Archive for Big Brother
Subliminal Sex Messages and Pornography in Advertising & Cartoons
Source: You TubeOur senses are being bombarded with enormous amounts of information. Only a small part of it reaches our consciousness. However, our subconscious mind absorbs it all.
Schools ‘groom kids for surveillance state’?
Source: Pogo Was Right
Schools are increasingly invading student privacy both in school and outside of school. Are schools grooming youth to passively accept a surveillance state where they have no expectation of privacy anywhere? A PogoWasRight.org commentary.
The increasing use of student surveillance and intrusion of school districts into students’ extra-curricular conduct should alarm us all. Whether it is a district surveilling students in their bedrooms via webcam, conducting random drug or locker searches,strip-searching students, lowering the standard for searching students to “reasonable suspicion” from “probable cause,” disciplining students for conduct outside of school hours, searching their cellphones and text messages, or allegedly forcing them to undergo pregnancy testing, student privacy is under increasing threat.
The other day I mentioned a Connecticut school district that wanted to require students to carry an ID card with an RFID chip so that they could track their location. The surveillance capability included locating the student if they were off school premises and in town. Today, I came across another news story from earlier this month that also involves tracking students. KTVU in California reported that the Contra Costa County School District began introducing a tracking system for preschool students that would alert staff when a student leaves school premises. In order to accomplish that, students will reportedly be required to wear a jersey that contains the RFID tag that uses Wi-Fi to send signals to sensors located throughout the school.
I realize that some might argue that these are just little pre-schoolers and of course, we want to protect their safety, etc., but keep in mind that one of the major justifications for the program is to save staff time in terms of having to manually record attendance, etc. In exchange for that time and cost-saving, what price do we pay psychologically as a society? It strikes me that schools are grooming our youth to simply accept being tracked and monitored wherever they go and that anything they do, anywhere, can be used against them in school or elsewhere.
Is this really how we want to raise our children? To be sheep who accept being tracked and who have little sense of privacy or entitlement to privacy?
A study released last year by Fordham Law’s Center on Law and Information Privacy found that the education sector was not doing enough to protect the privacy of student information. It did not, however, look at the question of whether schools were actually invading student privacy and systematically eroding student privacy rights and autonomy. It’s time for a national dialogue about student privacy, while there are still some remnants of it left.
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Testing New Advanced Nanotech a.k.a. “Nano-Enhanced” Hybrid Armor
Source: Defense Review
SouthWest NanoTechnologies, Inc. (SWeNT) the leading manufacturer of single-wall and Specialty Multi-Wall (SMW™) carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is manufacturing specialty multi-wall carbon nanotubes for NanoRidge Materials, Inc. These CNTs are being incorporated into enhanced body armor to improve protection of soldiers and law enforcement officers from small arms fire.
SWeNT’s SMW100 will be used in a highly advanced nanotechnology application to create stronger, lighter armor that fundamentally improves its resistance to impact and reduces the penetration depth of a bullet.
This new hybrid armor, which will be manufactured by NanoRidge customer Riley Solutions Inc., (RSI) has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA) to undergo rigorous testing and evaluation against the most destructive small arms fire.
“Once it has passed testing, the armor will provide U.S. military and law enforcement personnel better, lighter and less costly armor than has been available before,” explains Kyle Kissell Ph.D, and RSI’s Technical Advisor. “NanoRidge selected SWeNT’s SMW100 after evaluating many different products and believes that its characteristics and commercial scalability will meet the needs of our nation’s protectors while saving lives.”
“SouthWest NanoTechnologies is proud to be providing NanoRidge and Riley Solutions with SMW100 for use in these groundbreaking, nano-enhanced armor products,” explains SWeNT CEO Dave Arthur. “Our patented CoMoCAT® process enables us to produce the desired quality and at a cost and in quantities needed to meet the sizable demand that is expected.”
