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Calif. Politican Thinks Blurred Online Maps Would Deter Terrorists
Hugh Pickens writes "California Assemblyman Joel Anderson plans to introduce a bill to force Google Earth and similar services to blur images of so-called 'soft targets' like schools, hospitals, churches and government buildings to protect them from terrorists. 'All I'm trying to do is stop terrorists,' said Anderson. 'I don't want California to be helping map out future targets for terrorists.' Concerns that detailed satellite imagery and photographs available on Web services could help terrorists plan attacks are not new, with reports that terrorists have used such imagery to carry out attacks in Iraq and Israel, and an Indian court is considering a ban on Google Earth following reports that its imagery played a part in the Mumbai terrorist attacks."
"Security expert Bruce Schneier recently wondered what other things legislators might consider banning to prevent terrorism: 'Bank robbers have long used cars and motorcycles as getaway vehicles, and horses before then. I haven't seen it talked about yet, but the Mumbai terrorists used boats as well. They also wore boots. They ate lunch at restaurants, drank bottled water and breathed the air,' wrote Schneier. 'Society survives all of this because the good uses of infrastructure far outweigh the bad uses, even though the good uses are — by and large — small and pedestrian and the bad uses are rare and spectacular.'"
Ban bottled water, that stuff's a killer!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
If we just blurred all maps, the terrorists couldn't even find their targets!
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Politicians have called for a ban on cars since they are used for bank robberies. They have also called for a ban on cellphones since terrorists have been using cellphones for communications. More at 11.
Terr'st1: "Are you ready to hit the school and strike a blow against the evil US?"
Terr'st2: "Yes! We must stand up against the Great Satan!"
Terr'st1: "Good! Grab the map."
Terr'st2: "It's... it's blurred! This cannot be!"
Terr'st1: "Curses! We are foiled."
Terr'st2: "You outsmarted us this time Great Satan! But we will be back."
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
I bet most of these "terrorists" wear shoes.
Why in the world would you want to tell people, "These fuzzy-looking buildings are the ones we really care about the most. Targeting these would cause us the most grief"?
Either you want all the details fuzzed or none of them. The address of a building can be deduced pretty easily once you've pointed it out to them on the map. From there they can get public records of building plans or do their own surveillance planning. Why narrow the search to the most vulnerable or most valuable targets for them?
I've started peeing on all my paper maps to avoid supporting any terrorists.. ! read that al habib.. i've had a lot of coffee this morning!!
----------------------------
Esobofh - Currently drinking fresh mango juice.
*yawn*
Everyone should blur Anderson's name in all publications and documents to make sure he is safe from terrorists.
Yeah, we know how to pick our politicians here in California. The total IQ of our state legislature is about 3. Dumbest asses ever. All of them. Republicans. Democrats. Whatever. I think Sacramento has something in the water.
The guy is brilliant. We need only follow his example to rid us of another pesky problem -- one that has afflicted our country several times since 9/11. Corrupt politicians.
It is a proven fact that politicians are corrupted by money. Absolutely proven!
Therefore, we should immediately ban all political contributions. Not just by fat cats, but ALL political contributions. Oh, and none of this "I'll use my own money" -- we must also ban all political expenditures as well. No campaign ads, no flyers, no paid push pollers.
Actually, that sounds like a great idea... I'm starting to believe my own sarcasm. How sad is that?
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
All I'm trying to do is stop terrorists ...
And all I'm asking you to do is show me the increase in terrorist attacks since Online Maps have become available ... or really anything at all backing the idea that blurring online maps will "stop terrorists."
I know I'd give it up right away if I was set on killing all Americans and when I got onto Google maps the local Wal-Mart was blurred out. There would be no other way to figure out its location or the lay of the land around it. None, I would be thwarted.
My work here is dung.
It's pointless unless they can blur the buildings in real life too.
But if they could do that... well, that'd be pretty sweet.
Private Jones: "Sir, incoming terrorists!"
Commander Smith: "Activate cloaking shields! Deploy decoy buildings!"
huh? you mean the supposed virtual-landlord of those churches isn't powerful enough to protect his own property?
why not pray for protection? REALLY test your faith - put it on the line and see where it gets you. if your churches suffer from terror targets, well, its the will of god and who's to argue with that? ;)
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Isn't California running out of money, spare electricity capacity and (most importantly) fresh water? In terms of imminent threats, I'm surprised terrorism is even on the horizon.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
I (or Google) have a right to take a picture from my property, or any publicly accessible land and post it online. It might help terrorists, but this is the price of living in a free country. Obviously, if there are dozens of terrorist attacks per year, we might declare martial law and the country will not be free anymore, at least until the war is over. But I don't see any justification to live in fear and repression based on a single attack 7 years ago, and when we have successfully toppled the government that sponsored the terrorist plot in question.
And while we're at it, statistics show that 98% of all rapes are performed with a penis, so merely by eliminating penises, we can eliminate 98% of rapes! Ban them immediately! Think of the children, women, and particularly wimpy men! Take away these "assault penises", the weapon of choice of rapists everywhere! And especially the sawed-off versions, which are easily concealed in one's clothing! Sorry, I got a little carried away there...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Agreed, think of it this way.
"they" could look up the address in a phone book, we better make publishing the address of the schools (or other buildings) illegal.
Of course nobody will go to school since it's illegal to give out the address.
Somehow I'm thinking "they" were able to find targets before google maps existed.
Those who can, do.
Why not, we don't need to know how to get around town do we? Oh, and no one owns paper maps.
Idiot.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
While were at it, lets ban airplanes because terrorists have used them before...and cell phones...terrorists love cell phones...ooh! and encryption.
Sure all of these technologies are used for millions of benign or helpful reasons for every malignant use, but banning things is so much easier, and more fun!
Also, it will help spur the economy, because the would be terrorists will have to buy cameras to take pictures of their targets.
And what part of this scheme won't just encourage terrorists to find weapons with a bigger blast radius so they just cover the entire blurred area 'just to make sure'?
Terrorism is todays excuse to raise taxes. ( for the kids was the 90s ) Not surprising at all that they are doing this.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I always hear about the government(and people in general) saying how they'll strip away our rights and freedoms to protect us from terrorists.
So, where are these terrorists? Besides lurking in the shadows of our minds, I mean.
All the online imagery and street view are extremely valuable for terrorist attacks. There are any number of technology that makes terrorist attacks easier. Computers, the internet, cell phones, and goodness knows what else.
But in an open society like the US digital imagery isn't all that needed. Get a phone book to get a school address. Or the Schools web site.
Go to that town and drive by and click pictures with a cell phone if you want. Odds are nobody will even notice.
Pay as you go Cell phones that you by at Walmart seem more dangerous then imagery.
Make great remote hard to trace detonators.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
As far as I know public schools are freely accessible after hours, government buildings offer fairly unrestricted access (obvious exceptions), churches are open to everyone as one of their founding tenets, and I can't think of any of these places that you would not be able to get a better survey of from the street... so I really wonder what is being protected.
Will we also impose these limitations on city-scape photography taken from terrace apartments?
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
Why don't we just ban terrorism instead?
If he really cares about California he should blur his name on the next election ballot.
it's like the USA has been in some kind decaying orbit for the last decade. just when you think the sepo's can't get worse they drop another notch.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Great, now TSA will require me to boot my laptop and prove I do not possess blurry photographs on my computer.
Northern Virginia man thinks California politician should worry about more important things in their state instead of whether or not a line is blurred on a map.
Things like the ridiculous budget deficit. Or the quagmire that is illegal immigration...etc, etc.
