Summarize this article:

(CNN) Maddy Wilford, a junior at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, teared up before speaking Monday at Broward Health North, the hospital where she was taken after being shot at least three times on February 14.

 "I'd just like to say that I'm so grateful to be here, and it wouldn't be possible without those officers and first responders and these amazing doctors," said Wilford, who underwent several surgeries at the hospital and was released Wednesday.

 With her long brown hair swept back from her face and wearing a team jacket and a cast on her left arm, Wilford noted "all the love that's been passed around" and added, "I definitely wouldn't be here without it. I'm glad I'm making a full recovery, and everything's going so smoothly."

 At Monday's news conference, the first responders and doctors at Broward North also recalled the Valentine's Day shooting.

 'We were almost dumbfounded'

 Lt. Laz Ojeda of Coral Springs Fire Department was one of the team of first responders who transported Wilford from the school to the hospital.

 "That day started like any other day," Ojeda said. "When the call came in, we were almost dumbfounded. We couldn't believe it."

 They weren't dispatched right away, so their captain took the initiative and sent Ojeda's crew to the scene. There, he found the "organized chaos" in which he is accustomed to working.

 When Wilford was brought to them, Ojeda said, they thought she was dead.

 "She looked very pale," he said. After another officer shook her, "I believe she gasped, or she moved. She made signs of life."

 The emergency meant the team was operating under a specific set of transportation rules, so he was supposed to take her to Broward General, 30 miles from the school. Broward North, though, was just 10 minutes away.

 "I looked at her, I gave her a sternal rub, and I said, 'Hey, how old are you?' " Wilford showed no response. He asked a second time, and she whispered that she was 17.

 "We're going to North Broward," Ojeda redirected the crew. There, "I've never seen so many doctors, so many staff in the emergency room."

 Emotion was evident in his face and his voice as he explained: "We transferred her to a gurney, gave a report to the nurse, and we went back to work."

 At the hospital: 'We were ready'

 Dr. Evan Boyar, medical director of emergency services at Broward Health North, recalled the moment when Wilford arrived at his hospital: "It was a seamless process. Six months ago, we had an active shooter drill, to gear up for events like this. We were ready."

 Having called a "code green" -- a mass-casualty event -- Boyar knew that the trauma center would receive multiple patients at once. Still, the entire hospital was prepared to treat all patients "equally and swiftly."

 Wilford came under the care of Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, medical director of trauma services at the hospital. When she arrived, she was "pale and not responsive. She was in shock," he said. He had little information but could see that she had "multiple gunshot wounds" to her chest, abdomen and upper sternum.

 "Wounds in the chest were very severe, with massive bleeding," Nichiporenko said. Emergency staff gave her blood, and when they found fluid in her abdomen, she was taken to the operating room within 10 minutes.

 Nichiporenko had to perform "damage control," amounting to extricating bullets and repairing damage, first in Wilford's abdomen and then her chest and in the right upper extremity, where tendons had been "shattered from gunshot wounds."

 "Because we are a trauma center, we see these type of injuries almost every other day," he said of her bullet wounds. However, most gunshot injuries he sees are from small-caliber bullets, yet Wilford's injuries were caused by large caliber.

 "There's a blast injury associated with larger caliber," he explained. "When the bullet travels through soft tissue, it creates shock waves," and this causes more tissue damage than smaller-caliber bullets do.

 "She still has fragments inside," Nichiporenko said, yet "her chest and abdomen are completely healed." Her "right upper extremity needs four to six weeks to heal" due to tendon damage, and after that, she will require occupational therapy. Still, he expects a full recovery for the young basketball player.

 Asked whether Ojeda's call to take her to Broward North instead of the more distant hospital saved Wilford's life, Nichiporenko said, simply, "yes, of course."

 "Her hospital stay was less than seven days," Nichiporenko said. "Young people have a tendency to heal very fast. She's very, very lucky."

 Her parents echoed that thought and expressed their gratitude to the first responders and hospital staff.

 A 'very grateful' family

 Maddy's father, David Wilford, said, "I am very grateful to be sitting here next to my daughter, who is alive and well today.

 "There's a lot of people to thank for Maddy's life," he said, adding that he has "a lot of sympathy and empathy for her classmates" and for the parents of the children who didn't make it.

 Missy Wilford, Maddy's mother, said, "I too am very grateful to be sitting here today. ... My heart is full of gratitude."

 She described her daughter as "a fighter" who wants to heal.

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 "Yes, it is a tragedy, but I would like to find a way to find a positive in what has happened here in our community," said Missy Wilford, who recognized "the power of prayer" and the outpouring of concern from both those she knows and those she does not. "I may not have met you, but your prayers were felt. You cannot see them, but you can feel them." ||||| She added, “It’s times like these when I know that we need to stick together.”

 In the 12 days since the shooting, which killed 14 students and three adults, students have taken up the cause of gun control, and the response by law enforcement — particularly the Broward County sheriff’s office — has been heavily scrutinized. The political questions have not stopped there: President Trump’s visit to Ms. Wilford’s bedside was photographed and used in a campaign email over the weekend, spurring critics to suggest he was seeking to benefit from the tragedy.

 But for Ms. Wilford, the focus has been on recovery. In the appearance on Monday with doctors and Lieutenant Ojeda, Ms. Wilford’s family avoided the political fights of the moment. Her mother, Missy, said the family was grateful both for Mr. Trump’s visit and for the efforts of the doctors and emergency workers who saved her.

 “Madeleine is healing her wounds right now, but we’ll be healing emotionally for a while,” Missy Wilford said.

 Lieutenant Ojeda said Ms. Wilford had been given a chest seal and an emergency bandage by a SWAT officer after the shooting. Working in the back of an ambulance, he decided to take her to Broward Health North, about 10 miles away. ||||| (CNN) As they sped away from the shooting scene at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the first responder was skeptical.

 Lt. Laz Ojeda of the Coral Springs Fire Department had been told that his patient, Maddy Wilford, was 15 years old. She had been shot at least three times in the February 14 mass shooting, and she'd lost so much blood first responders initially feared she was dead.

 But Ojeda thought she was older than 15 and roused her to make sure. Conscious for a second, she whispered she was 17.

 That made all the difference.

 Instead of taking her to a hospital with a children's facility some 30 miles away as he had been instructed to do, Ojeda made the decision to take Maddy to a hospital just 10 miles from the high school. The gutsy, split-second call probably saved her life.

 Read More |||||

– Maddy Wilford was shot multiple times in the Parkland school massacre and was near death as first responders tended to her after the shooting. But an observant Coral Springs Fire Department lieutenant asked the teen an important question as they prepared to whisk her away, and it was one that ended up saving her life. Per CNN, Maddy was in such bad shape when she was brought to Lt. Laz Ojeda and his rescue team that they initially thought she'd already died. "Signs of life," however, soon emerged, and after a Broward County Sheriff's Office SWAT team member sealed up a chest wound, they readied her to go to a children's hospital 30 miles away, where they'd been instructed to take the 15-year-old. Except Ojeda wasn't convinced she was only 15. And so, as Ojeda tearfully relayed at a Monday presser, he asked the girl twice how old she was; she finally answered she was 17. Based on that info, Ojeda, who thought she'd die before they got her to the children's facility, made the call to take her to a hospital just 10 miles from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. There, operating surgeon Dr. Igor Nichiporenko quickly did "damage control" on the badly injured teen, who'd been shot in the abdomen, chest, and upper sternum, with tendons "shattered from gunshot wounds." Astonishingly, Wilford was out of the hospital in less than a week. "Young people have a tendency to heal very fast," Nichiporenko says, per the New York Times. "She's very, very lucky." He adds that Ojeda's decision saved Maddy's life. Ojeda is just glad he was there to make the call. "I thank God for allowing us to be an instrument in this miracle," he told CNN Tuesday. As for Maddy? "I'm so grateful to be here," she said at the news conference, per CNN.


Summarize this article:

The African Union suspended the Central African Republic on Monday after rebels seized power in a rapid weekend assault on the capital, sending President Francois Bozize fleeing and triggering international appeals for calm.

 Rebel leader Michel Djotodia planned to declare himself president Monday after his Seleka coalition took control of Bangui in the wake of the collapse of a two-month-old peace deal with Bozize’s regime.

 But the African Union took swift action on Monday amid international concern about the deteriorating security situation in the deeply unstable former French colony.

 “The council has decided to suspend with immediate effect Central African Republic from all African Union activities and to impose sanctions, travel restrictions and an asset freeze on Seleka’s leaders,” said AU peace and Security chief Ramtane Lamamra.

 South Africa said 13 of its soldiers were killed and 27 wounded in the weekend fighting in Bangui and condemned the rebel offensive.

 “As a member of the African Union, South Africa rejects any efforts to seize power by force,” President Jacob Zuma told reporters, adding however that there were no immediate plans to withdraw troops helping the weak national army.

 Djotodia, a former civil servant turned rebel leader, said Sunday he would declare himself president but told Radio France Internationale the rebels would respect the terms of a January peace deal and would hold free and fair elections within three years.

