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Netflix To Start Running Advertisements On Shows And Movies

Netflix claimed on Monday its just “experimenting” with ads that run both before and after every episode and video. The company claims its a test but if the data is good the company will likely roll this out to all users in the coming months.

For now, the company is copying the HBO model of running teasers for its own original programming. Netflix swears up and down that it will never run third party ads and instead just pitch its shows like Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards, but if the money’s right it wouldn’t be out of this world for Netflix to go down that path.

Interruption ads, especially as users binge-watch show after show, are very lucrative. When combined with a cable-like monthly fee, which Netflix already charges, the numbers start getting close to what cable companies make presently. They’ve long been chasing this number but have thus far not found a model to get there.

In addition to running interruption ads Netflix has the ability to deliver much more targeted ads, which command higher rates, than a standard cable company. Netflix, in addition to having a detailed history of what you watch, also knows your location, demographic and browsing history. Its data is unparalleled meaning, combined with interruption ads, it would command the highest rates possible for video advertising.

“We are running a test to show some of our original programming,” a Netflix spokesperson told reporters. “As with any Netflix product test, this may never come to all our members.”

Thus far feedback on Twitter has been negative, with numerous tweets complaining about the ads

“Internet TV is divorced of the need of advertising revenue because we can develop direct relationships with the consumer,” Netflix chief product officer Neil Hunt told reporters last year. Marketers should “find a different place to advertise,” he added.

Make no mistake, if the data is good, meaning the subscribers tolerate some ads, you’ll start seeing them on Netflix more often.

U.S. Military Sent Live Anthrax To Canada, New Reports Confirm

The U.S. military’s live anthrax scandal widened on Tuesday as USA Today reports that more samples were shipped to three laboratories in Canada by a U.S. military lab. The news comes in the wake of last week’s disclosures that samples of the bacteria were mistakenly sent to 11 U.S. states and two other countries.

Two U.S. Defence Department officials, who wished to remain anonymous, said the samples sent to Canada came from the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, which is where the other samples in the case appear to trace back to as well.

The lab is responsible for inactivation and shipping of biological material commonly used in weapons.

Yet a Pentagon spokesperson said late Monday that the Pentagon had nothing to announce about the anthrax shipments.

So far reports have confirmed that 11 states had received “suspect samples,” as did Australia and a U.S. air base in South Korea.

The military has ordered a sweeping review of the procedure used to inactivate the deadly bacteria.

All laboratories have been ordered to stop working with any “inactive” samples sent from the Defence Department, pending the outcome of the investigation.

Bio-safety experts are astonished by the lapse.

“These events shouldn’t happen,” Stephen Morse of Columbia University, who was formerly a program manager for bio-defense at the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, said last week.

Those working with dangerous pathogens have a “two-person rule,” never handling samples alone. The second pair of eyes should insure scientists take proper precautions during handling and experiments.

“We can put greater safeguards in place,” Mr. Morse said.

Lego Launches Surprise Video Game Based On Minecraft

Children’s toy Lego has increasingly expanded its empire of physical toys, doing collaborations with Batman, Jurassic Park and even video game company Minecraft.

But apparently Lego wants more and yesterday it announced its own video game, which is very similar to Minecraft. Lego Worlds is now available through popular game platform Steam’s ‘early access’ program. So while the release amounts to a paid beta program where you can purchase games still in development.

Its also the same model Minecraft used to launch its hyper-successful game.

And just like Minecraft, Lego’s game features worlds where players modify their surroundings to create whatever they like. The big difference is that in the Lego game those worlds are made of Lego’s famous bricks.

“Lego Worlds enables you to populate your worlds with many weird and wonderful characters, creatures, models, and driveable vehicles, and then play out your own unique adventures,” the game’s page explains.

The full and final version of Worlds is expected to launch early next year, with some key additions. These are reported to include social features like online multiplayer and the ability to share your in-game creations.

“We want to ensure that we provide it with the utmost care and attention as we expand on our ideas,” Lego said of the latest release.

$400 Surprise Expense Is Enough To Plunge 47% Of American Households Into Financial Emergency

There’s a raging debate among economists and investors about just how well the U.S. economy is doing. Labor force participation is at all-time lows, so while employment stats look OK, many people have just given up and aren’t even searching anymore.

The latest piece of data to suggest that things are not particularly rosy in the U.S. economy is the frightening findings contained in the Federal Reserve’s Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2014.

IT found that “forty-seven percent of respondents say they either could not cover an emergency expense costing $400, or would cover it by selling something or borrowing money.”

While Americans may be feeling better about their finances, as some recent surveys seem to indicate, the statistic that a mere $400 expense would plunge an average household into chaos shows just how under-capitalized American households are. A $400 surprise expense, the survey found, would have to be covered by either liquidating assets or taking out a loan.

“Even prior to the [Great Recession], and more acutely after the recession, it’s true, American households are vulnerable,” said Gregory B. Mills, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, concerning the report. “Depending upon the measure you use, somewhere between one-third and one-half of households are at great risk—as in, they would be unable to fend off hardship.”

Mills sees something even more disturbing than households not having enough savings. The number of households using alternative financial services are on the rise, as we’ve profiled here, meaning that Americans are turning to non-bank lenders for credit: payday loans, peer to peer lending, refund-anticipation loans, pawnshops, and rent-to-own services.

According to an Urban Institute report, the number of households that used such credit products increased 7 percent between 2011 and 2013. That’s an increase of about 750,000 households total and a significant figure for an economy in recovery.

Families that are seeking credit aren’t finding it in mainstream financial institutions. “You used to be able to get small loans for reasonable rates, below 36 percent,” Mills says. “That’s what’s opened the door for more predatory products.”

The type of household seeking alternative financing is also changing.

According to Mills’s research, households looking for non-bank credit with incomes above $30,000 increased from 42 to 48 percent between 2011 and 2013, while those making more than $75,000 increased from 7 to 11 percent over the time period.
“People who are in these [non-bank] situations are not using these forms of credit to simply overcome an emergency, but are using them for basic living experiences,” Mills says.

“Nearly a third of respondents went without some medical treatment in the past year because they could not afford it.”

Late this summer, over 7.5 million Americans will find out whether they will get to keep their healthcare policies.

Here’s hoping most of them do.

