Philadelphia charter school officials pleaded Fifth 77 times

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PHILADELPHIA Officials from an embattled Philadelphia charter school invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 77 times at hearings on the future of its charter.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Wednesday that administrators from the Walter Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School refused to answer questions on topics ranging from qualifications to the accuracy of invoices.

Last week's hearings were part of the Philadelphia school district's fight to revoke Walter Palmer's charter amid academic and financial stability concerns. The school's also the subject of a federal investigation.

A court recently ordered the school to return $1.5 million to the district after finding it enrolled twice the number of students allowed.

Walter Palmer shut down its high school last month in the city's Frankford neighborhood, forcing 280 students to enroll in other institutions.

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Philadelphia charter school officials pleaded Fifth 77 times

Gun dealers sue over law barring window displays

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Michael Baryl, of Tracy Rifle & Pistol, has until February to take down this window display to comply with a Bureau of Firearms order. (Photo: Tracy Rifle and Pistol)

How much is that handgun in the window?

Thats a question Californians cant ask, thanks to a law that states handguns, or even pictures of them, may not be visible from outside of gun stores. Four Golden State gun dealers are challenging the law, saying its their First Amendment right to advertise their wares.

I run one of the most heavily regulated and inspected businesses in existence, but its still illegal for me to show customers that I sell handguns until after they walk in the door, said Michael Baryla, the owner of Tracy Rifle & Pistol. Thats about as silly a law as you could imagine, even here in California.

While most federal lawsuits involving gun rights invoke the Second Amendment, the gun dealers are claiming it is their First Amendment right to freedom of speech that is violated by California Penal Code section 26820. That law, first enacted in 1923, bans gun stores from putting up signs advertising the sale of handguns but not shotguns or rifles.

The First Amendment prevents the government from telling businesses it disfavors that they cant engage in truthful advertising, said Bradley Benbrook, the lead attorney on a legal team that also includes UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh.

- Michael Baryla, the owner of Tracy Rifle & Pistol

Controversial goods and services, such as abortion and contraceptives, are clearly protected under the First Amendment, Benbrook added.

The suit was filed Monday in the Eastern District of California, in Sacramento. It names California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Stephen Lindley, who heads the state Department of Justices Bureau of Firearms, as co-defendants.

Tracy Rifle and Pistol, a gun store and firing range in San Joaquin County, was recently cited by state authorities for having pictures of three handguns in window signs that could be seen from outside the store. A photo of an AR-15 rifle in an adjacent window, part of a display ad for which Baryla paid a total of $3,000, did not draw a citation. He has until February to take down the photos.

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Gun dealers sue over law barring window displays

Better Tor-gether? Mozillla bids to bring anonymous browsing to the masses

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The Mozilla Foundation isnt stupid. It knows that many people are worried about their online privacy and really arent keen on being tracked or spied upon by advertisers and spy agencies. And so to cater to this group of paranoid Web users, the maker of the popular Firefox browser has just launched a new initiative called Polaris, in partnership with the Messiah of Internet privacy the Tor Project.

Two projects have been devized under the initiative. The first one sees Mozilla and the Tor Project working alongside the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) to create privacy technology, open standards, and future product collaborations, according to Tors Andrew Lewman. Mozillas engineers are working to see how they can make Tor better and faster, which is significant because the Tor browser uses much of Firefoxs code.

Mozilla didnt reveal what improvements its working on to make things better, but it did say how it plans to speed things up. This will involve Mozilla hosting its own high-capacity Tor relays to boost the networks current, limited capacity.

Mozilla engineers are evaluating the Tor Projects changes to Firefox, to determine if changes to our own platform code base can enable Tor to work more quickly and easily, said Mozillas Denelle Dixon-Thayer in a blog post.

As for the second project, this sounds even more exciting and could potentially lead to a significant rise in Tor usage. Mozilla says its working on an experiment with its nightly builds to develop a way to keep advertisers happy without having to track people all over the web.

[It looks at] how we can offer a feature that protects those users that want to be free from invasive tracking without penalising advertisers and content sites that respect a users preferences, Dixon-Thayer said.

She added that the experiment was far from finished, and would be refined over the coming months as they received feedback from users.

