Archive for October, 2011
FBI Launching National Facial Recognition Program
Might be time to invest in one of those Pixelhead masks! Nextgov reports on the FBI’s new Big Brother-eque undertaking:
The FBI by mid-January will activate a nationwide facial recognition service in select states that will allow local police to identify unknown subjects in photos, bureau officials told Nextgov.
The federal government is embarking on a multiyear, $1 billion dollar overhaul of the FBI’s existing fingerprint database to more quickly and accurately identify suspects, partly through applying other biometric markers, such as iris scans and voice recordings.
Often law enforcement authorities will “have a photo of a person and for whatever reason they just don’t know who it is [but they know] this is clearly the missing link to our case,” said Nick Megna, a unit chief at the FBI’s criminal justice information services division. The new facial recognition service can help provide that missing link by retrieving a list of mug shots ranked…
Abolish Student Loan Debt?
Writing for the journal Reclamations, George Caffentzis wonders why there is no movement in the United States to abolish our increasingly oppressive system of institutionalized student loan debt:
Debt has had a crushing impact on the lives of those who must take student loans to finance their university education in the US. For tuition fees that have been so notoriously high in private universities now are rising in public universities so quickly they are far out-pacing inflation. Average loan debt per student in the US has been much higher than in Europe (with the exception of Sweden), though recent developments there would indicate that this gap may soon no longer exist (Usher).
We should also take into account the fraudulent way in which the loans have been administered by the banks and the vindictiveness with which those who have been unable to pay back have been pursued by collection agents. The most…
IKEA: The Architecture Of Consumer Confusion
Normally architects organize space to make the experience as efficient as possible. At IKEA though, however, the (almost ‘urban’) designers deliberately set out to confuse people. See this phenomenon analyzed [with] various (heat)maps, 3D reconstructions and other illustrations, in a talk (the IKEA case in starts at the 24:30 mark), by Alan Penn (University College London).
The presentation focuses on how architects use space to sell things, by demonstrating how space creates patterns of movement, bringing people into contact with goods. It starts off with how spatial quality influences spatial behavior, which is then applied on urban environments, retail and shopping spaces in general.
Newspapers To Disappear By 2040?
Taking, for example, the New York Times’ inability or unwillingness to properly cover the Occupy Wall Street protests, maybe this news isn’t all that bad. AFP reports:
Newspapers will disappear and be replaced by digital versions by 2040, the UN intellectual property agency’s chief said in an interview published on Monday.
Francis Gurry, who heads the World Intellectual Property Organisation told the daily La Tribune de Geneve that “in a few years, there will no longer be printed newspapers as we know it today.”
“It’s an evolution. There’s no good or bad about it. There are studies showing that they will disappear by 2040. In the United States, it will end in 2017,” he said.
Gurry noted that in the United States there are already more digital copies sold than paper copies of newspapers. In cities, there are also fewer bookshops.
A key problem is the revenue system.
“How can editors find revenues to pay those who write…
1950s Housewife Tries LSD
A “stable, well-balanced” housewife describes her experience after receiving a 100 gama dose of LSD-25 as part of government research — she served as a voluntary participant in clinical trials of the drug. She tries to express what she sees but unfortunately “can’t talk in technicolor.” She sums the journey up with, “I’ve never seen such infinite beauty…this is reality.” Luckily, people who attempt such encounters now are jailed.
Dennis Kucinich Tells Occupy Wall Street We Must Nationalize the Federal Reserve (Video)
Via: Infowars.com:
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following video and statement in support of the protestors on Wall Street and around the country who have identified themselves with the hashtag #OccupyWallStreet:
“To the young men and women who are braving the overreaction of local authorities to raise their voices against the corruption and manipulation of our nation that emanates from Wall Street: I say to you that your presence is making a difference. You are exercising the right every American holds most dear, the right of freedom of expression, and with that expression you are finally getting the attention of the nation.
We’re Facing Worst Financial Crisis Ever – Bank Of England
When uber-establishment figures like Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England (UK central bank) warn of an impending financial apocalypse, you know things are out of control. The Telegraph has the bad news:
The world is facing the worst financial crisis since at least the 1930s “if not ever”, the Governor of the Bank of England said last night.
Sir Mervyn King was speaking after the decision by the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to put £75billion of newly created money into the economy in a desperate effort to stave off a new credit crisis and a UK recession…
Jesus Antichrist: Does Joel’s Army Actually Worship Satan?
A central theme in Christian eschatology is the rise of the Antichrist. This Antichrist is supposed to trick millions (even billions) into worshiping him and, according to many on the Christian right, establish a one world government.
What better disguise for the ultimate false messiah to deceive the world than Jesus?
As I posted earlier, the Dominionist Joel’s Army movement believes less in feeding the poor and visiting those in prison like the Biblical Jesus taught than in slaughtering unbelievers and taking over all the countries of the world militarily and politically. The following video examines, from a more traditional Christian perspective, the possibility that Joel’s Army and the Dominionist movement are in fact the forces of the Antichrist, that the spirits that fill them are demons, and that the god they worship is actually Satan in disguise.
