You’re Doing it Right – Page 34

Rastafarian Wins Right to Possess Pipe in Minnesota

Freedom of religion is an interesting topic in the United States. So long as you’re a member of a mainstream religion you generally enjoy a decent amount of religious freedom. Those who participate in lesser known religions are seldom as lucky. Take the Rastafarian movement whose members partake in the spiritual use of cannabis. Many Rastas have been arrested for possessing cannabis or drug paraphernalia. These arrests are an affront to religious freedom, which is a statement the Minnesota Court of Appeals agrees with:

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has sided with a 15-year-old Rastafarian, ruling that his right to religious expression trumps his being found guilty in Ramsey County of a drug paraphernalia offense for carrying a glass pipe.

In Monday’s reversal of the District Court on the petty misdemeanor case from September 2012, Court of Appeals Judge Jill Flaskamp Halbrooks wrote that the teenager has a “genuinely held belief in possessing a cannabis pipe” as part of observing his faith.

Therefore, Halbrooks continued, the prosecution had “failed to meet its burden” of showing that it had a “compelling state interest” in enforcing the statute in this case.

“The state improperly … argues that because the pipe may be used for an illegal purpose,” the teen is guilty, Halbrooks wrote.

What makes this case more interesting is that the teen was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia. He didn’t have actual cannabis on him, just a pipe. But even if he were in possession of cannabis he should be free from persecution if one is truly free to exercise their religious beliefs. This is an idea that often rubs people the wrong way because they believe religions like the Rastafari movement will enjoy a sudden glut of converts. To that I say this: may the best religion win. If a desire to smoke cannabis is strong enough that people are willing to convert to the Rastafari movement then, perhaps, other religions may want to look into the spiritual use of cannabis.

#Anarchy in Detroit

The Reason Foundation has started a four-part series titled #Anarchy in Detroit (I’m pretty sure the pound sign is there merely to promote the series on Twitter). Unlike statists who like to point at the ills brought on by statism as examples of anarchy, Reason is showing events that actually arise from anarchy (i.e. spontaneous order). The first part of this series covers a group of individuals who have taken it upon themselves to mow the public parks:

But while politicians, unions, and investors slug it out in bankruptcy court and grasp for their share of what little cash is left, ordinary citizens are left to fend for themselves in a city with no functioning government. This is Reason TV’s coverage of what happens when people are left to their own devices and forced to come up with creative ways to pick up the pieces and find solutions in a city they once loved.

This is #Anarchy in Detroit, a four-part series showcasing what actual Detroit residents are doing to make the Motor City a better place to live.

In Part I, Tom Nardone is tired of seeing Detroit’s public parks go unmowed by the city government. He thinks that children should have a place to play. So, he hops on his mower and does it himself. Then, he invites others.

“I was surprised when the first person showed up. I was like, ‘All right. I guess someone’s as crazy as I am,'” says Nardone.

Hence, the Mower Gang is born.

During discussions of anarchism statists will often ask asinine questions thinking they’re checkmates. One of the most common questions, a question so common that it is mocked relentlessly in anarchist circles, is “Who will build the roads?” The answer to that question is the same answer to other such questions: those who see a need for them. Who will maintain the public parks? The people who see value in maintained public parks. Who will teach the children? The people who see value in educating youths. Since the state is composed of people anything it can do anybody else can do.

Spontaneous order can be summed up as the outcome of people doing what they believe needs to be done. Instead of a top-down method of dictating what needs to be done, spontaneous order allows each individual to act on what they believe needs to be done. Generally the former ends up with tremendous amounts of resources being put towards building weapons to expropriate wealth from others while the latter generally results in neighborhoods and markets.

Anarchy isn’t something to be feared, statism is.

