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German inflation spiked higher in May as food prices surge

Food
© Flickr.com/yanyanyanyanyan/cc-by-nc
Annual German inflation grew faster than forecast in May, rising to 1.5 per cent, the statistics office said Wednesday.

The cost of living in Europe's biggest economy slumped to a two-and-a-half year low of 1.2 per cent in April.

The May rise was fueled by a 5.3-per-cent surge in food prices, which came after prolonged winter weather helped to drive up the cost of fruit and vegetables.

The cost of energy and services also accelerated in May, the statistics office said.

Eye 1

Mass surveillance in America

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© pasadenaweekly.com
It shouldn't surprise. It's longstanding policy. Post-9/11, it escalated. Previous articles said Big Brother is real. It's no longer fiction.

Mass surveillance is official US policy. It's not for national security. It's not about discovering terror or other threats. None whatever exist. Claiming otherwise doesn't wash. Big Lies substitute for vital truths.

What's ongoing reflects unchecked power. It's for unchallenged global dominance. It's secret with no oversight for good reason. It's unconstitutional. Societies governed this way are lawless. People living in them aren't free.

America never was a democracy. It wasn't created to be one. It's not one now. Freedom is verboten. It's vanishing in plain sight. Wealth, power and privilege alone matter. Police state terror targets non-believers.

Pistol

Medics: 28 dead as protesters attack ex-Libya rebel HQ

At least 28 people were killed and 60 were wounded on Saturday when demonstrators attacked the headquarters in Benghazi of former rebels who had fought to oust Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi, a hospital official said.

"We have so far identified 28 people dead and some 60 injured," a doctor at the Al-Jala hospital in the eastern city told AFP, more than doubling an earlier toll.

Fighting erupted after dozens of demonstrators, some of them armed, tried to dislodge the powerful "Shield of Libya" brigade from its barracks in Benghazi, said an AFP correspondent at the scene.

They encircled the headquarters and called on regular security forces to step in.

Libya's post-Kadhafi authorities, who have still not managed to form a professional new army and police corps, often call on the "Shield of Libya" to intervene in the various tribal conflicts that trouble the country.

Adel Tarhuni, spokesman for the Shield of Libya group, said one member of the brigade had died and another seven were wounded. Tarhuni also defended the "legitimacy" of the brigade, saying it officially came under the umbrella of the defence ministry.

He reported that a peaceful demonstration in front of the brigade's headquarters had been infiltrated by armed aggressors.

Bad Guys

"It isn't just the BBC" - Bill Maloney and Ben Fellows attack the paedophile dens


Comment: Forget Savile, pedophiles are everywhere in the British entertainment industry


Red Flag

New York Times quietly edits editorial to make it less damning of Obama

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The New York Times edited its damning editorial condemning the Obama administration for collecting phone call data from Americans to make it less stinging shortly after the editorial was published online Thursday afternoon.

The editorial originally declared that the Obama "administration has lost all credibility" as a result of the recently revealed news that the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been secretly collecting call data from American users of Verizon under the authority of the Patriot Act.

But hours later the stinging sentence had been modified to read the Obama "administration has now lost all credibility on this issue." [Emphasis added]

According to NewsDiffs.com, a website which tracks changes to online articles, at 3:34 p.m. ET the editorial damned the Obama administration generally and by 7:09 p.m. ET it had been edited to damn the Obama administration more narrowly over its collection of call data.

NewsDiffs also showed that several other modifications had been made to the editorial, but none as significant as its change to the originally broad condemnation of the Obama administration.

The new version of the article contains no indication that it has been changed.

Comment: Perhaps some NYT editors became worried about a possible loss of "access". As Glenn Greenwald says in the article below, "The overwhelming, driving bias of the US media is subservience to power, whoever happens to be wielding it. "
'Freedom' of the press: Journalism in the Obama age shows the real media bias


Whistle

Best of the Web: NSA surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I am not afraid, because this is the choice I've made'

snowden nsa whistleblower
© The GuardianSnowden is a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA
The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA's history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows

The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.

The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said.

Snowden will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world's most secretive organisations - the NSA.


Comment: Snowden's reply to why he become a whistleblower: "I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things ... I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under."


Arrow Up

Europe, Nations around the world rejecting Monsanto


Likely the most hated corporation in the world, Monsanto definitely isn't winning any popularity contests. But like the delusional "mean girl" in high school, they still think they have a chance at being crowned prom queen purely on the basis of their money. According to MarketWatch, Monsanto announced last week that they will not be seeking approval for new genetically modified seeds in Europe because no one there seems to want it.

