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Russian Orthodox Church severs links with Constantinople

In a major religious split, the Russian Orthodox Church has cut ties with the body seen as the spiritual authority of the world's Orthodox Christians.

The break came after the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople recognised the independence of the Ukrainian Church from Moscow.

The row is being described as the greatest Orthodox split since the schism with Catholicism in 1054.

Relations soured after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Many Ukrainians accuse the Russian Church of siding with Russia-backed separatists in the east.

Russia sees Kiev as the historic cradle of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Church now fears losing many of its 12,000 parishes in Ukraine.

Constantinople holds sway over more than 300 million Orthodox Christians across the world. The Russian Orthodox Church is by far the biggest.

Also at Reuters and The Guardian.

See also: Archbishop’s defiance threatens Putin’s vision of Russian greatness

I believe that other people have mentioned Iridium, here on the forum. For whatever reason, I've never messed with it. Never even followed up on it, to see what makes it special. In recent days, it has been mentioned multiple times in various discussions that I've read, but not elaborated on. So - interest piqued, I did a search for it.

https://iridiumbrowser.de/

A BROWSER SECURING YOUR PRIVACY. THAT’S IT.
DOWNLOAD

Iridium Browser is based on the Chromium code base. All modifications enhance the privacy of the user and make sure that the latest and best secure technologies are used. Automatic transmission of partial queries, keywords and metrics to central services is prevented and only occurs with the approval of the user. In addition, all our builds are reproducible and modifications are auditable, setting the project ahead of other secure browser providers.

There is a lot more to read on that page, like the manifest.

MANIFEST
IMPORTANT NOTICE

Before Iridium Browser, we had to decide if we wanted to have cutting edge technologies like sandboxed processes, WebRTC, WebUSB … , or if we wanted to use a browser that respects our privacy. So we decided to use the power of free software and build a browser that can do both. We analysed the code of Chromium and stripped out the functionality which exposes data to others in a way we don‘t like.
See most important changes here

Our ambition is to get builds for Debian, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, RHEL/CentOS, Windows and macOS a couple of days after a new release of Chromium. To achieve this, we need help from individuals and organisations, who have the same intention. Currently there are weeks between a new release of Iridium and Chromium.
Please take this into consideration for your personal usage of the browser as you might be at risk when surfing unknown and potentially dangerous websites!
We feel, that as an application browser or as browser for trusted websites, this is acceptable.

Wow. Sounds good. It seems to address the reasons that I've used several other browsers, such as SRWare Iron, Cyberfox, and others.

Keep on reading, and I'm reminded of the reasons I was excited about Webkit when it was promoted by Google. (Bear in mind that Google didn't invent this thing, they took open source code from the KDE browser, Konqueror, enhanced it, and turned it loose under the Google name.)

Unfortunately, Google added some things that none of us need, and in fact, few of us know about. Hardcoded URLS for various purposes, all designed to collect information, and to push advertising. SRWare Iron addresses some of that, but - sometimes, it has just seemed that they didn't go far enough.

Iridium, though, has gone into the source code, and either removed or obfuscated those hard coded URL's. There is a whole page dedicated to the stuff that has been removed, or changed - https://github.com/iridium-browser/tracker/wiki/Differences-between-Iridium-and-Chromium

This page describes the changes we did in Iridium compared to the Chromium base version. Please note that this list might not be exhaustive, so always check the Git repository at https://git.iridiumbrowser.de/cgit.cgi/iridium-browser/ for the latest changes.

I've kicked it around for a couple days now. I'm just about to set Iridium as "default browser", to replace Cyberfox. (Default browser is the one that opens when you click a link someplace, like in a PDF. It has little to no effect on what happens inside of your non-default browsers.)

Resource-wise, Iridium uses about the same CPU and memory as SRWare Iron. (they don't have the same pages open, so maybe I shouldn't compare them like that, but they do have roughly the same number of pages open) Both seem to use slightly less resources than vanilla Chromium.

EDIT: I initially posted that Iridium is in the Debian repositories. That was wrong. Iridium happens to be in my distro's repository, so it popped up immediately when I did an apt-cache search. Iridium-browser is NOT in the Debian repositories. Most Debian users will have to add the Iridium repository, or compile it themselves from the git. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused!

The best thing about Iridium, for Debian users, it's in the repository.

#apt-get install iridium-browser

does it all for you. You'll get the standard output, telling you dependencies, and recommended libraries and documentation.

