Slashdot Mirror
Richard Stallman Accosted For Tinfoil Hat
ndansmith writes "Bruce Perens posts in his blog about an amusing encounter between Richard Stallman and United Nations security at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. It seems that RFID technology, which Stallman opposes for privacy reasons, was used in the identification badges for the conference. From the blog: 'You can't give Richard a visible RF ID strip without expecting him to protest. Richard acquired an entire roll of aluminum foil and wore his foil-shielded pass prominently.' During a keynote speech, Stallman also passed around the tinfoil for other to use as well. It seems that UN security was not amused, however, as they would not let him leave the room for some time." What makes this even funnier, of course, is that tin foil hats won't stop them.
They really had no idea who they were dealing with.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Wasn't the whole point of the MIT article that aluminum amplifies and tin degrades signals?
I'm confused... who am I supposed to root for? Stallman or the UN?
;)
Excuse me while I go curl into the fetal position in a corner until I resolve this dilemma.
I am an Army of 1 in 10
Curses, foiled again - darn it! i m #1
He put tin foil around the card itself and encouraged others to do so.
But I think this was just a message he was trying to get accross. Now what I wonder is why the security didn't let him leave? OH NOES HE HAS TIN FOIL OVER BADGES!!1 Unless they had something to hide...?
If the holeys in a mesh are half the size of the average wavelength of the radiation, practically none will get through, assuming it is made of the right material. The proper size mesh for RFID technology is left as an excerise for the reader.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
"What makes this even funnier, of course, is that tin foil hats won't stop them."
:P
what are you talking about? Tin foil hats stop everything
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
You deserve what you get if you use aluminum foil. Any conspiracy theorist worth his salary won't accept anything less than genuine tin.
nice, he makes a big ostentatious show of covering up his RFID strip with foil so "they" can't get at him, and of course all that happens is "they" make a big show of harassing him.
Fucking hilarious.
I take exception to many things that RMS says and does, but I'm with him 100% on this one. Way to go, Richard!
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
And hyperthreaded processors are the sign of the devil!
~Chicken
public class null extends java applet { System.out.print ("Tabula Rasa"); }
I'm surprised someone as knowledgeable (or as crazy, depending on your point of view) about these things as Stallman would mix up using aluminium foil - which is almost useless when it comes to these sort of signals - and tin foil, which is somewhat more effective.
/. search myself, but they're there if you want to hunt them down, just search for 'RFID')
Kudos to him for doing this, though, as regardless of what you think about the man, there are still a lot of problems and risks to be ironed out with RFID, not just the privacy concerns that Stallman has, and personally I'd be in two minds about carrying anything that relied on such technology until those issues are resolved - admittedly, though, I'd probably be OK with it for something like this, I'm more concerned about RFID passports and credit cards, given the recent issues (I'm too lazy to look them up on the
Dealing with lawyers would be a lot less tedious if they all looked like Casey Novak.
Yeah, real hypocritical... do you even know what that word means?
Richard Stallman Accosted For Tinfoil Hat
Best. Slashdot Heading. Ever.
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
For months as this RFID contraversy has progressed, people on the 'dot have said, "well, you can always block it with a piece of foil if you don't want to be tracked".
Well, guess what? As predicted by a quick examination of human nature, they WON'T let you block your tracking devices. You will not have a choice as to when and where you will be tracked. This is just the very beginning, the closing of the gate, of our World Prison.
Tell me why again we have to have tracking devices embedded on our persons? I seem to have missed the reasoning. Terrorism?
Exactly. The story does NOT say "Richard Stallman Accosted For Tinfoil Hat". It says he wrapped his RFID card in aluminum foil, which is 100% effective in preventing reading the card without the card carrier's knowledge. The story also says that Mr. Stallman willingly took off the foil at checkpoints.
I don't think he covered his tag in foil to block the radiation. It seems to me that it was more about sending the message that making him and others wear RFID tags was Not Cool.
The guy has balls and he'll make a stand against what he believes in no matter how it looks. Sure, the tinfoil hat doesn't actually work, but it's a visible symbol that cannot be ignored. Without people like him making a visible protest on a forum that so many high-level people will notice, protests against tracking technologies are just pissing into the wind.
Rock on Richard.
Who said that RFID is "inherently evil without regard to whose using it and what purpose it is for?" There is no need for RFID in personal identification documents, a contact readable chip does all the same legitimate things with less abuse potential. And the major purpose of Bittorrent is to move large amounts of data asshole.
Yes, because BitTorrent can not be used for human trafficking or for keeping track of citizens' movements in a totalitarian state, such as one that considers copyright infringement to be more important than these things.
I think he would have made a better statement if he simply refused to attend the summit upon finding out that the tags had RFID.
Having a covered up badge could be a breach of security, since not only did he cover the RFID (and not even that) but he covered the "visual part" of the badge.
Of course, being a famous personality, that wouldn't be much of an issue, but what about the "crashers" that got a wad of aluminum and simply say that they were following RMS' advice?
I admire RMS in this aspect. I wish I could do more to preserve our right to privacy. Nowadays, all I do is refuse the services of people who insist in gathering all kind of information in exchange of unrelated good/services (I just want to rent a movie, you don't need to know my yearly income of wether I have life insurance). But it's a losing battle.
No sig
I'm going to be flamed for this so I'll post AC.
I respect RMS. He's contributed a lot to the FOSS movement (but no, sorry, what I run is Linux). Several of his writings are thought-provoking. But on the other hand, we all want to see Linux become mainstream. Is this the image we want corporations to have about FOSS? One of its leaders childishly and purposefully gets in trouble with UN security for shielding his pass in aluminium foil. A movement led by immature pranksters. Is that the image we want?
Not at all. The "major purpose" of Bit Torrent is to transfer large files efficiently. Bram Cohen intended that to be used for entirely legal purposes such as Linux distributions. The fact that, like most tools, it had wider application is completely irrelevant. You can break into someone's home with a screwdriver ... that doesn't make a screwdriver inherently evil.
Bit Torrent and similar technologies simply give individuals more power. Yes, more power to do things that some organizations would rather they didn't do, but also more power to make their lives better as well. A trade-off, in other words, and one that (for once) is on the side of the many, rather than the few.
Valid complaints about RFID are generally not "RFID rechnology is just inherently evil", but are oriented against governments and/or criminal organizations that would use it to hurt people. Yes, there are many legitimate benefits conferred by RFID tech, but those must be balanced against the potential for people to get hurt by them. Thoughtless dissemination of RFID technology (such as the U.S. State Department was all set to do with passports) will cause a lot more damage than it is worth.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Are you sure it was the tinfoil?
