for life and liberty

Gupta Mea Culpa

"Dr. Sanjay Gupta has recently reversed his opposition to marijuana legalization and apologized for supporting marijuana prohibition. His reversal is a good reminder that our ultimate goal is to be rid of an entire health care system by which we are ruled by health care technocrats, bureaucrats, and politicians. The mainstream perspective is that experts and technocrats should establish what the best medical practices are and then bureaucrats should enforce those practices on everyone. Practices deemed suboptimal, unproven, or potentially dangerous should be prohibited by politicians and the prohibition enforced by bureaucrats." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin Block Time Halved To Five Minutes Amid Exponential Network Growth

"By now, bitcoin enthusiasts and professionals alike are aware of the tremendous growth of the bitcoin network so far this year. As millions of dollars (and bitcoin) are invested in increasingly powerful mining equipment, the cumulative hash rate of the network has continually blown by the periodic difficulty adjustments. Earlier this year we explained the long-term implications of this, but the near term effects are being felt as well. Since that piece was published, the network has continued to grow, as has the growth rate. The average time between blocks has fallen to approximately five minutes on average, half the time bitcoin was originally programmed for." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin Block Time Halved To Five Minutes Amid Exponential Network Growth

High Profile Digital Forensic Services Company SYTECH Embraces Bitcoin

"In August 2013 SYTECH announced its move into Bitcoin: offering data recovery services to salvage coins from damaged hard drives, mobile phones and other storage mediums. SYTECHis accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for its services, and offering a 5% discount to any client who pays in Bitcoin. In a world first, SYTECH has announced a stolen Bitcoin tracing and recovery service; turning its decades of digital forensics expertise to tracing online Bitcoin criminals and recovering stolen Bitcoin for their clients." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHigh Profile Digital Forensic Services Company SYTECH Embraces Bitcoin

Every Important Person In Bitcoin Just Got Subpoenaed By New York

"Declaring Bitcoin 'a virtual Wild West for narcotraffickers and other criminals,' the New York State Department of Financial Services is stepping into the sheriff’s boots. 'We believe that – for a number of reasons – putting in place appropriate regulatory safeguards for virtual currencies will be beneficial to the long-term strength of the virtual currency industry,' said NYSDFS superintendent Benjamin Lawsky in a statement. They sent letters to the major Bitcoin players asking them to hand over information regarding their money laundering controls, consumer protection practices, source of funding, pitch books, and investment strategies." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEvery Important Person In Bitcoin Just Got Subpoenaed By New York

New York’s Crony Motivated Swipe Against the Sharing Economy

"Nigel Warren, an East Village resident, was fined $2,400 for running an illegal hotel because he rented his bedroom out to a visitor for three days. He wasn’t operating a sleazy flophouse, and the entire transaction was markedly casual, but he was prosecuted nonetheless. Warren’s offending transaction took place through Airbnb, an online hostelling website. Airbnb works on a peer-to-peer structure, connecting people with extra space to people who can’t (or don’t want to) shell out for a regular hotel. One can’t help but suspect big hotel powers might be lurking behind a law that forbids short stays anywhere but in hotels." Continue reading →

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U.S. Expats Balk at Tax Law, Reconsider Citizenship

"Withers, in Hong Kong, says that many of its clients are giving up their green cards and U.S. citizenship after filing their taxes, deeming the tax liability to be too onerous. Among them are American expatriates who see their Singaporean and Hong Kong peers paying a far-lower income tax and aren't subject to capital-gains taxes, Mr. Krause said. The foreign grantor trust is becoming a favored method for passing on wealth, said Mr. Krause of Withers. Such trusts are 'highly advantageous' to families living abroad, he said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Expats Balk at Tax Law, Reconsider Citizenship

The Missiles That Brought Down TWA Flight 800

"If the U.S. public began to raise a fuss about U.S. missile strikes that blow up large numbers of civilians at wedding parties abroad, it’s not beyond the realm of the imaginable that the U.S. government would begin blaming the explosions on faulty candles in the wedding cakes. A similarly implausible excuse was used to explain the 1996 explosion of TWA flight 800 off Long Island, New York, and the U.S. public has thus far either swallowed the story whole or ignored the matter. If you watch Kristina Borjesson’s new film, TWA Flight 800, you’ll see a highly persuasive case that this passenger jet full of passengers was brought down by missiles, killing all on board." Continue reading →

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Wi-Fi Trashcans Now Silently Tracking Your Smartphone Data

"Utilizing Wi-Fi technology within the infrastructure of the now tech-equipped trashcans, new ‘Renew Pods’ spy trashcans have been placed throughout the financial district of London. The ‘Renew’ company behind the spy cans says that the Renew Pods track and collect a medley of information. Specifically, it includes your phone’s unique Media Access Control (MAC) address, which these Renew Pods collect without even the slightest warning. But that’s along with collecting other characteristics that are used to sell to advertisers in order to better ‘target’ you with advertising in the area." Continue reading →

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Not Speedy + Not Public = Not Legal

"Colonel Denise Lind, 'judge' of the court martial of PFC Bradley Manning, infamously and illegally ruled that the US government could proceed with its show trial despite the fact that it had held Manning for more than four times the absolute legal maximum time prior to arraigning him. Then she infamously and illegally ruled that the government could change the charges and introduce new witnesses after both prosecution and defense had rested. Now, she has infamously and illegally overruled the defense’s objections to the use of illegal secret testimony against Manning. Question: If Manning isn’t allowed to violate the law, why is Lind?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNot Speedy + Not Public = Not Legal

CIA stops denials and admits it had file on Noam Chomsky

"After issuing years of denials, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has revealed that it kept a file on MIT professor Noam Chomsky dating back to his days as an anti-war activist in the 1970s. According to John Hudson of Foreign Policy magazine’s The Cable blog, a public records request by FOIA attorney Ken McClanahan turned up a memo referring to the file, leading to the realization that a file must have existed although it had since been purged from the record. By whom, when and at whose orders the file was destroyed is still a mystery. Chomsky told the Cable that he isn’t surprised by the revelations." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCIA stops denials and admits it had file on Noam Chomsky