Iron Fist in 20 languages: How Netflix is powering up its streaming for mobile devices globally

LOS GATOS, Cali. — As Netflix continues to produce billions of dollars’ worth of original content, it’s easy to forget that the company’s business model is firmly rooted in the delivery of digital content, served with as little friction as possible.

For Los Gatos, California-based Netflix Inc., frequent improvements to how all of its content is delivered — both original and licensed — is not just for subscriber convenience or benefit.

Retaining the company’s 94 million paid subscribers is crucial, but growth is the name of the game and — when reading between the lines of its latest technology improvements — the company has its sights set on emerging markets.

Netflix uploads multiple versions of shows or movies to its cloud servers, encoded in different file sizes. When a subscriber starts watching content, Netflix will know which file to serve, based on the device being used.

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A big screen TV on fast home internet service will be served a higher bitrate — the number of bits transmitted per second — more information makes the picture quality better, while someone watching on a cellphone will get a lower bitrate to reduce the amount of bandwidth being used.

Netflix has been trying to refine the way they encode their videos to push significantly better quality video at a lower bitrate, so as more people move to mobile devices, the video they consume won’t take up as much of their bandwidth limits.

But, more importantly, it also means the company can grow its subscriber base in emerging markets where smartphones and data plans are more common than home Internet service. 

“I’m originally from the Philippines, where the main access to the Internet is actually people’s cell phones,” Anne Aaron, Netflix’s director of video algorithms, told a small group of journalists at the company’s headquarters. 

“Every bit counts. So the role of my team is to make sure every bit actually adds to the video quality of what people watch, and our main goal is to have a great viewing experience where you enjoy the TV show or movie at any bit rate.”

Part of the way this is achieved is through efficiency. Netflix’s encoding process was once done on a per-title basis, meaning its algorithms would look at scenes with the most action and use that as a basis for how much to compress the quality of the video.

But Aaron’s team has moved the encoder algorithms to a “per chunk” basis, which would look at one-to-three minute segments at a time, which means they can compress higher quality into smaller bitrate because action moments often aren’t as frequent and the threshold is lower. 

“But why stop there? Let’s go even further and optimize per shot of the video,” Aaron said, adding that Netflix has brought in experts from around the world, including two professors that specialize in encoding, to help make their algorithms even more efficient. 

So now video looks equally as good at half the bitrate — and in some cases, it’s even lower. That drives down the bandwidth costs for subscribers, and potential new users in emerging markets are more likely to be attracted to video that looks good on any device, even at slower speeds.

“Every bit counts”

Language accuracy

Quality video that doesn’t take up a lot of bandwidth is half the battle. Netflix is also innovating when it comes to localization — the subtitles and dubbing done in other languages.

“In 2012, we launched Lilyhammer… in seven languages and 96 language assets,” said Denny Sheehan, Netflix’s director of content localization and quality control. “Cut to (this year) where we’ve launched Iron Fist in 20 languages and we have 572 language assets. And by language assets, I mean subtitles, audio dubs and audio description.” 

For Netflix and Sheehan’s team, the way to nail localization is by focusing on context. In some cases, the company bypasses local companies that offer people for hire and hires translators directly, in case there are questions on things like cultural jokes, voice inflection and other contextual elements that might be missed in a straight translation.

Netflix also uses style guides and glossaries of terminologies or key phrases to make sure there is consistency across shows or movies as well as in the marketing materials and elsewhere in the company. All departments can access an internal Wiki with the up to date style guide.

“To achieve the highest quality we also have to have really high bar for quality control, and so for our originals this is a very through and rigorous approach,” said Sheehan.

“Every subtitle event is gone through by the same quality control evaluator that has done every episode of every season of a series, so the person working on House of Cards season five for Japanese also worked on season one and that way we know that nothing is going to be lost season-to-season.”

To expand into more languages and markets with a high level of accuracy, Netflix launched its own translator program in March called Hermes. Anyone can register and choose a language they speak, then take a quick test.

Those who score in the highest percentiles will be contacted by Netflix and interviewed to become a paid translator. If eventually accepted, they’ll get a unique ID in the system and their history (including accuracy) can be seen both by Netflix or exported to show other companies if someone is looking for a full-time position in the field. 

“Everybody in the process (including quality control) is measured,” said Chris Fetner, Netflix’s director of media engineering partnerships. “If we start to see a trend where we feel like that person is not performing we’ll either coach them up to a new level, up to the level that we expect or we’ll discontinue using them.”

With Netflix’s eyes on new markets to keep its subscriber base growing, these kinds of technological innovations and focus on localization will already be in place during expansion to help bring new countries on board.

“Even if you think about India and places in Latin American, there are places that either the fixed line bandwidth is quite constrained,” said Ken Florance, Netflix’s vice president of content delivery.

“In Africa, India, parts of Asia, parts of Latin America where there wasn’t this huge build out of fixed lines to people’s homes, in a lot of cases some cellular networks are substituting for the last mile. So any of the benefits from a 200 kilobits stream looking great on a cell network in New York City will also be seen and look fantastic on an old copper DSL in Bogota (Colombia).”

Financial Post

 jomcconnell@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/JoshMcConnell

Note: Netflix flew journalists from around the world, including Postmedia, to the company’s headquarters.

