Daily Archives: July 30, 2017

DC gun ruling again raises an issue the Supreme Court has been reluctant to review – Washington Post

Posted: July 30, 2017 at 1:54 pm

When a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided an important gun rights case last week, some advocates were already thinking ahead.

Clark Neily of the Cato Institute told my colleague Ann E. Marimow that the 2-to-1 ruling against the Districts requirement of a good reason to obtain a permit to carry a gun in public was thoroughly researched and carefully reasoned.

[Appeals court blocks D.C.s concealed carry law]

It would make an ideal vehicle for the Supreme Court to finally decide whether the Second Amendment applies outside the home, Neily said.

As if.

The fact is the justices have shown a remarkable lack of interest in deciding that issue, or in expanding upon their landmark 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. They have had multiple chances to define with specificity what the Second Amendment protects beyond Hellers guarantee of individual gun ownership in ones home, and they have declined each opportunity.

Just last month, the court decided to stay out of a similar case from California, where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit decided that the Second Amendment does not protect the right to carry a concealed weapon in public.

[Supreme Court declines to review California concealed-carry law]

Declining to even review the ruling brought an impatient rebuke from Justice Clarence Thomas.

It reflects a distressing trend: the treatment of the Second Amendment as a disfavored right, wrote Thomas, who was joined by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.

Thomas said he found the 9th Circuits ruling indefensible.

But even if other members of the court do not agree that the Second Amendment likely protects a right to public carry, the time has come for the court to answer this important question definitively. Twenty-six states have asked us to resolve the question presented, he wrote.

Circuit Judge Thomas B. Griffith acknowledged the absence of clear direction at the beginning of his opinion last week on the D.C. permit procedure.

Constitutional challenges to gun laws create peculiar puzzles for courts, he wrote, because they require balancing the highest goal of government protecting innocent lives against individual rights bestowed by the Constitution.

The Supreme Court, he observed, has offered little guidance.

The courts first in-depth examination of the Second Amendment is younger than the first iPhone, Griffith wrote. And by its own admission, that first treatment manages to be mute on how to review gun laws in a range of other cases.

By listening closely to what the court had to say in Heller, Griffith and Judge Stephen F. Williams blocked the Districts law as a violation of a core Second Amendment protection.

The law requires those who seeking a permit to carry a concealed firearm show that they have good reason to fear injury or a proper reason, such as transporting valuables. Living in a high-crime area shall not by itself qualify as a good reason.

As of July 15, D.C. police had approved 126 concealed-carry licenses and denied 417 applicants.

Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson came up with a very different interpretation than her colleagues. Heller blessed the Districts regulation, she wrote, because of the citys unique security challenges as the nations capital and because the permit process does not affect the right to keep a firearm at home.

The sole Second Amendment core right is the right to possess arms for self-defense in the home, Henderson wrote.

She added that by characterizing the Second Amendment right as most notable and most acute in the home, the Supreme Court necessarily implied that that right is less notable and less acute outside the home.

She noted that her colleagues had put on blinders to the historical analyses of the D.C. Circuits sister circuits: All who have considered the issue concluded that restrictive state regulations on carry permits are constitutional.

There arent many states with such stringent requirements Maryland, New Jersey and New York are among them. They are outliers, said attorney Alan Gura, a go-to Second Amendment lawyer who successfully argued Heller at the Supreme Court and the D.C. case, Wrenn v. District of Columbia, as 44 states allow citizens to claim their rights.

As is its custom, the Supreme Court has not given reasons when it declined to review the lower court decisions upholding the state restrictions. That unanimity, though, could be one reason the Supreme Court has not gotten involved.

The court most often steps in when there is a conflict in the lower courts. The D.C. Circuits panel decision creates that for now.

The city has not decided on its next legal move, but it seems likely to ask the full D.C. Circuit to review the panels decision. As David Kopel, a University of Denver law professor and gun rights activist notes, when Heller was decided in that court a decade ago, the full circuit declined to review and overturn the panels groundbreaking endorsement of an individual right to gun ownership.

But the court has changed dramatically since then. It is more liberal now, with a majority of judges appointed by Democratic presidents.

If the full D.C. Circuit joined its sister circuits in upholding the good reason requirement, gun rights activists would be back to the Supreme Court, again asking for review.

As Thomass dissent indicates, there is some division on the court on the matter, and reasons for why the justices have not stepped in are a matter of speculation.

Perhaps a solid majority agrees the lower courts have read Heller correctly and that it leaves space for jurisdictions to impose stringent requirements for carrying a gun outside the home.

Or perhaps the court remains closely divided Heller was decided on a 5-to-4 vote and the justices simply have little appetite for tackling the controversial matter of guns in the absence of a lower court disagreement that would force their hands.

