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The issue of wealth inequality across the United States is well known, but this video shows you the extent of that imbalance in dramatic and graphic fashion.

The video, which started going viral on Friday and whose traffic continues to climb on YouTube — reflects the facts as seen from many different sources. We present it without comment, letting you, our readers, be the judge.

So, what do you think? Is the current state of wealth inequality good for the United States, or has it gotten out of hand? Tell us in the comments, below.

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President Barack Obama pointed his finger at patent trolls, people and businesses who file patents and use them to aggressively sue others who produce potentially competing products, during a Google Hangout Thursday afternoon.

“They don’t actually produce anything themselves,” said Obama of patent trolls. “They’re just trying to essentially leverage and hijack somebody else’s idea and see if they can extort some money out of them.”

Obama added that he believes his administration’s efforts at patent reform “only went about halfway to where we need to go.”

“What we need to do is pull together additional stakeholders and see if we can build some additional consensus on smarter patent l…
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Activists protested outside the gates of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s California home Wednesday night while he was throwing a political fundraiser for Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

The protest was organized by CREDO mobile, a cellphone provider that advocates for progressive political change, over Christie’s defunding of Planned Parenthood in his home state.

“Over 58% of Facebook users are women, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wants to use the billions he’s made off them to fund the national political career of a guy who de-funded Planned Parenthood and shut down six women’s health clinics in his state?” asked CREDO’s Political Director, Becky Bond, in an emai…
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More About: Chris Christie, Facebook, mark zuckerberg, Politics, US http://dlvr.it/2xr0mN @suryaray

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U.S. President Barack Obama called for a level of science and technology research “not seen since the height of the space race” during his State of the Union address Tuesday.

Obama credited several innovative companies and new technologies, including Apple and 3D-printing, with helping to spark growth in the American economy.

“There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this trend,” Obama said in his prepared remarks. He continued:

“Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D-printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way w…
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More About: barack obama, Politics, state of the union, US http://dlvr.it/2xQFv8 @suryaray

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U.S. President Barack Obama issued his long-awaited executive order on cybersecurity Tuesday, mere hours before heading to Congress to deliver his fifth State of the Union address.

Obama’s order directs federal agencies to notify private businesses of cyber threats in an unclassified and “timely” fashion. The order demands those federal agencies share information in a way that protects individuals’ civil liberties, and that they conduct regular public reviews of their civil liberties and privacy practices.

The executive order also commands a federal agency that sets technological standards to develop cybersecurity best practices — what the White House is calling a “Cybersecurity Frame…
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More About: barack obama, CISPA, cybersecurity, Politics, US, White House http://dlvr.it/2xQFdZ @suryaray

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President Barack Obama will be delivering his fifth State of the Union address at 9 p.m. EST Tuesday. Looking for a way to watch online? Aside from networks’ basic online streams and mobile apps, _Mashable_ has rounded up the following unique options for your Internet viewing pleasure:

1. WhiteHouse.gov

WhiteHouse.gov is offering an “enhanced version” of Obama’s speech with charts, graphs and data to back up the president’s arguments and claims. Immediately following Obama’s speech will be a live panel with White House staff, to which you can submit questions via Twitter on the hashtag #WHchat.

Trying to catch the State of the Union on the go? Download the White House’s official mobil…
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#SuryaRay #Surya If there is one prominent U.S. politician who has consistently staked his reputation to the digital revolution, it’s Gavin Newsom, the two-time San Francisco mayor, now Lieutenant Governor of California. This week he is launching a new book _Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government_, a FarmVille-inspired riff which lays out his agenda for transforming American politics. http://dlvr.it/2wzCLB @suryaray

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Whoever says Google search is better than Bing has never tried tracking down a secret American drone base in the desert sands of Saudi Arabia.

Microsoft’s Bing Maps shows what may very well be the United States’ until-recently secret drone base in Saudi Arabia. Google Maps, on the other hand, has squat in the same territory.

The exact location and images of what may be the drone base were first discovered by _Wired’s_ Noah Shactman.

