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Family and friends of Justine Damond gathered for a vigil in Sydney, Australia, on July 19. Damond died after being shot by Minneapolis police.

In life, Justine Damond was a yoga instructor. In death, she is a Rorschach test.

Earlier this month, Minneapolis police responded to Damonds emergency call about a possible sexual assault and ended up killing her. To a lawyer representing her family, she is the most innocent victim of any police shooting he has ever seen. In Damonds native Australia, politicians and citizens see her fate as further proof of American lawlessness so unchecked that even the police are as much predators as protectors.

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Right-wing media highlight the accused officers ethnicity he is a Somali-American and proclaim him an emblem of the failings of political correctness. And for those who have watched the killings of people of color treated with indifference and victim-blaming excuses, Damonds death reinforces what they already knew that a white woman will be afforded compassion, a presumption of virtue, and official recourse that no black or brown man, woman, or child killed by a police officer would ever receive.

Yet lost in this maelstrom is any meaningful discussion of how yet another person who called 911 ended up getting shot to death by a police officer who was initially sent to help.

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On Wednesday, as the controversy over Damonds death spiraled, acting Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo ordered all officers to activate their body cameras in response to every traffic stop, call, or self-initiated response. When Damond was killed, both officers Mohamed Noor, who fired the fatal shot, and Matthew Harrity had their body cams turned off. Harrity said he and Noor were startled by a loud sound just before Noor shot Damond.

Choosing to obey a police officer is never a guarantee that a person of color wont still be shot dead by a cop.

While concrete changes after police shootings usually occur at a glacial pace, if at all, this is the second major departmental shift since Damonds death. Less than a week after the killing, Police Chief Jane Harteau resigned, and Mayor Betsy Hodges said in a statement, she had lost confidence in the Chiefs ability to lead us further.

Hodges suffered no such loss of confidence in Harteau after police shot Jamar Clark, an African-American man, to death in November 2015. Neither officer involved in Clarks killing was indicted.

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Its too early to know if Noor will be charged in Damonds death, but one thing is already clear: He isnt receiving the kind of lavish support conservatives usually bestow on police officers. Thats because this police shooting calls forth an ancient but omnipresent white American fear the killing of a white woman by a black man.

Fox News, which rarely questions the actions of police officers, referred to Noor as an Somali immigrant cop. For no obvious reason, the same story mentioned that the Noor spoke Somali at home, as if thats a clue into what happened the night Damond died. This is the same channel that tried to make Trayvon Martins hoodie as complicit in his own killing as shooter George Zimmerman.

Other right-wing outlets hoping to inflame already agitated emotions about immigration and Islam call Noor a Muslim cop. Former Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann branded the officer, the precincts first Somali-American, as an affirmative-action hire and cryptically wondered if Damond was killed for cultural reasons. Whatever that means. Even Noors police union has been relatively quiet, instead of defending a fellow officer.

As the investigation into Damonds death continues, its international multi-story narrative has almost overgrown the initial incident.

Of course, there was far less widespread attention a month earlier when Seattle police shot to death Charleena Lyles, a pregnant mother of four struggling with mental health issues, after she reported a burglary. Or the case of Ismael Lopez in Mississippi, shot dead last Sunday by police who mistakenly went to his home to serve a warrant meant for his neighbor.

Yet the best we can get are cursory conversations about improving police training. Last year police killed more than 950 people. Whether or not juries recognize it, not every shooting is justified. Systemic failings in police training nationwide create antagonistic community relationships in which citizens fear police and police arrive expecting the worst and respond with lethal force as the only option.

Damonds death is a tragedy, but no more so than that of anyone else inexplicably killed by police. The only difference is that Damond was a white woman. Beyond that, were left with the same vexing questions, but already know this much is true: Innocent citizens of every race and gender will continue to die because, when police officers are trained to be hammers, everything around them looks like a nail.

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A nation of nails, policed by hammers - The Boston Globe

Considerations for youth and social networking Part 6: The role of photo captions Help youth take a critical look at how a photo caption can change the photos perception.

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Christine Heverly, Michigan State University Extension

According to Teens, Social Media and Technology Overview 2015 by the Pew Research Center, nearly three-quarters of teenagers ages 13-17 have access to a smartphone. Of those teens, 92 percent report going online daily and 71 percent say they are using at least one social networking site. With this high usage of social networking and teenagers going online, there are many factors adults should consider when helping youth navigate their usage of social networking sites.

In addition, youth enjoy sharing photos through social media tools as is evident by the popularity of Instagram and Snapchat with younger demographics. It is extremely important to help youth understand how to properly caption a photo because the caption can change the photos entire perception.

Adults need to be aware of two major factors when addressing captioning of photos.

