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'I thought I was smarter than almost everybody': my double life as a KGB agent By Shaun Walker

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 16:55:00 +0000

Raised in East Germany, Jack Barsky abandoned his mother, brother, wife and son to spy for the KGB. In America, he started a second family. And then it all came crashing down...

Jack Barsky in Atlanta. Photograph: Johnathon Kelso for the Guardian

On a chilly morning in December 1988, computer analyst Jack Barsky embarked on his usual morning commute to his office on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, leaving his wife and baby daughter at home in Queens. As he entered the subway, he caught sight of something startling: a daub of red paint on a metal beam. Barsky had looked for it every morning for years; it meant he had a life-changing decision to make, and fast.

How New York City Gets Its Electricity By EMILY S. RUEB; Illustrations by Thoka Maer

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 15:37:00 +0000

When you turn on a light or charge your phone, the electricity coming from the outlet may well have traveled hundreds of miles across the power grid that blankets most of North America — the world’s largest machine, and one of its most eccentric.

Your household power may have been generated by Niagara Falls, or by a natural-gas-fired plant on a barge floating off the Brooklyn shore. But the kilowatt-hour produced down the block probably costs more than the one produced at the Canadian border.

Moreover, a surprising portion of the system is idle except for the hottest days of the year, when already bottlenecked transmission lines into the New York City area reach their physical limit.

“We have a system which is energy-inefficient because it was never designed to be efficient,” said Richard L. Kauffman, the state’s so-called energy czar, who is leading its plans to reimagine the power grid.

It’s like a mainframe computer in the age of cloud computing, Mr. Kauffman added, and with climate change, the state has to “rethink that basic architecture.”

But how does it work now?

Foreign workers: Should they stay or should they go? By Philip Brasor

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 14:44:00 +0000

As the rest of the world debated the ramifications of U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban on persons from seven Muslim-majority countries last week, Japan was notably silent.

Economic advantage: Former Ambassador to Switzerland Takaji Kunimatsu is impressed by the European nation's approach to immigration. The Swiss government spends money on language lessons and vocational training in fields that benefit the country. When immigrants break the law, they are subject to deportation. | KYODO

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is currently going out of his way to placate the new American leader for the sake of national interests, but in any case there was little he could add to the discussion. Japan has never universally welcomed immigrants, especially refugees. The local media, which covered the travel ban with detachment, didn’t bother to make any relevant connections to Japan’s situation, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any.

The Wet Wipes Box Says Flush, but the New York City Sewer System Says Don’t By Matt Flegenheimer

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 18:16:00 +0000

With its sewer system under siege, tallying millions of dollars in equipment damage across its underground maze, New York City is confronting a menace that has gummed the gears of plumbing networks around the world: the common wet wipe.

Michael Brady, a worker at the Newtown Creek plant in Brooklyn, raking wipes and other waste into a bin for disposal. ( Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times)

In recent years, the intersection of evolving hygienic sensibilities and aggressive industry marketing has fueled the product’s rise. Wet wipes, long used for baby care, have grown popular with adults.

Some of the products are branded as “flushable” — a characterization contested by wastewater officials and plaintiffs bringing class-action lawsuits against wipes manufacturers for upending their plumbing.

The most important political issue of the moment? Ed Miliband’s kitchens By Owen Jones

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 17:56:00 +0000

The puerile nature of political discourse in modern Britain crowds out the issues that matter to ordinary people.

‘This will not be an election about issues, but will mostly consist of making Miliband look a bit weird and thus unsuitable for No 10.’ (Photograph: Russell Cheyne/Reuters)

The problem with an open sewer is you cannot escape the stench. The Daily Mail is that open sewer, along with a sizable chunk of Britain’s Tory-dominated oligarch-owned “free press”. Let’s just have a quick recap about the level of political discourse we have reached in Britain. The big political controversy of the moment is not the national scandal of low pay or child poverty, not the housing crisis, the lack of secure work, food banks – you name it. No: it’s the kitchen arrangements of the leader of the opposition. The first outrage was that Ed Miliband’s kitchen was too drab. But then came the knockout blow: he has two kitchens.

