News You Can Use

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With proposal to penalize men for masturbating, legislator aims to shake up health debate | The Texas Tribune

When it comes to issues related to health, state Rep. Jessica Farrar says that men should have to undergo the same “unnecessary” and “invasive” procedures that she says Texas women are subjected to under recently passed state laws.

That’s why the the Houston Democrat on Friday filed House Bill 4260, which would fine men $100 for masturbating and create a required booklet for men with medical information related to the benefits and concerns of a man seeking a vasectomy, a Viagra prescription or a colonoscopy. The bill would also let doctors invoke their "personal, moralistic, or religious beliefs" in refusing to perform an elective vasectomy or prescribe Viagra, among other proposed requirements in the bill.

While Farrar knows her "proposed satirical regulations" will not become law, she hoped the bill's filing would at least foster a deeper discussion about what should be a priority during session years.

“What I would like to see is this make people stop and think,” Farrar told The Texas Tribune. “Maybe my colleagues aren’t capable of that, but the people who voted for them, or the people that didn’t vote at all, I hope that it changes their mind and helps them to decide what the priorities are.”

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Scrutiny Intensifies on the Warrantless Collection of Americans’ Communications - MIT Technology Review

Civil Liberties advocates call for more transparency around a controversial foreign surveillance law that Congress must decide whether to reauthorize this year.

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Can your smart home be used against you in court? | TechCrunch

The question of how much privacy we can reasonably expect when installing a home assistant is complex and unresolved. In a sense, people who buy an Echo or Home know what they’re getting themselves into from the very basic fact that they’ve purchased an internet-connected device, with built-in microphones, that is designed (in some sense) to always be listening — and it’s created by companies that thrive on tailoring ads based on the boatloads of data they collect from users.

Still, constant recording and storage is another question entirely. Home assistants are designed to have an ear open at all times, monitoring their surroundings for keywords like “Alexa,” “Google” or “Siri.” But once a user consents by introducing such a device into their home, are its manufacturers bound by law to only record and store the information their products were designed to act upon? Or has the consumer effectively waived those rights?

“As a legal matter, it’s unresolved, which is part of what worries us about the whole thing,” ACLU senior analyst Jay Stanley tells TechCrunch. “I think most people don’t expect that snippets of their conversation might accidentally get picked up. [Smart assistants] do hear trigger words when trigger words are not intended.”

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Rep Steve King: 'We Can't Restore Our Civilization With Somebody Else's Babies'

Republican Congressman Steve King triggered a firestorm Sunday on Twitter after expressing support for leading Dutch candidate Geert Wilders, a fierce critic of the Islamization of the West.

"Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny," King said. "We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies."

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Students Denounced As Racist For Wearing US Flag Colors | The Daily Caller

Students from one Iowan high school recently apologized to the principal of another Iowan high school when people found their choice of red, white and blue attire offensive.

Supporters of the Des Moines North High School basketball team, many of whose players are from refugee families, were offended when fans of Valley High School’s basketball team wore red, white and blue last week, The College Fix reports.

“This is an example of BLATANT racism,” said Ty Leggett, a Valley High School alum, on the Valley High School – WDMCS Facebook page. “ALL participating should have been pulled and banned from ALL VHS extracurricular events for the remainder of the year! As a parent, I’d be mortified that my son or daughter thought this way, acted in this fashion and refrained from taking a stand against this 21st century inexcusable behavior!”

Erin Ness Carter, a mother living in the Iowan district, remarked that “for the supporters of one team from a primarily white part of town to paint themselves as the ‘team of the USA’ it strongly implies that the other team, the less white team, is less American.”

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$21,714 For Every Man, Woman And Child In The World – This Global Debt Bomb Is Ready To Explode

According to the International Monetary Fund, global debt has grown to a staggering grand total of 152 trillion dollars.  Other estimates put that figure closer to 200 trillion dollars, but for the purposes of this article let’s use the more conservative number.  If you take 152 trillion dollars and divide it by the seven billion people living on the planet, you get $21,714, which would be the share of that debt for every man, woman and child in the world if it was divided up equally.

So if you have a family of four, your family’s share of the global debt load would be $86,856.

Very few families could write a check for that amount today, and we also must remember that we live in some of the wealthiest areas on the globe.  Considering the fact that more than 3 billion people around the world live on two dollars a day or less, the truth is that about half the planet would not be capable of contributing toward the repayment of our 152 trillion dollar debt at all.  So they should probably be excluded from these calculations entirely, and that would mean that your family’s share of the debt would ultimately be far, far higher.

Of course global debt repayment will never actually be apportioned by family.  The reason why I am sharing this example is to show you that it is literally impossible for all of this debt to ever be repaid.

We are living during the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world, and our financial engineers have got to keep figuring out ways to keep it growing much faster than global GDP because if it ever stops growing it will burst and destroy the entire global financial system.

