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Raw MH370 satellite data released
5/27/2014 10:34:34 PM
- NEW: "You shouldn't read anything into any gaps in the data," Inmarsat official says
- Inmarsat CEO: We didn't release model we used to crunch data; it's up to Malaysian government
- The information is lacking important elements, a CNN safety analyst says
- A passenger's partner says she's annoyed more information wasn't released
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) -- Data from communications between satellites and missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was released Tuesday, more than two months after relatives of passengers say they requested that it be made public.
But criticism quickly emerged suggesting that the information provided lacks important elements that would help outside experts put the official version of events to the test.
Malaysian authorities published a 47-page document containing hundreds of lines of communication logs between the jetliner and the British company Inmarsat's satellite system.
The information provided isn't the whole picture but is "intended to provide a readable summary of the data communication logs," the notes at the beginning of the document say.
In the weeks following the plane's March 8 disappearance, a team of international experts used the satellite data and other information, including radar data and engine performance calculations, to conclude that the aircraft ended up in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean.
Some passengers' families, unsatisfied by the official explanation of the plane's fate, say they want an independent analysis of the complex information, a process that could take some time.
Michael Exner, one of the most vocal experts among those calling for the release of the data, said a very preliminary review suggested that there were gaps in the notes explaining the data.
The explanatory notes at the start of the document "answer a few of the questions we have had, but leave many questions unanswered," he told CNN.
CNN safety analyst David Soucie said certain key elements, which would allow independent experts to fully test the official conclusion, are missing from the data in the document.
"There's not enough information to say whether they made an error," he said. "I think we're still going to be looking for more."
Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce acknowledged Tuesday that the company didn't release the model to which it applied the data to estimate the plane's path -- and said the decision on whether to release the model lies with the Malaysian government, which is leading the search.
"We'd be perfectly happy to put that model out," Pearce told CNN's "New Day."
But Pearce also told CNN that the released data is enough -- along with engine and radar data -- for experienced third parties to plug into their own models and reach their own conclusions.
"You shouldn't read anything into any gaps in the data," Inmarsat Senior Vice President Chris McLaughlin told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" on Tuesday. "This is a very goodwill and focused way that we're trying to communicate our best impression of what happened."
Sarah Bajc, whose partner, Philip Wood, was on the missing jet, said she was "annoyed" that Inmarsat and Malaysian authorities hadn't released everything they used to reach their conclusions.
"I see no reason for them to have massaged this before giving it to us," she said.
Is Inmarsat right?
Data guided search
For weeks, Inmarsat said it didn't have the authority to release the data, deferring to Malaysian authorities, who are in charge of the search for the plane that disappeared over Southeast Asia while on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Last week, the two sides announced that they would aim to make the information available to the public.
The satellite signals -- called "handshakes" -- with MH370 were part of a larger set of data that investigators have used to try to establish the whereabouts of the missing Boeing 777 with 239 people on board.
The handshakes continued to take place for roughly six hours after the aircraft dropped off radar screens.
Months of searching by dozens of planes and ships in the southern Indian Ocean has so far turned up no wreckage, and investigators have not been able to say for sure where the remains of MH370 might be.
The underwater search for the missing plane will effectively be put on hold this week, and may not resume until August at the earliest, according to Australia's top transport safety official.
Analysts have said the release of the satellite data could help discount some theories about what happened to the jetliner, and potentially fuel new ones.
Relatives of people who were on the passenger jet, scientists studying its disappearance and media covering the search have become increasingly critical about the lack of public information about why the search has focused on the southern Indian Ocean.
"I think far too much has been left to experts who have remained behind the curtain," said K.S. Narendran, whose wife, Chandrika Sharma, was on the flight.
Inmarsat confident
Even though more than 80 days have passed without searchers finding any wreckage from the plane, Inmarsat officials say they remain confident in their data.
"Yes, to a high degree of probability, we are certain that our data is right," McLaughlin said Tuesday.
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Richard Quest last week, Inmarsat's vice president of satellite operations said the company's calculations have been tested by other people.