Russia Joins The Spy On Your Citizens Party With Backdoored Russian Made Smartphone

In Russia at least they’re honest that the government is spying on you. While our NSA performs legal acrobatics to convince the American public they’re abiding by the law when in fact they are not, the Russians don’t mince words.

When state company Rostech Corp unveiled the YotaPhone this week, company CEO Sergey Chemezov made a surprising admission. “The FSB will have access [to users’ information]. We don’t have the right to sell phones on the market in any other way – otherwise, the devices could be used by terrorists, criminals,” said Chemezov.

The FSB is the equivalent of our NSA. In Russia, however, at least they admit every phone they sell contains a backdoor. Here in America, it takes security researchers to discover what the NSA is up to, like its plan to backdoor the Google and Apple App Stores.

Like a good tech CEO, Chemezov didn’t miss the opportunity of trashing the competition, claiming the iPhone has become ‘the choice of terrorists’.

So get ready – Chemezov promised that the third version of the YotaPhone is coming in February 2016, and a more affordable version of the YotaPhone to hit shelves around Christmas of 2016.

Silicon Scammer Ellen Pao Appeals Her Loss In Court

Conniving Silicon Valley scammer Ellen Pao is still going for the money. The supposed female rights advocate, and current Reddit CEO, will appeal the result of a gender discrimination lawsuit she brought against the powerful Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, according to a court document filed on Monday.

In March, a San Francisco jury cleared Kleiner Perkins of claims it stalled Pao’s career because she is a woman, instead finding that Pao and her husband hatched an elaborate plan to sue KPCB after Pao’s plan to sleep and blackmail her way to the top of the firm failed.

Pao was described by partners as a decidedly average investor with poor skills at dealing with portfolio companies, which was the reason her career did not advanced. Pao had been receiving increasingly negative performance reviews at the time she sought a promotion.

Yet Ms. Pao’s brazen, and vocal, attempt to publicly extort the firm has sparked a wide discussion about gender at the center of the U.S. technology industry.

Kleiner spokeswoman Christina Lee stated: “We remain committed to gender diversity in the workplace and believe that women in technology would be best served by focusing on this issue outside of continued litigation.”

Currently the venture capital firm is seeking to recover about $973,000 of its litigation costs, while Pao’s lawyers argue, for some bizarre reason, that she should not have to pay.

A hearing on costs is set for later this month.

Kleiner has generously offered to withdraw its costs request in exchange for an end to the case, which is common when defendants prevail in employment lawsuits.

For more on the full details of Pao’s extortion plot, see our coverage here.

French Unemployment Surges To Record Highs

Whatever it is that France and or Europe is doing, it isn’t working. Despite numerous promises by the socialist Hollande government, French unemployment has risen non-stop for 4 years. It also just an all-time record record high in April, with 3.53 million people out of work. 20,000 new people were jobless from the month of March.

The news is likely a death blow to the government of President Francois Hollande, who has pledged to step aside in 2017 if he is unable to reverse the upward trend in unemployment.

While quarterly growth rose to .6 percent, the second highest in the EU, the labor ministry warned: “We will need a few months before the economic pick-up translates into jobs.”

Clearly. It may be more than a year before even a dent is put into the latest figures.

Since Hollande was elected over three years ago, on the back of a socialist agenda, he has seen the monthly unemployment figures decline only four times and 600,000 more jobseekers have been added.

More concerning is that the percentage of long-term unemployed has grown by more than 10 percent in a year.

The terrible numbers have meant terrible numbers at the polls. Marin Le Pen’s Front National Party is both leading in the polls, and pushing for an EU in/out referendum.

Forget About China, India Is About To Go On A Tear

Those in the know about China often state that the country will grow old before it grows rich. Its corrupt communist leaders, aging population and maturing state of development mean the rapid growth it has enjoyed over the last ten years has come to an end.

But in an age of rapid development in formerly third world economies there is always someone ready to take over the engine of world growth.

As China falters, India is poised to blossom.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has begun to spend on road and rail building, starting much needed investment that has been put off for some time.

By doubling spending on roads and bridges in fiscal 2015/16, and raising the rail budget by a third, India is about to go a whole lot faster.

“They have acknowledged that infrastructure is the big elephant in the room,” said Vinayak Chatterjee, head of infrastructure company Feedback Infra.

“Once these measures are implemented, the elephant would start dancing, and with it the overall economy.”

Modi’s chief economic advisor, Arvind Subramanian, forecasts the investments will grow the economy more than one percentage point this year.

With last Friday’s data showing an economy growing at 7.5 percent last quarter the latest government spending could push growth to nearly nine percent. That’s well ahead of China.

Yet the key risk is whether various government ministries will actually spend the extra $11 billion they’ve been allocated for infrastructure this year. While they seem on-pace to do this, its a lot of money that needs to be spent in a short period of time.

To help with this allocation the government has prioritized infrastructure projects that have been planned but shelved due to bureaucracy, a lack of matching private sector investment, or litigation.

The government has recently eased rules for the private sector, and allowed financially stressed companies holding up projects to exit them without penalties.

The government is stepping up in their place to make things happen.

It will also ensure all public tenders have all approvals secured in a move that addresses a major reason why so many projects remain stalled.

As a result of the measures and spending, Modi’s government hopes road building will reach 19 miles a day by the end of next year from 7.5 miles presently. To help get there it plans to award projects for 6,300 miles of road this year, up a whopping 25 percent from last year.

While there are obviously issues to contend with in deploying this amount of money in such a short time and on such complex projects, India’s future is bright. With a young population and dynamic new leadership the country is set to finally launch.

Canadian Province Considers Removing Gender From Its Birth Certificates

As Bruce Jenner shows the world that the idea of gender may be more fluid than most assume, up in Canada the Human Rights Tribunal in British Columbia will consider removing gender designations from birth certificates. The moves comes in response to a complaint from the Trans Alliance Society (TAS) and a few other affected parties, according to media reports.

“We need to stop acting as if doctors can tell the sex of a baby just by looking at the baby’s genitals: Birth certificates [can] give false information about people and characterize them in a way that is actually wrong, that assumes to be right, and causes people actual harm,” said transgender woman and TAS chair Morgane Oger. “It’s considered true and infallible when it isn’t,” she added.

