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Stare Into The Lights My Pretties > cameras
Facebook Accused of Watching Instagram Users Through Cameras
Tags: cameras, Facebook, smartphone, spying, webcam
Facebook is again being sued for allegedly spying on Instagram users, this time through the unauthorized use of their mobile phone cameras. Bloomberg reports:
The lawsuit springs from media reports in July that the photo-sharing app appeared to be accessing iPhone cameras even when they weren't actively being used. Facebook denied the reports and blamed a bug, which it said it was correcting, for triggering what it described as false notifications that Instagram was accessing iPhone cameras.
In the complaint filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco, New Jersey Instagram user Brittany Conditi contends the app's use of the camera is intentional and done for the purpose of collecting "lucrative and valuable data on its users that it would not otherwise have access to." By "obtaining extremely private and intimate personal data on their users, including in the privacy of their own homes," Instagram and Facebook are able to collect "valuable insights and market research," according to the complaint.
Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-18/facebook-accused-of...
Ring Fired Employees for Watching Customer Videos
Tags: amazon, cameras, data access, surveillance
Amazon-owned home security camera company Ring has fired employees for improperly accessing Ring users' video data, Motherboard reported Wednesday, citing a letter the company wrote to Senators. The news highlights a risk across many different tech companies: employees may abuse access granted as part of their jobs to look at customer data or information. In Ring's case this data can be particularly sensitive though, as customers often put the cameras inside their home. "We are aware of incidents discussed below where employees violated our policies," the letter from Ring, dated January 6th, reads. "Over the last four years, Ring has received four complaints or inquiries regarding a team member's access to Ring video data," it continues. Ring explains that although each of these people were authorized to view video data, their attempted access went beyond what they needed to access for their job.
Source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/y3mdvk/ring-fired-employees-abusing...
Xiaomi Camera Feed is Showing Random Homes on a Google Nest Hub, Including Still Images of Sleeping People
Tags: cameras, google, home, house, privacy, smart devices
So-called "smart" security cameras have had some pretty dumb security problems recently, but a recent report regarding a Xiaomi Mijia camera linked to a Google Home is especially disturbing. One Xiaomi Mijia camera owner is getting still images from other random peoples' homes when trying to stream content from his camera to a Google Nest Hub. The images include sills of people sleeping (even an infant in a cradle) inside their own homes. This issue was first reported by user /r/Dio-V on Reddit and affects his Xiaomi Mijia 1080p Smart IP Security Camera, which can be linked to a Google account for use with Google/Nest devices through Xiaomi's Mi Home app/service. It isn't clear when Dio-V's feed first began showing these still images into random homes or how long the camera was connected to his account before this started happening. He does state that both the Nest Hub and the camera were purchased new. The camera was noted as running firmware version 3.5.1_00.66.
Source: https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/01/02/uh-oh-xiaomi-camera-feed-show...
A Billion Surveillance Cameras Forecast To Be Watching Within Two Years
Tags: cameras, spying, surveillance, uberveillance
As governments and companies invest more in security networks, hundreds of millions more surveillance cameras will be watching the world in 2021, mostly in China, according to a new report. The report, from industry researcher IHS Market, to be released Thursday, said the number of cameras used for surveillance would climb above 1 billion by the end of 2021. That would represent an almost 30% increase from the 770 million cameras today. China would continue to account for a little over half the total. Fast-growing, populous nations such as India, Brazil and Indonesia would also help drive growth in the sector, the report said. IHS analyst Oliver Philippou said government programs to implement widespread video surveillance to monitor the public would be the biggest catalyst for the growth in China. City surveillance also was driving demand elsewhere.
Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-billion-surveillance-cameras-forecast-t...
Police Can Keep Ring Camera Video Forever, and Share With Whomever They'd Like
Tags: amazon, cameras, police, surveillance
Police officers who download videos captured by homeowners' Ring doorbell cameras can keep them forever and share them with whomever they'd like without providing evidence of a crime, the Amazon-owned firm told a lawmaker this month… Police in those communities can use Ring software to request up to 12 hours of video from anyone within half a square mile of a suspected crime scene, covering a 45-day time span, wrote Brian Huseman, Amazon's vice president of public policy. Police are required to include a case number for the crime they are investigating, but not any other details or evidence related to the crime or their request.
Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said in a statement that Ring's policies showed that the company had failed to enact basic safeguards to protect Americans' privacy. "Connected doorbells are well on their way to becoming a mainstay of American households, and the lack of privacy and civil rights protections for innocent residents is nothing short of chilling," he said. "If you're an adult walking your dog or a child playing on the sidewalk, you shouldn't have to worry that Ring's products are amassing footage of you and that law enforcement may hold that footage indefinitely or share that footage with any third parties."
While Ring tells users not to film public roads are sidewalks, Ring isn't enforcing that, according to the article. Amazon argues that that's ultimately the user's responsibility.
And will their cameras start using facial recognition algorithms? Amazon answers that that feature is "contemplated but unreleased," though they add that "We do frequently innovate based on customer demand," and point out that other competing security cameras are already offering facial-recognition.
Source: https://www.stripes.com/police-can-keep-ring-camera-video-forever-and-...
Voice From 'Nest' Camera Threatens to Steal Baby
Tags: cameras, CCTV, google, smart devices, surveillance
Jack Newcombe, the Chief Operating Officer of a syndication company with 44 million daily readers, describes the strange voice he heard talking to his 18-month old son:
She says we have a nice house and encourages the nanny to respond. She does not. The voice even jokes that she hopes we don't change our password. I am sick to my stomach. After about five minutes of verbal "joy riding," the voice starts to get agitated at the nanny's lack of response and then snaps, in a very threatening voice: "I'm coming for the baby if you don't answer me…." We unplug the cameras and change all passwords…
Still helpless, I started doing the only thing I could do — Googling. I typed "Nest + camera + hacked" and found out that this happens frequently. Parent after parent relayed stories similar to mine — threatening to steal a baby is shockingly common — and some much worse, such as playing pornography over the microphone to a 3-year-old… What is worse is that anyone could have been watching us at any time for as long as we have had the cameras up. This person just happened to use the microphone. Countless voyeurs could have been silently watching (or worse) for months.
However, what makes this issue even more terrifying is a corporate giant's complete and utter lack of response. Nest is owned by Google, and, based on my experience and their public response, Google does not seem to care about this issue. They acknowledge it as a problem, shrug their shoulders and point their fingers at the users. Their party line is to remind people that the hardware was not hacked; it was the user's fault for using a compromised password and not implementing two-step authentication, in which users receive a special code via text to sign on. That night, on my way home from work, I called Nest support and was on hold for an hour and eight minutes. I followed all directions and have subsequently received form emails in broken English. Nobody from Google has acknowledged the incident or responded with any semblance of empathy. In every email, they remind me of two-step authentication.
They act as if I am going to continue to use Nest cameras.
Source: https://www.siliconvalley.com/2019/10/18/the-voice-from-our-nest-camer...
Amazon Workers May Be Watching Your Cloud Cam Home Footage
Tags: amazon, cameras, spying, surveillance
In a promotional video, Amazon says its Cloud Cam home security camera provides "everything you need to monitor your home, day or night." In fact, the artificially intelligent device requires help from a squad of invisible employees. Dozens of Amazon workers based in India and Romania review select clips captured by Cloud Cam, according to five people who have worked on the program or have direct knowledge of it. Those video snippets are then used to train the AI algorithms to do a better job distinguishing between a real threat (a home invader) and a false alarm (the cat jumping on the sofa). An Amazon team also transcribes and annotates commands recorded in customers' homes by the company's Alexa digital assistant, Bloomberg reported in April.
AI has made it possible to talk to your phone. It's helping investors predict shifts in market sentiment. But the technology is far from infallible. Cloud Cam sends out alerts when it's just paper rustling in a breeze. Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa still occasionally mishear commands. One day, engineers may overcome these shortfalls, but for now AI needs human assistance. Lots of it. At one point, on a typical day, some Amazon auditors were each annotating about 150 video recordings, which were typically 20 to 30 seconds long, according to the people, who requested anonymity to talk about an internal program.
Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-10/is-amazon-watching-...
Google Loans Cameras To Volunteers To Fill Gaps in 'Street View'
Tags: cameras, google, privacy, street view
Kanhema, who works as a product manager in Silicon Valley and is a freelance photographer in his spare time, volunteered to carry Google's Street View gear to map what amounted to 2,000 miles of his home country. The Berkeley, Calif., resident has filled in the map of other areas in Africa and Canada as well.
"We start in the large metropolitan areas where we know we have users, where it's easy for us to drive and we can execute quickly," says Stafford Marquardt, a product manager for Street View.
He says the team is working to expand the service's reach. To do that, Google often relies on volunteers who can either borrow the company's camera equipment or take photos using their own. Most images on Street View are collected by drivers, and most of these drivers are employed by third parties that work with Google. But when it comes to the places Google hasn't prioritized, people like Kanhema can fill in the gaps.
"It's so conspicuous to have a 4-foot contraption attached to the roof of your car," Kanhema says. "People are walking up and asking questions about, 'Is that a camera? What are you recording? What are you filming? It is for Google Maps? Will my house be on the map? Will my face be on the map?'"
Google doesn't pay him or the other volunteers — whom the company calls "contributors" — for the content they upload. Kanhema, for example, spent around $5,000 of his own money to travel across Zimbabwe for the project.
Google currently has no plans to compensate its volunteers, adding that it pays contributors "in a lot of other ways" by offering "a platform to host gigabytes and terabytes of imagery and publish it to the entire world, absolutely for free."
Source: https://knpr.org/npr/2019-09/hes-trying-fill-gaps-google-street-view-...
Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US
Tags: balloon, cameras, military, surveillance, tracking
The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal.
Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.
Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to "provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats", according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defence company.
The balloons are carrying hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather.
A rival balloon operator World View recently announced that it had carried out multi-week test missions in which its own stratospheric balloons were able to hover over a five-mile-diameter area for six and a half hours, and larger areas for days at a time.
Ryan Hartman, CEO of World View, said that World View had also completed a dozen surveillance test missions for a customer it would not name, capturing data he would not specify.
