What Adam Curry is reading

Rename "master/slave" terminology to "client/server" [#343414] | Drupal.org
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:36
  Welcome to the 1990s. ;) It's generally frowned upon to continue using potentially offensive terminology when there are vastly better alternatives available. Reading stuff like "here are the steps I had to take to get my slave running" makes my skin curl. I doubt I'm the only one.
  What's wrong with calling the coordinating machine the "testing server", and the various machines that help run tests "testing clients"?
'Humans evolved after a female chimpanzee mated with a pig': Extraordinary claim made by American geneticist.
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: bertb news feed
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:27
  Dr Eugene McCarthy points to features that distinguish us from primatesHe says that the only animals which also have these features are pigsControversial hypothesis has been met by significant oppositionBy Damien Gayle
  PUBLISHED: 04:45 EST, 30 November 2013 | UPDATED: 05:49 EST, 30 November 2013
  35,594shares
  1,465
  Viewcomments
  The human species began as the hybrid offspring of a male pig and a female chimpanzee, a leading geneticist has suggested.
  The startling claim has been made by Eugene McCarthy, of the University of Georgia, who is also one of the worlds leading authorities on hybridisation in animals.
  He points out that while humans have many features in common with chimps, we also have a large number of distinguishing characteristics not found in any other primates.
  The origin of the species? A remarkable new theory advanced by a leading geneticist suggests that human beings may have originally emerged as the hybrid offspring of a male pig and a female chimpanzee
  Dr McCarthy says these divergent characteristics are most likely the result of a hybrid origin at some point far back in human evolutionary history.
  What's more, he suggests, there is one animal that has all of the traits which distinguish humans from our primate cousins in the animal kingdom.
  'What is this other animal that has all these traits?' he asks rhetorically. 'The answer is Sus scrofa, the ordinary pig.'
  Dr McCarthy elaborates his astonishing hypothesis in an article on Macroevolution.net, a website he curates. He is at pains to point out that that it is merely a hypothesis, but he presents compelling evidence to support it.
  Scientists currently suppose that chimpanzees are humans' closest living evolutionary relatives, a theory amply backed by genetic evidence.
  However, as Dr McCarthy points out, despite this genetic similarity, there are a massive number of divergent anatomical characteristics distinguishing the two species.
  These distinguishing characteristics, including hairless skin, a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, light-coloured eyes, protruding noses and heavy eyelashes, to name but a few, are unmistakeably porcine, he suggests.
  There are also a number of less obvious but equally inexplicable similarities between humans and pigs in the structure of the skin and organs.
  Indeed, pig skin tissues and heart valves can be used in medicine because of their similarity and compatibility with the human body.
  Similarities: Dr Eugene McCarthy suggests that humans' hairless skin and subcutaneous fat could be explained by porcine ancestry
  Dr McCarthy says that the original pig-chimp hook up was probably followed by several generations of 'backcrossing', where the offspring of that pairing lived among chimps and mated with them - becoming more like chimps and less like pigs with every new generation.
  This also helps to explain the problem of relative infertility in hybrids. Dr McCarthy points out that the belief that all hybrids are sterile is in fact false, and in many cases hybrid animals are able to breed with mates of the same species of either parent.
  After several generations the hybrid strain would have become fertile enough to breed amongst themselves, Dr McCarthy says.
  Unsurprisingly, Dr McCarthy's hypothesis has come in for substantial criticism from orthodox evolutionary biologists and their Creationist opponents alike.
  One important criticism, which dubs his theory the 'Monkey-F******-A-Pig hypothesis', is that there is little chance that pigs and chimps could be interfertile. The two orders of creatures, according to evolutionary theory, diverged roughly 80million years ago, a ScienceBlogs post points out.
  '[J]ust the gradual accumulation of molecular differences in sperm and egg recognition proteins would mean that pig sperm wouldn't recognize a chimpanzee egg as a reasonable target for fusion,' PZ Myers writes.
  Furthermore, the blogger explains, while chimps have 48 chromosomes, pigs have just 38.
  He adds: 'Hybridizing a pig and a chimp is like taking half the dancers from a performance of Swan Lake and the other half from a performance of Giselle and throwing them together on stage to assemble something. It's going to be a catastrophe.'
  Finally, he suggests rather impudently that Dr McCarthy do the experimental work himself and try mating with a pig to see how far he gets.
  But Dr McCarthy believes that, in the case of humans and other creatures, his hybrid modification to evolutionary theory can account for a range of phenomena that Darwinian evolution alone has difficulty explaining.
  Despite the opinions of some peer reviewers that Dr McCarthy's work presents a potentially paradigm-shifting new take on conventional views of the origins of new life forms, he has had difficulty finding a publisher, so he has chosen to publish a book-length manuscript outlining his ideas on his website.
  In its conclusion he writes: 'I must admit that I initially felt a certain amount of repugnance at the idea of being a hybrid. The image of a pig mating with an ape is not a pretty one, nor is that of a horde of monstrous half-humans breeding in a hybrid swarm.
  'But the way we came to be is not so important as the fact that we now exist. As every Machiavellian knows, good things can emerge from ugly processes, and I think the human race is a very good thing. Moreover, there is something to be said for the idea of having the pig as a relative.
  'My opinion of this animal has much improved during the course of my research. Where once I thought of filth and greed, I now think of intelligence, affection, loyalty, and adaptability, with an added touch of joyous sensuality '-- qualities without which humans would not be human.'
  Share or comment on this article
Hollywood star Paul Walker dies in car crash
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: euronews
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:26
  US actor Paul Walker has died in a car crash in California.
  A statement from his Facebook page announced that he had been a passenger in a friend's car when it crashed just north of Los Angeles.
  The 40-year-old star of the Fast and the Furious films had been attending a charity event for Reach Out Worldwide at the time.
  The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said officers found a red Porsche engulfed in flames. The two people inside the car were pronounced dead at the scene.
  A statement issued by Universal Pictures said they were ''heartbroken'' by the news and that they sent their ''deepest and most sincere condolences to Paul's family''.
  JavaScript is required in order to view this article's accompanying video
Far-right Golden Dawn party protests in Athens
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: euronews
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:25
  Around 1,000 supporters of the Greek far-right Golden Dawn party gathered outside parliament in Athens on Saturday.
  The smaller than expected crowd was protesting against the pre-trial detention of their leader Nikos Mihaloliakos.
  Thirteen of the party's eighteen MPs are in detention, face charges or have had their parliamentary immunity stripped of them as the government cracks down on the group they suspect of involvement in paramilitary-style attacks.
  A counter-demonstration of leftist activists passed off peacefully as riot police prevented the two rival groups from clashing.
  Golden Dawn is struggling for survival after losing a third of its support after anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fysass was allegedly killed by a man who pledged allegiance to the far-right party.
  JavaScript is required in order to view this article's accompanying video
Monsanto confronts devilish public image problem
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: bertb news feed
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:24
  Monsanto has fought attempts to create labeling regulations every step of the way. | AP Photo
  CloseMonsanto is the agriculture world's prince of darkness, spreading its demonic genetically modified seeds on fields all over the earth. Or at least that's the case if you believe the likes of HBO talk-show host Bill Maher, the hazmat suit-wearing activists in Occupy Monsanto or any of a growing number of biotechnology haters.
  For years the St. Louis-based company has ignored such critics. But now the biotech giant is attempting a public relations makeover.
  Continue ReadingIn recent months the company has shaken up its senior public relations staff, upped its relationship with one of the nation's largest public relations firms and helped launch a website designed to combat the fallacies surrounding genetically modified organisms.
  (Also on POLITICO: Full agriculture policy coverage)
  And, most importantly, it is recognizing biotechnology has a public image problem.
  Monsanto has ''been absolutely riveted and focused on giving technology and tools to farmers to improve their productivity and yield and we haven't spent nearly the time we have needed to on talking to consumers and talking to social media and really intercepting this'' opposition to biotechnology, Robert Fraley, executive vice president and chief technology officer for the company, conceded recently.
  He was paying a visit to the offices of POLITICO and other D.C.-area journals as part of what many in public relations would call a ''charm offensive.''
  Monsanto's top scientist, a recent winner of the World Food Prize, remains hopeful, however.
  ''There are loud voices on one end that don't like the technology and there are people like myself on the other side that are advocates, and fortunately most of the people are in the middle,'' Fraley said. ''If you talk to the average consumer, biotech is not on the top 10 list of food safety issues, once you get through sugar and salt and all of those other issues. So I think there is an opportunity to reframe that conversation.''
  (Sign up for POLITICO's Morning Agriculture tip sheet)
  Sources familiar with the company have taken notice of the changes, observing that key officials in the previous Monsanto regime were better known ''for keeping their heads in the sand'' and not engaging on challenges to the company and biotechnology.
  Focusing on serving the agriculture industry with high-yield crops, feeding the world and making a steady profit for its shareholders has served Monsanto well in recent times. But the ostrich approach to public relations has not yielded dividends for the company's image.
  Monsanto was declared ''the most evil corporation of the year'' in early 2011 by NaturalNews.com. Earlier this year the company confronted an international ''March on Monsanto'' Facebook campaign.
  Such negative attention, the company observes in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission report, could influence future policy decisions: ''The degree of public acceptance or perceived public acceptance of our biotechnology products can affect our sales and results of operations by affecting planting approvals, regulatory requirements and customer purchase decisions,'' Monsanto says.
  (Also on POLITICO: Washington voters reject GMO labeling)
  For evidence of what's at stake, consider the 26 states that considered legislation in 2013 that would require the labeling of foods containing genetically modified organisms. Many are expected to look at the issue again in 2014. The ballot initiatives have been close: California voters rejected a GMO labeling measure in 2012 by a margin of just 2.82 percent; and Washingtonians did the same in November in a vote that came down to just a 2.16 percent difference.
  Monsanto has fought these attempts to create labeling regulations every step of the way.
  Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director of the Organic Consumers Association '-- one of the many groups that attacks Monsanto's reputation on a regular basis '-- remains skeptical that any new public relations strategy can make a difference.
  ''Monsanto patents seeds and enforces those patents by suing farmers; we support farmers' right to save seeds,'' she says. ''Monsanto sells agricultural chemicals and genetically engineered seeds designed to increase the use of pesticides; we support pesticide- and GMO-free organic farming. Monsanto has focused on the seeds that are primarily used to grow animal feed for factory farms; we support farms that raise grass-fed animals on pasture.
  ''We know, as many experts have proven, that organic and pasture-based agriculture is the only way to feed the world and turn back climate change, so, we aren't optimistic about the promises Monsanto has made about the potential benefits of GMOs.''
  But Aaron Perlut, a founder and managing partner of Elasticity, a St. Louis-based consulting firm specializing in reputation management, still thinks Monsanto's shift toward engaging in the conversation is an important development.
  ''Typically when I counsel large companies in crisis I would suggest having a reasonable discussion because public opinion tends to side with reasonable parties even in a challenging argument,'' Perlut says.
  ''I think that if Monsanto is willing to have an open and more transparent conversation about their business they can only improve in the eyes of many of their detractors. There are no doubt questions over the risks of doing that'...but by not engaging in an open conversation, you simply allow your detractors to own the conversation about your brand and take it where they would like.''
  Monsanto spokesman Lee Quarles declined to expand on the company's specific public relations efforts. However, he confirmed that Gerald Steiner, the long-time executive vice president of sustainability and corporate affairs, retired earlier this fall after more than 30-years with the company, and has been replaced by Jesus Madrazo, the former head of Monsanto's international corporate affairs shop.
For 20 Years the Nuclear Launch Code at US Minuteman Silos Was 00000000
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: the tap
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:18
  Today I found out that during the height of the Cold War, the US military put such an emphasis on a rapid response to an attack on American soil, that to minimize any foreseeable delay in launching a nuclear missile, for nearly two decades they intentionally set the launch codes at every silo in the US to 8 zeroes.We guess the first thing we need to address is how this even came to be in the first place. Well, in 1962 JFK signed the National Security Action Memorandum 160, which was supposed to ensure that every nuclear weapon the US had be fitted with a Permissive Action Link (PAL), basically a small device that ensured that the missile could only be launched with the right code and with the right authority.There was particularly a concern that the nuclear missiles the United States had stationed in other countries, some of which with somewhat unstable leadership, could potentially be seized by those governments and launched. With the PAL system, this became much less of a problem.Beyond foreign seizure, there was also simply the problem that many U.S. commanders had the ability to launch nukes under their control at any time. Just one commanding officer who wasn't quite right in the head and World War III begins. As U.S. General Horace M. Wade stated about General Thomas Power:I used to worry about General Power. I used to worry that General Power was not stable. I used to worry about the fact that he had control over so many weapons and weapon systems and could, under certain conditions, launch the force. Back in the days before we had real positive control [i.e., PAL locks], SAC had the power to do a lot of things, and it was in his hands, and he knew it.
  http://gizmodo.com/for-20- years-the-nuclear-launch-code- at-us-minuteman-si-1473483587
Geo-Engineering 'Could Upset Rainfall'
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:18
  Geo-Engineering 'Could Upset Rainfall'Posted on Dec 1, 2013By Tim Radford, Climate News Network
  This piece first appeared at Climate New Network.
  LONDON'--Geo-engineering '' the confident technocrat's last resort solution to catastrophic climate change '' could create damaging conditions of its own, according to new research.
  Simone Tilmes of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, in the US and an international team of colleagues report in Geophysical Research Letters: Atmospheres that at least one deliberate technological strategy to limit global warming could reduce seasonal rainfall, including the monsoons of Asia that provide a lifeline to hundreds of millions.
  Senior scientists have in the last decade tentatively considered technological responses to climate change on the basis that economies, politicians and consumers show no sign of making the dramatic reductions in fossil fuel use that would cut the greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global warming.
  Among these responses is a relatively simple one. If greenhouse gases go on increasing, then more solar heat will be trapped in the atmosphere. So, the world should think of a way to reduce solar radiation instead: spray sulphate particles into the stratosphere to block incoming sunlight, or even place arrays of mirrors into orbit to reflect a proportion of the sunlight away from the Earth.
  So the scientists used 12 different climate models to simulate various possible futures, including one based on historical factors in which carbon dioxide did not just double, but reached four times the levels in the atmosphere during the American Revolution, and the Napoleonic wars that ravaged Europe at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.They found '' not surprisingly '' that a greenhouse world would be matched by a significant increase in rainfall in many places, along with prolonged droughts in others. That would happen because more warmth means more evaporation, greater saturation of the atmosphere and consequently more precipitation.
  Harvests at risk
  And then, still using the same climate models, they tested what would happen to rainfall if they artificially blocked some of the incoming sunlight, to lower the overall global temperatures. But they could not recreate the world as it had been before the alarming increase in carbon dioxide levels to the predictable climates on which agriculture and industry and different urban civilisations have come to depend.
  The models predicted that instead of increasing with potentially disastrous outcomes, seasonal rains would diminish, with equally damaging consequences. A reduction in normal sunlight would mean less evaporation. Plants would on balance respond to increased carbon dioxide levels by closing their stomata, or pores, thus transpiring less water.
  Monsoon rains in East Asia would fall by 6%, in South Africa by 5%, in North America by 7%, and in South America by 6%. These differences don't sound huge '' but many millions could starve as a result of the changes.
  ''Geo-engineering the planet doesn't cure the problem. Even if one of these techniques could keep global temperatures approximately balanced, precipitation would not return to normal conditions,'' said Dr Tilmes. ''What we do know is that our climate is very complex, that human activity is making the planet warmer and that any technological fix we might try to shade the planet could have unforeseen consequences.''
  Get truth delivered toyour inbox every week.
  Previous item: Truthdigger of the Week: Reverend Billy
  New and Improved CommentsIf you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.
  Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
VIDEO-Ukraine: Demonstrators defy ban to stage mass rally | euronews, world news
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:14
  Defying a ban on city centre protests, tens of thousands of Ukrainians are rallying in Kyiv, to denounce the decision to reject an EU deal.
  Undeterred by the court order and beatings meted out to demonstrators on Saturday, they streamed back towards Independence Square.
  Boxing champion turned opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko spoke for many.
  ''The authorities cannot and do not want to hear the people,'' he said. ''The authorities that use the police to beat people and not to protect them, should step down '' the government, the parliament and the President.''
  Ukraine's Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko,has warned that police will respond if there is what he called 'mass disturbances'.
  But as demonstrators reappropriated Independence Square, officers disappeared.
  In a bid to defuse tensions ahead of the rally, President Viktor Yanukovich, who rejected the European deal in favour of closer ties with Russia, said he would do all he could to speed up Ukraine's moves toward the EU.
  JavaScript is required in order to view this article's accompanying video
FLOWERS, SAVILE, SMITH, SATANISM
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: aangirfan
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:10
  Paul Flowers (centre) in dressing gown.Paul Flowers was the Chairman of a UK bank which has recently been bailed out.Co-op Bank hit as savers take money and runBeginning in the early 1980s, Methodist minister Paul Flowers was vice-chairman of the committee which oversaw Knowl View School. Knowl View School was a 'boy brothel' or 'sweet shop for paedophiles'. Knowl View School, in the town of Rochdale,was founded in the 1960s by the late Sir Cyril Smith, who reportedly loved sex with boys.Sir Cyril Smith was a top member of parliament linked to Sir Jimmy Savile and pedophile rings said to be protected by the security services.'Child abusers' Cyril Smith & Jimmy Savile Were Friends For 40 Years
  Reportedly, the police knew about Smith's sexual activities as early as 1965.Flowers, like a number of UK politicians, has reportedly taken an interest in holidays in Amsterdam with boy prostitutes.Recently, Flowers took coke, crack and weed before leading a Remembrance Day service.
  In 1981, while he was a church minister in Southampton, Flowers was fined for 'gross indecency' with a male in a public toilet.Flowers then moved to Rochdale and became a key member of its education and social services committees.
  Rochdale is famous for alleged Satanic Ritual Abuse of children.In 1988 Dr Alison Frazer told Rochdale council about possible child abuse at Knowl View School.In 1991, Phil Shepherd, of the Rochdale Health Authority Aids Unit, reported: "One boy who is homosexual has contact with an adult outside the school.
  "Several of the senior boys indulge in oral sex with one another."Reputedly five of the junior boys have been or are involved in 'cottaging' (sex) in and around public toilets.
  "Men as far away as Sheffield are believed to be aware of this activity and travel to Rochdale to take part.""One eight year old is thought to have been involved .'‰'‰.'‰'‰. some boys have been 'forced' to have sex with each other."
  One former pupil, Chris Marshall, aged seven when at the school, told the Mail on Sunday:
  "Teachers would take pupils to a public toilet in Manchester where the boys would have sex with men who had travelled from all over the North."Men would come to the school and we were made to have sex with them.
  "I was forced to perform a sex act on the late MP Cyril Smith who we called the Fat Man."It had such an effect on us that some of the boys have either committed suicide or are in prison."
  In 1990, in Rochdale, around twenty children were removed from their homes by social services who alleged the existence of Satanic Ritual Abuse after discovering 'satanic indicators'. A boy, aged 4 at the time, described being present at ritual sacrifices of infants and seeing cult members robbing graves in a local cemetery.16 children were taken from their parents and became boarders at Knowl View School, the 'boy brothel'.
  The Mail on Sunday has uncovered text messages that Flowers sent to a boy prostitute:
  Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2516192/Crystal-Methodist-link-school-described-sweet-shop-paedophiles.html#ixzz2mD58jiAG
Spoils System
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Lame Cherry
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 14:07
  As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter........It might be an idea to check on for political precident, concerning the ignorant in speaking of TERM LIMITS, that in fact there is a base Federal Law passed by Congress which was quoted by Theodore Roosevelt in his history of Thomas Hart Benton which is as follows:
  The greatest single stroke in its favor had been done at the instigation of Crawford, when that scheming politician was seeking the presidency, and, to further his ends, he procured the passage by Congress of a law limiting the term of service of all public officials to four years, thus turning out of office all the fifty thousand public servants during each presidential term.
  Theodore Roosevelt. Thomas Hart Benton (Kindle Locations 762-765).
  Crawford ran for office in that contentious election of John Quincy Adams to the White House, which the people overturned four years later to Andrew Jackson.
  In the above, one can witness the reality that every public official is to be fired every four years. That means thee entire civil servant corp which is now millions of non productive employees were to be replaced.It was the spoils system, and exploited or not, it is the basis for all public law as it is Constitutional.
  It is hard to believe that in 1820 America with just a few million Citizens, that even then there were 50,000 employees of the Federal Government. What an utterly unnecessary burden on taxpayers and only now worse in tens of millions of these leeches sucking revenue from the American taxpayer.
  nuff said
  agtG
Common Core | Compensation Mathematics | Obamacare
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 13:53
  Guess wrong, figure it out later.
  Compensation means how much you get paid, right? Or payment for a loss? Or any of the other common usages, right?
  Reader Bronwyn was not happy when she learned that in Common Core mathematics, compensation means encouraging students to guess the wrong but easier answer, then teaching them how to compensate for the wrong answer to get to the right result:
  My 4th grade daughter attends a Christian school here in Orange Co., Ca.
  I do not like their choice in a common core math book at all, but I have been particularly amused by the use of the term ''compensation.''
  The teachers actually had to send home an email because none of the parents had any idea what the term meant. I attached a copy of the definition in the book because it just seems so fitting during this Obama Administration.
  ''compensation: you choose numbers close to the numbers in the problem to make the computation easier and then adjust the answer for the numbers chosen.''
  All this under the lesson- Using mental math to multiply. This must be Obama's math!
  Here we parents thought it was how we got paid?
  Here's the question posed to the students to which the featured image was the answer:
  In related news, HealthCare.gov will meet deadline for fixes, White House officials say:
  Administration officials are preparing to announce Sunday that they have met their Saturday deadline for improving HealthCare.gov, according to government officials, in part by expanding the site's capacity so that it can handle 50,000 users at once. But they have yet to meet all their internal goals for repairing the federal health-care site, and it will not become clear how many consumers it can accommodate until more people try to use it'....
  Nov. 30 was not originally intended to be a key date for the online enrollment system, but it took on outsize political and public importance when administration officials announced five weeks ago that the ''vast majority of users'' would be able to sign up for insurance through the site by that day. A combination of federal employees, outside contractors and a handful of technical and management experts have worked at breakneck speed for five weeks to improve the Web site's performance as the White House has come under withering criticism from its political opponents and some consumers.
  Update:H/t to commenter genes for this video '-- what possibly could go wrong with ''compensation'' mathematics?
U.S. 'concerned' about detained in N. Korea
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 13:35
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  Americans detained abroad
  STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  NEW: Family of another detained American thanks the White House for advocating for their releaseMerrill Newman was detained in North Korea in October, after a trip to the Asian nationState news said he "apologized" for crimes, including killings during Korean WarAn expert says that North Korea is trying to get the world's attention(CNN) -- The U.S. government pleaded Saturday for North Korean authorities to release 85-year-old Merrill Newman, with a spokeswoman saying officials are "deeply concerned" about him and another American being held in the isolated East Asian nation.
  "Given Mr. Newman's advanced age and health conditions, we urge (North Korea) to release Mr. Newman so he may return home and reunite with his family," said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.
  Washington's plea came on the day North Korean state media released print stories and video showing what they called Newman's "apology." University of California, Berkeley professor Steven Weber characterized it as "highly scripted political theater."
  So how did an elderly retired financial consultant and Korean War veteran become the central figure in an international dispute? Why is there such animosity still tied to a conflict, the Korean War, that ended six decades ago? And why is this all unfolding now?
  Weber, a former consultant to the U.S. Commission on National Security, has a theory: "They are trying to get the Western media to pay attention."
  With the notable exception of its longtime ally China, North Korea is in many ways a pariah state bogged down by what many view as decades of repressive leadership. At the same time, the communist nation has had difficulties getting enough energy to power their country and food for their people.
  Largely shut itself off from the rest of the world, its leaders and state media often use saber-rattling rhetoric to unite citizens against what Weber described as "nasty outsiders" -- which, not coincidentally, are chiefly South Korea and the United States, just as during the Korean War.
  The discord in recent years has centered mostly on North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, with the international community taking punitive measures such as economic sanctions to hold Pyongyang in check.
  North Korea hasn't been alone. Iran, too, has long been an international target because of its nuclear program, though that landscape has changed with the recent diplomatic accord.
  That fact may not be lost on Pyongyang, said Weber, who surmised North Korea may be particularly eager to get the world's focus and, ideally, concessions in the process.
  Added Weber: "If the Iran thing gets settled peacefully, then guess who's left?"
  Elderly man not only American detained
  Newman is not the only American being detained in North Korea. In her statement, Hayden also asked for the release of Kenneth Bae, who was arrested in November 2012 in North Korea.
  Last May, Bae was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor after North Korea's government found him guilty of "hostile acts" and attempts to topple the government.
  "We are thankful that the White House has advocated for the release of both Mr. Newman and my brother, Kenneth Bae," said Terri Chung, Bae's sister. "It has been a devastating experience for my brother and my family, so we pray every day for his release. Now we're including Mr. Newman in our prayers. We cannot forget about these two men. For every action that the US government takes toward his release, we are thankful."
