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PATH: BS | Business
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What is Net Neutrality And Why Should You Care?
Posted by Pile
(23344 views)      [E-Mail link]
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 What is Net Neutrality and why should people care about it?
In a nutshell, NN is the idea that the Internet is a shared, global network that should not be tampered with at its base level. If you want to be part of the network, you have to respect the network. This means, if you want your sites to be accessible to everybody else, then you have to make sure your customers have access to the entirety of the Internet. You can't break it into pieces and show either prejudice or favoritism in determining which content can be accessed over your system.
Simple as that. You want in? All or nothing. Play FAIR. Treat others the way you like to be treated.
Beyond this, it's important to note that before the Internet came around, there were plenty of private networks created and run by private companies. They could do what they wanted. But the Internet was created by taxpayer money and made wide open to anybody because it was a public resource. Because nobody "owned" the Internet, it prospered and eventually became the default network.
Now private companies want to take control of it and slice it into pieces and charge extra for parts, or deny you access to parts of it if the content isn't something they agree with. That's really bad.
Net Neutrality opponents argue that Net Neutrality is anti-freedom-of-speech, but they are lying. What they really mean, is that they believe they should have the freedom to deny you access to content over their network, and if you don't allow it, you're denying them their rights. It's a bizarro, irrational argument.
Why do some companies want Net Neutrality abolished?
Simple. They can make more money charging their customers for access. They can shut down competitive Internet services so they're the only game in town. The abolishment of Net Neutrality will cost consumers more and offer them less choices.
The Net Neutrality fight is split clearly along party lines.
The Republicans and the Libertarian parties are in favor of abolishing Net Neutrality. Their corporate benefactors have paid them well to push a variety of narratives convincing people it's a good thing to get rid of. To them, it's about money and control. Their idea of "freedom of speech" is refusing to carry anyone else's traffic on their network if they can't monetize it the way they want.
The Democrats have been the only party to consistently fight to protect the neutrality of the Internet. If you care about this issue, there is a party you can vote for that will protect it. Remember this in 2018. It's really important if you want full access to information, news and everything else.
It's quite popular to say, "both parties are the same" and they both are pawns to special interests, but not all parties are equally beholden to special interests, and the Net Neutrality issue is another clear example of this. If you care about the Internet, protest, contact your representatives. If you don't want to have to keep doing this over and over, vote for people who have a clear respect for the Internet. Pay attention to which parties are easier to reach and more attentive to your needs.
Some corporations are being deceitful.
You may on occasion hear that AT&T or Verizon is in favor of Net Neutrality. In reality, they and other large providers have spent millions to shut it down. Now they're muddying the waters trying to re-define what Net Neutrality means. If they can't get it abolished, then they'll write their own series of bills that re-defines what NN is, and includes the loopholes they want to filter and control traffic on their network. No matter what they say, the large providers are not friends of Net Neutrality. Beware of ANY legislation they propose which supposedly "protects" the sanctity of the Internet.
VOTE IN 2018! |
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Actually Significant Charity Challenge Ideas
Posted by Pile
(12674 views) [E-Mail link]
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[Beating Dead Horses]
[Viral Marketing] |
 Right now it's all the craze to, amidst one of the hottest-record Summer seasons, dump a bucket of ice water on your head as an alternative to donating towards ALS research. The list of public and private people who have jumped on this goofy bandwagon is too numerous to mention.
Has anybody figured out what a bucket of icewater actually has to do with a degenerative nerve disease? Does Lou Gherig's disease make you suddenly feel wet & cold for about five minutes on a hot Summer day?
Sorry, but count me in the tiny little camp of people scratching our heads wondering what difference this really makes? Has anyone managed to prove that more money = more curing? Jerry Lewis over 50 years, raised tons of money for Muscular Dystrophy research and there's still absolutely no cure. Perhaps using money to as a gauge of "success" in medical research is not the right approach?
But we here at BSA digress... it's not really about making the world a better place. It's about making YOU feel like you're doing something, even if you're not, so you can go to bed thinking you're "making a difference" because you dumped a bucket of icewater on your head. Congratulations!
