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By gum, he sounds like presidential material to me. Your move, Jeb. .@SonyPictures don’t cave, fight: release @TheInterview free online globally. Ask viewers for voluntary $5 contribution to fight #Ebola.— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) December 18, 2014 More than 13,000 retweets as I write this. Clearly there’s a demand for countermeasures among an American public that doesn’t like the idea of foreigners, especially savages like the Kim cabal, holding veto power over their culture. (Too bad China, Kim’s chief patron, already sort of does.) Am I right, though, in thinking that no major Republican pol aside from Romney has said anything...

Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal, who last week apologized over racially insensitive comments she made in leaked emails posted online, just finished a 90-minute meeting with Rev. Al Sharpton in NYC where the two discussed diversity in Hollywood. Here is Sharpton’s take:

Hollywood star George Clooney said fellow celebrities and industry figures did not want to sign a petition supporting 'The Interview' film featuring the assassination of Kim Jong-un as they were afraid of the consequences. Clooney said he wanted to see the film released on-line to undermine the threats of the hacking gang, who are believed to be supported by North Korean agents. Sony's computer systems were breached following a major hacking attack last month, which saw highly confidential material released as well as a string of embarrassing emails.

Cyberwar: Like a bomb detonating in slow motion, the scale and destructiveness of the Sony hack has only now become fully apparent. Telling Americans to go to the movies doesn't cut it as a government response. At first, it seemed as if Sony was the latest victim of hackers who delight in stealing confidential information and sending it along to WikiLeaks. The hackers called themselves "Guardians of Peace" and claimed, "We want equality. Sony doesn't." Sony initially labeled the event as "an IT matter." For a while, the hack seemed to threaten only the reputations of some Hollywood big shots,...

Five commando units trained for strikes, sabotage North Korea dispatched covert commando teams to the United States in the 1990s to attack nuclear power plants and major cities in a conflict, according to a declassified Defense Intelligence Agency report. The DIA report, dated Sept. 13, 2004, reveals that five units of covert commandos were trained for the attacks inside the country. According to the report, the “Reconnaissance Bureau, North Korea, had agents in place to attack American nuclear power plants.” The document states that the North Korean Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, the ministry in charge of the military, “established...

Yesterday, moments before the North Korea "hacking" tragicomedy escalated into full retard mode with Sony pulling The Interview, or a movie that absent the attention would certainly be a flop, Wired released an article titled: "North Korea Almost Certainly Did Not Hack Sony" (title subsequently changed to the one below as can be seen in the URL alias "http://www.wired.com/2014/12/north-korea-did-not-hack-sony-probs"), which however, and for the better, retains its content as it is quite critical in debunking the latest government "certainty."

Snapchat CEO lashes out after Sony leaks By Cory Bennett - 12/17/14 05:25 PM EST Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said Wednesday that he was “angry” and “devastated” at the information leaked about his disappearing messaging app as a result of the Sony hack. Good chunks of Snapchat’s business plans were revealed Tuesday when the cyberattackers that hit Sony dumped Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton's email catalogue. Lynton sits on Snapchat’s board of directors and had numerous candid email exchanges with Spiegel about hiring practices, possible acquisitions and potential future products. “I felt like I was going to cry all morning,”...

Sony Hack: Activists to Drop 'Interview' DVDs Over North Korea Via Balloon by Paul Bond 12/16/2014 4:03pm PDT This story also appears in the Jan. 9 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Whether or not North Korea is behind the Sony hack, Kim Jong Un better brace himself because The Interview is headed to his country. Human rights activists are planning to airlift DVDs of the Seth Rogen comedy into the country via hydrogen balloons. Fighters for a Free North Korea, run by Park Sang Hak, a former government propagandist who escaped to South Korea, has for years used balloons...

Sony hacks: Sorkin says media are 'morally treasonous' By Anthony Zurcher Editor, Echo Chambers The messages read like something from a bad Hollywood film about Hollywood. The misbehaviour of egotistical studio executives, petulant stars and dictatorial directors seem almost too cliched to be true. But, apparently, they are. Major media outlets have been sifting through the voluminous trove of Sony Pictures emails made public by an anonymous group of hackers known as the Guardians of Peace for more than a week, picking out the particularly salacious details. The resulting stories have provided a candid look at the sometimes ugly, sometimes...

Sony Frees Theaters to Skip Film ‘The Interview’ Amid Hacker Threat Decision Comes After Threats of Physical Attacks Around Dec. 25 Opening of Seth Rogen Comedy By Ben Fritz, Danny Yadron and Erich Schwartzel Updated Dec. 16, 2014 9:03 p.m. ET Sony Pictures executives will let theater operators decide whether or not to play its forthcoming comedy film “The Interview” after threats of physical attacks surfaced on Tuesday, said a person with knowledge of Sony’s plans. The decision came after the same people purporting to have carried out a devastating cyber attack on the movie studio threatened to escalate to...

