and in some cases patients, can now seamlessly upload any patient-related data, such as medical imaging files or picture, video and audio files, from any device (tablet, phone and personal computer) to digital patient records and view them on any device (tablet, phone and desktops/laptops). Such innovation will also reduce diagnosis errors and speed up the communication process between various departments in the hospital and outside. This is one more step toward digital health. These latest radiology innovations help improve efficiency, accuracy and workflow, thereby enhancing the lives of millions of patients.
This article was written with contribution from Nitin Dixit, Industry Manager with Frost & Sullivan’s global Healthcare practice.


Terry Richardson is making big moves. Commissioned for Harper’s Bazaar, no not an editorial by the cover and guess who’s on it: Lady Gaga, yes, she is still wearing her lame implants. It’s entitled, “Lady Gaga, Diane Von Fursteberg by Chuck Close” and it’s indeed, The Fashion Issue.


The BBC is making a two-part drama based on the creation of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, to highlight British technology successes.
The show isn’t about the plotlines from the game itself but instead will focus on the making of the series, presumably starting with Scottish company DMA Design – which later became Rockstar North.
It’s likely to be similar in style to one-off drama Micro Men, which explored the early days of the BBC Micro and ZX Spectrum. The two-part show is due to be aired this September on BBC 2, as part of the Beeb’s ‘Make it Digital’ initiative.
Make it Digital’s primary goal is to encourage youngsters to get into coding, with shows such as Doctor Who and EastEnders also being involved.
Which seems a bit odd considering GTA has always been 18-rated and is absolutely not for kids.
Still, it is one of the biggest successes the British games industry has ever seen and it’s nice to see it finally get some sort of recognition as such.
For anyone hoping that it would’ve been an actual crime drama, Rockstar has previously admitted that they’re constantly being approached by movie companies but have no interest in a film adaptation.
Rockstar themselves do make their own short films and documentaries so who knows if that will change in the future, but for now this might be the closest you ever get to a GTA drama.


Lamborghini’s heritage-focused Polo Storico division has wrapped up the complete restoration of a 1971 Miura SV. The Miura stands out as one of the most desirable — and expensive — classic sports cars, but the example brought back to life by Polo Storico is even more special because it’s a one-of-a-kind pre-production model.
Wearing chassis number 4846, the SV prototype was displayed by Italian coachbuilder Bertone during the 1971 edition of the Geneva Auto Show. It was a close-to-production coupe built to give show-goers a preview of the then-upcoming SV, which was marketed as the ultimate evolution of the mighty Miura. It is consequently equipped with parts carried over from the Miura S on which it’s based, as well as with components that were introduced later when the SV model entered regular production.
Polo Storico explains the cocktail of different parts made the restoration more challenging than usual. The division wanted the prototype to be as accurate as possible in every way, so the experts breathing new life into the SV regularly consulted historical documentation, such as the original build sheet and photos from the 1971 Geneva show, during the restoration process. Polo Storico points out its mission was to avoid using non-period-correct parts from later models at all costs.
The coupe was stripped down to the bare metal, and every single component was either replaced or restored. The carbureted, 380-horsepower V12 was removed from the engine bay and entirely rebuilt, the seats were re-upholstered with tan leather, and the Miura was given a fresh coat of metallic green paint before re-assembly began. The restoration process took over a year. Polo Storico boss Enrico Maffeo told Digital Trends that his shop has about 62 percent of the parts required to build a Miura in stock, and it is equipped to manufacture components that are no longer available.
Lamborghini hasn’t revealed if the restoration of chassis number 4846 was commissioned by a collector, or if the unique coupe will join its official museum in its home town of Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy.


