By Laura MacInnis
GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations forum on Thursday passed a resolution condemning 'defamation of religion' as a human rights violation, despite wide concerns that it could be used to justify curbs on free speech in Muslim countries.
The U.N. Human Rights Council adopted the non-binding text, proposed by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic states, with a vote of 23 states in favor and 11 against, with 13 abstentions.
Western governments and a broad alliance of activist groups have voiced dismay about the religious defamation text, which adds to recent efforts to broaden the concept of human rights to protect communities of believers rather than individuals.
Pakistan, speaking for the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said a 'delicate balance' had to be struck between freedom of expression and respect for religions.
The resolution said Muslim minorities had faced intolerance, discrimination and acts of violence since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, including laws and administrative procedures that stigmatize religious followers.
'Defamation of religious is a serious affront to human dignity leading to a restriction on the freedom of their adherents and incitement to religious violence,' the adopted text read, adding that 'Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism.'
It called on states to ensure that religious places, sites, shrines and symbols are protected, to reinforce laws 'to deny impunity' for those exhibiting intolerance of ethnic and religious minorities, and 'to take all possible measures to promote tolerance and respect for all religions and beliefs.'
ISLAMOPHOBIA, CHRISTIANOPHOBIA, ANTI-SEMITISM
The 47-member Human Rights Council has drawn criticism for reflecting mainly the interests of Islamic and African countries, which when voting together can control its agenda.
Addressing the body, Germany said on behalf of the European Union that while instances of Islamophobia, Christianophobia, anti-Semitism and other forms of religious discrimination should be taken seriously, it was 'problematic to reconcile the notion of defamation (of religion) with the concept of discrimination.'
'The European Union does not see the concept of defamation of religion as a valid one in a human rights discourse,' it said. 'The European Union believes that a broader, more balanced and thoroughly rights-based text would be best suited to address the issues underlying this draft resolution.'
India and Canada also took to the floor of the Geneva-based Council to raise objections to the OIC text. Both said the text looked too narrowly at the discrimination issue.
'It is individuals who have rights, not religions,' Ottawa's representative told the body. 'Canada believes that to extend (the notion of) defamation beyond its proper scope would jeopardize the fundamental right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of expression on religious subjects.'
A separate, EU-sponsored resolution about religious discrimination is due to be discussed by the Council on Friday.
Earlier this week, 180 secular, religious and media groups from around the world urged diplomats to reject the resolution which they said 'may be used in certain countries to silence and intimidate human rights activists, religious dissenters and other independent voices' and ultimately restrict freedoms.
Condemnation of defamation of religion had been included in a draft declaration being prepared for an April U.N. conference on racism, known as "Durban II," but was removed earlier this month after Western countries said it was unacceptable. U.N. body adopts resolution on religious defamation | International | Reuters:
3/26/09
Natrona County School District finger scanning raises concerns
"Secondary students in the Natrona County School District won't need cash, plastic or passwords to pay for breakfast or lunch.
Instead, they'll be using something they'll be sure to bring with them every day: their index finger.
Beginning April 1, all of the district's junior high and high school cafeterias will start using a NUTRIKIDS POS (point-of-sale) system that uses biometric finger scans for identification.
Parents of students at Natrona County and Kelly Walsh high schools, Casper Classical Academy, Centennial Junior High, CY Junior High, Dean Morgan Junior High and Frontier Middle School were notified of the new program in a letter dated March 12.
The opportunity to opt out of the program ended March 18. The district began finger scans on March 23.
The hardware, software and training for the computerized identification and payment system cost the district approximately $150,000. NUTRIKIDS, which has been used in the district for 14 years to track the free and reduced lunch program, was chosen through a competitive bidding process to update nine-year-old software that no longer had tech support.
Along with speeding up food service, the updated software will be used to continue to track the district's compliance with the federal food programs, according to Mike Pyska, the district's food service manager.
The switch to biometrics for meal identification is not about 'the district trying to be big brother and store people's fingerprints,' Pyska said. Finger tips are scanned, but the prints aren't saved.
Here's how it works. The user presses his finger against a small reader surface that is attached to a computer. The computer software picks three small portions, such as common ridges or arcs from the fingerprint.
The ridges and arcs are turned into 'data points,' which then are turned into logorithms. The unique numerical identifier for each student -- not the actual fingerprint -- is stored in a database. There shouldn't be any concern that the district is fingerprinting children, Pyska said.
By next school year, parents also will be able to use NUTRIKIDS to pay into their student's accounts online. They'll also be able to look at what their children are eating.
One school district in Illinois uses the system as a tool against obesity by sending e-mails to parents listing their children's lunch choices.
The switch to biometrics is happening only in the district's secondary schools, primarily to stop 'kids from getting into other kids' lunch money' and to speed up the lunch lines, Pyska said.
A day before the opt-out day, the food service manager had received six or eight calls of concern. He was unsure of how many parents had gone directly to their children's cafeteria to protest.
Similar programs have created controversy
Identification using biometrics from fingerprints, voice, odor and even sweat is a $1 billion industry in North America. Elementary and high schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia and about half the states in the Northeast and South use finger scans to pay for lunch.
Some school districts in St. Louis started using the NUTRIKIDS system in January.
Regardless of the common uses of the identification system, privacy concerns and fears of identity theft come along with using the process in schools. An Illinois mother rallied enough parental opposition to the technology that the state enacted a law requiring schools to get parental consent before taking a scan of children's fingerprints.
An Arizona Senate committee recently passed a bill against using biometrics in schools. Iowa and Michigan prohibit the practice, although Iowa is reconsidering the ban in light of additional information.
School districts in Boulder, Colo., Irvine, Calif. and Boston, Mass., rejected the program after initial consideration raised parental concerns.
According to Linda Burt, executive director of the Wyoming Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, there have been legitimate and serious privacy concerns expressed by security experts that stolen codes could be misused in new forms of biometric identity theft.
'It seems like something that is unnecessary,' she said. 'You can call it a fingerprint or anything else. It's still an individual identifier.'
A parent of both a junior high and a high school student questioned the school's ability to do something that he believes is prohibited by Wyoming law. Wyoming law does prohibit fingerprinting children and storing their prints, even by law enforcement, unless the child has been arrested for a felony.
'They've got better options than starting a database of the kids,' said the parent, who asked to remain unnamed. 'They can't guarantee it won't be used. The database will have more than enough to do a fingerprint analysis.'
At least part of the concern with the NCSD's biometrics program that began scanning fingers on March 23 may have been caused by the parental notification process.
Pyska defended the short notice method of a letter that was sent to homes during spring break, giving parents only a few days to decide whether to opt out of the system.
'The longer you give people, they wait until the last minute anyway,' so the district decided to see what feedback was received in a short period of time, he said.
Several parents who called the Casper Journal are angry about the lack of notice and explanation for a switch from pass cards and PIN numbers to biometrics. 'They never gave parents a choice,' one parent said. 'They need to back pedal quickly to say it won't happen until a permission slip is on file.'"The Casper Journal :: Casper's Community Newspaper:
3/25/09
Home Office defends proposal to track social networking movements
"Privacy campaigners expressed alarm today over government plans to monitor all conversations on social networking sites in an attempt to crackdown on terror.
A Home Office spokesman said that the internet eavesdropping plan, which would be set out in the next few weeks, would cover any social network that allows people to chat to one another, including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Twitter as well as internet calls on Skype.
He said the proposal would update existing plans to store information about every telephone call, email, and internet visit made by anyone in the UK on a central database.
'We have no way of knowing whether Osama bin Laden is chatting to Abu Hamza on Facebook. Or terrorists could be having a four-way chat on Skype,' he said.
He said the government was not interested in the contents of the communication: 'What we want to monitor is that so-and-so is logged on to that site and spoke to so-and-so. It's the who, when and where, not the content.'
But he conceded that in 'high-profile cases' the police would want to examine the contents of social network chatter. 'The security service would want the ability to capture information that could lead to conviction,' he said.
Under the new proposals, the sites that host social networks could be required to hold data about who users correspond with for up to a year.
Privacy campaigners criticised the plan, saying it would be another unwieldy, costly and unnecessary failure.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, said: 'The widescale use of social networking websites highlights the enormity of government ambitions for a centralised communications database for the surveillance of the entire population … Technological development is used as an excuse for centralised snooping of a kind that ought never to be acceptable in the oldest unbroken democracy on earth.'
Michael Parker, spokesman for campaign group NO2ID, said the government was enforcing data sharing and the pillaging of private information. 'Their plans for the intercept modernisation programme were completely unworkable to begin with and are becoming more so with every addition they suggest. The idea of tracking calls, texts and emails made by people in the country is unspeakably offensive.'
The plans were first revealed by the Home Office minister, Vernon Coaker, last week at a Commons committee hearing on a draft EU directive that does not cover social networking.
He said the government's intercept modernisation programme proposals may be extended to include 'the retention of data on Facebook, Bebo, MySpace and all other similar sites'.
He added: 'The government are looking at what we should do about the intercept modernisation programme because there are certain aspects of communications which are not covered by the [EU] directive.'
Coaker acknowledged that the plan would raise fresh concerns about the right to privacy.
'I accept that this is an extremely difficult area. The interface between retaining data, private security and all such issues of privacy is extremely important,' he said.
The Home Office spokesman said a consultation paper, to be published shortly before or after Easter, would explore the practicality of the plan.
In a statement the Home Office added: 'The government has no interest in the content of people's social network sites and this is not going to be part of our upcoming consultation. We have been clear the communications revolution has been rapid in this country and the way in which we collect communications data needs to change so that law enforcement agencies can maintain their ability to tackle terrorism and gather evidence.
'To ensure that we keep up with technological advances we intend to consult widely on proposals shortly. We have been very clear that there are no plans for a database containing the content of emails, texts, conversations or social networking sites.'
