Futuristic bracelet uses heartbeats as a password -

Futuristic bracelet uses heartbeats as a password - 



A security startup has unveiled a wearable device that's designed to replace the hassle of passwords by using a person's unique heartbeat signature to log on to computers and unlock car doors. While the device is intriguing, the dearth of key technical details makes it impossible to assess the marketers' promise that it provides "complete security without compromising convenience."

The Nymi is a small bracelet equipped with a sensor that reads the electrocardiogram (ECG) of the person wearing it. Once it has verified that the heart signature belongs to the person who registered it, it provides a means of authentication that can in theory be used to access a virtually endless supply of electronic devices, including airport kiosks, hotel room doors, and sensitive computer networks. It relies on three factors of authentication—that is, two things the user has in the form of the bracelet and a paired mobile device, and one thing the user has in the form of a verified ECG. A slick promotional video shows someone gliding from bed to airports to hotels to cafes, effortlessly logging into devices and unlocking doors without once having to enter a password or procure a key. Sure sounds tempting.

Read more -

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/09/futuristic-bracelet-uses-heartbeats-as-a-password-but-is-it-secure/

Researchers to drill world’s deepest hole to unearth mysteries locked inside our planet -

Researchers to drill world’s deepest hole to unearth mysteries locked inside our planet - 



The deepest hole ever made is more than 40 years old, and quite dead. In 1970, the Soviet Union began to drill on the Kola Peninsula, close to the Finnish border, in an attempt to penetrate the skin of the Earth. Ten years later, the drill passed the six-mile record then held by a hole in Oklahoma made by an oil company, which failed when its drill bit hit a lake of molten sulphur. Five more years took it to seven-and-a-half miles — but then the temperature rose so high that to go any further would have melted the bit.

In 2008, the money ran out and the site was abandoned (although some fundamentalists still cite the hoax that the drill was stopped because it had broken into Hell itself).

Now, a new programme of ocean-drilling is under way, attempting to reach parts of the planet’s interior never before penetrated. The problem with drilling on land is that the Earth’s outermost layer — the crust — is so thick that there is little chance of getting through.

Under the sea, however, its intimate secrets are easier to probe. A century ago, the Croatian meteorologist Andrija Mohorovicic was studying the shock waves made by earthquakes as they passed through the continents. He noticed that the waves travelled much faster through the rock about 35 miles below the surface than they did above that depth. That shift — the Mohorovicic discontinuity, or “Moho” — hinted that the Earth has distinct layers of rock above its liquid metallic core, with the Moho forming the boundary between the outer crust (which makes up less than one hundredth of its mass) and an inner zone called the mantle.

Beneath the deep oceans, where the surface is younger and thinner as it has been extruded from the molten depths, the Moho may be less than four miles down.

In 1957, the Americans set out to penetrate it in a deep trench off Mexico, and managed to extract a short core of mantle. However, the project was plagued with difficulties in keeping the ship in place and manipulating the drill through two miles of water, and was abandoned.

With GPS, and today’s oil-well technology, both those problems have been solved — so the International Ocean Discovery Programme has set out to break through the Moho and find what lies below. It is now investigating sites off Hawaii, California and Baja California, to find the right balance between new, thin (but hot) crust and older, thicker, but cooler material that will not melt the drill. Already the Baja hole has reached roughly a mile down.

One aim is to work out the role in the global carbon cycle of the liquid that bubbles from the mantle at the ocean ridges; another is to insert sensors into the hole to check the temperature, pressure and intestinal movements of our planet. The geologists hope to examine the mantle’s balance of metallic elements, which may be depleted in platinum, gold, cobalt and others that have been sucked in by the liquid iron core.

Biologists are involved, too. Already, single living cells have been found more than a mile below the sea floor, and we know that bacteria from ocean vents can survive at 115C; which means that, in principle at least, they or their relatives could exist three miles below the surface. It might hint at what the first life, on a searing-hot planet more than 4 billion years ago, looked like.

Plate tectonics explained many once-baffling observations about the Earth. Fifty years after Drummond Matthews and Frederick Vine’s discovery, these giant drills are revealing more truths about our planet, and this time in 3D.

