The Naming Industrial Complex: The Stupidity Of

Smart Devices And Smart Cities

Written by Binoy KAMPMARK on 27/08/2019

Insentience cannot have intelligence, but the modern public relations revolution would have you think
otherwise. Smart phones, smart bombs, and, it follows, Smart Cities (capitalising such terms implies false
authority), do not exist in that sense, whatever their cheer squad emissaries in High Tech land claim. They are
merely a masterfully daft celebration of tactically deployed cults: there is a fad, a trend, and therefore, it must be
smart, a model option to pursue.

What does exist is a naming industrial complex, a conniving fraternity that gives them some form of nominal
existence: to utter and label is to create. These people are, in due course, paid ample amounts to whisper such
packaged sweet nothings, the tech wizards in alliance with the marketing gurus.

Naming systems as if they were intelligent has a long pedigree in the kingdom of mechanical designations. The
US Department of Defense came up with a scheme in 1963 to generate various names, which might give you the
impression of unwarranted sophistication or even cuddliness. Little wonder that the term smart came to be used
in the naming process.

In the 1970s, the term “smart weapons” came into usage to distinguish laser and TV-guided munitions from the
standard, lacklustre non-wonders such as “dumb” bombs. This false distinction should never have taken off, but it
did, proudly asserted in military circles as gospel. An article in 1987 by A.R. Newbury in the RUSI Journal sums
this up without a shred of cynicism. “In particular, ‘smart’, or even ‘brilliant’, has been used to describe weapons
which can acquire and attack targets with the minimum of external support.”

Subsequent deployments of these weapons revealed, in time, a distinctly “dumb” streak. William M. Arkin,
having been a military advisor for Human Rights Watch, suggested that “smart” weapons did not preclude dumb
uses, such as targeting. Arkin specifically references the bombing of Pančevo’s Lola Utva plant in 1999, a factory
that “was simply not in a position to contribute much of anything to Yugoslavia’s military” when it was hit by
NATO forces. Besides, “all weapons,” according to internal Pentagon documents, “show that for all weapons –
smart and dumb – only 58 percent of the intended ‘aimpoints’ were hit.” Much none-too-smart nonsense
continues to circulate ad nauseam, in the field.

From the weaponry of states deployed with varying measures of accuracy and bungling, supposedly vested with
the euphemistic charm of being intelligent, we find similar measures in proposals that seek to identify the magic
of smart weaponry held by domestic citizenry. Take, for instance, the idea of “smart” guns. In 2014, the US
Attorney General Eric Holder gave an example before a House appropriations subcommittee. The theme: how
guns “can be made more safe” in a managed environment that would still enable US citizens to exercise their
second amendment rights. “By making them either through finger print identification, the gun talks to a bracelet
or something you might wear, how guns can be used only by the person who is lawfully in possession of the
weapon.”
City of London

The fallacy of naming in order to vest technology with a sensibility persists in other areas. Labelling teams work
around the clock. Domestic appliances have not be spared; the home has been invaded by their language. As a
world-weary David Capener observes, “Marketers know that we, the public, are often stupid enough to believe
that thanks to their technology, life is better now than it was way back in, say, the primitive Nineties.” The
anatomy of such a city is based on its technological expression, one as equally sinister as it is questionable. It
takes the form of continual, mass surveillance typified by sensing devices; vending machines with in-built
biometric sensors; concealed black boxes located through the city’s urban settings.

Rio de Janeiro’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, was one such convert to the idea. In his response to the 2010 mudslides,
he forged ahead with plans to create an urban command centre based in the Cicade Novo district known as the
Centro de Operações Preifetura do Rio de Janeiro (COR). “COR,” as The Guardian noted, “brings together the
municipality’s 30 departments and private suppliers into a single monitoring rom. Here, they track real-time
conditions in the city, when necessary coordinating a response to emergencies and disruptions.”

In terms of cities, London is considered one of the smartest, despite its crowding, desperate chaos and poor
planning. As a sceptical Bruce Sterling reminds us in The Atlantic, “London is a huge, ungainly beast whose
cartwheeling urban life is in cranky, irrational disarray. London is a god-awful urban mess, but London does have
some of the best international smart-city conferences.”

The naming logic becomes a necessity, linked to technological need. You are told that the whole business is
necessitous and vital. You simply could not do without it. As Sterling suggests, burying fibre-optic capable gives
you the internet; towers and smartphones generate “portable ubiquity”; breaking a smartphone into component
parts – sensors, switches, radios – gives you the internet of things. But when all are linked, and examined, you
also get the dumb aspect of things, insensate, machine oriented, duly named to trick the gullible. Behind this lurk
the familiar pagan gods: the internet, cloud computing and capital.
Reposts are welcomed with the reference to ORIENTAL REVIEW.

Digital Slavery: 5G, Internet of Things and Artificial

Intelligence

Posted By: Patrick Wood August 27, 2019

The Technocrat’s lust for 5G and Internet of Things is so strong that they are perfectly willing to ignore all human
concerns, protests and especially health concerns. However, the issue of Scientific Dictatorship, aka Technocracy,
is much greater. ⁃ TN Editor

Technocracy was originally defined as “the science of social engineering, the scientific operation of the entire
social mechanism to produce and distribute goods and services to the entire population…” (The Technocrat
Magazine, 1938)

Planted as a seed in 1932, Technocracy has grown into a tree so big that it literally covers the earth today: that is,
through the rebranding and repurposing by the United Nations as Sustainable Development, Agenda 21, 2030
Agenda, New Urban Agenda, etc.

Furthermore, it is like a hydra-headed monster with many tentacles and expressions, but we must never lose sight
of the common purpose of all: kill the world’s economic system of Capitalism and Free Enterprise and replace it
with the vacuous economic system, Sustainable Development.

Since Technocracy is a resource-based economic system, people like you and I are considered as mere resources
on the same level as livestock on a ranch. If people are just animals who selfishly consume resources, then they
must be monitored, managed and limited in their consumption.

