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The United Nations helped launch a smartphone app Tuesday that allows users to "walk a mile in a refugee's shoes" by simulating the daily struggles of a fictional Rohingya Muslim who was forced to flee her home. The "Finding Home" app, developed by the advertising firm Grey Malaysia, allows users to simulate the phone of "Kathijah," a fictional 16-year-old who fled persecution in Myanmar and is trying to make a new life in Malaysia. Users essentially take over Kathijah's phone, answering her calls and texts and scrolling through her photos. In one scenario, she gets a message from her brother Ishak back in Myanmar. "Kat, r u safe?" the message says. "It was a raid, they found us. Had to run." Richard Towles, the UNHCR representative in Malaysia, said he hopes the free app will help people empathize with refugees. "The refugee story is often a deeply personal one and difficult for people to understand," Towles said. "We hope that this application will allow a viewer to walk a mile in a refugee's shoes in order to understand what they go through every day in order to find safety." There are more than 150,000 asylum seekers and refugees in Malaysia, one of the highest numbers in Asia, according to the UNHCR. About a third of them are ethnic Rohingya Muslims, identified by the U.N. as one of the world's most persecuted minorities, who are denied citizenship by Myanmar and chased off their land in repeated outbreaks of communal violence. "The refugee crisis is everywhere, yet we are inevitably desensitized to it as it has been going on so long," said Grey's creative director, Graham Drew.

Police have arrested 1,000 people suspected of being part of a movement blamed for the failed 2016 coup. Another 2,200 were being sought as authorities targeted what they said was a secret structure within Turkey's police force. Turkey says a movement loyal to US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen organised the July 2016 plot to bring down President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Earlier this month the president won a referendum on boosting his powers. As a result of the narrow victory Mr Erdogan can become head of the executive, beefing up the largely ceremonial role of Turkey's president. "1,009 covert 'imams' in 72 provinces have been taken into custody so far," Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu was reported as saying, calling it an important step for Turkey. A list of 3,224 people had been compiled by police in an operation across Turkey's 81 provinces, reports said. In Istanbul alone, 390 suspects were being sought. Erdogan tightens grip - by Mark Lowen, BBC News, Istanbul It was widely expected that the post-coup purge would accelerate once President Erdogan achieved the victory he wanted in a referendum on expanding his powers. He feels emboldened and there's no longer a risk of jeopardising potential referendum votes. No matter that the opposition still contests the referendum results, their claim of widespread fraud backed by a scathing report from election observers. The president says the result is final and that's that. So on Wednesday the police bore the brunt of the detentions, but other institutions are likely to follow suit. The governing AKP party was full of Gulen supporters when Mr Erdogan and the cleric were staunch allies. It hasn't yet been purged and could now be targeted since the president has got his referendum victory. And even if not, it will be dangled over potential opponents like a sword of Damocles: speak out and your Gulen affiliation will be exposed. Since the coup, in which 249 people died, the government has accused the Gulenist movement of infiltrating the country's institutions including the police, military and judiciary and of running a state within a state. "We are trying to cleanse members of FETO (the Gulenist movement)" inside the armed forces, inside the judiciary and inside the police," President Erdogan told Reuters shortly before the raids. Before Wednesday, Turkey said a total of 47,000 people had been detained, including 10,700 police and 7,4000 members of the military. Thousands of people have lost their jobs across Turkey's public institutions, including teachers and civil servants, and opposition media outlets have been closed down. The Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly angered Turkey on Tuesday by placing the country under review and calling for urgent measures to restore freedom of expression and the press. President Erdogan, in his interview, accused the EU of "closing its doors on Turkey". "In Europe, things have become very serious in terms of the extent of Islamophobia," he suggested.

