Marriage Equality, Wedding Crashers, International; Intolerance, Russia; LGBT; Pope Francis, Religion; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy

Marriage Equality

• House GOP lawyers withdraw from gay marriage case—"House Republican leaders withdrew... from defending the Defense of Marriage Act and similar statutes in a court case in Massachusetts, citing the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the gay-marriage ban."
• New Mexico attorney general says he won't defend state's gay marriage ban
• Federal Judge Orders Ohio to Recognize Gay Couple's Marriage
• FEC approves campaign donations from same-sex couples
• Federal Judge Rules That Lesbian Widow Is Entitled To Late Wife's Survivor Benefits
• Arkansas Judge Does The Right Thing—"Arkansas Federal Judge Leon Holmes recused himself recused himself from a marriage equality lawsuit because of his personal relationships with anti-gay activist."
• Andrew Sullivan: The conservative case for gay marriage

Wedding Crashers

• San Diego county clerk asks court to halt same-sex marriages Salon
• Pennsylvania sues to stop issuance of gay marriage licenses
• Gay groups criticized for pursuing marriage when people are poor

International

• Oxford English Dictionary to update entry for 'marriage' to include gay unions—"The experts behind the OED are updating the definition of 'marriage' to reflect recent gay rights victories." Salon
• Mexican state approves same-sex civil unions—'Lawmakers in Mexico's western state of Colima have approved a change in the state's constitution that legalizes same-sex civil unions."
• 'Recognizing same-sex unions brings us closer to apocalypse' - Head of Russian Orthodox Church

Intolerance

• Extremists attack Montenegro's Gay Pride
• Jamaican cross-dressing teen 'chopped and stabbed' to death by mob
• Sterilized transsexuals sue Swedish government
• Target In Hot Water Again After Donating $50K To PAC Supporting Anti-Gay Ken Cuccinelli
• Baton Rouge sheriff’s office targets gay men under unconstitutional 'crimes against nature' law

Russia

• 36 Photos From Russia That Everyone Needs To See—"It's a scary place for LGBT people in Russia right now..."
• First tourists arrested in Russia for 'gay propaganda'
• Russian lawmaker: We will arrest gay athletes, tourists at Olympic Games
• Reykjavík Mayor: Moscow Not Gay Enough—"Mayor of Reykjavík Jón Gnarr wants to formally revise or break off the capital's political and cultural relations with Moscow over the Russian capital's stance on gay rights...."
• Vancouver bars boycott Russian vodka after anti-gay law passed—"Several bars and pubs in city's West End pull alcohol brands from shelves." And the ban has spread internationally.

LGBT

• Enigma codebreaker Alan Turing to be given posthumous pardon—"Government indicates support for backbench bill to pardon mathematician who took his own life after indecency case."
• Highschool Basketball Coach Anthony Nicod Comes Out, Tells to Yonkers High School Athletes He's Gay
• Steve Grand hailed as first openly gay male country singer with YouTube hit Salon

Pope Francis

• Pope says he won't judge gay priests
• It's Not What the Pope Said About Gays, It's How He Said It
• Cardinal Dolan on pope's gay remarks: We can judge actions, not people—We can certainly judge Dolan's actions in the sex abuse scandals.

Religion

• Archbishop Tutu 'would not worship a homophobic God'
• Christian programs attempting to convert homosexuals continue in Australia
• Pat Robertson On Transgender People: Not A Sin And 'Not For You To Judge'

NSA Spying

• Revealed: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'
• Obama administration to release secret court order on phone records
• Here's why 'trust us' isn't working for the NSA any more
• Senator Who's Taking on the NSA Explains Why He Could Still Win—"Sen. Ron Wyden talks about America's "omnipresent surveillance state" and why he thinks the Obama administration might rein in the massive collection of your data."
• Former NSA Lawyers Attack Senator Wyden For Hinting At NSA Surveillance Excesses That Are Now Confirmed
• FISA court judge: No company has ever challenged Patriot Act sharing—Bottom-line-feeding telcos sold you out.
• 1984day.com: Rally for Privacy—"This Sunday, 8/4/2013, thousands around the country will rally for privacy and against surveillance."

Surveillance and Privacy

• Again, federal court finds cops don't need a warrant for cellphone location data—"If you want your records anonymized, tell 'the market or the political process.'"
• Oakland surveillance center progresses amid debate on privacy, data collection—"With this city repeatedly roiled by civil protests and the public's attention sharply focused on government surveillance, local officials are pushing forward with a federally funded project to link surveillance cameras, license-plate readers, gunshot detectors, Twitter feeds, alarm notifications and other data into a unified 'situational awareness' tool for law enforcement."
• More Encryption Is Not the Solution—"Cryptography as privacy works only if both ends work at it in good faith."

Abortion and Birth Control, Ireland, Texas; India, Dubai, Gender Issues; Surveillance and Privacy

Abortion and Birth Control

• Wisconsin Lawmakers' bill seeks to give fetuses right to life
• North Dakota law banning medical abortion struck down—"Judge rules 2011 law is unconstitutional, saying the state had failed to demonstrate any need to regulate abortion." Calls it "invalid and unconstitutional." (NYT)
• Rhode Island Governor Vetoes 'Choose Life' License Plate
• US: The GOP's pro-life hypocrisy—"If pro-life Republicans want to save lives, they could start with women and children in the reddest states."
• State teen birthrate dropped to lowest level in 20 years
• I'm The 14-Year-Old Who Wrote The "Jesus Isn't A Dick So Keep Him Out of My Vagina" Sign In Texas And Was Labeled A "Whore" By Strangers Online—Parenting done right Salon.
• There's nothing wrong with being "bro-choice"—"A conservative political troll tries -- and fails! -- to expose "the truth" behind men who support abortion rights." (Salon)

Ireland

• Ireland: Dáil passes Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill
• President signs Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill into law
• Abortions would deprive future Special Olympians of life—A Fianna Fáil senator has been accused of reaching a new low after he said allowing abortions in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities would be 'depriving future Special Olympics athletes of being born.'"

