for life and liberty

Syracuse’s ‘most prolific sex offender’ lied to acquire government job

"Despite having hired the man Syracuse police call the ‘most prolific sex offender’ in the area, Syracuse city officials confirmed to CNY NY that they don’t plan on changing their hiring practices or checking into the background of current employee. On the application, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, Carrigan was twice asked and twice lied about whether he had ever been convicted of a crime, felony or misdemeanor. When he was fired from his DPW job after a 2012 arrest for having oral sex with a 15-year-old boy, the city refused to amend its policy on background checks. Carrigan was a level three sex-offender when he applied for the job in 2009." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSyracuse’s ‘most prolific sex offender’ lied to acquire government job

Australian postal workers who send porn from work e-mail will no longer be sacked

"Emailing pornography on work addresses should not automatically be considered a sackable offence, an Australian workplace tribunal has ruled. The Fair Work Commission made the decision after considering a case in which three postal workers were fired after it was found they used work email addresses to send or distribute sexually explicit material. The commission said the terminations of the workers — all of whom were long-standing employees of Australia Post — were too harsh, it confirmed on Wednesday." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAustralian postal workers who send porn from work e-mail will no longer be sacked

Secret U.S. documents reveal Al-Qaeda has anti-drone operation

"Al-Qaeda’s leaders have set up cells of engineers to try to shoot down, disable or hijack US drones, The Washington Post reported late Tuesday citing top-secret US intelligence documents. The Al-Qaeda leadership is 'hoping to exploit the technological vulnerabilities of a weapons system that has inflicted huge losses against the terrorist network,' the Post said online. The Al-Qaeda commanders are keen to achieve 'a technological breakthrough (that) could curb the US drone campaign, which has killed an estimated 3,000 people over the past decade,' the Post reported. [Drone strikes] have taken a toll among civilians in those countries, something that has fueled anti-US sentiment." Continue reading →

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Australian TV networks reject anti-Rupert Murdoch commercial

"Australia’s commercial television networks are refusing to run an advert which accuses Rupert Murdoch of printing 'misleading crap' in his newspapers ahead of national elections, the activist group behind the ad said Wednesday. The left-leaning GetUp!, which describes itself as an independent community advocacy organisation, is complaining to the competition watchdog after three major commercial networks refused to air the video which has been viewed more than 270,600 times on YouTube. Network Ten, of which Murdoch’s son Lachlan Murdoch is a director, had said it did not want to target another media organisation." Continue reading →

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Edward Snowden Receives German Whistleblowing Award

"My gratitude belongs to all of those who have reached out to their friends and family to explain why suspicionless surveillance matters. It belongs to the man in a mask on the street on a hot day and the women with a sign and an umbrella in the rain, it belongs to the young people in college with a civil liberty sticker on their laptop, and the kid in the back of a class in high school making memes. All of these people accept that change begins with a single voice and spoke one message to the world: governments must be accountable to us for the decisions that they make. Decisions regarding the kind of world we will live in. What kind of rights and freedoms individuals will enjoy are the domain of the public." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEdward Snowden Receives German Whistleblowing Award

WikiLeaks’ ‘CableGate’ Server Up for Auction on eBay

"Server geeks and conspiracy theorists wanting to own a little piece of history have a shot at owning the actual server that was at the center of a political firestorm after WikiLeaks used it to release more than 250,000 secret U.S. embassy cables in 2011. Until yesterday the server was on display in a museum within the Thule Brunkow Ridge data center owned by Swedish hosting company Bahnhof, from which WikiLeaks rented the Dell pizza-box server in 2010. Bahnhof – which refers to itself as a Free Speech ISP – doesn’t say why it took the server down from its pedestal and put it up for sale, but does promise the money will go to non-profit free-speech organizations." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWikiLeaks’ ‘CableGate’ Server Up for Auction on eBay

Mind Readers Crack Open New Tech Market

"Based in Israel, Beyond Verbal lives up to its name. The company has created technology that focuses not on what a person says, but how they say it. It goes 'beyond verbal,' using voice signals (such as intonation and modulation) in order to gauge the mood, feelings and emotions behind a person’s words and get a true representation of what they really think. It’s no gimmick, either. The Beyond Verbal team is made up of scientists, psychologists and neurologists who’ve worked on perfecting the Emotions Analytics technology since 1995. Over that time, they’ve conducted tests on 60,000 people in 27 languages to ensure that the technology works across the board." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMind Readers Crack Open New Tech Market

‘Putin in drag’ artist seeks asylum in France

"A Russian artist said Thursday he has fled to France and is applying for asylum after police seized his painting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in women’s underwear. Police on Tuesday raided an exhibition in the northwestern city of Saint Petersburg, which next week hosts the G20 summit, and confiscated works including a painting of Putin in a strappy nightie and Medvedev in a bra and skimpy knickers. The artist, Konstantin Altunin, 45, said by telephone from Paris that he had requested political asylum and was now gathering the necessary documents. The exhibition also included paintings of Lenin and Stalin." Continue reading →

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Putin: Edward Snowden ‘condemned himself to a rather difficult life’

"'You know, I sometimes thought about him, he is a strange guy,' ex-KGB spy Putin said in an interview with state-run Channel One television. 'How is he going to build his life? In effect, he condemned himself to a rather difficult life. I do not have the faintest idea about what he will do next,' Putin said. 'Well, it’s clear we will not give him up, he can feel safe here. But what’s next?' Putin said. 'And maybe some compromises will be found in this case.' Putin said while US special services consider Snowden a traitor 'he is someone with a completely different frame of mind and considers himself to be a fighter for human rights.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPutin: Edward Snowden ‘condemned himself to a rather difficult life’

Boston mayor says he would ‘blow up’ Detroit, defuses situation with apology

"Boston Mayor Tom Menino apologized this week after saying that he would like to go to Detroit and 'blow up the place.' In an recent interview with The New York Times, Menino had been asked how he would handle Detroit’s bankruptcy if he were mayor. 'I’d blow up the place and start all over,' Menino said. 'No, seriously, when it takes a police officer 90 minutes to answer a call, there’s something wrong with the system. Forty percent of the streetlights are out, most of the buildings are boarded up. Why? Inaction, that’s the problem — leadership.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBoston mayor says he would ‘blow up’ Detroit, defuses situation with apology