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U.S. Spy Plane Buzzes Illegal Chinese Air Base

Entertainment News

Tensions between China and the United States keep ratcheting up as China’s navy issued eight warning messages to a U.S. military surveillance plane that passed over a group of man-made islands in the South China Sea.

The islands are the center of an international territorial dispute between China and its Asian neighbors and are deemed to be in violation of international law. China is constructing military bases on the islands, in a clear hostile move towards it neighbors.

“This is the Chinese navy, this is the Chinese navy, please go away quickly,” said a voice in English, to the P8-A Poseidon spy plane on Wednesday.

The Navy’s most advanced spy aircraft passed as low as 15,000 feet over the disputed Spratly Islands, which are fully 600 miles from the shores of mainland China.

The islands are claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Spy footage showed extensive military buildup at the sites, including an early warning radar system, military barracks, lookout tower and runway.

When the U.S. plane refused to leave the area, a Chinese official sent another radio transmission “This is the Chinese navy. You! Go!”

The surveillance flight is in line with recent comments by U.S. defense officials, who said they are considering sending military ships and planes to the South China Sea to enforce freedom of navigation, the key issue for the international community in the area.

The U.S. military has an large presence in East Asia and has repeatedly flown surveillance flights close to the artificial islands yet the Wednesday mission is one of the boldest challenges yet to China’s control in the area.

The Chinese development of the islands has led many East Asian governments to strengthen their military ties with Washington, in response to China’s attempt to expand its influence in the region.

Why China is pursuing such a military approach to its neighbors is puzzling, as increased globalization has led to more trade and economic ties than in the past. While countries previously fought each other and maintained closed economies, these days trade is tightly interconnected and wars are universally viewed as bad for business.

One possible reason for the military buildup is a frustrated Chinese population, oppressed by greedy communist overlords. The Chinese community party maintains tight control over freedom and communication while enriching itself from China’s new economic prosperity.

Beijing is deeply fearful of a revolution and so is likely planning for a diversionary war should tensions at home escalate too far. Such a war, against a lesser army like The Philippines, would be easily won yet rally the country’s population around Chinese nationalism while distracting from the oppression at home. Communist rulers could then continue to plunder the economy and enrich themselves personally.

Congress Doesn’t Care What You Think, Fast Tracks Super Secret Trade Agreement

News

President Obama knows best. That’s the message congress signified to the American public on Thursday as it gave the President wide ranging authority to negotiate on behalf of the American people without any democratic oversight of just what deals he is cutting. The move came despite the strong opposition of most Democrats.

The 62-38 vote will allow Obama to negotiate trade deals that Congress can only accept or reject, but not change. The move make the role of President more like ruler-in-chief, as the amount of issues in a free trade deal make it unlikely one party or another will unilaterally veto a deal.

The move was welcomed by big corporations and their lobbyists, who effectively write such deals. The President’s office will usually take lobbyist proposals and write them directly into the deals without changing them whatsoever. The move cuts down on work by elected officials and panders to industry.

The average American, meanwhile, gets nothing. Or worse. The measures in such deals usually lead to loss of American jobs and industry in order to ensure corporate profits steadily climb. The deals also include broad provisions for spying, a favorite past-time of America’s secret police forces.

The trade agenda, known as the Trans Pacific Partnership, is Obama’s highest second-term priority. He is seeking to return favors to rich donors and build a legacy for himself once he leaves office.

The deal is so controversial that the American public and its elected officials have been barred from viewing any of its contents. Some drafts have leaked but the specifics of a final agreement are more classified than most military programs.

Critics are attacking the fast-track bill from many sides. Some demand crackdowns on countries that make their exports more affordable by keeping the currency artificially low, such as China.

Others insist that Congress first deal with pending expirations of a domestic surveillance program and the Export-Import Bank.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., spent hours on the Senate floor Wednesday criticizing the surveillance program yet to no avail. Mr Paul has supported such spying in the past and is using the obvious failure of his filibuster to bolster his chances of becoming President, where he would then once again authorize pervasive spying. This is has become commonplace in American politics – say one thing knowing its impossible, then do the opposite when elected. Par for the course in Washington.

Leading the Senate’s fast-track effort was antique Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah, among the oldest and most out of touch members of Congress. He is also one of the largest benefactors of big corporate support. So for him, like most of Congress, a trade deal just makes sense – keeps the big donors happy, regardless of what Americans actually want.

Secret Hunter Killer Space Plane Launches For Fourth Classified Mission

News

A top secret U.S. Air Force space plane rocketed into orbit Wednesday, carrying a full load of technology experiments and secret missions. The launch happened early Wednesday morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The unmanned mini-shuttle rode atop an Atlas V rocket, the workhorse of the U.S. Air Force.

This marks the fourth flight for the military program, which is heavily classified. The last X-37B mission lasted 674 days and ended with a California landing. No details about the mission were released, although amateur astronomers noticed radical orbit changes of the vehicle, indicating that it may be a tool to hunt and kill Chinese satellites.

China has been working on similar hunter killer space vehicles.

In typical top secret fashion the Air Force will not disclose how long this particular mission will last or where it will end.

The X-37B resembles a miniature version of the space shuttle. It is 29 feet long and its wingspan is about 15 feet. Overall it is about one quarter the size of NASA’s space shuttle.

The Boeing-built X-37B launches vertically and lands horizontally, is reusable, and has a cargo bay for experiments. The vehicle if operated robotically, with no humans aboard.

Referred to innocuously as OTV, or orbital test vehicle — it has a materials-sample experiment on board for NASA, and an experimental electric-propulsion thruster for the Air Force. While some say the most intriguing payload is a solar-sail demo sponsored by the Planetary Society, the most interesting publicly known cargo is the new thruster.

Such a thruster requires considerably less liquid propellant than previous designs which would enable more ability to move around while in orbit. Such movement is not particularly useful for satellites but would be a key feature in a hunter killer space drone designed to disable enemy satellites. Radical orbit changes, of the kind needed to take of enemy spacecraft, require lots of fuel using present systems and means that with current technology it would be expensive to disable an enemy’s fleet.

The new thruster system would mean spacecraft that could take out many enemy satellites from one launched vehicle, like the X-37B, which would make it far cheaper and faster to accomplish.

China, no doubt, will be watching the vehicle’s activity in space rather closely.

