International Day Against DRM; Patents; Net Neutrality; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy; Haxx0red; Digital Life, Tech Death; Tesla; GM; Reviews; Unfriendly Skies

International Day Against DRM

• Watch the trailer for Aaron Swartz documentary 'The Internet's Own Boy'
• Obama Complains That TPP Critics Are 'Conspiracy Theorists' Who 'Lack Knowledge' About Negotiations
• This New York Times Short Dramatizes a Deposition About the Definition of Photocopying—"In 2010, the Cuyahoga County Recorder's Office in Ohio changed their policy about copying records. Digital files would no longer be available, and the public would have to make hard copies of documents for $2 per page."
• Hulu attempts to block international viewers who use VPNs

Patents

• In 9-0 vote, Supreme Court makes it easier to get fees in patent cases—"Top patent court almost never makes bad actors pay. Supremes see it differently."
• SCOTUS asked to overturn patent-troll's charter
• The jury is in: Samsung infringes, but damages to Apple are a "mere" $120M—"Apple wins on two patents but loses its damages case, getting just 5 percent."

Net Neutrality

• Level 3 claims six ISPs dropping packets every day over money disputes
• Comcast is destroying the principle that makes a competitive internet possible
• Mozilla's crazy plan to fix net neutrality and turn broadband into a utility – and why it could work—"Mozilla thinks it has found a way to ensure true network neutrality without going back and reclassifying broadband. Will its regulatory sleight of hand find support?"
• Obama must show he supports net neutrality - here's how

NSA Spying

• Everyone is under surveillance now, says whistleblower Edward Snowden—"People's privacy is violated without any suspicion of wrongdoing, former National Security Agency contractor claims."
• Emails reveal close Google relationship with NSA
• White House seeks legal immunity for firms that hand over customer data—"Obama administration asks legislators drafting NSA reforms to protect telecoms firms complying with court orders."
• Chairman of key House committee agrees to proceed with NSA reform bill—"Bob Goodlatte of Virginia breathes new life into USA Freedom Act after bill to overhaul spy agency stalled by months of delay."
• A reporter, a reddit founder, a lawyer, and an ex-NSA chief walk into a debate
• Hannity Then and Now on NSA Surveillance

Surveillance and Privacy

• US Government Begins Rollout Of Its 'Driver's License For The Internet'
• Privacy price gouging, courtesy of phone companies—"Charging customers repeatedly to make their phone numbers unlisted is nothing more than a money grab by companies that already pocket billions of dollars a year in profit." LATimes
• Apple iOS 7 Updates Silently Remove Encryption for Email Attachments

Haxx0red

• Microsoft patches IE zero-day flaw, issues special security update for Windows XP despite end of support
• Serious security flaw in OAuth, OpenID discovered—"Attackers can use the 'Covert Redirect' vulnerability in both open-source log-in systems to steal your data and redirect you to unsafe sites."
• Hacker hijacks baby monitor, screams 'Wake up baby!'
• Hackers Can Mess With Traffic Lights to Jam Roads and Reroute Cars

Digital Life

• We're sharing more photos but getting less in return
• Can an Algorithm Solve Twitter's Credibility Problem?—Is Twitter dying or not?
• The kid who got kicked by a train conductor could earn a whole lot of money
• The NASCAR Dogecoin car is real and it is beautiful
• Why I quit writing internet standards

Tech Death

• The silencing of the Deaf—"How high-tech implants are being blamed for killing an entire subculture."
• The Decline of Newspapers Hits a Stunning Milestone
• Report: Google to end forced G+ integration, drastically cut division resources
• Godaddy Quietly Ends Email Support – Review Of New Live Chat Replacement
• Sony's in a 'bag of hurt' because of Blu-ray

Tesla

• Why do car dealers and Republicans want to eliminate Tesla?—"Instead of adapting to new market demands, car dealerships spend their money to get politicians to help them hurt Tesla."
• FTC: State bans on Tesla's direct sales model are hurting competition
• Blast from the Past: Strangling Innovation: Tesla vs. 'Rent Seekers'

GM

• Job Crushing or Lifesaving?—"Regulations don’t kill jobs, they save lives." NYT
• Documents show GM's early knowledge of switch defect
• GM to ask bankruptcy court for lawsuit protection—"Company's motion says more than 30 cases have been filed against it since February."
• Blast from the Past: GM recalls almost a million vehicles—"[B]ecause of a problem with the windshield wiper fluid system that could lead to a fire."

Reviews

• One Percenters Control Online Reviews—"Contrary to appearances, online reviews reflect the opinions of the few."
• Audiophile bullshit
• Baybrook Remodelers, Still In The Midst Of Suing People For Negative Reviews, Deploys A Disastrous SEO Hitman
• Oh My Dayum!—Songified review.

