Beast System: Laying The Foundation Of The Beast

[ionblast]

@oneofmany

Mucho (albeit belated) props for this thread. The knowledge dropped only drives home the fact the two-party system and the drama that surrounds it (tea-baggers verses Obama groupies) look like the distractions that they are.

 

[oneofmany]

Digital Economy Bill: Nine things you can't do any more

Digital Economy Bill: Nine things you can't do any more​

The Digital Economy Bill has a number of clauses that, if taken to their logical extremes, could see some pretty horrible outcomes. It's completed its whistle-stop tour of the legislative process, sprinting from Commons to Lords with barely a pause for breath before getting the nod from Her Maj. MPs decided to get the bill into law first and worry about the details later.

Until Ofcom hammers out the mechanics of the processes outlined in the bill, it's impossible to say how we'll be affected. We take a look at some of the worst-case scenarios.

Watch copyrighted content

No shizzle, Sherlock. Accessing copyrighted movies and music is illegal already, but with just a minimal amount of know-how it's easier than falling off a slippery log in the rainy season. The bill aims to make it more difficult to access copyrighted content, by blocking Web sites built around sharing such material. From the other side, the bill creates sanctions that can be applied to you, the user, should you be caught with your fingers in the copyright cookie jar.

Download from us

Download.com is part of the big happy CNET family. Among the available software are peer-to-peer file-sharing tools. The bill specifically states that Web sites such as Download.com can be blocked if they're providing tools that infringe copyright.

Use Napster

In the same clause, the bill targets sites that have infringed copyright in the past. That theoretically includes sites such as Napster, which have cleaned up their act since their early days under the Jolly Roger of copyright piracy. This may overturn the recently set legal precedent in which a high court judge ruled against a blanket ban of Usenet-indexing Web site Newzbin.

Use WikiLeaks

But most worrying is that the same clause also specifically allows for blocking sites deemed 'likely to' infringe copyright. We don't yet know how the government will divine whether a site is 'likely to' do anything, unless Ofcom is going to start employing soothsayers. There's also a clause relating to national security, which could see legal restrictions on material 'they' don't want us to see. This may even extend to gagging sites that currently do a bang-up job of making a mockery of 'super-injunctions'.

Mash and mod

File-sharing services host thriving communities transforming copyrighted content in mash-ups and mods. These could be targeted.

Use free open Wi-Fi

The bill distinguishes between subscribers -- you -- and Internet service providers (ISPs). Some networks could be considered to be both, however. If a network is a subscriber -- the actual Wi-Fi is provided by someone else, such as BT Openzone in Starbucks -- then it faces liability for the actions of users. If it's an ISP, it faces bureaucracy, cost and legal obligations to hand over information about users. Either way, the bill will make anyone running or thinking of running open Wi-Fi think twice.

The bill specifically exempts libraries and universities, but not small businesses or local co-operatives. At worst, we could see the end of public Wi-Fi because nobody wants the risk or the headache. At best, we'll have the hassle of registering our details every time we want to log on in public.

Watch YouTube

YouTube wouldn't be what it is today without a critical mass of copyrighted material. Liberal Democrat peer Lord Clement-Jones told our sister site ZDNet that YouTube is unlikely to be affected as Google is jolly decent about taking down copyrighted material when asked nicely. Yet YouTube -- and most video sites -- are stuffed to the gills with copyrighted material. The bill makes provision to nuke them all.

Change ISPs

French law prevents suspended users from switching to another ISP, and Ofcom is expected to come up with a similar provision. It's unclear who will be in charge of this blacklist -- a copyright offender register, if you will. How long will suspended users be kept on the list? Will it lapse after a set period of time, like a police caution? Will you be able to see your record, like a credit record? Either way, ISPs may find themselves forced to check each new user, which could make the process of signing up to a new ISP even more of a chore than it already is.

Google stuff

Google searches torrents and is therefore, by government logic, a file-sharing tool. Will Google be banned? Rupert Murdoch probably hopes so: he already accuses Google News of stealing News International content. There will probably be a bunch of test cases to establish the legal boundaries of the bill, and we'd bet our favourite trousers Murdoch will be all over that like Tiger Woods on a cocktail waitress.

This is all speculation until the mechanics are worked out over the next year. Let us know your best -- and worst -- case scenarios in the comments. Oh, and remember: there's an election coming.

 

[oneofmany]

Whistleblowers on US ‘massacre’ fear CIA stalkers

Whistleblowers on US ‘massacre’ fear CIA stalkers​

Activists behind a website dedicated to revealing secret documents have complained of harassment by police and intelligence services as they prepare to release a video showing an American attack in which 97 civilians were killed in Afghanistan.

Julian Assange, one of the founders of Wikileaks, has claimed that a restaurant where the group met in Reykjavic, the capital of Iceland, came under surveillance in March and one of the group’s volunteers was detained for 21 hours by police.

Assange, an Australian, says he was followed on a flight from Reykjavik to Copenhagen by two American agents. The group has riled governments by publishing documents leaked by whistleblowers.

Last week it released the cockpit recording from an American Apache helicopter as it killed Iraqi civilians, including a Reuters photographer, in Baghdad in 2007.

Assange claims surveillance has intensified as he and his colleagues prepare to put out their Afghan film. It is said to concern the so-called “Granai massacre”, when American aircraft dropped 500lb and 1,000lb bombs on a suspected militant compound in Farah province on May 4 last year. Several children were among those killed.

In messages on Twitter, the internet social networking site, Assange complained of “covert following and hidden photography” by police and foreign intelligence services. There have been thinly veiled threats, he says, from “an apparent British intelligence agent” in a car park in Luxembourg.

“Computers were also seized,” another member of Wikileaks said on Twitter, raising alarm among supporters with a subsequent post: “If anything happens to us, you know why ... and you know who is responsible.”

Their apprehension is perhaps understandable. America’s defence establishment has made clear that it would like to silence the site. In 2008, the Pentagon produced a report on how to undermine and neutralise Wikileaks. This, too, emerged on the website.

Assange, who is believed to be 37, founded Wikileaks three years ago with a group of like-minded computer programmers, academics and activists. The site says it has had more scoops since then than The Washington Post in three decades and has become a global clearing house for sensitive documents. It has exposed crimes from toxic dumping and tax evasion to extrajudicial murders in Kenya.

Assange says the 38-minute Iraqi video broadcast by the group is evidence of “collateral murder” by American forces. It shows a group of Iraqi men being killed by gunfire from the helicopter. A helicopter then shoots at a van arriving to take the bodies away.

A crew member is heard saying: “Nice shooting.” When it emerges that two children in the van have been injured, someone else says: “Serves them right for bringing their children into a battle.”

The film, in which American forces kill with the seeming detachment of video gamers, has been seen by millions on the internet since it was first aired on Monday. The website, which claims to exist on a shoestring budget, says it has since received more than £100,000 in donations.

America’s military defended the killings, saying no disciplinary action had been taken at the time of the incident. However, Reuters has striven in vain since 2007 to obtain access to the video under freedom of information laws.

