dhork

You're right that cameras are everywhere now. And I think we are past the point as a society where people think that someone who takes your picture steals your soul or anything.

But facial recognition implies identification, for some purpose. Like entering a country as a non-citizen. Countries have a responsibility to make sure that people who visit are who they say they are, and are not using stolen credentials. Modern biometrics make this much easier (and faster). The last time I entered the UK from the US, I checked in at a kiosk. They scanned my passport, took my picture, made sure I had the proper paperwork, and sent me along without talking to a human.

But other countries that do this all acknowledge that the facial recognition may fail. That stand of 20 or so kiosks did have humans watching them, and if someone's biometrics failed to identify them they would still get talked to by a human, just like in the past.

But that is not what ICE is doing. They are using the facial recognition in order to grab people more efficiently, and give them an excuse to ignore people's valid identification. That's why the fact that these recognition technologies have a higher failure rate for PoC is not a bug for them, it's a feature. They ignore lawful documentation, and confiscate it. Then, when that person finally gets released, they keep the documentation, ensuring that at the next encounter they will not have any way to escape.

This is not supposed to happen in America. I had an uncle who fought in WWII, shit like this is what he was fighting, back when we were the good guys.

When an officer scans someone’s face, the app will run their face against a database of more than 250 million DHS and State Department records, and then provide instructions to the officer. Either “not detain or arrest under ICE jurisdiction,” or the app will provide a reference code the officer can use to get additional information from ICE.

Oh hey, I think I know the algorithm they use

All kidding aside, the worst part of all this is that we all know there are false positives, but we also know how these ICE goons (and their LEO friends) operate. They will take the word of the app as gospel, and if someone falsely tagged by the app says they are wrong and produces their valid ID, the goons will confiscate it, saying the app can't be wrong and the ID must be fake.

I didn't know bears migrate

No, if you call it "austerity" you are at least trying to hide it behind a veneer of self sacrifice. These folks aren't even doing that anymore.

No, it's not. "Austerity" implies that everyone does without. It's not that at all, it's simply vindictive. They want to subject people they hate to "austerity", while carving out exceptions for their friends (who they think deserve it more, anyway).

Trump floats

I was gonna post that that was doubtful, but then I Did My Own Research and discovered that morbidly obese people have an easier time floating

Aren't they losing a ton of money, though?

I've heard "the yips" in a Sports context, although maybe not in the past 10 years or so. It's when some mental block occurs, and the muscle memory that the athlete relies on suddenly is forgotten, and they can't do some basic athletic task that a pro is supposed to be able to do.

Maybe he has the Knicks on his mind, sometimes a basketball player gets "the yips" and can't make his free throws anymore. Although I've heard it more in a baseball context, when a good pitcher all of a sudden can't throw a strike.

surely they wouldnt have invested trillons on it if it was garbage

Oh, my sweet summer child.

"They" didn't invest trillions of their own money in it. They invested a few million, built up some hype, and got other people to invest more, so now their millions are billions. And they are smart enough to sell before it all collapses.

They make their billions even though it's garbage. Heck, they make billions because they know it's garbage before everyone else does.

This joke is off the rails

The thing with laws is that Congress can always change them by passing another law....

... but from what I've read, the current text of Joe Wilson's bill carves out an exception for "living and former Presidents". So, if this passes, we may get our Obama $420 bill someday....

Big Fly Ohtani-San!