Marriage Equality, LGBTQ, Politics and Media, Homophobia; Religion, Church and State, Sex Abuse Scandal; Rape, Trafficking, Revenge Porn

Marriage Equality

• Federal appeals court: Gays have right to marry—"A federal appeals court ruled for the first time Wednesday that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry, extending the movement's legal winning streak and bringing the issue a big step closer to the U.S. Supreme Court."
• Judge throws out Indiana's same-sex marriage ban—A stay has been granted.
• Reagan Appointed Judge Expands Louisiana Marriage Case To All Same-Sex Couples
• Battle over same-sex marriages in St. Louis headed to court
• 34 gay couples issued marriage licenses in Boulder Co.
• 45 Years After Stonewall, Oklahoma Still Awaiting Marriage Equality
• GOP Senator Collins says she supports gay marriage
• Republican Senator Says Republicans Must Abandon Same-Sex Marriage Issue To Win Elections
• Ben Carson's breathtaking marriage equality compromise: Don't let gay people get married—"'I don't think I can impose my will on any two consenting adults,' Carson says but clearly does not mean." Salon
• Wis. GOP Candidate: Marriage Equality Will Lead to Sibling Marriages

LGBTQ

• Biden: Gay rights take precedence over culture
• Town Votes To Give Fired Lesbian Police Chief Her Job Back, Strips Mayor Of Power
• Former defrocked United Methodist pastor Frank Schaefer will get back pay, credentials restored
• Unearthing The Surprising Religious History Of American Gay Rights Activism

Politics and Media

• Why I Outed Gay Republicans: A decade later, I'm still not sorry.—"The reaction to these early posts was mixed, with some people backing me and others yammering that I was invading politicians' right to privacy. To the latter group, I pointed out that these very politicians were making my private life—and the lives of millions of other LGBT Americans—a very public political issue." Politco
• Inside George W. Bush's Closet
• Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam Compares LGBT North Carolinians to Pedophiles on House Floor
• Susan Rice challenges LGBT community to amplify message that 'gay rights are straight up human rights
• US ambassador officially celebrates LGBT Pride Month in the Philippines
• CNBC Panel Gets Awkward When Host Refers To Apple CEO Tim Cook As Gay

Homophobia

• Uganda Lashes Out at U.S. Sanctions; Will Hurt 'Most Vulnerable'—"Admonitions from Kampala follow last week's news of fresh U.S. sanctions, including the loss of millions in funding for a new health institute and visa denials."
• Gay couple targeted in homophobic attack by teenage gang on east London street
• Yankton Teen Alleges Discrimination From Name Tag

Religion

• Berlin House of One: The first church-mosque-synagogue?
• Mormons Expel Founder of Group Seeking Priesthood for Women NYT
• Blast from the Past: 'Kumare': Fake Guru Exposes Real, Desperate Desire to Believe

Church and State

• Roy Moore's twisted history: Islam and Buddhism don't have First Amendment protection, chief justice says
• GOP House Candidate: Islam Not A Religion, Not Protected By Constitution
• Wiccan says he was barred from giving invocation—"A member of the Wiccan faith says he was set to give the opening invocation at a Huntsville City Council meeting until the plan was publicized and he was asked about his faith. He was then told he was no longer invited."
• NC religious schools in line to get voucher money
• North Carolina: Student-led prayer bill signed into law

Sex Abuse Scandal

• Vatican defrocks ex-ambassador in sex abuse case—"The Vatican has defrocked its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic for sexually abusing boys. It's the first time a top papal envoy has been convicted of the crime and signals that Pope Francis is serious about imposing "zero tolerance" for abuse, regardless of rank."
• Seattle Archdiocese to pay $12.1 million to settle sex abuse lawsuit
• St. Ignatius: Settlement talks ordered in Catholic school, parish sex-abuse case
• Betrayed by Silence—"For decades, leaders of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have been reassigning, excusing and overlooking sexually abusive priests among their ranks. Some received additional retirement benefits. In August, a top church lawyer, shocked at what she saw, brought the story to MPR News. What happened next is still unfolding."
• Church, Police give conflicting answers on child sex abuse—"The Catholic Church in Malta and the police have given conflicting details regarding priests involved in child sex abuse cases since 2010."
• Sleeping with boys was 'common practice': royal commission on sex abuse in Wollongong
• On sex abuse, pope's problems both simple and complex

Rape

• How Did the FBI Miss Over 1 Million Rapes?—"Systematic undercounting of sexual assaults in the US disguises a hidden rape crisis."
• How BBC star Jimmy Savile got away with allegedly abusing 500 children and sex with dead bodies WaPo
• 'We demand justice': Kenyans protest after men who brutally raped girl sentenced to cut grass
• Pakistani police say boyfriend admits woman was raped, murdered after refusing sex with his friends
• No quick fix for India's rape crisis

Trafficking

• FBI targets pimps, rescues 168 children in nationwide crackdown
• D.C. police officer admits prostituting girls WaPo
• Activist Resigns Amid Charges of Fabrication NYT
• Brides for sale: Vietnamese women, young girls trafficked to China
• Nepal adoptions chief raped and groomed orphans for prostitution, claims British teacher
• U.S. human trafficking report drops four nations to lowest tier
• Fighting sex trafficking with Jesus: How the religious right’s "healing" hurts—"New campaigns claim to fight sex trafficking with 'love and the power of Christ.' And their influence is growing." Salon

