Fifth Circuit Opinion in United States v. Morton Threatens Cell Phone Users’ Privacy

Last week, the Fifth Circuit issued its decision in United States v. Morton, rolling back its earlier Fourth Amendment protections for cell phone users by giving the police almost unlimited ability to search through a person’s phone whenever the person is suspected of a crime.

There were two main issues in the case: whether police need specific evidence that a person used a phone to commit crimes in order to search it, and whether police can search a phone’s entire contents when they have probable cause to search some of it (e.g., searching through photos and web history as well as messages). A panel of Fifth Circuit judges originally ruled partially in favor of Mr. Morton, but the government successfully petitioned the entire Fifth Circuit to re-hear the case en banc.

EPIC, along with the ACLU and the EFF, submitted an amicus brief before the Court with two main arguments: Police cannot establish probable cause to search through a person’s phone by simply saying “criminals often use cell phones as the tools of their trade,” and probable cause to search some information on a cell phone does not establish probable cause to search through all of the information. But the en banc Court reversed the panel’s previous ruling, declaring that because the officers relied in good faith on a not-obviously-unconstitutional warrant, the evidence should not be suppressed (also known as the good-faith exception).

This is just one of many cases in which courts rely on the good-faith exception to avoid ruling on the merits of important Fourth Amendment cases. In a concurring opinion, Judge Higginson expressed concern that the rule would allow too many cell phones to be searched with very little evidence, and he provided some possible ways to make future searches more privacy-protective. In a dissenting opinion, Judge Graves criticized an overactive use of the good-faith exception. EPIC has long advocated for protections against overbroad digital searches and for robust enforcement of the Fourth Amendment.

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The Beginners Guide to Growing Your Hot Pepper Plants

Hot chili peppers are one of the most fun plants to grow in your garden whether you’re a spicy food fan or not. Their unique fruits are beautiful (and sometimes crazy!) to look at and your harvests can be abundant. But for some people, growing hot chili peppers can be a real challenge. To get the best out of them, you need to provide them with the best conditions for their growth.

If you have a curiosity about growing hot peppers in your garden but don’t know where to start, then this step-by-step beginner’s guide to growing hot chili peppers will help make growing them a whole lot easier and enjoyable.

In this article, we will tell you the step-by-step procedure to grow pepper plants in your garden and the necessary tips to take care of them. Also, we will answer some most commonly asked questions about hot pepper plants.

So without any further ado, let’s begin!

How Long Does It Take For A Chili Pepper Plant To Grow?

Planting hot pepper plants for the first time? Don’t know how long to wait to see your plants bear the peppers? Well, it might not be too long. The pepper plants have a long growing season of approximately 60 to 150 days.

The sweet peppers grow early, but the hot ones take a bit longer.

Step-By-Step Guide

You can grow hot pepper plants using hot pepper seeds by following these steps:

  1. First, sow the seeds indoors and later place them at an outdoor location.
  2. Sow seeds in pots or flats 8 to 10 weeks before the expected outdoor planting date.
  3. Make sure the seeds are one-quarter inches deep.
  4. Use a heat mat or heating cables to provide heat to them.
  5. Maintain room temperature and use grow lights to provide them lightly for 16 hours daily.
  6. When the soil dries, add little water to it. Excessive water should be avoided.
  7. Make sure to add diluted liquid organic fertilizer to the water once every week.
  8. After 8 to 10 weeks, look for a fertile and well-drained soil patch in your garden and transfer the plants there.
  9. Place the plants 12 to 18 inches apart and use a tomato cage as support.
  10. Keep watering them at regular intervals but make sure that the water is added to the soil and not sprinkled on plants.
  11. Keep doing these practices for 2 to 3 months or the duration mentioned on the seed packet.
  12. Now, your hot peppers are all ready to be harvested from the plants. Use gloves to pick them up as a precaution.

What Do You need To Care About A Hot Pepper Plant?

If you’re growing how chili pepper plants in your garden, you need to take good care of them. They don’t require as much attention as say, a newborn child, but still, you need to be cautious about your hot pepper plants.

Below are the things you need to care about:

  • Pinch out the tips to encourage the bushy growth of your plant.
  • Your plant might need staking if it’s of a tall variety.
  • Water your plants regularly.
  • Do not expose plants to a cold…

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Law360: Twitter’s Alleged Security Failures Fuel Data Privacy Law Push

“What we’re learning about Twitter today is alarming, although in some sense it’s not surprising because this type of inadequate data security and privacy protections are far more routine than they should be, and that’s due to a lack of comprehensive federal data privacy legislation and regulation,” said John Davisson, senior counsel and director of litigation at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

“These allegations underscore the urgency for Congress to enact federal legislation,” Davisson added.

Read the full article here.

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Exploring Fiber Farming With Ruby Wolf Farm

Growing up, Lauren Slingluff remembers her mom having a floor loom in the house. “She made beautiful work on it,” says Slingluff. “I learned how to sew and later how to knit and weave. Most recently I learned how to spin and process raw fiber.”

