Anyone convicted of a crime in New York would have their DNA added to a state database, if a new measure, backed by Gov. David Paterson, wins passage. Right now, about 46 percent of all convicts are added to the collection. The proposed legislation would cover misdemeanors, including curfew violation and vandalism. This would make New York pretty much the most aggressive state when it comes to DNA collection, and prosecutors and police say it would greatly help stop future crime.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Surveillance Software Knows What a Camera Sees
e
See demonstration video
[technologyreview.com] A prototype computer vision system can generate a live text description of what's happening in a feed from a surveillance camera. Although not yet ready for commercial use, the system demonstrates how software could make it easier to skim or search through video or image collections. It was developed by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, in collaboration with ObjectVideo of Reston, VA.
"You can see from the existence of YouTube and all the other growing sources of video around us that being able to search video is a major problem," says Song-Chun Zhu, lead researcher and professor of statistics and computer science at UCLA.
"Almost all search for images or video is still done using the surrounding text," he says. Zhu and UCLA colleagues Benjamin Yao and Haifeng Gong developed a new system, called I2T (Image to Text), which is intended to change that.
It puts a series of computer vision algorithms into a system that takes images or video frames as input, and spits out summaries of what they depict. "That can be searched using simple text search, so it's very human-friendly," says Zhu.
The team applied the software to surveillance footage in collaboration with Mun Wai Lee of ObjectVideo to demonstrate the strength of I2T. Systems like it might help address the fact that there are more and more surveillance cameras--on the streets and in military equipment, for instance--while the number of people working with them remains about the same, says Zhu.
The first part of I2T is an image parser that decomposes an image--meaning it removes the background, and objects like vehicles, trees, and people. Some objects can be broken down further; for example, the limbs of a person or wheels of a car can be separated from the object they belong to.
Next, the meaning of that collection of shapes is determined. "This knowledge representation step is the most important part of the system," says Zhu, explaining that this knowledge comes from human smarts. In 2005, Zhu established the nonprofit Lotus Hill Institute in Ezhou, China, and, with some support from the Chinese government, recruited about 20 graduates of local art colleges to work full-time to annotate a library of images to aid computer vision systems. The result is a database of more than two million images containing objects that have been identified and classified into more than 500 categories.
To ensure that workers annotate images in a standard way, software guides them as they work. It uses versions of the algorithms that will eventually benefit from the final data to pick out the key objects for a person to classify, and it suggests how they might be classified based on previous data. The objects inside images are classified into a hierarchy of categories based on Princeton's WordNet database, which organizes English words into groups according to their meanings. "Once you have the image parsed using that system that also includes the meaning, transcription into the natural language is not too hard," says Zhu, who makes some of the data available for free to other researchers. "It is high-quality data and we hope that more people are going to use this," he says.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Growing Protests As UN Attacks Haitian Refugee Camp
Last week, the United Nations peacekeeping mission fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowded refugee camp, leaving at least six hospitalized and others suffering respiratory problems. Citizen organizations plan demonstrations for today, the sixth anniversary of the U.N. armed presence in Haiti. The march is part of growing protests against the military forces which have amassed in Haiti since the January 12 earthquake and the lack of attention to displaced people’s needs.
On May 23, students at the School of Ethnology of the State University of Haiti held another in a series of protests on the central Champs de Mars Boulevard. The U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH, by its French acronym) and Haitian police went into the school, firing tears gas and rubber bullets while the students threw rocks.
Then at about 3:00, MINUSTAH troops began firing in the internally displaced people’s camp in the downtown parks around Champs de Mars, where many thousands of people are crowded into tight quarters. The firing continued for hours, according to residents interviewed for this article and other reports. Camp residents reported that babies and small children choked on the gas and passed out, as did at least two women with preexisting heart conditions. Three doctors with Partners in Health at the University Hospital reported treating at least six victims of rubber bullet rounds. Two children were wounded in the face, one of them requiring about ten stitches, according to one of the doctors.[1]
When the attack began, camp residents, including many elderly and infirm people, and babies and small children fled. “I saw one woman running with her twins that are three or four months old,” said Eramithe Delva. “She had one in each arm, and with every step as she ran they banged against her chest. Is this what they want for us?” Many spent the night in the streets, for fear of returning to the camp. Residents interviewed said they had no idea why MINUSTAH fired on them.
MINUSTAH has since issued an apology for entering in the School of Ethnology. The statement did not mention the attack on the camp.
