Patents, Apple, Amazon.com, Apps, iPhone, Top 10

Patents

• The 'broken patent system': how we got here and how to fix it
• Patent trolls curb innovation and cost the U.S. $29B in 2011
• Patent troll says it owns GPS, sues Foursquare
• Super troll sues Netflix, Yelp, dozens more over Autocomplete
• Ben Franklin on Patents; in which he provides a Selfless model for Sharing and Cooperation; Inspires us with his Generosity; and Lends Moral Authority to the Principles of Free Culture…

Apple

• Apple's patent absurdity exposed at last--"US appeal court judge Richard Posner has finally said the unsayable: that Apple's and other tech firms' patent battles are a ridiculous abuse of intellectual property law."
• Apple Moves to Cut Off Google's Glass Project With Their Own Device... Um We Mean Patent.
• Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity
• Apple Removes Green Electronics Certification From Products--Because of this, the City of San Francisco may stop buying iMacs and Apple laptops in the future, but apparently customer concerns have gotten Apple to backtrack on this decision.
• Move over @mac.com and @me.com—it's time for @icloud.com

Amazon.com

• I Want It Today--"How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail."
• Senator says Apple e-books suit "could wipe out the publishing industry"--"Schumer argued that the lawsuit could make it more difficult for new authors to get published if Apple is forced to adopt Amazon's wholesale model for e-books."
• Apple won't carry an ebook because it mentions Amazon

Apps

• Apple blames corrupt apps on rogue server
• Apple investigating iOS in-app purchase hack
• How all your iPhone apps could be hacked at once
• It’s a huge mistake to remove password prompt for free apps in iOS 6
• The Mac App Store's future of irrelevance

iPhone

• Apple Claims This 2005 iPhone Prototype Proves It Didn't Copy Sony
• Apple Changes IPhone Connectors. World Freaks Out
• 650,000-volt iPhone case is a real stunner
• Apply a Screen Protector Perfectly Every Time with the Hinge Method
• The Onion: New Apple Campaign Urges Consumers To Buy iPhone For Other Hand

Top 10

• Top 10 Strangest Clocks
• Top 10 Strangest Spy Gadgets
• Top 10 Weirdest Keyboards

Abortion and Birth Control, Religion, Culture Clash, Male Rape, Sexism

Abortion and Birth Control

• Melinda Gates challenges Vatican by vowing to improve contraception--"Catholic philanthropist predicts women in Africa and Asia will soon ignore church teaching on birth control." And she also pledged $560 million for contraception.
• Republicans vs. Women--"Even with a persistent gender gap in a presidential election year, House Republicans have not given up on their campaign to narrow access to birth control, abortion care and lifesaving cancer screenings. Far from it." NYT
• Planned Parenthood Sues Arizona For Blocking Low-Income Women's Access To Health Clinics
• Philippines birth control: Filipinos want it, priests don't--"In the Philippines, access to contraceptives is limited for the most part to those with the means to pay. The Catholic Church has fought a 'reproductive health bill' in the legislature that would change that."
• Hundreds protest toughening Spain's abortion law--"Hundreds of Spaniards protested Sunday against the conservative government's proposal to roll back women's abortion rights, including in cases where the fetus is deformed."

Religion

• Dominican Republic abortion ban stops treatment for pregnant teen with cancer
• Girls denied cervical cancer jab--"Some schools in England have opted out of the HPV vaccination programme because their pupils 'follow strict Christian principles' and 'do not practise sex outside marriage.'"
• Parents deny daughter life-saving transplant--"An Auckland girl suffering a rare kidney disease has been put into the guardianship of the High Court because her Jehovah's Witness parents will not consent to her receiving a life-saving kidney and liver transplant."

Culture Clash

• Afghan female rights activist killed in latest act of violence against women
• 'Disgusted' by Her Dating, Man Beheads His Daughter, 20, In India NYT
• Pakistan policeman kills sister for wearing jeans

Male Rape

• Men Outnumber Women Among American Rape Victims
• US broadens definition of rape; includes male victims--"[T]he first major revision to the definition in more than 80 years."
• The silent male victims of rape

Sexism

• Michael Smerconish: Lazar Greenfield's 'Semengate' Stuns Scientific Community--"Dr. Greenfield noted the therapeutic effects of semen, citing research from the Archives of Sexual Behavior which found that female college students practicing unprotected sex were less likely to suffer from depression than those whose partners used condoms (as well as those who remained abstinent)."
• Science – It’s a Girl Thing (Insert Facepalm Here)
• 'You know what men are like': Indonesia to ban mini-skirts over links to rape
• Lego tries to get less sexist--"The toy maker's female-centric "Lego Friends" send a bad message for girls. But now there's hope for change." Salon
• Sexist Humor No Laughing Matter, Psychologist Says
• Seventeen Magazine Vows to Show Girls 'as They Really Are
• 'Princeless': A Fairy Tale Parody Where the Princesses Are Rescuin' For Themselves

Tech Trouble, Microsoft, Nokia, Digg, Facebook

Tech Trouble

• Netflix's lost year: The inside story of the price-hike train wreck
• Winamp’s woes: how the greatest MP3 player undid itself--"AOL famously acquired the company in June 1999 for $80-$100 million—and Winamp almost immediately lost its innovative edge."
• Cisco to lay off another 1,300 employees
• Law firms investigating Zynga for insider stock sell-off
• OAuth 2.0 leader resigns, says standard is 'bad'--"At the core of the problem is the strong and unbridgeable conflict between the Web and the enterprise worlds. The OAuth working group at the IETF started with strong web presence. But as the work dragged on (and on) past its first year, those Web folks left along with every member of the original 1.0 community. The group that was left was largely all enterprise... and me. The resulting specification is a designed-by-committee patchwork of compromises that serves mostly the enterprise."
  

