Next time you're reaching down for that iPod or Zune (or anything else for that matter), take care that you don't alarm the authorities with any suspicious movements -- or you could end up like the UK's Darren Nixon. Apparently, the mild-mannered mechanic was on his way home from work when the Bobbies surrounded him and drew their guns, believing that the MP3 player in his pocket was a firearm. According to the Daily Mail, Mr. Nixon was tracked on CCTV, arrested at gunpoint, swabbed for DNA, fingerprinted, and thrown in a cell -- all for listening to a bootleg of Chinese Democracy on a 4GB Philips GoGear. Said Darren, "I was really shocked when I saw the guns. They were pointing them right at me. It was a pretty scary experience. I had no idea what was going on." After the team of Mentat cops realized their mistake, they couldn't even offer an apology, said Nixon, "They just dropped me off at home and said a quick 'sorry for any inconvenience', and that was all I got from them, which I thought was pretty out of order." Once again, a hot serving of sweet justice.

[Via CrunchGear]

We've been loosely following the biometric firearm scene for a couple years now, but this might well be the first time we've heard anything about password protection for your bullets. It's only a patent application as of right yet, but inventor Herbert Meyerle dreams of a day when guns have a system for firing rounds by means of a burst of electromagnetic energy, which could only be activated if a password entered into the handgun matches a password embedded in the cartridge of bullets. If that sounds a little roundabout, that's because it probably is; why fiddle with passwords -- which, once activated, wouldn't prevent your gun from being used against you before the password times out -- when biometric firearm verification makes so much more sense? As soon as you're not holding that gun, it just won't work. Or, you know, you can always hit up the swords to plowshares thing, whatever mode of gun safety does it for ya.

[Via New Scientist]