NOTE: Iridium isn't replacing my daily drivers. I have multiple browsers installed on my system, and I use them in different ways. Using Iridium (or any "hardened" browser) as "default" helps to insure that inadvertantly invoking a browser from a PDF file doesn't open the system up to anyone who might be watching for a phone-home thing to happen. It's a "secure browser", right?

You be the judge - click the link(s), read up, and decide how good Iridium is - or isn't.

Currently, Iridium Browser is available for the following operating systems:
Windows 7+ • macOS 10.9+ • Debian 8+, Mint 17+, Ubuntu 14.04+ (all 64-bit) • openSUSE Leap 42.3 and 15.0 • Fedora 27+ • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7+ | CentOS 7+

  Iridium Browser is not available for Android, iOS, Windows Mobile or any other mobile operating system!

A Suicidal Nanny, an Underground Industry and 3 Babies Stabbed

The Case of Jane Doe Ponytail

China’s Media Crackdown Spreads to Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s expulsion of a British journalist after he led a foreign correspondents’ meeting with a pro-independence activist is, first and foremost, an attempt by Beijing to tamp down any dissent in the former British colony.

Hong Kong officials have not given a reason for rejecting a journalist visa for Victor Mallet, the Asia news editor for The Financial Times. China’s only comment has been that Hong Kong authorities are within their right to do so. But that’s the typical legalistic evasiveness of authoritarian regimes when they do something they know is hard and embarrassing to defend.

The authorities have never criticized Mr. Mallet’s reporting. But he was the main spokesman for the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club in August when it hosted a talk by Andy Chan, head of a political party that called for Hong Kong’s independence from China. Hong Kong and Beijing officials blasted the event in advance and subsequently banned the party.

Beijing took back control of Hong Kong from the British in 1997 after nearly a century of colonial rule, and agitation toward independence has never pleased China’s leadership. Hong Kong as an “inalienable” part of China is written into the territory’s Basic Law.

UK says Hong Kong rejection of FT journalist visa politically motivated

The talk show hosts have blathered about #WalkAway for a few days now. Finally - I looked it up. Definitely interesting!

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/07/03/former_liberal_to_progressives_time_to_walk_away.html

Brandon Straka says that less than a year ago, he was a liberal. He explains why he changed his mind in this "viral video" encouraging other progressives to "walk away" from the remains of the Democratic Party.

"Once upon a time, I was a liberal,” the gay NYC hairdresser begins. "I felt I’d found a tribe.” But, he said, they will do “absolutely nothing for you."

The video is at least a month old, but Straka appeared on FNC's 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' on Monday to discuss what he means:

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

Another story from an apparently Black Canadian woman who married an American.

https://www.redstate.com/kiradavis/2018/08/10/heres-chose-walkaway-liberalism/

My father-in-law was a popular local pastor, and also the first black man I’d ever met who called himself a Republican and a conservative. We were fast friends, and often talked politics. He would gently but intelligently challenge a lot of my notions and beliefs. I thought I knew a lot because I read a lot of headlines. He challenged me to read the actual stories. I thought I new a lot because I watched Bill Maher. He challenged me to watch the things going on around me. I thought I knew a lot because…well, I knew a lot! He challenged me to value results over talk. I wasn’t a convert, but I began to think that maybe I didn’t have the full picture when it came to my ideas about Republicans and conservatives. Could it be that I was depending too much on salacious headlines and raging talking heads for my opinions about conservatism?

Back to Brandon: http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/07/08/brandon-straka-walk-away-campaign-founder-denied-service-camera-store

Straka said the salesperson recognized him from his campaign and said that he couldn't sell anything to him because he did not support the "#WalkAway" campaign.

According to the movement's Facebook page, it's meant to "encourage and support those on the left to walk away from the divisive tenets."

Straka said following his encounter at the electronics store, he started "shaking" because he hadn't experienced negative backlash like that before.

"It took my breath away," he said.

Two videos, each of them very eloquent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pjs7uoOkag&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILQXW2Ob1PU&feature=youtu.be

GAB

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday Breitbart published a leaked internal Google briefing about the shift Silicon Valley is making towards more censorship online. This followed leaks earlier in the day from The Intercept, which show how Google is contradicting themselves in regards to the censored search engine they are building for the Chinese government. You can read the briefing that Breitbart published here: Google: "The Good Censor".

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/10/09/the-good-censor-leaked-google-briefing-admits-abandonment-of-free-speech-for-safety-and-civility/

https://theintercept.com/2018/10/09/google-china-censored-search-engine/

On page 53 of this internal Google briefing, Gab.com is cited as a "challenger app" and notes how users are moving to Gab in response to the censorship of Silicon Valley. Google argues for a "European" approach to speech standards on the internet, favoring "civility" over freedom.

