Wednesday, April 24, 2013

How Mexico City fixed its air pollution problem

Mexico City was once known for its smoggy landscape with industrial eyesores such as the 18 de Marzo Refinery spewing ozone-forming emissions such as sulfur dioxide. The cloud of contaminants hanging over the capital played into an apocalyptic reputation for pollution, crime, and overpopulation; and it fueled urban myths, like the one about birds dropping dead mid-flight because of the poor air quality.

But the refinery ? named for the day Mexico expropriated its oil industry ? was ordered closed in 1991, and converted into a park commemorating the country's 2010 bicentennial. It is but one example of industry exiting Mexico City and the steps taken to improve air quality over the past two decades in this megalopolis of more than 20 million people.

With urbanization advancing, economies expanding, and climate change a concern, Mexico City has emerged as an unlikely environmental example for cities in developing countries suffering similar air quality issues.

Mexico City recorded only eight days with air quality considered "good" in 1992. That compares with 248 "good" air days in 2012, reflecting the success of initiatives to relocate industry, kick clunkers off the capital's streets, encourage cleaner technologies, and expand public transit and cycling options.

"Mexico City is still perceived as one of the most contaminated [cities] in the world, but nowadays there are cities ... that have worse contamination," says Roberto Mu?oz, a biologist teaching at the Ibero-American University.

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Mexico? Take our quiz.

Closing the refinery was among the first actions in cleaning up the capital as industries either invested in new technologies, ceased operations, or moved to other states.

The state oil company Pemex started selling lower-sulfur and unleaded gasoline, while a program known as "Hoy no Circula," or "No driving today," forced motorists off the road one day a week. Vehicles also had to undergo emissions tests.

Slowly but surely air quality improved here in spite of obstacles such as unfavorable geography, which keeps contamination in the Valle de M?xico ? the high-altitude valley containing Mexico City and the surrounding state of Mexico.

Left-wing administrations led by Mayors Andr?s Manuel L?pez Obrador and Marcelo Ebrard between 2000 and 2012 in the Federal District ? home to about 9 million residents; another 11 million live in municipalities in the state of Mexico ? took policies that targeted pollution even further.

The Mexico City government opened dedicated lanes for a public transport system known as Metrobus, built a new subway line, and launched a bicycle-sharing service, which was expanded after waits for new memberships reached six weeks. Mexico City is home to more than 4 million vehicles, and still faces notorious traffic problems, but this year it received the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy's Sustainable Transport Award.

Levels of ozone have dropped drastically, Mr. Mu?oz says, although the levels of particulate matter pollution ? tiny particles that can cause heart and lung problems ? remain a concern.

"The problem with contamination is [it's mostly] coming from vehicular sources" in Mexico City, Mu?oz says.

Cars are big contributors to air pollution in other parts of the country as well, where poor public policy is contributing to deteriorating air quality, says Gabriela Alarc?n, director of urban development studies at the think tank Mexican Institute for Competitiveness.

A glut of imported vehicles ? many illegal and older models ? have entered the country over the past 10 years and the federal government has spent more than $50 billion on gasoline and diesel subsidies since 2008, which has encouraged more private vehicle use across Mexico, Ms. Alarc?n says.

Government housing programs over that same time frame gave rise to far-off exurbs, creating lengthy commutes, adds Guillermo Velasco Rodr?guez, director of planning and projects for the Centro Mario Molina. Mr. Rodr?quez acknowledges the improvement in air pollution in Mexico City but cautions against prematurely celebrating.

"It sounds good if you compare it to 1992," he says, "but it's not [yet] what we want."

