If you are reading this on a smartphone, then you are probably holding in your palm the conflict minerals that have sent the biggest manufacturing trade group in the U.S. into a court battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At stake in this battle between the National Association of Manufacturers and the government is whether consumers will know the potentially blood-soaked origins of the products they use every day and who gets to craft rules for multinational corporations—Congress or the business itself.
A: The FSB has claimed that they are able to tap skype calls,
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/03/15/1241229/russian-fsb-can-reportedly-tap-skype-calls
and B: Skype (Mirosoft) is in the list of cooperating companies in Snowdens PRISM disclosure. If A and B are true, C: it is likely that ALL skype calls are either actively intercepted in real time or logged for voice and language analysis later (probably minutes later) (In fiction this is a central part of a 'Project Black Briar')
If that doesn't give you the willies and make you clutch your laptop and hide under the bed, well try this on for size.
http://www.news.com.au/world-news/reporter-michael-hastings-sent-panicky-email-hours-before-sudden-car-crash-death/story-fndir2ev-1226669297371
Slate reports (Hastings) last email, found by a friend, read: "Hey... the feds are interviewing my 'close friends and associates.' Perhaps if the authorities arrive 'buzz Feed GQ' er HQ, may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news-gathering practices or related journalism issues. Also: I'm onto a big story, and need to go off the radar for a bit."
Investigators are yet to formally identify Hastings' body as his remains are so badly charred.
On the subject of his car accident, the LAPD says there are no signs of foul play. His Mercedes reportedly hit a tree at high speed, causing the car to burst into flames. But there are some eyewitness accounts which suggest his car exploded before impact.
It would seem a stolen laptop may be the least of our concerns
While I understand the fears of prosecution, his evasive actions are marks against hero-status. Third, he's avoided channels that actually exist for this purpose... there are whistleblower protections and organizations and laws, and even US newspapers where at least the responsibilities to national security would be more closely managed.
Except when the risk is that those 'whistleblower protections' wont protect you from...
"Hey... the feds are interviewing my 'close friends and associates.' Perhaps if the authorities arrive 'buzz Feed GQ' er HQ, may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news-gathering practices or related journalism issues. Also: I'm onto a big story, and need to go off the radar for a bit."
Investigators are yet to formally identify Hastings' body as his remains are so badly charred.
So Um, sometimes you need to RUN hard, fast, far, and keep moving!
Health and Wellness should not be patentable - the drive to produce medicines will of course take dedicated researchers and the finances to power them, however this does not NEED to be aprfitable enterprise in order for it to happen. There exist a small group of very wealthy individuals who commit vast sums of money to the saving of lives with no other motive than 'it being the right thing to do' and self organizing groups of like minded donor can fill the shoes of profit motivated Big Pharma.
The argument made by Big Pharma - if we cannot monetize it, noone will do it - is as facile and pretentious as the MPAA/RIAA assertion that without their involvement music would cease.
Case in point, Sabin declined to patent his inventions in the search for a cure to polio; "costing" him an unknowable amount of revenue from all of the direct and indirect results from vaccination techniques and science. However, because of his unwillingness to patent, MILLIONS of people were and continue to be spared from debilitating and fatal diseases.
Yes, if we abolish medical patents, there will be a loss of future revenues for Big Pharma investors and speculators. Investors and speculators should be aware that there is risk of loss of any and all of thier funding through unforseen but inevitable changes to the marketplace. Tuff Shit! thats what happens to investors.
But how many lives will be saved in the short and long term by the transfer of medical research from patent hungry, financially motivated, greedy investors and replaced by TAX EXEMPT donations to medical research teams dedicated to a cure?!
I can't wait to see
In seeking the unattainable, simplicity only gets in the way. -- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982