Lions hope to see progress in dropped passes with glasses – The Detroit News

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Eric Ebron and the Lions were among the biggest offenders in dropped passes in 2016.(Photo: Daniel Mears, Detroit News)

Allen Park The Detroit Lions had a problem with drops in 2016. The team finished near the bottom of the league in putting catchable passes on the ground, in terms of both volume and percentage.

It was an epidemic that plagued multiple players, with two Lions finishing in the bottom 10 in the league and four in the bottom 50. And, at least for the early portion of training camp, the team is still having some issues.

On Sunday, when Caldwell listed his gripes about the imperfect nature of the opening practice, dropped passes was the first gripe he listed.

Caldwell has always been proactive when it comes to improving his players hands. From the time he arrived in Detroit, he instituted a practice habit that called for offensive players to catch 100 balls per day, whether in individual drills, team work or on from the Juggs machine after the session.

The idea is that repetition would result in perfection.

More:Report: Stafford, Lions have 'substantial gap' in negotiations

Obviously that hasnt quite cut it, so Caldwell and his staff have looked for additional ways to solve the issue. First and foremost, theyve increased the number of passes receivers are expected to catch on a daily basis.

Caldwell has also turned to technology.

One of things you cant do is say, Hey, you need to get better. We have to put mechanisms and a plan to get better, so weve done that, Caldwell said. Weve also used some things, the flashing glasses and all that kind of stuff. Some of our guys are using those.

Flashing glasses?

They cut off your vision for a moment and reignite it where you can see, Caldwell said. They make you concentrate a little bit harder.

More:Injuries hamper Lions ability to feel the rush

Caldwell didnt get into specifics about brand or model, but Nike unveiled glasses in 2012 that matched the description. Heres a brief description from a Wired story that year:

The companys funky new Sparq Vapor Strobe eyewear works with the equally geeky Sparq Sensory Station to analyze and improve 10 vital visual and sensory skills. The eyewears lens work a bit like a strobe light hence the name by alternating between clear and obstructed fields of vision to improve your ability to target an oncoming object.

Will the glasses make a difference? As Caldwell likes to say, Well see, but you have to appreciate looking for new ways to solve an issue.

Were going to make certain we dont let some of those opportunities slip by, like they did last year, Caldwell said.

jdrogers@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @justin_rogers

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Lions hope to see progress in dropped passes with glasses - The Detroit News

Kangaroo Court: Of Chief Lundu orders to ban ECG church | Malawi … – Nyasa Times

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Chief Lundu of the Chewa tribe with his jurisdiction claiming some territory in the southern region of Malawi delivered some very unfortunate remarks during a DPP rally in Nchalo. In his remarks, Lundu ordered that the Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) church should stop operation in Chikwawa, furnishing his order with some crazy remarks that the church is promoting satanism and also because Prophet Bushiri has political ambitions.

This Court commends the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesperson Francis Kasaila, for coming in quickly and distance the party from these outrageous remarks by the seemingly overzealous Chief. When the government, through the ruling party said it is in good terms with any church operating in Malawi, it brought excitement and hope for respect of the dictates of the Constitution governing our State. The countrys Constitution provides for the freedom of worship and the disassociation from Lundus remarks demonstrated that as a ruling party, the DPP would not tolerate seeds of violation to this sacred freedom that Malawi enjoys at present.

Further, this Court joins the renowned civil rights activist, Billy Mayaya, in wondering where Chief Lundu actually draws his authority to bar the branch of ECG from operating a branch in area where his chieftaincy reigns. It must be emphasized, at this point, that there is and there shall never be any authority in Malawi which shall override the Constitution. Since the Constitution of this republic guarantees freedom of religion and its domicile, no chief has the power to decide which church can enjoy domicile and which one cannot in the area of his jurisdiction. Any such attempted act would translate to dictatorial doctrine which is frowned upon by our Constitution.

Chiefs are recognized and respected because of their customary roles they play in our communities and they form traditional political institutions. The role and relevance of these traditional political institutions in general, and traditional leadership in particular, continue to generate intense, and sometimes, quite acrimonious debates in Malawi. Heated, bitter and rancorous debates on whether those who preside over indigenous political institutions who are variously designated numerous nomenclature as chiefs, village heads, ndunas and so on, should have any formal role in the political affairs of Malawi continue to occur.

Frankly speaking, the institution of traditional rulership is some historical relic that belongs to antiquity. These relics of by-gone instruments are irrelevant to a society currently subject to the objective laws of our modernized society.

The term, traditional rulers actually hints at the common fact that these rulers operate outside the formal structures of modern state power and it underscores the fog surrounding the locus and permitted extent of powers exercised by this class of leaders in our modern society of legal framework.

As we speak, chiefs in Malawi appear have a lot of sway. In rural areas, they solve customary disputes and are the connection for residents to governing district assemblies. They were outlined in the countrys 1967 Chiefs Act as gatekeepers of their residents and champions for local development.

Recently, the lines between heads of state and heads of village arent nearly as clear. Malawis late dictator Kamuzu Banda was known for using chiefs to assert his power all the way down to the local level, and the tendency has carried through to multi-party democracy today. Only that sometimes, the Chiefs nowadays pledge themselves to the government as instruments of dictatorial orders. They believe they still have the ultimate influence in their localities and sometimes countrywide.

This is not for all chief but some who often act like ruling party functionaries largely due to weaknesses within the Chiefs Act which was enacted at the peak of single-party dictatorship in 1967 and was clearly designed to sustain dictatorship by containing provisions that compel chiefs to have personal loyalty to the president. This tendency is rooted from the aberrancies inherent in the said Chiefs Act.

Among several anomalies, the Act (in Sections 3, 4, 10 and 16) gives the president powers to appoint, promote or remove chiefs or increase or decrease the area of a chiefs jurisdiction. It also gives the president discretionary powers to determine the chiefs remuneration. As a result of those provisions, the survival of chieftaincies is dependent on the goodwill of sitting presidents, resulting in chiefs acting in a manner that shows loyalty to the president and, often the presidents political party.

However, some chiefs are cautious and depart from the careless behaviour of such chiefs like Lundu who has, for many times, demonstrated misunderstanding of this loyalty concept. Habitually, Chief Lundu has demonstrated deep-rooted hatred towards anything of which description is complete without the word government or ruling party. He appears to be a full politician operating from the ruling party than a Chief. I must state that he is exhibited dictatorial ambitions lack the support of the law in this country.

It is the conduct of chiefs like Lundu that leaves this Court contemplating that the framers of the 1994 constitution were actually heroes for seemingly being uncomfortable to provide a constitutional role for this set of rulers, called chiefs, whose very mode of exercising power appeared to conflict with the ideals of democratic governance. Malawi is a democratic polity and this Court pays so much respect to the architects of our Constitution for this great insight.

While some chiefs are doing great in complementing the very ideals of democracy in championing community activities that responds to citizens roles in a decentralized governance, it is unfortunate, however, that Chief Lundu will have to be used as a barometers of the ebbs and flows of the powers of traditional rulers.

Malawians have sacrificed everything to fight for a better future but at every stage, the promises given by those who assume some fade of power have always been diametrically opposed to the reality. It is sad that, Chief Lundu has the appetite for this kind of power that would enable him throw commands and take civil control of his jurisdiction.

In the pre-colonial era, traditional rulers exercised effective powers in their domains. In those civilisation-empty days, chief were rulers in every sense of the word as they derived their executive, legislative and judicial functions from traditions long rooted, recognized and revered by the people of their respective areas of authority. Many of the rulers combined temporal and spiritual powers. But, unfortunately, those days are long gone swept off by the wind of democracy which has been blowing our country.

What Chief Lundu and his like-minded have managed to let this Court think is that some of these traditional leaders inherit their positions from their fathers regardless of the fact that they have absolutely no leadership qualities. This Court is of the view that anyone who wants to be a leader of the people in our democratic dispensation should face the ballot box. Leaders should be representative of their people and he who has to occupy the position of leadership has to demonstrate the prowess so required and not just individuals who, by accident of birth, happen to be born in the right family.

The leadership qualities found in any one individual are unique to them and not hereditary passed from parent to child. Therefore all these chiefs should not be trusted with any significant authority in the governance realm and never should they be allowed to attempt to replace elected leaders.

Lundu must know, or be made to know, the actual size of his tail. It is not as big as he wrongly thinks.

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Kangaroo Court: Of Chief Lundu orders to ban ECG church | Malawi ... - Nyasa Times

STUNNING Naked News presenters covered in cream in very raunchy topless game – Daily Star

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A TROUPE of Naked News presenters got starkers to play an X-rated whipped cream game.

Eila Adams, Kat Curtis and Carli Bei enjoyed a few rounds of the tense childrens game Pieface, where players take turns facing a hand filled with cream before it eventually splats them.