Broadcasting such a film could expose Wikileaks to prosecution in America but the organisation appears to have put itself beyond the reach of court injunctions by existing only in the digital sphere.

There has been speculation that Wikileaks might be part of a sophisticated “psy-ops” campaign by the CIA. If that is the case, says Assange, “I only wish they would step forward with a cheque.”

 

[oneofmany]

Microchipping Airport Workers

Microchipping Airport Workers

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[oneofmany]

Argentina seizes pension funds to pay debts. Who's next?

Argentina seizes pension funds to pay debts. Who's next?​

Here is a warning to us all. The Argentine state is taking control of the country’s privately-managed pension funds in a drastic move to raise cash.

It is a foretaste of what may happen across the world as governments discover that tax revenue, and discover that the bond markets are unwilling to plug the gap. The G7 states are already acquiring an unhealthy taste for the arbitrary seizure of private property, I notice.

Here is a link from La Nacion and another from El Pais for Spanish speakers:

So, over $29bn of Argentine civic savings are to be used as a funding kitty for the populist antics of President Cristina Kirchner. This has been dressed up as an anti-corruption and efficiency move. Aren’t they always?

Argentine sovereign debt was trading at 29 cents on the dollar today, pushing the yield to 25pc. Tempted?

Credit Default Swaps on Argentine bonds reached 2,900. Do we have a Latin Iceland on our hands, but with 100 times the population? Or several, Pakistan, Ukraine, Hungary? …… Switzerland? Australia? Britain?

The funds being targeted are known as AFJPs or retirement accounts, but how long will it now be before Mrs Kirchner cracks down on the entire $97bn pool of private pensions? There are a lot of much-needed hard currency assets in those portfolios.

“A state takeover of pensions creates all kinds of doubts and throws into relief the extreme financing needs of the government next year,” said Jorge Alberti, from ElAccionista.com

Needless to say, the Kirchner government (part II) is unable to raise any money on the global markets at a tolerable price.

Investors have already been burned by her stealth default on Argentina’s index linked bonds. This was achieved by sacking the head of the statistics office and rigging the inflation data (by 20pc annually, or so.)

Frankly, I am a little surprised that Argentina’s 2001 default – the biggest in history – was not a severe enough burning in itself for investors. But political risk seems to be a blind spot for some asset managers. And then there was the great agro-boom of 2005-2007 so all was forgiven, until commodities went into free-fall in May.

President Kirchner has been eyeing the pension pool for some time. Last year she pushed through new rules forcing them to invest more money inside the country – always a warning signal.

My fear is that governments in the US, Britain, and Europe will display similar reflexes. Indeed, they have already done so. The forced-feeding of banks with fresh capital – whether they want it or not – and the seizure of the Fannie/Freddie mortgage giants before they were in fact in trouble (in order to prevent a Chinese buying strike of US bonds and prevent a spike in US mortgage rates), shows that private property can be co-opted – or eliminated – with little due process if that is required to serve the collective welfare. This is a slippery slope. I hope Paulson, Darling, and Lagarde tread with great care. I do not expect Steinbruck to tread with any care.

The Merval index of stocks in Buenos Aires is down 12.6pc as I write. Telecom Argentina took it badly (-25pc), so did Grupo Financiero Galicia (-13pc) and Banco Frances (-20pc).

Foreign sellers?

 

[Panameno718]

Re: Argentina seizes pension funds to pay debts. Who's next?

I posted a thread about how this may happen in USA last month and not one single person said anything. The Federal government will steal your private and public pensions and invest it in failed banks, and after they bankrupt you they will taxes and drive the US standard of living down to a 3rd world level.

http://www.bgol.us/board/showthread.php?t=482646

 

[oneofmany]

The Problem Is Spreading

I posted a thread about how this may happen in USA last month and not one single person said anything. The Federal government will steal your private and public pensions and invest it in failed banks, and after they bankrupt you they will taxes and drive the US standard of living down to a 3rd world level.

http://www.bgol.us/board/showthread.php?t=482646

Thanks. I'm sorry I missed your thread. Stealing peoples' money for these "too big to fail" institutions is evolving from bailouts to more, outright theft. There is going to be a major reaction to this once it hits these shores.

 

[Panameno718]

THE GOVEMENT HAS BEEN DOING THIS BEHIND THE SHADOWS LONG BEFORE THIS CAME OUT!!!

Lawyer: Laptops took thousands of images


The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats, says a new motion filed in a suit against the district.

More than once, the motion asserts, the camera on Robbins' school-issued laptop took photos of Robbins as he slept in his bed. Each time, it fired the images off to network servers at the school district.

Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled at the tracking software. It was like a window into "a little LMSD soap opera," a staffer is quoted as saying in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program.

"I know, I love it," she is quoted as having replied.

Those details, disclosed in the motion filed late Thursday in federal court by Robbins' attorney, offer a wider glimpse into the now-disabled program that spawned Robbins' lawsuit and has shined an international spotlight on the district.

In the filing, the Penn Valley family claims the district's records show that the controversial tracking system captured more than 400 photos and screen images from 15-year-old Blake Robbins' school-issued laptop during two weeks last fall, and that "thousands of webcam pictures and screen shots have been taken of numerous other students in their homes."

Robbins, a sophomore at Harriton High School, and his parents, Michael and Holly Robbins, contend e-mails turned over to them by the district suggest Cafiero "may be a voyeur" who might have viewed some of the photos on her home computer.

The motion says Cafiero, who has been placed on paid leave, has failed to turn that computer over to the plaintiffs despite a court order to do so, and asks a judge to sanction her.

Cafiero's lawyer Thursday night disputed the suggestion that his client had downloaded any such photos to her home computer. Lawyer Charles Mandracchia said Cafiero has cooperated with federal investigators and is willing to let technicians hired by the district examine her computer if the judge so orders.

He also said Robbins' attorney had never asked him for Cafiero's personal computer. "He's making this up because his case is falling apart," Mandracchia said.

Since the Robbinses sued in February, district officials have acknowledged that they activated the theft-tracking software on school-issued laptops 42 times since September, and a number of times in the previous school year - all in order to retrieve lost or stolen computers.

But they have stopped short of specifying how many students may have been photographed and monitored, or how often - information that could shed light on whether Robbins' experience was unique or common.

An attorney for the district declined to comment last night on the Robbinses' latest motion, except to say that a report due in a few weeks will spell out what the district's own investigation has found.

"To the extent there is any evidence of misuse of any images, that also will be disclosed," said the attorney, former federal prosecutor Henry E. Hockeimer Jr. "However, at this late stage of our investigation we are not aware of any such evidence."

The Robbinses' lawyer, Mark S. Haltzman, said the new details emerged in tens of thousands of pages of documents and e-mails the district turned over to him in recent weeks.

Three district employees have also given sworn depositions in the suit. A fourth, Cafiero, declined to answer Haltzman's questions, asserting her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

According to the latest filing by the Robbinses, officials first activated the tracking software on a school-issued Apple MacBook that Robbins took home on Oct. 20.