"Obviously, there are laws to protect people's privacy and we are respectful of all those laws," Hartman said. "We also understand the importance of operating in an ethical way as it relates to further protecting people's privacy."
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surv...
Amazon's 'Ring' Doorbells Creating A Massive Police Surveillance Network
Tags: amazon, cameras, mass surveillance, police, screen culture
"Police departments are piggybacking on Ring's network to build out their surveillance networks…" reports CNET, adding that Ring "helps police avoid roadblocks for surveillance technology, whether a lack of funding or the public's concerns about privacy."
While residential neighborhoods aren't usually lined with security cameras, the smart doorbell's popularity has essentially created private surveillance networks powered by Amazon and promoted by police departments. Police departments across the country, from major cities like Houston to towns with fewer than 30,000 people, have offered free or discounted Ring doorbells to citizens, sometimes using taxpayer funds to pay for Amazon's products.
While Ring owners are supposed to have a choice on providing police footage, in some giveaways, police require recipients to turn over footage when requested. Ring said Tuesday that it would start cracking down on those strings attached…
While more surveillance footage in neighborhoods could help police investigate crimes, the sheer number of cameras run by Amazon's Ring business raises questions about privacy involving both law enforcement and tech giants… More than 50 local police departments across the US have partnered with Ring over the last two years, lauding how the Amazon-owned product allows them to access security footage in areas that typically don't have cameras — on suburban doorsteps. But privacy advocates argue this partnership gives law enforcement an unprecedented amount of surveillance. "What we have here is a perfect marriage between law enforcement and one of the world's biggest companies creating conditions for a society that few people would want to be a part of," said Mohammad Tajsar, staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California…
Despite its benefits, the relationship between police departments and Ring raises concerns about surveillance and privacy, as Amazon is working with law enforcement to blanket communities with cameras…. "Essentially, we're creating a culture where everybody is the nosy neighbor looking out the window with their binoculars," said Dave Maass, a senior investigative researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It is creating this giant pool of data that allows the government to analyze our every move, whether or not a crime is being committed." On a heat map of Bloomfield, there are hardly any spots in the New Jersey township out of sight of a Ring camera.
Tajsar says in some scenarios "they're basically commandeering people's homes as surveillance outposts for law enforcement," and the articles notes that when police departments partner with Ring, "they have access to a law enforcement dashboard, where they can geofence areas and request footage filmed at specific times."
While law enforcement "can only get footage from the app if residents choose to send it," if the residents refuse, police can still try to obtain the footage with a subpoena to Amazon's Ring.
Source: https://www.cnet.com/features/amazons-helping-police-build-a-surveilla...
Airbnb Has a Hidden-Camera Problem
Tags: airbnb, apps, cameras, hidden cameras, surveillance
Airbnb's rules allow cameras outdoors and in living rooms and common areas, but never in bathrooms or anywhere guests plan to sleep, including rooms with foldout beds. Starting in early 2018, Airbnb added another layer of disclosure: If hosts indicate they have cameras anywhere on their property, guests receive a pop-up informing them where the cameras are located and where they are aimed. To book the property, the guests must click "agree," indicating that they're aware of the cameras and consent to being filmed.
Of course, hosts have plenty of reason to train cameras on the homes they rent out to strangers. They can catch guests who attempt to steal, or who trash the place, or who initially say they're traveling alone, then show up to a property with five people. A representative for Airbnb's Trust & Safety communications department told me the company tries to filter out hosts who may attempt to surveil guests by matching them against sex-offender and felony databases. The company also uses risk scores to flag suspicious behavior, in addition to reviewing and booting hosts with consistently poor scores.
If a guest contacts Airbnb's Trust & Safety team with a complaint about a camera, employees offer new accommodations if necessary and open an investigation into the host. […] But four guests who found cameras in their rentals told The Atlantic the company has inconsistently applied its own rules when investigating their claims, providing them with incorrect information and making recommendations that they say risked putting them in harm's way. "There have been super terrible examples of privacy violations by AirBnB hosts, e.g., people have found cameras hidden in alarm clocks in their bedrooms," wrote Jeff Bigham, a computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon whose claim was initially denied after he reported cameras in his rental. "I feel like our experience is in some ways more insidious. If you find a truly hidden camera in your bedroom or bathroom, Airbnb will support you. If you find an undisclosed camera in the private living room, Airbnb will not support you."
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/what-happens-wh...
Police Bodycams Can Be Hacked To Doctor Footage, Install Malware
Tags: cameras, CCTV, evidence, information manipulation, police, tampering
Josh Mitchell's Defcon presentation analyzes the security of five popular brands of police bodycams (Vievu, Patrol Eyes, Fire Cam, Digital Ally, and CeeSc) and reveals that they are universally terrible. All the devices use predictable network addresses that can be used to remotely sense and identify the cameras when they switch on. None of the devices use code-signing. Some of the devices can form ad-hoc Wi-Fi networks to bridge in other devices, but they don't authenticate these sign-ons, so you can just connect with a laptop and start raiding the network for accessible filesystems and gank or alter videos, or just drop malware on them.
Source: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/12/vievu-patroleyes-firecam-di.html...
UK Police Plan To Deploy 'Staggeringly Inaccurate' Facial Recognition in London
Tags: biometrics, cameras, CCTV, facial recognition, police, surveillance state
Millions of people face the prospect of being scanned by police facial recognition technology that has sparked human rights concerns. The controversial software, which officers use to identify suspects, has been found to be "staggeringly inaccurate", while campaigners have branded its use a violation of privacy. But Britain's largest police force is set to expand a trial across six locations in London over the coming months.
Police leaders claimed officers make the decision to act on potential matches with police records and images that do not spark an alert are immediately deleted. But last month The Independent revealed the Metropolitan Police's software was returning "false positives" — images of people who were not on a police database — in 98 percent of alerts… Detective Superintendent Bernie Galopin, the lead on facial recognition for London's Metropolitan Police, said the operation was targeting wanted suspects to help reduce violent crime and make the area safer. "It allows us to deal with persons that are wanted by police where traditional methods may have failed," he told The Independent, after statistics showed police were failing to solve 63 per cent of knife crimes committed against under-25s….
Det Supt Galopin said the Met was assessing how effective facial recognition was at tackling different challenges in British policing, which is currently being stretched by budget cuts, falling officer numbers, rising demand and the terror threat.
A policy officer from the National Council for Civil Liberties called the technology "lawless," adding "the use of this technology in a public place is not compatible with privacy, and has a chilling effect on society."
But a Home Office minister said the technology was vital for protecting people from terrorism, though "we must ensure that privacy is respected. This strategy makes clear that we will grasp the opportunities that technology brings while remaining committed to strengthening safeguards."
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/facial-recognition-lon...
High School in China Installs Facial Recognition Cameras to Monitor Students' Attentiveness
Tags: behaviour profiling, cameras, CCTV, facial recognition, normalising, school, surveillance
A high school in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province located on the eastern coast of China, has employed facial recognition technology to monitor students' attentiveness in class.
At Hangzhou Number 11 High School, three cameras at the front of the classroom scan students' faces every 30 seconds, analyzing their facial expressions to detect their mood, according to a May 16 report in the state-run newspaper The Paper.
The different moods—surprised, sad, antipathy, angry, happy, afraid, neutral—are recorded and averaged during each class.
A display screen, only visible to the teacher, shows the data in real-time. A certain value is determined as a student not paying enough attention.
A video shot by Zhejiang Daily Press revealed that the system—coined the "smart classroom behavior management system" by the school—also analyzes students' actions, categorized into: reading, listening, writing, standing up, raising hands, and leaning on the desk.
An electronic screen also displays a list of student names deemed "not paying attention."
The school began using the technology at the end of March, vice principal Zhang Guanchao told The Paper. Zhang added that students felt like they were being monitored when the system was first put in place, but have since gotten used to it.
Source: https://www.theepochtimes.com/high-school-in-china-installs-facial-rec...
Artificial intelligence can create a 3D model of a person—from just a few seconds of video
Tags: automation, cameras, mimicry, scanning, simulation, videos
Artificial intelligence has been used to create 3D models of people's bodies for virtual reality avatars, surveillance, visualizing fashion, or movies. But it typically requires special camera equipment to detect depth or to view someone from multiple angles. A new algorithm creates 3D models using standard video footage from one angle.
The system has three stages. First, it analyzes a video a few seconds long of someone moving—preferably turning 360° to show all sides—and for each frame creates a silhouette separating the person from the background. Based on machine learning techniques—in which computers learn a task from many examples—it roughly estimates the 3D body shape and location of joints. In the second stage, it "unposes" the virtual human created from each frame, making them all stand with arms out in a T shape, and combines information about the T-posed people into one, more accurate model. Finally, in the third stage, it applies color and texture to the model based on recorded hair, clothing, and skin.
The researchers tested the method with a variety of body shapes, clothing, and backgrounds and found that it had an average accuracy within 5 millimeters, they will report in June at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition conference in Salt Lake City. The system can also reproduce the folding and wrinkles of fabric, but it struggles with skirts and long hair. With a model of you, the researchers can change your weight, clothing, and pose—and even make you perform a perfect pirouette. No practice necessary.
Source: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/watch-artificial-intelligence-c...
'Living laboratories': the Dutch cities amassing data on oblivious residents
Tags: cameras, data analytics, sensors, smart city, smartphones, spying, surveillance, tracking, wifi
Stratumseind in Eindhoven is one of the busiest nightlife streets in the Netherlands. On a Saturday night, bars are packed, music blares through the street, laughter and drunken shouting bounces off the walls. As the night progresses, the ground becomes littered with empty shot bottles, energy drink cans, cigarette butts and broken glass.
It's no surprise that the place is also known for its frequent fights. To change that image, Stratumseind has become one of the "smartest" streets in the Netherlands. Lamp-posts have been fitted with wifi-trackers, cameras and 64 microphones that can detect aggressive behaviour and alert police officers to altercations. There has been a failed experiment to change light intensity to alter the mood. The next plan, starting this spring, is to diffuse the smell of oranges to calm people down. The aim? To make Stratumseind a safer place.
We get that comment a lot – 'Big brother is watching you'. I prefer to say, 'Big brother is helping you'