The scantily clad presenters also sprayed whipped cream directly into their mouths and grinned for the camera.

Naked News started in 1999 as an English speaking show and now has one based in Japan too.

NAKED NEWS

We've rounded up the sexiest pictures of busty babe Lindsey Pelas.

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Lindsey Pelas flashes 32DDD assets in jaw-dropping lingerie snaps

It was reported to be attracting more than six million viewers at its height.

The channels Twitter page has more than 60,000 followers with current anchors are including Whitney St-John, Isabella Rossini and Elise Laurenne.

Naked News airs six days a week, with 25-minute bulletins showing the women carrying out interviews and presenting the big news stories of the day completely starkers.

Last month, Carli Bei went completely nude to interview a group of swingers.

As part of the feature, couples at the Hedonism II nudist resort in Negril spoke on camera about how they got into swinging and embarrassing moments theyve had.

NAKED NEWS

Celebs intimate shower shot spread across social media.

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Sexy celebs strip off to get wet and wild in the shower

Another segment which caused a stir last month showed a presenter interviewing gobsmacked members of the public in a local park.

New Naked News presenter Shannon Blake was given the challenge of quizzing the public in a park in Toronto, Canada.

She asked them about their food preferences, while they tried not to be distracted by her lack of clothes.

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STUNNING Naked News presenters covered in cream in very raunchy topless game - Daily Star

Thinking their way through new superstitions – Times of India

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Bengaluru: Challenge accepted -- AS Nataraj has been waiting to hear these words for the past 16 years after framing a seemingly simple challenge of 10 questions. To make it easier, he insists on only eight correct answers for the challenger to be eligible for the Rs 1 crore reward. The catch? The answers would involve the challenger accurately predicting an individual's future using janam kundali or astrological chart. Now you didn't see that coming, did you?

"The reward was Rs 10 lakh when I first issued the challenge in 2001. I increased it to Rs 1 crore because no one came forward despite initial promises. I am now sure that even if I raise the prize to Rs 100 crore, nobody will volunteer," says Nataraj, the 77-year-old founder of Akhila Karnataka Vicharavadi Sangha. His aim is to debunk astrology's main claim to fame - the power to pinpoint the future. "I know it is not true because I was also an astrologer," laughs Nataraj, author of Jyothishyakke Savaalu (Challenge to Astrology) and a veteran TV talking head on the matter.

The other challenge doing the rounds is aimed at busting a scientifically untested brain training programme. Narendra Nayak, the rationalist crusader from Mangaluru, has been holding demonstrations and challenging proponents of mid-brain activation for the last two years. The groups behind this fad take money from parents to enhance brainpower of their children through the 'activation'. Those trained can apparently see after being blindfolded. "People fall for new tricks all the time. Mid-brain activation involves teaching children to lie (about peeking from behind the blindfold). The organisers use pseudo-science jargons and it becomes difficult for lay persons to understand," says Nayak, president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA).

LOGIC WINS

For every new trickster in town, there are a few rationalists like Nayak who demand that fantastic claims should be backed by evidence, scientific reasoning and stone-cold rationale. If not, people like him resort to dramatic one-upmanship and myth busting on public platforms to uphold what they see as truth and rationality.

"Earlier, we used to go after petty godmen who produced ash from thin air or put their hands in boiling water. Now, the picture has changed," says Nayak, a 67-year-old trained bio-chemist. The new age miracles involve coming up with sales pitches to sell anything from yoga, millets, salt room therapy and apple cider vinegar as cures for various ills, including cancer, he says. The marketers rely on scientific terms or the ancient Indian label to bamboozle people.

As a trained scientist, the pseudo science gets Nayak going. Recently, he wrote a detailed complaint to the Advertising Standards Council of India about tall claims made by a coconut oil manufacturer in an ad. The regulatory body found that many of the claims such as the oil being a 'natural antiseptic' , 'restores thyroid function and reduces obesity' were not substantiated and hence, misleading. They asked the adverstiser to withdraw the ad or modify it.

ATHEISTIC START

For most such activists, rationalism starts with a healthy dose of atheism. Nayak says he became an atheist at the age of 11 after coming to a conclusion ("maybe hasty") about there being no god despite his prayers. A national science talent scholarship cemented his rationalist leanings and later, after a meeting with the legendary rationalist Abraham Kovoor, he joined the movement.

It isn't easy to break down strong beliefs. Nataraj, who became a rationalist after practicing astrology for several years, says he can hold his own in heated TV debates because he has studied several works about astrology. "There are times when TV astrologers have asked me in private why I oppose astrology as I know so much about it. I tell them we have to have proof," says Nataraj.

UPHILL BATTLE

Public confrontations have a tendency to deteriorate quickly. Sanal Edamaruku, a Delhi-based rationalist, had to relocate to Finland to avoid arrest in a blasphemy case filed by a Mumbai church. Edamaruku, who exposed 'Pilot' Baba and other assorted godmen across India, says in the Mumbai case, he was held up at a TV studio for hours after a violent mob thronged outside, opposing him for saying that miracle tears of a statue came from a leaky drainpipe. "I am not a hatemonger but I gave my opinion after observation (he was invited to see the statue). Listeners can choose to disbelieve. But the situation turned violent and I escaped through the studio's back gate after three-four hours," says Edamaruku, who is bringing out his memoir detailing 25 of the most memorable investigations he has done so far.

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Thinking their way through new superstitions - Times of India

The Fundamentalist Christian Chokehold On America – HuffPost

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Prior to the 1970s, a persons faith had little impact on the way they voted. Make no mistake, however, there have always been those who believed religion should play a larger role in American politics. Colonies were often ruled by strict religious observance prior to the Declaration of Independence. In fact, it could be said, the reason our country implemented the separation of church and state was because of the conflict and dissention caused by the rigorous and divisive theology within the colonies.

In New England for example, the civil government dealt harshly with religious dissenterswhipping Baptists or cropping the ears of Quakers for their determined efforts to proselytize. A religious revival came through the colonies between the 1730s and 1740s, called the Great Awakening. This movement challenged the clerical elite and colonial establishment by appealing to the poor and uneducated. It focused more on an emotional relationship with God than one based in reasoning. The Great Awakening was the basis for what would become the current fundamentalist, evangelical Christian faith.

Historian Patricia Bonomi noted that rationalism, nevertheless, remained the predominant religious underpinning and was often present in the religion of gentlemen leaders by the late colonial period. As American civilization progressed in scientific discoveries, modernists seamlessly wove their understanding of God and their holy texts together. Fundamentalists, on the other hand, found their beliefs contentiously out of step with rationalism and modernization.

Until the 1970s, religious fundamentalists primarily stayed away from politics, believing politics distracted them from their calling to bring people to Christ and deliver the message of salvation. But through the charismatic leadership of people like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson, and savvy political strategists like Paul Weyrich, Christian fundamentalist extremism found a new platform in American politics, unlike any time in history.

Most of the popular Republican candidates in the 2016 presidential election claimed God told them to run for president. What they share in common is a brand of Christianity, which is historically racist, homophobic, xenophobic, dangerously nationalistic, and exclusive. It is a form of Christian Sharia law, which forces those who believe differently into strict adherence to their version of religious freedom.

Fundamentalist Christian religious freedom laws allow for sweeping discrimination and removal of federal protections for people who believe differently. For example, Mississippi passed the Protecting Freedom of Conscience From Government Discrimination Act in 2016, which said public businesses, social workers, and even public employees cannot be punished for denying services to people who believe that sex should only be reserved between married people in opposite sex relationships. Additionally, if someones religious belief is different than those of an adoption agency, the agency can refuse the adoption of a child to that person. In many ways, it is stepping hundreds of years backwards in Americas history. The government isnt doing the punishing, per se, but laws prohibit it from equally protecting citizens.

At the beginning of Trumps presidency, he initiated an executive ordered called Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom. Most agree the order was little more than a nod to the fundamentalist Christians that helped elect Trump into office, and it has no teeth. However, the order essentially allows discrimination from the highest offices in the country, letting individuals deny health care, education, employment, government grants and even government contracts to people who believe or behave differently. If someone simply claims a strongly held religious belief, they can discriminate for virtually any reason without retribution.

The question is, why are Americans allowing this to happen? Surveys show that much of what Christian fundamentalists represent is out of step with what Americans want. Most Americans oppose Trumps immigration ban. Most Americans support gay marriage. Most Americans support abortion rights. Americans are religiously diverse, with more and more people disassociating with their evangelical roots. Trumps election to the White House has splintered evangelicals even further, with many recognizing the blatant hypocrisy of Trumps Christian supporters.

The fundamentalist chokehold on American politics seeks to destroy the religious and cultural plurality on which the country, and the Declaration of Independence, was based. These theological divisions which pit believers against non-believers, and those who believe correctly against those who dont are a major contributor to Americas sharply divided politics. When someone believes he or she holds absolute truth, there can be no compromise, no middle ground, and no discussion.