Hundreds of times in the next two weeks, the filing says, the program did its job each time it was turned on: A tiny camera atop the laptop snapped a photo, software inside copied the laptop screen image, and a locating device recorded the Internet address - something that could help district technicians pinpoint where the machine was.

The system was designed to take a new picture every 15 minutes until it was turned off.

The material disclosed by the district contains hundreds of photos of Robbins and his family members - "including pictures of Blake partially undressed and of Blake sleeping," the motion states.

Through Haltzman, the Robbinses last night gave The Inquirer a photo they said was among the Web cam images turned over by school officials. The picture shows Blake asleep in bed at 5 p.m. last Oct. 26, the lawyer said.

Robbins and his parents say they first learned of the technology on Nov. 11, when an assistant Harriton principal confronted the teen with an image collected by the tracking software.

Robbins has said one image showed him with a handful of Mike and Ike candies - which the administrator thought were illegal pills.

The family's lawyers have argued that neither Blake nor many of the other students whose laptop cameras were activated had reported those laptops missing or stolen. According to the motion, an unspecified number of laptops were being tracked because students had failed to return computers or pay a required insurance fee.

The district has said it turned on the camera in Robbins' computer because his family had not paid the $55 insurance fee and he was not authorized to take the laptop home.

U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois has ordered all parties in the case to meet by Tuesday, the latest step toward a settlement. Meanwhile, federal and county investigators are examining whether the laptop security program violated any laws.

Also Thursday, Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) introduced legislation to close what he said was a loophole in federal wiretap laws and prevent unauthorized monitoring. Specter recently held a hearing in Philadelphia on the issue.

"Many of us expect to be subject to certain kinds of video surveillance when we leave our homes and go out each day - at the ATM, at traffic lights, or in stores, for example," Specter, who is running for reelection, said on the floor of the Senate. "What we do not expect is to be under visual surveillance in our homes, in our bedrooms and, most especially, we do not expect it for our children in our homes."

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20100415_Lawyer__Laptops_took_thousands_of_photos.html

 

[oneofmany]

Don't Drink The Water

Don't Drink The Water​

“Don’t drink the water,” that’s what Oliver Outerbridge is telling his neighbors.

It’s ironic because Outerbridge is a restaurant owner in Portland, Maine-a state which has some of the best tasting drinking water in the country.

“We are literally consuming a toxic substance,” Outbridge said, “we are medicating everyone.”

His issue is obviously not the taste, but what Portland adds to its municipal water - fluoride.

“[Fluoride] causes multiple diseases,” he said. “It's been shown study after study to cause cancer as well as many other debilitating diseases.”

Outerbridge’s claims are echoed by anti-fluoride activists across the country, but are vehemently denied by most dentists and government scientists.

“There is absolutely no science to this,” said Edmond Hewlett, a spokesperson for the American Dental Association. “There is a preponderance of evidence on this,” Hewlett added. “Not only is [fluoride] safe, but it’s extremely effective in preventing tooth decay.”

What Hewlett can’t explain is why the anti-fluoride movement has recently gained such traction. In the last two years, dozens of communities in 10 states (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas, Vermont, Washington, Maine, New York, Massachusetts, and California,) have rejected water-fluoridation.

Outerbridge points to the warning on the back of any fluoridated tooth-paste. “It says right there if you swallow more than a pee-size, contact poison control. This stuff is poison.”

Hewlett, on the other hand, compares fluoride to other substances like Vitamin A and Vitamin D. “All of these things in high concentration can be toxic, “ he said. “But when they are controlled and monitored, not only are they not toxic, but they are safe, and can actually make us healthier.”

Fluoride has been added to drinking water (about one-part per-million) for over 65 years. Currently 70 percent of Americans drink fluoridated-water.

Hewlett points out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently honored fluoridated-water as one of the great public health achievements of the 20th century.

Outerbridge remains unimpressed, calling fluoride “mass-medication.” “Fundamentally,” he said. “I have a problem adding any form of medication to a water supply. I feel medical decisions should remain between individuals and their doctors. What’s good for one person is not good for another.”

But apparently not all of Outerbridge’s neighbors agree. Last year he tried and failed to get a similar initiative on Maine’s state ballot. He also failed in a bid for a seat on Portland’s Water District Board on the issue of halting water-fluoridation.

However, Outerbridge believes the tide is turning in his favor, pointing to a spate of national stories on the anti-fluoride movement, “The more public press we get on this issue, the more likely it's to become an issue for the average person.”

 

[oneofmany]

CIA chief approved destruction of terrorist waterboarding tapes

CIA chief approved destruction of terrorist waterboarding tapes​

The former CIA chief, Porter Goss, approved a 2005 decision to destroy 92 tapes showing US agents waterboarding two terrorism suspects, according to newly released internal emails.

FBI investigators are still examining who knew what about the destruction of the videos, which showed officers using the simulated drowning technique that is widely considered to be torture, on Abu Zubaydah and another terrorism suspect.

The emails were released by the Justice Department under a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"These documents provide further evidence that senior CIA officials were willing to risk being prosecuted for obstruction of justice in order to avoid being prosecuted for torture," said Ben Wizner, a lawyer with the ACLU. "If the Department of Justice fails to hold these officials accountable, they will have succeeded in their cover-up."

CIA spokesman George Little said the agency continues to cooperate with the investigation.

"We hope that this issue is resolved soon," he said.

 

[oneofmany]

Police: Shooter felt tracking chip was implanted

Police: Shooter felt tracking chip was implanted​

Gunman who killed hospital worker left note saying doctor inserted device​

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee - A mentally ill convenience store operator took a revolver with him to look for the doctor he believed implanted a tracking device in his body during an appendectomy in 2001. Told the doctor wasn't at the hospital, he went to a nearby parking lot and opened fire on three hospital workers he apparently didn't know, killing one of them.

Gunman Abdo Ibssa entered a medical tower near Parkwest Medical Center before Monday's attack and asked for the doctor who performed the appendectomy, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said. Unable to find the doctor, Ibssa went to another area where patients are discharged and opened fire on the women as they walked out of the building.

Ibssa, who police believe had been skipping doses of medication for psychotic behavior, killed himself to end the shooting, which occurred a day before his 39th birthday.

"There was less than 5 seconds from the time of the first shot until the last shot," Owen said at a news conference Tuesday.

Investigators found a note at Ibssa's Knoxville apartment in which the gunman said the doctor had implanted a chip that was being used to track his movements, Owen said.

Ibssa had a successful appendectomy at Premier Surgical Associates in November 2001 and suffered no complications, according to a statement from CEO Kevin Burris. Police and Burris declined to identify the doctor who treated him, but Burris confirmed that Ibssa was at the medical office Monday looking for the surgeon.

Haloperidol, an antipsychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia and Tourette syndrome, was also found at Ibssa's apartment, but investigators believe he hadn't been using it, Owen said.

Owen said relatives of the naturalized citizen from Ethiopia had him committed for mental treatment in February.

Also found during the search were a second handgun, a bag of marijuana and a copy of the book "The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception" — a reproduction of a Cold War-era CIA handbook on the use of illusion and deception for acts of espionage.

