Latest News Clips 2014.03.31

1. What does Vladimir Putin want next?

CNN March 21, 2014

Russian business uneasy after sanctions

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Russian President approval ratings are at highest in recent years
• Analysts are asking if he is a rational actor, or "drunk on power"
• Assumption at NATO headquarters is that Putin won't stop at Crimea
• Russian businesses will suffer as Putin portrays West as adversary not potential partner

Simferopol, Crimea (CNN) -- Is Russian President Vladimir Putin an opportunist, grabbing at chances to poke the West in the eye, or a clever strategist with the longer-term goal of restoring a greater Russia? Is he simply riding a tide of Russian patriotic fervor over Crimea? Is he a rational actor aware of the delicate balances within the international system, or as one observer put it, "drunk on power" and oblivious to sanctions?

These are the questions preoccupying western governments and Russia's neighbors, after the swift annexation of Crimea and Russian military maneuvers close to the Ukrainian border.

There were some tantalizing clues in Putin's pugnacious speech to the Duma this week. He described the fall of the Soviet Union as unfortunate -- because it had separated Russians. "The Russian nation became one of the biggest, if not the biggest ethnic group in the world to be divided by borders," he said.

"It was only when Crimea ended up as part of a different country that Russia realized that it was not simply robbed, it was plundered." He went on to say, "if you compress the spring all the way to its limit, it will snap back hard."

Heady, populist rhetoric -- but it has propelled the Russian President to his highest approval rating -- 71% -- in recent years, according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center.

Putin said Russia had no intention of violating Ukraine's sovereignty (beyond the 5% of its territory it has absorbed this week.) "Do not believe those who want you to fear Russia, shouting that other regions will follow Crimea," he told Ukrainians.

But he then said this: "It should be above all in Ukraine's own interest to ensure that these people's rights and interests are fully protected. This is the guarantee of Ukraine's state stability and territorial integrity."

In other words, if the Kremlin believes Russians are being discriminated against, Ukraine's independence is no longer assured.

Those words will have echoed across parts of the former Soviet Union with large Russian populations: Moldova (10%), Lithuania (6%), Latvia (27%) and Estonia (25%). Will the Russian region of Transnistria in Moldova begin agitating for its own referendum? Will oblasts (regions) of eastern Ukraine demand their own vote?

Transnistria is already beyond the control of the Moldovan government. Just as a statue of Lenin overlooks the main square in the Crimean capital, Simferopol, so another stands outside Transnistria's regional assembly in Tiraspol. In a 2006 referendummore than 95% of voters said they wanted to be reunited with Russia.

2. Malaysia Jet’s Vanishing Act Leaves Liability Riddle

The Bloomberg Mar 25, 2014

As the final hours of Malaysian Air Flight 370 remain wrapped in mystery, the question of who bears full liability for the jet’s disappearance is also unresolved.

This much is clear: Families of the 227 passengers aboard the flight that vanished on March 8 can recover some compensation from Malaysian Airline System Bhd even if the plane isn’t found. The airline is liable under international treaty for as much as $175,000 per passenger, and possibly more.

For survivors to capture significantly greater damages, wreckage would probably have to be located and a narrative of the plane’s demise assembled. Several scenarios have been offered for the flight’s disappearance, including hijacking, intentional downing or an on-board fire. Evidence of any of these could open avenues for family members to sue.

“The disappearance of Flight 370 remains a mystery. The legal claims against Malaysia Airlines -- those are not a mystery,” said Robert Hedrick, a pilot and air-disaster lawyer in Seattle. “If the wreckage is located, the evidence may establish liability of other parties.”

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak appeared to narrow the band of speculation yesterday, saying that based on satellite data, the plane ended up in the Indian Ocean west of Perth, Australia -- ruling out theories that it took a detour over Asia.

‘Deep Sadness’

“This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites,” Najib said at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, citing an analysis of data from satellite provider Inmarsat Plc and the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation. “It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

Malaysian Air offered its condolences to passengers’ families and said in a statement that it had sought to notify families ahead of the prime minister’s message in person, by telephone and by text message. Malaysian Air Chairman Md Nor Yusof said in a statement today that the aircraft was lost and “none of the passengers or crew on board survived.”