Sure, blur a line on a map, but why not fix the things that are more important?
Sent from your iPad.
So that California doesn't have to update Google whenever soft targets change, I propose that California paint the roofs of sensitive locations fluorescent orange, then add satellite-visible concentric black circles to clearly indicate to Google that the building is a target.
California could also inform Google of the site's importance, by painting a large black number representing a score from 1-10.
Then, just in case the terrorists still find the place, outside the site we should post a large warning sign saying "Terrorism Prohibited at this Site."
So now when terrorists look at a map they can more easily identify potential targets because they are blurry.
Google Street View has made their property a much more attractive target to terrorists! "Look Omar, we can easily cause maximum damage by lighting fire to this pile of discarded lumber next to the garage!"
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
To be fair, the actual text of the bill only requires the images to be blurred if the Operator already identifies the building. Specifically:
Still pretty dumb, though.
... only outlaws will have maps. Yeah, I know -- but someone was going to.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Each time I see a steeple with a lightning rod, I wonder about substantial lack of faith on the part of the congregation.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Seriously we've had a total of one terrorist attack in the mainland US, I'd rather see the effort spent to stop traffic accidents.
If they want everything blurred, why did they outlaw dope?
To me it sounds more like they just don't want sophisticated technology easily viewed by anyone, terrorists are just an easy blame and the Sheeple of America will easily agree if it's to "ward off terrorist attacks". To me it just sounds like a beuacratic push to dampen what normal people can access
Rand-McNally & other map makers should also be force randomly drop & add streets, and move the remaining streets around because terrorists use maps to assist them plan and execute there acts.
Ranks right up there with banning pants, because some gang members wear them.
(Not all terrorists are stupid, unlike (apparently) Assemblymen.)
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
And the CIA world factbook, and the US constitution while we are at it.
Also, the bible seems to stir up the terrorists pretty much, lets forbid it too!
Hey, also, the TV series "24" should be marked as munnition with export controls so that the terrorists cannot prepare themselves to what a CIA operative does!
Shall we go on?
NO SIG
Exactly. Remember when MTV used to blur things out in all of their rap videos? It only made curious adolescents and teens even more determined to pirate the videos and see those middle fingers and weed leafs on the rappers' bling-bling.
On a more serious note, many here in Southern California actually take "terrorism" seriously because (1) there's a HUGE military presence and (2) people are believing the recent FUDstorm about Mexican drug violence spilling across the border.
A perfect candidate for the first annual award ceremony.
Terrorists don't bomb maps, they bomb people, places and things. If the general population can find the place despite blurring so can the terrorists. If one can't, the latter can't, and nobody can use it.
This is far too st00pid be be based on the stated intent. He's grandstanding for PR.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
If you worry about overhead spy photos being taken of something, don't build it to look like a target.
If you want the overhead google map picture of something to look blurry, build it so the overhead view of it looks blurry.
___
"I think Bigfoot is blurry, thatâ(TM)s the problem. Itâ(TM)s not the photographerâ(TM)s fault. Bigfoot is blurry. And thatâ(TM)s extra scary to me, because thereâ(TM)s a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside. Run. Heâ(TM)s fuzzy. Get outta here." ~Mitch Hedberg
Security through obscurity is the perfect foil!
Nobody ever accomplished any military or terrorist objective until Google Earth existed!
Years and years ago, Dragon magazine had a cockpit-view from a fighter jet with a dragon flying head-on...
There was a tiny area in the instrumentation that was a blank square, that said in it, "Useless empty wasted space."
The artist, IIRC, said of course it wasn't, but was not allowed to paint that part. Don't remember how or why, but he'd gotten access to the real thing at some point, and used it as a model. A bunch of people noticed the label and called them on it. A plain blank panel would not have attracted nearly as much attention as doing something silly like "something important here! don't look! avert thine eyes!"
How, exactly, will painting a blurry bulls-eye make terrorrism harder? I think "well, my kids are coming here next year and it's all blurry on the map now" is a great excuse for a little in-person recon, too.
Maybe someone will market blurry expensive Gap Kids clothes to SAVE THE CHLIDREN!11!1!!! next :P
Blurry, FFS. BLURRY! I still can't wrap my head around it. Maybe the esteemed Congresstwit in question would care to suggest we all wear tinted spectacles of reddish hue next, to keep us all feeling safe.
bah.
That which does not kill us makes us... st
Unconstitutional on it's face. CA cannot enforce its laws upon the rest of the US (or the world).
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
That's right. When you reach the blur take a left turn. Keep going until you reach the next blur. You should see a blur to your right. Take the blur to the next blur until you reach the blur.
Well, it looks like his mind is blurred already.
Free Martian Whores!
Not only are the targets easy to pick out, they should be easy for a computer to pick out. A half way clever programmer will be able to create an automatically updating map of valuable targets.
Are there any cases of Democrats making such demands?
If he can get all the street signs and address numbers removed too then the terrorists won't be able to find anything
As others have mentioned, terrorism is the new bogeyman to
1. to keep people distracted from domestic issues
2. fund more military and/or homeland 'security' spending
3. justify more idiotic legislation like this one
I'm not afraid of Terrorists. I'm afraid of the idiots who believe that Terrorists are our biggest problem, thereby keeping these jackasses in power.
Even with blurred images, you have a good idea of where it is, even get GPS coordinates. Lets alter the maps and GPS database to place schools somewhere safer, where society can deal with unexpected loss of life. State politician's homes perhaps?
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
Reminds me of a German politician who suggested an innovative solution against kids browsing porn: Porn sites must be offline until 10 pm!
Destroy all schools, hospitals, churches, and government buildings. Then there will be NOTHING for terrorists to attack, therefore eliminating terrorism FOREVER.
However this is to help them enforce copyright issues (add a small dead end street at the end of a small dead end street and call it McRand St, for example).
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
It's the fact they always seem to say everything they think.
I won't even rant on about how one could purchase maps at the corner store. The funnier response would be terrorists would just attack blurry images..
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
Fuzz everything. All you really need are the roads. I don't understand what value hi-res images have in the first place, other than being a curiosity.
So, visually tagging all "sensitive" locations will keep us safe? It won't just tell our enemies exactly what to hit? What about maps at gas stations? The White Pages & Yellow Pages? 411? Google itself? *sigh*
when you blur out the 'soft' targets, blurry spots become targets.
This congressman is an idiot. Clearly.
They're using their grammar skills there.
If we blurred schools, only schools will be targeted.
So we should also blur 100 non-schools for every 100 schools blurred, then the chances of a school being targeted will only be half!
I don't even want to speculate what would happen if we blurred 99 non-schools for every school we blurred.
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
What, is a blur like a magical force field? Sheesh, any *good* terrorist would do it the old fashion way anyway - go to the address and take a picture. There are so many factors to a terrorist attack, how you enter, (if) you want to be alive after- how to exit... blurs do nothing but...make the building blurry.
Politicians have to make a name for themselves, often with stupid or frivolous legislation. So they introduce "Won't anyone consider the CHILDREN?" laws, because they are often the easiest to get ratified.
It's low hanging fruit.
Because the only thing dumber than a terrorist is a politician.
Politicians have to be the stupidist creatures on earth.
Maybe we'd have less terrorism if we banned politcians.
Hey, terrorist were *reading* maps to plan terrorist attacks. Let's outlaw reading!
But if you dare say "Maybe we shouldn't put automatic assault rifles into the hands of anyone with a driver's license", then the gun freaks go ape-shit.
Why is it that they'll ban and outlaw everything, except the obvious?