"No one has come up yet with a reason why it shouldn't work with this particular flight when it has worked with others," Mark Dickinson said. "And it's very important this isn't just an Inmarsat activity. There are other people doing investigations, experts who are helping the investigation team, who have got the same data, who made their own models up and did the same thing to see if they got the same results and broadly speaking, they got roughly the same answers."
Experts came to the conclusion that the plane had ended up in the southern Indian Ocean by piecing together three types of information, he said.
"We have actually the messages from the ground station to the plane and back again. That essentially tells you the terminal is switched on and powered up. We have some timing information and in addition to that there were some frequency measurements," he said.
The timings told them the distance between the plane and the satellite, enabling them to map out arcs. Then they factored in frequency differences, determining that the plane had headed south.
'The right work'
It was a startling conclusion -- and Dickinson says investigators made sure to repeatedly check their calculations before sharing them.
"You want to make sure when you come to a conclusion like that, that you've done the right work, the data is as you understand it to be," he said.
Now, Dickinson says he's well aware that the entire weight of the search rests on the Inmarsat data.
"This is all the data we have for what has happened for those six or so hours," he said. "It's important we all get it right and particularly that everyone looking at the data makes the best judgments on it and how it's used. And particularly for the families and friends of the relatives on board, try and make sure that we can help bring this sad incident to a close."
Quest said he thinks the expertise of the Inmarsat team and the level of testing to which their work was subjected justifies their confidence in their conclusions.
"It is up to the detractors and doubters to come up and say why they believe it's wrong," he said. "Not the other way around."
Bajc acknowledged that independent analysis of the data may support Inmarsat's conclusions.
"That would be a fine outcome as far as I'm concerned," she said.
But if the independent experts come up with alternative flight paths based on the data, Bajc said, then "those need to be investigated."
The wait for data
The issue of making the satellite data public has become the cause of confusion and contradictory statements.
Bajc said the families had first asked for the data more than two months ago.
"It seemed a relatively innocent request" at the time, she said, but authorities refused to release it.
Malaysian officials told CNN earlier this month that their government did not have the data. But Inmarsat officials said the company provided all of it to Malaysian officials "at an early stage in the search."
"We've shared the information that we had, and it's for the investigation to decide what and when it puts out," McLaughlin said earlier this month.
But a senior Malaysian official told CNN that the government needed Inmarsat's help to pass on the data to families "in a presentable way."
"We are trying to be as transparent as possible," the official said. "We have no issues releasing the data."
Bajc said the delay only added to questions surrounding the information.
"It's a little curious to me why this had to become such a big deal," she said Tuesday.
Did Inmarsat data point Flight 370 searchers in wrong direction?
Cannes: Movie maker courts controversy with MH370 thriller
CNN's Saima Mohsin reported from Kuala Lumpur, and CNN's Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Catherine Shoichet, Mike Ahlers, Mitra Mobasherat and Holly Yan contributed to this report.
Vietnamese, Chinese boats collide
5/27/2014 7:39:37 PM
- Xinhua: Vietnamese fishing boat sank after colliding with Chinese vessel off Paracel Islands
- Beijing has been drilling for oil near the island chain in the South China Sea both nations claim
- Vietnamese coast guard officials say the fishing boat was rammed amid rising tensions
- All 10 crew aboard the fishing boat were rescued by nearby vessels
(CNN) -- A Vietnamese fishing boat has sunk after colliding with a Chinese vessel near an island chain in the South China Sea at the center of a territorial dispute between the two Communist neighbors.
According to China's state-run Xinhua news agency, the Vietnamese vessel had been "harassing" a Chinese fishing boat at 5 p.m. local time on Monday in waters near the Paracel Islands, a largely uninhabited archipelago also known by the Chinese as the Xisha Islands.
However, Luu Tien Thang, a senior officer aboard a Vietnamese coast guard boat patrolling waters nearby, told CNN Tuesday the Vietnamese vessel reported that it had actually been rammed by the Chinese ship during a distress call.
While the Chinese vessel was purportedly a fishing boat, Luu said there were "usually Chinese military boats in the area with the fishing fleet."
Other Vietnamese fishing boats and coast guard ships picked up the 10 crew members aboard the Vietnamese vessel, Luu added.