Pictures can be taken in a variety of ways. Help youth understand every picture that is shared with others paints a picture of that youth. Others can use this information to make assumptions about the youth or even locate a youth.

Imagine seeing a photo of a group of youth who are doing a park clean-up where everyone who sees the photo can come away with a different opinion on what is happening. Some people will think that is a great group of youth who are trying to help out the community, while others would question why those youth are cleaning the park or what did they do wrong to have to clean up the park.

For example, look at the two following caption options: Its a great day to do a park clean up or UGH, why do I have to doing this? Each gives the viewer a different perspective on what is happening.

Pictures are a way youth look for feedback and advice. Many times, youth will post photos online with a question seeking advice or wanting feedback from their friends. For example, if a youth shares a photo on social media asking, What should I do? this simple caption could get a whole range of responses, some positive, sarcastic or even negative.

Due to the ease of being able to type a response behind a screen, the advice may not be genuine. Adults need to take the time to have a conversation with youth about thinking before responding to a photo caption.

Youth enjoy sharing photos through social media, so help them understand how the caption they give a photo can completely change a photo. Help youth understand that every picture that is shared with others paints a picture of that youth. Others can use these photos and captions to start making assumptions about the youth that could have negative consequences.

Technology changes, apps come and go, and the next wave in social media platforms will come about. Those changes may occur, but it does not change that we need to help youth think about the photos they share and the captions they write on a phone. Adults should be continually reminding youth that they need to take a few moments to think before sharing a photo.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit http://expert.msue.msu.edu, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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Considerations for youth and social networking Part 6: The role of photo captions - Michigan State University Extension

Congress should sunset any extension of the intelligence communitys dubious electronic surveillance authority to intercept, store, and search the contents of international communications under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments of 2008.

Enacted in 2008, section 702 initially sunset in 2012. Congress later extended the sunset date until December 31, 2017.

Generally speaking, a statute should sunset whenever predictable changes in technology threaten statutory obsolescence; its encroachment on liberty is unknown or uncertain; the statutes effectiveness is doubtful; the governments compliance with the statute is spotty; or, the constitutionality of the statute remains in doubt.

All five of these time-honored considerations militate in favor of a sunset date for any extension of section 702 beyond December 31, 2017.

Digital technologies are changing a warp speed. What is science fiction today is reality tomorrow.

The changes affect the ways in which international communications are conducted; and, government capabilities for intercepting, storing, and searching the contents of international communications. Indeed, section 702 responded in part to the migration of international telecommunications from satellite to fiber. The development of cloud technologies has has confounded the Stored Communications Act of 1986 as illustrated by the United States Court of Appeals decision in Microsoft Corp. v. United States.

The governments technical capabilities for intercepting, storing, and searching the contents of international communications are rapidly expanding. These pioneering technologies might easily evade limits imposed by section 702 written by Congress with an eye on 2017. Any section 702 extension should thus sunset in four years to insure against a horse-and-buggy statute governing in an age of interstate highways.

Another sunset for 702 is also prudent because of the governments professed ignorance of its to intercept or search the international communications of American citizens protected by the Fourth Amendment. At present, the government insists it is unable to distinguish between electronic communications between foreign persons located outside the United States and communications between a foreigner and a U.S. person in the United States. Thus, Congress is clueless as to the magnitude of section 702 invasions of the constitutionally protected privacy of United States citizens. This information should be known and disclosed by the intelligence community before Congress should even consider making section 702 permanent.

The effectiveness of section 702 in thwarting international terrorism or espionage is questionable. After nine years, the intelligence community has yet to document a single case in which section 702 enabled the preemption of an international terrorist act in the United States. Former National Security Agency official and renowned expert Bill Binney has opined that the NSA cannot identify future terrorism because 99.9999% of what it collects and analyzes is foreseeably irrelevant. NSA analysts are theoretically tasked with reviewing 40,000 to 50,000 questionable records each day. If section 702 is largely irrelevant to frustrating international terrorism, it amounts to a massive invasion of privacy for its own sakean illicit government objective.

The government has commonly violated section 702 surveillance limitations. Illustrative but far from exhaustive was the April 26, 2017 FISC decision authored by Judge Rosemary Collyer sharply rebuking the intelligence community for illegal surveillance of American citizens over a five-year period which raised very serious constitutional questions. These chronic violations also argue against any permanent extension of section 702.

Finally, the section seemingly authorizes dragnet, warrantless interceptions and searches of the contents of the international communications of American citizens in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The statute does not require any suspicion that citizens whose communications are seized and searched are implicated in international terrorism, espionage, or other crime as a predicate for invading their communications privacy.

