By Iris Vander Pluym – 01.12.14
Based on documents leaked by my 2016 write-in candidate for president Edward J. Snowden, Spiegel reports on an elite NSA unit called TAO (for "Tailored Access Operations"). Some of TAO's exploits take advantage of the notoriously crash-prone Microsoft Windows operating system. Not for useful intelligence gathering, silly. Just for giggles!
Anyone unfortunate enough to run a Windows OS has seen their share of automated crash notices like this:
Read MoreBy Loren Adams, 01.12.14
President Barack Obama claims he knew nothing about the malfunctioning roll-out of the Affordable Care Act before October 1, 2013. He claims he was not aware of the magnitude of NSA spying before the Edward Snowden bombshell. He wasn’t prepared for accomplishing the passage of universal background checks for weapons’ purchases – notably in the aftermath of Newtown. He had no idea Congress would kill his immigration initiatives, jobs bills, employment equality, and extended unemployment insurance for 1.2 million citizens now...
Read MoreBy Harry Targ - 01.12.14
Measuring Educational Outcomes
A Purdue University press release of December 17, 2013 announced a dramatic new collaboration with the Gallup polling organization (and funded by the Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation) to “conduct the largest representative study of college graduates in U.S. history….The Gallup-Purdue Index will provide the first...
Read MoreBy STEVEN JONAS MD, MPH - January 2, 2014
Recent discoveries from the Kepler telescope have indicated that in our galaxy, the Milky Way, alone there are 647 possible “Earth-sized” planets orbiting various sun-star equivalents. (One does wonder how they get to that exact number.) And then there are an estimated 500 billion other galaxies out there. The speculation is becoming more intense as to whether or not there are other “intelligent” species on one or more of those planets. Well, the great Dr. Stephen Hawking’s view to the contrary notwithstanding, given the vast...
Read MoreBy Conn Hallinan - 01.12.14
Every year Dispatches From The edge gives awards to news stories and newsmakers that fall under the category of “Are you serious?” Here are the awards for 2013.
Creative Solutions Award to the Third Battalion of the 41st U.S. Infantry Division for its innovative solution on how to halt sporadic attacks by the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Zhare District: it blew up a hill that the insurgents used as cover.
This tactic could potentially be a major job creator because there are lots of hills in Afghanistan. And after the U.S. Army blows them all up, it can take on those...
Read MoreBy Donald B. Ardell - 01.12.14
Introduction
A sizable segment of the American public is weary of news about religious - based horrors. The daily incidents of Islamic terrorism around the world, religion-based human rights abuses by Zionist Israelis, including divisive Jewish settlements that inflame tensions in the Middle East, Hindu mass murders of Muslims and occasional Christians in Pakistan and India, pedophile Catholic priests in America and, of course, the hateful right-wing ...
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