Texas

• Rick Perry signs wide-ranging Texas bill to limit access to abortion—Time for the courts to get involved.
• You're Allowed To Carry A Gun Into The Texas Senate Gallery, But Not A Tampon
• Aftermath: Troopers Bust Protesters
• DPS Director Responds to Letter on Security Report
• Wendy Davis: It's the real Texans who count—Here's to her making a difference (NYT).
• Texas Legislators File Radical 'Fetal Heartbeat' Bill To Ban Abortion After Just Six Weeks
• Texas Lawmaker Says Sex Ed Makes Teens 'Hot and Bothered,' Leads to Sex and Babies

India

• India: UP Police first refuses to lodge FIR, then blames gangrape victim of setting herself ablaze and lying
• India: 62-year-old father rapes five daughters—"Mother condones crime, claiming attacks are 'family tradition.'"
• 6 men convicted of raping Swiss tourist in India
• Female vigilantes in India join forces to fight rape
• India Supreme Court orders curb on sales of acid—"India's Supreme Court has ordered federal and state governments to regulate the sale of acid in an attempt to reduce attacks on women."

Dubai

• Dubai imprisons Norwegian woman who reported rape
• Norwegian woman: I was raped in Dubai, now I face prison sentence
• Norwegian Rape Victim, Pardoned After Being Sentenced To Jail For Sex Outside Marriage - Free to Leave Dubai

Gender Issues

• 11-Year-Old Yemeni Girl Nada Al-Ahdal Flees Home to Avoid Forced Marriage: I'd Rather Kill Myself
• France forced to defend ban on Islamic veil—Can't reason with rioters.
• Talking Female Circumcision Out of Existence—Why is still "almost universal" (Salon) in some countries? NYT
• Women 'banned from shopping alone' in northern Pakistan—"The step is reportedly aimed at keeping men from being distracted during the holy month of Ramadan. It is not clear whether it will be lifted when it ends."
• Domestic violence: Three injured in acid attack over marital dispute

Surveillance and Privacy

• The Surveillance-Free Day—"What happens when an average person tries to escape the government's eye?"
• Moscow Metro says new tracking system is to find stolen phones; no one believes them—"Experts: Russians are probably using fake cell tower devices for surveillance."
• Is online privacy a right?—"Feds want an Internet skeleton key that would allow surveillance of encrypted content. Will tech companies agree?" Salon
• Activists storm office of Congressman who voted for NSA spying—Better than spouting inutile rhetoric online.
• More on NSA surveillance programs to be declassified

Red Light District, Road Rage, Cycling; Guns; Kids; Family Feuds; NSA Spying

Red Light District

• Florida quietly shortened yellow light standards & lengths, resulting in more red light camera tickets for you—They were caught "reducing the minimum below federal recommendations."
• New Orleans Cops Caught Filling Their Pockets With Red Light Camera Cash
• Newark Red Light Camera Ticket Dismissed; Technicality May Mean Millions In Refunds
• Red Light Camera Ban Passed In Ohio
• Michigan doesn't need traffic cams

Road Rage

• Watch As City Changes Parking Signs Then Issues Tickets To Cars That Had Been Parked Legally
• APD email says traffic money to fund future pay raises
• Judge orders Elmwood Place speed cameras confiscated
• Loophole lets Colorado lawmakers avoid photo radar fines—"A loophole in state law has allowed Colorado state senators and representatives to avoid photo radar tickets because of special treatment...."
• NY rabbi accused of flashing a badge, attempting to make his own traffic stops

Cycling

• Driver 'admits' knocking down cyclist on Twitter—"Police have launched an investigation after a young woman apparently admitted on Twitter to having knocked down a cyclist."
• Police stop cyclist near Bristol for 'not wearing Lycra'
• "It must have been your fault. C'mon. You are a biker."
• BMW drivers and cyclists: The war between the luxury cars and bicycles
• Vancouver Bike Lane Debate Cycles On
• CrazyBike—"New York's new bicycle-share program is a big success. Since May, bikers have taken 646,000 trips. But the initiative has also caused many rational people to explode with rage. Why? Because humans are hardwired to hate cheaters."
• Flipside: Police Department Will 'Ticket' Kids —As a reward for wearing helmets while biking.

Guns

• Report: Gunman Outside White House Says He Was Only Going To Fire A Couple Shots
• 6-Year-Old Shoots 5-Year-Old While Playing Cops And Robbers
• Man using rifle as crutch when it fired—"... a burst through the ceiling and killed a little girl upstairs...."

Kids

• A gift, and now grief—"The used iPad was a present from his struggling dad, and the first really nice thing Marcos Arenas ever owned. When robbers grabbed it, he held on, defending it to his death on a Las Vegas street."
• Boy raped in broad daylight attack because 'his phone wasn't good enough to steal'
• Wis. man: I killed teen neighbor for 'justice'—And now the 76-year-old has a life sentence.
• Chinese toddler dies after parking space row—"They say the two-year-old girl suffered critical injuries on Tuesday when the man pulled her out of her pram and threw her to the ground."
• Stripped and stabbed 17 times... for kissing a local girl—"Teenage British tourist fights for his life in Turkey."

Family Feuds

• Dumb Criminal of the Week: The Guy Who Thought You Could Only Be Arrested for Burglary at Night
• Latasha Love, N.C. mom, has son arrested for allegedly stealing her Pop-Tarts, report says
• Sister faked will to cheat nephew out of inheritance
• Parents jailed over toddler's heroin death—"Simon Jones and Emma Bradburn given total of 10 years in prison after 23-month-old son Daniel died from ingesting drug."
• Exoneree Faces Ex-Wife in Compensation Lawsuit—"Phillips spent 24 years in prison before DNA tests connected another man to the s and prompted the courts to declare Phillips innocent. In 2009, the state awarded him lump sum payments totaling more than $2 million.... His ex-wife, now Traci Tucker, is arguing that she is entitled to a portion of that money.