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/model-megacities-mexico-city-cleans-air-145300765.html

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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Remote Control Turtles Could One Day Be Our Secret Slow and Steady Drones

Even if they aren't mutated into teenage ninjas, turtles might one day be a viable alternative to drones for espionage and surveillance. They come already armor-plated, they're amphibious, they're powered by plants, and thanks to their natural desire to avoid obstacles, researchers have found a clever way to even make them remote controllable. More »
    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/WOecpRMeCoo/remote-control-turtles-could-one-day-be-our-secret-slow-and-steady-drones

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Google Now, Donna, Sherpa, And The Rise Of The Smart Personal Assistant App

tctv personal assistantsMobile personal assistant apps are all the rage these days. First there was Google Now for Android, but over the last several weeks we’ve seen a whole bunch of new apps pop up — apps like Donna, Osito, and Sherpa — all of which seek to make our lives easier by simplifying how we organize our meetings, travel, and other personal information. With that in mind, I sat down with my colleague Drew Olanoff to discuss why this is such a hot space and whether these apps deliver on their promise. On that latter question, we still think these apps have a long way to go. As Drew says, all the technology is there — and yet, no one has really pulled it all together in a way that makes these apps truly smart. There’s also the issue of finding an app that fits everyone’s lifestyle. As he points out, his personal workflow is different from mine. Finding a way to make a personal assistant that suits everyone’s needs is a difficult process. As for me? I like what I’ve seen so far from apps like Donna or Osito, but I don’t want an app that I have to enter information into to make things work. I want something that will scour my email and calendars, figure out where and when things are happening, and then from that information plan my calendar for me. No one quite comes close right now. Check out the video above for our discussion on the topic, and let us know what you think in the comments.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_T5MjuD1s6s/

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ITC tosses Motorola's sensor-based complaint against Apple

ITC Tosses Motorola's sensor-based complaint against Apple

If you thought the patent war between Motorola (Google) and Apple was already over, you were mistaken. Though, today's decision by the ITC to toss Moto's complaint against Cupertino regarding the use of sensors to control the interface of a phone, might be one of the final blows struck. The claim over patent No. 6,246,862, was the last patent-in-suit standing from its 2010 complaint against Apple. Now it's been completely invalidated. The decision can still be appealed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and we can almost guarantee the company will take advantage of that option. (In fact, it already is with previous decisions that did not go in its favor.) With courts tossing out complaints left and right, and some companies even willingly withdrawing them, we certainly keep hoping that the era patent Risk is coming to an end.

The ITC tossing out yet another complaint is a big loss for Motorola and Google. But, Apple has lost plenty of its own suits recently. It seems that both sides are settling into a stalemate. And ultimately pushing these competitors to innovate in the market instead of the courtroom is good for consumers.

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Source: FOSS Patents, ITC (PDF)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ylUCRFbHGwE/

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RI gas prices down another 9 cents

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Gas prices in Rhode Island have dropped by nine cents a gallon.

Monday's price survey from AAA Southern New England finds that a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline is averaging $3.52, down from $3.61 last week.

The local price is one penny higher than the national average, and is 22 cents less than the price in Rhode Island last month.

A year ago at this time Rhode Islanders were paying an average of $3.96 a gallon.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ri-gas-prices-down-another-165941375.html

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Monday, April 22, 2013

Police: Bombing suspects planned more

BOSTON (AP) ? As churches paused to mourn the dead and console the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing Sunday, the city's police commissioner said the two suspects had such a large cache of weapons that they were probably planning other attacks. The surviving suspect remained hospitalized and unable to speak with a gunshot wound to the throat.

After the two brothers engaged in a gun battle with police early Friday, authorities found many unexploded homemade bombs at the scene, along with more than 250 rounds of ammunition.

Police Commissioner Ed Davis said the stockpile was "as dangerous as it gets in urban policing."

"We have reason to believe, based upon the evidence that was found at that scene ? the explosions, the explosive ordnance that was unexploded and the firepower that they had ? that they were going to attack other individuals. That's my belief at this point." Davis told CBS's "Face the Nation."

On "Fox News Sunday," he said authorities cannot be positive there are not more explosives somewhere that have not been found. But the people of Boston are safe, he insisted.

The suspects in the twin bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 180 are two ethnic Chechen brothers from southern Russia ? 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan. Their motive remained unclear.

The older brother was killed during a getaway attempt. The younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was still in serious condition Sunday after his capture Friday from a tarp-covered boat in a suburban Boston backyard. Authorities would not comment on whether he had been questioned.

Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tsarnaev's throat wound raised questions about when he will be able to talk again, if ever.

