Maybe it should be strip beer pong instead? Photo courtesy theCHIVE.
This Saturday, 9/17 at noon, activists will gather in Keene’s Railroad Square and play beer pong in protest of the open container ordinance. The event will be in the spirit of 2010’s Drinking Game, which resulted in my arrest in the city council chambers for “disorderly conduct”, but the charge later dropped. Inspired by the past actions, a new batch of movers to Keene will be taking up the banner of protesting the ridiculous ban on open containers of alcohol.
There are many towns and cities where open containers are allowed, including some right here in New Hampshire. Nearby Westmoreland, for instance, does not have an open container ordinance. The oppressive ordinance is just an excuse to target college students and poor people, give them tickets, and reap thousands of dollars into the system from the victims. It doesn’t stop drunk people from being on the streets, nor does it discourage them from drinking. The ordinance merely takes advantage of drunk people. It’s shameful and needs to be abolished.
I spoke with the beer pong event organizer, Bob Call, today about his motivations. He said, “I think the law is unjust and it’s ridiculous that you can sit outside at local businesses in Keene and consume alcoholic beverages legally, but not if you consume your own alcoholic beverage.”
Labeled containers are likely probable cause for a search. Don’t carry them around.
I’m no attorney, and this is not legal advice, but if you are ever targeted by police for a suspected open container of alcohol, DON’T CONSENT TO A SEARCH! This is the number-one mistake made by the police’s victims. Law enforcement officers are trained to intimidate. If you are walking with a drink in a bottle or cup that is not clearly an alcohol container, the officer will likely approach and say something like, “I have to ask you to hand that over.” At that point, most people will hand it over, consenting to a search of their container.
Take note of the careful wording of the officer’s statement. “Have to”, plus it being spoken in an authoritative manner makes is sound a lot like an order. However, it’s not. He says “ask”. If you’re ever uncertain about what an officer is saying, you have a right to ask, “Is that a request?” or whatever other questions you want. If you are clearly carrying am actual beer bottle, that’s likely enough probable cause for a search, and they won’t have to ask. On the other hand, if there is no clear way they could know by looking that it’s likely a container of alcohol, they have to get your consent to search. Don’t do consent. Politely decline their invitation, ask if you are free to go, and walk away.
See you Saturday 9/17 at noon at Railroad Square in downtown Keene for the beer pong event!
I keep one in my car and one on my keychain. In an emergency, like being pulled over or witnessing an arrest, I press it and dozens of first responders are alerted. They instantly know my emergency and location.
This is 21st-Century security. With beauty and simplicity that seems inspired by Apple, the Cell 411 Panic Button might be better-named “the Relax Button.” Finally I can relax knowing that in an emergency, I don’t need ten types of hand-eye coordination to alert first responders. One press of a button is all it takes.
My friend Link posted about it to Facebook:
“One of the coolest features is that it’s drop sensitive. Do you know how many thousands of people pay for subscriptions to emergency button services so someone will come help them up when they fall down? And now they can have that functionality for free in a way that calls people they know and trust who won’t automatically take them to the ER and drive up medical costs just to cover their asses!”
The Cell 411 Panic Button connects to your Cell 411 application running on Android or iOS smartphone wirelessly over Bluetooth, providing users with a quick and easy way to alert your friends, neighbors, caregivers and loved ones in the event of an emergency. It can be carried in your pocket or bag or worn on the wrist or around the neck with the available accessories.
After pressing the Cell 411 panic button, an emergency alert will be sent out to the chosen cell or group of friends you configured. Your GPS location will be sent to your Cell 411 friends in real time, so they can come and assist you with turn by turn direction.
My friend Josh sent me a letter affixing only a 2-cent stamp to the envelope. Surprise: It didn’t arrive.
