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Neo-UK - Geo-zonal behaviorism















Question: Mr Blair, Mr Clarke, Mr Straw, Mr Hain, Ms Blears...

when exactly and under what circumstances will the planet see an announcement of the end of the War on Terror?

Answer: While there is money to be made from the securi-tech industry...NEVER

because the very same spooks involved in cooking up secret evidence, are the very same spooks on the boards of Securi-tech corporations...

what is soft power?

It is the ability to get what you want through attraction, rather than coercion or payments. When you think of power, it is the ability to influence others to get the outcomes you want. There are basically three ways you can do that. You can threaten others with coercion (sticks), you can induce others with payments (carrots) or you can attract others and co-opt them so that they want what you want. If you can get others to be attracted to your agenda, to your values so that they want what you want, you can spend a lot less on carrots and sticks. If you want some concrete examples, think of the role of American soft power in the past. Examples include Roosevelt's four freedoms during World War II, or young people behind the Iron Curtain listening to American music and news on Radio Free Europe, or Chinese students in Tiananmen Square in 1989 creating a replica of the Statue of Liberty.

Those are very concrete examples of soft power. Soft power is often ignored or treated as irrelevant, because it doesn't have that hard concrete nature of military or economic power. But that is a mistake. Seduction is often much more effective than coercion and many values like democracy, human rights and individual opportunities are deeply seductive. But attraction can turn to repulsion if we appear arrogant or hypocritical.

DITCHLEY FOUNDATION LECTURE - AMERICA AND EUROPE: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF SOFT POWER

The State Of Surveillance

Artificial noses that sniff explosives, cameras that I.D. you by your ears, chips that analyze the halo of heat you emit. More scrutiny lies ahead

Lost in the recent London bombings, along with innocent lives, was any illusion that today's surveillance technology can save us from evildoers. Britain has 4 million video cameras monitoring streets, parks, and government buildings, more than any other country. London alone has 500,000 cameras watching for signs of illicit activity. Studying camera footage helped link the July 7 bombings with four men -- but only after the fact. The disaster drove home some painful reminders: Fanatics bent on suicide aren't fazed by cameras. And even if they are known terrorists, most video surveillance software won't pick them out anyway. - businessweek

Public transports spies in the UK

"an innovative new system combining CCTV and GPS technology to reduce violent crime within the Taxi and Private Hire Industry"

The Chubb CabWatch system has a tiny camera installed inside the taxi. This records images of its occupants and stores them securely. If the driver feels threatened or fears an attack he/she can press a secret button, which will send an alert to Chubb's state-of-the-art monitoring station pinpointing the location, direction and speed of the vehicle.

For added security an audio channel transmits the sound from within the vehicle. Once actioned to the Police, the images are downloaded from the vehicle to the Chubb Remote Video Response Centre.

The exact position of the taxi can be tracked by Chubb using Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology, and the police can be notified of any incident allowing them to 'home-in' on the vehicle. Chubb's ability to listen-in on the activities in the cab whilst securely storing snapshot photographs means that should an attack actually take place, the evidence recorded can be used in court. All images are watermarked, date and time-stamped and encrypted. - Chubb CabWatch offers taxis latest safety equipment

see daft Cabwatch Movie

Homewatch
surveill your house from all over the world...

in Australia...

" with the number of projects we design and the contacts we have in the home and commercial security industry, Synergetic Technologies Inc., products will fit right into our program. " - Mark Davison, president of Munro Davison

Public transports spies in the US

Synergetic Technologies Inc., Unveils New Product Named 'CABWATCH(TM)'

The unit, which is based on Advent Technologies proprietary technologies, provides streaming DVD quality video surveillance for all aspects of driver and passenger actions and interactions in any vehicle the unit is installed in. Captured footage may be viewed from a lap top, desk top, PDA or cell phone. Applications include but are not limited to Taxi cabs, buses, trains, aircraft, boats, delivery services, or any application where instant surveillance is desired or any application where surveillance storage is required. The application can be used for all aspects of commercial and private use. In an age where personal safety is an ever present concern, this product is capable of giving the user a clear view of all aspects of their car before, during and after use, or in the case of accidents or unauthorized entry.

The product was developed to help taxi companies of a recent law being passed in the State of Nevada. The law requires all taxi cabs to be able to provide in car surveillance , as a protection measure for cab drivers. - PDA today

Hey if they can do it for private citizens - what can the government do?

Tagging kids will prevent them becoming criminals? HOW????

Children of criminals are to be "targeted" and "tracked" from an early age by the Government to prevent them following their parents into a life of crime, as part of a campaign to tackle the next generation of offenders.

In an offensive on youth crime, a programme to prevent 125,000 children whose fathers are in prison from joining them in jail, is being planned by the Home Office. In an interview with The Independent, Hazel Blears, the Policing minister, says she is optimistic that "tracking" and "targeting" can help prevent children becoming criminals like their parents.

Studies showed that children with criminal fathers and "under-achievers" who grow up in local authority care have a significant chance of turning to crime themselves. Independent UK

Tagging and surveillance will allow the authorites to watch people.

To observe your 'progress' or 'decline' as part of a 'lab-rat population'... they perpetuate the criminalized dog-eat-dog world testing and observing your reactions.

YOU ARE THE EXPERIMENT as they fine tune the machine called SOCIETY by making everything that is dissent into an act of terrorism.

They are selling you the concept of 'the Gated community'
as a snobbish culture and as protection from socially enginnered fear -
ask your police why they aren't 'policing the streets'
and they will tell you government cutbacks...targets to meet...


Housing security? looks more like a lockdown to me

GDX Technologies Ltd was born in 1998, the culmination of a PLC management buyout whose ambitious philosophy, to develop the very best door entry security systems in the uk, continues to drive us towards:

Strengthened relationships with our existing clients in the public and private housing sectors

New UK-wide markets in the hospital, prison and leisure sectors

developing increasingly sophisticated integrated communications systems

v Proactive in approach, GDX has witnessed unparalleled national growth, recognised as accredited suppliers to housing associations, multinational construction firms; local authorities; architects and engineering consultancies, to name only a few of our most recent projects

GDX Technologies designs, manufactures and supplies a complete range of door entry systems, from residential control units GDX 1 and GDX 5, through to fully integrated intelligent systems - linking remote places in ways that were previously too costly to contemplate, the GDX Net System utilises the benefits of internet and gsm enabled technologies.
GDX company profile

What are electronic pac fobs?

There is growing opposition to a recent "upgrading" of the security system, which has led to the introduction of "electronic pac fobs" (plus a few extra CCTV cameras for good measure) in place of the old key system.

"WTF is an electronic pac fob?" you may ask. Well, it's basically a swipe "key", which as stated in the letter which was delivered with the fob from the local Housing Office, is "assigned" to you, the tenant.

The use of this fob is monitored and if it appears that someone else is using the fob instead of you, then the fob will be "cancelled"

Each fob contains the tenants surname and flat number so on entering security now know who you are and where you are going which in turn also means they know which flat has just been vacated as you leave the building! All visitors have to gain access through security stating who they are, thereby allowing the monitoring of visitors as well as tenants.

Winston Smith - Indymedia

Locks online

"... after a student tries to swipe into a building, his card's information, stored on a magnetic strip, is sent to a control box near the door. This information is converted to a data string that is then transmitted to that building's telecommunications room.

That data is then compared with each student's unique access plan, and access is either allowed or denied, he added.

When a student swipes into a building for the first time, his or her access plan is downloaded from the main database in the Eisenhower Parking Deck over a TCP/IP connection on Penn State's backbone.

TCP/IP is a standard communications protocol that is also used on the World Wide Web.

An access plan contains information about which buildings a student is allowed to enter, and may only permit access on certain dates and times.

Joel Weidner, associate director of Housing and Food Services (HFS), said that every student's unique card number is encoded on a magnetic strip. The 16-digit numbers, which can be seen on the front of any id+ card, are pseudo-randomly assigned.

Since the same card number format is also used by banks and credit card companies across the world, the American National Standards Institute gives Penn State a certain range of numbers to use." - source

Gated behavioral consumer zones

Step inside the Gate, with cinema, bars and restaurants all in one unique location right at the heart of Newcastle. Welcome to the future of entertainment...

The Gate is a new urban entertainment venue for Newcastle-upon-Tyne. This state-of-the-art brick, glass and steel structure is a bright new landmark taking it's influences from across the globe and designed to provide an unrivalled leisure experience in the North East of England.

The Gate is a £75m Land Securities development at the heart of Grainger Town in Newcastle city centre, which opened in November 2002, aiming to provide the people of Newcastle and the surrounding area with a wider choice of quality entertainment, relaxation and leisure environments than previously offered.

