This and that | Ripple's Web

(CNN) — Sure, serious-minded folks from the White House on down have taken to Tumblr, the popular blogging platform that Yahoo announced it had purchased this week.

When you host 105 million blogs, you’re bound to have all types. But since hitting the Web in 2007, the blogs that have emerged as hits on Tumblr have tended to be silly, snarky or both.

Photos: Big acquisitions in the tech world

With its quick and easy tools for posting and image-friendly layouts, Tumblr has become a natural landing spot for folks in the entertain-me-now world of the Web.

CNNMoney: Tumblr’s David Karp on Marissa Mayer and dropping out of school

With lots of folks giving the site a look for the first time since news of the $1.1 billion deal was announced, here are 10 fun Tumblr blogs you might want to check out:

Reasons My Son Is Crying

This one will probably resonate the most with parents who will likely recognize those moments where frustration meets hilarity.

Greg Pembroke of Rochester, New York, started the blog to find the humor in those out-of-left field toddler meltdowns, as practiced by his sons William and Charlie. Among the captions on his photos of weeping wee ones:

“He can’t climb into the sea lion tank.”

“I touched his foot with my foot.”

“We helped him put on the boots he loves to wear.”

He’s since opened the blog up to reader submissions — meaning there are now daughters crying, too.

Kim Jong Il Looking at Things

This blog, like the Dear Leader himself, is no longer active. But scrolling back through its hundreds of photos is still pretty hilarious.

Say what you will about his anti-West rhetoric and dictatorial tendencies. Kim Jong Il knew how to rock a pair of giant sunglasses. And he loved looking at things.

Among the North Korean propaganda shots are images of Kim stoically examining such items as fish, snack food, pizza dough, soy sauce and a juice box.

“Why is it so funny?” wrote Joao Rocha, who ran the blog from Lisbon, Portugal. “I have no idea either.”

Once you’ve inspected Kim’s inspections, don’t give up hope. As a self-described “shameless knock-off” shows, his successor, Kim Jong Un, likes to look at things too.

How Do I Put This Gently?

Even if you don’t follow the blog, you’ve probably seen some of its posts crop up on Facebook, Twitter and other sites.

Tumblr probably played the biggest role on the Internet in reviving the animated GIF — those looping snippets of video that, when done right, are strangely entrancing.

This one takes scenes from movies and TV and uses them to describe everyday situations.

Humans of New York

If most of these are silly, HONY is captivating and, at times, poignant.

In 2010, having just lost his job in finance, Brandon Stanton set out to create a sort of photographic census of New York City. Three years later, he’s approached more than 10,000 people, taken 5,000 photos and, in the process, showcased the diversity of a city and a world.

He interviews each subject and usually captions the photos with a choice quote or detail from that interview.

Actresses Without Teeth

It’s actresses. Photoshopped. Without teeth. (Warning: Once these images are seen, they cannot be unseen.)

Literally Unbelievable

OK, folks. “Literally,” according to Merriam-Webster, means “in a literal sense or manner; actually.” So when you say something is literally unbelievable, it means no one should believe it.

If only some folks on Facebook could take their own advice.

This blog rounds up public Facebook posts in which people share articles from The Onion, a satire site, thinking they’re real. Its name comes from one reaction to “news” of Planned Parenthood’s “$8 billion Abortionplex,” complete with coffee shops, bars and a 10-screen movie theater.

“My favorite posts are the ones that express complete shock but not an ounce of doubt,” Hongo told CNN in 2011. ” ‘I can’t believe this!’ is a pretty funny response to something you should not believe.”

Rich Kids of Instagram

“They have more money than you, and this is what they do.”

This round-up of shots from the Facebook-owned photo app is enough to get even the biggest supply-side economist a little steamed.

Posing in front of their yachts. Partying in The Hamptons. Showing off their birthday-present Porsches or sipping Dom Perignon through a straw.

Each of those, and so much more, is on display for all the propaganda your class-warfare inclinations will ever need.

Awesome People Hanging Out Together

If you want to see famous people on the Internet, there are millions of places to find them.

But there’s something cool about the often-surprising meetings chronicled here that makes you wish you could be listening in.

Like President Gerald Ford kicking a soccer ball with Pele. Or Jack Nicholson listening to The Monkees warm up. Or CNN’s own Anthony Bourdain cooking something with a lot of tentacles while a horrified Christopher Walken watches.

From vintage images to glossy publicity shots, these are guaranteed to draw you in.

White Men Wearing Google Glass

A new entry to the Tumblr-scape, this one highlights, without words, an issue Google will face while pushing its innovative new piece of wearable tech. If you looked a little dorky before, you’ll look a lot dorky with these things strapped around your head.

Bun B’s Jumbo Coloring and Rap Activity Tumblr

Who among us has never wanted to color a picture of Vanilla Ice? Or do a connect-the-dots to put a crown on The Notorious B.I.G.’s head? Or pencil their way through a maze to help Humpty Hump find the Burger King bathroom (to get busy, obviously).

Almost all of us, I’m betting. But that’s what you get on this Tumblr, from the wonderfully twisted mind of rapper Bun B.

The mashup of childhood memories and hip-hop stars doesn’t make any sense. Which, in its way, makes perfect sense.

In other words, it’s perfect for Tumblr.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/22/tech/web/tumblrs-to-follow/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/f0CSsA1ANCE/10-fun-tumblr-blogs

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The victim killed in a cleaver attack Wednesday was identified as Drummer Lee Rigby of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The brutal killing of Rigby shocked the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister David Cameron saying the act appears to have been a terrorist attack.

A police officer stands with flowers in a hail storm on Thursday, May 23, close to the crime scene in front of Woolwich Barracks in southeast London.

A man contemplates at a scene where flowers lay, outside Woolwich Barracks in London.

Flowers lie outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23.

Soldiers walk outside Woolwich Barracks on Thursday, May 23, near where the soldier was killed.

Notes and shirts sit outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23. The slain soldier was wearing a “Help for Heroes” shirt when he was killed.

British soldiers stand guard outside the barracks on May 23.

Members of the far-right English Defence League wear balaclavas as they gather outside a pub in Woolwich on Wednesday, May 22.

EDL supporters confront police in Woolwich on May 22.

EDL leader Tommy Robinson joins supporters at the crime scene on May 22.

A police officer guards a tent that’s been set up at the crime scene as investigations continue late May 22.

Mary Warder brings flowers to the scene of the crime on May 22 to pay respects to the victim.

Men place flowers near the scene on John Wilson Street.

A police officer guards a blocked-off area in Woolwich on May 22.

A general view of Woolwich Barracks, near the scene in Woolwich.

Police officers block off a road in Woolwich.

Forensic officers investigate the crime scene on May 22.

Police walk to the scene in Woolwich on May 22.

A still frame from video shows a man outside the Woolwich Barracks in London holding a cleaver and addressing the camera directly, moments after a serving soldier was hacked to death in the street on Wednesday, May 22. The man in the video swore “by almighty Allah” to keep fighting. British Prime David Cameron called the attack terrorism.

Britain’s prime Minister David Cameron addresses media representatives at 10 Downing Street in London on May 23, 2013, a day after a soldier who was hacked to death in a London street by two suspected Islamist extremists.

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Were you there? Send us your photos, videos

(CNN) — Wednesday afternoon, former teacher Ingrid Loyau-Kennett was just a passenger on a bus passing through southeast London.

