Smile For the Cop With the Smartphone and the Facial Recognition Software

Cop phoneYou look familiar—says the cop
with the smartphone. And never mind that
FBI specifications allow for a faulty match up to 20 percent of the
time
; local, state, and federal law enforcement officers based
in California’s San Diego and Imperial counties have quietly taken
to the streets with federally funded tablets and smartphones to
match the faces of people they meet with databased photographs. If
the experiment proves successful, in government terms, you can
probably expect the blend of cops, mobile devices, and facial
recognition software to come to a sidewalk near you.

For the Center for Investigative Reporting, Ali Winston
writes
:

On a residential street in San Diego County, Calif., Chula Vista
police had just arrested a young woman, still in her pajamas, for
possession of narcotics. Before taking her away, Officer Rob
Halverson paused in the front yard, held a Samsung Galaxy tablet up
to the woman’s face and snapped a photo.

Halverson fiddled with the tablet with his index finger a few
times, and – without needing to ask the woman’s name or check her
identification – her mug shot from a previous arrest, address,
criminal history and other personal information appeared on the
screen.

Halverson had run the woman’s photograph through the Tactical
Identification System, a new mobile facial recognition technology
now in the hands of San Diego-area law enforcement. In an instant,
the system matches images taken in the field with databases of
about 348,000 San Diego County arrestees. The system itself has
nearly 1.4 million booking photos because many people have multiple
mug shots on record.

The little-known program could become the largest expansion of
facial recognition technology by U.S. law enforcement. Amid an
international debate over collecting and sharing huge amounts of
data on the public, this pilot program is putting that metadata to
use in the field in real time.

Managed by the Automated Regional Justice Information System
(ARJIS), a joint project of 75 government agencies, and funded by
the National Institute of Justice, the
Tactical Identification System
combines traditional mugshots
with controversial (and not entirely reliable) facial recognition
software, and puts it in the hands of police officers in the field.
The system deployed in California appears to draw only from booking
photos at the moment, but many states have already
linked facial recognition technology with their driver’s license
databases
, multi-purposing everybody’s least favorite photos
into de facto police lineup images. Police lineup images with

uncertain access control
and, as mentioned, a high potential
for false positives. It’s probably safe to assume that, if the
Tactical Identification System approach is replicated elsewhere,
police mobile devices will be linked with that wider range of photo
databases.

So, when do police officers in San Diego and Imperial counties
whip out their smartphones to identify passers-by? During arrests,
of course, but also during other encounters with the public.

One Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who provided a
testimonial said he used the device during a warrant sweep in
Oceanside. While on the sweep, the agent wrote, his “ ‘spidy
senses’ were tingling” about the immigration status of a neighbor
of the person he was pursuing.

He decided to run the man’s picture through the facial
recognition software. The agent discovered the man was in the
country illegally and had a 2003 DUI conviction in San Diego.

“I whipped out the Droid (smartphone) and snapped a quick photo
and submitted for search,” the immigration agent wrote in his
testimonial for the Automated Regional Justice Information System.
“The subject looked inquisitively at me not knowing the truth was
only 8 seconds away. I received a match of 99.96 percent. This
revealed several prior arrests and convictions and provided me an
FBI #. When I showed him his booking photo, his jaw dropped.”

You never know when your photo will be snapped. So remember to
comb your hair before going out in public.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/08/smile-for-the-cop-with-the-smartphone-an
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BofAML Warns “Treasury Bears Beware”

The reaction to the non-farm payrolls report in the US Treasury complex has the bond bears out en masse this morning. A 10-12bps jerk higher in yield is nothing to sneeze at and certainly flushed more than a few uncomfortable longs out – but BofAML’s MacNeil Curry warns “treasury bears beware.” The completing 5 wave advance and confluence of support between 2.738%/2.759% says further yield upside is limited. Don’t be max short into these levels. There should be better levels to sell in the days ahead.

 

 

Source: BofAML


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/ymAL7PeWGKU/story01.htm Tyler Durden

BofAML Warns "Treasury Bears Beware"

The reaction to the non-farm payrolls report in the US Treasury complex has the bond bears out en masse this morning. A 10-12bps jerk higher in yield is nothing to sneeze at and certainly flushed more than a few uncomfortable longs out – but BofAML’s MacNeil Curry warns “treasury bears beware.” The completing 5 wave advance and confluence of support between 2.738%/2.759% says further yield upside is limited. Don’t be max short into these levels. There should be better levels to sell in the days ahead.