The development has also brought many additional jobs to the area, from the initial construction through to the many bars and restaurants that we currently have, as well as the day to day running of The Gate itself. - The Gate

in the UK 'gated' venues and communities are being created at an alarming rate using techo-fascistic surveillance tools and private security corporations.

in the US - which i last visited in 2000, I observed the population becoming used to such devices at an alarming level

In the UK - Identity cards are to be phased in which will promise identity security - this is the creation of a zonal behavioristic consumer state

those without a card will not be able to access goods and services...

simple things like bank accounts / Healthcare / access to gated shopping & entertainment zones will be beyond the reach of anyone who refuses...

every zone will have a digital checkpoint

thus a new untermenschen will be created

thus a market for security in this area is created

CW on indymedia

Gated behavioral consumer zones -
'Proper behavior' sinisterly redefined as a 'dress code':
people who 'look normal' are rewarded with a 'right to shop'???
People being punished by wearing a uniform???

US-style uniforms for yobs in new disorder crackdown

Home Office minister launches war on 'culture of disrespect'

Teenage yobs are to be forced to wear US-style uniforms as they carry out community service punishments under plans for a new high-visibility crackdown on public disorder.

The move, echoing American chain gangs whose members wear orange jackets to shame them publicly, will be highly controversial and could risk reprisals. - guardian

Hey i got an idea! How about a war on fucking stupid politicians? huh???

Hooded tops and baseball caps banned in shopping mall

Tony Blair[...] warned of a 'culture of disrespect' sweeping Britain, with men fearing to take their wives into drink-sodden, rowdy town centres.

And the 'minister for yobs' Hazel Blears today targets what amounts to a fundamental coarsening of public life: swearing, spitting, drinking and neglectful parenting which, she argues, reflect a wider breakdown of community ties and the abandonment of formerly accepted 'norms of behaviour'. Snapshots of a man openly smoking hard drugs on a London bus, published this week, appear to prove her point. The tabloids are littered with 'real life Vicky Pollards' - named after the TV comedy Little Britain's teenage slattern - terrorising neighbours. - guardian

How about a ban on leather jackets
and those yobbish motorcycle cultures eh...? Ms Blears???

Kids urged to fight 'hoodie' ban

Fri May 13 2005 - A leading children's charity has urged kids to boycott a Kent shopping centre that has banned the wearing of hoodie tops.

Bluewater shopping centre says the hoodies represent yob culture, but now the Children's Society has said kids should "boycott the shopping centre altogether" in a bid to fight the stereotyping of kids.

Children's Society policy director Kathy Evans said: "The Children's Society urges children and young people to use their yearly spending power of £70 million to reverse the ban on so called yob clothing at Bluewater Shopping Centre.

"This ban is a case of blatant discrimination based on stereotypes and prejudices that only fuels fear.

"The irony is that the ban is focused on a group who spend most of their money on food, drink, clothes and going out - main revenue sources for shopping centre outlets."

Bluewater's ban is supported by Tony Blair who previously called for a stop to the yob culture represented by gangs of teenagers wearing hooded tops.

And earlier, Home Office Minister Hazel Blears denied that the Government was straying into "dangerous territory" by saying what people should and should not wear. - itv.com

...even the older generation are noticing the heavies getting heavy...

It is a strange meeting for all those concerned - but one undertaken willingly. There, in the middle of Bluewater in Kent yesterday morning, was unemployed Daniel Luchford, 18, and his friend Lee, 17, who did not want to give his surname, shaking hands with a middle-class couple from Sidcup.

The Observer decided to bring together the two sides of the great 'hoodie' debate to see the arguments played out for real.

[snip]

A security guard wearing a black bomber jacket interrupts to tell us that we are not allowed to conduct an interview on Bluewater property. Suddenly, a common bond is formed between the couples - Daniel and Lee roll their eyes but do not seem surprised. Eric, however, cannot contain himself: 'I find this interruption more offensive than any amount of kids wearing hooded tops.

'You can put this in the paper - this is a nice young gentleman [he gestures towards Daniel], but this [now looking at the guard] is outrageous. I'm allowed to say what I like to these people. This is my free speech. And you are very rude.'

Eric and Cheryl leave, but not without shaking Daniel's hand again. They ignore the guard, who by now is on his walkie-talkie, summoning back-up. - Teens and shoppers find an unlikely common cause

Bluewater is an environment of retail excellence and is now recognised as the real alternative to London's West End and an International location. Located in Kent, Bluewater has changed the face of retailing in the UK and has become the benchmark for quality British retailing winning a multitude of awards. Developed by Lend Lease, the Bluewater philosophy is simple - to make shopping an enjoyable stress free experience and to treat its customers as guests. - bluewater.co.uk

NEO-Earth - The open prison

As well as a "great safeguard" for dealing with sex offenders, the minister said satellite tracking could be a "prison without bars" for minor offenders where jail terms would lead to prison overcrowding.

He believes tracking would tell police if offenders had been near a crime scene, and boost public confidence in community supervision.

Tony Blair later backed the idea, saying: "Where there are prolific offenders, even when they come out of prison again it's important that they are tracked and monitored so that we can make sure that these people realise that they've got a choice every single day.

"They can either go straight or they are going to go back inside again."

BBC

The coming Fear based security state- zonal geo-behaviorism

Convicted Sex offenders are to be tagged and tracked. These people who have committed crimes of a sexual nature are to be let out to roam the streets while children are to be used as bait as part of a satanistic satellite tracking experiment.

Geo-fences will be place around the school and it will be up to the offenders to break the techno barrier to alert the authorities to the danger ...

Isn't this a little strange?

are they presenting technology as the only solution via an ingrained media perpetuated fear of pedophilia?

Why sex offenders?

Why not try this system with car theives?

Where are the police in this scenario?

Aren't these people dangerous?

whatever happened to crime prevention?

"It seems only sensible for any parent to use technology when its available.

"If a car can be fitted with equipment to enable it to be tracked when it is stolen, why not apply the same principle to finding missing children?" The tag has been developed by cybernetics expert Professor Kevin Warwick, 48.

The chip emits radio waves through a mobile phone network and beams its exact location to a computer. If Danielle went missing, her location would be marked by an X on a computer map.

Prof Warwick said: "The implant won't prevent abductions, nothing will. "But if the worst happens, parents will at least be in with a chance of finding their children alive."

Danielle is happy to have the microchip. She said:

"I will feel so much safer knowing that mum and dad could find me in an emergency. Microchipped

Eventually this system will be allowed to fail and a child will be killed. The government will then propose a new system that covers the entire population and we will be emotionally coerced into a new geo-slavery in a collective guilt over this failure.

Anyone who opposes this system will also be made to be seen as 'siding with Peadophiles', Demonized & finally criminalised.

Geo fences will eventually be used as a behavioral tool, the poor will be excluded from certain zones permanantly, while workers will have to work so many hours collecting credits on thier entitlement cards to be permitted into leisure zones... to receive healthcare / other state benefits

heads in the sand...unwilling to notice the UK police state that is now all around them... As a demonstration takes place in a busy shopping area... observe the 'consumers' blindly milling about.

London store going for the hard cell

March 06 2006 London - Ten police cells are to be created in one of London's smartest department stores to deal with shoplifters, credit card fraudsters and other retail criminals.

Selfridges has allowed the Metropolitan Police to create the custody suite in former staff offices at its flagship central London store on Oxford Street, one of Europe's busiest shopping destinations.

Suspects who are detained both in the upmarket shop and elsewhere in the area will be taken to the facility, allowing officers to deal with them more swiftly and ease capacity at the nearby Marylebone police station.

Police can issue an £80 (about R850) notice for shoplifting if items taken are of less than £200 (about R2 140) in value. - Sapa-AFP

Security state = National socialism

Flashback 2003: Secret scanner to trap armed criminals

Passive millimetre wave radar imaging has been under development for the miltary for many years, and now seems to be expanding into the civilian police surveillance market.

It is astonishing that, apparently

"The existence of the scanner has been kept secret within Scotland Yard and only a few senior officers know of the project. Sir John [Stevens] and other commanders were given laboratory demonstrations this year. A large version has already been tested on the London streets, from the back of a converted van" - source

Sponsored by:







Active (radar) millimeter wave imaging systems are able to "see through" most wall materials, providing the technology of choice for developing situation assessment systems. Such systems extend the ability of users to view activities from one or two rooms away, or from the outside of a building into its interior. Using this technology, hostage, terrorism, demolition, and other unlawful and dangerous situations can be assessed remotely and evaluated for action. - source

local authority shares in Arms-tech

The Campaign Against the Arms Trade surveyed 99 local authority pension funds in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as part of its Clean Investment Campaign 2005. Twelve local authority pension funds, dubbed 'The Dirty Dozen', each have 1 million shares or more in BAE Systems, Europe's largest arms manufacture. The Dirty Dozen includes: West Yorkshire, West Midlands, Strathclyde, Lancashire, South Yorkshire, Kent, Derbyshire, East Riding (Yorkshire), Hampshire, Teeside, Essex and the London Borough of Southwark [2]. CAAT is calling for all local authorities to adopt ethical investment criteria and to not invest in arms exporting companies.

