The massive breach of federal employees' personal data shows the need to make officials step up the level of security
Source CNN.com - Technology http://ift.tt/1FNEFef
Source CNN.com - Technology http://ift.tt/1FNEFef
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Chris Christie Is Running For President
The New Jersey governor is the fourteenth Republican to enter the presidential race.
Scott Olson / Getty Images
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced Tuesday that he is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2016.
The Associated Press reported that Christie made his intentions known on a conference call with donors. Christie is scheduled to make his launch official Tuesday at an event in Livingston, New Jersey.
Christie -- whose brash, take-no-prisoners attitude has earned him both praise and criticism -- is focusing his campaign around his straight-talk style, saying in a campaign video that he will be "telling it like it is."
Earlier this year in New Hampshire, he unveiled his plans to address entitlement spending, an often risk-intensive political subject that many Republicans have spoken about over the last five years, but few have emphasized as a core part of their platform.
But the circumstances in which Christie launches his campaign are very different then they were even at the end of last year, when Christie seemed to moving on from past scandals and on the road to political redemption.
Despite numerous investigations, no evidence had surfaced implicating the governor in the 2013 lane closures of the George Washington Bridge (Two of his senior administration officials have since been indicted and another one of his key allies has pled guilty). As chairman of the Republican Governor's Association during the 2014 elections, Christie was applauded for his ability to raise large sums of money. Under his leadership, the number of Republicans governors increased from 29 to 31.
Things took a turn in February, when a New York Times report hit Christie for his lavish spending of taxpayer money while on official business. That same day, while on a trade visit to the United Kingdom, Christie found himself at the center of a controversy over vaccination when he said parents "should have some measure of choice" in making the decision to inoculate their child (there was an outbreak of measles across the United States at the time).
A Wall Street Journal poll in March found that 57% of likely Republican voters couldn't see themselves voting for Christie -- the only candidate less desirable was Donald Trump. His popularity in his own state of New Jersey hasn't faired much better either.
Christie is the fourteenth Republican to enter the presidential race, with even more expected the join in the coming months.
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1GKbsBQ
The Warriors' Andre Iguodala Has Some Things To Say About Tech
“Tesla’s pretty cool.”
Michelle Rial/BuzzFeed
Less than two weeks after winning the NBA championships, Warriors power forward Andre Iguodala — now an emerging entrepreneur — sat down with BuzzFeed News to talk about tech, Twitter, and Jack Dorsey's beard. Here are the highlights:
"You just try to capture the moment because it's so fast. It feels like it was two months ago, but it was seven days ago. it's just been going by in a blur. You answer a lot of questions."
"I had started a relationship with Andreesen Horowitz, and was looking at companies where I felt like I could help their brand. Twice was one of those companies — I've always been into fashion, and we wanted to look for next platforms that are evolving and engaged with their community and have a really solid foundation with a lot of potential. Twice was a really good match, being definitely fashion forward. They didn't have a mens' line, and they named me mens' style director, to get men to think fashion forward, just to give them the awareness that the way they present themeslves is very important. It's been a lot of fun just seeing the whole process of how it works and understanding the ins and outs of the business."
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Tea Party Caucus Chair: Left Wants Churches, Non-Profits, Schools To Accept Polygamy
“We’re talking about polygamy.”
buzzfeed-video1.s3.amazonaws.com
Rep. Tim Huelskamp, a Republican from Kansas and the chairman of the HouseTea Party Caucus, says "the left" will push churches, schools, and non-profits to accept polygamy following the Supreme Court's decision to strike down bans on same-sex marriage.
"It's the same old compromise with the left," Huelskamp said on "The Steve Malzberg Show" Monday, responding to comments from Ohio Gov. John Kasich this weekend saying, "the court has ruled, and it's time to move on."
"They're not about compromise they're about winning," Huelskamp added. "Imposing their will, that's why they go to courts, every time they can cause they know that they can win that there and nowhere else.
"We've got to stand up for marriage, we've got to stand up for First Amendment right of those who disagree," added Huelskamp. "There is no doubt we're already seeing it come out."
"They want to go after churches and educational institutions, non-profits, anybody that doesn't agree will be made to care and not only accepting same-sex unions but now we're talking plural unions, John Roberts mentioned that. We're talking about polygamy, he mentioned that as well., those kind of things that were unthought of is now ordinary. You must accept that from Washington D.C. and backing down as Kasich is suggesting is exactly how the left wins battle after battle."
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1LSFjfM
VR Company Jaunt Made Its Own Camera
Building a 360-degree view from the ground up.