Microsoft

• Microsoft's Downfall: Inside the Executive E-mails and Cannibalistic Culture That Felled a Tech Giant
• Microsoft reports first quarterly loss ever
• Microsoft’s Lost Decade

Nokia

• Nokia price cut worries investors ahead of Q2 results
• $It costs $450 in marketing to make someone buy a $49 Nokia Lumia
• Nokia posts $1 billion operating loss for Q2 2012, net cash up $125 million

Digg

• 7 Ways Digg Dug Its Own Grave
• Facebook Didn't Kill Digg, Reddit Did,
• The Inside Story On Why Kevin Rose Never Had A Big Hit

Facebook

• Facebook shares slide as user growth in question
• Mark Zuckerberg's net worth plunges $7.2 billion
• Facebook 'likes' and adverts' value doubted--"A BBC investigation suggests companies are wasting large sums of money on adverts to gain 'likes' from Facebook members who have no real interest in their products."
• Apple looks at Twitter deal as Facebook suffers--Don't believe in the hype?
• Facebook to pay $10 million to settle suit
• Facebook e-mail mess: Address books altered; e-mail lost
• The Facebook tweak that killed a billion-dollar industry
• Obama Hate Speech Spreads on Facebook
• How Facebook is injecting politics into your news feed--"A new Facebook feature may cause you serious headaches by posting sneaky political posts from organizations you've 'liked' under your name -- without your consent."
• San Carlos yoga teacher loses job after glaring at Facebook employee for using cellphone in class

Cybersecurity, Surveillance, Google, Facebook, Breach, Passwords, Hackers

Cybersecurity

• Senate introduces revised version of the Cybersecurity Act of 2012
• Wyden Traps Feds In Their Own Words: ACTA Explanation Opens Up Big Hole In Cybersecurity Bill
• Next Week: The Senate Fights Over Whether It Can Take Away Your Online Privacy

Surveillance

• Meet The Internet Defense League (And Join It, Too)
• U.S. Admits Surveillance Violated Constitution At Least Once
• Russia's Top Cyber Sleuth Foils US Spies, Helps Kremlin Pals
• Little peepers everywhere: America's laws governing digital and mobile surveillance are an unholy mess
• Malte Spitz: Your phone company is watching
• Skype Won't Say Whether It Can Eavesdrop on Your Conversations
• EFF: Americans may not realize it, but many are in a face recognition database now

Google

• Google Now: There's A Fine Line Between Cool And Creepy--Coming soon: The ContextBot
• Google admits it didn't delete all Wi-Fi data collected by Street View cars
• YouTube Pushing Users Switch To Real Names

Facebook

• Facebook's Privacy Issues Are Even Deeper Than We Knew
• Stalkbook: Stalk anyone, even if you're not Facebook friends
• Facebook set to unfriend anonymous snooping--"The website has announced that it is going to start letting users know who has viewed items on the social network, a change which is expected to cause the amount of online snooping to plummet."
• Facebook scans chats and posts for criminal activity--"Facebook has added sleuthing to its array of data-mining capabilities, scanning your posts and chats for criminal activity. If the social-networking giant detects suspicious behavior, it flags the content and determines if further steps, such as informing the police, are required."
• Facebook less trusted with personal data than Amazon and Google, poll says

Breach

• Wall Street targeted: 50,000 IT accounts hacked and leaked by 'MidasBank'
• Anonymous hackers target oil industry giants, more than 1,000 email credentials exposed
• Hackers post 450K credentials pilfered from Yahoo--Is your password one of the Yahoo hack's top 10?
• Nvidia confirms hackers swiped up to 400,000 user accounts
• Police closes UEA investigation--"While no criminal proceedings will be instigated, the investigation has concluded that the data breach was the result of a 'sophisticated and carefully orchestrated attack on the CRU's data files, carried out remotely via the internet'."
• Cross-platform Trojan checks your OS: Attacks Windows, Mac, Linux--How thoughtful.
• Hack Yourself First: Interview Jeremiah Grossman--He "thinks everyone should learn how to hack. Why? Because 'every day, our country’s innovation is being stolen, our national security jeopardized, and your most personal information is being robbed – by computer hackers – malicious hackers.'

Passwords

• 140,000 KPN ADSL accounts found with weak default Password
• Unbreakable crypto: Store a 30-character password in your brain’s subconscious memory
• 11 million passwords from hacked game website dumped online

Hackers

• Drone hijacked by hackers from Texas college with $1,000 spoofer
• Hackers steal keyless BMW in under 3 minutes
• Hacker Opens High Security Handcuffs With 3D-Printed And Laser-Cut Keys
• Hotel cardkey locks said to be vulnerable to bypass hack
• Mom Hacks Into School Computer System, Changes Her Kids' Grades

Olympics 2012, By Committee, Business, Sponsors, Alert Mode

Olympics 2012

• UK bans leaders who abuse rights
• Saudis allow women to compete
• Racist tweet ends Olympic dream
• I didn't make the Olympics. Now what?--"I spent years training for gold, but came up short at the trials. Where does an obsession go when the dream dies." Salon
• Longing for the Return of Dueling Pistol--"As the Olympics has grown and modernized over the years, many events have fallen by the wayside. While many are unmourned — does anyone miss club swinging? — others could easily return to the program. Here are the top 10 events that would be exciting to resurrect." NYT