Revenge Porn

• Feds arrest "most hated man on the Internet" in revenge porn hacking case
• Houston woman wins $500,000 in 'revenge porn' lawsuit
• Woman Posted Explicit Material Inside Walmart—She gave away fliers of her naked husband's alleged mistress.
• 'Revenge porn' victims receive boost from German court ruling—"Koblenz court orders man to delete nude images of ex-partner, even though he had shown no intention of publishing them."
• Man faces trial over 'revenge porn' website

International Women's Day; Belle Knox, Sexism, War on Women; Abortion and Birth Control; Culture Clash; Japanese Revisionism, Rape and Sexual Assaults, Blame the Victim; Military; Ukraine, UK-Reined

International Women's Day

• On International Women's Day: Working to make it right—"Let's celebrate International Women's Day by remembering women around the world working towards peace."
• Men Are Target for UN Women's Rights and Empowerment Campaign
• Stop female scientists being written out of Wikipedia history—"The Royal Society is urging people to help it shine a light on the achievements of women in science in a forthcoming 'edit-athon.'"
• The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary—"A school dropout from a poor family in southern India has revolutionised menstrual health for rural women in developing countries by inventing a simple machine they can use to make cheap sanitary pads."
• The New Barbie: Meet the Doll with an Average Woman's Proportions—"Artist Nickolay Lamm thinks some dolls should look like anatomically correct women. And a former Mattel exec is helping."

Belle Knox

• I'm Finally Revealing My Name and Face As the Duke Porn Star—Her slutshaming went on overdrive.
• Duke porn star Belle Knox says she wants to help sex workers after bankrolling law degree with sex
• Bully who outed Duke porn star has his porn preferences publicized

Sexism

• Hey Microsoft: The 1950s called, they want their sexist ad back—"This isn't the first time Microsoft has resorted to regressive gender norms." Salon
• Female WestJet pilot posts passenger's sexist note on Facebook
• I Witnessed Hollywood's Sexism Firsthand -- And Said Nothing
• Sexism in sport: Why do internet trolls target women?
• This Prankster in Yoga Pants Makes Powerful Point About Sexism

War on Women

• Virginia GOPer Refers To Women Seeking An Abortion As Just A 'Host'—And the baby is a parasite?
• GOP Lawmaker: We Need to Ban Sex-Selective Abortions Because of Asian Immigrants—"Supporters of a South Dakota bill say Asian Americans don't value girls as much as boys."
• Former Dem Rep. Who Lost House Seat To McLeod Calls Her A 'Bimbo'
• Dem TX District Attorney Candidate: Domestic Violence Is 'So Overrated'
• O'Reilly ponders 'downsides' to women presidents

Abortion and Birth Control

• I Can't Afford to Let My Boss Interfere With My Health Care Decisions
• The Doctor Is Out—"Conservative governors are pushing abortion politics onto health boards—and threatening doctors’ independence on other medical issues."
• The Seven Most Common Lies About Abortion—"Debunking anti-choice misinformation about women's health."
• US Supreme Court: Arizona can't withhold Planned Parenthood funds over abortion
• Planned Parenthood comes up clean in state investigation—"Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast has not been using government funds to provide or recommend abortions in Louisiana, according to a report released Monday morning by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor. "
• Arizona advances bill for surprise inspections of abortion clinics
• Arizona sued over rules limiting abortion drug use
• Alabama anti-cloning bill would allow hospitals to turn away miscarrying women
• Alabama lawmakers weigh strict 'fetal heartbeat' abortion ban—Would there be an instance where abortion is mandated?
• 2 More Texas Abortion Clinics Shut Down Because Of New Anti-Abortion Law
• The Afterlife of "After-Birth Abortion"
• Are teen parents costing Vt. taxpayers?

Culture Clash

• Saudi Arabia: Women's visits to hospitals without male guardians banned—They still aren't allowed to drive due to this male guardianship.
• Frustration in Afghan women's rights struggle
• Egypt's Security Forces Once Again Using Virginity Tests On Female Detainees
• Sudan court convicts Ethiopian woman over 'gang-rape'—"An Ethiopian woman who says she was gang-raped in Sudan has been convicted of 'indecent acts.'"
• The Bikini Question—How is this Christian author's view not different from other religion's imposing on women to cover up?

Japanese Revisionism

• Controlling Public Art By Lawsuit: Japanese-American Citizens Sue To Remove "Comfort Women" Memorial—Whitewashing history.
• Sex slavery an 'indescribable' wrong: Murayama
• Japanese historians slam sex-slave apology review—"A group of Japanese historians Friday stood behind their government’s 1993 apology over wartime sex slavery, slamming Tokyo's possible move to revise it as 'unforgivable.'"