‘We both wished we had cameras’: Toronto firefighter talks about dramatic rescue of woman on crane

TORONTO — Rob Wonfor worked his way up the slanted steel beams of the construction crane. After an hour or so, he had climbed high enough to meet the young woman in a jean jacket, whose mysterious appearance on the crane early Wednesday morning had snarled rush-hour traffic in downtown Toronto and attracted a crowd of onlookers.

She sat on a plank atop the hook, 45 metres above a construction pit that had rebar jutting out like spikes. Wonfor, an acting captain with the Toronto fire department, was on the shaft of the crane. The hook hung from wires, well out of his reach. But he could talk to her.

“I’ve got a hockey game at 8:15,” Wonfor told her.

“What time is it?” she asked, calmly.

“I got no idea. But the sun’s coming up so we gotta get going here.”

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A police negotiator, also on the shaft of the crane, called out to the woman in what Wonfor described as a soothing “Perry Como” voice: “It won’t be much longer now.”

Wonfor looked over at the woman. He was about three-quarters up the crane. When he reached the top, he was going to rappel down to her, fit her with a harness, then continue lowering them both to the ground.

“It might be a bit longer,” he said. “Did it take you this long?”

“No,” he recalled her saying.

“How did you do it?” he asked her. “Because if you have any speed tips, I’ll take them right now.”

The woman, who was later identified as 23-year-old Marisa Lazo, wasn’t wearing gloves or climbing gear — just the light jacket and black boots with heels. The understanding among emergency personnel, he said, was that she had climbed roughly 60 metres to the top of the crane, then slid 15 metres down a greasy wire to land on the hook. The question was, why would someone do that?

Wonfor didn’t ask her. “You don’t want to bring up why they’re there,” he said, discussing such situations. “Let’s make light of it, talk about the view. It was beautiful. We both wished we had cameras.”

The 22-year veteran firefighter is trained in high angle rescue. But the fire chief and captains who selected him for this particular rescue mission also factored in his experience as an arborist, working with ropes and climbing trees.

Wonfor said that once he started talking with the young woman, he thought “there was no way” she planned on jumping.

“She was too calm.”

The woman told him she feared she would be “in trouble” when she got to the ground. “She says, ‘I’m gonna get a big fine for this,’ ” he recalled. “I said, ‘No, you’re good. If you get a fine, I’ll pay… I’ve got about 20 Tim Cards in my pocket.”

It took him about an hour and 20 minutes to reach the top of the crane, carrying his gear and ropes. “It was gruelling,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why didn’t I bring my water bottle?’ … When I’m doing trees, I have a water hanging off me, maybe a Snickers bar. I had nothing (on Wednesday).”

From there, a crew member in the crane operator’s booth used a mechanized system to lower the firefighter on ropes. When he reached the woman, sitting on a metre-long plank above the hook, he set about putting her into a rescue harness. She helped him, he said. “She had some experience (with climbing gear).”

The two held each other — in what Wonfor called a “death grip” — and the crew in the operator booth lowered them to the ground. After they landed at 8:30 a.m., the woman was taken into police custody.

Police said Wednesday afternoon that Lazo will be charged with six counts of mischief by interfering with property. She is to appear in court on Thursday.

Wonfor missed his 8:15 a.m. hockey game. There was another one, though, at 11 a.m. — part of a tournament between Toronto fire department districts. Wonfor was District 31’s goalie. After speaking to television cameras and reporters, he excused himself and headed to the arena.

His team lost 5-3.

“Goaltending killed us,” he said in the dressing room afterwards.

With files from The Canadian Press

• Email: jedmiston@nationalpost.com | Twitter: jakeedmiston

Pension-less couple who saved their way to affluence still worry if it’s enough to retire on

Situation: Couple in mid-60s with no defined benefit work pensions worries they can’t afford to retire   

Solution: A full assessment of their financial assets and rental income shows the worries are unfounded

In Alberta, a couple we’ll call Sam, who is 70, and Ethel, who is 64, are moving toward full retirement. Sam has already retired from his small auto parts business. Ethel, who advises clients about their diets and exercise, is winding down her business. Long ago, she made the decision to pay herself dividends rather than take salary that generates __canada Pension Plan benefits. Poor long ago, they are now affluent but don’t admit it. Their problem is to manage their $3,072,000 of financial assets and real estate to produce dependable income. There are no children and they have no debts. They worry that the financial ring fence they have built around their lives may not be strong enough.

“Do we have enough money to retire or must I keep working?” Ethel asks. “We could stay in Canada or move abroad where costs of living are lower. Will that be a choice or a necessity?”

email andrew.allentuck@gmail.com for a free Family Finance analysis

Family Finance asked Graeme Egan, head of CastleBay Wealth Management in Vancouver, to work with Sam and Ethel. In his view, they have choices, not a financial need to move out of Canada to a lower-cost country. “They are in much better shape than they think,” he explains. “Ethel can retire now. There is no need to sell their nearly $1 million house and leave Canada.”