U.S. Health Insurer CareFirst Exposes 1.1 Million Health Records In Chinese Hack Attack

News

U.S. health insurer CareFirst has admitted it has been hacked, the third such company to fall victim to hackers in recent months. The data breach compromised the records of 1.1 million of its customers.

Yet the breach took place in June last year but was only recently discovered. The lag time between hack and discovery indicates just how compromised many online customer record systems are these days.

The attack is similar to that perpetrated on Blue Cross, which had 11 million customer records stolen, and Anthem, which lost 80 million records.

The database accessed included member names, birth dates, email addresses and identification numbers. It remains to be seen if other records were compromised but given the magnitude of the attack this is likely.

“We deeply regret the concern this attack may cause,” CareFirst chief executive Chet Burrell said.

“We are making sure those affected understand the extent of the attack – and what information was and was not affected.”

CareFirst operates in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia and has 3.4 million customers.

Investigators looking into the breach said it resembled earlier attacks from China, the lead global sponsor of hacking into civilian computer systems.

NSA Hijacking Google Play Store To Install Spyware On Your Phone

News

New revelations from the Snowden leaks show just how pervasive NSA spying has become. While the public hears about the ‘meta data collection program’, the agency’s exploits run far, far, deeper, according to newly leaked documents.

Analysis of the Snowden trove reveals that The National Security Agency and its allies in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand planned to hijack the data links to Google and Samsung app stores in order to infect smartphones with spyware.

The project was run by a secretive NSA electronic eavesdropping unit called the Network Tradecraft Advancement Team, an international spying group from the “Five Eyes” alliance — the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.

The top-secret document dates to November 2011 and February 2012, meaning that similar yet far more advanced programs are now in full operational status. The result for end users is that they have no idea if they are using the real Google Play store or the NSA’s booby trapped version.

The secret spy team used the NSA’s internet spying system XKEYSCORE to pinpoint smartphone traffic flowing across the Internet and then identified smartphone connections to app marketplace servers operated by Samsung and Google.

Codenamed IRRITANT HORN, the agencies developed a method to hack and hijack phone users’ connections to app stores so that they sent malicious “implants” to devices in addition to apps users actually wanted to download. The ‘implants’ could then collected every piece of data from the phones without their users noticing.

Such data included emails, texts, web history, call records, videos, photos and every other file stored on the devices.

The newly published document shows just how pervasive the secret police spying has become, infecting virtually every American and international mobile phone, PC or connected internet device. The NSA then processes this vast flow of data in the world’s largest computing cluster – which some estimate is bigger than Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Ebay combined.

Processed data is then added to ‘dossiers’ the agency has on every single American, including politicians, judges, civil servants, defense department officials and everyday Americans.

Santa Barbara Oil Spill Five Times Worse Than Originally Thought

Culture

When energy companies tell you an oil spill is “just a few barrels” its safe to assume its much worse than that. Estimates for the Santa Barbara oil spill have gone from a few barrels, to 21,000 gallons and now company officials are saying that as many as 105,000 gallons of crude oil may have spilled from the ruptured pipeline.

The pipeline that ruptured is 24 inches in diameter and has been leaking oil near Refugio State Beach which happens to be a protected state park. The spill also comes just before Memorial Day weekend, the start of the summer tourist season.

The spill highlights the dangers of the pipeline and brings new attention to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline currently being debated by government officials. While Keystone XL lobbyists claim the pipeline is safer than rail by oil the latest spill highlights that pipelines, especially those carrying heavy grades of oil, are equally prone to catastrophic spills.

Plains All American Pipeline, the Houston-based owner of the pipeline, based the new spill estaimtes on the typical flow rate of oil and the elevation of the pipeline, said Rick McMichael, the company’s director of pipeline operations. It is unclear why this calculation was not disclosed to the public initially and points to an industry culture of hiding the truth from public eyes.

And given the pipeline is underground, a particularly dangerous construction method, it will take a few days to determine just how much crude oil was actually spilled. It’s entirely possible the spill is much larger than even the latest estimate.

Plains Chairman Greg Armstrong said he was deeply sorry for the spill yet refused to acknowledge why the public, and government officials, were not immediately notified of the magnitude of the spill.

“We apologize for the damage that has been done to the wildlife and to the environment, and we’re very sorry for the disruption and inconvenience that it has caused the citizens and visitors of this area,” he said.

“This spill is unlike ones that we’ve responded to in the past.” said Coast Guard Capt. Jennifer Williams. The spill began inland, where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has authority, but has reached the shoreline and the water, where the Coast Guard is now responsible. Both agencies are now working on the case together.

“Oil recovery tends to be a complicated process that involves a lot of manual labor,” Williams said. “It can be a slow process, but we want to make sure that we do it right so we can get the beaches back to their pristine condition.”

In addition to damaging tourist beaches the spill has damaged pristine wildlife habitat, although the full extent of the damage is yet to be determined. The spill will likely produce localized effects similar to the catastrophic Deep Horizon still in the Gulf of Mexico, which has caused long lasting damage to marine ecosystems.

ISIS Militants Take Control Of UNESCO World Heritage Site Palmyra

Entertainment News

Islamist ISIS insurgents have seized “full control” of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra after government forces retreated from the area Thursday, according to reports.

The reports are reason for great fear – both for Palmyra’s residents and its archaeological treasures.

ISIS fighters occupy the modern city, which is just a few hundred meters from the ancient columns, temples and arches that have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict in the Middle Eastern nation, reported that the Sunni jihadists made their attack early Thursday morning.

U.N. and Syrian officials fear that ISIS plans to destroy the ruins, just as it did the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud. The group also smashed statues in Iraq’s Mosul Museum.

The seizure of Palmyra is ISIS’ second huge victory in less than a week. Over the weekend, it took the key Iraqi city of Ramadi, which the U.S. State Department called a ‘major blow’.

An accurate picture of who controlled what in and around Palmyra was difficult to obtain. Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA, stated that Syrian forces had pulled out of some Palmyra neighborhoods amid a large assault from ISIS. The ISIS forces were trying to get into the archaeological sites.

At least 100 Syrian troops were killed in overnight fighting.

U.S Approves $1.87 Billion Arms Shipment To Israel

News

While the genocide in Palestine strains relations with Israel, there is little mistake the two countries are firm friends after the State Department week approved the sale of $1.87 billion in munitions and precision guidance kits to Israel. The weapons sale will improve the capability of existing systems and make it easier for U.S. and Israeli forces to work together in combat.

