The Maryland Senate has endorsed a measure that would protect people from lawsuits if they use deadly force to defend themselves at home or work in certain circumstances. Senators voted 45-2 Monday in favor of the bill. The legislation says a person must "reasonably" believe the lethal force is necessary to fend off the attack. It also stipulates that the amount and nature of the force must be "reasonable."

Not quite as good as Alaska's, but it's a step in the right direction ...

A rewritten bill expanding the right to use deadly force in self-defense cleared its first committee Monday. That's over the objection of the Department of Law, which maintains it will encourage unnecessary violence.

A Bank of America employee from Palm Coast noticed the skimmer at the Clyde Morris Branch, located at 1550 South Clyde Morris Blvd.  He notified Bank of America security who dispatched a technician to remove the device which steals, or skims, personal data from bank customers who access the ATM. Police acquired the skimming unit and a cell phone transmitter, each of which was mounted to the ATM.

It's probably a good idea to get in the habit of remembering what your frequently-used ATM sites look like. This will imcrease the likelihood that you will notice when something has been changed ...

How long can the International Space Station really operate – until 2020, or 2028 or beyond? I recently had the chance to talk with Mark Uhran, NASA's Assistant Associate Administrator of the ISS. We were both attending a conference on water sustainability at Kennedy Space Center, but Uhran took the time to talk with me about the state of our space station, NASA's new budget and how that might affect ISS operations, and — speaking of water — how is the urine recycling system working these days?

Most companies don’t encrypt because they have the ‘it-won’t-happen-to-me’ syndrome, seeing it as an extra expense rather than an investment in protecting their assets. Even with the beefed up powers of the Information Commissioner’s Office, which can now impose up to £500,000 fines on companies in breach of the Data Protection Act, most organisations believe that it will never happen to them, pointed out McIntosh.

Interestingly enough, this is why most types of security failures happen ...

Royal Malaysian Navy Scorpene-type submarine Tunku Abdul Rahman has completed its first sea trials off the Malaysian coast, a media report said. The trials confirmed the submarine's capability for underwater service. 'These trials demonstrate that the Royal Malaysian Navy has successfully established the country's first ever submarine force,' Pierre Quinchon, head of DCNS's Submarine division was quoted as saying by Defense World website.

Russian security forces and intelligence agencies, both local and federal, have been waging a brutal campaign against Islamist insurgents in the violent republics of Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan. James Nixey, a Russia expert at the London-based Chatham House thinktank, said: "You have to look at the North Caucasus." He said that did not necessarily mean Chechnya, "where Ramzan Kadyrov, Russia's puppet president and local strongman, has achieved a reasonable level of control and where guerrilla activity has been squeezed out elsewhere to Ingushetia and Dagestan".

Kinda makes you wonder how playin' stink-finger with Iran is gonna to work out for 'em, don't it ...?

A recent survey of people who had committed violent crimes revealed that a majority of them targeted their victims because of the way they portrayed themselves. Each one of them said that body language was the main reason that these victims were targeted. A slumped posture and a lack of awareness of what was around them were the two triggers that decided whether an attack could potentially be successful. If on the other hand the potential victim was alert, self assured and looked as though they would be willing to fight back then there was a good chance that they would be left to go on their way unchallenged.

This is sooo true, and unfortunately, it's all but impossible to fake awareness and willingness to go for it ... you have to develop both faculties ...

Police say that at approximately 5.45 AM, a burglar broke in to a home on the 4200 block of Chapel Road, armed with a gun.  Fearing for his safety, the resident is said to have grabbed his own gun and fired in self defense, striking the intruder in chest.  The burglar, whose name was not released, reportedly died from his wounds.  The homeowner was unharmed.

Get sum ...

The Philippine National Police (PNP) wants the implementation of the total gun ban to become permanent after it noted positive results not only in the campaign against election-related violence incidents (ERVI) but also in criminal activities nationwide.

They always do ...

Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, seems to have a simple job: find the hint of a fact, and abuse it to craft bizarre anti-gun fiction. Such was the case in “The Collapse of the AR-15 Assault Weapon Market,” Sugarmann’s recent Huffington Post article. The article brought guffaws of laughter or outright mockery from gun bloggers, who found the closure of KBI/Charles Daly not to be evidence of a market in decline, but an example of a company with a questionable reputation for quality failing to survive even during a seller’s market.

Police and paramedics were called shortly after 8pm last night after the teenager was set upon by three masked men, all believed to be in their 20s, just off Wilford Bridge, in Melton, near Woodbridge. A police spokesman said all three suspects were masked and one was said to be armed with a knife.

Good thing they have a gun ban ...

Once you have created a volume, you can then mount it on your computer as a normal drive and use it just like you would use your C: or D: . The benefit you get here is just before the data is written to the mounted drive it is encrypted and likewise decrypted when data is read from it. When the drive is unmounted, the volume resides on your computer like a regular data file with some encrypted binary text that no one can understand. The volume container can be treated as a regular file and can be copied on USB or transferred to another computer where it can be mounted to a drive again using TrueCrypt, thereby giving you portability with your secured data.

Government officials said Sunday that the cause of the sinking of the ship Cheonan has yet to be determined. The authorities have played down a North Korean involvement in the incident, but some military officials and experts as well as survivors argue that an outside impact, not an accidental explosion inside, could have caused the deadly incident. The area in which the patrol boat sank has been a hot zone for inter-Korean naval skirmishes for several years. In January, patrol vessels from both Koreas exchanged gunfire, following a similar exchange in November in which a North Korean vessel was severely damaged and a North Korean sailor was killed. The North Korean military threatened to retaliate. Against that backdrop, a torpedo from a North Korean submarine might have hit the Cheonan, some insist.

"CubeSail" is a device which can be fitted to satellites or launch vehicle upper stages that are sent into orbit and then can be deployed to successfully de-orbit equipment that has reached the end of its mission. A 5 x 5 m, 3 kg, deployable sail is being developed to fit in a 10 x 10 x 30 cm nanosatellite and will be used in a demonstration mission to be launched in late 2011 demonstrating passive means of deorbiting for future satellites

Corsair's not one to take such humiliation lightly, however, and has jumped back into the game with the Flash Padlock 2, now backed by 256-bit AES hardware encryption. Better still, the Padlock 2 is now housed in the same rubber casing as the ever-durable Flash Voyager, meaning it's practically begging to withstand much more than its fair share of flagrant abuse. So how did this new contender fare in the hands of a crazed reviewer?

Regrettably, Urbina uncritically accepted all of the "factual" claims in the committee report of the D.C. City Council and ignored hard evidence that "assault weapons" and "large" magazines are in "common use," the standard Heller adopted. As we have detailed in other Alerts, of course, such firearms and their standard magazines holding over 10 rounds are owned by millions of Americans and their numbers are rising rapidly with every week that passes.

Merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc.’s sales force will begin selling the company’s new end-to-end encryption system in the second quarter following testing that began last June, the company says. Heartland also says several terminal manufacturers are integrating the technological protocols of its system, which was developed by Voltage Security Inc., into their own hardware. Heartland already was working on enhancing security but greatly accelerated the effort after announcing a major breach of its processing system for small and medium-sized merchants in early 2009, a breach a federal prosecutor later said compromised 130 million debit and credit cards. The computer hacker who led the attack, Albert Gonzalez of Miami, was sentenced to 20 years in prison March 25 for his role in the TJX Cos. and some other data breaches, and was scheduled to be sentenced March 26 for the Heartland breach.