I mean, if I was a security guy and got confronted by thisthis, I would be pretty nervous too!
What's so hard to understand about that?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Right, because cheap RFID - with an effective range of a few feet - is really gonna be a big concern in tracking down people. You're making the case for a non-existant concern. And even if it were a concern, that's what the UN is there for - or is the UN not capable of handling such things?
-everphilski-
Richard will surely be using transparent aluminum in many creative ways. It is the best of both worlds, you can see the RFID tag, you just can't scan for it.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
And not just because he and I share the same initials, either. You show 'em, RMS.
The real story for this conference is the sad irony of having an information summit in Tunis, which violently suppresses freedom of expression.
You can read lots more stories here. I'm pretty surprised the freedom-loving editors at slashdot didn't pick this up as a separate story, it's much more important than Stallman's RFID-tinfoil stunt.
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
or just some paranoid wacko?
From the people that brought you... "Pi = 3.14" We now have... "aluminum = tin".
By definition, it doesn't work if you play by their rules. If he'd just chosen not to show up, nobody would care. Doing this, however, caused enough of a commotion that we're now reading about it on Slashdot. This is exactly what RMS WANTED to happen!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
lead is the only way to go
I used to use a anti-xray film bag for shoplifting, works a treat
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Dear everphilski,
Hello, my name won't mean much to you as unlike most slashdoters you don't know me. My job is to increase gain to allow faint radio signals to be recieved at larger distances. People who don't know me are often surprised how effective I can be at my job, but they soon realize that the range of radio equipment is not as easy to tell as they thought.
Yours north, west, east and south,
Directional Antenna
I always wonder what youin the West would do in the face of true evil. Soil your panties and faint, I imagine.
Perhaps you'll find that "true evil" can turn wusses into heroes. We sit on our fat asses, because we can.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Although Stallman probably knew that tinfoil doesnt work, he was more likely trying to make a political point about RFID, which was a good thing IMHO.
Personally I would have suggested that people go to the snack room and throw it in a microwave oven, that way it makes it a pain in the ass and costs those who want to implement this crap. Money is the only thing people like this understand anyway.
It is extreamly common for people in authority to use other who have no say to deliver their messages. This is often done with the express purpose of pushing unreasonable requests on people, and creating exactly your feelings on anyone who complains. This is not just in government, but in jobs, and even in families.
How many people have had a review, that included a "wage review", at work where they are told that someone not involved in the meeting, and unaccessable to the employee, is the final decicion on their raise. This was the same thing.
So basically you are wrong. In most situations, being a jerk to the innocent guys just trying to do their job is the only way to get things changed. If your job is Henchman, expect to be treated like it.
Ladies and gents: Aluminum foil may not work for head-gear, but it will work just dandy for covering an RFID tag.
;~)
Tag == 100% wrapped.
Head != 100% wrapped (one would hope)
Aluminum foil is conductive. That and complete coverage is all you need for a faraday cage.
There are like 30 posts already that act like it won't work: it will. Want to test it? Wrap your walkman in foil and try to listen to FM. Freqs are different for RFID (probably), but it doesn't matter.
Take care not to touch the ant. of the radio to the foil though, or you may actually improve reception
--Mike--
The fact that, like most tools, it had wider application is completely irrelevant. You can break into someone's home with a screwdriver ... that doesn't make a screwdriver inherently evil.
Ugh. It pains me every time I hear analogies like this. Let me give you a better analogy, based off yours. A company releases a new brand of screwdriver that is VERY VERY effective at taking the knobs off doors (among other things, of course). Suddenly, almost every home in the country is being broken into because of these new screwdrivers (which are just doing their job, it is of course the person USING the screwdriver at fault). You can't even reasonably expect to buy a house without knowing it will be broken into by the next day. There, now we have a fair analogy. Now would you say it would be a good idea to take those screwdrivers off the market?
I am NOT in any way saying that Bittorrent or even filesharing is evil. I just can't stand stupid analogies.
``aluminum amplifies''
So now I know what they were doing with me in that incubator. They were installing an aluminum hat under my skin. Clever. I'll cut it out, though!
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
I think it's important to notice that the MIT study on tin/aluminum/whatever-foil hats was -- shall we say -- tongue-in-cheek? Perhaps some of their results are valid (the hat can actually intensify the radio signals) but some of their suppositions (the government is actually encouraging people to wear them) have to be taken with a grain of salt.
As other posters have said, there are certain criteria you must meet in order to build an effective Faraday cage to block RF. I suppose the hat can act like a "lens" instead of a Faraday cage, in part because it doesn't cover the head completely. So although Stallman may have chosen the wrong material, he wasn't entirely off the mark when he wrapped his badge completely in foil.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
When almost every home in the country is being broken into you have bigger problems to worry about then if it's with screwdrivers or powerdrills.
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
"The issue's not whether you're paranoid, Lenny, I mean look at this shit, the issue is whether you're paranoid enough." -- Max, "Strange Days" (1995)
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Stallman wanted to make a point, not actually stop the signal.
To him, the message was more important than what it actually did.
People more immediately understood the significance of wrapping it in tin foil than anything else.
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
There's a couple...
Here
(I recently had this discussion with a female coworker, was an interesting conversation)
There is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. -- Boondock Saints
You should know better. That's like saying hard disks weren't designed for consumers to access files after pressing 'delete'. Or that the LEDs on your network device weren't intended to have data read from them.
I mean, how silly! Yet, the US government and other parties have made it their serious business to do exactly these things. Read CRT conents around corners? Yep! Keylogging using audio profiling techniques? Famously so.
Yes, there is a concern even if there is no serruptitious RFID spying at the moment. It's broadcasting sensitive data in some part of the spectrum.
Do I need to remind slashdotters that yeags ago, infrared Keyfobs were hijacked by car thieves using cheap Palm Pilots? Now imagine that Keyfob is not only radio, but transmits without you pressing it and the data contains biometric data about YOUR PERSON.
...but do you carry a CELLPHONE?!?!?!
Way to go, RMS! :P
Then Richard Stallman can run the world, of course.
my password really is 'stinkypants'
The real face of government (the overseer on behalf of the aristocracy) comes out with things like drug laws, mandatory IDs, and seatbelt laws. These things implicitly assume you are not responsible and must be made to do what somebody else would have you do.