The lawyer representing the group, Barbara Findlay said that the current practice of putting “male” or “female” on birth certificates is incorrect because those are not the only two genders and that a person’s “gender develops” over time.

“Children are raised ‘as’ the birth-assigned gender, which is a crazy-making experience,” Findlay said via e-mail. “Instead of living in a social reality that recognizes that gender develops, and does not exist at birth, those children have nothing to work with except that something feels profoundly wrong,” she added.

Among the other complainants are Colin and Megan Cunningham, the parents of Harriette Cunningham, a transgender child who became one of the first in British Columbia to have her birth certificate changed last year.

The parents allege that “Harriette was mistakenly assigned the gender ‘male’ at birth.” “Since it is impossible to tell an individual’s gender at birth it is discriminatory to issue a birth certificate with that information on it,” the complaint reads.

At this stage the tribunal has simply agreed to look into the complaints, which doesn’t mean that the policy will change. Yet British Columbia is one of the most liberal and progressive territories in the world. It also comes as Bruce Jenner, now known as Catilin, breaks the internet with a massive publicity tour celebrating his recent gender change.

Hollywood Quickly Starting To Produce Virtual Reality Movies & TV Shows

We’ve covered before how 2016 is poised to be the year of virtual reality and the momentum keeps gaining pace. The latest reports are that movie studios, television producers and artists are now quickly adopting the technology, which immerses people in faraway realms using yet to be released goggles.

Content producers in Hollywood are drawn to virtual worlds because when users look left, right, up or behind they experience an alternate environment, even when they’re sitting in a theater or are at home on a couch.

“What’s better for jump scares than, like, turning your head and it’s right in your face?” says Matt Lipson, Sr. Vice President of digital marketing at Focus Features, a Hollywood studio owned by heavyweight Universal.

Universal’s Focus Features recently released a virtual-reality experience promoting the upcoming “Insidious: Chapter 3” horror movie.

In these early days the project means a truck around the country, inviting fans to wear virtual-reality goggles purchased by the studio. It’s also combined the truck tour with mailing out thousands of movie-branded Google Cardboard kits, which fold around smartphones to turn them into rudimentary VR viewers. Fans just download the app from Google Play, or the App Store, and presto – 3d goggles.

Fellow film heavyweight Lionsgate used a similar strategy for its movie “Insurgent”.

While presently VR is only used for promotion new content created for future films will also take advantage of VR goggles. We previously highlighted that even magazines are getting in on the action, with heavyweight Conde Nast producing both magazines and movie experiences using the new tech.

Reality TV speciailist Discovery Communications is also planning to launch VR content under the Discovery Virtual brand, with the first titles being released in August.

Part of the challenge right now is figuring out just what, exactly, makes for a compelling viewing experience. Discovery’s Shark Week will likely feature the technology to increase the fear factor, which companies like Facebook are looking to move their two dimensional social network into a virtual world, where friends sit around a virtual living room watching the big game or chatting. Such group experiences may also become part of movies or video games in the near future.

With big studios, tech companies and consumer gadget makers all lined up virtual reality will become a reality before the year is out.

Uber Stabs Carnegie Mellon In The Back, Steals Their Entire Robotics Department

Uber isn’t known for being kind, gentle or even a good place to work. It is increasingly becoming one of the most evil big technology companies, underscored by recent moves to track users of its app around the clock and operate illegally in virtually all of its markets.

Its latest evil deed was to put Carnegie Mellon University, home to one of the world’s top robotics research institutions, into crisis after it partnered with the school to gain access to top scientists and then paid them over the top salaries to leave the school.

Flush with cash after raising over $5 billion from investors, Uber paid the scientists bonuses of hundreds of thousands of dollars in addition to doubling their salaries to join the company’s new robotics tech center in Pittsburgh.

The surprise move came after the school and Uber announced a strategic partnership in which the school would “work closely” with the taxiservice to develop driverless car technology. That partnership was announced in February but Uber clearly had no intent of actually helping the school – it just wanted easy access to its talented researchers.

The sleazy tactic has led to one of America’s finest university institutions being hollowed out and the school is struggling to recover.

Uber is working on self-driving cars that will replace its tens of thousands of contract drivers,whom the company openly despises. With no in house capability, the San Francisco company went to the one place in the world with enough talent to build a team instantly: Carnegie Mellon’s National Robotics Engineering Center.

In all, Uber stole six principal investigators and 34 engineers, including NREC’s director, Tony Stentz, and most of its key program directors. Before Uber’s recruiting, NREC had only about 100 engineers and scientists developing technology for companies and the U.S. military.

With its program directors and senior scientists gone the school may never again regain its former glory.

Robotic Pancreas Will Soon Allow Diabetes Patients To Leave Insulin Forever

Fresh hope has emerged this month that diabetes patients may one day soon be totally free of insulin, thanks the development of an implantable robotic pancreas currently undergoing FDA trials.

The pancreas is an organ near the liver which secretes insulin to control the concentration of glucose in the blood. In patients with type 1 diabetes the pancreas makes no insulin of its own, so those with the disease must work hard to manually replace that organ’s function. This means several times a day the patient must prick a finger to test blood sugar, making complicated calculations and estimates to account for meals, physical activity and time of day.

After half a century of work, a solution may be just around the corner: the artificial pancreas.

“It is a classic problem in control technology, which is the methodology used in process control,” says Ahmad Haidar, a researcher at the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal (IRCM). Haidar’s group is one of a number of academic and corporate teams vying to create a closed-loop system for an artificial pancreas, whereby a computerized control system determines how much insulin to inject and how often to inject it. It completely takes patient judgement out of the loop.

“Each patient is represented by a set of differential equations,” Haidar says, “parameterized based on physical information—body weight and total daily insulin dose, for instance.” From there computer processors and software algorithms do the rest.

The research is bearing fruit, with partial versions being rolled out now, and more advanced versions in clinical trials.

The reason this relatively simple concept is only just hitting the market is thanks to advances in sensors, actuators, algorithms, and insulin that are just now coming together to create the artificial pancreas.

“The thing that was cool about it was that it works,” says Herrick, 27, who directs strategic communications at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Together with a colleague, he spent several days and nights in a controlled setting, surrounded by doctors and engineers.