CAAT's survey revealed that at least 6 local authority pension funds hold no shares in the six arms companies identified. Furthermore there are at least another 27 local authority pension funds that have no BAE Systems investments at all. CAAT is targeting UK based BAE Systems as it is this country's largest arms exporting company, selling indiscriminately and undermining peace and security. Ethical reasons aside, investment in BAE Systems is financially risky. It is dependent on government subsidies; if these end, then so will shareholders' profits (CAAT estimates that government subsidy for arms exports are worth about œ890 million each year). Furthermore, there are ongoing corruption allegations and investigations, including by the Serious Fraud Office of BAE Systems - one debt rating service put BAE Systems on a 'negative ratings watch' following the company's announcement of this investigation last year. - UK Indymedia

G8 meeting - Sheffield 2005 - securi-tech hoedown...

Every year they meet to discuss the list of policies that they wish to establish at the G8, to then bring them back home to their national parliaments under the guise of 'international co-operation' and harmonisation.

Previous hit policies include policies on communications surveillance, the use of cryptography, passenger and travel surveillance, and biometric documentation and registration.

This year seems to be a collection of the greatest hits. These will include travel surveillance, immigration policy, DNA databases, data sharing, cyber-crime, terrorism, and extradition.

[snip]

G8 Transnational crime and Counter-terror objectives in 2005 The 2005 objectives combine work on the inherited agenda and a number of new initiatives. There are nearly 100 separate projects. The key areas of work are:

* As lead country for counter-narcotics work in Afghanistan, the UK will continue to seek co-ordination of the G8 support for this work

* The completion of several initiatives to enhance international travel security

* International co-operation in combating immigration crime, with an emphasis on document fraud

* International law enforcement co-operation, focussing on child protection, the expanded use of DNA and the international illegal trade in firearms

* International co-operation in combating high-tech crime

* Shared assessment of the threat from international terrorism and co-operation to counter the treat

* The reinforcement of the principles of judicial co-operation and mutual legal assistance in the investigation and prosecution of transnational organised crime and terrorism

privacyinternational.org

Private firms to police terror orders

Private security staff are to be used to monitor the controversial new anti-terrorist control orders in an attempt to save money, according to preparations being made to implement the policy by the Home Office.

Senior civil servants have been asked to assess the likely impact of the control orders which are being rushed through parliament. Their report discloses that private security staff are to monitor the day-to-day surveillance of the terror suspects through electronic tagging.

The Home Office says the control orders will be cheaper than the £40,000 annual cost of holding a terror suspect in a high-security prison such as Belmarsh. But to save further money "where possible the monitoring of the orders will be contracted out to private companies as per existing arrangements with companies like Securicor and Group 4"

[snip]

The Home Office report estimates it will cost between £100,000 and £250,000 a year to keep 20 terror suspects under surveillance for a year, including the cost of tracking their bank accounts.

But it makes no assessment of the costs of imposing a full "house arrest" on a terror suspect, perhaps reflecting Mr Clarke's determination to keep such powers in reserve.

Securicor and Group 4 are already contracted by the government to run the electronic tagging systems monitoring the movements of sex offenders and criminals released on licence from prison. - Guardian

Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex- Class warfare from above

Police demand stun guns on the beat

Ordinary officers want to carry 50,000 volt shock device to combat steep rise in assaults

May 15, 2005 - Beat bobbies should be armed with electric shock 'stun guns' to combat an alarming rise in assaults on officers, the Police Federation will demand this week.

The use of so-called Tasers is currently strictly limited to trained firearms officers, with use of the devices - which deliver a 50,000 volt shock - still highly controversial.

But Jan Berry, chair of the Police Federation, said it was time to step up the defence of ordinary officers in what will be seen as a halfway house between a US-style armed force and Britain's consensual policing tradition. Although the Tasers are designed to be non-lethal, they have been linked to more than a dozen deaths in the United States. - guardian

Flashback: Police chief wants Star Trek phasers
[to switch off suspects brains - I kid you not]

Feb 14 2004 By Amardeep Bassey

Star Trek-style phaser guns should be issued to police officers so they can "temporarily switch people's brains off," according to a top Midland cop.

Ian Arundale, Assistant Chief Constable of West Mercia Police, said the futuristic non-lethal firearm would make it easier for bobbies to safely apprehend dangerous criminals. But he conceded that such sci-fi weaponry, as used by Captain Kirk and Mr Spock, would not be available "in my lifetime."

"What we would like in the future is a Star Trek-style phaser that, perfectly safely, temporarily switches someone's brain off so that officers can move in," he said. "We know we are not going to get that, probably not in my lifetime anyway, but we will look at anything that takes us in that direction."

Mr Arundale, who also heads the firearms unit of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), was slammed by civil liberties groups who said the gadgets could kill people with weak hearts.

"The danger is that officers will adopt a 'fire first and question later' policy," said a spokesman for Liberty. "It is a little premature to be talking about weapons which we don't understand and which don't, in fact, yet exist.

"Mr Arundale might as well have called for officers to be issued with Star Wars light sabres and Superman X-ray glasses." - icbirmingham

Immigration: Electronic Monitoring

statement in Parliament reveals immigrants now being mandatory tagged - 8th Nov 2005

The Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality (Mr. Tony McNulty): Section 36 of the Immigration and Asylum (treatment of claimants etc) Act 2004 allows for the electronic monitoring of those liable to be detained under the Immigration Acts. This includes asylum seekers, illegal entrants, those found working in breach of their conditions of stay, overstayers, people subject to further examination at a port of entry, and those refused leave to enter.

Electronic monitoring takes three forms: telephone reporting using voice recognition techniques, tagging and tracking. These are being used, in combination with face to face contact at immigration reporting centres, to improved compliance with the requirements we place on people to remain in contact with us. Contact Management, including electronic monitoring is a key aspect of the New Asylum Model as described in the five year plan.

During the passage of the 2004 Act, the then Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Beverley Hughes, stated that an electronic monitoring requirement would be imposed only with the consent of the individual. This commitment was re-iterated when her successor Des Browne wrote to the Joint Committee on Human Rights. Consent is not a statutory requirement but was introduced as a matter of policy in recognition of the novel use of electronic monitoring in the immigration context.

The electronic monitoring pilots have generally been a success, but asking for the subject's consent is inconsistent with any other area of contact management. It hampered our ability to manage contact with people flexibly because the need for consent left us with very little recourse if the individual failed to give it or where, having initially agreed to be monitored electronically, they subsequently failed to comply. That is why I agreed a change in the policy before the summer recess to allow the Immigration Service to draw up contact management plans without first seeking the consent of the individual. The consideration of whether the individual will comply with specific requirements will be part of the process of deciding how best to manage contact and this change places us in a stronger position by enabling us to consider what action to take where someone fails to comply with an electronic monitoring requirements.

The impact on compliance in the short period since the change in policy has been positive. Between July and September of 53 people who failed initially to comply with telephone reporting, 47 began to do so after one written warning that their continued failure may lead to their re-detention. Since the start of the pilot in October 2004, we have tagged 49 people, 23 of them since the policy on consent was changed, but we have seen no adverse impact on the level of compliance notwithstanding that we have tagged a larger proportion of high risk cases without seeking their consent.

This is a promising start, but we shall continue to monitor the situation as electronic is applied in increasing numbers. I will update the House on the progress we are making in a further statement early in the New Year. - parliament.uk

The FlashCam-530 was designed to deter vandalism. The two most popular applications are deterring graffiti and illegal trash dumping. Water companies are using the system as a first line of defense in protecting water storage tanks against intruders. Some systems are being used to deter burglary. Other customers report it deters drug dealing and prostitution.

The FlashCam-530 senses motion up to 100 feet away. When motion is detected, the system starts taking 35 mm photographs. A bright flash goes off and a loud voice message warns the intruder to "leave the area now" and that his/her photograph is being taken.

The register

Gridlock fears push big brother motorist policy

British motorists face paying a new charge for every mile they drive in a revolutionary scheme to be introduced within two years.

Drivers will pay according to when and how far they travel throughout the country's road network under proposals being developed by the Government.

Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport, revealed that pilot areas will be selected in just 24 months' time as he made clear his determination to press ahead with a national road pricing scheme.

Each of Britain's 24 million vehicles would be tracked by satellite if a variable "pay-as-you-drive" charge replaces the current road tax.

In an interview with The Independent on Sunday, Mr Darling warned that unless action is taken now, the country "could face gridlock" within two decades . independent.

"Satellite road pricing will be hugely expensive to install, and it`s effect on peoples behaviour have not been properly thought through," said ABD spokesman Nigel Humphries. "It won`t work - it will be a huge white elephant, and hiding within it is a dark trojan horse for civil liberties, as it means that drivers will be tagged and tracked like criminals. It will just be a giant version of the London Congestion charge - hugely unpopular and full of perceived unfairness and aggravation for drivers." Darling's Satellite Road Pricing Scheme is a White Elephant, a Trojan Horse and a Red Herring, say Britain's Drivers.

