Tracking Trash, and Watching Waste

3,000 pieces of rubbish, donated by volunteers, will be tagged in New York, Seattle and London. In order to monitor how rubbish moves around the cities and beyond, a MIT team has developed a small mobile sensor. Basically a miniature cell phone with limited functionality. They say that the system should be able to track rubbish around the globe.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8149183.stm

I will be interesting to see the results.

The team also says that it hopes that the technology can be miniaturised and made cheap enough that the tags could one day be attached to everything.

But does that mean that we might en up throwing even more away? I remember a company I worked for asking that when photocopies were made, a copy was to be set to an administrator. This was so that excessive copying could be tracked. Of course there was then outrage from the admin department that the use of the photocopier had doubled.

Also in the article it says that the MIT team has previously revealed the movements of people around cities, such as Rome and Copenhagen, by analysing mobile phone signals.

Perhaps a bit scary that - Who is able to do this monitoring?

Limits on speed, Limits on common sense?

A Safer Way: Consultation on Making Britain's Roads the Safest in the World - Ends today.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/roadsafetyconsultation/

What will transpire?

Andrew MacKay (Senior Parliamentary & Political Advisor To David Cameron; Bracknell, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent representations he has received on proposed changes to speed limits; and if he will make a statement.

Jim Fitzpatrick (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Poplar & Canning Town, Labour)

Our consultation "A Safer Way" on road safety published on 21 April, aims to reduce road deaths by a third by 2020. We make a range of proposals and there are two carefully targeted to reduce speeds:

(1) That local authorities reduce limits to 20 mph on roads of a primarily residential nature and around schools; and

(2) That highway authorities reduce limits on the more dangerous rural single carriageways from 60 mph, where the evidence supports it.

---

Every day the government seems to find a new way to make the motorist's life a misery. They will probably now decree a blanket reduction in the National Speed Limit from 60MPH to 50MPH, all of which will be enforced by a massive network of interlinked intelligent cameras.

Unlike traditional speed cameras, average speed cameras work by measuring how fast a car travels over a stretch of road.

The lower limit would apply automatically unless the local authority could prove that it was safe for the road to remain at 60mph.

Road safety and motoring groups said that a lower limit would make little difference to safety unless it was accompanied by greater enforcement and changes to the layout of rural roads, such as improving visibility at junctions.

The change may have no impact on average speed, which DfT surveys show is only 48mph in free-flowing conditions on rural 60mph roads.

On many stretches of rural road without bends or small junctions, the responsible driver can drive safely at 60mph. If the limit is reduced, more drivers will be tempted to try potentially dangerous overtaking manoeuvres to get past a car doing 48mph.

We need a proportionate approach to road safety that targets problems such as poor road design and problem-makers such as reckless drivers. Why should all drivers be inconvenienced for the sake of a reckless minority? We should improve driver education, increase the number of traffic police, improve road design and target the reckless minority rather than introduce more restrictions.

Many local authorities are already in the position to take key decisions on whether reduced speed limits are the best option.
Rather than have across-the-board reductions in the speed limit that hit everyone, why not create a situation where local authorities/local people are empowered to make our roads safer, and given the powers to target problem drivers?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news....d-cameras. html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/10/speed-limit-rural-roads

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/article5870886.ece

Protest the reduction in the National Speed Limit from 60 to 50?
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=59231656926
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/noNSLreduction/#detail

Like a monkey at a zoo caught playing with himself.

Home truths served up by Dan Hannan in reply to Brown’s address to the European Parliament.

"All the time Gordon just squirmed in his seat pretending not to be bothered. Gordon was reduced to grinning like a monkey at a zoo caught playing with himself."

http://order-order.com/2009/03/24/hannan-tells-gordon-he-is-pathologically-incapable/

I have to keep going back and watching it again.

Who is watching you?

Charles Farrier, a spokesman for national pressure group No CCTV, which campaigns against surveillance in the UK, criticised the use of CCTV in schools. He said: “It's outrageous and unacceptable to put CCTV in toilets, particularly children's toilets. CCTV doesn't stop problems. It is treated as a 'silver bullet' but it won't - at best it films the problem but you can't tell what's going on with the footage."

I wonder how useful cameras are.

Other reports are as follows:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-....t-parents .html
85 per cent of teachers say that they have CCTV in their schools, whilst nearly a quarter worry about hidden cameras within their building. In most cases, the surveillance cameras are covering the school grounds and entrances to the school, but nearly ten per cent say CCTV is operating in the toilets.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/19/school_cctv/



Father of four Paul Cooper, from Solihull, was shocked to find cameras in the gents at Wolverhampton rail station, leased and operated by Virgin Trains.

Car delivery man Mr Cooper, aged 50, of Thelsford Way, has lodged a complaint with Virgin but has yet to receive a proper reply.

"I use the rail network daily, travelling throughout Britain from John o'Groats to Lands End," he said. "This is is the first time I have ever found CCTV cameras in toilets at a rail station and I am disgusted by it.

"There is a CCTV camera in toilets at Wolverh
Wolverhampton, fitted to the ceiling above the urinals and cubicles.
http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-s....7319-20 540545/

latest figures - released under the Freedom of Information Act - show the number of images taken with ANPR cameras has risen by up to 1,000 per cent from 2007.

The ANPR cameras are placed on major roads and hidden in strategic locations such as ports, airports and on CCTV cameras in towns.

All information recorded on the cameras is then kept on the police database for a minimum of two years.

Police say are needed for operational reasons such as tracking stolen cars and catching drug dealers and uninsured drivers.

