With a $6 million federal Homeland Security grant, hundreds of San Francisco’s Muni buses will soon have high-tech video surveillance cameras the transit agency can survey in real-time.
While the transit system uses a surveillance system now, it is more than 10 years old, requires much upkeep, and footage is stored on tapes within each vehicle that must be brought to an office and viewed.
The grant will pay for the installation of video surveillance systems on 358 Muni buses, according to city documents. The project also includes installation of wireless networks, computers and servers at three bus yards “that will enable SFMTA personnel to view, download and store the captured video images wirelessly and view them in real-time or through the Internet.”
“Having a more reliable camera system will help us improve safety, reduce and more effectively manage claims and prosecute crimes,” said Kristen Holland, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which oversees Muni. “Surveillance footage has and will continue to be one of the key elements of our efforts to reduce vandalism and all crimes on Muni.”
According to city documents, “the new system will provide real-time viewing of images, inside and outside the bus, by law enforcement officers, emergency responders and other authorized personnel on a real-time basis from a distance of about 500 yards in case the bus is hijacked and used for terrorism activities.”
These new high-tech cameras will be the latest addition to live-recording technology around The City. Taxi cabs have installed new recording devices capturing activity inside and outside the vehicle. In 2005, The City began installing police surveillance cameras, and 71 cameras now monitor 24 locations.
There have been heated debates about allowing law enforcement to monitor these cameras in real time, but opposition has fought the idea.
Staff attorney Linda Lye with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California said the proposal raises a number of questions.
“The rights of privacy mean the government doesn’t get a blank check,” she said. “What is being done with the information, how long is it being retained and how is it being disseminated?”
Those details have yet to be hashed out by the agency.
“We will have to evaluate how any new features of the system will be integrated into our operations,” Holland said. “However, [real-time viewing] is not a capability that we envision using on a full-time basis.”
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/08/new-eyes-secure-muni-buses#ixzz1USmcLbBu
Saw this on a forum, it is important information.
Blood Clots/Stroke Indicators
Recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions
A. Ask the individual to SMILE
B. Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
C. Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
D. Ask him or her to Stick out Your Tongue (If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other that is also an indication of a stroke).
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
http://www.preparednesscenter.us/x/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?73.last
Sun Unleashes Largest Solar Flare in Years
An extremely powerful solar flare, the largest in over four years, rocked the sun early Tuesday (Aug. 9), but is unlikely to wreak any serious havoc here on Earth, scientists say.
"It was a big flare," said Joe Kunches, a space scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Space Weather Prediction Center. "We lucked out because the site of the eruption at the sun was not facing the Earth, so we will probably feel no ill effects."
Today's solar flare began at 3:48 a.m. EDT (0748 GMT), and was rated a class X6.9 on the three-class scale scientists use to measure the strength of solar flares. The strongest type of solar eruption is class X, while class C represents the weakest and class M flares are medium-strength events. [Video: Aug. 9 Solar Flare Briefly Knocks Out HF Radio
The flare is the largest one yet in the sun's current cycle, which began in 2008 and is expected to last until around 2020. Solar activity waxes and wanes over an 11-year sun weather cycle, with the star currently heading toward a solar maximum in 2013.
"This flare had a GOES X-ray magnitude of X6.9, meaning it was more than 3 times larger than the previous largest flare of this solar cycle - the X2.2 that occurred on Feb 15, 2011," scientists with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a space observatory that monitors the sun, wrote in an update.
Before the Feb. 15 storm, the largest recent solar flare occurred in December 2006, when an X9-class solar storm erupted from the sun.
Solar flares occur when magnetic field lines on the sun get tangled up into knots, building potential energy until they reach a tipping point. Then, that energy is converted into heat, light and the motion of charged particles.
While all X-class solar eruptions are major events, they pose the greatest threat to Earth when they are aimed directly at the planet. During those events the sun often releases a cloud of plasma called a coronal mass ejection into space, and sometimes toward Earth. This ejection hurls charged particles that can damage satellites, endanger astronauts in orbit, and interfere with power systems, communications and other infrastructure on the planet.
Today's solar flare, and resulting coronal mass ejection (CME) was not aimed at us, however. [Anatomy of Sun Storms & Solar Flares (Infographic)]
"Because of its position the CME is going to shoot out into space and not be Earth-directed, and we don’t expect any big geomagnetic storm with this," Kunches told SPACE.com. "We did luck out. If this would have happened a week ago, who knows?"
However, some VLF and HF radio communications blackouts have been reported, according to Spaceweather.com, a website that monitors space weather events.
Whatever particles do head our way should reach us in a few days.
"The cloud will probably miss Earth," SpaceWeather.com wrote. "At this time, however, we cannot rule out a glancing blow from the flank of the CME on or about August 11th."
The plus side of such a collision is often unusually spectacular auroras, or Northern and Southern Lights, which occur when charged particles interact with Earth's magnetic field.
http://www.space.com/12580-sun-unleashes-major-solar-flare.html
Another associated article that is worth looking at
Severe Solar Storms Could Disrupt Earth This Decade: NOAA
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/194166/20110808/solar-storms-severe-solar-storms-earth-paralyse-carrington-event.htm
And if this subject intrigues you you might like to read this PAW fiction story
written by Jerry D. Young called CME, in 2005
http://jerrydyoung.fatcow.com/large-pdf-files/CME.pdf
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