February 26, 2014

President Obama press conference with the next generation of American workers at the White House.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/02/25/putting-america-forefront-21st-century-manufacturing

manufacturing industry is adding jobs -- more than 620,000 over the last four years. - This is good news.

February 26, 2014

The Lesson of Angela Merkel's Hitler Mustache

Ah, the hazards of light and shadow.

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at a press conference today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he didn’t mean to point his finger in a way that would cast upon her face a distinctly Hitler-mustache-like shadow. But point he did — and Jerusalem Post photographer Marc Israel Sellem captured the moment in a photo that’s now gone viral.

The image has unleashed a tidal wave of laughter, praise and puns. BuzzFeed ran it under the tongue-in-cheek headline “There Is Nothing Strange About This Photo of Angela Merkel — And You’re Crazy If You Think Otherwise.” Gawker’s headline joked that “Angela Merkel Did Nazi This One Coming,” engendering a slew of comments like “Something’s not Reich here” and “Heil get you every time.” Inhabitants of the Twittersphere have been busy nominating it for “Picture of the Year,” while the photographer’s personal Facebook page has been inundated with back-slapping comments from friends (“Congratulations!” “Bravo!”).

But the photographer himself, and his employer, seem to be taking an altogether more bashful approach. Sellem initially uploaded the photo to his Facebook page, but then deleted it, according to BuzzFeed. The Jerusalem Post has said that it will not use the photo, with reporter Lahav Harkov taking care to clarify that the image did not (despite appearances) get posted to the Jerusalem Post’s Facebook page, and tweeting in quick succession:

Read More: http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/193380/the-lesson-of-angela-merkels-hitler-mustache/

February 25, 2014

Obama approves Vietnam nuclear deal

Source: AFP

President Barack Obama Monday approved a civilian nuclear pact with Vietnam which could lead to the sale of US reactors to Washington's energy-hungry former war foe.

The move by the president formally opened a 90-day review process in Congress. If no legislation is passed contravening the accord, it will then come into force.

Under the accord, US officials said, Vietnam committed not to produce radioactive ingredients for nuclear weapons and signed up to US nonproliferation standards, which the White House bills as the strongest in the world.

"I have determined that the performance of the agreement will promote, and will not constitute an unreasonable risk to, the common defense and security," Obama said in a memorandum to the Energy Department.

Read more: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/world/a/21682919/obama-approves-vietnam-nuclear-deal/

February 25, 2014

Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox disappears in blow to virtual currency

Source: Reuters

Mt. Gox, once the world's biggest bitcoin exchange, looked to have essentially disappeared on Tuesday, with its website down, its founder unaccounted for and a Tokyo office empty bar a handful of protesters saying they had lost money investing in the virtual currency.

The digital marketplace operator, which began as a venue for trading cards, had surged to the top of the bitcoin world, but critics - from rival exchanges to burned investors - said Mt. Gox had long been lax over its security.

It was not clear what has become of the exchange, which this month halted withdrawals indefinitely after detecting "unusual activity." A global bitcoin organization referred to the exchange's "exit," while angry investors questioned whether it was still solvent.

A document circulating on the internet, and purporting to be a crisis plan for the exchange, said more than 744,000 bitcoins were "missing due to malleability-related theft", and noted Mt. Gox had $174 million in liabilities against $32.75 million in assets. It was not possible to verify the document or the exchange's financial situation.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/25/us-mtgox-website-idUSBREA1O07920140225

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The Mt. Gox website was originally founded by Jed McCaleb as an online exchange for buying and selling Magic: The Gathering cards, a popular trading card game. Its name was an acronym of Magic: The Gathering Online eXchange. McCaleb changed the site to a Bitcoin exchange, and as it began to take off in 2011, he sold it to Mark Karpeles. Under Karpeles' ownership, the site grew to handle 70% of the world's bitcoin trades by April 2013.

February 24, 2014

Have you ever heard of the Kora harp ?

