http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/09/you-cant-escape-the-nsa-even-on-world-of-warcraft-and-xbox-live/Spycraft ain’t like it used to be.



In its efforts to keep track of as much information about potential terrorists as possible, the National Security Agency couldn’t afford to ignore a new social movement: online games.

The NSA, along with British intelligence agency GCHQ, developed extensive methods to track gamers on World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Microsoft’s Xbox Live network, the Guardian reports today based on documents leaked by former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden.

In a 2008 document titled “Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual Environments,” the agency noted the dangers of leaving the online networks unmonitered. The plan isn’t entirely crazy: Gamers have the ability to send private messages and voice chat across most online games and services. And if potential terrorists were worried about their email or phone communications being tapped, they may find other ways to communicate similarly.

As the Guardian explains, the NSA developed “mass-collection capabilities” for Microsoft’s Xbox Live network, the platform for online gaming on the Xbox 360 console. The agency also sent undercover agents to other online games, like World of Warcraft, and attempted to recruit users within those worlds as informants.

There’s no sign any of this surveillance led to actionable data, at least judging from the leaked document. It’s also unclear if the companies running these online games and services were aware of the surveillance. World of Warcraft producer Blizzard Entertainment told the Guardian that it hasn’t been contacted by any spy agency. Microsoft and Second Life developer Linden Labs, on the other hand, declined to comment. (It certainly would have been tough for the NSA to create mass-collection tools for Xbox Live without Microsoft’s permission.)

Another impact of "green energy" on Mother Nature? Gigantic solar panels migrating birds believe to be water from above then try to land on them.
http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/are-big-desert-solar-farms-killing-birds

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/12/Oops-Solar-Energy-Plants-are-Killing-Rare-birds

Some animal rights activists are wondering just how many birds green energy may unintentionally kill as more and more birds turn up dead at solar energy facilities throughout California.
A recent article by Vice author Lex Berko notes that dead birds are being found with "singed wings" around several California solar energy facilities.
It happens that many of California's solar plants are, the article claims, in the path of "the four major north-to-south trajectories for migratory birds" called "the Pacific Flyway."
Birds are dying in one of two ways. In some cases, they imagine the shining solar panels to be bodies of water and dive straight into them. There they die when they smash into the panels from the sky.
Others "feel the wrath of the harnessed sunlight." The ultra polished solar mirrors bounce sunrays strong enough to burn the feathers off birds that quickly crash to the ground, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Many of the fowl dying as a result of their unfortunate flight paths over solar facilities are birds protected by the federal government under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Eric Davis of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently told a reporter from The Desert Sun that the feds are "waiting" for more information about these bird deaths.
"Bird migration studies have to wait for bird migrations," Davis said. "It's not like we're going to have the answers in two weeks. This is going to be months and years of trying to better understand the problem and then make better management decisions as we gain more scientific understanding."
There are also thousands of birds killed by wind turbine farms throughout the country. This means that untold numbers of birds, some of them protected species, are being killed by green energy.

Bio diesel / ethanol have a much more devastating impact on the environment that fracking:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=244663902&sc=tw&cc=share

CORYDON, Iowa (AP) — The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America's push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply.

Even the cemetery that disappeared like an apparition into a cornfield.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

With the Iowa political caucuses on the horizon in 2007, presidential candidate Barack Obama made homegrown corn a centerpiece of his plan to slow global warming. And when President George W. Bush signed a law that year requiring oil companies to add billions of gallons of ethanol to their gasoline each year, Bush predicted it would make the country "stronger, cleaner and more secure."

But the ethanol era has proven far more damaging to the environment than politicians promised and much worse than the government admits today.

As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies, an Associated Press investigation found.

Five million acres of land set aside for conservation — more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite National Parks combined — have vanished on Obama's watch.


Wind energy kills 100 000 of birds each year. So much so pres obama signed a pass on killing bold eagles for the next 30 years.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-gives-wind-farms-pass-on-killing-eagles/

The Obama administration said Friday it will allow some companies to kill or injure bald and golden eagles for up to 30 years without penalty, an effort to spur development and investment in green energy while balancing its environmental consequences.

The change, requested by the wind energy industry, will provide legal protection for the lifespan of wind farms and other projects for which companies obtain a permit and make efforts to avoid killing the birds.

An investigation by The Associated Press earlier this year documented the illegal killing of eagles around wind farms, the Obama administration’s reluctance to prosecute such cases and its willingness to help keep the scope of the eagle deaths secret. The White House has championed wind power, a pollution-free energy intended to ease global warming, as a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s energy plan.

