In this task, you are given news articles and you need to generate a highlight, i.e., a short summary, with a maximum length of 10 lines.

[Q]: Kansas City, Missouri (CNN) -- The General Services Administration, already under investigation for lavish spending, allowed an employee to telecommute from Hawaii even though he is based at the GSA's Kansas City, Missouri, office, a CNN investigation has found. It cost more than $24,000 for the business development specialist to travel to and from the mainland United States over the past year. He is among several hundred GSA "virtual" workers who also travel to various conferences and their home offices, costing the agency millions of dollars over the past three years. Under the program, employees work from home and may live in another state from the region in which they're actually assigned. The Kansas City employee, who started his job in January 2011, is paid $84,440 and works from his home in Honolulu, a GSA representative confirmed. In the past year, according to GSA travel records, the employee has flown back to the mainland nine times for conferences and meetings. Four of those trips were to St. Louis; four were to Washington, with a side trip to Cincinnati; and one was to San Diego. The total cost to taxpayers was $24,221. Jason Klumb, the GSA's regional administrator for Kansas City, defended the hire. "The cost of that travel was included in the consideration of his candidacy as an employee as compared with the other applicants," Klumb said. "And when factoring all of those in, it was determined that he was the best candidate, even in light of the cost that would be incurred." Klumb called the GSA's teleworking program "a successful program that's going to lead to cost savings for taxpayers." But a GSA spokeswoman said, "We are not going to defend this type of travel." And a GSA employee in Kansas City, who requested anonymity, said that hiring someone in Hawaii to work for the Kansas City region was ludicrous. "It doesn't make sense," the employee said. "When you consider everything you need when you hire someone, it would have been better to look for someone in the Kansas City area. It would have reduced the cost of travel by at least 70 percent when you look at just the airfare of what it takes to from Honolulu to Washington, D.C., where a lot of business is done." Dan Tangherlini, who was appointed acting GSA administrator this year, said the agency was examining the cost of the entire teleworking program. "I think the most important part for the GSA to think about is make sure we open ourselves up, avail ourselves to all the smart people in the country, but then also make sure we have a clear business case," he said. "If we have someone who is working in Nebraska but reporting to Boston, there has to be a clear explanation for what value they're providing, and you've got to give me the business case. You've got to explain to me why that's a cost-effective move for the American people, and that's a new standard that we're asking everyone at GSA to adhere to." The GSA "virtual employee" program is different from telework programs offered by many private companies including CNN's parent company, Turner Broadcasting, in which some employees are encouraged to work from home some days of the week, partially to reduce traffic congestion. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform requested details about the GSA's teleworking program in June. That followed disclosures that 95 virtual employees, including 12 in supervisory positions, spent nearly $750,000 in travel costs between October 2010 and June 2011. "The American people have a right to know that federal bureaucrats who enjoy the benefits of virtual work are eligible and responsible stewards of the taxpayer dollars that support the program," according to a letter from committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, to the GSA. The details requested by Issa about the GSA program have not been provided to the committee. CNN also requested the information more than two months ago through the federal Freedom of Information Act but has been repeatedly told by the GSA that FOIA staff members have not finished compiling the material. The General Services Administration, which has more than 12,600 employees and a $26.3 billion budget, is a relatively obscure federal agency that handles government real estate and other non-military procurement. Congress launched an investigation into the GSA after a scathing inspector general's report issued this year showed lavish spending -- $823,000 -- at the agency's Western Regions Conference in Las Vegas in October 2010. The controversy became politically toxic after reports and video clips of the lavish conference were released. The revelation prompted taxpayer indignation, embarrassed the administration and put a spotlight on wasteful spending by the GSA. Jeff Neely, the GSA official who organized the conference, resigned, as did the agency's administrator, Martha Johnson. Two of Johnson's deputies were fired, and eight other employees left the agency. Tangherlini, a former Treasury Department official, took over as acting GSA administrator. In addition to the Las Vegas conference, the GSA apparently spent $330,000 to relocate an employee from Denver to Hawaii and probably millions more on other employees over a two-year period, according to a transcript of an interview with a GSA event planner. And 84 GSA employees, most of them supervisors or other senior staff -- all subjects of inspector general investigations -- are still collecting their bonuses, totaling more than $1 million in taxpayer money. In July, a CNN investigation revealed that the GSA's Kansas City office spent more than $20,000 to send employees to cooking classes to build team spirit. While the classes do not amount to a significant sum of money in the world of trillion-dollar government budgets, insiders said it was part of the free-spending culture that went on for years at the GSA's Kansas City regional headquarters. GSA spokeswoman Betsaida Alcantara said in a statement this year that all the agency's practices are under a top-down review. CNN's Sara Anwar, Elizabeth M. Nunez and Tom Cohen contributed to this report. Watch Erin Burnett weekdays 7pm ET. For the latest from Erin Burnett click here.
