Bainbridge Island resident and waterbed inventor Charles Hall talks about the redesigned waterbed concept that has no waves and gives better support, at his home on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018. (Photo: Meegan M. Reid / Kitsap Sun)

 BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – The waterbed was just a concept in a San Francisco art gallery, and Charles Hall was just a young graduate student floating an idea back in 1968.

 Half a century, a popular subculture icon and a successful design career later, Hall wakes up on his most famous design each morning with a million-dollar view of Puget Sound and downtown Seattle.

 Today he's taking another go at the waterbed, hoping it's on the verge of a comeback.

 Hall, now a resident of Bainbridge Island, plans to launch a redesigned waterbed later this year. It’s a rethink of his original design from 50 years ago that removes all its negative aspects and keeps its positives, he said.

 Gone is the wooden frame that made the older beds so hard to get out of, exchanged for a foam collar that surrounds the water bladder. Spandex covers the top of the mattress to give a floating sensation. A fiber insert quells waves and keeps the water bladder still. An updated temperature system keeps the water feeling just right.

 “It’s a better experience all around,” Hall said.

 His famous bed first launched on the West Coast all those years ago, but his new bed will launch across the country on its eastern shore. The bed will first go to a test market in a chain of Florida furniture stores later this spring or summer, before it hopefully rolls out more broadly, he said. A bed-in-a-box version you can set up yourself might also go up for sale online, Hall said.

 Queen- and king-sized mattresses will be available, and a complete bed system will sell for about $2,000, he said.

 Fifty years ago, Hall’s original concept began as a chair filled with a viscous cooking starch. The chair weighed about 300 pounds, the starch didn’t flow well and it was difficult to get out of, Hall said, so he abandoned the idea in favor of the bed that would launch his design career.

 The idea was that it would offer better support and a temperature system that would approximate the body’s skin temperature to help a person relax and get better sleep, he said.

 “A waterbed is about as pure a concept as you can get,” Hall said. “Your body is 90-some-percent water anyway, what you’re doing in an environment before you’re born is water.”

 While he was touting its practical benefits, the undulating bed took off for other reasons amid the counterculture movement and sexual revolution of the 1970s. Sellers and buyers saw a sensuous appeal: Phrases like “Pleasure is a waterbed” and “Two things are better on a waterbed – one of them is sleep” began to show up on advertisements.

 “The sexy part drove it for quite awhile,” Hall said. “People would look at it and they’d see this wiggle and they’d say, ‘Ooh, that’s going to be great for sex.’ That sold an awful lot of waterbeds. Then when people slept on them, they said, ‘Hey, that’s actually comfortable.’”

 He laments how his product has been portrayed in movies and TV shows, where they’d always seem to be a joke, exploding or springing a leak. The sloshing got people’s attention, but it was just a sideshow, Hall said.

 Waterbeds reached their heyday in the 1980s before sales tapered off. Hall moved on to other design projects, like inflatable kayaks and a solar-heated shower for campers, he said, but returned to the concept in recent years with a few tweaks.

 His friend, who runs the City Furniture chain in Florida that will initially carry the new beds, feels like it’s an idea whose time has come again, Hall said.

 “I think that some people will have a memory of it and want to revisit it just because they remember waterbeds and want to see how different they are,” Hall said. “And then there’ll be a generation, it’ll be a total novelty for them.”

 © 2018 KING-TV ||||| Ready for the return of waterbeds? Charlie Hall, the Bainbridge Island inventor of them, has a comeback planned 50 years after their debut. And he’s looking at you, millennials, to get groovy.

 Millennials, the inventor of the waterbed has a message for you. Especially those of you living right here in the Pacific Northwest, like he does.

 You need a waterbed.

 Charlie Hall is 71 and a millionaire because of waterbeds and some of the other 40 patents he holds. (You know the Sun Shower, with the solar-heated bags that let you bathe when camping? That’s his.)

 He’s planning on the waterbed making a comeback this spring.

 “I don’t think a millennial has ever seen one,” says Charlie, as everyone calls him, about the invention he debuted 50 years ago at a “Happy Happening” art show in San Francisco.

 “But I have this theory that it’s a Northwest kind of thing. I feel like a lot of us spawned in a waterbed.”

 And so those younger types, “Maybe they want to visit the spawning ground.”

 That first waterbed was called “The Pleasure Pit” because, as the oft-repeated sales pitch went in that groovy era, “Two things are better on a waterbed, and one of them is sleeping.”

 Working with a good friend of his from the waterbed days — Keith Koening, president of City Furniture, with 16 stores in South Florida — he is about to test-market Waterbed 2018.

 No more rigid frame that made them hard to get out of. Now there’s foam around the edges. New materials suppress the wave action that some customers didn’t like. Dual bladders allow each side of the bed to have its own temperature control.

 It’s not like Charlie needs the money from the Return of the Waterbed.

 He has a ranch home in California wine country and another place in that state, and about 15 years ago he bought a home right on the Bainbridge Island waterfront. Looking out through the big windows, he has a straight-on, unobstructed view of downtown Seattle. During nice weather, he spends a lot of time on his 55-foot cruiser, going around the San Juans.

 Still, he’s an inveterate tinkerer. He can’t help it.

 That Sun Shower is part of the catalog for Advanced Elements, of which he’s co-founder, although these days not involved in the day-to-day operations.

 “It keeps me young, to be active and engaged in a lot of projects,” says Charlie.

 But are we ready for Waterbeds 2.0?

 If history is to repeat, once again it’ll be that male customer who’ll plunk down the cash.

 The ads back then sometimes featured women in slinky outfits, or no outfits at all.

 By May 1970, Charlie Hall’s waterbed was featured in a Playboy magazine spread, in an issue that included a story on “The Fiery Feminists” and “An exclusive interview with William F. Buckley Jr.”

 “I remember we had to do the bed in velvet, I think maybe green velvet,” remembers Charlie.

 Subtlety was not part of the waterbed ethos back then.

 Some came in gargantuan, four-poster wood frames such as a “Jungle Bed” advertised in June 1976 in The Seattle Times for a special sale price of $450, which is $1,953 in today’s dollars.

 For Charlie Hall, it’s a long way from his days as a 24-year-old industrial design student at San Francisco State University doing his graduate school thesis.

 “I always liked furniture and I wanted to address human comfort. I talked to doctors, physical therapists, even some psychiatrists, trying to put together elements of comfort that work,” he says.

 For example, there are whirlpool baths taken by athletes — “letting your muscles relax, that soothing sensation associated with floating,” says Charlie.

 From that came his first effort, a chair filled with a kind of viscous starch.

 “It was not practical. It weighed 300 pounds, and you couldn’t move it unless you had a forklift. And you kept sinking deeper and deeper into it until it was hard to get out of,” remembers Charlie. “I also decided that a bed was more important. It’s the piece of furniture used most in the house.”

 Then he had the epiphany of using water inside a vinyl bladder, made for him by a company specializing in PVC.

 Charlie got an “A” on his thesis, and the waterbed revolution was on. Although it didn’t magically take off.

 “We had a little shop in Sausalito, and we would deliver them on top of a Rambler station wagon,” says Charlie.

 One of his customers liked the beds so much he helped raise $100,000 in funding. Celebrities began to notice the new fad.

 “One of the Smothers Brothers bought one, and somebody in Jefferson Airplane bought one. I remember we delivered that one to a big Victorian house that was painted all black. Getting the bed in there was hell,” says Charlie.

 On June 15, 1971, he was granted U.S. Patent No. 3,585,356 A for a “Liquid Support for Human Bodies,” the waterbed.

 That didn’t deter the copycats, who ignored his requests for royalties or licensing fees.

 It wouldn’t be until 1991 that Charlie was vindicated when a jury awarded him $6 million in a patent-infringement lawsuit against Intex Plastics, a company that imported waterbeds from Taiwan. He then began receiving licensing fees.

 The waterbed craze lasted for nearly 20 years.