There is no reason you shouldn't be allowed to sit in a drugged-up stupor all day, other than the need to feed yourself, which is a self-regulating factor. There is no reason for the government to track people, except to control them.
I propose the one thing that will get us out of this mess with one hundred percent surety--a chain email about kittens. Yes, you should forward to everyone in your address book an email like this:
Viva la revolucion and all that.
I for one, welcome our new U.N. security overlords!
--fatboy
*sigh* the paranoid stay paranoid. Do you even know the gain equation? Having done satellite telecommunications... yes, I do. Fuck off, troll.
-everphilski-
Now would you say it would be a good idea to take those screwdrivers off the market?
But you have to remember that this new screwdriver also allows the average Joe to build a brand new house in a matter of days, with no other costs beyond the initial investment of screwdriver. The housing industry will see this new screwdriver as a threat to their industry and will do anything to get the screwdriver off the market.
Your analogy fails because it assumes that houses are not broken into because it's too difficult to gain entry. In reality that isn't true at all. So, if you can't stand stupid analogies, please don't spread them yourself.
RFID tag put on your name tag so that you can be tracked by security as you wander around a secure installation that might have sensitive information stashed away here and there: good.
RFID has its purposes, and one of them is name tags. It's a lot easier to manage access and track people by using them, and IMO the UN has the right to manage access and track people in their own buildings. It was generous of RMS to help them out by amplifying the signal.
(%i1) factor(777353);
(%o1) 777353
You mean, like lockpicking tools of Gun Lockpicks?
--> Insert Funny Sig Here
I just can't stand stupid analogies.
Then why do you make them? If every home in the country is being broken into, then your problem really isn't the hypothetical screwdriver. You wouldn't have that kind of a crime wave if people all left their doors unlocked.
The thing is, an analogy by itself is pretty weak. It's better to make your point first and use the analogy as support, because otherwise some dork always thinks he has a better one.
Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. -Groucho Marx
Two washed up has-beens that no one pays much attention to? These two nutters are for entertainment value only.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
[...]
It's just another example of hypocrisy.
No, Alanis, it's not.
You can't take the sky from me...
My fellow Americans and Patriots:
With the pen mightier than the sword, it is with great responsibility that I write to you and share some insight into the direction our country has been heading in conjunction with the overall public opinion. We all know of the aggressions in Iraq and with each death of a soldier or a citizen, their blood stains our flag red tainting and perverting the Liberty and Freedom that it stands for. I allude not to socialism as a red flag symbolizes, but to the loss of Liberty and Freedom along with the lives of civilians and soldiers alike in the façade of pursuing terrorism. It is with this in mind that we must set aside the petty differences that have splintered this nation and its people, the partisan battles and left/right exchange of accusations. We must come together as the people, for the people and remind those in Washington D.C. who they are elected to serve the interests of. We must come together to let freedom ring, from every mountain, from every valley, from every stream, from every city, from coast to coast, from you to your neighbor, from American to American. We must do the right thing and put this nation back on track, restore the respect and opportunities America and Americans once had on this Earth.
Make no mistake, this is not an attack on an individual or a party rather a travesty and abomination that such behavior and mindset was not only allowed to exist where it did but gather together and try to consolidate power. I care not for labels, I care about the facts and the position held by the person responsible for their actions as they alone chose to make their move. A label covers up things, there has been enough of this done by our Government as it is. Let us remove those labels and see things for what they are, the only label we need to retain for each other is who we are: American.
As a responsible civilization, we all respect the law and have the power to change it. When that law is broken, justice is to be blind and care not for the wealth and status of the accused; the same laws apply the same to every citizen. We must teach this to our children and they must see it work, these laws keep us safe and from destroying things. When this core value starts to erode, so does and has our society. This degeneration must not be allowed to continue, it is the duty of the people to restore the pillar of justice that holds our society up; we the people in order to restore our Union and come together again as Americans denounce dishonesty and deceit, for it does not represent us.
Our core law is provided online by the House of Representatives and can be found here: http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.htm l
Article II, Section 4.
"The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
Article VI, Clause 2.
"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
Treaties formally entered by the United States are considered the law OF the United States and subject to our judicial systems while bound to the treaty. The United States Senate, by a vote of 89 to 2, gave its consent to the ratification of the UN Charter on July 28, 1945 and we joined the United Nations on October 24th, 1945.
United Nations Charter:
Would have RMS thrown a fit of same scale if he had been asked to show photo ID that he had been given prior to the summit?
I do not support RFID'ing everything on sight but I think it's reasonable for guests of a voluntary summit that could be a good target for terrorists or just plain kind of criminals.
Has all of the Serenity hype faded from your minds? You should know that "You can't stop the signal."
Before you go flaming against patriots who care about the smallest freedoms, maybe you'd like to identify "we". You said "Westerners." Are you an Easterner? As in France? Greece? China? Maybe you're just trolling, Anonymous Coward. Or maybe you're actually that ignorant.
If "We" has been experiencing all the stuff that "We" said, how did "We" get onto Slashdot to complain about it? Why would "We" so passionately offer up "We"'s opinions into a public forum without showing respect to the soldiers' blood that bought the privilege?
Why not clear "We's" head from the cobwebs of all those anal probes and realize that every Free Person's freedom starts somewhere, and Stallman shows a highly idealized and ecclectic way of expressing it? Why is that not something worth celebrating, "We"?
All freedom is born of conflict, and Stallman's nonviolent middle-finger approach should be applauded. By the way, he's part of that "you in the West" group to which you so arrogantly refer. The removal of the smallest personal freedom leaves us all damaged, and free people have the responsibility of clinging to those freedoms. That's why "We in the west" don't have to go through all the vile crap that happened to your mom.
Stop being grumpy about your freedom. Go and enlist in the army. Fight against oppression. Or buy a roll of tin foil and wrap your brain in it. Or write a letter to the newspaper. Or join a democracy and vote. If "We" can post to an internet forum, "We" obviously has a measure of freedom, doesn't "We"?
Anyone can understand the outrage over the evils that "We" mentioned. But if "We" thinks that complaining about others' freedoms somehow rids the world of oppression, then "We" needs to spend some time worshipping on the shores of Normandy.
Richard acquired an entire roll of aluminum foil and wore his foil-shielded pass prominently...Stallman also passed around the tinfoil...
So was it aluminum foil or tinfoil? Get it straight people, it's gotta be other one or the other. (or aluminum-tin-alloy foil, but I don't think they make that)
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
I oringally picked this up from Technocrat, a slash site where Perens is an editor/author (I added that fact in the post but it was scrubbed by CowboyNeal). His headline was as follows:
Richard Stallman gets in trouble with UN Security for wearing a tinfoil hat.
