Thieves Tagged With DNA Spray

DNA McSpray to foil thieves - McDonalds to use new anti-theft spray

The Sunday Telegraph
January 08, 2012
8:35AM

I'm not lovin' it - the SelectaDNA spray remains on clothes for up to six month and glows under UV light. Picture: Courtesy of SelectaDNA Source: Supplied

A picture under UV light shows an intruder being doused in theDNA spray. Picture: Courtesy of SelectaDNA Source: Supplied

McDONALD'S restaurants are fighting back against thieves by blasting suspected robbers with an invisible DNA spray as they attempt to flee.

The spray, which remains on the suspect's skin for two weeks and on clothes for up to six months, has been introduced in some of the chain's busiest NSW stores, including those at Parramatta, Granville, Auburn, Lidcome, Kingsford and Wollongong, reported The Daily Telegraph.

If the SelectaDNA "forensic marking" spray proves successful in apprehending bandits, McDonald's will introduce the system across all its 780 Australian outlets.

Developed in the United Kingdom by a police officer and a chemist, the spray has been used by McDonald's outlets in Britain and Europe.

Each outlet keeps the details of its distribution a close secret, but one McDonald's restaurant in The Netherlands installed above the main door an orange device which was electronically linked to a panic alarm system. Staff could activate the device in an emergency.

SelectaDNA

You have been warned, the SelectaDNA warning sign telling intruders the glowing DNA spray is in use. Picture: Courtesy of SelectaDNA

Source: Supplied

"Once there has been a security breach, the hi-tech spray unit will douse fleeing robbers with an invisible, synthetic DNA solution," McDonald's Australia's chief restaurant support officer, Jackie McArthur, said.

"The solution is invisible to the naked eye and unique to each location. It stays on clothing for up to six months and on skin for up to two weeks."

Using a UVA light, police can see the markings left by the system and link the offender back to the scene.

The spray contains a synthetic DNA strand composed of 60 variable chromosomes, said SelectaDNA director David Morrissey.

"SelectaDNA is non-toxic, non-allergenic and perfectly safe to deploy. It meets all Australian standards," he said.

Theft is a serious problem for fast-food outlets such as McDonald's, which has high cash turnover, multiple entry and exit points and more than 85,000 staff who often work through the night at truck-stops and other remote places.

In a single week in September, two hold-ups occurred at a McDonald's outlet at Merrylands in Sydney's west.

"Crime can occur anywhere at any time, which is why our extensive safety and security protocols are in place at every restaurant throughout the entire day," Ms McArthur said.

"These locations are some of our busiest, so it makes sense to try out the new technology here.

"McDonald's already has a range of security measures, including CCTV, strict security protocols, intensive training, and consultative working relationships with local police."

This is the first time the system will be used in Australia, and although its marketers claim an "85 per cent crime reduction" rate, the proof of its worth is not yet clear.

SelectaDNA trades on a "DNA fear factor," claiming the system is more about prevention than arrests.

Scores of law-enforcement agencies in the UK, including Surrey Police, have handed out the spray kits so residents can mark their property, and it has been widely used by schools and businesses.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/dna-mcspray-to-foil-thieves/story-e6frfm1i-1226239112219#ixzz1k2GdRFwZ

Spooky Action At A Distance

A conclusive test for ‘spooky action at distance’

January 19, 2012 by Editor

University of Vienna researchers have proposed  the first conclusive experimental test of “Bell’s theorem” (“Bell’s inequality”) — that measuring a particle can instantly influence another quantum-entangled particle arbitrarily far away.

The researchers say they have succeeded in devising a new “Bell test” (of this theorem), taking into account the decay property of high-energy particles systems, called kaon-antikaon systems.

This procedure ensures that the test is conclusive — a goal that has never before been achieved — and simultaneously guarantees its experimental testability. Experimental testing requires equipment such as the KLOE detector at the accelerator facility DAPHNE in Italy.

Revealing “spooky action at distance” (Albert Einstein’s phrase) for kaon-antikaon pairs has fundamental implications for our understanding of such particles’ correlations and could ultimately allow us to determine whether symmetries in particle physics and manifestations of particles correlations are linked.

Ref.: Hiesmayr B. C. et al., Revealing Bell’s Nonlocality for Unstable Systems in High Energy Physics, European Physical Journal C, 2011 [DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-012-1856-X]

Ref.: Hiesmayr B. C. et al., Revealing Bell’s Nonlocality for Unstable Systems in High Energy Physics,arxiv.org/abs/1111.4797

Sketch of a possible setup for testing the Bell inequality. The two beams collide in the origin and produce two neutral kaons propagating in opposite directions. Regions I,II,III cover measurements for different time choices (≡ distances). For any real experimental situation (e.g., pairs are not equally distributed in 4π) the geometry can be accordingly adapted. (credit: Hiesmayr B. C., et al.)

Future Style May Include Looking More Non Human

Avoiding Facial Recognition of the Future

Jon Martindale04 January, 2012

Source: ITProPortal

A Scanner Darkly (Credit: Warner Brothers)

New York-based designer CV Dazzle has created a camouflage technique that makes the invasive facial recognition portrayed in1984 and P.K. Dick’s paranoid science fiction story A Scanner Darkly (and the movie based on it) harder to achieve.

The main focus of the camouflage is to use makeup and hair to create a look that is a mix between organic and machine. This makes it very hard to program software that can detect facial features if the traditional lines of a person’s visage are broken up in non-organic fashion.

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CV Dazzle is camouflage from computer vision (CV). It is a form of expressive interference that combines makeup and hair styling (or other modifications) with face-detection thwarting designs. (Credit: CV Dazzle)

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