Monthly Archives: August 2017

Yes, Julian Assange has a solar-eclipse conspiracy theory for …

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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is finding himself in an unique predicament. In the past when he has been criticized, it has mainly been for his alleged alliance with Russias Vladimir Putin.

Now Assange is facing criticism for something altogether different denying basic medical science.

On Monday evening, Assange tweeted that there is no danger staring directly at the moon during a total eclipse. Instead, as he explained to a Twitter user who responded to him, you look away when you see it ending. Eyes also move to protect themselves. The hysteria seems to be sustained by glasses company profits.

Assange later tried to defend himself by posting a NASA description of solar eclipses that did nothing to reinforce his claim that one can safely stare directly at the moon during an eclipse.

To understand howAssange got his science wrong, note thisobservation by Gizmodos Tom McKay:

In fairness to Assange, hes not wrong that a total solar eclipse is, in theory, safe to look at during the very short period of time that the main body of the sun is covered entirely by the moon. In that extremely limited circumstance, only parts of the the suns corona which do not emit enough energy to damage the eye are visible.

But the vast majority of people viewing an eclipse never see a totality. Theyll see a partial eclipse, which is when only a significant percentage of the sun is covered (as in New York today, whereonly 72 percent of the sun was obscured). Because so much of the sun is covered during a partial eclipse, ones eyes may not move to protect themselves. Instead, the sun will dim enough that one could get fooled into staring at it, even as its frying the interior of their retinas.

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Cryptocurrency Price Predictions 2018: Ripple (XRP) Is the …

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By Gaurav S. Iyer, IFC Published : August 25, 2017

Investors looking for cryptocurrency price forecasts are about to have an embarrassment of riches, because everyone and their uncle is shouting predictions from the rooftops. Some of them may even come true.

Most of these forecasts concern Bitcoin and Ethereum, but do not turn a blind eye to the ones featuring altcoins such as Litecoin and Ripple. They are starting from a much lower base, making it easier for them to double, or even triple, in a short amount of time.

For example, XRP grew 3,977% in the first six months of 2017. It is inconceivable that investors can achieve those kind of results from the stock market, yet cryptocurrency price predictions experience bullish runs of that magnitude all the time.

In the past week, dozens of them have achieved triple-digit gains.

Of course, none of these coins have proven their worth. Speculators are largely responsible for the gains, meaning that Xenixcoin or Yescoinor whatever other weirdly named coin is the flavor of the weekcould sink to zero at a moments notice.

That said, these numbers should adequately demonstrate how the cryptocurrency market in 2018 can make you rich.

This may come as a surprise, but the most promising cryptocurrencies for 2018 are the most famous ones. Why? Because survival is next to impossible in the crypto Wild West, so the ones that make it are usually there for a reason.

For instance, Bitcoins immense market power is tied to its brand name recognition. It only grows stronger as the market splinters into more and more pieces.

However, there are more substantive reasons to bet on the original cryptocurrency, including the fact that other currencies came into existence by forking off Bitcoins blockchain. As a result, investors can only access them by first converting fiat money into BTC tokens.

Also Read:

Litecoin Price Prediction 2018: Is Litecoin Potential Higher Than Current Counterparts?

Bitcoin vs. Bitcoin Cash: 5 Things Bitcoiners Need to Know

Ethereum is another stalwart of the cryptocurrency market. Its creation of smart contracts has taken the industry into orbit, providing new companies with an alternate funding source called initial coin offerings or ICOs. You may have heard the term in recent months.

ICOs have become all the rage, with some companies raising $100.0 to $200.0 million in a matter of hours. The best part of an ICO (at least from the perspective of the startup) is that no equity changes hands. Its basically like Kickstarter, but on 13 different steroids.

Most of these token sales happen (surprise, surprise) on Ethereum, which leads to greater trading volume and, to be quite honest, continued relevance for Ether tokens.

And as for Ripple, well, it stands out for being an enterprise play in a field dominated by consumer-facing currencies. While everyone is trying to gin up interest in their peer-to-peer payments service, Ripple is busy negotiating deals with global financial institutions.

Not all currencies can mimic this strategy, because very few of them are structured as companies. They dont have a corporate hierarchy or explicit control over the direction of their token. Some people view that as a knock against RippleI do not.

In fact, I believe that Ripple will outperform Bitcoin and Ethereum in the next 18 months.

Ripple trades under the ticker symbol XRP and has a market capitalization of roughly $10.2 billion (at the time of writing). Its token value surged 3,914% this year alone.