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Income choices

On the surface, Sam and Ethel are just getting by. They have total net income of $3,540 a month composed of Sam’s $580 work pension income, $516 of his Canada Pension Plan benefits, $578 of his Old Age Security income, Ethel’s $1,250 of business income, and $616 of rental income. That matches their spending. They do not include income on $1,382,000 of financial assets held in cash, business, personal and registered accounts. Income generated by these accounts is left in the accounts to compound. Their real estate is worth almost $1.7 million. Even without tapping their considerable cash and investment accounts, Sam and Ethel can take advantage of tax rules that allow splits of eligible pension income. They already split their rental income, which is in accord with their joint ownership of their $700,000 rental property, and when Ethel turns 65, she can split her Canada Pension Plan benefits with Sam as he can with her. Eventually, they can split income from their Registered Retirement Income Funds. Splitting is just a tax calculation that they or a tax pro can do in preparing returns, Egan explains.

Raising retirement income

There are several ways to increase their investment income. With her preference to pay herself dividends from her business, which do not qualify for Canada Pension Plan benefits, it makes little sense to raise her final payout just to add a year to salary, pay tax and obtain income for filling up her small RRSP space. They each have $5,500 of space for their Tax-Free Savings Accounts for 2017 and future years. They have $50,000 cash to fund those contributions.

They have other sources of investment income. Their $700,000 rental property, for which they paid $215,000 years ago, generates $7,392 a year in net income. That is just one per cent on current value but 3 per cent on cost. Either on cost or on present value, which is the more relevant measure, the rental property is a poor investment. Property prices in Alberta will eventually rebound and, when that happens, they can sell.

Based on a $700,000 sale price less the $215,000 they paid for the property, their gain would be $485,000 less selling costs. Half the gain would be taxable. They would wind up paying about $100,000 at their own tax rate, leaving them with about $600,000 less costs of 5 per cent or net $565,000. If they take five years to sell, that sum, generating 3 per cent after inflation for 26 years to Ethel’s age 95 would give them about $32,000 a year in pre-tax income. It is quite a jump over the $7,392 they now obtain from the property.

The conventional wisdom for investing retirement funds is to hold perhaps half in fixed income and half in equities. Government bonds are a traditional way of investing in fixed income, however, with interest rates likely to rise in Canada in the not too distant future and to continue rising in the U.S., forcing down the market value of old bonds with low interest, they could buy investment grade corporate issues with maturities of five to ten years.

Corporate bonds tend to provide a boost of 1 to 3 per cent over what government bonds pay. But corporate bonds are illiquid for small investors. However, bond exchange traded funds (ETFs) provide low management fees often just 25 basis points (that’s ¼ of one per cent) of net asset value and offer diversification and liquidity. Ethel and Sam could hold half their portfolio in these bonds and the other half in stocks. Overall, they could have 50 per cent corporate bonds, 20 per cent Canadian stocks, 20 per cent U.S. stocks and 10 per cent global issues, all purchased via low fee ETFs, Egan suggests.

Investment choices

We’ll assume that the couple does rotate out of mutual funds and into exchange traded funds. With all ETF fees included and a return of 2 per cent after inflation to allow for the modest returns of bonds, their $1,382,000 of financial assets including cash invested to pay out all income and capital in the 31 years to Ethel’s age 95 would generate about $60,000 per year. They now pay an average of 2 per cent of $1,332,000 invested in mutual funds – that does not count $50,000 cash which would be very liquid as ETF units. That is $26,640 a year. That’s about 44 per cent of the estimated annuitized return. If they use exchange traded funds with an average fee of ¼ of 1 per cent per year on $1,382,000, including their cash, they would pay about $3,450 a year. An advisor might need to be hired at a cost of perhaps 1 per cent per year of assets under management to help them manage their ETFs. This could be a transitory cost until they learn to manage their own money. Even so, Ethel and Sam would be ahead of the return they now get from their mutual funds.

Adding up various sources of income for the period beginning when Ethel retires next year, the couple would have $60,000 in potential annuitized return on their financial assets, $7,392 annual rental income prior to sale of the property, $6,192 of Sam’s CPP benefits, $6,936 of Sam’s Old Age Security benefits, $6,960 of Sam’s work pension, $1,800 of Ethel’s estimated CPP benefits, and $6,936 of her Old Age Security benefits starting next year. The total, $96,216 with splits of eligible pension income and tax at 15 per cent would leave them with $6,800 per month, far more than their current spending. Sale of the rental property in five years at $565,000 after costs and tax with investment at 2 per cent after inflation would generate a further $28,000 a year for 26 years to Ethel’s age 95. “Good living and good causes await,” Egan concludes.

Financial Post

Suitcase GPS? Scented bags? Collapsible sunglasses? The latest travel gadgets

At the International Travel Goods Show, held this month in Las Vegas, I saw the future of travel. We will always know the whereabouts of our checked luggage. We will sleep as comfortably on planes as kittens in a basket. And we will never again experience the horror of watching our gadgets power down with no outlets in sight.

Fortunately, we don’t have to wait long for this futuristic world. At most, till June.

“Manufacturers are innovating to keep up with the changing traveller,” said Michele Marini Pittenger, president of the Travel Goods Association, which organizes the annual event. “Luggage is increasingly lightweight, carry-on [makers] are considering the needs of the connected mobile user and security is going higher tech.”

More than 300 exhibitors, including nearly 100 from abroad, filled the convention hall for the largest show in the event’s 70-year history. The expo featured big fish (Samsonite, Briggs & Riley, Eagle Creek) and little minnows (Walter + Ray, YaY Novelty, Dandy Nomad) and one singing mermaid, Céline Dion, who unveiled a new collection from European luggage designer Bugatti.