Computer-security researchers say new "smart" meters that are designed to help deliver electricity more efficiently also have flaws that could let hackers tamper with the power grid in previously impossible ways. At the very least, the vulnerabilities open the door for attackers to jack up strangers' power bills. These flaws also could get hackers a key step closer to exploiting one of the most dangerous capabilities of the new technology, which is the ability to remotely turn someone else's power on and off.

Russia and Vietnam have bright prospects of bilateral military and technical cooperation, he said, as "Vietnam needs a submarine base and the Russian Navy will provide help." Vietnam also invited Russia to take part in the construction of a ship repair plant, which may later service Russian warships, said Serdyukov, who recently paid an official visit to Vietnam and held talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Phung Quang Thanh during the trip.

Tea Party activists derive great pleasure from blasting liberal advocacy groups, but it's much more satisfying to ridicule and harass individuals. Before the health care reform vote we witnessed the sad spectacle of tea party enthusiasts shouting "nigger" at Rep. John Lewis and "faggot" at Rep. Barney Frank. Unfortunately, the epithets have now escalated to death threats and acts of vandalism. If Republican leaders in Congress and Tea Party organizers don't strongly condemn the tea party vigilantes, we may soon see these radicals commit acts of terrorism.

The epithet assertion turned out to be false. I wonder if the threat and vandalism assertions will, also ...

That little lock on your browser window indicating you are communicating securely with your bank or e-mail account may not always mean what you think its means. Normally when a user visits a secure website, such as Bank of America, Gmail, PayPal or eBay, the browser examines the website’s certificate to verify its authenticity. At a recent wiretapping convention, however, security researcher Chris Soghoian discovered that a small company was marketing internet spying boxes to the feds. The boxes were designed to intercept those communications — without breaking the encryption — by using forged security certificates, instead of the real ones that websites use to verify secure connections. To use the appliance, the government would need to acquire a forged certificate from any one of more than 100 trusted Certificate Authorities.

Hmmm ... pre-encrypted messages over SSL connections ... your bank probably won't go for it, though ...

Indian Navy plans to take up aggressive acquisition programmes in aviation including induction of fighter planes and multi-role helicopters for its fleet, its Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma has said. "We are acquiring our ships, aircraft and submarines in accordance with the Navy's current Maritime Capability Perspective Plan. There are presently 40 ships and submarines on order," Verma said.

Unless we really screw the proverbial pooch, these guys are our natural allies ...

After long and complicated negotiations, President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are expected to sign the treaty in two weeks in Prague, Czech Republic, officials in Washington, D.C., and Moscow said.Specifics of the treaty have not yet been released, but the New York Times on Wednesday quoted officials as saying the treaty would require each side to reduce its number of deployed nuclear weapons from 2,200 to 1,600. It also would dictate that each side reduce its arsenal of land- sea- and bomber-based launchers from 1,600 to 800.

Russia doesn't seem to be oriented in the reduction direction. I suspect they are getting political mileage out of disposing of unstable stock. Watch for replacements to be built in secret ...

Now with the release of its latest encrypted USB stick called the Victorinox Secure, the company has set a challenge. If you can access the data on the flash memory in the stick you will win £100,000 (US$149,000). The challenge is going to be very difficult to beat. Victorinox allows a challenger two hours in which to crack the stick, but the protection does not stop at a mere 256-bit encryption system. On the side of the stick is a fingerprint reader which also detects heat and oxygen. So even if you wanted to cheat by cutting off the finger of the owner it wouldn’t guarantee access.

Hmmm ... I hadn't heard that they were players. It looks like they're going for it in a fairly big way, though ...

Firefox experienced a dramatic spike in downloads--at least in Germany--following the discovery that a zero-day exploit in Internet Explorer was leveraged to launch attacks against Google and other companies in China. Germany, followed closely by France, recommended that businesses and users abandon Internet Explorer to ensure they could not be impacted by the zero-day attacks. Now, Firefox finds itself on the other end of that same equation. Germany officially recommended that businesses and users drop Firefox in favor of another Web browser as a defense against the recently discovered security flaw.

Today our lab test results are disclosed to insurance companies before we even know the results. Prescriptions are data-mined by pharmacies, pharmaceutical technology vendors, hospitals and are sold to insurers, drug companies, employers and others willing to pay for the information to use in making decisions about you, your job or your treatments, or for research. Self-insured employers can access employees' entire health records, including medications. And in the past five years, according to the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, more than 45 million electronic health records were either lost, stolen by insiders (hospital or government-agency employees, health IT vendors, etc.), or hacked from outside.

For example, back in high school, the rule was that if two people got into a fight, both people got suspended and a parent-teacher conference was mandatory before the students’ return to school. It seems like the only way to avoid getting suspended was to not fight back, which never really worked.

There is a lot of 'magical thinking' and irresponsibility that go into creating rules like this ...

I forgot that not everyone who manages data even begins to understand the risks. It’s one thing to maintain contact information for members, it is another thing to add photos to it, especially when children are involved. I tried to explain that I was concerned that without any privacy policy in place (not to mention security process) that there was no way to ensure that this data would not spread to anyone who had nefarious intent, either through negligence or simple lack of education. Neither she nor her boss had a clue what I was talking about. I immediately asked her to delete the photo from her camera. In fact I suggested that I was willing to help formulate a security policy to help decrease their exposure.

She could prowl the depths of the oceans without stopping for her entire 25-year lifespan, her sleek curves undetected. She generates her own oxygen and fresh water from the surrounding sea, never has to refuel and never needs to break the surface. Indeed, the only reasons for her to come up after 90 days on patrol are to restock with food and to help preserve the sanity of her crew. Astute is the world's most technologically advanced submarine, and remains a great British achievement despite overspends and delays. It is the stealthiest Royal Navy submarine ever to go to sea and its highly advanced Sonar 2076 system - capable of detecting the QE2 leaving New York all the way from the English Channel - is superior to the U.S. Navy equivalent. It can carry 38 weapons - heavyweight Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles. The latter have a range of 1,000 nautical miles - enough to reach 96 per cent of the planet's populated areas from the sea.

Looks pretty cool, anyway ...

Convinced public schools fall short in educating students on how to protect themselves from strangers, state Sen. Christine Kehoe will introduce legislation to establish self-awareness and self-defense programs in grades 7-12. “It is a step that we can take to make young women and young men more aware of their safety,” the San Diego Democrat said in an interview Monday. The measure comes in the aftermath of the rape and killing of Poway teenager Chelsea King.

It's doubtful that the school district will be able to differentiate between quality MA training and tripe, but encouraging young women (and everyone else) to develop awareness and martial skills is by far the best approach to reducing victimization of all kinds ...

Without specifying who took how much money, the insurance company said in its lawsuit: "Because of the losses perpetrated by Jhirmal Earl Winfield and Sammy Sampson II, National Union issued $831,519 in policy proceeds to Hard Rock Hotel and Casino." Besides the incidents related in the lawsuits and in the criminal cases, "further acts of theft and fraud occurred and were not captured on video but were perpetrated by the defendants in furtherance of their ongoing scheme,'' the suit said. "Defendants fraudulently and illegally absconded with cash during their shift by placing the cash in their clothing (coveralls) to avoid detection," the lawsuit charges. "Defendants were able to perpetrate their scheme to defraud the Hard Rock hotel and casino because they were trusted employees with an intimate knowledge of policy and and procedure."