 Opposition figure Nicolas Tiangaye, appointed prime minister of a national unity government formed as part of the accord that ended a previous Seleka offensive launched late last year, would remain in the post, he said.

 Bozize, who himself seized power in a coup in 2003, is said to have fled the Central African Republic but his whereabouts remain a mystery.

 One well-placed source told AFP that he had left the country in a helicopter, but did not disclose his destination. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed only that he had fled Bangui.

 International appeals

 About 20 members of Bozize’s family were taken to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, government spokesman Lambert Mende told AFP, but said the ousted leader was not on its soil.

 Djotodia said he may keep some ministers from Bozize’s clan in his government, pledging: “We are not here to carry out a witch-hunt.”

 Bangui residents initially welcomed the rebels, waving palm leaves in celebration but the optimistic atmosphere quickly soured into anxiety as gangs of armed looters roamed the riverside city, pillaging shops and offices including the premises of the UN children’s agency UNICEF.

 And the international community has expressed concern over the situation in the country, which remains one of the poorest nations on earth although it has largely untapped mineral wealth including uranium, gold and diamonds.

 The US State Department said Sunday it was “very concerned by the worsening humanitarian situation in CAR and credible, widespread reports of human rights abuses by both national security forces and Seleka fighters”.

 It also called for rebels to restore electricity and water to the capital which had been interrupted over the weekend.

 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the seizure of power by Seleka — a loose alliance of three rebel movements — calling for “the swift restoration of constitutional order”.

 French President Francois Hollande called on all parties to form a government in accordance with the January peace deal hammered out in the Gabonese capital Libreville, and asked “the armed groups to respect the population”, thousands of whom have already fled Bangui.

 Rebel fighters resumed hostilities last week after they accused Bozize of reneging on the terms of the January deal which aimed to put an end to a previous offensive launched by Seleka in December.

 The accord brought several prominent figures from Seleka into the government but it collapsed after the rebels said their demands, which included the release of people they described as political prisoners, had not been met.

 Seleka launched its first offensive on December 10, accusing Bozize of having failed to honour an earlier peace agreement. They seized a string of towns on their way south but stopped short of Bangui. ||||| (CNN) -- In just over a day, rebels seized the Central African Republic's capital, forced the president out of the country and declared the nation had "opened a new page in its history."

 But no one knows what the next page will say.

 Michel Djotodia, the leader of the rebel alliance, the Seleka, declared himself the new president, and the rebel group says their takeover opens a path for peace and democracy.

 Yet questions abound over the future of impoverished, landlocked country -- and what this uprising means for its 5.1 million residents.

 Where is the Central African Republic?

 The Central African Republic is a landlocked nation in the center of the continent, slightly smaller than Texas. It is bordered by Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 A former French colony, it gained independence in August 1960.

 Its 5.1 million residents include various ethnic groups who speak several languages. Even though French is the official language, Sango is the primary one.

 What has been its form of government?

 For the first 30 years, the country was ruled mostly by military governments. Civilian rule was established in 1993 but lasted only 10 years, according to the CIA World Factbook.

 In March 2003, then-president Ange-Felix Patasse was deposed in a coup led by Gen. Francois Bozize.

 Bozize is now in Cameroon, from which he is seeking to move to another country, the Cameroon government said in a communique dated Monday. The statement said that despite his presence, the country shall adhere to a policy of non-intervention.

 How long was Bozize in power?

 Two years after he took over in a coup, Bozize called elections in 2005 -- which he won.

 In 2011, he was re-elected, but activists said the polling was marred by fraud.

 When did the rebellion start?

 From the beginning, Bozize did not have full control of the nation. Rebel groups operated, particularly in rural areas.

 In December 2012, several of the rebel groups banded together, calling themselves the Seleka, or "coalition" in the Sango language. They accused Bozize of reneging on a peace deal and demanded that he step down.

 Slowly, the rebels began taking over parts of the country.

 Didn't the two sides strike a new peace deal?

 Yes, Bozize and the Seleka brokered a peace deal in January, agreeing to form a unity government led by Bozize.

 But that deal also fell apart.

 What do the rebels want?

 Some say the Seleka want a greater opposition presence in the country's government after Bozize's presidential election wins were met with fraud allegations.

 But others say greed is a factor.

 Only 3.1% of the land is arable, but the country has an array of natural resources, including diamonds, gold and timber.

 "Government officials from Bangui have accused Seleka of harboring 'foreign provocateurs' greedy for the country's vast mineral wealth, and there are suspicions that nationals from Chad, Nigeria, and Sudan also make up Seleka's ranks," African studies doctoral candidate Jason Warner wrote in a piece for CNN.

 How did the rebels take over the capital?

 For weeks, the Seleka rebel coalition pushed its way from its base in the north toward the capital city of Bangui, seizing towns along the way.

 Their efforts took a pivotal turn on March 24, when they infiltrated the capital.

 Witnesses reported hours of fierce gunfire in the city, and a government official said seven civilians were killed.

 Before he ended up in Cameroon, Bozize had crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo by the end of the day, said Jules Gautier Ngbapo, a government spokesman.

 And the rebels issued a bold message:

 "The Central African Republic has just opened a new page in its history," said a written statement from Justin Kombo Moustapha, secretary general of the Seleka rebels.

 The statement described Bozize as the country's former president and urged residents to remain calm and prepare themselves to welcome rebel forces.

 Why were South African soldiers in the country?

 South Africa sent 200 troops to the country in January to work with the military there to quash the rebellion.

 During the rebel advance, 13 South African soldiers were killed and 27 wounded, the South African president's office said. One soldier was unaccounted for.

 What is likely to happen next?

 That's what world leaders are scrambling to figure out.

 U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the "unconstitutional seizure of power," echoing the African Union's dismay over the rebels' offensive.

 Ban's office said the United Nations will continue working with the African Union and the Economic Community of Central African States to find a solution.

 Rebel leader Djotodia declared himself the new president, and the rebel alliance said democratic elections will take place after three years.

 "A new page is opening for peace and democracy in the CAR," Francois Nelson N'Djadder, a rebel spokesman, wrote.

 "Bozize being gone, the Central Africans must gather around the table to talk and find a common path which will ... lead to the organization of democratic elections."

 What other challenges does the Central African Republic face?

 Despite its richness of natural resources, the country is stymied by a landlocked position, a poor transportation system, a largely unskilled work force and a legacy of misdirected macroeconomic policies, the CIA's World Factbook said.

 Its per-capita GDP -- the country's economic output divided by the population -- is just $800, putting the country in 222nd place out of 228 countries.

 And more than one in 25 adults are afflicted with HIV or AIDS.

 READ MORE: Central African Republic president flees capital amid violence, official says

 CNN's Elwyn Lopez, Nana Karikari-apau and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report. ||||| BANGUI A rebel leader in Central African Republic pledged to name a power-sharing government after seizing the capital Bangui on Sunday and declaring himself president, a spokesman said, in a bid to defuse international outcry over the coup.

 The seizure of power by the Seleka rebel coalition - the latest in a series of coups and rebellions since the mineral-rich nation won independence from France in 1960 - was swiftly condemned by the United Nations and the African Union.

 The United States, France and regional powerbroker Chad called on Seleka leader Michel Djotodia to respect the terms of a January power-sharing agreement signed in the Gabonese capital Libreville.

 The agreement had created a government drawn from rebel leaders, the civilian opposition and loyalists of former president Francois Bozize. It was led by Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye, a former lawyer and member of the civilian opposition.

 "We will respect the Libreville accord: a political transition of 2 to 3 years before elections," Seleka spokesman Eric Massi said by telephone. "The current prime minister remains in place and the cabinet will be slightly reshuffled."

 Massi said the riverside capital Bangui was calm on Monday morning, though Seleka was still seeking to contain sporadic looting which broke out on Sunday after Bozize's fall.

 Seleka, a loose coalition of five rebel groups whose name means 'alliance' in the Songo language, had accused Bozize of breaking the January agreement by failing to integrate their fighters into the army.

 They launched hostilities on Thursday, quickly sweeping south to seize the capital, brushing aside a South African force of 400 troops which attempted to defend Bangui. A Reuters witness said at least nine South Africans were killed, in a setback to its efforts to project its influence on the region.

 FRENCH NATIONS SAFE

 Paris, which already had 250 soldiers in Central African Republic, has sent another 300 troops to ensure the security of its citizens and diplomatic installations.

 Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said there was no need to evacuate its 1,200 nationals, most of whom are in the capital.

 "Things are under control from our point of view regarding French nationals," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Europe 1 radio.

 Fabius said President Francois Hollande had spoken to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Chadian President Idriss Deby to suggest that any solution to the crisis should be based on the January Libreville agreement.

 "For now, there is not legitimate authority there," he said, adding that it was not up to France to intervene in the internal affairs of the country.

 The U.S. State Department also called on Seleka to ensure the implementation of the Libreville agreement and provide full support to Tiangaye's government. Regional military power Chad said the same in a statement on Sunday.

 The whereabouts of Bozize was unclear, with unconfirmed reports that he was in Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.

