Monthly Archives: August 2017

Genome Cloaking Preserves Privacy While Enabling Diagnosis … – PLoS Blogs (blog)

Posted: August 20, 2017 at 5:48 pm

Sequencing genomes to diagnose puzzling symptoms presents a conundrum: how to interpret whether a persons genotype causes the syndrome without comparison to many other human genome sequences? Put another way, a gene variant (mutation) that people with the same symptoms share must also be absent in people without the syndrome for it to be labeled causal, rather than the disturbingly vague variant of uncertain significance.

The challenge is in de-identifying the hordes of healthy genomes needed to add diagnostic context to those with disease-causing mutations. A team of biologists, computer scientists, and cryptographers at Stanford University described in Sciencemagazine a new computational tool to make certain that genomic discrimination doesnt happen, according to co-author Gill Bejerano, PhD, associate professor of developmental biology, pediatrics, and computer science.

A genome sequence can reveal much more than the needle-in-the-haystack mutations that might underlie a diagnosis: parentage, ancestry, susceptibilities and risk factors, even whether a certain drug will work, binge-drinking make you violently ill, or smoking likely to cause lung cancer. How can genome sequencing provide useful information without sacrificing privacy?

THE CLASSIC GYMREK STUDY

One of my favorite papers is also from Science, Identifying Personal Genomes by Surname Inference,if you can call a report from 2013 a classic. First author was then-grad student Melissa Gymrek, who now heads a lab at UCSD.

Gymrek and her co-workers tackled the 1000 Genomes Project, which ran from 2008-2015 and spawned a supposedly anonymous database. The informed consent form read, . . . it will be hard for anyone to find out anything about you personally from any of this research.

Right. Online searches easily shattered that premature promise of privacy.

Gymrek, then a student of Yaniv Erlich, a researcher at the Whitehead Institute who had worked with databases at financial banks, tried to identify people whod anonymously donated DNA to the 1000 Genomes Projectjust to see if they could.

They looked at sets of short tandem repeats, the bits of sequence of 2-13 DNA bases used in forensics and genetic genealogy to distinguish individuals. Consulting public genealogy databases they found surnames corresponding to specific Y haplotypes (STRs linked on the male chromosome).

Basic public information such as state of residence and birth year was easy to find. DNA data posted on family websites confirmed some identifications. The researchers found women by cross-referencing DNA sequences in the Coriell Cell Repositories in New Jersey to other data. Searching mutation databases for disease, hometown, and date of birth identified children.

When Gymrek had identified 50 people fairly easily, Dr. Erlich, alarmed, notified the NIH, catalyzing efforts to begin to hide some of the DNA data, although of course they couldnt control people whod post anything on social media. Their report in Science became a rallying cry of sorts for the ease of assigning names to DNA sequences something thats much easier today, with more than a million of our genomes sequenced and with the ability to carry such information on our smartphones.

THREE COMPELLING EXAMPLES

In the new paper, the researchers used a cryptographic approach called Yaos protocol with cloud computing to enable a genome peruser to zero in on the DNA sequences of clinical interest, while ignoring all else. Its a genomic cloaking device, for those familiar with the Romulan invention from Star Trek that makes a spaceship seem to vanish. It irked Captain Kirk.

Aterrific news releaseby Krista Conger at Stanford explained it all:

Using the technique, the researchers were able to identify the responsible gene mutations in groups of patients with four rare diseases; pinpoint the likely culprit of a genetic disease in a baby by comparing his DNA with that of his parents; and determine which out of hundreds of patients at two individual medical centers with similar symptoms also shared gene mutations. They did this all while keeping 97 percent or more of the participants unique genetic information completely hidden from anyone other than the individuals themselves, the release said.

Many news aggregators just publish news releases verbatim, but I dug a little deeper:

For the four already-known diseases, the technique identified 211-374 rare functional gene variants in 210- 356 genes (meaning more than one mutation in some genes) among the patients, then selected the most likely candidates. The computation correctly identified the mutation in all four across all 20,663 genes, and in 5 to 10 seconds. Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that a diagnostic odysseyfor a rare genetic disease can take years, using conventional medicine.

The baby was XY (chromosomally male) with female genitalia. The child and the parents each had 164-185 rare functional variants found with exome sequencing, and the computation revealed only two unique to the child. A review of the genetics literature found that one, ACTB, made sense and it had been found in the 1000 Genomes Project! Only the two meaningful variants were reported to the parents and their provider, leaving what the researchers call a protection quotient of 99.6%. (Definition: the fraction of private information that is exposed neither to the other participants nor to the entity running the computation.)This more complex test took just under an hour.