Unfriendly Skies

• US Airways sends lewdest brand tweet ever
• Air Canada to consider firing workers in baggage toss video—"YouTube video shows baggage dropped from atop staircase, airline investigating."
• 14-Year-Old Allegedly Tweeted Terrorist Threat And Then Freaked Out When American Airlines Responded—As she throws her "friend" under the bus, other idiots join in [WaPo].
• Australian mistook cockpit for toilet, triggering hijack scare

War on Terror, Vets, Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy, Media and Censorship; Bad Cops, Albuquerque, Innocence, Recording; Detroit; Car Trouble, GM; Unfriendly Skies

War on Terror

• Feinstein asks White House to edit torture report
• CIA's 'Harsh Interrogations' Exceeded Legal Authority: Report NYT
• Revealed: Senate report contains new details on CIA black sites
• Chairman Satisfied With Military on Benghazi—"The GOP chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Thursday he is satisfied with how the military responded to the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya." Republicans desperately need this to attack Hillary with.
• TSA bars mute stroke victim from flight, forces 8-hour bus ride
• TSA defies audit, quietly expands behavior screening activity
• Your Local Police Force’s Next Vehicle: Tanks. Actual Tanks—"But now there will be more tanks than ever coming to law enforcement. Congress set aside $436 million on tanks last year, only to be told that the military doesn’t need or want them. They were built anyway because their primary contractor, General Dynamics, spent $11 million lobbying Congress the year beforehand"

Vets

• Another intense floor flight between Sens. Vitter and Sanders over veterans' clinics—"'If you think it's too expensive, then don't send them off to war,' Sanders said in his verbal joust with Vitter. 'Taking care of veterans is a cost of the war. They (veterans) paid for it.'" Gotta love Sanders.
• VA stonewalling hurts veterans
• Recording shows that Army punished soldiers who asked for help—"Civilian advocates who work with wounded soldiers when they are being discharged are targeted by the Army."
• VA Hides Names of Hospitals Where Vets Died From Delays
• Commemorating Suicides, Vets Plant 1,892 Flags on National Mall
• How Can Government Battle a 'Suicide Epidemic' Among Veterans?
• Vietnam Vet Mistaken As Homeless, Kicked Out Of Walgreens

Afghanistan

• A rising number of children are dying from U.S. explosives littering Afghan land—"Because Afghanistan is not a signatory to the U.N. Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, U.S. officials say they are not legally obligated to clear any of the unexploded ordnance." WaPo
• 7 Million Afghans Just Dealt a Blow to the Taliban
• Afghan probe begins in attack on AP journalists

Israel and Palestine

• Kerry focuses blame on Israel for collapse of talks—"Secretary of state highlights both sides’ 'unhelpful moves' but indicates crisis began with failure to release prisoners."
• Israel Says It Is 'Deeply Disappointed' by Kerry's Remarks on Peace Talks NYT
• Netanyahu Orders Israeli Ministers To Stop Meeting Palestinian Counterparts
• Palestinians can join Geneva Conventions on rules of war, Switzerland says

NSA Spying

• Congressmen Say James Clapper Should Be Arrested for Lying About NSA Spying
• NSA reforms: Obama's playing a Fourth Amendment shell game—"President Obama has proposed a new authority that could force private corporations to act as government spies, circumventing constitutional privacy safeguards in the process."
• Merkel denied access to own NSA file
• German NSA Panel's Chairman Quits in Spat Over Snowden—"The chairman of a new German parliamentary panel probing mass surveillance by the NSA abruptly quit on Wednesday, rejecting opposition demands that the body question fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden."
• Stop Comparing the NSA to 1984 (and Start Comparing It to Philip K. Dick)—"Writers overwhelmingly use Orwell's novel to describe the surveillance state—which makes it easy to forget who's really oppressed today."

Surveillance and Privacy

• The Feds Cut a Deal With In-Flight Wi-Fi Providers, and Privacy Groups Are Worried
• Spy-happy Condoleezza Rice joins Dropbox board as privacy adviser—What are your alternatives?
• BuzzFeed Quizzes: What Data Set Do You Belong To?

Media and Censorship

• Russia takes Voice of America radio off air
• Al-Jazeera trial: Defendants denounce 'joke' hearing
• Turkey's prime minister wants Twitter ban reinstated
• China: Television newscaster replaced on air for lashing out at corrupt officials+
• Internet freedom in Myanmar: A curse or an opportunity?—"With Myanmar's recently acquired internet freedom, questions arise about hate speech and incitement to violence online."

Bad Cops

• Aspiring TV producer mistakenly killed by deputies in West Hollywood
• Lawsuit: Police academy instructors punished after whistleblowing
• Ex-Markham deputy police chief raped a prisoner, gets 5 years in prison
• Cop arrested for bumping man with car, then threatening him with gun
• Cop Pulls Gun On Fifth Graders Building Tree Fort—"Police forced a group of fifth graders to the ground at gunpoint this week as they attempted to build a tree fort in their own neighborhood."
• D.A. drops charge against woman who accused officer of excessive force
• Pakistan: Nine-month-old boy accused of planning murder—"A nine-month-old boy has appeared in court in Pakistan on charges of planning a murder, threatening police and interfering in state affairs, it appears."

Albuquerque

• Justice: Albuquerque police use 'excessive force'
• Feds slam use of deadly force by Albuquerque police
• US inquiry may order Albuquerque police oversight

Innocence

• Mississippi Woman Faces Execution For Crime Her Son Admitted To
• US man cleared of Brooklyn killing after 25 years in jail—"Jonathan Fleming, 51, walks free after new evidence placed him in Florida on night of 1989 murder in New York."
• Woman, 74, freed after 32 years in prison for murder she didn't commit
• World's longest-serving death inmate freed over evidence doubts—"The Shizuoka District Court suspended the death sentence and ordered a retrial for 78-year-old Iwao Hakamada, who had been convicted in a 1966 murder."