[A]: The employee in agency's Kansas City office is among hundreds of "virtual" workers .
The employee's travel to and from the mainland U.S. last year cost more than $24,000 .
The telecommuting program, like all GSA practices, is under review .


[Q]: (CNN) -- When you think of GIFs, those never-ending sequences of looping motion, you're more likely to associate them with lightly humorous viral content than a respectable art form. However, their hypnotic movement has been gaining favor with the artistic community, and now one of the most high profile museums in the world, London's Saatchi Gallery, has teamed up with Google+ to explore their more reflective side. They gathered a roster of impressive judges, such as film director Baz Luhrmann, artists Shezad Dawood, Tracey Emin and Cindy Sherman, and Saatchi Gallery CEO Nigel Hurst, for The Motion Photography Prize, the first global competition for artists working with animated GIFs. Over 4,000 people from 52 countries entered their work, which fitted into six categories - landscape, lifestyle, action, people, night and urban. The top gong went to a Brooklyn-based creative director Christina Rinaldi, whose mesmerizing GIF of a New York City window cleaner, shown above, draws the viewers in with its almost trance-inducing repetition. Cindy Sherman, American photographer and film director, was attracted to the vibrancy of Rinaldi's work: "It almost transcends the GIF medium by turning the soapy water into brushstrokes, so it seems more like creating a painting," she explained. Rinaldi herself said that choosing motion rather than still photography was crucial to capturing the rhythm of the window cleaner at work: "I was inspired by his brush strokes and the texture of the suds," she said," I watched him as if he were a performance artist -- his work temporary and only to be witnessed within a few seconds. I quickly became enamored with his efficient rhythm. Surviving in New York City requires an elevated sense of efficiency and an innate hustle." The work of other finalists -- Kostas Agiannitis, MicaÃ«l Reynaud, Matthew Clarke, Emma Critchley and Stefanie Schneider, highlighted the diverse and creative nature of a GIF as an art form. "There is incredible potential in this technology, and many photographers are now using GIFs to create motion in their work", says Saatchi Gallery's CEO and one of the judges Nigel Hurst. "You're looking at an image that floats somewhere between a still photograph and film, it has elements of both but sometimes incorporated in an unexpected way, which makes it even more compelling," Hurst says. He added that the judging process was no different than when looking at other, more conventional, art: "What stood out for us were images which were arresting, and used the parameters of the GIF in an imaginative way." Artist and illustrator Clay Rodery, whose work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic and on HBO, initially started creating GIFs to practice animation, but soon started making entire pieces for the format drawn by the chance to more eloquently express ideas he had inside his head. He says:" First and foremost I'm conscious of it looping. Its duration might be very short, sometimes only several frames, but in a loop there is the potential for its content to be endless." Moreover, Rodery says that GIFs helped him develop as an artist: "It most certainly has expanded the breadth of my work and its emotional impact. These days you need to work very hard to get your work to stand out, and a moving image really does wonders to get you noticed." The exhibition will be featured online on Saatchi Art, a web gallery for emerging artists. Too haute to handle - inside the world's biggest furniture fair . Korean artist creates fantasy worlds in her studio without Photoshop . Pimp my fish tank: This is the eerie, beautiful world of aquascaping .
[A]: Saatchi Gallery has teamed up with Google plus for the first GIF art award .
The Motion Photography Prize went to Brooklyn artist Christina Rinaldi .
Artists are increasingly looking to GIFs as bona-fide channels for self-expression .


