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A history of the country’s struggle with alcoholism, and why the government has done so little about it.
Picture the Russian alcoholic: nose rosy, face unshaven, a bottle of vodka firmly grasped in his hands. By his side he has a half-empty jar of pickles and a loaf of rye bread to help the devilish substance go down. The man is singing happily from alcohol-induced jubilation. His world may not be perfect, but the inebriation makes it seem that way.
Today, according to the World Health Organization, one in five men in the Russia Federation die due to alcohol-related causes, compared with 6.2 percent of all men globally. In 2000, in her article “First Steps: AA and Alcoholism in Russia,” Patricia Critchlow estimated that some 20 million Russians are alcoholics in a nation of just 144 million.

“After each drastically stepped-up anti-alcohol campaign, [Russian] society found itself faced with an even greater spread of drunkenness and alcoholism."

 The Russian alcoholic was an enduring fixture during the Tsarist times, during the times of the Russian Revolution, the times of the Soviet Union, during the transition from socialist autocracy to capitalist democracy, and he continues to exist in Russian society today. He sits on broken park benches or train station steps with a cigarette drooping out of his mouth, thinking about where his next drink will come from and whether he can afford it.
The Russian government has repeatedly tried to combat the problem, but to little avail: this includes four reforms prior to 1917, and larger scale measures taken during the Soviet period in 1958, 1972, and 1985. “After each drastically stepped-up anti-alcohol campaign, [Russian] society found itself faced with an even greater spread of drunkenness and alcoholism,” explains G.G. Zaigraev, professor of Sociological Sciences and Head Science Associate of the Institute of Sociology at the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Kremlin’s own addiction to liquor revenues has overturned many efforts to wean Russians from the snifter: Ivan the Terrible encouraged his subjects to drink their last kopecks away in state-owned taverns to help pad the emperor’s purse. Before Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in the 1980s, Soviet leaders welcomed alcohol sales as a source of state revenue and did not view heavy drinking as a significant social problem. In 2010, Russia’s finance minister, Aleksei L. Kudrin, explained that the best thing Russians can do to help, “the country’s flaccid national economy was to smoke and drink more, thereby paying more in taxes.”
By facilitating alcohol sales and distribution, the Kremlin has historically had considerable sway in recent decades. But Russia’s history with alcohol goes back centuries.
In the year 988, Prince Vladimir decided to convert his nation to Orthodox Christianity, partly because it allowed the consumption of alcohol. According to legend, monks at the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin were the first to lay their lips on vodka in the late 15th century, but as Russian writer, Victor Erofeyev notes, “Almost everything about this story seems overly symbolic: the involvement of men of God, the name of the monastery, which no longer exists (chudov means “miraculous”), and its setting in the Russian capital.” In 1223, when the Russian army suffered a devastating defeat against the invading Mongols and Tartars, it was partly because they had gone into battle drunk.
Ivan the Terrible established kabaks (establishments where spirits were produced and sold) in the 1540s, and in the 1640s they had become monopolies. In 1648, tavern revolts broke out across the country, by which time a third of the male population was in debt to the taverns. In the 1700s, to regain order, Peter the Great monopolized the vodka industry and used his subjects’ alcoholism for personal gain. As Heidi Brown, who spent 10 years covering Russia for Forbes magazine, explained, “[Peter the Great] decreed that the wives of peasants should be whipped if they dared attempt to drag their imbibing husbands out of taverns before the men were ready to leave.”
 Peter the Great also found a steady supply of free labor by allowing those who had drunk themselves into debt to stay out of debtors prison by serving 25 years in the army.
Widespread and excessive alcohol consumption was not only tolerated, but encouraged as a way of generating revenue. By the 1850s, nearly half the tsarist government’s tax revenues came from vodka sales. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Lenin banned vodka. After his death, however, Stalin used vodka sales to help pay for the socialist industrialization of the Soviet Union. By the 1970s, receipts from alcohol again constituted a third of government revenues. One study found that alcohol consumption more than doubled between 1955 and 1979, to 15.2 liters per person.
It has been argued that heavy consumption of alcohol was also used as a means of reducing political dissent and as a form of political suppression. Russian historian and dissident Zhores Medvedev argued in 1996, “This ‘opium for the masses’ [vodka] perhaps explains how Russian state property could be redistributed and state enterprises transferred into private ownership so rapidly without invoking any serious social unrest.” Vodka, always a moneymaker in Russia, may have been a regime-maker as well.
To date, there have been only two expansive anti-alcohol campaigns in Russia, both of which took place during the Soviet Union: one under Vladimir Lenin and the other under Mikhail Gorbachev. All other leaders have either brushed alcoholism under the carpet or acknowledged heavy alcohol consumption but did nothing substantial about it. As Critchlow wrote, “Under the Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev regimes, harsh penalties were imposed on those who committed crimes while intoxicated, but heavy drinking was not viewed as a threat to society, perhaps because the leaders, who themselves liked to indulge, saw the use of alcohol as a safety valve for low morale.”
In May 1985, Gorbachev announced legislation and a large-scale media campaign as part of the Kremlin’s new war on alcoholism—then the U.S.S.R.’s number one social problem and the third most common ailment after heart disease and cancer. It was largely seen as the most determined and effective plan to date: the birthrate rose, life expectancy increased, wives started seeing their husbands more, and work productivity improved. However, after a spike in alcohol prices and a decrease in state alcohol production, some started hoarding sugar to make moonshine, and others poisoned themselves with dangerous intoxicants such as antifreeze. The people’s displeasure with Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaign can be summarized by an old Soviet joke: “There was this long line for vodka, and one poor guy couldn’t stand it any longer: ‘I’m going to the Kremlin, to kill Gorbachev,’ he said. An hour later, he came back. The line was still there, and everyone asked him, ‘Did you kill him?’ ‘Kill him?!’ he responded. ‘The line for that’s even longer than this one!’”
 Despite Gorbachev’s efforts, by the end of the Soviet era, alcoholism still had a stronghold in Russia. Its success ultimately lead to its failure: spending on alcohol from state outlets fell by billions of rubles between 1985 and 1987. Authorities expected that the loss in revenue would be more than offset by a predicted 10 percent rise in overall productivity, but such predictions were ultimately not met.
Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the state’s monopoly over alcohol was repealed in 1992, which lead to an exponential increase in alcohol supply. In 1993, alcohol consumption had reached 14.5 liters of pure alcohol per person, making Russia one of the largest consumers of alcohol in the world. To date, taxation on alcohol remains low, with the cheapest bottles of vodka costing just 30 rubles ($1) each. As Tom Parfitt explained in the Lancet in 2006, “There is a simple answer to why so many Russians fall prey to alcohol…it’s cheap. Between 30-60% of alcohol is clandestinely made, and therefore untaxed. A large quantity is run off on ‘night shifts’ at licensed factories where state inspectors are bribed to remove tags on production lines at the end of the working day.”
Vladimir Putin has criticized excessive drinking, and Dmitri Medvedev has called Russia’s alcoholism a “natural disaster,” but besides the rhetoric, little has been done to tighten regulations on the manufacture of liquor, and no coherent programs have been implemented to combat alcoholism. Gennady Onishchenko, Chief Public Health Inspector of the Russian Federation, has urged major spending on the treatment of alcoholism as a response to the tripling of alcohol-related mortality since 1990, arguing that prohibition and excise tax hikes are counterproductive.
Today, the dominant mode of treatment for alcoholism in Russia is a suggestion-based method developed by narcology (the subspecialty of Russian psychiatry that deals with addiction). Narcology, otherwise referred to as ‘coding’, is a procedure intended to provoke a subconscious aversion to alcohol.
The Russian Orthodox Church has met self-help programs with suspicion as well. Critchlow explained, “Despite their record of success with many alcoholics and drug addicts, the self-help programs Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous . . . have [been] met with resistance in Russia, especially from the medical profession, government officials, and the Russian Orthodox Church clergy.” She further wrote, “Members of the Russian Orthodox clergy have expressed distrust of the self-help movement, often because of the perception of it as a religious cult invading the country.”
In 2010, the Church described AA as an "effective instrument in rehabilitating drug and alcohol addicts,” while saying it would develop its own alcohol program.