“SWeNT SMW100 is an excellent choice for this armor application because it is affordable, easy to disperse in polymers, and forms extremely robust networks that enhance the structural performance of the composites,” says NanoRidge CEO Chris Lundberg. “Additionally, SWeNT’s domestic production and proven ability to deliver consistent quality are critical for the Department of Defense.”
About NanoRidge Materials, Inc.:
NanoRidge Materials, Inc. is a manufacturer of high-performance nanocomposite materials and composite components. Their materials and composite structures incorporate carbon nanotubes for dramatically improved properties that are of significant value to customers in aerospace, military, oil & gas, chemical, and construction markets. NanoRidge Materials, Inc. is a graduate company of the Houston Technology Center, a business accelerator that assists Houston-based emerging technology companies by providing in-depth business guidance, access to capital, professional services and entrepreneurial education.
APPLE Patents Security Invention That Recognizes Users Heartbeat…
Source: Apple Insider
Relying on a user’s picture or the sound of their voice, future portable devices from Apple like an iPhone or iPad could recognize individuals who pick up and use the item.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week revealed a patent application from Apple entitled “Systems and Methods for Identifying Unauthorized Users of an Electronic Device.” The security-centric invention describes methods to identify users through a picture, the sound of their voice, or even their unique heartbeat.
“The photograph, recording, or heartbeat can be compared, respectively, to a photograph, recording or heartbeat of authorized users of the electronic device to determine whether they match,” the application reads. “If they do not match, the current user can be detected as an unauthorized user.”
If an unauthorized user were to attempt to access an iPhone or another device, the owner of the handset could be notified in a variety of manners, including a phone call, text message or e-mail. It could even send the owner — or the police — a picture of the unauthorized user, or other information specific to the potential thief, such as the current location.
The handset could also recognize an unauthorized user if they do certain uncharacteristic activities with the phone. Specifically named are hacking, jailbreaking, unlocking, or removing a SIM card.
Young people will have to change names to escape ‘cyber past’ warns Google
Source: London Telegraph
Eric Schmidt suggested that young people should be entitled to change their identity to escape their misspent youth, which is now recorded in excruciating detail on social networking sites such as Facebook.
“I don’t believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time,” Mr Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal.
In an interview Mr Schmidt said he believed that every young person will one day be allowed to change their name to distance themselves from embarrasssing photographs and material stored on their friends’ social media sites.
The 55-year-old also predicted that in the future, Google will know so much about its users that the search engine will be able to help them plan their lives.
Using profiles of it customers and tracking their locations through their smart phones, it will be able to provide live updates on their surroundings and inform them of tasks they need to do.
“We’re trying to figure out what the future of search is,” Mr Schmidt said. “One idea is that more and more searches are done on your behalf without you needing to type.
“I actually think most people don’t want Google to answer their questions. They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next.”
Proposed Law Would Put Video Cameras In Cars
Source: CBS13
SACRAMENTO – Lawmakers are considering controversial new legislation this week that would allow vehicles to be equipped with dashboard cameras to record the moments leading up to accidents.
The proposed law, AB1942, would promote safer driving habits and reduce accidents by permitting video recorders to be installed on the windshield.
The bill currently allows devices to record video, audio, how fast and which direction the vehicle is traveling, a history of where your car has been, steering and brake performance and seat belt usage.
The devices would record in a continuous loop and would only save information if there is unusual vehicle motion or a crash. They could also be capable of transmitting the information to a central control center the moment of the accident.
Proponents say there are enough safety measures to avoid an invasion of privacy, but others call the proposal a huge overreach of government power.
“Having devices like that, I think infringes on our privacy,” said Patricia Lewis. “We have less of that as it is.”
The American Civil Liberties Union said they are not opposed to the bill, but have a number of issues they would like to see addressed, including making sure the video monitor is the property of the car owner and ensuring the technology has an on-and-off switch.
