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Submission + - Senator wants all US cops to wear video cameras (arstechnica.com)

mpicpp writes: Ferguson teen's shooting death may dramatically expand the surveillance society.

Claire McCaskill, the Democratic senator from Missouri, says police departments nationwide should require their officers to wear body cameras in order to qualify for the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding they receive each year.

McCaskill's comments come in the wake of the Ferguson, Missouri, shooting death of Michael Brown and is one of a myriad of calls in the episode's aftermath for police officers to wear video cams.

"Everywhere I go, people now have cameras," McCaskill said Tuesday during a question-and-answer session with voters in her home state. "And police officers are now at a disadvantage because someone can tape the last part of an encounter and not tape the first part of the encounter. And it gives the impression that the police officer has overreacted when they haven't."

The lawmaker did not offer legislation to support her words.

McCaskill, however, is not alone in her thinking. Last week, an online petition asking the White House to require all police departments to wear lapel cameras hit 100,000 signatures. The Obama administration has promised to publicly address petitions reaching 100,000 signatures.

Submission + - 'MythBusters' drop Kari Byron, Grant Imahara, Tory Belleci 1

rbrandis writes: In a video announcement Thursday on Discovery Channel, "MythBusters" hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman revealed that longtime co-hosts and fan favorites Kari Byron, Grant Imahara, and Tory Belleci are no longer on the show.

"This next season we're going back to our origins with just Adam and me," Hyneman said in the video, which explained that the change took hold as of the season's last episode on August 21.

Submission + - U.S. University Restricts Network Access to Social Media, Political Content 1

onproton writes: Northern Illinois University recently began restricting student access to webpages that contain "illegal or unethical" content which, according to University policy, includes resources used for "political activities...and the organization or participation in meetings, rallies and demonstrations." A student raised concerns after attempting to access the Wikipedia page for Westboro Baptist Church, and receiving a filter message informing him that his access of this page would likely violate the University's Acceptable Use Policy, along with a warning that "all violations would be reviewed." This has lead to questions about whether some policies that restrict student access to information are in the best interest of the primary goal of education.

Submission + - Scientists Confirm Life Under Antarctic Ice for the First Time (inhabitat.com)

MikeChino writes: A new paper by a group of researchers from Montana State University confirms that life can survive under antarctic ice. Researchers led by John Priscu drilled down into the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and pulled up organisms called Archaea. These organisms survive by converting methane into energy, enabling them to survive where there is no wind or sunlight, buried deep under the ice.
User Journal

Journal Journal: My Second Journal Entry Evar!

Well, my arm did stop itching back in 2004. It's not itchy at all today. Glad I found my journal again today. The world needs to know!

Submission + - Biohackers Are Engineering Yeast to Make THC 1

meghan elizabeth writes: How do you get weed without the weed? By genetically engineering yeast to produce THC, of course.
Once theorized in a stoner magazine column more than a decade ago, a biotech startup working in Ireland is actively trying to transplant the genetic information that codes for both THC and another cannabinoid called CBD into yeast so that "marijuana" can be grown in a lab—no plants necessary.

Submission + - Scientists Discover First New Polymers in 20 Years (mashable.com)

SkinnyGuy writes: The world welcomed two new polymers on Thursday, codenamed Titan and Hydro, both of which came from the same reaction. One is rigid; it could become part of the next generation of computers. The other is a gel, so it it could be included in water-soluble nail polish or a life-saving gel.

Submission + - The Internet's broken. Who's going to invent a new one? (nsf.gov) 1

aarondubrow writes: The Internet has evolved to support an incredibly diverse set of needs, but we may be reaching a point at which new solutions and new infrastructure are needed in particular to improve security, connect with the Internet of Things and address an increasingly mobile computing landscape. Today, NSF announced $15 million in awards to develop, deploy and test future Internet architecture in challenging real-world environments. These clean-slate designs explore novel network architectures and networking concepts and also consider the larger societal, economic and legal issues that arise from the interplay between the Internet and society.

Each project will partner with cities, non-profit organizations, academic institutions and industrial partners across the nation to test their Internet architectures. Some of the test environments include: a vehicular network deployment in Pittsburgh, a context-aware weather emergency notification system for Dallas/Fort Worth, and a partnership with Open mHealth, a patient-centric health ecosystem based in San Francisco.

Submission + - Richard Stallman Answers Your Questions

samzenpus writes: A while ago you had the chance to ask GNU and Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman about GNU, copyright laws, digital restrictions management, and software patents. Below you'll find his answers to those questions.

Submission + - Georgia Law Allows Guns in Bars and School Zones

wjcofkc writes: CNN reports Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has signed into law a vast bill that will allow guns in some bars, churches, school zones, government buildings and certain parts of airports. GeorgiaCarry, which lobbied for the bill, calls it "meaningful pro-gun legislation," while the main opposing group, Americans for Responsible Solutions, calls the bill "extremism in action."

Submission + - Ideas for protesting Ballmer's graduation speech? 2

fsterman writes: Apparently Ballmer is speaking at my graduation upcoming graduation. As a proponent of direct-action, FLOSS fanatic, and software patent hater, I would like to inject something intelligent into whatever retrospective his speech delivers.

Any suggestions?

Submission + - SNOWDEN report claims Snowden is NSA PSYOPS

An anonymous reader writes: In an strange twist of spy-vs-spy, newly released documents from Edward Snowden show just how far the NSA has gone to collect data. It turns out that Snowden himself is just another program with the eponymous name of SNOWDEN. None of the data collection, company, or US government sanctioned spying has occurred as been reported of the past year. Rather, throught the SNOWDEN program, the intelligence agencys are running psychological operations on the public. This is provide a legal shield to all of the US companies that were directly created (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Dropbox, etc.) to or paid to aid spying (telecom firms, networking hardware manufactures) on the American people. Also implicated on several top tier universities with machine learning and computational modeling groups that provided the framework for tracking literally everything. As it appears to be working, by making itself appear as the evil scapegoat, the NSA has provided fake evidence via the Snowden reports that appear to exonerate American companies. Ironically, the SNOWDEN program itself, classified at TS/SCI level proves that there never was a one man super sysadmin (sorry /.-ers) that infiltrated the NSA. We have all been duped. Read on for more.

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