Japanese scientists make breakthrough in wireless energy transmission By AFP-JIJI and JIJI

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 17:47:00 +0000

Japanese scientists have succeeded in transmitting energy wirelessly, a key step that could one day make solar power generation in space a possibility, an official said.

A solar flare erupts on the Sun's northeastern hemisphere during a powerful solar storm in January 2012. Japanese scientists have succeeded in transmitting energy wirelessly, a key step that could one day make solar power generation in space a possibility, an official said this week. | NASA / AP

Researchers used microwaves to deliver 1.8 kilowatts — enough to run an electric kettle — through the air with pinpoint accuracy to a receiver 55 meters (170 feet) away.

Terry Pratchett, Discworld series author, dies aged 66 By Richard Lea and Caroline Davies

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 17:31:00 +0000

Author of more than 70 novels, who ‘fired the imagination of millions’, dies at his home eight years after Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Terry Pratchett wrote more than 70 books and sold 75 million copies worldwide.

The writer Terry Pratchett, who took millions of readers on a madcap journey to the universe of Discworld, has died aged 66.

The announcement came in typically irreverent manner on the author’s Twitter feed, with a series of tweets beginning in the voice of his character, Death: “AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.”

It’s Not Always Depression By Hilary Jacobs Hendel

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 16:35:00 +0000

How can it be that a seemingly depressed person, one who shows clinical symptoms, doesn’t respond to antidepressants or psychotherapy? Perhaps because the root of his anguish is something else.

Several years ago a patient named Brian was referred to me. He had suffered for years from an intractable depression for which he had been hospitalized. He had been through cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, supportive therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy. He had tried several medication “cocktails,” each with a litany of side effects that made them virtually intolerable. They had been ineffective anyway. The next step was electroshock therapy, which Brian did not want.

Fukushima No. 1′s never-ending battle with radioactive water By Kazuaki Nagata

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 16:18:00 +0000

The disaster that struck four years ago may have abated for most of the Tohoku region, but the nightmare continues at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, which suffered three reactor core meltdowns and is plagued daily by increasing amounts of radioactive water.

Tepco hopes to improve the situation via two key measures: a 1.5-km-long sunken wall of frozen soil encircling stricken reactors 1, 2 and 3 and the damaged reactor 4 building to keep groundwater from entering and mixing with coolant water leaking in the reactor building basements, and “subdrain” wells around the buildings to pump up the tainted groundwater for treatment and ultimate discharge into the Pacific.

An entire neighbourhood secretly learned sign language to make a deaf man's day better By Christopher Hooton

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 16:01:00 +0000

Today in touching altruistic acts only slightly tarred by their being an advert for a major brand, residents of Istanbul surprise a deaf man by all learning how to sign.

Man is completely bewildered by Truman Show-esque stunt

Muaharrem's sister, Ozlem, teamed up with Samsung for the stunt, which saw months of preparation as the language was learned and cameras were stationed around the neighbourhood.

50% rise in long-term unemployment for young ethnic minority people in UK By Matthew Taylor

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 15:47:00 +0000

Labour cites figures in attack on coalition for ‘abandonment’ of 16- to 24-year-olds from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to joblessness.

Long-term unemployment among black, Asian and minority ethnic 16- to 24-year-olds has risen sharply since 2010. (Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters)

The number of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds who have been unemployed for more than a year has risen by almost 50% since the coalition came to power, according to figures released by the Labour party.

Mary Cain Is Growing Up Fast By Elizabeth Weil

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 10:08:00 +0000

Mary Cain stood near the starting line with 31 other high-school girls at a track in Greensboro, N.C., in June 2011, waiting to run in the national championships of the 4 x 800 meter relay. With their long ponytails and soft bodies, racing numbers pinned to their hips, none of the girls looked like much — but Cain, a freshman, looked like less. She wore hot pink shorts and a black sports bra, and her shoulders slumped with the impatient awkwardness of being 15. The first two runners from Bronxville, N.Y., Cain’s hometown, ran their 800-meter splits (a little less than half a mile) in 2 minutes 13 seconds and 2 minutes 14 seconds. The two runners each from the Bishop Guertin track club in New Hampshire and the Achilles track club in North Carolina logged times within a second of that, because 2:13 is about how long it takes a good female high-school athlete to complete two laps of the track. The third Bronxville runner faded slightly and ran her 800 meters in 2:18. That left Cain, the anchor, shaking out her legs and waiting on the matte black oval.

