Random Politics & Religion #00

Late to the party with this one, but...



His Yelp page is indicative of how angry people are.

Japanese police have arrested the head of the Mt.Gox bitcoin exchange company over the loss of a "massive amount" of the virtual online currency.

Mark Karpeles was detained Saturday, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement.

He is suspected of accessing the exchange's computer system and falsifying data to change the outstanding balance, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported ,citing the Metropolitan Police Department.

A day earlier, a report emerged that Karpeles was going to be arrested, prompting him to send a message to The Wall Street Journal describing the allegations as "false." He told the paper that he planned to deny them.

Mt.Gox was one of the world's largest bitcoin exchanges until February last year, when it stopped investors from accessing money after becoming the target of online hackers.

The exchange later filed for bankruptcy debts of 6.5 billion yen ($64 million).

According to its statements, Mt.Gox made $380,450 in revenue during 2012. However, it lost 13 times that amount the next year, when it also handed more than $5 million to the U.S. government for allegedly lying on bank documents.

At the time of its closure, Mt.Gox said that it couldn't find 850,000 bitcoins, leaving angry customers out of pocket.

However, soon after, the company said it had recovered 200,000 bitcoins -- worth about $56 million at today's rates -- from an old-format wallet used before June 2011.

That reduced the number of missing bitcoins to 650,000, or around $183 million at current rates.

I'm going to start virtual currency too. I'll call it lolcoin.

If Bitcoin scares you it means your money is not protected.

But if he was a cop killing a civilian...

Well, no, let's be fair: the only reason people are upset is because Cecil was a "celebrity" lion. So I'm sure the internet will explode if a cop decides to shoot Demi Moore in the face, but everyday people don't really count.

Wasn't the point of cryptocurrency to get people away from bank-controlled mediums of exchange? After the 2008 crash and Bernie Madoff, this notion of having trust in banks and established investment firms seems a little silly.

What about trust?

Right now I wouldn't trust any significant amount of money (IE. life savings) in Bitcoin.

Wait, you don't trust the US dollar being traded for the value printed on that paper?

If I had a $20 bill, I trust that I can go to any store in America and get $20 worth of product in exchange of that $20 bill. I can't say the same with bitcoin though.

Hundreds of people, topless women among them, have taken part in a rally organized by three sisters who were allegedly stopped by police in Canada for cycling topless a week ago. Women in Ontario have had the right to go topless in public since 1996.

Musician Alysha Brilla (a Juno-nominated singer/songwriter of Indo-Tanzanian-Canadian origin) said she and her two sisters, Tameera and Nadia, were shirtless when riding their bikes in Kitchener on July 24. A male police officer drove up beside them and allegedly told them to cover up “because it is the law.” Brilla told the cop he was mistaken, and when she started filming the interaction on her cell phone, the officer reportedly backed off, saying he had only wanted to check whether the three women had proper bells and lights on their bikes.

A similar incident in June created a buzz in Guelph after an 8-year-old girl was told to cover up while she was in a wading pool wearing swim trunks and no top.

Saturday's "Bare With Us" peaceful protest in Waterloo was designed to raise awareness about women's right to go topless in public. Although Ontario women have had the legal right to go shirtless for nearly two decades, they “are still not truly free to be topless in public, without facing harassment from passersby and in some cases, uninformed police officers,” the rally organizers said on their Facebook page.

Gwen Jacobs, a household name for Ontario women, was one of those who attended the rally. In July 1991 Jacobs, a Canadian university student, went topless on a hot summer day in Guelph. The teen, 19 at the time, said she saw a group of shirtless men and thought she could do the same, but was charged with committing an indecent act instead. Five years later the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned the conviction, however, stating there was "nothing degrading or dehumanizing" about her taking off her top in public.

The event's organizers have invited “people of all genders” to their march, “revealing as much or as little of their torso as they feel comfortable.” In a bid to encourage those who feel shy while naked, they said the rally was a “celebration of all body shapes and types.” The main challenge, they said, was “to show support for desexualizing women's breasts.”

The only reason they turn most people on is because we're not allowed to see them

flapping

*** ain't pretty when they're floppy!

I don't get the point of the way boobs and sexuality in general are made taboo.