The researchers compared 928 patients from one medical center to 282 patients at another, generating a list of 5,000+ rare functional variants seen in at least one patient, then whittled it down to 159 variants seen among patients in both hospitals. The info diagnosed patients with specific heart problems, and also revealed previously unrecognized gene-disease connections so the computation is a discovery tool too.

BENEFITS TO GENOME CLOAKING

The beauty of the technique, and the secret to the privacy promise, is that the patient enters the data, into smartphone, tablet, or computer. That shouldnt sound scary, for we send our info into the ether all the time, from ordering concert tickets to making plane reservations. In this way, no person or computer, other than the individuals themselves, has access to the complete set of genetic information, said Dr. Bejerano.

The computation encrypts a genome sequence into a linear series of values that rates each gene variant according to several criteria well-established among genome researchers:

Could the genes function explain a patients symptoms?

Is the variant rare? This is where the need for a backup million or so sequenced genomes comes in. If a variant is common, it cant be making people too sick to reproduce.

Is the variant functional? What does it do?

The direct involvement of the patient and the return of only relevant data from the cloud can avoid the genetic red flags that might underlie denial of a loan or life insurance, neither protected under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), should it survive the Trump administration. And the data from the healthy genomes is aggregated without identifiers.

Genome cloaking at some point requires interpretation of and communication by health care providers who are familiar and comfortable with DNA information. That might still be a rare breed. Heres a quick test that I just invented for a provider discussing genetic testing: define SNP, CNV, VUS, and exome. If she or he cant, find a genetic counselorpronto. The medias common depiction of physicians as scientists the Dana Scully effect, from the X-Files doctor constantly calling herself a scientist can set up unrealistic expectations of expertise.

Another advance that could come from genome cloaking would be, finally, the ability to track sets of genes. This is important because gene actions can oppose. Whats the use of finding out you have a gene variant that increases the risk of Alzheimers, like APOE e4, yet not knowing that you also inherited a gene variant that lowers the risk (APOE e2)?

With the ability to nail disease-causing gene variants, while offering the privacy that Melissa Gymreck showed years ago to be easily compromised, genome cloaking may be able to catapult DNA science into the research lab and clinic, by providing reassurance to both families with genetic disease and to the healthy population whose genome sequences are vital to providing context.

(Thanks to NHGRI for images.)

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I want the Raiders to be boring in 2017 – Fairfield Daily Republic

Posted: at 5:48 pm

My brother Kelvin recently said that going to see a preseason NFL football game is like going to see your favorite band audition new members.

That was definitely what the Raiders- Rams game on Saturday night felt likeespecially the second half.

It was heartening to see quarterback Derek Carr slinging it to Michael Crabtree or Cooooooooop or better yet handing it off to Beast Mode for the first time.

Defense though? Oi.

Khalil Mack had a monster sack on Rams quarterback Jared Goff, which was just about the sole Raiders defensive highlight of the entire game.

The Rams were hardly a powerhouse in 2016 and their anemic 4-12 record resulted in their head coach Jeff Fisher getting a cleated boot to the backside. So thats why it was startling how many times Saturday night Raider defenders were so far out of position that their only hope of stopping wide open Rams receivers from catching passes would be to fling their helmets at them.

Look, the Raiders offense is potent, I get that. What matters in the NFL is having at least one more point than the other team when the clock reads all zeroes at the end of the game (and Im still hoping to see one won by a 2-0 score some day by the way). Having the reigning Comeback Kid as QB is a wonderful asset, but defense winsyou know the rest.

Last year at this time, my hope/expectation for the team was that they finally have a winning season. They won 12 games and got a playoff berth. This year, I want them to win the AFC West.

That means beating a certain Midwest divisional foe with a politically incorrect name who wear garish ketchup and mustard colored costumes. Not looking past Denver or San Dieger, Los Angeles, but it has been a while since Ive enjoyed Chiefs fans forced silence.

I loved the grit displayed last season when Carr led so many thrilling late-game comebacks, but this season, at home games, I want to weed out any bandwagon fans. Some come for the excitement of game-on-the-line heroicsI want them to be bored.

I want the Raiders to be consistently dominant so that that by the third quarter of each game the lead is so insurmountable that only diehards like yours truly will want to stay and savor every single last second.

