Canadians build first 3D printed rifle: it breaks on the first shot

It's called the Bulldog, and they basically took the 3D plans for the Liberator 3D pistol and upscaled them to make a rifle, a .22 LR caliber, and apparently didn't do much to reinforce it. I'm not sure exactly how they failed since the Liberator is basically a proven design. Regardless, it shouldn't take much to refine the design and make a practical model.

One thing that I found amusing was the printer manufacturer said that their software was going to scan files uploaded for printing and see if they looked like gun parts, and if they did, not print them. Yeah, right. It's so hard to crack a system and create custom ROMs. Not to mention make subtle alterations to plans so that they no longer look like gun parts but ten seconds work with a nail file and they suddenly transform.

Making a 3D printed rifle was inevitable once a 3D pistol was made. The thing that I want to know, but won't until they have a working rifle designed, is how accurate it is? The point of a rifle is that you have a longer barrel for better long-range accuracy, but that barrel requires internal grooves (rifling) to impart spin on the bullet so that it gyro-stabilizes by itself and travels longer distances more accurately. I really want to know if 3D printers build rifling in the design of a barrel.

The fear of 3D plastic guns is that they're difficult to detect with current weapons scanning technology and that you could get a gun close to a high value target like the President. A printed rifle is totally outside this discussion because it's really hard to conceal a rifle under clothing. If you're going to snipe someone, you need a very accurate long-range rifle, and I don't see a printed gun filling that role.

It's going to be interesting to see how the media and politicians react to this.

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-3d-printed-rifle-broke-after-its-first-shot-video

The House votes down an amendment that would have de-funded PRISM

I don't find that the least surprising. It's going to take lawsuits and new elections to shut it down, and even then, can we be sure? This started over a decade ago with things like the Total Information Awareness program, and when those were screamed down, quietly got broken in to little unnoticeable pieces and became things like PRISM.

The interesting thing about this particular article is that Wired hired a research agency to break down votes by how much money each representative receives from defense and intelligence contractors. Not terribly surprising, those who received the most money voted against the amendment. Only one person in the top 10 money recipients voted for the amendment.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/07/money-nsa-vote/

And I would suggest that you not bother wasting your time with the comments, they rapidly devolved in to 'a new civil war is coming' and it's all white against black. Where race entered in to this problem I do not know, it's more of a poor vs uber-rich.

UK 'opt-in porn filter' filters out a lot more than just porn

In an interesting article, David Cameron's proposed porn filter goes much farther afield than just filtering porn. ..."in addition to pornography, users will also be required to opt in for any content tagged as violent, extremist, terrorist, anorexia and eating disorders, suicide, alcohol, smoking, web forums, esoteric material and web-blocking circumvention tools. These will all be filtered by default, and the majority of users never change default settings with online services."

So if you are a home brewer who works for a newspaper with foreign correspondents who is writing a book about an anorexic suicidal violent extremist, you can pretty much forget about being able to do what you need to do. And I'm very curious about that block on web forums.

Another lovely detail is that one particular filter already in place, which was praised by Cameron, is run by Huwei, the Chinese firm with ties to the Chinese government and accused of espionage by both the UK and US governments.

Be warned: this page has auto-run ads video with sound. I didn't see a 'print' option for the article, my apologies.
http://www.ibtimes.com/uk-porn-filter-censorship-extends-beyond-pornography-one-isp-fighting-back-1361379