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Crime

Things You Drink Can Be Used To Track You 202

Posted by timothy from the don't-hate-me-because-I'm-a-beautiful-spy dept.
sciencehabit writes with an intriguing story about the potential of figuring out where people have been by examining their hair: "That's because water molecules differ slightly in their isotope ratios depending on the minerals at their source. Researchers found that water samples from 33 cities across the United State could be reliably traced back to their origin based on their isotope ratios. And because the human body breaks down water's constituent atoms of hydrogen and oxygen to construct the proteins that make hair cells, those cells can preserve the record of a person's travels. Such information could help prosecutors place a suspect at the scene of a crime, or prove the innocence of the accused." Or frame someone by slipping them water from every country on the terrorist watchlist.
Bug

Dell Selling Faulty PCs 484

Posted by CmdrTaco from the dude-you-got-a-dud dept.
An anonymous reader writes "PC maker Dell has been accused of selling thousands of desktop PCs despite knowing the machines contained faulty components, according to recently unsealed court documents first reported about on Tuesday by The New York Times."
Toys

Brick Shooting Shotgun Built From Lego By 15-Year-Old 70

Posted by samzenpus from the knock-your-block-off dept.
Lanxon writes "A mildly terrifying young Brit named Jack Streat has managed to build a series of working guns, including a Lee Enfield bolt-action sniper rifle, entirely out of Lego and rubber bands, reports Wired. Streat, who lists himself as 15 years old on his profile, has constructed an enormous and diverse armory of weaponry that fire either rubber bands or Lego bricks. Most are based on real-life guns, including a Steyr AUG, a Tommygun, an AK-47, a belt-fed M429 PARA, an Arctic Warfare sniper rifle, a Glock 17, a pair of semi-automatic TEC-9s, a SPAS 12 pump-action shotgun and a minigun that he calls the Obliterator."

Comment No worse than Myspaz (Score 1) 6

by CoolSilver (#31813100) Attached to: Is Internet Porn Creating a Damaged Generation?

Myspace and other sites as well as parents general lack of actual parenting have already caused the damage.

When I can go on a weekend to the local shopping mall to go to a movie or get something useful, I find hordes of teens and pre-teens without supervision acting inappropriate for a public setting. I really wonder how these kids are going to provide sustainable work for their employers. Let alone have the ability to move on into adult life with any sense of good judgment.

I find a disturbing lack of common sense, logical thinking and reasoning skills, as well as any sense of right or wrong in these children.

It's a wonder I don't go up to half of them and give them a good dose of parenting they don't get at home.
Music

Submission + - uoki toki - strange 8bit/micromusic Moskow band (makeahistory.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: we do nothing but a dense soundscape of lostness then rushing to get new sounds, with an attempt to keep each piece of tracked techno music .... electric bass grooves that sensation of the question we've been moving on the music, in the utmost detail work.
Cellphones

Submission + - Cell Phones to Sniff Out Deadly Chemicals 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Science Daily reports that Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate's Cell-All is an initiative to equip cell phones with a sensor capable of detecting deadly chemicals. A chip costing less than a dollar would be embedded in cell phones and programmed to either alert the cell phone carrier to the presence of toxic chemicals in the air, and/or a central station that can monitor how many alerts in an area are being received. While one alert might be a false positive, hundreds would indicate the need for evacuation. "Our goal is to create a lightweight, cost-effective, power-efficient solution," says Stephen Dennis, Cell-All's program manager. Does this always-on surveillance mean that the government can track your precise whereabouts whenever it wants? On the contrary, DHS says Cell-All will operate only on an opt-in basis and will transmit data anonymously. "Privacy is as important as technology," says Dennis. "After all, for Cell-All to succeed, people must be comfortable enough to turn it on in the first place." Dennis hopes to have 40 prototypes in about a year, the first of which will sniff out carbon monoxide and fire and commercialization may take several years."
The Internet

Submission + - AP Slams Obama's Broadband Stimulus ProgramUsing (stimulatingbroadband.com)

Submitted by slfisher
slfisher writes: An Associated Press (AP) business story receiving wide national distribution this weekend slams the Obama Administration's $7.2 billion broadband stimulus program. The underlying point of such criticism, and all 3 alleged instances of the program's waste in the field, are based wholly on talking points recently lobbed against the federal effort by congressional Republicans. The Republican points of attack are, in turn, based solely on input from the 2 largest trade groups representing the cable TV and telecom industries.
The Internet

Submission + - Is Internet Porn Creating a Damaged Generation? 6

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Dr. Terri Apter writes in the Independent that estimates are that 12 per cent of five- to seven-year-olds and 16 per cent of eight- to 17-year-olds have unintentionally stumbled onto some of the estimated 250 million pages of pornography on the internet, while 38 per cent of older teens admit to seeking out such sites. And what they find is a far cry from the magazines their parents might have stashed under their mattresses when they were teens writes Apter adding that a passing curiosity may be easily satisfied and the interest abandoned but that sexual images have a special vividness and power and may become addictive. The Witherspoon report makes it clear that countless women — and increasingly many men — have experienced the devastating effects of pornography addiction on their marriages and a report from NPR by an anonymous psychologist reports how her marriage was destroyed by her husband's addiction which began when he was about 10 years old and which she characterizes as "a drug so powerful it can destroy a family simply by distorting a man's perception of his wife and so lethal it may have the potential to render an entire generation incapable of forming lasting marriages." "Countless women — and increasingly many men — have experienced the devastating effects of their spouse's pornography use," writes the author. "Countless more will experience it in the future. It is our obligation as a nation to pursue the truth for their sake, no matter how inconvenient for some the verdict may be.""
Games

Submission + - Classic games forever an allure for modern gamers? (yahoo.com)

Submitted by David W. White
David W. White writes: Ben Silverman has an article on yahoo games http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/legendary-asteroids-record-smashed/1396032 that states that at least three long standing class arcade video game records have been broken so far this year — Asteroids, Donkey Kong and Frogger, three of my favorites. Its amazing that people are still playing these games and for the duration it takes to set new records — it took 58 hours of continuous play to break the Asteroids record. What drives video games fans to be so obsessed with these classic games. Is is because they potentially fall in the NP-Hard category as discussed recently on Slashdot?
Science

Submission + - Recession proof -- red light ticket revenue (nbc-2.com)

Submitted by NicknamesAreStupid
NicknamesAreStupid writes: A Fort Meyers news station reports a nerdy husband getting his wife out of a red-light ticket by proving the light was set with too short of a yellow. Then he goes out and proves that nearly 90% of the lights are set an average of about 20% too short. Is this an local incident, or have local governments nationwide found a new revenue source? What puzzles me is how a single picture can tell if you ran a light. If you are in the intersection before the light turns red, you have not run it, even if it takes a little while to clear it (say to yield to an unexpected obstacle). Wouldn't you need two pictures — one just before the light went red showing you are NOT in the intersection, and another after the light went red showing you in the intersection?

Comment Unconstitutional seizure but not search (Score 1) 1

by CoolSilver (#31809042) Attached to: Unconstitutional?

I would say it would be an unconstitutional seizure of your property. Constitutional search. However, they had a warrant for his property at that address. Regardless if there were different leases for the same rented space, they had the proper address.

Though for your property you claim they should have only been limited to "plain sight". Meaning if they saw a illegal substance in plain sight they could seize it. If they had probable cause that they saw your computer and it was a computer based crime they would have cause for a new warrant.

Granted, because a computer based crime can be done on any computer on the same connection or residence they should have had a warrant for all computers in the residence that could use that connection.

Where the fuzzy part gets is who all else can use a connection via wireless causing a search of innocent property.

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