“Now that is a disgusting act by Randy Moss.” Who can forget where they were when Joe Buck expressed the disgust of a nation after Randy Moss pretended to moon Packers fans? Won’t someone please think about the children? Imagine his reaction upon seeing Mirko Vucinic strip off his shorts and wave them over his head like a lasso.
What is it with people thinking video needs crap music instead of the original sound? Too bad Vucinic doesn’t play for Lazio. The poster could have put his goal celebration to “Accidental Racist“.
“Calling all cars. Calling all cars. Be on the lookout for a fat, silver and black guy with spikes wearing a silver and black helmet, silver and black jersey, Mardi Gras beads and Doc Martins. Last seen in section 105 heading east. He’s bad.”
The Oakland Coliseum or whatever the pit where the Raiders and A’s play is called isn’t a cafe so it’s probably off Rand Paul’s radar. That’s great news for Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern who wants to employ drones in his jurisdiction. It’s bombs away on cafes and homeless people.
On October 25, Sheriff Ahern sent a letter to AEG Vice President Chris Wright, who is the facilities manager at the Coliseum and Arena, asking to test a product made by Intelligence Based Integrated Security Systems Inc., known as IBIS2. The patent-pending surveillance system from IBIS2 uses “intelligent video” technology that has civil libertarians on their guard.
… IBIS2 sought to conduct a field test in Oakland because of the bad-boy image of Raiders’ fans. “If you ask ten NFL fans which team they associate with violence, they’ll most likely say the Raiders,” said Kephart. He cited two shootings at a pre-season game between the Raiders and San Francisco 49ers as another reason for wanting to test his system in the Bay Area. It should be noted, however, that those shootings occurred at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
… Ahern’s October 25 letter to AEG strongly indicated that the technology would be used for both license-plate and facial recognition. Ahern wrote that IBIS2′s product would be used “in or around sports venues,” including parking lots, and would provide law enforcement with the capability for “instant data retrieval resulting in preemptive action.” Ahern also wrote that the system could “be utilized to detect persons of interest, wanted criminals, parole and probation violators, state certified gang members, and repeat fan violence offenders.” Such detection capabilities likely could not be derived from reading license plates alone.
That’ll work real well in the Black Hole. It’s hard to see how IBIS2′s facial recognition technology would do any good inside the stadium. Ahern would be better off arresting whole sections of fans if his deputies want to deal the blow back. Unfortunately for them, the Black Hole doesn’t consist of defenseless, homeless people.
The idea that the Sheriff’s Department would use the system to preemptively track people for reasons outside of incidents in the area of the stadium should give pause to anyone concerned about privacy rights. Let’s not talk about cases of mistaken identity yet. There are matters of law enforcement misusing information gleaned for other purposes. The public has no idea how much or what kind of data would be stored let alone what it would be used for by Alameda County or any other local, state or federal agency with access to it. The possibilities for abuse outweigh any potential gains from arbitrary surveillance especially from a department already dealing with several abuse of power scandals.
Fortunately AEG refused to test the system on their property. Professional sports venues already have the ability to use video to find people who commit crimes within the confines of their property. There’s no reason to expand to the use of facial recognition technology by outside law enforcement. Teams can hand over video footage to police on an as-needed basis. Fans willingly accept that their image can be used by teams and respective leagues once they enter the stadium or arena. However the expectation of most law-abiding people is that any footage will be used solely for entertainment purposes unless an incident requiring law enforcement intervention takes place. They doesn’t attend a game thinking that their face will be stored in some unknown location for whatever use some random sheriff sees fit.
Maybe Raiders fans should consider themselves lucky. John Yoo would advocate drone bombing potential criminals during games. “I am the law!” On the other hand death would prevent them from seeing Carson Palmer throw another pick-6. Cowboys fans must be salivating over this possibility.
Here’s your musical reference. A pox on you if you didn’t get it.
Sheriff Ahern is a no good scavenger when it comes to the retention of personal data. A catfish vulture even. Say facial recognition and do the wop!
In a Super Bowl that was wayyyyy closer than it should’ve been, the Baltimore Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers by the score of 34-31. This game really had everything one would want in a solid Super Bowl match-up. It had a bizzare 30 minute blackout in the middle of the 3rd quarter. It had the 49ers making a furious 2nd half comeback only to fall short with under two minutes to go in the game. It had special teams touchdowns, a random fakes field goal and it even a safety. This game was one defensive touchdown away from having every type of exciting play a football game should have.
And now, sadly, the season is over and we must wait until next autumn before football season comes around again. We’ll have the next 6 months to talk about if Joe Flacco is “elite”, if Ray Ray actually did murder someone, if Alex Smith will attempt to murder Jim Harbaugh only to fall short because he is not an elite enough murderer. Sigh…i’m going to miss football.
I began fearing the potential of a “Harbowl” over a year ago. Last winter, we received a reprieve from that dreadful moniker but alas, no such luck this season. On Sunday evening, when it was all but certain Baltimore would advance to play San Francisco in Super Bowl XLVII, I tried to find a rooting interest. I reviewed all of the salient points — I once lived in Baltimore for three years; my favorite quarterback of all time is Joe Montana; like me, Steve Young is a handsome, dark-haired attorney; and also like me, Joe Flacco fights to protect facial boundaries from an aggressive unibrow. But I’ll be damned if I couldn’t find one legitimate reason why I’d want either team to win: they are both easily detestable. Let’s break it down:
So basically what you’re telling me is that I’m left with picking between Patrick Willis and Steve Bischotti? Perhaps an exciting Harbaugh BowlSuperBaughBrother Bowl Super Bowl XLVII just wasn’t meant to be: from replacement refs to head trauma to the coaching carousel, maybe the NFL is just having an off-year. Maybe, Roger Goodell can start making the Super Bowl more meaningful by bringing back the sweet location-themed logos. Either way, I have a week to make this game interesting. Otherwise, it’s going to be up to bourbon and/or gambling. Please don’t make me go there, Rog!
This video of Boston Mayor Tom Menino mispronouncing the name of Patriots players does nothing to dispel stereotypes about Boston. Every New England mayor is a blend of him, Diamond Joe Quimby and Buddy Cianci. I’ll leave the percentages up to you. Nothing you say will change my uneducated opinion about this.
Er ah I’m going to ah Welkah ovah there and ah Welkah! Now there’s a haircut you can set your watch to.
At least Menino was smart enough to bet food instead of a dance like Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. Imagine him doing the squirrel dance. He’d throw his back out and thensome. Remember when Goodspeed tells Mason what happens when one is exposed to VX gas? Bet it would look something like that. It’d be like Warning. Call the coroner, there’s gonna be alot of slow singin and flower bringin.
