We’re Watching You!!

Microsoft Will Set up City-Wide Surveillance Network

Microsoft has cooperated with the New York Police Department in a bid to create a city-wide surveillance network that will then be offered to the cops further afield.

Michael Bloomberg, NYC Mayor, announced the introduction of a cutting-edge surveillance system that would be able to analyze a range of data input including smart cameras, license plate readers and radiation detectors to deliver a real-time security overview.

Microsoft and the New York Police Department believe that the Domain Awareness System (DAS) will really help to fight crime on the city streets. Their network, combining a variety of advanced surveillance methods, will be able to alert investigators in cases when, for instance, suspect packages or vehicles might present a security threat. Michael Bloomberg claimed that the network would utilize existing surveillance technologies and unify them through the new system.

The project will capitalize on new powerful policing software allowing the authorities to quickly access relevant material gathered from existing technology and help them respond more efficiently. While claiming that the new system would be developed for preventing terrorism, the Mayor elaborated that it could be used for other purposes, like fighting everyday crime.

Although the City has largely resolved its troubles with street crime when its former mayor Rudy Giuliani started his time in office, recently the New York City Police has been reacting to enormous social protests from the Occupy movement, which included mass arrests.

Both Republicans and Democrats responded in a rare show of agreement and passed through the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act, dubbed an “anti-Occupy” law that would end America’s right to protest. Although New York is regarded as a prime terrorist target, such real-time security system might also be seen as a response to the US largest social movement in decades.

Microsoft announced that the joint development would be sold to other police departments, with New York being just an experiment for the system. In case Redmond and the NYPD generate any further sales, New York receives a 30% cut of the profit. As for the New York Mayor, he also confirmed that the NYPD and Microsoft will now be trying to expand the system across world.

Throttle It??

Broadband Providers Continue Choking BitTorrent Traffic

The latest report from the Measurement Lab shows how Internet service providers across the world throttle BitTorrent traffic. Due to the efforts of entertainment industry and other entities benefiting from this, hundreds of ISPs worldwide are trying to curb piracy by chocking their subscribers’ Internet pipe when they see BitTorrent transfers of data, paying no attention to its legitimacy.
The data collected by the Google-sponsored Measurement Lab indicates how often ISPs temper with the connection speeds. The research covers the first quarter of 2012. When compared to 2010, throttling BitTorrent traffic in the US dropped from 50% to 3%, thanks to Comcast’s struggle to protect its subscribers’ rights. Another factor was the FCC ruling stating that Comcast mustn’t interfere with BitTorrent traffic. Charter’s throttling was reduced from 11% to 4%, while Cox is still regarded as the #1 throttler in the country with 6%. This makes Comcast, Verizon and AT&T the best major ISP to have in the US.

But if you live in the United Kingdom, the picture is different. The worst Internet service provider in this regard is BT, which limits BitTorrent traffic by up to 65%, which exceeds 57% it showed back in 2010. In the meantime, other major UK ISPs – O2 and BskyB – keep tempering with BitTorrent transfers, showing 2% and 4% throttling. As for Virgin Media, it dropped from 33% in 2010 to 22%.

Canada can also be regarded as one of the worst countries to access BitTorrent networks in. For example, Rogers, one of the country’s largest broadband providers, is liable for throttling over 3/4 of all BitTorrent transfers. The first quarter of the current year makes them the worst ISP to have, with over 80%. Then comes Bell with its hefty 77%, showing an increase of 19% since 2010.

Let’s look at Australia now. This country appears far more understanding than the rest of the world: here iiNet accounts for 11% of BitTorrent throttling, but it’s good news when compared to 2010, when it had 3 times more. Aussie’s Dodo also improved its relationship with the subscribers, dropping throttling from 14% in 2010 to nothing this year.

The rest of the world, including such countries as Sweden, Italy, France, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands, is heavily tempering with BitTorrent transfers as well.

Brotherly Love?

He is heavy. He's my brother. Silverback gorilla greets long lost sibling with a hug

He may have felt some trepidation at meeting his 35 stone big brother after three years apart.