In short, I want to regularly see visiting teams get a smackdown/beatdown when they come to downtown Oaktown.

Fairfield Raider fanalistpart fan, part journalistTony Wade knows it is only preseason. Reach him at toekneeweighed@gmail.com

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SPINELESS WONDERS: Happy itching when chiggers feast on human flesh – pharostribune.com

Posted: at 5:48 pm

Dear Dr. Tim,

Every time I go out to pick raspberries I come home with chiggers. They itch like the blazes and especially so in very sensitive places. What are chiggers and why am I plagued by them?

Thanks, Itchy

Dear Itchy,

Americans should not have to tolerate rude behavior, especially from something as small as a chigger! And yet, that is just what we are exposed to every summer from May through September throughout the country. Chiggers are adolescent mites, so tiny that they are seldom seen. Several can actually fit on the period at the end of this sentence.

Most self-respecting mites feed on plants. It is only the teenage mites that bite people. Apparently, once they mature to adulthood, they grow out of their immature and obnoxious behavior of biting people, and live the rest of their lives feeding peacefully on plants.

Gangs of juvenile chiggers all have the following M.O. (modus operandi). They hang out on the tips of tall grasses, shrubs and weeds and wait to drop off onto any larger animal that happens to brush by. Usually these animals are birds, amphibians or small mammals but the mites are just as happy with the odd human that passes by. When chigger mites fall onto shoes or pant legs, they begin climbing in search of tender, moist skin to bite. They seem to concentrate in areas where clothing fits tightly against the body, such as around the ankles, groin, waist or armpits. This is exactly the rude behavior that I am talking about. A bite on an arm or back of the neck can be scratched in public. But public scratching of the groin, armpits or under the bra strap is an entirely different matter. It is socially unacceptable, politically incorrect and may even be illegal in some countries.

But, scratch you must. Once chiggers bite, there is no alternative. Chiggers do not burrow into the skin but rather pierce skin cells with their mouthparts and inject their special chigger saliva. This saliva contains enzymes that break down cell walls and causes the skin cells to liquefy. Meanwhile, human immune systems quickly react to this foreign enzyme resulting in, not only infuriatingly and intense itching, but also in the formation of a hard, red wall at the location of the bite. Chiggers capitalize on this body reaction by using the round wall, called a stylostome, as a straw to suck up their meals of dissolved body tissues, and then they promptly drop off. They are gone. They seem to never think twice about the trouble they have caused others. Meanwhile, the itching intensifies over the next 20 to 30 hours even though the mite is no longer present. Depending on the persons individual sensitivity and body reaction, itching may continue for days or even weeks.

So, what can be done? And probably most important, how does one stop chigger bites from itching?

Well, aside from amputation, physicians can sometimes prescribe an antiseptic/hydrocortisone ointment. This may help ease the itch and reduce chances of secondary infections caused by the itching and scratching, but it is not a perfect answer.

The best solution is prevention. Avoid getting into chiggers in the first place. Stay away from tall grasses and shrubs where chiggers are known to live. Chiggers love to live in brambles, as most people who pick black raspberries know or quickly learn. They also inhabit taller grasses close to the ponds and streams where bank fishermen stand. (Both raspberry pickers and fishermen can easily be spotted due to their obsessive scratching).

If you must go in those areas, tuck your pant legs into your socks and apply insect repellant containing DEET to the shoe and ankle area. This will stop many of the mites from gaining access to the skin and beginning their climb to areas where clothing fits tightly. (Theoretically, avoiding tight-fitting clothes or even going naked might help. If nothing else, it will certainly confuse the little biters not to mention friends and neighbors.)

I have found that if you know or suspect that you have been in chigger-infested habitats, take a hot, soapy shower as soon as possible. The mites are so small that it may take them several hours to crawl from shoes to where they want to bite, so you have plenty of time to wash them away. This is an effective prevention. Change your clothes and put the clothes you were wearing into the washer and dryer.

These methods are for the prevention of bites, but since you have already been bitten, happy itching.

Tim Gibb is a professor of entomology at Purdue University. He can be reached at gibb@purdue.edu

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A Conservative’s Offer on Race: Nothing – Mother Jones

Posted: at 5:48 pm

Kevin DrumAug. 20, 2017 12:49 PM

Yin Bogu/Xinhua via ZUMA

Over at National Review, Roger Clegg is unhappy:

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has just given an appalling speech. From beginning to end it embraces bean-counting on the basis of race, ethnicity, and sex in order to reach the right percentages of this, that, and the other.Secretary Tillerson specifically promises a State Department Rooney Rule: Every time we have an opening for an ambassador position, at least one of the candidates must be a minority candidate. Not only is such race-based hiring divisive, unfair, and an endorsement of just the sort of identity politics that we ought to have learned by now is poisonous, but it is illegal.

