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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) plans to introduce legislation to prevent a “takeover” of the Internet by the United Nations or another government regime. Speaking Monday at Google’s office in Washington, the possible presidential contender said he will introduce legislation to codify U.S. support of an open Internet as other countries attempt to control its growth. “Since the Web is worldwide — and since it has proven such an effective catalyst for pro-democratic revolution — it has become a battleground that many fight to control,” he said.

Troubled Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection, an ancillary form of bankruptcy that will complement its primary Tokyo District Court claim issued on 28th February. US Chapter 15 bankruptcy provides specific protections in cases of cross-border insolvency, and is based on UN model law. Both Japan and the US have adopted Chapter 15 bankruptcy in an effort to better protect the interests of shareholders and maximize the value of debtor assets in cross-border bankruptcies.

Hackers (or disgruntled insiders) claim to have released a 700+MB file of Mt. Gox operational information and transaction data, including one sheet claiming the exchange could still have a balance of over 951,116 BTC. One of the hackers managed to post the data on Gox CEO Mark Karpeles’ own blog, then announced the feat on Reddit. Karpeles’ site has since gone completely offline and Reddit moderators deleted the original post. At press time the mods were engaged in a cat and mouse game with other community members who re-posted the original quote and several links claiming to be mirrors of...

Whether in early 2017 it’s President Hillary Clinton, President Jeb Bush, President Chris Christie, President Joe Biden or someone else, the individual occupying the Oval Office would face new limits on executive orders, Commerce Clause actions, a balanced federal budget and a ban on using international treaties to govern inside the U.S. if a state-based movement is successful. ... Snip ...

Dispatches How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations A page from a GCHQ top secret document prepared by its secretive JTRIG unit "One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents. Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously...

Some savvy bitcoin investors have a solution to cyberthieves and instability shaking online exchanges: They print out their virtual savings and hide them in the real world. The shuttering this week of bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox and fears that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the virtual currency have been lost or stolen are pushing investors to tighten their security. Touted by advocates as a new, digital type of money that could one day replace real-world cash, bitcoins can also be stored like traditional currencies, locked up in a safe, or hidden in a shoe box. Enthusiasts around the world...

Good evening. Would anyone know how to delete ALL "like" choices I've posted on Facebook? Your assistance is deeply appreciate. Thank You, TJI

We’re beginning to see more and more discussions about how the laws, policies and regulations of our federal, state and local governments are working to impoverish the people of this country and restrict their liberties. So much so that even the taboo topic of a potential Ukraine-style collapse right here in America is now being openly discussed in mainstream circles. In a recent panel discussion on Fox News the question of whether or not Ukraine rioting is the future of America came to the forefront and long-time political operative and former Presidential adviser Pat Caddell weighed in. Like many of...

Everyone please send whatever you are able to, whether it is $10, $100 or $1,000+. The Left loves to see these go on and on. Better for us to just help with what we can. Maybe you can donate as a memorial for a lost loved one, a friend, a servicemember who never made it home or was disabled defending our country or another hero. Perhaps you'd like to give to keep free discussion alive and to show them that we're not knuckling under. I'm sure a well thought out or prayerful meditation will lead you to see the need...

PMB is safer and more private because it doesn’t use the usual technology to send emails and instant messages, or to transfer files. Traditional email systems focus on sending mails through a series of relays until each piece is put back together for the recipient. Here’s how that system works. Why PMB Keeps Your Information Private Our patented, cutting-edge technology doesn’t use relay servers to deliver your communications. We establish a private, electronic stream between you and the database and your recipient and the database. This approach not only gives the messages you send, electronically, an unprecedented level of security...

A forgotten letter from a mystery First World War sailor has found its way to his granddaughter after almost a century. The note dated 1916 was discovered behind a fireplace in Kirkwall, Orkney, and signed ‘Your Blue Jacket Boy’. Addressed to the serviceman’s family, it was sealed and stamped but never posted. Staff at Orkney Library hoped to identify the letter writer and launched an appeal on their blog. The hunt spread to Canada, where a distant relative suggested the sailor might be David John Phillips from Llanelli, South Wales. The relative contacted Mary Hodge in Chester, who recognised the...

