Friday, August 2, 2013

WTF! Huge Devil Pentagram in Kazakhstan on Google Maps!

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Source: http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/147835/WTF___Huge_Devil_Pentagram_in_Kazakhstan_on_Google_Maps/

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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Microsoft Gave Google a Copyright Takedown Request for Microsoft.com

Microsoft Gave Google a Copyright Takedown Request for Microsoft.com

Because every company with even just a three-legged rat in the copyright race basically just shotgun sprays Google for takedown requests these days, Microsoft accidentally but very hilariously asked Google to censor... Microsoft.com. That's got to be even worse than HBO giving Google a takedown request for VLC. Yeah, it's definitely worse.

Read more...

    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/M3DOMdPuWoY/microsoft-gave-google-a-copyright-takedown-request-for-955659666

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Friday, July 26, 2013

Amanda Bynes Psychiatric Hold May Last Up to Two Weeks, Officials Say

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/07/amanda-bynes-psychiatric-hold-may-last-up-to-two-weeks-officials/

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Unbowed, foes of spying program vow to fight on

Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., comments about the vote on the defense spending bill and his failed amendment that would have cut funding to the National Security Agency's program that collects the phone records of U.S. citizens and residents, at the Capitol, Wednesday, July 24, 2013. The Amash Amendment narrowly lost, 217-205. The White House and congressional backers of the NSA's electronic surveillance program lobbied against ending the massive collection of phone records from millions of Americans saying it would put the nation at risk from another terrorist attack. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., comments about the vote on the defense spending bill and his failed amendment that would have cut funding to the National Security Agency's program that collects the phone records of U.S. citizens and residents, at the Capitol, Wednesday, July 24, 2013. The Amash Amendment narrowly lost, 217-205. The White House and congressional backers of the NSA's electronic surveillance program lobbied against ending the massive collection of phone records from millions of Americans saying it would put the nation at risk from another terrorist attack. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., comments about the vote on the defense spending bill and his failed amendment that would have cut funding to the National Security Agency's program that collects the phone records of U.S. citizens and residents, at the Capitol, Wednesday, July 24, 2013. The Amash Amendment narrowly lost, 217-205. The White House and congressional backers of the NSA's electronic surveillance program lobbied against ending the massive collection of phone records from millions of Americans saying it would put the nation at risk from another terrorist attack. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

(AP) ? Opponents of the National Security Agency's collection of hundreds of millions of Americans' phone records insist they will press ahead with their challenge to the surveillance program after a narrow defeat in the House.

Furious lobbying and last-minute pleas to lawmakers ensured victory for the Obama administration as the House voted 217-205 Wednesday to spare the NSA program.

Unbowed, the libertarian-leaning conservatives, tea partyers and liberal Democrats who led the fight said they will try to undo a program they called an unconstitutional intrusion on civil liberties.

Rep. Justin Amash, a 33-year-old Michigan Republican, made his intentions clear through the social media of Twitter: "We came close (205-217). If just 7 Reps had switched their votes, we would have succeeded. Thank YOU for making a difference. We fight on."

The other sponsor of the effort, 84-year-old Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said the slim margin ensures that vigorous debate on the NSA's programs will continue.

"This discussion is going to be examined continually ... as long as we have this many members in the House of Representatives that are saying it's OK to collect all records you want just as long as you make sure you don't let it go anywhere else,'" said Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. "That is the beginning of the wrong direction in a democratic society."

The showdown marked the first chance for lawmakers to take a stand on the secret surveillance program since former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden leaked classified documents last month that spelled out the monumental scope of the government's activities.

Backing the NSA program were 134 Republicans and 83 Democrats, including House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who typically does not vote, and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California. Rejecting the administration's last-minute appeals to save the surveillance operation were 94 Republicans and 111 Democrats.

At a news conference Thursday on a range of subjects, Boehner said he voted against the Amash amendment "because these NSA programs have helped keep Americans safe."

He said Congress needed to have the debate, but it is unlikely to be the final word on the worldwide debate over the U.S. government snooping to defend the nation versus the privacy of Americans.

"Have 12 years gone by and our memories faded so badly that we forgot what happened on Sept. 11?" Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in pleading with his colleagues to back the program during House debate.

