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Deadly clashes in Libyan capital force airport to close
Today's Headlines
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Top Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic shot dead
[BBC] A prominent Kosovo Serb politician, Oliver Ivanovic, has been shot dead outside his party offices in the Serb-run north of Mitrovica.

Ivanovic, seen as a moderate Kosovo Serb leader, was shot four times in the chest and died later in hospital, his lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic said.

Serbian government negotiators walked out of EU-mediated talks with Kosovo Albanians in Brussels after the news. Kosovo remains ethnically divided since unilaterally splitting from Serbia. Mitrovica - in northern Kosovo - is divided, with the south run by Kosovo Albanians.

Shadow of conflict

Ivanovic, 64, headed a Kosovo Serb party called Freedom, Democracy, Justice. He had played a leading role in negotiations with Nato and the EU.

He was facing a retrial for alleged war crimes against ethnic Albanians committed in 1999.

In January 2016, EU judges in Kosovo sentenced him to nine years, but the verdict was overturned by an appeals court a year later.

Ivanovic had denied all charges.

"This is a criminal and terrorist act that must be and will be punished," Serbian delegate Marko Djuric said, announcing his move to walk out of the Brussels talks.

The Serbian government is holding an extraordinary security meeting in Belgrade.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/16/2018 08:56 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:



-Short Attention Span Theater-
Idiot impaled through groin sparks bloody brawl between friends
Posted because the follow-through is so freaking stupid and hilarious. Party on!
[NYPost] A wild all-night party in Harlem turned gruesome Monday, when a man who was asked to leave plunged from a window and got impaled through the groin on a spiked fence, police and witnesses said.

The situation escalated further when two revelers argued over how to help ‐ and one bashed the other so hard with a beer bottle it spattered blood all over the kitchen floor.

"We were all drinking. We were all talking here. Just hanging out," Celso Guzman Rios, 31, said about his skewered pal Eliseo Alvarado-Gonzalez, 27.

"Me and another guy went out to buy beer and we saw him hanging on the fence. . . When I saw him on the fence, I said, ‘Holy f-cking sh-t!' "

The incident began shortly before sunrise, as Rios, Alvarado-Gonzalez and three others held the night-long rager at an apartment on West 135th Street near Riverside Drive.

At one point, Alvarado-Gonzalez was asked to leave because he was making too much noise, cops and witnesses said.

But instead of just taking the stairs, the man "jumped" out the window, Rios said.

"He didn't want to leave. My friend said, ‘Leave or I'm going to call the police.' But he wouldn't leave. Then I lost sight of him," Rios said.

Rios had no clue his trouble-making party pal had plunged more than 12 feet ‐ and landed on an 8-foot-tall wrought-iron fence ‐ until he returned from the beer run around 7 a.m., he said.

Alvarado-Gonzalez had become impaled on the spiked fence through the right side of his groin ‐ and a pool of blood formed on the pavement below.

"I lifted him up. He didn't scream or anything. He must have been numb. He must have been too drunk to feel anything," Rios said. "There was a lot of blood flowing from his leg."

Inside the apartment, a fight then broke out between two of the partygoers over whose friend Alvarado-Gonzalez was ‐ and thus whose responsibility.

"He's you're friend, why don't you help him!?" one of the drunken men shouted, according to Rios.

A furious Jamie Mendez, 28, allegedly smashed a Corona bottle over the man's head, police and witnesses said.

"I thought he was going to kill him," Rios said of the brawl. Mendez was later arrested on second- degree assault charges and hauled away in handcuffs.

Emergency responders had to cut out a 4-foot section of the fence to pull Alvarado-Gonzalez from it.

"I held him up until the police came," Rios said. "The police arrived and started cutting the fence to free him."

Alvarado-Gonzalez was rushed to Mount Sinai St. Luke's hospital, where he underwent surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma, a police source said.

He was in critical condition on Monday night and expected to be taken out of the coma on Tuesday, the source said.

Police were investigating whether any criminality was involved on Monday night.

Though Rios initially said Alvarado-Gonzalez jumped, he backpedaled later, saying, "I really don't know what happened ‐ if he jumped or someone pushed him."
Posted by: Frank G || 01/16/2018 09:34 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: Pappy || 01/16/2018 11:10 Comments || Top||

#2  And we want to allow more these types to immigrate into the US why?
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 01/16/2018 14:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Entertainment value, SPoD.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/16/2018 14:38 Comments || Top||

#4  " He's YOUR friend, you help him.."

Invokes the old rattlesnake bite on the Johnson joke....
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 01/16/2018 15:37 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Wolf found in northern Belgium, first time in over 100 years
[GEO.TV] A wild wolf has been found in the northern Belgian region of Flanders for the first time in more than a century, an environmental group said Saturday.

"Our country was the only one in continental Europe
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
to have not been visited by a wolf," since the animal began recolonising the continent, Landschap said.