Imagine the heartache of the cis-trans male who opens up Facebook and realizes there’s no gender category for him to choose from. It’s only male and female. This is just too outré for words.  Doesn’t everyone know that gender is a social construct – that gender is malleable and may change from moment to moment? One could be five or six or seven of them before lunchtime and a few dozen more before climbing under the covers and turning into a butterfly, or whatever. Gender is not in the head, you know, it is not in the brain. You are...

Miniaturization, robotics, and the hastening automation economy are coming together in interesting new ways. Personal drone delivery services could be a fast-arriving concept. Amazon announced PrimeAir in November 2013, to possibly be ready for launch in 2015 pending US FAA regulations of personal drone airspace. In the ideal case, the service would deliver ordered items within 30-60 minutes. Similarly, Dubai and the UAE announced a personalized drone delivery service including eye-scanning verification for government documents. Personalized or at least targeted micro-delivery via drones is not a new idea. One obvious use is delivering aid, medicine, and other supplies to remote,...

Conservative Websites are being subjected to denial of service attacks and worm virus infection. In particular Freeper Beckwith is fighting this battle right this moment. The left is ginning up to limit free speech of Conservatives, treating them as they would terrorists, using sophisticated software likely provided by the Obama Campaign, with hacker research likely funded by Tax Payer dollars for Community Workers. Whether we win in November depends on our success in protecting our internet speech rights.If anyone has techniques which would protect from these attacks, including encryption or the use of alternate OS such as LINUX, and mirror...

University of the People is a tuition-free online institution that aims to reach all students that wish to obtain a college education. It is fully accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council, a national accrediting group. It offers courses that include business administration and computer science programs.

Ben Shapiro, the editor-at-large of Breitbart News, is parting ways with the company. He continues to be editor of the media watchdog group, TruthRevolt, the right-wing answer to the liberal Media Matters. TruthRevolt has no financial tie to Breitbart News and is a non-profit owned by David Horowitz. Shapiro began working for Breitbart News in February, 2012, just two weeks before Andrew Breitbart died. Shapiro was a longtime friend to Breitbart. The Los Angeles-based Shapiro, who also hosts a radio show on KTTH out of Seattle and is an attorney, declined to comment on the matter. In fact, when I...

This scam is being reported by Tech Crunch and we wanted to make our readers aware of it.The scam, simplified: They call you, but immediately hang up. You see a missed call. You call back. They charge you for the call, and for each minute they can keep you on the line.According to the BBB, this so-called “One Ring” scam is on the rise.Like many a ruse, this one relies on hitting many, many potential targets at once. The scammer sets up a computer to call thousands of numbers per hour — because for every 99 people who follow their gut...

I posted a thread a while back, saying that an analysis showed that former HDOH director Loretta Fuddy would not have fit inside the casket that was shown in the Honolulu Diocese's photo from the funeral. After somebody pointed out a different method of calculation - not requiring a rotation of the images - I recognized that my conclusion was totally wrong and corrected my post on the blog, posted another post, changed the pdf's with the analysis, and commented on the thread here. But to make sure that anybody accessing the original post here will also see that correction,...

China is investing heavily in 3D printing, just like those in the U.S. and Europe. In June, China announced a gigantic 3D printer, which they claimed was the world’s largest at the time, with a 1.8 meter build diameter. Basically the thing could print out a nice sized bathroom vanity if you wanted it to. Southern Fan Co. (As Translated from Chinese), is completing a printer this month which will be able to print out metal objects approximately 6 meters, or 18 feet in diameter and 10 meters long (33 feet). The metal parts can weigh up to 300 tons....

1. Coming to the door to pick someone up. I think we’ve all had it with the incredibly unromantic “here” text, and meeting up always seems to be more casual and platonic than the alternative. Of course, meeting someone from online or any circumstance like that would probably be the exception to this rule, but generally: the 30 seconds it takes to get out of a car or cab and knock on the door makes a huge difference. 2. Trying to dress really nicely for a date. “Nicely” means different things for different people, so I think it’s just a...

