NSA has direct access to tech giants' systems for user data, secret files reveal

The UK GUARDIAN reporting continues.. This new amazing story is rocking the rest of the world that wasn’t rocked by the Verizon story this morning…

NSA has direct access to tech giants' systems for user data, secret files reveal

Matt Drudge was right

15 years ago, the Internet pioneer was remarkably prophetic about where journalism was headed.

Interesting story.. And he was right, regardless of your opinion on him. He called this one..

Every era of news reporting has a pioneer.. And often they are flawed, often we’re in awe.. but in the end they are human.

Reporters 15 years ago had disdain for Drudge. They may have more now that he turned out to be spot on..

Matt Drudge was right

Iraqi Birth Defects Worse than Hiroshima

There are some pretty tough images to see in this story.. But we need to perhaps at least be aware of the issue. If this claim is true, then we are seeing horror before our eyes taking place. 

Read the story at your own risk..

No images re-printed on here on purpose..

Iraqi Birth Defects Worse than Hiroshima

YES. We hear you. And you hear us.

The world of telecommunications was rocked today when the UK GUARDIAN reported that a FISA court ordered Verizon to provide records of calls of millions of Americans on an ongoing, daily basis. And now the  Obama Administration is defending the program as ‘critical’ for safety and the fight against terrorism..

An opinion written on CNN provides this thought on the program: A ‘different kind of creepy’..

Another report on CNN attempts to break down  what exactly the Verizon/FISA/NSA/FBI/Patriot Act issue means for you.. the report concludes that the government cannot hear what you are saying.. At least we think that according to the document released today in the GUARDIAN. We don’t know what other documents exist that have not been leaked…

Lots of people are angry. Some, including Senator Lindsay Graham, assert that they are fine with it because they didn’t do anything wrong…

But the far-reaching program appears to presume someone is doing something wrong.. Constitutional questions are involved.. privacy questions are involved.. Lots of big issues are at stake. This is important, and another issue of government surveillance that hits directly into every home across the United States.

1. Some points to further consider: This program specifically targeted Americans. Not foreigners.


2. The NSA sees and hears all, even your sex.


3. Oh, and the book 1984 was published 64 years ago today. The irony.

With the news of the day *(everyday)* this is how I now feel..

Phone Sex, Banks & Google for Emails: The NSA Spying Is Bigger Than Verizon - Elspeth Reeve - The Atlantic Wire

Phone Sex, Banks & Google for Emails: The NSA Spying Is Bigger Than Verizon - Elspeth Reeve - The Atlantic Wire

Let's answer Al Gore's question

He asked this:

In the digital era, privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?

I ask the same. Is it?

Well.. yes I guess you can hear us now.

shortformblog:

According to this document obtained by The Guardian, the federal government, through a court order granted to the National Security Agency, is using the Patriot Act to collect the phone records of millions of Verizon users over a three-month period. Awesome. Read the full document here. It’s like the AP thing, except extended to everyone else.

The court order doesn’t allow the NSA to collect any information whatsoever on the contents of phone calls, or even to obtain any names or addresses of customers. What’s covered instead is known as “metadata”: the phone number of every caller and recipient; the unique serial number of the phones involved; the time and duration of each phone call; and potentially the location of each of the participants when the call happened. All of this information is being collected on millions of calls every day – every conversation taking place within the US, or between the US and a foreign country is collected.

Telephone metadata and what it can tell the authorities about you | James Ball (via rubenfeld)

Big data, federal-style.

(via shortformblog)

Verizon order: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily

guardian:

Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama administration

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

Verizon order: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily

In the shadow of daddy.

Seriously today is perfect

Despite a job rejection, today couldn’t be better!

Yahoo users informed that company has right to scan and read all of their emails.. So Tumblr users,  are we scared yet?

Micheal Douglas reveals why he believes his got throat cancer: Performing cunnilingus..

"No. Because without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV [human papillomavirus], which actually comes about from cunnilingus"

For weeks (actually months) .. wait. .. actually years, my wife has been screaming at me to wash the layers of dead insects off of my car, or at least just take a hose to it. Apparently, last night, Ayden got so convinced that his mommy was right that he decided to wash the car himself. First time in years.. and maybe the last time unless he keeps trying.

Oh, and yes, that is a ‘miracle hose’ and it does in fact work as it does on TV..

Pretty sure this won’t happen again.. I threw some money down on a desk in front of co-workers and a nickel landed on its side, as you can see. Those who saw it are witnesses and can attest to the fact that the photo wasn’t a set up.

For a moment I felt like Dick York from the TWILIGHT ZONE episode where something similar occurs. As for my fate, though, I wasn’t able to hear voices from people walking by me on streets and I could not read anyone’s mind. Which may be fine, since York’s circumstances ended badly in the show—as did most people’s.. 

So the one day a cookout is planned is also the day when violent thunderstorms are set to strike after 11am

Looks like food will have to be cooked early and preserved in aluminum foil.. 

Fire bad

I walked into my local convenience store this morning and caught the aftermath of two workers trying to dry out their lottery ticket by microwaving it. They thought the microwave would thoroughly dry the paper, but did not realize that it would set it on fire as well..

Yep, we are the world and this is our future..