 Bozize rose to prominence in the military during the 1966-1979 rule of former dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa, a self-styled emperor. He seized power in a 2003 coup backed by Chad but his failure to make good on promises of power sharing after winning disputed 2011 polls led to the Seleka offensive.

 (Additional reporting by Ange Aboa in Yaounde and Leigh Thomas in Paris; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by David Lewis) |||||

– The rebels who yesterday took over the Central African Republic say they're going to share power with the government they ostensibly ousted. In a statement today, the rebel Seleka coalition said it would "respect the Libreville accord," a agreement negotiated in January that would set up a joint government for two to three years prior to elections. "The current prime minister remains in place, and the Cabinet will be slightly reshuffled," a spokesman said, according to Reuters. The African Union today suspended the Central African Republic and imposed sanctions and travel restrictions on it, according to the AFP. Ousted president Francois Bozize has fled to neighboring Cameroon, but will ultimately seek refuge elsewhere, a presidential official announced today. If this whole story has you asking questions like, "What is this conflict about?" or "What do the rebels want?" or "What's the Central African Republic?", CNN has a useful recap.


News article:

The House That Spite Builds On Malicious Erection, Everlasting Fights, and Fire's Power

 Aaron Young’s ‘Tumbleweed,’ 2009. Courtesy the artists and Lawrimore Project

 Spite is a step beyond anger. It happens when anger has hardened, you've polished it shiny, and you've fallen in love with it. Now in dangerous territory, you nevertheless can't stop, and you decide it needs a monument. What you do next is inescapably, pigheadedly wrong—and also epically right. You build a spite house.

 There is a spite house at 2022 24th Avenue East in Montlake. It is pink stucco on the outside and only four-and-a-half feet wide at one end. Legend has it that a wife put it up after a judge awarded her husband their house and her just the front yard in the divorce. But that's not true. It went up in 1925; the next-door neighbor who wanted the sliver of land it sits on made the landowner such a low offer that he responded by building the little house right up in the neighbor's face. The spiter won: The neighbor moved.

 The neighbor should have fought harder, because the law, dreadful downer that it is, was on his side. "Malicious erection" (I know) statutes in many states, including Washington, specifically prohibit spite houses, giving neighbors the right to an injunction or a teardown if the foundation is, say, poured in the dead of night (it has happened). The existence of such laws is a testament to the unstoppable drive to build spite houses, and most of the laws were implemented late in the 19th century, including Washington's. Older East Coast states had more time to litter the land with their spite. Skinny, weirdly shaped, charming, divided-in-half houses for spurned wives, rivalrous brothers, and affronted landowners "uncover our creepy and creeping psychologies of ownership," Will Owen writes in a new limited-edition chapbook called Spite House. They set out in the open the foul "swell of psychic things that exist despite never being meant to be placed alongside each other." They are fights that last forever.

 Given the depthless cheer and facade of rationality that pervades American public life, there is something deeply calming about spite houses. They are homicidally sincere, wanton, and unwise. As in the case of Edith Macefield's Ballard house—which in 2007 she refused to sell for a cool million to developers, who had to build around her until she died, inspiring a rash of tattoos depicting her house with the word "STEADFAST" (after her death it was sold, but not to the original developers)—these houses are volcanoes of meaning, like heroes or great works of art. They're a terrific—maybe a little too terrific—premise for an art show. The show is spending this month at Lawrimore Project, curated by Yoko Ott and Jessica Powers. (The Spite House chapbook is part of Spite House the show.) It is both a fascination and a disappointment, maybe inevitably. Little of the art on display has the bilious, committed power of an actual spite house (and much of it seems peculiarly impersonally motivated) or the ability to compete with an odd and unexpected intervention: nature's own fury.

 What happened is that precisely on the eve of the show's opening, a house caught on fire in the side courtyard of the gallery. The house was a work of art called There Goes the Neighborhood by the performance trio SuttonBeresCuller, and the only thing convincing about their claim that this wasn't a performance was the fact that they seemed genuinely glum—and that the facade of the gallery itself was broadly singed, its windows blasted out, its insulation melted into a crawling still-life. Boxes full of an entire earlier exhibition, held inches away in storage inside, were nearly decimated. "At first we thought, maybe? Maybe an artist broke in and did this? But arson is not painting a corner black or something. Arson is going too far," curator Powers said later. (The police suspect somebody homeless stole into the open house—maybe not for the first time? It has sat there for months—and accidentally set it on fire.) The remaining visual spectacle is incredibly beautiful (meant both ways, as in very beautiful and beautiful in particular because it is not quite believable).

 Now, an act of god and poverty does not provide grounds for fair criticism, but in this case it embodies a level of intensity that is as difficult to achieve in art as it is in life. Spite House is a smart show that succeeds best when it displays less good judgment. As much as I dislike New York artist Aaron Young's cocky, Viacom-scaled, I-make-paintings-with-motorcycles-in-an-arena bullshit, his tumbleweed made of a crumpled-up chain-link fence plated in 24-karat gold—and his intact 24-karat fence obscuring a video by Vancouver's Andrew Dadson—hit exactly the right snarling but formalized tone. Spite houses, after all, are not instantaneous ejaculations: They take formal planning.

 When Dadson goes creeping across the roofs of his neighbors' houses in his slightly slowed-down 2005 video, it's a perfect encapsulation of what seethes and seeps through every neighborhood, so invisible and yet so visible. From inside these houses, you might hear his faint steps or you might not—but outside, Dadson is plain as day. The photographs of sections of his neighbors' lawns that he's guerrilla-spray-painted black feel easier, less unlikely, less haunting (though the image of a white picket fence in blackface is a satisfying symbol). I love his white roses set in a vase of black ink: They absorb the ink like a disease, the petals taking on black spots, then the dots join, and eventually the rot becomes mournfully complete. It's not spiteful; it's gothic and melancholy.

 Not all the spite is as literal or as contained as Dadson's boundary-stompings. The artworks in the show (as in any group show) spite each other, as with Young's partial blockage of the view of Dadson's video; or they spite you, the viewer. Miami artist Bert Rodriguez's thick white wall—an ongoing and rather heartwarming project wherein he builds white walls with his father, who cannot understand why his son must be an artist, in various locations—is here turned mean. It is the precise width of the gallery's extrawide double door, so the show rebuffs you with a big white nothing. SuttonBeresCuller spited the viewer by blocking the entrance to the white-cube gallery, which people seem to miss entirely, rendering the spite rather ineffectual.

 On your way up to the door, you probably missed Matt Browning's contribution: the Seattle artist painted black the pink sections of the gallery's exterior, spiting the architects, two other Seattle artists: Lead Pencil Studio. Christian Kliegel spited them, too, and the gallery's owner, Scott Lawrimore. Kliegel, of Vancouver, broke into the gallery one night before the show was up. He took a look around and made drawings that were then added as tape marks on the floor for his suggested redesign of their space.

 Eli Hansen and Herman Beans are spiting the human attempt to spite death with neatness (I think). They made a messy, dirty coffin-house with windows and a bookshelf (the inverse of SuttonBeresCuller's paranoically sterile Homesick, not in this show). They thought people would rummage through the blankets (which I recommend), but people haven't.

 What we have here are good artworks not equally served or activated by the theme. They're sort of... spited. In the eternal property war between curators and artists, curators can count this spite house as their own. Which, in a weird way, works. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Get To Know SEATTLE, WA

 Content generated from Yelp.com . Your trust is our main concern. ||||| SEATTLE -- There's spite and then there's SPITE. And, depending on the story you believe, there's a home in Montlake -- a small one at that -- that was likely built with the capital 'S' in mind.

 To neighbors the 830-square-foot house on the corner of 24th Avenue East and East Boston in Montlake is an icon; but what the home, known as the Montlake Spite House, lacks in size it more than makes up for in story, myth and legend.

 The house, which is currently up for sale, was originally built in 1925. The listing agent describes it best when she says the original owner took full advantage of the pie-shaped property by creating a pie-shaped home; the back of the home is just 4.5 feet wide and the front is only 15 feet. But aside from its unique shape and size, what sets this home apart from its neighbors is how it allegedly came to be.

 "I can't imagine why else someone would build a house like that if it wasn't out of spite," says Lisa Horton, the owner of the home.

 Some neighbors tell the tale of a husband, a wife and a divorce settlement. Allegedly a judge awarded the husband the house and the wife the front yard; so out of spite up went the tiny home, by the wife, on top of her front yard. But that's not true, according to The Stranger. A story published several years ago by the newspaper supports a different tale, one which is very familiar to Horton.

 "I always heard it was a land dispute," Horton says.

 The story alleges the home went up after the next-door neighbor, who wanted to buy the pie-shaped corner lot, made a low-ball offer to the property owner. The property owner was so mad at the offer he built the house to get back at his neighbor, who eventually ended up moving.

 Horton, who has owned the home since 2000, says with all its quirks - like having to stand off to the side to make enough room to open the oven door - the local legend must be true.

 "Of course I buy into it," she says.