All the while, data is being collected and stored. "Visitors do not realise they are entering a living laboratory," says Maša Galic, a researcher on privacy in the public space for the Tilburg Institute of Law, Technology and Society. Since the data on Stratumseind is used to profile, nudge or actively target people, this "smart city" experiment is subject to privacy law. According to the Dutch Personal Data Protection Act, people should be notified in advance of data collection and the purpose should be specified – but in Stratumseind, as in many other "smart cities", this is not the case.
Peter van de Crommert is involved at Stratumseind as project manager with the Dutch Institute for Technology, Safety and Security. He says visitors do not have to worry about their privacy: the data is about crowds, not individuals. "We often get that comment – 'Big brother is watching you' – but I prefer to say, 'Big brother is helping you'. We want safe nightlife, but not a soldier on every street corner."
When we think of smart cities, we usually think of big projects: Songdo in South Korea, the IBM control centre in Rio de Janeiro or the hundreds of new smart cities in India. More recent developments include Toronto, where Google will build an entirely new smart neighbourhood, and Arizona, where Bill Gates plans to build his own smart city. But the reality of the smart city is that it has stretched into the everyday fabric of urban life – particularly so in the Netherlands.
In the eastern city of Enschede, city traffic sensors pick up your phone's wifi signal even if you are not connected to the wifi network. The trackers register your MAC address, the unique network card number in a smartphone. The city council wants to know how often people visit Enschede, and what their routes and preferred spots are. Dave Borghuis, an Enschede resident, was not impressed and filed an official complaint. "I don't think it's okay for the municipality to track its citizens in this way," he said. "If you walk around the city, you have to be able to imagine yourself unwatched."
Enschede is enthusiastic about the advantages of the smart city. The municipality says it is saving €36m in infrastructure investments by launching a smart traffic app that rewards people for good behaviour like cycling, walking and using public transport. (Ironically, one of the rewards is a free day of private parking.) Only those who mine the small print will discover that the app creates "personal mobility profiles", and that the collected personal data belongs to the company Mobidot.
'Targeted supervision' in Utrecht
Companies are getting away with it in part because it involves new applications of data. In Silicon Valley, they call it "permissionless innovation", they believe technological progress should not be stifled by public regulations. For the same reason, they can be secretive about what data is collected in a public space and what it is used for. Often the cities themselves don't know.
Utrecht keeps track of the number of boys and girls hanging in the streets, their age and whether they are acquaintances
Utrecht has become a tangle of individual pilots and projects, with no central overview of how many cameras and sensors exist, nor what they do. In 2014, the city invested €80m in data-driven management that launched in 80 projects. Utrecht now has a burglary predictor, a social media monitoring room, and smart bins and smart streetlights with sensors (although the city couldn't say where these are located). It has scanner cars that dispense parking tickets, with an added bonus of detecting residents with a municipal tax debt according to the privacy regulation of the scanner cars. But when I asked the city to respond to a series of questions on just 22 of the smart projects, it could only answer for five of them, referring me to private companies for the rest of the answers.
The city also keeps track of the number of young people hanging out in the streets, their age group, whether they know each other, the atmosphere and whether or not they cause a nuisance. Special enforcement officers keep track of this information through mobile devices. It calls this process "targeted and innovative supervision". Other council documents mention the prediction of school drop-outs, the prediction of poverty and the monitoring of "the health of certain groups" with the aim of "intervening faster".
Like many cities, Utrecht argues that it acts in accordance with privacy laws because it anonymises or pseudonymises data (assigning it a number instead of a name or address). But pseudonymised personal data is still personal data. "The process is not irreversible if the source file is stored," says Mireille Hildebrandt, professor of ICT and Law at Radboud University. "Moreover, if you build personal profiles and act on them, it is still a violation of privacy and such profiling can – unintentionally – lead to discrimination." She points to Utrecht's plan to register the race and health data of prostitutes, which came in for heavy criticism from the Dutch Data Protection Authority.
Another unanswered question regards who owns data that is collected in a public space. Arjen Hof is director of Civity, a company that builds data platforms for governments. "Public authorities are increasingly outsourcing tasks to private companies. Think of waste removal or street lighting," he says. "But they do not realise that at the same time a lot of data is collected, and do not always make agreements about the ownership of data."
'A smart city is a privatised city'
Hof gives the example of CityTec, a company that manages 2,000 car parks, 30,000 traffic lights and 500,000 lamp-posts across the Netherlands. It refused to share with municipalities the data it was collecting through its lamp-post sensors. "Their argument was that, although the municipality is legally owner of the lamp-posts, CityTec is the economic owner and, for competitive reasons, did not want to make the data available," Hof says. This was three years ago, but for a lot of companies it remains standard practice. Companies dictate the terms, and cities say they can't share the contracts because it contains "competition-sensitive information".
When I interviewed the technology writer Evgeny Morozov in October, he warned of cities becoming too dependent on private companies. "The culmination of the smart city is a privatised city," he said. "A city in which you have to pay for previously free services."
Morozov's fear about public subsidies being used for private innovation is well illustrated in Assen, a city of 70,000 people in the north of the country. Assen built a fibre-optic network for super-fast internet in 2011, to which it connected 200 sensors that measure, among other things, the flow of cars. There was an experiment to steer people around traffic jams, even though traffic in the city is relatively light. The city also connected its traffic lights, parking garages and parking signs to this grid. The cost of €46m was split between Brussels, the national government, the province and the municipality. Companies such as the car navigation firm TomTom have used the sensor network to test new services.
The project, called Sensor City, filed for bankruptcy a year ago. Now the publicly funded fibre-optic network, sensors and all, will be sold to a still-unidentified private company. The municipality will have to strike a deal with the new owner about the use of its public traffic lights and parking signs.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/01/smart-cities-data-priva...
"Are you happy now? The uncertain future of emotion analytics"
Tags: advertising, analytics, cameras, data analytics, data mining, manipulation, screen culture, social control
Elise Thomas writes at Hopes & Fears:
"Right now, in a handful of computing labs scattered across the world, new software is being developed which has the potential to completely change our relationship with technology. Affective computing is about creating technology which recognizes and responds to your emotions. Using webcams, microphones or biometric sensors, the software uses a person's physical reactions to analyze their emotional state, generating data which can then be used to monitor, mimic or manipulate that person's emotions."
Corporations spend billions each year trying to build "authentic" emotional connections to their target audiences. Marketing research is one of the most prolific research fields around, conducting thousands of studies on how to more effectively manipulate consumers' decision-making. Advertisers are extremely interested in affective computing and particularly in a branch known as emotion analytics, which offers unprecedented real-time access to consumers' emotional reactions and the ability to program alternative responses depending on how the content is being received.
For example, if two people watch an advertisement with a joke and only one person laughs, the software can be programmed to show more of the same kind of advertising to the person who laughs while trying different sorts of advertising on the person who did not laugh to see if it's more effective. In essence, affective computing could enable advertisers to create individually-tailored advertising en masse."
"Say 15 years from now a particular brand of weight loss supplements obtains a particular girl's information and locks on. When she scrolls through her Facebook, she sees pictures of rail-thin celebrities, carefully calibrated to capture her attention. When she turns on the TV, it automatically starts on an episode of "The Biggest Loser," tracking her facial expressions to find the optimal moment for a supplement commercial. When she sets her music on shuffle, it "randomly" plays through a selection of the songs which make her sad. This goes on for weeks.
Now let's add another layer. This girl is 14, and struggling with depression. She's being bullied in school. Having become the target of a deliberate and persistent campaign by her technology to undermine her body image and sense of self-worth, she's at risk of making some drastic choices."
Source: http://www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/now/internet/216523-the-uncertain-f...
Google forming 'smart cities'
Tags: cameras, CCTV, google, internet of things, mass surveillance, social control, surveillance devices, surveillance network, surveillance society, surveillance state
"An ambitious project to blanket New York and London with ultrafast Wi-Fi via so-called "smart kiosks," which will replace obsolete public telephones, are the work of a Google-backed startup.
Each kiosk is around nine feet high and relatively flat. Each flat side houses a big-screen display that pays for the whole operation with advertising.
Each kiosk provides free, high-speed Wi-Fi for anyone in range. By selecting the Wi-Fi network at one kiosk, and authenticating with an email address, each user will be automatically connected to every other LinkNYC kiosk they get within range of. Eventually, anyone will be able to walk around most of the city without losing the connection to these hotspots.
Wide-angle cameras on each side of the kiosks point up and down the street and sidewalk, approximating a 360-degree view. If a city wants to use those cameras and sensors for surveillance, it can.
Over the next 15 years, the city will go through the other two phases, where sensor data will be processed by artificial intelligence to gain unprecedented insights about traffic, environment and human behavior and eventually use it to intelligently re-direct traffic and shape other city functions."
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3211402/mobile-wireless/how-smart...
Snapchat launches video-recording sunglasses
Tags: cameras, social media
"Social media app Snapchat is introducing video-recording sunglasses called Spectacles and is changing its company name to incorporate the new product.
The glasses can record video 10 seconds at a time by tapping a button on the device. The video is then uploaded automatically to the popular image-messaging app via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The glasses are the first hardware from the Los Angeles-based company."
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/snapchat-snap-video-recording-spectacles/...
Microcamera small enough to be injected also poses surveillance concerns
Tags: cameras, surveillance devices, surveillance society
"German engineers have created a camera no bigger than a grain of salt that could change the future of health imaging — and clandestine surveillance.
Using 3D printing, researchers from the University of Stuttgart built a three-lens camera, and fit it onto the end of an optical fibre the width of two hairs. Such technology could be used as minimally-intrusive endoscopes for exploring inside the human body, the engineers reported in the journal Nature Photonics.
It could also be deployed in virtually invisible security monitors, or mini-robots with "autonomous vision".
The "imaging system" fits comfortably inside a standard syringe needle, said the team, allowing for delivery into a human organ, or even the brain.
"Endoscopic applications will allow for non-invasive and non-destructive examination of small objects in the medical, as well as the industrial, sector," they wrote.
The compound lens can also be printed onto image sensor other than optical fibres, such as those used in digital cameras."
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-28/3d-printed-injectable-micro-came...