I wanted to preserve his concept while still getting the story out to the greater Slashdot community. Perens wrote the headline knowing full well it was aluminum over his name badge. Here is how I interpert his intention, and why I did it how I did it.
1. The difference between aluminum and tin foil is irrelevant. RMS was trying to make a point, and aluminum foil was all that was available.
2. "Tinfoil" hat was was indicative of its function, not position. Or perhaps this will help: he put a tinfoil hat on his badge. Anyway, the location of the foil is not the point of RMS's action nor Perens' post.
3. It's funny. Laugh.
The poster obviously knew what the story said, because he included the aluminum foil on badge details in the article summary.
I reckon RMS didn't actually care if the tin foil worked or not, it, to me, was an obviously symbolic thing.
They are also after Richard!
(All quotes from Bruce Perens' blog, http://perens.sourcelabs.com/)
..So, this was no doubt an interesting problem for the security folks, who had no real idea who Richard was except that he was someone reasonably distinguished who was visibly violating their security measure.
You can't give Richard a visible RF ID strip without expecting him to protest. Richard acquired an entire roll of aluminum foil and wore his foil-shielded pass prominently. He willingly unwrapped it to go through any of the visible check-points, he simply objected to the potential that people might be reading the RF ID without his knowledge and tracking him around the grounds. This, again, is a legitimate gripe, handled with Richard's usual highly-visible, guile-less and absolutely un-subtle style of non-violent protest.
I'm not quite sure I understand why RMS felt that the RFID was a violation of his privacy. It's a SECURITY BADGE. It's whole PURPOSE is to identify the wearer. If he didn't want to wear it, then he shouldn't have attended the event.
I disagree that it's a "legitimate gripe." Remember, he wasn't out on a public road somewhere, but in a "what I suspect is) a secure facility. Furthermore, if somebody really DID want to track him, they would just have somebody watch him the entire time. Believing that somebody wants to track your every motion is either a sign of paranoia or an overinflated sense of self-importance.
All of this completely disrupted the panel that was supposed to follow ours in that room, and the folks operating that panel were rightly furious...
So he makes his point and disrupts the schedule of other panels. Great--this leaves the impression that "Others be damned, I'll make my point however I damn well please." That will earn you a lot of respect. And before you point out that it was the UNU security personnel who caused the ruckus and not Stallman, re-read the account. He was VIOLATING A SECURITY MEASURE. What do you expect them to do? He's violating a security measure that they are there to enforce.
I didn't see anyone further molesting Richard, but I'd imagine he was followed around by plainclothes agents for the rest of the day. This, however, may not be unusual. Perhaps Kramer even got his own protective detail.
See above.
I could just be ignorant of RFID, or misinterpreting Stallman's point of view, but he does seem to be a bit "over the top" in terms of making his opinion known to the public at large. He's 100% entitled to his opinion, but there is a point where making one's point and the cacophony that comes with it washes over the actual issue at hand. What will be remembered more, the RFID issue or that Stallman caused a commotion at a UN event?
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
I agree, and the Slashdot editor DELIBERATELY wrote a misleading title.
125 kHz ---> 1200 m
134.2 kHz ---> 1118 m
13.56 mHz ---> 11.06 m
868 MHz to 956 Mhz ---> 0.173 m to 0.157 m
2.45 GHz ---> 0.0612 m
The UN is completely corrupt. Don't go linking to how to feed the starving without also mentioning the child rapes and of course the oil for food program! Or how they are trying to get the US to renovate the UN building in NYC and expecting to spend about a billion extra to do so (American Tax Dollars)... Donald Trump testified for over a half hour on just how screwed up the UN was when it came to construction costs and project planning. The UN does more harm then good, it is no better then the League of Nations which proves it's nothing more then history repeating itself. Little good the League of Nations did to prevent WWII. If say the US and UK along with one other like Spain or Australia were to pull out of the UN it would collapse under it's own bloat and weight.
As far as feeding the starving goes; most of the starving people are starving because their local governments are corrupt and evil or they are living in the middle of a freaking desert and need to move. Afghanistan was more interested in growing opium then food and it's proving to be a real bitch to get them to stop as the money is too damn good. So the UN goes to feed the starving people and they rape the children and steal the money. Just do a Google News search on Zimbabwe. Mugabe stole the whites farmland and now they are letting the farmland go to waste, meanwhile millions will now starve because the warlords don't have the farming skills required nor the desire to produce enough food for the people. They just wanted the land as a possession. Zimbabwe is refusing to let the UN build housing for people whose homes the warlords destroyed. Meanwhile, the US Ambassador makes a statement about Mugabe's being responsible for the country's economic crisis and chronic food shortages and Mugabe tells him to "Go to Hell".
If the UN was so great, why the hell didn't they send in troops, kick the crap out of the warlords in Zimbabwe and Somalia (no official government to speak of) and then rebuild the crumbled societies? I'll tell you why, the UN does not care enough to do what is necessary. The UN is full of dictators who only care about their own affairs.
Stallman did something completely appropriate. It made a point. It made a valid point. It made the point effectively by attracting attention and publicity. It did not hurt anybody. It caused the barest minimum of disruption and inconvenience.
It has probably brought the matter to the attention of U.N. officials who honestly didn't know or understand the problems with RFID, and regardless of their visible behavior I am sure that it educated the security people as well. I don't know whether this in itself will change policy, but I'd bet a nickel that behind the scenes there have been some discussions and briefings.
Now, the U.N. security people did as close to the right thing as you can imagine them doing. You can't expect them to make an instant technical analysis of the situation. The facts they were presented with were: a) the badges are being used for security, to make sure that only authorized people attend; b) Stallman was conspiciously doing something or other with the badges; c) they had no way of knowing whether it was any kind of security threat, but at least the possibility existed. Screwing around with a security pass is suspicious, even if you don't know what exactly to suspect, and even if in this case it was innocent.
They didn't arrest him. They didn't beat him up. They created the barest minimum of disruption and inconvenience to Stallman and to the meeting.
I say Stallman was effective, on a matter that has some real society importance. And I say the security guards' response was measured and sensible.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I took off the word ending so it's just "accost" and the page you linked to came up with some translations.
t
http://dict.leo.org/?lang=en&lp=ende&search=Accos
People.... this can be a good thing. The rich, powerful or corrupt have always had the power to invade our privacy because it's just an illusion and will alway be so. Privacy laws just protect the powerful from being watched by the masses.