Chinese ships reach Vietnam to extract thousands of citizens
'Forcefully intruded'
Relations between China and Vietnam have soured in recent weeks after a state-owned Chinese oil company began drilling for oil some 17 nautical miles off the Paracels. Vietnamese officials say Chinese military and civilian ships have been harassing their vessels around the islands -- which are controlled by Beijing but claimed by Hanoi -- even accusing the Chinese of repeatedly ramming into them and shooting water cannon.
READ: How an oil rig sparked anti-China riots in Vietnam
China maintains that its current drilling activities are legitimate and blames the Vietnamese for provoking the conflict.
At a daily press briefing in Beijing Tuesday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Qin Gang said the Vietnamese vessel had "forcefully intruded" into the area where its drilling rig was operating, then ran into the left side of a Chinese fishing boat before capsizing.
"I want to stress that the direct cause for this incident is that the Vietnamese side ... insisted on disturbing the normal operation by the Chinese side and took dangerous action on the sea," said Qin. "We once again urge the Vietnamese side to stop immediately all kinds of disruptive and damaging activities."
He said there is "no dispute concerning the sovereignty of the Xisha islands," and that they are Chinese territory.
"We hope the Vietnamese side will stop its disruptive actions and bear in mind the overall interests of the stability of the region. Only by doing so can the Vietnamese side uphold the overall interests of bilateral relationship," Qin added.
The spat recently spilled into violent anti-Chinese protests across Vietnam two weeks ago, prompting Beijing to evacuate thousands of its nationals. Recent video aired by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed some limping or being carried down the stairs of a medical flight arriving in the city of Chengdu, many with limbs bandaged. Two Chinese nationals were killed in earlier clashes, authorities said.
Vietnam characterized the protests as "spontaneous acts" by individuals who were exploiting the situation to "cause social disorder."
READ: What's behind China's territorial spats?
CNN's Euan McKirdy contributed to this report.
Deck stacked against millennials
5/28/2014 10:20:10 AM
- Matthew Segal: Jobless rate for millennials is higher than overall rate
- Segal: Millennials are saddled with student loan debt for colleges with skyrocketing costs
- Exploitative unpaid internships only way to work in your field, he says. Why work for free?
- Segal: Faith in government falling, but millennials cannot stand on the sidelines
Editor's note: Matthew Segal is the co-founder and president of OurTime.org, an advocacy organization for young Americans, and the host of "OurTime with Matthew Segal" on SiriusXM POTUS, a new series produced by and for millennial listeners. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.
(CNN) -- There is a Washington adage that if you don't help write the menu, you might end up on it. And make no mistake: The classes of 2014 that walked across graduation stages recently just provided more young people available to be served for lunch.
Despite positive news about America's reduced 6.3% unemployment rate in April, it turns out the jobless rate for 18- to 29-year-olds is 9.1%. If you include "discouraged workers," or those who have given up looking for work, unemployment for 18- to 29-year-olds is 15.5%. The unemployment rate for young African-Americans is even worse: 16.6%, and if you add discouraged workers, it's a whopping 23.3%.
With job opportunities scarce, employers feel little pressure to raise wages. Unpaid internships are pervasive, and the allure of "experience" in their chosen field is enough to entice eager young people to work for free, unless their parents can't afford to subsidize them. Those young people must either accumulate additional debt while working unpaid internships or look toward minimum wage positions, which are becoming more the norm, and less the teenage avocation to score some extra cash.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 88% of workers making the minimum wage are 20 years old or more, and about 4 in 10 are college graduates or have some level of college education. The system is unfortunately stacked against these low earners, because without savings, the ability to buy goods that can appreciate in wealth -- such as a house -- are negligible. According to the Census Bureau, about 1 in 3 Americans under 35 own homes, dropping by 4.2% from 2007 to 2013.
As James Hauser, a 28-year-old college graduate who works in Washington, told me: "I am debating for my next paycheck whether to make a credit card payment or replace my current pair of shoes. I take public transit for most things, so I walk a lot."
Hauser, like many people his age, feels stunted without assets: "My parents were already in a house with three children when they were my age," he said.
Matthew Segal
Of all the economic trends holding back America's young people, perhaps the most disturbing is the soaring cost of a post-high school diploma. So many young people have been sold the imperative nature of a higher education. "I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training," President Obama said in February 2009. "This can be community college or a four-year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma."
