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The former National Security Agency contractor leaves TED's audience divided. Plus, technology design, architectural ideas and more.

 FORTUNE -- TED, which stands for 'technology, entertainment and design," is almost impossible to characterize beyond that ridiculously broad rubric. Best known for its slick, 18-minute "talks," some of the best speakers on Tuesday read from their typewritten texts. Most of its highly accomplished speakers wear sneakers despite being on one of the world's most important stages. (Female speakers are more likely to dress professionally and stylishly; the men have been cowed by tradition into not wearing neckties.)

 My biggest surprise so far at TED, taking place this week at a convention center on the harbor in Vancouver, is the uneven quality of the talks. Knowing the Steve Jobs-like rehearsal regimen TED's producers impose on presenters, I expected to be wowed by every talk. But upon reflection, that just wasn't realistic on my part. Besides, judging a speech is a highly subjective endeavor. What sings every time is the production value of the entire conference. The seamless flow is nothing short of stunning, and the content itself in an eclectic collection of lectures that can best be described as the most intense college seminar you never attended.

 Bran Ferren, a "technology designer" who once was a Disney "Imagineer," is a case in point of the TED serendipity and diversity. With almost no visuals, he read a speech that was the opposite of slick -- and totally engaging. He likened the Internet to concrete, a valuable building material but no more than that. He gave perhaps the most compelling explanation I've heard for why what he called "autonomous vehicles" will be one of the most positive developments for civilization for years to come. Self-driving cars, once they are perfected, will reduce pollution, eliminate congestion and "recapture vast amounts of lost productivity," said Ferren, due to all the time humans no longer will be stuck in traffic. There are a few kinks left to be worked out, like teaching cars how to "wake up" their passengers for input about surroundings best left to a human to analyze.

 MORE: Dispatch from TED: Ingesting information and sampling celebrity

 The best talk of the day, in my book, was a rollicking presentation on three decades of architectural history by the architect Marc Kushner. He lucidly explained that architects swing on a predictable pendulum from innovation (which they love but the public often hates) to symbols (which bore them but the public finds comforting). "Symbols are easy and cheap," said Kushner, with architectural disdain. "Instead of making places, we make symbols of places." Good news though: Kushner says digital media is changing everything because architects now have the ability to seek real-time feedback from their clients and the public as their projects are being built. He cited a public building on Fire Island in New York that his firm designed and posted drawings about on Facebook and Instagram as it moved from planning to construction. He said residents already knew what to expect by the time the innovative building was finished. And they liked it.

 Edward Snowden was Day 2's surprise highlight. Chris Anderson, TED's "curator," interviewed a robot that moved around the stage with a video screen with Snowden's face broadcast from his undisclosed location in Russia. Listening to Snowden speak at length was riveting and revelatory. He comes across as totally reasonable, sane and convincing. He made a strong case for his motivations, love him or hate him. "Who I am doesn't really matter at all," Snowden said. "What matters are the issues." The issues that Snowden passionately argued are the rights to privacy he says his former contract employer, the National Security Agency, has trampled. "Your rights matter because you never know when you're going to need them," he said. "They are part of our cultural identity" as Americans. Snowden also called on big U.S. Internet companies to encrypt web browsing on their sites as a default setting, which would prevent governments, including the U.S., from gaining easy access to the behavior of U.S. citizens.

 In an interesting moment, TED's Anderson asked the audience to raise their hands if they thought Snowden was a hero or a villain. About 10% rejected his heroic status, and a louder, more enthusiastic group supported Snowden. Anderson astutely noted that many people -- myself included -- didn't raise their hands at all. Importantly, Anderson noted that he invited the NSA to send a representative to the conference, and that they claimed logistical challenges. Given that he'd accommodate a video hookup for the NSA as well, it'd be a fascinating contrast if they accepted his invitation. I left the extended interview, which lasted much longer than 18 minutes, convinced that Snowden has done a service to the country. But I am unprepared to say he shouldn't be punished for what obviously are violations of the law.

 MORE: Why TED talks are better than the last speech you sat through

 Another highlight of the day was Amanda Burden, the head of planning for New York under Michael Bloomberg. She explained the painstaking process of zoning in support of a policy to ensure that all new housing development in New York take place within a 10-minute walk of a subway station. She detailed her constant fights with real estate developers, including the builders of the massive Hudson Yards project (featured last year on the cover of Fortune magazine), who wanted to tear down and then re-build a portion of the now treasured High Line park. "Commercial interests will always battle against public spaces," said Burden.

 Eclecticism didn't end with self-driving cars, architecture, national security and urban planning. David Kwong, a magician and New York Times crossword puzzle creator dazzled the crowd by combining his two professions while presenting the thesis that "human beings are wired to solve." (The New York World published the first crossword puzzle 100 years ago. Who knew?) Physicist Michel Laberge spoke about commercializing fusion, activist Peggy Liu reviewed environmental efforts in China, typeface designer Matthew Carter discussed the technology behind creating new fonts in the computer age, and documentary filmmaker Yoruba Richen described her efforts to track the histories of civil rights with gay rights in the U.S.

 TED also knows how to change the pace of events, understanding that a repetitive cadence of talks of just one length would get boring. So in the afternoon Tuesday it gave past speakers the opportunity to update quickly their popular talks from past TEDs. The famed psychologist Phil Zimbardo explained the demise of "guys" and suggested things are getting worse. (He says schools are "feminized" by too few male teachers and that Japanese men are so hooked on computer porn they don't want to have the traditional kind of sex.) The oceanographer David Gallo said the only word he can think of to describe a climate denier is "dumb ass."

 Bill and Melinda Gates were the focal point of the final session, in addition to a charming and enjoyable performance by Sting. The Gateses didn't say much new, though they did show photos of their children, they said, because the kids told them they want the world to know they care deeply about the philanthropic work their parents are doing with the Gates Foundation.

 It's a lot for one day. Expect more Thursday. ||||| Edward Snowden made a surprise appearance at TED today, telling the mostly supportive crowd to expect more revelations from his vast cache of secret National Security Agency documents.

 The NSA whistleblower took to the stage during the conference’s second day via a video chatbot he controlled from what TED organizer Chris Anderson called an “undisclosed location.” Snowden said there are still revelations to be made and stories to be told about the intelligence agency. “I don’t think there’s any question that some of the most important reporting to be done is yet to come,” Snowden said, just one week after appearing at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

 ‘To people who have seen and enjoyed the free and open internet, it’s up to us to preserve that liberty for the next generation to enjoy.’

 —Edward Snowden

 Rather than the traditional 18-minute TED talk, in which a single speaker addresses the audience, Anderson essentially interviewed Snowden. Through a strikingly clear connection, the bot-ified Snowden was poised and good-humored as he called on tech companies to make SSL encryption the default for browsing the web. “To people who have seen and enjoyed the free and open internet, it’s up to us to preserve that liberty for the next generation to enjoy,” he said.

 Anderson suggested that Snowden’s sentiments parallel those of Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, who has recently used the 25th anniversary of the world wide web to call for an “internet bill of rights.” But because this was TED, Anderson didn’t have to speculate on the similarities between the goals of Snowden and Berners-Lee. He simply brought Berners-Lee on stage to find out.

 Asked by Anderson whether he thought Snowden was a traitor or a hero, Berners-Lee went with “hero, if you have to make the choice between the two.” Snowden said internet rights were not just about principles but about technology. “I believe a magna carta for the internet is exactly what we need,” Snowden said. “We need to encode our values not just in writing but in the structure of the internet.”

 Berners-Lee told Snowden that his hope on the web’s 25th anniversary was to get everyday users who don’t normally consider the internet in terms of rights to consider the web they really want. He asked Snowden how he thought the web would best work. “When we think about it in terms of how far we can go, I think that’s a question that’s limited only by what we’re willing to do,” Snowden said. “I think the internet that we’ve enjoyed in the past has been exactly what we, not just as a nation but as a people around the world, need.” If the web’s technologists can truly enlist the web’s casual users as allies, he said, “we’ll get not just the internet we’ve had, but a better internet.”

 At the end of Snowden’s appearance, Anderson stuck a TED conference badge on Snownden’s bot and invited him to stick around for the week. With that, he rolled offstage, accompanied by his lawyer. ||||| Zoom in on this story . Explore all there is to know.

 Edward Snowden appears by robot at a TED conference in Vancouver. Photo: AFP

 Former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has emerged from his Russian exile in the form of a remotely-controlled robot to promise more sensational revelations about US spying programs.

 The fugitive's face appeared on a screen as he manoeuvred the wheeled android around a stage at the TED gathering, addressing an audience in Vancouver without ever leaving his secret hideaway.

 "There are absolutely more revelations to come," he said. "Some of the most important reporting to be done is yet to come."

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 Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who has been charged in the United States with espionage, dismissed the public debate about whether he is a heroic whistleblower or traitor.

 Instead, he used the conference organised by educational non-profit organisation TED, or Technology Entertainment Design, to call for people worldwide to fight for privacy and internet freedom.

 Internet creator Tim Berners-Lee briefly joined Snowden's interview with TED curator Chris Anderson, and came down in the hero camp.

 When Anderson posed the question to the TED audience – known for famous, innovative, and influential attendees – the idea that Snowden was a force for good met with applause.

 Hero or traitor?

 "Hero patriot or traitor; I would say I am an American citizen just like anyone else," Snowden said.

 "What really matters here is the kind of government we want; the kind of internet we want."

 He sais he was inspired to pass a huge trove of NSA files to reporters when he saw US spying tactics going too far and intruding into the private data of millions of internet and telephone customers.

 Snowden argued that if he had gone to the US Congress with his concerns he would have risked being "buried along with the information".