Jaunt
You probably haven't seen a VR video yet. And why would you, because there's very little worth watching. Most of the video that's out there is from the proof of concept school of filmmaking. But Jaunt, one of the few companies making at least interesting VR content, including concerts from Paul McCartney and Big Sean, a Paul Feig-directed comedy, and a horror short — attributes much of the challenge of VR film-making to the main tool of the trade: the camera. Sometimes, when you can't buy the tool you want, you make your own. Which explains why Jaunt just announced its own camera, the Neo.
Often, VR filmmaking relies on jerry-rigged GoPros literally wired together. (This kind of GoPro rig was, literally, what Google showed at its big developer conference this year.) That's where Jaunt has been. But after four versions of these Frankencameras, it came up with a new idea, and developed an in-house model code-named "Neo." It even hired Apple's Koji Gardiner, as its director of hardware to make it happen. "We needed a completely custom camera," Gardiner told BuzzFeed News, "because there are some high level features that wouldn't be possible off the shelf."
For example, take lighting. Say you're watching a movie, but could turn the camera around — instead of the background, you would see an array of lights on tripods. Yet in virtual reality, the viewer can turn around. Which means an array of klieg lights can't be in the picture. So the ideal VR camera has to work with ambient light, which means the light sensors on the camera must be bigger and faster.
And then there's synchronization. While GoPro camera arrays are small and portable, they're not meant to work together — which is exactly what VR demands. So, the Jaunt team built cameras with this exact purpose in mind, designed to work with the software the company already had in place. The goal is a seamless array of cameras, all feeding into one 360-degree image.
Finally, came the design. "If it's going to be on-stage at a concert or inside a sports stadium, it's important that it looks good, because it's going to be very visible," Jaunt CTO Arthur van Hoff said. But don't expect to be able to buy one.
"We're not a camera company," van Hoff told BuzzFeed News, when asked whether there would ever be a consumer version of the Neo available to the public. "We're a company that makes content, and this is a tool for us to give us more control."
It's going to be a while before anyone sees footage shot on a Neo — the camera is currently still in testing, and will be first available to Jaunt partners this August.
Jaunt
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This App Keeps Truckers Rolling In An On-Demand World
Trucker Path started as a crowdsourced information hub for truckers, but it’s about to become a marketplace with the potential to shake up how commercial shippers get paid.
Via youtube.com
Driving a big rig can be a lonely job. Drivers end up spending a lot of time on the road by themselves with not much to do and not many people to talk to. In addition, most drivers are independent, meaning they don't get much support along the road.
So when Trucker Path, a San Jose based startup, launched an app that helped drivers locate the resources and information they needed — showers, parking, fuel prices etc. — at truck stops, it was a hit. "This app changed my life," wrote Jeremiah Dean in a Google Play store review. "It's truly a beautiful thing." Dozens of truck drivers have written on Trucker Path's Facebook page to say that they love the app, and consider it a must have on the job. One user was so thankful he wrote a song about it (uh, after Trucker Path asked him to):
"Well the trucker's path, it's a long old road, a never ending ribbon of black and gold," sings William Weaver.
But truck stop maps and weigh station closing times were just the beginning for Trucker Path. Today, the company is launching a public beta of Truckloads, a shipping marketplace that will rely on its network of 300,000 accounts to match independent truckers with loads that need to get from point A to point B.
via IFTTT
Bernie Sanders Wins The Killer Mike Primary
Rapper Killer Mike of Run the Jewels endorses progressive crusader Bernie Sanders for president.
Jason Kempin / Getty Images
Rapper Killer Mike of the duo Run the Jewels announced in a tweet Monday that he is supporting Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' candidacy for president, citing Sanders' support for voting rights as a deciding factor.
Killer Mike has been politically outspoken following the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, last August. Killer Mike recently attempted to run as a write-in campaign for a seat on the Georgia House of Representatives, but neglected to fill out the necessary paperwork.
Sanders, who is challenging frontrunner Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president, is a darling of the progressive left, but he is considered a longshot. However, he has recently risen in New Hampshire polls and is drawing large crowds at rallies.
"No Hillary 4 me bro," Killer Mike wrote in a follow-up tweet to a fan. "I cannot support another Clinton or bush ever."
"I am beginning to see American political families like monarchs and I have no affection for monarchs," Killer Mike continued.
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1R0CH6g
AL Congressman: If You Get An Expensive Illness With Obamacare "You're Gonna Die"
“…the kinds of illnesses that threaten to kill people, that are expensive to treat, that’s where they’re gonna tell you to get your affairs in order because they’re not gonna provide coverage and you’re gonna die.”
