Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Alternate Realities Roundup 12/10
Posted By Eric S. Peterson on December 10, 2013, 10:36 AM
The NSA and CIA surveilled online-gaming worlds, such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, looking for criminal and terrorist activity.---
Top of the Alty World
“World of Spycraft: NSA and CIA Spied in Online Games”--ProPublica
At least 194 children have died by gunshot since the Newtown shootings.--Mother Jones
Government violence in Egypt has spread beyond targeting the Muslim Brotherhood to journalists and peace activists.--The Nation
A Chinese state-media article touting the benefits of smog didn't go over well with the country's citizens.--Foreign Policy
Top of Alty Utah
The Center for Public Integrity has ranked Utah dead-last for judicial financial transparency.--Salt Lake City Weekly
Sen. Mike Lee, R-UT, says the media may be overhyping the rift between the Tea Party and the GOP.--Utah Policy
Railroad repairs will cut the water flow in the Great Salt Lake.--KUER
Utah Political Capitol hosts Sen. Aaron Osmond, R-West Jordan, to talk about his new education bills.--Utah Political Capitol
The Provo Buzz challenges why no one on social media seems to care about local issues.
“It amazes me how so many people will comment on articles, pictures, etc. but when a controversial/sensitive issue comes up, it turns into a ghost town. It will usually end up with the same two to four people who take over every issue. What does this mean? Does it mean locals just don’t care about the issues? I don’t think so. All of us have opinions and want to be heard, but we also don’t want to ruin relationships or be disliked just because of a disagreement. This is an issue we often face in social media. When our real names are tied to our words, we tend to water down our true feelings, or just hold back completely for the sake of not having to deal with the criticism.”--Provo Buzz
The Long View
Rolling Stone follows undercover activists as they enter the belly of the factory farm beast. “In its scrutiny of Big Meat – a cartel of corporations that have swallowed family farms, moved the animals indoors to prison-style plants in the middle of rural nowhere, far from the gaze of nervous consumers, and bred their livestock to and past exhaustion – the Humane Society (and outfits like PETA and Mercy for Animals) is performing a service that the federal government can’t, or won’t, render: keeping an eye on the way American meat is grown.
That’s rightfully the job of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but the agency is so short-staffed that it typically only sends inspectors out to slaughterhouses, where they check a small sample of pigs, cows and sheep before they’re put to death. That hour before her end is usually the only time a pig sees a government rep; from the moment she’s born, she’s on her own, spending four or five years in a tiny crate and kept perpetually pregnant and made sick from breathing in her own waste while fed food packed with growth-promoting drugs, and sometimes even garbage.”--Rolling Stone
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