As a young doctor, I helped perform a Santeria ritual for a patient in jail, rather than sending him to psychiatrists. I think I did the right thing.
The entrance to Ward D, in the bowels of Jackson Memorial Hospital, was through a thick steel door with a chest-high peephole. A cop sat on the other side. The room was a bare concrete rectangle with steel manacles embedded in the walls and a piss trough at the far end. I figured the D stood for dungeon. In front of each set of wall irons there was a gurney, usually with an inmate from Miami’s Dade County Jail sitting or lying on it.
Many years ago, I was doing my residency at Jackson Memorial, the major teaching hospital for the University of Miami School of Medicine, and part of our emergency room training was caring for sick prisoners. Inmates from the jail, one of the largest and most overcrowded in the country, were transported to Ward D for their medical care.
I remember a young man who’d been stabbed in the eye, a toothbrush quivering in his socket while his hands were shackled over his head to the wall behind him. There was a famous musician, high on a multi-drug cocktail, who had scraped his nimble guitar fingers raw trying to claw his way up his cell wall. And usually, there were a number of heroin addicts having seizures from going cold turkey. The word was that nine or 10 inmates had died in the Dade County Jail the year before, from overdoses, suicides, or murder.
Several of my fellow residents and I tried to improve conditions for the prisoners. We began staffing regular clinics in the jail, and at the minimum security Dade County Stockade, and we were able to substantially cut down on transfers to Ward D.
One late afternoon, as I was leaving the jail clinic, one of the guards asked me if I would mind checking on an inmate he was concerned about. He said he looked like he was in a trance, that he hadn’t moved or batted an eye since they brought him in the night before.
We walked up to the fifth floor, accompanied by a surround sound cursing cacophony. “Hey Doc, look at this!” “Fuck you!” Screams. Urine thrown.
The young man was alone in his cell, sitting in a lotus position, staring straight ahead. He was slender and wore an overlarge white jumpsuit. He was handsome and Hispanic, with dark brown curly hair. His name, the guard said, was Jose, and he’d been brought in the night before on a burglary charge. The guard had no more information.
Jose was motionless, catatonic. I suspected he was schizophrenic—although seeing him sitting like a baby-faced Buddha on the cell floor, it was difficult to imagine him stealing anything the night before. He did not respond to any of my questions. I picked up his hand and felt his pulse, holding his wrist, and he kept it there, chest high, when I let go. He had very long fingernails on his thumb and pinkie. Probably not a guitar picker, but handy cocaine spoons, I thought.
The guard called downstairs for more help and a gurney. We picked Jose up and rolled him to the small jail clinic.
Ron, a physician assistant, was there starting duty for the night shift. He was tall, fit, and smiling, with short blonde hair in a flat top and a clean-cut, confident presence. This was the first time we’d met. Ron watched as I examined Jose. He had evident needle track marks on his hands and forearms, and he kept his arms in the same positions I put them in while examining, like a doll, unmoving. His heart and lungs were fine and his pupils responded normally, contracting to my penlight, but I didn’t even try to have him lie down—he was stuck in his rigid, cross-legged posture.
Ron nodded his head at me, and we walked into our small office. Ron told me he thought that someone had put a mojo on Jose—that he was hexed, and that his fingernails were a clue. “Santeria,” he said.
I’d just learned about Santeria the week before—an Afro-Caribbean belief system that spread from the Yoruba culture of West Africa to Cuba and the Americas. Joan Halifax, a PhD. student in anthropology, had given a fascinating talk to our residents about hexing, spells, mojos, and witchcraft among the mix of Cubans, Haitians, Puerto Ricans, and Bahamians living in South Florida.
I suggested to Ron that we might be seeing hysteria, a conversion reaction in which overwhelming mental stress can cause paralysis. But in any event, we ought to have him evaluated by the hospital psychiatrists, in Ward D.
I called Joan Halifax, introduced myself, and told her about Jose. She said she’d come right over, and I arranged with the warden to allow her to come up to the clinic.
An hour or so later, Ron explained to Joan and me that he had been a medic before physician assistant school, and that after Vietnam, he’d spent considerable time in the “islands” at an unnamed military installation. There he’d become interested in Santeria and had befriended an Obispo, a bishop in this complex religion that blended elements of Catholicism with Yoruba gods and goddesses. The Obispo had taught Ron how to do exorcisms, and Ron said Jose needed one.
I could have said no. I could have just sent him to Ward D. But then Joan and I wouldn’t have this story to tell.
Ron placed a large brown grocery bag on the floor, from which he produced a beautiful king conch shell. We all walked into the exam room, and standing in front of Jose’s staring face, Ron lifted the conch shell above his head and smashed it into a hundred pieces on the floor. Then he picked up a sharp piece of shell, gripped Jose’s left wrist, and cut an X into his forearm, blood oozing out from the pattern. Then, with another piece of shell, he cut a matching X into his own left forearm. Jose did not flinch. Facing Jose, Ron bound their cut arms together, palm-to-palm, with a red bandana. They spent the night in the clinic like that, tied together.
I called the clinic in the morning and Ron told me that Jose was talking, He said that he’d performed some other Santeria rituals that night, and that Jose finally blinked a couple of times and asked where he was. He wasn’t hearing voices, and didn’t seem paranoid, but was pretty scared, reasonably normal behavior under the circumstances. As a physician, I’m still not sure why Jose woke up, but it could have something to do with grooming—that special behavior that we humans share with many animals—the ability to soothe each other, by touch, or talk, or tradition.
We all met late that afternoon at the jail, and Ron related Jose’s history. Jose was in his early 20s. His family had come to Florida from Cuba shortly after the 1959 revolution, while they still could. They moved to New York City to be closer to relatives, but as a teenager, Jose started using heroin, and his mother moved the family back to Miami to try to escape the drugs. It didn’t work. His mother finally kicked him out of the house, and she told him that she’d consulted the Obispo about him, and that he could return if he got clean. Jose told Ron that he’d only come back to his family’s house because he was looking for a place to hide after he’d robbed a convenience store. But when he arrived, he found a king conch shell by the front door and cops waiting in the bushes. Ron said, the king conch shell represented Elegua, the Santeria god and guardian of the crossroads of life, the spirit that controls entrances, exits and decisions, and that Elegua had put a spell on Jose, or at least Jose thought he had.

