Ontario Lottery and Gaming Helping Gambling Addicts

Ontario casinos and slot machines are starting to bring in facial recognition software into all casinos so that they can help gambling addicts stay out of trouble. This new project has been checked by the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner to say that it is safe. Most casinos in Ontario should be putting their first biometric scanner in early 2011. The first slot machines that will have the scanner will be the slot machines at the Woodbine race tracks. The cameras will link with a system and notify and alert the staff of the area that there is someone who as been registered as a gambling addict. The cameras will use biometric scanning to read the persons face, then people that have been registered it will relay the info into a system that matches the files of the pictures then if someone who has been noted as an addict will be flagged. Although many people like the idea of the scanners they don't like a picture of them being taken, OLG has guaranteed that this information will be safe and will not be used for any other purpose. The picture will be taken if it matches it will be kept but if it was not matched it will automatically erase. Even if the data is stolen there is no personal data recorded just biometric figure of your face which is useless.

I believe that this is a great way to help people out, I believe that it will also evolve so that it will not only detect if the person is an addicted gambler i believe that it will soon have an up link with the police to notify if any criminals are in the buildings. Sure many people don't like being "biometric scanned" but it is to help people out not to steal your biometric data and pictures, generally if things are passed by the privacy commissioner it is generally safe and will not invade your privacy, and if you don't like it don't go, an easy alternative to the scanners. I believe that if these scanners are as effective as they said they are that every store, business, house etc. will be installing it is just an easy way to keep you safe. I also believe that this would be a great tool for airports to have, imagine if every time you went into an airport you would be scanned if a threat entered the airport you would be safe. I believe that these biometric scanners provide yet another safety precaution to aid gambling addicts and to make people feel safer.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/11/25/tech-facial-biometrics-ontario-lottery-gaming-casinos-slots.html

North Korea Shells South Korean Island

On Tuesday November 24th 2010 North Korea shelled a small island that is part of South Korea. There were 2 South Korean marines that died and 15 other troops were injured, there were three civilian injuries. South Korea has issued a warning to the North about the un-neccecary shelling. Due to this warning all military troops are on high alert for South Korea. The island that was shelled is called Yeonpyeng. Many believe that this shelling was the after effect of a small skirmish between the two countries. South Korea was performing military drills close to the border, Seoul refused to leave and began to fire shells into water close to the North Korea shores. North Korea retaliated and sent artillery fire to the South. The American government is trying to convince the Chinese government to try to convince the North Korean government to stop and prevent any more damage that is already done. The U.S. is also sending military training troops to aid South Korea. The South Korean Government is calling these acts "inhumane atrocities" and the United States government is calling it an "outrageous, unprovoked attack". Many people don't understand the purpose of this attack, innocent people are being killed for no reason at all.

I believe that this is outrageous, in today's society there should never ever be random shelling, we can now be civilized enough to call a meeting and talk it over to fix whatever is making North Korea angry. In today's society it is not acceptable to just bomb another country for no apparent reason, that screams retaliation and casualties. I believe that as a last resort, if this becomes much more than just shelling, violence should be used, at no other time should it be used. If this "shelling"escalates to a full on war this will be a problem and everyone will be on South Korea's side because everyone is now civilized enough not to go around and bomb people for no apparent reason. I believe that the Americans are making a very smart point to try to use the pull of China to talk to North Korea and to make sure that this doesn't escalate into anything much more than it already is.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/11/24/korea-artillery-attack.html

U.S. Airforce Warns Troops about New Facebook Feature

The commanders and generals of the U.S. army sent out a warning, letting all troops know that they should be careful when using the new Facebook feature that locates where the account is being used from. This poses a major security threat to the troops. If the troops were to access this "locate tool" they could post were they currently were therefore posing an easy way for enemy troops to locate and attack the U.S. troops with ease. One of the major threats are those caused from Blackberry's or iPhones in which location services can be used via a network connection all the time using location services on either of these devices. The reason they feel this is threatening is because the enemy could easily locate where the main base station's are located, it is also much more of a threat because of the increasing popularity of Blackberry's and iPhones. On most of the programs you actually have to activate the service and list different locations. A main security issue is those people that activate the program un-aware that there security settings are at "everybody" meaning that there full profile is un-protected and available for all to see.

