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Want to build one PC to rule all your living room media needs? Meet Kodi! In part one of this series we show you how to set up the media player software formerly known as XBMC.

Kodi

Setting up your own media center PC is a highly personal, quite in-depth task. For this How To, we'll give a basic introduction to Kodi, and talk about how the software provides a simple solution for your media center PC's player needs.

Kodi (formerly known as XBMC) is media player software that can play most video and music file types and other digital media both saved locally and found on the Internet. It's a one-stop-shop for all your entertainment needs once you get it set up right. It takes a little tinkering to get it running, but once you do it'll be smarter than any smart TV on the market.

The software is highly customisable to suit your particular media center needs, and it works with Windows, Linux, OS X, Android, iOS, Raspberry Pi and more, making it flexible no matter what computer you're basing your media center on.

We'll be using the Windows version of the install in this article, although much of the advice is universal once the Kodi software itself is loaded.

What's a media center without hardware? Kodi scales surprisingly well, and what you intend to do with it will greatly influence what hardware you'll need.

You're free to use pretty much any computer you choose, from an old, re-purposed beige tower to an off-the-shelf Mac Mini.

No matter what base you build up from, you should keep an eye out for the following:

Regardless of which path you choose, try to run your operating system off a Solid State Drive. It makes a world of difference in making your media center feel like a responsive appliance rather than a PC pretending to be something else.

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Build your own home media center: Get started with Kodi

Aedes aegypti: the invasive mosquito in Florida that carries deadly diseases. Photo by James Gathany, c/o the CDC

In the past few days, a new GMO scandal has hit the headlines. The UK biotech firmOxitec has proposed the release of special genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys to help with current mosquito control efforts. Or, according to the media:

Millions of GMO mosquitoes to be released in Florida Keys if Oxitec gets its way

Florida, Meet Genetically Modified Mosquitoes, Which Are Coming Your Way By The Millions

The Washington Post actually called them genetically modified killer mosquitoesin their headline, warningthat they may attack Florida Keys. George Dvorsky for io9cautionsthat Millions Of Mutated Mosquitoes Could Be Unleashed In FloridaOn Purpose. Its safe to say news of the FDAs deliberations on whether to allow these Frankenstein mosquitoes are causing quite the stir. Theres even a Change.org petition to fight the release,with nearly 140,000 signatures.

While these mosquitoes are genetically modified,they arent cross-bred with the herpes simplex virus and E. coli bacteria (that would be aninterkingdom mnage trois!)and no, they cannot be used to bite people and essentially make them immune to dengue fever and chikungunya (they arent carrying a vaccine!). The mosquitoes that Oxitec have designed are what scientists call autocidal or possess a dominant lethal genetic system, which is mostly fancy wording for they die all by themselves. The males carry inserted DNA which causes the mosquitoes to depend upon a dietary supplement thatis easy to provide in the lab, but not available in nature. When theso-called mutantsbreed with normal females, all of the offspring require the missing dietary supplement because the suicide genes passed on from the males are geneticallydominant. Thus, the offspringdie before they can become adults. The idea is, ifyou release enough such males in an area, then the females wont have a choice but to mate with them. That will mean there will be few to no successful offspring in the next generation,and the population is effectively controlled. Oxitec hopes to release millions of autocidalAedes aegypti mosquitoes in the Keys because that species is a vector for deadly diseases, and Oxitec is hopingthat reducing mosquito populations will protect residents. You would think that would be a good thingbut the headlines and rhetoric of the media suggest otherwise.

The first concern seems to be that theres no need for a new method of mosquito control. If I knew that this was a real risk and lives could be saved, that would make sense, the quote from the Associated Press article reads,But there are no problems. Why are we trying to fix it? Why are we being used as the experiment, the guinea pigs, just to see what happens?. Actually, contrary to the esteemed opinion of Key Haven resident Marilyn Smith that is being includedin every article verbatim, Floridiansshould be at least a little concerned about the two virusesthat the Oxitec mosquitoes are largely aimingto fight:dengue andchikungunya. Both are nasty emerging diseases that, thanks to a ever-more-connected globe and climate change, are becoming more of an issue in the United States every year.