The judiciary may appear the only functional branch of the federal government, but it's contributing in a big way to a major national problem.
By a strange coincidence, the Supreme Court's October Term may begin just as the rest of the government collapses.
The Court, however, will assemble with a swagger. Though the 5-4 cases — like United States v. Windsor (the DOMA case) and National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (the health-care case) garner the headlines — the Roberts Court is more harmonious than the rest of the government. Nearly half of its opinions last term were unanimous, the culmination of an upward trend from the last years of the Rehnquist Court. The justices may exchange sharp words in their opinions (and sarcastic looks on the bench), but they are great pals after hours, attending the opera or shooting large game animals in bipartisan packs. The Court is the branch that works.
So the justices will probably be feeling good as they put on their robes. But maybe they shouldn’t be high-fiving behind the velvet curtain. In fact, they might want to look in the mirror and wonder what part they have played in the train wreck that is 21st-century American democracy. It’s not a small one.
These reflections were spurred by a report in The New York Times that outside groups like the Club for Growth are using their massive wealth to threaten Republican members of Congress who dare hint at a compromise to avert shutdown and default. A number of House members know that the boat is about to go over the falls, but if they try to stop it, far-right individuals and groups will turn on them.
These members must avoid a primary challenge at any cost. But they don’t need to worry about voter backlash, even if they wreck the economy and the nation’s credit. That’s because scientific gerrymandering of House districts has made them all but immune to defeat by a Democratic opponent. In the 2012 election nationwide, Democratic candidates won a plurality of the vote, 48.8 percent to 48.47. But clever districting produced a Republican majority of 234-201 — nearly 54 percent of the seats. In many districts, voters have no real choice.
Red-state Republican senators who fear popular disgust — from, say, Latinos reacting to their resistance to immigration reform — have another line of defense: 18 states have passed vote-suppression measures since 2011. In close elections, just keeping one or two percent of the voters at home can make all the difference. In other words, American democracy is breaking down. It’s war to the knife between the parties.
In this spectacle of decay, the Court’s hands aren’t clean. Over the past two decades, a series of silly and impractical decisions, taken together, have helped clog the arteries of our political system. If that system suffers a catastrophic infarction next month, the Court must shoulder part of the blame.

