Microsoft says US government is an 'advanced persistent threat'

Microsoft: US government is an 'advanced persistent threat' | ZDNet: "While the writing is cautiously couched in terms of "some governments" it's crystal clear that Microsoft's "advanced persistent threat" is referring to the ongoing revelations of US government surveillance activities (in leaks by Edward Snowden), and the concerns of Microsoft's American customers."

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The Internet, the surveillance state, degrading freedom

Saving the Net from the surveillance state: Glenn Greenwald speaks up (Q&A) | Politics and Law - CNET News: "The Internet is being degraded from what its promise was, which was an instrument of freedom, into probably the most effective means of human control and oppression ever known -- because there never existed a technology before to allow people's every thought and word to be comprehensively chronicled in the way the surveillance state allows.""

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Edward Snowden, Sarah Harrison, On the run from America

Interview with Snowden-companion Sarah Harrison: On the run from America - Politics | STERN.DE: "In the star -interview the courageous 31-year-old British woman tells of dramatic escape from the days in transit from the loss of her homeland and of fear and courage. Since 2010, Harrison worked for Wikileaks. The founder and close friend of Harrison, Julian Assange, is still sitting in exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Sarah Harrison is now the link between the two most famous digital dissidents in the world. "Actually, I may as well walk around with a target on my head," she say... "I have no regrets And I love a good fight."..."



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Video from the Bundestag about the NSA scandal

"

Gysi: „Ich bin dieses Duckmäusertum sowas von leid" (deutsch/english version) -
Published on November 18, 2013-Gregor Gysi (Die Linke) in the Bundestag about Germany's non-sovereignty and the NSA scandal. Source: German Bundestag

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Oldest big cat yet found, roamed Himalayas 6 million years ago

Leopard-like creature is the oldest big cat yet found : Nature News & Comment: "Big cats similar to today’s snow leopard have prowled the Himalayas for the last 6 million years, an analysis of newly described fossils reveals1. The remains of Panthera blytheae extend the known lineage of pantherine cats by at least 2 million years and bolster the notion that this group of carnivores originated in Asia...."

Wow--prehistoric felines!

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China trying to silence Dalai Lama in Tibet

China vows to silence Dalai Lama in Tibet - FRANCE 24: "China's ruling Communist Party aims to silence the voice of the Dalai Lama in his Tibetan homeland by tightening controls on media and the Internet, a top official said on Saturday. The party's top-ranking official in the Tibet region Chen Quanguo vowed to "ensure that the voices of hostile forces and the Dalai group are not seen or heard," in an editorial published in a party journal called Qiushi. . .." (read more at link above)

For more info about the Dalai Lama: http://www.dalailama.com/

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Winslow Peck, the Original NSA Whistleblower

After 30 Years of Silence, the Original NSA Whistleblower Looks Back: "And there, in 1972, was a rogue analyst, some kid in his 20s, describing the NSA's business down to the colors of the badges worn at its headquarters. Winslow Peck claimed that the NSA had broken all of the Soviets' codes, that the government's official account of the Vietnam War was a lie, and that the agency was guilty of salacious corruption: Quite a few people in NSA are into illegal activities of one kind or another. It's taken to be one of the fringe benefits of the job. You know, enhancing your pocketbook. Smuggling. People inside NSA got involved with the slave trade. Here was the same self-assurance, bordering on arrogance, that was coming from Snowden—the urgency of an oath broken in the name of some more essential principle. What had happened to Fellwock to make him turn to Ramparts, and what happened after? Amid the flashbulb urgency of the Snowden disclosures, one revelation after the next, Fellwock seemed to offer a chance to roll the clock forward 40 years, to see what Snowden's story might look like in retrospect." (read more at link above)
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Cats glow green, feline science

Cats glow green? --

Where cats glow green: weird feline science in New Orleans | The Verge: " . . . . Although these lesser-known wildcats may be more common than the dangerously rare Bengal tiger, these feline species all fall on the endangered spectrum according to the global nonprofit International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Habitat loss, poaching, and interbreeding with domestic cats has thinned their numbers. "Not all of them are classified as endangered," Dr. Pope says. "But they’re all considered threatened, or at least vulnerable. As far as I know, every species of non-domestic cat is under some threat." The African wildcat is the grandfather of the household tabby and looks much the same. The rusty-spotted cat is tiny, sandy-colored, with spots like a leopard. The black-footed cat is also small, spotted, and ferocious. ACRES is working with these small cats because their embryos can be implanted into the uterus of a domestic cat, although the center has produced big-cat embryos as well. . . ." (read more at link above)

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Guy Fawkes, Anonymous, Fifth of November

A short history of "Fifth of November" . . . .

""Remember, remember the Fifth of November," goes the popular verse. Nov. 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, named for the man who unsuccessfully tried to blow up Parliament in 1605. Alan Moore's graphic novel, V for Vendetta, turned Fawkes into an anarchist anti-hero, and the Fawkes mask has become synonymous with the Anonymous hacker collective. As such, Nov. 5 now brings with it a number of high-profile hacks." source: PCMag.com

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Play the Google Dr Who Game

For Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary, Google built a multiple level game. The game's premise- those dastardly Daleks have stolen the Google letters and we need Doctor Who to retrieve them -- to play again (or if you missed it on November 23, 2013) click on the photo above or go here. Enjoy!

