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And the semifinalists will be...
7/3/2014 10:29:55 AM
- Software program says it has successfully predicted outcome of round of 16 World Cup games
- Program named after the AI character in Microsoft's Halo video games
- But who will reach World Cup semifinals?
Editor's note: How are you celebrating the World Cup? Join the global conversation on CNN Facebook Pulse.
(CNN) -- We've had octopuses, camels and turtles providing World Cup predictions, but now a computer software program has got in on the act of forecasting football matches.
And, according to Microsoft, their recently released software program Cortana had a 100% success rate in predicting the winners in Brazil 2014's round of 16 games.
Like Apple's Siri, MIcrosoft's virtual assistant Cortana -- named after the AI character in its Halo video games and voiced by the same actress -- is using a number of indicators to predict the winners of World Cup matches.
"For the tournament our models evaluate the strength of each team through a variety of factors such as previous win/loss/tie record in qualification matches and other international competitions and margin of victory in these contests" said Microsoft's Bing blog.
One of the Cortana software developers Mouni Reddy tweeted: "If she gets the United States-Belgium game right we are officially living in the matrix."
@MurariSridharan @marcusash #Cortana 7-0. If she gets the United States-Belgium game right we are officially living in the Matrix!
— Mouni (@mechMouni) July 1, 2014 And so it proved with Belgium beating Team USA 2-1 after extra time.
So if you don't want to know which teams will reach the World Cup semifinals look away now.
If you're still reading, Cortana predicts Germany will beat France, hosts Brazil will triumph over Colombia, Argentina getting the better of Belgium and the Netherlands knocking out Costa Rica.
Read: Colombia recalls slain Andres Escobar
In pictures: Joy and pain for U.S. fans
Lonely? Rent a World Cup friend
7/3/2014 8:11:54 AM
CNN's Isa Soares discovers that for a price, you can now rent a friend to enjoy the sights of Brazil with.
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Extremism 'fuels abuse' of Christians
7/3/2014 10:29:42 AM
- Raymond Ibrahim: Sentencing a Christian mother to death is nothing new or isolated
- Ibrahim: More countries persecute Christians than any other religious affiliation
- Pope Francis says persecution of Christians worse than it was in the first days of the Church
- Ibrahim: Cases need to be publicized and condemned, as Sudanese woman's plight was
Editor's note: Raymond Ibrahim, a Mideast and Islam specialist, is the author of "Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians" and "The Al Qaeda Reader." He is an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum; Shillman fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center; and a media fellow at the Hoover Institution. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.
(CNN) -- The world heard of the plight of a Sudanese Christian wife and mother who, while eight months pregnant, was arrested and sentenced to public flogging followed by execution. Her crime? An Islamic court in Khartoum found her guilty of apostasy, that is, leaving Islam and converting to Christianity. It's a crime punishable by death, according to some interpretations of Islamic law.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, 27, who is married to an American, was released, rearrested, and then released again. It's still uncertain whether her nerve-wracking ordeal is over yet.
But Meriam's plight is nothing new or isolated. Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five, has been languishing in prison since 2010, sentenced to death in Pakistan for "blasphemy." Her husband and children went into hiding after death threats.
7 terrible countries for Christians
Persecution of Christians is one of the greatest human rights violations in the world today -- and certainly the one least known in the West.
Religious hostilities are on the rise around the world, against Muslims, Hindus, Jews, folk religion followers and more. But the situation is so bad for Christians that the normally diplomatic Pope Francis just asserted: "The persecution of Christians today is even greater than in the first centuries of the Church, and there are more Christian martyrs today than in that era."
To those familiar with the true history of early persecution -- when Christians were habitually tortured to death, set on fire, fed to lions and dismembered to cheering audiences -- his statement may seem exaggerated. But even today, as in the past, Christians are being persecuted for their faith and even tortured and executed.
In Egypt, while Christians were ushering in the 2011 New Year, Islamic terrorists bombed the Two Saints Church in Alexandria, killing 23 worshipers and injuring about 100 people. Coptic Christians and Muslims alike protested the bombing.
Since then, dozens of Coptic churches have been attacked, some torched to the ground. In August 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies attacked and destroyed dozens of churches in retaliation for the Coptic Church's endorsement of the anti-Brotherhood revolution, which was joined by tens of millions of moderate Muslims.
In 2010, Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad was attacked during Mass, with 58 worshipers killed and hundreds wounded. Lesser known is that, since U.S. forces ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003, militants have threatened and attacked Christians so often that many have fled the country in fear. In Syria and Iraq alone, Islamists like ISIS have been making life a living hell for "unbelievers."
In Nigeria, the Islamist organization Boko Haram has in recent years attacked hundreds of churches, reserving the worst attacks on Christmas and Easter church services.
