Topics

Judge to decide if girls will be tried in stabbing plot
From St. Louis Post Dispatch

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A southeastern Wisconsin judge will decide whether there's enough evidence to send to trial two girls accused of nearly killing a classmate to please a fantasy character called Slender Man.

A preliminary hearing for the two girls got underway Monday in a packed courtroom in Waukesha County. Prosecutors charged the girls as adults with first-degree attempted homicide in the attack at a park in Waukesha last May. The defendants and victim were all 12 at the time of the attack.

Authorities say Payton Leutner was stabbed 19 times, but managed to crawl out of the woods where she was attacked to a path where a bicyclist found her.

The Associated Press isn't naming the defendants because their attorneys say they may try to move their cases into juvenile court.

Over 2 Million Minecraft Books Have Sold in the UK Alone..
From n3rdabl3.com

Head into any good book store in the UK and chances are in the top 40 charts you'll find a Minecraft themed book, whether it's a recipe book, a how-to book, or something else all together, it's clear Minecraft is a very, very popular title. It's so popular that last year books based on video games were worth £14.5 million, that's a rise of almost £10 million year-on-year.

Nielsen has revealed that this increase in sales was down to the success of Minecraft books. Minecraft strategy books and annuals made up a total of seven of the top ten books based on games, totalling almost 2 million in sales. That's right, out of all of the books in the top ten charts, there were seven Minecraft themed books..

In fact, the best0selling Minecraft title, Minecraft: The Official Construction Book, outsold some of last years more popular titles, such as Assassin's Creeed Unity and the retail version of Minecraft itself.

Here's the full rundown:

1. Minecraft: The Official Construction Book (Egmont) – 548,017
2. Minecraft: The Official Combat Handbook (Egmont) – 466,897
3. Minecraft: The Official Redstone Handbook (Egmont) – 406,132
4. Minecraft: The Official Beginner's Guide (Egmont) – 387,647
5. Minecraft: Blockopedia (Egmont) – 80,835
6. Skylanders Official Annual 2015 (Puffin) – 51,310
7. Minecraft: The Official Annual 2014 (Egmont) – 48,399
8. Assassin's Creed: Unity (Penguin Books) – 26,870
9. Angry Birds: Super Interactive Annual 2015 (Pedigree) – 24,208
10. Build, Discover, Survive! Mastering Minecraft (Brady Publishing) – 22,810

[A mysterious haze high above Mars has left scientists scratching their heads.]

Mystery Mars haze baffles scientists
From BBC News

A mysterious haze high above Mars has left scientists scratching their heads.

The vast plume was initially spotted by amateur astronomers in 2012, and appeared twice before vanishing.

Scientists have now analysed the images and say that say the formation, stretching for more than 1,000km, is larger than any seen before.

Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers believe the plume could be a large cloud or an exceptionally bright aurora.

However, they are unsure how these could have formed in the thin upper reaches of the Martian atmosphere.

"It raises more questions than answers," said Antonio Garcia Munoz, a planetary scientist from the European Space Agency.

Around the world, a network of amateur astronomers keep their telescopes trained on the Red Planet.

They first spotted the strange plume in March 2012 above Mars' southern hemisphere.

Damian Peach was one of the first stargazers to capture images of the phenomenon.

He told BBC News: "I noticed this projection sticking out of the side of the planet. To begin with, I thought there was a problem with the telescope or camera.

"But as I checked more of the images, I realised it was a real feature - and it was quite a surprise."

The vast, bright haze lasted for about 10 days. A month later, it reappeared for the same length of time. But it has not been seen since.

An international team of scientists has now confirmed the finding, but they are struggling to find an explanation.

One theory is that the plume is a cloud of carbon dioxide or water particles.

"We know there are clouds on Mars, but clouds, up to this point, have been observed up to an altitude of 100km," Dr Garcia Munoz said.

"And we are reporting a plume at 200km, so it is significantly different. At 200km, we shouldn't see any clouds, the atmosphere is too thin - so the fact we see it for 20 days in total is quite surprising."

Another explanation is that this is a Martian version of the northern or southern lights.

Dr Garcia Munoz explained: "We know in this region on Mars, there have been auroras reported before. But the intensities we are reporting are much much higher than any auroras seen before on Mars or on Earth.

"It would be 1,000 times stronger than the strongest aurora, and it is difficult to come to terms that Mars has such an intense aurora."

If either of these theories are right, he said, it would mean our understanding of Mars' upper atmosphere is wrong.

He hopes that by publishing the paper, other scientists might also come up with explanations.

If they cannot, astronomers will have to wait for the plumes to return.

Close-up observations from telescopes or the spacecraft that are currently in orbit around the Red Planet could help to solve this Martian mystery.

[Vows to protect Jewish community]

Police Release Details on Suspected Gunman in Copenhagen Attacks
From Voice of America

Danish police shot and killed a man early Sunday suspected in the slayings of two people in Copenhagen since Saturday, in what the country's prime minister calls a "cynical act of terror against Denmark."

Authorities said the Denmark-born 22-year-old alleged gunman was fatally shot after he opened fire on officers near a train station.

His previous criminal record included violence and weapons offenses, according to police.

Officials said no evidence suggests other gunmen were involved in the shootings, one at a free-speech event and the other outside a Copenhagen synagogue.

Police investigator Joegen Skov said Sunday, "We are still faced with a huge investigation. We need to make sure that our theory is in fact correct.

"A number of things indicate that we did get the right man, but we still have to investigate whether he acted alone, but at the moment there is nothing to suggest that any other perpetrators were involved," Skov said.

In the first attack, a gunman with an automatic weapon killed one person and wounded three police officers at a cafe. Danish media identified the deceased as film director Finn Norgaard, 55.

The free-speech event was also attended by Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who is known for provocative drawings, including a 2007 cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad that led to threats against the 68 year old.

The French ambassador to Denmark, Francois Zimeray, also attended the discussion. Both were unharmed in the shooting.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the deadly attacks.

The United States condemned the attack at the cafe, calling it deplorable.

We remain in communication with Danish authorities and have offered to be of assistance in any way needed," State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

Hours later, volunteer Dan Uzan was guarding a bat mitzvah ceremony when he was killed and two police officers wounded in the synagogue shooting.

Vows to protect Jewish community

Standing in front of the temple, Denmark's Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt offered condolences on Sunday.

"Our thoughts go to the whole of the Jewish community today. They belong in Denmark, they are strong part of our community. And we will do everything we can to protect the Jewish community in our country," Thorning-Schmidt said.

In light of the violence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Jewish people in Europe to immigrate to Israel, as he did following a deadly attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris last month.

In commenting on the shootings, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement released Sunday, "I strongly condemn the shootings in Copenhagen. These are unacceptable attacks on our open, free and democratic societies and on the Jewishh community in Denmark.

"We stand together with our ally Denmark against terror," the statement read.

Zimeray was expected to talk about the impact of last month's attacks in France on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and the kosher grocery.

Those earlier attacks by Muslim extremists left 20 people dead, including the attackers. The French magazine was known for mocking religion and had published several cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Speaking from the Danish capital on Sunday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve observed the similar reactions in both countries.

"I saw this morning the same sadness I saw in the terrified gaze of Parisians in the month of January (following Paris shootings). The same sadness, the same fright, the same dignity, the same contemplation and the same sorrow," Cazeneuve said at a news conference.

Threats and attacks against cartoonists whose work has angered Muslims began with the publication of 12 editorial cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005. The paper said the cartoons, most of which depicted  the Prophet Muhammad, were part of an attempt to contribute to the debate about criticism of Islam and self-censorship.

The cartoons eventually led to protests around the world, including violent demonstrations and riots in some Muslim countries.

Cartoons reprinted

Between October 2005 and early January 2006, examples of the cartoons were reprinted in major European newspapers from the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, Romania, and Switzerland. After major international protests, they were re-published around the globe, but primarily in continental Europe.

Numerous violent plots related to the cartoons have been discovered in the years since.

Artists other than cartoonists have also been the targets of Muslim ire for their work. British-Indian author Salman Rushdie's novel Satanic Verses led to death threats made against him, including a fatwa calling for his assassination issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, in 1989.

Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was killed in November 2004 by a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim angered by Van Gogh's short film Submission, which criticized the treatment of women in Islam.

In neighboring Germany on Sunday, a carnival parade was canceled on short notice in the town of Braunschweig do to what authorities called a "concrete" threat of an Islamist attack.

Police did not reveal the nature of the threat.

European Union countries want to boost security and intelligence sharing amid mounting fears of radical Islam and more attacks to come. But Anne Giudicelli, founder of Paris analysis group Terr(o)risc, said these measures only address part of the problem.

"There is another answer to provide that is more political and cultural ... (whether) Islam (is) compatible with European democracy and so on...I feel that is not the right debate," Giudicelli said.

"The debate is: How we can produce such people who are our children? And how it comes that they want to kill people who are their own citizens?" she asked.

[Libya must not become "a safe haven for terrorists" after the apparent beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in the country, the prime minister said.]

David Cameron condemns 'barbaric' IS beheadings in Libya
From BBC News UK

Libya must not become "a safe haven for terrorists" after the apparent beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in the country, the prime minister said.

David Cameron condemned the "barbaric" killings after militant group Islamic State posted a video online.

He said the UK must remain "steadfast" in efforts to defeat IS and bring a political transition in Libya through the UN.

The Archbishop of Canterbury described the killings as a "terrible cruelty".

Mr Cameron said: "I am appalled by the murder of Christians in Libya, a simply barbaric and inhumane act.

"My thoughts are with the families of those killed and the UK stands united with the Egyptian people during this period of mourning.

"Our efforts to defeat the monstrosity of Islamist extremism must not waver."

Mr Cameron's comments came as security sources said Egypt had launched a second wave of air strikes on positions held by IS.

The strikes followed the emergence of a video on Sunday showing the 21 Coptic Christians, who were captured in December and January from the eastern coastal town of Sirte, in Libya, being forced to the ground before they are beheaded.

'Lesser monster'

In a statement the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the principal leader of the Church of England, also commented on the recent shootings in Denmark and a suicide bombing in Nigeria.

"The killers seem to rejoice in ever more extreme acts carried out to inflict greater terror," he said.

The archbishop said he was praying "for governments affected to be wise and courageous."

The UK government said the beheadings only increased its determination to counter the terrorist threat.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said acts of terrorism should not "undermine" Libya's political transition.

He said: "We remain fully supportive of the UN's efforts to build a national unity government for Libya and to bring a political solution to the ongoing security crisis.

"Those who support terrorists can have no part in this process."

Michael Nazir-Ali, a Pakistani-born British Anglican bishop and former Bishop of Rochester, said there needed to be "restoration of order" in the country, which "cannot wait for a political solution".

He told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme: "If, under UN auspices, there is some authorisation for a force to restore order in Libya, that would be welcome by all sorts of people.

"That does involve, I'm sorry to say, ground forces."

Bishop Nazir-Ali went on to say the international community was no longer dealing with "angels and monsters".

He said: "We are dealing with a situation where we have to ask, 'Who is the lesser monster?'

"Take Syria, for instance. President Assad is no saint but compared to what IS is doing, we have to ask should we deal with this man to get rid of this much greater evil?"

'Medieval'

The leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK said the brutality was "plunging the world back into a medieval time".

He said: "There is a sanctity and a value to human life that I think is intrinsic to all of us as human beings, so how someone can be part of that is horrifying.

"We are being plunged back into a medieval time that we left centuries ago."

Mr Cameron is to discuss action against Islamist extremists with the Sultan of Brunei during talks on Monday at his country residence, Chequers.

[More information]

Too Much Sitting Can Be Deadly -- Even if You Exercise, Review Finds
From US News

Regular exercise doesn't erase the higher risk of serious illness or premature death that comes from sitting too much each day, a new review reveals.

Combing through 47 prior studies, Canadian researchers found that prolonged daily sitting was linked to significantly higher odds of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dying.

And even if study participants exercised regularly, the accumulated evidence still showed worse health outcomes for those who sat for long periods, the researchers said. However, those who did little or no exercise faced even higher health risks.

"We found the association relatively consistent across all diseases. A pretty strong case can be made that sedentary behavior and sitting is probably linked with these diseases," said study author Aviroop Biswas, a Ph.D. candidate at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-University Health Network.

"When we're standing, certain muscles in our body are working very hard to keep us upright," added Biswas, offering one theory about why sitting is detrimental. "Once we sit for a long time . . . our metabolism is not as functional, and the inactivity is associated with a lot of negative effects."

The research is published Jan. 19 in the online issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

About 3.2 million people die each year because they are not active enough, according to the World Health Organization, making physical inactivity the fourth leading risk factor for mortality worldwide.

Among the studies reviewed by Biswas and his team, the definition of prolonged sitting ranged from eight hours a day to 12 hours or more. Sitting, or sedentary activities ubiquitous with sitting such as driving, using the computer or watching TV, shouldn't comprise more than four to five hours of a person's day, Biswas said, citing guidelines issued by Public Health Agency of Canada.

"We found that exercise is very good, but it's what we do across our day," he said. "Exercise is just one hour in our day, if we're diligent; we need to do something when we're not otherwise exercising, like finding excuses to move around, take the stairs, or carry groceries rather than use the [shopping cart] at the supermarket."

The biggest health hazard stemming from prolonged sitting, according to the review, was a 90 percent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Among studies examining cancer incidence and deaths, significant links were specifically noted between sedentary behavior and breast, colon, uterine and ovarian cancers.

