Superheroes, Cartoons, Voice Overs, Film, Music, Sports, Gaming, Art World, Culture, Hipsters

Superheroes

• Joss Whedon and Marvel Studios announce the sequel to 'The Avengers'—Geek...
• SUPERMAN/BATMAN Movie in 2015 - Nolan Returns, New Batman To Be Cast—...gasm!
• Committed: Perez' Wonder Woman – The Gold Standard—Loved his depictions of the Greek Gods from Ares to Zeus.
• Suricate: The Superheroes Hangover
• College Humor: Bane Mugs

Cartoons

• The Pixar Theory: Every Pixar movie is connected. I explain how, and possibly why.
• 'The Simpsons' Will Cross Over With 'Family Guy' Next Year
• "Axe Cop", Designed by a 5 Year Old—Now a cartoon on Fox.

Voice Overs

• You know the voices, not the faces -- that's fine, as long as they get the work
• Spongebob Voice Actors Dub Classic Movies
• Spongepulp Fictionpants: Storage—A different kind of voiceover.
• "Drive Thru Voice" - Gabriel Iglesias
• My Movie Trailer Guy Impression

Film

• Why Is Netflix Secretly Cropping Movies?—There are those who don't care; they don't know what they're missing.
• Movie Legends Revealed: The Strange Tale of How 'Scarface' Beat the X Rating
• Nicolas Cage: 'People think I'm not in on the joke'—He is the one true god.
• "The Lone Ranger" failed because it wasted money—"With 'The Lone Ranger,' Disney lost big on a bad idea. But in Hollywood, failure's almost as good as success." Salon
• Watch the trailer for the "Calvin & Hobbes" documentary

Music

• Israeli and Palestinian bands unite in 'metal brotherhood'
• Alanis Morissette's song is finally ironic—"Two sisters have corrected the lyrics of the song to make the 1996 hit more accurate." Salon
• 'Kiss This Guy': Spotify's 10 most misquoted songs—"Hold me closer, Tony Danza."
• Solala jamming 'Kiss From A Rose'—Hunky trio from Sweden.
• 13 Simple Hacks For Enjoying Music So Much More

Sports

• FIFA Loses Bid to Block Free TV Access to World Cup Matches—Goal!
• You Can Only Hope To Contain Them: Why female athletes' biggest opponents are their own breasts
• 'Carry On': Why I stayed

Gaming

• U.S. issues athlete visas to professional gamers—Surprisingly progressive.
• NCAA to end deal with EA Sports—"The NCAA said Wednesday it won't allow Electronic Arts Inc. to use its logo and name in video games while it fights a lawsuit that says the governing body owes billions of dollars to former players for allowing their likenesses to be used for free."
• Xbox One game sharing: Microsoft exec apologizes for messy situation
• 19-year old builds 25 hours of Skyrim mod to get Bethesda's attention
• The War Z Changes Its Name, If Nothing Else

Art World

• The art market is "corrupt"—"Those who argue that the art world is dominated by private interests are ignoring how the 'real' economy operates." Salon
• Art Forger Robert Driessen Reveals How He Made Giacometti Fakes
• Stolen Picasso 'burned in stove' in Romania—Mother burns the evidence.

Culture

• Law firm apologizes for outing J.K. Rowling as author of mystery novel
• Wine tasting is bullshit. Here's why.
• Pop Culture Icon Portraits

Hipsters

• Hipster Tax For Being 'So Annoying' Backed By 27 Percent Of Americans: Poll
• Hipsters Tired of "Hipsters" Ruining Williamsburg
• xkcd: Hipsters

Medical Marijuana, Kids, 420, Legalization, War on Drugs, Law and Disorder; Police State; NSA Spying, Tech Tracking

Medical Marijuana

• Obama Hates Medical Marijuana And He Doesn't Care What The States Think
• U.S. Attorney Said Montana Medical Pot Growers Wouldn't Be Prosecuted -- Now They're Facing Life in Prison
• Obama Administration Throwing Medical Marijuana Patients Into Federal Prison at Unprecedented Rate
• Orlando attorney John Morgan: Florida's medical marijuana amendment petition to be filed
• Arizona ruling on return of seized marijuana stands—"The Arizona Supreme Court is letting stand a lower court's ruling that the Yuma County sheriff must return marijuana seized from a woman with a California medical marijuana authorization honored by Arizona."
• Federally Sponsored Marijuana Study Backfires: Scientists Conclude DEA Should Reclassify Cannabis—Hoist by their own petard.
• Patients' advocates ask Supreme Court to decide medical value of marijuana

Kids

• Medical Marijuana for Kids?—"The drug has brought relief to children suffering from cancer and other serious ailments, but getting access is often limited by considerable regulatory hurdles."
• Worried Parents Weigh Their Children's Health Against Medical Marijuana Laws
• Majority Of Parents Support Medical Marijuana Legalization, Says Survey By Partnership At Drugfree.org