Instead of fighting a lossing battle to stop this technology we need to ensure that it will be available to everyone and that the information will be open to the public. Put cameras on the streets, in the police stations and in government buildings. Build cheap RFID readers that everyone can own. I don't mind being watched as long as I can watch everyone else. Imagine a world where everyone is equipped with their own personal cameras and recording devices... with so many eyes spreading their light everywhere the world might become a more peaceful and happy place.
Wouldn't it be a hoot to see RMS go up against Bob Kramer in an ultimate fighting arena?
...ah, forget it.
Maybe somebody out there with mad programming skills can create a video game?
Well, it's funnier if you imagine RMS in one of those tight Speedo-style fighting trunks with a scowl on his face and "FSF" painted on his chest...
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
People intrigued/amused by this story should totally check out Technocrat, since it showed up there first. (Second, if you count Perens' journal...)
[o]_O
Sorry, but it's the UN. Have a little class. Gawd what an embarrassment he is to the Free/OSS movement.
I want to see a response to this. The discussion just got considerably more interesting than "RMS is the man!" "STFU fag he sucks".
This poo is cold.
Although I agree with most anything RMS says, he does act like a lunatic at times. Thats why the community has chosen the more cool-headed Linus to be its figurehead. Tin-foil hat stuff does not help our image.
I've actually found the opposite... I have two proximity cards in my wallet, one for my office carpark and one for my office door, and they interfere with each other if I keep them together in my wallet, meaning the signal from neither one gets through.
What I've found is that if I keep a later of aluminium (that's aluminum for all you americans out there), from the cover of an old floppy disk, it seems to keep them isolated enough that I can keep them both in the same wallet and just turn it over to present the other card to the sensor.
But without that layer of metal between them, neither card works reliably.
It saddens me that so many here don't seem to understand a simple but very important concept behind Stallmans protest. It was a catch-phrase in the '60s. I was born in the '70s, but I guess I'm lucky that it was effectively taught to me.
I wish I could make this huge:
QUESTION AUTHORITY!
That is all RMS was doing. And when he did put the question to them we saw their reaction. It scares me, the number of people who think the UN's reaction was appropriate.
"It's because they're stupid, that's why. That's why everybody does everything." -Homer Simpson
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I have have almost finished reading "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID". It describes how Wallmart, Procter & Gamble, Accenture and other large companies plan to have RFID chips in everything we buy. They would be used for inventory control, automated checkout and other purposes, but passive RFID tags would remain active in our clothing and other items for many years afterwards. Before long we will all be walking around with RFID tags in our shoes, clothing, drivers licenses, cards in our wallet and on our shopper ID cards.
Each and every item sold would have a unique serial number. The stores who sold those items to us would have a record of who owns them in their computer databases. They would record who purchased them when we use our shoppers ID card, charge card or wrote a check while paying for them. Since 1987 many companys have been using data aggregators to share information about our purchases. In the future, every time we walk past an RFID scanner at a store we would be recognized and and there would be a record of our having been there. In the movie "Minority Report" there are several examples of RFID technology being used to provide targeted advertising.
Some motorists already have toll transponders attached to their windows to pay tolls. In Huston, if you have a toll tag, you are unkowingly beaming a unique ID number to roadway RFID readers that are placed every five miles along some of their freeways. The Federal Highway Administration has a proposal to require all cars to be spychipped before coming off the assembly line. In their proposal, the spychip would be accompanied by a GPS receiver and an 802.11 wireless device to upload real-time location data as your car passes roadside "hot spots". It is slated for rollout between 2008 and 2010. The FCC has also reserved a radio band for applications like that.
Passive RFID devices don't use batteries so they keep working for many years. When you throw out your RFID tagged clothing and other items they can still be read from several feet away from your garbage can. Market researchers have expressed an interest in covertly driving by garbage cans and scanning their contents from several feet away.
Many Christians are uncomfortable with RFID technology because of what it says in Revalation 13:16-17 about the mark of the beast. They feel that the implatable versions of RFID chips might be what the bible is refering to. Implantable RFID tags are already being widely implanted in pets and have been implanted in a few bar patrons at at the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, Spain and the Baja Beach Club in Rotterdam, Holland and in the Bar Soba in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Amika nightclub in Maimi Beach, Florida. A soon to be released book is called "The Spychips Threat : Why Christians Should Resist RFID and Computer Tracking".
Those are just a few examples of the privacy issues with RFID. I am not totally opposed to all uses of RFID but believe that all RFID tagged items should have label that says that they contain RFID tags. That way consumers can choose to avoid them if they want to. Here is on organization that oppose RFID tags:
Sypchips.comI'm missing the part in this story where Richard Stallman was "accosted" by anybody. According to the website, they just wouldn't let him leave the room for a period of time.
Why is this even front page news? Over at Digg.com, they're churning out the relevant tech news left and right.
"Sufferin' succotash."
So does Stallman wrap his driver's license in tin foil also? What if the summit had used regular laminated id badges with name and picture? Would he have wrapped it also in tin foil? The point I'm making is that RFID is just a technology. It can be used right or wrong.
The slashdot editor was doing his job; writing provocative headlines that cause people to click on the story and generate revenue for the OSTG. Any other questions? :-)
You go Richard! This both gave me a good laugh and a shot in the arm of inspiration. Bravo to you for standing up to such things, especially while the current mis-administration is in force!
We sit on our fat asses, because we can.
Rick: If it's December 1941 in Casablanca, what time is it in New York?
Sam: My watch stopped.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
What if you're doing something morally right, but illegal, or socially unpopular?
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
Couldn't get a real badge so you had to overcompensate for your insecurities in some other way? What exactly are you protecting us from now? I feel so much safer now that the 'homeland' is filling up with hired jackboots. I'll be the first to throw a molotov cocktail, you can watch for me as it comes raining down on your kevlar parade.
On the one hand, I kind of agree about some of the privacy concerns RMS and others have against having RFID tags in everything. On the other, complaining about having it in a security pass seems a little disproportionate.
What really intrigues me is that there's absolutely no mention of what the security staff's reason for restricting Stallman's movements. Not even what his version of it was, or the versions of any of the other people in the room with him at the time. It doesn't say he was polite to the security staff, or agreed to show them his non-tinfoil-covered pass, *after* the lecture took place - people seem to be assuming things that aren't talked about in the linked post. Maybe he just made a flippant comment to some no-humour no-necked security thug who decided to enforce what little power he has on the bearded loon, who knows. From the linked article, we certainly don't know anyway, maybe details will emerge later.
