Daily Archives: July 29, 2017

Many Women Are In the Closet Atheists. Intellectual and Financial … – Big Think

Posted: July 29, 2017 at 6:56 pm

In 2006 Wired contributing editor Gary Wolf wrote a story on emerging trends in atheism. In his skeptical piece Wolf coined new atheism, a term later applied to the four horsemen: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and the late Christopher Hitchens.

These men had varying responses to the term. Harris, for one, pointed out that atheist never appears in the book that kicked off this movement, The End of Faith. Alas, the four horsemen are the usual go-to thinkers when considering atheism in the 21st century, which begs one important question: What about women?

sam-harris-considers-a-creator

In general there are more male than female atheists. One 2010 survey found that males outnumber females in confessed atheism. In the United States that equates to 6 percent of men compared to 1.2 percent of women. (The not religious category is closer, as it is in most nations.) In Russia the number was 6.1 to 3 percent, whereas Switzerland it was 9 to 7 percent.

Numbers become confusing with examples like this 2012 poll, which reports that while women make up 52 percent of the US population they count for only 36 percent of atheists and agnostics. The problem with this differentiation is that everyone is agnostic, in that no one knows whether a god exists. Youre either theistically or atheistically agnostic. Many choose to not think much about it. Thats qualitatively different than pronouncing your atheism.

On top of that these are self-reported polls, and there might be reasons women do not claim their atheism. In a 2015 discussion, secular scholars Susan Jacoby and Rebecca Goldstein explore the question of why more women dont profess critical skepticism of faith. They point first to social reasons: children of women who admit their atheism are more likely to be bullied at school, for example.

penn-jillette-on-muslim-refugees-and-atheists

Personal beliefs are one thing, but social circles tend to be tight-knit. If your circle is comprised of devout followers, expressing atheism might ostracize you from this network, which could lead to larger problems for the entire household. Jacoby believes this is a driving factor of why some women stay in the closet regarding atheism.

Jacoby also points to an education gap. She says there is an enormous deficit in math and science education between women and men. The more educated one is in the sciences, she says, the more likely you are to be skeptical regarding divinity. While medical schools are seeing roughly equivalent numbers in terms of men and women, Jacoby reminds listeners there are very few female surgeons. Her preference appears to be for the more rigorous degrees.

There are other reasons. Humans are generally more reactive than proactive, and stringent religious dictatesPresident Trump announcing transgender people will not be allowed to serve in the military appeals to specific Christian sensibilities, for exampleturn people off of religion and its questionable metaphysics. Sociology professor Phil Zuckerman believes this is turning many young people, specifically women, away from religion, as Kyle Fitzpatrick reports:

Zuckerman believes this has to do with traditional organized religions' male-centrism: teaching women that they're second class, must remain virginal, and must stay out of leadership positions. Pair this with the amount of women in the workplace rivaling men, and the group doesnt need to turn to a church for social or financial support that churches typically offer.

This is an important about-face for women willing to declare their unbelief. In the Los Angeles Review of Books Zuckerman writes about Elmina Drake Slenker, the mid-19th century ex-Quaker atheist who scandalized the nation when she publicly declared her atheism in 1856. She was prosecuted shortly thereafter. Zuckerman points out her actual crime, which led to months in prison because she refused to swear heavenly allegiance on a bible:

Writing leaflets and personal letters to various people about human sexuality, marital relations, birth control, and bestiality. She was put on trial, and it only took the jury 10 minutes to find her guilty.

How things have changed. Instead of submitting to public pressure and governmental interference women have, thankfully, fought back, especially when theyve been personally affected by religious mandates. Ayaan Hirsi Ali still remains a contentious figure in Islam, where shes constantly harassed by dogmatic followers, but her secular foundation, dedicated to combating the ravages of archaic religious displays of power, such as female genital mutilation and honor violence, is flourishing.

ayaan-hirsi-ali-on-islamophobia-in-the-west

Technology has helped aid such movements. Jacoby believes many female freethinkers existed in the past, but their voices were never heard since publishing was a male game. Women who broke through often had to assume male monikers just to do so. With easy access to social media this has changed dramatically.