What is the official position of the EPA regarding the risk of fracking and pollution? (hint: not a scientific position, but a political position)

http://rt.com/usa/epa-fracking-study-water-pollution-073/

The US Environmental Protection Agency has dropped its plans to further investigate whether or not fracking led to the contamination of a Wyoming aquifer, and the agency no longer plans to write a report on the matter.

The EPA in 2011 released a draft report, which revealed that hydraulic fracturing fluids used at a shale gas drilling site had likely contaminated groundwater in Pavillion, Wyoming. Oil and gas companies have long argued that fracking poses no water contamination risks, but the EPA’s results demonstrated otherwise.

Critics of the findings, including Wyoming state officials and drilling advocates, argued that the EPA conducted a poor and inaccurate study, which could ultimately harm the industry. Despite the initial wave of criticism in 2011, EPA officials planned to resume the study and continue making assessments regarding the influence of fracking on groundwater. But the EPA on Thursday abandoned those plans, announcing that state officials will instead take over the investigation into Pavillion’s water pollution and draw up a conclusion in 2014.

http://www.psmag.com/environment/has-the-epa-given-up-on-fracking-63672/

When the Environmental Protection Agency abruptly retreated on its multimillion-dollar investigation into water contamination in a central Wyoming natural gas field last month, it shocked environmentalists and energy industry supporters alike.

This case is a bit different. This is a clear political move BUT, again "Written by an active duty Lt. Colonel in the United States Army". He is supposed to swear to defend the Constitution. Once a civilian he can say whatever he wants against it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5amu536rZWY

http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/08/msnbc-host-equates-obamacare-with-n-word/

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry suggested the term “Obamacare” and the N-word are interchangeable, claiming both were “conceived by a group of wealthy white men who needed to . . . render [a black man] inferior and unequal and diminish his accomplishments.”

HARRIS-PERRY: “I want to talk today about a controversial word. It’s a word that has been with us for years. And like it or not, it’s indelibly printed in the pages of American history. A word that was originally intended as a derogatory term, meant to shame and divide and demean. The word was conceived of by a group of wealthy white men who needed a way to put themselves above and apart from a black man, to render him inferior and unequal and diminish his accomplishments.

“President Obama has been labelled with this word by his opponents, and at first he rose above it, hoping that if he could just make a cause for what he’d achieved, his opponents would fail in making their label stick. But no matter how many successes that he had as president, he realized there were still many people for whom he’d never be anything more than that one disparaging word — a belief he knew was held not just by his political opponents, but also by a significant portion of the American electorate.

“And so he decided if you can’t beat them, you’ve got to join them. So he embraced the word and made it his own, sending his opposition a message they weren’t expecting: ‘If that’s what you want me to be, I’ll be that.’

“Y’all know the word that I’m talking about. Obamacare! That’s right! I said it and I’m not ashamed, and neither is President Obama!”

--------------------------------------------

This is what the American Pravda looks like my dear comrades 
 

People from Argentina are running away to Uruguay.... The country is booming. I would go their now and enjoy the next 20 years until the next generation starts wearing Che T Shirts. No country is amazing for a long time. Use the Che T Shirt matrix system to know when it is time to split

Written by an active duty Lt. Colonel in the United States Army




http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/bateman-on-guns-120313


I am adding the following “Gun Plank” to the Bateman-Pierce platform. Here are some suggestions:

1. The only guns permitted will be the following:
a. Smoothbore or Rifled muzzle-loading blackpowder muskets. No 7-11 in history has ever been held up with one of these.
b. Double-barrel breech-loading shotguns. Hunting with these is valid.
c. Bolt-action rifles with a magazine capacity no greater than five rounds. Like I said, hunting is valid. But if you cannot bring down a defenseless deer in under five rounds, then you have no fking reason to be holding a killing tool in the first place.

2. We will pry your gun from your cold, dead, fingers. That is because I am willing to wait until you die, hopefully of natural causes. Guns, except for the three approved categories, cannot be inherited. When you die your weapons must be turned into the local police department, which will then destroy them. (Weapons of historical significance will be de-milled, but may be preserved.)

3. Police departments are no longer allowed to sell or auction weapons used in crimes after the cases have been closed. (That will piss off some cops, since they really need this money. But you know what they need more? Less violence and death. By continuing the process of weapon recirculation, they are only making their jobs — or the jobs of some other cops — harder.)