One study in the review showed that fewer than eight hours of sitting time per day was associated with a 14 percent lower risk of potentially preventable hospitalization.

Dr. Joshua Septimus, a clinical associate professor of internal medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, praised the new research, saying it "gives us more data to help counsel our patients."

"The idea that we could exercise for 15 or 20 minutes a day and that could completely erase any harms of a sedentary lifestyle for the other 23 hours a day is just too hopeful," Septimus noted. "This showed us that yes, there is some benefit to physical activity . . . but it's not enough."

Biswas and his colleagues offered additional tips to reduce sedentary time, including:

• Taking a one- to three-minute break every half-hour during the day to stand (which burns twice as many calories as sitting) or walk around,
• Standing or exercising while watching TV,
• Gradually reducing daily sitting time by 15 to 20 minutes per day, aiming for two to three fewer sedentary hours over a 12-hour day.

More information

The World Health Organization offers a fact sheet about physical inactivity.

Copyright © 2015 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

[Bells and whistles]

Apple may launch interactive iPad stylus soon
From GMA Network

Apple could soon launch a simple stylus that will come with a Pro version of its 12.9-inch iPad tablet, an Apple enthusiast site reported.

In its report, AppleInsider said Apple is also working on an advanced version that will support 3D handwriting.

"Given that it's more precise than a person's fingers, a stylus can be more convenient to use than the combination of keyboard and mouse in some cases. Therefore, we believe Apple's stylus will improve the user experience of 12.9-inch iPad," it quoted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities as saying.

It also said Apple could launch the stylus in the second quarter of 2015.

But AppleInsider also noted Kuo did not cite any particular source for this, though he has had "close ties to Apple's supply chain partners."

Citing Kuo, it said Apple may likely launch the stylus as an optional add-on, then base its actions on consumer feedback.

Bells and whistles

Meanwhile, AppleInsider quoted Kuo as saying the initial stylus will be a simple one, with new features likely added in the future.

Kuo said Apple could add a gyroscope accelerometer "to write not only on the display, but also on other hard surfaces and even in the air."

China posts its worst growth in 24 years
From CNN Money

China's economy grew at its slowest pace in more than two decades in 2014, a performance that underscores the depth of challenges facing the world's second-largest economy.

Gross domestic product was 7.4% in 2014, compared to the same period the previous year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That's below the government's 7.5% goal, and is the slowest growth rate since 1990, the year after the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Full-year growth was dragged down by a 7.3% expansion in the final three months of the year, the slowest quarterly growth rate since the global financial crisis.

The uninspired results were expected, and Beijing had signaled it would tolerate growth that was slightly below target. China is still growing more rapidly than any other major economy.

GDP growth in China remains the most comprehensive gauge of the country's economic health -- an important number to watch as the government works to reform the world's second-largest economy and shift to consumption-driven growth.

China averaged economic expansion of around 10% a year over the past three decades, pushing it up the list of biggest economies and boosting household wealth. But now, the pace of growth is languishing -- China recorded GDP growth of 7.7% in 2012 and 2013, a marked slowdown from 9.3% in 2011 and 10.5% in 2010.

The government is expected to set its official target for 2015 at a meeting in March.

EU looks to respond to threat of radical Islam
From Reuters | Africa

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU foreign ministers on Monday discussed setting up a new network of European security agents abroad as they sought a united response to the threat from militant Islamists following the attacks in Paris on Jan. 7.

The meeting aimed to lay the groundwork for an EU leaders summit on Feb. 12-13 in Brussels which will cement the bloc's strategy to deal with young European Muslims heading to Middle East war zones or returning radicalised from the region.

One idea is to place European security officials in EU overseas missions to collect and share information on the terrorism threat.

"It is a matter of having people on the ground that can liaise at the same level with security agents in the countries where we have delegations," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told a news conference.

Priorities also include a crackdown on arms trafficking, support for police in the Middle East and North Africa, stopping EU citizens leaving to fight abroad and curbing radical Islam on the Internet to prevent them bringing violence back home.

In the next few days, interior ministers will consider a plan to withdraw the travel documents of EU citizens looking to go to Syria or Iraq, or of those seen as a threat in Europe.

The rules underpinning the EU's passport-free Schengen zone, which removes border controls among most EU countries, could be used to empower guards on external borders to undertake systematic checks of EU citizens arriving from a third country.

The Paris attacks and a foiled plot in Belgium to murder police officers across the country, have also given new impetus to unblock EU plans to oblige EU countries to set up an EU-wide passenger list to collect data from flights to and from the EU.

The proposal, which would include names, phone numbers and credit card details of passengers entering or leaving the EU, was put forward by the European Commission in 2011 but has been stuck in the European Parliament over privacy concerns.

The meeting in Brussels, which was attended by the secretary-general of the Cairo-based Arab League, Nabil El-Araby, also agreed to appeal against a European Union court ruling that the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas should be removed from the bloc's terrorist list.

(Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Michael Moore: I Was Taught Snipers Were "Cowards"
From The Hollywood Reporter

Michael Moore has taken to Twitter to share his thoughts on snipers.

The Fahrenheit 9/11 director wrote that he grew up being told that snipers are cowardly. "My uncle killed by sniper in WW2," Moore wrote. "We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot you in the back."

"Snipers aren't heroes," he continued. "And invaders are worse."

Moore spoke directly about director Clint Eastwood's film American Sniper on his Facebook page. He praised the film for star Bradley Cooper's performance and for its antiwar sentiment, but he also wrote: "Too bad Clint gets Vietnam and Iraq confused in his storytelling. And that he has his characters calling Iraqis 'savages' throughout the film."

His comments come on the same weekend that the film earned $105.2 million over four days, marking the biggest opening haul ever for a nontentpole film. It landed six Oscar nominations Thursday, including best picture and best actor for Cooper.

American Sniper centers on real-life Iraq War soldier Chris Kyle, who tried to balance his career as the most prolific U.S. sniper with his family life.

Moore's tweets can be seen below.

My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren't heroes. And invaders r worse

—Michael Moore (@MMFlint) January 18, 2015

But if you're on the roof of your home defending it from invaders who've come 7K miles, you are not a sniper, u are brave, u are a neighbor.

—Michael Moore (@MMFlint) January 19, 2015

[Applying for staff is in no way a guaranteed you will become staff. You have to go through a rigorous process among the Mod+ before you are approved. Do not message Admins asking how your application processing is going. We will contact you.]

With a little amount of staff members online, it is hard to see everyone's full potential. This application allows us to bring in more players and notice more players who have the potential to be staff.

Applying for staff is in no way a guaranteed you will become staff. You have to go through a rigorous process among the Mod+ before you are approved. Do not message Admins asking how your application processing is going. We will contact you.

Preferable qualifications:
150+ hours on survival
10 hours/week
No serious bans like advertising.

Use this form and reply on this thread.
Please put your answers AFTER[ /i]!

Code Select Expand

[i]Name:[/i]
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[What does a content producer do?]

To get a wide variety of news, The Newsstand is looking for content producers!

What does a content producer do?
Feeds content to the board based on the beat you are assigned.

What is a "beat?"
A beat is the section you are assigned. For example, if you are assigned the Gaming beat, you can only post stories about Gaming.

How often does a content producer post?
Preferably once every two days or about 3 times a week.

What if I find a story that is unrelated to my beat, but I think it is worthy of being posted?
Send a link to the story you found to the person who is in charge of that beat!

Can I also write my own articles?
Sure, but any articles that you write have to go through djkirsh for editing and will be posted.

Apply here!

Scientists Create Laser No Bigger Than A Single Grain Of Rice
From Huffington Post

It sounds like something straight out of science fiction: a laser no bigger than a grain of rice that uses one-billionth of the electric current needed to power a hair dryer.

But researchers at Princeton University have created just such a device--and they say it represents a big step forward for quantum computing.

"It is basically as small as you can go with these single-electron devices," Dr. Jason Petta, a professor of physics at the university and the leader of the team that built the laser, said in a written statement.

To create the microwave laser, or "maser," Petta and his colleagues used thin nanowires to link up pairs of quantum dots--artificial molecules made up of bits of a semiconductor material called indium arsenide.

Then they placed two of these "double quantum dots" six millimeters apart inside a small cavity made from superconductor material, called niobium, with mirrors on either side.

When the experimental device was hooked up to a battery, electrons flowed through the quantum dots. As the electrons transitioned from a higher energy state to a lower one, they emitted photons in the microwave range. These particles of light bounced off the mirrors to produce a focused beam of microwave energy.

"The remarkable feature of this device is that it is 'pumped' by single electrons tunneling from one quantum dot to another," Petta told The Huffington Post in an email. "It is like a line of people crossing a wide stream by leaping onto a rock so small that it can only hold one person," he added in the statement. "They are forced to cross the stream one at a time."

Exactly what good is such a device? The researchers hope to use double quantum dots as quantum bits, or "qubits," which are the basic units of information in quantum computers.

One of the biggest challenges in quantum computing is coupling qubits so that they can be used to send information over large distances. Quantum dots may help solve this problem, according to Petta.

"Imagine trying to communicate a message over a long distance by forming a line of people and having each person relay the message to the person in front of them," he said in the email. "Using a photon, or light particle, to couple two quantum dots is analogous to directly flying the message from the first person in line to the last person in line."

A paper describing the laser was published Jan. 16 in the journal Science.

[The Twitter accounts of the New York Post and United Press International (UPI) have been hacked with fake tweets on economic and military news.]

New York Post and UPI Twitter accounts hacked
From BBC News

The Twitter accounts of the New York Post and United Press International (UPI) have been hacked with fake tweets on economic and military news.

In one post, the Pope was quoted on UPI's Twitter feed as saying that "World War III has begun".

Meanwhile, the New York Post's account said that hostilities had broken out between the United States and China.

It is the latest hack of a high-profile social media account, four days after US military command was compromised.

UPI, which is based in Washington, confirmed in a statement that both its Twitter account and news website had been hacked.

Six fake headlines were posted on its Twitter account and a breaking news banner was added to a fake story about the Federal Reserve on its homepage, the statement added.

A tweet on the New York Post's account said the USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier, was "engaged in active combat" against Chinese warships in the South China Sea.

A Pentagon official said the tweet about hostilities with China was "not true", AFP reports. The tweets have all since been deleted.

The New York Post says it is investigating the hack.

It comes just days after US President Barack Obama unveiled proposals to strengthen cyber security laws after a spate of attacks on high-profile US targets, including the Pentagon Twitter feed and Sony Pictures.

The Twitter account of the US military command was suspended last Monday following an attack by hackers claiming to support Islamic State.

In November hackers also released reams of confidential data stolen from Sony Pictures, and in recent years cyber criminals have attacked other US companies such as Home Depot and Target.

A number of media organisations, including AFP and the BBC, have also been subjected to cyber attacks over the past two years.

[Trial's verdict postponed]

Two Dead in Belgium Anti-terror Raid
From Voice of America

BRUSSELS—
Belgian police have stopped what they call an "imminent" terrorist attack, killing two heavily armed suspects and arresting one.

The two were killed in a counterterrorism operation Thursday, in the eastern Belgium town of Verviers. The plot raises concerns about security in Europe a week after Islamist militants killed 17 people in Paris.

At a news briefing, a representative for the national prosecutor's office said police raided a terrorist cell intent on conducting "major and imminent" attacks in Belgium. Some of the cell's members had returned from Syria. One person was detained in the raid, he said.

He made no mention of possible links to last week's terrorist attacks in France.

Belgium's public television station RTBF reported that one person was "gravely wounded" in the raid.

Earlier Thursday, Belgian authorities said they had detained a man they suspected of supplying weapons to Amedy Coulibaly, who prosecutors say killed a police officer and four people in a Paris kosher supermarket last week.

RTBF said police raids were also under way in Brussels. Belga news agency said police were hunting a man who witnesses said had brandished a weapon and shouted religious slogans in Arabic at a Brussels metro station.

In a report that could not be immediately confirmed, the website of La Meuse newspaper quoted an unidentified police officer as saying: "We've averted a Belgian Charlie Hebdo."

Two French brothers, who like Coulibaly claimed allegiance to Islamist militants in the Middle East, killed 12 people January 7 at the Paris offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Trial's verdict postponed

Meanwhile, a verdict in the trial of more than 40 members of an outlawed Belgian-based group accused of recruiting young men for jihad has been postponed for a month. The verdict had been expected this week.

The trial, against members of Sharia4Belgium, began in October in Antwerp. It's one of Europe's largest such efforts to prosecute extremists who recruit potential terrorists.

Belgium has seen significant radical activity among its Muslim population. Per capita, Belgium has Europe's highest number of citizens or residents who've fought alongside Syrian rebels in the past four years. The Washington-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization estimates nearly 300 citizens have traveled to fight in Syria from late 2011 to December 2013, Reuters reported.

"We have seen Belgium at the center of things for quite some time," the center's Matthew Levitt told Reuters.

The country's jobless rate reaches up to 50 percent among people ages 18 to 25 living in Brussels' commune of Molenbeek, the news agency reported. It said many young people in poor areas feel marginalized, especially those whose parents emigrated from North Africa two decades ago and found good jobs in car manufacturing. Such opportunities faded when the plants closed.

Some material for this story came from Reuters.

Think your seven-hour GTA V marathon session last night was a doozie? The residents of a house in Lakeland, Florida. would beg to differ.

As of Friday, the folks at StreamerHouse - which broadcasts on Twitch - have been playing games nonstop, every day, for 500 consecutive days. That's more than 12,000 hours of continuous button-mashing insanity.