White House Refuses To Offer Any Proof That Anwar Al-Awlaki Was Involved In Terrorist Activity
What do you think constitutional law professor, Barack Obama, would think about this?
DARPA’s Project To Send Humans To Another Star
The 100-Year Starship Study is collaboration between NASA and DARPA on the possibility and implications of someday sending a human being on a one-way space mission to distant star. The symbolic hope is that this might occur one century from now. They are not taking volunteers. Via Phenomenica:
Humans have sent probes to planets and asteroids throughout our solar system. But we’ve never come close to propelling a manmade object as far as another star.
But if NASA and DARPA – the agency responsible for some of the early innovations that led to the Internet – have their way, in the next 100 years, a spaceship would stand ready to visit another star.
The two agencies have teamed up on a 1 million-dollar project called the 100-Year Starship Study to begin contemplating technologies and organizational strategies to make the mission happen.
alled the 100-Year Starship Symposium, the public event will run Sept. 30 to…
Sarah Palin Explains Why She Won’t Run For President
From my POV it’s one less potential disaster to worry about in 2012. Here’s Palin spinning her decision not to run in 2012, on Fox News Channel, natch:
Apple’s Famous ‘Think Different’ Ad (Video)
Good question for the Disinfo crowd: accurate or appropriating?
Prisoners Help Build Patriot Missiles
File this in the “in case you missed it” news cycle. Why should the government not hire unemployed Americans to do this …? Noah Shachtman reported back in March on the excellent WIRED’s Danger Room:
This [past] spring, the United Arab Emirates is expected to close a deal for $7 billion dollars’ worth of American arms. Nearly half of the cash will be spent on Patriot missiles, which cost as much as $5.9 million apiece.
But what makes those eye-popping sums even more shocking is that some of the workers manufacturing parts for those Patriot missiles are prisoners, earning as little as 23 cents an hour.
The work is done by Unicor, previously known as Federal Prison Industries. It’s a government-owned corporation, established during the Depression, that employs about 20,000 inmates in 70 prisons to make everything from clothing to office furniture to solar panels to military electronics.
One of the company’s high-tech specialties: Patriot…
Was Shakespeare A Fraud? Is Hollywood Officially Out of Ideas? (Video)
Is Hollywood officially out of ideas to tackle the Shakespeare authorship question in film called (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink …) Anonymous?
Has Neuroscience Disproven Evil?
Via Modern Mythology:
In “Is Myth Dead?” in The Immanence of Myth, I talked about some of the misconceptions that exist between what falls under the purview of science, and what belongs instead to myth, or as it is more commonly known, narrative. And it is a direct result of misconceptions discussed there that we see a constant glut of so-called “science” articles making claims such as “neuro scientists say that evil no longer exists,” (Slate article) or “neuroscience versus philosophy, taking aim at free well.” (Nature.com article). Let me use these two articles as an example of what is actually an epidemic issue that needs immediate and complete overhaul.
The Slate article is considerably more egregious than the latter, as it presents a singular interpretation as the only possible answer to a very complicated question that has challenged the best humans minds throughout our sordid history.
However, both are unified in this particular…
Steve Jobs Has Died
Wow, AP just reported and go to the Apple homepage to confirm. In case anyone doesn’t know, he was battling cancer for years. In terms of significance aside from the human, Apple is considered to have more cash than the U.S. government.
“Death… is Life’s Change Agent”
Cynthia, The First Artificial-Human Celebrity
How To Be A Retronaut has an amazing collection of photos of “Cynthia of Saks Fifth Avenue”, an eerily prescient, analog version of the computer-created pop personalities which have begun to emerge today:
‘In 1932, artist Lester Gaba created a mannequin known as Cynthia for Saks Fifth Avenue. Cynthia had realistic imperfections like freckles and pigeon toes. Cartier and Tiffany sent her jewelry, Lilly Daché designed hats for her, and couturiers sent her their latest fashions, furrieries sent minks. She was given a credit card from Saks Fifth Avenue, a box seat subscription to the Metropolitan Opera House and made the cover of Life Magazine.
Cynthia had her own newspaper column, and a successful radio show. She went to Hollywood to appear in Artist And Models Abroad with Jack Benny, in 1938 and was photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
‘Cynthia met her demise when she slipped from a chair in a beauty salon and shattered. The…
Sesame Street Introduces Poor Muppet To Teach About Poverty (Sponsored by Wal-Mart)
The special episode is sponsored by Wal-Mart. Ain’t that a kicker? Gabriela Resto-Montero writes in the NY Daily News:
There’s a new kid on the block on “Sesame Street.” The long-running children’s show will debut a new muppet, Lily, in a primetime special that highlights childhood poverty and hunger, Entertainment Weekly reported.
Lily’s family background reflects the bitter economic reality of the 17 million American children who live without regular access to affordable and nutritious food, the magazine reported. Country music singer Brad Paisley and his wife, actress Kimberly Williams Paisley, will host the hour-long show, titled “Growing Hope against Hunger.”
“We are honored that Sesame Street, with its long history of tackling difficult issues with sensitivity, caring and warmth, asked us to be a part of this important project,” the couple said in a statement. The show will air Sunday, Oct. 9. It is sponsored by Walmart.
