Wouldn't it be simpler and safer to “presume guilt?” This will definitely go bad at some point (HIV Positive “suspect,” needles, thrashing around)

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=24579

WY: Police take first forced blood draw

September 17, 2011 by Dissent

Lindsey Erin Kroskob reports:

Cheyenne police are believed to be the first in the state to forcibly take a person’s blood via court order under the state’s new DUI law.

Statutes changed July 1, allowing officers to obtain a search warrant to take a suspected intoxicated driver’s blood if he or she refuses to willingly provide a sample.

Prior to the change, warrants were only obtained for individuals involved in crashes with serious injury or fatality.

“Usually, once we have the warrant they go ahead and cooperate with the blood draw,” Chief Brian Kozak said. “This is the first individual who refused to cooperate and had to be restrained.”

Read more on Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

(Related) Blood isn't just alcohol levels...

DNA = data not available?

By Dissent, September 17, 2011

@Bainesy1969 has a thought-provoking blog entry on the retention of DNA samples vs. DNA profiles in the UK and what EU law requires. He begins:

On 26 July 2011 The Telegraph reported that “Innocent people’s DNA profiles won’t be deleted after all, minister admits”. It said that

“police will retain DNA profiles in anonymised form, leaving open the possibility of connecting them up with people’s names, ministers have admitted”.

In S and Marper v United Kingdom [2008] ECHR 1581 the European Court of Human Rights held that indefinite retention by the police of fingerprints and DNA samples of two people who had been arrested but not convicted of criminal offences was a breach of their rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (overturning a decision upheld at each instance in the English courts).

The Protection of Freedoms Bill proposes, accordingly, to amend the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (“PACE”) so that – broadly - a lawfully taken DNA sample (and fingerprints) must be destroyed after three (or in some cases five) years if the suspect has not been convicted of an offence to which the sample relates

Read more on Information Rights and Wrongs.

I have seen many similar articles, but still have no idea what the tactical objective is. How will the computer be used to improve what subject area(s)? How will they measure the results? Will they train the teachers or just say, “Make this work!” (By the way: $200,000 / 250 students = $800 per student. Minus the $475 for the iPad that leaves $375 for the case. Must be some case!)

Maine School District Gives iPad To Every Kindergartner

"'An Auburn, ME school district spent more than $200,000 to outfit every one of its 250 kindergartners with [iPads], along with sturdy cases to protect them. School officials say they are the first public school district in the country to give every kindergartner an iPad. Mrs. McCarthy says the tools give her 19 students more immediate feedback and individual attention than she ever could.' [Feedback at what level? I doubt they will even be able to Google (unless Maine kids read and write better than average). Bob] Will this improve low test scores, or be another case where spending more money does not produce a better educational outcome?"

Geeky tools...

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/netbootcd-install-ubuntu-fedora-debian-cd-linux/

NetbootCD: Install Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian & More From One CD [Linux]

Tired of burning a new CD every time a new version of your favourite Linux distro comes out? Then stop. Use NetbootCD to download and install your choice of Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Mandriva, CentOS or Slackware from a single disk. This handy disk downloads and runs the net installation tools for several distros, and is always capable of finding the latest version of your Linux operating system. Burn this tool once and you’ll never need to burn a Linux distro to CD again.

Using NetbootCD isn’t necessarily easy. You’ll need to learn to use text-based installers instead of the GUI versions found on live CDs. To me though, this is a small price to pay to contain my steadily-growing pile of Linux CDs.

First things first, you’ll need to download NetbootCD and burn the ISO to CD.

… If you like not to waste CDs but still use GUI installation tools, I suggest you check out Unetbootin or Linux Live USB Creator. Both of these tools make it possible to boot Linux from a USB drive or an SD card.