h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

yep and nope! apart from the fact we lost at tiddly winks at the pub! to the other pub! they bribed the ref, plyied him with drugs and drink and nakkid wimm'in

This is a better link, as it's to the entire article. They do make the point that the interest in these crowd controls devices has been heightened by the fact that the media are everywhere, and so are cell phone cameras.
http://www.alternet.org/world/151864/6_creepy_new_weapons_the_police_and_military_use_t?page=entire

Uh-oh. The riots have spread to the coast.

http://i.imgur.com/C5XQm.gif

Looting, I mean...

The LOOTING has spread to the coast.

stupid fingers.

This should be in your Serendipity thread!
https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=139029759

Oh poo. I've got this new Firefox add-on that https-ises a bunch of websites.
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=139029759

Heh...

I won't put it on my serendipity list as gulls are a constant here on the gulf coast. As I rode home yesterday I was noticing gull activity by one of the bridges I cross. It's always important to notice gulls active on the water as they tell you where the fish are.

As to https, are you using https everywhere?
I was thinking about using that recently... maybe that should go on the list. I'm also reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow which also mentions encryption. It's a Lattice o' Coincidence®.

HTTPS Everywhere, that's the one. I just found out about it yesterday. Must remember to add it to the laptop too.

Might as well take advantage of privacy while we still can.

I think this item from Salon, sums up the nature of the problem quite well, and indicates that this could happen in the States as well if the problems aren't acknowleged by someone in silly Homeland Security!

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/08/11/hussain_britain

Non of these riots, were politically motivated... Indeed, the name riot being given to them is in itself not really correct, for various reasons... well, to my mind at least, a 'riot', is a 'riot' against... something.... and hence to a greater or lesser extent, contains some political aspect, and non of these 'riots' contain that, with the possible exception of the origional, more-or-less peaceful protest against the origional shooting event in London...
The rest of it was just mindless violence which sprung up, more-or-less randomly and in a non-organised way, but which became soemthing that appeared organised as a lot of it was just* happening in the same place...
Though, by the time it was the second and third nights, there were clearly some organised parts within the whole picture...

Also, it was used, by 'actual' criminals, to try adn be a 'cover for their friminality; picking up a brick, or whatever adn throwing it in a shop window and knicking stuff is one thing; There was at least one case though, of a cash machine (ATM), ripped out of the wall, and, well I can't imagine one of the more general thuggish elements just randomly being able to find and drive a JCB, along with finding and attaching the required impliment necessary to remove an ATM from the wall...

As it unfolded, and especially wtih the interview of the two girls, involved in it, on BBC radio four, as far as I'm concerned, the real route cause, is essentially a lack of education... I'm not talking a lack of 'moral' education, or anything like that, not a lack of 'social education', or a lack of social cohesion etc., etc., but just basic plain ordinary education... yes there are consequences to what these people have done, for themselves, criminal records, prison etc., etc., and no... despite what some of our leaders were saying in the media today in particular, higher, tougher sentences etc, are not a deteriant to these individuals, who, to be quite honest are just too thick to be able to think logically about cause and effect, and hence consequence... Of course, why they've had such a poor education is another matter, and I can imagine in itself all kinds of things come into that, but the general impression I've got from reporting on the media, doesn't do anything to change the idea, that the vast majority of people, and certainly those earlier on, involved, are just incredibably incredibably stupid... true, after that* big group, there were the general thugs, low level criminals, and possibly more organised criminals taking advantage of what was happening, but without the idiot contingancy it just wouldn't have really happened...

"Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is a great book! Love it, and most everything else of his I've read. He writes a lot at BoingBoing (editor), and he's all over encryption and digital rights.