Fundamentalism - Christian, Islam, or any other religious ideology - is the antithesis of progression. Fundamentalisms dangerous anti-science stance threatens the worlds environment, reduces the efficacy of American education, and leaves citizens unprepared for life in a global economy. Fundamentalism is shrouded in ignorance, backed by authoritarianism, and places an enormous amount of trust in individual leaders. To free us of the religious chokehold, citizens must recognize, and actively vote against the powerful political machine of the Fundamentalist Christian right.

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The Fundamentalist Christian Chokehold On America - HuffPost

Tim Cook Says Apple Had to Comply With Chinese Censors, and They’d Do It in the US Too – Gizmodo

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Last week, consumer tech giant Apple removed all major VPN apps from the Chinese branch of its Apps Store, seemingly putting yet another barrier in place for millions of Chinese citizens who might desire to defy their governments pervasive internet censorship system. On Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained why Apple chose to comply with the wishes of Chinese censors.

Its pretty simple, in Cooks telling. Unlicensed VPNs are against the law in China now, and Apple has to obey the law, period.

The central government in China back in 2015 started tightening the regulations associated with VPN apps, Cook told investors and media during Apples Q3 2017 earnings and conference call, per TechCrunchs Matthew Lynley. We have a number of those on our store. Essentially, as a requirement for someone to operate a VPN they have to have a license from the government there.

Earlier this year, they began a renewed effort to enforce that policy, he continued. We were required by the government to remove some of those VPN apps from the app store that dont meet these new regulations ... Today theres still hundreds of VPN apps on the app store, including hundreds by developers outside China. We would obviously rather not remove the apps, but like we do in other countries we follow the law wherever we do business.

Heres where Cooks reply gets a little more cynical.

We believe in engaging with governments even when we disagree, Cook continued. This particular case, were hopeful that over time the restrictions were seeing are loosened, because innovation really requires freedom to collaborate and communicate.

Cook compared the controversy to Apples 2016 battle with US authorities over iPhone security features, saying the situation last year was very different because US law was on the companys side. But he added if US law changed, Apple would have no choice but to comply.

In the case of China, the law is very clear there, Cook said. Like we would if the US changed the law here, we have to abide by them in both cases. That doesnt mean that we dont state our point of view in the appropriate way, we always do that.

Heres the thing: Apple isnt really engaging Chinese censors so much as complying with their orders, and theres no way removing the VPN apps will somehow result in that censorship being loosened. Its at best a tradeoff between maintaining market access on one hand, and collaborating with the current Chinese censorship system on the other.

Without getting into an argument on the merits of Chinese artist Ai Weiweis work, he hit something on the head in a New York Times editorial earlier this year: Whenever the state controls or blocks information, it not only reasserts its absolute power; it also elicits from the people whom it rules a voluntary submission to the system and an acknowledgment of its dominion. While Apples decision to remove the VPN apps may be mandated by the absolute power of the Chinese state, its also clearly reinforcing part two of the equation, voluntary submission to said power.

Cook, of course, is clearly aware of thiswhich is why he mentioned Apple would have no choice but to comply with a US censorship regime, too. Hes not exactly wrong. But its also a reminder of how any abuse of power requires enablers, and institutions whose bottom line rely on compliance are probably not going to save anyone from autocracy. With a few exceptions, theyll usually comply.

Elsewhere during the call, Cook noted, mainland China sales are doing just fine. The companys poor performance was mostly due to poor sales in the mostly autonomous region of Hong Kong, which has much less restrictive laws on censorship.

[Matthew Lynley]

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Tim Cook Says Apple Had to Comply With Chinese Censors, and They'd Do It in the US Too - Gizmodo

Popular YouTubers React To Censorship Of ‘Controversial’ Content – The Daily Caller

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YouTube has announced a new system to catch and flag what it calls controversial religious and supremacist videos hosted on the platform. The platform plans to hide these videos from wider audiences, and demonetize them to prevent their creators from earning revenue from YouTube.

The move was met with widespread skepticism from YouTube content creators.

To crack down on offensive content, the company is using a combination of machine learning and volunteer experts to flag that needs review. It also plans to implement tougher standards for videos that are controversial but do not violate the sites terms of service.

YouTube says it isnt going to remove the borderline content entirely, but will instead place these videos in a purgatory state preventing them from being monetized or promoted. To facilitate these changes, YouTube will be artificially altering its search algorithms to prevent offensive topics from discovery.

Well soon be applying tougher treatment to videos that arent illegal but have been flagged by users as potential violations of our policies on hate speech and violent extremism. If we find that these videos dont violate our policies but contain controversial religious or supremacist content, they will be placed in a limited state. The videos will remain on YouTube behind an interstitial, wont be recommended, wont be monetized, and wont have key features including comments, suggested videos, and likes.

According to YouTube, the system, while largely automated, will mix in human reviews in the form of its already established Trusted Flagger volunteer program that works with over 15 institutions to deal with extremist content, including the Anti-Defamation League.

The ADL recently released a list naming members of the alt-right and the alt-lite, the latter of which included controversial YouTube personalities like Gavin McInnes, Mike Cernovich, and Brittany Pettibone.

Its worth noting that the Trusted Flagger system was later transformed into the much maligned YouTube Heroes program, which invited the public to help moderate content. It was heavily criticized for giving social justice activists the power to manipulate the platform.

Despite the apparent focus on targeting extremism, YouTubes announcement includes the companys efforts to artificially promote videos through its Creators for Change program, which in YouTubes own words pushes creators who are using their voices to speak out against hate speech, xenophobia, and extremism.

High-profile feminists, including Franchesca Ramsey, are listed as ambassadors and fellows. Notably absent is Laci Green, whose strong 1.5 million subscriber count earns her top billing as the sites most popular feminist. Green has come under fire from social justice advocates for opening dialogue with anti-feminists.

If a video doesnt break YouTubes terms of services then they absolutely SHOULD NOT be attempting to dampen the reach of the video any further, said YouTuber Annand Bunty King Virk, who raised his concerns with The Daily Caller. Who determines whats passable and what isnt? At what point do we finally realize that saying the right thing isnt always about saying what people want to hear?

By these standards, if YouTube existed previous to the Emancipation Act, theyd be censoring videos criticizing slave owners, since being anti-slavery wasnt popular at all, he added. The popular opinion isnt always the right opinion.

Matt Jarbo, who goes by MundaneMatt on YouTube, shared his views with The Daily Caller on the move. They know its almost a non-issue completely, Jarbo said. But due to the controversies surrounding those videos, theyve gotten a much larger spotlight than they deserve.

I do not trust their ability [to automatically flag extremist content], he said. I think they have an algorithm in place to help combat those issues, but its not narrow enough to not impact the skeptical/anti-SJW content.

YouTuber Jeff Holiday told The Daily Caller that he doesnt worry about the policy affecting his revenue, as hes already diversified his income with other platforms, but worries that the crackdown will affect other creators.

The move to counter extremist content is of course a good one in theory, Holiday said. But the language used in their announcement does not fill me with confidence it will be restricted to legitimate extremism. I remain optimistic but wary.

YouTube has a clear bias given who they choose to promote for free on their site such as Francesca Ramsey who perpetually produces vastly disliked videos, he remarked.

That isnt to say there is a case for them censoring controversial content. Ive had a few videos marked advertiser unfriendly, but it hasnt been something perpetual. But hearing they might crack down further does concern me greatly. Again, not for the income, but for the potential disincentives it may cause future creators of controversial politics.

I do think there are valid concerns in Google possibly funding legitimate extremist enterprises, but the fact is that people like to abuse systems, especially automated ones, said YouTuber Chris Maldonado, whos also known as Chris Ray Gun. Its really only a matter of time before this backfires in some ridiculous way.

The curator of Undoomed, a channel that regularly makes light of social justice warriors, shared his concerns about YouTubes new direction.

No one can really say whos going to be impacted by this new road map, and thats the point isnt it? If their policies and terms of service arent there to help guide creators anymore, then why even have them? So really, anyone could be at risk without even knowing it, he said.

I have no problem with YouTube cracking down on terrorist recruitment videos and the likes, clarified Undoomed. What I dont understand is how such videos couldve possibly been considered acceptable under the extant TOS and policies.

I think there is a high probably for collateral damage with this new attitude, he said. Some people could conceivably consider skeptics and anti-SJWs extremists, while all we are doing is arguing for a little common sense, and of course for freedom of speech as demanded by the Constitution.

My suspicion is that trusted flaggers is just a code word for the usual suspects. i.e. the same type of radical left-wing reactionaries that have reshaped Twitter into an Orwellian nightmare, he concluded.

Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at@stillgray on Twitterand onFacebook.