For those who may be unfamiliar with Ripple, it is a blockchain company trying to disrupt SWIFT, the shadowy company that facilitates international payments transfers.

Anyone that has sent money overseas knows what Im referring to. In order to make the payment, you have to provide a SWIFT code. The company has a monopoly on cross-border transfers, having more than 11,000 financial institutions in 200 countries on its network.

Ripple wants to take SWIFT down by working together with banks and other financial institutions. In some quarters, this willingness to work with banks taints Ripple by association. Some view it as heretical, but I personally find Ripples approach to be refreshing.

You see, blockchain is a difficult concept to understand. So are the differences between fiat money and blockchain-based currencies. They are not very easy to explain, making it an uphill battle convincing people that blockchain is the answer to economic crises.

That is a major obstacle for currencies like Bitcoin, because they depend on popular support from vendors and consumers. Ripple does not. It only needs to convince banking officials that blockchain is inevitable and then the game is won.

As such, our Ripple price prediction for 2018 is $2.00.

Although I believe XRP will outperform its peers in 2018, that doesnt mean I think Bitcoin will fall apart. It still has major tailwinds at its back. Moreover, it survived the August 1 fork, earning it serious trust points with investors.

By seeing that Bitcoin could survive a mutiny like Bitcoin Cash, investors were finally able to accept that core issues with the cryptocurrency can be resolved. After all, the entire squabble began over scaling issues. One side didnt like SegWit and they were allowed to express that frustration by forking the blockchain. So they did.

And guess what happened then?

Nothing. Bitcoin miners didnt jump ship or abandon SegWitthey just carried on doing whatever they were doing. In the end, this indifference was the silver bullet for Bitcoin Cashs ambitions.

Bitcoin not only survived the August 1 fiasco, it thrived in the weeks that followed. This reaction fit perfectly with the year-to-date pattern of BTC prices.

Bitcoin prices are up 337%, an impressive tally considering the volatility it endured.

Our Bitcoin price prediction suggests it could reach $10,000 by the end of 2018. However, it does not have a standout cryptocurrency price predictions for 2018, since its gains would not match Ripples price growth on a percentage basis.

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Ethereum holds a special place in the cryptocurrency market. It is more malleable than Bitcoin, more open than Ripple, and has a growing number of other cryptocurrencies dependent on its blockchain. Oh, and it dominates the ICO playing field, so even though it doesnt havethe top cryptocurrency price prediction for 2018, investors shouldnt underestimate it.

Ethereums growing stature comes with growing pains, but it has the added benefit of strengthening the platforms relationship with major institutions like the Russian Central Bank.

They are currently testing a potential fork on the blockchain to run Russias monetary system. If implemented, the new system would upend decades of orthodoxy in monetary policy, not to mention give Ethereum greater cachet in dealing with other central banks.

Singapore, India, and Canada are just a few of the countries experimenting with blockchain technology. If Russias tango with Ethereum goes well, you can be reasonably assured that other nations will line up for their turn. Blockchain was not, and is not, their area of expertise.

It makes sense to outsource such specialized work, but august institutions like central banks can only form partnerships with equally respectable technologies. Blockchain is getting there, but no cryptocurrency has mustered enough authority to take a solid lead.

Ethereum could be the first. Securing that institutional trust could be its gateway to widespread adoption, thus leading to a virtuous circle where more credibility leads to higher ETH prices and higher ETH prices lead to more credibility.

A milder form of that pattern evolved this year out of the ICO craze. Ethereum prices shot up from $7.98 at the start of the year to $410.68 at its peak.

The current price of ETH tokens is roughly $321.00, or 3,923% above where it ended 2016. So in percentage terms, investors rewarded Ethereum more than either Bitcoin or Ripple.

I am incredibly bullish on this trend continuing through 2017 and 2018. Though it should be noted that Ethereums surge looked even more emphatic because it was escaping several ghosts.

The platform had previously been weighed down by its own issues with blockchain forks, not to mention a disastrous episode involving a crowd-sourced venture capital fund.

It was called the Decentralized Autonomous Organisation, or DAO, and it ended in ruins. Lots of people lost money, investors lost faith in Ethereum, and the SEC started to pay attention. At the time, no one was sure the platform or the cryptocurrency would survive.

But Ether emerged from that chaos stronger than ever. ETH prices soared to all-time highs, the ICO market took shape, and central banks began their blockchain experiments. Whether or not you like Ethereum, its difficult to argue this currency has staying power. Its roots are dug too deep for the cryptocurrency price to simply fall apart.

