As Republican lawmakers have pushed ever more intrusive and expansive uterus-related legislation, some of their colleagues across the aisle have fired back with intentionally and equally ridiculous counterproposals. From mandatory rectal exams for guys seeking Viagra to prohibitions on sperm-stifling vasectomies, most of these male-only provisions have, unsurprisingly, flopped. But they've scored big as symbolic gestures, spotlighting the inherent sexism of laws that regulate only lady parts.

A former U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist has come forward with a startling tale of how a substance known as “pink slime” has been embedded in about 70 percent of ground beef sold in the U.S. — a topic ABC News investigated for a segment Wednesday night. “Pink slime” is largely made up of connective tissue that used to be reserved only for dog foods. It was not classified as “meat” because it was largely seen as unfit for human consumption. It also contains ammonia, which is used to kill off bacteria so people who eat it do not get sick.  But in the early 90s, former undersecretary of agriculture Joann Smith decided that it was meat, allowing it to enter the human food chain. When she left her post in 1993, she immediately took a job with Beef Products, Inc. on their board of directors.

From Valley Girls to the Kardashians, young women have long been mocked for the way they talk. Whether it be uptalk, creating slang words like "bitchin" and "ridic" or the incessant use of "like" as a conversation filler, vocal trends associated with young women are often seen as markers of immaturity or even stupidity. But linguists now say such thinking is outmoded. Girls and women in their teens and 20s deserve credit for pioneering vocal trends and popular slang, they say, adding that young women use these embellishments in much more sophisticated ways than people tend to realize.

Private companies could take responsibility for investigating crimes, patrolling neighbourhoods and even detaining suspects under a radical privatisation plan being put forward by two of the largest police forces in the country. West Midlands and Surrey have invited bids from G4S and other major security companies on behalf of all forces across England and Wales to take over the delivery of a wide range of services previously carried out by the police. The contract is the largest on police privatisation so far, with a potential value of £1.5bn over seven years, rising to a possible £3.5bn depending on how many other forces get involved.

The study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project also found that men were nearly twice as likely as women to have posted content online that they later regret. Sixty-three percent of social network users have deleted people from their friend lists, according to the study, up from 56 percent in 2009. Sixty-seven percent of women who maintain a social networking profile said they have deleted friends compared with 58 percent of men.When it comes to privacy, 58 percent of social network users set their profile to private so that only friends can see it. Nineteen percent allow friends of friends to view their profile and 20 percent keep their profile public. Women are significantly more likely than men — by a 67 percent to 48 percent margin — to set their profile to private, the study said. The study found that men are nearly twice as likely as women to have posted updates, comments, photos or videos that they later regret. Eleven percent of social network users say they have posted content they regret with 15 percent of men saying they have done so and just eight percent of women. The survey of 2,277 adults was conducted in April and May of last year and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

Fahrgäste machten auf die Gefahr aufmerksam: Ein Mann war in den U-Bahn-Tunnel gelaufen. Sie sagten es Sicherheitsmitarbeitern. Die vier Männer standen hinter der Fahrerkabine eines Zuges der U 9. Bis zur Abfahrt blieben nur noch Sekunden. Einer der Männer sah in den Tunnel: „Da ist nichts.“ Sie blieben untätig. Es war ein 42-Jähriger, der am Abend des 21. April 2008 am Nauener Platz leichtfertig seinem Hund nachgelaufen war. Der U-Bahn-Fahrer, der kurz danach die Türen schloss, wurde nicht gewarnt. Für die Mitarbeiter der Sicherheitsfirma bestehe keine „wirksam übertragene Pflicht“, nach einem Hinweis von Fahrgästen die Notmaßnahmen einzuleiten. „Das ist nirgends niedergeschrieben“, argumentierte ein Verteidiger.

Aufgrund ihrer puren Masse haben die Babyboomer durch ihr bloßes Wollen, Wünschen und Empfinden die Märkte verändert. Ihre Skepsis gegenüber Ideologien war wohltuend, aber nur, solange man nicht bemerkte, dass dahinter die Abwesenheit von Ideen überhaupt stand. Ihr Fehler war zu glauben, dass Märkte auch schon Ideen sind. Ideen setzen sich nicht durch wie Starbucks-Kaffee oder Popkultur. Anders gesagt: Es war die Kauf-, nicht die Überzeugungskraft der Babyboomer, die das Antlitz der Gesellschaft veränderte. Sie musste für ihr Lebensgefühl, ihre Musik, ihre Mode, ihre Sprache nicht kämpfen - im Gegenteil: Es waren Antriebsaggregate für Märkte, die ganz schnell die ganze Gesellschaft erfassten. Die Autorität der Eltern und Lehrer der frühen Siebziger, die vielleicht Fetzenjeans verbieten wollen, weicht nichts so sehr auf, wie die Läden der globalen Modekette um die Ecke.