NSA Spying

• Major opinion shifts, in the US and Congress, on NSA surveillance and privacy
• Glenn Greenwald: Low-Level NSA Analysts Have 'Powerful and Invasive' Search Tool
• Greenwald: 'Amazing' that Clapper still employed
• Momentum Builds Against NSA Surveillance NYT
• With NSA revelations, Sen. Ron Wyden's vague warnings about privacy finally become clear
• Chomsky says 'Snowden should be honored' for 'telling Americans what the government was doing'
• Thousands fill German streets to protest Berlin's NSA spying involvement

Environment and Politics, Keystone XL, Energy and Pollution, What the Frack; Climate Change; Amazon, Ecology, Not Meant to Bee, Monsanto; Food Insecurity, Running Out of Water; Surveillance and Privacy

Environment and Politics

• House GOP takes our environment hostage—"Republicans intend to slash the federal Environmental Protection Agency's budget by as much as a third."
• House Votes To Block Light Bulb Efficiency Standards
• House GOP Cuts Funding for Lead Removal in Half
• Arizona: APS seeks higher bills for new solar customers—"Arizona Public Service Co. is proposing charging customers who install rooftop solar panels $50 to $100 or more a month to cover the cost of maintaining the power grid."
• Why Do Protesters Against Egregious Environmental and Financial Misconduct Get Arrested, But Not Corporate Perpetrators?

Keystone XL

• State Department Admits It Doesn't Know Keystone XL's Exact Route
• John Boehner Lies And Won't Tell America About His Personal Investment in Keystone XL
• Barack Obama expresses reservations about Keystone XL pipeline project

Energy and Pollution

• Canada: The Alberta Oil Sands Have Been Leaking for 9 Weeks
• Louisiana Agency Sues Dozens of Energy Companies for Damage to Wetlands NYT
• Halliburton to Plead Guilty to Destroying Evidence in Gulf Oil Spill
• Tokyo Electric Power Company admits Fukushima leaking radioactive water into Pacific Ocean
• Flipside: China cancels $6 billion uranium plant after protest

What the Frack

• Fracking's Latest Scandal? Earthquake Swarms—"Turns out that when a barely regulated industry injects highly pressurized wastewater into faults, things can go terribly wrong."
• Ninety Percent of Pennsylvanians Want Fracking Companies to Reveal Toxic Chemicals
• Fracking research: What's behind EPA's abandoned studies?
• George Osborne unveils 'most generous tax breaks in world' for fracking—"Environmental groups furious as chancellor sets 30% rate for shale gas producers in bid to enhance UK energy security."
• Ohio lawmakers who oppose fracking tax have gotten lots of money from frackers

Climate Change

• The North Pole Has Melted. Again
• Climate Change 'Climate of Fear': Reporter Blows Whistle on Reuters—"The media giant's hostility to covering global warming extends all the way from top editors to low-level bureacrats, whistleblower reveals."
• Google hosts fundraiser for climate change denying US senator
• Voters think Republican climate dissenters are 'ignorant, out of touch or crazy,' bipartisan poll finds
• "Ridiculous pseudo-science garbage": Meet the GOP's environment leaders!—"How do the 8 Republicans who sit on the Senate Environment Committee feel about climate change? We break it down." Salon
• Insurance Industry, Republicans Split on Climate Change
• Democrats looking to build support for new climate change action

Amazon

• Brazil's Army Moves To Protect Indigenous Awá Tribe By Halting Illegal Logging
• Amazon deforestation up sharply, group says
• Pope Speaks out on Amazon During Brazil Trip—"Pope Francis took on the defense of the Amazon and the environment near the end of his weeklong trip to Brazil, as he donned a colorful Indian headdress Saturday and urged that the rainforest be treated as a garden."

Ecology

• US colonel caught smuggling carved ivory from Kenya
• Elephant tusks are the new blood diamonds—"African insurgencies are now using illegal ivory to fund their activities across the continent." Salon
• Poachers Kill Two Kenya Wildlife Service Officers
• Blue and beaked whales affected by simulated navy sonar, new studies show
• Philippines finds huge hoard of endangered species
• RCMP investigating trespassing complaint after 'damning' video reveals 'neglectful' conditions at Alberta zoo—"The owner of a beleaguered private zoo in Alberta says people who secretly shot a behind-the-scenes video of his cages and animals are nothing but domestic terrorists." Yeah right.
• China hit by largest-ever algae bloom
• U.S. drops unarmed bombs on Great Barrier Reef

Not Meant To Bee

• Scientists discover what's killing the bees and it's worse than you thought
• Scientists confirm: Pesticides kill America's honey bees
• Oregon Bans Pesticides Following Major Bee Deaths
• Elmwood, Ontario apiarist devasted at sudden loss of more than 600 hives
• Blast from the Past: Decline of bees forces China's apple farmers to pollinate by hand

Monsanto

• Monsanto to withdraw EU approval requests for new GMO crops
• Dutch City of Rotterdam Bans Monsanto Glyphosate Roundup Herbicide
• 79 Monsanto teen workers hospitalized after being crop dusted
• Another win for Monsanto: US raises allowable levels of company’s pesticide in crops
• Monsanto Seeks to Control World's Food

Food Insecurity

• A hungry world: Lots of food, in too few places
• Chipotle becomes first U.S. restaurant chain to try and rid menu of GMO foods
• Cal-Maine to Pay $28 Million to Settle Egg Antitrust Litigation—"Sodexo Inc. filed suit against the nation's largest egg trade group--including Cal-Maine--and certain egg farmers alleging they conspired to limit domestic supply by killing hens under the pretext of treating the remaining animals more humanely by giving them more cage room, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times in January 2011." WSJ

Running Out of Water

• Parched New Mexico Reservoir Reveals Effects of Prolonged Drought
• China's Coal-Fired Economy Dying of Thirst as Mines Lack Water
• Pakistan's new big threat isn't terrorism—it's water

Surveillance and Privacy

• Holder's Letter to Moscow: We Won't Torture or Kill Snowden—Note: Water-boarding still isn't considered torture, as Sean Hannity has yet to determine.
• Edward Snowden better off in Russia than US, his father says
• NSA surveillance program has had compliance problems, intelligence official says
• Resisting the surveillance state—"George W. Bush and Dick Cheney spent eight years choking personal privacy to within an inch of its life. After they were done, Barack Obama showed up, expressed heartfelt sympathy and stood on its throat. But despite their efforts, it isn't quite dead. Last week, it showed definite signs of life." Chicago Times
• Edward Snowden's not the story. The fate of the internet is—"The press has lost the plot over the Snowden revelations. The fact is that the net is finished as a global network and that US firms' cloud services cannot be trusted."

