Linux turns 24 years old, KDE ships a new Plasma, BlackBerry’s running Android & the great Google Now exodus.

Plus some big news for Jupiter Broadcasting & more!

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• Happy Birthday, Linux! An OS At 24 – Slashdot
• KDE – KDE Ships Plasma 5.4.0, Feature Release for August
• BlackBerry Passport Silver Edition captured on video running Android | CrackBerry.com
• Staff Exodus, Pressure From Microsoft, Apple Hit Google Now | Re/code
• Google Lobbied Against Real Net Neutrality In India, Just Like It Did In The States | Techdirt

The post Google Now? Maybe Later | TTT 207 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Priyanka is a cofounder of Wakatime, a fully automatic time tracking service for programmers!

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• WakaTime is fully automatic time tracking for programmers. Using open-source text editor plugins, you never need to start or stop a timer again.

• 3 Hacks to Increase Your Productivity

• Priyanka on Twitter

The post Priyanka Sharma | WTR 11 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Apologist for the CIA were out in full force since our last episode. We’ve clipped their labored justifications & break them down point by point. Plus the critical president Obama is silently setting for future administrations.

It’s been a bad week for Russia & our local correspondent discusses the tragic events in Sydney Australia, then we wrap the show with a little good news.

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— Show Notes —

CIA Torture Report

‘Rectal Hydration’: Inside the CIA’s Interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Along with the waterboarding, Mohammed was subjected to days of standing sleep deprivation, slapping and “stress positions,” the report says. And it says that several times he underwent an emergency medical procedure known as “rectal rehydration,” or proctolysis

The report matter-of-factly notes that such** treatment was “medically unnecessary” for Mohammed**, whom it describes as having been doused with, submerged in or force-fed water hundreds of times. After one session, the medical officer present reported that Mohammed’s gastric contents were “so diluted by water” that Mohammed was in danger of water intoxication. The medical officer later wrote that “in the new technique we are basically doing a series of near drownings.”

• Is rectal feeding an actual modern medical practice?

**”It’s almost never done,” **he wrote to the NewsHour in an email. “There are so many easier and more effective ways to hydrate or feed a patient.”

Thomas Burke, an emergency doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital who teaches at Harvard Medical School echoed that in an interview with the Washington Post.

“For all practical purposes, it’s never used,” Burke said. “No one in the United States is hydrating anybody through their rectum. Nobody is feeding anybody through their rectum. … That’s not a normal practice.”

• Fact Check: CIA’s Use of Rectal Rehydration, Feeding Not Medical Procedures – Press Releases – News Room – United States Senator Dianne Feinstein

Contrary to some claims, this is not a medical procedure, nor was it ever approved by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel as an authorized interrogation technique. On December 10, 2014, the New York-based Physicians for Human Rights stated that “Contrary to the CIA’s assertions, there is no clinical indication to use rectal rehydration and feeding over oral or intravenous administration of fluids and nutrients.”

Dick Cheney’s Tortured Appearance On ‘Meet The Press’ Should Be His Public Swan Song

Torture is “an American citizen on his cellphone making a last call to his four young daughters shortly before he burns to death in the upper levels of the Trade Center in New York on 9/11.”

Cheney would be right were he to pose this as an example rather than the defining metric when seeking to determine an act of torture. The horrendous, unthinkable experience referred to by Cheney is, unquestionably, one example of inflicting torture—and a pretty good example of horrific torture at that—but hardly the sole method that Cheney insisted on pretending to be the case.

Yet, each time Cheney was asked for a more realistic and more encompassing definition of torture that would rationally go beyond any one particular example, he continuously returned to the experiences of our lost countrymen on 9-11. This seemed, in the mind of Dick Cheney, to be the only standard to be applied when determining if our interrogation methods may have exceeded the legal bounds imposed by the Geneva Convention for the treatment of detainees.

At a point, it became more than clear that Cheney had pre-planned this “non-answer” for his appearance, thinking it to be very clever.