Recording

• Dallas police dash camera video shows incident that led to man's $1.1M settlement with city
• Attorneys skeptical of Oklahoma dash-cam bill—"Some attorneys who specialize in obtaining arrest videos from police are concerned that a bill to make Highway Patrol dash-cam videos open to the public could actually have the opposite effect and limit the public's ability to see the videos."
• Arizona Police Investigating Video of Officer Attacking Woman
• LAPD officers tampered with in-car recording equipment, records show—"An inspection by LAPD investigators found about half of the estimated 80 cars in one South L.A. patrol division were missing antennas."

Detroit

• Fundraising effort surpasses $100,000 for man assaulted by angry crowd in Detroit
• Detroit Nurse Hailed A Hero; Stepping In To Stop The Attack On Driver Beaten By Mob
• Detroit police arrest 2 more suspects in beating of driver who hit boy
• Detroit police not ruling out hate crime in mob attack on Steven Utash, white motorist who struck boy with pickup

Car Trouble

• Toyota admits deceiving consumers; $1.2-billion penalty is record—"Carmaker says it misled consumers and regulators about two defects that caused sudden-acceleration incidents. 'Toyota put sales over safety, and profit over principle,' FBI says."
• On Heels Of GM, Toyota Recalls More Than 6 Million Vehicles
• Ford to recall about 434,000 vehicles
• Is your car infested with spiders? Mazda has a software update for that

GM

• GM knew of faulty ignition switch, court documents show—"Engineers say automaker believed drivers would be able to control car if ignition failed."
• G.M. Secrecy on Crashes Adds to Families' Pain—"Relatives of people killed in accidents involving recalled General Motors cars find it hard to get information partly because of how G.M. defines victims, and the technology of 'black boxes.'" NYT
• Angry families want GM prosecuted for defects
• Two Reasons The GM Recall Is Unlike Any Recall We've Ever Seen—First, regulators twice failed to do their jobs. And second, GM attempts to escape liability by changing their company name.
• GM's Barra: 'I cannot tell you why it took years for a safety defect to be announced' WaPo
• The Ignition Switch General Motors Didn't Want to Replace Costs 57-Cents
• An Engineer's Eureka Moment With a G.M. Flaw NYT

Unfriendly Skies

• Man gets 14 years for 'lasing' helicopter—Harsh sentence due to his unceasing pattern of bad behavior.
• LAX baggage-heist case may be one of airport's largest
• Airlines Got Fewer Complaints But Bungled More Bags
• SaharaTV Releases Video of Passengers Aboard New York Bound Arik Air Plane… Without Airconditioning!
• Flipside: Spontaneous protest on plane halts deportation—"In an expression of spontaneous protest against the deportation of a young Iranian man, passengers aboard a flight from Östersund refused to fasten their seat belts, which, by law, prevented the pilots from taking off."

St. Paddy's Not-so-Gay Day; NSA Spying, Surveillance State; Your Rights Online, UK Filters; SOPA, Copyfight; Mobile Phones, Broadband; Tesla; Unfriendly Skies; Trains-portation

St. Paddy's Not-so-Gay Day

• Boston mayor skips St. Patrick's parade over exclusion of gay group—Instead, there was a 'diversity float'.
• Guinness pulls out of NY's St. Patrick's parade over ban on gays
• Irish ask: What's the big deal about letting gays in St. Pat's parades?
• Fox News' Defense Of Anti-Gay Discrimination At NYC's St. Patrick's Day Parade
• PSA: Paddy Not Patty

NSA Spying

• Compare the NSA's Facebook Malware Denial to its Own Secret Documents
• Intel panel 'very close' on killing NSA phone programs Politico
• IBM denies links with NSA spying program

Surveillance State

• Lawmaker 'taken aback' by CIA's tough response to spying allegations
• U.S. intelligence officials to monitor federal employees with security clearances
• US defends surveillance before UN rights panel—How the mighty have fallen.

Your Rights Online

• The US is an 'enemy of the internet'
• U.S. to Cede Its Oversight of Addresses on Internet—"An international group, not yet determined, will take over the task of assigning names and numbers for Internet addresses." This may lead to more censorship pressure from governments cracking down on free speech. NYT
• EU: Data Protection, NSA Votes Won; Net Neutrality Next
• Russia: Vladimir Putin stamps on his citizens again, this time with Internet censorship
• Australia: Attorney General's new war on encrypted web services—They want everyone's web browsing history.
• Philippines: Block child porn websites, NTC orders Internet providers—Start of the slippery slope.