420

• Video: Ethan Nadelmann Trounces Former DEA Chief in Marijuana Debate at Aspen Institute
• U.S. Mayors to Obama: Quit Cracking Down on Marijuana
• Weed War: Marijuana Plants Sprout across German City
• Rules change on Olympic marijuana testing
• Google Quietly Giving Aid To Marijuana Activists

Legalization

• Marijuana's march toward mainstream confounds feds
• Colorado Nullifies Federal Hemp Ban With Governor's Signature
• Marijuana legalization considered in Maine, DC, Calif.—"Marijuana legalization saw unprecedented success on the ballot in 2012, and the next few rounds of elections could see even more loosening of restrictions on the drug."
• Australia: Expert calls for marijuana to be legalised to reduce harm of binge drinking in teens
• Five Reasons Cops Want to Legalize Marijuana—"More and more police officers are realizing the War on Drugs is a mistake."

War on Drugs

• The War on Drugs Is Worse Than NSA Spying—"We've simply become accustomed to older, more ingrained abuses."
• "How to Make Money Selling Drugs": The war America keeps on losing—"A slick documentary with a jokey premise argues that the "war on drugs" has been a soul-destroying disaster." Salon
• West Virginia: Drugged Driving Bill Launches July 12—"[I]f officers think you've been taking some sort of drug and you fail the sobriety test, they can now test your urine or blood for possible drugs."
• Piss Testing Is a Failure—"Drug testing is a multi-billion dollar scam that targets the poor and steals money from Medicaid."
• Oklahoma DA halts I-40 drug stops after criticism—"Caddo County Special Judge David A. Stephens said he was shocked District Attorney Jason Hicks used private company to participate in drug busts when company officers not certified by state."
• US mom settles suit over poppy seed drug test
• Capture of Mexican mob boss began with a fed-up informant—"Insider gave up 'El Teo' to help 'clean up my country.' The hit to the Tijuana drug cartel has brought peace in Baja."

Law and Disorder

• How Terrifying Drug Raids Became A Cash Cow For America's Police
• Ohio Police Department Using Fake Drug Checkpoints—"Police in the Cleveland suburb of Mayfield Heights know they're not allowed to use checkpoints to search drivers and their cars for drugs." NYT
• Mich. farmer with 8,000 pot plants gets probation—"A southeastern Michigan farmer recovering from throat cancer was sentenced to probation instead of prison Tuesday for growing thousands of marijuana plants, due partly to many handwritten letters from supporters who described him as a modest, selfless man who helps others at every turn."
• Meet Grandpa Pot: Ray McFeters faces prison for pot, but he's still smoking—"Pot saved my life. I'll never stop smoking pot."
• A Madison dad faces deportation for smoking weed as a teenager

Police State

• Radley Balko: "Once a town gets a SWAT team you want to use it"—"America's police are beginning to look like an army, and the author says there's very little we can do about it." Salon
• Have American Police Become Militarized? NYT
• Rise of the Warrior Cop—"Is it time to reconsider the militarization of American policing?" WSJ

NSA Spying

• 'Prolific Partner': German Intelligence Used NSA Spy Program—"Angela Merkel and her ministers claim they first learned about the US government's comprehensive spying programs from press reports. But SPIEGEL has learned that German intelligence services themselves use one of the NSA's most valuable tools."
• NSA head admits the agency made "huge set of mistakes" in 2009—""The reason we use secrecy is not to hide it from the American people, not to hide it from you, but to hide it from those who walk among you who are trying to kill you."
• Glenn Greenwald: Growing Backlash Against NSA Spying Shows Why U.S. Wants to Silence Edward Snowden
• Germany should honour its debt and offer NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum
• Edward Snowden Is No Traitor—"Why treason charges against the NSA whistleblower don't hold up."
• No Warrant, No Problem: How the Government Can Get Your Digital Data
• Microsoft will "aggressively challenge" any government attempt to spy through Kinect

Tech Tracking

• Jealous of PRISM? Use "Amazon 1 Button" Chrome extension to sniff all HTTPS websites
• List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots
• Google House View (beta)

Apollo 11 anniversary, The Universe, Star Trek, Aliens, Time Travel; Surveillance and Privacy, Whistleblowers

Apollo 11 anniversary

• Amazon's Jeff Bezos confirms: We got an Apollo 11 rocket engine!
• World's first mission to the Moon's south pole announced
• House panel approves cutting NASA spending by $1.1 billion