To this end, Technocracy originally called for total surveillance of all people, all consumption, all production and
all energy consumed in every activity. The outcome was to control all consumption and production. This level of
technology didn’t exist in 1932, but it does today!

When the surveillance network in America (and the world) is finally functional, the command and control system
will become reality, resulting in a Scientific Dictatorship that exceeds even Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four or
Huxley’s Brave New World.

What is the last cog in the gearbox necessary to bring this about? In short, 5G!

Why? When you consider the massive amount of data that is waiting to be collected from the widespread Internet
of Things, facial recognition cameras, Smart City sensors, self-driving vehicles, etc., they all lack one element:
real-time connectivity. 5G solves this!

If you listen to any 2019 speech given by the CEO of Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T, you will hear them rave over
how 5G’s real-time connectivity is going to light up the Internet of Things like a Macy’s Christmas tree. You will
hear the words “transformative” and “disruptive” over and over.

What’s the big deal with “real-time” connectivity? Artificial Intelligence (AI).

It is said that AI without data is as inert and useless as a pile of rocks. AI needs data to “learn” and then to take
action. Up until now, Technocrats who create AI programs have had to use historical data for learning and that’s
about all; forever learning but never doing.

The “holy grail” of Technocrats is to use their AI on REAL-TIME DATA. Real-time analysis can then close the
control loop by feeding back real-time adjustments. This has never been done in the history of the world, but
thanks to 5G, Technocrats everywhere are salivating to dive into the control business; that is, the “scientific
operation of the entire social mechanism.”

Let me give you an example. Say you are an engineer and you designed and built a state-of-the-art fire truck that
will revolutionize firefighting. There it sits on display for everyone to see. You start the engine and everyone is
duly impressed, but still, it just sits there. Without water (e.g., the data) to pump through the numerous hoses,
everyone, including yourself, can only imagine of what it would be like. In fact, your engineering dream is quite
useless until you take it to an actual, real-time fire and blast away with the water cannons to douse the flames.
Then you will know if you were successful or not.
Technocrats understand this. They know that 5G will fully enable their AI inventions and dreams. Unfortunately
for us, they also know that it will enable the feedback loop to control the objects of surveillance, namely, US!

The Technocrat’s lust for 5G and Internet of Things is so strong that they are perfectly willing to ignore all human
concerns, protests and especially health concerns.

Perhaps now you can understand how and why they are living out the old nautical phrase, “Damn the torpedoes,
full speed ahead!” Risks don’t matter. Danger doesn’t matter. Collateral damage doesn’t matter.

To the extent that we citizens can nullify the rollout and implementation of 5G, we will scuttle the Technocrat’s
ability to establish a Scientific Dictatorship. Truly, it is we who should be mounting the counter-attack with our
own cry of “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

Google unveils vision for downtown San Jose transit

village
10-13 minute

(CLICK HERE, if you are unable to view this photo gallery on your mobile device.)

SAN JOSE — Years after it began fueling speculation by buying up huge swaths of property near Diridon
Station, Google has provided the first peek at what the search giant hopes will be a vibrant mixed-use community
woven into the fabric of the city’s urban heart.

At a widely anticipated community meeting Thursday evening, the tech giant unveiled a design for a mile-long
stretch of formerly industrial land west of Highway 87 that includes thousands of new homes, offices, public
plazas, art, cultural space and at least one hotel. The proposal promises to transform a run-down section of the city
and comes as a marked shift from the walled-off corporate tech campuses that have dominated the South Bay for
decades.

“It’s not your grandfather’s tilt-up suburban Silicon Valley office building,” said Mayor Sam Liccardo.

Google chose this part of San Jose in large part because of Diridon Station, which in the coming years is set to
become one of the largest transit hubs on the west coast — with BART, Caltrain, bus service and perhaps even
high-speed rail all servicing the terminal.

But in Google’s vision, riders will emerge from the station not into the current drab expanse of flat parking lots
but into a bustling plaza lined with new office buildings anchored by cafes and shops on the ground floor to draw
people in. While the company has not yet released renderings of the project, the images released Thursday
provide the clearest picture yet of what Google is imagining.

Across from the southwest corner of the SAP Center, Google wants to create some housing — an apparent nod to
advocates who called for homes to be located near the station. Northwest of the Shark Tank, Google has plans for
a hotel. That, in part, is meant to counter a major conversion of housing in the area into short-term rentals through
something like Airbnb.

Alexa Arena, Google’s director of real estate development, likened Google’s vision to the company’s modern,
pedestrian-friendly King’s Cross project in central London, adjacent to the famed St. Pancras train station that
whisks riders across the English Channel to Paris and beyond. Both Google workers and San Jose residents alike,
she said, want to emerge from the station directly into a vibrant city. And, she insisted, Google wants to build a
space that retains a diverse, unique San Jose feel.
To the north, the company wants to preserve some industrial character, with space for artists to be creative. To the
south, Google’s design focuses more on local retail and connecting with nature — creating and updating pathways
near Los Gatos Creek. Housing and office space would be incorporated on both sides.

The space shouldn’t have “any hard edges,” Arena told this news organization, noting that while San Jose recently
voted to allow much taller buildings near Diridon Station, Google doesn’t plan to build high in the sky
everywhere. In some spots, Arena said, shorter structures might be more appealing than towers — near residential
neighborhoods with single-family homes, for instance.

“They have designed a district that meets their office needs but that is going to feel like an extension of the
downtown,” said Kim Walesh, the city’s director of economic development, “and like a very high-quality, regular
urban area, and I think that must be a first.”

Overall, the company plans to create an estimated 6.5 million square feet of office space and 3,000 to 5,000
homes, well beyond what the city had anticipated for the area. Google also wants to set aside 500,000 square feet
for retail, restaurants, culture, arts, education and other uses to help create an active place that would attract
people at night and on weekends.