So far trials of fully automatic devices have mainly looked at nighttime control, which is vital, because the patient may not wake in time to handle a bout of low blood sugar. “My mother is still fearful of my sleeping at night, even though I’ve got my fiancée sleeping next to me,” said one patient involved in the trial.

The information provided by the new, fully automated meter, can also be used to prove to insurers that money spent on health care is producing results. “Health care providers are more and more being paid for outcomes,” one company executive was quoted as saying “Payers want patients to stay on the system; now they can make sure that patients do.”

While not quite yet on the market the FDA looks set to approve fully automated machines within the next two years from a host of companies.

It is estimated that within five years nearly all machines sold, especially those covered by insurance, will be fully automated devices.

Google Announces Snow Job Of ‘Privacy Improvement’ In Attempt To Distract And Confuse Users

It’s important to remember that search, video and mobile phone operating systems are not the products Google makes.

You’re the product.

Or rather the troves of data the search giant maintains on you and sells to advertisers is. Between its dominant search engine, its successful display ad network Adsense and the Android operating system, Google has an unprecedented window into your life.

Today, Google would like you to believe that it has bolstered “privacy” controls on its services. But don’t believe the hype. Second only to maybe Facebook, Google is the worst privacy abuser the planet has ever known.

For example today, no actual changes have been made to the company’s data gatherings and scraping policies. But there have been press releases!

Instead, Google will take the path of number one privacy invader Facebook, and launch a ‘tool’ that it disingenuously claims will put you in control.

Or put another way, Google will have so many privacy tabs, toggles and settings that it will make is confusing and difficult for you to fully opt out of its tracking programs.

Or as the company spins it:

We’re rolling out two significant improvements to our privacy and security tools: a new hub for managing your Google settings called My Account, and a new site that answers important questions about privacy and security on Google.

What you should be aware of as a user, is that when you can control privacy settings for YouTube, Google Search, Android, Adsense and every other Google product under one roof, is that these massive properties are tracking you and Google’s reach is tremendous.

Audit Finds That The TSA Fails To Prevent Weapons And Explosives On Planes 95 Percent Of The Time

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) isn’t exactly known for hiring the most competent employees, which has often led to speculation that the agency does nothing but perform security theater, in an effort to make America’s airports look safer than they actually are.

New reports confirm this suspicion as a leaked TSA internal investigation revealed security failures at nearly all of the nation’s busiest airports, where undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials.

The tests were conducted by Homeland Security teams who posed as passengers setting out to beat the system.

According to a recent Homeland Security Inspector General’s report, TSA agents failed 67 out of 70 tests, with undercover agents repeatedly able to get weapons through checkpoints.

In one test an undercover agent was even stopped after setting off a metal detector, yet TSA screeners failed to detect a fake explosives taped to his back during a follow-up pat down.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who must be red-faced over the shocking revelations, was apparently so frustrated by the findings he sought a detailed briefing on them last week at TSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

“Upon learning the initial findings of the Office of Inspector General’s report, Secretary Johnson immediately directed TSA to implement a series of actions, several of which are now in place, to address the issues raised in the report,” the DHS said in a written statement.

Homeland security officials insist that security at the nation’s airports is strong, yet they admitted just last week that thousands of security badges have gone missing this year alone. Such badges allow access to nearly all sensitive areas inside an airport, including access to aircraft.

The latest findings by the DHS inspector general’s office after it recently concluded a series of undercover tests targeting checked baggage screening.

That review found numerous “vulnerabilities”, attributing them to human error and technological failures.

The review determined that despite spending $540 million for checked baggage screening equipment and another $11 million for training since 2009, the TSA made no noticeable improvements in that time.

The findings seem to support what we’ve always known – enhanced security checks are just time-wasting theater and do not stop persistent attackers from perpetrating terrorist acts.

D.C. Insider Lindsey Graham Launches Presidential Bid

Don’t expect to see any straight shooting fresh faces in the 2016 presidential race as Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Monday announced he, too, will be running for President. Graham joins a crowded field of Republicans who are trying to find a worthy, and well heeled, contender to presumptive Democratic candidate Hillary Clitnon.

Mr. Graham’s entry into the race is just a year after his political career looked to be over, when he was targeted by Tea Party conservatives for being too moderate.

Mr. Graham, 59, is a savvy political operator and fought the challenge off with ease. In his announcement Graham said his fear that the world is “falling apart” inspired him to run for the White House. He brings a hawkish foreign policy voice the Republican field with no clear domestic platform at this stage.

He will use a simple, issues based platform at home and “security through strength” abroad, in a formula he hopes will be an effective challenge to the Clinton mega-campaign.

“I want to be president to protect our nation that we all love so much from all threats foreign and domestic,” he told the crowd in his hometown, where he announced the bid. “So get ready. I know I’m ready.”

Mr. Graham is a political insider, having first been elected to the Senate in 2002 after serving eight years in the House of Representatives.

His candidacy is viewed as an underdog bid who has polled lower than rivals Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

“I think that no one here in South Carolina has any illusions that Lindsey Graham is on a fast track or even near the front part of the pack in that crowded group,” said Robert Wislinski, a political strategist.

While Americans ostensibly have choice in the upcoming election, it appears more likely the nominee for each party will bring more of the same to our nation which badly needs fresh, uncorrupted, thinking.

Four Americans Held Hostage In Yemen As Crisis Rapidly Reaching America’s Shores

The conflict in Yemen isn’t just ‘over there’ and increasingly involving American as four citizens are being held by Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, a senior defense official confirmed Sunday. The rebels, backed by U.S. enemy Iran, toppled the U.S.-backed government earlier this year. The conflict is now a proxy war, between Saudi backed government forces and Iranian backed Houthi rebels.

The defense department released a statement early on Sunday that said it was “doing everything we can to get these individuals released.” The department would not release personal information about those being held due to privacy concerns.

Thus far, according to reports leaked to The Washington Post, attempts to free them have failed. The four are imprisoned in the Yemen capital of Sana’a, which Saudi Arabia is constantly bombing in a campaign to oust the Houthi rebels from power..

There was a provisional agreement to release one of the prisoners, but senior members of the rebel forces reversed the decision over the weekend.

Three of the four prisoners worked in the private sector and a fourth holds dual American-Yemeni citizenship. None of the prisoners were government employees.