The world gets more troubling every day as nut-ball beliefs are pushed as normal. It’s hard to keep up with all the craziness. Two feminist stories caught my attention. One is typical, the other is bizarre. Feminists want to rewrite Wikipedia. The following is from the DailyCaller:

It seems every few years some influential critic or essayist decides that live music is dead. Usually it happens when some technology — like the internet–quickly eclipses a traditional means by which the music industry makes money. This argument is then usually ratified by disgruntled and worried musicians (meaning: most of them, all of the time), and finally spread and recycled around the music world. . . until finally washes up on the shores of the mainstream media, where it becomes the ‘everything is going to hell’ meme of the week.

Many FReepers are fans of HotAir...they only very occasionally allow those wishing to post on the site to register. Today's open registration day, if you're interested..

There are a number of annual training requirements we have to meet in the Marine Corps. It being the 21st Century, some of those have to do with cyber awareness and protecting information of various kinds. Since common sense is not a common virtue we are all subjected to online training in protecting personally identifiable information and classified material. Not completing the training will result in the Marine Corps turning off our access to e-mail and internet at work. This sounds more like a reward than a consequence but remember what I said about sense being common. The cyber counter...

I know that dissatisfaction, or rather, deep, deep hatred, for public schools and universities is fairly commonplace around here and the need for massive overhaul in the educational system from kindergarden to the graduate level is one of the top priorities for many Freepers. And so there has been talk about the rise of online educational systems, to use as key examples Open Course Ware, EdX and the Kahn Academy. There has been talk of the extent to which they will replace teachers on other forums and so I figured it was worthy of a separate thread. This is also...

I’ve always tried to be brutally honest with y’all when it come to money in this space because: 1 – It helps you trust the content I create here 2 – Being transparent is more comfortable for me than being vague 3 – Too many people in this space have wild misconceptions about how much money is or is not being made here, which leads to gossip and bitterness that’s a complete waste of time Since I first mentioned last year that I was writing a book and then more so when it was published, people have been curious about...

When, if ever, will we eat lab-grown meat? It's still early enough in 2014 for predictions of the year to come, and late 2013 saw the unveiling of the world's first hamburger made of laboratory-cultured animal protein, leading to a frenzy of journalistic coverage and even one short article that collected past predictions for when "cultured meat" might reach supermarket shelves. ("Cultured meat" is the term of preference among the substance's promoters, over "schmeat," "lab meat," and of course "frankenmeat.") Those skeptical about the viability of meat grown in laboratories can look back with satisfaction at a long history of...

As those in power continues to hang onto the 19th century model of education or accept Common Core indoctrination for their students, parents are moving toward becoming the “deciders” as they chose charter and private schools, homeschooling, and online programs, it is leaving thousands of empty school buildings all across America. According to a recent study among the cities with vacant school buildings are

This is a very educational show put on by Kin Greenhouse of "It's Rainmaking Time". She is one of the very few who eschew the soundbite driven media economy and chooses the long format, deep dive approach. While it may be too long for ADD crowd, it digs deep into a not so simple subject to foster understanding and comprehension. This was a pretty good show with an interesting cast of guests:

I made up a term for something and it was posted at Urban Dictionary. Not the most difficult thing to do but I'm slightly proud of myself. A long time ago I noticed that on sites like Breitbart, TheDC and Gateway Pundit there would be times where every single comment agreeing with the author would have exactly 1 negative vote. It was as if someone had sat and deliberately gone through every one of the hundreds of comments with the sole intention of disagreeing with each one. So, after a awhile I made up a term for the kind of...

It seems that more and more, Facebook is becoming a battlefield of political ideologies with stories that sound like something written by Tom Clancy. Early Friday morning, Examiner.com was given a long list of approximately 80 conservative Facebook pages targeted by liberal "trolls" for infiltration and takeover by someone who only wished to be identified as "AJ," an administrator of a targeted page. * * * The pro-Sarah Palin "Barracuda Brigade" and the pro-Phil Robertson "I Stand with Phil" pages were among those listed as targets. Several pro-gun pages were listed along with a Facebook page supporting the South Carolina...