Rape and Sexual Assaults

• Montana Prosecutor Allegedly Told Mother of 5-Year-Old Sexual-Assault Victim That "Boys Will Be Boys"
• Girl, 14, gang raped while walking home through Sydney park
• Canadian Doctor Sentenced For Sexual Assault—"A Canadian anesthesiologist convicted of sexually assaulting 21 sedated women during surgeries was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison."
• Troubles at Women's Prison Test Alabama—"The Tutwiler women’s prison is rife with sexual crimes, the federal government says, but the appetite for costly reform in tough-on-crime Alabama appears minimal." NYT
• Police Testify That Patricia Esparza "Consented to" Being Raped
• Condom piercer loses Supreme Court appeal—"Craig Jaret Hutchinson convicted in December 2011 and sentenced to 18 months behind bars."

Blame the Victim

• Wall Street Journal Columnist: Victims Of Sexual Assault Need To Take Their Share Of Blame, Too
• At Evangelical College, Woman Who Was Assaulted Is "Responsible for What Happened to Her"
• Montana judge admits fault for blaming victim of rape

Military

• Senate Blocks Bill To Overhaul Prosecution Of Rape In The Military—The filibustered bill, that would have civilian court handle rape cases, has had a difficult time getting passed.
• Army's top sex assault prosecutor suspended after assault allegation
• Army disqualifies 588 soldiers after sexual assault review
• Fort Hood solider charged in prostitution case—"A Fort Hood sergeant who was a coordinator of the post's sexual assault and harassment prevention program faces multiple charges after he was accused of setting up a prostitution ring involving cash-strapped female soldiers."
• AP findings on US military sex crimes in Japan—"Hundreds of records detailing sex-crime investigations involving U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan show most offenders were not incarcerated, suspects received light punishments after being accused of serious violations, and victims increasingly were wary of cooperating with investigators."
• 20 Years Ago, an Army Veteran Reported a Sexual Assault. She's Still Waiting for Justice.
• UK: MoD denies cover-up in Anne-Marie Ellement inquest as documents found—"Coroner delays ruling in military police rape claim inquest after lawyers for MoD uncover discs with 1,400 unseen documents."
• UK military allowed to investigate sexual assaults without involving police—"Commanding officers can deal with what military sees as 'lesser' sexual offences without independent scrutiny."

Ukraine

• For First Time, Kremlin Signals It Is Prepared to Annex Crimea NYT
• Who Will Protect the Crimean Tatars?—"As Crimea prepares for a referendum on its future, its native Muslim residents are preparing for the worst."
• Crimea: paramilitaries shown with gun to journalist's head
• 21 Times Journalists Have Confirmed Masked Troops in Crimea Are Russian
• CNN team told to stop broadcasting from Crimea Politico
• Ukraine: Is This How the War on Terror Ends?
• Why Russia Can't Afford Another Cold War—"The old Soviet Union was all but impervious to foreign economic or business pressure. But now it has a stock market, and an economy heavily reliant on exports to Europe." NYT

UK-Reined

• Britain's KGB Sugar Daddy—"To understand Britain’s cowardice in standing up to Vladimir Putin, just follow the money."
• Nick Clegg hints at Crimea deal if Vladimir Putin 'drops KGB mentality'—"Deputy prime minister says Crimea is in different category from rest of Ukraine, and Russia has 'pronounced imprint' there."
• David Cameron's serious Twitter photo mocked by celebrities, Sir Patrick Stewart

Marriage Equality, Religion, LGBT, Michael Sam, Trans*, Intolerance; Church and State, Extremists, Porn and Sex, Abortion and Birth Control, Women; Science Under Siege, Creationism, Atheism, Bible Studies

Marriage Equality

• Yep, SCOTUS Lit A Slow Fuse To End Marriage Bans Across The USA
• It's Over: Gay Marriage Can’t Lose in the Courts
• Attorneys general switching sides on gay marriage
• Federal Judge: Virginia Gay Marriage Unconstitutional
• Wisconsin Democrats Introduce Bill To Repeal Gay Marriage Ban
• Gay Marriage Ban Push Suffers Big Setback in Indiana—Read about one state senator's meltdown on Twitter.
• Social conservatives: lawsuit fighting gay-marriage ban is like Bull Connor fighting civil rights—"With Florida's gay-marriage ban threatened in Miami court, social conservatives launched a counteroffensive Friday, accusing same-sex union proponents of opposing civil rights."
• How Alabama Tried To 'Erase' This Gay Man's Marriage
• Ted Cruz Introduces Anti-Gay Marriage Bill—Despicable action, but expect more to come.

Religion

• Methodists in crisis over gay marriage, church law
• Mormons, Evangelicals, And Catholics: Opposing Marriage Equality Isn't Anti-Gay—Keep digging.
• Church offers prayers after same-sex weddings – but bans gay priests from marrying—"Church of England draws up guidelines for ‘new reality’ of gay marriage but liberal campaigners dismiss arrangements as 'dog's breakfast.'"