Launched a little under a year and a half ago by Ryan "Tree" Carmichael and two friends/roommates, the money raised from commercials and viewer donations has been sufficient to pay the bills and become a full-time (albeit low paying) job for each.

The only downside? No vacation - even on holidays.

Each housemate "works" an eight-hour shift, playing a variety of games until passing off the controller. While today is certainly a milestone, the crew says they have no plans on slowing down. In fact, they plan on bringing a fourth person into the fold so they can expand the project (and get a little rest).

"It's difficult to find someone just willing to uproot their lives where they are at currently and come in here and say, 'I want to play video games all day,'" Adam Young, one of the players, told Tampa Bay ABC News affiliate WFTS.

It's not a bad way to make a name for yourself in the gaming world. Since launching, StreamerHouse has been viewed by more than 36 million people. That works out to nearly 73,000 views per day.

As part of the celebration, the gang is giving away $2,000 - and has hinted it might offer a few other goodies as well. But the big focus will be on gaming, just as it always is, only maybe with one slight twist today.

"We may crack open a beer or something," said Carmichael.

Why it's taken so long to bring Colorado theater shooter James Holmes to trial
From Yahoo! News

When the first potential juror in Case No. 12CR1522 arrives at the Arapahoe County courthouse on Tuesday, two years, six months and a day will have passed since the defendant terrorized a packed Denver-area movie theater with guns and tear gas.
That's nearly three times the 12-month timetable the Supreme Court of Colorado recommends for judges to process felony criminal cases.

"That means from arrest to sentencing in one year," said Greg Hurley, an expert on judicial administration. But "there's going to be some of these cases where that just can't happen."

The State of Colorado v. James Eagan Holmes is unquestionably one of them.

Since Holmes gave himself up to police minutes after killing 12 people and wounding 70 others at a midnight screening of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" in July 2012, there have been:

• Five trial dates
• Two judges
• A request for a third judge (denied)
• Two sanity evaluations
• More than 1,700 motions, notices, orders and other documents filed

"I'm relieved that it's finally starting," said Pierce O'Farrill, who survived but still has a .40-caliber bullet lodged in his left arm.

Holmes' public defenders admit he was the gunman but argue the former neuroscience graduate student was in the throes of a psychotic episode at the time.

District Attorney George Brauchler contends the attack was calculated, alleging the 27-year-old spent months stockpiling his arsenal.

A gag order prevents anyone in the case from speaking publicly. The defense reportedly said the prosecution rejected a plea offer early on, but the district attorney's office has never confirmed any  possible deal.

After consulting with survivors and victims' families, prosecutors announced in April 2013 that they would seek the death penalty. For Holmes, Brauchler said, "justice is death."

Rampage killers rarely go to trial. Most of the perpetrators commit suicide or are killed by police at the scene.

Still, even the trials of other well-known murder defendants — Timothy McVeigh, O.J. Simpson, Jeffrey Dahmer and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to name a few — started in under 24 months.

"From being fairly familiar with notorious trials, two and half years for the James Holmes case does not surprise me," said Hurley, an analyst with the National Center for State Courts, a nonprofit that helps with improving judicial administration.

Hurley, a former criminal defense attorney, said the Colorado case is complicated by the possible death penalty, Holmes' plea of not guilty by insanity, the number of victims, international media interest, security concerns and the effort to find an impartial jury. Quarrels and delays over the court-ordered psychiatric exams have taken up nearly a year.

"These things exponentially expand out, and that's why the extra time is required," Hurley told Yahoo News.

Extra money, too. Aside from salaries (which are largely fixed), examples of court expenditures to date: $405,000 on security, $20,000 for printing, $5,950 for 10 additional juror chairs, $3,500 in postage and $900 for high-speed scanners to process juror questionnaires.
What is thought to be a national-record-setting 9,000 summonses have been sent to prospective jurors.

"Dealing with those 9,000 people and the administrative issues that go along with that is going to take an unmerciful amount of time," Hurley said.

Opening arguments aren't expected until late May or early June at the earliest.

"It's going to be a long process," said O'Farrill, who will testify for the prosecution.

O'Farrill was sitting near the front of the theater when Holmes stormed through an emergency exit door, firing.

"I got shot three times," he said. "The really bad one, he shot me at point-blank range. It somehow missed my head and hit my arm instead. So I'm thankful for another day.

"I know going through the trial is going to take me back to that night, and it's something I'm prepared to do."

The 30-year-old said he'll appear in court on his day to testify but has no interest in immersing himself in the proceedings.

"I was blessed to find forgiveness after the shooting," said O'Farrill, a devout Christian. "For me, going to the trial is not really part of my healing."

Gay marriage: High court sets stage for historic ruling
From Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (AP) — Setting the stage for a potentially historic ruling, the Supreme Court announced Friday it will decide whether same-sex couples have a right to marry everywhere in America under the Constitution.

The justices will take up gay-rights cases that ask them to overturn bans in four states and declare for the entire nation that people can marry the partners of their choice, regardless of gender. The cases will be argued in April, and a decision is expected by late June.

Proponents of same-sex marriage said they expect the court to settle the matter once and for all with a decision that invalidates state provisions that define marriage as between a man and a woman.

"We are now that much closer to being fully recognized as a family, and we are thrilled," said April DeBoer, a hospital nurse from Hazel Park, Michigan, after the justices said they would hear an appeal from DeBoer and partner Jayne Rowse. "This opportunity for our case to be heard by the Supreme Court gives us and families like ours so much reason to be hopeful."

Attorney General Eric Holder said the Obama administration would urge the court "to make marriage equality a reality for all Americans."

On the other side, advocates for traditional marriage want the court to let the political process play out, rather than have judges order states to allow same-sex couples to marry.

"The people of every state should remain free to affirm marriage as the union of a man and a woman in their laws," said Austin R. Nimocks, senior counsel for the anti-gay marriage group Alliance Defending Freedom.

Same-sex couples can marry in 36 states and the District of Columbia.

That number is nearly double what it was just three months ago, when the justices initially declined to hear gay marriage appeals from five states seeking to preserve their bans on same-sex marriage. The effect of the court's action in October was to make final several pro-gay rights rulings in the lower courts.

Now there are just 14 states in which same-sex couples cannot wed. The court's decision to get involved is another marker of the rapid change that has redefined societal norms in the space of a generation.

The court will be weighing in on major gay rights issues for the fourth time in in 27 years. In the first of those, in 1986, the court upheld Georgia's anti-sodomy law in a devastating defeat for gay rights advocates.

But the three subsequent rulings, all written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, were major victories for gay men and lesbians. In its most recent case in 2013, the court struck down part of a federal anti-gay marriage law in a decision that has paved the way for a wave of lower court rulings across the country in favor of same-sex marriage rights.

James Esseks, leader of the American Civil Liberties Union's same-sex marriage efforts, recalled the first same-sex marriage that came to the court more than 40 years ago from Minnesota. There, the justices dismissed a gay couple's appeal in a single sentence.

"It did not go well because the country wasn't ready yet. But the country is ready for the freedom to marry today," Esseks said.

The court is extending the time it usually allots for argument from an hour to two-and-a-half hours. The justices will consider two related questions. The first is whether the Constitution requires states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The other is whether states must recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

The appeals before the court come from gay and lesbian plaintiffs in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. The federal appeals court that oversees those four states upheld their same-sex marriage bans in November, reversing pro-gay rights rulings of federal judges in all four states. It was the first, and so far only, appellate court to rule against same-sex marriage since the high court's 2013 decision.

One of the plaintiffs from Ohio, James Obergefell, said he was crying "tears of joy and sadness" after the court accepted his appeal. In 2013, Obergefell flew to Maryland with his dying partner, John Arthur, so they could marry before Arthur's death. The couple sued to force Ohio to list Arthur as married on his death certificate, which would allow the men to be buried next to each other. Obergefell died 15 months ago.

"I can't wait to walk up those steps and have the Supreme Court understand that we're just like everyone else," Obergefell said.

Gregory Bourke and Michael Deleon have been together for 32 years, were married in Canada in 2004 and live in Louisville, Kentucky. "Our family is like any other family. We have children, we have jobs, we have lives, we are very much engaged in our community and yet we don't feel like we are being treated yet as equal citizens," Bourke said.

Ten other states also prohibit such unions. In Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, South Dakota and Texas, judges have struck down anti-gay marriage laws, but they remain in effect pending appeals. In Missouri, same-sex couples can marry in St. Louis and Kansas City only.

Louisiana is the only other state that has seen its gay marriage ban upheld by a federal judge. There have been no rulings on lawsuits in Alabama, Georgia, Nebraska and North Dakota.

___

Associated Press writers Adam Beam in Louisville, Kentucky, Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee, Dan Sewell in Cincinnati and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.

[Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture]

Laughter and tears among the many emotions at Golden Globes
by djkirsh

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hilariously hosted the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards for the third year in a row. And there's a reason for that.

Fey and Poehler started off their night of laughs by taking jabs at North Korea and Sony Pictures for their highly controversial film The Interview. In Dec., North Korea stated that releasing The Interview would be an act of terrorism. Fey and Poehler went on to joke that that was not the worst review the movie got.

The pair continued to introduce some of the celebrities in the house while playing a game of Who'd You Rather of some of the male celebrities in the audience, like Colin Farrell or Colin Firth.

While describing the Golden Globe nominated movie "Into The Woods," Poehler joked, "Cinderella ran away from her prince, Rapunzel was thrown from a tower... and Sleeping Beauty just thought she was getting coffee with Bill Cosby." Their final jab of their introduction monologue poked fun at the allegations circling Bill Cosby. Fey and Poehler took turns mimicking the TV dad's demeanor. This untasteful jester was followed with a combination of laughs and gasps from the room of colleagues.

Jokes within the first half hour of the award show pushed the limit.

Billy Bob Thornton, who has been nominated for a Golden Globe four times, accepted his first award by saying, "You can say anything in the world and get in trouble. I know this for a fact. So, I'm just going to say thanks."

Jennifer Lopez and Jeremy Renner presented the awards for Best Mini-Series or TV movie and Best Actor in a Mini-Series or TV Movie. Lopez joked that she had the nails, so she should open the envelope containing the winners. Renner replied that she also has the globes, which led to trending topics on Twitter and a wave of laughter.

Even Ricky Gervais awkwardly chimed in as he presented an award, making fun of a series of actors, and said, "If we've learned one thing, it's that famous people are above the law. ... Streep, Clooney, I'm not even looking at Katie Holmes."

Speeches quickly became serious after winner Gina Rodriguez accepted her award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.

Rodriguez, out of breath from running to stage and in overwhelming tears, said, "This award is so much more than myself. It represents a culture that wants to see itself as heroes."

Rodriguez was the beginning of the heartfelt speeches that followed.

Musician Common accepted his award for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture along side of John Legend for their song Glory in the film Selma. With all of the dismay happening in America among the cops and citizens, Common reminded us that "Selma is now."

"I am the hopeful black woman who was denied her right to vote. I am the caring white supporter killed on the front lines of freedom. I am the unarmed black kid who maybe needed a hand but was instead given a bullet. I am the two fallen police officers slain in the line of duty. Selma has awakened my humanity. Selma is now," Common said.

Many of the female Globe winners aimed their speeches toward women's rights and how the women of Hollywood, who were present at the award show, are becoming great role models for young girls all over the world, giving these girls hope that they too can aspire to be great in a man's world.

The cast of Transparent, who was on and off the stage for several awards, all dedicated their awards to the transgendered community, paying special attention to transgendered people who ended their lives too early.

The best moment of the night came from the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), who received a standing ovation and many tears from the theater full of actors.

"We stand united against anyone who would oppress free speech anywhere," he said, "from North Korea to Paris."




Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture JK Simmons | Whiplash
Supporting Actress in a TV Series, Mini-Series Joanne Froggett | Downton Abbey
Mini-Series or TV Movie Fargo | FX
Actor in a Mini-Series or TV Movie Billy Bob Thornton | Fargo
Actress in a Comedy Series Gina Rodriguez | Jane the Virgin
TV Series, Comedy or Musical Transparent | Amazon Instant Video
Original Score, Motion Picture Johann Johannsson | The Theory of Everything
Original Song, Motion Picture Glory | Selma
Supporting Actor in a TV Show, Mini-Series, or TV Movie Matt Bomer | The Normal Heart
Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical Amy Adams | Big Eyes
Animated Feature Film How to Train Your Dragon 2
Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Patricia Arquette | Boyhood
Screenplay, Motion Picture Birdman
Actor in TV Show, Comedy or Musical Jeffrey Tambor | Transparent
Foreign Language Film Leviathan
Actress in a Mini Series or TV Movie Maggie Gyllanhaal | The Honorable Woman
TV Series, Drama The Affair
Actor in a TV Series, Drama Kevin Spacey | House of Cards
Director, Motion Picture Richard Linklater | Boyhood
Actress in a TV Series Ruth Wilson | The Affair
Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical Michael Keaton | Birdman
Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical The Grand Budapest Hotel
Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama Julianne Moore | Still Alice
Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama Eddie Redmayne | The Theory of Everything
Motion Picture, Drama Boyhood

Anonymous blocks jihadist website in retaliation for Charlie Hebdo attack
From CNN Money

Hackers claiming to be with the group Anonymous say they have hacked a jihadist website in retaliation for the terror attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The website ansar-alhaqq.net, a French jihadist site, currently redirects to Duck Duck Go, a search engine. Hackers using the Twitter handle @OpCharlieHebdo claimed responsibility.

Anonymous also named dozens of Twitter accounts that the hacktivist group says belong to jihadists.

