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Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Not Just Buses, Street Lights Are Also Recording Conversations -

Not Just Buses, Street Lights Are Also Recording Conversations - 


News that the government is set to expand the nationwide installation of surveillance bugs on buses that record conversations serves as a reminder that similar systems are also being readied for street lights, along with a host of other devices.

“Government officials are quietly installing sophisticated audio surveillance systems on public buses across the country to eavesdrop on passengers, according to documents obtained by The Daily. Plans to implement the technology are under way in cities from San Francisco to Hartford, Conn., and Eugene, Ore., to Columbus, Ohio.”
Michael Brick warns that the device will be able to, “transcribe the individual conversations of every passenger riding on a public bus,” at the behest of authorities adding that the DHS-funded project represents a horrendous affront to privacy laws.
However, as we have previously documented, buses are by no means the only place where big brother will not only be watching, but listening too.
As we first reported last year, high tech street lights with “homeland security applications” are now being installed in major U.S. cities.
A press release put out by Amerlux earlier this year announced the company’s partnership with Illuminating Concepts to further advance the rollout of ‘Intellistreets’. The announcement confirms that the street lights will have a number of “homeland security features” including a loudspeaker system that will be used to “engage captive audiences”.
Not only can the street lights, now being rolled out in Detroit, Chicago and Pittsburgh with Department of Energy backing, act as surveillance cameras, Minority Report-style advertising hubs, and Homeland Security alert systems, they are “also capable of recording conversations,” according to a report by ABC 7.
According to the companies behind the system, Intellistreets spying hubs that double as street lights are expected to “become commonplace” not only on regular streets but also for “retail malls, sports venues, on college campuses, and in new construction.”
In addition to the Intellistreets system, gunshot detectors which have been installed in major cities for years are already recording public conversations.The ACLU responded by noting that, “It is not generally legal for law enforcement (or anyone else) to make audio recordings of conversations in which they are not a participant without a warrant.”
Televisions, computers and cellphones are also set to utilize technology that records conversations in order to bombard users with invasive targeted advertising. Verizon recently followed Google’s lead and officially filed a patent for a set-top box that will actively spy on Americans in their own homes.
In an article we published back in 2006, we highlighted the fact that, “Digital cable TV boxes, such as Scientific Atlanta, have had secret in-built microphones inside them since their inception in the late 1990′s.”
App providers on the Android network also now require users to agree to a condition that, “Allows the app to record audio with the microphone,” on cellphones and other ‘smart’ devices. “This permission allows the app to record audio at any time without your confirmation,” states the text of the agreement.
Virtually every new technological device now being manufactured that is linked to the Internet has the capability to record conversations and send them back to a central hub. Is it really any wonder therefore that former CIA director David Petraeus heralded the arrival of the “smart home” as a boon for “clandestine statecraft”?
People are now willingly planting bugs on their own property with scant regard for basic privacy considerations, while the world around them is also being turned into a 24/7 surveillance grid that outstrips Orwell’s worst nightmare – all in the name of convenience, safety and security.

Read more -
http://www.prisonplanet.com/not-just-buses-street-lights-are-also-recording-conversations.html

Smugglers have come up with yet another creative way to get drugs in the USA - Cannon used to shoot drugs into US -

Smugglers have come up with yet another creative way to get drugs in the USA - Cannon used to shoot drugs into US - 



U.S. Border Patrol agents say smugglers have come up with yet another creative way to get drugs in the country - a cannon.

Authorities say 33 cans of marijuana were spotted Friday in a field near where the Colorado River crosses the U.S.-Mexico border. They believe the cans were launched about 500 feet into the U.S. using a pneumatic-powered cannon.

After searching the area, agents recovered a carbon dioxide tank.

Mexican authorities were also notified and searched their side of the border.

The 85 pounds of marijuana found in the cans had an estimated value of $42,500.

Authorities say Border Patrol agents in the Yuma sector near the Arizona-California border are adapting and shifting resources as smugglers come up with new ways of transporting their contraband.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/11/5047569/border-patrol-cannon-used-to-shoot.html

3-mile-wide asteroid to buzz planet Earth tonight -

3-mile-wide asteroid to buzz planet Earth tonight - 


A giant asteroid will make a flyby of Earth over the next few days, and armchair astronomers can watch the action live on their computers.
The near-Earth asteroid 4179 Toutatis, which is about 3 miles wide, will zoom within 4.3 million miles of Earth during its closest approach early Wednesday morning, Dec. 12. That's too far away to pose any impact threat on this pass, but close enough to put on a pretty good show through top-notch telescopes, researchers say.
And some of those scopes will be tracking Toutatis' movements for the benefit of skywatchers around the world. The online Slooh Space Camera and Virtual Telescope Project, for example, will both stream live, free footage of the asteroid from professional-quality observatories.
Slooh will webcast Toutatis views from a scope in the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa beginning at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) Dec. 11. Another show will follow at 10 p.m. EST tonight (0300 GMT Wednesday), with footage from an instrument in Arizona. You can watch them at Slooh's website: http://www.slooh.com.
Both shows will feature commentary from Slooh president Patrick Paolucci and Astronomy Magazine columnist Bob Berman. [Photos: Asteroids in Deep Space]
"Slooh technical staff will let the public follow this fast-moving asteroid in two different ways. In one view, the background stars will be tracked at their own rate and the asteroid will appear as an obvious streak or a moving time-lapse dot across the starry field," Berman said in a statement.
"In a second view, Toutatis itself will be tracked and held steady as a tiny pointlike object, while Earth's spin makes the background stars whiz by as streaks," Berman added. "Both methods will make the asteroid's speedy orbital motion obvious as it passes us in space."
Meanwhile, the Virtual Telescope Project — which is run by Gianluca Masi of Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Italy — will offer its own free webcast Thursday at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT), complete with commentary from astrophysicists.
You can see that video stream here: http://www.virtualtelescope.eu/webtv/


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/12/11/huge-asteroid-to-pass-earth-tonight/

Mix-Up Causes Gas Stations to Pump Jet Fuel Into Cars -

Mix-Up Causes Gas Stations to Pump Jet Fuel Into Cars - 



Officials say aviation fuel was pumped into cars after it was mistakenly delivered to three New Jersey gas stations.
Authorities closed a station in Lawrence, and two in Hamilton after the error was discovered.
Mercer County spokeswoman Julie Willmot tells The Times of Trenton (http://bit.ly/YWcquW ) the stations will remain closed until all underground storage tanks, lines and filters are emptied and cleaned.
State officials are investigating how the mistake happened.
Several cars stalled on Friday when a gas station in Keyport and one in Manasquan unknowingly pumped jet fuel into their tanks.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/11/jet-fuel-pumped-into-cars-at-3-new-jersey-gas-stations-after-mistakenly/