P.S. The Reviews have been great --

Google's Greatest Doodle Yet: an Epic 8-bit 'Doctor Who' Game: "It's an 8-bit platform game in which you play the Doctor through all his 11 incarnations. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Timelord, this epic multi-level Doodle has been in the works for four months. At the Googleplex in Mountain View, it became known as the "Whodle." The company says it's the largest interactive Doodle yet created."

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Barack Obama approved tapping Angela Merkel 3 years ago

Barack Obama 'approved tapping Angela Merkel's phone 3 years ago' - Telegraph: "Mike Rogers, the chairman of the intelligence committee in the House of Representatives, said that America’s allies should be grateful for surveillance operations which targeted terrorist threats. “I would argue by the way, if the French citizens knew exactly what that was about, they would be applauding and popping champagne corks,” he told CNN’s State of the Union." (read more at link above)

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Why Obama Targets Whistleblowers

The REAL Reason U.S. Targets Whistleblowers | Washington's Blog: " . . . Obviously, the government wants to stop whistleblowers because they interfere with the government’s ability to act in an unaccountable manner. As Glenn Greenwald writes:

It should not be difficult to understand why the Obama administration is so fixated on intimidating whistleblowers and going far beyond any prior administration – including those of the secrecy-obsessed Richard Nixon and George W Bush – to plug all leaks. It’s because those methods are the only ones preventing the US government from doing whatever it wants in complete secrecy and without any accountability of any kind.

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Cats are mysterious but most popular pet

Dogs we understand; cats are mysterious, even though they are the most popular pet - The Washington Post: "Cats are the world’s most popular pets, outnumbering dogs by as many as three to one. This popularity is undoubtedly helped by the fact that cats are simultaneously affectionate and self-reliant: They need virtually no training; they groom themselves; they can be left alone without pining for their owners, but most nonetheless greet us affectionately when we get home. . . ."

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Grumpy Cat Tardar Sauce book deal (video)

Grumpy Cat Tardar Sauce: Nothing makes this cat happy...not even screaming fans and a book deal - YouTube: "Grumpy Cat Tardar Sauce is so famous fans have travelled from Australia to Arizona in the US to meet her but she still looks unhappy. Report by Ashley Fudge."

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Beautiful Cat Pictures

Purrfect pictures of pets: Cute images of cats taken by their owners ...

Daily Mail
The photos, submitted by owners as part of an international competition, aim to ... to be less camera-friendly as it peers at the photographer from behind a leafy ...(see all the pics at the link above)

Daily Mail

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Startups, Cats, Patience

3 Things #StartupLife Has Taught Me About Patience — Understandings & Epiphanies — Medium: "If you have a cat, look at it right now. What is it doing? It’s sleeping right? If it’s not then it’s eating, either way there’s almost no chance in the world it is stressed out, and if it is what the heck kind of life are you providing for your cat? . . ." (read more at the link above)

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Guy Fawkes Day, Unity Through Anonymity, Abby Martin video

Guy Fawkes Day, Unity Through Anonymity, Abby Martin video above

Unity Through Anonymity: Happy Guy Fawkes Day!
Published on Nov 5, 2013 - Abby Martin covers the Million Mask March and discusses what Guy Fawkes Day signifies for the modern world.

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Banality, Systemic Evil

The Banality of Systemic Evil - NYTimes.com: "Just as Hannah Arendt saw that the combined action of loyal managers can give rise to unspeakable systemic evil, so too generation W has seen that complicity within the surveillance state can give rise to evil as well — not the horrific evil that Eichmann’s bureaucratic efficiency brought us, but still an Orwellian future that must be avoided at all costs." (read more at link above)

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Million Mask March, November 5th 2013, ANONYMOUS

Million Mask March - November 5th 2013 - ANONYMOUS (more info at the link)

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Edward Snowden, Sam Adams Award

Video: Edward Snowden wins Sam Adams award: ". . . Edward Snowden received the Integrity Award from the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. Mr Snowden was given the award by Ray McGovern (ex-CIA) who said "Sam Adams Associates are proud to honor Mr. Snowden’s decision to heed his conscience and give priority to the Common Good over concerns about his own personal future. We are confident that others with similar moral fiber will follow his example in illuminating dark corners and exposing crimes that put our civil rights as free citizens in jeopardy.... Just as Private Manning and Julian Assange exposed criminality with documentary evidence, Mr. Snowden’s beacon of light has pierced a thick cloud of deception. And, again like them, he has been denied some of the freedoms that whistleblowers have every right to enjoy.""

