You have a friend request from Homeland Security…
The Obama administration, resolving years of internal debate, is on the verge of backing a Federal Bureau of Investigation plan for a sweeping overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate using the Internet rather than by traditional phone services, according to officials familiar with the deliberations.
Enlarge This ImageThe F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, has argued that the bureau’s ability to carry out court-approved eavesdropping on suspects is “going dark” as communications technology evolves, and since 2010 has pushed for a legal mandate requiring companies like Facebook and Google to build into their instant-messaging and other such systems a capacity to comply with wiretap orders. That proposal, however, bogged down amid concerns by other agencies, like the Commerce Department, about quashing Silicon Valley innovation.
While the F.B.I.’s original proposal would have required Internet communications services to each build in a wiretapping capacity, the revised one, which must now be reviewed by the White House, focuses on fining companies that do not comply with wiretap orders.
Crimes in which the perpetrator used a firearm are actually on the decline, according to the Pew Center. That doesn’t mean that it’s still not a problem, of course. In any case, most Americans think that “gun crime” is actually higher than it has ever been.
While covering the Cleveland kidnapping story genuinely despicable despair-vampire and purveyor of prime time idiot bait Nancy Grace conducted a “satellite” interview with CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield. The only problem is that the two “reporters” were in the same parking lot. The Atlantic Wire provides irrefutable proof through a series of animated GIFs. 
Colorado’s lawmakers are voting in favor of common sense.
On June 30, 1908, something exploded over an isolated region of Siberia. Theories abound over what that something could have been, with explanations both prosaic (meteorite or comet) and preposterous (UFO crash, one of Tesla’s experiments gone wrong) offered over the years since that mysterious event. While I personally love the idea of a UFO crash, it turns out that scientists working with the Russian Academy of Science may have turned up the first solid proof that a meteorite may have been the actual culprit:
Sad news for any fan of old school stop-motion animation: Special effects trailblazer Ray Harryhausen has passed away. I’ve been a huge fan of Harryhausen’s work for all of my life. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that his creations helped to fuel my love a love of monsters and magic that indirectly led me to an interest in all manner of bizarre topics.