Demonstrations in Port-au-Prince and other areas of the country have become a daily occurrence. Most of them protest the government’s handling of the disaster and the heavy political and military presence of foreign powers since January 12. Within days after the earthquake, 12,600 U.N. troops, 20,000 U.S. troops, 2,000 Canadians, 600 French, and more from other countries amassed there.
Rural organizer Selina Pierre-Louis said, “We don’t know what these soldiers came to do. They have batons and guns in their hands. They zoom up and down in their huge vehicles all day. We’re not at war and we’re not armed. We need technical support, we need reconstruction, we need psychological help. They’re not doing anything to help the rebuilding. They’re just adding to our trauma.”
Troop levels overall have abated since the first months after the earthquake. The most recent figures on MINUSTAH’s web site show that just over 9,000 MINUSTAH forces remain there. The mission’s cost for the current fiscal year is $611.75 million.[2]
The Security Council-approved MINUSTAH was established on June 1, 2004 with a triple mandate of ensuring a “secure and stable environment,” promoting a constitutional political process, and strengthening human rights. Francky Etienne Remy, who owns a small craft shop in Jacmel, said, “The Haitian police are totally ineffectual so MINUSTAH fills a vacuum.”
Yet MINUSTAH troops have repeatedly been accused of killings, arbitrary arrests, and human rights violations throughout the duration of the mission. (See, for example, the reports of Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch.) These charges include an attack by MINUSTAH forces in Cité Soleil on April 15, 2005, killing several[3]; an attack on July 6, 2005, resulting in an uncertain number of deaths[4]; the killing of at least five, and possibly many more, people in Cité Soleil in December 22, 2006[5]; and the shooting death of a young man at the funeral of a prominent priest on July 14, 2009[6].
In February, 2008, the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services released its findings from an investigation into accusations against Sri Lankan MINUSTAH troops. It found that acts of sexual exploitation and abuse of children were “frequent” and occurred “at virtually every location where the contingent personnel were deployed.”[7]
MINUSTAH forces have also been shot at and killed. MINUSTAH claims it has suffered 152 troop fatalities.[8]
Beyond charges of unnecessary force, others like the student, small farmer, worker, and popular organizations who are organizing today’s march, oppose MINUSTAH because they claim the mission undermines Haitian sovereignty. The May 26 press statement for the march, signed by ten organizations, states, “After the January 12 catastrophe, the occupation has been strengthened with other foreign soldiers and MINUSTAH, on the pretext that they are helping us… [T]hey did nothing to help prevent more than 300,000 people from dying under rubble… Now on the sixth anniversary of the occupation, we are taking to the streets of Port-au-Prince to get the country out from under the rubble of MINUSTAH.”[9]
Community organizerNixon Boumba with the grassroots organization Democratic Popular Movement said in an interview, “We’re asking for Haitians to be the true actors in their future, and for an end to the occupation to allow the country to have dignity and autonomy for the development and transformation of the country. We need schools, we need people in the camps attended to. After January 12 there have been a lot of opportunities to resolve the problems in the country. Instead, Canada, France, the U.S., Brazil, and others have acted like imperialists, strengthening their power and trying to undermine our chance to change the quality of our country. The U.S. wants Haiti to serve as a military base for the Caribbean, to control resistance from Latin America. And they want to prevent a massive emigration toward the U.S. and Canada.”
[1] Information gathered from author interviews as well as first-person testimony collected by Melinda Miles, KOMPAY, and reported in a May 25 email to the author; and by Ansel Herz, Inter Press Service, reported in “U.N. Clash with Frustrated Students Spills into Camps,” May 25.
[2] MINUSTAH Facts and Figures, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/facts.shtml
[3] Eyewitness testimony, AP television news story, April 15, 2010.
[4] http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/yearman/cite_soleil.htm
[5] http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/12-another-massacre-in-haiti-by-un-troops/
[6] http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/secret-funeral-for-a-minustah-victim/
[7] Human Rights Watch, “Haiti: Events of 2008,” http://www.hrw.org/en/node/79214
[8] MINUSTAH Facts and Figures, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/facts.shtml
[9] Gwoup 77 et al., “Press Release: Let’s mobilize to get the country out of the rubble of foreign aid and the rubble of the occupation,” Port-au-Prince, May 26, 2010.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
All 144 CTA rapid transit stations will be equipped with surveillance cameras by the end of this month, expanding the Big Brother reach of the nation’s most extensive and integrated camera network.
By the end of this year, CTA buses and rail stations will have nearly 3,000 high-definition surveillance cameras — up from 1,800 currently. Initially, cameras will be positioned at station entrances.