The Universe

• The universe as you've never seen it before: Photographer creates incredible pictures of what it would look like if planets were closer
• The beauty of space photography
• Sun Primer: Why NASA Scientists Observe the Sun in Different Wavelengths
• Mars Had Oxygen-Rich Atmosphere 4 Billion Years Ago, Shows New Study
• Hubble telescope spots azure blue planet where it rains glass
• Voyager 1 Discovers Bizarre and Baffling Region at Edge of Solar System
• Milky Way's black hole pulling in gas cloud
• Astronomers Identify 514 of the Most Powerful Objects in the Universe, Have No Clue What 65 of Them Are
• Sabre rocket engine could open up access to space as never before—"A £60m pledge from the UK government puts Reaction Engines' Sabre rocket on course to change space exploration for ever."
• International team strengthens Big Bang Theory

Star Trek

• 'Star Trek' tricorder becomes the real McCoy—There's quite a bit of interest in it.
• Classic 'Star Trek' control panel gets modern facelift
• New moons of Pluto named Kerberos and Styx but popular choice Vulcan snubbed
• 38 Things We Learned from the 'Star Trek II' Commentary—"The more takes Meyer made Shatner do, the better his acting became."
• Nuclear plant spoofs 'Star Trek'

Aliens

• Canada's Former Defence Minister Claims that Aliens Are Real
• Self-replicating alien space probes could already be in our solar system, say mathematicians
• Mulder and Scully at San Diego Comic-Con: the 13 best X-Files episodes ever

Time Travel

• Blast from the Past: Why Sex With Creatures from the Future Is a Bad Idea—"When time travel finally becomes possible, we might want to think twice about getting it on. According to a new study on tiny shrimp (Artemia franciscana), sex with partners from a different time could kill you."
• Great Scott! Iranian scientist Ali Razeghi claims to have invented 'time machine' that can predict the future with 98% accuracy
• What time machine? Iranian news agency quietly deletes a report that Iran had built one.
• Time Travel in Movies
• Penny Arcade: Chronotheft

Surveillance and Privacy

• NSA Phone Snooping Cannot Be Challenged in Court, Feds Say—"The Obama administration for the first time responded to a Spygate lawsuit, telling a federal judge the wholesale vacuuming up of all phone-call metadata in the United States is in the 'public interest,' does not breach the constitutional rights of Americans and cannot be challenged in a court of law."
• Snowden be damned: Government renews US call record order—"On Friday, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) released a statement saying that its authorization to compel telephone companies to share metadata has been renewed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)."
• Why Spy on Everybody? Because "You Need the Haystack To Find the Needle," Says NSA Chief
• Security experts Bruce Schneier and Mikko Hypponen on the NSA, PRISM and why we should be worried
• Transparency Fail—"'Most transparent administration in history' releases most redacted document in history." The ACLU was looking into whether text messages are also being turned over to the government.

Whistleblowers

• Court Tells Reporter to Testify in Case of Leaked C.I.A. Data—"A federal appeals court ruled that James Risen, an author and a reporter for The New York Times, must testify against a former government official charged with giving him classified information." Goodbye freedom of the press. NYT
• Ex-CIA chief: What Edward Snowden did—Calls Greenwald a "co-conspirator."
• Journalist warns of 'explosive' news from cache Snowden leaked
• Whistleblowing Is the New Civil Disobedience: Why Edward Snowden Matters
• The US state vs whistleblowers - why Snowden is not alone
• Op-Ed: The US Whistleblower Act—"We are witnessing what one might call the unwritten US Whistleblower Act in action. It is not an Act meant to protect whistleblowers but the opposite, involving aggressive moves meant to force Russia to hand over whistleblower Snowden for prosecution."
• Manning trial: US government fails to chill whistleblowers with harsh punishments

Covering Tsarnaev; Malala; War on Terror, Security Theater, Torture and Rendition, Drones, Collateral Damage, Military Money, Israeli Settlements; Surveillance and Privacy

Covering Tsarnaev

• Rolling Stone Portrays Alleged Boston Bomber As Dreamy Teen Heartthrob
• Rolling Stone cover with Boston Bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev, aka Jahar, is good journalism
• Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Rolling Stone Cover and Cultural Self-Censorship
• Rolling Stone defends Boston bomb suspect cover
• Rolling Stone's Dzhokhar Tsarnaev cover gets parodied—Colbert weighs in. Salon
• Photos of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev released after Rolling Stone complaints
• Mass killers have always been heartthrobs—"Long before #freejahar, women swooned over the Haymarket bomber and Franz Ferdinand's assassin." Salon

Malala

• Pakistani girl shot by Taliban claims triumph over terrorists
• A Taliban Commander Writes to Malala Yousafzai
• Dear Taliban leader, thank you for your letter to Malala Yousafzai—"You were big enough to admit that your comrades tried to kill a young girl, but I would advise against picking a fight with women."

