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San Francisco Bay Area In Superbowl Surveillance Mode (wired.com)
An anonymous reader links to Wired's description of a surveillance society in miniature assembling right now in San Francisco: Super Bowl 50 will be big in every way. A hundred million people will watch the game on TV. Over the next ten days, 1 million people are expected to descend on the San Francisco Bay Area for the festivities. And, according to the FBI, 60 federal, state, and local agencies are working together to coordinate surveillance and security at what is the biggest national security event of the year.
Previous year's Superbowl security measures have included WMD sensors, database-backed facial recognition, and gamma-ray vehicle scanners. Given the fears and cautions in the air about this year's contest, it's easy to guess that the scanning and sensing will be even more prevalent this time.
Previous year's Superbowl security measures have included WMD sensors, database-backed facial recognition, and gamma-ray vehicle scanners. Given the fears and cautions in the air about this year's contest, it's easy to guess that the scanning and sensing will be even more prevalent this time.
because from the nest we not only feel safe, we are safe. The nest protects us. The nest nourishes us. The nest loves us. We love the nest. Wouldn't you like to be in the nest, too!
And then they lose all sense of proportion.
Given the popularity of the sport and this game, it has to have occurred to those with a bone to pick versus the Americans what a powerful blow this would be.
The big question is, "Have the anti-UAV defenses been employed?"
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
"Previous year's Superbowl security measures have included WMD sensors, database-backed facial recognition, and gamma-ray vehicle scanners."
All that and still they couldn't stop Janet Jackson's nipple.
And that is why you terrorists always lose.
Wouldn't it be just a swell treat if Timothy turns out to be the only editor that they kept, having let all the others go in the wake of the acquisition?
From the last-spoiled-banana-on-the-shelf dept.
Keep an eye out for those pesky Mossad agents posing as Arabs and staging false flag attacks.
how exciting
He's training his Chinese replacement.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Wouldn't it be just a swell treat if Timothy turns out to be the only editor that they kept, having let all the others go in the wake of the acquisition?
From the last-spoiled-banana-on-the-shelf dept.
Maybe the new owners feel sorry for him?
Well at least its not as bad as the London Olympics, where a civil servant named Charles Farr decided that anti-aircraft missiles would be installed on the tops of houses. As if anyone would shoot down a plane over London in case a hijacked plane came crashing down over London! It was pure "be afraid" theater.
When you get these security shows, they're usually trying to push some legislation at the same time.
For the Summer Olympics of 2012 was happening, Theresa May was trying to push through Snoopers Charter again. (14th June 2012 she announced another attempt to make it law, the Olympics were a month later in July 2012):
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/jun/14/snoopers-charte-proposal-tory-row
Guess who was behind the Snoopers Charter law? One civil servant named "Charles Farr"! The very same one behind the missiles on houses! Such coincidence!
He was also behind it in 2009, when Parliament rejected Snoopers Charter, and he decided he would go ahead anyway and ordered GCHQ to start spying (their "Mastering the Internet" program) under a false interpretation of an old telecoms law from 1984.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/03/gchq_mti/
Charles Farr, read it an weep for democracy in the UK:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Farr
"He has been responsible for the Prevent anti-terrorism strategy, the Interception Modernisation Programme under Labour and the current Communications Capabilities Development Programme, both being projects to enable to the government to surveil the traffic data of ordinary Internet communications of UK citizens.[2] The programme has resulted in the draft Communications Data Bill 2012.[3] During the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Farr was in charge of security, he was behind the siting of missiles on the roofs of residential buildings in East London.[3]"
He's training his Chinese replacement.
Heh!
Thank goodness for that. If they'd been Indian, BIZx would likely be a Disney shell.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Timmy's a bot.
Is that the best you guys in the US of A can do? Wake me up when you get the several hundred million that we get in a football world cup - football as in the real thing, not that silly rugby wannabee that you guys concocted.
The population of the US is 318 million, which,last I looked, was far greater than the 100 million expected viewers of the Super Bowl. Also, the World Series, which happens in October, is baseball, and the Super Bowl, which happens in February, is American football. So, if you are not a troll, you are an idiot.
And just think in 2 years I will have to deal with this stupid shit. It was bad enough since where I went to college was also a training camp for a team and I would be taking summer classes when it was going on. I almost ran over stupid professional athletes several times because they don't know their head from their ass and would just walk or run out into the road without looking. A super bowl is going to be orders of magnitude worse.
Time to offend someone
So they're searching people's cars in a way which could potentially knock DNA around and cause cancer?