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The first independent (well, almost) test of the Intel Optane SSD is out and by the looks of it the new memory standard has passed with flying colors. If this review is anything to go by, then the memory type is definitely game changing, although not entirely in the manner most of us thought it would be. It definitely gives an upgrade over traditional SSDs in terms of endurance, speed and latency but probably the most critical update lies in the consistent performance this memory type can offer, which is miles ahead of what any conventional SSD can currently achieve. Intel’s 3D XPoint based DC P4800X SSD blows away the competition with sustained performance under heavy loads Before we go any further, the benchmarks below have been sourced from Tom’s Hardware and you can head over to their site to read the full review should you want to (I definitely recommend doing so). While this review was conducted by a third party, it’s not a completely independent one. Intel only allowed remote access to the drive and did not even give them the user manual to consult, which limits the amount of information they can report on. While I am sure all the tests were run on a real Optane SSD, it does create an unnecessary air of uncertainty which should usually be avoided. In any case, this will have to do for now and boy are the preliminary numbers good! Without any further ado, lets jump in. The first thing you will notice is that the Intel DC P4800X easily has the most endurance around, as compared to traditional SSDs, but this isn’t a structural break in the trend by any means. In fact, the DC P3700 is based on plain ol NAND memory and offers 20% less endurance for almost 4.2x times the amount of total memory. Of course, the DC P3700 will set you back 2 grand ($2065) while as the DC P4800X will retail at around $1520 so you are basically paying around $4 per GB on the DC P4800X and around $1.69 per GB for the DC P3700. This is a steep price to pay for what is essentially, ultra fast storage. Up next, we have the 70/30 Read/Write latency benchmark for the 3D XPoint Memory based SSD and it is here that we see the first signs of a complete structural break from the existing trend. The P4800X Intel Optane SSD is miles ahead of its competition in terms of sustained Read/Write latency as well as the average count! In fact, it is exactly 36x times faster in sustained latency than the DC P3700 and almost 71 times faster than the DC P3608. This is a trend that we will continue to see in the next few benchmarks as well. All benchmarks below are courtesy of Tom’s Hardware. Whereas traditional SSDs hit peak performance during the initial moments after a load is applied, they quickly settle down to a performance level that is many tiers below the original speed. The Intel Optane memory appears to be completely immune to this effect and has no trouble delivering the rated speed consistently throughout the testing done by Tom’s Hardware. In fact, this might be the first SSD where you actually get the performance that is advertised 24/7. Looking at the Random Read, Write and Mixed benchmarks as well we see the same trend: The Optane memory based DC P4800X is in another league when compared to its NAND based siblings and can be safely called a disruptive innovation in this area. Intel has successfully innovated a new memory standard. Currently however, the tech is a bit too expensive for the average consumer. Dropping a grand and a half for a measly 375 GBs of memory is not something the vast vast majority of consumers would do – even in the high end segment. But what these performance numbers do achieve is a proof of concept. This is real live testing done by real world reviewers that show the Optane Memory does manage to deliver on the hype, albeit at a very steep price. While it is bleeding edge tech at the moment, the price will eventually come down to more palatable levels and I have no doubt it will be able to disrupt the NAND industry then. That said, if Intel’s own plans with traditional SSDs is anything to go by, this is not something that is likely to happen for the next couple of years.

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At least three people have been killed in Venezuela in protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro. A teenager in the capital Caracas and a woman in San Cristobal, near the Colombian border, were shot dead. A national guardsman was killed south of the capital. Tens of thousands of people rallied to demand new presidential elections and the release of jailed opposition politicians. Mr Maduro accused the opposition of attacking police. He also accused them of looting shops, saying that more than 30 arrests had been made. Supporters of the government held a rival rally in Caracas. Meanwhile, opposition leader Henrique Capriles has called for further mass protests on Thursday. Despite having the world's largest proven oil reserves, Venezuela has suffered for several years from high inflation, rampant crime and a shortage of basic goods. The protests taking place across the country were expected to be the biggest in three years, putting extra pressure on President Maduro to negotiate with the opposition and find a way of easing the country's economic crisis. Anti-government protesters have described it as Venezuela's "second independence day". Elections are not due until late 2018, but the opposition says the country is on the verge of collapse. Inflation is expected to top 700% this year, the IMF says. The latest crisis was triggered by last month's Supreme Court decision to officially take over power from the opposition-controlled parliament.

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AMD has officially launched their Polaris 20 or Polaris Refresh based Radeon RX 500 series graphics cards. The cards to hit the market today are the Radeon RX 580 and Radeon RX 570. AMD Radeon RX 580 and Radeon RX 570 Officially Launched – Polaris Targets Mainstream Desktop PCs Once Again The AMD Radeon RX 500 series are based on the Polaris GPU architecture. Today, AMD is releasing two Polaris 20 based graphics cards that include the Radeon RX 580 and the Radeon RX 570. Next up, we will get to see two more variants based on the Polaris 11 and Polaris 12 graphics core. The AMD Radeon RX 500 series is once again going to hit the market at sub-$300 US pricing. This will allow AMD to target the wider mainstream market which was their main aim with the Radeon RX 400 series too. The AMD Radeon RX 500 series cards, as previously confirmed, will include the Radeon RX 580 (Polaris 20), Radeon RX 570 (Polaris 20), Radeon RX 560 (Polaris 11) and the Radeon RX 550 (Polaris 12). The refreshed cards will be available in the same price ranges as their older 400 series siblings so AMD is mostly looking to increase performance in their cards through higher clock speeds, however at the cost of slightly higher power consumption which does affect efficiency. AMD’s new target base are users who haven’t updated since the Radeon 300 series cards or the NVIDIA side GeForce 900 series. As most of these cards aren’t able to handle newer titles at the po[CENSORED]r 1080p resolution, AMD is offering a refreshed lineup to entice those users who skipped the Radeon RX 400 series but can now get something better in the form of the Radeon RX 500 series which has several AIB variant available at launch.