  In the statement, Chung said Bae suffers from chronic health conditions that require doctors' care.
  Other detained Americans
  Unique case
  Newman's age, and the circumstances surrounding his detention, are unique.
  According to his family, the Palo Alto, California, resident had gone on a 10-day organized private tour of North Korea in October. From phone calls and postcards he sent, the trip was going well and there was no indication of any kind of problem, son Jeff Newman said.
  The day before he was to leave, "one or two Korean authorities" met with Newman and his tour guide, the son added. They talked about Newman's service record, which left "my dad ... a bit bothered," according to Jeff Newman.
  Then, just minutes before his Beijing-bound plane was set to depart Pyongyang in late October, he was taken off the aircraft by North Korean authorities.
  Newman's weeks-long detention is complicated by the fact that, according to his son Jeff, he suffers from a heart condition.
  Sweden's ambassador to North Korea visited Newman on Saturday where he is being held at Pyongyang's Yanggakdo Hotel and delivered his medication, his family said.
  "As a result of the visit, we know that Merrill is in good health," the family added. "Merrill reports that he is being well treated and that the food is good."
  The Newmans went on to thank the ambassador and "express appreciation for the cooperation of the DPRK government in allowing the visit to take place."
  "We are asking that the DPRK authorities take into account his health and his age and, as an act of humanitarian compassion, allow him to depart immediately for home," the family said. "All of us want this ordeal to end and for the 85-year-old head of our extended family to be with us once more."
  Reported apology: 'I have been guilty of big crimes'
  Until Saturday, the North Korean government hadn't said why it held Newman.
  American accused of spying issues 'apology'
  The explanation came in the form of a published apology from Newman, as well as accompanying images of him thumbprinting his handwritten note and talking about his experiences.
  Atop the first of the four pages is the word "apology," according to video released by North Korea. The end of the last page is dated November 9 -- indicating Newman made his reported admission more than 20 days ago. Why might Pyongyang have waited 21 days, then, to make the admission public? That's another one of the mysteries surrounding this case.
  In the note, Newman talked about his having advised the Kuwol Unit, part of the "intelligence bureau" fighting against Pyongyang in the Korean War. He detailed how he commanded troops to collect "information" and wage various deadly attacks.
  "After I killed so many civilians and (North Korean) soldiers and destroyed strategic objects in the DPRK during the Korean War, I committed indelible offensive acts against the DPRK government and Korean people," Newman said, according to the "apology" reported by KCNA.
  The reported message also touches on his return 60 years later to North Korea, admitting that he "shamelessly ... had a plan to meet any surviving soldiers and pray for the souls of the dead soldiers."
  "I have been guilty of big crimes against the DPRK government and the Korean people again," Newman adds in the "apology."
  His statement ends: "If I go back to (the) USA, I will tell the true features of the DPRK and the life the Korean people are leading."
  In addition to this statement, KCNA ran a story alleging Newman came to North Korea with a tourist group in October and afterward "perpetrated acts of infringing upon the dignity and sovereignty of the DPRK and slandering its socialist system."
  This story claimed that Newman tried to "look for spies and terrorists who conducted espionage and subversive activities against the DPRK."
  Investigators determined that, as a member of the U.S. military, he "masterminded espionage and subversive activities ... and, in this course, he was involved in the killings of service personnel of the Korean People's Army and innocent civilians."
  "The investigation clearly proved Newman's hostile acts against the DPRK, and they were backed by evidence," the KCNA story added. "He admitted all his crimes."
  Newman's fate, North Korea's thinking unclear
  Just five days ago, his wife, Lee, said she hoped he would be home for Thanksgiving.
  "We need to have Merrill back at the head of the table for the holidays," Lee Newman told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "And we ask -- respectfully -- for them to release him and let him come home."
  One day before Thanksgiving, Rep. Charlie Rangel -- who himself was wounded fighting in the Korean War -- released a letter urging North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "to release him immediately." Noting Newman's medical issues, the New York Democrat implored Kim to "have the heart to reunite him with his loved ones and those who can provide proper care."
  Rangel also reflected on the 1950s war, as well as the current state of affairs between the key players.
  "I believe that Mr. Newman, like myself and others who have fought during the Korean War six decades ago, wants to see a united Korea in our lifetime," wrote the congressman. "While progress has been slow on the political front, I am confident it can be advanced on humanitarian grounds."
  So will there be fresh movement in Newman's case? Will his reported apology pave the way for his release or will it be followed, like Bae, with a lengthy prison sentence?
  As of Saturday, nobody -- at least nobody outside of North Korea -- seems to know.
  As Weber, the Berkeley professor said: "When it comes to North Korea, nobody knows very much."
  CNN's Chelsea J. Carter, Ashley Killough and Nancy Baker contributed to this report.
Russia: Why is Putin always late?
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: bertb news feed
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 06:29
  29 November 2013Last updated at 21:20 ET As seen by......BBC Monitoring's Stephen EnnisVladimir Putin's legendary lateness is back in the spotlight after he kept Pope Francis waiting during a recent visit to the Vatican. What lies behind his chronic tardiness?
  The Russian president was 50 minutes late to meet the Pope on Monday. And papal courtiers were left "shivering" outside as they waited to welcome the Russian president, who was held up by women protesting outside his hotel in support of punk band Pussy Riot, says independent daily Moskovskiy Komsomolets.
  The Pope and the Italian press appear to have taken it in their stride. Given his reputation, they probably expected nothing else.
  Not so the South Korean media after he kept President Park Geun-hye waiting for 30 minutes during a visit to Seoul earlier in November - particularly as the already late Putin stopped en route to chat with martial arts enthusiasts.
  "Mr Putin, be on time next time," fumed a Korea Times headline.
  But the liberal Russian website Slon.ru points out the Koreans need not be upset. Being only half an hour late is a "mark of the deepest respect" from Putin.
  For the Russian leader has a long catalogue of late arrivals to his name:
  14 minutes overdue for Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 40 minutes late for German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2012 three hours overdue for talks on Syria with US Secretary of State John Kerry and he kept parents of children killed in an air crash waiting for two hours at a Bashkortostan cemetery in 2002. It's often a by-product of his meticulousness, an anonymous source close to Putin tells Moskovskiy Komsomolets's chief political columnist Mikhail Rostovskiy: "Before important meetings he often double-checks sources of information, delves into things, as a result he gets behind schedule."
  Sometimes it bears the hallmarks of a calculated snub. In 2012, Putin was running late for gas talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in Crimea. But he stopped for a chat with a biker friend, and eventually arrived nearly four hours late.
  Political commentator Dmitriy Abramov says Putin's "affected lateness" is "born of a desire to demonstrate that he occupies a 'tsar's place' in world politics, as in the heyday of the Russian empire".
  His estranged wife Lyudmila says he regularly kept her waiting when they were dating. Putin recollects of his school days: "I did not have time to dress and flew like a bullet to school without my coat."
  As Rostovskiy notes, lateness is now Putin's "calling card" and he's unlikely to change. "In all probability he will be late for his own funeral," says opposition blogger Andrey Malgin.
  Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.
'Genderqueer' rising: Colleges welcome kids who identify as neither male nor female - Washington Times
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 06:28
  OAKLAND, Calif. '-- The weekly meetings of Mouthing Off!, a group for students at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, always start the same way. Members take turns going around the room saying their names and the personal pronouns they want others to use when referring to them '-- she, he or something else.
  It's an exercise that might seem superfluous given that Mills, a small and leafy liberal arts school historically referred to as the Vassar of the West, only admits women as undergraduates. Yet increasingly, the ''shes'' and ''hers'' that dominate the introductions are keeping third-person company with ''they,'' ''ze'' and other neutral alternatives meant to convey a more generous notion of gender.
  SEE ALSO: Lesbian waitress may have forged anti-gay note: report
  ''Because I go to an all-women's college, a lot of people are like, 'If you don't identify as a woman, how did you get in?''' said sophomore Skylar Crownover, 19, who is president of Mouthing Off! and prefers to be mentioned as a singular they, but also answers to he. ''I just tell them the application asks you to mark your sex and I did. It didn't ask me for my gender.''
  On high school and college campuses and in certain political and social media circles, the growing visibility of a small, but semantically committed cadre of young people who, like Crownover, self-identify as ''genderqueer'' '-- neither male nor female but an androgynous hybrid or rejection of both '-- is challenging anew the limits of Western comprehension and the English language.
  Though still in search of mainstream acceptance, students and staff members who describe themselves in terms such as agender, bigender, third gender or gender-fluid are requesting '-- and sometimes finding '-- linguistic recognition.
  Inviting students to state their preferred gender pronouns, known as PGPs for short, and encouraging classmates to use unfamiliar ones such as ''ze,'''sie,'' ''e,'' ''ou'' and ''ve'' has become an accepted back-to-school practice for professors, dorm advisers, club sponsors, workshop leaders and health care providers at several schools.
  The phenomenon gained notice in the San Francisco Bay area in early November after an 18-year-old student at a private high school in Berkeley suffered severe burns when a 16-year-old boy set fire to the student's skirt while the two were riding a public bus. The parents of the injured student, Sascha Fleischman, said their son is biologically male but identifies as agender and favors they as a pronoun.
  At the University of Vermont, students who elect to change their names and/or pronouns on class rosters now can choose from she, he and ze, as well as the option of being referred to by only their names. Hampshire College in Massachusetts advertises its inclusiveness by listing the gender pronouns of its tour guides on the school's web site. And intake forms at the University of California, Berkeley's student health center include spaces for male, female or other.
  At Mills, the changes have included tweaking some long-standing traditions. New students are now called ''first-years'' instead of ''freshwomen.'' The student government also has edited the college's historic chant '-- ''Strong women! Proud women! All women! Mills women!'' to ''Strong, Proud, All, Mills!''
  The nods to novel pronouns and nonconformity are an outgrowth of campaigns for gender-neutral bathrooms and housing that were aimed at making campuses more welcoming for transgender students moving from one side of the gender spectrum to the other. But as fewer young people choose to undergo sex reassignment surgery, such students are slowly being outnumbered by peers who refuse to be limited, said Genny Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
  ''Certainly we see students who are transitioning, particularly female to male, but the vast majority of students who identify under the trans umbrella identify in some way outside the binary, and that's really causing a shift on college campuses,'' said Beemyn, who studies gender identity in higher education and recently traded ze for they. ''Having role models and examples allows people to say 'Yes, what I am feeling is legitimate.'''
  As neologisms like ''ze'' have moved beyond conversation and into students' academic papers, some professors have expressed annoyance and uncertainty about how to respond, said Lucy Ferriss, writer-in-residence at Trinity College in Connecticut and a frequent contributor to the Chronicle of Higher Education's language blog, Lingua Franca. .
  ''There is an initial discomfort. I think it's probably hypocritical to pretend there isn't, to say, 'Ok, that's what they want to do' and leave it at that,'' Ferriss said. ''The people I know who teach will say 'This is weird and it's cumbersome and it's not going to last because it's not organic.'''
  At the same time, Ferris thinks it's a mistake for scholars and grammarians to dismiss the trend without considering whether English and society might be served by less-rigid ideas about gender.
  ''Mail carrier did not evolve organically and it's a lot easier to say mailman. Decades ago there were poets who refused to be called poetesses,'' she said. ''Most language has evolved organically, but there have been times '-- and when it comes to issues of gender there probably have to be times '-- when there are people willing to push the envelope.''
SCAM-United Nations News Centre - Public-private partners at UN pledge to seek funding for sustainable energy for all
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 06:27
  27 November 2013 '' The United Nations and the World Bank today announced a concerted effort by governments, international agencies, civil society and the private sector to scale up efforts to provide sustainable energy to all, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling for massive new investments in the face of a rising ''global thermostat.''
  ''Sustainable energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, social equity, a stable climate and a healthy environment,'' he told reporters after co-chairThe global thermostat is rising, threatening development goals and economies small and large. It is clear that we need a transformation in how we produce, use and share energy.ing with World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim a meeting of the Advisory Board of his Sustainable Energy For All initiative, in which he called for action in four areas: finance, energy access, energy efficiency and renewable energy.
  Mr. Kim stressed that financing is key, with $600 billion to $800 billion a year needed from now until 2030 to reach the goals for access to energy, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.
  ''We are now starting in countries in which demand for action is most urgent,'' he said. ''In some of these countries, only one in 10 people has access to electricity. It is time for that to change.''
  Launched two years ago, the initiative seeks to achieve three inter-linked goals by 2030: universal access to modern energy, doubling energy efficiency, and doubling the share of renewable energy, thus providing services such as lighting, clean cooking and mechanical power in developing countries, as well as improved energy efficiency, especially in the world's highest-energy consuming countries.
  Mr. Ban praised achievements already attained such as Brazil's 'Light for All' programme that has reached 15 million people, Norway's commitment of 2 billion kroner ($330 million) in 2014 for global renewable energy and efficiency, and Bank of America's Green Bond that has raised $500 million for three years as part of its 10-year $50 billion environmental business commitment.
  He also lauded OPEC's (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) announcement of a $1 billion fund for energy access.
  ''Now we need others to follow and build on these commitments. Achieving the goals of Sustainable Energy For All needs massive new and additional investment,'' he said, stressing the initiative's crucial roles in achieving overall sustainable development, reducing poverty and raising opportunity, combating climate change and ''laying the foundations for the future we want.''
  ''The global thermostat is rising, threatening development goals and economies small and large,'' he added. ''It is clear that we need a transformation in how we produce, use and share energy.''
  Today's meeting was the Advisory Board's second, bringing together 42 representatives of business, finance, governments and civil society in a global public-private partnership.
  It is co-chaired by Kandeh Yumkella, the Secretary-General's Special Representative and Chief Executive for Sustainable Energy for All, and Charles Holliday, Chairman of Bank of America. Other members include Peter L¶scher, chief executive of Siemens, Ibrahim Mayaki, the chief executive of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), and Petter Nore from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.
  Mr. Yumkella pointed to widespread support not only for Sustainable Energy for All from numerous partners but also for energy to be at the heart of the global development agenda beyond 2015, the deadline for the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
  ''Eighty-one countries are now participating in this initiative,'' he said. ''Their action is complemented by that of private sector companies and associations, as well as civil society groups. We will continue to work with key stakeholders to achieve sustainable energy for all, to drive action that transforms lives.''
East African trade bloc approves monetary union deal | Reuters
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 06:25
  Sat Nov 30, 2013 11:01pm IST
  * Agreement to pave way for single currency in 10 years
  * Deal intended to boost trade and attract foreign investors
  * Region has oil, gas; plans new roads, railways, ports
  By Elias Biryabarema
  KAMPALA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The leaders of five East African countries signed a protocol on Saturday laying the groundwork for a monetary union within 10 years that they expect will expand regional trade.
  Heads of state of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, which have already signed a common market and a single customs union, say the protocol will allow them to progressively converge their currencies and increase commerce.
  In the run-up to achieving a common currency, the East African Community (EAC) nations aim to harmonise monetary and fiscal policies and establish a common central bank. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda already present their budgets simultaneously every June.
  The plan by the region of about 135 million people, a new frontier for oil and gas exploration, is also meant to draw foreign investment and wean EAC countries off external aid.
  "The promise of economic development and prosperity hinges on our integration," said Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta.
  "Businesses will find more freedom to trade and invest more widely, and foreign investors will find additional, irresistible reasons to pitch tent in our region," said Kenyatta, leader of the biggest economy in east Africa.
  Kenyatta, who is due to face trial at the International Criminal Court on crimes against humanity charges in February, took over the chairmanship of the bloc from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, hosting the summit.
  Kenya has launched a $13.8 billion Chinese-built railway that aims to cut transport costs, part of regional plans that also include building new ports and railways.
  Landlocked Uganda and Kenya have discovered oil, while Tanzania has vast natural gas reserves, which require improved infrastructure and foreign investment so they can be exploited.
  Tanzania, where the bloc's secretariat is based, has complained that it has been sidelined in discussions to plan these projects, but Kenyatta said the EAC was still united.
  Kenneth Kitariko, chief executive officer at African Alliance Uganda, an investment advisory firm, said the monetary union would boost efficiency in the region's economy estimated at about $85 billion in combined gross domestic product.
  "In a monetary union, the absence of currency risk provides a greater incentive to trade," he said.
  Kitariko said, however, that achieving a successful monetary union would require convergence of the union's economies, hinting that some challenges lay ahead.
  "Adjusting to a single monetary and exchange rate policy is an inescapable feature of monetary union ... but this will take time and may be painful for some," he said, referring to the fact that some countries may struggle to meet agreed benchmarks. (Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
  Link thisShare thisDigg thisEmailPrintReprints
East African countries agree to adopt common currency within 10 years | GlobalPost
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 06:25
  Please support our site by enabling javascript to view ads.
  Five east African countries have taken the first steps towards establishing a common currency.
  At a meeting in Kampala, Uganda, the presidents of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda said they would adopt a single currency within the next 10 years. The five countries are part of the East African Community (EAC) regional economic bloc, formed in 2000.
  On Saturday, the countries agreed to set up a monetary union modeled after the eurozone and open a single customs union by 2014.
  More from GlobalPost: East Africans step up plans for their own ''euro''
  The single currency is designed to attract investors by reducing transaction costs associated with changing money.
  "In a monetary union, the absence of currency risk provides a greater incentive to trade," Kenneth Kitariko, chief executive officer at African Alliance Uganda, an investment advisory firm, told Reuters.
  ''The promise of economic development and prosperity hinges on our integration," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, the new chairman of the EAC, said. "Businesses will find more freedom to trade and invest more widely, and foreign investors will find additional, irresistible reasons to pitch tent in our region.''
  It took the European Union seven years to introduce the euro after it announced it would adopt a single currency.
  http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/kenya/131130/east-african-countries-agree-adopt-common-currency-within-
VIDEO-Man Cited After Tossing $1,000 Into MOA Rotunda CBS Minnesota
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 06:13
  BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (WCCO) '' You know the old saying: money doesn't fall from the sky? Well, it did on Black Friday at Mall of America.
  Serge Vorobyov '-- who goes by the YouTube handle ''Serge the Car Hauler'' '-- threw $1,000 in dollar bills from the fourth floor of the Mall of America rotunda as a choir performed ''Let it Snow'' on the ground floor below.
  Serge said the reason he surprised everyone and tossed out the cascade of cash is because he's had a rough year and just wanted to help other people on Black Friday.
  ''People think it's an evil number, I thought it was supposed to be a lucky number,'' he said on a YouTube vlog explaining the event. ''I went through a horrible divorce, and she even took the cat and won't tell me where it is. I thought I would just spread some holiday cheer '... pay it forward.''
  Unfortunately, Bloomington police did not share his vision of yuletide cheer. They arrested him and charged him with disorderly conduct.
  A Mall of America spokesperson said his antics could have caused a major disturbance and someone could have been hurt.
  ''I think all the people down there enjoyed it,'' Serge said.
  Other Popular Stories:Are The Vikings #1 In NFL For Player Arrests?Minn. Family Fighting To Get Son Out Of Abu Dhabi PrisonWalmart Workers In Brooklyn Center Walk Out, Protest Low WagesControversy At MCTC Following Lesson On Structural RacismAre Outlet Malls Really A Better Deal?
Eye on 2016, Clintons Rebuild Bond With Blacks - NYTimes.com
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 03:28
  Inside Bright Hope Baptist Church, the luminaries of Philadelphia's black political world gathered for the funeral of former Representative William H. Gray III in July. Dozens of politicians '-- city, state and federal '-- packed the pews as former President Bill Clinton offered a stirring eulogy, quoting Scripture and proudly telling the crowd that he was once described as ''the only white man in America who knew all the verses to 'Lift Every Voice and Sing.' ''
  But it was the presence and behavior of Hillary Rodham Clinton that most intrigued former Gov. Edward G. Rendell: During a quiet moment, Mrs. Clinton leaned over to the governor and pressed him for details about the backgrounds, and the influence, of the assembled black leaders.
  Since Mrs. Clinton left the secretary of state post in February, she and her husband have sought to soothe and strengthen their relationship with African-Americans, the constituency that was most scarred during her first bid for the presidency. Five years after remarks by Mr. Clinton about Barack Obama deeply strained the Clintons' bond with African-Americans, the former first family is setting out to ensure that there is no replay of such trouble in 2016.
  Mrs. Clinton used two of her most high-profile speeches, including one before a black sorority convention, to address minority voting rights '-- an explosive issue among African-Americans since the Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act in June. A month after Mr. Gray's funeral, Mrs. Clinton and her husband both asked to speak at the service for Bill Lynch, a black political strategist who is credited with the election of David N. Dinkins as mayor of New York, and stayed for well over two hours in a crowd full of well-connected mourners. And there have been constant personal gestures, especially by the former president.
  Hillary Rodham Clinton at a Sunday church service in Columbia, S.C., during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.
  Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
  ''I think that this is an effort to repair whatever damage they felt may have been done in '08,'' said the Rev. Al Sharpton. Mr. and Mrs. Clinton ''know that there are some who have lingering questions, if not antipathy, towards them,'' Mr. Sharpton said.
  This task has taken on new urgency given the Democratic Party's push to the left, away from the centrist politics with which the Clintons are identified. Strong support from black voters could serve as a bulwark for Mrs. Clinton against a liberal primary challenge should she decide to run for president in 2016. It would be difficult for a progressive candidate, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, to rise if the former first lady takes back the black voters she lost to Mr. Obama and retains the blue-collar white voters who flocked to her.
  Her appearance before the sisters of Delta Sigma Theta in July, which she opened by offering condolences to the family of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old who was killed in Florida last year, and her voting rights address to the American Bar Association in August drew significant attention among black leaders.
  ''That speech that she gave regarding voting suppression was very, very significant and meaningful,'' said Representative James E. Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat and the highest-ranking African-American in Congress. Mr. Clyburn, who clashed sharply with Mr. Clinton in 2008, said Mrs. Clinton was ''now in a very good place with the African-American community.''
  Tavis Smiley, a black commentator, argued that this was because ''they have now learned the important lesson that there's a distinction between a coronation and an election.''
  The Clintons appear to be taking nothing for granted. Mr. Clinton did not just attend the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington on the National Mall in August, but also showed up at Arlington Cemetery in June to honor Medgar Evers on the 50th anniversary of his assassination. In May, Mr. Clinton was the commencement speaker at Howard University in Washington, posing for pictures with all who asked and sitting on stage next to one of the school's best-known graduates, L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor from Virginia, a longtime friend and rival of Mr. Clinton's.
  In private, Mr. Clinton is frequently in touch with black leaders. Representative Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat and the ranking member on the House panel on government oversight, got a handwritten note from the former president over the summer commending him on his leadership on the committee.
  ''He has made an effort to reach out over and over again through the years,'' Mr. Cummings said.
  The congressman recalled Mr. Clinton's visits to his church in Baltimore and a phone call he got from the former president inquiring about the health of his mother, whose name Mr. Clinton recalled.
  Such personal touches, for which the Clintons are famous, have never been more important as Mrs. Clinton considers a second presidential bid.
  Mr. Clinton has a rich, if occasionally fraught, history with African-Americans. He was a New South governor and a progressive on race who would eventually be called ''the first black president'' by the author Toni Morrison. But he infuriated blacks in 2008 when, after Mr. Obama won a big South Carolina primary victory, he seemed to dismiss the achievement by reminding the press that the Rev. Jesse Jackson had won the state twice and calling Mr. Obama's antiwar position ''the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen.''
  Many African-Americans took Mr. Clinton's fairy tale comment to mean that Mr. Obama's candidacy itself was a hopeless fantasy.
  ''It did get a little strained at times,'' Mr. Cummings acknowledged. ''I will never forget when President Clinton made that comment about the fairy tale. That was a painful moment for a lot of African-Americans, because we didn't see it as a fairy tale.''
  He added, however, that he believed most African-Americans had moved on from their hurt, in no small part because of Mrs. Clinton's willingness to join Mr. Obama's administration and her loyalty therein. Indeed, her most important implicit endorsement among blacks may come from Mr. Obama himself.
  His joint ''60 Minutes'' interview with Mrs. Clinton this year helped ease lingering doubts about tensions between the former rivals. And Mr. Obama's silence in recent months as some of his former aides have aligned themselves with Mrs. Clinton suggests that he will not try to help clear the way for Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. if he decides to run.
  For other black leaders, Mr. Clinton's showstopping speech at last year's Democratic convention was equally important.
  ''The defining moment for me was both when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state and Bill Clinton's tremendous speech on behalf of President Obama,'' said Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat who backed Mr. Obama in 2008. ''Those both occurred when a lot of people in the community were paying close attention.''
  The renewed connection between the Clintons and African-Americans was on display as Mr. Clinton campaigned for his close friend Terry McAuliffe in the closing weeks of the recent campaign for governor of Virginia. At a high school in a black neighborhood in Richmond, the former president received a booming ovation, punctuated by church-style shouts of ''Yes!'' and ''All right!''
  ''I hope all the people of other religions in the audience will forgive me, but on this Sunday, in the parlance of my native state and my culture, I'm fully aware that I am just preaching to the saved,'' Mr. Clinton said to cheers and applause.
