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Financial Express

Source: CIA using Patriot Act to collect money transfer data CNN International Washington (CNN) -- The CIA is collecting bulk records on international money transfers, using the same Patriot Act legal authority that has become the center of controversy in U.S. surveillance programs, a source told CNN. A person familiar with the program ... CIA Collecting Data on International Money Transfers, Officials SayNew York Times CIA Collecting Americans' Personal Info, TooWall Street Journal Report: CIA collecting international money transfer dataUPI.com International Business Times -New York Magazine -Financial Post all 40 news articles »

I’m trying to think of a dating tip for The Night of the Doctor but I can’t because our precious Disney Prince Doctor with the curls and hopping and being excited about shoes and so many feels and I can’t… 

Inmates playing chess | Cornell Capa | Via

Memories From a Walking City | Josephine Kyhn | Tumblr

Actually, anon, I’m completely well-informed regarding vaccines—with a university level background in biology, including courses on diseases in human and animal populations. People who do not vaccinate for superstitious reasons are actively harming other people around them. Their choice to believe fear-mongering propaganda instead of years of research is, of course, their choice. It also makes them an active danger to the population of this planet. 

I’m not going to give you a science lesson here because the facts are all out there. They were in the article I posted. They’re on just about every major news site if you care to look for them. All you have to do is Google and it’s there in layperson’s terms. But you’d have to want to be informed, instead of feeling the artificial rush of believing you’re part of a special group that knows a special secret that everyone else is too dumb to realize, for that to work. 

Enjoy your deliberate ignorance and your fuzzy feelings of superiority and your false sense of control over a world that’s terrifyingly random—that’s all part of a very specific mechanic of human psychology, if you’d like to look that up as well. Unfortunately, we haven’t got a vaccine for that. Yet. 

Fighting Surveillance Tactics and Winning | Take Action, What Matters Today | BillMoyers.com:

Read the personal stories of people who are agitating for change by standing up for privacy, civil liberties and justice.

Excellent. 

And here’s a link.

The Internet is choked with nostalgia for the youth-oriented entertainments of the not-too-distant past: Tumblr blogs regurgitating images of half-forgotten toys; YouTube compilations of long-lost TV-show intros; countless blogs playing “Remember when?” with movies and video games whose rose-colored recollections aren’t always properly earned. With Memory Wipe, The A.V. Club takes a look at some of our formative favorites with clearer eyes and asks that all-important question: Were they really that great to begin with?

On April 4, 1987, The New Universe went up in flames. Or at least a few copies of it did. That night, according to Sean Howe’s excellent book Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, disgruntled Marvel employees attended a party at the house of famed comic-book creator John Byrne. Byrne had recently taken over Star Brand, the flagship title of Marvel’s New Universe—a line of comics that had been launched in ...

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Senator Dean Heller had a simple question for Janet Yellen at her confirmation hearing to become the chair of the US Federal Reserve: “Do you believe there’s any indicator behind the rise and fall of gold prices?”

Heller is one of many Republicans in Washington who have touted gold as part of their mistrust of the government and the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented efforts to right the economy after the financial crisis. The party’s 2012 platform called for a consideration of “a metallic basis for US currency.” Fifty-two lawmakers support legislation that would track the dollar relative to gold, an idea that economists think is downright crazy—in fact, the Fed goes out of its way to leave volatile commodities out of its price analysis. Influential conservatives like Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have proposed allowing gold and silver to serve as alternative currencies to the dollar.

The chart above shows why that’s not such a good idea: The purple series tracks ICE’s US dollar value index. Since 2011 it has stayed more or less stable relative to other currencies, appreciating or depreciating less than ten percent relative to its initial value. The blue series tracks the price of gold, has been extremely volatile, shooting up almost 40% to its peak price in 2011, and oscillating fairly wildly for eighteen months before beginning its recent plunge.

While it’s not a perfect counter-factual by any means, if the dollar had made similar swings, US exports would have been crushed in 2011 as they would have been wildly expensive to the rest of the world. Today, the dollar would buy less than it did three years ago. In  between, your wealth might have increased or decreased by 15% in a matter of months. That’s not the kind of certainty you can build an vibrant economy around.

Yellen’s responded diplomatically to Heller on Thursday, saying that there is no good model to value gold, except “when there is financial market turbulence, often we see gold prices rise as people flee into them.”