About two-thirds of the travelers aboard were Chinese, and relatives gathered in a Beijing hotel yesterday responded with grief and anger.

“All my family are gone,” screamed one woman who emerged from the ballroom.

‘Shameless Actions’

One relatives’ group condemned yesterday’s announcements as “without any direct proof.” In a statement, the group, which calls itself Relatives of the 154 Chinese Passengers of MH370, accused the carrier, Malaysian government and Malaysian military of delays and cover-ups during the 18 days since the flight’s disappearance, and vowed to hold those parties accountable.

3. Taiwan police use water cannon to retake government HQ
   

AFP March 24, 2014

Taipei (AFP) - Taiwan riot police unleashed water cannon Monday to dislodge hundreds of demonstrators who had stormed government headquarters in violent scenes that dramatically escalated a days-old protest against a trade pact with China.

After nearly a week-long occupation of Taiwan's parliament, the protesters late Sunday also infiltrated the Executive Yuan where the cabinet is located, pulling down barbed-wire barricades outside and using ladders to break into offices on the second floor.

The assault came after President Ma Ying-jeou refused to back down on the trade pact, which he argues is vital for Taiwan's economic future, rejecting opposition claims that he is effectively handing the island over to Chinese control after six decades of political separation.

About 1,000 officers were deployed overnight to forcibly remove the protesters from the Executive Yuan. Premier Jiang Yi-huah, whose office is located in the building, said at least 110 people were injured, including 52 police officers, while police arrested 61 people.

"Suddenly water was spraying at us and it was very powerful. My glasses flew off and I was very dizzy," protester Frank Hsieh, a former premier from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), told reporters.

One injured male protester lay on the ground receiving medical care, while another was led away with blood streaming down his face, AFP journalists saw.

After taking over the building, many protesters had lain on the ground with their arms linked to defy efforts to shift them.

Police used riot shields to push the crowds back while some of the demonstrators tried to grab their batons and pelted them with plastic bottles. Two water cannon trucks were then deployed early Monday, eventually subduing the crowd and clearing the building.

"The government denounces violence and dispersed the crowd according to the law. We will not tolerate actions designed to paralyse the government," the presidential office said in a statement.

- 'Let us calm down' -

But the DPP, which historically has favoured formal independence for Taiwan, called on Ma to respond to the protesters' demands and scrap the pact.

"Forcible dispersals will only cause more students and police to get hurt and are likely to trigger more outrage and protests," the party said in a statement.

Ma has overseen a marked thaw in relations with Beijing since he came to power in 2008 pledging to strengthen trade and tourism links.

But China still considers Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification -- by force if necessary -- while Taipei still styles itself the legitimate "Republic of China".

The president warns that trade-reliant Taiwan could be marginalised without the China agreement -- which is designed to further open up trade in services -- and similar pacts with other countries, as regional economic blocs emerge.

"I must say that (the pact) is completely for the sake of Taiwan's economic future," Ma told a news conference on Sunday, denouncing the parliamentary sit-in before the protests spread to the Executive Yuan.

Latest News Clips 2014.03.17

              

1.Search for Malaysian Jet Becomes Criminal Inquiry 

The New York Times     MARCH 15, 2014 

SEPANG, Malaysia — Malaysia turned the search for Flight 370 into a criminal 

investigation on Saturday, after the prime minister declared that the plane had 

been deliberately diverted from its planned route a week ago from Kuala Lumpur 

to Beijing. The plane then flew as much as seven hours to an unknown 

destination. 

The prime minister, Najib Razak, said in a news conference on Saturday 

afternoon that Malaysia would seek the help of other governments across a large 

region of Asia in trying to find the plane. 

Malaysian authorities later released a map showing that the last satellite 

signal received from the plane had been sent from a point somewhere along one 

of two arcs spanning large distances across Asia. 

In other developments Saturday, police officers were seen arriving at the 

gated residential compound where the flight’s pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had 

his home, and Malaysian news media reported that a raid was underway. A 

police spokeswoman declined to comment, saying that no details would be 

available until a news conference early Sunday evening. 