By Committee

• US Olympic Committee says sorry to knitters whom it claimed "denigrated" the games
• London Olympic committee says you're only allowed to link to their site if you have nice things to say
• Olympics Can't Handle An Official Parody Twitter Account, So Twitter Takes It Down

Business

• How to Fix the Olympics
• Can London Afford the $14.5 Billion Price Tag of the Summer 2012 Olympic Games?
• London 2012 Olympics: 10 to a room and 1 shower for 75 people: Inside the 'slum' camp for Olympic cleaners
• Olympic beer to cost £7.23 a pint
• Cambodian workers on £10 a week making Olympics 'fanwear'--"Adidas, the sportswear company, is facing an investigation over claims that Cambodian workers are being paid £10 a week in basic wages to make official merchandise for the London Olympics."
• Creepy Olympic mascots take over London
• London 2012 anti-logos Salon

Sponsors

• Britain Flooded with 'Brand Police' to Protect Olympic Sponsors
• McDonald's Olympics French Fry Monopoly: Sponsorship Deal Bans Other Vendors From Selling Fries
• Lord Coe's astonishing sponsors outburst--"Heavy-handed security chiefs will ban Olympic spectators for wearing the wrong brand of clothes...."
• Censorship Olympics: The organisers of the Games have been handed unprecedented control over everyday speech
• Graffiti artist who worked for Adidas is banned from Olympic Games venues

Alert Mode

• Olympic security contractor G4S told ministers... it could not fulfil brief--The failure to provide enough guards was a "humiliating shambles."
• TSA agents to staff UK airports during Olympics
• London 2012: even Beijing didn't put an army on the gates--"Olympics organisers say visitors will find the huge military presence at the Games 'reassuring' – the most questionable of claims." That's fascist talk.
• London residents lose missiles case --"Worried residents have lost a High Court battle to stop surface-to-air missiles being stationed on the roof of a 17-storey residential tower block during the London Olympics."
• Olympics security poster 'gibberish' to Arabic speakers

Aurora, Penn-alized, 'Murica, Congress and Corruption, Public Sector, Crossover

Aurora

• Suspect Bought Large Stockpile of Rounds Online NYT
• Former State Senator Claims Colorado Shooting Victims Lacked Courage To Stop Gunman
• Uninsured Aurora shooting victims face financial devastation
• Why did Colorado shooting suspect avoid social media?
• Jason Alexander on Aurora

Penn-alized

• Justice is served at Penn State
• Real N.C.A.A. Penalty for Penn State, but No Cheers Yet NYT
• Penn State Sanctions: Questions And Answers About PSU's Vacated Wins

'Murica

• Weimar America: Four Major Ways We're Following In Germany's Fascist Footsteps
• Mayberry R.I.P.--"Declinist panic. Hysterical nostalgia. America may not be over, but it is certainly in thrall to the idea."
• America, the Law-crazed--"America's zeal for legislating has turned us all into criminals of one type or another."

Congress and Corruption

• Abramoff: I Know the Congressional Culture of Corruption--"Congressmen accept donations and solemnly recite their oath of office: My vote is not for sale for a mere contribution. They are wrong."
• Cantor's office wrote loophole into insider trading bill--Spouses get exemption.
• Seven Tea Party Freshmen Spent More Than $100,000 In Taxpayer Money On Personal Cars

Public Sector

• Wildfire Tests Police In Colorado Tax Movement’s Home--"The municipality, at 416,000 the state’s second-largest, auctioned both its police helicopters and shrank public-safety ranks through attrition by about 8 percent; it has 50 fewer police and 39 fewer firefighters than five years ago. More than 180 National Guard troops have been mobilized to secure the city after the state’s most destructive fire."
• Scranton's police, fire, DPW unions file lawsuit against salary cuts
• Does Mitt Romney want to cut jobs for police, firefighters, and teachers?

Racism

• Arpaio's words used against him at racial-profiling case
• Romney 'Advisor': Mitt Will Bring a White Man’s Touch--The Romney camp has disavowed the quote.
• Ice-T: Rush Limbaugh is a 'racist piece of'...

Crossover

• Jeb Bush praises Obama
• CPAC's boy wonder swings left--And typically, he's being attacked for it (Salon).
• Reagan-Appointed Judge Defends Roberts, Says GOP Has Become 'Goofy'
• Opposites attract: Republican Don Young endorses Democrat Mazie Hironi in Hawaii
• Top Republicans denounce attack on Clinton aide

War on Terror, Rendition, Homefront, Iran, Palestine

War on Terror

• The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama
• 'Bye-bye, Miss American Pie' – then US helicopter appears to fire on Afghans--"If [the video] is proved to be authentic, it could further undermine the image of foreign forces in a country where there is already deep resentment owing to civilian deaths and a perception among many Afghans that US troops lack respect for Afghan culture and people."
• Blair-Bush Iraq war transcript may be suppressed
• Taliban commander: we cannot win war and al-Qaida is a 'plague'
• Pentagon, CIA Sued for Lethal Drone Attacks on U.S. Citizens
• CIA's Jose Rodriguez: "I Really Resent You Using the Word 'Torture'"
• Greenwald: "Officials say" journalism Salon

