3D Printing: Engineering World on Cusp of Major Historical Change
January 7th, 2015Via: AFP:
3D printing will revolutionise war and foreign policy, say experts, not only by making possible incredible new designs but by turning the defence industry — and possibly the entire global economy — on its head.
For many, 3D printing still looks like a gimmick, used for printing useless plastic figurines and not much else.
But with key patents running out this year, new printers that use metal, wood and fabric are set to become much more widely available — putting the engineering world on the cusp of major historical change.
Billionaire Sex Offender’s Phone Book Contained E-Mail Addresses, 21 Phone Numbers For Bill Clinton
January 6th, 2015Via: Smoking Gun:
As part of a civil suit filed against Epstein by several of his victims, lawyers for the women floated the possibility of subpoenaing Clinton since he “might well be a source of relevant information” about Epstein’s activities.
While Clinton was never deposed, lawyers obtained Epstein’s computerized phone directory, which included “e-mail addresses for Clinton along with 21 phone numbers for him, including those for his assistant (Doug Band),” according to a court filing.
FBI Says Search Warrants Not Needed to Use “Stingrays” in Public Places
January 6th, 2015Via: Ars Technica:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is taking the position that court warrants are not required when deploying cell-site simulators in public places. Nicknamed “stingrays,” the devices are decoy cell towers that capture locations and identities of mobile phone users and can intercept calls and texts.
The FBI made its position known during private briefings with staff members of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). In response, the two lawmakers wrote Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson, maintaining they were “concerned about whether the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have adequately considered the privacy interests” of Americans.
Our System Is So Broken, Almost No Patented Discoveries Ever Get Used
January 5th, 2015Via: Wired:
We all know the patent system is broken.
But most people believe that the biggest problem with it is abusive litigants who extort so-called “license fees” from small businesses unable to pay the cost of standing up to them in court. Their activities, of course, have no more in common with real patent licensing than a mob protection racket has with the sale of genuine “liability insurance.”
The unspoken reality is that the U.S. patent system faces an even bigger problem: a market so constricted by high transaction costs and legal risks that it excludes the vast majority of small and mid-sized businesses and prevents literally 95 percent of all patented discoveries from ever being put to use to create new products and services, new jobs, and new economic growth.
Even the most dramatic estimates of the social cost of abusive patent litigation range in the low tens of billions of dollars. But according to a new study by the distinguished economists Robert Litan of the Brookings Institution and Hal Singer of the Progressive Policy Institute—a study I helped to fund—liberating patent licensing from its litigation-focused costs and risks would enable tens of thousands of currently-dormant inventions to be commercialized and conservatively add up to $200 billion a year in increased output to the U.S. economy. That’s at least ten times bigger than the litigation problem, and directly impacts job creation.
Writers Say They Feel Censored by Surveillance
January 5th, 2015Via: New York Times:
A survey of writers around the world by the PEN American Center has found that a significant majority said they were deeply concerned with government surveillance, with many reporting that they have avoided, or have considered avoiding, controversial topics in their work or in personal communications as a result.
The findings show that writers consider freedom of expression to be under significant threat around the world in democratic and nondemocratic countries. Some 75 percent of respondents in countries classified as “free,” 84 percent in “partly free” countries, and 80 percent in countries that were “not free” said that they were “very” or “somewhat” worried about government surveillance in their countries.
Disclosure: Long Oil
January 5th, 2015Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
I bought United States Oil ETF (USO) this morning.
Margin Debt Highest Ever: “This Is Total Insanity”
January 5th, 2015Via: CNBC:
The last six years for the U.S. stock market have been an indomitable buying orgy fueled by the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rate policy, causing the S&P 500 to triple in value. One metric says it may have gone too far.
Borrowing to buy stocks, as measured by the NYSE monthly margin debt figures, ended 2014 at its highest level relative to the size of the U.S. economy since 1929. In absolute terms, it’s the highest ever.
“If this doesn’t count, then we might as well throw away everything we’ve ever learned about risk because there is none,” said Alan Newman, who sent this data to customers of his Crosscurrents newsletter last week. “The manias of 2000 and 2007 now both look like small potatoes by comparison. This is total insanity.”
When a Cartoonist Landed in L.A. County Jail, She Drew What She Saw, Using Only a Golf Pencil
January 5th, 2015Via: L.A. Weekly:
In June 2014, I was arrested for violating a court order. I bailed out on July 3. But because I had no money and an overworked public defender, I knew I’d have to serve time for my violation. That’s when my mentor, animator-director Ralph Bakshi, advised me to “document my exploits.” Jailed in the women’s division of the Los Angeles County jail system for two months, I was sent first to Century Regional Detention Facility (CRDF) in Lynwood and then to Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles for my final three weeks. Armed with nothing more than a golf pencil and whatever paper I could get my hands on, I drew the strange world into which I’d been dropped.
Hedge Fund Manager Shot Dead, Son Arrested
January 5th, 2015Via: NY Post:
The elderly founder of a Manhattan hedge fund was fatally shot in the head by his 30-year-old son inside the family’s swank East Side apartment on Sunday, authorities said.
Thomas Gilbert Sr., 70, the Harvard-educated founder and chief investment officer of Wainscott Capital Partners, was gunned down by son Thomas Gilbert Jr., who was arrested about seven hours later at his Chelsea apartment, according to police.
The two had been arguing in the dad’s bedroom at about 3:30 p.m., the sources said. After the shots were fired, the victim’s wife called 911, according to sources.
The son dropped his .40 caliber Glock pistol and fled from the eighth-floor apartment at 20 Beekman Place, the sources said.
Controversial DNA Startup Wants to Let Customers Create Creatures
January 4th, 2015Not The Onion!
Via: San Francisco Chronicle:
In Austen Heinz’s vision of the future, customers tinker with the genetic codes of plants and animals and even design new creatures on a computer. Then his startup, Cambrian Genomics, prints that DNA quickly, accurately and cheaply.
“Anyone in the world that has a few dollars can make a creature, and that changes the game,” Heinz said. “And that creates a whole new world.”