Jacoby believes the next step in inviting more women into the fold requires educating people that morals are not dependent on religion. She expresses disdain for those who feel that moral decisions depend on religion or what she finds to be an innocuous term, spirituality.

The statement Im spiritual but not religious makes me want to throw up. What this sentence means is Im not religious, I dont go to church, but I am a good person. And this word spiritual comes to stand for being a good person, just as people were talking about religion as a transcendent experience, as if its different from what people experience when they listen to great music.

She admits women appear to be more religious than men thanks to biology and a penchant for spirituality. During their talk Goldstein points to social psychologist Jonathan Haidts work on purity as one possible motivation for religion: women tend to associate more with the concept of being pure in part due to its long history of patriarchic power structures. Both women agree that a link between spirituality and sexuality also align more women than men with religion.

And both women agree that intellectual equality and freedom will even the gender playing field regarding atheism. Jacoby states that comforting people in the face of tragedyshe cites Newtown as an exampleis possible without an allegiance to a metaphysical figure or a prophet. Reason, she says, is more likely to foster relationships based on equality and sharing, as the pretensions of right and wrong promoted by religious ideology dissolve. What you are left with is our human nature, fallible and beautiful, imperfect though empathetic, no deity required.

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Derek's is the author ofWhole Motion: Training Your Brain and Body For Optimal Health. Based in Los Angeles he is working on a new book about spiritual consumerism. Stay in touch onFacebookandTwitter.

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Sunset any Extension of Electronic Surveillance Authority – HuffPost

Posted: at 6:52 pm

Congress should sunset any extension of the intelligence communitys dubious electronic surveillance authority to intercept, store, and search the contents of international communications under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments of 2008.

Enacted in 2008, section 702 initially sunset in 2012. Congress later extended the sunset date until December 31, 2017.

Generally speaking, a statute should sunset whenever predictable changes in technology threaten statutory obsolescence; its encroachment on liberty is unknown or uncertain; the statutes effectiveness is doubtful; the governments compliance with the statute is spotty; or, the constitutionality of the statute remains in doubt.

All five of these time-honored considerations militate in favor of a sunset date for any extension of section 702 beyond December 31, 2017.

Digital technologies are changing a warp speed. What is science fiction today is reality tomorrow.

The changes affect the ways in which international communications are conducted; and, government capabilities for intercepting, storing, and searching the contents of international communications. Indeed, section 702 responded in part to the migration of international telecommunications from satellite to fiber. The development of cloud technologies has has confounded the Stored Communications Act of 1986 as illustrated by the United States Court of Appeals decision in Microsoft Corp. v. United States.

The governments technical capabilities for intercepting, storing, and searching the contents of international communications are rapidly expanding. These pioneering technologies might easily evade limits imposed by section 702 written by Congress with an eye on 2017. Any section 702 extension should thus sunset in four years to insure against a horse-and-buggy statute governing in an age of interstate highways.

Another sunset for 702 is also prudent because of the governments professed ignorance of its to intercept or search the international communications of American citizens protected by the Fourth Amendment. At present, the government insists it is unable to distinguish between electronic communications between foreign persons located outside the United States and communications between a foreigner and a U.S. person in the United States. Thus, Congress is clueless as to the magnitude of section 702 invasions of the constitutionally protected privacy of United States citizens. This information should be known and disclosed by the intelligence community before Congress should even consider making section 702 permanent.

The effectiveness of section 702 in thwarting international terrorism or espionage is questionable. After nine years, the intelligence community has yet to document a single case in which section 702 enabled the preemption of an international terrorist act in the United States. Former National Security Agency official and renowned expert Bill Binney has opined that the NSA cannot identify future terrorism because 99.9999% of what it collects and analyzes is foreseeably irrelevant. NSA analysts are theoretically tasked with reviewing 40,000 to 50,000 questionable records each day. If section 702 is largely irrelevant to frustrating international terrorism, it amounts to a massive invasion of privacy for its own sakean illicit government objective.

