Drones at Home: Time Rapidly Approaches When Unmanned Aircraft Will Dot U.S. Skies

Jamshid Ghazi Askar
Deseret News
July 5, 2012

A polarizing debate is emerging over whether the unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly referred to as “drones,” should be allowed into U.S. airspace for use by local law enforcement and private businesses.

“No longer a tool used strictly by the military to take out terrorists overseas, drones of all shapes and sizes will soon be in our skies here at home for surveillance missions by local police [...]

GOOGLE accused of invading privacy with house numbers

Telegraph.co.uk

Internet users are being asked to read random property numbers snapped by Google’s Street View cameras, as part of new security checks.

The tests weed out “bots” by ensuring that users are human. But Google has been accused of exploiting the data submitted in by the public for commercial gain – by adding the information to its own mapping system.

Campaign groups said that the use of pictures of real house numbers [...]

Super-PACS erode Obama advantage

From FT:

Republicans are rapidly eroding the huge funding advantage that propelled Barack Obama into the White House, with wealthy donors flooding new conservative campaign groups with cash before the presidential election in November.

The super-political action committee backing Mitt Romney, the Republican frontrunner for the 2012 nomination, raised $30m last year, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission published on Wednesday, with 10 individuals and corporations donating $1m each.

 

Super-Pacs have proliferated after a [...]

Mandatory Smart Meters Not Going Ahead in the UK

Rowena Mason
London Telegraph
February 1, 2012

The Government had promised that every household would have a smart meter by 2019 in a £12?billion programme to stop gas and electricity bills being estimated.

Officials are devising plans to allow people to reject the smart meters, which communicate remotely from households to energy companies.

The move is a victory for campaign groups and backbench MPs, who raised concerns with ministers that the devices emit electromagnetic radiation [...]