Could Faking A Name On Facebook Or A Social Networking Site Be A Felony?
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Congress contemplates draconian punishment for Internet lies.
Imagine that President Obama could order the arrest of anyone who broke a promise on the Internet. So you could be jailed for lying about your age or weight on an Internet dating site. Or you could be sent to federal prison if your boss told you to work but you used the company’s computer to check sports scores online. Imagine that Eric Holder’s Justice Department urged Congress to raise penalties for violations, making them felonies allowing three years in jail for each broken promise. Fanciful, right?
Think again. Congress is now poised to grant the Obama administration’s wishes in the name of “cybersecurity.”
The little-known law at issue is called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It was enacted in 1986 to punish computer hacking. But Congress has broadened the law every few years, and today it extends far beyond hacking. The law now criminalizes computer use that “exceeds authorized access” to any computer. Today that violation is a misdemeanor, but the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to meet this morning to vote on making it a felony.
The problem is that a lot of routine computer use can exceed “authorized access.” Courts are still struggling to interpret this language. But the Justice Department believes that it applies incredibly broadly to include “terms of use” violations and breaches of workplace computer-use policies.
Breaching an agreement or ignoring your boss might be bad. But should it be a federal crime just because it involves a computer? If interpreted this way, the law gives computer owners the power to criminalize any computer use they don’t like. Imagine the Democratic Party setting up a public website and announcing that no Republicans can visit. Every Republican who checked out the site could be a criminal for exceeding authorized access.
The woman had been part of a group that set up a MySpace profile using a fake picture. The feds charged her with conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Prosecutors say the woman exceeded authorized access because MySpace required all profile information to be truthful. But people routinely misstate the truth in online profiles, about everything from their age to their name. What happens when each instance is a felony?
In 2010, the Justice Department charged a defendant with unauthorized access for using a computer to buy tickets from Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster’s website lets anyone visit. But its “terms of use” only permitted non-automated purchases, and the defendant used a computer script to make the purchases.
In another case, Justice has charged a defendant with violating workplace policies that limited use to legitimate company business. Prosecutors claimed that using the company’s computers for other reasons exceeded authorized access. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently agreed.
The law even goes beyond criminal law. It allows civil suits filed by private parties. As a result, federal courts have been flooded with silly disputes. In one recent case, an employer sued a former employee for excessive Internet usage from work. The alleged offense: visiting Facebook and sending personal emails. In another case, a company posted “terms of use” on its website declaring that no competitors could visit—and then promptly sued a competitor that did.
Remarkably, the law doesn’t even require devices to be connected to the Internet. Since 2008, it applies to pretty much everything with a microchip. So if you’re visiting a friend and you use his coffeemaker without permission, watch out: You may have committed a federal crime.
Until now, the critical limit on the government’s power has been that federal prosecutors rarely charge misdemeanors. They prefer to bring more serious felony charges. That’s why the administration’s proposal is so dangerous. If exceeding authorized access becomes a felony, prosecutors will become eager to charge it. Abuses are inevitable.
Real threats to cybersecurity must be prosecuted. Penalties should be stiff. But Congress must narrow the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act before enhancing its penalties. There’s no reason to make breaching a promise a federal case, and certainly not a felony crime.
Mr. Oris S. Kerr, a former federal prosecutor, is professor of law at George Washington University School of Law.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903285704576562294116…
Revealer @ September 17, 2011
Earth Changes, How Close Are They To Us, Today
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Revealer @ September 15, 2011
Yeast Extract Is Hidden Source Of MSG In Your Food
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Just about everyone who visits Natural News knows that MSG should be avoided. But crafty food processing firms have found ways to disguise MSG’s most active ingredient –
free glutamate. There are several ingredients and names used. And they all contain some free glutamate. Free glutamate is the active ingredient of mono-sodium glutamate, or MSG.
Loopholes and Deceptions
A loophole is provided by the legislated labeling laws. It’s within a section that says if the free glutamate or glutamic acid is less than 78% of an additive, it doesn’t have to be labeled MSG. So if you’re getting a flavoring ingredient that’s 75% glutamic acid, it can be labeled solely by whatever form in which it appears. Then the MSG term won’t be on the label to push concerned consumers away.