The government has commonly violated section 702 surveillance limitations. Illustrative but far from exhaustive was the April 26, 2017 FISC decision authored by Judge Rosemary Collyer sharply rebuking the intelligence community for illegal surveillance of American citizens over a five-year period which raised very serious constitutional questions. These chronic violations also argue against any permanent extension of section 702.

Finally, the section seemingly authorizes dragnet, warrantless interceptions and searches of the contents of the international communications of American citizens in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The statute does not require any suspicion that citizens whose communications are seized and searched are implicated in international terrorism, espionage, or other crime as a predicate for invading their communications privacy.

The United States Supreme Court has yet to address the constitutionality of section 702. Congress should refrain from giving it permanent life unless and until it receives the Courts gives imprimatur. Caution is the order of the day when skating close to the Constitutions edge.

In sum, every dictate of prudence favors a congressional four-year sunset if it decides to extend section 702 beyond December 31, 2017. That would compel a fresh and more informed congressional examination of the statute after the 2020 presidential election.

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Second Amendment rights must be preserved – The Wilson Times (subscription)

Posted: at 6:52 pm

Second Amendment rights must be preserved The Second Amendment is needed more today than at any other time in history.

As the military, A well-regulated Militia, grows in size, the more the rights of the people to bear arms must be protected. The same is true as the size of law enforcement grows, the rights of the people to bear arms must be protected.

The Second Amendment is necessary, if not more so, today than when the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution. It does not need changing or tweaking in any manner. What it needs is to be applied as written.

We cannot totally leave our security, the defense of our families and the defense of our property to law enforcement officers. We must be self-reliant enough to protect ourselves, our family and our property from those who would cause us harm or try to take our property.

Those who believe citizens right to bear arms should be curtailed or eliminated in any manner should do a bit of research first on violent crime and then on what happens when arms are taken away from the citizens of a country.

As gun ownership decreases or arms are confiscated, violent crime rates increase. Yes, violent crimes involving guns decrease, but violent crime by other means increase so much that the overall violent crime rate increases. This is true as well within cities that have curtailed arms ownership. Chicago is a prime example!

Germany confiscated arms at the beginning of World War II. The Nazis then killed millions of citizens. When China confiscated arms, China then went on to kill millions. These are just two examples of what happens when the citizens lose the right to bear arms.

I spent 20 years in the military. I am also a big fan and supporter of law enforcement. We need both a strong military and effective law enforcement force. But these two cannot do it alone; they need the help of the citizens and that means that the citizens should be free to bear arms in support of law enforcement and the military to protect their families and property!

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NRA-ILA | Appeals Court Schools D.C. on Heller’s Meaning … – NRA ILA

Posted: at 6:52 pm

In a major development in the ongoing effort to restore the Second Amendment in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an opinion on Tuesday that would effectively require D.C. officials to make concealed carry licenses available on a shall-issue basis.

The courts decision comes in the combined cases of Wrenn v. D.C. and Grace v. D.C.

Following the landmark case of District of Columbia v. Heller, which recognized a Second Amendment right to have operable handguns in the home for self-defense, the District retaliated by banning carrying of firearms outside the home.

A lower federal court found D.C.s carry ban also violated the Second Amendment, but rather than comply with that ruling, D.C. created a sham system for concealed carry permits that requires applicants to show a good or proper reason for needing to carry a concealed handgun. This includes a special need for self-protection distinguishable from the general community, job duties requiring the transport of large amounts of cash or valuables, or the need to protect a close relative who cannot provide for his or her own special self-defense needs. Practically speaking, this means the vast majority of law-abiding people who simply want to carry a handgun for self-dense in ordinary circumstances are automatically disqualified.

Licensed concealed carry, moreover, is the only option for ordinary people to lawfully carry a loaded, accessible firearm for self-defense outside the persons home or business in D.C., so in effect the ban on carry already found unconstitutional remains.