Overhunting, industrialisation and urban sprawl progressively led to the disappearance of the wolf from most of Western Europe since the beginning of the 20th century.

Since the Bern Convention of 1979, the wolf has gone from public enemy to a protected species as "a fundamental element of our natural European heritage".

In some countries, like Romania and Poland where there have always been wolves, people adapt to treat an attack on sheep "like an accident, like a flock that falls into a ravine", says Farid Benhammou, a specialist on predators.

But in the new zones of wolf colonisation ‐ in La Belle France and in some regions of Italia and Spain ‐ there are major tensions, with farmers particularly unhappy at their re-emergence.

The wolf detected in Flanders in early January had an electronic tracker collar around its neck which allowed it to be identified as coming from neighbouring Germany.

The same animal had been spotted around Christmas in the Netherlands, according to Landschap.

"In recent days the wolf has stayed near the Phlegmish town of Beringen and the military base at Leopoldsburg. The animal has covered 500 kilometres (300 miles) in ten days," the group said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/16/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As long as the Wolf's name is not Fenrir it's cool.
Posted by: 3dc || 01/16/2018 0:07 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/16/2018 1:44 Comments || Top||

#3  These people let millions of Muslims in - and they worry about a wolf?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/16/2018 4:04 Comments || Top||

#4  First one in 100 years, so it's a lone wolf - as far as they know...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/16/2018 7:26 Comments || Top||

#5  It had a tracking collar, so it is a known wolf.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/16/2018 10:21 Comments || Top||

#6  It's been there all along but wearing sheep's clothing.
Posted by: DonM || 01/16/2018 10:53 Comments || Top||

#7  This is great news. If you enjoy wolves too you might want to see our local Wildlife Science Center is home to Minnesota's largest wolf pack.

We used hear them howl across the marsh. Enjoy.

Posted by: Woodrow || 01/16/2018 11:46 Comments || Top||

#8  I thought he was on CNN for 100 years?
Posted by: newc || 01/16/2018 17:14 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
About a dozen people arrested for feeding the homeless in El Cajon park
[San Diego Union-Tribune] El Cajon police officers arrested about a dozen people for feeding the homeless at a city park Sunday afternoon.

The event was organized by a group called Break the Ban, which formed after the El Cajon City Council unanimously passed an emergency ordinance in October prohibiting the distribution of food on any city-owned property.

City officials said the ordinance was a way to protect the public from hepatitis A, but critics have called it a punitive measure to dehumanize and criminalize the homeless.

Mark Lane, one of the event’s organizers, said about 12 to 15 people were passing out food and toiletries to the homeless at Wells Park on East Madison Avenue when police arrived.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/16/2018 00:38 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Do NOT interfere with the work of government. This is your last warning.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/16/2018 0:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Haven't they learned to run from the cops when they're breaking the law? Idiots. I had that shit down to a science when I was a punk teenager - I could probably outrun Usain Bolt back then!
Posted by: Raj || 01/16/2018 0:45 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/16/2018 1:40 Comments || Top||

#4  "Nothing outside the state"? The court case should be interesting - the modern "monkey trial"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/16/2018 3:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Liberal/Socialist California Has The Highest Poverty Rate in The Nation
Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 01/16/2018 7:28 Comments || Top||

#6 
dehumanize and criminalize the homeless


They don't need any help doing that.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/16/2018 8:10 Comments || Top||

#7  "He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse."
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/16/2018 8:18 Comments || Top||

#8  How dare they use their own money and resources!
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/16/2018 9:41 Comments || Top||

#9  The issue is doing it on public land: a Park. The El Cajon law doesn't prohibit it on private property. Wells Park becomes unusable by the general public
Posted by: Frank G || 01/16/2018 9:51 Comments || Top||

#10  Frank has it. You wanna take your kids to a park that is filled with bums, vagrants, weirdos, drunks, druggies and nut cases? Looking after the poor is one thing but letting your streets and parks become a habitat for homeless freaks is just plain stupid.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/16/2018 10:46 Comments || Top||

#11  Other parts of San Diego have serious issues with homeless people crapping in the open and getting sick.

Seems as if El Cajon tried to be preemptive about the problem and 'helpful people' who knew better circumvented that effort.

Break the Ban should be held responsible for anyone sick as a result.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/16/2018 11:44 Comments || Top||

#12  You wanna take your kids to a park that is filled with bums, vagrants, weirdos, drunks, druggies and nut cases?

Don't know one that isn't.
Kids won't see society watching purple dinosaurs.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/16/2018 14:12 Comments || Top||

#13  ...skip school and homework, do drugs and alcohol, screw what the elders tell you listen to your peers, be unique, and you too can join the encampment here. Seem like a good real life lesson.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/16/2018 14:21 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Japanese broadcaster apologizes after false North Korea missile alert
[CNN] Japanese national broadcaster NHK issued an on-air apology Tuesday after issuing an alert incorrectly claiming that North Korea had launched a ballistic missile.