This must have been quite a speech! So I clicked. Here are the relevant bits:

We have a great diversity gap in the State Department.Only about 12 percent of our senior Foreign Service officers are non-white. That number is about the same for our senior executive service.

To better understand our talent pool, I have directed the relevant committees to adopt a new procedure. Every time we have an opening for an ambassador position, at least one of the candidates must be a minority candidate. Now they may not be ready, but we will know where the talent pool is. A big part of developing our minority leadership is identifying qualified individuals five and 10 years before they are ready to become senior leaders and managing and developing their careers, as we do others, so that theyre undergoing preparations for those senior roles over time.

.Were also going to re-examine and expand where we recruit from. As some of you know better than most, Americas best and brightest are not just from the Ivy League, but theyre from a lot of other places in the country Laredo, Texas; Detroit, Michigan; Roanoke, Virginia. Theyre kids sitting on the front row of their high school classes, theyre veterans from our military who are coming out of service looking for the next part of their career, and many of them with a strong desire to continue to serve their country. And theyre so gifted in many ways from many walks of life.

Tillerson doesnt embrace bean-counting in order to reach the right percentages of this, that, and the other. He merely points out that 88 percent of Foreign Service officers are white. Nor does he really endorse the Rooney Rule. He does say that at least one minority candidate should be interviewed for all ambassador positions, but not because theyre likely to be hired. He wants to do this so we will know where the talent pool is. He explicitly says that hes trying to identify non-white staffers five or ten years before they are ready to become senior leaders.

In addition, he wants the State Department to start recruiting from outside the Ivy League, something that any conservative ought to applaud. I certainly applaud it.

This is the problem with conservatives and race. National Review has been pretty good on Charlottesville, but when you turn to lower-profile things like Tillersons speech they suddenly become tone deaf. Tillerson is hardly offering anything radical here. He notes that the State Department is a pretty white outfit. He proposes a concrete program to start developing minority talent early. He says they want to start recruiting in places outside the Ivy League. He says theyre going to start recruiting more from the US military. He says diversity is good: And so whether its African American, Latino, Hispanic, women, LGBT, come with experiences I do not know. This enriches the quality of our work. We know we are a stronger organization when we embrace, incorporate diverse points of view into our work product.

This is a very modest program. Its not as if Tillerson has invited Black Lives Matter over to advise the State Department. And yet Clegg is outraged. Its divisive, poisonous, illegal, and the crudest of stereotyping. The answer to racial discrimination, he says, is to do absolutely nothing: This weeks lesson for the Trump administration: It needs to embrace E pluribus unum, and make clear its categorical rejection of identity politics and race-based policy and action, whether politically correct or politically incorrect.

Nothing. And then conservatives complain that nonwhites all mindlessly vote for the Democratic Party.

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Tech Censorship of White Supremacists Draws Criticism From Within Industry – Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Posted: at 5:47 pm


Wall Street Journal (subscription)
Tech Censorship of White Supremacists Draws Criticism From Within Industry
Wall Street Journal (subscription)
The debate intensified over whether the growing number of tech companies that blocked white supremacists and a neo-Nazi website on the internet have gone too far, as a prominent privacy group questioned the power a few corporations have to censor.

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Grappling Championships Use Bitcoin To Circumvent Censorship … – Bitcoin News (press release)

Posted: at 5:47 pm

Bitcoin proponents often talk about the many benefits the decentralized currency can offer the world, and one of these attributes is bitcoins censorship resistance. This week news.Bitcoin.com chatted with, Firas Zahabi, a well known Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) grappling trainer from Canada who decided to use bitcoin as an incentive to promote online grappling events.

Also read: Markets Update: Bitcoin Cash Rallies for Three Solid Days

Firas Zahabi has trained many champion MMA fighters and is the founder of Tristar Gym, a grappling martial arts training center located in Quebec, Canada. The gym is well known as one of the worlds top MMA training camps, and grappling fights are very popular in the region. However, Zahabi tells us over a phone conversation that the local governments in Canada have deemed holding MMA events illegal. Grappling martial arts itself is legal in the region, but MMA events are not allowed, which gives young Canadian fighters less of an opportunity to compete and show their skills. So Zahabi decided to create online events on Youtube which he calls the Pure Victory Championship and fighters compete for bitcoin prizes. Zahabi believes the act of hosting events online decentralizes the playing field and bitcoin leaves the middle man out of the equation.

