Alternative News

Iranian Electoral Candidate Disqualified for Being Too Attractive

"27-year-old Nina Siahkali Moradi received 10,000 votes during the city's most recent election, placing her 14th out of the 163 candidates, which landed her the title of 'alternate member of council.' However when one of those ranked above her was elected as mayor, Moradi was instead disqualified. A senior office in Qazvin has been quoted as saying, 'We don't want a catwalk model on the council.' Moradi, a graduate student in architecture ran what many consider a successfully forward-leaning and high-profile election campaign, leading many to cite her disqualification as another blatant example of Iran's sexist policy." Continue reading →

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Study Rejects Cell Phone Driving Danger Claims

"A study published in the August edition American Economic Journal rejects the commonly held view that the proliferation of cell phone use among the driving public has made travel more dangerous. Politicians have seized on the perception and outlawed driving while talking on a handheld cell phone in eleven states. The researchers began by posing a difficult question for politicians: Why has cell phone use skyrocketed at the same time that traffic accidents and fatalities are at an all-time low? The study found that fatal accident rates did not see either a short-term or a long-term drop in the states that adopted cell phone driving bans." Continue reading →

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Julian Assange: ‘Bradley Manning’s Apology Was Extracted By Force’

"The United States government should be apologizing to Pfc. Bradley Manning, rather than the other way around, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement Wednesday. Assange said Manning's apology had been coerced by abuse. 'Mr. Manning's apology is a statement extorted from him under the overbearing weight of the United States military justice system. It took three years and millions of dollars to extract two minutes of tactical remorse from this brave soldier,' he said. 'As over 100,000 signatories of his Nobel Peace Prize nomination attest, Bradley Manning has changed the world for the better.'" Continue reading →

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City Reduces Police Force By Placing Public Under Constant Surveillance

"The Camden County Police Department recently created the Real Time Tactical Operation Intelligence Center in order to 'help a reduced police force' by installing 120 cameras across the city, according to My9NJ. The police department also monitors the public with a mobile 40-foot high sky booth called the 'Sky Patrol.' The booth is high enough for police to intimidate the population below while scanning a wide area of the city with cameras, thermal-imaging, and other sophisticated spy tech. The Camden County police have already covered one-third of the city with microphones, calling them 'gunshot detectors' as the cover story." Continue reading →

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PayPal freezes GlassUp’s $100K crowdfunding money, eventually releases it

"Today, the news is good: PayPal is releasing the funds. 'It’s great news. It’s wonderful,' Giartosio told me this morning from Venice, Italy. 'Now I can open PayPal payments again on the campaign.' Early this morning, a PayPal representative contacted me with the news. It turns out, on reflection, that there’s nothing nefarious about an Italian wearable computing company — and that PayPal thinks GlassUp is actually a pretty cool product. The question is: How much more successful would GlassUp have been if PayPal had not caused this problem? Or if, even after freezing the account, someone had just Googled the project, picked up the phone, and had a conversation?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPayPal freezes GlassUp’s $100K crowdfunding money, eventually releases it

Gold Gone? Germany baffled as Fed bars access to bullion

"The world is losing trust in the dollar as a safe haven. A major blow came after Germany's Bundesbank demanded the repatriation of a big chunk of its gold being held in the US. Because as RT's Gayane Chichakyan reports, some are concerned the assets of foreign nations in the Federal Reserve are not secure or even there. The Germans were infuriated when the US Federal reserve didn't even let them examine their own assets properly. Peter Boehringer, the founder and chairman of 'German Precious Metal Association', says that's a bad sign." Continue reading →

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The NSA: And Who Will Watch the Watchmen?

"While the government can hardly be accused of illicit activity in the gathering of one's publicly revealed Facebook information, surreptitious wiretapping without a warrant is another matter, with the legal niceties far from sorted out at this point. One of the truly disturbing facts about Edward Snowden's leaks—which have caused such a commotion in the media and among civil libertarians, while also provoking calls in Congress for him to be tried as a traitor—is that they should have come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying the slightest attention. Clues have been popping up all over the place for more than a decade." Continue reading →

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Bernanke’s Bubble: A Counterfeit Boom Based on Counterfeit Money

"A lot of people on Wall Street think this stock market is a bubble. And a lot of people don’t. A lot of people think this market will fall sharply if the FED stops inflating. And a lot of people don’t. I think the people who blame the FED are right. I also think the FOMC thinks so, too. That is why it has no intention of tapering. Nothing it has said in print since last December indicates otherwise." Continue reading →

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Gold & silver sales jump during Ramadan and Eid in India

"Mohammed Kazi said the past week had seen a big rush of customers. 'Though we serve a large number of people regularly at this time of the year, a silver tinge has been added on to the gift giving this year,' said Kazi. Silver bars and notes with a print of 786, the holy number, with photos of the religious Mecca and Medina, and silver artifacts of Mecca and Medina, silver sandals and silver armbands are doing the rounds as gifting articles across households, said Kazi. Gold and silver sales tend to surge during Ramadan and Eid due to the purchase of gifts. For the devout, mass prayers end with greeting their brethren and handing over small gifts." Continue reading →

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Feds Crack Encrypted Drives, Arrest Child Porn Suspect

"The arrest came months after the authorities told a federal judge they were unable to decrypt the drives and needed the defendant to disclose his passwords — pitting the constitutional right against compelled self-incrimination against the government’s need to access data. In June, the authorities urged the court to demand that Feldman fork over his passcodes, saying the suspect could 'forget his passwords.' The authorities did not say what type of encryption Feldman used. But the case illustrates that encryption isn’t foolproof and that the authorities are making headway cracking encryption." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFeds Crack Encrypted Drives, Arrest Child Porn Suspect