The United States Supreme Court has yet to address the constitutionality of section 702. Congress should refrain from giving it permanent life unless and until it receives the Courts gives imprimatur. Caution is the order of the day when skating close to the Constitutions edge.

In sum, every dictate of prudence favors a congressional four-year sunset if it decides to extend section 702 beyond December 31, 2017. That would compel a fresh and more informed congressional examination of the statute after the 2020 presidential election.

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Sunset any Extension of Electronic Surveillance Authority - HuffPost

The founders of the online news publication that will help in the defense of a Fort Gordon contractor accused of leaking a classified document were among the first to report on the National Security Agency surveillance of citizens in other countries and at home in 2013, using thousands of documents leaked by a former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden.

While the document published by The Intercept which the government says came from NSA contract employee Reality Leigh Winner of Augusta is still considered classified by prosecutors, it allegedly concerns the NSA analysis of Russias efforts to infiltrate a voting software company and infect computers used by state election officials. The Intercept published a story based on the analysis, and Winner was arrested June 3.

According to The Intercepts site, journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill founded the online publication dedicated to fearless, adversarial journalism. EBays founder Pierre Omidyar provided the funding in 2013 for First Look Media in 2013, a non-profit, which launched The Intercept.

The Intercept has an average of 5 million visitors a month, said Vivian Siu, director of communications for First Look.

The online publication has a lot of readers in and outside of the U. S., said Rick Edmonds, media business analysis with the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit school for journalism. The Intercept began as a site for leaked documents but has expanded into other areas, Edmonds said. Non-profit, online publications are definitely a growing part of journalism and investigative reporting, he said.

The non-profit, online publication ProPublica has been publishing significant investigative work, Edmonds noted. There is also the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that won a Pulitzer Prize for the Panama Papers investigation into the finances of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, which led to his resignation Friday. The new form of journalism has a significant presence, Edmonds said.

I believe that great journalism boils down to a few key principles, Scahill wrote in an article asking for readers support for investigative journalism. Hold those in power accountable, regardless of their political or corporate affiliations; give voice to the voiceless; provide people with information they can use to make informed decisions; be transparent with your readers about how you know what you know; (and) make sure your facts are straight.

Scahill won a George Polk Award for his reporting in war zones and for his 2008 report about Blackwater, the private armed security force. Greenwald is a journalist and attorney who wrote four New York Times best-sellers on politics and law. He also wrote No Place to Hide about the U.S. surveillance and his experience in reporting on the Snowden documents. In 2013 he was awarded a George Polk award and several others for his reporting on the Snowden documents.

Poitras was also awarded a George Polk award and shared the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service with The New York Times. Poitras left The Intercept for Field of Vision, which is also part of First Look Media. She was awarded an Academy Award for best documentary in 2015.

The Intercept has won a number of national journalism awards. It focuses on national security, politics, civil liberties, the environment, international affairs, technology, criminal justice, the media and more, according to its website. And it seeks whistleblowers, providing an email site and online drop box.

In Winners case, the Press Freedom Defense Fund of the First Look Media is giving $50,000 in matching funds to Stand with Reality, a fundraising campaign. First Looks attorney Baruch Weiss, a former U.S. attorney with experience in NSA investigations, will support Winners local defense team.

Winner is in custody without bond. She has pleaded not guilty to one count of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.

Reach Sandy Hodson at sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com or (706) 823-3226

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Online site backing defense of accused NSA leaker founded to promote fearless journalism - The Augusta Chronicle

Here are the best tools that let you record everything that happens in Windows, along with audio and even commentary

There are many reasons why you might want to record your screen rather than take a screenshot. Sometimes a still image of a Windows app isn't enough and what you really want is a videoshowing the on-screen action. A screenshot is the equivalent of a photo, but recording a video your screen can better help to explain to someone how to fix a problem when you're offering technical support, or you might want to make videos for YouTube. You might want to record a gaming session and share it with friends, or something else entirely.

In addition to just the on-screen action, your movie can include an audio commentary or, if you prefer, on-screen annotations or captions to explain what youre doing. Just like screen shots, the end result can easily be emailed, or hosted on your website.

See also: how to take a screenshot in Windows 10

As with most software, not all screen recorders are created equal and while there are free versions, they typically lack the flexibility and video-editing options of paid-for products. Here we've rounded up a range including both free and paid-for packages so you can choose the one that suits your needs.

If it's not Windows you want to capture, check out our separate guide on how to record an iPad's screen

Flashback Express is a completely free screen recorder for Windows. It's easy to use, quick to download and offers the kind of feature set that you'd fully expect to have to pay for.

Indeed, it looks and works a lot like Camtasia (which costs 185) yet requires only your email address, to which the free licence key is sent.

