Minority Report may have been based on fiction but the US Department of Homeland Security is working really hard to make it happen. They may not have Agatha and the twins but they have all kinds of individual profiling as well as detection systems to turn this into reality even at only 70% accuracy.

The U.S. Department of Homeland security is working on a project called FAST, the Future Attribute Screening Technology, which is some crazy straight-out-of-sci-fi pre-crime detection and prevention software which may  come to an airport security screening checkpoint near you someday soon. Yet again the threat of terrorism is being used to justify the introduction of super-creepy invasions of privacy, and lead us one step closer to a turn-key totalitarian state.

This may sound alarmist, but in cases like this a little alarm is warranted. FAST will remotely monitor physiological and behavioral cues, like elevated heart rate, eye movement, body temperature, facial patterns, and body language, and analyze these cues algorithmically for statistical aberrance in an attempt to identify people with nefarious intentions

Homeland Security is testing pre-crime screening

Kobe beef in the US is apparently not Kobe beef. They’re all fake, so are several other foreign-originated food according to Larry Olmstead.

This is part of a pattern of deliberate actions going back well over a century on the part of the Federal government to actively ignore foreign trademarks and intellectual property claims in order to support domestic industries. It has very much been done on purpose, and continues to be done on purpose, at the expense of the American consumer (and foreign producers). It is also stunningly hypocritical, and flies directly in the face of the government’s deep pocketed attempts to combat piracy in the arenas of music, film, technology, and software

Parts 1, 2, and 3. Must read.

Utter disregard by the US Government on intellectual property rights on food items

In which almost half are by Samsung and the Android phones have names that could be for condoms.

100 or so actual phone names, some of which sound like names for condoms

The franchising agreement will allow Hero to open Ikea stores across the archipelago, from 2014 to 2021, the statement said. Ikea will have to approve the number and location of the stores based on its own standards. Hero will have the option to extend the partnership and expand the number of outlets after the franchising agreement expires.

Indonesian retail giant Hero signs deal to open Ikea stores across the country from 2014