The message, received by phone users with the NHK app installed on their devices, read: "NHK news alert. North Korea likely to have launched missile. The government J alert: evacuate inside the building or underground. "
The broadcaster apologized for the error, adding "the news alert sent earlier about NK missile was a mistake. No government J alert was issued." The mistake was corrected within minutes.
Seppuku at 11:00!
The false alert came on the same day as the US and Canada planned to host talks in Vancouver over the crisis on the Korean Peninsula after a year of missile tests and threats from the North.

The subject of sanctions on North Korea is expected to be on the agenda, as well as the country's participation in next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea.

South Korea and Japan will participate in Tuesday's talks, though North Korea's largest trading partner, China, will not be present.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 01/16/2018 08:42 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We trusted HI EMA. Sorry"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/16/2018 9:03 Comments || Top||

#2  No ritual seppuku?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/16/2018 9:13 Comments || Top||


Visiting North Korea? Draft a will and make funeral plans, State Department says
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/16/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Just save your family the trouble and get yourself cremated before you go, too.
Posted by: gorb || 01/16/2018 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Darn. No I have extra work to do before I go on vacation.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 01/16/2018 9:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Shouldn't they do the same for Baltimore?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/16/2018 9:43 Comments || Top||


Economy
'Pro-America' Black Rifle Coffee becoming popular among conservatives, founder says
[FOX] Black Rifle Coffee Company is not where you go to get your average cup of Joe. The Salt Lake City-based venture is making waves with high-quality coffee while taking a pro-Trump, pro-gun and pro-military stance.

The company’s founder, Evan Hafer said his coffee is becoming very popular among conservatives.

"Progressives hate me and conservatives love me. So if you’re pro-American, pro-America you’re going to love my coffee," Hafer told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on "Mornings with Maria."

The former Army Special Forces vet started roasting coffee in 2006 so he could have fresh coffee while deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hafer said his passion for coffee, coupled with his military experience, is how Black Rifle was created.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/16/2018 09:29 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If you’re going to be a niche producer, it’s clever to find a niche with seriously pent up demand. Now there is somewhere for those rejected by those idiots at Starbucks to go.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/16/2018 11:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Bloody well marketed. Hats off!
Posted by: Woodrow || 01/16/2018 11:32 Comments || Top||

#3  NSFW language and a guaranteed snowflake melter.

Posted by: DarthVader || 01/16/2018 11:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Almost makes me feel bad that I don't drink coffee.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/16/2018 11:41 Comments || Top||

#5  I will still go to a Farstucks to look at the servers that will paint themselves up like clowns (no offense to clowns). They are a hoot!
Posted by: Roth LaDoad || 01/16/2018 11:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Almost makes me feel bad that I don't drink coffee.

The hot cocoa mix is dang good too.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/16/2018 13:18 Comments || Top||

#7  After all of the PC BS coming out of Charbucks, I went after Black Rifle Coffee.

Good stuff, a close second is Silver Spur coffee.

Both are far less expensive, don't taste like yesterday's coffee boiled to the bottom the carafe, and you don't have to put up with all of the trendy BS and fat women ordering 1600 calorie frapawhatchacallems.

I could go on but I love a company that celebrates all of the irrational silliness that comes with testosterone and rejoices in its positive contributions.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 01/16/2018 14:22 Comments || Top||


Swiss bank offers Trump ‘high marks' for economic efforts
[The Hill] An executive representing Swiss bank UBS said Monday that President Trump's economic achievements warrant "high marks."

According to CNBC, UBS Wealth Management America’s chief investment strategist, Mike Ryan, said Trump has "changed the perception of what's possible in Washington."

"I think prior to his election, the prospects of tax reform, of regulatory relief or any sort of sensible approach to infrastructure, were off the table," Ryan reportedly added at a meeting in Singapore.

Ryan’s praise comes weeks after Republicans in Congress passed a sweeping tax overhaul, delivering on Trump’s key promise of reforming the tax code during his first year in office. Trump sold the plan as one that would benefit the middle class and American workers, though critics argue that it disproportionately helps the wealthiest in America.

The overhaul reduced the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, though Ryan acknowledged Monday that the reformed tax code is "not everything that we hoped for."

The banking executive also described the U.S. tax code prior to the bill passed in December as "very inefficient," CNBC reported.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/16/2018 08:42 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


U.S. oil industry set to break record, upend global trade
[Reuters] Surging shale production is poised to push U.S. oil output to more than 10 million barrels per day - toppling a record set in 1970 and crossing a threshold few could have imagined even a decade ago.

And this new record, expected within days, likely won’t last long. The U.S. government forecasts that the nation’s production will climb to 11 million barrels a day by late 2019, a level that would rival Russia, the world’s top producer.

The economic and political impacts of soaring U.S. output are breathtaking, cutting the nation’s oil imports by a fifth over a decade, providing high-paying jobs in rural communities and lowering consumer prices for domestic gasoline by 37 percent from a 2008 peak.