Shawanna Nelson, a prisoner at the McPherson Unit in Newport, Ark., had been in labor for more than 12 hours when she arrived at Newport Hospital on Sept. 20, 2003. Ms. Nelson, whose legs were shackled together and who had been given nothing stronger than Tylenol all day, begged, according to court papers, to have the shackles removed.
Though her doctor and two nurses joined in the request, her lawsuit says, the guard in charge of her refused.
"She was shackled all through labor," said Ms. Nelson's lawyer, Cathleen V. Compton. "The doctor who was delivering the baby made them remove the shackles for the actual delivery at the very end."
Despite sporadic complaints and occasional lawsuits, the practice of shackling prisoners in labor continues to be relatively common, state legislators and a human rights group said. Only two states, California and Illinois, have laws forbidding the practice.
The New York Legislature is considering a similar bill. Ms. Nelson's suit, which seeks to ban the use of restraints on Arkansas prisoners during labor and delivery, is to be tried in Little Rock this spring.
The California law, which came into force in January, was prompted by widespread problems, said Sally J. Lieber, a Democratic assemblywoman from Mountain View.
"We found this was going on in some institutions in California and all over the United States," Ms. Lieber said. "It presents risks not only for the inmate giving birth, but also for the infant."
Corrections officials say they must strike a balance between security and the well-being of the pregnant woman and her child.
"Though these are pregnant women," said Dina Tyler, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Corrections, "they are still convicted felons, and sometimes violent in nature. There have been instances when we've had a female inmate try to hurt hospital staff during delivery."
Dee Ann Newell, who has taught classes in prenatal care and parenting for female prisoners in Arkansas for 15 years, said she found the practice of shackling women in labor appalling.
"If you have ever seen a woman have a baby," Ms. Newell said, "you know we squirm. We move around."
Twenty-three state corrections departments, along with the federal Bureau of Prisons, have policies that expressly allow restraints during labor, according to a report by Amnesty International U.S.A. on Wednesday.
The corrections departments of five states, including Connecticut, and the District of Columbia, the report found, prohibit the practice. The remaining states do not have laws or formal policies, although some corrections departments told the group that they did not use restraints as a matter of informal practice.
Many states justify restraints because the prisoners remain escape risks, though there have apparently been no instances of escape attempts by women in labor.
"You can't convince me that it's ever really happened," Ms. Newell said. "You certainly wouldn't get far."
About 5 percent of female prisoners arrive pregnant, according to a 1999 report by the Justice Department. The Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy group, estimates that 40,000 women are admitted to the nation's prisons each year, suggesting that 2,000 babies are born to American prisoners annually.
Illinois enacted the first law forbidding some restraints during labor, in 2000. "Under no circumstances," it says, "may leg irons or shackles or waist shackles be used on any pregnant female prisoner who is in labor."
Before that, said Gail T. Smith, the executive director of Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers, the standard practice was to chain the prisoner to a hospital bed. "What was common," Ms. Smith said, "was one wrist and one ankle."
The California law prohibits shackling prisoners by the wrists or ankles during labor, delivery and recovery. Until recently, prisoners from the Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, Calif., were routinely shackled to their beds after giving birth at the nearby Madera Community Hospital.
"These women are mostly in for minor crimes and don't pose a flight risk," said Ms. Lieber, who met with 120 pregnant women at the prison in August. "Madera Community Hospital is in one of the most remote parts of California. It's hard to walk to a filling station, much less a bus stop."
Washington State has also forbidden the use of shackles during labor, though as a matter of corrections department policy rather than law. Pamela Simpson, a California nurse, described in an e-mail message to Ms. Lieber the practice in Washington before the policy was changed.
"Here this young woman was in active labor," Ms. Simpson wrote, "handcuffed to the armed guard, wearing shackles, in her orange outfit that was dripping wet with amniotic fluid. Her age: 15!"
Arkansas has resisted an outright ban on restraints, though Ms. Nelson's case may change that.
Ms. Nelson was serving time for identity fraud and writing bad checks when she gave birth at age 30. She weighed a little more than 100 pounds, and her baby, it turned out, weighed nine and a half pounds.
The experience of giving birth without anesthesia while largely immobilized has left her with lasting back pain and damage to her sciatic nerve, according to her lawsuit against prison officials and a private company, Correctional Medical Services.
Ms. Nelson, now known as Shawanna Lumsey, and lawyers for the defendants did not respond to requests for comment. In court papers, the defendants denied that they had caused any harm to Ms. Nelson.
Partly as a consequence of Ms. Nelson's suit, Arkansas has started using softer, more flexible nylon restraints for prisoners deemed to be security risks. They are removed, Ms. Tyler said, during the actual delivery.
Ms. Newell considers that slight progress for the approximately 50 women in Arkansas prisons and jails who give birth each year.
"Childbirth should be a sacred event," said Ms. Newell, a senior justice fellow at the Soros Foundation. "Just because they're prisoners doesn't mean they shouldn't get the usual care."
Dawn H., an Arkansas prisoner who delivered a baby in custody in 2002, said her guard wanted to shackle her to the bed.
The Wisconsin Corrections Department has also recently changed its approach, after a state newspaper, The Post-Crescent of Appleton, reported on the issue in January. The department said it would end the use of restraints during labor, delivery and recovery.
Merica Erato, serving time for negligent homicide after a car accident, went through labor with chains around her ankles in Fond du Lac, Wis., in May, her husband, Steve, said in an interview.
"It is unbelievable that in this day and age a child is born to a woman in shackles," Mr. Erato said. "It sounds like something from slavery 200 years ago."
In most cases, people who have studied the issue said, women are shackled because prison rules are unthinkingly exported to a hospital setting.
"This is the perfect example of rule-following at the expense of common sense," said William F. Schulz, the executive director of Amnesty International U.S.A. "It's almost as stupid as shackling someone in a coma."


