School Attempts to Suspend Student for Refusing to Wear a School-Issued RFID Tracker
November 22nd, 2012Via: Wired:
2:30 p.m. PST UPDATE: A local Texas judge on Wednesday tentatively blocked the suspension, pending further hearings next week.
A Texas high school student is being suspended for refusing to wear a student ID card implanted with a radio-frequency identification chip.
Northside Independent School District in San Antonio began issuing the RFID-chip-laden student-body cards when the semester began in the fall. The ID badge has a bar code associated with a student’s Social Security number, and the RFID chip monitors pupils’ movements on campus, from when they arrive until when they leave.
Radio-frequency identification devices are a daily part of the electronic age — found in passports, and library and payment cards. Eventually they’re expected to replace bar-code labels on consumer goods. Now schools across the nation are slowly adopting them as well.
The suspended student, sophomore Andrea Hernandez, was notified by the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio that she won’t be able to continue attending John Jay High School unless she wears the badge around her neck, which she has been refusing to do. The district said the girl, who objects on privacy and religious grounds, beginning Monday would have to attend another high school in the district that does not yet employ the RFID tags.
Navy Fires Two More Commanders
November 22nd, 2012David Petraeus, John R. Allen, Charles M. Gaouette, Jeffrey Sinclair, and now…
Via: Stars and Stripes:
The Navy on Monday dismissed two commanders amid allegations of misconduct, weeks before they were both scheduled to assume new commands.
Capt. Ted Williams was relieved as commander of the amphibious command ship USS Mount Whitney, and Cmdr. Ray Hartman was relieved as commander of the amphibious dock-landing ship USS Fort McHenry, said Cmdr. Marc Boyd, spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Europe/Africa. The Navy would not describe the nature of the allegations. Both investigations center on personal conduct, Boyd said.
Mideast Unrest Keeps Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group in the Med
November 22nd, 2012Via: Navy Times:
More than 4,000 Marines and sailors deployed in the Mediterranean were ordered to remain in the region amid continued unrest in the Middle East, officials announced Monday.
The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, embarked on the three-ship Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, was ordered late last week to “stay in theater until otherwise directed,” the 24th MEU said Monday in a statement posted on its official Facebook page.
The announcement came just weeks before the 24th MEU, which left North Carolina on March 29, and its three Norfolk, Va.-based ships were expected home from its eight-month deployment.
However, the past week has seen deadly airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces are battling Hamas militants in cross-border attacks some fear will result in an Israeli ground invasion. Israel is amassing tanks and armored vehicles along the border.
It’s unclear what missions the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima ARG will be asked to do while extended in the 6th Fleet region.
“There are no specific plans for the 24th MEU or Iwo ARG to be employed but their continued presence in the region is a prudent measure to allow the Navy/Marine Corps team to respond to any crisis or contingency, if directed,” officials said in the release.
Stores Start Using Spy Mannequins to Boost Sales
November 22nd, 2012Via: Bloomberg:
Fashion brands are deploying mannequins equipped with technology used to identify criminals at airports to watch over shoppers in their stores. Retailers are introducing the EyeSee, sold by Italian mannequin maker Almax SpA, to glean data on customers much as online merchants are able to do.
Five companies are using a total of “a few dozen” of the mannequins with orders for at least that many more, Almax Chief Executive Officer Max Catanese said. The 4,000-euro ($5,130) device has spurred shops to adjust window displays, store layouts and promotions to keep consumers walking in the door and spending.
“It’s spooky,” said Luca Solca, head of luxury goods research at Exane BNP Paribas in London. “You wouldn’t expect a mannequin to be observing you.”
The EyeSee looks ordinary enough on the outside, with its slender polystyrene frame, blank face and improbable pose. Inside, it’s no dummy. A camera embedded in one eye feeds data into facial-recognition software like that used by police. It logs the age, gender, and race of passers-by.
Demand for the device shows how retailers are turning to technology to help personalize their offers as growth slows in the $245 billion luxury goods industry. Bain & Co. predicts the luxury market will expand 5 percent in 2012, less than half last year’s rate.
Moscow Bans ‘Political Repression’ Protest
November 21st, 2012Via: Ria Novostri:
The Moscow authorities have refused to grant permission for an opposition rally against “political repression” that was to be held later this week on that grounds that there is no such thing in Russia.