  He then praised Mr. Wilder, who endorsed Mr. Obama in the 2008 race and was also at the McAuliffe campaign event, beaming.
  In an interview at the rally, Mr. Wilder recalled a long chat he had with Mr. Clinton in May. While Mr. Clinton professed not to know his wife's intentions, Mr. Wilder felt otherwise: ''I'd be less than honest if I didn't tell you I came away convinced that there's no question about her running.''
  Of the tensions of 2008, the former governor said all was forgiven: ''I don't think anybody is looking back. If Hillary runs for the nomination, she gets it. Period.''
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) - IMDb
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 03:27
  7 wins & 8 nominations.See more awards >>Learn morePeople who liked this also liked... Comedy | Crime | Romance
  A career bank robber breaks out of jail and shares a moment of mutual attraction with a US Marshall he has kidnapped.
  Director: Steven Soderbergh
  Stars: George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames
  Comedy | Crime | Drama
  A tale about a strange young man, Bulcsº, the fellow inspectors on his team, all without exception likeable characters, a rival ticket inspection team, and racing along the tracks... And a tale about love.
  Director: Nimr"d Antal
  Stars: Sndor Csnyi, Eszter Balla, Zoltn Mucsi
  Comedy | Crime | Drama
  A phobic con artist and his prot(C)g(C) are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the former's teenage daughter arrives unexpectedly.
  Director: Ridley Scott
  Stars: Nicolas Cage, Alison Lohman, Sam Rockwell
  Comedy | Crime | Drama
  A studio executive is being blackmailed by a writer whose script he rejected but which one? Loaded with Hollywood insider jokes.
  Director: Robert Altman
  Stars: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward
  Crime | Thriller
  Three friends discover their new flatmate dead but loaded with cash.
  Director: Danny Boyle
  Stars: Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor
  Action | Comedy | Crime
  Martin Blank is a professional assassin. He is sent on a mission to a small Detroit suburb, Grosse Pointe, and, by coincidence, his ten-year high school reunion party is taking place there at the same time.
  Director: George Armitage
  Stars: John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd
  Biography | Crime | Drama
  A somewhat romanticized account of the career of the notoriously violent bank robbing couple and their gang.
  Director: Arthur Penn
  Stars: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard
  Biography | Drama
  A love story between influential filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock and wife Alma Reville during the filming of Psycho (1960) in 1959.
  Director: Sacha Gervasi
  Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson
  Crime | Drama | Romance
  A married couple's life is turned upside down when the wife is accused of a murder.
  Director: Paul Haggis
  Stars: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson
  Comedy | Crime | Drama
  A globetrotting hitman and a crestfallen businessman meet in a hotel bar in Mexico City in an encounter that draws them together in a way neither expected.
  Director: Richard Shepard
  Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Hope Davis
  Comedy | Crime | Drama
  Two bank robbers fall in love with the girl they've kidnapped.
  Director: Barry Levinson
  Stars: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett
  Crime | Drama
  Based on the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree of the 1958, in which a fifteen-year-old girl and her twenty-five-year-old boyfriend slaughtered her entire family and several others in the Dakota badlands.
  Director: Terrence Malick
  Stars: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates
  EditStorylineTelevision made him famous, but his biggest hits happened off screen. "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" is the story of a legendary showman's double life - television producer by day, CIA assassin by night. At the height of his TV career, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA and trained to become a covert operative. Or so Barris said. Written by Anonymous
  Plot Summary|Plot SynopsisTaglines:His future was uncertain. His every move was being watched. See more >>EditDetailsRelease Date:24 January 2003 (USA) See more >>Also Known As:Confesiones de una mente peligrosa See more >>Box OfficeBudget:$29,000,000 (estimated)
  See more >>Company CreditsTechnical SpecsRuntime:113 min
  Aspect Ratio:2.35 : 1
  See full technical specs >>EditDid You Know?TriviaMost of the scenes were done in one take. The NBC lobby scene, and The Dating Game (1965) montage are done completely in one take; the actors ran around to get into position. See more >>GoofsThe same extras are used for different scenes. When Chuck Barris is in the cinema you can see the same man as later in the audience with one of chuck's quiz shows. See more >>Quotes[first lines]Dick Clark: I wouldn't want to live his life because he hasn't been happy all of his life. All I think is if you can find work, stay healthy, find somebody to share it with, you're the ultimate success. He's had some of the pieces of the puzzle, but not all of them.See more >>ConnectionsFeatures The Gong Show (1976) See more >>SoundtracksDandy ClubSee more >>
Paul Walker dead at 40: report - Daily News
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 01 Dec 2013 03:27
  Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for Universal PicturesPaul Walker, 40, reportedly died in a car accident in California on Saturday afternoon. Here, Walker attends the "Fast & Furious 6" world premiere in London, England, on May 7.
  "The Fast and the Furious" movie star Paul Walker, 40, has reportedly died in a car accident Saturday afternoon in southern California, reports TMZ.
  The accident occurred in Santa Clarita '-- outside of Los Angeles '-- when Walker's Porsche apparently lost control and crashed into a tree, TMZ reported. The car burst into flames and exploded, TMZ reported.
  A source close to the actor confirmed to Variety that he died in the crash as well.
  RELATED: VIN DIESEL: FILMING ON 'FAST & FURIOUS 7' HAS BEGUN
  Dave J Hogan/Getty ImagesFrom left to right: Luke Evans, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Gal Gadot, Paul Walker, Justin Lin, Elisa Pataky, Vin Diesel, Gina Carano, Tyrese Gibson and Ssung Kang attend the world premiere of "Fast & Furious 6" in London, England, on May 7.The L.A. County Sherriff's Office is still investigating and said the county's coroner office will make any announcement.
  RELATED: MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ ANSWERS SIX 'FAST & FURIOUS' QUESTIONS FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS VIVA
  Authorities are still investigating but TMZ reported Walker and another person in the vehicle died in the one-car accident. It is unclear who was driving at the time, TMZ reports.
  Authorities told TV Station CBS 2 in Los Angeles the crash occurred at 3:30 p.m. on the 28300 block of Rye Canyon Loop in Valencia. The identities of the victims have not been released, CBS News reported.
  RELATED: 'FAST & FURIOUS 6' FEATURES WILDER STUNTS AND CRAZIER VEHICLES
  Walker has been taking people on test drives of the car at a car show to raise money for victims of the typhoon in the Philippines, TMZ reported.
  The actor is best known for starring in "The Fast and the Furious" franchise that has seven total movies.
  jlandau@m.nydailynews.com
  @joelzlandau
French MPs back fines for prostitutes' clients.
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: WT news feed
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 23:01
  29 November 2013Last updated at 21:11 ET The French parliament has backed part of a bill that imposes a 1,500 euro (£1,250) fine on anyone paying for sex.
  Prostitution is legal in France but pimping and soliciting in public are illegal.
  Supporters of the bill say it would punish the customer and protect the prostitute but critics argue it would put sex workers at risk.
  Protests for and against the bill took place outside the National Assembly in Paris as the debate took place.
  MPs voted for the fine in a show of hands late on Friday night although the full text of the bill - which contains 20 articles - will be put to the vote on 4 December.
  Under the new provision, repeat offenders risk a fine of 3,750 euros. Alternatively, they can attend a course to make them aware of the risks involved in the sale of sex.
  Most of the bill's articles are aimed at disrupting foreign pimping networks or helping sex workers who want to stop.
  One article aims to decriminalise France's estimated 40,000 prostitutes by scrapping a 2003 law that bans soliciting on the streets.
  The law would instead target the clients.
  'Forced to hide'The actress Catherine Deneuve is one of hundreds of celebrity figures urging the government to reconsider.
  Tim Leicester of the medical charity Medecins du Monde said he feared that penalising those who paid for sex would actually harm prostitutes.
  "That won't change anything for prostitutes. They will be forced to continue to hide themselves because even if they are not risking arrest, their clients are. And their survival depends on their clients," he told the Associated Press news agency.
  Only about 30 members of the National Assembly were present when the debate began on Friday afternoon.
  Maud Olivier, the Socialist MP who presented the bill, attacked the "hypocrisy" of critics in her opening speech.
  Women's Rights Minister and government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told MPs that France was "not a country that welcomes prostitution".
  "The question is not sexuality, we are not there to be moral police... the question is about money that feeds pimping," she said.
  Guy Geoffroy, head of the parliamentary commission created for the bill, also defended the proposition, saying it "advanced women's rights".
  "We talk about the satisfaction of male desires but what are we doing about female desires?" he asked.
  According to the French interior ministry, foreign prostitutes make up 80-90% of all sex workers in the country and most of those are the victims of trafficking rings.
HPV vaccine could be given to boys as well as girls in UK.
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: WT news feed
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 23:01
  Countries including the US and Australia already offer the HPV vaccine to boys. Photograph: Voisin/Phanie/Rex Features
  Government advisers are to consider whether the HPV vaccine, routinely offered to girls at the ages of 12 and 13 since 2008 to help protect them against cervical cancer, should also be offered to boys and some men.
  They are to review "all the issues" on HPV, including whether targeted vaccination would help cut the risk of anal and throat cancers among men who have sex with men as well as the wider question over whether a universal male vaccination programme given to pre-teen or teenage boys is necessary as well, an idea that has previously been rejected.
  The review is revealed in draft minutes of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the UK-wide advisory body.
  A decision from the government advisers on what to recommend is unlikely to be quick since JCVI has yet to establish a sub-committee to examine the arguments in detail.
  There will be doubts that a UK-wide programme for boys is necessary since take-up of the HPV programme for girls is so good that experts could consider it is enough to protect the general heterosexual population.
  The issue of boys getting the vaccine has already been raised in the UK and Scottish parliaments and by the UK charity Throat Cancer Foundation, which believes a UK-wide programme is needed. Supporters believe the present programmes for girls are not offering the same sort of protection for boys as there would be if both sexes were inoculated. The JCVI subcommittee is also to look at whether the programme for girls might soon need to be modified since there is a possibility manufacturers could try to get licences for two-dose courses.
  The vaccination, now given in three doses over a year, has already been given to millions of girls '' usually in secondary schools '' to combat a family of viruses which can also cause warts and verrucas. They are very common and the vaccine, first under the Cervarix brand and now Gardasil, licensed for both boys and girls, is introduced before most girls are sexually active.
  Half the population will have some form of HPV at some time in their life and in most cases they suffer no ill effects. The vaccine is known to be effective for eight years. It is unknown how much longer it is effective.
  John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health, the professional body, said: "This is to be welcomed. We have to seriously consider this measure in the light of the recent increase in oral cancer. The original decision to vaccinate girls was based on the need to prevent cervical cancer."
  The US Centres for Disease Control already recommends boys have it too '' and both sexes have it in America when 11 or 12. Australia too offers the vaccine free in schools for both sexes.
  The Department of Health said: "There are currently no plans to extend HPV vaccination to males, based on an assessment of currently available scientific evidence." It added: "Vaccination of boys was not recommended by the JCVI because once 80% coverage among girls has been achieved, there is little benefit in vaccinating boys to prevent cervical cancer in girls. 80% coverage for the full course of three doses of the vaccine was achieved in the first year of the HPV vaccination programme in 2008-09, and has since exceeded that level."
  It has been estimated that 400 lives a year could be saved in the UK as a result of vaccinating girls before they are infected. At the moment 2,900 women are diagnosed each year with cervical cancer.
  Although most girls don't start having sex until after they are 16, the NHS says getting the vaccine as early as possible will protect them in the future.
  In 2010, around 4,300 men and 2,200 women were diagnosed with oral cancer, according to Cancer Research UK, a rise of a third in the last decade.
VIDEO-Pressure builds on Boehner for NSA vote | TheHill
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 22:57
  House Republican leaders are under pressure to allow a vote on legislation that would curb the National Security Agency (NSA).
  Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has defended the NSA's spying programs, but a growing bloc of his conference is signing on to a bill that would end the NSA's practice of collecting records on virtually all U.S. phone calls, which was revealed in leaks by Edward Snowden.
  ADVERTISEMENT
  One House Democratic aide argued that the Republican leaders are boxed in. If they don't allow a vote on standalone NSA reform legislation, the aide said, members will demand NSA-related amendments to must-pass legislation like the defense and intelligence authorization bills."They're stuck. They would deal with this in the way they deal with a lot of things '-- by just not moving the legislation," the Democratic aide said. "Except how are they going to get other important pieces of legislation that they want to move unless they move this first?"
  A GOP leadership aide acknowledged that there is "significant member interest in this issue as well as multiple committees with jurisdiction."
  "Leadership is working to ensure that there is a well-coordinated process with all interested parties going forward," the leadership aide said in a statement.
  House GOP leaders allowed a vote in July on an amendment from Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) that would have ended the NSA's phone data program. Despite opposition from party leaders and intense lobbying by the White House, the vote was surprisingly close '-- failing to pass by just seven votes.
  As speaker, Boehner usually doesn't cast a vote, but he broke the tradition to vote against the Amash amendment.
  ''There are, in my view, ample safeguards to protect the privacy of the American people," Boehner said after the vote. "And I know how these programs have worked. I know how they've worked to protect the American people, and I felt very strongly about it.''
  But he argued that the vote was an example of his belief that the House should be able to "work its will."
  Some members who voted against the amendment at the time said their opposition was not necessarily substantive, but that they believed such consequential legislation should receive more careful consideration.
  Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, for example, voted against the Amash amendment but is now a co-sponsor of the USA Freedom Act '-- the primary bill to limit the NSA's power.
  The bill was authored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), who helped craft the USA Patriot Act that the NSA cites when seeking court approval for data collection.
  Sensenbrenner's bill now has at least 102 co-sponsors, evenly split between 51 Republicans and 51 Democrats.
  In a statement last month, Sensenbrenner said the Patriot Act has helped keep Americans safe, but that "somewhere along the way, the balance between security and privacy was lost."
  His bill would end the bulk collection of phone data, tighten oversight of the NSA and require more public disclosures of the agency's surveillance.
  "It's now time for the Judiciary committees to again come together in a bipartisan fashion to ensure the law is properly interpreted, past abuses are not repeated and American liberties are protected," he said.
  But supporters of the USA Freedom Act will have to battle the defenders of the NSA '-- led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.).
  Rogers argues that the phone data program '-- which gives the NSA access to phone numbers, call times and call durations but not the actual contents of conversations '-- is critical for thwarting terrorists.
  His committee had planned to move its own NSA-related bill that would preserve the core of the agency's surveillance power, including the phone data collection.
  Multiple aides said the panel had planned to vote on a narrow bill from Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) that would only require the NSA to report more information about violations of privacy rights.
  But before the committee could vote on the bill, leadership intervened and had the mark-up cancelled, according to aides.
  Several aides said that the Judiciary Committee has primary jurisdiction over the Thompson bill and other changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
  Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) has not endorsed the USA Freedom Act, but he has been broadly supportive of reining in the NSA's power.
  A Goodlatte aide said in a statement that the chairman "has determined that we need to take legislative action."
  "Chairman Goodlatte is committed to working with members of the House Judiciary Committee, House leaders, and other members of Congress to ensure our nation's intelligence collection programs include real protections for Americans' civil liberties, robust oversight, and additional transparency, while maintaining a workable legal framework for national security officials to keep our country safe from foreign enemies,'' the aide said.
  The debate in the Senate over the NSA is following a similar path.
  Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is pushing legislation to protect the NSA's power, while Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is pushing the Senate version of the USA Freedom Act.
  Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), did not respond to a request to comment on where Reid stands on the issue.
UT Documents: Wall Street Journal's Alistair MacDonald "reports" an outright lie
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 22:53
  (updated below - Sat.)The Wall Street Journal's Toronto-based reporter, Alistair MacDonald, last night published what can only be described as an outright lie. Here's what he claimed:And this:Not only is it patently false to say that the CBC paid me for "access to Snowden's documents" - more on that in a minute - but MacDonald must know that his claim about what CBC "admits" is also patently false. Here's what the CBC's Director of News Content, David Walmsley, actually wrote about our relationship:For those of you wondering, CBC News is currently in a freelance relationship with Glenn Greenwald. As both a journalist and a commentator, Greenwald has written for many prestigious media outlets in recent years, ranging from The Guardian to the New York Times to Salon.com.
  He will write and report for CBC News and will help provide context and analysis on the documents from the NSA. Greenwald knows these files well. He has spent months exploring the global role of the NSA working with material taken by a former National Security Agency employee, Edward Snowden.
  As with all CBC News content, stories generated by CBC reporters and Mr. Greenwald that are connected to these documents will be held to CBC journalistic standards.
  Indeed, that is exactly what the contract provides and is exactly what I'm doing for CBC: writing news stories for them as a freelance journalist, alongside CBC staff journalists and editors. What is particularly laughable is MacDonald's self-praising boast that he was the one who uncovered this relationship: in fact, the very first (and so far only) article we published at the CBC on this story featured my byline right at the very top of the article:So the breaking discovery from this intrepid, fearless Wall Street Journal investigative reporter is that the freelance journalists who reported on a big story for a large media outlet with a byline were paid for their work. Is that ever not the case?Does MacDonald write his articles for free for the Wall Street Journal, or is he paid for his work? How much is he paid? Why has he not disclosed this? What is he hiding? Let the journalists who write articles for big media outlets without being paid for their work step up and be the first to support this attack.MacDonald's claim that CBC paid for "access to Snowden's documents" is equally false. The CBC does not have "access to Snowden's documents". They only have access to the specific, carefully selected documents that we are reporting on together. What they're paying for - under a standard joint freelance contract with both me and my freelance colleague Ryan Gallagher - is the work that freelance reporters always do: selecting and analyzing the material to be reported and then participating in the drafting and finalizing of the article and reporting (for both TV and print): extensive work we all did together.Aside from being completely standard, having a genuine freelance contract with media outlets is the only way to report on these documents. If we did not have such a contract, then the US government and its apologists (the very same people now criticizing us for having these contracts), would claim (dubiously but aggressively) that we were acting as a "source" or a distributor of documents, rather than as journalists in reporting them, and thus should lose the legal protections accorded to the process of journalism. As a result, we ensure that we negotiate a standard freelance contract so that nobody other than charlatans (such as those employed by the Wall Street Journal) could contest their authenticity and normalcy (for the extensive work we did in reporting and writing this story - one that broke news all over Canada and then the world - Ryan Gallagher and I were paid a joint freelance fee of $1,500).This is, yet again, nothing more than the standard tactic of distraction we see over and over. Just as was true of the Manning war crimes disclosures: there is a small cottage industry of pundits, bloggers, and journalists who evince zero interest in the substance of the revelations about NSA and GCHQ spying which we're reporting on around the world. The people I'm referencing literally almost never mention any of the actual revelations, but are instead obsessed with spending their time personally attacking the journalists, whistleblowers, and other messengers who enable the world to know about what is being done.Everyone having any sort of public impact merits critical scrutiny, and that certainly includes me. But when that scrutiny comes in the form of blatantly absurd and false attacks like the one from the Wall Street Journal - and from people who devote no time or attention to the substance of the revelations - then it seems clear that the attacks are little more than means of doing the NSA's dirty work for it: trying to discredit the journalists reporting on the story to ensure attention is shifted away from the spying revelations.As I said from the start, I'll answer these kinds of attacks now and then but it won't succeed in distracting attention from what matters. In the last six weeks alone, we've reported on NSA and GCHQ documents in Germany, France, Spain, Norway, Holland, the U.S., the UK, and now Canada. More stories are coming in these and other countries in the next two weeks. Nothing is going to stop or even impede our reporting the newsworthy stories around the world that show what is being done to internet freedom and individual privacy by the world's most powerful factions operating in the dark and with no real accountability.UPDATE (Sat.): On Twitter yesterday, MacDonald acknowledged that his accusations were fundamentally false, but tried to pass it off as merely a "clarification" of his defamatory claims:Those, evidently, are the ethics of The Wall Street Journal: if you publish radically inaccurate but incendiary accusations that are then proven totally false, don't retract them or apologize for them: just pretend you're "clarifying".Moreover, after devoting numerous tweets to publicly demanding that I disclose my compensation arrangement for the story I worked on with CBC, MacDonald acknowledged that I fully answered his questions, but repeatedly refused to disclose his own compensation. He first tried to justify that double standard this way:Apparently, MacDonald, though claiming to be a journalist, does not campaign for transparency. Isn't that rather elemental to the job? He then justified his refusal to adhere to his own disclosure demands this way:The idea that journalists should be forced to disclose their compensation arrangements is moronic, but if you're going to impose that demand on others, you don't get to exempt yourself. So add that to the journalistic ethics of the Wall Street Journal: disclosure of compensation is for other journalists, but not for themselves.
VIDEO- George Bush Hates Black People - YouTube
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 22:39
VIDEO-Kanye West on Why Obama Can't Execute: 'Blacks Don't Have the Same Connections as Jews' | MRCTV
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 22:36
  MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them '-- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.
  MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 1900 Campus Commons Drive, Reston, VA 20194. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.
  Copyright (C) 2013, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.
VIDEO-Natural Gas Pipeline Exploded In Small Missouri Town - YouTube
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 22:31
VIDEO- "China's First Attempt To Land A Spacecraft On The Moon" - YouTube
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 22:27
New features in Linux Mint 16 MATE - Linux Mint
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 21:24
  Linux Mint 16 is the result of 6 months of incremental development on top of stable and reliable technologies. This new release comes with updated software and brings refinements and new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use.
  Login ScreenMDM 1.4 was designed to work perfectly with Linux Mint 16, not only to log in but also to let you switch between users easily.
  MDM received the following improvements:
  Drastic speed improvements and an easier codebase to facilitate maintenance, bug fixing and innovation (niche features and some 24,500 lines of code were removed)A streamlined user interface which focuses on important featuresThe ability for the last logged-in user to simply log in by entering his/her passwordNum-Lock supportNew theme techniques were also implemented and featured in the default theme. The animated background and the user selection will inspire other artists to create a new generation of MDM themes.
  LightDM (which was a popular alternative to MDM 1.2 in Linux Mint 15) was also improved. Unity-greeter was adapted to properly integrate with Linux Mint 16.
  USB Stick supportA new tool was developed to easily format USB sticks to NTFS, FAT32 and ext4.
  Performance improvementsLinux Mint 16 focuses on the task at hand, it does less and does it better than before. It features many speed and performance improvements:
  The boot and login sequence no longer scan your system for btrfs partitions.The MDM display manager no longer listens or communicates over the network.The Update Manager is now started with a delay to make it faster for the session to load.The Software Manager features significant speed improvements.The Linux Mint 16 ISO images are not as compressed as before. They take more space and are bigger to download but also easier on the system and faster to decompress during the live session.Software ManagerThe Software Manager received many bug fixes and performance improvements. It's faster to start, faster to search, and uses less memory than before.
  Its interface was also refined and applications can now show multiple screenshots.
  System improvementsUnder the hood, Linux Mint 16 introduces a lot of improvements:
  Safer kernel updates.Faster boot sequence and faster login.Better EFI support.Better support for Steam and its addition in the repositories and the featured section of the Software Manager.Additional private/secure search engines in certain countries.APT "recommends" disabled by default.Better colors in terminal and the addition of "ll" as an alias to "ls -al".Better help support.Artwork improvementsLinux Mint 16 features a superb collection of gradient backgrounds from Rapciu, photographs from Arturo Donate, Bob Jagendorf and Kenny Louie as well as artwork from Omer Kavak.
  The new Mint-X theme brings:
  Better support for GTK3 and a more consistent look between GTK2 and GTK3 applicationsPolished anti-aliased window bordersNew icons for several Mint tools and popular 3rd party applications (Handbrake, Tomahawk..etc)Main componentsLinux Mint 16 features MATE 1.6, MDM 1.4, a Linux kernel 3.11 and an Ubuntu 13.10 package base.
IJsland scheldt tot 24.000 euro schulden per gezin kwijt
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: VK: Home
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 21:20
  Bewerkt door: redactie '' 30/11/13, 21:10 '' bron: AFP, Bloomberg
  (C) belga.
  De regering in IJsland gaat de hypotheekschulden van de gezinnen fors verlichten, na de bankencrisis in 2008. In totaal gaat het om 150 miljard IJslandse kronen (ruim 900 miljoen euro) die zullen worden afgeschreven, of ongeveer 24.000 euro per gezin. Het bedrag vertegenwoordigt maar liefst 9 procent van de nationale economie.
  Met deze plannen lost de regering van premier Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson een verkiezingsbelofte in. De operatie werd maandenlang voorbereid, vandaag maakte de regering de details bekend. De maatregel zou deels gefinancierd worden met hogere bankenbelasting.
  De kwijtschelding wordt gespreid over vier jaar. Concreet zullen de schulden van gezinnen die een woonkrediet gelinkt aan inflatie hebben, fors verlicht worden. De meeste IJslanders hebben zo'n lening, omdat de banken voor 2008 - toen de sector in elkaar klapte - enkel dit soort leningen wilden verstrekken.
  Na de crisis verloor de IJslandse kroon sterk in waarde en steeg de inflatie, met 37 procent op bijna drie jaar tijd. De gezinnen zagen hun schulden dus fors oplopen.