But anti-surveillance campaigners claim the hidden devices are an invasion of privacy and are a sign of a "Big Brother state".

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1197083/Police-use-CCTV-photograph-billion-car-numbers-plates-year.html#ixzz0LFnigJPa&D

All very well, until someone leaves a memory stick of data laying about.

I wonder who watches the watchers.

How is data secured.

What is the data used for.

Why is it kept for so long.

History is more or less bunk ?

t seems that there is a generation of teenagers who know almost nothing about the history of Britain.

Professor Derek Matthews says that this is because schools are sidelining knowledge in favour of trendy topics and generic skills.

He decided to investigate by setting them five simple questions. Over three years, 284 UK-educated first-years took the test, which demanded basic knowledge the professor believes 'every 18-year-old should know'.

In total, the students answered just 26.7 per cent of questions correctly - just over one in five. Students with A*s or As in history GCSE fared little better, answering just a third correctly.



He recounted in his report how students in a typical tutorial had never heard of the Reformation and did not know what was meant by the term Protestant. One thought Martin Luther was an American civil rights leader.
His students were probably in the top 15 per cent of their age group for educational success.
'This implies that, all things being equal, 85 per cent of my undergraduates' age group know even less than they do.
'In other words, we are looking at a whole generation that knows almost nothing about the history of their (or anyone else's) country.'

• 1. Who was the general in charge of the British army at the battle of Waterloo?
  
• 2. Who was the reigning monarch when the Spanish Armarda attacked Britain?
  
• 3. What was Isambard Brunel's profession?
  
• 4. Name one Prime Minister of Britain in the 19th Century?
  
• 5. In what country was the Boer War of 1899 to 1902 fought?
  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-....numbskulls.html

Is it that we have moved away from valuing rigorous subject teaching and education as a good in itself?
Is the only thing taught Ignorance itself?
is not deemed Politically Correct?
Are we ashamed of this nations Past?
Is it down to underfunding?
In the light of fringe parties such as the BNP gaining votes it is incredibly important that we ensure that young people are aware (politically aware even) of the past? Knowing the past can set the frame for how we think about the future.

Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to continue always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.

Any country's education policy will be framed by the context of that nation's history and it is vital that every generation is given the chance to take pride in our country’s past.

Cyber stuff

From Computer weekly

Much of the cybercrime targeting UK organisations comes from overseas crime groups, according to a new strategy document for tackling serious organised crime. There is also growing evidence that states are sponsoring criminal gangs to make cyberattacks.

The worry is that the more that is held centrally, the more reliance will be placed on those central systems. Systems that could be compromised, or made unavailable. Systems that are prime targets for hackers.

Computerised records of all 250 million journeys made by individuals in and out of the UK each year will be kept for up to 10 years.
The government says the database is essential in the fight against crime, illegal immigration and terrorism.
But opposition MPs and privacy campaigners fear it is a significant step towards a surveillance society.
The intelligence centre will store names, addresses, telephone numbers, seat reservations, travel itineraries and credit card details of travellers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7877182.stm

The government is building databases to track more and more of our movements. They always say that it is about security or personal protection.

But we have a government that just can't be trusted over highly sensitive issues.

In 2004, Richard Thomas, the information commissioner at the time, warned that Britain was "sleepwalking" into a surveillance society. Davies believes the situation has got worse. "When we categorise the privacy ratings of all the countries, Britain is already in the black category along with some pretty unpleasant societies."
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5683392.ece

Evey day we hear of yet another way that the Government is going to track out lives. They tell us that if we have nothing to hide, we have nothing to fear. The fear is the government just cannot hold onto its data, and details of millions of people are going to end up in the wrong hands.
e.g.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7845024.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7103566.stmhttp://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2205400/uk-government-warned-losshttp://blogs.spectrum.ieee.org/riskfacto...._governmen.htmlhttp://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_071574http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopi....-data-loss.html

There is now so much held that any individual may not know if they have any incorrectly-ascribed information. Information that could magnified until it is out of hand and the individual concerned having no way of correcting it, or who has meddled with it.

The pigs flew?

Debora MacKenzie bloging in the New Scentist says that the British mirage of "containment" meant administering prophylactic half-doses of antiviral drugs to contacts of the few known cases to stop them spreading the virus. Such a policy only makes sense if the virus is not already spreading widely, and it risks creating drug-resistant viruses - as happened in Denmark and also in Japan.
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/07/swine-flu-containment-is-dange.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17396-tamiflu-resistance-emerges-in-flu-pandemic.html

The normal seasonal H1N1 virus became almost entirely Tamiflu resistant over the past two years, for reasons that are not yet understood. Scientists fear the pandemic virus, also a member of the H1N1 family, might acquire Tamiflu resistance by interbreeding with these ordinary strains. To start with we were almost able count individual cases.

The experts say that individuals differ in the way they react to viruses. (So maybe there were too few to get a clear idea of effects) The current virus apparently binds deep in the lung, and can trigger potentially fatal pneumonia if the person infected mounts a strong inflammation in response to it. As more people become infected the effects should become more apparant.

Interestingly, Daniel Hannan in his blog asks "Why, then, the urgent need to inoculate the entire British population? Perhaps I’m being overly cynical, but I can’t help wondering whether we’re being pushed into a wrong-headed course of action by the health scare industry."
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100002999/ignore-the-health-scare-professionals-you-wont-die-of-swine-flu/

The new deaths of a six-year old schoolgirl and a GP don't make it any clearer. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article6700572.ece

We will just have to wait and see.