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Foreign affairs: When U.S. representatives behave like out-of-control college kids
Ever since President Clinton "did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," whatever remains of standards seem to have fallen even lower among people who hold offices and positions once thought to require good behavior and strong moral character.
Last year, several Secret Service agents left the agency amid scandal after allegedly engaging the services of prostitutes while advancing a trip to Cartagena, Colombia, for President Obama. A side note: One of the prostitutes, Dania Londono Suarez, wrote a tell-all book about the incident titled "Room Service." According to the Huffington Post's Latinovoices, she's s also opening a nonprofit to "help hookers" and "has a modeling contract plus a deal to bring her story to television." Of course, she does.
Just this week, CBS News reported that "...the State Department may have covered up allegations of illegal and inappropriate behavior within its ranks." The allegations were contained in an internal Office of Inspector General memo, leaked by a former State Department investigator, which, according to CBS News, "cited eight specific examples" of impropriety, including the 2011 investigation into an ambassador who "routinely ditched ... his protective security detail" in order to "solicit sexual favors from prostitutes."
The ambassador, of course, denies the allegations. So, not surprisingly, does the State Department, which, reports ABC News, "offered a point-by-point pushback" to the memo's claims. "We take allegations of misconduct seriously and we investigate thoroughly," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters Monday. Not so says the memo. It alleges State Department investigations into the charges were "influenced, manipulated, or simply called off."
As if that isn't enough, the memo claims the State Department may have covered up details about an underground drug ring operating near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that allegedly supplied security contractors with drugs. According to CBS News, the memo also includes allegations that a State Department security official in Beirut "engaged in sexual assaults on foreign nationals hired as embassy guards" and that members of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's security details "engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries." The solicitation of prostitutes among security details, alleges the memo, was an "endemic" problem.
This is worse than outrageous. These incidents, if proven true, are a stain on the honor and reputation of the country these people are, or were, supposed to represent.
In 1958, William Lederer and Eugene Burdick published a novel called "The Ugly American," which graphically detailed why U.S. diplomacy failed in Southeast Asia and why communism didn't. Our arrogance and boorish behavior doomed us there. Unfortunately, the book turned out to be prophetic. Is history repeating itself, not on a military or political level, but in the destruction of what remains of our moral underpinnings?
How can the United States project its core values when people who represent it behave like out-of-control college kids on spring break?
There was a time when bad behavior carried serious consequences; a time when those who exhibited bad behavior suffered socially for their lapses. They lost jobs; they lost marriages; they lost friends. Today, they're rewarded with book contracts and reality TV shows. What happened to doing what's right, instead of doing who's easy? People who grew up with parents who instilled a strong moral code, attended schools that reinforced it and lived in communities that affirmed it, now find that if they question bad behavior today they're considered behind the times, even prudish.
With the media portraying all sorts of behavior as acceptable; with politicians in high places getting away with low behavior and in some cases paying little or no penalty, where are the deterrents? Disappointing family used to be the default position for avoiding extramarital entanglements in cases where religious or ethical values did not apply.
While each man should be held accountable for his own behavior, the rest of us should consider what we're promoting and tolerating as a nation and the permission it gives others to follow bad examples.
Irving Berlin wrote a silly song called "The Secret Service (Makes Me Nervous)." We should all be nervous. We should also ask ourselves what we intend to do about it.
Cal Thomas writes this column for Tribune Media Services. Email: email@example.com.


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We've discovered many rocky planets around distant stars, but they're mostly super-Earths, much larger and more massive than our planet. Plus, most of these "super Earths" orbit stars vastly different from our Sun. Now we've discovered two planets that really could be Earth's twins.
Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f are part of the five-planet solar system called Kepler-20, named for the exoplanet-hunting NASA probe that discovered it. They are located about a thousand light-years away in the constellation Lyra. Unfortunately, these two planets are much too close to their parent star to be in their solar system's habitable zone, which means in that rather crucial way they're not exact duplicates of Earth. But otherwise, they're astonishingly close.
In particular, Kepler-20f is nearly identical to Earth in terms of size, with a radius that's just 1.03 times larger than that of our planet. Kepler-20e is smaller, at just 0.87 times Earth's radius, which means it's slightly smaller than Venus. They represent the very first Earth-sized exoplanets ever found. Until now, Kepler-10b, the first rocky exoplanet ever found, was the smallest known exoplanet, at 1.4 times Earth's radius.
What really clinches the physical similarity between these two planets and Earth is their star. Kepler-20 is a class G star, just like the Sun, and it's only slightly smaller and cooler than ours. However, while the dimensions of the planets and stars may be similar, their positioning is vastly different. Kepler-20e orbits the star every 6.1 days and has an average temperature of 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit, while Kepler-20f clocks in at 19.6 days and 800 degrees.
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While these Earth-sized exoplanets naturally attract the most attention, the entire Kepler-20 system is fascinating. The other planets - Kepler-20b, Kepler-20c, and Kepler-20d - are all between the size of Earth and Neptune, making them super-Earths. They orbit every 3.7, 10.9, and 77.6 days, respectively, which means the smaller rocky planets slot in between those orbits. We've never seen such alternation between bigger and smaller planets before. In our solar system, for instance, there's clear segregation between the small rocky planets and the big gas giants.
This announcement comes hot on the heels of the discovery of Kepler-22b, a planet in another solar system that is in the habitable zone but likely too large to have a rocky surface. As Kepler deputy science team lead Natalie Batalha observes, we keep finding exoplanets with some, but not all, of the qualities needed to support life. With this latest find, it seems the discovery of a true Earth-2 really is just a matter of time.
Nature via NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Image by NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech.

