Posts Tagged ‘news’

#AngryBirds, Killing Time & Privacy since 2009

Posted: January 31, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
1/30/2014

I’ve never downloaded a game onto my smart phone. No I’m not being pretentious, my overuse of social media, online dating, email, and news apps makes me no better than those who spends their days killing time Gatling gun style via game apps. Angry Birds honestly never appealed to me, neither did Farmville, Words with Friends, or anything Zynga related.

I’m sure the NSA has my metadata, along with yours, under digital lock and key by now. I only started being cautious with my web usage like two years ago, much too late in the game.  The privacy concern equivalent of wanting to buy a VHS this past Christmas.

It gave me a minor chuckle, and an even bigger headache to hear that the NSA has been using Angry Birds as a patsy for bulk collection of meta data through smart phone applications.  With reportedly $1 billion spent, I guess it should come as no surprise that the NSA and GCHQ (the UK’s NSA equivalent) is able to scoop up this information at will as well as “monitor YouTube and social media traffic in real-time” of anyone accessing the internet in any way on any device. No joke, didn’t 1984 have something just like that?

Look on the bright side, you know you should have uninstalled these games off your phones months ago.

But remember, thinking or saying to yourself or out loud; oh the hell with it, it’s done might as well go about my business anyway, is what they want. Why return to feudalism when peoples’ ego, cynicism, and self defeatism castrates their power voluntarily with the illusion of knowledge empowerment?

#MCHM Spill ; The OG #GMO

Posted: January 31, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
1/30/2014

The West Virginia chemical spill is the gift that keeps on giving, by gift, I mean knee in the proverbial testicles.  It turns out the effects of the chemical that spilled (MCHM) has NOT been tested in relation to its effects on humans.

Bad right? Ready for the good news? The effects aren’t even known to the company responsible for the spill. Not that they tested the chemical and suppressed the results, they never even did a study. The company that created the chemical (Eastman Chemical Company) did a study of the effects on rats, but hasn’t publicly disclosed the results before OR after the spill.

How is this possible? How is this legal? Because MCHM was “grandfathered” in when the Toxic Substances Control Act passed in 1976.  What is the point of regulation if there are 64 exemptions to it?

Lack of knowledge of the effects, no regulation, no labels or information provided to ordinary citizens…sounds like GMO foods to me. I guess Monsanto took their cues from DOW Chemical.

#QE = Economic Crack Part 2

Posted: January 28, 2014 in Excess and Algorithms
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eanda logoby @anarchyroll
1/28/2014

Click Here for Part One

Getting high, if it wasn’t fun, why would so many people do it? The only problem is that the high doesn’t last forever. The come down is often a crash, back to reality, damnit there’s still the law of gravity. Oh no, the stash is gone. What to do? Face life and the world as it is? Okay, but only for as long as it takes to get the next hit.

The sky was falling in the fall of 2008.  Not just millions, not just billions, but TRILLIONS of dollars evaporated from the global economy.  The wound wasn’t just opened, it was hemorrhaging blood.  What to do? Let the free market run free until it corrected itself?  Use taxpayer money to try and plug the leak? Bomb another middle eastern country?

Desperation causes people to do things that they don’t fully understand. Under intense stress and scrutiny many human beings seek a temporary escape from reality in mind or mood altering chemical substances produced naturally or artificially known to many simply as drugs.  Coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, molly, mushrooms, lsd. cocaine, heroin, meth, crack.  Those who shake their head and thumb their nose at drug users often substitute adrenaline, food, binge screen watching, and other socially accepted mind altering reality escapes in place of the illicit stuff, but it’s all the same.

The federal government and federal reserve bank of the United States of America is run by human beings. Human beings susceptible to the same highs, lows, pros, cons, disciplines, and vices as you and me.  In the midst of panic, desperation, and catastrophe a series of steps were taken to stop the economic bleeding, stabilize the markets, and attempt to spur future growth.  However, the policies were all nothing more than reality escaping substances on a meta scale.

First came TARP. Then came the auto industry bailout.  Those got the headlines and the public ire or support depending if you’re a political elephant or jackass.  However another, much less sexy, but equally if not more important was the Federal Reserve Bank’s $85 billion per month bond buying program known as Quantitative Easing.

There have been three waves of QE from 2009 through present, it is expected to end in 2015.  But if it’s expected to end clean, at a predetermined time, why the drug analogy?

The problem, is that the markets have become dependent, on the fed flooding the market with cash, now there is a new bubble, that could bring the market(s) down in flames.

So the withdrawal pains, in the form of inflation and higher interest rates, could cause a relapse into recession or worse for both the US and global economy.  QE has been like an alcoholic going to rehab and starting a two pack a day cigarette habit.  Our recovery has been artificially enhanced by QE. We haven’t quit cold turkey, we’re on synthetic drugs. It isn’t until all the meds are out of our system that we’ll know if the economy has recovered or not.