However, if you are wondering, are there better, more appropriate "Charity Challenge" events you could promote, we at BSAlert have come up with a few. Check them out.... |
READ MORE | 1 comment since 2014-09-23 10:16:02 | Comment on this Article |
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Celebrities Misled By 'Restore The Gulf' Campaign
Posted by Pile
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[Environment]
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 Not long ago, many celebrities got together to make a PSA for the "Be The One" campaign, urging people to sign a petition to save the Gulf of Mexico on the website RestoreTheGulf.com (very similar to the government's website at RestoreTheGulf.gov, which might have caused confusion). This all seems good, until you look at the fine print and dig below the surface... Which is what DeSmogBlog did. It turns out that the campaign's sponsors are "America's WETLAND Foundation", a front group for oil companies (Shell, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, etc), and "Women of the Storm", a Louisiana group with strong ties to America's WETLAND (the founder of the former is married to the chairman of the latter).
The end result seems to be a carefully-orchestrated snowjob by the oil and gas industry to try and get taxpayers to fund the cleanup of their own messes... |
READ MORE | 1 comment since 2014-02-15 23:49:48 | Comment on this Article |
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Evidence Mounts On Danger of Glyphosate Pesticides
Posted by Pile
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| A recent report put together by various professors, scholars and researchers affiliated with Earth Open Source, a collaboration group devoted to food issues, cites in great detail the multitude of peer-reviewed scientific studies which show that Monsanto's Roundup herbicide (glyphosate), which is applied to many genetically-modified (GM) crops, is responsible for causing birth defects, endocrine disruption, DNA damage, reproductive and developmental toxicity, neurotoxicity, and cancer -- and yet government agencies around the world continue to ignore this crucial information, and withhold it from the public, as they push for its approval or expanded use. |
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Top 10 Crazy Facts About The BP Gulf Oil Disaster
Posted by Pile
(17300 views) [E-Mail link]
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[Environment]
[Industry] |
 It's been more than seven weeks since BP's offshore oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, crude oil has been hemorrhaging into ocean waters and wreaking unknown havoc on our ecosystem -- unknown because there is no accurate estimate of how many barrels of oil are contaminating the Gulf.
Though BP officially admits to only a few thousand barrels spilled each day, expert estimates peg the damage at 60,000 barrels or over 2.5 million gallons daily. (Perhaps we'd know more if BP hadn't barred independent engineers from inspecting the breach.) Measures to quell the gusher have proved lackluster at best, and unlike the country's last big oil spill -- Exxon-Valdez in 1989 -- the oil is coming from the ground, not a tanker, so we have no idea how much more oil could continue to pollute the Gulf's waters.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster reminds us what can happen -- and will continue to happen -- when corporate malfeasance and neglect meet governmental regulatory failure.
The corporate media is tracking the disaster with front-page articles and nightly news headlines every day (if it bleeds, or spills, it leads!), but the under-reported aspects to this nightmarish tale paint the most chilling picture of the actors and actions behind the catastrophe. In no particular order, here are 10 things about the BP spill you may not know and may not want to know -- but you should. |
READ MORE | 1 comment since 2010-08-17 10:43:24 | Comment on this Article |
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New Facebook "Feature" Exposes Everyones Personal Info
Posted by Pile
(14854 views) [E-Mail link]
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 This past week, Facebook announced Instant Personalization, whereby select websites would "personalize your experience using your public Facebook information." The initial sites are Pandora, Yelp and Microsoft Docs. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained, this means that when you visit "Pandora for the first time, it can immediately start playing songs from bands you've liked." Pandora, and other partners, can also link your real name and other Facebook information with everything you do on their site.
More specifically, these sites "may access any information you have made visible to Everyone ... as well as your publicly available information. This includes your Name, Profile Picture, Gender, Current City, Networks, Friend List, and Pages." On Monday, Facebook announced a transition where a "new type of Facebook Page" will make the "current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests sections of your profile" publicly available after you go through the transition tool (or those items will be deleted). |
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How do you explain crypto currency to your kids?
In celebration of the recent elevation in Bitcoin price, we thought it was apropos to publish a revised "investment guide"..
