The Dimensionality of Time - Chuck Missler

Surveillance camera searches 36 million faces in a second

You know how the CIA’s surveillance system is second to none according to what Hollywood had served up all this while? I really wonder whether modern day technology used in intelligence agencies are up to par, and can even enhance blurry images to high resolution photos in an instant. Well, one thing is for sure – Hitachi Kokusai Electric has developed a surveillance camera system par excellence, where it is able to go through data on 36 million faces in just a single second.

This would mean it can detect a face from surveillance footage or a regular photo in a search, where results will be displayed nearly instantaneously, serving up thumbnail images of potential candidates. Should you pick on a thumbnail, then the associated recorded surveillance footage can be viewed thereafter, allowing you to know what said person was doing beforehand.

This system runs on assumptions to make it as efficient as possible, where it will assume that faces are turning within around 30 degrees in the horizontal and vertical directions from the camera, and they need to be at least 40 x 40 pixels in size. It would be interesting to see just how this system’s performance will be like when it comes to combating crime in crowded areas.

Ubergizmo

Tehran forces Iranian Jews to join anti-Israel Global March

The Islamic regime in Tehran was not satisfied with the public support the Iranian Jewish community’s was forced to confer on the Global March to Jerusalem for which Iran is recruiting Islamists worldwide. Now, the event’s organizers, Majlis Speaker Hossein Sheikh-ol-Eslam and Salim Ghafouri, have ordered the community to send a Jewish delegation to march with the Islamist groups in Lebanon,DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources disclose.

The delegations are scheduled to mass on the Lebanese and Jordanian borders with Israel and at West Bank and Gaza checkpoints on March 30, when Israeli Arabs mark Earth Day every year.

Iran’s ancient Jewish community of around 15,000 souls (9,000 in Tehran, 4,000 in Shiraz and 1,300 in Isfahan) has been living in fear of reprisals should Israel or the United States carry out a military operation against the country’s nuclear facilities. Now, they face a fresh danger of murder and abduction by Hizballah and Palestinian gunmen and terrorists in Lebanon.

Jewish communal leaders were instructed by the Iranian authorities this week to have at least 10 young men aged 18 to 22 ready for the march. They were to be given “the honor” of acting as vanguard for breaking through the Lebanese-Israeli border fence and leading a mass incursion across the border.

They suspect that this ploy is meant to prevent Israeli soldiers from firing on the trespassers for fear of killing the Jewish contingent, while at the same time, exposing them to violence when the event is over at the hands of al-Qaeda linked Palestinian groups under Hizballah protection.

The Salafi doctrine held by the al Qaeda killer Muhammad Merah who murdered four Jews, including three children, in Toulouse Monday, is rife in the south Lebanese Palestinian Ain Hilwa refugee camp. The most active are two Palestinian jihadist groups, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which now and then shoots rockets into northern Israel, and Jund al-Sham, which is closely tied to al Qaeda branches in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, where they call themselves Osbat al-Ansar.

The two terrorist groups are the bosses of the Safouri Quarter of the camp.
Our sources report an Iranian scheme to send the Jewish marchers on a visit to Ain Hilwa to show their solidarity with the most radical Palestinian cause.

Last week, Jewish leaders were obliged to sign a declaration of solidarity with the Global March and condemnation of Israel. The text put before them for signing was as follows: We the Jews of Iran strongly condemn the barbaric crimes of the occupation regime in Palestinian and declare the Zionist state in violation of the principles of Our Teacher Moses and the Will of God. We are totally at one with the aspirations of the heroic Palestinian people.”
Signed: Dr. Syamak Mare Dedeq, Jewish Member of Parliament, and Rabbi Mashallah Golestani-Nejad, described as the Chief Rabbi of Iran.
DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources add: Tehran is the main bankroller and live wire of the Global March against Israel’s borders and claims to have rounded up Islamist delegations from five continents to support the Palestinians. Seventy sympathizers are on their way to Lebanon, Syria and Jordan from India, Malaysia, Pakistan and other Asian countries.

