Parents Angry Over CCTV In School Toilets

uk.news.yahoo.com
Tuesday, March 9

Outraged parents have hit out at a school in Birmingham after pupils discovered CCTV cameras in the school’s toilets.

Youngsters at Grace Academy in Chelmsley Wood claim they returned from half-term to find staff had installed the cameras without notifying them or their parents.

Some parents are furious at what they say is a “total invasion of privacy” and claim some pupils are so anxious about being watched they are refusing to use the facilities.

One mother whose teenage daughter attends the school is concerned the footage could fall into the wrong hands.

She told the Sunday Mercury: “She came home from school and told me security cameras had been installed in the girl’s toilets but we didn’t know anything about it.

“You would expect the school to have consulted parents first yet we received no information and no letters have been sent home explaining this decision.”

Grace Academy claims the cameras only cover the sink areas and have not yet been activated.

School principal Terry Wales told Sky News: “It’s to safeguard our youngsters, many schools are using cameras now.

“We had a parents’ forum last night, we explained the arrangements and the parents were satisfied.

“We’ve found that when it comes to health and safety, children want to feel secure.”

But privacy campaigners warned about the psychological effects of the feeling of being watched, even if cameras are not switched on.

Dylan Sharpe from Big Brother Watch told Sky News: “Children are entitled to privacy like anyone else.

Read more…

Large Hadron Collider to be shut down for a year

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Thursday, 11 March 2010

The world’s most expensive scientific experiment designed to discover the “God particle” and recreate the conditions that existed at the dawn of creation will be switched off for a year to correct a design problem that could break it apart if it ran on full power.

Scientists in charge of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva announced yesterday that the machine will only be able to run on half energy before it is temporarily shut down in two years’ time. Its full operating capacity designed to probe the frontiers of science will not be achieved until at least 2013.

However, the European Centre for Nuclear Research (Cern), which operates the £2.6bn ‘atom smasher’ on the Franco-Swiss border, said that the additional costs of correcting the problem in the machine’s copper sheaths or “stabilisers” would come out of its existing budget and it would not be asking for any additional funding from contributing countries, including Britain. Read more…

Nice To Be CCTV Capital Of France

www.connexionfrance.com
March 10, 2010

THE CITY of Nice has announced plans to more than double the number of CCTV cameras by the end of this year, becoming the most watched place in France.

Mayor Christian Estrosi has announced 342 extra cameras will be installed, on top of the 282 already operating. He said he wanted Nice to become “the best-equipped town in France” for video-surveillance technology.

Some of these cameras will be equipped with number-plate recognition technology and will be placed on main roads into the city to spot cars that have been reported stolen.

Estrosi unveiled the €7.6m project at the opening of a new CCTV control centre in the city.

Britain could force owners to microchip their dogs

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER
www.examiner.com
Mar 9, 2010

British dog owners may be forced to microchip their pets and take out insurance, part of a proposed crackdown on the country’s dangerous canines.

Postmen are delighted, but civil libertarians grumble that Britain’s sprawling surveillance state now wants to track the nation’s estimated 8 million dogs. Others complain that the insurance plan would impose a financial penalty on innocent pet owners – while criminals who own violent animals will simply shirk the law.

“This is yet more surveillance and continuous data-grabbing by government who want to have as much information on us as it can possibly have,” said Dylan Sharpe, a campaigner with privacy rights group Big Brother Watch. Opposition lawmaker Nick Herbert said the proposal risked “penalizing millions of law-abiding dog owners with the blunt instrument of a dog tax.”

The government’s proposals are aimed at tackling the growing problem of aggressive canines being used to harass, attack and even kill. In a country where guns are tightly controlled and even carrying a kitchen knife can result in a prison sentence, animal rights experts and politicians say street thugs have turned to dangerous-looking dogs to cow their victims.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the number of complaints about dog fights had soared tenfold between 2004 and 2008, the last year for which figures were available. In 2009, London Deputy Mayor Kit Malthouse called for action on what he called “weapon dogs.”

His opposition Conservative Party says hospital admissions and court cases relating to dangerous dogs have soared.