 

 

Source: BofAML


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/ymAL7PeWGKU/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Survey Shows European Jews Report Rise in Anti-Semitism On Eve of Kristallnacht Anniversary

Tomorrow will mark the 75th
anniversary of the pogrom against Jews that took place across Nazi
Germany as well as parts of Austria known as
Kristallnacht. 

Ahead of the anniversary, the European Union’s
Fundamental Rights Agency
 (FRA) has released
a survey
 on anti-semitism, which shows that Jews in Europe
feel that there has been an increase in anti-semitism in the past
five years.

From the FRA Survey:            
                 

Two thirds of the survey respondents (66 %) consider
antisemitism to be a problem across the eight EU Member States
surveyed, while on average three quarters of the respondents (76 %)
also believe that the situation has become more acute and that
antisemitism has increased in the country where they live over the
past five years. In the 12 months following the survey, close to
half of the respondents (46 %) worry about being verbally insulted
or harassed in a public place because they are Jewish, and one
third (33 %) worry about being physically attacked in the country
where they live because they are Jewish. Furthermore, 66 % of
parents or grandparents of school-aged children worry that their
children could be subjected to antisemitic verbal insults or
harassment at school or en route, and 52 % worry that they would be
physically attacked with an antisemitic motive while at school or
en route. In the past 12 months, over half of all survey
respondents (57 %) heard or saw someone claim that the Holocaust
was a myth or that it has been exaggerated.

According to the survey, almost a third of Jews in the eight
countries examined in the survey (where more than 90 percent of
European Jews live) have considered emigrating in the last five
years. The figure is especially high in Hungary, where almost half
of the Jews surveyed said that they have considered leaving.
Jobbik, Hungary’s anti-semitic and anti-Roma party, is the third most
popular party
in the country.

While much of Europe’s anti-semitism continues to be based in
sort of nationalism and prejudices seen before the beginning of the
Second World War,
The New York Times
reporting on the survey
points out that some of Europe’s more recent anti-semitism is
rooted in the political left and the comparatively recent
Muslim communities in Europe:

In other countries, however, hostility to Jews is now rooted
more on the left and in Muslim immigrant communities, the survey’s
findings indicate. More than three-quarters of respondents in
France and Belgium, both of which have large populations of Muslim
immigrants, identified anti-Semitism as a problem. Eighty percent
of respondents in these same two countries described immigration as
a problem, too, suggesting tense relations between Jewish
communities and recently arrived immigrants.

About 90 percent of respondents in Belgium and France reported
that the Arab-Israeli conflict had had a “notable impact” on the
safety of Jews. Only 40 percent reported the same in Hungary, which
has few Muslim immigrants, while a majority of respondents in most
other countries surveyed said tensions in the Middle East had
affected their feelings of safety either a “great deal” or a “fair
amount.”

Read the full report below:

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/08/survey-shows-european-jews-report-rise-i
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Not a creature was stirring

Let me be the first, at the start of this holiday season, to apologize to all the moms out there. I really didn’t have a clue. Then again, I do have somewhat of an excuse – I’m a Neanderthal.
By now, at tender age of 55, you think I’d know, but alas, I didn’t. Now I’m beginning to understand. The role of mom is just about impossible. And that’s on a good day.

“Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.” It would be safe to say that over the next six weeks the preceding sentence will be read to children more than any other.

read more

via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/blogs/rick-ryckeley/11-08-2013/not-creature-was-stirring

Guest Post: Obama's 'Socialism' Experiment Brought Home

Submitted by Martin Armstrong via Armstrong Economics,

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”.. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that.

Here are possibly the 5 key points about such an experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

 

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

 

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

 

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

 

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

 

Or in graphical format…

capitalism-vs-socialism


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/iVGbjCBccrw/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Guest Post: Obama’s ‘Socialism’ Experiment Brought Home

Submitted by Martin Armstrong via Armstrong Economics,

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”.. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that.