To mark the event, Tehran staged a cartoon contest. The winner drew around the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem a wall modeled on the fences of Auschwitz.
Both the organizers are members of the Ministry of Intelligence MOIS with long experience of managing Iranian activities on behalf of Arab and Palestinian terrorist groups. Sheikh-ol-Islam, while holding the post of Deputy Speaker of Parliament, also coordinates Tehran’s relations with the Lebanese Hizballah.
On Feb. 26, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proclaimed the launching of the Global March to Jerusalem an expression of Iran’s policy for strengthening “resistance operations” against Israel and guarding Palestinian interests.

Debka File

Secret Nuclear Drone Plan....

Sandia National Laboratories cooks up some of the craziest new technologies you’ll ever see—and some you’ll never see. That’s the fate of a secret method for driving unmanned aerial vehicles with nuclear power, abandoned by its creators.

The plan was outlined in a document acquired by the Federation of American Scientists, which outlines a study Sandia conducted. The results? A new way, potentially, of powering military drones.

“As a result of this effort, UAVs were to be able to provide far more surveillance time and intelligence information per mission while reducing the high cost of support activities,” the report noted. “This technology was intended to create unmatched global capabilities to observe and preempt terrorist and weapon of mass destruction (WMD) activities.”

Essentially, the tech allowed for “ultra-persistent” drone flight that didn’t require traditional fuels. As the FAS points out, the study doesn’t ever say “nuclear,” but all of the giveaways are there: “decommissioning and disposal” wouldn’t be issues otherwise.

So what happened? “It was disappointing to all that the political realities would not allow use of the results,” Sandia laments. The lab gave up on nuclear drones due to political pressures, perceived or otherwise. “No near-term benefit to industry or the taxpayer will be encountered as a result of these studies.”

Drones crash. Compared to conventional airplanes, they crash a lot. Rough weather, communications errors, software glitches—sometimes we don’t even know what brings down a drone. But they go down, and because there’s no human inside, it’s never considered much of a loss. They’re (relatively) cheap! They’re (relatively) disposable! But with nuclear fuel inside, they’d be categorically dangerous. Even across bombed out Afghanistan, a Predator crash with nuclear consequences would be a diplomatic crisis. Suddenly, you don’t just have debris—you have a contamination zone. That wouldn’t go over well in downtown Islamabad.

And then there’s the inexorable reality of drones flying above the U.S. — above our homes. Although the propulsion tech Sandia seemed so keen on was ostensibly meant for military craft, the Homeland Security fantasy of “ultra-persistent” can’t be ignored. Domestic spies would drool and throb over this ever-watching eye as much as the Air Force or CIA.

Whatever “political conditions” grounded Sandia’s shadowy drones likely reflected the obvious: we don’t need unmanned nukes orbiting the world, whether over our own heads or the Taliban’s. But political conditions have a tendency of changing unannounced—and contrary to reason. And if weapon wonks are so in love with this technology now, let’s not pretend they’re going to give up forever just because it’s unpopular today

Wired

Banker-buster bomb: Irish light the fuse!

U.S. student loan debt reaches US$1-trillion

U.S. student-loan debt reached the US$1-trillion mark, as young borrowers struggle to keep up with soaring tuition costs, according to the initial findings of a government study.

The figure, which is higher than the country’s credit-card debt, was probably reached “several months ago,” Rohit Chopra of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a posting Wednesday, excerpted from a speech he made at the Consumer Bankers Association meeting in Austin, Texas.

“Young consumers are shouldering much of the punishment in the form of substantial student-loan bills for doing exactly what they were told would be the key to a better life,” Mr. Chopra, the bureau’s student-loan ombudsman, said in the posting.

More students are taking out loans to pay for college. Undergraduates are limited by the amount they can borrow in federally backed loans. Students also take private loans, which lack the income-based repayment and deferment options of federal ones, Mr. Chopra said.

Excessive student debt could slow the recovery of the housing market, as young people repay money for their education rather than buying homes, said Mr. Chopra, who called the results “sobering.”

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York last month said debt from educational loans in the U.S. rose to US$867-billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, based on figures from a sample of data provided by the Equifax Inc. credit bureau. The New York Fed also said this month about 10% of the outstanding student loan balance was delinquent in the third quarter.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to help consumers understand financial products including student loans, mortgages and credit cards. It plans to release its full report this summer.

Financial Post

Imminent Threat of Global Thermonuclear War with Lyndon LaRouche