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As a passionate sports fan and adopted Boltonian of 40 years, we are going through the toughest of times, none more so than this week, but the opportunity to experience the greatest brass band in the world playing everything from Harry Potter to 1812 is only days away in our town, and I urge everyone to please come out...
The Kurdish people of Iraq, independent in all but law, have clamored continuously for full independence and statehood—a pursuit that could impact stability in the Middle East.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, has autonomously governed a corridor in the North of Iraq for some time now. Following the rise of the Islamic State, Peshmerga forces (the military arm of the KRG) were instrumental in halting the spread of the Islamic Caliphate. Baghdad’s Iraqi National Army, trained a...
In addition to consolidating their hold on the territory of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, they also claimed by right of conquest two oil fields in July 2016, the Bai Hassan field and the Kirkuk oil field, the seizing of which led to a further deterioration of relations between Erbil and Baghdad. These areas had previou...
Since retaking the oil fields in October of last year, Baghdad’s Ministry of Oil has finalized an agreement with British Petroleum in the hopes of increasing production capacity. Instead of utilizing the pipeline that used to send crude from Kirkuk to Turkey through the Kurdistan region, this plan opted for trucking th...
To further complicate the international situation, Dmitry Zhdannikov recently reported that while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was begging the KRG to halt its calls for independence, Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft the Russian state owned oil major, was penning a deal with KRG officials. Zhdannikov further reported th...
But make no mistake, Igor Sechin is not just the CEO of a major player in the oil industry. He is also the former deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation, a former intelligence officer of the KGB, and close confidant of Russian president Vladmir Putin. A Stratfor report once described him as commanding the loya...
With the rise of a second Cold War, the fear is that many of the strategies and methods promulgated during the last global bipolar conflict are returning in the digital age—an age of asymmetric warfare and aggressive information operations. Complex issues and international crises can be co-opted and retooled to fit the...
The Kurdish people of Iraq, independent in all but law, have clamored continuously for full independence and statehood. This effort has been stymied by conflicting U.S. efforts to implement a plan for a territorially stable and viable Iraq. However, Kurdish calls for independence can only be met with the answer “now is...
If the U.S. approach is to continually delay Erbil’s calls for independence, then the KRG may in turn seek to cut some of their ties to the United States because of “a lack of constructive interest” and could seek out partnerships with countries that show “a higher interest to expand strategic cooperation.” If the KRG ...
Michael R. G. Lyons is a DC-based researcher, who has focused on Security issues in Europe and the Middle East.
Two local nonprofits are teaming up again for a talent show, featuring young people from Burlington County.
Faith in Action! Inc. and All Things Are Possible Foundation, both Willingboro organizations, are hosting the event for the second straight year at the Kennedy Center on John F. Kennedy Way on Feb. 22.
Much like last year’s event, the talent show will feature students who are actors, dancers, artists, comedians, singers, musicians and more.
Participants must be in kindergarten through 12th grade, ages 5 to 18, and a resident of Burlington County.
Winners will be awarded prizes with proceeds from the event going toward 2019 youth programs.
Vendors will offer for sale items such as African clothing, jewelry and natural soaps.
“All Things Are Possible Foundation and Faith in Action, Inc. are excited about this annual event,” said Dr. Tiffani Worthy, CEO and Chairwoman of All Things Are Possible.
The talent show will be Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. at the Kennedy Center on 429 JFK Way in Willingboro.
Tickets are $15 each ($20 at the door); the vendor fee is $75. The registration fee for performers is $30 and includes two free tickets. Performers must sign up by Jan. 31.
There are also donation and sponsorship opportunities.
Contact 609-835-7000 or visit www.atapfoundation.org/talent-show for more information or to buy tickets.
The Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, tasked the 704th TG Directed Energy Combined Task Force at Kirtland Air Force Base to execute the DE Experimentation Campaign. The task force is an operating unit of Arnold Engineering Development Complex, ...
It’s not just you: CAPTCHAs have gotten more difficult in recent years, thanks to artificial intelligence progressing to the point that machines can bypass older CAPTCHA versions. Software can still beat modern iterations to some extent, but Google’s reCAPTCHA(s goog) has done a decent job of remaining unbreakable.
