Demon goat

This is a funny video clip about a demon goat who chased some kid up a tree.  It made me laugh for a few minutes.   Enjoy!

NSA threatened Yahoo with $250k fine per day if they did not release user data

The US government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day if it refused to hand over user data to the National Security Agency, according to court documents unsealed Thursday.

In a blogpost, the company said the 1,500 pages of once-secret documents shine further light on Yahoo previously disclosed clashed with the NSA over access to its users’ data.

The papers outline Yahoo’s secret and ultimately unsuccessful legal battle to resist the government’s demands for the tech firm to cooperate with the NSA’s controversial Prism surveillance program, revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden last year.

“The released documents underscore how we had to fight every step of the way to challenge the US government’s surveillance efforts,” said company general counsel Ron Bell in a Tumblr post.

The US government amended a key law to demand user information from online services in 2007. When Yahoo was asked to hand over user data the company objected arguing the request was “unconstitutional and overbroad”.

Yahoo took its case to the foreign intelligence surveillance court, also known as the Fisa court, which oversees requests for surveillance orders in national security investigations. The secretive Fisa court provides the legal authorities that underpin the US government’s controversial surveillance programs. Yahoo lost its case, and an appeal.

Federal judge William Bryson, presiding judge of the foreign intelligence surveillance court of review, which reviews denials of applications for electronic surveillance warrants, unsealed the documents on Thursday.

Disclosures in the Guardian and the Washington Post about the Prism program, which was discontinued in 2011, prompted an international backlash over allegations of overreach in government surveillance and against the tech companies which cooperated with it.

“Despite the declassification and release, portions of the documents remain sealed and classified to this day, unknown even to our team. The released documents underscore how we had to fight every step of the way to challenge the US government’s surveillance efforts. At one point, the US government threatened the imposition of $250,000 in fines per day if we refused to comply,” wrote Bell.

“Our fight continues. We are still pushing for the FISC [Fisa court] to release materials from the 2007-2008 case in the lower court. The FISC indicated previously that it was waiting on the FISC-R ruling in relation to the 2008 appeal before moving forward. Now that the FISC-R [court of review] matter is resolved, we will work hard to make the materials from the FISC case public, as well.”

Almost all the major US tech firms including AOL, Apple, Google and Microsoft were listed by the NSA as participants in the program, which was run in conjunction with the NSA’s British equivalent, GCHQ.

Begun under the Bush administration the program collected information from the major tech companies under Section 702 of the Fisa Amendments Act. The NSA’s slides obtained by Snowden contained a briefing presentation which said Prism granted access to records such as emails, chat conversations, voice calls, documents and more.

Patrick Toomey, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s national security project, said he had not yet reviewed all the documents but that it appeared Yahoo “had challenged the warrantless wiretapping program more than any other of its competitors”.

Online dating

I have limited knowledge of online dating.  Well I say this as though I haven't given it enough time, but only 2 weeks in, I'd deleted my profiles and told my best friend to do the same.  I hate it.  I've never been conditioned to be shallow before.  I'm an unusual creature in that I'm a woman who is actually deterred by muscular, chiselled jawed males with tans and flawless boyish skin.  I'd rather bide my time and find out that the person I'm 'dating' has something more to them than a photogenic smile for my selfies.

So what happened?

Basic psychology is what happened.

There's thousands of profiles to look through.  Most of which have photos.  So I found myself skipping the profiles with photos - who knows what delights I was missing there, then I got chatting to a couple of guys.  When I say a couple, I mean literally 2.  How on earth anyone can talk to more than 2 people at once and remember anything solid about each one is beyond me.  So anyway, when I realised they weren't for me, I started looking though more photos and before I knew it, I was flipping through photos just because I'd already chatted to guys who looked hotter.  Me?  Doing that?  Horrific.  I certainly don't want to be 'that' girl.  So I deleted my profules as soon as I realised what was going on.  Once I'd realised why online dating even existed and why it was such a lucrative business.

I like my relationships in the real world.  Real friends and a real lover.  That's what I enjoy.  Knowing that I've not met some shallow creep online who was probably looking through hundreds of other women's photos with the same mindset as the one I was developing.

Love, or the notion of being in love is a pretty powerful thing.  I think it's pretty clear cut.  Most people either want to be single and play the field or find their soul mate and settle down.  To me, online dating sites have always strived to break down this clear cut desire for people to make everyone want to play the field, or just to simply believe that there is always a better person out there for them.  It's not dissimilar to online shopping, when you've been shopping around for something at the right price, it's not uncommon to worry that you could have found better and cheaper elsewhere.

I read an article a couple of months ago and jumped up and down screaming at my computer screen that I worked that out ages ago.  There are plenty of them around.  Like this one from Aljazeera detailing OKCupid's experimentation methods.

If I had ever been completely serious about this online dating business and had read this article without having worked out the reality sooner, I'd have been pretty annoyed when the penny dropped that I had been being used as a research experiment and that my heart and future had been used like that.  I've tried explaining to people before my feelings on this matter.  Online dating is no different in my eyes than charitable work.  It's all big business, created to line someone's pocket, preying on the vulnerable or the naive.

If you're looking for love, why not get a hobby and join a club.  Make new friends, and stop allowing your dreams of a perfect relationship spoil your life.  Sitting in front of a computer screen clicking through profiles is no way to meet people and certainly doesn't sound much like fun.  Go on, get out and enjoy yourself.  You never know who you'll bump into!

Why I think the world should end

This is quite a thought provoking poem and one that people should really take notice of.

Stop watching television, look at what's going on around you.  Stop being so hellbent on having the latest phones, laptop, tablet or games console and realise that if you have a roof over your head, food in your cupboard and family to love, then you're richer than many people across the world.  Stop thinking that throwing money at a charity secures your place in the saintly hall of fame and do something real to make a difference to another person's life.  It doesnt even have to cost you anything, just a smile and a good morning greeting could brighten up a stranger's day.