Rendition

• Poland shaken by case alleging an illicit CIA prison there--"A Polish inquiry on whether the CIA had a secret prison in the country where suspects were brutally interrogated could entangle former top Polish officials."
• Court demands secret files on US 'black jails'--"The United States is facing fresh embarrassment over its use of 'black' detention sites after the European Court of Human Rights ordered Poland to hand over secret documents about its role in the War on Terror...."
• Italian court postpones ruling in CIA rendition case

Homefront

• Massachusetts man pleads guilty in plot to attack Pentagon, Capitol
• The NYPD Boasts They Thwarted 14 Terror Attacks -- Why They Are Full of B.S.
• 'What?' Confused 911 Called Outs NYPD Spying in NJ

Iran

• War by other means--"Military strikes and sanctions are not the best way to support regime change in Iran."
• Iran lawmakers prepare to close Hormuz Strait
• Iran says can destroy U.S. bases "minutes after attack"
• Greenwald: CNN on the Iran threat Salon
• Nearly 4 to 1 Americans want Iran nuclear crisis solved diplomatically, not militarily: poll

Palestine

• Palestinians pressured not to seek international probe into Arafat's death--Did he die of polonium poisoning?
• Egypt lifts 5-year blockade of Gaza, allowing Palestinians free entry
• Activist prevents Israeli officer from arresting Palestinian child

Blue Line, Sexual Assault, New York, Florida, Don't Tase Me Bro, Caught on Cam

Blue Line

• Cop Fired For Speeding 143 MPH While Drunk Gets Job Back
• Protests after Houston cop cleared of beating black teen
• Report: Goodyear Police Botched Death Investigation
• Illinois Defunds Torture Commission Just After It Finds Torture Problems
• Chief fires lieutenant again after his 15th suspension

Sexual Assault

• Revealed: the scale of sexual abuse by police officers--"Guardian investigation finds sexual predators in police are abusing their power to target victims of crime."
• 'My life has been shattered': Teacher, 24, sobs in court as NYPD officer jailed for life after sexual assault at gunpoint
• Ex-cop found guilty of rape; he blamed Zoloft for his actions

New York

• Crime Report Manipulation Is Common Among New York Police, Study Finds NYT
• Couple Arrested for Dancing While Waiting for the NYC Subway
• Wall Street Recruiter Fighting for Right to Flip Cops the Bird
• 'Link' between DNA from Occupy Wall Street protest & Sarah Fox murder was actually product of a lab mess-up: sources--"The NYPD lab employee who processed evidence from both cases will likely face departmental charges for not taking precautions to prevent tainting, sources said."
• Just Like Old Times: NYPD Brutally Attack Peaceful Protesters at Zuccotti Park

Florida

• Florida 'first offender' gets 161 years in prison
• Florida Judge Orders Release of Elderly Man Serving 20 Years for Firing Two Warning Shots--"A Florida judge has ordered a new trial for Ronald Thompson, the 65-year-old disabled veteran who was sentenced to 20 years in prison under Florida's mandatory minimum law after firing two warning shots to scare off a gang of teenagers. In the meantime, the judge wants Thompson, who has already served three years of his 20 year sentence, released from prison."
• Deputies shoot, kill man after knocking on wrong door

Don't Tase Me, Bro

• Florida cops taser man three times after stopping him for jaywalking--"Officers tasered Zikomo Peurifoy three ties before cuffing him and taking him into custody, but rather than apologize for using violence against a non-violent suspect, police have said they are considering using the video for training purposes."
• American Heart Association: Tasers can cause death
• Tasered for not showing his ticket

Caught on Cam

• Eyewitness to Miami Beach shooting alleges police misconduct
• Austin Man Facing 10 Years in Prison After Photographing Cops Making Arrest
• Motorcyclist Arrested for Wearing a Helmet Cam
• ACLU Releases "Police Tape" Android App
• Houston Cops Kill Unarmed Man, Confiscate Cell Phone Camera From Witness

Corporations, Banks, Libor, Wall Street, Mortgages and Foreclosures, Big Food

Corporations

• Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world--"As anti-capitalist protesters take to the streets, mathematics has teased apart the global economic network to show who's really pulling the strings."
• After 800 years, the barons are back in control of Britain--"The Magna Carta forced King John to give away powers. But big business now exerts a chilling grip on the workforce."
• Duke Energy CEO Bill Johnson resigns after one day, gets $44 million in severance
• Idle corporate cash piles up--"The Fed's latest Flow of Funds report showed that U.S. nonfinancial companies held $1.7 trillion in liquid assets at the end of March. But newly released IRS figures show that in 2009 these companies held $4.8 trillion in liquid assets, which equals $5.1 trillion in today's dollars, triple the Fed figure."
• Corporation That Paid Nothing In Taxes For Four Years Tells Congress It Pays Too Much In Taxes

Banks

• £13tn hoard hidden from taxman by global elite
• Was the petrol price rigged too?
• UK: Fees that can halve the value of your pension

Libor

• Libor fraud exposes Wall Street’s rotten core
• Deutsche Bank seeks deal in Libor scandal
• Libor arrests in US could be imminent, say sources

Wall Street

• The Stock Market IS Rigged: Big Investors Illegally Get Analysts' Info Before You Do
• Gaming the Electricity Markets, Wall Street Style
• Goldman Sachs and a Sale Gone Horribly Awry NYT