A January, 2014, Pew Research Center study on religious discrimination across the world found that harassment of Christians was reported in more countries, 110, than any other faith. Muslims were close behind.
Open Doors, a nondenominational Christian rights watchdog group, ranked the 50 most dangerous nations for Christians in its World Watch List. The No. 1 ranked nation is North Korea, then Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran, and Yemen.
More disturbing is that three of these countries -- Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya -- were "liberated" in part thanks to U.S. forces, while in the fourth, Syria, the U.S. is actively sponsoring the "rebels," many of whom are not even Syrian and some of whom have been responsible for attacks and kidnappings of Christians.
It seems that when some Arab states fail, hostilities against Christians rise.
Of the top 50 nations documented for their persecution of Christians, 41 are Muslim majority or have sizeable Muslim populations, such as Ethiopia and Kenya. It's important to note that Islamic extremists are the culprits within their borders.
Other countries, especially communist ones like North Korea, China, and Vietnam, are intolerant of Christians; churches are banned or forced underground, and in North Korea, exposed Christians can be immediately executed.
Nothing integral to the fabric of these societies makes them intrinsically anti-Christian. Something as simple as overthrowing the North Korean regime could possibly end persecution there -- just as the fall of Communist Soviet Union saw religious persecution come to a quick close in nations like Russia, which if anything is experiencing a Christian Orthodox revival.
Opinion: Christians face abuse around the globe
The reason Islamic radicals persecute Christians can be traced to culture and politics, but also to extreme interpretations of Islamic religious texts that are used to justify that persecution.
The majority of the world's Muslims reject such intolerant readings, but a small minority of Islamists is enough to terrorize the even smaller number of Christians living in Muslim majority nations.
One reason Meriam Ibrahim was not flogged and executed might be that her case became a cause celebre, thanks to the media.
There is a familiar pattern. Back in September 2012, two other Christians under arrest and awaiting execution in the Islamic world were released. Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, charged with apostasy and sentenced to death in Iran, was eventually released. A teenage Christian girl known as Rimsha Masih, charged with blasphemy in Pakistan, was freed. In each case, freedom came only after widespread international condemnation.
The world must condemn the persecution of all religions -- all cases must be exposed to the light. It's incumbent on nations to control religious discrimination within their borders. And if it's the regime itself that endorses or inflames religious hostilities, the rest of the world must pay attention and denounce it.
Most important, Western nations must make foreign aid contingent on the rights and freedoms of minorities.
After all, if we are willing to give billions in foreign aid, often on humanitarian grounds, surely the very least that recipient governments can do is provide humanitarian rights, including religious freedom.
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3 countries, hundreds dead as killer Ebola virus spreads
7/3/2014 9:55:40 AM
- African health ministers and world experts gather in Ghana to discuss Ebola outbreak
- World Health Organization has warned that "drastic action" is needed to halt the epidemic
- The outbreak is the largest in terms of number of deaths and geographical spread
- The virus, which kills up to 90% of those infected, is spread through contact with body fluids
(CNN) -- African ministers and health experts are meeting in Ghana with one thing on their minds: how to stop the biggest ever outbreak of the Ebola virus from extending its deadly reach still further.
The World Health Organization has warned that "drastic action" is needed to halt the killer in its tracks.
It reports there have been 759 cases, including 467 deaths, in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia as of June 30. The outbreak began in March.
This makes it the "largest in terms of the number of cases and deaths as well as geographical spread," said WHO.
Not only is it uncontained, but this strain of the Ebola virus can kill up to 90% of those infected.
READ MORE: What you need to know about Ebola
The scientist who first discovered the Ebola virus in the 1970s, Dr. Peter Piot, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that the situation is "unprecedented."
"One, [this is] the first time in West Africa that we have such an outbreak," he said. "Secondly, it is the first time that three countries are involved. And thirdly it's the first time that we have outbreaks in capitals, in capital cities."
The looming threat has brought together the health ministers of 11 African nations -- the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda -- as well as health experts, Ebola survivors, and WHO representatives.
Also present at the two-day summit in Accra, Ghana, are the representatives of airlines and mining companies, as well as donor nations helping to fund efforts to combat the virus.
New cases of the virus continue to be reported.
Between June 25 and 30, 22 new cases of the virus were reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, WHO said. Of those, 14 died.
Exposure to body fluids
Ebola is a violent killer. The symptoms, at first, mimic the flu: headache, fever, fatigue. What comes next sounds like something out of a horror movie: significant diarrhea and vomiting, while the virus shuts off the blood's ability to clot.
As a result, patients often suffer internal and external hemorrhaging. Many die in an average of 10 days.
People are traveling without realizing they're carrying the deadly virus. It can take between two and 21 days after exposure for someone to feel sick.
The good news is that Ebola isn't as easily spread as one may think. A patient isn't contagious -- meaning they can't spread the virus to other people -- until they are already showing symptoms.
