Silk Road creator could spend decades behind bars

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht aka Dread Pirate Roberts will be an old man by the time he gets out of prison. The 31-year-old is already expected to serve a minimum of 20 years after being found guilty on seven charges, including money laundering and narcotics trafficking. But the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, is aiming to get an even lengthier sentence, one “substantially above the mandatory minimum.” In a letter for New York Judge Katherine B. Forrest, Bharara’s office wrote (emphasis ours):

Given the enormous quantities of drugs sold on Silk Road, in combination with other aggravating factors, Ulbricht’s recommended sentence under the United States Sentencing Guidelines is life imprisonment, with a 20-year mandatory minimum due to his conviction for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 848. The Probation Office, too, recommends life imprisonment, finding “no factors that could overcome the severity of the instant offense.” (PSR at 38). As set forth below, in light of the seriousness of the offense and the need for general deterrence, the Government believes that a lengthy sentence, one substantially above the mandatory minimum, is appropriate in this case.

The letter called him the “kingpin of a worldwide digital drug-trafficking enterprise” and revealed that when the feds seized his laptop, he had $18 million in his Bitcoin account from Silk Road commissions. It also brought up the accusations that Ulbricht hired a hitman in at least five instances, paying a total of $650,000 out of his Bitcoin wallet. It doesn’t seem like anybody was actually killed, though, so authorities have yet to prove that he really paid up to get people murdered.

Ulbricht was arrested back in 2013, when feds seized Silk Road, an online marketplace for things you wouldn’t find on eBay and Amazon that you could only access through the Tor browser. Due to its nature, it became a popular destination for drug and gun buyers and sellers, who did transactions primarily with Bitcoins. While it’s true that Ulbricht only served as a middleman of sorts, the US attorney believes he should still be held responsible for making drugs easier to obtain and causing overdoses and addiction. “It does not matter that he did not personally handle those drugs,” Bharara wrote, “neither would a traditional kingpin.”

The defense, on the other hand, is trying to convince the judge to hand down a sentence “substantially below” the 20-year minimum. According to Ulbricht’s lawyer, prosecutors couldn’t tie Silk Road with any incident of overdosing and that dealing drugs on the website was far safer than dealing on the street. He also submitted 100 letters of support for his client, including one from the man himself. In it, Ulbricht said he now realizes his terrible mistake and asks the judge to “please leave [him his] old age.” Judge Forrest will hand down his sentence on Friday, after which his lawyer will likely appeal the case, even though they were already denied a retrial in April.

[Image credit: Getty Images]

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Source: The New York Times

Cox is bringing VOD to select TiVo boxes in July

Cox and TiVo have been making noise about joining forces and making the cable provider’s extensive Video-On-Demand catalog available on retail TiVo set-tops for nearly five years now. Following a recent post by ZatzNotFunny, however, Cox confirmed earlier today that the integration will finally be taking place in “early July.” But don’t get excited just yet — the initial rollout will only be available to specific IP-connected customers in Orange County, California.

Specifically, Cox spokesman Todd Smith states that the service will initially be offered to digital TiVo customers who subscribe to Cox’s video digital or “Essential” high-speed internet tiers and higher. The service is expected to continue rolling out nationwide shortly thereafter. TiVo, which recently announced ongoing VOD agreements with both Virgin Media and Vodaphone, is also reportedly working to add Cox VOD support to its Premiere and Roamio set-top models. Those boxes will offer Cox’s VOD in the same manner as other streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime.

[Image Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]

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Source: MultiChannel

Motion-sensing ‘PomPom Mirror’ recreates your likeness in fur

If you’re tired of your ugly mug staring back from across the bathroom sink every morning, just install this furry silhouetting mirror from New York-based artist Daniel Rozin. He built it for the Descent With Modification exhibit at NYC’s bitforms gallery. The “PomPom Mirror,” as it’s called, leverages a Kinect motion capture device to control 464 servos that, in turn, flip 928 black and white faux fur pom poms back and forth to match your movements in real-time.

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Via: ThisIsColossal

Source: Vimeo

Air Force certifies SpaceX to bid for military space missions

Making peace with US Air Force and dropping charges against the agency has paid off for SpaceX. Its Falcon 9 rocket has finally been certified, giving the company the right to compete for national security launches. Elon Musk’s space corp has passed every requirement set by the Air Force, after a couple of years (and a few months of delay), lots of paperwork and tests. According to Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, this certification allows more than one provider to compete for military launches, which is expected to cost the branch $70 billion until 2030, for the first time in around a decade. “Ultimately, leverage of the commercial space market drives down cost to the American taxpayer and improves our military’s resiliency,” she said in a statement.

If you recall, this all started when the armed service awarded an exclusive contract to United Launch Alliance (ULA), a Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture. The Air Force did make a handful of launches available for bidding, but Elon Musk sued the Air Force for the right to compete for more. He accused ULA of bribing an AF official with a lucrative VP position to get that solo contract and argued that the exclusivity will cost too much taxpayer money.

Now that SpaceX has been certified, it might even take over the the projects originally meant for ULA beyond 2019. See, the US Congress banned the use of Russian engines for national security launches beyond that year due to the country’s military actions in the Ukraine. That means the ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket, which is equipped with Russian-built RD-180 engines, has to retire in a few years’ time. The company doesn’t expect its next-gen rocket, the Vulcan, to be certified until 2022, whereas SpaceX is hoping the Falcon Heavy gains certification by 2017. Musk and his team will get the first chance to bid for a national security mission as early as this June, wherein the winner will have to ferry additional Global Positioning System III satellites to space.

We thank the @USAirForce for its confidence in us and look forward to serving it well http://t.co/9mcE6Je9nG @SecAF23 pic.twitter.com/ZhBN1SD2z0

– SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 27, 2015

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Source: Bloomberg, Reuters, US Air Force