Bitcoin.com (BC): Can you tell our readers about the Pure Victory Championship?

Firas Zahabi (FZ): Recently they made grappling events illegal where Im from here in Quebec, and then they made events illegal in Ontario. Quebec is a hotbed for grappling talent, and the biggest MMA event in the world called the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) is happening soon, and two of my students are attending this year. So grappling in Quebec is really popular, but the local governments made it illegal because there was bickering back and forth between event promoters that were calling the cops on each other. They were trying to cancel each others events and corner the market.

Law enforcement got tired of all these calls, and now we are not allowed to have grappling events. Grappling is perfectly legal still, but holding grappling events here is illegal. Alongside this, Canada recently declared bitcoin as a commodity, and to the government, its not money, not a currency. So Im not allowed to hold events and give out prize money, but we are allowed to film and upload ourselves fighting online. And now the fighters get bitcoin, and its kinda like them getting a free t-shirt or swag, because I am giving them a commodity as a prize for participation. We thought it was an excellent idea and the viewers can tip the fighters as well and our grapplers have been making money during an event. The grapplers are also enthusiastic about competing again in the future and the audience absolutely loves it.

Its been all positive feedback and people are following the events. We only have four episodes so far and the fifth episode should launch next week. Its really creating a great buzz with just four episodes.

BC: How much bitcoin have the fighters been getting?

FZ: Theyve been getting roughly $100-300 dollars in bitcoin between winnings and tips. Dont forget that theyre getting bitcoin and that could be worth a lot in the future. This is only after one match, and when you grapple you have to pay to compete, so it helps the fighters earn. Further, these episodes could still give fighters some earnings, and after twenty videos it will create a fishnet effect. I think the fighters havent finished collecting and once they get more and more popular they create a bigger following, and the prizes will get bigger.

BC: What gave you the idea to include bitcoin into these events?

FZ: The politics and the government. They need to let young fighters have a place to release their energy. If these kids cant find anything to do they will likely find some trouble and grappling is such an amazing outlet for the youth. Not only are they getting fit but they are exercising their minds, and they are building a whole community. We are a thriving community, and they just came and shut us down. Could you imagine if they made baseball events illegal? I dont understand it, these kids need an outlet rather than being in the pool halls and the streets. Martial arts is one of the most constructive things a human being can do, especially in their youth.

So I said lets decentralize jiu-jitsu. If we cant have grappling events how can we monetize our skills? The middleman is just such a problem, hes always sticking his hands in our pocket and always bullying us. So lets decentralize our jiu-jitsu, lets make it so the audience can see the competitors compete, pay them in cryptocurrency and remove the middleman.

So my next phase for Pure Victory Championship will be global and what Im going to do is let fighters film their match, and if your game is good enough I will air it, and the winner will get $300 in cryptocurrency. Which is a lot for fighters just starting off, and the internet is hard to stop.

BC: Did the government give a formal explanation to why they made grappling events illegal?

FZ: No they told us if you have any more grappling events they will come and shut us down, and they have already. One major grappling event was canceled with hundreds of competitors. So what Im hoping to do is put the power back into the competitors hands.

BC: Have the fighters mentioned anything about receiving cryptocurrency as a prize?

FZ: They love it, every fighter loves it. Look at the price of bitcoin right now. The guy who recently got $100 worth of BTC is pumped as its worth about $300-400 right now.

The world loves MMA and its a very popular sport and grappling enthusiasts are going to hear an awful lot about cryptocurrency this year.

What do you think about FirasZahabis Pure Victory Championships? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Pixabay, Bitcoin.com,FirasZahabis, and Pure Victory Championship

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

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Cambridge University Press censorship ‘exposes Xi Jinping’s authoritarian shift’ – The Guardian

Posted: at 5:47 pm

A general view of Kings College Chapel, Cambridge. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA

The censorship row involving the worlds oldest publishing house and its most powerful one-party state has exposed the increasingly authoritarian turn China has taken under Xi Jinping, the editor of the journal at the centre of the controversy has said.

Criticism of Cambridge University Press intensified on Sunday over its controversial decision to comply with a Chinese request to block access to more than 300 articles from the China Quarterly, a leading China studies journal, so as to avoid having other publications targeted by Beijings censors.

