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Share this Story: Canada's cocaine cowboys: How a two-year RCMP sting led all the way to Mexican kingpin El Chapo
Canada's cocaine cowboys: How a two-year RCMP sting led all the way to Mexican kingpin El Chapo
A blood-soaked trail of interconnected traffickers and deals ran from the RCMP's Operation Harrington to the Sinaloa Cartel
Brian Fitzpatrick
Nov 25, 2019 • December 27, 2019 • 19 minute read
Drug trafficker Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is escorted to a helicopter by Mexican security forces at Mexico's International Airport in Mexico city, Mexico, on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Photo by Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg
It was March 12, 2015, and Stephen Tello was having second thoughts.
The following day he was due to meet a man called Joe at a steakhouse in Toronto. Joe was a transportation broker who, for the right price, had told Tello he could smuggle huge amounts of cocaine into Canada. He could have drugs collected at sea in the Caribbean, he said, before swapping them onto fishing trawlers closer to Newfoundland, for safe passage to harbour.
Canada's cocaine cowboys: How a two-year RCMP sting led all the way to Mexican kingpin El Chapo Back to video
The two had met before, but their first deal hadn't worked out. Now Tello, who lived a double life as a Toronto real estate agent and an underworld player, was getting suspicious. He had seen "weird cars" last time they met, he texted Joe. This time, he said, they should park in separate areas before taking cabs to the meet-up. Joe made no objections, and awaited Tello's next move.
Slowly, Tello had become the key piece in a complicated puzzle, and Joe was the person tasked with putting that puzzle together. His working title was in fact "UCO Joe," and he was the lead undercover agent in a two-year RCMP sting codenamed Operation Harrington.
Joe followed the clues from Canada's east coast to the nightspots of Montreal and Toronto. Before long, the trail led much further south, to the Caribbean and Colombia. Eventually, RCMP realized it led all the way to Mexico and Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzman, who in July 2019 would be sentenced to life by a Brooklyn judge for running a $14 billion empire, in the process becoming one of the world's most notorious drug kingpins. The RCMP noticed, too, that Canadians who entered El Chapo's orbit kept ending up dead. Tello, as it would turn out, survived, by the skin of his teeth.
Using court documents from three countries, what follows is a reconstruction of a twisting tale that ran from Canada to Mexico's murderous Sinaloa Cartel, before looping back to Brooklyn for some final, chilling revelations at El Chapo's landmark trial.
An overview of smuggling routes used by 'El Chapo' Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel, and other groups, to move cocaine between South America and Canada. Photo by Lola Landekic/National Post
Catboy
By the fall of 2014 Stephen Tello, 39, had a lot going for him. The Quebec-raised, former Concordia University student had a young family, a job with RE/MAX in Toronto, and an address in the city's Upper Beaches.
One person who knew him back then described him as a "total, complete gentleman," someone "you would never believe" was involved in crime. But behind the façade, Tello was moving cocaine with very dangerous people, one of whom was allegedly El Chapo. Tello even had his own underworld alias, it was said: "Catboy."
Tello was first noticed by authorities after Nova Scotia RCMP, in May 2013, zeroed in on Halifax criminal Gary Meister, whom they suspected was moving drugs into Canada. To infiltrate Meister's circle, the officer known as UCO Joe pretended to run a sailboat brokerage with heavy connections, and Operation Harrington was born.
Joe's yarn about moving cocaine from the Caribbean to Canada using a research vessel and fishing boats — the same tale he would later feed Tello — was music to Meister's ears. He had a brother in the Coast Guard, he told Joe, who knew the comings and goings of 25 government boats and four government planes. It was a perfect match.
On July 17, 2014, at the port of Halifax, Meister and Joe met with Meister's brother Delbert on the Edward Cornwallis Coast Guard icebreaker. They wanted to bring cocaine into Canada by sea, they told Delbert. The Coast Guard quartermaster would act as lookout, he said, and for this help, Joe handed Delbert $5,000. Some months later, Delbert began to make himself useful, or so he thought. The Coast Guard, he warned, was watching Hailey's Joy, one of Joe's fishing boats. In reality, the RCMP owned Hailey's Joy. Joe was using the boat as a prop.
Canadian trucker charged El Chapo's cartel $155,000 to move two loads of cocaine: documents
El Chapo wanted the Hells Angels to kill 'Catboy,' a Canadian trafficker he suspected of stealing his money
El Chapo's cartel launches military-style assault on Mexican forces, securing his son's release from custody
Former Toronto real estate agent Stephen Tello. Photo by Facebook
The criminals all communicated using encrypted BlackBerry devices and soon they trusted Joe so much, they gave him one of his own. Gary Meister put Joe in touch with players in Halifax, Montreal and elsewhere, and Tello's name soon arose.
In October 2014, Tello messaged Joe, thinking he was messaging Meister. When Joe clarified he was Meister's "transport guy," Tello didn't miss a beat. Could Joe help him to move "sea cans" through any open "door" in Toronto or Montreal, Tello wanted to know.
With that, the undercover cop watching Meister had his sights on a new target.
A few months later, on Dec. 10, Joe met Tello at the Real Sports Bar near Toronto's Scotiabank Arena, and explained how his legitimate transport business provided ideal cover for running drugs from the Caribbean. Joe didn't come cheap. He charged as much as one-quarter of all drugs moved, he said, and overland transport — he moved his drugs in trucks from east to west — could run into the millions.
Tello's own cocaine mostly came from Colombia and Venezuela, he told Joe, and at some point indicated his Colombian relatives controlled ports in that country. As if to prove himself, Tello immediately offered to sell Joe a kilo of cocaine. One day later, an RCMP officer known as UCO Steve, masquerading as Joe's "agent," took the kilo from a Tello contact in the parking lot at the Sandman Hotel, near Pearson airport.
Just as he had with Gary Meister, Joe strengthened his bond with Tello. An early test soon arrived when, in a panic, RCMP realized that instead of the agreed $47,000, UCO Steve had handed over just $46,000 for the kilo; $1,000 had been left on top of a photocopier as they recorded serial numbers. But Tello just laughed it off. He had bigger fish to fry, and told Joe that if his research boat could get to Margarita Island, a Venezuelan territory, he had something "very interesting": at least 5,000 kilos of cocaine.
Mathew Fleming, an Ottawa restauranteur jailed for his role in Operation Harrington, a 2015 RCMP sting. Photo by Postmedia News Files
They next met on Jan. 8, 2015, at Bier Markt, a Montreal bar. This time Tello brought Mathew Fleming, who ran an Extreme Pita franchise in Ottawa. Fleming also flitted between separate worlds. By day he was a lauded school volleyball coach and a mentor to his young staff. By night, he used underworld contacts to work cocaine deals. Fleming told Joe he was trying to sneak 30,000 kilos of cocaine off of Margarita Island, and if Joe could take 15,000 kilos to Canada, then great. Joe said he didn't fancy Venezuela, and moved the conversation farther north, to an Antigua pickup. The meeting was recorded and photographed, and Joe even handed Tello back the missing $1,000, just to keep things square.
On the back of this meeting, Joe, Tello and Fleming decided to start with a relatively small shipment into Newfoundland, and build their way up. On Jan. 20, 2015, Joe and another RCMP officer, UCO Bob, flew to the Bahamas. There they met Fleming, who introduced them to "Ray," a representative for a cocaine supplier. A deal — 3,000 kilos sourced in Guyana for an Antigua pickup on March 1 — was struck.
Calgary, January 29, 2015: Police examine the roadway at the scene of Cuong "Andy" Hoang's murder in Auburn Bay. Photo by Lorraine Hjalte/Calgary Herald
Back in Canada, on Feb. 11, Joe next met Tello at the Intercontinental Hotel's Signatures restaurant, in Toronto's upscale Yorkville neighbourhood. It would turn into a long night of carousing, but Tello was sullen. Fleming had told Joe that he and Tello were throwing $2 million each at the "joint venture," but now Tello said his financial backer had been "wacked." He meant Cuong "Andy" Hoang, a drug trafficker shot dead in Calgary on Jan 29, 2015. "He got clipped, so that put a huge dent in things," Tello later said.
As gangsters shuffled in and out, Joe was introduced to figures linked to Middle Eastern organized crime, the Wolfpack criminal alliance and other groups. From the Proof Bar at the Intercontinental, the group moved to the Brass Rail strip club on Yonge Street, and then back to the Hazelton Hotel. When he finally got to bed that night, Joe did so with a significantly expanded contact list.
The web of connections was growing, but by Feb. 15, the RCMP agent still hadn't received a promised $250,000 deposit for his services, and he kicked up a fuss. To keep him sweet, Tello arranged to get Joe two kilos of cocaine — total value $102,000. The bricks were handed to UCO Steve by Fleming himself, in the same hotel parking lot as the earlier handover. Unaware of his blunder, Fleming went back "down south" to firm up the March 1 deal with the Guyana gang.
The agreement for the pickup was for the two groups to contact each other by satellite phone or VHF radio. The Guyana crew would send a fishing trawler towards Antigua; Joe would send his research boat. If the "fishing" was "good," they would meet at their preferred co-ordinates. But after this run-through, the Guyanese let it be known they were suspicious of Joe, and were wary of committing more than 1,000 kilos unless Fleming and Tello delivered more cash up front. By March 4 trust had wilted, Tello and Fleming had no more money to offer, and everything was off.
Someone needed "to get dealt with," a seething Tello messaged Joe.
Drug trafficker Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is escorted to a helicopter by Mexican security forces at Mexico's International Airport in Mexico city, Mexico, on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Photo by Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg
Enter El Chapo
At Tello's 2017 Toronto trial, an expert testified that in 2015 a kilo of cocaine went for $2,200 in Colombia. In Canada, that kilo fetched $45,000 to $65,000. In theory, 1,000 kilos could generate at least $42.8 million, before expenses.
Tello, court documents suggest, had contacts who dealt in such figures, and on March 6, 2015, he came up with a Plan B to make up for the Guyana flop. What about their mutual contact Philipos Kollaros, he asked Joe. Could he load Joe's boat with a few hundred kilos in Antigua, as a last resort?
Tello was right, Joe knew Kollaros, a Montreal trafficker known to work with El Chapo. In partnership with the Cifuentes-Villa crime family from Medellín, El Chapo sourced cocaine in Colombia and moved it north by sea, land, air and even tunnel, using many springboard countries and outlandish smuggling methods to get drugs to Canada. Kollaros, who struggled to keep a low profile, had even been seen in Montreal with the wife of El Chapo's right-hand man, "Alex" Cifuentes-Villa, Le Journal de Montréal would later report.
Joe had first dealt with Kollaros back in mid-2014, after introductions were made via Gary Meister's network of criminals. Among other deals, Kollaros had talked to Joe about bringing cocaine from St. Kitts to Montreal, via Newfoundland. Kollaros had also introduced Joe to Ryan Wedding, a Thunder Bay snowboarder who competed for Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Living within a stone's throw of Kollaros in Montreal's downtown, Wedding had forged his own links to El Chapo, and it was a good thing he didn't know Joe was a cop. He had "shown indications of being anti-police and confrontational when dealing with police," RCMP would later point out.
Ryan Wedding of Canada competes in the qualifying round of the men's parallel giant slalom snowboarding event during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games at the Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah. Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images
But after mulling Tello's suggestion to use Kollaros for a backup run, Joe said no thanks. He'd call off his boat until things were better organized. On March 13, 2015, Joe, Tello and Fleming were due to gather at a Canyon Creek steakhouse in Toronto, to clear their heads and plot their next move. But when the day came, Tello never showed, and Joe would never hear from him again.
After 145 days of communication, the paranoid Catboy went silent.
The Misty B
For some reason, Tello's absence didn't spook the group. Unaware of how close the house of cards was to collapse, they continued plotting with Joe.
In early April 2015, Joe began working with Fleming and Michael Dibben, a Montreal criminal, on a new deal to move cocaine using the same Guyana-Antigua route. On April 8 Joe met Dibben in person, and agreed that on April 15 they would move 400 to 500 kilos. Joe would be notified once a supply boat left Guyana on its way to Antigua for the pickup, Dibben said. But the supply boat, the Misty B, never made it. On April 17, 2015, the French navy intercepted it near Antigua — right where Joe had repeatedly nudged the traffickers. There were 212 kilos of cocaine on board.
