I will not be writing this week, for I'll be writing a much longer piece than normal which I will release on Monday. Thank you.

Colored Pluto Comes Into Sight For The First Time

The New Horizons probe, which was launched in January of 2006, has sent its first color photo of the red-esque Pluto and its largest moon Charon. The probe is on schedule to fly by Pluto on the 14th of July and it will collect an unprecedented amount of data before its 16 month, and extremely slow, return to Earth.

From 5 billion kilometers away (3,106,860,000 miles), it takes 4.6 hours for data and signals from New Horizons to reach Earth. The probe's completion of its mission will complete the reconnaissance of the "Classic Nine" planets in our solar system. However, this will be the first time since the 1980's and the Voyager 2 that we encountered a completely new world for the first time.

As of now, Pluto's most in-depth photos come from the Hubble Telescope, however even those are very foggy and are hard to conduct any thorough scientific inquiry with.

"The spacecraft is in perfect health; it's full of fuel; and it's carrying a scientific arsenal of seven instruments that are - combined - the most powerful suite of instruments ever brought to bear on the first reconnaissance of a new planet,” enthused Alan Stern, New Horizons' principal investigator."Nothing like this has been done in a quarter of a century and nothing like this is being planned again by any space agency. This is a real moment in time for you to watch us turn a point of light into a planet."

Science has undoubtedly played an extremely influential role in the progression of society, and it has always held a particularly romantic identity in my heart. While we often tend to grasp to traditional beliefs out of fear of change, there is no doubt that progressivism in culture and cultural identity is the only way we as a people will be able to give the next generations a better reality than ours, and so forth with their children and their children.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"For me, the most ironic token of that moment in history is the plaque signed by President Richard M. Nixon that Apollo 11 took to the moon. It reads 'We came in peace for all of mankind.' As the United States was dropping 7.5 megatons of conventional explosives on small nations in Southeast Asia, we congratulated ourselves on our humanity; We would harm no one on a lifeless rock." -Carl Sagan

Anonymous Releases List of ISIS Supporters and Their US/UK Hosts

The online hacker-collective known as Anonymous released a list of websites related to ISIS supporters and the companies who are hosting these websites.

This bold move is one part to a several-step campaign by the group known as "#OpISIS" which was launched earlier this year following ISIS's noticeable online presence, which gave the group an elemental advantage and opportunity for such an attack. Earlier this year, the group released a comprehensive list of 25,000 Twitter accounts linked to ISIS. GhostSec, a branch of Anonymous, said this to the IBTimes;

“All websites listed below are frequently used by the Islamic State through Twitter and other social media platforms for transmission of propaganda, religion, recruitment, communications and intelligence gathering purposes. (Web host companies) are unaware of their customers content or they turn a blind eye for easy profit and choose to accept blood-money. CloudFlare is by far the largest offender on this list and they have been made aware of the specified content they are protecting… Together we can stop this from spreading and hold these companies accountable for their less than ethical business practices.”

There is an undeniable controversy to this attack, how Anonymous's actions should be interpreted, and how companies should react to the issue. While it is indisputable that ISIS is a destructive, and, for lack of a better way, evil group, the Internet is suppose to be a free, open, and immovable force. That philosophy is designed to be equally spread, not segregated amongst different ideologies.

Censorship is wrong no matter how it is implemented, even if the information being blocked is from that of one of the most despicable groups in the world. While we may not agree with what is being presented, the method of action some propose would be similar to that of the burning of "Communist" books during the Red Scare.

So, I leave my reader with a question in mind. Is censorship okay if the material is evil or considered morally wrong? Or does that mean we should learn from it nonetheless?

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." -Carl Sagan

Turkey Officials Outraged By Pope's Use of Word "Genocide"

On Sunday, the 100th Anniversary of the occurrence, Pope Francis sparked anger and outrage from the Turkish people after using the term "genocide" to describe the mass killings of the Armenians by the Ottomans.

"In the past century, our human family has lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies," the Pope said at a Mass at St. Peter's Basilica to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian massacres.

Just hours after the Pope's speech, Turkey recalled its ambassador to the Vatican for so-called "consultations". Turkey's anger over the situation is not particularly surprising, as the nature of the Armenian genocide is, said safely, a sore subject.

Turkey stated that this does not mean an end of diplomatic relations with the Vatican, it was simply a matter of discussion. However, in a series of tweets on Sunday, Turkey's Foreign Minister stated;

The Pope's statement, which is out of touch with both historical facts and legal basis, is simply unacceptable. +++
— Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (@MevlutCavusoglu) April 12, 2015

Religious offices are not places through which hatred and animosity are fueled by unfounded allegations.
— Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (@MevlutCavusoglu) April 12, 2015

The sad truth of the matter is that, while Turkey is unsurprisingly angry, they have little right to be. Scholars have concluded after massive studies that within the final years of the Ottoman Empire, the turks planned and carried out the murder of over one million ethnic Armenians.