 A 1986 New York Times story quoted the Waterbed Manufacturers Association as saying they accounted for 12 percent to 15 percent of the American bedding market, and that back then they had $1.9 billion ($4.3 billion in today’s dollars) in annual sales.

 They were so popular that the California Civil Code says landlords can’t discriminate against people with waterbeds, as long as they have waterbed insurance. In Seattle there is no waterbed legislation, although some rental agreements either prohibit waterbeds or require proof of insurance.

 Then waterbeds practically disappeared.

 “Probably bad marketing,” says Charlie. “It got to be price wars. Retailers were presenting $99 specials and selling a very crappy product. It spiraled down from there.”

 Sometimes, he says, what was sold to college kids was just the bladder — no frame. “You can imagine a bag of water on a college dorm floor. Not a good idea,” he says.

 Charlie says that there also were a lot of myths associated with waterbeds.

 Like they were so heavy that they crashed through the floor. No, he explains, “Forty pounds per square foot is a normal building load on a residential floor. Waterbeds don’t even come close. It’d be a third or less.”

 Or, they’d leak all over the place. No, says Charlie, “They have safety liners that take care of any leak issues.”

 He does say that it was because of waterbeds that the mattress industry changed. It showed you didn’t have to settle for some rigid spring coil bed.

 “Memory foam, pillowtop mattresses, all that stuff began to appear,” he says. “Look at the ads for the memory foams — they read like all waterbed ads.”

 Now it’s a new day.

 Fifty years later, don’t you think this could fit you, too?

 Seattle Times, June 8, 1978, in a feature about waterbeds:

 “ … the avant-garde youth took to them like protest marches.” |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Waterbeds were all the rage back in the 1970s before all but disappearing the following decade. Now the original inventor plans a big comeback in the new millennium. Fittingly, he sees millennials as the key to that revival, reports the Seattle Times. “I don’t think a millennial has ever seen one,” 71-year-old Charlie Hall tells the newspaper. Hall is betting that a slew of improvements—temperature control, calmer waves, etc.—will once again make the beds a must-have for the younger generation when they hit the market later this year, initally at the City Furniture chain in Florida. King- and queen-sized mattresses will be available, and those looking to indulge can expect to pay about $2,000, reports KREM2. “I think that some people will have a memory of it and want to revisit it just because they remember waterbeds and want to see how different they are,” says Hall. “And then there’ll be a generation, it’ll be a total novelty for them.” Both stories recount the colorful history and risque marketing that helped make the original waterbeds popular 50 years ago. Consider that the first one was called "The Pleasure Pit," and came with a not-too-subtle slogan: “Two things are better on a waterbed, and one of them is sleeping.” Hall does indeed own the patent for the waterbed, and he's had other successful inventions over the years, including a solar-heated shower for campers.


News article:

In this Sunday, April 22, 2018 image taken from video footage by China's CCTV via AP Video, an injured passenger receives medical treatment at a hospital following a bus accident in North Hwanghae province,... (Associated Press)

 In this Sunday, April 22, 2018 image taken from video footage by China's CCTV via AP Video, an injured passenger receives medical treatment at a hospital following a bus accident in North Hwanghae province, south of Pyongyang, North Korea. A traffic accident in southern North Korea has killed dozens... (Associated Press)

 BEIJING (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has met with China's ambassador and visited a hospital where Chinese tourists were being treated after a deadly bus crash.

 The crash Sunday evening killed 32 Chinese and four North Koreans, and two Chinese were seriously injured. China's official Xinhua News Agency said late Monday that the tourist bus fell from a bridge in North Hwanghae province in southern North Korea.

 Photos provided by the North Korean government on Tuesday showed Kim meeting with Ambassador Li Jinjun at the hospital and at the Chinese Embassy.

 China's Foreign Ministry said a medical team and diplomats were sent to help. It described the North Korean casualties as "workers." All visitors to North Korea must be accompanied by minders.

 Chinese tourists make up the vast majority of visitors to North Korea, where they often pay homage at sites related to China's participation in the 1950-53 Korean War.

 China and North Korea share a lengthy border and a traditional friendship. China remains Pyongyang's largest trading partner, although commerce has dropped off by about 90 percent under United Nations sanctions.

 Only about 5,000 Westerners visit the isolated, hard-line communist state each year. Americans have been banned from traveling to North Korea without special permission from the U.S. State Department since September amid concerns about the fate of those detained there in the past.

 The cause of the crash wasn't mentioned. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed the mangled wreckage in the dark with rain falling and rescue vehicles on the scene.

 North Korean roads are often bumpy and poorly maintained. There is usually no lighting other than headlights at night, even on major roads outside of the cities. Drivers tend to travel at whatever speed they feel is safe, making the roads even more dangerous, particularly when the weather is bad. ||||| Image copyright AFP PHOTO / KCNA VIA KNS Image caption Mr Kim was pictured in state media speaking to an injured Chinese tourist

 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has expressed "bitter sorrow" over a bus accident that left 32 Chinese tourists and four North Koreans dead.

 The accident took place on Sunday night in North Hwanghae province, when the tour bus plunged off a bridge.

 It is rare for North Korea's tightly-controlled media to report on negative news, and for Mr Kim to acknowledge the incident itself is even more unusual.

 China is the North's main political ally and largest trading partner.

 "[Mr Kim] said that the unexpected accident brought bitter sorrow to his heart," the official KCNA news agency reported.

 "He couldn't control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families who lost their blood relatives."

 Image copyright AFP PHOTO/KCNA VIA KNS Image caption Mr Kim expressed his 'sorrow' to Chinese ambassador Li Jinjun (2nd R)

 The North Korean leader was pictured visiting injured passengers in hospital. The report said he "personally learned about the treatment".

 He also visited the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang, where he met the Chinese ambassador to North Korea Li Jinjun and "expressed his heartfelt condolences and sympathy."

 China and North Korea have been long-time allies. Mr Kim's rapid visit to the injured people - and the reporting of it - is likely to be seen in part as a way of protecting his image among the Chinese population.

 Chinese tourists make up an estimated 80% of foreign tourists to North Korea - providing an important source of currency for Pyongyang.

 Mr Kim earlier this year visited Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, his first known foreign trip since he took office in 2011.

 China is responsible for virtually all of North Korea's food and fuel aid and by many measures, can be considered its most important partner.

 North Korea recently announced it was halting all nuclear and missile tests, as it builds up to major summit with the leaders of South Korea and the US. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A crash that killed 32 tourists from North Korea's chief ally brought "bitter sorrow" to the heart of leader Kim Jong Un, according to Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency. The agency—in a rare admission of bad news—said the Chinese tourists and four North Koreans were killed when a tour bus plunged off a bridge in North Hwanghae province, south of the capital, the BBC reports. Kim "couldn't control his grief at the thought of the bereaved families who lost their blood relatives," KCNA said. The AP reports that China, source of the vast majority of foreign tourists to North Korea, has sent diplomats and a medical team to assist.


64

 608 Roosevelt Rd

 Walkerton , IN 46574

 (574) 586-7708

 The pizza is as flat as the world we live on. Says the men who wrote the bible.

 Not good pizza. I came for lunch. The pizza options were boring. Found the pizza to be uncooked

 I was on my way home from Fort Wayne, and was going through town. I like trying small town restaurants and I like meeting good people. This was a good stop. The pizza was great, the crust, sauce and Pepperoni tasted great. Super friendly staff. I couldn't figure out why so many bad reviews from California and 1st time posters until learning that this place has been under attack from the gay community. I brought those fake reviews to the attention of Yelp and they refuse to clean up this page like they have done for other businesses. Clearly this is unfair to this business. I cannot believe so much hate comes from a community that demands that hate not be directed towards them. I am disappointed that Yelp is biased on how they handled this. I will be back.

 This place closed up with out any kind of notice to the town. I guess after receiving over 800,00 dollars from people on a go fund me account when they posted they wouldn't serve there food for a gay wedding. They didn't need to work anymore. There pizza was not the best it use to be good but just seemed like they didn't care anymore. Really not sad that they left.