According to Mr. Najib, a satellite orbiting 22,250 miles (35,800 kilometers) 

over the middle of the Indian Ocean received a transmission that, based on the 

angle of transmission from the plane, came from a location somewhere along one 

of two arcs. One arc runs from the southern border of Kazakhstan in Central Asia 

to northern Thailand. The other runs from near Jakarta, Indonesia, to the 

Indian Ocean, roughly 1,000 miles off the west coast of Australia. 

“These movements are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the 

plane,” Mr. Najib said. He noted that one communications system had been 

disabled as the plane flew over the northeast coast of Malaysia. A second system, 

a transponder aboard the aircraft, abruptly stopped broadcasting its location, 

altitude, speed and other information a few minutes later, at 1:21 a.m., while the 

plane was one-third of the way across the Gulf of Thailand from Malaysia toVietnam. 

Mr. Najib’s news conference, at an airport hotel here on the outskirts of 

Kuala Lumpur, came a day after American officials and others familiar with the 

investigation told The New York Times that Flight 370 had experienced 

significant changes in altitude after it lost contact with ground control, and 

altered its course more than once as if still under the command of a pilot. 

Military radar data subsequently showed that the aircraft turned and flew 

west across northern Malaysia before arcing out over the wide northern end of 

the Strait of Malacca, headed at cruising altitude for the Indian Ocean. 

The disappearance of the jet has mesmerized many in China, partly because 

nearly two-thirds of the 239 people aboard were Chinese citizens. After Mr. 

Najib’s statement Saturday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded to 

know more, and said that China was sending technical experts to Malaysia. 

“We ask that the Malaysian side provide even more comprehensive and 

accurate information,” a spokesman, Qin Gang, said in a statement on the 

ministry’s website. “We urge that based on the new circumstances, Malaysia 

further expand and clarify the scope of the search and intensify search efforts, 

and we ask that Malaysia call on even more countries to become involved in the 

search.” 

2. The Roots of the Ukraine Crisis 

Putin's Russia is using military might to rewrite the history of the Soviet collapse 

The Wall Street Journal  March 14, 2014 

Last Wednesday, in a phone conversation with Mustafa Dzhemilev, a leader of the Muslim Tatar minority in the Crimea, Vladimir Putin raised a chilling possibility: According to Ukrainian media reports, he questioned the legality of Ukraine's secession from the Soviet Union in 1991. 

Back then, the world also feared war and prolonged conflict between Russia and Ukraine. If the Russian president's current takeover of Ukraine's Crimea region succeeds, it may be followed by Russian efforts to seize other chunks of Ukraine—and beyond that, perhaps pieces of Moldova and the Baltic states too, which also house substantial numbers of ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking minorities. 

The roots of today's crisis go back to the last days of the Soviet Union, whose demise Mr. Putin has lamented as the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." Moscow has long cast an acquisitive eye on Ukraine—now the second-largest Slavic state, previously a vast part of the Soviet Union and always Russia's uneasy neighbor. The current Ukrainian crisis and Russia's occupation of the Crimea are directly linked to Moscow's project of reintegrating the space of the former Soviet Union into a comprehensive economic, political and military Eurasian Union. 

A referendum in Crimea to decide whether the region will stay within Ukraine or become part of Russia will take place this Sunday.  

Though the Soviet Union was often called Russia, it was actually a conglomerate of nationalities—lumped unhappily into 15 different republics—ruled by Moscow with an iron fist for most of the Soviet period. Russians, who numbered close to 150 million people, constituted only 51% of the Soviet population. The Ukrainians were the second-largest group, with more than 50 million people, accounting for close to 20% of the Soviet population. 

When Ukraine voted for independence on Dec. 1, 1991, it sealed the Soviet Union's fate. More than 90% of Ukrainian citizens voted in favor of statehood. Even in the Crimea, which then (as now) had an ethnic Russian majority, 54% voted for independence. In Sevastopol, the Soviet naval base in the Crimea, 57% were in favor. The Russians of Ukraine, in short, voted in large numbers for Ukrainian independence. 

The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, had drawn up a template for a new, looser union, but Boris Yeltsin of the Russian republic and Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine refused to join. On Dec. 8, 1991, in a hunting lodge in the forests of Belarus, Mr. Yeltsin and Mr. Kravchuk dissolved the U.S.S.R. and created a Commonwealth of Independent States to link the former republics. Neither Mr. Gorbachev nor Mr. Yeltsin could imagine a viable union without Ukraine. The Russian leadership, skeptical about bearing the costs of the new Commonwealth, could be persuaded to do so only together with Ukraine. As Mr. Yeltsin told President George H.W. Bush repeatedly, without its fellow Slavs in Ukraine inside the Commonwealth, Russia would be outnumbered and outvoted by the Central Asian republics. 