LGBT

• Gay Republican House candidate features partner in ad [H/T Hector]
• Male sexual orientation influenced by genes, study shows—"Genes examined in study are not sufficient or necessary to make men gay but do play some role in sexuality, say US researchers."
• Homophobic Note on Birthday Invite a Hoax, Radio Hosts Say

Michael Sam

• Retired NFL Receiver Destroys Argument Against Gay Players
• Michael Sam's father denies remarks—"The father of Michael Sam told the Galveston (Texas) Daily News he was 'terribly misquoted' by The New York Times in a recent article about the reaction to his son's announcement that he is gay."
• Sam Wheeler, Kent State Wrestler, Suspended For Anti-Gay Tweets About Michael Sam

Trans*

• Polish Catholic Church declares war on 'gender theory'
• Transgender woman Avery Edison moved to women's jail after outcry online
• Facebook is no longer for males and females only—"Facebook is finally on the road to trans*, androgynous, cis-, and beyond."
• Transgender, Schlumpy and Human—"We finally have transgender characters in movies and TV. But what about transgender actors?" NYT
• How a transgender "foreign hope" is challenging the pro StarCraft world

Intolerance

• Kansas House passes bill allowing service refusal to gay couples—Andrew Sullivan asks: What the hell just happened in Kansas? Even the Kansas clergy has called this bill "a license for bigotry." Update: Probable backtracking in the works by the Kansas Senate?
• Idaho bill would protect business owners from denying services to gays
• Tennessee Lawmaker Introduces 'Turn the Gays Away' Bill Allowing Religion-Based Discrimination
• Arizona GOP Advances Wide-Sweeping Religious License To Discriminate Against Gays Bill
• Bobby Jindal: Anti-discrimination laws are a 'Silent War on Religious Liberty'—Religious liberty has become an oxymoron.
• Ugandan President To Sign Anti-Homosexuality Bill
• Russia Expands Adoption Ban—"Targets single people of any orientation in countries where gay marriage is legal."

Church and State

• Religious conservatives behind push to rewrite U.S. Constitution using obscure maneuver
• The 19 most religious states all voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 WaPo
• India a religious country, but too much corruption: Dalai Lama
• Sex, Lies and Hinduism: Why A Hindu Activist Targeted Wendy Doniger's Book—"Dinanath Batra has arm-twisted publisher Penguin India into recalling and destroying American scholar Wendy Doniger's book, The Hindus: An Alternative History. Here's why he has a problem with it."
• Denmark outlaws Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter as of next week

Extremists

• Wielding Whip and a Hard New Law, Nigeria Tries to 'Sanitize' Itself of Gays—The bigots are out in force. NYT
• Syrian girl stoned to death for using Facebook account
• Destruction of the Idols
• Embrace Islam or die!

Porn and Sex

• Strong Religious Beliefs May Drive Self-Perception of Being Addicted to Online Pornography
• Porn Site Claims 1/3 Of Its Amateur Videos Are Created in Bible Belt
• Tennessee Republican Lawmakers Freak Out Because Adults Want to Talk About Sex With Other Adults
• Canada: Let's end the world's oldest debate—"Isn't it time we call an erotic massage parlour a brothel? Why not stop the hypocrisy and legalize prostitution once and for all."

Abortion and Birth Control

• Federal court rules North Carolina 'Choose Life' license plate unconstitutional
• Virginia Senate votes to repeal forced ultrasound law
• Houston abortion clinic shut down by state
• America's Plan B problem: The contraception misinformation epidemic Salon

Women

• Overlooked consequences of organized religion can be harmful to women
• A Catholic School Just Fired a Teacher for Getting Pregnant. That Actually Happens All the Time.—Would a father with a child out of wedlock been fired as well?
• France's tough stance on female genital mutilation is working, say campaigners—"Parents and 'cutters' have been jailed in France but concerns remain that parents go abroad – including to UK – for FGM."
• #StripForJackie Campaign Gains Momentum

Science Under Siege

• 1 In 4 Americans Thinks The Sun Goes Around The Earth, Survey
• Bill Nye tells Bill Maher: America can't afford a generation of 'scientifically illiterate' children
• Naturalist Sir David Attenborough Loses His Patience With Bible Literalists

Creationism

• The Cruelty of Creationism—"A new documentary shows how biblical fundamentalism imprisons the mind."
• Right-wing pastor: Pat Robertson committed 'blasphemy' by mocking creationism
• State Sen. Mike Fair Blocks Evolution From South Carolina Science Standards
• Unprecedented Attack On Evolution 'Indoctrination' Mounted In Missouri
• Al Jazeera Arabic Calls The Theory Of Evolution A Myth and Praises Creationism and Allah

Atheism

• High School Administrator in North Carolina Blocks Formation of Atheist Club Because It Wouldn’t 'Fit In'
• Hospital Apologizes For Telling Patient That Atheists Shouldn't Be Allowed to Procreate, But Stonewalls Inquiry
• Satirical spaghetti monster image banned by London South Bank University as 'religiously offensive'—The studient union has apologized. How can they disprove that Pastafarianism is a religion. ;)

Bible Studies

• Appearance of camels in Genesis called sign of authors' distance from history—"New carbon dating evidence shows animals not domesticated until centuries later."
• The Truth About Numbers
• The Holy Bible, King Toike Edition

Digital Life; Net Neutrality; Copyfight; Broadband; Phone; Law and Disorder; @N, Haxx0red; Codemonkeys; RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman

Digital Life

• Pope Francis says the internet is a 'gift from God'—Al Gore is God?
• China Declares Internet Addiction a Disorder, Opens a Boot Camp to Treat Teenagers
• Don’t Blame Social Media if Your Teen Is Unsocial. It's Your Fault
• Facebook Hilariously Debunks Princeton Study Saying It Will Lose 80% Of Users
• Blast from the Past: Why Nigerian Email Scams Work

Net Neutrality

• Obama on net neutrality: I wouldn’t be president without an open Internet
• The Internet You Know and Love is in Danger
• The Fight to Save Net Neutrality: 1 Million Signatures and Counting
• FCC Chief Outlines Case-By-Case Net-Neutrality Enforcement
• AT&T Patents Concept to Detect & Charge More For Certain Traffic

Copyfight

• Harry Reid rejects President Obama's trade push Politico
• HBO screws Australia over Game of Thrones
• Prince drops his $22 million lawsuit against online bootleggers
• Judge Understands BitTorrent, Kills Mass Piracy Lawsuits
• Pirate Bay ban lifted in Netherlands as blocking torrent sites ruled 'ineffective'
• Copyright Troll Perfect 10 Loses Once Again, Setting More Good Precedents For Copyright Law
• Google Refuses to Remove Links to Tarantino's Leaked Script—"Of the 29 URLs Tarantino wants to have removed, Google took action for only a handful. The links that were disabled include copies of the leaked script on torrent sites and the file-hosting site Anonfiles. The news articles, blog posts and forum threads, however, remained online."

Broadband

• Kansas Legislature Wants To Stop Any Other Kansas Cities From Getting Google Fiber—Cable companies don't want competition.
• Small Alberta town gets massive 1,000 Mbps broadband boost
• 'Fastest ever' broadband passes speed test—"Alcatel-Lucent and BT said speeds of 1.4 terabits per second were achieved during their joint test - enough to send 44 uncompressed HD films a second."
• South Korea to spend $1.5 billion on 5G 'movie-in-a-second' service
• Two-thirds of Americans surf the Web at less than 10Mbps
• Google can now say if your internet connection is quick enough for YouTube
• Verizon CEO: "Eventually, Unlimited has to Go Away"
• Verizon Has Been Quietly Increasing FiOS Fees

Phone

• Everything from 1991 Radio Shack ad I now do with my phone
• South Korea rules pre-installed phone bloatware must be deletable
• Belgium: Apple faces fines for blocking LTE on the iPhone
• iOS vs. Android vs. Windows Phone Market Share in 2013:
• AT&T plan to shut off Public Switched Telephone Network moves ahead at FCC

Law and Disorder

• Man shares post seeking his arrest on Facebook, is arrested within the hour
• Can a Tweet Put You in Prison? It Certainly Will in the UK
• EFF Fights Patent Troll Demand For Save Podcasting Campaign Donor Information

@N

• How I lost my $50,000 Twitter username
• GoDaddy Admits Hacker's Social Engineering Led It To Divulge Info In @N Twitter Account Hack
• GoDaddy Updates Its User Protection Policies In Wake Of Infamous Twitter Account Extortion
• PayPal denies providing payment information to hacker who hijacked $50,000 Twitter username
• PayPal and GoDaddy respond to Twitter hacking controversy, sidestep blame
• Why Hasn’t Twitter Just Given @N His Name Back?
• The moral of the Twitter-GoDaddy breach: People are the easiest thing to hack

Haxx0red

• How I almost lost my $500,000 Twitter user name @jb… and my startup—"Handle is coveted by hackers and Bieber fans alike. One hacker almost got much more."
• Java-based malware driving DDoS botnet infects Windows, Mac, Linux devices
• Syrian Electronic Army: We Hacked eBay and PayPal
• Yahoo mail hacked: What to do if you’ve been affected WaPo
• Hackers leak tens of thousands of Bell customer records

Codemonkeys

• Computers Are The Future, But Does Everyone Need To Code?
• Out in the Open: These Hackers Want to Give You Coding Superpowers
• Children's Book 'Hello Ruby' Teaches 4- to 7-Year-Olds How to Code
• California Cracking Down On Coding Bootcamps For Teaching Coding Without A License
• Computer programming would satisfy foreign-language requirement under Kentucky bill

RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967–2014)

Pr0n, Blocked, Revenge, Cases; Law and Disorder; Sex Offenders, Vigilante Injustice; Rape, Sexual Assault; Swordfight, Male Factor; Quirks

Pr0n

• Porn Is Dead, Long Live Sex
• Fired for doing porn: The new employment discrimination—"Adult performers who get work elsewhere can be fired if their past comes out -- and there's no legal recourse." Salon
• "How do I become a male porn star?"—"After I wrote about the adult film industry, I got emails from men all over the globe with one common request." Salon
• Los Angeles County condom law leads to steep drop in porn film permits
• The US now watches the majority of its online porn on mobile phones

Blocked

• UK: New ISP customers will have porn filters turned on automatically—And, unintentionally(?), block sex education websites. How long before other topics are censored? In the meantime, UK Google Chrome users can tell Cameron to go away.
• Conservative MP, radical feminist and evangelical Christian come together to block online porn in Canada
• Google and Microsoft agree measures to block abuse images
• Document Reveals Conservative Plot For "Abolition" Of Porn
• Blanket Censorship Will Lull Parents Into a False Sense of Security

