The FBI is Trying Amazon’s Facial-Recognition Software

The software allows the FBI to go through video surveillance footage much faster than agents can. The FBI is piloting Amazon’s facial matching software—Amazon Rekognition—as a means to sift through mountains of video surveillance footage the agency routinely collects during investigations. The pilot kicked off in early 2018 following a string of high-profile counterterrorism investigations that tested the limits of the FBI’s technological capabilities, according to FBI officials.

For example, in the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas carried out by Stephen Paddock, the law enforcement agency collected a petabyte worth of data, much of it video from cellphones and surveillance cameras. “We had agents and analysts, eight per shift, working 24/7 for three weeks going through the video footage of everywhere Stephen Paddock was the month leading up to him coming and doing the shooting,” said FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism Christine Halvorsen. Halvorsen made those remarks in November at the Amazon Web Services re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, where she described how the FBI is using Amazon’s cloud platforms to carry out counterterrorism investigations. She said Amazon Rekognition could have gone through the same trove of data from the Las Vegas shooting “in 24 hours”—or three weeks faster than it took human FBI agents to find every instance of Paddock’s face in the mountain of video. “Think about that,” Halvorsen said, noting that technology like Amazon Rekognition frees up FBI agents and analysts to apply their skills to other aspects of the investigation or other cases. “The cases don’t stop, the threats keep going,” Halvorsen added. “Being able to not pull people off that and have computers do it is very important.”

While Amazon is now a significant supplier of technology to the government—much of it through its cloud business, AWS, which includes the CIA and Defense Department as customers—it is less clear how its facial recognition software is being used in the public sector. The Daily Beast reported the company pitched the software to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials last summer, a move that has lawmakers and Amazon employees asking questions. The company does not list any federal clients on its customer page, and currently only identifies as a customer one local law enforcement agency, the Washington County Sheriff Office. According to press reports, the city of Orlando recently began a second pilot of Amazon's Rekognition software. The FBI did not respond to questions about its use of Amazon Rekognition from Nextgov.

https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/01/fbi-trying-amazons-facial-recognition-software/153888/

Teacher had young girl pose in lingerie, planned to sell her in Morocco, Texas cops say

A joint investigation between two Texas counties ended in the arrest of a 37-year-old woman Wednesday, accused of trying to sell a young female relative to men in Morocco for sex, according to a statement from the Freestone County Sheriff’s Department.

The woman charged is Amber Michelle Parker, according to jail records. She remained in Freestone County Jail Thursday, and was being held on a $25,000 bond. The nature of Parker’s relation to the victim was not disclosed by officials from either Freestone or McClennan County, which assisted on the investigation, in an effort to keep the girl from being identified publicly. Parker is an 8th grade reading teacher at Mexia Independent School District, according to the district’s website. Mexia is a town of about 8,000 residents that sits about 85 miles south of Dallas and 40 miles east of Waco.

“Family members got wind that Parker was going to try to lure this girl to Morocco,” McClennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said, according to the Waco Tribune. “It is a dastardly story, and it is trafficking at its worst.”

Parker traveled alone to Morocco on Jan. 1 to try to broker the deal, the newspaper reported. She was communicating online with multiple men from Morocco about selling the young girl, according to the Freestone County statement. In order to entice the men and get a better price for the girl, she boasted that the girl was a virgin, and included photos of the girl in lingerie, showing the girl’s breasts, KWTX reported. Authorities did not report on the price Parker was trying to get for her young relative, but they had been investigating the teacher “for months,” McNamara told KCEN, after Parker’s family members came forward with the tip.

The reading teacher was placed on administrative leave Wednesday by Mexia ISD, according to a statement obtained by the Tribune from superintendent Lyle DuBus. “Student safety is Mexia ISD’s No. 1 priority,” the statement said. “We take these allegations seriously and we will be working closely with our partners in law enforcement. The district continues to monitor the situation and feels no students at Mexia Junior High were ever at risk.”