Thursday she was being hailed as one incredibly brave woman who confronted a man seconds after he hacked a British soldier to death in broad daylight.

READ MORE: Cameron condemns brutal hacking death, says Britain stands firm

It began when Loyau-Kennett, a Cub Scout leader, peered out of her window on the Number 53 bus, according to London’s Guardian newspaper. She saw a car that looked like it had crashed and a man on the sidewalk. “I thought it was a bit bizarre,” she said.

Thinking she could help, she got off the bus and hurried toward the bloody man.

“When I approached the body, there was a lady cradling him,” Loyau-Kennett said on ITV’s “Daybreak” Thursday morning.

Watch her recount what happened

UK PM seeks answers on London attack

Muslim community reacts to London attack

Tensions running high in London

She took stock of who was around. There were two men with weapons including a butcher knife and a meat cleaver. She earlier told the London Daily Telegraph one had a revolver.

One man’s arm and hand were soaked in blood.

“The guy who was the most excited of the two said, ‘Don’t go too close to the body,’” she recalled.

Her eyes zeroed in on the man’s weapon and the blood.

In a few seconds, Loyau-Kennett’s mind tried to process what she was seeing.

“I thought, ‘What the heck, what happened there?’ And I thought, ‘OK, obviously he’s a bit excited.’”

And then Loyau-Kennett did something that most people probably cannot imagine. She started talking to him.

“I thought I had better start talking to him before he starts attacking somebody else,” she told the Daily Telegraph. “I thought these people usually have a message, so I said, ‘what do you want?’”

Indeed the men had a message.

“The only reasons we killed this man … is because Muslims are dying daily,” he said in video aired by CNN affiliate ITN.

“This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth,” the man said in the video. “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone.”

Loyau-Kennett kept trying to engage the man.

The problem with homegrown terrorism

Who are London terror suspects?

“I asked him if he did it and he said yes and I said why? And he said because (the victim) has killed Muslim people in Muslim countries. He said he was a British soldier, and I said really, and he said, ‘I killed him because he killed Muslims and I am fed up with people killing Muslims in Afghanistan. They have nothing to do there,” Loyau-Kennett said, according to the Telegraph.

As she recalled the ordeal to “Daybreak,” incredulous journalists asked her how she found the courage to continue to talk to a man holding a knife who had clearly just murdered someone steps away.

“Are you trained in any way to do this?” a journalist asked her.

No, Loyau-Kennett responded, laughing a little. “I used to be a teacher and (that) can be stressful at times.”

“I know it’s big to die but, for me, it was just a regular guy … just a bit upset,” she explained. “He was not on drugs, he was not drunk.”

But she did get nervous.

At some point, Loyau-Kennett took a moment to look around and realized that many people were snapping photos and taking videos.

“There is so many people around,” she said on “Daybreak.” “I mean … I just look(ed) one, two second(s) around, (and it was) so daunting, so many people watching like this.”

She worried that the man might react to the attention and try to hurt her or someone else.

But, she said, “I said to myself, ‘Just carry on.’” So she kept engaging him.

London attack suspect caught on video

Fears of backlash in London

Man who taped London suspect speaks out

A “Daybreak” journalist asked: “Were you scared for yourself?”

“No,” Loyau-Kennett replied.

“Why not?”

“Better me than the child,” she answered, explaining that she realized there were mothers and children walking nearby. The scene was not far from a school.

“It was more and more important that I talk to him,” she said.

Loyau-Kennett kept asking the man, “What would you like?”

“I tried to make him talk about what he felt,” she told journalists.

He told her that he was tired of bombs being dropped in Muslim countries and Muslim women and children being blindly killed.

As this went on, Loyau-Kennett thought: When are the police coming?

But, still, she asked the man, “Is there anything I can do for you?”

“He said, ‘If the police come, I just shoot them.’”

Out of the corner of her eye, Loyau-Kennett said, she saw the bus start moving. It was going to leave without her and she had to go.

She figured the police were going to get there any second.

So Loyau-Kennett got on the bus and left.

It took armed officers 14 minutes to arrive, according to London Metropolitan Police.

Two suspected attackers were shot by police at the scene and are being treated in London hospitals. Authorities have not released their names.

READ MORE: Slaughter of a soldier: Suspects and shoppers mingle on one London street

READ MORE: Terrorists targeting soldiers at home again?

READ MORE: UK Muslim groups condemn London slaying, urge leaders to act

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/world/europe/uk-woman-terrorists/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/kRCC66R2bYQ/woman-hailed-for-confronting-suspect

(CNN) — The British soldier slain in a gruesome cleaver attack in London was a well-liked infantryman and machine gunner who served in Afghanistan and Cyprus, and then became a military recruiter and ceremonial drummer outside the Royal Palaces, the military said Thursday.

Drummer Lee Rigby, 25, was part of the Regimental Recruiting Team in London, and as a machine gunner, he was part of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

The Fusiliers, an infantry group, are known for the hackle, or feather plume, in their military headdress.

The victim killed in a cleaver attack Wednesday was identified as Drummer Lee Rigby of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The brutal killing of Rigby shocked the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister David Cameron saying the act appears to have been a terrorist attack.

A police officer stands with flowers in a hail storm on Thursday, May 23, close to the crime scene in front of Woolwich Barracks in southeast London.

A man contemplates at a scene where flowers lay, outside Woolwich Barracks in London.

Flowers lie outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23.

Soldiers walk outside Woolwich Barracks on Thursday, May 23, near where the soldier was killed.

Notes and shirts sit outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23. The slain soldier was wearing a “Help for Heroes” shirt when he was killed.

British soldiers stand guard outside the barracks on May 23.

Members of the far-right English Defence League wear balaclavas as they gather outside a pub in Woolwich on Wednesday, May 22.

EDL supporters confront police in Woolwich on May 22.

EDL leader Tommy Robinson joins supporters at the crime scene on May 22.

A police officer guards a tent that’s been set up at the crime scene as investigations continue late May 22.

Mary Warder brings flowers to the scene of the crime on May 22 to pay respects to the victim.

Men place flowers near the scene on John Wilson Street.

A police officer guards a blocked-off area in Woolwich on May 22.

A general view of Woolwich Barracks, near the scene in Woolwich.

Police officers block off a road in Woolwich.

Forensic officers investigate the crime scene on May 22.

Police walk to the scene in Woolwich on May 22.

A still frame from video shows a man outside the Woolwich Barracks in London holding a cleaver and addressing the camera directly, moments after a serving soldier was hacked to death in the street on Wednesday, May 22. The man in the video swore “by almighty Allah” to keep fighting. British Prime David Cameron called the attack terrorism.

Britain’s prime Minister David Cameron addresses media representatives at 10 Downing Street in London on May 23, 2013, a day after a soldier who was hacked to death in a London street by two suspected Islamist extremists.

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Photos: Attack in Southeast London

Fears of backlash in London

Rigby had a 2-year-old son, Jack, the UK Ministry of Defense said.

Witness: Attackers ‘were just animals’

Fellow soldiers described him as having an engaging personality. He joined the army in 2006 and acquired the nickname “Riggers” in his platoon.