They must be assuming that the baddies still have chattels or real property worth mounting a legal battle to recover ...

Inching ever closer to taking customers on commercial spaceflights, Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise took off on its first "captive carry" test flight at 7:05 a.m. Monday from the Mojave Air and Spaceport in Mojave, Calif. The spacecraft, which was unveiled on December 7, 2009, took the journey while remaining attached to its mothership, a carrier aircraft called VMS Eve.

Plus some cool pics ...

In January 2007, China conducted the first successful test of its ground-based anti-satellite (ASAT) system, destroying a derelict Chinese weather satellite and producing tens of thousands of pieces of debris that will present a hazard to space navigation for years to come. The Bush administration reacted strongly to the test, as did space-faring nations across the globe, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the European Union. The Chinese Foreign Ministry was caught flat-footed, first denying that the test had occurred and then, nearly two weeks later, issuing a bland statement.

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has completed a successful personnel transfer from the submarine HMAS Waller, while it sat on the seabed off the West Australian coast. The exercise of submarine escape and rescue is a requirement of the RAN’s submarine safety system and demonstrates that the procedures and equipment are in place to rescue personnel in the event of a submarine incident.

Hmmm ... doesn't seem to say what depth the rescue occurred at ...

Three men wearing scarves over their faces descend on an ATM at a HSBC Bank branch. Surveillance video show them hunching over the machine, working diligently. Police responding to the scene find a series of holes had been drilled and a device attached to the ATM to capture the account and PIN numbers of customers who might use the machine.

We need to ensure that we do whatever we can to protect our children, and introducing self-defense into the PE curriculum within our schools is an excellent start. We can only get this done if everyone will pick up the phone and call their school district, send an e-mail, write a letter, go to a PTA meeting, or talk with your child's teacher or principal. This is, potentially, a life-saving class.

Unfortunately, in research presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas earlier this month, this "happy ending" storyline could have a nasty twist. Scientists have found that if a nuclear weapon did blow an asteroid apart, it could reassemble itself in a very short period of time, continuing its path to death and destruction.

Sounds like a job for a one-two punch ...

After a range of top fighter aircraft and other weapon systems, the US has now offered another sophisticated system to India, the Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR), whose capability has been described as "unmatched" by a former US navy official. According to Admiral Walter F Doran, president Asia for Raytheon, Indian officials had already been briefed on "this latest radar, for highly effective 24-hour surveillance and target acquisition capability", India Strategic magazine reported in its latest issue. The system is being operated now by the British Army and Royal Air Force (RAF) in Afghanistan with five ASTOR aircraft and eight ground stations. Admiral Doran is quoted in the magazine as saying that Raytheon, a military technology giant, had also submitted a formal proposal to the Indian government. He declined to give details.

The "Disaster Dozen" Top Twelve Myths of Disaster Preparedness by Paul Purcell, author of "Disaster Prep 101." "Blame is for God and small children." --Dustin Hoffman's character in "Papillon." Hurricane Katrina has given us yet another wake-up call. Do we pay attention now or hit the snooze button again?

It never hurts to reiterate ...

The two men did not meet until one night last July, when Serbeck was patrolling the area in his SUV, looking for whoever was behind the thefts. Campos was in his SUV too, looking for a suspicious car, and nearly collided with Serbeck. Both men were armed. Shots were fired. Now one man is in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the chest down. The other is scheduled to stand trial in July, charged with attempted murder.

Good intentions simply do not ever guarantee good results ...

One of Jupiter's moons, the diminutive 4-kilometre-wide S/2000 J 11, went missing after its discovery in 2000 and could have crashed into Himalia, destroying itself in the process, suggested the team. The possible collision would be the third in a series of recent impacts seen in space. A comet or asteroid slammed into Jupiter last year and a comet-like object discovered in the asteroid belt in January is probably a cloud of debris from a recent collision between two asteroids.

Interesting ...

A sniper may have shot at cars traveling along Route 3 in Kingston and Plymouth Friday night, according to State Police. Five cars were hit by some type of object between 6:30 and 7 p.m. south of Exit 8 in Kingston, a police spokesman said. Two vehicles were struck in the windshield and the others were damaged near the front passenger window.

When the Soviet Union introduced its Alfa-class submarine (picture) - at the time, the world's fastest - the subs were the bane of American sailors. Now, the reactors that powered those submarines are being marketed as the next innovation in green power. Environmentalists say the technology is outdated and potentially dangerous, and marketing it as green energy is an abuse of nuclear power's good green name. The Russians are not alone in pushing the idea that the next generation of nuclear reactors should have more in common with the small power plants on submarines than the sprawling installations of today.

During the robbery the suspect and a security guard got into a scuffle, which resulted in the guard getting shot, according to an Ontario police news release. The guard is expected to survive his injuries and is listed in stable condition, according to the release. Police have not released his name. After the struggle and shooting, the suspect stole the guard's gun from his holster and robbed the business. He escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash.

“Novomoskovsk” was constructed at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvnisk, Arkhangelsk Oblast, and delivered to the fleet in 1990. In August 1991 it became the world's first submarine to successfully launch an all-missile salvo, launching 16 ballistic missiles of total weight of almost 700 tons at an interval of several seconds. In 1996 the submarine conducted the first commercial space launch in the history of the Russian Navy when it launched a carrier rocket with two German scientific micro-satellites while submerged in the Barents Sea.

Chow, one of Asia's most popular box-office draws as the award-winning star and director of such films as Kung Fu Hustle, CJ7, and Shaolin Soccer, will direct Seth Rogen and star opposite him as Kato in Columbia Pictures' the Green Hornet, set for release June 25, 2010, it was announced today by Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach, presidents of Columbia Pictures. the screenplay is by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, who will also executive produce. Neal H. Moritz is the producer through his Original Film production company.

If you're a fan of the genre, Kung Fu Hustle was a tour d' force ...

Rolled Up Magazine Self Defense

This is great on so many levels ...

The suspect points a handgun at an employee at the cash register.  The video then shows the employee fighting off the armed robber.  In the video, the suspect grabs cash from the register and runs out of the restaurant with customers chasing after the robber.

I do soooo love it when they fight back ...

Jamie Lee Sames, 35, was charged Wednesday in Outagamie County with sexual assault of a minor under 16 years old and child enticement. Sames is in the Scott County jail in Shakopee awaiting extradition to Wisconsin. Sames was tracked down in Minnesota after friends and former neighbors of his, now living in Green Bay, told police that they recognized him in store surveillance video that was televised shortly after the alleged attack on March 10.

For the third time in a week an armed citizen has stopped an armed robbery, this time without a shot being fired. Erick Tehoke, who had just gotten his concealed carry license three months ago, was approached by a would-be robber while sitting in his SUV after making a withdrawal from a Columbus ATM. When the robber demanded his money, Tehoke drew his handgun and the robber fled.

One year from today — starting at 12:45 a.m. UTC — MESSENGER will transition from orbiting the Sun to being the first spacecraft ever to orbit the planet Mercury. ”We are finally closing in on the most intense phase of the mission,” says MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. “MESSENGER’s six and a half years of interplanetary flight are a long warm-up for the main event, when we are in orbit about Mercury. The final year of that flight will be a busy time for the team, as we review orbital operation plans for all spacecraft subsystems.”