The hackers posted the Twitter handles on Pastebin, a website that lets people post information anonymously online.

On Friday, Anonymous members announced hacking operation "#OpCharlieHebdo, declaring war on Islamic extremists.

In a video posted on YouTube, the group of hackers said they would track down websites and social media networks linked to terrorists, and take them down.

"We, Anonymous around the world, have decided to declare war on you the terrorists," it said.

Anonymous said the video was a message for "al Qaeda, the Islamic State and other terrorists," and promised to avenge the deaths in last week's attack.

Anonymous has hacked websites belonging to government departments, companies and other organizations.

The attack on Charlie Hebdo has prompted an outpouring of solidarity, sparking some news organizations to republish the magazine's most controversial cartoons -- including of the Prophet Mohammed.

On Sunday, millions of people, including world leaders, marched in an anti-terrorism rally in Paris. The French Mission to the United Nations called the massive gathering the largest in France's history.

The day was emotional and peaceful, a gesture of unity just days after Islamic extremists slaughtered 17 people.

Scientists Want to Take Virtual Reality to Court
From PopSci

Though it's becoming fairly common for forensic scientists to create 3D maps of a crime scene, all that information gets flattened out onto paper when it gets to the courtroom. Seeing the crime since in just two-dimensions can make it difficult for jurors to understand how people and objects (like bullets, for instance) moved through space at the scene of the crime.

New Scientist reports that forensic researchers are experimenting with virtual reality headsets. Their goal is to immerse jurors in a 3-D simulation of the crime scene, to help them make better-informed decisions as to whether a defendant is guilty or innocent. Here's what one such reconstruction could look like:

A team from the University of Zurich has successfully used the Oculus Rift to recreate a shooting, which police officers confirmed was accurate.

The implications of bringing virtual reality into the courtroom could be vastly helpful, but as with other forms of forensic evidence, it could also be subject to bias. Speaking to New Scientist, digital reconstruction researcher Damian Schofield warned: "Think of a murder scene: whether you view it from the point of view of the murderer, the victim or a third person will totally change your perception of what's happening."

Crowdfund A Flying Jet-Powered Drone
From PopSci



By all appearances, JetQuad looks like a supercharged version of the iconic quadcopter body, where a central structure houses controls and four peripheral engines that power the vehicle for stable flight. In action, however, it's a very different beast. According to designer and Arizona State University PhD candidate Alexander Taits, the JetQuad of traveling at almost the speed of sound, and reaching altitudes up to 33,000 feet.

But Taits' JetQuad Kickstarter project is not really about making a new recreational aircraft. Instead, it's a test platform for another way to get to space.

In the video for his Kickstarter campaign, Taits explains the advantages jets bring over rotors.

"There is another application of the JetQuad, and that is the development of airbooster technology. JetQuad is nothing more than a small-scale version of an atmospheric booster stage for modern launch vehicles. One day, we hope to build much larger JetQuads that are capable of lofting even the heaviest of launch vehicles and boosting them out into orbit."

As shown in the video, previous single-engine jet boosters that Taits has made suffer from stability issues. Quadcopters, and likely quadjets, counter instability by having four engines operating simultaneously, creating a much smoother flying craft. The fuel needs of four engines are much greater than that of one, which is a major design constraint that could be better understood with a working scalable model.

The Kickstarter campaign ends January 31st, and is seeking $15,000, primarily for jet parts and electronic components. Backers pledging over $100 will get small toy quadcopters, and backers pledging $500 or more will be invited to the JetQuad's first launch in Phoenix, Arizona.

[Whether you're trying to cultivate a little romance, nurture a friendship or simply stay connected with loved ones while abroad, here are nine reasons you should still send a letter or postcard once in a while.They create lasting memories.]

9 Reasons Not To Abandon The Art Of The Handwritten Letter
From Huffington Healthy Living

Nowadays we rarely pick up a pen and paper to communicate with one another, but it might not be wise for us to trade this long-standing, cultural practice entirely for the convenience of text messages and emails.

Research has shown that the general act of writing by hand can promote quite a few physical and mental benefits, from improving learning abilities to fostering a more positive outlook on life. And when it comes to writing that is used as a form of communication between two people, namely letters and postcards, the impact of such messages lasts far longer than any alternative version offered in our high-tech world. From the careful intentions of the sender to the value experienced by the receiver, no true match exists for this old-time, traditional means of conversation.

Whether you're trying to cultivate a little romance, nurture a friendship or simply stay connected with loved ones while abroad, here are nine reasons you should still send a letter or postcard once in a while.

They create lasting memories.



Studies have revealed an association between writing by hand and brain development and cognition, increasing neural activity more than typing can. Just as learning by handwriting notecards and study guides proves more effective for students, the moments you commit to paper for others are more likely to stay stored in your own memory as well, allowing you both to reflect back and appreciate them again in the future.

They show how much you care.



In the days of oversimplified communication, receiving a "just to say hi" email can feel like a big deal. So imagine the powerful message you convey when you actually write out your thoughts for another person by hand, purchase a stamp, physically deliver your note to a mailbox and wait days for your special someone to receive it. Their beaming smile at your thoughtfulness will say it all.

They make you feel good.



Aside from the residual satisfaction of knowing you're making a close friend's day with your efforts, science has linked expressive writing to better mood, reduced stress and improved overall sense of well-being. Similar to keeping a gratitude journal or writing about your future goals, sharing your genuine thoughts with another person can be quite the morale booster -- not to mention a mini adrenaline rush as you drop the final draft into the mailbox.

They make every word count.



Postcards only offer so many square inches, forcing the sender to truly think about the message they want to share and how they want to phrase it. Unlike with a quick text or Facebook message, you only have one chance when you send a handwritten message, so you learn just how important it is not to let it go to waste.

They spark creativity.



Taking to pen and paper utilizes the visual, motor and cognitive brain processes differently than when we recruit technology to help us out. It is also by nature more labor-intensive, requiring us to slow down and connect the mind with the hand, one word at a time. Together these factors can make the sensory experience of writing just what you need to get those creative juices flowing.

They require your undivided attention.



By recruiting all of the senses to participate in the writing-by-hand process, little room is left for multitasking (or hyper-speed task switching). To write thoughtfully and coherently, we must focus on the present moment and contemplate -- without side conversations or other to-do list items taking priority -- the thoughts we're aiming to coherently convey to the person on the receiving end of the letter.

They require unplugging.



Let's face it -- we could all use a little extra screen-free time these days. By nature of sitting down to write a thoughtful note to a special someone, your thumbs won't be able to scroll your Facebook feed or type out a text message to another friend in demand of your attention. For those few minutes, you will live entirely in the present moment and in the thoughts you're putting on paper.

They honor tradition.



There's something sacred (and romantic, in the broadest sense) about communicating in the way generations before us once did. We've all heard the stories: It's how your parents communicated with Santa Claus, it's how grandma and grandpa kept their love alive during wartime, it's how immigrant families and friends separated by their respective moves shared written snapshots of their new lives. Computers and smartphones may prove more efficient, but they can never take the place of this kind of sentimental history.

They're timeless.



"A letter always seemed to me like immortality because it is the mind alone without corporeal friend." -- Emily Dickinson

Long after they are written and sent (and even after their senders and receivers are gone), letters and postcards remain to be read, appreciated and preserved. Whether displayed on museum shelves honoring famous historical figures or saved in a scrapbook between two old friends, letters protect the memories of lives lived in a way that technological communication cannot. They are tangible, personal and real, in every sense of the word.

[Why It Matters]

73,000 Webcams Are Open to Peeping Toms -- Is Yours?
From Huffington Post

If the past year has taught consumers anything, it's that identity thieves, fraudsters and scammers are on the prowl, going after any information they can use to make a buck. But the intrusions don't stop there.

If the thought of being the unwitting star of your own prime time reality show gives you the willies, consider the recent revelation that more than 73,000 unsecured webcams and surveillance cameras are, as I write this column, viewable on a Russian-based website. The site lists the cameras by country. (Unfortunately, the U.S. is well represented.) In every case, victims ignored safety protocols and installed the cameras with their default login and password -- admin/admin or another easy-to-guess combination findable on any number of public-facing websites.

According to NetworkWorld:

There are 40,746 pages of unsecured cameras just in the first 10 country listings: 11,046 in the U.S.; 6,536 in South Korea; 4,770 in China; 3,359 in Mexico; 3,285 in France; 2,870 in Italy; 2,422 in the U.K.; 2,268 in the Netherlands; 2,220 in Colombia; and 1,970 in India. Like the site said, you can see into 'bedrooms of all countries of the world'. There are 256 countries listed plus one directory not sorted into country categories.

Why It Matters

You may remember the sextortionist who hacked into Miss Teen USA's computer camera and took compromising photographs. He tried to get money in exchange for not distributing the pictures, and got 18 months behind bars instead. That's a bit too lenient in my book.

Unfortunately, there are thousands more slimeballs where this guy came from who are poking around, looking for ways to exploit the private moments of your life for their personal amusement or gain.

The Internet of Things has arrived making homes smart, fitness totally interactive and tasks infinitely easier, but the devices we buy to streamline day-to-day life create vulnerabilities that, when exploited, could bring your day to a screeching halt, and the risks are much higher if you don't apply common sense during the setup of these password-protected devices. The rule here couldn't be simpler: Anything that hooks into a network must be locked down.

Don't think it will happen to you? Consider this: There are websites that list the default passwords of all kinds of devices. If you have something wireless that's hooking up to your household router, it likely came with a pre-set password and login. And there's a good chance, whatever the device, there's a forum online where it's been figured out, hacked, cracked and hijacked for all stripe of nefarious purpose.

Convenient ... for Everyone

The added convenience provided by the Internet of Things is obvious, but the security issues may not be. Are your fitness records hackable by a third party? Are they linked to social media? How much information did that require? A login? A password? And what's to stop a hacker from opening your front door or turning off your heat during a blizzard or your lights during a home invasion: all with an app?

Other common devices that are password protected should immediately come to mind here. Whether it is your household printer, your wireless router or your DVR, there are folks out there who are curious about you, not because they value you as a human being, but because they can create value from any plugged-in human -- whether by fraud or extortion or (in a more old-fashioned mode) getting the information they need to rob you blind when you're not home.

The number of people who don't change default passwords is staggering, as evidenced by the 73,000 wide-open webcams on that Russian website. There's a major disconnect here, and it's specific to the Internet of Things. On the Internet proper, it seems the message has finally seeped in and people are beginning to make themselves harder targets -- making sure their privacy settings are tight and their passwords are both strong and changed frequently. But when it comes the Internet of Things, there is still more learning to be done -- hopefully not Miss Teen USA-style.

The solution, for this particular problem, is remarkably simple: Set a long and strong password on all devices. Whatever it is, it's your job to pick something easy for you to remember and hard for others to guess.

The Bigger Problem

The Pew Research Center released a statistic this month that showed 90% of Americans believe they have no control over their personal information -- that the facts and figures and ciphers unique to them are simply in too many places, and essentially that the data cat's out of the bag.

Breaches have crossed the Rubicam. Whether they are of the unavoidable variety or the product of carelessness, they will continue to happen apace. Now the third certainty in life, breaches have become the potholes on a bumpy road. What no one wants to deal with is the fact that the road ends abruptly -- jagged concrete and rebar sticking out -- and there's nothing but air after that, and a whole lot of it, between you and the endless crimes that can be committed against you.

The Discomforts Of Digital Music
From Huffington Post

When it comes to music, the mood prompted by digital technology has shifted in recent years, from carnivalesque to callous. Pop star Taylor Swift is only the latest to bring attention to the trouble musicians are in, recently withdrawing her recordings from the streaming service Spotify, protesting its royalty scheme. In light of such high-profile outrage, it is easy to forget that there are still opportunities to use the Internet to access music more ethically--Bandcamp is one, and so (I'm told) is Drip.fm. In these alternate economies, artists and audiences can mingle, and build one-to-one relationships, to a degree that was rarely possible in the analog era.

For such alternate economies to stand a chance, however, we listeners will have to become more curious, occasionally taking risks with art we might not like. Some would say that that's a lot to ask of human nature, especially in an age of profusion. When music has become yet another set of big data, choosing what to listen to can feel like an existential dilemma. A study from a few years back suggests that though we finally have our celestial jukebox, many of us are inclined to tune most of it out, gravitating toward music we think other people like. Call that laziness, or fear, or ennui--in any case, amid predictions of an otherwise bleak financial future, it's a godsend for the mainstream music industry, whose business model has always preferred that listeners obsess over superstars and hits (or, in the highbrow formulation, geniuses and masterpieces).

Indeed, more than a century since the first commercially successful recordings, that obsession seems harder than ever to shake--for record executives, artists, and fans alike. Our mania for music sanctioned by both market and culture has trickled down to even the fringiest genres. Consider an argument recently made by Jeff Winbush in a review of a new disc by the pianist Hiromi. "For jazz not only to thrive, but survive," Winbush writes, "it must begin to create its own superstars who can deliver a much-needed shot of adrenalin to the flagging art form, but possess skills in social media and marketing, creating a global brand, and finding new forms beyond record sales, radio play and live gigs in fewer clubs and concert halls to reach the new breed of jazz fans."

Call me crazy, but I think that's terrible advice, however well-intentioned--not only for jazz (which is hardly flagging, by the way), but for music as a whole. What we need are not more superstars, but none. To me, the real gift of digital technology is not the feeding frenzy of infinite free music; it's the possibility of fostering artistic communities that are viable precisely because they are intimate and idiosyncratic, and because they form spontaneously, through the unprecedented channels of communication to which we now have access. If such communities are allowed to derive from shared passion, shared passion itself will nurture economic justice.

