Obama sees no magic bullet to push down gas prices - via Reuters.com - Well, let's see...It's easy to TALK about energy independence, but where will the money come from?  Oh, I know!  Stop spending HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS fighting multiple wars and invest a bit into infrastructure, education, and research into domestic energy sources.
 
Washington teen fakes pregnancy as school project - via Yahoo! News - Not only is this a great prank, it also must have taken a lot of courage for this girl to voluntarily subject herself to the social stigma that goes along with teen pregnancy, all for a social experiment.  I hope she got an "A" on her project.
 
Why You Should Care About the iPhone Location-Tracking Issue - via Wired Gadget Lab - While this issue is being somewhat blown out of proportion, I still feel it's necessary to call attention to it.  If you use a cell phone at all, you need to be aware that data about your location could be collected.  Whether or not you're interesting enough for anybody to give a shit where you go and when you're there is dabatable, but that doesn't change the fact that this data is immensely valuable.  It boils down to this:  Never assume you are invisible or anonymous.
Now, storing a database with your whole location history in an unencrypted file right on the mobile device AND the computer you connect it to is not only bad data management, it's also a horrible practice from a security standpoint as well.  At a minimum I expect Apple will cover their ass and add an option to opt out of the location tracking, or at least add an option to wipe the data every so often.

 Here's two links on the same story.
Police Pepper Spray 8-Year-Old in Colorado Elementary School - via AOL News
and,
Colorado police pepper-spray misbehaving boy, 8 - via Yahoo! News
When I first heard about this story but before I learned any details, my first reaction was to think this was another case of law enforcement using excessive force.  After hearing the details, I think this was probably one of the safer courses of action the police could have taken.  There easily could have been much more severe injuries to either the boy or the police officers if they had chosen to physically disarm him instead of using pepper spray.  I still think it presents a potentially dangerous precedent and could serve to desensitize the public to this kind of actions in our schools, but in this case it was warranted.
 
Non-Lethal Weapons That Still Hurt Like Hell - via ModernMan.com - Since we're talking about pepper spray, let's take a look at some of the other less-lethal weapons that are available.

Teen suspended for outing porn star school secretary - via thestar.com - Other than refuse to take the site down, which the school should have no jurisdiction over anyway, I don't see what the kid did wrong here.

Student, 20, named Mexico police chief - via News.com.au - I hope I'm wrong, but my crystal ball is telling me that this girl is going to wind up getting herself killed.  The idealism of youth is unfortunately not bulletproof.
 
Man facing 10 year prison sentence for downloading Simpsons porn - via Nerve.com - Child pornography is disgusting and those who produce and distribute it deserve every friend they make in the prison showers.  That said, since the Simpsons is a cartoon then no actual children were victimized or abused in the production of the images in question.  I don't understand how this guy could have been prosecuted on child pornography charges, let alone how his lawyer could have allowed him to enter a guilty plea.
 
Woman stabbed classmate in anger management session - via SeattlePI.com - You know you shouldn't laugh, but you also know you want to.  It might be time to fire the person teaching conflict resolution here.
 
Physicists Discover Universal "Wet-Dog Shake" Rule - via TechnologyReview.com - You can sleep a little easier tonight, one of the greatest scientific mysteries has been solved.  According to this article researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a mathematical model to solve for the ideal frequency of oscillation for a wet dog to shake itself dry.  Who funds this shit?

Creationism lives on in US public schools - via NewScientist.com - Creationism, or "Intelligent Design" as it has more recently been rebranded, has no business being taught in our school systems alongside evolution.  The treatment of creationism as a legitimate scientific theory is an offence to scientific principle.  There is empirical data to back up evolutionary theory.  The collection and interpretation of that data is how the theory was developed in the first place.  There is no such support of "Intelligent Design" anywhere.  What people choose to teach their own children at home is their business, even if it's hocus-pocus nonsense.  In a school system where other people's children are being taught the same things only facts and theories that can be backed up with actual science should be taught.
 
First All-Digital Science Textbook Will Be Free - via Wired.com - This is a fantastic idea that will unfortunately be extremely difficult to get off the ground.  Producing a book of this kind and keeping it up to date will undoubtedly prove to be extremely expensive, so "free" is unlikely to work.  Not to mention the resistance it will encounter from people responsible for choosing textbooks who have been getting kickbacks from publishing companies for years.  I hope this takes off, as it would remove a substantial financial burden from college and university students.  I spent less on the new laptop I bought a couple months ago than I spent on books in one semester when I was in college, and textbook prices don't go anywhere but up.
 
Pilot refuses full-body scan, pat-down - via CNN.com - All of the privacy issues aside, folks...he's a pilot.  If he wants to take over the plane he's already in the cockpit BEHIND A LOCKED FUCKING DOOR!
 
How to opt out of the TSA's naked body scanners at the airport - via NaturalNews.com - This one is not so much a "how to" as it is a description of what happens when you decide not to subject yourself to the backscatter or millimetre wave x-ray machines and go for the "enhanced pat-down" the pilot in the previous article refused.
 
U.A.E. defends no-marks discipline ruling - via CBC.ca - In the United Arab Emirates, they can build the shit out of some skyscrapers, but their human rights policies are fucking stone age.  Considering it's possible to break ribs and cause internal bleeding without ever leaving a visible external mark, the concept of being able to beat your wife or children as long as you don't leave a mark is absurd.
 