Some vowed to boycott publications produced by CUP - which printed its first book in 1584 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I - until the step was reversed.

Speaking to the Guardian, Tim Pringle, China Quarterlys editor, said he hoped Chinese authorities would scrap their instruction to block more than 300 articles they deemed objectionable. He also hoped CUP chiefs would use meetings at a Beijing book fair this week to tell the Chinese government that the move represented a significant step backwards in terms of academic freedom.

However, Pringle, who is a senior lecturer at Londons School of Oriental and African Studies, admitted he was pessimistic about the chances of a Chinese change of heart. I cant see this being rolled back anytime soon, although we will lobby for that to happen. I think this is more about the configuration of the current leadership. It is a reflection of the Xi Jinping era. Its a stronger shade of authoritarian government that is less pragmatic, or certainly appears to be less pragmatic [that the previous administration].

Pringle described Chinas previous leaders, president Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao, as authoritarians who had nevertheless been willing to take on views from an emerging and at times buoyant civil society and to respond pragmatically to some of those views.

That changed dramatically after Xi became the Communist partys general secretary, almost five years ago, in November 2012, and instigated a dramatic clampdown on opposition voices. Targets have included academics and journalists who have been ordered to toe the party line; human rights lawyers and their supporters who have been disappeared or jailed; and, now, the worlds oldest publishing house.

Pringle said: If you look at the foreign NGO law, if you look at the measures taken against various sectors of civil society, the feminist five, labour activists being sentenced and detained starting in December 2015, if you look at the very serious clampdown on lawyers since July 2015, [and] also journalists - this is an excluding of external and critical voices.

Pringle said he believed China Quarterly had been targeted because it contained the kind of critical material that was no longer welcome under Xi. We are outside the system [and] outside party control ... If there is one thing worse than an external voice its an external voice talking about things you dont want to hear.

In a biting open letter Georgetown Universitys James Millward accused CUP of showing a repugnant disdain for Chinese readers who now only had access to a misleading, neutered simulacrum of its journal, shorn of articles about politically-sensitive topics such as Tibet, democracy and the Tiananmen Square massacre .

Cambridge University Presss current concession is akin to the New York Times or The Economist letting the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] determine what articles go into their publications something they have never done. It would be unimaginable for these media to instead collaborate with PRC party censors to excise selected content from their daily or weekly editions.

Millward, a specialist in the far-western region of Xinjiang who has been repeatedly denied visas to visit China, noted that those news outlets had refused to produce incomplete, scissored-up, CCP versions because of pressure from Beijing. Cambridge University Press, on the other hand, is agreeably donning the hospital gown, untied in the back, baring itself to the Chinese scalpel, and crying cut away!

In an interview, Millward, whose name appears once on the list of censored China Quarterly articles, said he believed CUP had been far too quick to acquiesce to Chinas demands. They should have said, China Quarterly is a package deal: take it or leave it and not have worried that CUP products across the board would be banned from China.

I really doubt there was some sort of explicit threat that was delivered to them, Millward added. I rather think that they were leaping to that conclusion, that if they didnt comply then they would be retaliated against, and I think that conclusion is a false one.

Were we still in the paper-bound journal age, then there would be huge holes in these journals. And for Cambridge just to say, OK, we are just going to cut these out of the virtual version of the journal is really kind of appalling.

The Georgetown scholar said he did not believe Chinas leaders had issued a direct order to ban sensitive China Quarterly material. Rather, the instruction was likely to have been given by lower-level officials who were responding to the chilly political climate that has gripped China since Xi took power. Academic institutions and publishers around the world had been far too reticent about pushing back against such demands, he added.

Sebastian Veg, a Hong Kong specialist whose work was also on the list of blocked articles, admitted there was no ideal solution in a case like this, when you have to choose between doing the work of the censors for them or seeing your entire content blocked.

[However] I dont think its morally acceptable for a University Press to proactively censor its own content to gain access to any market.

Other foreign publishers and victims of Chinese censorship demands now needed to speak out. Resisting censorship requires naming and shaming.

CUP said last week that it would raise the issue with the agencies and the impending Beijing book fair. The issue of China and censorship is not a short-term issue and therefore requires a longer-term approach. There are many things we cant control, but we will take every opportunity to influence the agenda, CUP said.