UK Filters

• No 10 aide arrested over child porn: Police quiz 62-year-old who advised Cameron on web filters and was tipped for peerage
• The Best Story Yet About The UK's Online Porn Filters
• Children can turn off net filters, report finds
• UK pornographers launch new site in response to 'overblocking' internet filters
• UK gov wants 'unsavoury' web content censored
• Turns Out UK Government Only Wishes It Had Special Powers To Censor YouTube

SOPA

• SOPA backers seek to restrict online rights again -- but this time outside the law
• The Rebranding Of SOPA: Now Called 'Notice And Staydown'
• Hollywood's Copyright Lobbyists Are Like Exes Who Won't Give Up

Copyfight

• Copyright Group: Chilling Effects DMCA Archive is "Repugnant"—"If it wasn't for the Chilling Effects DMCA clearing house the actions of those abusing the DMCA would go largely unreported. Still, the Copyright Alliance doesn't like the site, this week describing the information resource as "repugnant" to the DMCA. Unsurprisingly, Chilling Effects sees things differently."
• U.S. Court Orders Seizure of "DVD Ripping" Software Domains and Funds
• Popcorn Time Is Back

Mobile Phones

• Mobile phone 'bill shock' driving victims into debt, Citizens Advice warns—"Charity says 130,000 people contacted it last year for help with unexpected high bills, often caused by error or roaming charges."
• Legislation abolishing roaming charges goes through European parliament—"Mobile phone operators say that domestic charges may increase as a result of ban, which will come into force in December 2015."
• EU Parliament votes in favour of universal mobile phone charger—Applies to plugs, but manufacturers still want to lock in the connector.

Broadband

• Telecom Giants Drag Their Feet on Broadband for the Whole Country
• Nearly one in three American households have no choice when it comes to their internet
• Two simple maps show us how Comcast is about to take over the country
• $5 discount to give up unlimited data? Time Warner Cable customers say "no"
• If You Want To Fix U.S. Broadband Competition, Start By Killing State-Level Protectionist Laws Written By Duopolists
• Google's gigabit gambit isn't going away—"Opinion: Google Fiber appears to be gaining momentum."
• San Antonio City Council OKs Google Fiber contract

Tesla

• Tesla sales will be banned in New Jersey starting April 1st—So much for Christie and the 'free market'.
• Auto dealers push legislation to keep Tesla Motors out of Ohio
• Washington DC: Legislature acts to allow Tesla to sell cars directly—"Tesla can continue to sell cars directly to customers under amended bills passed in the state House and Senate, but it will be the only car manufacturer with that privilege."
• New Jersey Bans Tesla to Ensure Buying a Car Will Always Suck
• Tesla CEO Rips New Jersey Over 'Backroom Deal' Auto Sales Ban
• Car Dealers Are Terrified of Tesla's Plan to Eliminate Oil Changes
• Tesla's 'Gigafactory' sets off 4-state bidding war

Unfriendly Skies

• Asiana Airlines Penalized Over Crash—"In the first penalty of its kind, federal transportation officials on Tuesday docked Asiana Airlines $500,000 for failing to promptly contact passengers' families and keep them informed about their loved ones after a deadly crash last year at San Francisco International airport."
• Airline Pet Handlers Speak Out Against Alleged Animal Neglect—"Two whistleblowers describe chronic, dangerous neglect in United's PetSafe program."
• Louisiana man fined $600 after drunken fight with wife aboard flight
• Why 2,000 passengers just rioted at an airport in China
• Southwest passenger screams for booze, throws gang signs 'for Jesus,' forces PDX landing, court documents show

Trains-portation

• Barcelona-Paris high speed rail link launched
• Japan wants to sell its super-fast levitating trains to the US
• This Insane Chinese Concept Train Doesn't Need To Stop At Stations To Pick Up Passengers

Workers and Wage Slaves, Jobless Malefic, Corporations, Inequality, Banks and Wall Street; Consumer Protection, Unfriendly Skies; Surveillance and Privacy

Workers and Wage Slaves

• 'Living Wage' Effort Eclipsed By Minimum-Pay Battles
• New York Raising Minimum Wage To $8 By End Of Year
• McDonald's on employee resources site: Not lovin' it
• The Life of a Fast-Food Striker—"When I met Shonda Roberts, she had been working in the fast-food industry for twenty years."
• From fast food strikes to Wal-Mart: 2013 and the year in labor—"2013 was a year of unexpected vulnerability and vitality — and the year fast food and Wal-Mart campaigns diverged." Salon

Jobless Malefic

• The Quiet Death Of Long-Term Unemployment Insurance In 2013—Ends today
• Where the 1.3 million people losing unemployment aid this week live—Around 222,000 just in California. WaPo
• The GOP Decides to Play Scrooge as Millions Lose Benefits
• House Republicans Opposed To Extended Unemployment Benefits Could Pay The Price In 2014: Poll
• Obama calls senators to back extension on jobless benefits
• Sen. Sanders on extending unemployment insurance
• Democrats plan big push on jobless aid in new year

Corporations

• The Corporate "Free Speech" Racket—"How corporations are using the First Amendment to destroy government regulation."
• Krugman: Why Corporations Might Not Mind Moderate Depression NYT
• McDonald's Makes $1 Billion Profit, Costs Taxpayers $1 Billion

Inequality

• We Are Two Nations: A Christmas Serial
• In No One We Trust—"Inequality is eroding our faith in institutions and our way of life." NYT
• Super rich benefit from 'status quo bias'
• Moguls Rent South Dakota Addresses to Dodge Taxes Forever
• Noam Chomsky: We're no longer a functioning democracy, we're really a plutocracy
• The Real War on Christmas: The War on the Poor
• Why 2 Broke Girls is TV’s best, junkiest show about economic inequality.