 Snowden instead urged the "adversarial press" to challenge government and ignite public debate "without putting national security at risk".

 He argued the dangers critics have played up regarding disclosure of information have not materialised, and insisted he remains comfortable with his decisions.

 He depicted the NSA's PRISM program for getting user information from internet firms as a way for the US government to "deputise corporate America to do its dirty work".

 And he blasted a US secret court for seldom rejecting NSA requests to compel internet companies to turn over user data and US legislators for showing little oversight.

 Snowden urged internet companies to stand against online snooping by encrypting online activity by default so spies could easily note anything from book browsing at Amazon.com to visiting websites.

 People should be able to book air travel, order books, make phone calls and send text messages without worrying about how it will look to an agent of the government, Snowden declared.

 "More communications are being intercepted in America about Americans that there are in Russia about Russians," Snowden said.

 Terrorism mantra

 Snowden argued the NSA is making the US, and the world, less safe by lobbying for weak standards that could open back doors into online venues or services such as online commerce or banking.

 "Our basic freedoms are not a partisan issue," he said. 'It is up to us to protect them; it is up to us to preserve the open internet."

 Snowden endorsed the campaign by Berners-Lee for a global Magna Carta laying out values and rights on the internet.

 "A Magna Carta for the internet is exactly what we need," Snowden said.

 Anderson said the NSA had been invited to take part in the TED chat with Snowden, but it did not work out "for logistical reasons".

 AFP

 Follow IT Pro on Twitter ||||| VANCOUVER, Canada — Edward Snowden on Tuesday said the biggest revelations have yet to come out of the estimated 1.7 million documents he acquired from the National Security Agency.

 In a surprise appearance via satellite robot at the 2014 TED conference in Vancouver, Snowden said there is still a lot of reporting to be done, including diving deeper into the accusation that the NSA tricks companies into building backdoors into their systems that make data vulnerable to hackers across the world.

 "Is it really terrorism that we're stopping? I say no," Snowden said. "The bottom line is that terrorism [...] has always been a cover for actions. Terrorism evokes an emotional response."

 Snowden, who is still in hiding somewhere in Russia, maintained that his act wasn't reckless and that he did it all for the American people. He also said he would love to return to the United States — if granted immunity.

 "I don't want to harm my government" he said. "The fact that they're willing to ignore due process and declare guilt without a trial [...] these are things we need to work against as a society."

 Snowden remains a controversial figure throughout the world, but he was speaking to the right crowd at TED. When Anderson asked the audience who disagreed with Snowden's actions, only a few hands shot into the air. When he asked if the room felt Snowden was right in handing over the NSA's secret, the audience erupted with applause. Tim Berners-Lee, a man widely credited with inventing the World Wide Web, then stepped on stage to talk with Snowden.

 He called him a "hero."

 After Snowden exposed NSA programs like PRISM, many Americans wanted to know why they should care about this surveillance if they're not guilty of doing anything wrong. Snowden said it comes down to protecting rights.

 "Rights matter because you never know when you’re going to need them," Snowden said, adding that people should be able to pick up the phone and call their family, send a text to their loved ones and travel by train without worrying about how these events will look to a government years in the future.

 The former NSA contractor has been on a public relations tour over the past few weeks, embracing the public debate that has erupted over his actions. He recently made an appearance at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas via satellite, in which he touched on similar talking points that he did on Tuesday.

 "I am living proof that an individual can go head to head with the most powerful intelligence agencies around the world — and win," Snowden said. ||||| Photo by GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP/Getty Images

 It wasn't the newsiest moment in Edward Snowden's address to TED, which he delivered via video that was streamed through a robot. (Check out the picture.) The news, as ever, was probably Snowden's claim that "some of the most important reporting" on his revelations "is yet to come." This is probably true. The archives of documents stolen by Snowden have been enough to support breaking news at the Washington Post, the Guardian, and Pro Publica, to name a few outlets that got some access; an entirely new media company, First Look, was launched on the strength of what Glenn Greenwald, et al. could find in the archives.

 So, no, not newsy, but the part of Snowden's Q&A that stuck out to me was his gleeful swipe at Dick Cheney.

 At the time Julian Assange was doing his greatest work, Dick Cheney was saying he’d endangered governments worldwide, the skies were going to ignite, seas would boil off. Now he says it was a fleabite. We should be suspicious of overblown claims from these officials. But! Let’s assume that these people really believe this. I would argue they have a narrow conception of national security. The prerogatives of people like Dick Cheney do not keep the nation safe.

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 This is not the first time Snowden has made fun of Cheney, whose appeal to the D.C. chat circuit has not dimmed even after he helped his daughter make a spectacular hash of a U.S. Senate primary. Last year, Cheney came up on a Guardian chat and Snowden called it an "honor" to be insulted by the guy.

 So Snowden, who recently turned 30, is adept at the art of insult trading with political figures. Why does it matter? Well, some of the (embryonic) discussion of whether Snowden should leave Russia and give himself up to American justice comes out of the theory that Snowden should become an advocate for his cause. He has controlled his image like ... well, like a guy who doesn't give out his contact info and lives in a country that American journalists need a visa to visit. In the last few months, he's given interviews to Bart Gellman, SXSW, and TED, all of which 1) broke the news he wanted, 2) avoided the news he didn't (no one has asked him, in a public forum, anything about Russian politics or the Crimean incursion), and 3) allowed him to describe his whistleblowing in heroic terms. In the SXSW interview, he even appeared before a screen blow-up of the Constitution.

 Snowden is winning, as shown by the polls and the fumbling responses of American politicians. He's even come up with a reason for his skeptics to distrust the NSA. "If we hack Chinese business and steal its secrets, or those in Berlin, that’s of less value to the American people than making sure that the Chinese can’t get access to our secrets," he said at TED. "In reducing the security of our own communications, they’re putting us at risk in a fundamental way." |||||

– Edward Snowden made a surprise appearance—via a remote-controlled video chat robot—at the TED conference yesterday, and, as at his SXSW appearance, he got a warm welcome. The inventor of the Internet himself, Tim Berners-Lee, appeared onstage and called Snowden a hero, Wired reports, and a vocal segment of the crowd agreed, according to Fortune, with only about 10% deeming him a villain. Snowden's most headline-generating pronouncement was that "there are absolutely more revelations to come. Some of the most important reporting to be done is yet to come." But the appearance itself fascinated David Weigel at Slate. Snowden has essentially positioned himself as a "cyborg thought leader," Weigel writes. With these appearances, he's "controlled his image like … well, like a guy who doesn't give out his contact info and lives in a country that American journalists need a visa to visit." Snowden's TED and SXSW hosts asked exactly the questions he wanted and avoided uncomfortable ones he didn't—like, say, anything to do with Russian politics. "Snowden has outlived the DB Cooper mystery that defined his public debut, and is now situated for a long game in which he becomes more popular and harder to call a traitor." Click for Weigel's full column.


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– Electronic construction signs in the Dallas area appear to have been hacked, displaying messages calling Donald Trump a reptile and imploring early morning commuters to take a day off work, the AP reports. The portable signs along Interstate 30 and elsewhere flashed various messages early Tuesday, including "Donald Trump is a ... shape shifting lizard!" Another message read, "Bernie for president," while still another sign said: "Work is canceled. Go back home." The signs appear to be ones used by the Texas Department of Transportation, and it wasn't the first time they were hacked: CBS-DFW notes that sometime over Memorial Day weekend, one of the signs had been changed to read "Party Hardy Yall." That message was removed by Monday, and the sign was ostensibly secured by the contractor against further vandalism, a TxDot rep says—but the new hacked messages popped up after someone again broke into the system late Monday or early Tuesday. And it's not a snap-your-fingers task to fix, per NBC-DFW: The signs can't be operated remotely, so any modifications have to be done manually via the control panels. TxDOT tells Dallas-Fort Worth broadcaster KRLD that there's no humor in what the hackers did. The agency says the messages bumped warnings to motorists about nearby construction zones.

DALLAS (AP) — Electronic construction signs in the Dallas area appear to have been hacked, displaying messages calling Donald Trump a reptile and imploring early morning commuters to take a day off work.

 The portable signs along Interstate 30 and elsewhere flashed messages early Tuesday including, "Donald Trump is a ... shape shifting lizard!" Another message read, "Bernie for president," referring to Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.

 Another sign said: "Work is canceled. Go back home."

 The signs appear to be ones used by the Texas Department of Transportation.

 TxDOT told Dallas-Fort Worth broadcaster KRLD that there's no humor in what the hackers did. The agency says the messages bumped warnings to motorists about nearby construction zones.

 The Associated Press left a message for a TxDOT spokesman seeking comment. ||||| Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter

 DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is drawing either the ire or mirth of some protesters who hacked a Texas Department of Transportation sign in Dallas. The same roadside sign has now been changed twice in less than 48 hours.

 The sign, located along westbound Interstate-30 at Cockrell Hill Road in Dallas, was first changed over the long Memorial Day weekend. The new message read “Party Hardy Yall!” That prompted a swift response from TxDOT officials on Monday. “It has been removed,” said TxDOT spokesman Tony Hartzel. “And the contractor has taken steps to secure the sign.”

 I don't think @TxDOT really meant to send this msg to drivers off i30 today in Dallas. 🤔. Spotted today pic.twitter.com/IKZ6EHeoyQ — Michelle Rodriguez (@michrod) May 30, 2016

 However, at some point either late Monday night or early Tuesday, hackers struck again. But, this time, they posted political messages on two TxDOT boards, both along Interstate-30, just a short distance away from each other. The first was an attack on Trump, calling him a “Shape Shifting Lizard.”

 The second sign simply said “Bernie For President” in support of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. A third sign was also hacked, but not with a political message. It told Tuesday morning commuters “Work is canceled. Go back home.” All of the signs have since been returned to their normal messages.

