Non-biological "twinning" is yet another bizarre feature observed within MONARCH programming. For instance, two young non related children would be ceremoniously initiated in a magical "soul-bonding" ritual so they might be "inseparably paired for eternity" (possibly another Mengele connection?). They essentially share two halves of the programmed information, making them interdependent upon one another. Paranormal phenomenon such as astral projection, telepathy, ESP, etc. appear to be more pronounced between those who have undergone this process.
Via the ACLU: A Scary Demonstration of What Unchecked Face Recognition Could Look Like
A Scary Demonstration of What Unchecked Face Recognition Could Look Like
Published February 8, 2022 at 07:09AM
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A face recognition and video analytics company has created a product that provides a stark reminder of the power of these technologies and how they are likely to be used over time by law enforcement, powerful corporations, and others, if we as a society allow it.
The technology in question involves video search, which we described in our 2019 video analytics report. In the past, video operators looking for something would have to manually scroll through many hours of video, but technology is increasingly automating such searches. In a presentation for subscribers of the surveillance research group IPVM, a company called Vintra presented on its technology for quickly searching through large stores of video footage
The relevant three-minute part of the full presentation is worth watching. In it, a company executive searches through a month’s worth of video footage captured by around 10 fixed cameras, plus body cameras, in a transit center in San Jose, California. He feeds the system with the photograph of a male subject, and the system does a face recognition search through all the stored video from that month and produces 23 snapshots of the man from the center’s cameras. Clicking on any of the snapshots plays the video in which he was captured.
Already, that’s a demonstration of the stunning new power that surveillance camera systems create when combined with face recognition and today’s search capabilities.
But there’s more. The Vintra executive then presses a button called “Find associates.” He selects a time period — he uses 10 minutes but it could have been shorter or longer — and then runs a new search. This search yields snapshots of 154 other people, each of whom was seen on camera within 10 minutes of the subject.
In other words, this system allows face recognition to be used to track not just one person, but to map out people’s associations with each other.
Of the people spotted with the subject in the demo, 150 appeared on camera with him only once, and another three appeared with him twice. One man, however, had 14 “co-appearances” with the subject — clearly not coincidence, but a result of some association between the two men. The system displayed snapshots of the 14 co-appearances, and clicking on them instantly played the video of the two of them together.
The men could be anything from co-workers to commuting partners to lovers. Perhaps clicking through to view their joint appearances would shed light on which. But whatever the case, their association has now been revealed to the prying eyes of this camera network and its operators. One of Vintra’s mottos is “Know what the cameras know,” and if this product lives up to the demo, it’s a spookily accurate slogan, not least because it captures the way that AI is allowing video cameras to “wake up” — rendering them able not just to dumbly record video, but increasingly to understand what they’re seeing.
With this kind of technology, as the Vintra pitchman put it, “You can really start building out a network. You may have one guy, that showed up a few times, that you’re interested in — you can start looking at windows of time around him to see who else is there at the same time, and build out the networks of those people.”
Too many conversations about surveillance focus on how information could be used in isolation against a specific individual. But analytics is a powerful tool, and when information is collected not about just one suspect, but about large numbers of people, we often forget that such data can be cross-referenced to create maps of associations. I wrote this piece in 2013 to try to hammer home that often non-intuitive point, but maps of people’s associations (called “social network analysis”) have long been a product of mass surveillance. It has been done using cellphone data by the NSA, and by the U.S. military overseas using wide-area aerial surveillance, for example.
Now, face recognition and other analytic techniques appear to have brought social network analysis to video surveillance. And who knows what purposes such mining could be used for. The Vintra pitchman told his security audience that his product “will plug in to BI tools” — referring to Business Intelligence, a catch-all buzzword referring to non-security uses of data such as competitive research and marketing: “You may be using the cameras for security, but 94, 96 percent of the time there’s no event that security’s interested in — but there’s always information that the system is generating on those that you can plug into your BI.”
The bottom line is that when we see a video camera today, we need to update our intuitions about what it’s capable of. It may no longer be just collecting inert and unused video, but, especially if that camera is part of a larger network, the data it collects could be mined for insights about our lives across space and time. Communities and policymakers considering the installation of surveillance cameras — especially camera networks — should take heed.
