Tag Archives: Useful Idiots

Face recognition pioneer now worried tech enables mass surveillance

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“Dr. Joseph Atick was described as ‘one of the pioneer entrepreneurs of modern face recognition’ before the New York Times explained that Atick is now worried about face-matching biometrics enabling ‘mass surveillance’ and ‘basically robbing everyone of their anonymity.  He is reportedly not concerned about the government openly using facial recognition such as to combat identity theft or fraud. There’s no mention of the FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) biometric database, which will reportedly hold 52 million face images by 2015.  Atick used the NameTag app as an example of face-matching technology being taken too far.”

http://blogs.computerworld.com/privacy/23925/face-recognition-pioneer-now-worried-tech-will-be-used-mass-surveillance

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San Francisco voters just voted to make housing less affordable

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“Yesterday, San Francisco voters handily voted in favor of Measure B. That’s a ballot initiative that will make it more difficult to construct tall buildings on the San Francisco waterfront by requiring buildings over a certain size to obtain voter approval via referendum.  Thanks to the miraculous technology of the elevator, it is perfectly possible for lots of people to live and work in a small geographical area via the mechanism of tall buildings. But when tall buildings are banned, space becomes scarcer. And when space is scarce, the tendency is that the richest people around will be the ones who are able to bid for it.”

http://www.vox.com/2014/6/4/5778696/measure-b-san-francisco-will-reduce-affordability

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Colorado’s neighboring sheriffs lamenting their own marijuana arrests?

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“Sheriff John Jenson watched the 2012 election returns crawling across his TV screen in this rural area just over the Colorado border. Tuned to a Denver news station, he soon realized Colorado voters were about to legalize recreational marijuana.  That’s when he turned to his wife and started to swear.  ‘The drug war in this country used to be along the U.S.-Mexican border. Now it’s eight miles away.’  Law enforcement officers in the smaller, often isolated counties in states ringing Colorado say their departments shudder under the weight of Colorado pot flowing illegally across the border. Drug arrests are rising, straining already strapped budgets in places where marijuana remains illegal.”

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pot-trafficking-20140527-story.html

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San Francisco Union Protests City’s Tax Exemptions for Tech Companies

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“San Francisco leaders said the incentives deprived the city of just under $2 million in taxes, while generating $8 million in new revenue.  Union leaders, on the other hand, said lost taxes total somewhere close to $56 million.  San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development said the payroll tax breaks offered to Twitter, lured 17 other tech companies to mid-market. They also brought 17 small businesses, 13,000 jobs and more than 5,000 units of new housing under construction in the area.  ‘The 13,000 jobs support so many other jobs and economic activity in the city,’ said Todd Rufo, the mayor’s director of economic and workforce development.”

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/San-Francisco-Union-Workers-Protest-Citys-Tax-Exemptions-for-Tech-Companies–255424971.html

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Google Glass targeted as symbol by anti-tech crowd

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“The $1,500 device, which displays Web content on a tiny screen, signals its wearer as a likely member of an affluent tech elite. And Glass also can discreetly shoot photos or video, which some people view as invasive.  That’s caused unease for some folks and, in some cases has led to arguments, altercations and even attacks against people wearing the technology.  It’s relatively new for Glass to be targeted, either over privacy concerns or as a presumed symbol of the tech industry as a whole.  In late February, a woman says she was attacked at a bar on San Francisco’s famous Haight Street after fellow patrons began heckling her and trying to rip Glass off of her face.”

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/14/tech/mobile/google-glass-attack/

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Protesters target Apple for offshore tax shelters

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“SEIU USWW, the union that organized the march, represents security guards and janitors at many companies, not just tech, in San Francisco and the East Bay.  But Tuesday’s event appealed to tech companies’ moral goals, which have become more relevant as other activists call for the rapidly growing companies to give back to the cities they affect, ranging from other union demonstrations outside of Twitter to activist-led marches on Google employees’ houses.  ‘We’re trying to have a little fun on Tax Day and show how Apple’s unpaid tax revenues could help Bay Area infrastructure,’ said Alfredo Fletes, the union spokesman.”

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/04/15/protesters-target-apple-for-offshore-tax-shelters/

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Yellen Concerned Fed Models Fail to Predict Price Moves

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“Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is concerned that the standard models central banks use to forecast inflation may be broken.  Behind her disquiet: the failure of the models to foresee the path of prices in the U.S. during the last recession and its aftermath and in Japan during its deflationary period from 1998 to 2012. U.S. inflation has been higher than the simulations suggested, while Japanese price declines proved more persistent.  Yellen alluded to her concerns in a speech last week, saying the Fed has to ‘watch carefully’ to see if inflation picks up as the central bank projects — and hopes — during the next few years.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-25/yellen-concerned-fed-model-fails-to-predict-price-moves.html

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Cannabis: History, Legalization, Regulation, & the Public Health Model

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“The first recorded mention of cannabis as therapy is 2000 years before the common era (BCE) in the pharmacopeia of Chinese medicine. In the ancient Near East, it was ground into a paste with honey and inserted vaginally to ease the pain of childbirth. Caesar’s physician used the oil from seeds to alleviate earaches. Queen Victoria’s physician prescribed it for menstrual cramps. It’s ironic to contemplate that 100 years ago cannabis tinctures were widely used and doctors knew all about it and how it worked for various conditions. One hundred years later, doctors know almost nothing.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/exclusive-interviews/35265/Anthony-Wile-NORML-Canadas-Craig-Jones-on-Cannabis–History-Legalization-Regulation-and-the-Public-Health-Model/

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S.F. SmartCar-Tippers Rage Against the Machine

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“A group of as many as eight people dressed in black tipped over four of the cars in a San Francisco residential area this week. Vandals have been tipping Smart cars in other cities throughout the country.  There’s speculation that the car tipping could be linked to the anti-tech industry movement that’s been growing in the Bay Area. Protesters have hampered Google’s shuttles as they have tried to take employees to work. They have demonstrated outside Twitter’s headquarters against the tax breaks it gets from the city.”

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/80267.html

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Protesters block another Google bus, plan march against evictions

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“Dozens of protesters in San Francisco blocked a bus headed for Google headquarters this morning and dozens more are expected during a march this afternoon to rally against the evictions of local teachers and other longtime city residents.  Attendees heard from longtime residents of a building at 812 Guerrero St. who are being evicted under the Ellis Act, a state law that allows property owners to take a building off of the rental market and convert it for other uses, such as condominiums or a single-family home.  The building was recently purchased by a Google employee who ‘proceeded to evict tenants using illegal methods,’ according to a statement from Eviction Free San Francisco.”

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_25547247/san-francisco-protesters-block-google-bus-plan-march

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