War on Terror

• Mission Creep: When Everything Is Terrorism—"NSA apologists say spying is only used for menaces like 'weapons of mass destruction' and 'terror.' But those terms have been radically redefined."
• Obama wins back the right to indefinitely detain under NDAA
• Obama's secret kill list – the disposition matrix—"The disposition matrix is a complex grid of suspected terrorists to be traced then targeted in drone strikes or captured and interrogated. And the British government appears to be colluding in it."
• The Case for Abolishing the DHS
• FBI blocks release of autopsy on Boston suspects' pal
• Police guard London mosque where thousands of Muslims gathered to condemn murder of soldier Lee Rigby—The voices of moderate Muslims denouncing extremists should grow stronger.
• Political Violence and Privilege—"Violent right-wing extremism doesn't scare Americans."

Security Theater

• TSA searches valet parked car—How dare this cow complain? If she had nothing to hide she had nothing to worry about. Giving up liberty for a false sense of security is sooo worth it.
• TSA Educating Fliers About Ramadan - Another Swing and a Miss
• TSA Expanding Expedited Screening Program at John Wayne Airport—Those who are not registered frequent flyers in one of the 5 airlines "must apply for acceptance through the Global Entry Trusted Traveler program and pay a $100 fee." So, just needs a little elbow grease.
• Get ready for 'random' screening by TSA—"An electronic device will randomly direct fliers to different screening lines to help cut down accusations of passenger-profiling by TSA staff."
• Opposed to 'security theater,' U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett seeks to limit TSA's random search authority

Torture and Rendition

• Ex-CIA Milan chief held in Panama over cleric abduction—"The cleric, known as Abu Omar, was allegedly flown to Egypt and tortured."
• Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 9/11 mastermind, allowed to build vacuum in CIA prison—"CIA handlers allowed him to tinker in the hopes he wouldn't go nuts while in a secret prison in Romania."
• The American Way of Torture: The Rule of Law Went and Never Returned
• UK provided more support for CIA rendition flights than thought – study—"The Rendition Project suggests aircraft associated with secret detention operations landed at British airports 1,622 times."
• Second 'Prisoner X' held in top secret in Israel

Drones

• The Drone that Killed my Grandson—"The government has killed a 16-year-old American boy. Shouldn't it at least have to explain why?" NYT
• It Is Now Common Knowledge That US Drones Bomb Civilian Rescuers
• U.S. Border Agency Has Considered Weaponizing Domestic Drones to "Immobilize" People—Dead people are "immobile" too, right?
• Colorado town ponders bounty for shooting down drones—"Residents would have to salvage the nose or tail to qualify for $100 reward under quixotic proposal."
• Air Force drone crash closes remote Florida highway—Feeling safer yet?

Collateral Damage

• Wounded Soldier Writes Letter About Pain And Being Forced To Commit War Crimes In Iraq . . . Then Commits Suicide
• Release the Cleared Guantanamo Detainees to End the Hunger Strike
• MIA work 'acutely dysfunctional'—"The Pentagon's effort to account for tens of thousands of Americans missing in action from foreign wars is so inept, mismanaged and wasteful that it risks descending from 'dysfunction to total failure,' according to an internal study suppressed by military officials."

Military Money

• Hagel orders 20 percent cut in Pentagon top brass, senior civilians
• Chart of the Day: "Current Military Spending Is Lapping at Historic Highs, Not Lows."
• This Is Why People Hate the Federal Government—"Sequestration is threatening our safety and security, or so Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told Congress (again)...."
• The Drone That Wouldn't Die: How a Defense Contractor Bested the Pentagon—"The Air Force was ready to drop the RQ-4B Block 30, but a Northrup Grumman lobbying campaign convinced Congress to resuscitate it."
• US Government Accountability Office: Improved controls, processes, and systems are needed for accurate and reliable financial information for the Department of Defense

Israeli Settlements

• Israel plans on approving over 900 new settlement homes in West Bank
• EU takes tougher stance on Israeli settlements—"'Earthquake' directive will prohibit EU states from signing deals with Israel unless settlement exclusion clause is include."
• EU officially publishes settlement guidelines despite Israeli objections

Surveillance and Privacy

• Homeland Security Threatens Legal Action Against Employees Who Read News About Leaks
• Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter call for transparency on NSA spying
• Google tests encryption to protect users' Drive files against government demands
• Privacy group warns against California plan for digital license plates
• New Jersey Supreme Court Restricts Police Searches of Phone Data NYT

Bullying, Educamation, Student Loans, Zero Tolerance, Religion, Think of the Children! Surveillance and Privacy

Bullying

• Agreement Reached in Lawsuit Against Indianapolis Public Schools For Failing to Protect Gay Student
• Bullied for his haircut, 9-year-old Nova Scotia boy finds 2 million supporters online
• 2 Swedish teens guilty for sex 'shaming' on Instagram