Take polarization. Here is what may be the worst prophecy ever to appear in the United States Reports: "As for the case at hand, if properly managed by the District Court, it appears to us highly unlikely to occupy any substantial amount of petitioner's time." Those words appeared in Justice John Paul Stevens’s opinion for the Court in the 1997 case of Clinton v. Jones, in which President Bill Clinton asked the Court to stay a sexual-harassment lawsuit brought against him by Paula Jones. He did not ask for dismissal, just a delay until after he left office, arguing that having to respond to civil actions would distract him from his duties. Pish-tush, replied the justices. The result was the first impeachment and trial of a sitting president in more than a century. No single event has done more to foul the atmosphere of today’s politics.
Two years later, the five-justice conservative majority awarded the White House to George W. Bush, who systematically deepened political division in his years as president. "Get over it!" Justice Antonin Scalia likes to say when citizens question Bush v. Gore. Why should they? The nation hasn’t gotten over Bush; we’re not even close.
The gerrymander of 2010 flowed directly from a 2004 case where the Court considered Pennsylvania's carefully orchestrated, computer-driven redistricting — a partisan coup openly designed to maximize Republican gains. The same five who picked Bush threw the redistricting plaintiffs out of court. Scalia wrote for four of the five, "'Fairness' does not seem to us a judicially manageable standard."
As for the Court's role in dark money, I don’t need to say much. Since Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2009, the Court has been at war with any effort to limit the political influence of the rich.
Finally, the ballot wars across the country owe much to the Court’s crabbed concept of democracy. In the 2008 case of Crawford v. Marion Co. Election Board, the Court told Indiana to go full-speed-ahead in a partisan voter-ID law aimed at imaginary fraud. "The record contains no evidence of any such fraud actually occurring in Indiana at any time in its history," Stevens breezily wrote. But he upheld the law because some fraud had occurred in New York City — in 1868.
Then, in June, the five conservative justices decided that Southern racism is a thing of the past, and that Southern states must be allowed to impose new ballot regulations without the pre-clearance mandated by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The law had been reauthorized with near unanimity by a huge bipartisan majority and signed by George W. Bush. But the majority disagreed: "Our country has changed." As a result, Southern states are erecting powerful new obstacles between minority voters and the ballot.
So when we lament polarization, the declining respect for democracy, the bitterness of the national dialogue, the dominance of money in politics, and the life-and-death struggle over the right to vote, we are lamenting trends either born in or enabled by the Supreme Court.
The Court isn't the cause of our current crisis. But the justices are not immune from the zombie epidemic; indeed, the Court may actually be a carrier of the plague.

American universities award more than 60,000 doctoral degrees every year. However, there are not enough academic jobs for all those graduates. One study asserts that only 41 percent of Ph.D.s will find tenure-track positions. Some studies are slightly more optimistic.  In a report for the academic journal PS, Jennifer Seagal Diascro reported that 49 percent of the 816 Ph.D.s who graduated from political science programs between 2009 and 2010 found permanent academic positions.  As universities increase the number of adjunct and non-tenure track lines at the expense of tenure positions, the number of Ph.D.s without permanent positions is unlikely to change.
So, what happens to the 60-ish percent of Ph.D.s who can’t find a tenure track-position? Until recently, the answer to this question had been elusive. But for a ground-breaking study described this week in the Chronicle of Higher Education, sociologist Dean Savage created a database of 471 Ph.D. graduates from the sociology program at CUNY Graduate Center dating back to 1971. Using LinkedIn and Google searches, he mapped out the career outcomes of these students.
Savage found that less than half of the students who completed their sociology Ph.D. at CUNY Grad Center found full-time, tenure-track positions. Just over 30 percent of the students who graduated between 2000 and 2004 found tenure positions. Things look better for more recent grads: 44 percent of the 2005-2009 graduates were now employed as tenure or tenure-track faculty.
And what about the rest of the graduates, the ones who didn’t make the tenure track? Savage found that 80 percent of recent graduates had stable, full-time positions, even if they were not working as professors. He said that many graduates later found work as administrators within the CUNY system. Some found jobs in research fields, thanks to the quantitative skills gained in graduate school. Others were writers, librarians, and social workers. One is now a Buddhist monk.
Of the 471 Ph.D.s that Savage tracked, though, only two were employed as teachers in private or public schools. It’s surprising that so few scholars are transitioning to K-12 education when unable to find work within academia. Nation-wide, fewer than one percent of all public elementary and secondary school teachers have Ph.Ds.
Why isn’t public-school teaching a viable Plan B for Ph.D.s?
Marjorie Gursky received her Ph.D. from New York University in Ancient History in 2001. Due to geographic limitations and family demands, she was unable to participate in a nation-wide search for a tenure position. She considered teaching social studies at a public school and called the New York State Board of Education to inquire about teaching certification. She was told that she needed to complete additional coursework and work as a student teacher, which would amount to a two-year commitment.
Gursky said, “I thought I had enough school. If I could have done a one-year program, I would have done it, but two years was too long. I already spent ten years in school. It was also going to cost a lot of money.”
Gursky now teaches Hebrew school, does telemarketing, and edits college essays.

Time is running out to put the brakes on the planet's warming, says arguably the most exhaustively researched scientific paper in history.
The polar icecaps are melting faster than we thought they would; seas are rising faster than we thought they would; extreme weather events are increasing. Have a nice day! That’s a less than scientifically rigorous summary of the findings of the Fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released this morning in Stockholm.

He said the purpose of such a resolution should be "to verify that the regime is keeping its commitments" to remove or destroy its chemical weapons.
Mr Obama referred to Iranian suffering from chemical weapons at the hands of Iraq when he said the ban on chemical weapons was "strengthened by the searing memories of soldiers suffocated in the trenches; Jews slaughtered in gas chambers; and Iranians poisoned in the many tens of thousands".
The deal for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons by mid-2014 was agreed earlier this month - averting a possible Western military strike.
Differences have since emerged over whether the deal should be enforced by a UN Security Council resolution under Chapter VII of the organisation's charter, which would authorise sanctions and the use of force if Syria did not comply with its obligations.
On Iran, Mr Obama said the US wanted to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully, but was determined to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

'Concrete gestures'
"We are not seeking regime change, and we respect the right of the Iranian people to access peaceful nuclear energy," he insisted - an acknowledgment of the assertion frequently made by Iranian authorities.
"Instead, we insist that the Iranian government meet its responsibilities under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and UN Security Council resolutions."
"The roadblocks may prove to be too great, but I firmly believe the diplomatic path must be tested" he added further into the speech, saying he had urged Secretary of State John Kerry to pursue a deal.
Earlier Mr Rouhani shook hands with French President Francois Hollande, who said he expected "concrete gestures" from Iran to show it was not developing nuclear weapons.
But a much-touted informal encounter between Mr Rouhani and Mr Obama failed to materialise.
On Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will discuss its nuclear programme with US Secretary of State John Kerry - a rare instance of a formal encounter between the counterparts.
The meeting will be attended by foreign ministers from the other four permanent UN Security Council members - the UK, China, France and Russia - and also Germany, which make up the so-called P5+1.