The wound "doesn't mean he can't communicate, but right now I think he's in a condition where we can't get any information from him at all," Coats told ABC's "This Week."

It was not clear whether Tsarnaev was shot by police or inflicted the wound himself.

In the final standoff with police, shots were fired from the boat, but investigators have not determined where the gunfire was aimed, Davis said.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the parents of Tamerlan Tsarnaev insisted Sunday that he came to Dagestan and Chechnya last year to visit relatives and had nothing to do with the militants operating in the volatile part of Russia. His father said he slept much of the time.

The younger Tsarnaev could be charged any day. The most serious charge available to federal prosecutors would be the use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill people, which carries a possible death sentence. Massachusetts does not have the death penalty.

Across the rattled streets of Boston, churches opened their doors to remember the dead and ease the grief of the living.

At the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in South Boston, photographs of the three people killed in the attack and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer slain Thursday were displayed on the altar, each face illuminated by a glowing white pillar candle.

"I hope we can all heal and move forward," said Kelly McKernan, who was crying as she left the service. "And obviously, the Mass today was a first step for us in that direction."

A six-block segment of Boylston Street, where the bombs were detonated, remained closed Sunday. But city officials were mapping out a plan to reopen it.

Mayor Thomas Menino said Sunday that once the scene is released by the FBI, the city will follow a five-step process, including environmental testing and a safety assessment of buildings. The exact timetable was uncertain.

Boston's historic Trinity Church could not host services Sunday because it was within the crime scene, but the congregation was invited to worship at the Temple Israel synagogue instead. The FBI allowed church officials a half-hour Saturday to go inside to gather the priests' robes, the wine and bread for Sunday's service.

Trinity's Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III offered a prayer for those who were slain "and for those who must rebuild their lives without the legs that they ran and walked on last week."

"So where is God when the terrorists do their work?" Lloyd asked. "God is there, holding us and sustaining us. God is in the pain the victims are suffering, and the healing that will go on. God is with us as we try still to build a just world, a world where there will not be terrorists doing their terrible damage."

Near the crime scene, Dan and Keri Arone were pushing their 11-week-old daughter in a stroller when they stopped along Newbury Street, a block from the bombing site, to watch investigators in white jumpsuits scour the pavement. Wearing his bright blue marathon jacket, Dan Arone said he had crossed the finish line 40 minutes before the explosions.

The Waltham, Mass., couple visited the area to leave behind pairs of their running shoes among the bouquets of flowers, hand-written signs and other gifts at a makeshift memorial on Boylston Street, near the police barriers.

"I thought maybe we'd somehow get some closure," Dan Arone said of leaving behind the sneakers. "But I don't feel any closure yet."

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was tracing the suspects' weapons to try to determine how they were obtained.

Neither of the brothers had permission to carry a gun. Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas said it was unclear whether either of them ever applied for a gun permit, and the applications are not considered public records.

But the younger brother would have been denied a permit based on his age alone. Only people 21 or older are allowed gun licenses in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, surgeons at a Cambridge hospital said the Boston transit police officer wounded in a shootout with the suspects had lost nearly all his blood, and his heart had stopped from a single gunshot wound that severed three major blood vessels in his right thigh.

Richard Donohue, 33, was in critical but stable condition. He is sedated and on a breathing machine but opened his eyes, moved his hands and feet and squeezed his wife's hand Sunday.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is asking residents to observe a moment of silence Monday at the time the first of two bombs exploded. The one-minute tribute is scheduled for 2:50 p.m., exactly a week after the attacks. It will be followed by the ringing of bells in Boston and elsewhere in Massachusetts.

In New York, thousands of runners donned "I Run for Boston" bibs during a 4-mile run in Central Park, one of a number of races held around the world in support of the victims of the marathon bombings.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of London Marathon runners offered their own tributes. The race began after a moment of silence, and many competitors wore black armbands as a sign of solidarity.