 The signs are meant to warn drivers about road construction in the area, and hacking them is not easy. The perpetrator had to cut a lock off of a box and reset the sign’s passwords. Whether it was a prank or serious political message, TxDOT officials said that this is no laughing matter. “It would seem the people behind it think it’s funny,” explained Ryan LaFontaine with TxDOT on Tuesday. “We’re talking about a serious issue that could cause very serious problems if drivers don’t get the messages.”

 Before the political hack, Hartzel added, “Due to safety concerns, we strongly discourage people from stopping in work zones to create situations such as this.” In fact, hacking these roadside signs is a third-degree felony. What do you think about all of this? Go to our Facebook page and weigh in on the issue. ||||| The messages on three electronic road signs in Dallas were changed during the Memorial Day weekend. (Published Tuesday, May 31, 2016)

 Someone altered three Texas Department of Transportation electronic road signs over the holiday weekend and made their political preferences known to the world.

 The portable signs — which typically display messages like "Exit Closed" or "Lanes Shift Ahead" — read "Bernie for President" and "Donald Trump Is a Shape-Shifting Lizard" during the morning commute Tuesday. Workers with TxDOT began turning the signs off shortly before 6 a.m.

 All the signs were found in west Dallas. The "Trump" sign greeted drivers headed west on Interstate 30 as they approach the Cockrell Hill Road exit. The "Bernie" sign was positioned nearby on Westmoreland Road beneath I-30.

 A third sign that read "Work Is Canceled — Go Back Home" was later found on Westmoreland Road, just north of I-30.

 TxDOT officials said the signs belong to a contractor who has been performing work along I-30. They believe the signs were turned off and locked before the holiday weekend.

 According to TxDOT spokesman Ryan LaFontaine, who is concerned about the hacker's "boldness," the signs cannot be altered remotely and must be changed manually at the control panels.

 "You have to actually be there," he said. "Power it up and get in there and break the password."

 Similar situations have been reported across the country, with those responsible gaining access to the electronic sign’s control panel and changing the message it displays.

 "Any sort of tampering with that sort of stuff is a third-degree felony and it's punishable. We're talking prison time," LaFontaine said. "It's not something that's taken lightly be any means."

 A third-degree felony is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. LaFontaine says if anyone notices suspicious activity around portable signs, especially when there is no construction, to contact TXDOT or local police.

 NBC 5's Chris Van Horne and Tim Ciesco contributed to this report. |||||


Article:
Kurnell selfie cliff fall victim identified as US Mormon missionary Gavin Paul Zimmerman

 Updated

 A Mormon missionary who died at a popular whale-watching site in Sydney's south has been described as a "bright light" who loved spending time in Australia.

 Gavin Paul Zimmerman, 19, from the US state of Utah, slipped while taking photos at Cape Solander in Kurnell yesterday afternoon.

 The local Mayor said police had recovered a mobile phone with photographs of the teenager taken moments before he fell.

 Speaking from the US, his friend Gio Grillo said he had promised to take photos of the area for her.

 "He emailed me right before he left with the other missionaries," she said.

 "We talked about things we were going to do after he got home from his mission and how excited he was to reach his one-year mark [in Australia] in August," she said.

 "Then he said he might lose signal because they were going to the cliffs and so he said he would take lots of pictures and email me next week to show me."

 Mr Zimmerman's parents, Raymond and Jeanette Zimmerman, released a statement through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 "It is with deep sorrow and heavy hearts that we share the news of our son's passing from this Earth to return home to his Heavenly Father," it said.

 "Gavin was a bright light in our lives! He was a great example to us all, and he loved his mission very much."

 A spokesman for the church said its sincere condolences and prayers were with Mr Zimmerman's family and loved ones.

 Ms Grillo said her friend was due to finish his mission next August and had been making the most of his time in Sydney.

 "He would always write group emails to everyone back home and they would always say how pretty Australia was and how much he enjoyed being a missionary there," she said.

 "He touched so many peoples' lives while he was in Australia for such a short time."

 Mr Zimmerman died in the same spot where another man fell to his death last month.

 Police have urged people to stick to the whale-watching platform and not to climb onto the rocks below.

 Topics: lifestyle-and-leisure, travel-health-and-safety, environment, national-parks, conservation, nsw, sydney-2000, kurnell-2231

 First posted ||||| Whale-watching tourist was taking selfies before fatal slip off cliff at Cape Solander

 Updated

 An overseas tourist was taking selfies moments before he slipped off the edge of a cliff at a popular whale watching spot in Sydney's south.

 The 18-year-old was with a large group of friends when he fell up to 30 metres from Cape Solander in Kurnell.

 Sutherland Mayor Carmelo Pesce said he had been briefed by senior staff and told that police had recovered a phone with photographs of the teenager taken moments before he fell.

 "I've been told that the police have recovered a phone that has photographs on there of the young gentleman taking photos and he was extremely close to the edge of the rock," he said.

 Mr Pesce said council lifeguards were alerted to the incident and travelled by jet ski to the area.

 A young lifeguard dived about eight metres down to retrieve the unconscious man, before pulling him onto the jetski where he performed CPR before paramedics arrived.

 The man was unable to be revived.

 "The lifeguard that jumped in, I believe that he is distressed," Mr Pesce said.

 Mr Pesce said the incident was "extremely sad" and urged those frequenting the popular clifftop viewing area not to endanger themselves by climbing fences or venturing too close to the edge.

 "You're putting your life at risk and why — for a photo? It's not that important."

 Visitors warned to take care

 This is the second fatal incident at Cape Solander in six weeks, after a man aged in his 30s died in similar circumstances last month.

 Mr Pesce said other popular local spots such as the Figure Eight Pools and Wedding Cake Rock had signage warning of the dangers, yet people still chose to ignore them.

 He expected a further briefing on Tuesday and said he would consult with National Parks and Wildlife — which oversees the lookout area — to consider whether further safety measures were needed.

 "I really want to find out exactly where…it happened, was there fencing? Was there any signage there? And if we've got to look as a community and as a council and a government to spell it out more, we will spell it out more.

 "We will probably need to educate people more."

 Topics: accidents, kurnell-2231, nsw

 First posted ||||| A Mormon missionary from Utah died Monday when he fell from a cliff in Australia.

 Gavin Paul Zimmerman, 19, of West Haven, was serving in the Sydney Mission, according to a news release from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and other missionaries were “at a popular sightseeing area” Monday when Zimmerman slipped and fell.

 Zimmerman appears to have fallen to his death at a whale-watching location called Cape Solander near the suburb of Kurnell. The Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported a teenager was with a group of friends when he fell about 30 meters. The news outlet quoted a mayor as saying police recovered a cellphone with photographs showing the teen had been close to the edge of the cliff moments before his fall. Lifeguards retrieved him from the water but were unable to revive him, the mayor said.

 The LDS Church news release said Zimmerman had served in the mission since August.

 Zimmerman grew up in West Haven and Roy and attended Fremont High School, where he participated in football and track. In a statement, his parents, Raymond and Jeanette Zimmerman, said their son was a “great example.”

 “He enjoyed teaching people and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ,” the couple’s statement said. “He loved the savior Jesus Christ and his family, and we loved him. Gavin was a bright light in our lives! We are so grateful for our Father in Heaven’s plan of salvation. We know that we will be with him again one day. Our family will miss him greatly until we meet again.”

 David Hales is the president of the Ogden Utah West Stake, which includes the Zimmermans’ LDS congregation. Hales said Gavin Zimmerman was a good student who began preparing to go on a mission for his church years ago. |||||

 A young man who died after falling from a Sydney cliff while whale-watching was a Mormon missionary from Utah in the US, who’d been in Australia for almost a year.

 Gavin Paul Zimmerman, 19, fell at least 10 metres at Cape Solander at Kurnell in Sydney’s south on Monday afternoon.

 In a statement Mr Zimmerman’s parents, Raymond and Jeanette Zimmerman, say it is with heavy hearts they share the news of their son’s passing and they will miss him greatly.

 “Gavin was a bright light in our lives!” his parents’ statement read.

 The grieving parents said their son was a high school track and football athlete who came to Sydney last August for a proselyting mission.

 They said he had a deep religious faith and had served in several leadership positions.

 “He was a great example to us all, and he loved his mission very much. He enjoyed teaching people and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Mr Zimmerman’s parents said.

 A man who died after falling from a Kurnell cliff while whale-watching was a Morman missionary from Utah. Source: 7News More

 Police, with the help of a rescue helicopter, found him floating in the water and pulled him out unconscious onto dry land.

 Paramedics performed CPR but he could not be revived.

 The 19-year-old died after falling from a cliff in Sydney on Monday. Source: 7News More

 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints confirmed Mr Zimmerman was with other missionaries when the tragedy happened.

 Missions are considered rites of passage for many Mormons, with men serving two years and women 18 months.

 Mr Zimmerman’s death comes barely six weeks after a man in his 30s fell from the same popular whale-watching spot and died.

 A man who died after falling from a Kurnell cliff while whale-watching was a Morman missionary from Utah who had been in Australia for almost a year. Elder Gavin Zimmerman was serving a Mission in Sydney. He was with other missionaries at Cape Solander when the accident occurred. pic.twitter.com/4l1TfdEbas — 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) July 24, 2018

 NSW Police Chief Inspector Chris Hill urged anyone visiting the area to take heed of warning signs.

 “Those rocks are very slippery. For your safety, we recommend that you stay up on the whale-watching platform and please don’t go down on the rocks,” he said.

 NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service describes Cape Solander as “one of Sydney’s best whale watching spots”.