A kora is a harp built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator with a long hardwood neck. The skin is supported by two handles that run under it, and it supports a notched double free-standing bridge. It doesn't fit into any one category of musical instruments, but rather several, and must be classified as a "double-bridge-harp-lute." The strings run in two divided ranks, making it a double harp. They do not end in a soundboard but are held in notches on a bridge, making it a bridge harp. They originate from a string arm or neck and cross a bridge directly supported by a resonating chamber, making it a lute too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kora_(instrument)

Mamadou Diabate - "griot," "jeli," or storyteller

February 24, 2014

Cat rescued after being stuck under a ferry

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f34_1393075935

February 23, 2014

On the Timing of iOS’s SSL Vulnerability and Apple’s ‘Addition’ to the NSA’s PRISM Program

the SSL vulnerability was introduced in iOS 6.0. It is not present in 5.1.1 and is in 6.0.

iOS 6.0 shipped on 24 September 2012.

According to slide 6 in the leaked PowerPoint deck on NSA’s PRISM program, Apple was “added” in October 2012.

These three facts prove nothing; it’s purely circumstantial. But the shoe fits.

Sure would be interesting to know who added that spurious line of code to the file. Conspiratorially, one could suppose the NSA planted the bug, through an employee mole, perhaps. Innocuously, the Occam’s Razor explanation would be that this was an inadvertent error on the part of an Apple engineer. It looks like the sort of bug that could result from a merge gone bad, duplicating the goto fail; line.

I see five levels of paranoia:

1. Nothing. The NSA was not aware of this vulnerability.
2. The NSA knew about it, but never exploited it.
3. The NSA knew about it, and exploited it.
4. NSA itself planted it surreptitiously.
5. Apple, complicit with the NSA, added it.

http://daringfireball.net/2014/02/apple_prism



http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6147?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

February 23, 2014

India's gay community scrambling after court decision recriminalises homosexuality

Back in 2009, Lesley Esteves was dancing in the streets after judges in Delhi decriminalised homosexuality. When the Delhi High Court suspended the draconian Section 377 of the Indian penal code which dated from the days of British rule, India’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community thought there was no turning back.

Five years on the euphoria has gone. In December, the country’s highest court overturned the lower court’s ruling, once again making gay sex a crime punishable by up to ten years in jail and putting tens of millions of Indians at risk of prosecution or harassment. Last month, that court – which had said gay people in India were just a “minuscule minority” – upheld its decision against an appeal and said it was up to the government to change the law.

But there is little chance for that. While senior figures of the ruling Congress party supported repealing Section 377, the leadership of the main opposition party, which most analysts believe is set to secure power in an upcoming election, do not. As it was, the current parliament held its last session on Friday; it could be years before a new parliament amends the law.

“It was a shock for the whole world, not just for India,” Ms Esteves, who works as a journalist, said of the Supreme Court ruling. “Amidst the euphoria of 2009, I did not imagine the possibility that one day, the Supreme Court would brutally set the Delhi High Court judgment aside and dismiss India’s LGBT people. It’s hard to imagine words more out of sync with the inclusive and progressive Indian constitution.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/indias-gay-community-scrambling-after-court-decision-recriminalises-homosexuality-9146244.html

February 22, 2014

Almost 5% of DU traffic comes from India.

Almost Double the UK. More than Canada, more than Australia.



http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/democraticunderground.com

I guess if one were going to astroturf India might be a logical place to set up shop.

Strange really, my sense is we have very few posters who identify on DU as Indian and certainly not 5%.

Hello to my brothers and sisters from India, welcome to DU!

February 22, 2014

San Diego sheriff won't fight concealed-weapon ruling

Source: SFGate

In an unexpected action, the San Diego County sheriff said Friday he will not seek a rehearing of last week's federal appeals court ruling that would eliminate most local restrictions on concealed-weapons permits in California.

Although state Attorney General Kamala Harris or the court itself could still intervene, the decision by Sheriff Bill Gore increases the possibility of a proliferation of handguns on the streets of San Francisco and other urban areas that now severely restrict them.

"We're concerned," said Deputy City Attorney Christine Van Aken. If the ruling stands, she said, "San Francisco officials are going to have to grant more permits and won't really have the discretion to make judgments about whether people should have concealed weapons."

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Feb. 13 that the Constitution's Second Amendment entitles law-abiding citizens to carry handguns in public for self-defense.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/San-Diego-sheriff-won-t-fight-concealed-weapon-5257815.php