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The Enemy of the NSA is My Friend

“My company was invited to present a new technology to 800 people at the July New York Tech Meetup. We showed off a self service kiosk that can save digital copies of house and apartment keys and then reproduce the physical keys when someone loses them or gets locked out. After our demonstration, one audience member asked if it would be used by the NSA to spy on people. My coworker told him not to worry because our CTO is an anarchist, which resulted in a round of applause. At the time, it was surprising how much credibility being an anarchist brought in that context. Yet, in retrospect it should have been obvious.” Continue reading →

15 reasons why Bitcoins are better than gold

“Technology is literally at the point where it is disrupting almost everything and this week has been a prime example of this trend. On the one hand Google co-founder Sergey Brin was revealed as the investor behind growing synthetic meat in a lab in order to disrupt the cattle business and Elon Musk proved he can disrupt the auto market with his successful launch of Tesla Motors and the recent public acceptance of his company’s vehicles which surpassed analyst estimates. Can you disrupt a commodity though? After some consideration I would assert you can and this post will explore the top reasons why Bitcoins are better than gold.” Continue reading →

U.S. Sentencing Commission expected to recommend lower sentences for drug dealing

“Prison terms for all federal drug dealing offences could be cut under a sweeping sentencing review expected to be announced on Thursday that may go much further than the tentative steps toward ending America’s ‘war on drugs’, begun this week by attorney general Eric Holder. The US Sentencing Commission, the independent government agency responsible for setting guidelines for judges, will meet in Washington to consider amending the ‘drug quantity table’ – the grid that determines prison lengths for dozens of different categories of offence. The impetus for the new push to cut sentences appears to have been driven primarily by a need to cut soaring government costs.” Continue reading →

White House insists NSA surveillance review will be independent

“The White House has moved to dampen controversy over the role of the director of national intelligence James Clapper in a panel reviewing NSA surveillance, insisting that he would neither lead it nor choose the members. Statements by Barack Obama and Clapper were widely interpreted as the director of national intelligence being placed in charge of the inquiry, which the president had announced on Friday would be ‘independent’. The apparent involvement of Clapper, who has admitted lying to Congress over NSA surveillance of US citizens, provoked a backlash, with critics accusing the president of putting a fox in charge of the hen house.” Continue reading →

Hawaiian cannabis minister allowed to use religious defense

“The 64-year-old Christie has been in the Honolulu Federal Detention Center since he and 13 other Big Island residents, including Share Christie, were arrested by federal agents on July 8, 2010. All were charged with conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute 284 marijuana plants, which carries a mandatory minimum prison term of five years and a maximum of 40 years if they’re convicted. The others were granted bail, but U.S. Magistrate Kevin Chang ordered Christie held without bail, calling him ‘a danger to the community.'” Continue reading →

The mysterious company that just bought Newsweek

“Uzac, the CEO, turns 30 on August 7. He grew up in France and South Africa, carries a French passport, and studied geography and economics at the London School of Economics. His partner and IBT’s chief content officer is Johnathan Davis, a 31-year-old American who studied computer engineering at UCLA and did time in Silicon Valley.Together they launched what became IBT Media in 2006, with personal savings, a SBA bank loan, and no input, financial or advisory, from VCs. They say they’ve been profitable since 2010. Headquarters are in New York, with offices in Bangalore, Shanghai, and Sidney. Total editorial employees: about 150.” Continue reading →

Railroad To Space: A Low(er) Cost Leap Into The Stars

“It currently costs about $100,000 to send a standard 3-pound satellite into low Earth orbit. Larger masses can be a little bit more affordable, but can still cost up to $5,000 per pound. Lucky for the human race, there are smart people out there trying to solve this problem. One company, HyperV Technologies Corp., has proposed a ‘railroad to space using a mechanical hypervelocity launcher to enable large-scale space utilization’ that will be only one-hundredth of the cost of the rockets we currently use. Fancy, I know. They’re calling it the Slingatron.” Continue reading →

The Hyperloop: Elon Musk’s futuristic plan to blast Californians through a tube

“The founder of Tesla, SpaceX and Paypal published the design for his futuristic ‘Hyperloop’ transportation system online. The Hyperloop would use low pressure steel tubes to blast car-sized capsules from one area to another. The system would be entirely powered by its own solar panels. The Hyperloop would be able to transport a person from Los Angeles to San Francisco — a distance of more than 300 miles — in only 30 minutes. Musk previously described the system a cross between a ‘Concorde, a railgun, and an air hockey table.'” Continue reading →