New Kids on the Block heartthrob Joey McIntyre can still make the ladies swoon -- even his co-stars in The Heat, Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy!
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
Rich Dev, Poor Dev: Why some succeed where others fail - Talk Mobile
Both iOS and Android are rapidly approaching the million app mark. It's an absurd number of apps, and making a living in that vast sea is a tough prospect. Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 are both over 100,000 apps, which on its own is also an absurd number. How is a developer supposed to get noticed when there are thousands upon thousands of other apps in the same store?
A developer can rely on search and word-of-mouth, but that's only going to get them so far. How is a developer supposed to get their app featured on the platform storefront? How are they supposed to tell users and publications about their app? And just how can they convince users to actually download the app? Is it better to be flashy or funny, informative or intriguing? Does it matter what audience you're targeting?
Just bobbing up and down in the waves of a million other apps is counting on an impossible stroke of luck to get noticed. Developers can be their own best advocates - but how does somebody who specializes in code and interface design come to understand what it takes to market their wares?
Let's get the conversation started!
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/29DQcNRn6dU/story01.htm
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Afghan peace bid stumbles on Kabul-Taliban protocol row
By Amena Bakr
DOHA (Reuters) - A fresh effort to end Afghanistan's 12-year-old war looked in disarray on Thursday after a diplomatic spat about the Taliban's new Qatar office delayed preliminary discussions between the United States and the Islamist insurgents.
Talks between U.S. officials and representatives of the Taliban had been set for Thursday in Qatar but Afghan government anger at the fanfare surrounding the opening of a Taliban office in the Gulf state threw preparations into confusion.
The squabble may set the tone for what could be long and arduous negotiations to end a war that has raged since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan that followed the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on U.S. targets.
Asked when the talks would now take place, the source in Doha said "There is nothing scheduled that I am aware of." Asked if that meant they would not happen today, the source added: "Yes that's correct."
The opening of the office was a practical step paving the way for peace talks. But the official-looking protocol surrounding the event raised angry protests in Kabul that the office would develop into a Taliban government-in-exile: A diplomatic scramble ensued to allay their concerns.
A Taliban flag that had been hoisted at the Taliban office on Tuesday had been taken down and lay on the ground on Thursday, although it appeared still attached to a flagpole.
A name plate, inscribed with the title "Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" had also been removed.
Questioned whether the Taliban's office in Doha had created a sense of optimism about peace efforts, the source replied: "Optimism and pessimism are irrelevant. The most important thing is that we now know the Taliban are ready to talk, and sometimes talk is expensive."
Word of the U.S.-Taliban talks had raised hopes that Karzai's government and the Taliban might enter their first-ever direct negotiations on Afghanistan's future, with Washington acting as a broker and Pakistan as a major outside player.
The Taliban has until now refused talks with Kabul, calling Karzai and his government puppets of the West. But a senior Afghan official said earlier the Taliban was now willing to consider talks with the government.
PRISONER SWAP
In its talks with the U.S. officials, the Taliban was expected to demand the return of former senior commanders now detained at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a move opposed by many in the U.S. Congress, as well as the departure of all foreign troops.
The United States wants the return of the only known U.S. prisoner of war from the conflict, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who is believed to be held by the Taliban.
The protocol dispute burst into the open on Wednesday when Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government would not join U.S. talks with the Taliban and would halt negotiations with Washington on a post-2014 troop pact.
Officials from Karzai's government, angered by the official-sounding name the Taliban chose for its political office in Doha, said the United States had violated assurances it would not give official status to the insurgents.
Afghan government officials objected to the impression that the insurgents had achieved some level of international political recognition and could use it as an official embassy or even as a base for a government-in-exile.
"As long as the peace process is not Afghan-led, the High Peace Council will not participate in the talks in Qatar," Karzai said in a statement, referring to a body he set up in 2010 to seek a negotiated peace with the Taliban.
VOID OF TRUST
A statement on Qatar's foreign ministry website late on Wednesday clarified that the office which opened was called the "Political Bureau for Afghan Taliban in Doha".
The source familiar with the matter said: "The Taliban have to understand that this office isn't an embassy and they are not representing a country."
The dispute over the Taliban office after months of behind-the-scenes diplomacy to restart the peace talks underscored what U.S. officials say is a void of trust between Karzai and the Taliban, who have been waging an insurgency to overthrow his government and oust foreign troops.
Fighting continued in the war-ravaged nation. Four U.S. soldiers were killed in a rocket attack on the heavily fortified Bagram base near Kabul late on Tuesday, international military officials said.
U.S. and Afghan officials said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Karzai on Tuesday night and again on Wednesday morning in an effort to defuse the controversy.
Underlining the importance of the process to the United States, the State Department said Kerry would travel to Doha for meetings with senior Qatari officials on Friday and Saturday. But U.S. officials said he would not meet with Taliban representatives.
(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Dubai, Miriam Arghandiwal, Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton in Berlin and Phil Stewart in Washington; writing by William Maclean; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-taliban-talks-qatar-not-expected-thursday-source-063921843.html
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Rockmelt comes to Android with thumb-friendly navigation
Rockmelt brought its social news browsing to iOS back in 2012, with promises that the Android version was on the way. The company took its sweet time with the port, but it's here at last -- and with a few Android-only perks in return for the wait. While the core news aggregation remains intact, there's a new set of thumb navigation controls that makes sure tablet owners (or just those with giant smartphones) can read in comfort. Phone owners also get a landscape view similar to what their tablet brethren see and a set of elevator-like buttons help users of all kinds get back to articles after a refresh. The interface extras may not seal the deal by themselves, but they could tip the balance for those still undecided on a Google Reader alternative.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Internet
Source: Rockmelt
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Thursday, June 20, 2013
Feedbag: What The Hell Do I Feed A Fussy Eater? - Deadspin
Welcome to the Feedbag, where all the dumb questions about food, drink, cooking, eating, and accidental finger removal you've been embarrassed to ask can finally receive the berating they goddamn deserve. Also: answers. Send all your even-vaguely-food-related questions to albertburneko@gmail.com with the subject "Feedbag." All of them.
Justin:
I got a query and it can't wait until the next feedbag.
Showed you, didn't I?
I'm bbq'ing for a group of friends, and because I am an arrogant lifer I decided to impress the pleebs with the menu. I am (was) doing shrimp grilled in a banana leaf pouch.
Ooh, that sounds delicious.
I was going to finish it with coconut curry
[removes shirt]
but apparently the girl whose party it is hates curry.
[meekly reapplies shirt]
So I switched it to mojo marinated shrimp.