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Popular YouTubers React To Censorship Of 'Controversial' Content - The Daily Caller

ACLU sues Maryland, Kentucky governors over social media censorship – The Hill

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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed lawsuits against the governors of Maryland and Kentucky, claiming they violatedconstituents' First Amendment rights by blocking individuals from official social media accounts.

The organizations Kentucky branch filed a lawsuit Monday on behalf of several constituents, while its Maryland branch filed suit on Tuesday. Both suits ask forinjunctions to stop Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) from blocking constituents on social media accounts.

"The highest purpose of the First Amendment is to protect the right of Americans to engage in political speech and to petition the government to address their concerns," Deborah Jeon, who serves as the ACLU of Marylands legal director, said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Hogan's office dismissed the lawsuit as "frivolous" and "a waste of taxpayer dollars."

"The governors office has a very clear social media policy, and we will continue to remove all hateful and violent content and coordinated spam attacks to foster an open and constructive dialogue," said deputy communications director Amelia Chassin a statement.

"Ultimately, with all of the challenges we face in this country and across the globe, we can all agree that the ACLU should be focusing on more important issues than monitoring Facebook pages.

One of the Marylandplaintiffs said she was a Democrat who voted for Hogan and was blocked from his Facebook page after asking the governor to issue a statement on President Trumps travel ban.

My comment was deleted and I was blocked from the page. From the moment it happened, I couldn't believe Governor Hogan would block people who disagreed with him, but who weren't rude or threatening, Meredith Phillips said. Deleting any comment from constituents that doesn't praise or agree with Governor Hogan is a violation of free speech."

The lawsuits come several weeks after a First Amendment groupsuedTrump for blocking social media accounts that exhibit dissenting opinions.

William Sharp, the legal director for the ACLU of Kentucky, said in a statement that the First Amendment does not allow the government to exclude speakers from a public forum because it disagrees with their viewpoint.

And even when the government seeks to enforce permissible limits in such a forum, permanently excluding individuals for violating those limits goes too far, Sharp added.

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ACLU sues Maryland, Kentucky governors over social media censorship - The Hill

China’s Censorship Powers Are More Dangerous Than You Know – The Federalist

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What do Winnie the Pooh, an image of an empty chair, and Justin Bieber have in common? They all have been recently banned by Chinese censors. BBCreportedthat China banned Winnie the Pooh from its social media sites because bloggers have been comparing him to Chinas President Xi Jinping.

Since the late NobelLaureateLiu Xiaobos death, Chinese WhatsApp userscomplainedthat Chinese censors blocked their attempts to send images of an empty chair to commemorate Liu inreal time. Last but not least, Chinese Bieber fans weretoldrecently by Beijings Culture Bureau that the Canadian pop star is banned from having concerts in China due to his past bad behaviors which caused public dissatisfaction. Thus banning him is necessary to purify Chinas domestic entertainment scene.

Id never imagined that Winnie the Pooh, an image of an empty chair, and Justin Bieber would all become symbols of liberty one day. For the last 30 years, while the daily lives of Chinese citizens have dramatically improved, their opportunities for free speech, assembly, and expression havent. Chinas wealth enables the Chinese government to control information flow, promote propaganda, and monitor and suppress dissent much more efficiently and effectively.

With Communist Partys leadership reshuffle getting close, Beijing has stepped up its censorship. Banning Winnie the Pooh and Justin Bieber are small potatoes compared to Chinas latestcrackdown on virtual private networks (VPNs), a popular method Chinese use to bypass Chinese authorities Great Firewall. The most intrusive tool the government deploys is facial recognition technology and iris scanners installed everywhere to keep a watchful eye on the entire Chinese population.

The Wall Street Journalestimatedthat China has 176 million surveillance cameras in public and private hands, and the nation will install about 450 million new ones by 2020. The U.S., by comparison, has about 50 million.Chinas vast, technology-driven surveillance system has made it easier for the state to arrest political dissidents. The all-seeing big brother George Orwell imagined in 1984 has become a reality in China.

During Maos Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the Chinese government not only controlled every aspect of each citizens lifewhat to eat, how much to eat, where to live, and what one was supposed to do for a livingbut it also demanded full control of every citizens mind through thought control. Today the Chinese government no longer decide how much people can eat, but the state has even better control over the Chinese peoples minds.

Not all censorship flows from top-down. Many Chinese citizens and businesses have taken cues from the government and censor themselves. Chinas popular video and Internet streaming sitescleanedthemselves up by voluntarily taking down all foreign films and TV shows, replacing them with government-sanctioned propaganda that glorifies the Communist Party in the name of social harmony and patriotism.

One livestream showed a young woman host who dressed in Red Army uniform and filmed herself buying Mao Zedong badges at a gift shop. Chinas information control is so successful that she was probably never told that someone in her family perished during the man-made famine or tortured by Maos Red Guards in similar uniforms only four decades ago. Even if she was told the truth, will it change her self-censored behavior?

The most worrisome part of this whole situation is that while some Chinese reject state thought control (and pay a dear price for their struggle), many not only accept the governments propaganda, but also vigorously defend it. Pew Researchshowsroughly three-quarters (77%) of the [Chinese] public believes that their way of life needs to be protected against foreign influence.

Why should we care whats going on inside China? Because the impact of Chinas censorship and thought-control can be easily felt outside China. Many Chinese overseas echo propaganda like people inside China do. The most famous Chinese Internet troll group, Little Pink, is largely made up of Chinese females both inside and outside China. Theyre notorious for bombardingthe overseas social media of anyone who expresses any negative views about China, even fellow Chinese.

In May this year, Chinese student Yang Shuping gave a commencementspeechat the University of Maryland. She praised the fresh air and freedom of speech in the United States and contrasted it to her experiences growing up in China: wearing a mask to fight air pollution and passively accepting government-authenticated truth. Many Chinese netizens, especially those from Little Pink, called her a traitor who was sucking up to westerners at the expense of belittling her motherland. Many demanded that she apologize, which she did.

Still, her home address was posted online and some Chinese threatened her should she return to China. Even the Chinese government stepped in,withthe spokesperson of Chinas foreign ministry stating all Chinese should behave responsibly in their public statements.The cyber bullying and harsh reaction from China actually proved Yangs point that China lacks freedom of speech and thought.

But its the oversea reaction from Chinese to this student that really shocked me. Some Chinese students did speak out to support her, but it seems their rational reaction was drowned out by criticism. The Chinese Students and Scholars Association at the University of Maryland quickly put out aproud of China video campaign. Throughmedia interviewsand social media postings, many Chinese students in the United States said Yang was unpatriotic and she embarrassed herself and her motherland by speaking ill of her country in front of a biased western crowd.

I recently experienced such a feverish defense of China in the United States first hand. At the Las Vegas Freedom Fest, one of the largest libertarian gatherings, one of my fellow panelists was a 30-something young man who emigrated from China to the United States when he was 12. Facing a libertarian-conservative audience, he confidently proclaimed that Chinese President Xi is a virtuous leader, Chinas current economic system is laissez faire capitalism, western-style democracy is not suitable for China because of Confucianism, Chinas one-child policy was humane, and people can freely express themselves in China without any repercussions.

It was almost as if he took the talking points from Chinas foreign ministry and just read them. I thought he was telling a joke, but he finished his speech with a straight face. Later during the Q&A, he demonstrated that he believed everything he said by defending his statements unequivocally, despite mountains of evidence provided by other panelists.

If we believe some people inside China defend the government because they dont have access to information due to censorship, or they are doing so out of fear, whats the excuse for oversea Chinese like this young man and those from the Little Pink, who have all the information at their fingertips yet willingly accept and defend lies? They are the latest proof that Cultural Revolution-style censorship and thought control never dies because so many Chinese are willing participants and enforcers. If people like this young man can live among us for so long but stay immune to western ideas of human freedom, what does this say about the strength of our education, culture, values, and ideas, compared to the power of Chinas censorship and propaganda?

The ripple effect of Chinas censorship obviously doesnt stop at Chinas border. We in the west need to not only keep an eye on whats going on inside China, but also be aware how that affects our lives here. Its time we realize that not everyone who comes here and lives among us naturally seeks truth and freedom. Orwell wrote in1984thatThe choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness, and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better. If we want the bulk of mankind to choose freedom, we have a lot of work to do.

See more here:

China's Censorship Powers Are More Dangerous Than You Know - The Federalist

Prufrock: Free Speech on Campus, Why Academics Love Jargon, and Ball Lightning – The Weekly Standard

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Reviews and News:

Why have university administrators allied themselves with progressive campus activists? They have found common ground in the safe space of intellectual mediocrity through consumer sensitivity. This alliance is unlikely to collapse any time soon. Administrators and campus activists have much to gain from supporting one another. And both can rely on a phalanx of Title IX regulations by the Department of Education to stifle any faculty or student dissent that might arise. Critics can easily find themselves charged with some trumped-up Title IX violation certain to upend their lives for months.