Secure Sockets Layer or SSL is an Internet communication protocol, or set of rules, that was developed by Netscape for the transmission of private documents.  Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol that guarantees privacy and data integrity between applications communicating over the Internet.  TLS is an extension of SSL, and they are often referred to as either SSL/TLS or TLS/SSL.

Frustrated by the long waits, confusion and seeming contradictions of airport security? The U.S. Travel Association, a nonprofit group that represents the industry, has assembled a Blue Ribbon Panel for Frictionless Security to create a vision for a secure, efficient and customer-friendly air travel security screening process.

Finally ... lets hope they know what they're doing ...

The jail chief says the razor wire fence was designed more to keep people out than to prevent escapes, because the razor wire is on the outside of the fence. At an emergency meeting Wednesday, Osceola County commissioners voted to pay $4 million for new razor wire fencing, security cameras and recording devices at the jail. They also approved random drug testing of jail workers and getting direction from state and federal corrections experts, and Lake County Sheriff Gary Borders, who used to help run the jail.

Hmmm ...

What we haven't yet seen, at least not consistently throughout the open-source world, is how to monetize open source. That question remains constant since 2004. While the survival of open source is no longer in doubt, the survival of some open-source business models very much is. Here's a hint: the best "open-source companies" don't sell open source at all. From Google to Red Hat to Facebook to Oracle, such companies sell value around open source. That's the winning model. The trick is to figure out how to apply that principle to a particular business.

A surprise attack by the non-ceasefire Shan State Army (SSA) South in 13 March in Shan State South put to rout a 42-strong Burma Army patrol leaving 20 dead on the battlefield, according to the SSA website www.taifreedom.com. The ambush took place near Jawng Khan Village, Hai Hpak tract, Namzang township, 73 miles east of the Shan State capital Taunggyi.

However, Microsoft cautioned that despite the success of the campaign, the computers were still infected with malware despite being cut off. Indeed, Williams claimed that roughly half of the computers “once under the control of Waledac are still trying to send spam – and are in fact doing so at higher levels today than they were in our December analysis”. Microsoft argued this was due to computers being infected with other malware which “may still be directing them [the zombie computers] to conduct attacks outside of Waledac’s control structure”.

For more than ten years, this planet has fallen in scientific neglect, in the sense that new missions to investigate it have been placed on hold. But JAXA is about to break the cycle with the May 18 launch of its Venus Climate Orbiter spacecraft, which is being shipped this week to the Tanegashima Space Center. According to mission scientists for Akatsuki, one of the primary objectives for the new mission is to determine precisely what drives the atmosphere of our scorching-hot neighbor to rotate around Venus at speeds of up to 60 times higher than that of the planet's rotation.

Residing 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Serpens Cauda, COROT 9 b has about the same diameter as Jupiter and is about 85 percent as massive. It keeps a much greater distance from its host star than the other transiting planets discovered to date, almost all of which reside in scalding hot orbits less than 10 million kilometers from their stars. The newfound world circles its star at about 60 million kilometers, leaving it with a relatively mild temperature that Deeg's group estimates to be between minus 20 degrees Celsius and 150 degrees C, depending on its atmospheric makeup. For comparison, many exoplanets are so close to their stars that their temperatures exceed 1,000 degrees C. The plentiful population of massive exoplanets in star-nuzzling orbits has been dubbed the "hot Jupiters"; COROT 9 b might be called a warm Jupiter—or even a cool one, if its true temperature turns out to be at the lower end of the estimated range.

Russia has confirmed its readiness to transfer its Nerpa nuclear-powered attack submarine for a 10 year-lease to India, The Times of India reported on Wednesday citing defense ministry sources.

The cost of putting a cable under water can be lower than burying cables on land, because workers can lay the cables from giant reels, allowing stretches of more than a mile with no splices. The strategy is limited, of course, by the availability of rivers and lakes — they do not go everywhere power developers would like to run new lines. In fact, many of the country’s rivers run north or south, whereas much of the country’s power must move east or west. And underwater lines are still more expensive than lines on transmission towers. Mr. Stern’s 65-mile cable cost about $600 million, and a 53-mile cable under San Francisco Bay cost about $505 million. Much of the cost in each case is to transform the electricity to direct current, a form that is easier to use in buried cables. Standard lines hung on towers run from $1 million to $4 million a mile, depending on terrain and other factors. If more underwater lines are built, the higher costs would have a small impact on electric bills.

Interesting ... I wonder how difficult and expensive it is to repair a break ...

That’s when the connexion between the stories struck me. Why don’t we stop relying on low-paid staff at stations to provide visible security, and instead have open-carry firearms laws

The short answer is that your country doesn't have constitution that clearly states that you have the right to carry guns, that your government doesn't care about your security and that your government is afraid of you if you are armed but that isn't afraid of low-paid staff ...

At Ben Gurion Airport you can take a coffee on board. According to Sela, airport security personnel don’t care what you take on the plane. “The security in Israel checks you as a passenger, and not the luggage. If you are cleared as a person then who cares what you bring on the plane with you?” Here’s a list of Israel’s top 10 technologies to keep our airports safe.

It's important to understand that Israel is a comparatively small country, has a comparatively homogeneous core population and has their security functions performed by loyal members of that core population. This approach could work in Utah if Utah were a separate country. In this particular melting pot , the U.S.A., where everyone is considered equal regardless of what population you come from, eliminating the means to interfere with a flight is more effective than trying to know everyone and predict who among equals should be excluded from flying ...

Reports indicate the perpetrators gained entry to the warehouse by disabling the phone lines, cutting a hole in the roof and rappelling down inside to gain access to the telecommunications room, where they disabled the alarm and access control systems. The thieves made off with around 70 pallets of product, according to an alert from the Pharmaceutical Cargo Security Consortium, which notes the modus operandi of the raid "is consistent with a similar pharma warehouse burglary that occurred in 2009 in Richmond, Virginia."

Sounds like they bought someone on the inside. 70 pallets is 'a few trailer loads' ... my guess (based solely on impressions from the story) is that the hole in the roof is a diversionary tactic ...

Several members of the audience expressed their displeasure with the board and believed the proposed weapons ordinance would impede their ability to protect themselves and their families. "First of all, I'm the young lady that created this mess," said Amanda Strauser, "and I am sorry that I abided by the law. Had I known that it was going to create this much tension between officers, fellow citizens and the board, I think I would have just chosen to leave my weapon in the vehicle and take the chance of someone attacking me." Strauser entered a local business with a loaded handgun, which brought about the request for the proposed ordinance in the February board meeting. She stated that she had not broken any laws. "I am sorry if me displaying a firearm to keep from breaking a CCW law concerns someone. I believe the concerns should have been addressed, but they were not addressed appropriately." Strauser stated she had the handgun on her because her life was threatened by a local man. She said he had not broken the law yet, but if she "waited around" he would attack her.

The belief that limiting the presence of weapons with ordinances will improve anyone's security is 'magical' thinking. On the other hand, eliminating those ordinances via boycotts and 'vote the bums out' campaigns seems to be more and more effective these days ...

Police in five jurisdictions spent lots of time and effort helping us understand the facts and theories about the case, opening up in unprecedented ways. Detectives showed us some of the crime scenes, toting their years-old reports and photographs to help us see what had happened. We truly appreciated that. We grew to understand their frustration as they chase a man who has been so elusive. Rapes of strangers are rare, and police usually have few clues to follow when victims are picked at random.

Every child should get an hour of martial arts training a day in K-12 ...

