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SGINAUS BLOG
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Virtual strip search scanners in Aussie airports

European Union MPs have joined US civil liberty campaigners in criticising a new scanner technology which allows airport security staff to see through passengers' clothes.

Calling it a virtual strip search, they say it should be used only as a last resort.

"Many travellers will consider these scanners an enormous intrusion" on their personal privacy, Philip Bradbourn, a British Conservative member of the EU assembly, said on Monday.

The new system, being tested in Australia and which the EU plans to authorise at the bloc's airports, allows guards to see an outline of passengers' bodies beneath their clothes, making it easier to detect any concealed objects.

Trials of the scanners are being conducted at Melbourne , Adelaide and Sydney airports this month, although at this stage travellers will have a choice on whether they want to be screened by the new scanners.

The scanners are already being introduced in several US airports and have been tested in other countries around the world, including EU nations such as Britain and the Netherlands.

However, EU officials said it could face a ban if the 27-nation bloc does not include it in a new regulation listing acceptable airport security equipment.

Bradbourn said the technology should not be used routinely on passengers, but could be introduced when suspicions are raised.

"There may be some benefit in having body scanners in our airports, but they should be a last resort and a substitution for a strip search, not a random sample of innocent holidaymakers," he said.

The plans have provoked concern from across the political spectrum, and many EU lawmakers issued statements ahead of Monday night's debate about the matter in the European parliament, which is based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg.

"The body, or nude, scanners create a three-dimensional picture which shows the passenger without clothes, including their genitals," said German Social Democrat Wolfgang Kreissl-Doerfler.

The EU's executive body, the European Commission , says the legislation under consideration would respect safety and privacy rules, adding that passengers who objected could be offered an alternative form of security check.

Members of the European parliament are demanding the right to vote on the scanners, which could be included in the list of authorised security equipment as a technical measure that would not require the assembly's approval.

If the full-body scanners are included in the list, each of the 27 EU nations would be free to decide if they wanted to use them.

The American Civil Liberties Union has long campaigned against use of the scanners for routine checking at US airports, saying they should only be used in place of an intrusive search when there is probable cause.

After the machines were introduced at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport last year, officials there said they had few complaints from passengers, saying most approved because lines moved faster.    source: link


Posted by pui-chee at 7:30 PM NZT
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Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Mood:  bright
  Hellboy II is the best message-provoking movie to-date I have seen this year from Hollywood. The script brings back memories of comic action-heroes save the day themes like the BBC "Dr Who" series.In one of the scenes, faced with the disparity and ostracision of the human race due to himself and girlfriend Liz being different, the enemy Prince Nuala reminded Hellboy that "if you can't command, you can only obey". This movie evokes the call of the human element and ostracision of the mutants as we see in XMen III. The only fundamental flaw in the whole movie is why didn't Princess Nuala think of killing herself in the first place to stop her twin brother until the very end.

Posted by pui-chee at 12:11 PM NZT
Updated: Wednesday, 17 September 2008 12:14 PM NZT
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Friday, 5 September 2008
Ex-garbage collector becomes new premier of NSW
NSW Premier Morris Iemma quit politics and his treasurer Michael Costa was blasted out of cabinet.  This was after his deputy premier and transport minister John Watkins decided to resign not long before.

Mr Nathan Rees, who had been Mr Iemma's water minister and has only been in parliament for 18 months, said he would have a "red-hot go" at tackling the clear service delivery challenges in transport and health.

Mr Rees has had a meteoric rise to the top of politics in the state.

A former garbage collector, he was first elected a member of state parliament in March last year and was immediately appointed to the frontbench as Water Utilities and Emergency Services Minister.

He said he did not believe the public deserved an apology from Labor but acknowledged the previous administration had left NSW in a poor fiscal state.

Wondering what will happen to the promises made by the ex-Premier such as bring in jobs to Sydney Financial institutions and whether the new premier will support these policies going forth ? http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/4993078/rees-replaces-iemma-nsw-premier/

Posted by pui-chee at 11:46 PM NZT
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Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Digeridoo is bad for women
"A book that teaches girls to play the ceremonial instruments should be pulped because there are cultural taboos on women playing the male instrument, they say. Academic and Aboriginal education advocate Dr Mark Rose said it was an "extreme faux pas" on the part of the publishers of the Australian edition of the Daring Book for Girls, set to be published in October. The book is a revised version of the US edition by Andrea J Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz. The local edition replaces almost half the original content with uniquely Australian material such as The Rules of Netball and How to Surf. But the chapter How to Play a Didgeridoo reflected "extreme cultural insensitivity and mammoth ignorance", said Dr Rose, a member of the western Victorian Gundjitamara Nation. The chapter says: "Playing a Didgeridoo appears deceptively simple, until you've got a `didge' on your lips and no sound comes out. But a few easy instructions and you'll be playing like a seasoned pro". Dr Rose, who is the general manager of the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association (VAEA), said the inclusion of the chapter showed how "out of sync" the general community was with indigenous issues. He said there were specific cultural protocols around the instrument, including a ban on females touching or playing it. "Each nation has its own cultural protocols around it but it's a male instrument," he said. Dr Rose said indigenous people believed there were consequences for women who played a didgeridoo, including infertility." [Source :http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24283071-2,00.html]

Posted by pui-chee at 11:57 PM NZT
Updated: Thursday, 4 September 2008 12:02 AM NZT
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New browsers sucks!

Google is releasing its new internet browser codenamed "Chrome". According to some reviews, there is a clause saying: "11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services./ " That means that Google gets rights to all the postings to your blogs and all your webmail.

The new Firefox 3.01 isn't anywhere better as it frequently crashes and closes your windows even before prompting a message to say if you would like to close them. Join in the complaints at their website.


Posted by pui-chee at 12:00 PM NZT
Updated: Thursday, 4 September 2008 10:27 AM NZT
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