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Illinois court voids online sales law, internet freedom

Illinois court throws out 'Amazon tax' online sales law | Internet & Media - CNET News: "The Illinois Supreme Court struck down a state law Friday that required online retailers, like Amazon, to collect sales tax if they have in-state Web affiliates, according to Associated Press. The court decided the law violated federal rules, which prohibit putting a discriminatory tax on digital sales. It's the first time a high court has thrown out a law like this -- 18 other states have similar laws. In New York, the court upheld the law, spurring Amazon and Overstock.com to petition the Supreme Court." (read more at link above)

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Darkest Place on the Internet

The Darkest Place on the Internet Isn't Just for Criminals | Wired Opinion | Wired.com: " . . . But what if lots of ­people started using Darknets some of the time? Having a parallel Internet—or better yet, many parallel ones—could be terrifically useful. You could run your main social life on Facebook on the Clearnet but duck into Hyperboria or a Tor-­hidden service for socializing and reading and writing that you don’t want hoovered up by spy agencies or ad networks. We need fresh ideas for the way we hang out online, and Darknets fit the bill. If you’d like to read more about my thoughts on this, meet me on Hyperboria. I’m thinking of starting a blog." (read more at link above)

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Welcome to the Police State of the Bush-Obama era

Definition of Police State: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_state

Woman Forced To Strip And Serve Jail Time For Overdue Ticket -
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/10/24/woman-endures-strip-search-jail-time-for-overdue-ticket/#comment-1096583897

One comment (of many):
"We the People have allowed brutality to creep into local policing. It started with the torture of enemy combatants in Iraq & Guatanamo. We sanction drone strikes that kill civilians. We turn away when the NSA scoops all our communications. We've allowed the creation of for-profit prisons, which actively lobby politicians and judges for more prisoners. (1 of every 100 americans is in jail.) We've allowed the police to militarize their weaponry and start buying tanks for civilian patrol. . . . We allow extended detention of American citizens at border crossings. This is the result. The entire country and culture must reject this or it will continue on this trajectory. Time to be brave." (source: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/10/24/woman-endures-strip-search-jail-time-for-overdue-ticket/#comment-1096583897)

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Cat Signal: STOP WATCHING US NSA, October 26 Rally

StopWatching.us is a coalition of more than 100 public advocacy organizations and companies from across the political spectrum. This video harnesses the voices of celebrities, activists, legal experts, and other prominent figures in speaking out against mass surveillance by the NSA. Please share widely to help us get the message out that we will not stand for the dragnet surveillance of our communications. Join the movement at https://rally.stopwatching.us.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a nonprofit civil liberties law and advocacy center that has been fighting the NSA's unconstitutional spying for years. Learn more at https://eff.org

About the rally October 26 at Washington DC - https://rally.stopwatching.us/
Right now the NSA is spying on everyone's personal communications, and they’re operating without any meaningful oversight. Since the Snowden leaks started, more than 571,000 people from all walks of life have signed the StopWatching.us petition telling the U.S. Congress that we want them to rein in the NSA.

On October 26th, the 12th anniversary of the signing of the US Patriot Act, we're taking the next step and holding the largest rally yet against NSA surveillance. We’ll be handing the half-million petitions to Congress to remind them that they work for us -- and we won’t tolerate mass surveillance any longer.

Who we are
StopWatching.us is a coalition of more than 100 public advocacy organizations and companies from across the political spectrum. We came together in June 2013 to demand the U.S. Congress investigate the full extent of the NSA's spying programs. Go here to read our letter to U.S. Congress demanding accountability and reform.

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Internet Freedom Declines in the US and World in 2013

Freedom on the Internet 2013 by country (image courtesy of Freedom House)

Freedom on the Net 2013

 

Most Free

1. Iceland

2. Estonia

3. Germany

4. United States

5. Australia

 

Least Free

1. Iran

2. Cuba

3. China

4. Syria

5. Ethiopia

 

Source: Freedom House, rankings from 60 countries included in report.

Report: Internet Freedom Declines Worldwide: " . . . The yearly report listed 34 countries as having a decline in Internet freedom, including Vietnam, Ethiopia, India, the United States and Brazil. The United States slipped on the list of countries with the greatest degree of Internet freedom, largely due to surveillance activities revealed by Edward Snowden. But the U.S. remains among the top five countries for Internet freedom. The report also lists the most commonly used types of Internet controls, which range from blocking and filtering to physical attacks on people. Freedom House says people were beaten, attacked or tortured in 26 countries, often in retaliation for exposing human rights abuses. Several countries employ commentators to post online and manipulate discussions by discrediting government opponents, spreading propaganda and defending government policies while not disclosing that they work for the government."

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Brazil, Scary proposal to regulate Internet

Andres Oppenheimer: Brazil’s proposal to regulate Internet is scary - Andres Oppenheimer - MiamiHerald.com: " . . . . Rousseff’s call for “multilateral mechanisms” to regulate the Internet should not be automatically dismissed, because there are some aspects of the Internet — such as electronic spying, child pornography or financial fraud — that will require some form of international oversight. But putting that task in the hands of the United Nations, where China, Russia and its authoritarian friends wield enormous power, is a very bad idea. It would allow these countries to do abroad what they do at home: censor what people can read or watch on the Internet. You are right to be angry about electronic spying, President Rousseff, and you may be right about the need to set some international guidelines to stop it. But allowing the United Nations to take the lead on this would most likely give too much power to governments, and too little to freedom-of-expression and other private sector and civil society groups. It would mark the end of freedom of expression on the Internet for the part of the world that still enjoys it." (read more at link above)

