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TSA Worker Jailed In Body Scan Rage Incident 352

Posted by samzenpus
from the checking-out-your-package dept.
A TSA worker in Miami was arrested for aggravated battery after he attacked a co-worker for making fun of the size of his genitals. Rolando Negrin walked through one of the new body scanners during a recent training session and a supervisor started making fun of his manhood. From the article: "According to the police report, Negrin confronted one of his co-workers in an employee parking lot, where he hit him with a police baton on the arm and back."
Robotics

The Best Robots of 2009 51

Posted by samzenpus
from the best-of-show dept.
kkleiner writes "Singularity Hub has just unveiled its second annual roundup of the best robots of the year. In 2009 robots continued their advance towards world domination with several impressive breakouts in areas such as walking, automation, and agility, while still lacking in adaptability and reasoning ability. It will be several years until robots can gain the artificial intelligence that will truly make them remarkable, but in the meantime they are still pretty awesome."
Media

Asian group follies racism protest, called racists

Submitted by
DA-MAN
DA-MAN writes "A Radio Duo was suspended on April 23rd for a prank call to a chinese restaurant. The Organization of Chinese Americans lead this offensive, including a protest in front of CBS HQ on April 27th, asking for the firing of JV & Elvis. During this protest OCA passed out this flyer which equated the prank call to Hitler, the KKK and Nazi Germany. Now HIAS, the group which asked for the firing of CNN's Lou Dobbs is taking OCA's Nazi references to task, calling OCA a racist organization. Am I the only one that finds this whole thing ridiculous from the start? First satire is lost, now the special interest groups can't even agree."
Privacy

Real ID DHS Town Hall meeting/webcast on May 1

Submitted by
jdp
jdp writes "As the May 8th deadline for submitting comments on the proposed Real ID implementation to the Department of Homeland Security nears, DHS and the California Department of Motor Vehicles are sponsoring a Town Hall Meeting to seek public feedback at UC Davis on May 1 (10 a.m. — 2 p.m. PDT) — and it's being webcast! We're covering this on the Stop Real ID Now! blog. If you're ready to file comments even before the meeting, EFF, PrivacyActivism, and the ACLU all have instruction pages up."
Privacy

Studios Want Security at Cinemas to Stop Piracy

Submitted by Chubbs
Chubbs writes "CBC is reporting that the Hollywood studies are having security guards in Canadian cinemas search moviegoers for camcorders, cell phones, and other devices that could be used to pirate movies:

With the official start of the summer movie season set for next week with the opening of Spider-Man 3, security in cinemas is being stepped up. Security guards at a preview screening for Spider-Man 3 inspected bags, confiscated portable phones, and scanned movie goers with metal detectors. With a budget of $250 million, Spider-Man 3 is a heavy investment for Sony Pictures and it is trying to stop the film from being recorded and leaked to the internet.
"
Google

Google Shareholder Proposal to Resist Censorship

Submitted by buxton2k
buxton2k writes "Slashdot has had plenty of stories about technology companies like Google kowtowing to repressive political regimes such as China's. I'm an (extremely) small shareholder in Google, and I looked at their proxy statement today. Most of the time, shareholders' meetings don't deal with anything other than rubber-stamping the board of directors, but Google's upcoming meeting has a interesting shareholder proposal dealing with free speech and censorship to be voted on at the May 10 meeting.

The proposal cites the UN Declaration of Human Rights and declares that "technology companies in the United States have failed to develop adequate standards by which they can conduct business with authoritarian governments while protecting human rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression". If adopted by shareholders, it would call for management to adopt 6 minimum standards including: not storing data that can identify an individual in repressive countries; using all legal means to resist censorship; and documenting and publicizing "all cases where legally-binding censorship requests have been complied with." The proposal was submitted by the Comptroller of New York City, which owns large amounts of Google stock in City pension plans.

Is a proposal like this (assuming it ever passed) feasible to implement? Would it actually do anything to open up repressive regimes? Is this a reasonable balance between upholding liberal democracy values and doing business in dictatorships? Would it have any effect on domestic issues such as DMCA takedown orders? Most of all, as a shareholder, what is Google's board of directors' justification for recommending that shareholders vote AGAINST this proposal? If you are a Google shareholder, were you aware of this proposal, and if so, are you going to vote for or against?"
Security

Forensic Tool for Macs

Submitted by Zygote
Zygote writes "http://www.subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?m ain_page=product_info&cPath=200&products_id=195 "MacLockPick(TM) is a valuable tool for law enforcement professionals to perform live forensics on Mac OS X systems. The solution is based on a USB Flash drive that can be inserted into a suspect's Mac OS X computer that is running (or sleeping). Once the software is run it will extract data from the Apple Keychain and system settings in order to provide the examiner fast access to the suspect's critical information with as little interaction or trace as possible.""

A penny saved is ridiculous.