  De bedoeling van de maatregel is om de gezinnen meer ademruimte te geven om te consumeren, en zo de economie verder aan te zwengelen.
How To Make A Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 21:00
  How To Make A Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic CashAnonymous: Fried, Frank got NSA's permission to make this report available. They have offered to make copies available by contacting them at or (202) 639-7200. See: http://www.ffhsj.com/bancmail/21starch/961017.htm
  Received October 31, 1996
  With the Compliments of Thomas P. Vartanian
  Fried, Frank, Harris, Schriver & Jacobson
  1001 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
  Washington, D.C. 20004-2505
  Telephone: (202) 639-7200
  Laurie Law, Susan Sabett, Jerry Solinas
  National Security Agency Office of Information Security Research and Technology
  Cryptology Division
  18 June 1996
  CONTENTS
  INTRODUCTION
  1. WHAT IS ELECTRONIC CASH?
  1.1 Electronic Payment
  1.2 Security of Electronic Payments
  1.3 Electronic Cash
  1.4 Multiple Spending
  2. A CRYPTOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION
  2.1 Public-Key Cryptographic Tools
  2.2 A Simplified Electronic Cash Protocol
  2.3 Untraceable Electronic Payments
  2.4 A Basic Electronic Cash Protocol
  3. PROPOSED OFF-LINE IMPLEMENTATIONS
  3.1 Including Identifying Information
  3.2 Authentication and Signature Techniques
  3.3 Summary of Proposed Implementations
  4. OPTIONAL FEATURES OF OFF-LINE CASH
  4. 1 Transferability
  4.2 Divisibility
  5. SECURITY ISSUES
  5.1 Multiple Spending Prevention
  5.2 Wallet Observers
  5.3 Security Failures
  5.4 Restoring Traceability
  CONCLUSION
  REFERENCES
  With the onset of the Information Age, our nation is becoming increasingly dependent upon network communications. Computer-based technology is significantly impacting our ability to access, store, and distribute information. Among the most important uses of this technology is electronic commerce: performing financial transactions via electronic information exchanged over telecommunications lines. A key requirement for electronic commerce is the development of secure and efficient electronic payment systems. The need for security is highlighted by the rise of the Internet, which promises to be a leading medium for future electronic commerce.
  Electronic payment systems come in many forms including digital checks, debit cards, credit cards, and stored value cards. The usual security features for such systems are privacy (protection from eavesdropping), authenticity (provides user identification and message integrity), and nonrepudiation (prevention of later denying having performed a transaction) .
  The type of electronic payment system focused on in this paper is electronic cash. As the name implies, electronic cash is an attempt to construct an electronic payment system modelled after our paper cash system. Paper cash has such features as being: portable (easily carried), recognizable (as legal tender) hence readily acceptable, transferable (without involvement of the financial network), untraceable (no record of where money is spent), anonymous (no record of who spent the money) and has the ability to make "change." The designers of electronic cash focused on preserving the features of untraceability and anonymity. Thus, electronic cash is defined to be an electronic payment system that provides, in addition to the above security features, the properties of user anonymity and payment untraceability..
  In general, electronic cash schemes achieve these security goals via digital signatures. They can be considered the digital analog to a handwritten signature. Digital signatures are based on public key cryptography. In such a cryptosystem, each user has a secret key and a public key. The secret key is used to create a digital signature and the public key is needed to verify the digital signature. To tell who has signed the information (also called the message), one must be certain one knows who owns a given public key. This is the problem of key management, and its solution requires some kind of authentication infrastructure. In addition, the system must have adequate network and physical security to safeguard the secrecy of the secret keys.
  This report has surveyed the academic literature for cryptographic techniques for implementing secure electronic cash systems. Several innovative payment schemes providing user anonymity and payment untraceability have been found. Although no particular payment system has been thoroughly analyzed, the cryptography itself appears to be sound and to deliver the promised anonymity.
  These schemes are far less satisfactory, however, from a law enforcement point of view. In particular, the dangers of money laundering and counterfeiting are potentially far more serious than with paper cash. These problems exist in any electronic payment system, but they are made much worse by the presence of anonymity. Indeed, the widespread use of electronic cash would increase the vulnerability of the national financial system to Information Warfare attacks. We discuss measures to manage these risks; these steps, however, would have the effect of limiting the users' anonymity.
  This report is organized in the following manner. Chapter 1 defines the basic concepts surrounding electronic payment systems and electronic cash. Chapter 2 provides the reader with a high level cryptographic description of electronic cash protocols in terms of basic authentication mechanisms. Chapter 3 technically describes specific implementations that have been proposed in the academic literature. In Chapter 4, the optional features of transferability and divisibility for off-line electronic cash are presented. Finally, in Chapter 5 the security issues associated with electronic cash are discussed.
  The authors of this paper wish to acknowledge the following people for their contribution to this research effort through numerous discussions and review of this paper: Kevin Igoe, John Petro, Steve Neal, and Mel Currie.
  We begin by carefully defining "electronic cash." This term is often applied to any electronic payment scheme that superficially resembles cash to the user. In fact, however, electronic cash is a specific kind of electronic payment scheme, defined by certain cryptographic properties. We now focus on these properties.
  1.1 Electronic Payment
  The term electronic commerce refers to any financial transaction involving the electronic transmission of information. The packets of information being transmitted are commonly called electronic tokens. One should not confuse the token, which is a sequence of bits, with the physical media used to store and transmit the information.
  We will refer to the storage medium as a card since it commonly takes the form of a wallet-sized card made of plastic or cardboard. (Two obvious examples are credit cards and ATM cards.) However, the "card" could also be, e.g., a computer memory.
  A particular kind of electronic commerce is that of electronic payment. An electronic payment protocol is a series of transactions, at the end of which a payment has been made, using a token issued by a third party. The most common example is that of credit cards when an electronic approval process is used. Note that our definition implies that neither payer nor payee issues the token.l
  The electronic payment scenario assumes three kinds of players:2
  a payer or consumer, whom we will name Alice.a payee, such as a merchant. We will name the payee Bob.a financial network with whom both Alice and Bob have accounts. We will informally refer to the financial network as the Bank.__________
  1 In this sense, electronic payment differs from such systems as prepaid phone cards and subway fare cards, where the token is issued by the payee.
  2 In 4.1, we will generalize this scenario when we discuss transfers.
  1.2 Security of Electronic Payments
  With the rise of telecommunications and the Internet, it is increasingly the case that electronic commerce takes place using a transmission medium not under the control of the financial system. It is therefore necessary to take steps to insure the security of the messages sent along such a medium.
  The necessary security properties are:
  Privacy, or protection against eavesdropping. This is obviously of importance for transactions involving, e.g., credit card numbers sent on the Internet.User identification, or protection against impersonation. Clearly, any scheme for electronic commerce must require that a user knows with whom she is dealing (if only as an alias or credit card number).Message integrity, or protection against tampering or substitution. One must know that the recipient's copy of the message is the same as what was sent.Nonrepudiation, or protection against later denial of a transaction. This is clearly necessary for electronic commerce, for such things as digital receipts and payments.The last three properties are collectively referred to as authenticity.
  These security features can be achieved in several ways. The technique that is gaining widespread use is to employ an authentication infrastructure. In such a setup, privacy is attained by enciphering each message, using a private key known only to the sender and recipient. The authenticity features are attained via key management, e.g., the system of generating, distributing and storing the users' keys.
  Key management is carried out using a certification authority, or a trusted agent who is responsible for confirming a user's identity. This is done for each user (including banks) who is issued a digital identity certificate. The certificate can be used whenever the user wishes to identify herself to another user. In addition, the certificates make it possible to set up a private key between users in a secure and authenticated way. This private key is then used to encrypt subsequent messages. This technique can be implemented to provide any or all of the above security features.
  Although the authentication infrastructure may be separate from the electronic-commerce setup, its security is an essential component of the security of the electronic-commerce system. Without a trusted certification authority and a secure infrastructure, the above four security features cannot be achieved, and electronic commerce becomes impossible over an untrusted transmission medium.
  We will assume throughout the remainder of this paper that some authentication infrastructure is in place, providing the four security features.
  1.3 Electronic Cash
  We have defined privacy as protection against eavesdropping on one's communications. Some privacy advocates such as David Chaum (see [2],[3]), however, define the term far more expansively. To them, genuine "privacy" implies that one's history of purchases not be available for inspection by banks and credit card companies (and by extension the government). To achieve this, one needs not just privacy but anonymity. In particular, one needs
  payer anonymity during payment,payment untraceability so that the Bank cannot tell whose money is used in a particular payment.These features are not available with credit cards. Indeed, the only conventional payment system offering it is cash. Thus Chaum and others have introduced electronic cash (or digital cash), an electronic payment system which offers both features. The sequence of events in an electronic cash payment is as follows:
  withdrawal, in which Alice transfers some of her wealth from her Bank account to her card.payment, in which Alice transfers money from her card to Bob's.deposit, in which Bob transfers the money he has received to his Bank account.(See Figure 1.)
  Figure 1. The three types of transactions in a basic electronic cash model.
  These procedures can be implemented in either of two ways:
  On-line payment means that Bob calls the Bank and verifies the validity of Alice's token3 before accepting her payment and delivering his merchandise. (This resembles many of today's credit card transactions.)Off-line payment means that Bob submits Alice's electronic coin for verification and deposit sometime after the payment transaction is completed. (This method resembles how we make small purchases today by personal check.)Note that with an on-line system, the payment and deposit are not separate steps. We will refer to on-line cash and off-line cash schemes, omitting the word "electronic" since there is no danger of confusion with paper cash.
  __________
  3 In the context of electronic cash, the token is usually called an electronic coin.
  1.4 Counterfeiting
  As in any payment system, there is the potential here for criminal abuse, with the intention either of cheating the financial system or using the payment mechanism to facilitate some other crime. We will discuss some of these problems in 5. However, the issue of counterfeiting must be considered here, since the payment protocols contain built-in protections against it.
  There are two abuses of an electronic cash system analogous to counterfeiting of physical cash:
  Token forgery, or creating a valid-looking coin without making a corresponding Bank withdrawal.Multiple spending, or using the same token over again. Since an electronic coin consists of digital information, it is as valid-looking after it has been spent as it was before. (Multiple spending is also commonly called re-spending, double spending, and repeat spending.)One can deal with counterfeiting by trying to prevent it from happening, or by trying to detect it after the fact in a way that identifies the culprit. Prevention clearly is preferable, all other things being equal.
  Although it is tempting to imagine electronic cash systems in which the transmission and storage media are secure, there will certainly be applications where this is not the case. (An obvious example is the Internet, whose users are notoriously vulnerable to viruses and eavesdropping.) Thus we need techniques of dealing with counterfeiting other than physical security.
  To protect against token forgery, one relies on the usual authenticity functions of user identification and message integrity. (Note that the "user" being identified from the coin is the issuing Bank, not the anonymous spender.)To protect against multiple spending, the Bank maintains a database of spent electronic coins. Coins already in the database are to be rejected for deposit. If the payments are on-line, this will prevent multiple spending. If off-line, the best we can do is to detect when multiple spending has occurred. To protect the payee, it is then necessary to identify the payer. Thus it is necessary to disable the anonymity mechanism in the case of multiple spending.The features of authenticity, anonymity, and multiple-spender exposure are achieved most conveniently using public-key cryptography. We will discuss how this is done in the next two chapters.
  In this chapter, we give a high-level description of electronic cash protocols in terms of basic authentication mechanisms. We begin by describing these mechanisms, which are based on public-key cryptography. We then build up the protocol gradually for ease of exposition. We start with a simplified scheme which provides no anonymity. We then incorporate the payment untraceability feature, and finally the payment anonymity property. The result will be a complete electronic cash protocol.
  2.1 Public-Key Cryptographic Tools
  We begin by discussing the basic public-key cryptographic techniques upon which the electronic cash implementations are based.
  One-Way Functions. A one-way function is a correspondence between two sets which can be computed efficiently in one direction but not the other. In other words, the function phi is one-way if, given s in the domain of phi, it is easy to compute t = phi(s), but given only t, it is hard to find s. (The elements are typically numbers, but could also be, e.g., points on an elliptic curve; see [10].)
  Key Pairs. If phi is a one-way function, then a key pair is a pair s, t related in some way via phi. We call s the secret key and t the public key. As the names imply, each user keeps his secret key to himself and makes his public key available to all. The secret key remains secret even when the public key is known, because the one-way property of phi insures that t cannot be computed from s.
  All public-key protocols use key pairs. For this reason, public-key cryptography is often called asymmetric cryptography. Conventional cryptography is often called symmetric cryptography, since one can both encrypt and decrypt with the private key but do neither without it.
  Signature and Identification. In a public key system, a user identifies herself by proving that she knows her secret key without revealing it. This is done by performing some operation using the secret key which anyone can check or undo using the public key. This is called identification. If one uses a message as well as one's secret key, one is performing a digital signature on the message. The digital signature plays the same role as a handwritten signature: identifying the author of the message in a way which cannot be repudiated, and confirming the integrity of the message.
  Secure Hashing. A hash function is a map from all possible strings of bits of any length to a bit string of fixed length. Such functions are often required to be collision-free: that is, it must be computationally difficult to find two inputs that hash to the same value. If a hash function is both one-way and collision-free, it is said to be a secure hash.
  The most common use of secure hash functions is in digital signatures. Messages might come in any size, but a given public-key algorithm requires working in a set of fixed size. Thus one hashes the message and signs the secure hash rather than the message itself. The hash is required to be one-way to prevent signature forgery, i.e., constructing a valid-looking signature of a message without using the secret key.4 The hash must be collision-free to prevent repudiation, i.e., denying having signed one message by producing another message with the same hash.
  __________
  4 Note that token forgery is not the same thing as signature forgery. Forging the Bank's digital signature without knowing its secret key is one way of committing token forgery, but not the only way. A bank employee or hacker, for instance, could "borrow" the Bank's secret key and validly sign a token. This key compromise scenario is discussed in 5.3.
  2.2 A Simplified Electronic Cash Protocol
  We now present a simplified electronic cash system, without the anonymity features.
  PROTOCOL 1:On-line electronic payment.
  Withdrawal:
  Alice sends a withdrawal request to the Bank.
  Bank prepares an electronic coin and digitally signs it.
  Bank sends coin to Alice and debits her account.
  Payment/Deposit:
  Alice gives Bob the coin.
  Bob contacts Bank5 and sends coin.
  Bank verifies the Bank's digital signature.
  Bank verifies that coin has not already been spent.
  Bank consults its withdrawal records to confirm Alice's withdrawal. (optional)
  Bank enters coin in spent-coin database.
  Bank credits Bob's account and informs Bob.
  Bob gives Alice the merchandise.
  __________
  5 One should keep in mind that the term "Bank" refers to the financial system that issues and clears the coins. For example, the Bank might be a credit card company, or the overall banking system. In the latter case, Alice and Bob might have separate banks. If that is so, then the "deposit" procedure is a little more complicated: Bob's bank contacts Alice's bank, "cashes in" the coin, and puts the money in Bob's account.
  PROTOCOL 2:Off-line electronic payment.
  Withdrawal:
  Alice sends a withdrawal request to the Bank.
  Bank prepares an electronic coin and digitally signs it.
  Bank sends coin to Alice and debits her account.
  Payment:
  Alice gives Bob the coin.
  Bob verifies the Bank's digital signature. (optional)
  Bob gives Alice the merchandise.
  Deposit:
  Bob sends coin to the Bank.
  Bank verifies the Bank's digital signature.
  Bank verifies that coin has not already been spent.
  Bank consults its withdrawal records to confirm Alice's withdrawal. (optional)
  Bank enters coin in spent-coin database.
  Bank credits Bob's account.
  The above protocols use digital signatures to achieve authenticity. The authenticity features could have been achieved in other ways, but we need to use digital signatures to allow for the anonymity mechanisms we are about to add.
  2.3 Untraceable Electronic Payments
  In this section, we modify the above protocols to include payment untraceability. For this, it is necessary that the Bank not be able to link a specific withdrawal with a specific deposit.6 This is accomplished using a special kind of digital signature called a blind signature.
  We will give examples of blind signatures in 3.2, but for now we give only a high-level description. In the withdrawal step, the user changes the message to be signed using a random quantity. This step is called "blinding" the coin, and the random quantity is called the blinding factor. The Bank signs this random-looking text, and the user removes the blinding factor. The user now has a legitimate electronic coin signed by the Bank. The Bank will see this coin when it is submitted for deposit, but will not know who withdrew it since the random blinding factors are unknown to the Bank. (Obviously, it will no longer be possible to do the checking of the withdrawal records that was an optional step in the first two protocols.)
  Note that the Bank does not know what it is signing in the withdrawal step. This introduces the possibility that the Bank might be signing something other than what it is intending to sign. To prevent this, we specify that a Bank's digital signature by a given secret key is valid only as authorizing a withdrawal of a fixed amount. For example, the Bank could have one key for a $10 withdrawal, another for a $50 withdrawal, and so on.7
  _________
  6 In order to achieve either anonymity feature, it is of course necessary that the pool of electronic coins be a large one.
  7 0ne could also broaden the concept of "blind signature" to include interactive protocols where both parties contribute random elements to the message to be signed. An example of this is the "randomized blind signature" occurring in the Ferguson scheme discussed in 3.3.
  PROTOCOL 3:Untraceable On-line electronic payment.
  Withdrawal:
  Alice creates an electronic coin and blinds it.
  Alice sends the blinded coin to the Bank with a withdrawal request.
  Bank digitally signs the blinded coin.
  Bank sends the signed blinded coin to Alice and debits her account.
  Alice unblinds the signed coin.
  Payment/Deposit:
  Alice gives Bob the coin.
  Bob contacts Bank and sends coin.
  Bank verifies the Bank's digital signature.
  Bank verifies that coin has not already been spent.
  Bank enters coin in spent-coin database.
  Bank credits Bob's account and informs Bob.
  Bob gives Alice the merchandise.
  PROTOCOL 4:Untraceable Off-line electronic payment.
  Withdrawal:
  Alice creates an electronic coin and blinds it.
  Alice sends the blinded coin to the Bank with a withdrawal request.
  Bank digitally signs the blinded coin.
  Bank sends the signed blinded coin to Alice and debits her account.
  Alice unblinds the signed coin.
  Payment:
  Alice gives Bob the coin.
  Bob verifies the Bank's digital signature. (optional)
  Bob gives Alice the merchandise.
  Deposit:
  Bob sends coin to the Bank.
  Bank verifies the Bank's digital signature.
  Bank verifies that coin has not already been spent.
  Bank enters coin in spent-coin database.
  Bank credits Bob's account.
  2.4 A Basic Electronic Cash Protocol
  We now take the final step and modify our protocols to achieve payment anonymity. The ideal situation (from the point of view of privacy advocates) is that neither payer nor payee should know the identity of the other. This makes remote transactions using electronic cash totally anonymous: no one knows where Alice spends her money and who pays her.
  It turns out that this is too much to ask: there is no way in such a scenario for the consumer to obtain a signed receipt. Thus we are forced to settle for payer anonymity.
  If the payment is to be on-line, we can use Protocol 3 (implemented, of course, to allow for payer anonymity). In the off-line case, however, a new problem arises. If a merchant tries to deposit a previously spent coin, he will be turned down by the Bank, but neither will know who the multiple spender was since she was anonymous. Thus it is necessary for the Bank to be able to identify a multiple spender. This feature, however, should preserve anonymity for law-abiding users.
  The solution is for the payment step to require the payer to have, in addition to her electronic coin, some sort of identifying information which she is to share with the payee. This information is split in such a way that any one piece reveals nothing about Alice's identity, but any two pieces are sufficient to fully identify her.
  This information is created during the withdrawal step. The withdrawal protocol includes a step in which the Bank verifies that the information is there and corresponds to Alice and to the particular coin being created. (To preserve payer anonymity, the Bank will not actually see the information, only verify that it is there.) Alice carries the information along with the coin until she spends it.
  At the payment step, Alice must reveal one piece of this information to Bob. (Thus only Alice can spend the coin, since only she knows the information.) This revealing is done using a challenge-response protocol. In such a protocol, Bob sends Alice a random "challenge" quantity and, in response, Alice returns a piece of identifying information. (The challenge quantity determines which piece she sends.) At the deposit step, the revealed piece is sent to the Bank along with the coin. If all goes as it should, the identifying information will never point to Alice. However, should she spend the coin twice, the Bank will eventually obtain two copies of the same coin, each with a piece of identifying information. Because of the randomness in the challenge-response protocol, these two pieces will be different. Thus the Bank will be able to identify her as the multiple spender. Since only she can dispense identifying information, we know that her coin was not copied and re-spent by someone else.
  PROTOCOL 5:Off-line cash.
  Withdrawal:
  Alice creates an electronic coin, including identifying information.
  Alice blinds the coin.
  Alice sends the blinded coin to the Bank with a withdrawal request.
  Bank verifies that the identifying information is present.
  Bank digitally signs the blinded coin.
  Bank sends the signed blinded coin to Alice and debits her account.
  Alice unblinds the signed coin.
  Payment:
  Alice gives Bob the coin.
  Bob verifies the Bank's digital signature.
  Bob sends Alice a challenge.
  Alice sends Bob a response (revealing one piece of identifying info).
  Bob verifies the response.
  Bob gives Alice the merchandise.
  Deposit:
  Bob sends coin, challenge, and response to the Bank.
  Bank verifies the Bank's digital signature.
  Bank verifies that coin has not already been spent.
  Bank enters coin, challenge, and response in spent-coin database.
  Bank credits Bob's account.
  Note that, in this protocol, Bob must verify the Bank's signature before giving Alice the merchandise. In this way, Bob can be sure that either he will be paid or he will learn Alice's identity as a multiple spender.
  Having described electronic cash in a high-level way, we now wish to describe the specific implementations that have been proposed in the literature. Such implementations are for the off-line case; the on-line protocols are just simplifications of them. The first step is to discuss the various implementations of the public-key cryptographic tools we have described earlier.
  3.1 Including Identifying Information
  We must first be more specific about how to include (and access when necessary) the identifying information meant to catch multiple spenders. There are two ways of doing it: the cut-and-choose method and zero-knowledge proofs.
  Cut and Choose. When Alice wishes to make a withdrawal, she first constructs and blinds a message consisting of K pairs of numbers, where K is large enough that an event with probability 2-K will never happen in practice. These numbers have the property that one can identify Alice given both pieces of a pair, but unmatched pieces are useless. She then obtains signature of this blinded message from the Bank. (This is done in such a way that the Bank can check that the K pairs of numbers are present and have the required properties, despite the blinding.)
  When Alice spends her coins with Bob, his challenge to her is a string of K random bits. For each bit, Alice sends the appropriate piece of the corresponding pair. For example, if the bit string starts 0110. . ., then Alice sends the first piece of the first pair, the second piece of the second pair, the second piece of the third pair, the first piece of the fourth pair, etc. When Bob deposits the coin at the Bank, he sends on these K pieces.
  If Alice re-spends her coin, she is challenged a second time. Since each challenge is a random bit string, the new challenge is bound to disagree with the old one in at least one bit. Thus Alice will have to reveal the other piece of the corresponding pair. When the Bank receives the coin a second time, it takes the two pieces and combines them to reveal Alice's identity.
  Although conceptually simple, this scheme is not very efficient, since each coin must be accompanied by 2K large numbers.
  Zero-Knowledge Proofs. The term zero-knowledge proof refers to any protocol in public-key cryptography that proves knowledge of some quantity without revealing it (or making it any easier to find it). In this case, Alice creates a key pair such that the secret key points to her identity. (This is done in such a way the Bank can check via the public key that the secret key in fact reveals her identity, despite the blinding.) In the payment protocol, she gives Bob the public key as part of the electronic coin. She then proves to Bob via a zero-knowledge proof that she possesses the corresponding secret key. If she responds to two distinct challenges, the identifying information can be put together to reveal the secret key and so her identity.
  3.2 Authentication and Signature Techniques
  Our next step is to describe the digital signatures that have been used in the implementations of the above protocols, and the techniques that have been used to include identifying information.
  There are two kinds of digital signatures, and both kinds appear in electronic cash protocols. Suppose the signer has a key pair and a message M to be signed.
  Digital Signature with Message Recovery. For this kind of signature, we have a signing function SSK using the secret key SK, and a verifying function VPK using the public key PK. These functions are inverses, so that(*) VPK (SSK (M)) = M
  The function VPK is easy to implement, while SSK is easy if one knows SK and difficult otherwise. Thus SSK is said to have a trapdoor, or secret quantity that makes it possible to perform a cryptographic computation which is otherwise infeasible. The function VPK is called a trapdoor one-way function, since it is a one-way function to anyone who does not know the trapdoor.In this kind of scheme, the verifier receives the signed message SSK (M) but not the original message text. The verifier then applies the verification function VPK. This step both verifies the identity of the signer and, by (*), recovers the message text.Digital Signature with Appendix. In this kind of signature, the signer performs an operation on the message using his own secret key. The result is taken to be the signature of the message; it is sent along as an appendix to the message text. The verifier checks an equation involving the message, the appendix, and the signer's public key. If the equation checks, the verifier knows that the signer's secret key was used in generating the signature.We now give specific algorithms.