Silicon Valley has shown their true colors, which is why they recognize Gab.com as a threat to their control and dominance over the internet. They are rejecting the cherished internet ideals of liberty and free expression in exchange for censorship and partnerships with the Chinese government.

This is why Gab is winning and will continue to win. We are adding tens of thousands of new users every week, and our funding round is being completely powered by you, The People. In about 20 days we have raised $670,000 and will quickly meet our goal of $1.07m. We are hiring more engineers to speed up product development, make the site more user friendly, and build out our own infrastructure to escape the chains of Silicon Valley.

If you're interested in investing and becoming a shareholder you can learn more here and invest as little as $252.

PS: developers please check out our new API.

Thanks for your continued support!

Click here to login to your account →

Thanks and remember to speak freely!

__________________________________________________________________

THIS is why there is a gab.ai people. Any more questions?

Tennessee death row inmate wants electric chair as 'lesser of two evils'

A condemned Tennessee inmate wants to die in the electric chair, rather than by lethal injection, calling electrocution the “lesser of two evils,” his lawyer said.

Edmund George Zagorski, 63, is set to pay the ultimate price on Thursday for the 1983 slayings of John Dotson and Jimmy Porter — 35-year-old victims who were planning to buy 100 pounds of marijuana from Zagorski.

Lethal injection is the primary form of execution in Tennessee, but inmates whose offenses happened before January 1999 may opt for the electric chair.

The Volunteer State is one of nine that still includes the electric chair as a form of execution.

Kelley Henry, Zagorki's defense lawyer, said lethal injection is a long, brutal process that can take up to 18 minutes.

“Faced with the choice of two unconstitutional methods of execution, Mr. Zagorski has indicated that if his execution is to move forward, he believes that the electric chair is the lesser of two evils,” Henry said. “Ten to 18 minutes of drowning, suffocation and chemical burning is unspeakable.”

Use of the electric chair is rare, with just 14 of the 871 executions happening via electrocution since 2000, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The last electrocution was in Virginia in January 2013.

Rumor: New PlayStation 5 Feature Revealed

Earlier this week, a new patent filed by Sony suggested that it is planning on adding backwards compatibility to the PlayStation 5. Now, another patent has surfaced revealing possibly another feature the system will have.

Filed back in May by Sony Interactive Entertainment, and approved just a few days ago, the patent appears to suggest that hardware V-Sync will ship with the next Sony console.

Titled "Video Frame Rate Compensation Through Adjustment of Vertical Blanking," the patent is pretty extensive, but in short, it should help games run better on the system.

Great, patents for backward compatibility and V-Sync. WTF?

Read this. Fuckin' read it. You want someone with violent tendencies? You want "disasturbation?" You want stone-cold nihilism? Runaway has you covered. Here he is, cheering for megadeaths, wishing horrible demise upon 50 million people he dislikes ("progressives") because he thinks people with brown skin are somehow the privileged class in this country. He also seems to think I'm some kind of unreconstructed Marxist, which is...not only not right, it's not even wrong. I've bolded the especially...telling...parts of this little rant.

Alright then -

A civil war will be uglier than most liberals have ever dreamed. Maybe uglier than the war-happy conservative capitalists have dreamed, as well.

But, it might be better than allowing the progressives to have control. The so-called left is hardly any more left than the R's are, but they are strongly into authoritarianism. That left makes me look silly as hell with my claims of being an authoritarian. The REAL difference between me, and them, is the legitimacy of authority. If I recognize an authority as being legitimate, then I respect it. If I don't recognize an authority as legitimate, I fight it.

Your left wants to create it's own authority by force. There is no legitimacy to either the force, or the authority which they desire. None.

But, if the right stands by, and watches the "left" proceed, it's possible that the progressives could win. Chances are slim, but the possibility exists.

Yes, I'd rather see twenty million dead liberals lying in the streets, than to see their progressive heros taking over this country. And, I'll willingly sacrifice five million dead conservatives and independents to put a stop to the progressives.

The tree of life must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots, from time to time.

And, welcome to reality, where most important decisions by nations are settled by force. As it has been for tens of thousands of years, so it will be for tens of thousands of years into the future.

Have you ever considered the dystopias portrayed in much of science fiction? Have you never imagined one of those dystopias, in which death is preferable to living? The dystopia being offered to us by the progressives is one in which a child can be punished, and branded for life, if he so much as notices that his own skin is not the same color as that of his teacher, or one of his class mates. In this computer age, any "deviant" behaviour will be documented, put into a database, and NEVER forgotten.

