Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

"The internet provides the extra money he needs to buy a meal each and every day. Since setting up a bitcoin wallet about three or four months ago, he has earned somewhere between four or five bitcoins — about $500 to $630 today — through YouTube videos, Bitcoin Tapper, and the occasional donation. And when he does odd jobs for people around Pensacola — here in the physical world — he still gets paid in bitcoin, just because it’s easier and safer. He doesn’t have to worry as much about getting robbed. Jesse Angle isn’t your average homeless person. But he shows that bitcoin is changing the world in more ways than you might imagine." Continue reading

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Swiss socialist politician asks government to create report on bitcoin

"Jean Cristophe Schwaab of the Swiss Socialist Party said he is concerned about the potential of bitcoin. 'At the moment, I have no idea, but a Swiss journalist recently bought drugs from Silk Road using bitcoins, so I think the state needs to make an intervention,' he added. The 34-year-old said bitcoin came to his attention because he has a strong interest in internet policy, data protection and new online trends. He has also come across bitcoin in his work as a unionist for bankers – he is on the executive board of the Swiss Bank Employees’ Association. He said the only people in Switzerland who know about bitcoin are 'geeks, criminals and special police units'." Continue reading

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Canadian Mint ready to test its own digital money project

"MintChip is 'the future of money,' according to the Mint’s promotional video, which goes on to present it as a digital version that would be legal tender, just like physical dollars and cents. You would hold it on a smartphone or other electronic device, just like a wallet. And according to the Mint’s Mr. Brûlé, the money could be used just as easily whether you’re shopping at a conventional bricks-and-mortar retailer, on-line or at your neighbour’s garage sale, though your neighbour would of course need a properly equipped smartphone. Mr. Brûlé sees it as part of the leading edge of a tsunami in mobile technology that is now washing over our society." Continue reading

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Gliph Raises $200,000 To Expand Secure Messaging And Bitcoin Features

"Gliph began in early 2012 as an encrypted messaging app, focused on securing communications across iPhone, Android and web users, protecting all messages with SSL and/or AES-256 encryption. The service also offers the ability to reveal only as much personal information as desired with communication partners, using symbols – or ‘artifacts’, as the company calls them – as the primary personal identifiers. More recently, Gliph has added a number of bitcoin functions to seamlessly transact in the digital currency. Users can link existing wallets from a number of popular options including BIPS, Blockchain.info, or Coinbase." Continue reading

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Google, Facebook and Yahoo push 21 nations for surveillance data

"The Global Network Initiative, which includes Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft, asked the countries to 'report on the requests they make for electronic communications surveillance and to make it legally possible for companies to report regularly to the public on the government requests that they receive from law enforcement as well as national security authorities.' Letters were sent to senior government officials responsible for foreign affairs, justice, and security, with copies to data protection authorities, the group said. Copies were sent to representatives at the United Nations offices in Geneva, in advance of discussions on human rights and communications surveillance." Continue reading

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Journalism professor says he hopes for murder of NRA members’ children

"A journalism professor at the University of Kansas (KU) turned to Twitter on Monday to suggest he would like to see the murder of children of National Rifle Association (NRA) members at the hands of a deranged gunman. A journalism professor has defended tweets he sent out which called for the death of NRA employees children. '#NavyYardShooting The blood is on the hands of the #NRA,' tweeted David Guth, who is an associate professor of Journalism at the university’s William Allen White School of Journalism. 'Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters, he continued. “Shame on you. May God damn you.'" Continue reading

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Jon Stewart Rips CNN Apart for Confusing, Frenzied Shooting Coverage

"Jon Stewart opened Tuesday night's Daily Show with a powerful indictment of how cable news covered the Washington Navy Yard shooting, aimed squarely at the 'breathless wrongness' of CNN. Stewart spent not one, but two whole segments mercilessly tearing CNN apart for how awfully it covered the shooting, especially all the unnecessary speculation. Stewart yelled at one CNN reporter, 'You're just standing in front of a camera naming shit you see!' and likened it to 'walking down the street with a five-year-old.' He ran the gamut from one anchor demanding to know the size of a building to another asking about the clothes someone who may have been the suspect possibly wore." Continue reading

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Rand Paul: ‘I Ask That We Begin The End Of Mandatory Minimum Sentencing’

"Paul mentioned other examples of draconian mandatory minimums, including the 55-year sentence that Weldon Angelos, a 24-year-old Utah music entrepreneur, received for a few small pot sales. Brett Tolman, a former U.S. attorney for Utah, noted that the DEA could have busted Angelos after the first undercover buy but waited for two more, knowing that Angelos’ possession of a gun would trigger stacked sentences adding up to more than half a century. Paul also cited Edward Clay, an 18-year-old first-time offender who got 10 years after he was caught with less than two ounces of cocaine, and John Horner, a 46-year-old father of three who got a 25-year mandatory minimum." Continue reading

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Minimum Wage Madness

"Switzerland is one of the few modern nations without a minimum wage law. In 2003, 'The Economist' magazine reported: 'Switzerland’s unemployment neared a five-year high of 3.9 percent in February.' In February of this year, Switzerland’s unemployment rate was 3.1 percent. A recent issue of 'The Economist' showed Switzerland’s unemployment rate as 2.1 percent. Most Americans today have never seen unemployment rates that low. However, there was a time when there was no federal minimum wage law in the United States. The last time was during the Coolidge administration, when the annual unemployment rate got as low as 1.8 percent." Continue reading

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