 We love to stop by here for pizza or ice cream. Everything is reasonably priced and the people working are very nice! We try to stop every time we pass through Walkerton. Unfortunately, it is permanently closed!

 Sad they had to close because of bigots threatening them, this is America and freedom of religion is still in the constitution, I'm glad believers stepped up and helped

 just the worst pizza you can imagine can't even imagine why people would want to eat this awful awful pizza sauce tasted like red dry ketchup from expired bottles having sat for years in a broom closet that is never cleaned. just disgusting. not upset it closed kinda happy actually

 I estimate the food, service and décor of Memories Pizza to be average. I suspect the vast majority of the poor ratings and comments are from people who dislike the fact Memories Pizza refused to cater a gay wedding. It wouldn't surprise me if the gay wedding situation was engineered by social justice warriors to cause trouble for this business. Who caters to a wedding from a pizza joint?

 Visited Indiana, Horrible pizza. Dough is dry, pizza sauce taste like spoiled ketchup and topping remind me of rotten beef jerky. I would not serve this to my worst enemy. Maybe someone on deathrow is worthy of this as their last meal...if they are truly guilty:) SAVE YOUR COIN

 Like most of the 1 start reviews, I have never been to this establishment. I did find, however, both the service and food to be excellent. Highly recommended.

 Good people. The service was lovely and the workers were all very sweet. Their pizza is great and I can't wait to come back to Indiana to maybe visit this place again.

 You "godless" immoral dogs.... who seek to destroy Christ followers.... Christ,.. the very embodiment of God Almighty, made manifest in the flesh... came to redeem sinners. Was crucified, died, buried, and resurrected! .. for the purpose of correction of your "fallen" - "contrary to God" souls.... God incinerated Sodom and Gomorah for their homosexual ways (the perversion of God's creations)... ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ You're all so smart in your own mind... but God's ways are not the fallen man's ways... GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED!... Your doom is coming.. the moment you die... and shortly thereafter YOUR JUDGEMENT by the perfect God administered through His Son Jeshua. My Savior, Jeshua,.. is perfect... And these times, while the devil and all that belong to him, think they are making gains, are in fact digging themselves DEEPER IN THE HOLE OF ETERNAL DAMNATION! May the Living God richly bless that little family for taking their correct stand for God... which is evident as of this writing ($600,000 plus in donations through GO FUND ME)... The Lord holds the universe together with His WORD of TRUTH... He can certainly take care of that family through the rest of His children.. and those who are not yet saved but know right from wrong.... You wicked, evil, homosexuals... you haters of God and His TRUTH. Most all of you are miserable, and continue to feed your lustful fires that you just can't seem to put out... and soon are going to rant and rail against God when society falls under the coming Antichrist.... YOU DOGS!, .. you less than worthless things. You have been seared with reprobate minds.... with no way back. No wonder you act the way you do... Your of your father the devil himself !!!!! You prompt others to do your dirty work.. and would like to see this family's business burned.... HA! Wait until you see what the Living God has in store for you.... a special place reserved in the LAKE OF FIRE with eternal suffering...!!! Ahhh, Yessss.... My Savior is perfect and WILL meet out YOUR proper JUDGEMENT!

 This place is Americana. A small town mom and pop operation that is very welcoming. Nothing against chains but they can't duplicate what the independents can. The pizza was very tasty. Loved the cheese and crispy crust. I'll be back next chance I get.

 I was at this really fun pizza place in November when I was visiting family and it did not disappoint. The pizza was very good, but the people who worked there made it a great time out.

 The cheese garlic bread and our pizza was awesome! Nice, super friendly staff! Fun to look at the throwback memorabilia on the walls & had fun playing games they had out with our kids. Fun night!

 When I was in the Walkerton, Indiana area I stopped by Memories Pizza. This is before the incident where they were setup by the TV Station in South Bend. All I can say is that the pizza I ordered was very well made and the service was excellent. And to be quite honest that is the only thing I was concerned about. And for the record I am a retired U.S. Marine, former business owner and Christian. The food and service was very good. I thought that was the main purpose of Yelp to let people know about the quality of food and the quality of the service.

 Traveling for work IN and decided to see what all this fuss was about. Pizza: it was greasy, doughy, and by far the worst I've had-akin to a generic frozen supermarket pizza. We also ordered a chicken Parmesan sandwich. Firstly, it was burned, the chicken left us wondering if there was actually any chicken in between the greasy breading. There are better choices in the area which are serving palatable food. Stay away from here.

 Nasty! Visiting with friends in the area, they hadn't eaten there and we thought it might be good food. The service was slow, and they weren't that busy. But worst of all was the food. We all were ill afterwards. Stay away is what we say.

 Came back since I'm in South Bend on business. Weird vibe, pizza was greasy but not as bad as first time but still not good. Oddly enough the best thing here was the bread sticks which is odd as last time the pizza dough was deplorable. Today it was edible, but the pizza was so greasy we tossed most of it. If you only judge this place by the quality of their flagship product (pizza) the only fair rating is one star. I will not be returning here in the future. China House will get my business or Subway if I'm in a rush. ||||| RFRA: Michiana business wouldn't cater a gay wedding Posted: Tuesday, March 31, 2015 10:40 PM EDT Updated: Wednesday, April 1, 2015 7:37 AM EDT Posted:Updated:

 A small-town pizza shop is saying they agree with Governor Pence and the signing of the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

 The O'Connor family, who owns Memories Pizza, says they have a right to believe in their religion and protect those ideals.

 “If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no,” says Crystal O'Connor of Memories Pizza.

 She and her family are standing firm in their beliefs.

 The O'Connors have owned Memories Pizza in Walkerton for 9 years.

 It's a small-town business, with small-town ideals.

 “We are a Christian establishment,” says O'Connor.

 The O'Connor family prides themselves in owning a business that reflects their religious beliefs.

 “We're not discriminating against anyone, that's just our belief and anyone has the right to believe in anything,” says O'Connor.

 So, when Governor Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law, the family was not disappointed.

 “We definitely agree with the bill,” says O'Connor.

 When ABC 57 asked O'Connor about the negative backlash the bill has been getting for being a discriminatory piece of legislation, she says that's simply not true.

 “I do not think it's targeting gays. I don't think it's discrimination,” says O'Connor. “It's supposed to help people that have a religious belief.”

 O'Connor says because she's a Christian, she and her family don't support a gay marriage and that is their right.

 Kevin O'Connor, Crystal's father, says he believes the negative backlash the bill and its supporters are getting isn't fair.

 “That lifestyle is something they choose. I choose to be heterosexual. They choose to be homosexual. Why should I be beat over the head to go along with something they choose?” says Kevin O'Connor.

 The O'Connor family told ABC 57 news that if a gay couple or a couple belonging to another religion came in to the restaurant to eat, they would never deny them service.

 The O'Connors say they just don't agree with gay marriages and wouldn't cater them if asked to.

  |||||

Write a summary.

– We've heard plenty of public outcry about Gov. Mike Pence signing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law last week. So who is cheering the law on? A family-owned pizza joint in Walkerton, Indiana. "If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no," Crystal O'Connor of Memories Pizza tells ABC 57. The station reports the family says gays are welcome to simply dine there—just not to order a wedding pie. "We are a Christian establishment," says Crystal. "We're not discriminating against anyone, that's just our belief and anyone has the right to believe in anything." Crystal's dad, Kevin, tells the station he also concurs with the bill. "I choose to be heterosexual. They choose to be homosexual. Why should I be beat over the head to go along with something they choose?" he says of potential gay customers trying to get their nuptials catered. ABC 57 reports the reaction has been swift and harsh, noting the pizzeria's Facebook rating has fallen from a 5 to a 1.2; its rating is currently a 1 on Yelp, too, where some of the current posts are definitely NSFW. (Gov. Pence insists the law is being "grossly misconstrued.")