At WasteForge, we strive to bring you the best service at the best price available. We have a wide selection of dumpster sizes in stock in Dakota City, IA, with flexible & timley pickup and delivery. Give us a call today for all your dumpster rental and roll off needs.
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RP is located in North Georgia, and can help you with all of your Commercial-Residential needs, both Interior-Exterior. Painting Walls Ceilings Doors Trim, and Stain Work...etc. No job to small are big. We also do Pressure Washing Deck Staining and Light Carpentry.
Painting is our Business, we take each Job very serious where the Customer always comes first. We are here to serve you, and we at RP always strive to make our Customers Satisfied.
Content copyright . ROBINSON PAINTING. All rights reserved.


Oooh, look what just arrived yesterday: the new issue of Inside Crochet. And, hello, what's that on p92? Yay, it's my new Kingfisher design!
When Inside Crochet commissioned me to make a colourful design, I knew I wanted to make something British (as it's a UK magazine, and as a salute to the lovely wildlife I left behind when I moved to Canada) and a kingfisher was the first thing that sprang to mind.
Now, if you're American (or Canadian), you may be wondering why I made my sample kingfisher in such crazy bright colours. The Belted Kingfisher that you'll see in North America is much larger and less colourful than the Common Kingfisher of the UK, which really is a spectacular sight!
It was quite a challenge to design with all those colours and the shaping, and I've developed a cunning new method to make the orange/blue stripe on the body match on both sides (as amigurumi-style stitches don't stack on top of each other, if you crocheted both sides the same way, one side would slope up and the other would slope down). Yay for new techniques and methods!
Inside Crochet Issue 10 (October 2010) is out now, and you can buy it in stores in the UK, or online. It includes a nice variety of crocheted garment patterns as well as my kingfisher! As it's a UK magazine, it's written in UK crochet terminology (e.g. a single crochet stitch is called a double crochet). If that worries you, I'll be releasing my Kingfisher pattern in my standard PDF format (and standard US terms), together with my usual step-by-step assembly pics, in 6 months' time, so you can always pick it up from my shop next spring instead!
I've listed a couple of minor introduced errata on the Ravelry pattern page, so check there before you start, to avoid confusion – there's some inconsistent terminology.
Although the magazine photographers did a fabulous job of taking lots of beautiful photos on location, they didn't take the close-up photos I asked for to accompany the assembly instructions. (I'd have provided mine if I'd known…) You can see most of the features in the photos, but the legs in particular aren't clearly photographed from the side, and the wings aren't positioned correctly along the body in their photos, so please take a look at my photos here, to supplement the pretty magazine photos, and if you do buy the magazine and have any questions about assembly, please email me!
June just a suggestion here but could you not have it in your shop in both UK and American terms so for those of us that are in the UK do not have to translate back into UK terms please, pretty please.
Yes ma'am! Sorry, it's the weekend and I'm not usually online much – I hadn't had a chance to look into this yet.
I've just checked for you; you can buy a digital edition from Yudu. If you scroll to the very bottom of the page you'll see a box with all the individual issues in it, and a BUY button for each – you'd want the latest one (Issue 10).
I'm afraid you'd have to look into the details of how Yudu works: I don't know if you can print pages, or you just have to view them onscreen. To give you an idea of how their reader looks, you can see the preview for Issue 10.
As far as I know, you can't buy a physical copy of the magazine outside the UK. You could contact the publisher, KAL Media, if you want to be sure.
Oh! He's just beautiful! I can't wait for you to publish the pattern in US terms! How can I get the mag online? Does it have a digital subscription? Martin, my friend in the UK loves birds, and this would make an awesome Christmas present for him!
Well, that's frickin adorable. You are so talented June!
Congratulations, June. And I"m glad to hear you will be releasing it yourself later. Yay!
It is beautiful. I am looking forward to the publication of the pattern. I am in US.