Revenge

• Revenge porn sought to be outlawed
• 'Revenge porn' site owner arrested in San Diego
• Christian school places teacher on leave after photos from stolen phone post to revenge porn website—"The school has refused to comment further on the case 'due to the sensitive nature of the circumstances.'"
• Angry, Abusive Men Still Have Free Speech Without Revenge Porn
• RIP Al Goldstein, Original Revenge Porn King

Cases

• Supreme Court Won't Hear Appeal over VA Sodomy Law
• 'Topless paparazzo' wins $40,000 from NYC over illegal arrests
• Supreme Court strikes down Canada's anti-prostitution laws as Charter breach

Law and Disorder

• Calif. youth admits Miss Teen USA 'sextortion' plot
• 'Rape porn' possession to be punished by three years in jail, David Cameron to announce
• Penn State to pay $59.7 million in 26 cases of Jerry Sandusky abuse
• Innocent man commits suicide after paedophile accusation
• Anonymous Vs. Steubenville—"Online vigilante Deric Lostutter helped expose the cover-up in the Steubenville rape case. Now he's facing more jail time than the convicted rapists."

Sex Offenders

• The village where half the population are sex offenders
• NameTag releases first face recognition app for Google Glass, recognizes 450K sex offenders
• Facebook helped apprehend sexual predator
• Gov. Rick Snyder signs bill to require registered sex offenders to pay annual $50 fee
• Pa. law requiring lifetime registration for juvenile sex offenders is unconstitutional, York County judge rules
• Alabama Lawmaker Re-Introduces Castration Bill For Sex Offenders
• A Court Has Ruled It's Not OK To Arouse Sex Offenders and Measure Their Erections

Vigilante Injustice

• Entrapped! When Craigslist predator stings go too far
• Vigilante paedophile hunters ruining lives with internet stings—"Police say the actions of the vigilantes can be damaging to abuse victims as well as innocent people wrongly suspected."
• Innocent man burned to death after vigilantes branded him a paedophile—Three cops suspended.

Rape

• Somali woman who reported rape sentenced—"Nineteen-year-old will be confined to home for six months and journalists who reported the story are to go to jail."
• Delhi rape: one year on, has anything changed for India's women?—"One year after the vicious assault of a student on a Delhi bus, protests and reports of abuse in India have increased. But is it any better to be a woman there today?"
• The rape victim that India forgot—"Bereft of media attention, minor girl fights lonely battle and awaits 20th surgery after being gang-raped 16 months ago."
• Four cops arrested for minor's gang rape
• Chicago girl's rape near a school 'Safe Passage' route alarms parents
• Kicked out of high school for 'public lewdness' after reporting rape—"When Rachel Bradshaw-Bean claimed she had been raped in the band room of her high school in Texas, school officials sprang into action—and kicked her out of school."
• 'Cruel' policewoman who HUGGED rape victim as she lied about the reason for her case being dropped is jailed
• Japanese lawmakers demand removal of California World War II memorial
• 'Huge win for victims of sexual assault': Congress sends defense bill to Obama

Sexual Assault

• Female Guards Are Frequently Abusing Young Males In Juvenile Detention
• College men accused of sexual assault say their rights violated—Are men more likely to be deemed guilty until proven innocent?
• Project Unbreakable

Swordfight

• Is Male Circumcision a Form of Genital Mutilation?—"Representatives from Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Greenland all recently met in Norway with doctors and surgeons who agreed on one thing: the fight for the right to keep foreskin."
• Woman fined $140 a day for refusing to circumcise son
• The 10 strangest facts about penises Salon
• Patrick Moote Has a Penis Problem—"The 'Unhung Hero' star on why size doesn't (always) matter."
• Embrace your small penis, men: Everyone else is lying anyway!—"Only one man in 100 reaches beyond the 5-to-7-inch average. Why are men lying, and why do women expect more?" Salon
• Average penis size: Human penises are huge compared to other primates.
• Which State Is the Biggest?—"On this list, Texas doesn't even make the top 40."
• Testicle size 'link to father role'—"A link between the size of a father's testicles and how active he is in bringing up his children has been suggested by scientists."
• Concrete Posts Shaped Like Male Genitalia The Talk Of Scott Township
• 'Fig leaf coming soon': Church replies to 'penis-shaped' comments after picture goes viral

Male Factor

• America's obsessed with naked men Salon
• Beefcakes are the new cheesecakes Salon
• How Nudity Impacts Our Perception Of Others: Are Naked Men Objectified Just As Much As Women?
• Charlie Hunnam's buff bod in 'Pacific Rim'—I'd kaiju all over that.
• Men Do Makeup With Michelle Phan

Quirks

• Sexual deviancy is normal—"Even in extreme cases, there's 'some tension' about whether sadism indicates mental illness. Not for the squeamish." Salon
• What It's Like to Be Kidnapped—'Why on earth would someone pay hundreds of dollars to fly halfway across the country for the pleasure of being abducted by thugs, handcuffed in a basement for hours, and forced to pee into a Gatorade bottle? GQ made Drew Magary go find out. (Sorry, Drew)"
• The Strange Sexual Quirk of Filipino Seafarers—"How the pressures of the shipping industry have shaped everything about this maritime culture. Right down to their penile implants."
• British experts warn of rise in genital cosmetic surgery
• 15 "naughty" tips to guarantee awful sex—"A compendium of the worst magazine sex advice ever, from Cosmo to Men's Health." Salon