Some regulatory confusion about ICOs is bound to throw a wrench in the works, though, so if youre looking for a cryptocurrency price forecast for Ethereum, I have to keep it conservatively bullish: Ether prices should hit $1,000 by the end of 2018.

As if it werent obvious enough by now, I believe Ripple has the best cryptocurrency price prediction for 2018. Not because it has superior technology, but because it is in the right place, at the right time, and at the right price.

All it takes is for a few Chinese banks to join the network andboomXRP could shoot through the roof.

If you are still skeptical, I urge you to examine the trading volume data of each cryptocurrency. What youll notice is that BTC and ETH are far more active than XRP, which suggests to me that an entire swath of the market is unfamiliar with Ripple.

Once Ripple permeates mainstream culture to the same level as Bitcoin and Ethereum, I believe an influx of speculative trend-followers will set this token aflame. We could see XRP prices deliver another round of triple-digit gains in 2018, making it the clear cryptocurrency to watch.

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Cryptocurrency Price Predictions 2018: Ripple (XRP) Is the ...

A Mysterious New Cryptocurrency Is Surging After Being …

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Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin speaks at TechCrunch in December of 2015.

By John Phillips/Getty Images.

After catching the eye of both the Singapore government and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ethereumthe second-biggest cryptocurrency in the world, after Bitcoincontinues to skyrocket. On Monday morning, the cryptocurrency was trading at a record-high level of $407.10, more than a 5,000 percent rise since the beginning of 2017, when it was trading at $7.98.

Ethereums founder, Vitalik Buterin, recently met with Putin during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a signal that the country may be interested in using digital currency to move its economy beyond gas and oil. The digital economy isnt a separate industry, its essentially the foundation for creating brand-new business models, Putin said at the forum. (Russian entities, like the state development bank VEB, have agreed to use Ethereum to help implement blockchain technology in the country). As investors look for a place to put their assets amid mounting geopolitical instability, some are turning to cryptocurrency. Singapores government has released a report saying it has carried out a test using ethereum blockchain technology to create a national digital currency. Regulators in Japan are issuing new rules that make cryptocurrencies like Ethereum a valid form of payment. And companies such as Toyota and Microsoft, which are members of an organization called the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, are throwing their weight behind the cryptocurrency, too.

Ethereum, which has a total valuation of $36 billion, trails only Bitcoin (valued at $49 billion) in terms of market capitalization. Bitcoin has been rallying all year, reaching a high of above $3,000 for the first time on Sunday as a growing number of people turn to virtual currencies as a safer, faster way to exchange money. But Ethereums rally may still have a ways to go: Pavel Matveev, the co-founder of banking start-up Wirex, tells CNBC that Ethereums price could reach $600 by the end of the year.

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A Mysterious New Cryptocurrency Is Surging After Being ...

Even WikiLeaks Haters Shouldn’t Want it Labeled a Hostile Intelligence Agency – The Intercept

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It used to be easy to cheer on WikiLeaks. But since 2010, many (myself included) have watched with dismay as WikiLeaks slid from the outletcourageousenough to host Chelsea Mannings data dump to a murky melange of bad-faith propagandizing and newsworthy disclosures. At a time when WikiLeaks and its founder are willing to help pushPizzagate, and unable totweet about sunglasses sans conspiracy-think, its not unfair to view Assange as being motivated as much by hisvarious axes to grind as by azeal for transparency. But even the harshest WikiLeaks critics should resist the Senates attempt to brand the website anon-state hostile intelligence service inthe 2018 intelligence authorization bill.

Ron Wydenisnt a friend of WikiLeaks. In May, the Oregon senatorsoffice tweeted that it was an established fact that Trump actively encouraged Russians & WikiLeaks to attack our democracy, and pointed out, with suspicion, Trumps praise for WikiLeaks during the campaign. Likehis Democratic colleagues on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Wydenembraced the tough language on Russian meddling that had been folded intothe nations spy budget, but unlike them he voted against the reauthorization billbecause ofthis sentence: It is the sense of Congress that WikiLeaks and the senior leadership of WikiLeaks resemble a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors and should be treated as such a service by the United States.

So, whats a non-state hostile intelligence service? Thats a great question, given that an intelligence service is a spy agency, and spy agencies are the tools of governments, and therefore not stateless. Thats exactly why Wyden, despite his opposition toWikiLeaks and determination to investigate Russian electoral interference, came to its defense: Official resolutions are risky when no ones really sure whats being resolved. Perhaps the hostile agency language would be purely symbolic, but if the clause somehow proved to have some teeth, plenty of publishersnot so easily written offas tools of foreign meddling could be at risk.