Fingerprint Folly

It was only a matter of time before somebody found a way to crack the fingerprint reader on the iPhone 5S. Coming in as the first group to publicly announce a bypass is the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), which has a habit of breaking security systems:

The biometrics hacking team of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) has successfully bypassed the biometric security of Apple’s TouchID using easy everyday means. A fingerprint of the phone user, photographed from a glass surface, was enough to create a fake finger that could unlock an iPhone 5s secured with TouchID. This demonstrates – again – that fingerprint biometrics is unsuitable as access control method and should be avoided.

[…]

“In reality, Apple’s sensor has just a higher resolution compared to the sensors so far. So we only needed to ramp up the resolution of our fake”, said the hacker with the nickname Starbug, who performed the critical experiments that led to the successful circumvention of the fingerprint locking. “As we have said now for more than years, fingerprints should not be used to secure anything. You leave them everywhere, and it is far too easy to make fake fingers out of lifted prints.”

I’ve never been a fan of biometrics. While it’s true that using features unique to a person can be used to uniquely identify that person it’s also true that, as Frank Reiger of the CCC pointed out, one cannot change their biometrics:

“We hope that this finally puts to rest the illusions people have about fingerprint biometrics. It is plain stupid to use something that you can´t change and that you leave everywhere every day as a security token”, said Frank Rieger, spokesperson of the CCC.

If you can’t change your authorization token and somebody compromises that token things aren’t going to end well. Fingerprints are especially bad tokens because they can be lifted from many of the surfaces we touch. An authorization token isn’t very secure when you go around telling everybody about it.

With that said, if Apple’s fingerprint reader is convenient enough that people actually use it it will have served its purpose. While an unchangeable security token that you leave everywhere you touch isn’t great it’s better than no authorization control whatsoever.

3D Printed Pepperbox Handgun

3D printed guns are all the rage today. Those of us who believe in the free flow of information, advancing technology is beneficial, and gun rights are cheering the continuous advancement of these infinitely replicable pistols. The other side of the table, the Luddites who believe modern technology must be wiped from the face of the planet, are being hysterical. I’m happy to say that my side is winning. What’s interesting is that the advancement of 3D printed handguns is starting to take a similar path as the original advancement of handguns. The currently limitation, besides the ones caused by the nature of the materials being used, has been an inability for 3D printed firearms to fire more than one round at a time. That problem has been solved with the introduction of a 3D printed pepperbox handgun:

Consider, for example, the Hexen pepperbox, which has stainless steel liners for its six barrels and is undergoing constant strengthening and improvement as discussed over in the DefCad forum. The video below shows the Hexen successfully fired (actually, it appears to be a related five-shot model), using 6mm Flobert (low-powered .22) ammunition.

The designer, Franco, even printed ammunition holders for the pepperbox, along with a tool for ejecting expended cases (both pictured above).

At this rate I’m beginning to think we’ll see functional 3D printed semi-automatic pistols later this year or early next year. Reality isn’t kind to those who try to suppress the advancement of technology. Every law put into place to stop people from acquiring guns will be rendered meaningless once 3D printers become more widespread and 3D printable firearms become reliable. Technology has a way of overcoming state barriers. Anybody who thinks they can use the state to stop technology is a deluded fool.

Julian Assange is Tracking Spyware Contractors

Another weapon we have against the state’s surveillance apparatus is Julian Assange. Mr. Assange, through his Wikileaks project, has provided a platform whistle blowers can use to leak information and remain anonymous. Wikileaks has now announced another project called the Wikileaks Counterintelligence Unit, which will attempt to actively surveil surveillance contractors:

The inaugural release zeroes in on 19 different contractors as they travel visit countries like Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Spain, and Brazil. The location data displays only a time stamp and a country for each entry, but occasionally displays the message, “phone is currently not logged into the network,” indicating the data likely comes from some kind of cell-tracking service. The contractors in question work for Western companies like Gamma International, designer of the infamous FinFisher spyware tool — and as with previous Wikileaks releases marked as “Spy Files,” readers will also find marketing brochures for surveillance products to intercept and monitor web traffic.