A spokesperson for the huge company says it makes no sense to fight for approval when there is such little demand for their products in the region.

People 2

The people who don't want to have sex with anybody ever

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Minerva isn't gay. A fluid conversationalist, the Massachusetts native has been artfully rehashing this point for the last three hours.

"I have been told I could easily be mistaken as a lesbian" she says, gesturing to her cropped, copper hair as evidence. "Which is not a bad thing."

Minerva isn't a lesbian, she says, but she certainly isn't straight. At 29 years old, Minerva, who asked that she be identified by the name of her Tumblr, has never had a romantic relationship. She calls herself "asexual" meaning she doesn't experience sexual attraction. To anyone.

To the deep chagrin of some members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, Minerva also uses the word "queer" to define her sexuality. A re-appropriated term of endearment for sexual minorities, "queer" is as emotionally charged as it is oddly exclusive, and there is an ongoing, online debate about whether she should feel comfortable using it to self-identify. In some corners of the internet, that debate has turned to all out war.

In October 2011, an outreach organisation called Asexual Awareness Week released a "Community Census" that polled data from over 3,000 asexual-identifying people. In the survey, more than 40 percent of respondents said they consider themselves members of the LGBT community, and another 38 percent said they consider themselves "allies" or supporters of the community.

Info

The 150 things the world's smartest people are afraid of

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Every year, the online magazine Edge--the so-called smartest website in the world, helmed by science impresario John Brockman--asks top scientists, technologists, writers, and academics to weigh in on a single question. This year, that query was "What Should We Be Worried About?", and the idea was to identify new problems arising in science, tech, and culture that haven't yet been widely recognized.

This year's respondents include former presidents of the Royal Society, Nobel prize-winners, famous sci-fi authors, Nassem Nicholas Taleb, Brian Eno, and a bunch of top theoretical physicists, psychologists, and biologists. And the list is long. Like, book-length long. There are some 150 different things that worry 151 of the planet's biggest brains. And I read about them all, so you don't have to: here's the Buzzfeedized version, with the money quote, title, or summary of the fear pulled out of each essay. Obviously, go read the rest if any of the below get you fretting too.

What keeps the smartest folks in the world awake at night? Here goes:

1. The proliferation of Chinese eugenics. - Geoffrey Miller, evolutionary psychologist.

2. Black swan events, and the fact that we continue to rely on models that have been proven fraudulent. - Nassem Nicholas Taleb

3. That we will be unable to defeat viruses by learning to push them beyond the error catastrophe threshold. - William McEwan, molecular biology researcher

4. That pseudoscience will gain ground. - Helena Cronin, author, philospher

5. That the age of accelerating technology will overwhelm us with opportunities to be worried. - Dan Sperber, social and cognitive scientist

6. Genuine apocalyptic events. The growing number of low-probability events that could lead to the total devastation of human society. - Martin Rees, former president of the Royal Society

7. The decline in science coverage in newspapers. - Barbara Strauch, New York Times science editor

Windsock

Recession out of the picture as Fermanagh puts on a brave face for G8 leaders

County's makeover plan branded 'a big lie' as reality of recession is hidden
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© Bryan Oโ€™BrienStickers applied to the windows of a former butcherโ€™s shop in Belcoo, Co Fermanagh, give the premises the superficial appearance of a thriving business
Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent on a Fermanagh facelift as the county prepares for the G8 summit in just under three weeks' time, but locals complain the work paid for by the local council and the Stormont Executive is little more than skin deep.

More than 100 properties within range of the sumptuous Lough Erne resort which hosts the world's wealthiest leaders, have been tidied up, painted or power-hosed.

However, locals say the makeover only serves to hide a deeper malaise which US president Barack Obama, German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Franรงois Hollande and others will not get to see.

Two shops in Belcoo, right on the border with Blacklion, Co Cavan, have been painted over to appear as thriving businesses. The reality, as in other parts of the county, is rather more stark.

Just a few weeks ago, Flanagan's - a former butcher's and vegetable shop in the neat village - was cleaned and repainted with bespoke images of a thriving business placed in the windows. Any G8 delegate passing on the way to discuss global capitalism would easily be fooled into thinking that all is well with the free-market system in Fermanagh. But, the facts are different.

Comment: Remember Potemkin villages?