What worries public health scientists, entomologists, etc. is that our environment and ecology, particularly in the tropical Keys, make us very vulnerable to the threat of disease, explains vector ecologist Tanjim Hossainfromthe University of Miami.Dengue, for example, was well established in the U.S. for centuries.

Chikungunya is a relative newcomer in the infectious disease world. The first known outbreak occurred in Africa in 1952it wasnt until 2013 that it first appeared in the Americas. But while it lacks the long history and high death toll of dengue, its quickly becoming a major concern.Infections are accompanied by high fevers and debilitating joint pain that can last weeks. And guess what?According to the CDC, Florida is the only state in the US which has had locally-acquired cases. The CDC would rather stop chikungunya in its tracks before it settles in the US permanently, and thus, theres a major focus in Florida right now to knock out the mosquitoes that transmit it. Conveniently enough, itsthe same species that transmits dengue:Aedes aegypti, which means control efforts can get twice the bang for the buck. And even better, this is a species that isnt native to Florida; it doesnt belong there, and there are no native species that rely on these invaders to survive. So there wont be negative environmental impacts in Florida if Oxitec (or the government in general) is successful inremoving all of theA. aegyptithere. There simply wont.

Dengue, on the other hand, is much more of an immediate concern. Thevirus is responsible for one hundredmillion infections and tens of thousands of deathseach year. While its true that only a few of these are from the US, in recent years, the number of local cases hasbeen increasing, and the Florida Keys is one of the areas most at risk of an outbreak. In 2009, the CDC found that more than 5% of the people testedin the Keys had recently been infected with dengue. Finally, after a dengue outbreak in 2009-2010, theFlorida Keys Mosquito Control District(FKMCD) stepped up their anti-mosquito game, and began implementing more rigorous control methods, including house inspections and increased truck and aerial pesticide sprays. Thats why there hasnt been a dengue outbreak sincenot because theres nothing to fear. After all, Marin County residents know the danger all too well, as they justhad an outbreak in 2013. And while everyone seems to be worried about what kinds of terrible things the mutant DNA from these autocidal mosquitoes will do, few seem concerned with the fact that theyre constantly being coated in pesticides instead. The pesticides being used are the safest available, but even still,ecologists have raised concerns about effects on non-target wildlife, including potential negative impacts on the beautiful aquatic habitats that draw tourists. If the Oxitec mosquitoes were used, they would reduce the mosquito populations without any dangerous chemicals: theyve already shown that, unlike pesticides, the proteins produced to kill the larvae dont have off-target effects, and dont harm potentialpredators if they eat thelarvaebefore they die.

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Journalists vector GM fears as FDA considers Oxitec's Keys mosquito plan

ON the face of it, Sri Lankas media has appeared free and independent for years. Newspaper publications have increased; the number of privately owned television and radio stations has gone up several fold; and independently operated news websites are flourishing.

These were exactly the reasons cited by the countrys former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and many in his administration to dismiss the allegations of media suppression levelled at them and to illustrate the vibrancy of the Sri Lankan media. And while the number of groups disseminating news has been on the rise and there has been no official censorship of news for years, the repression of the media under the previous administration had reached an alarming level.

Journalists were killed, threatened and intimidated; scores of them fled the country, many during the past five years. The most high-profile murder was of Lasantha Wickramatunga, the editor of a leading Sunday weekly on Jan 8, 2009. This along with the killing of several other journalists remained unresolved despite repeated assurances by the former regime.

It became quite routine for journalists who wrote hard-hitting articles against the government to be asked if the white vans had not come for them yet. By then white vans had come to be identified with the goon squads that had become notorious for picking up those seen as politically opposed to the Rajapaksa regime. Some disappeared without a trace; others were brutally beaten up and dumped. Chief among their victims were media personnel.

