The Cafe' [Think Tank]

This tablet PC displays a photo of former CIA employee Edward Snowden and his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena leaving the Sheremetyevo airport. (RIA Novosti/Iliya Pitalev) Share on tumblr Trends NSA leaks Tags CIA ,  Human rights ,  Intelligence ,  Police , Russia ,  Security ,  Snowden ,  USA ,  Violence NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, will ask Russian law enforcers to protect him, his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, has said. The former NSA contractor is concerned about his safety after seeing death threats coming from the US. Snowden, who is currently living in Moscow under Russia’s temporary asylum, has been following the threats against him in various American media. “We are concerned with the situation around Edward. We see the statements made by some US officials containing potential and implicit threats and openly calling for causing him bodily harm,”  Kucherena said. One such statement published by BuzzFe...

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (Reuters/Gus Ruelas) Share on tumblr Trends Iraq carnage Tags Bush ,  Crime ,  Human rights ,  Iraq ,  Law , Politics ,  Robert Bridge ,  UK ,  UN ,  USA ,  War What began as an ordinary Friday night for a barman at an upscale London steakhouse ended on a more dramatic note after former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair entered the establishment. Twiggy Garcia, a barman at London’s trendy Tramshed, apparently thinks about much more than just mixing cocktails. Ever since visiting a website devoted to arresting Blair, Garcia said he has  “fantasized”  about making a citizen’s arrest against the former premier for  “crimes against peace”  in Iraq. “I had been waiting for the opportunity after seeing the website arrestblair.org, and it just so happened we were in the same place at the same time,”  Garcia explained to the Independent, a British daily.  ...

attribution: Inhabitat Chemicals, schemicals, you can't expect Freedom Industries to keep track of all of them. Federal and state investigators learned today that an additional chemical that wasn't previously identified was in the tank that leaked on Jan. 9 at the Freedom Industries tank farm just upstream from West Virginia American Water's regional drinking water intake. Company officials told investigators that the "Crude MCHM" that spilled also contained a product called "PPH," which stands for polyglycol ethers, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board. The chemical, the company claims, has "low oral toxicity." Uh-huh. And it's probably as safe for pregnant women as the other stuff they spilled into the Elk Rive r.

Anti-fracking protesters gather outside of the auditorium before New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo gives his fourth State of the State address on January 8, 2014 in Albany, New York.(AFP Photo / Spencer Platt) Share on tumblr Tags Energy ,  Fracking ,  Gas ,  Law ,  Protest , Resources ,  USA Dozens of residents from a rural Texas community traveled to the state capital on Tuesday to demand that regulators act immediately to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, amidst allegations that it is to blame for a spate of recent earthquakes. The Azle, TX area, located north of Fort Worth, has experienced no fewer than 30 earthquakes since November, and residents say it’s a result of increased fracking activity. Fracking, the process of injecting large quantities of a chemical cocktail into the earth to tap subterranean natural gas reserves, has long been associated with seismic activity, and researchers  last year  linked drill sites t...

Conservatives insist the congressional effort to strengthen the Voting Rights Act (VRA) unfairly discriminates against  white  voters. The claim rests on evidence that’s shaky at best—but could still make it harder for the bill to win the Republican support it needs. The Voting Rights Amendment Act,  unveiled Thursday  by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, aims to update the formula used to determine which areas of the country must get federal approval before making any changes to their voting rules—a system known as “pre-clearance.” In June, the Supreme Court struck down the law’s existing formula, under which almost all the southern states were covered, ruling that it was out of date. In an  interview last week with msnbc , Center for Equal Opportunity president Roger Clegg argued that the VRA’s pre-clearance system unfairly advantages those claiming discrimination. Clegg’s organization has fought to narrow the application of ci...

George Frey/Getty Images/AFP Share on tumblr Tags China ,  Commodities ,  Currencies , Economy ,  Investment The opportunities for Bitcoin in China are “boundless” as the Chinese, famous for their big saving, are now using the cryptocurrency to save and invest, according to the co-founder of country’s largest exchange. "The main reason why Bitcoin has become big in China is because Chinese people are savers, and more people are seeing Bitcoin as a way to store and invest their money,"  Linke Yang, vice president of BTC China, China’s largest Bitcoin exchange founded in 2011, told AFP at a conference in Singapore. Famous for currency manipulation, investors wonder if the Chinese government will step in and restrict Bitcoin trading. The yuan is under strict government controls to keep economic risk low and control flow in and out of the borders.  So far, virtual currencies are banned in online and gambling sites in China, because of...

Reuters / Jim Urquhart Share on tumblr Tags Big deal ,  Currencies ,  Global economy The University of Nicosia (UNic), one of the major English language universities in the Mediterranean, will become the world’s first to accept bitcoins for tuition. The university will also begin a new Master of Science course in Digital Currency. According to the  university  those who wish to pay tuition fees in bitcoins, will be able to use an online merchant processing service or by paying directly to the university’s finance office. “ The intention of this initiative is to ease transmission difficulties for certain students and to build our own practical knowledge about this field, not to engage in currency speculation ,” the University spokesperson told GeekWire.             Following the rising popularity of online commerce the University of Nicosia is starting the first Master of Science degree in Digital Currency....