Big Brother may be watching you The new security cameras at Nashoba Regional High School are coming in handy in more ways than one. Last week, they helped to track down a student suspected of smoking marijuana in one of the school bathrooms.
According to Police Chief Vincent Alfano, the department received a call from school officials on Wednesday asking them to pick up marijuana retrieved from a student. Police were told that an administrator reported the smell of marijuana wafting out of a bathroom. She and a... (more)
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Patients, doctors staying away from implantable RFID chipsPutting RFID chips into people's arms is, it turns out, not a booming business.
VeriChip, which has created a system for putting RFID chips into humans for medical-record tracking, held an initial public offering on Friday, and the company's stock has been struggling ever since. The stock is currently trading at around $6.15. The company released 3.1 million shares in the IPO for $6.50 a share.
Part of the problem is likely the lackluster sal... (more)
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BBC 9/11 Documentary Likely Hit PieceThis weekend's highly anticipated BBC documentary on the 9/11 truth movement is likely to be a sophisticated hit piece, according to those who were interviewed for the program and others wary of the motives behind the creators of the show.
The BBC are extensively promoting the show via commercials during peak time viewing and yesterday featured a reasonably balanced summary of the 9/11 truth movement on their website. A preview clip and an extended clip sh... (more)
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BBC Implies 9/11 Truth Movement a Cult of MythologyThe BBC's promotional material for its upcoming documentary on the 9/11 truth movement, widely expected to be a sophisticated hit piece, attempts to dismiss serious questions about 9/11 by implying that anyone who distrusts the official version has a borderline psychological illness and is a member of a mythological cult.
An article and an accompanying multiple choice test by a University of London psychologist tries to diminish any wavering ... (more)
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US prison population to add 200,000 convicts by 2011: studyThe US prison population ballooned eight-fold between 1970 and 2005 and will grow by an additional 192,000 convicts by 2011, according to a new study.
The report by the Pew Charitable Trusts said one in 178 US residents will live in prison by 2011 and the increase could cost American taxpayers another 27.5 billion dollars over the next five years in jail spending.
"After a 700-percent increase in the US prison population between 1970 and 2005, you'd think the nation... (more)
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Flying the cleanly skies?Just a few decades from now, people may look back at the early 21st century with both fondness and horror as the Era of the Cheap Airline Flight. They may wax nostalgic for the days when visiting distant relatives and taking vacations in exotic locales were easily affordable for the masses. But they also may be alarmed at how long it took the world to realize the havoc that unfettered air travel was wreaking on the world's climate.
At least one travel industry official predicts th... (more)
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Emails can infringe copyright, rulingBusiness letters can be protected by copyright and forwarding them to others can be an infringement, the High Court has ruled. The decision could have implications for email communication because the same principles will apply.
In a dispute over roofing slates, the High Court said that a business letter can qualify for copyright protection. Experts say the protection will as easily apply to business emails, which could change the way email is used in business forever.
... (more)
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Information Warfare, Psy-ops and the Power of MythThe bombing of the Golden Dome Mosque in Samarra is the cornerstone of Bush's psychological operations (psy-ops) in Iraq. That’s why it is critical to have an independent investigation and discover who is really responsible. The bombing has been used as a "Pearl Harbor-type" event which has deflected responsibility for the 650,000 Iraqi casualties and more than 3 million refugees. These are the victims of American occupation not civil war.
The bombing was concocted by men w... (more)
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Iraq's death toll is far worse than our leaders admit On both sides of the Atlantic, a process of spinning science is preventing a serious discussion about the state of affairs in Iraq.
The government in Iraq claimed last month that since the 2003 invasion between 40,000 and 50,000 violent deaths have occurred. Few have pointed out the absurdity of this statement.
There are three ways we know it is a gross underestimate. First, if it were true, including suicides, South Africa, Colombia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Li... (more)
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Pentagon "Cracking Down" on "Salvador Option" Death Squads It CreatedHow soon we forget, that is if we noticed in the first place.
It was January 14, 2005, when Michael Hirsh and John Barry, writing for Newsweek, told us about the possibility of the Pentagon implementing the so-called “Salvador Option” in Iraq. Following the “model” of the “Salvador Option,” dispatching death squads “to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sy... (more)
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Toll Road Checkpoints to Deal With DissentersTony Blair's toll road surveillance and taxation grid is to be enforced by a new cadre of jackbooted inspectors who will be given powers to stop and search vehicles where owners are suspected to have removed their tracking tags. Arguing with the officials will be punishable by a 6 month prison sentence, according to a leaked government memo.
The British government's mandate for local authorities to institute pilot schemes for a tax by the mile syst... (more)
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Don't Do It, Mr. President Before the U.S. House of Representatives February 6, 2007
It's a bad idea.
There's no need for it.
There's great danger in doing it.
America is against it, and Congress should be.
The United Nations is against it.
The Russians, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Pakistanis are against it.
The wh... (more)
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Fool me twice? -- NY Times, CBS, NBC report Bush allegations about Iran without context, skepticismSummary: In reporting on the Bush administration's allegations about Iran's role in Iraq, media outlets have covered the matter in a muddled, incomplete manner, omitting any skeptical or critical analysis of these allegations, which suggests, in the words of washingtonpost.com's Dan Froomkin, that "the lessons we should have learned from Iraq may not have been learned at all." In his February 2 Nieman Watchdog column, washingtonpost.com blogger Dan Froomkin warned tha... (more)
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US Briefing on Iran Discredits the Official LineThe first major effort by the George W. Bush administration to substantiate its case that the Iranian government has been providing weapons to Iraqi Shi'ites who oppose the occupation undermines the administration's political line by showing that it has been unable to find any real evidence of an Iranian government role.