It's rare when we at BSAlert call attention to a corporate ad campaign on a positive note, but the latest commercial from the most unlikely of sources, Burger King, actually tugs on the heartstrings as well as the mind of consumers in a very creative way, and it's worth sharing...
When you see all those brands, all those different stores, outlets and eyecare companies, you think, "competition" right? Not exactly. What if I told you there was one company that pretty much had a monopoly on the entire market? If you don't wear glasses or sunglasses, then I guess this won't apply to you...
It's no secret among savvy shoppers that Amazon is a great place to research products and find the best price-quality ratio.
Robert Reich in approximately two minutes exposes 3 common economic myths that may be responsible for why so many Americans vote against their own interests... A very important and insightful explanation everyone should see...
Have you ever wondered why the computer/console video game industry is so male-dominated? Are computer games inherently "male" in design and appeal? It wasnt always this way, and the story about how the gender bias happened is fascinating...
These days everybody is using Facebook. But did you know if you pay to promote something, you might actually hurt your business and waste your money? A diligent Internet truth-seeker shows you in this video that all is not what it seems when it comes to advertising on Facebook, and even Facebook itself is at least indirectly involved in phony and fraudulent activity.
Two news stories have been circulating this week on the Internet that mask more dubious intentions that are worth mentioning. 
A warning to herbal supplement users: Those store-brand ginkgo biloba tablets you bought may contain mustard, wheat, radish and other substances decidedly non-herbal in nature, but they’re not likely to contain any actual ginkgo biloba.
A huge Internet outrage has erupted in the wake of GoDaddy's latest commercial leak online of what was apparently going to be their Superbowl commercial. Which has now been pulled.
HuffPo columnist and comedian, Kelly MacLean has written a hilarious article on Whole Foods..
If you have not been annoyed by this operation, consider yourself lucky, but many people know what it's like to get the "Rachel from Cardmember Services" (Bridget or another phony name) robo-call repeatedly to their telephones. The group behind this operation uses social engineering to con random callers out of their credit card numbers, SSN and other personal information under the guise of helping them get a lower interest rate on their credit card debt.
An ex-Wal-Mart employee explains why there's never anybody around, and when there is, they don't know anything or are in a bad mood. A very interesting and illuminating explanation for how, in their obsessive quest for increased profits, Wal-Mart has created a business model that thrives on attrition and crappy, burned out employees, who are systematically run-off before they can become competent.
Under the guise of combating a rise in "pseudoscience" the producers of the TED series of lectures have laid down bold new rules that inhibit any discussion on a number of controversial subjects that are anything but pseudoscience. They have even gone so far as to suggest "food as medicine" is quackery. 
Nonprofit ocean protection group Oceana took 1,215 samples of fish from across the United States in restaurants, grocery stores and sushi bars and the results were astonishing. There's more than a good chance the fish you think is "tuna" or "snapper" is not what it claims...
Ed Asner does voiceover for a clever animated video that talks about how American society has changed over the years and how taxation and corporations have sucked dry, the economy. In the style of the old "Schoolhouse Rock" cartoons...
In Robert Greenwald's new film, The Koch Brothers Exposed, he examines the pervasive influence of David and Charles Koch on the American fabric of life. It covers areas as diverse as their impact on community school boards, colleges, the environment, voting rights, and think tanks. Greenwald began the film before the Occupy Wall Street movement exploded. He was eight months into conducting his own research and filming when he saw how the 1 percent was using their financial resources to promulgate their specific ideologies and economic interests.
While government agencies like the FDA keep stalling on demanding rigorous scientific testing of numerous questionable ingredients, GMO foods, and the correct labeling of such foods, PepsiCo has recently agreed to settle out of court for $9 million over a class action lawsuit that claimed ‘natural’ and ‘non-GMO’ on their bottles was misleading since they are made with GMO ingredients, as well as synthetic and ‘unnatural’ items.
In the last few years, a number of social constructs seem to have become so engorged and dramatic, I desperately want to assume they've peaked and thus, offer up my hopeful plea that perhaps these things should decline if not begin to disappear from our social radar in the coming year. Read on as I'm sure not everyone will agree with me...
