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NASA Building Network of Smart Cameras Across US
kkleiner writes "A major government agency is looking to blanket the US with cameras that will never stop their surveillance. But don't worry, privacy pundits, those cameras will be spying on the sky, not civilians. NASA's All-sky Fireball Network is a series of cameras that track meteorites as they enter the atmosphere. With careful triangulation, NASA can not only know where the meteorites will land, they can determine where they came from as well. One of the coolest parts of the All-sky Fireball Network is that it's fully automated. Meteors are detected by a computer which sends images, video clips, and data analysis to William Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. Now you can get the same information as Cooke, too – the All-sky Fireball Network's website publicly records all the data for you to peruse."
Considering the cuts that are being pushed through the House, especially for research of earth/space science stuff like tsunami warnings, I can't help but wonder whether it'll just get defunded in a few months. I hope not. This looks interesting, but no amount of federal funding for scientific research is safe from the politicians right now.
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If it's pointing up and is a fixed camera who is it going to be spying on?
Alien terrorists, obviously. They're the most dangerous kind, of course.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I had just been visiting the USArray site to watch the animations associated with the Japan Earthquake right before I read this article. It's a similar idea.
Proverbs 21:19
Seriously, is that the only objection you can think of? There might be a traffic jam?
Once a few of these cameras are vandalized, we'll need cameras that point down to protect them.
then they have nothing to fear.
I just want to give props to the guy or gal who came up with "All-sky Fireball Network" that name is so full of win I can't stand it. To bad it'll likely be referred to as the ASFN. Maybe we can get scientists to name our legislation packages for us!
It'll probably shift the balance of weight of the Earth, subtly changing our orbit, and sending us PLUNGING INTO THE SUN!
Sorry.
Haida Manga
This isn't a concern at all. All you have to do is attach some infrared LED's to your tinfoil hat, and you'll be safe from CCD based cameras along with malicious electromagnetic signals. But seriously, the 'tech infrastructure' (a bunch of cameras?) needed to watch the whole sky would be completely different than what would be needed to watch the whole country. One camera pointed upwards with a wide angle lens would effectively cover many, many square miles of sky area if all you need to do is make out streaks of light. And they would all be spaced out evenly across the country, meaning the vast majority of them would be located in the middle of nowhere. Not even the most evil government regime in history would have any desire for this.
If a 6 foot tall rock drops anywhere I can "race" to in minutes, I'm sure I'll hear it without the cameras.
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"This looks interesting" is a lot more legitimate a reason than some of the random tax breaks we've pissed our money away on.
So it's "better than bad" and therefore "good"?
Bow-ties are cool.
The three cameras are pointed straight up and out in the middle of fields.
Per the article
http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/whats-hitting-earth.jpg
So once again - If it's pointing up and is a fixed camera who is it going to be spying on?
Who cares about the homeless or poor, we got fucking meteors to track!
Hypocrite. Do you have any idea how much food your computer could purchase for a starving homeless person? You obviously don't give a shit about anyone except yourself.
Stardust was a good flick. Everything a movie should be - comedy, drama, action, mystery, character growth. And babes.