Its not clear exactly what this experiment entails, but it does sound an awful lot like the rumored Tor button for Firefox. If this feature is indeed implemented into the main Firefox browser, given its popularity, its likely there would be an explosion in the number of people using Tor, not too mention more explosions of rage from senior US law enforcement officials 🙂

What with Facebook having recently launched a special URL optimized for people using Tor, its about to become a whole lot easier to remain anonymous when were browsing the web.

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Better Tor-gether? Mozillla bids to bring anonymous browsing to the masses

Cryptocurrency Round-Up: Satoshi Unmasked, Russia Softens Bitcoin Stance and 'Bitcoin Worth $1m'

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The price of bitcoin has continued its remarkable recovery.(IBTimes UK)

Bitcoin has continued its remarkable price recovery that began at the start of November with a further gain of 7% over the last 24 hours.

Most other major cryptocurrencies have seen similar improvements in price, including dogecoin and darkcoin and namecoin, while litecoin and peercoin have seen more modest gains of around 1% to 2%.

One of the biggest movers across all markets is pesetacoin. One of two unofficial cryptocurrencies of Spain, pesetacoin rose in price by 37% since yesterday to take its market cap above $100,000.

Previous bills had set fines for creating, issuing or promoting digital currencies like bitcoin at $1,314. This will now be reduced to $1,050 in a revision that head of Russia's Federal Financial Monitoring Service Evgeny Volovik said reflects the underlying potential of bitcoin technology.

"I consider the bitcoin ecosystem as a prototype of a system that is undergoing rigorous testing from all sides," Volovik told CoinTelegraph.

"With experience and further innovation, I think it is very possible that the blockchain will have a very bright and promising future."

The search for Satoshi Nakamoto, the illusive creator of bitcoin, may well be over(Adrian Chen)

Research that involved deep analysis of the 80,000 words posted online by Nakamoto has been detailed by financial writer and investigative journalist Dominic Frisby in his book 'Bitcoin- The Future of Money?'

"There is no proof, just a great deal of circumstantial evidence," Frisby told IBTimes UK.

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Cryptocurrency Round-Up: Satoshi Unmasked, Russia Softens Bitcoin Stance and 'Bitcoin Worth $1m'

Money2020 – Tatiana Interviews Jinyoung Lee Englund from The Bitcoin Foundation – Video

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Money2020 - Tatiana Interviews Jinyoung Lee Englund from The Bitcoin Foundation
Check Out Bitcoin Magazine at http://bitcoinmagazine.com/ Learn more about Singer, Songwriter, Coin Tatiana at http://tatianamoroz.com Sponsored by http://RRBI.co -- Gold and Silver! For Bitcoin!...

By: World Crypto Network

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Money2020 - Tatiana Interviews Jinyoung Lee Englund from The Bitcoin Foundation - Video

Tipping Tuesday! Bitcoin is worth $1,000,000 — Chips in Skin, Karpeles is back again – Video

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Tipping Tuesday! Bitcoin is worth $1,000,000 -- Chips in Skin, Karpeles is back again
Do you like Bitcoins? Do you like watching youtube videos? Then earn some FREE BITCOINS from http://COINHD.COM just for watching youtube videos! And if you want your videos seen by REAL ...

By: MadBitcoins

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Tipping Tuesday! Bitcoin is worth $1,000,000 -- Chips in Skin, Karpeles is back again - Video

Money2020 – Tatiana interviews Ashlee from BitPay about The Bitcoin Bowl – Video

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Money2020 - Tatiana interviews Ashlee from BitPay about The Bitcoin Bowl
Check Out Bitcoin Magazine at http://bitcoinmagazine.com/ Learn more about Singer, Songwriter, Coin Tatiana at http://tatianamoroz.com Sponsored by http://RRBI.co -- Gold and Silver! For Bitcoin!...

By: World Crypto Network

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Money2020 - Tatiana interviews Ashlee from BitPay about The Bitcoin Bowl - Video

Bitcoin re-approaches the $400-level as market sentiment improves

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Investing.com -

Investing.com - Bitcoin prices rallied to hit the highest level in more than two weeks on Wednesday, as increased appetite for the virtual currency boosted prices.

Bitcoin (BTC/USD) touched a session high of $397.36 on Slovenia-based BitStamp earlier in the day, the most since October 16.

Prices last traded at $397.02 during U.S. morning hours, up $28.27, or 7.67%.

