Some News That is Not New

I try and keep up on interesting news; but, as I was saving links for the last week, I didn't post them all because I really wanted to post the IMF, FDIC-Bank of England document and the other financial stuff. I am going to try and just flood you with interesting stuff and minimal commentary.

Before I get into the links, my take on the North Korean "threats". The head of the country is the young son of the previous dictator. He has already ousted some of the leading military leaders under him, this was most likely done to prevent a coup. He is now setting out to show the people of North Korea that he is more modern (mainly through his wife's wardrobe) and prove to the people of North Korea that he is not afraid of the United States. All his threats are for internal consumption and he is mostly being ignored by the United States government. Reports say that China is approaching North Korea's border, this is not to antagonize the west as China really likes becoming the number one economy, it is being done to let the United States know that if North Korea does attack anyone, the Chinese will step in and put an end to it without us needing to invade. This is actually going to be seen by the military in North Korea to show that their president is not as supported as he would like them to think. This is abundantly clear if anyone reads about how the North Korean actions are being reported in China where they call him "little fatty".

Everyday Health - Electronic Health Records: Doctors Want to Keep Patients Out. Now, the press is acting like it is a bad thing that doctors don't want to let patients see all their health records; but, I agree with the doctors. I went to a therapist for awhile, I actually miss seeing him, wonderful man. Anyways, he took notes, the note were not for me, they were his thoughts so that he could remember what he thought when I was talking. They were not a diagnosis, they were working papers. You don't want to create a situation where your doctor is afraid to consider different things.

CNN - How your movements create a GPS 'fingerprint'. They make it sound like this something new that has only come to light because of GPS tracking, it is not, this is something that law enforcement and intelligence has known for a very long time. It is breaks in your pattern that cause people to take a second look. The only thing that has changed is that this information can be automatically collected on anyone with a cell phone or has a chipped dog.

Business Without Borders - The birth of a global currency. Nope, we are going to have a single international currency. The rise of the Yuan stories are there to scare us all into accepting the international currency rather than the Yuan. It is simple, the Chines no longer need to trade in dollars, they trade in goods. If the Chinese suddenly said that they would only accept Yuans, that would completely kill the dollar and they don't seem to want to do that in that manner. They will agree to an international currency instead.

International Business Times - Computer Fraud And Abuse Act 2013: New CFAA Draft Aims To Expand, Not Reform, The ‘Worst Law In Technology’. This law outlaws the "unauthorized access" of computers according to the article. The article goes on to say that it outlaws the access of information over the internet for "impermissible uses". This means that information you access, even though it is legal to access it, can be made criminal if you plan on using it in a wrong manner. Lets say that you were a pedophile who used to download child porn and the court prohibited you from using the internet. If you borrowed your friends computer to look at pictures of clothed children, you would have violated both laws. We might all be okay with that; but, firstly it sounds like double jeopardy and more importantly, this same law could be wildly misused. Lets say I was mad at my wife and said I was going to get her and then I went online to look at buying a gun. They could call that actions in furtherance of a crime and charge me with attempted whatever. Thought crimes.

RT - Facial recognition and GPS tracking: TrapWire company conducting even more surveillance. I don't feel like summarizing it, you can read one lousy article.

Christian Science Monitor - UPS to pay $40 million for illegal drug deliveries. This is just to remind you that non-postal service deliveries are not protected.

Wired - Pentagon’s Mad Scientists Want a Tattoo That Tracks Troops’ Vitals. Hey, I wrote about these tattoos before and the medical aspect.