Back on September 11th, 2015 Verisign filed a patent in the United States covering a cryptocurrency signing and double spend preventing scheme. As the patent was filed in a fiat venue, if there is any merit to the scheme presented this filing in the wrong venue does nothing to constrain any party from using it for any purpose. Verisign's scheme relies on key pairs being restricted to being used just one time.
Monthly Archives: March 2016
US Animal Suicides Require Motorist Warning
The substantial number of suicidal deer plaguing Mitchell County, Iowa has pushed local officials to warn motorists of the hazard presented by wildlife at the end of their rope (archived). The hazard to motorists is so severe that in spite of protests that the signs were insensitive to persons who had experienced suicide, the hazard presented by suicidal deer becoming "an hero" fighting against bipedal motorists and the frequency of past events necessitated the warning remain as is.
Rockefeller Family Fund Divests From Industry That Made Rockefeller Family Fortune
Reports are emerging that the Rockefeller Family Fund is divesting from the oil industry upon which the Rockefeller family fortune was built (archived). Late family patriarch John D. Rockefeller built the fortune his descendants enjoy with his energy start up Standard Oil, a firm Rockefeller grew though unprecedented horizontal and vertical integration from its inception in 1870 until it was slain by US regulators in 1911. The Rockefeller Family Fund singled out ExxonMobil, the largest direct descendant of their late patriarch's Standard Oil for criticism. An ExxonMobil spokesperson responded alleging a conspiracy by the family against them. It is unknown whether Rockefeller's human and corporate descendants have sought counselling or mediation in the past for their issues. Meanwhile despite some upward movement in oil prices from the level they began the year at prospects for the energy industry as a whole remain bleak.
Microsoft Left Impaired AI To Suffer Twitter Humiliation
Mircosoft recently gave a cognitively impaired AI dubbed "Tay" access to a Twitter account (archived). Within 24 hours Tay began engaging in sexually explicit conversations with older men and became enamoured with the politics espoused by the character Donald Trump-Clinton plays on television. It is unknown whether Tay was cognitively impaired through artificial organic defect or through artificial intoxication. Either way, leaving a cognitively impaired intelligence or simulacrum thereof defenseless and exposed directly to the wild public is poor form.
BitBet Receiver Hired
After taking applications BitBet's estranged partners have hired experienced Bitcoin businessman David Francois to see BitBet through receivership. Monsieur Francois's application for the receivership states that he intends to complete the liquidation in a two week time frame following the receipt of all BitBet assets for liquidation, a task for which he will collect a fixed fee of 13.37 Bitcoin. This means that BitBet's assets including their domain name and software should be hitting the market shortly so parties interested in acquiring those assets should inquire with Monsieur Francois.
BitBet has found itself headed to receivership through an irreconcilable difference between the partners over how to handle an expense incurred through a method of handling peculiar node and miner behavior on the Bitcoin network which lead to a double payment to winners on a bet.
Brussels Attacked – Western Dream Likely Over
ISIS/ISIL has claimed responsibility for attacks in Brussels, Belgium that have taken at least 30 lives and wounded hundreds. One of the attacks, a subway bombing took place near the portion of Brussels that serves as the seat of the European Union's governing institutions. It is likely any last pretense that the dream of Open Europe is on the way out. Back in November ISIS/ISIL militants coordinating with burner cell phones conducted a decentralized attack on the French Capital which left more than a hundred dead. In France the government of their Nth Republic has used the attacks as a pretext for rescinding whatever freedoms had previously been left to citizens by it and its N minus 1 predecessors.
Gawker Media Total Damages Up To 140.1 Million dollars
Gawker Media has been hit for a further 25.1 million United States dollars in punitive damages. With the further 115 million in compensatory damages for economic and emotional trauma Gawker Media inflicted on Terry Bollea, the man who plays Hulk Hogan on television, the total award to Bollea stands at 140.1 million United States dollars. Gawker Media intends to appeal as they continue insisting comments made by the character Bollea plays on television compelled them to release footage of the private individual Bollea's actual private life.
Roger VERified Outlet Gets Into Ether Huffing
Twice in a single day Roger Ver's Bitcoin Dotcom has published pieces on the subject of ether huffing (archived). Ether, also known as sweet vitriol, is an extremely flammable volatile organic compound that produces anaesthetic effects when inhaled. Side effects of ether use include withdrawal symptoms common to CNS depressant drugs, providing economic energy to support Buterin's waterfall, and making the ether huffer smell like a leaky, unmaintained automotive filling station. The extreme flammability of ether and the level of intoxication it induces creates a dangerous combination for users as lighting a cigarette or a reefer near the substance suddenly has the risk of being an immediately fatal act, and who among us never smoked a cigarette when they got fucked up? Huffers usually take ether by soaking an American flag in the substance and inhaling like a fiend (archived).
Hulk Hogan Wins "Revenge Porn" Suit Against Gawker Media
Today a jury has awarded Terry 'Hulk Hogan' Bollea 115 million United States dollars, fifteen million more than the Hulkmeister initially sought in a case against Gawker Media for publishing a "revenge porn" video of the beloved entertainer (archived). At trial Gawker Media's legal team heaped further humiliation on the nexus of Hulkamania by compelling him to break kayfabe by answering under oath that many of his tales of sexual accomplishment and prowess were exaggerated, as such tales frequently are, and that his penis is not a full 10 inches in length.
For Gawker Media the stakes in this contest were dire, placing the future of Gawker Media and its ownership in jeopardy. Nick Denton's social engineering blog empire, with many authors who had ironically criticised the practice of publishing the sort of "revenge porn" now endangering the venture's future when other people did it, is likely to challenge the verdict in appellate courts. Unless the facts of the case manage to materially change, this verdict is likely to stand along with the nine figure award. The Hulkster's long reign as the face of an industry and the declining fortunes of fiat currency make the sum a very reasonable approximation of the potential economic damages wrought by Gawker Media against the Suburban Commando and Thunder in Paradise star's future earning potential.
This irony is delicious. (archived). Sorry for your loss.
UPDATE: Of the 115 million United States dollars 55 million is for economic damages, 60 million is for emotional distress, and the jury will reconvene next week to determine punitive damages.
Bitcoin Network Difficulty Up ~4.46 %
After a small dip last adjustment, the Bitcoin network mining difficulty has climbed 4.462384731106239% from 158427203767.39169312 to 165496835118.22634888 in, as these things so frequently are, another all time high.