The gun used in the shooting had been reported stolen in March, while other one had an altered serial number but wasn't reported stolen. Police were not sure how Ibssa obtained either gun and said he did not have a handgun permit.

Police said Ibssa operated a convenience store near downtown Knoxville, which was closed Tuesday.

On Monday, a cab driver picked Ibssa up outside his apartment building, and the gunman told him to take him to the western side of Knoxville, eventually specifying the medical center.

Cab driver Freddys Sakhleh said Ibssa said seemed angry and depressed and said little about himself.

Ibssa directed the cab driver to the medical center tower and told to wait for him to come back. Inside, the gunman was told the doctor he sought wasn't there.

When Ibssa returned, Sakhleh said, he told the driver to take him to the hospital entrance where some patients are discharged.

Owen, the police chief, said Ibssa fired four shots at people exiting the building, hitting the three hospital workers. The gunman killed himself with a fifth shot. Police said it doesn't appear he knew the women.

"I called 911, and I said, 'Please send some people here, this man is shooting like crazy,'" Sakhleh said.

 

[oneofmany]

Google map reveals Britain is third in the world for 'Big Brother' requests

Google map reveals Britain is third in the world for 'Big Brother' requests about its citizens​

Britain is ranked third in the world for the number of requests by the State demanding personal information about internet users.

Google said only Brazil and the U.S had recorded more requests for information about citizens' email accounts and passwords.

The 1,166 applications made by the Government, police and even local councils between July and December last year was the equivalent of more than six every day.

Critics said it was proof the authorities remain determined to mount surveillance operations against the public.

Labour previously considered plans for a vast state database storing details of every person's emails and internet visits.

The idea was scrapped in favour of forcing internet companies to store the data and make it available to the police and security services upon request.

Phil Booth, of the NO2ID privacy campaign, said it was clear the Government remained determined to access the public's most sensitive details.

He added: 'A trickle could soon become a flood.'

Google published the global list of requests it has received for personal information yesterday, but refused to reveal how many it had complied with.

The company announced the country-by-country breakdown on its official blog, after it criticised for its approach to privacy. The data covers the final half of last year and will be updated every six months.

'We believe that greater transparency will lead to less censorship,' the blog declared.

The search giant is providing a limited snapshot of government requests for its users' personal information. Britain made hundreds more requests than France and more than twice as many as Italy, Germany and Spain.

The numbers are confined primarily to demands made as part of criminal cases, leaving out civil matters such as divorces. Google isn't revealing how often it cooperated with those data demands.

Censorship demands

Google also revealed it received 59 requests from British Government departments to remove material from its services - 43 of which were related to YouTube. The company said they complied with 76 per cent of them. This placed the UK sixth on the league table.

Reasons included violations of Google's own policies regarding extreme violence, profanity and hate speech. Many of the requests included a court order, Google said.

Google excluded removal requests related to allegations of copyright infringement on YouTube.

It marks the first time that the search giant has provided such a detailed look at the censorship and data requests that it gets from regulators, courts and other government agencies.

Google said details about the censorship demands it got while in mainland China still aren't being shared because the information is classified as a state secret.

The disclosure comes as more regulators and consumers watchdogs around the world are complaining that the company doesn't take people's privacy seriously enough.

Google maintains that its users' privacy is one of the company's highest priorities. The company also notes that, in one instance, it has gone to court to prevent the U.S. Justice Department from getting broad lists of people's search requests.

 

[oneofmany]

Millions drink toxic water in the USA, but it's EPA-approved!

Millions drink toxic water in the USA, but it's EPA-approved!​

(NaturalNews) It has been so long since the federal law regulating tap water has been updated that since 2004, more than one-fifth of the U.S. population has consumed tap water that the government classifies as toxic, but still approves for human consumption.

"People don't understand that just because water is technically legal, it can still present health risks," said Pankaj Parekh, director of water quality for the City of Los Angeles.

Even though more than 60,000 chemicals are used in the United States each year and most have never been tested for human safety, the Safe Water Drinking Act regulates only 91 different toxins. Many of these are regulations have not been updated since the 1980s or even since the law was first passed in 1974. The law does not take into account newer findings that certain chemicals can be more toxic in combination than separately. To top it off, not a single chemical has been added to the law since 2000.

Science has passed the law by, as researchers have identified hundreds of new chemicals that can cause cancer or other diseases if consumed in tap water. Many of these chemicals are even regulated by some federal agencies, yet are still allowed in tap water. An analysis by the New York Times of 19 million drinking-water tests found that since 2004, more than 62 million people have consumed fully legal tap water that contained contaminants at levels violating at least one federal health guideline. Likewise, numerous scientific studies suggest that millions of people a year become sick from toxins contained in drinking water.

Yet many of these diseases take a long time to appear, and can never be definitively linked to tap water.

"These chemicals accumulate in body tissue. They affect developmental and hormonal systems in ways we don't understand," said Linda S. Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. "There's growing evidence that numerous chemicals are more dangerous than previously thought, but the EPA still gives them a clean bill of health."

 

[Cruise]

Re: Argentina seizes pension funds to pay debts. Who's next?

I posted a thread about how this may happen in USA last month and not one single person said anything. The Federal government will steal your private and public pensions and invest it in failed banks, and after they bankrupt you they will taxes and drive the US standard of living down to a 3rd world level.

http://www.bgol.us/board/showthread.php?t=482646

I'm surprised to have missed this.

It is only logical that the government first robs the people with forced taxes, then forced currency, then forced investment.

In my opinion, all banks are insolvent.

 

[Panameno718]

Re: Millions drink toxic water in the USA, but it's EPA-approved!

The majority of people who worship the beast thinks they love you and want to take care...i.e so called free Health Care, give me free abortions, and free EBT...take care of me please I love being slave .

Millions drink toxic water in the USA, but it's EPA-approved!​

 

[QueEx]

Re: Millions drink toxic water in the USA, but it's EPA-approved!

The majority of people who worship the beast thinks they love you and want to take care...i.e so called free Health Care, give me free abortions, and free EBT...take care of me please I love being slave .

Who are those "majority of people who worship the beast" ???

What study or poll are you relying upon which defines that majority ???

When did you become Miss Cleo -- a psychic? - so that you know what someone else thinks?
("the beast thinks they love you and want to take care")

 

[oneofmany]

Stalin's mass murders were 'entirely rational' says new Russian textbook

Stalin's mass murders were 'entirely rational' says new Russian textbook praising tyrant​

Stalin acted ‘entirely rationally’ in executing and imprisoning millions of people in the Gulags, a controversial new Russian teaching manual claims.

Fifty-five years after the Soviet dictator died, the latest guide for teachers to promote patriotism among the Russian young said he did what he did to ensure the country’s modernisation.

The manual, titled A History of Russia, 1900-1945, will form the basis of a new state-approved text book for use in schools next year.

It seems to follow an attempt backed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to re-evaluate Stalin’s record in a more positive light.

Critics have taken exception, however, to numerous excerpts, which they say are essentially attempts to whitewash Stalin’s crimes.