Read more -

http://www.theprovince.com/technology/Researchers+drill+world+deepest+hole+unearth+mysteries+locked/8863946/story.html

Is The United States Going To Go To War With Syria Over A Natural Gas Pipeline? -

Is The United States Going To Go To War With Syria Over A Natural Gas Pipeline? - 



Why has the little nation of Qatar spent 3 billion dollars to support the rebels in Syria?  Could it be because Qatar is the largest exporter of liquid natural gas in the world and Assad won't let them build a natural gas pipeline through Syria?  Of course.  Qatar wants to install a puppet regime in Syria that will allow them to build a pipeline which will enable them to sell lots and lots of natural gas to Europe.  Why is Saudi Arabia spending huge amounts of money to help the rebels and why has Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan been "jetting from covert command centers near the Syrian front lines to the Élysée Palace in Paris and the Kremlin in Moscow, seeking to undermine the Assad regime"?  Well, it turns out that Saudi Arabia intends to install their own puppet government in Syria which will allow the Saudis to control the flow of energy through the region.  On the other side, Russia very much prefers the Assad regime for a whole bunch of reasons.  One of those reasons is that Assad is helping to block the flow of natural gas out of the Persian Gulf into Europe, thus ensuring higher profits for Gazprom.  Now the United States is getting directly involved in the conflict.  If the U.S. is successful in getting rid of the Assad regime, it will be good for either the Saudis or Qatar (and possibly for both), and it will be really bad for Russia.  This is a strategic geopolitical conflict about natural resources, religion and money, and it really has nothing to do with chemical weapons at all.

It has been common knowledge that Qatar has desperately wanted to construct a natural gas pipeline that will enable it to get natural gas to Europe for a very long time.  The following is an excerpt from an article from 2009...

Qatar has proposed a gas pipeline from the Gulf to Turkey in a sign the emirate is considering a further expansion of exports from the world's biggest gasfield after it finishes an ambitious programme to more than double its capacity to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG).

"We are eager to have a gas pipeline from Qatar to Turkey," Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the ruler of Qatar, said last week, following talks with the Turkish president Abdullah Gul and the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the western Turkish resort town of Bodrum. "We discussed this matter in the framework of co-operation in the field of energy. In this regard, a working group will be set up that will come up with concrete results in the shortest possible time," he said, according to Turkey's Anatolia news agency.

Other reports in the Turkish press said the two states were exploring the possibility of Qatar supplying gas to the strategic Nabucco pipeline project, which would transport Central Asian and Middle Eastern gas to Europe, bypassing Russia. A Qatar-to-Turkey pipeline might hook up with Nabucco at its proposed starting point in eastern Turkey. Last month, Mr Erdogan and the prime ministers of four European countries signed a transit agreement for Nabucco, clearing the way for a final investment decision next year on the EU-backed project to reduce European dependence on Russian gas.

"For this aim, I think a gas pipeline between Turkey and Qatar would solve the issue once and for all," Mr Erdogan added, according to reports in several newspapers. The reports said two different routes for such a pipeline were possible. One would lead from Qatar through Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq to Turkey. The other would go through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and on to Turkey. It was not clear whether the second option would be connected to the Pan-Arab pipeline, carrying Egyptian gas through Jordan to Syria. That pipeline, which is due to be extended to Turkey, has also been proposed as a source of gas for Nabucco.

Based on production from the massive North Field in the Gulf, Qatar has established a commanding position as the world's leading LNG exporter. It is consolidating that through a construction programme aimed at increasing its annual LNG production capacity to 77 million tonnes by the end of next year, from 31 million tonnes last year. However, in 2005, the emirate placed a moratorium on plans for further development of the North Field in order to conduct a reservoir study.

As you just read, there were two proposed routes for the pipeline.  Unfortunately for Qatar, Saudi Arabia said no to the first route and Syria said no to the second route.  The following is from an absolutely outstanding article in the Guardian...

In 2009 - the same year former French foreign minister Dumas alleges the British began planning operations in Syria - Assad refused to sign a proposed agreement with Qatar that would run a pipeline from the latter's North field, contiguous with Iran's South Pars field, through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and on to Turkey, with a view to supply European markets - albeit crucially bypassing Russia. Assad's rationale was "to protect the interests of [his] Russian ally, which is Europe's top supplier of natural gas."