Mary Cain ( Credit Peter Bohler for The New York Times)

The 800 is a crushing race. Runners go out hard, then try to hang on to the pace in a showcase of will. Through the first six and a half laps of that eight-lap relay, the announcer called the event gamely, like a horse race — “Bishop Guertin! Bronxville! Achilles!” — playing up the tension, implying that anybody could win. But shortly after Cain took the baton, the race became disorienting. Everybody was running one speed and Cain — eyes down, body tilted forward — was running at another. Like watching a turntable with one record spinning at 33⅓ r.p.m. and another at 45 r.p.m., it scrambled the brain. Cain completed her first lap in 58 seconds, only half a second slower than Roger Bannister ran his first lap at Oxford on May 6, 1954, when he became the first man to break the four-minute mile. The announcer, flabbergasted, began shouting: “Bronxville! Mary Cain! Bronxville! Mary Cain!” at irregular intervals. She ran her 800 meters in 2:03.74.

Japan considers creating MI6-style spy agency By Reuters

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 09:48:00 +0000

Japan is looking into creating an overseas intelligence agency possibly modeled on Britain’s MI6 spy service, ruling party lawmakers say, 70 years after Allied victors dismantled Japan’s fearsome military intelligence apparatus following World War II.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scratches his face during an upper house committee session at the parliament in Tokyo in this February 2, 2015 file photo. (Credit: Reuters/Yuya Shino/Files)

A new foreign intelligence agency would be an integral part of a security framework Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is building as he seeks to loosen the post-war pacifist constitution’s limits on the military’s ability to operate overseas.

Netanyahu enters never-never land By Fareed Zakaria

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 09:32:00 +0000

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress was eloquent, moving and intelligent in identifying the problems with the potential nuclear deal with Iran. But when describing the alternative to it, Netanyahu entered never-never land, painting a scenario utterly divorced from reality. Congress joined him on his fantasy ride, rapturously applauding as he spun out one unattainable demand after another.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington, Monday, March 2, 2015. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Netanyahu declared that Washington should reject the current deal, demand that Tehran dismantle almost its entire nuclear program and commit never to restart it. In the world according to Bibi, the Chinese, Russians and Europeans will cheer, tighten sanctions, and increase pressure — which would then lead Iran to capitulate. “Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough,” said Peter Pan.

Julian Fellowes on Twists in the ‘Downton Abbey’ Season Finale By Dave Itzkoff

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 17:24:00 +0000

The fifth season finale of “Downton Abbey” tugged at many heartstrings, and we’re not talking about Lord Grantham’s mistaken case of angina. (Stop reading here if you wish to avoid spoilers.)

Julian Fellowes, the force behind the twists and turns of the characters on “Downton Abbey,” discusses the Season 5 finale and the show’s future. ( Credit Austin Hargrave)

In one fell swoop, the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith) abandoned any thought of rekindling a past infatuation with the Russian Prince Kuragin, and Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton) closed the door on her engagement to Lord Merton. Love bloomed in the servants’ quarters, where the stately Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) at long last proposed to the kindly Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan).

Becky Watts: police get 36 more hours to question pair held in hunt for Bristol girl By Steven Morris

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 17:03:00 +0000

Search continues for missing 16-year-old as police issue appeal for information about vehicle they have seized.

Home video of Becky Watts posted on Facebook by her father

Police have been given a further 36 hours to question two people arrested in connection with the disappearance of 16-year-old Becky Watts, and have issued an appeal for information about a vehicle they have seized.

Two more Cabinet ministers ensnared in money scandals By Reiji Yoshida

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 15:13:00 +0000

Two Cabinet ministers admitted Friday that the Liberal Democratic Party chapters they respectively headed accepted a total of ¥2 million in donations in 2013 from a company that was scheduled to receive government subsides, giving more ammunition to opposition lawmakers feeding on the Abe administration’s money scandals.

During a Lower House Budget Committee session, Environment Minister Yoshio Mochizuki admitted receiving ¥1.4 million, and Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa ¥600,000, from Shizuoka-based logistics firm Suzuyo & Co.