Workers and Wage Slaves, McJobs, Occupational Hazards; Accountability, Commodities and Price Fixing, Energy and Price Fixing, Mortgages and Foreclosures; Tax Dodgers; Money, Money, Money; Surveillance and Privacy

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Wal-Mart's Loss In Fight For Lower Wages In DC Concerns Congress—Gotta get some ROI on those lobbying dollars.
• More retailers urge veto of D.C. 'living wage' bill—"Top government affairs executives from Home Depot, Target, AutoZone, Lowe's, Walgreens and Macy's..." band together.
• David Brooks Wonders Why Men Can't Find Jobs: Comedy Ensues—"'Times' columnist thinks the unemployed are just lazy, or something."
• Colbert: If poor people want food stamps, they should become massive corporations
• Unpaid Interns: Silent No More NYT
• The Expendables: How the Temps Who Power Corporate Giants Are Getting Crushed
• Just How Low Can Your Salary Go? 117 ALEC Bills in 2013 Fuel Race to the Bottom in Wages and Worker Rights

McJobs

• McDonalds' suggested budget for employees shows just how impossible it is to get by on minimum wage
• The real budgets of McDonald's workers
• McJobs Are the Future: Why You Should Care What Fast Food Workers Earn
• McDonalds CEO Claims Company Has 'Always Been An Above-Minimum Wage Employer'
• Stephen Colbert on protests against McDonald's and minimum wage

Occuptional Hazards

• McDonald's Employees Walk Out In Protest Of No Air Conditioning After Crew Member Collapses
• Fast Cash: How Taking Out a Payday Loan Could Land You in Jail—"Payday loan companies have a new debt-collection tool: Texas courts and prosecutors."
• 80 Percent of Low-Wage Workers Lack Even One Paid Sick Day a Year
• Stop Glorifying Hard Work and Long Hours
• Study: Ugly people bullied at work—"Those perceived as unattractive reported experiencing cruel treatment from colleagues, according to new research." Salon

Accountability

• Senate ends blockade against consumer chief pick—"The Senate has voted to end a two-year Republican blockade that was preventing Richard Cordray from winning confirmation as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau." Which was supposed to have been Sen. Warren's job.
• Elizabeth Warren's Takedown Of CNBC Removed From YouTube
• CNBC: kid gloves for bankers, boxing gloves for bank critics
• JPMorgan Executive May Escape Penalty—Shocker. NYT
• 'Blagger's manual' leaked: UK authorities concealed private investigators' tactics?
• Shocking Things Wall Street Financiers Say Off the Record About Their Bloated, Corrupt Industry—"A new survey shows how brazenly immoral Wall Street is."
• Archbishop of Canterbury Welby warns of bankers 'lynch mob'—"The Archbishop of Canterbury has described the naming and shaming of bankers in the wake of the financial crisis as 'lynch mobbish.'"

Commodities Price Fixing

• A Shuffle of Aluminum, but to Banks, Pure Gold—"Regulators have allowed banks to buy companies that trade in commodities, resulting in huge profits for the banks and higher prices for consumers." NYT
• Fed rethinking move allowing banks to trade physical commodities
• Harold Meyerson: Big banks' dangerous commodity monopolies
• JPMorgan to quit physical commodity trade amid scrutiny
• John Oliver lambastes Goldman Sachs for screwing America without fear of jail

Energy Price Fixing

• Regulators Fine Barclays $453 Million Over U.S. Energy Price Rigging
• Chase, Once Considered "The Good Bank," Is About to Pay Another Massive Settlement—"...for manipulating energy prices in Enron-esque fashion in Michigan and California."
• Here's Why JP Morgan Is Being Accused of Enron-Style Shenanigans

Mortgages and Foreclosures

• Vinton County Woman Wants Possessions Back After Bank Tried To Repossess Wrong House
• Banks shiver as UBS swallows $885 million U.S. fine—"UBS will pay $885 million in a settlement with a U.S. regulator over allegations the Swiss bank misrepresented mortgage-backed bonds during the housing bubble, paving the way for billions more to be paid by other banks."
• Federal Prosecutors May Charge Wall Street Bankers Who Sold Bad Loans Under An Obscure 1984 Law

Tax Dodgers

• Swiss Bank Leaker: 'Money Is Easy to Hide'—It was the most spectacular bank data leak of recent years: In 2008, former HSBC employee Hervé Falciani disappeared with the information of some 130,000 customers. He tells SPIEGEL he wants to help Europe hunt down its tax dodgers and expose a broken system."
• Treasury delays offshore tax-dodge law by 6 months—"The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday it will postpone enforcement of a new law that cracks down on offshore tax avoidance by Americans by six months to give foreign banks more time to figure out how to comply."
• US blocks crackdown on tax avoidance by net firms like Google and Amazon—"France fails to win backing for tough new international rules targeting online companies in run-up to G20 summit."
• G-20 Backs Plan to Curb Tax Avoidance by Large Corporations—"The plan aims at corporations only and, if widely adopted, would shift some of the global tax burden away from small businesses and individuals." NYT
• Almost 30,000 UK, Austrian tax dodgers disclose Swiss accounts

Money, Money, Money

• Bank of America's Recipe for Getting Away with Massive Fraud, Racketeering and Money Laundering—How much of that contributed to their profit of 63%?
• Guy Walks Into Citigroup Branch, Loses $40,000
• PayPal accidentally credits man $92 quadrillion
• What one billion dollars looks like
• Meet the new $100 bill, the world's most popular bank note
• B.C. police find counterfeit versions of new polymer $100 bills
• Monopoly Is Getting Rid of Jail to Appease Your Busy Kids