On Monday the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust published a report claiming that a quarter of all the largest public-sector database projects, including the identity cards register, were fundamentally flawed and clearly breach European data protection and rights laws. Claiming to be the most comprehensive map so far of Britain's 'database state', the report says that 11 of the 46 biggest schemes, including the national DNA database and the Contactpoint index of all children in England, should be given a 'red light' and immediately scrapped or redesigned."... Home Office defends proposal to track social networking movements | Technology | guardian.co.uk:
3/14/09
Sex claims against US Catholic Church rise
"The number of new claims of sexual abuse made against US Roman Catholic priests rose by 16% to more than 800 last year, a Church report says.
It says the Church paid $436m (£313m) in 2008 for abuse cases. Most of the money was used to compensate victims.
The study covered almost 200 dioceses and religious orders across the US.
It found that more than one in five victims were under the age of 10 when they were abused.
Although the number of claims made against the Church rose in 2008, the total cost dropped by 29% compared to the previous year.
The Associated Press news agency said 2007 was an unusually high year, when the Archdiocese of Los Angeles began paying a $660m settlement to about 500 people.
The annual review tracks progress made in implementing the Charter for the Protection of Children, adopted by US bishops following a scandal in Boston in 2002.
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said the Church was 'on the right path' in its quest to better protect 'all children in society'" BBC NEWS | Americas | Sex claims against US Church rise
Biometric technology for real-time video surveillance ID
Biometric technology for real-time video surveillance ID: "Face recognition - Vilnius, Lithuania-based Neurotechnology has unveiled VeriLook Surveillance SDK, a new biometric technology for real-time face identification using video surveillance cameras.
According to the company, the software development kit enables detection of faces in motion and then matches them against an internal database, such as a watch-list of crime suspects or a list of authorized personnel.
The company contrasts its latest offering with its VeriLook 3.2 and other facial recognition systems that require users to actively look into a camera. VeriLook Surveillance, the company says, can be used in 'passive user' situations at airports, retail stores and other locations where people may not be looking directly into the camera. It can also be used for easy time-and-attendance control because it can automatically count or recognize individuals as they pass through entry points.
Once a face is detected, it is tracked in all successive frames of video until it disappears from camera view. Face appearance, tracking and disappearance events are reported to the system."
Palm Beach County schools hope scanners speed up lunch
PalDelray Beach - Cristian Medina moves his tray topped with a chicken sandwich, potato wedges, apple, and chocolate milk through the cafeteria line at S.D. Spady Elementary School. At the register, the second-grader places his right pointer finger on a pad.
The device shines a green light — automatically deducting money from his meal account — and he heads to a table with his classmates.
"It's freaky how it can read your finger," Cristian, 8, said Thursday.
Grown-ups call it biometric identification. In January, Spady became the first Palm Beach County school to use the technology, familiar to tourists who pass through the gates at Walt Disney World and other major Florida theme parks.
Now school district administrators want to pay $191,174 to put biometric keypads in every school cafeteria, to provide a speedier service line and prevent students from misusing accounts. The School Board will vote April 8 on a contract with School-Link Technologies of Santa Monica, Calif.
"We have to have a more efficient way," said district food service Director Steve Bonino. "We're feeding more kids than we have ever fed."
Nearly 81,100 students have received free or reduced-price meals this year, the most ever, he said.
Local school cafeterias have been using numerical keypads and swipe-card readers instead of cash for many years. Biometric devices are proven to get students through the line faster, said Allison Monbleau, food service general manager.
Under the proposed deal, the district would buy 511 devices at $449 each, while receiving discounts for the bulk purchase and trading in hundreds of keypads it will no longer need.
In 2007, Seminole County Public Schools near Orlando became the first district in Florida to try the biometric devices after receiving state approval. The units work by scanning points on a finger and converting them into a unique mathematical code.
"There's no way a fingerprint can be generated from it," said Dan Andrews, food services director. "It's just a form of positive ID."
After the success of a pilot program at three Seminole County schools, the district added two more schools this year.
"The system virtually pays for itself," Andrews said, adding that Seminole uses a different vendor, Educational Biometric Technology of Minnesota.
Lunch sales rose 17 percent at a high school using the devices, because students enjoyed being able to zip through the checkout line. Also, misuse of student meal accounts was eliminated.
"Kids don't like to stand in lines," Andrews said.
The district found that a group of 30 students gets through the lunch line 90 seconds to 2 minutes faster using the finger- touch device.
Parents are given the opportunity to opt out from their children using the biometric system, but most do not. Officials there assure families that there can be no security or privacy breaches.
At Spady Elementary, just a few parents forbid their children from registering their finger images, said Principal Martha O'Hare.
The school is continuing to use its old swipe-card system as it phases in the biometric devices. The scanner has been a welcome addition, although it has some trouble reading the smaller fingers of pre-kindergarten students, O'Hare said.
Natasha Seifts, 7, pays it the highest compliment.
"It's cool," the second-grader said during lunch Thursday.
Marc Freeman can be reached at mjfreeman@SunSentinel.com or 561-243-6642. -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
3/8/09
The Groundwork Has Already Been Laid for Martial Law
By John W. Whitehead
3/4/2009
"During his two terms in office, George W. Bush stepped outside the boundaries of the Constitution and assembled an amazing toolbox of powers that greatly increased the authority of the Executive branch and the reach of the federal government.
Bush expanded presidential power to, among other things, allow government agents to secretly open the private mail of American citizens; authorize government agents to secretly, and illegally, listen in on the phone calls of American citizens and read our e-mails; assume control of the federal government following a 'catastrophic event'; and declare martial law.
Thus, the groundwork was laid for an imperial presidency and a potentially totalitarian government--a state of affairs that has not ended with Barack Obama's ascension to the Oval Office, despite hopes to the contrary that President Obama would fully restore the balance between government and its citizens to a pre-Bush status quo. As Charlie Savage reports in the New York Times, 'Signs suggest that the administration's changes may turn out to be less sweeping than many had hoped or feared--prompting growing worry among civil liberties groups and a sense of vindication among supporters of Bush-era policies.'
The fact is that the problem is bigger than Obama or any individual who occupies the White House. Indeed, once the government assumes expansive powers and crosses certain constitutional lines, it's almost impossible to pull back.
Just consider some of the lines that have already been crossed.
The local police have, in many regards, already evolved into de facto extensions of the military. Dressed like Darth Vader look-alikes, the police have opted for the SWAT-team dress formally adopted by the federal agencies. Congressional legislation allows the U.S. military, by way of the Pentagon, to train civilian police. The Pentagon has also provided local police with military equipment such as M-16 rifles, bayonets, boats, vehicles, surveillance equipment, chemical suits and flak jackets, among other items. Thus, they are armed to the teeth.
We already have a federal police force comprised of Secret Service agents who are authorized to 'carry firearms; make arrests without a warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence.' A recent incident demonstrates the increased and immediate involvement of federal agents in local matters with the assistance of local police. Chip Harrison, a construction worker in Oklahoma, was pulled over by local police because of an anti-Obama sign proclaiming 'Abort Obama, not the unborn' in his pickup truck window. The sign was confiscated by local police, and Harrison was informed that the sign could be considered a threat to the president. The local police contacted the Secret Service, who, within a matter of hours, came to Harrison's home and investigated the matter. So much for the freedom of expression.
According to the Army Times, we now have at least 20,000 U.S. military troops deployed within our borders to 'help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.' I am not alone in believing that we are just one incident--be it a terrorist attack, a major financial blowout or a widespread natural disaster--away from martial law being declared in this country. And once that happens, the Constitution and Bill of Rights will be suspended and what government officials believe and do, no matter how arbitrary, will become law.
Our methods of communication are already being monitored--and, in some instances, shut down, abetted by the telecommunications giants, which act as extensions of the government. Thus, not only does the government have the ability to open and read our mail, it can also listen in on our phone calls and jam our cell phone calls. As the Washington Post reports, federal authorities already have the ability to jam cell phones and other wireless devices. Unbeknownst to the nearly two million people who attended the Obama Inauguration festivities, federal authorities jammed cell phone signals at specific locations. Such disruptions simply appear to be a dropped call or lost signal. Of course, such jamming could be conducted on a more extensive basis nationwide. This would prevent citizens from being able to communicate with one another or make appeals to their government representatives. Although jamming is technically illegal for state and local agencies, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) plans to introduce legislation to allow local police to 'selectively' jam cell phones.
We already live in a surveillance state. There was a time when people could flee when the government got out of control. Now, with our every movement monitored by cameras on sidewalks, streets, ATMs, and in shops, offices, schools and parks, there truly is nowhere to hide. Moreover, equipped with high-powered satellites and massive databases, the government can track us using our cell phones, cars, credit cards, driver's licenses and passports.
For those who have been paying attention, such as former war correspondent Chris Hedges in his Truthdig article, 'Bad News From America's Top Spy,' it's clear that the groundwork for a seamless transition into martial law under a totalitarian state of government has been laid. And local law enforcement, which has already been serving as a de facto military force, will be the key to maintaining martial law under a police state. Given the interconnectedness of our federal, state and local agencies, you can be sure that all of this will happen quickly.
All that is needed is another threat to national security--a so-called 'catastrophic event.' Under the Bush administration, the danger was terrorism. Under the Obama administration, the economy is being posed as the greatest threat to national security.
This danger was made clear in a U.S. Army War College report issued last fall. As Hedges reports, 'The military must be prepared, the document warned, for a 'violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,' which could be provoked by 'unforeseen economic collapse,' 'purposeful domestic resistance,' 'pervasive public health emergencies' or 'loss of functioning political and legal order.' The 'widespread civil violence,' the document said, 'would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.''
What does all this mean for you and me, the average citizen? When and if martial law is declared, freedom, as we have known it, will be obsolete. And don't expect much in the way of warning or help from the corporate media. As the war in Iraq showed, they are all too willing to be co-opted by the military for the sake of access and ratings. And there will be many Americans who won't know what's happening. They'll be too busy watching the latest entertainment spectacle and trying to guess the next American Idol.
Thankfully, we have not yet reached the point of no hope. But it must be acknowledged that the average American simply does not have the ability to withstand a totalitarian government.