Mortages and Foreclosures

• California County Weighs Drastic Plan to Aid Homeowners NYT
• L.A. sues US Bank over blighted, abandoned homes
• The Whistleblower's Tale: Countrywide Investigator Fired for Doing Her Job While Rampant Fraud Was Concealed
• Banks nix "risky" loans--"Banks won't help Obama rescue the underwater homeowners who, a few years ago, they were eager to rip off." Salon
• Wells Fargo Will Settle Mortgage Bias Charges NYT
• Barofsky Book: Geithner Confirmed in 2009 That HAMP Was Designed for Banks to Spread Out Foreclosures

Big Food

• Has 'Organic' Been Oversized? NYT
• New food bill in New Zealand takes away human right to grow food
• Food price crisis feared as erratic weather wreaks havoc on crops

Marriage Equality, Boy Scouts, Religion, Politics and Media, LGBT

Marriage Equality

• Barney Frank marries longtime partner
• The First Gay Military Wedding
• Episcopal Church approves same-sex blessing service
• Taiwan to stage first same-sex Buddhist wedding--"Two women plan to tie the knot next month in Taiwan's first same-sex Buddhist wedding, as gay and lesbian groups push to make the island the first society in Asia to legalise gay marriage."
• Google Announces Global Campaign To Legalize Gay Marriage
• NY appeals court throws out challenge to same-sex marriage law--"A New York appeals court... dismissed a lawsuit brought against the state’s year-old marriage equality law, ruling that the state legislature did not violate open meetings rules while working toward a deal on the measure."
• Minnesota anti-gay marriage group says Facebook page "hacked"

Boy Scouts

• Boy Scouts uphold ban on gay members, say policy 'is in the best interest of Scouting'
• A Gay Father's Response to the Boy Scouts of America: You Haven't Gone Far Enough
• Major League Soccer will not renew partnership with Boy Scouts of America following 2012 season--Coincidence?

Religion

• Rift Forms in Movement as Belief in Gay 'Cure' Is Renounced NYT
• A tempest in my soul: A son's secret brings a Southern Baptist minister to his knees
• Episcopal Church Approves Transgender People Ordination

Politics and Media

• DC Republicans Endorse LGBT Equality In Party Platform
• Jan Brewer Asks Supreme Court To Strip Benefits of Same-Sex Partners
• S.C. Dem Candidate Closes Twitter Account After Staffer Call GOPers 'Homos'
• Boston Mayor Vows To Block Chick-Fil-A From Opening Restaurant After Anti-Gay Remarks
• Anderson Cooper: "The Fact Is, I'm Gay."
• Lady Gaga Accused of Trying to Turn Teenagers Gay
• Troops march in San Diego gay parade - in uniform

LGBT

• LGBT's worst foe: The Closet Monster Salon
• Punks who blinded eighth-grader in anti-gay attack at Roy H. Mann H.S. in Brooklyn face slap could get as little as 18 months
• New Chinese dictionary in row over 'gay' omission

Trouble with Telcos, Verizon, Broadband, Bandwidth

Trouble with Telcos

• Former France Telecom CEO indicted over 35 suicides
• Five years after the iPhone, carriers are the biggest threat to innovation
• Father of Australian Internet Warns of Address Crunch--"IPv6 will supply many more addresses, but Huston says telecoms have little incentive to invest in adopting it, since an address shortage would give companies the power to ration internet traffic and charge a premium for easier access."

Verizon

• Verizon urges court to scrap net-neutrality rules--"Verizon claimed that the rules violate its First Amendment free speech rights."
• Verizon wants the "freedom" to edit your internet--They're purporting that "broadband providers possess 'editorial discretion'" to "feature some content over others."
• Verizon is trying to stamp out unlimited data customers
• Is Verizon 'shaking down' customers with family plan?
• Verizon Silences T-Mobile: Wireless Industry Consolidation and Cross-Industry Collusion — Verizon Wireless, Comcast and T-Mobile

Broadband

• White House Debuts Ambitious Plan To Remake The Web Using Broadband
• Obama's Broadband Vision vs. the Communications Trust
• Success! How Progressives Stalled the Deregulation Agenda of Greedy Telecoms and ALEC
• South Carolina passes bill against municipal broadband--"Broadband policy analysts decry pressure from AT&T and a conservative group."
• Colorado city rolls out free Wi-Fi in seven parks--"In November 2011 a referendum vote in favor of letting Longmont offer telecom services effectively lifted state restrictions on the use of the city's existing fiber-optic network. Opponents, including Comcast, spent nearly $300,000 trying to convince Longmont's residents to defeat the ballot question."

Bandwidth

• Why Comcast really cares about data caps and tiered plans
• Sprint Changes 'Unlimited' Broadband To 5 Gigs... While Still Advertising Unlimited Broadband
• No meter? No problem. AT&T is still happy to charge you
• Ohio man gets a $16.4 million cable bill
• Congressman Wants to Ban Download Caps--"Time Warner Cable plans to test its controversial, new scheme to have users pay by the gigabyte in Rochester, New York, but the area’s freshman congressman calls usage caps greedy and plans to introduce legislation to stop it."

Money Laundering, Fast and Furious, Mexico, 420, DEA, Medical Marijuana, Law and Disorder, War on Drugs, International

Money Laundering

• Senate report: HSBC 'allowed drug money laundering'--They're 'sorry' for what they'v done.
• Mexican Drug Cartel Laundered Money Through BofA, FBI Alleges
• Mexican drug cartels and the U.S. banking industry--It's been going on for some time now.