The Hill reports that Wyden objected to the use of the novel phrase to label WikiLeaks because the ambiguous term may have legal, constitutional, and policy implications, particularly should it be applied to journalists inquiring about secrets, adding that the notion theU.S. government has some unstated course of action against non-state hostile intelligence services is equally troubling. When CIA director Mike Pompeo used the non-state hostile intelligence service phrase to describe WikiLeaks in a think tank address in April, the words were equally unclear, and nothing has changed four months later, except the possibility that the language would be become government policy. Thats significant, and should worry you whether you hate WikiLeaks or not.

Wyden press director Keith Chu added that even though the senator has repeatedly criticized WikiLeaks for the role it played in the last election as a tool of Russia, its easy to imagine how this type of designation could be used against legitimate press outlets, or used to target journalists who may use materials published by WikiLeaks. In short, regardless of any low opinion of Assange or his site, the precedent of creating this new category of enemy to the United States is dangerous.

The U.S. government despises WikiLeaks, and has since at least 2010, when the group released more than half a million documents revealing secrets about decades of U.S. diplomacy and about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This animosity is itselfno secret. The website exists to antagonize and embarrass world governments, butAmerican power has remained the sites largest target and Assangesbte noire.Hatred for Assange and a longing to see him taken down is shared across the U.S.political spectrum by officials elected and unelected and is firmly in the public record; so too is Assanges unbendinghostility toward the U.S. government.

Whats not in the public record is clear evidence ofWikiLeaks status as anon-state hostile intelligence service, whatever that means. The declassified version of the U.S. Intelligence Communitys report on alleged Russian electoral interference states, We assess with high confidence that Russian military intelligence (General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU)obtained in cyber operations publicly and in exclusives to media outlets and relayed material to WikiLeaks. The report notes that Moscow most likely chose WikiLeaks because of its self-proclaimed reputation for authenticity, but thats about as far as the collaboration is defined. Its important to distinguish being thoroughly supportive of something and actually being part of it; if there were no difference, Breitbarts offices would be located in a tent on the South Lawn.

It seems entirely plausible that WikiLeaks was in some sense in cahoots with some portion of the Russian government: The invented hacker persona Guccifer 2.0, whichprivate analysts and the U.S. government both allege was a figment of Russian intelligence, was open about its collaboration with WikiLeaks (last summer, Guccifer 2.0 told me theywere preparing to hand DNC materials to WikiLeaks shortly before it happened). The alignment of some professed values and goals between Putin, Assange, and Trump is also undeniable. Its for this reason that the site has picked up so many vocal detractors (and in fairness, supporters) over the past year. But theres nothing about the abovethats inconsistent with the possibility that Assange received materials from Russian hackers and simplywasnt concerned with or bothered by their origin, given that they would embarrass and destabilize his arch nemesis Hillary Clinton. That should openup a public debate over whether Assange is too personally compromised as a publisher, butshould suspicion of a publishers motivesbe enshrined in law? If Assange is a hack with a flagrant agenda and few scruples, then hes got lots of company.

To legendary First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams,who told The Intercept that hesquite critical of WikiLeaks behavior, the factual issue about just what WikiLeaks has done, what contacts it has and has had with adversaries of this country, and the like should be separate from an official government designation:

The broader issue is whether our government should be designating any entity as a non-state hostile intelligence agency. Im not sure of the intended consequences of such a designation but Im pretty sure it could open WikiLeaks to threats and perhaps even violence. It has the sound of some official finding, which it is not, with some legal meaning to it, which it is not. So while I wouldnt object to high ranking intelligence officials harshly criticizing WikiLeaks, Id stay away from faux official designations.

Trevor Timm, Executive Directorof the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told The Intercept that Ron Wyden is right that the WikiLeaks provision is unprecedented, vague, and potentially very dangerous:

Regardless of whether you like or hate WikiLeaks, Congress singling out a publisher of information using a undefined and made up term like non-state hostile intelligence service to potentially stifle First Amendment rights and opening the door to more surveillance of sources should concern all journalists. Its a shame more members of Congress do not see this obvious danger.

(Freedom of the Press Foundation receives funds from The Intercepts parent company.)

