Read "Some Assembly Required"

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Here are a few items - for your reading pleasure
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This Week In Surveillance: New streetlights are being rolled out that will not only provide light (except in Harrisburg), but will “harvest data and digital media” through proximity sensors that record both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. In Tennessee, Homeland Security is setting up Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response centers at highway rest stops, weigh stations and bus stations and is recruiting truckers to act as informants. This, officials said, was not in response to any particular threat, they just felt like doing it. And in and around Flint, Michigan, the Sheriff is pulling over people at random and searching for drugs. This has already been ruled illegal, but the Sheriff doesn't seem to mind. And those shoes with the GPS tracking chip in them – designed to locate Alzheimer patients who wander off – have other potential uses...

Essay Question: In 10 words or less, explain why 2,511 Occupy protesters have been arrested and not a single banker.

Maybe It's A + B: GDP's up, with a lot of credit given to consumer spending (PCE), yet consumer sentiment is very gloomy. How can that be? Utilities and healthcare spending were big contributors to PCE, while the savings rate fell. Breaking the piggy bank to pay the doctor, that'll do the trick.

Old News: The Fukushima disaster released nearly double the amount of radiation the Japanese government has claimed, even after several upward revisions. Golly Gee.