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Scary Sci-fi inspired riot control being discussed in the New Scientist. I did check to see if this had been posted before...
posted by lerrup at 11:22 PM PST - 29 comments

Attention Citizens of New York: The illegal searches begin tomorrow. And Congress also voted to keep the PATRIOT ACT indefinitely. I can't say I'm not surprised, but I have to say I'm very disappointed.
posted by Tlahtolli at 11:16 PM PST - 165 comments

Psymbiote: Hybrid Apparatus for Social Interface [via]
posted by moonbird at 8:48 PM PST - 11 comments

Under an agreement signed between Ireland and the US last week, US investigators, including CIA agents, will be allowed to interrogate Irish citizens on Irish soil in total secrecy. Suspects will also have to give testimony and allow property to be searched and seized even if what the suspect is accused of is not a crime in Ireland.
posted by Mr_Zero at 6:50 PM PST - 31 comments

Hotornot meets google maps. The best web services mashup of all time?
posted by ph00dz at 6:44 PM PST - 22 comments

Costco pays its workers 42 percent more on average than its closest rival, Wal-Mart's Sam's Club. Even though this is Newsfilter, I was amazed to find that 'Wall-Street" may pressure businesses about their labor practices, and found Costco's approach encouraging these days.
posted by semmi at 6:10 PM PST - 37 comments

I didn't know there were POW camps in the US during World War II, let alone so many of them. The list of camps is extensive, but not on any list I've seen so far is the former Wright Field (currently Wright-Patterson Air Force Base). The base is preserving the walls of the former mess hall where German POWs left a cool set of freaky demonic murals filled with old germanic folklore. The story behind them is a interesting read.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 6:07 PM PST - 24 comments

Seattle man dead after having sex with a horse. But that's not all of it: The horse was the active party, and the man was passive. However, it wasn't rape; as Dan Savage puts it, this took place at an alleged "bestiality brothel". While Washington State doesn't outlaw Bestiality, investigators are examining whether or not animal cruelty occurred in forcing smaller, weaker animals to have sex with people. [via SLOG]
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 5:42 PM PST - 127 comments

Augmented Maps: dynamic, paper-based displays.
posted by signal at 5:38 PM PST - 3 comments

Iran executes two teenagers. Their crime? Making love. Homosexuality is a crime under Sharia law. Meanwhile, newly "liberated" Iraq moves closer to embedding traditional Islamic laws in its new constitution, reducing rights for women. Will Iraqi gays be the next to suffer the wrath of "Allah's law" after years of secular oppression under Saddam Hussein?
posted by digaman at 12:34 PM PST - 111 comments

Countdown To Annihilation
Follow the Lancasters and their adventures with the marvelous Origins bomb. next, next, next, next, next.
You'll have to wait until Friday for the conclusion. Hope you enjoy the story and still believe in the best of the web.
posted by nofundy at 10:07 AM PST - 28 comments

From Marine Doom to America's Army to...Starcraft? A community of military games and game developers. Eerie or excellent?
posted by sandking at 9:04 AM PST - 17 comments

China ends (sort of) Yuan dollar peg. The People's Bank of China announced that it has formally ended its peg of the Yuan against the US dollar. Instead, it will be fixed within a narrow band against a basket of currencies (PBC statement here). Interestingly, the PBC declined to provide details of this new scheme, including which currencies are in the new basket. A slow move away from being tied to the pathological US economy? What are the implications for the US's ability to maintain enormous trade and budget deficits? Already, this has relaxed the pressure on other Asian economies to keep their currencies low (by buying US dollars and securities). Congressmen may have been raging against "unfair Chinese trading practices", but we may yet get nostalgic for the days when the world financed the US's prolifigate ways.
posted by bumpkin at 6:37 AM PST - 69 comments

Early report of further terrorist incidents in London Looks like a bomb may have failed to go off...
posted by runkelfinker at 5:32 AM PST - 205 comments

The Ashes Starts Today
You can listen live online and get more background here, and in case all you folks in the US are feeling a little left out, here's an interesting article about how, until the late 19th century, you used to play as much cricket as baseball!
posted by johnny novak at 2:16 AM PST - 68 comments

The ESRB changes GTA: San Andreas rating from "M" (Mature) to "AO" (Adults Only). This following a brief media blitz surrounding the "Hot Coffee" mod, a fan-made workaround that allows players to access what amounts to a "dry humping" minigame in the code which was not made directly available in the game. In the PC version, the mod adds nude models. [more inside]
posted by Target Practice at 1:02 AM PST - 112 comments