“San Jose has a serious housing crisis and also a serious jobs deficit,” Walesh said, “so I’m really excited about
Google taking significant steps to address both of those twin challenges.”

The proposal also would create 15 acres of parks, plazas and green spaces — in many cases as ways to link parts
of the transit village to the rest of the downtown as well as to nearby Los Gatos Creek and the Guadalupe River.

Google anticipates it could employ 20,000 to 25,000 people within the transit-oriented neighborhood.

“Here is an opportunity to be part of a city,” said Ricardo Benavidez, manager of community development with
Google.

While the company is still in what San Jose’s transportation director, John Ristow, dubbed the “cartoon” phase, it
plans to work with Heatherwick Studio, the British company Google turned to for its King’s Cross space and its
tent-like Mountain View headquarters.

To head off lengthy legal battles, Google will ask the governor’s office to work through AB 900, a 2011 measure
that sends California Environmental Quality Act challenges directly to appellate courts to be resolved in nine
months. Such projects must be at least $100 million, pay construction workers prevailing wages and not make
greenhouse gases worse. If Google is granted AB 900 permission, it will be a first for both the company and San
Jose — and good news for Liccardo’s legacy.

Even before construction — which could stretch for more than a decade — begins, Google wants to convert the
former Orchard Supply Hardware site near Highway 280 into job training space, where unions and others could
help San Jose residents learn construction techniques and other skills to take advantage of job opportunities
offered by the Google project.

“We need to start on job readiness today,” Arena said.

Perhaps the most difficult piece of the project to work through is also what makes it so appealing for Google:
transportation.

To build the modern train station the city and tech giant envision, Google will need to work not only with San
Jose but also with BART, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, Caltrain and other bureaucratic
entities.

And as Google builds, they will want to close some streets to public traffic and extend others, a process that will
involve working with the city’s transportation department on everything from the dimensions of roadways and
bikeways to where shuttles can drop off employees.
“We’re just dying for more details,” said Ristow.

Google plans to put parking in the area underground and focus on people, not cars, Arena said. But part of
Ristow’s task will be making sure that the Sharks have enough parking for fans, especially during the construction
process.

If everything goes according to the current plan, Google will get feedback from San Jose residents on the initial
framework, refine the plans and file an application with the city in October. That will kick-start a formal review
process, and then the City Council will take a final vote in fall 2020. The first buildings could open sometime
around 2024.

Protesters interrupted the proceedings for a few minutes but soon left the City Council chambers, the site of the
meeting, under the watchful eye of some police officers.

“We have an incredible opportunity here,” Arena said during her presentation Thursday night. “We can do
something really different here.”

PAI/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

Google's San Jose village would span from landmark to landmark in Washington, D.C.

PAI/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

How would the size of Google's planned San Jose transit village compare with other well-known sites in
the Bay Area and U.S.? Click on to take a look. (Map images from Google Earth)


PAI/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

Here's the approximate boundary of the Google transit village in downtown San Jose.

 Sound

The gallery will resume inseconds

PAI/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

Here's what it would look like in San Francisco.

PAI/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

Here's how the Google San Jose campus would look in downtown Oakland.

PAI/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

How does the Google San Jose campus compare to Apple Park in Cupertino?

PAI/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

Google's San Jose campus would span the Golden Gate Bridge.
 

PAI/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

Here's how the Google San Jose campus would fit in Lower Manhattan.

PAI/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

Google's San Jose village would span from landmark to landmark in Washington, D.C.

PAI/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

How would the size of Google's planned San Jose transit village compare with other well-known sites in
the Bay Area and U.S.? Click on to take a look. (Map images from Google Earth)

PAI/BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

1 of 8

How would the size of Google's planned San Jose transit village compare with other well-known sites in the Bay
Area and U.S.? Click on to take a look. (Map images from Google Earth)

Expand

The development must be more than yet another suburban office complex in Silicon Valley, said Laura
Crescimano, co-founder and principal executive with SiteLab Urban Studio, the primary designer of Google’s
transit-oriented community.

“This is not going to be an office park,” Crescimano said during the Google village presentation. “No one wants
this to just be an office park.”

Some real estate executives embraced the first look at Google’s transit village plans.

“This is a great first step into the Google process,” said Mark Ritchie, president of Ritchie Commercial, a real
estate firm. “We all need to keep in perspective the amount of economic benefit their presence will be in the
relatively unused portion of downtown San Jose.”

Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use and planning consultancy, also liked the
initial details of the Google proposal.

“Google comes out of the blocks in a very strong fashion, showing their serious desire to develop this area
thoughtfully,” Staedler said.

The proposal suggests the tech titan has crafted a long-range vision for the west side of San Jose’s urban core,
downtown observers believe.

“Google’s San Jose plan demonstrates their commitment to helping create a future city where open spaces,
diversity, mixed uses, and transportation all work together,” said Scott Knies, executive director of the San Jose
Downtown Association.
Within the 240-acre Diridon Station planning area, Google is eyeing development on roughly 60 acres, company
representatives estimated as part of the presentation Thursday night.

“None of this is going to be easy,” Mayor Liccardo said. “All of this is going to require a lot of coordination and
collaboration, and fortunately we have people at the table who rolled up their sleeves ready to collaborate.”

Still, Liccardo, who terms out in 2022, is confident that a vibrant transit village with Google as a key anchor will
become a reality.

“I won’t be cutting the ribbon,” said the mayor, before referencing a famous Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speech,
“but even if I can’t enter the promised land, the view from the mountain top is extraordinarily promising for San
Jose and its future.”

Philly to switch all 100,000 streetlights to ‘smart’

LEDs; expect some debate
by Andrew Maykuth, Updated: August 22, 2019

STEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer

Philadelphia was the first city in America with public streetlights, thanks to Ben Franklin’s introduction of the oil
candle in colonial times. But the city has been a little slower than others to switch its public streetlights to modern
energy-saving LEDs, mostly because the conversion costs are high.