Cyber Monday, Game of Drones, Google, Facebook, Copyfight, e-Media, Censorship, Prenda, Bitcoin, Haxx0red, Passwords, Healthcare.gov

Cyber Monday

• The Unmitigated Inanity of Cyber Monday—"The dumbest fake holiday of the year."
• T-Mobile and AT&T went head-to-head on Twitter over a customer… T-Mobile won
• Yahoo sends rambling memo demanding employees start using its webmail—"A close read of the anachronistic historical universe where Yahoo takes place."
• The internet mystery that has the world baffled
• Stuxnet's Secret Twin—"The real program to sabotage Iran's nuclear facilities was far more sophisticated than anyone realized." ForeignPolicy

Game of Drones

• Amazon says drone deliveries are the future—Starting to fly in China.
• Hexacopter used to smuggle tobacco and cell phones into Georgia prison
• Army Scores a Super-Stealthy Drone That Looks Like a Bird

Google

• Google Is Ordered to Block Images in Privacy Case—"The Internet company said it would appeal a French court's ruling that it strip from its search results nine images of the former European racing chief Max Mosley." NYT
• Google's frightening patent: collect data and interact with others automatically on your behalf
• Will This Google+ Flaw Abruptly Shut Down Your YouTube Account?—User gets false-flagged as an impersonator and Google requires photo ID to have it reinstated.
• YouTube hilariously impotent against ASCII comment pornographers
• Google employee goes on Facebook rant after cafe bans him from wearing Google Glass—What a self-entitled Glasshole.
• Gmail is boiling the frog – and we are the frog
• This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan—Frickin' onions, I tell ya.

Facebook

• Louis C.K. parody reveals the one button Facebook needs—"No, it's not a 'hate' button or 'private' button. It's something far more pertinent to the truth of social networking."
• On Facebook, a growing teenage wasteland
• Fraud problem makes Facebook more attractive to online advertisers, say ad insiders
• Why I'm (Still) Not Going to Join Facebook: Four Arguments that Failed to Convince Me
• Snapchat turned down more than $3B from Facebook

Copyfight

• Study shows removing DRM increased music sales
• Russell Brand: Get My New DVD From The Pirate Bay
• Copyright Monopoly Disintegration Inevitable As It Only Takes A Single Country

e-Media

• Young adult readers 'prefer printed to ebooks'—"Survey finds that 62% of 16 to 24-year-olds prefer traditional books over their digital equivalents."
• A Brief Whine About E-Books, Digital Publishing, and International Nonsense
• Apple Doesn't Want to Pay the Feds' E-Book Lawyer $70,000 a Week

Censorship

• UK's Internet-Porn Crackdown Threatens Free Speech—"Critics of the law fear it will give the gov. the power to censor any information it feels is dangerous."
• Apple Blocks "Sex Criminals" #2 on comiXology iOS App—It recently rejected #3 and retroactively removed #1.
• Amazon removes abuse-themed e-books from store
• 'Ryse: Son of Rome' design director comments on cutting sex scenes in U.S.
• Let us say 'faggots' on Facebook, says maker of pork snack—"Mr Brain's, which makes the traditional pork product, is urging Facebook to allow people to use the word 'faggots' to refer to the dish."

Prenda

• Prenda's massive trolling take revealed: $1.9 million in 2012
• Prenda's John Steele: Accused of identity theft by his own mother-in-law
• Porn trolls slammed again: Minnesota judge calls in the feds on Prenda—"Prenda Law is referred to investigators—and it must repay its victims."
• Copyright troll starts filing ADA lawsuits—without knowledge of his "clients"—"Disabled 'tester' didn't know Hansmeier sued small businesses in her name."
• Unhappy Thanksgiving for Prenda Law, ordered to pay $261K to defendants

Bitcoin

• We need anonymity to make democracy safe – Stallman talks bitcoin
• Texas Hacker Debunks Link Between Bitcoin Founder and Online Drug Market
• E-sports site settles covert Bitcoin mining case for $1 million
• The secret Hong Kong facility that uses boiling goo to mine Bitcoins
• Bitcoin Thefts Surge, DDoS Hackers Take Millions
• Sheep Marketplace Scam Revealed, $40 Million Stolen
• Missing: hard drive containing Bitcoins worth £4m in Newport landfill site

Haxx0red

• Malware Analysts Say Breaches Are Not Being Disclosed by Their Employers—40% of infections come from company executives visiting porn sites.
• How Somebody Forced the World's Internet Traffic Through Belarus and Iceland
• Alleged Windows support scammer forfeits money earned by "fixing" PCs
• Estonia to extradite 3 men for "Operation Ghost Click" malware scheme—"US government claims botnet group took in $14 million from traffic diversion."
• Ding Ding Ding! Video Poker 'Hackers' Cleared of Federal Charges—"Two gamblers who took advantage of a software bug to win a small fortune from casino video poker machines will enjoy Thanksgiving without the threat of federal prison hovering over them like a carving knife. A federal judge in Las Vegas this morning dismissed federal charges against the men, ending a nearly two-year-long legal battle over when beating the house becomes a crime."