High profile dog attacks – including one on John-Paul Massey, a 4-year-old who was mauled to death by a pit bull at his grandmother’s house in the northern England – also have kept the issue high on the media’s agenda. Read more…

World Wide Wiretap And Fusion Centers

Youtube

Yep, our every action on the internet is is logged and chances are your local fusion center has warrantless access to your info.. . The mainstream media reports on this topic but it is highly under reported.. That’s one thing I notice more and more with the mainstream media . They actually do report on some very relevant topics but it’s like a 2 minute segment then poof never heard from again. That CNN piece was not a big issue in the media .. The guy wrote about protesting his governor’s inauguration in his blog and the state police were all over him.. I try to connect some dots and let you all figure it out from there. Basically,The NSA + fusion centers = domestic spying operation . today’s super computers are capable of doing 1000 TRILLION operations a second . Sorting IP addresses and finding out who the subversives are is hardly a software challenge to monitor and sort the billions of messages that travel across the internet in a day.

Direct link to video at Youtube

YouTube adds video captions for deaf

By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

YouTube is making the tens of millions of videos it hosts more accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing by putting automatic captions on them.

The Google-owned company said this use of speech recognition technology is probably the biggest experiment of its kind online.

Previously captions were only on a small amount of content.

“A core part of YouTube’s DNA is access to content,” said the firm’s product manager Hunter Walk.

YouTube said by opening all this content to those who have not really been able to access it in the past should democratise information and “help foster greater collaboration and understanding”.

Initially the feature will apply to English language videos, with other languages being added in the coming months.

In November last year, YouTube rolled out automatic captions to a handful of partners including the University of California, Berkeley, Yale University and National Geographic.

The technology behind speech recognition has been around for about 50 years, said Google engineer Mike Cohen, and has finally become good enough to be used on a large scale.

“I have been working on speech technology for 25 years,” Mr Cohen told the BBC.

“There have been steady improvements and this is the culmination of lots of work over years and years. We have had to work on a wide variety of problems like accent variation, background noise, the variation in language, in pronunciation.” Read more…

What In The World Are They Spraying?

By Michael J. Murphy
03 March, 2010
Countercurrents.org

What would you say if you were told that airplanes were regularly spraying toxic aerosols in the skies above every major region of the world? That is exactly what a group of protestors were claiming outside of the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting that was held in San Diego from February 18-22. However, inside the convention center was a different story. The scientists gathered to discuss the “plausibility” of implementing various Geo-engineering campaigns throughout the world, all under the guise that the Earth has a man-made global warming problem that can be solved in-part by spraying aerosol aluminum and other particles into the sky to block the sun. When these scientists were asked about the possibility of existing aerosol programs; they stated that no aerosol spraying programs have been implemented to date. A little confused? Why would protestors gather outside of a meeting making claims that world-wide aerosol programs were under way if scientist were only now discussing the possibility of implementing these programs? Could it be that one of these groups is being deceived?

Mauro Oliveira, the Webmaster of Geoengineeringwatch.org, was one of the protestors. He claimed that the program for Stratospheric Aerosol Geo-engineering (SAG), AKA chemtrails, has been well under way around the world. As a matter of fact, Oliveira stated that witnesses from around the globe claim that heavy aerosol spraying is occurring almost every day over just about every city. He went on to explain the difference between a contrail and a chemtrail. He stated that when a jet airplane flies at a certain altitude, a visible trail of streaks of condensed water vapor sometimes form in the wake of the aircraft. This is called a contrail. Contrails are normal and usually dissipate in a few seconds. They are very similar to when we breathe in cold weather. According to Oliveira, what occurs behind a SAG plane spraying aerosols is quite different. What can be seen is a thick white line also called a chemtrail that lingers in the sky for several hours. The SAG lines are sprayed into the upper atmosphere and then spread out forming what then appear to be clouds. The particles from these aerosols then fall to the ground where they enter our soil and water and can also be inhaled.