Wrenn and Grace therefore presented the appellate court with the questions of whether the Second Amendments right to bear arms for self-defense extends beyond the home and, if so, whether District officials could nevertheless deny that right to all but a select, hand-picked few. The courts answer to those questions was a resounding yes and no, respectively.

The D.C. Circuit analogized the Districts current concealed carry licensing regime to the ban on keeping handguns at issue in Heller. The issue, the court stated, is not whether a few select people could exercise the right but whether it was available to responsible, law-abiding people in ordinary circumstances.Because the court found that D.C.s good or proper reason requirement was effectively a ban on bearing arms by people entitled to Second Amendment protection, it declared the requirement invalid and barred its enforcement.

The upshot of this decision is that D.C. must now issue concealed carry licenses to all otherwise eligible applicants, i.e., those who pass the Districts background check and training requirements and pay the applicable fees. Unfortunately, the courts order is effectively on hold while District officials determine their next legal move. That could mean asking for a rehearing before the full D.C. Circuit or appealing directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

How the District will proceed remains to be seen, but in the meantime, your NRAs efforts in the Grace case have for now contributed to winning a vital battle in the continuing conflict over the right to keep and bear arms in the seat of the nations government. As ever, we will keep our readers apprised of further developments in this ongoing effort.

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Fake news or First Amendment? Defamation trial begins in case of … – Richmond.com

Posted: at 6:52 pm

A Hanover County supervisors lawyer accused Style Weekly of publishing fake news while an attorney for the Richmond newspaper called on jurors to defend the First Amendment at the start of a defamation trial that began Friday.

County Supervisor Sean Davis sued the publication after Style Weekly published articles in 2015 by Peter Galuszka suggesting Davis improperly used his position on the Board of Supervisors to influence Hanover schools.

Davis complaint arose from a Dec. 8 article titled Are Politics Threatening an Open Educational Environment in Hanover?

The article suggests Davis interfered with classroom instruction at Hanover High School and had teachers suspended or disciplined if they present ideas or images that Davis considers too liberal.

The article cited a letter submitted to Attorney General Mark Herring from a parent that asked state police to investigate Davis for intimidation of teachers and staff.

The letter, according to the article, pointed to an instance involving a popular English teacher whom Davis took issue with because of what he said in class and because of a wall of photographs, and drawings kept in a student newspaper activities office.

The article, citing the letter, goes on to state that the English teacher was given a three-day suspension that was dropped after the teacher hired a lawyer.

Davis lawsuit also cites another passage from the article in which a Hanover High School parent expressed worry that school officials wont confront Davis.

Davis attorney Steven Biss, told jurors the articles in question contain false accusations of Davis based on unreliable sources and were a reckless disregard for the truth. Biss characterized the articles as a false narrative, fake news.

There are so many false statements, Biss told jurors.Mr. Davis does not become involved in School Board matters.

Attorney Conrad Shumadine, representing Galuszka and Style Weekly publisher Lori Collier Waran, told jurors the articles served the public interest and emphasized the importance of free speech.

The people of Hanover County needed to know, Shumadine said,.

Shumadine said Galuszka thought the issues of alleged censorship in Hanover were serious and that his sources were credible and appropriately vetted. Galuszka tried to speak to school officials but the school division would not comment.

Shumadine said Galuszkas questions for Davis were a chance to have his perspective represented, but that Davis did not answer specific questions. Later, after the first article was published, a lawyer for Davis called Style Weekly.

The newspaper offered to have the story corrected if anything was false, have a letter to the editor published or have Davis do an interview with Galuszka, Shumadine said.

Their response was to file a lawsuit, Shumadine said.

Public officials typically must prove a publication printed false material and in doing so acted with actual malice, which would mean knowingly publishing false information or acting with reckless disregard for the facts.

Biss said the questions Galuszka emailed Davis were loaded. Biss said Galuszka based his reporting off unreliable sources and Style Weekly published the articles because it felt they were salacious and would sell well.

The motive was money, Biss said.