“The current law does not provide any measures used by the state for repression based on political motives,” according to the official refusal, which an opposition group scanned and posted online.
Permission had been granted for a similar rally held in July.
The application was for a rally to take place on Saturday near the Pushkinskaya metro station in support of opposition activists and protesters who have been prosecuted in recent months.
Research Credit: TB
More Americans Will Use Food Stamps For Thanksgiving This Year Than Ever Before
November 21st, 2012Via: U.S. News:
More Americans will use food stamps to buy their Thanksgiving dinner this year than ever before, according to a new report from the nonprofit government watchdog group The Sunlight Foundation.
The Food Stamp Challenge, which challenges higher-income families to live as if they are on food stamps, estimates that a person on food stamps has a budget of about $1.25 per meal. In other words, a family on food stamps must buy an entire meal per person for less than the cost of an average cup of coffee.
Usage of food stamps among low and no-income families has spiked since the collapse of the U.S. financial system four years ago. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, average participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamp program, has increased 70 percent since 2007. And economists have warned that usage of food stamps won’t go down until unemployment improves.
China Will Build the Tallest Building in the World in Just 90 Days [???]
November 21st, 2012Via: Gizmodo:
According to its engineers, this will be the tallest skyscraper in the world by the end of March of 2013. Its name is Sky City, and its 2,749 feet (838 meters) distributed in 220 floors will grow in just 90 days in Changsha city, by the Xiangjiang river. Ninety days!
It’s not a joke. According to the construction company, the skyscraper will be built in just 90 days at the unbelievable rate of five floors per day.
It’s hard to believe, but they claim the building has been designed by some of the engineers who previously worked at the Burj Khalifa. It is also the same firm that built a full 30-story hotel in 15 days—which yes, is still standing and in perfect working condition.
Foundation work is beginning at the end of the month, once the Chinese authorities give the final go ahead to the project.
Why Miami Is Becoming the ‘Russian Riviera’
November 21st, 2012Where’s Crockett and Tubbs?
Via: CNBC:
On a recent afternoon, Miami real-estate agent Jill Eber is taking a Russian millionaire on a mansion-shopping trip.
“This is the Versace Room,” Eber says, walking into a vast living room of blue velvet sofas and gold French Imperial lamps. “It really makes a statement.”
The mansion, “Castello del Sole,” sits on an exclusive island on Miami Beach and has eight bedrooms, nine baths and a three-story foyer with fresco ceilings. The grounds include two yacht docks, a tennis court, guest villas, a five-car garage and a lagoon-style pool with over 100,000 gallons of water.
The asking price: $37 million.
“I like it,” says the Russian buyer, sliding on her Gucci shades as she admires the water views. “It’s a maybe.”
Russian millionaires are an increasingly common sight inside the giant homes for sale along the Miami coast. While Latin Americans – especially Brazilians – are fueling much of the recovery in the broader Miami real-estate market, it’s the rich Russians who are dominating the market for mega-mansions. They’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on waterfront palaces and launching the next big land grab by the world’s super-rich.
Senate Bill Rewrite Lets Feds Read Your E-mail, Cloud Docs, Facebook Information and More Without Warrants
November 20th, 2012Update: Dropped
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It won’t just be the NSA that will get to have all the fun…
Via: Cnet:
A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans’ e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.
CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans’ e-mail, is scheduled for next week.
Leahy’s rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans’ e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.
Italy: Catholic Church to Pay Property Tax from Next Year
November 20th, 2012Via: National Secular Society:
Italy’s Catholic Church will be forced to pay taxes starting in 2013 after the EU pressured the country’s government to pass a controversial law stripping the Church of its historic property tax exemption.
The Catholic Church in Italy is excluded from paying taxes on its land if at least a part of a Church property is used non-commercially – for instance, a chapel in a bed-and-breakfast. “The regulatory framework will be definite by January 1, 2013 – the start of the fiscal year – and will fully respect the [European] Community law,” Italian premier Mario Monti’s government said in a statement on Tuesday.
The move could net Italy revenues of 500 million to 2 billion euros annually across the country, municipal government associations said. The extra income from previously exempt properties in Rome alone – including hotels, restaurants and sports centres – could reach 25.5 million euros a year, La Repubblica daily newspaper reported.