In short, even if you think Julian Assange is a sleaze, or a liar, or a Putinist, and even if he were indeed all of those bad things, hes also a publisher of authentic information he wasnt supposed to have. A politically motivated publisher is still a publisher, and to deem one of them an enemy of the state would endanger any outletsworking with or interested in materials and information they arent supposed to havewhich in 2017 is almost all of them. From the Department of Justice to the White House to Congress, the anti-leaker sentiment is feverish, and the openly threatening language used against those who would publish true information unprecedented. WikiLeaks makes a tempting target for defenders of state secrecy because the websites reputation is mostly in the mud once you get outside of Trumplandbut consider the consequences.

Non-state hostile intelligence service has no technical meaningwhat would stop an outlet like the New York Times (or all of its peers and competitors) from being deemed the same based on its reporting of the same hacked emails?

What exactly is the legal status of anon-state hostile intelligence service? Would donating to WikiLeaks be considered providing material aid to an enemy?

What of the many reputable journalists whove workedwith WikiLeaks in the past, from the New York Times to Der Spiegel? Are they now guilty of having collaboratedwith anon-state hostile intelligence service?

Were WikiLeaks to publish another truly groundbreaking and valuable release along the line of Mannings, what then? Would journalists be free to glean stories from this enemy spy agency?

There arent any answers to these questions, making the language all risk with little upshot of reforming or changing Assange or WikiLeaks in any meaningful way. The much more likely outcome would be Assange treating the designation as a vindication, proof that hes a victim of U.S. governmental persecution. It would not, however, do much to persuade him that Le Pen boosterism and bogus spirit cooking conspiracy theories arent in the public interest, but could do much to chill those around the world doing real work. Dont give Assange, or Pompeo, the satisfaction.

Top photo: Julian Assange leaves after speaking to the media from the balcony of the Embassy Of Ecuador in London, England on May 19, 2017.

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Even WikiLeaks Haters Shouldn't Want it Labeled a Hostile Intelligence Agency - The Intercept

Chelsea Manning says her commutation was nothing like Joe Arpaio’s pardon, thanks – Mashable

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Not the same as the convicted sheriff.

Image: Tim Travers Hawkins/COURTESY OF CHELSEA MANNING HANDOUT/EPA/REX/Shutterstock

On Friday night, in the middle of a hurricane, President Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff who profiled Latinos and ignored a court order to stop.

It's nothing like what happened to Chelsea Manning, who spent seven years in prison for leaking classified documents and had the rest of her 35-year sentence commuted by President Obama in January.

Some people, however, were evidently using Obama's decision to commute Manning's sentence to justify Trump's decision to pardon Arpaio, who hasn't served any jail time for his conviction of criminal contempt or expressed any remorse for his history of racial profiling.

Manning quickly shut them down.

"Why does everyone insist on comparing my commutation with the pardon of some crooked cop?" she tweeted Friday night, shortly after Trump pardoned Arpaio.

Trump hinted that he might pardon Arpaio during his rally in Phoenix on Tuesday. In a tweet Friday night, the president called the sheriff an "American patriot."

Along with profiling Latinos, Arpaio was known for harsh, violent conditions in the jails he oversaw for over 20 years. He was also the sheriff who, you might remember, sent a member of his staff to Hawaii to look for Obama's birth certificate.

So it's not surprising Manning would immediately criticize those who compared his case with herswhere both the situation of the pardon and commutation were wildly different, as were reasons why both were convicted.

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Bradley Manning: I want to live as a woman – TODAY.com

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Bradley Manning, the Army private sentenced to military prison for leaking classified documents, revealed he intends to live out the remainder of his life as a woman.

I am Chelsea Manning. I am female, the Army private wrote in a statement read on TODAY Thursday. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition.

Manning, 25, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday after having been found guilty of 20 charges ranging from espionage to theft for leaking more than 700,000 documents to the WikiLeaks website while working in Iraq in 2010.

Read Manning's full statement

I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility), Manning continued in the statement. I look forward to receiving letters from supporters and having the opportunity to write back.

Manning signed the letter Chelsea E. Manning.

During his trial, Mannings defense team suggested his struggles with gender identity as a gay soldier were a factor in his decision to leak. His attorneys presented an email to a former supervisor from April 2010 in which he said he was transgender and joined the Army to get rid of it. The email, which had the subject line My Problem, also included a photo of Manning in which he is wearing a blonde wig and lipstick. During Mannings nine-month detainment at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., following his arrest in 2010, he sent two letters to his counselor using the name Breanna, Master Sgt. Craig Blenis testified at his trial.