Then, the disease is transmitted by direct contact with the blood and body fluids of infected animals or people, according to WHO.
In April, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta traveled to Conakry, Guinea, to report on what was being done to treat patients and contain the outbreak.
"It took only moments to feel the impact of what was happening here," Gupta wrote after landing in Conakry. "There is a lot we know about Ebola, and it scares us almost as much as what we don't know."
Fighting an epidemic
Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, has been working to fight the epidemic since March.
But it warned in a news release last week that a "massive deployment of resources" is needed by West African nations and other organizations, saying it has reached the limit of what its teams can do.
Ebola outbreaks usually are confined to remote areas, making the disease easier to contain. But this outbreak is different; patients have been identified in 60 locations in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
"The epidemic is out of control," says Dr. Bart Janssens, MSF director of operations. "With the appearance of new sites in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, there is a real risk of it spreading to other areas."
Officials believe the wide footprint of this outbreak is partly because of the proximity between the jungle where the virus was first identified and cities such as Conakry. The capital of Guinea has a population of 2 million and an international airport.
Complicating matters, the countries hit hardest by the epidemic have major medical infrastructure challenges.
There is also a real sense of mistrust toward health workers from communities. In Sierra Leone and Guinea, WHO has said that community members have thrown stones at health care workers trying to investigate the outbreak.
MSF, which is currently the only aid organization treating those infected with Ebola, has treated 470 people, it said last week, of which 215 were confirmed cases.
However, it is now "having difficulty responding to the large number of new cases and locations," it said.
While public anxiety is high, the statement said, governments and civil society groups are doing too little to acknowledge the scale of the epidemic or educate people about how to stop the spread of the disease.
Virus 'should be easy to stop'
There is no cure for Ebola, but in theory the disease should be easy to fight, Piot told CNN.
"You need really close contact to become infected. So just being on the bus with someone with Ebola, that's not a problem."
Simple hygienic measures like washing with soap and water, not re-using syringes, and avoiding contact with infected corpses are sufficient to stop spread of the disease, Piot said.
"This is an epidemic of dysfunctional health systems," he added. "Fear of the virus, and the lack of trust in government, in the health system, is as bad as the actual virus."
READ: Get the fast facts on Ebola
READ: We're aliens in Ebola's world
READ: What is Ebola and why does it kill?
CNN's Mick Krever, Danielle Dellorto, Miriam Falco and Jen Christensen contributed to this report.
And the semifinalists will be ...
7/3/2014 10:33:42 AM
- Software program says it has successfully predicted outcome of round of 16 World Cup games
- Program named after the AI character in Microsoft's Halo video games
- But who will reach World Cup semifinals?
Editor's note: How are you celebrating the World Cup? Join the global conversation on CNN Facebook Pulse.
(CNN) -- We've had octopuses, camels and turtles providing World Cup predictions, but now a computer software program has got in on the act of forecasting football matches.
And, according to Microsoft, their recently released software program Cortana had a 100% success rate in predicting the winners in Brazil 2014's round of 16 games.
Like Apple's Siri, MIcrosoft's virtual assistant Cortana -- named after the AI character in its Halo video games and voiced by the same actress -- is using a number of indicators to predict the winners of World Cup matches.
"For the tournament our models evaluate the strength of each team through a variety of factors such as previous win/loss/tie record in qualification matches and other international competitions and margin of victory in these contests" said Microsoft's Bing blog.
One of the Cortana software developers Mouni Reddy tweeted: "If she gets the United States-Belgium game right we are officially living in the matrix."
@MurariSridharan @marcusash #Cortana 7-0. If she gets the United States-Belgium game right we are officially living in the Matrix!
— Mouni (@mechMouni) July 1, 2014 And so it proved with Belgium beating Team USA 2-1 after extra time.
So if you don't want to know which teams will reach the World Cup semifinals look away now.
If you're still reading, Cortana predicts Germany will beat France, hosts Brazil will triumph over Colombia, Argentina getting the better of Belgium and the Netherlands knocking out Costa Rica.
Read: Colombia recalls slain Andres Escobar
In pictures: Joy and pain for U.S. fans
Brazil star: We have to win
7/3/2014 5:27:13 PM
CNN's Amanda Davies speaks to Brazil goalkeeper Júlio César ahead of the team's knockout match against Colombia.
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Court hears dad 'sexting' as child died in hot car
7/3/2014 11:45:38 PM
- Prosecutors paint Ross Harris as an unfaithful husband who wanted a child-free life
- "It's easy to get distracted when you get behind the wheel," defense attorney says
- A judge denies bail; he finds probable cause for murder, child cruelty charge
- Harris is accused in the death of his 22-month-old son; he has pleaded not guilty
Atlanta (CNN) -- Surprising claims came to light during a hearing Thursday for a Georgia man whose toddler son died after being left in a hot car, a man prosecutors sought to portray as an unfaithful husband who wanted a child-free life.