Instead, the following year, Assad pursued negotiations for an alternative $10 billion pipeline plan with Iran, across Iraq to Syria, that would also potentially allow Iran to supply gas to Europe from its South Pars field shared with Qatar. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the project was signed in July 2012 - just as Syria's civil war was spreading to Damascus and Aleppo - and earlier this year Iraq signed a framework agreement for construction of the gas pipelines.

The Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline plan was a "direct slap in the face" to Qatar's plans. No wonder Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, in a failed attempt to bribe Russia to switch sides, told President Vladmir Putin that "whatever regime comes after" Assad, it will be "completely" in Saudi Arabia's hands and will "not sign any agreement allowing any Gulf country to transport its gas across Syria to Europe and compete with Russian gas exports", according to diplomatic sources. When Putin refused, the Prince vowed military action.

If Qatar is able to get natural gas flowing into Europe, that will be a significant blow to Russia.  So the conflict in Syria is actually much more about a pipeline than it is about the future of the Syrian people.  In a recent article, Paul McGuire summarized things quite nicely...

The Nabucco Agreement was signed by a handful of European nations and Turkey back in 2009. It was an agreement to run a natural gas pipeline across Turkey into Austria, bypassing Russia again with Qatar in the mix as a supplier to a feeder pipeline via the proposed Arab pipeline from Libya to Egypt to Nabucco (is the picture getting clearer?). The problem with all of this is that a Russian backed Syria stands in the way.

Qatar would love to sell its LNG to the EU and the hot Mediterranean markets. The problem for Qatar in achieving this is Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have already said "NO" to an overland pipe cutting across the Land of Saud. The only solution for Qatar if it wants to sell its oil is to cut a deal with the U.S.

Recently Exxon Mobile and Qatar Petroleum International have made a $10 Billion deal that allows Exxon Mobile to sell natural gas through a port in Texas to the UK and Mediterranean markets. Qatar stands to make a lot of money and the only thing standing in the way of their aspirations is Syria.

The US plays into this in that it has vast wells of natural gas, in fact the largest known supply in the world. There is a reason why natural gas prices have been suppressed for so long in the US. This is to set the stage for US involvement in the Natural Gas market in Europe while smashing the monopoly that the Russians have enjoyed for so long. What appears to be a conflict with Syria is really a conflict between the U.S. and Russia!

The main cities of turmoil and conflict in Syria right now are Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo. These are the same cities that the proposed gas pipelines happen to run through. Qatar is the biggest financier of the Syrian uprising, having spent over $3 billion so far on the conflict. The other side of the story is Saudi Arabia, which finances anti-Assad groups in Syria. The Saudis do not want to be marginalized by Qatar; thus they too want to topple Assad and implant their own puppet government, one that would sign off on a pipeline deal and charge Qatar for running their pipes through to Nabucco.

Yes, I know that this is all very complicated.

But no matter how you slice it, there is absolutely no reason for the United States to be getting involved in this conflict.

If the U.S. does get involved, we will actually be helping al-Qaeda terrorists that behead mothers and their infants...

Al-Qaeda linked terrorists in Syria have beheaded all 24 Syrian passengers traveling from Tartus to Ras al-Ain in northeast of Syria, among them a mother and a 40-days old infant.

Gunmen from the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and Levant stopped the bus on the road in Talkalakh and killed everyone before setting the bus on fire.

Is this really who we want to be "allied" with?

And of course once we strike Syria, the war could escalate into a full-blown conflict very easily.

If you believe that the Obama administration would never send U.S. troops into Syria, you are just being naive.  In fact, according to Jack Goldsmith, a professor at Harvard Law School, the proposed authorization to use military force that has been sent to Congress would leave the door wide open for American "boots on the ground"...

The proposed AUMF focuses on Syrian WMD but is otherwise very broad.  It authorizes the President to use any element of the U.S. Armed Forces and any method of force.  It does not contain specific limits on targets – either in terms of the identity of the targets (e.g. the Syrian government, Syrian rebels, Hezbollah, Iran) or the geography of the targets.  Its main limit comes on the purposes for which force can be used.  Four points are worth making about these purposes.  First, the proposed AUMF authorizes the President to use force “in connection with” the use of WMD in the Syrian civil war. (It does not limit the President’s use force to the territory of Syria, but rather says that the use of force must have a connection to the use of WMD in the Syrian conflict.  Activities outside Syria can and certainly do have a connection to the use of WMD in the Syrian civil war.).  Second, the use of force must be designed to “prevent or deter the use or proliferation” of WMDs “within, to or from Syria” or (broader yet) to “protect the United States and its allies and partners against the threat posed by such weapons.”  Third, the proposed AUMF gives the President final interpretive authority to determine when these criteria are satisfied (“as he determines to be necessary and appropriate”).  Fourth, the proposed AUMF contemplates no procedural restrictions on the President’s powers (such as a time limit).