Burning Questions: Can you begin a gender change in an Army prison?

"The stress that he was under was mostly to give context to what was going on at the time," Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, told Savannah Guthrie on TODAY Thursday. "It was never an excuse because that's not what drove his actions. What drove his actions was a strong moral compass."

Manning will likely serve the sentence at Fort Leavenworth, the only military prison for service members sentenced to 10 or more years, a Military District of Washington spokesperson told The Associated Press.

Coombs said he is "hoping" that Fort Leavenworth "would do the right thing" and provide hormone therapy for Manning. "If Fort Leavenworth does not, then I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure they are forced to do so."

The Army responded to Manning's decision to seek hormone therapy with a statement.

"Inmates at the United States Disciplinary Barracks and Joint Regional Correctional Facility are treated equally regardless of race, rank, ethnicity or sexual orientation," the statement reads. "All inmates are considered soldiers and are treated as such with access to mental health professionals, including a psychiatrist, psychologist, social workers and behavioral science noncommissioned officers with experience in addressing the needs of military personnel in pre- and post-trial confinement.

"The Army does not provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery for gender identity disorder. The USDB has implemented risk assessment protocols and safety procedures to address high risk factors identified with the Prison Rape Elimination Act."

In the U.S. prison system, transgender prisoners who have not had genital surgery are generally assigned to live with their birth-sex peers, but the military policy is unclear.

The Army private's statement, provided to TODAY exclusively, signed "Chelsea E. Manning."

On whether Manning will seek sexual reassignment surgery, Coombs said "I haven't really discussed that aspect with her. Really, it's more about getting the hormone therapy, so at this point I don't know the answer to that."

Coombs told Guthrie that he expects Manning "to be out" on parole in seven years. "But I actually expect him to get pardoned," Coombs continued. "At least that's what my hope is, that the president will in fact pardon him."

Coombs said he doesn't fear for Manning's safety in prison, and that Manning will not ask to live in a female prison. "Everyone that's in a military prison is a first-time offender. These are soldiers who have done something wrong, have gone to prison and are really just trying to do their time and then get out."

In the statement read on TODAY, Manning thanked her supporters. I want to thank everybody who has supported me over the last three years. Throughout this long ordeal, your letters of support and encouragement have helped keep me strong. I am forever indebted to those who wrote to me, made a donation to my defense fund, or came to watch a portion of the trial. I would especially like to thank Courage to Resist and the Bradley Manning Support Network for their tireless efforts in raising awareness for my case and providing for my legal representation.

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Chelsea Manning reveals the real reason Bradley Manning joined the military – TheBlaze.com

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Chelsea Manning, the transgender U.S. Army soldier formerly known as Pvt. Bradley Manning, spoke out about the reason shedecided to join the military in the first place but it didnt have much to do withserving thecountry.

Manning was found guilty in 2013 on charges of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified, sensitive government documents to WikiLeaks during a tour in Iraq. The day after a military court sentences Manning to 35 years in prison, she announced that she was transgender.

Manning became the first known soldierto undergo hormone treatment therapy while incarcerated. Shortly before leaving office, former President Barack Obama commuted Mannings sentence,and she was released in May 2017 after serving approximately sevenyears of a35-year sentence.

Manning, in an op-ed for Yahoo!, said that transgenderism and an ongoingbattle with sexuality were catalysts forenlisting inthe Army.

The former U.S. military analyst admitted in the Yahoo!op-ed that enrolling in the Army was all about provinga point to herself and to other people.

By the time I enrolled in the military at 20, I had spent years in denial about who I really was, Manning wrote. I was openly gay and would go through periods of cross-dressing, and had even thought about transitioning, but I was in such complete denial.

To overcompensate and because I was constantly being reminded of how inadequate I was as a male I enrolled in the military, Manningcontinued. My thought was, I must enlist and man up.'

Manning explained that the worst thing about being a pre-transition individualin the Army was young male soldiersrhetoric.

The one place I never felt at all comfortable in the military was in private circles of conversation. Theres a tendency, especially among young men, to objectify and denigrate women behind closed doors. Theyd say ridiculous, raunchy things about women call them sluts and whores, basically just treat them like objects. It was a line I just couldnt cross. Id try to avoid those kinds of macho conversations, because thats inevitably what would come up. Id get very, very distant.

Manning wrotethat she likelywould have been more successfulin her role as a U.S. military analyst if shed had the freedom to be out and argued againstthe notion that, if she hadnt been a trans soldier, the WikiLeaks incident would not have occurred.