Fears of dire energy shortages that gripped the country in the 1970s have been replaced by a presidential policy of global "energy dominance."

"It has had incredibly positive impacts for the U.S. economy, for the workforce and even our reduced carbon footprint" as shale natural gas has displaced coal at power plants, said John England, head of consultancy Deloitte’s U.S. energy and resources practice.

U.S. energy exports now compete with Middle East oil for buyers in Asia. Daily trading volumes of U.S. oil futures contracts have more doubled in the past decade, averaging more than 1.2 billion barrels per day in 2017, according to exchange operator CME Group.

The U.S. oil price benchmark, West Texas Intermediate crude, is now watched closely worldwide by foreign customers of U.S. gasoline, diesel and crude.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/16/2018 08:23 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When Ford and GM engineering actually do move into the Tesla EV space in the next couple of years maybe we will see a "flux capacitor".
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/16/2018 16:56 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
OOPS: Is this the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency's computer password?
As Twitchy reported earlier, the guy in Hawaii who panicked everyone with a false incoming ballistic missile alert has been "reassigned" for the time being during an investigation.

"Warning Point?" Where have we (maybe) seen those words before? Could it have been in a July 2017 Associated Press photo of Jeffrey Wong, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency’s operations officer?

The original AP photo accompanied stories in several newspapers and magazines last summer and it’s true ‐ on the monitors pictured behind Wong are sticky notes. And, when zoomed in sufficiently, they seem to show the words "Password Warningpoint2."

See pix and posts at link.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 01/16/2018 08:26 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd expect no less from state hacks.
Posted by: Raj || 01/16/2018 9:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Password: "p@ssword"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/16/2018 9:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Pretty typical with low government workers.

(Low being the less secure/enforced side of things)
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/16/2018 9:53 Comments || Top||

#4  mystuff

Always works for me and don't tell anybody please.
Posted by: Roth LaDoad || 01/16/2018 11:45 Comments || Top||

#5  #2 Password: "p@ssword"

I recommend using "incorrect". That way, when you get the pop-up saying "Your password is incorrect", it serves as a reminder. No brain, no strain!
Posted by: SteveS || 01/16/2018 12:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Train people to avoid cilly. Jeeze.
Posted by: S. Glerelet3222 || 01/16/2018 12:53 Comments || Top||



India-Pakistan
Missing Dalit teen gang-raped, killed in Haryana
[Al Jazeera] A 15-year-old Dalit girl who went missing last week in the Indian state of Haryana has been found dead near a canal in Jind district, nearly 100km west of the capital New Delhi.

Doctors say she was gang-raped and her body was mutilated, bringing the memory of the 2012 brutal gang rape of a medical student in New Delhi whose death had triggered nation-wide protests.

"On the afternoon of January 9, she had left for tuition classes, as usual. When I went to pick her up at 8pm (2:30 GMT), the teacher informed me that she had not arrived that day. She was nowhere to be found. Around 10pm that night we filed a police complaint," the father of the victim told Al Jazeera.
Posted by: Fred || 01/16/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Police arrest man resembling Kasur rape-murder suspect
[GEO.TV] Police have incarcerated
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
a man resembling the suspect seen in the CCTV footage with Zainab, the seven-year-old girl who was brutally raped and murdered in Kasur last week, sources told Geo News on Monday.

Sources, however, told Geo News that the DNA of the arrested man does not match with samples found from the victim's body.

According to sources, police have cast doubts over the statement recorded by the arrested man and will now carry out a polygraph test to ascertain veracity of his statement.
11 cases of child sex abuse reported in Pakistain every day: report

Meanwhile,
...back at the bunker, his Excellency called the chief of staff and complained that the artillery was keeping him awake...
authorities have decided to carry out a search operation in the vicinity of the victim's house. Sources said authorities have acquired census data of 1,200 houses around Zainab's home to carry out the operation.

Zainab was brutally raped, murdered and dumped in a garbage pile, in a chilling tragedy that sparked nationwide protest and grief.

Earlier on Monday, a new CCTV video emerged showing a suspicious person beckoning her to come with him, after which the little girl, donned in a frock and leggings, walks towards him.
Posted by: Fred || 01/16/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Girl accompanying slain Karachi teenager says did not see assailants
[GEO.TV] The girl who was allegedly accompanying 19-year-old Intezar Ahmed when coppers gunned him down in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
says she did not see the shooters, source told Geo News.

The teenage boy was killed after Anti Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) officers opened fire on his car on Khayaban-e-Ittehad road of the upscale Defence Housing Authority (DHA) area late Saturday.

The girl, a friend of the dear departed whose identity has not yet been disclosed, was accompanying Intezar when the incident happened but police officials say she left shortly afterwards. Police have now approached her but say they have not yet recorded an official statement.