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which handles every aspect of overseas arms and weapon sales, informed lawmakers on Tuesday about the deal. The sale is a big win for main contractors such as Boeing Co, Lockheed Martin Corp , General Dynamics Corp, Raytheon Co. With cutbacks in U.S. military spending all four firms are eager to boost sales to overseas customers.

The sale will include 14,500 KMU-556C/B Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) tail kits built by Boeing to convert “dumb bombs” into precision guided weapons, as well as other conventional bombs, missile and munitions.

While lawmakers technically have 15 days to block the potential sale, such action is rare since deals are specially vetted before Congress is notified.

UN Finds 90 Percent Of E-Waste Dumped Illegally

Culture

Your used iphones and ipods aren’t just an environmental hazard; they’re also big business for criminals, according to a new UN study. A United Nations report released Tuesday details a burgeoning multibillion-dollar criminal business where as much as 90 percent of the world’s electronic waste, everything from used computers to smartphones, is illegally traded or dumped at some point along the disposal line.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) much of the e-waste ends up in Africa and Asia. “We are witnessing an unprecedented amount of electronic waste rolling out over the world. Not only does it account for a large portion of the world’s non-recycled waste mountain, but it also poses a growing threat to human health and the environment, due to the hazardous elements it contains,” said Achim Steiner, U.N. Undersecretary-General and executive director of UNEP.

About 41.8 million metric tons of e-waste was generated in 2014, and could increase to 50 metric tons by 2018. A staggering 60 percent to 90 percent of e-waste is illegally traded or dumped, amounting to as much nearly $19 billion annually according to the report. E-waste is often mixed in with other waste, such as plastics, to hide it or simply labeled as less hazardous waste to circumvent regulations.

The reports call attention to the problem and calls for greater intervention from law enforcement agencies as well as NGOs and environmental groups to combat the problem.

Why The CIA Destroyed Torture Tapes: It Would Have Meant End Of The Agency

News

When graphic photos of American soldiers abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came to light in 2004, they sparked international outrage. The reaction by the world to the horrifying abuses sent shivers down the spine of senior CIA officials too.

But not because they were appalled. They were scared that their own, worse, torture tapes might surface and that public reaction would be to abolish the CIA.

The CIA had hundreds of hours of videotaped “enhanced interrogations” of two Al Qaeda suspects in CIA custody. These interrogations included waterboarding and other techniques classified as torture.

But, according to reports from PBS, those tapes would never see the light of day. Their destruction was ordered by the CIA’s top operations officer, Jose Rodriguez.

“I was told, if those videotapes had ever been seen, the reaction around the world would not have been survivable,” Jane Mayer of The New Yorker told the PBS show FRONTLINE.

Reports from the The New York Times about the tape’s destruction enraged the Senate Intelligence Committee, and triggered an independent investigation of the CIA’s covert interrogation program. It also led to rumors of infighting between the now-more-powerful NSA and the less-powerful CIA.

Rodriguez, like James Clapper and Keith Alexander, was never prosecuted. In the case of Rodriguez, President George W. Bush signed legislation granting immunity to him and anyone at the CIA who had participated in the program.

The revelations show a pattern wanton disregard for oversight and the rule of law. They show the people inside these programs will do anything to preserve their power and will fight to the death should anyone attempt to oversee or question their activities.

In short, they expose a deeply undemocratic underbelly of our country that is rotten from the core out.

Rich White Man Kills Endangered Black Rhino For Fun

Culture

Meet Corey Knowlton, a serial murderer of protected wildlife who arrived quietly in Namibia to hunt the famed black rhino on May 13th.

Yesterday, he accomplished his goal and killed the magnificent creature. All for the thrill, of course.

Nearly 18 months ago, the Texas hunter bid $350,000 to kill the animal in the southern African country of Namibia. While the permit was issued by Namibia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism and auctioned by the Dallas Safari Club its origins are dubious. African nations have both weak institutions a huge need for cash. $350,000 goes a long way.

Knowlton has since faced scathing criticism and death threats as the world reacted angrily to the hunt of one of the world’s most endangered species. Despite his pleas to the contrary the trip is being highly scrutinized by animal welfare groups around the world who universally condemn the hunt.

“At this point, the whole world knows about this hunt and I think it’s extremely important that people know it’s going down the right way, in the most scientific way that it can possibly happen,” Knowlton said, channeling his best conservation expert voice.

Knowlton, 36, from Dallas, views the hunt as a vital component of Namibia’s effort to save the animal from extinction. The $350,000 permit fee will go to fund government anti-poaching efforts across the country.

Killing of an older rhino bull, which no longer breeds but which could harm or kill younger males, is part of the science of conservation, both Knowlton and Namibia claim.

And yet no animal rights, environmental or scientists back up the claim that killing an endangered species is somehow good for the long term survival prospects.

Opponents like the International Fund for Animal Welfare have not been swayed, saying “We’ll simply never agree with that,” fund director Azzedine Downes said. “There’s a lot of other things that we can and must do in order to protect these animals.”

Killing the rare species also legitimizes illegal poaching, as Africans feel that they should be able to hunt their own animals if rich white men can do it. Chinese citizens also feel legitimized in their lust for rhino horns, as if Americans can kill these creatures surely they should be allowed to as well.

So while Mr. Knowlton now has his prize, the world is left to mourn the loss of one of its last majestic mega-beasts and work through the damage his highly publicized hunt has caused.

Another Massive Ivory Shipment Stopped From Going To China

Culture

China’s never-ending demand for endangered elephant ivory remained unfulfilled Tuesday as a shipment from Kenya, declared as tea leaves, was found to contain about 3.7 tonnes of illegal ivory, making it the second largest seizure of illegal ivory by local authorities since 2002.

The seized shipment, which included four pieces of rhinoceros horns and 22 pieces lion teeth, is estimated to be worth $10 million.

The shipment was in two 20-footer containers from the African country and were transiting through Singapore to Vietnam and then onto China, the world’s largest consumer of endangered wildlife.

Upon inspecting the containers, Singapore authorities uncovered 1,783 pieces of raw ivory tusks. Further investigations into the shipment, which was seized last week, are underway.

International trade in ivory, rhinoceros horns and certain species of big cats’ teeth is banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which Singapore is a signatory. China is not a signatory and does little to stem the trade is endangered animals.

