Israeli firm develops body cams with facial recognition




Tirza said he partnered with Tel Aviv-based Corsight AI to develop a body-worn police camera that could instantly identify people in a crowd, even if they wear masks, make-up or camouflage, and could match them to photographs dating back decades

 (AFP/AHMAD GHARABLI)

Daniella Cheslow
Sat, January 22, 2022

Twenty years after he planned the controversial barrier between Israel and Palestinians, Dany Tirza is developing a security tool that requires no cement: body cameras with facial recognition technology.

Tirza, a former Israeli army colonel, says his company Yozmot Ltd aims to produce a body-worn camera enabling police to scan crowds and detect suspects in real time, even if their faces are obscured.

Facial recognition in law enforcement has sparked global criticism, with US tech giants backing away from providing the technology to police, citing privacy risks.

Proponents including Tirza, however, tout its ability to track down criminals or missing persons.

"The policeman will know who he is facing," he said.

- 'It's easy' -

Tirza, 63, spoke to AFP from his home in Kfar Adumim, a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.

He said he partnered with Tel Aviv-based Corsight AI to develop a body-worn police camera that could instantly identify people in a crowd, even if they wear masks, make-up or camouflage, and could match them to photographs dating back decades.

Corsight CEO Rob Watts did not confirm the collaboration but said his company was working with some 230 "integrators" worldwide who incorporated facial recognition software into cameras.

The technology allows clients to build databases, whether of company employees allowed into a building, ticket holders permitted into a stadium, or suspects wanted by the police, Watts said.

He said Australian and British police were already piloting the technology.

The facial recognition industry was worth about $3.7 billion in 2020, according to market research firm Mordor Intelligence, which projected growth to $11.6 billion by 2026.

Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM have all declared temporary or permanent freezes on selling facial recognition programmes to law enforcement.

France last month ordered the US-based Clearview AI to delete data on its citizens, saying the company violated privacy when it built a facial recognition database using images "scraped" from the internet.

Watts called Clearview's actions "abhorrent" and said Corsight AI did not sell to China, Russia or Myanmar because of "human rights and ethics".

"What we want to do is promote facial recognition as a force for good," he said.

He said Corsight had hired Tony Porter, the United Kingdom's former surveillance camera commissioner, as chief privacy officer, and that the software would blur or delete faces deemed not of interest within seconds.

Corsight AI was valued at about $55 million in a recent funding round, Watts said, estimating this would grow to $250 million by year's end and noting the technology's potential.

"Why do I need a credit card? I don't, I've got a face," he said. "The consumer will very, very quickly and readily adopt facial recognition because it's easy."

- Controversial history -

Surveillance technology developed in Israel has a chequered history.

The NSO Group, founded by Israeli military intelligence veterans, makes the Pegasus software that can spy on mobile phones.

US authorities blacklisted NSO in November, and Facebook and Apple have sued the company after the spyware was discovered on devices belonging to dissidents and journalists.

NSO says Pegasus meets the Israeli defence ministry's export rules.

Israeli facial recognition software, too, has encountered criticism.

In November, former Israeli soldiers revealed they had photographed thousands of Palestinians to build a database for a sweeping facial recognition surveillance programme in the West Bank city of Hebron.

In 2020, Microsoft divested from Israeli facial recognition firm AnyVision, now renamed Oosto, over the company's alleged involvement in surveilling Palestinians.

Oosto works with law enforcement agencies and private companies worldwide, and its software is used at checkpoints where Palestinian labourers cross into Israel.

Corsight CEO Watts said his company has "a number of contracts in Israel -- governmental contracts and agencies", but declined to elaborate, citing non-disclosure agreements.

- 'Control' -

Palestinian digital rights activist Nadim Nashif said the use of facial recognition technology entrenched Israel's "control" over Palestinians and added to a "domination" of physical spaces.

But Tirza praised its use at checkpoints, saying the main aim was to reduce "friction" between soldiers and residents.

Tirza was a colonel in the Israeli military in 2002 when he was tasked with designing a barrier in response to attacks during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

Part towering concrete slabs, part fence, it now snakes for more than 500 kilometres (310 miles) along the Israel-West Bank border.

Palestinians say the barrier's construction grabbed nearly 10 percent of the West Bank, and the International Court of Justice ruled it illegal.

But Tirza said it also reshaped the conflict.

Until it was built, "a lot of people thought you cannot separate" Israelis and Palestinians, he said.

Tirza said he expected to have the body camera finished within a year, and hopes to market it to US and Mexican law enforcement -- though he acknowledged some reluctance.

"They were very interested, but everyone says we have to check the laws" to see whether it goes too far, he said.

