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Dream Vendor "Canna_Bars" Sentenced to Prison

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Re: Dream Vendor "Canna_Bars" Sentenced to Prison

#301

Post by mattmanser »

SpelingBeeChamp wrote: post #291
gruez wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the actual scientific evidence backing this? I’m asking because various forensic techniques that were previously perceived to be reliable (fingerprints, handwriting analysis, bite marks) turned out to be total bunk.

Evidence that fingerprint analysis is "total bunk?" That one is news to me.

Well, not total bunk, but less reliable than generally believed:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228442-600-miscarri...

Then again a lot of forensic techniques seem to fall into the same category:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150512-can-we-trust-for...

A lot of the problems come from human bias and over-stating the accuracy of tests at trial.

Re: Dream Vendor "Canna_Bars" Sentenced to Prison

#302

Post by thefounder »

userbinator wrote: post #294

Legal or otherwise, I've seen plenty of sellers holding their products while photographing, so I wonder why it's done --- personally I think it looks a bit unprofessional to have a hand or other things showing. Putting it on a table or otherwise featureless surface would look far better to a prospective buyer.

Maybe to make it look more real/personal/less generic.

Re: Dream Vendor "Canna_Bars" Sentenced to Prison

#303

Post by jcrawfordor »

mschwaig wrote: post #62

'So we have these fingerprints, and we think they belong to this guy we already have prints on file for. Can you give us a yes/no answer if they match up?' seems like a pretty low bar for evidence. Seems like the kind of thing that could heavily skew towards telling you what you want to hear. Maybe someone else knows if it actually works like that, the writeup made it sound like that to me. I'm just some guy who saw…

Although not mentioned clearly in the complaint it's very possible the initial matching was done through the FBI's or another automated query system. This is a standard practice used in law enforcement investigations - capture fingerprints however you can and submit them to the FBI, which returns a report of possible matches. The automated matches would need to be followed up on with manual comparison, esp. due to the unusual nature of the fingerprint capture here, and this manual comparison is going to be the part mentioned in the complaint because it most clearly establishes a link.

Re: Dream Vendor "Canna_Bars" Sentenced to Prison

#304

Post by Sevrene »

mleonhard wrote: post #293
booleandilemma wrote: post #55

I wish more resources were spent on law enforcement at the local level, fighting real crime. They could have more police patrolling the streets and subways, deterring assaults[0] and daylight shootings[1]. Does anyone really care that this drug dealer is locked up? Is anyone safer now? Do I have to worry any less about getting mugged on the subway at night? Of course people are calling to defund the police, and if th…

The drug dealer was selling meth. Meth destroys people. And meth addiction leads to many robberies and burglaries. I think punishing this meth dealer is a net positive for society.

Someone will just fill the void left by this vendor and no harm will be removed. It wont be a net positive at all. In the end, all there will be is another person ruined.

I don't think it's right to punish a pub for all problems caused by alcohol intoxication, but I do think punishing a pub for serving alcohol negligently is okay.

My understanding is one of the main reasons methamphetamines are so widely used and sold is because meth is cheap and easy to make compared to safer possible alternatives. That indicates to me that this seems like a market that needs regulation, not prohibition.

I'm not saying meth should be legal, I'm saying the drug market can be regulated to reduce harm. If that regulation means disallowing certain substances that do cause excessive harm, that's a good thing too.

Re: Dream Vendor "Canna_Bars" Sentenced to Prison

#305

Post by gbrown »

sneak wrote: post #254
gbrown wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the supply chain for illegal drugs hurts a LOT of people, but that’s because of the illegally. In a world with legal drugs, you’d still want to prosecute someone for giving money to cartels, but there would be much less incentive for people to do so in the first place.

The supply chain is not on trial in this instance, this one person (who did not harm or victimize anyone) is.

Look, I’m the last person who would defend drug laws, but I think your position is transparently silly.

Re: Dream Vendor "Canna_Bars" Sentenced to Prison

#306

Post by gbrown »

mindslight wrote: post #177
gbrown wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the supply chain for illegal drugs hurts a LOT of people, but that’s because of the illegally. In a world with legal drugs, you’d still want to prosecute someone for giving money to cartels, but there would be much less incentive for people to do so in the first place.

The supply chain for all of society hurts a lot of people. Drugs are only a higher proportion because that industry's order presently can only be supplied by smaller competitors with similar fixed costs to the incumbents.

> The supply chain for all society ...

And? That’s whataboutism, not a response.

> Drugs are....

That sounds like a vast oversimplification, to say the least. Also, again, I’m not defending drug laws.

Re: Dream Vendor "Canna_Bars" Sentenced to Prison

#307

Post by serf »

mleonhard wrote: post #293
booleandilemma wrote: post #55

I wish more resources were spent on law enforcement at the local level, fighting real crime. They could have more police patrolling the streets and subways, deterring assaults[0] and daylight shootings[1]. Does anyone really care that this drug dealer is locked up? Is anyone safer now? Do I have to worry any less about getting mugged on the subway at night? Of course people are calling to defund the police, and if th…

The drug dealer was selling meth. Meth destroys people. And meth addiction leads to many robberies and burglaries. I think punishing this meth dealer is a net positive for society.

>The drug dealer was selling meth. Meth destroys people.

You could replace meth with any sort of legal substitute and the statement would still be correct.

'The bar was selling liquor. Liquor destroys people.' 'The pharmacy was selling opiates. Opiates destroy people.'

So, when faced with a dilemma of hypocrisy like that, let's punish the wrong do-ers when they do wrong, as is traditional with substance abusers, rather than the 30 'criminals' involved in the supply chain that haven't actually done first-party harm to the peace at large.

One could say that they could be done in parallel, and I agree, but the resource spent to fight both sides of the crime in parallel should still be spent on keeping the peace, not preventing the imaginary destruction of future peace.

Re: Dream Vendor "Canna_Bars" Sentenced to Prison

#308

Post by Dylan16807 »

EmilioMartinez wrote: post #277
cnst wrote: post #192

I've always been conscious of fingerprints potentially showing up in the photos. Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't after you. The same thing goes about keys -- it's amazing how people willingly share photos of their keys (with full signature and all) in full view.

Always wondered the same. More so, it baffles me that locksmiths use physical keys to copy new keys, propagating errors in the long run.

They have the machines to cut keys to code spec but don't bother using them?

Re: Dream Vendor "Canna_Bars" Sentenced to Prison

#309

Post by wiml »

absorber wrote: post #286
genewitch wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was some pytorch software called "enhance", i.e. ./enhance [options] and you could take an image that someone took of their unpowered tv across the room and pull out a high resolution image of their face from the reflection in the matte-ish surface. I used it on reddit to convince people it was unsafe to post any images of that sort. It seemed to work for about 6 months. There's magic in image enhancement, but…

> Heck, a decade and a half ago there were claims that governments could narrow a search for an audio file upload based on the deviation from 60hz on the power line noise - in an audio recording. Wow. Any source for this?

Here's a brief piece on the practice: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20629671

Re: Dream Vendor "Canna_Bars" Sentenced to Prison

#310

Post by wincy »

gruez wrote: post #139
3131s wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's called stylometry and it can be surprisingly accurate under the right conditions.

What’s the actual scientific evidence backing this? I’m asking because various forensic techniques that were previously perceived to be reliable (fingerprints, handwriting analysis, bite marks) turned out to be total bunk.

Well I’m fairly certain this is how they figured out who the Unabomber was. His brother recognized his style of writing and called the feds.
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