Fun Fact of the Day

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The new car smell is actually is a complex mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), primarily alkanes and substituted benzenes along with a few aldehydes and ketones.

Individual components of new car smell probably aren’t harmful at the concentrations found in cars, but the cumulative effects of long-term exposure to the total mix of VOCs could pose health problems. Fortunately, high concentrations of these compounds quickly dissipate just a few months after manufacture. And although VOC concentrations can reach unhealthy levels in a closed vehicle on a warm day, the air-exchange rate in a car is high when someone opens a door, rolls down a window, or turns on the air conditioner.

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Tech and the Fourth Amendment – Gov’t should be limited.

technologyThe Department of Justice was in the process of using the courts to force Apple to assist in deactivating the security features on the iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook, the shooter in the San Bernardino massacre back in December 2015, when it had discovered a way to access the data without Apple’s help.   What the DOJ wanted was to force Apple to make software to deactivate the “self destruct” mechanism that erases the phone once the number of unsuccessful attempts to enter the security code has been reached. Continue reading