 Eugene Smith, a retired professor at the University of Washington, lived in Montlake for 40 years. Fascinated by local history, in 2004 Smith wrote a book about Montlake's history, devoting one of the chapters to what he calls the eclectic collection of houses seen throughout the neighborhood.

 "(The Montlake Spite House) was certainly the oddest of all the bungalows," Smith says. "It was the smallest, most peculiar shape."

 Smith says he was intrigued by the asymmetry of the spite house and came up with his own version of its creation.

 "What I concluded, since I wasn't able to track down any particular feuds or hate, was that someone came up with a design to fit the lot and built it so it didn't interfere with anyone's view," Smith says.

 It turns out Montlake's Spite House doesn't stand alone. A handful of stories have been published from across the country featuring similar cases where a home has been built, added-on to or painted to deliberately irritate and annoy others - in many cases a neighbor or city entity.

 The Montlake Spite House is currently listed for sale at $397,500 and is touted as the "perfect condo alternativein one of Seattle's best neighborhoods."

 The home, currently unoccupied, previously sold for $239,500 in 2000, according to Redfin. ||||| You might think that a little wedge-shaped house built explicitly to aggravate someone would be a tough sell.

 Not in Seattle. Listed at $397,500, the home was just snapped up over the weekend, the real estate agent told Yahoo Homes, after spending only a couple of weeks on the market. "We had quite the interest!" she told us. (A local news story published Tuesday and picked up internationally might have helped the quick sale.)

 Click here or on a photo to go to a slideshow.

 Locals call it the Montlake Spite House. Legend has it that the home, on a mere sliver of a lot, was built by:

 • A woman who won only a bit of yard in a divorce settlement, while her ex got the rest of the property, including the (normal-shaped) house they'd shared. Or ...

 • A landowner who was furious when the neighbor who owned the adjacent (normal-sized) lot made him a lowball offer on the sliver. Or ...

 • A traveler who, while visiting Germany, gave permission for someone to build on the lot -- with the provision that enough land be left for a second house. When the traveler returned, he discovered that the new house took a lot more space than he'd expected, so, “out of spite, he [the landowner] built that funny little pie-shaped home" as an obstacle, the current homeowner told KPLU-FM's Martha Kang. “I also heard that back when it was first built, the side that was facing the neighbor had been painted black.”

 The house at 2022 24th Avenue East has 830 square feet, and it's just 55 inches wide at its narrowest point. The house is shaped like a right triangle with its sharpest point slightly blunted -- that's the 55-inch-wide edge, where a mudroom and exit door lead into the yard. The longest side of the triangle (the hypotenuse) faces the street, with the entrance placed roughly at its center.

 Click here or on a photo to go to a slideshow.

 Lisa Horton, the current homeowner, told KPLU that the shape of the house was never much of an impediment, except when she was cooking: The kitchen is toward the narrow end of the house, so you can't stand in front of the oven when you open it; you have to stand to the side. ||||| It looks like such a sweet home. But once you know the history of this pie slice-shaped dwelling, you'll see why it's nicknamed the Seattle Spite House and you'll learn there are laws to prevent you from intentionally building to block views, light or access that your neighbor enjoys.

 Washington State spite law 7.40.030: Malicious erection of structure may be enjoined. An injunction may be granted to restrain the malicious erection, by any owner or lessee of land, of any structure intended to spite, injure or annoy an adjoining proprietor. And where any owner or lessee of land has maliciously erected such a structure with such intent, a mandatory injunction will lie to compel its abatement and removal.

 In legalese - forgive me - an act like that is called a "malicious erection."

 Still, there are so many examples of cranky citizen's constructions to irritate adjacent landowners that Wikipedia has an entry for both a spite house and the less-expensive revenge, a spite fence.

 Warring neighbors have painted exterior walls garish colors, posted unsightly signs and tried other ways to pique the people nearby. But it's expensive, and now illegal, to block with a vengeance.

 The tiny Seattle spite house at 2022 24th Ave. E, which is now listed for sale at $519,900, was built in 1925. Stories of its origin vary, but all focus on serious payback.

 The most popular rumor centers on a wacky divorce case in which a judge awarded the house to the husband and a sliver of the property - the 3,090-square-foot front yard - to the wife.

 Some say out of spite, she squeezed a pie slice-shaped structure onto her odd corner lot, which dictated that one end only be 55 inches wide. In this mini mudroom, you can stretch out your arms and touch opposite walls.

 The footprint widens a little in the cramped kitchen, but not enough to stand in front of the oven and open the oven door. The living room in the center of the triangle house offers more elbow room. Finally, at the end, the master suite is a luxurious 15 feet wide.

 Hallways? Forget it. But there is a daylight basement/garage conversion. Buried beneath the main floor is a bedroom and bath that benefit from carriage doors that open to the outdoors. The center of the subterranean space is a cozy seating room. At the almost pointed, narrow end is an elevated platform with a mattress. Tiny house dwellers would feel right at home here.

 At 860 square feet, the listing price breaks down to $605 a square foot, about three times the median in Portland.

 That's pricey. So is the idea of constructing a wall or something larger to retaliate. Building codes and expenses squelch many planned spite houses. Instead, may we suggest calling a neighborhood mediator?

 - Janet Eastman

 jeastman@oregonian.com

 503-799-8739

 @janeteastman |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– From the front, a half-million-dollar home on the Re/Max website looks like a quaint Spanish Revival in the heart of Seattle. Head to the side for a different perspective, and you'll see appearances are deceiving. You're looking at what Yahoo says locals call the "Montlake Spite House," an 860-square-foot sliver of a house that's legendary even among tiny houses. The front of the pie-shaped home built in 1925 is just 15 feet wide, while the back comes in at under 5 feet wide, KOMO reported in 2013, the last time the house was up for sale. Eugene Smith, a retired professor at the University of Washington who wrote a book on area history, says the wedge-like residence "was certainly the oddest of all the bungalows" in the area. "It was the smallest, most peculiar shape," he told KOMO. And the story behind its supposedly spiteful construction is just as strange as its shape. Yahoo dug up a few origin tales, including that it may have been built by an enraged landowner to spite a neighbor for a lowball offer on the land, per the Stranger. It also may have been a revenge move by a long-ago owner, said to have given permission for someone to build a home while he was traveling, as long as there was room left for his own house, which … there wasn't, really, Quirksee has reported. But one of the catchiest stories, offered by the Oregonian, claims a divorce judge awarded the original, larger home to the husband, and a tiny portion of land to the wife, who then built this minuscule abode to be up in her ex's face. These days there's a law on the books against such a "malicious erection," which involves building a structure to purposely "spite, injure or annoy" neighbors by blocking their view, access, or light. (A secret of the "tiny house" movement.)


Here is a news article: Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| Police in Tennessee are investigating whether a similar attack in a nearby town is related to the disappearance of 20-year-old nursing student Holly Bobo from her home in Parsons, Tenn.Heather Sullivan, 31, lives in Centerville, about 45 minutes from Parsons. She told NBC News she was approached by a "tall, skinny man" outside her home at around 5:30 one morning in January. She said he grabbed her arm as she was getting out of her car, causing her to drop a lamp she was carrying. She said her boyfriend heard the lamp break, came rushing out and apparently frightened the man away.Bobo, a cousin of country music singer Whitney Duncan , was taken away by a man dressed in camouflage clothing about 7:30 in the morning on April 13, according to her brother, Clint Bobo. Both homes were close to wooded areas.Asked if she thought Bobo's abduction was related, Sullivan told NBC, "When I heard about it, that's what I thought."Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said he was not ruling out a connection. "We're looking at all possibilities," he said in a press conference.A reward of $80,000 has been offered for information about the case, including $50,000 put up by the state.Hundreds of area residents have searched the woods near the home. A blood sample found nearby has been tested, but the results are not being released, NBC reported.Meanwhile, Bobo's family continues to hold out hope that she is alive."Holly, I love you," her mother, Karen Bobo, said during a tearful plea in front of TV cameras. "Please help her come home to us." |||||
A summary of this is?

– A potential new lead in the kidnapping of Holly Bobo: MSNBC reports that Heather Sullivan, who lives about 45 minutes from where Bobo was abducted, found herself nearly kidnapped in January. A "tall, skinny man" accosted her outside her home around 5:30am, grabbing her arm. But she dropped a lamp and her boyfriend, hearing the crash, came out of the house and scared the man away. Bobo was dragged off by a man dressed in camouflage clothing on April 13 around 7:30am, and Sullivan thinks the two events could be related: "When I heard about it, that's what I thought," she says. Click for more, including a video report.


Here is a news article: A sniper with Canada's elite special forces in Iraq has shattered the world record for the longest confirmed kill shot in military history at a staggering distance of 3,540 metres.

 The Canadian Armed Forces confirmed Thursday that a member of Joint Task Force 2 made the record-breaking shot, killing an Islamic State insurgent during an operation in Iraq within the last month.

 "The Canadian Special Operations Command can confirm that a member of Joint Task Force 2 successfully hit a target at 3,540 metres," the forces said in a statement. "For operational security reasons and to preserve the safety of our personnel and our Coalition partners we will not discuss precise details on when and how this incident took place."