   
   
Prior to launching BBM for Android, an unreleased version of the BBM for Android app was posted online. The interest and enthusiasm we have seen already – more than 1.1 million active users in the first 8 hours without even launching the official Android app – is incredible. Consequently, this unreleased version caused issues, which we have attempted to address throughout the day.
Our teams continue to work around the clock to bring BBM to Android and iPhone, but only when it’s ready and we know it will live up to your expectations of BBM. We are pausing the global roll-out of BBM for Android and iPhone. Customers who have already downloaded BBM for iPhone will be able to continue to use BBM. The unreleased Android app will be disabled, and customers who downloaded it should visit www.BBM.com to register for updates on official BBM for Android availability.
As soon as we are able, we will begin a staggered country roll-out of BBM for Android and continue the roll-out of BBM for iPhone. Please follow @BBM on Twitter for the latest updates and go to www.BBM.com to sign-up for updates about BBM for Android and iPhone. These issues have not impacted BBM service for BlackBerry.

     Apple's iPhone operating system, called iOS, just got a huge makeover. The new operating system, called iOS 7, involves hundreds of interface changes and adds a new "control center" that gives you access to important features like the camera, clock, and music player with one click. It even includes a new way to multi-task between programs and a built-in flashlight. In short, it makes your iPhone look brand new.
But what are you really getting when you upgrade to iOS 7? Here are some of my favorite features.
1. It looks completely different. The first thing you'll notice about the new iPhone OS is how different it is. It is, in fact, almost alien, looking like a cross between a scene from Minority Report and an Italian furniture store. All the icons have been "flattened" with a lot of the textures associated with Steve Jobs' efforts removed. Instead of rich leather lookalikes, you get clean, clear, and crisp text and lines. Instead of photo-realistic icons you get images that "suggest" their purpose. It takes some getting used to and it's already polarizing iPhone fans.
2. It is truly secure. This is an interesting feature: when you lose your phone, you can lock it completely and thieves won't be able to reactivate it even if they want to. In short, in 99 percent of cases, a thief will never be able to use your stolen phone again. This should, Apple hopes, reduce iPhone theft.
3. Photo browsing got a lot easier. When you take photos in iOS 7 they are automatically organized into moments. For example, when you shoot a bunch of photos at the petting zoo and then come home and shoot a few more, these photos are broken up by time and location.
4. Expect better battery life. The phone should perform better thanks to upgraded multi-tasking and improvements to the base software. While you probably will still suffer if your phone has horrible battery life now -- it probably means your actual battery is broken -- new users can expect snappier performance.
5. Siri is smarter. First, Siri doesn't sound like a robot anymore, which is good news. Second, Siri offers more information in a more pleasing way and it can now search more sources of information and do more things on your phone.
6. It has some 3D tricks up its sleeve. One of the coolest features is one of the most subtle: the icons on the screen "float" over the background. In other words, when you move the phone the icons move around to reveal parts of the wallpaper underneath. It's a very cute feature that lets you see more of your favorite photos and offers a much cleaner view of the interface.
7. It includes iTunes Radio, a cool way to discover new music. If you've used services like Pandora or Rdio, you're probably familiar with how iTunes Radio works. In short, it lets you stream music (and buy it) right from your music player. This means you can listen to almost as much new music as you want whenever you want as well as playlists of popular hits. Think of it as a way to preview iTunes purchases and a fun way to discover new music.
Will you be upgrading your iPhone to the iOS 7?

But you’ll probably have seen Emily Ratajkowski wearing even less than she is in our sexy pictures.
British-born Emily is the female star in the infamous Blurred Lines music video, where she writhes around singer Robin Thicke, has a toy car driven over her back and cuddles a lamb.
And if you’ve seen the uncensored version, you’ll see Emily strips topless to nothing but a skimpy flesh-coloured thong.
Now the success of the controversial video – which has been watched more than 170million times – has given the 22-year-old’s career a boost. And here the beauty shows off her amazing figure once more, modelling for US lingerie firm Frederick’s Of Hollywood.
Emily says: “I want to be a model who breaks boundaries. I’m not typical. I’m not 5ft 10in. I’m not an A-cup.
“I think the industry is moving towards this direction.
“Basically, I want to be successful in this industry so that down the line I can invest in other projects, like movies that I love or an artist or a photographer."

“Maybe I’ll eventually become a producer, but for the next three or four years I really just want to be a successful model and actress.”
Emily was born in London to a Polish father and a British mother who worked as an English professor and writer.
Her unusual surname comes from her mixed heritage, but Emily insists it is easy to pronounce.
“The J is silent,” she says. “That’s the trick. Occasionally people get it right on the fi rst try, just through random luck.
“People have told me to change it over the years, but my dad is always saying: ‘Never change your name.’
“My middle name is O’Hara so it’s a pretty epic name. Emily O’Hara Ratajkowski.”
The brunette was brought up in California but often visited Europe as a child, spending time in Bantry, Ireland, and Mallorca. She got into modelling when she was 14.

“I was really into theatre, soccer, acting and ballet,” says Emily. “My parents didn’t want a child star model so I didn’t get into it until I was 14.”
After posing nude for the cover of the US magazine Treats, Emily landed a role in Maroon 5’s Love Somebody video and was talent spotted to be in Robin Thicke’s now legendary video.
But on hearing she would have to be naked, Emily originally said no.
“On paper it sounded pretty crazy,” she says. “It was naked girls dancing around, and I didn’t know what it would actually turn out like.
“I turned it down, and then two days later the video director Diane Martel called my agent and was like: ‘Look, just let me meet with her.’ We really got along and I was like: ‘You’re the person in charge of this? Cool!’