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Unite the Right rally sparks First Amendment questions | Virginia … – Roanoke Times

Posted: at 1:54 pm

CHARLOTTESVILLE The limits of constitutionally protected speech and freedom of assembly are being put to the test in Charlottesville.

In less than two weeks, members of the National Socialist Movement, the pro-secessionist League of the South and hundreds of their allies in the Nationalist Front and alt-right movement will gather in Emancipation Park for the Unite the Right rally.

Arranged by self-described pro-white activist Jason Kessler, the rally is expected to also draw hundreds of confrontational counter-protesters who will be able to gather at McGuffey and Justice parks, per event permits recently secured by University of Virginia professor Walt Heinecke.

While the stage for Aug. 12 is nearly set, with massive demonstrations and protesters expected, questions regarding the enforcement of law and order remain.

City officials said they have been working with Kessler to relocate the rally elsewhere, because of the number of people the event is expected to draw to the downtown area. Kessler, however, does not want to change venues, according to authorities.

The director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression says the city is allowed to move the event in order to maintain public safety and prevent disruption to traffic and business downtown.

They should be able to relocate it to a more suitable location, said the centers director, Clay Hansen. As long as its for legitimate reasons and they dont try to minimize or hide the rally in some far-off corner.

An attorney supporting Kessler says the city is prohibited from doing so.

It would be ridiculously unconstitutional for the city to try to move the event elsewhere on that basis, said Kyle Bristow, an attorney and director of the Michigan-based Foundation for the Marketplace of Ideas, a self-described nonpartisan civil liberties nonprofit.

The groups board of directors includes Mike Enoch, a white nationalist commentator and podcaster. Enoch will be one of the featured speakers at the Unite the Right rally.

In an email last week, Bristow said his recently founded legal network is quickly becoming the legal muscle behind the alt-right movement.

The alt-right is a far-right movement that combines elements of racism, white nationalism and populism while rejecting mainstream conservatism and multiculturalism.

Earlier this year, according to Bristow, his organization helped coordinate the legal case that led to an Alabama court requiring the University of Auburn to let white nationalist Richard Spencer speak on campus. Auburn settled the case earlier this year with a $29,000 payout to cover the legal fees of the student who filed the suit, according to the universitys student-run newspaper, The Auburn Plainsman.

In recent weeks, business owners, activists and others have commented on the possibility of violence at the rally, sometimes comparing it to the melees between self-styled anti-fascist protesters and alt-right ideologues at protests in Berkley, California, earlier this year.

In a letter to city officials last week, Bristow said law enforcement officials could potentially deprive the right-wing activists of their constitutional rights if authorities do not prevent leftist thugs from attacking the rally.

If the Charlottesville Police Department stands down on Aug. 12, it would not be farfetched to postulate that the alt-right rally participants will stand up for their rights by effectuating citizens arrests or by engaging in acts of self-defense, Bristow said. It would be imprudent, reckless, unconstitutional and actionable for the Charlottesville Police Department to not maintain order.

Bristow alleged in his letter that Kessler recently was told that law enforcement officials would not have to intervene should left-wing protesters attack the rally attendees. A police spokesman refuted that claim Friday, saying that the department officials met with Kessler and a representative of his security staff earlier this month and discussed several security concerns.

At no time was Mr. Kessler informed officers would not take action against those that attempted or committed violence towards another, said Lt. Steve Upman.

Kessler did not reply to calls and messages last week.

Some suspect that the possible violence could be the result of intentional right-wing agitation, as local activists with Solidarity Cville have recently exposed posts on social media and far-right blogs in which supporters of Unite the Right rally seemed to revel in the possibility of violence and call on others to prepare for a fight.

Denounced by both parties

Republicans and Democrats alike have cast the hardcore conservatives and populists associated with the alt-right movement as racist for its provocative leaders explicit anti-Semitism and unabashed calls for a white-ethno state.

While their beliefs and activism have turned off many, the rallys primary goal of protesting the citys effort to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee has caused some Southern heritage supporters and political moderates to become sympathetic to Kesslers cause.

But the slow revelation that the events extreme far-right elements will be met by liberals, leftists and anti-racists has scared others away.

According to Albemarle County spokeswoman Lee Catlin, the organizers of the Patriot Movements planned 1Team1Fight event in Darden Towe Park, which was being relocated from Greenville, South Carolina, have called it off.

Catlin said the organizers reportedly canceled their event because of unknown variables with the opposition.

Earlier in the week, an organizer for the event, who goes by the name Chevy Love on Facebook, said the event was not affiliated with the Unite the Right rally, saying that she did not want to associate with any of the hate groups expected to attend, listing both left- and right-wing activist groups.

Earlier in the week, before the organizers canceled the event in Darden Towe Park, the National Socialist Movement announced that members will be in attendance at the Unite the Right rally to defend Free Speech and our Heritage at the Lee Monument.