Didier Bigo is Director of the Centre for Research on Conflicts, Liberty and Security (CCLS) and professor of war studies at King’s College, London.
While freedoms, such as the principles of equality and non-discrimination, the presumption of innocence and respect for privacy, undoubtedly still exist, they have been relegated to the margins.
If proper oversight is not developed, Snowden’s legacy will have served only to reinforce one thing: the intrusiveness of global surveillance.


The 22nd annual Malofiej International Infographics Summit (hosted in Pamplona, Spain by the Spanish chapter of the Society for News Design) concluded today with award announcements.
As Scientific American's design director, I realize the weight this office brings to bear on me. SA has published groundbreaking art and graphics since its inception in 1845.


The Michigan Supreme Court has opted not to reconsider the decision of the state’s Court of Appeals in the case of a Midland man convicted of second-degree murder in 2005.
James Scott Altman, 47, was convicted in the October 2004 death of Christina Joy Fisher. He was sentenced to between 18 and 60 years in prison.
Two attorneys representing Altman, Richard Priehs of Midland and Robert Dunn of Bay City, asked the Court of Appeals to take another look at the case after Midland County Circuit Court Judge Jonathan E. Lauderbach decided not to overturn the jury conviction and grant a new trial. The Court of Appeals denied permission to file the appeal on Sept. 20.
Dunn and Priehs then asked the Supreme Court to look at that decision. The Supreme Court’s March 26 order denying permission to file an appeal states the defendant did not meet the burden of establishing entitlement to relief, which is identical to the Court of Appeal’s September order.
Dunn and Priehs contended errors in the trial included a map of the Hicks Road area, spin marks in the driveway of Fisher’s home, a transcript of an interview of Altman conducted by officials and evidence regarding Fisher’s injuries, all of which misled the jury.
Lauderbach found Priehs and Dunn did not establish good cause to overturn the jury verdict, nor did they show the points raised would have resulted in a different outcome at trial. He also pointed out numerous issues had already been raised to the Michigan Court of Appeals, which upheld Altman’s conviction in 2007.


The original CSI may have ended its run just a few short days ago, but for one main CSI cast member, the ride isn’t over yet. Since George Eads and Elisabeth Shue left the CBS drama even before the big 2-hour event (and Grissom and Sidle boated off into the sunset), it may be a little easy to guess the person who is heading to CSI: Cyber this week. That’s right, Ted Danson is heading to CSI: Cyber, where he has been added to the cast as a series regular.
The stint won’t be the first time that Danson’s CSI universe character, D.B. Russell, has headed to another show within the franchise. He also popped up in an episode of CSI: NY earlier this decade. While fans aren’t quite as invested in Russell as they have been with some of the original CSI characters, it’s nice that the network found a way to keep him on. In addition, adding Danson could give some former CSI audiences a reason to tune in and check out CSI: Cyber during this weekend’s big Season 2 premiere.
After kicking off at midseason last year, CSI: Cyber did well enough that CBS renewed the series for a second season. The cast of the drama is already stacked, including Patricia Arquette and James Van Der Beek, and adding Ted Danson just makes the cast stand out a little further. Plus, while Season 1 debuted to middling reviews, CSI: Cyber will at least boast a really creepy plot for its Season 2 premiere episode. CBS recently released a clip for the new season, which features D.B. Russell interacting with the new gang as they try to solve a case involving a predator who is hacking dolls owned by little girls in order to get what he wants.
If you caught the CSI 2-hour finale movie last weekend, you probably already know that Russell left his post in Las Vegas, declaring his intent to “head east.” He later handed off his post to Sara Sidle, although Catherine Willows seemed to know Sidle might leave with Grissom and offered to take over the lab, as well. While we’ll miss the likes of Sidle and Greg a lot, we liked the movie's nod to Danson's move to Quantico in CSI: Cyber, and we like that he’ll be on our TVs a lot this season.
CSI: Cyber is getting a late premiere, thanks to the CSI finale movie dominating the schedule last week. Luckily, Cyber is expected to return very soon, airing on Sunday, October 4 at 10 p.m. ET. To find out when the rest of your favorites are set to return, check out our fall TV premiere schedule.