“Then, when the rate was negotiated, we sort of decided: ‘Well, it can’t hurt you.’
“It’s pretty funny, because it obviously didn’t hurt me at all.”
Both the song and video have been blasted as being sexist and encouraging rape, but Emily does not agree.
She explains: “On the surface level, the naked women dancing, I understand that can be perceived that way.
“But it was just completely ridiculous, and so much fun. The whole thing is supposed to be silly. Lots of people don’t catch that.
“The way we are annoying them, being playful and having a good time with our bodies – it’s something very important for young women today to have that confidence.
“I think it’s actually celebrating women and their bodies.”

Giglio, Italy (CNN) -- The nautical blue paint spelling out "Costa Concordia" has almost all bubbled and chipped off the bow of the once luxurious cruise liner after 20 months under salt water off the Italian island of Giglio.
There will never be the scale of environmental disaster that was already averted by removing the ship's 2,400 tons of fuel shortly after the ship crashed, but there are still major risks involved with salvaging the Concordia. If the parbuckling fails and the ship breaks apart as it is rotated, the rotten contents -- moldy mattresses, passports, toxic stew and all -- will spill into the once-pristine sea. And even if it succeeds, this part of the Mediterranean will never be quite the same again

WASHINGTON — The FBI is asking the public for help in determining why a former Navy reservist opened fire early Monday at the Washington Navy Yard, killing at least 12 people before he was shot dead by police.

The suspected gunman was identified by the FBI as Aaron Alexis, a 34-year-old civilian contractor from Queens, N.Y., who most recently resided in Fort Worth, Texas. The FBI asked the public to contact the bureau with any tips related to the shooter.

"This investigation is still very active," Valerie Parlave, the FBI's assistant director-in-charge, said at a news conference. "No piece of information is too small."

According to a bio released by the U.S. Navy, Alexis was a full-time reservist from 2007 to 2011. He left the Navy on Jan. 31, 2011, as a petty officer 3rd class and had been working for the fleet logistics support squadron No. 46 in Fort Worth.

Washington Mayor Vincent Gray said Alexis was shot during a gun battle with officers.
[Full coverage: Washington Navy Yard shooting]

Alexis was arrested in Fort Worth in 2010 for discharging a firearm in city limits, police records show. Alexis told police he had fired the gun accidentally when he was cleaning it, according to a police report filed with the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney's Office. Charges were never filed.

Alexis was also arrested in Seattle in 2004, according to the Seattle Police Department, for "shooting out the tires of another man’s vehicle in what Alexis later described as an anger-fueled 'blackout.'"

A Navy official told Reuters Alexis received a general discharge from the Navy in 2011 "after a series of misconduct issues."

The Navy Yard was placed on lockdown after shots were fired inside a building on the base, the Navy said. A Metro police officer and naval base officer were among those injured in the shooting, according to the D.C. Metro Police.

"As far as we know, it's an isolated incident," Gray said. "We don't have any known motive at this juncture."

The mayor said there was "no reason at this stage" to believe it was terrorism, but would not rule it out.

Gray said the victims ranged in age from 46 to 73, and were either civilians or contractors.
Rick Mason, a program management specialist, told Yahoo News he was on the fourth floor when he saw someone with a gun aiming down into the atrium. The gunman, Mason said, was targeting people who walked into the cafeteria.

Other employees described a chaotic scene.

"We heard two shots and started wondering if that was the sound of someone dropping something or if they were really shots," Omar Grant, a civilian employee at the Navy Yard who was on the first floor of the atrium, said. "We heard three more shots, and that's when people started running out of the building and getting the hell out of there."
Grant then led a blind colleague to safety.

Approximately 3,000 people work in the building, the Navy said, though it's unclear how many people were inside at the time of the shooting.

The U.S. Senate complex was locked down "in light of the uncertainty surrounding the shooting at the Navy Yard this morning and particularly the possibility of suspects remaining at large," the Senate said in an alert to staffers. "You may move about the building; however, for the next two hours you may not leave nor can anyone enter the building."

A White House official said the president had been briefed several times throughout the morning about the unfolding situation at the Navy Yard by assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism Lisa Monaco and deputy chief of staff Alyssa Mastromanaco.
A heavy SWAT and police presence could be seen around the Navy Yard. Outside the base, employees sat huddled, crying and holding each other. At least one of the victims was airlifted from the scene, as helicopters circled overhead.