“The illegal trade of endangered animal parts is fueled by increasing demand and poaching. The Singapore Government has zero tolerance on the use of Singapore as a conduit to smuggle endangered species and their parts and products,” said Ms Lye Fong Keng, Deputy Director of Singapore’s Quarantine & Inspection Group, Wildlife Section.

“We will continue to cooperate and collaborate with partner enforcement agencies nationally and internationally to curb wildlife trafficking,” she added.

Apple Decides To Cancel Prototype TV

Finance

According to a recently published report in The Wall Street Journal, Apple last year gave up on releasing a branded HDTV set after nearly a decade worth of research and prototyping.

The reason?

It was ultimately unable to figure out a set of differentiating features that would position its TV apart from the competition.

Apple intensively researched various display technologies, in an effort to find something better than rivals such as Samsung and Sony.

It created a prototype that was transparent when turned off but used lasers to display an image when turned on. But the technology never made it past the research phase because it used a huge amount of power and produced an inferior quality image.

Other features it played with was 4K display, which would have been far too expensive and including built-in FaceTime functionality.

Apple executives only enter new markets when they can add something of value and in this case, Apple was unable to conjure up any compelling new products. This is unsurprising, given the number of manufacturers in the TV space and their innovative product offerings.

In short, Apple usually shakes up industries that lack innovation but in the TV industry there is plenty of it. Margins in the TV industry are also notoriously low, which doesn’t really align with Apple’s traditional business model.

Like all leaks, its more interesting who leaked it and why. The Journal report comes shortly after a letter published by activist investor Carl Icahn in which he stated why Apple shares should be valued at $240. Icahn believes that the company will not only enter the HDTV business, but the auto industry as well.

The WSJ leak is likely strategic PR to counter Icahn’s off-base assumptions.

Instead of owning hardware in the living room, Apple looks poised to control the software. According to various reports, Apple’s TV service will be a lightweight offering of about 25 stations that will be priced in the $30-$40 range.

Not exactly a big screen TV but likely a compelling offering nonetheless.

Blockbuster Film Zero Dark Thirty Contained CIA Propaganda To Justify Torture Program

News

Blockbuster hit Zero Dark Thirty, a film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, contained CIA propaganda to portray the agency’s controversial “enhanced interrogation techniques” — widely described as torture — as a key to finding information that resulted in the killing of bin Laden.

While the CIA maintains that its now officially-shuttered program was effective in combating terrorism, the massive Senate torture report released in December 2014 found that the program was brutal, mismanaged and — most importantly — did not work.

“We’ve found that, faced with 9/11 and the fear of a second attack, everybody from the head of the CIA, to the Justice Department, to the president asked ‘Can we do it?’ — meaning, can we do it legally — not, ‘Should we do it?’ says FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk, part of the team which uncovered the propaganda efforts.

“As the debate over how far the U.S. should be willing to go in the fight against terrorism continues, we felt it was important to tell the story of this CIA program, comprehensively, in documentary form,” Kirk says. “What we’ve found raises some very tough questions.”

North Carolina Passes Sweeping Anti-Whistleblower Law

News

In a 32 to 13 vote North Carolina’s Senate passed a bill Monday night which allows business owners to sue employees who secretly record audio or video in the workplace.

The move makes it illegal for employees to document criminal acts or other malfeasance by their employer.

The bill is specifically targeted at animal rights groups who make undercover recordings at poultry and cattle farms. Those recordings have shown some cases of animal mistreatment and health violations at some farms.

Yet the bill isn’t limited to agricultural businesses and applies to all businesses in the state. The penalty for violation is that employees can be sued for damages and court costs, effectively a financial death penalty for whistleblowers and their families.

Democratic Senator Josh Stein said that overall “the public will be worse off as a result of this bill. There will be violations of law that occur that would not have otherwise occurred because of this bill.”

“Our whistleblower laws do nothing for an employee who brings forward a violation of the law that affects the general public.”

An employee who discovers unsanitary conditions at a meat processing plant, or expired drugs being distributed at a pharmacy would not be covered.

This measure is now on its way to the governor’s desk.

ExxonMobil Pipeline Spill Leaks Oil Onto Santa Barbara Beaches

Culture

A four-mile-long sheen of oil extended about 50 yards into the waters along Refugio State Beach in Goleta, Tuesday afternoon. Emergency officials and ExxonMobil found the cause to be a ruptured pipeline that was leaking crude oil into the ocean off the Santa Barbara County coast.

The ruptured pipeline, which runs along the coast near Highway 101, was first reported to county fire officials about noon.

According the a spokesman for the Coast Guard, crews arrived and halted the flow of oil a few hours after it was reported.

It’s unclear at this stage how much oil streamed into the ocean, and officials could not confirm the type of oil that had been flowing through the pipeline.

University of Oklahoma Patron Harold Hamm Tried To Have Fracking Researchers Fired

News

University of Oklahoma benefactor Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder and CEO of Continental Resources, told a dean he wanted scientists fired who were researching links between fracking for oil and the state’s earthquake surge.

“Mr. Hamm is very upset at some of the earthquake reporting to the point that he would like to see select OGS staff dismissed,” wrote Larry Grillot,a geology dean, in a July 16, 2014, e-mail.

The emails were obtained through and Open Records Act request, refer to a 90-minute meeting held in July 2014 about scientists at the Oklahoma Geological Survey, a state agency that is hosted by the University of Oklahoma, Bloomberg reports:

Hamm was very involved in stifling research into quakes being caused by oil companies as he also expressed an interest in joining a search committee to find a new director for the geological survey, according to Grillot’s e-mail.

When he didn’t seem to be getting his way, Hamm threatened that he would be “visiting with Governor [Mary] Fallin on the topic of moving the OGS out of the University of Oklahoma.”

While Hamm’s request wasn’t fulfilled, it shows the lengths to which rich, powerful patrons of education will go to make sure academic research doesn’t impact their business interests.

The new story comes just days after Hamm defended another scrutinized meeting with OU officials — a 2013 “coffee” attended by Hamm, state seismologist Austin Holland of the OGS and OU president David Boren. Hamm claims he wasn’t there to “bully” a scientist studying earthquakes linked to fracking and disposal wells, but his past conduct suggests otherwise.

Six Chinese Nationals Charged With Economic Espionage

Entertainment News

In a sign the U.S government is losing patience with Chinese industrial espionage, it charged six Chinese nationals with economic espionage, saying they stole secrets from two military contractors, the Department of Justice said on Tuesday.