  RSA Signatures. The most well-known signature with message recovery is the RSA signature. Let N be a hard-to-factor integer. The secret signature key s and the public verification key v are exponents with the property that
  Msv = M (mod N)
  for all messages M. Given v, it is easy to find s if one knows the factors of N but difficult otherwise. Thus the "vth power (mod N)" map is a trapdoor one-way function. The signature of M is
  C := Ms (mod N);
  to recover the message (and verify the signature), one computes
  M := Cv (mod N).
  Blind RSA Signatures. The above scheme is easily blinded. Suppose that Alice wants the Bank to produce a blind signature of the message M. She generates a random number r and sends
  rv . M (mod N)
  to the Bank to sign. The Bank does so, returning
  r . Ms (mod N)
  Alice then divides this result by r. The result is Ms (mod N), the Bank's signature of M, even though the Bank has never seen M.
  The Schnorr Algorithms. The Schnorr family of algorithms includes an identification procedure and a signature with appendix. These algorithms are based on a zero-knowledge proof of possession of a secret key. Let p and q be large prime numbers with q dividing p - 1. Let g be a generator; that is, an integer between 1 and p such that
  gq = 1 (mod p).
  If s is an integer (mod q), then the modular exponentiation operation on s is
  phi : s -> gs (mod p).
  The inverse operation is called the discrete logarithm function and is denoted
  loggt
'Cash, not second-hand clothes please,' Irish NGOs appeal to donors
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 19:34
  An aid worker distributes relief goods at typhoon-hit Daan Bantayan, Cebu, central Philippines this week.
  Image: distributes relief goods at typhoon-hit Daan Bantayan, Cebu, central Philippines
  IRISH AID AGENCIES are appealing to the public to give money rather than second hand material goods to the Philippines relief effort, as the response to Typhoon Haiyan continues.
  D"chas, the umbrella group for Ireland's NGOs, has thanked donors for their generosity, but said that where material items are donated that haven't specifically been requested, it may have the effect of preventing the transportation of goods that are needed.
  According to Hans Zomer, Director of D"chas: ''People in Ireland have once again shown their generosity when there is a need to assist victims of disaster, hunger or conflict''.
  ''At the same time, our experience as Irish NGOs also shows that this high level of public support is not always matched by a high level of understanding of the needs of the communities affected by the disaster.
  ''If material items are donated that have not specifically been requested by an aid agency, it may actually prevent the transportation of essential items''
  ''In the Philippines, roads have been damaged or have been rendered un-passable and there is a real risk of them becoming jammed with shipments of non-priority items, such as second hand clothes,'' Zomer said.
  Children queue for food at a damaged daycare centre in Basey township, Eastern Samar province [Bullit Marquez/AP/Press Association Images]
  Donations of money enable relief organisations to buy exactly what victims need most urgently at locations closer to the affected areas. D"chas is asking members of the public to check out the website HowYouCanHelp.ie which sets out ways people can help best assist aid agencies.
  UN appeal
  The appeal comes as the UN seeks more international aid to shelter and give temporary jobs to the millions displaced by the storm.
  Donors have so far given $164 million, or just under half of the initial UN humanitarian appeal for $301 million.
  The earlier appeal was launched on 12 November, four days after Haiyan unleashed powerful 315kph winds and giant storm surges in the central Philippines.
  At least 5,598 have been killed and 1,759 others are still missing, mainly in the predominantly poor islands of Samar and Leyte, according to a government tally.
  Read: Rain puts 'fear in the eyes of children' in the PhilippinesConcern CEO: We need to look beyond short-term aid in PhilippinesAlready a fan? Connect below...
  Get breaking news from TheJournal.ie via Facebook.Just click Like.
Gene Guns
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 19:32
  Gene Guns~ This web page was produced as an assignment for an undergraduate course at Davidson College ~
  Gene Guns
  Background:
  The gene gun was created as a new way of proceeding with gene transformation of grains in response to the difficulty of getting bacteria across grain cell walls. It was designed by John Sanford at Cornell University in 1987 and made introducing new genetic material into plant cells much easier than previous methods, such as the use of viruses or agrobacterium. The gene gun has a wide range of uses today and can be used on many organisms such as bacteria, yeasts, and mammalian cell lines, particularly those which have previously been difficult or impossible to transfect such as non-dividing cells or primary cells. The transformation does not apply only to unicellular organisms but also whole objects such as leaves or entire animals: Drosophila and mice (Wetterauer, Brigit et al.). It has been particularly useful for chloroplasts as well because no bacteria or viruses were known to infect chloroplasts and this method has allowed for a way to introduce foreign DNA into the chloroplasts.
  There are three common methods of genetic engineering: the plasmid method, the vector method, and the biolistic (gene gun) method. The most well known of the three is the plasmid method, which is generally used for altering microorganisms such as bacteria. The vector method is similar to the plasmid method, but its products are inserted directly into the genome via a viral vector. The third method is the biolistic method which will be studied in detail below. For more detailed explanations of the plasmid and vector methods of genetic engineering, visit ThinkQuest .
  Refer to this Table comparing the efficiencies of transfection methods such as retroviruses, adenoviruses, liposomes, direct DNA injection, and the biolistic method. The efficiency of the gene gun system varies, with skin cells showing the greatest uptake of 10''20% (Yang, 1990). This system has many modern uses and has been used to deliver a nucleic acid-based hepatitis B vaccine to both mice and humans, and is presently in clinical trials (Mumper, 2001).
  How the Gene Gun Works: The gene gun is part of a method called the biolistic (also known as bioballistic) method, and under certain conditions, DNA (or RNA) become ''sticky,'' adhering to biologically inert particles such as metal atoms (usually tungsten or gold). By accelerating this DNA-particle complex in a partial vacuum and placing the target tissue within the acceleration path, DNA is effectively introduced (Gan, 1989). Uncoated metal particles could also be shot through a solution containing DNA surrounding the cell thus picking up the genetic material and proceeding into the living cell. A perforated plate stops the shell cartridge but allows the slivers of metal to pass through and into the living cells on the other side. The cells that take up the desired DNA, identified through the use of a marker gene (in plants the use of GUS is most common), are then cultured to replicate the gene and possibly cloned. The biolistic method is most useful for inserting genes into plant cells such as pesticide or herbicide resistance. Different methods have been used to accelerate the particles: these include pneumatic devices; instruments utilizing a mechanical impulse or macroprojectile; centripetal, magnetic or electrostatic forces; spray or vaccination guns; and apparatus based on acceleration by shock wave, such as electric discharge (Christou and McCabe, 1992).
  Above left: gold particles used in gene gun. Above right: tungsten particles used in the gene gun.
  Above: Sketch of how a hand-held helium powered gene gun works by pushing DNA coated particles into tissue. (Images from Williams, 1991)
  There are several variables in these experiments that must be controlled in order to attain maximal transformation efficiency. Optimal responses have been shown to be dependent on the delivery of a sufficient number of DNA-coated particles, as well as how much DNA coats the metal particles (Eisenbraun, 1993). Temperature, amount of cells, and their ability to regenerate also has an effect on the overall efficiency, as well as the type of gun used: helium powered vs. gun-powder, hand-held vs. stand-alone, etc. It is also important to adjust the length of the flight path of the particles: fragile tissues cannot be bombarded at the same high speed as those which have more resistance to foreign particles entering. How to adjust these variables depends mainly on which metal particles you are using to transfer the genetic material, and what type of cells you are attempting to transfect.
  Significance: Another important use of the DNA gun involves the transformation of organelles as mentioned above: chloroplasts, as well as yeast mitochondria. The ability to transform organelles is significant because it enables researchers to engineer organelle-encoded herbicide or pesticide resistances in crop plants and to study photosynthetic processes. DNA delivery with the gene gun also offers new advantages for research in such areas as DNA vaccination/genetic immunization, gene therapy, tumor biology/wound healing, plant virology and many others.
  The major limitations are the shallow penetration of particles, associated cell damage, the inability to deliver the DNA systemically, the tissue to incorporate the DNA must be able to regenerate, and the equipment itself is very expensive. An objection to this method is that the DNA could be inserted into a working gene in the plant and many of the public worry that this new DNA could then be transferred to wild plants as well and resistance could be conferred to weeds or insects. (ThinkQuest)
  Above: Helios Gene Gun schematic (Above left and right images courtesy of BioRad)
  Below: A standard gene gun (permission for image from: Crop Sciences)
  Definitions:
  Transfection: the process of introducing naked DNA molecules into cells. It is one of the most frequently used techniques in molecular biology. Transfection of cells is usually accomplished in one of three basic methods. Chemical methods of transfection include calcium phosphate or lipofection. Physical methods include electroporation or the gene gun. In addition, gene transfer can also be mediated with high efficiency by viruses such as adenovirus or retroviruses.
  Transformation (with respect to bacteria): The process by which a bacteria acquires a plasmid. This term most commonly refers to a bench procedure performed by the experimenter which introduces experimental plasmids into bacteria.
  Plasmid: A circular piece of DNA present in bacteria or isolated from bacteria. E. coli has a large circular genome, but it will also replicate smaller circular DNAs as long as they have an origin of replication. Plasmids may have other DNA inserted by the experimenter. A bacterium carrying a plasmid and replicating a million-fold will produce a million identical copies of that plasmid.
  Transient transfection: When DNA is transfected into cultured cells, it is able to stay in those cells for about 2-3 days, but then will be lost. During those 2-3 days, the DNA is functional, and any functional genes it contains will be expressed. Experimenters take advantage of this transient expression period to test gene function.
  Stable transfection: A form of transfection experiment designed to produce permanent lines of cultured cells with a new gene inserted into their genome. Usually this is done by linking the desired gene with a selectable gene which is then used to determine which cells have taken up the experimenter's gene of interest. (Lyons)
  For information on this and other transformation techniques: ThinkQuest; Genetic Engineering Methods
  References:
  - Christou, Paul; McCabe, Dennis. Particle Gun Transformation of Crop Plants Using Electric Discharge (ACCELL' Technology). Agracetus Inc., Middleton, WI; 1992.
  - Eisenbraun MD, Fuller DH, Haynes JR. "Examination of parameters affecting the elicitation of humoral immune responses by particle bombardment-mediated genetic immunization. DNA Cell Biology; Nov., 1993, (9):791-7
  - Gan, Carol. "Gene Gun Accelerates DNA-Coated Particles To Transform Intact Cells". The Scientist; Sep. 18, 1989, 3[18]:25.
  - Helenius, Elina; Boije, Maria; Niklander-Teeri, Viola; Palva, E. Tapio; Heeri, Teemu U. "Gene Delivery Into Intact Plants Using the Helios Gene Gun". Plant Molecular Biology Reporter; 2000, 18: 287a-2871.
  - Lyons, Robert H. A Molecular Biology Glossary. University of Michigan, July 1998.
  - Mumper RJ, Ledebur Jr HC. "Dendritic cell delivery of plasmid DNA. Applications for controlled genetic immunization."Molecular Biotechnology: 2001, 19:79-95
  - Oulu University Library. Surgical organ perfusion method for somatic gene transfer: An experimental study on gene transfer into the kidney, spleen, lung and mammary gland. 2000, Review of the literature.
  - Williams, R. Sanders; Johnston, Stephen A; Riedy, Mark; DeVit, Michael J; McElligott, Sandra G.; Sanford, John C. "Introduction of foreign genes into tissues of living mice by DNA-coated microprojectiles." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA; Apr, 1991, 1;88(7):2726-30.
  - Wetterauer, Birgit; Salger, Klaus; Demel, Petra; and Koop, Hans-Ulrich. "Transformation of Dictyostelium discoideum with a Particle Gun." Biochim Biophys Acta; Dec 11, 2000, 1499(1-2):139-143.
  - Yang NS, Burkholder J, Roberts B, Martinell B, McCabe D. "In vivo and in vitro gene transfer to mammalian somatic cells by particle bombardment." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA; 1990, 87:9568-9672.
  Back to Megan's home
  Molecular Biology Main Page
  Biology Dept. Main Page
  Comments, questions, and suggestions to: Megan McDonald
Infrasound - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 19:30
  Infrasound, sometimes referred to as low-frequency sound, is sound that is lower in frequency than 20 Hz (Hertz) or cycles per second, the "normal" limit of human hearing. Hearing becomes gradually less sensitive as frequency decreases, so for humans to perceive infrasound, the sound pressure must be sufficiently high. The ear is the primary organ for sensing infrasound, but at higher intensities it is possible to feel infrasound vibrations in various parts of the body.
  The study of such sound waves is referred to sometimes as infrasonics, covering sounds beneath 20 Hz down to 0.001 Hz. This frequency range is utilized for monitoring earthquakes, charting rock and petroleum formations below the earth, and also in ballistocardiography and seismocardiography to study the mechanics of the heart. Infrasound is characterized by an ability to cover long distances and get around obstacles with little dissipation.
  History and study[edit]Infrasound was used by the Allies of World War I to locate artillery.[1] One of the pioneers in infrasonic research was French scientist, Vladimir Gavreau, who was born in Russia as Vladimir Gavronsky.[2] His interest in infrasonic waves first came about in his laboratory during the 1960s, when he and his laboratory assistants experienced pain in the ear drums and shaking laboratory equipment, but no audible sound was picked up on his microphones. He concluded it was infrasound caused by a large fan and duct system and soon got to work preparing tests in the laboratories. One of his experiments was an infrasonic whistle, an oversized organ pipe.[3][4][5]
  Sources[edit]Infrasound sometimes results naturally from severe weather, surf,[6]lee waves, avalanches, earthquakes, volcanoes, bolides,[7]waterfalls, calving of icebergs, aurorae, meteors, lightning and upper-atmospheric lightning.[8]Nonlinearocean wave interactions in ocean storms produce pervasive infrasound vibrations around 0.2 Hz, known as microbaroms.[9] According to the Infrasonics Program at the NOAA, infrasonic arrays can be used to locate avalanches in the Rocky Mountains, and to detect tornadoes on the high plains several minutes before they touch down.[10]
  Infrasound also can be generated by human-made processes such as sonic booms and explosions (both chemical and nuclear), by machinery such as diesel engines and older designs of down tower wind turbines and by specially designed mechanical transducers (industrial vibration tables) and large-scale subwoofer loudspeakers [11] such as rotary woofers. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission uses infrasound as one of its monitoring technologies, along with seismic, hydroacoustic, and atmospheric radionuclide monitoring. The largest infrasound ever recorded by the monitoring system was generated by the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor.[12]
  Whales, elephants,[13]hippopotamuses,[14]rhinoceros,[15][16]giraffes,[17]okapi,[18] and alligators are known to use infrasound to communicate over distances'--up to hundreds of miles in the case of whales. In particular, the Sumatran Rhinoceros has been shown to produce sounds with frequencies as low as 3 Hz which have similarities with the song of the humpback whale.[16] The roar of the tiger contains infrasound of 18 Hz and lower,[19] and the purr of felines is reported to cover a range of 20 to 50 Hz.[20][21][22] It has also been suggested that migrating birds use naturally generated infrasound, from sources such as turbulent airflow over mountain ranges, as a navigational aid.[23] Elephants, in particular, produce infrasound waves that travel through solid ground and are sensed by other herds using their feet, although they may be separated by hundreds of kilometres.
  Animal reactions to infrasound[edit]Animals have been known to perceive the infrasonic waves going through the earth by natural disasters and can use these as an early warning. A recent example of this is the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. Animals were reported to flee the area hours before the actual tsunami hit the shores of Asia.[24][25] It is not known for sure if this is the exact reason, as some have suggested that it may have been the influence of electromagnetic waves, and not of infrasonic waves, that prompted these animals to flee.[26]
  Infrasound also may be used for long-distance communication in African elephants.[27] These calls range from 15''35 Hz and can be as loud as 117 dB, allowing communication for many kilometres, with a possible maximum range of around 10 km (6 mi).[28] These calls may be used to coordinate the movement of herds and allow mating elephants to find each other.
  Recent research by Jon Hagstrum of the US Geological Survey suggests that homing pigeons use low frequency infrasound to navigate. [29]
  Human reactions to infrasound[edit]20 Hz is considered the normal low-frequency limit of human hearing. When pure sine waves are reproduced under ideal conditions and at very high volume, a human listener will be able to identify tones as low as 12 Hz.[30] Below 10 Hz it is possible to perceive the single cycles of the sound, along with a sensation of pressure at the eardrums.
  The dynamic range of the auditory system decreases with decreasing frequency. This compression can be seen in the equal-loudness-level contours, and it implies that a slight increase in level can change the perceived loudness from barely audible, to loud. Combined with the natural spread in thresholds within a population, it may have the effect that a very low-frequency sound which is inaudible to some people may be loud to others.
  One study has suggested that infrasound may cause feelings of awe or fear in humans. It also was suggested that since it is not consciously perceived, it may make people feel vaguely that odd or supernatural events are taking place.[31]
  Infrasonic 17 Hz tone experiment[edit]On 31 May 2003, a group of UK researchers held a mass experiment where they exposed some 700 people to music laced with soft 17 Hz sine waves played at a level described as "near the edge of hearing", produced by an extra-long-stroke subwoofer mounted two-thirds of the way from the end of a seven-meter-long plastic sewer pipe. The experimental concert (entitled Infrasonic) took place in the Purcell Room over the course of two performances, each consisting of four musical pieces. Two of the pieces in each concert had 17 Hz tones played underneath. In the second concert, the pieces that were to carry a 17 Hz undertone were swapped so that test results would not focus on any specific musical piece. The participants were not told which pieces included the low-level 17 Hz near-infrasonic tone. The presence of the tone resulted in a significant number (22%) of respondents reporting anxiety, uneasiness, extreme sorrow, nervous feelings of revulsion or fear, chills down the spine, and feelings of pressure on the chest.[32][33] In presenting the evidence to British Association for the Advancement of Science, Professor Richard Wiseman said, "These results suggest that low frequency sound can cause people to have unusual experiences even though they cannot consciously detect infrasound. Some scientists have suggested that this level of sound may be present at some allegedly haunted sites and so cause people to have odd sensations that they attribute to a ghost'--our findings support these ideas."[31]
  Suggested relationship to ghost sightings[edit]Research by Vic Tandy, a lecturer at Coventry University, suggested that an infrasonic signal of 19 Hz might be responsible for some ghost sightings. Tandy was working late one night alone in a supposedly haunted laboratory at Warwick, when he felt very anxious and could detect a grey blob out of the corner of his eye. When Tandy turned to face the grey blob, there was nothing.
  The following day, Tandy was working on his fencingfoil, with the handle held in a vise. Although there was nothing touching it, the blade started to vibrate wildly. Further investigation led Tandy to discover that the extractor fan in the lab was emitting a frequency of 18.98 Hz, very close to the resonant frequency of the eye given as 18 Hz by NASA.[34] This was why Tandy had seen a ghostly figure'--it was an optical illusion caused by his eyeballs resonating. The room was exactly half a wavelength in length, and the desk was in the centre, thus causing a standing wave which caused the vibration of the foil.[35]
  Tandy investigated this phenomenon further and wrote a paper entitled The Ghost in the Machine.[36] Tandy carried out a number of investigations at various sites believed to be haunted, including the basement of the Tourist Information Bureau next to Coventry Cathedral[37][38] and Edinburgh Castle.[39][40]
  See also[edit]References[edit]^Wired Article, The Sound of Silence by John Geirland. 2006.^"Gavreau", in Lost Science by Gerry Vassilatos. Signals, 1999. ISBN 0-932813-75-5^*Gavreau V., Infra Sons: G(C)n(C)rateurs, D(C)tecteurs, Propri(C)t(C)s physiques, Effets biologiques, in: Acustica, Vel .17, No. 1 (1966), p.1''10^Gavreau V.,infrasound,in: Science journal 4(1) 1968,S.33^Gavreau V., "Sons graves intenses et infrasons" in: Scientific Progress '' la Nature (Sept. 1968) p. 336''344^Garces, M.; Hetzer C., Merrifield M., Willis M. and Aucan J. (2003). "Observations of surf infrasound in Hawai'i". Geophysical Research Letters30 (24): 2264. Bibcode:2003GeoRL..30xOCE5G. doi:10.1029/2003GL018614. Retrieved 15 December 2007. "Comparison of ocean buoy measurements with infrasonic array data collected during the epic winter of 2002''2003 shows a clear relationship between breaking ocean wave height and infrasonic signal levels." ^Garces, M.; Willis, M. (2006). Modeling and Characterization of Microbarom Signals in the Pacific. Retrieved 24 November 2007. "Naturally occurring sources of infrasound include (but are not limited to) severe weather, volcanoes, bolides, earthquakes, mountain waves, surf, and, the focus of this research, nonlinear ocean wave interactions." ^Haak, Hein (1 September 2006). "Probing the Atmosphere with Infrasound : Infrasound as a tool" (PDF). CTBT: Synergies with Science, 1996''2006 and Beyond. Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. Archived from the original on 2 July 2007. Retrieved 24 November 2007. ^"Microbaroms". Infrasonic Signals. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Geophysical Institute, Infrasound Research Group. Retrieved 22 November 2007. "The ubiquitous five-second-period infrasonic signals called "microbaroms", which are generated by standing sea waves in marine storms, are the cause of the low-level natural-infrasound background in the passband from 0.02 to 10 Hz." ^"NOAA ESRL Infrasonics Program". Retrieved 10 April 2012. ^Chen, C.H., ed. (2007). Signal and Image Processing for Remote Sensing. Boca Raton: CRC. p. 33. ISBN 0-8493-5091-3. ^Paul Harper (20 February 2013). "Meteor explosion largest infrasound recorded". The New Zealand Herald (APN Holdings NZ). Retrieved 31 March 2013. ^Katharine B. Payne, William R. Langbauer, Elizabeth M. Thomas: Infrasonic calls of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, Volume 18, Number 4, pp. 297''301, 1986, doi:10.1007/BF00300007^William E. Barklow: Low'frequency sounds and amphibious communication in Hippopotamus amphibious, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Volume 115, Issue 5, pp. 2555''2555 (2004)^E.K. von Muggenthaler, J.W. Stoughton, J.C. Daniel, Jr.: Infrasound from the rhinocerotidae, from O.A. Ryder (1993): Rhinoceros biology and conservation: Proceedings of an international conference, San Diego, U.S.A. San Diego, Zoological Society^ abE. von Muggenthaler, P. Reinhart, B. Lympany, R.D. Craft: Songlike vocalizations from the Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinos sumatrensis), Acoustic Research Letters ARLO 4(3), July 2003, pp. 83''88, DOI 10.1121/1.1588271. Also cited by: West Marrin: Infrasonic signals in the environment, Acoustics 2004 Conference^E. von Muggenthaler, C. Baes, D. Hill, R. Fulk, A. Lee: Infrasound and low frequency vocalizations from the giraffe; Helmholtz resonance in biology, proceedings of Riverbanks Consortium on biology and behavior, 1999. Also work by Muggenthaler et al cited by Nicole Herget: Giraffes, Living Wild, Creative Education, 2009, ISBN 978-1-58341-654-9, p. 38^E. Von Muggenthaler: Infrasound from the okapi, invited presentation, student competition award, proceedings from the 1992 American Association for the Advancement of Science (A.A.A.S) 158th conference, 1992^Work by Muggenthaler et al, also referred to in: The Secret Of A Tiger's Roar, ScienceDaily, 1 December 2000, American Institute of Physics, Inside Science News Service (1 December 2000), Retrieved 25 December 2011^Von Muggenthaler, E., Perera, D. (2002), The cat's purr: a healing mechanism?, In review, presented 142nd Acoustical Society of America International Conference, 2001.^Work by Muggenthaler et al, referred to in: David Harrison: Revealed: how purrs are secret to cats' nine lives, The Telegraph, 18 March 2001, Retrieved 25 December 2011^von Muggenthaler, (2006) The Felid Purr: A Biomechanical Healing Mechanism, Proceedings from he 12th International Low Frequency Noise and Vibration Conference, p. 189-208^Goddard Space Flight Center^Elizabeth Malone, Zina Deretsky: After the tsunami, Special Report, National Science Foundation, version of 12 July 2008, downloaded 26 December 2011^"How did animals survive the tsunami?" Christine Kenneally, 30 December 2004. Slate Magazine^Nature. Can Animals Predict Disaster? '' PBS: posted November 2005.^Langbauer, W.R.; Payne, K.B.; Charif, R.A.; Rapaport, L.; Osborn, F. (1991). "African elephants respond to distant playbacks of low-frequency conspecific calls". The Journal of Experimental Biology157 (1): 35''46. Retrieved 27 May 2009. ^Larom, D.; Garstang, M.; Payne, K.; Raspet, R.; Lindeque, M. (1997). "The influence of surface atmospheric conditions on the range and area reached by animal vocalizations". The Journal of Experimental Biology200 (3): 421''431. Retrieved 27 May 2009. ^Knight, Kathryn (2013). Disappearing homing pigeon mystery solved. The Company of Biologists. Retrieved 2013-01-31^Olson, Harry F. (1967). Music, Physics and Engineering. Dover Publications. p. 249. ISBN 0-486-21769-8. ^ ab"Infrasound linked to spooky effects". MSNBC. 7 September 2007. Retrieved 27 January 2010. ^Infrasonic concert, Purcell Room, London, 31 May 2003, sponsored by the sciart Consortium with additional support by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL)^Sounds like terror in the air Sydney Morning Herald, 9 September 2003.^NASA Technical Report 19770013810^infrasound^Tandy, V.; Lawrence, T. (April 1998). "The ghost in the machine.". Journal of the Society for Psychical Research62 (851): 360''364. ^Tandy, V. (July 2000). "Something in the cellar.". Journal of the Society for Psychical Research64.3 (860). ^Arnot, Chris (11 July 2000). "Ghost buster". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 5 May 2010. ^Who ya gonna call? Vic Tandy! ''Coventry Telegraph^Internet Archive Wayback Machine. 2007 version of Vic Tandy's Ghost Experiment webpage"infrasound". Collins English Dictionary, 2000. Retrieved 25 October 2005, from xreferplus. http://www.xreferplus.com/entry/2657949Gundersen, P. Erik. The Handy Physics Answer Book. Visible Ink Press, 2003.Chedd, Graham. Sound; From Communications to Noise Pollution. Doubleday & Company, 1970.O'Keefe, Ciaran, and Sarah Angliss. The Subjective Effects of Infrasound in a Live Concert Setting. CIM04: Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology. Graz, Austria: Graz UP, 2004. 132''133.Discovery's Biggest Shows aired at 8:00 pm (Indian Standard Time) on The Discovery Channel, India on Sunday, 7 October 2007External links[edit]
Coming Soon, a Night Watchman With Wheels? - NYTimes.com
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 19:00
  The night watchman of the future is 5 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and looks a lot like R2-D2 '' without the whimsy. And will work for $6.25 an hour.