Bill Gross, one of the most highly respected financial minds on the entire planet, recently observed that “our highly levered financial system is like a truckload of nitro glycerin on a bumpy road”.

[Joel]

Facebook says police can’t use its data for ‘surveillance’

Facebook is cutting police departments off from a vast trove of data that has been increasingly used to monitor protesters and activists.

The move, which the social network announced Monday, comes in the wake of concerns over law enforcement’s tracking of protesters’ social media accounts in places such as Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore. It also comes at a time when chief executive Mark Zuckerberg says he is expanding the company’s mission from merely “connecting the world” into friend networks to promoting safety and community.

Although the social network’s core business is advertising, Facebook, along with Twitter and Facebook-owned Instagram, also provides developers access to users' public feeds. The developers use the data to monitor trends and public events. For example, advertisers have tracked how and which consumers are discussing their products, while the Red Cross has used social data to get real-time information during disasters such as Hurricane Sandy.

But the social networks have come under fire for working with third parties who market the data to law enforcement. Last year, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter cut off access to Geofeedia, a start-up that shared data with law enforcement, in response to an investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU published documents that made references to tracking activists at protests in Baltimore in 2015 after the death of a black man, Freddie Gray, while in police custody and also to protests in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 after the police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.

On Monday, Facebook updated its instructions for developers to say that they cannot “use data obtained from us to provide tools that are used for surveillance.”

The company also said, in an accompanying blog post, that it had kicked other developers off the platform since it had cut ties with Geofeedia.

Until now, Facebook hasn’t been explicit about who can use information that users post publicly. This can include a person’s friend list, location, birthday, profile picture, education history, relationship status and political affiliation — if they make their profile or certain posts public.

Some departments have praised the tools, which they say helps them fight crime — for example, if gang leaders publicly post references to their crimes.

In a statement about the changes, which were the results of several months of conversations with activists, the ACLU and other groups lauded Facebook’s move as a “first step.”

“We depend on social networks to connect and communicate about the most important issues in our lives and the core political and social issues in our country,” Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties director at the ACLU of California, said in the statement. “Now more than ever, we expect companies to slam shut any surveillance side doors and make sure nobody can use their platforms to target people of color and activists.”

Some said Facebook hadn’t gone far enough. “When technology companies allow their platforms and devices to be used to conduct mass surveillance of activists and other targeted communities, it chills democratic dissent and gives authoritarianism a license to thrive,” Malkia Cyril, executive director and founder of the Center for Media Justice, said in the statement. “It's clear there is more work to be done to protect communities of color from social media spying, censorship and harassment.”

The new policy language does not kick law enforcement off the platform. For one, the company cooperates with law enforcement on a case-by-case basis for help in solving crimes.

Police and federal agencies may still siphon people’s feeds in cases of national disasters and emergencies, Facebook officials said. It was unclear how Facebook would decide which emergencies and public events would warrant monitoring citizens’ data and which would constitute unreasonable “surveillance.” “Surveillance” was also not defined in the blog post, a potential gray area that outsiders can exploit. Facebook said it would continue to audit third parties for policy violations and require that developers disclose what they plan to do with data they are requesting access to.

Local police departments across the United States have spent roughly $5 million on social media monitoring over the past several years, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The relatively small amount shows how it is inexpensive to track and monitor the behavior of large numbers of people.

[Joel]

Engaging in cannibalism while on the job is usually frowned upon....

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Confirmed: Treasury Says Obama Stole From Fannie, Freddie Investors to Fund Obamacare » Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A careful analysis of the Treasury Department’s “Agency Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2013” provides evidence the Obama administration stole from Fannie and Freddie investors to fund Obamacare.
Guided by a CPA, who worked for two years for a major U.S. accounting firm as an outside auditor for Freddie Mac, Infowars.com has documented in the Treasury Department’s 2013 financial reports how the Obama administration diverted into Obamacare billions of dollars that Treasury confiscated from Freddie and Fannie earnings.
On Aug. 17, 2012, the Obama administration finalized the amendment of the Treasury Department’s Senior Preferred Stock Agreements with Fannie and Freddie that deprived private and institutional investors of their legally due dividend payments.

[Sunain]

Carleton University comes under heavy criticism after gym scale removed
Carleton University is feeling the burn from students on social media for removing a weight scale from its gym to promote a more holistic approach to a healthy body image.

The recent move isn't sitting well with several students who are accusing the school of kowtowing to a small group of gym users who are easily offended.

"Next it will be the mirrors. #bringbackthescale," wrote one Carleton student on Facebook, while another said online, "Are you for real, Carleton? What a sick joke."

Details of the scale controversy were first reported in the university's student-run newspaper, The Charlatan, on Thursday. In more social media reaction, others wondered if the online article was satire.

