Source: NY Times

After more than a decade of wrenching national debate over the intrusiveness of government intelligence agencies, a bipartisan wave of support has gathered to sharply limit the federal government’s sweeps of phone and Internet records.

On Thursday, a bill that would overhaul the Patriot Act and curtail the so-called metadata surveillance exposed by Edward J. Snowden was overwhelmingly passed by the House Judiciary Committee and was heading to almost certain passage in that chamber this month.

An identical bill in the Senate — introduced with the support of five Republicans — is gaining support over the objection of Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, who is facing the prospect of his first policy defeat since ascending this year to majority leader.

The push for reform is the strongest demonstration yet of a decade-long shift from a singular focus on national security at the expense of civil liberties to a new balance in the post-Snowden era.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/politics/patriot-act-faces-revisions-backed-by-both-parties.html

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Edward J. Snowden American whistleblower and dissident.

http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh0JEl7ztvUzc10aiU

The CNN host was interviewing Baltimore city councilman Carl Stokes when she incredulously questioned Stokes whether Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlins-Blake’s categorization of the teens as criminals and thugs was “the right word.”

Crickets from the rest...

Source: Time

Researchers say it may be possible to slow and even reverse aging by keeping DNA more stably packed together in our cells

In a breakthrough discovery, scientists report that they have found the key to keeping cells young. In a study published Thursday in Science, an international team, led by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte at the Salk Institute, studied the gene responsible for an accelerated aging disease known as Werner syndrome, or adult progeria, in which patients show signs of osteoporosis, grey hair and heart disease in very early adulthood.

These patients are deficient in a gene responsible for copying DNA, repairing any mistakes in that replication process, and for keeping track of telomeres, the fragments of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that are like a genetic clock dictating the cell’s life span. Belmonte—together with scientists at the University Catolica San Antonio Murcia and the Institute of Biophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences—wanted to understand how the mutated gene triggered aging in cells. So they took embryonic stem cells, which can develop into all of the cells of the human body, and removed this gene. They then watched as the cells aged prematurely, and found that the reason they became older so quickly had to do with how their DNA was packaged.

In order to function properly, DNA is tightly twisted and wound into chromosomes that resemble a rope in the nucleus of cells. Only when the cell is ready to divide does the DNA unwrap itself, and even then, only in small segments at a time. In patients with Werner syndrome, the chromosomes are slightly messier, more loosely stuffed into the nuclei, and that leads to instability that pushes the cell to age more quickly. Belmonte discovered that the Werner gene regulates this chromosome stability. When he allowed the embryonic stem cells that were missing this gene to grow into cells that go on to become bone, muscle and more, he saw that these cells aged more quickly.



Read more: http://time.com/3841620/scientists-discover-the-secret-to-keeping-cells-young/

https://m.

Cool‼️ My guess is USAF

Source: AFP

The final suspect in the 1995 deadly nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway was jailed for life on Thursday, for his part in a crime that shocked the world.

Katsuya Takahashi, a 57-year-old former member of the Aum Supreme Truth cult, served as a driver for one of the cultists who released the Nazi-developed sarin gas in the subway system, killing 13 people and injuring some 6,000.

While Takahashi denied knowledge about the planned gas attack, Tokyo District Court's presiding judge Tomomi Nakazato ruled that he knew about what would become Japan's worst terrorist attack, an incident that sowed panic throughout the nation, according to Jiji Press.

Local media highlighted how during his court hearings Takahashi remained loyal to the cult's half-blind guru and did not utter an apology over a series of crimes committed by the group.

Police captured Takahashi in June 2012 after he had been on the run for 17 years, bringing to an end the hunt for those thought to be behind the horrific act.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3062102/Last-Tokyo-subway-gas-attack-suspect-jailed-life.html

Intifada (انتفاضة intifāḍah) is an Arabic word which literally means "flood" or "flooding", though it is popularly translated into English as "uprising", "resistance", or "rebellion" and it involves big numbers of people, hence the word "flooding". It is often used as a term for popular resistance to oppression.

https://scontent-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xfa1/v/t43.1792-2/11104157_1111391248887362_939110017_n.mp4?efg=eyJxZSI6ImhpZ2hfcXVhbGl0eV9zZF8wMzAyLDM2MHBfd2ViX2lwYWRfMjQwcF9tb2JpbGUifQ%3D%3D&oh=da4cd930443f5f30a834afcaddbdb80c&oe=5541F707

Wow