A growing number of families and children apprehended at the U.S. border with Mexico are requiring medical treatment after a rigorous journey north in very crowded conditions, the head of Border Patrol said Monday.
At the close of a month in which two young Guatemalan children died in federal custody, six children were among 17 migrants hospitalized with illnesses, said Kevin K. McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.
On a typical day, he said, 50 people are referred to medical providers for checkups and treatment, though one day alone the authorities sent more than 80 to be treated. In recent days, he said, two pregnant women were rushed to hospitals immediately after they were taken into custody, as they were about to give birth.
Some of the illnesses that agents have been seeing on a recurring basis are typical winter diseases such as influenza. Some have been diagnosed with very serious problems, including pneumonia, tuberculosis, parasites and gastrointestinal illnesses.
McAleenan called the situation at the border “an unprecedented crisis” caused by a sharp increase in the number of younger, sicker people who are crossing. The number of asylum cases has more than doubled, fueled largely by Central American families fleeing violence in their home countries.
A 7-year-old girl died Dec. 7 in CPB custody, apparently after going days without eating or drinking.
McAleenan agreed with her conclusion, blaming the growing numbers on route and transportation changes introduced by smugglers seizing on the desperation of families as chance to profit. The traditional 25-to-30-day cycle it takes for a migrant to go from Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala to its northern border with the United States has become much shorter. Some are arriving at the border in commercial buses that make the trip in five days, taking them to more-remote areas.
The quicker trips may have encouraged more parents to bring children, who made up two-thirds the people apprehended in December. Their vulnerable age, plus the stress of an arduous journey during flu season as smugglers crowd them into buses and houses, have caused significant increases in the number who arrive very ill.
In the eight days from Dec. 22 through Sunday, according to CPB figures, 451 migrants were taken for medical care. More than half, 259 cases, were children, and half of those were under the age of 5.
“Border Patrol stations built decades ago are not resourced to handle this crisis and are not the best facilities to house children with their parents for extended periods,” McAleenan said.
Border Patrol has come under heavy criticism over the deaths of two Guatemalan children. In the wake of the second death, Nielsen ordered that all children be given a medical screening after they are apprehended. McAleenan acknowledged the capability to provide medical support will be hampered if the government shutdown becomes lengthy.
McAleenan said no one has died in federal custody since the Christmas Eve death of 8-year-old Felipe Gómez Alonzo.
U.S. foreign assistance to Central America has largely been directed to programs that seek to address the root causes of poverty and gang violence that are propelling so many people to flee. President Trump has tweeted he wants to cut off U.S. aid to these countries unless they do more to stop caravans of migrants from leaving.


Like San Francisco's iconic cable cars, a new system of cable trucks is set to be installed between the port of Long Beach and Los Angeles, cutting emissions by as much as 30%.
Already famous for San Francisco's cable cars, California is set to receive a new set of cable trucks, reducing carbon emission and fuel use along highway routes used to haul freight between the port of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Called eHighway, the system will connect hybrid diesel-electric trucks to overhead electric cables similar to those used to run cable cars and tramways. Though the technology was developed and tested by the German company Siemens, Los Angeles will be the system's first true urban test. Siemens expects to connect freight trucks to electric lines along Interstate 710 within the year.
As 40% of all goods that enter the US come through the port of the Long Beach and Los Angeles, Interstate 710 is an ideal testing ground for the green technology. Vehicle emissions could be cut by as much as 30% which, given the nearly 2.5 million gallons of oil consumed by cargo trucks each year, would be a needed improvement, especially since efficiency improvements in cargo trucks tend to lag far behind those of cars. "The downside, however, is that although electric lines are easy to install on highways and technologically simple, they are very expensive. They may cost as much as five to seven million dollars per mile."


