Courtesy of the National Post.

If Cory Doctorow hadn’t mentioned it in passing in a Forbes article, I would have missed this story from last April:

“Talking” CCTV cameras that tell off people dropping litter or committing anti-social behaviour are to be extended to 20 areas across England.

They are already used in Middlesbrough where people seen misbehaving can be told to stop via a loudspeaker, controlled by control centre staff.

Talking surveillance cameras.

I’ll say it again:

Talking surveillance cameras.

Home Secretary John Reid told BBC News there would be some people, “in the minority who will be more concerned about what they claim are civil liberties intrusions”.

“But the vast majority of people find that their life is more upset by people who make their life a misery in the inner cities because they can’t go out and feel safe and secure in a healthy, clean environment because of a minority of people,” he added.

I live in downtown Vancouver. You know what makes me feel safe? There are always people around. If someone tries to mug me, 20 Korean ESL students will be standing there watching it happen. You know what won’t make me feel safe? CCTV cameras telling me to put my garbage in the garbage can.

I’m not exaggerating about the garbage, by the way:

Downing Street’s “respect tsar”, Louise Casey, said the cameras “nipped problems in the bud” and reduced bureaucracy.

“It gets across the message, ‘please don’t litter our streets because someone else will have to pay to pick up that litter again’,” she told BBC News.

Talking surveillance cameras. To deal with litter.

Also, why does the national government of the United Kingdom have a “respect tsar”?

Competitions would also be held at schools in many of the areas for children to become the voice of the cameras, Mr Reid said.

Talking surveillance cameras … with the voices of schoolchildren.

I guess there’s a kind of poetic justice to it, since the British government insists on treating its citizens like children.

From the Wikipedia entry on André the Giant:

When André was young, he could not fit on a normal school bus and had to be driven to school. As his parents were unable to afford a car of their own so his neighbor, Samuel Beckett, drove him every day.

Bruce Schneier points to a Washington Post article about the “Specially Designated Nationals List” (SDN), a.k.a. the “Bad Guy List.” Evidently everyone in the United States is supposed to make sure your name isn’t on the list before they sell you something. Meanwhile, I can’t even remember the last time a cashier bothered to check my signature when I used my credit card.

From the WaPo article:

The law prohibits anyone … from doing business with anyone whose name appears on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Specially Designated Nationals list … [A]ccording to the law, supermarkets, restaurants, pawnbrokers, real estate agents, everyone, even The Washington Post, is prohibited from doing business with anyone named on the list. “There is no minimum amount for the transactions covered by the OFAC requirement, so everyone The Post sells a paper to or a want ad to whose name appears on the SDN list is a violation … The law applies to you personally, as well.”

It’s a good thing those dastardly terrorists can’t obtain fake ID! Oh, wait.

Here’s the list.