In an interview, Butch Urban, the movements chief of staff, said the organization had been planning to attend the event after it was arranged by Kessler earlier this summer.

The event also will draw leaders and followers of other groups in the Nationalist Front, an alliance of groups such as the Traditionalist Worker Party and The League of the South all of which are united in working toward the creation of an ethno-state for white people.

Although National Socialism is typically cited as the definition of Nazi ideology, Urban said his organization is not a neo-Nazi group.

Thats what everybody takes it to be. Thats not what it is, Urban said. National Socialism is about your country and your people come first. You dont support wars around the world and giving billions of dollars to other countries.

As for the calls for a white-ethno state, Urban said multiculturalism has only been pushed down everyones throat in the last 30 to 40 years. Thats not what everyone wants, he said.

Take a look at Chicago, theres a prime example of multiculturalism, he added, citing the citys reputation of having high murder and unemployment rates.

First Amendment

U.S. courts have grappled with the First Amendment questions involving Nazi demonstrations and displays. Many of those cases have determined that Nazi and white supremacist rhetoric is constitutionally protected.

And while many object to those ideals, authorities cannot justify restricting speech despite the threat of violence and public disorder a principle known as the Hecklers veto. Both Bristow and local attorney Lloyd Snook recently mentioned the doctrine in comments about the upcoming rally.

In First Amendment theory, it is fundamental that a government cannot regulate speech based on its content, including on the fact that some people may be hostile to it, Snook wrote on his law firms website.

About two weeks after a North Carolina chapter of the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in Justice Park to protest the planned removal of the Lee statue, Snook wrote that there has been a disturbing complaint about law enforcement being hand in hand with the Klan and white nationalists.

In fact, the city police department is required to preserve order to allow the demonstration to go forward, Snook said. This is not a matter of choice, but of constitutional law.

Snook cited the 1992 Supreme Court decision that invalidated an ordinance in Forsyth County, Georgia, that required fees for any parade, assembly or demonstration on public property. According to Snook, Forsyth County passed the ordinance after a violent civil rights demonstration in 1987 cost the county over $670,000.

Two years later, when the Nationalist Movement had to pay fees to hold a protest against the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the group sued the county.

In a 5-4 opinion, the Supreme Court decided that the countys ordinance violated the First Amendment.

In recent weeks, some opposed to the Unite the Right rally have called on the city to ensure Kessler pays the fees and obtains liability insurance of no less than $1 million that the city requires for special events.

In an email last week, city spokeswoman Miriam Dickler clarified that the city makes distinctions between demonstrations and special events, and that the two are not interchangeable under the citys regulations.

The differences are attributable to United States Supreme Court decisions involving the First Amendment, Dickler said.

According to the citys Standard Operating Procedure for special events, a demonstration is defined as a non-commercial expression protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution (such as picketing, political marches, speechmaking, vigils, walks, etc.) conducted on public property, the conduct of which has the effect, intent or propensity to draw a crowd or onlookers.

Regardless, she said, Kessler has voluntarily provided a certificate of insurance.

1977 Skokie decision

Looking at another Supreme Court case, Hansen, of the local Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, said the courts 1977 decision in the National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie case feels closest to what were dealing with here in the city.

The case centered on a planned National Socialist demonstration in Skokie, Illinois, which at the time had a large population of Jewish residents who survived detention in Nazi concentration camps or were related to Holocaust survivors.

Fearing violence would be directed at the demonstrators who were planning to dress in Nazi-era uniforms with swastika armbands, a local court prohibited the event, an action that the U.S. Supreme Court later found to be unconstitutional in a 5-4 opinion.

In particular, the litigation in that didnt have to do with the march and the gathering itself it was more about symbols, Hansen said. The Supreme Court had to decide whether Nazi imagery could constitute fighting words, a legal distinction that prohibits some forms of speech that are likely to incite violence.

The court found that those symbols do not pass that threshold, which has in recent years largely fallen out of favor as doctrinal tool, Hansen said. Instead, the doctrine in recent years has morphed into a new rationale thats based on allowing authorities to stop speech that could lead to imminent lawless action, he said. Its useful if something goes wrong.

While the city could theoretically stop the Unite the Right rally as its happening, according to Hansen, its not a decision to take lightly.

Its a high hurdle to legally justify stopping a demonstration, Hansen said.

The city has an obligation to handle any crowds that are on site as a result of a lawful and protected speech activity, he said. In a public park, and given the proper permit police are obliged to make sure that the event goes unimpeded.

Free-assembly zones

Concerned that people protesting the Unite the Right could be arrested for participating in an unlawful assembly, Heinecke earlier this month applied to hold demonstrations at McGuffey Park and Justice Park.