___

Associated Press writers Meghan Barr and Michael Hill in Boston contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-bombing-suspects-planned-more-attacks-201956630.html

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Huawei A199 outed with 5-inch 720p display, 1.5GHz CPU, 2GB RAM

Huawei A199 outed with 5-inch 720p display, 1.5GHz CPU, 2GB RAM

Huawei kicked off the year by introducing its 5-inch Ascend D2 and 6.1-inch Ascend Mate flagships, and after a few months of catering for smaller hands, it's revisiting larger screens with the A199. The new handset shares a handful of specs with the Ascend D2, and although it's not as equipped, you wouldn't call it a low-end device. Behind the 5-inch, 720p IPS display, you'll find Huawei's own quad-core 1.5GHz K3V2 CPU paired with 2GB of RAM and eight gigs of internal storage, expandable via a microSD slot (up to 32GB cards supported).

Weighing in at roughly 160g (5.6 ounces) with a 2,150mAh battery on board, the 8.9mm (0.35 inch) thick handset has an 8-megapixel main camera, a 1.3-megapixel shooter up front, and runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean as standard. We're inclined to believe the A199 will be destined for China and emerging markets only given the phone's dual-SIM support (GSM / CDMA / EV-DO), a feature popular in these regions. The device does, however, bear similarities in both specs and design to an Ascend G710 that was detailed in a leak back in February. Maybe, then, the A199 will make its way to the US eventually, albeit with a fresh name and brushed metal disguise.

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Via: The Droid Guy

Source: Huawei

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/D-xuRHfcWi8/

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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

93% Zero Dark Thirty

All Critics (244) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (229) | Rotten (17) | DVD (2)

What's striking is the absence of triumphalism -- Bigelow doesn't shy away from showing the victims shot down in cold blood in the compound -- and we come away with the overwhelming sense that this has been a grim, dark episode in our history.

This is an instant classic.

Chastain makes Maya as vivid as a bloodshot eye. Her porcelain skin, delicate features and feminine attire belie the steel within.

No doubt Zero Dark Thirty serves a function by airing America's dirty laundry about detainee and torture programs, but in its wake, there's a crying need for a compassionate Coming Home to counter its brutal Deer Hunter.

While "Zero Dark Thirty" may offer political and moral arguing points aplenty, as well as vicarious thrills,as a film it's simply too much of a passable thing.

From the very first scenes of Zero Dark Thirty, director Kathryn Bigelow demonstrates why she is such a formidable filmmaker, as adept with human emotion as with visceral, pulse-quickening action.

A film of infectious urgency, questionable accuracy, murky morality and undeniable emotional and intellectual power

Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty is a grueling masterpiece that captures the hunt for bin Laden with a daunting amount of realism and efficiency.

Slathered in controversy, Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty confidently and forcefully storms onto DVD with an admirable A/V transfer, only hindered by a paltry gathering of extras from Sony.

The direction by Kathryn Bigelow, who won Oscars for Best Film and Best Director in her previous film "The Hurt Locker," is fierce and focused...

Despite what those silly Oscars would have you believe, it was this movie, not Argo, that was the finest of 2012.

Indulges Cheneyian fantasies complete with the bad-movie scene of the prisoner's defiance: "You're just a garbage man in the corporation," shouts the Arab who needs a lesson in manners from the Ph.D. (in torture?) who is racking him.

Bigelow tells the story very well, very efficiently, but doesn't really say much about it, which is ironic given the response to the film in some quarters.

Kathryn Bigelow takes the procedural model and brushes away every unnecessary detail, leaving behind a heavy, blunt object of a film that is also hugely watchable, engrossing and, best of all... highly suspenseful.

Rotten Tomatoes notes that I agree with Tomatometer critics 80 percent of the time, but this is one of those times I have to part ways with them.

Bigelow has directed excellent movies before, but this deserves to be remembered as the film that established her as a master.

You can't deny that what Zero Dark Thirty sets out to do, it does excellently.

An exhilarating and compelling historical document worthy of praise.

Bigelow's latest proves a rewarding piece of filmmaking, one that, in its best moments at least, is as gripping and as troubling as anything the director's ever made.

Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal shape history -- those breaks, big and small, that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden -- into one of the finest fact-based thrillers since "All the President's Men."

