http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/17/us/george-zimmerman-ebay-painting/

Does he accept bitcoins?

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - Police in China said on Tuesday they had arrested about 15,000 people for crimes that "jeopardized Internet security", as the government moves to tighten controls on the Internet.

Since taking over in 2013, President Xi Jinping has led an increasingly harsh crackdown on China's Internet, which the Communist Party views with greater importance and acknowledges it needs to control, academics and researchers say.

Police have investigated 7,400 cases of cyber crime, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement on its website. It did not make clear over what period the arrests were made, but referred to a case dating to last December.

China launched a six-month program last month, code-named "Cleaning the Internet".

"For the next step, the public security organs will continue to increase their investigation and crackdown on cyber crimes," the ministry said.

The campaign would also focus on breaking major cases and destroying online criminal gangs, it added.

The sweep targeted websites providing "illegal and harmful information" besides advertisements for pornography, explosives and firearms and gambling. In total, the police said they investigated 66,000 websites.

China runs one of the world's most sophisticated online censorship mechanisms, known as the Great Firewall. Censors keep a tight grip on what can be published, particularly material that could potentially undermine the ruling Communist Party.

In February, China's internet watchdog said it would ban from March 1 internet accounts that impersonate people or organizations, and enforce the requirement for people to use their real names when registering online accounts.


http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-police-arrest-15-000-internet-crimes-124628954.html

I can see the hit job coming:

"Hey Trump! We found out you had a mistress in 1985... You can't be president!"

"What? Since 1985 I've got hundred of mistresses... Hundreds!"


http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/08/04/donald_trump_proves_you_can_t_out_trump_trump_after_gawker_publishes_his.html

Yes. I use it often when I am toying with linux distros. My old pc can handle virtual stuff easy thanks to multicore blah blah. But if you want full access to every ounce of juice of your machine, the lesser it does the better it will fly. When I turn on windows I wonder why is my drive spins that long. When you boot in linux, you are in. Done. The drive stops spinning. No more long light of drive activity like in windows when you are looking at your desktop...

"The fantastic number and variety of "updates" you are continually told to install suggests otherwise."... That is EXACTLY why I am thinking why wait for windows to do its stuff, then boot up virtualbox, then load an image, then go on bitcointalk.... Just restart and boom. No more behind the scene file collections and activities, etc...

Of course it is global. I kept the title of the original title as is.

Beside a total number of less than 5 apps on my windows machine I can do everything else on linux. I toyed around but that new windows 10 is so cool, I'll be booting into it ONLY when I need to use those apps (that can't be used on Wine). They are pushing and pushing then ask why people lose their trust in their company...

We were supposed to forget we have options. MORE options now than ever.

https://www.winehq.org/

Thank you Cartels...

We don't believe in violence, including toward cis females...

 

The Joys of Socialism=> Venezuela Currency Now Worth Less Than a Table Napkin








An image is going round that sums up just how ridiculous Venezuela's economy has become.

A Reddit user uploaded a picture on Monday of a man using a 2 bolivar note to hold an empanada.

According to Venezuela's official bolivar-dollar exchange rate, the man using his money as a napkin is wasting about $0.31 (£0.20).

But on the black market, the reality is completely different. You can get 676.88 bolivars to the dollar, according to dolartoday.com. That means holding food with a 2 bolivar note costs the holder less than a third of one US cent.

Dolartoday.com's chart shows just how the value of the bolivar has plunged, with more and more units of the Venezuelan currency required to get hold of a single dollar:

This time last year, the bolivar was far more valuable, and even as recently as May this year, you could still get hold of a dollar for less than 300 bolivars. Today, you need more than twice that.

The country has a spiralling inflation rate. Official inflation is high enough, at 68.5%, but like the official exchange rate, that paints a much rosier picture than reality. Professor Steve Hanke, who runs the "Troubled Currencies Project," a joint program between the Cato Institute and Johns Hopkins University, says in reality inflation is more like 808%.

The country is a major oil exporter, and the plunge in prices is a huge part of what's causing the crisis — as a result, the country is pegged as having the riskiest debt in the world, with the highest likelihood of a future default. Food is increasingly hard to get hold of, shop shelves are often empty, and the country's social order is deteriorating.

