54895421
submission
SonicSpike writes:
US Representative Steve Stockman, a vocal opponent of Federal Reserve policy, told reporters that he wants to promote Bitcoin, whose most fervent evangelists tout as an alternative to fiat currency.
To do so, he is now accepting Bitcoin for his Senate campaign against incumbent John Cornyn of Texas.
The announcement was made last night at the launch event for the NYC Bitcoin Center, located just up the street from the New York Stock Exchange. Center founder Nick Spanos a real estate developer and Bitcoin enthusiast says the Center itself is still in something of a planning stage, existing more as a statement about Bitcoin itself, though he plans on hosting a "hackathon" later this month.
54675747
submission
SonicSpike writes:
In Apopka, FL where John Land has served a record 61 years as mayor, two of the candidates lined up to oppose the city's most iconic politician have one thing in common: They hate red-light cameras.
Political newcomers Glen Chancy and Edwin Radcliff III want to bring the cameras down.
No other municipality in Central Florida has made as much money with red-light cameras in the past two years than Apopka. The city levied a total of $3.6 million in red-light fines from 22 cameras during fiscal years 2012 and 2013, about $200,000 more than second-place Orlando did during the same time span.
The city keeps $75 from each $158 fine collected; the state gets the other $83, including $13 that is diverted to trust funds that help fund trauma and brain-and-spinal-cord injury centers.
"Nobody likes robo-enforcement," said Chancy, co-founder of http://www.banthecams.org/ a grassroots Apopka group organized to combat red-light cameras. "They ticket people for doing things a police officer never would."
Though red-light camera critics often protest the devices at Apopka City Council meetings, Land has endorsed the traffic sentinels since 2005, when the city became the first in Central Florida to put them up. "They save lives, first and foremost it's that," the mayor said of his support.
"They make us safer," Land said
54589023
submission
SonicSpike writes:
Overstock plans to become the first big U.S. online retailer to accept Bitcoin, as Patrick Byrne, the company's libertarian chief executive, warms to the virtual currency as a refuge from government control.
Mr Byrne told the Financial Times that Overstock planned to start accepting Bitcoin next year – possibly by the end of the second quarter – a decision that he said was driven mainly by his own political philosophy.
"I think a healthy monetary system at the end of the day isn't an upside down pyramid based on the whim of a government official, but is based on something that they can't control," Mr Byrne said.
54550591
submission
SonicSpike writes:
Two researchers at York University have worked out a way to communicate between two points using vodka evaporated into the air. They used their system to message the lyrics of “O Canada” between two points, leading them to conclude that in times of need, when there is no cellular reception, it would be possible to text-message using this system.
The authors of the paper, published Thursday, used specific concentration levels of the vodka to represent bits 1 and 0. They wafted the “message” across 12 feet in the lab to the receiving unit, which read out the message as it detected the concentration of vodka in the air rising or falling over time.
The process sounds slow and short-range, but the researchers suggest that it could work for closed environments that don’t have the benefit of a cellular or Wi-Fi signal. They cite the example of the clogged London sewer system as one where robots could have been deployed below ground and have relayed their findings via the molecular communication system.
A third researcher quoted by Eurekalert further suggests that similar systems of molecular communication could be “used to communicate on the nanoscale,” when scientists are, for instance, trying to target drugs or cancer cells inside a human body.
54486203
submission
SonicSpike writes:
In September, the FBI shut down the Silk Road online drug marketplace, and it started seizing bitcoins belonging to the Dread Pirate Roberts — the operator of the illicit online marketplace, who they say is an American man named Ross Ulbricht.
The seizure sparked an ongoing public discussion about the future of Bitcoin, the world’s most popular digital currency, but it had an unforeseen side-effect: It made the FBI the holder of the world’s biggest Bitcoin wallet.
The FBI now controls more than 144,000 bitcoins that reside at a bitcoin address that consolidates much of the seized Silk Road bitcoins. Those 144,000 bitcoins are worth close to $100 million at Tuesday’s exchange rates. Another address, containing Silk Road funds seized earlier by the FBI, contains nearly 30,000 bitcoins ($20 million).
That doesn’t make the FBI the world’s largest bitcoin holder. This honor is thought to belong to bitcoin’s shadowy inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, who is estimated to have mined 1 million bitcoins in the currency’s early days. His stash is spread across many wallets. But it does put the federal agency ahead of the Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who in July said that they’d cornered about 1 percent of all bitcoins (there are 12 million bitcoins in circulation).
In the fun house world of bitcoin tracking, it’s hard to say anything for certain. But it is safe to say that there are new players in the Bitcoin world — although not as many people are buying bitcoins as one might guess from all of the media attention.
54449083
submission
SonicSpike writes:
After months of consideration, Sen. Rand Paul, (R-KY), is moving closer to filing a lawsuit in federal court against National Security Agency surveillance programs.