Purely as cinematic exercise, Zero Dark Thirty is an exhilarating piece of work. But, beyond its for-the-times subject matter, the work does not linger whatsoever.

Zero Dark Thirty is interesting as opposed to enjoyable, intriguing as opposed to entertaining, and certainly less memorable than The Hurt Locker.

It's quite remarkable how Bigelow and Boal managed to take 12 years of information (including a conclusion that everyone knows) and packaged it into a coherent, intimate and intense movie.

We know the ending, yet remain mesmerized by familiar details, filmed with a harrowing sense of urgency. It's as close to being in the White House situation room that night, watching a closed-circuit broadcast, as anyone could expect.

The second half of the film IS the film.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero_dark_thirty/

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Monday, April 8, 2013

AP source: FBI eyes possible extortion at Rutgers

The FBI is investigating whether a former Rutgers basketball employee tried to extort the university before he made videos that showed ex-coach Mike Rice shoving and kicking players and berating them with gay slurs.

A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Sunday that investigators are interested in Eric Murdock, who left his job as the men's basketball program's player development director last year and later provided the video to university officials and ESPN.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the inquiry has not been announced. The investigation was first reported last week by ESPN and The New York Times.

A spokeswoman for the FBI's Newark office said the agency would not say whether there is an investigation. Murdock's lawyer did not return a call to the AP on Sunday. A Rutgers spokesman referred questions to the FBI.

A December letter from Murdock's lawyer to a lawyer representing Rutgers requested $950,000 to settle employment issues and said that if the university did not agree by Jan. 4, Murdock was prepared to file a lawsuit. The letter was obtained last week by the AP and other media outlets.

No settlement has been made. The video became public last week, and Murdock on Friday filed a lawsuit against the university, contending he was fired because he was a whistleblower trying to bring to light Rice's behavior.

The video's release last week set off a chain reaction that led to Rice's firing and the resignations of athletic director Tim Pernetti, the university's top in-house lawyer and an assistant basketball coach. Some critics want the university's president, Robert Barchi, to resign.

At a news conference last week, Barchi said the firing and resignations likely never would have happened unless Murdock provided the video to ESPN. Barchi said he did not see the video himself until after it had been made public.

Murdock, a New Jersey native who played for seven NBA teams from 1991 to 2000, was on the initial staff Rice assembled when he became the Rutgers coach in 2010. He left the team last year, though there are conflicting stories about the circumstances.

Murdock has said Rice fired him after he skipped a session of Rice's summer basketball camp, but has said he was targeted because he had spoken with others about Rice's conduct at practice. The university found in a report that Murdock was not actually fired and that he could have continued working at the school.

After Murdock left, he spoke with university officials about his allegations against Rice. He also used an open public records request to obtain hundreds of hours of videos of basketball practice. It's not clear who shot the original footage, but it was edited into the half-hour video later given to the university that touched off a scandal last week.

The university report on Rice, which was completed in December but not made public until Friday, criticized the video provided by Murdock as taken many situations out of context. While the report found fault with Rice's behavior in several instances, it also said he did not create a hostile work environment, as Murdock had suggested.

The report also said that Murdock had claimed some violations of NCAA rules - including that he and others in the program paid players - but he did not provide evidence.

After a review, university officials agreed to suspend Rice without pay for three games, fine him $50,000, send him to anger-management counseling and monitor his behavior.

Barchi said when he first saw the video last week he immediately decided Rice could not continue as coach.

----

AP sports writer Tim Sullivan contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-fbi-eyes-possible-171313032--ncaab.html

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Report: Anti-Semitic incidents surge in 2012

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) ? Israeli researchers and Jewish leaders on Sunday reported a 30 percent jump in anti-Semitic violence and vandalism last year, topped by a deadly school shooting in France, and expressed alarm about the rise of far-right parties in Hungary, Greece and other countries.

Following a two-year decline in the figures, the annual report on worldwide anti-Semitic incidents recorded 686 attacks in 34 countries, ranging from physical violence to vandalism of synagogues and cemeteries, compared to 526 in 2011. The report was issued at Tel Aviv University, in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across Europe.