Allow Students to Carry Guns on College Campuses? - via AmericanFreePress.net - "Freedom to be safe and secure is a fundamental human right.  If someone threatens to harm or kill you or your loved ones, you have the right to defend yourself.  Carrying a firearm aides in facilitating this self defence." said the guy who lives in Canada, where law abiding citizens can only own handguns for target shooting and it is essentially impossible to get a concealed weapon permit.

New technologeis confuse reality and fiction: Pope - via MontrealGazette.com - I'll admit at first I jumped to the conclusion that this was going to be the Pope railing against science.  I figured what it would boil down to was "reality is whatever the church tells you".  To my surprise this was not the case at all.  In his statement, he cautions that technology can lead to "the risk of indifference towards real life."  It's hard to disagree with that statement.  While we're still many years from virtual reality technology that's passable as actual reality, the concept is sound.  I see it as a form of escapism.  Even today there are people who spend more time playing videogames than doing any of their other daily activities.  Other people get lost for hours on end living vicariously through celebrities and their friends in social media circles.  However, I don't think any of these people are "confused" on the line between real and virtual.  These technologies offer an escape from the monochromatic boredom of everyday life.  Where things will get interesting is when technology is actually able to simulate reality in a convincing way.  Then you'll see people giving up on the real world to retreat into whatever virtual world they like.  What is the Matrix, indeed.

Robots Guarding US Nuclear Stockpile - via SingularityHub.com - Our robot overlords are almost upon us.  This is some pretty cool tech.  Between this and the cool shit Google has been driving around lately, pretty soon I shouldn't have to deal with all you assholes cutting me off.
 
Ars Technica: Banned in Iran! - via (shocker!) ArsTechnica.com - It looks like Iran's government maybe didn't like the reports Ars Technica was publishing on the Stuxnet infection wreaking havoc on Iranian computer networks.  It's scary how a government with the proper infrastructure in place can effectively cut off whatever website or content they want without any notice.

Superhero or supervillain: Which lurks inside you? - via MNN.com - Results from a study asking people if they would do good or evil if they were to one day find themselves with superpowers.  I like to think I would be a benevolent dictator.

A radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years - via TheGlobeAndMail.com - Depressing, but lots of points in this list are probably pretty accurate.
 
How writing by hand makes kids smarter - via TheWeek.com - Makes sense.
 
Couple sell their $6000 home to Apple for $1.7 million - via DailyMail.co.uk - Notice to Apple:  At this kind of mark-up, my house is for sale, too.
 
7 Essential Skills You Didn't Learn in College - via Wired.com - Save some time for this one.  It's a bit long and has lots of links to supplementary information, too.

I found all three of these articles in a span of about five minutes.  News of one shooting is bad enough, but seeing three separate events at almost the same time is just creepy.  What the hell makes people snap and just go start shooting people?
 
Two California students hurt when man opens fire - via CNN.com - This asshole decided to shoot at 6 and 7 year old kids.  Luckily he's not as good a shot as the kid with the pellet gun in the next article.
 
Boy, 12, charged with assault after pair hit with pellet gun - via EdmontonJournal.com - I think this kid and his parents have some issues.  A 12 year old shouldn't even have access to a pellet gun if not supervised.  Considering he scored head shots on both of the old folks in the story they're lucky he didn't have an actual firearm.
 
Cop arrested in 2-state shooting spree - via CNN.com - Typically the anti-gun crowd tries to use these kinds of things as proof that ordinary people shouldn't have access to firearms.  Considering the shooter here was a cop it might not work out in their favour this time around.

Martin Aircraft's commercial jetpack looks to take flight - via DigitalTrends.com - Got $100,000 and nothing to do with it?  Soon you'll be able to buy a fucking jetpack!  It's not exactly the Rocketeer, but it would beat the shit out of sitting in rush hour traffic.
 
Carry-on liquids could return for air travel - via CBC.ca - As someone who flies frequently for work, let me just say that airport "security" is a fucking joke.  Fortunately for me I'm a thirty-something white guy so they tend to leave me alone.  Here's a riddle of sorts...
     Guy (unsuccessfully) tries to blow up plane by lighting shoe-bomb on fire.  Solution - No lighters allowed and every passenger has to take off their shoes for x-ray.
     Guy (also unsuccessfully) tries to blow up plane by bringing "liquid bomb" onto plane.  Solution - No liquid/gels/aerosols allowed.
     Guy (note: UNSUCCESSFULLY) tries to blow up plane with an underwear bomb.  Question - How long until the TSA wants to x-ray my boxer-briefs?  Answer - Some airports already are. 

'Star Wars' saga set for 3D release starting 2012 - via HollwoodReporter.com - No surprise here.  There's new technology available so that means it's time to yet again re-release the Star Wars movies.  Not only is George Lucas going to make a shit-ton of money from all the fanboys who buy the super-mega-deluxe remastered Blu-ray edition, but you'll also get to see Jar-Jar in all his 3D splendor when the movies are released in 3D starting in 2012.  The joke is on George Lucas though, because the world ends in 2012.  Sorry George.
 
Internet disconnection 'like being imprisoned' - via Telegraph.co.uk - OK, I wouldn't exactly say it's like federal "pound me in the ass" prison, but it would make finding porn more complicated.
 

Urban Park Elementary is Academically Acceptable... - via DallasObserver.com - Can you use the word "studant" in a sentence, please?