Hi guys. Just a quick note to say – I'm on Islay and you're stuck in the office! Buahaha (evil).
I'm here with Bowmore. Had an amazing day yesterday, did some peat cutting, was taken to the Bowmore water source, had a fantastic tour around the distillery with the manager Eddie MacAffer and was treated to an eye-popping tasting at the famous Vault no. 1.
I have lots of video and photo footage to share and will be leaking that to you over the next few days. Can't do much now as I have to grab some breakkie at the lovely Harbour Inn and I'm shooting off to sea safari. Tough life.
But just for the record (and SEO;P), I tried a brand new expression of Bowmore, not yet announced and to be released later this year (June-July if I caught it right). It is <drum roll> … Bowmore 1982! 501 bottles from a single cask bottled at cask strength. All I can say without spoiling my future review is: melted green Haribos, papaya, Bonbons, Scarlett Johansson, vanilla ice-cream. It's quite like going to heaven. Or seeing your new-born baby for the first time. Or being told you received a massive inheritance and will never have to work again.
This entry was posted	on Friday, April 15th, 2011 at 8:37 am	and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


text:
Home The Market Auctions Bonhams' Simeone sale topped by 'barrelback' 1941 Chrysler Town & Country
Bonhams' Simeone sale topped by 'barrelback' 1941 Chrysler Town & Country
The scene before the sale begins | Bonhams photos
Bonhams reports that its annual Collectors' Motorcars and Automobilia Auction at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum earlier this week produced $2.75 million in sales and an 80 percent sell-through rate.
The company noted "a series of exciting bidding battles erupted for fresh-to-market and barn-find-condition vehicles."
The top sale of the auction was the $277,760 paid for a 1941 Chrysler Town & Country 9-passenger "barrelback" station wagon.
Also topping $200,000 were a 1931 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A 2-door sports coupe with coachwork by Lancefield and a 1913 Marmon Model 48 48hp Speedster.
1950 Fiat-Daniela with Zagato body
"One of the sale's unexpected stars was a car that received substantial interest prior to the auction and then intense interest while on the auction block – the 1950 FIAT-Daniela 750 Zagato-bodied open seat racer," the auction company said in its post-sale news release.
"Presented in original as-raced condition, the charismatic Italian brought more than three times its estimate when it sold for $106,400.
"Another unexpected example was the single-owner-from-new 1968 Jaguar E-Type Series 1½ 4.2 Roadster 'project' that achieved double its low estimate when it was purchased for $52,640."
Once again, Bonhams did not report a list of the top-10 sales, but we compiled the following from its website:
Top 10 sales, Bonhams at the Simeone 2019
1941 Chrysler Town & Country 9-passenger 'barrelback' station wagon, $277,760
1931 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A 2-door sport coupe, $235,200
1913 Marmon Model 48 Speedster, $212,800
1956 Austin Healey 100M BN2 Le Mans, $140,000
1903 Ford Model A, $137,760
1928 Lincoln Model L sports phaeton, $134,400
c. 1950 Fiat-Daniela 750 Testa d'Oro, $106,400
c. 1904 Pope-Toledo 24hp 4-cylinder rear-entrance tonneau, $100,800
1910 Stanley Steamer tourer, $67,200
1951 Jaguar XK120 roadster, $54,320
RELATED: Scott Tucker's exotic rides head for auction in Austin
(List based on reported sales on Bonhams website; prices include buyer's fees.)
On its website, Bonhams also noted that the 1930 Bentley Speed Six sports tourer in the style of Vanden Plas that was on the auction docket sold by private treaty.
Bonhams next collector car auction is scheduled for October 11 at Zoute, Belgium.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


In December of 2013, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Lake County School Board for refusing to let Carver Middle School students form a gay-straight alliance (GSA) to address the school's queerphobic bullying issues. Today, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling upholding the School Board's decision to forbid the GSA and other "non-academic" clubs from forming.
The appeals court said that the federal Equal Access Act requires all federally-funded secondary schools to treat extracurricular clubs equally. When the lawsuit began, a then 14-year-old bisexual student named Bayli Silberstein had pushed to create the GSA at Carver Middle School; Silberstein is now in high school. Thanks to her efforts, all Alabama, Florida and Georgia students attending a public middle or high school now have the legal right to form a GSA. Well done, lady!
This is a big deal considering that large percentages of LGBT students experience bullying and harassment in their public schools. GSAs provide a space where students can address these issues and affirm their identities amid an uninviting cultural atmosphere.


text:
Q: MySQL Problem with foreign key on n:m relation I have this database
create table ticket
(
  id int auto_increment primary key,
  name varchar(100)
);

create table document
(
  id int auto_increment primary key,
  name varchar(100)
);

create table ticket_document
(
  ticket_id int,
  document_id int
);

insert into ticket (id, name) VALUES (1, "a"),(2,"b");
insert into document (id, name) VALUES (1, "x"),(2,"y");
insert into ticket_document (ticket_id, document_id) VALUES (1,1),(1,2),(2,2);

So every ticket can have multiple documents and each document can be referenced to multiple tickets.
I want to achieve, that if I delete a ticket all references to his documents are deleted AND if there is no more reference to one of the document from an other ticket the document is also deleted.
But I don't know how to set the foreign keys.

A: Create foreign keys:
ALTER TABLE ticket_document
ADD FOREIGN KEY (ticket_id) REFERENCES ticket (id) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE,
ADD FOREIGN KEY (document_id) REFERENCES document (id) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE;

After ticket(s) deletion delete rows from document explicitly (or use service event procedure):
DELETE
FROM document
WHERE NOT EXISTS ( SELECT NULL
                   FROM ticket_document
                   WHERE ticket_document.document_id = document.id );

fiddle

Alternatively you may use AFTER DELETE trigger for auto-clearing document table:
CREATE TRIGGER tr_ad_ticket
AFTER DELETE
ON ticket
FOR EACH ROW
DELETE
FROM document
WHERE NOT EXISTS ( SELECT NULL
                   FROM ticket_document
                   WHERE ticket_document.document_id = document.id );

fiddle

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The client had a need to bring back to life a very out-dated office in Birmingham Street in Alexandria. The scope was a conversion of an Art Deco warehouse into corporate HQ with a multipurpose outdoor space for employees and clients which could be used for recreational or business purposes. This included the complete rebuild and restoration of the warehouse, retaining its period features. The ultimate goal was to create a very open space that could comfortably accommodate the growing team and make the working environment pleasant and inspiring. Additional work needed to be done to provide the managers with a "home away from home" office.
The new office had to accommodate a large number of staff member all of whom required their own workstation and some additional managers' offices. Additionally a corporate reception, a meeting room, an informal meeting area and a quiet room for staff use as well as a great kitchen and outdoor area were all strictly necessary.
The key features of the renovations were custom solid steel windows and doors, clean crisp white rendered exterior, simple hedging. All these, added to the original charm of this Art Deco building. Management offices, in keeping with the corporate colours, were each given a different shade of blue. In the joinery we used a warmer walnut veneer to tie in with the buildings existing timber structure. The rooms offered a certain degree of privacy while being connected to the main workspace.
We retained the original features of the Art Deco hanger at the same time softening the area with timber and greenery.


This study aims to measure the anatomic parameters of the sacral 1 (S1) vestibule in Chinese adults and to discuss their clinical application during iliosacral screw fixation for pelvic posterior ring injury. Three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) reconstructions were performed on 36 individuals, and the parameters of their S1 vestibules were measured. Vestibular width (VW) was 25.15±2.91 mm, vestibular height (VH) was 20.94±3.03 mm, and mean vestibular size (VS) was 400.23±85.11 mm2. The mean angle of superior inclination was 30.85°±9.22°, and the mean anterior inclination (AI) was 13.91°±6.25°. VW and VS were significantly smaller in females than in males (p<0.05), but no statistical differences were found between the left and right sides. The S1 vestibules of Chinese patients are smaller than those reported for Caucasians. Therefore, the placement of iliosacral screws should be considered carefully based on the size, gender, and ethnicity of the patient. The anatomic parameters of females were much smaller than those of males and close to the minimum requirement for fracture fixation. Therefore, female Chinese patients who need iliosacral screws should undergo preoperative CT scans to measure S1 vestibule parameters to make individual operational plans.
KEY WORDS: Sacral vestibule anatomy; Sacroiliac joint; Bone screws.


Three Jewish sons left home, went out on their own and prospered. Getting back together, they discussed the gifts hey were able to give their elderly mother.
The third son smiled and said, "I've got you both beat.
You remember how momma enjoyed reading from the Torah?
And you know she can't see very well. So I sent her a remarkable parrot that recites the entire Torah. It took elders in the congregation 12 years to teach him. He's one of a kind. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse, and the parrot recites it.
"David," she wrote one son, "The house you built is huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house."
"Saul," she wrote to another, "I am too old to travel. I stay most of the time at home, so I rarely use the Mercedes. And the driver is so rude!"
"Dearest Irwin," she wrote to her third son, "You have the good sense to know what your mother likes. The chicken was delicious."