Although the President's goal is a noble one, the cost of a college degree has risen by 1,120% since 1978 -- far outpacing increases in food, health care and housing prices. As a result, we have more than $1.1 trillion in student loan debt, and 7 million Americans are in default on their student loans, meaning they are more than 270 days late on a payment.
"With almost a fourth of borrowers in default, we are creating a generation with nothing left to lose," said Natalia Abrams, executive director of Student Debt Crisis, a national advocacy organization.
Hauser also struggles with debt. "It's hard to think about, especially with the hundreds of dollars of interest that accumulates each month." To make matters worse, there are few protections for student borrowers under U.S. bankruptcy law, which is not true for credit card debt, mortgage debt or even gambling debt.
To file for bankruptcy you must prove "undue hardship," which, in essence, translates to being severely disabled. College students who had taken out loans graduate with an average $25,000 debt because of rising tuition costs. And the government is profiting tens of billions of dollars from federal student loan interest rates, which are projected to climb even more (up to 10.5% for graduate students) over the next five years.
Not surprisingly, faith in government is vanishing. According to a recent Harvard Institute of Politics survey, only 1 in 5 young people trust the federal government, and most pernicious of all, only 23% of young people are positive they will vote in November. "There's an erosion of trust in the individuals and institutions that make government work," said John Della Volpe, the Harvard pollster. "Now we see the lowest level of interest in any election we've measured since 2000."
While it is easy to empathize with young people's frustration in government, abstaining from the political process is arguably the worst move to make. Because politicians assume that young people don't vote, funding for job creation, national service and education is on the chopping block. The class of 2014 must confront this reality: discounting Washington as tone deaf and ineffective seems fair enough, but it will only get worse if we sit on the sidelines.
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Let teens talk about mental illness
5/27/2014 6:49:45 AM
- Two high school students tried to tell stories about teen mental illnesses
- Susan Antilla: Schools need to have open conversations about mental health
- She says kids suffering from mental illness crave information that can help them
- Antilla: A town in Connecticut has seen good results when it fosters discussion
Editor's note: Susan Antilla is an award-winning financial writer and author of "Tales From the Boom-Boom Room: The Landmark Legal Battles That Exposed Wall Street's Shocking Culture of Sexual Harassment." Follow her on Twitter @antillaview. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- Two high school students -- managing editors at their school newspaper in Ann Arbor, Michigan -- wrote a distressing op-ed that appeared recently in The New York Times.
Madeline Halpert, a junior, and Eva Rosenfeld, a sophomore, had undertaken a Herculean task. After bonding over the discovery that both were being treated for depression, they linked up with other journalism students and gathered highly personal stories about mental illness from teenagers in their school district.
Incredibly, all their subjects agreed to be identified. No unnamed sources. No pseudonyms. These were reporters who did their homework, and subjects who saw the merit of going public about their experiences with everything from depression and anxiety to eating disorders and drug abuse.
The two student editors were gearing up to devote an entire edition of the paper to telling the mental health stories of their peers.
And then, the head of their school put the kibosh on the project. The stories were not to be published lest they trigger bullying or further mental health problems for the afflicted students.
I read the two girls' story the morning after a remarkable night of witnessing just the opposite -- the progress that comes when school administrators encourage their students to speak and write openly about mental illness.
High school students in the tiny New England town of Ledyard, Connecticut, population 14,687, for six years have been competing in an essay contest called "Breaking the Silence about Mental Illness." The project got started when two Ledyard high school health teachers teamed up with the leader of a local mental health support group to invite kids to compete for annual prizes of $250, $150 and $100. The prize money comes from the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
I was one of four judges, which has given me a ringside seat to this work in progress at changing attitudes. Importantly, if you include our contest coordinator who oversees the project, three in our group of five are mental health professionals who can spot when an essayist hasn't gotten the facts right, or displays red flags that should be brought to the attention of a parent. All of us have a connection to mental health issues, whether it is in a lifelong professional devotion, our own mental illness, or the care of a loved one.
On Wednesday night, we honored our latest crop of courageous teenage writers in a meeting room at a state mental health center in Norwich, Connecticut.