Feds admit storing checkpoint body scan images
Source: cnet
For the last few years, federal agencies have defended body scanning by insisting that all images will be discarded as soon as they’re viewed. The Transportation Security Administration claimed last summer, for instance, that “scanned images cannot be stored or recorded.”
Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse.
This follows an earlier disclosure (PDF) by the TSA that it requires all airport body scanners it purchases to be able to store and transmit images for “testing, training, and evaluation purposes.” The agency says, however, that those capabilities are not normally activated when the devices are installed at airports.
Body scanners penetrate clothing to provide a highly detailed image so accurate that critics have likened it to a virtual strip search. Technologies vary, with millimeter wave systems capturing fuzzier images, and backscatter X-ray machines able to show precise anatomical detail. The U.S. government likes the idea because body scanners can detect concealed weapons better than traditional magnetometers. READ FULL STORY
VIDEO: Congressman tacitly admits that United States is run by federal dictatorship, Constitution is worthless
Source: YouTube.com
Will Washington’s Failures Lead To Second American Revolution?
Source: Investors.com
The Internet is a large-scale version of the “Committees of Correspondence” that led to the first American Revolution — and with Washington’s failings now so obvious and awful, it may lead to another.
People are asking, “Is the government doing us more harm than good? Should we change what it does and the way it does it?”
Pruning the power of government begins with the imperial presidency.
Too many overreaching laws give the president too much discretion to make too many open-ended rules controlling too many aspects of our lives. There’s no end to the harm an out-of-control president can do.
Bill Clinton lowered the culture, moral tone and strength of the nation — and left America vulnerable to attack. When it came, George W. Bush stood up for America, albeit sometimes clumsily.
Barack Obama, however, has pulled off the ultimate switcheroo: He’s diminishing America from within — so far, successfully.
He may soon bankrupt us and replace our big merit-based capitalist economy with a small government-directed one of his own design.
He is undermining our constitutional traditions: The rule of law and our Anglo-Saxon concepts of private property hang in the balance. Obama may be the most “consequential” president ever.
The Wall Street Journal’s steadfast Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that Barack Obama is “an alien in the White House.”
His bullying and offenses against the economy and job creation are so outrageous that CEOs in the Business Roundtable finally mustered the courage to call him “anti-business.” Veteran Democrat Sen. Max Baucus blurted out that Obama is engineering the biggest government-forced “redistribution of income” in history.
Fear and uncertainty stalk the land. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says America’s financial future is “unusually uncertain.”
A Wall Street “fear gauge” based on predicted market volatility is flashing long-term panic. New data on the federal budget confirm that record-setting deficits in the $1.4 trillion range are now endemic.
Obama is building an imperium of public debt and crushing taxes, contrary to George Washington’s wise farewell admonition: “cherish public credit … use it as sparingly as possible … avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt … bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not … inconvenient and unpleasant … .”
Opinion polls suggest that in the November mid-term elections, voters will replace the present Democratic majority in Congress with opposition Republicans — but that will not necessarily stop Obama
Details of 100 million Facebook users published online
thepiratebay.org Screen capture of Facebook directory download
Source: MSNBC/MSN
The personal details of 100 million Facebook users have been collected and published online in a downloadable file, meaning they will now be unable to make their publicly available information private.
However, Facebook downplayed the issue, saying that no private data had been compromised.
The information was posted by Ron Bowes, an online security consultant, on the Internet site Pirate Bay.
Bowes used code to scan the 500 million Facebook profiles for information not hidden by privacy settings. The resulting file, which allows people to perform searches of various different types, has been downloaded by several thousand people.
This means that if any of those on the list decide to change their privacy settings on Facebook, Bowes and those who have the file will still be able to access information that was public when it was compiled.
Bowes’ actions also mean people who had set their privacy settings so their names did not appear in Facebook’s search system can now be found if they were friends with anyone whose name was searchable.
‘Scary privacy issue’
On his website, www.skullsecurity.org, Bowes said the results of his code were “spectacular,” giving him 171 million names of which were 100 million unique.
