The Patriots claimed this was simply a result of the weather, while their opponents disagreed. Well, it's been months, but we finally have our answer: the balls were, in fact, knowingly deflated by the Patriots (to no one's surprise).
And while science can explain a little deflation, it cannot explain the amount of deflation seen during the game.
Which isn't stopping Boston fans from attacking the science.
The report stops short of certainty, though, concluding rather that deliberate underinflation was "more likely than not."
Not everyone agrees that a conspiracy is necessary to account for the measured pressure readings.
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A panel of three federal judges for the second circuit overturned an earlier ruling.
The court has ruled that the bulk collection of telephone metadata is unlawful, in a landmark decision that clears the way for a full legal challenge against the National Security Agency:
"'We hold that the text of section 215 cannot bear the weight the government asks us to assign to it, and that it does not authorize the telephone metadata program,' concluded their judgement."
That's not exactly saying that such bulk collection is unconscionable or per se unconstitutional, but it's a major step toward respecting privacy as a default.
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As a very young man the police of Newport Beach would always stop me as I was walking home from work at night. I didn't know that I had rights as a citizen.
They would always pat me down "for weapons" and touch/fondle my man-package deliberately.
I was always scared and would allow them to violate me. this constantly happened to me until I moved to Laguna Beach where the police were much more civil to me and respectful of me.
Robinson Meyer writes in The Atlantic that first of all, police shouldn't ask. "As a basic principle, we can't tell you to stop recording," says Delroy Burton, a 21-year veteran of DC's police force.
"If you're standing across the street videotaping, and I'm in a public place, carrying out my public functions, [then] I'm subject to recording, and there's nothing legally the police officer can do to stop you from recording."
What you don't have a right to do is interfere with an officer's work. ""Police officers may legitimately order citizens to cease activities that are truly interfering with legitimate law enforcement operations," according to Jay Stanley who wrote the ACLU's "Know Your Rights" guide for photographers, which lays out in plain language the legal protections that are assured people filming in public.
Police officers may not confiscate or demand to view your digital photographs or video without a warrant and police may not delete your photographs or video under any circumstances.
What if an officer says you are interfering with legitimate law enforcement operations and you disagree with the officer?
"If it were me, and an officer came up and said, 'You need to turn that camera off, sir,' I would strive to calmly and politely yet firmly remind the officer of my rights while continuing to record the interaction, and not turn the camera off," says Stanley.
The ACLU guide also supplies the one question those stopped for taking photos or video may ask an officer:
"The right question to ask is, 'am I free to go?'
If the officer says no, then you are being detained, something that under the law an officer cannot do without reasonable suspicion that you have or are about to commit a crime or are in the process of doing so.
Until you ask to leave, your being stopped is considered voluntary under the law and is legal."
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A panel of three federal judges for the second circuit overturned an earlier ruling. The court has ruled that the bulk collection of telephone metadata is unlawful, in a landmark decision that clears the way for a full legal challenge against the National Security Agency:
"'We hold that the text of section 215 cannot bear the weight the government asks us to assign to it, and that it does not authorize the telephone metadata program,' concluded their judgement."
That's not exactly saying that such bulk collection is unconscionable or per se unconstitutional, but it's a major step toward respecting privacy as a default.
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A new group, Transparency Toolkit, has mined LinkedIn to reveal and analyze the resumes of over
In the process, Transparency Toolkit said it found previously unknown secret codewords and references to surveillance technologies and projects.
"'Transparency Toolkit uses open data to watch the watchers and hold the powerful to account,' the group's website says.
'We build free software to collect and analyze open data from a variety of sources.
Then we work with investigative journalists and human rights organizations to turn that into useful, actionable knowledge.
Currently, our primary focuses are investigating surveillance and human rights abuses.'"
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I was dating Debbie in 1973.
"Fantastic Planet" (or "La Planète Sauvage" as it was known in the original French) is a remarkable piece of animated sci-fi from the way back year of 1973.
It's far out and bizarre even by today's alternative animation standards, and still just as evocative as when it was first made.
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Back in the 1920s, most American city-dwellers took public transportation to work every day. There were 17,000 miles of streetcar lines across the country, running through virtually every major American city. That included cities we don't think of as hubs for mass transit today: Atlanta, Raleigh, and Los Angeles.
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This may turn out to be really fun or really boring..
Quibbler, an experimental mass group chat experience where messages flash briefly and disappear forever [OC]
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Pirate Capt Kidd's 'treasure' found in Madagascar
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You figure it out.
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TIL Steve Jobs found a loophole in California law which allows cars less than six months old to be driven without license plates. He made an arrangement to lease an identical new Mercedes every six months so he would never have to put license plates on it.
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