“He was a real character within the Second Fusiliers,” Lt. Col. Jim Taylor, commanding officer of the 2nd Fusiliers, said in a statement. “Larger than life, he was at the heart of our Corps of Drums. An experienced and talented side drummer and machine gunner, he was a true warrior and served with distinction in Afghanistan, Germany and Cyprus.”

Rigby also loved soccer’s Manchester United, soldiers said.

“He was one of the Battalion’s great characters, always smiling and always ready to brighten the mood with his fellow Fusiliers,” Warrant Officer Ned Miller of the 2nd Fusiliers said in a statement. “He was easily identified whilst on parade by the huge smile on his face and how proud he was to be a member of the Drums. He would always stop for a chat just to tell me Manchester United would win the league again.”

Rigby was born in Crumpsall, Manchester.

After joining the army, his first post was in Cyprus as a machine gunner in Dhekelia, the military said.

In 2008, he was assigned to Hounslow, West London, and became “an integral member of the Corps of Drums throughout the Battalion’s time on public duties, the highlight of which was being a part of the Household Division’s Beating the Retreat — a real honour for a line infantry Corps of Drums,” the ministry said.

London attack mirrors plot to behead Muslim soldier

In 2009, he deployed on operations “for the first time,” sent to Afghanistan’s Helmand province, where he was a member of a fire support group at Patrol Base Woqab.

He then returned to the UK and completed a second tour of public duties. Later, he followed the battalion to Celle, Germany.

In 2011, he became a recruiter at the Regimental Headquarters in the Tower of London.

London attack: Terrorist targeting soldiers at home again?

Rigby “was a cheeky and humorous man, always there with a joke to brighten the mood; he was an extremely popular member of the Fire Support Group,” said Capt. Alan Williamson, who was Rigby’s platoon commander from 2010 to 2011.

Rigby’s death has attracted worldwide attention because the slaying scene was captured on a cell phone camera. A man with bloodied hands, holding a meat cleaver and a knife, carried out the killing because, he said to the camera, “Muslims are dying daily.”

That man, Michael Adebolajo, and a second person are under arrest. They are being treated in London hospitals for injuries suffered in a confrontation with armed police at the scene, in southeast London’s Woolwich neighborhood.

Two other people were also arrested Thursday, London’s Metropolitan Police said. Authorities have not released the identities of the other three.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/world/europe/uk-attack-soldier-profile/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/vxntDGW-lzE/soldier-was-royal-palaces-drummer

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The victim killed in a cleaver attack Wednesday was identified as Drummer Lee Rigby of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The brutal killing of Rigby shocked the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister David Cameron saying the act appears to have been a terrorist attack.

A police officer stands with flowers in a hail storm on Thursday, May 23, close to the crime scene in front of Woolwich Barracks in southeast London.

A man contemplates at a scene where flowers lay, outside Woolwich Barracks in London.

Flowers lie outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23.

Soldiers walk outside Woolwich Barracks on Thursday, May 23, near where the soldier was killed.

Notes and shirts sit outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23. The slain soldier was wearing a “Help for Heroes” shirt when he was killed.

British soldiers stand guard outside the barracks on May 23.

Members of the far-right English Defence League wear balaclavas as they gather outside a pub in Woolwich on Wednesday, May 22.

EDL supporters confront police in Woolwich on May 22.

EDL leader Tommy Robinson joins supporters at the crime scene on May 22.

A police officer guards a tent that’s been set up at the crime scene as investigations continue late May 22.

Mary Warder brings flowers to the scene of the crime on May 22 to pay respects to the victim.

Men place flowers near the scene on John Wilson Street.

A police officer guards a blocked-off area in Woolwich on May 22.

A general view of Woolwich Barracks, near the scene in Woolwich.

Police officers block off a road in Woolwich.

Forensic officers investigate the crime scene on May 22.

Police walk to the scene in Woolwich on May 22.

A still frame from video shows a man outside the Woolwich Barracks in London holding a cleaver and addressing the camera directly, moments after a serving soldier was hacked to death in the street on Wednesday, May 22. The man in the video swore “by almighty Allah” to keep fighting. British Prime David Cameron called the attack terrorism.

Britain’s prime Minister David Cameron addresses media representatives at 10 Downing Street in London on May 23, 2013, a day after a soldier who was hacked to death in a London street by two suspected Islamist extremists.

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Editor’s note: Are you in London? Tell us your reaction to this incident.

London (CNN) — The only thing more horrifying than the murder of a British soldier in a London street is the fear that there is little police can do in the age of “open-source jihad” to prevent these types of terror attacks.

“It’s always the one we feared, the lone wolf that can come from nowhere and not be on our radar,” said ex-London police chief John Yates.

On Wednesday two men hacked the soldier to death near his military barracks in Woolwich, southeast London before delivering a message to a witness’s camera: “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone … this British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth.”

LATEST: London murder victim named

The message has all the hallmarks of classic al Qaeda rhetoric, and experts believe the blood-soaked men wielding cleavers for the cameras in London are just the latest proponents of the “open-source jihad” that seems to have grown just as the U.S.-led “War on Terror” scattered the organization’s terror cells around the world.

Fears of backlash in London

Man who taped London suspect speaks out

London attack: Probing the suspects

Muslim community reacts to London attack

“Nearly a decade ago there was a debate within al Qaeda about the future of the organization,” according to Shiraz Maher, Head of Outreach at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. “Afghanistan had been overrun by U.S. forces, the Taliban had been forced to retreat, and as a result al Qaeda lost its ability to train recruits there.”

The organization needed a new plan to stay relevant as the U.S. struck at the heart of its traditional operation in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. Enter a man called Abu Musab al-Suri, the so-called architect of the new al Qaeda, who had a simple plan to change the way al Qaeda took the fight to the West.

“Every Muslim should be an army of one,” Maher told CNN. “That was his grand idea — every individual Muslim should be an autonomous hub that goes out and strikes the West and you can’t contain it.”

READ: Slaughter of soldier on London street

Al-Suri may have had the vision, but it was al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) that translated it into reality in 2010 through the online speeches of radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki — since killed by a U.S. drone strike — and the publishing of “Inspire,” the English-language magazine that acts as a how-to guide for followers to carry out small-scale terrorist attacks in the West.

“Since 2010 al Qaeda has been telling its followers in the West: ‘Don’t try and do another 9/11 or 7/7-style attack because invariably these things catch the attention of security services and you go to jail. Think small, think easy, think unsophisticated. Really scale it down to make it difficult to detect, because really it’s a detection battle,’” Maher said.

So this is the growing struggle facing police forces around the world today, say experts — not more traditional terror cells, which are more likely to show up through traditional surveillance methods, but self-starters who become radicalized through online sermons and publications.

READ MORE: The changing face of terrorism

In 2011 New York police arrested Jose Pimentel and accused him of plotting to detonate pipe bombs that he allegedly learned to make after reading “Inspire” magazine. Pimental pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges and is awaiting trial.

The pressure cooker bombs that killed three people near the finish line of April’s Boston Marathon bore strong similarities to a design laid out in the first issue of the magazine titled “How to Build a Bomb in Your Mom’s Kitchen,” according to CNN’s Paul Cruickshank.

In 2010 British MP Stephen Timms was nearly killed when a 21-year-old British student stabbed him during a meeting with his constituents in east London. The student, Roshonara Choudhry, told police she had become radicalized after watching the speeches of al-Awlaki online, and tried to kill Timms because he voted in favor of the Iraq War.

