WASHINGTON - July 20, 2011 - The National Security Agency is working on a computer system that can predict what people are thinking.

"Think of 2001: A Space Odyssey and ITS most memorable character, HAL 9000, having a conversation with David. We are essentially building this system. We are building HAL. The system can answer the question, 'What does X think about Y?'"

These are the words of an unnamed researcher who discussed an amazing artificial intelligence system she was building at the NSA.

CONWAY, Massachusetts - July 20, 2011 - Dozens of police departments nationwide are gearing up to use a tech company's already controversial iris- and facial-scanning device that slides over an iPhone and helps identify a person or track criminal suspects.

The biometric technology, which seems to take a page from TV shows like MI-5 or CSI, could improve speed and accuracy in some routine police work in the field. However, its use has set off alarms with some who are concerned about possible civil liberties and privacy issues.

By Barbara Ehrenreich and Tom Engelhardt

July 10, 2011 - Last week, William Wan and Peter Finn of the Washington Post reported that at least 50 countries have now purchased or developed pilotless military drones. Recently, the Chinese had more than two dozen models in some stage of development on display at the Zhuhai Air Show, some of which they are evidently eager to sell to other countries.

LONDON, England - July 5, 2011 - It's a standard scenario across the world - the computer crashes and we scream exactly what we think at the flickering screen.

But we may soon have to learn to bite our tongues - or risk the wrath of being shouted at by the machine we've just cursed.

This is because scientists are building a voice-activated device that can interact with people in a “natural and intelligent way”.

Artificial intelligence will help it become familiar with a user's voice, with the ultimate goal that it can understand, speak and behave like a human.

by Kaitlyn Moore

June 25, 2011 - Corporations play a big role in our day-to-day activities and they are constantly making decisions that have a profound effect on our daily lives. For example: a corporation makes the decision to empty its chemical vats into a nearby river - the water supply is poisoned and residents of the adjacent town fall sick; or a corporation makes the decision to cut costs to increase profits and initiates a round of layoffs - the community that was formed around the corporation is decimated. We have often been appalled, angry, and go on rants about the evil of corporations but according to Simon Baron Cohen, evil is not the issue.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - July 4, 2011 – Dakta Green, the premiere activist in New Zealand on behalf of decriminalization of marijuana possession and legalization of cannabis for medical use, has been sentenced to 8 months in prison for the courageous stand he has taken against pot prohibition laws.

He has been isolated from the outside world; authorities are making it difficult for him to receive phone calls or even mail.  He would very much appreciate your letters and postcards.

by Dennis Grover, American, in Independence

RENO, Nevada - July 4, 2011 - I live my life fully engulfed in joy. I live it that way because I created it that way and cannot imagine anything different. It is the Fourth of July, “Independence Day” and I have to ask; independent from what?

On this holiday I received more emails than usual exclaiming various degrees of ecstatic joy. Nevertheless, however I viewed one patriotic video with a variety of pictures of soldiers, Washington D.C. monuments and other familiar national treasures, it brought tears to my eyes, not because of the patriotic words and scenery, but because of what realities now lay behind them.

LOS ANGELES, Kalifornia (PNN) - June 24, 2011 - Officials at a Los Angeles County jail plan to test out an invisible heat-beam weapon - a torture device - originally developed by the military as a way to subdue brawling inmates by making them feel "intolerable heat."

The technology, called an Assault Intervention Device, is a non lethal-weapon developed by Raytheon Company. It employs a form of torture in order to quell prisoner dissent.

WASHINGTON - June 22, 2011 - A group of U.S. Representatives plan to introduce legislation that will legalize marijuana and allow states to legislate its use, pro-marijuana groups said Wednesday.

The legislation would limit the federal government's role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, and allow people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal.

The bill, which is expected to be introduced on Thursday by Republican Representative Ron Paul and Democrat Representative Barney Frank, would be the first ever legislation designed to end the federal ban on marijuana.

GASTONIA, North Carolina - June 20, 2011 - Often, crimes are commited out of desperation. However, most robberies aren't motivated by a desperate need for health care.

James Richard Verone, of Georgia, attempted to steal one dollar from a bank so that he would be arrested, taken to jail, and - most importantly - provided with health care, the Gaston Gazette reported.