Among the most shocking allegations: Justin Ross Harris messaged six women, sending and receiving explicit texts -- some including nude images -- from work while his 22-month-old was dying, a detective testified at the hearing.
Harris' attorney repeatedly objected to Cobb County, Georgia, police Detective Phil Stoddard's testimony claiming that Harris sexted the women -- one of whom was underage at the time -- but the judge allowed it.
Police say Harris, 33, left his toddler, Cooper, strapped into a car seat under a baking sun for seven hours while he went to work June 18. Records show that the mercury topped 92 that day, and police say the temperature was 88 degrees when the boy was pronounced dead in a parking lot not far from his father's workplace.
At the hearing, Cobb County Chief Magistrate Frank Cox found probable cause for the case against Harris to move forward with respect to murder and child cruelty charges.
"For him to enter the car ... when the child had been dead and rigor mortis had set in, and the testimony is the stench in the car was overwhelming at that point in time, that he -- in spite of that -- got in the car and drove it for some distance before he took any action to check on the welfare of his child, I find there is probable cause for the two charges contained in the warrant," Cox told a packed courtroom.
The judge denied bail for Harris, who has pleaded not guilty.
In addition to the charges he faces in connection with his son's death, Harris may also be charged with felony sexual exploitation of a minor and misdemeanor illegal contact with a minor, Stoddard said.
Internet searches
The detective also testified about Internet searches that could raise eyebrows given the context of the case.
Before his son's death, Harris had visited a Reddit page called "child-free" and read four articles, Stoddard said. He also allegedly searched how to survive in prison.
Among the other details police have released is that Harris and his wife, Leanna Harris, told them they looked up how hot a car needed to be to kill a child.
Five days before Cooper died, Ross Harris twice viewed a sort of homemade public service announcement in which a veterinarian demonstrates on video the dangers of leaving someone or something inside a hot car.
Leanna Harris told police that she had recently seen a story on a state initiative aimed at reminding people not to leave children in cars and that it was a fear of hers, Stoddard said.
Death highlights key role of digital evidence
Ross Harris "stated that he recently researched, through the Internet, child deaths inside vehicles and what temperature it needs to be for that to occur," police have said, adding that Harris told investigators "he was fearful that this could happen."
During questioning, Leanna Harris "made similar statements regarding researching in car deaths and how it occurs," according to police.
The time frame for the alleged research remains unclear.
'I felt his pain; I even wept'
Thursday's probable cause hearing was expected to last 90 minutes; it stretched for some three hours.
A good chunk of that time was spent discussing how Ross Harris acted after he pulled into a shopping center asking for assistance with his son.
Witnesses told police they heard "squealing tires, and the vehicle came to a stop," Stoddard testified. Harris got out of the car yelling, "Oh, my God, what have I done?" Stoddard said.
The 33-year-old father then stood there with a blank look on his face, the detective said. When a witness told Harris his son needed CPR, Harris went to the other side of his vehicle and made a phone call, apparently to tell someone his son was dead, a witness told police, according to Stoddard.
Harris never called 911, and when an officer told him to get off his phone, he refused and even said, "F*** you" before an officer took his phone and handcuffed him, the detective said.
He also alleged that Harris told police he couldn't reach anyone on his telephone, but phone records show that Harris made three calls after he discovered his son's body, and one between him and his employer lasted six minutes, Stoddard said.
Who is Justin Ross Harris?
However, witness Leonard Madden offered a different version of what happened. Madden and an acquaintance were leaving a restaurant when they noticed a commotion and approached within 3 or 4 feet of a clearly distraught Harris.
"He was crying. He was hollering," Madden testified, recounting the father saying, "Oh, my God! Oh, my God, my son is dead!"
"I felt his pain; I even wept," Madden said.
Strange behaviors
According to Stoddard, Harris made statements that police felt were strange, including "I can't believe this is happening to me" and "I'll be charged with a felony."
"It was all about him," Stoddard said. "'Why am I being punished for this?' It continued. It was all very one-sided."
The detective said Harris talked about losing his job. He testified that messages between the Harrises indicate the two were having financial problems.
Ross Harris had recently been passed over for a promotion, and the couple had two insurance policies on Cooper, one for $2,000 and one for $25,000, the detective said.
Stoddard also testified about how Leanna Harris acted when she arrived at a day care enter to pick the boy up and employees there told her Cooper had never been dropped off.
"Ross must have left him in the car," she replied, according to the detective. Witnesses said they tried to tell her many other things could have happened, but Leanna Harris insisted that Ross Harris must have left the boy in the car, Stoddard said.
He also testified that when Ross and Leanna Harris were in an interview room, Ross Harris told his wife that Cooper looked "peaceful" and that his eyes were closed when he was removed from the vehicle. He told his wife, "I dreaded how he would look," Stoddard said, noting how Harris had used the past tense.