A senior Paul staffer says U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon's Monday decision that NSA opponents have standing to sue over the bulk collection of phone records makes Paul "much more likely" to file his own lawsuit.
The senior staffer, who spoke with U.S. News on background, says hundreds of thousands of people volunteered online as possible plaintiffs after Paul first floated the idea of a class-action lawsuit in June.
If Paul does file a lawsuit it would be the fourth major legal attack against the NSA's bulk collection and five-year storage of American phone records. "As of now the senator is in the process of finding the best lawyer to file the [possible] suit [and] is still accepting more plaintiffs for the case," Paul spokeswoman Eleanor May said.
54438211
submission
SonicSpike writes:
2013 may be a turning point for red-light cameras across the United States. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a non-profit largely funded by auto insurance companies, this year is the first time in nearly two decades that the number of American cities with red-light cameras has fallen—the systems were installed in 509 communities as of November 2013.
While a single-year drop may not ultimately mean much, legislators across the country are increasingly agitated about the cameras. Bills are also pending in Florida and Ohio that would ban the devices entirely. A state representative in Iowa has also twice introduced legislation to ban RLCs (he was not successful). Part of this backlash has to do with the (sometimes accurate) perception that RLCs are a moneymaking scheme, pure and simple.
54371045
submission
SonicSpike writes:
Light bulb manufacturers will cease making traditional 40 and 60-watt light bulbs — the most popular in the country — at the start of 2014.
This comes after the controversial phasing out of incandescent 75 and 100-watt light bulbs at the beginning of 2013.
In their place will be halogen bulbs, compact fluorescent bulbs, LED bulbs and high efficiency incandescents — which are just regular incandescents that have the filament wrapped in gas. All are significantly more expensive than traditional light bulbs, but offer significant energy and costs savings over the long run. (Some specialty incandescents — such as three-way bulbs — will still be available.)
The end of old light bulbs will likely anger some consumers that are already faced with higher prices for a variety of goods. But it will also tick off tea party activists since the ban is the result of the final phase of government-mandated efficiency standards.
The rules were signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007. They are designed to address gross inefficiencies with old light bulbs — only 10% of the energy they use is converted into light, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which has a handy fact sheet about the changes. The rest is wasted as heat.
But the rules have drawn fire from a number of circles — mainly conservatives and libertarians who are unhappy about the government telling people what light bulbs they can use. They argue that if the new ones really are so good, people will buy them on their own without being forced to do so.
54299611
submission
SonicSpike writes:
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander today filed legislation to prohibit cell phone conversations on commercial flights.
The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to hold a hearing today on a potential rule change, having recently eased restrictions on the use of other wireless devices during flights.
"When you stop and think about what we hear now in airport lobbies — babbling about last night's love life, next week's schedule, arguments with spouses — it's not hard to see why the FCC shouldn't allow cell phone conversations on airplanes," Alexander said in a news release. "The solution is simple: text messages, yes; conversations, no."
54261993
submission
SonicSpike writes:
A portable hard drive confiscated during a raid on the home of U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander’s fired chief of staff contained hundreds of videos depicting underage children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to court records released Thursday.
Postal inspectors confiscated the hard drive Wednesday morning from the rear roof of Jesse Ryan Loskarn’s home in southeast Washington. Federal agents said they retrieved the hard drive after they spotted Loskarn leaning out a second-floor window of the home during the raid.
Loskarn, 35, who goes by Ryan, was arrested during the raid and charged with possession and distribution of child pornography. A few hours later, Alexander fired him as his chief of staff.
Court records indicate that Loskarn was targeted as part of a broader investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Toronto Police Service into a movie production company that operated a web site offering DVDs for delivery by mail and for sale through online streaming.
On Oct. 5, 2013, and Oct. 6, 2013, postal inspectors identified Loskarn’s computer IP address on the Gnutella peer-to-peer network offering files for downloading and bearing file names that are consistent with child pornography, the records say.
On Nov. 18, law enforcement officers obtained a partially downloaded video file that matched a file offered for download from Loskarn’s IP address.
A computer forensic examiner inspected the hard drive and found digital videos depicting child pornography, including at least one involving an underage girl and hundreds of others depicting underage boys.
An examination of Loskarn’s computer also turned up peer-to-peer software that operates on the Gnutella file-sharing network — the same type of software used to share to child pornography from Loskarn’s IP address on Oct. 5 and Oct. 6.
53808083
submission
SonicSpike writes:
Law enforcement may already be gritting its teeth over the idea of legal drone delivery. Being able to send things by drone could be hugely disruptive to the existing mail system: a peer-to-peer postal service that cuts out the USPS and FedEx. That’s fine when Amazon is shipping out books, but what about the kind of deliveries that law enforcement wants to be able to track? The existing postal system is full of surveillance.
