Wanted: Suspect with 'Vampire Teeth'

Suspect in homeless man's beating described as having "vampire teeth"
By R. Stickney
When San Diego police sent out an alert for a beating suspect early Monday, they included a witness description: the suspect was said to have “vampire teeth.”

A homeless man was attacked and threatened outside a pharmacy in the 8800-block of Villa La Jolla Drive just before 6 a.m. Monday according to officials.

Police say the victim, a 55-year-old man, was kicked in the head and the ribs and left bleeding.

When officers arrived, the victim told them that his attacker also threatened to kill him.

Officers arrested the suspect a short time later and booked him on felony assault charges.

They say the suspect also appears to be a transient.

Beware the spy in the sky: After those Street View snoopers, Google and Apple use planes that can film you sunbathing in your back garden

Software giants will use military-grade cameras to take powerful satellite images

By Vanessa Allen

Spy planes able to photograph sunbathers in their back gardens are being deployed by Google and Apple.

The U.S. technology giants are racing to produce aerial maps so detailed they can show up objects just four inches wide.

But campaigners say the technology is a sinister development that brings the surveillance society a step closer.

Google admits it has already sent planes over cities while Apple has acquired a firm using spy-in-the-sky technology that has been tested on at least 20 locations, including London.

Apple’s military-grade cameras are understood to be so powerful they could potentially see into homes through skylights and windows. The technology is similar to that used by intelligence agencies in identifying terrorist targets in Afghanistan.

Google will use its spy planes to help create 3D maps with much more detail than its satellite-derived Google Earth images.

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, warned that privacy risked being sacrificed in a commercial ‘race to the bottom’.

‘The next generation of maps is taking us over the garden fence,’ he warned. ‘You won’t be able to sunbathe in your garden without worrying about an Apple or Google plane buzzing overhead taking pictures.’

He said householders should be asked for their consent before images of their homes go online. Apple is expected to unveil its new mapping applications for its iPhone and other devices today – along with privacy safeguards. Its 3D maps will reportedly show for the first time the sides of tall buildings, such as the Big Ben clock tower.

Google expects by the end of the year to have 3D coverage of towns and cities with a combined population of 300million. It has not revealed any locations so far.

Current 3D mapping technology relies on aerial images taken at a much lower resolution than the technology Apple is thought to be using. This means that when users ‘zoom in’, details tend to be lost because of the poor image quality.

Google ran into trouble when it emerged that its Street View cars, which gathered ground-level panoramic photographs for Google Maps, had also harvested personal data from household wifi networks.

Emails, text messages, photographs and documents were taken from unsecured wifi networks all around Britain.

Google claimed it was a mistake even though a senior manager was warned as early as 2007 that the extra information was being captured. Around one in four home networks is thought to be unsecured because they lack password protection.

Little has been revealed about the technology involved in the spy planes used to capture the aerial images.

But they are thought to be able to photograph around 40 square miles every hour, suggesting they would be flying too quickly and at too great a height to access domestic wifi networks.

Like Google Maps, the resulting images would not be streamed live to computers but would provide a snapshot image of the moment the camera passed by.

Google pixellates faces and car number plates but faced criticism after its service showed one recognisable man leaving a sex shop and another being sick in the street.

Amie Stepanovich, of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre in America, said she believed Apple and Google would be forced to blur out homes in the same way Street View pixellates faces.

She said: ‘With satellite images, privacy is built in because you can’t zoom down into a garden. Homeowners need to be asked to opt in to show their property in high definition – otherwise it should be blurred out.’

Apple has previously used Google for its mapping services but last year it emerged it had bought C3 Technologies, a 3D mapping company that uses technology developed by Saab AB, the aerospace and defence company.

At the time C3 had already mapped 20 cities and it is believed to have added more with Apple’s backing. Its photographs have been shot from 1,600ft and one C3 executive described it as ‘Google on steroids’.

There are already 3D maps available online for most big city centres, but the images are often low resolution, meaning they are of little use for navigation and users cannot zoom in on detail.

Critics have argued that Apple and Google will face a backlash if they offer detailed 3D mapping of residential areas in suburbs and rural locations.

Obama speeds up limited air strike, no-fly zones preparations for Syria

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

US President Barack Obama has ordered the US Navy and Air Force to accelerate preparations for a limited air offensive against the Assad regime and the imposition of no-fly zones over Syria, debkafile reports. Their mission will be to knock out Assad’s central regime and military command centers so as to shake regime stability and restrict Syrian army and air force activity for subduing rebel action and wreaking violence on civilian populations.

debkafile’s sources disclose that the US President decided on this step after hearing Russian officials stating repeatedly that “Moscow would support the departure of President Bashar al-Assad if Syrians agreed to it.” This position was interpreted as opening up two paths of action:

1. To go for Assad’s removal by stepping up arms supplies to the rebels and organizing their forces as a professional force able to take on the military units loyal to Assad. This process was already in evidence Friday, June 8, when for the first time a Syrian Free Army (which numbers some 600 men under arms) attacked a Syrian army battalion in Damascus. One of its targets was a bus carrying Russian specialists.

