July 27, 2009 - With every high-tech gadget we buy, we give up a little more privacy. Many devices today are in constant communication with their manufacturer. Furthermore, it's not just consumers who are losing their rights; the technology gives authoritarian states whole new ways of keeping tabs on individuals.

FOUNTAIN HILLS, Arizona - July 27, 2009 - Stun gun maker Taser International has unveiled its first new stun gun since 2003, a device that can shock three people without reloading.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota - July 22, 2009 - Tyler Heilman, 24, had just arrived home in Kasota, Minnesota, after a day's swimming with friends when he was accosted by Todd Waldron, a sheriff's deputy, who had been following him in an unmarked car.

As the pair got into a scuffle, friends of Heilman insisted it was not clear that Waldron was a police officer when he asked to see the other man's driver license.

According to the friends, the two men got into an argument and ended up wrestling on the ground. As Heilman got up, he finally saw the police badge on Deputy Waldron's belt, said Kris Hoehn.

BALFOUR, South Africa - July 22, 2009 - South African police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at township protesters demanding improved services and more jobs on Wednesday, in one of the biggest challenges to President Jacob Zuma since he took office.

CHICAGO - Illinois - July 20, 2009 - A shelter for adolescents in southern Illinois is suing the local sheriff’s office for what it describes as an unprovoked attack by two police officers on four children, three of whom were tasered, and one of whom was threatened with sodomy by a sheriff’s deputy.

SAN FRANCISCO, Kalifornia - July 11, 2009 - To protect against skimming and eavesdropping attacks, federal and state officials recommend that Americans keep their e-passports tightly shut and store their RFID-tagged passport cards and enhanced driver's licenses in "radio-opaque" sleeves.

That's because experiments have shown that the e-passport begins transmitting some data when opened even a half-inch, and chipped passport cards and EDLs can be read from varying distances depending on reader techonology.

The cover of the e-passport booklet contains a metallic sheathing that can diminish the distances radio waves travel, presumably hindering unwanted interceptions. Alloy envelopes that come with the PASS cards and driver's licenses do the same, according to the government.

GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (PNN) - July 11, 2009 - An Amerikan flag flown upside down as a protest in a northern Wisconsin village was seized by police before an Independence Day parade and the businessman who flew it - an Iraq war veteran - claims the officers trespassed and stole his property.

A day after the parade, police returned the flag and the man's protest - over a liquor license - continued.

On March 23, 1933, the newly elected members of the Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera House in Berlin to consider passing Hitler's "Ermächtigungsgesetz". The "Enabling Act" was officially called the 'Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich.'

Opponents to the bill argued that if it was passed, it would end democracy in Germany and establish a legal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. To soften resistance to the passing of the Enabling Act, the Nazis secretly caused confusion in order to create an atmosphere in which the law seemed necessary to restore order.

June 29, 2009 - Tina Ames owns the Craftsmen Cafe, a Clarence, New York eatery that specializes in organic comfort fare such as chicken soup and apple pie. Recently she needed to replace her restaurant's roof, a $7,000 job. Ames was loath to part with that much cash and didn't want to take out a loan.

Her solution? She cut a deal with a local contractor who handled the roofing job in exchange for a Ford F-150 pickup that Ames no longer needed. "I grew up on a farm," she says. "If you had eggs and someone else had corn, you traded. It's an old way of doing things, and it makes a lot of sense.

Building with earthbags (sometimes called sandbags) is both old and new. Sandbags have long been used, particularly by the military, for creating strong, protective barriers, or for flood control. The same reasons that make them useful for these applications carry over to creating housing. Since the walls are so substantial, they resist all kinds of severe weather (or even bullets) and also stand up to natural calamities such as earthquakes and floods. They can be erected simply and quickly with readily available components, for very little money.