Not anymore. Vicarious, an artificial intelligence startup, announced today that it has developed software that can crack any type of CAPTCHA with at least 90 percent accuracy. Its secret is an advancement in crunching CAPTCHAs where letters are squished together and overlapped, which is what makes reCAPTCHA so effecti...
Earlier versions of CAPTCHA had evenly spaced letters that computers could easily pick out and process. When the letters are crunched together, it takes much more advanced software to pick out the distinct shapes.
Google announced Friday that it updated reCAPTCHA to be simpler for humans while still challenging bots. The new version relies on numbers instead of letters, which humans find easier to pick apart. Google emphasized that a CAPTCHA on its own isn’t meant to sort out which users are human or a computer, but instead it i...
Vicarious does not plan to release its software to the public, which means CAPTCHAs could be safe for now from advanced AI attacks. The company plans to eventually apply its artificial intelligence developments to image and video analysis and robotics.
Remove the concept of captcha!
NORWALK -- A woman arrested last month for allegedly stealing a wallet at a Stamford funeral home was charged again Wednesday with stealing wallets from the purses of two women attending wakes in New Canaan in September and October.
Diane Seeley, 49, of 55 Plattsville Ave., Norwalk, was charged with two counts of third-degree burglary, fourth-degree larceny and sixth-degree larceny.
Seeley was arraigned before Judge Bruce Hudock, who ordered that she be held on $25,000 bond.
Bail commissioner Daniel Melendez said Seeley's criminal record shows she has been convicted of 81 crimes and has been arrested 47 times.
New Canaan police began investigating Seeley after a woman reported that her wallet was stolen when she was attending a private wake for her aunt at the Hoyt Funeral Home on the night of Sept. 18. Inside the wallet was $500 in cash, credit cards and house keys, Seeley's four-page arrest affidavit said.
The niece of the deceased said she approached the woman, later identified through a photo lineup as Seeley, because she did not recognize her. Seeley told her that she knew the woman's aunt because she lived in the same complex, the affidavit said.
On Oct. 16, a woman reported to New Canaan police that her wallet had been stolen during another wake at Hoyt's the night before, the affidavit said. Inside the wallet was $75 in cash and various credit cards and papers.
The funeral home director warned other funeral directors in Stamford and Darien of the thefts, the affidavit said.
An investigation into past similar crimes in the lower Fairfield County area helped police identify Seeley, who also goes by the name Diane Ladestro, as a suspect.
On Nov. 3, Seeley was interviewed by New Canaan police, but denied being at any funeral home.
The interview ended abruptly when Seeley said, "I'm leaving," the affidavit said.
An arrest warrant was signed after two of Hoyt's employees and a victim identified Seeley through a photo lineup, the affidavit said.
Seeley was arrested in early December after Stamford police obtained an arrest warrant in the theft of a woman's wallet during a wake at the Nicholas F. Cognetta Funeral Home in October.
She was also charged with stealing credit cards and money from a purse during a Sunday Mass at St. Maurice Catholic Church in Glenbrook in September, police said.
Seeley, who was transported back to the women's York Correctional Institution in Niantic, will return to court Jan. 21.
Staff Writer John Nickerson can be reached at 964-2320 and john.nickerson@scni.com.
KATOWICE, Poland, May 15 (Reuters) - Poland’s biggest utility, PGE, plans to launch a tender for the technology that will be used in the country’s first nuclear power plant by the end of next month, its deputy head said on Tuesday.
In a bid to reduce its reliance on highly-polluting coal and provide energy for its expanding economy, Poland is planning a 3 gigawatt nuclear plant and hopes to double its capacity by 2030.
State-controlled PGE, which also reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings, is managing the project.
The process of choosing the nuclear technology has so far attracted the interest of American-Japanese group GE Hitachi , France’s Areva and Westinghouse, a U.S unit of Japan’s Toshiba.
But it has been hampered by bureaucratic delays. PGE said in March the tender would be launched within two months, but had provided no further information on the matter since then.
“Our schedule assumes the tender for the nuclear plant’s contractor will be launched in the second quarter,” Boguslawa Matuszewska told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of an economic congress taking place in Katowice, the capital of Poland’s coal region in the southwest.