I spent two days roaming 161,560 square feet of space, searching for trends and sampling products that can help improve the travel experience — or, at the very least, dull the pain of the middle seat. Here is what tomorrow holds:

LUGGAGE

Hard-side luggage falls in and out of favour as often as clogs. This year, the carapace is back in vogue, but with some embellishments. You will see exterior pockets (check out Delsey or Lojel), USB charging ports and a backlash to black, with bold colours, nubby textures and artful designs (see Heys). It luggage, for one, stops the people-mover with its statement bags, such as Grillz, a black or white skull image with a gold tooth, or Smooch, a spray of red lips. Travellers planning to visit Scandinavia in the winter should consider the Crate Reflex by Sweden-based Epic. The pink, grey and blue pieces reflect light and shimmer like the Milky Way on a cloudless night.

If our phones can juggle multiple tasks, so should our luggage. Visionair has two models working double time as a drink cart or an entertainment centre. The Beverage Pal contains a cup holder and the Podpal incorporates a stand for a tablet. Delay-lay, which is in the prototype phase, comes with a sleeping pad that you can inflate with the luggage handle and detach for a quick nap in a quiet corner of the airport. During waking moments, JetKids’ BedBox, winner of TGA’s Product Innovation Award, is a wheeled suitcase that kids can ride like a miniature pony. Once aboard the plane, it converts into a Murphy-like bed suitable for drowsy youngsters up to 7 years old.

The brainiest luggage, or maybe the most boastful, is Planet Traveler’s Space Case 1. During a demonstration, Hontus chief executive and product architect Haroon Sheikh showed a small audience how you can pop the lock with the press of a fingerprint (via a biometric scanner) or through an app on your phone; how you can weigh the bag with an app, avoiding back strain; how you can charge your electronics on a power bank with two external USB ports and a USB charging port in the front pocket; how you can hold a dance party with its bluetooth speakers and chat with friends through its speakerphone. And how you can indulge your helicopter-parent tendencies: A texting alert system lets you know when your bag has arrived on the carousel or if a stranger has absconded with it. In addition, a GPS system tracks your bag’s journey, an especially important feature if your paths happen to diverge during, say, your connection in Dubai or London.

For many luggage makers, the jangle of security accoutrements drowns out the jingle of the other bells and whistles.

“Chargers are standard and scales are nice to have,” said a representative with Aerolite, “but security is the biggest issue facing luggage.”

In March, the Department of Homeland Security announced its electronics ban on planes departing from 10 airports in eight countries, including Turkey and Egypt. Travellers now fret over packing expensive gear (computers, cameras) in their checked bags. Another concern: strangers sneaking illicit items into luggage. In countries with extreme drug laws, such as Malaysia and Thailand, or living under an embargo, such as Cuba, rogue individuals might try to tuck contraband into your bags, turning the innocent vacationer into an unknowing mule.

The Aerolite employee explained how thieves won’t typically waste time fiddling with the lock but will simply cut the zipper. To foil villains, the London company introduced an anti-tamper zipper with a double layer of metal.

Another set of safety issues arises beyond the airport doors. Certain cities are known for their bag-nabbers and -slashers. Lewis N. Clark’s response to the “purse piñata” issue: the Secura anti-theft collection. The Chicago firm places Magnaloft, a cut-resistant fabric used in firemen’s uniforms, in vulnerable areas such as the bottom of the bag. (Choose from five styles.) A stainless-steel cable runs through the shoulder strap, which also comes with a lock so you can wrap the fortified strip around an immobile object while you dine at a French cafe or people-watch in an Italian piazza. “We want the industrial hardware to create a visual deterrent,” said Jen Panattoni, director of business development. Other Keep Out measures include locking zippers and material that shields your personal digital information from snoops by blocking radio-frequency identification (RFID).

Here’s a familiar scenario: You plan to engage in an activity — swimming, volleyball, beach-napping — that pulls your eyes away from your belongings. Short of nailing the bag to a street lamp, what can you do? Travelon has created a pouch called the LockDown (available in June) that you can secure around a sturdy object without fear of it becoming the next victim in a slasher movie.

Airlines’ stringent luggage policies are the knee in the back of the latest trend: bags that comply with the personal-item guidelines but perform like a larger carry-on. (The one destined for the overhead bin.) Mia Toro’s companion bag, for instance, has a spacious storage area with bifurcated compartments, an outer sleeve for devices and a USB charging port. You could easily pack a long weekend’s worth of items inside, with room for several (flat) souvenirs. Once on board, simply roll the bag into its parking spot by your feet.

The Fly InTransit Travel Bag was born under slight duress. Walter + Ray founder Tania Rodrigues travelled frequently for her family’s mannequin business and was desperate for a carry-on with the multi-functionality of a Swiss Army knife. A quick dissection of her solution reveals an insulated food bag, a pocket for backup outfits, a pouch for cords, a clear TSA-friendly insert, a carabiner for water bottles and an RFID-protected enclosure for IDs. “There are so many features,” she joked, “it gives me a headache.”