Educamation

• Rachel Jeantel's lack of literacy is a societal problem
• GOP Lawmaker In Utah Wants To End Compulsory Education In The State
• Why American Education Fails

Student Loans

• Federal student loan debt tops $1 trillion
• Warren: Profits from student loans are 'obscene'
• Report: Senators Agree on a Student Loan Deal

Zero Tolerance

• Elementary students suspended after pretending pencils were guns—"Suffolk school board revises gun policy."
• Kindergartner 'Terrorist' Suspended Over Threat to use Hello Kitty Bubble Gun
• GOP bill would defund schools with rules against playing with imaginary guns

Religion

• Prayer at a Preschool Graduation
• Crowd stunned after valedictorian rips up speech, recites Lord's prayer
• Remington Reimer, Texas Valedictorian, Cut Off By School In Middle Of Graduation Speech
• In Mississippi, a New Law Will Allow Religious Proselytizing in Public Schools
• California judge allows yoga in public schools
• Judge Rules That Public School District Had No Business Sending Expelled Students to Christian Alternative School
• Court: School Grants Violate Church, State—"Judge Rules N.H. Scholarship Plan Effectively Funds Religious Schools."

Think of the Children!

• Yearbook omission of suicide victim opens wounds
• Second grader in wheelchair pushed to side of class photo—Looks like two kids could've filled up the extra space at the end of the bleachers beside the wheelchair.
• Teacher at Catholic school loses job over ex-husband's actions—"Diocese of San Diego says it fears that the inmate, serving time for domestic abuse, could pose a threat to those at the El Cajon school after his release."
• Cops Summoned To Florida Elementary School After Girl Kisses Boy In Phys Ed Class
• Children's playground at upmarket housing development is sealed off because the equipment is TOO BRIGHT

Surveillance and Privacy

• The NSA Admits It Analyzes More People's Data Than Previously Revealed
• Lawmakers of both parties voice doubts about NSA surveillance programs—Hoping this isn't a flash in the pan.
• NSA affair: Ex-President Carter condemned U.S. snooping
• 'Sorry is not enough': Bolivia demands EU find culprits behind aerial hijack
• US surveillance becomes election issue in Germany

Queen OKs UK gay marriage; Politics, Journalism and Propaganda, North Carolina, Obstructionism, Food Stamps; Immigration, Racism; Elections 2014, Vote Machinations; Surveillance and Privacy, Blowback, Tech Tracking

Queen OKs UK gay marriage—"Gay marriage is officially legal in the UK after the Queen gave royal assent to the new laws, paving the way for the first same-sex weddings by next summer."

Politics

• Secret government: America against democracy
• The Quiet Coup: No, Not Egypt. Here.
• The Unspoken Truth: Coup d'etat in America
• Robert Reich: An Impertinent Question
• US bridges decay, while politicians focus on ribbon cutting
• Former Bush Economist Defends the 1 Percent
• Blast from the Past: Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Taking Down America

Journalism and Propaganda

• Michael Hastings Cremated, Family Never Requested; Wife Hires Private Investigator—Curiouser and scarier.
• U.S. Repeals Propaganda Ban, Spreads Government-Made News To Americans
• Billionaire Koch brothers use Web to take on media reports they dispute

North Carolina

• Total Arrests Climb to 700 as Thousands Protest GOP in North Carolina
• Why I'm Getting Arrested: A North Carolina Teacher Speaks Out
• GOP to rally in response to 'Moral Monday'
• North Carolina Lawmakers Ram Through Plan That Would Increase Taxes On Poor People
• A State for Sale—"A conservative multimillionaire has taken control in North Carolina, one of 2012's top battlegrounds."

Obstructionism

• Mitch McConnell's problem: How can he threaten to obstruct the Senate even more?
• Senate Filibuster Deal An Embarrassment For Mitch McConnell
• In the House, a Refusal to Govern NYT
• Poll: Most Blame GOP Obstruction For Gridlock, Not Obama's Lack Of Persuasion
• Here Are the 15 Bills That Have Actually Become Law So Far This Year

Food Stamps

• GOP Hypocrisy and the Farm Bill
• Who's dependent on food stamps? Cheapskate corporations
• Tea Party May Lose Food-Stamp Fight

Immigration

• Killing the Immigration Bill, Polarizing America
• GOP inaction on immigration is not a viable option
• Group opposing immigration bill plans full-scale campaign on House

Racism

• Kids not sure why Cheerios ad featuring interracial couple angered some
• 'White Hispanic' and other media creations on race
• Sen. Vivian Davis Figures: Racism has played role in Republican rise to dominance in Alabama
• Rush Limbaugh Uses N-Word On Air, Says He Can Say It Because 'It Isn't Racist' Anymore
• This Happened: CNN Panel Debates 'N-Word vs. Cracker: Which Is Worse?'—The fact that they can't objectively show the word 'nigger' says it all.