The latest captures bring the total American hostages to five as another American, Sharif Mobley, is also being held by the rebels. He’s been imprisoned for over five years on terrorism-related charges brought by the previous government.

The recently detained captives are among dozens of Americans who were unable to leave Yemen after the U.S. closed its embassy.

Intel Flexes Muscle As World’s Largest Chipmaker By Buying Altera In $16 Billion Deal

After months of dancing around, Intel has purchased chipmaker Altera for $16.7 billion, ending months of takeover speculation.

The acquisition will mean Intel will get Altera’s coveted, super high margin, field-programmable gate array (FPGA) tech, which are essentially chips that customers program after purchase. The acquired unit will boost the range of offerings in Intel’s datacenter business.

The company is focusing on its enterprise business of slow business conditions in the PC and mobile arena. While Intel dominates the PC market, its mature and so not growing very fast. Intel has also missed most of the action on mobile phones to date.

Yet it is the biggest player in the increasingly lucrative datacenter space, a market which is hot because of the switch to cloud computing. Cloud offerings are underpinned by thousands of servers running tens of thousands of processors, which are invariably Intel.

Its new offerings mean it will now account for a greater percentage of the chips inside a datacenter computer server.

Brian Krzanich, Intel’s CEO, said: “Intel’s growth strategy is to expand our core assets into profitable, complementary market segments.”

John Daane, president of Altera, added: “Given our close partnership, we’ve seen firsthand the many benefits of our relationship with Intel—the world’s largest semiconductor company and a proven technology leader, and look forward to the many opportunities we will have together.”

The merger comes after an announcement last week that chip designer and supplier Avago bought chip designer Broadcom in a mega-deal worth $37 billion.

World Leaders Now Fear ISIS Could Buy Nuclear Weapons From Pakistan

While mainstream media continue to worry over the Islamic State’s (ISIS) destruction of artifacts in historic city of Palmyra, regional experts are increasingly concerned that a nuclear-armed Islamic State lurks on the horizon.

The past weeks have seen a quick succession of ISIS victories which means the terrorist group now controls millions of dollars a day in revenue generating assets such as oil fields. Given they don’t spend money on military equipment, instead capturing what they use, and don’t provide many services to conquered populations, ISIS is awash in cash.

And cash is just what a corrupt Pakistani general who despises the U.S. would be looking for to give them a bomb or radioactive material to make a dirty bomb.

Indian Defense Minister Rao Inderjit Singh warned of just this possibility last month, stating “with the rise of ISIS in West Asia, one is afraid to an extent that perhaps they might get access to a nuclear arsenal from states like Pakistan.”

ISIS, boasting “billions of dollars in the bank” has already called on its Pakistani-based arm “to purchase a nuclear device through weapons dealers.” While such calls have been discounted as unlikely and just good propaganda, Western and Arab leaders also did not anticipate the rapid rise of the radical Islamist terrorist juggernaut.

It might seem insane that Pakistan would deliver nuclear weapons to ISIS, but it could happen for good reasons.

Pakistan has notoriously corrupt senior military officials who are sympathetic to anti-American terror groups. Its military harbored Osama Bin Laden for decades, until he was finally killed by American special forces in a raid that was not disclosed to even the most senior Pakistani military officials. The hatred for America and large amount of cash could easily get ISIS a weapon.

But such a deal could also be brokered through more official channels. If a nuclear weapon is the price it takes to buy off the ISIS not to take over the country, that may be an attractive offer for Pakistan.

While its easy to scaremonger and warn that the ISIS is about to bomb Washington believing it will never happen is even scarier.

And yet the Obama administration, perhaps as a ploy to keep Iran preoccupied, refuse to do anything substantive about ISIS. Four top defense officials told The Daily Beast that there’s strong resistance within the Obama administration to making any serious changes to the current strategy for fighting ISIS, despite increasing skepticism inside the Pentagon about the current U.S. strategy.

For reference the current approach, largely conducting air strikes, is far below that of the 2001 Afghan campaign, when there were nearly six times as many daily strikes on average.

Aside from the threat of a nuclear attack, there are also moral considerations to increasing the response to ISIS. The regime is raping, literally, millions of women and committing genocide.

The United States stopped Hitler before he could conquer the word, but it waited until his regime slaughtered, and gassed 6,000,000 people.

At the present pace, even without a nuclear weapon, history looks like it will repeat itself.

Organized Scam Targeting Used Vehicle Sales On Craigslist Results In Over 100 Thefts

Brazen car thieves have concocted a new scam which targets vehicles for sale on popular classifieds website Craigslist, it was reported over the weekend. The organized scam targets people who are selling used cars on Craigslist and has hit over 100 people, according to reports from the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

The scam sees sellers given bank checks for the purchase that appear to be legitimate, but after the seller has signed over the title and given up the car, they discover that the check is a fake.

There have been nearly 100 such scam sales across the Midwest, with mostly in the Chicago area.

Many of the victims are left having to continue paying their car loan even though the car is gone, due to living in states where they have title to the car even though they still owe money on a car loan.

“These scams are well organized and have all the appearances of being legitimate,” said NICB CEO Joe Wehrle. “But in the end, the criminal gets the car and the sellers or their financial institutions are left on the hook for thousands of dollars still owed on the car.”

In an interesting twist, the scam has seen law enforcement in Kentucky and Illinois recover vehicles stolen in those states recovered after they been offered for sale again on Craigslist.

The NICB advises a simple solution: never sign over a title until you have the money in hand.

“Avoid accepting any kind of check, but if you do, take the time to make sure any alleged bank or cashier’s check has actually cleared and you have the cash in hand,” it said.

U.S. Strengthening Military Ties With Vietnam In Move To Curb China’s Regional Influence

While once bitter enemies, the U.S. and Vietnam increasingly have mutual interests in the Asia-Pacific region, as China becomes both more powerful and more aggressive in the area. To combat China’s reckless behavior, and help panicking Asian neighbors, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that the military will give about $18 million in financial aid to help Vietnam buy U.S. patrol boats. This comes as a direct response to China’s increased maritime activities in the South China Sea.

Carter was in Hanoi on Monday, where he held talks with his Vietnamese counterpart, Phung Quang Thanh.

Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Carter called for more cooperation between the United States and Vietnam to help maintain the peace and increase the prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region.

The Pentagon’s new pledge comes after participants at the Shangri-La Dialogue regional security forum over the weekend expressed deep concern about China’s aggressive maritime building projects.

China has conducted large scale reclamation work in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea for military purposes.

Deadly MERS Virus Spreading Fast In South Korea, 700 People Now Isolated

The deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome continues to rapidly spread across the world on Monday, as South Korean health officials quarantined nearly 700 people in an effort to stop the spread of the deadly virus after 18 people became infected over the past 10 days.

South Korean health officials have been on high alert since May 20th when a 68-year-old man from Bahrain tested positive. Since then, the virus has spread rapidly to a number of patients and visitors to the hospital where he was treated, causing global concern about whether the virus had mutated or whether other factors may have been at play. The transmission rate in South Korea so far is vastly higher than in other countries, prompting the fear of a mutation.

MERS is related to the one that infected thousands during the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak. There is no known cure or vaccine.

“We must find the reason for the high rate of transmission unlike in the cases of other countries,” President Park Geun-hye said on Monday.

The 682 who were placed into isolation on Monday are family members, medical staff and others who had close contact with the man. They are residing in their homes or in state-run facilities and will likely be subjected to a travel ban.

While first reported in 2012, MERS has been mostly confined to Saudi Arabia, the United Emirates and Jordan. The World Health Organization reports that 1,150 cases have been reported and 427 of the patients have died in that time. While not a large number of cases, the fatality rate is shockingly high.

The WHO announced the following updates in the two most recent cases:

  • The case is a 35-year-old male who developed symptoms of cough, sputum and fever on 6 May and was admitted to hospital on 13 May. The patient has been on tuberculosis medication since his son was diagnosed with the bacterial disease in April. Between 15 and 17, he shared the same ward with the first case during his hospitalization from 15 to 17 May. On 20 May, after his discharge, the patient visited two different hospitals due to fever and was put on antibiotics. As symptoms persisted despite antibiotic therapy, he was admitted to a hospital again on 27 May and confirmed positive for MERS-CoV on 29 May.
  • The case is a 35 year-old male whose mother shared the same ward with the first case. From 15 to 21 May, the patient visited his mother every day at the hospital. He developed symptoms and visited an emergency room on 24 May. The patient was admitted to hospital between 25 and 27 May and confirmed positive for MERS-CoV on 30 May.
  • Chinese Phonemaker Xiaomi Strikes Terror In The Heart Of Google With UK Launch

    After announcing two months ago it was coming to the United State, disruptive Chinese phonemaker Xiaomi has announced plans to launch in the UK, with an online store featuring its Mi brand opening on Tuesday.

    The company, known for its high quality yet inexpensive phones, will not be selling them to UK customers just yet, instead offering a similar line of products to what it sells in the U.S. – two batteries (10400mAh and 5000mAh), expensive semi-open headphones, and a fitness band.

    But don’t let the offerings fool you. The batteries are actually the company’s fastest selling products and the restrained strategy exposes a sophisticated competitor to the likes of Apple, Samsung and Google.

    Xiaomi has a number of key executives, including Hugo Barra, former Google Android product boss who left the company after founder Sergey Brin slept with his girlfriend, who are very experienced in both the mobile space and the U.S. market in particular.

    Xiaomi isn’t looking to compete head on just yet but by selling wildly popular devices like its batteries it can build its brand awareness, and the trust of U.S. consumers, while it readies a fully baked product that will shake up western markets.

    In the UK the company’s ambitions to sell phones was made clear, as it has hired customer care company B2X to look after support and repairs.

    This means that if a customer has a problem with a Xiaomi phone or accessory, they can take it into a repair center, phone a B2X-powered call center or download a diagnostic app and B2X will take care of the problem.

    This is a smart strategy, as competitor Apple runs a large network of retail stores that can address just these types of problems. To win marketshare from Apple, Xiaomi needs a similar level of service and its contract with B2X will give them just that.

    “With B2X’s global reach and local on-the-ground expertise, we will be able to offer superior after sales service to our customers in Europe. The unique technology and smart service platform offered by B2X will help us adapt to customer needs quickly and effectively in this new, critical market,” said a statement from Hugo Barra, VP of Xiaomi Global.

    The news will no doubt cause a bit of panic at the big phone companies and Google itself, given the brand new high end Xiaomi Redmi 2A, featuring a 4.7in 720p display, quad core processor, Android 5.0 Lollipop and dual SIM 4G, sells in China for under $150.

    That’s right – cutting edge phone for about 1/5th the cost of a new iPhone.

    White House To Announce Changes To Hostage Taking Policy

    Being a U.S. citizen and a hostage never been a great thing, given the longstanding government policy of not negotiating with hostage takers. While you might have been lucky enough to have Seal Team Six come to your rescue, odds are you would be at your kidnappers mercy.

    Citing changes in world events, the Obama administration launched a review of the policy and is expected to be release its findings this month this month, says an aide to a senior administration official. The results of the review will prompt “critical” changes to how the government reacts to hostage taking situations.

    The review, launched in December, came because of criticism the administration has received from the families of previous American hostages who have allege that outreach from the government had been inconsistent and insensitive.

    The review has been comprehensive, with a 70-person team with members from the Departments of Justice, Defense, Treasury, State, and the intelligence community providing recommendations to the President on where our nation’s hostage policy can be improved.

    While the review is not complete there are already a number of organizational changes on the table in order to create a response that is more rapid and coordinated.

    One of the changes planned is to create a Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, which would operate as a dedicated inter-agency body to coordinate the U.S. government’s response to hostage-takings. Its director would be responsible for overseeing all hostage recovery strategies.

    The new report will also call for the creation of two new government positions: a family engagement coordinator, serving as point person for the families of the hostages, and a senior representative from the State Department to coordinate diplomatic outreach abroad.

    The review process has conducted over 40 interviews with 24 families and former hostages with three rounds of feedback in order to tailor the policy to the needs of American citizens and their families.

    The White House has seen a “significant shift” in hostage-takings abroad by terrorists and criminal groups, necessitating a policy that is aligned with the new.