I loved my job and I took my military career very seriously. Theres this idea out there that, had I not been trans, the leaks and stuff would never have happened. But to my mind those are two completely separate things. Had I been out, I think I still would have been attracted to the military, but I would have been more comfortable and gotten along with people better. Being closeted often put me in situations where I couldnt concentrate or even think straight.

Mannings comments on transgenderism in the militarycame just weeks after President Donald Trump proposed a ban ontransgenders serving in the U.S. military.

Trump saidin July, After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.

Trumps move to ban transgender individuals in the military came on the heels of military leaders exploring options to delay the enlistment of transgender individuals to further assess behaviors and liabilities.

Then House Democrats signed a letter to the office of Secretary of Defense James Mattis, telling the Pentagon not to comply with Trumps ban on transgenders serving in the U.S. military.

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AZ Rep. Trent Franks Praises Trump’s Pardon of Joe Arpaio – Breitbart News

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AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

by Ken Klukowski26 Aug 2017Washington, DC0

Arpaio was held in contempt of court by a federal judge for continuing his policy of enforcing immigration laws against illegal aliens. When Arpaio was sued for allegedly violating civil rights, a federal judge whose family member was representing the side suing Arpaioa conflict of interest that under federal law requires the judge to recuse himselfordered Arpaio to cease his law enforcement efforts.

When the judge later decided Arpaio was not fully complying with that order, he held Arpaio in contempt of court and referred the matter to the Obama-Lynch Justice Department for criminal prosecution. Judge Susan Boltonwho was appointed by President Barack Obamaconvicted Arpaio without a jury on July 31 of this year.

Although Arpaio is 85 years old and his wife is gravely ill, federal prosecutors from the Obama administration sought six months behind bars for the sheriff. If prosecutors had requested a single day more than six months of jail time, then the Sixth Amendment of the Constitutions Bill of Rights would have entitled Arpaio to a jury trial.

But by asking for only six months of jail time, Arpaio was denied the right for his fate to be decided by twelve Arizonans, who it is widely believed would likely have acquitted him. Instead, the aged lawmans fate was decided by a district judge, and so Arpaio faced the threat of being locked up behind bars alongside hundreds of criminals who were locked up by him.

Article II of the Constitution gives every president authority to grant pardons, commutations, and other reprieves for federal crimes. The power is unlimited, with the sole exception that a president cannot pardon a federal officer who is impeached and removed from office by Congress.

The White House statement accompanying the pardon declared of Arpaio, After more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is a worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.

Commending President Trump for granting the pardon, Franks contrasted it to Obamas commuting the prison sentence of Bradley Manning, the transgender Army soldier convicted of one of the worst leaks of classified information in American history, giving those documents to Wikileaks for worldwide disclosure.

While no one can dispute Manning acted to undermine our countrys national security, Joe Arpaio has spent a lifetime trying to maintain it, Franks, a longtime Republican favorite of Christians and conservatives, said in his statement. Comparing the two, it is easy to discern that Arpaio is a patriot, while Manning is a traitor.

Arpaio is the victim of political assassination and a partisan prosecution, Franks concluded. It is right and just for him and his ailing wife to receive the peace of an honorable retirement.

Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.

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4D quantum encryption successful in first real-world test – New Atlas – New Atlas

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Using quantum encryption to secure messages could make for much less hackable communication networks. The technique has been tested in the lab, but for it to really take off as a practical system it needs to work out in the real world, among other signals and natural air turbulence. Now, researchers from the University of Ottawa have successfully sent a message with high-dimensional quantum encryption between two building rooftops.

Quantum communication, at its most basic level, usually encodes information in a binary system: individual photons are sent between two points, with each representing one bit of information, either a one or a zero. But a technique called high-dimensional quantum encryption can theoretically squeeze twice the data into each photon, in turn allowing exponentially more information to be transmitted. Two bits of information per photon opens up four signal possibilities 00, 01, 10 and 11 giving it the title of 4D quantum encryption.

Not only can this technique fit more information into each particle, it's also more secure against deliberate attempts to intercept the message, as well as environmental factors like air turbulence and electronic interference. To keep out any prying eyes, this information can be encrypted with quantum key distribution, which uses the quantum states of light to encode a message and tell the receiving device how to decrypt it.