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 Read more: New mission against Islamic State won't include sending troops to Syria: Sajjan

 Read more: Ottawa lays out $62-billion in new military spending over 20 years

 The elite sniper was using a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle while firing from a high-rise during an operation that took place within the last month in Iraq. It took under 10 seconds to hit the target.

 "The shot in question actually disrupted a Daesh [Islamic State] attack on Iraqi security forces," said a military source. "Instead of dropping a bomb that could potentially kill civilians in the area, it is a very precise application of force and because it was so far way, the bad guys didn't have a clue what was happening."

 The military source said the JTF2 operation fell within the strictures of the government's advise and assist mission.

 "As stated multiple times in the past, members of the Canadian Special Operations Task Force do not accompany leading combat elements, but enable the Iraqi security forces who are in a tough combat mission," the statement said. "This takes the form of advice in planning their operations and assistance to defeat Daesh through the use of coalition resources."

 The kill was independently verified by video camera and other data, The Globe and Mail has learned.

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 "Hard data on this. It isn't an opinion. It isn't an approximation. There is a second location with eyes on with all the right equipment to capture exactly what the shot was," another military source said.

 A military insider told The Globe: "This is an incredible feat. It is a world record that might never be equalled."

 The world record was previously held by British sniper Craig Harrison, who shot a Taliban gunner with a 338 Lapua Magnum rifle from 2,475 metres away in 2009.

 Previously, Canadian Corporal Rob Furlong had set the world record in 2002 at 2,430 metres when he gunned down an Afghan insurgent carrying an RPK machine gun during Operation Anaconda.

 Weeks before, Canadian Master Cpl. Arron Perry briefly held the world's best sniper record after he fatally shot an insurgent at 2,310 metres during the same operation. Both soldiers were members of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

 JTF2 special forces are primarily tasked with counterterrorism, sniper operations and hostage rescue. Much of the information about this elite organization is classified and not commented on by the government. The unit's snipers and members of Canadian Special Operations Regiment, who are carrying out the main task of training Kurdish forces, have been operating in tough conditions in Iraq.

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 The Trudeau government pulled CF-18 fighter jets out of Iraq in 2016 but expanded the military mission, which will see the number of Canadian special forces trainers climb to 207 from 69 in an assist, train and advise mission. Canadian commandos are not supposed to be involved in direct combat, but are authorized to go up to the front lines on training missions with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and to paint targets for coalition air strikes.

 For operational security reasons, sources would not reveal the names of the elite Canadian sniper and his partner, nor the location where the action took place.

 A sniper and his observer partner are often sent to remote and dangerous locations to hunt down insurgents while having to carry heavy equipment. Once they have located the target, snipers follow the same methodical approach before each shot. Breathe in, out, in, out, find a natural pause and then squeeze the trigger.

 Canada has a reputation among Western military forces for the quality of its snipers, despite the small size of the Canadian Armed Forces compared to the United States and Britain.

 "Canada has a world-class sniper system. It is not just a sniper. They work in pairs. There is an observer," a military source said. "This is a skill set that only a very few people have."

 The skill of the JTF2 sniper in taking down an insurgent at 3,540 metres required math skills, great eyesight, precision of ammunition and firearms, and superb training.

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 "It is at the distance where you have to account not just for the ballistics of the round, which change over time and distance, you have to adjust for wind, and the wind would be swirling," said a source with expertise in training Canadian special forces.

 "You have to adjust for him firing from a higher location downward and as the round drops you have to account for that. And from that distance you actually have to account for the curvature of the Earth."

 U.S. Sergeant Bryan Kremer has the longest confirmed sniper kill shot by a U.S. soldier. He killed an Iraqi insurgent with his Barrett M82A1 rifle at 2,300 metres in 2004. ||||| The distances are mind-boggling: in 2002, Master Cpl. Arron Perry from the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry took aim at an Afghan insurgent from a distance of 2,300 metres and hit his target, setting the world record for the longest confirmed kill shot in military history. Not long after, Cpl. Rob Furlong, in the same operation, bested his brother-in-arms with a confirmed kill at 2,430 metres. His record would stand longer, until 2009, when a British sniper, Craig Harrison, made a shot from 2,475 metres.

 On June 21, Harrison’s record was shattered by another Canadian, an elite special forces sniper, who, according to the Canadian military, killed an ISIS fighter in Mosul from an incredible 3,540 metres.

 Let’s put that in perspective: if you stacked six CN Towers end to end, you would still be more than 200 metres short. The bullet, according to military experts, would have travelled for nearly 10 seconds before hitting its target. The shooter not only would have had to take into consideration wind conditions, but at that distance, also the curvature of the earth.

 More astonishing, perhaps, is the fact that over the last 15 years, the active-combat sniping record has been broken four times, and three of those have been by Canadians.

 That’s no coincidence, says Furlong, who now runs a marksmanship academy in Edmonton.

 “I’ve been saying this forever,” he tells Maclean’s by telephone. “Canadian snipers are the best in the world. The sniper training program has been around for a long time. It’s the foundation, and it’s been retooled from lessons learned in Afghanistan. We’ve built it to be the best.”

 This latest record, Furlong adds, has taken sniping “to a different level.” Canadian snipers are considered some of the best in the world in part because they are not simply taught to hit their targets. Like much of the Canadian military, many are trained with skills above their existing rank, in the sniper’s case as Unit Master Snipers, meaning they have the skills to design and run complex operations if the need ever arises. That in itself may not make them better snipers but the gestalt of sniper-training and command-thinking combined could explain their skill.

 The practice of equipping soldiers with more than the skills they will need on the battlefield has served the Canadian military well. In Afghanistan, the results were clear. Maclean’s witnessed firsthand how soldiers out on patrol, sometimes for days in enemy territory, operated as closely knit teams. Command decisions were made with input from different ranks, offering multiple perspectives to patrol commanders.

 The level of training Canada provides its soldiers, particularly its elite JTF2 commandos, is the driving force behind Canada’s reputation for fielding a highly skilled and intellectually capable military.

 “This is a very important point,” says Chris Kilford, a retired Canadian artillery officer and now a fellow at the Queen’s University Centre for International and Defence Policy. “I have been very impressed with the young people in our special forces that I have interacted with overseas. Corporals and master corporals: bright and articulate. I also think that in general our people are often capable of working at a higher level than the rank on their shoulder.”

 Furlong agrees, adding that Canadian soldiers are more “cross-trained” than many other soldiers in the world, and Canada’s snipers specifically are given every opportunity to pursue leadership training that refines their mental capabilities, a key component to the psychologically demanding job they do.

 Still, there are the naysayers. Warrant Officer Oliver Cromwell, an instructor at the infantry school at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick* who has taught sniper courses, cautions that more information is needed before the 3,450 meter distance is confirmed.

 “There is a difference between slant angle range and true range,” he says. “Slant angle range—if the shooter is at an elevated position relative to the target—may appear longer that the true range, sometimes twice the true distance. I don’t want to be a naysayer but those are just the facts.”

 Some online message boards have have also questioned the validity of the new record. In one case a contributor to a military discussion suggested the sniper likely fired into a crowd of ISIS fighters and happened to hit one.

 But Furlong points out that these types of distances, 3,000 metres and more, are regularly achieved on the shooting range.

 “It’s not an impossible distance,” he says. “The difference is between a shooting range and a battlefield. They are two completely different environments. The pressure these guys are under is huge. So to the naysayers I would just say, this can be done.”

 As for the men who accomplished it—snipers work in pairs, including a spotter—Furlong says they probably didn’t realize what they had done until later. “When we broke the record, we didn’t know until we got back to base,” he says. “To be honest, I didn’t really care, neither when I broke it or when mine was broken. Records are made to be broken.”

 Still, unless there are major advances in equipment, Furlong adds, this one should stand for a long time.

 CORRECTION, June 29, 2017: This story originally stated the location of CFB Gagetown. Maclean’s regrets the error. ||||| A Canadian sniper working alongside Iraqi forces in their fight against ISIS successfully struck a member of the militant group from a distance of 3,540 metres, Canada's military confirmed Thursday.

 The sniper is a member of the elite Joint Task Force 2 special forces unit, but citing operation security the military provided no details about how or when the incident took place.

 The Globe and Mail first reported the sniper record Thursday and quoted unnamed military sources who said the kill shot disrupted an ISIS attack on Iraqi security forces.

 The shot surpasses the previous record held by a British soldier, who in 2009 shot a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan from a distance of 2,475 metres.

 'Force multipliers'

 Jody Mitic, a former Canadian sniper who now serves as an Ottawa city councillor, said he had heard rumours of the Canadian's record-breaking feat and describes it as "a hell of a shot."

 Mitic said to hit a target at that distance, the sniper team, likely a shooter and spotter, would have to take every possible factor into account, from the temperature of the weapon and ammunition to the curvature of the Earth.

 "The shooter and the spotter know exactly what they're doing," Mitic said. But "at the end of the day, long-range shooting, it's your best guess."

