Here endeth today's lesson. Harken & learn!

"The Food Stamp Program, administered by U.S. Dept of Agriculture, is actually proud that it is distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever. Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by U.S. Department of the Interior, asks "Please Do Not Feed the Animals."  Stated reason for policy - because the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves. 

Shelling out evidence: NIST ballistic standard helps tie guns to criminals

(Phys.org) -- Thanks to a new reference standard developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), law enforcement agencies will have an easier time linking the nearly 200,000 cartridge cases recovered annually at U.S. crime scenes to specific firearms. http://phys.org/news/2012-08-shelling-evidence-nist-ballistic-standard.html#nwlt

Big Brother fights crime

New York police launch high-tech surveillance 
New York police on Wednesday launched what officials say is a revolutionary camera surveillance system that will simultaneously scan the streets and call up data on suspects.

Could apply to police commissioners too!

Electing - rather than appointing - state court judges has drawbacks, study finds 
In traditional economic thought, competition is always good, and just as it's good for the economy, competitive elections should also make things better. But elections of public officials such as judges may have serious drawbacks. In the case of state court judges, for example, elected judges are far more variable in their sentencing than appointed judges, according to a new study.

A New take on the Broken Windows Theory

Study finds with vacant lots greened, residents feel safer 
Greening vacant lots may make neighborhood residents feel safer and may be associated with reductions in certain gun crimes, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Results show that residents living near greened vacant lots feel safer than those near non-greened sites. Additionally, researchers noted that incidents of police-reported crimes may be reduced after greening. The results expand upon previous studies and are the next step in helping researchers understand the full impact of vacant lot greening on crime, safety, and health. Full results of the study were published online this week in Injury Prevention.

Bother the country - let's just play tit for tat!

Plans to reform the House of Lords are being abandoned after Conservatives "broke the coalition contract", Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has announced.

Agreement on an elected Lords could not be reached with Tory opponents, he said, and the plans would be shelved rather than face a "slow death".

As a result, he said Lib Dem MPs could not now support Conservative-driven changes to Commons boundaries in 2015.

Virtual Terrorists are not alone!

How the 'lone wolf' terrorist networks 
A mounting global threat is of terrorists who act as "lone wolves". Locating and preventing such terrorist activity is more complicated than organizational terror threats. A new study conducted by Prof. Gabriel Weimann of the University of Haifa, reveals that these "lone wolves" are not in fact so isolated and belong to virtual terrorist communities on the Internet.

UKIP is NOT anti-European!

We're not anti-European!  We love Europe!  Europe is a rich tapestry of cultures, history and languages.  It has always resisted bureaucratic uniformity, long may it continue; vive le difference!  We respect the rights of sovereign states and their peoples to democratically determine their own futures, to live in peace and harmony whilst trading with each other.  We're already working with other democratic, freedom loving organisations, like ours, across Europe.

http://ukip.org/page/the-truth-about-the-eu

Nor is it right-wing, like the people of this country, it is a mix of all sorts.

Longer custodial sentences lead to consistent reductions in crime

Longer prison sentences contribute to reducing property crime, according to a new Civitas report which shows that prison is effective, especially when targeted at serious and repeat offenders. Acquisitive Crime: Imprisonment, Detection and Social Factors by University of Birmingham economist Dr. Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, with assistance from his colleagues Samrat Bhattacharya, Marianna Koli and Rudra Sensarma shows that for some crime types, longer custodial sentences lead to consistent reductions in crime.

UK election outcomes irrelevant, because of EU

"We are not governed from Westminster, we are governed from Brussels. It does not make any difference," he told the BBC's Hardtalk programme.

Continue reading the main story

Find out more

• Watch the full interview Hardtalk: Nigel Farageon BBC World News at various times on 6 August 2012

"It no longer matter who sits in No 10. The penny is beginning to drop with the British people and British businesses that we are no longer a self-governing nation. That matters far more than which brand of social democracy gets into No 10."

Interesting?

Study: Conciliatory tactics more effective than punishment in reducing terrorism 
Policies that reward abstinence from terrorism are more successful in reducing such acts of violence than tactics that aim to punish terrorists, suggests a new study in the August issue of the American Sociological Review.