There are tutorial videos, but they're barely needed as the dark-style interface is intuitive and the first-time use guides you to the right buttons to press anyway.

Once you've finished your recording the editor opens and you can tweak your recording. Here you'll notice the limitations, such as being able to crop / zoom in on a region but not being able to choose the position of the crop: it's centred on the mouse cursor.

If you want to unlock the full feature set, you can upgrade to FlashBack Pro for $49 (39.50).

Read our FlashBack Express review

Built into Windows 10 is Game DVR. As the name suggests, it can record gameplay clips (and also screenshots).

Compared to utilities such as OBS Studio which can stream games live, Game DVR is extremely basic. But it's easy to use and has a couple of neat features.

Simply press Windows + G and the Game Bar will appear. You can hit the record button to start recording the game in the background. Then, in the game press Windows + Alt + G to save the previous 30 seconds of play.

To start a recording in game, press Windows + Alt + R. Afterwards you can share the file as you would any video file.

For the full tutorial, see How to record games in Windows 10.

Standing for Open Broadcaster Software, this open source screen recorder has a steep learning curve. It's not really for beginners, although it's primarily aimed at those wanting to stream using Twitch or YouTube.

But you can just as well use it to record what happens on the Windows Desktop. Despite being free, it's not a trial and won't limit the length of capture or add a watermark.

There's help on the website, but to save you time, when you first use OBS Studio, click the + button in the Sources box and select 'Display capture' and you'll see your desktop (you can specify which monitor if you have more than one).

Alternatively, you can select Game capture and it will happily record full-screen games, something that a lot of software refuses to do.

Camtasia(previously called Camtasia Studio)is a powerful screen recorder tool that makes it easy to record what's happening on your PC, convert the results into a polished presentation, then share it with the world.

As well as recording applications, you can also use it to record (and subsequently edit) games too.

When youre making tutorials, you can highlight the mouse pointer and clicks, as well as easily zooming into an area of the screen to make it easier to follow what youre doing.

The drawback is the price. At 185, its only for those who are going to do a lot of recording and need Camtasias editing tools.

Plus, as well as Windows, its also available for macOS.

Read our Camtasia review

CamStudio is open-source software which is completely free to use for personal as well as commercial projects.

It hasnt been updated since 2013, and only outputs in SWF format (streaming Flash video) but it does a lot for free. You can record only a portion of the screen if you like, and you can add captions if youre making a video for Facebook or you just dont want to record your own voice.

And given that there are plenty of free video converters, you can still produce an MP4 video for free.

Possibly best of all, it wont watermark your videos like free or trial versions of some competitors, but it lacks the post-capture video editing tools youll find elsewhere.

Screencast-O-Matic records your computer's audio and video and lets you edit the area of your screen that you want to record.

With the free version you can only record 15 minutes of video, and sticks a Screen-O-Matic watermark on your videos.

You can publish your videos in MP4, AVI and FLV formats as well as automatically upload them to YouTube.

The full version costs 10 per year ($15) and lets you record as much video as you want, and it has the ability to do so in HD and as you would expect removes the watermark.

Able to capture both screenshots and video of your desktop, Icecream screen recorder is a modern app which has both a free and paid-for version.

It can output MP4 videos, records audio from your laptop or PC's mic, and can also overlay video from a webcam so people can see who you are as you guide them through whatever it is you're doing.

You can draw on screen as you record, too.

However, if you stick with the free version (which is only for personal projects) you're limited to 10-minute recordings in WEBM format and you don't get the full range of editing options either.

The PRO version costs 19.95 from icecreamapps.com

SnagIt 13 is a big update on previous versions of the screen capture software. It's made by the same company as Camtasia, and even though it's primarily a screenshot tool, it can now record and edit video.

Thissounds like it's competing with Camtasia, and to a large degree it is, as long as your capture and editing demands aren't too great.

And although not free, it's considerably more affordable than Camtasia at 46 inc VAT from TechSmith. Plus, there's a free trial so you can see if it does what you need before shelling out.

Steps Recorder has been built into Windows since Windows 7 and you can use it like a screen recorder to get help troubleshooting a problem or even make your own How To guides. Youll find it if you search for Steps recorder in the start menu

Unlike other screen recorders it doesnt output a video, since its mainly designed for troubleshooting Windows problems its full name is Problem Steps Recorder. What you get when you hit Stop is a series of screenshots and captions which explain exactly what you did in that step.

So, on this basis, it may not be what youre after at all, but if you do want an easy way to take a series of screenshots, its certainly convenient.

For a step-by-step guide, see How to use Windows Steps Recorder

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Best free screen recorders - Tech Advisor