Yates, who was Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner until he retired in 2011, told CNN: “As someone who has tried to prevent these attacks in the past, they’re the most difficult ones.

“If we have some serious targets, then of course you can apply the correct level of resources and tactics … (but) Choudhry had never come to the attention of any authorities at any point.”

OPINION: Real enemy in London hacking death

So what, if anything, can be done to prevent lone wolf attacks? The grisly murder in Woolwich has prompted calls for Britain’s government to look again at a shelved bill that would greatly expand law enforcement’s powers to monitor suspects’ use of the internet, which is currently only possible on a more limited basis.

“There is some internet surveillance going on,” said Yates. “It’s been made very clear by police chiefs in recent weeks that if you download something like ‘Inspire’ you will be arrested, it is an offence and you will be charged.”

So where to draw the line between free speech and invasion of privacy? The proposal to expand police powers for collecting online data caused uproar among privacy advocates in late 2012, but the government says more robust surveillance tools are now needed to effectively combat terrorism.

While acknowledging there are “powerful” arguments on both sides, Yates said: “All I know is that you’ve got to do something, because the level of sophistication in technology is going to make it extraordinarily challenging to improve the way that the internet and other means of communication are monitored if nothing’s done.”

READ MORE: UK Muslims condemn London slaying

But radicalization expert Maher said monitoring the internet and tracking down anyone who downloads an al-Awlaki speech or a bomb-making guide won’t solve the lone wolf problem.

“You don’t have to have read ‘Inspire’ anymore — everyone knows what’s going on because, if nothing else, the media talks about it so much. The idea of committing an unsophisticated attack against a high-profile symbol is out there. It’s an impossible thing to work against,” he said.

Yates says in order to prevent future attacks, counter-terrorism police must bolster their community engagement strategy — making local people feel “free and able to provide relevant information at the right time.”

“It comes back to the line from the 1980s with the IRA: ‘Communities defeat terrorism.’ That was the strap-line then, and it’s no different today.”

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/world/europe/london-attack-lone-wolf-fears/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/uFwMw7hUK-A/are-lone-wolf-attacks-the-new-threat

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The victim killed in a cleaver attack Wednesday was identified as Drummer Lee Rigby of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The brutal killing of Rigby shocked the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister David Cameron saying the act appears to have been a terrorist attack.

A police officer stands with flowers in a hail storm on Thursday, May 23, close to the crime scene in front of Woolwich Barracks in southeast London.

A man contemplates at a scene where flowers lay, outside Woolwich Barracks in London.

Flowers lie outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23.

Soldiers walk outside Woolwich Barracks on Thursday, May 23, near where the soldier was killed.

Notes and shirts sit outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23. The slain soldier was wearing a “Help for Heroes” shirt when he was killed.

British soldiers stand guard outside the barracks on May 23.

Members of the far-right English Defence League wear balaclavas as they gather outside a pub in Woolwich on Wednesday, May 22.

EDL supporters confront police in Woolwich on May 22.

EDL leader Tommy Robinson joins supporters at the crime scene on May 22.

A police officer guards a tent that’s been set up at the crime scene as investigations continue late May 22.

Mary Warder brings flowers to the scene of the crime on May 22 to pay respects to the victim.

Men place flowers near the scene on John Wilson Street.

A police officer guards a blocked-off area in Woolwich on May 22.

A general view of Woolwich Barracks, near the scene in Woolwich.

Police officers block off a road in Woolwich.

Forensic officers investigate the crime scene on May 22.

Police walk to the scene in Woolwich on May 22.

A still frame from video shows a man outside the Woolwich Barracks in London holding a cleaver and addressing the camera directly, moments after a serving soldier was hacked to death in the street on Wednesday, May 22. The man in the video swore “by almighty Allah” to keep fighting. British Prime David Cameron called the attack terrorism.

Britain’s prime Minister David Cameron addresses media representatives at 10 Downing Street in London on May 23, 2013, a day after a soldier who was hacked to death in a London street by two suspected Islamist extremists.

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Are you from the area affected, or London in general? What is your reaction to the incident? Send us your images, video and experiences.

London (CNN) — Why did Lee Rigby have to die?

That’s what people around Britain — its officials, its authorities, its citizens — asked themselves Thursday, a day after the soldier was hit with a car, then hacked to death on a London street in broad daylight.

There’s been no indication that the 25-year-old machine gunner, drummer and father of a 2-year-old boy knew the men who attacked him with meat cleavers. One of them who approached a man filming the gory scene in southeast London’s Woolwich neighborhood suggested Rigby had been targeted only “because Muslims are dying daily” at the hands of British troops like him.

Soldier slain in London was a machine gunner, Royal Palaces drummer, father

That man and another who suffered gunshot wounds in a confrontation with police minutes after Rigby’s killing spent Thursday in stable condition at separate South London hospitals.

Cameron: Strong indication of terrorism

London attack suspect caught on video

Deadly attack near London barracks

Even with those two suspected attackers under guard, authorities pressed for answers — and to determine if others might have been somehow involved and, if so, why.

Six residences have been searched, and two people — a man and a woman, both of them age 29 — were arrested Thursday on “suspicion of conspiracy to murder,” London’s Metropolitan Police said.

“This is a large, complex and fast-moving investigation which continues to develop,” added police.

The attack, which Prime Minister David Cameron and others called an act of terror, stirred anxiety and alerts in Britain not seen since the summer of 2005, when coordinated bomb attacks struck London’s public transport network.

An additional 1,200 police are now on London’s streets to reassure the public, Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Crime and Operations Mark Rowley said, with extra patrols at key locations such as religious institutions and transport hubs. Steps were also taken to further protect military installations and personnel, he added.

Abu Barra blamed Wednesday’s attack not on his friend Michael Adebolajo — who he says is the bloody, cleaver-wielding man shown talking in the video aired by CNN affiliate ITN — but on the British government and predicted there may be more attacks.

“As long as (British) foreign policy is engaging in violence, they’re only inviting violence in retaliation,” Barra told CNN.

By sharp contrast, Cameron said “the fault lies solely with sickening individuals who carried out this attack,” adding that “nothing in Islam … justifies this truly dreadful act.”

“This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life; it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country.”

London attack: Terrorists targeting soldiers at home again?

Suspect knew British Muslim radical leader

It is understood that the two individuals suspected of carrying out the knife attack were known to Britain’s domestic security service. They had featured in previous investigations into other individuals, but were not themselves under surveillance.

Friends, acquaintances and British media identified the 28-year-old Adebolajo as the suspect seen on the ITN video. The identities of the other man, 22, and the two people arrested Thursday aren’t known.

A British national of Nigerian descent, Adebolajo converted to Islam and became passionate about his faith, said Barra.

British Muslim radical leader Anjem Choudary told CNN on Thursday that he knew Adebolajo, noting that the suspect attended demonstrations and a few lectures organized by Choudary’s group Al-Muhajiroun.

In fact, an ITN video from April 2007 shows Adebolajo standing behind Choudary at a rally protesting the arrest of men who allegedly made inflammatory speeches inside a mosque.

Barra described his friend as a “very caring” man who “just wanted to help everybody.” He was also “very vocal” about his feelings that Muslims were being oppressed, injustices he pinned, in part, on the British government.