But outside of a lab, the real world is a noisy place, full of buildings, turbulent air and electronics. Before 4D quantum encryption can reach its potential, it needs to be tested in the kinds of environments it may eventually be used in. Since there's so much noise on the ground, sending a signal across a distance of 3 km (1.9 miles) horizontally is equivalent to the much greater distance of beaming a message through the relatively-clear air between the ground and a satellite in orbit.

The 3-km horizontal test is the next step, but for this proof of concept, the University of Ottawa researchers set about performing a 300 m (985 ft) test run between two rooftops in a city. They set up the lab equipment on the roof of each building, protected from the worst of the weather in wooden boxes.

The test was successful. Messages secured with 4D quantum encryption were beamed between the two stations, with an error rate of 11 percent well below the threshold to make it a secure connection. Accounting for the error correction and turbulence, the system was able to transfer 1.6 times more data per photon than 2D encryption.

"Our work is the first to send messages in a secure manner using high-dimensional quantum encryption in realistic city conditions, including turbulence," says Ebrahim Karimi, lead researcher on the study. "The secure, free-space communication scheme we demonstrated could potentially link Earth with satellites, securely connect places where it is too expensive to install fiber, or be used for encrypted communication with a moving object, such as an airplane."

The researchers say the next step is to test the system across three points, placed 5.6 km (3.5 mi) apart, using adaptive optics to try to counteract the turbulence. Longer-term, the plan is to add more links and more encryption dimensions to the system.

The research was published in the journal Optica.

Source: The Optical Society

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Privacy is your right! Here’s everything about encrypted WhatsApp messages, Apple devices and emails – Economic Times

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Now that we can agree that privacy is a right and not a feature, there's no reason for anyone to be snooping on your emails and phone conversations. You probably don't have anything to hide, but your privacy still needs to be respected. If you're in the least bit concerned, read on.

Messaging & Calls

WHATSAPP is encrypted end-to-end this means that no one, not even Whatsapp, has access to what you send. What you probably didn't know is that Whatsapp servers don't store messages at all and even voice/video calls are encrypted with the same uncrackable technology. If Whatsapp is too populous for your taste, you can always use Signal by Open Whisper Systems. They're quite similar because you can use Signal for text, audio, video, sending files, group conversations, voice calls and video calls. In fact, Whatsapp uses the Signal protocol for end-to-end encryption.

APPLE users should know that iMessage and FaceTime are also end-to-end encrypted. Needless to say, this only works within the Apple ecosystem, so you have to be chatting or video calling with someone who has an Apple device.

WICKR normally makes enterprise class communication products but they also have Wickr Me a free, private messenger for personal communications. It is end-to-end encrypted and has default ephemerality (all messages are fleeting, get deleted on being read). It also allows you to send photos, videos and files up to 10MB in size. For larger files and secure chat rooms, you can explore some of the paid plans.

Your privacy needs to be respected (Image: Thinkstock)

Email

PROTONMAIL is top of mind for most when it comes to secure email - you can use the web client or even the mobile apps for free. All emails are secured and anonymous (no personal info is needed to create an account). Basic accounts (500MB storage, 150 emails per day) are free and you can upgrade to remove these restrictions.

MAILFENCE is not as popular as ProtonMail but it also offers a free secure email account with up to 200MB total storage, 250MB documents, two-factor authentication and digital signatures. There's no spam, no trackers, no ads and no access for govt surveillance.

TUTANOTA gives you 1GB of space for email with some restrictions (no aliases, no customisation). It automatically encrypts all data including email and contacts. You can access it on any device using a web browser or get the apps for Android and iOS.

Cloud Storage

BOXCRYPTOR can be used to encrypt your files with any of the cloud storage providers like Dropbox, Google or OneDrive. It's free for personal use the catch is that you can only use it with one cloud provider and two devices. There are paid plans available if you need to remove these restrictions.

TRESORIT provides end-to-end encryption of your files. It includes 1,000GB of encrypted storage and you can access them from up to 10 devices all platforms are supported. If you need to send a file to anyone, you can send an encrypted link and access can be revoked anytime. You can try it free for 14 days after which it is US$12.50 a month (or US$10.42 a month, if billed annually).

SPIDEROAK is a cloud storage provider that encrypts data but also protects it in case of accidental loss (backup and sync of data is available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android). You can create temporary, self-destructing links if you need to share any data from your personal cloud. Plans start at US$5 a month for 100GB storage and there are options for 250GB (US$9/month), 1,000GB (US$12/month) and 5TB (US$25/month).

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Privacy is your right! Here's everything about encrypted WhatsApp messages, Apple devices and emails - Economic Times