"But I believe it is not too far."

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Archeologists discover 2 giant sphinxes at the lost 'Temple of a Million Years' built by a great pharaoh in Egypt 3,300 years ago

Alia Shoaib
Sat, January 22, 2022

Two large sphinx statues were discovered during the restoration of a temple in Luxor, Egypt.Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Archeologists found two large sphinx statues during the restoration of a temple in Luxor, Egypt.

The "Temple of Millions of Years" was a vast funerary temple of King Amenhotep III, who ruled about 3,300 years ago.

The limestone statues measured around 26 feet in length and depict the Pharoah in the form of a sphinx.

Archeologists discovered two colossal sphinx statues while restoring the ancient Egyptian funerary temple of King Amenhotep III, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

King Amenhotep III was a pharaoh who ruled Egypt around 3,300 years ago when it was rich in gold and oversaw a peaceful period of prosperity and growing international power.

The limestone statues measure around 26 feet in length and depict King Amenhotep III in the form of a sphinx – a mythological creature with a lion's body and a human head – wearing a mongoose headdress, a royal beard, and a wide necklace, the ministry said.

An Egyptian-German archeological mission found the statues half-submerged in water inside the Luxor temple, known as the "Temple of Millions of Years."

The team also found three black granite busts of the goddess Sekhmet, a goddess of war also associated with healing which is often depicted as a part lion.

Remains of the walls and columns were decorated with inscriptions of ceremonial and ritual scenes, the ministry said.

A granite bust of the goddess Sekhmet, a goddess of war also associated with healing who is often depicted as part lion.Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Inscriptions on the remains of a wall or column.Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Dr. Horig Sorosian, head of the Egyptian-German mission, said in a statement that the large sphinxes indicated the location of a procession road used to celebrate festivals.

After the statues underwent cleaning and restoration, archeologists found an inscription that said "the beloved of the god Amun-Re" across the sphinx's chest, referring to the sun god often depicted as a sphinx.

The vast funerary temple, built close to the Nile river by King Amenhotep III, was destroyed by an earthquake that swept Ancient Egypt.

The mortuary temple's main purpose was as a place for offerings for Amenhotep III for after his death and movement into the afterlife.

The project to restore the temple and the Colossi of Memnon, two massive stone statues of the pharaoh, began in 1998 under the supervision of the Egyptian tourism ministry, it said in a statement.

DAME Emma Thompson confronts nudity and ageing in Sundance sex worker comedy


'Good Luck To You, Leo Grande' sees British actress Emma Thompson

 tackle several intimate nude scenes (AFP/JUSTIN TALLIS)

Sat, January 22, 2022, 8:31 PM·2 min read

Emma Thompson's naked scene in her new film about an older woman hiring a sex worker was "probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do," she told the Sundance film festival Saturday.

The Oscar-winning actress, 62, stars in "Good Luck To You, Leo Grande" as a repressed former schoolteacher who pays a handsome male escort for the sexual adventures she regrets having shunned as a younger woman.

The heartfelt comedy set almost entirely in a hotel room addresses the ethics of sex work and taboos surrounding motherhood and ageing -- and sees Thompson tackle several intimate and nude scenes.

The actors and director rehearsed "entirely nude" and played games that involved discussing their bodies on the scaled-down set in order to build trust.

Still, "it's very challenging to be nude at 62," said Thompson.

"I don't think I could've done it before the age that I am," she told an online panel.

"And yet, of course the age that I am makes it extremely challenging because we aren't used to seeing untreated bodies on the screen."

In addition to sexual scenes with Daryl McCormack, 29, Thompson's character disrobes before a mirror and looks at her body "in a completely relaxed, un-judgmental way."

"I have never done that... She doesn't alter herself, lift herself up, suck her stomach in, turn around or try to alter what she sees," said Thompson.

Despite trusting the filmmakers, Thompson said she "still found it fantastically hard to do."

"Probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do really -- and that's interesting in itself."

"That tells the whole story of my life as a woman surrounded by impossible demands and images of bodies," she said.

"That's the great tragedy of the female body in the 20th and 21st centuries. And it's a narrative that we absolutely have to change."

Earlier Saturday at Sundance, new docuseries "We Need to Talk About Cosby" premiered.

It focusses on the gulf between Bill Cosby's decades-long status as "America's dad" and long-simmering allegations of serial sexual assault.

Cosby was found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, but his conviction was overturned on a technicality last year and he is currently free.

The series, described by The Hollywood Reporter as a "provocative and important" attempt to spark conversation about the scandal, airs on US network Showtime from January 30.

