Fake Store Fronts in Belfast to Boost Economy?

WeAreChange goes to Belfast see for themselves the way Northern Ireland has decided to handle the economic hardships in their neighborhoods. Thought various cities, the Northern Irish government has spent around £2 million on plastering up photos of fake store fronts where businesses once operates. These have been here for over a year but governments in multiple other cities have decided to do the same to put up a false sense of a thriving economy for the G8. This is another example of governments attempting to mask the problems of recession since the bank bailouts instead of actually doing something about it.

WeAreChange Youtube channel - Luke Rudkowski Twitter from Belfast @Lukewearechange

The Problem With Religion

Richard Dawkins reflects over the negative impacts of religion.

Stupid Law Says 'NO' To Gay Marriage!? Google Says 'Challenge Accepted.'

Until May 18, 2013, same-sex marriage was illegal in France. Watch to find out how these couples challenged that law, one gay video chat at a time. Note: These symbolic marriages were not legally binding, but rumor has it all the couples in the video have plans to get legally married as well.

British intelligence agencies intercepted foreign politicians' communications at G20 summits

Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts, according to documents seen by the Guardian. Some delegates were tricked into using internet cafes which had been set up by British intelligence agencies to read their email traffic.

The revelation comes as Britain prepares to host another summit on Monday – for the G8 nations, all of whom attended the 2009 meetings which were the object of the systematic spying. It is likely to lead to some tension among visiting delegates who will want the prime minister to explain whether they were targets in 2009 and whether the exercise is to be repeated this week.

The disclosure raises new questions about the boundaries of surveillance by GCHQ and its American sister organisation, the National Security Agency, whose access to phone records and internet data has been defended as necessary in the fight against terrorism and serious crime. The G20 spying appears to have been organised for the more mundane purpose of securing an advantage in meetings. Named targets include long-standing allies such as South Africa and Turkey.

More on The Guardian

The Transformation of Society

The US government has been violating the constituion and trampling on the bill of rights since virtually the inception of the country. The history of the US, like the history of every other country, is littered with the corpses of nice-sounding ideals, from false flag frame-ups to lead the nation into war to the persecution and even execution of political dissidents. But the point is that 50 years ago, America wanted to believe it was a nation of ideals, and many people did believe that. So what changed?...

Corbett Report

Turkish police use chemicals

Police have fired water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to clear Taksim and Gezi Park of protesters and prevent them from returning. Sporadic clashes have then been taking place around the area. (RT)

@liamoconghaile Shocking! Police adding chemicals into water cannon in #Istanbul #occupygezi http://t.co/xPzhQ1lx1a. Also see GRUP YORUM SEVENLER FORUMU

Turkish police started to use an unknown chemical against the protestors. This chemical is added to the riot vehicles' water tanks. Chemical burns the skin. There are many severely injured people in the hospitals. CNN iReport

Details on Wikileaks-forum

Photos on Occupygezi – Daily Kos – livestream 

Police target every protest refuge, even inside the Hilton Hotel!

Police entered the Hilton hotel in Istanbul to tackle the protesters who have used the facility as a safe-haven, Saturday. Reportedly, the Hilton allowed protesters to seek refuge in its plush lobby and bar, but as tensions continue to rise in the city as the government seeks to regain full control, police entered to clear the hotel.

Ball & Chain

Janis Joplin Live At Woodstock 1969

...Like Clockwork

Queens of the Stone Age

Turkish protesters drone that was shot down by police

Tuesday afternoon on June 11th 2013, Police fired bullets at RC controlled flying camera during the protests in Taksim square, Istanbul. Here is the footage from that camera! Unfortunately the last video was not saved properly on the memory card due to the impact on the camera. Police aimed directly at the camera. Both the camera and the helicopter are completely broken. However, all the footage you are about to see is from the previous flights minutes before the incident.

Ill Submarine

The Beastles (The Beatles with The Beastie Boys)

Cenk Goes Ballistic on Fundamentalist Religion

Cenk Uygur host of The Young Turks in response to a story about a woman dying because she was denied an abortion goes on a rant against fundamentalist religion. Watch The Young Turks.

The Atheist Experience

The Atheist Experience TV Show

Happy Together

The Turtles

Sao Paulo transport fare protest turns violent

Protests against bus and underground fare rises in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo have turned violent. Police fired rubber-coated bullets and tear gas, and detained more than 200 people. Police say they seized petrol bombs, knives and drugs. Violence has also been reported at protests in Rio de Janeiro.