I think this is a great idea and needs to be expanded. It would be great if we could eventually do to the surveillance apparatus what it has done to us. Imagine a world where anybody working to spy on us, whether they be private contractors or public National Security Agency (NSA) employees, was being spied on 24/7. Perhaps losing all sense of privacy would be enough to discourage people from working for these bastards.

Crowd Sourcing, an Alternative to Copyrights

I seldom talk about video games on this blog because I personally have little time to partake in the hobby anymore. Back in the day I was a gamer and one of the men who had an aptitude for taking my money was Keiji Inafune. If you’re unfamiliar with the name, Mr. Inafune is one of the creator of the video game series MegaMan. MegaMan was, and still is, my favorite game series so it was all but inevitable that Mr. Inafune, after announcing he was planning what looks to be a spiritual successor to the MegaMan series, would take more of my money.

What does this have to do with copyrights? Instead of producing a game and releasing it, Mr. Inafune and his team decided to crowd source funding via Kickstarter (yes, I did throw my money at the project). As long time readers know, I oppose all forms of intellectual property. I cannot justify the use of force needed to maintain monopolies on ideas. Whenever I discuss my opposition to intellectual property I usually meet resistance from individuals concerned about people who make their money via intellectual property laws. Authors, software developers, and game makers would all go broke if copyright laws no longer existed, right? Wrong.

The idea behind copyright laws is that a creative person can create a work, release it to the world, and make money for his or her efforts. Changing that order slightly allows a creative person to make a profit without copyright laws. Crowd sourcing allows a creative person or team to get money up front so they can create a work and release it to the world.

Mr. Inafune and his team are asking for money up front before they begin development. Their goal has been met with a lot of extra money still rolling in. There’s no reason authors or software developers couldn’t do the same thing. Of course this strategy often requires a little priming of the pump. People are unlikely to throw money at a complete unknown so an author, software developer, or game maker would likely have to release some work for free in order to demonstrate their competence. Authors, software developers, and game makers already have to do this so, in the grand scheme of things, nothing would change. Authors often get advances by publishers to write new books but only after writing a book and gaining the interest of the publisher. No publisher is going to give a complete unknown an advance. Software developers have to write their software and release it to the world before they can expect any payment. Game makers, likewise, have to create a game and release it before anybody will give them money for it. Little changes when you move away from copyright laws and rely on up front funding instead.

Intellectual property is dying. The Internet, by offering a venue to share infinitely reproducible copies of intellectual works, has cut intellectual property laws off at the knees. Politicians are scrambling to make more asinine laws to delay the inevitable. People who have relied on intellectual property laws are adapting to new ways of making money. In the end, intellectual property will die an agonizing death but the release of creative works will continue. I believe crowd sourcing is one of the solutions that will allows creative individuals to make money off of their ideas without having to rely on a forcefully protected monopoly.

3D Printed Skin

The technology industry makes me happy. While politicians run around trying their damnedest to wreck everybody’s life the technology industry is busy trying to improve everybody’s life. One of the most interesting technologies that looks to change our society is 3D printers. Taken to its logical conclusion, 3D printer technology stands to decentralized great deals of manufacturing and medical care. The manufacturing side of 3D printers is discussed frequently but the technology’s applications in the medical field are less publicized. For example, I haven’t read about the fact that scientists at Wake Forest University have printed skin onto a burn victim:

Scientists have developed a method of 3D printing new skin cells onto burn wounds at Wake Forest University’s Military Research Center. The method is far superior to traditional skin grafts because regular grafts require skin from a donor site somewhere on the patient’s body. Taking skin from a donor site is painful and sometimes the patients do not even have enough unburned skin to transplant.

Wake Forest accomplishes the skin printing by way of laser scanning and a modified inkjet printer. The laser scans the patient’s burn and that information gets translated into a personalized plan for filling the wound up with cells. Then the inkjet printer lays down the cells individually, one layer at a time until the burned area is completely covered.

Imagine a day when entire organs can be printed. No longer will people in need of transplants have to worry about a lack of potential donors.

