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Grand Ayatollah Says 3G Internet is Immoral and Inhumane
Iranian President Rouhani insists the internet is crucial to connect with the world of science, saying: "We cannot close the gates of the world to our younger generation. If we do not move towards the new generation of mobile today and resist it, we will have to do it tomorrow. If not, the day after tomorrow." BBC Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher says President Rouhani's comments will resonate in Iran, but it is unclear if they will carry any real weight. Iran's government cracked down on media freedom and internet access after widespread protests against the country's leaders in 2009, banning online services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Since then, many Iranians have grown used to bypassing censorship controls by using proxy servers or other online tools.
3D-Printed 'Bump Key' Can Open Almost Any Lock
A bump” key resembles a normal key but can open millions of locks with a carefully practiced rap on its head with a hammer. Using software they created called Photobump, Jos Weyers and Christian Holler say it’s now possible to easily bump open a wide range of locks using keys based on photographs of the locks’ keyholes. As a result, all anyone needs to open many locks previously considered “unbumpable” is a bit of software, a picture of the lock’s keyhole, and the keyhole’s depth. “You don’t need much more to make a bump key,” says Weyers. “Basically, if I can see your keyhole, there’s an app for that.”
Weyers and Holler want to warn lockmakers about the possibility of 3-D printable bump keys so they can defend against it. Although Holler will discuss the technique at the Lockcon lockpicking conference in Sneek, the Netherlands, next month, he doesn’t plan to release the Photobump software publicly and is working with police in his native Germany to analyze whether printed bump keys leave any forensic evidence behind. Ikon maker Assa Abloy argues 3-D printing bump keys to its locks is an expensive, unreliable trick that doesn’t work on some locks whose keys have hidden or moving parts but Weyers argues that instead of dismissing 3-D printing or trying to keep their key profiles secret, lockmakers should produce more bump resistant locks with electronic elements or unprintable parts. “The sky isn’t falling, but the world changes and now people can make stuff,” says Weyers. “Lock manufacturers know how to make a lock bump-resistant. And they had better.”
Microsoft Defies Court Order, Will Not Give Up Emails to US
This is the first time a technology company has resisted a US search warrant seeking data that is held outside the United States. In the view of Microsoft and many legal experts, federal authorities have no jurisdiction over data stored outside the country. It says that the court order violates Ireland's sovereignty and that prosecutors need to seek a legal treaty with Ireland in order to obtain the data they want. Microsoft was stung by revelations last year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and has been at pains to prove to customers that it does not allow the U.S. government unchallenged access to personal data on its servers. The case has been closely watched by Microsoft’s competitors, which have filed briefs in support of the tech giant’s efforts to beat back the search warrant, reflecting industry concern that compliance with US requests for data held abroad could alienate foreign governments. They face increasing pressure abroad to shore up customer privacy.
Found: The Islamic State's Terror Laptop of Doom
"Nothing on the ISIS laptop, of course, suggests that the jihadists already possess these dangerous weapons. And any jihadi organization contemplating a bioterrorist attack will face many difficulties," write Harald Doornbos and Jenan Moussa. Al Qaeda tried unsuccessfully for years to get its hands on such biological weapons, and the United States has devoted massive resources to preventing terrorists from making just this sort of breakthrough. "The real difficulty in all of these weapons ... [is] to actually have a workable distribution system that will kill a lot of people," said Magnus Ranstorp. "But to produce quite scary weapons is certainly within [the Islamic State's] capabilities." The documents found on the laptop of the jihadist, meanwhile, leave no room for doubt about the group's deadly ambitions.
Teaching Kids to Shoot Can Be Safe
Shooting instructors said in interviews that in some cases, a 9-year-old may be able to handle an Uzi, even though it has a tricky recoil and can fire hundreds of rounds per minute. The child would have to weigh enough to handle the recoil and have some experience with guns. The parent and instructor would have to jointly determine that the child is mature and skilled enough to operate the firearm safely. Tom, who practiced with an M1 Garand Rifle, said he shoots for sport and to exercise his 2nd Amendment rights. “I don’t think you should keep kids away from firearms. This shouldn’t keep people from taking their kids to the range.” Still, Tom says he could not fathom why adults allowed the 9-year-old girl to shoot an Uzi. “I don’t know what they were thinking. My personal opinion is someone under 15 years of age playing with a submachine weapon is not a good idea.”
Not So Fast, DMV Says Google Cars Still Need Steering Wheels
"This isn't a huge setback for Google," writes Richard Reed. "After all, the prototypes aren't nearly ready for primetime, they're just being used for tests. Though the control-less models have worked fine on closed tracks, with no accidents to date, they'll eventually be navigating real streets in real traffic, so they'll need to be up to code. In fact, the DMV may tighten up things a bit further next month, when it issues regulations concerning test vehicles on public roads." In the long run, though, we'd expect the DMV to loosen some of these restrictions. It will undoubtedly take years for regulators and the public to begin trusting autonomous cars -- and even then, it's likely that automakers will keep some kind of manual override system in place. After all, given the safety records of autonomous cars -- records that will certainly improve with the rollout of vehicle-to-vehicle technology -- we're hopeful that motorists will (almost) never need to use them.
abolish copyrights and patents
Copyrights and patents are bad. They are monopolies. They lead to incorrect thinking about property and ownership. They appeal to the bad in our natures. They provide opportunities for the anti-social to shakedown legitimate businesses. To restrict copying is to restrict sharing of knowledge, and teaching and education. Restrictions take away a natural right that is crucial to the existence and advancement of our civilizations. They are unenforceable. They cannot be enforced through technology such as DRM and copy protection, and they cannot be enforced through policing and legal means. Trying to enforce them is very costly and futile. Copyrights are also not the least of all evils. We have better ways to promote the progress of science and art, we do not need to live with copyright.