The Adjustable Bag knows our habits well (or, at least, mine): Pack with a light touch, shop with a heavy hand and hope that you can squeeze it all in. The nylon bag expands and shrinks with your shopping and tossing habits. In its resting state, it is no bigger than a blob of bread dough. Uncinch the side ties a wee bit for the small version, a bit more for the medium and way out for the larger. (In company vernacular, grow from Overnight to Weekend to Travel.) In addition, with the versatile strap system, wear it as a tote, a cross-body or a backpack, depending on your mood or the stuffing inside. The bag, which received $340,000 in Kickstarter funding, will be available by the end of June.

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LUGGAGE ACCESSORIES

At the ticket counter, do you treat your checked luggage as if it is going off to war and you’ll never see it again? LugLoc, a GPS tracking device, calms the nerves of overprotective (or maybe just frequently burned) travellers. Place the gadget in the interior, download the app and follow your bag’s journey. The map displays its location in real time, so you can see if it’s freezing in Anchorage, sweating it out in Bangkok or waiting for you like a good bag at Washington Dulles.

The inelegant approach to securing your bag is to mummify it in plastic wrap. A more fashionable solution is to dress it in a Dandy Nomad cover. The French company celebrates the continents with its emblematic designs. There’s an Eiffel Tower against a blue checkerboard for Europe; an Aboriginal-inspired pattern with a kangaroo for Australia; and an ethnic print honoring elephants and the Masai for Africa.

MotoArt Studio co-founder Dave Hall started with furniture built out of retired planes before moving onto his next creation, PlaneTags. The artist uses fuselage skin, with the original paint finish, for the body of the ID tag. He also includes the serial and tail numbers of each plane, which you can search online to learn about your tag’s previous life. The company offers nearly 20 aircraft, including the B-26 Marauder, the F-86 Sabre and Virgin Airlines’s “Lady Penelope” Boeing 747, and unveils a new one each month.

SLEEP SUPPORT

At least two dozen exhibitors showcased neck pillows. In the New Products Pavilion alone, I saw Cloudz’s cool gel and bamboo microbead pillow, Sutton Home Fashions‘ gel-memory foam pillow, Travel Pal’s auto-inflating pillow, Cardiff Wings (like a car’s sun visor that attaches to the seat) and, because all cheeks deserve extra padding, Airopedic’s self-inflating portable seat.

Cabeau won last year’s Buzz Award for the Evolution Cool, whose packaging reads like a gear list for an extreme-sports sleeper: air-circulation vents; moisture-wicking material. Some of the more ambitious aids could double as playground equipment for monkeys. Consider the Lapnap, which is basically a U-shaped pillow on a metal easel. Creator Andrew Comley said it was good for people who sleep face down. “It stretches out your back and relieves pressure on the spine,” he said of his product, which he launched the week before the event. The FaceCradle, which is shaped like a plush toilet seat, accommodates travellers who switch around positions from side to front to face plant. One of my favourite discoveries in this category was Travel Heads, due to its low embarrassment grade. The thick wedge of memory foam rests on your shoulder like an overstuffed parrot and catches your head when gravity calls. Passengers in the aisle seat can secure the pillow with a strap worn seatbelt-style. It is a much better version of my ball-up-my-coat approach.

IN-FLIGHT AMENITIES

Yes, economy class is dehumanizing, but you can still beautify your space. Don’t fulminate, decorate!

Craig Rabin invented the Air Hook so passengers can “better utilize their existing airline seat space.” The contraption, which hooks over the seat back tray, contains a beverage holder that fits any airline cup or soda can and a perch for electronics measuring up to 8 1/2 inches tall. A bungee cord secures the gadget, in case the person in the forward seat flings an arm into your movie theater.

The TAB Messenger Seatback Organizer, by Walter + Ray, is the tool belt of airplane pouches. The slender bag, which features multiple compartments, attaches to the seat pocket or the tray table legs, for easy in-flight dipping. Once you land, flip the magnetic flap over the main body, slide on the cross-body strap and wear your “organizer” off the plane. The company’s BendyMan turns your public seat into a private viewing room. The blue or green fella, who is also a flashlight (what bright eyes you have, BendyMan), holds smaller electronics in his lap. Set him on your tray or hang him on the seat back — he’s flexible enough for both. If you are stuck in the middle seat, placing tacks on the arm rest is not very neighborly. Walter + Ray’s ArmPillow is a kinder, gentler way of saying, “Mine!” The plush log of memory foam soothes tired limbs — it also doubles as lumbar support — and asserts your territory against invaders from the aisle and window.

The majority of airlines no longer hand out blankets, and even if they did, you might want to wear a hazmat suit underneath. The Tucker Travel Cover combines the coverage of a blanket with the snuggly-ness of baby bunting. Wrap the flannel fabric around your back, pull on the hood (with removable neck pillow) and slip your arms inside the elastic pouch – and enjoy microbe-free slumber.

AT-DESTINATION COMFORTS

Smartphones and water go as well together as cabernet and white pants. (Unless you are drinking from GSI Outdoors’s Glacier Stainless Nesting Red Wine Glass.) The WaterSeals Magnetic Waterproof Pouch by Lewis N. Clark doesn’t just protect valuables; it turns your gadget into an amphibious creature. You can submerge the pocket to up to 100 feet (two bands of magnetic seals keep the liquid out) and still access the screen to snap photos of the sea life or text your snorkelmate with a shark alert. Of course, dry (and hard) land can be equally detrimental to your phone. American Jewel, creator of scented bags, safeguards smaller electronics from broken bones with its Rockin Candy Phone Flashers. The cases, which are made of stretchy material, rely on four corner balls to absorb the brunt of the tumble. LED lights on the tips flash with any slight-to-abrupt movement, a sign that your phone is going to be A-OK.