Surveillance and Privacy

• Sen. Ron Wyden On NSA Spying: It's As Bad As Snowden Says
• Senators Udall & Wyden: The White House should end the bulk collection of Americans' phone records
• Hey San Francisco, Your Rep. Pelosi Saved The NSA Phone Metadata Program
• Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash
• 'Imaginary threats' justify New Zealand spy bill – Dotcom

Happy SysAdmin Day! Tech Culture; Online Speech, Pr0n and Censorship; Tech Cases; Patent Trolls; Copyright and Fair Use, Piracy; Do-No-Track and Advertising, Surveillance and Privacy

Tech Culture

• Friday to mark 14th annual SysAdmin Day
• Edit Wars Reveal The 10 Most Controversial Topics on Wikipedia
• Why You Should Think Twice Before Shaming Anyone on Social Media
• Instagram and self-esteem: Why the photo-sharing network is even more depressing than Facebook
• How War in Syria Turned These Ordinary Engineers Into Deadly Weapons Inventors

Online Speech

• Jury: Website defamed ex-cheerleader
• Whether High School or College, Students' Speech Rights Are Being Threatened Online
• Internet trolls: What to do about the scourge of the Web?

Pr0n and Censorship

• Technologically illiterate MP who masterminded UK porn blocker gets hacked, threatens reporter for writing about it
• Chinese firm Huawei controls net filter praised by PM—Makes perfect sense.
• UK ISP on porn filters: if you want internet censorship 'move to North Korea'—And those who claim it would be limited to porn are ignorant.
• Internet porn 'opt in' is censorship, say Canadians
• Ireland: Rabbitte ignores calls for State role in blocking online porn
• After backlash Yahoo's Tumblr quietly restores adult, NSFW blogs
• Porn Films Don't Get Copyright Protection in Germany, Court Rules
• SF court orders Prenda to pay $22,531 in attorney’s fees
• EFF Calls For Court Sanctions For Copyright Troll's Public Humiliation Tactic
• 'Girls Gone Wild' founder Joe Francis desperate to block release of sex tape

Tech Cases

• MIT Moves to Intervene in Release of Aaron Swartz's Secret Service File—"MIT claims it's afraid the release of Swartz's file will identify the names of MIT people who helped the Secret Service and federal prosecutors pursue felony charges against Swartz for his bulk downloading of academic articles from MIT's network in 2011. MIT argues that those people might face threats and harassment if their names become public. But it's worth noting that names of third parties are already redacted from documents produced under FOIA." Emphasis mine, and let me emphasize that MIT's actions here have been deplorable.
• Judge dismisses lawsuit over Instagram terms of service—"Lawsuit over controversial changes at the photo-sharing service gets tossed on procedural grounds."
• How Apple led an e-book price conspiracy—in the judge's words—Here's a CliffsNotes edition.
• Panasonic fined $56.5 million over conspiracy to fix prices of laptop battery packs and auto parts
• Local Newscast Uses DMCA to Erase Air Crash Reporting Blunder—Guess there was something wrong.

Patent Trolls

• Joel Spolsky: Victory Lap for Ask Patents—Got 15 minutes? Help stamp out patent trolls.
• EFF Joins Massive Coalition Calling For Patent Reform
• Canadian "patent troll" Wi-Lan loses East Texas trial
• The Web's longest nightmare ends: Eolas patents are dead on appeal
• Google Caught Red-Handed Ripping Off an Apple Patent Graphic
• Steve Jobs didn't build that—"Our patent law doesn't promote innovation, it stifles it by buying into the myth of the 'hero inventor.' Here's why." Salon
• For Whom the Bell Trolls: Life for a startup on the receiving end of a patent lawsuit—"You'll stay in business and license from us, or you'll go out of business."

Copyright and Fair Use

• The Biggest Secret Trade Deal You've Never Heard Of, Explained—"The US is nearing the end of negotiations on a massive free trade deal called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Here's what it's all about."
• "Fair Use Creep," and Other Copyright Bogeymen, Appear in Congress
• In another Aereo win, court refuses to rehear New York case
• Victory for Fair Use and Consumer Choice: Ninth Circuit Rejects Networks' Appeal in Fox v. Dish.
• Congresswoman Claims 'Fair Use' And 'Transparency' Are Just 'Buzz Terms'
• Apple gives up on failing App Store v. Appstore trademark lawsuit
• The Artist Behind the Technoviking Meme Got Sued, and Wants to Make a Film About It

Piracy

• Google Refuses to Delete Pirate Websites from its Search Results
• Swedish Movie Subtitle Fansite Raided By Copyright Industry And Police—Fan-made subs.
• PRISM for Pirates: AT&T Invents The Ultimate Anti-Piracy System

Do-Not-Track and Advertising

• W3C rejects ad industry attempt to hijack do-not-track specs—It's DOA for now.
• Do Not Track opt-out icon coming to mobile browsers
• Do Not Track Advocate Mozilla Supports Some Tracking
• Google starts sending adverts as emails to Gmail users
• Twitter fakes real users' tweets to promote ad platform—Now that they've been caught with what's tantamount to identity theft, they're saying sorry.

Passwords and Hacking

• Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords
• The 8-character password is no longer secure WSJ
• Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg's former speechwriter warns of password issues—"Katherine Losse claims social network's customer support could access any user's account with a master password."
• "NASDAQ is owned." Five men charged in largest financial hack ever—"Scheme created hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to world's biggest institutions."
• Apple Developer site hack: doubts cast on Turkish hacker's claims

Surveillance and Privacy

• Justice Department fails in bid to delay landmark case on NSA collection
• Northern Idaho mom sues president over government surveillance program
• US tech firms losing business over PRISM: poll
• Pentagon to deploy huge blimps over Washington, DC for 360-degree surveillance
• Senate threatens to sanction countries that aid Snowden
• Outrage is not enough for US anti-surveillance campaign
• MaskMe helps you cover your tracks, avoid online annoyances—"In an era where big businesses and shadowy spy agencies are tracking your every movement online, can you really afford to share your true identity with strangers? A new service lets you blur your online identity by creating disposable email addresses, a secondary phone number, and virtual credit cards."