Ben Coffing read his third-place essay, "ADHD Though My Eyes" and taught the audience a little something about the pain of feeling different.
"Imagine being called SPED in the hallway just because you have to work harder at school than someone else," he said, referring to the derogatory slang that some students throw at special education kids. As far back as Ben can remember, kids thought he was weird because he was "a little bit different." But he also thinks having ADHD has made him "a very caring person when others have a problem or issue."
I mean, can you top that, or what?
Molly Barnett read her second-place winning essay, "Breaking The Silence About Mental Illness." "Try to put yourself in their shoes," she said of people struggling with a mental health condition. "Imagine going through each day, each hour, fighting the voices screaming in your head, as if you have schizophrenia."
Kathleen Ferry, the first-prize winner, began to sob just a few paragraphs into reading her gripping essay about what she called the "alternate reality" of two weeks in a psychiatric hospital.
I offered to read the rest, and Kathleen stood beside me as I shared her words about "going from ER visit to ER visit" in her struggle with a worsening depression. After her last line -- "I am living proof that things do get better; all you need is guidance" -- Kathleen got a standing ovation from the audience of parents, siblings, friends and local residents.
And then she posed for a picture with her $250 check, and took a seat next to her mom, who wrapped her arms around Kathleen and planted two big kisses on her right cheek. Parents or guardians of our winners always show up for the big night.
The contest drew 36 entries in 2008, its launch year. That inched up to 40 in 2009 and then a record-breaking 92 by 2013, just months after students in another Connecticut school got a crash course on mental illness in the Sandy Hook massacre. This year, 149 Ledyard students submitted essays -- another record. The wisdom, honesty and emotion of the entries compounds with each cycle.
Mental illness in children: Where to turn
What's always striking is how wide a population is affected by mental illness in such a tiny community. The two student editors in Ann Arbor observed the same thing on a larger scale.
Cheryl Jacques, an essay contest judge and executive director of the Southeastern Mental Health Authority, a division of Connecticut's Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said kids suffering with mental illness are craving information that can help them make sense of what they're feeling.
Ann Arbor, consider the great results of the open conversation about teenage mental health in Ledyard. Your high school editors are on to something.
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Condemned Christian gives birth
5/27/2014 5:08:36 PM
- Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, gave birth in prison Monday
- Sources: Her husband was not allowed to attend the birth
- Ibrahim was convicted of apostasy
(CNN) -- A Sudanese woman sentenced to die for refusing to renounce her Christianity has given birth to a girl in prison, her lawyers said Tuesday.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, delivered her baby Monday at a women's prison in Khartoum, but her husband was not allowed to be present for the birth, sources told CNN. They asked not to be named for safety reasons.
Ibrahim was convicted of apostasy, or the renunciation of faith, about two weeks ago while she was eight months pregnant.
A Sudanese lawyer filed an appeal last week to reverse the verdict by the lower court.
She is in prison with her 20-month-old son, but Sudanese officials have said the toddler is free to leave any time, according to her lawyer, Mohamed Jar Elnabi.
Her husband, Daniel Wani, is a U.S. citizen who uses a wheelchair and "totally depends on her for all details of his life," her lawyer said.
The appeal
The appeals court in Khartoum will issue a ruling on the case in the next week, but it will first ask the lower court to submit the documents it used to make the ruling, according to her lawyer.
Once that's done, it will issue a case number, he said.
"We will continue checking with the appeals court, but Inshallah (Allah willing) ... the appeals court will reverse the sentence and set her free," he said.
Christian or Muslim?
Ibrahim says her father was a Sudanese Muslim and her mother was Ethiopian Orthodox. Her father left when she was 6, and she was raised as a Christian.
The court had warned her to renounce her Christianity by May 15, but she held firm to her beliefs.
Sudanese Parliament speaker Fatih Izz Al-Deen said claims that Ibrahim was raised as non-Muslim are untrue.
She was raised in an Islamic environment, and her brother, a Muslim, filed the complaint against her, according to Al-Deen.
The complaint alleges that she went missing for several years, and her family was shocked to find out she married a Christian, according to her lawyer.
However, because her father was Muslim, the courts considered her one too, which would mean her marriage to a non-Muslim man is void.
