Facebook and Google happy to monetise, not monitor, fake news

Given the enormous impact the distribution of fake news on Facebook and Google is having on society, one would think the tech giants would take the matter seriously, writes Stephen Rae, Group Editor-in-Chief at INM. Yet, it appears their interest lies in monetising rather than monitoring the phenomenon.

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What I’m reading: Vol. 80.

Hello, my darlings!

It’s been a crazy week at DitL HQ. Husband and I have been low key looking for a new place since he started his new job in Feb (he’s currently spending 3 hours a day commuting) and we suddenly found The One this weekend…so I guess we’re moving in 10 days. Holy moly.

I’m glad we’re doing it, but it’s definitely causing me some stress. I’m not generally a “yes, huge life decision right now go go go” type of gal.

Continue reading What I’m reading: Vol. 80. at Diamonds in the Library.

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Best Dive Sites in Sipadan and Mabul

Sipadan Island and nearby Mabul are legendary among divers. Off Malaysian Borneo, these islands offer visibility of at least 60 feet (18 m), year-round water temperatures of between 82-86 F (28-30 C) and calm conditions, making most of the best sites accessible to divers of all skill levels. It’s also near-impossible to get lost. Most dives are drifts, either along a wall or a sloping coral reef, so dive with an SMB. Read on for a taste of the best dive sites in Sipadan and Mabul.

Sipadan Island

The crown jewel of the area’s diving, Pulau Sipadan (Sipadan Island) offers a startling diversity of marine life. The island, an isolated seamount with a fringing coral reef, has been a marine park since 2003. Many shark species — grey reef, whitetip reef, hammerheads, the occasional thresher — visit local cleaning stations. Here, electric-blue cleaner wrasses pluck parasites from their bodies. Green and hawksbill turtles circle the island, snacking on coral and (from July to November) mating. Schools of jacks, snapper, surgeonfish, unicornfish, bumphead parrotfish, and others do their best to distract divers from the smaller creatures, such as squat shrimp bobbing their tails, leaf scorpionfish in flamboyant pink or mottled white and nudibranchs laying ribbons of eggs.

Most of the best dive sites in Sipadan are wall dives, with the top of the wall sitting rather conveniently at safety-stop depth. One of the best is South Point. Here you’ll find lots of sharks and the best chance to see a hammerhead or thresher.

Lovely soft corals cover Hanging Gardens, and you’ll lose count of turtles after around 30. That said, Sipadan’s true can’t-miss site is Barracuda Point. There’s simply nothing like being engulfed by a hundreds-strong funnel cloud of chevron barracuda.

Mabul

A number of dive sites have earned the small island of Mabul the reputation as one of the world’s premiere muck-diving destinations.

There is little coral at sandy, rubbly AWAS, which means “caution” in Malay. Instead, fingered dragonets and flying gurnards flit across the mottled sand; skeleton shrimp, delicate ghost pipefish and juvenile frogfish conceal themselves in the seagrass; and pharaoh cuttlefish perform flashy, choreographed mating rituals.

Right next door, Froggie’s (or Froggy’s) Lair is not the best place to find frogfish. Try Artificial Reef instead, a sprawling collection of purpose-sunk wooden boxes and towers that attracts a surprising variety of marine life, including all manner of frogfish. The highlights at Froggy’s, a shallow natural reef, are the baroque resident mandarinfish. At dusk, these notoriously jittery creatures pair up to soar into the water column and release clouds of sperm and eggs. After nightfall, spend time searching the edge between the reef and the sand for hungry crustaceans and cephalopods, including tiny bobtail squid.

Mabul divers shouldn’t miss Sea Ventures, a dive site situated under the dive resort of the same name. The resort, housed in the decommissioned accommodations module for oil rigs, sits on pylons off the coast of Mabul. Its apocryphal origin tale offers the reason. A Malaysian businessman, angry at a rival who bribed his way to the building rights on land he had been promised on Mabul, bought the rig. He towed it from Singapore, painted it garish colors, and planted it directly in front of his rival’s resort. Whether the story is myth or truth, the dive site below, which resembles an underwater junk pile (but in a good way), attracts spectacular macro life, including pygmy seahorses, flamboyant cuttlefish and frogfish.