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Mark Twain Theory, "Cat would be quicker"

A New Theory on "Mark Twain" : "Kevin Mac Donnell, a book dealer and scholar in Austin, Texas, found the potential source while searching Google Books for unknown pieces of Twain’s writing. To his astonishment, one of the hits led to a mention of “Mark Twain” in the humor journal Vanity Fair — one of the author’s early influences — two years before he adopted it. In a burlesque titled “The North Star,” the sketch reports a farcical meeting of Charleston mariners who adopt a resolution “abolishing the use of the magnetic needle, because of its constancy to the north.” These characters include a “Mr. Pine Knott,” (a pun for dense wood), “Lee Scupper” (a drain), and “Mark Twain,” (shallow depth in shipboard jargon). “I wasn’t looking for what I found. I stumbled across it,” Mac Donnell said in a phone interview. With a flair for folksy humor that made Twain famous, he also added that “you could train a cat to do what I did. You could train a garden slug to do what I did, but the cat would be quicker.”"

The Cat would be quickest!

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Lack of Privacy, NSA, Destroying the Economy

Lack of Privacy Destroys the Economy | Washington's Blog: . . . As 4Chan’s founder noted:

[Facebook founder Mark] Zuckerberg’s totally wrong on anonymity being total cowardice. Anonymity is authenticity. It allows you to share in a completely unvarnished, raw way,” Poole said, adding that the internet allows people to “reinvent themselves” as if they were moving home or starting a new job.“The cost of failure is really high when you’re contributing as yourself,” he said.
Moreover, trust is key for a prosperous economy. It’s hard to trust when your government, your internet service provider and your favorite websites are all spying on you.

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US Intelligence, Attempts to Break Tor Anonymity

U.S. Intelligence Defends Attempts to Break Tor Anonymity Network - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD: " . . . . The ironic part is that Tor was invented at the U.S. Naval Academy as a project meant to help activists overseas evade surveillance by officials of repressive regimes. A good amount of its funding has come from the NSA’s parent agency, the U.S. Department of Defense."

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Reporters fight back against Obama and His War on Leaks

Fighting fire with fire . . . the best is yet to come . . .

In Obama’s war on leaks, reporters fight back - The Washington Post: "Sanger, who has worked for the Times in Washington for two decades, said, “This is most closed, control-freak administration I’ve ever covered.” Many leak investigations include lie-detector tests for government officials with access to the information at issue. “Reporters are interviewing sources through intermediaries now,” Barr told me, “so the sources can truthfully answer on polygraphs that they didn’t talk to reporters.”. . . ."

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Senator Rand Paul, NSA, National Security

Senator Rand Paul on the NSA Scandal & Military Sexual Assault - The Takeaway: ""People have said the NSA leak has jeopardized our national security—I think sort of the opposite," Paul tells The Takeaway. "I think the fact that we've had the intelligence director lie to us about the program really does more to jeopardize our security because now we've lost faith. We've lost faith in the intelligence community that they will tell either Congress or the American people the truth.""

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Internet Regulation, Net Neutrality

Internet Regulation - C-SPAN Video Library: Telecommunications law experts and open Internet advocates profiled the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit case, Verizon v. Federal Communication Commission. The case focuses on net neutrality, and whether the Federal Communications Commission has the authority to regulate Internet service providers under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. "Net neutrality is a policy that requires Internet providers to allow content providers equal access to networks rather than giving preference to certain types of traffic. (video at link above)

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China, free trade zone, freedom for some

Facebook, other banned sites to be open in China free trade zone: report | Reuters: Facebook, Twitter and other websites deemed sensitive and blocked by the Chinese government will be accessible in a planned free-trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday.

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Cats, Balthus, Met's New Exhibit

Cat Enthusiasts Will Love The Met's New Exhibit - Business Insider: "At age 8, Balthus "posed with his pet cat for a watercolor by his mother," museum officials said. At age 11, Balthus recorded in 40 ink drawings called "Mitsou" his "adventures" with a stray cat . . . . "'Mitsou' was just one of many examples of cats' enduring "force and presence in the artist's work and life," the museum said. . . ."

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Blind cat reunites with owner after missing for 4 months (video)

Blind cat reunites with owner after missing for 4 months (video)

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Dumb Dogs - Dogs Happy To Socialize With Robots

You'd never catch a cat doing this! --

Dogs Are Perfectly Happy To Socialize With Robots | Popular Science: "In the centuries-old best friendship between dogkind and humankind, humans are apparently easily replaced with robots. Seemingly loyal canines are totally willing to interact with cold, hard machines, according to a new study in Animal Cognition, gazing lovingly at their robot faces and finding hidden foodstuffs that the robot pointed to."