Fast and Furious

• The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal--"A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust."
• Fast and Furious follow up: The ATF and gun stores
• Fast And Furious: Feds Name 4 Suspects Linked To Botched Gun-Smuggling Operation
• Fast and Furious: Failed scandal--"John Boehner seems to realize his party’s effort to use Fast and Furious to embarrass Obama has failed." Salon
• Fast And Furious Whistleblower: Grassley, Issa 'Cried Wolf' On New ATF Video

Mexico

• Mexican drug cartels' spreading influence: Graphic
• Drugs tunnel between Mexico and US discovered
• Mexican papers halt crime coverage for fear of reprisals

420

• Why Pot Is Illegal Everywhere in the World
• Jon Stewart criticizes Chris Christie over marijuana legalization--Christie now says that the war on drugs "has been a failure."
• Moms and Dads for Marijuana Regulation unveil new Colorado billboard

DEA

• DEA head: A thousand dead children means we’re winning war on drugs Salon
• Government-sponsored study destroys DEA's classification of marijuana
• The Fallacy of the DEA: Why the Agency Needs to Concede to Legal Marijuana

Medical Marijuana

• Obama's War On Ethical Medical Pot
• Vote To Close Marijuana Shops Postponed Amid Proposed Deal
• Medical marijuana patient Bob Crouse acquitted of felony charges--"I was just trying to grow the quantity of medicine I needed to medicate myself. I never had any intent to distribute."
• Study: Medical Marijuana Does Not Increase Number Of Teens Smoking Pot
• Injured vets want battle over pot to end

Law and Disorder

• Stop-and-Frisk May Soon Hit Judicial Roadblocks NYT
• Florida Cop Fired for Planting Dope, Says He Did That and More Under Orders
• Long Beach Police Investigate Excessive Force in Pot-Shop Raid
• Harlem Couple Branded 'Professional Agitators' in NYPD 'Wanted' Poster
• Twelve Years for Cough Syrup, Criminal Charges for Ibuprofen

War on Drugs

• In His Second Term, Obama Will Pivot to the Drug War
• The Myth of the Toothless President
• The drug war: The path to decriminalisation
• New York Times: What Do You Get From A Drug War Costing $25 Billion Annually? Cocaine 74 Percent Cheaper Than It Was 30 Years Ago
• Florida Supreme Court upholds state's drug law--"A Florida law that requires people caught with illegal drugs in their possession to prove their innocence has been upheld by the state Supreme Court." Emphasis mine.

International

• A Quiet Revolution: Drug Decriminalisation Policies in Practice Across the Globe--"The main aim of the report was to look at the existing research to establish whether the adoption of a decriminalised policy led to significant increases in drug use - the simple answer is that it did not."
• Uruguay legalizes marijuana to fight crime
• Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal
• Britain is losing war on drugs--But "[g]overnment has no intention of changing law and problem will not be solved by decriminalisation."
• Cocaine and coca not the same thing, says Bolivia's Morales in defiance of US
• Canadians favor decriminalizing marijuana
• Aussies the biggest recreational drug users in the world - report

Your Rights Online, Surveillance, Tech, NSA, Australia, Censorship, Viacom vs. DirecTV

Your Rights Online

• U.N. Affirms Internet Freedom as a Basic Right
• Senator Ron Wyden signs Declaration of Internet Rights
• U.N. takeover of the Internet must be stopped, U.S. warns--"A U.N. summit later this year in Dubai could lead to a new international regime of censorship, taxes, and surveillance, warn Democrats, Republicans, the Internet Society, and father of the Internet Vint Cerf."
• Ten worst Internet laws of 2012?
• Executive Order Grants Authority to Seize Private Communications Facilities

Surveillance

• Glenn Greenwald: How America's Surveillance State Breeds Conformity and Fear
• Gov't Says They Requested 24,270 Wiretaps In Total; Sprint Alone Says They Received Over 50k Requests
• Is Your Cellphone Under Surveillance?
• That’s No Phone. That’s My Tracker. NYT
• ACLU: "reasonable suspicion" not good enough for GPS tracking
• Orwell's Thought Police made real: Mind-reading helmet invades privacy of the mind
• Airport scanning technology is a transparent victory for terrorism--"Security devices that invade our privacy are about to take a giant leap forward with a scanner that can tell what you had for breakfast from 50 metres away."

Tech

• Justice Department Sues Telecom for Challenging National Security Letter
• Faceless Freedom: YouTube adds face-bluring tool
• Sen. Al Franken Grills Facebook and the FBI Over Their Use Of Facial Recognition Technology
• In Vast Effort, F.D.A. Spied on E-Mails of Its Own Scientists--Looks like the lawyers allowed it. NYT
• Would Law Enforcement Tolerate a "Surveillance-Proof" Internet Service Provider?

NSA

• NSA whistleblower: They’re assembling information on every U.S. citizen--And that you're "automatically suspicious until we prove that you're not."
• Sworn Declaration of Whistleblower William Binney on NSA Domestic Surveillance Capabilities
• NSA Mimics Google, Pisses Off Senate
• NSA: Cybercrime is 'the greatest transfer of wealth in history'
• The NSA's warrantless wiretapping is a crime, not a state secret

Australia

• Down Under-surveillance: Australian govt seeks confidential online data
• Australian Goverment Mulls Allowing Authorities to Hack Your Computer
• Oz govt loses Stay Smart Online user details via Australia Post--"The Australian Government has lost a DVD containing subscriber information for its Stay Smart Online alert service."

