Here are this week’s links… otherwise known as things that I would have blogged about, if I had time to do so…

• Beleaguered bear in bridge rescue (in Pictures)
• UK can now demand data decryption on penalty of jail time
• Burmese monks ‘to be sent away’
• 20 Most Amazing Coincidences
• 10 Reasons To Eat More Chocolate

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Freedom. It’s nice, right? It ought to be… the freedom we enjoy was paid for with the blood of our forefathers, and is maintained by the blood of our siblings. And no freedom is more precious than that of speech. From it all other freedom flows.

Unfortunately there are still many oppressive regimes that do not offer the luxury of free speech, and people are being tortured and killed for speaking out against injustice. (As I’ve often noted.) This is why I have decided to put my money where my mouth is and provide financial support for the Freenet Project.
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According to the Epoch Times, in five years, the U.S. government will cease to use SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm) and convert to a new and more advanced “hash” algorithm, according to the article “Security Cracked!” from New Scientist.

The reason for this change is that associate professor Wang Xiaoyun of Beijing’s Tsinghua University and Shandong University of Technology, and her associates, have already cracked SHA-1. This marks the fifth straight encryption method that Xiaoyun’s team has broken (SHA-1, MD5, HAVAL-128, MD4, and RIPEMD).

What does this mean for the rest of us?
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