By pretending that only a horrible infliction of agony similar to what was heaped on the victims of 9-11 would rise to a level that could be termed torture, the Vice-President was simply sending a coded message to his supporters to remind them that, given what the bad guys did to us, there was nothing too horrible that we could do to them—Geneva Convention be damned.

• The 11 Most Psychotic Things Dick Cheney Said About Torture on Meet the Press | The Daily Banter

U.S. Sen. Rockefeller helps release CIA report; torture practice

On Dec. 8, the outgoing senator spoke on the floor after the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released the Executive Summary of its Study on the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program. The redacted summary was released after the Intelligence Committee voted in April 2014 to declassify the summary and after negotiations among the Committee, the White House, and the CIA.

News

Sony Just Canceled The Pre mire Of ‘The Interview’

Sony Pictures has decided to cancel the Dec. 25 release of “The Interview” after major theaters said they wouldn’t screen the movie.

“We have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release of ‘The Interview,'” the company said in a statement.

Sony dropped its plan to release the film after the four largest theater chains in the United States — Regal Entertainment, AMC Theaters, Cinemark and Carmike Cinemas — and several smaller chains said they would not show the film. The cancellations virtually killed “The Interview” as a theatrical enterprise, at least in the near term, one of the first known instances of a threat from another nation pre-empting the release of a movie.

• Seth Rogen and James Franco Cancel All Media Appearances for ‘The Interview’

The duo has withdrawn from previously scheduled press appearances, including Rogen’s Thursday appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and an interview with both of them on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Wednesday, leading up to “The Interview’s” Christmas Day release. They were also booked for an appearance on Buzzfeed Brews in New York on Tuesday.

U.S. Links North Korea to Sony Hacking

American intelligence officials have concluded that the North Korean government was “centrally involved” in the recent attacks on Sony Pictures’s computers, a determination reached just as Sony on Wednesday canceled its release of the comedy, which is based on a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader.

Senior administration officials, who would not speak on the record about the intelligence findings, said the White House was still debating whether to publicly accuse North Korea of what amounts to a cyberterrorism campaign.

Kerry speaks of lifting Russia sanctions if Putin makes the right decisions

Russia has made constructive moves in recent days towards reducing tensions in Ukraine, US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday (16 December), and he raised the possibility that Washington could lift sanctions if Moscow keeps taking positive steps.

Speaking in London, Kerry said the United States and Europe could lift sanctions within days or weeks if President Vladimir Putin keeps taking steps to ease tensions and lives up to commitments under ceasefire accords to end the Ukraine conflict.

—

“These sanctions could be lifted in a matter of weeks or days, depending on the choices that President Putin takes,” Kerry told reporters.

“Their sole purpose here is to restore the international norm with respect to behavior between nations,” to ensure respect for borders, sovereignty and rights, he said.

Russia imposes steep interest rate hike as ruble plummets

The fear was sparked by the plummeting ruble, which has dropped 17 percent against the dollar in two days despite a dead-of-night decision Tuesday by the Russian central bank to impose a steep interest-rate hike to stem the currency losses.

GOP rep attempted late bid to kill spy bill | TheHill

One of the biggest thorns in the side of the country’s intelligence agencies attempted to mount an eleventh hour bid to kill the spy agencies’ funding bill on Wednesday.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) wrote on Facebook that the intelligence authorization bill that easily passed through the House contained “one of the most egregious sections of law I’ve encountered during my time as a representative.”

“It grants the executive branch virtually unlimited access to the communications of every American,” explained Amash, who has a record of skepticism toward the National Security Agency and other agencies. Last year, he nearly succeeded in an attempt to end the NSA’s controversial phone records program.

That type of collection is currently allowed under an executive order that dates back to former President Reagan, but the new stamp of approval from Congress was troubling, Amash said. Limits on the government’s ability to retain information in the provision did not satisfy the Michigan Republican.

Despite Amash’s late attempt,** the bill easily passed, 325-100**.