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China, Internet Censorship

At Sina Weibo's censorship hub, China's Little Brothers cleanse online chatter | Reuters: ""FREEDOM MEANS ORDER" The Communist Party keeps an iron grip on newspapers and television but has grappled to control information on social-networking platforms. Internet firms are required to work with the party's propaganda apparatus to censor user-generated content. Lu Wei, director of the State Internet Information Office, said in a speech this week that "freedom means order" and that "freedom without order does not exist"." (read more at link above)

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Federal Courts, Scaremongering

Federal Courts Still Scaremongering About RECAP and Spooky "Open Source" Software | Electronic Frontier Foundation: " . . . Unfortunately, the federal court RECAP warnings are not the only example of scaremongering and technophobia in the justice system. The government routinely treats computer expertise as stand-alone evidence of nefarious intent. And prosecutors seek excessive sentences in computer-related cases, such as the vindictive prosecution that ended with Aaron Swartz’s tragic suicide (it is particularly sad to see the absurd RECAP warning posted by the Federal Court for the District of Massachusetts, where that prosecution took place). Whether these actions are the result of deep ignorance or deep cynicism, we deserve better. . . . " (read more at link above)

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Calling All Obama Supporters, Help Kickstart World War III!

Help Kickstart World War III! - YouTube: "President Obama needs your help starting World War III! Find out how you can help!"

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Miami ranks 47th, Florida 49th in US News best colleges list

Go Canes! --

UM ranks 47th, UF 49th in U.S. News best colleges list - Schools - MiamiHerald.com: "...just like UM’s 21-16 football triumph on Saturday, it’s the folks from Coral Gables who are on the winning side of a U.S. News squeaker. Among all “National Universities,” the magazine rates the University of Miami as tied for 47th. The University of Florida is ... in a tie for 49th ..."

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Cats Are Man's Best Friend

Peter Mandel: Cats Are Actually Man's Best Friend - WSJ.com: " . . . . It's long past time for at least a little mutual respect. Cats could give us a passing wave with a paw, and we could bend down and pat them—the way we would high-five a worthy foe at tennis. Maybe cats and men could share a burger now and then. We could hang out back in the alley, near the trash cans. Talk fishing. Crack some snacks and beers. A club of some kind might be an idea. A club for loungers. A club for prowlers. A club for tinkerers with tools. A private club, it would have some unyielding rules: No women. And no dogs allowed."

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Swartz Case, Obama, Holder, US DOJ gone wild

If you voted for Obama -- you're guilty too!

4 Shocking Things From the Secret Service File On Aaron Swartz: " . . . Among the documents released are accounts of the several raids the federal government made on Swartz's property. In these accounts are pages upon pages of lists of all of the property the government confiscated from him. Pages worth of hard drives, phones, computers, iPods, and compact discs were seized. The poor guy must have had a dozen iPods taken from him. . . . One thing they seized is so petty, it defies any reasonable explanation I can think of. The federal government of the United States of America, in the course of an official investigation, using a federal search warrant, seized Aaron Swartz's Rock Band controller. Yes, the irrelevant random video-game accessory. . . ." (read more at the link above)

A video-game accessory -- how low can you get?

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EFF Pioneer Awards 2013, Electronic Frontier Foundation

EFF Pioneer Awards 2013 | Electronic Frontier Foundation: . . . . this year's winners:

Aaron Swartz

Late Technologist and Digital Rights Activist

James Love

International Access to Knowledge Advocate

Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras

Journalists Chronicling NSA Spying

 . .  . .renowned academic, author, and activist Lawrence Lessig as the keynote speaker. Professor Lessig spent more than a decade leading the fight for intellectual property reform and now is part of the campaign to reform computer crime law in the wake of his friend Aaron Swartz's death.. . . .

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Edward Snowden, Whistleblower Award 2013, Glenn Greenwald speech

Whistleblower Award 2013 - Glenn Greenwald honorific speech for Edward Snowden -

Whistleblower Award 2013 - Ceremony awarding Edward J. Snowden
Honorific speech by Glenn Greenwald, Journalist, The Guardian

Edward Snowden receives the Whistleblower Award. For the first time Transparency International Deutschland e.V. contributes to the award, which is given every two years by the Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler (VDW e.V.) and der German Section of the International Association Of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA e.V.). With the award persons are honored, who reveal malpractices and dangerous developments for humans and society, democracy, peace, and the environment. Due to the courageous actions of Edward J. Snowden the world has gained insights into the surveillance and espionage practices of intelligence agencies. Every single one of us can be affected by them at any time and without there being any grounds for suspicion. The pressing problems associated with whistleblowing are analyzed in a festive dedication to the honorable Edward Snowden. The focus of the lecture by Prof. Dr. Foschepoth is the latitude of the secret services in Germany. Through this ceremony, the awarding organizations wished to strengthen their demand to the German government to offer US citizen Snowden, in gratitude and all sincerity, accommodation and protection in Germany. Published on Aug 30, 2013

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Abby Martin, John Kerry, NDAA, Lavish Bribes for Congress

[229] How Kerry Sold Out, California Bans NDAA, Lavish Bribes for Congress, Financing Syria War - YouTube:  Published on Sep 5, 2013 - Abby Martin Breaks the Set on the Evolution of John Kerry's Love for War, an NDAA Update with Chris Hedges, Lavish Getaways for US Lawmakers, and Financing a War with Syria.

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MEOW!!

