Starting today, June 11, U.S. internet providers will be legally allowed to censor and block websites and apps, and force you to pay extra fees to to access your favorite places online. Your internet sanctuaries, the communities you are part of, the ones you have help build up, could be decimated.
Will it happen today? No. Next week? Probably not. The changes will not be swift. They will come piece by piece. A slow, tempered death to the free and open internet we love.
It doesn’t have to be this way. You can still make a difference, Tumblr. We need the House of Representatives to sign a discharge petition in support of the Congressional Review Act that would force a vote on the floor.
It’s so easy. Just go to BattleForTheNet.com, fill out the form, and follow their directions from there.
They have an updated widget for you to throw on your websites to urge others to make a difference. You can put it on your Tumblr. Let your followers know what you stand for, encourage them to do the same. It’s so easy to do. Just copy and paste their small line of code right into the customize theme page on the web.
Universe 101.
Authored by Kenny Walter, Digital Reporter, R&D Magazine
Scientists have identified a gene variant that, if reduced, may decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers from Brigham Young University (BYU) have discovered a rare genetic variant that provides a protective effect for high-risk individuals, including elderly people who carry known genetic risk for Alzheimer’s but never acquire the disease.
Read more: https://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/11/gene-variant-protects-against-alzheimers-identified
moon over the poppy field
1) Millions of pounds from the Queen’s private estate has been invested in a Cayman Islands fund – and some of her money went to a retailer accused of exploiting poor families.
2) Prince Charles’s estate made a big profit on a stake in his friend’s offshore firm.
3) Extensive offshore dealings by Donald Trump’s cabinet members, advisers and donors, including substantial payments from a firm co-owned by Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law to the shipping group of the US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross.
4) Twitter and Facebook received hundreds of millions of dollars in investments that can be traced back to Russian state financial institutions.
5) The tax-avoiding Cayman Islands trust managed by the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s chief moneyman.
6) The Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton avoided taxes on a £17m jet using an Isle of Man scheme.
7) A previously unknown $450m offshore trust that has sheltered the wealth of Lord Ashcroft.
8) Oxford and Cambridge and top US universities invested offshore, with some of the money going into fossil fuel industries.
9) The man managing Angola’s sovereign wealth fund invested it in projects he stood to profit from.
10) Apple secretly moved parts of its empire to Jersey after a row over its tax affairs.
11) How the sportswear giant Nike stays one step ahead of the taxman.
12) The billions in tax refunds by the Isle of Man and Malta to the owners of private jets and luxury yachts.
13) Offshore cash helped fund Steve Bannon’s attacks on Hillary Clinton.
14) The secret loan and alliance used by the London-listed multinational Glencore in its efforts to secure lucrative mining rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
15) The complex offshore webs used by two Russian billionaires to buy stakes in Arsenal and Everton football clubs.
16) Stars of the BBC hit sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys used a web of offshore companies to avoid tax.
17) British celebrities including Gary Lineker used an arrangement that let them avoid tax when selling homes in Barbados.
18) Prominent Brexit campaigners have put money offshore.
19) An ex-minister who defended tax avoidance has a Bahamas trust fund.
20) The Dukes of Westminster pumped millions into secretive offshore firms.
21) A tax haven lobby group boasted of ‘superb penetration’ at the top of the UK government before a G8 summit that was expected to bring in greater offshore transparency.
22) The law firm at the centre of the Paradise Papers leak was criticised for 'persistent failures’ on terrorist financing and money laundering rules.
23) Seven Republican super-donors keep money in tax havens.
24) A top Democratic donor built up a vast $8bn private wealth fund in Bermuda.
25) The schemes used to avoid tax on UK property deals.
26) The celebrities, from Harvey Weinstein to Shakira, with offshore interests.
27) How a private equity firm tried to extract £890m from a struggling care home operator by making it take out a costly loan.
28) Trump’s close ally Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots owner, is the longtime owner of an offshore firm.
29) One of the world’s biggest touts used an offshore firm to avoid tax on profits from reselling Adele and Ed Sheeran tickets.
Sunset | Photographer