An unbelievable news story from the Washington Post:
see if you can spot the Neuro linguistically programmed psyops

Britain tracking more motorists

My note: try: ALL OF THEM

Video monitoring on highways raises worries over privacy

By Mary Jordan - The Washington Post - Published January 11, 2006

My note: wow! just check out this first line: "world leader" how proud does/should that make you?

LONDON -- Britain, already the world's leader in video surveillance of its people, will soon be able to automatically track the movements of millions of cars on most of its major roads. Law-enforcement agencies are dramatically increasing the number of cameras that read license plates and are building a national database that designers say will make it possible to determine in seconds whether a car zooming by has insurance, was stolen or was seen near a crime scene.

"It will revolutionize policing," said John Dean, the national coordinator of the Automatic Number Plate Recognition system. "Our aim is to deny criminals the use of the roads."

My note: wow! just who will fit your criteria of a criminal? - anyone who doesn't have an ID Card? Can't pay to access digital TV? Protests the Iraq war? wears an anti Blair T-shirt? What?

The technology is already being used on the M25, which rings London and is the country's busiest road. The system, scheduled to begin operating nationally by June, will employ thousands of cameras on fixed poles or in mobile police vans on major highways, key back roads and vital intersections throughout England and Wales. Dean said the idea is to make it difficult, if not impossible, to travel by road without being captured by the cameras.

My note: Majority have accepted it already = People who oppose are a 'Minority'

In recent years, the British public has accepted a generally high level of surveillance in public places to counter terrorism and common crime. Thousands of closed-circuit cameras were installed on city streets during the Irish Republican Army's bombing campaigns.

My note: human-rights groups pro IRA?

Some human-rights groups are fighting the new project, calling it a dangerous step toward a Big Brother society. "We believe it is a gross invasion of privacy," said Douglas Jewell, campaigns coordinator for Liberty, a human-rights organization. "We don't have a problem with surveillance cameras when they are used appropriately. But the idea of establishing a massive national database that will record ordinary people's journeys and whereabouts is troubling."

My Note: Police stress 'computers' 'databases' 'textbook' trying to assert the system is failsafe

Each of the system's cameras, backed up by computers that read numbers from their images, can monitor 3,600 license plates per hour, Dean said. That information is immediately cross-referenced with a police database of plates registered to people suspected of breaking the law.

Cameras in action

Police Inspector Paul Moor said that a "textbook" example of how the system works occurred Nov. 24, when police were parked on the shoulder of the A13 highway 20 miles east of London. Their van had a camera to scan passing license plates and computer equipment to check for numbers linked to criminal suspects.

My Note: look !!!! CCTV stops druggies!

Moor said that two seconds after a 1998 Volvo station wagon passed, the computer's alert system announced: "Attention: no insurance." Having no insurance is a crime in England, and Moor, who was in the van, radioed to officers down the road. When they tried to pull over the Volvo, Moor said, it sped away. The officers pursued it. Ultimately, Moor said, six police cars converged on the Volvo, and officers found a bag containing $180,000 worth of heroin.

My Note: look !!!! CCTV stops pedo's too

In another case, Dean said, witnesses noted the plate number of a car they saw leaving the scene of a child's abduction. The next day, an ANPR camera detected the car. When police stopped it, they found the missing child in the trunk. "It's tremendous; it is one of the best tools we have had in years," Moor said.

My Note: So Human rights are for pro drug pedo's, right?!

But Jewell, the human-rights activist, said the system will enable police to "build profiles of people" and their movements even though they have committed no crime. He said few people are happy about "being tracked all day."

My Note: it's a $1 billion-a-year business, oppose this you could be stopping people getting a job...that means feeding their children, you terrorist child abuser, you!

People in Britain are already monitored by more than 4 million closed-circuit, or CCTV, cameras, making it the most watched nation in the world, according to Liberty. The group said that a typical London resident is monitored 300 times a day. Cameras keep an eye out throughout the London subway and bus system, on streets, in stores and around public buildings. The closed-circuit camera industry has quadrupled in a decade and is now a $1 billion-a-year business, according to the British Security Industry Association, a trade group.

My Note: oh yeah LONDON BOMBS!
- if you oppose this you are on side with the terr'ists - that'll scare 'em woooo! innocent people were killed because YOU didn't have or want cameras

Photos of bombers

The extent of London's CCTV network became well known after bombs exploded in three subway cars and a bus last July. Fifty-two passengers were killed in addition to four bombers, and more than 700 people were injured; a similar attempt two weeks later failed when the attackers' bombs failed to detonate. Almost immediately, police were able to release still photos of men suspected of carrying out the bombings. CCTV had captured them in the subway system and on the bus.

hang on a minute...er no... actually! on 7th July the CCTV camera system mysteriously weren't working on the bus...and there was only 2 pictures released asserting these were the bombers

Left: 2 shots of Hasib Hussein at Luton - is this Same Guy?

this is the freely available MET photo

source: http://www.met.police.uk/news/terrorist_attacks/groupcctv.jpg

later CCTV photos were released of a so-called dry run...and of the second fake bombers from the 21st July

My Note: resistance is futile:

Britain also has huge numbers of speed- and traffic-enforcement cameras. These spot drivers speeding, making illegal turns or driving into the center of London without paying a $14 fee meant to discourage the use of private cars on crowded streets. Violators discover that they have been caught only when fine notices arrive in their mailboxes.

My Note: employment angle again

Police said the ANPR system originated with police efforts to track the movement of IRA bombers in Britain. It can now store information on the movement of cars for two years and soon may be able to do it for five. This year, officials said, more than $20 million has been allocated for the new system. That does not include the much larger cost of paying the people who run it.

My Note: but everyone else is doing it! you'll miss out to what you're entitled to!

"It's not that technology is better here," Dean said, it is that Britain has chosen to invest in it and dedicate police to intercept cars that trip alerts, which differs from approaches used by other countries. He said FBI officials asked him about the ANPR system Tuesday, and officials from Australia, Canada and many European countries have also inquired about it. Dean said he understands that the widespread public use of closed-circuit cameras is "not as readily accepted in the United States" and other countries. He knows critics call it an Orwellian invasion of privacy. But he said he believes "people are entitled to security."

My Note: cut & paste generic passer-by - loving big brother

Raymond Ajakaiye, 26, a graduate student in international business in London, said he didn't mind the widening use of surveillance cameras. He was interviewed as he rode a train on the subway's Jubilee Line, where he was filmed on CCTV cameras. "It only bothers people who have something negative in mind," he said. "I say, if it makes the city safer, go ahead." - chicago tribune

CCTV masked as free solar street lighting/WiFi access
tracking you everywhere



StarSight is a family of products that allow the operation of a Virtual Utility.

It is a system which allows the provision of multiple services including Wireless Internet, Wireless Street Lighting, Wireless Electricty, Wireless Security, Wireless CCTV, and Wireless Surveillance.

The StarSight solution combines a unique set of powerful benefits, including solar power, battery back-up, low maintenance, wireless set-up, cost-effectiveness, lighting of dark and/or remote areas, access to wireless broadband services and an ever-evolving number of add-on applications.

The StarSight core product consists of two major product bundles :


  • StarSight StarLight Lighting System - A unique system that combines solar power, wireless monitoring and control, anti-theft, multi-battery technology charging, and a state-of-the-art lighting-? head all in one package.


The StarSight system is remotely managed by the Utility Management System, StarManagerTM.


- Project starsight

The report above doesn't even mention the CCTV capabilities that will be
tested on unwitting Students on a 'campus village' in Scotland

Scotland Trials Internet Lampposts

Smart lampposts that could provide high-speed internet access are set to go on trial in Scotland.

The idea will be piloted later this month in Dundee but could spread further afield. Backers of the project plan to install six of the solar-powered, internet-capable lights on a rooftop at the University of Abertay.

Later in the year they plan to install up to 4,000 more in a student village to be built for the university. The idea will combine lampposts with solar energy and wi-fi wireless internet access.

The lamppost will use light-emitting diode (LED) technology to provide bright light using low power derived from solar cells, which use daylight to recharge even in overcast weather.

As the Dundee scheme will be on university property the council is not involved.

However, the company running the scheme, Compliance Technology (CTL), said interest had already been shown by three other councils in Scotland; Orkney, Perth and Kinross, and Dumfries and Galloway. The firm, whose Scottish arm is based in Kirkcaldy, has European distribution rights for the Singapore-based "StarSight" technology.

The firm argued the idea will have massive potential for local authorities, which could could turn their lighting systems into revenue earners.