The country is heading into a parliamentary election in December, which will not unseat President Nicolas Maduro but could give the opposition a parliamentary majority for the first time since Venezuela's 1999 constitution came into force.


http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuelas-currency-is-now-so-worthless-that-people-are-using-it-as-napkins-2015-8?r=UK&IR=T

I thank you for using your brain to the fullest.

 

---------------------------------
Alleluiaaaa!

She was the perfect crook, with the longest con ever... Until the rodeo clown pulled the rug under her feet in 2008... Now she looks like the very rug that was under her feet...

I mean no disrespect to rugs and carpets, including the flying ones...

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/18/politics/donald-trump-presidential-poll-debate/index.html


Donald Trump has won his party's trust on top issues more than any other Republican presidential candidate, and now stands as the clear leader in the race for the GOP nomination, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.

The survey finds Trump with the support of 24% of Republican registered voters. His nearest competitor, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, stands 11 points behind at 13%. Just behind Bush, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has 9%, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker 8%, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul 6%, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former tech CEO Carly Fiorina and Ohio Gov. John Kasich all land at 5%, with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee rounding out the top 10 at 4%.

Trump is the biggest gainer in the poll, up 6 points since July according to the first nationwide CNN/ORC poll since the top candidates debated in Cleveland on Aug. 6. Carson gained 5 points and Fiorina 4 points. Trump has also boosted his favorability numbers among Republicans, 58% have a favorable view of Trump now, that figure stood at 50% in the July survey.

These nationwide findings follow recent polling in Iowa and New Hampshire showing Trump also leads the Republican field in those two key early states.


http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/18/politics/donald-trump-presidential-poll-debate/index.html

'We need to get young people off their phones and back into our bars to actually socialise or we're all going to go out of business'







Tinder is frequently blamed for the death of romance and the general decline of Western civilisation, but now something’s been added to the list of things it has apparently ruined you might not have thought of: live music.

In a Facebook post, the owner of Cherry Bar in Melbourne Australia recalled a recent conversation:

“I had an interesting chat last night at Yah Yah's with another Melbourne Promoter. We were discussing the fact that 2015 was a tough year…He posed a theory I had never heard before:

“'You've forgotten the most important factor of all. Tinder has destroyed the live music and pub scene. First, look at Grinder and the gay scene. Grindr came two years before Tinder. Commercial Road Prahran used to be a thriving late night gay hot spot. Now, it's dead as a door nail. It's over. Now we are seeing the same thing with Tinder. This is how young people "pick up" these days. I see them in the office. They're on it all the time. They're not going out to clubs and pubs to pick up anymore. They're just picking up their phones. Tinder is killing off clubs and pubs all over Melbourne and Australia. And when they take their dates out for the first time, they try to impress them with some chic dining experience, rather than a rowdy live music experience. I'm telling you, Tinder has alot to answer for. It's bleak out their for club owners. These are dark and challenging times. We need to get young people off their phones and back into our bars to actually socialise or we're all going to go out of business.’ Mind blown.”


http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/tinder-is-killing-pubs-clubs-and-live-music-venues-promoter-claims-10460225.html

Clinton Email Scandal: A Long National Nightmare Looms



Corruption: The Hillary Clinton email scandal has become the Watergate of our time. But there's a significant difference. This time, America has a chance to stop a suspected crook from taking office.

The Watergate scandal was, in the words of President Ford "a long national nightmare." A sitting president was accused of being a party to illegal activity and covering it up. Ultimately he had to resign from office, the only president to do so.

Today we have a Democratic candidate who trails scandal behind her the way a dirt cloud follows the Peanuts character Pig Pen wherever he goes.

And though she leads the second-place candidate by a wide — 32.5 points — margin, a margin so large that it seems there's no way she won't be the Democrats' nominee, she is still outside the White House.

Unless we want another long national nightmare dragging down a president, this is where she should stay.

Like Watergate, Clinton's email scandal started slowly before it became a boulder rolling downhill. Now there's a fresh revelation nearly every day. Here are some of the crucial facts known through Monday:

• Clinton had a personal email account that she used for State Department business.

• That account was based in a private server located in the Clintons' Chappaqua, N.Y., compound.

• The server was professionally wiped clean before investigators were able to obtain it.

• At least 305 emails on Clinton's private account potentially contain classified material, and it's safe to say more like them will be found.