Also premiering at Sundance on Saturday was "Sharp Stick," the first new film in over a decade from "Girls" creator Lena Dunham.

The Sundance festival runs until January 30.

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Study links depression symptoms with believing COVID-19 vaccine misinformation

A new study has found links between belief in inaccurate information about the COVID-19 vaccines and depression. 

File photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 21 (UPI) -- People who experience symptoms of depression may be more susceptible to online misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, a study published Friday by JAMA Network Open found.

Among more than 15,000 adults age 18 years and older surveyed, those who reported symptoms of major depressive disorder were more than twice as likely to endorse at least one vaccine-related statement that included misinformation, the data showed

Respondents who endorsed at least one statement of vaccine misinformation were 60% less likely to be vaccinated and nearly three times more likely to describe themselves as resistant to getting vaccinated, the researchers said.

"Depression appears to make people more susceptible to absorbing misinformation, at least about the COVID vaccine," study co-author Dr. Roy Perlis told UPI via email.

RELATED CDC: Depression, anxiety continue rise in U.S. due to COVID-19 pandemic

The findings are "just another reminder that we need to do better in ensuring people can get treatment if they need it," said Perlis, director of the Center for Quantitative Health at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Major depressive disorder, or depression, is defined as having at least two weeks of low mood, low self-esteem and loss of interest in daily activities, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

The percentage of adults reporting symptoms of depressive disorders in the United States rose by 17% in 2020-21, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.

RELATED Misinformation could be a growing challenge in 2022, experts predict

Misinformation, sometimes called "fake news," refers to any claims or depictions that are inaccurate, according to the American Psychological Association.

In this study, Perlis and his colleagues asked respondents to rate their level of agreement with statements of vaccine-related misinformation such as, "The COVID-19 vaccines will alter people's DNA" or "The COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips that could track people."

Other misinformation examples used in the survey included, "The COVID-19 vaccines contain the lung tissue of aborted fetuses" and "The COVID-19 vaccines can cause infertility, making it more difficult to get pregnant," the researchers said.

RELATED Study: 'Bots' primary source of misinformation on COVID-19 on Facebook

Among the 15,464 people surveyed, 27% had moderate or severe depressive symptoms and 19% endorsed at least one of the misinformation statements provided by the researchers, the data showed.

"People who are depressed can sometimes see the world with dark- rather than rose-colored glasses -- that is, they can have a bias toward paying attention to negative over positive information," Perlis said.



"So, depression can put a finger on the scale, changing how people make decisions about vaccination," he said.

However, just because someone believes vaccine-related misinformation does not mean they have a mental illness, according to Perlis, and experts believe misinformation is a threat to anyone, not just those who may be struggling with depressive symptoms.

"We are constantly exposed to misinformation online, particularly on social media, and elsewhere," John W. Ayers, co-founder of the Center for Data Driven Health at the Qualcomm Institute at the University of California, San Diego, told UPI in a phone interview.

"Misinformation existed before the pandemic, so this is not a new problem, and it is important that we see it as a threat to all of us, not just certain people," said Ayers, who has researched the topic.

French physicists create bubble that takes more than a year to pop

A team of physicists from France's University of Lille said they used glycerol to create a gas bubble that lasted for 465 days before popping. 

Photo courtesy of Aymeric Roux, Alexis Duchesne and Michael Baudoin/University of Lille

Jan. 21 (UPI) -- A team of French physicists announced they blew a bubble that lasted for 465 days before popping.

The University of Lille team, whose findings were published in the journal Physical Review Fluids, said their research into soap bubbles found they tend to pop after just a few moments due to the "gravity-induced drainage and/or the evaporation of the liquid" inside the soap sphere.

The team, Aymeric Roux, Alexis Duchesne and Michael Baudoin, studied typical "fragile and ephemeral" soap bubbles and gas marbles, a type of bubble made from a liquid solution that contains plastic beads.

The researchers said they analyzed water-based gas marbles and gas marbles made with a solution of water and glycerol, a compound commonly used in various foods and medicines.

The gas marbles containing glycerol displayed particular longevity, with one of the bubbles lasting for a total 465 days before bursting. The team said the gas marble's lifespan is believed to be a new world record.

The researchers said the long-lasting bubbles they created during their project could be used to create stable foams.

BIG HUG THEN LAYOFF
Peloton CEO clarifies plans to consider layoffs, pause production

By Megan Hadley

Peloton stock fell Thursday after reports of layoffs and cost cuts.

 Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Peloton's stock rebounded Friday, a day after reports that the company was halting production of its fitness equipment sent shares tumbling.

Shares of Peloton dropped 24%, closing at $24.22 Thursday, before rebounding 13% on Friday.