subset: commoncrawl


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Fifty years ago the Pittsburgh Pirates won one of the most sensational World Series in major league baseball history.
Last month in October, some of the living former Pirates teammates from that magical 1960 squad met to live once again the vivid memories of the day that stands above all others in Buccos history.
Yes, better than the world championships of 1971 and 1979, both times against the Baltimore Orioles.
They came together last November 13 for a theater showing in Pittsburgh of a discovered film of NBC's Game 7 telecast against the New York Yankees. A copy of which no one knew existed.
The film was made at the time for the late Bing Crosby, the famed entertainer who long owned a small share of the Pirates.
The main highlight was once again to enjoy Bill Mazeroski's historic homer in the ninth inning that gave the underdog Pirates a 10-9 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the World Series.
A player that probably would have to come to terms with history that evening was Roberto Clemente.
In 1960 the "Cometa de Carolina" from Puerto Rico had a magnificent season hitting .314, fourth in the National League and leading his Pirates with 94 RBI.
Later, in the postseason, he continued his torrid batting, hitting safely in every game of the World Series against the Bronx Bombers, hitting .310 with three RBI.
However, history tells that Clemente after the World Series was infuriated and enraged because he felt snubbed by all the media.
Weeks later he was maddened even more when it was announced that he finished eighth in the National League Most Valuable Player voting.
He really thought he was underappreciated after a season he was a two-time All-Star and one of its main offensive lumbers.
For that Clemente never wore his 1960 championship ring.
In spite of his feeling that he was given a cold shoulder, possibly it gave him, in the long run, the spark to one of the best careers of any player in history and a path to the Hall of Fame.
Clemente, after that 1960 season, began a streak of eight consecutive seasons in which he batted no less than .312.
He won 12 consecutive Gold Gloves, went to nine consecutive Midsummer classics out of his 14 All-Star appearances and won the 1966 National League MVP accolade.
Later in 1971 the Bucs went to the World Series and Clemente hit safely once again in every game. This time he was honored with the World Series MVP trophy.
Clemente was one of the most outspoken players in baseball and first among Latinos in Major League Baseball.
If he would have been alive it would have been very interesting to listen if he would have forgiven what happened back in 1960.
Also, if he would have met new Manager Clint Hurdle, what advice would he have given to him?
What would have been Clemente's words to the new skipper of a Pirate team that lost 105 games and has averaged 97 losses the last six seasons?
Furthermore, last season the team was next-to-last in the majors in offense and last in pitching ERA and defense fielding percentage.
The Pirates, not since 1992, have finished a season above the .500 mark. Simply, the longest streak of losing seasons in major league history.
By the way, Clemente knows about futility. Before his magnificent 1960 season he played for a Pirate club that had suffered through three straight 100-loss seasons and was the laughingstock of the sport.
What Clemente would have said: Godspeed.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


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Automotive OS
Android Automotive OS (AAOS) is an infotainment platform built into cars by car makers. Drivers can download compatible apps directly into their cars, with no phone required, and use an interface that's designed for the car screen.
This section provides an overall picture of the AAOS experience and design guidance for creating apps that run on cars with AAOS built in.
To learn about creating phone-based Android apps that work in Android Auto–compatible vehicles, visit Android Auto.
Get started
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Create an app
Use these resources:


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About a thousand years ago, a television commercial for P&G's Olay brand emerged out of Australia that worked so well it would end up being run—accents and all—in much of the Olay world. Internally, it was called "Top Gun," for the broad reference it made to the sexual tension between Maverick and his female flight instructor in the film. In the Olay spot, a swaggering young military pilot hits on his female instructor, only to discover to his astonishment that she is a former teacher of his, and so, we are to surmise, quite a bit older than she looks. Snap.
The spot sold boatloads of Olay, and continued to do so long after P&G's othodoxy said it should have worn out. Meanwhile, its agencies' best minds tried to figure out how to make another one just like it. In the effort to deconstruct the magic of "Top Gun," there were some regrettable attempts to further plunder Tom Cruise's opus, and others involving women getting into some kind of pickle because they looked younger than they were. Nothing worked. Sometimes spectacularly. It didn't occur to anybody that this was because these spots made the women in them look like helpless naifs. "Top Gun," alone, possessed one important quality: the female character was powerful, and empowered further by the product. All those black turtlenecked creative directors were chasing a formula, when what really made the campaign tick was a truth.
This reminiscence is brought to you by Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, specifically its latest iteration, "Beauty Patch," launched last week. Built on the success of its "Real Beauty Sketches" viral hit, "Beauty Patch" also aims to convince women they're more beautiful than they believe. This continues to be a noble pursuit, and I love Dove for it. But "Beauty Patch" chases the moment of epiphany so single-mindedly that it forgets to be sensitive about how it's accomplished. Rather than let women see themselves through the eyes of others, as "Sketches" did, it cons them with a fake medicated patch that's supposed to make them feel more beautiful. The epiphanic moment arrives as they are instead made to feel like idiots for believing in the patch in the first place.
Following up "Sketches" had to be one of the toughest briefs in the business. It was the eighth most-viewed viral video of all time, and gave Dove the kind of awareness leverage content marketers fantasize about. But in trying to advance the brand's story from there, Dove lost the plot. It won't be fatal as long as they get the next one right. As long as they remember that when the screen fades to black, we want to be happy for these women, not pity them.