Attempts to contact Sudan's justice minister and foreign affairs minister for comment were unsuccessful.
100 lashes
In addition to the death sentence, the court convicted Ibrahim of adultery and sentenced her to 100 lashes.
The Parliament speaker has said the verdict is not final and will go through all the judicial stages to reach the constitutional court.
Worldwide condemnation
Rights groups and foreign embassies worldwide condemned the verdict.
"The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion, is abhorrent and should never be even considered," said Manar Idriss, Amnesty International's Sudan researcher.
Katherine Perks with the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies said the verdict goes against Sudan's "own constitution and commitments made under regional and international law."
Foreign embassies in Khartoum, including those of the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, urged the government to reverse course.
In past cases involving pregnant or nursing women, the Sudanese government waited until the mother weaned her child before executing any sentence, said Christian Solidarity Worldwide spokeswoman Kiri Kankhwende.
Opinion: Why marrying for love should never mean death
Exec fired for remarks on shooting
5/27/2014 6:44:05 PM
- Rap Genius co-founder made insensitive comments about killer's manifesto
- Mahbod Moghadam called Elliot Rodger's writing "beautiful"
- He also speculated on the sex appeal of Rodger's sister
- Rap Genius CEO: "I cannot let him jeopardize the Rap Genius mission"
(CNN) -- The co-founder of Rap Genius, an online-annotation website, has been fired after marking up the 137-page manifesto of California killer Elliot Rodger with comments that are being called tasteless and creepy.
Mahbod Moghadam used his site, which lets users post notes interpreting rap and hip-hop lyrics, to comment on Rodger's exhaustive autobiography, which includes his reasons for killing six people in Santa Barbara, California, on Friday before apparently turning a gun on himself.
In more than one note, Moghadam called Rodger's writing "beautiful," and in another he speculated on the attractiveness of Rodger's sister.
In a journal and in a video posted online, Rodger had expressed frustrations about not finding women to date and resentment toward couples who kissed in front of him.
He also wrote that his anger toward women intensified after he overheard his sister having sex with her boyfriend. "MY GUESS: his sister is smokin hot," Moghadam wrote.
Moghadam also made comments about a girl Rodger described as the only female his age he ever saw naked.
"Maddy will go on to attend USC and become a spoiled hottie," Moghadam wrote, before adding, "This is an artful sentence, beautifully written... ."
Rap Genius has removed the notations. But they were captured and reposted online by Gawker, Re/code and other news sites.
Why #YesAllWomen took off on Twitter
On Monday, Rap Genius co-founder and CEO Tom Lehman released a written statement saying that Moghadam had resigned.
"Mahbod Moghadam, one of my co-founders, annotated the piece with annotations that not only didn't attempt to enhance anyone's understanding of the text, but went beyond that into gleeful insensitivity and misogyny," he wrote. "All of which is contrary to everything we're trying to accomplish at Rap Genius."
Lehman continued: "Mahbod is my friend. He's a brilliant, creative, complicated person with a ton of love in his heart. Without Mahbod Rap Genius would not exist, and I am grateful for all he has done to help Rap Genius succeed.
"But I cannot let him compromise the Rap Genius mission -- a mission that remains almost as delicate and inchoate as it was when we three founders decided to devote our lives to it almost 5 years ago."
Lehman said the site, which describes its mission as helping users "discover the meaning of rap lyrics," decided to post Rodger's writings in hopes that users' annotations "will eventually be a good resource for people looking to understand this tragedy."
Part One of Rodger's writings currently appears on Rap Genius between breakdowns of the lyrics to "Believe Me" by Lil Wayne and John Legend's "All Of Me."
In December, Google penalized Rap Genius after a user exposed what he called a scheme to manipulate search results and drive traffic to the site. The site removed the offending links and regained its Google ranking.
As is frequently the case in today's digital world, the social-media backlash against Moghadam's comments was fast and brutal.
"Appalling use of technology by already questionable behaving site," Re/code co-executive editor Kara Swisher wrote on Twitter with a link to that site's story.
"What's most newsworthy about the story of the Rap Genius founder isn't that he was fired but that he didn't think his words were wrong," tweeted author and tech journalist Ed Bott.
