Both of these need a little elaboration.
First, the Reynolds story details how reporters have all been parroting not only what Palin actually said, but how they misconstrued what they thought she said, or what they wanted her to say. And second that, believe it or not, the US government has no choice but to economize through “rationing boards,” an idea detailed in a linked story published in July by the New York Times.
The second headline about mind reading security systems should send a shiver down anyone's spine, and send us to our libraries looking to blow dust from our old sci fi classic. But the story goes on to describe not real mind-reading devices, but rather a high tech camera and TV screen system that flashes very specific images at individuals and gages their reactions. Scarrier still, the company promoting this new product calls itself WeCU. All of it seems logical enough. Some muscle responses, facial expressions and so forth are totally involuntary. The implications for the success of such a new tool are tremendous. But so, unfortunately, is the potential for its abuse. As are the mistakes that will undoubtedly be made in learning how to figure out what is a real positive response vs. a false positive response – something that gets lie detector tests kicked out of the court room all the time.
The next kind of “security” scanner, I'm sure, will be neural MRI in its orientation, and probably also part of a combination of new technologies, which is likely to include the already proposed national ID cards, other scanners and computer databases, etc, etc, etc.
If George Orwell and writer Aldous Huxley actually meant “Fear-filled New World” when they made their comments on the “Brave New World,” then they may have been on to something.
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