Secondly, if someone was a terrorist, wouldn't they know then to attack anything on the maps that are blurry?
Oh, my head hurts. Stop the planet, I want to get off.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Agreed, think of it this way.
"they" could look up the address in a phone book, we better make publishing the address of the schools (or other buildings) illegal.
Of course nobody will go to school since it's illegal to give out the address.
Somehow I'm thinking "they" were able to find targets before google maps existed.
"They" were. Humans have fought each other for all of known history. Only recently have there been technological means of reconissance. Reconissance managed to get done before there were satellites and online maps or computers. Even if this map-blurring were 100% effective at its stated purpose (my bet is that it won't be), all it would accomplish is the removal of one potential method. Unfortunately, there are many potential methods. This is just a feel-good worthless measure at best. At worst, it's an excuse for closer state control and regulation of online services -- anyone with some sense has known that politicians have desired that for a long time now. If it's like so many other things, all they need to do is wait for a good enough excuse.
For anyone who thinks this will accomplish anything, I say to you that it's the height of hubris to assume that you are so clever while your enemy is so stupid. Many needless deaths and military defeats have resulted from this sort of thinking. If you're not a strategist and don't understand these basic things, is it so much to ask that you refrain from making strategic decisions? The reality is that if some criminal group really wants to wreak havoc and if they don't give a damn about their own lives and are willing to die in the attempt to do so, there's not a lot you can do to stop them. At least not without destroying whatever freedoms we have left, which is what any truly effective measures would do. I didn't cause this to be true and I don't like it either, but we seriously need to work with the reality of the situation if we are to understand or accomplish anything.
I think we forget that you're a lot more likely to die by being struck by lightning than by being hit by a terrorist attack. I'm so tired of the level of cowaradice that this particular issue reveals. Our ancestors (speaking of the USA) realized that there are things that are more important than life itself, such as freedom, which is why they were willing to go to war to fight and die for those things. Personally, I'd rather keep all of my freedoms even if that meant that my chances of dying in a terrorist attack were increased 100-fold. For those of you who think that's an extreme position or an unwise choice, I have a question: if not for something truly good and wholesome and wonderful that fills your life with purpose, such as the freedom to be who you are and live your own life, what exactly are you living for that makes you so afraid of death, especially a particularly unlikely death? If you have them, what kind of message does your cowardice send to your children? That you should give up everything that is sacred to you for any fear or any bully who comes along? No wonder you are so afraid of dying; the breath in your lungs is the only thing about you that seems truly alive.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Homer: "Well you're not going to find me, because I'm going to take all the numbers off on my house tonight!"
Collector: "Then we'll look for the house with no numbers."
Homer: "Then I'll take the numbers off my neighbor's house!"
Collector: "Then we'll look for the house next to the house with no numbers."
After all, the Naval Observatory was blurred when Cheney lived there. If his house is a target, shouldn't we be protecting all houses?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Yeah... I'm pretty sure that even with NO map i could still find a school, just drive around for a bit and I will find one.
Or, like, find the school's website and look at their address there.
In fact, why even blur them? It would be sufficient to just de-list these things from map services, it's not like they find schools by looking for school shaped things, they just search the map for schools.
Of course, i don't think that de-listing them is anything less than moronic, but still, it at least makes more sense than blurring things.
-Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
Wait, so if we don't identify this complex of buildings with a football field, two baseball diamonds, swimming pool, large parking lot and sports team mascot painted on the 50 yard line as a school...it doesn't have to be blurred?
Like the pre-ban guns of the 10 year AWB, I think there will be quite a bit of money to be made of pre-ban maps!
"Get your pre-ban, non-blurry maps here! Must pass background check."
is to blur the totally useless targets (Britney Spears' house, Paris Hilton's house, etc)
Supplies!
I'm not afraid of Terrorists. I'm afraid of the idiots who believe that Terrorists are our biggest problem, thereby keeping these jackasses in power.
Is anyone anyone really afraid of terrorists? Crackheads probably kill more people in America than terrorists do. Terrorists are dedicated enough to this to commit suicide in the process of doing it. They are not going to be deterred by the small amount of extra work necessary to survey a building rather than consulting google maps. All this does is narrow down the list of targets and piss everyone else off.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
Is it just me or does the likelyhood of a terrorist attack seem pretty slim these days? Or is that it seems we are more likely to get "terrorism" from our own government rather than some Middle East country.
Finally, could you just as easily use a map? Really how much does an over head view of a hotel give you?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
We need to blur the actual buildings too, because they could just take a drive down the street and *see* them directly.
"identified on the Internet Web site by the operator as a school, place of worship, or government or medical building or facility"
Ok... so by "government facility" is he including property that is owned by governmental agencies, but is leased out to private entities? Because otherwise, the ONLY major US terrorist target since 1995 didn't make the list.
Don't you wish your girlfriend was a geek like me?
Then ban knives, nails, hammers and screwdrivers. All of them can be used to seriously injury or kill. Also don't forget rocks, rope, shoes and bare hands.
Idiots with power can easily be recognized as they're always the ones criminalizing the tool when they aren't smart enough to fight its wrong use.
myopic view of terrorism.
Legend of clearly marked shit that totally stands out: Blurred out/distorted images represent so-called 'soft-targets' in the State of California. Soft-targets include schools, hospitals, churches and government buildings.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44131000/jpg/_44131212_paul_johnson_416.jpg Bizarrely not a photoshop, I have seen this sign.
As a former Soviet Union citizen I can confirm that map blurring has been considered a major secret weapon in the fight for World Revolution. Typically, the tourist city plans were next to unusable, filtered through multiple blur layers. This news snip only reinforces my doubts about the two "united" states behaving in remarkably similar fashion.
So if I know it's there, I have to hide it and basically call MORE attention to it, but if I don't know it's there, I don't have to hide it? What kind of retarded logic is that?
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
all your fuzz are belong to us
Ooo maybe we should ban roadsigns too, a terrorist might be able to find their way around.
Seriously, WTF is the thinking here. Oh thats right - there is none.
They might use airports to fly in. Let's close the airports. Might as well close down all the roads too so the terrorists can't drive to their targets. We could even poison all our food and water so the terrorists can't sustain themselves in our country. And finally, we could just go ahead and kill ourselves to prevent the terrorists from doing it.
Terrorist 1: Ok, i've printed out this map of the target, its a middleschool attended by 400 kids, if we crash a plane into it, we might be able to take half of it out and maybe kill 200 of the great satan's young.
Terrorist 2: Excellent, since we've taken over this plane in a post 9/11 environment where the average person who flies in a plane believes that if a terrorist takes over the plane, their lives are forfeit anyway, they had no problem revolting and attempting to kill us.
Terrorist 1: Yeah, that was rough, thanks be that we had our bottles of water to fight them off.
Terrorist 2: Don't forget our nail clippers and cuticle scissors! Anyway, I think our target should be over there, that's elm street. Aim between the soccer field and the baseball diamond.
Terrorist 1: Wait! That looks nothing like the picture! Its not blurred out like in the print out!
Terrorist 2: Drat, foiled again, CURSE YOU JOEL ANDERSON!!!!
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
They should probably stop showing TV shows like 24 and the West Wing that show the schematics of the inside of the Whitehouse, or that film Air Force One that showed the President's aeroplane. For example.
This won't work. Whenever I see blurred out Jerry Springer boobies, that just makes me want to see the uncensored version even more!
Everyone that wants to leave his house must file for permission online 48hours before the trip, leave all kinds of personal information. This way, when you see someone walking or driving around in the vicinity of a school or other highly endangered building you can ask for their specific permit, time of application, ID, specified goals and destinations and people they are going to meet with. If his papers don't state why he needs to be in the same suburb as the school arrest ... better ... shoot him. MUST be a terrorist anyway.