"A floating-out ceremony for Russia's new Severodvinsk nuclear submarine at the Sevmash shipyard has been scheduled for May 7," a shipyard official told RIA Novosti. The Graney-classattack submarine has the capability to fire different types of nuclear-tipped cruise missiles that can travel as far as 3,100 miles. It is designed for combat against naval ships, other submarines and targets located on land. Its weapons supply includes 24 cruise missiles, along with mines and antiship missiles.

After a year of haggling, India has agreed to pay France an additional $413 million for the construction of six Scorpene class diesel-electric submarines. The original deal was signed five years ago, but then problems developed. The first Scorpene was supposed to enter service by 2012, at a cost of about $500 million. But political and management problems have delayed that date by two years, and raised the price per boat by over $100 million. The French have raised the prices for some key components, and India has had some problems in getting production going on their end. The first Scorpene was to be built in France, with the other five built in India.

You're looking at exclusive surveillance footage. Minutes after allegedly robbing a Raley’s, 51-year-old Robert Flucker enters a liquor mart down the street. Only this time, he didn’t get away. “He covered his mouth with red jacket, he move other hand he tried to cover [his face], and I told my boss he don't have no weapon.” That's when Singh decided to do something drastic. He gave Flucker the money he demanded, and then immediately chased him with a baseball bat. It turns out the suspect was armed. Singh received a couple stab wounds, but he says it was nothing compared to what happened to the alleged robber.

Gotta love it ...

I just finished reading a response that has gone out via e-mail from Sheriff Jim Alderden regarding his position about the recent gun ban at CSU. In case you haven't read it, he says the following; "I have told the CSU police chief I will not support this in any way. If anyone with one of my permits gets arrested for concealed carry at CSU, I will refuse to book that person into my jail. Furthermore, I will show up at court and testify on that person's behalf, and I will do whatever I can to discourage a conviction. I will not be a party to this very poor decision." "It's a weapons-free zone for law-abiding people, and it won't do a single thing to keep armed criminals off of campus. It will only ensure them a lot of defenseless victims. The people who did this are lost in their own world of ideological liberalism. You would think people involved in academia would want to deal in data and experience, but this has been all about emotion."

Wow, that's pretty strong ... make sure you remember to vote for this guy next time around ...

Baca, 67, has ordered his sergeants, lieutenants, captains, commanders, chiefs and assistant sheriffs to also cover shifts that would otherwise be handled by deputies on overtime. The Sheriff's Department will save $58 million by the middle of 2011 due to a "zero tolerance'' for overtime, according to spokesman Steve Whitmore.

Probably a good idea for several reasons ...

FIRE CREWS were pelted with missles as they tackled blazes in Coventry. Firefighters from Foleshill station were called to a grassed area off Eburne Road, Wood End, at about 5.45pm tn Saturday. But as the crews dealt with flames from a small fire, a gang of youths – aged between 14 and 16 – began hurling missles at them. The yobs also continued to light similar grass fires in the area.

We’ll never be able to predict the exact patch details for any month, but security teams can use these data points to help with planning. We all know that resources are short, but the risks and threats continue to grow, so better utilization of resources has never been more important. There are no shortage of vendor patches. Luckily, Microsoft not only releases their patches on a predefined schedule, they are also fairly predictable in size. Since March was a pretty light Patch Tuesday, we can expect that the bulletin count for April will jump back up into double digits. If you are the resource manager for a team of people in charge of your company’s patching methodology, just knowing that can help you plan. This month is your chance to catch up from January. Thinking ahead to April, it makes sense to anticipate a large release from Microsoft so plan to have all hands on deck.

It's probably worth remembering that between the time the patch becomes available and the time you install it, the lazier hackers are reverse engineering the vulnerabilities that are addressed in the patch and exploiting those who are slow to implement the patch ...

Your Getting Around reporter experienced the screening process on Friday at checkpoint No. 1 in the United Airlines terminal. Although some travelers may never accept the idea of an X-ray peeking underneath their clothes in exchange for the ability to travel, my impression was that the process is free of embarrassment. After closely observing privacy protections to ensure the anonymity of the image and the person who is screened — and given the alternative of being frisked by a TSA officer wearing latex gloves — I'll go with the touch-less scan every time.

I can understand the body shyness, but this is one of the few programs that are actually going to be effective ...

The man accused of brutally beating a nurse in a Midtown bathroom because she wouldn't dance with him is reportedly claiming self defense. Mbarek Lafrem, a construction worker, was arraigned yesterday on charges of attempted murder, attempted rape and assault. Police say the Lafrem attacked a 29-year-old pediatric nurse from Connecticut in a women's bathroom at the Midtown bar Social, leaving the woman hospitalized with a broken nose, broken jaw and fractures to her eye socket and skull. Doctors performed reconstructive surgery on her this week. Court papers say Lafrem told police the woman pushed him first.

Gee whiz ...

All over Northeast Wisconsin, police are on the alert for a man they say claimed to be an Appleton police officer and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl outside the Fox River Mall. Police are hoping someone recognizes him from the surveillance video. It's video Grand Chute police want everyone to see. Investigators say it shows their suspect, a well-dressed white man believed to be in his 30s, following two girls out of the Target store at Fox River Mall.

Hmmm ... not sure what to make of this blog ...

Philippine watch

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) An incumbent mayor of Albay province was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 early Monday morning for violating the election gun ban, a police spokesman said. Malinao, Albay Mayor Avelino Ceriola was about to board Philippine Airlines flight PR 277 en route to Legaspi City at 6:30 a.m. when he was arrested by members of the Aviation Security Group, said Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina.

My sense is that this is what the whole Comelec Gun Ban is actually about. Rounding up those who aren't on the right team ...

The current attempt to explain the mysterious ribbon is a theory that it's a reflection of solar wind particles being reflected back into the solar system by a galactic magnetic field. They've whipped up a mathematical model that, made to order, predicts a boomerang shaped barrier much like the one that is baffling astronomers. Not everyone agrees with the theory, however, and we can probably expect much wrangling, arguing, and forehead-smiting for a long time to come.

It's always fun to see the scientists all in a lather ...

Emergency services in Portland were inundated with calls when Wessex Water officials used a hailer to inform residents of a cut to services. Meanwhile, leaflets had been delivered advising people what to do during a radiation emergency at the nearby port. One 78-year-old resident said the loud hailer left her "frightened to death".

Sounds like a good time for some serious head-rolling ...

The Chinese security forces have launched a "strike hard campaign" ahead of the second anniversary of riots and protests in Tibet against Chinese rule. Special police detachments are stationed across the regional capital, Lhasa. Press reports say they have seized guns, ammunition and knives. Police are also checking identity papers and searching homes.

That should improve security ...

Police say that just before 5 AM, an intruder entered a married couple's home, which is in a retirement community on the 7200 block of Lillian Court, awakening the wife.  She reportedly went to investigate the noise, and found a male intruder in the hallway, prompting her to wake up her husband and inform him of the situation.  The husband grabbed his 9mm handgun and shot the intruder in the hip area, after the intruder advanced on him, according to news reports.  The intruder fled the home, and a suspect that was armed with a knife and suffering from a gunshot wound was found hiding in the bushes next door, according to police.  A suspected accomplice was also apprehended in a nearby vehicle, police say.  The homeowners were unharmed.

Conone told police he would put his keys between his fingers and strike the children when their parents weren't looking. He said he'd been doing it since January because he liked the excitement of getting away with it. His public defender said in court that Conone has mental-health issues.

Hmmm ... could be ....

