Category: Politics

US war on whistleblowers must end - Assange

Assange makes first public statement since entering Ecuador’s London embassy

Julian Assange made his first public appearance in two months, ever since he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Addressing the hundreds of people gathered outside the embassy, Assange thanked them for their support, claiming it was their resolve and presence that stopped British police storming the building. 

"On Wednesday night, after a threat was sent to this embassy and police desceneded on this building, you came out in the middle of the night to watch over it, and you brought the worlds eyes with you. Inside this embassy after dark I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building through the internal fire escape," Assange said. 

"But I knew thered be witnesses. And that was because of you." 

The WikiLieaks founder thanked President Correa "for the courage he has shown" in granting him asylum, and to all the nations and individuals who have shown him support. 

Assange also addressed the US government and President Obama, calling for the persecution of WikiLeaks supporters to end. 

"The United States must pledge before the world will not pursue journalists for shining light on the secret crimes of the powerful. The US administration’s war against whistleblowers must end."

The WikiLeaks founder was granted political asylum on Thursday – a decision that ignited a wave of international responses, with the UK and Sweden opposing the verdict and Latin American countries strongly supporting Ecuador’s move.

US war on whistleblowers must end – Assange

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Presenting The Shocking Source Of US Treasury Demand In The Past Year: Japan

When one thinks US Treasurys, and demand thereof, two entities pop into mind: the Federal Reserve, which over the past 3 years has been the biggest institutional buyer of US paper, and China, which is the largest foreign holder of US TSYs. Yet over the past year something curious happened: when it comes to setting marginal demand for US Treasurys, it was neither the Fed, whose sterilized Operation Twist has kept its holdings of US Tsys relatively flat, nor China, which has actually been a major seller of US paper, that has been the dominant source of marginal demand for Uncle Sam’s never to be repaid obligations. Japan.

Presenting The Shocking Source Of US Treasury Demand In The Past Year: Japan

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Seven Banks Under Investigation for Global Interest Rate Scandal

Seven international banks have been served with subpoenas over the global interest setting scandal. Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS – have been asked to provide relevant “documents and communications” to Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney-general in collaboration with George Jepsen, Connecticut’s top law enforcement officer.

Photo: Alex Milan Tracy. alexmilantracy.comThe scandal involves LIBOR – or the London Inter Bank Offer Rate – a global system of interest rates for $360 trillion in international deposits. While many of these loans are overnight transfers between banks, they affect the price of consumer loans like mortgages, car loans and credit card loans. The rates are set by the British Bankers Association which makes a considered average of rates reported to them verbally by participating bankers.

Seven Banks Under Investigation for Global Interest Rate Scandal

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Anti-WikiLeaks group takes down Russian news site

 

Bear with us on this one: The group, which calls itself Anti Leaks, claims it took down RT.com while expressing support for the anti-Putin punk band Pussy Riot, whose members were arrested in March.

  August 17, 2012 8:53 AM PDT

 

An anti-WikiLeaks hacking group has taken credit for launching a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against the Russian news site RT.com.

The organization, which calls itself Anti Leaks, today tweetedout to followers that it was "behind the DDoS attack on RT.com." Although the organization didn't explicitly say why it decided to attack RT, it included in its tweet a "#FreePussyRiot" hashtag.

The hashtag refers to the name of a Russian, all-female punk rock band. The band members were arrested in March after performing a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main cathedral, requesting the Virgin Mary save Russia from president Vladimir Putin. A judge today sentenced all three members to two years in prison for their dissent.

The arrest and subsequent sentencing has lit a firestorm across the world over individual rights in Russia. Anti Leaks has come out in support of the band.

For its part, RT has confirmed that its site "went down for hours worldwide" today. The site is now back up and running, and the news service has posted a story pointing to Anti Leaks' admission.

Anti Leaks is one of the newer hacking groups to come on a scene popularized by Anonymous. However, unlike Anonymous, which has in the past expressed support for WikiLeaks, Anti Leaks has spoken out against the organization and launched a DDoS attack on the site earlier this month.

"Tango down wikileaks.org," the company wrote on Twitter on August 3.

WikiLeaks condemned the attack on RT today, saying that the news outlet "is an important alternative voice in the west."

Anti-WikiLeaks group takes down Russian news site

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Why do dimes and quarters have ridges on the their edges?

Many years ago, when precious metals were commonly used in (some) coins, dishonest people would sometimes shave a bit of metal off the edge of a coin. The change in the amount of metal in the coin, and therefore the value of the coin, would not be large enough to notice easily; the cheater could still spend the coin. When the cheater had gathered enough bits of metal, he could trade them in for something of value, getting more for his money (but not legally).

Why do dimes and quarters have ridges on the their edges?

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