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Gardenia. Photo by: joanneleon. May, 2013.
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The Bird and The Bee - Private Eyes
News & Opinion
The Guardian has created a separate section on their site called the NSA Files where all the information about this is aggregated. There is so much information coming out, so much follow up, so much opinion and so much govt. spin, it's like trying to drink from a fire hose.
Executives of the tech firms are changing their story and acknowledging that PRISM exists, but they won't or can't go on the record. This is from WaPo, by Gellman and others. Note that they are still claiming it is for "foreign customers". This is going to be the claim, that they are not collecting on US citizens and that this is a "balancing act". I'm seeing McCain and others on the Sunday news shows using these talking points. DNI Clapper issued another statement yesterday too and several times in this WaPo article, they say that the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) issue the directives to grab data. I would guess that they are the two people who are going to have to resign over this to take the fall for the president. I think it's clear that DNI Clapper will not survive this, especially after he lied to Congress. This is a three-page article. WaPo is my secondary source because I don't trust them as much as the Guardian. This article is worth reading though. Among all the carefully worded statements, the most important thing is that tech execs (who denied knowing anything about PRISM just a couple days ago) now acknowledge it. There are a lot of details and statements in the article. I'm not sure what kind of arrangement the Guardian and WaPo have on this. Some US officials have referred to the Guardian as a foreign news organization but the editor of the NY branch has said that the Guardian has a US operation which is a US registered LLC.
U.S., tech firms say surveillance lawful, limited
Executives at some of the participating companies, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged the system’s existence and said it was used to share information about foreign customers with the NSA and other parts of the nation’s intelligence community.
These executives said PRISM was created after much negotiation with federal authorities, who had pressed for easier access to data they were entitled to under previous orders granted by the secret FISA court.
[...] From their workstations anywhere in the world, government employees cleared for PRISM access may “task” the system and receive results from an Internet company without further interaction with the company’s staff.
[Emphasis added.]
Here is the way the Verge spins it.
PRISM data collection happens without tech companies' knowledge, says Washington Post
In the ongoing discussion of PRISM and the NSA's data-collection tactics, much debate has raged over the phrase "direct access," as companies have denied allowing the government unfettered access to their data and servers. Now the Washington Post is reporting that while the access may not be constant, it is very much at the government's control. Companies have evidently set up secure portals outside their own servers, which is accessed at the NSA's discretion and even without the knowledge of the company in question.
From their workstations anywhere in the world, government employees cleared for PRISM access may "task" the system and receive results from an Internet company without further interaction with the company’s staff.
This seems like a BFD, from Steve Clemons, and you should look at his Twitter feed to see how he's trying to figure out who they were. He was on a plane while texting this but there is a lot of follow up.
As Home Sales Heat Up Again, Buyers Must Resort to Cold Cash
Kameron Eliassian, a Los Angeles real estate agent. “I don’t know where it’s coming from, [...] and I don’t care. Just show me proof that it’s there, and we’re good.”
[...]
But with the number of homes for sale at historically low levels and large investors purchasing thousands of properties, buyers are facing a radically changed market and prices are quickly rising.
The percentage of homes bought with cash has shot up in many markets across the nation. Nearly a third of all homes purchased in Los Angeles during the first quarter of this year went for all cash, compared with just 7 percent in 2007. In Miami, 65 percent of homes sold were for cash deals, compared with 16 percent six years ago.
The prices on all-cash deals are also rising significantly. [...]
[...]
All-cash buyers, typically investors eager to renovate and quickly resell or rent out homes, are making it more difficult for first-time buyers, who typically rely on mortgage loans that can take weeks or months to materialize. More California homes have been flipped in the last year than in any year since 2005.
Why Music Makes Our Brain Sing
MUSIC is not tangible. You can’t eat it, drink it or mate with it. It doesn’t protect against the rain, wind or cold. It doesn’t vanquish predators or mend broken bones. And yet humans have always prized music — or well beyond prized, loved it.
[...]
So why does this thingless “thing” — at its core, a mere sequence of sounds — hold such potentially enormous intrinsic value?
The quick and easy explanation is that music brings a unique pleasure to humans. Of course, that still leaves the question of why. But for that, neuroscience is starting to provide some answers.
[...]
When pleasurable music is heard, dopamine is released in the striatum — an ancient part of the brain found in other vertebrates as well — which is known to respond to naturally rewarding stimuli like food and sex and which is artificially targeted by drugs like cocaine and amphetamine.
Action
Crowd-Fund a Court Stenographer for Bradley Manning's Trial
The trial of Bradley Manning will have an enormous impact on press freedom and the rights of future whistleblowers. Help us crowd-fund enough donations so we can hire a court stenographer to take transcripts of the trial. The government refuses to make its transcripts available to the public.
Your donation to this project will be tax-deductible. You can also donate by check.
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