He may have felt some trepidation at meeting his 35 stone big brother after three years apart.
But any fears for Alf the gorilla were dispelled when the much larger Kesho met him with an even larger hug.
In remarkable scenes at Longleat Safari park in Wiltshire, the pair who were brought up together but then sent to separate zoos welcomed each other with outstretched arms.
The siblings hugged, slapped each others backs and even shook hands as they were reunited in a new £3 million enclosure.
In the three years the siblings have been apart, Kesho, 13, has grown almost beyond recognition becoming a silverback and leader of the pack
Meanwhile Alf, four years his junior, has yet to mature and remains about a third of his weight.
Born at Dublin Zoo, they were separated when Kesho was sent to London Zoo to take part in a breeding programme.
He proved to be infertile, but while living with three females as the dominant male he became the leader of the pack – and transformed from a small blackback gorilla to a silverback who towers over his little brother.
Mark Tye, head gorilla keeper at Longleat, told the Daily Mail: "We weren't entirely sure that the brothers would even know each other, but the moment they met you could just see the recognition in their eyes.
"They were very animated and there was a lot of rough and tumble, but not in an aggressive way. It is quite unusual to see that sort of childlike behaviour in a silverback."

I Agree Jeremy!!

Jeremy Clarkson: Britain is a nation of 62 million complete and utter bastards

Jeremy Clarkson branded Britain a nation of 'utter bastards' after Twitter trolls mocked him over the death of his dog.

Jeremy Clarkson has never been known to hold his tongue, but now he has insulted everyone in Britain branding the whole country 'complete and utter bastards.'
Clarkson went on to say that Brtis invented torture and slavery and sent the White Russians to be slaughtered by Stalin.
"Outwardly, we hated communist Russia; inwardly, it's what 95 per cent of the country wants," he said.
Writing in Top Gear magazine, Clarkson made the comments after claiming he was he was inundated with abuse and jokes when he Tweeted about the death of his black Labrador Whoopi.
Clarkson, wrote: "A few moments ago , my dog died, and, as an experiment, I announced the fact on Twitter.
"Now, everyone must have known that when a family pet is put down, the family in question is bound to be upset.
"So you'd expect a bit of sympathy. And, in America, that's what you'd get.
"Not in Britain, though. Moments after I posted my Tweet, a man called Ryan Paisey asked: "How does she smell?"
Clarkson said another man had said the news was 'kinda funny.'
Another Twitter user Phil May wanted to know if it was James May's fault, and Tom Green said simply: "Good".
Clarkson said within five minutes he had suffered a 'tirade of abuse.'
He added: "Britain is a nation of 62 million complete and utter bastards. We are the country that invented the concentration camp, and international slavery.
"Hanging, drawing, quartering: that was us too. And who was it that sent the White Russians home to be slaughtered by Stalin? Yup. Us.
"Outwardly, we hated communist Russia; inwardly, it's what 95 per cent of the country wants .
"Bankers, Estate Agents, Politicians, Journalists. Anyone in a suit is basically evil and must, after they've been sacked, go to prison.
"Anyone in a donkey jacket? They're basically good and must have a plasma television immediately."

Where’s The Money?

Why Is RIAA Losing Revenues?

According to the RIAA’s tax report, the music trade group’s revenues dramatically dropped in the past couple years. Now the experts can disclose the reason for this downfall. The Recording Industry Association of America, the outfit that represents the US recording industry, has recently presented the tax filing to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The report covered the fiscal year ending with March 2011.
The massive downfall was noticed within the past 2 years with RIAA’s revenues being cut almost in half. The report revealed that the total revenue of the group was of $29 million, while two years ago it was $51 million. The huge drop was caused by the ever-diminishing membership dues paid by music recording companies – from $50 million to $28 million in the same period. The experts point out that the effects were also highlighted by the outfit’s cuts in personnel. At the moment, the RIAA is having 72 people on their payroll (compared with 117 two years ago), which totals in $13 million in pay checks, ¼ of which goes to executives’ pockets.