I know the counterargument: to get quality music, you need institutions, hits, and a marketing budget big enough to feed a small country. I'm not convinced. Even in the industry's heyday, plenty of beautiful recordings were made on relatively primitive equipment, and with a serendipitous spirit (listen to Elvis's early Sun sides, for instance). Even if they hadn't been, in 2014, the state of the art has been democratized, mostly. More to the point: we no longer need the external validation of a hit single or top ten list or some other impersonal arbiter to show us where the "good stuff" is. There is so much music being made now that, whatever your taste, good stuff is everywhere. You've just got to be willing to listen for it.

The sad truth is that, whatever desire for mass ritual it fulfills, the top-down idea of music has proved to be about as culturally healthy as a factory farm, or a big box store, or a for-profit university. Concentrated into the hands of fewer people than ever, musical fame now mirrors other societal wealth imbalances ("the top 1 percent of bands and solo artists now earn 77 percent of all revenue from recorded music," Derek Thomson reports). It turns the long tail into an especially lonely place, duping too many listeners into thinking they've found what's important before they have even started looking. Indeed, we ought to stop this talk about a long tail altogether--as if some music belongs at the rump of the industry. We need a new metaphor--a "wide meadow," perhaps, with an endless variety of flora, and no one species ever getting so big that it takes over.

A recent Matthew Inman (aka "The Oatmeal") comic summarized in four frames what most critics of the situation, understandably focused on the short-term, tend to overlook. In "The State of the Music Industry," Inman moves from the big label greed of the old days, to the Internet's disruption of that system, to the digital monopolies that hound us now. But in the last frame, he envisions a future in which music is what it should have always been: a meaningful interaction between two people, probably friends. One who plays, and one who listens. Note the former middleman reduced to a whinging figure in the background.

That's what the Internet could still bring us, if we bother to meet the technology halfway. Some psychologists say our brains are wired for fluency--"people prefer things that are easy to think about," as Tom Kuntz recently put it--suggesting that we can't help mainlining the same old hits. But wiring can be rewired. A yoga teacher I know once described the feeling of reaching beyond the familiar as finding "comfort in discomfort." I like that way of putting it. If you love music, you already know it will survive the current era--but know too that how it survives may depend on your being uncomfortable, at least some of the time.

[That's when she heard about a little town called Green Bank, West Virginia.]

The Town Without Wi-Fi
The residents of Green Bank, West Virginia, can't use cell phones, wi-fi, or other kinds of modern technology due to a high-tech government telescope. Recently, this ban has made the town a magnet for technophobes, and the locals aren't thrilled to have them.

Monique Grimes had just moved to Florida for a new job when the syndrome started.

On the third morning in her St. Petersburg apartment, she woke with a harsh thumping in her chest: heart palpitations.

Within hours, it felt as if someone had tied a thick rubber band around her head. Then came nausea, fatigue, ringing in her left ear—an onslaught of maladies, all at once, and she had no idea why. "I was trying to come up with every excuse in the world for what was happening to me," she says. "Moving is stressful, but the symptoms just kept piling on."

In 2012, after a decade as the owner of a Connecticut catering company and an office worker in finance and construction, Grimes had gone to Florida to be a speaker for a public-policy group. A week or two into the job, whatever was afflicting her still wasn't abating, and before long her speech became so jumbled that she couldn't form a complete sentence in front of an audience.

She saw an internist, a neurologist, then a psychiatrist, and still had no explanation. "If we can't test it," one said, "it doesn't exist." Grimes started poking around online and soon remembered reading an article about the potentially deleterious health effects of the new "smart" electricity meters that were rolling out across the country. The devices send customers' usage data back to the utility over wireless signals. Did her building have them?

She went outside to inspect the place and found no fewer than 17 of the meters strapped to the side of the building.

Grimes's sleuthing didn't end there. She went back online and found herself scrolling through tale after tale of people all over the world getting sick from the devices. And it wasn't just smart meters. It turned out there was a whole community of people out there who called themselves "electrosensitives" and said they were suffering due to the electromagnetic frequencies that radiate wirelessly from cell phones, wi-fi networks, radio waves, and virtually every other modern technology that the rest of society now thinks of as indispensable.

The affliction has been dubbed "electromagnetic hypersensitivity," or EHS, and it involves a textbook's worth of ailments: headaches, nausea, insomnia, chest pains, disorientation, digestive difficulties, and so on. Mainstream medicine doesn't recognize the syndrome, but the symptoms described everything Grimes was experiencing.

She went back to her doctors with her newfound evidence of EHS, relieved to have sorted out the mystery. But she got no sympathy. As she puts it, "They look at you like you have three heads."

Grimes moved to a new building, then another, and six more times, but at each turn a smart-meter rollout wasn't far behind. "I sat down there in Florida," she says, "and just prayed to God: 'Where is my way out?' "

That's when she heard about a little town called Green Bank, West Virginia.

In Green Bank, you can't make a call on your cell phone, and you can't text on it, either. Wireless internet is outlawed, as is Bluetooth. It's a premodern place by design, devoid of the gadgets and technologies that define life today. And thanks to Uncle Sam, it will stay that way: The town is part of a federally mandated zone where a government high-tech facility's needs come first. Wireless signals are verboten.

In electromagnetic terms, it's the quietest place on Earth—blanketed by the kind of silence that's golden to electrosensitives like Monique Grimes.

And as she discovered, it's become a refuge for them.

Over the last few years, electrosensitives have flocked to the tech-free idyll in West Virginia, taking shelter beside cows and farms and fellow sufferers. Up here, no one would look at them as if they had three heads. Well, except for the locals, that is.

The reason for all the peace and quiet in town is visible the moment you arrive.

It's the Robert C. Byrd telescope, a gleaming white, 485-foot-tall behemoth of a dish that looms over tiny Green Bank, population 143.

There's only one road into town, about four hours from DC. The way there snakes through the Allegheny Mountains, each town you pass through smaller than the last as the bars on your cell phone fall like dominoes and the scan function on the radio ceases to work, the dial rotating endlessly in search of signals.

Where the forest ends, the town begins. The valley opens to cattle farms and old wooden barns, a post office and a library, a bank and Henry's Quick Stop, a combination gas station/convenience store/rustic interior-decor shop that houses Green Bank's nearest approximation to a sit-down restaurant. Across the street, the Dollar General was a lifesaver when it opened five years ago—before that, the closest grocery store was in Marlinton, 26 miles down the road.

At the northern end of town is the other visible curiosity in Green Bank besides the telescope: a rusted pay phone. If you're not from there, it's ostensibly the only way to reach the rest of the world. "Sometimes you get people passing through who get aggravated they can't get a signal," says Bob Earvine, owner of Trents General Store. "But just about anybody will let you use their phone."

Rising above it all is the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, a.k.a. the GBT. It's the largest of its kind in the world and one of nine in Green Bank, all of them government-owned and operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

The telescopes aren't "ocular" ones, the kind you're probably thinking of. They're radio telescopes. So instead of putting your eye to the apparatus and looking for distant stars, you listen for them. The patterns of electromagnetic radiation coming off a planet or other celestial bodies apparently reveal entirely different things than what's visible to the eye, and even allow scientists to study regions of space where light can't reach. In recent years, the telescopes have been used to track NASA's Cassini probe to Saturn's moon and to examine Mercury's molten core.

Obscure as the work may sound, there's a long line of astronomers all over the world who want to use the GBT, a telescope known to be so sensitive that it can pick up the energy equivalent of a single snowflake hitting the ground. These scientists swamp the NRAO with their research proposals—the observatory is four times oversubscribed.

So why does such a sensitive listening tool need total technological silence to operate? A little history—starting with telephones, in fact—helps explain.

In 1932, when Bell Labs was installing phone systems across the US, its technicians kept hearing static over the transmissions. The company hired an electrical engineer to find the source, and he discovered that all the noise was "the Milky Way galaxy itself," says Mike Holstine, the telescope's business manager, with a hint of awe in his voice.

Two decades later, the federal government decided the country should invest in listening to the far reaches of the galaxy and needed its own radio telescope to do so. The question was where to put it. Because even a basic AM radio transmission is enough to overpower faint readings from outer space, the only place for such a listening post was the hinterlands.

Enter Green Bank. Surrounded by the Alleghenies, and thus buffered from outside frequencies, the rural town had little established industry—or potential for one. That meant the telescope wouldn't have to deal with a population influx later. Plus, Green Bank sat on the 38th Parallel, with an ideal view of the Milky Way.

In 1958, the Federal Communications Commission established the 13,000-square-mile National Radio Quiet Zone, a one-of-a-kind area encompassing Green Bank where, to this day, electromagnetic silence is enforced every hour of every day. The strictest rules are found within the ten square miles immediately surrounding Green Bank, where most forms of modern communication—i.e., cell phones and wi-fi—are banned under state law. Residents are allowed to use land-line phones and wired internet, "but it is sloooow," in the words of one Green Banker.

The Quiet Zone is a vast place, much of it made up of national parks and empty space, the whole thing roughly the size of Maryland. But lately, because of how much its way of life has diverged from the rest of America's and whom that's attracted to the place, the little town of Green Bank has come to feel smaller than ever.

Read more at http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/the-town-without-wi-fi/?src=longreads&mc_cid=211af0517e&mc_eid=290a0d1dfd and be sure to check out the photos that accompany the story!

iPhone Separation Anxiety Is Real, Study Says
From Huffington Post



You might think you're doing yourself a favor if you leave your phone behind when you head to an important meeting or dinner with the in-laws, but a new study suggests just the opposite is true.

According to new research from the University of Missouri, being separated from your iPhone can lead to "physiological anxiety" and "poor cognitive performance."

The study, "The Extended iSelf: The Impact of iPhone Separation on Cognition, Emotion, and Physiology," was published online Thursday in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Researchers recruited a total of 40 iPhone-using participants from three journalism courses at a "large university" in the Midwest. (iPhones were selected because it's easy to disable the device's "silent mode," researchers wrote.) Then, they ran a couple of experiments.

First, participants were told to sit in a cubicle and complete a puzzle while in possession of their phone; then, they were asked to complete another puzzle, but they were told that their phone was causing "Bluetooth interference" and that it needed to be moved elsewhere in the room. Researchers then called the phone -- study participants could see and hear it ringing, but were unable to get up to answer it.

In each scenario, researchers kept track of participants' heart rate and blood pressure.

You can probably see where this is going: When the puzzle-solvers were separated from their phones but able to see and hear them ringing, they experienced "significant" upticks in anxiety, heart rate and blood pressure. They also got worse at completing the puzzle.

In a news release, the researchers suggested that "iPhone users avoid parting with their phones during daily situations that involve a great deal of attention," saying that being apart from the device can make individuals feel "a lessening of 'self.'"

Of course, the argument could be made that the study might reveal less about "phone separation" anxiety than it does about how anxious people feel when their phone is ringing and they can't answer it. Researchers did not call participants' phones when they were able to access them, which may have clarified which element of the experiment made individuals anxious.

Russell Clayton, a University of Missouri doctoral candidate who worked on the study, freely acknowledges this limitation. But, he noted to The Huffington Post that he's confident in his findings: Participants who were separated from their ringing phones experienced negative outcomes.

So, what should you do if you own a smartphone but need to focus?

"Our advice would be to carry your iPhone with you," Clayton told HuffPost, "but to silence your phone during cognitively demanding tasks (i.e., work, meetings, exams, etc) in order to avoid any potential distractions that may reduce your attention throughout the day."

AirAsia Black Boxes Found
From Huffington Post

Black boxes from the AirAsia flight that crashed into the Java Sea in December have finally been located, according to multiple media outlets.

An Indonesian Transport Ministry spokesman told Bloomberg that divers on Sunday found the boxes, which could help provide vital information about what went wrong on Flight 8501. According to AFP, the divers weren't immediately able to retrieve the boxes because they are stuck under debris.

An Indonesian official confirmed the news to USA Today. The official said that the rescue crew will attempt to retrieve the boxes on Monday.

The doomed flight from Indonesia to Singapore went missing on Dec. 28, 2014 about 40 minutes after takeoff, killing all 162 people on board. Days later, debris and human remains were found in the Java Sea. On Friday Jan 9, the plane's tail was recovered. On Sunday, divers believed they had also discovered what they believed to be the fuselage, or the main cabin of the plane.

AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes tweeted on earlier on Sunday that "we are led to believe Blackbox may ha e[sic] been found. Still not confirmed. But strong info coming. But my man [sic] thoughts is fuselage."

The black boxes contain the plane's cockpit-voice recorder and flight-data recorder.

This is a developing story...

Striking Photos From The Massive Unity March In Paris After Charlie Hebdo Attack
From Huffington Post

The streets of Paris overflowed on Sunday, as more than a million people converged on the capital to take part in a march for national unity. Among the masses gathered around the Place de la Republique square were over a dozen world leaders, as well as members of a swath of France's political parties.

Demonstrators carrying French flags and the ubiquitous "Je Suis Charlie" signs stretched along two separate routes toward the Place de la Nation. The area was closely guarded by hundreds of troops and police. Sunday's government-sponsored rally comes after extremist attacks last week claimed the lives of 17 victims. The crisis began with an assault on the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper offices, which led to a multiday manhunt, and culminated in two deadly hostage situations.