That’s about to change. The city’s Energy Office is preparing to issue a call for vendors who can convert all
100,000 city streetlights to LEDs in two to three years. The aim is to reduce the city’s carbon footprint and to
shrink the government’s single largest energy expense — the city spends $15 million a year on streetlights. The
new lamps might also provide more light in some crime-plagued neighborhoods in Philadelphia.

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"The goal we’re looking at is a 40% reduction in cost,” said Richard Montanez, the deputy streets commissioner,
who has advocated the conversion for about a decade. If the city can reduce costs by $6 million a year, the savings
would likely cover the debt service for the project.

Converting the city’s streetlights to LEDs would cost $50 million to $80 million, said Adam Agalloco, the city’s
energy manager, who is organizing a formal request for qualifications from potential vendors. The city likely
would issue a bond for the project and repay the debt under Pennsylvania’s Guaranteed Energy Savings Act,
which allows public entities to finance projects with the savings generated over current energy costs.

“We’re in a place where we can invest in LED street lighting and the project will pay for itself — at a minimum it
will be financeable over 20 years, potentially sooner than that,” Agalloco said.

STEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer

A street lamp illuminates a pedestrian on North Eighth Street. The city is going to start a bidding process to
replace all of the city's street lamps with LED lights.
The Inquirer Business Weekly Newsletter
Business news and analysis sent straight to your inbox every Tuesday morning.

Not just about savings

City officials say the economics of switching to LEDs improved this year when Peco introduced a new tariff for
“smart” street lighting at the request of Philadelphia and other municipal governments. The new street-lighting
tariff, part of a larger rate package approved last year by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, could
provide a compelling incentive to local governments to invest in new wirelessly networked LED systems.

The city’s conversion plan is far more complicated than swapping in LED lamps for existing high-pressure
sodium bulbs. The LED lights — light-emitting diodes — require new fixtures that are connected wirelessly and
managed remotely, allowing operators to dim the lights after midnight to save money or to crank them up to full
brightness to assist responders during a police or fire emergency.

>> READ MORE: Philadelphia Museum of Art is having a lightbulb moment, swapping out 11,000 bulbs and
fixtures for LED ones

The new devices would also meter the amount of electricity consumed by streetlights — streetlights currently are
not metered, and the city is billed based on estimated “burn” times, as well as a fixed fee per lamp. The metering
technology is at the heart of Peco’s new tariff, which shifts more of the cost of the lights to the amount of energy
they consume, rewarding owners for cutting energy use.

The city has installed about 5,000 LED streetlights in several pilot projects in recent years and acquired some
experience adjusting the brightness during Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign rally at Independence Mall, when it
turned up newly installed LED lights to 100% brightness at the request of law enforcement officials.

Maddie Hanna / STAFF

Independence Mall bathed in light ahead of Hillary Clinton campaign rally in 2016, featuring President Barack
and Michelle Obama, Bruce Springsteen, and Jon Bon Jovi.

“It was actually brighter than normal while all the people were there," said Montanez. “As soon as the police
started clearing the site, we started slowly dimming the lights.”
Montanez said it is becoming more difficult to find affordable replacement parts for traditional high-pressure
sodium fixtures because suppliers are rapidly shifting to LEDs. All the street lamps around City Hall have been
converted to LEDs, as well as the new streetlights installed around the former Gallery mall in Center City, now
called the Fashion District.

The plan to convert streetlights is part of the Philadelphia Energy Authority’s campaign to encourage a $1 billion
investment in public and private investment over 10 years to create 10,000 jobs. The project is also being
promoted by the city’s Office of Sustainability.

>> READ MORE: Pa. towns are saving millions by teaming up to buy LED lights. It could be a national model

More light, less power

The case for switching to LEDs is a straightforward equation in energy efficiency: They generate more light with
less power than conventional lighting.

Some of the city’s high-pressure sodium lights, installed in high-traffic parts of Center City, are rated as high as
400 watts. The majority of sodium streetlights in Philadelphia neighborhoods are 100-watt lamps — Montanez
said an equivalent LED light would use 45 watts.

The city is experimenting with installing some LEDs that are brighter than current streetlights as a crime
deterrent, said Montanez, though he acknowledged that brighter LEDS will not achieve as much energy savings.

“We have installed the equivalent of 150-watt LEDs in some areas, Kensington and North Philly, high crime
areas,” he said. “Both the police and the community have asked us to light it up more than just the 100-watt
equivalent.”

Armando L. Sanchez / MCT

LED street lights illuminate traffic on Lake Shore Drive near North Avenue Beach on July 25, 2019, in Chicago.

Peco said it created the new tariff for smart street lighting — formally, it’s called the SL-C rate — in response to
requests from municipalities, including Philadelphia, which is its largest lighting customer.
“We are always conscious of what our customers want, and the city is a big customer,” said Richard A.
Schlesinger, manager of retail rates. The utility also worked with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning
Commission, which has promoted the conversion of street lighting in suburban communities.

>> READ MORE: What happened to the lights on the South Street Bridge?

The new tariff reduces the “location charge," a fixed fee for each streetlight or cluster or lights, while it increases
the per-kilowatt charge that Peco charges for delivering energy over its wires. The city hopes the reduction in
energy use from the more efficient lights will more than offset the higher cost per kilowatt hour.

The switchover to a smart LED lighting system controlled through a wireless mesh network also opens the
possibility that the devices could provide more than illumination, but an interconnected system of security
cameras, air-quality monitors, traffic and pedestrian counters, or acoustic gunshot detectors. “The more bells and
whistles you put in there, the more it costs,” said Montanez.

Color of light

The wholesale changeover of Philadelphia’s street-illumination scheme is not a subject that the city is taking
lightly. Officials are bracing for some resistance and debate about the color of the lights deployed — LEDs tend
to have a more bluish hue than warm sodium lights.