I believe that this warning sent out is extremely right, you would never want the enemy to know your position, it would make you look like sitting ducks. I personally do not use this location feature on facebook, I feel that its not right i do not want people to know where i am all the time, when I want to let people know where i am i just tell them, I don't need them snooping through my profile to see where i wrote my last post. I believe that soldiers should all have this off in the first place, it would risk the lives of all the other soldiers in his or her area. Another good point is that Facebook automatically sets it to off meaning that the people using it have to make a conscious decision whether to let the whole world know where they are. Although this may be cool, and it could be a sense of pride to say that the solider is writing from Afghanistan, it is a safety hazard and for that reason I agree with the commanders and believe that location services on social networking sites should be turned off at all times.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20101118/air-force-facebook-warning-101118/

Airport Body Scanners are They Safe?

Last January the Canadian government said that full screen body scanners would be installed in almost every Canadian airport. The scanners are used to further test and see what people are hiding. For people that are subjected to this further scan have two options either they can receive the full screen body scan which scans and casts a full screen 3D portrait of the persons naked body or they can receive a full pat down from officers on guard. The reason that these are in place is because last year during Christmas on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit a bomber tried to set off a bomb, his attempt was unsuccessful but Canadian and American security measures are being bumped up to prevent security threats like these. Many people have concerns about the scanner and the pat-down, many people are worried about being scanned due to radiation and many people do not like the pat-down because they feel it is invading. The radiation has been tested and it is much less than what you would receive on your average chest xray meaning that you would have to enter the body scanner alot of times in order to receive the same amount of radiation you do in a chest x-ray. Another worry people have is that the image of their body might be saved or brodcasted, the manufactures of the body scanner guarantee that after the scan is done and viewed it cannot be re-viewed.

In my opinion there are two different views you could have you could look at this and say it is an invasion of privacy and that the pat-down is and should be considered sexual assault or you can look at it the way I look at it. I look at the body scanner and feel more secure I feel that when i am flying I am one hundred percent sure that there will be no threats of any kind. I believe that airport security isn't there to be perverted and look at your body when you go through the scanner I believe that it is an extra safety precaution preventing any civilian casualties and plane crashes. Sure there is a safety precaution of whether these things are safe but it is proven that you would have to use the body scanners over 100 times to receive the same amount of radiation you would for a single flight across Canada and it would take you over 100 flights across Canada to receive the same amount of radiation as a chest scan. For these reasons I believe that body scanners are good for airports and should be installed.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/01/05/security-canada-us-airport.html

Food Bank Usage on the Rise

The food bank usage in all of Canada is increasing alot. The main factor of why people are using the food banks more is that people don't have enough substantial income for a job due to the recession, many people that use the food banks have part time low paying jobs, they use that money to buy necessities for their families and they use the food bank to cover food costs. A survey done shows that there are over 867, 948 people that use food banks as of March 2010, of this population 9.2 percent used a food bank for the very first time, there are many children under the age of 18 that use food banks, half of the families that use the food banks have children, and 17 percent have employment income. Food banks are becoming increasingly popular for many families to keep them afloat in the economy today it is due to the lack of economic stability that Canada has been witnessing over the past couple of years.