... terrorists won. If you have that kind of paranoia ... you are being terrorized. Congrats Osama ... didn't even have to attack them again ... they did that shit all by themselves.
Sorry but this is getting really boring and ridiculous. Could America please pull it's head out of it's ass and start being a country again? This is REALLLY pathetic
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_0251-0300/ab_255_bill_20090211_introduced.html
Joel Anderson wants your opinion: http://arc.asm.ca.gov/member/77/default.aspx?p=opinion
YOU IDIOT !!
Didn't you get the memo ! The plan is to TELL them we are bluring out the important buildings, but actually blur out the houses of the Investment Bankers.
Time travel is possible. We are quickly heading for 1984.
Terrorist 1 says "Dammit we've worked for years on this attack and we've once again been foiled by Google Maps." Terrorist 2 says "Why can't we just buy a map?" Terrorist 1 replies "What you think money grows on trees were already over budget."
Bruce is right. We should be banning dangerous things in our everyday life. I recently had DHMO brought to my attention. It is scary what you find it in :S. http://www.dhmo.org/
Wait....are you talking about the Pentagon, or the towers? Those are *two* major terrorist targets, regardless.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Then couldn't the terrorists save a lot of time and bomb everything that is blurred out? I mean no more wondering which one is the federal building... it'll always be the blurred one. Might even let them know about potential targets they hadn't thought of.
In A.D. 2101 ....
War was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It's you !!
Terr'st1: How are you gentlemen !!
Terr'st1: All your **MAPS** are belong to us.
Terr'st1: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say !!
Terr'st1: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Terr'st1: Ha ha ha ha
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
We should also blur out phonebooks, because they contain addresses to schools and hospitals as well.
Jebus, I am trolling sigs... I better go get some work done.
Does it include roads? That might make it's usefulness rather non-existent.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
Or you could just not use photographic imagery, and only have renderings of the maps (with the same data they use to super-impose the pictures with road lines anyhow)
I use the images to get a better visualization of the layouts of parking lots and such. Otherwise, there would just be a giant block showing "theater" or "school" or whatever. No idea where parking is, the entrance is, etc.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Google is headquartered in California, and I'm pretty certain Microsoft, Yahoo, and others do business there. The idea might be fought by some on jurisdictional grounds, but the idea itself is stupid.
This would not deter terrorists. Blurred online maps? They'd just use real physical printed maps like they've been doing for hundreds of years.
Occasionally I hear people supporting States rights. Clearly these people don't live in California.
Are we going to blur Thomas Bros Books now too,because those have Schools called out with little school houses symbology?? Jesus. What a gimp this Anderson character is.
the big "G" is a California company.
I suppose they could outsource that to Washington State as a separate Map Services Earth company.
Assemblyman from El Cajon represents the eastern, conservative wing-nut portion of San Diego County. This has absolutely zero chance of getting out of committee. He must be tuning up for a run for State Senate in two years and trying to impress the Limbots in all those trailer parks. Since his district borders Mexico, I guess he's qualified to me Vice President.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Take a look at Israel in Google Maps and tell me if their handling of it prevents terrorism in that nation.
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
Of course, I guess NYC will have to change their own web pages - an example
http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/26/Q203/default.htm
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
Your sig does not tow the line.......(-:
"Surely, you don't want Jones to come back, do you?" --Squealer Pigg
This bill would prohibit an operator, as defined, of a commercial
Internet Web site or online service that makes a virtual globe
browser
It's not just the Big 3, but any map services, including those with no presence in either CA, or the US.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
stop running their state into bankruptcy and stop trying to micromanage the daily lives of their citizens, THEN and only then should they be allowed to open their mouths.
With the weaponry of today, you could probably drop a bomb anywhere in California and hit a school with splash damage.
Blur out the things you think are important and now the terrorists have a super EASY way of designating targets! Anything that is blurred out gets top priority! Idiots!
As we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take my penis away, I want to say those words again for everyone within the sounds of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Locke:
"From my cold, dead hands!"
-W
--- Need web hosting?
It's the *blurry* stuff, fellows. See, California politicians insisted that it be marked for your convenience. Obviously, the blurriest items on the map will be the minds of these California politicians. Please start there, eh?
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Yeah yeah yeah I've heard that stupid mantra before and it's all crap. Let's ignore the fact that ten times as many gun deaths per capita occur in the US than in any other western nation. Let's ignore the fact that by making guns illegal, you make selling them illegal too, so joe shmoe can't just go down to the local gun owner who has no morals and is willing to sell a gun to anyone. Let's ignore the fact that the number one way to get guns in the inner city, which has strict gun control laws is to drive out to the rural areas, where the rules are comparatively lax and gun ownership is somewhat common. Kids nip their parents guns for some cash, someone down on their luck sells a gun to some guy in a bar to make rent that month, etc. Let's ignore the fact that the chances of someone entering your home are low and if they do, they are out to steal something, not kill you. There's no statistics that state that a jealous ex or nut job neighbor will have the exact same chance of obtaining a gun after it's illegal, and to say so is illogical. Some gangs will have guns, but if guns were illegal on a national level, they'd have fewer guns, and overall deaths would go down. There no evidence in any other western country of increased instances of breaking and entering, rape, mugging or anything like that compared to the US.
Guns serve one purpose, to kill. In this country we make this big deal about killing in self defense, in retribution even if someone is merely stealing something, but it's all about creating fear. Fear that you might be attacked and that a gun is your only option. This fear makes us believe this is our only option, if merely to control us or make us buy more guns. Some violence is really horrible, but is it worth taking a life just because someone might hurt you? Is it worth taking a life just because someone wants to steal your wide screen TV? Have you asked yourself why that man would do that? Did you think maybe the elites who run this country want the plebes to fight amongst ourselves rather than go after them for all the lobbying and bad banking and money hoarding they do?
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Heck, why not revert it back to the old days when you could only position on a one-mile accuracy!
Are these really targets? Has any terrorist ever attacked any of these "soft targets" outside of Government Buildings? Where do people get the concept that "The Terrorists" are going to start attacking Schools, Hospitals, & Churches in America?
I guess if you include Students involved in School Shootings as Terrorists. But yeah, how woudl any of this protect againt that? Plus, I'd hardly call them Terrorists any more then I would a Serial Killer or Rapist.
Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
Can't he just issue all terrorists with dark glasses so they cannot see anything? That will be so much more effective.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Yeah, that's the ticket. Then they won't know where they are and won't know if they should start shooting and blowing things up. That's much better than working on a world were people aren't inspired to shoot each other and blow people up.
Now that would be nice...
While California is suffering from the largest fiscal crisis the state has ever seen due to the most obscene mismanagement of state funds ever witnessed. People are losing their jobs and homes while taxes are being raised (during a recession even), but none of those things are as important as attempting to stave off terrorist attacks by blurring some images of publicly attainable information on a computer program.
Why don't we ban attacks on our public communication systems and infrastructure. Just imagine if the terrorists were able to do things like blur out schools, local government offices and other public resources from our maps in an effort to erode our basic ability to conduct the day to day business of American life. Oh, wait...
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
3 words; fascist little shit.
So if I know it's there, I have to hide it and basically call MORE attention to it, but if I don't know it's there, I don't have to hide it? What kind of retarded logic is that?