At around the same time, in Colombia, Gary Meister finalized a 1,200-kilo deal with Ivan Betancur-Alzate, a trafficker from the western city of Cali. With Joe and another RCMP agent present and recording, Betancour-Alzate said a supply ship would be ready to meet Joe's boat at sea by mid-May, 2015.
Returning from Colombia, Joe then met the Meister brothers on April 19, at an A&W outside Halifax. He thanked the Coast Guard officer Delbert for that first heads-up over the fishing boat Hailey's Joy, and said he was glad Delbert was making sure they "wouldn't do 25 years in jail for a boat filled with coke." "Yes, Coca-Cola," Delbert said. No, it wasn't Coca-Cola, Joe replied, likely for the benefit of his recording device. For acting as lookout on the new Colombia deal, Delbert pocketed another $3,000.
Delbert Meister, accused of helping cocaine smugglers while he was a member of the Canadian Coast Guard, arrives in court on Friday April 13, 2018. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf/Montreal Gazette
The next day, the RCMP launched co-ordinated Operation Harrington raids. Police wanted to follow the traffickers for longer, but unspecified events elsewhere forced their hand. Arrested at home, Delbert sheepishly said he had spent $300 at a Canadian Tire, but gave back the rest of the cash that Joe had handed him the day before.
Led by the RCMP's Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit, helped by the FBI, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and other organizations, Operation Harrington had unearthed conspiracies to bring cocaine into Canada from Antigua, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, the U.S. and elsewhere. Fifteen people faced 45 charges in its wake, including cocaine importation and trafficking, and weapons trafficking. Harrington suspects had talked of moving up to 15 tonnes of cocaine, but the Misty B haul was in fact the only shipment seized. In the other conspiracies, no drugs changed hands.
RCMP said at the time that Harrington had "ties" to Colombian and Mexican cartels, while offering no details. It would take the landmark trial and conviction of El Chapo in Brooklyn four years later, and revelations about Tello in particular, to bring Joe's puzzle a bit closer to completion.
A map of the Cifuentes-Villa trafficking organization in which Jorge Milton Cifuentes-Villa, top left, and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, top right, are seen. Alex Cifuentes-Villa is seen below Guzman and to the left. Photo by U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York
Russian Mike
It remains unclear how closely American and Canadian agencies were working, but the DEA had its own El Chapo-focused agents in Canada as it scoured Mexico to find the kingpin through 2013. The Americans constantly monitored encrypted BlackBerrys used by the Sinaloa Cartel, and these intercepts showed El Chapo worked with Iranian-Canadian gangs, the Hells Angels and others groups, according to DEA agent Andrew Hogan's 2018 book Hunting El Chapo, written with Douglas Century.
Hogan said El Chapo, by 2013, was making more money from cocaine in Canada than the United States. The economics were simple, Hogan said; a kilo of cocaine fetched at least US$10,000 more in Canada than it did in L.A. or Chicago.
And as Operation Harrington was getting underway, Tello had already been pointed to, by the Americans, as a key and longtime part of this Canadian network. A separate 2014 indictment by the Southern District of New York had charged Tello, El Chapo, and El Chapo's henchman Alex Cifuentes-Villa with importing cocaine into the U.S. between October 2008 and January 2014. Also charged was Toronto trucker Mykhaylo Koretskyy, known as "Russian Mike."
Though unsealed in July 2015, Tello's U.S. indictment was not discussed at his 2017 Toronto trial or 2018 sentencing. Tello's alleged five-year relationship with El Chapo would raise eyebrows when belatedly revealed in January 2019, but what came next was a bigger bombshell. Later the same month, Alex Cifuentes-Villa took the stand at El Chapo's trial, turning against his old boss. As he outlined the scale of the Sinaloa Cartel's Canadian wing, he placed Tello at the heart of the action.
A police mugshot of Colombia's Pablo Escobar. Photo by Archive
The Cifuentes-Villas had worked with Colombia's Pablo Escobar in the 1980s as Escobar, funded by cocaine, brutalized a nation. Later, among other alliances, the family partnered with El Chapo. Alex moved to Sinaloa in 2007, he said, and was to stay in Mexico roughly six years, while his brother, Jorge Milton, sourced cocaine for the Sinaloa Cartel along the Colombia-Ecuador border. Living for periods with El Chapo in mountain hideouts, Alex looked after the cartel's cocaine when it reached New York and Canada. This involved getting product into the hands of northern distributors, then getting the cash proceeds back to Ecuador to repeat the buying cycle.
They moved heroin and crystal meth as well as cocaine, Alex said, mentioning deals with the Montreal Mafia. Along with helicopter drops over the border from the U.S. to Canada, he said loads went from Ecuador via the Pacific into Vancouver. When drugs went to the U.S. overland from Mexico, they would often be dropped off in L.A. and Phoenix before being collected by trucks bound, in winding routes, for Canada.
Alex said Tello had been his main "worker" in this country, and said the RE/MAX agent even ventured to Culiacán, El Chapo's fortress city, for meetings. They made "dozens of millions," from Canada, but by 2013, Alex was receiving "many complaints" from El Chapo that Tello "was stealing the product or the profit of the drug sale." This information, Alex said, came from other cartel workers in Canada. In El Chapo's world, that was a death sentence, so the plan was to get Tello to return to Mexico so he could be killed on location. Tello, though, smelled a rat, much as he did in March 2015 at the end of Operation Harrington. He wouldn't go back.
Keen not to let the boss down, Alex said the Hells Angels were then contacted to murder Tello in Canada. But luckily for Tello, Alex was captured in Mexico at the end of 2013, and El Chapo was caught the following year. After a July, 2015 prison break, El Chapo was detained for the final time in January 2016. Tello lived through it all, and in July 2019 when El Chapo was sentenced in Brooklyn, Tello's name was listed among the kingpin's victims and would-be victims.
Alex Cifuentes-Villa (middle), pictured with El Chapo and an unidentified woman in the mountains of Mexico. Photo by U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York
Coal boats
Alex's testimony had now linked one Operation Harrington suspect to El Chapo, and the indictment of Tello's fellow Canadian Koretskyy indicated further ties. Documented connections were sparse. However, as a way to raise cash as their March 2015 Guyana deal crumbled, Tello had spoken to Joe about a project using "divers" and "coal boats," documents show. And the National Post has now learned that a separate RCMP investigation, codenamed Operation Owatcher, was ongoing at the same time as Operation Harrington.
Tello's charge sheet from Owatcher, obtained by the Post, shows he was suspected of working with El Chapo, Alex Cifuentes-Villa, the Toronto trucker Koretskyy, Gary Meister and an Albertan gang associate, Jahanbakhsh Meshkati, to import cocaine by coal boat from Colombia to Canada between May 1, 2013 and Sept. 1, 2013. Tello was specifically charged with "enhancing the ability" of El Chapo's cartel to operate in Canada, while the others listed on the sheet were unindicted co-conspirators. Tello's Owatcher charges were stayed in September 2016, with sources telling the Post the probe floundered when a key witness stopped co-operating.
Though a suspect in both Harrington and Owatcher, Koretskyy was never arrested over either operation, and in fact wouldn't be detained until years later, in January 2018, when he landed in Curacao after flying to the Caribbean island from Toronto. Extradited to the U.S. in June 2019, he is soon set to stand trial for his own links to El Chapo. He's accused of running cocaine from Mexico to Canada through the U.S., crossing north at border spots such as Buffalo. U.S. authorities believe he "likely" set up a trucking company just for smuggling.
Police tape off streets and look for evidence after the murder of Jahanbakhsh Meshkati near Robert Burnaby Park in Burnaby on August 11, 2014. Photo by Wayne Leidenfrost
By the time it compiled its 2018-2019 national report, Canada's Criminal Intelligence Service warned that "an unusual number" of Canadian cocaine importers linked to Mexican cartels were being killed, both in Canada and Mexico. That could suggest, the agency reported, that the cartels were looking to cut out Canadian middlemen and maximize their own control of the importation process. And while it remains unclear what motivated it, an alarming pattern of violence had emerged among Operation Harrington suspects.
With RCMP photographing the thousands of messages the gang had sent to Joe's encrypted BlackBerry, this text trove, as well as in-court testimony from undercover officers, was used to bring down the gang. In Crown applications to have officers shielded from public exposure at Tello's Toronto trial, it was pointed out that Tello, Kollaros and the Thunder Bay snowboarder Wedding were tied to "one of the most powerful and dangerous drug organizations in the world," the Sinaloa Cartel.
Tello himself, of course, had been in grave danger since 2013.
On Aug. 10, 2014, Meshkati was shot dead in a daylight attack in Burnaby, B.C. The murder came soon after Joe had begun "working" with Meshkati, another of the RCMP's early Harrington contacts, to import cocaine into Canada. The Owatcher documents confirm Meshkati was linked to El Chapo since at least 2013.
Then there was Cuong "Andy" Hoang, Tello's money man, brazenly shot dead in a quiet Calgary suburb on the morning of Jan. 29, 2015.
It was also pointed out that Bassam Elouta and Alyas Rahimi, two criminals who first met Joe in Toronto on the gangland night out, had allegedly discussed potential Montreal and Ottawa murders with a separate RCMP officer posing as a hitman.
On top of this, RCMP suspected that a member of the court's public gallery tried to photograph officers as they spoke at a preliminary inquiry. Orders were granted that concealed the officers' appearances from public view. Public galleries were moved to a separate room as they testified, and the recordings of their voices were put under seal.
But though Harrington's detectives were shielded, its suspects continued to be stalked.
By Nov. 6, 2018, Philipos Kollaros had been out of prison almost one year, having been given four years, backdated to his arrest, on his Harrington charges. He was sitting in Café Cubano, in Montreal's Little Italy, when an assassin pumped shots into Kollaros's upper body before scurrying to a getaway car waiting in a nearby laneway.
In Brooklyn, El Chapo's trial had just begun.
A man calls out to police investigators at Cafe Cubano, the scene of a shooting that claimed the life of Philipos Kollaros, in Montreal on Wednesday November 7, 2018. Photo by Allen McInnis/Montreal Gazette
Operation Harrington: Convictions, let-offs and loose ends
Stephen Tello: Convicted by a jury of one count of conspiring to import at least 1,000 kilos of cocaine, two counts of trafficking cocaine, and one count of possessing the proceeds of crime, in April 2018 he was given 15 years in prison, less time served.
Mathew Fleming: In January 2018 he was given 16 years, less time served, after being found guilty of plotting to import 400 kilos of cocaine. He had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to import at least 1,000 kilos.
Michael Dibben: In September 2017 he was given 12 years, less time served, after admitting conspiring to import 400 kilos of cocaine.
Gary Meister: Given eight years in prison, he said he regretted dragging his brother Delbert into the Harrington mire, which cost the Coast Guard member his job.
Delbert Meister: Given a conditional sentence of two years less a day, community service, and 18 months of house arrest for breach of trust, he avoided prison.
Darlene Richards: A Department of National Defence employee at 14 Wing Greenwood in Nova Scotia, she faced similar charges to Delbert Meister for helping the gang. The charges were later stayed, and she was eventually fired from her role in July 2017.
Ivan Betancour-Alzate: In 2018 he was extradited from Colombia to Canada and received seven-and-a-half years in prison, less time served.
Normand Joseph Pomerleau: Caught in the same Colombia sting, the Montrealer was arrested in Bogotá in September 2015. Returned to Canada, he received 20 months in prison.
Stephen Fleming: No relation to Mathew Fleming, the Halifax man had charges over the Colombian sting withdrawn.
Bassam Elouta: Separately charged in a major 2014 Ottawa drug bust called Project Anarchy, in April 2016 he received a five-year concurrent sentence.
Alyas Rahimi: Detained in Mexico, he has invoked a so-called Amparo or "protection" clause. This has stalled his extradition to Canada, RCMP recently told the Post.
Canada's Ryan Wedding, part of the snowboard team at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic winter games. Photo by PC/AOC
Ryan Wedding: RCMP officials say they are "actively" searching for the man who placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom for Canada in Salt Lake City.
Edouard Semmikian: Charges against the Montrealer were stayed.
Charges against Bayron Figueroa Escobar, a Tello associate from Montreal, and Michael Costa of Vaughan, Ont., were dropped.
Mykhaylo Koretskyy: The Toronto trucker is awaiting trial in New York.
The murders of Cuong "Andy" Hoang, Philipos Kollaros and Jahanbakhsh Meshkati have never been solved.
bfitzpatrick@postmedia.com
Twitter: @BrianFitz_
Listen to our true crime podcast, The Dark North, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify


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10 of the biggest Apple stories of 2019
Here is Apple's smart plan for digital health
9 challenges Apple-based enterprises face in 2020
A glimpse at Apple's 2020 vision
Apple Holic
By Jonny Evans, Computerworld |
Appleholic, (noun), æp·əl-hɑl·ɪk: An imaginative person who thinks about what Apple is doing, why and where it is going. Delivering popular Apple-related news, advice and entertainment since 1999.
Can Apple do more to transform the health industry?
Apple CEO Tim Cook often says his company's greatest contribution to humankind "will be in the health area."
Apple / Darko Stojanovic
Apple CEO Tim Cook frequently makes the claim that his company's greatest contribution to humankind "will be in the health area."
And it's taking a number of steps to make that effort a reality.
When will becomes when
Cook likes to point to the ECG function in Apple Watch, the company's health-related research tools and its software based solutions. (The latter include things like the Health app, Activity Monitor, Cycle Tracking, medical apps and advanced sensor designs.)
[ Take this mobile device management course from PluralSight and learn how to secure devices in your company without degrading the user experience. ]
All these tools are useful, but are they really a great contribution to humanity when such a small percentage of the people on the planet can access them?
Apple's business tends to be built around its core skill at inventing products around advanced technology, which it can market to its key audience of premium consumers.
And where becomes what
It's difficult to enumerate Apple's current health solutions – and the way Cook so often frames his claim around the future – without thinking the iPhone company (which doesn't want to be remembered as an iPhone company) is working on something more profound.
"Health is a huge issue around the world and we think it's ripe for simplicity and a new view," Cook said in 2016.
[ Further reading: Android upgrade downslide: 4 years of damning data in 3 crazy charts ]
Now, years later, the company continues to incrementally introduce software solutions that make it easier for people to look after their own health. The recently-introduced ECG features in Apple Watch are a good example.
However, while Apple is presently focused on tools that let its customers monitor and manage their health, it will surely find other ways to disrupt healthcare in a more impactful manner in the future.
Augmented everything
Apple has already taken a huge step in that direction with its Health Records app, which enables its customers to take control of their own health data.
But the company could leverage all of its existing technologies to deliver new health solutions. Think about how its tech could become part of emerging solutions:
3D printing: One of the big tech events of 2019 was when doctors in Tel Aviv were able to 3D print a small human heart using a patient's own cells. While this wasn't a functioning organ, it was a breakout moment in tech. Organs as a service cannot be far behind.
Augmented reality: Systems doctors use to help prepare for complex surgeries already exist and are in use at medical training facilities, including 24 run by Johnson & Johnson.
Remote patient monitoring: Connected solutions such as glucose meters, ECGs or blood pressure monitors already exist and these are enabling patients to live more independent lives rather than being stuck inside hospitals.
Cloud-based healthcare and privacy: Apple is attempting to develop cloud-based machine intelligence systems that solve real problems while maintaining user privacy. It's not hard to see how such systems could add more layers of insight and protection into remote patient monitoring.
Machine vision intelligence: Solutions such as Gauss Surgical's Triton app for monitoring blood loss in operating procedures and the Ibex Second Read system, which detects breast cancer, are already in use.
Apple's technologies feed into all of these solutions, from its approach to on-device (private) machine intelligence to augmented reality to remote sensor-based condition monitoring.
The doctor you have with you
Speaking in 2013, Ovum's then-lead healthcare & life sciences analyst, Charlotte Davies, told me her predictions for digital health:
"More and more care will be delivered outside hospitals and clinics… mobile devices – from smartphones to monitoring devices – will become increasingly important as the number of patients cared for at home or in sheltered accommodation or other community centers increases," she said.
Time shows the accuracy of this prediction – but we are already able to predict something else:
More and more treatment will be delivered remotely, with mobile devices becoming critical to such care – AR, remote patient monitoring and automation will make it possible to perform minor surgeries, for example – as in the 5G-based remote operation performed by a doctor this year.
Perhaps these are the kinds of long-term implementations Cook has in mind when he promises Apple will be remembered for its contribution to health.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic's bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
Jonny is a freelance writer who has been writing (mainly about Apple and technology) since 1999.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Many years ago, a wise woman confided me that when it came to fill the so-called 'backpack' of struggles, constraints, and hapless events we are bound to carry from cradle to grave it was entirely down to us to decide on its weight. "Why?" I asked. "Because we are absolutely confident we can carry it", she replied with a warm smile.
Still I cannot fathom how on Midgard could my preborn me be that overconfident in my future capabilities.
As Ernest Hemingway once stated, it is good to "write hard and clear about what hurts". For even though it might be utterly useless, it also has proven to be hauntingly comforting.
The image above is taken from George Miller's masterpiece Mad Max Fury Road. For those familiar with the film no more words are necessary, and for those who are not I firmly believe that the picture is eloquent enough by itself.
In response to your annoyingly insistent enquiries regarding the amount of hamingja we plan to allocate for your long awaited second weekend of October, please find attached our final determination below.
You get first row at that Wardruna concert you have been so yearning to attend for the last 5 months, countdown and all. Yes, just like each one of those lucky dudes on YouTube you helplessly envy when watching random HD videos, usually loop mode.
You make it to the subsequent meet & greet. No, there is no way you know in advance but yes, there will be one. Thus you would be able to both overflow your Instagram account with gleeful tags like #luckiestladyever and such, and rejoice over the moment whenever everything else in your life seems about to come apart at the seams. Besides, nice place to recoil deep(er) within yourself now and then from then on and relive the experience, huh?
You make it to the airport on time after being procrastinating all Sunday long because of your fondness for cloying beverages in trendy coffee shops, fine museums—do you really need to take a photo of every Scandinavian pattern inside the Orsay?, and your recalcitrant gluttony, not to mention the aftermath of the glorious previous night—again yes, there will be an aftermath, and brace yourself. So you manage to get on board and avoid the fascinating and highly educational experiences of sleeping in a French low cost airport and having to invest a painful amount of money on…well, getting back home.
Rein in your joy, gleeful lady, for your own good. Only two of the above are eligible. Therefore directions are clear—chose two, and chose wisely.
P. S: Before choosing, you might take into consideration that you are utterly poor and we might have great plans for you throughout this winter, and that said plans may not include any further increase of your current funds whatsoever.
P. S. 2: Chose wisely.
There. We choose for you.
Hence the doom of my wretched life.