Right now, all we can do is sound the alarm. Become educated. Form local citizens groups in your community. Educate your neighbors on their rights and inform them about the grave possibilities we face in the event of a government-declared emergency. Keep in almost near-constant contact with your representatives in Congress and voice your discontent. Most of all, stay informed and exercise your right to redress your grievances with the government while you still can.
As abolitionist Wendell Phillips once proclaimed:
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty--power is ever stealing from the many to the few.... The hand entrusted with power becomes ... the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continual oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot." The Rutherford Institute - Commentary:
3/4/2009
"During his two terms in office, George W. Bush stepped outside the boundaries of the Constitution and assembled an amazing toolbox of powers that greatly increased the authority of the Executive branch and the reach of the federal government.
Bush expanded presidential power to, among other things, allow government agents to secretly open the private mail of American citizens; authorize government agents to secretly, and illegally, listen in on the phone calls of American citizens and read our e-mails; assume control of the federal government following a 'catastrophic event'; and declare martial law.
Thus, the groundwork was laid for an imperial presidency and a potentially totalitarian government--a state of affairs that has not ended with Barack Obama's ascension to the Oval Office, despite hopes to the contrary that President Obama would fully restore the balance between government and its citizens to a pre-Bush status quo. As Charlie Savage reports in the New York Times, 'Signs suggest that the administration's changes may turn out to be less sweeping than many had hoped or feared--prompting growing worry among civil liberties groups and a sense of vindication among supporters of Bush-era policies.'
The fact is that the problem is bigger than Obama or any individual who occupies the White House. Indeed, once the government assumes expansive powers and crosses certain constitutional lines, it's almost impossible to pull back.
Just consider some of the lines that have already been crossed.
The local police have, in many regards, already evolved into de facto extensions of the military. Dressed like Darth Vader look-alikes, the police have opted for the SWAT-team dress formally adopted by the federal agencies. Congressional legislation allows the U.S. military, by way of the Pentagon, to train civilian police. The Pentagon has also provided local police with military equipment such as M-16 rifles, bayonets, boats, vehicles, surveillance equipment, chemical suits and flak jackets, among other items. Thus, they are armed to the teeth.
We already have a federal police force comprised of Secret Service agents who are authorized to 'carry firearms; make arrests without a warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence.' A recent incident demonstrates the increased and immediate involvement of federal agents in local matters with the assistance of local police. Chip Harrison, a construction worker in Oklahoma, was pulled over by local police because of an anti-Obama sign proclaiming 'Abort Obama, not the unborn' in his pickup truck window. The sign was confiscated by local police, and Harrison was informed that the sign could be considered a threat to the president. The local police contacted the Secret Service, who, within a matter of hours, came to Harrison's home and investigated the matter. So much for the freedom of expression.
According to the Army Times, we now have at least 20,000 U.S. military troops deployed within our borders to 'help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.' I am not alone in believing that we are just one incident--be it a terrorist attack, a major financial blowout or a widespread natural disaster--away from martial law being declared in this country. And once that happens, the Constitution and Bill of Rights will be suspended and what government officials believe and do, no matter how arbitrary, will become law.
Our methods of communication are already being monitored--and, in some instances, shut down, abetted by the telecommunications giants, which act as extensions of the government. Thus, not only does the government have the ability to open and read our mail, it can also listen in on our phone calls and jam our cell phone calls. As the Washington Post reports, federal authorities already have the ability to jam cell phones and other wireless devices. Unbeknownst to the nearly two million people who attended the Obama Inauguration festivities, federal authorities jammed cell phone signals at specific locations. Such disruptions simply appear to be a dropped call or lost signal. Of course, such jamming could be conducted on a more extensive basis nationwide. This would prevent citizens from being able to communicate with one another or make appeals to their government representatives. Although jamming is technically illegal for state and local agencies, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) plans to introduce legislation to allow local police to 'selectively' jam cell phones.
We already live in a surveillance state. There was a time when people could flee when the government got out of control. Now, with our every movement monitored by cameras on sidewalks, streets, ATMs, and in shops, offices, schools and parks, there truly is nowhere to hide. Moreover, equipped with high-powered satellites and massive databases, the government can track us using our cell phones, cars, credit cards, driver's licenses and passports.
For those who have been paying attention, such as former war correspondent Chris Hedges in his Truthdig article, 'Bad News From America's Top Spy,' it's clear that the groundwork for a seamless transition into martial law under a totalitarian state of government has been laid. And local law enforcement, which has already been serving as a de facto military force, will be the key to maintaining martial law under a police state. Given the interconnectedness of our federal, state and local agencies, you can be sure that all of this will happen quickly.
All that is needed is another threat to national security--a so-called 'catastrophic event.' Under the Bush administration, the danger was terrorism. Under the Obama administration, the economy is being posed as the greatest threat to national security.
This danger was made clear in a U.S. Army War College report issued last fall. As Hedges reports, 'The military must be prepared, the document warned, for a 'violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,' which could be provoked by 'unforeseen economic collapse,' 'purposeful domestic resistance,' 'pervasive public health emergencies' or 'loss of functioning political and legal order.' The 'widespread civil violence,' the document said, 'would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.''
What does all this mean for you and me, the average citizen? When and if martial law is declared, freedom, as we have known it, will be obsolete. And don't expect much in the way of warning or help from the corporate media. As the war in Iraq showed, they are all too willing to be co-opted by the military for the sake of access and ratings. And there will be many Americans who won't know what's happening. They'll be too busy watching the latest entertainment spectacle and trying to guess the next American Idol.
Thankfully, we have not yet reached the point of no hope. But it must be acknowledged that the average American simply does not have the ability to withstand a totalitarian government.
Right now, all we can do is sound the alarm. Become educated. Form local citizens groups in your community. Educate your neighbors on their rights and inform them about the grave possibilities we face in the event of a government-declared emergency. Keep in almost near-constant contact with your representatives in Congress and voice your discontent. Most of all, stay informed and exercise your right to redress your grievances with the government while you still can.
As abolitionist Wendell Phillips once proclaimed:
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty--power is ever stealing from the many to the few.... The hand entrusted with power becomes ... the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continual oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot." The Rutherford Institute - Commentary:
Why are we fingerprinting children?
Schools claim it cuts costs and time – but the civil liberties implications are vast
"As voters express concern about surveillance technology, is it becoming second nature to the Facebook generation – used to publishing intimate details of their private lives on the worldwide web – who, in later life, may be less vociferous in their opposition to such schemes?
An increasing number of today's schoolchildren are forgoing the humiliating daily name call of registration, and are instead having to 'fingerswipe' in and out of class, or to give it its proper name: biometric registration. According to campaign group LeaveThemKidsAlone, schools have fingerprinted more than two million children this way, sometimes even without their parents' consent. A statement on its website claims: 'It's part of an enormous softening-up exercise, targeting society's most impressionable, so they'll accept cradle-to-grave state snooping and control.'
Hard-pressed schools and local councils with tight budgets are being enticed by a new generation of software that promises to cut administration costs and time. In the last 18 months, several Guardian readers have written into the paper expressing concern at this new technology being trialled on their children. Everything from 'cashless catering schemes' to 'kiddyprints' instead of library cards is being introduced by stealth into the nation's schools, it is claimed.
The software companies that are jostling for a stake in this lucrative market, such as VeriCool and CRB solutions, boast several testimonials on their websites, arguing that this technology not only minimises lunchtime queues and paperwork, but also tackles more serious problems such as truancy and bullying (a cashless system negates the need to be biffed for your lunch money). They even claim that their systems promote healthy eating, as pupils accrue points for eschewing sugary snacks.
Furthermore, CRB solutions is quick to reassure pupils and staff that 'this wasn't the same sort of fingerprinting that the police did … in fact, parts of the 'fingerprint' are converted (using a mathematical algorithm) into digital data which can then be used for future recognition.'
However, the police and security services do use coded algorithms when taking the fingerprints of a suspect, as well as taking inky fingerprints that are kept on paper file. And it is this data that they use to match fingerprints at the scene of a major crime. The implications are vast – the nation's schools aren't exactly the safest place for the storage of this sensitive data – and anyone with access to the system and a mobile SIM card can download the information from a computer, increasing the chances of identity theft. Unless the computer system is professionally purged, before this data has a chance to be leaked, it can remain in cyberspace for eternity to be retained for all sorts of dubious purposes.
It's odd that this drive towards fingerprinting children coincides with the government's keenness to expand the national DNA database – we already have one of the largest in the world – with more than four million people on file, including nearly 1.1 million children.
Odd too that VeriCool is reported to be part of Anteon, an American company that is responsible for the training of interrogators at Guantánamo and Abu Gharib.
It seems that in the blink of an eyelid (or iris scan), our children are losing the civil liberties and freedoms we are fighting so hard to preserve" Yvonne Singh: Why are we fingerprinting children? | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk:
"As voters express concern about surveillance technology, is it becoming second nature to the Facebook generation – used to publishing intimate details of their private lives on the worldwide web – who, in later life, may be less vociferous in their opposition to such schemes?
An increasing number of today's schoolchildren are forgoing the humiliating daily name call of registration, and are instead having to 'fingerswipe' in and out of class, or to give it its proper name: biometric registration. According to campaign group LeaveThemKidsAlone, schools have fingerprinted more than two million children this way, sometimes even without their parents' consent. A statement on its website claims: 'It's part of an enormous softening-up exercise, targeting society's most impressionable, so they'll accept cradle-to-grave state snooping and control.'
Hard-pressed schools and local councils with tight budgets are being enticed by a new generation of software that promises to cut administration costs and time. In the last 18 months, several Guardian readers have written into the paper expressing concern at this new technology being trialled on their children. Everything from 'cashless catering schemes' to 'kiddyprints' instead of library cards is being introduced by stealth into the nation's schools, it is claimed.
The software companies that are jostling for a stake in this lucrative market, such as VeriCool and CRB solutions, boast several testimonials on their websites, arguing that this technology not only minimises lunchtime queues and paperwork, but also tackles more serious problems such as truancy and bullying (a cashless system negates the need to be biffed for your lunch money). They even claim that their systems promote healthy eating, as pupils accrue points for eschewing sugary snacks.
