Thursday, July 13, 2006
Cameras Spot "Criminals"
"They may be able to wear disguises, dodge CCTV and even keep their DNA under control, but one thing will always identify criminals — their walk.

Far from relying on fingerprints or photofit, scientists now believe that an individual’s gait can give the game away.

Police have databanks of palm prints, ear prints and handwriting at their disposal, as well facial recognition systems that can match fugitive faces with those in a crowd. But the next step could be swagger surveillance..."

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Getting 86'd Forever
"NUNEATON is to pilot a hi-tech government scheme to help curb underage drinking and trouble in the town's pubs and clubs.

Fingerprint scanners are to be installed at venues in a club membership scheme which will flag up a person's age and any record of causing trouble.

The 'Big Brother' style devices will give doorstaff 'a shield in their armour' to refuse entry to anyone highlighted and help improve people's safety while enjoying their night out.

Called Intouch, the £30,000 scheme will see details including names, addresses, photographs and fingerprints logged onto a computer database.

The information will be stored on devices which will be introduced into selected bars and clubs in Nuneaton town centre over the coming months."

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And we shall never patronize yr facist establishment ever again, pig. We won't be giving our monies to Nazis. You can lift our fingerprints from the inside of yr asshole, assholes.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006


Congress To Deal With Online Gambling
"The legislation would make it illegal for banks and credit-card companies to make payments to these sites and increase the maximum prison time for violations from two to five years. It also would allow law-enforcement officials to force Internet service providers to remove links to the sites.
The legislation is supported by many conservative advocacy groups, including the Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition, which view it as necessary to keep children from gambling."

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Read This While It's Still Legal
"As most of us toasted liberty and pursued happiness last week, Jim Harvill opened his mailbox and learned these rights are not as unalienable as he thought.

On July 3, Harvill, an affable operations manager for Sprint PCS near Spokane, got the following letter from the publisher of two magazines he has subscribed to for years. 'It is with deep regret that we must inform you ... ' it read, 'we must cancel all subscriptions to Washington State.'

The magazines are Casino Player — a monthly review of U.S. casinos and hotels — and Strictly Slots — a guide to one-armed bandits, video poker and other mechanized means of gambling.

Hardly classic literature. But Harvill liked them. And now he can no longer read them, thanks to a twisted reading of the state's new law against Internet gambling.

The state says placing bets online is against the law. Fine. But the state goes on to say that even writing about Internet gambling in a way that's promotional is 'aiding and abetting' an illegal industry.

So now two print magazines consider themselves banned in this state. It's not clear whether the publisher pulled them on his own or was asked to by the state. The letter vaguely cites 'new state laws regarding the legality of online gaming.'

Mind you, no actual betting occurs via these magazines. People like Harvill buy them just to read about gambling.

'It's completely surreal,' Harvill says. "My government is saying there is something I'm not allowed to read. I've lived in this country for 60 years and I can't remember anything like this happening to me before.'"

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Ain't that a bitch? No more online gambling (if the bastards have their way). What's next - - online pornography?

Town of 420 Monitors Citizens Constantly
"Nine cameras eyeball Main Street and the few roads into Sanborn, a southwestern Minnesota town plopped among some of the most fertile soybean fields in America. There's a bank but no stoplight, no school, no grocery store and, since the digital cops started keeping their 24/7 vigil last fall, not as much anxiety about crime.

'Things have calmed down pretty good,' said Tom Platz, who runs Tom & Jerry's Corner Bar. From the cool darkness of his saloon, Platz (which is pronounced 'Plates') has a three-decade-long perspective of what goes on along Main Street.

Right now, he likes what he sees — and doesn't see.

'I'm probably the only one up at 1 or 2 in the morning, and I don't see kids up squealing their tires and raising hell like they used to,' Platz said."

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It's not surprising that an expert hired by
EFF should produce an analysis that supports the group's case against AT&T. But last week's public court filing of a redacted statement by J. Scott Marcus is still worth reading for the obvious expertise of its author, and the cunning insights he draws from the AT&T spy documents.

An internet pioneer and former FCC advisor who held a Top Secret security clearance, Marcus applies a Sherlock Holmes level of reasoning to his dissection of the evidence in the case: 120-pages of AT&T manuals that EFF filed under seal, and whistleblower Mark Klein's observations inside the company's San Francisco switching center.

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