Shumadine said the issue of censorship in Hanover started a year prior to the articles publication when Davis allegedly tried to ban the documentary Thomas L. Friedman Reporting: Searching for the Roots of 9/11 from Hanover schools. The documentary delves into Muslim perspectives of the Sept. 11 attacks and the rise of terrorist groups.

Biss said accusations that Davis had teachers suspended and materials banned in Hanover schools were false. When Davis heard from hundreds of people concerned about the showing in 2014 of the documentary to Hanover High School students, the supervisor brought up those concerns to Hanovers joint education committee, Biss said.

Davis expressed concerns about the documentary at a Board of Supervisors meeting in 2014, calling a showing of the video disrespectful and un-American.

He had concerns about the 9/11 video because hes a Marine, Biss said of Davis.

Shumadine told jurors that Davis did intervene to have Hanover teachers disciplined, and that a student organization eventually formed to protest against what it felt like was unfair handling of teachers and curriculum.

Shumadine cited a letter from Davis sent to County Attorney Sterling Rives communicating that Davis expected the concerns of Hanover residents about an education matter be investigated.

Rives was the first and only witness to be called to the stand by Biss on Friday. Biss line of questioning focused on how Davis handling of complaints about education matters was appropriate and followed standard procedures.

Attorney Brett Spain, on cross-examination, asked Rives about whether Davis calling for the investigation into the concerns of Hanover residents about a teacher was extraordinary. Rives couldnt think of any other supervisor who had made such a request.

Before the opening arguments, a jury was narrowed down from more than 70 people. The judge in the trial, which is scheduled to last six days, is Michael Levy from Stafford County.

The Style Weekly lawsuit isnt the only one Davis is involved with. In January, Davis sued his former employer, the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association, along with the lobbying groups president and CEO Donald Hall over allegations of fraud and defamation. A jury trial for the complaint is scheduled for April in Richmond Circuit Court.

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President Snowflake could be violating the First Amendment by blocking people on Twitter – Death and Taxes

Posted: at 6:52 pm

Donald Trump and Twitter go together like PCP and a shirtless man at a bus stop gyrating on an abandoned shopping cart. Theyre matches made in heaven, yet the social media platform isnt exactly the ideal partner for Trump, whos taken to blocking the haters and losers with wild abandon. That may have worked well back when the Donald was beefing with Rosie ODonnell and hosting The Apprentice but its not exactly the best look for a sitting president.

The Knight Institute at Columbia University contends its actually a violation of First Amendment rights. Its brought a lawsuit on behalf of two Twitter users blocked by Trump for the below @-replies.

Triggering, isnt it.

Knight Institute executive director Jameel Jaffer released a statement essentially calling Twitter a public platform one that should be open to every American no matter how dank their political memes are. Having opened this forum to all comers, the president cant exclude people from it merely because he dislikes what theyre saying, the statement concluded.

Twitter refuses to release hard data on how many people Trump has blocked. The Knight Institute believes that number is pretty high on his @RealDonaldTrump account, which frequently tweets inflammatory shit but also gave us Covfefe. The blocks are probably fewer and far between on the @POTUS account, but that handle feels more like a formality than a real window into Trumps Big Mac-corroded soul.

Nothing seems to be able to stop Trump from tweeting. A mandate to unblock every dissenter might be what melts this precious snowflake. Damaged and without a safe space, its enough to make a president finally delete his account once and for all.

[LA Times | Photo: Getty]

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Big labor bullies First Amendment with Scientology playbook – OCRegister

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The Church of Scientology maintains the universe is 4 quadrillion years old and that most of mankinds problems are traceable to an imperialistic alien named Lord Xenu. Some 75 million years ago, Xenu won an intergalactic battle by stuffing thetans sort of like human souls into volcanos, on which Xenu then dropped hydrogen bombs. Millions of these immortal thetans later attached themselves to humans, causing humans to become sick, confused, depressed and insecure.

