Sunday, July 06, 2014

“Hey, it's not like we're a bunch of second class citizens like the people who elected us!”
U.S. House Panel Says It Can Ignore SEC Subpoenas in Insider-Trading Probe
The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and a top staff member say the panel and its employees are “absolutely immune” from having to comply with subpoenas from a federal regulator in an insider-trading probe.
The committee yesterday responded to U.S. District Court Judge Paul Gardephe’s order to explain why it hadn’t complied with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s requests for documents, phone records and testimony of aide Brian Sutter for more than a year. Gardephe gave the House until yesterday to answer.
Kerry W. Kircher, the top lawyer for the House, said the SEC’s request should be dismissed because the information it seeks concerns legislative activities protected by the Constitution, which can’t be reviewed by federal judges. If Gardephe won’t dismiss the SEC’s case, it should be transferred to federal court in Washington, Kircher said.


Sounds impressive, until you look at the parking lot surrounding NSA headquarters...
North Korea Doubles Cyber War Personnel: Report
North Korea has doubled the number of its elite cyber warriors over the past two years and established overseas bases for hacking attacks, a report said Sunday.
The North's cyber war unit now has 5,900 personnel, compared with 3,000 two years ago, the South's Yonhap news agency said.
"The communist country operates a hacking unit under its General Bureau of Reconnaissance, which is home to some 1,200 professional hackers," a military source was quoted as saying.


Perhaps I could skim a bit? All I need is a very small percentage of a very large number...
How a Bitcoin Rival Could Create a Global Supermoney – American Banker
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Jul 5, 2014
American Banker, Richard Samson – [Editor's note: This article is based in part on SUPERMONEY: The New Wealth Beyond Banks and Bitcoin, which appears on Samson’s Futurist blog published by the World Future Society.] While Bitcoin grabs headlines, a little-noted rival promises to supercharge all currencies old and new, fiat and cyber. An open-source programming system called the Ripple protocol could transform commerce and banking by making dollars, yen, euros, bitcoins, and even loyalty points virtually interchangeable. The Ripple protocol, based in part on the system behind Bitcoin, is a payment and currency exchange system that erases the barriers between fiat currencies while also embracing digital currencies and other representations of value, ranging from gold to frequent flyer miles. It goes beyond Bitcoin by providing a code system that leaves no currency—including bitcoins—out.”


Not just for my Ethical Hackers. Everybody can use these... (and remember, you didn't hear it from me!)
Loathsome Life Lessons: 13 Unethical Hacks Not To Try. Ever. [Weird & Wonderful Web]
There are now a host of websites offering life hacks. These are simple ways of making your life easier; from a faster way of folding your shirt to methods for kickstarting your writing career. Some call these life hacks, other call these productivity tips. We here at MakeUseOf call them Self Improvement. But they all essentially suggest a better way of doing something.
Not all life hacks are created equal. Alongside the fantastic and fascinating life hacks are some that are so unethical (and borderline illegal) that no one in their right mind should even try to pull them off. With the generous help of Unethical Hacks we have compiled a list of 13 life hacks that only sociopathic misanthropes would ever take seriously.


For my students.
The 10 Most Important Work Skills In 2020
… According to this infograph, the future is driven by 6 factors: human longevity, workplace automation, computational data, new communication tools, social technologies and global diversity. Through these six factors, this infograph predicts 10 essential skills employees of the future should have in order to succeed.


In business, no strategy survives contact with the employees.

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