  A company in California has developed a mobile robot, known as the K5 Autonomous Data Machine, as a safety and security tool for corporations, as well as for schools and neighborhoods.
  ''We founded Knightscope after what happened at Sandy Hook,'' said William Santana Li, a co-founder of that technology company, now based in Sunnyvale, Calif. ''You are never going to have an armed officer in every school.''
  But what is for some a technology-laden route to safer communities and schools is to others an entry point to a post-Orwellian, post-privacy world.
  ''This is like R2-D2's evil twin,'' said Marc Rotenberg, the director of the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, a privacy rights group based in Washington.
  And the addition of such a machine to the labor market could force David Autor, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist, to rethink his theory about how technology wrecks the middle class.
  The minimum wage in the United States is $7.25, and $8 in California. Coming in substantially under those costs, Knightscope's robot watchman service raises questions about whether artificial intelligence and robotics technologies are beginning to assault both the top and the bottom of the work force as well.
  The K5 is the work of Mr. Li, a former Ford Motor Company executive, and Stacy Dean Stephens, a former police officer in Texas. They gained some attention in June for their failed attempt to manufacture a high-tech police cruiser at Carbon Motors Corporation in Indiana.
  Knightscope plans to trot out K5 at a news event on Thursday '-- a debut that is certain to touch off a new round of debate, not just about the impact of automation, but also about how a new generation of mobile robots affects privacy.
  The co-founders have chosen to position their robot not as a job killer, but as a system that will upgrade the role of security guard, even if fewer humans are employed.
  ''We want to give the humans the ability to do the strategic work,'' said Mr. Li in a recent telephone interview, describing a highly skilled analyst who might control a herd of security robots.
  The robot, which can be seen in a promotional video, is still very much a work in progress. The system will have a video camera, thermal imaging sensors, a laser range finder, radar, air quality sensors and a microphone. It will also have a limited amount of autonomy, such as the ability to follow a preplanned route. It will not, at least for now, include advanced features like facial recognition, which is still being perfected.
  Knightscope settled in Silicon Valley because it was hoping for a warm reception from technology companies that employ large security forces to protect their sprawling campuses.
  Over all, there are about 1.3 million private security guards in the United States, and they are low paid for the most part, averaging about $23,000 a year, according to the Service Employees International Union. Most are not unionized, so they are vulnerable to low-cost automation alternatives.
  K5 also raises questions about mass surveillance, which has already set off intense debate in the United States and Europe with the expansion of closed-circuit television systems on city streets and elsewhere. The Knightscope founders, however, have a radically different notion, which involves crime prediction, or ''precog'' '-- a theme of the movie ''Minority Report.''
  ''We have a different perspective,'' Mr. Li said. ''We don't want to think about 'RoboCop' or 'Terminator,' we prefer to think of a mash up 'Batman,' 'Minority Report' and R2-D2.''
  Mr. Li envisions a world of K5 security bots patrolling schools and communities, in what would amount to a 21st-century version of a neighborhood watch. The all-seeing mobile robots will eventually be wirelessly connected to a centralized data server, where they will have access to ''big data,'' making it possible to recognize faces, license plates and other suspicious anomalies.
  Mr. Rotenberg said such abilities would rapidly encroach on traditional privacy rights.
  ''There is a big difference between having a device like this one on your private property and in a public space,'' he said. ''Once you enter public space and collect images and sound recordings, you have entered another realm. This is the kind of pervasive surveillance that has put people on edge.''
  Mr. Li said he believed he could circumvent those objections by making the data produced by his robots available to anyone in a community with access to the Internet.
  ''As much as people worry about Big Brother, this is as much about putting the technology in the hands of the public to look back,'' he said. ''Society and industry can work together on this issue.''
  This is essentially a reprise of the debate over Google's Street View system, which has drawn opposition from privacy advocates. But while Google's cars captured still images infrequently, a pervasive video and audio portal that autonomously patrolled a neighborhood would in effect be a real-time Street View system.
  For the moment, the system is unarmed, and it is certain to become the target of teenagers who will undoubtedly get a thrill from knocking the robot over. Mr. Li said he believed this was not an insurmountable challenge, given the weight, size and video-recording ability of the bots.
  Mr. Rotenberg said a greater challenge would be community opposition. He acknowledged, however, that K5's looks were benign enough. ''It doesn't look like Arnold Schwarzenegger,'' he said. ''Unless he was rolled over and pressed into a ball.''
VIDEO- The Media Is Protecting Obama Love Child - YouTube
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 18:57
A Helicopter Has Slammed Into A Pub In Glasgow, Fatalities Reported
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: usfollowme
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 17:34
  http://jalopnik.com/a-helicopter-has-slammed-into-a-pub-in-glasgow-fatalit-1473957626
Seattle Man Who Clipped Coupons Leaves $118M Legacy
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Crooks and Liars
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 17:33
  Obviously, this gentleman wasn't in it for the recognition. What a great legacy to leave!
  An elderly Seattle man who lived a frugal lifestyle with holes in his clothes and coupons in his pockets has left behind a record-shattering $188 million in his will to three Washington institutions.
  As many are now learning, 98-year-old Jack MacDonald was never poor but was in fact a secret millionaire."Jack went out of his way to look poor, partly because he didn't want to be badgered by people who wanted money," his stepdaughter Regen Dennis told the Seattle Times of the secret life-long philanthropist.
  MacDonald's astonishing donations following his death in September mark the largest philanthropic gift in Washington State this year, the Times reports. It's also the sixth-largest in the country for 2013 so far.
  Though he had no children of his own, 40% of his charitable trust will go to Seattle Children's Research Institution '-- with about $3.75 million to be donated the first year.
  Thirty percent will go to the Salvation Army and another 30% will go to the University of Washington School of Law, his 1940 alma mater
  "He felt really good about what he was doing with his money," said Dennis, "and our family feels good about what he's doing with his money."
  MacDonald married late in life to Mary Katherine Moore, a widow with two grown children. The couple is seen here at the Cape of Good Hope in 1984. He described her as the one who 'brightened his life with joy and adventure.'
Minority Enterprise Development Week, 2013
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Federal Register: Executive Office of the President
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 17:29
  A ProclamationThis August, as we marked the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, we were reminded that the measure of America's progress is not whether the doors of opportunity are cracked a little wider for a few, but whether our economic system provides a fair shot for the many. Minority-owned businesses play a crucial part in driving this progress'--not only when their founders pursue their fullest measure of success, but also when they offer employees of all backgrounds a chance to enter the ranks of the American middle class. During Minority Enterprise Development Week, we recognize the strength of our diverse workforce and the many ways minority entrepreneurs contribute to our economy, our society, and our Nation's fundamental promise.
  America's minority enterprises include everything from Main Street cornerstones that sustain communities to global firms that drive innovation in the industries of tomorrow. Together, these businesses employ almost 6 million Americans and contribute 1 trillion dollars to our economy every year. Minority entrepreneurs bring unique perspectives to every corner of our country, and their understanding of diverse cultures often gives them an advantage in the international marketplace.
  As our economy continues to recover, our investments in minority owned and operated firms will help create jobs, strengthen families, and build ladders of opportunity in underserved communities. Over the past 5 years, my Administration has worked to empower minority entrepreneurs by connecting them with billions of dollars in contracts and access to capital. And to better serve America's business community, we launched www.Business.USA.gov, where any firm can seek out financing opportunities, navigate Federal bureaucracy, and cut through red tape.
  This week, we celebrate America's minority enterprises, renew our commitment to helping them grow, and look with pride toward the promise of the future.
  NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 1 through December 7, 2013, as Minority Enterprise Development Week. I call upon all Americans to celebrate this week with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities to recognize the many contributions of our Nation's minority enterprises.
  IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.
  [FR Doc. 2013-28992Filed 11-29-13; 11:15 am]
  Billing code 3295-F4
Canadian denied entry to the US after agent cities private medical records
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: RT - USA
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 03:54
  Published time: November 29, 2013 18:27Edited time: November 29, 2013 20:18Reuters / Shannon Stapleton
  A wheelchair-bound Canadian woman was denied entry to the United States this week because she was previously diagnosed with clinical depression. Now she wants to know why the US Department of Homeland Security had her medical history on file.
  The Toronto Star's Valerie Haunch reported on Thursday that 50-year-old author Ellen Richardson was turned away from the city's Pearson Airport three days earlier after DHS officials said she lacked the necessary medical clearance to cross into the US.
  ''I was turned away, I was told, because I had a hospitalization in the summer of 2012 for clinical depression,'' Richardson told the Star.
  The woman, who has been paraplegic since an unsuccessful suicide attempt in 2001, was planning to fly to New York City to start a 10-day Caribbean cruisein collaboration with a March of Dimes group, and had already invested around $6,000 into the trip, she told the paper.
  ''I was so aghast. I was saying, 'I don't understand this. What is the problem?' I was so looking forward to getting away . . . I'd even brought a little string of Christmas lights I was going to string up in the cabin. . . . It's not like I can just book again right away," she said.
  But according to what American officials told her, it would take the permission of US government-approved doctor and around $500 in fees in order to enter the country. Richardson soon left the airport defeated, but only afterward did she begin to raise questions about what the DHS knew about her.
  "It really hit me later '-- that it's quite stunning they have that information,'' she told CBC.
  Richardson said she has been on numerous cruises since 2001, and traveled through the US for all of them. Only this week, however, did the DHS cite the June 2012 hospital stay, spawning questions about how much personal information American officials hold on foreign persons.
  According to Richardson, the border agent told her that the US Immigration and Nationality Act allows the government to deny entry to anyone with a physical or mental disorder that may pose a ''threat to the property, safety or welfare,'' and that her ''mental illness episode'' from last year warranted extra attention.
  ''The incident in 2012 was hospitalization for depression. Police were not involved,'' her attorney, David McGhee, told the Star, adding that he approached Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews as well ''to tell me if she's aware of any provincial or federal authority to allow US authorities to have access to our medical records.''
  ''Medical records are supposed to be strictly confidential,'' McGhee said.
  "We don't know how deep the connection is between US customs" and Canadian authorities, Richardson's member of Parliament, Mike Sullivan, told CBC. With her story quickly going viral, however, others hope to soon find out the full scope of the data being managed by the DHS.
  ''This is scary,'' MPP France Gelinas told the Star for a follow-up published Friday morning. ''They got access to information that should never have been accessible to anyone.''
  ''Canadians must be assured that their personal records are kept confidential, as intended,'' Sullivan added to Hauch's latest report.
  As RT reported previously, employees of the DHS' Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, have access to huge databases, both federally and privately run, which contain information on travelers including tax ID numbers, past itineraries and even physical characteristics. As for hospital visits in other countries, however, Richardson and others generally expect that information to be not on file.
  According to Star reporter Jack Lakey, an Ontario health ministry official said Thursday that US authorities ''do not have access to medical or other health records for Ontarians travelling to the US.''
  ''If the province didn't knowingly hand over the information, it only leaves the federal government as the source, possibly in some kind of information sharing agreement with the US that we aren't supposed to know about,'' Lakey speculated. ''Given its recently revealed complicity in allowing the U.S. to spy on G8 and G20 leaders when they gathered here in 2010, it is no stretch to believe Ottawa is also playing ball with them on this.''
Private firms selling mass surveillance systems around world, documents show
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 15:17
  Private firms are selling spying tools and mass surveillance technologies to developing countries with promises that "off the shelf" equipment will allow them to snoop on millions of emails, text messages and phone calls, according to a cache of documents published on Monday.
  The papers show how firms, including dozens from Britain, tout the capabilities at private trade fairs aimed at offering nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East the kind of powerful capabilities that are usually associated with government agencies such as GCHQ and its US counterpart, the National Security Agency.
  The market has raised concerns among human rights groups and ministers, who are poised to announce new rules about the sale of such equipment from Britain.
  "The government agrees that further regulation is necessary," a spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said. "These products have legitimate uses '... but we recognise that they may also be used to conduct espionage."
  The documents are included in an online database compiled by the research watchdog Privacy International, which has spent four years gathering 1,203 brochures and sales pitches used at conventions in Dubai, Prague, Brasilia, Washington, Kuala Lumpur, Paris and London. Analysts posed as potential buyers to gain access to the private fairs.
  The database, called the Surveillance Industry Index, shows how firms from the UK, Israel, Germany, France and the US offer governments a range of systems that allow them to secretly hack into internet cables carrying email and phone traffic.
  The index has details from 338 companies, including 77 from the UK, offering a total of 97 different technologies.
  One firm says its "massive passive monitoring" equipment can "capture up to 1bn intercepts a day". Some offer cameras hidden in cola cans, bricks or children's carseats, while one manufacturer turns cars or vans into surveillance control centres.
  There is nothing illegal about selling such equipment, and the companies say the new technologies are there to help governments defeat terrorism and crime.
  But human rights and privacy campaigners are alarmed at the sophistication of the systems, and worry that unscrupulous regimes could use them as tools to spy on dissidents and critics.
  Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi is known to have used off-the-shelf surveillance equipment to clamp down on opposition leaders.
  Privacy International believes UK firms should now be subject to the same strict export licence rules faced by arms manufacturers.
  "There is a culture of impunity permeating across the private surveillance market, given that there are no strict export controls on the sale of this technology, as there are on the sale of conventional weapons," said Matthew Rice, research consultant with Privacy International.
  "This market profits off the suffering of people around the world, yet it lacks any sort of effective oversight or accountability.
  "This lack of regulation has allowed companies to export surveillance technology to countries that use their newly acquired surveillance capability to spy on human rights activists, journalists and political movements."
  Privacy International hopes the Surveillance Industry Index will give academics, politicians and campaigners a chance to look at the type of surveillance technologies now available in the hope of sparking a debate about improved regulation.
  The documents include a brochure from a company called Advanced Middle East Systems (AMES), based in Dubai. It has been offering a device called Cerebro '' a DIY system similar to the Tempora programme run by GCHQ '' that taps information from fibre-optic cables carrying internet traffic.
  AMES describes Cerebro as a "core technology designed to monitor and analyse in real time communications '... including SMS (texting), GSM (mobile calls), billing data, emails, conversations, webmail, chat sessions and social networks."
  The company brochure makes clear this is done by attaching probes to internet cables. "No co-operation with the providers is required," it adds.
  "Cerebro is designed to store several billions of records '' metadata and/or communication contents. At any time the investigators can follow the live activity of their target with advanced targeting criteria (email addresses, phone numbers, key words)," says the brochure.
  AMES refused to comment after being contacted by the Guardian, but said it followed similar protocols to other surveillance companies. "We don't want to interact with the press," said a spokesman.
  Another firm selling similar equipment is VASTech, based in South Africa, which has a system called Zebra. Potential buyers are told it has been designed to help "government security agencies face huge challenges in their combat against crime and terrorism".
  VASTech says Zebra offers "access to high volumes of information generated via telecommunication services for the purposes of analysis and investigation".
  It has been designed to "intercept all content and metadata of voice, SMS, email and fax communications on the connected network, creating a rich repository of information".
  A spokesman for the company said: "VASTech produces products for governmental law enforcement agencies. These products have the primary goal of reducing specifically cross-border crimes such as child pornography, human trafficking, drug smuggling, weapon smuggling, money laundering, corruption and terrorist activities. We compete internationally and openly against several suppliers of similar systems.
  "We only supply legal governments, which are not subjected to international sanctions. Should their status change in this regard, we hold the right to withdraw our supplies and support unilaterally."
  Ann McKechin, a Labour member of the arms export control committee, said: "Obviously we are concerned about how our government provides licences, given these new types of technology.
  "Software technology is now becoming a very large component of our total exports and how we police it before it gets out of country will become an increasingly difficult question and I think the government has to review its processes to consider whether they are fit for the task."
  She said the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which has responsibility for granting export licences, had to ensure it has the skills and knowledge to assess new technologies, particularly if they were being sold to "countries of concern".
  "The knowledge of staff which maybe more geared to more traditional types of weaponry," she added.
  A business department spokesperson said: "The government agrees that further regulation is necessary. These products have legitimate uses in defending networks and tracking and disrupting criminals, but we recognise that they may also be used to conduct espionage.
  "Given the international nature of this problem we believe that an internationally agreed solution will be the most effective response. That is why the UK is leading international efforts to agree export controls on specific technologies of concern.
  "We expect to be able to announce real progress in this area in early December."
  Some companies offer a range of spy equipment that would not look out of place in a James Bond film
  Spy vans
  Ordinary vans, cars and motorbikes can be customised to offer everything a spy could need. Tiny cameras and microphones are hidden in wing mirrors, headlights and even the makers' logo. Vehicles can also be fitted with the latest mass surveillance technology, allowing them to intercept, assess and store a range of digital communications from the surrounding area.
  Hidden cameras
  The range of objects that can hide high-quality cameras and recording equipment appears almost limitless; from a box of tissues giving a 360-degree view of the room, to a child's car seat, a brick and a key fob. Remote controls allow cameras to follow targets as they move around a room and have a powerful zoom to give high definition close-ups.
  Recorders
  As with cameras recording equipment is getting more sophisticated and more ubiquitous. From cigarette lighters to pens their are limitless ways to listen in on other people's conversations. One firm offers a special strap microphone that straps to the wearer's would be spies' back and records conversations going on directly behind them. According to the brochure: "[This] is ideal because people in a crowd think that someone with their back turned can't hear their conversation.. Operatives can work much closer to their target."
  Handheld 'biometric cameras'
  This system, made by a UK firm, is currently being used by British forces in Afghanistan to help troops identify potential terrorists. The brochure for the Mobile Biometric Platform says: "Innocent civilian or Insurgent? Not Certain? Our systems are." It adds: "The MBP is tailored for military use and enables biometric enrolment and identification of finger, face and iris against on board watchlists in real time from live or forensic data."
  Mobile phone locators
  It is now possible, from a single laptop computer, to locate where a mobile phone is calling from anywhere in the world, with an accuracy of between 200 metres and a mile. This is not done by attaching probes, and it is not limited to the area where the laptop is working from. The "cross border" system means it is now theoretically possible to locate a mobile phone call from a town abroad from a laptop in London.
Here's what health entrepreneurs can learn from 23andMe | VentureBeat | Health | by christinafarr
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 07:15
  Dec. 4 - 5, 2013Redwood City, CA
  Tickets on Sale NowThis is a guest post by medical technology entrepreneur Chase Curtiss
  Healthcare is undergoing an unprecedented shift in technology adoption.
  Innovation that has made digital health one of the hottest tech trends. The market is expected to grow from $20 billion to over $50 billion by 2018 and investments in digital health have also dramatically increased over the last 24 months. Everyone is building products in the digital health space, from activity trackers to mobile diagnostics, with very little understanding of the industry and the roles of important gatekeepers. The obvious gatekeeper in digital health is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), who has been front and center in the growing conflict over the role of regulation in digital health.
  The FDA recently took on one of the darlings of the digital health industry, Google-backed 23andMe. The FDA warning letter very clearly spelled out the frustration with the claims 23andMe had made in marketing their product and the complement lack of ''any evidence that it has tested the accuracy of (the product).''
  Related: Read our in-depth analysis about the dispute between 23andMe and the FDA here.
  The outrage over the FDA's treatment of 23andMe is the wrong response.
  We should be holding 23andMe accountable for the claims they make in marketing their product. Even a product with such great potential should have to support its claims with valid evidence.
  23andMe is not an isolated instance. Companies marketing products without the proper clearance are happening all over the digital landscape from prestigious institutions like the Cleveland Clinic with concussion assessment mobile products that have dodged regulation to get to market for a quick profit to small development outfits wanting to cash in on blossoming field.
  What is often forgotten in the bashing of the FDA, is the vital role the organization plays in ensuring the safety and efficacy of medical products to consumers as well as to healthcare professionals. The FDA doesn't hold extremist views, isn't difficult to work with and has shown through guideline publications and sympathetic warning letters to be extremely flexible in working with companies to adhere to the appropriate standards.
  A recent exchange with Congress over the Software Act, an attempt to remove the FDA from the digital health industry, showcased a level headed and reasonable approach from Dr Jeffrey Shuren of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health:
  Simply because (medical devices) got smaller and I can pick it up and walk out of the room with it, doesn't change the risk to the patients. Why for that reason alone would we treat it differently?''
  The statement exemplifies the misconception about the FDA's role in regulation. It isn't to stifle innovation, it is to ensure the proper marketing of safe and effective products no matter the platform for distribution. This distinction is critical when you evaluate the future drivers of digital health, which will be centered on the prescription of digital health solutions through the medical provider and not simply purchased by the consumer. The motivation and oversight of your medical care team will be the single greatest driver to adoption and adherence necessary for the heralded ''disruption of healthcare''.
  The problem with the current approach to skirt around the FDA whenever possible is the challenge it presents to medical professionals in their decision to adopt technology. Without the regulatory clearance of a product, very few healthcare systems will allow the use of a digital health solution. Smaller healthcare providers on the other hand have started dabbling in tech driven solutions without assurances of a quality system or any credible validation.
  Those driving the attempt to deregulate digital health to improve time to market and spur innovation are actually causing more harm than good to future healthcare system we all want. Instead of supporting the FDA and pushing Congress to support a streamlined review process, the tech industry's approach to digital health has been to discredit, ignore, and vilify the gatekeeper, instead of identify, understand and embrace.
  The direct disregard of the necessary regulatory oversight needed to market medical products will lead to an increase in malpractice lawsuits from the use of unregulated mobile technologies in patient management and tracking, which will set back the much-desired innovation in healthcare technology 5 to 10 years.
  By simply embracing the FDA, and meeting the completely realistic standards, digital health companies can help spark widespread adoption of digital solutions in the large healthcare systems. This embrace of regulation could be the key to acceptance by a wider range of providers which would improve healthcare data collection and patient management between visits to allow for more objective outcomes tracking.
  A simplistic view of the decision process on whether to seek FDA clearance:
  ''Leaders who wrestle with what's best vs. simply what's financially feasible/profitable.'''' John Schumann, MD @glasshospital
  All too often our mindset shifts towards that latter and instead of better understanding the barriers, we choose to dance around them in the hope of short-term gain.
  Chase Curtiss is a healthcare entrepreneur and clinical exercise physiologist with internationally published research in biomechanics and human performance. Chase currently serves as the CEO and Founder of Sway Medical, a mobile health startup with an FDA-cleared platform changing the way healthcare professionals monitor conditions that alter balance. Follow him on Twitter @SwayMedical
  VentureBeat is creating an index of the top online health services for consumers. Take a look at our initial suggestions and complete the survey to help us build a definitive index. We'll publish the official index in the weeks to come, and for those who fill out they survey, we'll send you an expanded report free of charge. Speak with the analyst who put this survey together to get more in-depth information, inquire within.
Crucial weekend for Obamacare website, begins with a shutdown
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 07:09
  Crucial weekend for Obamacare website, begins with a shutdownTop News
  Crucial weekend for Obamacare website, begins with a shutdown
  Sat, Nov 30 01:37 AM EST
  By Roberta Rampton and Sharon Begley
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A crucial weekend for the troubled website that is the backbone of President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul appears to be off to a shaky start, as the U.S. government took the HealthCare.gov site offline for an unusually long maintenance period into Saturday morning.