[pulls arms out of sleeves]
Too spicy.
[spacesuit]
What do you suggest?
I suppose it's probably impractical for me to advise that your host grow the fuck up and get an adult set of fucking tastebuds, huh? (Too spicy?! Since when the fuck does mojo?the typical primary ingredients of which are cumin, garlic, citrus juice, and cilantro?have to be especially spicy?) Or that she magically become the sort of person who appreciates that someone is putting care and thought into preparing food for her to eat and decide to take a fucking flyer on something new as an act of good faith toward an invited guest whose cooking abilities and taste she does not intend to insult?
OK, then. It sounds to me like you've got your heart set on grilling shrimp for this finicky ungrateful weenie of an asshole and her presumably charming but also blinkered friends and guests. You're just going to have to scale back your ambitions a bit (to account for your host being a choad). Melt a couple of sticks of good butter over low-medium heat in a small pot with some lemon zest and juice, a wee sprinkling of crushed red pepper (assuming your chicken-livered dingbat host can handle just a widdle bitty widdle bit of piquancy), a crushed garlic clove, and a bay leaf. Let that stuff hang out at a low temperature for a little while, then skim the foamy milk solids off the top with a spoon. Brush your shrimp with some of the wonderful-smelling and -tasting result, and grill 'em for, oh, a minute per side. Then, toss 'em with the rest of the butter-saucelike concoction and another squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and serve them over a bed of pur?ed carrots because that's what fucking babies eat because your host is a fucking baby.
Sorry. Lost control there for a second. Serve the shrimp over some plain white rice and see to it that one of the other guests whips up the brightest, tartest, most pungent salad your fussy dictatorial butthead of a host will deign to allow. Park the shrimp and rice next to the salad on the plate. Voyolay.
Yes, this is an incredibly simple and not powerfully flavored thing to serve. It's also going to taste very good, and the party guests will enjoy the hell out of it, while also admiring that you have delicately and pleasingly accented the shrimp instead of obscuring it or turning it into a raft for other, stronger shit.
The final step is hosting a party of your own at which you serve goat eyeballs marinated in literally every goddamn thing in the world.
Lori:
I am unsure how to make a proper lasagna, and the question is preparing the pasta. Should you put dry pasta sheets in the oven with all the sauce, cheese, etc, and have the baked-goodness cook the pasta for you, or should you boil the pasta first? Most recipes call for boiling noodles first, BUT I worked in a camp kitchen for 8 years and they always made lasagna the dry-noodle method. Who is correct? Does it matter?
Let's make sure we're talking about the same thing, here, Lori. Nowadays in your local grocery store, there are two kinds of boxed lasagna: the regular dried stuff which you're meant to boil before using, and the kind labeled "no-boil" or "oven-ready." The latter of these has been parboiled and dehydrated prior to packaging, and can be added dry to your dish, where it will rehydrate itself in the oven by drawing in the liquid from the tomato sauce.
So, which kind do you have? If you have the stuff labeled "no-boil" or "oven-ready," go ahead and use the dry pasta in your lasagna preparation; you may need to make a slightly wetter tomato sauce to ensure there's enough liquid present to rehydrate the pasta as it cooks. If you've got the regular dried stuff, boil it first, and err on the side of dryness with your tomato sauce so that you don't end up with a (nonetheless delicious) cheese-and-tomato swamp which must be served in soup bowls with a goddamn ladle.
But wait! I hear you shrieking, which seems maybe a bit needless but whatever?I've heard that you can use the regular dried stuff without boiling it first mew m'pew pew! Yes, it is true that you have heard that ("mew m'pew pew"?). Some people do indeed use regular, non-oven-ready lasagna noodles in their lasagna preparations without boiling them first. These people are stupid and also Ra?lians (probably). As I can attest from bitter experience, attempting to use regular dried pasta without boiling it first yields a gummy, weird, unpleasant result, no matter how much liquid you put in your tomato sauce. Regular dried pasta is meant to be boiled first. Sorry.
The good news is, however squintily you might suspect this no-boil bunkum of being some kinda newfangled Johnny-come-lately techno-claptrap for the daggum kids and their daggum "Intendies," either variety, handled properly, will make a wonderful lasagna. Because lasagna is the goddamn best.
Ben:
Over this past weekend, I used your pulled pork instructions. From the fact that the serving plate was swarmed by my guests like some ravenous horde of zombies and 7 lbs of it was finished off in minutes, I'm gonna say it was a success. However, I'm wondering what to do with all that leftover stock or soup or whatever you call the stuff left in the pot. Any tips for additional dishes that can be made from this? Also, I just used Yuengling Lager as my beer, but would you recommend using a beer with a more pronounced flavor or even adding in a bit of some liquor like a whiskey to kick the flavor up a notch next time?
Let's deal with your second question first, Ben. Fancy up your beer if you want to (you're the one who'll be serving/eating it, after all); add some whiskey; serve the pulled pork on sliced fougasse with Gruy?re and arugula and flecks of gold leaf and dress in white linen and stand through the open sunroof of a white stretch Hummer waving your pulled pork sandwich in one hand and making infuriating raise-the-roof motions with the other as you cruise through Miami blasting Macklemore at decibel levels high enough to kill birds. It's your food. Do what you want with it. Just know that, if the best you can do is to waddle into your local convenience store, extract a few sweaty, wrinkled, wadded-up dollar bills from the pocket of your rattiest sweatpants, plunk them down for a stupid case of stupid canned domestic mule-piss, and use that instead, your pulled pork will still taste every bit as good as any reasonable person could ever expect.
As for what to do with all that greasy, beery, porky leftover liquid at the end: make stew! Many of the best stews include beer anyway; this shit is composed almost entirely of the stuff. Brown some cubed meat (pork or beef) and drop it into that liquid, along with some root vegetables, some potatoes, and maybe some barley or something (along with maybe a string-tied bundle of herbs to be extracted later), simmer it for a long time, and then eat it with bread and butter like a goddamn Viking marauder.
Katie:
Let's assume I can make delicious fried foods, but that I can't stop a grease fire from getting soot and smoke all over the walls. Any ideas how to get soot stains off the walls/ceiling? I'm starting to think that burning the place down may have saved time.
I looked up how to remove soot stains from things, Katie, and between the complicated and expensive-seeming instructions here and the tedious, complicated, and expensive-seeming instructions here, my general sense is that the way to go is to lay down a tarp, put on protective eyewear, assemble your dry-cleaning sponge, and abandon your home for a life of itinerant rail-riding. Probably you should ask a clean person.
