Sociologists and criminologists have a longstanding interest in race and its effects on police behavior. Based on a range of data sources (including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, citizen complaints, local police agency records and social observation), research suggests that police use of force, including the use of rearms, is applied more frequently and more severely to suspects who are young, male, and either Black or Latino (Geller, 1982; DOJ, 2001). Researchers like Terrill and Reisig (2003) have begun to explore how police shootings relate to the neighborhood in which an encounter occurs, and their initial results perfectly match the data reported here: a potentially dangerous and disadvantaged neighborhood may prompt more extreme use of force regardless of the suspect's race.

Clearly, racial cues can and do signal threat. Young Black male targets prompt a defensive orientation. But racial threat perception may be one manifestation of a more comprehensive threat-detection process — a process that monitors the environment for a variety of threats.

Dangerous enough: Moderating racial bias with contextual threat cues [PDF]

“They are very prudish,” said Margaret Donnelly, 28, a bartender at Tattoos and Scars who has lived in Key West for four years and remembers her own student antics “They are so afraid everyone is going to take their picture and put it online. Ten years ago people were doing filthy, filthy things, but it wasn’t posted on Facebook.”

The Volokh Conspiracy » Interesting Example of How the Possibility of Surveillance Interferes With Free Expression

But the way the police have handled the Martin case has been called into question as more details surface.

ABC News has reported that a source inside the police department told them a narcotics detective, not a homicide detective, first approached Zimmerman and peppered him with questions, possibly leading his story.

Another officer reportedly corrected a witness after she told him that she heard the teen cry for help, according to ABC. The officer told the woman that it was Zimmerman who cried for help, not Martin.

Shortly after the shooting, the police told the Martin family that Zimmerman had a clean record, Tracy Martin, Trayvon’s father, told HuffPost.But a public records search shows that he was arrested in 2005 for resisting arrest with violence and battery. The charges were later dropped.

This situation sounds highly questionable.

Trayvon Martin Case Salts Old Wounds And Racial Tension

AUSTIN, Texas--Former U.S. vice president Al Gore and Facebook's founding president Sean Parker argued passionately today that online communities must use the powerful tools at their disposal to save American democracy.

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Gore gave a series of impassioned mini-speeches throughout the panel... He touched on... his belief that a Wiki-democracy site could help lessen special interest groups’ impact on politics;

Al Gore with Sean Parker at SXSW: 'Occupy democracy!' | Geek Gestalt - CNET News

Slideshow: this glass pavilion on the edge of a lake in Ontario, Canada, houses a studio, apartment and boathouse for a photographer and was designed by Toronto Studio gh3.

Dezeen » Blog Archive » Photographer’s Studio over a boat house on Stoney Lake by gh3

Throughout the festival, BBH strategically placing homeless individuals around downtown Austin with cards that explain the Homeless Hotspots program. Should individuals find themselves in a WiFi dead zone, they can contact the person that gave them the card, and the person will find and provide them with a hotspot for the suggested donation for $2 per 15 minutes of service, with all proceeds going to support the Front Steps Shelter.

I can't decide how I feel about this. It seems like something William Gibson would throw into one of his novels in order to make world seem strange.
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These folks obviously signed on to the project, and the cool thing is that their stories are front and center on the website. Hello! That's a great way to raise awareness for and debunk myths about their cause as well as the cause of many other homeless folks around the country. I'd rather see the money going to the homeless than temp goons hired to promote the hell out of so-called disruption. If you consider the alternative, it's a great idea.

BBH Creates ‘Homeless Hotspots’ for SXSWi - AgencySpy

British People are complicated...

The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained - YouTube

The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they see it. But a growing body of research has revealed an unfortunate aspect of the human psyche that would seem to disprove this notion, and imply instead that democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and policies.

Sometimes the problem is with your mathematical model.

People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say - Yahoo! News

Another domino falls...

Ireland passes sopa

But at the end of the day what has happened is that US law (in fact, Maryland state law) as been imposed on a .com domain operating outside the USA, which is the subtext we were very worried about when we commented on SOPA. Even though SOPA is currently in limbo, the reality that US law can now be asserted over all domains registered under .com, .net, org, .biz and maybe .info (Afilias is headquartered in Ireland by operates out of the US).

This is no longer a doom-and-gloom theory by some guy in a tin foil hat. It just happened.

The ramifications of this are no less than chilling and every single organization branded or operating under .com, .net, .org, .biz etc needs to ask themselves about their vulnerability to the whims of US federal and state lawmakers (not exactly known their cluefulness nor even-handedness, especially with regard to matters of the internet).

Verisign seizes .com domain registered via foreign Registrar on behalf of US Authorities. » blog2.easydns.org - Happenings and observations