ANNUAL PRMP-A-THON $35.00 HAIRCUTS, $35.00 1/2 HOUR MASSAGE, AND $35.00 1/2 HOUR FACIALS SPACES LIMITED CALL NOW TO RESERVE YOUR APPOINTMENTS!!!!!

This has circulated the news channels recently: The U.S. intelligence community is working to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massively multiplayer games, according to a data-mining report from the Director of National Intelligence.



The system sounds like a similar software tool developed in the UK, analysing people in the tube stations of London for "suspicious behaviour". This software is intended to profile your behaviour online and then possibly advancing to "automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world." Scary stuff!

Check the full article out below!

U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft

Be careful who you frag. Having eliminated all terrorism in the real world, the U.S. intelligence community is working to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massive multiplayer games, according to a data-mining report from the Director of National Intelligence.

The Reynard project will begin by profiling online gaming behavior, then potentially move on to its ultimate goal of "automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world."

• The cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied. Therefore, Reynard will seek to identify the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments. The project would then apply the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world.
  
  
• If it shows early promise, this small seedling effort may increase its scope to a full project.

Reynard will conduct unclassified research in a public virtual world environment. The research will use publicly available data and will begin with observational studies to establish baseline normative behaviors.

The publicly available report -- which was mandated by Congress following earlier concerns over data-mining programs -- also mentions several other data-mining initiatives. These include:

• Video Analysis and Content Extraction - software to automatically identify faces, events and objects in video
  
  
• Tangram - A system that wants to create surveillance and threat warning system that evaluates known threats and finds unknown threats to issue warnings ahead of an attack
  
  
• Knowledge Discovery and Dissemination - This tool is reminiscent of the supposedly-defunct Total Information Awareness program. It seeks to access disparate databases to find patterns of known bad behavior. The program plans to work with domestic law enforcement and Homeland Security.

The report gives no indication why the find-a-terrorist cell in Sims project is called Reynard, though that is a traditional trickster figure in literature.



(There is a short cut to make your WoW life better. Do you need a buddy help you powerleveling, or buy wow gold or cheap wow gold safely? joint us: gmbar)

Photo: CyberExtruder

More Articles:



Is WoW turning into a PvP game?



Blizzard Multiplayer Balance - Switch Players Around!

Is your guild structured and sure or chaotic and competent?



Raiding without addons

Part III of the forum was when mayoral candidates Michael Nutter (D) and Al Taubenberger (R) took questions from the group. Above is a shot of Nutter answering a question. Perhaps it was the first question Skip asked: with the ever-increasing immigrant population of Russians, Asians, Hispanics, Africans and others, what would each candidate do as mayor to deal with providing services to facilitate the transition.

Taubenberger reminded the group that he's the son of German immigrants. He didn't have a specific plan on how much money he'd put towards programs or what services needed to be provided, but he was committed to making everyone feel welcome, legal or not.

Nutter deferred to Councilman Jim Kenny's plan to open an Office of New Philadelphians [.pdf] to lure more immigrants to Philly. He added that Philadelphia should make more of an effort to expand the number of languages it prints on flyers to a dozen or more, not just english and spanish. He stressed the importance of the mayor physically getting out of City Hall more and more and showing up at events in ethnic communities; "sometimes it's just a matter of showing up" he said.

The shot above is just a glimpse of the size of the community center - two full basketball courts, complete with stands on one wall, offices and I think meeting rooms to the side. I'm also going to assume that there are two good sized locker rooms off to the side as well. The forum took place in one half of the basketball court area. Back to the happenings on the floor...

During Round 3 of switches, groups discussed what steps were needed to get to the New Deal and to maintain it. My group had a lot to say about what needed to be changed like Lisa, from Kensington, who said that agencies within the City weren't responsive to calls for help which leaves less time for neighborhood groups to take on larger projects. Gabriel, from The Enterprise Center, leadership from the top needed to lead the non political issues like trash pickup. He added that things like this are easily quantifiable with simple input/output measurements for services with incoming calls coupled to when calls were answered [once again, a CitiStat-esque system]. Rose made a very strategic suggestion to position a group to get close to the incoming mayor's transition team to get their ear; the very who-you-know attitude many want to get rid of. Lisa noted that these days, everything has become a transaction and simple services are not being done without an expectation of something. Our moderator Ben stepped in and asked the group what needed to be changed. Rose simply stated it: those within the City needed to be the civil servants they're supposed to be. Lisa and Rose touched on the issue of leaders of groups becoming too powerful and their personality taking over that of the group's. Also, those leaders were resistant to change within the group holding them back from getting things done [sounds like the Ward system to me]. Gabriel had another simple point that certain things shouldn't require a call to one's councilperson to get things done. That would free up time for neighborhood groups to exchange information in forums like this one.

I was asked to blog about another Great Expectations forum, this time up in the Northeast and with a few other bloggers in attendance: Marisa, Bill from PhillyFoodGuys and Barbara who will post somewhere in the ether that is the internet. About 70 leaders from across the city made the trek (some further than others) to the John M. Perzel Community Center in Mayfair. And for full disclosure, I worked on Tim Kearney's campaign to oust Perzel from his PA House seat. The old saying goes that if you can't say anything nice about someone, don't say anything at all - I normally don't follow that rule - but this time, I'll say this, he's built one gorgeous community center. For a little back story on how this came to be, check out Chris's post.

What do you get when you mix 70 leaders - of civic associations, neighborhood action committees, citywide agencies among others - gathered in a room on a Saturday morning in October? Surprisingly, a lot of cooperation and good listening. I went into this meeting fearing the worst and hoping for the best. I feared that it would be an overwhelmingly white crowd. I feared that leaders wouldn't listen to other leaders. I feared that the lunch would taste like cardboard. What I found was a semi diverse crowd of male and female and black and white, with not much else. I think I was one of two Asians in the room. What can be done to reach out into the Asian communities in Philadelphia to get more involved in the political process is beyond me and not really the topic here so I'll save that for another day and maybe talk to Andy Toy and Skip Voluntad first. I will say just this though, I haven't been doing my part so I'm part of the problem. The leaders, at lest in my breakout session and larger discussion groups, listened to each other and intently. Breakfast and lunch were filling.

The future of Mayfair is in danger!!!
Please ask our councilwoman Joan Krawjeski to amend the bill for Mayfair.
Maybe we can finally attract more stores other than beauty salons, nail shops and variety stores.
I love fashion, BUT MY GOD how many salons does one neighborhood need.
This bill prevents these types of shops from opening. Enough is enough. someone has to stand up,STOP the Insanity! If you can allow trans fats into our neighborhood, you can ban lousy shops that bring down the neighborhood.