The hunt for the iPhone 5S is about to begin.
Apple's new iPhone officially goes on sale Friday morning, along with its less expensive sister phone, the 5C. But it could be tough to get your hands on a shiny new 5S on launch day, especially the particular model you might want, according to several reports.
Not even a handful of obsessive technology watchers I surveyed could agree on a strategy for finding the phones.
Typically the best way to avoid lines and scavenger hunts for new iPhones on launch day is to simply pre-order them. That option is not available for the 5S, though it is for the 5C. That means you'll just have to go to a store for a first-day phone.
Good luck with that. Carrier sources tell AllThingsD that 5S inventory on launch day will be “grotesquely” low, while retailers scramble to figure out which colors -- gray, white or gold -- will be most popular in different locations. BGR reports that supply for the iPhone 5S is “severely constrained.”
According to 9to5Mac, Apple expects the "Space Grey" model to be the most popular, which means the white/silver and white/gold models might be harder to find. In fact, carriers and U.S. retailers will have “almost no gold or white” iPhone 5S models in stock on the first day. As for phones with different capacity, the site is reporting that the 16 GB and 32 GB configurations could be easier to acquire than the 64 GB models.
So, where is the best place to get one of these apparently rare devices on the ultra-hyped launch day?
I asked a bunch of members of the tech press to try to figure that out. The consensus? There is no consensus.
“My not-so-secret iPhone secret spot is RadioShack,” said Charlie Warzel, deputy editor at BuzzFeed FWD. “I mean, who even goes to RadioShack anymore, right? Unless you need like a headphone splitter or batteries or something. On iPhone 5 launch day I just sauntered in there around 10 a.m., and there were plenty of them just sitting there behind the counter.”
“Usually the scragglier the RadioShack, the more phones,” he added. “Like, if it looks like your RadioShack has been out of business for three-and-a-half years, then you'll have no problem.”
HuffPost Tech executive editor Bianca Bosker suggests Best Buy could be the way to go, since the crowds usually aren’t too large at the big-box store.
“I find the more unpleasant the shopping experience at the store, the more likely you are to be able to find stuff in stock,” she said. “When the iPad 2 launched, I had success snagging one of the last few units remaining in Manhattan at a Best Buy.”
Engadget’s Jon Fingas said that if you absolutely must find an iPhone 5S in a particular color or with a specific capacity, the Apple Store is the best bet.
“As you'd imagine, Apple typically has the widest selection and largest inventories on an iPhone launch day. It may be worth braving the lines,” he said. “If you're not fussy, however, try queuing up at a carrier store instead. They tend to have low supplies at iPhone launches, but there's usually a shorter wait at the same time.”
Steve Sande, features and hardware review editor at TUAW.com, said that ordering online from Apple once the clock edges over to 12:01 AM Pacific Time is the smartest method, but that’s only if you’re willing to wait a few days for shipping. If not, head to an Apple Store, because it will have the best selection and inventory.
“I really do think the best way of ensuring that you're going to get exactly the model and color you want is to just order online and wait a bit,” he said. “Yes, that's strange coming from a guy who always has to have the latest and greatest in Apple tech, but I'm really getting tired of standing in lines. Patience is a virtue, isn't it?”
Leslie Horn at Gizmodo said that stores are “generally prepared to be pummeled with massive demand,” so launch-day scramblers should be okay at their local Apple Store or their carrier’s store, though it’s best to simply wait out the storm.
“I’ve always had luck with just going to AT&T on the early side and getting set up that way,” she said. “But if you can wait, give it a week or two until things die down, and you’ll save yourself waiting and dealing with annoyed salespeople and other crazed buyers losing it in line next to you.”
Business Insider senior editor Steve Kovach had a dream-crushing answer for those who want their iPhone 5S on day one: No matter where you go, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to get the device you want -- or any iPhone 5S at all.
“You might have luck at smaller shops like carrier stores and RadioShack, but their supply will be very limited. Apple Stores will have the most supply, most likely,” though the lines will probably be longer, he said. The lower-end iPhone 5C shouldn’t be too difficult to find though, he added.
“If you want a 5S, just pray,” he said.
Happy hunting everyone!

History of the Harlem Shake

Harlem Shake ,Initially mentioned Albee in Harlem, is a dance that started in 1981. Dance into the mainstream in 2001 when G. Ministry of Harlem Shake feature in the music video "Let's Get It". Northeast has a history of African dance called "Eskista" and allegedly started in Harlem by a man named Al B.

Harlem Shake youtube

Harlem Shake , a dance originally started in Harlem , New York . Since the beginning it has spread to other urban areas and became popular in the music video . The announcer at the Entertainer 's Basketball Classic at Rucker Park claims that Modern Harlem Shake was started by a man by the name of " Al B " ( the nickname Sisqo or Cisco ) . Al B was an alcoholic who would do a dance upon request . Because of its founders , this dance was originally called " albee " at Rucker and Harlem , but later became known as the Harlem Shake .
Al B was quoted saying that the dance was " rocking people who are drunk , this is an alcoholic shake that hangover , but it was fantastic , everyone appreciates it . " He says it comes from Ancient Egypt and described it as what mummy used to do . Because they are all wrapped up they could not really move , all they could do was shake . Harlem Shake is based on Ethiopian dance called Eskista .
Al B stated that he had been doing the Harlem Shake since 1981 . First dance caught on Entertainer 's Basketball Classic or EBC and spread from there to other areas .In February 2013, the Harlem shake became popular among the YouTube video .
Though started in 1981 , Harlem Shake become mainstream in 2001 when G. Dep dances in her music video " Let's Get It " . The Harlem Shake is generally associated with a similar dance move called ' The Chicken Noodle Soup ' . The " Chicken Noodle Soup " evolved from the Harlem Shake and exploded into popularity during the summer of 2006 when DJ Webstar and Young B brought it to the mainstream dance called the CunninLynguists song . , " Old School , " in the Mac Dre song , " Dance Thizzle , " and the Nelly song , " on the entry . " A band from New York City took the name of the dance and dubbed themselves the " Harlem Shakes . " Their debut album Technicolor Health , released March 24 , 2009. " Harlem Shake " is a song by American producer from Brooklyn , New York Baauer . The song was uploaded to YouTube on May 10, 2012 , and a trend Harlem shake in February 2013.