The bill passed the Senate earlier this week and is now on its way to President Obama.

Bush, Cheney, Hayden, Rodriguez & Yoo on Sunday talk shows. It's not where they should be appearing. #TortureReport pic.twitter.com/mG7Ze4XbwJ

— Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) December 14, 2014

• Russia invites North Korea leader for May visit: paper | Reuters

Russia has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to attend a May ceremony marking the end of World War Two, in what would be Kim’s first foreign visit since taking the helm of the reclusive state in 2011, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun daily said on Wednesday.

• First ground clash between ISIS and US forces in Iraq

An American force has fought its actual first battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria “ISIS” organization during a counter-attack that was carried out by tribal forces

and other force of the Iraqi army near Ein al-Asad base, west of Anbar, in an attempt to remove them from the base of which includes about 100 US adviser in it.

A field commander of the Iraqi Army in Anbar province, said that “the US force equipped with light and medium weapons, supported by fighter force model” F-18 “, was able to inflict casualties against fighters of ISIS organization, and forced them to retreat from the al-Dolab area, which lies 10 kilometers from Ain al-Assad base .

US troops have entered with its Iraqi partner, according to Colonel , Salam Nazim in line against ISIS elements and clashed with them for more than two hours, to succeed in removing them from al-Dolab area, and causing losses in their ranks, at a time American fighter jets directed several strikes focused on ISIS gatherings that silenced their heavy sources of fire. “He points out that the clashes took place between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Sunday night.

• ISIS using bombs containing live SCORPIONS in effort to spread panic

Canisters packed with poisonous varieties of scorpion are being blasted into towns and villages, which explode on impact – scattering the scorpions and causing panic among the innocent local population.

High Note

Tacoma to close medical marijuana collectives

All medical marijuana collectives in Tacoma could soon have to shut down.

City leaders addressed plans last week to send out letters to cease operations as early as January, as they are not licensed under Initiative 502. Both business owners and patients are now expressing concerns.

Medical marijuana wins but marijuana legalization loses in congressional spending deal

The spending bill passed by Congress on December 14 includes a provision that prevents the Department of Justice, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, from interfering with states’ medical marijuana laws.
The provision applies to 32 states and Washington, DC, which allow the use of marijuana or a marijuana-based compound, such as the non-psychoactive CBD, for medical purposes.

Teen marijuana use falls as more states legalize – The Washington Post

Teen alcohol and drug use — including marijuana use — was down across the board in 2014.

That’s the big take-home from the 2014 Monitoring the Future study by the University of Michigan and the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, which was released Tuesday morning. The MTF is an annual survey of 40,000 8th-graders, 10th-graders and 12th-graders. It’s notable both for its size and for the fact that it was conducted this past spring, in the midst of a nationwide conversation about drug reform in the run-up to the midterm elections

The post Tortured Logic | Unfilter 127 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Angela and Paige interview Vinita Khadelwal Rathi, founder of Systango. She discusses her business & how she has found a way to keep exercising the brains of her employees.

Codepunt was so successful that it is open to the public to use now too!

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• Support Tech Talk Today creating DAILY PODCASTS

Interview

• Systango

• Women Who Code

• Codepunt

• wayra

The post Vinita Khadelwal Rathi | WTR 2 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Microsoft has bought Mojang, the creators of Minecraft. We discuss how this will impact the community, Linux users, independent developers & gamers.

Android One starts to ship, and the details are fascinating. Plus more details on a recent NSA leak & more!

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Microsoft buys Mojang, Minecraft: Five reasons it makes strategic sense | ZDNet

Microsoft on Monday confirmed the $2.5 billion acquisition. The company said that the company will be break even on earnings in fiscal 2015. Mojang will join Microsoft Studios.

Here’s why the deal, which will be panned by some, makes strategic sense.