A new federal law, signed by the president on Tuesday, compels the Federal Aviation Administration to allow drones to be used for all sorts of commercial endeavors — from selling real estate and dusting crops, to monitoring oil spills and wildlife, even shooting Hollywood films. Local police and emergency services will also be freer to send up their own drones. But while businesses, and drone manufacturers especially, are celebrating the opening of the skies to these unmanned aerial vehicles, the law raises new worries about how much detail the drones will capture about lives down below — and what will be done with that information. Safety concerns like midair collisions and property damage on the ground are also an issue.

Der Film "Zirkus is nich" von Astrid Schult schildert das Leben des achtjährigen Jungen Dominik aus seiner Perspektive. Er lebt mit seinen zwei kleinen Geschwistern und der allein erziehenden Mutter in einer von hoher Arbeitslosigkeit geprägten Plattenbausiedlung in Berlin-Hellersdorf.

As Pole’s computers crawled through the data, he was able to identify about 25 products that, when analyzed together, allowed him to assign each shopper a “pregnancy prediction” score. More important, he could also estimate her due date to within a small window, so Target could send coupons timed to very specific stages of her pregnancy.

This project is investigating developments in neuroscience and their implications for society and public policy. Increasing understanding of the brain and associated advances in technologies to study it will enable improved treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and mental illnesses. These advances will also increase our insights into normal human behaviour and mental wellbeing, and give the possibility of other enhancement, manipulation, and even degradation of brain function. These developments are likely to provide significant benefits for society, and they will also raise major social and ethical issues due to wide ranging applications.  Brain research is likely to have implications for a diverse range of public policy areas such as health, education, law, and security. Progress in neuroscience raises questions about personality, identity, responsibility, and liberty. The Brain Waves project explores the potential and the limitations of neuroscience insights for policymaking, as well as the benefits and the risks posed by applications of neuroscience and neurotechnologies.

The Brazilian government has filed a lawsuit against Twitter and its users in a bid to stop publication of messages alerting drivers to police speed traps and drunk-driving checkpoints. Brazil has asked for the “immediate suspension of all accounts that give information about the location of police radar,” the office of the Attorney General of the Union, said in a statement.

There are few areas of greater disappointment for liberal supporters of President Barack Obama than his policies on civil liberties. From the failure to close Guantanamo Bay and his ramped up drone war to the continued reliance on indefinite detention, military commissions for accused terrorists, and the recent National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that potentially allows for the killing of American citizens without due process, Obama's presidency, or so the argument goes, has been one broken promise after another. Yet, none of this seems to be having any effect on Obama's political standing -- even among Democrats. The results of a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll provide compelling evidence of how little a price Obama has paid for these policies. According to the poll, 70 percent of respondents support the president's decision to keep Guantanamo Bay open. Indeed, backing for Gitmo is actually higher today than it was in 2003. Among the president's political base, 53 percent who self-identify as liberal Democrats -- and 67 percent of moderate or conservative Democrats -- are also supportive.

Warum duldet die friedliche japanische Gesellschaft die Yakuza? Man könne das mit ihrem Ehren-Kodex und ihrer früheren Rolle erklären, meint der Journalist Atsushi Mizoguchi. Yakuza-Mitglieder schwören, nicht zu vergewaltigen, nicht zu stehlen und keine Raubüberfälle zu verüben. Früher hätten sie der Polizei gelegentlich Tipps gegeben und ihr Kleinkriminelle ausgeliefert. In Nagoya schickte die Kokodai-Gumi Patrouillen auf die Straße. Das noble Bild der Yakuza ist allerdings ein Mythos. Dennoch glauben manche Leute noch, so Mizoguchi, im Falle einer Krise würde sich die Yakuza patriotisch verhalten. Als die Linke in den 1960er-Jahren gegen die Militärallianz mit den USA protestierte, prügelte die Yakuza Demonstranten in die Flucht. Nach dem Hanshin-Erdbeben 1995 zog die Yakuza die effektivste Hilfe auf. Auch nach dem Tsunami von 2011 schickte sie viele Lastwagen mit Nothilfe, deren Wert die Zeitschrift Sentaku auf 400.000 Euro schätzte. Danach bewarben sich ihre legalen Firmen aggressiv um Aufträge zur Müllbeseitigung. Außerdem, sagt Adelstein, ziehe die Polizei, wenn sie die Wahl habe zwischen organisiertem und und dem nicht-organisierten Verbrechen hat, das organisierte vor. Es lasse sich eher kontrollieren.  