Many environments — Beijing on a red-alert day, a smoky bar in Istanbul, a flowering arboretum in Memphis — stress the lungs. DetoxAir uses a HEPA-rated filter to turn bad air (smoke, exhaust, dust, pollen) into daisy-fresh breath. The product fits in your mouth like a scuba regulator, but without the Darth Vader sound effects.

The water bottle, so brittle and tall, can be onerous when empty. You can’t tuck it in your back pocket between refillings. HydraPak solves the portable problem with Stash, a flexible container that collapses to the size of a hockey puck. When you are ready to replenish, squeeze the tabs, untwist the bottom and pull up the BPA- and PVC-free midsection. Then fill the liter with your liquid of choice.

You don’t want to be one of those tourists, do you? Running around in a clear garbage bag because you didn’t check the weather forecast that morning? Always be prepared — and chic — with a poncho by Reisenthel, a German family-run company. The outergear folds into its own breast pocket and, at the first drop of rain, expands into a hooded cape. The eye-popping designs — polka dots, starfish, stripes — will bring sunshine to any cloudy day.

And now, a moment of silence for all of those sunglasses that lost an arm or cracked a lens after you hastily stuffed them in a coat pocket or overpacked tote. Popticals, which won this year’s Buzz Award, solves the unwieldy specs issue with its optical transformers. With a few clicks and slides, the sporty sunglasses fold up into a palm-size object, housed in a case that is as small as a change purse.

Tooletries, of Australia, civilizes tiny bathrooms (think cruise ship cabins or shared bed-and-breakfast facilities) with its toiletry holders. The silicon organizers grip onto mirrors, tiles and glass, and don’t leave any trace of their presence post-removal. The Amazing Mighty Toothbrush Holder holds up to 20 pounds (9 kilograms) and compartmentalizes oral implements, razors and rings. The koala- and kangaroo-shaped containers remind kids that brushing can be fun, even when they are thwacking their elbows against the shower stall.

All travellers should throw a spare bag into their luggage — the nesting-doll approach to travel. YaYbag hits all the marks for a backup carrier: It is water resistant, carries up to 55 pounds (25 kilograms) and can be stored like a fruit roll-up secured by an elastic band. Sunchea Phou, a Cambodian refugee who lives in Seattle, adorns her totes with more than 180 prints, including birds and flowers. In addition, 20 per cent of the company’s profits go to charity, so you are bag-nesting for a cause.

Marni Soupcoff: U.S. cops victimized thousands of children in their kiddie porn sting

I’ve been trying not to think about a recent news story that caught my eye. The topic is inherently upsetting and unsettling. It’s hard to imagine reading anything about child pornography without coming away feeling sad and revolted. Which is why I usually avoid looking at articles like the one I read.

But my curiosity got the better of me this time when I saw the headline on Reason.com’s Hit and Run blog: “The FBI May Have Run Not One But 24 Dark Web Child Porn Websites.” It was puzzling; we’ve all heard of sting operations, but surely actually running a child porn site (or worse, nearly dozens of sites) — being responsible for the transmission of these troubling images — would be a step too far for a domestic intelligence and security service of the United States. Wouldn’t it?

Perhaps the answer isn’t as obvious to everyone as it seems to me; perhaps an ends-justify-the-means attitude has become acceptable given just how awful the scourge being fought is (understandably) deemed to be. That would presumably explain how it came to be that the FBI sought and received authorization to host 23 child porn websites at a government facility, as uncovered by an FBI affidavit that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) obtained. This was in addition to “The Playpen,” a “dark web” child pornography bulletin board — complete with images and videos of sexual —abuse – that the bureau ran on a server in a FBI warehouse for two weeks after seizing it from (and charging) its administrator. All in an effort to catch the criminals using the site, of course. But is that sufficient justification?

When “The Playpen” operation was revealed last summer, Reason’s Jacob Sullum summarized it this way: “the FBI became a major distributor of child pornography to catch people who look at it, thereby committing a more serious crime than the people it arrested.” Ouch.

The FBI’s methods are a problem even if they do enable it to convict people of child porn offences.

Over the following months, at least 15 federal judges ruled that the child porn evidence obtained through the Playpen scheme (during which the FBI hacked Playpen users’ computers to locate them) was obtained without a valid warrant. The judges suppressed the evidence in at least three of the cases, due to the unconstitutional nature of the searches. If similar legal qualms about this sort of hacking remain a live issue (if the FBI isn’t able to sidestep them by refining the warrant process), there’s no point in continuing. Convictions will be elusive, and convictions are the only possible good reason — if such a reason exists at all — for the FBI distributing child pornography.

The FBI’s actions are a problem even if it is able to convict people of child porn offences with the evidence, though. As Sullum has pointed out — in part by referencing a thoughtful law review article by Canadian lawyer Howard Anglin, who now runs the Canadian Constitution Foundation — the U.S. government’s position is that every single view and transfer of child porn is a new instance of the abuse of the child in the picture or video. If that’s the case, Sullum concludes correctly, American federal prosecutors “are bringing cases that, by their own lights, required the FBI to victimize children thousands of times.”