I think this AUMF has much broader implications than Ilya Somin described.  Some questions for Congress to ponder:

(1) Does the proposed AUMF authorize the President to take sides in the Syrian Civil War, or to attack Syrian rebels associated with al Qaeda, or to remove Assad from power?  Yes, as long as the President determines that any of these entities has a (mere) connection to the use of WMD in the Syrian civil war, and that the use of force against one of them would prevent or deter the use or proliferation of WMD within, or to and from, Syria, or protect the U.S. or its allies (e.g. Israel) against the (mere) threat posed by those weapons.  It is very easy to imagine the President making such determinations with regard to Assad or one or more of the rebel groups.

(2) Does the proposed AUMF authorize the President to use force against Iran or Hezbollah, in Iran or Lebanon?  Again, yes, as long as the President determines that Iran or Hezbollah has a (mere) a connection to the use of WMD in the Syrian civil war, and the use of force against Iran or Hezbollah would prevent or deter the use or proliferation of WMD within, or to and from, Syria, or protect the U.S. or its allies (e.g. Israel) against the (mere) threat posed by those weapons.

Would you like to send your own son or your own daughter to fight in Syria just so that a natural gas pipeline can be built?

What the United States should be doing in this situation is so obvious that even the five-year-old grandson of Nancy Pelosi can figure it out...

I'll tell you this story and then I really do have to go. My five-year-old grandson, as I was leaving San Francisco yesterday, he said to me, Mimi, my name, Mimi, war with Syria, are you yes war with Syria, no, war with Syria. And he's five years old. We're not talking about war; we're talking about action. Yes war with Syria, no with war in Syria. I said, 'Well, what do you think?' He said, 'I think no war.'

Unfortunately, his grandmother and most of our other insane "leaders" in Washington D.C. seem absolutely determined to take us to war.

In the end, how much American blood will be spilled over a stupid natural gas pipeline?

Read more -

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/is-the-united-states-going-to-go-to-war-with-syria-over-a-natural-gas-pipeline

The More Participants Used Facebook in a Michigan Study, the Worse They Felt -

The More Participants Used Facebook in a Michigan Study, the Worse They Felt - 



A line from Max Ehrmann’s 1927 poem “Desiderata” reads:

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; For always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Social networking makes it easier than ever to compare yourself with others—but forget about vanity. It’s not uncommon to hear Facebookers complain many of their social contacts appear to be living vastly more interesting and fulfilling lives than they are.

So, has social networking created a billion bitter Facebookers? A team of University of Michigan researchers decided to move past the anecdotal and apply the scientific method to this bit of common wisdom.

Studying how Facebook affects people is a popular pastime. Researchers have penned some 412 papers since 2005. But the University of Michigan team found the results confused. Some studies noted Facebook use positively impacted well-being, others found a negative relation, and still others said the affect was nuanced and influenced by many variables.

None of the studies looked at how Facebook affected well-being over time. The Michigan team decided to remedy the situation by using a method that gathers data from participants in everyday settings outside the lab using their smartphones, texts, and an online survey.

The team assembled a group of 82 college-aged adults. (A “core Facebook user demographic” according to the researchers.) For $20 and the chance to win an iPad, participants agreed to answer five survey questions texted to them five times a day over two weeks and a more broad survey at the beginning and end of the study.

After two weeks, the team tabulated the data and found some fairly unambiguous results. Participants who logged into Facebook more often tended to suffer a diminished sense of well-being (“how do you feel right now”) moment to moment and lower overall life satisfaction at the end of the period.

Knowing full well there may be other explanations and many variables are at work, the team attempted to control for various personal differences like number of Facebook friends, perception of Facebook network support, depression, loneliness, gender, self-esteem, time of study participation, motivation for using Facebook. None of these significantly affected the outcome.