No, I'm not attached to my laptop/craft workdesk at the mo' but it must look like it out there! Welcome to What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a weekly trot around crafty areas across the globe. Like a good old nosey? Head on over to Headmistress Julia's office to find out more HERE.
Oh yes, Christmas is definitely still the main theme at chez moi. I even got organised with this one for Linda Coughlin's 12 tags challenge and wrote a suggested 'recipe'. Need to do this more to stay focused. The usual crafty things are struin about and they are joined by a pile of cookie cutter - I realised my Xmas stash is somewhat limited - no dies, 4 sets of stamps and a 6x6 pad of papers, but improvisation helps to push the boundaries so this could be a good thing.
Mistress likes us to keep it short (oops) but I promised you a tour a while ago, so here is one of the cupboards of stuff under my work area - finished work, tools and cardstock aplenty!
Right, off to visit my fellow WOYWWers. If you haven't joined in before whey not give it a go?
So your limited crafty goodies for the christmas period will need something very creative indeed. Hope you will show us the end results when you get them done!
Dot's atcs look fab too and thought I recognised them.
Thanks for the comment on my bargello card and don't be ashamed, time is short I know and it isn't possible to do everything you want to do.
Looking forward to seeing some of your Christmas creations.
That looks a very interesting desk but I am surprised at your managing to stay strong and not buy oodles (read here 'far too many') "C" stamps. Wish I had had your restraint - now trying to stop.
What magic comes from this crafty desk Miss Buttons! I would be terrified to photograph inside my cupboards - probably get knocked out by all the stuff falling out! I kid you not.
PS the diffusers a la Buttons are on their way to TTC Studio.
Hi there, thanks for the peek into your world this week. I love the tag of butterflies you have on display!
Lovely (very organised) cubby holes... and what great ATCs - that's some very happy mail! Not going to manage a WOYWW today; my W this week is a theatre... but still enjoying snooping!
Such a busy desk Buttons! I'm another kitchen table user lol...thanks for showing the ATC's, and thankyou for the ones that arrived here today too! It was a huge buzz and made my day too :) The cookie cutter made me smile...I use tiny ones for pouring UTEE into. So funny.
You received some lovely ATCs in your swap. We were low on Christmas stash too, but have just invested in some magazines with free stamps.
Oh love that flower stamp on your desk :) tbh I find it easier to craft with less stuff, I built up my Christmas stash overthrow years yet find ignore and more difficult to do something.
Interesting to see your desk, and particularly intrigued with the cookie cutters. Love the ATCs from Dot too, especially the one of seagulls.
Thanks for sharing. Will visit Dot's blog too.
Lovely to see your crafty workspace Buttons, lots of fab goodies to be seen. Yep Christmas seems to be upon us it seems quite early this year.
you may have a limited stash but I bet if you add a few non x mas bits and bobs and Christmas done!! hee hee.
Oh the ATCs are fab especially the seagulls one. Your desk looks like fun and very busy. Sorry to visit do late.
I'm a bit of a christmas humbug so have pretty limited xmas stash too so know how ya feel, still from the tag above this post you seen to be working it!
Scrummy crafting area, and I love those creations!
Oh, I remember the day I had proper cupboards and worktop in my craftroom. It lasted all of two years. Then it got moved. Then I got moved. Then we all moved again. And then I got divorced. And moved. And moved again...... I'll be moving again next year. And no doubt there will be at least one more move after that, but hopefully it will be my last. No wonder my workspace is higgledy piggledy!
Do I spy a cookie cutter being used as a snowman template? WTG you for improvising!


Surgery is the most common treatment for bowel cancer. You may have surgery together with radiotherapy or chemotherapy to make the cancer easier to remove or if there is a risk of the cancer coming back.
Your healthcare team will help you decide on the best treatment for you. They may not recommend surgery if you are too unfit for the operation or if you have advanced cancer that can't be removed by surgery.


text:
Q: noUISlider - How to destroy the noUiSlider without deleting the element? I have an  element in my HTML and it has some HTML inside it. I am converting that to noUISlider at the click of a button (Start Slider). There is another button to hide the slider (Hide Slider). I want to hide the slider but keep the  and also the HTML inside it. I am trying the slider.nouislider.destroy(); but it deletes the element completely.
Any help on this is appreciated.
Thank you.
Suhas

A: Okay, this is what I did and it worked for me. Hopefully, it could be helpful to someone or if there is a better way to do this, please let me know.
My HTML is

some HTML code

And My JS code is
var sliderActive = false;

function createSlider() {
    if (!sliderActive) {
        sliderActive = true;
        noUiSlider.create(slider, {
            start: [360, 1080],
            connect: true,
            step: 15,
            behaviour: 'drag',
            tooltips: [
                {
                    to: function (value) {
                        return processValue(value);
                    },
                    from: function (value) {
                        return processValue(value);
                    }
                },
                {
                    to: function (value) {
                        return processValue(value);
                    },
                    from: function (value) {
                        return processValue(value);
                    }
                },
            ],
            range: {
                'min': 0,
                'max': 1440,
            }
        });
    }
}

function destroySlider() {
    sliderActive = false;
    $('.sliderContainer').attr('class', 'sliderContainer');
    $('.noUi-base').remove();
    delete slider.noUiSlider;
    slider = document.getElementById('slider');
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Thank you.


text:
package org.knowm.xchange.coinmate.dto.trade;

import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonProperty;
import org.knowm.xchange.coinmate.dto.CoinmateBaseResponse;

public class CoinmateOrderHistory extends CoinmateBaseResponse<CoinmateOrderHistoryData> {

  public CoinmateOrderHistory(
      @JsonProperty("error") boolean error,
      @JsonProperty("errorMessage") String errorMessage,
      @JsonProperty("data") CoinmateOrderHistoryData data) {

    super(error, errorMessage, data);
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Fort Parker Memorial Cemetery, located near the Brazos Trail Region community of Groesbeck, is the burial site of a number of the settlers who died in the attack on Fort Parker in 1836. The tragic event, known to most Texans for the kidnapping of Cynthia Ann Parker, left settlers Elder John Parker, Benjamin F. Parker, Silas M. Parker, Samuel M. Frost, and Robert Frost dead after Caddo and Comanche Indians attacked the simple fortifications. Today, visitors to the cemetery will find a large slab over the mass grave of these five dead settlers. The slab is engraved with their names (although Benjamin's name is spelled differently) and includes the words "In memory of those who laid foundations others have built upon", perhaps a reference to the pioneers' efforts to help settle the Texas frontier. Visitors will also find a large monument dedicated to the Fort Parker settlers, including the survivors of the attack, complete with bigger than life-size stone figures mounted on a columned base. The monument, erected in 1932, has withstood time far better than the actual fort, a timber stockade that was reconstructed nearby in the late 1960s and currently open for visitors to tour.
Read more about Fort Parker in the Handbook of Texas Online.


Tickle your funny bone with Computer Keys Set -- hilarious novelty computer keys stuck to your computer or anywhere else you need a byte of humor! Each has a double-sided tape base so it sticks to any surface. Sold as a colorful set of 8 -- assorted sentiments, let us choose: Panic Key, Any Key, Beer Key, duh Key, $ Key, Oops Key, Eject and Smiley emoticon face Key. RANDOM SENTIMENTS, KEY CAP SAYINGS MAY NOT MATCH WHAT IS PICTURED. (#9441) Made in USA. A ComputerGear exclusive. Item in stock unless noted above.


On this week's show, we're covering what's new and newsworthy in entertainment & pop culture, as well as drafting the 32 characters in our 2019 March Madness "Who Would Win?" tournament. Join us, then vote for your selections to move on to the 2nd round!


text:
Third Generation Biofuels
Pratima Bajpai
Part of the SpringerBriefs in Energy book series (BRIEFSENERGY)
Pages i-xv
General Background and Introduction
Fuel Potential of Third Generation Biofuels
Characteristics of Algae
Cultivation of Third Generation Biofuel
Harvesting and Drying of Algal Biomass
Extraction of Oil from Algal Biomass
Production of Biofuel from Microalgae
Current Trends and the Future of the Algae-Based Biofuels Industry
Growing concerns about the rapid depletion of fossil fuel reserves, rising crude oil prices, energy security and global climate change have led to increased worldwide interest in renewable energy sources such as biofuels. In this context, biofuel production from renewable sources is considered to be one of the most sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels and a viable means of achieving environmental and economic sustainability.
Although biofuel processes hold great potential to provide a carbon-neutral route to fuel production, first-generation production systems are characterized by considerable economic and environmental limitations. The advent of second-generation biofuels is intended to produce fuels from lignocellulosic biomass, the woody part of plants that does not compete with food production. However, converting woody biomass into fermentable sugars requires costly technologies. Therefore, third-generation biofuels from microalgae are considered to be a viable alternative energy resource, free from the major drawbacks associated with first and second-generation biofuels. This book examines the background of third-generation biofuel production; the advantages of algae over traditional biofuel crops; algal biomass production; algae harvesting and drying methods; production of biofuel from microalgae; and future prospects.
Microalgae Renewable Energy climate change Global warming Biohydrogen
1.Pulp and Paper ConsultantKanpurIndia
Copyright Information The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019
Publisher Name Springer, Singapore
eBook Packages Energy