4. We will submit a new tax on ammunition. In the first two years it will be 400 percent of the current retail cost of that type of ammunition. (Exemptions for the ammo used by the approved weapons.) Thereafter it will increase by 20 percent per year.

5. We will initiate a nationwide “buy-back” program, effective immediately, with the payouts coming from the DoD budget. This buy-back program will start purchasing weapons at 200 percent of their face value the first year, 150 percent the second year, 100 percent the third year. Thereafter there will be a 10 year pause, at which point the guns can be sold to the government at 10 percent of their value for the next 50 years.

6. The major gun manufactures of the United States, less those who create weapons for the federal government and the armed forces, will be bought out by the United States of America, for our own damned good.

Isn't this BitPay's problems? They've been doing this for a while now.

http://gizmodo.com/tiny-kentucky-town-agrees-to-pay-only-police-officer-in-1476739266?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29


The city of Vicco, Kentucky, has has just a few hundred people. It only recently got its own police officer. And, now, that officer, Police Chief Tony Vaughn, will be the first in the country to be paid in Bitcoin. Because I guess good old fashioned U.S. dollars aren't even good enough for government employees anymore.

You might've actually heard of Vicco before, because the itty bitty city enacted a ban on sexual orientation-based discrimination, which isn't what people usually expect from a tiny town. That's great, but the new measure is just weird. The Hazard Herald reports that after formally requesting his paycheck in Bitcoin before the city commission, officials took a month to "do their homework" before approving the measure earlier this week. They're pretty sure its legal. In order to fullfill the request, the city will need a Bitcoin wallet it can use to pay Chief Vaughn in electronic currency. All of his taxes and other deductions will be taken out before he gets paid.

Business Insider got in touch with Mr. Vaughn who's not very optimistic about the prospects for American currency—especially for someone whose job it is to uphold the law:

"I pretty much think it will eventually take over," he said, "or I hope it does."

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/12/fbi-surveillance-malware-in-bomb-threat-case-tests-constitional-limits/


The FBI has an elite hacker team that creates customized malware to identify or monitor high-value suspects who are adept at covering their tracks online, according to a published report.

The growing sophistication of the spyware—which has the capability to remotely activate video cameras and report users' geographic locations—is pushing the boundaries of constitutional limits on searches and seizures, The Washington Post reported in an article published Friday. Critics compare it to a physical search that indiscriminately seizes the entire contents of a home, rather than just those items linked to a suspected crime. Former US officials said the FBI uses the technique sparingly, in part to prevent it from being widely known.

The 2,000-word article recounts an FBI hunt for "Mo," a man who made a series of threats by e-mail, video chat, and an Internet voice service to detonate bombs at universities, airports, and hotels across a wide swath of the US last year. After tracing phone numbers and checking IP addresses used to access accounts, investigators were no closer to knowing who the man was or even where in the world he was located. Then, officials tried something new.

"The FBI’s elite hacker team designed a piece of malicious software that was to be delivered secretly when Mo signed onto his Yahoo e-mail account, from any computer anywhere in the world, according to the documents," reporters Craig Timberg and Ellen Nakashima wrote. "The goal of the software was to gather a range of information—Web sites he had visited and indicators of the location of the computer—that would allow investigators to find Mo and tie him to the bomb threats."

...her



http://washingtonexaminer.com/elizabeth-warren-threatens-companies-she-suspects-of-funding-public-criticism-of-her/article/2540207


I’m generally for more disclosure in campaign finance, but the best argument against requiring full disclosure by groups engaged in political speech is that politicians sometimes retaliate against their critics. Sen. Elizabeth Warren inadvertently made that very argument this week.

As told by Ben White at Politico, a group called “Third Way” criticized Warren. Warren apparently suspected that Third Way’s criticism of her was funded by banks. So she wrote a letter to bank CEOs demanding they disclose which political groups they’re funding.

Warren sits on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. She’s basically telling the entities whose livelihood her committee controls to stop criticizing her. This is bullying — and it’s the best argument for allowing companies and individuals to anonymously criticize politicians.

Yes but that is not reality. It should not matter if you are a teacher for high schoolers and write "I love porn" on your resume, next to "growing my own vegetable". But it will impact your interview.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/it-pro-says-he-threw-out-7500-bitcoins-now-worth-7-5-million/


Many people have a tale of a lost or broken hard drive containing some bit of precious data they wish they could recover. But perhaps no one on the planet has thrown out a hard drive as valuable as the one James Howells says is now buried in a landfill.

According to an article in The Guardian today, Howells threw out the hard drive, "rescued from a defunct Dell laptop," this past summer. "And then last Friday he realised that it held a digital wallet with 7,500 Bitcoins created for almost nothing in 2009," the story notes.