    “Terrorist groups have become increasingly willing to engage in publicized and repugnant murders of hostages if they are unable to extract concessions,” an administration official stated. “They deliberately target private citizens as well as government officials to garner media attention and attempt to extract political and financial concessions.”

    Currently the U.S. has a long-standing policy of making no concessions, such as paying ransoms, to hostage-takers, which White House press secretary Josh Earnest still claims is not part of this review.

    “We have made clear that our policy about not paying ransom to hostage-takers, to terrorists, not making concessions to them is a policy that’s not going to change — it is not part of the ongoing policy review, ” Earnest said.

    The final report is expected to be released at the end of June.

    Ryan Seacrest’s Startup Typo Loses Legal Battle With Blackberry

    Ryan Seacrest-back Typo, known for producing Blackberry-like keyboards for smartphones that lack the manual input device, has settled its ongoing legal dispute with Blackberry, according to a release from Blackberry.

    It’s certainly not a victory for the celebrity backed company as, according to the release, Typo will stop all sales of its keyboards and will “permanently discontinue selling anywhere in the world keyboards for smartphones and mobile devices with a screen size of less than 7.9 inches.”

    This move eliminates Typo from producing any smartphone cases, though it does give them the option to possibly enter the tablet case market. While the terms of the settlement were not disclosed Typo may have paid BlackBerry additional funds for infringing on its patents.

    The Typo fretted keyboard case allowed iPhone users to easily type with a QWERTY keyboard, supposedly released after “years of development”. Yet it looked identical to the Blackberry Q10, which BlackBerry claimed was a “significant market differentiator for its mobile handheld devices.”

    The victory underscores the value of Blackberry. Even as it continues to lose marketshare the company has a deep portfolio of mobile phone related patents for technologies it developed over the years.

    This is why the company continues to draw interest from the likes of Samsung and Microsoft, who value both its technology that targets business customers and its rich portfolio of patents.

    Creator Of World Wide Web Warns About The Dangers Of Facebook’s Internet.org Scheme

    Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, had sharp words to say over the weekend about the future of the internet. Speaking at the Web We Want Festival in London, England, the scientist sharply criticized recent events surrounding the once-free internet, specifically mentioning spying on civilians and Facebook’s highly controversial Internet.org scheme.

    Berners-Lee said the west had “lost the moral leadership” on privacy and surveillance, shown by the shocking revelations of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

    Britain’s Queen recently backed the newly elected conservative government of David Cameron to create systems like the NSA has in order to track everyone’s web and social media use and build detailed files on all citizens.

    Of the new legislation, Berners-Lee said:

    The discussion [in the Queen’s Speech] of increased monitoring powers is something which is a red flag … this discussion is a global one, it’s a big one, it’s something that people are very engaged with, they think it’s very important, and they’re right, because it is very important for democracy, and it’s very important for business.

    So this sort of debate is something that should be allowed to happen around legislation. It’s really important that legislation is left out for a seriously long comment period

    He alo lumped Facebook’s sneaky Internet.org initiative into the same category as rampant spying, saying that users should “just say no” to the so-called ‘Zero-rated’ plans that offer cut down versions of the web which favor the big companies that are giving the service away.

    On the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta, Berners-Lee and the Web We Want festival have convened to produce a Magna Carta for the 21st century. But while the document is intended to inspire change globally, Berners-Lee bemoaned the loss of Britain’s “moral high ground”, following the Edward Snowden revelations in 2013.

    “It has lost a lot of that moral high ground, when people saw that GCHQ was doing things that even the Americans weren’t,” Berners-Lee said. “So now I think, if Britain is going to establish a leadership situation, it’s going to need to say: ‘We have solid rules of privacy, which you as an individual can be assured of, and that you as a company can be assured of.’”

    That way, he said, “if you want to start a company in Britain, then you can offer privacy to your users, because you’ll know that our police force won’t be demanding the contents of your discs willy-nilly, they’ll only be doing so under a very well defined and fairly extreme set of circumstances.”

    He accepts it was an uphill battle to get people in Britain to care, however. “This is a wild generalization, but traditionally, people in the US are brought up in kindergarten to learn to distrust the government. That’s what the constitution’s for. Whereas people in the UK are brought up more to trust the government by default, and distrust corporations. People in America tend not to have a natural distrust of large corporations.

    “In the particular case of somebody who’s offering something which is branded internet, it’s not internet, then you just say no. No it isn’t free, no it isn’t in the public domain, there are other ways of reducing the price of internet connectivity and giving something. Only giving people data connectivity to part of the network deliberately, I think is a step backwards.”

    Facebook’s insidious plan is designed to raise a whole generation of internet users from poor, undeveloped countries, on an internet that is hand curated by Facebook. The company hopes that people won’t notice how it favor its content and outright bans rivals, such as Google’s Youtube, in order to get more ad revenue for itself.

    The plan is so controversial that large companies in India, a test market, have pulled out of the scheme after initially supporting it because of severe public backlash. The scheme has also been loudly denounced by human rights activists.

    Russian President Banned From Upcoming G-7 Meeting

    Russia’s Vladimir Putin is officially banned from the upcoming G-7 meeting of world leaders in Germany next week, it was announced this weekend, in response to presiding over the invasion and ongoing occupation of Ukraine.

    While the Russian President remains a central player in international affairs, including the U.S.-led nuclear talks with Iran, Western leaders are resorting to a wide variety of measures to try to isolate Putin while the crisis in Ukraine persists.

    Yet avoiding Russia and Putin is challenging, especially for those with close geographic and economic ties to the communist country. Just last week German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Moscow for talks with Putin while Putin and British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke by telephone in recent days to arrange talks aimed at ending Syria’s civil war.

    U.S. officials say that outreach to Putin on areas of needed cooperation should not be seen as a sign that the West has accepted the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

    “It makes sense to cooperate where there is a clear mutual interest as long as you’re not being asked to back off matters of principle that matter to the security and well-being of your country and your allies and your friends,” Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday.

    So while the it may be difficult to pull all diplomatic engagement, economic pressure is proving very effective. The ruble went into dramatic freefall last year due to both falling oil prices and the West’s economic penalties. Russia’s economy is the shakiest its been since the fall of the Soviet Union.

    Still, its a delicate balance, as sanctions can only go so far and political isolation isn’t practical.

    Heather Conley, a Europe expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, feels this is the case.