'Innovative project'

Calum McRae, of CTL, said: "With only a fraction of the installation and running costs of conventional street lights, councils could use smart lampposts to provide street light while selling internet access to local residents, or even providing it free in areas of need. "The new photovoltaic technology which will be showcased in Dundee will mean that no local community needs to be without reliable, economic street lighting, with the added benefit of wi-fi technology outside their front doors."

Mary Cowie, director of the University of Abertay Centre for the Environment (ACE), said: "The pilot scheme will involve not only ACE but students from the University of Abertay who will be able to play a hands-on role in shaping the technology of tomorrow."

The centre will be involved in testing the technology and assessing its social, environmental and economic impact.

Green MSP Robin Harper said: "This is a truly exciting and innovative project with huge possibilities in sustainability terms, and in reducing environmental impact." BBC

this report from November 2005 does

Lamp posts are leap from dark

By Mike Butcher Published: November 22 2005

Imagine a city where every lamp post provided wireless internet access, solar-powered street lighting and a power point to charge your mobile phone. You might expect to find this in a sophisticated western city - but it will actually appear first in Africa.

Starsight (Starsightproject.com) is a project designed to supercharge street lighting and power in developing counties. Essentially it is a network of pylons, each with a solar panel, linked not by cables but by antennae which use wireless internet protocol.

The Starsight idea came out of the involvement of London-based sustainable development specialist the Kolam Partnership in an urban street lighting initiative in Cameroon.

Reliable street lighting can help a country to develop - a study by the Kenyan government recently found that street lighting reduced crime by 65 per cent. The benefits are even more widespread - aid workers and foreign businesses are more likely to stay on in a country if they feel secure.

But the Cameroon project needed to be able to turn the street lighting on and off remotely without hard-wired connections. Putting a mobile phone into every pylon was impractical so Kolam brought in UK mobile expert Steve Flaherty. He came up with the idea of employing wireless internet, or WiFi. "It meant we could not only monitor the pylons remotely but provide blanket broadband internet access," he says.

A Starsight pylon can use a WiFi or WiMax (long-range wireless internet) and be connected to almost any kind of peripheral.

A street light is the first choice, but it could be a Tsunami warning siren system, a CCTV camera or a pollution monitor. It could even provide a power outlet at its base, to power a conventional phone or one using Voice-over-IP. And that power socket has more spin-offs. One study puts the number of night-time street vendors at 40m across Africa - and almost all of them use paraffin lamps. a power outlet at the base of a Starsight pylon could resell power to these vendors - which they could use to light, to cook or to charge mobile phones.

That could cut carbon emissions for the continent, according to Mr Flaherty.

At this point it became clear that Starsight was not going to be just any old street lighting system. Africa is swinging towards mass urbanisation as people flee a war-torn or starving countryside, and infrastructure is increasingly important.

A technology to roll out green energy street lighting along with telecommunications and power could well be the great leap forward for which Africa is looking.

Yannick Gaillac, founding partner of the Kolam Partnership, is enthusiastic: "This project will definitely change lives for the poorest people in the world and that's what I wanted to do. We didn't invent these basic technologies, but we are gathering them together in one solution."

Aside from its infrastructure aspect, Starsight will have also have an educational spin-off. A planned series of internet cafes will run along the 200 pylon network in Douala, providing training courses to educate local people in basic information technology skills, using the wireless internet access provided by the pylons.

The potential benefits do not stop there. Starsight costs about the same as a normal street lighting system to install but no underground copper cabling - which anyway is often stolen - is needed and wireless telecommunications and electric power is thrown in.

Official backers of the project, other than the Cameroon government, so far include the Commonwealth Business Council and the British government.

Starsight is is a 50-50 joint partnership between the Kolam Partnership and Singapore wireless firm based Next-G, which will make the pylons. Starsight is one of the latest in a widening field of green energy projects by developed world companies, incentivised by the market created by carbon trading under the Kyoto protocol.

There are also Corporate Social Responsibility points to be won from ethical mutual funds. If the Cameroon test is successful, Morocco, China and India could be next on the cards for Starsight - and even European outposts like the Scottish Highlands. - ft.com/

WiFi CCTV is not new:

Wireless networking is an ideal solution to situations where major ground or road works are not an option or, as in the case of Bolton, where there are long distances to connect between control room and cameras.

Following the successful implementation of this network, Bolton Council has commissioned a further two stages of development to provide an additional 22 cameras at various sites around the city. These sites will feed into the Titan Vision system, with its robust in-built scalability designed to effectively manage large and growing CCTV networks.

"Our CCTV network now offers state of the art technology and remote management," says John Kirk, Principal Security Officer Bolton Town Centre.

The Solution

The images from each dome camera are transmitted via wireless from the camera to a central aggregation point. The signal is then transmitted via wireless from each site back to the town hall where the control room is located. The control room houses the Titan Vision viewing and recording system where images are viewed at 25 fps (frames per second), MPEG4 quality and controlled from a desktop PC.

The Titan Vision system also has software and hardware security measures to make the network secure and the feature-rich management system means that, should an incident occur, digital video footage can be accessed and retrieved immediately and burned onto CD. It can then be used by the police and is acceptable as evidence in court, according to the House of Lords Fifth Report. - 802 global

U.K. rail to install body scanners

LONDON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- British railway stations will soon install airport-style security checks using body scanners and X-ray machines for increased security.

Following the July 7 London bombings that caused 52 deaths, new rail security will also allow passengers to be frisked and random bag searches made, on the orders by Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

The security changes will be tried in selected locations on the network and if successful, the government plans to implement the measures at railway stations across Britain and at the subway stations and at other transport interchanges- science daily

Train station anti-terror scanners go on trial

11/01/2006 - New airport-style scanners designed to boost anti-terror measures at Britain's train stations have been unveiled today.

Ahead of a four-week trial, which begins tomorrow on the London Paddington platforms of the Heathrow Express airport service, reporters were shown a steel box, seven metres in length and containing highly sophisticated scanning equipment, which the government hopes will help protect the country against terrorist attacks.

The walk-in scanner is designed to detect weapons and bombs concealed under a person's clothing, while a separate baggage scanner will simultaneously test for similar items in bags and cases.

A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesman confirmed that the trial was not an anti-terror measure in itself, but would be used to test the efficiency of the equipment.

Transport secretary Alistair Darling first announced the plans last November, telling an international conference in London that the "trial will test how effective new and existing technology could be to help counter the continued terrorist threat to the UK transport network".

The measures are being considered after suicide bombers targeted tube trains and a London bus in two separate attacks last year.

While only the first succeeded, both incidents highlighted the relative ease with which a group of terrorists could access the capital's transport network carrying explosives.

But with London's Waterloo station handling more than four times as many passengers as Heathrow each day, policing the railway network is a very different proposition to protecting airports.

Mr Darling acknowledged this point last autumn but said the travelling public would expect the government to make use of new technology where appropriate. "It is important that we reduce the risk to those passengers whilst recognising that accessibility is important to people and business," he said. "It is equally important that we do not ignore the benefits that new technology could provide us. Potential security benefits should not be disregarded without due consideration. "We have to be ready to look at whether further action is appropriate and practical."

It is hoped that the scanners will only take 80 seconds per person, taking a visual image which will be monitored by security officials of the same sex as the person being scanned.

The images will be deleted immediately after the person has been cleared to pass through, and they cannot be used to identify an individual, but civil rights groups have expressed concern about the scanning being an invasion of privacy. - dehavilland.co.uk

Peeping tom CCTV workers jailed

Two council CCTV camera operators have been jailed for spying on a naked woman in her own home. Mark Summerton and Kevin Judge, from Sefton Council, Merseyside, trained a street camera into the woman's flat. At Liverpool Crown Court, Summerton, 37, of Kirkdale, Liverpool, admitted voyeurism and attempted voyeurism. He was sentenced to four months in prison.

Judge, 42, from Waterloo, admitted misconduct in public office and was jailed for two months. He was cleared of voyeurism last month. Summerton was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register.

Team leader Vincent Broderick, 52, of Bootle, Merseyside, admitted misconduct in public office on the grounds that he did not see the woman when she was naked, but knew the cameras were being misused and failed to report it.

He was sentenced to 200 hours' community service.

The images from the camera, including the woman without her clothes on, were shown on a large plasma screen in the council's CCTV control room in November 2004, Liverpool Crown Court heard. Over several hours, she was filmed cuddling her boyfriend before undressing, using the toilet, having a bath and watching television dressed only in a towel.

Judge Gerald Clifton told the three men: "To dismiss what was happening as laddish behaviour, something that the 21st Century apparently condones, is absurd. "You only have to read the impact statements of the lady to realise the harrowing effect that this had on her. "Her life has almost been ruined, her self-confidence entirely destroyed by the thought that prying male eyes have entered her flat."

During his voyeurism trial, Judge claimed he had only seen the woman naked for a brief moment and had told Summerton, who was controlling the camera, that he was "out of order". The jury was satisfied but Judge Clifton said he did not believe this account.