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Alt-Tech Bad Boy Cody Wilson Explains Hatreon, an Alternative to Online Censorship – PJ Media

Posted: at 5:47 pm

A funny thing happened to me today. I had been waiting by the inbox for my invitation to the new crowd-funding site, Hatreon. After feeling the all-powerful hands of YouTube squeeze a little too tightly around my neck, I was seeking out a new home for my video content which, by all accounts, is mostly comedic with some political lecturing thrown in for fun. My YouTube channel also contains a historical record of all the rabble rousing I've done over the years in various suburbs in opposition to various elected bad actors. It's not as shocking or groundbreaking as I'd like to believe it is. It's pretty tame. But according to YouTube, it's becoming advertiser unfriendly. This is the death knell for any YouTube channel demonetization. And so I went looking for somewhere I could still get paid for the thousands of hours I put into creating content. I researched Patreon but realized that content creators to the right of Bernardine Dohrn are now getting booted off for "hate speech" as outlined in their draconian terms of service (TOS) which enforce speech codes. A few people suggested Hatreon, the so-called "alt-right" answer to Patreon. I immediately liked the name. If they're going to label us haters, we might as well laugh about it.

So my invitation to join Hatreon finally came (and why wouldn't it? After all, I am deplorable), but the joy quickly faded as I clicked the login link to find this waiting for me.

Are you freaking kidding me?

How is this happening? It's like the entire tech universe is conspiring together to keep us offline. Oh, wait. That's exactly what's happening. I confirmed on Twitter that this was a deliberate booting of Hatreon's account off DigitalOcean servers complete with self-serving virtue signaling from DigitalOcean crowing about what a good deed they did by denying service to a paying customer.

PJ Media reached out to Hatreon's founder Cody Wilson and interviewed the man Wired magazine once listed as one of "The 15 Most Dangerous People In the World 2012." He was the opposite of how I would expect someone to sound whose new project had just been tanked for no reason other than left-wing hysteria. Wilson's good mood and light tone made me feel a little bit better about being under the Big Tech Boot of Censorship. He seemed undisturbed. He cracked jokes. He made them seem ridiculous.

"What if I owned a bakery and someone asked me to make a transgendered, Islamic, gay-themed wedding cake and I said no?" He chuckled. "I think you know the answer."

Wilson was sure Hatreon would be operational again later that day, and as of 10:15 p.m. the site appeared to be back online. Clearly not a beginner in the highly censorious tech world, Wilson didn't put all his eggs in one basket. He counted on DigitalOcean's small profile to keep them safe from public scrutiny. What he didn't know was that the alleged white supremacist Daily Stormer website housed some data on DigitalOcean's servers, which made them the target of SJW lynch mobs on Twitter. (I say "alleged" because Google deleted them from the internet before I ever had a chance to see what they are or aren't. Having never read Daily Stormer myself, I refuse to take CNN's word on the matter as truth. They might be a white power news source or they might be just a poorly written weather fan site. No one knows now because they've been disappeared by Google and its henchmen.) When the SJW outcry began to take down Daily Stormer after the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville that ended in inexcusable violence and mayhem, everyone raced to the control room to start flipping the switch to "off" on any bogeyman they could find (or invent). Hatreon got caught up in the mad dash to purge the Internet of "Nazis." DigitalOcean shut off their service overnight with no notice and later claimed Hatreon had violated their TOS, but offered no proof of the violation. The TOS they supposedly violated was 3.2 and is so overbroad it might be a good test case for an enterprising lawyer who wants to get it declared void for vagueness.

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Alt-Tech Bad Boy Cody Wilson Explains Hatreon, an Alternative to Online Censorship - PJ Media

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Ron Paul: 50% stock market plunge ‘conceivable,’ but it’s not President Trump’s fault – CNBC

Posted: at 5:47 pm

Ron Paul's sell-off prediction just got more severe.

The former Republican Congressman from Texas believes escalating dysfunction in Washington will create even more pain for Wall Street.

"A 50 percent pullback is conceivable," Paul said on "Futures Now" recently. "I don't believe it's ten years off. I don't even believe it's a year off. "

According to his calculations, it would cut the S&P 500 Index in half, to 1212, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average would collapse to 10,837.

Paul noted that there's a lot of chaos in Washington right now, with an "unpredictable president" and those who are inclined to "tear him apart" but if the market takes that big of a tumble, he doesn't see it as Trump's fault.

"It's all man-made. It's not the fault of Donald Trump in the last week. If the market crashes tomorrow and we have a great depression, he didn't do it in six months. It took more like six or ten years to cause all these problems that we're facing," he said.