Elections 2014

• Senate Control in 2014 Increasingly Looks Like a Tossup—The GOP is poised for a takeover.
• Democrats: It's the states, stupid!—"Unless the Democrats wake up to the importance of winning state legislative elections, they are likely to remain a largely impotent minority in the House of Representatives and equally feeble in the state legislatures."
• Pennsylvania Republicans Looking to Push Out Their Governor—"Tom Corbett is one of the most unpopular politicians in the country. Now his own party is turning on him."

Vote Machinations

• New Texas voting disputes
• Voting Rights Act Decision Leaves GOP With Tough Choices
• Fla. Supreme Court won't stop redistricting challenge
• SC officials need to own up to 'zombie voter' fabrication—"Last year, Gov. Nikki Haley's DMV director made headlines when he claimed to have discovered that nearly 1,000 dead people had cast ballots in our state." They weren't dead.
• Why D.C. needs public campaign financing

Surveillance and Privacy

• 'US citizen has no right to free speech?' State Dept spokesperson grilled over Snowden
• Mainstream Amnesia: Why Silent on Snowden?
• A Secret Surveillance Program Proves Challengeable in Theory Only—"By insisting that they need not disclose whether there had been surveillance under the 2008 law, they have immunized the surveillance program from challenges under the Fourth Amendment, which bans unreasonable searches and seizure." NYT
• NSA Snooping: The War on Terror Is America's Mania
• NSA is more than just a spy network, it's global fascism
• Driving somewhere? There's a gov't record of that
• 10 Sci-Fi Stories That Predicted the Surveillance State

Blowback

• Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey—"I believe you have done the right thing in exposing what I regard as massive violation of the United States constitution."
• Rep. Justin Amash Pushing To Strip The NSA's Funding With An Amendment To The Defense Appropriations Bill
• Rep. Holt to introduce bill to repeal Patriot Act & 2008 FISA Act
• Levin: Only Way To Hold Clapper Accountable Is For President To 'Fire Him'
• NSA Sued By Unusual Coalition Of Gun Rights And Environmental Activists Over 'Dragnet Surveillance'
• Either The Solicitor General Lied To The Supreme Court, Or Senator Feinstein Lied To The Public About Warrantless Wiretapping
• Stratfor: Keeping the NSA in Perspective—"The threat posed by PRISM and other programs is not what has been done with them but rather what could happen if they are permitted to survive."

Tech Tracking

• Microsoft: Responding to government legal demands for customer data—"We believe the U.S. Constitution guarantees our freedom to share more information with the public, yet the Government is stopping us."
• Will the NSA use the Xbox One to spy on your family?—"Skype swore wiretaps weren't possible before recent reports. Is Kinect next
• A Call to Boycott U.S. Tech Platforms Over the NSA's PRISM Surveillance
• Mark Zuckerberg Runs A Giant Spy Machine In Palo Alto, California
• Okay: Now Do You Realize Why CISPA's Granting Of Broad Immunity For Companies Sharing Data With The Feds Is An Issue?

Destruction of History, Civilization, Discoveries, Egypt, UK, Stonehenge, North America, South and Central America, Europe; Surveillance and Privacy

Destruction of History

• Peru: Heavy machinery destroys Nazca lines
• 5,000-year-old pyramid destroyed in Lima—'An ancient archaeological structure has been ruined by private construction companies."
• Mayan pyramid bulldozed by Belize construction crew
• Ancient woodland in Kent to be destroyed for quarry site—"The Hermitage quarry has been given permission to extend into Oaken Wood, the subject of a fierce planning battle."
• Alabama city destroying ancient Indian mound for Sam's Club
• 'A Chinese Threat to Afghan Buddhas'—"In Afghanistan, a Chinese mining company threatens to destroy the remains of an ancient Buddhist city, which archaeologists are now racing to excavate." NYT
• Work on Guangzhou Metro Line 6 destroys five ancient tombs

Civilization

• How Beer Gave Us Civilization NYT
• Ponce De Leon Never Searched for the Fountain of Youth—"How did this myth about the Spanish explorer even get its start?"
• To improve today's concrete, do as the Romans did

Discoveries

• Ancient pills found in shipwreck offer rare insight into early medicine
• Archaeologists unearth 'breathtaking' 4,000-year-old complex at Iraqi home of Abraham
• Archeologists uncover 7,000-year-old wells
• 1000 year old coins discovered in Australia could re-write history
• Gold! $250K in centuries-old coins found
• Long-lost continent found under the Indian Ocean
• Inside Cambodia's stunning new temple discoveries

Egypt

• Study revisits mystery of Egyptian King Ramesses III's killing
• Bones and jars of the dead unearthed in 3,000-year-old Egyptian tombs
• Archaeologists uncover world's oldest port, hieroglyphic papyri
• Ancient discoveries to be extracted in Giza
• Heracleion Photos: Lost Egyptian City Revealed After 1,200 Years Under Sea