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article223863955.html

The Top 10 Secrets of NYC’s Masonic Hall and Grand Lodge in Chelsea

1. Freemasons are the Largest Fraternal Order in the Worldthe oldest document that makes reference to Masons is the Regius Poem which was printed around 1390. The first Grand Lodge and official records of organized freemasonry started in London in 1717 and the first lodges in America date back to the 1730s. The Grand Lodge of New York was established in 1782. Over the centuries the order of freemasons has spread globally and now counts an estimated 5 million worldwide members with over 2 million freemasons in the United States alone.

2. The Masons are in Charge of George Washington’s Inaugural Bible Washington was sworn in by Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, the Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York at the time in 1789. The story goes, that when it was discovered there was no Bible for Washington to swear on, the Grand Marshal of the parade and also Grand Master of St. John’s Lodge No. 1, Jacob Morton, offered to run and grab the lodge’s altar bible from the lodge which was then headquartered at the Old Coffee House on the corner of Water and Wall Streets.

3. Basically Any Man Can be a Mason In order to be a mason, you have to ask a mason. Then, the only parameters for acceptance are that you believe in a god, are eighteen or older and are a man.

4. The Ceiling of the Grand Lodge is Covered in 54,000 Sheets of Gold Leaf The ceiling features three giant Tiffany-style windows and is covered in 54,000 pieces of Dutch metal gold leaf. During the 1986 restoration of the lodge it took fifty artisans and gallons of paint to get the room into this dazzling state.

5. All of the Meeting Rooms Have the Same Layout The Masonic Hall is made up of over a dozen meeting rooms and each has the same layout. There is an altar in the center of the room surrounded by three candles. The candles represent the two wardens and the Master of the lodge. On the east end of the room the elected Master of the lodge sits in the largest chair at the center and is flanked by two officers on either side.

6. All of the Rooms Have Different Decor Drawing inspiration from everywhere from Egyptian tombs to the French countryside, the rooms are named after their distinctive styles: The Gothic Room, The Ionic Room, the Colonial Room, the Doric Room, the Renaissance Room, and so on.

7. The Decor is Made of Plaster Though many of the rooms appear to have marble inlays and columns, wood coffered ceilings, and gold detailing, these decorative elements are actually all made of painted plaster.

8. You Can Rent Out a Room in the Masonic Hall If you are looking for a place to hold your next big event, you can do it at the Masonic Hall! When they are not being used for masonic meetings, the rooms inside the Masonic Hall are rented out as event spaces.

9. Their Symbols Come from Stone Masons It’s no secret that the Masons love symbols. Perhaps the most recognizable is the square and compass with a “G” in the center. The “G” is for geometry and the “Great Architect of the Universe.” The square represents morality and honesty while the compass symbolizes circumscribing desire and keeping passions in bounds. The use of masonry tools in their symbolism harkens back to the organization’s origins in the Middle Ages. Traveling stone masons would use passwords and secret handshakes to identify themselves as members of guilds so they could gain access to construction sites. Today, Masons do the same to identify themselves to each other. The literal tools the stonemasons used in their craft are now incorporated in the masonic lodges’ “speculative geometry.” Instead of crafting temples and cathedrals, today masons are crafting character and “making good men better.” You can see the imagery of stonemasonry tools all over the lodge, including these small grotesques that line the Gothic Room.

10. The Masons Run a Medical Research Institute The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of New York is involved in many charitable organizations including the Masonic Youth Camp at Camp Turk in Woodgate, New York and maintaining the DeWint House at Tappan. Perhaps the most surprising of their charitable endeavors is the Masonic Medical Research Institute. MMRI was founded in 1958 and is a not-for-profit institute dedicated to improving the health and quality of life for all. The current focus of the institute is Cardiovascular Disease, specifically Cardiac Arrhythmias and Sudden Death syndrome. Research into tissue and organ bioengineering with the goal of building new hearts for transplantation is being conducted at the institute.

https://untappedcities.com/2018/11/26/the-top-10-secrets-of-nycs-masonic-hall-and-grand-lodge-in-chelsea/10/