Education?

[icelore.livejournal.com]

( Read more... )

Never get involved in a land war in southwest Asia.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

In Sweeping Ruling, Supreme Court Shields Privacy of Cellphones

[telemann.livejournal.com]

In a major statement on privacy rights in the digital age, the Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously ruled that the police need warrants to search the cellphones of people they arrest.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the court, said the vast amount of data contained on modern cellphones must be protected from routine inspection.The court heard arguments in April in two cases on the issue, but issued a single decision.

The first case, Riley v. California, No. 13-132, arose from the arrest of David L. Riley, who was pulled over in San Diego in 2009 for having an expired auto registration. The police found loaded guns in his car and, on inspecting Mr. Riley’s smartphone, entries they associated with a street gang. A more comprehensive search of the phone led to information that linked Mr. Riley to a shooting. He was later convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. A California appeals court said neither search had required a warrant.

The second case, United States v. Wurie, No. 13-212, involved a search of the call log of the flip phone of Brima Wurie, who was arrested in 2007 in Boston and charged with gun and drug crimes. The federal appeals court in Boston last year threw out the evidence found on Mr. Wurie’s phone.

News organizations, including The New York Times, filed a brief supporting Mr. Riley and Mr. Wurie in which they argued that cellphone searches can compromise news gathering. The courts have long allowed warrantless searches in connection with arrests, saying they are justified by the need to protect police officers and to prevent the destruction of evidence. The Justice Department, in its Supreme Court briefs, said the old rule should apply to the new devices.

Others say there must be a different standard because of the sheer amount of data on and available through cellphones. “Today, many Americans store their most personal ‘papers’ and ‘effects’ in electronic format on a cellphone, carried on the person,” Judge Norman H. Stahl wrote for a divided three-judge panel in Mr. Wurie’s case, quoting the words of the Fourth Amendment.

More here at the New York Times.

An international showcase of...

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Apparently the U.S. team is still in this thing.

Take the money out of the military budget

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Hazards of Cycling

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I've notice some interest in cycling, and so:



According to a recent report by the League of American Bicyclists, barely one in five drivers who end bicyclists’ lives are charged with a crime. The low prosecution rate isn’t a secret and has inspired many to wonder whether plowing into a cyclist with a car is a low-risk way to commit homicide. …

-- Sully's Dish

variation on a theme:

[drivebyluna.livejournal.com]

And now for some good news.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

There was some good news today, that I think everyone here will agree with, no matter what political stripe. Testing has started on a vaccine for the brain cancer that was responsible for Senators Ted Kennedy and Arlen Specter's death (i.e. Glioblastoma). Other celebrities who died from Glioblastoma include singer Ethel Merman, and composer George Gershwin, movie reviewer Gene Siskel (of Siskel and Ebert fame), and Robert Moog, the inventor of the synthesizer. This horrible disease is responsible for nearly 50 percent of all forms of brain cancer, and has always been fatal.

The first patient in Europe has received the treatment at King's College Hospital in London. Robert Demeger, 62, was diagnosed with the condition earlier this year.The personalised vaccine is designed to teach his body's immune system to fight the tumour cells. King's is one of more than 50 hospitals - the rest are in the US - which are testing the treatment.

More information here.

This follows up a series of wonderful outcomes with a new treatment called targeted cellular therapy, which had yielded some amazing results in new treatments for a variety of cancers including leukemia. This new treatments work by using immune cells from each patient to treat their cancer. New studies have shown promise in cervical and lung cancers, as well as melanoma. Some patients in these studies were literally at death's door, and had dramatic improvement with these treatments. Robert Bazell of NBC News filed a report.