title: SSLError using requests for python
body: <p>I tried to do the first command in the <a href="http://docs.python-requests.org/en/latest/user/quickstart/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Quickstart for requests</a>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; import requests
  &gt;&gt;&gt; r = requests.get('https://github.com/timeline.json')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But I get the following error message:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "./main.py", line 16, in &lt;module&gt;
      requests.get('https://github.com/timeline.json')
    File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/requests/api.py", line 55, in get
      return request('get', url, **kwargs)
    File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/requests/api.py", line 44, in request
      return session.request(method=method, url=url, **kwargs)
    File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/requests/sessions.py", line 383, in request
      resp = self.send(prep, **send_kwargs)
    File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/requests/sessions.py", line 486, in send
      r = adapter.send(request, **kwargs)
    File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/requests/adapters.py", line 385, in send
      raise SSLError(e)
  requests.exceptions.SSLError: [Errno 1] _ssl.c:499: error:14090086:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am totally new to SSL certificates, but I suspect it has something to do with Python looking in the wrong place. I downloaded Python 2.7 and am using it as my default Python (I am running Mac OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard), which came with Python 2.6). I had a lot of trouble with my Mac looking in the wrong place for Python stuff until I fixed the paths and made symbolic links, but I wonder if there is something else that has to do with the upgrade that is causing this SSL error? Or it could be something that doesn't have anything to do with that. </p>
  
  <p>I have tried searching for similar <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10667960/python-requests-throwing-up-sslerror">questions</a> and read some people's suggestions just to add the argument <code>verify=False</code> in <code>requests.get()</code>, but I don't want to do that, since I think that just avoids the real problem. Thanks for helping out a complete newbie.</p>