 PHOTOS: Grammy Awards 2013 Red Carpet Arrivals
Awards were handed in 81 categories from the Grammys' 30 fields ceremony at Sunday's ceremony, which aired live on CBS from 8-11:30 p.m. The show, hosted by LL Cool J, is produced by AEG Ehrlich Ventures, with Ken Ehrlich as executive producer and Louis J. Horvitz as director.
Below are the winners in a sampling of top categories (in red and marked with an asterisk). A complete list of winners can be found here.
GENERAL FIELD
Album of the Year:
El Camino — The Black Keys
Some Nights — FUN.
* Babel — Mumford & Sons
Channel Orange — Frank Ocean
Blunderbuss — Jack White
Record of the Year:
"Lonely Boy" — The Black Keys
"Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" — Kelly Clarkson
"We Are Young" — FUN. Featuring Janelle Monáe
* "Somebody That I Used To Know" — Gotye Featuring Kimbra
"Thinkin Bout You" — Frank Ocean
"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" — Taylor Swift
Best New Artist:
Alabama Shakes
* FUN.
Hunter Hayes
The Lumineers
Frank Ocean
Song of the Year:
"The A Team" — Ed Sheeran, songwriter (Ed Sheeran)
"Adorn" — Miguel Pimentel, songwriter (Miguel)
"Call Me Maybe" — Tavish Crowe, Carly Rae Jepsen & Josh Ramsay, songwriters (Carly Rae Jepsen)
"Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" — Jörgen Elofsson, David Gamson, Greg Kurstin & Ali Tamposi, songwriters (Kelly Clarkson)
* "We Are Young" — Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost & Nate Ruess, songwriters (FUN. Featuring Janelle Monáe)
POP FIELD
Best Pop Vocal Album
* Stronger -- Kelly Clarkson
Ceremonials -- Florence & The Machine
Some Nights -- FUN.
Overexposed -- Maroon 5
The Truth About Love -- Pink
Best Pop Solo Performance
* "Set Fire To The Rain (Live)" — Adele
"Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" — Kelly Clarkson
"Call Me Maybe" — Carly Rae Jepsen
"Wide Awake" — Katy Perry
"Where Have You Been" — Rihanna
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance:
"Shake It Out" — Florence & The Machine
"We Are Young" — FUN. Featuring Janelle Monáe
* "Somebody That I Used To Know" — Gotye Featuring Kimbra
"Sexy and I Know It" — LMFAO
"Payphone" — Maroon 5 & Wiz Khalifa
PHOTOS: Whitney Houston's Death and the Grammy Awards Scramble: Timeline of a Tragedy
DANCE FIELD
Best Dance/Electronica Album:
Wonderland — Steve Aoki
Don't Think — The Chemical Brothers
> Album Title Goes Here < — Deadmau5
Fire & Ice — Kaskade
* Bangarang — Skrillex
ROCK FIELD
Best Rock Performance:
"Hold On" — Alabama Shakes
* "Lonely Boy" — The Black Keys
"Charlie Brown" — Coldplay
"I Will Wait" — Mumford & Sons
"We Take Care of Our Own" — Bruce Springsteen
Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance:
"I'm Alive" — Anthrax
* "Love Bites (So Do I)" — Halestorm
"Blood Brothers"— Iron Maiden
"Ghost Walking" — Lamb Of God
"No Reflection"— Marilyn Manson
"Whose Life (Is It Anyways?)" — Megadeth
Best Rock Album:
* El Camino — The Black Keys
Mylo Xyloto — Coldplay
The 2nd Law — Muse
Wrecking Ball — Bruce Springsteen
Blunderbuss — Jack White
ALTERNATIVE FIELD
Best Alternative Music Album
The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do — Fiona Apple
Biophilia — Björk
* Making Mirrors — Gotye
Hurry Up, We're Dreaming — M83
Bad as Me — Tom Waits
R&B FIELD
Best R&B Performance:
"Thank You" — Estelle
"Gonna Be Alright (F.T.B.)" — Robert Glasper Experiment Featuring Ledisi
"I Want You" — Luke James
"Adorn" — Miguel
* "Climax" — Usher
Best Urban Contemporary Album
Fortune — Chris Brown
Kaleidoscope Dream — Miguel
* Channel Orange — Frank Ocean
PHOTOS: 2013 Grammy Winners
Best R&B Album:
* Black Radio — Robert Glasper Experiment
Back to Love — Anthony Hamilton
Write Me Back — R. Kelly
Beautiful Surprise — Tamia
Open Invitation— Tyrese
RAP FIELD
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration:
"Wild Ones" — Flo Rida Featuring Sia
* "No Church in the Wild" — Jay-Z & Kanye West Featuring Frank Ocean & The-Dream
"Tonight (Best You Ever Had)" — John Legend Featuring Ludacris
"Cherry Wine" — Nas Featuring Amy Winehouse
"Talk That Talk" — Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z
Best Rap Performance:
"HYFR (Hell Ya F***ing Right)" — Drake Featuring Lil Wayne
* "N****s In Paris" — Jay-Z & Kanye West
"Daughters" — Nas
"Mercy" — Kanye West Featuring Big Sean, Pusha T & 2 Chainz
"I Do" — Young Jeezy Featuring Jay-Z & André 3000
Best Rap Album
* Take Care — Drake
Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1 — Lupe Fiasco
Life Is Good — Nas
Undun — The Roots
God Forgives, I Don't — Rick Ross
Based on a T.R.U. Story — 2 Chainz
COUNTRY FIELD
Best Country Solo Performance:
"Home" — Dierks Bentley
"Springsteen" — Eric Church          
"Cost Of Livin'" — Ronnie Dunn
"Wanted" — Hunter Hayes
"Over" — Blake Shelton
* "Blown Away" — Carrie Underwood
Best Country Album:
* Uncaged — Zac Brown Band
Hunter Hayes — Hunter Hayes
Living for a Song: A Tribute To Hank Cochran — Jamey Johnson
Four The Record — Miranda Lambert
The Time Jumpers — The Time Jumpers
AMERICAN ROOTS FIELD
Best Americana Album:
The Carpenter — The Avett Brothers
From The Ground Up — John Fullbright
The Lumineers — The Lumineers
Babel — Mumford & Sons
* Slipstream — Bonnie Raitt
Best Blues Album:
33 1/3 — Shemekia Copeland
* Locked Down — Dr. John
Let It Burn — Ruthie Foster
And Still I Rise — Heritage Blues Orchestra
Bring It on Home — Joan Osborne
SPOKEN WORD FIELD
Best Spoken Word Album:
American Grown (Michelle Obama) — Scott Creswell & Dan Zitt, producers (Various Artists)
Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy — Bill Clinton
Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power — Rachel Maddow
Seriously … I'm Kidding — Ellen DeGeneres
* Society's Child: My Autobiography — Janis Ian
COMEDY FIELD
Best Comedy Album
* Blow Your Pants Off — Jimmy Fallon
Cho Dependent (Live in Concert) — Margaret Cho
In God We Rust — Lewis Black
Kathy Griffin: Seaman 1st Class — Kathy Griffin
Mr. Universe — Jim Gaffigan
Rize of the Fenix — Tenacious D