Brilliant people are much more likely to fail under pressure than average people [Business Insider, Amazon.com]

Romney mistreating a dog or Obama eating a dog: Which is worse? [CNET]

Security vs. liberty. Is more security worth less liberty in every case? [Bruce Schneier @ TED Talk]

Constitutionalism: Another god that failed [Butler Shaeffer @ Lewrockwell.com]

The blast chiller. It does exactly what it sounds like: cool things down quickly, using fast-moving cold air. [Popular Science]

Lyrics to the Samurai Jack theme song. [Movie Catcher]

Is off-shoring a national security threat?

Asks a poster at Slashdot. I'd say so. If your only source of water is a well on a moody or obnoxious neighbor's property that she allows you to utilize  for example, you'd be smart to drill your own well just in case. Because you never know what she's gonna do right? When it comes to taking care of you and yours it's best not to depend on whims and dictates of others.

Potencial solution to police layoffs?

Despite its nascent-Terminator like appearance eh? Having these cruising high crime/high risk environments (under control of a human operator though) may not be such a bad idea. They don't go on strike, ask for huge wages and benefits, demand to retire after 20 years at 80% of their salary, ask for OT pay or any of the other problems with human LEO's.

Weblog

Homeless in Ann Arbor: The street view of a professional beggar
"'If you want to have any kind of spending money for tobacco, coffee, extra food, whatever, then you've got two choices,'  says Storm, who is homeless. 'You can either collect cans, which is really time consuming and doesn't pay off that well … so panhandling is kind of the way I make my money. And I don't really consider myself a panhandler. I'm a professional beggar.' "
Bomb undiscovered for weeks at Detroit federal building says union chief
The whistle-blower here is a union official for the unionized security officers employed there, so keep that in mind. Still though...

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Brazilian police & FBI both unable to decrypt seized hard drives - G1
They both tried the so-called "dictionary method" of decryption for five months to no avail. Hmm. I wonder if they truly cannot break the encryption or they just want to make us think they can't. A disinformation program works exactly like that.

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A river of sewage: LA artists paint scenes from the LA river. - Wall Street Journal online

A creepy slide show of contemporary drawings, paintings and collages of the LA river.

The Challenge of Totalitarianism - Telos (Andrew Walker)

"Totalitarianism is not of itself an ideological position but involves total state authority with the goal of continuation of an established order."

"Fingerprinting" computer chips - Technology Review (Neil Savage)

"By sending a series of signals through, and measuring how fast they travel, he can generate a string of numbers unique to each circuit. This has been dubbed a 'physically unclonable function'--PUF for short."

Stupid fashion fads killing off wildlife - Taki's Magazine (Mandolyna Theodoracopulos)

Chinese discover 90 years worth of frozen methane. - Inhabitat (Bridgette Meingold)

Better to burn the methane/ice than all the coal that they use now.

Houseboat living on the Puget Sound - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"And they are resistant to earthquakes."(A reader's comment).

Hundreds of drug cases dropped by SF police; Head of lab was stealing, using the evidence herself. - SF Chronicle

What’s the best commuting bike for urban/city riding? - Outdoors online

Sad, wistful story of man who's buying his first car at age 40. - LA Weekly

A native NYer he used taxis, the subway, the bus, walked and bummed rides from friends. Now an Angelino he's had to learn to drive, get a DL, buy a car, and insurance, etc.

Actor who portrayed "Agent Smith" is gonna be "Red Skull" in Captain America movie - io9