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Noam Chomsky Calls Out Obama as a War Criminal

Noam Chomsky Weighs In On Syria Strike: "A U.S.-led attack on Syria without United Nations support would be a war crime regardless of congressional approval, Noam Chomsky, the antiwar activist and author, said in response to President Barack Obama's announcement that he would seek Hill approval. "As international support for Obama’s decision to attack Syria has collapsed, along with the credibility of government claims, the administration has fallen back on a standard pretext for war crimes when all else fails: the credibility of the threats of the self-designated policeman of the world," Chomsky told HuffPost in an email." (read more at link above)

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Propaganda, Mainstream Media, Cheerleads for Syria War

Mainstream Media Cheerleads for Syria War … But "So far, the propaganda effort is failing miserably."

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Whistleblower Award 2013, Ceremony awarding Edward Snowden, Jacob Appelbaum (video)

Whistleblower Award - Jacob Appelbaum answers for Edward Snowden -

Whistleblower Award 2013 - Ceremony awarding Edward J. Snowden

Jacob Appelbaum, Internet activist and journalist answers for Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden receives the Whistleblower Award. For the first time Transparency International Deutschland e.V. contributes to the award, which is given every two years by the Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler (VDW e.V.) and der German Section of the International Association Of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA e.V.). With the award persons are honored, who reveal malpractices and dangerous developments for humans and society, democracy, peace, and the environment. Due to the courageous actions of Edward J. Snowden the world has gained insights into the surveillance and espionage practices of intelligence agencies. Every single one of us can be affected by them at any time and without there being any grounds for suspicion. The pressing problems associated with whistleblowing are analyzed in a festive dedication to the honorable Edward Snowden. The focus of the lecture by Prof. Dr. Foschepoth is the latitude of the secret services in Germany. Through this ceremony, the awarding organizations wished to strengthen their demand to the German government to offer US citizen Snowden, in gratitude and all sincerity, accommodation and protection in Germany.Published on Aug 31, 2013

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FBI hair analysts may have falsely convicted thousands

FBI hair analysis may have falsely convicted thousands, including some on death row | The Verge: "Thousands of cases between 1985 and 2000 relied on hair samples, and the study will focus on "whether analysts exaggerated the significance" of the samples, or in some cases reported the results inaccurately. Free DNA testing will be offered in any cases where the FBI is found to be in error. Peter Neufeld, a co-director at the non-profit Innocence Project, tells McClatchy that "the government's willingness to admit error and accept its duty to correct those errors in an extraordinarily large number of cases is truly unprecedented.""

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Cool Dude: Chris Poole

Chris Poole Is The Creator Of One Of The World's Biggest And Most Powerful Web Sites, And It Is Very Strange That He Is Not Insanely Rich

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Kim Dotcom Will Move Mega Privacy Services to Iceland to Avoid Spying

Kim Dotcom Will Move Mega Privacy Services to Iceland to Avoid Spying | TorrentFreak: "As the wave of controversy over government spying continues, Kim Dotcom is advising privacy startups to think carefully about where they intend to invest. The Mega entrepreneur is advising companies to stay away from countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, where monitoring is now considered widespread. Dotcom, who has a considerable investment in New Zealand, says his privacy services will move to Iceland if proposed new laws become reality."

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NSA, No Limits Spying

Breaking Through Limits on Spying - NYTimes.com: The N.S.A. scans every overseas message from America, violating the clear intent of the law. " . . . It turns out, as Charlie Savage revealed in The Times on Thursday, that the N.S.A. went far beyond those boundaries. Instead, it copies virtually all overseas messages that Americans send or receive, then scans them to see if they contain any references to people or subjects the agency thinks might have a link to terrorists. . . ."

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Advancing Internet Freedom

Advancing Internet freedom doesn’t come for free - The Washington Post: " . . . . It’s time to put actions behind the words Clinton delivered so passionately and finally commit significant funding to the research, testing and deployment of technologies that allow citizens to freely communicate in the face of repressive censorship. Technology is not the only answer to advancing global democracy, but it is the most powerful and cost-efficient weapon at our disposal."

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First White Tigress Cub Born in Captivity video

The First White Tigress Cub Born in Captivity: Video - Bloomberg: "August 6 (Bloomberg) -- This 42 day old, blue eyed cub was introduced to the world this week at a zoo in Lima, Peru. The yet to be named white tiger is the first to be born in captivity, the subspecies is considered in danger of extinction. (Source: Bloomberg)"

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Henri On Cat Food Boredom video

Henri - "On Cat Food Boredom", Part 4 of 4 - YouTube: ""

For more info on Henri, visit: http://www.henrilechatnoir.com

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2nd Annual Internet Cat Video Film Festival

Henri - Catvidfest - YouTube: ""
The 2nd Annual Internet Cat Video Film Festival
http://www.walkerart.org/catvidfest
https://twitter.com/CatVidFest

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Congo, Road to Ruin video

Congo: The Road to Ruin: "On a dangerous journey from war-torn villages to a refugee camp, Congolese families are caught in the cross-fire."

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Brazil, Seeds of Protest video

Brazil's Seeds of Protest: "Brazilians express their grievances with the lack of resources invested in education and health care."