France is still reeling from the events, which newspaper Le Monde equated to a French 9/11, and there has been fear over the effect the attack will have on an already tense society. In the days following the killings, several reports of Muslims being targeted in racist or violent incidents have emerged. France's Jewish population is also on edge, with reports of an increasing number of Jews leaving the country in fear, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraging emigration following the killing of hostages in a kosher supermarket late last week.

At the rally on Sunday, however, the tone of French unity was at the forefront, with Prime Minister Manuel Valls declaring, "We are all Charlie, we are all police, we are all Jews of France."

A woman has taped her mouth displaying the word Freedom on the tape, as she gathers with several thousand people in solidarity with victims of two terrorist attacks in Paris. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)


People take part in a Unity rally Marche Republicaine in Paris on Sunday in tribute to the 17 victims of a three-day killing spree. (Photo: PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty Images)


Demonstrators wave flags on the monument at the center of Republique Square before the demonstration, in Paris, France, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)


People hold signs and the French flag as they gather at the Place de la Nation during the Unity rally Marche Republicaine on Sunday.


People gather on the Place de la Republique (Republic Square) in Paris before the start of a Unity rally Marche Republicaine on Sunday.


French President Francois Hollande (center) welcomes German Vice Chancellor (left) and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (right) at the Elysee Palace before attending a Unity rally Marche Republicaine on Sunday.


People wave flags from different countries as they take part in the Unity rally Marche Republicaine on Sunday in Paris in tribute to the 17 victims of a three-day killing spree. (MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images)


French politicians and officials take part in the solidarity march in Paris. (Photo: Philippe Wojazer/AFP/Getty Images)


People watch from their roof-top apartment as some thousands of people gather at Republique square in Paris on Sunday. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)


Demonstrators make their way along Place de la Republique on Sunday in Paris during a mass unity rally following the recent terrorist attacks. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)


A demonstrator holds a sign reading "I am Charlie" at Place de la Nation during a rally in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

National Unity March In Paris Draws World Leaders And Crowd Of Over A Million
From Huffington Post



PARIS (AP) -- More than 40 world leaders and what government officials say were between 1.2 and 1.6 million people streamed into the heart of Paris on Sunday for a rally of national unity to honor the 17 victims of three days of terror. French officials claimed that the march is the largest demonstration in the nation's history, with the Interior Ministry calling the event "unprecedented" and stating that around 3.7 million people across France took place in rallies.

The aftermath of the attacks remained raw, with video emerging of one of the gunmen killed during police raids pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and detailing how the attacks were going to unfold. Also, a new shooting was linked to that gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, who was killed Friday along with the brothers behind a massacre at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in nearly simultaneous raids by security forces."Today, Paris is the capital of the world," said French President Francois Hollande . "Our entire country will rise up toward something better."

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were among the leaders attending, as were top representatives of Russia and Ukraine.

Rallies were also planned in London, Madrid and New York -- all attacked by al-Qaida-linked extremists -- as well as Cairo, Sydney, Stockholm, Tokyo and elsewhere.



"We are all Charlie, we are all police, we are all Jews of France," Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared on Saturday, referring to the victims of the attacks that included employees at Charlie Hebdo, shoppers at a kosher grocery and three police officers.

The three days of terror began Wednesday when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people. Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen said it directed the attack by the masked gunmen to avenge the honor of the Prophet Muhammad, a frequent target of the weekly's satire. On Thursday, police said Coulibaly killed a policewoman on the outskirts of Paris and on Friday, the attackers converged.



While the Kouachi brothers holed up in a printing plant near Charles de Gaulle airport, Coulibaly seized hostages inside a kosher market. It all ended at dusk Friday with near-simultaneous raids at the printing plant and the market that left all three gunmen dead. Four hostages at the market were also killed.

Five people who were held in connection with the attacks were freed late Saturday, leaving no one in custody, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. The widow of the man who attacked the kosher market is still being sought and was last traced near the Turkey-Syrian border.

Early Sunday, police in Germany detained two men suspected of an arson attack against a newspaper that republished the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. No one was injured in that attack.

"The terrorists want two things: they want to scare us and they want to divide us. We must do the opposite. We must stand up and we must stay united," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French TV channel iTele on Sunday.

It was France's deadliest terrorist attack in decades, and the country remains on high alert while investigators determine whether the attackers were part of a larger extremist network. More than 5,500 police and soldiers were being deployed on Sunday across France, about half of them to protect the march. The others were guarding synagogues, mosques, schools and other sites around France.

"I hope that we will again be able to say we are happy to be Jews in France," said Haim Korsia, the chief rabbi in France, who planned to attend the rally.

"I hope that at the end of the day everyone is united. Everyone, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists," added Zakaria Moumni, who was at Republique early Sunday. "We are humans first of all. And nobody deserves to be murdered like that. Nobody."

At an international conference in India, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the world stood with the people of France "not just in anger and in outrage, but in solidarity and commitment to the cause of confronting extremism and in the cause that extremists fear so much and that has always united our countries: freedom."



Posthumous video emerged Sunday of Coulibaly, who prosecutors said was newly linked by ballistics tests to a third shooting -- the Wednesday attack on a jogger in a Paris suburb that left the 32-year-old man gravely injured. In the video, Coulibaly speaks fluent French and broken Arabic, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and detailing the terror operation he said was about to unfold.

The Kouachi brothers claimed the attacks were planned and financed by al-Qaida in Yemen.

___

Oleg Cetinic and Elaine Ganley contributed from Paris. Aron Heller contributed from Jerusalem.

'Fast Times' Star Taylor Negron Dies At 57
From Yahoo! News



Sources are confirming that comedian Taylor Negron has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 57.  Chuck Negron, Taylor's cousin, of the '70s band Three Dog Night, released an online video with the sad news today saying, "I want to inform you that my cousin Taylor Negron just passed away. His mother, his brother Alex and my brother Rene and his wife Julie were all there with him. May he rest in peace."

Negron was born in Glendale, CA on August 1, 1957, the son of Lucy (née Rosario) and Conrad Negron, Sr., a former mayor of Indian Wells, CA.  He studied with Lee Strasberg and even had a private comedy seminar with Lucille Ball. Negron interned for Ball when she was 68 years old and he was 19.  Negron told KCET, "I learned from Lucy that you never get what you really want and you have to be flexible."

Further adding what he learned about comedy from her, "What I learned from her was what she learned from Buster Keaton – know your props, know what you're doing, know where the exit is, know the entrances, know where the camera is. Get there early. Know everyone on the set. Do not pull any funny business. Be a professional." Negron started stand-up when he was in high school, getting a spot at the Comedy Store and began cutting his as an extra in movies. He made his full film acting debut in 1982's soap satire Young Doctors in Love  as a love-struck, pill-popping, dancing intern.

He was also renowned for playing Mr. Pizza Guy in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Rodney Dangerfield's son-in-law in Easy Money.  In a KCET interview, Negron said, "I became the alternative everyman in movies."

He played the villain Milo in 1991's The Last Boy Scout. Said Negron on the role, "It wasn't a stretch, but it came as a surprise to me, because Bruce Willis, Tony Scott and Joel Silver had this idea in their head. So when they offered me the part, I thought it was a joke and they had made a mistake in the printing — that I was going to play the first goombah to the left. I realized very early on that Joel and dear, dear Tony Scott really cared about appearances, so with great detail they blonded my hair and gave me that asymmetrical '60's cut. It was like Hitler, only softer. I wore Dolce & Gabbana clothing and I looked so strange and otherworldly, and just by the sheer virtue of the fact that I had a gun in my hand, that did all the acting for me."

It was hard not to spot Negron in any film as his credits were numerous in melange of cult pic such as Punchline, One Crazy Summer, Angels in the Outfield, Nothing But Trouble, Stuart Little and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. He even reprised his role as the peeved Pizza Guy in Amy Heckerling's 2012 film Vamps.

In TV, Negron started off with appearances on 1970's The Dating Game, and made a reputation as a hysterical guest star on 2001's Hollywood Squares. Just as Negron was in demand in film, so was he in TV where he guest-starred, equally playing comedy and gravitas, on a slew of iconic TV series including Hill Street Blues, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Ben Stiller Show, Seinfeld, ER, Hope and Gloria, Party of Five, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Zoey 101 and The Wizards of Waverly Place. Negron played in eight episodes of The Hughleys as Chuck Ballard.

Of late, he was fixture in the Los Angeles comedy scene, appearing at Un-Cabaret (where he is considered one of the monologue's shows original members), The Moth and Comedy Central Stage's Sit-n-Spin among many other shows. He also performed in fellow comedians' projects such as Melinda Hill's web series Romantic Encounters. Negron won best award for the series from LA webfest.

Paris terror arsenal: Kalashnikovs, rocket launcher, grenade
From Yahoo! News

LONDON (AP) — Kalashnikov assault rifles. Plenty of ammunition. Molotov cocktails, a grenade, a death-dealing Skorpion machine pistol and a few handguns. Plus a revolving light that could be placed on a car roof to make it look like an undercover police car.

The list of weapons— along with a jihadi flag — carried by the French Muslim terrorists who launched the Charlie Hebdo attacks is frightening, especially given al-Qaida's warning of further such assaults. And it also represents a striking change for western Europe, where gun crime is far more rare than in the United States.

The relatively heavy weaponry — a staple of recent attacks — seems to indicate that terrorist networks are moving away from bombs in favor of military-grade assault rifles and machine guns backed by smaller automatic pistols.

Gun attacks spread a different kind of terror than bombings: more personal, more focused, and able to be drawn out into the kind of protracted urban drama that seizes a society's attention for days. Even in Europe, guns can be easier to acquire, transport and conceal than explosives.

The mini-arsenal police found after the final shootout with brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi even included an advanced rocket launcher — with a loaded rocket ready for firing.

The movement toward use of heavy weaponry instead of bombs was evident with the 2012 attack that killed three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi, and three paratroopers in Toulouse, France — as well as the 2014 killing of four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels by an extremist with a Kalashnikov.

"The violence is becoming more focused at specific groups, Jewish targets, military targets, police targets, and they are using complex multiple armed assaults that are just as effective and much easier to do than explosive devices," said Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism specialist with the Swedish National Defense College.

He said the trend started when terrorist strategists saw the relative success of the 2008 raid in Mumbai. A small group of well-armed, well-trained commandos was able to paralyze a major city for several days, leaving more than 160 dead. Counter-terrorism officials warned at the time that the successful tactics would catch the eye of other plotters looking for a more reliable alternative to homemade explosive devices.

Western intelligence agencies fear terrorists may now be plotting still more attacks using relatively simple, low-tech tools.

Denmark's Security and Intelligence Service had acknowledged in its latest terror assessment that plotters can find "easily accessible weapons" including knives, small arms and small bombs, inside Denmark for use in attacks.

The use of bombs has become more problematic in recent years as European law enforcement officials have greatly increased tracking of precursor chemicals that can be used to make explosives. Bombs carry a high risk of detection when the components are being assembled, and they are inherently unstable and often malfunction, with deadly results for the hapless bomb makers.

In contrast, it is relatively easy for terrorists with underworld connections to obtain heavy weapons on the black market, particularly in the Balkan countries of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, hundreds of thousands of heavy weapons became available at black market arms bazaars in Hungary and other former Soviet bloc countries. Those weapons helped fuel the Balkan wars, and are still available today for buyers with good connections and ample cash. More than 500,000 weapons were also stolen from Albanian arms depots in 1997, adding to the black market flow.

European Commission documents indicate that nearly 500,000 other weapons lost or stolen within the European Union remain unaccounted for, and cite an increase in the number of civilian and military weapons stolen in France.

A 2013 report states that "large amounts of powerful military grade weapons" have reached the European Union since the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the fighting in the Balkans. The weapons are often smuggled in cars or buses in small quantities to avoid detection. It also says upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa may make more stolen or surplus military weapons available to Europe's criminal gangs.

Still, it takes planning and care to transport weapons from the Balkans or eastern Europe into western Europe and particularly into Britain, which as an island can more easily monitor points of entry.

Britain, which has warned police officers they are likely targets of terror plotters, recently broke up a scheme to get weaponry to terrorists plotters.

Italy, with its strong Mafia tradition, is seen as a likely conduit for heavy weapons heading toward France and other points in western Europe even though assault weapons use there is very rare.

Ranieri de Maria, a legal expert for the National Association of Arms and Munitions producers in Italy, said he believes Italy is used by weapons traffickers as "a transit country between the Balkans and Europe." Even so, he noted, "it has been a number of years since there has been any attack with an assault weapon."

Morten Storm, a Dane who claims to have infiltrated al-Qaida in Yemen on behalf of western intelligence agencies, said he believes the Charlie Hebdo plotters had been laying low inside France while "waiting for the arms and weapons for the attack."

It was evident from video of the initial assault that the attackers were well trained in weapons use. They did not make emotional "rookie" mistakes like spraying the premises with automatic weapons fire but instead carried out the killings quickly and efficiently.

The concern, for Europeans, is that a pattern might emerge: hundreds of jihadis have returned to their home countries on the continent after receiving weapons training in Syria and other conflict zones.

___

Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Paris, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Colleen Barry in Milan, Harold Heckle in Madrid, and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.

[1. Clooney's Revenge]

6 Things to Look For at Sunday's Golden Globe Awards
From Yahoo! Movie



You never know what shenanigans are going to unfold at the Golden Globes, often described as the Oscars' drunken cousin. We've seen Ricky Gervais roast Hollywood heavyweights to their faces, unlikely movies like The Hangover win Best Picture, Renée Zellweger miss her name being called while in the restroom, and more than a few slurry speeches. Although the show's spontaneity is half its fun, here are six things to look for come Sunday.