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
Rep. Mo Brooks, a Republican from Alabama, says people who contract expensive-to-treat illnesses are going to die under Obamacare.
"I have to look at the big picture," Brooks told the Matt Murphy Show on Friday when asked about those who would lose insurance if Obamacare was repealed. "I have to look at both the pros and the cons for all Americans and the damage that's gonna be done to Americans and the number of Americans vastly outweighs the benefit that is being given to those people that are being subsidized."
Brooks said "ultimately, you're looking at a lesser quality of care—health care." He added that the 15-person board of health-care experts created under the law to control costs -- the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) -- is making decisions about "whether a group of people live or die."
Sarah Palin famously referred to the IPAB as "death panels." The board is currently inactive because health care spending is growing at a slower rate than the threshold needed to activate it.
"An example: the Independent Payment Advisory Board, that's gonna be the entity that decides whether a group of people live or die because that entity is gonna be the one that decides whether health care is going to be provided for certain types of illnesses," said Brooks. "Uh, health care that is now provided by the kinds of insurance—well, I'll say now, that used to be provided—by the quality of insurance that we previously had."
Brooks said this meant, "people are going to be dying because of Obamacare because they're going to be denied coverage." He cited other countries in the world with similar agencies to make his point.
"And so people are going to be dying because of Obamacare because they're going to be denied coverage," said the Alabama Republican. "And how do we know this? Because there are other systems around the globe that have this kind of system in place. And there are people who are dying. You get breast cancer or you want to have a mammogram to try to have early detection to increase your likelihood of being able to survive it. Well, the countries that have this kind of government-run health care system do not provide mammogram access anywhere near the degree that we do in the United States of America. And that saves lives, if you have early detection. You lose lives if you have later detection."
Brooks again stressed that this meant there would be "people dying as a result of Obamacare just as they die in other parts of the world." He said if you had expensive illnesses "you're gonna die."
"And that's what you're going to be looking at is people dying as a result of Obamacare just as they die in other parts of the world. Now, Obamacare and government-run health care systems generally, they're good for the routine stuff. You got strep throat? Great. They'll address it. You got a broken leg? Uh, they'll mend it, okay. For the routine things. But the kinds of illnesses that threaten to kill people, that are expensive to treat, that's where they're gonna tell you to get your affairs in order because they're not gonna provide coverage and you're gonna die."
Here's the audio, the comments come 5:07:
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1U1GYFr
Alabama Supreme Court Order Causes Confusion For Marriage Equality In The State
Some probate judges in Alabama had started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the wake of this past week’s U.S. Supreme Court marriage equality ruling.
WASHINGTON — Three days after the U.S. Supreme Court marriage ruling, there is confusion in Alabama.
First, some same-sex couples were issued marriage licenses in some counties in the state on Monday morning. Then, the state's Supreme Court issued an order in the afternoon — an order that's launched confusion, including in the media, about what happens now.
In March, the Alabama Supreme Court ordered probate judges — who can issue marriage licenses in the state — to stop issuing such licenses to same-sex couples. At the time, some probate judges in Alabama had begun issuing the licenses after a federal district court ruled the state's marriage ban was unconstitutional.
Since then, there were no marriages for same-sex couples in Alabama. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee marriage bans in Obergefell v. Hodges on Friday — a ruling that creates a national decision on the issue — some probate judges in Alabama began issuing licenses again on Monday.
On Monday afternoon, the Alabama Supreme Court issued an order that asks for input from the parties to the March case as to "the effect of the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell on this Court's existing orders."
The reference to "existing orders" suggests the court's view is that the March order that banned probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples remains in effect. On Monday, the court did not, however, explicitly direct probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Additionally, the Alabama Supreme Court noted that the parties to the Obergefell case have 25 days to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling — a step that appears unlikely given that state officials in each of the four states have said they will adhere to the ruling.
Although the court did not order probate judges to stop, Chief Justice Roy Moore — who has not participated in the orders in the state case — told AL.com that the Supreme Court's opinion is "[b]asically ... not in effect" during the 25-day period, absent a ruling to the contrary from the Alabama Supreme Court.
Moore's views on the issue, however, are well known. He has spoken out often in opposition to the marriage claims made by same-sex couples. He presumably has recused himself from the case before his court because he had issued his own memorandum, as the administrator of Alabama courts, attempting to stop same-sex couples from marrying in the state in advance of the federal trial court's order there taking effect in February.
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1R0bfW0
Monday, June 29, 2015
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