Mabul diving isn’t all muck and junk, however. Eel Garden, a sloping coral reef that bottoms out at around 60 feet (20 m), is a lovely site that lives up to its name. Garden eels, of course, but also ribbon eels and snake eels abound. There are plenty of morays around as well.

Around Mabul

Pulau Kapalai

Kapalai is not so much an island as a submerged sand bar, ringed by a coral reef, with a resort built atop on pylons. While its House Reef has a few purpose-sunk “wrecks” and other structures, most of the action, critter-wise, happens on the coral reef.

Si Amil

Don’t let the unimaginative site names fool you. First Beach is a muck-diver’s dream, worth every jarring moment of the one-hour (in good weather) speedboat ride from Mabul to the uninhabited island of Si Amil. The dive site’s ideal physiography — sand, rubble, some mucky parts, tufts of sea grass — attracts all manner of rare creatures. Sea moths, blue-ringed octopus, flying gurnards, zebra crab and wunderpus octopus all inhabit the site. Second Beach and Meditation Wall are more traditional dive sites, but still serve up the variety expected at Si Amil: rare nudibranchs, Halimeda ghostpipefish, octopus, bamboo sharks, and much more.

The Northern Islands

The northern islands are accessible to divers staying in the rather dreary town of Semporna on “mainland” Borneo; they’re a bit too far from Mabul. But north-island diving can be worth a stopover. For one thing, you won’t see another soul, other than your dive buddies. In fact, Sibuan is the archetypical tropical island, where you’ll wish you were marooned with your celebrity crush. The diving off the shallow side of the island features great macro. The diving on the opposite side, which faces a deep channel, may yield mantas or devil rays. Other northern islands with great diving include Mantabuan, Bohayan, and the Post Box wreck at Mataking, where the first season of “Survivor” was filmed.

Guest author Christina Koukkos is a New York-based freelance writer and editor. She covers scuba diving, responsible tourism, off-beat destinations, cultural travel and other topics. She’s a certified PADI dive instructor and MSDT as well as an amateur underwater (and topside) photographer. Learn more about her at https://koukkos.com/, on her blog, Taking the Fork, on Instagram or Twitter.

 

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How three European media organisations are bringing news to refugees

Three leading media organisations in Europe have joined forces in a bid to bring trustworthy information to migrants and refugees, and dispel rumours and false reports spread by human traffickers.

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3 Curtain Ideas for your Bedroom

Looking for window treatment ideas for your bedroom? Find scores of inspiring looks in this collection of beautiful curtain ideas, including: layered pair, coastal theme and trim with fabric.

Below are 3 curtain ideas for your bedroom:

Image Source: Flickr

Layered Pair
Although one is nice, a lot can be said for two window treatments working together in a bedroom, where function and style go hand in hand. For function, install a hardworking foundation, such as these plantation shutters. They control light and noise from outside and are an insulating barrier for cold glass. Yet they are hard, angular, and bland. The curtain panels provide softness, color, and pattern. Mounted above the windows, they don’t interfere with the function of the shutters. They also help dampen noise inside the room, acting as sound absorbers to create a hushed and comforting environment. Source: BHG

Coastal Theme
Coastal themes are perfect for bedrooms as the neutral colour palette feels so calm and restful. Contemporary coastal themes play with traditional materials and textures to keep the look fresh. Aged driftwood boards are no longer confined to floors and boathouses, but have been elevated and repurposed into stylish textured wallcoverings. In this New England style bedroom we’ve created a coherent theme using formal and informal stripes on the walls and headboard, curtains and blind, using Riviera Mist curtains and Hatti Mineral Roman blind.  Source: Hillarys.co.uk

Trim With Fabric
Add a fun element to the bedroom decor with a simple, rectangular valance accentuated with beaded fringe, says Washington state designer Natalia Smith. It’s a clean, unobstructed look that opens the room to light and color and adds the finishing touch — as long as the fabric in the valance matches what’s on the pillows and bedding. Smith prefers a cornice with simple padding and a finished edge at the bottom for transitional, as opposed to traditional, style. Source: HGTV

 

Contact:
Universal Blinds
601 – 1550 W. 10th Ave
Vancouver, V6J 1Z9
Canada
Phone: (604) 559-1988

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The Connected Patient Room: IT Planning for Device Placement

 

The patient room is getting more attention these days, primarily due to the proliferation of Internet enabled technology that brings new opportunities for both patient care and patient engagement. This change also brings new ways of looking at what the patient room needs to provide in this new age of connection.