Made from solid pine this clean and modern design will fit perfectly in with your style. Material: Solid Wood.
Self assembly will be required. Colour: White. Width 100cm.
The flexible slats in beech plywood adapt to each morphology for a firm support. - 4 conical 1 central leg in solid beech 22 cm included. -Full assembly instruction included.
Total bed hight approx 120 cm. 80 x 160cm mattress will fit the bed. Child friendly certified. Once the order leave our warehouse you will be able to download your invoice there as well. In case any cancellations we might not be able to stop the parcel.
It is adapted to any type of mattress (foam, springs, latex). The beech tree gives a great elasticity to the slats, which makes the bed more flexible and gives it a great support. This bed base is made from beech wood slats and beech wood plywood.


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Crasville és un municipi francès situat al departament de la Manche i a la regió de Normandia. L'any 2007 tenia 242 habitants.

Demografia

Població
El 2007 la població de fet de Crasville era de 242 persones. Hi havia 100 famílies de les quals 28 eren unipersonals (12 homes vivint sols i 16 dones vivint soles), 28 parelles sense fills, 40 parelles amb fills i 4 famílies monoparentals amb fills.

La població ha evolucionat segons el següent gràfic:

Habitants censats

Habitatges
El 2007 hi havia 146 habitatges, 99 eren l'habitatge principal de la família, 35 eren segones residències i 13 estaven desocupats. 136 eren cases i 9 eren apartaments. Dels 99 habitatges principals, 76 estaven ocupats pels seus propietaris i 22 estaven llogats i ocupats pels llogaters; 5 tenien dues cambres, 11 en tenien tres, 20 en tenien quatre i 62 en tenien cinc o més. 73 habitatges disposaven pel capbaix d'una plaça de pàrquing. A 42 habitatges hi havia un automòbil i a 47 n'hi havia dos o més.

Piràmide de població
La piràmide de població per edats i sexe el 2009 era:

Economia
El 2007 la població en edat de treballar era de 154 persones, 111 eren actives i 43 eren inactives. De les 111 persones actives 104 estaven ocupades (63 homes i 41 dones) i 7 estaven aturades (2 homes i 5 dones). De les 43 persones inactives 14 estaven jubilades, 16 estaven estudiant i 13 estaven classificades com a «altres inactius».