1. Mojang gives Microsoft an asset and community that could cultivate a younger demographic. If you’ve ever seen an elementary school kid go into a Minecraft coma you know the power that Mojang has. To younger customers, Microsoft’s core brand is really Xbox. If Microsoft is going to have an installed base to up sell as these customers move to smartphones to tablets to PCs to enterprise applications and cloud Minecraft is a good place to start.

2. The future of Microsoft revolves around mobile and cross-platform applications. Office is about iOS and Android as much as it is Windows Phone and Windows. Microsoft’s enterprise applications may have some perks for Windows, but also need to play across all mobile platforms. Skype is cross platform too. Minecraft gives Microsoft a property that plays well on the desktop, iOS and Android. And since Minecraft will be owned by Microsoft at least there will be a Windows Phone version too.

3. Minecraft could be the next Lego-like franchise. It won’t be hard to find a group of people that’ll say that Minecraft has peaked and Microsoft is paying too much for a declining asset. However, Minecraft could be the digital equivalent of Legos, which spark the imagination and have become an introductory course to robotics and engineering.

4. Mojang would make an Xbox spin-off more feasible should Microsoft go that route. Yes, we know that Microsoft has noted that it is keeping Xbox, but Minecraft would give the gaming unit another key title to go along with games like Halo. The addition of Mojang makes Xbox stronger whether Microsoft decides to keep the unit or spin it off to focus on the enterprise and cloud.

5. Microsoft gets to use its overseas cash pile. Based on current tax laws, Microsoft’s overseas cash can’t be brought back into the U.S. without a hefty hit. As a result, U.S. companies are increasingly buying international assets. Microsoft’s purchase of Mojang is its fourth international company acquisition in 2014. Most of the acquisitions were of the plug-in variety to add features and or services to existing product lines.

• Report: Microsoft’s $2B deal to buy Minecraft studio was instigated by Notch | Polygon

According to the Bloomberg story, Xbox chief Phil Spencer has been wooing Persson in person, flying out to have dinners with the Mojang founder. According to one source, Microsoft thinks that it can expand Minecraft’s reach in both the game and licensed property. A Minecraft movie is currently in the works, and Mojang has already licensed books, toys and a plethora of other merchandise.

• Microsoft needs Minecraft to boost mobile ambitions | Reuters

The software company’s Windows Phone system has only 2.5 percent of the world’s smartphone market, and its Surface tablet barely more, according to tech research firm IDC. Growth is hampered because many app and game developers ignore it.

It seems like Microsoft is looking at Mojang and Minecraft as a way to tap into this enormous cultural phenomenon,” said Dave Bisceglia, Chief Executive of independent game studio Tap Lab. “If you look at iOS, Minecraft has been a top-grossing game for quite some time, if Microsoft could on Windows phones give players a unique and compelling experience that you can’t get on the other platforms, that could be a driver to sell devices to existing Minecraft fans.”

• Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft

• Minecraft to Join Microsoft

• I’m leaving Mojang | notch.net

Snowden Documents Indicate NSA Has Breached Deutsche Telekom – SPIEGEL ONLINE

A program called Treasure Map even has its own logo, a skull superimposed onto a compass, the eye holes glowing in demonic red, reminiscent of a movie poster for the popular “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, starring Johnny Depp.

Treasure Map is anything but harmless entertainment. Rather, it is the mandate for a massive raid on the digital world. It aims to map the Internet, and not just the large traffic channels, such as telecommunications cables. It also seeks to identify the devices across which our data flows, so-called routers.

Furthermore, every single end device that is connected to the Internet somewhere in the world — every smartphone, tablet and computer — is to be made visible. Such a map doesn’t just reveal one treasure. There are millions of them.

The breathtaking mission is described in a Treasure Map presentation from the documents of the former intelligence service employee Edward Snowden which SPIEGEL has seen. It instructs analysts to “map the entire Internet — Any device, anywhere, all the time.”

Android One smartphones released in India by three companies

The handsets provide a minimum set of features determined by Google, which has sourced several of the components to help cut manufacturing costs.