Similarly, they looked at two alternative possible explanations. Perhaps, for example, it’s human interaction more generally that causes folks to feel worse. In fact, they found that direct contact tended to positively affect participants’ sense of well-being.

Or maybe people use Facebook when they feel bad. That is, the arrow of causation points the other direction. This too was not borne out by the data. Participants’ prior emotional status before the trial had little bearing on the outcome—both positive and negative mindsets suffered declines in well-being and life satisfaction with greater Facebook use.

So what accounts for the findings? The researchers note that other studies have shown declines in subjective well-being may be due to unhealthy comparisons between individuals and their peers. However, though the paper establishes a correlation, it stops short of explaining it.

Read more - 

http://singularityhub.com/2013/09/03/the-more-participants-used-facebook-in-a-michigan-study-the-worse-they-felt/

Facebook employees reveal the worst things about working for the social network -

Facebook employees reveal the worst things about working for the social network - 



Earlier this year Facebook was voted the world's best employer but it seems that not all employees agree with this accolade.
One former employee said he was expected to separate his boss's dirty laundry, while another claimed there was "no privacy whatsoever" at the company.
An apparent lack of professionalism at Facebook was criticised by an engineer, which was said to lead to "uncomfortable situations".
Another criticised the long working hours which he claimed sometimes involved being oncall for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
According to Business Insider, the disgruntled employees posted their opinions on question-and answer- website Quora.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, is the highest-paid executive at the social networking giant, but one employee said they were "constantly being distracted by [her] extracurricular activities."
Sandberg released her first book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead earlier this year.
There were some more lighthearted complaints including not having room "for all the food".
Facebook is known for offering its employees free meals as well as various other perks. Its culinary team even have their own Facebook page.
Earlier this year it was revealed that Facebook's interns are earning up to £47,000 ($74,000) with at least ten roles commanding six figure salaries.
A spokesperson for Facebook said that the company would not comment on the story.
What did Facebook's employees complain about?
1) Long working hours
Keith Adams, an engineer at Facebook, said that he was expected to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week for six weeks of the year: "During on-call duty, engineers are responsible for keeping the service up and running, come what may. For those weeks I don't leave town on the weekend.
Another former employee said that they were put on a strenuous performance improvement plan: "I was working 12-14 hour days, on my phone constantly and being hyper aware of my performance."
2) No privacy
An anonymous Facebook engineer said that because the culture of Facebook encourages employees to "be themselves" the company lacks "professionalism":
"At most companies, you put up a wall between a work personality and a personal one, which ends up with a professional workspace.
"This wall does not exist at Facebook which can lead to some uncomfortable situations."
Another employee said that workers have "no privacy whatsoever at work. At any time."
3) Lack of focus
A former intern at Facebook said that there had been a "complete lack of focus" on their team while at the company.
Another employee said that Facebook did not yet have a functional infrastructure and that trying to figure out how to do "cool" things with a team of 4,000 people is far harder than doing them with a team of 500:
"We're growing so fast and have never emphasised organisation, polish, or stability."
A former employee said that this lack of focus had a big impact on workers: "Instructions were not clear, everything was a guessing game, and I was immediately set up to fail. And when I didn't perform, I was told I lacked intuition as a professional.
4) Not as exciting as it seems
While Facebook may seem an exciting company to work for, the reality is different according to some employees. Said one source: "Knowing that you are part of an overhyped public company that was supposed to be valued over $200 billion by now but which had a dismal public offering that left many employees feeling totally helpless as they saw the value of their stock collapse."
One anonymous former employee said: " It was probably my worst professional experience to date. I was temporarily assigned [as an admin] with very little guidance or support, serving two of the worst leaders I've ever interacted with.
The team treated me like garbage and I was asked to really inappropriate tasks.'
Those tasks included separating the director's dirty laundry.
5) Poor attitude of executives
Referring to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, a source complains that the two spend way too much time on "extracurricular activities" and allegedly copying off the competition (i.e., Poke, which bears a resemblance to Snapchat).