Oh and also! Maybe you should stop deep-frying coal, you fucking psycho.
Send your Feedbag questions to albertburneko@gmail.com.
Albert Burneko is an eating enthusiast and father of two. His work can be found destroying everything of value in his crumbling home. You can find lots more Foodspin at foodspin.deadspin.com.
Image by Jim Cooke.
RelatedRelatedHelp! My Balls Smell!
Jolie Kerr is a cleaning expert and advice columnist. She'll be here every other week helping to answer your filthiest questions. Are you dirty? ? Read?
Source: http://deadspin.com/feedbag-what-the-hell-do-i-feed-a-fussy-eater-514020780
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Hannity on Obama: ?He went to a Muslim school in Indonesia, or wherever it was, Kenya. I forget.? (Americablog)
WikiLeaks trial focuses on whether Tweets meet evidence standards
By Medina Roshan
FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - The court-martial of the U.S. soldier accused of providing reams of classified documents to WikiLeaks in a case illustrating the challenge of keeping secrets in the digital age must decide whether tweets and Web pages can be admitted as evidence.
Lawyers for Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, who is accused with providing more than 700,000 files to the anti-secrecy website in the biggest breach of classified U.S. data in the nation's history, argued on Tuesday that Twitter postings offered by prosecutors do not meet the court's standards.
"Anyone can create a Web page...that looks like WikiLeaks or that looks like Twitter," argued defense attorney Captain Joshua Tooman when the government sought to admit a May 7, 2010 tweet from WikiLeaks seeking military Internet addresses, and the Web page of the Internet archive site archive.org that showed a 2009 WikiLeaks "Most Wanted" list of items it was seeking from the public.
Tooman said a government investigator had accessed the tweets indirectly, through Google, rather than directly through Twitter or WikiLeaks. He said the evidence failed to meet the test of authenticity since there was no way of knowing what the website looked like when the tweet or page was published.
Prosecutors argued those tweets, as well as one on January 8, 2010 from WikiLeaks saying it had an encrypted video of a U.S. air attack, were evidence of a leak and should be admissible.
Judge Colonel Denise Lind did not rule on the evidence. She ordered the trial into recess until a status hearing next Tuesday. The trial is scheduled to resume on June 26.
Manning was an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2010 when WikiLeaks published the classified information. He faces 21 charges, the most serious being aiding the enemy, and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
(Writing by Ian Simpson; Editing by Scott Malone)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wikileaks-trial-focuses-whether-tweets-meet-evidence-standards-195217726.html
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Saatchi cautioned over assault on Nigella Lawson
LONDON (AP) ? Prominent British art collector Charles Saatchi has admitted assault and accepted a police caution after published photos showed him grasping the throat of his wife, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson.
Tabloid newspapers this week published photos of the incident, which happened June 9 in a posh London restaurant.
Saatchi, 70, had earlier characterized the incident as a "playful tiff" during an intense debate about the couple's children.
Lawson, 53, is a well-known TV presenter and chef whose cookbooks are best-sellers in Britain and the United States.
The Daily Mirror said late Monday that Saatchi, 70, had accepted the official warning after a five-hour grilling over dramatic photographs published in its sister paper, the Sunday People, which showed him grasping Lawson's throat. The tabloid published photographs of what it said showed Saatchi taking a cab back from a London police station.
Under British law, a caution is a formal warning given to someone who admits the offense. It carries no penalty, but it can be used as evidence of bad character if a person is later prosecuted for a different crime.
When asked about Saatchi, London's Metropolitan Police said that a 70-year-old man had been cautioned for assault after voluntarily attending a police station following an investigation into the pictures published by the Sunday People.
The force did not mention Saatchi by name ? authorities in Britain rarely identify suspects who haven't been charged.
Saatchi had earlier told the London Evening Standard newspaper that the photos made the altercation look worse than it was.
Saatchi, an Evening Standard columnist, said "the pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place."
"About a week ago, we were sitting outside a restaurant having an intense debate about the children, and I held Nigella's neck repeatedly while attempting to emphasize my point," he was quoted as saying. "There was no grip, it was a playful tiff."
Saatchi also told the paper the couple "had made up by the time we were home.
"The paparazzi were congregated outside our house after the story broke yesterday morning, so I told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled."
Lawson's spokesman, Mark Hutchinson, confirmed that she and her children had left the family home after the photos were published but declined to comment further.
Saatchi and Lawson married in 2003 and live in London with Lawson's son and daughter from her marriage to journalist John Diamond, who died of cancer in 2001, and Saatchi's daughter from a previous marriage.
Lawson gained fame with her 1998 best-seller "How To Eat" and subsequent "How to Be a Domestic Goddess" (2000) and is one of Britain's best-known cookbook writers, as well as the host of foodie TV shows including "Nigella Bites" and ABC's cooking program "The Taste."
A former journalist who attended Oxford University, she served as deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times and subsequently wrote for numerous other newspapers and magazines.
Lawson is also one of the few British food personalities to have had real success in the United States, both on television and with her cookbooks. She has often made the point that she is not a trained chef, but is simply showing people what they can do in their own kitchens.
She is known for her sensual style on television ? both critics and admirers have called her shows "gastroporn."
Lawson is also known for her refreshing frankness. In January, she made news for insisting that her belly not be airbrushed out of promotional photos for her show, "The Taste," on ABC.
"That tum is the truth and is come by honestly, as my granny would have said," she wrote in a blog post.
Saatchi, co-founder of the Saatchi & Saatchi ad agency, owns one of London's biggest private art galleries. He was the main patron of the Young British Artists movement of the 1990s, which made household names of artists including Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.
___
National Writer Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/saatchi-cautioned-over-assault-nigella-lawson-104323069.html
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Utah church shooter charged with attempted murder
OGDEN, Utah (AP) ? It was a quiet part of the Father's Day Mass as about 300 people stood up in preparation for communion. A parishioner, known by many at the church as Ricky Jennings, entered through the glass doors in back, holding his wife Cheryl's hand.
Seconds later, police say Jennings fired a single shot at the back of Cheryl's father's head, nearly killing him. The loud bang pierced the silence, sending people diving for cover beneath pews and the priest behind the altar.
"It was echoing in my head so loud," said Rebecca Ory Hernandez, who was only a few feet away with her 5-year-old son. She grabbed the boy, threw him under the pew and got on top of him. She heard the pastor blurt out an expletive into his microphone. "I was waiting for another gunman," she said.