When a former Jersey Journal security guard’s credit card was pinched at a Downtown Jersey City restaurant and a $650 bill was racked up, he quickly got security video from places where it was used and his work led to the arrest of the restaurant bouncer, officials said. “I wanted him to pay for the crime,” said DMS Security Officer Roberto Guach, 37, yesterday of the arrest of Pedro Alicea, 41, of Baldwin Avenue, who police say was arrested yesterday on charges of theft, wrongful impersonation and fraudulent use of a credit card. “It feels great.” The case began on Feb. 21 at Azucar Restaurant on Washington Boulevard, where Guach and his wife celebrated their anniversary and Alicea was working as a bouncer.

I wonder how he got them to give up the video ...

Judging by its trajectory, there's an 86 percent chance the star will punch through the Oort Cloud (thought to be located about 50,000 AU -- or nearly a light-year -- from the sun). This may sound like a flesh wound, a near miss in cosmological distances, but any gravitational interaction with the huge chunks of cometary nuclei in the outermost extent of the solar system is bad news. It is hypothesized that close encounters of the stellar kind have kicked OCOs out of the Oort Cloud in the past, creating some of the long period comets we see today, such as comet Hale Bopp. It is also thought that such encounters could periodically cause mass extinction events on Earth through comet impacts. Although the star -- currently located 63 light years from Earth and approximately half the mass of our sun -- has been known to be heading for us for some time, this is the first time such a high probability for a close encounter has been calculated.

Hmmm ... should be a cool light show ... before we die ...

A nuclear saltwater rocket is a concept for an advanced spacecraft propulsion system, proposed by Doctor Robert Zubrin. It uses water as propellant and uranium tetrabromide (a water-soluble salt) as fuel. The uranium used is enriched, between 20% and 90% 235U. This enriched uranium salt is dissolved in the water and stored in neutron-attenuating boron tubes to keep the fuel storage below critical mass. The rocket works by injecting the fissile saltwater into a reaction plenum, creating a critical mass, which leads to a runaway nuclear reaction that heats the water, flashing it to steam and accelerating it to thousands of meters per second. A conservative configuration using 20% 235U and managing to fission 0.1% of the fissionable fuel would yield an exhaust velocity of 69 kilometers per second, according to figures posited by Zubrin. This yields a specific impulse of around 7000 seconds, making the engine 15.5 times more efficient* than the Space Shuttle's main engines, which are in turn just about the most efficient chemical rockets possible. A ship equipped with this sort of engine, having a mass ratio of 5, which is far less than any modern spacecraft, would have enough delta-v to take off from Earth, do a Hohmann transfer to Pluto and back twice, then land on Earth again. Impressive, no?

The institute found that although fewer business managers reported a laptop loss or theft (65 percent) and data breaches as a consequence (25 percent), just 18 percent of business managers said that their organisation was able to prove that the contents of the laptop were encrypted. This is compared to 45 percent of IT workers.

Electric Boat, best known for its expertise in developing nuclear-powered submarines, may help design the next generation of nuclear plants to produce electricity. The Groton-based General Dynamics division has a tentative agreement with San Diego-based General Atomics, leading one of the two teams that have been awarded $40 million by the U.S. Department of Energy to design and plan for new nuclear plants. "This is a relatively small effort that could involve a limited number of EB engineers and designers through this summer, whose task it would be to ensure that any design is producible and affordable," EB spokesman Robert A. Hamilton said.

The mother of two, who has seven grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren, only has one request for police. If they catch the guy, she wants to "smack him."

Gotta love it ...

Philippine watch

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said today that 15 soldiers — not 11 as initially reported in the media — died in the firefight between government troops and New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas in Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro, on March 6.

Heaven forfend we should get the score wrong ...

Named for NASA's second administrator, who led the agency during the development of the Apollo program, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will dwarf its predecessor by most measures. (The project is a collaboration among NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies.) Nearly twice as long as Hubble, and boasting a light-collecting mirror several times larger, JWST will also venture farther afield than its elder counterpart. Whereas Hubble circles Earth at an altitude of less than 600 kilometers, JWST will set up shop 1.5 million kilometers away, well beyond the orbit of the moon.

Every business owner in the country knows about HIPAA and HIPAA Encryption Compliance. A law introduced in the 1990’s and updated in 2003 to cover the use and protection of protected medical information or PHI. Although the legislation has been around for a while, a 2006 survey of healthcare providers found only half were completely compliant with the requirements of HIPAA.

The next generation of Ford SYNC, a built-in vehicle comms and entertainment system developed by Ford and Microsoft, will come with secure WiFi access and a built-in browser running on top of a Windows CE operating system. The technology is due to due in the 2011 Ford Edge and 2011 MKX Lincoln later this year and adds extra capabilities to existing SYNC technology, which allows Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones and media players to link into in-car systems. The wireless tech has allowed devices to be operated by either voice commands or in-car controls since it was introduced in 2008.

The flash drive protects data with 256-bit AES hardware encryption and offers remote management of the drive. The Elite limits the number of password attempts, has master password support, and can be IP or domain restricted. The drive has a tamper resistant design and integrated anti-virus and malware protection. Pricing and availability are unannounced.

I'm pleased to see that numerous companies are trying their hand at storage encryption ...

Wireless broadband users would be wise to encrypt their connections to reduce the risk of becoming victims of crime, an expert has suggested. The UK Cards Association recently revealed that the amount of money lost as a result of online banking fraud rose by 14 per cent last year compared to 2008. That's a whopping £59.7 million in total.

NEW DELHI: Will somebody in the government wake up? Navy is going blue in the face about its fast-depleting submarine fleet but the government is yet to show any semblance of decisiveness to bolster the country's underwater combat arm.

Naval Submarine Base New London (SUBASE) recently completed its scheduled comprehensive, maintenance dredging project, 11 days ahead of schedule and more than two million dollars under budget. The project entailed removing more than 97,000 cubic yards of Thames River sediment from the areas around each of SUBASE's piers and quay walls. Performed by Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, the effort brought down the berthing depth of the piers at SUBASE to the original design depth of 36 feet, plus two feet over-dredge.

Ahead of schedule and under budget ... what went wrong ...?

The highest court in Massachusetts on Wednesday upheld the constitutionality of a state law that requires gun owners to lock weapons in their homes in a ruling applauded by gun-control advocates. The case had been closely watched by both gun-control and gun-rights proponents. Massachusetts prosecutors argued that the law saves lives because it requires guns to be kept in a locked container or equipped with a trigger lock when not under the owner's control. The Second Amendment Foundation Inc., however, cited a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said people have a constitutional right to keep weapons for self-defense.

Sounds like they may need to get the anti-incumbent ground-swell going ...

Governor Bill Richardson has signed into law NRA-backed legislation, SB 40, allowing right-to-carry permit holders the right to protect themselves in restaurants licensed to serve beer and wine unless the establishments are posted off-limits by the property owner or manager. Governor Richardson signed the original right-to-carry law in 2003. He played a key role in this effort to improve self-defense laws in New Mexico by allowing it to be considered during the 30-day budget session.

Nevada is the first state to incorporate the entire PCI Standard into law. The PCI Standard is an industry standard contractually imposed by the payment card networks on merchants and service providers that store, process or transmit cardholder data. In essence, the Nevada legislature has ceded its legislative authority to a group of private companies whose interests and concerns in creating and updating the standard may not be aligned with the goals of the Law. It has given PCI the weight of law, backed by attorney general enforcement and potential statutory liability, despite the fact that PCI is typically imposed in a negotiated contractual setting.