In the West, it has been widely accepted that in the 1920s millions were shot, exiled to Siberia, or died of starvation after their land, homes and meagre possessions, were taken to fulfil Stalin’s vision of massive ‘factory farms.’

In the 1930s millions more whom he considered or suspected a threat to the USSR were executed or exiled to Gulag labour camps in remote areas of Siberia or Central Asia, where many also died of disease, malnutrition and exposure.

Historians believe up to 20 million people perished as a result of his actions - more than the six million killed during Hitler’s genocide of the Jews.

Now the new teaching manual is attempting to tell a generation of Russian schoolchildren that Stalin acted rationally.

One of the authors, Anatoly Utkin, is keener to promote another statistic about Stalin, stressing some 10,000 books in his library had his personal jottings and marks in them.

The manual informs teachers that the Great Terror of the 1930s came about because Stalin ‘did not know who would deal the next blow, and for that reason he attacked every known group and movement, as well as those who were not his allies or of his mindset.’

It stresses to teachers that ‘it is important to show that Stalin acted in a concrete historical situation’ and that he acted ‘entirely rationally - as the guardian of a system, as a consistent supporter of reshaping the country into an industrialised state.’

Editor Alexander Danilov said: ‘We are not defending Stalin. We are just exploring his personality, explaining his motives and showing what he really achieved.’

The controversial manual is produced by the country’s leading school book publishers Prosveshenije, a state-supported company that was a monopoly supplier of classroom texts in the Soviet era, and appears to be returning to that role.

The company boasts: ‘We are proud that we brought up generations of Soviet people - and today we keep on improving our textbooks.’

With close links to the Kremlin, the company’s website states: ‘Prosveshenije remains one of the few effective instruments of national consolidation, a centre of forming and distributing Russian educational values.’

The teaching manual could not have been produced without the support and approval of the Russian government.

Prominent Russian historian Roy Medvedev dubbed the manual ‘a falsification. Stalin by no means acted rationally all of the time, and many of his actions damaged the country.’

Before World War II, he said, ‘many in the military ranks were arrested, like my father, for example, and their children, little boys, were sent to the front.’

Alexander Kamensky, head of the history department at the Russia State University for the Humanities, said the manual was, ‘sadly,’ a sign that teaching history in schools has become ‘an ideological instrument.’

But it seems to echo Putin’s remarks to a group of history teachers in June 2007 when he said while Stalin’s purges were one of the darkest periods of the country’s history, ‘others cannot be allowed to impose a feeling of guilt on us.’

An earlier manual called Stalin an ‘effective manager’.

 

[oneofmany]

Regarding Health Issues

The majority of people who worship the beast thinks they love you and want to take care...i.e so called free Health Care, give me free abortions, and free EBT...take care of me please I love being slave .

When it comes to heath, I strongly suggest all people to take care of themselves and step up their efforts. With family members in the health industry as doctors and what not, there is a lot of uncertainty there. These are interesting times in which we live.

 

[LennyNero1972]

Re: Regarding Health Issues

When it comes to heath, I strongly suggest all people to take care of themselves and step up their efforts. With family members in the health industry as doctors and what not, there is a lot of uncertainty there. These are interesting times in which we live.

 

[oneofmany]

18 veterans commit suicide each day

18 veterans commit suicide each day​

Troubling new data show there are an average of 950 suicide attempts each month by veterans who are receiving some type of treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department.

Seven percent of the attempts are successful, and 11 percent of those who don’t succeed on the first attempt try again within nine months.

The numbers, which come at a time when VA is strengthening its suicide prevention programs, show about 18 veteran suicides a day, about five by veterans who are receiving VA care.

Access to care appears to be a key factor, officials said, noting that once a veteran is inside the VA care program, screening programs are in place to identify those with problems, and special efforts are made to track those considered at high risk, such as monitoring whether they are keeping appointments.

A key part of the new data shows the suicide rate is lower for veterans aged 18 to 29 who are using VA health care services than those who are not. That leads VA officials to believe that about 250 lives have been saved each year as a result of VA treatment.

VA’s suicide hotline has been receiving about 10,000 calls a month from current and former service members. The number is 1-800-273-8255. Service members and veterans should push 1 for veterans’ services.

Dr. Janet Kemp, VA’s national suicide prevention coordinator, credits the hotline with rescuing 7,000 veterans who were in the act of suicide — in addition to referrals, counseling and other help.

Suicide attempts by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans remains a key area of concern. In fiscal 2009, which ended Sept. 30, there were 1,621 suicide attempts by men and 247 by women who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, with 94 men and four women dying.

In general, VA officials said, women attempt suicide more often, but men are more likely to succeed in the attempt, mainly because women use less lethal and less violent means while men are more likely to use firearms.

Suicide attempts among veterans appear to follow those trends, officials said.

 

[Panameno718]

China’s Population Control Program to Begin Sterilization

Health authorities are planning to sterilise nearly 10,000 people in southern China over the next four days as part of a population control programme.

The rule of one child per family has been in force for decades



Some of the people in Puning City will be forced to have the procedure carried out against their will.

Amnesty International says forced sterilisation "amounts to torture".

Reports in the Chinese media say that Puning Health authorities in Guangdong Province have launched a special campaign to sterilise people who already have at least one child in order to ensure local birth control quotas are met.

Chinese newspaper reports say that those who refuse to be sterilised have seen their elderly mothers or fathers taken away and detained.

Hundreds of people in Puning are said to have been locked up.

Kate Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK, said: "It is appalling that the authorities are subjecting people to such an invasive procedure against their will.

"Reports that relatives are imprisoned as a means of pressurising couples into submitting to surgery are incredibly concerning.

"The Puning City authorities must condemn this practice immediately and ensure that others are not forcibly sterilised."

More than 1,300 people in the city have been held in local government buildings where they were given "lectures" on China's family planning regulations.

Huang Ruifeng is the father of three girls.

"Several days ago, a village official called me and asked me or my wife to return for the surgery," Huang told the local paper. "Otherwise they would take away my father."

He refused.

His father was later rounded up and detained by the authorities.

According to Puning rules, farmers are allowed to have a second child if the first child was a girl.

 

[oneofmany]

Toddler Ashley Jade Epapara, 2, dies after flu vaccination

Toddler Ashley Jade Epapara, 2, dies after flu vaccination​

A FAMILY is in mourning after their toddler unexpectedly died less than 12 hours after receiving a seasonal flu vaccination.

Two-year-old twin Ashley Jade Epapara had been "perfectly fine" before dying at her Upper Mt Gravatt home, on Brisbane's southside, on April 9. Parents David and Nicole are shattered by the mysterious death of their baby girl. "It's dreadful, it's a very hard time," Mr Epapara said yesterday.

National health authorities have ordered doctors to stop giving seasonal influenza vaccinations to children under five after dozens of serious reactions, including convulsions.

Ashley's death is being investigated by police and the office of the coroner. A spokesman for Brisbane coroner John Lock confirmed yesterday that a report was being prepared.

Mrs Epapara told The Sunday Mail that "tests are being carried out" on her little girl. But the young mother didn't want to comment further as she began shaking and her eyes welled with tears. Ashley's twin sister, Jaime, also received the flu jab at the same time and is believed to have been vomiting the night before her sister died.