SEAHAWKS OFFENSE – OVERALL (27), RUSH (8), PASS (27).
SEAHAWKS DEFENSE – OVERALL (13), RUSH (29), PASS (6).
RAIDERS OFFENSE – OVERALL (6), RUSH (24), PASS (6).
RAIDERS DEFENSE – OVERALL (30), RUSH (28), PASS (23).
STREAKS, STATS AND NOTES – Teams have alternated wins in last eight meetings, with each team winning all four at home. … This meeting in London comes with Seahawks playing first international game in franchise history. Raiders playing fourth international game in last five seasons. Oakland lost to Miami in London in 2014 and split in Mexico City past two years, beating Houston, falling to New England. … Seattle’s Pete Carroll seeks 91st win with team to pass Mike Holmgren as winningest coach for franchise. … Seahawks QB Russell Wilson 25-6 after loss, best record of any QB since merger. … Seattle K Sebastian Janikowski spent 18 seasons with Raiders, holding franchise record for points (1,799), games (268). … Seahawks have had 100-yard rusher three straight games for first time since Marshawn Lynch did it in final four games in 2012. … Oakland’s Lynch ranks second in NFL with 832 yards rushing since Week 12 last year. … Raiders allowing 6.83 yards per play, fourth worst since merger after five games. … Oakland has fewest QB pressures in league (29), tied for fewest sacks (6), tied for third-fewest takeaways (5). … Derek Carr’s eight INTs after five games are most for Raiders QB since Jim Plunkett had nine that span in 1982. … Fantasy tip: Raiders WR Amari Cooper has been frustrating for fantasy owners. He has two 100-yard games but four catches for 36 yards in other three combined.


Weeks of gathering a broad range of intelligence led to the successful strike.
Before two 500-pound bombs were dropped onto a small house north of Baghdad Wednesday, American military officials "had absolutely no doubt whatsoever" that they had at last found their man.
The statement by Maj. Gen. William Caldwell was as provocative as it was vague. The effort was, he told reporters, an "exploitation of intelligence, information gathering, human sources, electronics, [and] signal intelligence that was done over ... many, many weeks."
Yet the details of what is perhaps the coalition's greatest tactical success of the war were largely omitted or conspicuously avoided. The certainty exuded by General Caldwell - and the success of the air strike - points to a deep penetration into whatever security measures Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had relied on to stay alive.
How the coalition managed to finally pin down a man who had become renowned for his hairsbreadth escapes, however, is a story that is only beginning to emerge.
What is certain at this point is that at 6:15 p.m. Iraqi time, American fighter jets dropped two bombs on a house near Baquba. Iraqi police were the first at the site after the bombing. Coalition troops arrived soon after. They confirmed that Mr. Zarqawi was dead, identifying him by fingerprints, facial features, and known scars and tattoos.
In his press conference, Caldwell insisted on spreading the credit as widely as possible, acknowledging both Iraqi and American contributions. Indeed, the immediate scramble to discover how coalition forces connected the dots leaves much unanswered.
In his speech announcing the success of the strike, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the operation was based upon tips given to Iraqi soldiers by local informants.
For his part, Caldwell said that US forces had been tracking Zarqawi's spiritual adviser, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman, who inadvertently led them to the safe house outside Baquba where he and Zarqawi were meeting when they were killed. Jordanian officials also claim a role in locating Zarqawi, who is from Jordan.
"The investigation and search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, from early stages of the operation, involved security collaboration between all concerned parties, particularly Jordanian Security agencies, that helped trace the sites that Zarqawi and his group frequently stayed at," noted a statement released Thursday by Naser Joudeh, a government spokesman.
For coalition forces, however, a successful tip would offer dramatic evidence that local citizens are more eager to offer useful information. "We've heard so much about the 4,000 actionable tips we're getting each day," says Michael O'Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "It's about time that one was actually reliable enough to act."
In fact, Wednesday's strike was just the latest in a string of actions against Zarqawi. In June 2004, military officials said they believed they might have blown up a building just as Zarqawi was walking into it.
Aerial surveillance showed a man at the entrance being thrown backward by the explosion, then being shuffled off by colleagues into a convoy of cars. Though they could never identify the man as Zarqawi, he was the only man known to have such a large retinue.
In 2005, he barely escaped a US checkpoint that apprehended two of his colleagues and his computer, which had many photos of him in the "My Pictures" folder. At the time, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers said in a Pentagon briefing: "We were close."
Yet it was another set of pictures of Zarqawi that appear to have set this week's action in motion. Hindsight shows the net was tightening since late April, when he took the confident step of releasing a video that showed him planning operations in the deserts of Iraq.
Less than two weeks later, the US called a press conference in which it aired, essentially, Zarqawi's blooper reel, showing him struggling to fire a heavy machine gun and wearing sneakers.
While the attempt to humiliate him was a bit of a sideshow, it was evidence that his array of safe houses were being exposed. The tapes were seized in a house about 10 miles south of Baghdad, where followers of Zarqawi have been killing Shiites and their enemies for over two years.
For about a month, rumors have been swirling that Zarqawi was in Baquba. In the past few weeks, it had seen a spike in attacks on Shiite civilians, a central Zarqawi tactic to foment civil war.
Caldwell said US and Iraqi forces had been watching 17 different areas in and around Baghdad to work out Zarqawi's movement patterns during the past few weeks. After confirming that Zarqawi had indeed been killed, US forces moved in on all 17 locations, and Caldwell said they've found a "treasure trove" of information.
The Pentagon has been reticent to offer details on the operation. A part of the reason, Caldwell confirmed, is that United States special-operations forces were involved in Wednesday's strike. As a rule, the Pentagon does not comment on the activities of its special-operations forces.
Yet he and other US officials acknowledged that the final break in tracking down Zarqawi came from someone within his own network. Caldwell declined to say if this information was volunteered or came from an insurgent under interrogation.
Determining whose clue led to what action, might determine if anyone receives the $25 million reward that the US put on Zarqawi's head.