Ingressos
El 2009 a Crasville hi havia 101 unitats fiscals que integraven 251 persones, la mediana anual d'ingressos fiscals per persona era de 16.231 €.

Activitats econòmiques
Dels 4 establiments que hi havia el 2007, 1 era d'una empresa de construcció, 1 d'una empresa de transport, 1 d'una empresa d'hostatgeria i restauració i 1 d'una entitat de l'administració pública.

Dels 3 establiments de servei als particulars que hi havia el 2009, 1 era una funerària, 1 paleta i 1 restaurant.

L'any 2000 a Crasville hi havia 18 explotacions agrícoles que ocupaven un total de 576 hectàrees.

Poblacions més properes
El següent diagrama mostra les poblacions més properes.

Referències

 Résumé statistique Fitxa resum de dades estadístiques de Crasville a l'INSEE.
 Évolution et structure de la population Fitxa amb el detall de dades de Crasville a l'INSEE
 France par commune  Dades detallades de tots els municipis de França accessibles a partir del mapa.

Municipis de Manche

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Go off the beaten track in Bratislava. See a side of the city you didn't know existed. This game takes you exploring two of the city's parks and takes you to lesser-known spots where locals enjoy hanging out! Whilst solving our riddles you'll discover fun facts about Bratislava too.
Start in the front of the statue of M.R. Stefanik on Stefanik square/Pribinova next to Eurovea.
End near Hviezdoslav Square in Bratislava's Old Town.
Highlights: The Blue Church. Charming streets with our favourite bars and shops. The city gardens where locals hang out. The Presidential Palace and its artsy gardens.
Play 7 days a week, between 09:00-19:00.


The climate, topography and terrain-types of Languedoc Roussillon, South France are surprisingly diverse. If you thought all of the region was rolling vineyards under a Mediterranean climate - think again. We've divided the region into four main terrain and climate types - each surprisingly different. Hopefully, our guide should ensure you don't end up wasting time searching for property or spending your holiday in an area of Languedoc-Roussillon, south France, that doesn't suit your needs.
The mountainous regions of the Pyrénées, Black Mountains and Cévennes are the least built-up of our four area types, so you'll probably spend more time in the car, driving to the nearest supermarket or town.
The climate is wetter and colder - homes in St Pons, for instance, are about 5 degrees Celsius cooler than those on the coast - a godsend during heatwaves, but not much fun in winter.
Properties for sale and rent tend also to be sightly cheaper here, both because of the weather and because of the extra distance to Languedoc's beaches. Houses here are also more likely to lack mains water and gas, and even electricity and telephone lines. Fosses septiques (septic tanks) are also more common.
Gardens in mountainous areas tend to be larger than in other areas, as the vines don't dominate every inch of spare land. But plots tend to be steeper, so often need to be terraced to be usable. Views can be absolutely stunning, and in cooler months the air is clear enough to be able to see the Pyrénées from Aude and Hérault, and the Alps from Gard and Lozère.
Perhaps the most picturesque of areas, the foothills of the Pyrénées, Montagnes Noirs and the Cévennes combine the best of both worlds - warm temperatures and beautiful scenery.
The countryside here is absolutely stunning - perhaps some of the most beautiful in the world. Patchworks of vineyards undulate under hills of pines, with mountains towering in the distance. The plants are predominantly 'garrigue' a mix of scrub and herbs, with Rosemary, Thyme, Fennel and wild Mint growing everywhere.
With vines covering nearly every square inch of spare land, finding villas with large gardens can be a bit tricky in this area.
This is truly walk country - the gently rolling hills offering endless treks through the vines and across the many rivers. Relatively good roads also mean that Languedoc's cities and commercial centres are never too far away.
The coastline of Languedoc is a little disappointing. Straight and flat, it mostly lacks the coves and islands that make Provence's coastline so much more interesting. (The Côte Vermeille - just south of Perpignan - does offer lovely coves and more intimate beaches, however. Check out our Beaches pages for more information.) The flatness of the coast continues inland for about 20 minutes by car, before it starts to turn into the foothills described above.
The coastal plain offers fewer beautiful views and less interesting walks, and the predominance of vines can make the terrain seem a little monotonous. These areas are also more built-up - they're home to Montpellier, Perpignan, Narbonne and Béziers and their suburbs of industrial and retail developments. So you'll be closer to shops and the region's main roads.
Again, vines mean that properties with large gardens can be scarce. If you're thinking of buying a property on the coast itself - read our guide to Languedoc's beaches to find out which parts of the coast are nicest.
Beyond Carcassonne, the landscape changes again, becoming more undulating, with vines giving way to cereals and sunflowers. This area looks more like England - it is softer and less rugged than the Mediterranean strip, with less of the scrubby 'garrigue' plants.
The climate is still hot, but slightly less so than the coastal areas and also slightly wetter..
Properties here often boast large gardens, but you'll often find yourself surrounded by fields - which can make finding nearby walks more difficult. Roads are good, and with Carcassonne, Castelnaudary and Toulouse nearby, shops and town life are easy to access.


Taddeo is a synthesis module expressly studied for the radio-pharmaceutical synthesis. It is a module built with the concept of the "disposable cassette", so all the components that become in contact with the product are disposable.
This fact avoids the module contamination and guarantees the product sterility. Comecer supplies the sterile cassette, while the preparation of the required synthesis reagents is customer responsibility.