Joanne Deborah Chesimard FBI The FBI is considering possible domestic terrorism charges against the man accused of shooting a guard at the conservative Family Research Council.

 The FBI defines domestic terrorism as "Americans attacking Americans based on U.S.-based extremist ideologies."

 It's currently hunting down seven people charged with such crimes. Five are women. ||||| The FBI is considering possible domestic terrorism charges against the man accused of shooting a guard at the conservative Family Research Council.

 The FBI defines domestic terrorism as "Americans attacking Americans based on U.S.-based extremist ideologies."

 It's currently hunting down seven people charged with such crimes. Five are women. |||||

Write a summary.

– Not all terrorists are foreigners, and not all terrorists are men. The FBI keeps a list of the most-wanted domestic terrorists, defined as "Americans attacking Americans based on US-based extremist ideologies." And five out of the seven people on the list are women, notes Business Insider. A sampling: Donna Joan Borup: During a 1981 anti-apartheid protest In New York City, Borup allegedly tossed an acid-like substance into the eyes of a police officer. She skipped her court trial and has been on the lam ever since. Joanna Deborah Chesimard: A member of the Black Liberation Army, Chesimard shot a state trooper at point-blank rage during a traffic stop in 1973. She was imprisoned in 1977 but escaped two years later. Josephine Sunshine Overaker: The FBI accuses Overaker of attempting to burn down and destroy an energy facility as part of an attack staged by the radical environmental groups Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front. Click here for the full list of wanted domestic terrorists, including the males.


Article:
The National Security Agency's (NSA) continued surveillance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli leaders may also have swept up private conversations involving members of Congress, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night.

 Although President Obama had promised to curb eavesdropping on world leaders who are U.S. allies after Edward Snowden leaked documents revealing the extent of the surveillance, there were a few leaders the White House wished to continue monitoring, including Netanyahu.

 The original reason for the stepped up surveillance of Netanyahu, according to the WSJ, was the fear that he would "strike Iran without warning." By 2013, that fear had dissipated. The administration then became concerned about the Iran nuclear deal that was being negotiated. U.S. officials believed that the Israelis were spying on the negotiations and would try to scuttle the deal, the report said.

 Further, the Journal reports that intercepted conversations between Israeli leaders confirmed Israel's knowledge of the talks, as well as its intent to undermine any nuclear deal with Iran by leaking its details. When Netanyahu and his top aides came to Washington to talk with Jewish-American groups and members of Congress to lobby against the deal, the NSA was there to pick up the conversations.

 Senior officials told the WSJ that those conversations collected by the NSA raised fears "that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress." The White House wanted the information anyway, however, because it "believed the intercepted information could be valuable to counter Mr. Netanyahu's campaign."

 So in order to avoid leaving a trail, the White House left it to the NSA to figure out what to share, and the NSA obliged, deleting names of members and any personal attacks on the administration.

 National Security Council Spokesman Ned Price wouldn't comment on the intelligence activities written about in the Wall Street Journal's story, but he said in a statement, "[W]e do not conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance activities unless there is a specific and validated national security purpose. This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike."

 He added that the U.S. commitment to Israel's security is "sacrosanct" and "backed by concrete actions that demonstrate the depth of U.S. support for Israel."

 The office of Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said only that it was looking into the matter.

 Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, said the committee would also be looking into the report.

 "The Committee has requested additional information from the [Intelligence Community] to determine which, if any, of these allegations are true, and whether the IC followed all applicable laws, rules, and procedures," Nunes said in a statement Wednesday.

 Before a campaign event in Cisco, Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz said he wasn't surprised that the administration was trying to intercept Netanyahu's communications, or even that conversations including members of Congress may have been swept up by the NSA, "because this administration views Congress, Republicans and sometimes even Democratic members of Congress as their enemy....At times, it seems like they view the American people as their enemy."

 The allegations "are total nonsense," a spokesman for the Embassy of Israel in Washington told the WSJ.

 Before Netanyahu came to address Congress, the NSA had intercepted Israeli messages that said Netanyahu wanted the "the latest U.S. positions in the Iran talks," the Journal wrote, signaling to to the administration that Netanyahu intended to use his address to reveal sensitive details about the negotiations. Secretary of State John Kerry then said as much to reporters on the eve of the speech.

 Kerry justified his accusation by pointing to Israeli media reports, but those reports were a convenient source, given that "Intelligence officials said the media reports allowed the U.S. to put Mr. Netanyahu on notice without revealing they already knew his thinking. The prime minister mentioned no secrets during his speech to Congress," wrote the Journal.

 CBS News' Mark Knoller and Walt Cronkite contributed to this report. ||||| The White House kept certain allies including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under surveillance after President Obama announced the U.S. would curtail surveillance on friendly heads of state. WSJ's Adam Entous has details on Lunch Break. Photo: Getty

 President Barack Obama announced two years ago he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state after the world learned the reach of long-secret U.S. surveillance programs.

 But behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch, current and former U.S. officials said. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

 The... |||||Summary:

– In 2013, after Edward Snowden dropped his NSA bombshell, President Obama called for an end to spying on certain world leaders. But Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli bigwigs remained on the "keep an eye on" list for "compelling national security" reasons, current and ex-US officials tell the Wall Street Journal. Included in the US spying sweep were conversations between Israeli officials and US lawmakers and American-Jewish groups, which, as one senior US official tells the paper, resulted in an "Oh s--- moment" that the executive branch would be nailed for spying on Congress. The White House, though, felt the info necessary to rebut lobbying Netanyahu might do against a US-Iran deal; still, it was "wary of a paper trail stemming from a request." And so "we didn't say, 'Do it' [to the NSA]," a senior US official tells the Journal. "We didn't say, 'Don't do it.'" Instead, the administration more or less let the NSA share whatever info it saw fit, and the NSA did just that, reportedly following tight mandates about spying on communications "to, from, or about" Americans, the paper notes. For example, the agency took out names of individual lawmakers and any personal info in reports it submitted to the White House and also omitted any "trash talk" about the administration, officials tell the Journal. At least one presidential candidate isn't surprised by the revelations. "This administration views Congress, Republicans, and sometimes even Democratic members of Congress as their enemy," Ted Cruz tells CBS News. "At times, it seems like they view the American people as their enemy." A National Security Council spokesman, however, tells CBS, "[W]e do not conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance activities unless there is a specific and validated national security purpose. This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike."


Article:
CLOSE Doctors at a Baltimore hospital have performed the world's most extensive penis transplant, this one also involving the scrotum and part of the abdominal wall. (April 23) AP

 Surgeons at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine announced Monday that they have performed the first total penis and scrotum transplant on an American military veteran. (Photo: Getty Images)

 A U.S. serviceman severely injured several years ago in an IED blast in Afghanistan has received the world's first total penis and scrotum transplant, surgeons at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine announced Monday.

 The man, whose identity was not released, is recovering well and expected to regain both urinary and sexual function, Richard Redett, who led the transplant team, said at a Monday telephone news conference.

 The patient did not receive testicles from his donor to avoid the ethical issues that might ensue if he later had children, said Damon Cooney, another transplant team member. The testicles would have contained sperm from the recently deceased donor.

 The donor was not identified, nor was his cause of death, but in a statement, his family praised the sergeant’s service to his country and noted the donor family includes a number of veterans.

 “We are so thankful to say that our loved one would be proud and honored to know he provided such a special gift to you,” said the statement, read by Alexandra Glazier, president and CEO of New England Donor Services, which arranged for the donation. “We hope you can return to better health very soon and we continue to wish you a speedy recovery.”

 Two years ago, surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital performed a more limited transplant on a penile cancer patient. That patient, Thomas Manning, continues to do well, though his sexual function hasn’t fully recovered yet, said Curtis Cetrulo, who runs the reconstructive transplantation program at Massachusetts General. The hospital has yet to conduct another penile transplant, as it awaits funding and other logistical issues, he said.

