Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Jeff Buchanan
    replied
    An upbeat article on the benefits of facial recognition technology in improving the airport experience for travelers appeared in the NYTs this morning. We travel a lot both domestically and internationally and have loved arriving and departing airports and cruise terminal where TSA and Customs and Immigration (C&I) use this technology. In passing through C&I in international terminals equipped with facial recognition technology, long lines have virtually disappeared. Before, you could spend hours clearing C&I when three wide-bodies discharge a thousand passengers around the same time, all of them headed for Customs and Immigration..

    When a cruise ship disembarks passengers, C&I might be facing processing 6 to 10K passengers from three cruise ships at a time. Before, long lines of debarking cruise passengers required waiting interminably. That's done. With facial recognition we can leave our cabin and be back at our front door in less than an hour and the Uber from the port to our house takes about 40 minutes.

    But let's not let government screw up a good thing. The benefits of speedy trips through airports or cruise ports far outweighs conspiracy driven downsides but NOOOOO. Here we go. From the NYTs:

    But not everyone is happy with the technology’s growth. Critics say the systems lack guardrails to ensure people’s biological data is not misused. And, though they have improved over the years, facial-recognition algorithms have historically been shown to work better on white faces.

    The Traveler Privacy Protection Act, a bill introduced by Senators Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, and John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, seeks to halt the T.S.A.’s ongoing facial-recognition program. The bill’s sponsors say they have serious concerns regarding security and the possibility of racial discrimination.

    Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel on privacy and technology at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the government had not yet shown a demonstrated need for facial-recognition technology at airports. And he expressed concern over what he called the “nuclear scenario.”

    “Facial recognition technology,” he said, could be “the foundation for a really robust and widespread government surveillance and tracking network.”

    Leave a comment:


  • Dr. Strangelove
    replied
    Fuck this guy and what passes for comedy in MAGAdonia.

    Leave a comment:


  • Jeff Buchanan
    replied
    So, Navalny is dead probably at Putin's direction. Calls from western leaders for outside investigation will be ignored and Russian prison officials are already taking steps to secure his body. .

    Things I've read suggest the particular prison that Navalny was moved to in Siberia a few months ago suggest living conditions are so bad, it's nothing more than a torture chamber of slow death. There's been small numbers of protesters gathering who are mostly there to morn his death. These were broken up by local police and Rosgavardia. Polls taken by independent agencies inside Russia have indicated the Russian population is apathetic about demonstrating against the War in Ukraine or in resisting the slide of the Russian state from a somewhat open society to one that is totally repressive. The war in Ukraine.is described as background noise that does not affect most people in Russia except those that have lost love ones there. The Kremlin has programs designed to mollify this group of people and keep them from organizing pretests. IOW, there is no significant discontent inside Russia over Ukraine, the application of more repression from the Kremlin or that which might arise from the Nalvany death.

    The Ukrainian Army has withdrawn its forces from the defense of Adiivka a small town on the eastern front of Ukraine, completely destroyed by 4 months of siege warfare by the Russian Army. Adviika is a symbolic front door to the Kharkiv Oblast which the Russians retreated from early in the 3 year conflict. It is less of a strategic gain and more of a symbolic one, nonetheless an important symbolic battle ground. The US House's R extremists have brought the flow of aid to Ukraine from the US to a full stop holding that aid hostage to boarder security policies they are demanding.

    Zelenski has been in Munich at an EU security conference making it pretty clear to attendees (US Secretary of Defense, Austin is not in attendance) that Ukraine desperately needs ammunition. If the Russian's, as Zelenski explained, continue to gain momentum and breathing space, the security of NATO members is going to be endangered. Trump's loose talk about America's NATO role, subject to the failure of other NATO members to contribute their fair share to NATO defense, will lead to the US not defending those countries if they are attacked by Russia, is playing right into Putin's hands.

    Leave a comment:


  • Dr. Strangelove
    replied
    I doubt anyone here needs an extra reason to NOT donate to that Trump GoFundMe that’s going around but here you go. It’s being overseen by one of the richest, most militant Scientologists in the country.

    Leave a comment:


  • Dr. Strangelove
    replied
    Dunno if Trump said anything publicly about it, but despite posting a few hundred times yesterday on Truth he hasn't said a peep about Navalny/Putin. Not that I expected him to.

    Russian authorities are now screwing around with Navalny's family, giving them the runaround on collecting the body.

    Leave a comment:

Working...
X