• At least two of the emails had top secret material.

• The FBI is conducting a criminal probe into the emails.

• Clinton's former chief of staff Cheryl Mills threatened to violate a court order and delete State Department emails.

• Clinton aide Huma Abedin had an email account on the Clinton server and exchanged government emails with Clinton on their private accounts.

• Abedin has family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Given these facts, the Democrats need to ask themselves some hard questions:

• Do they want to stay behind a candidate who will be under investigation throughout the campaign?

• Do they still want to support a candidate who would start her term as president under investigation?

• Do they want to continue supporting a candidate for whom a Republican House would be drawing up articles of impeachment at the very moment she's taking the oath of office?

• Do they want a Democratic president who, after risking national security while secretary of state, shouldn't be allowed to have a security clearance?

The Democrats have the choice: They can stay with Clinton or move on to another candidate who doesn't have the scandal baggage she would empty on the Oval Office floor. That candidate is less likely to be elected, but also less likely to bring shame on the party and create a historical headache for the nation.

This really isn't a hard decision.


http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/081715-766902-democrats-can-avoid-long-national-nightmare-by-dumping-clinton.htm

Donald Trump Calls Out Mark Zuckerberg On Immigration





Donald Trump has a new target for his criticism of the nation's immigration policies - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg is one of the leading tech executives who has called for a more open immigration policy. Specifically, he wants to make more H-1B visas available to tech employers so they can hire foreign skilled workers.

Trump said he wants to require employers to pay H-1B workers much more money, which he said would discourage companies from hiring them and boost job prospects for Americans. He also wants to have tech jobs offered to unemployed Americans before they can be filled by workers with H-1B visas.

"This will improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program. Mark Zuckerberg's personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities," Trump wrote in his immigration plan. Rubio is also seeking the Republican nomination for president.

Zuckerberg started a public interest group called Fwd.us to push for immigration and lobbying reform along with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Neither Facebook (FB, Tech30) nor Fwd.us had an immediate comment on Trump's criticism of Zuckerberg.

Trump says that there are plenty of graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math, known as STEM, to fill tech jobs. That means that employers don't need H-1B visas to fill jobs, and are using them instead to keep wages low.

Employers are supposed to pay a typical wage to anyone hired under a H-1B visa. But in reality, employees on these visas are typically paid 20 to 45% less than U.S. workers who they are are often replacing, said Ron Hira, a Howard University public policy professor who has studied the visa's pay scale.

"I don't think you should eliminate the H1-B program. The problem is it's being abused and it's a source of very cheap labor," said Hira.


http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/17/news/companies/donald-trump-mark-zuckerberg-immigration/index.html

Huffington Post doubles down on decision to put Trump in entertainment section






The Huffington Post is doubling down on its decision to banish coverage of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to its entertainment section, saying it is “more committed to the decision than ever.”

Arianna Huffington’s online news outlet made news of its own last month when it declared that Trump stories were not worthy of a spot in its politics vertical, and will instead be henceforth residing in the entertainment section next to the latest exploits of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
“Our reason is simple: Trump’s campaign is a sideshow,” Huffington Post’s Washington Bureau Chief Ryan Grim and Editorial Director Danny Shea said in a post explaining the move.

When AdWeek’s TVNewser blog checked in with Grim and Shea a month later, the two doubled down on the decision with a bristling statement that charged “otherwise serious journalists” with “being seduced by Trump.”


We’re more committed to the decision than ever. Over the last month, we’ve seen our central argument proven right: that Trump is nothing more than a sideshow and not a legitimate presidential contender with serious policy ideas for moving the country forward. The GOP debate was fantastic reality TV, but it came across more like a twisted political version of “American Idol” than a presidential debate. And subsequent coverage reveals a collective media frenzy that’s embarrassing to credible media outlets – witness this weekend’s pandemonium around Trump’s helicopter at the Iowa State Fair. Otherwise serious journalists are being seduced by Trump because of his willingness to say and do outrageous things for headlines and ratings. We’re still not taking the bait.


Following last month’s announcement, Trump hit back at HuffPost, calling the site “a clown show” and a “glorified blog” that’s "pretending to be a legitimate news source."

He has yet to respond to the latest remarks.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/251319-huffington-post-doubles-down-on-decision-to-put-trump-in