3.  The Future of Brain Implants 

How soon can we expect to see brain implants for perfect memory, enhanced vision, hypernormal focus or an expert golf swing? 

The Wall Street Journal   March 14, 2014  

Brain implants today are where laser eye surgery was several decades ago, fraught with risk, applicable only to a narrowly defined set of patients – but a sign of things to come. NYU Professor of Psychology Gary Marcus discusses on Lunch Break. Photo: Getty. 

What would you give for a retinal chip that let you see in the dark or for a next-generation cochlear implant that let you hear any conversation in a noisy restaurant, no matter how loud? Or for a memory chip, wired directly into your brain's hippocampus, that gave you perfect recall of everything you read? Or for an implanted interface with the Internet that automatically translated a clearly articulated silent thought ("the French sun king") into an online search that digested the relevant Wikipedia page and projected a summary directly into your brain? 

Science fiction? Perhaps not for very much longer. Brain implants today are where laser eye surgery was several decades ago. They are not risk-free and make sense only for a narrowly defined set of patients—but they are a sign of things to come. 

Unlike pacemakers, dental crowns or implantable insulin pumps, neuroprosthetics—devices that restore or supplement the mind's capacities with electronics inserted directly into the nervous system—change how we perceive the world and move through it. For better or worse, these devices become part of who we are. 

Neuroprosthetics aren't new. They have been around commercially for three decades, in the form of the cochlear implants used in the ears (the outer reaches of the nervous system) of more than 300,000 hearing-impaired people around the world. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first retinal implant, made by the company Second Sight. 

Both technologies exploit the same principle: An external device, either a microphone or a video camera, captures sounds or images and processes them, using the results to drive a set of electrodes that stimulate either the auditory or the optic nerve, approximating the naturally occurring output from the ear or the eye. 

Another type of now-common implant, used by thousands of Parkinson's patients around the world, sends electrical pulses deep into the brain proper, activating some of the pathways involved in motor control. A thin electrode is inserted into the brain through a small opening in the skull; it is connected by a wire that runs to a battery pack underneath the skin. The effect is to reduce or even eliminate the tremors and rigid movement that are such prominent symptoms of Parkinson's (though, unfortunately, the device doesn't halt the progression of the disease itself). Experimental trials are now under way to test the efficacy of such "deep brain stimulation" for treating other disorders as well. 

Latest News Clips 2014.03.10

                 

1.      China's parliament

Opening day

The Economist   Mar 5th 2014

CHINA has opened the annual full session of its parliament, the National People's Congress, in Beijing. If the past is any guide, the proceedings will be tightly controlled and will not feature any dramatic legislative votes during the ten-day session. But the March 5th opening day included announcements of several important planning targets and budgeting decisions, and a promise from the prime minister, Li Keqiang, to do more to solve the nation’s pressing air pollution problems. 

In a lengthy speech at the opening session, Mr Li (pictured) said China would aim to maintain an economic growth rate of “around 7.5%” this year. Growth in the past two years was slightly higher than that, but far below the double-digit levels that China achieved so often in recent decades. This year’s target, Mr Li said, was set “on the basis of careful comparison and repeatedly weighing various factors as well as considering what is needed and what is possible.” He also said China would “keep inflation at around 3.5%”.

These unchanged targets were overshadowed by the increase in China’s planned military expenditure. The government’s proposed budget for 2014 would increase defence spending by 12.2% to 808 billion yuan ($132 billion), although the real increase will be smaller once inflation is taken into account. The state-run Xinhua news agency promptly sought to assure Japan and other countries that any concerns about this increase are “unfounded and misplaced” and that China has a “peace-oriented defence posture”.

Some of Mr Li’s strongest language came in the section of his speech about improving the dreadful air quality that so often afflicts Beijing and other Chinese cities. The smog, Mr Li said, is “nature’s red-light warning” that China’s blind rush toward development is unsustainable, and that is time to “declare war” against pollution. His challenge, of course, will be to ensure that his economic growth target is not the first casualty.

