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The "Dark Mail Alliance": Keeping the NSA out of your email

Ryan Gallagher
Slate
Wed, 30 Oct 2013 12:01 UTC
Edward J. Snowden
© Photo by AFPTV/AFP/Getty Images
Edward Snowden inspired the "Dark Mail Alliance."
Email might be on the verge of a radical makeover. And the NSA is not going to like it.

On Wednesday, two American companies with a track record of offering encrypted private communications are set to join forces in an unprecedented bid to counter dragnet Internet spying. Some of the world's top cryptographers are behind the secure communications provider Silent Circle, and they've teamed up with the founder of Lavabit, the email provider used by Edward Snowden, which recently shut down in a bid to resist surveillance. They're calling it the "Dark Mail Alliance." For months, the team has been quietly working on rebuilding email as we know it - and they claim to have had a breakthrough.

The newly developed technology has been designed to look just like ordinary email, with an interface that includes all the usual folders - inbox, sent mail, and drafts. But where it differs is that it will automatically deploy peer-to-peer encryption, so that users of the Dark Mail technology will be able to communicate securely. The encryption, based on a Silent Circle instant messaging protocol called SCIMP, will apply to both content and metadata of the message and attachments. And the secret keys generated to encrypt the communications will be ephemeral, meaning they are deleted after each exchange of messages.
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V

Remember, remember the 5th of November! Million Mask March in London


The Guardian
Wed, 06 Nov 2013 09:59 UTC
Jason N Parkinson was on the ground in central London to observe the Million Mask march. London was the biggest of the worldwide chain of protests. In Parliament Square protesters burned energy bills to oppose the rising cost of fuel and there were minor clashes with police in riot gear as demonstrators also gathered near Buckingham Palace, where a fire was started yards away from its gates. No arrests took place, according to the Metropolitan police.
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Attention

Man plunges 500 feet from helicopter in shocking California 'suicide' over Pacific Ocean


The Daily Mail, UK
Wed, 06 Nov 2013 06:19 UTC
  • Gregory McFadden, 61, jumped from a private helicopter above the Newport Beach shoreline around 1pm Tuesday
  • McFadden was given CPR after rescuers plucked him from the ocean
  • He was taken to an area hospital where he died of his critical injuries
Image

Scene: 61-year-old Gregory McFadden jumped from a helicopter near the end of Balboa Pier, here at Newport Beach, California
A man fell hundreds of feet to his death from a helicopter hovering above the shores of posh Newport Beach, California Tuesday and authorities believe it may have been a suicide.

Gregory McFadden, 61, was seen plummeting from the private aircraft into the chilly Pacific around 1pm near the beach town's Balboa Pier.

Authorities say the West Covina man simply opened the door and jumped out. He died at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian after rescuers plucked him from the ocean and began CPR.

McFadden splashed down near the pier and a busboy at a restaurant at the end of the pier watched him fall from the white Robinson R44 craft, according to Ruby's Diner general manager David Saighani.
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Stormtrooper

Cops sodomize man for traffic stop, then it gets even more terrifying


thefreethoughtproject.com
Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:02 UTC

David Eckert was shopping at Wal-mart and upon leaving he rolled through a stop sign. He could have never imagined the living nightmare that he was about to experience.

When Eckert got out of his vehicle the police thought that he appeared to be "clenching his buttocks." What followed was nothing short of torture and rape.

This poor man was driven to the first hospital which refused to do the bidding of the police on grounds of ethics. But the second hospital did not.

According to the report Eckert was x-rayed and nothing was found. Then, doctors anally penetrated Mr. Eckert, nothing was found. For a second time, Mr. Eckert's anus was penetrated, all the while he is refusing to consent, again nothing was found. After the x-ray and the two penetrations, doctors proceeded to insert an enema into Mr. Eckert's anus, and he watched in horror and disbelief as doctors searched through his stool.

However, for these sickos, it was still not enough, Eckert was given a second enema, and then a third!! Still, nothing was found. He was then given a second X-ray, nothing was found. He was then prepped for surgery, yes surgery! Mr. Eckert was given a colonoscopy and his intestines were searched. Still, no drugs were found.
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Dollar

China's latest version of Viagra comes from kangaroo testicles

Gwynn Guilford
Quartz
Mon, 04 Nov 2013 18:07 UTC
Kangaroos
© AP Photo/Mark Graham
In the wake of a spate of health scares, worries about animal welfare and a trade tussle with Russia, demand for Australia's kangaroo meat has tumbled. Fortunately, kangaroo product peddlers have an alternative: Chinese zeal for virility enhancing supplements made from kangaroo testicles. Chinese buyers are sizing up investment in the kangaroo testicle processing business, reports the Sunday Mail.

John Kreuger runs a roo processing business Chinese investors are eying. "We buy a tonne of testicles every month from roo meat processors and put them through my custom-made 'de-nutting' machine," Kreuger told the Sunday Mail.

"It squeezes out the balls and leaves behind the empty pouch." So far, Kreuger's business has relied more on selling lighters, keychains and bottle-openers fashioned from kangaroo scrota in places like Canada and California.

Australian businesses have been exporting kangaroo testicle products since at least 2011 (they're banned in Australia). A slew of manufacturers sell dDried and pulverized testicles, which can fetch up to $165 per bottle of 300 capsules (link in Chinese), on Taobao, a popular online marketplace in China.
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Question

Cows tread on Hindus in western India as part of ancient ritual


Australian Network News
Tue, 05 Nov 2013 09:53 UTC
Ancient Ritual
© Agence France-Presse
Indian villagers lie face-down in the paths of decorated cattle in a ritual to mark the Hindu New Year.
Dozens of Hindu men in western India are nursing their bruises after being trampled by cattle as part of an annual ritual to encourage God to answer their prayers.