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How a French juggler and unicyclist helped create the Information Age: The great Russian mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov put it like this in 1963: In our age, when human knowledge is becoming more and more specialized, Claude Shannon is an exceptional example of a scientist who combines deep abstract mathematical thought with a broad and at the same time very concrete understanding of vital problems of technology.

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Ian Tuttle reviews Theodore Dalrymples The Proper Procedure and Other Stories: The volume is filled with lousy neighbors. They play music loud and all night; they deal drugs; they urinate in the stairwells. The women seduce the men, and the men beat the women. The police visit occasionally but are loath to insinuate themselves. Everyone is, as the unhappy Miss Falkenhagen says, a predatory beast.

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The Rand Corporations art: It's not as though the hallways of the Rand building, located a couple of blocks from the beach on Main Street, are teeming with boisterous researchers and pontificating analysts gesturing at various artworks. The corridors are frequently quiet; conversations are conducted in indoor voices. But some of those conversations are about or inspired by the art they encounter every day in the 310,000-square-foot building.

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A new theory of ball lightning: Ball lightning comes in most colors of the rainbow and ranges in sizefrom a typical toy marble, to those extra large exercise balls some people sit on instead of office chairs. It can form inside closed spaces and move down chimneys and horizontally through closed windows. In addition to producing light, ball lightning can give off sparks and is associated with hissing or buzzing noises and a strong, irritating odor. It typically lasts for only seconds, glowing with the intensity of a bright household light bulb. The unpredictable and variable nature of ball lightning has made it difficult to develop a conclusive theory explaining how it works, but accounts of its strangeness are numerous and have been published for centuries.

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Essay of the Day:

Why is free speech suppressed on university campuses? In Modern Age, Roger Scruton argues it is fear: Why protect a belief that stands on its own two feet?

In universities today...studentsand certainly the most politically active among themtend to resist the idea of exclusive groups. They are particularly insistent that distinctions associated with their inherited culturebetween sexes, classes, and races; between genders and orientations; between religions and lifestylesshould be rejected, in the interests of an all-comprehending equality that leaves each person to be who she really is. A great negation sign has been placed in front of all the old distinctions, and an ethos of non-discrimination adopted in their stead. And yet this seeming open-mindedness inspires its proponents to silence those who offend against it. Certain opinionsnamely, those that make the forbidden distinctionsbecome heretical. By a move that Michael Polanyi described as moral inversion, an old form of moral censure is renewed, by turning it against its erstwhile proponents. Thus, when a visiting speaker is diagnosed as someone who makes invidious distinctions, he or she is very likely to be subjected to intimidation for being a supporter of old forms of intimidation.

There may be no knowing in advance how the new heresies might be committed, or what exactly they are, since the ethic of nondiscrimination is constantly evolving to undo distinctions that were only yesterday part of the fabric of reality. When Germaine Greer made the passing remark that, in her opinion, women who regarded themselves as men were not, in the absence of a penis, actually members of the male sex, the remark was judged to be so offensive that a campaign was mounted to prevent her speaking at the University of Cardiff. The campaign was not successful, partly because Germaine Greer is the person she is. But the fact that she had committed a heresy was unknown to her at the time, and probably only dawned on her accusers in the course of practicing that mornings Two Minutes Hate.

More successful was the campaign in Britain to punish Sir Tim Hunt, the Nobel Prizewinning biologist, for making a tactless remark about the difference between men and women in the laboratory. A media-wide witch hunt began, leading Sir Tim to resign from his professorship at University College London; the Royal Society (of which he is a fellow) went public with a denunciation, and he was pushed aside by the scientific community. A lifetime of distinguished creative work ended in ruin. That is not censorship, so much as the collective punishment of heresy, and we should try to understand it in those terms.

The ethic of nondiscrimination tells us that we must not make any distinctions between the sexes and that women are as adapted to a scientific career as men are. That view is unquestionable in any territory claimed by the radical feminists. I dont know whether it is true, but I doubt that it is, and Sir Tims tactless remark suggested that he does not believe it either. How would I find out who is right? Surely, by considering the arguments, by weighing the competing opinions in the balance of reasoned discussion, and by encouraging the free expression of heretical views. Truth arises by an invisible hand from our many errors, and both error and truth must be permitted if the process is to work. Heresy arises, however, when someone questions a belief that must not be questioned from within a groups favored territory. The favored territory of radical feminism is the academic world, the place where careers can be made and alliances formed through the attack on male privilege. A dissident within the academic community must therefore be exposed, like Sir Tim, to public intimidation and abuse, and in the age of the Internet this punishment can be amplified without cost to those who inflict it. This process of intimidation casts doubt, in the minds of reasonable people, on the doctrine that inspires it. Why protect a belief that stands on its own two feet? The intellectual frailty of the feminist orthodoxy is there for all to see in the fate of Sir Tim.

Read the rest.

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Photos: Earliest crossing of the Northwest Passage

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Poem: Heinrich Heine, The Devil Take Your Mother

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Prufrock: Free Speech on Campus, Why Academics Love Jargon, and Ball Lightning - The Weekly Standard

Nazi-clad protesters try shouting down Ann Coulter at free-speech panel and are badly outnumbered – TheBlaze.com

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Protesters dressed in Nazi garb interrupted a free-speech panel featuring conservative pundit Ann Coulter who was set to discuss censorship on campus at the Politicon convention in Pasadena, California, over the weekend.

Our Nazi leader! Our Nazi leader! one of the protesters was heard shouting on video. In a separate clip she also was heard yelling, Heil, Trump! while giving the Nazi salute while accompanied by a similarly dressed man.

Think the capacity crowd of political junkieswas going to put up with it? Heil no.

The protesters were drowned out by chants of USA! USA! USA! and Trump! Trump! Trump! as the pair were led away.

But it didnt end there.

Another couple began shouting Trump, Pence must go!KCAL-TV reported. And like the first pair of interlopers, the station said they were drowned out by the crowd reprising its Trump! Trump! chant before getting the hook from security.

CNNs Jake Tapper weighed in on the action and made his stance clear:

Coulter has recent personal experience with the free speech crisis on college campuses. She had been set to speak this spring at the University of California, Berkeley where left-wing protesters previously rioted over the prospect of conservative views being publicly aired but Coulter canceled her speech due to lack of security and support.

Attendee Patrick Lindsay told KCAL he wanted to hear Coulters views given the growing number of voices against free speech.

I think our First Amendment is under attack right now, he told the station.

But Coulter apparently got the last laugh at the swastika-wearing malcontents:

(H/T: Truth Revolt)

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Nazi-clad protesters try shouting down Ann Coulter at free-speech panel and are badly outnumbered - TheBlaze.com

Is Your Christian Worldview Cohesive? – Cape May County Herald

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Two weeks ago, we introduced the concept of a worldview, our set of assumptions about the way that the world works, explaining that all worldviews answer the following questions:

What is the nature of the world around us?

Why can we know anything?

How do we determine right and wrong?

What is the meaning of human history?

Last week, I analyzed the Naturalist worldview, explaining that how you answer question number one will determine how you answer question number two and so on and so forth.

I encouraged our readers to have a cohesive worldview because what we believe shapes how we live.

This week, I want to answer the above questions from a Christian perspective.

Christianity defines the essence of reality as coming from God. God always has been and always will be.

He is infinite and transcendent, completely separate and uniquely different from everything else (this is what the word holy actually means), yet at the same time, he is personal.

In the Bible, God is pictured as intimately breathing life into humanity. He is all knowing, all powerful, all present (which is different from being in all things as Pantheism embraces) and is in control of all things (sovereign).

Ultimately, He is good. Every time God creates in the first chapter of the Bible, he proclaims that his creation is good. Only a good God could make good things.

The nature of the world around us is one of a created order. God is outside of our box and has spoken, without ingredients, our existence into reality. He created everything from nothing. Additionally, He is orderly. In Genesis 1, He creates canisters and then fills canisters.

He creates the sky before filling it with birds. He creates plants before creating animals so that they have something to eat.

This underscores that he is wise, orderly, powerful, generous and good. Since God created, He is outside of our sandbox yet involved within it.

This means that the supernatural is possible. At any time he can put his finger in the sand and swirl things around.

Humans are created in Gods image. This means that we share in his characteristics which are able to be shared.

Since God is Creator, we can be creative, being called to create art, culture, language and so much more. We are personal, just like our God is personal and intimate.

We share in some transcendence, being separate from other types of the created world. We can learn, we can know right from wrong, we desire community and so much more. These attributes exist in us because they exist in God.

According to the scriptures, underscoring the reality that by chapter three of the first book in the Bible mankind rejects God and willfully enters into rebellion against him, upon death we either eternally enter into perfect relationship with him or are eternally separated from him.

This is a byproduct of our relational status with God, which is only established by faith in the God provided rescuer, Jesus Christ.