Now with the unexpected change in leadership, following the defeat of Rajapaksa at the presidential poll held on Jan 8, and the election of Maithripala Sirisena as his successor, there is cautious optimism among media personnel that better days are ahead.

In his election manifesto, Sirisena promised meaningful and substantial media freedom in the country which included the enactment of right to information (RTI) legislation, a long-standing demand of media activists in the country. It is notoriously difficult to access official documentation in Sri Lanka and hence RTI should open up access to information that is both useful to journalists as well as members of the public.

The new government has moved quickly to fulfil its promises to the media, saying that RTI would be enacted within the next few weeks. It has also promised fresh investigations into the killings of journalists under the previous regime and recently reopened the Wickramatunga murder case. Sri Lankan journalists who went into exile fearing for their lives too have been sent an open invitation to return with guarantees for their personal security.

Several news websites that were blocked under the previous regime have been unblocked and the new media minister, Gayantha Karunatillake, has said that there will be no curbs on how and what the media report on.

Sri Lankas media has had a chequered past. Their freedom to work without fear of reprisals is not something that was experienced only under the Rajapaksa administration which took office in 2004. From the early 1970s onwards, when the then government brought under its control the largest newspaper publication group, successive governments have retained the status quo and continued to use state-run media organisations for political propaganda. However things took a turn for the worse under Rajapaksa.

Heavy self-censorship was imposed by the media itself during the years 2005-2009 when the Rajapaksa government was battling a ruthless terrorist organisation in the north of the country, which resulted in even privately owned media institutions under-reporting on military casualties or excesses committed in the battlefield.

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The Sri Lankan media will hopefully be able to work more freely.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) The cost of traffic control in Myrtle Beach during the Atlantic Beach Bikefest is going up.

Local media outlets report the city has agreed to spend almost $1 million to buy traffic cones, barriers and electronic message boards to control traffic during the Memorial Day weekend event.

The barricades will be used mainly to route traffic on a 23-mile one-way loop that will be in effect to control traffic at night during the weekend.

The loop is part of a safety plan that law enforcement is putting into place after violence during the weekend last year left three dead.

City spokesman Mark Kruea says buying the traffic control devices will prove to be cheaper than renting them and they can be used for other events during the year.

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Myrtle Beach spends almost $1M on Bikefest traffic barriers

PHOENIX

There is a convenient picture of Marshawn Lynch to paint with one brush stroke, and that is of a young man with far less intelligence than he truly has.

Admittedly, Lynch makes it easy to do that, with his one-sentence answers to questions from the media -- from "I'm thankful" earlier this season to "I'm just here so I don't get fined" during Super Bowl XLIX Media Day on Tuesday. Dig no deeper and one can easily come away from the scrum thinking the Seattle Seahawks running back isn't smart enough to realize he's only making this worse on himself by refusing to entertain basic questions.

But putting aside the argument about whether Lynch's tactic is a wise one, know his coaches and teammates believe he's a much brighter guy than his interviews would have one believe.

As Pete Carroll told me when we went 1-on-1, despite perceptions, "there's a lot of thought" that goes into Lynch's actions. And Lynch's intelligence goes beyond his own actions, and is an asset in the locker room.

"Everybody is always so intimidated by Marshawn, and he looks like an intimidating guy, I agree with you, but Marshawn is a real cool dude," wide receiver and NFC Championship Game hero Jermaine Kearse said. "Just being able to talk to him, he gives good life lessons."

Kearse paused, sighed and sort of grimaced before continuing.

"I wish he would express that," he said, "but I think if he doesnt want to talk he doesnt have to."

The sentiment is similar with many of Lynch's teammates. They wish he would talk. Not because his media boycott has a negative impact on the team. Not because they're worried he's always toeing the line of getting fined by the NFL. And not because they feel they have to defend him from the public backlash. It's because they know the guy who went to college at Cal has so much to offer.

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Away from media, no Seahawk speaks louder than Lynch