 June and July are the best times to see humpback whales off the NSW east coast as they migrate north to warmer waters. |||||Summary:

– Gavin Zimmerman promised to take lots of photos from a whale-watching lookout in Australia so he could share them with friends back home in Utah. He won’t get the chance. Before finding a cellphone with photos of Zimmerman close to a cliff edge, authorities pulled the lifeless body of the 19-year-old Mormon missionary from the waves Monday. Halfway through a two-year mission in Sydney, per the Salt Lake Tribune, Zimmerman had been with friends at the popular sightseeing spot of Cape Solander in Kamay Botany Bay National Park when he slipped and fell 100 feet. A lifeguard eventually pulled Zimmerman’s body from 25 feet below the water’s surface, but he could not be revived, reports ABC Australia. Zimmerman's parents call their son a "bright light" who "enjoyed teaching people and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ." Meanwhile, a local mayor is warning people not to climb fences or get too close to slippery rock cliffs at Cape Solander, where a man in his 30s died in a fall six weeks ago, reports Yahoo. "You're putting your life at risk and why—for a photo? It's not that important," Carmelo Pesce tells ABC, noting cellphone images show Zimmerman "extremely close to the edge of the rock." Per ABC, an American friend says Zimmerman "would always write group emails to everyone back home" and had promised to "take lots of pictures [from the lookout] and email me next week to show me." (These tourists suffered a similar fate.)


Summarize this article:

Image copyright AFP Image caption Esmond Bradley Martin had risked his life to secretly photograph and document illegal sales of ivory and rhino horn

 One of the world's leading investigators of the illegal trade in ivory and rhino horn has been killed in Kenya.

 Esmond Bradley Martin, 75, was found in his Nairobi home on Sunday with a stab wound to his neck.

 The former UN special envoy for rhino conservation was known for his undercover work investigating the black market.

 The US citizen had recently returned from a research trip to Myanmar.

 Bradley Martin was in the process of writing up his findings when he died, reports the BBC's Alastair Leithead from Nairobi.

 His wife found him in their house in Langata. Police are investigating the circumstances but suspect it was a botched robbery.

 Our correspondent says Bradley Martin had spent decades risking his life to secretly photograph and document illegal sales of ivory and rhino horn, travelling to China, Vietnam, and Laos to pose as a buyer and establish the details of black market prices.

 He first went to Kenya from the US in the 1970s when there was a surge in the number of elephants being killed for their ivory.

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Conservationists believe that the ivory trade is largely responsible for the world's declining elephant numbers

 'A sharp dresser and passionate campaigner'

 Alastair Leithead - BBC News, Nairobi

 Image copyright Getty Images

 Always sharply dressed with a colourful handkerchief falling from his top pocket, Esmond Bradley Martin would immediately cut to the chase, honing in on the latest issue that was consuming him.

 He was a well-known and highly respected character in the conservation community - passionate and unwavering in his efforts to crack down on illegal wildlife crime.

 In a major report last year from Laos, he and his colleague Lucy Vigne established that the country had the world's fastest growing ivory trade.

 They risked their own safety staying at a Chinese casino inhabited by gangsters and traffickers in order to visit the illegal markets and find out the latest prices by posing as dealers.

 His life's work was combating the illegal trade of wildlife and he produced a huge body of highly respected research and investigative reports.

 He will be a huge loss to the international conservation community.

 Bradley Martin's work on illegal wildlife markets helped pressure China to ban the rhino horn trade in the 1990s and later, domestic sales of ivory. The latter ban came into force this year.

 His last report was published by conservation group Save The Elephants last year. The findings said that there had been a slowdown in the ivory trade in China.

 Fellow conservationists have been paying tribute to him on social media.

 Skip Twitter post by @savetherhino Shocking & sad news: Esmond Bradley Martin, investigator into the illegal trade in elephant ivory & rhino horn, found murdered in his home in Nairobi. Our thoughts are with his wife Chryssee https://t.co/YzfRAIkWcb pic.twitter.com/BeYYsFzVfd — Save the Rhino (@savetherhino) February 5, 2018 Report ||||| Esmond Bradley Martin, one of the world's leading ivory trade investigators living in Kenya, was on Sunday found stabbed to death in his Nairobi house.

 The 75-year-old, who was alone in the Nairobi house, had a stab wound in the neck.

 Esmond has authored several ground-breaking investigative reports on rhino and ivory smuggling in Kenya and the trade in China, Vietnam, and Laos.

 He was said to have been working on a new expose on trafficking in ivory and rhino horns.

 Nairobi DCI boss Ireri Kamwende said they are yet to identify Esmond's attackers.

 His wife, who reported the death, said she found her husband's lifeless body after coming from a nature walk at around 4pm.

 "We have already questioned a gardener and a cook who are employed at the home," Kamwende said.

 Read: Inside China where smuggled ivory meets second death

 Esmond, an American geographer, had been travelling all over the world with his wife, Chryssee Martin, and colleagues Lucy Vigne and Dan Stiles.

 They were on a mission to identify ivory and rhino markets, the traffickers and the modern-day uses.

 He was a one time UN special envoy for rhino conservation.

 Among his achievements was helping persuade China to shut down its legal rhino horn trade in 1993 and ivory trade last year.

 His last report, Decline in the Legal Ivory Trade in China in Anticipation of a Ban, was published by conservation group Save The Elephants last year.

 The 88-page report was co-authored by consultant Lucy Vigne.

 It revealed that the 130 licensed outlets in China have been gradually reducing the quantity of ivory items on display for sale, and recently have been cutting prices to improve sales.

 "With the end of the legal ivory trade in China, the survival chances for elephants have distinctly improved. We must give credit to China for doing the right thing by closing the ivory trade," Esmond told the Star last year.

 He first came to East Africa in the 1970s when there had been a huge slaughter of elephants in the region, followed in the 1980s by rhinos.

 "In Kenya, there were around 20,000 rhinos in 1970, but by the 1990s, most of the rhinos had been eliminated. The puzzle was: why were all these rhinos being killed, and where was the horn going?" Esmond told the Nomad Magazine last year.

 Also read: Laos a thriving market for Kenyan trophies

 Click here for the latest political news ||||| An American conservationist regarded as the world’s foremost investigator into the illegal trade in ivory and rhino horn has been found stabbed to death in Kenya.

 The body of Esmond Bradley Martin was found by his wife Chryssee at their home in Langata on the outskirts of Nairobi with at least one stab wound in his neck, police said.

 Raising fears that politically connected wildlife mafias were seeking to eliminate campaigners exposing their networks, Mr Bradley Martin was the second conservationist investigating the ivory trade to meet a violent death in six months.

 Last August, Prince William gave warning that campaigners investigating serious wildlife crime had become targets following the murder of Wayne Lotter, a South African conservationist whose work led to the arrest of Chinese ivory traffickers.

 “Wayne Lotter’s violent and apparently targeted murder shows just how dangerous the situation has become in relation to the big money associated with the illegal ivory and rhino horn trades,” the Prince, who is patron of the wildlife charity Tusk Trust, said.

 “Rangers and conservationists put themselves in harm’s way every day to stop organised criminals destroying Africa’s natural resources.” ||||| One of the world’s leading researchers into the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade was found dead at his Nairobi home on Sunday, multiple news outlets reported.

 Esmond Bradley-Martin, a 75-year-old American citizen, had worked for decades researching the markets for wildlife products across Africa and Asia, most recently in Myanmar. He had once served as the UN Special Envoy on rhino conservation.

 "Esmond was known for absolute rigour and painstaking precision in his methodology and reporting," said Lisa Rolls, who leads UN Environment's Wild for Life campaign. "He was always willing to lend his decades of expertise to explore approaches to tackling the illegal wildlife trade with complete objectivity. Esmond's commitment to securing a future for wild rhinos and elephants was steadfast. To lose such a gentle and wise conservationist in this way is a shocking tragedy."

 Bradley-Martin's meticulous work on the dynamics of illegal wildlife markets provided countries - including China - with the hard data they needed to shut those markets down. His research also informed many of the decisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a global agreement that regulates trade in wildlife products.

 His research, most of which was published by conservation group Save the Elephants, included a 2017 report that found that the Lao People’s Democratic Republic was home to the world's fastest-growing retail market for ivory, as well as a 2016 study that detailed how demand for ivory in Viet Nam was threatening elephants in Africa.

 Bradley-Martin dedicated his life to investigating the trade in wildlife products, including rhino horn. (Source: Shutterstock)

 "Esmond has been at the forefront of rhino horn and ivory trade research issues, gleaning much valuable information on both legal and illegal trade," said UN Environment's Maxwell Gomera. "Very few knew much about these issues better than Esmond. Even fewer have pursued these issues with such dedication and commitment. The fight to save wildlife has lost one of its most committed soldiers."

 Conservationist Paula Kahumbu described Bradley-Martin as “a global authority on ivory and rhino horn trafficking”, adding that he was “at the forefront of exposing the scale of ivory markets in USA, Congo, Nigeria, Angola, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos and recently Myanmar.”

 Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the founder of Save The Elephants, paid tribute to his longtime friend and colleague: “Esmond was one of conservation’s great unsung heroes. His meticulous work into ivory and rhino horn markets was conducted often in some of the world’s most remote and dangerous places and against intensely busy schedules that would have exhausted a man half his age... He played a key role in revealing the price of ivory in China had fallen prior to the Chinese Government committing to close its legal domestic market, and was working on important research on Myanmar when he died. He was my friend for 45 years and his loss is a terrible blow both personally and professionally.” |||||

– "Pachyderms have lost a great champion." That's the tribute of one elephant expert for Esmond Bradley Martin, one of the world's most well-known ivory investigators, who was found killed in his home in Nairobi, Kenya, per the Telegraph and BBC. The 75-year-old had a stab wound to his neck, and investigators believe his death was the result of a robbery gone wrong. His wife says she went out for a nature walk and discovered his body upon returning home around 4pm Sunday, per the Star. Bradley Martin, identifiable by a colorful handkerchief he often had peeking out of his jacket pocket, was a major figure within the wildlife conservation movement who'd risen to prominence by going undercover, usually posing as a buyer, to expose the illegal market for ivory and rhino horn. A former UN special envoy for rhino conservation, Bradley Martin began his efforts in earnest in the 1970s, when the number of elephants being slaughtered for their ivory spiked. That's when he left the US for Kenya, and his work helped put an end to the sales of rhino horn and ivory in China. His travels also took him to Vietnam and Laos, where last year he and another researcher revealed the latter country's ivory trade was the fastest growing in the world. Their work there involved the dangerous ploy of pretending they were buyers and staying in a casino frequented by organized-crime members and traffickers, all so they could find out what the going price for ivory was. Local police say they've already questioned a cook and gardener at Bradley Martin's home and have come up empty so far on suspects.


Here is a news article: There are abundant anecdotes and warnings of inappropriate behaviors on social networking sites, particularly about Facebook. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether individuals obsessively monitor or harass their ex-partners on Facebook (related to general "Facebook stalking") and, if so, whether those individuals would also engage in cyber obsessional pursuit (COP) and obsessive relational pursuit (ORI), which are categories of cyberstalking and stalking. A total of 411 valid participants answered questions about the ways they communicated with their ex-romantic partners using Facebook, resulting in three factors: Covert Provocation, Public Harassment, and Venting. Each category of Facebook harassment was related to perpetration of COP and ORI. Additionally, participants who engaged in COP were almost six times more likely to also perpetrate ORI. If participants admitted to engaging in some types of stalking behaviors, they did so online, offline, and on Facebook. Implications for social networking site usage and stalking laws are discussed. There is a kernel of truth to the popular term "Facebook stalking." ||||| To cite this article:

 Tara C. Marshall. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. October 2012, 15(10): 521-526. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.0125.

 Previous research has found that continuing offline contact with an ex-romantic partner following a breakup may disrupt emotional recovery. The present study examined whether continuing online contact with an ex-partner through remaining Facebook friends and/or engaging in surveillance of the ex-partner's Facebook page inhibited postbreakup adjustment and growth above and beyond offline contact. Analysis of the data provided by 464 participants revealed that Facebook surveillance was associated with greater current distress over the breakup, more negative feelings, sexual desire, and longing for the ex-partner, and lower personal growth. Participants who remained Facebook friends with the ex-partner, relative to those who did not remain Facebook friends, reported less negative feelings, sexual desire, and longing for the former partner, but lower personal growth. All of these results emerged after controlling for offline contact, personality traits, and characteristics of the former relationship and breakup that tend to predict postbreakup adjustment. Overall, these findings suggest that exposure to an ex-partner through Facebook may obstruct the process of healing and moving on from a past relationship.

 The present study examined whether online exposure to a former romantic partner contributed to breakup recovery and growth above and beyond offline exposure. Previous research has established that offline contact is associated with poorer postbreakup functioning; for example, almost half of university students who have experienced a breakup continue to see or talk with their former partner, 8 , 9 even though this contact is associated with greater sadness and love for the ex-partner. 10 From the perspective of social network analysis, 11 maintaining offline contact with an ex-partner may preserve a strong-tie contact—frequent, reciprocal, and close contact—that ultimately inhibits breakup recovery. On the other hand, remaining Facebook friends with an ex-partner and/or engaging in surveillance of his or her Facebook page may maintain a weak-tie contact—infrequent, nonreciprocal, and casual contact. Weak ties can provide access to information that may not be obtained through strong ties, 12 such as information obtained through Facebook about the ex-partner's current activities. Such weak-tie contact may therefore sustain exposure to the ex-partner even in the absence of offline contact, potentially prolonging distress and longing for the former partner. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether weak-tie contact through Facebook sufficiently contributed to postbreakup functioning beyond strong-tie contact. This study also examined whether online contact was negatively related to breakup recovery and growth over and above certain personality traits (self-esteem, attachment style) and characteristics of the former relationship and breakup (e.g., feelings for the partner before the breakup, time since the breakup occurred) that consistently predict postbreakup adjustment. 8 , 13 The following hypotheses were tested:

 Other research suggests, however, that Facebook may facilitate behaviors associated with obsessive relational intrusion—the unwanted pursuit of an intimate relationship, particularly with an ex-romantic partner. 7 Although Facebook surveillance falls on the mild end of the spectrum of relational intrusion, 3 research has found that monitoring an ex-partner's Facebook photos and other forms of covert provocation (such as writing a status update to make an ex-partner jealous) is associated with an increased likelihood of engaging in offline obsessive relational intrusion (e.g., showing up at the ex-partner's classroom or workplace). 4 Even for individuals who do not engage in relational intrusion, monitoring an ex-partner's online behavior may increase distress over the breakup and prolong pining for the former partner. For example, looking at an ex-partner's Facebook photos may renew desire for the former partner, or it may be upsetting to discover through Facebook that an ex-partner is involved in a new relationship.

 Many of the features that make Facebook attractive to its users—easy, free, and anonymous access to information about others—can also facilitate online monitoring behavior. Excessively checking others' Facebook profiles has been variously referred to as interpersonal electronic surveillance, 5 Facebook surveillance, 2 or, more colloquially, as “Facebook stalking.” In particular, people may use Facebook to keep tabs on an ex-partner's current activities by checking his or her status updates, wall posts, comments, and photos; even if one is no longer Facebook friends with an ex-partner, publicly available information—such as a profile photo and list of friends—can still provide a rough approximation of the ex-partner's ongoing activities. Recent estimates have suggested that one-half to two-thirds of people have made contact with an ex-partner through Facebook, 3 , 4 and that over half admit to having looked through an ex-partner's photos to find pictures of an ex-partner with a new romantic partner. 4 Not only is Facebook surveillance of ex-partners relatively common, then, but people who engage in it tend to perceive it as harmless. 6

 W ith more than 900 million active users, Facebook is currently the world's most popular social networking website. The two most cited reasons for using Facebook are to keep in touch with others and to surreptitiously monitor their activities. 1 Not only do people use Facebook to monitor the activities of current romantic partners, 2 but as many as one-third use Facebook to keep tabs on former romantic partners. 3 While Facebook surveillance of ex-partners has been linked to negative outcomes such as online and offline relational intrusion, 4 the potential for Facebook contact and surveillance to disrupt emotional recovery and growth following a breakup has received little research attention. The current study sought to fill this research gap by examining whether remaining Facebook friends with a former partner and checking his or her Facebook profile is associated with continuing breakup-related distress, negative feelings, desire for the ex-partner, and inhibited personal growth.

 Current distress over the breakup was assessed with six items (e.g., “How much distress do you currently feel concerning the breakup?” and “How heartbroken are you when you think about the breakup?”). Participants indicated the extent of their negative feelings toward the ex-partner by rating how much anger, disappointment, confusion, hate, betrayal, hurt, frustration, and sadness they currently felt (selected in part from other work 10 , 17 ). Sexual desire for the ex-partner included items measuring lust, sexual arousal, and desire. All of the items measuring current distress, negative feelings, and sexual desire were rated on a 5-point Likert scale anchored with Not at all (1), A moderate amount (3), and A great deal (5). Longing for the ex-partner was assessed with four items 18 (e.g., “I am still in love with my ex-partner”) combined with three additional items 13 (e.g., “Everything seems to remind me of my ex-partner”). These items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5). Finally, personal growth was measured by modifying the instructions of the 21-item Post-traumatic Growth Inventory 19 , 20 to ask participants how much life change they had experienced in different areas as a result of their breakup (e.g., “I developed new interests”). These items were rated with a 5-point Likert scale anchored with Not at all (1) and A great deal (5).

 Participants were asked if they currently had offline contact with the ex-partner and were Facebook friends with the ex-partner. These two variables were effect coded (1=Yes, −1=No). Facebook surveillance was assessed with two items that were equally applicable to people who were currently Facebook friends with the ex-partner and those who were not: “How often do you look at your ex-partner's Facebook page?” and “How often do you look at your ex-partner's list of Facebook friends?” These items were rated on a 9-point scale ranging from Never (1) to Several times a day (9). Participants were also asked how many Facebook friends they had and how much time in minutes they spent on Facebook on a typical day.

 Participants were asked to recall a distressing romantic breakup with someone whom they knew had a Facebook account. They indicated the status of the relationship before the breakup (nonexclusive dating, exclusive dating, cohabitating, engaged, or married), the length of the relationship, and how much time had passed since the breakup occurred. To assess feelings for the ex-partner right before the breakup, participants completed the six-item short-form of the Perceived Relationship Quality Components Inventory, 16 which assesses satisfaction, intimacy, trust, commitment, passion, and love. Two additional items were included that measured the degree of emotional involvement and sexual desire felt for the partner right before the breakup. Participants then indicated which partner initiated the breakup (“I did,” “My partner did,” or “We both did”). In the following analyses, initiator of the breakup was included as an effect-coded variable (1=partner initiated, −1=I initiated/we both initiated). Next, they wrote a description of the circumstances surrounding the end of the relationship, and completed the 16-item Breakup Distress Scale. 8 The instructions of this scale were modified to ask participants to recall the emotional distress they experienced immediately after the breakup occurred. Responses to this scale and to the measure of feelings for the partner before the breakup were rated on a 5-point Likert scale anchored with Not at all (1), A moderate amount (3), and A great deal (5).

 It was stated at the beginning of the survey that participants must have a Facebook account and have experienced at least one relationship breakup with someone who also has a Facebook account to be included in the study. Several questions at the end of the survey addressed demographic variables and current relationship status. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the following scales are reported in Table 1 .