CEO John Foley said the company is resetting production levels and reviewing the size of its workforce to make the business more flexible to meet seasonal demand.

On Thursday, CNBC reported that Peloton is pausing Bike production from February to March and that production of its more expensive Bike+ was halted in December and expected to remain so until June. Production of the company's treadmill is expected to be paused for six weeks.

After the document was leaked to media Thursday, Foley released a statement expressing his "sadness" that company members had to read reports without the proper "clarity" and "context."

"As you have heard me and other leaders say over the past few months, we are continuing to invest in our growth, but we also need to review our cost structure to ensure we set ourselves up for continued success, while never losing sight of the important role we play in helping our 6.2+ million Members lead healthier, happier lives," the statement said.

"In the past, we've said layoffs would be the absolute last lever we would ever hope to pull. However, we now need to evaluate our organization structure and size of our team, with the utmost care and compassion."

Botticelli painting with hidden drawing goes on view in NYC


Workers hold "The Man of Sorrows" by Sandro Botticelli, which is on display at a media preview for Sotheby's Masters Week in New York City on Friday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 21 (UPI) -- A painting by Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli -- which was found to have a hidden drawing underneath -- went on view Friday in New York City ahead of its auction.

The portrait of a resurrected Christ titled The Man of Sorrows is expected to fetch upwards of $40 million at Thursday's auction as part of Sotheby's annual Masters Week in New York City.

It is one of only three works from Botticelli's late period -- post-1492 -- still held in private hands, the auction house said.

The last Botticelli artwork to go to auction, Young Man Holding a Roundel, set a new record for the artist, fetching $92.2 million in January 2021.

The Man of Sorrows attracted new attention this month, though, after Sotheby's researchers discovered the painting held a secret -- a hidden drawing of a Madonna and child underneath the layers of paint.

Infrared imaging of the painting revealed the partial and unrelated drawing, indicating the panel was originally meant for a different subject. The outlines of the mother and child are upside down compared to the final painting of Christ, showing the figures pressed together cheek to cheek in an embrace.


An infrared scan of the painting showed a drawing for an planned Madonna and child artwork. Image courtesy of Sotheby's

"The head of the Christ Child, with his upward gaze, is supported by the left hand of the Madonna, and the thick folds of her mantle are visible at her shoulder near the right of the composition," a description of the painting on the Sotheby's website says.

"This particular compositional pose is found in a number of paintings by Botticelli and from his workshop, indicating that the earlier idea for a painting of the Madonna, a mainstay of Botticelli's production, was replaced with what would be a virtually unique and inspired invention by the master."

Sotheby's said Botticelli was inspired by the fanatical preaching of Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola when painting The Man of Sorrows, which depicts Jesus with crucifixion wounds, a crown of thorns and a halo of tiny angels. Savonarola preached against sin and encouraged the burning of artworks considered to be a luxury or idolatrous.

Also up for auction in Sotheby's Masters Week art paintings and sculptures by Carreggio, Andrea del Sarto, Artemisia Gentileschi, Giovanni Bellini and Anne Vallayer-Coster.

Kid exasperated by snow strikes chord with viewers around world

By Zachary Rosenthal, Accuweather.com

Not many kids would admit to wanting to be in school on a snow day, but after a hard day of snow shoveling, 9-year-old Toronto resident Carter Trozzolo was ready to head back into the classroom.

While doing a piece that aired Monday night on how the city's residents were digging out from a blizzard that struck the region, a camera crew with a Canadian TV network, CTV, stumbled upon Carter, who was digging out the sidewalk with his shovel. Given a chance to air his grievances to the world, Trozzolo, a resident of Toronto, was more than happy to share how he really felt.

"I am tired," Carter said before sighing loudly. "I really wish I was in school right now."

Apparently, his parents had decided to really put him to work, and Carter had been shoveling for "neighbors, friends, probably people I even don't know," he explained. "There was a lot of snow, let's just say that."

Carter's exasperation and exhaustion resonated with many in Canada and people across the world, including viewers as far away as Australia.

"I think a lot of us can relate to that amount of exhaustion with everything right now, so I think he captured the emotions of many people," said Rachel Disaia, Carter's mother.

The video went viral, and a camera crew returned to the Trozzolo household to see if he was still tired and how he was handling the newfound fame.

"I'm tired," he said. "I am always tired," Carter said, adding that he still wants to go back to school.

Carter is not the only snow-shoveler in recent years to go viral for their comments during an interview.

In February 2019, when a reporter from a Chicago area news channel asked Judy Ross, "You're sick of this?" while she was shoveling snow on her property, he got a rather blunt reaction in response.