Come December 11, Heritage Global Partners will finally begin selling off the intellectual property of Curt Schilling's 38 Studios.

Initially slated for November, the auction was delayed due to "greater than expected" interest from potential bidders. The state of Rhode Island is hoping that this auction will allow it to recoup some portion of the $75 million it loaned 38 Studios, so it only makes sense to attract as many bidders as possible.

Among the items included in the auction are sequel and licensing rights to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, rights to Big Huge Games' Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends strategy games, and "Project Copernicus" which the auction house describes as "an in-development Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) including a 10,000 year world history, completed character 'races' and playable 'zones.'"

Full information on the auction can be found at the Heritage Global Partners website. Initial bids will be accepted as late as 5PM EST on December 4.

38 Studios IP auction scheduled for December 11 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 15 Nov 2013 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This weekend for the first time ever, a Yemeni delegation of drone strike victims' family members, human rights experts and grassroots leaders will be visiting Washington as part of the Global Drone Summit.

The plot to a better Earth.

BBC News

Amid territorial spat with Manila, China's paltry offer of typhoon aid threatens ... Washington Post BEIJING — The outpouring of international aid to the Philippines makes China's contribution for typhoon relief look like a trickle: even Swedish furniture chain Ikea and beverage giant Coca-Cola have done more than the world's second-largest economy. China's security committee will improve strategiesXinhua IKEA Nearly Doubles China's Weak Financial Donation To PhilippinesSlate Magazine (blog) China's paltry Philippines aid hurting reputationNews24 Global Times -Chicago Tribune all 116 news articles »

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Florida Pilot Says Passenger Fell From Plane Sky News A search and rescue effort is under way off the Miami coast after a passenger reportedly falls out of a plane. 9:08pm UK, Thursday 14 November 2013. Florida Map. The passenger reportedly fell into the ocean southeast of Miami. Tweet ... and more »

Responding to fan demand for a modern re-release of its acclaimed classic RPG Wasteland, InXile Entertainment is now offering up a repackaged version for purchase via Steam and Good Old Games.

Released in 1988 for the Commodore 64, Apple II, and DOS, Wasteland puts players in control of a large and varied party of characters who wander the harsh deserts of the American Southwest in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Though subsequent attempts at a sequel met with limited success after its initial release, Wasteland later served as inspiration for Interplay's Fallout series.

InXile is currently developing Wasteland 2, a Kickstarter-funded follow-up that was delayed past its intended October release due to its expanded scope and emphasis on player choice. Kickstarter campaign supporters received early access to the re-released Wasteland 1, which has been downloaded more than 33,000 times since its backer-exclusive release last Friday.

Classic post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland out now on Steam, GOG originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 14 Nov 2013 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last week, a rumor came out that many Retina iPad Mini LCD panels manufactured by Sharp were suffering from image retention.

This problem was also present in many first-generation 15” Retina MacBook Pros, including mine, which I discovered by making a test page that first shows a large black-and-white checkerboard pattern for a few minutes, like this:

Then it switches to a solid gray:

If the LCD panel has an image retention issue, a faint impression of the checkerboard will still be visible on the solid gray image, usually fading over the next few minutes.

Well, I picked up my Retina iPad Mini tonight, and it failed:

A failed image-retention test on my Retina iPad Mini: note the faint checkerboard pattern in the solid gray area. It’s pretty hard to see in photos — it’s easier to see in person.

It’s not the sort of problem that I’m likely to notice in actual use — I’ve never noticed it on my Retina MacBook Pro, and it has worse image retention than this iPad on my test page.

Since Apple’s using multiple panel manufacturers, I could exchange it and hope for a better one. But it’s also possible that, given the extremely low volume that’s trickling into stores, any replacement I get in the next couple of weeks could be from the same batch with the same issue.

I had some friends run the same test on their new Retina iPad Minis, and they all passed — no image retention. So I’ll try an exchange.

(For whatever it’s worth, I also ran it on my wife’s new iPad Air and my iPhone 5S. Both passed with zero retention.)

Queen Elizabeth I


Joan of Bark


Napoleon Boneaparte


William Wallace


Elvis Petme


Jean Lafitte


Marie Antoinippe


Miguel Dog Cervantes


King Henry V


Steve Jobs

tastefullyoffensive:

Animals Illustrated as Historical Figures by Christina Hess [buy/via]

Previously: Classic Paintings Recreated with ‘Sesame Street’ Characters

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