Howells, an IT pro, says his mistake likely occurred in mid-July, at which time a single bitcoin was worth about $90. Today, the value of a single bitcoin passed $1,000 for the first time, making 7,500 bitcoins worth $7.5 million.

I feel your pain 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/29/us-venezuela-economy-idUSBRE9AS0RM20131129

(Reuters) - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said a stricter wave of inspections for suspected price-gouging would begin on Saturday in an aggressive pre-election "economic offensive" aimed at taming the highest inflation in the Americas.

"We're not joking, we're defending the rights of the majority, their economic freedom," Maduro said on Friday, alleging price irregularities were found in nearly 99 percent of 1,705 businesses inspected so far this month.

Maduro, who has staked his presidency on preserving the legacy of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, launched a theatrical - and often televised - wave of inspections this month to force companies to reduce prices.

He says "capitalist parasites" are trying to wreck Venezuela's economy and force him from office.

Opponents scoff at the measures as cheap and short-term populism that is hiding the failure of Venezuela's socialist economic model and intended to win votes at an upcoming poll.

Economic problems, including inflation running at an annual 54 percent and shortages of basic products, have been Maduro's biggest challenge since taking office in April.

"The inspections are continuing daily and have let us see into the under-world of capitalism," Maduro said in his latest speech to the nation, warning of severe sanctions starting Saturday against businesses maintaining unjustifiably high prices.

Government officials say companies have been marking up prices by as much as 1,000 percent over cost, though many retailers say they have been forced to hike prices sharply due to lack of access to foreign currency at the official rate.

The government has given a plethora of different figures on the inspections, with Maduro saying 100 retailers have been arrested but his chief prosecutor putting that at around 30.

"The government is seeking to transfer the political cost of the crisis to a third party (the businesses), while trying to give the impression it is attacking the problem," said Henkel Garcia, of local financial think-tank Econometrica.

LIMITS ON RENTS

Maduro also announced on Friday a new decree to limit monthly rents for commercial properties, to 250 bolivars ($40) per square meter, in a bid to reduce costs passed to consumers.

And in another populist move, the president said interest rates for savers on low incomes would be hiked to 16 percent, from 12.5 percent currently.

"This is just a first step to reward savers," Maduro said.

The leader of Venezuela's main business group Fedecamaras, Jorge Roig, said this week the government's erroneous economic policies and excessive controls risk setting up the nation for a dire 2014 of shortages and stagnation.

Wall Street analysts expect growth of 1 percent to 1.5 percent this year. The government has backed off its official target of 6 percent, but has not provided a new figure.

Roig accused policymakers of "improvisation" in the face of growing economic distortions and insisted that businesses nationalized in the Chavez era were operating at half capacity, while only 2 percent of expropriated land was productive.

"Mr. Jorge Roig, you have just declared economic war on the country," Maduro retorted on Friday, using the same combative tone and accusations against private enterprise common during Chavez's 14-year rule of the South American OPEC nations.

Having narrowly beaten opposition candidate Henrique Capriles to win April's presidential vote, Maduro and his supporters are gearing up for a new test at the polls with nationwide municipal elections on December 8.

The opposition is painting the vote as a referendum on Maduro's record, but any voter backlash over the economic problems may be tempered by his recent populist measures.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/4903fc9a-591f-11e3-a7cb-00144feabdc0.html


The tiny Channel Island of Alderney is launching an audacious bid to become the first jurisdiction to mint physical Bitcoins, amid a global race to capitalise on the booming virtual currency.
The three-mile long British crown dependency has been working on plans to issue physical Bitcoins in partnership with the UK’s Royal Mint since the summer, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.

It wants to launch itself as the first international centre for Bitcoin transactions by setting up a cluster of services that are compliant with anti-money laundering rules, including exchanges, payment services and a Bitcoin storage vault.
The special Bitcoin would be part of the Royal Mint’s commemorative collection, which includes limited edition coins and stamps that are normally bought by collectors. It would have a gold content – a figure of £500-worth has been proposed – so that holders could conceivably melt and sell the metal if the exchange value of the currency were to collapse.
The hype surrounding Bitcoin has escalated in recent months and its market value has rocketed; the price of a single Bitcoin hit a new peak of $1,242 on Friday on the Mt Gox exchange, established in Tokyo in 2009 as a trading card exchange.
Critics warn of a speculative bubble although its proponents believe that the currency could be widely adopted as a method of making payments outside the traditional banking system. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, and other government officials around the world have said virtual currencies could have benefits if they can be regulated to prevent money laundering.
In depth