    “We’re really stuck,” she said. “Mr. Putin is not going to come to his senses. This is a long-term challenge.”

    Will A Machine Take Your Job? New Study Tells You The Odds

    Computerized machines, powered by cheap processing power and sophisticated software, are increasingly doing jobs that were once thought only possible to do by humans. From burger making machines to autonomous aerial vehicles to surgical robots to robotic telemarketers, it seems no profession is beyond the reach of a new crop of hyper intelligent machines.

    So will they take your job?

    New research from Oxford University researchers Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne looked to measure jobs currently being done by humans to estimate the likelihood they would be replaced by a computerized machine.

    Their “definitive” guide evaluated jobs based on the following criteria:

  • Do you need to come up with clever solutions?
  • Are you required to personally help others?
  • Does your job require you to squeeze into small spaces?
  • Does your job require negotiation?
  • Based on the degree to which each job is associated with these criteria, researchers applied mathematical formulas to determine just how probably it is your job will become automated.

    So which job is safest? Mental health and substance abuse social workers.

    This job had just a 0.3 percent chance of being automated because it requires lots of cleverness, negotiation, and helping of others.

    The job most likely to be done by a robot? Telemarketers, which comes as no surprise given automated telemarketers are dialing as you read this.

    While the researchers admit its all just estimates their reasoning is solid and their results align well to what is being observed in the world today, where jobs once thought impossible to automate are now the domain of robots.

    To see the full list of jobs and probabilities head here

    Software Crash Shown To Lead To Real Life Plane Crash

    Modern airplanes are increasingly driven by computers, software and automated systems, which is leading to very serious safety issues. And it isn’t just hackers – pilots are increasingly unable to manually do key functions on aircraft, relying instead on software systems.

    Airbus confirmed this weekend that if things go wrong with the software, it can indeed have fatal consequences.

    A May 9th crash near Seville’s San Pablo Airport killed four Airbus Defense and Space personnel testing its new A400M, a military cargo plane.

    The European aircraft manufacturer confirmed the fatal crash that has stalled its A400M program was caused by engine control software.

    Highlighting just how complicated the new systems are, the problem wasn’t even that the software was buggy. It was just installed incorrectly.

    Marwan Lahoud, Airbus’ chief strategy officer, told a German newspaper that the company does not believe there to be a problem with the airframe: “The black boxes attest that there are no structural defects, but we have a serious quality problem in the final assembly”.

    The final assembly process that installed the software incorrectly required manual configuration and it appears that the crashed plane had incorrect parameters set.

    Airbus had already informed A400M operators – Germany, Britain, Turkey and France – to examine the planes’ Engine Control Unit.

    While the results are something of a relief, as a software fix is much cheaper than the fixing a defect in physical build quality, Airbus will need to work hard to reassure customers the plane is not overly complicated.

    The news that a mere software configuration can crash a plane comes on the heels of a security researcher demonstrating recently its possible to hack modern passenger jets through the in flight entertainment system and control the engines.

    Both incidents show that as computers become more connected and we increasingly rely on them, security must remain in the forefront to avoid catastrophic accidents.

    ISIS Announces Plan To Forcibly Mutilate Genitals Of 2 Million Iraqi Girls

    The international community continues to stand by largely idle as terror group ISIS commits the worst attrocities since the holocaust and word emerged this weekend that the scope of the depravity continues to deepen.

    Fresh off the heels of abducting 500 more children, making it over 1000 for the month, to use as suicide bombers, ISIS announced a gruesome new plan.

    Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS main leader, has ordered the female genital mutilation of two million Iraqi girls to “distance them from immorality,” according to reports in the region.

    Al-Baghdadi called the order a ‘gift’ for women in Iraq. This will force Iraqi women to stay pure from ‘American immorality’ he went to say in a statement.

    This order was predictably met with outrage by human rights organizations, who said that genital mutilation exposes women to diseases and amounts to mass scale forced sexual abuse.

    Asil Jamal, a regional civil rights activist, said: “When ISIS was first arriving in Iraq, people were warmly welcoming them, but as a result of ISIS’ horrendous wishes, especially forced female circumcision, it is becoming clear for people that these ISIS militants don’t know anything else except torture.”

    Given that the ISIS empire is founded on rape, genocide and child soldiers perhaps its time for the world community to take more decisive action to stop the atrocities before they reach holocaust scale.

    Don’t Be Fooled, The NSA Will Keep Collecting Data With Or Without The Patriot Act

    It will take far more than Washington theater and paper laws to stop the data collection juggernaut that is the NSA.

    Numerous media outlets keep reporting that with the expiry of the Patriot Act Sunday night, the NSA will magically stop collecting data on every single American citizen.

    Unfortunately, this is far from the case.

    The official line, according to several senior officials, is that the hours leading up to midnight will see a jump in activity as engineers take down servers, monitoring software and hardware from the main optic cables of telephone data traffic.

    “We’re in uncharted waters. We have not had to confront addressing the terrorist threat without these authorities. And it’s going to be fraught with unnecessary risk,” said one official, as quoted by the LA Times.

    Simply put, without a massive inquiry in which NSA criminals like James Clapper and Kieth Alexander are held to account for lying under oath and running a spy network that is, literally, above the law, nothing will change.

    The NSA gameplans for this scenario and will simply shuffle the cards around a little bit until the heat dies down. They’ll call on their friends in Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia to do whatever dirty work isn’t allows by Congress and then re-feed all the data back into their system. Or should they not be permitted to store certain pieces of data they will just shift the burden of holding data to the phone companies, who will then allow the NSA to access it.

    There’s plenty of similarly clever little tricks the agency will employ to feign compliance with the law while in reality business will continue as usual.

    The dossiers they maintain on every single U.S. citizen will continue to exist, as will the logging of every single bit of data that crosses a U.S. telecommunications network.

    The tens of billions of dollars spent on the agency’s computer systems isn’t going to be stopped by something as trivial as the law. The NSA operates the world’s largest and most powerful computer network for one reason: spying on everyone, everywhere.

    This isn’t going to stop tonight and won’t any time soon.

    In short, the NSA has become much too powerful and is too heavily invested for things to change unless there is a sweeping overhaul. Such an overhaul would probably necessitate the end of the agency in order to cleanse the deep rot.