 "There's so much that goes into this, but at the same time, when you're in that environment, operating in that way, a lot of these things become second nature," Mitic said in an interview with CBC News.

 Jody Mitic, a former Canadian Forces sniper and now an Ottawa city councillor, says a long-distance shot must take many factors into consideration, and even then 'It's your best guess.' (CBC)

 Mitic, who was badly injured by a land mine in Afghanistan in 2007, expects the sniper team would have been working in the area for a while and would have known the conditions and terrain extremely well. He said teams like this have long been a vital part of Canada's military operations.

 "We're called 'force multipliers,'" Mitic said.

 "If you have a well-trained, well-equipped group of snipers in an area, that frees up about a hundred other troops to go and do other things."

 Canadian sniper history

 Canadians have held the record for longest kill shot before.

 Former corporal Rob Furlong shot a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan in 2002 from a distance of 2,430 metres. He broke the record set just a few days earlier by another Canadian, former master corporal Aaron Perry, who shot an insurgent from a distance of 2,286 metres.

 The history of snipers in the Canadian military goes back much further. Cpl. Francis Pegahmagabow, an Ojibwa member of the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion, was the deadliest sniper of the First World War, with a record of 378 kills. He still stands as one of Canada's most decorated First Nations soldiers.

 Cpl. Francis Pegahmagabow, a sniper in the First World War, recorded 378 kills and is Canada's most decorated First Nations soldier. (Marius Barbeau/Canadian Museum of History)

 Mark Zuehlke, who has written a dozen books on Canada's military history, said Canadian snipers showed deadly effectiveness in both world wars.

 "The best snipers were usually country boys who knew how to hunt," Zuehlke said. "They knew how to handle a gun and handle a gun well."

 The Canadian mission in Iraq has been the subject of much debate over whether Canada's troops are involved in a combat mission.

 That debate was reignited recently when the Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance revealed Canadian troops were operating inside Mosul.

 In a statement confirming the sniper's successful shot, the Canadian Forces insisted its mission in Iraq is still to merely "advise and assist" Iraqi forces.

 "This takes the form of advice in planning for their operations and assistance to defeat Daesh [ISIS] through the use of coalition resources," the statement said. ||||| Canadian Sniper Hit A Target More Than 2 Miles Away, Military Confirms

 Enlarge this image toggle caption Dan Balilty/AP Dan Balilty/AP

 A sniper with Canada's elite special forces is being credited with making a world record shot, after the military confirmed Thursday that he hit a target from nearly 2.2 miles away during a recent operation in Iraq.

 Military sources tell Canada's The Globe and Mail newspaper that the sniper killed an ISIS insurgent during an attack on Iraqi security forces.

 "The Canadian Special Operations Command can confirm that a member of the Joint Task Force 2 successfully hit a target from 3,540 meters," the force said in an email to NPR. "For operational security reasons and to preserve the safety of our personnel and our Coalition partners, we will not discuss precise details on when and how this incident took place."

 The sniper reportedly fired from an elevated position; for the shot to be accurate, many factors — from wind and gravity to the Earth's curvature — would have to be taken into account.

 The shot easily surpasses the previous record for the longest confirmed sniper shot of 2,474 meters (1.54 miles), which was set by Britain's Craig Harrison in 2009.

 A source in the military tells the Globe and Mail that details of the shot were verified by video camera and other data, relying in part on information from a second location.

 "The elite sniper was using a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle while firing from a high-rise during an operation that took place within the last month in Iraq," the paper reports. "It took under 10 seconds to hit the target."

 Joint Task Force 2 is a specialized unit that was created in 1993, after the Canadian Armed Forces took over responsibility for federal counterterrorism operations.

 The special forces group says its mission is to protect "the Canadian National Interest and combats terrorism at home and abroad."

 In Iraq, Canada's Special Operations Task Force says, its role is to share expertise with Iraq's military to help "detect, identify and defeat (ISIS) activities from well behind the Iraqi security force front line in Mosul." |||||
A summary of this is?

– An amazing, if grisly, feat continues to resonate after a report in Thursday's Globe and Mail of Toronto. The newspaper, quoting military sources, says a Canadian sniper in Iraq killed an ISIS militant from the mind-boggling distance of 3,540 meters, or 2.2 miles. The Canadian military has not confirmed what would be the longest kill shot by a sniper in history, but the story has in the meantime drawn attention to something else: the remarkable prowess of Canadian snipers in general. Some coverage: The training: If confirmed, that means the sniper record has been broken four times in the last 15 years, three of those times by Canadians, notes Maclean's magazine. One reason, it says, is because Canadian snipers "are not simply taught to hit their targets." The training goes beyond their shooting duties, making sure they're able to "design and run complex operations" if necessary. "That in itself may not make them better snipers but the gestalt of sniper-training and command-thinking combined could explain their skill." Long history: The CBC examines the history of Canada's military marksmanship, noting that Cpl. Francis Pegahmagabow of the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion had 378 kills, making him deadliest sniper of World War I. A military historian says the skill carried into WWII. "The best snipers were usually country boys who knew how to hunt." Official statement: The Canadian military has not confirmed the kill, but it did confirm the shot. "A member of the Joint Task Force 2 successfully hit a target from 3,540 meters," it says in an email to NPR, adding that it won't divulge further details for troop safety. Really? The Globe and Mail says the shot was verified by video and data, but that hasn't emerged yet, and some are skeptical. The Washington Post talks to former US snipers who say that even seeing a human target would be difficult from that distance, even with advanced scopes. A theory floated by a former Marine shooter: "A spotter with an advanced optical device was able to verbally walk the sniper onto the target and correct his aim.” Yes: Canadian Cpl. Rob Furlong, who once held the record himself at 2,430 meters, counters the skeptics: “It’s not an impossible distance,” he says. “So to the naysayers I would just say, this can be done.” It's a "hell of a shot," adds former Canadian sniper Jody Mitic, who was written a book called, of course, Unflinching: The Making of a Canadian Sniper. A critic: In a post at Stuff.co.nz, John Edens thinks the shot was possible, given high-tech gizmos to account for everything from wind speed to the curvature of the earth. Plus, the gun used, a McMillan TAC-50 rifle, employs a 50-caliber bullet the size of a "large cigar." His beef, though, is with media coverage that he thinks glorifies war. "It's an achievement to a point, but it's not really one humanity should be proud of."


Write an article based on this summary:

– Rowr: After Anna Wintour failed to show up at Giorgio Armani's autumn/winter 2014 fashion show yesterday in Milan, Armani did not hide his displeasure. "There are some who prefer to snub the Giorgio Armani show and go to Paris," he said at a press conference after the show, apparently referring to the Vogue editor. "She took an airplane, dumped Mr. Armani and went to Paris." The problem? Armani is the only big designer whose show was on the last day of Milan Fashion Week, so much of the press had already left for Paris Fashion Week, which starts today, the Telegraph reports. It's not the first time Wintour has skipped the Armani preview for that reason, the AP notes. According to the Irish Independent, Armani (whose tirade also included digs at the Milan Fashion Week organizers and other Italian designers) went on to say—while not naming Wintour—"Why should I always be the [moron] to be penalized because of a person, who, for better or for worse, like or dislike it, is powerful? I feel penalized. She said she was sending her people. But if you go to see your dentist and he puts you in the hands of his assistant, what’s your reaction? They told me, 'She went to see the Privé in Paris; she has no time to see the ready-to-wear in Milan.' She is influential and powerful. But, perhaps, I’m influential as well." As for Wintour, her rep tells Women's Wear Daily, "Anna has the greatest respect for Giorgio Armani and everything he has done for Italy and fashion worldwide. Unfortunately, with the fashion calendar now running for more than a month, there are some shows that Anna is not able to attend."

MILAN (AP) — Giorgio Armani was left holding the proverbial bag on the last day of Milan Fashion Week on Monday.

 A model wears a creation for Giorgio Armani women's Fall-Winter 2014-15 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Giuseppe Aresu) (Associated Press)

 A model wears a creation for Giorgio Armani women's Fall-Winter 2014-15 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Giuseppe Aresu) (Associated Press)

 A model wears a creation for Giorgio Armani women's Fall-Winter 2014-15 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Giuseppe Aresu) (Associated Press)

 A model wears a creation for DSquared2 women's Fall-Winter 2014-15 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni) (Associated Press)

 Models wear creations for DSquared2 women's Fall-Winter 2014-15 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni) (Associated Press)

 A model wears a creation for Giorgio Armani women's Fall-Winter 2014-15 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Giuseppe Aresu) (Associated Press)

 A model wears a creation for Giorgio Armani women's Fall-Winter 2014-15 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Giuseppe Aresu) (Associated Press)

 Models wear creations for DSquared2 women's Fall-Winter 2014-15 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni) (Associated Press)

 A model wears a creation for DSquared2 women's Fall-Winter 2014-15 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni) (Associated Press)

 A model wears a creation for DSquared2 women's Fall-Winter 2014-15 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni) (Associated Press)

 Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani acknowledges the applause at the end of his Giorgio Armani women's Fall-Winter 2014-15 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, Monday,... (Associated Press)

 American Vogue's influential editor-in-chief Anna Wintour skipped the preview of Armani's signature line to rush off to Paris for the next round of preview shows — not for the first time.