And frankly, given today's hightened tensions crazed-terrorist-fear climate, even with a valid-looking security pass, someone who looks as non-conformist and out-of-place as RMS would in a room full of suited diplomats is likely to get special attention when they start what looks like an attempt to mess with the security infrastructure of a government-type building...
Game dev and music blog
Well, yeah.
The human mind is meant to handle a tribe. We can keep track of a small group of people, knowing who can be trusted and who to be wary of.
Now we have cities with millions of people and transportation that takes us everywhere. Every day, we are faced with people we don't know.
We're struggling. Our tribal brains can't keep track of all the people we meet.
I don't see how these tags are any more of an invasion of your privacy than the information you give out when you register/check in for the event. Given the temporary nature of these devices, I really don't see the issue here.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Every other rich country pays a little bit more than its fair share to compensate for countries in civil war or deep economic crisis. Japan for instance is paying 19% of the budget for less than 10% of the global GDP, Gernany 8% of the budget for less than 5% of the global GDP and so on. So with 24% of the budget for 21.17% of the global GDP, the U.S. contribution seen as a share of its GDP is already the lowest of all developped countries: in raw dollars, the U.S. assessments of $440,000,000 is 0.0037% of its GDP when Japan for instance pays $346,000,000 i.e. 0.0092% of its GDP. So you personally are contributing almost 3 time less of your annual incomes to the U.N. than a japanese or me in Europe. What about "everyone except the US has already paid its (proportionaly larger) share"?
If the U.S. was at least paying 21.17% of the budget instead of 24%, the complaints would not be so loud. The problem is that the U.S. has not even paid half its commitments for 2004, and not even 15% of its due for 2005 (that is less than 4% of the U.N. budget). In contrast, every other major contributor has already fully paid 2004 and 2005.
If you aggregate the effective payements made on the last 12 months, the U.S. is only the 6th contributor to the U.N. budget, behind Italy (2.89% of the world GDP)!
Here are the hard and daunting data (remember you asked for it):
http://www.globalpolicy.org/finance/tables/reg-bu
Why do you think U.S. officials always speak of the assessments (never the payments)?
I've actually found the opposite... I have two proximity cards in my wallet, one for my office carpark and one for my office door, and they interfere with each other if I keep them together in my wallet, meaning the signal from neither one gets through.
That makes sense for some "proximity" cards, but not others.
This all gets rather confusing because there are a whole raft of different passively powered RF technologies that are used. At the low end, some proximity cards are little more than a a tuned resistor. When you hit them with an RF signal modulated at one frequency, they reflect it back at a different frequency. In a wide middle range there are lots of different passive RFIDs, which have some digital logic that is powered by the incoming RF field and communicate back by modulating the carrier wave. At the upper end are contactless smart cards, which I believe actually have a transmitter.
Some RFIDs actually incorporate features designed specifically to support multiple devices in range of the reader, ensuring that you can scan multiple devices at once, and see and distinguish them all. Others don't. Tuned resistor proximity badges obviously don't. I belive ISO 14443-compliant contactless smart cards can be disambiguated, but only in relatively small numbers, and the couple of readers I've used don't seem to handle multiple cards well, even if the underlying protocol does.
What I was referring to was contactless smart cards, and if you put foil on one side of one of them, it doesn't work.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Get a pin. Stab the RFID tag.
But it's just an ID badge, so what's the fuss? They didn't implant it in his skin or anything.
"The UN has a huge positive effect on the world."
... ignorant people could claim that the UN is not worth supporting. "
And you sir are naive or haven't had much first hand experience with the other half of the UN, its military wing. I have now worked and lived in 3 war zones for the last 10 years. I have dealt first hand with the UN police keeping operations in all 3 (Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq). You will NEVER see anybody more corrupt or corrupting than the UN. Take UNMUC for example. You take police from corrupt 3rd world UN members and send them to even more corrupt war torn countries where they both:
a) Teach the local cops how to be even more corrupt and extort the locals even more.
b) Directly extort the locals themselves.
In addition many of the UNMIC police have direct access to organized crime back home and often setup trade links in the war torn country they are supposedly helping (often coordinating human, weapon, and drug channels between the domestic and foreign crime rings).
Or shall we talk about the peace keepers themselves? The peace keepers who are used to getting their own way back home and rape and extort the locals who they are suppose to be peacekeeping. Or take bribes to rough up one side or the other. Google away, you will find numerous references to this from all over the world.
Or shall we talk about the UN staff in charge of rebuilding the countries? 1st world doe eyed dogooders who spent their nights getting high, drunk, and partying in local sex clubs. Or the old jaded former dogooder managers who just fuck children on a regular basis while embezzling UN funds to fund their illicit activities and retirements. Or do you mean the 3rd world members who join so they can compete with the jaded 1st worlders who can be more corrupt.
"It strikes me that, of the people who are wholly negative of the UN, the vastly majority are from the USA
I personally find the only people that support the UN are people who have never first hand had to deal with them down range (not their nice 1st world NY and Geneva offices) on a daily basis, never seen how they have this annoying habit of causing more damage than not, prolonging the amount of time the locals suffer and citizens of 3rd world countries who are just embittered they belong to a failed nation and look for the UN to balance / counteract their betters.
Let me guess, you are a western european living in one of your Ivory Towers like so many of your peers. Try getting out and seeing the world for what it is, dirty, nasty, and corrupt. Just like the UN.
De Oppresso Liber
I know this has been said by many people, many times, but if you think privacy is only for people doing the wrong thing, please post your social security number, address, telephone numbers, driver licence numbers, and bank account numbers, as well as all username-password pairs you use.
Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R. MD), proposes that the US debt claimed by the UN is erroneous due to unreimbursed expenses of $4.7 billion for peacekeeping services incurred by the United States during the years 1992 - 1995.
Ah. The US wants to be paid by the UN for peacekeeping expenses during the Rwandan massacre period.
Wow.
You can't take the sky from me...
> why is the body of Perens' article so fucking wide?
Dude, variable-wdith text is SO MUCH BETTER. I fucking hate websites that use 20% of my 1600x screen.
1994 - The Rwandan Genocide begins
You can't take the sky from me...
What does this have to do with wrapping foil around his RFID tag? Well, it's all about drawing attention to him and his organization. The things he does are not about being "right" (aluminum foil isn't necessarily going to have an effect on RFID) as they are to get exposure for GNU and the FSF.