Furthermore, CRB solutions is quick to reassure pupils and staff that 'this wasn't the same sort of fingerprinting that the police did … in fact, parts of the 'fingerprint' are converted (using a mathematical algorithm) into digital data which can then be used for future recognition.'
However, the police and security services do use coded algorithms when taking the fingerprints of a suspect, as well as taking inky fingerprints that are kept on paper file. And it is this data that they use to match fingerprints at the scene of a major crime. The implications are vast – the nation's schools aren't exactly the safest place for the storage of this sensitive data – and anyone with access to the system and a mobile SIM card can download the information from a computer, increasing the chances of identity theft. Unless the computer system is professionally purged, before this data has a chance to be leaked, it can remain in cyberspace for eternity to be retained for all sorts of dubious purposes.
It's odd that this drive towards fingerprinting children coincides with the government's keenness to expand the national DNA database – we already have one of the largest in the world – with more than four million people on file, including nearly 1.1 million children.
Odd too that VeriCool is reported to be part of Anteon, an American company that is responsible for the training of interrogators at Guantánamo and Abu Gharib.
It seems that in the blink of an eyelid (or iris scan), our children are losing the civil liberties and freedoms we are fighting so hard to preserve" Yvonne Singh: Why are we fingerprinting children? | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk:
2/25/09
Fight against terror must mean the end of ordinary people's privacy, says ex-security chief
Fight against terror must mean the end of ordinary people's privacy, says ex-security chief | Mail Online: "Personal data of innocent citizens must be made available to the Government to combat terrorism, according to an influential former security chief.
Sir David Omand, Whitehall's former and security and intelligence coordinator, called for unprecedented Big Brother powers to allow access to private details - including phone records, emails and travel information - to be given to the intelligence services.
Setting out a hugely controversial blueprint for the future of national security he said 'moral rules' about individual privacy would have to be broken.
His 17-page report calls for the creation of a vast state database to gather information about terrorist groups which are increasingly recruiting and operating online.
But he argued that a citizen's right to privacy would have to be sacrificed to allow 'intrusive' intelligence techniques.
'Finding out other people's secrets is going to involve breaking everyday moral rules', he wrote.
'This is personal information about individuals that resides in databases, such as advance passenger information, airline bookings and other travel data, passport and biometric data, immigration, identity and border records, criminal records,and other governmental and private sector data, including financial and telephone and other communications records.'
'Modern intelligence access will often involve intrusive methods of surveillance and investigation, accepting that, in some respects, this may have to be at the expense of some aspects of privacy rights.'
The paper 'National Security Strategy and Implication for the UK Intelligence Community' was published last week by the influential New Labour think tank, the Institute of Public Policy Research.
Sir Omand left the senior civil service in 2005 but his views still hold great sway in the corridors of power.
He added: 'This is a hard choice and goes against current calls to curb the so-called surveillance society - but it is greatly preferable to tinkering with the rule of law, or derogating from fundamental human rights.
'Being able to demonstrate proper legal authorisation and appropriate oversight of the use of such intrusive intelligence activity may become a major future issue for the intelligence community, if the public at large is to be convinced of the desirability of such intelligence capability'
Sir Omand said such information maybe held in national records,covered by Data Protection legislation, but it might also be held offshore by other nations or by global companies.
'Access to such information...might well be the key to effective pre-emption in future terrorist cases.
'Such sources have always been accessible to traditional law enforcement seeking evidence against a named suspect already justified by reasonable suspicion of having committed a crime.'
'However, application of modern data mining and processing techniques does involve examination of the innocent as well as the suspect to identify patterns of interest for further investigation'"
Sir David Omand, Whitehall's former and security and intelligence coordinator, called for unprecedented Big Brother powers to allow access to private details - including phone records, emails and travel information - to be given to the intelligence services.
Setting out a hugely controversial blueprint for the future of national security he said 'moral rules' about individual privacy would have to be broken.
His 17-page report calls for the creation of a vast state database to gather information about terrorist groups which are increasingly recruiting and operating online.
But he argued that a citizen's right to privacy would have to be sacrificed to allow 'intrusive' intelligence techniques.
'Finding out other people's secrets is going to involve breaking everyday moral rules', he wrote.
'This is personal information about individuals that resides in databases, such as advance passenger information, airline bookings and other travel data, passport and biometric data, immigration, identity and border records, criminal records,and other governmental and private sector data, including financial and telephone and other communications records.'
'Modern intelligence access will often involve intrusive methods of surveillance and investigation, accepting that, in some respects, this may have to be at the expense of some aspects of privacy rights.'
The paper 'National Security Strategy and Implication for the UK Intelligence Community' was published last week by the influential New Labour think tank, the Institute of Public Policy Research.
Sir Omand left the senior civil service in 2005 but his views still hold great sway in the corridors of power.
He added: 'This is a hard choice and goes against current calls to curb the so-called surveillance society - but it is greatly preferable to tinkering with the rule of law, or derogating from fundamental human rights.
'Being able to demonstrate proper legal authorisation and appropriate oversight of the use of such intrusive intelligence activity may become a major future issue for the intelligence community, if the public at large is to be convinced of the desirability of such intelligence capability'
Sir Omand said such information maybe held in national records,covered by Data Protection legislation, but it might also be held offshore by other nations or by global companies.
'Access to such information...might well be the key to effective pre-emption in future terrorist cases.
'Such sources have always been accessible to traditional law enforcement seeking evidence against a named suspect already justified by reasonable suspicion of having committed a crime.'
'However, application of modern data mining and processing techniques does involve examination of the innocent as well as the suspect to identify patterns of interest for further investigation'"
2/23/09
Tony Benn at The Convention on Modern Liberty
"A CALL TO ALL CONCERNED WITH ATTACKS ON OUR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS"
[VIDEO] Tony Benn at The Convention on Modern Liberty:
[VIDEO] Tony Benn at The Convention on Modern Liberty:
2/22/09
Graphic scanners leave no bone unturned - News - Travel - theage.com.au
Graphic scanners leave no bone unturned - News - Travel - theage.com.au: "Airports in New York and Los Angeles have become the latest equipped with body scanners that allow security screeners to peer beneath a passenger's clothing to detect concealed weapons.
The machines, which are about the size of a revolving door, use low-energy electromagnetic waves to produce a computerised image of a traveller's entire body.
Passengers step in and lift their arms. The scans only take a minute, and Transportation Security Administration officials say the procedure is less invasive than a physical frisk for knives, bombs or guns.
Someday, the 'millimetre wave' scans might replace metal detectors, but for now they are being used selectively.
Los Angeles International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York saw their first scanners installed on Thursday, each at a single checkpoint. Phoenix Sky-Harbor International Airport got one of the machines in October.
Modest travellers may have concerns about the images.
The black and white, three-dimensional scans aren't as vivid as a photograph, but they do reveal some of the more intimate curves of the human form, maybe with as much clarity as an impressionist sculpture by Auguste Rodin.
TSA officials say the system comes with privacy protections. Officers reviewing the images don't interact with passengers, or even see them. They sit in a separate area, look at the pictures on a monitor and push a button to either clear travellers or alert security about a suspicious item.
Images will not be recorded or stored. Passenger faces are blurred to further protect their identities.
For now, the scans will also be voluntary. Flyers selected for a secondary screening after passing through the metal detectors will have the option of stepping into the wave scanner, rather than undergoing a physical pat-down.
'We're giving people a choice,' said TSA spokeswoman Lara Uselding.
Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's program on technology and liberty, said he nevertheless had concerns.
'The images that I've seen are quite revealing,' he said. 'I guarantee you that as this gets more commonly used, you'll be seeing these images on the Internet.'
The TSA said millimetre wave scanners, which cost as much as $US120,000 ($128,000) apiece, are already in limited use at international airports in seven countries and at a handful of courthouses and jails in five states.
Their introduction to US airports is on a trial basis while authorities evaluate their effectiveness. The TSA said the devices pose no health risk and project 10,000 times less energy than a mobile phone transmission."
It must be '1984': 'Big Brother' snoops and Britons don't mind
LONDON — In an era when security is the top concern for officials in many countries — reinforced by November's deadly attacks in Mumbai — it takes a lot to be labeled 'the most surveilled democracy in the world.' In the case of Britain, the label is not necessarily meant as a compliment. Some — including the European Court of Human Rights — fear that the snooping has run amok.
Video cameras are ubiquitous. An average Londoner is captured on video hundreds of times a day as he walks the streets, rides the 'Tube,' visits the bank or drives a car.
Including private cameras in shops and banks, there may now be more than 10 million video cameras operating in a country with a population of about 60 million, according to David Murakami-Wood, a specialist on surveillance issues at Newcastle University. This is more than double the number earlier this decade."
He argues that the supposed benefits of Britain's vast surveillance network don't justify the growing costs and infringement on freedom.
"Britain is regarded as the society to avoid" for its pervasive surveillance and disregard for personal privacy, said Colin Bennett, a British-born author and academic at the University of Vancouver in Canada. He contends the surveillance culture is "out of control," targeting not just suspected terrorists and criminals but millions of ordinary people.
Yet a visit to Compton Square in Islington, the north London neighborhood where the author George Orwell wrote his novel "1984" six decades ago about an omnipresent "Big Brother," suggests that many Britons grudgingly accept having their movements watched closely. They cite the string of bombings that hit London as recently as July 2005.
"Most people ignore it" when new surveillance cameras go up in their neighborhoods, said Fabien Cox, a 48-year-old consultant to the international water industry. Holding a pint of beer as he stood at the bar of Orwell's favorite pub, the centuries-old Compton Arms, Cox admitted he was more accepting since a double-decker bus traveling his normal route to work was blown up during the 2005 attacks.
Trevor Lloyd, a 32-year-old broadcast engineer who lives in the area, got seven traffic tickets — each about $90 — within a week of moving to London after being caught on surveillance camera parking just inside the city's restricted "congestion charge" zone. "You become criminalized yourself quite easily, and there's no right of appeal," Lloyd said.