1. Clooney's Revenge

Co-hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler got George Clooney good last year with a crack about his taste in younger women (on his role in Gravity, Fey teased, "George Clooney would rather float away into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age"). The since-married actor, who told Yahoo Movies shortly after that Fey and Poehler "should be looking over their shoulders," will be the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille career achievement award at this year's Globes, and if the notorious prankster has indeed been plotting some comeuppance, Sunday — live and in front of a worldwide audience — would be the perfect time and setting to unleash it.

2. The Interview Jokes

The Sony hacker story has made for one of Hollywood's biggest kerfuffles in ages. Don't expect Fey and Poehler to shy away from minig it for material. Maybe this is where Seth Rogen and James Franco, who have been mostly quiet about the whole brouhaha in recent weeks, pop back into the picture.

3. First-Time Winners

Wide-eyed recipients accepting awards for the first time almost always deliver the best speeches, filled with unreserved glee, tears of joy, and the occasional expletive.  And there could be a lot of them on Sunday. Of Yahoo Movies' predictions in the six acting categories, four would be first-time Globe winners: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything), Michael Keaton (Birdman), J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), and Patricia Arquette (Boyhood).

4. Meryl Streep Adding to Her Record 8 Wins

Of all the stats spouted by awards pundits (like this guy) in the lead-up to the Golden Globes, the one that's most mind-blowing has to be the fact that Meryl Streep now has a record 29 Golden Globe nominations and a record eight Golden Globe wins. (If you include honorary awards, Barbra Streisand has nine.) Streep (Into the Woods) could add to her hardware if she pulls a minor upset of Patricia Arquette and/or Emma Stone in the Best Supporting Actress category.

5. Teary Farewells

This past year has been a tragic one for movie fans, with the losses of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Williams, two extraordinary talents who died far too young. It will be interesting to see if and how the HFPA pays tribute to them; Hoffman was a five-time Globe nominee who won Best Actor in 2006 for Capote; Williams has 11 nominations, five wins, and was also honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2005. Also look for E! to celebrate the late Queen of Fashion Commentary, Joan Rivers, during the preshow festivities. 

6. Boyhood & Birdman Winning Big

Richard Linklater's Boyhood and Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman have been considered the two leading awards contenders since early fall — not unlike we saw last year with 12 Years a Slave and Gravity. Both should walk away with multiple awards Sunday, including Best Picture in their respective categories (Drama vs. Musical or Comedy), further setting the stage for an Oscar showdown. Things get interesting, though, if something like Selma pulls a major upset.

[/warp SFTChristmas]

The holiday gift exchange is finally here and will be open until the New Year! There was a delay this year because of the world reset.

To give a gift, go to /warp SFTChristmas and go under the tree. Find an empty chest, put a lock on it, and place your gift in there.

To make a name tag for the chest, right click the sign and do /lock sl To playername.

Don't forget to allow your friend into the chest (right click sign again, do /lock addmember playername)!

[Standard Crates:]

Standard Crates:

Crate 1 (Deadpool):
Deadpool's Mask
Deadpool's Shirt
Deadpool's Pants
Deadpool's Boots
Beauroyre Blade
SteveCo Fail Potato

Crate 2 (Staff Heads):
TowelieDOH's head
dpa1991's head
bogeymanEST's head
FearThe1337's head
donnydoom604's head
boymac45's head
SteveCo Gold Carrot
Cookie Monster

Crate 3 (Hero):
Hero's Hood
Hero's Tunic
Hero's Pants
Hero's Boots
Hero's Bow
Majora's Mask
Kokiri Sword
Red Potion

Crate 4 (Random):
Agile Excavator
Thief's Pickaxe
Skullsplitter Axe
Nectar of the Gods
Bundle of Enderpearls
SteveCo Gravel
The Time Keeper

Crate 5 (Shaman):
Strange Shaman's Health Buff Cap
Strange Shaman's Speed Buff Chest
Strange Shaman's Damage Buff Pants
Strange Shaman's Horse Buff Boots
Strange Steve Co. Cake
Strange A bunch of emeralds

Crate 6 (Random):
Strange Thor's Sword
Strange Retro Axe
Chainmail Chestplate
Golden Carrot
Golden Apple

Crate 7 (Attila The Hun):
Sword of Attila
Attila the Hun's Hat
Attila the Hun's Pants
Attila the Hun's Boots
Attila the Hun's Chestplate
Pretty much a fail prize
16 Emeralds

Crate 8 (Random):
Ancient Wizard's Wand
Poseidon's Helmet
Joan of Arc's Armor
Hawkeye's Bow
A bunch of XP Potions
Malk

Crate 9 (DarkKnight):
DarkKnight's Coif
DarkKnight's Hauberks
DarkKnight's Armor Pants
DarkKnight's Heavy Chainmail Boots
Water Bottle
Zippo Lighter

Crate 10 (Sorcerer):
Restoration Wand
Sorcerer's Cowl
Sorcerer's Robe
Sorcerer's Trousers
Sorcerer's Boots
Great Health Potion
SteveCo Gravel

Crate 11 (Archon):
Strange The Wedge
Archon Coif
Archon Chestplate
Archon Trousers
Archon Boots
Bottomless Potion of Mutilation
SteveCo Pumpkin Pie
SteveCo Enderpearls

Crate 12 (Potions):
Great Potion of Resistance
Great Potion of Regeneration
Great Potion of Buffing
Great Potion of Harming
SteveCo Milk

Crate 13 (Breaking Bad):
Hazmat Suit Helmet
Hazmat Suit (chestplate)
Hazmat Suit (pants)
Hazmat Suit Boots
Crystal Meth
Los Pollos Hermanos

Crate 14 (Pirate):
Pirate's Hat
Pirate's Leather Coat
Pirate's Leather Trousers
Pirate's Clogs
Pirate's Hook
Bottle O' rum

Crate 15 (Ghostbusters):
Ghostbuster Uniform Helmet
Ghostbuster Uniform Chest
Ghostbuster Uniform Pants
Ghostbuster Uniform Boots
Positron Collider
Ectoplasm
SteveCo Malk

Crate 16 (Heads):
Computer Decorative Head
TV Decorative Head
Present Decorative Head
Companion Cube Decorative Head
Aquarium Decorative Head
Gamecube Decorative Head
Radio Decorative Head
Earth Decorative Head
Bacon Food Head
Pancakes Food Head
Tomato Food Head
Hamburger Food Head
Popcorn Food Head
SpongeBob Character Head
Mario Character Head
Mudkip Character Head
Ash Character Head
Bowser Character Head
Koala Character Head
Question Head

Crate 17 (AlienTech):
AlienTech Hat
AlienTech Shirt
AlienTech Pants
AlienTech Boots
AlienTech Gun
AlienTech Sword
AlienTech Pickaxe
Strange Bread

Crate 18 (Spartan):
Spartan Warrior's Spear
Unusual Thracian Helmet
Muscle Cuirass
Leather Fringes
Greaves
Lentaculum
Spartan's Potion

Crate 19 (Star Wars - Stormtrooper):
Stormtrooper Mask
Stormtrooper Imperial Chestplate
Stormtrooper Imperial Trousers
Stormtrooper Imperial Boots
E-11 Blaster

Crate 20 (Star Wars - Chewbacca):
Chewbacca Mask
Chewbacca Torso (Costume)
Chewbacca Legs (Costume)
Chewbacca Feet (Costume)
Chewbacca's Bowcaster
Chewbacca's Wookie Sword
Wookie Beer
Bantha Meat
Ewok Steak

Crate 21 (Pokemon):
Official League Cap
Trainer's Pants
Trainer's Jacket
Trainer's Sneakers
Master Ball
Pokeball collection
Max Repel
Max Revive

Crate 22 (MegaMan):
Mega Man's Helmet
Mega Man's Armor
Mega Man's Protective Pants
Mega Man's Boots
Mega Buster
Energy Pellet
Energy Tank
Weapon Tank
SteveCO Fail Prize (Gravel)

Crate 23 (Iron Man):
Iron Man's Helmet
Iron Man's Chest Armor
Iron Man's Armored Pants
Iron Man's Jetpack Boots
Iron Man's Grappling Hook
Spectacular graviton beam
Nanobot
SteveCo Fail Prize (Gravel)

Crate 24 (Random):
Pimp's Hoe
Le Trout
Practical Man's Jewelry
The Skull Basher
Summon Towelie
SteveCo Failprize (Gravel)

Crate 25 (Native American Heritage):
SteveCo Fail Pie
Ayahuasca
Blowpipe
Tomahawk
Indian Headpiece
Indian Tunic
Indian Legpiece
Indian Sandals

Crate 26 (X-Mas):
Santa's Head
Santa's Tunic
Santa's Pants
Santa's Boots
Guardian Potion
Tough Cookie
Delicious Fail Prize (Pie)

Crate 27 (Random):
Radioactive Fallout Potion
Shades 'o' Red Fireworks
Soulbound Sword
Severed Creeper Head
Enchanted Golden Apple

Crate 28 (Portal):
GLaDOS Head Frame
Chell's Aperture Tanktop
Chell's Sweatpants
Chell's Long Fall Boots
PotatOS
SteveCo FailPrize (Gravel)

Crate 29 (Penguin):
Penguin Hat
Penguin Torso
Penguin Legs
Penguin Flipers
Self Defence Balls
Steve Co. Fail Prize (Blowfish)

Crate 30 (Stranger Things):
Dustin's Trucker Hat
Lucas' Coat
Will's Shoes
Dart
Mike's Walkie Talkie
Vial of El's Blood
Strange Steve's Nailed Bat

Crate 31 (Hulk):
The Hulk Mask
The Hulk Chest
The Hulk Pants
The Hulk Legs
Hulk Smash Potion
Strange Adamantium Knuckle Dusters

Crate 32 (South Park):
Kenny's Cap
Kenny's Hoodie
Kenny's Overalls
Kenny's Shoes
Strange Kenny's Shuriken
Steve Co. Fail Prize (Snow Ball)

Crate 33 (Corvo):
The Heart
Corvo's Mask
Corvo's Suit
Corvo's Suit
Corvo's Boots
Corvo's Pistol
Corvo's Folding Blade
Corvo's Crossbow
Bone Charm

Crate 34 (James Bond):
Oddjob's Hat
James Bond's Tuxedo
James Bond's Tuxedo
James Bond's Shoes
The Golden Gun
Strange James Bond's Folding Knife
007- License To Kill

Crate 35 (Grim Reaper):
Grim Reaper's Skull
Grim Reaper's Hoodie
Grim Reaper's Robe
Grim Reaper's Pants
Grim Reaper's Boots
Grim Reaper's Scythe
Potion of Nether

Crate 36 (The Walking Dead):
Daryl's Crossbow
Tyreese's Hammer
Hershel's Pocket Watch
Prison Riot Gear - Helmet
Prison Riot Gear - Chestplate
Prison Riot Gear - Trousers
Prison Riot Gear - Boots
Rotten flesh (Fail prize)

Crate 37 (Skyrim):
Daedric Helmet
Daedric Chestplate
Daedric Leggings
Daedric Boots
Dragonborn Batlle Axe
Steve Co Fail Prize (Arrow)

Crate 38: (The "Ran out of Ideas" crate):
saywhat2365's Head
The W.A.R Banner
Saywhat's Sammich
A potion of true speed
[Pack] Booster 2

Crate 39 (Destiny):
Nova Bomb
Strange Coin
Gjallarhorn
Steve Co Fail Prize (Gravel)
Strange The Sword of Crota

Crate 40 (The Witcher):
Geralt's Mask
Geralt's Chestplate
Geralt's Leggings
Geralt's Boots
Witcher Blade
Roach
Griffin Feather

Crate 41 (Fallout):
Vault Head
Vault Jumpsuit
Vault Jumpsuit
Vault Boot's
Strange Wazer Wifle
Pip-Boy

Crate 42 (Christmas 2):
SantaClaus's Hat
SantaClaus's Tunic
SantaClaus's Trousers
SantaClaus's Boots
Santa Banner
Rudolph Banner

Crate 43 (Master Chief):
Master CHief's Hemet
Master CHief's Armor
Master CHief's Combat Pants
Master CHief's Combat Boots
Type 1 Energy Weapon
Alien Rod (Fail Prize)

Crate 44 (Sonic The Hedgehog):
Sonic The Hedgehog Head
Sonic The Hedgehog Cloak
Sonic The Hedgehog Pants
Sonic The Hedgehog Boots
+10% Speed Voucher

Crate 45 (Captain America):
Captain America's Helmet
Captain America's Chestplate
Captain America's Pants
Captain America's Boots
Captain America's Shield
Steak Dinner (Fail Prize)

Crate 46 (SFT's 6th Anniversary)
saywhat2365's Head
bogeymanEST's head
FearThe1337's Head
MColesy's Head
Tinoow's head
Dpa1991's Head
darknuju's Head
mordalthunder's Head
TowelieDOH's Head
Fractalion's Head
iLaxrv10's Head
Autobiography

Crate 47 (Character Heads)
Clock Head
Eevee Head
Sonic Head
Chochlate Head
Pikachu Head
Present Head
Computer Head
Stitch Head
Taco Head
Earth Head
Bowser Head
Cookie Head
Shrek Head
Campanion Cube Head
SteveCo FailPrize (Cookie)

Crate 48 (Halloween 2k16)
Dragon head
Wither Skull
Strange Jack O' Latern
Candy Apple
Cobweb
Steve Co FailPie (Pie)