And we all known how well stuff like that works for people wearing tinfoil hats... Yep, stuff like that sure makes them creditable and reasonable, not paranoid and alarmist.
I support open source and the free software movement, but stuff like this does nothing good for their image. The only ones that will take notice and not be putoff are the other tinfoil hat wearers.
See eBay item 5831788304. This guy has a Mylar-foil envelope to shield the chips in ID cards and passports from unwanted scrutiny. He tells me it successfully blocks the use of the rfid chip in an ID card as a door key. Paranoia rules! I plan to buy as many as I can and resell at a markup!
I presume this was a joke, but if not, please consider that everyone's definition of Right/Wrong, Socially Acceptable/Unacceptable, etc differs.
Consider a simple thing like political protest. Say that you disagree with the actions being taken by the "rule makers" or the people monitoring your actions. A certain degree of privacy is required to keep a government accountable.
Bravo, son!
On one hand, because they ask questions and see multiple possibilities, a "smart" person may be more likely to notice little inconsistencies like the picture on an ID being slightly crooked, or the person's shoes not matching their uniform.
On the other hand, they may be more likely to make excuses for inconsistencies. Because they tend to envision multiple scenarios and possibilities, they're excusing what inconsistencies that they see. The picture's crooked because everyone knows not all pictures come out perfect. The shoes might not match because he had to dress in the dark due to a blackout.
Overall, I'd say it would come down to teaching people to be perceptive, and to trust their judgement regarding their perceptions. If things seem off, there's a good chance that they are.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
You're mistaking the institution that spends donations for the donations themselves. The people who want to help would still want to help even if the UN did not exist. Thus, you should be comparing the UN with the set of institutions that don't exist simply because the UN does -- not against what would happen if everybody stopped caring.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
Richard cares more about his own freedom than he does about gaining mainstream popularity for freedom. You said it yourself; I'm just filling in-between the lines.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
First of all, there's a space in the url of your sig for no apparent reason which means I don't know if you're talking about bug 1105 or bug 11054. As bug 1105 is FIXED I guess you must be talking about bug 11054. "Ignore (kill) a Subthread (branch: not the whole thread)(Troll)".. This is a feature request.. no a bug. If you want it so badly, go code it or hire someone to code it for you. If you think it is so important, why don't you try to get together all the people who want this feature and work together to implement it (or hire someone to implement it). Stop being a helpless cheapskate.
How we know is more important than what we know.
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Why should we pay to a corrupt organization that would decrease our overall security? If the state's function is to protect and improve the welfare of its citizens, the UN's 5-veto rules would nearly all intervention impossible. Afghanistan, for example. Afghanistan was a country the US needed to invade to ensure future security, but the invasion was not a blue-hat operation. The UN tacitly complied. What could the UN do-- intervene to stop the invasion? The US would veto the Sec. Council resolution, and just try removing the US from the UN.
Long story short -- the US is in an ideal security position with few to no multilateral controls and no security agreements to work against. The Warsaw Pact is dead. Should the US need to invade a country, it can do so largely with impunity. The ideal strategy for the hegemon is to eliminate multilateral controls on its power, allowing for security maximization. The US does so by marginalizing and rolling back the UN. This strategy eliminates controls on US power, and in keeping with this strategy, the US should not pay dues.
Is it really about security, or rather: flexibility?
We don't believe in radical loony monotheistic religions from the middle east -- we're Christians.
Hey wow! Thanks for pointing out my typo.
I was thinking of giving up on my signature, but now that I know that people are reading it I feel encouraged.
Thanks for writing!
Trrrrrrrrrrrr tchsk!
Even without technology advances brought up by other callers, there are pleanty of places where people are crowded into small spaces. Slave traders can scan the crowd exiting an airport for their "goods". An undercover police officer could just walk through a crowd of protestors and identify everybody there.
JESUS!!! You've come to save us!
I've been a faithful Christian all my life! Without you I'm nothing! Lead the way Jesus, and I will follow!
Hey, why are you panting? I don't remember you being so.. heavy-set.. in the scriptures?
Sure, we can rest a minute. So is it true you've risen again to save us? We sure need it...
NO I don't have a donut. I'm surprised you can think about food at a time like this.
Hey.. Jesus, you've got some B.O. buddy....
WAIT A GODDAMN MINUTE, you're not Jesus, you're RICHARD STALLMAN. This is the second time this week! Stop doing that!
This is often counter productive - they tend to buy food from rich countries. Local farmers now have to compete with free food, which they cannot do, so they go bankrupt and loose their land. Now there are more starving people to feed.
In some cases the local government chooses a few starving people who are allowed to eat for the photo op, and then lets the food rot on the docks. Meanwhile the people are starving because the government is taking all the food they can grow themselves and selling it to other countries.
Stallman COMPLIED with the security, you maroon.
Did you RTFA?
He willingly unwrapped it to go through any of the visible check-points, he simply objected to the potential that people might be reading the RF ID without his knowledge and tracking him around the grounds.
He made an important point, to a bunch of people who probably need to know it. Maybe the VIPs at the UN didn't know that their ID could be compromised by a 'terrist' with a RFID scanner.
As Schneier said in his latest Cryptogram "Security always gets better, it never gets worse".
You will probably be able to read RFID from hundreds of metres away soon. Far enough away to make selective targeting a reality.
Get with the program.
GNU/Linux... ha
Allow me to apologize for more ignorant fellow American. Some of us (at times, over half) are idiots.
Personally I respect the contributions of RMS very much and appreciate that if in 1983 he did not apply his endeavour towards what he believed[1] is right, I would not have the OS I am typing this comment on.
:-) [3]
His vision of a free operating system has been realised but is most well known by the name of it's kernel.
His vision of free software has been realised but is most well known by a name chosen to appeal to business.[2]
Despite names it does not change who was first to conceive of and then apply themselves to what they considered to be a better alternative to what existed at the time.
It appears that he is doing the same thing as in 1983.
oh yes, he also co-authored my most used command
[1] http://www.gnu.org/gnu/initial-announcement.html
[2] http://freshmeat.net/stats/
[3] $ man ls
--This comment is placed in the Public Domain--
900Mhz RFID is stopped by tin foil. It also doesn't work on conductors - like humans. Seems we are actually a 'bag of salt water' as far as RFID is concerned. Need about 1/4" spacer to make it work on humans.
1356Khz RFID uses magnetics and is only good for a couple of feet at best.