The paper quotes one student as saying, "Scales are very triggering" for people with eating disorders.
University 'may reconsider' decision to remove scale from gym

'Those who are offended by the scale can simply choose not to use the scale.'

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American Citizens: U.S. Border Agents Can Search Your Cellphone - NBC News

When Buffalo, New York couple Akram Shibly and Kelly McCormick returned to the U.S. from a trip to Toronto on Jan. 1, 2017, U.S. Customs & Border Protection officers held them for two hours, took their cellphones and demanded their passwords.

"It just felt like a gross violation of our rights," said Shibly, a 23-year-old filmmaker born and raised in New York. But he and McCormick complied, and their phones were searched.

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White House Seeks to Cut Billions in Funding for United Nations | Foreign Policy

State Department staffers have been instructed to seek cuts in excess of 50 percent in U.S. funding for U.N. programs, signaling an unprecedented retreat by President Donald Trump’s administration from international operations that keep the peace, provide vaccines for children, monitor rogue nuclear weapons programs, and promote peace talks from Syria to Yemen, according to three sources.

The push for such draconian measures comes as the White House is scheduled on Thursday to release its 2018 budget proposal, which is expected to include cuts of up to 37 percent for spending on the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign assistance programs, including the U.N., in next year’s budget. The United States spends about $10 billion a year on the United Nations.

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Mind-reading AI knows whether you are guilty or innocent | Daily Mail Online

Virginia Tech set up a simulated drug smuggling ring involving 40 volunteers
Each was given a suitcase that might contain drugs to carry across the border
Brain scans were then processed using machine learning to detect data patterns
AI determined who 'knew' they were carrying illicit substances and who didn't

[Joel]

We look into the Trump administration’s space plans. President Donald Trump wants to commercialize space. First stop will be the moon - so astronauts can live there for a little while, and thus figure out conditions for spending time on terrestrial body. The end goal is to send a nuclear-powered rocket to Mars within 10 yrs.

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Germany plans to fine social media sites over hate speech | Reuters

Germany's Justice Minister on Tuesday put forward a new draft law calling for social networks like Facebook to remove slanderous or threatening online postings quickly or face fines of up to 50 million euros ($53.15 million).

"This (draft law) sets out binding standards for the way operators of social networks deal with complaints and obliges them to delete criminal content," Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement announcing the plans.

Failing to comply could result in a fine of up to five million euros on the individual deemed responsible for the company in Germany and 50 million euros ($53 million) against the organizations themselves, he said.

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This creepy facial recognition app lets users find strangers on Facebook by taking their picture

A facial recognition app that can identify strangers from a photograph has been created by a British entrepreneur. 

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Why conservative Catholics think Pope Francis is a fraud

It's been five years since Pope Francis kicked off one of the most striking papacies in memory. Within the Catholic world, sadly divided into warring political camps, he is seen as a hero by progressive Catholics and a scourge of conservatives.

Why do so many conservatives dislike Pope Francis? In many cases, because he makes noises they dislike.

Francis has had harsh words against globalized capitalism, has written a major encyclical on the environment, and has been a major supporter of migrants in the crisis seizing Europe. In all these controversies, he actually hasn't strayed too far from Catholic orthodoxy. But the most charitable version of the conservative critique, which is not unjustified, is that his tone and emphasis make him sound like a straightforward progressive, and risks identifying the Magisterium of the Church with the progressive left.

Then there are the hot-button, below-the-belt issues. Pope Francis clearly would like to overturn Catholic doctrine saying that the faithful who are divorced and civilly remarried but have not received an annulment must refrain from receiving holy communion. He has walked right up to the line of overturning that doctrine, insulted those who oppose the move, and winked heavily at those Catholics who take a "Who am I to judge?" approach to communion. Conservatives fear that Francis' actions represent tentative first steps down a dangerous slippery slope. Is this the beginning of an eventual undoing of all of Catholicism's ancient and countercultural teachings on sexual ethics? If he goes too far, could he create a new schism within the Church?

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U. Minnesota drops homecoming ‘King and Queen’ - replaces with genderless ‘Royals’ - The College Fix

The University of Minnesota has become the latest university to do away with the traditional Homecoming King and Queen titles and replace them with the gender-neutral “Royals” term.

Taking it one step further, University of Minnesota officials also point out that the winners don’t even have to be one biological male and one biological female, stating on its website: “‘Royals’ … can be any combination of any gender identity.”

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Mexican official: 250 skulls found in clandestine graves

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The top prosecutor in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Veracruz says more than 250 skulls have been found in what appears to be a drug cartel mass burial ground on the outskirts of the city of Veracruz.

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Employers can ban wearing of visible religious symbols – top EU court

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that employers can ban staff from wearing visible religious symbols at work in the first case of its kind before the EU’s top court.
The ECJ has ruled on the cases of two female employees in Belgium and in France, fired after they refused to remove their headscarves at work.