We can know anything at all because we are made in the image of an all-knowing God.

Because of Gods goodness and character made manifest through his creation, we can learn through empirical research, discover new concepts, invent new machines, and so on and so forth. Still, we cannot discover all things.

There are secret things, which belong to God, and we can only know in part (Deuteronomy 29:29).

As such, God reveals to us what he wants us to know. Since he is outside of our sandbox, he has to reveal certain things to us, and there are still some things that we will never know.

Ultimately, God has given us a glimpse past our own deductive abilities through his special revealed knowledge, revelation, which is found in Jesus Christ and in the Bible.

As created beings, we are subject to a created order and absolute standards of morality and ethics.

Gods good character is the standard of ethics, not our emotions or what we believe is good for society.

God knows best, yet we routinely reject his revealed path and his revealed ethical standards in exchange for our own ideas and design. This is what led to mankinds rejection and rebellion in Genesis 3, where the first humans did not want to go to God for the definition of good and evil but wanted to craft it for themselves.

All of that said, history is not accidental nor is it aimless. It is a linear, sequential, unfolding story of God. and it is leading towards a specific aim and purpose.

History is meaningful because it is Gods story, ultimately pointing to Jesus Christ, the one who came to rescue humanity from itself, and to the redemption of Gods people.

Do you have a question about life, family, or faith for Pastor Bill? Email RevolveNJ@gmail.com with the subject Ask Pastor Bill and your question.

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Is Your Christian Worldview Cohesive? - Cape May County Herald

Atheists in Muslim world: Silent, resentful and growing in number – Washington Times

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BABYLON, Iraq Lara Ahmed wears a headscarf and behaves like a pious Muslim.

But the 21-year-old Iraqi woman hides a secret from her peers at the University of Babylon: her atheism.

I was not convinced by the creation story in the Quran, she said. Besides, I feel religions are unjust, violate our human rights and devalue womens identities.

She doesnt dare share her strong beliefs with strangers.

I wear a headscarf despite being an atheist, said Ms. Ahmed, who studies biology at the school, about 115 miles south of Baghdad. It is difficult not to wear it in southern Iraq. Few women take the risk not to cover their hair. They face harassment everywhere.

Her fears stem from the remarks of powerful politicians such as Ammar al-Hakim, the head of Iraqs Islamic Supreme Council, a major Shiite political party and the president of the National Alliance, a Shiite parliamentary bloc.

Some are resentful of Iraqi societys adherence to its religious constants and its connection to God Almighty, Mr. al-Hakim said on his partys TV channel in May, claiming a rising tide of atheism was threatening the Arab world. Combat these foreign ideas.

Statistics on atheism in the Middle East and North Africa are hazy, but analysts say Ms. Ahmed represents an increasing trend based on recent developments.

In 2014, an Egyptian government-run Islamic legal institute, citing a dubious international study, said that only 866 atheists lived in the country of more than 90 million. Recently released court statistics saying thousands of Egyptian women sought divorce in 2015 claiming their husbands were atheists one of the few ways women can initiate divorce under Islam suggested the numbers might be far higher.

In 2011, the now-defunct Kurdish news agency AKnews published a survey finding that 67 percent of Iraqis believed in God and 21 percent said God probably existed, while 7 percent said they did not believe in God and 4 percent said God probably did not exist.

Today, the information revolution fueled by the internet, the freedoms released by the Arab Spring, the growing power of sectarian religious parties and the rise of the harsh orthodoxy of the Islamic State have all fueled growing unbelief in God and traditional religions, said atheists and others.

For youths, who are the majority of new atheists, the savagery of the Islamic caliphate established by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in 2014 created a reaction that [has] shaken the religions image, said Ali Abdulkareem Majeed, 22, a nonatheist Iraqi sociology student who conducted a study on atheism for a religious body that he asked not to be identified for his safety.

Social media shutdown

Last year, Facebook shut down more than 50 atheist, Arabic-language pages in after extremist Muslim groups campaigned to remove them, according to a petition sent to Facebook by the Atheist Alliance-Middle East and North Africa, a U.S.-based global atheist federation.

Many of those Facebook pages have been since been relaunched.

In March 2015, U.S.-based Iraqi and other Arab atheists launched the Arabic and English-language Free Mind television and magazine websites, which promote atheistic viewpoints and have recorded more than 1 million visits so far.

That led scholars at Al-Azhar University, a pre-eminent Sunni Muslim center of learning in Cairo, to call on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to push Free Mind organizers to repent or face execution by beheading. Mr. el-Sissi responded by suggesting that those who insulted religion should lose their Egyptian citizenship.

Even so, online atheist programming is easily available in Arabic now.

Atheism is not illegal in Egypt or Iraq, but officials often level blasphemy or other charges against atheists in those countries. Those rejecting the faith face the death sentence in Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Mauritania.

Many atheists in the region say their bigger fear is not being punished for their beliefs but that they will become targets of violent sectarian groups seeking political support from the faithful.

It is a distraction from the fact that Islamists were not able to accomplish anything over the past 13 years, said Faisal al-Mutar, a U.S.-based Iraqi human rights activist who heads Ideas Beyond Borders, a nonprofit that supports minorities in the Middle East. So they want to create an enemy to keep [the] constituency united against and avoid being held accountable for their mistakes.

Keeping their beliefs secret is the norm for atheists of all backgrounds throughout the region.

In Jordan, an Amman-based writer at the Free Mind Magazine whose last name is Farouki but who asked to keep her first name secret said she is nearly estranged from her family, angered by her rebellion against religion. They see me as insane, said Farouki, 50. Jordanians cannot accept atheists, and it is highly possible to be killed if you are one.

Social media has provided atheists with a meeting place and source of information.

Most of my atheist friends have not changed all of a sudden, said Osama Dakhel, 21, a fine arts student in Baghdad. Some were so devoted at first exploring the religions minute details. They start to read for Islamic reformers. Then they start to accept other opinions, discuss atheists online and end up atheists.

Ahmed Abdul-Aziz, 22, a medical student in upper Egypt, also writes openly for the Free Mind Magazine on atheism. It is easier to announce your ideas in Cairo, he said. Nobody would look after you, but in small rural towns, everyone watches the other.

Even so, Mr. Abdul-Aziz said, he hides his beliefs from his own family.

They will feel angry even if I call for some modern Islamic ideas, he said. I am forced to attend the Friday prayers and fast during Ramadan. I feel uneasy to practice things I do not believe in.

Ms. Ahmed paid a price for unwittingly drawing notice for not praying or fasting during Ramadan at the University of Babylon. A colleague called me an infidel and insisted on waking me up at dawn to pray, she said. I faced problems even for not using the name of Allah to swear.

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Atheists in Muslim world: Silent, resentful and growing in number - Washington Times

Kickstarter Alert: Get to Mars With ‘Total Recall: The Official Tabletop Game’ – GeekDad (blog)

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Whats the Schwarzenegger line from that action movie? Get to the choppa! No, wait. Hasta la vista, babee. No, wrong again. Oh yeah! Get your [self] to Mars! Thats it! Its now been 27 years (yikes!) since Total Recall thrilled audiences with hints of virtual realities and Mars colonization and rebellion. Now, you can play a part in a dream of Mars with Total Recall: The Official Tabletop Game, launching on Kickstarter today.

A game of bluffing and deduction for 4-8 players for players ages 12 and up. Total Recall is from Brian Henk and Clayton Skancke, who have also paired up to bring you New Salem, Good Cop, Bad Cop, and Leaders of Euphoria: Choose a Better Oppressor. Total Recall plays in 20-40 minutes and pits rebels against feds against Rekall scientists.

I played with a pre-launch print & play version of the game. Im told that, while the art is pretty close, it will change a bit so that the rebels and feds are easier to tall apart. Additionally, I had some spiffy player mats, which might not be part of the standard game. Additionally, there will likely be some upgrades that backers can pony up for: plastic minis instead of the cardboard gun standees, metal bars for Turbinium instead of the plastic gems, and more. Finally, like all pre-launch projects, components and art are subject to change!

That said, heres what youll find inside the box:

The artwork is original. That is, it doesnt feature the likenesses of any of the actors in either the Arnold Schwarzenegger or Colin Farrell versions. Im not going to try to understand the licensing that goes on with something like this, but Im sure its complicated and expensive, so I understand the reasons for original art.

While the standees and plastic gems do the job just fine, Ive seen renders of what the plastic minis and metal bars might look like and they are impressive and fun. In line with that, theres certainly no need for the play mats; the game will play the same without them, but adding them to the table definitely helps with the theme and are worth considering.

Each player gets a gun, a piece of Turbinium, and a Plot card. Character cards are sorted, depending on the number of players in the game, to create a deck. For instance, if playing with 5 players, remove the cards marked 6+, 7+, and 8+. The cards for Cohaagen and Kuato are removed, along enough cards from the deck to equal the total number of players. These are shuffled and dealt out, guaranteeing that no single player might be dealt both leaders. Next, the remaining deck is dealt until all players have exactly three face-down Character cards.

