technology

Medbox: Dawn of the Marijuana Vending Machine

"'We are in the right place at the right time,' says Bruce Bedrick, a 44-year-old chiropractor, occasional pot user, and chief executive officer of Medbox (MDBX), maker of one of the world’s first marijuana vending machines. 'We are planning to literally dominate the industry.' Medbox’s core product resembles a Redbox DVD dispenser, only it’s black, refrigerated, and armored. Bedrick avoids the term vending machine because you can’t just saunter up to a Medbox, put in a few bills, and walk away with a stash of weed. The devices sit behind sales counters at state-licensed marijuana dispensaries." Continue reading →

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The Liberator 3D Printed Gun Successfully Smuggled Through International Transport Security

"Well, that was fast. It’s not even been a week since the Liberator, the gun made out of plastic and printed on a 3D printer, was first unveiled and test shot. And already someone has downloaded the plans, made a copy of the gun and smuggled it aboard international transport. Entirely by-passing the usual security arrangements. That, at least, is what the Mail on Sunday claims two of its reporters did. But what they actually did is take a few pieces of plastic through security. Which, when assembled on the train, made up a non-functional gun with no ammunition available for it. Which is, when you come to think about it, really rather less scary." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Liberator 3D Printed Gun Successfully Smuggled Through International Transport Security

3D printed guns are going to create big legal precedents

"Defense Distributed is headed for some important, possibly precedent-setting legal battles with the US government, and I’m worried that the fact that we’re talking about guns here will cloud judges’ minds. Bad cases made bad law, and it’s hard to think of a more emotionally overheated subject area. So while I’d love to see a court evaluate whether the internet should be treated as a library in law, I’m worried that when it comes to guns, the judge may find himself framing the question in terms of whether a gun foundry should be treated as a library." Continue reading →

Continue Reading3D printed guns are going to create big legal precedents

3D printed guns are going to create big legal precedents

"Defense Distributed is headed for some important, possibly precedent-setting legal battles with the US government, and I’m worried that the fact that we’re talking about guns here will cloud judges’ minds. Bad cases made bad law, and it’s hard to think of a more emotionally overheated subject area. So while I’d love to see a court evaluate whether the internet should be treated as a library in law, I’m worried that when it comes to guns, the judge may find himself framing the question in terms of whether a gun foundry should be treated as a library." Continue reading →

Continue Reading3D printed guns are going to create big legal precedents

FBI’s Latest Proposal for a Wiretap-Ready Internet Should Be Trashed

"The FBI has some strange ideas about how to 'update' federal surveillance laws: They’re calling for legislation to penalize online services that provide users with too much security. The FBI’s misguided proposal would impose costly burdens on thousands of companies (and threaten to entirely kill those whose business model centers on providing highly secure encrypted communications), while making cloud solutions less attractive to businesses and users. It would aid totalitarian governments eager to spy on their citizens while distorting business decisions about software design. Perhaps worst of all, it would treat millions of law-abiding users as presumed criminals." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFBI’s Latest Proposal for a Wiretap-Ready Internet Should Be Trashed

FBI’s Latest Proposal for a Wiretap-Ready Internet Should Be Trashed

"The FBI has some strange ideas about how to 'update' federal surveillance laws: They’re calling for legislation to penalize online services that provide users with too much security. The FBI’s misguided proposal would impose costly burdens on thousands of companies (and threaten to entirely kill those whose business model centers on providing highly secure encrypted communications), while making cloud solutions less attractive to businesses and users. It would aid totalitarian governments eager to spy on their citizens while distorting business decisions about software design. Perhaps worst of all, it would treat millions of law-abiding users as presumed criminals." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFBI’s Latest Proposal for a Wiretap-Ready Internet Should Be Trashed

FBI Monitors G-Mail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Facebook Accounts

"If you store your emails for over 180 days, the FBI says it can legally monitor them without a warrant. It took a Freedom of Information Act inquiry to find this out. This defies a ruling made in 2010 by a federal appeals court. An FBI 'Operations Guide' makes exemptions for any email that stored by a service provider for more than 180 days. G-mail is a third party. Outlook isn’t. The FBI has to get a warrant to look at Outlook emails. I use Outlook. I don’t use G-mail. I never have. Why not? Because of exactly this reason. I did not want a third party to store my emails. In a statement, the FBI insisted its methods are constitutional." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFBI Monitors G-Mail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Facebook Accounts

FBI Monitors G-Mail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Facebook Accounts

"If you store your emails for over 180 days, the FBI says it can legally monitor them without a warrant. It took a Freedom of Information Act inquiry to find this out. This defies a ruling made in 2010 by a federal appeals court. An FBI 'Operations Guide' makes exemptions for any email that stored by a service provider for more than 180 days. G-mail is a third party. Outlook isn’t. The FBI has to get a warrant to look at Outlook emails. I use Outlook. I don’t use G-mail. I never have. Why not? Because of exactly this reason. I did not want a third party to store my emails. In a statement, the FBI insisted its methods are constitutional." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFBI Monitors G-Mail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Facebook Accounts

Anti-cocaine vaccine research edges closer to human trials

"Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have successfully used a vaccine to produce a long-lasting anti-cocaine immunity in nonhuman primates. 'The vaccine eats up the cocaine in the blood like a little Pac-man before it can reach the brain,' the study’s lead investigator, Dr. Ronald G. Crystal, said in a news release. Using PET imaging, Crystal and his colleagues found the vaccine prevented cocaine from reaching the brain. The vaccine stimulated the immune system to produce specific antibodies that attached themselves to cocaine molecules in the bloodstream. This prevented the drug from passing through the blood-brain barrier." Continue reading →

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U.S. Government vs. DEFCAD 3D Printable Gun: You Can’t Fix Stupid

"They’re like the Society Matron who walks into the dining hall in a Three Stooges short and demands 'What is the meaning of this?!!' To them the Internet is just a big Series of Tubes, and all they have to do is shut off a valve somewhere to control the flow of information. Only the Internet doesn’t work that way. In John Gilmore's phrasing, it treats censorship as damage and routes around it. Their legal rationale — export control legislation — displays the same conceptual failure. They couldn’t quite grasp that the 'goods' that DEFCAD was 'exporting' arrived in their destination ports around the world the second the files were uploaded to the website." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Government vs. DEFCAD 3D Printable Gun: You Can’t Fix Stupid