Al Jazeera: Erdogan in the Balkans: A neo-Ottoman quest?

The visit has a much more pragmatic purpose. Twelve new agreements were signed with the Serbian government, including an update to the free-trade deal (pdf) the two countries concluded back in 2009. Together with President Aleksandar Vucic, Erdogan pledged to push the annual trade turnover between the two countries from $800 million to $1bn. By virtue of its size, Serbia is Turkey's most important market in ex-Yugoslavia, well ahead of kin countries, such as Bosnia or Kosovo.

This is not to negate the role played by Islam and the Ottoman past. Erdogan's trip to the Muslim-majority area of Sandzak on October 11 is asserting his role as leader of a community transcending the Turkish republic's borders. Novi Pazar, the capital of the Sandzak region split between Serbia and Montenegro, was covered in billboards with the Turkish president's face and "hosgeldiniz" ("welcome" in Turkish) in big letters. [...]

It is remarkable that Erdogan has found a partner in Aleksandar Vucic. Serbia's president cut his teeth in the ultranationalist Radical Party in the 1990s and served as Slobodan Milosevic's minister of information. But now he is the voice of pragmatism: "This is not 1389. Serbia and Turkey are friendly countries," he said, referring to the year of the Battle of Kosovo between Serbian forces and the invading Ottoman army. [...]

The cost of engaging Turkey is minimal. Nationalists in Serbia cheer at Erdogan's disputes with the US and EU and the blooming friendship with Putin. Those who point at the unsettling parallels between Vucic's strongman tactics and Erdogan's authoritarian ways are simply ignored.

read the article

CityLab: Preserving the Meaning of Lesbian Bars

Somehow, neither Angola nor I had visited Henrietta’s before. This venerable “bar and girl” in Manhattan’s West Village is one of only four lesbian bars still open for business in all of New York City. That sounds shocking until you learn that San Francisco has none at all. This fact is part of the reason we finally stopped by: It was a celebration following the opening of “No Man’s Land,” an artwork exhibition by Gwen Shockey on display at New York’s Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Her multimedia piece, installed for just one weekend in late September, responds to the reality of the dwindling number of spaces dedicated to lesbian nightlife.

At a time when gay people and places are more accepted than ever, the number of gay bars is declining. The decrease is far starker for women’s bars, because there were never as many of those in the first place. The causes include the “mainstreaming” that allows LGBTQ people to mingle elsewhere, the prevalence of hook-up apps, and the high cost of urban real estate. The circumstances vary in each place; some surmise, for example, that San Diego still sustains two lesbian bars because it’s a military town and a port town. [...]

With this project, Shockey joins other gay artists whose work includes documenting the gay physical world, past and present—artists as concerned with spaces as with the body. Edie Fake makes intricate architectural drawings of real and imagined queer spaces from his native Chicago. Kaucyila Brooke has recorded and mapped past and present lesbian bars in three California cities, as well as Cologne, Germany. A faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts, Brooke says she began her ongoing project, “The Boy Mechanic,” in 1996 because, “It just felt pressing.” She wanted to capture the memories of places before they were lost—even though many of the places themselves weren’t much to look at.

read the article

Quartz: Radioactive wild boars in Sweden are eating nuclear mushrooms

In 1986, a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine exploded, irradiating the surrounding region, including Belarus, Russia and the rest of the Ukraine, and sending a cloud of radioactive material over northern and central Sweden. At the time, Swedes were warned against eating potentially nuclear berries and mushrooms. But no one told the wild boars about irradiated fruits and fungus, and three decades later these Swedish animals show exceptionally high levels of radioactivity because of mushrooms rooted deep in ground that remains radioactive. [...]

Boars in the north of Sweden were hunted to extinction two centuries ago because they were destructive to agricultural land. But their population has exploded since then: “After being reintroduced and extinct a few times, the present wild boar population in Sweden descends from animals escaped from enclosures in the 1970s and probably from illegal releases,” posits a 2010 report by the Swedish University of Agricultural Studies (pdf). Now, about a quarter million wild boars are estimated to live in the wilderness throughout the country, where they are hunted for food and sport.

Frykman expects to see more boar with extreme radiation levels as populations continue to increase and more such animals make their way north over the years. “There are more and more of them, and when they come, they come in large numbers,” Mia Brodin, a northern farming association representative told the Telegraph. “They dig deep holes in the fields, [which] destroy your tractor. The crops are destroyed and they eat food you put out for your livestock.”

read the article

Quartz: Actually, Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock’s massacre was highly predictable

Today, big data and predictive analytics are hard at work stringing together billions of data points and pinpointing future outcomes with unprecedented accuracy. And while you might accept the fact this is occurring on Wall Street and in the US Defense Department you may be surprised to learn how accurately we can predict human behavior. For example, we can now say —with 86% accuracy—whether a person is going to trip and fall within the next three weeks. It turns out a 5 centimeter per second decline in their normal walking gait is the precursor to a fall. Who knew? [...]

Every day, computer algorithms are at work gathering data in real time and spitting out inevitable conclusions about what lies ahead. And as experts comb through Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock’s computer, social media accounts, cell phone records, credit card transactions, medical history, childhood, and other data, we will uncover a pattern of behavior headed for a dangerous criticality. In truth, we have the scientific ability to forecast when a violent attack is likely.

It may not be 100%, but it is accurate enough to identify individuals who are prone to carrying out mass attacks, as well as when they may be preparing to act. [...]

Computer analytics are one thing, but what about free will? Just because a person makes detailed plans and intends to act on a crime doesn’t mean they won’t come to their senses at the last second. Even if a computer model achieves 100% certainty, are we prepared to take preventative measures based on intent?

read the article

Quartz: The incredible story of how the last known da Vinci was almost lost forever

This week, the New York auction house Christie’s, announced that Salvator Mundi (Latin for “Savior of the World”) will be offered for an estimated $100 million next month. The painting is owned by Russian investor Dmitry Rybolovlev, whose estimated net worth is $7.4 billion and has been mired in many controversies—in the art world and beyond.

While art historians knew Salvator Mundi existed, rediscovering the work had become an elusive dream. In 1958, the painting—not known to be Leonardo da Vinci’s work—changed hands for a meager $60 at an auction at Christie’s. Then, in 2005, the painting was acquired by a group of art dealers, including Robert Simon, a specialist in Old Masters. The painting had clearly been mishandled, painted over, and shoddily restored with an artificial resin that congealed and turned gray. [...]

In 2011, the Da Vinci showed at the National Gallery in London. Two years later, it sold for $80 million at a Sotheby’s auction to a well-known Swiss dealer, Yves Bouvier, The New York Times reported. Soon after, the painting changed hands, with Rybolovlev saying he paid $127.5 million. (The traders who originally sold the painting to Bouvier threatened to sue Sotheby’s, believing they were unintentionally misled to favor a prized client and give up close to $50 million in value. Rybolovlev, meanwhile, accused Bouvier of fraudulently overcharging him in the purchase of 38 paintings, for as much as $1 billion in profits, the Times reported.)

read the article