The price of a bitcoin on Bulgaria-based BTC-e added $29.81, or 8.21%, to trade at $392.81, while prices on Singapore-based itBit advanced $20.94, or 5.58%, to trade at $395.94.

According to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, which averages prices from the major exchanges, prices of the crypto-currency rallied 7.75% to trade at $395.44.

Bitcoin prices have been well-supported in recent sessions as investors returned to the market amid bullish chart signals.

Prices of the virtual currency are up nearly 20% since hitting a recent low of $317.80 on November 1.

The price increase has been accompanied by a rise in trading volume and coincides with the recent crackdown of U.S. and European authorities against illegal websites operating on the so-called Tor network, such as online drug marketplace Silk Road 2.0.

Meanwhile, euro-denominated Bitcoin prices (BTC/EUR) tacked on 18.00, or 6.12%, to trade at 312.00 on U.S.-based Kraken Exchange.

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Bitcoin re-approaches the $400-level as market sentiment improves

"Bitcoin Billionaire" Reveals How Addictive A Single Click Can Be

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When you begin Bitcoin Billionare, you're a nerdy bitcoin miner languishing in a musty office. But if you play the iPhone long enough, and you'll transform from a "geeky bitcoin miner to geeky bitcoin miner who owns a private island." How does one achieve this aspirational lifestyle? Just click. (And keep clicking.)

The brilliance of Bitcoin Billionaire, from Noodlecake Studios (the creators of Super Stickman Golf) and FizzPow Games, is in how it maximizes the already addictive nature of click games. "Underneath the cute retro 8-bit graphics and cheery chiptunes, the game revels in the fact that its just an idle clicker," writes Animal. The more clicks, the better. Players can click with as many fingers as the screen allows. The more you click, the more valuable your clicks become, generating more bitcoins per click. Once your mining gets rolling, your geek's surroundings quickly begin improving, with new furniture, nicer offices, and fancy tech toys.

Another way this clicker ensures your return is by allowing players to "invest" in objects like robot butlers and hover boards, which accrue value while you're away from the game. Watching ads in the game is optional, but choosing to watch them can exponentially increase the value of your clicks. If you want, you can even exchange real money for virtual "hyperbits," allowing you to shift the proceedings further in your favor. In a move of deceptive genius, the game will gift you these hyperbits in exchange for promoting it on Facebook or allowing it to send you push notifications.

By incentivizing all interaction, Bitcoin Billionaire becomes impossible to resistafter all, what's a harmless a push notification if it's worth few more sweet, sweet coins? Watch out Android users, this time sucker is coming for you next.

[h/t Animal]

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"Bitcoin Billionaire" Reveals How Addictive A Single Click Can Be

Matt Condon available for ACT and NSW cricket

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Matt Condon has already had a taste of high-performance cricket. Photo: Matt Bedford

Comets coach Mark Higgs jokes it could come down to a "flip of the coin" to decide whether in-demand teenager Matt Condon plays for the ACT or NSW later in the summer.

Condon, an 18-year-old opening batsman, will battle on with a broken thumb and play for the ACT Comets in Western Australia in the four-day Futures League match beginning on Monday.

But Condon has also been splitting his time with Sydney grade cricket club, Easts, the NSW Second XI and has been drafted into the Sydney Sixers Academy, a feeder squad to the Big Bash League.

Higgs said Cricket Australia had relaxed laws enabling Condon, originally from Batemans Bay, to transition between NSW and the ACT.

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"Last year there was a rule in place that said you couldn't do that, but this year it's changed a little bit," Higgs said. " More importantly, it's about the opportunity it gives individuals, I think Cricket Australia realise that and the opportunity was there for Matt to play both. He hasn't actually played a Futures League match [for NSW] yet, but he's played a Second XI game.

"He's had a good taste of high-performance cricket at the next level."

Condon has been a cricket commuter this summer, recruited by former ACT and Australian representative Michael Bevan to play with Easts in Sydney. He lives and trains in Canberra, but travels to Sydney for two day-matches of a weekend.

"I was pretty stoked to get an email from [Bevan] and a few other clubs chasing me," Condon said. "I picked Easts and [Bevan] was a massive part of that. He was my favourite player growing up, I really looked up to him.

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Matt Condon available for ACT and NSW cricket