Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red; UK: Christian bakery ordered to recant; Verizon, AT&T tracking us with 'supercookies'...more

 Stunning Installation of 888,246 Ceramic Poppies Honors Lives Lost in WWI  By the time this installation, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, is over, it's estimated that over four million people will have seen it. Surrounding the Tower of London are 888,246 handmade poppies, each representing a British and Commonwealth person who died during World War One. The first poppy was planted on August 5th, the first day of Britain's full participation in the war, and the last poppy will be planted on Armistice Day, November 11th.

 

The stunning installation covers 16 acres, which is roughly equivalent to 250 tennis courts or 16 soccer fields. The clay models were handmade under artist Paul Cummins and the setting was designed by Tom Piper. Teams of volunteers worked day and and night to carefully assemble each flower. Ninety tons of steel was used to create the stems of the poppies, which varied in length from 1m to 50cm, and the structures which made the red flowers look like they were floating over the moat or pouring out of one of the tower's windows... images  more photos

UK: Christian bakery ordered to recant over Bert and Ernie gay marriage cake or face court   A Christian bakery firm which refused to make a cake supporting gay marriage with a picture of the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie has been warned it will be taken to court unless it apologises and pays immediate compensation.

Ashers Baking Co, based in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, was told by a Government equalities agency that it was guilty of “unlawful religious, political and sexual orientation discrimination” for its stance on the Sesame Street-themed dessert.

But the family-run firm said it was ready for a “David and Goliath battle” over the cake insisting it was “what God would want us to do”...

Florida pastor detained after feeding homeless: I won't stop  The Florida pastor who was detained with two others for taking part in a food distribution programme for homeless people has said that he has no plans to stop.

Rev Mark Sims of St Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church in Coral Springs, Florida, was charged with Arnold Abbott, 90, and Pastor Dwayne Black of the Sanctuary Church in Fort Lauderdale of violating a new city ordinance aimed at clamping down on food distribution.

The men were not arrested but were told they would have to appear in court...

Democrats Must Accept That This Year’s ‘War On Women’ Was A Disaster The Democratic strategy of achieving victory by courting single female voters had been going so well. “War on Women” messaging had been used to cruise to House, Senate, and presidential victories in 2010 and 2012. President Obama lost the married women vote in 2012 by seven points, but he won the single women vote by a stunning 36 percentage points. Women—so long as they stay single and don’t get married—are a key component of Democratic victories. With a cartoonishly compliant media serving as attack dog for every Republican error or otherwise helping push the message, Democrats and abortion-rights activists couldn’t conceive (definitely no pun intended) of a reason to change course. And in 2014, they had what they believed were some of their best candidates. Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis led a dramatic filibuster of a late-term abortion ban before deciding to run for governor of Texas. Sen. Mark Udall, reliable abortion rights supporter, built his entire campaign around an attempt to portray his opponent—the cheerful Cory Gardner—as an opponent of “women’s health” (the euphemism for abortion used by people who support the right to end the lives of unborn children). And the poster child of the entire War on Women movement—Sandra Fluke, the grad student who fought to force religious employers to provide contraception and abortifacients for free in employee benefit packages—tried to win a race for a California legislator position...

Verizon, AT and T tracking their users with ‘supercookies’  Verizon and AT and T have been quietly tracking the Internet activity of more than 100 million cellular customers with what critics have dubbed “supercookies” — markers so powerful that it’s difficult for even savvy users to escape them.

The technology has allowed the companies to monitor which sites their customers visit, cataloging their tastes and interests. Consumers cannot erase these supercookies or evade them by using browser settings, such as the “private” or “incognito” modes that are popular among users wary of corporate or government surveillance.

Verizon and ATandT say they have taken steps to alert their customers to the tracking and to protect customer privacy as the companies develop programs intended to help advertisers hone their pitches based on individual Internet behavior. But as word has spread about the supercookies in recent days, privacy advocates have reacted with alarm, saying the tracking could expose user Internet behavior to a wide range of outsiders — including intelligence services — and may also violate federal telecommunications and wiretapping laws....