The New Zealand Herald brings us the story of a lawsuit between a Greek shipper and an advocacy group which was dismissed by a Federal court in New York after the Department of Justice invoked the state secrets privilege. Neither party to the lawsuit is a part of the government or a contractor known to be conducting national security work on behalf of the United States Government. For a lawsuit between private parties to end upon the invocation of the State Secrets privilege is unprecedented. Continue reading
Mycelium Entropy Devices Possibly Tampered With During Transit
Mycelium customers who only recently began to receive their Entropy device after lengthy delays are now facing the real possibility that their devices have been tampered with en route to its destination after one customer from Canada and another from Japan claimed their packages were opened prior to delivery.
Canadian Redditor literarydevice made the following comments and shared the following pictures via imgur: Continue reading
Sheep Marketplace Arrest
PayPal Settles With US For Sanctions Violations
PayPal, an early and centralized attempt at establishing a primitive form of Internet money, has announced a settlement with the United States Treasury Department. PayPal will pay the Treasury Department 7.7 million United States Dollars for having disregarded sanctions enacted by the United States Government against Iran, Cuba, and others. Examples of transactions and accounts PayPal admits allowing span from 2009 to April 2013 when PayPal enacted a system to screen in real time for prohibited payments. PayPal reports spending substantial effort over the past two years to strengthen its ability to comply with sanctions.
Basketball Team Relegated to Lower Division by MS Windows Misbehavior
The Paderhorn Baskets of the German Basketball Budesliga face potential relegation to the lower ProB division after Windows Update forced a delay of game so severe the league had to penalize Paderhorn by reducing their points in the league's standings. While the disastrous security consequences of Microsoft Windows are often the focus of criticism, in this case the disaster was triggered by Window's automatic update functionality which is generally regarded as annoying though somewhat beneficial. In this case however, the rogue behavior of the Windows Updater went from merely annoying to economically and professionally damaging.
Local Police Arming Robots
In covering a story on the arrest of a political dissident (local mirror) in St Louis, the St Louis Post Dispatch managed to catch footage of local law enforcement officers working in tandem with a robot armed with a shotgun. This armed drone operating in an populated urban area by what is at least nominally a civilian law enforcement agency raises a number of disturbing questions about the future progression of the American Rogue State. Continue reading
Bitcoin Floundation Moves To Dilute The Bitcoin Brand
Not content with the goal of bloating the blockchain with its proposed increase of the block size limit, the Bitcoin Floundation has now moved to assist in diluting the Bitcoin brand, the very brand which they claim to represent, by allowing so-called guest bloggers to promote alternative coins on its blog under the banner of mainstream adoption.
Authored by Vogogo's Head of Marketing and Creative Chantel Meeley, the article implies that due to the large number of coins available, a new brand which is inclusive of all coins is required if mainstream adoption is to occur. To that end, Vogogo have teamed up with the infamous altcoin exchange Crypsty to promote BrandMeCrypto's logo competition in which the winner will be awarded $10,000. Continue reading
ChangeTip Hires Bitcoin Subreddit Moderator
Today Bitcoin subreddit moderator BashCo has disclosed taking a part time with ChangeTip, a social media company that has a substantial presence on Reddit. The disclosure, mirrored in full below, includes substantial flattery towards his new employer such as: Continue reading
Shavers Enters Not Guilty Plea
Yesterday the criminal case against Trendon Shavers has finally progressed to the point that Shavers could enter a plea of not guilty. This is in spite of his Ponzi scheme collapsing a full year before the arrest of Ross Ulbricht who has already been tried and convicted. Both Shavers and Ulbricht are targets selected for criminal prosecution by United States Attorney Preet Bharara. Criminal charges were filed against Shavers back in November 2014 in Manhattan after Shavers lost in a civil case brought by the SEC in September where he was ordered to pay 40 million dollars in damages. The SEC's civil case occurred in Shaver's home state of Texas. Continue reading
Hong Kong Says No To Regulation Of Bitcoin (For Now)
Amid calls for the regulation of Bitcoin in the aftermath of the MyCoin debacle, Reuters reports that the Hong Kong government has rebuffed requests for new legislation aimed at curtailing the use of Bitcoin because it is unlikely to have a significant impact on the Hong Kong financial system.
Responding to questions asked in the Legislative Council, Professor KC Chan of the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau said that bitcoin is not legal tender, that the price is volatile and that its use as a medium of exchange in Hong Kong is negligible. For these reasons, Professor KC Chan believes there is no need for the government to consider the introduction of new legislation to regulate or prohibit Bitcoin at this time. Continue reading