"The CCTV footage of the incident is with the police and eight of the nine police personnel named in the case have been tossed in the clink
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
," DIG Police South Azad Khan told news hounds at a presser.

He said that the girl "appears to have no link" to the incident.

"She is a witness to the incident and her privacy must be protected," Khan said.

According to sources, the girl has told police that she did not see the assailants due to the intensity of the sudden firing. Police are making efforts to record a formal statement of the girl to make it a part of the investigation, they said.

Sources said the girl confirmed she was in the car with Intezar when the police opened fire. She used a rickshaw to leave the scene, they said.

A case was registered at the Darakshan Police Station against unidentified persons on Sunday, despite the fact that four coppers were taken into custody due to their alleged involvement in the case.

The dear departed’s father, Ishtiaq Ahmed, had informed the media that Intezar, who had recently come back from Malaysia, had a fight with two men two days back ‐ Fahad and Haider, sons of a lawyer and policeman, respectively.

SSP South Javed Akbar had earlier said that 15 bullet cases of 9mm were recovered from the scene of the crime, adding that a girl was also with the dear departed, who fled after the incident.
Posted by: Fred || 01/16/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The girl was...umm...unrelated?
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/16/2018 1:49 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
5 arrested in connection with firebomb attack on Tunisia synagogue
[IsraelTimes] Officials say suspects were not religiously motivated, attempted to create chaos amid anti-government protests nationwide.
Just high spirited boys being boys with molotovs in need of throwing.
Five men were tossed in the calaboose
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
in connection with a firekaboom on a historic synagogue in Tunisia.

Four of the men, ages 19 and 20, were arrested on Friday and a fifth, age 21, believed to be the main culprit in the January 9 attack, was arrested on Saturday, the Kapitalis news website reported. None of the men, residents of the island’s main city of Houmet Essouk. had a criminal record and were not known to security services, according to the report.

The Molotov cocktail thrown at the El Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba caused minor damage and no injuries. The incident occurred amid protests over economic conditions taking place in several Tunisian cities, though not in Djerba itself, Rooters reported.

The Tunisian Interior Ministry said the suspects’ attack was not religiously motivated, but rather an attempt to "create chaos" amid the anti-government protests throughout the country, Ynet reported.

Four Jewish families live in the area. Most of the Djerba Jewish community, which numbers in the hundreds and is the largest in the Arab world, lives two miles north of there, in a neighborhood that is under heavy protection and whose entrances are guarded around the clock by the country’s internal security services.

Tunisian police have increased their security around the Djerba Jewish institutions.

In 2002, forces of Evil blew up a vehicle near the El Ghriba synagogue, killing 21. The synagogue, in the village of Er-Riadh, dates back to 586 BC, although the current building was reconstructed in the 19th century. It is sometimes cited as North Africa’s oldest synagogue.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/16/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
Intel underfoot: Floor sensors rise as retail data source
MILWAUKEE (AP) ‐ The next phase in data collection is right under your feet.

Online clicks give retailers valuable insight into consumer behavior, but what can they learn from footsteps? It’s a question Milwaukee-based startup Scanalytics is helping businesses explore with floor sensors that track people’s movements.

The sensors can also be used in office buildings to reduce energy costs and in nursing homes to determine when someone falls. But retailers make up the majority of Scanalytics’ customers, highlighting one of several efforts brick-and-mortar stores are undertaking to better understand consumer habits and catch up with e-commerce giant Amazon.

Physical stores have been at a disadvantage because they "don’t have that granular level of understanding as to where users are entering, what they’re doing, what shelves are not doing well, which aisles are not being visited," said Brian Sathianathan, co-founder of Iterate.ai, a small Denver-based company that helps businesses find and test technologies from startups worldwide.

But it’s become easier for stores to track customers in recent years. With Wi-Fi ‐ among the earliest available options ‐ businesses can follow people when they connect to a store’s internet. One drawback is that not everyone logs on so the sample size is smaller. Another is that it’s not possible to tell whether someone is inches or feet away from a product.

Sunglass Hut and fragrance maker Jo Malone use laser and motion sensors to tell when a product is picked up but not bought, and make recommendations for similar items on an interactive display. Companies such as Toronto-based Vendlytics and San Francisco-based Prism use artificial intelligence with video cameras to analyze body motions. That can allow stores to deliver customized coupons to shoppers in real time on a digital shelf or on their cellphones, said Jon Nordmark, CEO of Iterate.ai.

With Scanalytics, Nordmark said, "to have (the sensors) be super useful for someone like a retailer, they may need to power other types of things," like sending coupons to customers.

Scanalytics co-founder and CEO Joe Scanlin said that’s what his floor sensors are designed to do. For instance, the sensors read a customer’s unique foot compressions to track that person’s path to a digital display and how long the person stand in front of it before walking away, he said. Based on data collected over time, the floor sensors can tell a retailer the best time to offer a coupon or change the display before the customer loses interest.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/16/2018 01:02 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  .....and in nursing homes to determine when someone falls.

