WTF News Roundup: September 1, 2010

L.A. JAILS PLAN TO USE HEAT-BEAM RAY-GUNS ON PRISONERS

A device designed to control unruly inmates by blasting them with a beam of intense energy that causes a burning sensation is drawing heat from civil rights groups who fear it could cause serious injury and is “tantamount to torture.”

The mechanism, known as an “Assault Intervention Device,” is a stripped-down version of a military gadget that sends highly focused beams of energy at people and makes them feel as though they are burning. The Los Angeles County sheriff’s department plans to install the device by Labor Day, making it the first time in the world the technology has been deployed in such a capacity.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California criticized Sheriff Lee Baca’s decision in a letter sent Thursday, saying that the technology amounts to a ray gun at a county jail. The 4-feet-tall weapon, which looks like a cross between a robot and a satellite radar, will be mounted on the ceiling and can swivel.

It is remotely controlled by an operator in a separate room who lines up targets with a joystick…

Read the full article via Salon.com (published August 26, 2010)

Our two cents: Making people feel like they are burning alive doesn’t really seem like the best way to quell a riot or rehabilitate inmates. Besides wouldn’t they just move around more as they attempt to dodge the heat beam?

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THE GOVERNMENT CAN NOW TRACK YOUR EVERY MOVE WITH GPS, AT LEAST IN THE 9th CIRCUIT

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn’t violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway – and no reasonable expectation that the government isn’t tracking your movements.

That is the bizarre – and scary – rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states (Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants – with no need for a search warrant.

It is a dangerous decision – one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.

This case began in 2007, when Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents decided to monitor Juan Pineda-Moreno, an Oregon resident who they suspected was growing marijuana. They snuck onto his property in the middle of the night and found his Jeep in his driveway, a few feet from his trailer home. Then they attached a GPS tracking device to the vehicle’s underside…

In fact, the government violated Pineda-Moreno’s privacy rights in two different ways. For starters, the invasion of his driveway was wrong. The courts have long held that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their homes and in the “curtilage,” a fancy legal term for the area around the home. The government’s intrusion on property just a few feet away was clearly in this zone of privacy.

The judges veered into offensiveness when they explained why Pineda-Moreno’s driveway was not private. It was open to strangers, they said, such as delivery people and neighborhood children, who could wander across it uninvited.

Read the full article via Time/Yahoo News (published August 26, 2010)

Our two cents: We can only hope the Supreme Court will reverse this decision, otherwise say goodbye to the 4th Amendment.

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FDA FINDS ‘OBJECTIONABLE CONDITIONS’ AT EGG FARMS RESPONSIBLE FOR MASSIVE RECALL

Flies “too numerous to count,” rodents, wild birds, maggots, and open piles of manure four to eight feet high were among the observations released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday, illustrating “significant objectionable conditions” at two Iowa egg farms responsible for the recent recall of over half a billion eggs.

With the release of the inspection reports for Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, FDA said the two companies failed to implement internal protocols and FDA egg regulations, which went into affect July 9.

The farms came under investigation after being linked to a sharp spike in Salmonella enteritidis illnesses between May and August. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 1,500 reported illnesses are likely linked to the outbreak.

Federal officials are still trying determine exactly how the disease-causing bacteria entered the large-scale egg facilities. The observational reports released yesterday indicate there are numerous possible modes of contamination.

Read the full article via Food Safety News (published August 31, 2010)

Our two cents: Where the F was the FDA before this outbreak? Open piles of manure four to eight feet tall don’t exactly show up overnight. At least I hope not…

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A U.S. MAN MAY FACE 16 YEARS IN PRISON FOR POSTING A VIDEO OF HIS ARREST ON YOUTUBE

When police arrested Anthony Graber for speeding on his motorbike, the 25-year-old probably did not see himself as an advocate for police accountability in the age of new media. But Graber, a sergeant with the Maryland Air National Guard, is now facing 16 years in prison, not for dangerous driving, but for a Youtube video he posted after receiving a speeding ticket.

The video, filmed with a camera mounted on Graber’s motorcycle helmet designed to record biking stunts rather than police abuse, shows a plain clothes officer jumping out of an unmarked car and pointing a pistol at the motorcyclist. It does not portray the policeman in a positive light.

After he posted the video on Youtube, police raided Graber’s home, seized computers and put him in jail.

“The case is critical to the protection of democracy because I don’t think you can have a free country in which public officials are able to criminally prosecute people who film what they are doing,” David Rocah, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union in Maryland who is representing Graber, said.

Read the full article with video via Al-Jazeera (published August 28, 2010)

Our two cents: Although it’s unlikely Graber will have to do any time because The Maryland Attorney General’s Office has publicly stated a police stop is not a private conversation and therefore is not covered by Maryland’s Wiretap Act, the fact the plain clothes cop pulled a gun on a citizen for speeding still makes us say WTF.

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VENEZUELAN POLITICIAN RAFFLES BREAST IMPLANTS TO RAISE MONEY

A Venezuelan politician is offering breast implants as a prize in a raffle to raise funds for his parliamentary election campaign.

“Some people raffle TVs and we decided to offer this. It’s an interesting prize and there’s a lot of interest,” Gustavo Rojas, an opposition candidate for a National Assembly position, told Reuters while campaigning in Caracas.

Cosmetic surgery, especially breast enlargement, is widespread in image-conscious Venezuela, whose beauty queens have won numerous international pageant titles.

Read the full article via Reuters (published August 27, 2010)

Our two cents: American politicians please take note, this is how you raise money without going through corporate lobbyists.

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JAPANESE MEN GO TO A HOTEL TO BE WITH VIRTUAL GIRLFRIENDS

This resort town, once popular with honeymooners, is turning to a new breed of romance seekers—virtual sweethearts.

In the first month of the city’s promotional campaign launched July 10, more than 1,500 male fans of the Japanese dating-simulation game LovePlus+ have flocked to Atami for a romantic date with their videogame character girlfriends.

The men are real. The girls are cartoon characters on a screen. The trips are actual, can be expensive and aim to re-create the virtual weekend outing featured in the game, a product of Konami Corp. played on Nintendo Co.’s DS videogame system.

Love Plus+ re-creates the experience of an adolescent romance. The goal isn’t just to get the girl but to maintain a relationship with her.

After choosing one of three female characters—goodie-goodie Manaka, sassy Rinko or big-sister type Nene—to be a steady girlfriend, the player taps a stylus on the DS touch-screen in order to walk hand-in-hand to school, exchange flirtatious text messages and even meet in the school courtyard for a little afternoon kiss. Using the device’s built-in microphone, the player can carry on sweet, albeit mundane, conversations.

Read the full article with video via The Wall Street Journal

Our two cents: So you still have to impress these virtual girls by working out and doing homework, still have to listen to irritating girl talk, still have to spend money on expensive dates and still can’t have sex with them? It sounds more like a level of purgatory then anything remotely resembling fun.

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Bonus: Rubber Puppet of Sweden performs during a Rubberdoll contest at the rubber and fetish event ‘Latexpo 2010′ in Hamburg late August 21, 2010. Rubberdolls are mostly men wearing a female shaped bodysuit made of latex or rubber and dressed in fetish related dresses. The Latexpo runs August 20-22 and designers will present new materials and styles. There will also be fetish parties, a fashion ball and a Rubberdoll contest. See more weird photos via Reuters’ slideshow.

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Bonus: Watch supporters of Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor ” rally pathetically try to explain their “reasoning”  in interviews with New Left Media.