Blog Heap of Links for the day 17 April 2016

…A mother has been banned from naming her baby Cyanide after the poison. The woman, from Powys, Wales, also chose the name Preacher for the girl’s twin brother, saying she had a human right to name her own children. She said Cyanide was a “lovely, pretty name” with positive connotations as it was taken by Hitler before he shot himself.…

Cornell Tech researchers Vitaly Shmatikov and Martin Georgiev claim web URL shorteners are built on predictable syntax that can be searched and identified in a potential breach of privacy.

The academics studied URL shorteners – including those created by Google, Bit.ly and Microsoft – finding that attackers could find private documents and foist malware by enumerating pre-existing addresses with ease, and that well-resourced adversaries could find out existing URLs of all shortening services.…

Today, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed a bill legalizing medical marijuana, making it the 24th state to reject the unconstitutional federal prohibition on cannabis in practice.… legalizes marijuana for medical use and sets up a regulatory structure for the production and distribution of medicinal cannabis to qualifying patients in the state.…

The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast… at least 77 people were killed, over 570 injured… damage stretched for hundreds of miles to the capital and other major cities.… magnitude-7.8 quake was centered on Ecuador’s sparsely populated fishing ports and tourist beaches, 170 kilometers (105 miles) northwest of Quito, the capital.…

…For the full story of the invention of the computer mouse, we’ll begin by backtracking slightly to a British engineer whose invention was subsequently classified as a military secret and hidden from the public.…

…How Ted Cruz might win a general election…
…NOW President: Abortion Is “Necessary”; First Amendment Should Be Repealed…
…Court Tosses ACLU Lawsuit To Force Catholic Hospitals To Perform Abortions…

…On this day in 1964 the Ford Mustang was first introduced to the buying public and the pony car era was born. The first model had an anemic 6 cylinder engine. The next year introduced the 289 which was a much stronger engine.

Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, chastised Austria for no longer showing a welcoming face towards migrants. Ms. Mogherini’s admonition came in response to Austria’s decision to build a 250-meter-long fence in the Brenner Pass along its border with Italy.

In other news, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, a Jordanian and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, chastised Donald Trump for the bigotry inherent in his immigration policies. Mr. Al-Hussein’s remarks were part of a speech given at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, the same city where the Republican convention will be held in July. …

…Venezuela travels forward in time by 30 minutes @ 88 MPH…
…This Is The Real Goal Of The LGBT “Rights” Movement…
…How Mark Zuckerberg could stop Donald Trump…

Ted Cruz: "…The IRS is absolutely corrupt. It is facilitating illegal immigration. The commissioner has been a party to lawlessness. Indeed the IRS has persecuted American citizens who were perceived to be political opponents of the President.… My simple flat tax would allow every American to fill out their taxes on a post card… The biggest reason to adopt a flat tax is it disempowers politicians in Washington, both Democrats and Republicans.…"