Adult Star Kirsten Price Tests Kinect's Nude Filter - via G4tv.com - Microsoft's new Kinect for XBOX 360 is an incredibly promising bit of technology despite possible privacy concerns (see here and here).  Here's a video!

To Thwart Distracted Driving, US Government Considers Cell Phone Jammers in Cars - via PopSci.com - The Nanny-state is in full swing these days.  Some jack-holes just can't resist yacking on the phone while driving, so let's put a jammer in every car.  Nevermind the fact that this would also inhibit passengers from using a phone and could also stop a driver from calling for help in the event of an emergency.  I can't see this actually happening, but the fact that anyone is even considering it is evidence of a head up an ass.

Distressed Toddler Gets a TSA Pat Down - via RawJustice.com - This whole body scanner/enhanced pat down business is far from over.  Judging from this story and others like it that are pouring in from all over it looks like the bogeyman terrorists have won.  People have gone to jail for touching children like this, but since it's sanctioned by the government I guess it's OK, right?

Quindell Sherman:  Repeatedly Slams Baby Into Cement in Fight With Girlfriend - via TrueCrimeReport.com - No joke...skip this one if you have a weak stomach.

Quindell Sherman is a piece of filth who got in a fight with his girlfriend, then decided to prove what a big man he was by slamming her infant son into the concrete then throwing him 25 feet into the street.  This motherfucker needs to be put down.  Slowly.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of using commercial air travel in the last few years knows what fun it can be.  Here's a helpful tip when you remove your belt buckle to go through the metal detector.  If your pants start to fall down, don't refer to yourself as a "Weapon of Ass Destruction".  This may cause you to experience a secondary inspection, which may include a pat-down and check with a hand-held metal detector, and possibly further delays.  Apparently the TSA requires their employees to have their sense of humour removed.  Fair warning.

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.

Arse-puckering news out of the U.K. recently. Noteworthy articles can be found (here) and (here). In a nutshell, there are plans in the works to allow government and law enforcement entities to collect, catalog, and monitor personal information from various internet services including instant messaging, gaming, and social networking sites. It should come as no surprise that the idea of someone looking over their shoulder the whole time they're online pisses a lot of people off, but this isn't the only reason to worry about this kind of surveillance.

Now I'm not saying that it's not important, but I'm going to try to sidestep the whole George Orwell/1984/Big Brother side of the discussion. Issues of privacy as a fundamental right are absolutely important, but the first thing anyone ever points out is that this kind on monitoring of the public is a slippery slope into an Orwellian dystopia. So for shits and giggles (and a brief thought experiment) let's assume that your government loves you, terrorists really are using Facebook to plot global annihilation, and this proposed project has nothing to do with targeting legitimate political dissent and freedom of speech. Warm and fuzzy? Off we go...