 Four hundred and sixty-four participants (84 percent female; M age =21.36, SD =5.49) were recruited by posting links to an online survey on several psychology survey-hosting websites (Social Psychology Network Online Social Psychology Studies, Psychological Research on the Net, and the intranet at the author's university). Eighty-seven percent were American, 7 percent were European, 2 percent were Canadian, 2 percent were Latin American, and the remainder were an international mix. Sixty percent of participants were currently working toward an undergraduate degree, 8 percent had completed an undergraduate or higher degree, and the remaining 33 percent had completed high school or A-levels. Forty-eight percent of participants were currently single; of those involved in a romantic relationship, 71 percent were exclusively dating their current partner, 8 percent were cohabitating, 8 percent were married, 7 percent were engaged, and 7 percent were nonexclusively dating. Current relationship status was included in the following analyses as an effect-coded variable (1=currently involved, −1=single).

 As seen in Table 3 , many of the personality traits and characteristics of the past relationship and breakup entered at Step 1 significantly contributed to variance in the dependent variables. Additionally, offline contact was positively associated with current distress, desire, and longing for the ex-partner. More pivotal to the present study, the two Facebook variables entered at Step 2 significantly contributed to variance in the dependent variables over and above the predictors entered at Step 1. Contrary to Hypothesis 1, remaining Facebook friends with the ex-partner was negatively associated with negative feelings, desire, and longing for the ex-partner. In support of Hypothesis 1, however, remaining Facebook friends was associated with lower personal growth. Consistent with Hypothesis 2, Facebook surveillance was positively related to current distress, negative feelings, desire, and longing for the ex-partner, and negatively related to personal growth.

 Table 3 reports the results of a series of hierarchical regression analyses that tested the predictors of current distress, negative feelings, sexual desire, longing for the ex-partner, and personal growth. For each analysis, the demographic and personality variables (age, sex, anxiety, avoidance, self-esteem), characteristics of the former relationship and breakup (length of the past relationship, feelings before the breakup, initiator status, breakup distress, length of time since the breakup, and current involvement), indices of Facebook usage (number of Facebook friends, average time per day in minutes spent on Facebook), and offline contact with the ex-partner were entered in Step 1. Average time per day spent on Facebook did not significantly contribute to any of the models, and was therefore removed. The key Facebook variables—whether participants were currently Facebook friends with the ex-partner and Facebook surveillance—were added in Step 2.

 Means and standard deviations are reported in Table 1 , and Pearson's correlations in Table 2 . Additional analyses revealed that 82 percent of participants had been exclusively dating their former partner before the breakup, 38 percent indicated that their partner had initiated the breakup, and 44 percent indicated that they continued to have some offline contact with the ex-partner. Of the latter participants, 73 percent described themselves as close or casual friends with the ex-partner, suggesting a strong-tie contact. Fifty-seven percent of all participants reported that they were still Facebook friends with the ex-partner; of these participants, over 90 percent indicated that the ex-partner's Facebook wall, photo albums, profile photo, status updates, and list of friends were visible to them. Forty-six percent of participants who were still Facebook friends with the ex-partner indicated that they exchanged Facebook messages and comments with this former partner (81 percent of whom also maintained offline contact); of the 54 percent who remained Facebook friends with the ex-partner, but did not exchange any Facebook-mediated communication, 53 percent did not maintain offline contact, suggesting a weak-tie contact. Of the people who were not Facebook friends with the ex-partner, 25 percent reported that they had defriended the ex-partner, 12 percent reported that the ex-partner had defriended them, and 6 percent reported that they had never been Facebook friends with the ex-partner at any point in time. Less than 50 percent of these participants had access to their ex-partner's Facebook wall, photo albums, and status updates, but 86 percent could see their ex-partner's profile photo, and 72 percent could see their ex-partner's list of friends. That the measure of Facebook surveillance was based on the frequency of checking the ex-partner's Facebook page (which includes the profile photo) and friends list is therefore consistent with the visibility of these elements even for those participants who were not currently Facebook friends with the ex-partner.

 Navigate Article Top of page Author information ABSTRACT Introduction Method Results Discussion << Author Disclosure Stateme... References CITING ARTICLES Discussion

 Taken together, these findings suggest that continued online exposure to an ex-romantic partner may inhibit postbreakup recovery and growth, even after accounting for the contribution of offline exposure and well-established personality and relational predictors. Notably, frequent monitoring of an ex-partner's Facebook page and list of friends, even when one was not a Facebook friend of the ex-partner, was associated with greater current distress over the breakup, negative feelings, sexual desire, longing for the ex-partner, and lower personal growth. These findings mirrored the correlates of offline contact, which was associated with greater current distress, sexual desire, and longing for the ex-partner, consistent with previous research.10 Facebook surveillance, therefore, accounted for aspects of postbreakup adjustment—negative feelings toward the ex-partner and lower personal growth—that offline contact did not. Importantly, these findings suggest that weak-tie contact with an ex-partner through Facebook contributed to poorer postbreakup functioning over and above strong-tie contact. Consistent with the view that weak-tie contact can supply information beyond strong-tie contact,12 Facebook may furnish information about an ex-partner that only intensifies heartbreak, such as news that the former partner is involved in a new relationship.

 Contrary to expectations, people who remained Facebook friends with an ex-partner were lower in negative feelings, sexual desire, and longing for the former partner than people who were not Facebook friends. Although it seems likely that people who remained Facebook friends may have had weaker feelings for their partner before the breakup or experienced a more amicable split than people who had defriended the ex-partner, remaining Facebook friends was not significantly correlated with previous feelings for the ex-partner or breakup distress. An alternative possibility is that unbidden exposure to the potentially banal status updates, comments, and photos of an ex-partner through remaining Facebook friends may have decreased any residual attraction to the ex-partner. Former partners with whom we are no longer in contact, by contrast, may remain shrouded in an alluring mystique, suggesting that remaining Facebook friends with an ex-partner may actually help rather than harm one's postbreakup recovery.

 Even so, people who remained Facebook friends were lower in personal growth than were those who had defriended the ex-partner, suggesting that even weak-tie contact with an ex-partner through remaining Facebook friends might disrupt the process of moving on. Although one might expect that the lower negativity, sexual desire, and longing for the ex-partner reported by participants who remained Facebook friends would be accompanied by greater, not lesser, personal growth, the former variables were not significantly correlated with personal growth. This lack of association is consistent with research that has found weak or nonsignificant relationships between indices of adjustment and personal growth following a traumatic event,21,22 suggesting that recovery and growth may be relatively independent processes. Indeed, healing from a relationship loss entails a process of recovering from negative emotions and detaching from the former partner, but also of developing a meaning-making narrative that enables personal growth.23 Thus, while remaining Facebook friends may benefit the breakup recovery process by mitigating negative emotions, desire, and longing for the ex-partner, it may simultaneously impede the construction of a personal growth-enhancing narrative.

 The most notable limitation of this study is that the correlational design did not allow conclusions to be drawn about casual direction. Although these results suggested that offline contact and Facebook surveillance lead to poorer postbreakup adjustment and lower personal growth, it is just as plausible that people who were hung up on an ex-partner were more likely to seek them out in person and engage in greater Facebook surveillance, which in turn sustained the pining for the former partner. Likewise, people who stagnated after a breakup rather than experienced personal growth may have been more likely to retain the ex-partner as a Facebook friend. An experiment that compares participants who are encouraged not to check their ex-partner's Facebook page for a period of time with other participants who may check freely could shed light on whether Facebook surveillance is causally related to poorer postbreakup adjustment and growth. Furthermore, while it was beyond the scope of the current article to examine the motives behind remaining Facebook friends with an ex-partner and engaging in Facebook surveillance, these motives could be profitably explored in future research. For example, people who feel betrayed by an ex-partner tend to experience heightened breakup distress,8 and the current findings linked breakup distress with a greater likelihood of engaging in Facebook surveillance (see Table 2). Perhaps, then, people are more likely to engage in Facebook surveillance if a former partner has been unfaithful.

 In spite of the need for further research, the take-home message from the present study is that keeping tabs on an ex-partner through Facebook is associated with poorer emotional recovery and personal growth following a breakup. Therefore, avoiding exposure to an ex-partner, both offline and online, may be the best remedy for healing a broken heart. ||||| It was in a weak moment of newfound singlehood that I thought, “Hmm, I wonder what he’s up to now.” Having severed our Facebook friendship, along with our romance, a few years ago, I clicked over to Flickr, the one place I knew could give me a glimpse into his life. And there it was: a self-portrait of him wearing a wedding ring.

 Ignoring the gender dictates of marital tradition, I irrationally rationalized that it was merely an engagement ring. “No, he’s not married,” I thought. “Is he married? No way he’s married.”

 Internet-stalker style, I found further proof on Twitter: Someone had live-tweeted a photo from the wedding. There he was in his tux at the end of the aisle during the sunny, outdoor ceremony. There were shots too of the bride and the happy couple’s Lego-people cake-topper. The term “TMI” is sorely overused, but this was the definition of it. It’s one thing to realize that the man you once wanted to marry and have babies with is on that path with someone else, and another to be a virtual witness to it.

 Conventional wisdom, and even science, has it that cutting off contact with an ex makes for a smoother recovery. But nowadays — said in my best granny voice — it’s much more difficult to get distance from an ex. (Funnily enough, my married ex is thousands of miles away — and it was the Internet that allowed our long-distance relationship to exist in the first place.) It isn’t as easy as tearing your rotary phone from the wall. It isn’t even as simple as deleting an ex’s number from your cellphone. There’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the rest of the Internet with which to contend.