In the centuries-old ceremony performed in the town of Garbada in Gujarat state and in other parts of the country, men lay on the ground and allowed decorated cows, considered sacred in India, to walk on them.

The ceremony was carried out on the day after Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights - one of the key events on the Hindu calendar.

While the ceremony can be painful, "there has never been a case where a person has been injured seriously or died", Bhadar Rathod, a tribal chief in Garbada, said.

The ceremony in Garbada, some 200 kilo metres from the state's main city of Ahmedabad, has become well known and is now something of a tourist attraction.

After offering prayers to the cattle, the animals are decorated with yellow, green, purple, pink and other coloured powder and embellished with peacock feathers while bells are tied to their legs.

The men then lie face down on the ground, holding their arms tightly against their bodies, and the cattle trample over them, prodded forward by other villagers, as others watch.

"It is believed that if a cow's feet touches a person, his problems will be reduced," a district official said.

Source: Agence France-Presse
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Pistol

Sources say alleged LAX shooter hated government, 'New World Order'

Doug Gross
CNN
Sat, 02 Nov 2013 18:48 UTC

Paul Anthony Ciancia was a newcomer to Los Angeles -- a 23-year-old Catholic school graduate and son of a popular Fraternal Order of Police member back in New Jersey.

According to a profile emerging of the suspected gunman, he also harbored anti-government views and fears of an ominous New World Order when he walked into Los Angeles International Airport on Friday.

Police say Ciancia pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and opened fire in the airport, killing Transportation Security Administration officer Gerardo Hernandez, 39, and wounding several others, including at least two other agents, in what appeared to be an orchestrated assault on members of the federal agency.

Comment: Yet another mind-controlled patsy?

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Stormtrooper

Cops tase father trying to save his 3-year-old son from house fire


MustWatchNewsAlerts
Mon, 04 Nov 2013 22:29 UTC

A Louisiana, Missouri father was prevented from saving his 3-year-old son from a house fire when cops tased him three times for attempting to enter the burning building. The fire started in a ground floor play room while the parents were asleep in the living room. The toddler was asleep upstairs in his bedroom. After waking up to the smell of fumes, the parents managed to get outside before calling 911. Stepfather Ryan Miller then kicked down the front door to the building as police and firefighters arrived.

The house was too hot for firefighters to enter, but when Miller attempted to rush in to try and save his stepson, he was restrained and then tased three times by a city police officer.

"He tried to get back in the house to get the baby," grandmother Lori Miller told KHQA. "They took my son to jail because he tried to save his son."

3-year-old Riley Miller was later found dead near the doorway to his bedroom and the house was completely destroyed.

"It's just heartless. How could they be so heartless?" said sister-in-law Emily Miller. "And while they all just stood around and waited for the fire department, what kind of police officer wouldn't try and save a three year old burning in a house?"
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Heart - Black

Food stamps to get cut by $5bn this week


PressTV
Wed, 30 Oct 2013 20:53 UTC
Image
© Leigh Vogel/Corbis
Effects of the $5bn in cuts (close to 2bn meals a year) will be 'close to catastrophic,' according to hunger relief charity Feeding America.
As of Friday, nearly 48 million Americans receiving food stamps are set to see their benefits reduced.

The automatic cut which is scheduled for Nov. 1, as a temporary boost from the 2009 stimulus bill expires, will reduce around $5 billion from federal food-stamp spending over the coming year.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) currently costs about $80 billion per year and provides food aid to 14 percent of all US households.

As of September 2012, 47.7 million Americans were receiving an average of $133 per month in food assistance. Food stamp recipients are mostly children, the elderly and disabled people.

The Washington Post reported that the number of Americans on food stamps could drop even further as Congress and various states consider further changes to the program.
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Arrow Down

America's greatest shame: Child poverty rises and food stamps cut while billionaires boom

Les Leopold
AlterNet
Fri, 01 Nov 2013 00:00 UTC
poverty
Why do we put up with such injustices?

There are 16.4 million American children living in poverty. That's nearly one quarter (22.6%) of all of our children. More alarming is that the percentage of poor children has climbed by 4.5 percent since the start of the Great Recession in 2007. And poor means poor. For a family of three with one child under 18, the poverty line is $18,400.

Meanwhile, the stock market is booming. Banks, hedge funds and private equity firms are making tens of billions of dollars again, while the luxury housing and goods markets are skyrocketing.

Most amazing of all is the fact that 95 percent of the so-called "recovery" has gone to the top 1 percent who have seen their incomes rise by 34%. For the 99 percent there's been an undeclared wage freeze: the average wage has climbed by only 0.4 percent.

To add to the misery, Washington has decided that the best way to tackle childhood poverty is to have poor kids eat less. Both parties already have agreed to cut billions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps). Starting this November 1, payments are scheduled to drop from $668 a month to $632 for more than 47 million lower-income people -- 1 in 7 Americans, most of them children. (Three incredible graphs that visualize the issues in this story are at the bottom of this article.)

And more cuts are coming. The Tea Party House passed a bill to cut food stamps by $4 billion a year, while the Senate calls for $400 million in cuts. How humane! And since it will be part of the omnibus Farm Bill, President Obama will sign it. (I wonder how our former community organizer will explain this to the poor children he once tried to help in Chicago.)

But that's just the start. More austerity is coming in the form of cuts to Social Security as well as a host of other social programs. When times get tough, you've got to suck it up and take more from the poor.
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