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Compute Canada Launches 2016 Research Platforms and Portals (RPP) Competition
(posted Tuesday June 09 2015, 09:22)
Researchers building platforms or portals to serve the needs of a community of users are invited to apply to Compute Canada's 2016 Research Platforms and Portals (RPP) competition, which grants access to computing and storage resources on Compute Canada's systems.
Introduced in 2014, the RPP competition is targeted at applications that use platforms or portals to improve access to shared datasets, enhance existing online research tools and facilities, or advance national or international research collaborations. Resource allocations in this competition may be awarded over multiple years, up to a maximum of three years. The RPP competition is open to any researcher based at a Canadian academic institution who is eligible to apply for funding to the federal granting agencies.
The RPP competition is delivered in two stages:
Letter of Intent (LOI) Stage
This stage is non-competitive and used to ensure project alignment with the RPP competition rules. Submissions are generally one page, providing a high-level summary of the project's rationale, operation and scope.
Full Application Stage
Successful LOIs will be invited to submit a Full Application. This stage requires further details on the requested Compute Canada resources, operation and management of the platform or portal, and the anticipated impacts and opportunities.
Groups are encouraged to use the RPP competition if their application falls within any of the following categories:
Resources requested on behalf of a large community of users that will be reallocated to individuals and small groups following the award.
Applications that provide a public platform that will make use of Compute Canada computing or storage.
Groups engaging in international agreements to provide multi-year computing or storage solutions based in Canada.
Recipients of the Major Science Initiative from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Groups that are providing shared data sets accessible using a third party (non-Compute Canada) interface.
Full criteria details and submission guidelines are available in the RPP Competition Guide. Letters of Intent due by August 13, 2015. More info
Compute Canada Announces Scholarship Recipients for 2015 DHSI
Compute Canada is pleased to announce its two pairs of scholarships for the 2015 Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) have been awarded to Gurpreet Singh, a graduate student at the University of Lethbridge, and his co-applicant James Desjardins, a SHARCNET High Performance Computing Consultant at Brock University; and Jonathan Armoza, a graduate student at McGill University, and his co-applicant Félix-Antoine Fortin, a Calcul Québec HPC Analyst at Université Laval. More info
SHARCNET awards Round VI Dedicated Programming Support
(posted Friday May 29 2015, 11:23)
SHARCNET is pleased to announce the results of its Round VI Dedicated Programming Support competition. The primary objectives of this program are to enable key research projects with the potential for exceptional and lasting impact that require significant programming support to proceed, and facilitate optimal exploitation of SHARCNET's or Compute Canada's computing infrastructure for internationally leading research.
Ziad Kobti, School of Computer Science, University of Windsor
Ranil Sonnadara, Department of Surgery, McMaster University
Isaac Tamblyn, Faculty of Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology
SHARCNET plans to run another competition later this year. Please visit the DP website for more information. Congratulations to our Round VI awardees!
Recap from Compute Ontario Research Day
(posted Thursday May 28 2015, 15:49)
On May 21, 2015, Conestoga College hosted Compute Ontario Research Day at their newest campus in Cambridge. By all accounts, this year's event was one of our most successful with over 120 attendees, 4 invited speakers, 16 contributed talks and 14 poster presentations. We were very pleased by the level of student participation, and want to extend a special congratulations to the "best-of" student winners: Grigoriy Kimaev for best student contributed presentation, and Tanyakarn Treeratanaphitak for best student poster presentation. Both students are from the University of Waterloo.
This conference is the preeminent provincial high performance computing event at which professors, postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students gather to learn about each other's high performance computing related work. CORD2015 was a collaborative event organized by the Ontario HPC consortia, SHARCNET, SciNet, and HPCVL and the host site, Conestoga College.
We also want to thank our sponsors, Compute Canada, Compute Ontario, and ORION, for making this event possible and supporting outreach to the HPC research community.
SHARCNET Newsletter Spring 2015
(posted Wednesday April 22 2015, 15:05)
SHARCNET is pleased to release its latest Spring 2015 newsletter issue, which is available online.
Upcoming events are highlighted including Compute Ontario Research Day (CORD) which will be held on May 21st at Conestoga College and our annual, week-long installment of HPC Summer School. You can also read more about SHARCNET's recently launched YouTube channel, which showcases our popular webinar recordings.
Users are encouraged to check the SHARCNET website for more information on upcoming events and activities, or watch for our monthly community update which is emailed to our general mailing list. You can also follow us on twitter.
(posted Monday April 13 2015, 09:50)
Planning for HPC Summer School 2015 is underway. Summer School (west) which will be held at Western University, London, Ontario from May 25-29th. This five day summer school includes lectures and labs on programming distributed and multicore systems and various topics pertaining to scientific computing. Attendees will learn how to program distributed memory systems--networked computers--known as "clusters", shared memory multicore systems and GPUs. Attendees will also have a chance to have a review on the basics of computing and techniques as well as software packages for applications in different disciplines.
A long-running event for SHARCNET, Summer School was introduced to users over a decade ago. Summer School is now an Ontario-wide event which is organized in partnership by the three Ontario HPC consortia: SHARCNET, SciNet and HPCVL. Summer School (central) will run from July 13-17 at the University of Toronto, and Queen's University will run Summer School (east) from July 27-31. Note that the courses offered by the three sites may be slightly different. Please check the site specific programmes for details.
While there is no fee to attend Summer School, registration is required.
SHARCNET Dedicated Programming Support: Round VI Call for Proposals
For Round VI, applications are encouraged that satisfy the programme objectives and priority will be given to proposals that:
Propose to make novel, effective and large-scale use of non-standard architectures especially GP-GPU.
Applications are submitted via SHARCNET's webportal and are due by April 26, 2015. Note that users must have a SHARCNET webportal account in order to access the online form.
Compute Canada Announces Site Selection Results
(posted Tuesday March 24 2015, 11:41)
Compute Canada and its regional partners (ACENET, Calcul Québec, Compute Ontario and WestGrid) are pleased to announce the institutions nominated to host national advanced research computing (ARC) systems in Compute Canada's next round of infrastructure funding.
The following institutions have been nominated:
LP Site – University of Toronto
GP1 Site – University of Victoria
GP2 Site – Simon Fraser University
GP3 Site – University of Waterloo
The new systems are planned to be fully operational in 2016. The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) provides significant capital funding for these systems through its Cyberinfrastructure Initiative, in which "Challenge 2" targets the needs of Compute Canada, divided into two stages, one to be decided in 2015, and the next to be decided in 2016. Compute Canada's operations and management costs are funded through the CFI's Major Science Initiative (MSI) program, which funds Compute Canada through March 2017. Both of these initiatives (Cyberinfrastructure and MSI) are funded jointly by the CFI, provinces and institutions.
With a total project cost of up to $37.5M, Challenge 2 Stage 1 funding targets the most "pressing and urgent" ARC needs of Canadian researchers. The majority of current Compute Canada systems are already at or beyond their nominal 5-year lifespan. Aging systems lead to increased operational costs due to less energy efficiency, increased likelihood of system failure and increased warranty costs on key components. These systems are not as well-adapted to modern scientific usage as the new systems will be. As such, the focus of this renewal funding is on replacement of existing capacity and to "address the most pressing immediate needs."
For more information on Compute Canada's technical plan, a summary document is available. More info


A week ago, I uploaded my first official vlog on Youtube. I've decided to create videos when getting words onto the page is simply too hard. The good thing is that I can watch it back and know that what I really, truly wanted to say wasn't there because I'm terrible with 'the talking'.
So, here we are, a week on. I am now 35. Welcome to my midlife crisis.
I fear my vlog maybe didn't properly help me portray the seriousness of how I'm feeling, that possibly it made it seem like crisis averted because all I talk about is hair and body piercing (ok, not entirely, but still).
I always thought a mid-life crisis happened to older people. I guess I need to start taking note that this is so often not the case with many things. Yet, here I am, in crisis. It's less about the actual age, I don't think people over 35 are old, and more about how accomplished I feel having reached 'mid-thirties'.
I guess, in my mind, a person of thirty five should feel more … settled, certain, or at lease have more knowledge and skills. Even though I know that, in reality, we're all constantly finding our way. Losing our way. Discovering and growing.
I feel such a strong urge to do something different, change things up and discover more everything, all while feeling like I haven't done nearly enough with my life thus far.
Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe it's also a mum-life thing. Somedays, I don't have time to be anything other than mum. I know I am not the only mumma out there feeling like my sense of self has disappeared without my noticing. I'm not the only woman who's mind is so full of keeping up with all.the.things. I can no longer remember what it's like to fill my mind with anything other than feeding the family, keeping on top of laundry, making sure everyone is where they need to be when they need to be, troubleshooting drama and challenges, whether that cough is going to lead to asthma issues and so on. And I certainly can't remember what it's like to empty my mind and just … be.
And, I really don't know.
I've started art journaling and regularly simply making a mess with paints and other supplies again, which has been good and now I need to branch out and try some new things, shake things up and figure out what I enjoy. Going to try a new hairstyle, new food, activities. I hope to say yes to myself more than I say no (we'll see how that goes).
I'm still struggling to portray this tight, heavy feeling. To properly convey this panic which has suddenly and unexpectedly made itself at home in my belly. This strangeness which has me wanting to jump in the car and do something crazy.
Sending bloggy love to you Becky as you journey through this and out the otherside.
Thank you Sophie, I appreciate your support so much!


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E-commerce enabler Ace Turtle appoints former Infosys exec as CTO
Vijayakumar Pitchiah
Kapil Bhatia, CTO, Ace Turtle
Bengaluru-based e-commerce solutions and consultancy firm Ace Turtle Services Pvt. Ltd has appointed former Infosys executive Kapil Bhatia as chief technology officer, a company statement said.
In his new capacity, Bhatia will develop the firm's flagship product Rubicon by using artificial intelligence, the statement added.
"As the business is scaling up in India and south-east India, we are investing more and more towards building our technology capability and creating a robust platform powered by smart and efficient artificial intelligence," said Nitin Chhabra, co-founder and chief executive of Ace Turtle.
A mechanical engineer and alumnus of the University of Central Florida, Bhatia has close to two decades of professional experience and before joining Ace Turtle, he was the CTO at Bangalore-based Delightful Gourmet Pvt Ltd, which operates online meat and fish ordering platform Licious.
Prior to that, he had a five-year stint at IT services major Infosys, where was the principal technology architect and worked on a project that involved an e-commerce marketplace. Earlier, he had also worked at Tech Mahindra, Convergys and BPL.
"The Rubicon platform provides the benefits of engaging and seamlessly integrating both online and offline platforms for enterprise retail brands. With the aim to develop the platform further through artificial intelligence, I am looking forward to increasing the capabilities of Rubicon," said Bhatia.
Bhatia's appointment comes at a time when Ace Turtle is embarking on an overseas expansion drive. In October, the company had partnered with Nina Van, a Southeast Asian logistics company to enable last mile delivery in Singapore and Malaysia.
In a recent interaction with VCCircle in September, Ace Turtle chief operating officer and co-founder Berry Singh said that the company will set up shop in Singapore and Malaysia, before gradually expanding to other countries in Southeast Asia. It has also identified the Gulf Cooperation Council as a potential region for expansion.
The startup, founded in 2013 by Singh and Chhabra, helps offline brands go online by providing technology, customer support, marketing solutions and analytics via an integrated platform.
The company's flagship offering, Rubicon, combines functions like order management, inventory management, logistics management and catalogue management. It is now developing an omni-channel analytics platform to track and analyse consumer data.
Ace Turtle's solutions are currently used by more than 20 large brands that include Ray Ban, Puma, Max, Arrow, Flying Machine, Ed Hardy, US Polo, Fossil and more.
Ace Turtle has also raised more than $5 million through a mix of both equity and debt from Vertex Ventures, the venture arm of Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings; C31 Ventures, the venture arm of Singapore-based real estate developer CapitaLand; and Innoven, the venture debt arm of Temasek.
The firm has also recently hired senior executives, which include director of product management Subroto Chowdhury (a former business consultant at Infosys); director of engineering Amit Kriplani (former tech lead at ed-tech startup Simplilearn); director of product management Prerna Modi (former product lead at Jabong), and director of product engineering Parsuram Panigrahi (formerly with multinational retailer Tesco).
Ace turtle
Berry Singh
e-commerce enablers
Kapil Bhatia
Nitin Chhabra
Temasek Holdings
VCC Startups
Vertex Ventures


