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Biometric ID Systems Grew Internationally… And So Did Concerns About Privacy
Around the world, systems of identification that employ automatic recognition of individuals’ faces, fingerprints, or irises are gaining ground. Biometric ID systems are increasingly being deployed at international border checkpoints, by governments seeking to implement national ID schemes, and by private-sector actors. Yet as biometric data is collected from more and more individuals, privacy concerns about the use of this technology are also attracting attention. Below are several examples of the year’s most prominent debates around biometrics.
- FRANCE: In early March, the French National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) passed a law proposing the creation of a Read more…
Mexico and Canada declared part of US homeland by Senate maps (Video)
As an aide holds up a poster, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) speaks during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee July 31, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC (AFP Photo / Alex Wong)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein referred to the US, Canada and Mexico as “the Homeland” at an NSA Senate briefing on Wednesday, presenting a map that united the three nations as one.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting held to acquire details on the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance programs, Sen. Feinstein (D-Calif.) made a geographic mistake in which she united three large countries into one. The error went by without comment during the briefing, but generated a significant response upon Read more…
Mexico Earthquake Today 2012, Terremoto Erupts in Baja California
LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – A strong Mexico earthquake has erupted today. A terremoto en Mexico hoy, Thursday, December 27, 2012, began in the predawn morning hours centered in Baja California. The quake marks one of the strongest Mexico temblors to strike this December. No reports of damage have yet to be indicated by local news.
Officials tell news that a 4.7 magnitude Mexico earthquake erupted Thursday at 6:05 am local time. The quake, while strong, also posted a shallow epicenter. USGS indicates to news the Mexico earthquake erupted six miles below sea level in the Gulf of California, off the east coast of Baja California. The quake, however, could be felt to the west on the Baja peninsula.
USGS indicates to news that the Mexico earthquake began Read more…
Mexican quake causes small tsunami in spring pool near Vegas
LAS VEGAS >> About 10 minutes after a powerful, magnitude-7.4 earthquake rattled southern Mexico last month, researchers outside Las Vegas were watching a tiny tsunami churn a normally tranquil spring pool 1,700 miles away.
Three National Park Service technicians were doing maintenance on data recorders at Devil’s Hole March 20 when the waters started surging more than 2 feet high. They grabbed a camera, and their video of the rare phenomenon now has more than 47,000 views on YouTube.
“It baffles me, but it makes sense. Everything’s kind of connected in a way,” Jeffrey Read more…
Popocatepetl Volcano Raising Concerns in Mexico
A plume of steam rises from the Popocatepetl volcano seen from the city of Puebla, Mexico, Saturday April 14, 2012. An early-morning exhalation from the volcano sent ashes to towns near the area as moderate activity at the volcano continues. (AP Photo/Joel Merino)A volcano within view of Mexico City has begun to erupt.
Steam, smoke and hot fragments of rock began to be ejected from Popocatepetl this past weekend.
The Volcano is located about 50 miles southeast of Mexico’s capital, Mexico City. The metropolitan area of Mexico City is home to approximately 21 million people.
According to Reuters, Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention this week raised the alert level to three on a scale from one to seven, with seven being the greatest threat.
The volcano has had a long history of frequent minor to moderate eruptions.
In 2000, thousands of residents surrounding the nearly 18,000-foot mountain were forced to evacuate. Popocatepetl is North America’s second highest volcano.
Eruptions have occurred in November and June of 2011.
According to VolcanoDiscovery.com, Popocatepetl was dormant during the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s.
Mexico authorities were recommending limiting Read more…
Better prepared: Mexico’s 7.4 quake causes damage, but no deaths
By the time the powerful 7.4 earthquake rumbled in Mexico City Tuesday, the 56 students ages 6 months to 6 years attending the Montessori Kid’s Place in Mexico City were already evacuated, gathered in the front lobby of the school, a location city engineers had earlier indicated as the safest spot.
“For a few seconds nothing happened, and we thought it might be a false alarm,” says Claudia Yañez, the school director. She had purchased two alarms last year, each the size of a book, which warns them of seismic activity in Guerrero state. If an earthquake over the magnitude of 5 strikes, an alarm sounds and a voice warns “earthquake,” as it did Tuesday, giving them a minute of time to implement the drills they practice monthly. The minute represents the time between Read more…
Food Crisis as Drought and Cold Hit Mexico
Henry Romero/Reuters
MEXICO CITY — A drought that a government official called the most severe Mexico had ever faced has left two million people without access to water and, coupled with a cold snap, has devastated cropland in nearly half of the country.
The government in the past week has authorized $2.63 billion in aid, including potable water, food and temporary jobs for the most affected areas, rural communities in 19 of Mexico’s 31 states. But officials warned that no serious relief was expected for at least another five months, when the rainy season typically begins in earnest.
While the authorities say they expect the situation to worsen, one of the five worst-affected states, Zacatecas, got a reprieve on Sunday. Heriberto Félix Guerra, head of the Ministry of Social Development, saw the Read more…
Some earthquakes expected along Rio Grande Rift in Colorado and New Mexico, new study says
Click to Enlarge
(PhysOrg.com) — The Rio Grande Rift, a thinning and stretching of Earth’s surface that extends from Colorado’s central Rocky Mountains to Mexico, is not dead but geologically alive and active, according to a new study involving scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.
“We don’t expect to see a lot of earthquakes, or big ones, but we will have some earthquakes,” said CU-Boulder geological sciences Professor Anne Sheehan, also a fellow at CIRES. The study also involved collaborators from the University of New Mexico, New Mexico Tech, Utah State University and the Boulder-headquartered UNAVCO. The Rio Grande Rift follows the path of the Rio Grande River from central Colorado roughly to El Paso before turning southeast toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Sheehan was not too surprised when a 5.3 magnitude earthquake struck about 9 miles west of Trinidad, Colo., in the vicinity of the Rio Grande Rift on Aug. 23, 2011. The quake was the largest in Read more…
Popocatepetl volcano releases steam exhalations of a mile high
Agencia EFE Translated
ElMexico, 30 ago (EFE) .- The Popocatepetl volcano threw four breaths now “moderate” steam, gas and ash that reached a mile high, so it provides the possibility of a “slight drop of cold ash” in City Mexico, officials said.
The National Civil Protection System (Sinaproc) said in a statement yesterday Popocatepetl an increase in activity, which consisted of a greater number of low-intensity exhalations accompanied by steam, gas and small amounts of ash.
He added that this day there were four major exhalations which were Read more…
Mexico to give HPV vaccine to all girls from 2012
MEXICO CITY — Mexico plans to administer the vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer, to all girls beginning next year, the country’s health ministry said Tuesday.
Beginning in 2012, the HPV vaccine will be part of the normal course of shots given to all girls at the age of nine, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said.
Cervical cancer kills about 4,200 women in Mexico each year.
The minister said while deaths from cervical cancer had Read more…
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