technology

Medical pot: Will Colorado’s “green rush” last?

"Twenty states have now legalized the medical use of marijuana for the treatment of things like glaucoma, the effects of chemotherapy, and chronic pain; defying federal laws that still consider marijuana more dangerous than cocaine and methamphetamine. In Denver, if you want to find a medical marijuana dispensary, just look for the green cross. You won't have to go far. There are 204 of them in the Mile High City -- that's roughly three times the number of Starbucks and McDonald's combined. They come in all sizes and shapes. There is the health food store motif and '70s style head shops. There are storefronts pitching low cost weed, and boutiques offering gourmet ganja." Continue reading →

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Jeffrey Tucker: 3 Important Lessons from a Canadian Border Crossing

"I was at the Canadian border, headed toward the freedom that exists a few feet beyond the last security check. I was gently waved down a side corridor. Ninety minutes later, I was let go, but not before something truly alarming happened. I’m pretty sure that the Canadian government captured a mirrored version of my smartphone — which pretty much holds the whole of my life. I’ll explain precisely how this happened in just a bit — in the hopes that perhaps you can take precautions that I did not. But let’s first establish that this practice is not unusual. According to documents obtained by the ACLU, this has become the standard backdoor method of search used today by governments around the world." Continue reading →

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Teen arrested for using app to “shoot” his classmates with a cellphone

"Police arrested a 15-year-old high-schooler Thursday in Louisiana for 'terrorizing' his classmates with a phone app that edits video to make them appear as though they are being gunned down. Terrebonne Parish sheriff’s Capt. Dawn Foret told the Lafourche Daily Comet that the H.L. Bourgeois High School student, used a phone app called 'The Real Strike' to superimpose video game style guns on video from an iPhone and similar devices. The app allows a user to virtually 'shoot' things in front of the camera. The boy is charged with terrorizing and interfering in the operation of a school." Continue reading →

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Legal loophole allows new belt-fed AR-15 that sprays bullets

"A new belt-fed AR-15 military-style assault rifle can fire rounds as fast as fully-automatic machine guns — and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) says that a legal loophole means that the gun is perfectly legal in the United States. CNN reported this week that Texas-based Slide Fire’s new SFS BFR semiautomatic rifle would be available this fall for $6,000. The weapon can potentially hold thousands of rounds of ammunition because it is fed by a belt instead of a traditional magazine. And according to Shooting Times, the company’s special stock uses the rifle’s recoil to trigger the next round, resulting in a possible fire rate of 800 rounds per minute." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLegal loophole allows new belt-fed AR-15 that sprays bullets

All Hail Rick Perry!

"It’s always a good thing for society, but bad for our rulers, when at least one of them decides it’s a good idea to compete by lowering taxes. (Maryland state government recently imposed a 'rain tax' based on the size of the roof on one’s business establishment under the crackpot theory that rain running off your roof will pollute the Chesapeake Bay.). Cory A. writes that he moved to Austin, Texas last year to take a great new job with Paypal/Ebay which he says is 'expanding dramatically.' As is a new Apple facility in Austin, along with Visa, with 800 new jobs. These are all well-paying jobs, he says. In addition, Austin has become 'the' place to go if you want a career in the music industry." Continue reading →

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Can the Internet Tax Be Stopped Just Like the Attack On Syria?

"This time we would be stopping a direct attack on us. A new national comprehensive survey commissioned by National Taxpayers Union and the R Street Institute finds that Americans overwhelmingly oppose new legislation, like the Marketplace Fairness Act, that lets states force tax collection obligations on Internet purchases made from businesses outside their borders. Fifty-seven percent of respondents in recent polls opposed changes to Internet sales tax policies like those provided in the Marketplace Fairness Act. Will Rand Paul, Justin Amash and 'Leader' Mitch McConnell take up this cause?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCan the Internet Tax Be Stopped Just Like the Attack On Syria?

Bruce Schneier: Surreptitiously Tampering with Computer Chips

"The paper talks about several uses for this type of sabotage, but the most interesting -- and devastating -- is to modify a chip's random number generator. This technique could, for example, reduce the amount of entropy in Intel's hardware random number generator from 128 bits to 32 bits. This could be done without triggering any of the built-in self-tests, without disabling any of the built-in self-tests, and without failing any randomness tests. I have no idea if the NSA convinced Intel to do this with the hardware random number generator it embedded into its CPU chips, but I do know that it could. Yes, this is a conspiracy theory. But I'm not willing to discount such things anymore." Continue reading →

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Google Street View driver in triple hit and run crash in Indonesia

"A driver collecting video data for internet giant Google’s Street View feature in Indonesia slammed into two vehicles after trying to flee responsibility for an earlier crash, police said Saturday. The Indonesian man had been driving a Subaru hatchback in Bogor district on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta, on Wednesday with Google’s logo and a camera poking from the roof, when he hit a public minivan. The minivan driver got in his vehicle, Gunawan said, and gave chase for around three kilometres (around two miles), before the Google car smashed into a second minivan. 'He tried to flee again, but soon crashed into a parked truck before he gave up,' Gunawan said." Continue reading →

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Experts Say iPhone 5S Fingerprint Security Feature Can Be Hacked

"While fingerprint sensors might seem like a nifty way to shorten the steps to your next brilliant tweet and keep your buddy from punking your Facebook with a fake status update, they’re more likely to create a false sense of security, thanks to statements like this, from Apple Senior Vice President Dan Riccio, in the introductory video for the new iPhone 5s: 'Your fingerprint is one of the best passwords in the world. It’s always with you, and no two are exactly alike.' Riccio is half-right. Your fingerprint is always with you, and no two are exactly alike. But that doesn’t make it one of the best passwords in the world. That actually makes it a potentially lousy password." Continue reading →

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ICANN: How top-down ‘implementation’ replaced bottom-up policymaking

"To understand the significance of this, suppose that the U.S. Congress or British Parliament had just passed a law, but one lobbying group didn’t like it. Suppose that the President or the British Prime Minister convened a closed meeting with a small group of invited 'stakeholders' and agreed on a 'strawman proposal' to amend the legislation. The new legislation makes the first group happy but most other stakeholders unhappy. But nevertheless, the chief executives went on to order its executive branch to implement the revised legislation without any review and approval by the Congress/Parliament. That is exactly what ICANN did." Continue reading →

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