UK

• Richard III dig: DNA confirms bones are king's
• Richard III Suffered an Ignominious Burial, Researchers Find
• Roman cemetery under Leicester car park
• Builders unearth Medieval plague victims in City of London square
• London dig turns up slice of Roman life

Stonehenge

• Stonehenge may have been burial site for Stone Age elite, say archaeologists
• Stonehenge 5,000 Years Older Than Thought
• Stonehenge Revealed: Why Stones Were a "Special Place"

North America

• The Shocking Savagery of America's Early History
• War Images, Revealing and Holding Back: 'Photography and the American Civil War' at the Met NYT
• First indigenous map of its kind; U.S. map displays “Our own names and locations”
• Vatican uncovers 'first Western painting of Native Americans'
• What if people told European history like they told Native American history?

South and Central America

• Archaeologists find strange mound of sacrifice victims' skulls at field in Mexico
• 5,000 cave paintings discovered in Mexico
• Mexico unveils stone-age etchings—"Archaeologists in Mexico have catalogued thousands of etchings carved into stones that they believe were made by hunter-gatherers 6,000 years ago."
• Robot discovers three unexplored passages in 2,000-year-old tunnel near the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico
• New Evidence Unearthed for the Origins of the Maya
• Archaeologists discover lost Maya city in Mexican jungle
• Archaeologists have discovered a lost civilisation deep in the jungles of Central America
• Crystal Skulls Deemed Fake

Europe

• Extensive Ancient Underground Network Discovered From Scotland to Turkey
• Archaeologists Uncover Clues to Why Vikings Abandoned Greenland
• Pluto's 'Gate to Hell' uncovered in Turkey

Surveillance and Privacy

• Fugitive Edward Snowden trapped in Russia - Putin
• 'Join fight for privacy now!' Stallman on Snowden & how to escape surveillance
• Spy-spotter: joke about scary visit came true—"A German man who called on Facebook friends concerned about American secret service operations to join him in a walk around a US army spy centre near his home, found secret service men at his door checking his political leanings."
• Snowden leak: Microsoft added Outlook.com backdoor for Feds—"NSA praises Redmond for 'collaborative teamwork.'"
• Yahoo wins motion to declassify court documents in PRISM case—"Ruling will allow the Internet company to publicly reveal it challenged a U.S. government order to participate in the National Security Agency's controversial data collection program."

Tech History, iPhones, Ogooglebar, Law and Disorder, Streisand Effect, Tech Culture, Pr0n, Broadband, Online Streaming; Trayvon Martin; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy

Tech History

• What Doug Engelbart really achieved—He's the man behind the mouse (no, not Walt).
• A Map of the Entire Internet, 1977
• End of an era: India's 160-yr-old telegram to close
• Telephone companies to abandon land lines—"AT&T aims to disable its entire network by the end of the decade." Salon
• Verizon would end "century of regulation" by killing wireline phone, says NY AG—"AG thinks Verizon should be fined $100,000 per day for pushing wireless plans."

iPhones

• Apple iPhone 6 Release Date Nears: 11 Alleged Photos (And One Video) Of The Budget iPhone 5
• iPhones Stuck to Windshields Threaten Dashboard Maps
• Apple's iPhone loses its allure
• Apple adding 'kill switch' to iPhones—How long before some other entity can override this 'feature'?
• Stewardess electrocuted while on iPhone 5—Speaking of kill switches.

Ogooglebar

• A year after Google acquisition, Meebo bar will be killed, as team settles in with Google+
• Google to retire Chrome Frame for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, cease support and updates in January 2014
• Say Goodbye to Google Latitude, Service to be Shut Down August 9

Law and Disorder

• State Department bureau spent $630,000 on Facebook 'likes'
• US agency baffled by modern technology, destroys mice to get rid of viruses—"$170,000 of PCs, printers, keyboards, cameras, and mice destroyed in gross overreaction."
• Florida Accidentally Banned All Computers, Smart Phones In The State Through Internet Cafe Ban: Lawsuit
• Judge Orders U.S. to Release Aaron Swartz's Secret Service File
• In 'Chilling' Ruling, Chevron Granted Access to Activists' Private Internet Data
• New Argument in Forced-Decryption Case: Defendant's Memory Is Ticking Clock
• Revealed! Why the IRS is Targeting Open Source Software Groups
• Patent troll that sues public transit systems gets hauled into court
• Judge orders rapper to get Twitter etiquette lessons
• Fugitive tweets taunt to D.A., then gets caught in Mexico