Exactly. That's called the Streisand Effect! It was named after a member of America's most outstanding group of individuals renowned for litigiousness and not thinking things through. Most of them are from California.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
So, all the terrorsits need to do is look through maps, write down all the blurry places, and they have a list of sensitive targets that we don't want blown up?
Greeeaaat......
They'd just treat the blurry spots as beacons to concentrate on, not get confused and look elsewhere. Duh...
if i worship my genitals, does it means that google maps will legally be bound to blur my house?
Well, we just need something that stops the terrorists if they look at the picture. Given the rampant homophobia in terroristic countries, one could just embed pictures of gay men into the pictures. As some kind of water mark. THAT would stop them for sure. And even better, it's well known you get gay from looking at gay people, so the terrorists would get gay from searching their targets. And THAT would stop them, or did you ever hear of sponteaously combusting gay terrorists ? I don't think so. Gay man are much to faggy to terrorize anyone (besides the vendor in the curtain store for not having the right brand of pink curtains). And even if they blow themselves up, they'll get 99 female virgins in afterlife and then WHAT? HAHA we got you Mr. Terrorist.
Actually, if this were true, they would have to kill each other. Somehow that seems just as effective as sending our soldiers to them to be shot at.
Also, the terrorists weren't told this, but the 99 virgins are basically old women who couldn't get any.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
Oh, good point. I often forget about the Pentagon, since they happened to hit the side of it that was empty.
So, yay, we'll blur the Pentagon, and no one will EVER KNOW it's there! They'll have to fly into the Empire State Building instead.
Don't you wish your girlfriend was a geek like me?
Interesting that the terrorist are still allowed to use Google Street View to see what the blurred building is.
I fail to see the downside of blurring the buildings.
Why bother
During the 70's we learned that the way things operated in the USSR military was that a brigade commander would be given a map of the local roads, without topographical details and the names of the beginning and ending point of the mission marked on the map. The battalion commander would get a map of the immediate area around the path they were to follow, with the beginning and end points. The company commander would get a line map of the mission with dots not names. The Lieutenant would end up with something like the directions you get from a gas station "Go down this here road to the 3rd left. One of the things they would send back to the Soviet Uninon would be gas station maps of US highways. So my question to the Republican party of California (and this includes you Arnold) Are you Americans or Soviet Socialists afraid of their own shadow and scared to death of knowledge. Frankly I think they are little more than Putin puppets. But that just might be me and me alone.
I'm sorry, I'm to tired to be witty at the moment so this message will have to do.
Further more it's not difficult to download the appropriate TIGER data base from the Census Bureau via anonymous FTP and just pull out the latitude and longitude of every school in the US from the "named locations" cross reference. If Google in the US can't show you what's there, I'm sure there are satellite photos from Russia available, that's where Google supposedly got their's photo's of Groom Lake/Nellis AFB/Area 51 from.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
"Is anyone anyone really afraid of terrorists? Crackheads probably kill more people in America than terrorists do."
The reason they're called terrorists, is because they try to cause terror -- unreasoning fear is their goal.
We kill 40,000 of ourselves (in round numbers) in traffic accidents *every year*:
http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx
That's approximately 10 times the current US death toll in Iraq. Every year!
Now, every life is precious, and no one should die needlessly. But it's good to keep terrorism in perspective.
-Google streets
-Bigger bombs
-Good old fashioned recon, just paid some random Slashdotter in the area to snap a few cell phone pics and send them over. Everyone has a cell phone camera now you know.
This really falls in line with many US anti-terror tactics.
Commonality: find as much reason to spend taxpayer allocated money on any program that will make the news and potential make them look like they are "doing something".
My opinion: spend less time on the fruitless prevention aspects and instead spend money on investigating what we know did happen.
And yes. I am talking about 9-11. and the US made anthrax sent to US media and politician types. and the legality/extent of illegal domestic wiretapping. and the torture of innocent people. and the Valerie Plame issue. and what about the prison camps in Europe? oh yeah... the old prez admitted to that, but told the press to hush-hush on it after that. Cause we don't want those terrorists to find out.
Its really time to step back from the wasteful pro-active terror fight. and intead spend it on bringing to justice those who used these bad events to commit their own criminal acts from within.
Notice: I am not a supporter of blind theory. Because there are not enough facts through investigation to know about any of the above. Justice has not been served for many years now.
TRANSLATION:
"Calif. Politician Thinks Blurred Online Maps Would Deter Terrorists"
In plain English, this may be: "Calif. Politician was paid by competing map companies to try to place limits on Google."
Al Qaeda also invests in the stock market to make money for fund their activities. Should we shut down the stock market or encourage Ponzi schemes to foil them? I'm waiting for them to say they use Windows to find the target in a browser, therefore we should ban all PCs, right?
The party of Lincoln is now the party of Limbaugh - that is the truly sad part.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson from Google Maps has denied allegations that their satellites are equipped with frikken terrorist-zapping lasers which are armed and ready to activate given the appropriate legislative amendments.
The Mongrel News has more - http://is.gd/lPRw
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
Right lets blur all the stuff that we value the most... Because DOMESTIC TERRORISTS have no way to see those places other than satellite imagery.
A quick search for "California Assemblyman Joel Anderson" shows that he represents the 77th district, which is south and east of San Diego. He can be reached at his district office at:
500 Fesler Street, Suite 201
El Cajon, CA 92020
(619) 441-2322
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
We better ban Mapquest and Google maps too, that way even if the terrorist manage find a target to hit without the use of satellite imagery, they'll never figure out how to get there...
so-called 'soft targets' like schools, hospitals, churches,...cafes, fast food outlets, office buildings, clothes shops, pet shops, computer shops, banks, police stations, fire stations, parks and gardens, nightclubs, mobile phone towers, telephone exchanges, factories, libraries, universities, food courts, beer gardens, pubs, bars and government buildings to protect them from terrorists.
I purpose we blur out everything in a populated area, and then cut out everyone's eyes so terrorists can't scope out a possible target by just walking around.
I'm just trying to stop terrorists, what's the problem?
...and that is all I have to say about that.
http://jessta.id.au
Look! A blurry bit on this image! Write down the coordinates and send in the bombers!
Terrorist Bob: Arrgghh!!!! I'm ready to die for the cause!
Terrorist Steve: Dude! They just blurred out your target!
Terrorist Bob: NOooooo!!!!!
Terrorist Steve: Sorry dude, you're going to live.
The obvious answer is to just blur out California.
Too bad we can't do that in real life.
The only terrorist school massacre I can think
of is the one Chechnyan separatists did in a Russian
school a few years ago. It cost them all remaining
sympathy anyone could possibly have for them.
School massacres are unfortunately happening at
a frequency of one or two a year in the world.
They are carried out by insane or desperate
students, staff or parents. All perpetrators
are well familiarized with where the school is
and its general layout.
Besides, why would the current crop of terrorists
want to make another attack inside the US? They
accomplished everything they could ever dream
of in the 9/11 attack. The US has wasted an
enormous fortune on the "War on Terrorism",
and continues to do so. Mission accomplished.
Or maybe just blur the sides that are actually populated by people?
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
I seem to recall reading that the X number of virgins in the afterlife was a mistranslation and it's actually 40 pumpkins and a goat, or somesuch. Then again I'm at work so I'm somewhat reticent to research combinations of pumpkins, virgins and goats...
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Terrorist can use pencils tp draw clear and sharp maps. Lets forbid hard pencils and only allow 1cm thick 5B pencils to be sold.
The resolution on GoogleEarth is already diminished on the military satellitesâ(TM) because of national and personal security. Normally one could actually read a license plate number.