>> READ MORE: LED lights have made Philly a rainbow by night. So why does our civic lighting fall so flat?

Warm colors may be more desirable in some neighborhoods, while bluish lights might be more compatible with
security cameras and law enforcement objectives. The American Medical Association in 2016 warned that high-
intensity LED lighting that emits a large amount of blue light could worsen nighttime glare and decrease visual
acuity and safety.

“We want to do a little work with neighborhoods to make sure we get feedback from the public," said Christine
Knapp, head of the city’s sustainability office. "It’ll be a larger project and have more scrutiny and be a little more
complicated to get everybody comfortable with the solution.”

Montanez said that the LED technology is improving rapidly, and that LEDs deployed five years ago were less
efficient and more harsh than the lights currently undergoing testing. “The technology is always evolving,” he
said. “That’s one advantage to being kind of slow moving on this.”

Some neighborhoods, such as Old City and Chestnut Hill, want warmer lights. “We don’t want to take away a
neighborhood’s identity,” he said.

>> READ MORE: Brothers hoping LED business shines

The city’s aim is to illuminate the public right of way, not private property, he said. “We’ve been on blocks where
the individual says, ‘I want the light to stop at the bottom of my step,’ and a neighbor who says, ‘I want the
streetlight to light up my keyhole.’ In the same block, you’re getting two different perspectives.”

He also said that preferences vary according to gender. In surveys the city conducted in 2011 after LEDs were
installed on some blocks in Northern Liberties, he said that women expressed a preference for brighter LEDs.

“Females like it brighter,” he said. “They want to see who’s coming at them, that there’s no dark shadows to hide
behind.”
Posted: August 22, 2019 - 6:30 AM

Battle And Pushback Over 5G Rollout Is Heating Up

Posted By: Christopher Mims August 26, 2019

Citizens and cities are pushing back against FCC bullying and health concerns, even as 5G providers are calling it
all ‘conspiracy theories.’ The providers are increasingly embattled by city councils. ⁃ TN Editor

Jack Tibbetts, a member of the Santa Rosa, Calif., city council, knew he had a problem. It was early 2018, and
he’d started getting calls from constituents at opposite ends of the political spectrum. The common thread: cellular
antennas going up next to their homes, causing concerns over property values and health.

The weight of evidence suggests that if radio-frequency emissions have any effect on humans at all, it
is, according to the World Health Organization, about on par with other “possibly carcinogenic” substances,
including coffee and pickles. The Federal Communications Commission, citing input from the Food and Drug
Administration, recently declared that existing limits on the amount of radio-frequency energy these antennas put
out make them safe. A senior FCC official said there is nothing unique to 5G networks that poses additional
health risks.

None of this has stopped the social-media-fueled conspiracy whirligig that allows health scares to thrive on the
internet.

Cities and towns throughout Northern California are issuing ordinances that would exclude new 5G cell sites from
residential areas, citing supposed health concerns. Residents of Portland, Ore., and Whitefish, Mont., have also
cited these beliefs while lobbying for restrictions. Legislators in four states including New Hampshire have
proposed bills that would mandate further study of health effects or else urge Congress to do so, and Congressman
Thomas Suozzi (D., N.Y.) wrote to the FCC echoing these concerns.

For Mr. Tibbetts, it didn’t matter whether or not these new “small cell” antennas—which are used for 4G
networks but can be upgraded for 5G—going up in Santa Rosa were actually dangerous. Some were attached to
utility poles a mere 20 feet from people’s bedroom windows, and residents complained Verizon had put them up
without notifying them. What mattered was that his constituents didn’t want these ungainly chunks of public
infrastructure anywhere near them.

“I don’t like the idea of someone being in their home and it’s supposed to be a place of security, and they are
having that feeling of insecurity,” Mr. Tibbetts says. “I won’t be surprised if in 10 years there’s no evidence of
cancer from these towers, but my job is not to protect Verizon, it’s to protect people in their houses.”

Whatever the basis for residents’ objections to new cell towers, Mr. Tibbetts—as well as countless mayors,
governors and council members across the country—have little or no power under current rules to act on their
constituents’ wishes. Nor do they have the leeway they once did to set pricing for cell sites, a lucrative source of
funding for civic initiatives. Those who do take action are creating ordinances that put their cities at risk of being
sued by the telecoms, as happened this month in Rochester, N.Y.
Billed as the key to the future—of telecommunications, of global competition, of innovation and even of
municipal infrastructure—5G has instead become a bone of contention. In addition to upgrading existing towers,
it will require an estimated half-million new towers and small-cell sites on utility poles, lampposts and buildings.
Experts also anticipate a long rollout period, potentially of a decade or more.

Most cities want 5G, but they don’t want to be told how, when and at what cost. Rules the FCC has already
passed, meant to expedite 5G’s rollout, might well be creating acrimony that serves to do the exact opposite.

Massive Fake News Campaign Targets Brazil’s

Amazon Fires

2014 photo
from space of Amazon fires

Posted By: Patrick Wood August 23, 2019

Seemingly everybody has heard about the fires burning in the Amazon, creating smoke and haze events in cities
as far away as Sao Paulo. The question is, who is spreading the alarm and is it real or fake?

The hysteria over Brazil’s “lungs of the earth” has even become a central contention at the G7 meeting in Europe,
with global leaders calling for intervention to save the Amazon jungle.

The problem is that most pictures being circulated on social media are NOT of this year’s fires at all! Photos are
being dragged out from fires dating back to 1989 and presented as if they were taken in 2019.
The real facts: Official Nasa photo as of August 13, 2019.

This is fake news and blatant disinformation at its worst, but the world’s news media is using it to fan the fires of
outrage in an attempt to achieve a political outcome, namely, Sustainable Development.

In particular, the Amazon rain forest is seen as vital to countering global warming.