HISTORY OF MACINTOSHThe now famous Macintosh computer has just turned 30. When Apple President Steve Jobs launched this computer at the Flint Center on De Anza College campus on January 24, 1984 to the theme from Chariots of Fire he called it “insanely great!� The $1.5M “1984″ Superbowl commercial filmed by Sir Ridley Scott had appeared on TV two days before Macintosh went on sale and the world was holding its breath.When IBM released the so-called IBM PC in 1981, I remember saying at the time that it “legitimized the desktop microcomputer market,� at least for business. Though it...

Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Why Anonymity Matters Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location.

If there is one thing I hate, it is spam. I hate spam email, spam snail mail, and most of all, spam comments on my blog. I take great pains to keep spam comments off Political Realities. At the same time, I want to make it easy for normal commenters to leave their thoughts on the blog, even if I disagree with what they have to say. That said, this post may only be of interest to those of you who operate WordPress blogs, but it is important enough for me to share in a post of its own. Every...

I have developed a bookmarklet that can help you find if an article has already been posted on Free Republic. You put it in your favorites bar or save it as a bookmark. While reading a news article or web page, you click the "FR Search" link. A window opens with the FR search page and with a good guess what the article title is. Screen shots of me using "FR Search" to see if an article was posted.I have tested it with Chrome 32 and IE 11. Here are the results of testing 20 articles posted on FR. I...

I was reading a blog at another site, and came upon this excellent post. With full permission of the author I repost it here. Enjoy! It's long but worth the time IMHO. It's also the most sense out of The Ninth Circuit that I've ever seen. By California Lawyer | Friday, January 24, 2014 at 4:23 pm What First Amendment protections are afforded a blogger sued for defamation? This was the question presented recently in a case just decided in the most liberal appellate court jurisdiction in the USA, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The issue was one of...

The other day I broke a news story reporting that Google is now one of Madison Avenue’s “Big 5.” That’s an old school Madison Avenue reference, for sure, and used to be used by agencies to refer to their biggest suppliers -- the Big 3 TV networks (ABC, CBS and NBC), and then the Big 4 when Fox joined the club. I used that reference on purpose to show that Google is now one of Madison Avenue’s biggest suppliers, because previously, it was seen mainly as a paid-search supplier, and mostly for the the long-tail (smaller advertisers). So why am...

According to the NVRA, government offices that provide public assistance of any kind are also deemed voter registration agencies, and must provide a host of voter registration services.Two liberal voter rights advocacy groups sent a letter to the White House on Wednesday saying the voter registration services provided under the Affordable Care Act are “grossly inadequate” and violate the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). Demos and Project Vote contend that the application process through the federal exchanges don’t provide sufficient voter registration services, and that the “several million” people who have sought coverage under ObamaCare “did not receive an...

"...The numbers they have make the valuation of Facebook dependent more on how many ways can they monetize their 1.2 billion subscribers. Pardon me for being crass but when we talk about "monetization" with regard to Facebook, the question put bluntly really boils down to how many ways can they extract money from them? This discussion usually leads to contemplating the number of ways Facebook can advertise to them without driving users away. This is all pretty much "inside the box" thinking. It doesn't require a stretch because..." (continue)

Because Backblaze has a history of openness, many readers expected more details in my previous posts. They asked what drive models work best and which last the longest. Given our experience with over 25,000 drives, they asked which ones are good enough that we would buy them again. In this post, I’ll answer those questions. Drive Population At the end of 2013, we had 27,134 consumer-grade drives spinning in Backblaze Storage Pods. ...snip... Why do we have the drives we have? Basically, we buy the least expensive drives that will work. When a new drive comes on the market that...

The news around shopping during the holiday season was dominated by two separate stories. One talked about how traffic to brick-and-mortar stores was well below expectations, and that these retailers were forced to discount tremendously to drive sales. The other talked about how an enormous late surge in packages coming from e-commerce companies overwhelmed the capacity of UPS and, to a lesser extent, FedEx, and caused many of these packages to arrive after Christmas. But, to me, these two stories are not at all separate, they simply reflect different sides of the same narrative: We’re in the midst of a...

