Monday, December 28, 2009

Iran Protest Movement Continues On


From various news accounts, it sounds like the protests in Iran are more widespread and larger than those in the past. Yesterday was a holy day in the country, but that didn't prevent Iranian officials from shooting protesters. The New York Times reported the following:
Police officers in Iran opened fire into crowds of protesters on Sunday, killing at least 10 people, witnesses and opposition Web sites said, in a day of chaotic street battles that threatened to deepen the country’s civil unrest. The protests, during the holiday commemorating the death of Imam Hussein, Shiite Islam’s holiest martyr, were the bloodiest and among the largest since the uprisings that followed the disputed presidential election last June, witnesses said.

There are even reports that the nephew of presidential candidate Mousavi was assassinated:
Mr. Moussavi was first run over by a sport utility vehicle outside his home, Mr. Makhmalbaf wrote on his Web site. Five men then emerged from the car, and one of them shot Mr. Moussavi. Government officials took the body late Sunday and warned the family not to hold a funeral.

Instead of cooling down after the summer elections, looks like the protests in Iran are continuing to heat up.

HP: Hatred and Prejudice?

A video demonstrating that face recognition cameras installed in HP laptops cannot detect black faces has had over one million views on YouTube.

The short movie, uploaded earlier this month, features "Black Desi" and his colleague "White Wanda". When Wanda, a white woman, is in front of the screen, the camera zooms to her face and moves as she moves. But when Desi, a black man, does the same, the camera does not respond by tracking him.

The clip is titled "HP computers are racist". According to an HP spokesman, "HP has been informed of a potential issue with the facial-tracking software included on some of its systems, which appears to occur when insufficient foreground lighting is available." Hmmm . . . so wouldn't this have come up during testing of the software? Or didn't HP bother to test their facial recognition software with African Americans . . . for some reason?



The Dude Is Back To Dishing The Dope

After an unexpected break to move into his new place and get ready for Christmas, The Daily Dude is back to ranting and raving over random things. So sorry to have missed the whole Tiger Woods fiasco-- blogging about all that would have been a blast . . .