Crate 49 (Grinch Set)
Grinch's Christmas Hat
Grinch's Christmas Tunic
Grinch's Christmas Pants
Grinch's Christmas Boots
Strange Grinch's Walking Stick
Christmas Cookie

Crate 50 (Donald Trump)
Donald Trump Mask (head)
Donald Trump Suit (Chest)
Donald Trump Suit (Legs)
Donald Trump Suit (Feet)
The Donald's Hair (Fail Prize) (Dead Bush)
Strange The Great Wall (Fence Post)

Crate 51 (Valentine's  Day)
Totem of Undying Love (Totem of Undying)
Cupids Arrow (Instant HP Arrow)
Roses (Rose Bush)
Tear of Sorrow (Failprize)

Crate 52 (Breath of the Wild)
Hylian Helmet
Champions Tunic
Hylian Pants
Hylian Boots
Strange Master Sword
Raw Meat (Fail Prize)

Crate 53 (Undertale)
Manly Bandana (Leather Cap)
Temmie Armour (Diamond Chestplate)
Temmie Armour Legs (Diamond Leggings)
Temmie Armour Boots (Diamond Boots)
Strange Toy Knife (Wooden Sword)
Strange Real Knife (Iron Sword)
Monster Candy (Cookie)
Butterscotch Pie (Pumpkin Pie)

Crate 54 (Olympian)
Ares's Helmet
Ares's Chestplate
Ares's Leggings
Ares's Boots
Zues's Lightningbolt
Bow of Apollo
Aphordite's Apple

Crate 55 (UUID Heads)
XBox
Trashcan
Sans
TARDIS
Wii
Santa Claus
Teddy Bear
Dalek
PlayStation
Letter Box
StormTrooper
Toaster
Chara
GameCube
Christmas Snowglobe
Chimney

Crate 56 (Fortnite)
Strange Tier 1 Pickaxe
Boogie Bomb
Glider
Bandages
Tactical Shotgun
Shells 'n' Slugs
Medkit
Slurp Juice
Wooden Floor Spikes
Launch Pad

Crate 57 (Assassin's Creed)
Assassin's Hood (Leather Cap)
Assassin's Coat (Leather Chest)
Assassin's Leggings (Leather Leggings)
Assassin's Boots (Leather Boots)
The Assassin Tomahawk (Iron Axe)
Strange Hidden Blade (Iron Sword)
Edward Kenway's Cutlass (Diamond Sword)
Flintlock Pistol (Iron Horse Armour)
Altair Ibn-La'Ahad (Head)
Ezio Auditore da Firenze (Head)
Connor / Ratonhnhaké:ton (Head)

Crate 58 (Red Dead Redemption 2)
Arthur's Hat
Arthur's Shirt
Arthur's Pants
Arthur's Boots
Arthur's Horse
Strange Hunting Bow
Stolen Treasure

Crate 59 (Toy Story)
Buzz Lightyear's Helmet
Buzz Lightyear's Jetpack
Buzz Lightyear's Pants
Buzz Lightyear's Boots
Woody's Lasso
Strange Buzz's Phaser
SteveCo Fail Prize (Cobweb)

Crate 60 (Animal Crossing)
Tom Nook's Head
Isabelle's Head
Mr. Resetti's Pickaxe
C.J.'s Fishing Rod
Classic Golden Shovel
Brewster's Coffee
Flick's Model Silverfish Egg
1,000 Bells
Unidentified Fossil

Rare Crates:

Rare Crate 1 (Game of Thrones)
Unsullied Helm
Unsullied Chestplate
Unsullied pants
Unsullied Boots
Strange Robb's Sword

Rare Crate 2 (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Donatello's Bandana
Donatello's Shell (chest)
Donatello's Shell (legs)
Donatello's Boots
Pizza (Pie)
Sufficiently Lethal Bo Staff (Stick)

Rare Crate 3 (The Walking Dead)
Rick Sheriff's Hat
Rick's BulletProof Vest
Rick's Sheriff Uniform
Rick's Sheriff Boots
Strange Michonne's Katana
Rick's Service Revolver
Walkers Severed Head

Rare Crate 4 (Batman)
Batman Mask (Head)
Batman Cape
Batman Pants
Batman Boots
Batman's Grappling Hook
Strange Batman's Batarang


Rare Crate 5 (Dark Souls)
Block Iron Helm
Black Iron Armor
Black Iron Leggings
Black Iron Boots
Dragonslayer Greatbow


Rare Crate 6 (Bart Simpson)
Bart's Spiky Hair
Bart's T-Shirt
Bart's Pants
Bart's Shoes
Bart's Slingshot (Bow)
Duff Beer (Potion)


Rare Crate 7 (Zelda)
Hero's Hat
Hero's Clothes (chest)
Hero's Clothes (legs)
Hero's Boots
Master Sword
Hylian Shield

Rare Crate 8 (Cpt.Kirk)
Cpt.Kirk's Uniform (chest)
Cpt.Kirk's Uniform Pants
Cpt.Kirk's Uniform Boots
Strange Phaser (Bow)
Phaser Powercell (Arrow)
Communicator (Flint an Steel)

Rare Crate 9 (Overwatch)
Competitive Points
Mercy's Wings
Chain Hook
Strange Rocket Axe
Storm Bow

Rare Crate 10 (Parrots)
Parrot Eggs

Rare Crate 11 (Dragon Ball Z)
Dragon Balls (Ender Pearls)
Goku's "Uniform" (Leather Helm)
Goku's "Uniform" (Leather Chestplate)
Goku's "Uniform" (Leather Leggings)
Goku's "Uniform" (Leather Boots)
Vegeta's "Uniform" (Leather Helm)
Vegeta's "Uniform" (Leather Chestplate)
Vegeta's "Uniform" (Leather Leggings)
Vegeta's "Uniform" (Leather Boots)

Rare Crate 12 (Hell Bound)
Hell Bound Helmet
Hell Bound Chestplate
Hell Bound Leggings
Hell Bound Greaves
Hell Bound Dagger
Block O' Fading Souls

Discontinued and Removed Crates:

Crate 26a (Alladin)
Fez
Alladin's Vest
Silk Harem
Magic Carpet
Scimitar
Jafar's Snake Staff
Alladin's Lamp

Crate 30a (Dr. Who):
River Song's TARDIS Journal
Sonic Screw Driver
Tardis Banner
Tardis Painting 1-4
Steve Co. Fail Prize (Gravel)



* Note: These are in no particular order. The chances of getting the items, the enchants and effects are still a mystery.

This image released by 20th Century Fox shows Michael Fassbender in the film, "X-Men: Days of Future Past." (AP Photo/20th Century Fox, Alan Markfield)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — "X-Men: Days of Future Past" is projected to be the fifth best Memorial Day holiday weekend debut in box office history over a four-day period, just behind "Fast & Furious 6″ and above "The Hangover 2."

The seventh installment in the "X-Men" franchise earned $111 million, according to studio estimates on Monday, May 26. Fox updated its holiday weekend projection, taking it up slightly from $91 million to $91.4 million.

2006′s "X-Men: The Last Stand" is still the highest domestic opener of the series, gaining $123 million when it debuted over the Memorial holiday. "Days of Future Past," starring a solid cast including Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Peter Dinklage and Ellen Page, is now the second highest "X-Men" debut.

"We were hoping to get a $100 million in four days and we hoped to broaden the movie out to a more general audience, which has come to fruition from a gender standpoint, age standpoint and race standpoint," said Spencer Klein, senior vice president general sales manager for Fox.

The diverse domestic "X-Men" audience was 56 percent male and 44 percent female. Racially, 53 percent of the audience was white, 20 percent African-American, 14 percent Asian and 13 percent Hispanic.

The attention "Days of Future Past" director Bryan Singer received due a sexual assault lawsuit didn't keep fans away from theaters this weekend.

"We didn't really anticipate that it would," said Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution for Fox. "It really shouldn't have an impact on audiences and seeing this movie. The audience reactions on a global basis are extraordinarily high, the best of any of our 'X-Men' films."

Globally, "Days of Future Past" earned $282 million with $171 million of that total gained from the international sales in 119 countries, all of which had the "X-Men" film ranked No. 1.

The projected worldwide box office cume of "Days of Future Past" through Monday is an astounding $302 million.

Warner Bros. sci-fi monster smash "Godzilla" dropped to No. 2, but landed solidly with $39.4 million from Thursday to Monday.

The Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore-led comedy "Blended" held the third place spot with an $18.2 million debut. It's not a great start for the duo whose previous team-ups included "The Wedding Singer" and "50 First Dates." Both films grossed over $80 million domestically.

"Neighbors" and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2″ rounded out the top five earning $17.2 million and $10 million, respectively.

The four-day Memorial weekend is estimated to generate nearly $230 million, which is down approximately 27 percent from last year's holiday weekend gross of $314.2 million.

___

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Tuesday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Tuesday.

1."X-Men: Days of Future Past," $111 million ($171 million international).

2."Godzilla," $39.4 million.

3."Blended," $18.2 million.

4."Neighbors," $17.2 million.

5."The Amazing Spider-Man 2," $10 million.

6."Million Dollar Arm," $9 million.

7."The Other Woman," $5 million.

8."Rio 2," $3.3 million.

9."Chef," $3 million.

10."Heaven Is for Real," $2.8 million.

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jessica Herndon at https://twitter.com/SomeKind



Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

The two choices were narrowed down based on how frequently these are actually hosted. Fact of the matter is, TreasureHunt and Building Contest are rarely hosted. Vote here to decide which weekly event will be hosted on Friday! The one with the most votes by 15:30 GMT-4 on Friday will be hosted!

Time: Friday, May 23, 2014 @ 16:00 GMT-4
Place: SFT Survival Server, world 3.


[countdown=Friday 16:00,GMT-4][/countdown]
(Thanks for the countdown karkafi)

Apparently This Matters: America invades virtual Denmark
From CNN



I once stayed at a youth hostel in Copenhagen called Sleep in Heaven. Which sounds quite pleasant until you realize that, apparently, heaven is cold and damp and completely infested with bedbugs.

I guess that's the part they don't tell you in Sunday school.

"No, no. It's great. Nothing to worry about. Beautiful white robes. Big puffy clouds. Probably a salad bar."

But there were none of those. Just bed bugs.

Something was rotten in the state of Denmark.

The next day, bitten and disgusted, I literally ran to catch a train to Berlin and haven't had pleasant thoughts about that country since.

This was back in 2003. The tortured memories persist and still haunt my dreams.

Which is why, the other day, almost eleven years later, I was delighted to learn that the United States finally invaded Denmark, set it on fire, and raised the American flag.

Sort of.

Here's what happened.

There's a wildly popular computer game called "Minecraft" where, as best I understand it, players build highly imaginative environments and constructions using 3D cubes. It's sort of like a modern, digital-version of Lego, but without the risk of waking up the neighbors when you step barefoot on a wayward block.

"Harold, I think Paul next door is constipated again."

"Mark it on the chart, Diane."

Now, I've never actually played this game because I'm a grown man with far more important things to do like tweeting and running my pretend fantasy football sports dynasty.

So, to the millions of fine people who play "Minecraft," I sincerely apologize for oversimplifying your beloved game. It's all just too complicated, for I have six functioning brain cells, and five of them are dedicated to breathing and blinking.

But, from what I can tell, part of the fun in "Minecraft" is creating these new virtual worlds and exploring those of others.

And it's also a way to re-imagine worlds that already exist.

So, the Danish government sanctioned the creation of a replica version of their country within "Minecraft" to use as a progressive teaching tool for schoolchildren, educating them about Denmark's geography.

Really, it was a wonderfully creative and virtuous idea.

Thus, cyber vandals promptly decided to blow it up.

Somehow, these vandals were able to infiltrate virtual Denmark while sneaking in virtual dynamite, at which point they virtually demolished parts of virtual Copenhagen.

What's interesting is that the use of this virtual dynamite was actually banned on the Danish server. But the ever-cunning vandals discovered they could sneak it in inside a virtual mining cart.

Which is both amazing and ridiculous .. that it should come to this.

But through their virtual sneak attack invasion, the vandals proudly constructed virtual American flags all over town, and built virtual signs reading: AMERICA.

(Forgive me for a moment as I cue some Lee Greenwood and dab these red, white, and blue tears of pride rolling down my cheeks.)

Initially, it was believed that the virtual damage was virtually catostraphic and virtually widespread. However, Chris Hammeken, an actual spokesperson from the Danish Geodata Agency, explained to the BBC, "Only a minor area was destroyed."

There was no official word on whether or not a virtual Sleep In Heaven youth hostel was annihilated in the process.

I guess a man can dream.

Though the Danish Geodata Agency was quickly able to fully "repair" the "destruction," there was no fixing the psychological damage. Soon after the attack, images appeared on a "Minecraft" forum, and Denmark's defeat had officially gone public. And viral.

Now, understand that I'm not an outwardly patriotic individual. But, despite the fact that -- all kidding aside -- Denmark really is a beautiful country with incredibly happy, intelligent, and peaceful citizens, I have to admit that, upon reading about this I felt a rather large twinge of U.S.A. pride.

The whole thing was just so absurd and wonderfully American.

Oh, that it should come to this.

What is this board about?
This board is an opportunity for writers to share some articles about things they like! In addition to writing their own stories, users can also send articles with the original link to djkirsh in a forum PM to be reposted on this board. However, I would really love to see some original content being pumped to this board. All original articles will be edited and screened through to make sure there isn't anything that will cause too much of an uproar.

What do the tags mean?
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