China has warned that "conflict could break out at any moment" as tension over North Korea increases. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said if war occurred there could be no winner. Mr Wang's comments come as the US voices increasing concern at North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and deploys a Navy carrier group off the Korean peninsula. China, North Korea's only backer, fears conflict could cause the regime to collapse and problems on its border. Mr Wang said: "Lately, tensions have risen between on the one hand the United States and the Republic of Korea [South Korea] and on the other, the DPRK [North Korea] and one has the feeling that a conflict could break out at any moment. "I think that all relevant parties should be highly vigilant with regards to this situation." The foreign minister added: "We call on all parties to refrain from provoking and threatening each other, whether in words or actions, and not let the situation get to an irreversible and unmanageable stage." Adding to Chinese unease, President Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday that the US was not afraid of acting alone on North Korea. "If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A." The US president has recently demonstrated his willingness to resort to military methods. He ordered a cruise missile attack on Syria in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack, and the US military just used a huge bomb against so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan. Washington is concerned North Korea might develop the ability to launch a nuclear weapon at the US. Mr Trump and China's President Xi Jinping have been in contact by phone since their summit last week in Florida, and Reuters quotes US officials as saying tougher economic sanctions against North Korea are also being considered.

Last year, NVIDIA introduced to the world, their latest and greatest GPU architecture, codenamed Pascal. The new Pascal GPU powered everything from enterprise level supercomputer chips to blazing fast GTX 10 series graphics cards. Utilizing the 16nm FinFET architecture, NVIDIA unleashed a new generation of graphics cards that delivered the highest clock speeds on any consumer GPU to date, the fastest graphics processing capabilities and a wide range of memory technologies that were supported by these chips like HBM2 and GDDR5X. A year has gone by since NVIDIA launched the fastest consumer graphics card, the GeForce GTX 1080, but NVIDIA is not stopping there. This year, NVIDIA has introduced a new flagship product, one that will offer even higher performance than the GeForce GTX 1080. Meet the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, a juggernaut GPU that is in a class of its own. Today, I’ll be testing the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X variant and would like to thank MSI for arranging this sample for our review. Meet GeForce 10 Series – Now Featuring The Behemoth GeForce GTX 1080 Ti With Pascal, NVIDIA launched a new generation of GeForce cards, the GeForce 10 series. The GeForce 10 series comprises of Pascal based GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070, GTX 1060, GTX 1050 and now the GTX 1080 Ti. All cards feature the same Pascal DNA and aim at the entire top-to-bottom segment of the gaming market. NVIDIA also launched the Titan X (Pascal) last year and the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti has a lot of resemblance to that card, except the latter comes at a lower price and features a better tuned core design for increased gaming performance.

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A "bomb-like" device has been destroyed in a controlled explosion in central Oslo, police have said. Officers cordoned off a large part of the Gronland area on Saturday evening, before the bomb squad detonated the suspect device. A police spokesman said the noise was "louder" than their explosives alone would have caused. A suspect is in custody. Police were already on alert after an attack in Sweden on Friday. A truck ploughed into a Stockholm department store, killing four people and injuring 15 more. It was the worst attack to hit the Nordic region since the far-right extremist Anders Brevik killed 77 people in Norway in 2011. Swedish police confirmed on Saturday they had found an unknown device on the driver's seat in the abandoned lorry, which they were testing. The device in Oslo was capable of causing only limited damage, police said. The investigation has been handed over to Norway's Police Security Service.