Lloyd added, however: "The flip side is the terrorist thing." Given security threats, he found the video cameras around the city "reassuring." And he's not greatly disturbed by a new plan for everyone in Britain to carry a government-issued biometric identity card, which will include dozens of pieces of personal information, including fingerprints. They will be "expensive" and "a bother," he said.
The acquiescence of ordinary Britons troubles civil liberties advocates.
"It's remarkable that there is no general protest" over widespread surveillance, said Simon Davies, a director with the advocacy group Privacy International.
Many of Britain's neighbors in continental Europe consider Britain heavy-handed in its use of surveillance tools. When even the "most law-and-order mayor in France" visits Britain, "they feel like it's a horror film," said Sebastian Roche, a political scientist at the University of Grenoble in France....source
Video cameras are ubiquitous. An average Londoner is captured on video hundreds of times a day as he walks the streets, rides the 'Tube,' visits the bank or drives a car.
Including private cameras in shops and banks, there may now be more than 10 million video cameras operating in a country with a population of about 60 million, according to David Murakami-Wood, a specialist on surveillance issues at Newcastle University. This is more than double the number earlier this decade."
He argues that the supposed benefits of Britain's vast surveillance network don't justify the growing costs and infringement on freedom.
"Britain is regarded as the society to avoid" for its pervasive surveillance and disregard for personal privacy, said Colin Bennett, a British-born author and academic at the University of Vancouver in Canada. He contends the surveillance culture is "out of control," targeting not just suspected terrorists and criminals but millions of ordinary people.
Yet a visit to Compton Square in Islington, the north London neighborhood where the author George Orwell wrote his novel "1984" six decades ago about an omnipresent "Big Brother," suggests that many Britons grudgingly accept having their movements watched closely. They cite the string of bombings that hit London as recently as July 2005.
"Most people ignore it" when new surveillance cameras go up in their neighborhoods, said Fabien Cox, a 48-year-old consultant to the international water industry. Holding a pint of beer as he stood at the bar of Orwell's favorite pub, the centuries-old Compton Arms, Cox admitted he was more accepting since a double-decker bus traveling his normal route to work was blown up during the 2005 attacks.
Trevor Lloyd, a 32-year-old broadcast engineer who lives in the area, got seven traffic tickets — each about $90 — within a week of moving to London after being caught on surveillance camera parking just inside the city's restricted "congestion charge" zone. "You become criminalized yourself quite easily, and there's no right of appeal," Lloyd said.
Lloyd added, however: "The flip side is the terrorist thing." Given security threats, he found the video cameras around the city "reassuring." And he's not greatly disturbed by a new plan for everyone in Britain to carry a government-issued biometric identity card, which will include dozens of pieces of personal information, including fingerprints. They will be "expensive" and "a bother," he said.
The acquiescence of ordinary Britons troubles civil liberties advocates.
"It's remarkable that there is no general protest" over widespread surveillance, said Simon Davies, a director with the advocacy group Privacy International.
Many of Britain's neighbors in continental Europe consider Britain heavy-handed in its use of surveillance tools. When even the "most law-and-order mayor in France" visits Britain, "they feel like it's a horror film," said Sebastian Roche, a political scientist at the University of Grenoble in France....source
2/18/09
2/17/09
Your future in the cards: What will credit cards look like in 25, 50 or 100 years?
By Jay MacDonald
In 25 years, your cell phone might be your credit card. You will likely be able to sample everything from clothing or furnishings at home by projecting them in 3-D holograms.What will credit cards look like in 25, 50 or 100 years?
In 50 years, a microchip implanted in your wrist might be your credit card. Your shopping list will be sent from your smart home directly to your grocer, who will have your purchases bagged and ready for you. Or your robot.
In 100 years, you might be your credit card. Simply shop to your heart's content and walk out; video recognition and mechanical telepathy will know who you are and how you wish to pay.
Welcome to the plastic fantastic future of credit card payments, one that very soon will cease to contain the very thing that got it all started -- the credit card.
Buh-bye plastic
Whatever future course the consumer credit industry may take, the one aspect that experts agree will not be a part of it much longer is the physical credit card itself. Why? Because the primary reason we carry around a 20-cent slab of laminated PVC in our wallets today is to hold a magnetic strip that interacts key-in-lock fashion with electronic point-of-sale (POS) terminals to initiate a payment transaction.
Once those terminals change, as they inevitably will to accommodate the far more robust and secure world of Web-based applications, the credit card itself will go the way of the phonograph, the typewriter, the eight-track player -- and yes, the swipe-based POS terminal.
Cell phones: The next likely payment device
In fact, card issuers have already moved beyond the physical form factor, both for online purchases and mobile payments.
'If you look at what is going on with mobile devices and applications being built by retailers for the iPhone, it is certainly a noncard-based transaction,' says George Peabody, director of emerging technologies advisory services for Mercator Advisory Group, consultants to the payments industry.
Randy Carr, vice president of marketing for Shift4, a developer of enterprise payment solutions, says a cell phone payment device both pleases consumers and makes a compelling business case for telecommunications companies looking for a piece of the electronic payments pie.
'Basically, you would input some sort of personal identification number on the keypad to validate yourself to the merchant. That way, you wouldn't have to carry a credit card,' says Carr.
'I think it's possible because the phone companies are looking for ways to monetize their network. They are the owners of the freeway; the banks and merchant service providers and processors are driving on their freeway making money every day, and the phone companies aren't participating in it.'
Bruce Cundiff, director of payments research and consulting for Javelin Strategy & Research, a financial services research firm, heartily agrees.
'I don't see payments moving away from mobile devices,' he says. 'You've got a bunch of things converging on the mobile device. It's always with me. It eliminates something I have to carry now (a card). And its capabilities are becoming much more broad. Consumers rely on them for more than just communications; it's data, it's nonvoice communications, it's access to the Internet.'
New trains on the old tracks
Technologies from tangential industries have been buzzing around the credit card world like bees to a busy hive since plastic became widely available to consumers in the 1970s.
Previous predictions of plastic's imminent demise have proven false. American merchants who made a significant investment in POS telephony and equipment in order to catch the first wave of credit card payments have resisted updating their legacy systems.
For them, such whizbang add-ons such as biometrics (fingerprint ID, face and hand geometry, iris scans, etc.), RFID (contactless, radio-frequency 'tap-and-go' functionality) and chip-embedded 'smart cards' simply failed to convince them that the benefits would outweigh their investment -- or outlast the competition.
Ironically, the very infrastructure that enabled American merchants to accept credit cards has now become an albatross; other countries that never developed one have now leapfrogged directly to mobile applications with ease.
'We need to run new trains on the old tracks,' says Carr. 'We need to find ways to use technologies on the existing infrastructure so that we can phase into whatever is new. If we were starting with a clean slate today, it would be beautiful. That's why Asia is kicking our a** on telephone technology, because they don't have G1 (generation one) and G2 to leap over; they woke up in G3. They don't have the legacy burden. That's why Toyota and other carmakers are killing us, because they don't have the legacy debt on each car sold. We're walking around with a lead jacket on and they're not.'
Welcome to 'The Truman Show'
So what will the bright new future of credit card shopping look like?
In the near future, it might resemble your personal version of 'The Truman Show,' the Jim Carrey film in which his title character was unwittingly the star of a reality show beamed around the world.
You've already had a glimpse of this future if you've ever approached one of those screens mounted on a store shelf that suddenly comes to life and attempts to sell you something and perhaps offers you a coupon. In these cases, a sensor simply detects your presence.
In the near future, however, once the store identifies you from your mobile device, the marketing will become much more personal, right down to 'directed audio' for your ears only.
'The network -- the 'cloud' -- is going to contain more and more of the intelligence,' says Peabody. 'Directed audio is going to say, 'The last time you were here, you bought a bunch of these. Want some more? We're running a special just for you.' Now they'll be marketing to a market of one. The environment will follow you around and offer suggestions and incentives.'
Fifty years out, and perhaps sooner, Peabody predicts the physical store may be obsolete, replaced by a lounge that offers a 'virtual store experience.' Imagine a Costco in which the store's inventory comes to you in the form of 3-D holographic images. You may not be able to kick its tires -- yet -- but you'll certainly receive far more information about the product than you could glean from a carton or store catalog.
A hundred years from now?
'The machines will read our brainwaves and talk to us directly,' he says, only half facetiously. 'There will be mechanical telepathy or something that gets our agreement to purchase goods.'
Coming soon: Shop and walk
As for the checkout experience, the days of waiting in line to make a POS transaction may be numbered.
'The way you change that is a new terminal,' Peabody says. 'That is a surmountable hurdle. It's not going to happen next year, but it could happen in the next seven to eight years.'
Whatever replaces the legacy POS terminal will undoubtedly be based on mobile technology, and will likely use RFID, Internet protocol or both to complete transactions in the blink of an eye.
'Today, if you used RFID in its purest form, you could walk into a store, load your cart and walk out without talking to anybody, because they would know who you are,' says Carr.
A wink, a nod, a wave: A purchase
Peabody agrees: 'The in-store video system could watch what the consumer puts into their basket. On their way out the door, a directed audio speaker would allow you to complete the transaction with a simple gesture or by saying yes. A nod and a wink and you're on your way.'
If all of this sounds too far-fetched, consider this: The recent Consumer Electronics Show featured both 3-D television and a mobile cell phone-like device that can project a 10-inch image onto any flat surface. CNN test-drove holographic displays during its coverage of the 2008 presidential election.
Fifty years from now, a programmable payment bead implanted in your body could supplant your mobile device for payment purposes. The Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, Spain, already injects a rice-size VeriChip RFID device into the wrist or upper arm of its jet-set guests to make paying as simple as waving your hand.
100 years off
A hundred years from now, video facial recognition technology may make RFID and implants obsolete.
'I think we are definitely going to see video-based recognition capability,' says Peabody. 'With the ability of video to be analyzed in real time, a store could recognize your face the minute you walk in. You may have even established how you want to pay for purchases at that store ahead of time.'
