Yearly Archives: 2013

More Small Businesses Embrace Bitcoin

"Having the latest technology can help a small company stand out against the competition. And that is perhaps the biggest reason Bitcoin, a nascent system using virtual currency to make payments online, has drawn a strong following among small-business owners. It is unclear if business transactions were part of the original vision for Bitcoin, which was started in 2009 and isn't backed by a central bank. BitPay Inc., an Atlanta firm that processes Bitcoin payments, says it has signed up more than 8,000 merchants world-wide—all small companies—since it formed in May 2011." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMore Small Businesses Embrace Bitcoin

Catholic bishops: Indefinite detention ‘wounds the moral reputation of our nation’

"The top of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States on Tuesday called on U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to close down the Guantanamo Bay prison facility. 'Detainees have the right to a just and fair trial held in a timely manner,' he told Hagel. 'For at least 86 detainees ‘a crime has not first been proven.’ The indefinite detention of detainees is not only injurious to those individuals, it also wounds the moral reputation of our nation, compromises our commitment to the rule of law, and undermines our struggle against terrorism.' Pates further said reports of forced feedings of prisoners on hunger strike suggested the U.S. was violating basic human rights." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCatholic bishops: Indefinite detention ‘wounds the moral reputation of our nation’

Russia: U.S. demands to hand over Edward Snowden are ‘ravings and rubbish’

"President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Tuesday a former U.S. spy agency contractor sought by the United States was in the transit area of a Moscow airport but ruled out handing him over to Washington, dismissing U.S. criticisms as 'ravings and rubbish'. In his first public comments since the fugitive flew in on Sunday, he appeared to make light of the affair around Edward Snowden, whose flight from U.S. authorities is becoming an increasing embarrassment for President Barack Obama." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRussia: U.S. demands to hand over Edward Snowden are ‘ravings and rubbish’

British inventor of the World Wide Web scolds ‘insidious’ Western governments over spying

"The British inventor of the World Wide Web accused Western governments of hypocrisy in spying on the Internet while lecturing repressive leaders across the world for doing exactly the same. Tim Berners-Lee, a London-born computer scientist who invented the Web in 1989 as the Berlin Wall crumbled, said the West was involved in 'insidious' online spying that could change the way normal people use their computers. Berners-Lee said the revelations about U.S. and British spying could alter the way people use the internet, especially for younger generations who can use it in intimate ways. He also questioned whether the governments could safeguard sensitive data once collected." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBritish inventor of the World Wide Web scolds ‘insidious’ Western governments over spying

Is Your Retirement Planning as Bad as Most Americans’ Planning? Find Out Here.

"Approximately 38,000,000 working households in the United States do not own any retirement assets. This is about 45% of all the working households in the United States. They do not have an IRA. They do not have a 401(k). They do not have anything. In other words, they have made no plans whatsoever to fund their retirements. If we take into consideration all households in America, the median retirement account balance is $3,000. Got that? $3,000. The utter impossibility of this situation should be obvious. This is not a slight shortfall. This is a guaranteed head-on collision inside the American social order. That is because the Social Security system is going bankrupt." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIs Your Retirement Planning as Bad as Most Americans’ Planning? Find Out Here.

Oklahoma tornado victims denied permits to rebuild their homes

"Rhonda Northcutt said she is unable to get a building permit from the city because of where her home was located before it was destroyed. Northcutt and her neighbor Jennifer Wisooker live in a neighborhood near May and SW 149th street. Their homes were destroyed by the May 20th tornado. According to the city, there are homes in the neighborhood that are located in an area designated as a flood way. The city said it is unable to give permits to build new homes in these types of areas because of FEMA requirements. Even though their homes were there before the storm, Wisooker and Northcutt might not be able to re-build." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOklahoma tornado victims denied permits to rebuild their homes

Supreme Court rules in favor of Florida property owner over denied development permit

"The Supreme Court said a Florida property owner may be owed compensation from a government agency that refused to award him a development permit for his land. The legal issue was whether the agency’s action constituted a 'taking' subject to compensation, under the so-called takings clause of the Fifth Amendment, in a more than 18-year battle by Koontz and his late father over their nearly 15-acre parcel of land. After Florida designated much of the parcel as protected wetlands, Koontz proposed to develop about a quarter of it and dedicate the rest for conservation, only to have local officials insist that he pay money to protect wetlands elsewhere." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSupreme Court rules in favor of Florida property owner over denied development permit

Texas Governor Rick Perry Signs a Pair of Bills Upholding Fourth Amendment

"With Governor Perry’s signature on HB 912, Texas now joins Idaho, Virginia, Florida, Montana, and Tennessee on the list of states that have enacted laws regulating the use of drones in their sovereign skies. Meanwhile, on June 14, Governor Perry signed into another important bill. As explained prior to Governor Perry’s signing of the bill by the blog Law360, HB 2268 'would establish the strongest email privacy protections in the U.S. by becoming the first measure to override a provision in the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act that allows law enforcement to access emails that are open or more than 180 days old using only a subpoena.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTexas Governor Rick Perry Signs a Pair of Bills Upholding Fourth Amendment

Government considers using search engines as source of cheap info on citizens’ lives

"It takes a lot to make the prospect of filling in a 52-page census form appealing. But the suggestion that Google’s vast stores of data could soon help replace it probably does the trick. Internet search engines could be used as a source of cheap information on citizens’ lives, interests and movements, a government paper has suggested. It could spell the end of the national census, which was first conducted in 1801 and has been carried out every ten years since, apart from during the Second World War. It aims to cover every home in the country but the last census – the 52-page giant in 2011 – missed out three-and-a-half million people." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGovernment considers using search engines as source of cheap info on citizens’ lives