Breathalyzers are no longer simply used to detect the presence or amount of alcohol consumed. Scientists and researchers around the world are working on all sorts of expanded tasks for breathalyzers, from detecting the presence of cocaine and marijuana to determining if someone is experiencing heart failure. The latest use… … Read More
Social networks part of cyber-war against Russia – Rogozin
Speaking at a lecture in Moscow, the man in charge of the defense industry said social networks allowed specialists to probe users without their consent or even knowledge the fact. “A powerful manipulation of public opinion is being carried through – all sorts of “likes” and other buttons that you press there they instantly include you in certain groups that are later analyzed and systemized,” Rogozin said. According the Deputy PM this allows for work with people who share opposition views by putting them into special sectors that cannot be seen by other users of open social networks. “Through this they increase the number of people who receive special content that is undermining the authority of the state and the values of the established state. We know that this is being actively used,” he elaborated. Rogozin added that the United States’ Department of State had created a special unit for work in social networks and that he had met the head of this unit who works so that the United States could reach their objectives in a non-military way. The Russian official said that for NATO cyber warfare is already a military threat and a military response, and Russia is also watching these processes. … Read More
Google Overhauls Gmail to Take On E-Mail Overload
Google has introduced a new version of Gmail that automatically sorts mail into categories like social and notifications. … Read More
Talkin’ SWAT on HuffPost Live
Last night I went on
HuffPost Live to discuss “swatting”
– the potentially lethal practice of faking an emergency call so
that a SWAT unit descends on a home where no crime is actually in
progress. The other guests included a California state senator, a
Florida SWAT cop, and a swatting victim. You can watch it here:
The conversation ranged a bit, but my basic role was to talk
about another way SWAT teams are overdeployed: times when they’re
sent to the “right” house, but not in response to the sorts of
dangerous situations that SWAT units were originally created
for. … Read More
Same-sex marriage momentum spells trouble for the Republican Party
With Americans tilting toward support of gay marriage and two GOP senators now in favor, Republicans find themselves in a tightening political vice on the issue ahead of mid-term elections and the 2016 presidential race. Last year was a watershed of sorts for the movement, with gay marriage laws…
Ohio CPS Wants to Snatch Kid Away from Family that Has Taught Her Self-Sufficiency
In early March, an Ohio father
wrote to parenting site Free-Range Kids to describe the
harassment he had received from police for teaching his 6-year-old
daughter how navigate their quiet suburban neighborhood and then
having the temerity to decide on his own when she may do so
unsupervised. After letting her walk to a nearby store, he
discovered when she failed to return that the
police had taken her:
Once I got to the police station they would not release her to
me for over 20 minutes, though she was sitting behind bullet-proof
glass just 20 feet away. ; ;When the police finally came to
talk to me, I was told that they had responded to a call of a young
child being unsupervised. ; ;They refused to identify a
reasonable cause for her detention, or even what law had been
broken. ; ;They insisted that they were waiting for CPS to
respond before they would let me see my daughter, but then they
later came back and said that they were releasing me to her because
CPS had told them to give her to me, since I was waiting for
her. ; ;
That sounds like resolution of sorts, right? Child Protective
Services told the police to give her back to her parent. But the
story took a
turn for the worse, detailed again on Free-Range Kids
today:
”Emily” and I are both walking back from the library. ;She
wants to do it herself, so I let her walk separate from ;me
some of the time. ;The cops get a phone call from a concerned
citizen who says there’s a strange guy talking to a little girl.
;Three officers respond and cite a concern for Emily’s safety
in crossing the street. ;I confirm that I am her father and
give my name, as is required by law. ;They refuse to state any
reasonable suspicion of a crime being committed or say what law has
been broken, and so, in accordance with my 5th amendment rights, I
refuse to answer any questions. ;We are detained for over half
an hour before being released. ;(I asked many times over the
course of the detention whether I was “free to go” and I was told
that I was not. We were told that we were being held for an
“investigative detention.”) ; ;The sergeant who responded
to the scene stated over the radio that he wanted to “hook this
guy” for child endangerment. (The recording of radio traffic during
the encounter was later received through a public records request
that I made.)
They were again reported to CPS, even though police say they
haven’t broken any laws. Later he deals with CPS directly:
I talk with the supervisor at CPS on a recorded phone call.