NSA Spying, Politics, Vox Populi, Vote Machinations, Republicans, IRS 'Scandal', Media, Censorship, Economy, Corruption, Public-Private Partnerships, Detroit Bankruptcy

NSA Spying

• Congress nearly shuts down NSA phone dragnet, in sudden 205-217 vote—Check out how they voted, especially how many Democrats want to the spying to continue.
• Most think NSA is violating privacy rights but want Snowden charged with a crime
• The Secret FISA Court Must Go—"We are assured the secret FISA court is keeping a close eye on government surveillance, but the truth of what it has done and justified is terrifying."
• Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys—"Whether the FBI and NSA have the legal authority to obtain the master keys that companies use for Web encryption remains an open question, but it hasn't stopped the U.S. government from trying."
• Snowden said to be preparing for a life in Russia. Maybe permanently?
• U.S. Wants Snowden Returned, Not Extradited, Ambassador Says—Word-mincing, an act of desperation.
• Putin Comes Out Ahead in Snowden Affair

Politics

• The Age of Authoritarianism: Government of the Politicians, by the Military, for the Corporations
• Chris Hedges: The Liberal Elite has Betrayed the People They Claim to Defend—'We have shifted, I think, from a democratic state to a species of corporate totalitarianism."
• Opinion: Jimmy Carter May Actually Be Right This Time

Vox Populi

• Congress Sets a New Record for Being Hated—Even at an 83% disapproval rate, these clowns will stick around unless thye're voted out.
• In U.S., Bush Still Bears Brunt of Blame for Economic Woes—"While half say Obama at least moderately to blame, two-thirds say Bush is."
• Dems Who Dislike Obamacare, and Other Poll Tidbits WSJ
• Americans Under 30 the Most Cynical Bunch Ever. Good for Them. And Us.
• 43% Believe that US Health Care is Corrupt, 64% that Government is Run by a Few Big Interests, Media Shrug

Vote Machinations

• Republican Who Tossed Voter Registration Forms Let Off The Hook—"The young Republican who grabbed national headlines after being arrested for throwing voter registration forms into a dumpster before the 2012 election won't be facing any legal consequences."
• Cincinnati poll worker sentenced to 5 years for voter fraud in presidential elections
• Top Pennsylvania Republican Admits Voter ID Helped Suppress Obama Voters
• Federal Judge Rules Against Ohio Secretary Of State's Voter Suppression Rule
• North Carolina Republicans Unveil Even More Restrictive Voter ID Bill

Republicans

• Has the G.O.P. Gone Off the Deep End?—"Disaffected conservatives are increasingly anxious about the ideological intransigence of Republican legislators." Salon
• Senate Republicans Splinter As Moderates Rise Up
• McCain to Republicans: Forget about any more crazy debt ceiling hostage taking
• A Governing Coalition In The Senate Spells Doom For House Conservatives
• Republicans Don't Like the Republican Party
• Democratic Pollster Sees Republican 2016 Weakness as Brand Lags
• Former High-School Teacher Congressman Irks GOP By Marking Their Memos With A Red Pen

IRS 'Scandal'

• Tables turn on IRS scandal—"Treasury's inspector general gets grilled by Democrats, and crumbles under the pressure." Salon
• Watchdog 'Disturbed' IRS Withheld New Documents Showing Progressive Groups May Have Been Targeted Too—Easy to see why Obama dismisses scandals as 'phony.'
• Darrell Issa's Witch Hunt—"Darrell Issa has brought more national political shame to San Diego than even 'Enron by the Sea.'"

Media

• Bill Moyers: Weapons of Mass Distraction—Why the Media Most Americans Consume Is Harmful to the Public Health—"Marty Kaplan unravels distractions that prevent national outcry over unemployment, hunger, crumbling infrastructure and out of whack systems."
• Nate Silver Went Against the Grain for Some at The Times—"His entire probability-based way of looking at politics ran against the kind of political journalism that The Times specializes in: polling, the horse race, campaign coverage, analysis based on campaign-trail observation, and opinion writing, or 'punditry,' as he put it, famously describing it as 'fundamentally useless.'" NYT
• xkcd: Social Media

Censorship

• Congress Passes Restrictions On Military Funeral Protests, Delivers Blow To Westboro Baptist Church—Definitely has first amendment implications.
• Newspaper Censorship in America: Is this Celebrated Advice Columnist a Criminal?—"John Rosemond—America's longest running newspaper columnist—received an astonishing order from the Kentucky attorney general: Stop publishing your advice column in the Bluegrass State or face fines and jail."
• Mitch Daniels: I Just Wanted To Keep Kids From Reading Howard Zinn

Economy

• Tax writers promise 50 years of secrecy for senators' suggestions
• No more mailman at the door under U.S. Postal Service plan
• Broke in the 'burbs—"Americans tend to think of poverty as urban or rural—housing estates or shacks in the woods. [...] But the suburbs are where you will find America’s biggest and fastest-growing poor population...."

Corruption

• Three Out Of Four Americans Think Political Parties Are Corrupt
• Indiana misplaced $526 million in tax dollars—"How Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels' administration misplaced $526 million in tax money over the course of five years."
• Georgia: Audit shows $200M missing from East Point
• 17 double-dipping NJ lawmakers block pension reform—Democrats and Republicans alike
• David Petraeus' shady coverup—"It's bad enough that he was getting big bucks for doing nothing. But now the story's gotten fishier." Salon
• Bachmann campaign allegations sent to House Ethics panel
• Gallup Settles With U.S. Over Inflated Contracts
• Virginia Is Corrupt

Public-Private Partnerships

• US diplomats cry foul as Obama donors take over top embassy jobs—Not really a new thing, but having inexperienced ambassadors isn't a good idea.
• Bob McDonnell's corporation, wife benefited from $120,000 more from donor, sources say—He's in damage control mode.
• Florida Supreme Court: Law protecting builder went too far—"Florida Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature went too far when they created a law on behalf of a developer in an effort to stop a lawsuit filed by a homeowners association, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday."
• Jimmy Carter: Unchecked Political Contributions Are 'Legal Bribery'
• State Law Enforcement to Test Saliva for Drugs—A police lieutenant "believes in the saliva test kits so much, he has become a distributor of the product." Conflict of interest much?