2. To select a group of high army officers who, under the pressure of the limited air offensive, would be ready to ease Assad out of power or stage a military coup to force him and his family to accept exile.
The US operation would be modulated according to the way political and military events unfolded.
Washington is not sure how Moscow would react aside from sharp condemnations or whether Russia would accept a process of regime change in Damascus and its replacement by military rule.

Israelis flock by the thousands to Tel Aviv's annual Gay Pride Parade

Speaking at the event, attended by thousands of tourists U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro says: Human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights.

By Ilan Lior

Thousands of people participated in Tel Aviv's 14th Gay Pride Parade on Friday, including many tourists arrived in Israel to attend the annual gay pride week-long events.

The parade got underway in Gan Meir park, following an event which marked the conclusion of the week-long carnival in Israel's largest city. Among the speakers were top political and municipal officials, including U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro.

Opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich (Labor) said that "on this joyful day there's a need to remember that we have only completed a part of the long way ahead of us." Yachimovich added that the call for gay rights and for social justice is identical: "it's the same fight. You will never march alone."

Meretz chair Zahava Gal-On (Meretz) accused politicians, rabbis and other public figures in discriminating against the gay community, asking them to follow Obama's lead: "next time there's a vote on a bill for civilian marriage, which included same-sex marriage, don't oppose it, endorse it."

Wearing a t-shirt depicting the gay pride flag, U.S. envoy Shapiro addressed the crowd in Hebrew, saying that "this is a day to celebrate and rejoice. Human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights." Also mentioning Obama, Shapiro said that the U.S. administration is showing dedication in removing the obstacles on the way to equality.

After marching the streets of Tel Aviv, the parade reached its peak in a huge beach party at Gordon Beach.

BBC is developing 3D radio

Engineers at the BBC are developing new technology to broadcast radio and television programmes with three-dimensional sound.

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent

Three-dimensional television may only just have arrived, but engineers at the BBC are already working on the next step - 3D radio.

Researchers at the corporation's technology unit, BBC R&D, have been developing acoustics that can trick the listener into believing they are really at events such as concerts with sound coming from every direction - even above and below.

The technology could bring new vigour to the BBC's long-established sound effects department, allowing its experts to fool audiences into hearing an object rising or falling.

The engineers claim that the new technology should allow consumers to receive 3D sound from their existing radio and television speakers.

Frank Melchior, lead technologist for audio with BBC R&D, said: "We want to deliver a new experience to the audience that gives them more immersion and involvement in the content.

"We also have to make sure we are flexible enough in the delivery of this content. It has to sound OK on headphones as well as on speakers."

It is not the first time the BBC has claimed to have made such a breakthrough. Last year, Radio 4's Today programme ran an April Fools' Day demonstration of 3D radio, asking listeners to hold their hands in front of their faces to get the effect.

The joke, as it turns out, was based in fact. A research paper from BBC R&D reveals hopes for 3D audio which will trick the brain into hearing sound from above and below in addition to the left, right, front and back that are usual with existing stereo or surround-sound audio on radio and TV.

Engineers have tested the new technology with recordings of the Last Night of the Proms, a concert by the rock band Elbow, and a radio play of the Wizard of Oz.

Anthony Churnside, who co-authored the BBC R&D research paper, said: "There are a number of ways to create 3D sound. There are psychoacoustic tricks that can make you perceive sound from above and below.

"With the Wizard of Oz we concentrated on a couple of scenes including the tornado when it takes the house away. Suddenly we had mooing cows thrown up into the air, and the wind could be all around you. With 3D sound you have every direction to play with so you can be really quite creative.

"For an orchestra or a live event, the majority of the sounds come from the stage in front of you, but the sense of immersion comes from the sound bouncing off the roof and the walls."

BBC engineers have been testing different technologies including one called ambisonics, in which the audio is recorded using microphones at different locations.

The soundtracks are broadcast simultaneously, with advances in the computational power of hi-fi equipment and televisions allowing the signals to be decoded and configured to suit each listener's speaker set-up.

Mr Churnside said: "The final solution will probably be a hybrid of the technologies so that we can record, produce, broadcast and listen to the audio in the most flexible way."

The 3D audio could eventually help to enhance 3D television broadcasting, which is expected to increase after the first episode of David Attenborough's Kingdom of Plants was broadcast in 3D by Sky earlier this month.