The goal of Scientology is to help humans to clear their bodies of thetans by devoting hundreds of thousands of dollars to cleansing processes developed by the religions founder, L. Ron Hubbard, who holds the record for the greatest number of books published by one author (1,064). His sacred science fiction works are stored in a nuclear-blast-proof vault below the surface of planet Earth.

Despite having only 25,000 American members by some counts, the Church of Scientologys liquid assets of $1 billion exceeded those of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013. But the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology almost collapsed in the 1990s under a $1 billion bill from the Internal Revenue Service for unpaid taxes. The IRS finally restored the organizations tax-exempt church status in 1993 in exchange for the church halting a barrage of lawsuits it had filed against the agency, including 2,300 Freedom of Information Act suits.

Today, a big labor union is using a strategy against the Freedom Foundation similar to the strategy the Church of Scientology used to defeat the IRS. The Service Employees International Union has filed multiple expensive lawsuits against the Foundation, an SEIU detractor, in hope of defunding it. To SEIU, bleeding the Freedom Foundation dry is as good as a court order blocking the Foundations freedom of speech.

Freedom Foundation Managing Attorney Greg Overstreet told me in June that SEIU is running out of arguments. Consequently, theyve hit us with a barrage of frivolous lawsuits and campaign-finance complaints. In substance, theyre no different from cases weve always won before. But each one requires a response. [T]he unions arent filing these new cases with any expectation of winning. Their true objective is simply to overwhelm our capacity to defend ourselves and thereby bankrupt their most persistent and effective adversary. It wont work.

I hope Overstreet is right that SEIUs strategy wont work, even though the same strategy has brought the IRS and other Scientology detractors to their knees. In 1973, the church sued Paulette Cooper, author of The Scandal of Scientology, 19 times and falsified evidence to arrange her indictment by a grand jury for sending bomb threats.

One advantage the Freedom Foundation has that the IRS lacked is citizen appeal. Few private citizens have gone to bat for the IRS. But history is rich with people willing to risk a great deal to defend freedoms supposedly protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Many of the people who should start sticking up for the Freedom Foundation would gain by doing so. The Freedom Foundations only crime is informing people about existing law. In 2014s Harris v. Quinn, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled SEIU violated the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of home health caregivers by automatically extorting agency fees which are essentially union dues paid by non-members from them.

In the wake of Harris, the Capital Research Center reported in May 2017, the Freedom Foundation launched an outreach program that employed dozens of paid canvassers who have gone door to door all across the state and into neighboring Oregon to inform health care providers of their right to opt out of paying dues or fees to SEIU.

The Foundations outreach efforts were successful. In response, however, SEIU has orchestrated a litany of frivolous lawsuits against the Foundation to stop it from speaking to workers, Freedom Foundation Litigation Counsel David Dewhirst told me in July. The unions have even convinced the Washington State Attorney General, Bob Ferguson, to pile on and prosecute the Foundation for not reporting as campaign expenditures its various pro bono legal services to citizens across the state.

Laborers are being scammed, but not by an intergalactic alien monster. The West Coast has its own labor lord, and it has government reinforcements.

Michael T. Hamilton (mhamilton@heartland.org, @MikeFreeMarket) is a research fellow and editor at The Heartland Institute. He drew facts about the Church of Scientology from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lawrence Wrights book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (2013), which HBO made into a documentary in 2015.

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How to Install Tor Browser for Mac and Protect Your Online Activity – iDrop News

Posted: at 6:51 pm

Congress recently voted to overturn a wide-ranging set of internet privacy laws passed by the Federal Communications Commission in October of last year. And since President Trump has signed the bill into law earlier this year, browsing the internet as we know it even from the comfort of our own homes has become a major liability for those who care about the value of their personal information.

In essence, as of Monday April 3, 2017, our internet service providers (ISPs) now have a free pass to decide what theyll do with our most sensitive data, such as online browsing habits, app usage, location information, vital data like addresses, phone numbers, and even Social Security numbers. Additionally, the law dictates that ISPs are now free to sell their customers information without their consent, either to marketers and marketing agencies, financial firms, or other companies at their discretion.