But then he sent another letter with a 2-cent stamp, and on the envelope in red ink he wrote out the text of the law that requires 2-cent letters to be delivered. That letter was delivered to my mailbox. “Pretty cool,” I thought. I had heard that there is an old law on the books that letters can be sent for only 2 cents (if they are addressed a certain way), but I had never experienced it for myself. It really worked.
I’m going to mail him a 2-cent letter back. Let’s see if it gets delivered! What do you think of this exercise? Does it “hurt” the post office to follow the law?
It’s not a coincidence that New Hampshire has arguably the highest concentration of bitcoin and crypto-friendly people anywhere. For more than a decade there have been active migrations of libertarian, voluntarist, and liberty anarchists moving to New Hampshire. Many of these movers are activists who are into alternative currencies and the bitcoin community here has exploded as a result.
The oldest migration of libertarians to New Hampshire is the Free State Project, which as of September 2016 boasts nearly 2,000 participants already in New Hampshire, with 18,000 more pledged to move by the year 2021. There’s also the more decentralized Shire Society which has been encouraging liberty-loving people to declare their personal independence and move to “The Shire” since 2010.
These early movers are not only users of bitcoin, but are also some of the key developers and creators of the bitcoin world. Liberty migrants to New Hampshire created the iconic, most-installed-in-the-world Lamassu bitcoin vending machine in Manchester. Some are developing the evolutionary “Open Bazaar” and “LBRY” software. Decentralized ride-sharing app “Arcade City” has also sprung up just this year, and within a week of it being announced, signed up 1000 drivers worldwide. Arcade City founder and liberty migrant Christopher David said, “With its libertarian leanings and an influx of free staters, New Hampshire is perfectly positioned to become a major hub for bitcoin and blockchain startups. That’s a big reason why I moved here.”
Bitcoin Outreach Booth at the Cheshire Fair
Here are some more fun facts about the burgeoning bitcoin scene in the Shire: Manchester is home to the world’s longest-running weekly bitcoin meetup, plus regular meetups are being held in Keene and the Seacoast. According to Overstock.com, the highest concentration of their bitcoin orders comes from New Hampshire. Plus, you can actually use bitcoin in real life here, at mom-n-pop businesses like “Corner News”, “Local Burger”, and multiple food trucks in Keene, plus “Pizza 911”, “Dancing Lion Chocolate”, and more in Manchester. It turns out that Keene, the Southwestern NH city of 23,000 people, even outdoes San Francisco in amount of bitcoin-accepting business per capita! Take a look at CoinMap.org to see the dozens of New Hampshire businesses that are taking crypto!
New Hampshire also boasts New England’s only public Bitcoin Vending Machines (BVM), connecting people with bitcoin from as far away as New York and Boston. (more…)
Steven Zeiler started a Meetup group for people interested in learning to use Node.js, a tool for making web apps. They meet once a month in Portsmouth. At their first meeting this week, 8 guys got together and in 1 hour, they installed Nodejs, got it running, and created a chat program and were able to communicate with each other over web sockets. At their next meeting, they’ll be learning about Electrum, a tool for making desktop apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux. As Silicon Valley’s prominence wanes under the heavy burden over overzealous regulators, will the free state become ground zero for the next tech boom?
I was eating dinner with my boyfriend in our kitchen watching a Facebook live stream debate about guns on campus at the University of Texas when suddenly the video stopped. A pop up said something like, “Session expired.”
Someone reported a photo of me my friends at the beach as nudity, and Facebook responded by restricting my ability to communicate with you on their platform in two ways. I can not post on my wall or respond to messages using Messenger for the next 3 days.
I feel sad that I can’t use Facebook. It is the primary way I communicate with the world. Especially the Messenger app. An acquaintance I met at a conference asked me a question, and I am not able to respond. I am not even able to explain why I can’t respond. That is embarrassing and frustrating. I want to maintain a good reputation with this new friend, but I can’t respond to him, and he doesn’t know that I can’t. Fortunately I have been using Signal, Telegram, and other messaging apps, so I am still largely able to communicate. (more…)