Bitcoin
Bitcoin
Increased trading in the decentralised virtual currency has begun to attract the attention of regulators
Holders of the Alderney Bitcoin would not be able to spend it in stores but would be able to exchange it for a virtual Bitcoin by travelling to the island.
Alderney hopes that by minting the first physical Bitcoin it will raise its profile as the “go-to” destination for the virtual currency, as it seeks to expand its offshore credentials beyond the online gambling sector.
David Janczewski, head of new business at the Royal Mint confirmed it had been approached by the finance minister of Alderney to “explore the possibility of manufacturing a physical commemorative coin with a Bitcoin theme”.
“Discussions have not progressed further and at this stage it remains nothing more than a concept,” he added.
But the controversy around Bitcoin has made the Alderney plan a sensitive subject. The Treasury, which owns the Royal Mint, declined to comment on the plans. George Osborne, the British chancellor, also holds the title of Master of the Mint.
The plans have been steered by chairman of the island’s finance committee, and are understood to have the support of Alderney’s president, although they still need to be approved by the island’s 10-member parliament.
A number of private companies have produced physical Bitcoins, although they are not backed by an official mint. Instead they feature a holographic strip, which is peeled off to reveal the private key then redeemed online.
How would Alderney’s plan work?
An independent company will provide the Bitcoins. If the price plunged, neither Alderney nor the Royal Mint would lose anything.
The company would put the Bitcoins in an escrow account at an agreed price.
Meanwhile, the Royal Mint would take customers’ orders for its minted Bitcoins and receive money from those coin sales.
The virtual Bitcoins backing the physical coins would be held in digital storage facilities by Alderney.
The Mint would issue the commemorative Bitcoin, paying for the value of the gold content itself. Alderney would receive royalties from sales of the coins.
Coins could be redeemed for sterling at any point in Alderney for the price of a Bitcoin on that day.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/gulfnews/522976-women-driver-ban-guards-against-evil-says-top-saudi-cleric


The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia said a ban on women driving in the conservative Gulf state protects society from “evil,” in remarks published in the press on Thursday.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, in a speech delivered Wednesday in the western city of Medina, said the issue of giving women the right to drive should not be “one of society’s major concerns.”

The kingdom’s most senior cleric called for “the matter to be considered from the perspective of protecting society from evil” which, according to him, included letting women drive.

His comments came as activists said they had been assured by Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef that authorities were reassessing the controversial Saudi ban on women drivers.

“Rest assured that the issue is being discussed, and expect a good outcome,” the minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday by Aziza al-Yusef, who met him along with fellow activist Hala al-Dosari.

The absolute monarchy is the only country in the world where women are barred from driving, a regulation that has drawn condemnation from the international community.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/cancer-patient-who-spoke-out-against-obamacare-now-being-audited/


Bill Elliot was a cancer patient who lost his insurance due to ObamaCare and couldn’t pay the expensive new premiums. He was talking about paying the ObamaCare fine, going without health insurance and “letting nature take its course.”

He went on FOX News where his story was picked up by C. Steven Tucker, a health insurance broker who helped him keep his insurance.

Now suddenly Bill Elliot is being audited for 2009 with an interview only scheduled in April 2014. Assuming he lives that long. That might be a coincidence, but Tucker is being audited back to 2003.

That’s a rather strange coincidence.

This is not what it is about. This is a weapon to shut you up. I give you an example. Let's say you are a journalist, you have access to the WH and love porn. The WH knows about your porn habit. What would happen if a government faceless dude comes to you and say "Drop that article about the president next week or..."

I am stuffed! Too much turkey, but that stuffing was killer. And that rosé from France. What a nice touch.

Anyway.

So hmm. Yes. Taxes. So while I was stuffing my face earlier I was thinking about how we should find a way to make taxes as fun as bitcoin. Bitcoin is fun. It is exciting. Why is paying taxes not? Then, just when I was dropping my turkey leg I thought: "Why not have taxes on a ledger, visible for all to see? No one will know who is paying what, etc. But the people paying taxes would know exactly to the cent where it is going and how the machine of government is working. Call it, I don't know "The Most Transparent Government Ever!" T.M.T.G.E Machine for all to see.

The thing about the public sector is when you work for the State you will make sure the laws are not going to apply to you the same as everyone else. It is not a public sector problem, it is human nature. You will find a lobby that will fight to prove you need what you say you need because. That's it.