Another deception is the food industry’s claim that glutamate occurs naturally. It does very sparingly appear in plants bound with a protein or other molecules. Bound glutamates are benign, and they are not concentrated enough proportionately in foods to create much “excitement.”
But synthetically produced glutamic acid is a glutamate that is free from other molecules. And whether it is 7.5% or 75% free glutamate it can avoid the MSG labeling while delivering high doses of glutamic acid or free glutamate in each bite of food spiked with whatever enhanced flavoring additives are named.
It’s cheaper to use these chemical additives than more expensive oils and natural spices for enhancing food flavors. But it cheats by exciting the brain’s cells into making you believe the flavor is in the food and not just in your head. So one buys and eats more cheap dead food while getting fatter with less nutrition, to say the least.
Some processed natural foods with additives containing free glutamates, such as yeast extracts, claim “no added MSG,” which is technically accurate but very deceptive.
A restaurant owner who doesn’t use MSG can pass on this deception because that owner doesn’t know all the food industry tricks for the items he uses, sauces and dressings for example, that contain free glutamates disguised with different labels.
There are many MSG or glutamate disguises. Even “natural seasonings” is used. Click “List of food additives on labels that contain free glutamic acid or glutamates” link in the sources section below for many more.
Yeast Extract contains free glutamate
Yeast extract is a very common flavor enhancer that doesn’t even appear to be a flavor enhancer. After all, yeast is food and it’s used for baking, right? As a matter of fact, the name yeast extract is so food-like it is confidently marked on the labels of many “natural” processed foods, some of which are sold in health food stores.
Ingredients such as “yeast extract,” or “autolyzed yeast,” and “hydrolyzed yeast” all contain a percentage of free glutamates or glutamic acids. Here are some examples of foods with yeast extracts while saying no MSG. These are extracted from the Truth in Labeling (.org) website:
* McKay’s Chicken Style Instant Broth and Seasoning
* Spice Boquet Adobo Seasoning
* Nightlife Foods Tofu Pups
* Simply Organic Spicy Chili
* Hain Pure Foods All Natural Chicken Broth and Vegetable Broth
* Blue Diamond Almond Toppers
* Farm House Parmesan Pasta (General Mills Sales, Inc.)
* Dominique’s New England Clam Chowder
* Newman’s Own Ranch Dressing
If you’re not buying fresh produce or bulk foods, you need to read those labels closely. And take that list promoted by this article with you.
Sources used for this article:
List of all MSG disguises on food labels http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hidd…
Mike Adams Health Ranger on Yeast Extract foods http://www.naturalnews.com/001528.h…
More on foods containing Yeast Extract http://www.hissheep.org/health/how_…
More ABOUT Yeast Extract http://www.livestrong.com/article/3…
Expanded: Foods to avoid http://www.truthinlabeling.org/II.W…
Explaining food additive excitotoxins
http://www.naturalnews.com/026157_M…
Yeast Extract list used for this article
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/nom
By P F Louis
Revealer @ September 14, 2011
Where to Go During an Earthquake
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Where to Go During an Earthquake
THE TRIANGLE OF LIFE—This could save your life in an emergency!!
Please SHARE this with your loved ones:
Remember that stuff about hiding under a table or standing in a doorway? Well, forget it! This is a real eye opener. It could save your life someday.
EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP’S ARTICLE ON ‘THE TRIANGLE OF LIFE’
My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI ), the world’s most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.
I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years, and have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.
The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene — unnecessary.
Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them – NOT under them. This space is what I call the ‘triangle of life’. The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the ‘triangles’ you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building.
TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
1) Most everyone who simply ‘ducks and covers’ when building collapse are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.
2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a bed, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.
3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.
4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.
5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.
6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!
7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different ‘moment of frequency’ (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads – horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn’t collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.
Get near the outer walls of buildings or outside of them if possible – It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.
9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.
10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.
Spread the word and save someone’s life…
The entire world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared!
‘We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly’
In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul, University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did ‘duck and cover,’ and ten mannequins I used in my ‘triangle of life’ survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions , relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover.
There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the ‘triangle of life.’ This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA , Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV.
“Triangle of Life”:
Without listening or reading, simply by looking at the following self-explanatory photos, you can learn more than in a thousand words about how to protect yourself during a major earthquake…
Some detractors claims can be found HEREs
Revealer @ September 5, 2011