The shooter ran from the church, the pastor and a half dozen other men close on his heels. Ory Hernandez and other parishioners went to James Evans. They used scarves and a shirt to help soak up the blood, and she cradled his head. His wife, Tara, who had been standing next to him, and others prayed.
"I'm OK, I'm OK," Evans kept saying, as blood spilled from his mouth.
Meanwhile, Charles Richard Jennings Jr., 35, stole a truck from a nearby neighbor at gunpoint and led police on a highway chase, police said. He was caught hours later on foot after the truck ran out of gas.
Jennings was charged Tuesday with attempted murder. The Weber County attorney also charged him with two counts each of aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery and possession of a firearm by a restricted person.
Jennings made a brief court appearance by video. Bail was set at $105,000.
Police are still trying to determine why Jennings shot his father-in-law, said Ogden Police Lt. Danielle Croyle on Tuesday. They think he may have been drinking or on drugs, and detectives know the couple had a history of domestic disputes that may have triggered Sunday's shooting, she said. But, she said Jennings has not given any specific confession as to why he shot Evans.
The Evans family, meanwhile, is grateful for a small miracle.
Evans, who turns 66 on Tuesday, was struck at the side of his head, the bullet going through near his ear and out his cheek and missing his brain, said Dr. Barbara Kerwin, the director of the intensive care unit at McDay-Dee Hospital in Ogden.
"He turned his head just at the right time," his wife said Monday, crying at a hospital news conference. "If didn't turn his head, he would have been hit in the back of the head and he would have been dead."
He was in critical condition Monday but doctors say he's expected to live, although he'll need reconstructive surgery and rehab to learn to swallow and speak again, Kerwin said. He was awake on Monday, nodding yes and no, writing and using hand signals to communicate.
Jennings was booked on suspicion of attempted aggravated criminal homicide, aggravated robbery and possession of a firearm by a restricted user. Charges are expected to be filed Tuesday, and Jennings will appear by video for arraignment in Ogden, said Weber County deputy county attorney Dean Saunders.
Court records show Jennings has a criminal record going back to 1996, when he pleaded no contest to several traffic-related misdemeanors. Over the years, he's pleaded no contest to felony charges of failing to yield to police and attempting to receive a stolen vehicle, and misdemeanor charges for traffic violations, criminal trespassing and theft. He's also pleaded guilty to theft charges and a felony charge of attempting to tamper with a witness or juror.
Lt. Croyle said his wife, Cheryl, stayed inside the church after her husband fled. There is no indication she knew what her husband was going to do, and authorities don't expect to file any charges against her, Croyle said.
After paramedics rushed James Evans to the hospital, the Rev. Erik Richtsteig returned to the brick church that sits on the east side of Ogden at the foot of a steep rock mountain called Jumpoff Canyon, surrounded by middle-class houses with manicured lawns and rose bushes.
As doctors operated on James Evans, who had recently accompanied the priest on a trip to the Holy Land in Jerusalem, Richtsteig told his congregation who the shooter was, and asked them to pray for the couple and their 3-year-old son.
Then, for those who stayed, he finished the Mass, explaining his reasons matter-of-factly, Ory Hernandez said.
"Evil will not prevail," Richtsteig said.
The congregation is shaken, Richtsteig said Monday: "They were a mess ? they were worshipping God and this man came in and did an act of violence."
Ory Hernandez says she has cried, enraged that violence came to the house of worship, and was at a loss for words when her son told her, "I didn't know there were any bad guys in this town, mommy."
But it won't stop her from coming back to church.
"The bad guy doesn't get to win this time," she said.
___
Follow Brady McCombs at https://twitter.com/BradyMcCombs.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/utah-church-shooter-charged-attempted-murder-160622483.html
A quest for family history brings the Krugs to the Old Scotch Church ...
John and Judy Krug stood on the shoulders of their ancestors last Thursday, under the shade of century-old pines at Hillsboro's Old Scotch Church.
They had traveled nearly 1,000 miles from San Diego, Calif., searching for a tombstone engraved with the name of John Bernard Krug, a poor German boy who sailed to the United States in 1865. He survived the passage and learned to farm in the Midwest, moving to Washington County in 1895 with his wife and 13 children.
John Bernard was John's great-granduncle. Up until two years ago John didn't know where his forefather was buried, or that he had a family history in Oregon.
Both John, 75, and Judy, 72, come from large clans, and calling the Krugs history buffs is an understatement. They've amassed more than 40 binders worth of information about their deceased relatives, including maps, newspaper clippings and photos of grave markers.
Judy has been hunting for family stories since she was 12.When she married John in 1969, she was keen to get him going on the search for his ancestry. They've walked through many cemeteries in the past 30 years, made countless phones calls, and spent late nights at local history centers poring over microfilm, books and records.
"Sometimes, when you listen to family stories you think, 'This is impossible,' but these stories stay alive for a reason," Judy said. "They might not be exact, but there is always a grain of truth which can send you in the right direction."
The kernel that led them to Washington County began with an email to a professional genealogy group in Germany. For $300 they received the names of John's great-grandfather's siblings, which included John Bernard Krug.
From there, they began calling Krugs living in Illinois and Iowa. The trail eventually lead them to Oregon, where they reached out to the Latter-day Saints Family History Center and the Oregon Historical Society. They also contacted the Hillsboro Main Library where several librarians helped them with copies of obituaries and articles on the family printed in the Hillsboro Argus.Judy said the most helpful group was USGenWeb, a national genealogy website run by volunteers. Within 24 hours of contacting the organization's Washington County group, a woman got back to them with family obituaries and a photocopy of John Bernard Krug and his family printed in The Oregonian in 1912. The caption states that the Krugs were one of Oregon's largest families.
Jan Bony, the Oregon coordinator of the USGenWeb project, said that when someone requests information, volunteers collect public records from courthouses, newspapers, historical societies and libraries, which are then archived online.
When John and Judy were able to locate several of John's cousins in the Portland area earlier this year, they decided to make the drive north.
"You don't know who you are unless you know where you came from," is a mantra Judy lives by.
In their light blue Ford Crown Victoria, they pulled up on the gravel path next to the Old Scotch Church. Having been established in 1878, it is one of the oldest operating churches in the state.
They walked across the damp earth, making their way to the cemetery behind the whitewashed church building.
Standing over a concrete marker, Judy shouted, "Look! It's Bernard's son!"
"And there's Ed senior and Dora and John Bernard," John said, motioning to the graves a few plots down, rattling off the names as if he knew them personally.The couple ventured around to the front of the cemetery and 15 feet from an old tree stump, Judy gasped, "Lizzie Schmidt and Sarah Krug!"