Turkey's standpoint is that there was no genocide, but instead hundreds of thousands of Armenians died from collateral damage in World War 1. While that would be better for the public-relations of Turkey, it is not backed by history.

Genocide is, sadly, far more common than the average person tends to realize. From Nazi Germany, to the Japanese slaughter of the Chinese, to Rwanda, and early America. While we try to wash our hands of guilt we must remember that it is easy to write off issues such as this as irrelevant, we must remember that, although most of us are not Nazi German citizens, we are all one race of human despite country or culture. Monstrosities like genocide take a collective species to recognize them for what they are and move forward to avoid such issues in the future.

"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason." -Mark Twain

China's $1 Billion Illegal Organ Trade

Early in 2006, it was revealed that state-run hospitals in China were killing patients to harvest their organs. This was so shocking it seemed entirely implausible. However, a new documentary has revealed much further into this illegal trade operation.

The sad truth to be discussed here is that this horrific trade is worth over $1 billion US Dollars a year. There are over 10,000 organ transplants a year in China, however the number of citizens on the organ donation list is significantly dwarfed by the amount of organs being transplanted.

In 2006, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong was formed, and they thoroughly inspected the accusations that doctors were harvesting the organs of innocent (and healthy) people in China. The revelations they discovered unveiled that tens of thousands of innocent people were killed in order to fuel China's underground organ-trade market.

"Some practitioners were still breathing after their organs were removed, but they were thrown into the hospital’s incinerator anyway." 

 The coalition's investigative team believes that the organs were primarily taken from the so-called Falun Gong, a quasi-religious group with is banned in Communist China.

This issue highlights yet another social issue spreading rapidly in China, and that's the mass killing of the Falun Gong. The Chinese government insists that they have broken no laws in the persecution of the Falun Gong, as they are a dangerous group who violated human rights through mind control.

While it is good to remain open minded in all things, I find it rather difficult to believe this spiritual-group is using mind control to push its ideals onto the masses.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"In war, there are no unwounded soldiers." -Jose Narosky

Paris Hostage Survivors Sue Media For Live Coverage

Following a tragic shooting in a Paris supermarket, six survivors of the shooting sued the 24-hour French news station BFMTV for their coverage of the incident, which left 5 dead (including the shooter) and 9 with non-fatal injuries.

Gunman Amedy Coulibaly rushed the store, shot and killed four people, and took several others hostage. One employee rushed near-by people into the cold room including a three year old and one-month year old baby.

The group's representative, Patrick Klugman, singled out BFMTV after the station revealed the whereabouts while the hostage situation was still underway. Klugman said;

"The working methods of media in real time in this type of situation were tantamount to goading someone to commit a crime."

The group argues that announcing their location on live TV during the shooting put their lives into greater danger, especially considering Coulibaly was watching his crime's coverage on multiple stations and was in constant contact with BFMTV reporters.

"The lawsuit charges media outlets with endangering the lives of others by deliberately ignoring security protocols, which carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison and 15,000-euro ($16,300) fine."

It's a hard situation to take a position on considering that, while these people were in great fear of their lives, does that justify limiting what the press should or should not be allowed to publish in the way of information?

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"Nothing. There's nothing you can do. As soon as you do something you'll no longer be average. Do that. Don't be average." -Julian Assange on what the "average American" can do to influence the government

Snowden Explains How Government Can Get "D**k Pics" in John Oliver Interview

Although notorious whistleblower Edward Snowden had initially made it his goal to point the spotlight away from himself and toward his documents, there is no doubt that, as a figure, people are either fascinated or infuriated at him, with little area in between for moderation.

So now, two years after Snowden's unprecedentedly large leak of NSA documents to the public, he sat down with an interview with comedian and host of HBO's "Last Week Tonight", John Oliver. Although the public was likely not expecting a formal, serious interview based off Oliver's history of poke-fun comedy, the interview did take a strange turn.

Oliver encouraged Snowden to put the idea of mass surveillance into layman's terms for those who were unfamiliar with how it worked. He later showed Snowden a collaboration video of Americans who were worried about the government collecting their nude photos, or "d**k pics". Snowden replied through chuckles that;

"The good news is that there's no program named the 'dick pic' program. The bad news... they are still collecting everybody's information, including your d**k pics."

Oliver asked if Americans should stop taking these pictures due to the government's mass surveillance, no doubt intending to pull a quick laugh from Snowden, but instead he got an unexpectedly sure response from Snowden.