Asked whether he or his wife thought the influenza vaccine had anything to do with their child's death, Mr Epapara said: "It's very coincidental."

More than 45 children experienced convulsions and fever, with some having to be hospitalised in intensive care after receiving the vaccine in Western Australia.

Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young confirmed 15 children in Queensland had been recorded as having an adverse reaction to the vaccine.

Australia's chief medical officer Professor Jim Bishop said in a statement that the West Australian events were being "urgently investigated by health experts and the Therapeutic Goods Administration".

The World Health Organisation last year said a "small number of deaths" had occurred in people vaccinated for influenza, with 65 million people vaccinated globally.

 

[oneofmany]

Aliens may exist but contact would hurt humans: Hawking

Aliens may exist but contact would hurt humans: Hawking​

LONDON (AFP) – Aliens may exist but mankind should avoid contact with them as the consequences could be devastating, British scientist Stephen Hawking warned Sunday.

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," said the astrophysicist in a new television series, according to British media reports.

The programmes depict an imagined universe featuring alien life forms in huge spaceships on the hunt for resources after draining their own planet dry.

"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach," warned Hawking.

The doomsday scenario is suggested in the series "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking" on the Discovery Channel, which began airing in the United States on Sunday.

On the probability of alien life existing, he says: "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational.

"The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."

Glowing squid-like creatures, herds of herbivores that can hang onto a cliff face and bright yellow predators that kill their prey with stinging tails are among the creatures that stalk the scientist's fantastical cosmos.

Mankind has already made a number of attempts to contact extraterrestrial civilisations.

In 2008, American space agency NASA beamed the Beatles song "Across the Universe" into deep space to send a message of peace to any alien that happens to be in the region of Polaris -- also known as the North Star -- in 2439.

But the history of humanity's efforts to contact aliens stretches back some years.

The US probes Pioneer 10 and 11 were launched in 1972 and 1973 bearing plaques of a naked man and woman and symbols seeking to convey the positions of the Earth and the Sun.

Voyager 1 and 2, launched in 1977, each carry a gold-plated copper phonogram disk with recordings of sounds and images on Earth.

 

[oneofmany]

S. Ind. homeless shelter shut down, auctioned by IRS

S. Ind. homeless shelter shut down, auctioned by IRS​

Jeffersonville's only homeless shelter, in fact the only homeless shelter for a 14 county area in southern Indiana, will soon close.

The IRS will sell the shelter for back taxes.

It's been an on-going struggle for Haven House for several years and now the final chapter seems to have been written.

“Our people are broken people but they're very good people and they deserve a place to lay there head at night,” said Barb Anderson.

At any one time, Haven House in Jeffersonville is home to 65 people.

Men, women, and children live in the building on Green Street.

But soon Haven House will be sold to help pay the $279,000 in back payroll taxes.

“This wasn't mismanagement. This was no money to manage.”

Barb Anderson founded Haven House 25 years ago. She's been it's only director. It's been her life's work.

Anderson said, “This could have been avoided. This didn't have to happen with community support and a budget locally with money for homeless programs we didn't have to be here.”

Anderson says for the past several years donations have been drying up.

Haven House lost a grant, people were generous but gave food and clothing instead of cash. She says there just wasn't any money to pay the bills and the taxes.

So, the IRS auction is set for March 9th and Jeffersonville’s mayor says Haven House will not get money from a cash strapped city.

“I feel for her but there's really nothing we can do to help her,” said Mayor Tom Galligan.

The residents will have until August to find somewhere to go.

“I don't really know what the future is going to hold for any of us,” said Anderson.

But the fate of Haven House seems to be sealed and that leaves it's director with a heavy heart and an unanswered question.

“We don't want people in Haiti to go to bed at night without a home.

Yet we will let people in American do that, what is that?” Anderson added.

Meanwhile the mayor says homelessness is not a single city issue. He says several of the southern Indiana towns should join forces to provide shelter for the homeless.

 

[oneofmany]

Not A Good Deal

Not A Good Deal

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[Cruise]

Re: S. Ind. homeless shelter shut down, auctioned by IRS

S. Ind. homeless shelter shut down, auctioned by IRS​

There is just no way possible this is a real story.

You must have gotten this from the Onion.

It just can't be real. I refuse to believe it.

No person would really allow this. Not in America. Not in a "free" country.

No. This story is fake. I am convinced.

 

[oneofmany]

Doctors sterilise Uzbek women by stealth

Doctors sterilise Uzbek women by stealth​

WHEN her baby died soon after delivery, Gulbahor Zavidova, 28, a poor farmer’s wife, longed to be pregnant again. After months of trying she and her husband visited a doctor who told her she could never have another child because she had been sterilised.

The procedure had been performed immediately after she gave birth, by doctors who did not ask her consent. On learning she could not bear children, her husband left her.

“Not a day passes without me crying,” she said. “I was outraged when I found out what they had done. How could they do such a horrible thing without asking me?”

According to human rights groups, tens of thousands of young women like Zavidova have been sterilised without their consent in the authoritarian former Soviet state of Uzbekistan.

Uzbek sources say the measure was ordered by Islam Karimov, the president, who has ruled with an iron fist for 20 years. The policy is aimed at keeping down the country’s poor population — with 28m people, it is Central Asia’s most densely populated state.

Activists say mass sterilisation began in 2003, but was eased after two years following an outcry. It is said to have restarted in February this year, when the health ministry ordered doctors to recommend sterilisation as an “effective contraceptive”. Critics claim every doctor was told to persuade “at least two women” a month to have the procedure. Doctors who failed faced reprisals and fines.

“We estimate that since February, about 5,000 women have been sterilised without consent,” said a local human rights campaigner who fears detention if she is named.

In many cases, doctors opt for delivery by caesarean section and then perform a sterilisation without telling the woman. Widespread rumours of the practice have resulted in women opting for home births to avoid the risk.

Doctors visited Hidojat Muminova, a 26-year-old cotton picker, at home several months ago. They told the mother of two she should visit a local hospital for a check-up, at which she was diagnosed with a potentially fatal cyst in her fallopian tubes.

“They scared me into believing I needed an urgent operation,” she said. “I was surprised as I’d never had any pain but I was worried and agreed to the surgery. When it was over they told me they’d performed a sterilisation. I could not stop crying. They tricked me and treated me like an animal.”

Another victim, Mahmuda Usupova, 30, said doctors had sterilised her after she gave birth to her third child by caesarean several months ago. She learnt she could no longer have children during a visit to her gynaecologist.

Uzbek authorities deny that sterilisations are carried out without consent, but a report by the United Nations Committee Against Torture reported a “large number” of cases three years ago. According to the UN, Uzbekistan’s fertility rate has fallen from 4.4 babies per woman to 2.5 since Karimov came to power.

Under the 72-year-old Karimov, Uzbekistan has become highly repressive. Opponents have been jailed, tortured and killed. Two critics of the regime, who were accused of being Islamic militants, were scalded to death after boiling water was poured over them.

