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Schneier on Security: Our Newfound Fear of Risk

We're afraid of risk. It's a normal part of life, but we're increasingly unwilling to accept it at any level. So we turn to technology to protect us. The problem is that technological security measures aren't free. They cost money, of course, but they cost other things as well. They often don't prov...

Click to view the original at schneier.com

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Curses! The birth of the bleep and modern American censorship

The Enlightenment sages who wrote the First Amendment into the US Constitution in 1791 created the most secure legal foundation for a real democracy in history thus far. By refusing to grant...

Click to view the original at theverge.com

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Raise the Crime Rate

From 1980 to 2007, the number of prisoners held in the United States quadrupled to 2.3 million, with an additional 5 million on probation or parole. What Ayn Rand once called the “freest, noblest country in the history of the world” is now the most incarcerated,and the second-most incarcerated count...

Click to view the original at nplusonemag.com

Hasnain says:

"After asking around, and performing some calculations, the Justice Department came up with a new number: 216,000. That’s 216,000 victims, not instances. These victims are often assaulted multiple times over the course of the year. The Justice Department now seems to be saying that prison rape accounted for the majority of all rapes committed in the US in 2008, likely making the United States the first country in the history of the world to count more rapes for men than for women."

This is from 2012, but wow.

Posted on 2013-08-31T21:26:05+0000

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How Two Newspaper Reporters Helped Free an Innocent Man

Daniel Taylor didn't commit murder — and the author, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, proved it in The Chicago Tribune. But it took the justice system more than a decade to catch up.

Click to view the original at theatlantic.com

Hasnain says:

"A check showed that, in fact, Daniel had been arrested for fighting in a park that night at about 6:45 p.m., and jail records showed he was released about 10 p.m. and the murders occurred at 8:43 p.m."

But he went to jail for 20 years.

Posted on 2013-08-31T11:26:36+0000

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What Colour are your bits? - Ansuz - mskala's home page

There's a classic adventure game called Paranoia which is set in an extremely repressive Utopian futuristic world run by The Computer, who is Your Friend. Looking at a recent LawMeme posting and related discussion, it occurred to me that the concept of colour-coded security clearances in Paranoia p...

Click to view the original at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca

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Rejection, tragedy and billions of dollars - The story of FIFA

The biggest video game franchise in the world almost never happened. We jump back in time 20 years to unearth the true story of the first FIFA

Click to view the original at mcvuk.com

Hasnain says:

"For this first game EA had to go without [licensing]. And so the dev team decided to put themselves in the game. Matt Webster went upfront for England. Joey Della-Savia was in the Italian squad. Assistant producer Marc Aubanel became a striker for French team."

Posted on 2013-08-18T14:14:31+0000

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Inman Twins, Doris Duke Heirs: The Poorest Rich Kids in the World | Culture News | Rolling Stone

Why did the heirs to one of the largest fortunes in America grow up horribly neglected and abused?

Click to view the original at rollingstone.com

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Of Wizards and Magical Machines

People want things to be cheaper and easier and faster than they are. That doesn't seem very extraordinary, does it? I mean, it's not really news. In fact, the opposite would be news--if people wan...

Click to view the original at sealedabstract.com

Hasnain says:

These articles [about developer shortages] are greatly amusing to me, partly because I have this romantic notion of characterizing my fruitless search for a $1.50 car as a “car shortage” and being called for comment by NYT reporters.

Posted on 2013-08-18T12:25:43+0000