[Q]: (CNN) -- In September 1985 a devastating earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter Scale smashed into Mexico City killing 10,000 people and leaving parts of the city in ruins. Since then, the populous Latin American nation of 122 million has invested in one of the most advanced seismic warning systems anywhere in the world. The SASMEX facility came online in 1991 and reacts to data gathered by sensors placed near major fault lines along Mexico's Pacific coast. Receivers dotted around five major cities, including Mexico City and Acapulco, will sound the alarm if they detect an earthquake. It's a system that can buy vital seconds for residents to brace themselves before the tremors begin. But not everyone has access to a SASMEX receiver -- there are 100,000 in operation but at a cost of roughly $330 apiece, they are a luxury the majority of Mexicans can't afford. Most receivers are stationed in the likes of public buildings, hospitals, schools and subway stations. With roughly 21 million people living both formally and informally in and around Mexico City alone, that means many will not be aware the alarm is sounding until the ground begins shaking. $50 alarm . According to local tech entrepreneur, Andres Meira, such vital services should be far more widely available. Meira is no passive observer in this debate. He moved to Mexico City after working in Haiti and witnessing the devastation caused by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the Caribbean island in 2010 killing more than 230,000 people. It's an experience that had a profound and lasting effect on him. "Until you live in one of these places you don't really understand the primitive fear of earthquakes," he said. "There are times when you can't sleep and sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night and make sure things aren't moving." Now, after combining with local engineers and tech investors based in Silicon Valley, Meira believes he may have a solution that will bring the SASMEX signal to the masses. It's called the Grillo (the Spanish word for cricket) early warning system. The compact device -- a cube about the size of an alarm clock -- taps into the special frequencies that SASMEX operates on and relays that information to its users. When seismic activity is detected, the Grillo sounds a loud, flashing alarm. At a cost of just $50, it also undercuts the price of the receivers used primarily in public buildings by around 85%. "This is the most affordable and the most direct way for the Mexican public to connect to the early warning system," Meira says of the product, which also became Mexico's most successful ever Kickstarter campaign. Mexico City's geographic location and geological makeup put it at particular risk from seismic activity. There have been a handful of relatively small quakes in 2014 already. Meira also hopes versions of the Grillo system could be introduced elsewhere in the world where earthquakes are a real risk -- like in Nepal, India, the West Coast of the U.S. and along much of the Pacific Coast of South America. Missing education? But others point to the difficulty of introducing a mass warning system without first educating citizens on what to do when receiving a direct alert. Speaking to McClatchyDC.com earlier this year, Arturo Iglesias Mendoza, director of the Institute of Geophysics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, pondered what would happen if 5,000 of 60,000 people in a football stadium received an alert of an imminent earthquake? "People should know that the safest thing to do is to stay in the stadium," he said. On top of that, the $50 price is still a considerable investment for many residents of a country where the average wage remains under $5 a day. Then there is the fact that only a handful of early warning systems like SASMEX exist anywhere in the world. This means that Grillo will unlikely have government sourced data and advanced sensor system set up near major fault lines to tap into in many other locations. Meira and his colleagues have anticipated such difficulties. He speaks of the next stage of the Grillo project which will see hundreds of specially developed sensors placed all over Mexico, feeding into an algorithm that will provide early-warning alerts to apps and smartphones. Warning app . Known as Grillo Active, the tiny orange devices contain a sensitive movement detector, microprocessor and a WiFi module to transmit a signal. Grillo are currently in talks with a major convenience store chain to locate the devices at between 500 and 1,000 of their stores around Mexico. Such a wide spread will ensure more reliable and faster alerts. "The real test of a good infrastructure is the density of sensors," Meira said. "This is our plan in Mexico." Given that the devices can be produced cheaply and located anywhere with an internet connection, the potential for Grillo to be used in a variety of vulnerable areas around the world is very real. Japan remains the only nation in the world where the entire country is hooked up to an early warning facility. And that system, which consists of 1,000 GPS sensors. For now, however, this fledgling group's focus remains on Mexico. The first small batch of Grillo boxes produced have been sold, although they haven't yet seen any action in the field. Mexico's last earthquake was recorded about six months ago, when the device was still in the prototype phase. Meira hopes that the acid test doesn't come too soon, but he expects a solid performance from his invention when it does. "The science is all there," he said. "We have tested it out in two earthquakes and they worked just fine. One was a seven pointer (on the Richter scale) and it worked perfectly." Now, they await the next earthquake.
[A]:
Grillo is a device that aims to bring a low-cost earthquake warning system to the masses in Mexico .
A number of major fault lines are situated along Mexico's Pacific Coast .
Some say a widespread program of public education is required so people know what to do when seismic activity occurs .