 My ex’s live-tweeted marriage reminded me of this. So did my most recent breakup with a man whom I remain connected to via three social media platforms. But then there came yet another reminder this week — a study with a finding that will surprise no one: “Facebook stalking” an ex “may obstruct the process of healing and moving on from a past relationship.” You can no longer pretend that hitting “refresh” on your ex’s profile is helping you “process.”

 The study by Tara C. Marshall, a psychology professor at Brunel University, found that “Facebook surveillance was associated with greater current distress over the breakup, more negative feelings, sexual desire, and longing for the ex-partner, and lower personal growth.” More surprisingly, those who stayed Facebook friends with their ex “reported less negative feelings, sexual desire, and longing for the former partner” — but they were “lower in personal growth.” Marshall suggests this may be because “unbidden exposure to the potentially banal status updates, comments, and photos of an ex-partner through remaining Facebook friends may have decreased any residual attraction to the ex-partner,” whereas defriended exes “remain shrouded in an alluring mystique.” |||||
A summary of this is?

– What with Facebook, Flickr, and other fine venues for stalking "exes," breakups aren't nearly as final as they once were. But for your own good, please stop following them around cyberspace. "Conventional wisdom, and even science, has it that cutting off contact with an ex makes for a smoother recovery," writes Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon. And she knows the struggle all too well, having tracked an ex from Flickr to Twitter until she realized that the ring on his finger wasn't "merely an engagement ring." Not only was he already married, but Clark-Flory had to see a live-tweeted photo of him standing in the aisle. "It’s one thing to realize that the man you once wanted to marry" has moved on, she writes, "and another to be a virtual witness to it." Clark-Flory digs up studies to make her case, like one that finds "Facebook stalking ... may obstruct the process of healing" and another in which 30% of college students admit to posting status updates "to taunt or hurt" an ex. The only problem: "It’s never been easier to secretly keep tabs on exes," writes Clark-Flory, "and it’s never been harder not to."


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Morley Safer CBS News

 Morley Safer, the CBS newsman who changed war reporting forever when he showed U.S. Marines burning the huts of Vietnamese villagers and went on to become the iconic 60 Minutes correspondent whose stylish stories on America's most-watched news program made him one of television's most enduring stars, died today in Manhattan. He was 84. He had homes in Manhattan and Chester, Conn.

 Safer was in declining health when he announced his retirement last week; CBS News broadcast a long-planned special hour to honor the occasion on Sunday May 15 that he watched in his home.

 A huge presence on 60 Minutes for 46 years -- Safer enjoyed the longest run anyone ever had on primetime network television. Though he cut back a decade ago, he still appeared regularly until recently, captivating audiences with his signature stories on art, science and culture. A dashing figure in his checked shirt, polka dot tie and pocket square, Morley Safer -- even his name had panache -- was in his true element playing pool with Jackie Gleason, delivering one of his elegant essays aboard the Orient Express or riffing on Anna Wintour, but he also asked the tough questions and did the big stories. In 2011, over 18.5 million people watched him ask Ruth Madoff how she could not have known her husband Bernard was running a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme. The interview was headline news and water cooler talk for days.

 "This is a very sad day for all of us at 60 Minutes and CBS News. Morley was a fixture, one of our pillars, and an inspiration in many ways."

 In some of his later 60 Minutes pieces, Safer profiled the cartoonists of The New Yorker, interviewed the founder and staff of Wikipedia and reported on a billion-dollar art trove discovered in a Munich apartment. In his last story broadcast on March 13, he profiled the visionary architect Bjarke Ingels.

 "Morley was one of the most important journalists in any medium, ever," said CBS Chairman and CEO, Leslie Moonves. "He broke ground in war reporting and made a name that will forever be synonymous with 60 Minutes. He was also a gentleman, a scholar, a great raconteur - all of those things and much more to generations of colleagues, his legion of friends, and his family, to whom all of us at CBS offer our sincerest condolences over the loss of one of CBS' and journalism's greatest treasures."

 "This is a very sad day for all of us at 60 Minutes and CBS News. Morley was a fixture, one of our pillars, and an inspiration in many ways. He was a master storyteller, a gentleman and a wonderful friend. We will miss him very much," said Jeff Fager, the executive producer of 60 Minutes and Safer's close friend and one-time 60 Minutes producer.

 CBS News President David Rhodes said, "Morley Safer helped create the CBS News we know today. No correspondent had more extraordinary range, from war reporting to coverage of every aspect of modern culture. His writing alone defined original reporting. Everyone at CBS News will sorely miss Morley."

 Safer was a familiar reporter to millions when he replaced Harry Reasoner on 60 Minutes in 1970. A much-honored foreign correspondent, Safer was the first U.S. network newsman to film a report inside Communist China. He appeared regularly on the CBS Evening News from all over the world, especially Vietnam, where his controversial reporting earned him peer praise and government condemnation.

 "Morley Safer helped create the CBS News we know today. No correspondent had more extraordinary range, from war reporting to coverage of every aspect of modern culture."

 Safer's piece from the Vietnamese hamlet of Cam Ne in August of 1965 showing U.S. Marines burning the villagers' thatched huts was cited by New York University as one of the 20th century's best pieces of American journalism. Some believe this report freed other journalists to stop censoring themselves and tell the raw truth about war. The controversial report on the "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" earned Safer a George Polk award and angered President Lyndon Johnson so much, he reportedly called CBS President Frank Stanton and said, "Your boys shat on the American flag yesterday." Some Marines are said to have threatened Safer, but others thanked him for exposing a cruel tactic. Safer said that the pentagon treated him with contempt for the rest of his life.

 He spent three tours (1964-'66) as head of the CBS Saigon bureau. His helicopter was shot down in a 1965 battle, after which Safer continued to report under fire. In 1990, he penned a memoir of his Vietnam experience, "Flashbacks: On Returning to Vietnam" (Random House), in which he goes back to reminisce and to interview the enemy's veterans.

 When he joined Mike Wallace at the beginning of 60 Minutes' third season, they toiled to put stories on the air for a program that dodged cancellation each season. But their work was immediately recognized with an Emmy for Safer's 1971 investigation of the Gulf of Tonkin incident that began America's war in Vietnam. The two pressed on for five years, moving the broadcast from the bottom fourth to the middle of the rankings. Then in August 1975, with a new Sunday evening timeslot, Safer put 60 Minutes on the national stage. Interviewing Betty Ford, the first lady shocked many Americans by saying she would think it normal if her 18-year-old daughter were having sex. The historic sit-down also included frank talk about pot and abortion.

 By 1978, the broadcast was in Nielsen's Top 10. Safer's eloquent, sometimes quirky features balanced out the program's "gotcha" interviews and investigations, perfecting the news magazine's recipe. It became the number-one program for the 1979-'80 season - a crown it won five times. 60 Minutes remained in the top 10 for an unprecedented 23 straight seasons.

 It was another Safer story that would become one of the program's most honored and important. "Lenell Geter's in Jail," about a young black man serving life for armed robbery in Texas, overturned Geter's conviction 10 days after the December 1983 segment exposed a sloppy rush to injustice. Safer and 60 Minutes were honored with the industry's highest accolades: the Peabody, Emmy and duPont-Columbia University awards. 60 Minutes founder Don Hewitt often pointed to the story as the program's finest work.

 Morley Safer's Pick: Lenell Geter's in Jail

 Safer hit more journalistic home runs, but sought out the odd stories that piqued his curiosity. The offbeat tales were more suited to his raconteur style and cultural sensibility. He found esoteric subjects all over the world and here in the U.S., ranging from a tiny Pacific island nation economically dependent on guano to the strange choice of tango dancing as a national hobby for the shy people of Finland to the strange yet harmonious stew of cowboys and artists in the Texas town of Marfa -- all narrated in his drolly delivered and precise prose. His conversational wit with his subjects was just as sharp as his written word. In a profile of the prim Martha Stewart, a smirking Safer passed her livestock pen and said to the domestic diva, "Your barnyard? It's remarkably odor-free."

 Some of these features had national impact, however, like his November 1991 report, "The French Paradox," which connected red wine consumption to lower incidents of heart disease among the free-eating French. Wine merchants say this report was single-handedly responsible for starting the red wine boom in America. His 1993 segment "Yes, But is it Art?" enraged the modern art community when it criticized expensive, contemporary installations featuring household items like toilets and vacuums. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City may have held a grudge; years later, it refused to allow Safer onto its premises to review a Jackson Pollock retrospective for CBS Sunday Morning.

 Safer's life was a work of art into which 60 Minutes fit seamlessly. He vacationed in Europe, often combining field trips for his stories. He made a regular pilgrimage to The American Academy in Rome to hone his painting skills, a hobby he began from an early age. He mounted a small exhibition of his paintings in 1985. He also had a special affinity for cars and did 60 Minutes segments on England's Rolls Royce and Italy's legendary Lamborghini. He owned a silver 1985 Ferrari convertible, which he had raced occasionally and also owned a Bentley when he lived in London, bought with his winnings from a card game.

 Other highlights from Safer's 60 Minutes work include a poignant segment in 1978 called "The Music of Auschwitz," about an inmate who played in an orchestra to avoid the Nazi gas chambers; his 1979 profile of Katharine Hepburn; "The Beeb," a 1985 Emmy-winning take on BBC Radio; "The Enemy," the 1989 story for which Safer returned to Vietnam; and in 1979, "Marva," about Chicago teacher Marva Collins, whose alternative school for disadvantaged kids proved such students could excel. Safer's follow-up on "Marva" in 1996, in which he debunked a subsequent book that claimed Collins' students would not succeed in the long run, earned him his fourth duPont-Columbia University award.