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Audi has a particularly sturdy reputation when it comes to open-top four-seaters. The original B4-generation Audi Cabriolet, a roll-top bath of class and stocky heft, cemented the brand’s reputation in a life cycle which lasted for practically the entire duration of the 1990s, before being replaced by Peter Schreyer’s B6-generation A4 in 2000. Certainly, by the time Audi hived off the convertible into its current A5 format nearly ten years later, the model’s identity was well understood: reputable, elegantly understated, rock solid and a safe place for sunbed money. That each and every variant was somewhat staid to drive hardly registered as a problem for its buyers. Princess Diana drove a B4, and that, frankly, was enough. The latest version of the Cabriolet, as with the wider A5 range, moves through its standard life cycle rejuvenation without seeking to alter the essential recipe. It's marginally longer and significantly lighter than before – as well as being more efficient across the board – thanks to the migration to Audi’s MLB Evo platform, but the look and calibre of the car is instantly recognisable. Likely the greatest difference is the advent of the diesel engine not just as a vaguely acceptable method of driving a cabriolet, but the potentially preferable way. The 188bhp 2.0-litre TDI with the seven-speed S-tronic ‘box you can now have with front-wheel drive (meaning you can officially get 62.8mpg) has that vibe about it – especially as it starts at a tax-pleasing sub £40,000 in entry-level SE trim. We tried the sparklier S line version. A right chip off the old block: supremely well-made, tactfully good-looking and mellow to drive in all the ways you’d mostly hope for. Much of the latter quality can be attributed to the engine, which gnashes gently at idle but then smoothes promptly out to provide the kind of muffled, well-mannered and attentive power source that you want in a car which never aspires to set your ruffled hair alight. Undoubtedly a lighter kerbweight and the addition of the dual-clutch automatic transmission grease its effort at every turn. The weight loss isn’t monumental at 55kg – and the car overall isn’t featherlight at 1690kg either – but 295lb ft of torque from 1750rpm makes short work of the effort, and the gearbox’s fluttering shifts could hardly be more adept at keeping you in the motor’s most productive range. Impatience can result in 0-62mph in 8.3sec – exposing you to a negligible edge of gravelly voice – but the drivetrain hardly feels strained by the effort and nor does the chassis, making the option of a quattro-driven rear axle seem mildly frivolous. Nothing the Cabriolet does smacks of authentic sportiness, of course – it remains too straightforward and unambiguous for handling novelty to ever prosper – but that doesn’t limit its usability or its easily found swiftness. By default, the S line has lower-riding suspension, but given the firmness of the low-speed ride on the optional, adaptive comfort suspension fitted to our test car, we’d suggest you avoid the passive standard setup (the same goes for the 19in wheels of our test car, too). Otherwise, refinement is generally decent, if negated somewhat by the stiff breeze which inevitably rolls around the four-seat interior if you’ve neglected to go through the 20sec rigmarole of putting up the plastic wind deflector. The roof takes 2sec less to erect, and the A5 Cabriolet is unimpeachably quiet once you’ve done so. The rest of the interior, it hardly needs to be added, is of first-rate order. A minor lengthening of the car's wheelbase hasn’t drastically improved rear leg room, but it was already decent, and with reasonably generous headroom, the A5 remains a genuine four-seater with the boot space to match. The A5 Cabriolet is arguably a better niche filler than even the regular A5 – the slightly more leisurely, wind-in-your-hair undertow helping to negate the coupé’s failure to invigorate on a deeper dynamic level. Obviously the A5 Cabriolet, despite handsome price tags across the board, isn’t intended to plunder Porsche 718 Boxster buyers, but there are few soft-tops which can claim precisely the same mix of status, space and stylishness for the money. That the diesel model throws in big-range fuel economy and just about the right level of performance simply reinforces the idea that the A5 Cabriolet's likely po[CENSORED]rity is probably well-deserved.

Media captionTwo rivers burst their banks as the tail end of ex-Cyclone Debbie saw water levels surge The entire town of Edgecumbe on New Zealand's North Island has been evacuated, after severe flooding. About 600 homes and 2,000 people are affected, as tractors and boats helped take locals to safety. The rain, caused by the remnants of Cyclone Debbie, which hit Australia a week ago, has caused a river to burst its banks. The mayor has described the extreme weather as a once-in-500-years event. Heavy rains also flooded roads in Wellington, the capital, and went on to soak New Zealand's South Island. In Edgecumbe the water is said to be as high as 2m (6.5ft) in some areas. Police have erected barriers to prevent residents from returning. Police are searching for one man believed missing in floodwaters near the swollen Waikato river. They have denied social media reports of looting but say they will patrol the area anyway, after locals raised concerns. While the evacuation of Edgecumbe is largely complete, the emergency services are still evacuating dozens of residents from the nearby Whakatane suburb. Parts of the Bay of Plenty area received up to 250mm of rain in the last 36 hours, theNew Zealand Herald reported. "We had to evacuate, (the) house is totally flooded now. We're not sure how bad it's going to get," one resident told Reuters news agency. Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett told reporters that the authorities' message to affected residents was: "Get out and stay out." Kaikoura, the town cut off from the outside world by an earthquake in November, was once again isolated as landslides blocked roads. Rainfall has eased across most of New Zealand's North Island. But former Cyclone Debbie is still having an impact in Australia, where severe flooding hit the town of Rockhampton, inundating hundreds of homes. The category four cyclone has left at least six people dead.