He said: "I am amply satisfied that your involvement was larger than you are prepared to admit, that you were at some stage controlling the camera, and that you were watching and enjoying the events going on."

A Sefton Council spokesman said safeguards already in place meant the culprits were "caught and dismissed by us promptly".

"We will not tolerate an abuse of position from any of our staff or accept such a failure to meet the high standards of behaviour and professionalism we expect." BBC

Here we go...

Giving The Finger To Yobs

Updated: 16:57, Friday February 10, 2006

Revellers will give their fingerprint before buying a pint in a scheme to tackle drunken yobs.

Clubbers and pub-goers will be asked for their name, address, date of birth and a photograph which will be logged on a personal file. These details, along with the fingerprint from their right index finger, will then be stored on computer.

Each time a person enters a pub or club, they will have their print scanned and staff can call up their personal details before letting them in. As well as eliminating the need for identification, it will state whether the person has caused trouble in the past and should be barred.

It is hoped yobs kicked out of one venue will be stopped from getting into others.

The scheme - a more hi-tech version of existing Pubwatch projects - is to be tested in Yeovil, Somerset.

Terry Duke, owner of one of the clubs taking part, told The Times: "When I first heard, I was totally against it and thought it would be like Big Brother. "But it was properly explained to me I believe it will be an asset and make it safer for people to come out at night."

Liberty, the civil liberties pressure group, questions whether the measures are a suitable way to deal with "a few troublemakers". If made compulsory, it wants project organisers to comply with data protection rules. - Sky News

Psycho behavior control using 80-decibel pulsing frequency sound weapon

Councils and businesses are mounting the hi-tech devices in shops and malls and seeing shoplifters and noisy gangs melt away. The unassuming black box emits a piercing, pulsing sound that is only audible, in 90 per cent of cases, to people between 12 and 20. It has a range of 30 metres. Store owner Robert Gough, one of the first to try the £600 device, said shoplifting at his Spar grocer's in Barry, South Wales, has fallen and staff and customers are no longer terrorised. The device is being manufactured in the UK by its inventor Howard Stapleton, 39, who runs a company called Compound Security Systems. Scientists say it works because the head, ears and auditory canals of children are shaped differently from those of adults, allowing greater amplification of high frequency sounds. Experts say the Mosquito does not damage hearing and its volume is too low to affect animals. Rochdale Council is experimenting with Mosquitos outside care homes where rowdy teenagers gather and Staffordshire police are also testing it.

from the company website:

I am not a teenager, will the Mosquito annoy me?
This is very unlikely and research has shown that the majority of people over the age of 25, have lost the ability to hear at this frequency range. It should be borne in mind, however, that the unit usually has the desired effect - moving the crowds away - within just a few minutes, at which time the unit can be turned off. So even if you are able to hear the noise to some degree, you would not have to put up with it for long.

What about dogs?
Although dogs have very acute hearing and are easily able to hear at this frequency, extensive testing shows that it does not appear to bother them.

How quickly does it work?
The longer someone is exposed to the sound, the more annoying it becomes. Field trials have shown that teenagers are acutely aware of the Mosquito and usually move away from the area within just a couple of minutes. The field trails also suggest that after several uses, the groups of children / teenagers tend not to loiter in the areas covered by the Mosquito, even when it is not turned on.

Question: what happens if you treat kids like pests that need to be controlled?

Answer: they smash your shops up - & I wouldn't blame 'em either!

Now, we see all teenagers are treated with contempt.

A new sound weapon, apparently developed by a vigilante...actually sends a peircing sound to the skull of anyone who can hear it...what's more he's being allowed to sell it in the UK...from his rather shitty little website

Will Someone tell me what is right about any of this! where do I start?

are all under 20's guilty for just hanging around? what are the REAL long term effects of high frequency aural sensory abuse? isn't that remote torture...?

where have civil rights gone in the UK...this is UNBELIEVABLE

Police forces are trialling the device
i mean ...adults are so much more responsible...er...

Inventor finds sound way to noise up rowdy teenagers

IAN MARLAND - Thu 16 Feb 2006

FORGET your ASBOs and dispersal orders - cunning technology may be the way to end the scourge of anti-social youths and rowdy teenagers.

A device that sends out a high-pitched noise that can be heard only by teenagers and those in their early 20s is being used by police and shopkeepers to tackle nuisance behaviour.

The Sonic Teenager Deterrent - or Mosquito - projects a controlled 80-decibel pulsing frequency, which "irritates" younger ears but leaves older ones unaffected. The device works on the fact that from our mid to late 20s, the human ear experiences a big drop in its ability to hear upper frequency sounds.

Placed outside shops or sheltered homes, it has the effect of dispersing children who cannot stand the noise. The unassuming black box can be mounted on a wall in a casing similar to that of a halogen security light.

Two English police forces are trialling the device, while in Scotland, the Dundee-based independent retailer CJ Lang, which operates the Spar chain, is among clients looking at whether it can be used to tackle the problem of nuisance youths hanging around its stores.

Its inventor, Howard Stapleton, said: "The device emits a high-frequency pulse that is barely audible to anyone over 20 because, as we get older, we suffer progressive hearing loss due to our noisy environment and the structure of our ear changes.

"Ninety per cent of people under 20 will be able to hear it and 90 per cent of people over 30 won't." - scotsman.com

never been any problems with brain chemistry
& audio hallucination has there...er...actually yes...

Brain tortures humans with music hallucinations

13.02.2006 Source: Pravda

Music playing in the head is a familiar feeling, isn't it? We all know that some songs maybe so catchy that our mind keeps playing them on and on. All of us have tried to get rid of Britney Spears singing in our head. Everlasting sound that comes is of from some outer source is another matter. It is a big problem.

“Music hallucination is a serious problem. It doesn't let people sleep and think,” says British psychiatrist Victor Aziz who together with his colleague Nick Warner drew the attention of other scientists to a pshychopatological problem of music in one's mind.

Most of the people who suffer from this hallucination are elderly. Songs that emerge suddenly in their mind usually come from the outskirts of their memory. Some hear Italian opera that was once the favorite music of their parents. Others have to listen to hymns, jazz or pop songs.

Some get used to this music and even enjoy it, but these are a rear exception. The majority of such people try to stop the music: they close the windows and doors, use earplugs or sleep with a pillow on the head. Of course, none of these helps.

Meantime, music hallucination is not a new phenomenon. Famous composer Robert Shuman, for instance, had music hallucinations at the end of his life. He claimed to have been writing down music that he was hearing from the ghost of Shubert.

However, these hallucinations were not considered disorders for a long time. There were attempts to connect music hallucinations with a whole range of factors including aging, deafness, brain tumors, overdosing with some medicine and even liver transplantation.

Still, it was always clear that music hallucinations must be separated from other similar hallucinations (such as voices or visions) because a person may here melody without any other changes in perception of reality.

The first important research into music hallucinations was conducted in a Japanese psychiatric clinic in 1998. The results showed that six out of 3678 patients were hearing music in their heads. However, these results could not show the real situation as all of the patients had some kind of mental disorder. Japanese psychiatrists and their followers (who were few) discovered that our brain processes music through a unique net of neurons. First, the brain makes a zone around ears active. This zone starts processing sounds on their basic level. Then the processed signals are passed to other zones that can perceive more complicated features of music such as rhythm or melody. It turned out that this net of neurons can start malfunctioning without any adverse effect on other brain zones.

British scientist Timothy Griffiths from Newcastle University Medical School followed researchers who started working in this field. Last year he studied six elderly patients who started hallucinating when they turned deaf. The scientists discovered that several brain zones became more active during music hallucinations. The result was puzzling for the doctor. “I saw a picture almost similar to that of ordinary people listening to music”, Griffiths admitted. The main difference according to the expert is that music hallucinations activate only those parts of brain that are responsible for converting simple sounds into complex music.

According to Griffiths, brain zones that process music are constantly looking for models in signals that come from ears. As these zones need a melody they amplify certain sounds corresponding to music and minimize extra noises. When there are no sounds coming into ears these brain zones may use occasional impulses or signals and try to form some kind of structure going through memories. Thus, several notes may turn into a familiar melody.

For most of us it will mean reproducing a song that will then leave our mind, because a constant flow of information that our ears receive suppresses music. Deaf people do not receive this flow of information. That is why they can hear music all the time. This is not only a problem of deaf people, though. British medical experts say that about 10000 people at the age of 65 suffer from this hallucination. Aziz and Warner analyzed as many as 30 cases of such disorder (an average patient was 78 years old and a third of them was deaf).

The results showed that women hear music more often than men. In two thirds of cases elderly people hear religious music. Aziz thinks that people will have hallucinations of pop and classical music in the future - it depends on what they listen to day by day.

