June 2007 Archives

So the draft legislation was NOT tabled at parliament before the break, but just shown to journalists.

It's not designed to save any money lost to welfare fraud, so its no good for that.

They've removed the medical information option, so its no good for that.

Police and ASIO no longer require a warrant to access private information.

No technological protection of private information is required by the legislation. This makes the smart cards dumber than the magnetic stripe card it replaces.

The Access Card office and the Australian Government Information Management Office have been working closely to make sure that the face-recognition data on the card is compatible with the Closed-Circuit CCTV security camera system. This lets the government pick your face out of the crowd, without a warrant.

So the card doesn't achieve its stated purpose, yet it will costs several billions of dollars more than the old system. Legal and technological privacy protections are to be stripped away by the new legislation.

Perhaps the only thing the Access Card is good for is an Identity Card, however often the government protests otherwise.

References:
Access Card re-draft fails to meet critics' concerns
Access Card Debacle Continues
'Rushed' Access Card Bill raises suspicions
Govt toughens access card privacy protections
Access card could link to surveillance
Exposure Draft of the Bill
Access Card is not a national ID: Govt
Is Big Brother Stalking You?

Camel jockey


Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

Super-Cipher putting the pedal to the camel at Winter Magic.

(No capes!)

Freya the Geisha


Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

Freya the Geisha, captured by the pirates leading the parade at Winter Magic at the Blue Mountains in 2007.

Join the parade


Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

Sandy is the pirate on my left, and I'm the horny devil on the right. I travelled with Freya and the pirates who led the Winter Magic parade.

Arrrr


Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

Sandy the fake pirate with a real sword. Sandy pulled the cannon along the Winter Magic parade.

Fire!


Originally uploaded by iwoolf.

The pirates led the Winter Magic parade with a cannon that was muzzle-loaded with talcum powder for the smoke, and went bang from a balloon blown up with a plastic hand-pump. A sparkler provided the fuse.

MP3

I interview Dr Will Uther about his robots that drive cars in traffic. His team from the National ICT Australia, the Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney, the University of Technology, Sydney, and the University of California, Berkeley are competing in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge.

This is a competition run by the American military for cars driving themselves in traffic.

MP3

The US military are testing systems that bypass the soldier's judgement and act before he realizes that his subconscious has spotted a potential target. Cognitive Threat Warning Systems, will scan the soldier's brain as if he were just a zombie computer targeting system.

MP3

Clean electricity and clean water, made from beer.
A pilot power plant has opened where microbes feeding on waste water from a brewery are making electricity as they clean the water. Waste not, want not!