Interesting ...

The UK also came second only to the US in the bad stakes where a lost or stolen laptop resulted in a data breach, according to the Human Factor in Laptop Encryption study from Absolute Software Corporation and the Ponemon Institute. Almost two-thirds (61 per cent) of UK IT managers admitted stolen devices had led to a data breach, compared to 72 per cent of Americans.

When you're number two you try harder ...

Under the terms of the settlement, LifeLock will be barred from making deceptive claims and will be prohibited from misrepresenting its services. The terms also put limitations on the company's ability to state the risks of identity theft and will require LifeLock to establish a new data security program that will be subject to third-party assessments for the next 20 years. "This agreement effectively prevents LifeLock from misrepresenting that its services offer absolute prevention against identity theft because there is unfortunately no foolproof way to avoid ID theft," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in a statement. 

Interesting ...

An FBI agent said surveillance video still images showing a man robbing the Bank of the West on Monday in Kings Beach resemble those of recent robberies in South Lake Tahoe and Grass Valley. Special Agent Steve Dupre of the Sacramento FBI branch confirmed Tuesday afternoon the FBI had taken over the case, although he did not reveal additional details about the incident or the man, initially described by local authorities as a 6-foot, 2-inch white male and donning a fake beard during the robbery.

Even for criminals, invisibility is cheaper than invincibility ... it's amazing how few perps go to the minimal effort of wearing a disguise ...

As a field of legal scholarship, information privacy has come of age, and thanks to the great work being done in this field, we understand better than ever the threats to privacy we face online and in the real world. Despite all of this good work, we have not yet fully accounted for a new category of threats to privacy: those that bridge our online and offline lives. I am beginning to conclude that when it comes to these "bridging" threats, the sum is often much more than the parts.

What if the 'Christmas Day' bomber's explosive device had been successfully detonated on the now-infamous December flight to Detroit? The explosion of the 'underwear bomb' carried aboard flight 253 by would-be suicide bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was simulated recently on a decommissioned Boeing 747.

Kaspersky Pure, as the company has named it, looks like an 'expert user' product that offers the simple convenience of a wide range of security-related tools in one integrated suite. The core of the product is identical in its antivirus and antispam capabilities to the company's Anti-Virus and Internet Security products, but it is the added 'do everything' extras that mark it out as different.

By fluctuating the voltage to the CPU such that it generated a single hardware error per clock cycle, they found that they could cause the server to flip single bits of the private key at a time, allowing them to slowly piece together the password. With a small cluster of 81 Pentium 4 chips and 104 hours of processing time, they were able to successfully hack 1024-bit encryption in OpenSSL on a SPARC-based system, without damaging the computer, leaving a single trace or ending human life as we know it.

Clever ...

This event is a tragedy because of life changing wounds that Brown's victims have received, but it is also a tragedy because these victims were denied any opportunity to defend themselves simply due to working on the university campus. Since the beginning of lawful concealed carry in Ohio, an imaginary line has surrounded campuses, restaurants and other common locations that deprive Ohio citizens of the ability to defend themselves. Many in the shrill anti-gun community have claimed for years that "blood will run in the streets" if individuals are given the opportunity to lawfully defend themselves - but that just hasn't happened. In every state that CCW has been legalized, violent and property crime of all types has dropped significantly. Concealed handgun licensees are among the safest, lowest crime groups in the state year after year - even lower than law enforcement officers who are the only ones the anti's claim should have access to firearms.

Police pulled the car over and found three men inside with a “rifle-style” BB gun and a video camera, which investigators later discovered had recorded the shooting. The three men, Shafiq Hashemi, 21, Sayed Bassam, 21, and the driver, Mohammad Habibzada, 24, were arrested and according San Francisco Police, all allegedly admitted to the crime. Prosecutors have charged all three men with assault with a deadly weapon, hate crimes and attempted mayhem, a charge relating to the possibility of a disabling or disfiguring injury. All remain out of custody after posting $50,000 bail.

I need one of those 'deadly' BB guns ...

The world's most advanced rescue submarine, commissioned by the Chinese Navy, is undergoing trials at an underwater centre in Fort William. Capable of operating in depths of more than 300 metres, its size means it can rescue up to 18 people at once. The trials are taking place in Loch Linnhe, where water depths are up to 150 metres.

Some cool pics, too ...

Also, some cool Russian sub pics ...

A drug-addled man caught on surveillance video savagely beating a woman into a coma was sentenced to six years in prison Monday. Luc Valmore Joseph Pilon, 46, was sentenced after pleading guilty to aggravated assault, admitting he pummelled Elaine Bruneau and tried to pull her lower jaw from her face in the lobby of a Donald Street apartment building at about 2:15 a.m. on April 6 after he believed she had stolen $200 worth of crack cocaine from him.

Such a heart-warming story ...

It is not uncommon for patrol officers to utilize a personal shield during dangerous procedures such as: high risk vehicle stops, approaching emotionally disturbed individuals, and building search and clearing operations. Determining what missions/situations would benefit from patrol use of a personal shield need to be established before the style of shield is selected for purchase. An example of an offensive/aggressive personal shield protected mission would be patrol response to an active shooter, with the intent to approach and neutralize the threat. Unlimited visibility, mobility, and the ability to accurately apply firepower from an appropriate handgun or long gun are required for active shooter neutralization.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Gruber, urging the court to accept the plea, said Sommer had proved himself "a very dangerous person who needs to be locked up for a very long time." The additional two decades in prison are all because "he wanted to be known in the system as a big shot, someone not to be messed with," Gruber said.

I imagine that at that age and at the beginning of a couple decade stretch there isn't much perceivable difference between two decades and four decades ...

Last October, at Harvard University, I was awarded the Ig Nobel prize for public health for inventing the Emergency Bra, an item of lingerie that, in case of an emergency, can be quickly transformed into two protective respiratory face masks. Don't get too excited, boys: this can be done without removing any clothes. My Ig Nobel nomination came as a pleasant surprise. And I recognised that this competitive prize for "scientific achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think" is hugely popular and a great opportunity to deliver a message on emergency preparedness to the public.

Unless the goal here is to maintain the untenable status quo, an Army general is the wrong choice to lead the TSA. No, what we need in this position is an Army sergeant. Having served in the First Cavalry Division, I've seen both generals and sergeants in action, up close and personal. While both have their strengths, nobody gets *stuff* done like a noncommissioned officer in the United States Army.

Too right ...

Within the context of the existing China-U.S. trade relationship, there are three areas that are attracting the most attention from Chinese regulatory authorities: anti-dumping, China Compulsory Certificates (CCC) and additional import license requirements for encryption products.

An article in Grist, "Smart meters save energy, water, and dollars," describes a pilot program in which smart water meters take hourly readings and participants can check each other's consumption on a social networking site. Then the author adds, "Nothing like a little peer pressure to get you to turn off the tap." Yes, imagine your nosy neighbor seeing the spike in your water usage chart whenever you water your plants, make ice cubes, or flush your commode when you get up to pee at two AM every night.

So, what are the five questions you should ask yourself if your company's laptops get lost or stolen?

Obama plans to nominate Robert A. Harding, a retired major general with 33 years in the Army, to become the TSA administrator, sources said. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will announce the nomination Monday with Harding by her side, according to one administration official.