The company has also teamed up with a local network to make it cheaper to download Android updates and new apps.

The first Android One devices are made by Micromax – already India’s bestselling mobile-phone maker – Karbonn and Spice.

To meet Google’s minimum standards they all have:

• a 4.5in (11.4cm) display
• 1GB of RAM (random-access memory)
• a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP front one
• a quadcore processor sourced from Taiwanese company Mediatek
• the ability to run the next version of Android, due for release soon

In addition, they have been tailored to suit the local market by including a micro-SD (Secure Digital) slot, a replaceable battery, a built-in FM radio and the ability to support two Sim cards simultaneously.

The first batch of phones could be offered for as low as 6,399 rupees ($105; £65) if bought contract-free.

About 400 million smartphones will be sold in India over the next five years, according to a forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers, with the majority bought at Android One’s price point.

The post Microsoft Creeps on Minecraft | Tech Talk Today 58 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

The Intercept has published Obama’s secret terrorist tracking system, by the numbers. We dig in. The CIA and the Senate are still fighting over the torture report.

Then we’ll examine the new groundwork for the new Cold War, and the ridiculous reactions Colorado’s neighbor states are having to Cannabis legalization.

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— Show Notes —

— The Slow Death of Privacy —

Barack Obama’s Secret Terrorist-Tracking System, by the Numbers

Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database—a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments—more than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category—280,000 people—dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.

The documents, obtained from a source in the intelligence community, also reveal that the Obama Administration has presided over an unprecedented expansion of the terrorist screening system. Since taking office, Obama has boosted the number of people on the no fly list more than ten-fold, to an all-time high of 47,000—surpassing the number of people barred from flying under George W. Bush.

“If everything is terrorism, then nothing is terrorism,” says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent. The watchlisting system, he adds, is “revving out of control.”

• The second-highest concentration of people designated as “known or suspected terrorists” by the government is in Dearborn, Mich.—a city of 96,000 that has the largest percentage of Arab-American residents in the country.

• The government adds names to its databases, or adds information on existing subjects, at a rate of 900 records each day.

• The CIA uses a previously unknown program, code-named Hydra, to secretly access databases maintained by foreign countries and extract data to add to the watchlists.

State Dept. ‘Torture Talking Points’ Reveal White House PR Machine Ahead of Senate Report

A State Department document obtained by the Associated Press reveals part of the Obama administration’s attempt to ready its public relations response to an upcoming Senate report on the CIA’s torture program.

The document details some of the administration’s prepared talking points to be used once a White House-approved version of the report is released.

Reportedly sent by accident via email to the AP, the State Department memo describes the report as a demonstration of American democracy, rather than as an indictment of the CIA’s torture practices. The document states that “no American is proud” of the CIA’s tactics, but that “the story” of illegal, indefinite torture and imprisonment is part of a larger message, one in which “America’s democratic system worked just as it was designed to work in bringing an end to actions inconsistent with our democratic values.” That story, the document proclaims, is one in which Americans can take pride.

The document contains a few subtle errors in its dates and phrasing. At one point, it claims that the “interrogation methods were debated in our free media, challenged in our independent courts, and, just two years after their introduction, restricted by an act of our Congress sponsored by Senator John McCain and overwhelmingly backed by members of both of our political parties.”

As investigative journalist Marcy Wheeler notes, that “act of Congress” likely refers to the Detainee Treatment Act — but that legislation was passed in 2005, almost four years after the launch of the CIA’s Retention, Detention, and Interrogation (RDI) program, not two. In addition, the RDI program has rarely been “challenged in independent courts,” as both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama regularly prevented the details of the program from coming to light by invoking the “state secrets privilege,” a rule which allows governments to hold back evidence in a legal case by claiming that disclosing the information might endanger national security.

Report: Israel tapped John Kerry’s phone when he was brokering peace talks

Israeli intelligence intercepted phone calls of US Secretary of State John Kerry while he was trying to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority earlier this year, German news magazine _Der Spiegel _reported on Sunday.