To be frank, browsing the web has never been more unsafe at any time in history than it is now. But luckily, for those smart enough to protect themselves and their families, theres a silver lining to all of this insanity: Tor Browser.

Unlike popular web browsers such as Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc., using Tor browser allows you to completely protect your online activity, data, and vital information by bouncing communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world. What that means, in other words, is that Tor browser protects your online identity by preventing people (i.e., your snoopy ISP) from watching your internet connection, logging what websites you visit, registering your location data, and more. Tor even lets you visit websites that have been blocked, according to its developers.

Best of all, you can now download Tor browser for free on your Mac or Windows PC; follow the steps below to download Tor on your Mac.

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Startups Brace for Bitcoin Cash Fork in Wave of Policy Updates – CoinDesk

Posted: at 6:50 pm

What should we do aboutBitcoin Cash?

Thats the question facing industry startups, as it seems likely that a group of developers and miners might actually fork from the main bitcoin network next week, forming a brand new cryptocurrency.

Due to differences in opinion about how bitcoin should be governed and what technical features should be added to the cryptocurrency network, the idea of a split has been raised several timesoverthe last few years. But this time, the developers behind Bitcoin Cash claim they plan to go through with it and on a short timeline.

The cryptocurrency is breaking off from the "main" bitcoin blockchain on August 1, with the specific goal of creating a competing cryptocurrency. Everyone who owns bitcoin will have an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash if and when users and miners split off.

While users are wondering how it will affect them (i.e. how to access Bitcoin Cash and whether they should buy, sell, or "hodl"thisnew type of bitcoin) the ecosystem's third-party companies are grappling with thisquestion as well especially those that retain custody of funds in some capacity.

Unsure if the new cryptocurrency will rally users or if it will just fade away wallet providers, exchanges and mining pools are all issuing statements about how they will deal with the splitand how users can respond.

But for most, it's more than a question of politics.

For the CEO of the bitcoin app Coins.ph, Ron Hose, the bitcoin scaling debate has been an economic drain, not only in the mental effort he's put into wrapping his head around the changes, but also in the actionshe might need to taketo now secure potentially vulnerable customers funds.

Hose told CoinDesk:

"The biggest cost is time and distraction from executing on what we see as core to our mission of providing financial services to the unbanked."

Still, he called the features that Bitcoin Cash offers (not necessarily the project itself)"necessary for bitcoin to continue to evolve as a financial railway," adding that a block size increase could become a "welcome improvement" despite the short-term headaches.

Often companies pick and choose which cryptocurrencies they support, usually based on how profitable they think it will be for them.

One key takeaway from recently released statements by startups such as Hong Kong-based exchange ANXPro and mobile wallets Electrum and GreenAddress though, is that theysimply dont have the time or technical resources to support a new cryptocurrency.

Bitstamp, one of the world's largest bitcoin exchanges,stated in vaguer terms that it will "not be in a position" to support the "altcoin," while Circle emailed customers to state "we may never support the new version and any value on it could potentially be lost to you."

It might be hard to fault the companies that simply don't have the money to commit to making Bitcoin Cash easily redeemable for users.

Still, some see this as a form of fraud, arguing that, since third-party companies that control users' private keys will end up with all the Bitcoin Cash, they're effectively stealing the coins from bitcoin users.

Prepaid phone startup Bitrefill hasdeveloped a creative way of dealing with this problem. Like other small firmswith limited resources, it does not plan to support the competing cryptocurrency. Instead, itplans to sell all of the Bitcoin Cash itaccumulates in exchange forbitcoinlater dividing these funds between users, proportional to the amount of bitcoin each holds withthe company.

Some startups are uncertain of the best path, though.

Cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift plans to "turn off trading" on August 1 for an unspecified amount of time, but didn't say whether the firm will list Bitcoin Cash.

Meanwhile, in what seems tobe a minority opinion, bitcoin payments providerBitPay said it believes"there should be no chain split and no disruption in service on the bitcoin network."

As such, it does not plan to suspend its services.