Hyannis, MA - Housing Assistance invites interested participants to a free Big Fix-a-Thon Kick-Off on Tuesday, April 30, at 5 pm at Shepley Showcase at 75 Benjamin Franklin Way in Hyannis.
This month’s kick-off will provide details on how residents and business owners can get involved in the annual day of service event, which will be held on October 5, 2019 in several Barnstable villages. During the Big Fix-a-Thon, volunteers make a difference in the lives of their neighbors: seniors, veterans and disabled people who need help with home repairs, yard clean-ups and other projects. Volunteers also raise funds to support Housing Assistance’s year-round programs which includes operating four family shelters; homeless outreach; homelessness prevention; energy assistance; conducting financial literacy workshops; and housing development.
Housing Assistance is recruiting fundraising volunteers, hands-on volunteers, and sponsors. Residents can register for the event at www.haconcapecod.org/big-fix.
In addition to Barnstable, the Big Fix-a-Thon has been to Sandwich, Dennis, Mashpee, Yarmouth, Bourne, Brewster, Falmouth, and last year, Harwich. Over the course of the past nine years, more than 2,000 volunteers have helped make a difference in the lives of 124 homeowners in nine Cape Cod towns.
Businesses interested in sponsoring the Big Fix-a-Thon should contact Event and Resource Development Coordinator Deanna Bussiere at [email protected] or 508-771-5400, ext. 270.


Allianz Field, the new home of Major League Soccer in Minnesota, staged a free open house over the weekend.
St. Paul officials hope the event did more than just showcase the $250 million stadium, and its new brew hall and team store, which were open for business. It was also a chance for fans to try getting to Snelling and University avenues without their cars.
The team’s organization, Minnesota United, has released a transportation plan that details various ways of getting to the stadium on game days. They include free park-and-ride shuttles from the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, Metro Transit’s Green Line light rail and A Line rapid bus, local bus routes, bike routes and car-sharing.
Of the 20,000 fans expected at games, just 5 percent are expected to park on-site, and another 11 percent are expected to find private parking nearby, according to city estimates.
The city posts information on its stadium page.
The open house allowed visitors the chance to walk onto the north end of the concourse. There were also player appearances and a DJ.


Keith Brandt, a graphic communications student from Midland, graduated June 24 from the Michigan Career and Technical Institute.
Brandt was among 157 graduates from throughout the state.
Operated by Michigan Rehabilitation Services within the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, MCTI provides vocational training in 13 career areas for adults with disabilities.
Students have the opportunity to be enrolled in technical training programs in automotive technology, cabinet making/millwork, certified nursing assistant, culinary arts, custodial, electronics, graphic communications, grounds maintenance/landscaping, machine technology, office automation, pharmacy technician, retail marketing and weatherization.