Those formative fiber moments inspired Slingluff to start Ruby Wolf Farm when she moved to Connecticut three years ago. Embracing hobby farm life, Slingluff graduated from raising chickens to acquiring a couple of non-fiber goats before securing some cashmere and angora goats. Slingluff’s current setup now specializes in producing handmade sewn goods while raising her animals.

We spoke to Slingluff about building up her fiber farm and the character of her goats. We also spotlighted a farm star named Callie.

Building Up the Fiber Farm

“I’d say it’s been a slow build over the last three years as we learn and decide what works best for us,” says Slingluff when she looks back on how Ruby Wolf Farm has developed.

The farm’s initial fiber animals were sourced from Laughing Goat Farms in upstate New York. This allowed Slingluff to start to “learn which breeds we preferred for raising and for finished fiber.” Part of the process has also included “driving back from a fiber festival with goats in the back of my car!”

Read more: Keep Angora goats for their fine Mohair fiber.

Embracing Fiber Farming

Slingluff says that one of the joys of fiber farming is that it is not necessarily that intensive on a daily basis. As long as her goats are provided with hay, grain and water, she says they are pretty self-sufficient in the pasture.

“The most helpful thing we have found is to just spend time with your herd when you aren’t trying to catch them for a shot or to trim their hooves,” she explains.

“If every time I go in the field I’m trying to wrangle them for something they don’t want to do, it becomes harder and harder to get them. So I go outside on lunch breaks and in the morning or evening to just sit with them, give treats and give pets. Now they’re much easier to grab when I have to take care of something.”

Living with Goats

Goats have a reputation for possessing a mischievous streak—and Slingluff says that her tribe can get “incredibly creative.” She says that after building extra tall fences to prevent the goats from jumping over them, they figured out how to get under the barriers.

“We recently got five more cashmere goats from Hidden Brook Farm in Eastford,” she adds, “and it’s been a lot of fun seeing how playful and bouncy they are as babies.”

Read more: Sheep and goats bring year-round value to the small farm!

Let’s Meet Callie the Diva

One of the standout personalities at Ruby Wolf Farm is Callie. Originally a…

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The Verge: University can’t scan students’ rooms during remote tests, judge rules

Such programs have been controversial among students and have received pushback from prominent digital privacy organizations as well as government officials. The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed complaints against Honorlock and four similar proctoring services in late 2020, calling their practices “inherently invasive.”

Read the full article here.

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If You See This Weed Growing In Your Yard, Don’t Smell It

If you are like millions of people across America, seasonal plant allergies are probably a dreaded aspect of the changing seasons.

While we can be allergic to everything from cats to coriander, one allergy is so common that most people immediately feel the burning, itching, and sneezing it brings each season.

Almost 25 million people in America suffer each year thanks to ragweed, which causes them to battle a runny nose, itchy eyes, endless sneezing, and labored breathing.

Unfortunately, almost 20 variations of this plant can be found in 49 of the 50 United States, with Alaska being the only state in which it does not grow.

Two types of ragweed are typically encountered in North America, common ragweed and giant ragweed.

What Is Ragweed?

If You See This Weed Growing In Your Yard, Don’t Smell ItRagweed is a common plant that emerges in the spring and sets seeds in the late summer/fall.

Found growing in shallow soils across the U.S., North America, and throughout Europe, the ongoing and often invasive spread of ragweed is fueled by climate change.

Related: 7 Foraging Mistakes That Might Get You Killed

Its pollen is notoriously known for causing allergic reactions. It is thought that more than half the pollen-related allergic rhinitis (hay fever) results from various types of ragweed growing worldwide.

The most widespread variant of this annoying plant is the common ragweed, also known as Ambrosia artemisiifolia.

Identification

Ragweed can be challenging to identify due to the many variations found worldwide. Common ragweed can remain mere centimeters or tower to more than four feet tall.

giant ragweed plantThe leaves of a ragweed plant are as diverse as the plant itself and can be found growing alternately, oppositely, or both.

The giant ragweed species has palmate leaves, meaning the leaves look like the palm of a hand.

While the leaves of giant ragweed generally have serrated edges, this is not always the case.

On the other hand, common ragweed has leaves that are made up of multiple smaller leaves. The common ragweed leaves are more fern-like and are referred to as twice, or double compound leaves.

Related: 11 Dangerous Plants You Should Never Have In Your Backyard

Among the standard variety, the leaves of the common ragweed generally remain more diminutive in size. Common ragweed leaves usually grow to around  6 inches long and 4 inches across.

The stem of a ragweed plant can also differ depending on the type and location of the weed, but they generally form to become a flower spike which allows them to quickly release seeds at the end of their seasonal cycle.

ragweed plantRagweed plants flower to produce and spread seeds.

The flowers of the ragweed plant are said to be inflorescence, a small cluster arranged on a stem. The tiny blossoms may go unnoticed by gardeners, who overlook them due to their appearance as small, yellowish bumps.

The flowers…

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