The arrests mark the third time in as many years that U.S. authorities have made accusations of economic espionage toward China.

Professor Hao Zhang, one of the suspects, was arrested on Saturday in Los Angeles after he arrived on a flight from China. The other five suspects have already fled to China.

Zhang and two other professors from Tianjin University were charged with stealing source code from chipmakers Avago Technologies Ltd and Skyworks Solutions Inc, where they worked.

Tianjin, one of China’s oldest university institutions, is located about 100 miles southeast of Beijing.

Both companies manufacture Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator (FBAR) technology, which is used in mobile devices like cellphones, tablets and GPS devices, but also has military applications.

Between 2006 and 2007, the spies hatched a plan to start manufacturing the technology in China and met with Tianjin University officials, prosecutors said.

If convicted, the spies could be sentenced to up to 50 years in prison each.

The indictment against the six was released at a time of intense diplomatic activity between the two major world powers and comes as Secretary of State John Kerry was in China for the weekend, partly to prepare for a U.S. visit by President Xi Jinping coming later this year.

Two Russian Special Forces Officers Caught In Ukraine Invasion

Entertainment News

Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the identity of two fighters captured in Ukraine as former members of the Russian military. The admission is further proof that Russian, not rebel, troops are fighting in the Donbass area of Ukraine.

The Russian soldiers, Alexander Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev, whom were captured in the rebel-controlled Luhansk area, “were not active servicemen in the Russian armed forces at the moment of their capture on May 17,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Monday.

“We have checked up on the information of the Ukrainian side — these boys previously have in fact served in one of the Russian military units and have military training,” Konashenkov said.

The Russian army is going to some trouble to obscure its leading the annexation of Crimea, with separatists in Luhansk releasing photos of their rebel-issued military IDs, both dated this year, to ‘prove’ they are not Russian military.

However Ukraine identified the fighters as officers of the GRU, the foreign military intelligence arm of Russia’s army, and released video showing the men confessing they had been part of a special forces spying mission.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Both we and the Defense Ministry have said multiple times that there are no Russian servicemen in the Donbass.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also repeatedly denied that Russian troops invaded Ukraine, saying “I am telling you openly and unambiguously: There are no Russian troops in Ukraine.”

All this despite sophisticated Russia missile systems, tanks, small arms and military servicemen clearly observable invading Ukraine.

Largest Ever Consumer Recall Begins Over Failed Airbags

Finance

An estimated 33.8 million vehicles are defective thanks to Japanese air bag manufacturer Takata Corp. it was announced Tuesday. The company acknowledged wide-ranging problems with its airbags in a move that is expected to lead to the largest U.S. recall of any consumer product, surpassing the 1982 recall of 31 million bottles of Tylenol following a poison scare.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx confirmed the decision by Takata. The sweeping announcement is a major victory for the National Highway Safety Administration, which has been pressing Takata since November to declare millions of vehicles defective.

The faulty bags are linked to at least six deaths and more than 100 injuries. The issue is caused when propellant explodes with too much force and sends dangerous metal shrapnel flying like a bomb. Officials link the problem to high humidity and moisture, though the precise root cause is still not known.

Takata will announce it has filed four defect information reports with U.S. auto safety officials declaring that 33.8 million vehicles with both driver and passenger airbag inflators are defective. The news follows the 13 million vehcile that have been recalled since 2003 over similar issues, which Automakers recalled vehicles even as Takata refused to admit the parts were defective.

The total number of vehicles impacted could be even higher but vehicle owners will not know for days whether their vehicles are affected.

10 automakers — BMW AG, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Honda Motor Co., Mazda Motor Co., Mitsubishi, Nissan Motor Co., Subaru Motors USA and Toyota Motor Corp. — launched an industry-wide joint testing initiative to determine which of their models are affected.

The announcement came as NHTSA was preparing to demand that Takata declare the bags defective, but NHTSA Administrator Rosekind praised Takata for making the decision.

“Today is a major step forward for public safety,” Foxx said Tuesday. “The Department of Transportation is taking the proactive steps necessary to ensure that defective inflators are replaced with safe ones as quickly as possible, and that the highest risks are addressed first. We will not stop our work until every air bag is replaced.”

Possible fines and other sanctions remain some time away, as the exact root cause if being determined and a final tally of the damage is calculated.

Facebook’s Internet.org Scheme Blasted By Rights Activists

Entertainment News

Facebook’s thinly disguised plan to control all content on the internet, Internet.org, received more harsh criticism on Tuesday. Rights activist group The Electronic Frontier Foundation condemned the Internet.org project, saying it runs “a real risk” of turning the few websites Facebook selects, “including, of course, Facebook itself”, into a “ghetto” for poor internet users – instead of being a stepping stone to the full world wide web.

Internet.org’s stated goal is to “bring the two thirds of the world who don’t yet have internet access” onto the network, but just what that network constitutes is entirely up to Facebook.

Because of bandwidth restrictions due to the rural location and large number of users, something must be done to ensure there is enough internet for all. Yet Facebook has chosen to limit access to what can be browsed in order to save resources. This puts Facebook into the position of grand arbiter of what gets seem on the ‘internet’ and what does not. The company has already made clear it intends to exclude competitors like Google and Youtube.

A fair way to allocate net resources is via access cards – get cheap internet access and use it for whatever you want – even if that mean. But Facebook is looking to play favorites, effectively indoctrinating a who generation of new users that the Facebook Web is the real Web.

The EFF took issue with exactly this, stating that:

We agree that some Internet access is better than none, and if that is what Internet.org actually provided—for example, through a uniformly rate-limited or data-capped free service—then it would have our full support. But it doesn’t. Instead, it continues to impose conditions and restraints that not only make it something less than a true Internet service, but also endanger people’s privacy and security.

The group is particularly critical of Internet.org’s plan to disallow HTTPS connections, the EFF breaks down a recent announcement by the Zuck regarding the expansion of the platform.

The EFF complains that only some devices, such as Android phones running the official app, will have the technical ability to make encrypted connections through Internet.org, which would easily expose political parties and activists, among others, to spying by governments.

Such spying, in places like West Africa, have led to mass slaughter of political rivals or abductions and harassment for aid groups or rights activists. The fear is that under Internet.org’s plan the spying will become pervasive and could enable coups or other violent conflicts thanks to easy information collection.