I believe that when the economy gets strong again and people are getting re-employed the usage and demand for the food bank will decrease. The usage of the food bank is highly dependent on peoples income if they have a lower income they will use the food bank to support their families for food so they can spend money on other necessities like their house or mortgage. I believe that having the food bank available for easy access is important, it is important for people to be fed and it is amazing how we have the power to keep people fed as a community. As stated in my earlier blogs the amount of mortgages taken are drastically showing due to the economy, it shows how people are paying off mortgages and are not having enough money for food therefore they are using the supplied food banks to supply. For the reasons stated I feel that food banks and the rise of their usage is a good thing.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/11/16/food-bank-survey016.html

Mortgage Debt Drops to $1 Trillion

In Canada, people are holding over $1 trillion dollars worth of mortgage debt. This is a drastic increase and the first time the total debt has passed this level, this is a 7.6% increase over the past year. Although the total amount of mortgage debt is extremely high, it is said that the mortgages themselves are rather low and are managing well. The average amount of a mortgages taken are around $146,000, which often is 50% of their home value. In Canada the average price for a new home is roughly $300,000. More people are making smarter decisions and paying off their mortgages with monthly payments and very few people are coming in with late or no payments.

I believe that to have debt this high is unbelievable its amazing how much money people put in to mortgages. I believe that there should be a tighter criteria on mortgages because if this debt keeps up it is going to drive the Canadian economy into the ground. On the other hand it is great that many of the people who are getting mortgages on their houses are paying them back, the bad thing is the fact that there is so much money being payed out via mortgages. Although the debt is so high the payback is coming steadily. To conclude I believe that it is important to let people have an equal chance at buying a house and the mortgage system allows that, for that reason i believe that being $1 trillion dollars in debt is OK.

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/11/08/mortgage-debt-2010.html

Yemen Bomb 17 Minutes from Exploding

On November 4th two Yemen bombs were intercepted from transit, one was intercepted in England and the other in Dubai. The bombs were on route to USA they were being sent via air freight. The bomb was detected and defused 17 minutes before it would detonate. Upon finding the bomb investigators focused on the Yemen based Al-Queda in the Arabian Peninsula. The bomb was found do to a tip from the Saudi authorities and were pulled off the US bound cargo ship. The explosives were extremely difficult to identify they are called PETN, they are held inside a printer cartridge, inside of a much bigger box. The bombs contained anywhere from 300-400g of PETN this much of PETN is big enough to cause a large explosion. The bombs were wired via phones and the phones were used as timers and were set to go off at certain times. The bombs that were intercepted were allegedly linked to the man who attempted last years December 25th failed attack on a US airliner.


I believe that the fact that the bombs were intercepted and defused so no civilian casualties happened was amazing. On the other hand i feel that it is unacceptable for the senders of these bombs to get away with it. I believe that bombs like these should never ever even enter an airport or enter a plane in the first place, extra security precautions should be taken, there should be and is a zero tolerance for any kinds of weapons, searches should be mandatory and
x-rays should be viewed more carefully. I also think that with this bomb threat there should be searches for the man or the men that planted the bomb in the first place. There should be a major investigation involving many more men and much more technology should be used to track this man or men. I believe that if we have the technology to find a bomb on a plane, and defuse it before it explodes there is a chance that we could and should find there people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11692942

Woman Accused of Faking Cancer Back in court

In Burlington Ontario a woman by the name of Ashley Kirilow, faked cancer to try to claim money. She shaved her eyebrows and shaved her hair to make it look like she was going through chemotherapy. She went to significant lengths to make people believe that she had cancer, she hosted events to raise money for a non-existent cancer charity. Kirilow is is facing six counts of fraud under $5000 and one over $5000.

I believe that doing something like this is completely and totally wrong. Not only did she steal from people who probably have friends or family that suffer from cancer but she took money for her own selfish reasons. I believe that doing this will also give people a very low sense of security when donating to a charity, this will stop people from donating to charity freely, people will want to do their research and it will take more time to donate. I feel that this person should have to return all the "donations" she received and give them back to the donor's. If she cant put together the money I believe that she should be sent to jail or be fined for the damage that she has done to many people.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20101102/kirilow-court-101102/