Lick The Jack Boots: Reports and stories of outrageous control policy
Brocke:
A new wrinkle in smoking enforcement...
Mon May 12, 2008 4:44pm EDT
TOKYO (Reuters) - Cigarette vending machines in Japan may soon start counting wrinkles, crow's feet and skin sags to see if the customer is old enough to smoke.
The legal age for smoking in Japan is 20 and as the country's 570,000 tobacco vending machines prepare for a July regulation requiring them to ensure buyers are not underage, a company has developed a system to identify age by studying facial features.
By having the customer look into a digital camera attached to the machine, Fujitaka Co's system will compare facial characteristics, such as wrinkles surrounding the eyes, bone structure and skin sags, to the facial data of over 100,000 people, Hajime Yamamoto, a company spokesman said.
"With face recognition, so long as you've got some change and you are an adult, you can buy cigarettes like before. The problem of minors borrowing (identification) cards to purchase cigarettes could be avoided as well," Yamamoto said.
Japan's finance ministry has already given permission to an age-identifying smart card called "taspo" and a system that can read the age from driving licenses.
It has yet to approve the facial identification method due to concerns about its accuracy.
Yamamoto said the system could correctly identify about 90 percent of the users, with the remaining 10 percent sent to a "grey zone" for "minors that look older, and baby-faced adults," where they would be asked to insert their driving license.
Underage smoking has been on a decline in Japan, but a health ministry survey in 2004 showed 13 percent of boys and 4 percent of girls in the third year of high school -- those aged 17 to 18 -- smoked every day.
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUST22491320080512?feedType=nl&feedName=usoddlyenough
Brocke:
Teen arrested for 'blasphemous T-shirt'
By Ben Dillaway
June 25, 2008 10:01am
Article from: Gold Coast Bulletin
A GOLD Coast teenager who wore a T-shirt by English extreme metal band Cradle of Filth that reads 'Jesus is a c**t' has been charged with offensive behaviour.
Above the offensive slogan a nun is depicted masturbating.
A 16-year-old was arrested on Monday for wearing the shirt and was charged with offensive behaviour under the Summary Offences Act 2005 for public nuisance.
Senior Sergeant Arron Ottaway said the teen was walking along Hollywell Road, in Biggera Waters, when a officer saw him.
Police conducted inquiries at Australia Fair, where the teen said he bought the shirt, to find any shops selling it.
The Reverend Matt Hunt of the Helensvale Baptist Church said it was sad people spoke about the Lord in such a way.
"It's fairly common language these days to express sadness, anger or hurt," he said. "It's a degrading word to use and Jesus is anything but that. It's like calling white black."
Mr Hunt said using the Lord's name in vain was a serious sin.
"When someone comes to the point of saying Jesus is the devil or Jesus is 'expletive', the Bible does say be very careful because you're on thin ice."
Gold Coast lawyer Bill Potts said the arrest highlighted Australia's need for a Bill of Rights.
"One of the great problems with our country is that we talk about rights such as privacy and freedom of speech and the like but they are not enshrined or protected in any way as they are in America," he said.
"While there are always limits on freedom of speech, you can't incite violence or anything like that, it seems to be now more than ever that our rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression should be protected.
"A Bill of Rights which enshrines that protection is long overdue in this country."
Mr Potts said charging the teen was 'ludicrous' and brought the law into disrepute.
"A shirt might offend some and might be amusing to others," he said.
"If a person was wearing the shirt in a church or a religious rally where it was specifically intended to offend or cause disruption, then perhaps the prosecution might stand a chance.
"However, to criminalise juvenile or boorish messages is to bring the law into disrepute. The police are acting like the thought police and censors."
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23919553-2,00.html
Brocke:
Swedish school confiscates boy's party invitations
Sun Jun 29, 8:02 PM ET
A school has confiscated an 8-year-old boy's birthday party invitations after they were handed out during class because it said it had a duty to ensure against discrimination.
The boy handed out invitations to classmates at his school in Lund, southern Sweden, but did not invite two boys because they were not his friends, the Sydsvenskan newspaper reported earlier this week.
The school, 360 miles south of Stockholm, confiscated all the invitations, saying it objected because it had a duty to ensure against discrimination.
The report on Friday did not name the boy or his family. It said the boy's father has filed a complaint with the parliamentary ombudsman.
The father told the newspaper that the two classmates were not invited because one had bullied his son and the other had not invited his son to the classmate's birthday party.
"My son has taken it very hard," the father told Sydsvenskan of the school's decision. "It's like taking someone's mail."
The parliamentary ombudsman has asked the school board to decide on the issue before Sept. 8.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_fe_st/odd_sweden_party_snub;_ylt=Ak9OKzlExbknPPpyptdxNkF0bBAF
Brocke:
Girls told not to jiggle, men not to ogle
By Peter Michael
July 05, 2008 12:00am
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Lifesavers say they are becoming morality policeHaving kick men off beach for oglingWomen also have to abide by "no jiggling" rule
SURF lifesavers say they have become "morality police" and have had to evict increasing numbers of oglers from popular topless sunbathing spots.
Senior lifeguards warned of men armed with hidden cameras who were filming unsuspecting female sunbakers on Queensland beaches.
They said "dodgy types" were warned on an almost daily basis about ogling and sitting unacceptably close to topless women while some perverts even used telescopes for spying.
In Cairns, women were allowed to sunbake topless on the Esplanade but lifeguards were supposed to enforce a "no jiggle" law.
Under the five-year-old rule, women could legally take their tops off as long as they did not strut about, swim in the pool, play beach volleyball or fling a Frisbee.
Cairns talkback radio has been running hot this week with a debate between women scared off by perverts and others who said they were offended by the "festival of flesh" at the lifeguard patrolled site. Self-confessed former topless sunbaker and Cairns Mayor Val Schier laughed off the concerns, saying topless sunbaking was a rite of passage for many young visitors to the north.
"If there are pervs or oglers they'd be hurried on by the lifeguards, it is an open area, it is not as if there are dirty old men in raincoats hiding behind phone boxes," Ms Schier said.
She admitted she, too, had sunbaked topless.
"I have bared my naked body to sun, it's freedom.
"It's a good feeling to be free of clothes," she said.
Bikini-clad backpackers Stephanie, 21, and Laurence, 23, from Belgium, wanted to know what all the fuss was about.
"As long as we don't wave our breasts about, run around half-naked, or go topless into the pool I think it is okay," said Laurence.
Senior lifeguard Daniel Fleming, 22, confirmed the concerns of lifeguards across the state, saying his role was increasingly one akin to the "morality police". "Everyday I have to shoo away dodgy characters," he said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23971340-2,00.html
Brocke:
Court rules on noisy chicken
From correspondents in Geneva
July 05, 2008 06:22am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
A SWISS court has ordered that a chicken be locked up in a soundproof box every night so its neighbours can get a good night's sleep.
The court at Ticino in southern Switzerland even stipulated that the box, in which the chicken must be kept from 10pm to 7am, should be at least eight cm thick and insulated with glass wool, , the ATS news agency reported today.
The decision ends a five-year battle between the authorities in the village of Sant'Antonio and the chicken's owner.
The authorities, alerted by complaints from neighbours, earlier ordered that the bird be put in a henhouse at night. The measure, however, was found to be pointless.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23972356-23109,00.html
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