The detective added that the boy's eyes and mouth were not closed when he was taken out of the SUV.
At another point in the interview room, Stoddard said, Leanna Harris asked her husband about what he had said to police.
"She asked him -- she had him sit down, and he starts going through this. And she looks at him, and she's like, 'Well, did you say too much?' " the detective testified.
'Nothing was weird'
While prosecutors painted Ross Harris as a terrible, in fact criminal, father, the defense called witnesses who testified on his behalf.
James Alex Hall, who worked with Ross Harris and had run a Web development company with him for the past two or three months, said Harris didn't act out of the ordinary on the day his son died.
"I would say normal as you could be. Nothing stuck out. Nothing was weird," Hall said.
Ross Harris was scheduled to meet friends for a 5 p.m. showing of the movie "22 Jump Street," according to Stoddard, but he told them he'd be late. He left work at 4:16 p.m., and it would have taken him about 10 minutes to get to the theater, the detective said.
When Harris didn't show up 30 minutes into the movie, Hall stepped outside to contact him. Harris didn't respond to texts, and phone calls went straight to his voice mail, Hall said.
Asked whether Harris was a guy who talked about how life might be without a child, Hall said he was the opposite: the kind of dad who talked about his child to the point that people were tired of hearing about it.
"He said he loved his son all the time," Hall said.
'That pain ... never goes away'
On cross-examination, a prosecutor asked Hall whether he was aware of allegations that Ross Harris had been sexting various women. Hall replied no and conceded that, if that were true, he didn't know everything about his friend.
In what might be a harbinger, the defense repeatedly asked witnesses if they knew Harris was deaf in one ear, perhaps indicating that Harris might not have heard his child in the back seat when he got out of the car and when he returned to it.
"He is deaf in one ear or mostly deaf," a friend testified about Harris. "I always have to go to the other side of his head to talk to him," said Winston Rowell Milling.
'It's easy to get distracted'
Defense attorney H. Maddox Kilgore said after several witnesses testified that he didn't feel anything presented at Thursday's hearing indicated that Ross Harris intentionally left Cooper in the car, which would be key to finding him guilty on the charges.
"It's not even criminal negligence enough to support a misdemeanor," he told the judge, asking him to dismiss the warrant. "It's easy to get distracted when you get behind the wheel. Everyone does it."
Kilgore said he himself had forgotten boxed-up leftovers, a comparison on which the prosecution seized. Someone might remember that they left spaghetti in the car after 30 minutes, said Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring.
But Harris not only forgot his child, he got an e-mail from his son's day care during the day and at one point went to the vehicle to place lightbulbs inside, never once remembering Cooper, the prosecutor said.
"I think it's remarkable he didn't stick his head in that car," Boring said. "He knew what he was going to find."
Accident or murder in hot car death?
Read the warrant (PDF)
Cooper was buried Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The Cobb County Medical Examiner's Office determined that the child's cause of death was "consistent with hyperthermia and the investigative information suggests the manner of death is homicide," according to a Cobb County Department of Public Safety statement.
The Medical Examiner's Office is waiting for toxicology test results before making an official ruling on the toddler's death.
At the boy's funeral, Leanna Harris said she loves her husband and stands by him.
"Am I angry with Ross?" Leanna Harris told mourners. "Absolutely not. It has never crossed my mind. Ross is and was and will be, if we have more children, a wonderful father. Ross is a wonderful daddy and leader for our household. Cooper meant the world to him."
Mom of toddler who died in car 'absolutely not' angry with husband
Toddler's dad researched hot-car deaths of children online, officers said in warrant
Police: Georgia mom also searched Internet on child deaths in cars
5 key questions
CNN's Dana Ford, Natisha Lance, Devon Sayers, Faith Karimi, Steve Almasy, Vivian Kuo, Marlena Baldacci and Nick Valencia contributed to this report.
The man who built Lady Liberty
7/4/2014 1:42:55 AM
- Elizabeth Mitchell: Statue of Liberty birthday girl of July 4; few recall her creator
- Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi built Liberty, a labor of love, piece by piece with donations
- She says creating art just to reflect a concept, wow later generations a lost notion
- Mitchell: People starved for creations made just to amaze them, not to draw money
Editor's note: Elizabeth Mitchell is the author of the new book, "Liberty's Torch." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- The birthday girl every Fourth of July is the Statue of Liberty, the image on party napkins, on parade floats and the backdrop for fireworks displays in New York Harbor. She is the ultimate American symbol, a gift from France to the United States, it is said, implying that she was a gift given government to government. The truth is, she could more correctly be called a gift from one artist to the world.
In an era when we have given up the desire to astound each other simply to please or provoke wonder, this an important distinction.