She pulled out her camera, fixing her lens on the markers of six family members they didn't expect to find, making a total of 13 Krugs buried in the Old Scotch Church cemetery.
?Holding the binder on John Bernard in his hand, John flipped back to the picture of the Krugs, a fuzzy outline of his family from their farm in 1912.
"Why we do care so much about this?" John paused, nodding his head. "Because it's family and family will always be important."
-- Taylor Smith
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/hillsboro/index.ssf/2013/06/a_quest_for_family_history_bri.html
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013
New phone from an unlikely vendor steals title of world?s thinnest smartphone
Huawei on Tuesday announced the Ascend P6, the world?s thinnest smartphone. The handset measures a mere 6.18 millimeters thick and weighs 120 grams, eight grams more than Apple?s iPhone 5?despite the fact that the phone is much larger. The Ascend P6 is equipped with a 4.7-inch 720p display, an in-house 1.5GHz quad-core processor and an 8-megapixel rear camera. The smartphone also includes a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, 2GB of RAM, a 2,000 mAh battery, 8GB of internal storage, a microSD?slot and?Huawei?s Emotion user interface atop Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. The Ascend P6 will be available in black, white and pink in China later this month and it will launch on Vodafone, O2 and Orange in Europe in July. Huawei?s press release follows below.
Elegant and edgy, the new HUAWEI Ascend P6 is the world?s slimmest smartphone
[More from BGR: iPhone 5S display leaks as mass production begins]
At 6.18mm slim, the HUAWEI Ascend P6 is impossibly beautiful and always intuitive
London, United Kingdom, June 18, 2013: Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today unveiled the HUAWEI Ascend P6, the world?s slimmest smartphone measuring 6.18mm. The smartphone features a 1.5GHz quad-core processor and a sleek metallic body. With its 4.7-inch high definition in-cell display, industry-leading 5MP front-facing camera, and outstanding software, the HUAWEI Ascend P6 is the embodiment of elegance with an edge.
?The HUAWEI Ascend P6 is a star among smartphones with its industry-leading design, high-quality camera, and intuitive user interface, Huawei?s proprietary Emotion UI,? said Richard Yu, Chief Executive Officer, Huawei Consumer Business Group. ?Building on the success of our Ascend P series of fashion smartphones, the HUAWEI Ascend P6 provides unsurpassed technology and a design that is simply stunning.?
HUAWEI Ascend P6 is ultra slim at 6.18mm and weighs just about 120g. While it is small enough to slip into the tiniest of pockets or clutch bags, the stylish HUAWEI Ascend P6 is designed to be seen and coveted! It features a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, Android 4.2.2 operating system, 2000mAh battery, 4.7-inch HD in-cell LCD screen technology, and ?MagicTouch? for enhanced screen responsiveness even when wearing gloves.
As the flagship smartphone of the Huawei Ascend P series, the HUAWEI Ascend P6 embodies a cutting edge design for the fashion conscious. The smartphone?s brushed metallic look with a naturally curved base is both elegant and intuitive. Impossibly beautiful, the Ascend P6 balances fashionable features and user-friendly functions.
Perfect for ?selfies?, the HUAWEI Ascend P6?s industry-leading 5MP front-facing camera and auto facial-enhancing capabilities create model-gorgeous shots you?ll want to share. Its 8MP rear-facing BSI camera with F2.0 aperture and 4cm macro view also enables 1080P full HD video recording and playback. With Huawei?s proprietary IMAGESmart software, the HUAWEI Ascend P6 turns even the most novice photographer into a professional, with contrast and color enhancement, auto scene recognition, object tracing focus, and instant facial beauty support.
The HUAWEI Ascend P6 is even more intuitive and able to be customized with Huawei?s Emotion UI. Inspired by people, for device users worldwide, Huawei has gathered input from over 5 million consumers to help us optimize the latest version of Emotion UI. The proprietary user interface includes updates to Uni-Home including enhanced security, Huawei?s Me Widget, MagicTouch, and SmartReading. New to Huawei?s Emotion UI are the panoramic shoot and facial recognition photography functions.
Huawei?s unique Automated Discontinuous Reception (ADRX) and Quick Power Control (QPC) battery optimization and power saving technology improves performance by more than 30%, compared with smartphone batteries of equal size. With its multi-screen AirSharing capability, you can connect to a range of devices to boost your productivity at work or play by easily sharing documents or enhance your gaming experience with minimal lag time.
The HUAWEI Ascend P6 is available in black, white and pink with matching color cases. It will begin shipping to China from June and to Western Europe from July through Vodafone, Telefonica, Orange, H3G, O2, Carphone Warehouse, TalkTalk, Media Markt & Saturn, TIM and online via Amazon and CDiscount with other markets to follow.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/phone-unlikely-vendor-steals-title-world-thinnest-smartphone-185525172.html
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GCHQ Intercepted Foreign Politicians' Communications At G20 Summits | UK News | The Guardian
The Guardian:
Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts, according to documents seen by the Guardian.
Read the whole story at The Guardian
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Monday, June 17, 2013
iOS 7 gamepad leaked, features blurry Logitech G logo
Apple may consider the iPhone to be a gaming device, but even it's willing to admit that traditional gaming demands a proper gamepad. The folks at Logitech apparently agree, and seem to be preparing to release an iPhone 5-compatible device with its G-prefix branding. An image acquired by Kotaku shows a four-button Logitech gamepad built around an iPhone-shaped hole. There's a Lightning connector on the right side, indicating a hard-wired (or at least device-powered) peripheral. According to Kotaku, this will be just one of several third-party gamepads designed for iOS 7's Game Center overhaul. Of course, this blurry image should be regarded with a healthy dose of skepticism, but we certainly wouldn't scoff at an officially supported gamepad solution.
Filed under: Gaming, Mobile, Apple
Source: Kotaku
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Marlins?pound Cardinals, take rubber match
By STEVEN WINE
AP Sports Writer
Associated Press Sports
updated 4:07 p.m. ET June 16, 2013
MIAMI (AP) - Ricky Nolasco beat the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Miami Marlins won a weekend matchup of worst versus first.
Nolasco allowed one run and three hits in seven innings Sunday to help the Marlins take the rubber game of their three-game series against the Cardinals, 7-2. NL Central leader St. Louis lost a series for the first time since April 26-28 against Pittsburgh.
The Marlins climbed above .300 at 21-47, still baseball's worst record.