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Pro-Trump Rioter Bragged to Police About Vandalizing and Looting Speaker Pelosi's Office Without Punishment
Saul Loeb/Getty Images
A pro-Trump rioter managed to vandalize and loot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) office during Wednesday's attack on the United States Capitol without any punishment.
He was later identified as Northwest Arkansas native Richard Barnett after he bragged to reporters about his successful raid, willingly sharing his information with them.
Talking to New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg, Barnett revealed that he "put a quarter on her desk" after stealing an envelope from Pelosi's office because he's "not a thief."
Here's Mr. Barnett, who goes by "Bigo," telling the story in his own words pic.twitter.com/oSyKiCDXgy
— Matthew Rosenberg (@AllMattNYT) January 6, 2021
Unconcerned with the punishment he could face for the clear crime, Barnett posed for photos with the envelope, which he also claimed to have bled on:
Richard barnett of Arkansas broke into house speaker Pelosi's office, stole her mail, and then made it safely back out to brag about it. Do you think a black American could get away with this? pic.twitter.com/RjUGPJikfk
— mohamad safa (@mhdksafa) January 7, 2021
"I wrote her a nasty note, put my feet up on her desk," Barnett told Rosenberg, later revealing that when the police arrived with pepper spray, "I said, 'I paid for this, it's mine,' and I left."
Washington Post reporter Jon Swaine also exposed Barnett for being a self-proclaimed white nationalist who had prepared for "a violent death" prior to the attack on the Capitol.
New: Richard "Bigo" Barnett, the pro-Trump rioter pictured yesterday in Nancy Pelosi's office, recently said on a pseudonymous FB account that he was a white nationalist and prepared for a violent death. https://t.co/RVW3159xNk pic.twitter.com/qAjrspkaEQ
— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) January 7, 2021
"I am white. There is no denying that. I am a nationalist. I put my nation first. So that makes me a white nationalist," Barnett wrote in a Facebook post, adding in another that he "came into this world kicking and screaming, covered in someone else's blood," and was "not afraid to go out the same way."
← Trump Proceeding With Ceremony Awarding Presidential Medal of Freedom to Three Golfers
BRATS launch 2021 with live albums and free Ambitious Girls Rock Vol. 1 livestream on January 10 →
Mr. MiLK Unleashes Eclectic Debut Album "Emergence"


There is no one-size-fits-all formula for navigating foster care and adulthood, but the right information and expert advice can help.
Below are six online resources, recommended by the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Child Welfare Strategy Group, aimed at helping foster youth better understand their circumstances and better prepare for life after care.
A short video clip featuring men and women sharing what they learned from their experiences in foster care.
A comprehensive — and free — course from the Foundation's Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative designed to help youth make smarter financial decisions post-foster care.
A national youth network that supplies tools, training and support to young people in foster care so that they can build a brighter future for themselves and the foster care system.
A quarterly magazine packed with inspiring and informational stories penned by youth in foster care.
A website dedicated to aiding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) young people in out-of-home care. The page links LGBTQ youth to state and national support, a legal assistance hotline, a rundown of their basic rights and more.
A roundup of websites devoted to supporting youth who are exiting out-of-home care.


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Weetabix re-commits to source wheat from local farmers
Weetabix, the nation's favourite breakfast cereal, has today reaffirmed its commitment to source the wheat it purchases each year from farmers located within 50 miles of its factory in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire. The announcement coincided with a visit from the Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss to a local farm that supplies Weetabix. The establishment of Weetabix's Wheat Protocol goes beyond the requirements of the Red Tractor Assurance Scheme and Entry Level Environmental Stewardship scheme to further reduce food miles and fertilizer usage.
Weetabix will exclusively source wheat for Weetabix biscuits from two local wheat merchants, Gleadell and Fengrain. 2016 will be the sixth harvest since the establishment of Weetabix's industry leading "wheat protocol" in 2010. The protocol covers a series of commitments to guarantee the quality of the wholegrain wheat and to ensure the protection of the local environment.
In contrast to cereal manufacturers that buy wheat on the open market, Weetabix has worked with its farmers to establish a strict protocol covering quality, consistency, traceability and environmental sustainability of the harvest. The arrangement brings many benefits; boosting the ability of local farmers to invest in higher standards, providing great tasting British wheat for British breakfast bowls, and providing Weetabix with a consistent quality of wheat for its mills.
Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said:"From farm to fork, our food industry adds more than £100 billion to our economy every year and is vital to Britain's future. Every food and farming business can play a role in making British food a world leader and Weetabix is a fantastic example of the vision, creativity and innovation that has built the UK's global reputation for quality, tradition and safety.
"As part of 2016 Year of Great British Food we want more companies like Weetabix creating top-quality products using locally-grown ingredients and supporting farmers across the country and helping grow our One Nation economy."
Following changes to the government's countryside stewardship scheme, Weetabix consulted with its Growers Group, a council of local farmers, on changes to the wheat protocol. For the 2016 harvest Weetabix has agreed a series of commitments to ensure the safety , local provenance, quality and traceability of the wheat it uses for the famous Weetabix cereal. Weetabix is the second largest player in the UK cereal market which is valued at £2 billion annually.
Hitesh Bhatia, Ingredient Purchasing manager at Weetabix said: "If we're to succeed in helping our consumers feel incredible inside, the quality of wheat inside Weetabix has to be incredible too. With the support of our growers as well as Gleadell and Fengrain I know that every single one of the 365 grains is top notch. Reviewing our wheat protocol in partnership with our farmers will allow us to continue to guarantee a best in class breakfast for the British public."
NFU combinable crops Chairman Mike Hambly said: "Backing British farming has never been so important and it's great to see that Weetabix are developing this commitment with local farmers; 78% of shoppers want to see more British food on the shelves and 86% want to buy more traceable food from British farms. Farmers need this support, as demonstrated by Weetabix, if their businesses are to continue contributing so positively to the country's economy and environment.
"Our farmers produce a high-quality product which Weetabix will continue to reap the benefits of; over 17,000 arable farmers in England and Wales adhere to Red Tractor assured food standards. Farmers can produce while nurturing wildlife– they grow the quality wheat Weetabix demands alongside voluntarily managing 250,000 hectares of land to support habitats and protect natural resources."
Farmer Robert Rouston, whose farm in Leicestershire supplies wheat to Weetabix, said: "To grow wheat for Weetabix is a local badge of honour. This year we have over 500 tonnes growing well, and I know the quality of my wheat will be reflected in every spoonful enjoyed at British breakfast tables. This will be my fifth harvest with Weetabix and I've noticed a real improvement in the wildlife I see as I walk my fields. We don't own the land, we're merely stewards for the next generation, and with Weetabix's support I'm confident for the future of the British countryside."
Weetabix's promise to use quality British wheat is supported by the brand's commitment to provide a healthy and nutritious breakfast cereal that doesn't compromise on taste. With price conscious shoppers putting cereal aisles under pressure, Weetabix has committed £10 million to a TV and digital advertising campaign, its largest marketing investment since 2008. The efforts are paying off, with Weetabix demonstrating year on year growth of 6%, expanding its share of the market and helping to protect the livelihoods of British farmers.
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Gian Carlo grew up in the region of Bündner Herrschaft and Heidiland an hour east from Zurich, Switzerland. For many years he has been interested in these unique wines of this region. Since school days he maintains a close relationship with the local winemakers and knows their products in detail. After graduation of the Swiss Hotel Management School in Lucerne Gian Carlo gained experience in the international luxury hotel industry.
Guy Reifenberg – a founder of Kokopeli Adventure, qualified guide and photographer who loves adventures in the great outdoors as well as good food. He is a graduate of the Geographic Photography College and has a BA degree in Government Diplomacy and Strategy. He has a deep, long standing and thorough acquaintance with the North of Spain and the Pyrenees.
Chateau La Tour Apollinaire offers spacious apartments and charming rooms, nestling in a private exotic garden with a swimming pool and private parking within walking distance of the historical center of Perpignan, France.
Natalie was born in Denver, CO, and raised in Seattle, WA. She has now lived abroad for over half her life and always dreamed of settling in France and running a B&B. Passionate about food, she became an internationally-trained personal chef with extensive knowledge of cuisines from around the world.
Summer Whitford, known as The Food and Wine Diva, is a chef and wine pro turned writer. She lives in Washington, DC and writes about all the tasty things to cook, eat, drink, do, and visit—around the corner and around the globe.
An award-winning journalist and photographer, he started travel writing as an escape from the drudgery of being an aerospace engineer – dropped the engineering, kept the writing. John went on to study at the San Francisco Art Institute, then on to found the now famous San Francisco Camerawork.
Susanna Starr is an entrepreneur, photographer, speaker, artist, writer, and traveler and holds a degree in philosophy from Stony Brook State University of New York. Susanna has over twenty years experience in the hospitality business as owner of Rancho Encantado, an eco-resort and spa in Mexico.
She is a freelance journalist specializing in Literature & Lifestyle.
She is a regular contributor to www.cityroom.com.
Mustapha Aderraz, Marrakech, Morocco, is a co-founder of "Moroccan Nature Trail," the country's premier tour operator. Their desire is to help visitors from around the world to explore and experience Morocco – from the chaos of the souks to the majesty of the Atlas Mountains and the mind-altering expanse of the Sahara Desert.
Established in 2011 by Jernej Šmalc, CrossEuropean has originally been building bridges between European consumers, businesses and institutions by providing sales & marketing, consulting, marketing localisation & translation (L10N) services, and project management.
Inventive Thinking, founded by Christophe Pirotte, was born from the observation that people and organizations nowadays don't allow enough time to consider their lives, businesses and decisions. Taking time, re-exploring the fun, the creative and innovative can lead to thrilling new paths.
Editor-in-Chief, TourismExecutives.com; Reporter, eturbonews.com and etn.
Katja Štingl, Ljubljana, Slovenia – A freelance journalist since the age of 16, specializing in travel, food, personal growth and for the last two years also in E-vehicles, smart design and urban & green lifestyle. Currently, Katja is working as an online & lifestyle editor at Plugin magazine, her passion for traveling and exploring new places extends to meeting exciting, creative people from all around the world.
Roman Payne (b. 1977), the author of "The Wanderess," is an English-language novelist, poet, and adventurer who immigrated to France in 1999, and now lives in Africa, in the country of Morocco.


