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The March, 2011, Harper's Index expressed the point this way: "Number of American civilians who died worldwide in terrorist attacks last year: 8 - Minimum number who died after being struck by lightning: 29."  That's the threat in the name of which a vast domestic Security State is constructed, wars and other attacks are and continue to be launched, and trillions of dollars are transferred to the private security and defense contracting industry at exactly the time that Americans - even as they face massive wealth inequality - are told that they must sacrifice basic economic security because of budgetary constraints. 

In a new report (PDF) by the Open Society Institute, human-rights researcher Jonathan Horowitz contrasts the official prison system that the Pentagon has constructed in Afghanistan-where they often arrange press briefings and invite journalists on tours-with the super-secret facility run on the periphery of Bagram Air Base, the "Tor" or "Black Jail."

On August 29, 2016, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted an IPR filed by Unified Patents Inc. on a patent related to electronic payments. The patent, U.S. Patent 6,891,633, has been asserted against dozens of banking institutions. The Board adopted an initial narrow claim construction and instituted review of claims 1-18 and 21-26 of the patent.