Ultimately, each station will have a “full complement” of 20 cameras. And later this year, the CTA will launch a pilot program so see “whether it’s feasible to retrofit” older CTA rail cars with cameras. New 5000-series cars come equipped with cameras.
The cameras are being bankrolled, in part, by the $22.6 million in federal Homeland Security funds the CTA has received since 2006. The CTA is investing $19 million.
“If there’s something that needs a closer look, we’re able to zoom in and get a better view. The high-definition cameras help us get a very clear picture,” said CTA President Richard Rodriguez.
“As more cameras are added. You’ll be able to go through a number of different camera views from any given station …Video images provided help first-responders to assess situations and act accordingly, whether it’s a service disruption, a medical or a police emergency.”
At a news conference at the Brown Line’s Paulina Station called to mark the security “milestone,” Mayor Daley acknowledged that CTA cameras are not routinely monitored and are mostly used to identify crime suspects after-the-fact. They can also be used to assist in evacuations after major service disruptions.
But, they are sometimes used pre-emptively.
“When schools are getting out at certain locations and a large group of students from different schools are there on CTA platforms, we will use the cameras for that purpose — to make sure all the young people are safe going to and from dealing with the CTA,” the mayor said.
Daley said there is no doubt that surveillance cameras help solve crimes.
“Say someone commits a robbery, runs to the CTA trying to get on the CTA. They come through here. When they have cameras, we’ll get their pictures coming in,” he said.
“If it’s an armed robbery, a home invasion or a burglary — whatever it is. If they’re in a car driving down, a camera will pick ‘em up.”
Daley proudly proclaimed Chicago’s vast network of public and private surveillance cameras the “largest in the United States.”
Asked for a specific number, he said, “I couldn’t give you that.Tuesday, May 25, 2010
March 13th, 2010 at 21:28 UTC by Richard Clayton
As I mentioned a few days ago, the security services have some concerns about the Digital Economy Bill:
If evading blocking systems becomes a mainstream activity (and there’s said to be 6-7 million illegal file sharers in the UK) then it will be used, almost automatically, by subversive groups — preventing the spooks from examining the traffic patterns and comprehending the threat.
There seems to be some confusion about quite what is worrying the security services. Last October, The Times reported that “both the security services and police are concerned about the plans, believing that threatening to cut off pirates will increase the likelihood that they will escape detection by turning to encryption”, and this meme that the concern is encryption has been repeated ever since.
However, I think that Patrick Foster, the Times media correspondent, got hold of the wrong end of the stick. The issue isn’t encryption but traffic analysis.
Peer-to-peer file sharing is already widely encrypted (Limewire has used encrypted transfers “out of the box” since version 4.13.11 in November 2007). This is done because it helps to prevent ISPs from detecting and blocking or “traffic shaping” (slowing down) data transfers.
The encryption prevents any snooping at the ISP, but does not hide who is communicating with who, and anyone who joins in the file sharing can identify all of the peers who are interested in a particular file, be it the current #1 single, or a video of a radical calling for violent action.
However, imagine that in the near future those who illegally share copyright material are being disconnected, and websites such as The Pirate Bay are being blocked. Since this legal framework doesn’t do anything to provide alternatives to file sharing, millions of people will start to use protocols that hide the identity of peers (Tor would be suitable, but something slightly more special purpose will doubtless be rapidly adopted); along with software that evades blocking mechanisms (once again Tor fits the bill, but there are other alternatives).
Once this new generation of software is deployed (and it would be ubiquitous within weeks), not only are the rights-holders unable to determine who is nibbling away at their twentieth-century business model, but the spooks can no longer use traffic analysis to determine the members of conspiracies. That’s precisely why they were concerned last October about the disconnection aspects of the Bill, and that’s precisely why they are even more concerned now with the opposition amendment that has unexpectedly put “web blocking” onto the table.
The recently leaked BPI memo, setting out the rights holders lobbying position shows how seriously this risk is being taken at the highest levels:
There has been a meeting between Number 10 officials and BIS special advisers today to discuss the way forward on Clause 18. I am told that “discussions continue” but that “the security services concerns are not being met”.
The BPI (who wrote the opposition amendment in the first place) further reported in their memo the expectation that the Government would bow to the security services’s concerns and just remove Clause 18 from the Bill in “wash-up“, leaving the opposition whips (MPs hardly get a look in) with the choice of accepting a cut-down Bill or nothing.
