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Let’s imagine the following scenario: You are talking on the phone with your elderly parent or grandparent in another state. Suddenly you hear the sound of gasping, and then the line goes silent. You call out and get no response. Now what? Or even worse, imagine being caught in this situation: Boyfriend watches on webcam [...]
Invention – an app that lets you write a ticket like a cop would
by Marshall Brain | December 20, 2010
You can now give anyone on the highway a “ticket”, just like a police officer would. And anyone can give you a ticket too. This is either one of the greatest ideas in the world because it will create much safer roadways, or one of the worst because it will be the end of privacy [...]
Everyone has heard of the Grammar Nazi. A Grammar Nazi is a person who has taken the rules of grammar deeply to heart, and who then uses those rules mercilessly when other people fail to obey. The following videos make the point, humorously but perhaps a little too strongly (contain blood): Grammar Nazis and Grammar [...]
As a general rule, the idea of red light cameras is a good one, because people who run red lights are dangerous. The following videos show just how dangerous red light runners can be…
It’s something you see in the movies all the time – You have been captured by terrorists, and they handcuff you to a chair. How are you going to free yourself and save the world from nuclear annihilation? If you have a bobby pin, here is how you are going to do it: The prior [...]
If you get pulled over by a police officer today, chances are that he/she will be driving a Ford Crown Victoria. That’s because, according to this article: Ford currently controls about 75 percent of the police pursuit vehicle business in the U.S. and sells approximately 45,000 police vehicles annually. Ford has been selling that Crown [...]
Invention – HPEMS will be able to instantly disable any car
by Marshall Brain | January 22, 2010
In a prior post, we discussed different ways to stop a car. The current techniques include spike strips, Squids, net entanglement and electromagnetic pulses: How to stop a car – spike strips, electromagnetic pulses and the SQUID The electromagnetic pulse technique is about to get much more portable, as shown in this video: From the [...]
Invention – Head-mounted camera records all police interactions
by Marshall Brain | December 22, 2009
Taser has introduced a new head-mounted camera system for police, and they are trying it out in San Jose: San Jose police test head-mounted cameras for officers San Jose police, under fire for interactions with the public that have turned violent, on Friday launched a pilot project equipping officers with head-mounted cameras to record contacts [...]
The necessity of filming the police constantly, from every angle
by Marshall Brain | April 14, 2009
With the advent of inexpensive video cameras in the 1980s, it became possible for normal citizens to document the activities of police and military personnel. What we have discovered is that, on occasion, police officers can be extremely violent. The first case to get widespread attention was Rodney King’s in 1991: When watching the King [...]
Laser speed guns shoot short bursts of laser-red infrared light to calculate the speed of a car. Learn more about laser speed guns in this HowStuffWorks podcast.
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