There will be obstacles, of course. The credit card companies will almost certainly resist the demise of the card itself. 'They are a branded, miniaturized billboard in your wallet,' says Carr. 'In the future, would the back of my phone have a MasterCard logo on it? Maybe.'
Merchants, of course, would have to be convinced before they'll shell out for 'new tracks.'
And increased security would have to accompany any infrastructure advances.
Convenience, security, privacy concerns
The actual forms that future credit payments will take may largely depend on how willing or resistant consumers are toward the Big Brother shadow cast by the technology.
'There's a threshold on how invasive we want marketers to be,' says Carr. 'I may not want them knowing that I'm in the store at that particular hour of night, or that I'm buying what I'm buying.'
There's also the question of how to serve the 'unbanked,' those hundreds of thousands of Americans who choose to live entirely off the credit grid.
But Cundiff says the credit card's future is so bright for both the consumer and the issuer that, well, you gotta wear shades.
'Generally, we look at convenience and security as a trade-off. But the further integration of technology has brought about simultaneous growth in both convenience and security. That is something that doesn't happen too often.'" Your future in the cards: What will credit cards look like in 25, 50 or 100 years?
Emerging global elite to use new global media to educate 'global citizens'
"The following is based on a report by Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media.
Elite members of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, recently considered a proposal for a new global television network to usher in a state of “global governance.” The concept strikes some as authoritarian, even totalitarian. But the parent company of Fox News was one of the sponsors of this year's gathering."
The media proposal, which was included in “The Global Agenda 2009” report, is to create “a new global network” with “the capacity to connect the world, bridging cultures and peoples, and telling us who we are and what we mean to each other.” Several prominent U.S. media figures signed on to the alarming and controversial proposal.
Elite members of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, recently considered a proposal for a new global television network to usher in a state of “global governance.” The concept strikes some as authoritarian, even totalitarian. But the parent company of Fox News was one of the sponsors of this year's gathering."
The media proposal, which was included in “The Global Agenda 2009” report, is to create “a new global network” with “the capacity to connect the world, bridging cultures and peoples, and telling us who we are and what we mean to each other.” Several prominent U.S. media figures signed on to the alarming and controversial proposal.
Isn’t it nice that we might have a TV network telling us “who we are?” And “what we mean to each other?” Perhaps we will learn that we are global citizens. Perhaps a global leader of some sort will tell us that. Who might that be?
This proposal doesn’t come from a fringe organization. The WEF is an exclusive club of very rich and powerful people from around the world. It describes itself as “an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.”This year’s conference featured speeches by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Chinese Premier We Jiabao. Many U.S. corporations, including some getting Wall Street bailout money, were sponsors. News Corporation, the parent of Fox News, was a “strategic partner” of the event.
Valerie Jarrett, Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison, represented the Obama Administration at this year’s event and called leaders from all nations to “seize gladly” the duties of collaborating and boldly embrace “a new era of global financial responsibility.”
But the WEF also envisions cooperation and collaboration in global media ventures. It asks, “How can we save journalism to help it save the world?” Clearly, this is advocacy journalism on a global scale.
Indeed, the list of “Recommendations” says it is imperative to start “Communicating a global agenda, and motivating and mobilizing people to support it…”
Is this journalism? Or is it brainwashing and propaganda?
It says that “a genuine, global voice” is needed that shares a “fundamental commitment” to being an international media voice, and makes mention of “the media voices we think of as international” coming from London (the BBC), Qatar (Al-Jazeera) or Atlanta (CNN).
BBC is known for its anti-American programming, Al-Jazeera for its pro-terrorist slant, and CNN for its left-wing and pro-Democratic bias.
It will take “innovative public-private funding” to bring this new network into being, apparently meaning that the taxpayers in the U.S. will have to be soaked in order to help bring this about. But no price tag is put on the venture and no objection was apparently raised to government funding of such a network on a global basis. An “overview” statement does, however, decry “censorship and self-censorship.”
Elsewhere in the report (page 31) the idea of “international taxation” is proposed for “global action” of various kinds. Perhaps this is a vehicle for raising revenue for the new “global voice.”
The media proposal was developed by one of several “Global Agenda Councils” under the auspices of the WEF. The new TV network proposal was issued under the supervision of Pat Mitchell, the president of the Paley Center for Media and former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Public Broadcasting Service. She was the chair of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Media.
Other members of the Council on the Future of Media were Betsy Morgan of the left-wing Huffington Post (former general manager of CBSNews.com); Rui Chenggang of China Central Television, an official political propaganda arm of the communist regime; and Zafar Siddiqi of CNBC Arabiya, a subsidiary of General Electric which is described as a 24-hour Arabic language financial and business information channel.
There is no indication in the published report that the Huffington Post executive raised any objection to working hand-in-glove with the communist propaganda channel. Is the Chinese media model a precedent for the new “global network?”
The conference was covered by media organizations such as CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, Forbes and Fox, but no coverage that we could find was devoted to the proposal for a government-financed global media network. Talk about self-censorship!
John J. DeGioia, President of Georgetown University and the “Rapporteur of the Global Agenda Councils focusing on Society and Values,” summarized the work of Mitchell’s panel. He says (page 46) that, “We believe that this new moment also calls for a new media platform, across all media channels, a global non-profit ‘CNN’ providing a new form of independent journalism to inform, illuminate and deepen knowledge about issues that improve the state of the world.”
According to DeGioia’s biography, he walks the walk and is dedicated to helping “prepare young people for leadership roles in the global community.” His bio adds, “He is a member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO and Chair of its Education Committee and he represents Georgetown at the World Economic Forum and on the Council on Foreign Relations.”
The media council took advantage of what a description of its work said was an “enormous opportunity” to “redefine the media and its roles in a global, interconnected society.”
Under the title of “Recommendations” (page 182), the Council on the Future of Media declares that “The Council is championing a new global, independent news and information service whose role is to inform, educate and improve the state of the world?one that would take advantage of all platforms of content delivery from mobile to satellite and online to create a new global network.”
It goes on, “In a world where there are calls for global governance as a response to a global financial crisis, where scientific research, capital flows and production chains are globalized, the media and the communities in which we imagine ourselves remain fiercely localized.” Hence, a global network will work against “localized” or national-based systems and convince people to go “global” with their outlook and solutions. In other words, the new network will help undermine old-fashioned notions of national sovereignty and patriotism.
There are 22 members (page 183) of the Council on the Future of Media. In addition to Mitchell and Morgan, American members include:
- Alex S. Jones, former media reporter for the New York Times and now Director, Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
- Susan King, former Washington correspondent for ABC News and now Director, Journalism Initiative, Special Initiatives and Strategy, Carnegie Corporation of New York.
- John Lavine, Dean, Medill School of Journalism Northwestern University.
- Nicholas Lemann, former Washington Post reporter and now Dean, School of Journalism, Columbia University.
- David Nordfors, Director, Innovation Journalism and Senior Research Scholar, Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, Stanford University.
- Monroe Price, Director, Centre for Global Communications Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, the University of Pennsylvania.
- Orville H. Schell, Director, Center on US-China Relations, Asia Society.
Government Ministers 'using fear of terror'
"A former head of MI5 has accused the government of exploiting the fear of terrorism and trying to bring in laws that restrict civil liberties.
In an interview in a Spanish newspaper, published in the Daily Telegraph, Dame Stella Rimington, 73, also accuses the US of 'tortures'.
The Home Office said it was vital to strike a right balance between privacy, protection and sharing personal data.
It said any policies which impact on privacy must be 'proportionate'.
Dame Stella, who stood down as the director general of the security service in 1996, has previously been critical of the government's policies, including its attempts to extend pre-charge detention for terror suspects to 42 days and the controversial plan to introduce ID cards.
'It would be better that the government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism - that we live in fear and under a police state,' she told the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia."
She said the British security services were "no angels," but they did not kill people.
"The US has gone too far with Guantanamo and the tortures," she said.
"MI5 does not do that. Furthermore it has achieved the opposite effect - there are more and more suicide terrorists finding a greater justification."
'Take stock'
Dame Stella's comments come as a study is published by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) that accuses the US and the UK of undermining the framework of international law.
Former Irish president Mary Robinson, the president of the ICJ said: "Seven years after 9/11 it is time to take stock and to repeal abusive laws and policies enacted in recent years.
"Human rights and international humanitarian law provide a strong and flexible framework to address terrorist threats."
The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner said the ICJ report would probably have more of an impact than Dame Stella's remarks because it was a wide-ranging, three-year study carried out by an eminent group of practising legal experts.
Dame Stella appeared to be more restrained in her comments than the ICJ, he added.
She was keen to stress the risk of civil liberties being curtailed, while the jurists insisted that international law had already been "actively undermined".
Shadow security minister Baroness Neville-Jones said the Conservatives were "committed to ensuring that security measures are proportionate and adhere to the rule of law".
The Tories said the government's push to extend the detention time limit for terror suspects was the kind of measure condemned by the report.
Human rights campaign group Liberty pointed to a number of other recent developments it said represented "a creeping encroachment on our fundamental rights":
- Government plans for a giant database to record the times, dates and recipients of all emails and text messages sent and phone calls made in the UK
- The growth of Britain's DNA database - it is now the world's largest, per head of population, with samples from some 4m people
- The use by councils of laws designed to track criminals and terrorists to spy on ordinary citizens. In one case a family was watched to see if they were really living in a school catchment area
- The spread of CCTV cameras. Britain now reportedly has some 4m, the highest density in western Europe
- Proposals for "secret inquests," excluding relatives, juries and the media, which the government says would prevent intelligence details leaking out
Isabella Sankey, director of policy at Liberty, said she was "enormously heartened" by what Dame Stella had said.
"Over the last seven years, we've seen a number of measures passed, some of which affect very few of us in a horrible and terrible way, whether that's house arrest under control orders or rendition and torture in foreign states," she said."We've also seen many, many measures that affect all of us just a little bit and, most of all, which seriously impact our rights to privacy.