The other perturbing thing about the Playpen operation, and the others like it, is the real possibility that the FBI actually increases the consumption of abusive images. Indeed, we know that in the case of Playpen — which the bureau made more enticing to potential users by speeding it up and making it more convenient — about 50,000 visitors a week came to the site during the FBI’s rein, compared to only 11,000 visitors a week when it was not a government-run site. This unexpected talent for making technology user-friendly would be far better used for improving dreadful government administrative websites than for making child pornography easier to obtain. 

Some actions are so base that they must irredeemably taint the person or entity who takes them, no matter how noble the underlying motivation or reason. Pushing child porn, I would argue, could be one of them.

But even with a relativistic approach, stings such as Playpen still fall short because they’re not catching the direct abusers of children — the people visiting the horrors on the kids in question. If they were, at least the “ends” would be of clearer import, even if the means would be equally troubling. But as it is, the inherent evils of actively distributing child pornography outweigh the uncertain returns of arresting people for possession of the terrible stuff. I hope someone in authority gives the FBI the message before the next round of Playpens are hosted by the U.S. government.

National Post

Johnny Depp spent a day at Disneyland pretending to be a robot Capt. Jack Sparrow

Actor Johnny Depp, star of the film series Pirates of the Caribbean, spent Wednesday pretending to be an animatronic at the Disneyland ride that originally inspired the movie. 

Pirates of the Caribbean, which opened 50 years ago, is a “dark ride” in which boats full of riders are floated past elaborate full-size tableaus depicting a pirate takeover of a Spanish colonial town.

Just saw Johnny Depp @Disneyland on Pirates of the Caribbean dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow!!! #DeadMenTellNoTales pic.twitter.com/5VW8SpGAIg

— Clay Smitty Plays (@ClaySmittyPlays) April 27, 2017

Clad as his character Captain Jack Sparrow, Depp seems to have largely spent his time standing in a section of the ride that features animatronic pirates pillaging the town’s central square.

From ample cell phone videos documenting the encounter, it appears that sometimes Depp broke character and waved. Sometimes he did not, forcing tourists to identify the human pirate based on the movement of his feet (and, presumably, Depp’s obvious humanity amidst a field of robots).

Life is complete! Just saw Johnny Depp on Pirates of the Caribbean @Disneyland !! #PiratesoftheCaribbean pic.twitter.com/33lLTGmHng

— Patricia (@MissLovelyCuppy) April 27, 2017

Since the success of the film series, which saw its first iteration in 2003, the ride has indeed been updated to include several animatronic versions of the Jack Sparrow character.

The appearance was most likely a stunt to promote the upcoming premiere of Dead Men Tell No Tale, the next iteration of the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.

I seriously cannot believe I saw Johnny Depp at Disneyland tonight!! Best night ever!! #Disneyland #JohnnyDepp #PiratesoftheCaribbean pic.twitter.com/KeCJDkPjbM

— Janine△⃘⃒ (@justniinii) April 27, 2017

Depp is not the only living person with an animatronic doppelganger in a Disney park.

With the Walt Disney Corporation owning robot avatars of Ellen DeGeneres, Sigourney Weaver, Harrison Ford, Dick Van Dyke and every living U.S. president, among others, the company has presumably only scratched the surface of celebrities they can compel to hide in their attractions.

• Email: thopper@nationalpost.com | Twitter: TristinHopper

For Sale: $11.8M Villa Marina in Lloyd Harbor, New York

It’s hard to believe this is just a couple of hours away from New York City. This Mediterranean-style villa sits on 400 feet of shoreline, just off the Long Island Sound. The two-acre property is at the entrance of Huntington Harbor and comes with deeded dock rights. It’s also close to golf courses, equestrian trails and cross country ski routes.

House of the day

Homes and cottages we’d love to have — whether we can afford them or not

Key details:
• Lot size 87,120 sq. ft.
• 6 bedrooms, 5 baths, 2 half baths
• $11,800,000
• Maria Babaev, Douglas Elliman Real Estate, 516.629.2239
• See full listing here

The home was designed by Irene Ioffe, principal of Granoff Architects in Greenwich, Connecticut with the environment in mind. It was built to reduce energy consumption, while also incorporating the latest technology.

The high ceilings, large windows and hardwood floors create a welcoming ambience.

The kitchen has stainless steel appliances, that include a six-burner gas range and a built-in TV.

Even the views from the bathtub are beautiful.

Plus, there’s an indoor pool with more views and access to the property.

If you have an interesting listing, reno or just a really neat home — whether it’s for sale or not, drop us a line to tell us about it.

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• House of the day archive

Motor Mouth: Wanting flying cars isn’t going to make them real

This is not an engineering story. Oh, there will be plenty of discussion regarding horsepower, lift and even some calculations — probably erroneous, as I did the calculating — of the thrust required to get a helicopter off the ground compared with the power needed to drive a car. Nonetheless, this is definitely not an engineering story.