NATO said in a statement Sunday that the alliance had called off its support for the 2,500-strong Kosovo Security Force following "the appearance of an armed, military-style KSF honor guard" at an event.NATO forces say they are indefinitely suspending the training of Kosovo's security force for breaching its mandate.

Hmmm ...

Detectives have charged, Justin Smith, a security guard at Club VIP with second degree murder. He told detectives he fired "at least 12 shots" into Douglass Smith's car because he thought smith was trying to run him over. But surveillance video from, The Ponderosa Club, next door showed that wasn't true. A police affidavit says detectives reviewed the video and found Smith's car never swerved towards the security guard to place him in fear of his life.

Doing it on the job doesn't mean you won't end up doing time for it ...

In its place, the President wants to incubate "game changing" technology that would allow astronauts to land on Mars at some unspecified point in the future. More radically, it calls for transferring a large portion of the research and development for new rockets to private businesses, including Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to service space stations in low-earth orbit. Not many members of Congress are happy about the change, especially the small, but devoted space-geek subset of Congress that considers NASA and space exploration its marquee issue. For this group, of which Wu is a charter member, an intense exploration of space brings technological advances and innovation that benefit everything from health care to auto design to helping stabilize Social Security.

Orbital Sciences announced last week it was purchasing the satellite manufacturing unit of General Dynamics. Orbital is paying $55 million in cash, and officials expect to close the deal by early April, according to Garrett Pierce, Orbital vice chairman and chief financial officer. Orbital leaders said the acquisition will add about $50 million in revenue this year, plus up to $100 million to the company's bottom line in 2011.

Will unmanned robotic missions be able to detect weird microscopic life-forms they are not programmed to recognize that might be lurking below the surface of Saturn’s Titan, or beneath the murky seas of Jupiter’s jumbo moon, Europa? The answer to this question is at the core of one of the greatest of the ongoing debates in space exploration: the question of man vs. unmanned robotic missions.NASA currently operates more than 50 robotic spacecraft that are studying Earth and reaching throughout the solar system, from Mercury to Pluto and beyond. Another 40 unmanned NASA missions are in development, and space agencies in Europe, Russia, Japan, India and China are running or building their own robotic craft.

In the massive expanse of water known as the Arabian Sea, a Canadian navy frigate from Halifax is on patrol. Part of an international coalition working in the waters off the coasts of Yemen and Somalia, HMCS Fredericton is patrolling near the Gulf of Aden and the Gulf of Oman on a counter-terrorism and security mission. The frigate has joined Combined Task Force 150, a coalition of navies that includes the United States, Britain, Pakistan, Portugal and others, and which is currently under the command of the Royal Australian Navy.

The cyber criminals operate by hacking into the company's computer systems and then creating chaos by encrypting their data. They follow up with demands for money for the information on codes required to release the information blocked by the encryption. In one case, a company reported that the hackers had issued a demand for $700.

The attempted robbery happened at a Wells Fargo Bank, near Thomas and Central, back on February 26th. Detectives say a Native American man, in his 40's or 50's, walked up to a teller and demanded money. The suspect even threatened employees, telling them to not do anything stupid. During the robbery, one of the bank tellers was able to hit the silent alarm and alert police. The suspect then fled the bank without any money. Surveillance video was able to capture a picture of the suspect. He's about 5'10" to 5'11", weighing over 200 pounds.

That's either a really, really good disguise, or a really, really bad disguise. I guess we'll know shortly which it is ...

Retail companies are indeed free to ask customers not to pack on their premises. Starbucks, however, decided to maintain the policy it has always had – not to bar weapons in shops located in communities where so-called "open carry" laws are on the books. Consistent? Yes. Popular? Not with gun-control groups, notably the nationwide Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, whose members are as angry as scorpions in a cookie jar. Last week, protesters from both sides descended on Starbucks shops in the chain's home town of Seattle, and in other cities. That the company finds itself at the centre of the wider national gun-ownership debate is not making it happy. "Advocacy groups from both sides of this issue have chosen to use Starbucks as a way to draw attention to their positions," it said in a statement. "As the public debate continues, we are asking all interested parties to refrain from putting Starbucks or our partners [employees] into the middle of this divisive issue ... The political, policy and legal debates around these issues belong in the legislatures and courts, not in our stores."

I suddenly find that I can afford over-priced coffee, again ...

Forever Armed: A Combative Guide To The Use Of Improvised Weapons

Interesting video ...

Philippine watch

A platoon of government troops was responding to a report of communist election extortion when waylaid by New People’s Army rebels at around 5:30 a.m. in the village of Panaytayan, said Colonel Carlos Quita, provincial military commander in Oriental Mindoro. A three-hour gun battle also resulted in the wounding of seven soldiers with undetermined casualties on the side of the rebels, he said. Quita, who flew to the area Saturday morning, said government troops “fought it out literally to the last bullet.”

Plus ... surprise, surprise ...

The implementation of the total gun ban might continue even after the May elections, if the existing prohibition on private individuals from carrying firearms as imposed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would result in a significant decline in the number of gun-related crimes, a police official said Friday. Chief Superintendent Rolando Añonuevo, Calabarzon police director, said the Philippine National Police (PNP) might allow the gun ban to continue in accordance with the National Firearm Control Program set by the PNP. The gun ban is supposed to end on June 9, also the end of the country’s election period for the year.

So many sub sailors might be right. Allowing women to serve on submarines might prove to be the worst military decision in history. But America has the right to know, and women deserve to right to try. That was the entire point of last week's column. By an unofficial poll of the comments from last week's column, so many readers contended that, because I was never on a submarine, I am not qualified to address the advent of women serving on them. Further, for the same reason, I should not even have an opinion on the matter.

The Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) has officially suffered seven failures in 12 tests. Some analysts suggest that in reality the number of failures was considerably larger, with Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer contending that of the Bulava's 12 test launches, only one was entirely successful. "So far the Bulava tests have not been very successful, but we are looking for the causes [of the failures] and working to rectify them, and we will definitely bring this work to conclusion," Serdyukov said.

“Many of our customers store their content on multiple external drives, making it difficult to know what content is on each drive,” remarked Dale Pistilli, VP of marketing of WD’s Branded Products group. “The e-label smart display is an elegant and practical solution for organizing and keeping track of one’s digital life and work. WD SmartWare software makes it easy for users to protect their valuable content with automatic and continuous backup and encryption.” The security features also include Customizable data backup that permits owners to set drive security, manage the power settings, run diagnostics and more from the SmartWare control center. Data may be retrieved to its original location whether it’s lost data or an overwritten file. This drive comes with HFS+ Journaled formatting and is compatible with Mac OS X Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard. Its USB 2.0 interface equips it to be compatible among multiple computers and users are delivered a visual backup display which shows content in categories as also the progress of backup.

A man who was stranded thousands of miles from home has said he is now homeless in Brighton because of bank bureaucracy. Stephen Thomas, 48, of Brighton, was stuck in the Dominican Republic when Santander froze his account after fraudsters tried to steal from his £93,000 savings. The bank told him he would have to fly back to England to prove his identity before he would be allowed access to his money. But without any funds he could not buy a plane ticket home.

In its first six weeks of observations, it has discovered 16 previously unknown asteroids with orbits close to Earth's. Of these, 55 per cent reflect less than one-tenth of the sunlight that falls on them, which makes them difficult to spot with visible-light telescopes. One of these objects is as dark as fresh asphalt, reflecting less than 5 per cent of the light it receives.