I'm not as bothered by the surveillance due to the fact that people can just opt out by not going / purchasing tickets, and it's a completely entertainment event. However, the gamma-ray scanners are troubling because cancer is a larger cost on society, and if these things cause an uptick, that's a delayed cost in potentially millions of dollars (hundreds of thousands minimum per affected individual).
Nobody outside the US has ever heard of the Superbowl, so how can there be more viewers than US citizens (many of which don't care enough to watch anyway) ? And no, it's not a troll. If you want to world series to live up to their name, maybe, just maybe, you should invite other countries, no ?
LOL...he's clearly from one of those puny EU countries, and doesn't realize there are some countries that need more than 8 digits for their population. It's really gonna blow his mind when he learns about china/india.
Meanwhile, in reality, population of the US is slightly over 320 million.
there's a third option, both
I was expecting the usual humorless America-bashing in this thread. Congratulations! You managed to show everyone how much you hate, while contributing nothing to the discussion. Well done!
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
By using gamma rays to prevent an attack, they will create the very monster they were looking to prevent! HULK SMASH!
That would be great. I'd love to watch Odell Beckham Jr. catch a ball over the middle over the *Honduran* defensive back.
If you thought traffic was bad in Silicon Valley, it's going to get worse for the next ten days.
And anyone with a brain knows none of it would stop a determined bad guy.
However it is good practice for keeping law abiding citizens under control. And that's what is really going
on here.
It's a training ground for suppressing civil unrest.
I don't understand why they don't do like baseball and declare our national championship the World Championship.
Err hell, just go right to Championship of the Universe. It's not like anybody else bothers to play the game.
queue up Hollywood treatment where the best of the NFL have to stave of an alien invasion by beating them at American Football. Unfortunately, Bert Reynolds is probably unavailable.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Welcome to the land of the free. /s
...they'd better not forget the Goodyear blimp.
Be who you are...and be it in style!
In my experience with nuclear power plants, gamma radiation is pretty much the worst as far as cancer-inducing electromagnetic radiation goes. Just terrible.
"Goooo Team Police State!!"
I ride my bicycle to work and pass the stadium daily. I ride past it on a bike path that goes along a creek. They have already shut down my bike path and several streets, and according to the newspaper things won't begin to reopen for nearly 2 weeks.
It was impressive to see the enormous structures they're building around the stadium for one game. They brought in the same cranes they use to build skyscrapers to erect the most massive shade structure I've ever seen.
I'm amazed at how much money is being spent for this game. It is offensive that they feel entitled to shut down roads and trails for weeks for a frickin game.
Man, you really need that seminar!
If you want to world series to live up to their name, maybe, just maybe, you should invite other countries, no ?
Like Canada?
Are there any?
From the bit I remember of physics the higher the frequency of the beaming the more energy it contains, gamma-ray have a higher chance to ionize tissues than x-rays so it's probbaly very dangerous to be scanned by one of these.
Which makes me wonder about the legality of these measures.
He's probably the cheapest.
If the population of the US is 318 million, and most of the people I know won't be watching the SuperBowl, how much should I believe their 100 million estimate?
For that matter, how could they know even afterwards? I can imagine some way to track the number of TVs that were tuned in, but most of those don't have built-in spy devices yet.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
My family and I went into the city to see some of the Super Bowl 50 festivities going on and couldn't miss the overabundance of security. Even when we walked away from Moscone Center toward Union Square, about a mile away from the main festivities on the Embarcadero, there was a very visible presence of police officers paired up on the street corners -- quite unusual for San Francisco. It wasn't their presence alone that was strange, but they all seemed abnormally intense... even nervous. My son walked up to a pair of officers holding vigil on one of the street corners and asked them why they were there, so far from the main Super Bowl City "fan village", and one tersely replied: "We don't want another Paris." Yikes. My kids, all three teenagers, didn't miss the bluntness of the remark. It kinda cooled the mood on our evening out. The kids became a little quiet and I caught myself keeping an eye on the people around us. Signs and Wonders...
And why isn't the NFL picking up the tab? Same with any large sporting event. Owners need to start contributing instead of taking a free ride.
Nielson is still a thing, you know.
And I guess I kind of assumed that cable boxes and satellite receivers phoned home statistical data.
Kid-proof tablet..
All of that hoopla and theater and nobody thought to bring a NIST certified air gauge?
They set up a 18 km (11 mile) radius no fly zone for drones (and aircraft). Maybe worried about attack by drones armed with nuclear weapons. (been waiting to make that joke since read about it a week ago.. :) )
Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
That's number of TVs, not number of viewers. And I've always been quite dubious about Nielson.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I am pretty worried about terrorist activity happening here in SF with the superbowl and all, I mean it is only 45 miles and a couple of counties away from san francisco.......