"We have very broad police powers which sweep the innocent up with the guilty."
'Effective safeguards'
A Home Office spokesman said: "The government has been clear that where surveillance or data collection will impact on privacy they should only be used where it is necessary and proportionate."
"This provides law enforcement agencies with the tools to protect the public as well as ensuring government has the ability to provide effective public services while ensuring there are effective safeguards and a solid legal framework that protects civil liberties."
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Ed Davey said: "This is damning testament to just how much liberty has been ineffectually sacrificed in the 'war on terror'."
Dame Stella became the first female head of MI5 in 1992. BBC NEWS | UK | Ministers 'using fear of terror':
2/15/09
AfricaNews - Nigeria moves towards a cashless society
AfricaNews - Nigeria moves towards a cashless society
"Nigeria’s Accountant General of the Federation, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo said the introduction of e-payment is aimed at eliminating payment bureaucracy associated with handling cash transfers and check payments. Dankwambo also noted that this development will strengthen the efficiency of doing business with the government and also help to check corruption.
Initial challenges of coping with the new system are being reported across the country, government workers are skeptical about the new payment system. “We can agree with the movement towards this global trend but how can you operate this system without constant power supply” asks Seun Adefioye, a civil servant based in Abuja. Adefioye’s fear is just one out of a handle full of skeptics’ that greeted the adopted payment system.
“I was at the Bank with my wife to cash her salaries, they told us the systems were down, we were advised to check back, we returned to the Bank six hours later and the problems had not been rectified. As I speak with you its three days now and I cannot still cash the money” Theophilus Abah, another concerned Nigeria said.
The Accountant General of the Federation has expressed hope in that the system has come to stay and everything that will make it work will be sorted out soon.
Nigeria is also advancing in strengthening other areas of the global electronic system through government owned private Information Communication Technology and Management Company, Galaxy Backbone which has introduced e-governance, e-community, e-education and e-healthcare on its internet broadband."
The government of Nigeria has directed all ministries and government establishment to adopt e-payment system for government transactions. This include contract payment, workers salaries and all forms of cash and check payment transactions will now be replaced with e-payment system. The new payment system is to take immediate effect.
"Nigeria’s Accountant General of the Federation, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo said the introduction of e-payment is aimed at eliminating payment bureaucracy associated with handling cash transfers and check payments. Dankwambo also noted that this development will strengthen the efficiency of doing business with the government and also help to check corruption.
Initial challenges of coping with the new system are being reported across the country, government workers are skeptical about the new payment system. “We can agree with the movement towards this global trend but how can you operate this system without constant power supply” asks Seun Adefioye, a civil servant based in Abuja. Adefioye’s fear is just one out of a handle full of skeptics’ that greeted the adopted payment system.
“I was at the Bank with my wife to cash her salaries, they told us the systems were down, we were advised to check back, we returned to the Bank six hours later and the problems had not been rectified. As I speak with you its three days now and I cannot still cash the money” Theophilus Abah, another concerned Nigeria said.
The Accountant General of the Federation has expressed hope in that the system has come to stay and everything that will make it work will be sorted out soon.
Nigeria is also advancing in strengthening other areas of the global electronic system through government owned private Information Communication Technology and Management Company, Galaxy Backbone which has introduced e-governance, e-community, e-education and e-healthcare on its internet broadband."
G7 sets sights on new world order
G7 sets sights on new world order | Herald Sun: "From correspondents in Rome
February 15, 2009 06:03am
THE world's richest nations have called for urgent reform of global finance to save the world from the economic devastation that is dragging more and more countries into recession.
Italy's finance minister called for a 'new world economic order' as he wrapped up the crisis meeting of finance leaders from the Group of Seven leading economies over which he presided here.
In a joint declaration, the G7 called for 'urgent reforms' of the international financial system.
Mr Tremonti said a so-called set of 'legal standards' discussed in Rome would be presented at a meeting of 20 key advanced and emerging economies (G20) in London in April and a summit of the Group of Eight (G8) world powers in July.
'A new world economic order might seem rhetorical,' he said. 'But it is a true goal we should be aiming towards... today right here in Rome we've embarked on a very significant journey, both technical and ethical.'
The G7 delegates in a joint statement vowed to avoid protectionism as they seek to stabilise the tottering world economy and financial markets and said stabilisation of the world economy was their 'highest priority'.
The global crisis 'has highlighted fundamental weaknesses in the international financial system and that urgent reforms are needed', the statement said.
US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner vowed that his country, the biggest economy in the world and the source of much of the financial drama in recent months, would work with other nations for a consensus on reforms.
'We need to begin the process of comprehensive reform of our financial system and the international financial system, so the world never again faces a crisis this severe,' Mr Geithner said after the talks.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - the body coming to the rescue of some crisis-hit countries - said restructuring banks damaged by the credit crunch was the main problem facing governments.
The Italian G7 presidency also said before the talks that it favoured measures that would target hedge funds and tax havens which have come under criticism in the crisis.
The G7 reiterated the view of several top delegates that protectionism - when countries take measures that favour their economies at the expense of others - was a threat to stability.
'The G7 remains committed to avoiding protectionist measures, which would only exacerbate the downturn, to refraining from raising new barriers' to business across borders, the statement said.
The document hailed stimulus actions taken by other countries, singling out China which it also praised for its 'continued commitment to move to a more flexible exchange rate'.
The financial leaders met amid mounting warnings of the talks' grave economic stakes. Mr Strauss-Kahn said advanced economies were in a 'deep recession' ahead of the crisis talks.
Delegates came from the G7 grouping of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States plus Russia"
February 15, 2009 06:03am
THE world's richest nations have called for urgent reform of global finance to save the world from the economic devastation that is dragging more and more countries into recession.
Italy's finance minister called for a 'new world economic order' as he wrapped up the crisis meeting of finance leaders from the Group of Seven leading economies over which he presided here.
In a joint declaration, the G7 called for 'urgent reforms' of the international financial system.
Mr Tremonti said a so-called set of 'legal standards' discussed in Rome would be presented at a meeting of 20 key advanced and emerging economies (G20) in London in April and a summit of the Group of Eight (G8) world powers in July.
'A new world economic order might seem rhetorical,' he said. 'But it is a true goal we should be aiming towards... today right here in Rome we've embarked on a very significant journey, both technical and ethical.'
The G7 delegates in a joint statement vowed to avoid protectionism as they seek to stabilise the tottering world economy and financial markets and said stabilisation of the world economy was their 'highest priority'.
The global crisis 'has highlighted fundamental weaknesses in the international financial system and that urgent reforms are needed', the statement said.
US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner vowed that his country, the biggest economy in the world and the source of much of the financial drama in recent months, would work with other nations for a consensus on reforms.
'We need to begin the process of comprehensive reform of our financial system and the international financial system, so the world never again faces a crisis this severe,' Mr Geithner said after the talks.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - the body coming to the rescue of some crisis-hit countries - said restructuring banks damaged by the credit crunch was the main problem facing governments.
The Italian G7 presidency also said before the talks that it favoured measures that would target hedge funds and tax havens which have come under criticism in the crisis.
The G7 reiterated the view of several top delegates that protectionism - when countries take measures that favour their economies at the expense of others - was a threat to stability.
'The G7 remains committed to avoiding protectionist measures, which would only exacerbate the downturn, to refraining from raising new barriers' to business across borders, the statement said.
The document hailed stimulus actions taken by other countries, singling out China which it also praised for its 'continued commitment to move to a more flexible exchange rate'.
The financial leaders met amid mounting warnings of the talks' grave economic stakes. Mr Strauss-Kahn said advanced economies were in a 'deep recession' ahead of the crisis talks.
Delegates came from the G7 grouping of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States plus Russia"
2/11/09
Vatican buries the hatchet with Charles Darwin
"The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin was on the right track when he claimed that Man descended from apes.
A leading official declared yesterday that Darwin’s theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith, and could even be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas. “In fact, what we mean by evolution is the world as created by God,” said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The Vatican also dealt the final blow to speculation that Pope Benedict XVI might be prepared to endorse the theory of Intelligent Design, whose advocates credit a “higher power” for the complexities of life.
Organisers of a papal-backed conference next month marking the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species said that at first it had even been proposed to ban Intelligent Design from the event, as “poor theology and poor science”. Intelligent Design would be discussed at the fringes of the conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University, but merely as a “cultural phenomenon”, rather than a scientific or theological issue, organisers said.
The conference is seen as a landmark in relations between faith and science. Three years ago advocates of Intelligent Design seized on the Pope’s reference to an “intelligent project” as proof that he favoured their views."
Conceding that the Church had been hostile to Darwin because his theory appeared to conflict with the account of creation in Genesis, Archbishop Ravasi argued yesterday that biological evolution and the Christian view of Creation were complementary.
Marc Leclerc, who teaches natural philosophy at the Gregorian University, said that no scholar could “remain indifferent” to the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth tomorrow. There was, however, “no question of celebrating” it.
The Vatican would “take the measure of an event, which has left its mark for ever on the history of science and has influenced the way we understand our humanity”. The “time has come for a rigorous and objective valuation” of Darwin by the Church, he said.
Professor Leclerc said that too many opponents of Darwin – above all Creationists – had mistakenly claimed that his theories were “totally incompatible with a religious vision of reality”, as did proponents of Intelligent Design.
Darwin’s theories had never been formally condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, Monsignor Ravasi insisted. His rehabilitation had begun as long ago as 1950, when Pius XII described evolution as a valid scientific approach to the development of humans. In 1996 John Paul II said that it was “more than a hypothesis”.
Father Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Santa Croce University in Rome, said that Darwin had been anticipated by St Augustine of Hippo. The 4th-century theologian had “never heard the term evolution, but knew that big fish eat smaller fish” and that forms of life had been transformed “slowly over time”. Aquinas had made similar observations in the Middle Ages, he added.
He said it was time that theologians as well as scientists grappled with the mysteries of genetic codes and “whether the diversification of life forms is the result of competition or cooperation between species”. As for the origins of Man, although we shared 97 per cent of our “genetic inheritance” with apes, the remaining 3 per cent “is what makes us unique”, including religion.