Censorship

• Russia's parliament approves Internet blacklist law--The shut down of the Russian Wikipedia had no effect on the crackdown of freedom.
• The 'truth' deleted from internet in China--""Truth" appears to have vanished from the Chinese internet, after micro-bloggers discovered the word had been blocked on the country's leading social-media website."
• Tasmanian cops decline to 'censor internet'

Viacom vs. DirecTV

• Fighting DirecTV, Viacom takes down its shows for everyone
• Viacom DirecTV dispute dumbed down
• Jon Stewart Blasts Viacom For Stupid Blackout; Viacom Sheepishly Turns Web Streams Back On--But so far there's "no deal in sight."

Rmoney, Campaign Finance, Public-Private Partnerships, Voter Suppresion, States, Immigration, Elections

Rmoney

• Mitt Romney stayed at Bain 3 years longer than he stated--Claims of inaccuracy by the Romney camp can't overturn the facts, as the Washington Post's factchecker discovered.
• Tax Avoider in Chief?--"Republicans aren’t just in favor of lowering taxes; now they’re applauding wildly complex efforts by the wealthiest Americans to avoid paying billions in taxes by shipping capital to other countries." NYT
• What's Romney Hiding in His Tax Returns?
• New Republic: Mitt Romney, Crybaby Capitalist
• Media Barred From Photographing Romney With Cheney At Fundraiser
• Romney's 'Free Stuff' Speech Is a New Low
• Romney: Schrödinger's Candidate--Don't let Rush see this one though.

Campaign Finance

• DISCLOSE Act fails again in Senate--Republicans filibuster against transparency (NYT), but even the ACLU is against passing the bill.
• Harry Reid Worries About '17 Angry Old White Men' Buying The Nation
• The Power of Anonymity NYT
• The Selling of American Democracy: The Perfect Storm
• There's No Hiding It: Citizens United Wasn't About "Speech" -- It Was About Takeover of American Democracy
• Investigation takes closer look at GOP donor Adelson's billions
• The Super PAC That Aims to End Super PACs NYT

Public-Private Partnerships

• A Radical Fix for the Republic--"Lawrence Lessig thinks American democracy requires a constitutional overhaul to counter the 'economy of influence.'"
• Northrop Grumman Awards Lobbyist $500K Bonus Weeks Before Becoming Low-Paid Congressional Staffer Shaping Military Policy
• 130 Members of Congress Bought Stocks in Companies that Lobbied their Committees
• Senator Sherrod Brown Explains Why Big Business Owns Congress
• In Georgia, Tea Party And Progressives Go On Bus Tour To Fight Lobbyists

Voter Suppression

• Robinson: The GOP's crime against voters--"Spare us any more hooey about “preventing fraud” and “protecting the integrity of the ballot box.” The Republican-led crusade for voter ID laws has been revealed as a cynical ploy to disenfranchise as many likely Democratic voters as possible, with poor people and minorities the main targets."
• Drum: Voter ID Laws Are the Last Gasp of a Fading GOP Strategy
• Attorney General Holder On State Voter ID Laws: 'We Call This A Poll Tax'
• What could tighter voter ID laws mean in November?
• Fox Guest's Voter ID Law Defense: "Voting Is A Privilege"

States

• Will a GOP-backed voter-ID law turn Pennsylvania red?--"It's been 24 years since the Keystone State picked a GOP presidential candidate, but a move to bar voters who lack a driver's license could help Mitt reverse that trend."
• Mississipppi’s Voter ID Catch 22--"Mississippi’s voter identification law might prove literally impossible for some of its residents to adhere to."
• Wisconsin: Judge bars enforcement of voter ID requirements
• Oops! George W. Bush’s name on list of Texas residents who would be ineligible to vote
• Florida: Woman cut twice from voter rolls is dead certain she's alive

Immigration

• After the SB1070 ruling, undocumented Americans say 'No more Arizonas!'
• Scalia's Arizona Immigration Dissent
• Ronald Reagan Jr.: If people knew GOP's real immigration stance, 'nobody would vote for them'

Elections

• Fox's Charles Krauthammer Says Young Americans Support Obama Because They Don't Know Anything
• Michigan Rep. McCotter Resigns From Congress--"The five-term Republican from the Detroit suburb of Livonia said Friday he's leaving office for the good of his family. McCotter dropped his bid for re-election last month after learning his staff hadn't filed enough valid petition signatures to get him on the Aug. 7 primary ballot."
• Report: Schmidt, Bolger attempted 'fraud' in race for House seat, but did not break law
• Arpaio: Obama birth record definitely forged
• Washington State will enable voter registration via Facebook

ACTA, SOPA, IPAA, Copyfight, Piracy, Megaupload

ACTA

• VICTORY! ACTA Suffers Final, Humiliating Defeat In European Parliament--But over the pond, Mexico signed ACTA though its Senate still needs to ratify it.
• ACTA IS BACK: Leaked docs show Canada/European Commission trying to sneak ACTA into Canada & back into Europe
• Don't believe every leak you read says EU Commission on CETA--"CETA text regarding the Internet is totally different from ACTA, the Commission said."

