National license plate database sparks privacy fears

The Department of Homeland Security is now seeking a vendor to build and operate a smartphone-based national database of vehicle license plate information that would be shared with law enforcement.

Under the DHS plan, an agent could snap a photo with a smartphone, upload it to the database, and immediately be notified whether the plate is on a "hot list" of "target vehicles."

"This system is supposed to be for the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement branch of DHS, for the tracking of illegal immigrants," says WTOP National Security Correspondent J.J. Green.

ICE spokesperson Gillian Christensen tells Federal News Radio, "the database could only be accessed in conjunction with ongoing criminal investigations."

http://www.wtop.com/1373/3563247/National-license-plate-database-sparks-privacy-fears

Appeals court finds Nevada school's uniform policy unconstitutional

A public elementary school decided in 2011 to require students to wear a uniform with the school's motto, "Tomorrow's Leaders," emblazoned in small letters on the shirts around a gopher, the campus mascot.

One parent objected to the uniforms and eventually sued, contending they violated the 1st Amendment's guarantee of free speech.

In a unanimous ruling Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit largely agreed with her. The panel said the words "Tomorrow's Leaders" potentially violated students' right to free speech and the uniform policy must go unless the school district can justify it under a legal standard that is difficult to meet.

Read More: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-school-uniforms-20140215,0,6231619.story#axzz2tPgHxkK5

Brazil Terrorism Laws: No One Is A Terrorist

Khaled Hussein Ali lives in Sao Paulo and allegedly works for al-Qaida. But this does not mean he is a terrorist.

In fact, no one in Brazil is considered a terrorist.

Even as the world has cracked down hard on terror, some countries have refrained from adopting anti-terror laws. Their stance has racked up consternation at a time when terrorism is a global concern, especially with Brazil now set to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.

"Officially, Brazil does not have terrorism inside its borders," wrote Lisa Kubiske, then the U.S. deputy chief of mission in Brasilia, in an August 2009 cable released by WikiLeaks. "In reality, several Islamic groups with known or suspected ties to extremist organizations have branches in Brazil and are suspected of carrying out financing activities."

Several countries in Latin America resist anti-terror laws because they still hold fresh memories of state dictatorships that killed or spirited away thousands of political opponents in the 1970s and '80s.

"These are places that had civil wars ... where the country ripped itself to pieces trying to fight terrorist organizations," said Princeton law professor Kim Lane Scheppele, who studies the global war on terror. "Once they got out of it and managed to put in place a democratic system, they said 'never again.'"

Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/03/brazil-terrorists_n_947784.html

Canadian bobsledder Christopher Spring has a wardrobe malfunction

It’s a good thing Canadian bobsledder Christopher Spring decided to try on his Olympic bobsledding suit before the day of the competition otherwise he might not have known that the suit he was given was just a wee bit small.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/canadian-bobsledder-christopher-spring-has-a-wardrobe-malfunction-232739339.html



Kids oversharing these days!

Jet stream shift could prompt harsher winters: scientists

A warmer Arctic could permanently affect the pattern of the high-altitude polar jet stream, resulting in longer and colder winters over North America and northern Europe, US scientists say.

The jet stream, a ribbon of high altitude, high-speed wind in northern latitudes that blows from west to east, is formed when the cold Arctic air clashes with warmer air from further south.

The greater the difference in temperature, the faster the jet stream moves.

According to Jennifer Francis, a climate expert at Rutgers University, the Arctic air has warmed in recent years as a result of melting polar ice caps, meaning there is now less of a difference in temperatures when it hits air from lower latitudes.

"The jet stream is a very fast moving river of air over our head," she said Saturday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"But over the past two decades the jet stream has weakened. This is something we can measure," she said.

Read More: http://news.yahoo.com/jet-stream-shift-could-prompt-harsher-winters-scientists-132931128.html

1.1 million Brazilians petition government to give Edward Snowden asylum

Edward Snowden is a popular guy in Brazil. The NSA leaker received 1.1 million signatures in a petition that aims to convince its president to grant him asylum.

“The Brazilian government had said it required a formal request from Snowden to grant asylum. Today, more than a million people have done what Snowden cannot and presented this request in his name,” Ricken Patel director of an international campaigning group, said in a statement according to an Agence France-Presse report.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/14/11-million-brazilians-petition-government-give-edw/

Men Communicating...

Top ten manufacturers of handguns sold in the US.

Human lung made in lab for first time

For the first time, scientists have created human lungs in a lab -- an exciting step forward in regenerative medicine, but an advance that likely won't help patients for many years.

"It's so darn cool," said Joan Nichols, a researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch. "It's been science fiction and we're moving into science fact."

If the lungs work -- and that's a big if -- they could help the more than 1,600 people awaiting a lung transplant. Lungs are one of many body parts being manufactured in the lab -- some parts, such as tracheas and livers, are even further along.

"Whole-organ engineering is going to work as a solution to the organ donor shortage," said Dr. Stephen Badylak, deputy director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/14/health/texas-lungs-grown/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Spying by N.S.A. Ally Ensnared U.S. Law Firm

Source: NYTIMES

The list of those caught up in the global surveillance net cast by the National Security Agency and its overseas partners, from social media users to foreign heads of state, now includes another entry: American lawyers.

A top-secret document, obtained by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden, shows that an American law firm was monitored while representing a foreign government in trade disputes with the United States. The disclosure offers a rare glimpse of a specific instance in which Americans were ensnared by the eavesdroppers, and is of particular interest because lawyers in the United States with clients overseas have expressed growing concern that their confidential communications could be compromised by such surveillance.

The government of Indonesia had retained the law firm for help in trade talks, according to the February 2013 document. It reports that the N.S.A.’s Australian counterpart, the Australian Signals Directorate, notified the agency that it was conducting surveillance of the talks, including communications between Indonesian officials and the American law firm, and offered to share the information.

The Australians told officials at an N.S.A. liaison office in Canberra, Australia, that “information covered by attorney-client privilege may be included” in the intelligence gathering, according to the document, a monthly bulletin from the Canberra office.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/us/eavesdropping-ensnared-american-law-firm.html