PGE is looking at running the project with a partner or on its own, and with or without state guarantees, Matuszewska said.
Like other Polish utilities, PGE relies almost exclusively on coal.
Thanks to the launch of the country’s largest power unit at its lignite-fired plant in Belchatow, PGE reported a better-than-expected 27-percent jump in earnings for the first three months of the year to 1.53 billion zlotys ($456 million).
By 1320 GMT, PGE shares were down 0.1 percent as Warsaw’s main index slipped 1.2 percent.
PGE launched the 858-megawatt unit in September, helping it to increase power generation in the first three months of this year by a tenth to 15.4 terawatt-hours.
“We have giant volumes on lignite-fired blocks, they were all working at full capacity,” said Pawel Puchalski, an analyst at Bank Zachodni WBK brokerage.
Matuszewska also said the utility may decide to keep its telecoms arm Exatel, which it was expected to try to sell again after an earlier failed attempt.
“We should make a decision on Exatel in a relatively very short period of time. We are seriously considering a scenario assuming retaining Exatel within the group,” he said.
Exatel provides telecom services to a number of public institutions, including those responsible for state security, and might therefore need to remain under state control.
Samsung Gulf Electronics has launched the Galaxy A6 and A6+ in the UAE, the devices combine everyday convenience and stylish design with an advanced camera.
Featuring a powerful front and rear camera, a sleek premium design, super Amoled screens and Samsung’s signature Infinity Display, said a statement.
“With the new devices, we aim to provide a premium smartphone experience while still delivering on consumers’ needs for practicality and convenience at affordable prices,” he said.
“What’s more, we have added an impressive camera to the Galaxy A6 and A6+ that lets users capture, personalise, and share their most memorable moments,” he added.
With the new devices’ feature an adjustable front LED flash, through which users can snap stylish and glamorous selfies, from day to night, even in low light conditions. The rear camera’s low-aperture lenses ensure that users can also capture sharp, clear photos in low light conditions, without sacrificing image qualit...
The Galaxy A6+’s Dual Camera can even further enhance the pictures and moments that matter with Live Focus mode, meaning that users can control the depth of field and bokeh effect before or even after the shot is taken. Users can enrich their pictures with unique background blur patterns in a range of shapes including ...
Users can experience a richer surround sound experience to enjoy movies, music and more with Dolby Atmos optimised audio. The mobiles provide a full range of sound from highs to lows, with outstanding clarity and true-to-life detail for a more powerful and immersive audio experience. Users can choose to turn on the Dol...
The Galaxy devices continue to set the standard for the ultimate uninterrupted viewing experience on the 5.6” HD+ super Amoled screen of the A6 and the 6.0” FHD+ super Amoled screen of the A6+.
Samsung’s signature Infinity Display goes beyond the bezel, featuring an impressive 18.5:9 screen ratio . Its sleek smooth curves and metal design have been engineered to offer improved durability and comfortable grip for maximum usability, without compromising on style.
Designed with practicality and everyday convenience in mind, the mobiles integrates several popular features from Samsung’s flagship, including hassle-free security with face recognition and fingerprint scanning for a quick and effortless way to unlock the device.
Both devices make multitasking fast and easy with App Pair, fully utilising the devices’ large ergonomic screens by allowing users to pair two apps, halving time and doubling enjoyment.
With the Always on Display users can get information at a glance without unlocking their phone, saving on time and battery life.
The Galaxy A6 and A6+ also support Bixby Vision, home and reminder. Samsung’s Bixby can assist users in completing a range of everyday tasks.
Reality series. The twelfth series comes to a close with the Wrights still reeling from the big bust-up at Leah's wedding. Arg makes a bid for Lydia's affections once again.
USA-France women's soccer: Why Americans should root for the French team in the Women's World Cup semifinal.
Why Americans should root for the French team in the Women’s World Cup.
In advance of Wednesday’s Women’s World Cup semifinal between the United States and France, we’re exchanging some good-natured (and some less good-natured) trash talk with our friends at sister site Slate.fr. Below, Clément Noël and Grégoire Fleurot offer four reasons why all Americans should root for France. And elsew...