Players review their cards and determine if they are on the Fed team or the Rebel team, whether by simple majority of cards or possession of either leader. Next, players place the cards face-down in front of them. Players may look at their own cards at any time, but not move their positions after they have been placed. Bluffing then begins, trying to convince, persuade, or dissuade others of your true or false alliance. Rebels try to root out the Feds and kill their leader, Feds try to get the Rebels in the same way.

On a players turnplayers have four options for actionsthey may take one of the following:

If youre shot, you must reveal any face-down Character cards and return your gun to your side. If you have a leader, apply a Wounded token on that card. If the leader was already wounded, the game ends immediately. If you dont have a leader, you have woken from your dream about Mars and are now part of the Rekall team. Set all of your Character cards aside. Turn your reference card/player mat to the Rekall side. You get to keep the Turbinium you had, but you must give your Plot cards to the character who shot you. You have a new objective: to take all the Turbinium from the Fed and Rebel players.

Rekall Scientists, on their turns, may:

Play continues until one of four endgame conditions presents itself. If Kuato or Cohaagen receive two wounds, the game ends and the opposite team wins. If all the Turbinium is either in the Supply or in the hands of the Rekall Scientists, Rekall players win. Finally, if a player possesses both Cohaagen and Kuato at the same time, that player wins.

Total Recall was a movie that really captured a lot of imaginations back in the early 90s. It was great for geeks toohere was the worlds biggest action star in a sci-fi movie. What a great time! Total Recall: The Official Tabletop Game goes a long way toward capturing those feelings (without putting an oversized probe up your nose). The theme of unsuspected rebels walking among the devious feds is perfect for designers Henk & Skanckes brand of bluffing and deduction.

We liked Total Recall a lot; its wonderful. The tension at the table is often thick enough that you couldnt cut it with a Sharon Stone scissor kick. As long as cards are hidden, players are overly cautious and deceitful in revealing any information about their affiliations. However, with just three hidden characters, allegiances are soon revealed. One might think this would lead to a quick end game, however, plot cards and the role of the Rekall Scientists can lead to chaos; joyous, exciting, and wonderful chaos.

By swapping out cards of the dreamers (Rebels and Feds), Rekall Scientists can cause players to switch sides multiple times in a round and tip the balance of the majority. It is insane. Plot cards can also cause players to swap cards, divert shots, protect hidden cards, and more. (Note: This project will also include some NSFW cards, which are marked NSFW for language, specifically, lines from the film. The language, in my opinion, isnt overly objectionableno f-bombsbut if you want to play without these cards, it wont affect gameplay.) Having the Rekall Scientists is a great touch because if you get shot early, you are still in the game to the end (a nice improvement over Good Cop, Bad Cop).

However, the game is not without faults. Twice, during an afternoon of play, a leader was exposed on a very early turn and the game was over before the third round ended. Maybe that was just bad luck on our part, but it did feel weird. Another complaint is that the Turbinium is limited and, while the Plot deck is rich with great effects and adds greatly to the theme, I felt like we didnt get to experience enough of them in the game because players need to have Turbinium to play a Plot card. Maybe that was due to the play style of some of our players, a bit more aggressive than the others, but it was within the rules.

Still, Total Recall: The Official Tabletop Game is a really good time. Games move quickly enough that even if you have bad luck, like we did, were on the losing side, or just didnt get to shoot anyone, the next game is just around the corner. Like most bluffing/deduction games, Total Recall works best when played with a larger group. It can be played with a smaller group, but isnt as much fun, in my opinion. In a bigger crowd, theres more interaction, more deceit, more chance that the Rekall Scientists get involved, and its just better.

So get to Mars, jump in a Johnny Cab, start the reactor, back the game, and start having a blast!

I work. I play games. Sometimes I work at playing games.

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Kickstarter Alert: Get to Mars With 'Total Recall: The Official Tabletop Game' - GeekDad (blog)

Celestial Creations – Jackson Hole News&Guide

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For Zoltan Levay staring at the night sky and feeling the vastness of it almost gives him vertigo.

Hes enamored, fascinated and obsessed with it. Space, stars, distant planets and galaxies led Levay into a career processing images from the Hubble telescope for our world to see.

It has been rewarding to be involved in a world-class scientific project, Levay said. I have training in astronomy, and its rewarding to be here on this project and work with astronomers all over the world, some of the most prominent scientists around.

Levay is also a photographer. He started the hobby when he was in high school, and its grown into a passion. He often, as you may guess, photographs landscapes and the night sky. He also photographs nature, cityscapes and anything that visually interests him.

At the Art Association on Friday those two passions meet in Levays art exhibit, Celestial-Terrestial Convergence. The exhibit will feature Levays original photography and images hes processed from the Hubble.

Im trying to relate the landscape were familiar with to what we see in the night sky and the deep universe, Levay said. Its all part of nature. Theres a whole universe out there thats just as spectacular and all part of our grand landscape.

Levay began his career in astronomy, and is now leading the Imaging Group in the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Since 1993 the main part of that job is processing images from the Hubble space telescope. Hes also a member of the Hubble Heritage Team, a program within that institute focused on building a library of Hubble images.

Processing makes it sounds pedantic, but what Levay does is develop the photograph the way a camera would. When a telescope captures a photograph of a galaxy in deep space, the images are raw and devoid of color.

We use filters on the camera that pick particular colors, so we reconstruct color images from those individual exposures just like any camera does, Levay said.

He compared it to the way our eyes break apart the light and color of an image and then reconstruct it in our brain so we can see it.

We use the same principles a photographer would use to make a picture thats powerful and dramatic and interesting, yet conveys the reality of what the scene represents.

Levay said his favorite image from the Hubble has the uninspiring title NGC 1300.

I like that image because it has this very dramatic form to it, Levay said. It has irregularities on top of that so its very interesting and it shows us a great depth in the universe. It shows stars that are relatively nearby, but this galaxy is millions of light years away, so you see the whole sweep of the universe in this one image.

Its those kinds of realizations, that youre staring at the universe, that give Levay a drop-in-the-stomach, vertigo feeling.

Sometimes well produce a photograph and realize this is the first time anyone has ever seen this, he said.

The same feeling comes to him when hes deep in a national park photographing the landscape.

I was Canyonlands National Park a few months ago and these landscapes seem infinite when youre there, Levay said. Youre standing on the edge of an overlook and looking down and looking out at this dramatic landscape going on forever. You have this feeling of infinity, but you realize its a teeny tiny part of existence.

Levay hopes that the pairing of his landscapes with the images of faraway worlds will bridge the distance between the two and show people how connected the ground we stand on and space are.

I hope that people get the feeling of power and scale of whats out there in the universe and the drama of these powerful landscapes here on Earth or in space, Levay said.

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Celestial Creations - Jackson Hole News&Guide

NATO jets intercept Russian aircraft near Estonian airspace – CNN

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"Two Spanish F-18 jets assigned to NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission scrambled from Estonia's Amari Air Base on Tuesday morning to intercept unidentified non-NATO military aircraft near Estonian airspace," acting NATO spokesman Dylan White said in a statement.

He added that Finnish jets also scrambled to intercept the Russian aircraft which he identified as two MiG-31 fighter jets and an AN-26 transport plane.

NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission involves allied aircraft securing the airspace of the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The incident between NATO and Russian military aircraft comes less than 24 hours after US Vice President Mike Pence visited Estonia where he reaffirmed America's commitment to NATO's collective defense clause in the face of Russian aggression.

"No threat looms larger in the Baltic States than the specter of aggression from your unpredictable neighbor to the east," Pence said an appearance with the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

"Under President Donald Trump, the United States of America rejects any attempt to use force, threats, intimidation, or malign influence in the Baltic States or against any of our treaty allies," he added.

The incident also saw the Spanish aircraft "accidentally" entering Finnish airspace.

"In handing over the intercept to the Finnish jets, the Spanish jets accidentally entered Finnish airspace. NATO's Air Command has explained the incident to the Finnish Air Operations Centre to improve future coordination," White said.

Finland, which is not a member of NATO, appeared to confirm the incident Tuesday with its ministry of defense issuing a statement saying the two Spanish jets were "suspected of having violated Finland's airspace on Tuesday morning."

"We have seen an increase in air activity in the Baltic region, but with few exceptions, the vast majority of the intercepts are conducted in a safe and responsible manner by all parties," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters last month following a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council.

He also referred to a Finish Initiative which recently convened a working group of representatives from Russia, NATO, Sweden and Finland to discuss the issues involving the congested Baltic airspace.

"They are working in a good way," Stoltenberg said.