Amash defended his effort, saying the aim was to end the indiscriminate collection of Americans' phone records.

His measure, offered as an addition to a $598.3 billion defense spending bill for 2014, would have canceled the statutory authority for the NSA program, ending the agency's ability to collect phone records and metadata under the USA Patriot Act unless it identified an individual under investigation.

The House later voted to pass the overall defense bill, 315-109.

Amash told the House that his effort was to defend the Constitution and "defend the privacy of every American."

The unlikely political coalitions were on full display during a brief but spirited House debate.

"Let us not deal in false narratives. Let's deal in facts that will keep Americans safe," said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., an Intelligence Committee member.

But Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., a senior member of the Judiciary Committee who helped write the USA Patriot Act, insisted "the time has come" to stop the collection of phone records that goes far beyond what he envisioned.

Several Republicans acknowledged the difficulty in balancing civil liberties against national security. But they also expressed suspicion about the Obama administration's implementation of the NSA programs ? and anger at National Intelligence Director James Clapper.

Clapper has acknowledged he gave misleading statements to Congress on how much the U.S. spies on Americans. He apologized to lawmakers this month after saying in March that the U.S. does not gather data on citizens ? something that Snowden revealed as false by releasing documents showing the NSA collects millions of phone records.

"Right now the balancing is being done by people we do not know, people who lied to this body," said Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C.

With a flurry of letters, statements and tweets, both sides lobbied intensely in the hours prior to the vote in the Republican-controlled House. In a statement, Clapper warned against dismantling a critical intelligence tool.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Congress has authorized ? and a Republican and a Democratic president have signed ? extensions of the powers to search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of terrorists.

Two years ago, in a strong bipartisan statement, the Senate voted 72-23 to renew the USA Patriot Act, and the House backed the extension 250-153.

Since the disclosures this year, however, lawmakers have said they were shocked by the scope of the two programs ? one to collect records of hundreds of millions of calls and the other allowing the NSA to sweep up Internet usage data from around the world that goes through nine major U.S.-based providers.

Proponents argue that the surveillance operations have been successful in thwarting at least 50 terror plots across 20 countries, including 10 to 12 directed at the United States.

The overall defense spending bill would provide the Pentagon with $512.5 billion for weapons, personnel, aircraft and ships, plus $85.8 billion for the war in Afghanistan for the next budget year.

The total, which is $5.1 billion below current spending, has drawn a veto threat from the White House, which argues that it would force the administration to cut education, health research and other domestic programs in order to boost spending for the Pentagon.

The bill must be reconciled with whatever measure the Democratic-controlled Senate produces.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-07-25-NSA%20Surveillance/id-692dd64ccb854400a1343bb96e07c3c5

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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Privatizing Canada Post gets our stamp of approval

Canada Post
(LAURA DETTLING/QMI AGENCY files)

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The U.K. government recently decided to privatize the Royal Mail postal group. It will sell a majority stake in the state enterprise to investors, and about 150,000 Royal Mail employees will receive free shares.

I think (hope) that such reform will one day have to occur here, with Canada Post.

The Crown Corporation delivers less and less mail, partly because of the growing popularity of e-mail and new technologies. And shipping costs ? including transportation and labour ? are growing faster than revenues. The Conference Board of Canada, a think-tank, recently released a report saying the corporation may incur losses of $1 billion per year until 2020.

So what do we do with this venerable but costly institution? Among solutions proposed by the Conference Board to save money:

  • Freeze wages for a number of years;
  • Deliver mail every other day;
  • Eliminate door-to-door delivery and replace it with community mailboxes for urban residential customers.

Raising the cost of mailing letters and advertising could help raise some revenues, but not enough to eliminate the shortfall.

But we should go further. Like Britain, we could privatize Canada Post, in part, to set up the discipline that comes from having investors who demand a return on their investment. Right now the sole shareholder of Canada Post is the federal government ? not the most demanding shareholder.

If possible, the government should open up the market to competition. Allowing competitors to enter the postal market would force Canada Post to innovate and become more efficient in order to retain market share. Without such pressures, Canadian consumers will always bear the brunt of Canada Post?s underperformance, in the form of lower quality and/or higher prices.