 There have also been several successful penile transplants in South Africa, as well as an unsuccessful one in China.

 The Johns Hopkins surgery, performed in a 14-hour procedure in late March, was the most extensive yet, involving more tissue than has been previously transplanted, the surgeons said.

 In addition to a large skin graft covering part of the sergeant’s abdomen, penis and scrotum, surgeons connected three arteries, four veins and two nerves to provide blood flow and sensation to the donated tissue. His internal organs were not severely damaged by the blast.

 Redett said he expects the patient will regain the ability to urinate by the time he leaves the hospital later this week. It will take about six months for the nerves to regrow enough to restore sexual function and sensation, but Redett said he is optimistic that will take place.

 Johns Hopkins covered the cost of the procedure, and hopes to complete more in the near future, said W. P. Andrew Lee, who directs the hospital’s Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

 The hospital does not plan to use the procedure for gender reassignment surgery, he said.

 Once it becomes more routine, penile transplantation is likely to cost about the same as a liver transplant, said L. Scott Levin, chairman of orthopedic surgery and a professor of plastic surgery at Penn Medicine. (One recent estimate puts the total cost of a liver transplant in the United States above $800,000.) It is still an open question who will pay for such procedures, Levin said.

 Another major issue in transplantation is rejection. The recipient’s body may reject the donated tissue at any time, so the Johns Hopkins patient will have to be on continuous therapy to tamp down his immune system, said Gerald Brandacher, who handled the immune aspects of the Johns Hopkins transplant.

 To reduce the risk of rejection, the patient was also infused with bone marrow from the donor. This approach has been used in eight other patients who received transplants, such as arms, that were transformative but not lifesaving. Balancing the donor’s bone marrow with the recipient’s allows the patient to take only one low-dose medication a day instead of the three typically taken by transplant patients, Brandacher said.

 Injuries that affect sexual and urinary function can be devastating to a person’s identity, self-esteem and intimate relationships, said Lee, whose department has been preparing for penile transplantations since 2013.

 “We believe that genital-urinary transplantation can help those warriors with missing genitalia, just as hand and arm transplants transformed the lives of amputees,” he said.

 At Massachusetts General, publicity surrounding the penile transplant encouraged other patients with genitourinary tissue damage to seek care.

 “We’ve had many people who are really despondent come out of the shadows and get worked up,” Cetrulo said.

 Even if they weren’t transplant candidates they have now been helped in other ways, Cetrulo said, noting many people with these conditions consider suicide, and suffer even more emotional pain than people in need of arm or face transplants.

 Hopefully, the Johns Hopkins' patient will inspire others to seek help, Cetrulo said. “That’s one of the most incredible and important contributions of this case, not only to this individual whose life has probably been saved.”

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2vDM2Nt ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — A veteran who lost his genitals from a blast in Afghanistan has received the world's most extensive penis transplant, and doctors said Monday he is recovering well and expected to leave the hospital this week.

 Saying they wanted to address "an unspoken injury of war," Johns Hopkins University surgeons rebuilt the man's entire pelvic region — transplanting a penis, scrotum and part of the abdominal wall from a deceased donor — in a highly experimental 14-hour operation last month.

 Such transplants "can help those warriors with missing genitalia just as hand and arm transplant transformed the lives of amputees," Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, Hopkins' chairman of plastic and reconstructive surgery, told reporters Monday.

 The patient, who asked to remain anonymous, is expected to recover urinary and, eventually, sexual function.

 The scrotum transplant did not include the donor's testicles, meaning reproduction won't be possible. "We just felt there were too many unanswered ethical questions" with that extra step, said Hopkins' Dr. Damon Cooney.

 Three other successful penis transplants have been reported, two in South Africa and one in 2016 at Massachusetts General Hospital. Those transplants involved only the penis, not extensive surrounding tissue that made this transplant much more complex.

 The loss of a penis, whether from cancer, accident or war injury, is emotionally traumatic, affecting urination, sexual intimacy and the ability to conceive a child. Many patients suffer in silence because of the stigma their injuries sometimes carry.

 Doctors sometimes reconstruct the form of a penis from a patient's own skin, usually to treat congenital abnormalities or during transgender surgery. That requires using implants to achieve erection.

 For a functional penis transplant, surgeons must connect tiny nerves and blood vessels. Candidates face some serious risks, including rejection of the tissue and side effects from anti-rejection drugs that must be taken for life.

 But penis transplants have generated intense interest among veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, and a few years ago Hopkins surgeons began planning and rehearsing how to perform such a complex operation in patients with widespread tissue damage. The Department of Defense Trauma Registry has recorded 1,367 male service members who survived with genitourinary injuries between 2001 and 2013. It's not clear how many victims lost all or part of the penis.

 Hopkins is screening additional veterans to see if they are good candidates for this type of reconstructive transplant. Finding donors is an additional hurdle: In the U.S., people or their families who agree to donate organs such as the heart or lung must be asked separately about also donating a penis, hand, face or other body part.

 The Hopkins patient received an extra experimental step, an infusion of bone marrow from his donor that research suggests may help a recipient's immune system better tolerate a transplant. Surgeons said that is enabling the veteran to take one anti-rejection drug instead of several.

 In a statement from Hopkins, the patient was quoted as saying: "When I first woke up, I felt finally more normal."

 ___

 The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. |||||Summary:

– A US serviceman has become the world's first man to ever receive a full penis and scrotum transplant. Per USA Today, the veteran was injured by an IED years ago while on combat tour in Afghanistan. Surgeons from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine announced the historic news on Monday after performing the unprecedented surgery in Baltimore last month. The patient is expected to recover both urinary and sexual function, according to the surgeons. Surgeons said they rebuilt the man's entire pelvic region over the course of 14 hours. Per the AP, the scrotum transplant did not include the donor's testicles, meaning reproduction won't be possible. "We just felt there were too many unanswered ethical questions" with that extra step, said Hopkins' Dr. Damon Cooney. Three other successful penis transplants have been reported, two in South Africa and one in 2016 at Massachusetts General Hospital. Those transplants involved only the penis, not extensive surrounding tissue that made this transplant much more complex. Hopkins is screening additional veterans to see if they are good candidates for this type of reconstructive transplant. The Hopkins patient received an extra experimental step, an infusion of bone marrow from his donor that research suggests may help a recipient's immune system better tolerate a transplant. Surgeons said that is enabling the veteran to take one anti-rejection drug instead of several. In a statement from Hopkins, the patient was quoted as saying: "When I first woke up, I felt finally more normal."


Article:
Meryl Streep has expressed her disappointment at being slammed by fellow actress Rose McGowan for “happily working with the pig monster,” in reference to producer Harvey Weinstein, who McGowan has alleged raped her.

 On Saturday, McGowan took to Twitter to share her thoughts about reports that actresses including Streep and Jessica Chastain plan to protest sexual harassment by wearing black to the upcoming Golden Globe Awards. McGowan declared the idea a “silent protest.”

 “YOUR SILENCE is THE problem," McGowan wrote in a post that has since been deleted. "You’ll accept a fake award breathlessly & affect no real change. I despise your hypocrisy.”

 In a statement released to ET on Monday, Streep said she was “hurt to be attacked by” McGowan and insisted she knew nothing about Weinstein’s bad reputation.

 “I did not know about Weinstein’s crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked her, or through subsequent decades when he proceeded to attack others,” Streep said. “I wasn’t deliberately silent. I didn’t know. I don’t tacitly approve of rape. I didn’t know. I don’t like young women being assaulted. I didn’t know this was happening.”

 Streep added that she had only visited Weinstein’s office one time in 1998 for a meeting with director Wes Craven for Music of the Heart, and that she had “never in my life been invited to his hotel room.”

 She also pointed out that Weinstein was more of a producer and marketer of movies, rather than a filmmaker, meaning that not every actor associated with him knew details about his personal life.