At the Klan rally earlier this month, 22 people were arrested on various charges. About half of the arrests occurred after the rally had ended and authorities declared that the hundred or so people still on the street were illegally gathered. Authorities used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

The best way to avoid that is to have some free-assembly zones at the parks, Heinecke said. He said the permits will allow the protesters to gather from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 12. The Unite the Right rally is scheduled for noon to 5 p.m.

Heinecke said there will be programming at the two parks. He declined to say which activist groups and organizations hes collaborating with to contend with Kesslers rally.

He said Charlottesville in particular has unfinished business in regard to racial justice.

I think the city will be the epicenter of a conversation about racial justice in a new era were going toward with changing racial demographics, he said.

Asked about the alt-right activists concern that the nations changing demographics are tantamount to a displacement of white people, Heinecke said it saddens him that they are so fearful.

I think theyre operating out of fear rather than seeing an opportunity to create a diverse and equal society, he said. Thats a sad thing when theres an opportunity to think about what the United States of America really means.

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To restore First Amendment on campus, open universities to competition – Eagle-Tribune

Posted: at 1:54 pm

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following commentary was written byMary Clare Amselem, a policy analyst in the Institute for Family, Community and Opportunity at The Heritage Foundation.

American universities were once welcome spaces for intellectual exploration and civil debate. Unfortunately, we have exchanged intellectual spaces for "safe spaces," and we are worse off for it.

Indeed, the culture on college campuses today is so hostile toward views outside of the leftist status quo, that students and administrators alike have taken drastic measures to silence the speech of others. Whether it is shouting down other students or physically blocking conservative speakers from entering their campus, it is clear that many of our universities no longer welcome contrarian viewpoints.

There is plenty of blame to go around for how we got here. But one underlying issue plagues our university system: Colleges are insulated from market pressures that would drive up quality and drive out bad ideas.

The assault on free speech is indicative of the intellectual decay of our university systems. It makes sense that universities that teach courses such as "Tree Climbing," "Kanye Versus Everybody" and "The Sociology of Miley Cyrus" are failing to instill important American values in their students.

The prevalence of free-speech zones on college campuses is impossible to reconcile with American democracy. These zones, typically the size of about three parking spaces and requiring prior registration with the university to use, violate the most fundamental rights of students. Additionally, this treatment shames students out of their beliefs and shuts down meaningful debate in the name of political correctness.

We clearly need significant reforms to get our colleges back on track, yet little is done. There are significant barriers in place that maintain the status quo, protecting long-standing universities from competing with new education models.

Take, for example, the significant regulations placed on for-profit colleges. Policies such as "borrower's defense to repayment" (a type of loan forgiveness) and "gainful employment" (which requires for-profit schools to prove their graduates earn a good wage, using one-size fits all metrics) place an undue burden on these institutions, often limiting their ability to grow and improve.

Many for-profit institutions offer a desirable alternative for students who do not want to take the lengthy and expensive bachelor's degree route. A student may also see a for-profit education as a way to focus on a specific skill set and skip the "Tree Climbing" class.

Our outdated accreditation system is also to blame. The current process enables the Department of Education to choose accreditors, who then distribute federal dollars to the schools they accredit. This ensures that the federal government remains intimately involved in deciding which schools are desirable and which are not.

The free market is a much better barometer of quality. If burdensome regulations were removed and the business community got involved in the accreditation process, as the Higher Education Reform and Opportunity Act proposes, colleges would be forced to compete for students against all education models out there. When faced with the option of high quality online school, a vocational school, or a four-year bachelor's degree, each of those institutions would compete to offer students the best skill set at the best price.

Additionally, collaboration between the business community and the academic community would encourage schools to gear their curriculum towards marketable skills needed for the workforce. Unfortunately, the current regulatory environment has made it difficult for these alternative schools to thrive.

Today, universities do not face these market pressures to improve quality. As a result, universities across the country more or less look the same. NYU may have a better biology curriculum than Berkeley, yet the institutional frameworks and campus cultures of these two institutions look remarkably similar.

Unfortunately, it appears that colleges and universities won't shape up unless they fear they will lose students. Reducing federal intervention in higher education could spark the growth of non-traditional education options to challenge the status quo.

Mary Clare Amselem can be reached at the Institute for Family, Community and Opportunity at The Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Washington, D.C., 20002. The foundation's website is http://www.heritage.org. Information about the foundation's funding may be found at http://www.heritage.org/about/reports.cfm.

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What is cryptocurrency? – Telegraph.co.uk

Posted: at 1:53 pm

Units of cryptocurrency are created through a process called mining, which involves using computer power to solve complicated maths problems that generate coins. Users can also buy the currencies from brokers, then store and spend themusing cryptographic wallets.

Cryptocurrencies and applications of blockchain technology are still nascent in financial terms and more uses should be expected. Transactions including bonds,stocks and other financial assetscould eventually be traded using the technology.