Nice speech yesterday? Well, not really. There are some points on which I agree with the President, which is a shocker all on its own. For instance, I agree that we can spy on people outside the United States who are a threat to the country. We always have as a nation; this is not new. And, I agree with his change requiring a warrant before US phone records are accessed. That's a new one for the President, and it's a good one. However, what I didn't hear today was any reform on mass-collection itself, nor on penalties for lies...

I am president of the board of a community orchestra, and I want to get a credit card swiper so people can donate at our concerts and/or purchase ticket for our fundraiser. I have done some research on Intuits, Cubes, and PayPal Here. But now I would like to gather some anecdotal evidence. Does anyone have experience with these? Preference? Feedback? Hate them? Cautionary advice? I have an iPhone 4 with IOS 5.

Good evening, I was told about a website called Songterr this evening. It's basically a guitar tabs site which include rhythms. Songterr features automated tabs with midi playback attached. Have any of you used/use Songterr? If so, do you like it? If so, what's the pro's? Con's? Thank you, TJI

The Obama administration has offshore outsourced Obamacare. They made Accenture the lead contractor for the website healthcare.gov. The contract is estimated to be worth $90 million and the original contractor, CGI Federal, is out. We pointed out earlier that the failed Obamacare website was poetic justice as CGI Federal is also an offshore outsourcer of U.S. jobs. But now the poster boy for labor arbitrage, offshore tax havens, and bloated, often failed government contracts is in charge, Accenture. Accenture is one of the biggest offshore outsourcers of American jobs. In 2012 they used 4,037 H-1B Visas alone and are ranked...

A tug of war is taking place between Facebook (FB) bulls and bears. It is playing out in the blogosphere and financial news outlets. Facebook has passionate longs and shorts as can be expected with a stock that has increased to the degree it has over the past year. Those who are short Facebook are clinging to two particular themes that warrant contemplation since the hopes and livelihood of short-sellers are resting heavily upon them: (continued)

It seems the mere mention of the name "Palin" is enough to send liberal hatemongers over the edge. On Saturday, Twitchy reported that's exactly what happened when 12-year-old Piper Palin tweeted a "selfie" that was a clever response to something her mother posted on Facebook. Predictably, liberal hatemongers on Twitter reacted like Pavlov's dogs and engaged in the usual hatred Americans have come to expect from the left. The former governor, Twitchy said, was in Pasadena on Friday to promote her new outdoor program. Palin told television critics she hoped her program would “empower young women to get outdoors,...

US intelligence officers feared that terrorists would create an online avatar of Osama Bin Laden to continue to preach the late Al Qaeda leader’s message for centuries. A study predicted that jihadists would use images and recordings of Bin Laden to put together new speeches and fatwas which would be broadcast online even after his death. Its theories also included terrorists infiltrating virtual reality worlds such as Second Life or online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft to recruit new members.

Google CEO Larry Page has rapidly positioned Google to become an indispensable U.S. military contractor. Google recently purchased Boston Dynamics, a robotics pioneer that produces amazing humanoid robots for the U.S. Defense Department. This development invites attention to Google’s broader military contracting ambitions — especially since Boston Dynamics is the eighth robotics company that Google has bought in the last six months. ... In 2012, Google hired Regina Dugan, the head of DOD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), DOD’s in-house “moon-shot” idea factory. At the time a Google spokesperson said: “Regina is a technical pioneer who brought the future...

Good evening, I'm seeking your opinion/advice on these two laptops. If given the choice which would you choose and why? Our child has been given a gift: a Dell 11.6, but we may be able to exchange it for the Lenovo. I'm just wondering whether or not it would be worth the exchange. I'm inclined to think it is, but trading one for the other presents a little bit of a challenge. We must travel out of state in order to exchange the laptop. I'm wondering if it would be worth the wait and travel. Thank you, as always, for...