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Siberian oil spill contaminates Arctic lake (►http://rationalreview....
▻https://diasp.eu/p/11188993

Siberian oil spill contaminates Arctic lake

Source: Yahoo! News

“An oil spill that sparked a state of emergency has contaminated a freshwater lake in the Russian Arctic, the regional governor said Tuesday, a claim denied by Norilsk Nickel, the metals giant linked to the leak. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a state of emergency last week after 21,000 tonnes of diesel leaked from a fuel reservoir that collapsed May 29 outside the Arctic city of Norilsk. … A spokeswoman for the taskforce in charge of the accident clean-up told AFP last week that the spill had been contained. But officials in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk this week said that high concentrations of polluted water had been discovered beyond floating barriers set in place to stop the fuel from spreading.” (...)

Cryptocurrency: Verge forks after 51% attack (►http://rationalreview...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/6972416

Cryptocurrency: Verge forks after 51% attack

Source: Bitcoin.com

“Verge, a ‘privacy coin’ famed for the zealotry of its community, has fallen prey to a 51% attack. A malevolent miner gained majority control of the network hashrate, a feat that makes it possible for the controlling entity to modify transactions, calling the integrity of the entire blockchain into question. Around 250,000 verge were stolen by the attacker, forcing the project team to prepare a hard fork.” (04/05/15)

▻https://news.bitcoin.com/verge-is-forced-to-fork-after-suffering-a-51-attack

#cryptocurrency #verge Originally posted at: (...)

The dangerous politicization of the military (►http://rationalreview...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/5789422

The dangerous politicization of the military

Source: The Atlantic by Andrew Exum

“Despite uneven performances in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. public never stopped hailing its heroes in uniform. Soldiers and sailors tossing out the first pitches at baseball games are greeted like Medal of Honor recipients, and healthy teenage kids right out of basic training board planes at airports before mothers struggling with infants and toddlers. Both political parties line up presidential endorsements from retired generals and admirals — whose opinion is meant to count for more than that of the civilian — every four years in a kind of quadrennial political arms race. All of this Americans have grown to consider normal, and all of it reinforces the idea that the U.S. military is a special, (...)