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Welcome to CSBD Community , enjoy your time here.

The first time my father’s basement flooded, it was shortly after he moved in. The building was an ocean-front high-rise in a small city north of Miami called Sunny Isles Beach. The marble lobby had a waterfall that never stopped running; crisp-shirted valets parked your car for you. For the residents who lived in the more lavish flats, these cars were often BMWs and Mercedes. But no matter their value, the cars all wound up in the same place: the basement. When I called, I’d ask my dad how the building was doing. “The basement flooded again a couple weeks ago,” he’d sometimes say. Or: “It’s getting worse.” It’s not only his building: he’s also driven through a foot of water on a main road a couple of towns over and is used to tiptoeing around pools in the local supermarket’s car park. Ask nearly anyone in the Miami area about flooding and they’ll have an anecdote to share. Many will also tell you that it’s happening more and more frequently. The data backs them up. It’s easy to think that the only communities suffering from sea level rise are far-flung and remote. And while places like the Solomon Islands andKiribati are indeed facing particularly dramatic challenges, they aren’t the only ones being forced to grapple with the issue. Sea levels are rising around the world, and in the US, south Florida is ground zero – as much for the adaptation strategies it is attempting as for the risk that it bears. Florida State Road A1A runs the entire length of Florida along the ocean, making it vulnerable to flooding – as shown here in Fort Lauderdale in 2013 (Credit: Alamy) One reason is that water levels here are rising especially quickly. The most frequently-used range of estimates puts the likely range between 15-25cm (6-10in) above 1992 levels by 2030, and 79-155cm (31-61in) by 2100. With tides higher than they have been in decades – and far higher than when this swampy, tropical corner of the US began to be drained and built on a century ago – many of south Florida’s drainage systems and seawalls are no longer enough. That means not only more flooding, but challenges for the infrastructure that residents depend on every day, from septic tanks to wells. “The consequences of sea level rise are going to occur way before the high tide reaches your doorstep,” says William Sweet, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The flooding would be a challenge for any community, but it poses particular risks here. One recent report estimated that Miami has the most to lose in terms of financial assets of any coastal city in the world, just above Guangzhou, China and New York City. This 120-mile (193km) corridor running up the coast from Homestead to Jupiter – taking in major cities like Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach – is the eighth most populous metropolitan area in the US. It’s also booming. In 2015, the US Census Bureau found that the po[CENSORED]tion of all three counties here was growing – along with the rest of Florida – at around 8%, roughly twice the pace of the US average. Recent studies have shown that Florida has more residents at risk from climate change than any other US state.

HyperX, a division of Kingston, announced that it’s expanding its Fury line of DDR4 memory by adding new color options and increasing the available frequencies, bringing the total catalog of Fury-branded memory to a staggering 72 kits. Kingston’s HyperX Fury DDR4 now comes in red and white, in addition to its previously available black color. The company also revealed that the top frequency of the lineup has increased to DDR4-2666, with available CAS latencies of 15 and 16. Previous Fury memory kits were available in frequencies of 2,133MHz and 2,400MHz. All of the Fury memory kits operate with 1.2V of power and come in single-module kits of 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB; dual-channel kits of 8GB (2x4GB), 16GB (2x8GB), and 32GB (2x16GB); and quad-channel kits of 16GB (4x4GB), 32GB (4x8GB), and 64GB (4x16GB). The HyperX Fury DDR4 modules also come with a lifetime warranty. The new HyperX Fury DDR4 memory kits are available now from the company’s website. Pricing for the new DDR4-2666 modules start at $41, $77, and $150 for individual 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB sticks, respectively. HyperX Fury kits (more than one module) of 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB start at $82, $154, $299, and $597, respectively.

V1 - light , effects , brush

v2 - effects , colors

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