Observers also criticized Moghadam's own Twitter feed, which features many posts that could be viewed as crude at best and sexist at worst.
On Monday, Moghadam took to Twitter to beg forgiveness for his comments.
"I want to apologize to everyone," he wrote. "I need to hear these criticisms, reflect for real, and work on becoming a better person."
Rolling Stones back on tour
5/28/2014 6:44:31 AM
- Rolling Stones are on tour in Europe
- Norway show was first since death of Mick Jagger's girlfriend, L'Wren Scott
- Scott committed suicide in March, shocking band's frontman
(CNN) -- Ladies and gentlemen, the Rolling Stones are back on tour.
The "world's greatest rock 'n' roll band" resumed its #StonesOnFire trek, part of its 50th-anniversary travels around the globe, with a show Monday night in Oslo, Norway. The group's tour had been put on hold since the March 17 death of Mick Jagger's girlfriend, fashion designer L'Wren Scott.
Scott's death, which was ruled a suicide, stunned Jagger, who had been with the designer and former model since 2003.
"I am still struggling to understand how my lover and best friend could end her life in this tragic way. We spent many wonderful years together and had made a great life for ourselves. She had great presence and her talent was much admired, not least by me," he said in a statement two months ago.
Scott left her $9 million estate to Jagger, according to the late fashion designer's will. Though she had reportedly been having financial difficulties, a representative for Scott said, "The figures quoted in the media regarding the financial status of LS Fashion Limited are not only highly misleading and inaccurate but also extremely hurtful and disrespectful to the memory of L'Wren Scott."
The Stones were in Australia at the time of her death, and the band canceled seven shows there and in New Zealand. The shows have been rescheduled for October and November, according to the Stones' official site.
The Stones' Oslo set list included "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "All Down the Line," "Let's Spend the Night Together," "Emotional Rescue" and a version of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" accompanied by the Edvard Grieg Youth Choir.
Man who made a nation cry
5/28/2014 12:31:42 PM
- Brazil will host the football World Cup for first time in 64 years in 2014
- The South American country lost to Uruguay in the final match of the 1950 tournament
- Flamboyant attacker Neymar is the star of the current Brazil team
- Brazil hosts the Confederations Cup, which begins on Saturday
Editor's note: Ready to Play debuts on CNN International on July 26 at 1530 GMT.
(CNN) -- Rio de Janeiro's Maracana Stadium was packed to the rafters: 200,000 expectant spectators prepared to celebrate Brazil's first World Cup triumph and its arrival as a football superpower.
It was the moment the South American country's love of the game, and of its most prestigious competition, became a dangerous obsession.
July 16, 1950, the final match of the final group stage. Brazil faced Uruguay, and a draw would be enough to see the host crowned as champion.
The champagne was put on ice when winger Friaca gave Brazil a 1-0 lead just after halftime.
But the samba beat was silenced when Juan Alberto Schiaffino equalized for Uruguay -- and then the unthinkable happened.
World Sport Presents: Racism in Football
Uruguay came forward, Brazil goalkeeper Barbosa stepped off his line, Alcides Ghiggia scuffed a low shot towards the near post ... and the ball nestled in the back of the net.
Brazil had lost.
A nation's hearts were broken. Lives were forever altered and a national obsession was born.
The 63 years since have seen Brazil become football's dominant force. The five World Cups won by "A Selecao" is more than any other country in the quadrennial competition's 83-year history.
But not one of Brazil's quintet of triumphs has banished the shadow cast by the failure of Moacyr Barbosa Nascimento and his teammates.
"The idea the rest of the world has about Brazil, and perhaps Brazil has about itself to a certain extent, is that it is all about 'joga bonito,' it is all about the beautiful game," says Jonathan Wilson, journalist and author of "The Outsider: A history of the goalkeeper."
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"Actually it is all about winning in Brazil, far more than anywhere else despite the perception," he told CNN. "There's no such thing as heroic failure in Brazil.
"Barbosa was named goalkeeper of the tournament, but he was scapegoated in Brazil because of what happened in the final game.
"He didn't get picked for the next couple of years. He was a very good goalkeeper, but all he is remembered for is that one mistake."
The error which led to Uruguay's second goal hung over Barbosa until his death in 2000.