But regardless of the inherently flawed technical details of the program, there are other more troubling issues according to the EFF

Even if Facebook were able to figure out a way to support HTTPS proxying on feature phones, its position as Internet gatekeepers remains more broadly troublesome. By setting themselves up as gatekeepers for free access to (portions of) the global Internet, Facebook and its partners have issued an open invitation for governments and special interest groups to lobby, cajole or threaten them to withhold particular content from their service. In other words, Internet.org would be much easier to censor than a true global Internet.

The EFF concludes: “We have confidence that it would be possible to provide a limited free Internet access service that is secure, and that doesn’t rely on Facebook and its partners to maintain a central list of approved sites. Until then, Internet.org will not be living up to its promise, or its name.”

It’s always wise to beware of billionaires bearing gifts, it seems.

Google – Uber War Heats Up As Uber Joins Baidu In Nokia Maps Bid

Finance

The battle between Uber and its largest investor, Google, heated up as Chinese search giant Baidu, Google’s largest Asian rival, joined Uber in bidding for Nokia’s mapping data unit, HERE.

Uber kicked off the bidding war for HERE less than two weeks ago but the price has escalated and the alliances are said to have shifted.

It was initially reported in the New York Times that Chinese Web search giant Baidu was bidding with the big three of Germany’s car business, Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Now, its rumored that Baidu and Uber linking arms, along with Apax Partners.

Bloomberg, the news outlet with the source, says the German manufacturers appear to be behind in the running while the key rival bid is now China’s Tencent Holdings, NavInfo, and Swedish fund EQT Partners.

The price is said to have risen from US$3 billion to $4 billion, and Nokia looks likely to keep the bidding war going for awhile longer. The three German manufacturers are still in the race, and the next round of bids are due in two weeks.

“Microsoft Corp. has offered to buy a minority stake, while three US private-equity firms – Hellman & Friedman, Silver Lake Management and Thoma Bravo – are also in the running”, Bloomberg reported.

Does 1.3 Homicides Per Day Make Baltimore Secure?

News

The riots, looting, and arson may not currently be an issue in Baltimore, but severe violence has persisted. While after three weeks most of America has moved on, believing that the drama is for the large part over, the reality is that since the riots, the murder rate in the city has skyrocketed, with 23 homicides in the last 18 days alone.

Yet slayings have attracted little notice compared to the mass protests and violence over the death of Freddie Gray. They come as the city works to recover from the unrest and a police force fights being demoralized by the arrests of six of its members — three of whom face murder or manslaughter charges in Gray’s death.

From mid-April to mid-May, 31 people were killed, and 39 others were wounded. 10 people were shot on a single day on two separate occasions. As of Friday, the city’s homicide count is 91, 21 above last year at the same time.

In the District, 40 people had been slain as of Friday, excluding four people found dead Thursday in cases police said are being investigated as homicides.

Clearly, something is deeply wrong in Baltimore and nobody is doing anything about it.

Term Limits Needed: 79 Members Of Congress Have Been In Office Over 20 Years

News

It’s little wonder Washington never changes when you look at how long elected officials stay in office. New data from site RollCall.com shows fully 79 members of Congress have been there since the early 90s.

Worse is that much of this dead wood is now seriously powerful, helping shape our country for decades to come, despite being out of touch with working Americans. Names like Reid, Feinstein, McConnell, McCain, Pelosi, Boehner, Rangel and Boxer show just how bad the situation has become.

While they no doubt believe that they are “serving” us well, they appear to be mostly just serving themselves. Given congress has a 15 percent approval rating it appears without a doubt most Americans wish for true change to come to Washington.

The problem isn’t new, either, as the approval rating has been consistently below 20 percent since mid-2011.

Yet while the overwhelming majority of Americans disapprove of congress, incumbents were re-elected at a 95 percent rate in 2014, showing just how broken and corrupt our system has become.

The American people absolutely hate what congress is doing, and yet the same crooks keep getting sent back to Washington time and again.

Our founding fathers never intended for service in congress to become a career, but that is precisely what it has become. In addition to the 79 members of congress that have been in office over 20 years, and there are 16 members that have been in office over 30 years.

So remember these names the next time you get the opportunity to tell congress how you feel.

Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Jan. 4, 1977
Thad Cochran, Miss. Dec. 27, 1978
Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Jan. 5, 1981
Mitch McConnell, Ky. Jan. 3, 1985
Richard C. Shelby, Ala. Jan. 6, 1987
John McCain, Ariz. Jan. 6, 1987
James M. Inhofe, Okla. Nov. 30, 1994

Patrick J. Leahy, Vt. Jan. 14, 1975
Barbara A. Mikulski, Md. Jan. 6, 1987
Harry Reid, Nev. Jan. 6, 1987
Dianne Feinstein, Calif. Nov. 4, 1992
Barbara Boxer, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993
Patty Murray, Wash. Jan. 5, 1993

Don Young, Alaska March 6, 1973
Jim Sensenbrenner, Wis. Jan. 15, 1979
Harold Rogers, Ky. Jan. 5, 1981
Christopher H. Smith, N.J. Jan. 5, 1981
Joe L. Barton, Texas Jan. 3, 1985
Lamar Smith, Texas Jan. 6, 1987
Fred Upton, Mich. Jan. 6, 1987
John J. Duncan Jr., Tenn. Nov. 8, 1988
Dana Rohrabacher, Calif. Jan. 3, 1989
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Fla. Aug. 29, 1989
John A. Boehner, Ohio Jan. 3, 1991
Sam Johnson, Texas May 18, 1991
Ken Calvert, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993
Robert W. Goodlatte, Va. Jan. 5, 1993
Peter T. King, N.Y. Jan. 5, 1993
John L. Mica, Fla. Jan. 5, 1993
Ed Royce, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993
Frank D. Lucas, Okla. May 10, 1994
Rodney Frelinghuysen, N.J. Jan. 4, 1995
Walter B. Jones, N.C. Jan. 4, 1995
Frank A. LoBiondo, N.J. Jan. 4, 1995
Mac Thornberry, Texas Jan. 4, 1995
Edward Whitfield, Ky. Jan. 4, 1995