Alert: Mr. Farmer has entered Mrs. Simpson's room again.

Posted by: Besoeker || 01/16/2018 1:14 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/16/2018 1:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Won't work at Home Depot or Lowes where they stack materials and push carts blocking the aisles to form a maze. That or they're working with psyc majors examining humans rather than rats on a school project.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/16/2018 9:01 Comments || Top||

#4  What do the non footsteps of someone who doesn't come into your store tell you?
Posted by: ed in texas || 01/16/2018 12:21 Comments || Top||

#5  What do the non footsteps of someone who doesn't come into your store tell you?

You work for Sears.
Retailing snark of the day.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/16/2018 12:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Complaints ( real or imagined) of up-skirt photography in 5, 4, 3,....
and as to Home Depot, will doggy paws count? I hate, truly hate store that allow non service animals in. hate, hate, hate....
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 01/16/2018 15:44 Comments || Top||


The Tipping Point for 3D
[Trajectory Magazine]
The application of location intelligence and the incorporation of 2D maps and positioning have become ubiquitous since the advent of smartphones. Now, we are entering a new era in which we can harness the power of 3D data to improve consumer experiences, as well as applications for enterprise, public safety, homeland security, and urban planning. 3D will play a more significant role in these experiences as we overcome the technical barriers that have made it previously difficult and cost-prohibitive to acquire, visualize, simulate, and apply to real-world applications.
After yesterday's discussion of the UAV attack on Russians and the controlling UAV with a CAM to aid guidance of other UAVs this topic seems appropriate.


Outdoor Data: Our World Is 3D

In a geo-enabled community in which we strive for more precise answers to complex spatial intelligence questions, traditional 2D correlation is a limiting factor. When you think about 3D data and maps, modeling buildings in an urban environment seems obvious. However, 3D is incredibly important when trying to understand the exact height of sea level or the uniformity of roads and runways. For example, one can imagine the vast differences in 2D versus 3D data and its application during the 2017 hurricane season. By including the Z-dimension in analysis, we can achieve true, precise geospatial context for all datasets and enable the next generation of data analytics and applications.

Access to 3D data for most geospatial analysts has been limited. Legacy 3D data from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and synthetic aperture radar sensors has traditionally required specialized exploitation software, and point-by-point stereo-extraction techniques for generating 3D data are time-consuming, often making legacy 3D data cost-prohibitive. Both products cost hundreds to thousands of dollars per square kilometer and involve weeks of production time. Fortunately, new solutions provide a scalable and affordable 3D environment that can be accessed online as a web service or offline for disconnected users. Users can stream, visualize, and exploit 3D information from any desktop and many mobile devices. Models of Earth’s terrain—digital elevation models (DEMs)—are increasingly used to improve the accuracy of satellite imagery. Although viewed on a 2D monitor, DEMs deliver the magic through a true 3D likeness for bare-earth terrain, objects like buildings and trees, contours, or floor models, and unlimited contextual information can be applied to each measurement. This provides a true 3D capability, replacing current “2.5D” applications that aim to create 3D models out of 2D information, at a cost point closer to $10 to $20 per square kilometer and only hours of production time.

3D Accessibility for Success

As it becomes easier to quickly and cost-effectively create and integrate indoor and outdoor 3D data, managing how that information is stored and accessed will be the next opportunity for the geospatial community. In order for 3D to be truly valuable, it must be easily—if not immediately—accessible for today’s devices. Ensuring 3D can be captured in real time will drive the need to deliver it quickly and across a wider variety of applications. A smart compression and standardization strategy is critical to the portability of the information. As the use of 3D by consumers increases, there will be more natural demand for ready access from user devices, which will help streamline and optimize applications (as it has for 2D mapping over the last decade).

Applying 3D to the real world, in real time, provides:

  • Improved situational awareness to users from their own devices.

  • Seamless wayfinding from outdoors to indoors.

  • Exceptionally detailed and portable data for military/emergency planners and operators.

  • Readily available data and web access for first responders and non-governmental organizations.

  • Global GPS-denied navigation capability for mission critical systems (e.g., commercial flight avionics).

  • A globally accurate positioning grid immediately available for analysis.

Posted by: 3dc || 01/16/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  3D w/Geo is less interesting than than coordinating 6 degrees of freedom from a swarm travel vector to possibly preprogrammed unit points of attack.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/16/2018 16:08 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Philippine government seeks to close Rappler website
[Al Jazeera] The Philippine government has sought to shut down an independent news website, which has published critical stories about President Rodrigo Duterte, a move observers and journalists say is an attack on press freedom and democracy.

The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Monday that it has revoked the registration of Rappler, citing violations of foreign ownership and control of the Manila-based news organization.

The SEC, an agency under the president, is responsible for enforcing securities and investment laws in the country, as well as maintaining company registry.

It is the first time the SEC has invoked the closure of a Philippine media company.