London attack: Eyewitness heard gunshots

Terrorism analyst on soldier killing

Cell phone video of London attack scene

“I wasn’t surprised that it happened,” Barra said of Wednesday’s attack. “… Britain is only responsible, the government. And I believe all of us, as a public, we are responsible. We should condemn ourselves, why we did not do enough to stop these wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The Woolwich bloodshed spurred concerns not only about violence by Islamic extremists but also about attacks targeting Muslims by people angry about Rigby’s killing.

“People can only take so much. And people will break,” said Victor Easdown, a construction worker who heard shots ring out in Woolwich as police took on Rigby’s attackers.

London attack mirrors plot to behead Muslim soldier

In Kent, police arrested a man on suspicion of “racially aggravated criminal damage” at a religious building. And Wednesday night in Essex, a man with two knives was arrested after throwing a smoke grenade at the Al Falah Braintree Islamic Center and demanding someone come outside to answer to the Woolwich slaying, the mosque’s secretary Sikander Sleemy said.

Members of the far-right English Defence League clashed with police late Wednesday, with a tweet from its official account touting that “it’s fair to say that finally the country is waking up!:-) NO SURRENDER!”

“Don’t listen to the Government cover ups, The lies about Islam being peaceful,” read another EDL tweet Thursday.

Political and social commentator Mohammed Ansar appealed for “a sense of calm (and) perspective” after what he called “a really, really heinous act of, I would say, criminality, … not terrorism.”

“What we don’t need are knee-jerk reactions … to really ratchet up tensions and really stoke and inflame anxieties within communities,” he told CNN.

Watch: Terrorism analyst on soldier killing

Paper: Woman says she talked to attacker

The attack may have wide-ranging repercussions in Britain, including possibly enflaming sectarian tensions and leading to more violence.

But it’s already have an impact on people who live and work in Woolwich — the working-class, multicultural neighborhood where the mutilation took place — and witnessed the carnage firsthand.

A man who identified himself as James told London’s LBC 97.3 radio station that he saw two men standing by the victim, who was on the ground.

At first, James thought they were trying to help the man. But then he saw two meat cleavers, like a butcher would have.

Could London killing inspire other attacks?

“They were hacking at this poor guy, literally,” he told the radio station. “These two guys were crazed. They were just not there. They were just animals.”

Witness: Attackers ‘were just animals’

Amid the horror, an individual story of courage emerged Thursday in the person of a Cub Scout leader named Ingrid Loyau-Kennett.

Loyau-Kennett told Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper that she had jumped off a bus to try to revive a man — later determined to be Rigby — she thought had been hurt accidentally.

She swiftly realized the man was dead, and it was no accident.

“When I went up, there was this black guy with a revolver and a kitchen knife. He had what looked like butcher’s tools, and he had a little ax, to cut the bones, and two large knives, and he said, ‘Move off the body,’ ” she told the newspaper.

“So I thought, ‘OK, I don’t know what is going on here,’ and he was covered with blood. I thought I had better start talking to him before he starts attacking somebody else.”

Unarmed police — like most in Britain — arrived at 2:29 p.m. Wednesday, nine minutes after the first call came in police. Armed officers were on site five minutes later. Witnesses recounted the suspects then ran at the police, who responded with gunshots.

Recalling the incident later on ITV, Loyau-Kennett said she wasn’t scared when she talked to one of those suspects — who then had a revolver, knife and cleaver in his bloody hands — minutes before those shots rang out.

“Better me than a child,” she said.

CNN’s Laura Smith-Spark reported and wrote from London, and CNN’s Greg Botelho did the same from Atlanta. CNN’s Dan Rivers, Jonathan Wald, Carol Jordan, Atika Shubert, Erin McLaughlin, Richard Allen Greene, Ed Payne and Nic Robertson contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/world/europe/london-attack/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/AvTvLoDZsMI/hacking-death

An outdoorsy Boombotix Boombot Rex relaxing on a rock. You’ll have your choice of black, white, blue, or green.

(Credit:
Boombotix)

Congrats to John D. of Fruitland Park, Fla., for winning a Crucial M500 SSD and copy of Iolo System Mechanic in last week’s giveaway. This week, I asked you for help deciding whether to give away a mini action cam, a waterproof
iPhone 5 case, or an ultraportable speaker. The speaker won by a few tweets, so here you go, readers. Ask and ye shall receive (and don’t worry; those other prizes will be coming soon).

We’re giving away a pocket-size Boombotix Boombot Rex, which connects via Bluetooth to smartphones,
tablets, laptops, and any other device with a 1/8-inch standard headphone jack. It’s got built-in voice control so you can ask the time, dial a contact, or play a song, all while keeping your handheld device in your pocket. How you’ll look talking to your speaker? Well, that’s your business.

The cute little water-resistant 2.1 sound system, which sells for $119.99, measures about 3x3x2 inches and weighs less than a pound. It packs custom-tuned, 36-millimeter full-range drivers and a matching tuned bass woofer and you’ll get 6 to 8 hours of battery life per charge.

After a successful run on Kickstarter, the product officially launches June 7, with preorders on now, but you have a chance to get your hands on one early in your choice of black, white, green, or blue. For free. How do you go about doing that? Like this:

• Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the “Join CNET” link to start the registration process. If you’re already registered, there’s no need to register again.
• Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it’s funny or insightful, it won’t help you win, but we’re trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.
• Leave only one comment. You may enter for this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
• The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) Boombotix Boombot Rex, with a retail value of $119.99.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified via e-mail. The winner must respond within three days of the end of the sweepstakes. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Monday, May 27, 12 p.m. ET.

And here’s the disclaimer that our legal department said we had to include (sorry for the caps, but rules are rules):

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. YOU HAVE NOT YET WON. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OLD OR AGE OF MAJORITY, WHICHEVER IS OLDER IN YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCE AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS, AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, May 27, 2013. See official rules for details.

Good luck.

The Boombotix Boombot Rex likes long walks on the beach.

(Credit:
Boombotix)

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/pRza/~3/xbgPh7nlE8I/

(CNN) — President Barack Obama recast the U.S. fight against terrorism as no longer a “boundless global war” but a targeted effort to dismantle specific extremist networks.

He said America was at a “crossroads” and should no longer see it as a “self-defeating” perpetual fight, but one that must at some point end, “like all wars.”

Obama said “the core of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on a path to defeat,” but its affiliates elsewhere pose dangers. He also touched on new overseas and homegrown threats, and explained publicly the use of drones against terror suspects overseas.

Obama: U.S. will keep deploying drones — when they are only option

Pres. Obama interrupted by heckler

Obama defends secret drone program

Rumsfeld grades Bush, Obama

Reporter: Obama made world a battlefield

He renewed his push to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and also sought to calm criticism around his administration’s investigation of national security leaks.

Obama, ‘troubled’ by leak investigations, asks for review

He even paused his prepared remarks to take on a woman in the audience from “Code Pink” who interrupted him several times in open disagreement.

Obama interrupted

“I think that the, and I’m going off script as you might expect here …. the voice of that woman is worth paying attention to,” Obama said to applause. “Obviously I do not agree with much of what she said and obviously she wasn’t listening to me in what I said but these are tough issues and the suggestion that we can gloss over them is wrong.”

