Is Eating Roadkill a Sin?

The Montana state legislature has passed a bill allowing its citizens to scavenge meat from roadkill, although it won't become law unless it gains approval from the governor. While a similar bill permitting salvage of a wide range of game animals failed, the present bill allows people to salvage meat from elk, deer, antelope, and moose that have been hit and killed by vehicles. 

“It really is a sin to waste a good meat,” said state Sen. Larry Jent, D-Bozeman.

Mr. Jent, you couldn't be more wrong. Few will stop to think whether the bible has something to say about roadkill!

Are Nukes a Big Deal?

Today, I came across a study that sought to gauge Americans' opinions on using nuclear weapons. The researchers set up a scenario in which terrorists obtained a few nuclear weapons and military action was going to be taken to destroy the terrorists' base where they were being stored. People were shown various "likelihood of success" scenarios between a conventional attack on the base versus a nuclear attack. The results were staggering.

Drone-proofing

"Drones" have been a topic of intense scrutiny over the last few months in American politics, particularly over their use against American citizens. Just this week, Senator Rand Paul staged an old-fashioned, talking filibuster to draw attention to the issue. Senator Paul took the floor for 13 hours out of concern that drones may be used to kill American citizens on American soil without convicting them of a crime - a dangerous violation of constitutional rights. While an answer confirming the unconstitutionality of killing Americans in America with drones was finally given by the Attorney General, drone strikes are still a reality in other parts of the world.

I also came across some interesting counter-drone technologies, such as drone-proof city and drone-proof clothing. Every threatening advancement in technology is accompanied by countermeasures which exploit weaknesses in the technology's foundations - for example, you can use make-up and funny haircuts to avoid facial recognition software - and such battles are testaments to human ingenuity on both sides of the equation. Unlike the now decades-old struggles between hackers and security experts or cryptographers versus code breakers, the subject of a drone-proofing is a matter of life and death for many in the middle east.