Hundreds of civilians died when the police and army fired indiscriminately into a large crowd of protesters in Andijan in 2005. The Sunday Times has been denied entry to Uzbekistan ever since because its coverage is considered “unfriendly”.

The sterilisation programme has been relaunched despite efforts by Karimov’s two daughters to improve the lives of Uzbek women and children. Lola, 31, the president’s younger daughter, is a Unesco ambassador and head of a children’s charity.

Her sister Gulnara, 38, who was recently appointed ambassador to Spain, supports a number of charities. Known as “the princess of Uzbeks”, she is a Harvard graduate, martial arts expert and jewellery designer.

Under the name GooGoosha — apparently her father’s pet name for her — she has released pop videos. Her parties in Moscow, where she lived until recently, attracted members of the elite.

The women’s health days advertised on her website provide free access to medical specialists from Israel for women suffering “diseases related to reproductive functions”.

The Uzbek embassy in Moscow insisted that all sterilisations were carried out at the patient’s request and after the woman’s husband had been told of the consequences.

Some names have been changed. Additional reporting: Marina Ivanova, Tashkent

 

[oneofmany]

Facebook under fire for privacy policy

Facebook under fire for privacy policy

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[oneofmany]

Report: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Doesn’t Believe In Privacy

Report: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Doesn’t Believe In Privacy​

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to have been outed as not caring one whit about your privacy — a jarring admission, considering how much of our personal data Facebook owns, not to mention its plans to become the web’s central repository for our preferences and predilections.

Also interesting is how this came about: Not in a proper article, but in a tweet by Nick Bilton, lead technology blogger for the The New York Times‘ Bits Blog, based on a conversation he says was “off the record” and which he may have confused with “not for attribution.”

“Off record chat w/ Facebook employee,” begins Bilton’s fateful tweet. “Me: How does Zuck feel about privacy? Response: [laughter] He doesn’t believe in it.”

Ouch.

Zuckerberg’s apparent disregard for your privacy is probably not reason enough to delete your Facebook account. But we wouldn’t recommend posting anything there that you wouldn’t want marketers, legal authorities, governments (or your mother) to see, especially as Facebook continues to push more and more of users’ information public and even into the hands of other companies, leaving the onus on users to figure out its Rubik’s Cube-esque privacy controls.

Facebook has been on a relentless request over the past six months to become the center of identity and connections online. The site unilaterally decided last December that much of a user’s profile information, including the names of all their friends and the things they were “fans” of, would be public information — no exceptions or opt-outs allowed.

Zuckerberg defended the change — largely intended to keep up with the publicness of Twitter, saying that people’s notions of privacy were changing. He took no responsibility for being the one to drag many Facebook users into the net’s public sphere.

Then last week at its f8 conference, Facebook announced it was sending user profile information in bulk to companies like Yelp, Pandora and Microsoft. Thus, when users show up at those sites while logged in to Facebook, they see personalized versions of the those services (unless the user opts out of each site, somewhere deep in the bowels of Facebook’s privacy control center). On Tuesday, four Senators asked the company to only push data to third-parties if users agree to it, a so-called “opt-in” that social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google Buzz eschew since it radically cuts down on participation and thus revenues.

Facebook is also pushing a “Like” button, which lets sites put little Facebook buttons on anything from blog entries to T-shirts in web stores.

Clicking that button sends that information to Facebook, which publishes it as part of what it calls the Open Graph, linking your identity to things you choose online. That information, in turn, is shared with whatever sites Facebook chooses to share it with — and to the sites you’ve allowed to access your profile.

It’s an ambitious attempt to rewrite the web as a socially linked network. But many see Facebook’s move as trying to colonize the rest of the web, and keep all this valuable information in its data silos, in order to become a force on the web that rivals Google.

So it’s no laughing matter that the head of Facebook appears not to care about privacy. (We asked Facebook to clarify Zuckerberg’s privacy stance but have yet to hear back.)

For his part, Bilton fired off a number of salvos defending his understanding of the the ground rules which governed the conversation he had. “‘Off record’ means there is no attribution to who it is but conversation can be used in story. ‘On background’ means I can not repeat it,” wrote Bilton. He took over the Times‘ technology blog in the last few months, after a long stint working with its technology-development team.

Unfortunately, he’s wrong about the definitions.

“‘Off the record’ restricts the reporter from using the information the source is about to deliver,” reads NYU’s Journalism Handbook, in one definition of the phrase. “If the reporter can confirm the information with another source who doesn’t insist on speaking off the record (whether that means he agreed to talking on the record, on background, or not for attribution), he can publish it.” “On background” usually means that information can be used, but can’t be attributed to a specific person.

Bilton later responded to our request for clarification, saying, “My source said it was OK to quote them, just not say who they are.” So apparently, this Facebook employee wanted this information to get out, for whatever reason.

Now, the die has been cast: The world knows that a Facebook employee thinks his CEO “doesn’t believe in” privacy, which should scare the bejesus out of anyone with a Facebook account — and that encompasses just about everyone reading this now.

 

[LennyNero1972]

Re: Aliens may exist but contact would hurt humans: Hawking

Trust me we are being watched.

 

[oneofmany]

Washington to use Armenian territory to attack Iran - Azerbaijani MP

Washington to use Armenian territory to attack Iran - Azerbaijani MP​

According to MP Eldar Ibrahimov, the United States is planning to use Armenia for offensive against Iran.

“The United States intends to dislocate its military bases in Armenia”, Public TV channel reports that the due statement was made by chairman of the committee on agrarian policy of Milli Medjlis Eldar Ibrahimov at a meeting with representatives of the Iranian parliament on April 27.

“Iran is actively cooperating with Armenia that occupied the fifth part of the Azerbaijani territory. If not for the comprehensive support of Tehran, Armenia would have withdrawn from the Azerbaijani lands long before”, he said.

According to the parliamentarian, Azerbaijan does not interfere with the internal affairs of Iran.

“Nevertheless, some time ago when the United States stated the intention to use Azerbaijan as a platform for offensive against Iran, our president said he will not let this. A similar position has been demonstrated by the Turkish leadership from which the Americans have been planning to strike Iran. At that time the United States decided to open their military bases in Armenia, for which they have started to support the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border. However, the leaders of fraternal Turkey have kept their promise to official Baku”, Ibrahimov said.

 

[oneofmany]

Greece is just the 'tip of the iceberg', Nouriel Roubini warns

Greece is just the 'tip of the iceberg', Nouriel Roubini warns​

Greece is just the "tip of the iceberg” of a sovereign debt crisis that has the potential to derail a global recovery, Nouriel Roubini has warned.

Professor Roubini, the New York-based academic who was one of the few to anticipate the scale of the financial crisis, told a panel in California that the buildup of debt is likely to lead to countries defaulting or resorting to inflation to ease the burden on their populations.

“While today markets are worried about Greece, Greece is just the tip of the iceberg,” Roubini told the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. "The thing I worry about is the buildup of sovereign debt.”

Although Greece's misreporting of the scale of its own debt has helped shatter investors' faith, the southern European country is not alone in its struggle. The depth of the property bust in both Spain and Portugal has prompted the ratings agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade the creditworthiness of both.