If drones took off (heh) as a private way to send packages and letters over short or long distances, law enforcement would lose an important crime-fighting tool: their surveillance of the mail system. Much like electronic communication has gone “dark” thanks to encryption tools, the postal system could go “dark” thanks to private robot postmen.
This may sound far-fetched, but private, illicit drone deliveries are already happening. Last month, three men and a woman were caught smuggling tobacco into a Georgia prison. They used an Octocopter to do it. Unfortunately for them, their drone wasn’t an autonomous one and they had to crouch in the woods near the prison yard and watch the flight of their copter with binoculars. If it had been an autonomous drone, they may well have gotten away with the crime, and the smugglers wouldn’t be facing up to 20 years in their drone delivery zone for crossing prison guard lines with contraband.
53807951
submission
SonicSpike writes:
Volvo is to introduce 100 driverless cars on to public roads as part of the world’s first large-scale autonomous driving pilot.
The cars will drive in normal, everyday road conditions, surrounded by pedestrians and other traffic, and will even be able to self-park, as the Swedish car-maker (which is now under Chinese ownership) attempts to demonstrate the benefits, including improved safety and efficiency, of self-driving cars.
Volvo is working alongside the Swedish Transport Administration, The Swedish Transport Agency, Lindholmen Science Park and the City of Gotehenburg, with the goal of placing both it and Sweden as leaders in the development of future mobility.
53807897
submission
SonicSpike writes:
A South Florida nudist, arrested on charges that he helped take pornographic photographs of his three young daughters and shared them with other men, is putting on an unusual defense.
Brian Martens, 53, who was living at a nudist colony in Palm Beach County, is arguing that there is nothing pornographic about the pictures and that they are regular family portraits of a naturist family.
Federal prosecutors say they believe several of the photographs are clearly inappropriate and the final judgment call should lie with a trial jury. A grand jury has already voted there was enough evidence to indict Martens on one count of producing child pornography and one count of receiving child pornography.
53105881
submission
SonicSpike writes:
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty pushed by the Obama administration could complicate efforts to loosen restrictions on jailbreaking and unlocking smartphones, tablets, or other consumer electronics.
A working draft of the treaty published by WikiLeaks prohibits the manufacturing or distribution of devices or services "for the purpose of circumvention of any effective technological measure." It goes on to prohibit devices and services that "have only a limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent any effective technological measure, or are primarily designed, produced, or performed for the purpose of the circumvention of any effective technological measure."
Derek Khanna, a Yale Law Fellow who submitted a White House petition that led to the Obama administration publicly supporting the end of a ban on unlocking, wrote in Slate that "while the White House was publicly proclaiming its support of cellphone unlocking, it was secretly negotiating a treaty that would ban it."
The treaty text never specifically mentions jailbreaking or unlocking, but the lack of an exemption to the ban on circumventing technological measures has Khanna worried.
"The treaty as proposed would stop all methods of circumvention," Khanna wrote in an e-mail to Ars. "The key is that there must be an exemption to allow for unlocking. In the draft text, there is no exemption for unlocking."
53082151
submission
SonicSpike writes:
The Department of Justice said Bitcoins can be “legal means of exchange” at a U.S. Senate committee hearing, boosting prospects for wider acceptance of the virtual currency. “We all recognize that virtual currencies, in and of themselves, are not illegal,” Mythili Raman, acting assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s criminal division, said at the hearing.
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which solicited comments in an Aug. 12 letter, scheduled the hearing “to explore potential promises and risks related to virtual currency for the federal government and society at large” after the Silk Road Hidden Website was shut down in October. The closing of the marketplace, is helping fuel a rally in the virtual currency as speculators bet that the digital money will gain more mainstream acceptance.
“The FBI’s approach to virtual currencies is guided by a recognition that online payment systems, both centralized and decentralized, offer legitimate financial services,” Peter Kadzik, principal deputy assistant attorney general, wrote in a letter dated Oct. 23. “Like any financial service, virtual currency systems of either type can be exploited by malicious actors, but centralized and decentralized online payment systems can vary significantly in the types and degrees of illicit financial risk they pose.”
Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, is also weighing in on the hearing, saying that it has no plans to regulate the currency. “Although the Federal Reserve generally monitors developments in virtual currencies and other payments system innovations, it does not necessarily have authority to directly supervise or regulate these innovations or the entities that provide them to the market,” Bernanke wrote in a letter to the committee ahead of the meeting. Quartz's Zachary Seward called it a "cautious blessing," with Bernanke acknowledging the Fed doesn't have the authority to supervise virtual currencies, but that they "may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system.”
The hearings will bolster the view that Bitcoins are an acceptable alternate means of conducting transactions, and that their use will grow, said Jerry Brito senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University who is also testifying in front of the committee today. “These hearings means Bitcoin is finally coming into its own; it’s a real thing and it’s not going anywhere and these hearings highlight that."