"You shouldn't change your behavior because of a government agency somewhere that's doing the wrong thing," Snowden said. "If you sacrifice your values because you're afraid, you don't care about those values very much."

While not everyone approves of Snowden's methods of pushing progress to the people, there is no doubt that he stands correct in moral. Not all believe that leaking classified documents to the public is a proper course of action, there are few who would make the case that federal overreach and power-corruption is not a legitimate issue, or one to be feared.

Snowden noted that; "I do miss my country. I do miss my home. I do miss my family." We must be sure to remember that although snowden is a controversial figure, and lives in moderation. He has said himself he is not a terrorist, nor is he a patriot. He is simply a man.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"Bad artists imitate. Great artists steal." -Pablo Picasso Banksy

Facebook Spits On Privacy, What A Surprise.

Facebook, as a company, has never been known for its overwhelming courtesy in the way of user privacy. This is, in some ways, considerably surprising due to the cultural shift towards a privacy-focus of technology and it's producers. Companies like Mozilla who make their encrypted email service, Thunderbird, and their privacy-inclined internet browser, Firefox.

However, a new revelation has uncovered Facebook's privacy-dismissal is much more significant than a simple case of opting on or out of data collection. Not only is Facebook mindlessly collecting mass amounts of data on their users, but they collect the data of every individual who visits their page even if they do not have an account or if the user has explicitly opted out of Facebook's data collection service.

This action is particularly important as it doubtlessly violates European Union law.

The issue at hand revolves around Facebook's external plug-ins such as the "Like" button which is in place in over thirteen million sites. They also place tracking cookies onto any individual's computer if they visit any of the facebook.com domains, including those which do not require an account to use.

So, what all this means is if a user visits a page with one of these "Like" plug-ins or any Facebook plug-in their data is collected and sent to Facebook for tracking even if the person does not interact with the plug-in in question.

According to EU law;

"EU privacy law states that prior consent must be given before issuing a cookie or performing tracking, unless it is necessary for either the networking required to connect to the service (“criterion A”) or to deliver a service specifically requested by the user (“criterion B”). The same law requires websites to notify users on their first visit to a site that it uses cookies, requesting consent to do so."

It would be an understatement to say that this sort of behavior from Facebook is mildly repulsive. In the end, they squeeze their way in and out of privacy-law loopholes in order to do nothing more than make their advertisements more direct to an audience.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"All war is deception." -Sun Tzu

Nuclear Deal Reached In Iran

After eight straight days of negotiation between seven of the world's greatest powers, it was announced yesterday that a deal had been reached on the subject of Iran's controversial nuclear program.

"Today we have taken a decisive step," said Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union, responsible for coordinating the talks. "We have reached solutions on key parameters of a joint comprehensive plan of action."

Meanwhile, back at the White House, President Barack Obama called the deal "an historic understanding with Iran". He went on to call it a "long time coming".

Iran's nuclear facility deep underground at Fordo will be converted from a nuclear test facility to a physics and technology center. Iran will decrease its nuclear stockpile from 10,000 kg of low-enriched uranium down to 300 kg.

The entirety of its enriched uranium stockpile will either have to be diluted or sold on the international marketplace.

In turn, heavy economic sanctions that have been held against the country of Iran will henceforward be lifted.

"If Iran cheats, the world will know it. If we see something suspicious, we will inspect it," President Obama said. "With this deal, Iran will face more inspections than any other country in the world."

While there are naturally naysayers on the matter, we must all hope that this will be a positive change in the Middle East. There are those who believe that the United States and EU should continue to hold their economic sanctions against Iran, however they fail to realize the nature of negotiation.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, but conformity." -Rollo May

U.S. Re-establishes Flights and Telecommunications With Cuba

The leftover United States-Cuban embargo of the Cold War has long been an inconvenience to both nations. While perhaps the aggressive nature of a social and economic embargo is necessary during the time of a seemingly-inevitable war, such restrictions do significantly more harm than benefit.

Now, however, the divide that once separated the neighbor-countries of Cuba and the United States are being lifted by Presidents Raul Castro and Barack Obama.

While U.S. citizens will still not be able to travel to Cuba as tourists, however they can under one of any twelve specialized visas. These visas include that of religious purpose, academic purpose, or cultural purpose.

Hopefully, in time, the people of America and the people of Cuba will be able to once again benefit from each other's culture. Naturally, there are naysayers to the new plan. Many believe that as long as Cuba is a Comminist country, we should not do any business with its citizens or government. These kinds of comments are best ignored. They blatantly ignore the reality that America's primary business partner is China, an extremely red state.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"If you're going to be crazy you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be liked up." -Hunter S. Thompson