What's more, it would come at the expense of businesses who are counting on reforms such as tax cuts and fewer regulations, according to Paul.

Paul, who is also known for his presidential runs, originally made his case for a somewhat more benign 25 percent downturn on June 29 on "Futures Now." He argued Wall Street is overestimating the strength of the economy, and the Federal Reserve kept interest rates too low for too long. He said the situation for stocks could turn ugly as soon as October.

Stocks will try to bounce back on Monday from multiple losing weeks in a row. The Nasdaq just saw its fourth consecutive week of losses. Meanwhile, the Dow & S&P 500's losing streak now sits at two weeks.

If Paul's vision is right, the damage is bound to worsen.

"I see the foundation of our system built on sand, and a big wind comes along to blow it down," Paul said.

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Ron Paul: 50% stock market plunge 'conceivable,' but it's not President Trump's fault - CNBC

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Marxism, Nazism and a Potentially Radical Theory for Libertarianism – Being Libertarian

Posted: at 5:47 pm

The Poles have the historical appearance to have been oppressed by both the Nazis and the Commies/Marxists. Countries in Eastern Europe who went through being occupied by Nazis and Marxists often speak out loudly about their dangers. Yet, out here in the West, it seems our people are willing to only hear half of it, as the Marxists are spreading like wildfire.

Socialism, National Socialism (Nazism for those who somehow dont know this), Communism and any other variation of Marixsm, as well as any racial supremacist groups, including the KKK, have no place in the United States. You have the right to your beliefs but you do not have the right to enforce those beliefs on the people via policy and/or law, and this has to be the libertarian position. These political beliefs violate the non-aggression principle, and the overall rights of the individual. If we were to allow any socialist policies to go forth, including such things as universal healthcare or free college/university we would be failing (I hate to sound like a collectivist) the people of the United States. Through these types of policies, we, the people, would essentially be financially responsible for the lifestyles and educational choices of the rest of the country through taxation, which brings me to my next point.

The general libertarian view on taxation is that it is coercion. The state is essentially stealing our money through threat of force; this means that the state itself is in violation of the NAP. Would we, in turn, suggest that the state itself be dissolved? Many say yes, yet this enters the realm of anarchism, and less of libertarianism. Libertarianism, as I know it, isnt for the complete dissolution of government but for the reduction of government. But how can a government exist without money? Weve already answered this in thousands upon thousands of conversations: through donation and charity.

The government works today as a middle man: it takes our money and funnels it into things such as infrastructure and welfare. It does so via coercion through threat of force and while we know that these services can be provided solely through the market, we must think of those who arent capable of a self-sustainable life: seniors, the mentally and physically disabled, and in some cases, children whose parents are unable to provide resources needed to live.

What we need is tax reform and we already know the solution (in fact, we rant about it all the time): volunteerism. Make it so that taxation is a voluntary system and that we, the people, get to decide where our money gets to go to. If you want to donate $2,000 to the welfare of the mentally ill than thats where the money will go. If you want to donate $10 to fill a pot hole, have at it. In short, the government is supposed to work for the people, but through threatening us in order to provide us services, it is doing more harm than good. Without the threat of jail time or even a forced quota system, government could be, at its essence, a charitable organization. Isnt that what the government is supposed to be anyways, for the people and by the people?

This being such a radical idea, and already with so many holes in it for a large country to implement suddenly, I would suggest if we want to make any progress towards a truly free and liberty focused society we find a way to test a system such as this. It could be proposed and put up for a vote in a small town somewhere and tried out for a set period of time. Probably the best two things about this theory is that it is doesnt violate the NAP in any way and that it is a volunteer based system.

In a time of radicals on every side of the aisle and high tensions, I cant think of a better time to try to actually test out this theory and bring the country back to sanity. Benjamin Franklin supposedly said, Im an extreme moderate. I believe anybody not in favor of moderation and compromise ought to be castrated. It is best that the only radicals in society be those who promote individualism and liberty instead of those who promote collectivism and obedience.

* Jarod Goodwin is an archaeology student in his mid-twenties. Hes worked in the grassroots movement for the election of Jim Webb in 2016, and in informing foreigners and locals alike to the different political sides of things like Brexit, the Dutch election, French election, Canadian, Swedish, and Brazilian politics.

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Marxism, Nazism and a Potentially Radical Theory for Libertarianism - Being Libertarian

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