Detroit Bankruptcy

• Opinion: Detroit got what it deserved
• Detroit Bankruptcy Filing Unconstitutional, Must Be Withdrawn, Judge Orders
• Leaked Emails Reveal Conspiracy to Throw Detroit into Bankruptcy
• How Detroit was laid low—"Inept leadership and a history of neglect born of racial tension lie behind the city's bankruptcy."
• Video: Visit Cleveland!

Corruption, Elections, Russia, China, Fascist UK; Racism; Online Speech; The Terminal; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy

Corruption

• Uncovering corruption: Charmian Gooch at TEDGlobal 2013—"The reality is that the engine of corruption is driven by our international banking system, the problem of anonymous shell companies, and the secrecy we afford to big oil, gas and mining operations."
• Corruption getting worse, says poll
• Revealed: the Rupert Murdoch tape
• 'Dead' man Lenin Carballido wins Mexico mayoral vote
• Pakistan: What corruption have you experienced in your life?—"I request you, whether you are in the developing world or the developed, to treat corruption at par with war, and terror. The price is never ever money alone, it is more than that, much more: the social fabric , human dignity, and lives are at stake."
• Australia: Immigration Department audits reveal large-scale fraud of visa system by Indian students and workers
• DOTC reviews terms of MRT-3 deal—"The extortion allegations... implicated President Aquino's sister Maria Elena 'Ballsy' Aquino-Cruz...." This smacks of nepotism.

Russia

• Sergei Magnitsky conviction: Moscow thumbs its nose to the West—Whistle-blowing lawyer who died in prison gets post-mortem tax evasion conviction.
• How Putin Uses Money Laundering Charges to Control His Opponents—"The Magnitsky case highlights Russia's multi-faceted corruption problem."
• Putin Critic Gets 5-Year Jail Term, Setting Off Protests—"Aleksei A. Navalny, Russia's most resonant opposition voice and a Moscow mayoral candidate, was sentenced to five years in prison on embezzlement charges." NYT
• Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny released
• Corruption Up 450% in a Year in Russian Military – Prosecutors

China

• Chinese whistleblower blinded in acid attack—"An amateur Chinese whistleblower, who spent his free time embarrassing Communist party officials by posting pictures of their luxury cars on the internet, was rammed by a car, blinded with acid, and deprived of two of his fingers."
• Court Ruling Deals a Blow to China’s Labor-Camp System—A mother of a rape victim was sent off to the labor camps for complaining over the lack of justice. NYT
• 'Anything But Humane': Tibetan Exposes China from the Inside—"A high-ranking Communist Party official has written a book exposing the crimes of the Chinese against Tibetans. His fellow party members still don't suspect that he has defected to the opposition."

Fascist UK

• Cameron cracks down on 'corroding influence' of online pornography—Because Daily Mail readers who are perhaps too lazy and incompetent to parent their own kids, but it's the convenient excuse to monitor citizens all in the name of "protecting the children." Cameron's supposedly backed down, for now.
• Five bods wrongly cuffed thanks to bungled comms snooping in UK
• Britain to use secret evidence in court—"The Justice and Security Act 2013 (JSA) came into force this month. The key provision contained within the legislation creates a new judicial procedure which will permit the use of secret evidence in any civil trial in the UK."

Elections

• Confirmed: Canada 2011 polls fraudulent—As one politician from Montreal claims, it's "the way elections are won."
• Fraud claims taint Mali election, amid concerns over undue haste—"Thousands reported to have been left off electoral register."
• Estonia publishes its e-voting source code on GitHub—"System architect says he welcomes 'development and security of the e-elections.'"

Racism

• Cemetery vandal ordered out of NZ
• Husband and wife jailed for attacking Sikh taxi driver and ripping off his turban—"You are in Australia, mate, this is not your country. If you want to live in Australia, take this sh** off."
• Israeli judge hands jail sentences to Jewish teens who beat Arab youth
• Marketing 'no-blacks' apartment buildings in Tel Aviv—"Amid efforts to deport, imprison and segregate African asylum seekers in Israel, real estate agents are now marketing 'clean' apartment blocs, meaning no foreign workers or asylum seekers will live there."
• Native Filipino denied flight because she was "deemed" unprepared to fly by KLM

Online Speech

• Twitter releases data to French anti-Semitism probe
• Gore site owner charged over video in Magnotta case—"Edmonton website owner faces count of corrupting morals for hosting dismemberment video."
• Dubai arrests man for sharing assault video—"Detainee filmed and posted online scene allegedly showing Emirati man beating expatriate in road rage attack."

The Terminal

• Life in transit: What is it like to live in an airport?—"This weekend, the US whistleblower Edward Snowden, will have spent four weeks in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. Two thousand miles away, in neighbouring Kazakhstan, a young man has already spent four months in the transit area of an airport - and admits it is driving him round the bend."
• Stateless in the United States—"I have no place in the world to go."
• Saudi but stateless: born on the margins of society

NSA Spying

• Edward Snowden's fear of flying is justified—He's been "allowed to leave airport."
• Senator Wyden: the US could become an irreversible surveillance state
• White House: Amash trying to 'dismantle' counterterrorism tool
• Why the NSA Doesn't Want You to Have a BlackBerry
• NSA says it can't search its own e-mails—Utter crapola.