In the first case, a Belgian woman working as a receptionist for G4S Secure Solutions, which has a general ban on the wearing of visible religious or political symbols, was dismissed for refusing to remove her religious attire. In the second, a French IT consultant was also let go when she refused to take off the headscarf after a client complained.

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A bug in fMRI software could invalidate 15 years of brain research - ScienceAlert

To test how good this software actually is, Eklund and his team gathered resting-state fMRI data from 499 healthy people sourced from databases around the world, split them up into groups of 20, and measured them against each other to get 3 million random comparisons.

They tested the three most popular fMRI software packages for fMRI analysis - SPM, FSL, and AFNI - and while they shouldn't have found much difference across the groups, the software resulted in false-positive rates of up to 70 percent.

And that’s a problem, because as Kate Lunau at Motherboard points out, not only did the team expect to see an average false positive rate of just 5 percent, it also suggests that some results were so inaccurate, they could be indicating brain activity where there was none.

"These results question the validity of some 40,000 fMRI studies and may have a large impact on the interpretation of neuroimaging results," the team writes in PNAS.

[Joel]

[Silver]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-1 ... leptocracy

Texas, I weep for thee.

"On Monday, March 6, police were given the go-ahead to keep stealing from Americans who were innocent of any wrongdoing.

In refusing to hear a challenge to Texas’ asset forfeiture law, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Texas police to keep $201,000 in ill-gotten cash primarily on the basis that the seized cash—the proceeds of a home sale—was being transported on a highway associated with illegal drug trade, despite any proof of illegal activity by the owner. Asset forfeiture laws, which have come under intense scrutiny and criticism in recent years, allow the police to seize property “suspected” of being connected to criminal activity without having to prove the owner of the property is guilty of a criminal offense.

On April 1, 2013, James Leonard was driving with a companion, Nicosa Kane, on U.S. Highway 59 in Texas when the vehicle was stopped by a state police officer for allegedly speeding and following another vehicle too closely. A subsequent search of the vehicle disclosed a safe in the trunk, which Leonard explained belonged to his mother, Lisa Leonard, and contained cash. When the police officer contacted Lisa Leonard, she confirmed that the safe’s contents belonged to her, that the contents constituted personal business, and that she would not consent to allowing the officer to open the safe. After police secured a search warrant, the safe was opened and found to contain $201,000 and a bill of sale for a home in Pennsylvania.

Neither the Leonards nor Kane were found to be in possession of illegal drugs. However, the state initiated civil forfeiture proceedings against the $201,100 on the ground that it was substantially connected to criminal activity because Highway 59 is reputed to be a drug corridor. At trial, Lisa Leonard testified that the money was being sent to Texas so that she could use it to purchase a home for her son and Kane. Both the trial and appeals courts affirmed the authority of state officials to seize and keep Leonard’s funds under the state’s asset forfeiture law, basing their ruling on wholly circumstantial evidence and the reputation of Highway 59. Leonard then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to compel Texas to return her money, given that she was innocent of any crime. In refusing to hear the case on a technicality, the Supreme Court turned its back on justice and allowed the practice of policing for profit to continue."

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What You Do On Your Cell Phone Could Come Back To Haunt You

And we haven’t even gotten to the worst part of the story yet.  Just a few days later Akram Shibly and Kelly McCormick took another trip to Canada, and this time border agents physically assaulted Akram when he did not immediately turn over his phone.  The following comes from NBC News…

Three days later, they returned from another trip to Canada and were stopped again by CBP.

“One of the officers calls out to me and says, ‘Hey, give me your phone,'” recalled Shibly. “And I said, ‘No, because I already went through this.'”

The officer asked a second time.

Within seconds, he was surrounded: one man held his legs, another squeezed his throat from behind. A third reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone. McCormick watched her boyfriend’s face turn red as the officer’s chokehold tightened.

Is this still America?

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Crazy at the wheel: psychopathic CEOs are rife in Silicon Valley, experts say | Technology | The Guardian

There is a high proportion of psychopathic CEOs in Silicon Valley, enabled by protective investors and weak human resources departments, according to a panel of experts at SXSW festival.

Although the term “psychopath” typically has negative connotations, some of the attributes associated with the disorder can be advantageous in a business setting.

“A true psychopath is someone that has a blend of emotional, interpersonal, lifestyle and behavioral deficits but an uncanny ability to mask them. They come across as very charming, very gregarious. But underneath there’s a profound lack of remorse, callousness and a lack of empathy,” said forensic and clinical psychologist Michael Woodworth, who has worked with psychopathic murderers in high security prisons, on Tuesday.

“They have certain characteristics like fearless dominance, boldness and a lack of emotion. Many successful presidents have scored highly [on the psychopathy scale],” said Woodworth.