Progressives promise a number of things, which I fear, and despise, with their racial inequality ranking high. "People of color" vs "white and Asian". It's already real, it has made it into headlines. Follow that to it's logical conclusion - if you're brown, or black, you get a leg up in education, employment, in everything. If you're white, or Asian, you get shit on, and you're lucky if you can ever get a job cleaning septic tanks, or collecting garbage.

The party, as well as the progressives, have forgotten Martin Luther King, who had a dream. They've abandoned his dream. Today, they don't want equality, they want vengeance.

And, I, for one, am not willing that my grandchildren should be cast into some third-rate citizen role, to make those brown or black people happy. I side with King - my great grandchildren should compete with black, white, brown, and Asian for their place in life. And, the best man/woman for the job should win the job.

Political correctness? I've fought that bullshit since I first heard of it. It was a Soviet construction - if you were in good graces with the party, then you were politically correct. Fuck PC. Seriously, just fuck PC. Progressives promise to enslave my descendants, at the expense of brown and black people. Just fuck them.

Twenty million dead progressives? Make it fifty million - it's all the same to me. A future with slavery in it looks pretty damned bleak, no matter whether it's my descendants, or yours, or whoever's. We had a war, ~150 years ago, over a number of issues, including slavery. Today, "liberals" want to go back and explore slavery. Kill 'em all, and let God sort them out.

The bunch of dumb bastards in charge of the Democrat party need to pull their heads out of their asses, BEFORE they spark that civil war. Once the first few shots are fired, there will be no mercy.

Gawwwwwwwwwd...DAMN. This is what a meltdown looks like. This is what "identity politics" actually is. The man has gone bat-boinking nuts. Okay Runaway, suit up in your Rambo gear, here's an MP3 player with the soundtracks to the entire Contra series on it, here's some MREs, now go and defend your country from those horrible brown people.

Jesus. Jetskiing. CHRIST.

I've been hearing about that clown's support of Trump. And, about the snoopy Dog putting him down for it. And, assorted other nonsense responses to the Caney guy.

Now, let's be clear here - I don't like West. He's about as dumb as two boxes of rocks, IMO. In an interview, he said "They wanted to execute Galileo for saying the sun revolves around the earth". The host attempted to correct that little mis-statement, and West says he's really not interested in the details. Yup - two boxes of rocks.

Still, the guy is kinda, sorta, at least TRYING to think for himself. He gets an "E" for effort, anyhow. He likes Trump. A black dude who rejects the Democrat mantra. Maybe he's smarter than he looks? Well - probably not, but maybe smarter than he acts? Hmmmmm . . . Anything is possible.

Still - we have a rather popular person (Don't ask ME why he's popular!) who bucks the trend, and supports the President of the United States.

And, for that, West becomes "Uncle Tom. Ass nigga".

Alright, so the snoopy guy is the only one to use those exact words. (Well, the only one I've seen quoted as using those words.) Still, half of the D oriented population in the US suddenly hates West, for his political preferences.

“The blacks weren’t always Democrats. You know it’s like the plan they did, to take the fathers out the home and put them on welfare. Does anybody know about that? That’s a Democratic plan,” West said while wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.

“Ninety percent of news are liberal,” he also said. “Ninety percent of TV … LA, New York, writers, rappers, musicians; so it’s easy to make it seem like it’s so, so, so, one-sided.”

OK, soooo - maybe West ain't smart. Still, he demonstrates that he's smarter than at least half of America's "progressive" "leftist" "socialist" "Welfare" "communist" supposed to be "Democrats".

Oh yeah - he demonstrates a little bit of wisdom in that last quote. He does seem to recognize that rappers aren't musicians. "writers, rappers, musicians:" He clearly distinguishes between rappers and musicians - maybe I'll have to up my estimate of his intelligence to THREE boxes of rocks?

Ass nigga. Is that an ultimate insult, among black folk? Or, is that just a generic insult, like, "You suck"? Or is that to be taken in context? Like, if I were to say it, I would be shot immediately, without so much as a warning. But, if another black guy says it, it's just so much banter?

Imagine if West got a vanity plate "A55NIGGA". I might have to salute the guy for being that ballsy. Still not smart, but ballsy. There are so few ballsy people left in this country, you gotta respect that. Well, I respect defiance, anyway.

BTW - how in the FUCK do you get "Conyay" out of Kanye? It still looks like "Caney" to me. His existence helps to lower the literacy rate in this country!

“I'll have those niggers voting Democrat for the next 200 years.”

― Lyndon B. Johnson