Surveillance and Privacy

• U.S. high-tech industry feeling the heat from Edward Snowden leaks
• Keep Your Firefox Settings Private By Setting Up Your Own Sync Server
• State Courts Join State Lawmakers in Demanding Warrants for Location Information
• Homeland Security Approves Seizure of Cell Phones and Laptops within 100 Miles of Border; Report Remains Secret
• High-End Stores Use Facial Recognition Tools To Spot VIPs

Fat Tuesday, Food Insecurity, India, China, Price Fixing; Bill of Health, Big Pharma, Obamacare, NHS Privatization; Health Scare, Vax Populi; Progress

Fat Tuesday

• How Mexico got so fat—"A UN report says Mexicans are the heaviest of the world's larger nations, even as they battle hunger and malnutrition. How did it come to this?"
• The obesity era—"As the American people got fatter, so did marmosets, vervet monkeys and mice. The problem may be bigger than any of us."
• Obamacare requires most insurers to tackle obesity
• How Junk Food Can End Obesity
• "Full Figured" Woman Kicked Out of Missouri Swimming Pool For Wearing Bikini
• Three arrested after Shetland pony abuse video goes viral—"In the video, the overweight woman can be seen sitting on the pony wearing a lace top and carrying a whip. At one point, when it buckles under her weight, she continues to sit on it, smoking a cigarette."
• Dead obese woman's fat sets crematorium building on fire

Food Insecurity

• Meat groups sue USDA over meat labeling rule—"Requiring meat labels to have more details about a product's origins is too costly and serves no public health or safety benefit, industry groups said Tuesday in announcing a lawsuit against U.S. Department of Agriculture over new labeling rules."
• Hey Mom and Dad, what is in that burger?
• That's not natural or organic: How Big Food misleads Salon

India

• 22 Children Die After Eating School Lunch In India
• WHO had asked India to ban toxin that killed kids
• Why India's school meal deaths are a terrible tragedy
• Officers hunt down headmistress after Indian school poisoning
• In related news: Man attempts to kill 50 students mixing poison in their meal in MP

China

• Police raids uncover packs of chicken feet from 1967
• Fearing contamination, Chinese pay more for imported infant goods
• Blast from the Past: Bad Eggs: Another Fake-Food Scandal Rocks China—"In the latest food scandal to emerge in China, customers are being duped by fake eggs made out of resin, starch and pigments."

Price Fixing

• Nestle and Danone to lower baby milk prices in China—"The move comes a day after China launched a probe into alleged price fixing by foreign infant milk makers."
• Hershey pays $4 mn fine for chocolate price-fixing
• Lebanon: Ministry seeks to thwart Ramadan price fixing

Bill of Health

• Why Is the United States So Sick?—"The director of a massive new study says: ' It's almost everything.'"
• Surgery required: Health care in America is ludicrously expensive
• American way of birth costliest in the world NYT
• Amid cuts, Maine hospitals still paying million dollar salaries—"Critics say medical facilities plead poverty and lay off workers but continue to compensate executives and surgeons with substantial payouts."
• Podiatrist John Lanham claims firm legal footing for bills—He is accused of deceiving patients on his status as a healthcare-certified provider.
• A hospital in Zimbabwe charged women $5 for each scream during childbirth

Big Pharma

• Obama Administration, Congress Intensify Opposition To Global Generic Drug Industry—"India's generic industry has... cut into profits for Pfizer and other U.S. and European drug companies." Doing Big Pharma's bidding.
• NHS hit for millions by overcharging 'scam'—"Drug companies exploit loophole in the law to hike prices by as much as 2,000 per cent."
• Chinese police say employees of drug maker GlaxoSmithKline bribed doctors, hospitals—Maybe just the tip of the iceberg (NYT).
• Doctors Without Borders: Global vaccines community must bring price of new vaccines down
• Supreme Court Rules Drug Companies Exempt from Lawsuits

Obamacare

• Krugman: Obamacare Is the Right's Worst Nightmare NYT
• Rollins: The GOP Is Terrified Obamacare Could Be a Success
• USA TODAY on GOP: Don't poison a law, then claim it's sick
• Are college students being overcharged on loans to pay for 'Obamacare'?
• Senate GOP's eleventh-hour turnabouts on Pa. budget—"In a dramatic twist in the battle over whether to extend coverage to about 600,000 lower-income Pennsylvanians, senators sent Gov. Corbett a bill stripped of language they had inserted five days earlier to expand Medicaid."
• On Obamacare, Republicans test the definition of insanity
• Proof Of Politics: Indiana Fudges Truth On Health Exchange Rates To Make Obamacare Look Bad
• After Losing Big on Senate Strategy, Ted Cruz Pledges to Shut Down the Government Unless Obamacare Is Defunded
• Appeals court tosses Liberty University challenge to Obamacare
• New Yorkers to see 50% drop in health insurance costs in Obamacare exchange

NHS Privatization

• While dubious mortality rates grab headlines, NHS privatisation gallops on—"The ferocity of the battle over 'dangerous' hospitals was not synthetic. The future of the NHS itself is under attack."
• David Cameron stepped up plans to sell off NHS after hiring aide with links to healthcare firms
• Mitt Romney's Old Firm Bain Capital Buys NHS Blood Service PRUK In £230m Deal

Health Scare

• Man dies from new coronavirus in UK
• Book raises alarms about alternative medicine
• Australian chief scientist: act now, or expect deadly 'post-antibiotics era'

Vax Populi

• Swansea measles epidemic: Worries over MMR uptake after outbreak—"Some parents are still ignoring the message to immunise their children against measles, an inquiry into the Swansea outbreak has heard."
• Brooklyn Measles Outbreak Shows How Dangerous Anti-Vaxxers Can Be
• Dear ABC: Putting Jenny McCarthy on "The View" will kill children—"Anti-vaccine conspiracist and 'View' co-host Jenny McCarthy isn't just quirky -- she spreads lies that hurt people." Salon

Progress

• Down Syndrome's Extra Chromosome Silenced in Lab Cells
• Bone marrow 'frees men of HIV drugs'
• Med students develop knife that can detect cancerous tissues within seconds