Prototype Automatic Gauss Gun Developed

Although I love firearms I must admit that I’m beginning to find old fashioned chemical propulsion to be rather boring. Thankfully the hacker community has been working on this issue by developing exciting new electromagnetic propulsion systems. Meet the fully automatic Gauss gun:

While it may only be able to shoot a few cans right now, we certainly wouldn’t want to be in front of [Jason]‘s fully automatic Gauss gun capable of firing 15 steel bolts from its magazine in less than two seconds.

The bolts are fired from the gun with a linear motor. [Jason] is using eight coils along the length of his barrel, each one controlled by an IGBT. These are powered by two 22 Volt 3600mAh LiPo battery packs.

Here’s a video of the weapon firing:

Obviously the weapon isn’t very deadly at this point in time but it’s a prototype developed by a hobbyist in his spare time. As technology tends to do, this design will continue to advance until it becomes a viable weapon platform. These are the things I get excited about in the firearm industry these days, new prototypes that make actual advances.

3D Printed Rifle Successfully Fires 14th Round

Prepare for more pants shitting hysteria from the idea because another 3D printed firearm, this time a rifle, has managed to fire more than one round without harming its operator:

Just the opposite: Designers have moved beyond handguns to produce rifles with 3D printers. The world’s first 3D-printed rifle, named “The Grizzly” after Canadian-built tanks that were used in World War II, was fired in June, but the first shot fractured the barrel receiver.

The creator, a Canadian man who goes simply by “Matthew,” refined his design and posted a video Friday on YouTube of the Grizzly 2.0 successfully firing 3 rounds of Winchester bullets. The video description says the Grizzly 2.0 fired 14 rounds before it cracked. The new rifle was also safe enough for Matthew to fire it by hand rather than by the string system used in the first test.

Here’s the video:

Before the media begins its fear mongering by telling everybody that this gun can get through airport security and will be used to hijack planes let’s stop and think logically for a minute. Although it has successfully fired 14 rounds without maiming its operator, the Grizzly is still a plastic gun, which means the extent of its life is going to be relatively short. Like the Liberator handgun, the Grizzle rifle is cumbersome to reload. The barrel has to be twisted and removed, the spent cartridge must be pushed out with a rod, a new round must be placed in the barrel, and the barrel must be inserted and twisted back onto the rifle. In other words it’s very slow to operate. With that said, the design is almost certain to advance quickly. We’re in the infancy of 3D printed firearms and it’s an exciting time to be involved in the shooting community.

Playing the Bankers’s Game

It is becoming more difficult to see the line that divides legitimate bankers from loan sharks. Between one-sided mortgage terms and interest rates on credit cards that would make a loan shark blush it’s pretty obvious that the banks have simply because another apparatus to separate people form their money. Ironically bankers don’t like it when somebody plays their game against them:

The idea of beating the banks at their own game may seem like a rich joke, but Dmitry Agarkov, a 42-year-old Russian man, may have managed it. Unhappy with the terms of an unsolicited credit card offer he received from online bank Tinkoff Credit Systems, Agarkov scanned the document, wrote in his own terms and sent it through. The bank approved the contract without reading the amended fine print, unwittingly agreeing to a 0 percent interest rate, unlimited credit and no fees, as well as a stipulation that the bank pay steep fines for changing or canceling the contract.

Agarkov used the card for two years, but the bank ultimately canceled it and sued Agarkov for $1,363. The bank said he owed them charges, interest and late-payment fees. A court ruled that, because of the no-fee, no-interest stipulation Agarkov had written in, he owed only his unpaid $575 balance. Now Agarkov is suing the bank for $727,000 for not honoring the contract’s terms, and the bank is hollering fraud. “They signed the documents without looking. They said what usually their borrowers say in court: ‘We have not read it,’” Agarkov’s lawyer said. The shoe’s on the other foot now, eh?

Mr. Agarkov, I salute you.