Meteorologist Eric Holthaus, who writes for the radical environmental journal Grist, Tweeted today,

“Smoke from the fires currently burning in the Amazon rainforest is covering about half of Brazil. We are in a
climate emergency.”

Apparently fire and smoke is seen as proof of global warming.

However, considering that the rain forrest stretches across Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana,
Suriname, and French Guiana, why is it that only Brazil is under attack by the Sustainable Development crowd?

First, remember that the first Earth Summit that produced Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development in the first
place was held in Rio DeJaneiro, Brazil in 1992. Thus, Brazil is akin to sacred ground to UN policy wonks.

Second, Brazil’s newly-elected president Jair Bolsonaro is strongly opposed to globalization, left-wing policies
and is pointedly anti-Communist. Bolsonaro has become a lightning rod for attack much in the same way and for
the same reasons as U.S. President Donald Trump.

The bottom line is that while fires are real, the Chicken Little panic is fake.

Amazon fires: how celebrities are spreading disinformation (AFP)

Many high-profile figures seeking to denounce the fires in the Amazon — from Madonna and Cristiano Ronaldo
to Leonardo DiCaprio and Emmanuel Macron — have unwittingly ended up misleading millions on social media,
either sharing photographs of the region that are years old or images taken in other parts of the world.

Official figures show nearly 73,000 forest fires were recorded in Brazil in the first eight months of the year, the
highest number for any year since 2013. Most were in the Amazon.

– Leaders –

“Our house is on fire. Literally. The Amazon, the lung of our planet which produces 20 percent of our oxygen is
burning,” France’s President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter, posting a photograph of a burning forest (1)
accompanied by the hashtag #ActForTheAmazon.

“It is an international crisis. Members of the G7, let’s talk in two days about this emergency,” Macron said ahead
of a planned summit this weekend in Biarritz.

But the photograph used by the French leader does not show this year’s fires. A reverse image search showed that
it was taken by the American photojournalist Loren McIntyre, known for his work for National Geographic.

Although the image search tool does not reveal when exactly the photograph was taken, McIntyre died in 2003,
meaning the image is at least 16 years old.

(1) https://perma.cc/D93C-AYL7

Chile’s president, Sebastian Pinera, also ended up tweeting a misleading image to issue a warning about the fires,
using a photograph (2) by Reuters journalist Nacho Doce from 2013.

(2) https://perma.cc/6D8D-39L8

– Actors –

Leonardo DiCaprio shared two pictures that proved to be inaccurate — the first (3) was the same one shared by
Macron while the second (4) was shot in the Peruvian city of Puerto Maldonado in 2016.

Peru is not currently affected by the fires, though authorities are “on alert”.

(3) https://perma.cc/Z24S-L6PM

(4) https://perma.cc/P2CG-ZHA9

Actor and rapper Jaden Smith, son of superstar Will Smith, posted a dramatic image (5) on Instagram that shows a
vast forest on fire as huge columns of smoke rise from it. But the photo, which has garnered more than 1.5 million
likes, dates back to 1989.

(5) https://perma.cc/CZD3-6PZZ

Argentine actress and singer Martina Stoessel also shared an old photo (6) with a Twitter post saying, “How sad
to see this…”. That picture was shot by Getty Images photographer Mario Toma in 2014.

(6) https://perma.cc/3YLS-H8SG

– Sports stars –

F1 driver Lewis Hamilton (7) and Brazil soccer captain Dani Alves (8) also posted one of the most widely shared
misleading images — the picture taken by photographer McIntyre before 2003.

(7) https://perma.cc/S5UF-GTTB
(8) https://perma.cc/F67M-TTZU

Meanwhile tennis star Novak Djokovic (9) shared the 1989 photo posted by Smith.

(9) https://perma.cc/SCS9-KPEW

Portuguese soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo sounded the alarm on Instagram, alerting his 180 million followers
that “the Amazon Rainforest produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen and its been burning for the past 3
weeks.” But the photo (10) accompanying his message was taken on March 29, 2013 by Lauro Alves, from the
Brazilian agency RBS, in the non-Amazonian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

(10) https://perma.cc/5H4H-GKTB

Barca striker Luis Suarez also posted an old photo (11) dating back to 2015 and shot by journalist Nacho Doce.

(11) https://perma.cc/3TVF-4TSR

– Singers –

Puerto Rican pop star Ricky Martin (13) and Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello (14) also shared the
McIntyre photo tweeted by Macron, DiCaprio and Alves.

(13) https://perma.cc/2L2Y-58KL

(14) https://perma.cc/LVH8-CCW2

US superstar Madonna posted the same 1989 image (15) shared by Smith and Djokovic, writing on Instagram:
“President Bolsonaro please change your policies and help not only your country but the entire planet. No
economic development is more important than protecting this land.”

“We need to WAKE -UP!!” she wrote.

(15) https://perma.cc/SNZ2-3KV4

Uh-oh: Silicon Valley is building a Chinese-style

social credit system
In China, scoring citizens’ behavior is official government policy. U.S.
companies are increasingly doing something similar, outside the law.


By Mike Elgan7 minute Read

Have you heard about China’s social credit system? It’s a technology-enabled, surveillance-based nationwide
program designed to nudge citizens toward better behavior. The ultimate goal is to “allow the trustworthy to roam
everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step,” according to the Chinese
government.

In place since 2014, the social credit system is a work in progress that could evolve by next year into a single,
nationwide point system for all Chinese citizens, akin to a financial credit score. It aims to punish for
transgressions that can include membership in or support for the Falun Gong or Tibetan Buddhism, failure to pay
debts, excessive video gaming, criticizing the government, late payments, failing to sweep the sidewalk in front of
your store or house, smoking or playing loud music on trains, jaywalking, and other actions deemed illegal or
unacceptable by the Chinese government.

It can also award points for charitable donations or even taking one’s own parents to the doctor.