But the saddest moment of his life, he said, was not in the final or its immediate aftermath.
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Some 20 years later, a woman in a supermarket pointed towards him and declared to the young boy by her side, "Look at him, son. He is the man that made all of Brazil cry."
"Under Brazilian law the maximum sentence is 30 years," Barbosa remarked on his 79th birthday, just two weeks before he passed away. "But my imprisonment has been for 50 years."
The disappointment looms large in Brazil's national psyche, and all the more so with the country to host the World Cup again next year for the first time since that fateful day.
"Nelson Rodriguez, the playwright, spoke about 'Our Hiroshima," Wilson said. "It seems monstrously disproportionate and it is, but I think what he means is that it's Brazil's national disaster.
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"They've never been in a war, they've never really had a great disaster. They just expected to win. The newspapers on the morning of the game were saying 'Brazil World Champions.' "
The newspapers were wrong.
It is this weight which the present day team must carry as it prepares to host the Confederations Cup, a warmup event for the World Cup, which Brazil kicks off against Japan on Saturday.
Once again the World Cup is coming to Brazil and once again a nation expects.
"Everybody knows the bad experiences we had in the World Cup in Brazil in the '50s -- we lost, but now we have to recover," says Pele, one of football's greatest players and a triple World Cup winner with Brazil between 1958 and 1970.
Barbosa's tale is a cautionary one for the current Brazil squad. A mistake by any player next year could be the costliest they ever make.
Luiz Felipe Scolari, coach of the last Brazil team to lift the World Cup in 2002, was reinstated in November 2012 to inspire a floundering team.
The results have been unspectacular.
Scolari has won two, drawn four and lost one of his seven matches back at the helm and the team languishes in 22nd in the FIFA world rankings.
A 2-2 draw with England in June was the first match at the refurbished Maracana, a stadium which is both a monument to Brazil's sporting prowess and a mausoleum for past failure.
"We always have good players, but we don't have a good team right now," Carlos Alberto, captain of Brazil's World Cup winners of 1970, told CNN. "We don't have experience, the players are very young.
"Everybody says to these players, 'You have to win, you have to win.' It's not good because they are young, they don't have the experience to play an international tournament."
That 1970 team is often referred to as the greatest of all time, given the style and swagger with which it crushed Italy 4-1 in the final match of the Mexico tournament.
The advent of color television made the players, bedecked in iconic vibrant yellow with green trim, appear as if soccer stars from another planet.
Alberto does not think the current generation is yet capable of emulating his team's achievements, but he is backing his countrymen to succeed four years later.
"They are going to take the experience of playing in the World Cup next year into 2018. In Russia, I bet you any money Brazil will win!" he declared.
"Next year, if they get to the semifinals it is OK."
Edu, a midfielder capped 15 times for Brazil between 2004 and 2005, shares Alberto's reservations.
The former Arsenal player is concerned a change of management has disrupted a squad short on international experience.
"We're not prepared yet," Edu, now director of football at Club World Cup winners Corinthians, told CNN. "We've changed the coach, which is not normal.
"Usually a coach has four, five, six years to get used to his team. Scolari is lucky, because Brazil has a lot of players to build a good squad. But I'm not sure if they will be prepared enough for the World Cup.
"The Brazilian team is not in the best moment."
One player of whom a huge amount is expected is Neymar, a flamboyant attacker recently signed by Barcelona who is frequently hailed as "the new Pele."
If Brazil is to finally win the World Cup on home soil, the fleet-footed, shock-haired attacker will have to prove he has shoulders broad enough to carry a nation's hopes.
"Listen, winning the World Cup is very hard because it is a box of surprises. No doubt Brazil is one of the best, but this doesn't mean Brazil is going to win ... The best players in Europe, they are Brazilian," Pele told CNN.
"In Brazil we have had a lot of excellent players like Zico, Tostao, Rivelino, Pele, Ronaldinho, but the last two years we have had Neymar.
"He is very talented. I hope he has luck in Barcelona. I didn't like it so much because he used to play in my team, Santos, I lost a good player. He deserves to go to the best team.
"I said to be the new Pele would be very difficult, because my mother and my father, they closed the machine (gestures). But no doubt he is one of the best players who we have in Brazil."
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