Another group of protestors had traveled over 10 hours from a small Shasta County community in Northern California. They became concerned about SAG when many from this community began to see dramatic changes not only in the sky, but also on the ground. Trees were dying, grass was not growing and many farmers were having difficulty getting any crops to grow on their farms. The crisis prompted biologists from the community to take action by testing the soil. The results were shocking. Aluminum, barium and other elements were found to be up to thousands of times higher than normal limits. Such high quantities lead to unhealthy PH levels in the soil which can be deadly to ecological life systems. These shocking results led to additional testing of Lake Shasta with samples from the Pit River arm tributary that tested over 4,610 times the maximum contamination level of aluminum allowed in drinking water in the state of California. Also, peer reviewed scientific studies conclude that bio-available aluminum, now found in huge quantities in rain world-wide, is very harmful to flora and thus the eco-system. Ironically, these are the same substances the scientists are considering implementing in the various potential “future” aerosol spraying campaigns that were being discussed at the meeting.

A large number of other protesters became interested in SAG after experiencing burning eyes, migraine headaches, anxiety, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure and other health problems on days that airplanes were allegedly witnessed spraying aerosols in the sky. Deborah Whitman, Founder and President of the non-profit environmental organization Environmental Voices and also Producer of the documentary “Sky Lines” is no stranger to these symptoms. She has been hospitalized over 51 times on what she calls “heavy spraying days”. Whitman has committed her life to helping people who claim to be experiencing similar problems resulting from aerosol spraying and gets calls from all over the U.S. in response to her website and documentary. Her recommended health tips can be found at www.environmentalvoices.org. Other indicators that possibly validate the claim that SAG is connected to health problems are the respiratory mortality rate, which has risen from eight on the list of mortality to third in the past five years, and the fact that Alzheimer’s and other illnesses linked to aluminum have continued to rise around the globe at astronomical rates since the inception of the alleged spraying. Read more…

How to block/kill RFID chips

www.instructables.com

In this Instructable I will describe different ways to block or kill RFID tags. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. If you do not know about this technology yet, you should definitely start familiarizing yourself with it, because the number of different devices that utilize these types of tags is growing exponentially.

RFID chips are very similar to barcodes in the sense that a certain amount of data is contained within them, and then transmitted to a reading device which then processes and utilizes the information. The major difference is that barcodes have to be physically visible to the reading device, which is usually only able to scan them at a distance of a 12 inches or less. RFID tags, on the other hand, do not have to be visible to the reading device. They can be scanned through clothes, wallets, and even cars. The distance from which they can be read is also much greater than that of a barcode. At DEFCON an RFID tag was scanned at a distance of 69 feet, and that was back in 2005, the possible reading distance now is probably much greater than that.

There are a few different categories of RFID tags, but the most common ones, and the ones we will be dealing with in this instructable, are the “passive” type. Passive RFID chips contain no internal power supply. They contain an antenna which is able to have a current induced in it when within range of the RFID reader. The tag then uses that electricity to power the internal chip, which bounces its data back out through the antenna, where it will be picked up by the reader.

For more information on RFID tags check out the wikipedia entry.

Read more…

www.panamalaw.org

RFID Chips in Tires and Roadside Monitors

Executive Summary – Tire companies are putting RFID chips in auto tires. This is supposed to be part of the low air pressure in tires warning system. These RFID chips are keyed to the VIN number of the car if the tire is original equipment with the new car. The VIN number of course leads to the registration information. Add in roadside monitors for RFID chips which are already in place in parts of the USA and you have the plot. Of course the government is genuinely concerned that you might be driving around with low tire pressure. It seems there are not enough cars with GPS systems to enable easy tracking of cars.

Wal-Mart is another RFID disaster. If you buy some items it will have an RFID chip embedded inside the item making removal difficult without damaging the item. If you pay by check or credit card this item through the RFID chip can be associated to your identity like by a roadside scanner. Things like New York’s EZ Pass, Florida’s Sun Pass, and California’s Fast Trak are all RFID monitoring systems to collect road revenue.

Blocking RFID Signals – Put your wallet and passport in aluminum carry case to block the signal. There are special wallets and passport cases sold on the Internet now that do a good job of this. Your RFID credit cards should be in the aluminum wallet to block their signal as well.

Disabling RFID Chips – When you buy an item (not a government issued passport or other id which is actually the property of the government that issued it) and they include an RFID tag with the item, the RFID tag is now your property and you can destroy it freely. Here are some ways to kill your RFID chips so they do not commit any further privacy invasion.