"We didn't see it," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "The team we saw is hitting the ball and making good pitches. They have the kind of offense that can make you pay if you make mistakes, and that's what we saw. Regardless of what their record shows, they've got some talent, and they're going about things the right way right now."
Miami is 3-3 since slugger Giancarlo Stanton rejoined the lineup after missing 36 games with a strained right hamstring. He had six hits in the series.
"When you have Giancarlo back in the lineup, that's a whole different team," Cardinals second baseman Matt Carpenter said. "Nothing against the other guys, but you can put him in anybody's lineup, and that team looks a little bit different. Having him back is a big advantage."
Miami scored 19 runs in the series against a team with the lowest ERA in the majors.
"We knew they were a great team coming in here," said Juan Pierre, who had two hits in each of the three games. "This is a big series win. To beat a team like that definitely gives you confidence."
The abundance of offense was a refreshing change for Nolasco (4-7), who has endured the worst run support of any pitcher with at least 14 starts. Luxuriating in an early lead, he retired 11 in a row during one stretch.
"It helps a ton," he said. "It just changes everything and the way you pitch and your approach."
Pierre drove in two runs and had two hits to extend his hitting streak to 12 games, while Justin Ruggiano and Placido Polanco each had a two-RBI hit. The Marlins have won eight of the past 14 games, their best stretch this season.
Tyler Lyons (2-3), making his fifth major-league start, lost for the third time in a row after winning his first two decisions. He went 5 1-3 innings and gave up six runs, including four with two out.
"I made some mistakes with guys on base," Lyons said.
The Cardinals managed only five hits, all singles, with NL batting leader Yadier Molina and Matt Holliday out of the lineup. Both were given a day to rest but pinch-hit in the ninth, and Holliday was called out on strikes against Steve Cishek with the bases loaded to end the game.
Cishek earned his ninth save in 11 chances.
Carlos Beltran went 0 for 4 to end the longest active hitting streak in the majors at 14 games. Carpenter was also hitless and finished 7 for 38 (.184) on the Cardinals' nine-game trip.
Jon Jay and Matt Adams drove in St. Louis' runs. Right fielder Stanton made a leaping catch at the fence to rob Adams of an RBI and an extra-base hit in the seventh.
"With that lineup, probably among the top three in the league, you just have to stay focused," Nolasco said. "You can't lose concentration and leave balls over the middle, because they're just going to start crushing you. I was able to get away with some balls that they hit hard, and we had great defense at the same time, so it worked out."
The Marlins scored twice in the first. Pierre led off with a single and took third on a double by Stanton. Ruggiano followed with a two-run single.
A bout of wildness against the bottom of the order cost Lyons in the fourth inning. He hit Jeff Mathis, who was batting .128, and then Nolasco walked for the first time this year to load the bases. Pierre followed with a two-out, two-run single for a 4-1 Miami lead.
Pierre increased his RBI total to eight in 222 at-bats this year.
Polanco had three hits starting for the first time in five games after being sidelined by back stiffness. His two-out, two-run double in the fifth made it 6-1.
"To get a win against such a great team and a great lineup, and to play as well as we did, that's a great day for all of us," Marlins manager Mike Redmond said.
NOTES: Miami 1B Logan Morrison (back) took grounders before the game but sat out for the third day in a row. ... The crowd of 18,468 was the largest of the homestand. ... David Freese had one hit, but his lifetime average against the Marlins fell to .462 (18 for 39). ... Marlins OF Marcell Ozuna, who is in a 1-for-20 slump, was given the day off. ... Pierre has 15 hitting streaks of at least 12 games, which is tied for fourth among active players.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsLee-ding questions
CSN: Should the Phillies opt to trade Cliff Lee, and the scores of millions of dollars left on his contract, here's what they can expect to get.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/52223498/ns/sports-baseball/
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Unions prepare strikes to support Turkey protests
ISTANBUL (AP) ? Turkish trade unions urged their members to walk out of work Monday and join demonstrations in response to a widespread police crackdown against activists following weeks of street protests.
However, the interior minister issued a stark warning to organizers of the one-day labor walkout that is aimed at maintaining pressure on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.
"I am calling on public workers and laborers to not participate in unlawful demonstrations ? otherwise they will bear the legal consequences," Muammer Guler said. "Our police will be on duty as usual."
A day earlier, riot police cordoned off streets, set up roadblocks and fired tear gas and water cannons to prevent anti-government protesters from converging on Istanbul's central Taksim Square, while a few kilometers (miles) away Erdogan addressed hundreds of thousands of government supporters.
Police on Monday maintained a lockdown on Taksim, the epicenter of more than two weeks of protests, by barring vehicles. However, as the work week began, authorities re-opened a subway station at the square that had been shuttered Sunday when protesters tried to regroup.
Two of Turkey's largest labor movements urged members to walk off the job Monday afternoon and converge at the square.
In Ankara overnight, riot police fired tear gas and water cannons against thousands of protesters, the latest violence in a more than two-week standoff that started as an environmentalist rally but later morphed into a broader protest against Erdogan's government.
Five people, including a policeman, have died and more than 5,000 have been injured, according to a Turkish rights group.
Riot police on Saturday emptied Istanbul's Gezi Park, next to Taksim Square, ending an 18-day sit-in by protesters against plans to redevelop the park.
Erdogan, who long has been praised for shepherding Turkey to strong economic growth as many other world economies lagged, has seen his international reputation dented over his government's handling of the situation. He has blamed the protests on a nebulous plot to destabilize his government and has repeatedly lashed out at reports in foreign media and chatter in social media about the situation.
___
Keaten reported from Ankara, Turkey. Ezgi Akin contributed from Ankara.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/unions-prepare-strikes-support-turkey-protests-074553748.html
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Czech prime minister says he will resign
PRAGUE (AP) ? Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas announced Sunday that he will resign over a spy and bribery scandal involving his government.
Necas said he also will quit on Monday as chairman of his conservative Civic Democratic Party.
He has been under pressure to quit since police conducted raids all across the country this week and arrested eight people, including Necas' closest aide and the head of his office, Jana Nagyova. She was charged with ordering a military intelligence agency to spy on three people, including Necas' estranged wife.
Seven other people, including the current and former heads of the Military Intelligence agency and three former lawmakers of his party, were charged with bribery or misuse of power.
"I am aware of my political responsibility," Necas said.
His decision will end his three-party coalition government, which was created after the 2010 parliamentary election. But Necas said he hopes it can stay in power until a parliamentary election planned next year.
This is an optimal solution of the current situation," Necas said. Two coalition partners, the conservative TOP 09 party and the Liberal Democrats, agreed with that plan Sunday.