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi dreamed up this colossus back in the late 1800s. A middle-tier statue maker, he took his plan to Egypt and pitched a colossal robed slave holding up a torch to stand at the mouth of the Suez Canal. When that deal failed, Bartholdi brushed off the design and brought it to America, all on his own dime. He went door to door, office to office, presenting the vision and meeting with rejection.
But with the well wishes of a few staunch supporters, he kept driving onward, winning other commissions to pay the bills and building Liberty piece by piece in Paris, paying for each section as soon as he could drum up donations. He sought out all of his engineering collaborators on his own. He dreamed up entertainments to raise monies through ticket sales.
And it was he who yanked the massive French flag from her face at her unveiling in 1886. He threw himself into the arms of a friend and wept.
Liberty remains. Bartholdi is essentially unknown. You say the name Bartholdi, and even savvy New Yorkers look blank.
Bartholdi could foresee that future. When he visited Liberty just before leaving America that year, he acknowledged, "She is going away from me." He had lost the sense that she was his, a feeling he had possessed when climbing over her copper structure in Paris. She would be given to future generations.
Bartholdi created one of the most powerful trademarks in history and is largely unknown. I suppose few people know the name Jim Schindler either, the man who designed McDonald's Golden Arches -- and that was pretty powerful, too. But still it seems a bit amazing Bartholdi should go largely unrecognized for his work of art.
We might not feel constantly awestruck that a work 305 feet tall -- taller than the ancient Colossus of Rhodes, whose legend lasted millennia -- mingles with us. But Liberty, barring emergency closures for events such as Superstorm Sandy, attracts about 3.8 million tourists a year. Every year, she flutters the hearts of people hiking to her head, as surely as she fluttered the hearts of immigrants arriving in the New World. Her power remains.
She is an echo of an era when people sought to produce wonder and ecstasy in their fellow citizens purely for the sake of creating a fabulous artifact of human possibility, even if their personal fame might vanish before the work did.
Astounding and delighting one another was the vogue. Eiffel made his tower, just after he designed the scaffold for Liberty's interior. Thomas Edison proposed a colossal phonograph inside Liberty to make her "talk." Inventors brought their products of genius to kaleidoscopic World's Fairs to enchant viewers as much as serve merchant interests.
"When I discover a subject grand enough, I will honor that subject by building the tallest statue in the world," Bartholdi said in his 20s, 30 years before he unveiled his statue.
It is hard to imagine anyone nowadays either demonstrating the patience to wait for an idea to strike or pursuing the goal of honoring a subject ... a concept. Ideas are now considered important only if they are flypaper for money, not precious, heaven-sent gifts. Good ones are catchy or addictive. Few people try to invent something that will make the consumer say, "Look what humankind has achieved!" Our popular entertainments titillate or intoxicate.
I worry we have lost our sense of the importance of sharing our talents for the common good, partly because there is so much economic pressure put on the middle class, with stagnating wages and rising costs for housing, food and more . The middle class, in my historical research, seems the group from which big ideas have long sprung. And we compound the pressure by stealing the work of our inventors and artists, leaving them no means to actually survive.
We weigh down our potential visionaries and inventors with college debt. When they begin to produce, say, music, we take it from them and pay fractions of pennies to listen to it, even as we pay stockbrokers at the lowest end $7 to $10 to make a trade.
We underpay or don't pay for a journalist's writing. We require so little public art or decorative art that those artists of ours who don't rise into the filament-thin clique of superstars only survive by working at many other jobs. Anyone not connected to a company is required to double pay Social Security taxes as well as burdensome health insurance premiums (even with Obamacare).
So there is no time for tinkering or deep pondering unless you work for Google or Tesla or SpaceX. Putting our geniuses under the corporate umbrella means we craft amazing inventions, but before we can gloat that mankind has achieved something great for mankind, we monetize the hell out of the invention, putting it out of reach for most or, in the case of, say, medical inventions actually turning those great discoveries into financial burdens
Now I know that Bartholdi created his work for more than altruistic purposes. His ego fueled him.
Showing his own anxiety, he got the Statue of Liberty copyrighted with the hope that he could earn income from the commercial use he knew was coming (he was savvy to what he considered the less appealing part of America). When he could never collect, he groused at his financially tight existence.
But because he had received cheerleading in his youth from his mother, who encouraged his pursuit of grander visions, he could at least rest easy that he got to see the work complete and knew it would survive him.
Nowadays, if we love our kids, dare we encourage them to create something vast and important that might last centuries?
Unless their creation was a money magnet, encouraging such an undertaking would almost be like condemning them to potential extinction. In Bartholdi's day, you could try something big and if it didn't work out, you would have your disappointment, but you could still pay the doctor in barter. You could suffer setbacks and failures and know that you would at least get by.