Psychiatrists think that music hallucinations take place when people are deprived of surroundings rich in sounds, become deaf or live in isolation. When there are no sounds supplied by ears brain starts producing impulses that are interpreted as sounds. Then it resorts to the help of memories about music and here the song starts.

Aziz claims that music hallucinations are also common among young people. The thing is that we just do not know about this. The scientist found a 28-year-old American who got used to music hallucinations and even considers them a source of comfort: music in his head reflects his emotional state. “It is playing in the background like a soundtrack,” says this young man. “Sometimes this melody stops which makes me feel unconfident as if I am suddenly in the wrong place in the wrong time. It seems that something is not right”.

At the moment music hallucinations are considered a rare disorder. However, according to Aziz, they can become a common case as modern man lives in the world overwhelmed with music (consider a new invention: a toothbrush that transmits music through a jaw!). Music is everywhere - it is not only in your Walkman, radio or TV-set, but in elevators, gyms, shopping centers and streets as well. It will not come as a surprise if it starts playing in our heads. Let's hope it will not be Britney. - pravda

Blair: opposition are 'luddites'?

PM defends civil liberties stance

Sun 26 Feb 2006 - Prime Minister Tony Blair has defended his stance on civil liberties and accused his critics of "a refusal to understand the modern world".

Critics of measures such as identity cards, anti-social behaviour legislation and the outlawing of the glorification of terror failed to take account of the rapidly-changing nature of modern crime, he suggested.

Traditional court procedures and attitudes to civil liberties were designed for a very different world, said Mr Blair.

Writing in The Observer, the Prime Minister said: "Anti-social behaviour isn't susceptible to normal court process. Modern organised crime is really ugly, with groups, often from overseas, frequently prepared to use horrific violence. "While I completely condemn IRA terrorism, I believe it was different in nature and scale from the new global Islamic terrorism we face. "For me, this is not an issue of liberty, but of modernity."

People suffer if the problems of anti-social behaviour are not tackled because court procedures are "inadequate" or if organised criminals and terrorists are not dealt with head-on, wrote Mr Blair. "The question is not one of individual liberty versus the state but of which approach best guarantees most liberty for the largest number of people. "In theory, traditional court processes and attitudes to civil liberties could work. But the modern world is different from the world for which these court processes were designed."

Tory and Liberal Democrat opposition to his measures in Parliament "does indicate a refusal to understand the modern world".If the nature of the threat changes, so should our policies," wrote Mr Blair. - scotsman.com

"access to everything you need to know about a person"

Cops launch handheld intelligence

BlackBerry helps West Yorkshire Police outwit wanted suspects

published: 2006-03-29

The BlackBerry is helping police officers at West Yorkshire Police to outwit wanted suspects who try to bluff their way out of being arrested when stopped on the streets.

When officers stop someone they suspect is wanted for an offence, they need to confirm that person's identity. Not surprisingly, many of those who are wanted will try to trick their way out of being arrested by providing false details - often those of someone they know, who is not currently wanted by the police.

But now officers issued with BlackBerry handheld devices can instantly download digital "mugshots" of people who are already on police systems to see that the person is not who they say they are. If there is an outstanding warrant for the person it will show on the screen and the officer can access the warrant system. The use of this technology has already led to several arrests.

This latest enhancement to the Force's use of BlackBerrys is due to the development of a new system dubbed "StreetWYSE".

Paul Friday, Director of the Force's Information Systems, said: "In September 2005, we conducted an internal survey to find out what else officers would like from their BlackBerry to aid them in their job. Responses from the survey revealed that officers wanted the BlackBerry to provide them with further intelligence to support street encounters."

Created by West Yorkshire Police's IT Department, StreetWYSE is a mobile version of the Force's main computerised intelligence system known as West Yorkshire Search Engine (WYSE). WYSE contains everything the Force knows about individuals, in addition to the comprehensive information stored on the Police National Computer.

Besides being able to access images, StreetWYSE on BlackBerry gives officers the ability to discreetly and silently use the device - instead of their radio - to check other vital information on an individual they have stopped, such as whether they are known to carry weapons or be violent to police officers.

West Yorkshire Police currently has 2,500 BlackBerrys in operation - 2,300 of those with frontline officers. The introduction of the devices has saved the Force an estimated £8.8 million, based on the time saved by officers being able to access computer systems while on the streets - an average of 145 hours per frontline officer per year. Training on StreetWYSE takes just a few minutes.

The devices have also given a major boost to the Force's neighbourhood policing teams by making them even more effective and helping them to spend even more time out working in communities. Officers can also get their daily briefing information sent to their BlackBerry on email. These contain embedded links to local intelligence such as the division's "most wanted" so officers can access that person's records, including their photo, on StreetWYSE by simply clicking on the link.

Future developments of the Force's use of BlackBerry could see officers on the ground being able to link into traffic cameras and be notified of the approach of a stolen vehicle. Officers have immediate and mobile access to the Force's warrants database. This is a completely electronic system that delivers a warrant entered at court directly to the officer on the beat. Officers can also check the latest legal information on the Police National Legal Database - a national resource created and managed by West Yorkshire Police.

The introduction of BlackBerrys to West Yorkshire Police came about following a national study commissioned by the Home Office in August 2001. Entitled "Diary of a Police Officer" the study aimed to identify ways to free-up officers so they could spend more time providing a visible reassuring presence to the public.

The study revealed that, on average, officers were spending almost as much time in police stations as they were on the streets. Calculations showed that up to five hours a week of a patrol constable's time could be saved by the use of mobile data. The West Yorkshire system costs the equivalent of one hour a week to run.

The BlackBerry system running on O2's network was chosen as it was able to provide a secure, robust, easy to deploy and manage, and simple to use system that was complimentary to the Airwave radio system. The BlackBerry system also reduces the impact on the front line of training - it takes just half a day to train officers how to use the BlackBerry system.

A range of security measures makes the BlackBerry terminals as secure as the Force's Airwave radios. These include data encryption, enforced passwords and remote management.

If a device is lost, officers can use a 24/7-helpdesk number to report the loss, and within minutes the helpdesk can remove the device from the network and clear any stored data. publictechnology.net

Key Dates

1974 Stolen Vehicles
1975 Broadcast
1976 Fingerprints
1976 Vehicle Owners
1977 Criminal Names
1978 Wanted/Missing Persons
1980 Disqualified Drivers
1983 Crime Pattern (now Comparative Case) Analysis
1985 Convictions History
1991 Stolen Property, Transaction Log, Combined Directory
1994 Marine Craft, Firearms
1995 PHOENIX (Names Index)
1996 VODS
1997 ANPR, Sex Offenders
1998 QUEST
2001 Motor Insurance, Jurors, FSS link
2002 Drivers Database, CRB link, 'Live' PNC and PNC Disaster Recovery upgrade
2004 Links with ViSOR, Crimelink
2005 SIS link

The Police National Computer is a cornerstone of PITO's work, having been at the forefront of operational policing for 30 years.

Available 24 hours all year round, the PNC is an invaluable store of information, source of intelligence and on-line aid to investigations.

It holds extensive data on criminals, vehicles and property, which is accessible in a matter of seconds, through more than 10,000 terminals across the country.  The PNC is accessed through a secure network and all transactions are logged for audit and data protection purposes.

Over the years, the system has grown to embrace many technological advances, incorporating advice from the government and policing bodies, as well as from in-house and industry technical experts. It has developed from a record keeping service to a sophisticated intelligence tool.

The PNC was born in 1974 with Stolen Vehicles as its initial database.  Since then, additional applications have been implemented almost every year.  The range of facilities, level of detail and potential value of information stored on the PNC has improved significantly.

For example, the Vehicle Online Descriptive Search (VODS) can use a partial description of a vehicle to find matches within 50 million recorded on the system.  And Querying Using Extended Search Techniques (QUEST) provides a search capability against the Names application using most elements of the record's content.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) devices can scan thousands of vehicle registrations every hour and check them against PNC records to identify those of interest to the police.

The Comparative Case Analysis (CCA) tool, used to record and examine serious unsolved crimes, can search for similarities in incidents that have taken place miles and even years apart, helping investigators to identify patterns, links and serial offences.

A programme is underway to modernise the PNC.  PITO is consulting with the police service to determine its requirements from the next generation system.

PNC links

A number of criminal justice partners are linked to the PNC, giving them access to the information held on the computer.

About 5,000 checks are made each week through the 'Jurors' link, which allows crown courts to check whether a proposed juror has a criminal record. Previously, the Courts Service struggled to meet its target of randomly checking 20 per cent of potential jury members.

The link between the Forensic Science Service's (FSS) DNA database and the PNC allows users to update the national DNA database on an individual's DNA status.

Individuals applying to work with children or other vulnerable people are subject to checks by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), with criminal records checked through the PNC.

PNC developments

In 2002, PITO signed a four-year contract with Siemens and, as part of the contract, the Live PNC processors and the Disaster Recovery System (DRS) processors were upgraded.  This provided the PNC with extra capacity.