Cryptocurrencies are known for being secure and providing a level of anonymity. Transactions in them cannot be faked or reversed and there tend to be low fees, making it more reliable than conventional currency. Their decentralised nature means they are available to everyone, where banks can be exclusive in who they will let open accounts.

As a new form of cash, the cryptocurrency markets have been known to take off meaning a small investment can become a large sum over night.

But the same works the other way. People look to invest in cryptocurrencies should be aware of the volatility of the market and the risks they take when buying.

Because of the level of anonymity they offer, cryptocurrencies are often associated with illegal actvity, particularly on the dark web. Users should be careful about the connotations when choosing to buy the currencies.

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Bitcoin Just Avoided a Massive Breakup, But It’s Getting a Little One Instead – Fortune

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The Bitcoin community has finally done what for years seemed impossible, pulling together to approve a software upgrade, known as Segwit2x, intended to increase network capacity. That has forestalled the looming threat of a potentially damaging "fork" that could have split the network .

But, unsurprisingly, not all of Bitcoins players are happy with the solution. A relatively small faction, spearheaded by former Facebook engineer Amaury Sechet , still believes that Segwit2x doesnt go far enough in scaling Bitcoins capacity. Sechets faction says that on August 1st, theyll launch a fork known as Bitcoin Cash, and take some of Bitcoin's processing power with them.

Bitcoin Cash is planned to have a bigger "block size" than Bitcoin after Segwit2x, ostensibly giving it more capacity to handle transactions with low fees. But it wont implement the SegWit upgrade that allows more transactions to be handled by secondary systems.

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Bitcoin proper will be basically unaffected by the creation of the new cryptocurrency, and all holders of Bitcoin will get equivalent funds in Bitcoin Cash on the day of the fork. A futures market for Bitcoin Cash has already emerged, and currently values it at around 13% of Bitcoins price. That means that when the split happens, something like $6 billion in new market value will be created from thin air.

Whether that value lasts, though, will hinge on whether cryptocurrency leaders and investors believe in Bitcoin Cash's technical visionand so far, the signals are decidedly mixed. Many prominent cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase and Bitstamp, have said they wont support Bitcoin Cash. Investors who want a piece of the action are being advised to move their Bitcoins either to a wallet they control directly, or to an exchange that has pledged to pass Bitcoin Cash along to them, currently including Kraken and Bitfinex .

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Bitcoin Just Avoided a Massive Breakup, But It's Getting a Little One Instead - Fortune

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Bitcoin teller machines in Boulder let customers jump into the cryptocurrency market – The Denver Post

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Walk into the Amante coffee shop at 2850 Baseline Road in Boulder on any given morning and youll see what looks like an automated teller machine sitting along one wall.

Throughout the day, a handful of people use it. One is a techie, another is a well-dressed, middle-aged couple. But this is not your grandmothers ATM. Its a Bitcoin teller machine, a portal into the brave new world of cryptocurrency.

Some call this new kind of money the grandest experiment of our time. Others fear its rising power and the rest of us have no idea what the heck it is.

Boulders Eric Weissmann was fascinated early on with the potential of digital currency. And when the opportunity arose to own and operate Bitcoin teller machines, or BTMs, he jumped in and founded Modern Tender. Weissmann thought the architecture of the code, the blockchain, had the potential to transform currency markets.

I was interested in Bitcoin and thought the blockchain technology was revolutionary, so I wanted a foothold in the space. We reached out to Amante because we wanted a location that was upscale, easily accessible, and attractive to early adopters and the tech demographic, Weissmann said.

BTMs are still rare. There are 13 statewide, including two in Boulder Weissmanns at Amante Coffee and a second machine in the Spark Boulder tech accelerator at 1310 College Ave.

The two BTMs in Boulder were installed in February of 2015. The Spark machine is owned by Aurora-based XBTeller. Officials there could not be reached for comment.

Operating outside the traditional banking system with no regulatory oversight, BTMs have experienced a surge in use as more people turn to cryptocurrencies as a haven from political instability and distrust of government-backed currencies.

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Bitcoin prices rise as Ether extends recent weakness – MarketWatch

Posted: at 1:52 pm

The price of digital currency bitcoin rose Friday, putting it on track for a modest weekly gain, while rival cryptocurrency Ether extended its recent weakness.

At latest check, a single bitcoin BTCUSD, +0.63% was up 3.8% to $2,783.18, according to cryptocurrency research-and-data site Coindesk. While it remains down from an all-time high above $3,000 on June 11, its recent trend has been largely positive. It is on track for its second straight positive session, and it is up 3.3% over the past week.

The market capitalization of bitcoin rose to nearly $46 billion, meaning it once again accounts for more than half of the entire market cap for cryptocurrencies which stands at $89.9 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

This is the first time since May that bitcoin has represented 50% of all crypto assets, according to Tuur Demeester, a bitcoin investor who is also the founder of Adamant Research. Earlier this year, cryptocurrencies topped $100 billion in market capitalization.