It's worth noting that Bitcoin Cash has its supporters.

Somewant to try out the bitcoin alternativebecause they support its vision for scaling bitcoin to more users by way of a block size parameter increase, while others anticipate gains in selling theirfree new coins.

(Others note that developers, by way of Segregated Witness, have made the block size irrelevant through technical breakthroughs that enable other forms of capacity increases.)

Either way, if users want to receive Bitcoin Cash on August 1, they need to move their bitcoin to a wallet where they control their private keys or, at least, to a wallet that will support Bitcoin Cash.

Some wallets do indeed support Bitcoin Cash. Among these are hardware wallets Trezor and Ledger and mobile wallet Airbitz.

Users will also be able to trade the new coinfor bitcoin or other cryptocurrencieson one of thefew exchanges that will support it.

Mining pool ViaBTChas already launched futures trading for the tokens, which attime of writing is trading for 12.5 percent of what "normal" bitcoin are worth, at 2,203 Chinese yuan, or $327.

One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitfinex, will list it under the ticker symbol BCH to "avoid confusion with bitcoin" (it has also been given the symbol BCC elsewhere). Chinese exchange Huobi indicated it will reveal more details about trading come August 1.

It doesn't seem like many mining pools or miners support Bitcoin Cash so far, so one of the remaining questions is how diverse and decentralized its computing power which works in part to add new transactions blocks to the blockchain will be.

Slush Pool, the first-ever mining pool, said it wont support it, arguing "we do not see any real demand from miners." Mining pool Bixin, with about 5% of the hashrate, also stated that it will keep its hashrate dedicated to the main bitcoin chain and urged other miners to "stay rational."

Mining pools Bitmain and Bitcoin.com both plan to uphold the Segwit2x agreement, including the block size parameter increase hard fork, scheduledto activatein three months. They are, though, open to supporting Bitcoin Cash in the future.

ViaBTC, one of the pioneers of the project, remains the only mining pool committed to the cause so far. Yet, it saysit isn't putting any of itsownmining power toward the effort, instead givingusers the option to direct their hardware toward Bitcoin Cashin support.

All these pieces of the ecosystemconsidered, the bigger question might be, what's the future of Bitcoin Cash?

Although companies are deciding whether or not to make it easy forusers to access and usethe cryptocurrency, theres still little evidence that more than a few companies, developers, users, and mining pools plan to actually move over to it and use it long-term.

Still, some users cite ethereum classic as an example of a cryptocurrency that exceeded expectations in the long run, due support from enthusiastic and ideologically driven supporters.

As usual, wewill just have to wait and see.

Disclosure:CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which acted as an organizer for the Segwit2x proposal, and has ownership stakes in Coins.ph, BitPay, Circle, Ledger and ShapeShift.

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Startups Brace for Bitcoin Cash Fork in Wave of Policy Updates - CoinDesk

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Bitcoin Inches Above $2800 to Hit 5-Day High – CoinDesk

Posted: at 6:50 pm

The price of bitcoin across global exchanges hit $2,833 today, the highest figure observed since July 23.

The five-day high comes amid what has been largely a week of stability in the price of the digital asset against the dollar. Bitcoin prices fell to a seven-day low of $2,433 on Wednesday, but have traded as high as $2,889 as recently as July 21.

Still, the fluctuations come ahead of what could emerge as a turbulent time for the price.

While bitcoin's long-raging scaling debate may soon reach a conclusion of sorts (with the integration of the Segregated Witness now scheduled for early August), it's not going to be without twists.

For one, the cryptocurrency is about to see the first large-scale fork of its live blockchain, with some miners and businesses vowing to create a separate project called Bitcoin Cash.

Already trading at $300 (though it hasn't been released), it's hard to say exactly how the move may impact prices.

Still, if the project does come to pass, those on either side of the debate may now be able to more easily move the market in their preferred direction, potentially leaving the door open for volatility ahead.

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The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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Bitcoin Inches Above $2800 to Hit 5-Day High - CoinDesk

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