2.  Pistorius Witness Says She Heard a Fight Next Door

On Second Day of Trial, Neighbor Said Argument Occurred An Hour Before Fatal Shots

The Wall Street Journal   March 4, 2014

PRETORIA, South Africa—Shouts and screams filled a upscale neighborhood here moments before Oscar Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend, witnesses said Tuesday, marking a second day of testimony that lawyers for the South African sports star sought to discredit.

Estelle van der Merwe said she heard what sounded like an argument coming from Mr. Pistorius' home beginning an hour before the gunshots rang out that ended the life of Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year.

"It sounded like someone involved in a fight," Mrs. van der Merwe told the court. After she tried to block out the argument by placing a pillow over her head, she heard four bangs followed by the cries of a woman.

  

Oscar Pistorius speaks to his legal team ahead of the second day of his trial on Tuesday. Reuters

"I asked my husband who was crying like that and he said it was Oscar," said Mrs. van der Merwe, who lives across the street from Mr. Pistorius' home in a gated community on the eastern outskirts of Pretoria.

Prosecutors are attempting to show that Mr. Pistorius and Ms. Steenkamp had a ferocious quarrel prior to her death and that he intentionally killed the 29-year-old model and aspiring TV star.

Mr. Pistorius has admitted that he fired the shots that killed Ms. Steenkamp but has claimed through his lawyer that he mistook her for an intruder.

Barry Roux, Mr. Pistorius' counsel, later challenged Mrs. van der Merwe's testimony, suggesting that she was too far away from the athlete's house to know for certain where the words originated or even the language they were spoken in.

"All you heard was a woman's voice," Mr. Roux said.

Earlier Tuesday, Mr. Roux attempted to sow doubts about the testimony of another state's witness, who said Monday that she heard a woman's terrified screams coming from the former Olympian's home in the early hours of February 14, 2013.

Michelle Burger said that she was awakened by the sound of a woman shrieking from next door. "Her shouts, her screams were petrified. ... I knew something horrible was happening in that house," she told the court.

In his cross-examination, Mr. Roux suggested that the distance between Mrs. Burger and the bathroom where Ms. Steenkamp was holed up - 177 metres (580 feet) - made it impossible for her to reliably conclude that the sharp retorts she heard were those of a gun and the screams those of a woman.

He suggested that the banging of a cricket bat that Mr. Pistorius was using in an attempt to gain entry to the locked bathroom, as well as the athlete's "anxious" shouts, were responsible for what Mrs. Burger heard.

"You made up your mind that this version could not be true and interpreted the cricket bat for gunshots and his screaming to be a woman screaming," Mr. Roux told Mrs. Burger.

Mrs. Burger's husband, Charl Johnson, testified on Tuesday that like his wife, he also heard what he described as the "clearly distressed" screams of a woman that February night.

Highlighting the fear that many South Africans have of house burglaries, Mr. Johnson said that his first assumption was that his neighbor's house was being robbed.

It caused him, he said, to "lay awake thinking about how to improve our security."

On Monday, Mr. Pistorius was formally charged with the murder of the 29-year-old Ms. Steenkamp. He pleaded not guilty.

3.  Health and appiness

Those pouring money into health-related mobile gadgets and apps believe they can work the miracle of making health care both better and cheaper

The Economist   Feb 1st 2014

WHEN Kenneth Treleani was told last summer that he was suffering from high blood pressure, his doctor prescribed medicine to tackle the condition. He also made another recommendation: that Mr Treleani invest in a wireless wrist monitor that takes his blood pressure at various times during the day and sends the data wirelessly to an app on his smartphone, which dispatches the readings to his physician. Mr Treleani says the device (pictured), made by a startup called iHealth, has already saved him several visits to the doctor’s surgery.

Portable blood-pressure monitors have been around for a while. But the idea of linking a tiny, wearable one to a smartphone and a software app is an example of how entrepreneurs are harnessing wireless technology to create innovative services. By letting doctors and carers monitor patients remotely, and by making it simpler to collect vast amounts of data on the effectiveness of treatments, the mobile-health industry, or m-health as it has become known, aims to drive down costs while improving results for patients.