Punishments can be harsh, including bans on leaving the country, using public transportation, checking into
hotels, hiring for high-visibility jobs, or acceptance of children to private schools. It can also result in slower
internet connections and social stigmatization in the form of registration on a public blacklist.

China’s social credit system has been characterized in one pithy tweet as “authoritarianism, gamified.”

At present, some parts of the social credit system are in force nationwide and others are local and limited (there
are 40 or so pilot projects operated by local governments and at least six run by tech giants like Alibaba and
Tencent).

Beijing maintains two nationwide lists, called the blacklist and the red list—the former consisting of people who
have transgressed, and the latter people who have stayed out of trouble (a “red list” is the Communist version of a
white list.) These lists are publicly searchable on a government website called China Credit.

The Chinese government also shares lists with technology platforms. So, for example, if someone criticizes the
government on Weibo, their kids might be ineligible for acceptance to an elite school.

Public shaming is also part of China’s social credit system. Pictures of blacklisted people in one city were shown
between videos on TikTok in a trial, and the addresses of blacklisted citizens were shown on a map on WeChat.

Some Western press reports imply that the Chinese populace is suffocating in a nationwide Skinner box of
oppressive behavioral modification. But some Chinese are unaware that it even exists. And many others actually
like the idea. One survey found that 80% of Chinese citizens surveyed either somewhat or strongly approve of
social credit system.

It can happen here

Many Westerners are disturbed by what they read about China’s social credit system. But such systems, it turns
out, are not unique to China. A parallel system is developing in the United States, in part as the result of Silicon
Valley and technology-industry user policies, and in part by surveillance of social media activity by private
companies.

Here are some of the elements of America’s growing social credit system.

Insurance companies
The New York State Department of Financial Services announced earlier this year that life insurance companies
can base premiums on what they find in your social media posts. That Instagram pic showing you teasing a
grizzly bear at Yellowstone with a martini in one hand, a bucket of cheese fries in the other, and a cigarette in
your mouth, could cost you. On the other hand, a Facebook post showing you doing yoga might save you money.
(Insurance companies have to demonstrate that social media evidence points to risk, and not be based on
discrimination of any kind—they can’t use social posts to alter premiums based on race or disability, for
example.)

The use of social media is an extension of the lifestyle questions typically asked when applying for life insurance,
such as questions about whether you engage in rock climbing or other adventure sports. Saying “no,” but then
posting pictures of yourself free-soloing El Capitan, could count as a “yes.”

PatronScan
A company called PatronScan sells three products—kiosk, desktop, and handheld systems—designed to help bar
and restaurant owners manage customers. PatronScan is a subsidiary of the Canadian software company Servall
Biometrics, and its products are now on sale in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

PatronScan helps spot fake IDs—and troublemakers. When customers arrive at a PatronScan-using bar, their ID is
scanned. The company maintains a list of objectionable customers designed to protect venues from people
previously removed for “fighting, sexual assault, drugs, theft, and other bad behavior,” according to its website. A
“public” list is shared among all PatronScan customers. So someone who’s banned by one bar in the U.S. is
potentially banned by all the bars in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada that use the PatronScan system for up to a
year. (PatronScan Australia keeps a separate system.)

Judgment about what kind of behavior qualifies for inclusion on a PatronScan list is up to the bar owners and
managers. Individual bar owners can ignore the ban, if they like. Data on non-offending customers is deleted in 90
days or less. Also: PatronScan enables bars to keep a “private” list that is not shared with other bars, but on which
bad customers can be kept for up to five years.

PatronScan does have an “appeals” process, but it’s up to the company to grant or deny those appeals.

Uber and Airbnb

Thanks to the sharing economy, the options for travel have been extended far beyond taxis and hotels. Uber and
Airbnb are leaders in providing transportation and accommodation for travelers. But there are many similar ride-
sharing and peer-to-peer accommodations companies providing similar services.

Airbnb—a major provider of travel accommodation and tourist activities—bragged in March that it now has more
than 6 million listings in its system. That’s why a ban from Airbnb can limit travel options.

Airbnb can disable your account for life for any reason it chooses, and it reserves the right to not tell you the
reason. The company’s canned message includes the assertion that “This decision is irreversible and will affect
any duplicated or future accounts. Please understand that we are not obligated to provide an explanation for the
action taken against your account.” The ban can be based on something the host privately tells Airbnb about
something they believe you did while staying at their property. Airbnb’s competitors have similar policies.

It’s now easy to get banned by Uber, too. Whenever you get out of the car after an Uber ride, the app invites you
to rate the driver. What many passengers don’t know is that the driver now also gets an invitation to rate you.
Under a new policy announced in May: If your average rating is “significantly below average,” Uber will ban you
from the service.

WhatsApp
You can be banned from communications apps, too. For example, you can be banned on WhatsApp if too many
other users block you. You can also get banned for sending spam, threatening messages, trying to hack or reverse-
engineer the WhatsApp app, or using the service with an unauthorized app.

WhatsApp is small potatoes in the United States. But in much of the world, it’s the main form of electronic
communication. Not being allowed to use WhatsApp in some countries is as punishing as not being allowed to
use the telephone system in America.

What’s wrong with social credit, anyway?

Nobody likes antisocial, violent, rude, unhealthy, reckless, selfish, or deadbeat behavior. What’s wrong with using
new technology to encourage everyone to behave?

The most disturbing attribute of a social credit system is not that it’s invasive, but that it’s extralegal. Crimes are
punished outside the legal system, which means no presumption of innocence, no legal representation, no judge,
no jury, and often no appeal. In other words, it’s an alternative legal system where the accused have fewer rights.
Social credit systems are an end-run around the pesky complications of the legal system. Unlike China’s
government policy, the social credit system emerging in the U.S. is enforced by private companies. If the public
objects to how these laws are enforced, it can’t elect new rule-makers.

An increasing number of societal “privileges” related to transportation, accommodations, communications, and

the rates we pay for services (like insurance) are either controlled by technology companies or affected by how we
use technology services. And Silicon Valley’s rules for being allowed to use their services are getting stricter.