Shactman could not confirm the images showed the same base outed by _The Times_, but he said several factors made it likely this is indeed the base: It’s near the border with Yemen, where the Saudi-based drones are said to operate; it’s too remote to be us…
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A hacker has released emails and photos ostensibly belonging to President George W. Bush and other members of the Bush family, including President George H.W. Bush.

The emails, shared by the hacker with _The Smoking Gun_, include photos and family discussions of President George H.W. Bush’s recent hospital stay, George W. Bush’s paintings (including self-portraits in the bathtub) and correspondences between Bush family members and close friends.

Among the photos leaked by the hacker are images of George H.W. Bush with President Bill Clinton at the Bush family’s Maine residence and George W. Bush with designer Ralph Lauren. Also included is a list of home addresses, phone numbers and ema…
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A picture of shooting victim and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords’ “handwritten testimony” on gun control which was posted to Facebook by Giffords’ Political Action Committee following her Wednesday testimony to Congress on gun reform was written by Giffords’ therapist and not Giffords herself.

Several media outlets, including _The Atlantic_ and _The Washington Post_, ran the photo with captions suggesting Giffords herself wrote the notes. The photo soon went viral on social media as people shared it as a celebration of Giffords’ recovery following a January 2011 shooting near Tucson, Arizona.

However, it was later revealed in corrections made by those outlets that the notes were wr…
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Online collaboration might be the Republicans’ path to victory in 2016, a former member of Mitt Romney’s digital staff believes.

Accordingly, he has organized a weekly Twitter chat to help Republican digital staffers foster an atmosphere of partnership following Romney’s loss.

That defeat triggered accusations and finger-pointing among some of the right’s digital director community, a tense environment which ex-Romney staffer Bill Murphy believes is hurting the party.

“I worked on the Romney campaign and I noticed afterwards there was a lot of — call it disagreement or criticisms — of what the right and Republicans were doing digitally,” said Bill Murphy, who organizes the chat,…
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Google gets “dozens” of requests for users’ information from governments, courts and police forces around the world every day, according to the company. These requests are up 70% over the last three years, but exactly how Google handles data demands from government agencies has been a mystery — until now.

Google released on Monday new details about how it handles officials’ requests for user data, stressing that it does everything in its power to keep user data private when it’s legally able to do so.

Police or courts might ask Google to turn over user data if it’s considered relevant to an investigation. When Google receives such a request, it pours over the request to ensure it com…
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A petition submitted to the White House demands the Librarian of Congress to rescind his recent decision which removed the unlocking of cellphones from the exceptions to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Due to the Librarian’s decision, the unlocking of cellphones effectively becomes illegal in the U.S. on Jan. 26.

“As of January 26, consumers will no longer be able unlock their phones for use on a different network without carrier permission, even after their contract has expired,” reads the petition. “Consumers will be forced to pay exorbitant roaming fees to make calls while traveling abroad. It reduces consumer choice, and decreases the resale value of devices that consu…
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Twitter’s popularity among lawmakers has been meteoric. Three years ago less than half of the Senate and House of Representatives were on the platform, now every senator and 90% of representatives are tweeting away.

Twitter use is particularly heavy among the freshman class — almost every freshman member of the recently begun 113th Congress has a public Twitter account.

Who are the top 7 freshman members of Congress on Twitter? Mashable asked Twitter analytics firm _PeekAnalytics_ to find out. PeekAnalytics is able to determine not only a Twitter user network’s audience size, but also its social influence and demographic data about audience members.

1. Elizabeth Warren
_Photo via Da_…
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent Wednesday in Congress, splitting her time between Senate and House hearings on the September 2012 attack against an American consolate in Benghazi, Libya.

Her treatment in both hearings was split along party lines: Most Democrats praised her service while many Republicans criticized her for what they see as a failure to prevent the attack that took four American lives including that of Ambassador John Christopher Stevens.

Here’s what Clinton’s day looked like:

Clinton choked up discussing the State Department’s lost employees during her opening statement during the Senate hearing:

_Video courtesy NowThisNews_

She defended U.S. Ambassador…
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