 "She has weight and power, but maybe even I have weight,' ' Armani lamented.

 Armani has anchored the Milan calendar for two decades, and in recent years there have been no other designers of his stature on the last day. He told reporters backstage after his preview show that the calendar needs to be altered to maintain high-profile designers until the end.

 Armani said he has been assured that other Vogue editors attend the shows on her behalf, but he said that wasn't the same. "It's not professional," he said.

 WHAT WINTOUR MISSED

 Armani illuminated grays with lime, and treated the flannel until it resembles tulle, ready for the evening.

 Armani focuses on small innovations in styling and tailoring, not on making a runway splash. Backstage after his preview show, he criticized the excess on some Milan runways as a distraction from fashion that ultimately disappoints shoppers next season.

 When they show up in an Armani shop, they will find ankle-length trousers softened with pleats, and rounded jackets.

 Gray suits pair the new trouser with single-button jackets that are brightened with one lime flash on the lapel. Green stripes down the side of pants signaled a sportier look. The powdery gray of the day looks gave way to a luminous gray for evening wear, strapless sheaths with lime stones or stripes of green and black for a modernist edge.

 Armani is one of the few designers to elicit applause during his show, and one piece that drew it here was a wispy gray fur that appeared lit by lime. It was worn over a slip-like sage dress and paired with a squared green clutch.

 CRAZY AGAIN

 DSquared2 revisit the insane asylum, setting their show against the backdrop of a psychiatric ward with caged holding areas.

 The show opened with a pair of mod psych nurses in white mini dresses and 1960s airline stewardess-style caps escorting a starlet in a fur down the runway.

 "The story is about a woman who is a Hollywood diva, and then she had a breakdown and she is going to go into this recovery home," co-designer Dean Caten said backstage. "She still has her jewels, and she is living her fancy life, her glamorous life, her disturbed wonderful life."

 Dean and Dan Caten, the Canadian twins behind the brand, put locks and keys on bags, collars and ankle straps. Heels were tied on with rubber syringe bands for mood more than function. The collection is elaborate and rich, with lots of beading, fur, silk and wool; the main silhouette was a mini dress.

 Toward the end, a few inmates escape in silken nighties, stricken looks on their faces as they make their way past the riser full of flashing photographers. ||||| MILAN — Giorgio Armani was feeling feisty on Monday, taking on some of his favorite targets at his postshow press conference: Anna Wintour, other Italian designers and the Camera della Moda.

 His combative mood appeared to be triggered by the noticeable absence of Vogue’s editor in chief from his front row earlier in the morning.

 “There are some who prefer to snub the Giorgio Armani show and go to Paris,” he said. Although the designer didn’t name names, there was little mystery as to whom he was referring.

 “She took an airplane, dumped Mr. Armani and went to Paris,” continued Armani, who, in the past, has strongly criticized Wintour, accusing her of attempting to truncate Milan Fashion Week’s schedule and forcing designers to change their show dates.

 RELATED STORY: Giorgio Armani RTW Fall 2014 >>

 According to Armani, Wintour’s absence was due to the fact that he is the only major designer to show on the last day of Milan Fashion Week.

 “Anna has the greatest respect for Giorgio Armani and everything he has done for Italy and fashion worldwide,” Vogue communications director Hildy Kuryk told WWD later in the afternoon. “Unfortunately, with the fashion calendar now running for more than a month, there are some shows that Anna is not able to attend.”

 “When we decided to show the last day, other big brands were involved. But currently this is an empty day,” Armani said, accusing the Italian Fashion Chamber of inefficiency. “Does this mean protecting the Italian fashion? Where is the Camera? I rejoined it but I can always exit again. I can just put in a phone call….”

 Armani couldn’t rein in his anger, nor his disappointment. “Why should I always be the moron [translating from an Italian expletive] to be penalized because of a person, who, for better or for worse, like or dislike it, is powerful? I feel penalized,” he noted. “She said she was sending her people. But if you go to see your dentist and he puts you in the hands of his assistant, what’s your reaction? They told me ‘She went to see the Privé in Paris; she has no time to see the ready-to-wear in Milan.’ She is influential and powerful. But, perhaps, I’m influential as well.”

 A possible solution to keep power people in Milan for the duration of the shows could be to “take turns in showing on the last day,” Armani suggested.

 “This is not an option,” retorted Camera della Moda president Mario Boselli, reached by phone later in the day. “But we met Mr. Armani earlier and he is totally fine now. In a certain way, it’s right that the important journalists stay until the end of the week, and next season, we will try to guarantee the presence of other big brands the last day.”

 Armani set the tone for the press conference from the moment he sat down, needling the competition with Italian journalists: “I wanted to bring an owl with me this morning,” a reference to Dolce & Gabbana’s collection, which featured looks decorated with nocturnal birds of prey.

 Armani spared no words in criticizing other Italian brands’ approach to fashion. “I think that the exaltation of the idea that designers can be just completely free to express their fantasy is really dangerous,” he said. “I’m very happy that others do what they do. I respect my colleagues. I’m happy with what I do, but I feel like a black swan in doing clothes with a function and with an attention to the commercial aspect.

 “It’s very easy to do a V-neck dress with a bold print. It’s more difficult to make a suit or a jacket look new. It’s easier to freewheel,” he continued, in what appeared to be a veiled reference to this season’s Prada collection.

 According to Armani, focusing on pure creativity and setting aside the business vision, Italy’s fashion companies cannot insist on receiving concrete help by the nation’s government institutions.

 “Nobody is courageous enough to say that if the fashion industry wants to be supported by the Italian government, we have to offer a product which is not only smoke and mirrors but that has a functionality and can bring economic results,” he said. “Otherwise, fashion loses its credibility.

 “We should talk about economy, competition. Others are copying us,” Armani pointed out, mentioning the case of “a store on Via Montenapoleone, which sells the same clothes I did 10 years ago.” The designer confirmed to journalists at the press conference that he was referring to Giada, a Chinese-backed Italian fashion label. ||||| Giorgio Armani takes aim at Anna Wintour

 Mr Armani is not happy that Vogue editor Anna Wintour missed his latest show, and he wants everyone to know about it

 BY Bibby Sowray | 25 February 2014

 Photo: Rex

 Anna Wintour was notable by her absence at yesterday's Giorgio Armani autumn/winter 2014 show, and Mr Armani was particularly annoyed.

 Speaking at a post-show press conference, Armani said: "There are some who prefer to snub the Giorgio Armani show and go to Paris… She took an airplane, dumped Mr. Armani and went to Paris."

 Armani's issues stem from the fact that he is the only major designer to show on the final day of Milan Fashion Week, meaning many members of the press have already moved on to the French capital in preparation for Paris Fashion Week, which runs for a further nine days, starting today.

 READ: Giorgio Armani: I've sacrificed life for fashion

 Wintour's representative at Condé Nast denied Armani's inference, telling WWD : "Anna has the greatest respect for Giorgio Armani and everything he has done for Italy and fashion worldwide. Unfortunately, with the fashion calendar now running for more than a month, there are some shows that Anna is not able to attend."

 Armani went on to blame Milan Fashion Week's organisers, the National Chamber for Italian Fashion, of which he is a board member, for making the final day on the schedule an "empty" one. The criticism comes just months after Armani pledged to help relaunch the waning international fashion showcase, which has only Armani, Gucci, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana as its big draws.

 He didn't stop there though, going on to make a veiled stab at fellow Italian brands that ignore "clothes with a function and with an attention to the commercial aspect" in favour of being "completely free to express their fantasy", calling the approach "really dangerous".

 "It's very easy to do a V-neck dress with a bold print. It's more difficult to make a suit or a jacket look new. It's easier to freewheel," he said, making what was assumed to be a reference to Prada. |||||


NASA announced Monday that after 35 years of exploration, its Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new, unanticipated region of space near the edge of the solar system--a "magnetic highway" where charged particles take the "exit ramp" to interstellar space.

 The region connects the sun's magnetic field lines to interstellar magnetic field lines, allowing "lower-energy charged particles that originate from inside our heliosphere... to zoom out, and higher-energy particles from outside to stream in," according to a written statement issued by NASA partner Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.

 The heliosphere is the "immense magnetic bubble containing our solar system, solar wind, and the entire solar magnetic field," according to NASA.

 Scientists say they believe this is the final region Voyager 1 has to cross before reaching interstellar space.

 Voyager 1's instruments showed a five-fold increase in high-energy charged particles, accompanied by a 1,000-fold drop in low-energy particles, NASA officials said.

 These data would be consistent with Voyager 1's exit from the heliosphere, but Voyager 1's magnetic-field reading instrument indicates otherwise.

 It shows an East-West magnetic field orientation, indicative of the sun's influence. The magnetic field in interstellar space, influenced by winds from explosions of supernovae, is thought to have a roughly North-South orientation, according to NASA astrophysicist Leonard Burlaga.

