Monthly Archives: February 2014

Jury Nullifies Charge Against Pot Grower Who Shot and Killed a Cop

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“This week a Texas grand jury declined to indict a marijuana grower for shooting and killing a sheriff’s deputy who burst into his home in the early morning to execute a search warrant. Henry Goedrich Magee, who was indicted on drug and weapon charges (the latter only because he was growing marijuana), said he believed Burleson County Sgt. Adam Sowders was a burglar. ‘This was a terrible tragedy that a deputy sheriff was killed, but Hank Magee believed that he and his pregnant girlfriend were being robbed,’ Magee’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, told A.P. ‘He did what a lot of people would have done. He defended himself and his girlfriend and his home.'”

http://reason.com/blog/2014/02/07/texas-grand-jury-declines-to-indict-pot

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It’s Getting Harder For The Feds To Lie About Marijuana

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“Publicly lying about pot isn’t as easy as it used to be.  That’s the lesson White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (aka the Drug Czar’s office) Deputy Director Michael Botticelli learned earlier this week when he testified before U.S. House Subcommittee on Government Relations. Armed with what appeared to be crib notes from the days of Reefer Madness, Botticelli’s spurious anti-pot testimony immediately became the subject of Internet video fodder and mainstream mediacriticism. Even more tellingly, Botticelli’s comments drew stern rebukes from federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.”

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/its-getting-harder-and-harder-feds-lie-about-marijuana-and-get-away-it?paging=off

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Shunned by banks, legal weed retailers are turning to Bitcoin

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“In the midst of a wave of marijuana legalization across the United States, you can finally use bitcoin to legally buy weed.  Kouchlock Productions, a medical marijuana dispensary in Spokane, Wash., that opened earlier this week, is already selling the drug using bitcoins, reports Coindesk.  Medical marijuana has been legal in Washington since 1998, but buyers have been limited primarily to cash purchases due to credit card companies and banks reluctance to process payments for drugs that are still illegal under federal law. That’s where Bitcoin, which suffers little or no legal oversight, shines.”

http://www.dailydot.com/business/shunned-banks-legal-weed-retailers-bitcoin/

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Bankers balk as Postal Service plans payday loans, digital currency

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“Payday loans, check cashing and digital currency exchanges were among the possibilities outlined in the Jan. 27 report.  The 27-page document also notes that as the country moves toward a cashless economy, the Postal Service could also provide simple ways for underserved consumers to ‘convert their cash to digital currency’ or other electronic payment methods like prepaid cards, mobile payments and wire transfers.  Two days after the paper came out, the IG held an invitation-only seminar in Virginia to discuss virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, as well as the potential benefits and disruptive effects they may have on traditional payment networks.”

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/06/bankers-balk-as-postal-service-floats-plan-for-payday-loans-digital-currency/

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The definition of karma: PayPal president’s credit card gets hacked

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“If you’ve ever lost access to your PayPal holdings through no fault of your own — say, following a shady money transfer — you may be tempted to enjoy a little schadenfreude today. PayPal president David Marcus reports that someone used a skimming device to clone his credit card while he was in the UK, letting the perpetrator make a “ton” of fraudulent purchases. It’s virtually the embodiment of karmic payback, isn’t it? In fairness, the executive is right when he notes that the incident wouldn’t have happened if the merchant accepted PayPal; the company would have masked the card number and rendered the skimmer useless.”

http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/10/paypal-presidents-credit-card-gets-hacked/

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BitAccess Bitcoin ATMs Doing $10K in Transactions Daily

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“With $10 million in funding committed by BiT Capital, this ATM manufacturer has already launched a bitcoin ATM in Montreal, another in Ottawa, and Toronto, with other locations in Canada planned.  The company’s co-founder, Abdul Haseeb Awan, told newsBTC that on average, his machines are doing about $10,000 in transactions per day when we inquired about statistics on their newly-installed Montreal machine.  It’s not a mind-blowing figure, but it’s certainly a start. And despite the fact that Canada might seem like the Mecca of bitcoin ATMs, BitAccess is planning to expand outside of the country’s borders to places like Dubai, Caracas, Manila, and Beirut.”

http://newsbtc.com/2014/02/09/bitaccess-bitcoin-atms-10k-transactions-daily/

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In One Month, Everyone In Iceland Will Own Cryptocurrency

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“Auroracoin is the brainchild of cryptocurrency enthusiast Baldur Friggjar Odinsson, and he’ll be the one distributing pre-mined coins to the entire population of Iceland at midnight on March 25 in a countrywide ‘airdrop.’ Each Icelandic citizen—all 330,000 of them—will receive 31.8 AUC through a digital transaction. Citizens all have a national ID number available through a public database, which will be used to verify their identity.  Now he’s encouraging developers to make tools like payment software and virtual wallets for currency, and calling on all global currency exchanges to accept the new Nordic altcoin come March.”

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/in-one-month-everyone-in-iceland-will-own-cryptocurrency

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Barclays Examines Possible Data Theft From 27,000 Customers

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“As many as 27,000 customer files containing personal and financial information were taken, the Mail on Sunday reported yesterday, citing an unidentified whistle-blower. It’s unclear how the files were stolen, the newspaper said, adding data was sold to brokers to be used for ‘investment scams.’  The information included details on income, savings, mortgages, health issues, insurance policies and passport and national insurance numbers, the Mail on Sunday said. The newspaper said the whistle-blower provided a memory stick containing files on 2,000 customers and had told it that each of the 27,000 files could be sold for as much as 50 pounds ($82).”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-09/barclays-probes-possible-theft-of-data-from-27-000-customers.html

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Visa, MasterCard To End Swipe-And-Sign By 2015

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“Both MasterCard and Visa have outlined a planned shift to the new EMV system and set a October 2015 deadline to begin using the system, The Wall Street Journal reports.  Under the EMV system consumers will use a smartcard embedded with microchip and provide their PIN to complete a transaction. The chips make reproducing a card difficult for criminals. Even if the credit card information is gathered, without the chip the card is useless.  Another significant piece of the new system is creating a shift of liability.  If a merchant is using the old swipe-and-sign system they are liable for the fraudulent charges if the customer has a chip card.”

http://consumerist.com/2014/02/07/visa-mastercard-to-end-swipe-and-sign-by-2015/

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Storing and Sending Bitcoins Directly from Your Brain

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“BrainControl takes things several steps further by being one of the first fully-functional 100% browser-based Bitcoin wallets that does not store any Bitcoins or private keys anywhere – thus making them near-on impossible to steal.  It features a mobile first fully responsive layout and can even function from your desktop without a server.   It has also been packaged as a FirefoxOS Application, a WordPress Theme, a Windows Desktop Application and a Mac OSX Desktop Application. It can be [embedded] into anything with a web-connection and browser that supports LocalStorage. Did I mention that everything is entirely OpenSource?”

http://betanomics.asia/blog/store-and-send-bitcoin-directly-from-your-brain-using-braincontrol

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