Passwords

• The gentle art of cracking passwords
• Hack of MacRumors forums exposes password data for 860,000 users
• Password hack of vBulletin.com fuels fears of in-the-wild 0-day attacks
• Cupid Media Hack Exposed 42M Passwords—Stored as plaintext. Oy.
• Now Selfies Can Be Used as Passwords

Healthcare.gov

• Obama Administration Says Health Care Website Is Vastly Improved NYT
• Report: 100,000 Signed Up For Obamacare As Website Was Revamped
• Consumer tips for HealthCare.gov show administration's cautious optimism WaPo
• HealthCare.gov will work. That means Obamacare can work, too. WaPo
• Obamacare website progress garners muted reaction from Congress

Digital Life; Your Rights Online; Copyfight; Trouble with Telcos, Smartphones, iPhone Follies; Hacking; Pr0n; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy

Digital Life

• The Internet isn't making us dumb. It's making us angry.—"A Chinese study finds anger spreads more easily than other emotions on social media. How should society respond?"
• Sexting, Shame and Suicide—"A shocking tale of sexual assault in the Digital Age."
• The dumbest generation? No, Twitter is making kids smarter

Your Rights Online

• Court grants First Amendment protection to Facebook 'Like'—"Liking a political candidate's Facebook Page is the Internet equivalent of displaying a political sign in your front yard, a federal appeals court ruled."
• Charles Carreon finally quits fighting, calls Oatmeal battle "a dumb thing"—"Lawyer tells Ars he was 'rapeutated,' unjustly lowering his reputation online." I blame FunnyJunk.
• Chinese teen arrested for getting more than 500 retweets

Copyfight

• NBC Universal Funded Study Shows, Yet Again, How Infringement Is Hollywood's Own Damn Fault
• Warner Bros. DMCA Fraud and Abuse Case Goes to Jury
• Court Gives a Victory to Pandora Over Licensing Streaming Music NYT
• U.S. court denies ABC request to halt sales of Dish's 'Hopper'
• Downloading Is Mean! Content Industry Drafts Anti-Piracy Curriculum for Elementary Schools

Trouble with Telcos

• Obama administration urges FCC to require carriers to unlock mobile devices
• Verizon, caught red-handed—Violating FCC regulations with impunity.
• Fighting Big Telecom: Good Things Happen When Canadians Speak Out—Monopolistic practices in Canada are screwing the customers.

Smartphones

• Step Away From the Phone!—"Smartphone addicts are starting to curb the habit." NYT
• BlackBerry announces major job cuts, quarterly net operating loss of $1 billion
• Ballmer sees Microsoft's 'almost no share' in mobile as an opportunity, regrets mistakes

iPhone Follies

• iPhone frenzy takes ugly turn in Pasadena—"A scheme to exploit vanloads of homeless from L.A.'s skid row to hold spots in line leads to fistfights as promised payments fail to materialize."
• Here's The Evidence That Apple's Gold iPhone Shortage Is Actually Deliberate
• Nokia's 'Thanks Apple' Taunt Goes Down As One Of The Most Retweeted Brand Tweets Ever
• Hardbitten NYC cops: Sir, I'm gonna need you to, er, upgrade to iOS 7
• iPhone 5S' Touch ID can also detect… nipples?!

Hacking

• Federal Courts Still Scaremongering About RECAP and Spooky "Open Source" Software—Which, they claim, "can be freely obtained by anyone with Internet access and modified for benign or malicious purposes...." Projection, much?
• Argentina arrests teen hacker who netted $50,000 a month
• Chaos Computer Club breaks Apple TouchID

Pr0n

• Pornhub Average Visit Duration and Top 3 Search Terms by State
• Porn In Parliament: 300,000 Viewing Attempts
• Key & Peele: Clear Cookies

NSA Spying

• Close the N.S.A.'s Back Doors—"The National Security Agency undermines confidence in communication by weakening encryption." NYT
• Close ties between White House, NSA spying review—"[T]he review panel has effectively been operating as an arm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the NSA and all other U.S. spy efforts."
• Bruce Schneier: NSA Spying Is Making Us Less Safe—"The security researcher Bruce Schneier, who is now helping the Guardian newspaper review Snowden documents, suggests that more revelations are on the way." He also says metadata equals surveillance.
• These 12 Bills are the NSA's Worst Nightmare—"Your guide to the pending legislation seeking to curb the government's vast surveillance powers."
• NSA Leaks Bring the Whole Idea of "Net Neutrality" Into Question

Surveillance and Privacy

• The FBI’s Trojan Horse?—"Over the past few decades, a paradigm shift has occurred within policing. Known generally as community policing, the basic idea is that state and local law enforcement officers should integrate themselves into the communities they serve."
• Will the Supreme Court Stop Cops From Reading Your Text Messages?—"In many states, police can rifle through your smartphone—even if you've just been arrested for not putting on your seat belt."
• Homeland Security to test BOSS facial recognition at junior hockey game

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."