NSA Secretly Expands Internet Spying at U.S. Border
June 4th, 2015Via: New York Times:
Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified N.S.A. documents.
Leaked TISA Documents Reveal Privacy Threat
June 4th, 2015Via: Forbes:
Under the draft provisions of the latest trade deal to be leaked by Wikileaks, countries could be barred from trying to control where their citizens’ personal data is held or whether it’s accessible from outside the country.
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And the contents of TISA make interesting reading, particularly for anybody concerned about privacy. Under the draft agreement, the EU would be barred from requiring the personal data of its citizens to be held within European borders, an idea currently under discussion in Germany.
“No Party may require a service supplier, as a condition for supplying a service or investing in its territory, to: (a) use computing facilities located in the Party’s territory,” the leaked draft stipulates.
“No Party may require a service supplier, as a condition for supplying a service or investing in its territory, to: (a) use computing facilities located in the Party’s territory.”
Related: Latest WikiLeaks TiSA Releases
29 Percent of Elderly Americans Have No Retirement Savings
June 4th, 2015Via: CNBC:
How bad is America doing when it comes to retirement savings? The Government Accountability Office looked into the question, and its answer is sobering.
A new GAO analysis finds that among households with members aged 55 or older, nearly 29 percent have neither retirement savings nor a traditional pension plan.
Two More Finance Firm Employees Dead
June 3rd, 2015They’re starting to go two at a time now.
Thomas Hughes: Investment Banker Jumps To His Death In NYC
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Thousands of Teenage Girls Enduring Debilitating Illnesses After Routine School Cancer Vaccination
June 3rd, 2015Via: Independent:
Mrs Ryalls reported Emily’s condition to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). In the 10 years to April this year the agency received almost 22,000 “spontaneous suspected” adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports in 13 routine immunisation categories including flu, MMR, tetanus, diphtheria and polio, according to a Freedom of Information response released earlier this month.
In the HPV category alone, ADRs numbered 8,228, of which 2,587 were classified as “serious” – defined by several criteria, including whether it resulted in hospitalisation or was deemed life threatening.
The MHRA said that the figures did not reflect the true amount of ADRs because of an “unknown and variable level of under-reporting”. The agency estimates it receives about 10 per cent of all reports, suggesting the actual number of girls suffering ADRs could be tens of thousands.
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However, other countries are taking action following reports of increasing numbers of girls suffering side effects. A Danish TV documentary broadcast earlier this year highlighted the large number of girls who appear to have been affected following their HPV vaccination. Some, like those the Ryalls have met in the UK, are now wheelchair-bound.
Last year, Japan withdrew its recommendation for the HPV vaccine because of reported side effects.
In an article published last week in the Springer journal Clinical Rheumatology, Dr Manuel Martinez-Lavin, who has been treating people with chronic pain conditions for more than 30 years, said these illnesses are “more frequent after HPV vaccination”.
Editors of World’s Most Prestigious Medical Journals: “Much of the Scientific Literature, Perhaps HALF, May Simply Be Untrue”
June 3rd, 2015Via: Zerohedge:
Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine are the two most prestigious medical journals in the world.
It is therefore striking that their chief editors have both publicly written that corruption is undermining science.
The editor in chief of Lancet, Richard Horton, wrote last month:
Much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.
Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em: Australian Electricity Retailers Selling Battery Systems to Customers with Solar
June 2nd, 2015In other news, Meridian CEO Mark Binns shits the bed. haha
Here’s another one for you, Mark: New Zealand Solar Uptake Triples. Have a nice day.
Via: Sydney Morning Herald:
Snowy Hydro’s retail arm Red Energy, ActewAGL and Queensland’s Ergon Energy will trial a home battery system made by Panasonic in a bid to ensure they don’t miss out on a “revolution” set to hit the Australian energy supply market.
The three retailers expect to start commercial sales of the eight kilowatt-hour, lithium-ion storage system in October.
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Several electricity retailers were late catching on to the massive swing by households to solar PV and are making sure they get in early on battery storage. Major player AGL Energy, with 3.8 million customers, launched its first initial battery product last month, a 6 kW unit, while arch rival Origin Energy is set to introduce one later this year.
DHS Red Teams Get Weapons and Explosives Through Airport Security Checkpoints 95% of Time
June 2nd, 2015What are they getting us ready for here?
Via: ABC:
An internal investigation of the Transportation Security Administration revealed security failures at dozens 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, ABC News has learned.
The series of tests were conducted by Homeland Security Red Teams who pose as passengers, setting out to beat the system.
According to officials briefed on the results of a recent Homeland Security Inspector General’s report, TSA agents failed 67 out of 70 tests, with Red Team members repeatedly able to get potential weapons through checkpoints.
In one test an undercover agent was stopped after setting off an alarm at a magnetometer, but TSA screeners failed to detect a fake explosive device that was taped to his back during a follow-on pat down.
Officials would not divulge the exact time period of the testing other than to say it concluded recently.
Fatal Police Shootings in 2015 Approaching 400 Nationwide
June 2nd, 2015Via: Washington Post:
In an alley in Denver, police gunned down a 17-year-old girl joyriding in a stolen car. In the backwoods of North Carolina, police opened fire on a gun-wielding moonshiner. And in a high-rise apartment in Birmingham, Ala., police shot an elderly man after his son asked them to make sure he was okay. Douglas Harris, 77, answered the door with a gun.
The three are among at least 385 people shot and killed by police nationwide during the first five months of this year, more than two a day, according to a Washington Post analysis. That is more than twice the rate of fatal police shootings tallied by the federal government over the past decade, a count that officials concede is incomplete.
Related: U.S. Police Killed More People in March Than UK Police Did in 20th Century
FBI Behind Mysterious Surveillance Aircraft Over U.S. Cities
June 2nd, 2015Via: AP:
The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology — all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned.
The planes’ surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge’s approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. In a recent 30-day period, the agency flew above more than 30 cities in 11 states across the country, an AP review found.
Aerial surveillance represents a changing frontier for law enforcement, providing what the government maintains is an important tool in criminal, terrorism or intelligence probes. But the program raises questions about whether there should be updated policies protecting civil liberties as new technologies pose intrusive opportunities for government spying.
U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed for the first time the wide-scale use of the aircraft, which the AP traced to at least 13 fake companies, such as FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services. Even basic aspects of the program are withheld from the public in censored versions of official reports from the Justice Department’s inspector general.