Where does QE go from here?  I’ll cover that in part 3…

#Internet Access No Longer Neutral?

Posted: January 24, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional, Excess and Algorithms
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eanda logo

by @anarchyroll
1/23/2014

The first YouTube video I ever watched was of Ted Kennedy speaking about the importance of net neutrality.  As I learned what net neutrality was through the video, it surprised me someone of Kennedy’s age had any grasp on the concept. But then I realized that net neutrality had nothing to do with technology and everything to do with money and power.  And the Kennedy family knows a lot about money and power.

Net Neutrality means that the internet like highways, an information superhighway if you will.  Highways are built and maintained based on tolls.  Much like internet infrastructure is built, upgraded, and maintained by the monthly bill you get from your internet service provider (ISP for short).  Nothing wrong there. Food, water, shelter, heating all cost money. Net neutrality is NOT about making the internet free of charge.

Net neutrality means that all data on the internet is treated the same. Checking email is the same as binge watching Netflix. Regardless of specific content OR bandwidth usage.  Net neutrality is currently the norm for the internet you and I access from our computers, NOT from our smart phones.

Anti net neutrality advocates aka the telecomm companies and ISPs want all internet to be priced like smart phone internet access aka tiered by usage.

Pro net neutrality advocates aka anyone who isn’t rich as fuck, want to make sure the ISPs and telecoms don’t gain any additional power over the internet and its content. Why? Because absolute power corrupts absolutely.  It is feared/believed that if a tier based charging system will be a floodgate to a labyrinth of tiered charges or a slippery slope.

Like how anti drug advocates say marijuana is a slippery slope to cocaine, heroin, homelessness, prostitution, robbery, prison, and spending $800 to attend an EDM concert.  Pro net neutrality advocates believe tiered service is a slippery slope to customers being price gauged AND denied content. Not only will you be charged for certain amount of usage but you’ll be charged more to access Hulu, OR less depending on what ISP you have. If you have Comcast (who is part owner of Hulu) they might allow Hulu to load faster and cheaper on your computer but charge you more and/or completely block you from accessing Netflix, YouTube, etc.

Ask yourself, do you really believe if net neutrality is taken off the books permanently, will ISPs not charge more for service? Will they not cut deals with certain content providers? Will they not nickel and dime you, me, and every internet user in the world a little bit more every single year? Even more so than they do already that is, how much was your internet and cable bill ten years ago?  Think it’s only increased because of inflation?

The end of net neutrality is literally the end of the internet as we know it. Plain and simple.  This is a fight you can’t choose to ignore. Sign a petition, write a letter, attend a protest.  Because if you ever want to watch cute cat videos for hours at a time again, for what you’re paying now, then net neutrality is for you.

#NSA Secrets = Food Sans Ingredient List

Posted: January 22, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
1/21/2014

Contrary to what FOX News would have you believe, the ACLU is not a terrorist organization.

American Civil Liberties Union…those four words, to me, couldn’t scream democracy more if Uncle Sam was eating a deep fried Twinkie, while driving a Hummer, and taking an IG selfie while making a duckface with the toaster filter all at the same time.

The ACLU is your friend, whether you care or not, whether you want to help them or not. They are the ones, playing within the system to change the system, and make it work for the people, by the people.

It should come as no surprise then, that they’re no fans of the NSA bulk surveillance program that was created in the dark, in secret, and exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden this past summer.  Both Congress and President Obama have said the public debate Snowden started is a good thing for democracy, yet he is still a wanted fugitive, go figure.

The NSA has been using Freedom of Information requests to try and shed more light into the dark and shady world of the NSA’s metadata dragnet.  Surprise, surprise the government is just flat out refusing to grant the ACLU access to various documents. I thought this was America.

Snowden and the ACLU aren’t looking to put soldiers in danger or expose mission critical information that will aide or abed real, actual terrorists who wish to do real, actual harm to innocent civilians on American soil.

Snowden and the ACLU are simply looking to put all of the cards on the table for the American people to decide for themselves.  It is the same thinking behind listing ingredients in food.  We (the country) just want to know what we’re putting into our body (government policy) to make sure it isn’t going to harm us (evaporate our personal privacy).

Allergies, fitness goals, overall health dictate a person must know what their food is made of. Where did it come from? Is it organic? Is it processed? How much salt? How much sugar? What is polymethylsiloxane? These are things that we NEED to know for our own health and peace of mind.

The same goes for what exactly, specifically is the NSA doing with their $1.1 trillion (that’s trillion with a t) budget. How much info are they storing? How often? For how long? From what sources? Are they authorized? Is it legal? By whom? This is not the Soviet Union or Red China. We the people get a say, and at the least have the right to know. If it is important to know if our food has gluten, it is important to know if we are giving up our personal privacy in the name of national security.

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