Read more -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/10282682/Facebook-employees-reveal-the-worst-things-about-working-for-the-social-network.html

Sen. John McCain caught playing poker during a U.S. Senate Committee Foreign Relations hearing on Syria -

Sen. John McCain caught playing poker during a U.S. Senate Committee Foreign Relations hearing on Syria - 



Senator John McCain plays poker on his IPhone during a U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing where Secretary of State JohnKerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey testify concerning the use of force in Syria, on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, Tuesday, September 3, 2013. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Update 6:38 p.m.: After the photo made the rounds on Twitter, McCain tweeted the following in response:

John McCain        ✔ @SenJohnMcCain

Scandal! Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing - worst of all I lost!

6:29 PM - 3 Sep 2013

Read more -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics-live/the-senates-syria-hearing-live-updates/?id=ed01ca14-222b-4a23-b12c-c0b0d9d4fe0a

Chinese Vendors Selling 'Pee Straight' Funnels to Help Men Avoid New Fines... -

Chinese Vendors Selling 'Pee Straight' Funnels to Help Men Avoid New Fines... - 



An entrepreneur in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has unveiled a contraption designed to help those who miss the mark at a urinal: the 'Pee Straight.'
The invention came in the wake of a new law known as the Shenzhen City Public Toilet Management Act, which allows sanitation managers and other officials to slap a $15 fine on those caught making a mess of municipal toilets while relieving themselves. The law also cracks down on anybody defacing, littering or smoking in public privies.
The Pee Straight is a simple contraption. A standard funnel affixed to what appears to be a 10-inch piece of tube pipe, the device comes in his and hers versions -- hers has a shorter pipe -- and is being marketed to those who have trouble with their aim.

At $1.65 per unit, it's not likely to make the device's inventor, Ma Xianqing, rich -- he was quoted saying as much in local Shenzhen press. But he espoused the civic value of the Pee Straight and also listed its many benefits, including being able to protect a user’s privacy from peeping Toms who may lurk in restrooms. 

Read more - 

http://behindthewall.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/03/20303801-having-trouble-with-your-aim-chinese-contraption-helps-you-pee-straight?lite

Scientists: Caffeine Could Help Combat Liver Disease -

Scientists: Caffeine Could Help Combat Liver Disease - 



Coffee drinkers rejoice, your morning “cup of Joe” may be helping out your liver.

Recent studies led researchers to believe that the equivalent caffeine consumption of four cups of coffee a day might be helpful against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is when the liver gets fatty deposits through diet and non-alcohol consumption.

Currently, there is no other treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease except for modifications to the patient’s diet.

Researchers discovered that caffeine stimulates the metabolization of lipids, or fat, in the liver in mice that were fed a high-fat diet.

According to Sci-News, this study could lead to new drugs based on caffeine that would lead to therapeutic effects on the liver, without caffeine’s normal side effects.

Dr. Paul M. Yen, a researcher in the study, says that the results are so promising that “it could serve as a starting point for studies on the full benefits of caffeine and related therapeutics in humans.”

Read more- 

http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2013/09/03/scientists-caffeine-could-help-combat-liver-disease/

Cop Shot When Child Pulls Trigger On His Holstered Gun At School Event... -

Cop Shot When Child Pulls Trigger On His Holstered Gun At School Event... - 



A Lodi Police SWAT officer had a Glock .35 with a flashlight in his thigh holster at a children’s reading event when a boy managed to pull the trigger and shoot the officer.

“It doesn’t have an external safety or anything like that,” said Lt. Sierra Brucia with the department. “The gun functioned how it was supposed to. When the trigger was pulled, the gun went off.”

The officer was showing off the department’s SWAT truck, vest and other gear at a children’s event called Reading Roundup on Aug. 24.

“A small child, witnesses tell us was 6 to 8 years old, was able to walk up to the officer and was able to pull the trigger.”

The bullet hit the officer’s leg. He was taken to the hospital for a minor injury and released.

The department is investigating the shooting to see if protocols or procedures need to be changed to prevent the same thing from happening again.

Officers want to find the child and his parents to piece together what went wrong.

“Hopefully, speaking to the child and the child’s parents to find out how they were able to get access to the officer’s gun, what the child’s intent may have been—we don’t know if it was accidental or unintentional.”

Police say because the gun was in a holster the accomodate the attached flashlight, the trigger was more accessible.

The officer has been on the SWAT team for 5 years. He is back on duty.



Read more - 

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/09/02/lodi-police-officer-shot-when-child-pulled-trigger-on-his-gun-at-reading-event/