So, where does this money go? The tax filing revealed that Mitch Bainwol (Chief Executive Officer) gets $1.75 million annually, while Cary Sherman (the current CEO and former president of the outfit) earn only $1.37 million. Now you can understand why these guys are always crying about piracy. Aside from these two, Neil Turkewitz (EVP International), Steve Marks (General Counsel) and Mitch Glazier (Public Policy & Industry Relations) got $0.7 million, $0.67 million and $0.6 million respectively.

In the meantime, the tax filing indicated that the anti-piracy outfit spent $2.3 million on lobbying – this figure looks like the one that remains balanced over the years, while the group’s legal fees have dropped from $16.5 million to $2.34 million.

What A Let Down!!

100-year-old Norwegian mystery is unravelled

When the mayor of a Norwegian town wrapped up a brown paper package in 1912, he began a 100-year mystery.

Johann Nygaard handed over the parcel to the local authorities in Sel in the 1920s with no word of explanation. It bore the message: “Can be opened in 2012.”
Yesterday, the guessing game finally ended. After fevered speculation that the package contained bombshell documents, a sheaf of oil shares to make the townsfolk rich or even the “Blue Star” diamond rumoured to have gone down with the Titanic, the truth was revealed.
And it could have been more exciting.
In a ceremony attended by Princess Astrid of Norway and streamed live to the world, the parcel was opened by a white-gloved museum curator. It was found to contain some notebooks, yellowing newspapers, community council documents and swatches of fabric in the colour of Norway’s flag.
As The Local, Norway’s English-language newspaper, put it: “If you were expecting an anti-climax, you may well be on the mark. Suggestions that some onlookers have fallen asleep are greatly exaggerated.”
The current mayor of Sel, Dag Erik Prhyn, attempted to hide his disappointment. “Well, the package didn’t solve our financial problems,” he said, “but our history got richer.”
The package, measuring 40cm x 28cm and weighing 7lbs, had been housed in the Gudbrandsdal Museum. It survived two world wars and twice narrowly avoided being thrown away during clear-out operations, once in the 1950s and again in the 1980s.
Before it was opened, museum curator Kjell Voldheim said: “We haven’t the faintest idea what’s inside. It’s going to be incredibly exciting. We have fantasised a lot about what it might contain.”
Authorities said the notebooks and documents would be examined in detail over the coming days.

World Order In New York!

World Order In Mexico!

It’s Ours….Go Away!!

United States Refused to Give Internet Away

The United States of America, which famously doesn’t even know that it was Tim Berners-Lee who invented the world wide web, has refused to hand over control of the Internet to the United Nations. The latter wants to bring in a global treaty and bring the worldwide web under its control. There were suggestions that the UN would tax large international telecommunication companies to ensure that the world is better connected.

Nevertheless, the news is that the United States will submit its own formal proposal for the December conference held by the ITU (International Telecommunications Union). Terry Kramer, the special envoy for the talks, has opposed the suggestions by Russia, China and other countries to expand the authority of the outfit to cover the web.

Kramer announced that it will introduce regulation, adding that the web has grown because it hasn’t been micro-managed or owned by any government or multinational group. In the meantime, the United States is worried that the December conference, scheduled to be held in Dubai, could seek changes that would threaten the openness of the web and its multi-stakeholder model. The US is afraid that it would grant the governments greater authority to filter or censor data, which is exactly what the Russian Federation and China want, and is also becoming part of policy of such Western countries as the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

The most worrying part for the big American technology companies is suggestion to the committee to call for taxes on web traffic to pay for a worldwide improvement in infrastructure. Of course, this would hit American businesses which are doing their best to avoid paying tax.

The December conference is aimed at updating a 1998 global telecom treaty, with ITU secretary general highlighting that he would be seeking a “consensus” approach instead of bringing each suggestion up for a vote.

Terry Kramer is hoping that he may lean on the EU to back the plan of the United States to keep control of the worldwide web. Apparently, the rest of the world also accepts the fact that the United States controls the web and has no interest in improving the Internet by taxing rich American companies either.