If current trends hold, it’s possible that in the future a majority of misdemeanors and even some felonies will be
punished not by Washington, D.C., but by Silicon Valley. It’s a slippery slope away from democracy and toward
corporatocracy.

In other words, in the future, law enforcement may be determined less by the Constitution and legal code, and
more by end-user license agreements.

zerohedge.com

Google Latest Company To Abandon China, Shifts

Smartphone Production To Vietnam
Sprott Money's blog
7-8 minute

Google has reportedly become the latest company to aggressively move production out of China and in to
Vietnam as it hopes to create a "low-cos supply chain in Southeast Asia" that "will serve as a springboard for its
growing hardware ambitions," according to Nikkei Asian Review.

Google, which is working with a partner to manufacture its smartphones, started work on converting an old Nokia
factory in the North Vietnamese province of Bac Ninh where it will produce most of its Pixel phones, per two
people familiar with the company's plans. The area has a special significance in the history of smartphone
development: It is the same province where Samsung built its first smartphone supply chain roughly ten years
ago.

All of this history means Google will have access to an army of workers experienced.

The push to develop a Vietnamese production base reflects the twin pressures of higher Chinese labor costs and
the spiraling tariffs resulting from the trade war between Washington and Beijing. The U.S. internet giant
intends to eventually move production of most of its American-bound hardware outside of China, including
Pixel phones and its popular smart speaker, Google Home, according to the sources.

The Vietnam production lines will be a key part of Google's drive for growth in the smartphone market. Google
aims to ship some 8 million to 10 million smartphones this year, double from a year ago, sources told the Nikkei
Asian Review. While Google's Pixel smartphone brand is still a minor player in the industry - not even
ranking in the global top 10, according to tech research firm Counterpoint - it is growing rapidly.

The Vietnam production line is a critical component of Google's strategy to boost growth in its Pixel smartphone
brand. The company is planning to ship some 8 million units this year, roughly 2x the level from last year.

The Vietnam production lines will be a key part of Google's drive for growth in the smartphone market. Google
aims to ship some 8 million to 10 million smartphones this year, double from a year ago, sources told the
Nikkei Asian Review. While Google's Pixel smartphone brand is still a minor player in the industry - not
even ranking in the global top 10, according to tech research firm Counterpoint - it is growing rapidly.

The mid-priced Pixel, launched in April, helped Google become the fifth largest mobile brand in the U.S. for the
second quarter of 2019, grabbing market share despite a wider industry slump.

Google's aggressive hardware campaign is expected to heap pressure on second-tier mobile makers such as LG
Electronics and Sony, which are struggling as the industry faces its third consecutive year of decline.

Google shipped fewer than 5 million Pixel units last year, accounting for only 0.3% of the global smartphone
market. Nearly all of its smartphone sales were recorded in the US.

In 2018, Google shipped some 4.7 million smartphones, which only accounted for 0.3% of global market
share, research company IDC said. However it has already shipped 4.1 million units in the first half, according to
IDC, thanks to the Pixel 3A, priced at $399.

Nearly 70% of Google's smartphone sales in 2018 were in the U.S., its biggest market, followed by the U.K. and
Japan, according to IDC. For smart speakers, the U.S. accounted for some 64% of shipments.

In the chart below from Counterpoint Research, a firm that tracks the global smartphone market, Google's Pixel
brand is incorporated into the 'other' category.

To be sure, even if Google hits all of its targets, it'll still be only a minor player in the global smartphone
market, at best. As for its smart speakers, which compete with Amazon's Echo, some production will be moved
to Thailand, though much of its initial production will remain in China.
Google is the latest company to diversify production outside China to protect itself from the fallout from the
burgeoning US-China trade war. While it's not much of a player in the smartphone market, its Android operating
system is a dominant player that runs on Samsung phones, and phones made by other companies. Android is so
dominant, that the company's decision to cut off access to Huawei for the Chinese telecoms giant's smartphones
sold outside China created serious problems for the company.

Both Vietnam and Thailand have benefited from the companies efforts to diversify production outside China,
lending some credence to President Trump's claims that the trade war is hurting China's critical manufacturing
sector. Though, of course, Beijing has retaliated by ramping up tariffs on American agricultural goods, harming
American farmers.

But for Google, building up its smartphone business is less about shifting units, and more about demonstrating the
power of its Android OS, as one analyst pointed out.

"For Google's smartphone business, it's still less about selling hardware but is really to demonstrate how powerful
its mobile system and software could be," said Joey Yen, an analyst at IDC. "The main goal of Google's
hardware business is to help the expansion of its core software, data, and advertisement business and to
grow its ecosystem."

And as Google continues to quietly prepare for its re-entry into the Chinese market (see: Project Dragonfly, which
it told the world it had scrapped but appears to still be active) it knows it can't move all of its Chinese production
elsewhere.

"Google are likely to keep some activities inside China. The US company knows that if it is going to be serious
about making hardware, it could never give up the massive Chinese market," one of the sources said.
"However, they also understand that, due to rising costs and the macro-environment, they need to have production
outside China for the long term in order to support their hardware manufacturing."

Google is the latest to seek safety by diversifying its production as the trade war intensifies. HP and Dell have
relocated their server production away from China to dodge Washington's punitive tariffs, while also
shifting some notebook production to Taiwan and other Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam,
Thailand and the Philippines. Apple also has started to evaluate how it might diversify its supply chain, though
it remains heavily reliant on China with more than 90% of its hardware manufactured in the country.

The US tech giant refused to confirm or deny these reports, but Nikkei Asian Review has been at the forefront of
reporting about tech companies and their plans to diversify production outside of China. As they've explained in
the past, the trade war isn't the only factor driving this trend: Rising wages on the mainland have also inspired
companies to look to establish production in cheaper markets like Vietnam.