The agency said Rappler used a "deceptive scheme" in running the company, and decided to revoke a 2015 legal document that allows foreign investment.

The so-called "depositary receipt", which allows investors to hold "unissued shares", is also being used by other Philippine media companies to attract investments.

In the case of Rappler, the document allowed the Omidyar Network to invest in it.

The company was set up by eBay founder and billionaire Pierre Omidyar, who also has an interest in the news site, The Intercept.
Posted by: Fred || 01/16/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If the President really wanted to shut down Rappler, he would have 'sent the Armed Forces to their offices and padlocked them,' says Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/16/2018 2:01 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
President Trump Shows CNN's Jim Acosta The Door
CNN’s Jim Acosta was shown the door, when he decided to be disrespectful to President Trump during a meeting with the President of Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Acosta asked if President Trump wanted only people from "Caucasian or White" countries.

In response, President Trump immediately pointed towards the door and said "out."
Vid at link. Mr. Trump is the most fun of any President in memory, imho!
Article also moved to Page 3, since it is not WOT Operations
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 01/16/2018 15:56 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Acosta was a bad dog.
Posted by: newc || 01/16/2018 18:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Trump should have kicked him in the ass on his way out. What an asshole Acosta is - I'd ban him for at least two weeks from the press pool.

Out!
Posted by: Raj || 01/16/2018 18:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Says it all.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/16/2018 18:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Acosta will have a NeverTrump cult following and no job by the time Trump's done. Keith Olbermann V2.0
Posted by: Frank G || 01/16/2018 19:07 Comments || Top||

#5  There is no reason CNN or a number of fake news outlets need to have press credentials at the WH. Someone will be there for the 'media'.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/16/2018 20:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Imagine someone questioning Obama like this in the middle of a foreign leader visit. The press themselves would have exiled the guy. It just illustrates how crooked the press has become.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 01/16/2018 21:30 Comments || Top||


Samantha Power Still Crying Over Election Night Loss To Trump
This is simply astounding - a high level Obama political appointee is still whining about the 2016 presidential election, fourteen fucking months later. Even worse than that? All of the broads female UN diplomats she invited to this seem to be on the Hillary Clinton cheerleading squad. I'm not shocked, but this makes me want to sue them to pay us back out UN dues for the past decade.
[WashingtonExaminer] Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power hosted all of her fellow female ambassador to the U.N. at her apartment on election night in 2016 for what she anticipated would be a celebratory evening watching Hillary Clinton win the presidency, Power revealed in a new interview.

"Well, I’ve had a lot of bad ideas in my life, but none as immortalized as this one," Power, who served as the ambassador to the U.N. during the Obama administration, told Politico in an interview published Monday.

On the night of Nov. 8, 2016, Power threw a party for the 37 female diplomats at her apartment in New York City, a scene that is captured in the new HBO documentary, "The Final Year."
Posted by: Raj || 01/16/2018 00:37 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A hen party. Wonder if they had strippers?
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/16/2018 1:38 Comments || Top||

#2  I hope they had lots of tissues on hand.
Posted by: gorb || 01/16/2018 2:01 Comments || Top||

#3  I can smell the empowerment from here
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 01/16/2018 9:30 Comments || Top||

#4  as Conan said the the question, "What is best in life?"

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!
Posted by: lord garth || 01/16/2018 10:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Reporters mock Samantha Power for wanting to 'milk the soft power dividend'
Reporters put former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power through the wringer Monday for using the phrase "milk the soft power dividend" in a recent interview.

Power told Politico in a new interview that she had hosted 37 women ambassadors for an election night party in 2016. She said she had hoped it would be a fairly close race between then-candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton because she wanted all of her guests to have enough time to mingle with one of her guests, Gloria Steinem.

"So, your concern was that actually that the evening was going to be over early," reporter Susan Glasser asked in the interview.

"Too soon. I wanted to milk the soft power dividend of this moment, and instead, and HBO was there, I guess unfortunately or fortunately, to capture it all, but instead, you really see what so many people went through, which was all of that sense of promise and excitement, and frankly, a dose of complacency," Power recalled. "And then, it slowly dawning on us that not only was this going to be much closer than anybody anticipated, but that it was not going to end well."

The press, including those from mainstream and conservative-leaning outlets, mocked Power for creating a new phrase
Posted by: Frank G || 01/16/2018 10:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Ahh, what is best in life?
Posted by: Ptah || 01/16/2018 11:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Happy endings never are.
Posted by: Roth LaDoad || 01/16/2018 11:43 Comments || Top||

#8  The 2016 election was the first election where a large number of women showed they were tribal and would vote for their tribe no matter what.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/16/2018 11:46 Comments || Top||


NFL Divisional Round TV Ratings Continue To Slide
Gee, I wonder how this came about? The meat of the article:
[AwfulAnnouncing] Saturday afternoon’s Falcons-Eagles game on NBC drew a 17.4 overnight rating, down 5 percent from last year and 12 percent from 2016. It was the lowest for the early Saturday time slot since 2009.