This would allow a clever terrorist to find any number of targets very quickly. And if they were silly enough to do something like add unique identifiers to what they blur based on value(like an increased bluryness or size of blur) it would be even more helpful in mapping out high value targets and maximum damage scenarios. But this is a politician so by default his motive feels suspect.
It's fecking hillarious!
Where's Ryan Giggs with mod points when you need him?
[UID-HeinzIntel]
Nuke everyone on the planet, and all terrorists will be eliminated.
When maps are outlawed, only terrorists will have maps. Cliche but true, look at all the legal abuses the homeland security act has caused over the last six years and we certainly aren't any safer. Terrorism is just being used as an excuse to sidestep the Constitution.
This guy was elected. Pretty much means a lot of people were impressed with this guy. What's worse, the naive politician or the people that elected him?
We've been in a decaying orbit for decades. We're starting to hit the atmosphere now, it's heating up and becoming turbulent. It only gets more violent from here on down.
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
Does this asshat actually think that you cant fly an airplane into a building that is blurry? :P
I think this guy just wants to create a law where politicians and wealthy people have their homes censored from google map like sites, so that they're protected from YOU and not terrorists.
You're poor, and thats more of a threat than any supposed "terrorists"
All this will do will be to paint giant bullseye targets on all of the locations they want to "protect." Potential terrorists will see that the area is blurred out, investigate it on foot via spies and "sleeper agents" to plan their attack (which will produce much more detailed recon than some crummy single-frame Google Map satellite image).
If they're close enough to attack then they're close enough to reconnoiter this information for themselves anyway, and trying to "censor" it just shows them what we are afraid they will attack. Stupid measures like these are drowning our economy in opportunity losses -- if it goes through, some poor sap at Google is going to have to waste his days blurring out little bits of the map in a totally vain attempt at some hick senator's backwards notions of security.
Seriously, Congress, leave espionage to the people you appointed to carry out such activities. Meddling in things you don't know about is asinine.
Why are we so scared of doing anything that might "help terrorists"? If you install a drinking fountain and a terrorist takes a sip, you just helped a terrorist. If you write a software program downloaded by a terrorist, you just helped a terrorist. Many of you reading this have held doors open for terrorists. Things that help everybody help terrorists. And trying to prevent helping terrorists usually means being unhelpful to everybody. "I don't want California to be helping map out future targets for terrorists" is the kind of thing idiots worry about.
Wow, it is just amazing he has another issue to talk on. His site is great, under the heading of My Legislation: "There are no data records to display." The same is true with his Issue Positions. Of course having grown up in San Diego next to this guy's districts he looks and sounds just like the stereotypes for those he represents. I wonder if he owns a trailer.
'Soft targets'; schools, hospitals, refugee camps, UN facilities, seem to be fimilliar ... were attacked by 'the country'. Thousand of civilians died or injured. Good for the Californian and US generally to protect themselves from the country.
All a terrorist would have to do is to run an edge detection algorithm on the maps and then search out areas with no edges, edges will be removed because blurring the images removes sharp changes in coloring. Because the maps usually have the latitude and longtitude on them, you now have the exact locations of the best targets.
Anything you do to make these targets less visible on the maps makes it easier for software to pinpoint them. Any manipulation of images is easy to detect, it's easier to detect a manipulated portion of an image than it is to find the schools on a map of a state. It's of course even easier to look in a phone book...
via "friends" in parts of the earth where it is not banned :\
for example as screenshot.jpgs as attachments in emails
Only way would be to take off the entire service or the satellites,
ehhhh ?
Maybe the senator should move to Afghanistan and team up with the Taliban. Their ends goals of a meedieval society are remarkably consistent. Maybe that was the Taliban's plan all along!
Interestingly, be careful taking GPS to China. You need special approval from the government or you get arrested for espionage. Maybe here's a model for California?
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
I'm not even reading the comments to see if this is a dupe (I would bet it is), but...
---> ! JUST BOMB THE FREAKING BLURRED ZONES ! ---
You just KNOW it is a place of utmost terrorists' interest!
Thank you MORON ass-emblyman!
Why don't you just shut down the whole Internet?
Ya know, it teaches you to build bombs and stuff...
And, my oh my! Who would think terrorists would also be gourmets? There's even some crazy fella worried about their nutrition, and wrote some cook book for anarchists...
Bring back the typewriter!
Death to Ethernet!
Long live Fast Token Ring!
arrr
Like Al Queda would ever dare risk going into the ganglands of California. Been there, there were gunshots in the distance and nobody except us silly foreigners reacted.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Bush is gone and they're repeating the mantra, "The terrorists are coming! The terrorists are coming! The terrorists are coming!" Would someone please give that guy a Quaalude? Thank you.
The diversity and expression of human opinion is essential to human survival.
> Our politicians are not only gutless cowards, but they're STUPID gutless cowards with no sense of proportion whatever.
What about the electorate they're appealing to by pointing out that [OTHER PARTY] blocked their Patriotic Protecting America from Terrorist Pedophiles Act and that [OTHER PARTY] hates America and its children?
Target that blur and fire!
After 9/11, there was a sign banning photographing the Triborough [??] Bridge, one major connection to LGA from Westchester. The logic was that we did not want to provide photos for terrorists who might try to bomb the bridge (as I guess they were too stupid to dig up postcard or old photographs).
Well, I don't know about now, but for years (2000-2004?), a bunch of ignoramus construction workers came in and dug up the left two lanes, and left the bridge all tore up, and restricted traffic to the one lane often clutter with debris. If urban planning could not come up with a way to finish, why bother starting? This was a great obstacle if you are trying to catch a flight out of LGA during rush hour.
People use to say, maybe we should let someone bomb the bridge, maybe someone would actually be forced to rebuild the three lanes. I guess no one calculated the number of fatalities and economic impact of destroying the alignment of all the cars that would travel over the right lane? How many traffic accidents must have occurred during rain and poor weather on this road?
oxymoron: civil engineers
It's a bit odd that no one has yet to comment on how the only attack in the US in the past decade, or longer, was one on government structures of strategic power, or that Bin Laden himself explains the attack as targeted at American government not women and children.
Years ago I would have said anyone fearing impending bombings in malls and schools by terrorists are idiots who've been subjected to false information scaremongering from sources such as Fox News. These days, there's just no excuse.
If anything, be fearful of the schools' dumbing down of our kids, because it's actually been happening for quite some time.
I just used google earth to plot a 1/4 mile path at the church where my scout troop meets so the scouts can satisfy a fitness requirement. I guess preventing exercise will insure they stay soft targets. Maybe they should get drawings at the recorder's office blurred as well. We can't have any public information available to terrorists.
Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
Is anyone anyone really afraid of terrorists? Crackheads probably kill more people in America than terrorists do.
I recently heard someone say that terrorists take advantage of the same faulty logic that makes people play the lottery. That knowledge that it can happen leads people to think that it will happen to them, eventually.
Funny thing... most of the stuff I see on Google is *already* blurry. The outline of the bill doesn't say anything about objects being made unrecognizable, just blurry.
Also funny that they want to blur government buildings but not power plants and other infrastructure. Maybe they should add homes of major celebrities to the list? What about Disneyland, Universal Studios, and other likely targets?
Aside from this, it was my understanding that military installations in the US were already unavailable in the higher resolution levels; it's not that they don't want you to know where the thing is, it's that they don't want the internal compound layout to be publicly available for review. I can actually understand this, and it would make sense for other non-public locations as well.
As everyone else has stated... making public places blurry on maps is just silly.