;I refuse to answer any questions or make any statements.
;Though he did relay that he was concerned about a child
“roaming the streets of [Our City, OH],” he refuses to tell me what
law has been broken. ;We go around and around for about 25
minutes. ;I find out through my employer shortly after the
phone call that if I do not “cooperate” CPS is threatening to seek
an ;ex parte ;order, which would allow CPS to take
custody without a hearing, ;to separate us that Friday (and
then keep Emily all weekend since a hearing would not have to be
held until close of business on Monday). ; Note that I have
cooperated to the full extent required by law. ;The Home
School Legal Defense Assn. is very helpful in getting CPS to agree
not to seek an ;ex parte ;order so long as Emily
does not go outside again by herself.
Since then CPS has knocked on the door many times. ;I did
answer the door when the CPS supervisor came by–I thought that he
was a delivery guy or what not since he didn’t have a uniformed
police officer with him–but otherwise we have simply ignored them.
;There is no law requiring someone to answer their door, and
since I had no interest in talking to them or getting detained by
the cops simply ignoring them seemed the best course of action.
CPS has responded by filing a complaint alleging neglect and
attempting to take the child into protective custody. They are also
attempting to try to force the family to allow CPS officials into
their home, search the house and interview their children.
Free-Range Kids is asking for pro bono legal help in Ohio to
assist the family.
Our Reason TV interview with Free-Range Kids founder Lenore
Skenazy is
here.
(Hat tip to Popehat) … Read More
‘A giant sucking sound as money exits Cyprus’
Patrick Young: I do not think that the restrictions can come off because there is going to be a giant sucking sound as all the money disappears from Cyprus. There are all these oligarchical private jets and corporate private jets sitting in the Nicosia Airport, faithfully hoping that they’re going to manage to get their money out in some shape or form. Where is the money going to go? It is going to go to all manner of other havens, and I would suggest most of them would go outside the European Union.First stop, probably the closest place you want to go is somewhere like Dubai or one of the other emirates, they’ve got quite a reasonable banking system, financial center pushing very, very hard and trying to improve. And if you want to go even further east, one of the spots I think a lot of money will end up is Singapore. They’ve got very client-focused oriented goods, the Singaporean government is strong with finances. They do all the sorts of things that Europe is supposed to do but doesn’t.RT: What about shadow banking? Will it become more of a problem now?PY: I would actually disagree with you on that word “problem.” Shadow banking is going to increase. Is shadow banking a catastrophic, horrible thing for human kind? Well, it is if you’re a banker. That is the total problem. And the difficulty we’ve got to remember is that we’re still filtering through banker propaganda that says only bankers are safe to handle your money. Well, look at the complete and utter screw-up they made in the last decade. Ultimately, that is the difficulty we’re going to see.Alternatives to conventional, bankrupt, useless, incompetent and indeed banks with a total democratic deficit or any degree of accountability is going to be a problem. They’re going to lose a huge amount of power. What we’re going to go see is a great deal more rising up of things like the Internet. Peer-to-peer systems are going to be used a great deal more. You’re going to see this thing peer-to-peer lending, which is the ultimate nightmare of bankers. It is a system which much more efficiently allocates capital between borrowers and lenders, allows people to go about their business and it does not require bankers in the middle making outrageous profits to then lose on all sorts of proprietary trades.RT: What about Italy and Spain?PY: There are lots of thing to concern with, and clearly one of the issues at the moment is Italy and Spain because they’ve got incredibly large problems of fiscal nature, they’re going to find it very difficult to manage to fund their way out of the crisis, and I think they’ve got to be amongst the countries who look very uneasily at the remarks by head of Euro group who said that ultimately savers will be in line to lose their savings in the next line of bailouts. That is a catastrophe.Basically, we’re in a situation whereby anybody who’s got money in a bank must be worried about where it is sitting because it could become confiscated at any point in time by bureaucratic Euro thieves. So, is there a problem? Yes, there is, because Italy and Spain are only at low points in time, one further auction away from managing to sell their government debt, but if they do not do it, there is going to be a catastrophe. As we know, the Spanish government is utterly incompetent and the Italian government, well, there isn’t really an Italian government worth talking about. They are still bickering and trying to solve something out following the inconclusive election. … Read More
