Puppet Masters
The NYPD says it will launch an all-seeing "Domain Awareness System" that combines several streams of information to track both criminals and potential terrorists.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says the city developed the software with Microsoft.
The program combines city-wide video surveillance with law enforcement databases, according to Kelly.
The Domain Awareness System will include technology deployed in public spaces as part of the counterterrorism program of the NYPD counterterrorism bureau, including: NYPD-owned closed circuit television cameras, license plate readers, and other undisclosed domain awareness devices.
© The Associated Press/Turkpix
In this Sunday, July 29, 2012 photo, Free Syrian Army soldiers gather at the border town of Azaz, some 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Aleppo, Syria.
In this Sunday, July 29, 2012 photo, Free Syrian Army soldiers gather at the border town of Azaz, some 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Aleppo, Syria.
Aya lost her eye when she was struck by shrapnel from a shell that also killed her 8-month-old brother, Mohammad, and their mother. The father and daughter were among some 200,000 people who the U.N. said late Sunday have fled Syria's largest city, Aleppo, during days of clashes between rebels and the military.
Aleppo residents, some severely wounded, are packing up belongings and loading them onto cars, trucks and even motorcycles to seek temporary shelter in rural villages and schools outside the city and dusty tents across the border in Turkey.
In interviews with The Associated Press, refugees described a city besieged by government troops and beset by incessant shelling. Food supplies and gasoline are running low and black market prices for everyday staples are soaring.
© Reuters / Reuters TV
Armed members of the Free Syrian Army are seen in the western border town of Zabadani in this undated still image taken from amateur video obtained by Reuters
Armed members of the Free Syrian Army are seen in the western border town of Zabadani in this undated still image taken from amateur video obtained by Reuters
Oerlemans, a famous Dutch photo journalist, and John Cantlie, another photographer from the UK, were captured by a group of between 30 and 100 anti-Assad fighters when crossing the Syrian border from Turkey last week. They were then blindfolded.
"One of the black jihadists freaked out and shouted: 'These are journalists and now they will see we are preparing an international jihad in this place.'" Oerlemans told NRC Handelsblatt newspaper. He said that none of the fighters was Syrian.
Comment: Or perhaps these are not 'jihadists' - although some may think they are - but mercenaries paid for by agencies of western countries currently waging a proxy war against Syria.
© Kronen Zeitung / European Pressphoto Agency
Just to be clear, the family in the photograph is, in fact, in Syria; the original photo (on the right) came from the European Pressphoto Agency. But merely fleeing a city ravaged by guns and mortars apparently isn't quite dramatic enough on its own. The editors of the Krone - as it's commonly called - needed this baby to sing.
Using Photoshop to make actresses and models look unrealistically attractive is bad enough. Using it to make a part of the world that has enough problems as it is look even more apocalyptic? That's just disgraceful. [Facebook via Reddit]
Comment: No wonder why alternative and independent sources of information have become more and more popular in recent years.
US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney today ignored the depressive impact of a 43-year occupation by telling Jewish donors to his campaign that "culture" and "providence" were reasons why Israelis were more economically successful than Palestinians.
In terms which outraged Palestinian officials, Mr Romney used a fundraising breakfast in Jerusalem to advance his own explanation for "the dramatically stark difference in economic vitality" between the two economies.
Seated beside the right-wing billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who has indicated he could give up to $100m to the Republican campaign, Mr Romney said he had read books and drawn on his own business experience to understand why the difference is so great.
In terms which outraged Palestinian officials, Mr Romney used a fundraising breakfast in Jerusalem to advance his own explanation for "the dramatically stark difference in economic vitality" between the two economies.
Seated beside the right-wing billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who has indicated he could give up to $100m to the Republican campaign, Mr Romney said he had read books and drawn on his own business experience to understand why the difference is so great.
Comment: That a man capable of such ignorance and idiocy is contending for the presidency of the most powerful country in the world is truly a troubling sign of the times.
© Rep. Elijah Cummings
The report from Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, found that publicly traded college corporations calculate executive compensation "predominantly on the profitability of their companies rather than the success of their students."
"This is especially troubling given the billions of taxpayer dollars flowing into these institutions and the serious financial risks to students who go through these programs," the report concluded.
© Mr Fish
There is probably no more inhospitable place to be an intellectual, or a person of color or a member of the LGBT community, than on the campuses of the Big Ten Conference colleges, although the poison of this bizarre American obsession has infected innumerable schools. These environments are distinctly corporate. To get ahead one must get along. The student is implicitly told his or her self-worth and fulfillment are found in crowds, in mass emotions, rather than individual transcendence. Those who do not pay deference to the celebration of force, wealth and power become freaks. It is a war on knowledge in the name of knowledge.
© CNET Australia
The all-seeing eye of Google Australia's Street View trike
The all-seeing eye of Google Australia's Street View trike
Google broke its promise.
Britain's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) received a letter from Google in which the company admits it kept a "small portion" of the electronic information it had been meant to get rid of.
"Google apologizes for this error," Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, said in the letter, which the ICO published on its website.
The ICO said in a statement that Google Inc. had agreed to delete all that data nearly two years ago, adding that its failure to do so "is cause for concern."
Reports from Syria said that Ankara is playing a major role in the events taking place in Syria, especially through providing weapons and logistical backup for the terrorists.
According to a report by Norway's Austin Radio, a group of CIA, MI6 as well as Turkish and defected Syrian officers have established the command center to provide the terrorists in Aleppo with the necessary military and communication aids to seize the control of Syria's trade capital from the government of the Muslim nation.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.
In October, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies are seeking hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of stirring unrest in Syria once again.
The US and its western and regional allies have long sought to topple Bashar al-Assad and his ruling system. Media reports said that the Syrian rebels and terrorist groups have received significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United States.
Comment: From this link we have the following:
This is not a Political endorsement.
You may also gain more insight from the following articles: Syria's Bloody CIA Revolution
NATO's 'Civil War' Machine Rolls Into Syria
The US-NATO War on Syria: Western Naval Forces Confront Russia Off the Syrian Coastline?
© Fars News Agency
Mohammad Hossein Dajmar
Mohammad Hossein Dajmar
"The sanction imposed by the foreign insurance firms made us launch Iranian insurance of P&I and this has been gifted to us by the sanctions," Managing-Director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines Mohammad Hossein Dajmar told FNA on Sunday.
"Before this, the Europeans had the monopoly of shipping insurances and a few number of countries owned the insurance firms and coverage but we have now succeeded in starting Iranian shipping insurance through [our] government's cooperation," he added.
Iran has voiced preparedness to provide insurance cover for all foreign ships and oil tankers.
Also earlier this month, a senior Iranian oil official stressed that the western insurance companies are the main losers of anti-Iran sanctions as they have lost a huge source of revenue.
Comment: For a better idea of what is really going on in Syria please read:
Sott Focus: Syria's Bloody CIA Revolution - A Distraction? by Joe Quinn
Sott Focus: One Man's Suicide Bomber - National Security Building Bomb in Damascus and Bourgas Bus Bomb by Joe Quinn
Sott Focus: Reign of Fire: Meteorites, Wildfires, Planetary Chaos and the Sixth Extinction by Joe Quinn and Niall Bradley
For additional information read:
Mossad, Blackwater, CIA Led Operations in Homs
Wikileaks: US-led NATO Troops Operate Inside Syria