“I maintain that the idea of evolution has a place in Christian theology,” Professor Tanzella-Nitti added.
Creationism remains powerful in the US, however, notably among Protestants, and its followers object to evolution being taught in state schools.
The Church of England is seeking to bring Darwin back into the fold with a page on its website paying tribute to his “forgotten” work in his local parish, to illustrate how science and Church need not be at odds. Several pages celebrate Darwin’s “significant scientific progress” to mark his bicentenary and also the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species.
The Church wants to correct the impression that Darwin’s relationship with Anglicanism was contentious. The Anglican Church as a whole did not condemn Darwin or his beliefs. It says that although he lost his faith, he did not become antiChurch or antireligious. ...Source
A leading official declared yesterday that Darwin’s theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith, and could even be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas. “In fact, what we mean by evolution is the world as created by God,” said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The Vatican also dealt the final blow to speculation that Pope Benedict XVI might be prepared to endorse the theory of Intelligent Design, whose advocates credit a “higher power” for the complexities of life.
Organisers of a papal-backed conference next month marking the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species said that at first it had even been proposed to ban Intelligent Design from the event, as “poor theology and poor science”. Intelligent Design would be discussed at the fringes of the conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University, but merely as a “cultural phenomenon”, rather than a scientific or theological issue, organisers said.
The conference is seen as a landmark in relations between faith and science. Three years ago advocates of Intelligent Design seized on the Pope’s reference to an “intelligent project” as proof that he favoured their views."
Conceding that the Church had been hostile to Darwin because his theory appeared to conflict with the account of creation in Genesis, Archbishop Ravasi argued yesterday that biological evolution and the Christian view of Creation were complementary.
Marc Leclerc, who teaches natural philosophy at the Gregorian University, said that no scholar could “remain indifferent” to the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth tomorrow. There was, however, “no question of celebrating” it.
The Vatican would “take the measure of an event, which has left its mark for ever on the history of science and has influenced the way we understand our humanity”. The “time has come for a rigorous and objective valuation” of Darwin by the Church, he said.
Professor Leclerc said that too many opponents of Darwin – above all Creationists – had mistakenly claimed that his theories were “totally incompatible with a religious vision of reality”, as did proponents of Intelligent Design.
Darwin’s theories had never been formally condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, Monsignor Ravasi insisted. His rehabilitation had begun as long ago as 1950, when Pius XII described evolution as a valid scientific approach to the development of humans. In 1996 John Paul II said that it was “more than a hypothesis”.
Father Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Santa Croce University in Rome, said that Darwin had been anticipated by St Augustine of Hippo. The 4th-century theologian had “never heard the term evolution, but knew that big fish eat smaller fish” and that forms of life had been transformed “slowly over time”. Aquinas had made similar observations in the Middle Ages, he added.
He said it was time that theologians as well as scientists grappled with the mysteries of genetic codes and “whether the diversification of life forms is the result of competition or cooperation between species”. As for the origins of Man, although we shared 97 per cent of our “genetic inheritance” with apes, the remaining 3 per cent “is what makes us unique”, including religion.
“I maintain that the idea of evolution has a place in Christian theology,” Professor Tanzella-Nitti added.
Creationism remains powerful in the US, however, notably among Protestants, and its followers object to evolution being taught in state schools.
The Church of England is seeking to bring Darwin back into the fold with a page on its website paying tribute to his “forgotten” work in his local parish, to illustrate how science and Church need not be at odds. Several pages celebrate Darwin’s “significant scientific progress” to mark his bicentenary and also the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species.
The Church wants to correct the impression that Darwin’s relationship with Anglicanism was contentious. The Anglican Church as a whole did not condemn Darwin or his beliefs. It says that although he lost his faith, he did not become antiChurch or antireligious. ...Source
2/9/09
House Approves Whitelist of People Who Aren't Terrorists | Threat Level from Wired.com
House Approves Whitelist of People Who Aren't Terrorists | Threat Level from Wired.com: "The House overwhelmingly adopted legislation this week mandating the creation of a new kind of terrorist watchlist: a database of people who aren't terrorists, but are routinely flagged at airports anyway.
The U.S. government maintains a list of about a million names of suspected terrorists that is crosschecked with passenger names ahead of airline boarding. The list has been dogged for years by sloppy name matches that have ensnared innocent travelers, children, prominent politicians and government officials, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' secretary of education and all men named David Nelson.
Under the new plan, approved late Tuesday 413-3, innocent victims of the terrorist watchlist must prove to the Department of Homeland Security, through an undetermined appeals process, that they are not terrorists. They would then get their names put on what the legislation calls the 'Comprehensive Cleared List.'
The legislation is another attempt to assist wrongly flagged passengers and would supersede the troubled DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, which has been criticized for being slow or unresponsive to flier complaints.
The FAST Redress Act, if approved by the Senate, requires the government to report within 240 days on its progress in implementing the new list."
The U.S. government maintains a list of about a million names of suspected terrorists that is crosschecked with passenger names ahead of airline boarding. The list has been dogged for years by sloppy name matches that have ensnared innocent travelers, children, prominent politicians and government officials, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' secretary of education and all men named David Nelson.
Under the new plan, approved late Tuesday 413-3, innocent victims of the terrorist watchlist must prove to the Department of Homeland Security, through an undetermined appeals process, that they are not terrorists. They would then get their names put on what the legislation calls the 'Comprehensive Cleared List.'
The legislation is another attempt to assist wrongly flagged passengers and would supersede the troubled DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, which has been criticized for being slow or unresponsive to flier complaints.
The FAST Redress Act, if approved by the Senate, requires the government to report within 240 days on its progress in implementing the new list."
Beware, Big Brother is watching your trips abroad: Government plans to store details of ordinary people's journeys | Mail Online
"A ‘Big Brother’ database is being built by the Government to store details of millions of our international journeys for up to ten years.
The computer system, housed at a secret location on the outskirts of Manchester, will record names and dates of every movement in and out of the UK by air, sea or rail.
Reservation and payment details, addresses and telephone numbers, names of travelling companions and even details of luggage carried will also be stored." B...more
The computer system, housed at a secret location on the outskirts of Manchester, will record names and dates of every movement in and out of the UK by air, sea or rail.
Reservation and payment details, addresses and telephone numbers, names of travelling companions and even details of luggage carried will also be stored." B...more
Why veins could replace fingerprints and retinas as most secure form of ID - Times Online
"Forget fingerprinting. Companies in Europe have begun to roll out an advanced biometric system from Japan that identifies people from the unique patterns of veins inside their fingers.
Finger vein authentication, introduced widely by Japanese banks in the last two years, is claimed to be the fastest and most secure biometric method. Developed by Hitachi, it verifies a person's identity based on the lattice work of minute blood vessels under the skin.
Easydentic Group, a European leader in the biometric industry based in France, has announced that it will be using Hitachi's finger vein security in a range of door access systems for the UK and European markets.
In Japan, thousands of cash machines are operated by finger vein technology. Hitachi announced today that it will introduce 20,000 finger vein authentication systems at shops and kiosks belonging to two Japanese companies, which will use the devices to protect the privacy of customer information by requiring storeworkers to authenticate themselves before accessing the customer database." ...more
Finger vein authentication, introduced widely by Japanese banks in the last two years, is claimed to be the fastest and most secure biometric method. Developed by Hitachi, it verifies a person's identity based on the lattice work of minute blood vessels under the skin.
Easydentic Group, a European leader in the biometric industry based in France, has announced that it will be using Hitachi's finger vein security in a range of door access systems for the UK and European markets.
In Japan, thousands of cash machines are operated by finger vein technology. Hitachi announced today that it will introduce 20,000 finger vein authentication systems at shops and kiosks belonging to two Japanese companies, which will use the devices to protect the privacy of customer information by requiring storeworkers to authenticate themselves before accessing the customer database." ...more
2/8/09
Brain Patterns Are the New Standard in Biometrics - Retinal scans and fingerprinting are obsolete - Softpedia
"Fear of terrorist attacks has prompted a redefining of the concepts of security and safety throughout the world, and especially in Europe and the United States, the largest potential targets. After 2001, more and more retinal scanners and fingerprint-recognition devices have been installed in sensitive areas such as airports and public buildings, but their main drawback has been that they take a lot of time to complete their readings, and they can cause unrest, as people have to queue to get to where they're going.
Now, an European team of scientists is working on a way to create a device that will no longer rely on scanning eyes or palms, but rather on scanning the brain waves each person has. While fingerprints and retina layouts can be falsified, the waves that cause all the process in the brain cannot, and they are truly unique for ever person. The team says that a success in this field could mean far less queues, and a faster detection of suspicious individuals in crowded or sensitive areas." ...more
Now, an European team of scientists is working on a way to create a device that will no longer rely on scanning eyes or palms, but rather on scanning the brain waves each person has. While fingerprints and retina layouts can be falsified, the waves that cause all the process in the brain cannot, and they are truly unique for ever person. The team says that a success in this field could mean far less queues, and a faster detection of suspicious individuals in crowded or sensitive areas." ...more
2/5/09
YOU ARE BEING WATCHED
"OTTAWA — David Lyon is studying the ceiling in an Ottawa coffee shop, searching for hidden cameras. A leading figure in the fast-growing field of surveillance studies, the Queen's University sociologist is only too aware of the many ways we're all being watched.
Closed-circuit TV cameras, like the ones likely concealed in the coffee shop ceiling, are among the most common. Since 9/11, their use has exploded worldwide. Britain now has an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras — one for every 14 citizens. People in central London are now caught on camera about 300 times a day.
One estimate puts the number of public and private CCTV cameras in the United States at 30 million. So far, similar estimates are lacking for Canada. But experts agree camera surveillance has been growing steadily here as well.
'I find it mind-boggling when I see what they do in Britain,' Lyon says. 'Police officers on bicycles now have video surveillance cameras in their helmets,' he exclaims, then blurts, 'What kind of a world are we living in?'"...more
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