In fact, the state monopoly to distribute letters, like the one enjoyed by Canada Post, is a model that has been increasingly abandoned in countries around the world, particularly in Europe.

Some will raise the issue of sparsely populated regions, which is a legitimate concern. The costs of services are indeed higher in those areas. But it shouldn?t be an obstacle to reform.

Thanks to the Internet, physical distances have become less and less relevant. And if some unprofitable business ? but considered absolutely essential ? must be maintained, nothing prevents the federal government from imposing this condition to any prospective buyer of Canada Post, and offering a subsidy accordingly. Which should be transparent, and subject to review and debate.

Canada Post must focus on providing the best service to Canadians, at the best price. A privatization, even partial, could most likely help meet that goal.

? Michel Kelly-Gagnon is president of Montreal Economic Institute. The opinions expressed here are his own.

Poll

Do you think Canada Post should be privatized?

Source: http://www.torontosun.com/2013/07/23/privatizing-canada-post-gets-our-stamp-of-approval

Zimmerman Verdict

Dig In And Get Excited With These Home Improvement Tips | Make ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]You can prevent future problems in your house by improving some simple home improvement skills. Little problems do not turn into big problems. This article will give you the techniques necessary to handle most home ...

Source: http://www.make-your-home.com/2013/07/23/dig-in-and-get-excited-with-these-home-improvement-tips/

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Probing the why of Wall Street insider trading

Rajat Gupta was once worth $100 million US, a budding philanthropist and a respected member of the South Asian community. Now, he's a felon, convicted of selling insider trading secrets to Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam.

Journalist and London bureau chief for Forbes Anita Raghavan wanted to know why such a rich and respected man became part of the scheme, which involved insider trading on Goldman Sachs stock, a company where he was a director.

The result is The Billionaire?s Apprentice, which looks at how the best and brightest of the South Asian business community were drawn into corrupt practices on Wall Street.

Just a week ago, Gupta was ordered by a U.S. judge to pay a hefty $13.9 million US civil penalty and permanently barred from acting as an officer or director of a public company.

Yet Gupta had been a groundbreaker for South Asians in American business, rising to become head of McKinsey & Co. and credited with a huge turnaround at the marketing firm.

Though his personal fortune was $100 million, Gupta then began to move in philanthropic circles with the likes of Henry Kravis and Bill Gates, and suddenly did not feel he was influential enough, Raghavan told CBC News.

?Wealth, particularly enormous wealth, is increasingly encoded with power in our world and Rajat Gupta, after stepping down from the helm of McKinsey in 2003, felt a profound loss of power. And I think he teamed up with Raj Rajaratnam to try and address that problem,? she said.

Sri Lankan-born Rajaratnam was the billionaire founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund, but he felt he was losing his edge in an environment where rules against insider trading were getting tighter. He recruited Gupta to give him boardroom tips about Goldman Sachs, including Warren Buffett?s $5-billion investment in the bank during the financial crisis.

?Rajaratnam was clever at inducing information out of all his informants and he particularly played Gupta,? she said.

?He sensed that Gupta felt this loss of power when he stepped down from McKinsey and he also picked up on the fact that Gupta was looking for a way to reinvent himself and offered himself as the solution to Gupta?s problem.?

Galleon collapsed after Rajaratnam was arrested on insider trading charges in 2009. Authorities had used wiretaps in the investigation. He is now serving an 11-year sentence.

Ironically, it was New York state attorney Preet Bharara, the son of Indian immigrants, who led the prosecution against Wall Street insider trading.

In The Billionaire?s Apprentice, Raghavan tries to puzzle out why such wealthy and powerful people think they can get away with insider trading.

?I think they convince themselves it is OK. They tell themselves that everybody on wall street is doing it,? she said.

But she says healthy markets rely on wiping out such corruption.

?If retail investors feel that one player has an advantage over another, then they are less eager to participate in the market,? she said. "It?s important because the greater transparency you have, the greater sense of fairness you have in markets, the greater participation you have."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/probing-why-wall-street-insider-trading-003856257.html

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