Prices for a single ticket in Sao Paulo were raised on 2 June from 3 reals ($1.40, £0.90) to 3.20 reals ($1.50, £0.96). The authorities say that the rise is well below inflation, which since the last price rise in January 2011 has been at 15.5%, according to official figures.

An estimated 5,000 protesters converged on the streets of Sao Paulo's central area on Thursday - the fourth day of the protests. Most of the protesters are thought to be university students The protesters clashed with police, who fired tear gas to try to disperse the crowd. At least 55 people have been injured, according to the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. It added that six of its journalists had been wounded, two of them shot in the face. State Governor Geraldo Alckmin branded the rioters "vandals" and promised to act to avoid a repeat of the violence.

More on BBC News

Anonymous trolls NSA with ‘keywords of terror’

Anonymous disables the National Security Agency’s website and trolls their “impressive surveillance apparatus” with “keywords of terror” as part of Operation Troll the NSA (#OpTrollTheNSA).

Hacktivists associated with the international internet collective Anonymous initiated Operation Troll the USA on June 12, in response to bombshell revelations made by Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former federal government contract worker who revealed details of a vast secret surveillance program operated by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Softpedia reports hackers from WikiCrew disrupted the official NSA website, nsa.gov, via a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack on June 12. At time of publication the site had been inaccessible for over 13 hours. Softpedia also reports “hackers of the St0rmyw0rm group have leaked a file which they claim contains the email addresses of over 400 individuals that work for the NSA.”

More on Examiner.com - Operation Troll the NSA

Why wars happen

There have been nine wars and almost 130 violent conflicts across the world this year, according to an annual report released on Monday December 15th by the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, a think-tank. The study classifies conflict broadly to include peaceful disputes over politics or borders (low intensity), as well as those involving sporadic or constant violence (medium or high intensity). In 2008 previously non-violent conflicts escalated into violence in countries such as Kenya and Yemen. Ideological change is both the most common cause of conflict and the root of most wars, but there is rarely only one cause of dispute. Congo's ongoing conflict encompasses a battle for its mineral resources and, according to some, an invasion by another state, Rwanda.

The Economist

The Raid

The Megaupload Copyright Raid in New Zealand. Helicopters, Assault Rifles, Anti-Terrorism units, Attack Dogs & 72 cops terrorizing a zero-threat family. Kim Dotcom

The U.S. Government vs You & Kim Dotcom (PDF)

The World is Changing

Femi Kuti

The Shocking Amount of Wealth and Power Held by 0.001% of the World Population

Many now know the rhetoric of the 1% very well: the imagery of a small elite owning most of the wealth while the 99% take the table scraps. 

In 2006,  a UN report revealed that the world’s richest 1% own 40% of the world’s wealth, with those in the financial and internet sectors comprising the “super rich.” More than a third of the world’s super-rich live in the U.S., with roughly 27% in Japan, 6% in the U.K., and 5% in France. The world’s richest 10% accounted for roughly 85% of the planet's total assets, while the bottom half of the population – more than 3 billion people – owned less than 1% of the world’s wealth.

More on Alternet - The World's Billionaires on Forbes

Alex Jones disrupts BBC politics show

For What It's Worth

Buffalo Springfield

Turkish Workers Join Mass Protests

Confederation of unions, stage two day strike in solidarity with protestors, against police brutality and for a more democratic Turkey.

Everyone's a Terrorist

EuroNews: Obama defends ‘privacy trade-off’ for security - Democracy Now!

Texas Says It's OK to Shoot an Escort If She Won't Have Sex With You

A jury in Bexar County, Texas just acquitted Ezekiel Gilbert of charges that he murdered a 23-year-old Craigslist escort—agreeing that because he was attempting to retrieve the $150 he'd paid to Lenora Ivie Frago, who wouldn't have sex with him, his actions were justified.

Gilbert had admitted to shooting Frago in the neck on Christmas Eve 2009, when she accepted $150 from Gilbert and left his home without having sex with him. Frago, who was paralyzed by the shooting, died several months later.

Gilbert's defense argued that the shooting wasn't meant to kill, and that Gilbert's actions were justified, because he believed that sex was included as part of the fee. Texas law allows people "to use deadly force to recover property during a nighttime theft."

gawker.com

Freedom of Speech and Exchange of Ideas

Stephen Fry