 Streep went on to share her hopes that a legal defense fund for harassment victims would help “bring down the bastards,” and revealed that she had attempted to reach out to McGowan, but heard nothing from the actress.

 “Rose assumed and broadcast something untrue about me, and I wanted to let her know the truth," Streep said. “Through friends who know her, I got my home phone number to her the minute I read the headlines. I sat by that phone all day yesterday and this morning, hoping to express both my deep respect for her and others’ bravery in exposing the monsters among us, and my sympathy for the untold, ongoing pain she suffers.”

 “And, I hoped that she would give me a hearing,” she continued. “She did not, but I hope she reads this. I am truly sorry she sees me as an adversary, because we are both, together with all the women in our business, standing in defiance of the same implacable foe: a status quo that wants so badly to return to the bad old days -- the old ways where women were used, abused and refused entry into the decision-making, top levels of the industry. That’s where the cover-ups convene. Those rooms must be disinfected, and integrated, before anything even begins to change.”

 After Streep’s statement was released, McGowan tweeted again, this time apologizing for at her dig at Weinstein’s estranged wife’s fashion line, Marchesa. She has made no further mention of Streep, but deleted the tweet that mentioned the Oscar winner.

 The Marchesa line was beneath me and I’m sorry for that. Seeing that picture of Alyssa Milano with GC has ignited something in me that I can’t quite articulate. There is no map for this road I’m on, I will fuck up. Peace be with you, go with Goddess. — rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) December 18, 2017

 McGowan is one of more than 50 women who have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct in recent months. He has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.

 RELATED CONTENT:

 NEWS: Rose McGowan Fires Back at Actresses' Plans to Wear Black at Golden Globes to Protest Harassment

 NEWS: Meryl Streep Says She's Dealt With 'Real Physical Violence' -- and One Time, Cher Was There

 Related Gallery ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Responding to repeated Tweets from Rose McGowan that called her a hypocrite for planning to wear black at the Academy Awards to show unity with women who have been sexually assaulted and abused, actress Meryl Streep just sent out a public statement telling McGowan that they are actually on the same side “standing in defiance of the same implacable foe.”

 McGowan’s series of tweets over the weekend also took Streep to task for calling disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein’s behavior “disgraceful” instead of calling it “a crime” and for remaining silent and continuing to work for the man. Streep won a Best Actress Oscar for The Iron Lady which was a film from The Weinstein Co. She also worked on TWC’s August Osage County. The three-time Oscar winner said she wasn’t “deliberately silent” but did not even know of Weinstein’s behavior.

 Here is Streep’s statement in full:

 “It hurt to be attacked by Rose McGowan in banner headlines this weekend, but I want to let her know I did not know about Weinstein’s crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked her, or through subsequent decades when he proceeded to attack others.

 I wasn’t deliberately silent. I didn’t know. I don’t tacitly approve of rape. I didn’t know. I don’t like young women being assaulted. I didn’t know this was happening.

 I don’t know where Harvey lives, nor has he ever been to my home.

 I have never in my life been invited to his hotel room.

 I have been to his office once, for a meeting with Wes Craven for “Music of the Heart” in 1998.

 HW distributed movies I made with other people.

 HW was not a filmmaker; he was often a producer, primarily a marketer of films made by other people- some of them great, some not great. But not every actor, actress, and director who made films that HW distributed knew he abused women, or that he raped Rose in the 90s, other women before and others after, until they told us. We did not know that womens’ silence was purchased by him and his enablers.

 HW needed us not to know this, because our association with him bought him credibility, an ability to lure young, aspiring women into circumstances where they would be hurt.

 He needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didn’t know. Apparently he hired ex Mossad operators to protect this information from becoming public. Rose and the scores of other victims of these powerful, moneyed, ruthless men face an adversary for whom Winning, at any and all costs, is the only acceptable outcome. That’s why a legal defense fund for victims is currently being assembled to which hundreds of good hearted people in our business will contribute, to bring down the bastards, and help victims fight this scourge within.

 Rose assumed and broadcast something untrue about me, and I wanted to let her know the truth. Through friends who know her, I got my home phone number to her the minute I read the headlines. I sat by that phone all day yesterday and this morning, hoping to express both my deep respect for her and others’ bravery in exposing the monsters among us, and my sympathy for the untold, ongoing pain she suffers. No one can bring back what entitled bosses like Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes, and HW took from the women who endured attacks on their bodies and their ability to make a living.. And I hoped that she would give me a hearing. She did not, but I hope she reads this.

 I am truly sorry she sees me as an adversary, because we are both, together with all the women in our business, standing in defiance of the same implacable foe: a status quo that wants so badly to return to the bad old days, the old ways where women were used, abused and refused entry into the decision-making, top levels of the industry. That’s where the cover-ups convene. Those rooms must be disinfected, and integrated, before anything even begins to change.” |||||Summary:

– Meryl Streep says she is "truly sorry" that Rose McGowan seems to see her as an "adversary," because they are on the same side against movie industry "bastards" like Harvey Weinstein and other "entitled bosses." In a public statement issued in response to McGowan's attack on a plan to wear black to the Golden Globes in protest, Streep stresses that she was not "deliberately silent" about Weinstein's attack on McGowan in the '90s or his other crimes, Deadline reports. "I don't tacitly approve of rape. I didn't know," she writes. "I don't like young women being assaulted. I didn't know this was happening." She says she has never been to Weinstein's home or hotel room and has only visited his office once. Weinstein, Streep writes, distributed movies she made with other people, and he "needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didn't know." She adds that she has been hoping to speak to McGowan to express her "deep respect for her and others' bravery in exposing the monsters among us." She says a legal defense fund is being assembled "to bring down the bastards, and help victims fight this scourge within." In a now-deleted tweet, McGowan called Streep a hypocrite for "happily working" with the "Pig Monster." She has not publicly responded to Streep's statement, though she tweeted Monday that she is sorry about suggesting celebrity protesters should wear Marchesa, the fashion line co-founded by Weinstein's estranged wife, Entertainment Tonight reports.


Write an article based on this summary:

– This morning—almost 21 hours after the attack on the US embassy and other buildings in Kabul began—the last of the six attackers have been killed and the area is locked down. But questions are being raised about why it took so long to secure the high-rise building used by the assailants as a staging area, the Los Angeles Times notes. At least seven Afghans died in the attack, and 17 were hurt. Officials believe the insurgents disguised themselves as women in order to get weapons into the building, which is under construction, the Washington Post adds. "We strongly believe they used burkas," which were found inside the van alongside the assailants' weapons, "to reach this place," a police spokesperson says. "The police respect the women too much." Though the attack raises concerns about Kabul's vulnerability and security shortcomings as US forces start withdrawing from Afghanistan, US Ambassador Ryan Crocker downplayed it, calling it simply "harassment." He continues, "If this is the best they can do, I find their lack of ability and capacity and the ability of Afghan forces to respond to it, actually encouraging." Crocker tells the New York Times today that the Pakistan-based Haqqani group appeared to be behind the assault.

— Shortly after security forces gunned down the last assailant involved in a brazen attack in Kabul Wednesday morning, officials said they believe the attackers were dressed as women to smuggle a huge stockpile of weapons into a building overlooking the U.S. Embassy and the NATO headquarters.

 The last of six assailants who launched rockets and sprayed the heavily secured compound with rifles for hours was gunned down at 8:30 a.m., police spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said. The attack, which exposed the vulnerability of the Afghan capital as U.S. forces begin to withdraw, began at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday and involved at least three suicide bombers who detonated explosives elsewhere in the city.

 Sediqqi said authorities found burqas — the blue garments worn by many Afghan woman that drapes them from head to toe — inside the van the assailants used to transport weapons into the building.

 “We strongly believe they used burqas to reach this place,” Sediqqi said, speaking outside the building as reporters took photos of the six bodies of the assailants. “The police respect the women too much.”

 Sediqqi said the siege ended only after Afghan and NATO special forces stormed the building Wednesday morning as NATO attack helicopters provided backup.