Banks and Wall Street

• US judge defends scathing remarks on financial crisis
• Local courts reviving 'debtors' prison' for overdue fines, fees
• BofA's legal costs mount in Countrywide mortgage fiasco
• U.S. bank watchdogs to consider Volcker rule tweak—"U.S. bank regulators said on Friday they would consider allowing banks to hold on to certain complex securities despite a new rule limiting risky investments."
• DOJ declined to enforce Bernie Madoff-related subpoena of J.P. Morgan: document
• When It's People vs. Wall Street, Tea Party Votes 'Wall Street'
• An Open Letter to the Makers of The Wolf of Wall Street, and the Wolf Himself—"And then I unraveled the truth. The truth about my father and his behavior: that behind all of it was really just insidious soul-sucking shame masked by addiction, which we love to call ambition, which is really just greed."

Consumer Protection

• Australia: Door-to-door salesman charged for ignoring 'Do Not Knock' sign
• Documents show Carnival knew of fire danger before ill-fated cruise—"Carnival's court filing says the contract that passengers agree to when they buy a ticket 'makes absolutely no guarantee for safe passage, a seaworthy vessel, adequate and wholesome food, and sanitary and safe living conditions.'"
• Watch Al Franken Shred A Pro-Arbitration Professor For Trying To Gloss Over The Problem
• Proof That It Pays to Be America's Most-Hated Companies
• The Colbert Report: Rethinking Customer Satisfaction—"A study by Bloomberg Businessweek indicates that customer satisfaction might actually be bad for business."
• Coca-Cola 'YOU RETARD' Bottle Cap Forces Company To Apologize To Edmonton Family
• Flipside: Not Always Right

Unfriendly Skies

• Outrage expressed after WWII vet allegedly bumped from Honolulu-bound flight
• Delta bumps passengers for UF basketball team—A passenger missed a funeral.
• Ban on in-flight calling proposed because people talking is annoying—"While FCC moves toward allowing calls, another federal agency might ban them."
• Woman behind MSP 2-hour shutdown ID'd; no, a propane tank is not a carry-on
• Delta Airlines Is Very Sorry It Generated a Confirmation Code That Read "H8GAYS"

Surveillance and Privacy

• NY district judge rules that NSA phone surveillance is legal
• US will make deal with Edward Snowden, claims former MI5 head Dame Eliza Manningham Buller
• Glenn Greenwald calls for Snowden asylum at Chaos Computer Club congress
• Greenwald: US, British media are servants of security apparatus
• 'Front-Page Rule' is unprecedented in U.S. intelligence community—"Presidential panel suggests covert activity shouldn't be undertaken if the public couldn't support it if exposed." WaPo
• How to defeat Big Brother—"In 2013, we learned the terrifying scope of modern surveillance. Now it's time to fight back." Salon
• Encrypted chat service Cryptocat for iPhone rejected by Apple
• Google Loses Bid for Wiretap Suit Appeals Court Rehearing

Take Back Thanksgiving; Customer Ain't Always Right; Consumer Protection; Bad Company; Dealerships; Unfriendly Skies; Obamacare, Healthcare.gov

Take Back Thanksgiving

• The War on Thanksgiving—"The right always whines about its contrived war on Christmas. But this year, the real assault is on Thanksgiving, when retail stores will be open—depriving thousands of their holiday."
• Man says he was fired for refusing to work Thanksgiving—Pizza Hut corporate, superceding the franchise, offered his job back if he wanted it.
• Don't Go Shopping on Thanksgiving
• Wal-Mart Workers Have Little To Be Thankful For This Black Friday
• Maryland Judge bars protesters from Walmart—"Order would block Black Friday demonstrations." Also in Florida.

Customer Ain't Always Right

• How To Not Be An Asshole Customer At A Restaurant
• Thousands defend Wegmans employee with Asperger's syndrome after customer yells at him for being too slow
• Dear Crabby: Java jerk

Consumer Protection

• Shocking cost: Utility middle men charge renters inflated prices
• Credit-Card Rewards Programs Examined by U.S. Consumer Bureau
• Sprint is the worst cellphone service provider, Consumer Reports says

Bad Company

• Caterpillar probed for dumping train parts into sea: WSJ—"A unit of Caterpillar Inc is being probed by federal investigators to determine if it had dumped train parts into the ocean off California as part of a scam to charge customers for parts they didn't need, the Wall Street Journal reported."
• Tesco accused of carrying rubbish in food trucks to cut costs—"Supermarket insists that move causes no risks to hygiene and that new routines are cutting carbon emissions.".
• Double Glutton Challege—Restaurant owner acts like a douchebag to make the guy lose.
• Xtra-vision reverses policy on pre-ordered Xbox One consoles—They were holding pre-ordered purchases hostage unless customers paid for an Xtra game.
• Utah Couple Fined $3,500 by Online Merchant KlearGear Retains Lawyer, Turns Tables

Dealerships

• Mazda Dealer That Overcharged Mentally-Disabled Woman Loses Franchise
• Man buys car from dealership, then police tell him it's reported stolen—"Lee and an officer went to dealership, but Lee said employees there told him he was still on the hook for payments until police and the DMV sorted the issue out." After the newspaper talked to the dealer's parent company, "[t]hey apologized for Lee’s troubles and promised they would refund him for everything he's put into the car."
• US charges Romanians with making $3M in fraudulent online car deals—"Deals posted to eBay, Cars.com for cars 'that did not actually exist.'"

