"According to a report last year by Al Jazeera, an estimated one million Russian motorists have dashboard video cameras installed in their cars. This is not to capture moments like the meteor flight or even miraculous survivals of horrifying highway crashes. No, Al Jazeera reported that the cams are there to help stamp out police corruption." Continue reading →
"Since New York State enacted its restrictive new gun laws, many manufacturers have sent that state (and others) a message: If local governments are going to severely restrict the ability of citizens to own guns, then these companies will not be selling to law enforcement in those areas. Among the gun manufacturers sending that message: Olympic Arms, Inc; La Rue Tactical; EFI, LLC – Extreme Firepower; York Arms; Templar Custom; Cheaper Than Dirt. In addition to these very public statements, gun-owner groups are asking members and fans to contact three other manufacturers with significant sales to law enforcement in New York." Continue reading →
"The answer has as much to do with simple accounting as the more common outsider assumption: that farmers fear the price drops that come when a prohibitionary economy dissolves (though this is certainly part of the story). When, in three generations of farming, your family has never had to pay taxes, record payroll or meet building code, let alone meet a customer (the Emerald Triangle has an entire caste of middlemen and women who broker wholesale deals, so the farmer doesn’t have to leave the farm), the prospect of coming aboveground -- and dealing with the same red tape every other industry does -- can be terrifying." Continue reading →
"Government prohibition doesn’t even do a good job of keeping drugs out of prisons. The demand for an item, in this case digital cash with user-defined levels of privacy, does not simply evaporate in the face of a jurisdictional ban. One could even make the case that it becomes stronger because an official recognition that Bitcoin is not only a 'renegade' currency but a 'so-effective-it-had-to-be-banned' currency would imbue the cryptographic money with larger than life qualities. Ironically, the ban would create something like theStreisand effect for Bitcoin generating an awareness for entire new demographic groups and new classes of society." Continue reading →
"China surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s biggest trading nation last year as measured by the sum of exports and imports of goods, official figures from both countries show. China’s customs administration reported last month that the country’s trade in goods in 2012 amounted to $3.87 trillion. China’s growing influence in global commerce threatens to disrupt regional trading blocs as it becomes the most important commercial partner for some countries. Germany may export twice as much to China by the end of the decade as it does to France, estimated Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Jim O’Neill." Continue reading →
"Karl Hess was a noted speechwriter (for Barry Goldwater among others) and author, and later in his life became known as a tax resister and market anarchist. In this video from a Libertarian International conference in Stockholm in 1986, Hess speaks about everything from his time as a speechwriter for Barry Goldwater to Euclid, the impending collapse of global communism, children's education in America, the dawn of the personal computer, new management styles in business (he somewhat accurately predicts the way Google treats its employees based on Cray Supercomputers' management style at the time), and several other fascinating topics." Continue reading →
"Coinbase launched last year and aims to be 'the PayPal of Internet-only currency.' It helps merchants and consumers by providing a Bitcoin wallet and platform to make transactions easier, but the vast majority of its revenue comes from letting users buy and sell Bitcoins directly from Coinbase. It charges a one percent fee on top of each transaction. The company claims that it has seen huge growth in the past three months, after it started letting users buy and sell Bitcoin by connecting any U.S. bank account. The decentralized currency is currently trading at $22.66 per Bitcoin on Mt. Gox, the largest Bitcoin exchange." Continue reading →
"The aptly, albeit somewhat unimaginatively, named Pizzaforcoins.com makes it possible for anyone to place a pizza order and pay for it using Bitcoins. To place an order, enter your name and address. The site then redirects you to an online order menu that has various options and their respective prices (in BTC). Once a selection is made, Pizzaforcoins verifies that the payment has been made and an order is placed within 10 minutes. Orders can currently only be placed with Domino's Pizza, but the site's fine print indicates that they'll soon be adding Pizza Hut and Papa John's into the mix." Continue reading →
"Back in October, the startup tech firm Silent Circle ruffled governments’ feathers with a 'surveillance-proof' smartphone app to allow people to make secure phone calls and send texts easily. Now, the company is pushing things even further—with a groundbreaking encrypted data transfer app that will enable people to send files securely from a smartphone or tablet at the touch of a button. (For now, it’s just being released for iPhones and iPads, though Android versions should come soon.) That means photographs, videos, spreadsheets, you name it—sent scrambled from one person to another in a matter of seconds." Continue reading →
"Venture capitalists and investors are continuing to pour money into startups. In fact, there is a vast number of startups that are worth billions, The New York Times' Quentin Hardy reports. 'An unprecedented number of high technology start-ups, easily 25 and possibly exceeding 40, are valued at $1 billion or more,' Hardy writes. 'Many employees are quietly getting rich, or at least building a big cushion against a crash, as they sell shares to outside investors.'" Continue reading →