"We're obliged to do all we can for the government to continue," said Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek, the deputy head of TOP 09.
That might not happen, however. It is up to the President Milos Zeman to select a new prime minister who would try to form a new government, and it is not immediately clear if he is ready to accept such a solution. The current coalition also doesn't have a clear parliamentary majority and governs with the help from independent lawmakers.
Early elections also are not easy to call because it would have to be approved by three-fifths of the 200 lawmakers, and the opposition does not have enough seats to force it.
The negotiations between the parties are expected to start immediately, and it is not clear how much time they will need to find a solution to the crisis.
Earlier this week, prosecutors said Nagyova was suspected of directing the alleged illegal surveillance without any authorization. In their explanation for the sweeping raids at government offices and other locations, they said Nagyova's motives were "purely private."
Necas announced earlier this week that he and his wife, Radka, have filed for divorce. Newspapers have speculated about an affair between him and Nagyova.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/czech-prime-minister-says-resign-214334447.html
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Sunday, June 16, 2013
Kuwait court dissolves parliament, orders new elections
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait's top court on Sunday ordered the dissolution of parliament and called for fresh elections, officials in the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab said.
The Constitutional Court made its ruling after throwing out an opposition challenge to changes to the electoral system decreed by the emir, hereditary ruler of the oil-exporting country, head judge Youssef al-Mutawa told reporters.
The case has international importance because political stability in Kuwait, owner of more than six percent of global oil reserves, has traditionally depended on cooperation between the government and the elected parliament, the oldest and most powerful legislature in the Gulf Arab states.
Kuwait sits in a strategic position between Saudi Arabia and Iraq and across the Gulf from Iran.
The opposition case had questioned the constitutionality of a change to the voting system ordered by the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah.
Mutawa said the hearing had decided not to make a ruling on the challenge, in effect leaving the emir's decree unchanged.
(Reporting by Sylvia Westall, Editing by William Maclean)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kuwait-court-dissolves-parliament-orders-elections-100332796.html
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Microsoft just released data on its government requests (including FISA) too.
Microsoft just released data on its government requests (including FISA) too. For the last six months last year, Microsoft received between 6,000 and 7,000 government requests affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 accounts. [Microsoft]
Source: http://gizmodo.com/microsoft-just-released-data-on-its-government-requests-513539952
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Get Started In Commercial Real Estate. Read Some Tips Here ...
The advice in this article have been used by people to be successful in the commercial real estate market.
Whether buying or selling, make sure to negotiate. Be heard and fight to get yourself a fair property price.
TIP! Be sure to negotiate on the fact of what you are, the seller or buyer. It is important that your concerns and opinions are heard and recognized by the other parties; you must always put forth the effort to ensure fair pricing for the commercial property.
Before you make a large investment in real estate, you should investigate its area to determine the average income level, unemployment rates and the expansion or contraction of local employers. If the building is near certain specific buildings, including hospitals, universities, they?re likely to sell fast, you might be able to sell it faster and for more money.
Commercial property dealings are exponentially more complicated and longer transactions than buying a residential home is. You should understand that although this is a huge undertaking, you have to be diligent in order to get a profit.
TIP! Record problems by taking digital pictures of them. Take pictures of the damages, for instance spots and stains, holes or even discoloration on the bathtub.
When you have to decide between two commercial properties, it?s best to look at things on a bigger scale. Generally, this is much like the principle of buying in bulk; the more units you buy, you will end up getting a better price per unit.
When interviewing potential brokers, be sure to find out how much experience they have on the commercial market. Make sure that the agent has the proper expertise with the type of real estate purchase or sale you are interested in. You need to get into a type of exclusive agreement that is exclusive.
TIP! Be calm and patient when looking at commercial real estate. Do not be hasty about making a investment decision.
You should try to understand the (NOI) Net Operating Income of your commercial property.
Take a tour of properties with purchase potential. Think about taking a contractor as a companion to help evaluate the property. Make a proposal early, and open the negotiating table. Before making any commitment, be sure to carefully evaluate all counteroffers.
TIP! Your investment might be very time consuming at first. You will have to hunt for a good opportunity, and once you have bought property, you might have to do some repairs or remodel it.
Have a list of goals on hand before you are looking for when it comes to commercial real estate. Write down the things you like about the property, such as how many square feet it must be and the number of specific rooms it should have, including conference rooms, offices, and restrooms.
You should always know the details of emergency repairs. Have the phone numbers on speed dial, and know how much time it usually takes for repairmen to arrive.
TIP! When choosing between two similar commercial properties, think large scale. Financing may be no more difficult for the large apartment building than the small one.
With careful consideration and application of these tips, you have a solid foundation to build your commercial real estate investment strategy. Commercial real estate presents may exciting and well-paid opportunities if you know where to look for them. Apply the above advice to your own needs in order to excel!
TIP! When choosing a broker, ask about their experience specifically in the commercial real estate market. Make sure that they are experts in the area in which you are selling or buying.
Source: http://www.holldon.com/get-started-in-commercial-real-estate-read-some-tips-here/
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Most Beautiful Items: June 8 - June 14, 2013
What do a giant wooden egg, a crazy Japanese tech office, and a 3D printing factory have in common? Nothing, really. Except they were some of our favorite design posts this week. Check them out, plus a lot of awesome art, architecture, and more generally wonderful things below.
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Amid Gitmo strike, ex-detainee tells of force-feed
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) ? For more than three months, the U.S. military has faced off with defiant prisoners on a hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, strapping down as many as 44 each day to feed them a liquid nutrient mix through a nasal tube to prevent them from starving to death.
The standoff, which prompted President Barack Obama to renew his call to close the detention center, has grown to involve 104 of the 166 prisoners as of Saturday, and may be nearing a crisis point. Yet the experience of a former detainee demonstrates that a hunger strike at Guantanamo can be as indefinite as the open-ended detention that is at the heart of essentially every conflict at the military prison.
The men undergoing forced-feeding aren't permitted to speak to journalists, but Ahmed Zuhair knows what the experience is like. Until he was released from U.S. custody in 2009, he and another prisoner had the distinction of staging the longest hunger strikes at the prison. Zuhair kept at it for four years in a showdown that at times turned violent.
The military acknowledges a "forced cell extraction team" was repeatedly used to move him when he refused to walk on his own to where striking detainees were fed. He says his nasal passages and back are permanently damaged from the way he was strapped down and fed through a nasogastric tube.
