Irving mayor Beth Van Duyne is a notorious racist and is also the sworn mayor of the townspeople of Irving, TX, where Ahmed Mohamed and his family live.

On hearing the news that her police chief had dropped criminal charges against Ahmed Mohamed, a boy who made a clock because he wanted to engage with the makers in his new high school, Mayor Van Duyne posted to Facebook, exonerating the police and asking townsfolk not to hold their grotesque abuse of authority and farcically bad judgment against them:

I do not fault the school or the police for looking into what they saw as a potential threat.

My new Locus column is What If People Were Sensors, Not Things to be Sensed?

Rescuers smashed their way into the vehicle only to find that the alarmingly still baby in the back seat was merely a toy.

ABC News reports that emergency services were called to the scene in Oakland, California, on Monday.

"Fortunately, it was not a baby or small child," [Officer] Watson said.

Going to the movies is getting airportified: your knapsacks, bags and purses will be searched on the way in to stop you from carrying in guns that you don't stick in your waistband or in a shoulder-holster.

This didgeridoo is made from PVC pipe that’s been heated, warped and stained to look like wood. It has a beeswax mouthpiece that gets soft when you press it against your mouth, forming a seal. It took me a while to get the hang of playing it. — Read the rest

Don't let your child out of the house without this stylish pink bullet-proof backpack. It has been "tested against 2 types of ammunition, yet weighs just a few more ounces than non-armed backpacks. Ideal for everyone, including students, law enforcement and military personnel and security staff." — Read the rest

The new generation of millimeter-wave body scanners from the convicted war-criminals at L-3 were supposed to replace the useless, expensive backscatter radiation machines from Rapiscan with a more robust, less privacy invasive alternative.

How one publisher turned a video game into a collaboration with an entire Alaska Native community.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has just released what is said to be a complete and unedited police dashcam video recording of the arrest of Sandra Bland. An altercation begins around 9 minutes in.

The relationship between video games and violence is healthier than we like to think

Sandra Bland was pulled over for failing to signal a turn in Waller County, Texas. She was arrested and taken to the cells, where she died three days later.

“A key Interior technology official who had access to sensitive systems for over five years had lied about his education, submitting falsified college transcripts produced by an online service.”

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter released a statement today confirming that America's "current regulations regarding transgender service members are outdated and are causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions."

The compromised data includes Social Security Numbers, Dates of Birth, and Home Addresses.

The new number is a lot higher than the 14 million figure investigators offered last month.

After eight years, the US army's $725 million Human Terrain System, a controversial social science program ostensibly established to help the military understand the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but criticized as a tool for propaganda and psyops, has ended. At CounterPunch, San José State University anthropology professor Roberto J. — Read the rest

Bruce Schneier weighs in on last week's ridiculous UK government talking points memo that Murdoch's Sunday Times dutifully published as front-page news.

Holy crap, this Reuters story by John Shiffman is bonkers. Trigger warning for sex, violence, animal abuse, sexual abuse, and surgery. And that should give you an idea of how insane it is.

Four former CVS security employees in NYC have sued the company for making them enforce a "shopping while black" policy that had them tailing black and Latino customers around the store, watching them for theft.

A car containing an "Energy Healer" car rolled into a pond while the woman was trying to meditate behind the wheel. — Read the rest