Monthly Archives: December 2012

More Suicides in Army Than Combat-Related Deaths

Devastating statistics

The Department of the Army just released statistics for 2012 showing that there have been more deaths due to suicide over combat-related deaths.  This year alone there has been 212 deaths because of combat, a number too high, but 303 deaths have been from suicide.  The Department of the Army included the 303 suicides are from soldiers in active duty, Reserve, and the National Guard.

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Care to Share: Who Owns Your Instagram Pics?

Picture problem

You might think twice before uploading your next picture.  There is a class-action lawsuit has been filed against Instagram in regards to their newly updated Terms of Service.  The photo-sharing company recently announced a change in their TOS that, in some eyes, relinquishes their users’ ownership of personal photographs they chose to upload.  In theory, the Facebook-owned company would be able to use any added pictures and images to promote their own brand.  The civil suit, based out of Northern California, contends that the pictures’ rights should be retained by the photographer and technically do not belong to Instagram.  These proposed changes are scheduled to take effect early in 2013 and include the company’s advertising access to any personal information given by the end user.

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NY Man Shoots Two and Kills Sister

Justice

What is a 62 year old man’s motives for killing two fire fighters and trying to burn down the whole neighborhood?  No one knows for sure, but he did leave a note explaining that, “I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down and do what I like doing best — killing people.”  Is this just a coincidence after the Newton Shooting, or do should we really be focused on gun control?  William Spengler, shot two fire fighters and injured two with a semi automatic rifle, the same gun used in the Sandy Hook Shooting.

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Unconstitutional Search Leads to Lawsuit

Justice

To quote an exhilarating and thrilling movie of our time, Superbad, “I assume you all have guns and cocaine.”  This thought might have been running through State Troopers David Farrell and Kelley Helleson’s minds when they pulled over Angel Dobbs and Ashley Dobbs.  The two women are suing the Texas State troopers for an unconstitutional body cavity search.  They were pulled over for littering with cigarette butts on a highway in Irving, Texas.  The state troopers suspected the two ladies of smelling like marijuana so they felt it necessary to pull them out of the car and search them.  Angel Dobbs passed the sobriety test and the car was searched.  They then continued to search their persons, going so far as to reach in their genitals.  The women claim that State Trooper Kelley Helleson did not even change gloves when she searched each girl.  Angel and Ashley are now suing for the humiliation and violation that was caused during the search.

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A Kodak Moment: Patents To Sell for $525 Million

Picture this…

It seems that film isn’t the only thing Kodak has been developing recently.  The famous digital imaging and photography company agreed to sell their patent portfolio to a large group of companies including Google, Apple, and Facebook.  Eastman Kodak, based in Rochester NY, is monetizing their patents to help recover from a recent bankruptcy.  Economists are predicting that the $525 million agreement will help Kodak re-emerge from Chapter 11 in the first half of 2013.  Amazon, Samsung, and Microsoft are also members of the 12-company group of licensees. Read more