While other frequencies may be available to the government, right now the commercial sector makes all the RFID equipment (at least the stuff that actually works) and in order to avoid having to get an FCC license for every installation, they target open frequencies, like that 900Mhz your old cordless phone works at.
Yeah I know, sometime reality is boring. Wouldn't be cooler if big brother was watching you? Istead he is just trying to maximize oil profits.
TODO: create/find/steal funny sig.
A "tinfoil hat" is not a Faraday cage given the large unshielded portion occupied by the user's head... though a properly designed tinfol suit (add a helmet with a transparent conductive coating if the user cares about seeing out) providing continous shielding should be.
Tech Public Policy stuff
but I GNU it all along.
"People need privacy when they are doing things wrong, period."
So you have sex in public? Have all of your passwords, pin numbers and secrets hosted on a public website? Do your family and coworkers know the last time you visted a porn site or masturbated? Give me your address, you wont mind if i come over and rummage through your house, i suppose you dont have curtains and blinds on your windows either?
Yes the idea of privacy (keeping wankers like you the fuck out of my business) is just sooo quaint. Or maybe, just maybe, your just a bit retarded in your mental capacity, unable to fully think through what you are saying. I accept that inevitably, stupid people like you are going to try and force your idiocy upon everyone. Then normal, moderate people like me and the majority of other people here are going to suffer trying to stop you.
Oh yes, and nearly everyone votes where i live as it is compulsory and we still have privacy, we are also half way to having a repressive government, so you're wrong there as well.
Your just a new breed of busybody with a fetish for knowing everybody elses secrets, of course you guard yourself just as closely as everyone else despite your mindless rhetoric, prove me wrong, post your details or be known as a pathetic hypocrite.
It does use some css, but since the people who do the updates (like me) are generally very busy with their own normal work, we just haven't had the time to move everything over to css.
Would it help if I helped? I have knowledge of CSS (though I've only done my own website and related stuff), and now that the Uni summer holidays are here, I have very few obligations between my last exam on Wednesday and Uni starting again in March, so I'm sure I could contribute some time & effort.
Look out!
We lived in villages of 100 or so over the last couple of centuries. The majority had a nasty habit of searching out anyone who didn't profess some mythology or other and torturing them to death. Privacy is the only way to avoid conformity.
Funny, he seems to me to be functioning quite adequately. He has way more money than I and probably you, he has the respect of a huge peer group, he has genuine influence in the major sociopolitical issues that concern him, and he isn't required to subsidize the time he spends on his avocation with drudgery.
He may not have small-scale social skills, and maybe if he did he (or at least you) would be happier, but "incapable of functioning"? Give me a break, he's *way* up there in most metrics of social functioning. Most of us, including me, don't even 'function in standard human societies' well enough to quit our day jobs and follow our passions full time, much less get as far as RMS has in actually achieving them.
Your calling him an incapable fool, appparently because he didn't respect your viewpoint in a personal encounter, smacks very much of sour-grape syndrome to me. I could be wrong, of course; perhaps you're another famous, independently wealthy person with the ear of major government and tech industry bodies, someone else whose innnovative thinking have had a profound influence on the society you live in, whose words are treated seriously by lawmakers and by the movers and shakers of a major industry, someone who can call a press conference and confidently expect representation by major media outlets.
Then again, maybe you're just another peevish Anonymous Coward on Slashdot. At least you're functional, though, right?
Do you have an example of something that is morally right, but illegal? As a broad rule, illegal defines what people though was morally wrong during the long time they've lived in a certain location.
I agree that socially unpopular might be a valid reason though... *looks around*
Here's an example from a long, long time ago, from before your grandparents were even... as old as they are now:
A black woman refusing to give up a seat on the bus when asked.
In case you haven't heard the story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_parks
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Wikileaks, no DNS
If they want to control where you enter they can use a centralized computer and magnetic cards, doors with numeric PINs or many other mechanisms (what is wrong with a guy in the door with your name in a list?)
They don't need to know your location at all moments at all times.
These measures would have been the wet dream of people like Joseph Stalin, and here you are, defending them in the name of technical coolness.
The day it becomes mandatory to have one implanted I hope you enjoy the intrusion.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I agree almost completely, but I must point out that, as important and heroic the sacrifice of soldiers has been, our freedom derives first and foremost from the mutual respect of our fellow citizens. I may think that Bush is a treasonous war criminal, and you may think that Ted Kennedy is a murderous alcoholic, but we both respect the system and the law. If Republicans thought that membership in the Democratic party was an offense sufficient to forfeit civil rights, no army could protect me; likewise the reverse.
It doesn't even take a near majority of a society to destroy its freedom: the situation in Iraq illustrates that even less than 10% of a population can destroy its civil liberties -- and that no group of soldiers can prevent it.
And the fact that we provide much greater than 24% of the UNs military deployments is irrellevant, right?
Hiding a Jew in Germany in the early 1940s.
Being a Jew in Germany in the early 1940s.
"Then again, maybe you're just another peevish Anonymous Coward on Slashdot. At least you're functional, though, right?"
ROTFL.
Dude, I wish I had mod-points right now. I'm no RMS fanboy, and think his attitude and methods sometimes works against him, but that was just priceless
Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
Of the 191 UN member states, 94 contribute 39,329 troops to 13 different missions.
The five permanent members of the security council, who effectively ordered all those blue helmets dispatched, provide 1,030 troops in total.
The US has deployed a quarter of a million troops in Iraq and several thousand in Afghanistan. To serve the UN in 2003, it sent two soldiers. The UK does slightly better: 415 British troops currently wear blue helmets.
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, India and Ghana are the five main contributors, providing 18,745 troops.
Note: those figures dates back to february 2004.
One more point : since 1990, in missions in Sierra Leone and Liberia alone, more than 1,200 peacekeepers died. One of them was Canadian, the others were all Nigerians.
Here is my photo of Stallmans and the UN-guardi s3StallmanGuardSign.jpg.html
http://www.agol.dk/gallery/v/NielsPublic/wsis/tun
Thanks for the information. This is very helpful and well reasoned. I still don't believe we should need to pay according to GDP, but appreciate the education.
Afghanistan was a country the US needed to invade to ensure future security
This is a lie. The Taliban were willing to hand Bin Laden over to a neutral country. The Taliban were willing to hand Bin Laden over if you offered any proof that he was involved in the 9-11 attacks.
If anything, the USA ensured future insecurity by invading Afghanistan. Where's Bin Laden now? How many Afghanis hate the USA now?