We know soccer (and you don’t): The United States considers Landon Donovan to be a real soccer player, when everybody knows he has never been able to stand out on a European club. And to think that America pays Thierry Henry a fortune, when the man—who indeed used to be a superb player once—should now sit at Madame Tus...
But here in la douce France, as in the other European countries, soccer is Number One. Dramatic confrontations on the lawn have replaced the bloody battles of yore. Any Frenchman will tell you that the last big defeat against Germany did not take place in 1940, but during the semifinal of 1982, when the German goalkeep...
It’s time for a change: As everybody knows, American women are the best when it comes to soccer. The U.S. national team is first in the FIFA rankings, they’ve won an endless amount of medals, and the American professional league draws the best female players in the world. French female soccer players, on the other hand...
By defeating England in the quarterfinals, the French women also qualified for their first Olympic Games, a competition that the American female players have already won three times. In short, Wednesday’s game promises to be absolutely unbalanced (even bookmakers say so), a replay of David and Goliath in studs and shor...
For art’s sake: The French soccer team has always been known for its sophisticated and refined playing technique. This is personified by first-class players such as Platini and Zidane, stars who made a difference with their extraordinary technique and smartness rather than with the physical dimension of their game. The...
However hard they practice, the American women will never be able to make up for the natural talent and aesthetic perfection of the petites Françaises. If you love to see a beautiful game and are keen on a certain romanticism in soccer—that is, if you prefer to watch FC Barcelona to Italian soccer—then your heart will ...
Yes we (also) can: You have Obama. We have our soccer teams. If France is a few decades behind the USA in terms of ethnic diversity in politics and corporate leadership, we compensate with the variety of our soccer teams. The French team that won the 1998 World Cup was globally celebrated as the symbol of a multicultur...
Granted, more than a decade later, we’re not that enthusiastic about our men’s players. The French team made a fool of itself in front of the whole world last year, with social tensions destroying the team from the inside. It has also been shaken by a scandal including quotas based on the players’ skin color. But hey, ...
Translated from the French by Bérengère Viennot.
Sensory Networks is a provider of Network Security OEM technology solutions that include high-performance Antivirus and Intrusion Prevention (IPS) applications and Multi-Gigabit content scanning Acceleration technology.
All cash deal. Unnamed sources said the price was “around $20 million” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The head of US Air Force Special Operations Command has issued a “JFK challenge” to the defence industry to install a high-power electric laser on an AC-130 gunship by the end of the decade.
Lt Gen Bradley Heithold says just as US president John F Kennedy wanted to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, he wants a laser-armed gunship by 2020. The commander issued the challenge at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington this week.
He wants the system to weigh less than 2,268kg (5,000lbs) and occupy a space no greater than one gun position on the latest AC-130J “Ghostrider” gunship.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has designed a high-energy laser tactical weapon module for its “Predator C” Avenger UAV (HEL Avenger), but it can also be adapted to suit the AC-130U Spooky and V-22 Osprey. The company is currently trialling its High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defence System (HELLADS) for the air fo...
The general first announced his pursuit of a laser gunship in February, but his comments this week provide the first solid time frame for development and fielding.
Heithold says his command is already developing concepts of operation as well as “tactics, techniques and procedures” for how to employ an airborne laser weapon in combat. AFSOC has also prepared a “capabilities development document” that lays out the necessary key performance parameters.
The intent is to create a laser powerful enough to knock out missiles defensively, but also to “burn a beer-can sized hole” in a vehicle.
In March, Lockheed Martin’s ground-based Advanced Test High Energy Asset (ATHENA) laser burnt a hole through a small truck from a distance greater than 1600m.
That level of power has been demonstrated many times with ground-based weapons, but a much higher level of sophistication is needed to achieve the same results from the air.
One AC-130W Stinger II gunship has been spared from retirement to support development and testing, the general says.
The Air Force Research Laboratory, DARPA and Lockheed began trialling the Aero-adaptive Aero-optic Beam Control (ABC) laser turret on the University of Notre Dame’s “Airborne Aero Optical Laboratory Transonic Aircraft” in Michigan last September.
AFSOC’s pursuit of laser weapon technology coincides with an increase in US Special Operations Forces spending on science and technology. US Special Operations Command traditionally spends about 3% of its $10 billion annual budget on S&T, but that portion is being boosted to 5%.

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