Intellectual Property plays on our bad instincts.
A strong emotion that intellectual property wrongly engages is Fear of Loss. We know through experimentation that when presented with a choice in which people already have something but must risk its loss in order to gamble for a much larger gain, at good odds, most people will refuse to take the chance. But when presented with the identical choice except that they do not already possess the things to be risked, more will take the chance. Those who possess copyrights or patents mislead themselves into thinking they are like physical property which can be stolen, and therefore must be guarded from theft. The greedy have tried to hoard these "properties" as if they are gold. Out of fear of small losses that are not real, we overlook big gains for us all. Copyright plays on our instincts in a negative way.
A bad habit of thought that copyright and patents promote is "mother may I". The system default is "no", unless "permission is obtained". This slows down progress both directly because even if permission is freely granted it takes more time and effort just to check, and indirectly by conditioning the public to be compliant and submissive, which makes people less adventurous and therefore less innovative.
Even our language hurts our understanding. Languages reflect the fears of a people, and one fear present in many languages is fear of loss. Many English phrases are needlessly possessive. "I have an idea" or "I've got an idea" could make it sound like I have property rights over the idea, as if I had said "I have a car." Same with "my idea". The language uses the same words for these different cases. It does not make sufficient distinction between the material and the immaterial.
Intellectual Property denies to us the right to share knowledge.
Sharing of knowledge is a right that should be every bit as fundamental as Freedom of Speech and Religion.
The sharing of knowledge, particularly the education and teaching of our young, and our ability to do so far better than any other animal is what lifted us to the top of the animal kingdom. Every ancient civilization employed a writing system. Their value was so obvious and large that no civilized society could do without. The feature we use to distinguish the civilized from the uncivilized is records and record keeping.
While it could be possible to do some record keeping through memory alone, in practice that is impossible. To be remembered, records have to be written.
Now, today, for hustlers to try to tell everyone that knowledge should be kept locked away because it is valuable, is outrageous. They are only trying to set up or maintain a racket with themselves as the kingpins. They would shut down the public library and used book store and ban them if they could.
Copyrights and patents are monopolies, and monopolies are bad.
Monopolies of all kinds share some common features. A monopoly always results in higher prices, poorer goods and services, and slower progress. In recognition of the harm that monopolies cuase, we have outlawed some monopolistic practices.
Opportunists have seen the current system as a chance to engage in Rent Seeking, and have tried to be first to monopolize every idea. The result is a mess in which the truly original ideas must be navigated through a minefield of dubious claims from patent trolls. Because it is far too burdensome to check all existing patents for possible infringements, it forces us to violate rights and risk punishment in order to get anywhere. In a day's work, a software engineer may violate hundreds of patents. Occasionally, the explorers have to take time out to soothe the fears of the uninformed who have only heard that somehow the law is being broken, and to deal with accusations from competitors and enemies seeking to use patents not to claim their just rewards, but to extort victims for money and to stifle competition. All this makes patent and copyright ironic, working against the purpose for which they were enacted, which is "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts"
Copyrights and patents are an unnatural kind of monopoly in that they can exist only through force of law and custom. Technological means such as copy protection and Digital Rights Management have failed to do more than inconvenience customers, some of whom find it faster and easier to pay the blackmail. To force compliance from the unwilling through technological means is simply impossible. Even those willing to comply cannot always do so, any more than anyone can choose to stop breathing. That leaves legal means, which take a great deal of effort and expense to attempt, and these efforts are not successful either. Nor can they be.
Copyrights and patents are not the only way to promote the arts and sciences.
This simple fact is often quickly overlooked in arguments over the law. Upon hearing that copyrights should be abolished, many people jump to the conclusion that artists will starve and we'll have no more art. This of course presumes a lot of things that simply are not true. Most of all, it presumes that copyright is the only way for artists to make a living.
So, what else is there? We could have nothing. No rewards, but also no restrictions. Art would still be created under those conditions. However the more desirable option would be some form of patronage. Patronage is not a new idea, it has existed for centuries. With current technology we are already doing patronage far better than it could be done in past centuries. There is also advertising, the model that works for broadcast radio and TV. And there are other ways. They are not perfect, but they do not have to be. They only have to be better than copyright, a low bar indeed.
US Senator Wants All Cops to Wear Cameras
Only a small number of US police departments have outfitted their officers with body cameras, including forces in Fresno, California; Oakland; Rialto, California; Pittsburgh; Salt Lake City; and Cincinnati. A recent study with the Rialto Police Department showed that use-of-force incidents and citizen complaints have been dramatically curtailed since the department began wearing body cams (PDF).
Nail Polish Detects Date Rape Drugs
However some sexual assault prevention advocates warn that the nail polish is not necessarily the best way to approach the sexual assault epidemic on college campuses. “One of the ways that rape is used as a tool to control people is by limiting their behavior,” says Rebecca Nagle. “As a woman, I’m told not to go out alone at night, to watch my drink, to do all of these things. That way, rape isn’t just controlling me while I’m actually being assaulted — it controls me 24/7 because it limits my behavior. Solutions like these actually just recreate that. I don’t want to fucking test my drink when I’m at the bar. That’s not the world I want to live in.” According to Alexandra Brodsky the argument that women simply need to be more responsible is a common response to the current conversation about sexual assault on college campuses — and one that activists say doesn’t get to the heart of the issue. "The problem isn’t that women don’t know when there are roofies in their drink; the problem is people putting roofies in their drink in the first place."
Student Arrested for "Killing Pet Dinosaur"