Streisand Effect

• Bus company that threatened redditor with lawsuit tries to reopen suits—"Owner also sent university FOIA request to 'dox' reddit user."
• Dentist Threatens Patient Who Left Yelp Criticism With Criminal Charges
• Golden Corral Can Thank Reddit for This Bad PR Buffet

Tech Culture

• Scrubbed—"I watched online as a college classmate went from disgrace to redemption in months. That’s when I found myself deep in the world of black-ops reputation management."
• John McAfee's (insane, NSFW) tips for uninstalling McAfee—"McAfee mocks himself and his antivirus software mercilessly in a new viral video."
• The Reddit sleuths who brought down a meme empire

Pr0n

• Apple sued because its devices display porn—"A possibly optimistic lawsuit brought by a Nashville lawyer insists that all Apple products should have an antiporn filter."
• Porn blockers — not just for kids—"Adults beg Web-filtering companies to protect them from themselves, giving new meaning to 'parental controls.'" Salon
• Porn: do we really want internet providers to be our censors?—"The only way to stop online porn is to force service providers to block it – but we should be careful what we wish for."
• New site hopes to be Kickstarter for porn—"What does the launch of yet another adult crowdsourcing site mean for the porn industry?" Salon
• Why America's Outdated Morals Won't Let Porn into Mainstream Business—"A generation of innovators want to change the way we have sex and consume porn, but Google, Apple, and Amazon won't let them."
• Google bans porn on Google Glass
• Google provokes ire of 'adult' bloggers with letter threatening to delete blogs—"Search giant struggles to reassure bloggers after ambiguous letter warns it will delete some 'adult' blogs on Blogger network."

Broadband

• Gigabit Seattle priced at $80 per month, just over what Google Fiber costs
• Gigabit Internet and phone service for $48 a month? It really exists
• $20 for 768Kbps Internet? AT&T "deal" shows sad state of US broadband—"And did I mention the fees?"
• Vermont ISP delivers Google Fiber speeds for half the price
• Canadian startup OneGigabit to offer Google Fiber-like internet speeds for $45 to $65 a month

Online Streaming

• Verizon accused of intentionally slowing Netflix video streaming—"Why would Verizon intentionally disrupt Netflix video streaming for its customers? Many are pointing to the fact that Verizon owns a 50% stake in Redbox, the video rental service that contributed to the demise of Blockbuster." Verizon pooh-poohs the accusations.
• Twitch working with Time Warner Cable to improve service—"Twitch, the live-video network for gamers, has said it is currently working with US-based ISP Time Warner Cable to improve service to the site. At the same time, Time Warner Cable is assuring customers that they "don't throttle traffic."
• Cable TV execs start pushing for nationwide duopoly

Trayvon Martin

• Thousands Protest Zimmerman Verdict Across U.S NYT
• Analysis: The race factor in George Zimmerman's trial
• Attorney: Things would have been different if Zimmerman was black
• George Zimmerman trial: activists urge US officials to pursue civil rights case—"'Outraged and heartbroken' NAACP chief says death of Trayvon Martin meets benchmark for inquiry by Department of Justice."
• After Zimmerman verdict, can nation heal racial rift?
• David "The Wire" Simon on Trayvon
• Racism is every American's problem—"It's an easy punchline to blame Florida or the South for this horrible verdict. But the problem goes much deeper." Salon

NSA Spying

• Greenwald: Snowden Docs Contain NSA 'Blueprint'
• Bush-Cheney began illegal NSA spying before 9/11, says telcom CEO—"Contradicting a statement by ex-vice president Dick Cheney on Sunday that warrantless domestic surveillance might have prevented 9/11, 2007 court records indicate that the Bush-Cheney administration began such surveillance at least 7 months prior to 9/11."
• The crux of the NSA story in one phrase: 'collect it all'—"The actual story that matters is not hard to see: the NSA is attempting to collect, monitor and store all forms of human communication."
• The Snowden case, and the U.S. media: The Lockstep Followers—The self-proclaimed mainstream media has been continually trying to divert attention away from the illegal surveillance by taking personal pot-shots at Snowden and Greenwald.
• Bizarre MSNBC Open Letter to Edward Snowden: Turn Yourself In, Obama Will Treat You Well in Prison—Go fuck yourselves, MSNBC.

Surveillance and Privacy

• Control+Freedom+Delete: Do Americans realize their privacy rights have been obliterated?
• FISA court process must be unveiled
• Bills Introduced by Congress Fail to Fix Unconstitutional NSA Spying
• EU Commissioner: We Don’t Want U.S. Reading Our Mail and Listening to Our Phone Calls
• Travellers' mobile phone data seized by police at border—"Thousands of innocent holidaymakers and travellers are having their phones seized and personal data downloaded and stored by the police, The Telegraph can disclose." Here come the terrorist tourists!
• Southern Europe Is Becoming One Big Surveillance State
• Researchers hack Verizon device, turn it into mobile spy station