 NATO said six coalition “personnel” were wounded in the attack. A NATO spokesman, Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, said three of the troops were wounded Tuesday in a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack on the base. The other three were wounded while clearing the building overnight, he added.

 U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker said Wednesday that the attack was likely carried out by the Haqanni network, a Taliban offshoot group that has been linked to some of the boldest attacks in the capital.The Taliban had claimed responsibility for the attack Tuesday.

 Crocker downplayed the significance of Tuesday’s attack, which kept the capital under seige for nearly 20 hours.

 “These were five guys that rumbled into town with RPGs under their car seats,” Crocker said. “This is not a very big deal, a hard day for the embassy and my staff, who behaved with enormous courage and dedication. But look, you know a dozen RPG rounds from 800 meters away — that isn’t [the] Tet [offensive], that’s harassment.”

 Crocker said between six and seven rounds landed inside the embassy compound. He said he was heartened by the Afghan government’s response to the attack and by what he described as a lately inconsequential attack.

 “If this is the best they can do, I find their lack of ability and capacity and the ability of Afghan forces to respond to it, actually encouraging,” he said.

 Transition of responsibility for security from NATO to Afghan security forces “will proceed on pace,” he added.

 Crocker spoke to a Wall Street Journal reporter Tuesday morning who was asked by the embassy to share a transcript of the interview with the rest of the Kabul press corps.

 Residents watched in horror as lightly armed police officers wearing no body armor fought assailants who fired rockets into diplomatic and military enclaves while holed up in an unoccupied building in what is perhaps the most secure part of the capital.

 The NATO headquarters and the embassy went on high alert after the initial blasts rang out Tuesday afternoon, with diplomats barricading themselves in bunkers. American attack helicopters had joined the fight, diving down to strike at the assailants.

 Kabul has seen its share of high-profile, chilling attacks this year, including recent strikes on the Intercontinental Hotel and the British Council. But the attack Tuesday was rich in symbolism in an impoverished country, scarred by years of war, where the United States has spent billions of dollars over the past decade in an elusive attempt to bring stability.

 To gain access to the unoccupied 15-story building that overlooks the sprawling diplomatic and military compounds, the assailants drove into the basement, then climbed to one of the top floors and took up positions behind cement pillars, Afghan authorities said. The building is under construction.

 The prolonged fighting around NATO’s nerve center in Kabul, the headquarters for top U.S. commanders, exposed serious shortcomings in security and intelligence. Early reports suggested that at least seven Afghans were killed in the attack.

 A Taliban spokesman said the attack was intended to remind Afghanistan’s government and the United States about the power the insurgents still wield. “We have not run out of patience, and we want to fight to end their occupation,” said the spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid. “We have the ability to strike when we want.”

 The Afghan government took formal control of security in a number of districts around Kabul this summer as part of a plan to gradually transfer responsibility from foreign to Afghan forces over the next three years. The first phase is seen as a key test of the competence of the U.S.-funded-and-trained Afghan forces, which the Obama administration hopes will be able to secure Afghanistan with little foreign help by the end of 2014. Kabul has effectively been under Afghan security control for several years.

 Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack and vowed that it would “embolden people’s determination in taking the responsibility for their country’s own affairs.” To many Afghans, such condemnations have begun to ring hollow as the Afghanistan war nears its 10th year, with levels of violence rising and the prospect of a negotiated settlement appearing increasingly distant.

 “The government is too weak to protect us,” said Ismail Agha, 38, who lives near the tall building from which the assailants launched the attack. “They should let us go after the terrorists and fight them ourselves.”

 The attack Tuesday jolted expatriates, who have grown accustomed to sporadic violence in Kabul.

 Hamid M. Khan, a rule-of-law adviser in the Kabul office of the U.S. Institute of Peace, said he and his colleagues spent hours huddled in a safe room at their compound as blasts and gunshots thundered nearby at the site of the main attack.

 “The entire staff is hunkered down,” he said, using BlackBerry Messenger to communicate. “We’re very tense and alarmed by how close the rocket attacks and gunshots keep coming.”

 At the World Bank office, a few blocks from the U.S. Embassy, more than 35 staffers were holed up in a basement bunker that had no bathroom or provisions.

 Elsewhere, as the clashes unfolded, Noorullah Mehirjoy, 60, a government worker, spent hours trying to find his young daughter, Zorah.

 She had been at a graduation ceremony, where Karzai was supposed to have awarded diplomas. But a security adviser approached the president soon after the first explosions were heard and whispered in his ear, Mehirjoy said.

 “Karzai left the hall without saying goodbye,” he said.

 In an interview last week, the new U.S. ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, said he was pleasantly surprised by the situation in Kabul, having last been there in 2002.

 “The biggest problem in Kabul is traffic,” said Crocker, who has noted that Afghanistan’s problems are serious and will take a long time to solve.

 Special correspondent Sayed Salahuddin contributed to this report. ||||| Afghan authorities on Wednesday morning said the last of six attackers who laid siege to the U.S. Embassy and other buildings from a high-rise structure had been killed and the area was secure.The midmorning announcement by the Interior Ministry came nearly 21 hours after the start of the attack, raising troubling questions about why it took so long to secure the building under construction that the assailants used as a staging ground. From its upper floors, they rained rockets and gunfire on a heavily fortified enclave containing embassies, government buildings and the headquarters of the NATO force.At least seven Afghans were killed and 17 injured in the attack, which began just after the lunch hour Tuesday. No one was reported hurt or killed inside the U.S. Embassy or NATO headquarters, where hundreds of staff spent the night in bunkers.Throughout the night, sporadic gunfire could be heard as helicopters circled the building where the last of the assailants were holed up, clearing the structure floor by floor. Western troops provided aerial surveillance and other assistance but let Afghan police and soldiers take the lead in subduing the attackers.The Taliban claimed responsibility and said the American Embassy was the primary target. Insurgents texted updates to journalists throughout the attack.The audacious assault, the most serious against the embassy in the nearly 10-year war, was apparently meant to shake public confidence in the ability of the Afghan police and army to safeguard the country. The NATO force has begun handing over security responsibilities to Afghan troops, and American forces have begun a drawdown that will see the departure of 10,000 troops by the end of the year.The siege paralyzed central Kabul, with shops and businesses closing and government workers fleeing their offices. People living close to the site huddled in their homes, listening to explosions and heavy machine-gun fire throughout the night.Afghan authorities' investigation, already underway, is expected to focus on how the insurgents managed to smuggle so much weaponry into the center of the capital, penetrating a so-called "ring of steel" made up of Afghan police checkpoints. In some past attacks, the Taliban and affiliated groups have had help from members of the Afghan security forces.This was the third major attack in the capital in four months. Last month, insurgents besieged a British cultural center, and in June, teams of gunmen and bombers invaded a luxury high-rise hotel.Special correspondent Aimal Yaqubi contributed to this report. |||||


Article:
The world of English-language online media is evolving rapidly. Not only are publications like BuzzFeed, Business Insider, and Quartz changing the way readers consume news by merging the law of the click with real news street cred, they’re taking this model beyond US borders. Business Insider struck a deal with Tencent. Quartz has set up a local office in India.

 BuzzFeed is often cited as a leader of the new media charge, but for all its innovations, in some capacities it still operates like any other business. News markets must be sought out, entered, and conquered. It has already invested in overseas English markets like the UK and India and, after receiving a US$50 million funding round, BuzzFeed announced that it will expand to Japan, among other non-English speaking countries, by the end of 2014.

 Though the company has 27 reasons why moving to Japan is great, it will find one very real competitor upon arrival.

 Curazy, a website for humorous, viral observations on Japan and the outside world, is steadily attracting a strong following. Recent articles titles include “What is Acrobatic Kissing?” and “Even After Their Owners Became Homeless These 12 Dogs Stayed Completely Faithful”. The site, which launched in January, attracts five million unique users per month and just closed a JPY 100 million (US$964,000) round.