 Voyager 1 may remain within the heliopause for another two to three years, but it's hard to anticipate how long it will be until the probe leaves the solar system, NASA scientists said. The heliopause is where the interstellar medium and solar wind pressures balance, the outer boundary of the solar system.

 Launched in 1977 to explore the outer solar system, Voyager 1 and and its twin, Voyager 2, are the longest-serving spacecraft. Voyager 1 is currently 122 AU from Earth, and Voyager 2 is about 100 AU away. One AU, or astronomical unit, is equivalent to the distance from Earth to the sun. ||||| PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region at the far reaches of our solar system that scientists feel is the final area the spacecraft has to cross before reaching interstellar space.

 Scientists refer to this new region as a magnetic highway for charged particles because our sun's magnetic field lines are connected to interstellar magnetic field lines. This connection allows lower-energy charged particles that originate from inside our heliosphere -- or the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself -- to zoom out and allows higher-energy particles from outside to stream in. Before entering this region, the charged particles bounced around in all directions, as if trapped on local roads inside the heliosphere.

 The Voyager team infers this region is still inside our solar bubble because the direction of the magnetic field lines has not changed. The direction of these magnetic field lines is predicted to change when Voyager breaks through to interstellar space. The new results were described at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco on Monday.

 "Although Voyager 1 still is inside the sun's environment, we now can taste what it's like on the outside because the particles are zipping in and out on this magnetic highway," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "We believe this is the last leg of our journey to interstellar space. Our best guess is it's likely just a few months to a couple years away. The new region isn't what we expected, but we've come to expect the unexpected from Voyager."

 Since December 2004, when Voyager 1 crossed a point in space called the termination shock, the spacecraft has been exploring the heliosphere's outer layer, called the heliosheath. In this region, the stream of charged particles from the sun, known as the solar wind, abruptly slowed down from supersonic speeds and became turbulent. Voyager 1's environment was consistent for about five and a half years. The spacecraft then detected that the outward speed of the solar wind slowed to zero.

 The intensity of the magnetic field also began to increase at that time.

 Voyager data from two onboard instruments that measure charged particles showed the spacecraft first entered this magnetic highway region on July 28, 2012. The region ebbed away and flowed toward Voyager 1 several times. The spacecraft entered the region again Aug. 25 and the environment has been stable since.

 "If we were judging by the charged particle data alone, I would have thought we were outside the heliosphere," said Stamatios Krimigis, principal investigator of the low-energy charged particle instrument, based at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. "But we need to look at what all the instruments are telling us and only time will tell whether our interpretations about this frontier are correct."

 Spacecraft data revealed the magnetic field became stronger each time Voyager entered the highway region; however, the direction of the magnetic field lines did not change.

 "We are in a magnetic region unlike any we've been in before -- about 10 times more intense than before the termination shock -- but the magnetic field data show no indication we're in interstellar space," said Leonard Burlaga, a Voyager magnetometer team member based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The magnetic field data turned out to be the key to pinpointing when we crossed the termination shock. And we expect these data will tell us when we first reach interstellar space."

 Voyager 1 and 2 were launched 16 days apart in 1977. At least one of the spacecraft has visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object, about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away from the sun. The signal from Voyager 1 takes approximately 17 hours to travel to Earth. Voyager 2, the longest continuously operated spacecraft, is about 9 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) away from our sun. While Voyager 2 has seen changes similar to those seen by Voyager 1, the changes are much more gradual. Scientists do not think Voyager 2 has reached the magnetic highway.

 The Voyager spacecraft were built and continue to be operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

 For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov .

 News Media Contact

 Jia-Rui C. Cook 818-354-0850Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.jccook@jpl.nasa.govDwayne Brown 202-358-1726NASA Headquarters, Washingtondwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov2012-381 ||||| | 7

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 Remember when I said back in October that Voyager 1 might have finally left the solar system? Well, it turns out that the spacecraft, which has been skirting the edge of the solar system for a long time now, is finding it difficult to say goodbye.

 According to scientists working on the mission, Voyager 1 has just entered a “magnetic highway“. They hope this road will lead Voyager out of the heliosphere, away from the influence of the sun’s magnetic field… eventually.

 Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist, based at Caltech, explained that this highway is connected to interstellar space, but is still inside the magnetic field of the Sun. It is “a new region of the heliosphere”. NASA scientists are calling it a highway because it lets particles in and out of the solar system.

 The heliosphere is a huge bubble the Sun creates around itself, through the solar wind. The interstellar medium is a particle wind outside of the solar system that pushes against the heliosphere. The boundary between the two is known as the heliopause. Before Voyager got close to the edge, scientists thought the boundary would be quite clear cut. Now they are realising that it is much messier than they anticipated.

 Scientists working on Voyager are looking for three key signs to confirm when the spacecraft exits the heliosphere. We should see the particles created by high energy cosmic rays increase in number, and slow particles from inside the heliosphere should disappear. Lastly, scientists think the magnetic field will change direction, from East-West inside the heliosphere, to North-South outside it. There are three instruments on Voyager to measure these three signs.

 This magnetic highway is within the heliopause. If you’re counting that as the boundary to the solar system (and I am), that means Voyager is still within the solar system. But it is surrounded by particles from outside the heliosphere. “Now Voyager is in a region still in the magnetic highway where it’s surrounded almost entirely by cosmic ray particles that have come in from outside,” says Stone.

 The first sign of this new region came on July 28 when the intensity of solar particles dropped by a factor of two, But, within five days of falling, the intensity of particles came back up. On August 13 there was another dip. And, shortly after, another return to the previous level. You can see these dips on the figure below.

 You will probably also notice is that there was a third dip, around August 25. This was the graph that kick started the speculation back in October about Voyager possibly leaving the solar system. But the reality was more complicated than that.

 For seven years, since it passed the termination shock in December 2004, Voyager had been in a region where slow-moving particles from the sun randomly move in all directions. But August 25 was the day it crossed over into the magnetic highway. Now suddenly it is in a new region where particles from the sun are streaming out towards interstellar space, and outside particles from cosmic rays are streaming in. The intensity of solar particles dropped that day, and hasn’t picked up since.

 “We are now at the highest intensity we have yet seen of the particles coming in from the outside,” says Stone. You can see that from the below figure. The top half shows the same data as above, but the bottom is the cosmic ray data.

 The vital sign that wasn’t ticked off in October was changes in the magnetic field data. At the press conference today, Leonard Burlaga, Voyager magnetometer team scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, explained how the magnetic field intensity has increased and remained higher than before since Voyager crossed the boundary into the new magnetic highway region.

 But there’s nothing to show that Voyager 1 is outside the heliosphere yet. “There’s no evidence that we have entered the interstellar magnetic field,” says Burlaga.

 Voyager scientists are still not sure how long it will be before Voyager gets off this highway and finally, finally, makes it out into interstellar space. “It may take several more months, it could take several more years,” says Stone. “But we do believe this may be the very last layer between us and interstellar space.”

 Voyager’s interstellar future could look a little bleak, depending on how you see it. By 2020, Voyager scientists will start powering down some instruments to save remaining power reserves. By 2025 power will be so low that all instruments will have to be turned off. After that Voyager will drift.

 We may be able to ping it, now again, to check it’s still there. But it won’t be able to send us any data. Eventually, even the transmitter will stop working. Voyager 1 will be on its own.

 In 40,000 years it’ll pass by one of our nearest neighbour stars. Though even that pass, at a distance of 1.6 light years, will hardly be close. After that it’ll be billions of years before Voyager gets near again to any other stars.

 On the one hand, it seems sad that Voyager will wander through the stars, not able to send us information about any new worlds it encounters. On the other hand, in billions of years, Voyager might reach another star! Something humans made, out there in the universe* forever. It’s quite a nice thought.

 For now though, we’re still communicating with both Voyager spacecraft. “We talk to both spacecraft everyday,” says Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager. “They’re both healthy and robust and continuing on with this incredible journey.”

 I’m refusing to say goodbye to Voyager 1 just yet. It doesn’t seem too keen to say farewell itself, either.

 *Thanks to bradmiller in the comments for pointing out that I originally mistyped ‘solar system’ here. Hopefully not a premonition… |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– How to best learn about the edge of the solar system? Actually go there. NASA says its Voyager 1 spacecraft—which launched in 1977—has entered an area of the solar system that scientists didn't know about, the AP reports. "We do believe this may be the very last layer between us and interstellar space," says chief scientist Ed Stone. NASA is calling the region a "magnetic highway" where particles from inside the sun's magnetic sphere "zoom out, and higher-energy particles from outside to stream in." Scientists based their conclusion on Voyager's instruments, which show a 1,000-fold decrease in low-energy particles from our solar system and a five-fold jump in high-energy particles from interstellar space, reports Huffington Post. Now Voyager 1 may stay in this in-between zone for two or three years, NASA says. Then comes its future in interstellar space, reports Scientific American: powering down around 2025 and passing a neighboring star in about 40,000 years. After that, it will be billions of years before it approaches another star.