"The government of the United Arab Emirates recently announced that it's going to restrict BlackBerry use. Now why would it want to do a thing like that? It would seem like a bad PR move from a country that prides itself on being the most plugged-in place in the Middle East. But that was before the little matter of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Mabhouh was the high-ranking Hamas military commander who, at age 48, died suddenly in his room at the Al Bustan Rotana hotel in Dubai on Jan. 19. You always have to wonder when people who have been accused of terrorist activities die premature deaths -- and the UAE authorities soon started doing exactly that. Ten days after Mabhouh's death, officials from the UAE's secret police, the General Department of State Security, announced that the Hamas official had died as the result of a carefully engineered assassination. But they didn't stop there. They proceeded to show anyone who cared to watch a detailed video chronicle of the hit team's movements, all of it culled from closed-circuit surveillance cameras positioned around the emirate. The murky business of state-sponsored 'targeted killing' will never be the same again. It has been nearly seven months since Mabhouh died, but the repercussions from his death keep on rippling outward: political, diplomatic, military even technological. For one thing, assassins don't like publicity, and having the faces of the hit squad splashed across the world's websites and TV screens is presumably not something the planners of the Mabhouh assassination had in mind. The whole case has even led some to speculate that closed-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras (and the face-recognition software that the Dubai security services may have used along with them)will make such covert operations a thing of the past." (ForeignPolicy)
"Christina Hendricks, age 35, has been on a career trajectory more similar to Mad Men's Don Draper than office manager Joan Harris. She began her career playing the opportunistic intern on Showtime’s Beggars and Choosers, which led to a production deal with John Wells. Now she has her first Primetime Emmy nomination for drama supporting actress, along with Sharon Gless (Burn Notice), Rose Byrne (Damages), Christine Baranski (The Good Wife) and castmate Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men). Hendricks spoke with Ray Richmond for Deadline Hollywood about fame, Emmys and why she’s proud not to be a Size 2." (Deadline)
"The Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation hosted a benefit evening on Saturday evening, August 7th, at The Montauk Lake Club. The Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Dick Cavett and the honoree was Montauk resident, Edward Albee. Cavett and Albee are long time Montauk residents as well as friends. Mr. Albee's career has spanned five decades, has garnered three Pulitzers and has included a repertoire of over 30 plays. The New York premiere of his new play, Me, Myself & I, will begin in September in New York City's Playwright's Horizons. Opening night is September 12th." (NYSocialDiary)
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