John Conyers Jr., Mich. Jan. 4, 1965
Charles B. Rangel, N.Y. Jan. 21, 1971
Steny H. Hoyer, Md. May 19, 1981
Marcy Kaptur, Ohio Jan. 3, 1983
Sander M. Levin, Mich. Jan. 3, 1983
Peter J. Visclosky, Ind. Jan. 3, 1985
Peter A. DeFazio, Ore. Jan. 6, 1987
John Lewis, Ga. Jan. 6, 1987
Louise M. Slaughter, N.Y. Jan. 6, 1987
Nancy Pelosi, Calif. June 2, 1987
Frank Pallone Jr., N.J. Nov. 8, 1988
Eliot L. Engel, N.Y. Jan. 3, 1989
Nita M. Lowey, N.Y. Jan. 3, 1989
Jim McDermott, Wash. Jan. 3, 1989
Richard E. Neal, Mass. Jan. 3, 1989
José E. Serrano, N.Y. March 20, 1990
David E. Price, N.C. Jan. 7, 1997 Also served 1987-95
Rosa DeLauro, Conn. Jan. 3, 1991
Collin C. Peterson, Minn. Jan. 3, 1991
Maxine Waters, Calif. Jan. 3, 1991
Jerrold Nadler, N.Y. Nov. 3, 1992
Jim Cooper, Tenn. Jan. 7, 2003 Also served 1983-95
Xavier Becerra, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993
Sanford D. Bishop Jr., Ga. Jan. 5, 1993
Corrine Brown, Fla. Jan. 5, 1993
James E. Clyburn, S.C. Jan. 5, 1993
Anna G. Eshoo, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993
Gene Green, Texas Jan. 5, 1993
Luis V. Gutierrez, Ill. Jan. 5, 1993
Alcee L. Hastings, Fla. Jan. 5, 1993
Eddie Bernice Johnson, Texas Jan. 5, 1993
Carolyn B. Maloney, N.Y. Jan. 5, 1993
Lucille Roybal-Allard, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993
Bobby L. Rush, Ill. Jan. 5, 1993
Robert C. Scott, Va. Jan. 5, 1993
Nydia M. Velázquez, N.Y. Jan. 5, 1993
Bennie Thompson, Miss. April 13, 1993
Sam Farr, Calif. June 8, 1993
Lloyd Doggett, Texas Jan. 4, 1995
Mike Doyle, Pa. Jan. 4, 1995
Chaka Fattah, Pa. Jan. 4, 1995
Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Jan. 4, 1995
Zoe Lofgren, Calif. Jan. 4, 1995

Get Ready For More WhatsApp Spam

Finance

WhatsApp, the popular mobile messaging service owned by privacy monetizer Facebook, will be opening its platform up to businesses, allowing them to communicate with their customers. While its a way to monetize the service it will also leave users vulnerable to spam.

The reports come directly from Facebook chief financial officer David Wehner, who spoke about the plans at a tech conference in Boston.

“We think that enabling that B2C [business-to-consumer] messaging has good business potential for us. As we learn those things, I think there’s going to be opportunities to bring some of those things to WhatsApp, but that’s more longer term.”

Facebook already opened its Messenger service up to developers, allowing them to create apps and allowing shoppers to communicate directly with retailers.

WhatsApp, an arm of Facebook, will likely use some functions that are being tested with Facebook Messenger.

The popular messaging service, acquired by Facebook for $22 billion, has a user base of 800 million.

Boko Haram Joins ISIS In Using Mass Rape As Strategy

Entertainment News

While Islamic terror groups preach about high morals and strict adherence to middle ages law it seems almost all of them have rape as a founding value. ISIS, the middle eastern terror network, commonly traffics in children and women while in Nigeria another terror outfit, Boko Haram, are also using the technique.

Boko Haram, officials say, have been raping kidnapped schoolgirls in the hopes of breeding a new generation of fighters

In interviews published in Monday’s New York Times, some of the hundreds of women kidnapped said they were locked in houses by the dozen and forced to engage in sexual relations with the Islamist fighters.

“They chose the ones they wanted to ‘marry’,” said a 25-year-old Hamsatu, who is four months pregnant with one of the Islamist’s babies. “If anybody shouts, they said they would shoot them.”

Dozens of newly freed girls, many pregnant, have been showing up at a refugee camp near Maiduguri, as Nigerian soldiers continue to repel Boko Haram forces from the region and free their sex slaves.

Most of the 15,000 people who are at the camp are women of which over 200 are pregnant. Many more may be carrying the unwanted children of militants.

“The sect leaders make a very conscious effort to impregnate the women,” Borno governor Kashim Shettima said. “Some of them, I was told, even pray before mating, offering supplications for God to make the products of what they are doing become children that will inherit their ideology.”

Many contracted HIV from the rapes and were subjected to sexual violence while as young as 11.

The Nigerian army rescued hundreds of women and children from the Islamist fighters in northern Nigeria’s Sambisa Forest several weeks ago. It was a major operation that has turned international attention to the systematic rape of hostages.

Hundreds of enslaved girls were released into the care of authorities at a refugee camp in the eastern town of Yola.

“They didn’t allow us to move an inch,” said one of the freed women “If you needed the toilet, they followed you. We were kept in one place. We were under bondage.

“We thank God to be alive today. We thank the Nigerian army for saving our lives,” she added.

UK Government Secretly Changes Laws To Allow Illegal Spying

Entertainment News

If anyone still thought legal challenges to surveillance are possible, think again. After, against all odds, succeeding in the United Kingdom it appears lawmakers will simply change the laws to allow for the otherwise illegal spying – even resorting to secret methods that blatantly short circuit democracy.

The UK has seen several cases against the GCHQ (their NSA) by rights group Privacy International. In May 2014 it had the GCHQ’s activities ruled illegal under the Computer Misuse Act (CMA), which criminalizes breaking into digital systems.

But a year later, and mere hours before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal hearing of Privacy International’s complaint against GCHQ, the UK government

quietly introduced legislation on June 6th 2014 that would amend the CMA to provide a new exception for law enforcement and GCHQ to hack without criminal liability. The change not only affects Privacy International’s claim, but also grants UK law enforcement new leeway to potentially conduct cyber attacks within the UK.

So while the UK government conceded that GCHQ’s activities were illegal they ‘fixed’ that problem by simply changing the law to make them legal.