On Wednesday, citing "a sick culture of deputy-on-inmate hyper-violence [that] has been flourishing for decades in the darkness of the L.A. County Jails," the ACLU sued the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department seeking better training for deputies, and better oversight, investigation, and discipline in cases involving prisoner mistreatment. The suit draws on information published in a report released last September by the ACLU's National Prison Project and Southern California branch. The report showed a pattern of brutal abuses carried out by what the report calls a "savage gang" of deputies who oversee the prisoners. "Like members of street gangs, these deputies sport tattoos to signal their gang membership," the lawsuit alleges. "They beat up inmates to gain prestige among their peers, and 'earn their ink' by breaking inmates' bones." According to eyewitnesses, deputies have punched, kicked, and beaten prisoners to the point that they required surgery or hospitalization; humiliated them with sexual and racial epithets; thrown them in solitary confinement for no reason; and set them up for assault and rape by other prisoners.

Der Spitzensatz der spanischen Einkommenssteuer, bisher 43 Prozent, wird von der PP um bis zu sieben Prozentpunkte angehoben. Damit besteuern die Konservativen höhere Einkommen wieder stärker. Die Sozialdemokraten, die sich Sozialisten (PSOE) nennen, hatten den Steuersatz zuvor von 45 auf 43% gesenkt und sogar die Vermögenssteuer mitten in der Krise abgeschafft. Die Konservativen haben nun sogar die Erhöhung der Steuer nach Höhe des Einkommens gestaffelt. Wer zwischen 5.050 und rund 17.360 Euro im Jahr zu versteuern hat, für den wird der Steuersatz nur um 0,75 Prozentpunkte erhöht. Während für Spitzenverdiener mit einem Jahreseinkommen über 300.000 Euro eigentlich eine Anhebung um sieben Prozentpunkte ansteht, gilt das für viele Fußballspieler mit Millionengehältern nicht. Denn für etliche ausländische Stars von Real Madrid, wie Cristiano Ronaldo oder Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite (Kaká) und andere, wird nur eine Steuererhöhung um 0,75 Prozentpunkte auf einen ohnehin abgesenkten Steuersatz von 24% fällig.

The world’s congested mobile airwaves are being divided in a lopsided manner, with 1 percent of consumers generating half of all traffic. The top 10 percent of users, meanwhile, are consuming 90 percent of wireless bandwidth. Arieso, a company in Newbury, England, that advises mobile operators in Europe, the United States and Africa, documented the statistical gap when it tracked 1.1 million customers of a European mobile operator during a 24-hour period in November. The gap between extreme users and the rest of the population is widening, according to Arieso. In 2009, the top 3 percent of heavy users generated 40 percent of network traffic. Now, Arieso said, these users pump out 70 percent of the traffic.

A Tribune analysis shows Taser use has jumped fivefold in the city since 2008 and suburban agencies that were surveyed were on pace to double their use, as departments equipped more officers with the devices. Chicago police were deploying Tasers at a rate of more than twice a day in 2011.

“It’s bizarre,” remarked an admiring Jon Stewart, whose own program, “The Daily Show,” immediately precedes “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central and is where the Colbert character got his start. “Here is this fictional character who is now suddenly interacting in the real world. It’s so far up its own rear end,” he said, or words to that effect, “that you don’t know what to do except get high and sit in a room with a black light and a poster.”

Medicines to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are in such short supply that hundreds of patients complain daily to the Food and Drug Administration that they are unable to find a pharmacy with enough pills to fill their prescriptions. ... Caught in between are millions of children and adults who rely on the pills to help them stay focused and calm. Shortages, particularly of cheaper generics, have become so endemic that some patients say they worry almost constantly about availability.

"Was jemand willentlich verbergen will, sei es vor anderen, sei es vor sich selber, auch was er unbewusst in sich trägt: die Sprache bringt es an den Tag." Victor Klemperer, LTI, Lingua tertii imperii, Notizbuch eines Philologen, Leipzig, Reklam, 1947

Documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal open a rare window into a new global market for the off-the-shelf surveillance technology that has arisen in the decade since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The techniques described in the trove of 200-plus marketing documents, spanning 36 companies, include hacking tools that enable governments to break into people's computers and cellphones, and "massive intercept" gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country. The papers were obtained from attendees of a secretive surveillance conference held near Washington, D.C., last month.

During protests in Warsaw last weekend, one crafty activist deployed a flying drone to spy on riot police. YouTube user latajacakamera — or “flying camera” in Polish — uploaded the amazing video that the drone effortlessly captured as it hovered over teargas-filled streets.In another video, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) floats in front of a formation of police in riot gear as they rush towards demonstrators. None of them appear to notice. Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson confirmed that the flying machine was built by the Polish company Robokopter. Watch this video from latajacakamera, uploaded to YouTube Nov. 12, 2011.

On the eve of the biggest Greek strike since the right-wing junta was overthrown almost three decades ago, VICE travels to Athens to meet up with the people behind it. Students, anarchists, trade unionists, and communists let us into their squats to discuss the current government and why it must burn.