The report linked the March 2012 shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse, where an extremist Muslim gunman killed four, to a series of copycat attacks, particularly in France, where physical assaults on Jews almost doubled.

Researchers who presented the report at the university on Sunday said they had also found a direct correlation between the strengthening of extreme right-wing parties in some European countries and high levels of anti-Semitic incidents, as well as attacks on other minorities and immigrants.

They said Europe's economic crisis was fueling the success of parties like Jobbik in Hungary, Golden Dawn in Greece and Svoboda in Ukraine.

Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, called for strong action by the European Union, charging that governments ? particularly Hungary ?were not doing enough to curb these parties' activities and protect minorities.

"Neo-Nazis have been once again legalized in Europe, they are openly sitting in parliaments," said Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress.

Golden Dawn swept into Greece's parliament for the first time in June on an anti-immigrant platform. The party rejects the neo-Nazi label but is fond of Nazi literature and references. In Hungary, a Jobbik lawmaker has called for Jews to be screened as potential security risks. The leader of Ukraine's Svoboda denies his party is anti-Semitic but has repeatedly used derogatory terms to refer to Jews.

The report by the university's Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry found little correlation between the increase of anti-Semitic attacks and Israel's military operation in Gaza in November. While there was a spike in incidents at the time, it was much smaller in number and intensity than the one that followed the Toulouse attack, said Roni Stauber, the chief researcher on the project.

"This shows that the desire to harm Jews is deeply rooted among extremist Muslims and right-wingers, regardless of events in the Middle East," he said.

The release of the report was timed to coincide with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was starting Sunday at sundown.

__

On the net:

http://www.kantorcenter.tau.ac.il/

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-anti-semitic-incidents-surge-2012-121250759.html

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Saturday, April 6, 2013

Anonymous blogger targets Mexico's cartels

'Undercover Inside the Mexican Drug War' by the reporters of Blog Del Narco'Undercover Inside the Mexican Drug War' by the reporters of Blog Del Narco

The anonymous author behind the acclaimed Blog Del Narco, which focuses on Mexico's war with the powerful drug cartels, spoke with the U.K.'s The Guardian and the Texas Observer about the reporting and photography emphasizing the war's violence that has made the site as disturbing as it is popular.

People have long speculated about the identity of the blog's creator and why a person would risk retaliation from both drug gangs and corrupt members of the government. The Guardian reports that the blog's creator is a woman who asked to use the pseudonym "Lucy."

"I don't think people ever imagined it was a woman doing this," Lucy said. "Who am I? I'm in my mid-20s. I live in northern Mexico. I'm a journalist. I'm a woman. I'm single. I have no children. And I love Mexico."

The Guardian spoke with Lucy by phone after verifying that she was in fact the writer of Blog Del Narco. "I'm in love with my culture, with my country, despite all that's going on," she said. "Because we're not all bad. We're not all narcos. We're not all corrupt. We're not all murderers. We are well educated, even if many (foreign) people think otherwise."

[Related: Drug war death tolls a guess without bodies]

The danger that Lucy and her reportedly male collaborator face is very real. During the interview with the Guardian, Lucy said that a man and woman who were tortured and hung from a bridge in 2011 used to send photographs to Blog Del Narco. Their death "was very hard," she said. "Very painful."

According to the Guardian, the blog gets 3 million hits per month. It includes gruesome pictures and videos of murders and can be gut-wrenching to look at. "One video showed cartel members interrogating a captured rival and then decapitating him," the Guardian writes. Blog Del Narco gets the footage and news from multiple sources, including from members of the drug cartels.

Lucy and her fellow reporters have put together a book, "Dying for the Truth: Undercover Inside the Mexican Drug War." The book, just published and available in English and Spanish, covers a full year in the savage Mexican drug wars.

"I did the book to show what was happening," Lucy said. "When I finished, I was able to breathe, because I had worried about being killed before finishing. But the book is there. It's there on paper, a testament to what we have suffered in Mexico in these years of war."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/anonymous-drug-war-blogger-speaks-guardian-dangers-reporting-151943177.html

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