SOPA/IPAA

• SOPA IS BACK: Lamar Smith trying to quietly revive SOPA and cram it down the world's throats
• SOPA reborn by Congress as IPAA--And it's even worse.
• SOPA author wants to arrest journalists over leaks

Copyfight

• Canada: Copyright fees on music, video, struck down by top court--"The Supreme Court of Canada has decided that Internet providers do not have to pay copyright fees when their consumers download or preview music, and that teachers don't have to pay fees when they photocopy copyrighted materials for their students."
• Victory for Open WiFi: Judge Rejects Copyright Troll's Bogus "Negligence" Theory--The case was dismissed on preemption grounds.
• Supreme Court: RapidShare Liable For Copyright Infringement – Sometimes
• Censored by Copyright: Dan Bull video removed from YouTube after criticising copyright abuse
• Lawsuit Against BitTorrent Users Falters, Band Brands Action "Bullshit"--"A lawsuit against fans of the metal band All Shall Perish has faltered after it was revealed that the copyright troll plaintiff in the case has failed to register the required copyrights."
• Op-ed: MPAA/RIAA lose big as US backs copyright "limitations"

Piracy

• U.K. Home Office won't block O'Dwyer extradition in copyright case
• U.S. Pursuing a Middleman in Web Piracy--"The government’s antipiracy case against Richard O’Dwyer is unusual because he did not publish pirated content himself but pointed the way for others." NYT
• Artists Score Victory in Mass-Piracy Lawsuit Against CBS, CNET
• US "Six Strikes" Anti-Piracy Scheme Will Roll Out Gradually
• Why we are breaking the Pirate Bay ban--"We must not hand courts and governments censorship powers without a public debate about digital rights."

Megaupload

• FBI Continues To Insist There's No Reason For Kim Dotcom To Be Able To See The Evidence Against Him
• New Zealand Police Investigated over MegaUpload’s Founder Arrest
• Kim DotCom extradition hearing postponed until 2013
• Kim Dotcom offers US Department of Justice a deal
• US 'the enemy' says Dotcom judge

Circumcision, Catholic, Sex Abuse Scandal, Religion and Politics, Cheeked Off, Creationism, Scientology

Circumcision

• Muslim and Jewish groups denounce German circumcision ruling--Calling it a 'shameful farce'.
• Norway Centre Party: Ban ritual circumcision of boys
• Why Don't Christians Have To Get Circumcised?

Catholic

• Vatican offers special solution for conservative splinter group, SSPX
• Feeling Under Siege, Catholic Leadership Shifts Right
• Vatican gets Fox media adviser
• Catholic Church Fears Growing Vatican Bank Scandal--"A new scandal threatens to engulf the Catholic Church and this time the focus is money. Senior Vatican officials are battling over the future of the Vatican bank. While some would like total transparency, dubious transactions from the past and present could harm the Church's image."
• Abuses surface at Legion School--"Dozens of women who attended a high school run by the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order have urged the Vatican to close the program, saying the psychological abuse they endured trying to live like teenage nuns led to multiple cases of anorexia, stress-induced migraines, depression and even suicidal thoughts."
• The Catholic Church's Fading Influence in Poland
• Vatican posts $19 million deficit, worst in years

Sex Abuse Scandal

• Jury convicts Lynn of one count, deadlocks on Brennan
• A Troubled Silence NYT
• Sex Abuse Statutes of Limitation Stir Battle NYT
• Pope tells 75,000 at Dublin stadium Mass that child abuse by priests 'remains a mystery'
• Catholic Church loses child sex abuse liability appeal

Religion and Politics

• Alabama Public Television executives fired abruptly after pressure to change programming--"In recent months, APTV has been pressured by members of the commission to air programing produced by David Barton, a Texas evangelist. Barton's organization, Wall Builders, has produced a series of videos promoting a religious conservative view of American History."
• Florida Allows Schools To Offer''Inspirational Messages'
• How close is too close? The bishop of Orlando encourages Catholics to vote 'yes' on two amendments. Over the line?
• Fearless Republican Governor bravely saves his state from a Law that doesn’t exist
• 'Ten Commandments' Judge Roy Moore: Secularism leads to Sharia law
• Louisiana Republican: When I Voted for State Funds to go to Religious Schools, I Didn’t Mean Muslim Ones
• Islam Is a Religion, and Therefore Protected by the Constitution--"Plaintiffs in a Tennessee lawsuit want to deny local Muslims the right to build a mosque. Why? They claim it's not a legitimate faith and shouldn't be allowed First Amendment rights."
• Police now issue statement on Boston pensioner's 'religions are fairy stories' poster
• Feds Sue Two Polygamous Towns--"The Justice Department alleges that local leaders engaged in an intimidation campaign against the unfaithful."
• Netherlands rejects bill banning kosher slaughter; Jewish groups claim victory

Cheeked Off

• Jesus thumbs-up ad 'disrespectful'
• Catholics outraged over German cartoon
• Urine trouble, Pope tells mag in legal threat

Creationism

• Scientist: Evolution debate will soon be history--"Discoveries will accelerate to the point that 'even the skeptics can accept it.'"
• How American fundamentalist schools are using Nessie to disprove evolution--That's not all the claptrap they're teaching.
• Science Defeats Creationism In Oklahoma In Flawless Victory
• Sneak Play Foiled: Ala.legislator's Creationism scheme fails to score
• South Korea surrenders to creationist demands--"Publishers set to remove examples of evolution from high-school textbooks."

Scientology

• Murdoch attacks Scientologists over Katie Holmes 'harassment'--What will they do to ensure her silence after her divorce from Tom Cruise?
• Scientology abandoned by L. Ron Hubbard's granddaughter and David Miscavige's Father
• Scientology church tries to destroy families, say ex-members
• Scientology group asks followers to censor Web comments--"The Katie Holmes-Tom Cruise split apparently has had a negative effect on the Church of Scientology, and a faction of the church is calling for members to take action and silence naysayers."
• Church of Scientology launching TV station--"The Church of Scientology [...] plans to start a religious broadcasting centre to promote its teachings over TV, radio and the internet."