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Homeownership in America Has Collapsed—Don’t Blame Millennials – The Atlantic

The economy has a Gen-X problem. It’s a small cohort with a much-smaller-than-usual homeownership rate. And people wonder why the housing market is sluggish.

To quote a friend… “ah, it feels good to be blamed for something once again.” :p Damn us GenXers for ruining the economy.

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Never let the facts get in the way of a good Cronkite moment

Never let the facts get in the way of a good Cronkite moment:

Lost in all the boosterism and talk of 9/11, solidarity and resolve was another inconvenient fact: A lot of the so-called ‘iron-clad’ reporting about what allegedly took place last Wednesday has turned out to be crap.

We were told that there were two or more shooters. Wrong. We were told that Wednesday’s shooting was likely “linked” to the hit and run death of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent in St. St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec and hence that some sort of wider conspiracy was afoot. Wrong. We were told that shooter Michael Zahef-Bibeau was on a high-risk travel list. Wrong. We were told that Zahef-Bibeau wanted to travel to Syria. Wrong. (He hoped to go to Saudi Arabia – one of Canada’s best buddies in the Middle East.) We were told that the 90-odd individuals supposedly on a CSIS “watch” list were being “rounded up” by authorities. Wrong.

Even the “hero” Sergeant-at-Arms “story” is collapsing. Reportedly, Zahef-Bibeau was shot at least a dozen times and possibly dead before Kevin Vickers fired his gun.

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Conservatives mulling legislation making it illegal to condone terrorist acts online

Conservatives mulling legislation making it illegal to condone terrorist acts online:

Sources suggest the government is likely to bring in new hate speech legislation that would make it illegal to claim terrorist acts are justified online.

The Prime Minister told the House of Commons on Thursday that Canada’s law and policing powers need to be strengthened in the areas of surveillance, detention and arrest. He said work is already under way to provide law enforcement agencies with “additional tools” and that work will now be expedited.

The Conservative MP said the new legislation was crafted before this week’s events and is not “trauma tainted.”

Never waste a crisis: one way of using them is to to pass legislation that’s crafted ‘well in advance’ of any given crisis, but that could likely only pass with the support of the House and/or the citizenry in the face of the crisis.

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Actual Buzzfeed headline, or Onion parody of a Buzzfeed headline? – The Washington Post

The article: meh.

The humour: our purebred Himalayan cat looking dazed and confused on the Washington Post’s website.

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When I knew I had no place left to hide

The effects of Snowden’s revelations are more than just political or technical. For many they are personal; lives have been remade as we become aware of the legal and political and familial ramifications of our work. And what is left unsaid is often more extensive than what is uttered aloud.

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Obama signs “BuySecure” initiative to speed EMV adoption in the US | Ars Technica

It’s always nice to see the US racing to catch up to where the rest of the world’s been at for many, many years. And all it’s taken have been a serious of catastrophic data breaches!

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A Canadian judge could lose job after her pictures disclosed without consent

This story is absolutely appalling. In summary, a Canadian judge had pictures of her posted to the Internet without her consent and the result may be that she loses her job despite having done nothing wrong herself. She’s eminently qualified for her job and the fact that she has been subject to sexual harassment/violence should absolutely not disqualify her from her current position. It would be a travesty of justice if, after being victimized, she were to lose her job on the basis of having been victimized.

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A New Work Reality?

A New Work Reality?:

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Nicky Hager’s house raided by police

Nicky Hager’s house raided by police:

While working on the book, Mr Hager said he was prepared for a raid-type situation, but did not believe the police would conduct one on his property.

This is exactly the kind of thing that political reporters shouldn’t have to prepare and defend against is democratic states. But more and more are because of overzealous state secrecy laws combined with bullying policing tactics.

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Mississauga man pleads guilty in international Xbox hacking ring | Toronto Star

Mississauga man pleads guilty in international Xbox hacking ring:

Prosecutors said the small group of gaming enthusiasts called itself the Xbox Underground.

“These were extremely sophisticated hackers. Don’t be fooled by their ages,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed McAndrew said after Tuesday’s court hearing. McAndrew told reporters the other members of the group looked to Pokora as a leader.

Chris Parsons, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab and expert in Internet security, told the Star the technique used by the group, known as “SQL injection,” is one of the most common attacks used.

“I’m not saying that these individuals are more or less sophisticated, but you really do not have to be terribly clever to run SQL injections,” said Parsons, who has no involvement in the case.

The technique at its most simple involves tricking a database used by the organization into thinking that the hacker has the power to run administrator-level commands.

Parsons says the value of intellectual property and material like the group was after is difficult to gauge. He said they could sell it, or trade it online.

“Certainly some information would be more valuable than others. There might be a large variation for how much you might pay for a prototype Xbox One, versus information about how the U.S. military trains its apache helicopter pilots,” said Parsons. “It would vary substantially in terms of what the information is and the completeness of it.”

There’s no indication in the court documents that the group attempted to sell military information.