Comcast Punishes BitTorrent Pirates With Browser Hijack

Comcast revealed today how it will deal with customers who receive multiple warnings under the newly launched “six-strikes” anti-piracy system. After four alerts the ISP will “hijack” web-browsers of suspected serial pirates with a persistent pop-up notification, making it impossible to browse the Internet. The pop-up will disappear after the customer “resolves the issue” with a Customer Security Assurance professional.

Earlier this week when the six strikes system launched, little was known (officially) about the punishments ISPs were planning for persistent pirates.

Since then Verizon reinstated their copyright alerts section, revealing the mitigation measured that leaked last month. Today Comcast follows with a brief overview on how they will handle things.

In common with other ISPs, Comcast will start out with friendly alerts informing customers that their account has been used to share copyrighted material. After four warnings, repeated offenders will then enter the “mitigation phase” during which their service will be interrupted.

Comcast has chosen a browser “hijack,” making it impossible for customers to browse the Internet, but without interrupting VOIP and other essential services.

“If a consumer fails to respond to several Copyright Alerts, Comcast will place a persistent alert in any web browser under that account until the account holder contacts Comcast's Customer Security Assurance professionals to discuss and help resolve the matter,” Comcast writes.


First alert

“We will never use account termination as a mitigation measure under the CAS. We have designed the pop-up browser alerts not to interfere with any essential services obtained over the Internet.”

Comcast further assures its customers that the browser hijack system has been tested for years, and that it should work smoothly.

“The browser alert system has been tested for years by Comcast as part of our program to alert our subscribers when their Internet access device is infected by a malicious bot, and the alert technology is now being deployed for this purpose,” Comcast explains.

In addition, the ISP emphasizes that the privacy is secured, up to a certain degree.

“We've worked with the Center for Copyright Information and outside experts in privacy, education and consumer rights to design the Copyright Alert System in a way that will safeguard our customers' privacy and ensure we don't share any personal customer information under this system with anyone.”

Comcast can be asked to hand over IP-addresses of persistent infringers, and the ISP acknowledges that copyright holders can then obtain a subpoena to reveal the personal details of the account holder for legal action.

Provided that doesn’t happen, the measures should seem rather reasonable to most.

A group that wont be happy with the new regime is the Open Wireless Movement. The tens of thousands of people who share their Internet connection with neighbors or complete strangers will no longer be able to do so.

Conversely, VPN providers and BitTorrent proxies can look forward to new clientele.

During the weeks to come we hope to learn more about the efficiency of the copyright alert system, and how the various alerts and mitigation measures work in the wild.

Source: Information Liberation

Ethos - a powerful documentary about our corrupt system

Presented by twice Oscar nominated actor and activist Woody Harrelson, this powerful new documentary blows the lid off our corrupt system.

From criminal conflicts of interest in politics, to unregulated corporate power, to a news media in the hands of multi-national conglomerates, to a military industrial complex that effectively owns our government.

Ethos looks at the systemic issues that work against democracy, the environment, democracy, justice and our own personal liberty.

We must stop the chemtrails

This is a very important interview regarding chemtrails and geo-engineering. The situation is getting very serious.

Contaminated water still a serious issue at Fukushima Daiichi

Nearly two years after the onset of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, over 220,000 metric tons of contaminated water have been collected and stored on site, still another 75,000 tons remains in the reactor buildings.  Every day at least another 40 tons of contaminated water are created, requiring additional storage tanks to be constructed.

Currently the concentrated saltwater receiving tanks are 95% filled to capacity.  Currently 220,761 m3 of contaminated water is being stored, but the total capacity is only 232,000 m3.

The utility has been so far unable to prevent the contaminated water injected into the damaged reactors from flowing out of the buildings into the environment and even escaping directly into the ocean.  Accumulated water levels in the Turbine Buildings are assumed to increase daily, some of the accumulation due to the interaction between the groundwater on-site and the water inside of the buildings.

Workers at Fukushima Daiichi use a water treatment system called SARRY to remove cesium prior to storing water in tanks.  TEPCO is still working to complete construction of multi-nuclide removal equipment, but it is 4 months behind schedule.

The levels of radioactivity measured near the Unit 2 Sub-Drain have been on the rise since November, and while much focus has been justly applied to the continuous aerial release of radionuclides from the reactors themselves, with storage space running out it is critical to control the seeping of contamination through the local groundwater.

Source: The Denki Shimbun

Who Will Save The Honey Bee? EU Mulls Pesticide Ban While US Set to Approve More

There are a number of grave ecological crises nagging at the status quo of modern life. Though the corporate media prefers not to cover the enduring impact of events like Fukushima, the Deepwater Horizon or Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder, the truth remains that these issues are vastly more important than most of the things we concern ourselves with.

The honey bee is unique in the animal kingdom for its critical importance to both the environment and the economy. Without the bee, the variety and amount of food for human consumption would drop dramatically and the many industries built around bee products would collapse.

