Blog Heap of Links for the day 24 May 2012

A new smartphone app called SceneTap… employs facial-detection software and cameras placed strategically in bars and nightclubs to tell users the age and gender makeup of an establishment they're thinking of visiting.… patrons being scanned by cameras don't necessarily know that they're being monitored. Some privacy advocates call it "creepy…." [You think that's creepy? It's just a foretaste.]

A 101-year-old man is dead after being struck by a car driven by a 91-year-old woman as he crossed a Burbank street.

[Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt] issued a stark warning tonight that the power of the internet to free some of the world’s most oppressed people risks being overturned by autocratic governments who seek to “Balkanise” the web by controlling what can be accessed.

In the wake of a series of embarrassing technical glitches that marred Facebook’s first day of trading on the Nasdaq, the social networking giant is now open to moving its listing to rival exchange New York Stock Exchange....

Bartlesville police arrested 44-year old [Dewey woman]… two three year old girls were in car seats covered with dried feces… "just a few hours. I tried to get some wipes but the store was closed."… yelling and hitting the children… screaming at the girls to shut up and threw a box at one… a bicycle was laying on one of the girls and one of the girls was holding part of a six pack… an open beer can next to [mother]… neither one was wearing shoes or diapers… "I was getting around to clean her up just hadn't had the time and then I had to go get wipes… " told them she only smoked the fake marijuana… K9 officers found marijuana and a grinder in the car. One of the children had a [head] laceration… from her mother hitting her with a broom… felony child neglect charges, possession, and transporting an open container. [Whew! Gotta say once again, 'tain't the pot!]

This week science fiction writer Elizabeth Moon argues that everyone should be given a barcode at birth. “If I were empress of the Universe I would insist on every individual having a unique ID permanently attached - a barcode if you will; an implanted chip to provide an easy, fast inexpensive way to identify individuals." [Sure. Handy. Convenient. What could go wrong? Because we could have implanted net-connected co-processors to make us all as smart as Google! And, just to be on the safe side, we'll give the good ol' trustworthy government the power to decide when they release poison and kill the host!]

The European Union is now moving to create a mandatory electronic ID system for all EU citizens that would be implemented across Europe to standardize business both online and in person, authenticating users via a common ‘electronic signature.’ A single authenticating ID would guard access to the Internet, online data and most commerce. It is nothing short of an attempt to phase in a Mark of the Beast system, and a prominent Bilderberg attendee is behind the scheme. [Oh, that nutty InfoWars! Mark of the Beast! Ha ha! This is just a financial convenience, like credit cards. We could use something like this to, like, prevent voter fraud. What could go wrong!?!]

Gina Rinehart – the Australian mining magnate – has become the world’s richest woman… net worth is now $29.7 billion…

The Times-Picayune, one of the nation's oldest newspapers, will trim its publication to just three printed issues a week starting in the fall, making New Orleans the largest metro area without a daily newspaper.

Detroit, whose 139 square miles contain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating almost half its streetlights.

Bill Clinton just out-Clinton'd himself — posing with two famous porn stars in Monaco… and one of them's a real up-and-comer. [sic]

President Obama failed to appear on cue last night at the Fox Theater in Redwood City, California… earlier in the day in Denver, Baker reported that “the room at times felt a little flat and Potus seemed a little tired…" [Don't you think he looks tired?]