The Patriots-Titans matchup Saturday night on CBS was the lowest-rated game of the weekend, with a 16.6 overnight. That was down 9 percent from last year and 18 percent from 2016 and was also the worst performance in that window since 2009.

The Jaguars-Steelers contest in the early window Sunday on CBS pulled a 20.4 overnight, down 12 percent from 2016. (Last year’s game in that slot was moved to primetime due to weather.) That was the lowest mark in its window since 2002.

Finally, the Vikings-Saints duel Sunday afternoon on Fox drew the best overnight rating of the weekend (21.8) but was still down 23 percent from last year and 17 percent from 2016.
Posted by: Raj || 01/16/2018 00:14 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I didn't see them play the national anthem for the ones I watched. Next year they need to have everyone be respectful.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 01/16/2018 3:16 Comments || Top||

#2  First year of playoffs that I am sitting out. The league, Goodell and the liberals sucked all the fun out of it.

Now I just don't give a shit. Most likely won't watch any games next year either.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/16/2018 11:37 Comments || Top||

#3  I’ll never watch the NFL again.
Posted by: Angolunter Spawn of the French8436 || 01/16/2018 12:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Boring... What we need is more "expert commentary" and more Time Outs: for commercial breaks and official replay. \s
The thuggish player behavior and childish sideline protest theater is just the final insult.
Posted by: magpie || 01/16/2018 16:47 Comments || Top||

#5  I've got a Windows !0 PC (spit) and I get their PMS news. They are desperately touting the NFL. They wont mention the declining viewership/attendance or show the number of empty seats. "Oh look! a squirrel! and it is getting kicked in the nuts!"
Posted by: Sloluting and Tenille8977 || 01/16/2018 17:00 Comments || Top||

#6  This is the year the NFL lost me. I didnt leave the NFL, it left me. Coddling kneelers, feminist bullshit touts, the bogus "pink" month for Komen (far better funds for cancer fights), and general kwotowing to SJWs, preaching Progressivism instead of actually delivering football to those who want to see it.

College ball from now on.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 01/16/2018 20:11 Comments || Top||


Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan dies at 46
Way, way too young...
[BBC] The Irish musician, originally from Limerick, led the band to international success in the 90s with singles including Linger and Zombie.

A statement from her publicist said: "The lead singer with the Irish band The Cranberries was in London for a short recording session.

"No further details are available at this time."

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the police were called to a hotel in Park Lane at 09:05 GMT on Monday, where "a woman in her mid-40s" was pronounced dead at the scene.

The death is, at this stage, unexplained.

Her current band mates in The Cranberries - Noel Hogan, Fergal Lawler, and Mike Hogan - paid tribute to the lead singer on social media.

The message said: "She was an extraordinary talent and we feel very privileged to been part of her life from 1989."
Posted by: badanov || 01/16/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Extraordinary talent indeed - loved her singing. I don't think she had any drug problems (booze? Irish? Naah!), but since this is rock & roll, that's probably the default reason.
Posted by: Raj || 01/16/2018 0:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Never kept up as a fan (couldn't name another member of her bands, say), but yeah... that voice! Seen enough references over the lastn coupl of years to mental illness (bipolar, M-D, whatever) and back pain to have me hoping we wouldn't have to see her Sinead crazy with Shane teeth. Couple of kids, I think.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 01/16/2018 8:36 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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1al-Qaeda
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2018-01-16
  Deadly clashes in Libyan capital force airport to close
Mon 2018-01-15
  Israel Says It Destroys Hamas Tunnel Under Key Gaza Crossing
Sun 2018-01-14
  Islamic State affiliate claims Mali attack that injured 3 French soldiers
Sat 2018-01-13
  Over 100 Palestinians said injured in West Bank, Gaza clashes
Fri 2018-01-12
  Saleh Commander Presumed Dead Appears in Yemen Video
Thu 2018-01-11
  Veritas strikes again: Twitter caught doing shadow bans on conservatives through algorithm
Wed 2018-01-10
  Pakistan has suspended military and intelligence cooperation with US: defence minister
Tue 2018-01-09
  Spokesman: Senior Hamas official shot in the head
Mon 2018-01-08
  Nigeria's SSS 'Arrest Cameroon's Separatist Leaders'
Sun 2018-01-07
  SAS soldier cut head off jihadi with a SPADE after running out of ammo
Sat 2018-01-06
  U.S. freezes grant to UNRWA
Fri 2018-01-05
  13 Islamic State members killed, injured in operation, northeast of Baquba
Thu 2018-01-04
  Revolutionary Guards deployed to crush Iran demonstrations
Wed 2018-01-03
  Egypt executes four Islamist extremists over 2015 bomb attack
Tue 2018-01-02
  Pakistan plans takeover of charities run by Lashkar-e-Taiba


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