Unfriendly Skies

• Man sues Virgin America after being accused of not flushing—"A Virgin America passenger is suing the airline for $500,000 after being detained by federal agents following an in-flight tiff. After his soft-drink order went awry, flight attendants reported to the police that the passenger went to the lavatory, cursed, and left the toilet unflushed." Not flushing makes you terrorist!
• Air Canada Loses Woman's Dog, Spokesman Dismisses Inquiries In Accidental Email
• United Airlines Refuses to Pay Veterinarian Bill Without NDA
• Southwest Airlines boosting fee to fly pets
• United Slapped With $1.1 Million Fine Over Tarmac Delays
• Yes, airplane seats are getting even smaller—"Making seats smaller means more passengers – and more money – for airlines such as Delta, United and American."
• Bharti Airtel to shell out Rs. 50,000 for harassing customer

Obamacare

• Poll: Majority Optimistic That Obamacare Problems Will Be Fixed
• Is Obamacare turning the corner? WaPo
• US healthcare sign-ups jump at state level in promising sign of turnaround
• Republicans are absolutely certain Obamacare has already failed—Getting loud in the echo chamber. WaPo
• The real fix for Obamacare's flaws: Medicare for all

Healthcare.gov

• Can Porn Sites Fix the Obamacare Site?—"Pornhub's publicity stunt has a point."
• Healthcare.gov will soon be hosted by HP rather than Verizon
• Inside the Company That Bungled Obamacare—"Hard to believe, but Healthcare.gov might not be CGI’s biggest headache."

Workers and Wage Slaves, Economy, Financial Troublemakers; Consumer Protection, Reviews, McDonald's Unfriendly Skies; Syria; NSA Spying, Your Rights Online

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Scott Klinger: $9.54 a second: Why CEOs fight on wages
• 12 arrests made at St. Louis fast food protests
• Walmart Workers Plan 'Widespread, Massive Strikes and Protests' for Black Friday 2013—21 were arrested last Thursday for civil disobedience.
• Mall Employees Resign With Very Public Note—"Dear Jamie, since you decided to say 'Cancer is not an excuse' and think it's OK to swear at your employees like you do all the time, we quit."
• Unpaid Internships Must Be Destroyed
• August jobs report: Hiring continues as unemployment falls—"Only 63.2% of Americans now participate in the labor force -- meaning they have a job or are looking for one. That's the lowest rate since August 1978."
• Flipside: Lenovo chief shares $3.25 million of bonus with staff

Economy

• Bernie Sanders: Billions for 'Another War,' but No Money for Needs at Home
• Rangel: Let's Fight a War Against Joblessness Instead
• The Grand Bargain Is Dead, Dead, Dead
• Fox News guest: 'That's a teaching moment' when hungry students don't get school lunches
• Death (certificates) took holiday in wake of bankruptcy filing—"City couldn't issue death - or birth - certificates because skittish vendor wanted cash to supply paper."

Financial Troublemakers

• The Domino Defect: Five Years After Crisis, Banks No Better Off—"The collapse of Lehman Brothers shook the global financial system to its core five years ago. Nevertheless, lawmakers continue to shy away from making the necessary reforms."
• 16 Major Firms May Have Received Early Data From Thomson Reuters—"Whistleblower complaint alleges that certain customers received data anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour ahead of the rest of the markets."
• Criminal Charges Unlikely in Case of Wrong Repossession Mistake

Consumer Protection

• How one man turns annoying cold calls into cash
• Edinburgh landlord ordered to pay tenants three times deposit—"[T]he landlord had failed to pay the cash into a fund set up to protect tenants."
• Flipside: Wendy's Customers Defend Server Against Bully, Get Frosties and Food—Consumer doing the protecting.

Reviews

• Amazon's Funniest Reviews—As selected by Amazon.
• Bed bugs, bad service banished thanks to online trip review sites like Yelp, Tripadvisor
• Where not to eat: researchers turn unhappy tweets into a map of risky restaurants
• Hotel Sues Guest for 95K over Bad Review, Bedbugs
• "Aweful food and dire complaint handling"—Judging by the restaurant owner's rebuttal, in this case the customer isn't right.

McDonald's

• McDonalds closing all restaurants in Bolivia—They weren't a cultural fit.
• McDonald's Franchisees Rebel as Chain Raises Store Fees
• Horse in McDonald's: Rider fined after 'drive-thru' refusal

Unfriendly Skies

• On the Latest Bogus NYT Plane-in-Peril Story
• Open Letter to Flight Attendants
• Man Buys Promoted Tweet to Complain About British Airways

Syria

• President Obama Urges Congress to Vote Conscience on Syria, Even If Public Opposed
• Pro-strike lawmakers mum as startling videos surface of Syrian rebels
• U.S. Support for Action in Syria Is Low vs. Past Conflicts
• How TIME Deceitfully Tries to Make You Believe You Are In the Minority If You Oppose Attacking Syria
• Arizona Voters Savage John McCain’s Syria Support at Town Hall
• Rep. Alan Grayson: U.S. Has to Stop Focusing on Sending a Message on Syria
• Republicans Supported Attacking Syria, Now They Don't. Guess Why