Contradicting recent claims by both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that U.S. intelligence had proof of Iranian governme... (more)
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Bush at Press Conference Today Contradicts Sunday's Briefing on Iranian WeaponsNEW YORK At his press conference this morning in ice-covered Washington, D.C., President Bush was pressed by reporters on U.S. officials' claims at a Baghdad briefing on Sunday. These unnamed officials charged that not only were weapons from Iran killing American soldiers in Iraq, they were being used on orders from top Iranian leaders.
The New York Times and Washington Post, among other papers, featured these charges on the top of their Web sites and front page on Sunday and Mond... (more)
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Why Is Britain Protecting 'Jihadists'? A group of men suspected to be "jihadists" with "links to Al Qaeda" have been rescued from captors in Somalia by the British Foreign Office and flown back to the UK by the RAF, thus saving them from a death penalty handed down by Somali authorities.
Whitehall sources said they would keep the four men under surveillance but they will not be placed under control orders, which would allow their movements to be restricted.
Tory homeland security spokesman Patrick Merce... (more)
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Revealed, what Blair isn't telling you about road tollsThe full extent of Tony Blair's ambitious pay-as-you-drive road tolls plan has been revealed - with a string of hidden elements unearthed.
Under the scheme, motorists will pay by the mile for use of the roads.
Mr Blair will send an email to all the signatories in an attempt to dispel the "myths" about the plans. The charges will be higher at peak times as a disincentive to drive and to reduce congestion. Drivers will pay less, or nothing at all, ... (more)
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War with Iran?Is war with Iran on the way? Yesterday we heard from independent analysts, today we'll hear from four former CIA officials, and tomorrow we'll hear from people at major think tanks.
Milt Bearden
Milt Bearden is an author and film consultant. A former senior CIA officer, he serve... (more)
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Web of DeceitSaddam Hussein - The Trial You'll Never See
Made for European television this film was never broadcast in North America.
Barry Lando and Michel Despratx's documentary
The horrifying truth is the extent to which we in the west have been complicit. Check out Lando's new boo... (more)
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Bush Uses Clinton's Approach He Once Denounced to Secure Korean AccordThe accord struck by the U.S. and its partners to limit and eventually dismantle North Korea's nuclear program resembles one signed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton, a deal President George W. Bush denounced.
Bush, in his January 2003 State of the Union address, criticized the Clinton-negotiated Agreed Framework, saying Kim Jong Il's government all along ``was deceiving the world'' and developing nuclear weapons. Bush abandoned the deal in 2002 after North Korea admitted it had v... (more)
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Tapping Brains for Future CrimesA team of neuroscientists announced a scientific breakthrough last week in the use of brain scans to discover what's on someone's mind.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, along with scientists from London and Tokyo, asked subjects to secretly decide in advance whether to add or subtract two numbers they would later be shown. Using computer algorithms and functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, the scientists were able to deter... (more)
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Bill Would Make ISPs Keep Data On UsersA House Republican is pushing a measure that echoes a long-sought Bush administration goal: to require all Internet service providers to keep records on their subscribers.
The measure, introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) last week as part of the larger SAFETY Act, would give the attorney general broad discretion to write the rules on what information companies have to retain and for how long.
It is aimed at protecting children from predators, but privacy advocat... (more)
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5 Ousted US Attorneys Received Positive Job EvaluationsAlthough the Bush administration has said that six U.S. attorneys were fired recently in part because of "performance related" issues, at least five of them received positive job evaluations before they were ordered to step down.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, using authority he gained in March from a little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act, has appointed interim U.S. attorneys from the Bush administration's inner circle. The firings and appointments have raised concerns t... (more)
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Poll: 63% want all troops home by end of '08WASHINGTON — Americans overwhelmingly support congressional action to cap the number of U.S. troops in Iraq and set a timetable to bring them home by the end of next year, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds — tougher action than the non-binding resolution the House of Representatives is to begin debating today.
While six in 10 oppose President Bush's plan to use more troops to try to stabilize Iraq, a nearly equal number also oppose any effort to cut off funding for those a... (more)
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Hutto Family Detention Center draws protestorsFor decades, it's been a state prison on the outskirts of Taylor.
But last year, the occupants of the former prison moved out, while others moved into the T. Don Hutto Family Detention Center. But many people across the country aren't happy about that.
About 20 people demonstrated outside the Hutto center in Taylor Monday. They might have been small in number, but their message was loud.
Inside the center, close to 400 undocumented immigrants are wait... (more)
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Gallup: Most Americans Want Congress to Go Beyond Non-Binding Vote on WarNEW YORK A new Gallup Poll released today -- as a landmark debate on the Iraq war begins in the House of Representatives -- finds that most Americans favor congressional action for a cap on, and then withdrawal of, troops. They are less excited about the current nonbinding resolution against a "surge."
Still, 6 out of 10 oppose the "surge" in troops.
"Many Americans say that their congressional representative's position on the war will be an important factor in thei... (more)
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Is the Military Our Last Hope? With the “mainstream media,” that is, the government’s propaganda ministry, bombarding the American public with “news reports” from unidentified sources that the US government has proof that “the highest reaches of the Iranian government” is supplying weapons to the Iraqi insurgency, Marine General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, demurred. General Pace told the Voice of America on February 12 that he has no information indicating that ... (more)
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