  Just hours before the Obama administration's self-imposed deadline to get the insurance shopping website working for the "vast majority" of its users by Saturday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it was taking down the website for an 11-hour period that would end at 8 a.m. EST on Saturday.
  It was unclear whether the extended shutdown of the website - about seven hours longer than on typical day - represented a major setback to the Obama administration's high-stakes scramble to fix the portal that it hopes eventually will enroll about 7 million uninsured and under-insured Americans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
  At the very least, the shutdown suggested that nine weeks after the website's disastrous launch on October 1 prevented most applicants from enrolling in coverage and ignited one of the biggest crises of Obama's administration, U.S. officials are nervous over whether Americans will see enough progress in the website to be satisfied.
  For the administration and its Democratic allies, the stakes are enormous.
  The healthcare overhaul is Obama's signature domestic achievement, a program designed to extend coverage to millions of Americans and reduce healthcare costs. To work, the program must enroll millions of young, healthy consumers whose participation in the new insurance exchanges is key to keeping costs in check.
  After weeks of round-the-clock upgrades of software and hardware, Obama officials said they were poised to successfully double its capacity by this weekend, to be able to handle 50,000 insurance shoppers at one time.
  But if the website does not work for the "vast majority" of visitors this weekend as the administration has promised, uninsured Americans from 36 states could face problems getting coverage by an initial December 23 deadline.
  It also could create ripples that extend to the 2014 elections when control of the U.S. House of Representatives (now controlled by Republicans) and the Senate (now led by Democrats) will be up for grabs.
  Obama's fellow Democrats who are up for re-election in Congress already have shown signs of distancing themselves from the president and his healthcare program. If the website does not show significant improvement soon, some Democrats - particularly the dozen U.S. senators who are from states led by conservative Republicans and who are up for re-election next year - might call for extending Obamacare's final March 31 enrollment deadline for 2014.
  That would delay the fines that are mandated by the law for those who do not have insurance by that date, a scenario that insurers say would destabilize the market. It also would fuel Republicans' arguments that Obamacare, and its website, are fatally flawed and should be scrapped.
  In broader political terms, the website's immediate success has become vital to Obama's credibility, which polls indicate has been tarnished by the site's problems as well as Obama's admission that he overreached in promising that everyone who liked their healthcare plan would be able to keep it under the new law.
  Obama has been forced to apologize for oversimplying how the law would affect certain Americans, and has acknowledged being embarrassed and frustrated by the website's failures. Recent polls have shown that Obama's approval ratings are at the lowest point of his presidency.
  "It is a lot harder to reboot public trust than it is to reboot software," said David Brailer, chief executive of the Health Evolution Partners private equity firm and a former health official in George W. Bush's administration.
  "But the good thing about when you're down is that usually, you got nowhere to go but up," Obama said in an interview that aired on Friday on ABC. [ID:nL2N0JE0WE]
  IS IT FIXED? HARD TO TELL
  Several technology specialists told Reuters that it will be difficult to independently assess on Saturday whether the HealthCare.gov site has met the administration's goals of functioning for most users most of the time, including handling 50,000 users at once.
  "There won't be anything you can tell from the outside," said Jonathan Wu, an information technology expert and co-founder of the consumer financial website ValuePenguin.
  When the site opened for enrollment on October 1, many users found that they could not complete the simple task of creating an account. Now, the website is functioning better but any remaining problems lie much deeper within the site, Wu said in an interview.
  Eleventh-hour checks were not encouraging, said Matthew Hancock, an independent expert in software design who said he could tell within hours of the site's launch that its problems were the results of poor system design and bugs, rather than the heavy traffic that the administration blamed initially.
  "I have tested the site every several days trying to buy a health insurance plan, but haven't been able to," Hancock said.
  "I think the issues the site faces now are more complex to diagnose from the front end, whereas before the site was immediately failing and returning error details," he said.
  Questions also remain about the website's ability to direct payments to private insurance companies when consumers enroll in their plans. Portions of the system handling those functions are still being built, officials say.
  "The real tests are: Were my premium payment and subsidy accurately calculated? Am I getting the coverage I signed up for? If my income situation changes, will the reconciliation occur in a timely fashion?" said Rick Howard, a research director at technology consultant Gartner.
  A DATE AND A NUMBER
  Heading into this weekend, administration officials tasked with rescuing Obamacare showed signs of confidence that the series of fixes by tech specialists would work.
  The officials gave a "virtual tour" of what they had branded the "tech surge" to a group of White House reporters.
  The White House also invited a group of IT specialists to tour the website's "command center," where an engineer on unpaid leave from Google Inc directs disparate contractors and monitors their progress.
  It was a convincing show that the team had the crisis under control, said John Engates, chief technology officer at Rackspace, a web hosting firm in San Antonio, who participated.
  Engates, who had been publicly critical of the launch, said he felt it was likely the website would be able to handle 50,000 concurrent users on Saturday, although he did not know for sure.
  "Whenever you have a date and a number, you need to be pretty sure that you can hit that date and that number," Engates told Reuters.
  "It's just another loss of confidence if you don't make it."
  (Editing by David Lindsey and Lisa Shumaker)
  Crucial weekend for Obamacare website, begins with a shutdownTop News
  Crucial weekend for Obamacare website, begins with a shutdown
  Sat, Nov 30 01:37 AM EST
  By Roberta Rampton and Sharon Begley
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A crucial weekend for the troubled website that is the backbone of President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul appears to be off to a shaky start, as the U.S. government took the HealthCare.gov site offline for an unusually long maintenance period into Saturday morning.
  Just hours before the Obama administration's self-imposed deadline to get the insurance shopping website working for the "vast majority" of its users by Saturday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it was taking down the website for an 11-hour period that would end at 8 a.m. EST on Saturday.
  It was unclear whether the extended shutdown of the website - about seven hours longer than on typical day - represented a major setback to the Obama administration's high-stakes scramble to fix the portal that it hopes eventually will enroll about 7 million uninsured and under-insured Americans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
  At the very least, the shutdown suggested that nine weeks after the website's disastrous launch on October 1 prevented most applicants from enrolling in coverage and ignited one of the biggest crises of Obama's administration, U.S. officials are nervous over whether Americans will see enough progress in the website to be satisfied.
  For the administration and its Democratic allies, the stakes are enormous.
  The healthcare overhaul is Obama's signature domestic achievement, a program designed to extend coverage to millions of Americans and reduce healthcare costs. To work, the program must enroll millions of young, healthy consumers whose participation in the new insurance exchanges is key to keeping costs in check.
  After weeks of round-the-clock upgrades of software and hardware, Obama officials said they were poised to successfully double its capacity by this weekend, to be able to handle 50,000 insurance shoppers at one time.
  But if the website does not work for the "vast majority" of visitors this weekend as the administration has promised, uninsured Americans from 36 states could face problems getting coverage by an initial December 23 deadline.
  It also could create ripples that extend to the 2014 elections when control of the U.S. House of Representatives (now controlled by Republicans) and the Senate (now led by Democrats) will be up for grabs.
  Obama's fellow Democrats who are up for re-election in Congress already have shown signs of distancing themselves from the president and his healthcare program. If the website does not show significant improvement soon, some Democrats - particularly the dozen U.S. senators who are from states led by conservative Republicans and who are up for re-election next year - might call for extending Obamacare's final March 31 enrollment deadline for 2014.
  That would delay the fines that are mandated by the law for those who do not have insurance by that date, a scenario that insurers say would destabilize the market. It also would fuel Republicans' arguments that Obamacare, and its website, are fatally flawed and should be scrapped.
  In broader political terms, the website's immediate success has become vital to Obama's credibility, which polls indicate has been tarnished by the site's problems as well as Obama's admission that he overreached in promising that everyone who liked their healthcare plan would be able to keep it under the new law.
  Obama has been forced to apologize for oversimplying how the law would affect certain Americans, and has acknowledged being embarrassed and frustrated by the website's failures. Recent polls have shown that Obama's approval ratings are at the lowest point of his presidency.
  "It is a lot harder to reboot public trust than it is to reboot software," said David Brailer, chief executive of the Health Evolution Partners private equity firm and a former health official in George W. Bush's administration.
  "But the good thing about when you're down is that usually, you got nowhere to go but up," Obama said in an interview that aired on Friday on ABC. [ID:nL2N0JE0WE]
  IS IT FIXED? HARD TO TELL
  Several technology specialists told Reuters that it will be difficult to independently assess on Saturday whether the HealthCare.gov site has met the administration's goals of functioning for most users most of the time, including handling 50,000 users at once.
  "There won't be anything you can tell from the outside," said Jonathan Wu, an information technology expert and co-founder of the consumer financial website ValuePenguin.
  When the site opened for enrollment on October 1, many users found that they could not complete the simple task of creating an account. Now, the website is functioning better but any remaining problems lie much deeper within the site, Wu said in an interview.
  Eleventh-hour checks were not encouraging, said Matthew Hancock, an independent expert in software design who said he could tell within hours of the site's launch that its problems were the results of poor system design and bugs, rather than the heavy traffic that the administration blamed initially.
  "I have tested the site every several days trying to buy a health insurance plan, but haven't been able to," Hancock said.
  "I think the issues the site faces now are more complex to diagnose from the front end, whereas before the site was immediately failing and returning error details," he said.
  Questions also remain about the website's ability to direct payments to private insurance companies when consumers enroll in their plans. Portions of the system handling those functions are still being built, officials say.
  "The real tests are: Were my premium payment and subsidy accurately calculated? Am I getting the coverage I signed up for? If my income situation changes, will the reconciliation occur in a timely fashion?" said Rick Howard, a research director at technology consultant Gartner.
  A DATE AND A NUMBER
  Heading into this weekend, administration officials tasked with rescuing Obamacare showed signs of confidence that the series of fixes by tech specialists would work.
  The officials gave a "virtual tour" of what they had branded the "tech surge" to a group of White House reporters.
  The White House also invited a group of IT specialists to tour the website's "command center," where an engineer on unpaid leave from Google Inc directs disparate contractors and monitors their progress.
  It was a convincing show that the team had the crisis under control, said John Engates, chief technology officer at Rackspace, a web hosting firm in San Antonio, who participated.
  Engates, who had been publicly critical of the launch, said he felt it was likely the website would be able to handle 50,000 concurrent users on Saturday, although he did not know for sure.
  "Whenever you have a date and a number, you need to be pretty sure that you can hit that date and that number," Engates told Reuters.
  "It's just another loss of confidence if you don't make it."
  (Editing by David Lindsey and Lisa Shumaker)
Britten omarmen Black Friday - Economie - Reformatorisch Dagblad
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 07:05
  De Britten vieren weliswaar geen Thanksgiving, maar Britse winkeliers kopiren wel de trend om op de dag erna kopers te lokken met grootscheepse aanbiedingen. Zo waait de koopgekte die daardoor traditioneel op Black Friday in de VS ontstaat, over naar de andere kant van de Atlantische Oceaan, meldde The Wall Street Journal vrijdag.
  Black Friday markeert in de VS traditiegetrouw de start van de kerstinkopen, op de dag na de typisch Amerikaanse feestdag Thanksgiving. De enorme drukte rond de mega-aanbiedingen in de VS zette dit jaar diverse Britse winkelbedrijven ertoe aan Black Friday ook te adopteren. Zo zetten onder meer de winkelbedrijven Dixons en Asda, dochteronderneming van de Amerikaanse gigant Wal-Mart, fors het mes in de prijzen. Ook het Britse onderdeel van Amazon.com had speciale aanbiedingen die alleen vrijdag golden.
  Ondertussen barst Black Friday in de VS bijna uit zijn voegen. Daar moesten koopjesjagers dit jaar zelfs de kalkoen op Thanksgiving laten staan, omdat diverse winkelketens besloten voor het eerst al op de feestdag zelf de deuren te openen met aanbiedingen zolang de voorraad strekt.
Bitcoin Fund '-- EXANTE '-- Multi-Product Platform for real-time algorithmic trading.
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 06:51
  The fund that invests in the economy of the next generation. 1 Fund Unit = 1 Bitcoin.
  Start investing in the economy of the next generation
  Open an Account
  Exante seems to offerthe most reliable platformfor high-volume traders.
  Jon Matonis
  Forbes
  Why invest in Bitcoin?
  Investing in Bitcoin is investing in technologyBitcoin is a limited supply currencyBitcoin has a robust infrastructureBitcoin is the transferable and storable currency outside of the banking systemWhy should I invest in the fund rather than Bitcoin directly?
  Account can be opened in 1 dayYou can trade in blocksThe fund manages wallet securityYou can't accidently delete Bitcoins in your fundEXANTE platform provides convenient investment interfaceHow to Purchase Bitcoin Fund?
  Open an EXANTE Account by clicking "Open an Account"Deposit your fundsDownload the Trading PlatformSelect Bitcoin Fund in the trading InstrumentsClick and Buy!NOTE: Similar to Exchange Traded Funds, the Bitcoin Fund objectiveis to purchase and store bitcoinsOur account managers are available 24/7 to assist you.
  Fund HistoryWhat is Bitcoin? Bitcoin or BTC is a virtual currency of the Bitcoin system, a decentralized electronic cash system that uses peer-to-peer networking, digital signatures and cryptographic proof so as to enable users to conduct irreversible transactions without relying on trust.
  What is Bitcoin Fund? The Bitcoin fund is registered in Bermuda. Similar to Exchange Traded Funds, the Bitcoin Fund objective is to purchase and store bitcoins; 1 Fund Unit = 1 Bitcoin. The investment objective of the Fund is to achieve capital gains in the Net Asset Value of the Fund Shares. The fund currently manages a portfolio of 90,000 bitcoins and has achieved a phenomenal +1000% return in its short 3-month history.
  Management TeamMr Alexey Kirienko
  Chairman of the Board, Founder
  Since 2003 Alexey has been successfully trading derivatives on the global markets. In 2006 Alexey incorporated a private trust fund, the trust success led to an establishment of public Global Hedge Capital Fund in 2007, which contributed key technological infrastructure and knowledge base for the next generation prime brokerage company EXANTE Ltd.
  Mr Gatis Eglitis
  Director, Co-founder
  Gatis holds a master of finance and strategic management from Copenhagen business school. Gatis previously worked as an Institutional Sales Trader and later as an institutional business sales manager at Saxo Bank. Gatis presently heads the Malta office of EXANTE which has seen rapid growth over the last few months.
  Mr Anatoliy Knyazev
  Director, Co-founder
  Anatoliy qualified as a mathematician and systems programmer in Lomonosov Moscow State University. Anatoliy previously worked as a director at Global Hedge Capital Group, participating in projects for the design of systems and applications for tick market data visualization and its analysis. Anatoliy is based in our Singapore office.
  Initial SubscriptionThe minimum initial subscription is 1 BTC and minimum account with EXANTE starts from 10 000 '‚¬ for individual and 50 000 '‚¬ for institutional clients.
  An up-front subscription fee to 0.5% of the subscription amount is charged.
  The Safekeeping and Administration FeeThe Safekeeping and Administration fee is payable daily in arrears at the rate of 1.75% of the net share value calculated on a 360 day count convention.
  RedemptionsThe Sub-Fund Shares may be redeemed upon at least ten (10) Business Days. Shareholders that redeem Sub-Fund shares will be subject to a Redemption Charge of 0.5% of the Net Share Value.
  SecuritySecurity is always the key at EXANTE and time-proven cryptographic algorithms are used that allow EXANTE to secure all stored funds against unauthorized access. Organisations like banks, stock exchanges and numerous financial institutions where safety and security are of primary concern have been successfully using asymmetric encryption for many years. The same approach applies security to the Bitcoin network. Wallet management requires private key access. This private key is itself AES256-encrypted. AES256 is recognized by the U.S. National Security Agency to be reliable enough to protect state TOP SECRET data. Access keys are loss-safe due to multiple replication and geographic distribution of deposit boxes in several cities. Each bank stores only part of a key; therefore, if a deposit box is compromised, no funds are lost. Media History The Economist and Bloomberg find it intriguing; it's even gotten the attention of economic heavyweight Paul Krugman, who has said it's like a reimplementation of the gold standard. EXANTE recently feature on The Financial Times as 'a company ahead of the rest' when it comes to Bitcoin and how the company has embraced this new technology with their Bitcoin fund.
  DisclaimerAn investment in Fund Shares involves a high degree of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective and investors should recognize that investing in Fund Shares involves special considerations not typically associated with investing in other securities. Investing in Fund Shares should not be considered a complete investment program by any investor. Before subscribing for Investment Shares, prospective investors should consult independent professional sources for investment, legal and tax advice prior to making any investment and note that they may not recover their total investment amount and consider, among other factors.
The suspiciously simple strategy behind the ''best performing hedge fund in history'' '' Quartz
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 06:49
  With the poor performance of hedge funds'--which so far have lagged behind benchmark equity indices in each quarter of 2013'--it's no wonder a fund would be breathless in promoting its money-making results. In a press release titled ''The best performing fund in history'' Malta-based brokerage Exante touts one of its funds as as ''the best performing hedge fund year to date (2013) with a return of 4847%.''
  What was the strategy that the fund used to turn a hypothetical '‚¬10,000 investment into '‚¬494,700 in less than 11 months? Bitcoin'--and only bitcoin.
  What Exante calls a ''hedge fund'' is really more like an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that isn't publicly traded (but still regulated). Exante's Bitcoin Fund doesn't have a unique investment approach'--it buys bitcoins with money invested into the fund and sells bitcoins when money is withdrawn. A fund unit equals the price of one bitcoin, always. Despite requiring no discretionary management, the fund charges a 1.75% per year management fee and 0.5% transaction fee. It's not open to all investors; only those with a certain level of experience or wealth can apply.
  A hedge fund typically charges a 2% management fee and 20% of profit. But hedge funds justify these fees as the cost of active management, or the cost to access a proprietary strategy. Exante's bitcoin fund appears to involve neither of those. Compared to ETFs, where the average ''expense ratio'' is well below 1% and few are above 1.5%, its fees are expensive. And unlike, say, a gold ETF, which lets you invest in gold without the headache of buying, storing and securing the stuff, an ETF-style bitcoin fund merely replicates something you can do yourself'--buy and sell bitcoin'--with a computer and a modicum of work. So why not just invest in bitcoin directly and save the fees?
  Exante told Quartz, ''underlying physical coins are kept safe for you by an expert team: georedundancy, state of art crypto, no single point of failure.'' On the webpage promoting the fund it says its solution is also more convenient and ''You can't accidentally delete Bitcoins in your fund.''
  All of which may be true'--but it still seems a high fee for something that basically runs itself, and is significantly less laborious than hauling bars of gold. Then again, if you're enough of a risk-taker enough to invest in a currency that's nearly sextupled in value in the last month and could drop again just as fast, you probably don't care too much about someone shaving off a couple of extra percentage points off your winnings'--or losses.
VIDEO- BULLY-FREE ZONE! (song for kids about Bullying vs. Showing Respect) - YouTube
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 02:39
VIDEO-12 mins in- Glenn Greenwald "The Goal Of The U.S. Government Is To Eliminate ALL Privacy Globally!" - YouTube
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 02:22
VIDEO-California High-Speed Rail Project On Hold : UNAgenda21
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 01:27
  Exposing the comprehensive UN plan to bring about an authoritarian world government via international regulations and treaties under the guise of environmentalism and social equity.
  Remember, a lot of this is heavy doublespeak. I.E. "Commuter Friendly" = Commuter hell, at the mercy of public transportation, unfriendly-to-cars, no leaving the area etc., "Walkable" = car unfriendly, literally poverty infrastructure
  New UrbanismTriple Bottom LineSustainability/Sustainable DevelopmentSocial EquityEconomic EmpowermentSocial Responsibility"Smart" i.e. Smart GrowthEconomic/Environmental JusticeCorporate Social Responsibility(CSR)Liveable/WalkableNew NormalComplete StreetsMixed-Use (property)"Green"Commuter Friendly"Well-Being"Community ActionResilience/Resilient CommunitiesTransition TownNext/New EconomySECTION I. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS: Chapter 2.1.
  In order to meet the challenges of environment and development, States have decided to establish a new global partnership. This partnership commits all States to engage in a continuous and constructive dialogue, inspired by the need to achieve a more efficient and equitable world economy, keeping in view the increasing interdependence of the community of nations and that sustainable development should become a priority item on the agenda of the international community. It is recognized that, for the success of this new partnership, it is important to overcome confrontation and to foster a climate of genuine cooperation and solidarity. It is equally important to strengthen national and international policies and multinational cooperation to adapt to the new realities.
  No Racism
  No Abusive/threatening language.
  Any posts that attack the sub, the users or the mods can be removed. Breaking this rule more than once can earn a ban.
  We are all different here, and you may find that have different beliefs, but please be respectful of each other.
Statement by the Press Secretary on the Presidential Determination Pursuant to Section 1245(d)(4)(B) and (C) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Sat, 30 Nov 2013 01:22
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  November 29, 2013
  Today the President made the determination required under section 1245(d)(4)(B) and (C) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 regarding the supply of petroleum and petroleum products from countries other than Iran.
  The analysis contained in the Energy Information Administration's report of October 31, 2013, indicates that global oil consumption has exceeded production in recent months, though trends stayed in line with seasonal patterns. International oil supply disruptions grew but were largely offset by rising oil production from other countries, particularly from the United States and Saudi Arabia. While increased Saudi output reduced spare crude production capacity, stable inventory levels and stable oil prices compared with the period a year ago indicate a well-supplied international crude market.
  There currently appears to be sufficient supply of non-Iranian oil to permit foreign countries to reduce significantly their purchases of Iranian oil, taking into account current estimates of demand, increased production by countries other than Iran, inventories of crude oil and petroleum products, and available spare production capacity. In this context, it is notable that many purchasers of Iranian crude oil continue to reduce, or have ceased altogether, their purchases from Iran.
Presidential Determination -- Iran Oil
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 22:02
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  November 29, 2013
  Presidential DeterminationNo. 2014-03
  MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE SECRETARY OF ENERGY
  SUBJECT: Presidential Determination Pursuant to Section 1245(d)(4)(B) and (C) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012
  By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, after carefully considering the report submitted to the Congress by the Energy Information Administration on October 31, 2013, and other relevant factors, including global economic conditions, increased oil production by certain countries, and the level of spare capacity, I determine, pursuant to section 1245(d)(4)(B) and (C) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, Public Law 112-81, and consistent with my determinations of March 30, 2012, June 11, 2012, December 7, 2012, and June 5, 2013, that there is a sufficient supply of petroleum and petroleum products from countries other than Iran to permit a significant reduction in the volume of petroleum and petroleum products purchased from Iran by or through foreign financial institutions.
  I will closely monitor this situation to ensure that the market can continue to accommodate a reduction in purchases of petroleum and petroleum products from Iran.
  The Secretary of State is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
  BARACK OBAMA
Presidential Proclamation -- National Impaired Driving Prevention Month, 2013
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 22:02
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  November 29, 2013
  NATIONAL IMPAIRED DRIVING PREVENTION MONTH, 2013
  - - - - - - -
  BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
  A PROCLAMATION
  During the holiday season, Americans join with family, friends, and neighbors to take part in longstanding traditions. For some, those celebrations are tempered by the absence of loved ones taken too soon in traffic crashes involving drugs or alcohol, or caused by distracted driving. During National Impaired Driving Prevention Month, we dedicate ourselves to saving lives and eliminating drunk, drugged, and distracted driving.
  Impaired drivers are involved in nearly one-third of all deaths from motor vehicle crashes in the United States, taking almost 30 lives each day. This is unacceptable. My Administration is committed to raising awareness about the dangers of impaired driving, improving screening methods, and ensuring law enforcement has the tools and training to decrease drunk and drugged driving. We are designing effective, targeted prevention programs, and are working to curtail all forms of distracted driving, including texting and cell phone use. To keep the American people safe this holiday season, law enforcement across our Nation will participate in the national Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign from December 13 to January 1. This initiative increases enforcement and reminds us all to consider the consequences of impaired driving.
  Everyone has a role to play in keeping our roads safe -- from parents, schools, and businesses to faith-based and community organizations. Together, we can teach young people, friends, and fellow citizens how to avoid a crash brought on by impaired driving. I encourage all Americans to designate a non-drinking driver, plan ahead for alternative transportation, or make arrangements to stay with family and friends before consuming alcohol. Americans should also know what precautions to take if using over-the-counter or prescription medication. For more information, please visit www.WhiteHouse.gov/ONDCP and www.NHTSA.gov/Impaired.
  This month and always, let every American drive sober, buckle-up, and avoid distractions while driving. If we take these actions and encourage those around us to do the same, we will save thousands of lives and keep thousands of families whole.
  NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 2013 as National Impaired Driving Prevention Month. I urge all Americans to make responsible decisions and take appropriate measures to prevent impaired driving.
  IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.