But the real issue here is the fact that this change was pushed through with no debate or formal hearing on laws, which is the hallmark of democracy. Instead, according to Privacy International

it appears no regulators, commissioners responsible for overseeing the intelligence agencies, the Information Commissioner’s Office, industry, NGOs or the public were notified or consulted about the proposed legislative changes. There was no published Privacy Impact Assessment. Only the Ministry of Justice, Crown Prosecution Service, Scotland Office, Northern Ireland Office, GCHQ, Police and National Crime Agency were consulted as stakeholders. There was no public debate.

This is secret law-making, where the only people consulted are those who will benefit. It shows that along with secret surveillance comes secret courts making secret laws. The UK case illustrates the slippery slope of secret police, in that once they start it becomes necessary to make secret vast swaths of the democratic process, turning it from democracy into rule by a few.

Supreme Court Rules Felons Can Transfer Or Sell Their Guns

News

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday in Henderson v. United States that felons may transfer firearms to independent third parties or have them sold. The move is a strong support of property rights as prior to the ruling felons were usually required to forfeit their guns to the state.

Convicts with significant firearms collections have long faced disproportionate penalties with current forfeiture policies. The more guns owned, the greater the penalty. In many cases the collections can be a significant portion of their net worth and forfeiture prevents a collector from mounting a proper legal defense.

The new decision reverse that of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which ruled that a felon might still exert control over those firearms if they were not seized.

In its ruling, the supreme court rejected the government’s main premise based on the theory of “unclean hands,” and concluded that the prohibition on firearm possession did not extend to firearm transfers. The court did say that justice officials are permitted to “seek certain assurances” that may still “fail to provide adequate safeguard, [in which case] a court should then disapprove of the transfer.”

The man lodging the case, Tony Henderson, was arrested for a felony offense in 2006 and was forced to turn over his collection of firearms to federal agents as a condition of his release. The collection included a number of valuable items and antiques.

In 2008 Henderson requested that the court transfer ownership of his weapons to his wife or a third party that agreed to pay for them, and clearly stated he would not possess any of the weapons personally or via proxy.

What The U.S. Government Isn’t Telling You About Online Drug Marketplaces

Health & Wellness

The leader of Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, was convicted in February of operating the world’s largest online drug marketplace, Silk Road, under the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts.

Law enforcement and the Justice Department have publicly vilified but Ulbricht and the marketplace he ran. Yet while there were no doubt serious misdeed by Ulbricht, namely soliciting murder-for-hire schemes, his drug marketplace was actually far safer than any corner drug dealer.

So while the government trumpets their case and tries to scare online drug users, they’re actually causing more harm than the marketplaces themselves.

Why? Because Ulbricht’s marketplace had a doctor on staff. They paid a licensed doctor to help keep the site’s customers healthier, safer, and better informed—even if it meant quitting drugs all together—according

And there’s now a whole dark net project devoted to helping drug users to reduce harm.

The man who filled this role is Dr. Fernando Caudevilla, a Spanish physician specializing in drugs and addiction

Known in the underworld as ‘DoctorX’, he began in early 2013 by offering free professional advice to the drug users of Silk Road. Unlike everyone else on the site, DoctorX revealed his real identity from the start.

“Dread Pirate Roberts never censored my views or advice in any way,” Caudevilla wrote in a sworn statement, “even when I espoused views that Silk Road users should not use or buy certain drugs sold on the site (particularly Legal High or Research Chemicals, new synthetic drugs that have not been tested in humans and that have a higher potential for harm compared with other drugs), discouraged drug use, or helped Silk Road customers to reduce or cease drug use entirely.”

Lead defense attorney Joshua Dratel argued that Silk Road “consciously and deliberately included recognized harm-reduction measures,” like product testing and physician counseling, making the black market “significantly safer than traditional illegal drug purchases.”

New filings from Ulbricht’s case show support for this position from notable academics: Monica Barratt, a research fellow at Australia’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Center, and independent researcher Tim Bingham.

Both argue that Silk Road was a dramatic and conscientious improvement over all other options for the drug users who patronized it.

After five months as a volunteer, Caudevilla informed Ulbricht that “the time commitment required to answer all questions and keep up with the forum thread had become too great.” Immediately the man behind Silk Road offered a $500 paycheck to keep Caudevilla working on Silk Road. This rate was consistent for anyone else who worked on the site and meant at least a part-time commitment from the doctor.

Caudevilla accepted the offer and took the money—paid in Bitcoin, of course.

“He’s amazing. A gift to this community,” one user wrote about DoctorX on the Silk Road 2.0 forum. “His knowledge is invaluable, and never comes with any judgment.”

Ulbricht had bigger plans, recognizing the value such medical advice would bring to drug users to he sought a partnership with Caudevilla “to send the drugs sold on the Silk Road out to laboratories for independent testing as part of an effort to ensure that only safe, non-toxic substances were being sold on Silk Road,” Caudevilla explained.

Caudevilla began developing a drug-testing project, now known as Energy Control, to help dark net customers better understand if their drugs were safe or not.

“At the time the Silk Road website was shut down by law enforcement, we were still working on the project,” Caudevilla said.

Yet today, Energy Control provides just such an anonymous drug testing service. Since the fall of Silk Road, Caudevilla’s work and that of his professional successors has attracted greater attention around the world.

Why? Because by studying, rather than vilifying, online drug marketplaces Caudevilla has found that drugs from the Dark Net are “much higher quality” than what you’re going to find on the street.

While that means a better high it also, more importantly, means they are safer because they’re less likely to be cut with dangerous extra ingredients.

So while the government locks Ulbricht up and throws away the key its important to remember that online drug marketplaces are, in fact, safer and better for public health than local drug dealers.

Super Star President Putin Scores 8 Goals In ‘All Star’ Hockey Game

Entertainment News

The latest propaganda for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin dropped this weekend in none other than Sochi, Russia, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics. The Russian dictator squared off against retired NHL players in a celebrity All-Star ice hockey game on Saturday that yielded a predictable result: Putin won.

Featured on a line alongside Pavel Bure, one of the greatest goal scorers in NHL history, and former Colorado Avalanche ace Valeri Kamensky, the 62-year-old Putin scored eight goals. His team won 18 to 6.

While both the play and the outcome are laughable, it shows the degree to which the Russians will go to advance both Pro-Russian and Pro-Putin propaganda. American defense planners have taken note of a recent uptick in Russian propaganda – fake or otherwise – in order to better defend against blatant lies turning into accepted fact. Putin also uses the propaganda to legitimize his personal rule over the country and retain control of key backers.

Here are some of the strange highlights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN2FMGRTvoc