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NATO jets intercept Russian aircraft near Estonian airspace - CNN

Trump-Linked Data Firm Removes State Dept., NATO Logos After NBC Questions – NBCNews.com

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Bob Mercer attends the World Science Festival Gala in New York in 2014. Andrew Toth / Getty Images

Federal election filings show that Cambridge Analytica received $11.7 million from Trump and Cruz super PACs in 2015 and 2016. It received $5.7 million from a separate super PAC, Make America Number 1, which first supported Cruz and then Trump, and is primarily funded to the tune of $15.5 million by hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer.

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Mercer, who declined to comment, is also an investor in Cambridge Analytica. Mercer did not respond to a request for comment.

SCL, which was founded in the U.K. more than a decade ago, created Cambridge Analytica as a U.S. arm in 2013. Alexander Nix, who is the CEO of Cambridge, has been a director at SCL since 2003.

According to a company spokesman, however, Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group are "two very different companies that shouldn't be conflated." The two companies, which are both private, have "separate management, staff, and offices," he said. "The group is being reorganized in order to improve brand identity. Henceforth all political and commercial work is being conducted as Cambridge Analytica and all our government work as SCL Group. A corporate reorganization along these lines will follow."

In the past SCL Group has been involved in elections around the world from St. Lucia to Nigeria. That work has only involved free and fair elections, the spokesman said. All work on U.S. elections has been conducted by Cambridge Analytica.

SCL Group was awarded its first contracts with the State Department in February and March of 2017 to help the government's Global Engagement Center (GEC) effect behavior change amongst potential recruits to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The two contracts, totaling $496,232, are described as "target audience research." The contracts were not opened up for competitive bidding due to "national security" concerns before they were awarded to SCL, according to the website

In 2015 SCL Group ran a NATO training program on behavioral change science at the NATO-affiliated Centre of Excellence in Latvia.

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Trump-Linked Data Firm Removes State Dept., NATO Logos After NBC Questions - NBCNews.com

Suicide Bombing Strikes NATO Convoy in Afghanistan – TIME

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Civilian and security forces walk inside a minority Shiite mosque after a suicide attack in Herat, Afghanistan on Aug. 1, 2017 reportedly killed at least 20 people.Hamed SarfaraziAP

(KANDAHAR, Afghanistan) A suicide bomber struck a NATO convoy near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Wednesday, causing casualties, the U.S. military said.

Lt. Damien E. Horvath, a military spokesman, could not say how many casualties there were, or provide their nationalities. The NATO mission, known as Resolute Support, "can confirm that a NATO convoy was attacked in Kandahar. The attack did cause casualties," he said.

Kandahar police spokesman Zia Durrani also confirmed the attack and the area on the edge Kandahar was quickly cordoned off.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Eyewitness Ghulam Ali, who runs a mechanics shop near the attack site, said the intensity of the blast knocked him out. When he came to he saw one military vehicle ablaze on the road. He stepped out of his shop but a sudden burst of gunfire drove him back inside.

He heard helicopters arriving and saw soldiers being taken away from the scene but could not determine the extent of their injuries.

Shah Agha Popal, who runs a vehicle parts shop also nearby, said he also saw soldiers being taken away by two helicopters. "But I couldn't tell if they were wounded or if they were dead," he said.

The combined U.S. and NATO troop contingent currently in Afghanistan is about 13,500. The Trump administration is deciding whether to send about 4,000 or more U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan in an attempt to stem Taliban gains.

The attack came as Afghan authorities in western Herat province tightened security ahead of a mass funeral for the victims there of an attack the previous evening that killed 29.

A suicide attacker opened fire inside a mosque packed with worshippers at evening prayers, before detonating his explosives. A second explosion came 10 minutes later.

No one has claimed responsibility for that attack either, but it came a day after the Islamic State group warned it would strike Shiites. The Sunni militant group considers Shiite Muslims as apostates.

Herat provincial spokesman Jilani Farhad said that to reduce the possibility of more attacks, a planned Shiite protest against the attack was to be held just before the burial on Wednesday afternoon, rather than at a separate time and location.

Along with the 29 killed, 64 people were wounded, 10 of them critically.

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Suicide Bombing Strikes NATO Convoy in Afghanistan - TIME

Arthur I. Cyr: Pence trip underscores importance of NATO and current threats – Ashland Daily Tidings

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Arthur I. Cyr More Content Now

We are with you, we stand with you on behalf of freedom. Vice President Mike Pence spoke those words on July 30 in Estonia, the first stop on trip that includes Georgia and Montenegro. Given political turmoil and uncertainty in Washington, as well as Russias military assertiveness, the visit of Karen and Mike Pence to Eastern Europe is extremely important as well as timely.

The Baltic States of Latvia and Lithuania as well as Estonia were forcibly occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. Exile groups from the Baltics become influential in the United States, and elsewhere. All three nations became NATO members in March 2004.

Montenegro became NATOs newest member in early March 2017. The tiny Baltic state had been campaigning for alliance membership for over a decade.

The rapid weakening and then collapse of the Soviet Union and communist regimes in Eastern Europe ended the Cold War, but also the relative stability of that era. President Vladimir Putin emphasizes nationalism, and has made military moves to expand Russias territorial control.

In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed the territory of Crimea. The overt invasion of Ukraine by Russias army, after months of covert aid to rebel forces, generated the most serious crisis in Europe since the Balkan wars of the 1990s and perhaps since World War II.

In 2008, Russian troops invaded a portion of Georgia, following an attack by Georgian troops on South Ossetia. This territory, as well as Abkhazia, had declared independence from Georgia. Russia encouraged and supported these breakaway efforts, though the international community has clearly rejected them.

The end of the Cold War was a great victory for the policy of restraint and deterrence, termed Containment, supported by every United States president from Harry Truman when the Cold War commenced, to George H.W. Bush when the conflict ended.

NATO endures, for good reasons. Bureaucracies naturally seek self-perpetuation, but strategic realities provide persuasive justification. General war in Europe was avoided for a century between the final defeat of Napoleon and the outbreak of World War I. A Concert of European nations, brokered by Great Britain, helped keep the general peace.

NATO today arguably represents an approximate counterpart to the uncertain but generally effective Concert. The alliance has operated well beyond the nations of the North Atlantic region, including not only on the margins of Europe but in distant territory, including notably Afghanistan

Article 5 of the NATO treaty states that an attack on one member amounts to an attack on all. The al Qaeda strikes on New York and Washington D.C., and in the sky over Pennsylvania, triggered this clause, for the first time.

Todays alliance leaders in Europe are articulate and effective, including in particular German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Chancellor Merkel is spearheading expansion of Germanys roles in international humanitarian relief. She has also provided arms to Kurds fighting Islamic extremists in Iraq.

Another outstanding leader is David Cameron, Britains Prime Minister from 2010 to 2016. He termed Russias aggression unacceptable and unjustified, and bluntly stated that any efforts to appease Putin would be a repetition of the same mistakes made by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in accommodating Adolf Hitler in 1938. Britain and Germany have highly effective militaries.

Since 2002, NATO has renewed practical efforts to develop rapid reaction military capabilities. The credibility of the alliance is essential. The Pences highly visible visit is a diplomatic complement to such efforts.

Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of After the Cold War. Contact at acyr@carthage.edu.

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Arthur I. Cyr: Pence trip underscores importance of NATO and current threats - Ashland Daily Tidings

NSA illegally spied on Kim Dotcom in New Zealand – BetaNews

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Kim Dotcom has been of interest to the US government and law enforcement agencies for some time, and it was ruled that the Mega and Megaupload founder could be extracted to the US. But now it seems that the NSA was spying on the internet entrepreneur after surveillance was supposed to have stopped.

New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) had been working with the NSA on a joint surveillance operation called Operation Debut. While surveillance was supposed to have stopped in January 2012, it has emerged that the NSA continued to use GCSB's technology without its knowledge.

According to a report in the New Zealand Herald, GCSB "lost control of its surveillance technology" and later discovered that it had been used to continue to spy on Dotcom for at least an additional two months. The information has come to light in new documents released by the GCSB to the High Court.

The admission is being used as evidence that the NSA was illegally spying on Dotcom while he was resident in New Zealand, using GCSB equipment. It is not clear how this surveillance operation could have been continued by the NSA without GCSB's knowledge, but Dotcom has issued a warning:

New Zealanders must know how much power a foreign state holds over their private information. The NSA has unrestricted access to GCSB surveillance systems. In fact, most of the technology the GCSB uses was supplied by the NSA. If the GCSB was aiding and abetting the NSA to spy directly on New Zealanders then the seriousness of the situation has changed dramatically and a truly independent inquiry and a new criminal investigation will be unavoidable.

The documents show that GCSB systems were also used to illegally spy on an additional 88 people.

Photo credit: Kim Dotcom

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NSA illegally spied on Kim Dotcom in New Zealand - BetaNews

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