Published February 8, 2022 at 07:09AM
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Via the ACLU: Transgender and Non-Binary Leaders Tell Federal Court Trans People Deserve Joy at Any Age
Transgender and Non-Binary Leaders Tell Federal Court Trans People Deserve Joy at Any Age
Published February 7, 2022 at 09:14AM
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In 2021, Arkansas passed a law banning gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth. This discriminatory law would not only prohibit healthcare professionals from providing or referring transgender youth for medically necessary health care, it would also allow private insurers to refuse to cover gender-affirming care for transgender people of any age. If it is allowed to go into effect, the law will have detrimental effects on the mental, emotional, and physical health of transgender people across the state.
Though the ACLU has won a temporary pause on Arkansas’ health care ban, the fight continues in federal appeals court and in statehouses around the country, which is why allies’ stories are so important. While Arkansas is the first — and so far, only — state to pass such legislation, similar bills have been introduced in over 30 states around the country.
An amazing 58 transgender and non-binary adults including actor Elliot Page, activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracey, media personality Jazz Jennings, and filmmaker Lilly Wachowski have stood up in defense of ACLU’s clients. They shared their stories in a “friend of the court” amicus brief filed by the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in support of plaintiffs in the ACLU’s case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Brandt v. Rutledge.
Read their stories below about how gender-affirming care has changed their lives for the better, the hardships of gender dysphoria, and the joys of transitioning.
Many trans youth have a clear sense of their gender at a very young age.
North Carolina-raised film producer Rhys Ernst remembers: “One of my earliest conscious memories, in which I felt the most alive and like myself, was at age 3, when I realized quite clearly that I was a boy. I felt a strong jolt of purpose and belonging claiming that identity for myself.”
Jazz Jennings, now a 21-year-old student from Florida, began gender-affirming treatment when she began puberty and then went on to receive gender-affirming hormones. She told the court how having a typical female puberty helped her: “I never looked masculine. I developed alongside my peers as a female teenager. I was able to lead a happy childhood because I was able to live as the girl I knew I was.”
Noted transgender activist Major Griffin-Gracy, an Arkansas resident who is now over 70, first began receiving gender-affirming care in the form of hormones when she was 16 years old. While the discrimination she has faced as a transgender woman has made her life challenging, she reflects that receiving hormone treatment as a teen “made life easier than it would have been.”
Miss Major joined the trans youth who are suing the state of Arkansas for the district court hearing in this case (credit: Sydney Rasch/ACLU of Arkasnas).
https://twitter.com/ArkansasACLU/status/1417896099432566794?s=20&t=QdFNLZeZGbQvoBJbl6AAng
Receiving gender-affirming care has wide-ranging benefits
Amici Dr. Gwendolyn Herzig of Alexander, Arkansas owns and operates an independent pharmacy. She shared with TLDEF how much coming into her identity empowered her to take a leadership role in the community:
“Living authentically has allowed me to better stand up and provide support for minority communities that need it the most. Especially, being the only trans female pharmacy owner in Arkansas, and maybe the South, in the face of a pandemic, I have been able to provide immunizations, resources, and guidance. Before, it was easier to hide away and to cope day by day. Now I try to take each day by storm and help everyone I can!”
Gender-affirming care cemented Witt Major’s relationship with his father.
“A gender-affirming therapist helped our whole family come to terms with what was happening, and I think helped my dad the most,” Major told TLDEF. “Before he passed, he loved and accepted me totally and would even send me cards saying things like Happy Birthday, Son.”
While his transition began in adulthood, Elliot Page agreed, sharing how his life completely changed once he was able to receive top surgery. “I couldn’t believe the amount of energy I had, ideas, how my imagination flourished, because the constant discomfort and pain around that aspect of my body was gone,” Page told the court.
Team USA athlete Chris Mosier recalled his first triathlon race after top surgery as a moment of gender euphoria: “The feeling of being able to run freely in a body that more closely matched the way I’ve always seen myself was overwhelming.”
https://twitter.com/TheChrisMosier/status/1483934176093032449?s=20&t=QdFNLZeZGbQvoBJbl6AAng
Transgender young people know what they need
Overall, the story told by this incredible array of transgender and non-binary supporters is that the treatment for gender dysphoria — gender affirmation — works.
Cecilia Gentili, a 49-year-old small business owner and transgender rights advocate, first received self-managed gender-affirming care at age 17, which she said was “great” and “changed her life,” but would have been even more beneficial if she had been able to obtain it through a doctor, rather than on her own. Gentili told the court:
“Transgender youth know who they are, and they know what they need. Our job is to listen to them.”
Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund is committed to ending discrimination based upon gender identity and expression and to achieving equality for transgender people through public education, test-case litigation, direct legal services, and public policy efforts.
Published February 7, 2022 at 09:14AM
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