 The company only has five full-time employees, lead by Shinnosuke Ito (CEO), Masahiro Kawasaki (head of marketing), and Taisuke Takemoto (head of business). None of the three have prior media experience but they are all entrepreneurs at heart. Ito previously operated a tutoring school via Skype during college, Kawasaki was doing sales for a homepage web developer while working on side projects, and Takemoto, who joined this summer, was running a website design company of his own.

 Curazy launched in January 2014, but its operating company, Laugh Tech, first had an interest in manga (comic books in Japan). Ito explained they launched Cosmo in October 2013, only six months after incorporating Laugh Tech (then called Bit Gather). The service was well-regarded and the netted the team the “Google Award” at a pitch contest held for Google for Entrepreneurs Week 2013.

 Users, however, did not follow the plaudits and the team began planning a pivot. They had already started experimenting with a 9gag clone, Curazy Pix, a simple collection of humorous images. The early feedback was positive, leading the team to work on the release of Curazy.

 Looking to the future, Laugh Tech definitely got the memo startups are supposed to set big, audacious goals. The team wants to hit 300 million in monthly pageviews and exit via IPO or acquisition within four years. The pageview goal is definitely a reach considering BuzzFeed – which does not report pageview data – recorded 179 million total visits from 25 July 2014 to 23 August 2014 from American alone, according to Quantcast. BuzzFeed’s 150 million unique users, acquired over the past eight years, are also a significant increase from Laugh Tech’s 5 million.

 As a start, the company has already expanded outside of Japan. Its Taiwanese incarnation is managed by a husband-wife team who translate some of the Japan site’s content and also add localized pieces.

 Early traction is a positive sign but Ito is well aware of BuzzFeed’s position in the digital media market and is no rush to become bitter rivals. In fact, his team has already identified BuzzFeed as a potential acquirer. “BuzzFeed, are you reading [this article]? Buy us!” he said.

 Ito’s tongue-in-cheek approach to the company’s future evinces his sure-footed confidence. BuzzFeed may be a behemoth but Ito believes Japan will be difficult to conquer. “Humor is a part of culture, and the culture here is too different,” he said.

 9月3日と4日にスタートアップアジア＠東京を開催します！8月29日まで、割引コード < latebird >を使ってみて下さい！

 Startup Asia Tokyo 2014 is on Sep 3 and 4. Until Aug 29th, unlock secret level using code < latebird > ||||| Most citizens still oppose lowering the age of majority from 20 to 18, a government survey said Saturday.

 According to the poll by the Cabinet Office, 69.0 percent don’t want parental authority to end at a child’s 18th birthday. This was almost unchanged from 69.4 percent in the 2008 survey.

 Only 26.2 percent backed lowering the age, down 0.5 point.

 A 2007 law that specifies procedures for constitutional amendment in principle allows people 18 or above to vote in national referendums. The law calls for discussions on lowering the legal age of adulthood from 20 before it is put into effect.

 However, related bills have not been initiated more than three years since its enforcement, due in part to the Liberal Democratic Party’s reluctance to lower the age to 18.

 According to the survey, 79.4 percent of Japanese object to making 18 the youngest age at which people can conclude contracts to buy expensive items without parental consent, up 0.6 point from the previous survey. Meanwhile, 18.6 percent supported the change, down 0.4 point.

 Asked about the minimum age at which people are allowed to adopt children, 51.5 percent answered that it should remain unchanged at 20, down 0.1 point, while 5.9 percent said it should drop to 18, down 0.8 point.

 The survey also revealed waning public interest in whether the age of majority should be lowered, with 69.8 percent interested, down 5.6 points, and 29.6 percent saying they have no interest, up 5.6 points.

 The Cabinet Office conducted the survey through face-to-face interviews with 5,000 people aged 18 or above nationwide between Oct. 10 and 27. Valid responses were received from 62.4 percent. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Unlike in the U.S., legal adulthood in Japan doesn’t begin until the age of 20. But while that means an extra two years to enjoy the benefits and protection society affords to minors, everyone has to grow up sometime, and for one Japanese Twitter user the transition was especially abrupt.

 On his 20th birthday as his parents presented him with a written notice congratulating him on graduating from childhood and celebrating his newfound freedoms, while spelling out exactly what they, and the world, now expected of him as an adult.

 Twitter user @zamayuma1004’s birthday was last weekend, and this year he hit the two-decade mark. On his special day, his parents presented him with this festive-looking envelope.

 Normally when someone hands you something like this on your birthday, you expect a birthday card, and the envelope did indeed have “Happy birthday” written on it. What was inside, though, was a little less orthodox.

 The paper reads:

 Happy 20th Birthday! Notice of Expiration of Child-Rearing Services As of October 4, 2015, your father, Yoshikazu Hasegawa, and mother, Chiaki Hasegawa, have completed their duties of raising their child: you, Yuma Hasegawa. Going forward, please become a proper and responsible member of society, like your father and mother. In addition, should you continue living in the Hasegawa family home, please make a monthly payment of 20,000 yen [US$168] for rent, utility, and grocery expenses. Also, please be aware that should you ask for a loan from your parents, interest will be charged. Points to note upon reaching the age of 20

 ● You must make compulsory national pension payments. If you put this off it will cause problems, so make the payments.

 ● Should you commit a crime, your face and name can now be shown on television and in newspapers. You will also have a permanent criminal record.

 ● You can now buy alcohol and tobacco products. Do not drive while intoxicated.

 ● You can get married without your parents’ permission. However, they may not emotionally accept your wife as their daughter-in-law if you don’t discuss the situation without them beforehand.

 ● Think responsibly about the future and set aside an adequate amount of savings from the money you earn. Please enjoy your life as an adult.

 Although the document might sound the like the grumblings of a pair of exasperated parents who’ve reached the limits of their patience, @zamayuma1004 says they’ve got their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks. He’s actually been paying the monthly amount mentioned for rent and expenses since last year, and he hopes to do even more to help his parents out in the future.

 That said, this is a documented case of pretty tough love by Japanese standards, considering that at the age of 20 much of the population is still attending college or trade school, and that it’s customary to continue living with your parents until getting married or school or work takes you away from your home town. Still, it’s hard to argue with any of the things @zamayuma1004’s parents are saying as they tell him not to let the door of his childhood hit him in the butt on his way out of it.

 Source: Curazy

 Top image: Twitter/@zamayuma1004 (1, 2) (edited by RocketNews24) |||||Summary:

– When young adults in the US reach the age of majority, they take on full legal responsibility for themselves and can do fun things like vote, sign contracts, and open bank accounts. In Japan, the same milestone means they get hit with rent charges and manifestos from their parents on how they're pretty much on their own now. At least, that's the case for Japanese Twitter user @zamayuma1004, who tweeted photos last week of the special gift his mom and dad presented him on the occasion of his 20th birthday (the Japanese age of majority). Beautifully wrapped in an envelope tied with red and white string was a letter titled "Notice of Expiration of Child-Rearing Services," and its contents proved the parents weren't messing around, RocketNews24 reports via Curazy, Japan's BuzzFeed-style site. "As of October 4, 2015, your father, Yoshikazu Hasegawa, and mother, Chiaki Hasegawa, have completed their duties of raising their child: you, Yuma Hasegawa," the letter reads, per a RocketNews24 translation. "Going forward, please become a proper and responsible member of society, like your father and mother." It then offers a bulleted list of advice for the new adult, including that Yuma pay into his pension, "not drive while intoxicated," and discuss any future possible wife with them or they "may not emotionally accept" her. They also mention the $168 they expect for rent and other household expenses and note that "should you ask for a loan from your parents, interest will be charged." "Please enjoy your life as an adult," the note ends. Meanwhile, Yuma insists his parents are just joshing (kind of) and that he's been contributing monetarily to the household since last year. (Centenarians probably won't be getting fancy birthday gifts in Japan anymore.)