Since evasion of web blocking needs more general purpose mechanisms than hiding the identity of file-sharing peers, it’s obvious why the security services concerns have resurfaced so strongly now. However, one wonders why their concerns about disconnection have been stifled. Perhaps they’ve decided that the specialist peer-to-peer obfuscation systems will be too special purpose to be used as the de facto means of communication by those they seek to surveil ? or perhaps they’ve just been told that helping old-media is more important than tracking terrorists ?
Diffie and Landau, in their book on wiretapping, said that “traffic analysis, not cryptanalysis, is the backbone of communications intelligence” … I suspect there’s a number of Parliamentarians who are currently having the ramifications of this very carefully explained to them.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Greek PM “applauds” May 20th general strike demonstrations
# 297 | Greek PM “applauds” May 20th general strike demonstrations: when the peoples’ ridiculing by authority reaches a new levelSunday, May 23, 2010 Corporate media report that Greek PM Papandreou expressed his content for the general strike demonstrations of May 20th: “the voice of those who were out on the streets”, he stated, “was heard louder, because it wasn’t covered by any uproar or riots”. So here we have it: the hunter applauding their prey; the executioner congratulating the convict for showing up on time for the execution. Postmodern government at its best (a PM-wannabe striker) and at the same time a return to the dark, dark pages of nationalist frenzy of which this corner of the world has seen so much: “we’re all in this together, our enemy lies beyond the border”. Papandreou’s statement shows in the most vivid manner the huge dilemma the antagonist movement in the greek territory will be faced with from now on: the tragic events of May 5th show that violence in demonstrations is no longer an option, that it must be ruled out – and yet, it was precisely this element that would prevent the most obvious recuperation attempts of the struggle by the state or capital – by the very targets of the demonstrations, that is. Where does this leave the antagonist movement in the country? Surely the way to go must be working on the grassroots, neighbourhood level for the creation of structures that negate the authority of state and capital on the everyday level. “Neighbourhood assemblies against the IMF” are already springing up across Athens (more on a subsequent post) and this is, undoubtedly, a positive sign. |
| Sad times |
| On May 5 lives were lost and it hurt us all as first people & anarchists. It was a big mistake that should have not happened but it did. Now we have to learn from this and make sure it does not happen again. That said we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater, we need to keep fighting and using all of our tactics including molotif bombs & riots.We have seen in the past when we have stopped fighting where all this has lead us. After the fire that cops set on politecnio school and it was the first time comes came in there, for about a year everyone was quiet and didn't know what to do. The cops/state did not stop it had said ok we took care of that problem. That is what it's saying but I am sure that it will keep attacking us or will have us as good litte kids that now we can hold hands with Papariga/KNAT and the say "when we use to fight it was different and you are "provokatores". We have had groups like this and was a very dark time in the movement. This is the thing the state, PM, and others (each one can fill in them selves) to stop the fighting and to have everything quit. On May 20th is was something the goverment was proud of, having so many people and no one really reacting. If you had said to anyone a month ago something like this they would have told you that your crazy. But from one mistake/carelessness and our fear not to have it happen or some others for the political cost. We have made the states dreams come true and it was almost to it's knees. This whole thing about changing tactics is what they want and we are playing in their hands. We have been working with the grassroots & neighbourhood level, but also showing the people we can build a new world and we will stand by you and fight at any level. I/we am/are an anarchist (not an anti-athoritist) and as such I/we will use even tool to fight the system. I am not saying to riot for no reason or break/burn things for no reason or not to be extra careful and think before you do something. But to turn 180 and say now we are peaceful and we will cast you aside or point you out so the cops will get you or you are so scared that you will have to lay low for sometime (this has happened in the past by some group/groups in front of exarxia square). If some of you don't like it then we can come to come to an agreement that you can call me and others like me "provokators" and maybe KKE will let you be in there block or you can always go with AK to give some sweets to the good PASOK that let you out of prison. BIA STHN BIA THS E3OYSIAS |
EFF Says Forget Cookies, Your Browser Has Fingerprints
Even without cookies, popular browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox give websites enough information to get a unique picture of their visitors about 94 percent of the time, according to research compiled over the past few months by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. [The Research] puts quantitative assessment on something that security gurus have known about for years, said Peter Eckersley, the EFF senior staff technologist who did the research. He found that configuration information — data on the type of browser, operating system, plugins, and even fonts installed — can be compiled by websites to create a unique portrait of most visitors. This means that most Internet users are a lot less anonymous than they believe, Eckersley said. 'Even if you turn off cookies and you use a proxy to hide your IP address, you could still be tracked,' he said.http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/18/1225250/EFF-Says-Forget-Cookies-Your-Browser-Has-Fingerprints
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