Here are five things we learned from the speech:

1. Using drones are OK, but…

The Obama administration for the first time revealed Wednesday that drones had killed four American citizens since 2009. Obama used the speech to more definitively explain the U.S. policy on the use of lethal force and sought stricter review of its use.

Still, he said drones were both legal and effective to combat terrorists, and added that Americans overseas who wish to do the United States harm were fair game, in the most extreme cases.

“When a U.S. citizen goes abroad to wage war against America — and is actively plotting to kill U.S. citizens; and when neither the United States, nor our partners are in a position to capture him before he carries out a plot — his citizenship should no more serve as a shield than a sniper shooting down on an innocent crowd should be protected from a SWAT team,” Obama said.

He said ordering strikes is a heavy burden, but added that “to do nothing in the face of terrorist networks would invite far more civilian casualties.”

Obama said he is asking his administration to review proposals to extend oversight of lethal actions outside of war zones that go beyond reporting to Congress.

CNN’s senior political analyst Gloria Borger says Obama defends the use of drones.

“But he also really acknowledged that it can be overused, even by a president, and that you cannot just depend on drones for your national security.”

2. I wasn’t kidding about closing Gitmo…

When he was first elected in 2008, Obama vowed to shut down the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, also known as Gitmo.

But in the years since, Congress has enacted significant restrictions on the transfer of detainees from the prison that made its closure impractical. And, as costs of running the facility balloon and detainees wage hunger strikes protesting their imprisonment, the administration has quietly dialed back the intensity of the push to shut down the facility.

But that changed Thursday.

“The original premise for opening GTMO — that detainees would not be able to challenge their detention — was found unconstitutional five years ago,” said Obama. “In the meantime, GTMO has become a symbol around the world for an America that flouts the rule of law.”

He called on Congress to “lift the restrictions on detainee transfers from GTMO,” appointed a special envoy to “achieve the transfer of detainees to third countries,” and lifted the moratorium on detainee transfers to Yemen, where 56 of Gitmo’s 86 detainees are from.

At Guantanamo, a costly confinement

Daily life at Guantanamo: Hunger strikes, sprays of filth

3. No leaks, but there’s that freedom of the press thing…

Obama has come under fire for recent investigations into leaks by his Justice Department where phone records were seized from reporters and editors at The Associated Press and a Fox News reporter was labeled in a Justice Department affidavit as “potentially being an ‘aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator’” to the crime of disclosing secret information.

Justice Department tracked Fox News reporter’s e-mail, movements

So he used the speech to try to quell criticism for those intrusions.

“As commander-in-chief, I believe we must keep information secret that protects our operations and our people in the field,” Obama said. “But a free press is also essential for our democracy. I am troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.”

“Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs. Our focus must be on those who break the law,” he added.

He vowed to push for a federal shield law for journalists and convene a group of media organizations to review existing guidelines about investigations that involve reporters.

4. A new term brings a new policy

Obama clearly used the speech to redefine U.S. policy on the so-called “war on terror,” acknowledging that where once the battle was fought on foreign soil, the threats have moved.

“Now make no mistake: our nation is still threatened by terrorists. From Benghazi to Boston, we have been tragically reminded of that truth. We must recognize that the threat has shifted and evolved from the one that came to our shores on 9/11. With a decade of experience to draw from, now is the time to ask ourselves hard questions – about the nature of today’s threats, and how we should confront them.”

“From our use of drones to the detention of terrorist suspects, the decisions we are making now will define the type of nation — and world — that we leave to our children,” Obama said.

“I was listening to a president who was saying to us, ‘Let’s get beyond where we were when I first took office, and let me tell you how my thinking has evolved since I’ve been president of the United States,’” said CNN’s senior political analyst Gloria Borger. “He said, ‘We must define the nature and scope of this struggle or it will define us.’”

But Obama will face opposition as he attempts to shift U.S. policy.

“Both on drones and on Guantanamo, he’s going to get some pushback,” said Borger.

5. Free speech also means ‘you listen’

A loud woman interrupted the president several times during his speech, calling on Obama to close the Guantanamo Bay facility. But the president was talking about just that when he was interrupted.

“You are commander-in-chief — you can close Guantanamo today,” she yelled. “It’s been 11 years!”

Obama stopped in the middle of his remarks and shot back. “This is part of free speech, is you being able to speak but also you listening and me being able to speak, alright?” Obama said.

The woman was identified as Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of the protest group Code Pink and was later escorted out of the building and released.

Photos: The face of Code Pink

Later, he even tweaked his closing line to incorporate the heckler in the audience.

“Victory will be measured in parents taking their kids to school, immigrants coming to our shores, fans taking in a ballgame, a veteran starting a business; a bustling city street, a citizen shouting their concerns at a president,” he concluded.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Elise Labott, Chris Lawrence, Barbara Starr and Dan Merica contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/politics/5-things-obama-terror/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/1A5Zt4mwjB4/5-things-we-learned

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Actor Brad Pitt told Esquire that he has such a hard time remembering the faces of those he meets, he thinks he might suffer from prosopagnosia, or face blindness. He has not been tested or diagnosed with the disorder. Here’s a look at others who have said they have face blindness.

Artist Chuck Close, best known for his giant face portraits, says he suffers from the condition. He said in an interview with RadioLab that he paints faces by dividing a photo up on a grid.

Neurologist Oliver Sacks has spoken on a number of occasions about the science behind the condition and his personal experience with it. He told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta that he sometimes can’t even recognize his own face in a mirror.

Primatologist Jane Goodall said she didn’t realize that she had the condition until later in life when she met someone else who had difficulty recognizing faces. She wrote to Oliver Sacks, who diagnosed her. “Chimps are no easier than people” to recognize, she said in an interview.

Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria revealed in 2008 that she has been diagnosed with prosopagnosia. “I find it very hard to remember names and faces, and that is a big drawback in my capacity because obviously I meet an awful lot of people,” she told Sweden’s Foraldrakraft magazine.

Duncan Bannatyne, a business entrepreneur best known for his appearance on the BBC show “Dragons’ Den,” tweeted that he was a “mild sufferer” in 2011. He said in a video interview that he once had a manager of his quit because the manager through Bannatyne was being rude when he couldn’t remember his manager.

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the progressive blog “Daily Kos,” said in a post in 2010 that he has face blindness. “It’s a shitty condition to have when your job suddenly requires you to spend significant time in social situations,” he wrote.

Journalist Mary Ann Sieghart said she was tested for the condition after reading an article about it. Her husband also suffers from the condition.

Writer Heather Sellers describes her condition in her memoir, “You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know.” She said she would take social cues from people’s voice, gait, hair and context.

Karl Kruszelnicki, who hosts the science TV show “Sleek Geeks,” had his condition analyzed in an episode. “Faces to me are just like brick walls,” he said.

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(CNN) — It seems that anytime Brad Pitt speaks, the world stops to listen, and his latest interview with Esquire has been no exception.

The 49-year-old star, who’ll next appear in June’s “World War Z,” covers the magazine’s June/July issue. As you’ve probably noticed, bits and pieces of the profile have been floating around the Web all week.

Some of it isn’t all that new: We’ve heard him talk previously about how he was stagnant 10 to 15 years ago but made a conscious decision “not to squander my opportunities,” as he reiterated to Esquire in the interview. He also reminds us of how super-content he is in his new life, raising six kids with fiancée Angelina Jolie.