The global decline in honey bee populations is attributed to a varying combination of 6 primary factors:

1. Viruses and infections
2. Attacks by parasites and invasive species
3. Genetically modified plants
4. Poor nutrition
5. Environmental change and habitat fragmentation and loss
6. Intensive use of agricultural pesticides

Right now worldwide bee colony collapse is accelerating at alarming rates, and beekeepers are expecting one of the worst years ever.

Read more »

Human Hormones Are Being Eclipsed By Synthetic Chemicals

A new study published in the Journal of Applied Toxicology has raised some disturbing possibilities regarding the dangers of common hormone-mimicking preservatives found in thousands of consumer products on the market today.[1]

Titled "Parabens detection in different zones of the human breast: consideration of source and implications of findings," researchers discussed the role that parabens -- a class of estrogen-mimicking chemicals widely used in drugs, foods and cosmetics -- may have in breast cancer and childhood disease.

The report focused on the findings of The Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Centre at the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust published last month (March, 2012), which discovered five paraben esters in human breast tissue samples collected from 40 mastectomies from women with primary breast cancer.[2] The report revealed three things:

1) The ester form of parabens found within the breast tissue samples indicated a dermal route of exposure, as would occur through skin care products and underarm deodorants.

2) The paraben residues were found at concentrations up to 1 million times higher than the estrogen (estradiol) levels naturally found in human breast tissue.

3) Propylparaben was found in the highest concentration in the underarm area (axilla), where underarm deodorants are most used and breast cancer prevalence is at its highest.

While the World Health Organization considers the estrogenic properties of parabens to be a low toxicological risk due to it being 10,000-100,000 less potent than estradiol (E2), the 1 million-fold higher levels found within breast tissue sampled clearly indicate the magnitude of exposure more than compensates for the reduction in potency.

Also noted in the new study was a highly disturbing possibility: "For exposures in children, concern has already been raised that 'the estrogenic burden’ of parabens and their metabolites in blood may exceed the action of endogenous estradiol in childhood and the safety margin for propylparaben is very low when comparing worst-case exposure’ (Boberg et al., 2010)."

In other words, synthetic hormones from chemicals like parabens may actually be eclipsing the activity of endogenously produced (natural) hormones in our children. Given that 99.1% of the US population's urine samples (ages 6 or older) contain methylparaben, this issue has broad-ranging implications.

Presently, European regulations allow for the use of parabens in cosmetics at up to 0.4% by volume. The limits in the US are much less restricted. According to the FDA’s website: "The Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) reviewed the safety of methylparaben, propylparaben, and butylparaben in 1984 and concluded they were safe for use in cosmetic products at levels up to 25%. Typically parabens are used at levels ranging from 0.01 to 0.3%." Parabens are also FDA-approved for use as food preservatives.

Given the fact that modern-day toxicological risk assessments do not account for the adverse effects of chronic, low-dose exposures, nor the reality of synergistic toxicities, i.e. the reality that a chemical's adverse effects may be amplified when present alongside other chemicals, this new research points to a disturbing possibility: commonly used preservatives may be contributing greatly to the burden of disease in exposed populations -- especially infants and children, whose body burden is higher (lower body weight vs. chemical), susceptibility to chemically-induced genotoxicity higher (because their cells replicate more rapidly), and detoxification systems are less developed than adults.

It is becoming increasingly clear that in order to protect ourselves and especially our offspring from avoidable chemical exposures this country needs to implement the precautionary principle in its toxicological risk assessments: if there is indication that a chemical could do harm (based on cell and animal studies), it should be treated as if it actually does harm, and be regulated accordingly. Until then, we are effectively a living and breathing nation of guinea pigs.

Source: Activist Post

Horse meat found in Ikea's Swedish meatballs

STOCKHOLM –  Swedish furniture giant Ikea was drawn into Europe's widening food labeling scandal Monday as authorities said they had detected horse meat in frozen meatballs labeled as beef and pork and sold in 13 countries.

The Czech State Veterinary Administration said that horse meat was found in one-kilogram packs of frozen meatballs made in Sweden and shipped to the Czech Republic for sale in Ikea stores there. A total of 1,675 pounds of the meatballs were stopped from reaching the shelves.

Ikea spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said meatballs from the same batch had gone out to Slovakia, Hungary, France, Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland. Magnusson said meatballs from that batch were taken off the shelves in Ikea stores in all those countries. Other shipments of meatballs were not affected, she added.

However, the company's Swedish branch announced on its Facebook page that it won't sell or serve any meatballs at its stores in Sweden out of concern for "potential worries among our customers."

Magnusson said Ikea saw no reason to extend that guidance globally. She said Ikea was conducting its own tests of the affected batch. She also said that two weeks ago Ikea tested a range of frozen food products, including meatballs, and found no traces of horse meat.

Ikea's stores feature restaurants and also sell typical Swedish food, including the so-called Kottbullar meatballs.

Read more: Fox News