NSA Spying

• NSA surveillance: A guide to staying secure—"The NSA has huge capabilities – and if it wants in to your computer, it's in. With that in mind, here are five ways to stay safe."
• NSA Defends Encryption Backdoors By Promising It's Only Used To Spy On All Of Us—In the meantime, they want to shoot the messenger.
• NSA's pipe dream: Weakening crypto will only help the "good guys"—"Ruining the foundation of online trust? Just collateral damage to spooks." My trust in Kevin Drum has nosedived since he thinks this undisputedly civil rights violating revelation doesn't benefit the public debate.
• The NSA never takes "no" for an answer—"When the government really wants something, it can be temporarily denied [NYT] but rarely foiled."
• Greenwald: NSA encryption story, Latin American fallout and US/UK attacks on press freedoms

Your Rights Online

• Yes, Internet: Your citizens still want their anonymity—"A study from Pew Research Center finds we're giving up too much of ourselves."
• Google encrypts data amid backlash against NSA spying—And yet they say "scanning text of your emails to sell ads is perfectly legal." Cognitive dissonance, ouch.
• Spain challenges Google with 'right to be forgotten' in EU
• Yahoo Releases Its First Government Transparency Report—"... showing the number of requests about Yahoo users that it has received from global government agencies."
• Vietnam internet restrictions come into effect—"A controversial law banning Vietnamese online users from discussing current affairs has come into effect."
• Australia: Malcolm Turnbull says Coalition will not introduce opt-out internet filter after earlier supporting it—They wanted the internet filter on by default.
• UK Internet Filter Blocks VPNs, Australia to Follow Soon?
• Tor Is Less Anonymous Than You Think

World Health Day; Saved; Brain; Bill of Health; Obamacare; HIV; Fat Tuesday

World Health Day

• The New Bird Flu, and How to Read the News About It
• Cancer patients in Canada got weak doses of chemo drugs
• Health Canada recalls birth control pill Alysena, after finding out some packages were sold with 2 weeks of placebos instead of 1
• Pregnant Woman Gives Birth In Radisson Edwardian Hotel Bathroom After London Hospital Turned Her Away
• Chinese parents can sue adult kids — for not visiting enough—"With China’s elderly population soaring, the government is trying to limit the cost of caring for overlooked seniors."
• As OSHA Emphasizes Safety, Long-Term Health Risks Fester—"The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the agency that many Americans love to hate and industry calls overzealous, has largely ignored the slow, silent killers that claim the most lives." NYT
• The Man who Could Bring you back from the Dead

Saved

• Don Ritchie, Angel of The Gap - who helped save 500 people from suicide - dies at 85
• 'Man with the golden arm' James Harrison saves 2 million babies in half a century of donating rare type of blood
• As she nears death, Chinese hail woman who saved 30 babies from trash
• Argentine mom rescues hundreds of sex slaves during long, failed hunt for kidnapped daughter
• Taxis light up remote airstrip in Peru for medivac flight

Brain

• Obama Announces $100M Research Fund To Map The Human Brain
• Brain-Training Games Don't Actually Make You Smarter
• The volatile chemistry in the business brain—"Far from being rational individuals making independent choices, the effects of testosterone, dopamine and other chemicals predispose us to mob behaviour."
• Harvard lets human minds control rats, private rodent armies remain distant
• Scientists Zap Rats' Brains to Cure Cocaine Addiction

Bill of Health

• You Don't "Own" Your Own Genes—"Researchers raise alarm about koss of individual 'genomic liberty' due to gene patents that may impact the era of personalized medicine."
• India's Supreme Court rejects Novartis' right to patent new version of cancer drug—Ensuring affordable pills.
• Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France
• 21 graphs that show America’s health-care prices are ludicrous
• Why we need to fix our health care
• America's fastest growing job pays poorly—"Meet home health care aides."
• Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequester.

Obamacare

• What Is Obamacare? Just basics that everyone should know, though many don't
• How Insurers May Successfully Dodge Obamacare's Consumer Protections For Another Year
• The South: A near-solid block against 'Obamacare'

HIV

• Swiss Police Storm Home of Fugitive in HIV Trial—"Swiss police have arrested a self-styled acupuncturist who holed up in his home after refusing to attend a trial at which he is accused of intentionally infecting 16 people with HIV."
• Dentist's office a 'perfect storm' for HIV, hepatitis exposure, health official says
• Taiwan: Man indicted for spreading HIV out of revenge and hate

Fat Tuesday

• Marital Satisfaction Predicts Weight Gain in Early Marriage
• Airline to charge overweight passengers more
• Should fat fliers pay more?—"The debate over how to accommodate obese fliers on planes has long led some travelers to ask: why not just charge heavier passengers more?" Weight shouldn't just be the deciding factor but more of girth.

