Inventor of modern email, Ray Tomlinson, dies
Ray Tomlinson, the inventor of modern email, has died. Raytheon Co., his employer, on Sunday confirmed his death; the details were not immediately available.
Email existed in a limited capacity before Tomlinson in that electronic messages could be shared amid multiple people within a limited framework. But until his invention in 1971 of the first network person-to-person email there was no way to send something to a specific person at a specific address.
Tomlinson chose the @ symbol to connect the username with the destination address and it has now become a cultural icon.
While he was a holder of numerous awards and other accolades, co-workers say he was humble and modest. And, surprisingly, not a frequent checker of email.
Ukrainians rally to demand that Russia release pilot
KIEV, Ukraine – About 2,000 people rallied on Independence Square in Kiev on Sunday to demand that Russia release Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, with hundreds then marching to the Russian Embassy to vent their anger by throwing eggs and rocks at the building.
Savchenko was captured in June 2014 while fighting with a Ukrainian volunteer battalion against Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. She is now on trial in Russia, accused of acting as a spotter who called in coordinates for a mortar attack that killed two Russian journalists and several other civilians.
After Sunday’s rally, several hundred protesters reached the Russian Embassy, where they burned a Russian flag and threw eggs at the building and at an effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which had a sign reading “killer” around its neck. One man wearing camouflage climbed over the fence and threw a rock through the window above the door.
Police were on the scene, but didn’t intervene.
Time running out to charge anyone who helped Bulger
BOSTON – Investigators who spent years building a criminal case against gangster James “Whitey” Bulger have long believed he had multiple helpers when he fled Boston and went on the run.
But if prosecutors don’t bring charges within the next few months, the only person to be charged with actually assisting the notorious crime boss during his 16 years as a fugitive will be his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig.
The statute of limitations for harboring a fugitive is five years. The clock began ticking when Bulger was captured in Santa Monica, California, on June 22, 2011, and runs out on June 22, 2016.
Catherine Greig, who accompanied Bulger on his long flight from justice, was sentenced to eight years in prison for helping him. Greig faces additional prison time after pleading guilty last month to contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating who else may have helped Bulger.
Norwegian police search for lost goldfish’s owner
HELSINKI – For one goldfish in Norway, it’s almost like being a fish out of water.
The goldfish in question is being held at a police station in the northwestern town of Bodo while officers try to track down its owner, according to Norwegian news agency NTB.
NTB says officers found the goldfish in a jam jar at the Nordlandshall indoor soccer stadium and decided to take it back to the police station because they couldn’t find the owner.
Associated Press