 In addition to the four duPonts, Safer won every major award, including the Paul White Award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association in 1966 when he was only 35 -- an award usually given for lifetime achievement. The other awards given to Safer over his long career include three Peabody awards, three Overseas Press Club awards, two George Polk Memorial awards, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism first prize for domestic television, the Fred Friendly First Amendment award, 12 Emmys and a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government.

 CBS News hired the Canadian-born Safer in 1964 in London, where he was a correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He got the job in an odd turn of events. One of Safer's CBC colleagues seeking a job with CBS sent a demo tape of a roundtable he anchored that included Safer. CBS news executives liked Safer better and gave him a job in the London Bureau. The young correspondent took over his new job behind the desk once occupied by another CBS legend, the late Edward R. Murrow. After a year, he was asked to open the Saigon Bureau to report on the simmering conflict in Vietnam. He was then named bureau chief in London in 1967 and reported on a variety of foreign stories beyond Britain, many of them risky assignments, including the Nigerian-Biafran War, the Middle East conflict and the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia.

 During this period he also filmed the historic CBS News Special Report "Morley Safer's Red China Diary" (August 1967), the first broadcast by a U.S. network news team from inside Communist China. Safer's Canadian citizenship helped get him into the country posing as a tourist interested in archeology. He and his cameraman, John Peters, were able to film the everyday lives of Chinese with a home movie camera. In a close call, suspicious authorities took Safer and Peters to meet an archeologist, who tested his knowledge. Safer knew enough about China's archeological periods to avoid arrest.

 Safer's reporting and writing also appeared on the CBS News documentary series, "CBS Reports." He had a regular feature on CBS Radio, "Morley Safer's Journal," that ran in 1970s. In May 1994, he hosted "One for the Road: A Conversation with Charles Kuralt and Morley Safer," a CBS News special marking Kuralt's retirement.

 Safer was born Nov. 8, 1931 in Toronto and eventually became an American citizen, holding a dual citizenship. Telling MacLeans he felt "stateless," he believed this status was an advantage. "I bring a different perspective and I have no vested interests," he told the magazine in 1998.

 Growing up, he was influenced by the writing of Ernest Hemingway and decided he would be a foreign correspondent. He attended the University of Western Ontario for only a few weeks when he dropped out to begin writing for newspapers. He first wrote for the rural Woodstock Sentinel-Review before landing a job with the much larger London (Ontario) Free-Press. He then went on to England with the help of the Commonwealth Press Union, which promised to place him in a job there. After a short stint on the Oxford Mail and Times, Reuters hired Safer in London in 1955. When he returned late that year, he found work as an editor and reporter in the Toronto headquarters of the CBC. He was chosen to produce "CBC News Magazine" in 1956, on which he also occasionally appeared . His first on-camera work was on assignment for the CBC covering the Suez Crisis in November 1956.

 The CBC sent him back to London in 1961, from which he covered major stories in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, including the war for Algerian Independence, until he joined CBS. He was the only Western correspondent in East Berlin the night the Communists began building the Berlin Wall in August 1961.

 Safer was asked to characterize his legacy as a journalist in a November 2000 interview with the American Archive of Television. "I have a pretty solid body of work that emphasized the words, emphasized ideas and the craft of writing for this medium. It's not literary, I wouldn't presume to suggest that. But I think you can elevate it a little bit sometimes with the most important part of the medium, which is what people are saying -- whether they're the people being interviewed or the guy who's telling the story. It's not literature, but it can be very classy journalism."

 He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Jane, one daughter, Sarah Bakal, her husband, Alexander Bakal, three grandchildren, a sister, and brother, both of Toronto.

 Funeral arrangements are private. A memorial service will be announced at a later date. ||||| Morley Safer, 60 Minutes' longest-serving correspondent, died this week at age 84. Last week, the broadcast aired a tribute in honor of his retirement after 46 years on the broadcast.

 To celebrate Safer's remarkable tenure, executive producer Jeff Fager called on an in-house dream team -- editor Warren Lustig and producers David Browning, Katy Textor and Michelle St. John -- to create the tribute that aired Sunday night.

 But how do you condense five decades -- that included more than 900 stories -- into a one-hour broadcast? That was the enormous challenge they faced.

 "In the simplest terms, we set out to capture Morley," says Browning, Safer's longtime producer, in the 60 Minutes Overtime video above. "You want to make sure that what you're showing is representative of his work and the great variety of work that he's done."

 That work included a groundbreaking 1965 CBS News report from Cam Ne, Vietnam, where Safer showed U.S. Marines torching villagers' huts, and a 60 Minutes story on Lenell Geter, a black man in Texas wrongly accused of armed robbery and later exonerated as a result of Safer's report.

 There were countless stories, on every imaginable topic, each tale uniquely his own. "They were works of art almost," Fager explains. "What makes a story a Morley story is his original voice. And by that I mean not just the timbre, but [also] the quality of the storytelling, his writing."

 Fager recalls working as Safer's producer and bringing him the first draft of a script. Safer would look at it, stare out the window for a few seconds, and then quickly scroll a piece of paper into his trusty typewriter and rework it to his own satisfaction. Textor showed Overtime one of her scripts with a yellow piece of paper taped on where Safer had added his own better-written line.

 "He simply had this ability to take it to the next level," Browning explains. "There's an old saying of Mark Twain's that the difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. And that's what Morley did. He was lightning."

 While Safer claims his stories were aimed more at the ear than the eye, Fager says the correspondent's genius was his ability to link the two. "You see lines. You hear lines. You experience while you're watching a connection with his writing to the picture," he says.

 Safer didn't take himself too seriously, his colleagues say, and liked to entertain his viewers. "Morley's advice was always: if you can get them to laugh, you're home free," recalls Textor. "He knew that if he could get a chuckle, you were pretty good. You were going to be okay."

 He also had an eye for the absurd. An amateur artist in his spare time, Safer got a kick out of ridiculing pretentiousness in the art world, even if it meant gently mocking collectors as they showed him around. "Morley has always had a great sense of smoking out phonies and smoking out phony stories and things that just aren't right," Browing says.

 Some of Safer's most memorable pieces were offbeat - or downright bizarre: A story on the popularity of tango in Finland, for instance, or a tale of crime and punishment on Furudu, a tiny island in the Maldives.

 "Morley discovered [that] a story could be essentially what you made it to be," says Browning. "If you found an interesting place to go and an interesting cast of characters, it really didn't matter if there was a huge headline there. As we say in the broadcast, the journey was really the story."

 It was a journey Safer enjoyed immensely. "I've led a charmed life," he said in an interview. "I mean, in every respect, I've led a charmed life as a reporter, as an individual. A lot of it is, as I said, blood, sweat, toil, and tears, but a lot of it is pure, unadulterated luck, and I've been a very lucky guy."

 Photos courtesy of CBS News, CBS Photo Archive and Morley Safer

 The video above was produced by Lisa Orlando, and edited by Lisa Orlando and Will Croxton. |||||

– Just days after retiring from 60 Minutes, Morley Safer is dead at age 84, reports CBS News. No word yet on a cause of death for Safer, who had worked on the show about half a century. His retirement, however, was attributed to unspecified health issues, notes CNNMoney. Prior to his work on 60 Minutes, the Canadian native made his name as a reporter covering the Vietnam War for the network. As part of its going-away tribute surrounding Safer's final show Sunday, CBS had posted videos celebrating his work here. "Morley was one of the most important journalists in any medium, ever," says CBS chief Leslie Moonves.


Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is expressing confidence that he's won another term but Republican challenger Scott Milne isn't conceding.

 Shumlin issued a statement late Wednesday morning saying it's clear he's ahead. An Associated Press tally at 11:20 a.m. had the governor up by nearly 2,200 votes over Milne.

 The only town missing from the AP's count was Victory, which had a population in 2000 of just 97 people.

 Milne says he's waiting for final figures from the secretary of state's office.

 With neither candidate winning more than 50 percent of the vote, the election goes to the Legislature in January, where Shumlin's fellow Democrats control both houses.

 Copyright Associated Press ||||| MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — An unexpectedly strong challenge to Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin means the gubernatorial race will be decided by the state Legislature in January.

 Democrat incumbent Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin calls it a night without declaring victory on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014 in Burlington, Vt. (AP Photo/Andy Duback) (Associated Press)

 At the close of election night, Shumlin had about 46.7 percent of the vote while his Republican challenger Scott Milne has just over 45 percent.

 Shumlin had been expected to cruise to re-election for his third-two-year term, but Milne apparently played on voter discontent with the governor. The race stayed close for most of the night.

 Under the Vermont Constitution, candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and treasurer are required to win a minimum of 50 percent plus one to be elected directly. If not, the race is decided by the Legislature.

 In the history of Vermont, 23 previous elections for governor have gone to the Legislature, which nearly always gives the election to the candidate who won the most votes. There have been three exceptions, the last one in 1853.

 Shumlin was chosen by the Legislature for his first two-year-term in 2010. That year Shumlin won 49.5 percent of the vote while his Republican opponent had 47.7 percent. The most recent time the race involving an incumbent governor was decided by the Legislature was in 1986.

 Experts say Shumlin's sub-50 percent showing could reduce momentum behind his signature agenda item, a universal health care system covering all Vermonters. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– It's one of the stranger outcomes of election night: The race for Vermont governor is so close that the state legislature might have to decide the winner, reports AP. More precisely, the state constitution stipulates that if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, lawmakers must pick one. That applies here, with Democrat incumbent Peter Shumlin at 46.7% and Republican challenger Scott Milne at 45%, a difference of about 2,500 votes. NECN points that in in modern political history, the second-place finisher has generally conceded rather than send the vote to the Legislature, but Milne has shown no sign of doing so. Last time this happened? In 2010, when lawmakers picked Shumlin for his first term.