Instead, this is about focus groups. Or, more accurately, why 80 per cent of products, despite being thoroughly vetted through focus groups, fail within the first six months. Why, as Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman wrote in How Customers Think, “the correlation between stated intent and actual behaviour is usually low and negative.” Or, as UX magazine’s Jay Eskenazi, explains, “If you just show people a product, they will give you an opinion or reaction. If you have them actually use or interact with the product, their feedback will be based on their experience, which is far superior to their initial, hypothetical thoughts.” In other words, the more abstracted an expressed opinion is from reality, the more likely it is that the research participant’s opinion will be incorrect, inaccurate or misleading.

This explains why, according to the University of Michigan’s A Survey of Public Opinion About Flying Cars, not only do consumers really want their next cars to be completely electric, they also want them to fly. For those already thinking that there must have been some magic mushrooms involved, consider this further demand: They also want their future flying car to have a range of at least 640 kilometres (400 miles).

Let’s examine those expectations, shall we? Assume, for the moment, that the respondents were talking about 640 km of driving range. Extrapolating from current electric car performance, it takes about 30 to 35 kilowatt-hours of lithium-ion to reliably promise 160 km of range. Six hundred and forty kilometres, then, would require somewhere between 120 and 140 kWh useable battery capacity. The problem is, using current technology, that represents somewhere between 480 kilograms (1,056 pounds) and 560 kg (1,232 lb.) of battery weight. Now consider that a four-passenger aircraft such as Cessna’s 172 — the world’s most popular four-passenger recreational aircraft — weighs about 770 kg (around 1,700 pounds). In other words, the battery that would drive a car 640 km would weigh almost as much as a four-passenger aircraft.

Now consider that a Tesla Model S, with 100 kWh of battery and 500 km (315 miles) of range, weighs roughly 2,300 kg. In other words, an electrically powered car able to carry four passengers — which the Sustainable Worldwide Transportation study’s respondents say is another “must have” — with enough battery to drive 640 km (never mind the 960 klicks some respondents wanted) has virtually no hope of flying.

But wait – as Ron Popeil, he of Veg-O-Matic fame, used to say – there’s more. Fully 83.1 per cent of these same respondents say their future flying car should also offer vertical takeoff and landing, the whole point being enhanced convenience and shorter travel times.

The problem here is that helicopters, which our flying cars would now have to be, require a lot more power than fixed-wing aircraft (essentially, a helicopter has to lift its weight with sheer power, while an airplane gets its lift from horizontal speed). A rough calculation reveals that one horsepower is needed to lift something between two and 3.5 kg of car/plane/helicopter off the ground. In other words, just getting a Tesla 100 D’s battery off the ground would require anywhere between 150 and 200 hp. Getting the whole car taking off vertically would require anywhere from 750 to 1,000 hp. Indeed, a Bell 429, weighing in a comparatively svelte 2,025 kg, boasts twin Pratt & Whitney turboshafts with no less than 1,250 hp.

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Motor Mouth: Why I'm not drinking the Tesla Kool-Aid

Now, before you all send me YouTube videos of Lilium’s sensational Vertical Take-off and Landing Jet, know that there is more than a little skepticism that it can deliver its promised 300-kilometre range using only its Tesla-like electric batteries. Besides, it is not in any way, despite the blogosphere’s attempt to describe it as such, a car. Indeed, the one flying car that does use some electric power, the AeroMobil 3.0, is actually a hybrid, its Chevrolet Volt-like 2.0L gasoline-fuelled powertrain consuming about 4 L/100 km while driving and about 12 L/100 km jetting around at 260 km/h. It is also, despite having 300 turbocharged horsepower at its disposal, not capable of vertical take-off. Oh, and by the way, according to Wired magazine, AeroMobil is projecting its flying car will cost “between the price of a supercar and a small plane.” In other words, neither is any more indicative that our future is practical, four-door, vertical-take-off-and-landing flying electric cars than HBO’s You Me Her is proof that unicorns really exist.

Nonetheless, as seemingly outrageous as the survey’s conclusions may be, the source — the University of Michigan — is an entirely credible institution (its studies on fleet-wide fuel economy for newly registered cars are considered the bible of corporate average fuel economy). Nor is this an April Fool’s joke: authors Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle concluding that, “despite the fact most Americans are very concerned about the safety of flying cars, most would still ultimately like to use them.”

The point, technical mumbo-jumbo notwithstanding, is that as the automotive world is in flux, it’s becoming common to back up outlandish claims with seemingly creditable surveys. Just the latest, by no less than the American Automobile Association, claims that up to 30 million Americans are likely to buy an electric vehicle as their next car. Now consider that, since 2010, there have been barely more than 250,000 EVs sold in North America and that the sale of environmentally motivated automobiles has declined in recent years. As Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst for AutoTrader.com, told CNBC, the survey “does not correlate at all with what Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book or AutoTrader see in shopping and sales data. If people are saying they are interested in electric vehicles … that interest is not translating into sales.”

In fact, if 30 million Americans were to buy EVs as their next cars, it would require that the plug-in segment capture roughly 20 per cent of the entire new-car market over the next 10 years. In reality, EV sales currently account for less than one per cent of North America’s new-car market. You don’t need to be a mathematician to understand the chances that 20 times more Americans are suddenly going to open their wallets to buy electric is not realistic.

Just as you don’t have to be an aeronautical engineer to understand that a four-passenger electric car with a range of 640 km isn’t going to fly, no matter how many people say they want one.

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Motor Mouth: An electric 'revolution' that never was