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Dr. Joseph Bonneau: NSA incompatible with a free society

Dr. Joseph Bonneau Wins NSA Award, Criticizes NSA | Electronic Frontier Foundation: "On July 18th, Dr. Joseph Bonneau, a software engineer at Google, received the National Security Agency’s award for the best scientific cybersecurity paper.  According to its stated mission, the competition was created to help broaden the scientific foundations of cybersecurity needed in the development of systems that are resilient to cyber attacks. But Bonneau was deeply conflicted about receiving the award, noting on his blog that even though he was flattered to receive the award he didn’t condone the mass surveillance programs run by the NSA: “Simply put, I don’t think a free society is compatible with an organisation like the NSA in its current form.""

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Bradley Manning Trial, Who's the Criminal?

WikiLeaks raw US Apache footage - Bradley Manning Trial, US Government Criminal

As Bradley Manning Trial Begins, Press Predictably Misses the Point | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone: "This whole thing, this trial, it all comes down to one simple equation. If you can be punished for making public a crime, then the government doing the punishing is itself criminal. Manning, by whatever means, stumbled into a massive archive of evidence of state-sponsored murder and torture, and for whatever reason, he released it. The debate we should be having is over whether as a people we approve of the acts he uncovered that were being done in our names."

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Lessig on Aaron Swartz and his Bully Prosecutors

Never forget--

Lessig Blog, v2 - Prosecutor as Bully: " . . . Here is where we need a better sense of justice, and shame. For the outrageousness in this story is not just Aaron. It is also the absurdity of the prosecutor’s behavior. From the beginning, the government worked as hard as it could to characterize what Aaron did in the most extreme and absurd way. The “property” Aaron had “stolen,” we were told, was worth “millions of dollars” — with the hint, and then the suggestion, that his aim must have been to profit from his crime. But anyone who says that there is money to be made in a stash of ACADEMIC ARTICLES is either an idiot or a liar. It was clear what this was not, yet our government continued to push as if it had caught the 9/11 terrorists red-handed. . . . " (read more at link above)

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Why Did the Secret Service Take Over the Aaron Swartz Case?

More and more questions about MIT, the US government, and their persecution of Aaron Swartz--

Why Did The Secret Service Take Over Aaron Swartz's Case Two Days Before He Was Arrested | Techdirt: " . . . some highly unusual activity in the case. It had to do with Swartz's motion to get some of the evidence blocked from being used in the case, over questions concerning how it was collected. But one of the key things that come out is that, for unexplained reasons, the Secret Service took over the case just two days before Aaron was arrested . . ." (read more at link above)

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Chimpanzees Retired From Research

Chimpanzees Retired From Research: "Major federal agencies have taken steps in the past few weeks toward ending almost all biomedical experimentation on chimpanzees."

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NSA Whistleblowers - why Snowden left the US

The McLaughlin Group 7/12/13: Is this why Snowden left the US?
(video at link above)

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Animal lovers protest Miami-Dade mayor and commission

Animal lovers protest Miami-Dade mayor, commission - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com: "His voice shaking with anger, Zoo Miami spokesman Ron Magill told the Miami-Dade County Commission Tuesday that as one of nearly 500,000 voters who volunteered to raise their own property taxes to save unwanted pets, he was “insulted’’ that anyone suggest he didn’t know what he was voting for. . . ." (read more at link above)

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Mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs (video)

The Mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs: "In a town with a population of four, “live mermaids” perform three or four daily shows for an entrance fee of just $13."

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Dissident Chen Guangcheng Goes Global (video)

A Dissident Goes Global: "The Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng has become a celebrity and a headache for the Chinese authorities."

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Remembering Robben Island (video)

Remembering Robben Island: "Ahmed Kathrada recalls his time in prison on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela."

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Obama a/k/a "George Bush 2.0" supported by Michele Bachmann!

"Tonight on MSNBC, we show you an eloquent & impassioned speech in defense of the Obama WH's position on NSA - from Rep Michele Bachmann"
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 24, 2013

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Dancing the Night Away (video)

Dancing the Night Away: "Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing celebrates its 25th anniversary season."

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Touring ‘Game of Thrones’ (video)

Touring ‘Game of Thrones’: "The hit HBO series is drawing fans to Northern Ireland, where key scenes from the show are filmed."

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US government killed a 16-year-old American boy

The US government killed a 16-year-old American boy. Shouldn’t it at least have to explain why?

The Drone That Killed My Grandson  - NYTimes.com: "After the deaths of Abdulrahman and Anwar, I filed another lawsuit, seeking answers and accountability. The government has argued once again that its targeted killing program is beyond the reach of the courts. I find it hard to believe that this can be legal in a constitutional democracy based on a system of checks and balances." (read more at link above)

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Google's Larry Page on the internet

Google's Larry Page on Why Moon Shots Matter | Wired Business | Wired.com: " . . . Page: Consider our own history. When we started Google, it wasn’t really obvious that what we were doing wouldn’t get regulated away. Remember, at the time, people were arguing that making a copy of a file in a computer’s memory was a violation of copyright. We put the whole web on our servers, so if that were true, bye-bye search engines. The Internet’s been pretty great for society, and I think that 10 or 20 years from now, we’ll look back and say we were a millimeter away from regulating it out of existence.