This shift has huge impact for hospital biomed and IT departments and what is being asked of them. We’ll look at that more closely a bit later. First, let’s get some perspective on what has changed and what it means for patient care.

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Diving Fundamentals: Underwater Navigation Techniques

During introductory dive training, your instructor will introduce underwater navigation techniques. Typically, you’ll learn basic compass use and how to navigate a standard out-and-back reciprocal course. Many divers stop learning there, happy to follow the divemaster, instructor or guide on subsequent dives. However, there are many good reasons to nurture your underwater navigation techniques and complete further training. In this three-part series, we’ll first address general ways to improve your underwater navigation techniques — starting before you even submerge. We’ll follow up with more specific articles on compass navigation and natural navigation.

The priority of underwater navigation is, of course, to bring you back to the boat, shore or proper exit point safely. But there are many other benefits to sound underwater navigation techniques. Here are a few of the most important, as well as general tips for finding your way underwater.

You’ll be more relaxed and independent

To begin with, confident underwater navigation techniques allow you to dive independently with your buddy where and when appropriate. You’ll have freedom to plan the dive around your wishes and needs. Good navigation techniques also increase your dive plan’s effectiveness. You’ll go directly to what you wish to see without wasting no-stop time and gas searching the site.

Solid navigation techniques also help avoid the embarrassment and potential hazards of buddy separation. They also make a long surface swim at the end of a dive unlikely. No one wants to be part of the buddy team that surfaces several hundred yards from the dive boat and must be picked up by the boat crew in the zodiac.

Proficiency in underwater navigation techniques will leave you feeling more relaxed and less anxious, both during the planning and underwater. The happy side-effect is that you’re likely to reduce both your breathing rate and reduced gas consumption, and have a more enjoyable dive overall.

Improving your underwater navigation techniques

So, how can you improve your underwater navigation? Effective navigation begins before the dive. Here are four things to bear in mind.

1. Listen to the briefing

   Be sure to listen to the briefing from the divemaster, instructor or guide. During those five to 10 minutes, he or she will share all the crucial aspects of the dive with you. This will allow you to make a plan. Take notes on a slate if you need to. Which way is the reef? Right shoulder out, left shoulder back? Is the reef to the north, south, east or west? Where is the boat moored? Or is it a drift with a zodiac pick up? Note depth details, landmarks, hazards or points of interest on the route, such as a significant pinnacle, outcropping or swim-through. And, of course, pay attention to any emergency procedures if anything goes wrong.

2. Plan the dive

   With all the information you’ve gathered from the briefing, make your plan with your buddy or dive team. This, of course, includes your designated navigator and whichever route the team will take. But also consider your gas consumption (and your buddy’s) using the rule of thirds, allowable no-stop time for the gas you’re using (i.e. air or nitrox) based on the maximum planned depth, and points of interest. If, for example, you’re planning a wreck dive, it may be impossible to see everything on one dive. Prioritize and make a conservative route with agreed-upon turning points.

3. Share responsibilities

   Agree with your buddy before you enter the water who is leading the dive. Decide how you’ll share responsibilities when it comes monitoring depth, time and gas consumption. Review your hand signals so that you can effectively communicate, including for contingencies if things go off-plan. Typically, one member of the buddy pair will choose the route while the other monitors depth, time and distance.

4. Take a bearing

   Get familiar with your compass. Always make it part of your standard set-up when entering the water and, where appropriate, take a bearing before you descend. Alternatively, take a bearing before heading down the descent line. From the boat, identify the reef’s location. That way, if you become disoriented, you will always know which way to swim back to the boat. If you’re shore diving, determine which direction brings you back to the shoreline.

You’ll hone these techniques the more you use them, so don’t be intimidated to lead or navigate a dive. You’ll soon find that – almost unconsciously – you’ll start to absorb the clues and cues from your compass and the surrounding environment. Next in our series we’ll look at some specific tips when it comes to navigating underwater with a compass.

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