"Well, yeah, especially when I'm the only one here doing all this [expletive]," said Ross, of Waukesha, Wis. "My father used to say: 'I kinda remember that little curly-haired girl that loved the snow.' And I said, 'Well, she grew up. She grew up and she doesn't want to do this anymore.'"

Despite the snow exhausting him, Carter still seems to enjoy it, as he found time to play and lay in the snow after his shoveling duties were done."I love snow days," he said.

Forecasters monitor rare out-of-season tropical development in East Pacific
By Ryan Adamson, Accuweather.com

The system of interest is about 1,000 miles to the east-northeast of Hilo, Hawaii. 

Photo by Kanoa Withington/English Wikipedia

Despite the calendar showing January rather than June, AccuWeather meteorologists are monitoring a gale-force area of low pressure for the potential to develop into an out-of-season tropical depression or storm in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The system of interest is about 1,000 miles to the east-northeast of Hilo, Hawaii. This places the area of interest in an area within a northward bulge in the jet stream.

"A northward bulge in the jet stream is where a tropical system can develop, especially during the warm weather season," explained AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

Image from the AccuWeather Enhanced RealVue trade satellite showing an area of showers and thunderstorms over the Pacific Ocean early on Friday morning.

Since it's the middle of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, rather than the middle of summer, this may limit the ability of the system to develop. In addition, wind shear is already affecting the system.

"The system was being subject to significant wind shear right out of the gate, and that is likely to increase this weekend," Sosnowski said.

Although the likelihood of further development is low, it is not zero.

"There seems to be a brief window for the system to gather enough closed circulation to become a tropical or subtropical depression and storm prior to this weekend," said Sosnowski. "There continued to be strong thunderstorms erupting near the center of the disturbance early Friday morning, but no further organization was visible, he added.

Given the location of the shower and thunderstorm activity, it is not an immediate threat to land. In fact, the projected westward to southwestward movement will mean that is not expected to ever any land areas.

Regardless of development, any shipping interests in the area can expect to experience rough seas and large waves, forecasters say.

The National Hurricane Center gives the system only a 10 chance of development over the next 48 hours as of early Friday.

Despite January being well outside of the traditional tropical season, development has happened several times in the Pacific Ocean during the first month of the year.

"The most recent January storm was Category 2 Hurricane Pali, which spanned from Jan. 7 to Jan. 15 in 2016," AccuWeather meteorologist and senior weather editor Jesse Ferrell said.

Not only was Pali the most recent hurricane, but it also holds the record for the earliest storm in the calendar year. However, it is not the strongest.

"The strongest storm was Category 2 Hurricane Eneka in 1992, which lasted from Jan. 26 to Feb. 9, becoming a Category 3 in February," Ferrell noted.

Both of those storms occurred in the Central Pacific basin, which is the portion of the Pacific between 140 degrees and 180 degrees west longitude. The current disturbance is to the east of 140 degrees west, where development is even rarer during this time of year.

For the East Pacific basin only, Tropical Storm Andres last year on May 9 was the earliest-forming named storm, while Tropical Depression One-E, on Apr. 25, 2020, was the earliest-forming depression according to Ferrell.

The official start of hurricane season in the East Pacific does not occur until May 15. The first name on the list for storms in the East Pacific this year is Agatha.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor calls Texas abortion case a "disaster" in dissent
By Megan Hadley

Justice Sonia Sotomayor calls Texas abortion law a disaster and huge disservice to women. Pool photo by Erin Schaff/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the Supreme Court case involving the Texas abortion ban a "disaster" and a "grave disservice to women" in a new dissent backed by Liberal judges.

She issued the dissent Thursday after a Supreme Court order declined -- for the second time -- to send the abortion case back to the trial judge in Texas, which may have provided some leeway for abortions.

Sotomayor was joined by fellow Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan in the scathing dissent.

"This case is a disaster for the rule of law and a grave disservice to women in Texas who have a right to control their own bodies. I will not stand by silently as a state continues to nullify this constitutional guarantee," she wrote.

She described the abortion ban, known as S.B. 8, as a 'bounty hunter scheme.'

"The law immediately devastated access to abortion care in Texas through a complicated private bounty-hunter scheme that violates nearly 50 years of this Court's precedents," she wrote.

Abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy have been banned in Texas since Sept. 1. The law has a unique enforcement mechanism that allows private citizens to bring lawsuits against anyone who "aids and abets" in a prohibited abortion, making it extremely difficult to challenge in court.

In December, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out most of the arguments against the law, but allowed a narrow challenge to proceed against medical licensing officials. It is that narrow challenge that abortion providers were hoping would be allowed to play out in district court.