FMBH vs. WBS: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?
Investors interested in Banks - Northeast stocks are likely familiar with First Mid-Illinois Bancshares (FMBH) and Webster Financial (WBS). But which of these two companies is the best option for those looking for undervalued stocks? Let's take a closer look.
Both First Mid-Illinois Bancshares and Webster Financial have a Zacks Rank of # 2 (Buy) right now. This system places an emphasis on companies that have seen positive earnings estimate revisions, so investors should feel comfortable knowing that these stocks have improving earnings outlooks. However, value investors will care about much more than just this.
FMBH currently has a forward P/E ratio of 14.64, while WBS has a forward P/E of 17.01. We also note that FMBH has a PEG ratio of 1.63. This figure is similar to the commonly-used P/E ratio, with the PEG ratio also factoring in a company's expected earnings growth rate. WBS currently has a PEG ratio of 2.13.
Another notable valuation metric for FMBH is its P/B ratio of 1.43. The P/B ratio is used to compare a stock's market value with its book value, which is defined as total assets minus total liabilities. For comparison, WBS has a P/B of 2.16.
These metrics, and several others, help FMBH earn a Value grade of B, while WBS has been given a Value grade of C.
Both FMBH and WBS are impressive stocks with solid earnings outlooks, but based on these valuation figures, we feel that FMBH is the superior value option right now.


text:
Milly Dowler
New Child Rescue Alert will ask
CHILD Rescue Alert is now up and running in Surrey following the official launch of the scheme on Tuesday.
Surrey Police Chief Constable Denis O'Connor was joined at the launch by Milly Dowler's parents, Bob and Sally, as well as other supporters of the scheme.
The idea behind Child Rescue Alert is simple and effective. By quickly broadcasting details about an abducted child on local television and radio programmes, thousands of people can almost immediately be on the look-out for that child or the offender or any vehicle involved.
As many details as possible will be given in the message so members of the public can look for the child. If they see anything that might help contact 999.
Mr O'Connor said: "Child Rescue Alert is one more tool that we can make use of in those very rare but very awful circumstances when a child is abducted.
"Its real benefit is that it alerts members of the public to the abduction quickly so that they can help look for the child in the vital first few hours after they go missing."
Child Rescue Alert will only be used in cases where it is believed that an abducted child is in danger of serious harm and there is sufficient information to give the public so they can help look for the child, such as a description of the offender or their vehicle.
While there would not have been enough information to use Child Rescue Alert in the case of Milly Dowler, her parents have welcomed its introduction as a potential benefit to some cases.
Surrey Police


They can reach more than 5 million downloads both in Google Play Store and iTunes App Store, locally and globally. What are them?
There's no doubt that Indonesia has a huge market with more than 200 million population. The game revenue is also big, more than US $800 million in a single year. But as we know, only less than 10% of that number goes to local developers.
But that is not the indicator of the local game's quality. Some of the titles can reach a huge number of downloads, both locally and globally, especially for mobile games.
There are some mobile game's titles from Indonesia that can reach more than 5 million downloads both on Google Play Store and iTunes App Store, locally and globally. What are them?
Ninja Fishing is one of the most addicting fishing game that was already released both on iTunes and Google Play Store. This game is developed by Menara Games, and was published by Gamenauts. In this game, you must not only catch the fish, but also slice them like a ninja!
There's also some of the features like upgrade and build your own ninja village. As the information on its Google Play Store's page, the game has already been played by more than 16 million people in the world.
The other phenomenon in Indonesia's game industry is this trivia game. This game is developed by Alegrium who is based in Jakarta. It has a simple trivia gameplay, but there is some features that make it more addictive.
The Icon Pop series also have some other variants like Icon Pop Brand in which you should guess the brand by only see the clue. This game also have a sequel, Icon Pop Quiz 2 that contains more trivia to play.
As the number shown on Google Play Store, this game has total downloads in range from 5 million to 10 million just for the Android version, excluding the iOS version.
The next title in our list is Mini Racing Adventures from Minimo. The interesting thing is, Minimo is only a small studio who is based on Pati, a small city in Central Java.
As we see in the title, Mini Racing Adventures is a unique racing game that put the player as Martin Nitro Minimo to beat his enemy, Omini Speedarion in each race. Not only about speed, but this game also contains some of the physics' elements that will make your game more challenging.
This game has total downloads ranged from 10 million to 50 million according to Google Play Store, excluding the iOS version.
This game proves that trivia is still one of the most favorable genres in mobile games, especially for Indonesian gamers. In Tebak Gambar, we must try to guess a sentence from several images as the clue.
Tebak Gambar is developed by Kardus Imajinasi, a small team consisted of two people that are separated in two different cities, Surabaya and Jakarta.
Back in last year, this game was a huge phenomenon in Indonesia's game industry. Not only it's gotten millions of downloads, but also successfully grabbed some local and international awards like Game of The Year 2016 in Game Prime Awards and Guilty Pleasure Award in IMGA South East Asia 2016.
This idle/clicker game is developed by Own Games who is based in Bandung. In this game, you should cook and serve round tofu for your customers by tapping the screen or upgrading some elements.
After gained success in local market, this game is also localized in English with title Round Tofu. For the total downloads, based on the Google Play Store page this game successfully grabs 5 million to 10 million downloads.


For complete information regarding High School Faith Formation, which includes the Confirmation program, please look under Youth Faith Formation.
At Sacred Heart-St. Louis Parish, preparation for the sacrament of Confirmation consists of a two year program, ideally begun the freshman year of high school. The program includes two components - classes for catechesis (instruction in the faith), and service projects. Registration takes place in the fall, and a thorough explanation of all requirements and expectations is provided in the registration packet.
"Baptism, the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Confirmation together constitute the "sacraments of Christian initiation, whose unity must be safeguarded. It must be explained to the faithful that the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace." (CCC, 1285).


Please consider using Green Star - Design & As Built, the new generation Green Star rating tool for the design and construction of sustainable buildings. This Technical Manual is an essential resource for any project aiming for Green Star certification under the Green Star � Office Interiors v1.1 rating tool.... Please consider using Green Star - Design & As Built, the new generation Green Star rating tool for the design and construction of sustainable buildings. This Technical Manual is an essential resource for any project aiming for Green Star certification under the Green Star � Office Interiors v1.1 rating tool.
Sustainable Materials What are Sustainable Materials?
Museum Exhibition Planning and Design is a comprehensive introduction and reference to exhibition planning and design. This book focuses on both the procedural elements of successful planning, like the phases of exhibit design and all associated tasks and issues, and on the design elements that make up the realized exhibit itself, such as color, light, shape, form, space, and building materials.
Wood Design Manual 2015 - Download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online.
Please consider using Green Star - Design & As Built, the new generation Green Star rating tool for the design and construction of sustainable buildings. This Technical Manual is an essential resource for any project aiming for Green Star certification under the Green Star � Office Interiors v1.1 rating tool.


-Maeng Da kratom is the one of the most popular strains with the strongest aroma in the Botanical family, and now Klover Releaf are offering you the Red Maeng Da. Red Maeng Da is known to have the highest, and most well diverse alkaloid content among the red strains. Therefore, it is much intense, potent and stronger than the rest. The effect is also much longer, which is the reason why Red Maeng Da is one of our best selling products.
– This Maend Da powder contains no additives, fillers, or chemicals, and each batch is lab tested to ensure quality. Available in 1kg, 500g, 250g, 100g, 60g, and 30 sizes, you can choose the amount of this premium Botanical powder that suits your specific needs.


