azerbaijan
Latest
Azerbaijan ballot app purportedly shows results before voting even starts
Many have accused Azerbaijan's government of running a fake democracy, and the administration hasn't helped its image with its official election app for Android and iOS. Citizens who downloaded the client were surprised to get supposedly final election results a day before voting even began. As the results showed President Aliyev winning by a landslide, critics like Meydan TV were quick to cite the app as "proof" that the election was rigged; officials just revealed their ploy too quickly. There's no hard evidence to support the accusations, however. While few believe the developer's claims that it accidentally released 2008 data as part of a test (the candidates are from 2013), the software gives Aliyev a smaller lead than the official results show as of this writing. So, it appears that any ballot stuffing likely took place outside of the app, then. More than anything, the snafu underscores the importance of quality control -- in the wrong circumstances, a flawed app can result in more than just a few annoyed users.
Conceptual hotel takes a note from the Death Star
We can't say with a straight face that the capital of Azerbaijan is high on our list of places to vacation at, but for Star Wars fanatics, the case could be different. Reportedly, Heerim Architects has dreamt up a couple of "lunar inspired" projects for the Asian country, one of which (Full Moon Bay) looks an awful lot like the Death Star. Granted, the building looks entirely different from varying angles, but we're choosing to focus on the one that brings back fond memories of light sabers blazing and wookiees waltzing. Truth be told, we've no idea if these facilities will ever break ground, but we're absolutely certain the powers in Dubai are already planning to recreate the entire Star Wars universe if this thing goes forward.[Via Inhabitat]