The report was confirmed by several sources in the intelligence community, according to Der Spiegel.

Both Israel and Russia Shared Kerry’s Intercepted Phone Calls Tikun-Olam Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם

Yesterday’s report, originating in Der Spiegel that Israel intercepted the telecommunications of Secretary of State John Kerry when he was in flight to the Middle East has just become a much bigger story. The reporter noted that there were two countries who eavesdropped on Kerry. But he didn’t say which country it was.

My highly-placed Israeli source tells me that the identity of that country is Russia.

While Kerry’s position on the Israel-Palestine peace talks was Israel’s number one priority, Russia’s number one priority was to learn the U.S. plans and position regarding the Ukrainian separatist movement and Russia’s involvement with it. My source had this to say:

…It’s a “fruitful ongoing joint venture” initiated by Lieberman thanks to his Moscow connections. Israel provides Russia with recordings of intercepted calls Kerry makes flying over the Middle East, and Russia provides Israel with recordings of calls he makes flying over Central Asia, the Far East & the Pacific Ocean.

The source notes this “joint venture” became extremely important for Moscow since last February — because of the Ukrainian crisis.

In this way, the spying collaboration has been fruitful for both sides.

New leaker disclosing US secrets, government concludes

Proof of the newest leak comes from national security documents that formed the basis of a news story published Tuesday by the Intercept, the news site launched by Glenn Greenwald, who also published Snowden’s leaks.

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— Cold War 2.0 —

Putin Urges Economic Retaliation for Sanctions Over Ukraine Conflict – NYTimes.com

Mr. Putin said that Russia should signal that it finds the economic sanctions offensive, but that it should do so without harming Russian consumers.

“The political tools of economic pressure are unacceptable and run counter to all norms and rules,” he was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

Unintended consequences: Sanctions on Russia hurt US dollar dominance — RT USA

The US dollar, the dominant global currency since 1944, may lose some of its luster due to the American-led sanctions against Russia over the turmoil in Ukraine. The greenback has been fading in favor since the global financial crisis in 2008.

The US-led sanctions against Russia may have backfired on the US
because it threatens to “hasten a move away from the dollar
that’s been stirring since the global financial crisis [in
2008],” Rachel Evans at Bloomberg wrote. In an unexpected turn of events, Hong Kong’s
central bank has bought more than $9.5 billion since the start of
July “to prevent its currency from rallying as the sanctions
stoked speculation of an influx of Russian cash,” she noted.

Germany Blocks the Delivery of Military Parts to Russia – NYTimes.com

A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Berlin would be open to expanding the existing European Union sanctions to include already signed deals. “The European Council decided what it decided,” the spokesman, Georg Streiter, told reporters on Monday.

The decision to halt the deal, estimated by the Economics Ministry to be worth 123 million euros, or about $165 million, will also put the German government under increased pressure from the country’s powerful industrial sector, which has warned that economic sanctions against Russia will hamper growth and increase unemployment.

Vladimir Putin signs historic $20bn oil deal with Iran to bypass Western sanctions

Vladimir Putin has agreed a $20bn (£11.8bn) trade deal with Iran that will see
Russia sidestep Western sanctions on its energy sector.

Under the terms of a five-year accord, Russia will help Iran organise oil
sales as well as “cooperate in the oil-gas industry, construction of power
plants, grids, supply of machinery, consumer goods and agriculture
products”, according to a statement by the Energy Ministry in Moscow.

The move is a win-win for both nations after they were hit with Western sanctions aimed at limiting their energy sectors.

Russia, India to ink $40 bn gas deal

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are expected to announce a massive natural gas deal during their summit later this year, Indian media reports said Monday.

Russian and Indian officials are negotiating a $40 billion gas pipeline project from Russia to India, oil ministry officials told Indian daily Hindustan Times.

