Search Results for “https:” – Page 926

Reuters: U.S. cyberwar strategy stokes fear of blowback

“Even as the U.S. government confronts rival powers over widespread Internet espionage, it has become the biggest buyer in a burgeoning gray market where hackers and security firms sell tools for breaking into computers. The strategy is spurring concern in the technology industry and intelligence community that Washington is in effect encouraging hacking and failing to disclose to software companies and customers the vulnerabilities exploited by the purchased hacks. That’s because U.S. intelligence and military agencies are using the tools to infiltrate computer networks overseas, leaving behind spy programs and cyber-weapons.” Continue reading →

Sudan government shuts down local TEDx conference

“Sudan’s security service on Saturday ordered the closure of a community forum, one of the independently run TEDx events held around the world, even though it was non-political, the organiser said. ‘They unplugged the electricity,’ Anwar Dafa-Alla, who founded Sudan’s version of TEDx two years ago, told AFP. He said almost 1,000 people were attending the event at a luxury Khartoum hotel when officials stopped it before it was even half finished. The state minister of information and culture, Mustafa Tirab, said that the government ‘will do our level best to provide freedom of expression and freedom of speech for all those who are inside Sudan’.” Continue reading →

Open a Business in Chile in One Day, Over the Internet, for Free

“Can you really form a business in Chile in just one day, over the internet, and for free? About three months ago, Chile’s pro-business government decided that they just weren’t doing enough for local and foreign entrepreneurs (the Chilean government already has several grants and programs available for new businesses) so they got together and voted to change the way the incorporation process works in the country, making it much, much easier to start a business in Chile than in just about any other country in the world. See more details here. Remember what happened to Hong Kong and Singapore when they made similar changes to their governments?” Continue reading →

Billionaire investors take aim at Fed’s policies at Sohn event

“Wealthy money managers bashed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s easy money policies at a closely watched annual investment conference and charitable event on Wednesday. The Sohn Investment Conference, which raises money for pediatric cancer research, gets big name hedge fund managers to share their ‘best ideas’ with other wealthy investors. This year’s conference was sprinkled with criticisms of the Fed’s $85 billion in monthly purchases of Treasuries and mortgage securities in an attempt to stoke the economy.” Continue reading →

Making Sense of Bitcoin

“Despite the various opinions on Bitcoin, there is no question as to its ultimate value: the ability to bypass government restrictions, including economic embargoes and capital controls, to transmit money quasi-anonymously to anyone anywhere virtually instantaneously irrespective of geopolitical restrictions. While virtually all digital currencies can more or less do the same, no other currency offers an equal combination of peer-to-peer transactions, strong encryption, anonymity, and liquidity that Bitcoin has possessed up to this point.” Continue reading →

The enduring mystery of U.S. offshore cash

“The U.S. Internal Revenue Service lumps in the foreign dividend with corporate income. While the U.S. offers a credit for foreign taxes paid, U.S. multinationals typically face an extra tax bill when the foreign earnings come home for a number of reasons, including the higher U.S. corporate income tax rates. So when Apple says it intends to give $100-billion back to shareholders by the end of 2015, it’s all well and good. It’s got just $45-billion in the U.S., however, and that’s what leads to a cash-rich company borrowing more cash, just to give it away.” Continue reading →

Why Cops Bust Down Doors of Medical Pot Growers, But Ignore Men Who Keep Naked Girls on Leashes

“Strange, isn’t it, that hunches and vague tips about potential marijuana growing (in a state that recently legalized the drug!) is motivation enough to send a SWAT team busting down a door? Compare that to recent reports that police in Cleveland, Ohio ignored years of tips and calls about strange things going on in the home of the three Cleveland men suspected of holding captive, brutally raping and beating three women for nearly a decade. Neighbors say they knew something was up and claim that they repeatedly called the cops. The police did not appear concerned; they certainly lacked the enthusiasm many law enforcement officers display regarding drugs.” Continue reading →

The New Truth About the Cop Shot in Watertown: Friendly-Fire in a Getaway

“The way the nation met 33-year-old MBTA Transit Police officer Richard Donohue was — like much of the conflicting information from that night of mayhem in Watertown, Massachusetts — violent, fast, and scary: He was exchanging fire with the Tsarnaev brothers, the story went, and he took a gun shot to his right thigh from the Boston bombing suspects — an injury that would see Donohue lose all of his own blood, sever three blood vessels, send him into cardiac arrest, and almost die. Now comes a more complete picture, with more eyewitnesses telling a new story, that Donohue was probably shot by a fellow police officer.” Continue reading →