  BARACK OBAMA
VIDEO Protected by TSA on Thanksgiving Week? A Storybook Fairy Tale - YouTube
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 21:16
Wenn Windr¤der mit Strom angetrieben werden - Energiemarkt - derStandard.at 'º Wirtschaft
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:31
  Fehler in der Planung der Energiewende holen Deutschland ein und treffen ¼ber das gemeinsame Strommarktgebiet auch –sterreich
  vergr¶Ÿern
  Berlin/Wien - Es gibt Sachen, die sind an Skurrilit¤t kaum zu ¼berbieten. Riffgat ist so ein Beispiel. Der Name steht f¼r einen Windpark 15 Kilometer nordwestlich der Insel Borkum, mitten in der Nordsee. Er wurde nach 14-monatiger Bauzeit im August dieses Jahres eingeweiht. Weil das niederl¤ndische Unternehmen Tennet, das f¼r das 'bertragungsnetz in der Region zust¤ndig ist, mit der Verlegung des Seekabels in Verzug ist, kann der Windpark bis auf Weiteres keinen Strom produzieren - im Gegenteil. Der Offshore-Windpark braucht Strom.
  Die Anlage darf n¤mlich nicht stillstehen. Die Motoren m¼ssen regelm¤Ÿig laufen, sonst w¼rden sie in der salzigen Seeluft ziemlich schnell Rost ansetzen. Den notwendigen Strom liefert ein Generator, der pro Monat rund 22.000 Liter Diesel verbraucht. Und das m¶glicherweise noch 2,5 Monate lang. Erst Mitte Februar 2014 k¶nnte der Anschluss des Windparks an das Stromnetz fertig sein.
  Das erinnert ein wenig an die Fahrt eines West¶sterreichers ¼ber die Parndorfer Platte im Burgenland. Die vielen sich drehenden Windr¤der vor Augen ruft er entsetzt: "Was das Strom braucht!"
  Anpassungsbedarf relativ kleinSo schlimm ist es nicht. Die Windr¤der im Burgenland ben¶tigen zwar Energie, wenn sie bei wenig Wind aus dem Stillstand in Drehung gebracht werden. Das ist vernachl¤ssigbar. Vergleichsweise klein ist auch der Anpassungsbedarf in –sterreich, was die Adaptierung des –kostromgesetzes an neue Marktgegebenheiten betrifft. Zumindest dann, wenn man nach Deutschland blickt.
  Dort ist Feuer am Dach. W¤hrend ein Durchschnittshaushalt in –sterreich ¼ber die Stromrechnung rund 65 Euro pro Jahr f¼r –kostrom zahlen muss, sind es in Deutschland 230 Euro - Tendenz steigend. Grund: Erneuerbare Energie kann in Deutschland ohne Deckel produziert werden. Der Anteil von Strom aus Wind und Sonne ist zwar sprunghaft gestiegen, aber eben auch die Kosten.
  In –sterreich ist die F¶rdersumme f¼r Neuanlagen mit 40 Millionen Euro pro Jahr limitiert; Geld gibt es 13 (Deutschland: 20) Jahre.
  Gesetzes-ReformW¤hrend in Deutschland zu Energie ein zw¶lfseitiges Papier erarbeitet wurde, sind es in –sterreich schmale 1,5 Seiten - wohl der kleinste, gemeinsame Nenner, auf den man sich einigen konnte. In Deutschland wird "eine schnelle und grundlegende Reform des Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetzes (EEG)" angestrebt, wobei sich die Koalition verpflichtet, Ergebnisse "bis Ostern 2014" vorzulegen mit dem Ziel einer Verabschiedung noch im Sommer.
  In dem 1,5-Seiten-Papier von SP– und –VP ist von einer "Reform des –kostromf¶rderregimes" die Rede. Bei den Details will man offenbar warten, in welche Richtung Deutschland marschiert.
  Einen Schildb¼rgerstreich wie den Offshore-Windpark ohne Anschluss (siehe oben) jedenfalls kann und wird man in –sterreich nie sehen. Dazu fehlt das Meer. (G¼nther Strobl, DER STANDARD, 29.11.2013)
European Unemployment Declines From All Time High, Youth Unemployment Hits Fresh Record - Full Breakdown
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: BlackListedNews.com
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:22
  Following the "good" news in the inflationary front, in which European November CPI rose and beat expectations if posting the first sub-Japan inflationary rate in Eurozone history, Eurostat followed with more holiday cheer when it reported a surprising decline in the overall Eurozone unemployment rate from 12.2% to 12.1%, the first such drop since late 2010. This was driven by a decline in the jobless rate in France (from 11.1% to 10.9%), Portugal (from 15.8% to 15.7%) Ireland (from 12.7% to 12.6%) and Lithuania (from 11.4% to 11.1%). The offset was as usual Spain which rose to a new record high of 26.7%, and Belgium rising to 9.0%.
  The sequential change is shown in the next table:
  It was not all good news however, and when one looks at Europe's weakest link - youth unemployment - the number once again rose to a fresh all time high, of 24.4%:
  In October 2013, 5.657 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU28, of whom 3.577 million were in the euro area. Compared with October 2012 youth unemployment decreased by 29 000 in the EU28, but increased by 15 000 in the euro area. In October 2013, the youth unemployment rate5 was 23.7% in the EU28 and 24.4% in the euro area, compared with 23.3% and 23.7% respectively in October 2012. In October 2013, the lowest rates were observed in Germany (7.8%), Austria (9.4%) and the Netherlands (11.6%), and the highest in Greece (58.0% in August 2013), Spain (57.4%) and Croatia (52.4% in the third quarter of 2013).
  Of all, Spain was most notable, because its record high youth unemployment rate of 57.4%, is now just why of the sad Greek record of 58.0%. At this pace there should be parity between the two countries in 1-2 months.
Renault Will Remotely Lock Down Electric Cars
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: BlackListedNews.com
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:21
  Source: FSFE
  >>For a long time, cars were a symbol of freedom and independence. No longer. In its Zoe electric car, car maker Renault apparently has the ability to remotely prevent the battery from charging. And that's more chilling than it sounds.
  Image: Renault Clio (Wikimedia Commons).
  When you buy a Renault Zoe, the battery isn't included. Instead, you sign a rental contract for the battery with the car maker. In a Zoe owner's forum, user Franko30 reports that the contract contains a clause giving Renault the right to prevent your battery from charging at the end of the rental period. According to an article in Der Spiegel, the company may also do this when you fall behind on paying the rent for the battery.
  This means that Renault has some way of remotely controlling the battery charging process. According to the Spiegel article, the Zoe (and most or all other electric cars) collect reams of data on how you use them, and send this data off to the manufacturer without your knowledge. This data tells the company where you are going, when, and how fast, where you charge the battery, and many other things besides. We already knew that Tesla was doing this with its cars since the company's very public spat with a journalist who reviewed one of their cars for the New York Times. Seeing the same thing in a mass market manufacturer like Renault makes clear just how dangerous this trend is.
  This sort of thing fits well into the dystopian picture which Cory Doctorow paints in his 2011 talk ''The coming war on General Computation'' (which you really must watch, if you haven't already), where he argues that ''we don't have cars anymore, we have computers we ride in''. The question then becomes who is in control of this computer: You, the manufacturer, or someone else?
VIDEO-Red Alert Politics >> [WATCH] Oprah Winfrey claims Americans hate Obama because he is black
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:19
  Oprah Winfrey sure didn't hold anything back when offering her opinion of President Barack Obama, saying the reason he has faced such adversity from many Americans is because he is African-American.
  Winfrey has overwhelmingly supported President Obama, endorsing him in both the 2008 and 2012 elections. But during an interview with BBC News, the media mogul made a startling claim about why some Americans disapprove of the President.
  ''There's a level of disrespect for the office that occurs. And that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he's African-American,'' she said. ''There's no question about that and it's the kind of thing nobody ever says but everybody's thinking it.''
  In the weeks since the Affordable Care Act rolled out, the President has seen his lowest approval ratings in two years. Only 39 percent of Americans approve of Obama, a Gallup poll released last week shows.
  Winfrey was a key component of Obama's 2008 presidential run, campaigning heavily for the then-Sen. Economists estimate the former talk-show host's endorsement was worth more than 1 million votes.
  Though Winfrey did offer her endorsement of the President when he ran for re-election in 2012, she stayed off the campaign trail. And the media powerhouse turned down offers from the White House to promote Obama's signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act.
  Watch a clip of Winfrey's interview below.
How Music Management Rollups Could Affect Music Tech's Future
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: LIVE@LEEDS
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:09
  Bobby Owsinski Fobes.com 11/15/13
  We're living in a very interesting time in the music business. Unlike when the industry was caught off-guard by the MP3 revolution, the industry powers that be are totally on top of the one that's happening now '' streaming music '' and they're being proactive about dealing with it. Interestingly enough, they're way ahead of the curve this time, even before the majority of the public. Let's look at how this is playing out.
  The first step in trying to take control of the situation came when the major labels pushed Spotify for an equity stake as part of the licensing deal that let it enter the US market. The labels weren't about to lose control again like they did with iTunes a decade earlier, so this was a mandatory condition for the deal. Now with Spotify's biggest competitor Deezer about to enter the US, you wonder whether the labels are asking for the same agreement. My guess is that they won't get it this time, since they're not in the same position of strength that they were even a year ago, as more deep pocketed competitors are already in the marketplace where there was no way the labels could get equity (like with the recently introduced iTunes Radio) or new ones about to be introduced (like YouTube Music which had it's deal in place before Spotify's).
  The problem for the record labels is that they're no longer the pinnacle of power in the music business '' managers are. Modern music management now includes many of the former duties of a record label, like marketing and promotion, as part of its core offering to an artist. And with artists now capable of ably recording their own masters without a huge financial outlay, the banking services of a label are no longer needed either.
  That's why some of the recent deals involving managers are interesting, because it can put their artists into a more leveraged position with the various music tech services. There are three very recent examples.
  First is the integration of Azoff Management with Madison Square Garden Company to form Azoff Madison Square Garden Entertainment as I wrote about here a few weeks ago. Irving Azoff is already one of the most powerful people in the music business, and his muscles just got larger with the addition of the venues and deep pockets of MSG. Now you have more than just a management company, as there are more services to offer and for a label to compete with, which is the whole point.
  Then there's the recent announcement that U2's manager Paul McGinnis' Principle Management and Madonna's manager Guy Oseary and his Maverick management company were being bought by LiveNation in a $30 million deal that rolled them into the company's management arm '' Artist Nation. Even though both have been doing business with LiveNation for years, the company just got more powerful with the direct representation of the additional top tier talent.
  Perhaps even more intriguing is the $120 million investment fund to roll up a number of management companies by Scooter Braun and his SB Projects company, who already handles the likes of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Psy, The Wanted, and Cody Simpson. The coalition is said to include Drake mangers, Oliver El-Khatib Adel and ''Future The Prince'' Nur at October's Very Own; Troy Carter and his Atom Factory clients John Legend (and until last week, Lady Gaga); and Jason Owen, whose Sandbox Entertainment in Nashville manages the likes of Shania Twain, Little Big Town, and Kacey Musgraves.
  So why do you think this consolidation is happening? Like with most things in business, it's about money, and the way to do that right now is to gain more leverage with digital distributors. The precedent was recently set with Taylor Swift's Big Machine record label signing a direct deal with Clear Channel to receive royalties for airplay, something that had never happened on terrestrial radio in the US before (although artists do get paid for online radio play). Since then, Warner Music Group and Clear Channel have done a similar agreement.
  Now if you're a manger of a major act, you're probably thinking ''Why should I let the label do that deal, as I'm only going to see pennies on the dollar?'' And since many of the licensing deals with the various streaming services are coming up for renewal, you're also thinking, ''I can cut a better deal if I can do it directly with the streaming service.'' It's probably a long shot for a manager with big time celebrity artist to do this, but it's much more likely to happen if there are a number if them banded together, hence the management rollups and mergers.
  It's about to become the Wild West in the upper echelons of the music business as we'll soon be seeing an attempt at direct deals from these larger management entities. The whole idea is to get more revenue for the client, and the best way to do that is to take the label out of the picture. Whether that will actually happen is yet to be seen, but it will make for interesting observation by industry watchers. Let the wars begin.
  Like this:LikeLoading...
  This entry was posted on November 29, 2013 at 11:57 am and is filed under Business, Managers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The Mendicant
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Lame Cherry
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:08
  There is a great mirror image of Obama America in economic catastrophe and the image of it is 1820's America in the upheaval of that era.This was the Administration of Andrew Jackson who took apart the national bank of America, due to it being owned by foreigners and due to it issuing the same "bank drafts" which you could subsitute with derivatives of the 2008 Obama cartel induced Super Depression on America.
  The surplus of the Jackson era was due to sales of wilderness lands, and land speculators inflating prices beyond what settlers could afford.
  I will utilize quotes from the Theodore Roosevelt history of Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri for synopsis effect to guide this treatise of discovery.
  "Calhoun finally introduced an amendment to the Constitution to enable the surplus in the treasury during the next eight years to be distributed among the various states; the estimate being that for the time mentioned there would be about nine millions surplus annually. Benton attacked the proposal very ably, showing the viciousness of a scheme which would degrade every state government into the position of a mendicant, and would allow money to be collected from the citizens with one hand in order to be given back to them with the other;"
  Theodore Roosevelt. Thomas Hart Benton (Kindle Locations 1359-1362).
  This is fascinating in John C. Calhoun, another Democrat, advocated exactly the plague which was used by Rep. Henry Waxman against cigarette companies, and the later Obama stimulus package of 2009, both of which did nothing but create legalized looting of public moneys.South Dakota for example dumped her cigarette pay off money into education by Governor Bill Janklow and the net result was absolutely no return on that money.The Obama stimulus has been outed as the same bribery and graft scheme which was ushered in by the distribution of the Government surplus in the Jackson era, in it was literal theft or literal bribe to the democrat party in each state or on the national scale to the Obama coffers.
  Once again a quote follows which speaks of the Obama reparations he handed out for colored peoples in farming or slavery reparations, in the absolute scam it has proven to be and which Benton warned of, as it only would benefit the financiers speculating on gaining that money.
  "Benton strongly opposed the payment by the United States of the private claims of its citizens for damages arising from the French spoliations at the end of the last century. He pointed out that the effort to pay such claims, scores of years after the time of their accruing, rarely benefits any of the parties originally in interest, and can only do real service to dishonest speculators."
  Theodore Roosevelt. Thomas Hart Benton (Kindle Locations 1396-1399).
  One can be reminded of the Obama cash for clunkers which removed from America a host of viable work vehicles for poor people, brought in more Mexicans to inflate used car prices, and the only group who benefited were the financiers and auto executives in selling more cars as they robbed poor Americans.
  "He wished the public lands to be sold in small parcels to actual settlers, at prices that would allow any poor man who was thrifty to take up a claim."
  Theodore Roosevelt. Thomas Hart Benton (Kindle Locations 1403-1404).
  You see in the above quote that Senator Benton had the absolutely correct idea, which was backed by President Andrew Jackson.Benton and Jackson went so far as to undo other democrats like John Calhoun and Whig Federalist Republicans in their "paper money" or speculation money for these wilderness lands to inform the Treasury that the Government would only accept hard currency or gold and silver as payment for those homestead lands, which of course benefited the small capitalist, or "common man".
  Congress was in recess when Jackson adopted this measure, and Congress attempted upon return to stop the program which helped the small landholder in passing a bill in both houses, but as Congress recessed again, Jackson pocketed the bill and it was never seen again.
  This American history is so vital to understand in the utter ruin of the Obama regimes rapine of America, because while Andrew Jackson made war on the unsound economic policies of the national banking structure empowering the eastern elite and making war on small investors, Birther Hussein Obama has been looting the Treasury for this very Federal Reserve and Wall Street structure.
  Where President Jackson with Senator Benton of Missouri championed the "little guy" to create their own economic enterprise for self wealth, the Obama regime has done nothing but bribe the rich on Wall Street Welfare of bribe the working with unemployment or bribe the poor with welfare.
  The exact same system which birther Barack Hussein Obama is the one which Andrew Jackson sought to terminate, as he fully comprehended it's dangers. President Jackson was just as astute in using the institutions of government for his own spoils, but it would be Benton and Crockett who would rail against the shortcomings of the President as a check and balance.
  All this must be understood as a worse corrupt system has enslaved Americans in the 21st century on the same foreign mode and unbridled speculation with corruption of of the early 1800's. The reality in all of this is the profound reality where petty despots were of the system which crashed after Jackson took it apart, the grande despotry is still in place in the economic crash which is America now overseen by the Obama regime.
  I have the greatest respect for President Theodore Roosevelt, but he was shortsighted in not comprehending as Congress nor the founders did not in foreign ownership of the banking structures in America, with their usury and their debt lending, which is nothing but legal loansharking in forcing governments to operate at a loss so the foreigner can lend money at a rate, thereby making profit without any product produced, except enslaved labor.It was Theodore Roosevelt who brought modern banking into America with the Federal Reserve. This was necessary to expand American revenues for projects like the Panama Canal and to have a banking structure to borrow against for times of war.
  What this has spawned though is worse than anything in history for Theodore Roosevelt to compare to, for it is now a system which brought down the British Empire, murdered the Czar to exploit Russia as a communist gulag slave force, ruined Japan, crippled South Korea and destroyed America and is in process of running the same scheme in the slave states of China and India.
  It is a criminal leviathan of economic rape which preys upon the wool of the pasture called humanity.
  This criminal enterprise by design so inflated all the world prices, that precious metals do not exist in enough quantity to match the quadrillions of dollars.
  Land prices when matched to specie or the gold and silver standard was in the late 1820's at $1.25 an acre. The Homestead act would follow later in limiting a farm to 160 acres to be converted from wilderness to farmland.Consider the damage done in all of this as 200 dollars could buy a farmstead in America in the Jackson era. A laundress with her husband doing labor could gain 40 dollars per month. That means in 5 months a couple or in less than a year, a single person could buy land for a farm to develop it.
  In 1970, due to inflation set up by these same foreign banking interests and American banking traitors, a farm in America could be had at 200 dollars per acre to note inflation rates. That would be 32,000 dollars would purchase a farm in the hinterlands.A wage of that ear was 200 dollars per month, with the same food being cheap as was living in gas, electric and transportation, would mean that a working couple would work 80 months to gain a farm, or 6 years and 8 months.
  Now transport to the 21st century in the Age of Obama, with the cost of living and government taxation sucking up the vast majority of a working wage, which again will be pegged at poverty at 30,000 dollars for a couple per year in wages.That same hinterland farm is through real estate graft going at 4000 dollars per acre or, 640,000 dollars for a farm.
  It would require 21 years and 3 months for that couple to afford that same farm, which in Andrew Jackson's time could be paid for in less than a year.
  If one prices Iowa or Illinois farm lands on speculation, it would be over 100 years to pay off that same farm.
  Do you see the criminality in this, and all of this? The crash of 2008 which was created if it would have been left to itself would have fixed all of this, but in this price fixing which was orchestrated, it only became a gulag of debt for all Americans.
  You can run the same numbers for houses from 1820 and 1970 to the 21st century and find the exact same rapine. People used to be able to work, live and advance on a wage, but in this Age of Obama, people are enslaved, are put to death and rolled into the grave of the prison yard.
  Ask yourself why is it this blog is the only source which teaches you things in historical measure, melding it to the modern economics, all in a Milton Friedman way of understanding the criminal syndicate which is taking place.
  The term MENDICANT is of the ages. It is a term that Andrew Jackson and Thomas Hart Benton as Democrats shunned and one which Theodore Roosevelt a Republican detested, as it meant that American States and Americans by the above policies would become perpetual beggars looking to the federal government for a way to stay alive.
  Those federalists and states rights, those anti central bank and pro central bank, both were against a policy which ruined the Citizen's Right to life, liberty and pursuit of a living which brought them joy. This blindness which is the rank and file union, welfare, GOP, Democrat and whatever groups in America, including the Wall Street investor is absolute anti American, as if Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt could see the disasters of each others policies, but never forget the one policy to promote the American individual right to making a living easily, I will state again that America has become peopled by a colonial tyranny worse than 1776, as the peoples no longer recognize the problem of government but are the problem.
  I will state that again.
  The people no longer recognize the problem of government, because the people are the problem.
  Lame Cherry
  I close with that in another Lame Cherry Inspired exclusive in matter anti matter, so you can look smart and have a semblance of understanding what is absolutely wrong with the policies which have deliberately destroyed America.
  You only get this here.
  nuff said
  agtG
Barbecue Biscuits & Beans: Chuck Wagon Cooking:Amazon:Books
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 07:24
  Barbecue Biscuits & Beans: Chuck Wagon Cooking (Paperback)
  Bill Cauble
  List Price: $19.95Price: $14.96 You Save: $4.99(25%)In StockFREE Shipping on orders over $35.Choose FREE Shipping for delivery by Christmas. DetailsShips from and sold by Amazon.comGift-wrap available. Want it delivered by Monday, Dec 2? Order within 36hr 35min, and choose One-Day delivery at checkout.
  ShareAverage Customer Rating: 4.9 / 5.0View Customer ReviewsEditorial ReviewsProduct Details
  Frequently Bought TogetherBuy this with The Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook: A Treasury of Timeless, Delicious Recipes (Paperback) todayBuy Together Today: $32.66Total List Price: $44.90You Save: $12.24 (27%)
  Marketplace offersNew from $12.19Used from $3.11
  Search
  CartYour Account1-Click SettingsWish ListFind a Wish List or RegistrySign OutHelpHomeLegal Terms
  v
NBA-coach laat drankje vallen en krijgt 50.000 dollar boete
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: VK: Home
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 07:00
  Bewerkt door: redactie '' 29/11/13, 03:50 '' bron: AP
  video De Amerikaanse basketbalfederatie NBA heeft coach Jason Kidd van de Brooklyn Nets een boete van 50.000 dollar gegeven, omdat hij zijn drankje opzettelijk op de grond zou hebben laten vallen. De coach wilde tijd rekken, omdat hij geen time-outs meer over had.
  Met nog 8.3 seconde te spelen in de met 99-94 verloren wedstrijd tegen de Lakers botste Kidd tegen reservespeler Tyshawn Taylor aan, waardoor zijn drankje op de grond viel. Op videobeelden is te zien dat hij dit opzettelijk deed; vlak voor de botsing fluistert hij zijn reservespeler toe: 'hit me'.
  Terwijl de vloer werd schoongemaakt zag de coach kans zijn spelers nog een laatste aanwijzing te geven. Overigens ontkende Kidd dat er opzet in het spel was. 'Ik had zweterige handpalmen', zo grapte hij.
China Sends Warplanes Into Disputed Islands' Airspace
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: News From Antiwar.com
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 06:57
  The Chinese military has deployed warplanes into the airspace over the disputed Senkaku Islands, attempting to defend the new airspace defense zone they set up from repeated violations.
  Both Japan and South Korea sent military flights into the disputed airspace today, following a previous move by US warplanes into the area, and some Japanese civilian plane flyovers.
  China says the moves are purely defensive and in keeping with international common practice in the wake of airspace violation, though of course none of the other nations involved accept the islands as Chinese territory.
  Ownership of the unpopulated islands is complicated. They were historically claimed as part of the Ryukyu Kingdom, which had ties with the Ming Dynasty of China, which is where Chinese claims of it being theirs originates. Japan occupied the islands in the late 19th century and had some industrial interests in the island through World War 2, when it was occupied by the United States. The US returned the islands to Japan in 1972, but they have sat unused and uninhabited ever since.
  The islands have long been considered of little to no value, but there are believed to be significant offshore oil reserves in the territory, which has created new interest in enforcing those long-standing claims to the islands.
  Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz
A Secret History of Thanksgiving Football
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Crooks and Liars
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 06:55
  A secret history of Thanksgiving football (via SB Nation)
  By David Roth on Nov 27 2013, 1:32p + The NFL has worked hard to turn football into a Thanksgiving tradition. But there are many Thanksgiving NFL games from the past that the league doesn't want you to know about. In 2013, Thanksgiving and NFL football'...
Afghan president condemns US strike that killed toddler, threatens not to sign security deal
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: WTF RLY REPORT
  Fri, 29 Nov 2013 06:48
  RT
  President Hamid Karzai has blamed the US for a drone strike on a home in southern Afghanistan that killed a 2-year-old child and wounded two women, vowing that he will not sign a key bilateral security deal if such attacks continue.
  ''This attack shows that American forces are not respecting the life and safety of Afghan people's houses,'' Karzai said in the statement Thursday. ''For years, our innocent people have become victims of the war under the name of terrorism, and they have had no safety in their homes.''
  Karzai made it clear that he will not sign the security agreement if such ''oppressions by foreign forces continue.''
  The president stated that the airstrike was suspected to have been carried out by US ''pilotless aircraft'' and targeted a house in Helmand Province. Karzai added that he received his information from the governor of the province, Mohammad Naem.
  No details were provided by the US-led coalition about Thursday's airstrike.
  The strike came as US and Afghanistan are in the midst of negotiating a bilateral security agreement that has so far not fleshed out the details about under what conditions US troops will stay in Afghanistan past the NATO forces' pullout in 2014.
  Last week US had thought it finalized the deal by proposing to leave 15,000 soldiers in Afghanistan to train and assist the country's military. But, Karzai had doubts about signing the deal, expressing concerns over US meddling in Afghanistan's internal affairs.
  Read More