Court papers show that Zuhair once racked up 80 disciplinary infractions in four months, refusing to be force-fed among them, and that he and fellow prisoners smeared themselves with their own feces for five days to keep guards at bay and protest rough treatment.
Zuhair, a former sheep merchant who was never charged with any crime during seven years at Guantanamo, stopped eating in June 2005, and kept up his protest until he was sent home to Saudi Arabia in 2009.
"Not once did the thought occur to me to stop my hunger strike," he says now. "Not once."
Zuhair spoke to The Associated Press in a telephone interview along with his lawyer, Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at City University of New York.
The 47-year-old Zuhair lives with his wife and children in the Muslim holy city of Mecca. He said he doesn't get much news about Guantanamo in Saudi Arabia but that the world should not be surprised that prisoners are back on strike.
"The men there today are going through the same experience and they are suffering just as much, and so they probably will not stop either," he said.
Since the prison opened in 2002, seven prisoners have committed suicide. It's the policy of the U.S. Department of Defense to try to keep strikers alive. The feeding procedure is considered safe and its use has been upheld by the courts, said Navy Capt. Robert Durand, a spokesman for the detention center.
The medical personnel who conduct the feedings lubricate the feeding tubes, offer anesthetics to the prisoners and have rules for nasal rest to prevent long-lasting damage, Durand said.
"We think there are adequate safeguards in place to make it as pain-free and comfortable as possible," he said. "It's not done to inflict pain and it's not done as punishment. It's done to preserve life."
Officials refer to the process by the medical term "enteral feeding" rather than "force feeding." It involves restraining men with straps that resemble airplane seatbelts to a specially designed chair that looks like a piece of exercise equipment. Zuhair called it the "torture chair" and said he was left tied down for hours at a time, ostensibly so the liquid nutrient drink Ensure could be digested.
It is difficult to confirm the accounts of either prisoners or military officials. Journalists are not allowed to watch the feeding process or interview the men held behind the perimeter fences and coils of razor wire at this isolated U.S. military base on the southeastern edge of the Cuban coast.
Pardiss Kebriaei, a lawyer with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, recently returned from a visit with clients held at Guantanamo and said several of the men had trouble concentrating, which she attributed in part to being kept isolated in solid-walled cells for most of the day.
She said one prisoner, Sabry Mohammed of Yemen, had lost more than 60 pounds (27 kilograms).
"Sabry Mohammed was a healthy young man before the strike," Kebriaei said in an email. "It was startling this time to see how much he has changed physically."
In an editorial published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, two doctors and a professor of medical ethics urged Guantanamo's prison doctors to refuse to force feed hunger strikers, saying to do so is a violation of ethical obligations. It's an argument that has been made for years by human rights groups and detainee advocates.
There are risks to prolonged enteral feeding, including the possibility of getting liquid in the lungs and or damaging the nasal passages, particularly when the person is uncooperative, said Dr. David L. Katz, an internist on the faculty of the Yale University School of Medicine. The effects of prolonged use of liquid nutrition instead of regular food are not really known, he said.
"You do a procedure when it's the best choice under the circumstances," Katz said. "In this ethical context, these are people you are forcing to receive sustenance they don't want. I don't know how you begin to measure risk-benefit trade-offs, but there are some medical risks, certainly."
The military began using the restraint chair at Guantanamo to feed prisoners in January 2006 after hunger strikers grew dangerously thin and officials feared some might die. Then, as now, prisoners said they were striking over what they considered the reckless handling of their Qurans by prison staff, conditions at the detention center and their indefinite confinement.
The number of men participating in that protest, which reached 131 at its peak, dwindled to just two ? Zuhair and Abdul Rahman Shalabi, a fellow Saudi who remains at the prison and has joined the current hunger strike.
U.S. officials have said the feeding chair was never intended to break the strike, only to keep men alive. The military insists all its procedures are humane.
But Zuhair, and others, have long maintained otherwise. "During each force-feeding, my nose bleeds," he said in a sworn statement submitted to the court by his lawyer, Kassem. "The pain from each force-feeding is so excruciating that I am unable to sleep at night because of the pain in my throat."
At one point, the government facilitated a call to the prison from Zuhair's mother, who urged him to drop the hunger strike. "My family did not know what I was going through at Guantanamo ? the humiliation, the torture, the solitary confinement," he told AP.
A court-ordered April 2009 report by Dr. Emily Keram, a forensic psychiatrist based in Santa Rosa, California, included interviews with guards who denied Zuhair's allegations that he was roughly forced into the restraint chair and left there much longer than the two-hour maximum.
Keram also found evidence that Zuhair wasn't always confrontational. Guards told her that Zuhair often served as an intermediary between troops and prisoners.
Guards told her that prisoners would sometimes sing as they were being force-fed, a favorite was hip hop artist Akon's "Locked Up."
At the time of Keram's evaluation, Zuhair, who is about 5 feet, 5 inches, weighed 115 pounds. Today, he says he weighs nearly 190 pounds (85 kilograms). Records show he dropped to 108 pounds in December 2005.
In his seven years at Guantanamo, Zuhair faced an evolving collection of allegations that he had ties to Islamic extremists, all of which he denied. He had been taken into custody by Pakistani agents in late 2001, and his lawyer says he was tortured into confessing to having met with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan even though he had never been to that country. He was turned over to U.S. officials and moved to Guantanamo in June 2002.
Kassem pursued a legal challenge and sought to prove that Zuhair was wrongly held. "We just wanted to go to trial and have the hearing so a judge could rule on whether Ahmed's detention was legal or not," the lawyer said.
Finally it looked as if they were going to get the chance when the judge set a court date for late June 2009. But just before that could happen, the U.S. put Zuhair on a plane without warning and sent him home, where he went through a rehabilitation program set up by the Saudi government. He was one of the last prisoners allowed to leave before Congress put up roadblocks to releases.
The one-time merchant said he has no work now. And his stomach and back are in constant pain from the effects of his strike.
"I think about the men who are at Guantanamo and I wonder about America's humanity," he said. "I ask myself how much longer this will go on."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amid-gitmo-strike-ex-detainee-tells-force-feed-081655179.html
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Saturday, June 15, 2013
Samsung Flaunts Its Smartphone Lead By Opening An R&D Center On Nokia's Doorstep
Not content with following Nokia's past playbook, by saturating the mobile market with countless iterations of its smartphone hardware, pushing a whole Galaxy of gizmos at every price point and form-factor fancy you can think of, Samsung has gone one further. It's opened an R&D centre in Espoo, Finland, right on Nokia's doorstep. Literally on Nokia's doorstep.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/LVKkfQHJKYQ/
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