You seem to be under the impression that this politician introduced this bill in order to make a serious attempt at impeding terrorists, and not to make himself look like an American Hero trying to save the world and simultaneously branding his opponents as pro-terrorist when they try to go up against the bill.
they joined to kill the citizen instead
so 1 world 1 type
I would think everyone on here would know the end of that phrase, especially as it is traditionally referred to in the context of either legacy Windows or MacOS. It would definitely apply here.
I RTFA - I know, it's not normal, but I'm a coward, so that's alright then. Get a load of this winner:
"According to the bill text, photographs and images of schools, places of worship, government or medical buildings must be blurred. Street-level imagery would also be banned. Companies that violated the provisions of the bill would face fines of up to $250,000 for every day the illegal imagery was available online."
No more wedding photos in front of the church.
Online newspaper articles must remove pictures of all hospital buildings and police stations.
That's a nice fire station you got there, wouldn't want anything nasty to happen to it, would you, better hide it underground, you know, in case them terrorists get some funny ideas.
Places of worship? Last I heard from the evangelical crowd, that includes EVERYWHERE !!!
Joel has no brain. Who let him into government? Oh, that's right, the idiot voters. I'm with the other poster - it seems every day seems to demonstrate the sepos sinking deeper in their own stupdity. Frankly, you'd probably be better off with that king you claim to have hated so much some 250 years ago.
...Then only the OUTLAWS will use Google.
Do you want to HELP THE TERRORISTS? NO?
Then DON'T FUCK with Google!
(I'm just emulating the logic that seems to be in use in California.)
What have terrorists hit so far? Would they be positively affected by blurring the images on Google Maps?
A marine base in Lebanon: the web didn't exist at the time.
The WTC in NYC, the Pentagon in DC: doubtful.
Subway trains in Japan: does Google Maps show subway routes?
Trains in France: just use the handy commuter maps displayed near each station.
Sometimes the point of terror is to not target anything in particular.
To me, if there's something that's intentionally blurred on the map, that just indicates there's something of interest right there. But you don't need the blur at all. If you know what you're looking for, Google Maps will be glad to put a helpful little pin tag showing you where something is. Just type in a city and state of choice, and when Google Maps settles down after drawing that area, type in "High School" and see what happens.
for potential targets. Hello Mr. Terrorist, we think this blurred building is an important terrorist target. OK, thank you Mr. Governement you have saved my time selecting potential targets.
What an idiot. I feel sorry for Americans. I have a feeling this guy will make career in politics.
This is an absurd chain of logic. Blurring buildings is only going to make them stand out. You might as well just blur all roads that lead to them as well. While we're at it, just go ahead and blur the entire region. Yeah, that'll work.
Someone just lost connection with reality. How about walking in a tank station and buying a dead-tree map? How about GPS Navigation systems? Retard.
ironically, for the right price, you can get even higher resolution imagery of pretty much anywhere in the world. all you need is a basic knowledge of GI&S, the right software (arc desktop, etc) and money. This law will be a waste of time.. if terrorists can figure out how to fly airliners, they can probably figure out how to use basic geospatial information software, if they're not already doing that.
This must be one for the records of stupidity:
by blurring all the soft targets... guess what.. if anything, it shows where to look for soft targets.
So, now they don't have to figure out where these soft targets are, they just go directly for the blurred areas on the map, right? Could it be that this hasn't been thought through?
All they would need to do is look on google maps for "blurred" areas and target them knowing full well that it is a "target"...
Should we take out this set of houses, or this slightly soft-blurred areas just here that is blurred because it will cause real pain?...hmm, choices
This is a ridiculous idea.
When all is said and done, nothing changes...
Let provide latitude and longitude values for all map objects, only for sensitive places (like schools and government buildings) we replace the real coordinates with the latitude and longitude of strategic sites in the middle east. We could make every citizen pass a litmus test for their allegiance, and anybody who fails can't use a map. How about we blindfold drivers on the street whenever they get too close to a strategic area, so they can't actually see it and maybe report it to a waiting terrorist.
How about you balance the good against the acts of a few stupid idiots, and forget the whole thing. Just because some moron kills someone with a hammer, is no cause to eliminate all hammers. You just properly punish the idiot who decided to use it in a grossly inappropriate way.
Let's not forget that there are countries that don't like us either.
See, blurring a church or hospital on a map won't do anything. In fact it would help terrorists or enemy nations. Know why?
You see, if you blur out 'important targets' on a map.. there's no need to do recon on the entire area! The government has already done the easy work of blurring (aka marking) where all the good targets are.
You know, let's ignore the fact that for a moment, hospitals and schools are all very prominent buildings anyway. Should we take out all the "H" signs that signify the way to the hospital in cities? (Answer: no, because that actually came in handy when my stepdad had to take me to the hospital in Rapid City, hundreds of miles away from home). If you drive down one of the highways in Omaha, you can see at least half the prominent targets, because they are a) tall b) marked on the exits.
Blurring the WTC wouldn't have prevented 9/11. Blurring Pearl Harbor wouldn't have prevented that either. Blurring OKC wouldn't have prevented the OKC bombing. Blurring Von Maur wouldn't have prevented the Omaha mall shooting.
"We need to get over this notion, that, for Apple to win... Microsoft must lose." - Steve Jobs, 1997
He's a major potential target, right? That's because everyone knows his face, his name, his job, et.c.. If his photo was blurred, he'd be safe. If his name was blurred, he'd be safer. If no one knew who the US president was, he would be safest.
"Is anyone anyone really afraid of terrorists?"
Yeah, I'm afraid there are a few chicken-little types who almost seem to get off on their fear. I've met a few in real life and more on-line. I remember talking to one woman in Australia who was working herself up into a panic over a terrorist attack in Oz. I told her it was never gonna happen, or at least unlikely in the extreme, and she reacted very badly to being told there was nothing to worry about.
I think some people want to be afraid. Maybe they're addicted to the adrenaline rush. Maybe they just think that it will make their lives more important somehow. Either way, they seem utterly immune to reason, and incapable of objectively looking at trigger-issues such as internet-porn, guns in school, pedophiles and terrorism.
I think politicians know a lot about these sorts of people, and have become experts at giving them what they want (something to be afraid of) in return for their vote, and the belief that the politicians take their unreasonable fears just as seriously as they do.
If we blur all 'soft targets', all the terrorists have to look for is the blurs!
Everybody knows...people don't kill people. Maps kill people!
Information always ends up helping terrorists. We should ban all information, just in case.
Google maps actually already blurs selected areas (or perhaps this blur is included in the satellite data). Airports are an obvious one, being prime starting points for terrorist missions (one would think this would make them less likely to be targeted, but that's just what they want us to think!).
I agree that the blurring of targets only makes them bigger targets; once I was looking for a Lockheed Martin plant on Gmaps because I didn't know the street address. It turns out it was the only blurred area on the map, thus helping me find it!
Nine percent of voters in the last election listed terrorism as their TOP CONCERN. Extrapolate that out to the entire population and we can estimate that not only are 27 million people in this country scared of terrorism, but it's their top concern.
I think my top concern now is how stupid my fellow Americans are.
...is fear-stricken politicians!
So it only has to be blurred if the representation is a GLOBE ? In other words, Google maps is not subject to this, only Google Earth. Yeah, those terrorists are really screwed now.
So what you're saying is that we should pass laws making lightning illegal? And that anyone who possesses the tools to make lightning (which is basically just electricity) should be locked up? Won't someone think of the children?!! Ban all electricity now before the terrorists and child pornographers use lightning!!