It doesn't take that much time, space or energy to start a delicious fermentation habit. Courtesy of Chelsea Green Publishing.
"For me it all started with sauerkraut. I'd always loved it as a kid in New York City, almost as much as I loved sour pickles," says Sandor Katz, the fermentation expert. He's the author the best-selling tome The Art of Fermentation, giving him the well-earned reputation as the go-to source on all probiotic matters—from kombucha to pickles, tempeh to sauerkraut. His classic first book, Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Food, was just released in an updated and expanded edition for the first time since its initial 2003 publication. Here, we got some tips from him for starting a fermentation habit of your own—even if you live in a tiny New York City apartment.
Katz started fermenting with sauerkraut. He'd always loved it as a kid growing up in New York City. Photo credit: Sean Minteh.
Fermenting vegetables is the ideal way to begin fermenting. It requires no special equipment. There's no need for starter cultures, either; all the bacteria you need are already on the vegetables. Fermented vegetables are probiotic, improve digestion and have been credited with wildly varying benefits from preventing cancer to reducing social anxiety.
2. Find a wide-mouth jar.
The basic pieces of equipment required for most ferments are vessels to contain them. Find a wide-mouth jar and use a smaller jar that fits inside the mouth, filled with water, to weigh down the ferment. Innovate with materials close at hand. Recycling centers can be excellent sources of jars and other fermentation vessels. Do not ferment in metallic containers, which can react with salt as well as the acids produced by fermentation.
3. Do not use water that is heavily chlorinated.
If you can smell or taste chlorine in tap water, filter it or leave it out in an open container overnight (or boil it) to evaporate the chlorine before using the water for fermenting. Or use un-chlorinated water from another source.
I like to use unrefined sea salts, but you can use any sea salt, pickling salt or kosher salt. The reason most fermenters avoid standard table salt with added iodine is that iodine is microbial and could inhibit fermentation.
The rate of fermentation will be faster in a warm environment, slower in a cool one. Some people prefer their krauts lightly fermented for just a few days; others prefer a stronger, more acidic flavor that develops over weeks or months. Taste after just a few days, then a few days later, and at regular intervals to discover what you prefer. Along with flavor, texture changes over time, beginning crunchy and gradually softening. Move to the refrigerator if you wish to stop (or rather, slow) the fermentation.


WIthout going into specifics about the individual, let's say someone's baseline personality is very low on the "happiness quotient" scale. Events such as skydiving, one night stands with FIT models, speedboat racing, climbing the world's top mountains, etc only elevate this to a level of "stasis" (i.e. baseline for the normal human) During these activities, he is "at peace" with himself and the world.
But these "distractions from the abyss" are ephemeral in nature (and getting less effective, and causing him to fear what other recourse(s) he has in the future). For daily, routine activities in his normal environment, he is emotionless and does not speak unless absolutely necessary. People nearby often ask if he is "okay" or "not feeling well" or "is something wrong?" "Why are you even alive, taking up my oxygen?" he thinks to himself, without a verbally answering the concerned party.
Of course, if the means (deception) are necessary for the end (money), he is capable of completely transforming into "someone else" for a short amount of time. The amount of mental energy that's expended for this brief "acting" to appear "normal" is tremendous, often causing him more fatigue than some of the greatest physical human feats known to man.
It's only when this person hears/sees/is told of the failure/pain/extreme suffering of others, that he brightens up and can manage to genuinely be happy. He isn't politically/ideologically/religiously partsian (choosing to have an agnostic view of the world sans "good" or "bad", rather one of only "efficacy" or "failure"). Acts of humans towards other humans dubbed "unspeakable" and "heinous" are downright humourous to him.
There is only 1 caveat. He cannot allow for the suffering of animals. In jest(?), he often jokes that "should I [he] have been a hitman", it must be absolutely a fact the target has no pets. His biggest fear was an animal not knowing his owner would never return home.
He has no emotional bond with other humans, regardless of relation (by blood or otherwise). Humans are the scourge of the earth to him, and he is genuinely confused as to why genetic modification, genocide, and/or selective (homonoid) breeding is frowned upon. "Less people, less problems."
What (non-illegal) careers would covet such traits?
Can we report/flag this guy? I'm worried he's going to do something one day.
Volunteer at a shelter or soup kitchen or visit disabled vets - this kind of pain you will see will be beneficial for you.
There isn't an excellent career option for someone so deeply damaged in their mental faculties. With so much emphasis on "efficacy" and "failure" it's a wonder that this person never realized that their own mental health is failing and therefore should seek a solution rather than indulging in their own sickness which itself prevents true "efficacy" in multiple forms from taking form in their life.
The inability to feel joy except through immoral and generally repugnant and downright repulsive means itself is a form of failure and sickness which should be corrected or exterminated. Studies from the likes of institutions including the Harvard Business Review have shown that empathy and charisma are the most important traits in most high level career paths and are the most frequent common characteristics among C-level executives.
This wanna-be Patrick Bateman mentality (and the walmart brand of American Psycho prose that proponents of the mentality supposedly write with) does not belong in civil society and should be relegated to the fringes thereto to rot in a forgotten hole somewhere with other sick dregs and vile degenerates or completely wiped out as a whole as it is damaging to society and is in utter opposition to the social contract.
But, as you'd recommended to another user -- there is one option that would add value.
"Such a person can always choose self-extermination.
Remember, it's a positive act that such a person could choose to undertake at any time.
It's always in their power and no one could tell them otherwise."


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