The Unfriendly Skies, Pilot Error, Air Fare, Planes, TSA

The Unfriendly Skies

• Flier claims Virgin Australia policy made him feel like pedophile--"Virgin Australia is taking a second look at its policy of not allowing male passengers to sit next to kids flying alone after a traveler complained the airline made him feel like a pedophile." They should limit to policy to priests.
• United Airlines "Loses" 10-Year-Old Girl, Enters Social Media Hell
• Disabled Vet Says United Employees Kicked His Service Dog, Asked Him If He Was Retarded
• Family film the moment American Airlines 'refused them their first class seats because their son has Down's Syndrome'
• Airlines: You can't wear that
• Weird news: Gay couple sues airline over dildo Salon
• How To Deal With An "Unruly Passenger" On A Cross-Country Flight

Pilot Error

• Air France crash 'due to pilot and technical failings'--What really happened?
• Unruly JetBlue pilot found not guilty by reason of insanity
• Pilot sends plane into dive after mistaking Venus for oncoming plane

Air Fare

• Ryanair CEO: 'Stupid' Passengers Deserve Fees
• Air France asks passengers for refuel cash at Damascus stop--"The crew of an Air France plane that was re-routed via Damascus on Wednesday asked passengers how much cash they could stump up after Syrian authorities refused credit card payment to refuel the aircraft...."
• Chaos as Italian budget airline Wind Jet halts flights
• The frequent fliers who flew too much--"Many years after selling lifetime passes for unlimited first-class travel, American Airlines began scrutinizing the costs — and the customers."
• Labor Tension Rising at American Airlines, As Bankruptcy Judge OKs Union Busting

Planes

• Airlines Studying the Science of Better In-Flight Meals NYT
• Time to Review F.A.A. Policy Gadgets--Cell phones still on the no-fly list. NYT
• New York and London airport avatars: Is faking it better than the real thing?
• Airline squeeze: It's not you, 'it's the seat'
• Airline declares kid-free zone--Single people everywhere rejoice.

TSA

• Court Demands TSA Explain Why It Is Defying Nude Body Scanner Order
• TSA Denies Stonewalling Nude Body-Scanner Court Order
• TSA: Testing Drinks Purchased Inside Airport Terminal Nothing New
• TSA 'chat-downs' investigated at Boston's Logan airport
• TSA detains, interrogates Ron Paul's family and aides
• Man booted from airplane for wearing anti-TSA shirt
• TSA Kicks Woman Off Flight For Bad Attitude--"A TSA screener admitted to a woman traveling through Houston Airport that she was prevented from boarding her flight for retaliatory reasons as punishment for a bad attitude rather than any genuine security threat, after the woman refused to allow TSA agents to test her drink for explosives."

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

Your Rights Online

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

Surveillance

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

Tech

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

NSA

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

Australia

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

Censorship

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

Viacom vs. DirecTV

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

Cyberwar: Flame and Stuxnet, War on Terror, Over There, Bradley Manning, Surveillance, TSA

Cyberwar: Flame and Stuxnet

• Confirmed: US and Israel created Stuxnet, lost control of it
• Computer worm that hit Iran oil terminals 'is most complex yet'
• Obama order sped up wave of cyberattacks against Iran
• Warnings about 'Flame' virus come amid suspicions of US role in launching secret cyberweapons
• Barak acknowledges Israel's cyber offensive for first time
• Why antivirus companies like mine failed to catch Flame and Stuxnet
• Microsoft throws 'kill switch' on own certificates after Flame hijack--And they managed to contain the Flame.
• Feds investigate who leaked classified Stuxnet cyberattack details to NYT
• Crypto breakthrough shows Flame was designed by world-class scientists--"The spy malware achieved an attack unlike any cryptographers have seen before."
• Flame authors order infected computers to remove all traces of the malware--"Flame self-desctruct module overwrites file data to prevent forensic analysis."
• Shared code indicates Flame, Stuxnet creators worked together (Added 12 Jun)

War on Terror

• Greenwald: Obama the Warrior--"A new NYT article sheds considerable light on the character of the Democratic Commander-in-Chief." Salon
• U.S. asks judge to undo ruling against military detention law
• California grad student on no-fly list gets home after stranding

Over There

• Pakistan Acquits Four Men in Times Square Bomb Plot NYT
• Panetta: U.S. running out of patience with Pakistan on militant havens
• Iran rallies to aid of Iraq's embattled leader
• Blackwater guards finally face manslaughter charges
• CollegeHumor: Pulling Out of Iraq

Bradley Manning

• Bradley Manning military trial: group petitions for a more open court--"Coalition says WikiLeaks suspect's trial is being conducted amid far more secrecy than the alleged 9/11 plotters in Guantanamo."
• Bradley Manning defence team says US military is withholding key evidence--Wikileaks states that the US is withholding 250,000 pages of damage assessment reports.
• Bradley Manning defence gets report on WikiLeaks damage to US interests--"Judge rules that Obama administration must hand over documents assessing leak of diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks."

Surveillance

• 30,000 secret surveillance orders approved each year, judge estimates--"If the government spies on you but brings no charges, you'll never know."
• Obama Administration Argues No Warrant Required for GPS Tracking of Citizens
• Canada's warrantless surveillance bill is back, and bigger than ever, with surveillance powers for US gov't, too

TSA

• TSA wants to double security fees--"It looks like the TSA finally caught on to how much Americans enjoy having their genitals fondled: the US Transportation and Security Administration wants to start charging airline passengers double on screening fees. [...] If the hike is authorized, the security fee tagged on to a round-trip airline ticket will double from $5 to $10."
• Lawmakers press TSA on surface transportation security inspections
• Imaginary TSA 'waivers'
• 5 Florida TSA workers fired, 38 others suspended
• Last TSA Story You Ever Need to Read: Priest Defrocked Over Sex Abuse Charges Hired at PHL Airport