But there were a few revelations including a potentially startling medical one. Here, we recount the top five things we’ve learned so far from the interview:

1. Pitt won’t recognize you

Pitt told Esquire that he has such a hard time remembering the faces of those he meets, he thinks he might suffer from prosopagnosia, or face blindness, though he has not been tested or diagnosed with the disorder. We’re not sure whether the actor was being facetious or not, but he said even having a “real conversation” doesn’t help.

The lives of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, both on and off the big screen, make headlines around the world. Pictured here, Pitt and Jolie arrive at the 84th Annual Academy Awards on February 26, 2012, in Hollywood.

Pitt speaks at a Paramount Pictures presentation to promote his upcoming film, “World War Z” during CinemaCon on April 15, 2013, in Las Vegas.

Jolie leaves Lancaster House after attending the G8 Foreign Minsters’ conference on April 11, 2013, in London.

Jolie meets with refugees at the Zaatari refugee camp outside of Mafraq, Jordan, on December 6, 2012, in this handout image provided by UNHCR.

Pitt and Kevin Bacon perform a one-night reading of “8″ presented at The Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, on March 3, 2012.

Pitt arrives for a screening at the 65th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 22, 2012.

Accompanied by their six children, Pitt and Jolie arrive at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, on November 8, 2011.

Jolie visits a man in a hospital in Misrata, Libya, on October 11, 2011, in this handout photo provided by UNHCR.

Jolie and Pitt visit refugees in the village of Medjedja, Bosnia, on April 5, 2010.

Pitt, George Clooney, executive producer Jerry Weintraub and Matt Damon pose for a photo during their hand and footprints ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, on June 5, 2007.

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Photos: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

“So many people hate me because they think I’m disrespecting them,” Pitt told the magazine. “I took one year where I just said, This year, I’m just going to cop to it and say to people, ‘OK, where did we meet?’ But it just got worse. People were more offended. …You get this thing, like, ‘You’re being egotistical. You’re being conceited.’ But it’s a mystery to me, man. I can’t grasp a face, and yet I come from such a design/aesthetic point of view. I am going to get it tested.”

(For more on face blindness, check out this 2011 video of CNN’s Sanjay Gupta speaking with Dr. Oliver Sacks, a famed neurologist who has face blindness. Occasionally, Sacks said he had trouble recognizing his own face.)

On Thursday, Carnegie Mellon University invited Pitt to have his brain imaged and be examined by Marlene Behrmann, a neuroscientist, professor of psychology and a member of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition within the university’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

“Carnegie Mellon is one of the very few places that can both test for face blindness and perform the brain imaging in our state-of-the-art imaging center,” Behrmann said in a press release.

2. Pitt’s daughter Zahara doesn’t appreciate her parents’ PDA

Pitt’s relationship with Jolie is one of constant speculation, but those hungry for intimate details aren’t often satisfied. This month, however, they have been, thanks to Pitt’s friend Frank Pollaro.

After getting permission from the actor to speak openly, Pollaro told Esquire that he once walked into the Pitt-Jolie home just in time to hear the couple’s adopted daughter, Zahara, protesting her parents’ apparently frequent displays of affection.

“I walked in and Angie was standing there and Zahara walked up and said, ‘Daddy, you’re not going to start making out with Mommy again, are you?’ And it’s like that,” Pollaro said.

3. He tries to avoid on-screen sex scenes now that he’s with Angelina

That wasn’t the only reveal Pollaro offered. The chatty friend said that Pitt tries to avoid “sexy scenes with other women since he’s met Angelina,” whom he’s been with for years and became engaged to in April 2012. “He’s crazy about her, and she’s the same way about him,” Pollaro continued. “No matter how hard he’s working, if one of those kids runs by the window he’ll get out of his chair and give them a kiss. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen Angie without one of those children in her arms.”

4. He doesn’t have a ton of friends

We’ve seen Pitt pal around with the likes of George Clooney and we now know of Pollaro, but it seems Pitt’s buddy list might not extend far beyond that.

“I have a handful of close friends and I have my family, and I haven’t known life to be any happier,” the actor said. “I’m making things. I just haven’t known life to be any happier.”

5. His home life sounds about as chaotic as you think it is

“I always thought that if I wanted to do a family, I wanted to do it big,” he says. “There’s constant chatter in our house, whether it’s giggling or screaming or crying or banging. I love it. I love it. I love it. I hate it when they’re gone. I hate it. Maybe it’s nice to be in a hotel room for a day — ‘Oh, nice, I can finally read a paper.’ But then, by the next day, I miss that cacophony, all that life.”

Esquire’s full interview with Pitt lands on newsstands May 31.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/brad-pitt-esquire-face-blindness/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/upUhGU6WkTE/does-brad-pitt-suffer-from-face-blindness

(CNN) — The parents of American Shane Todd, found hanging in his Singapore apartment last June, tell CNN they may exhume their son’s body to conduct an autopsy in the United States.

Todd’s mother Mary says an exhumation may be the only way to prove “for sure” the family’s contention that he was murdered.

The Todds walked out of the Singapore inquiry into their son’s death earlier this week, saying, “We’ve lost faith in the process” and Singapore’s inquiry process was “pre-determined” to conclude their son’s death was a suicide, and that police and investigators never considered evidence that may suggest Todd was murdered.

“We told the police at the very beginning. We talked to Shane every week for three months at least, all the way up to June when he passed away, (and he said) that he was in fear for his life,” Todd’s father Rick told CNN. “You would think they would look into it. But none of that happened.”

The inquiry into the death of Todd, found hanging in his Singapore apartment on June 24, comes after Singapore’s medical examiner concluded that Todd committed suicide. State attorneys said during the hearing that Todd’s laptop shows he accessed suicide-related web pages in the months before his death, with a search in March on how to tie a hangman’s noose. But Todd’s parents — who had flown from their home in Montana to attend the hearings — claimed there was evidence that his death was a homicide.

The Todds claim their son was murdered because of sensitive knowledge he had of a project using gallium nitride (GaN) between the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) — a Singapore government-backed research agency — and the Chinese telecom giant Huawei.

GaN is material that can withstand high temperatures and can be used in power amplifiers with a range of applications from light emitting displays to radar communications.

Documents found on Todd’s laptop after his death reportedly indicate IME may have had plans with Chinese telecom giant Huawei to co-develop an amplifier using GaN. Such a device could have both military as well as civilian uses. The 31-year-old Todd had been working for 18 months at IME when he decided to quit his job and return home to the United States shortly before his death.

Employees of IME have testified that there were several meetings held with Huawei, including a meeting with their senior level employees that Todd attended, but both IME and Huawei assert no project agreement was concluded, according to testimony.

Patrick Lo, deputy executive director of research at IME and Todd’s supervisor, testified that his agency does not conduct any classified military research.

The Todds say they have evidence to show their son had been instructed to hand copy a GaN “recipe” or formula from a U.S. vendor where Todd had been sent for training.

The family says he had been left alone in a room to hand copy formulas, and say evidence from Shane’s computer shows he had handwritten “highly sensitive recipes.”

Lo denied in court that he had instructed Todd to hand copy recipes and said hand copied recipes would be inaccurate and therefore “useless.”

The Todds stood up in the middle of the inquest proceedings Tuesday and walked out in objection to a witness they were unfamiliar with — a friend and former work colleague of their son’s who testified he’d had a beer with him the night before Todd was found hanging on June 24.