A North Korean defector gives a horrible account of how people with mental or physical disabilities are seen as a stain on the nation's image and are therefore used for performing experiments before being deliberately neglected until they die. "Disabled children are being taken away, suffering indescribable things and dying," said Ji Seong-ho, who escaped North Korea in 2006 after losing his left leg above the knee and his left hand at the wrist. Ji, the founder of the organization Now, Action, Unity, Human Rights, or NAUH, who was in London this week to protest outside the North Korean embassy,...

American in North Korea denounces U.S., seeks Venezuela asylum: media Reuters 2:54 a.m. EST, December 14, 2014 A U.S. citizen who illegally entered North Korea delivered a lengthy denunciation of U.S. domestic and foreign policy on Sunday and said he was seeking political asylum in Venezuela, the North's official media said. The man identified himself as Arturo Pierre Martinez, 29, from El Paso, Texas, in video footage of a press conference released by the North's KCNA news agency and said he had taken "a risky journey to reach the (North) so that I could pass along some very valuable and...

Sony Hackers Leak New Data, Threaten ‘Christmas Gift’ To Put Studio In ‘Worst State’ Movies | By Linda Ge on December 13, 2014 @ 2:53 pm Latest data dump, the seventh, related to Sony streaming site Crackle The Sony hacking continues to unfold as the group calling itself the Guardians of Peace have released another bundle of data obtained from the studio’s computer files, and issued another warning. “We are preparing for you a Christmas gift,” reads the message. “The gift will be larger quantities of data. And it will be more interesting. The gift will surely give you much...

Kim Yo-jong grows in clout as brother relapses PYONGYANG ODYSSEY Dec 10,2014 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is experiencing a relapse of his recent health problems, South Korean government officials said Monday. According to the Ministry of Unification, Kim was limping severely in a video clip recently aired by the state-run Korean Central TV. He was limping particularly painfully at an event with female pilots that took place at the end of last month. The Rodong Shinmun, the Workers’ Party’s newspaper, reported Kim’s visit to the air base on Nov. 28 with photos, but no video was aired until Sunday...

Hollywood producer attacks Angelina Jolie as 'spoiled brat with rampaging ego' In embarrassing emails leaked by Sony hackers Scott Rudin, producer of The Social Network and The Queen, claims the star's planned remake of Cleopatra will be an "ego bath" By Nick Allen, Los Angeles 8:14PM GMT 10 Dec 2014 An Oscar-winning Hollywood producer reportedly attacked Angelina Jolie as a "spoiled brat with a rampaging ego" in leaked emails. Scott Rudin, who produced films including The Social Network, Notes on a Scandal, Moneyball, and The Queen, made the comments in what appear to be a series of angry exchanges with...

Defense Secretary Favorite Ash Carter Wanted To Bomb North Korea In 2006 Armin Rosen Dec 2, 2014, 11.25 PM Ashton Carter, President Barack Obama's nominee to succeed Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, is largely known as a behind-the-scenes player, a thinker and manager rather than a public agitator. This low profile is arguably one of Carter's top selling points. After Hagel's troubled reign at the Pentagon, which ended in a highly public falling out with the White House over policy in the Middle East and accusations of laziness and dysfunction, it's prudent for the president to want a respected...

Sony Hacking: North Korea Denies Involvement, Praises Attack December 6, 2014 | 09:11PM PT Variety Staff North Korea has denied involvement in the ongoing cyber attack on Sony Pictures, according to a report from Agence France Presse. However, North Korea’s top military body told North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA that the hacking is “a righteous deed” that may have been carried out by its supporters to protest Sony’s upcoming comedy “The Interview.” “The hacking into the Sony Pictures might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers with the (North) in response to its appeal,” the National Defense...

Sony hack: Signs point to North Korea By Jose Pagliery @Jose_Pagliery December 5, 2014: 9:05 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) We can't say for sure, but the evidence in the Sony Pictures hack is increasingly pointing to North Korea, according to several security experts. The attack is similar to last year's raid on South Korean banks and telecoms -- one that the country's intelligence officials attributed to the North Korean government. Here are the latest findings from security researchers at antivirus maker Kaspersky. Hackers destroyed data on Sony Pictures computers with the same kind of digital weapon used against South...

N.Korea's Nasty Young Rulers Kim Yeo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, had been appointed a vice director in the Workers Party Central Committee. Until now, she was referred to only as a "senior official." The position is equivalent to a vice minister in the South. But Kim Yeo-jong is only 27 years old. Her father, former leader Kim Jong-il, was appointed vice director in the party when he was 32, and her aunt, Kim Kyong-hui when she was 30. The North Korean press did not say which department Yeo-jong is in charge of, but officials here...

Posted : 2014-12-04 16:02 Updated : 2014-12-04 16:02 N. Korea conducted small nuclear test in 2010: China professor A Chinese professor has claimed that North Korea conducted a "low-yield underground nuclear test" in May 2010, possibly backing a claim by North Korea that it succeeded in carrying out a nuclear fusion reaction at that time. Wen Lianxing, the professor who leads a research group on earthquakes and physics at the Beijing-based University of Science and Technology of China, said the North's claimed nuclear test yielded a 2.9-ton blast with a margin of error of 0.8 ton. The claimed nuclear test...