1. If you know where the RFID chip is hit it with a hammer hard a few times.
2. If you know where the RFID chip is puncture it with a knife or an ice pick a few times. They do not bleed. Attacks with a pliers or vise grip can also be rewarding.
3. If you can get visual access to the chip, sever its antenna so it can no longer transmit or bounce a signal back.
4. Put the chip in a microwave for five seconds. This will kill the chip but may get a little messy. Not so good for your microwave either so don’t keep doing this in that it could damage your microwave.
5. Possible Solution – Place the RFID in an item on or in a demagnetizer. This may screw it up. Try it in magnetizer and demagnetizer mode.
6. Possible solution is to zap the RFID chip with a strong stun gun or taster several times. This should have some disabling effect.

Disinformation Fun With RFID Chips – Take RFID chips out of items when you can get to them and remove them carefully to keep them functional. You can now place these RFID tags in other items. Be creative. Try to enjoy yourself as much as possible. Do not place them inside of items for sale in stores in that this can disrupt their business. Random items like vehicles in the street can be likely places for RFID transplantation. Imagine the fun, especially with certain kinds of vehicles. Leave a RFID or two inside of busses and taxis in nice places where they are likely to stay for years. Send your RFID chips around the country or continent in trucks.

When traveling to foreign lands bring your inventory of liberated RFID chips, they are not contraband and can be transported. Donate some RFID chips as you see fit always remembering to enjoy yourself and not break any laws. Trade RFID chips with people in other countries. Load your car up with numerous RFID chips. Best if from different countries or at least different regions. Great RFID reader interpretations for sure. Why are you traveling all the time every day?

Make up your mind to have a good time and enjoy yourself. Disinformation is the real weakness with the RFID chips being used other than for what they were intended to be used for.

Source: www.panamalaw.org/RFID_chips_in_tires_and_roadside_monitors.htm

New Zealand inventor creates ‘flying hovercraft’

The ultimate in big boys’ toys – a hovercraft that flies – has been put up for sale on an internet auction website by its New Zealand inventor.

By Paul Chapman
www.telegraph.co.uk
03 Mar 2010

Rudy Heeman, who lives in the South Island city of Nelson, requisitioned a gas bottle from the family barbecue, parts from his wife’s car, and the control lever from his daughter’s motor scooter for his creation.

Looking like a conventional hovercraft but with the addition of detachable wings, the vehicle cruises at 56mph when flying, has a range of more than 140 miles, and reaches a height of about 10 feet.

It is powered by a 1.8-litre engine.

On the www.trademe.co.nz auction website the sale has already received more than 100,000 hits, has shot past the reserve price of NZ$20,000 (£9,300), and has attracted a long string of questions from viewers.

Mr Heeman, who has been building hovercrafts as a hobby in his back yard for more than 13 years, said this is his first flying model.

He says on the website: “It has been called all sorts of things, including aircraft, aeroplane, hovercraft and flying boat.

“It is in fact a WIG [a wing in ground effect] in the form of a hovercraft

“This machine is fast and furious, it roars like a lion and is not for the faint-hearted. It is adrenalin-pumping and exciting.

“Having a go on it is like a bungee jump, however, the thrill lasts as long as the ride.”

Mr Heeman said he thought farmers could make good use of his invention. Read more…

Facial recognition phone application described as a ’stalker’s dream’

www.dailymail.co.uk
01st March 2010

A prototype camera phone application that enables the user to find names and numbers of complete strangers has been labelled a ’stalker’s dream’.

The application, called Recognizr, has been developed to find personal information through facial recognition software.

The user simply has to take a picture of a person and hit the ‘Recognize’ button.

The photo is then compared to shots on social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter before personal information, which can include phone numbers, addresses and email addresses, is sent to the user.

The software developer, Swedish company The Astonishing Tribe, is currently testing the software, which works on phones with a camera of five or more megapixel resolution.

Security experts have blasted the new software for enabling burglars to find out where targets live.

Simon Davies from Privacy International said: ‘It takes the dangers that already exist and increases them infinitely.’ Read more…

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