The following major developments are expected within the next year:

  • Comparative Case Analysis will be upgraded with web browser technology.  Force analysts will have access to the new Crimelink information system through the PNC, which will be more user-friendly and embrace a wider range of offences.
  • Link with the Schengen Information System (SIS) - a Europe-wide data system designed to allow criminal information and enforcement activities to be shared by participating countries.  The link will be enabled through the Sirene UK bureau.  UK officers will receive SIS alerts from their checks on the PNC when dealing with a number of issues.

- pito.org.uk

The obsession is apparent

Bully Watch London is a project set up by the current Charity of the Year Beatbullying, the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Transport for London, and the Association of London Government.

Bully Watch London is about all of London watching out and saying NO to bullying… we don't just mean as usual young people taking the responsibility, we mean all Londoners. Teachers, bus drivers, parents, politicians, dinner ladies, park attendants, governors, councillors, station attendants, families, friends, social workers, London businesses, the Mayor, police officers, community wardens, youth workers, religious leaders, nurses, doctors, in fact the whole of London needs to start watching out and start safely intervening to stop young people being bullied. - bullywatchlondon.org

Through a scanner darkly - Trials are over

Security scanners for rail stations

11:00am 2nd April 2006 - Security scanners are to be used at railway stations across the country in a bid to improve safety.

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said trials in London of metal detectors to detect weapons such as knives had been "extremely successful".

He told the BBC's Sunday AM programme that the technology would now be employed at stations in other cities including Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff. "It will be across the country," he said. "It won't be there all the time. Obviously local police have to use their judgment as to when they deploy officers on the scanning equipment. "We want to make travelling by train as safe as we can."

The trial at Tube and train stations in London, known as Operation Shield, has been running for two months.

British Transport Police officers with stop-and-search powers and sniffer dogs use mobile airport-style scanners to check passengers. Since it began, almost 10,000 people have been scanned, 100 have been arrested and 68 knives seized. - dailymail.co.uk

knives? or Radiological weapons?


UK police roll out mobile scanner psyops teams to railways

Ministry of Symbolism hails massive haul of 68 knives

By John Lettice Published Monday 3rd April 2006 16:34 GMT

After an "extremely successful" two month trial at mainline and Underground stations in London, mobile weapons scanners are to go live at main railway stations throughout the UK, Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has announced.

The nature of this 'success', the kinds of deployment that will be made, and the things the machines are really intended to detect are, however, less clear than the secretary of state would have us believe.

According to the Department for Transport (DfT), British Transport Police has been running a three month trial in London using the scanners. The DfT and Transport Police have this year made substantial investments in scanning technology, most recently in the TPXi-640 x-ray unit, which as you see is a portable lightweight scanning unit with notebook computer. Image Scan Holdings announced in January that it would be delivering unspecified quantities of these units to British Transport Police over the following three months. The TPXi is claimed "to give the operator the greatest probability of detecting potential threats from explosive, chemical or even biological sources concealed within suspect packages", and that it is described by Image Scan as "the latest tool in the fight against terrorism".

According to Image Scan, however, these are high energy units designed to check baggage, not suitable for use on people, while the devices used in the knife scan trials are conventional metal detectors.

In this "successful" trial, DfT intended to combat knife crime. Ten thousand people were scanned, 100 were arrested and 68 knives detected. As we understand it, arrests related to the knives detected were in the mid forties, but the offences for which the other arrests were made have not been specified. For a fixed scanner at an airport a hit rate of this order could be seen as a success of sorts (only of sorts, because finding that number of people trying to carry weapons on board would scare airport managers witless), but these are not fixed scanners.

As deployed, the mobile version used teams of police accompanied by sniffer dogs (trained to smell knives???), with backup officers detailed to stop and question those who appeared to be avoiding the scanner. So, even at pilot scale it's an expensive operation to mount, and it can (or at least should) only be run by operators who're properly trained, and who're able to give subjects accurate information regarding the machines being used.

Considering the likely cost of all this, 68 knives (types not specified) out of 10,000 scans doesn't look particularly cost-effective, especially if you take into account that the scanner teams will essentially have been mounting surprise operations in high-risk areas, and will have achieved higher scores simply because the targets were not aware that the equipment was waiting for them. This won't be the case once they've been in use for a little longer, their use on a widespread basis will be prohibitively expensive, and taking 68 knives out of the hands of London's teenagers over three months scarcely makes the capital a safer place. It is, effectively, psyops, as was the case with the Met's operation Blunt in 2004; it was intended to persuade youth that it should not carry weapons because with the deployment of wondrous new technology they stand a very real risk of being caught. And as far as the general public is concerned, it's another prime example of 'reassurance policing' - conveying the impression of action and effectiveness by means of symbolism.

The x-ray mobile scanners will be similarly reassuring and similarly pointless as and when used to look for bombs and drugs, natch.

Alongside the mobile trials, you'll recall we have a fixed scanner trial at Paddington Heathrow Express, this one being particularly fascinating in that, when it was rolled out, it was viewed almost universally by those involved as being wholly impractical for widespread deployment. Transport for London has in the interim ruled out fixed scanners on the grounds of practicality.

Nevertheless, the importance of symbolism to New Labour may be sufficient to drive further fixed scanner deployments. On mass transit systems, however, the proponents of detection technology are currently between several rocks and hard places. Simple metal detectors just plain won't work in permanent deployments because they'll pick up keys, coins and so on, and running them in airport style would simply paralyse transport systems.

More sophisticated x-ray or millimetre wave (the "see through clothes" scanners) are getting faster, but they're currently dependent on trained operators capable of spotting problems, so we're still talking about expensive-to-run systems with queues, and a pause as each subject/suspect is examined.

You can therefore see the point in the use of mobile scanners, despite the fact they're not going to be significantly effective. They are scanner deployments of a sort but, as their deployment is intermittent, their overall disruptive effect is limited. Don't work much, don't hurt much, you could say. Just believe we're doing something. ®

*An earlier version of this story erroneously confused the Image Scan supplied mobile baggage scanners with the mobile metal detectors that Transport Police will be using in the knife crime initiative. Our apologies to Image Scan for the confusion.

the register.co.uk

fingerprinting under 5's

Toddlers used in trial of identity biometrics

by Tony Collins - Tuesday 16 May 2006 - computer weekly

A Home Office department is fingerprinting under-fives, and may include babies, in a biometrics ID scheme. The trial ends the department’s technological taboo on enrolling very young children in identity checks.

Details of the scheme emerged after the Home Office released an internal report under the Freedom of Information Act, which contained a section on fingerprinting under-fives.

The UK could be one of the first countries to fingerprint under-fives – and possibly the first. When Malaysian police last year proposed fingerprinting of babies there were strong protests from civil liberties groups in the country.

If the trial is successful, it could encourage the government to consider gathering fingerprints from very young children for passport applications. The legal framework exists for this to happen.

Very young children have in the past been considered unsuitable for fingerprinting because their newly-formed fingers stretch too quickly for a one-off capture of data to yield a reliable historical record.

But the internal Home Office report refers to developing algorithms to enhance the performance of systems for under-fives.

The Home Office confirmed it has been fingerprinting all children under five at its asylum screening unit in Croydon – where the Immigration and Nationality Department has its headquarters – and its Liverpool centre.

A spokeswoman said, “Fingerprinting is an established biometric technology that is known to work with very young children and for which there is already an established legal framework.” She added that there was no minimum age for fingerprinting in the trials.

The report for the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, entitled Co-ordination and Management of Biometrics, warned there were possible drawbacks with fingerprinting. Depending on the technology used, those being fingerprinted may have to be “man-handled”. It also warned that some people and cultures may object to touching sensors used by others.

Application registration cards – described as the UK’s first biometrics ID card – are issued to all asylum seekers. Biometrics from very young children and babies could be incorporated into these cards.

Asylum seekers with families gain preferential treatment for their applications. The aim of fingerprinting under-fives is to close a loophole that authorities said could allow a single child to be used by multiple asylum applicants feigning parenthood.

whatever next? this?

CCTV mounted / operated remote sniper rifle

"The .308 semi-automatic rifle is mounted on a motorised carbon-fibre tripod and loaded with electronics. The operator, safely snuggled up in an armoured vehicle gets a view of the target down the telescopic sight and twiddles a joystick to control the gun. British inventor Graham Hawkes (designer of the Deep Flight II submersible robot submarine) says he got bored with hitting fixed bullseyes, so he switched to moving targets racing away at up to 50km/h.

The gun, called TRAP (Telepresent Rapid Aiming Platform) costs £30,000 a pop and was developed by Hawkes' US base with help from SWAT team marksmen. It is expected to be used by US police forces" - spy.org.uk


This is for you Mr Blair

see: Techno-fascism

& The control grid

 

 

Captain Wardrobes

Down with Murder inc.