Seriously, though, I agree with your post. Too many people take a remote threat and blow it way out of proportion. These people are either a) ignorant of the real danger level or b) politicians looking to increase their power by exploiting group a as much as possible.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Thank you for elucidating this clear-headed position. I hope your comment raises the level of discourse on this and other boards re: the issue of freedom vs. security.
Now if I were a terrorist, this would make my job easier. All I have to do is look for blurred images for my targets.
Every time you call tech support, a little kitten dies.
I'm all for protecting people from terrorist attacks...but I've never been one to advocate treating the symptom over the problem. ;0
So howabout instead of defining our existence by the threat of terrorist attack, we just stop pissing off most of the planet? Maybe we should change our primary exports from ignorance, unstoppable firepower, bad TV, and fast food, to something everybody loves....like chocolate...or kittens! I mean, really. 'cause otherwise the only viable option is to just kill everyone else.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
If you feed a terrorist or fund a terrorist. You're a terrorist.
How else can we better show our enemies which locations we consider high value targets? Maybe we should blur the entire map, just to be safe.
I for one say we make sure Mr. Anderson's home and office also be blurred on the maps. Maybe with bigger blurs than the rest to make sure the terrorists really know to stay away. We wouldn't want such an ingenious man to be harmed by terrorists!
This just in. Information can be used to bad ends. Information may be dangerous.
I am pretty sure all throughout history the availability of information has on the whole turned out to be good.
Especially pr0n on the nets.
My addiction: Arguing with idiots. AKA Slashdot!
I think my top concern now is how stupid my fellow Americans are.
Sadly that's been mine for a while. It's all right, we all lose hope in our fellow man eventually.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
Yes, blurring Google Maps data would surely work. It would force prospective terrorists to actually buy physical maps at the huge cost of, what, $5, $6 a map? And to search for images of these places on the various photog and video sites - not to mention the sites associated with the organizations who reside at the buildings themselves. Or to go back to the on-site reconnaissance they always did before. And that was just too much walking.
I mean, we all know how easily terrorists are discouraged. Is it really worth going on a suicide mission if you're gonna have to spring for a couple of Michelin maps and some SD memory cards for the cameras, AND perform several extra web searches?!
Yep, this is the end of terrorism as we know it. They'll just get discouraged and go sit on the sofa and watch US TV while munching Doritos and swilling beer. Then, after their brains have rotted sufficiently, maybe they'll move to California and run for an Assembly seat... =8^O
Chico has a law on the books declaring a $500 fine for detonating a nuclear device within the city limits.
WHAT? Oh darn it... *Crosses Chico off his list* Now, where would be a good place to go instead...
What about the chemistry books that aided the terrorists in manufacturing the explosives? Ban them! Even better... Burn them!
Which has been switched off since 2000 (apparently)...http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/FGCS/info/sans_SA/docs/statement.html
I remember when it was turned off. I thought they'd turned it back on after everybody started worrying about terrorists again - but I guess I was mistaken. At present, at least, they still have the option to turn it back on.
I know that before it was turned off there was a fair amount you could do to improve your GPS info by keeping a backlog of data, comparing it to data recorded at a known location, etc... They may have simply decided that SA was no longer effective.
Bow-ties are cool.
Damn Skippy!
Back in my day (mid 70s) our HS biology teacher was also the coach for the skeet team. The reloading press was in the greenhouse off the classroom.
You either believe in rational thought or you don't
Really we shouldn't have to discuss this any further - the political affiliation alone should tell us all we need to know.
Just speaking as the last surviving member of the Party of Common Sense that Benjamin Franklin created.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
All politicians in today's political theater are greedy capitalist morons that have fucked our lives, our economy, and our welfare for their own profit, with MAYBE an exception for the Governator, simply because he acts like a man and tells other politicians and people to quit their bitching, man up, and do some real work instead of trying to shift the blame towards whatever minority is in current disfavor.
Every last one of them should be strung up, again with an exception for Arnold.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Thank you for elucidating this clear-headed position. I hope your comment raises the level of discourse on this and other boards re: the issue of freedom vs. security.
Your appreciation is a delightful thing. Thank you.
It's a joy to me to be able to elevate a discussion. If you've read my posts before you know that primarily I like to take a mundane discussion and reveal the simple principles that are behind all of the perceived complexity. I do so with the hope that people find their own way, part of which involves discarding ideas and temptations that are beneath them and do not serve their highest purpose. To do that, to ask a person to discard something to which they are clinging, you must show them that there is something better with which it can be replaced, something that is good and true and able to stand on its own without such grasping and clinging. Otherwise you are merely attacking their position -- that has a time and a place but it is a lower expression and therefore is not a constructive act.
Everywhere I see weak and incomplete people who think that if only they had this-and-that or if only they could control this-and-that then they would finally be whole -- then if they are thinkers, they wonder why life is empty and ordinary and dissatisfying, why they have inner conflict and why they are so easily angered or frustrated. I want something so much better than that for them. I believe that each person needs to find their own understanding, that this is too important to trust to the various agendas and monied interests and authority structures that offer ready-made, pre-packaged worldviews intended for mass consumption. It is a great joy for me to see people become whole and strong and upright and difficult to deceive, for I believe that this is our nature and that it is based on love and compassion and joy and truth.
The ability to expound real truth, so that it is self-evident though sometimes difficult truth to those who are ready to hear it, is something I consider a great gift. This gift is really not a possession that belongs to me; it is more like inspiration that equips me. Its insight makes seemingly complex things become easy and simple and clear. I have a deep respect for it, especially since it is freely given to me out of pure grace with no concept of whether I have done anything to "earn" it. I feel like a steward who has been entrusted with a power and may be held accountable for how it is used. What we do to others we also do to ourselves and thus karma is quite real; this is not because of any external force judging us or imposing anything on us, but rather because of the nature we take on by everything we do. It is like the idea that "we are not punished FOR what we do, but BY it" except that it applies equally to the negative and the positive.
There's not really such a difference between you and I, or between humanity and us; everything is interconnected and we have but one essence. I perceive that most of our suffering is caused by ignorance of this manifest reality. The actual reality of life is an incredibly lovely and noble thing that is filled with beauty and purpose. There simply are not words to describe how wonderful it really is. It is far better than anything we would dare to imagine or dream about. No one can see the true reality and still retain the angers and frustrations and negativity, for actual understanding and wisdom quickly reveal how false and self-defeating those aberrations truly are. Any small contribution I can make towards such spiritual growth is my privilege and is deeply precious to me.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
You can search and retrieve with Lat/Long a list of these "soft targets" using the US Governments own Geographic Names Information Services (GNIS) system.
http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/
That information is in the public domain, it is not going anywhere.
-mls
good luck with that.. the internet routes around such problems.
Oh, good point. I often forget about the Pentagon, since they happened to hit the side of it that was empty.
Just to correct your use of the word "empty" to describe the section of the Pentagon that was struck by Flight 77. There were 125 people killed inside the Pentagon in the collision. Not to mention the 54 innocent people on Flight 77 itself.
So I hardly think the word "empty" applies to the Pentagon air strike.
Wow. I might have to write a report on this for a class I'm taking. It'll be so fun to discuss why this is (and other similar things are) (a) bad idea(s).
I might even have a quote: "The INTERNET (aka slashdot) thinks that this is a terrible idea nearly unanimously: with opinions ranging from 'it'll make it easier for them to find things', 'it won't make a difference to people willing to sacrifice their lives', 'it'll just piss off the whole rest of the world trying to find their school on a map', to 'polititions are all completely stupid and should be outlawed'."
While terrorism is a big concern, by freaking out about them we actually promote their goals, not stop them.
(papers related to the internet are always fun)