American atheist blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh By Agence France-Presse

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 12:42:00 +0000

Avijit Roy, whose Mukto-Mona (Free-mind) blog championed liberal secular writing in the Muslim-majority nation, attacked along with his wife in Dhaka.

Avijit Roy, the blogger on Mukto-Mona who was killed in a machete attack. (Photograph: Twitter/Dhaka Tribune)

A prominent American blogger of Bangladeshi origin was hacked to death with machetes by unidentified assailants in Dhaka, police said, with the atheist writer’s family claiming he had received numerous threats from Islamists.

Adieu, Chris Christie, Adieu By Gail Collins

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 12:25:00 +0000

Chris Christie is political toast.

Cause of his charred presidential prospects: an unreformed state pension system. I know that’s disappointing. Not nearly as exciting as the political near-death experiences that went before. We were hoping the next disaster would be something like Governor Yells at Elmo. Or a reprise of the day he chased a guy down the boardwalk while waving an ice cream cone, this time maybe featuring Tom Hanks or Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Isis burns thousands of books and rare manuscripts from Mosul's libraries By Rose Troup Buchanan and Heather Saul

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 12:06:00 +0000

Islamist militants took the city in June last year

Isis militants have reportedly ransacked Mosul library, burning over a hundred thousand rare manuscripts and documents spanning centuries of human learning.
Initial reports said approximately 8,000 books were destroyed by the extremist group.
However, AL RAI’s chief international correspondent Elijah J. Magnier told The Independent that a Mosul library official believes as many as 112, 709 manuscripts and books, some of which were registered on a UNESCO rarities list, are among those lost.

Dealt Setback, Obama Puts Off Immigrant Plan By Michael D. Shear and Julia Preston

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 16:05:00 +0000

Washington — One day before hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants were to begin applying for work permits and legal protection, administration officials on Tuesday postponed President Obama’s sweeping executive actions on immigration indefinitely, saying they had no choice but to comply with a federal judge’s last-minute order halting the programs.

President Obama was confident Tuesday that he would win the legal battle over immigration. “The law is on our side,” he said. ( Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)

The judge’s ruling was a significant setback for the president, who had asserted broad authority to take executive actions in the face of congressional Republicans’ refusal to overhaul the immigration system. White House officials have defended the president’s actions as legal and proper even as his adversaries in Congress and the states have accused him of vastly exceeding the powers of his office.

Equation Group: NSA-linked spying team have software to hack into any computer By Andrew Griffin

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 06:59:00 +0000

Attacks linked to the National Security Agency have been going on for up to 15 years, and targeted Islamic scholars and encryption firms as well as governments and high-profile companies.

The US security services have developed software that has enabled it to spy on home computers almost anywhere in the world.

Up to 14 Years of Hot Flashes Found in Menopause Study By Pam Belluck

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 16:52:00 +0000

Conventional wisdom has it that hot flashes, which afflict up to 80 percent of middle-aged women, usually persist for just a few years. But hot flashes can continue for as long as 14 years, and the earlier they begin the longer a woman is likely to suffer, a study published on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine found.

Sharon Brown keeps fans nearby in her job at Deborah Boose Accounting and Tax Service in Winston-Salem, N.C. (Credit Karen Tam for The New York Times)

Conventional wisdom has it that hot flashes, which afflict up to 80 percent of middle-aged women, usually persist for just a few years. But hot flashes can continue for as long as 14 years, and the earlier they begin the longer a woman is likely to suffer, a study published on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine found.

Commodities explained: Oil data watch By Anjli Raval

noreply@blogger.com (libraryofelectronicpress@gmail.com) — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 16:17:00 +0000

Concerns about a growing oil supply surplus last year prompted Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter, in November to persuade fellow Opec members that cutting production to support oil prices was not in their interest. The Kingdom said a period of lower prices would shave off some US shale production and other high-cost output and protect Saudi Arabia’s (and in theory the cartel’s) market share.

With the oil market focused on the impact of the plunge in oil prices on supply as well as demand, traders are on tenterhooks. Some are even grumbling that they have to hang around on Fridays for the weekly US rig count announcement — a data point that could provide hints about where oil output is heading particularly in a volatile oil market. But what else is on the list of potentially market moving data?