Thus far in 2017, bitcoin prices have gained more than 180%.

Related: Bitcoin investors: things may get very ugly soon, if this chart overlay is right

Ether, the digital currency that runs on the Ethereum network, fell 5.7% to $192.70 on Friday, extending its recent weakness. For the week, Ether is down more than 15%, trimming its market cap to $18.2 billion.

The chief rival to bitcoin remains the bigger year-to-date gainer by farit is up nearly 2,300% in 2017although it has struggled since hitting an all-time peak of $395.16 on June 13. At current levels, Ether is trading at levels last seen in May, according to Coindesk.

Much of this weakness has come on recent regulatory moves, including a recent announcement from the Securities and Exchange Commission that signaled it would scrutinize a recent torrent of so-called initial coin offerings, or ICOs. ICOs refer to previously unregulated offerings of digital currencies, many of which were tied to the Ethereum blockchain.

Read: What is an ICO? What investors need to know about initial coin offerings

More broadly, cryptocurrencies have come under increasing fire of late.

Howard Marks, the co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, said they were nothing but an unfounded fad, adding that bitcoin was based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it.

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Zurich-Based Bank Offers Bitcoin And Crypto Asset Management Services – CryptoCoinsNews

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Falcon Private Bank has become the first Swiss bank to offer customers bitcoin and crypto asset management services, in cooperation with Bitcoin Suisse AG, an asset manager and financial service provider specializing in crypto-assets. The bank allows customers to buy, hold and sell bitcoin.

Bank customers will be able to buy and liquidate bitcoin through the banks e-banking platform or their account manager. They will be able to monitor their holdings in custody directly in their online portfolio and on their account statements.

A bitcoin ATM will be available in the lobby of the banks Zurich branch.

The Swiss Financial Markets Regulatory Authority has approved the product.Bitcoin Suisse AG will provide the infrastructure and serve as the AML-regulated broker for the bank.

Falcon Private Bank, based in Zurich, has 14.6 billion CHF of client assets (31.12.2016) and has locations in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London and Luxembourg.

As the banks crypto-asset broker and infrastructure partner, Bitcoin Suisse AG has assisted in providing a full suite of services to acquire, safeguard, track and trade crypto-assets for both institutional and individual clients.

Bitcoin Suisse AG, launched in 2013, offers a range of services for individuals, companies and institutions in the crypto-financial market, including brokerage, trading, asset management, ICO services, software integrations and consulting solutions.

Nicolas Nikolajsen, CEO of Bitcoin Suisse AG, said:

A bank offering crypto-assets is a game changer, as it gives institutional clients and high net worth individuals a counterparty in regard to crypto-assets upon which they can rely: a regulated Swiss bank.

Bitcoin Suisse AG also provides the crypto-payment solution infrastructure for the town of Zug, which in July 2016 became the first public entity worldwide to accept bitcoin and other crypto-assets as payment for public services.

Also read: Bitcoin Suisse founder: European banks will soon offer bitcoin wallets

With the recent growth in market capitalization and liquidity, bitcoin and the other major crypto-assets offer a way to diversify cash holdings. While the volatility of crypto-assets has historically been very high, the trend in the past few years has been very positive, as adaption has grown, with the Falcon Private Bank offering now definitively bridging the gap between crypto- and traditional finance, Nikolajsensaid.

This past year, high net worth individuals and institutions have increasingly demanded access to directly invest and diversify into bitcoin through a trustworthy and regulated financial institution, and we are excited to be a part of realizing this demand through our collaboration with Falcon Private Bank.

Switzerland is not only historically one of the most important and trustworthy financial markets in the world, it is also currently at the forefront of fintech development, and has probably the most progressive regulatory framework for crypto-finance anywhere in the world, he added. That is particularly interesting for both established companies and start-ups engaging in the crypto-financial space, since the transparent and progressive regulatory approach of the Swiss financial market supervising authority, the FINMA, has created clear rules of engagement for dealing with digital finance.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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Anticipating upgraded spaceships, SpaceX builds final first-generation Dragon cargo craft – Spaceflight Now

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File photo of a Dragon spacecraft at SpaceXs headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Credit: SpaceX

The Dragon supply ship set for liftoff from Florida next month was the last of SpaceXs first-generation cargo capsules off the production line, meaning future logistics deliveries to the International Space Station will fly on recycled spacecraft until a new Dragon variant is ready.

SpaceX launched a reused Dragon cargo craft on its last commercial supply shipment to the space station in June, and officials said then that the next Dragon mission now scheduled for launch next month will use a newly-manufactured capsule. Plans for subsequent resupply missions were still under review, NASA and SpaceX officials said at the time.

But a presentation to the NASA Advisory Councils human exploration and operations committee Monday by Sam Scimemi, director of the space station program at NASA Headquarters, suggested SpaceXs next Dragon spacecraft would be the last one to be built.

