Category Archives: Security

Security

Scanning Arabic for Terror

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Intuview is an interesting new company that claims it can detect risk within language:

IntuScan is a decision-support expert system for real-time exploitation of documents in Arabic and other languages. Instantly assesses any Arabic-language document, determines whether it contains content of a terrorist nature or of intelligence value, provides a first-tier Intelligence Analysis Report of the main requirement-relevant elements in the document.

I curious how the software will distinguish intent. For example, in writing about the software I am using words that could potentially trip a sensor. Will there still need to be manual review? It seems that Apparently Arabic-language analysts are in high enough demand that software is being proposed as an alternative. The British are famous for using the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) as a training ground for non-Western intelligence agents. The result of SOAS is a rich resource of international education. What will be the civilian benefits of IntuScan? More harmonious marriages from software at home — risk analysis and first-tier reports for male-female communicators?

History, Poetry, Security

Ann Boleyn

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by R.P.Weston and Bert Lee, as performed by Stanley Holloway

In the Tower of London, large as life,
The ghost of Ann Boleyn walks, they declare.
Poor Ann Boleyn was once King Henry’s wife –
Until he made the Headsman bob her hair!
Ah yes! he did her wrong long years ago,
And she comes up at night to tell him so.

With her head tucked underneath her arm
She walks the Bloody Tower!
With her head tucked underneath her arm
At the Midnight hour –

She comes to haunt King Henry, she means giving him ‘what for’,
Gad Zooks, she’s going to tell him off for having spilt her gore.
And just in case the Headsman wants to give her an encore
She has her head tucked underneath her arm!

With her head tucked underneath her arm
She walks the Bloody Tower!
With her head tucked underneath her arm
At the Midnight hour.

Along the draughty corridors for miles and miles she goes,
She often catches cold, poor thing, it’s cold there when it blows,
And it’s awfully awkward for the Queen to have to blow her nose
With her head tucked underneath her arm!

Sometimes gay King Henry gives a spread
For all his pals and gals – a ghostly crew.
The headsman carves the joint and cuts the bread,
Then in comes Ann Boleyn to ‘queer’ the ‘do’;
She holds her head up with a wild war whoop,
And Henry cries ‘Don’t drop it in the soup!’

With her head tucked underneath her arm
She walks the Bloody Tower!
With her head tucked underneath her arm
At the Midnight hour.

The sentries think that it’s a football that she carries in,
And when they’ve had a few they shout ‘Is Ars’nal going to win?’
They think it’s Alec James, instead of poor old Ann Boleyn
With her head tucked underneath her arm!

With her head tucked underneath her arm
She walks the Bloody Tower!
With her head tucked underneath her arm
At the Midnight hour.

One night she caught King Henry, he was in the Canteen Bar.
Said he ‘Are you Jane Seymour, Ann Boleyn or Cath’rine Parr?
For how the sweet san fairy ann do I know who you are
With your head tucked underneath your arm!’

Security

London tunnels for sale

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The AP says British Telecom is ready to sell the tunnels they own that run under London:

The Kingsway Tunnels, originally built in 1942 to protect Londoners from German air raids, are being put for sale by their current owner, telecommunications company BT Group PLC.

[…]

BT spokeswoman Gemma Thomas said Saturday that the company no longer needed the tunnel because the Internet was cutting down on the need for telephone exchanges. She said restrictions on the tunnels’ use meant they could not be converted into a cool new concept hotel, an underground office or a subterranean home. BT suggested they might be suitable for government use or for a major corporation.

A museum comes to mind. Wonder who wrote/lobbied for restrictions on use.

Security

Jamaica Sand Theft

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Officials in Jamaica are on the trail of stolen sand. The BBC reports:

…the deputy commissioner for crime at the Jamaica Constabulary Force, Mark Shields, insisted this was not an open-and-shut case.

“It’s a very complex investigation because it involves so many aspects,” he told the BBC.

“You’ve got the receivers of the stolen sand, or what we believe to be the sand. The trucks themselves, the organisers and, of course, there is some suspicion that some police were in collusion with the movers of the sand.”

Police said they were carrying out forensic tests on beaches along the coast to see if any of it matches the stolen sand.

Wonder if they could start hiding rfid grains to ease the investigation next time.