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United States

Submission + - Wikileaks releases full US military arms list (wikileaks.org)

Submitted by James Hardine
James Hardine writes: The New York Sun and others are reporting that government transparency Web site wikileaks.org has released secret military documents detailing the complete equipment register for all units managed by the American Army in Afghanistan together with a 300 page analysis made with a lot of computer assisted reporting tricks. The confidential records list most of the equipment held in Afghanistan by American and coalition forces, and possibly even the CIA. As well as the expected arms, the list includes hundreds of robots, iris scanners, a huge rage of National Security Agency internet equipment and even a two types of chemical weapon. According to the site's staff, the authenticity of the material has been confirmed by military sources.
Privacy

Submission + - UCLA Probe Finds Taser Incident Out Of Policy (ucla.edu)

Submitted by Bandor Mia
Bandor Mia writes: Last November, it was reported that UCLA cops Tasered a student, who forgot to bring his ID, at the UCLA library. While an internal probe by UCLAPD cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, an outside probe by Police Assessment Resource Center has found that the police actions on Mostafa Tabatabainejad were indeed out of UCLA policy. The probe was conducted at the behest of acting UCLA Chancellor Norman Abrams.

From the report:
"In light of UCLAPD's general use of force policy and its specific policies on pain compliance techniques, Officer 2's three applications of the Taser, taken together, were out of policy. Officer 2 did not take advantage of other options and opportunities reasonably available to de-escalate the situation without the use of the Taser. Reasonable campus police officers, upon assessing the circumstances, likely would have embraced different choices and options that appear likely to have been more consistent both with UCLAPD policy and general best law enforcement practices."
The Courts

Courts Reject Tech Corporation Bans on Class Action Suits 102

Posted by Zonk from the that's-going-to-get-ugly-fast dept.
Frosty Piss writes "Class action waivers included in cell phone companies' contracts with customers are invalid in Washington State because they violate the state's Consumer Protection Act, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Five plaintiffs accused Cingular of overcharging customers between $1 and $40 per month in roaming and hidden charges. Cingular had an arbitration clause that required individual arbitration and prohibited class action litigation or class action arbitration. From the article: 'In another class action-related ruling issued Thursday, the high court unanimously ruled in favor of a couple that filed a class action suit against America Online, Inc., claiming the Internet provider created and charged them for secondary membership accounts that they didn't want.'"
Privacy

Submission + - Is Your Inkjet Printer Spying on You? 1

Submitted by ulysses38
ulysses38 writes: Seeing Yellow is a site that the good folks at the MIT Media Lab put up to inform consumers that printer manufacturers are embedding personal information in output from inkjet printers. Nope, I am not kidding.

From the site "When you print on a color laser printer, it's likely that you are also printing a pattern of invisible yellow dots. These marks exist to allow the printer companies and governments to track and identify you — presumably as a way to combat money counterfeiting. When one person asked his printer manufacturer about turning off the tracking dots, Secret Service agents showed up at his door several days later."
Businesses

Submission + - CEO used pseudonym to post on stock bboard (wsj.com)

Submitted by jpallas
jpallas writes: The Wall Street Journal reports that court filings by the FTC about Whole Foods' plan to acquire Wild Oats reveal an unusual detail: The CEO of Whole Foods regularly posted to a Yahoo! stock bulletin board under a pseudonym. His alter ego was feisty, to say the least, and regularly disparaged the company that he later decided to acquire. A former SEC chairman called the behavior "bizarre and ill-advised, even if it isn't illegal." This certainly raises questions about online rights to free speech and anonymity, especially when the line between free speech and regulated speech depends on who is speaking as much as what they are saying.
Privacy

Submission + - Stop your printer from sping on you! (seeingyellow.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Via Boingboing:
When you print on a color laser printer, it's likely that you are also printing a pattern of invisible yellow dots. These marks exist to allow the printer companies and governments to track and identify you — presumably as a way to combat money counterfeiting. When one person asked his printer manufacturer about turning off the tracking dots, Secret Service agents showed up at his door several days later.

Upset? You should be!

Let's stand up to silent tracking and government bullying and send a strong message to printer manufacturers. Our privacy and our control over our own technology is far too important to give up over trumped up fears of photocopied money.
The Internet

Submission + - Consumers' revolt through Internet

Submitted by sas-dot
sas-dot writes: UK's newspaper Independent headlines the brewing consumer revolt 'Consumer militancy' as individuals join forces on the internet to fight back against the state and big business. Citing from banks to football how the revolts happened, it has to say about banks "A mass revolt has left the high street banks facing thousands of claims from customers seeking to claw back some of the £4.75bn levied annually on charges for overdrafts and bounced cheques. More than one million forms demanding refunds have been downloaded from a number of consumer websites. The banks are settling out of court, often paying £1,000 a time." Is this going to be the future internet activism?
Wii

Submission + - The Wii Sips While the Others Slurp Electricity

Submitted by IEEE1394
IEEE1394 writes: Have you ever wondered how much of a burden on the electrical grid your gaming system was? Well, this article breaks it down. What they found was that the Nintendo Wii was by far the most power conscientous. The Wii only costs around 1.00 a month to run with WiiConnect24 running, and 0.20 cents a month without. The glutenous pigs turn out to be the Xbox 360 and the SONY PS3, not surprisingly.
The Internet

Submission + - Shock therpay used to cure internet addiction

Submitted by andy1307
andy1307 writes: According to this article in the Washington Post, Chinese teenagers deemed addicted to the internet are being treated in military run installation. Led by Tao Ran, a military researcher who built his career by treating heroin addicts, the clinic uses a tough-love approach that includes counseling, military discipline, drugs, hypnosis and mild electric shocks. The state run media blames internet addiction for for a murder over virtual property earned in an online game, for a string of suicides and for the failure of youths in their studies. Located on an army training base, the Internet-addiction clinic is distinct from the other buildings on campus because of the metal grates and padlocks on every door and the bars on every window.From the article "On the first level are 10 locked treatment rooms geared toward treating teen patients suffering from disturbed sleep, lack of motivation, aggression, depression and other problems. Unlike the rest of the building, which is painted in blues and grays and kept cold to keep the teens alert, these rooms are sunny and warm."

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