SpaceX clarified Friday that the company expects the upcoming automated logistics mission will be the last to fly with a newly-manufactured Dragon 1 spacecraft. SpaceX has a contract with NASA for 20 commercial resupply launches through 2019, followed by at least six more Dragon cargo missions through 2024 under a separate follow-on agreement.

NASA has also contracted with Orbital ATK and Sierra Nevada Corp. for the stations cargo needs.

Another iteration of the Dragon spaceship, with a different shape and other significant changes, is under development at SpaceX. NASA confirmed last week that the first unpiloted orbital demonstration flight of the Dragon 2, also known as the Crew Dragon in its human-rated configuration, would slip from late 2017 until at least February 2018.

A second test flight scheduled for June 2018 will carry two astronauts to the space station and back to Earth. NASA and SpaceX intend to have the Crew Dragon ready and certified for regular crew rotations to and from the orbiting research complex by the end of next year.

Meanwhile, a simpler version of the Dragon 2 capsule will also take over SpaceXs cargo delivery duties. Officials have not identified when the resupply runs will switch to the new spacecraft type, but the changeover could happen when SpaceX begins flying missions under its second cargo contract in late 2019 or early 2020, or sooner.

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said July 19 that there was little difference between the cost of a new Dragon capsule and the cost to refurbish the Dragon that launched to the space station June 3 and returned to Earth a month later.

The SpaceX internal accounting said that it cost us almost as much as building a Dragon 1 from scratch, but I expect our internal accounting wasnt counting certain things, Musk said at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Washington.

The Dragon that flew the last mission to the space station spent 34 days in orbit in 2014. Engineers replaced the ships heat shield and batteries, which were vulnerable to salt water damage when it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.But the hull, thrusters, harnessing, propellant tanks, and some avionics boxes were original, officials said.

This had a lot of rework, Musk said. The next one, we think theres a decent shot of maybe being 50 percent of the cost of a new one.

SpaceX hopes to launch the its next supply ship on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as Aug. 13 or 14, ahead of an Aug. 17 spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts that will release several small satellites from the space station. The deployments will prevent the Dragon cargo craft from approaching the space station for several days as a safety precaution until station managers have good tracking of the Russian satellites.

Technicians at Cape Canaveral will load more than 7,000 pounds (about 3,300 kilograms) of hardware, crew provisions and experiments into the Dragon spacecraft in the coming weeks, including a NASA-funded instrument to investigate the origins of cosmic rays.

If the SpaceX launch is not off the ground by the middle of August, it could be grounded several days until officials ensure the Russian satellites are well away from the station. Two other launches from Cape Canaveral in the second half of August an Atlas 5 flight set for around Aug. 20 and a Minotaur 4 rocket mission Aug. 25 could complicate SpaceXs scheduling in the event of a delay.

The mid-August launch will be the 12th time SpaceX has sent equipment and experiments to the space station since regular Dragon resupply flights began in October 2012. Counting two Dragon test flights in December 2010 and May 2012, the reused capsule that launched twice, and next months mission, SpaceX built 13 capsules based on the first-generation Dragon design.

After the upcoming cargo flight, SpaceXs next Dragon mission is scheduled for launch in November with a previously-flown capsule.

SpaceX will continue building unpressurized trunk modules for space station deliveries. Those sections, which hold solar panels and carry large external experiment payloads, are disposed at the end of each Dragon mission to burn up in the atmosphere.

Musk confirmed SpaceX will eventually use the Dragon 2 spacecraft for all crew and cargo missions to the space station.

The only thing cargo Dragon wont have is the launch escape system, Musk said, noting that the capsule will still be able to separate from a failing rocket. I think, most likely, even cargo Dragon 2 will be able to survive a booster anomaly. It will have everything the crew Dragon 2 has, except the (abort) thrusters, but I think, in most cases actually, it will be able to survive re-entry and keep the cargo safe.

Dragon 2 being used for both cargo and crew allows us to iterate with just a little more risk on the cargo version and prove it out before theres crew on-board, Musk said.

The SpaceX founder said the next-generation Dragon will not have the capability for propulsive returns to land as originally intended, instead returning to splashdowns at sea.

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Scientists, theologians ponder if biology and religion go together – Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Posted: at 1:49 pm

OXFORD, England When Charles Darwin published his landmark theory of evolution by natural selection in the 19th century, religious leaders were confronted with a powerful challenge to some of their oldest beliefs about the origins of life.

Then evolutionary theory was expanded with the insights of genetics, which gave further support for a scientific and secular view of how humans evolved.

Faith and tradition were forced further onto the defensive.

Now, exciting progress in biology in recent decades may be building up a third new phase in the scientific explanation of life, according to thinkers gathered at a University of Oxford conference last week (July 19-22).