It's interesting to me that in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, the artist Kara Walker has installed a giant sugar Sphinx in an abandoned sugar factory that is soon to be turned into pricey condominiums. I'm sure the real estate agents love it as a lure for those future condo sales. Regardless, the lines stretch down the block every day, every hour, for weeks now and visitors speak to reporters who ask about their intense emotional and intellectual reactions to this massive otherworldly sculpture.
People flock to see this colossal Sphinx. They come because it's a happening but they also come, I believe, because they are so starved for the work of a person trying to impress them and to amaze them without a corporate entity intervening to make a bundle on it.
They wait on noisy Kent Avenue for a fleeting taste of this rarity, for a sign we might still have space for human invention ... that we can all share in what humanity can achieve.
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France, Germany grudge tie
7/3/2014 5:28:25 PM
France and Germany are set to face off in a World Cup quarterfinal grudge match. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports.
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Executed over an own goal
7/3/2014 10:09:23 AM
- Colombia faces hosts Brazil on Friday in its first ever World Cup quarterfinal
- Match comes 20 years after the murder of Colombian defender Andres Escobar
- Escobar was gunned down days after Colombia had exited the 1994 World Cup
- The 27-year-old had scored an own goal in a defeat to the USA during the competition
How are you celebrating the World Cup? Join the global conversation on CNN Facebook Pulse
(CNN) -- For Colombia this week, two worlds collide.
Its captivating side -- led by the tournament's star man James Rodriguez -- is preparing for its first ever World Cup quarterfinal on Friday, hinting at a future full of promise.
But that glamor tie against hosts Brazil also comes 20 years after perhaps Colombian football's darkest hour -- the murder of former national team player Andres Escobar.
The 27-year-old defender was a victim of a volatile and violent chapter in the country's history, seemingly executed as punishment for scoring an own goal at the 1994 World Cup.
Read: Rodriguez stars for Colombia
Escobar's error contributed to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of hosts USA and six days after Colombia's tournament ended, on July 2, he was shot six times by gunmen in his home town of Medellin.
Buenos días, hoy hace 20 años, Andrés Escobar nos dejó, pero permanece en nuestros corazones. http://t.co/qol1Za3jVQ pic.twitter.com/p9zE81tCgK
— Atlético Nacional (@nacionaloficial) July 2, 2014 The murder was linked to drug lords who had suffered big gambling losses due to Colombia's exit at the group stage but nothing was ever proven.
Two decades on as Colombia prepares for one the biggest clashes in its history -- delivered by a squad that is seen as a symbol of hope -- the significance of the Escobar anniversary is not lost on the country.
Just like in 1994 it has a crop of gifted players ready to gatecrash the party at soccer's top table.
Rodriguez has been the stand out star, his sublime goal in the last 16 win over Uruguay a signpost for the country's emerging potential.
Their jaunty choreographed goal celebrations have also struck a chord with the watching world, who are ever more connected through social media.
This vivacious side has also energized Colombia, the public hoping this verve and swagger can help chart a new path for a country that has for so long been synonymous with drugs and violence.
Whether that happens or not, Escobar will not be forgotten.
"Andrés Escobar - always in our hearts," wrote Colombia's most capped international and Escobar's former teammate -- Carlos Valderrama on Twitter.
"We'll never forget your kindness, your humility and your fight. I miss you bro, I miss you."
The Escobar name will be also present in Fortaleza on Friday.
As Colombia take on not just Brazil's players but also a fervent home nation, Andres' brother and sister will be present, as they have been for every Colombia match in the competition so far.
ANDRES ESCOBAR siempre en el corazon de todos nosotros. Jamas olvidaremos tu bondad, humildad y lucha, te extraño hermano te extraño
— Carlos Valderrama (@PibeValderramaP) July 2, 2014 Maria Ester and Jose will be bedecked in the team's famous yellow kit, complete with Escobar's name and his famous number 2 on the back.
The defender's former teammates Faryd Mondragon and Mario Yepes are with the current squad, but all of them will know what became of one of its illustrious predecessors.
"Andres is with them and the rest of the team in spirit," Maria Ester told FIFA's official website.
"People should enjoy football with passion, but never forgetting it's a game. (What happened to Andres) should serve as a cautionary tale: there is no place for violence.
"Football should unite the country around a message of peace and love.
"Twenty years is a long time and it's really upsetting to think about, but I prefer to thank God for having given us the chance to have him with us for 27 years, for lending him to us.
"His life was cut short, but he did important things in that time."
The pair accepted an invitation from world football's governing body to attend Colombia's matches, partly to be away from home when the 20th anniversary came around.
"I wanted to escape Medellin, because there Andres's death will be talked about in all the news programs and papers and it would be very tough," Maria Ester explained.
"I'd rather spend it here, with the family, and then hold a memorial service when we go back home."