Russia is temporarily banning the import of Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) corn after results of a new study published in the Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology showed rats fed GM corn developed tumors and organ damage, with a high rate of premature death, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Nothing like mopping your floors, scrubbing your counters and cleaning your shower with hazardous waste. That’s essentially what you’re doing if you use many name-brand household cleaners to get your home spic-and-span. But you eco-conscious clean freaks probably already knew that.
Once again, Noam Chomsky nails it: "Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle."
The Daily show calls attention to a "Battle for the War on Women." While multiple states roll back the equal pay and health rights that women have come to enjoy, Fox News relegates the "war on women" to the rank of "phony" political fight. And in the process, one of their bits enrages the Catholic League, (the same guy who claimed 
In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto's GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats. It is suggested that almost all corn in America is Genetically-modified, and almost all processed food products may contain GM corn.
In the wake of the Occupy Wall Street movements and the overhwhelming backlash against the "corportization of America" and the corruption of its political process, there may be some signs of actual change.
If you buy or sell non-new goods and live in the state of Louisiana, you can no longer use legal tender to complete such transactions. Ackel & Associates LLC, a professional law firm, explains that House Bill 195 of the 2011 Regular Session (Act 389), which was recently passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Republican governor Bobby Jindal, prohibits anyone who "buys, sells, trades or otherwise acquires or disposes of junk or used or secondhand property [from entering] into any cash transactions in payment for the purchase of [such items]." Doing so could land you up to five years of hard time in jail.
What happens when Kohler makes a $6,400 toilet? Someone has to make fun of it...
A local TV newsman of 10 years writes a scathing editorial on the current state of the local TV news industry and how it works (or why it doesn't work). Ever wonder what goes on at your local news station? Here's a glimpse..
France's highest court has ruled that US agrochemical giant Monsanto had not told the truth about the safety of its best-selling weed-killer, Roundup.
On this, the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan, we discovered this very illuminating video from renown economist and research professor Michael Hudson, which explains some of the unique aspects of "Reaganomics" and what it actually did to the American economy.
A cool new PSA has come out that sheds light on why you should vote Republican...
In his weekly address, President Obama discusses the Republican Power Grab - this is an important, short video worth watching that will shed light on the coming mayhem of the mid-term elections.
Glenn Beck has been on the air a lot as of late promoting gold as a "safe investment" in today's trouble economic times. Here's an illuminating view into the scheme he's promoting and how it backfires on his unsuspecting listeners...
A first-hand account of heading along the Louisiana coast and examining the effect of the BP Horizon oil spill.
Ever wonder what a modern hospital might be like if you replaced all the scientifically-trained doctors with New Age Gurus? Here's a glimpse...
Someone won't friend you on Facebook and you want to stalk them, or maybe find out more personal info? 
That cool USB-based battery charger you connected to your computer? Who knew it secretly installed software on your machine that allows someone to connect and control your computer remotely without your knowledge?
In these times of depression, *cough*, excuse me "recession", I'm sure many of us are thinking, "I've got an extra two hundred thousand dollars to blow making my pool table look really cool. What can I do?" 
The Dragon's Den is an interesting tv show that originally started in the UK. The show is based on the premise that would-be entrepeneurs pitch products and services to the "dragons" - a group of successful businessmen. Sometimes the ideas are good, most of the time they're bad, but almost every time, the inventor is sure they've found "the most awesome product ever!" In one recent case, a guy hawking "miracle cure water", the same kind of stuff you'll see routinely advertised on talk radio, comes up against the Dragons... Let's watch..
As Comcast seeks Congressional approval for their merger with NBC, Senator Al Franken notes that out of one side of Comcastcast's mouth they claim the FCC will keep them from abusing their almost monopolist status, and out of the other, their lawyers are claiming the FCC has no jurisdiction in enforcing their decisions.
The National Tea Party Convention, an event I'm sure many readers have already gotten tickets for, has run into a couple of snags. Fortunately there's one big-haired semi-pro ex-governor who's going to pull it out of its doldrums.