Wired: My guess is that talking to regulators is probably not your favorite thing to do.

Page: I like talking to everyone. That’s just the way I’m wired. But I do think the Internet’s under much greater attack than it has been in the past. Governments are now afraid of the Internet because of the Middle East stuff, and so they’re a little more willing to listen to what I see as a lot of commercial interests that just want to make money by restricting people’s freedoms. But they’ve also seen a tremendous user reaction, like the backlash against SOPA. I think that governments fight users’ freedoms at their own peril. . . ." (read more at link above)

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Guardian "last bastion of good quality reporting" says internet pioneer Vint Cerf

Internet pioneer Vint Cerf talks online privacy, Google Glass and the future of libraries - The Next Web: "“Having spent time in England since the 1970s, I’ve read a lot of the different newspapers, and I’ve been disappointed that The Times (a Murdoch-owned daily) has disintegrated,” he says. “As far as I can tell, The Guardian may be the last bastion of good quality reporting.”" (read more at link above)

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Economist article on Kim Dotcom launch of MEGA - comments enlightening

Enlightening--The Economist is hardly a "revolutionary rag"--

Comments from the Economist article on Kim Dotcom launch of MEGA-- 

The S.W.A.T. team attack on his residence to arrest this guy is one of the biggest (and most ridiculous) example of governments out-of-control, responding to the wishes of politically influential businessmen (the movie industry). If you haven't actually seen it, look it up on YouTube and have a look. It's so outrageous it's laughable. It's lucky no one was killed by the police.

 . . .  criminal justice is just another system. You can analyse it and hack it, like everything else. And please, please don't tell me this system isn't flawed to the point of being nearly totally broken and doesn't need a healthy bucket of public ridicule. (read more at link above)

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"deserve neither liberty nor safety"

Germans Loved Obama. Now We Don’t Trust Him. - NYTimes.com: "Perhaps instead of including a quote from James Madison in his speech, arguing that “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare,” Mr. Obama should have been reminded of the quote from another founding father, Benjamin Franklin, when he said, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”" (read more at link above)

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Rand Paul says catch terrorists the old-fashioned way (video)

Rand Paul: Catch Terrorists the Old-Fashioned Way: Video - Bloomberg: "June 18 (Bloomberg) -- Rand Paul, a Republican U.S. Senator from Kentucky, discusses what he sees as a credibility gap on intelligence gathering by the NSA. He speaks on Bloomberg Television's "Market Makers.""

OK--but how about catching terrorists the constitutional way!

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The Criminal Charges Against Aaron Swartz - Prosecutorial Discretion

The Volokh Conspiracy » The Criminal Charges Against Aaron Swartz (Part 2: Prosecutorial Discretion): "But the broader point is that if we think agressive prosecution tactics such as this are improper, we shouldn’t be focused just on the Aaron Swartz case. Rather, we should be shining a light on the federal criminal system in its entirety. These sorts of tactics have been going on for years, without many people paying attention. If we don’t want a world in which prosecutors have these powers, we shouldn’t just object when the defendant in the crosshairs is a genius who went to Stanford, hangs out with Larry Lessig, and is represented by the extremely expensive lawyers at Keker & Van Nest. We should object just as much — or even more — when the defendant is poor, unknown, and unconnected to the powerful. To do otherwise sends an extremely troubling message to prosecutors that they need to be extra sensitive when considering charges against defendants with connections. We have too much of a two-tiered justice system already, I think. So blame the system and aim to reform the system; don’t think that this was just two or three prosecutors that were doing something unusual. It wasn’t." (read more at link above)

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How to Go Undercover in Hong Kong video

NSA Leaker: How to Go Undercover in Hong Kong: Video - Bloomberg: "Bloomberg's Rosalind Chin reports on the obstacles NSA leaker Edward Snowden faced as he hid in Hong Kong. (Source: Bloomberg)"

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Keeping the Internet free

Not too long ago . . .

Keeping the Internet free - The Washington Post: "While the Internet cannot fall into the hands of those who would censor and restrict it, the United States should put more effort into remaking the current model so that it can serve what has become a global infrastructure. Ambassador Terry Kramer, who headed the U.S. delegation in Dubai, was clear that a power grab by the repressive countries was a non-starter. “No single organization or government can or should attempt to control the Internet or dictate its future development,” Mr. Kramer insisted. The conference did serve to highlight broad, opposing camps over Internet freedom. After the United States pulled out, 89 nations signed the agreement, including Russia, China, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. The blank screen of the Internet censor is not likely to disappear soon. A long and fateful battle looms for digital freedom."

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Web inventor says governments stifling net freedom

Web inventor says governments stifling net freedom (Update): ""The dream is of a more open web," Berners-Lee told the gathering in the Swiss ski resort, citing social media as a way of breaking down barriers.But he said the recent suicide of Aaron Swartz, a 26-year-old US Internet activist who faced charges of illegally copying and distributing millions of academic articles, highlighted government efforts to police the Internet."He downloaded a lot and so the secret service in the US decided that he was a hacker. For them that isn't the term of great praise that it is when I use it. For me a hacker is someone who is creative and does wonderful things," he said."

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