Escobar was rumored to be on the verge of a switch to Italian giants AC Milan prior to his death after seven years at Colombian club Atlético Nacional.
He also had a spell at Young Boys in Switzerland but it was in his native Colombia he is remembered most fondly, and afforded the nickname "El Caballero del Fútbol" which translates as "The gentlemen of football."
"Sometimes I think it'd be better if people didn't remember Andres every day, because it's really painful," his brother Jose explained.
"But he left a mark, so it's normal."
Read: U.S. dream ended by Belgium
Read: Match fixer denies Cameroon claims
Bridge collapse death in World Cup city
7/3/2014 6:55:15 PM
- NEW: Overpass construction was supposed to have been completed for World Cup
- NEW: Overpass is almost four miles from a stadium where World Cup is played
- Brazilian firefighters say one person is dead
- Belo Horizonte, Brazil, will host Tuesday's semifinal match in the World Cup
(CNN) -- At least one person was killed when an overpass bridge under construction collapsed in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, one of the host cities for the ongoing World Cup, firefighters said Thursday on Twitter.
Two buses were also damaged in the collapse, said CNN affiliate TV Record, which cited firefighters.
Images that circulated on social media showed a bus trapped by the collapsed concrete structure. Another photo showed at least one car was crushed.
No further details were immediately available.
The overpass traverses a major thoroughfare and is almost four miles from the 58,170-seat Estadio Mineirao where the World Cup games are being played in Belo Horizonte.
The overpass was supposed to have been completed in time for the World Cup.
Brazil's preparations for the World Cup have been controversial. Some critics say the spending was lavish at the expense of schools, public services and hospitals. Also, many of the country's 12 venues struggled to meet construction schedules in time for the games, and several workers died on World Cup stadium construction sites.
Belo Horizonte will host Tuesday's semifinal match between the winner of the France-Germany match and the winner of the Brazil-Colombia game.
The city has so far hosted five World Cup games since June 14, when Colombia beat Greece 3-0. Tuesday's game will be the last to be hosted by the city in this year's World Cup.
The U.S. team did not compete there this year.
Most recently, Brazil and Chile played to a 1-1 tie in Belo Horizonte on Saturday.
Estadio Mineirao is one of the most historic venues in Brazilian soccer and was overhauled for the games: The pitch surface was lowered, accessibility improved, and a system installed to capture and store rainwater for reuse. The facility's official name is Estadio Governador Magalhaes Pinto, but it's commonly known as the Mineirao. The stadium is home to Atletico Mineiro and Cruzeiro, both former national champions in Brazil.
Even before World Cup ball starts rolling, Rio de Janeiro's Olympics under scrutiny
Pele: Brazil to put 'problems' behind them and stage 'fantastic' World Cup
CNN's Pierre Meilhan contributed to this report. Shasta Darlington contributed from Brazil.
And the semifinalists will be ...
7/3/2014 10:05:07 PM
- Software program says it has successfully predicted outcome of round of 16 World Cup games
- Program named after the AI character in Microsoft's Halo video games
- But who will reach World Cup semifinals?
Editor's note: How are you celebrating the World Cup? Join the global conversation on CNN Facebook Pulse.
(CNN) -- We've had octopuses, camels and turtles providing World Cup predictions, but now a computer software program has got in on the act of forecasting football matches.
And, according to Microsoft, their recently released software program Cortana had a 100% success rate in predicting the winners in Brazil 2014's round of 16 games.
Like Apple's Siri, MIcrosoft's virtual assistant Cortana -- named after the AI character in its Halo video games and voiced by the same actress -- is using a number of indicators to predict the winners of World Cup matches.
"For the tournament our models evaluate the strength of each team through a variety of factors such as previous win/loss/tie record in qualification matches and other international competitions and margin of victory in these contests" said Microsoft's Bing blog.
One of the Cortana software developers Mouni Reddy tweeted: "If she gets the United States-Belgium game right we are officially living in the matrix."
@MurariSridharan @marcusash #Cortana 7-0. If she gets the United States-Belgium game right we are officially living in the Matrix!
— Mouni (@mechMouni) July 1, 2014 And so it proved with Belgium beating Team USA 2-1 after extra time.
So if you don't want to know which teams will reach the World Cup semifinals look away now.
If you're still reading, Cortana predicts Germany will beat France, hosts Brazil will triumph over Colombia, Argentina getting the better of Belgium and the Netherlands knocking out Costa Rica.
Read: Colombia recalls slain Andres Escobar
In pictures: Joy and pain for U.S. fans
Brazil star: We have to win
7/3/2014 10:05:14 PM
CNN's Amanda Davies speaks to Brazil goalkeeper Júlio César ahead of the team's knockout match against Colombia.
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France, Germany grudge tie
7/3/2014 10:05:23 PM
France and Germany are set to face off in a World Cup quarterfinal grudge match. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports.
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