Here are possibly the 5 key points about such an experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

 

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

 

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

 

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

 

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

 

Or in graphical format…

capitalism-vs-socialism


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/iVGbjCBccrw/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Deutsche Bank: "Yellen May Actually Have To Increase QE" – Here's Why

With what few vacuum tube-based trading algos are left and reacting with rabid kneejerkiness to every flashing red headline, one would get the impression that what matters to the Fed’s decision on how to adjust its balance sheet flow depends on the US economy. But if Deutsche Bank is correct, the next source of global economic contraction, which it will be up to the Fed to offset (just like China was the marginal growth dynamo in the months after Lehman filed), and result in an increase in QE nevermind taper, is not in the US at all, but in China where things are about to go bump in the night. Which means that just like that we have moved into the “New Normal paradigm” where the worse the news out of China, the better for stocks.

From Deutsche’s Jim Reid:

Over the weekend, China’s inflation, industrial production and retail sales numbers for the month of October will be released. China’s much awaited Third Plenum meeting gets underway tomorrow where DB’s Jun Ma expects a wide ranging package of reforms will follow, in terms of industry deregulation, financial liberalisation, reforms to land titles, state-owned enterprises and social security. Our take on this is that there will be lots for the market to get excited about in the reforms but that it will not necessarily be easy to implement them successfully. Our GEM equity strategist JP Smith yesterday reiterated his bearish view on China and most of the EM complex. If he’s correct Yellen and Draghi are going to have interesting 2014s with the provocative thought being that Yellen may actually have to increase QE. Food for thought.

And just for thought, because very soon the bulk of the world’s population won’t be able to afford any other kind. Especially once the Fed is forced to start monetizing Big Macs.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/Hgx-zLdk0Uw/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Deutsche Bank: “Yellen May Actually Have To Increase QE” – Here’s Why

With what few vacuum tube-based trading algos are left and reacting with rabid kneejerkiness to every flashing red headline, one would get the impression that what matters to the Fed’s decision on how to adjust its balance sheet flow depends on the US economy. But if Deutsche Bank is correct, the next source of global economic contraction, which it will be up to the Fed to offset (just like China was the marginal growth dynamo in the months after Lehman filed), and result in an increase in QE nevermind taper, is not in the US at all, but in China where things are about to go bump in the night. Which means that just like that we have moved into the “New Normal paradigm” where the worse the news out of China, the better for stocks.

From Deutsche’s Jim Reid:

Over the weekend, China’s inflation, industrial production and retail sales numbers for the month of October will be released. China’s much awaited Third Plenum meeting gets underway tomorrow where DB’s Jun Ma expects a wide ranging package of reforms will follow, in terms of industry deregulation, financial liberalisation, reforms to land titles, state-owned enterprises and social security. Our take on this is that there will be lots for the market to get excited about in the reforms but that it will not necessarily be easy to implement them successfully. Our GEM equity strategist JP Smith yesterday reiterated his bearish view on China and most of the EM complex. If he’s correct Yellen and Draghi are going to have interesting 2014s with the provocative thought being that Yellen may actually have to increase QE. Food for thought.

And just for thought, because very soon the bulk of the world’s population won’t be able to afford any other kind. Especially once the Fed is forced to start monetizing Big Macs.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/Hgx-zLdk0Uw/story01.htm Tyler Durden

TIME Defends Christie Cover

TIME Executive Editor Michael Duffy
has defended the magazine’s recent cover, which includes a
silhouetted photo of Christie (who was re-elected as New Jersey’s
governor on Tuesday) and the caption “Elephant in the Room.”

From NJ.com:

Time Magazine Executive Editor Michael Duffy took to the
airwaves last night to defend his magazine’s most recent cover,
which has sparked outrage this week for its thinly veiled shot at
Gov. Chris Christie’s weight.

The cover features a silhouetted photo of the governor
beside the caption “Elephant in the Room.” After the cover was
revealed yesterday, the Twittersphere erupted with condemnation for
the magazine.

“Whether or not one likes Christie, these cheap shots–like
Time’s new cover–about his weight are decidedly uncool,” tweeted
New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse.

Follow this story and more at Reason
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from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/08/time-defends-christie-cove
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