“We’re getting sprung stuff at the last moment,” Rick Todd said outside court. He said the state had given them no prior notice of the witness Frenchman Luis Alejandro Andro Montes.

The Todds said they had been “told from the beginning that this will be honest and open” and pointed out that their own lawyers had just hours before been chastised by Singapore’s judge Chay Yuen Fatt for introducing last-minute documents.

Singapore Senior Counsel Tai Wei Shyong referenced Montes in his May 13 opening statement and at that same time said the state would try to bring Montes in as a witness.

Just hours before, a key witness for the Todd family, American medical examiner Dr Edward Adelstein, retracted his original assertion that Shane Todd had been strangled by a cord and hanged. Testifying via video link, Adelstein agreed with other forensic pathologists in the case including two U.S. medical examiners, who reviewed the case at Singapore’s request, that there would need to be evidence of internal neck injuries if Todd had been “garroted.”

However, Adelstein continued to assert that Todd had been murdered and speculated that he had been killed and then hanged to make it look like suicide.

“I have to assume that people who know how to kill you can do it in a way that is difficult to detect,” Adelstein added.

He did not examine Todd’s body and came to his initial conclusions on the basis of photographs taken by the family just before the funeral and Singapore’s autopsy report.

His new opinions come after the family provided him with a series of photos obtained from Singapore police and forensic officials.

Questioned about the photos by a lawyer for the state, Adelstein admitted, “The cause of death is difficult for me to say.”

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/world/asia/singapore-todd/index.html?eref=edition

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A rare Apple 1 computer is to be auctioned for up to $400,000. The original Apple was the first computer to be built by the California-based technology company. Up for auction is one of only six surviving “Apple 1″ computers still in working order.

The Apple Lisa, from 1983, was produced for only one year, and was one of the world’s first mouse-controlled computers. It is now extremely rare.

The Scelbi-8H was built around the first Intel 8-Bit microprocessor, and fell within the budget of an average person. It was available either assembled or in kit form. It was regarded as one of the first truly ‘personal computers’.

Three hundred years before the birth of Steve Jobs, the French philosopher, physicist and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, was designing the world’s first mechanical calculator, the ‘Pascaline’.

Like many experimental technologies, though, the Pascaline was expensive and rather unreliable.

An 1895 Ford typewriter with filigree copper grille. The invention of typewriters in the mid 19th century changed the face of professional writing. The QWERTY keyboard is still the most common modern-day keyboard layout.

This portable copying press was devised by legendary English steam-engine inventor James Watt. The copying apparatus, consisting of metal damping box, pressure plate and special moistened copying paper, was housed in an elegant brass-bound mahogany box.

A 1905 L.M. Ericsson Co. desk telephone known as the ‘coffee grinder’ for its circular shape and distinctive lithographed decoration.

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(CNN) — In this era of ever-accelerating technological development, we all tend to be so fixated on the gizmos of the future that we rarely take the time to think about the glorious technology of the past.

Fortunately, a treasure trove of rarities, oddities and tech “firsts” has been brought together — including an experimental 17th century mechanical calculator, a hundred-year-old telephone and an incredibly rare, headline-grabbing Apple 1 computer — to be sold at auction Saturday in Cologne, Germany.

While they may look dated today, the objects gathered by Auction Team Breker trace an evolution of technological thinking that stretches from the dawn of the industrial revolution through to the present day. It is a story of cutting edge tinkering; an inventors’ hall of fame.

Basking in the limelight at the auction will be one of just six surviving functional Apple 1 computers — a tech superstar which is likely to sell for a small fortune — an estimated $400,000 — propelled by bids from collectors, museums and Macolytes.

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The Apple 1 was the first computer built by the California technology company. The computer was hand-assembled by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who, according to legend, financed the device’s construction by selling his HP-65 calculator (co-founder Steve Jobs also sold his VW campervan).

Approximately 200 of the devices were made, of which fewer than 50 are thought to remain — and only six in working order.

Company founder Uwe Breker said the sale is “unique in presenting masterpieces from the spectrum of antique technology, from the 17th century to the 21st.”

Long before the current era of computers, the inventor Blaise Pascal designed a mechanical calculator in 1642 — regarded by many as the first decisive step toward modern microprocessors.

The “Pascaline” was operated with a stylus to turn digit-wheels. These wheels connected to a “display” on the top of the device which showed the result after each equation. A sliding rule could be shifted to change the function of the device from addition to subtraction. Multiplication and division were also possible (though very difficult to execute).

The Pascaline was a significant breakthrough at the time of its invention, demonstrating, as it did, how complex arithmetic could be carried out by a machine. Its introduction led to the development of mechanical calculators across Europe.

Only a handful of the original Pascaline machines still exist today — most of which are held in museums. At auction Saturday will be a 20th-century reproduction, valued between $30,000 and $50,000.

Read: How USB turned engineer into ‘rock star’

Alongside the Apple 1 and the Pascaline will be an original Apple Lisa, one of the earliest computers to feature a graphical interface and mouse — technologies which paved the way for desktop computing as we know it today. The Lisa was a commercial failure, in part due to its inordinately high price. Retailing at $10,000, it was significantly more expensive than rival IBM PCs.

Apple, for its part, owes much of its success to some of the early pioneering personal computers such as the SCELBI-8H — a kit computer which was released in 1973. Its 8-bit Intel microprocessor was incredibly powerful at the time (though only a tiny fraction of contemporary processor power).

Just 200 or so SCELBI-8Hs were made, making them quite valuable. The SCELBI-8H up for auction tomorrow is expected to go for $20,000 to $25,000.

As well as early artefacts from computing’s prehistory, the auction will feature a number of historical typewriters. A patent was lodged by Henry Mill for a typing device as early as 1714, but typewriters didn’t go into mass production until the 1860s. Today it is difficult to see them as anything but antiquated, yet the invention of typewriters caused a revolution in writing.

A range of early typewriters will be sold, including an extremely rare 1895 Ford typewriter with a filigree copper grille valued between $13,000 and $20,000, an 1879 Crandall with gold-gilt highlights and mother-of-pearl inlay, and a rather more functional-looking 1994 Crown, with an unusual keyless design, which is expected to fetch between $11,000 and $15,000.

Another “first” to go under the hammer is a portable copying press devised by the legendary English inventor of the steam-engine, James Watt. The laptop-sized invention allowed multiple copies of a document to be produced, something like a photocopier, with ink transferred from the original to moistened copying paper below via a pressure plate. The portable device was said to be a favourite of U.S. president Thomas Jefferson.

Read: Hacking the world’s cheapest computer

Of even greater significance to communication was the invention of the telephone in the mid-19th century. From its early experimental incarnations in the workshops of a number of inventors including Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone was in broad use by the beginning of the 20th century.

Could Bell have predicted how contemporary telephony, with cell phones, texting and Skype would look today? It’s unlikely. But if you fancy picking up the low-tech progenitor of your iPhone 5 you could bid on a 1905 L. M. Ericson Co desk telephone, known as the “coffee grinder” due to its circular shape and unusual lithographed decoration. It is expected to sell for up $13,000.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/tech/innovation/apple-1-up-for-auction/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/06GIzPO44kw/rare-tech-in-big-money-auction