Although this 21st-century wave has no single discovery to mark its arrival, new insights into developing technologies such as genetic engineering and human enhancement may end up giving another important boost to the belief that science has (or eventually will have) the answers to lifes mysteries.

Some scientists, theologians and philosophers see in this ever deeper knowledge of how genes work a possible alternative to the more reductive approach to evolution one that brings in a broader view that also considers the influence of the environment.

Dr. Donovan Schaefer. (Credit: Photo courtesy of University of Oxford.)

Unlike the earlier views, which seemed to lead toward either agnosticism or atheism, the theologians see this new biology or holistic biology as more compatible with religious belief.

Weve added definition to the picture of evolution that has deepened and enriched our understanding of biological processes, Donovan Schaefer, an Oxford lecturer in science and religion who co-organized the conference, told the opening session of the July 19-22 meeting.

But he added: It would be naive to imagine that the grander questions about biology, religion, the humanities and evolutionary theory generally have been put to death.

The achievements on their list include new fields like epigenetics, the science of how genes are turned on or off to influence our bodies, and advances in cognitive and social sciences that yield ever more detailed empirical research into how we behave.

Waiting in the wings are new technologies such as genome editing, which can modify human genes to repair, enhance or customize human beings. Scientists in China are believed to have already genetically modified human embryos and the first known attemptto do so in the United States was reported this week (July 26).

Schaefer compared todays deeper understanding of biology to the higher resolution that photographers enjoy now that photography has advanced from film to digital images.

Genes once thought to be fairly mechanical in influencing human development leading to the my genes made me do it kind of thinking have been found to be part of complex systems that can act in response to a persons environment.

The Radcliffe Camera, a reading room of the nearby Bodleian Library, at University of Oxford on July 22, 2017. The unique building originally housed the Radcliffe Science Library. All Souls College is in the background. (Credit: RNS photo by Tom Heneghan.)

Since scientists succeeded in sequencing the genome in the late 1990s, they have found that epigenetic markers that regulate patterns of gene expression can reflect outside influences on a body.

Even simpler living objects such as plants contain a complex internal genetic system that governs their growth according to information they receive from outside.

To theologians who see a new biology emerging, this knowledge points to a more holistic system than scientists have traditionally seen, one more open to some divine inspiration for life.

In this view, the fact that epigenetic markers can bring outside pressures to bear on the genome deep inside a human means genetics is not a closed system, but part of the wider sweep of nature in which they, as religious thinkers, also see Gods hand.

Professor Alister McGrath, director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion. (Credit: Photo courtesy of University of Oxford.)

Nature is so complex and rich and that prompts questions about why on earth is this the case? If youre an atheist, how do you explain a universe that seems to have the capacity to produce these things in the first place? asked Alister McGrath, an Oxford theologian who is director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion that hosted the conference.

This in turn opened a space for theologians to augment the discussion about the new biology, he said.

Massimo Pigliucci, a philosopher at New Yorks City College with doctorates in genetics and evolutionary biology, also said scientism the idea that science can answer all lifes important questions was too limited.

Science informs and grounds certain philosophical positions; it doesnt determine them, he said. But the data cant settle ethical questions.

Pigliucci agrees with the trend to use the evolutionary paradigm to analyze fields outside of biology, including topics such as ethics and morality.

The life sciences tell us that the building blocks of what we call morality are actually found presumably they were selected for in nonhuman social primates, he said. Science gives you an account of what otherwise looks like magic: Why do we have a moral sense to begin with? How did we develop it?

Not all present agreed that science could explain religion.

Some suspect that biology has triggered some kind of devotion and there are too many people who practice this cult, said Lluis Oviedo, a theologian at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome.

His own research has found at least 75 books and academic articles trying to explain religion through evolution and he knew of about 20 more on the way, he said.

Although he thinks, the time of explaining through radical reduction is over, he admitted few biologists seemed ready to accept the more holistic new biology.

Even some scientists at the conference, while ready to engage with the philosophers and theologians, showed less interest in discussions about whether a new biology was emerging.

A dawn fog on Christ Church Meadow obscures the view of the historic University of Oxord in England. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Creative Commons/Tejvan Pettinger.)

Im pragmatic, explained Ottoline Leyser of the University of Cambridge, whose lecture on plant genetics was one of the conferences highlights.

Theologians in the decades long science and religion debate, which argues the two disciplines complement each other, have also become more pragmatic as their dialogue proceeds.

Oxfords McGrath said the theologians had become more modest in the claims they made about what religion could contribute to this debate. Unlike some more doctrinaire scientists, he said, they did not think they had all the answers.

They dont say These observations in nature prove or disprove God, he said. Our religious way of thinking gives you a framework which allows you to look at the scientific approach to the world and understand why it makes sense, but at the same time also to understand its limits.

Those things need to be in the picture if were going to lead meaningful lives.

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