European leaders, led by German chancellor Angela Merkel, the International Monetary Fund and Greece's leaders are scrambling to approve a bail-out for Greece as financial markets drive its borrowing costs higher.

"The ripple effects across the market are now more visible," said Ciaran O'Hagan, an analyst at Societe Generale. "Contagion is amplifying."

Italy's sale of up to €8bn euros of debt today will, according to analysts, provide a good gauge of whether the concerns about Greece and Portugal are spreading to other members of the Eurozone.

 

[oneofmany]

Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline

Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline​

Since its incorporation just over five years ago, Facebook has undergone a remarkable transformation. When it started, it was a private space for communication with a group of your choice. Soon, it transformed into a platform where much of your information is public by default. Today, it has become a platform where you have no choice but to make certain information public, and this public information may be shared by Facebook with its partner websites and used to target ads.

To help illustrate Facebook's shift away from privacy, we have highlighted some excerpts from Facebook's privacy policies over the years. Watch closely as your privacy disappears, one small change at a time!

Facebook Privacy Policy circa 2005:

No personal information that you submit to Thefacebook will be available to any user of the Web Site who does not belong to at least one of the groups specified by you in your privacy settings.

Facebook Privacy Policy circa 2006:

We understand you may not want everyone in the world to have the information you share on Facebook; that is why we give you control of your information. Our default privacy settings limit the information displayed in your profile to your school, your specified local area, and other reasonable community limitations that we tell you about.

Facebook Privacy Policy circa 2007:

Profile information you submit to Facebook will be available to users of Facebook who belong to at least one of the networks you allow to access the information through your privacy settings (e.g., school, geography, friends of friends). Your name, school name, and profile picture thumbnail will be available in search results across the Facebook network unless you alter your privacy settings.

Facebook Privacy Policy circa November 2009:

Facebook is designed to make it easy for you to share your information with anyone you want. You decide how much information you feel comfortable sharing on Facebook and you control how it is distributed through your privacy settings. You should review the default privacy settings and change them if necessary to reflect your preferences. You should also consider your settings whenever you share information. ...

Information set to "everyone" is publicly available information, may be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into Facebook), is subject to indexing by third party search engines, may be associated with you outside of Facebook (such as when you visit other sites on the internet), and may be imported and exported by us and others without privacy limitations. The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to "everyone." You can review and change the default settings in your privacy settings.

Facebook Privacy Policy circa December 2009:

Certain categories of information such as your name, profile photo, list of friends and pages you are a fan of, gender, geographic region, and networks you belong to are considered publicly available to everyone, including Facebook-enhanced applications, and therefore do not have privacy settings. You can, however, limit the ability of others to find this information through search using your search privacy settings.

Current Facebook Privacy Policy, as of April 2010:

When you connect with an application or website it will have access to General Information about you. The term General Information includes your and your friends' names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, and any content shared using the Everyone privacy setting. ... The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to "everyone." ... Because it takes two to connect, your privacy settings only control who can see the connection on your profile page. If you are uncomfortable with the connection being publicly available, you should consider removing (or not making) the connection.

Viewed together, the successive policies tell a clear story. Facebook originally earned its core base of users by offering them simple and powerful controls over their personal information. As Facebook grew larger and became more important, it could have chosen to maintain or improve those controls. Instead, it's slowly but surely helped itself — and its advertising and business partners — to more and more of its users' information, while limiting the users' options to control their own information.

 

[oneofmany]

Dems spark alarm with call for national ID card

Dems spark alarm with call for national ID card​

A plan by Senate Democratic leaders to reform the nation’s immigration laws ran into strong opposition from civil liberties defenders before lawmakers even unveiled it Thursday.

Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the measure.

The proposal is one of the biggest differences between the newest immigration reform proposal and legislation crafted by late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The national ID program would be titled the Believe System, an acronym for Biometric Enrollment, Locally stored Information and Electronic Verification of Employment.

It would require all workers across the nation to carry a card with a digital encryption key that would have to match work authorization databases.

“The cardholder’s identity will be verified by matching the biometric identifier stored within the microprocessing chip on the card to the identifier provided by the cardholder that shall be read by the scanner used by the employer,” states the Democratic legislative proposal.

The American Civil Liberties Union, a civil liberties defender often aligned with the Democratic Party, wasted no time in blasting the plan.

“Creating a biometric national ID will not only be astronomically expensive, it will usher government into the very center of our lives. Every worker in America will need a government permission slip in order to work. And all of this will come with a new federal bureaucracy — one that combines the worst elements of the DMV and the TSA,” said Christopher Calabrese, ACLU legislative counsel.

“America’s broken immigration system needs real, workable reform, but it cannot come at the expense of privacy and individual freedoms,” Calabrese added.

The ACLU said “if the biometric national ID card provision of the draft bill becomes law, every worker in America would have to be fingerprinted.”

A source at one pro-immigration reform group described the proposal as “Orwellian.”

But Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), who has worked on the proposal and helped unveil it at a press conference Thursday, predicted the public has become more comfortable with the idea of a national identification card.

“The biometric identification card is a critical element here,” Durbin said. “For a long time it was resisted by many groups, but now we live in a world where we take off our shoes at the airport and pull out our identification.

“People understand that in this vulnerable world, we have to be able to present identification,” Durbin added. “We want it to be reliable, and I think that’s going to help us in this debate on immigration.”

Implementing a nationwide identification program for every worker will be a difficult task.

The Social Security Administration has estimated that 3.6 million Americans would have to visit SSA field offices to correct mistakes in records or else risk losing their jobs.

Angela Kelley, vice president of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, said the biometric identification provision “will give some people pause.”

But she applauded Democrats for not shying away from the toughest issues in the immigration reform debate.

“What I like about the outline is that Democrats are not trying to hide the ball or soft-pedal the tough decisions,” Kelley said. “It seems a very sincere effort to get the conversation started. This is a serious effort to get Republicans to the table.”

Reform Immigration for America, a pro-immigrant group, praised Democrats for getting the discussion started but said the framework fell short.

“The proposal revealed today [Thursday] is in part the result of more than a year of bipartisan negotiations and represents a possible path forward on immigration reform,” the group said in a statement. “This framework is not there yet.”

Democrats and pro-immigration groups will now begin to put pressure on Republicans to participate in serious talks to address the issue. The bipartisan effort in the Senate suffered a serious setback when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) pulled back from talks with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

“We call on Republican Senators to review this framework and sit down at the negotiating table in good faith,” Reform Immigration for America said in a statement. “This is a national problem that requires a federal solution and the input of leaders in both parties.”

Durbin said Democratic leaders are trying to recruit other Republican partners.

“We’re making a commitment to establishing a framework to work toward comprehensive immigration reform, and I think it’s a good framework and now we’re engaging our friends on the other side of the aisle to join us in this conversation,” Durbin said.

 

[Lamarr]

Re: Dems spark alarm with call for national ID card

Dems spark alarm with call for national ID card​

I think that has been the goal all along

Problem, Reaction, Solution!