Many experiments are already under way in emerging markets, where new mobile devices and apps are helping relieve pressure on poorly financed and ill-equipped clinics and hospitals. But the biggest prize is America, which splashes out a breathtaking $2.8 trillion each year on a health-care system riddled with inefficiencies. The prospect of revolutionising the way care is delivered there is inspiring entrepreneurs. Mercom Capital Group, a consulting firm, reckons that of the $2.2 billion venture capitalists put into health-care startups last year, mostly in America, $564m went to m-health businesses.

The m-health market can be broken down into two broad categories. First, there are the apps and appliances used to monitor the wearer’s physical fitness. Firms such as Nike, Fitbit and Jawbone make wristbands and other wearable gadgets full of sensors that let people record their performance, and their calorie-burning, as they pound the pavement or sweat in the gym.

Second, other apps and devices link patients with a medical condition to the health-care system. Last month Google said it was working on a contact lens containing a tiny wireless chip and sensors that would measure and transmit the glucose levels in a diabetic patient’s tears. In December Apple was granted an American patent on a means to incorporate a heartbeat sensor into its devices.

4.  Supermarket sweep as 'riot' breaks out for Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel collection

The Guardian  March 04, 2014

Designer plays to fashion's consumerist heart with Paris show in which 'frowers' play shoplifting as models stroll down the aisles

Karl Lagerfeld, flanked by model Cara Delevingne, acknowledges the audience at the end of Chanel ready-to-wear collection fashion show on Tuesday.

A riot broke out in a French supermarket on Tuesday morning, as well-heeled shoplifters – including pop star Rihanna and the model Cara Delevingne – tried to pilfer household goods and own-brand consumables. Well, not quite.

The scene did take place, but the "supermarket" was a purpose built Chanel superstore within the walls of the Grand Palais in Paris, and the "riot" was unleashed by the latest catwalk show from designer Karl Lagerfeld.

 A model carries groceries down the runway during the Chanel show as part of the Paris fashion Photograph: Michel Dufour/WireImage

It was arguably his finest runway reimagining to date. For a designer who has recreated an aeroplane and an iceberg this was quite a feat.

Before the show began guests strolled up and down the aisles shrieking with delight at everyday items given the Lagerfeld treatment: CoCo Chanel Coco Pops, and Confiture de Gabrielle – both nods to the house's founder.

Fashion editors posed with shopping trolleys amid this Warholian fashion extravaganza, before models posed as shoppers, strolling around the superstore in a choreographed performance.

To a muzak-inspired version of Rihanna's Shine Bright Like A Diamond, Delevingne stomped through the supermarket selecting a Chanel-branded brandy bottle and a large feather duster. Meanwhile, fellow model Stella Tennant went about her weekly shop carrying a shopping basket made with the familiar Chanel motive chain woven into the basket wire. Another model pulled a padded shopping trolley on wheels around the aisles. Even the most impervious fashionistas were delighted at the scene.

Did the clothes get lost in all of this? For some, perhaps. But this wasn't a multimillion-euro tactic to obfuscate some below par designs. On the contrary this was one of Lagerfeld's most inspiring collections yet.

The clothes – created within the tough remit of incorporating the house codes such as the tweed suit and large pearls – felt relevant and urgent, borrowing from street culture in the savviest of ways. A tweed tracksuit was both cool and beautifully tailored, and worn with holographic trainers felt fitting with fashion's new move towards haute comfort dressing. The models all wore their hair in crimped ponytails with Chanel tweed rags and edible sweetie necklaces. It was swampy-chic on a Chanel budget.

Models in big coats over disco leggings and trainers or leather shorts over leather tracksuit bottoms suggested a cool, "just popped out for a pint of milk" silhouette that only the few can look good wearing.

Why Lagerfeld feels the need to out-do himself with such catwalk extravaganzas each season is a question often asked in the fashion world. One reason is because he can. At 80 he has a phenomenal output of more than 30 collections a year suggesting a workaholic mentality. Another reason could be that, in a season in which the accepted highlight was meant to be designer Nicolas Ghesquière's debut at Louis Vuitton on Wednesday, Lagerfeld wanted to show that Chanel can still steal the headlines. A likely reason is that the designer is thinking of his legacy.