Russia will also supply 46 million tonnes of oil to China each year in the next 25 years, according to recent deals signed by President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Even as the US and EU try to isolate Russia on the Ukraine issue, Beijing and other BRICS capitals have been cementing their business ties with Moscow.

— Weed Wackers —

Since marijuana legalization, highway fatalities in Colorado are at near-historic lows – The Washington Post

Since the new Colorado law took effect in January, the “drugged driver” panic has only intensified.I’ve already written about one dubious example, in which the Colorado Highway Patrol and some local and national media perpetuated a story that a driver was high on pot when he slammed into a couple of police cars parked on an interstate exit ramp. While the driver did have some pot in his system, his blood-alcohol level was off the charts and was far more likely the cause of the accident.

As you can see, roadway fatalities this year are down from last year, and down from the 13-year average. Of the seven months so far this year, five months saw a lower fatality figure this year than last.

What’s notable here is that the totals so far in 2014 are closer to the safest composite year since 2002 than to the average year since 2002. I should also add here that these are total fatalities.

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The post Watchlist of Terror | Unfilter 109 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

In today’s Unfilter we’ve got a reality check for the for the industrial media complex. From nation wide power outage scares, to synthetic propaganda, the media does its best to keep you scared, and watching.

All that and much more, in this week’s Unfilter.

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Show Notes:

ACT ONE:

• Feds blamed in report on gun smuggling

• Missing FBI agent found dead near his Calif. home

  • FBI Agent Fleeing Massive Manhunt Warns “They’re All Insane”
• Rormer FBI agent, Donald Sachtleben, Steven Iven’s former partner, with child pornography charges

• Al Qaeda bomb plot was foiled by double agent – Los Angeles Times

  • Security Theater Critics | Unfilter
  • Al Qaeda Working To Surgically Implant Bombs In People & Even Pets! – YouTube

• Power Is Restored Across India After Worst Blackout in History

• A U.S. Blackout as Large as India’s? ‘Very Unlikely’

Scary Spice:

• DEA raids businesses nationwide for K2, Spice, synthetic drugs

• Synthetic marijuana – Spice – warehouse raided by DEA – YouTube

• US steps up backing for Syrian opposition: Clinton

  • Clinton: \”Friends of Syria\” must unite to stop Russia, China \”blockading\” progress

• Dianne Feinstein – Wikipedia

• \”Either We Stand Together Or We\’ll Hang Separately\” ( I Bet They Say That A LOT At The Pentagon) – YouTube
• The book Dianne Feinstein doesn\’t want you to read:
  [asa]B006LTIS7G[/asa]
• Confront and Conceal: Obama\’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power Audio Book
• Part of the reason patents are BS

ACT TWO:

• It\’s Happened: Paramilitary Police vs Civilians in Anaheim
• • Police Militarization in Anaheim, CA – YouTube

• BATTLEFIELD MAIN STREET – The Daily

• The Pentagon Is Offering Free Military Hardware To Every Police Department In The US
• Small-Town Cops Pile Up on Useless Military Gear

9 Horrifying Botched Police Raids – Business Insider

CIA collaboration with New York Police Department was never legally approved | The Raw Story

ACT THREE: Feedback

• Dan’s feedback from last weeks
• What kinds of stories do you want submit to unfilter.Reddit.com?
• Cybersecurity Act fails to pass in the Senate
• Central bankers eyeing whether Libor needs scrapping
• The London Olympics
  • The Dark Side of the London Olympics (Part 1/4) – YouTube

Song pick of the week:

[asa]B0013CUL94[/asa]

Follow the Team:

• Filterfree.ME show Blog
• Chris on Twitter
• Follow DanFilterFree on identi.ca if you want to know when he is at the Syracuse Innovators Guild if you want to stop by send him a PM and he will make sure the doors are open.
• Chase’s Geek Stuff
• Michael Vail\’s Website

If you don’t already have a Dropbox account help Dan out by signing up using this link and then installing Dropbox

The post Keeping you Scared | Unfilter 12 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.