With the increased use of unmanned aircraft in the years ahead, an air traffic management system for drones will be a necessity, said John Cavolowsky, director of the Airspace Operations and Systems Program in NASA's Aeronautics Research Directorate. Cavolowsky shared some of NASA's work on unmanned aerial systems traffic management, or UTM, during "Solutions to UAS Air Traffic Management Challenges" at the Demand for Unmanned Symposium.
According to Cavolowsky, a UTM system would be for drones that weigh 55 pounds or less and operate under 400 feet.
"It would be independent of the traditional air traffic management system that exists today," he said, explaining that there "would be multiple UTM systems operating, not a single, large one," which would allow users to tailor the systems to their needs.
Live from NASA's Ames Research Center, NASA's UTM development team showed real-time data from ongoing UTM tests in Virginia, North Dakota, Texas, Alaska and Nevada. They walked attendees through a variety of tests and the findings they have deduced so far from the data. The team said to achieve the tests, it worked with over 250 partners throughout the industry that plan to use drones in their businesses.
Cavolowsky reassured the audience that UTM will not supplant the need for humans in the loop.
Electric-powered flight could improve safety, fuel efficiency and convenience, but innovators first have to clear regulatory hurdles and make the technology be accepted as part of daily life, a panel of aviation executives and officials said during the "Aircraft Electric Propulsion: Transforming Aviation" session.
Automakers are leading the way in electric and hybrid electric transportation, but aviation firms have yet to win over consumers and regulators who have "grandfathered in" gasoline as the accepted aircraft fuel, said Joseph Oldham, director of the San Joaquin Valley Clean Transportation Center for CALSTART. The nonprofit Oldham works for is dedicated to the growth of clean transportation technologies.
Switching to electric-powered flight would reduce carbon emissions and save on the fluctuating cost of gasoline, but Oldham said it would also make aircraft safer by removing the risk that aviation gas would explode in a malfunction or crash.
Electric flight could also help lower costs for regional airports and consumers who travel through them, said Matt Knapp, a founder of Zunum Aero. The startup, based in Kirkland, Washington, aims to create a hybrid jet with 10 to 50 seats designed to fly on low-cost trips shorter than 1,000 miles. Zunum's planes would be powered by both jet fuel and electricity and would be designed to be upgraded with "evolving energy storage capacities" as battery technology improves. "Fuel is a highly volatile price point, and there is a cost to volatility," Knapp said of the benefit of relying less on gasoline.
Fuel efficiency and safety are particularly important to advance vertical takeoff aircraft because hovering requires a stable and low-cost power source, Knapp said.
The "internet of things" will revolutionize the aviation industry, particularly through its application to the growing unmanned flight sector, a panel of experts said during the "Internet of Things as Applied to Aircraft Systems" session.
The internet of things is the networking of devices, vehicles, buildings, and other items with electronics, software, sensors, actuators and network connectivity. The connected objects are able to collect and exchange data, which offers aerospace manufacturers a way to have real-time data communications with their deployed products.
David Kasik, senior technical fellow in visualization and interactive techniques at Boeing, cautioned against abandoning data.
A new wave of aerospace entrepreneurs and technology startups is stepping in to try to solve the problem of traffic, and according to a panel of experts, it could be done with vertical takeoff and landing, or VTOL, aircraft.
As any commuter knows, roadway congestion eats up a huge amount of time and energy, and "traffic is taking over our lives," said Jon Rimanelli, founder and CEO of Airspace Experience Technologies.
He cited figures showing that every driver loses about $1,400 in fuel costs and productivity each year due to traffic.
"Key to this future is leveraging the automotive industrial base," he said, adding that his company works with Uber, which has disrupted the taxi and car markets with its ridesharing app.
"Our mission is to support Uber, and their mission is to move people," Rimanelli said.
Mark Moore, engineering director of aviation at Uber, said his company's working on making electric VTOL a reality and plans to test the system as soon as 2020.
One such example is Pipistrel, whose director of research and development, Tine Tomažič, explained where electric flight is in terms of development today.
"We understand what happens when you are really challenged with power demands," Tomažič said.
However, he said, some of the problems that still need to be solved before eVTOL is a reality on a mass scale aren't directly related to the vehicles themselves.
"When these vehicles are connected all the time to the service network, one has to think, 'how do you isolate the vehicles from cyberattacks?'" Tomažič said.


i'm dying over the capiz chandelier (from jamie's shop, furbish) and the entryway in general. again, white walls, lots of light…it makes a huge difference. when i save up my pennies, i'm going to invest in a capiz chandelier like the one above (if not the exact one above) for my living room redesign. slightly beachy, effortless with a dash of bohemian. i like it.
another view of the living room – love the art, and the pillows on the sofa are perfect. such a great muted color scheme – it's neutral, but not at all bland. what i would give for windows like that.
let's talk about the photo above the bar cart turned bookshelf. actually, let's just talk about how much i want this bookshelf to be my bar cart and live in my apartment forever. industrial chic to the max, people. i'm forever lacking storage, and i have so many books in boxes at my parents' house that i'd love to have with me here in new york. and i can just imagine a nice big tray sitting on that top shelf, filled to the brim with chevron paper straws and vintage glassware. le sigh. someday!
last but not least – let's talk about the art in this hallway. i love it. it's so serene. i love all white – white mats, white frames. it's a look i'll be incorporating into my gallery wall. so crisp and clean. i have a rather sizable hallway in my apartment that currently houses a college-era tjmaxx mirror, but i know i could do better. these shots are good inspiration, and might just give me the motivation i need to tackle my hallway next.
for more eye candy, check out the full post on i suwannee.


Scarification is an ancient form of body art. Due to its nature, you can't expect to have a very detailed design. In scarification, primitive and simple designs always work best – the same kind of patterns that you can find in wooden reliefs and carved stones.
I do scarifications mostly by skin removal or cutting. I've done some branding, too, but I prefer using scalpel since it's a more exact method. In branding, the burning will continue for a while after you've already finished the operation, which causes more variation to the result.
The choice of technique and healing methods pretty much depend on customer's own preferences. Some customers want the scar to be more prominent, while the others prefer a more subtle result that stays on the same level as unscarred skin but becomes lighter as it heals.
Proper aftercare and hygiene are a crucial part of the whole process. Your artist will provide you with detailed instructions for the aftercare, but it's your own responsibility to follow them, so be ready to commit to the healing of your new scarification piece.
In general, the risks of scarification are pretty much the same as with tattoos. Once the scarification itself is done, you have to pay great attention to keeping the wound clean to avoid infections. Another rule of thumb is to choose an artist who really knows what they're doing to begin with. Improper scarification technique may lead to an unwanted aesthetic result or even cause functional damage to your body if the scars go too deep in a wrong place.
If you're considering yourself a scar tattoo, try to get as much information as you can beforehand. Find reliable information on the internet, check out portfolios of different artists and particularly pay attention that they have photos of both fresh and healed scarifications. Fresh scarifications may look cool on Instagram, but they really don't tell you much about the actual result.
The scar tattoo may look very different after six months, and even more different after a year – if the artist has included photos of well-healed scarifications as well in their portfolio, it tells a lot about their expertise.
Once you've found a good artist, don't hesitate to ask them for more information about the procedure. A good artist will tell you about the process with its restrictions as well, and they will also let you know if the design you've thought isn't really suitable for a scarification.
Scarification is not a straightforward process where you just cut first and then see the result. Instead, the whole healing process usually takes about a year – only after that you'll be able to see how the scars have formed. Compared to a tattoo, the result of scarification depends more on how your own body reacts to wounds.
In scarification, you must also accept the fact that the healed scarification piece may be inconsistent or lack some details that were included in the original design.
Many people find the scarification process itself more interesting than the actual result. For them, it's the whole experience that makes it so fascinating – from the making of the scar to the healing process, where you can see how the scars evolve on your skin.
Make sure that you understand the nature of scarification: it's a primitive form of art, and the results may vary depending on how your body reacts to wounds.
Simple design, best design. Don't dream about complicated patterns with shades and stuff – even if they'd look good while they're fresh, after a year they usually look like a fuzzy mess on your skin.
Prepare yourself to a slow healing process. Proper aftercare is a crucial part of a successful scarification, and it will take you a lot of time and energy.
Examine. Find information about scarification in general and check out portfolios of different artists. A good artist will have photos of both fresh and healed scars.
Once you've found a reliable artist, don't hesitate to ask them questions about the procedure and different methods.


A Houston developer building one of the tallest apartment towers in Dallas is constructing an even taller residential high-rise at home.
Developer Hines said its 46-story Preston tower in downtown Houston will be the loftiest residential community in the city.
The building will have 373 luxury rental units and is being constructed in partnership with Cresset Wealth Advisors and Levy Family Partners.
"We look forward to delivering our most impressive residential community to date in this new urban hub," Kevin Batchelor, Hines' senior managing director, said in a statement. "Residents will enjoy a walkable, big-city lifestyle in a living environment that exudes luxury and style."
The skyscraper project was designed by architect Munoz + Albin — the same firm that designed Hines' Victor apartment tower that is being built in Dallas' Victory Park.
The 39-story Victor high-rise will have 344 apartments and will be one of the tallest high-rises outside downtown Dallas.
The Olive Street development site is one of the last vacant tracts in the 75-acre Victory Park development.
The Houston and Dallas high-rises are among a series of new urban apartment projects Hines is doing around the Southwest, including additional locations in Houston, Phoenix and Denver.
The 39-story Victor apartment tower Hines is building in Dallas' Victory Park is by the same architect.