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суббота

Members of pro-Russian forces and Ukraine's military have engaged in several tense standoffs in the largely autonomous region of Crimea, but they have also avoided violence in what's widely seen as a dangerous and uncertain situation. Diplomats are still working to find a possible solution.

Crimea's parliament has set a date of March 16 for a public vote on seceding from Ukraine. The region's new leader says pro-Russian forces now control all access to the region. Russia denies its forces are active in Crimea — something the U.S. State Department deride as "President Putin's fiction."

Here are the latest updates from Ukraine – we'll be adding to this post all day Saturday:

A Russian military truck reportedly smashed through the gate of a Ukrainian missile-defense base in Sevastopol, the Crimean port city that is home to Russia's Black Sea fleet, as Scott reported for the Two-Way Friday afternoon.

That confrontation ended without a shot being fired — and with the assaulting force leaving the scene, according to reports. Other incidents have been reported in the past 12 hours, including the capture of a border guard post by pro-Russian forces.

A Ukrainian military office in Simferopol, Crimea's regional capital, was reportedly taken over by around 100 armed men, according to CNN. The network describes the spot:

"A CNN team that visited the scene said it appeared calm. Armed, masked men were at the entrance, and Russian flags were being painted on the gates. Those questioned declined to say what was happening inside."

Another hectic week in the technology space wraps up just as the massive festival for interactive geeks and the marketers who love them — South By Southwest — gets under way in Austin, Texas.

If this is your first All Tech roundup, we organize it in three sections: ICYMI for some highlights from NPR's coverage this week, Big Conversations for what's buzzing across the Internet in the technology and culture space and Curiosities for oddities that piqued our interest. Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

ICYMI

#NPRWIT: This week, NPR's Tell Me More launched a celebration of women in technology, during which the field's leading ladies will showcase a day in their lives on Twitter. You can ask questions and participate in the conversation using the hashtag #NPRWIT. Melinda Gates is doing it!

Thanks, technology! Service industry workers should rejoice the likes of Square, an iPad-based cash register. It presents customers with a screen that suggests tip amounts, and "you physically have to hit 'no-tip' — and feel like a jerk — if you want to be stingy," Dan Bobkoff writes. In other news of how technology is changing the world, Alexis Madrigal, a senior editor at The Atlantic, explores how new car technology is slowly acclimating us to the idea of driverless cars.

Are you following @TellMeMoreNPR’s #NPRWIT conversation? Great look inside the lives of innovative women: http://t.co/vw4cFIyTrK

— Melinda Gates (@melindagates) March 4, 2014

пятница

A California lawmaker has proposed a measure that would prohibit SeaWorld San Diego from using orcas in its shows.

Richard Bloom, a Santa Monica Democrat, says the documentary Blackfish, which examines the 2010 death of a SeaWorld trainer by a captive orca, inspired him to push the bill.

Blackfish, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, also highlights other incidents in which trainers were either hurt or had close calls with orcas, also known as killer whales. Filmmakers also detail what they say are cramped living conditions for the marine mammals, which are the centerpiece of SeaWorld's acrobatic shows.

"There is no justification for the continued captive display of orcas for entertainment purposes," Bloom said Friday. "These beautiful creatures are much too large and far too intelligent to be confined in small, concrete tanks for their entire lives."

SeaWorld Entertainment, the parent company that also runs parks in Orlando, Fla., and San Antonio, Texas, has called Blackfish "propaganda," saying "the film conveys falsehoods, manipulates viewers emotionally, and relies on questionable filmmaking techniques to create 'facts' that support its point of view." The company says Blackfish gives the false impression that conditions at the parks are harmful to whales and trainers and that SeaWorld has covered up information related to fatal 2010 training mishaps.

The New York Times reported last month that:

"Blackfish has become a rallying point for those who oppose the use of killer whales for entertainment in the SeaWorld parks, and it has drawn large audiences in theaters and on TV. But SeaWorld has defended its practices, mounting an aggressive pushback against the film."

"The company continued its counterattack with a complaint delivered ... to the Labor Department. It accuses the official examining an orca's 2010 fatal attack on a SeaWorld trainer of ethical violations, including leaking confidential documents to the makers of Blackfish."

On Thursday, Newsweek's Leah McGrath Goodman reported that she had found the founder of the crypto-currency Bitcoin — the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto, a person or group of people whose true identity has been unknown.

As we discussed Thursday ('Newsweek' Says It Found Bitcoin's Founder: 4 Things To Know), this isn't the first time journalists have tried to pinpoint the real Satoshi Nakamoto. But this certainly has garnered the most attention.

It sparked a good, old-fashioned media frenzy — reporters swarmed the Los Angeles area home of Dorian n Satoshi Nakamoto, chased him in their cars as he drove to lunch with Associated Press reporter Ryan Nakashima, and reported on his statement to the AP denying that he was the brilliant enigma who created Bitcoin — "I got nothing to do with it," Dorian Nakamoto said.

But Goodman told Jeremy Hobson on NPR's Here And Now Friday that she stands by her reporting.

His family told me that he would deny it. In fact, I was very surprised when he acknowledged it to me when I met with him. ... I said, "People think that you are the founder of Bitcoin," ... and he said, "I cannot talk about that, I'm not connected with it anymore."

And I reasserted, "We are talking about Bitcoin here, correct?" and he said "Yes!" ... and in addition, my last question to him was: "If you are in any way not connected, you need to tell me. You need to tell me now." And he said, "I cannot do that."

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