If I transmit through a directional antenna at the satellite your phone uses with 1000x your power the satellite will only see my signal not yours. I don't have to jam -you- to block your phone, only one end of the call.
The jammers are over powering the satellite, not the ground stations. The little tiny solar powered transmitter and its receiver with a big directional antenna have no defense against this.
Getting around government censorship looks to be a growth industry world wide, I suggest we put a lot of thought into how to route around it. Egypt and Libya are extreme examples of this but there will be more. I expect Iran and Saudi Arabia will fight very hard to keep the people down and isolated now that they know what's at stake. And for those who don't think this effects you, just imagine what the christian right in the USA is making of all the middle east/africa mess. If you think Israel has made waves in the arab world just imagine what a christian theocracy with nukes would/could do.
The government makes the laws, I expect it's not illegal to jam subversives. And he could easily have passed a law allowing air strikes on civilians too. His actions are definitely war crimes and possibly violate local laws but I very much doubt he'll ever stand trial for anything.
I expect the power grid was taken out by an air strike, and I expect the Libyan air force has radio direction finding capability. At this point I would think the locals are more concerned with fighting than with giving news reports.
Everybody is running around talking about military intervention, but you're forgetting a basic point: This is an internal matter of a sovereign nation. We might not like what's happening, but going into Libya with guns blazing is just as illegal as doing it to Iraq. There is a long list of people who complain about america running around invading countries for their oil, and yet they will happily stand there and say that the americans should rush into this country and do the same. If you want your opinions and morals to be respected you have to be consistent in them. The people of Libya haven't asked for outside aid.
Home made bombs need to be close, close enough you can just walk over and turn the jammers off kind of range. The reason they haven't done that is because those sites are guarded. At present a military base in the desert is a low priority target so it's being ignored. Once they've smashed the government I expect those bases will change sides without a fight. As the oil is in the hands of the people and the rest of the economy is shut down I expect this will end in a few days without us doing anything.
Or you could fill one of the "rescue" ships with guns going into the country and refugees going out. Arming the populace would be hard to prove and more effective.
What I don't get is how they can extradite him to sweden if he's not even facing charges there. It's going to look really funny when his plane arrives and he just walks away to find a hotel. Shouldn't sweden be required to at least say they plan to file charges?
If the USA is broke, then might I suggest a few areas to cut? How about farm subsidies. You are paying a bunch of foreigners to take your food, that's just dumb. And if you could get over the idea of being in charge of everything then maybe you could have a UN army do all the global cop stuff. It would mean no more american sons and daughters getting sent off to third world battlefields, or at least not with american flags on their uniforms so it would be harder to spot them. If you transfered half your army/navy/airforce to the UN then the world would split the cost, and you'd only have to pay a little bit of it instead of all of it. That right there would end your budget deficits. If you taxed gas like europe does there would be plenty of money for renewable energy (and the political will to make it work). Oh yes, and if you had cost controls on your medicare system (like everyone else does, with much lower medical costs as a result), you'd save billions a year. There are many places you can eliminate deficit spending, it's not the how that's stopping you- It's lack of political leadership that's sinking your boat. Your country has spent decades letting the politicians/bankers/oil companies run around unchecked, and now you're finally getting the bill.
It's very tempting to add features to a vehicle until your basic 1/2 ton jeep turns into a 5 ton apc. as the space shuttle has shown the jack of all trades vehicle design doesn't work very well. Just design it for a job, and have lots more trucks/cars/jeeps/aps's for the other jobs. Having a garage filled with army trucks might sound wrong but it's the cheapest and best way to maximize your effectiveness.
Voter turnout is proportional to how much the voters care about stuff. If the voters don't care then you can do as the lobyists pay you to do. If the people care, then listening to people who give you money is much more of a risky buisiness.
A voting system has 4 requirements:
1-secret ballot, so people can't force you to vote for them.
2-trustworthy/transparent. If you don't trust the system you won't use it. Generally the more complicated the system the less trustworthy (computer = bad).
3-no way to prove how you voted. The rich can't pay the poor huddled masses for votes if the poor can't prove how they voted (also see 1).
4-simple enough that most people can us it.
In the current economy it would be easy to sell your vote, but only if you can prove you voted the right way. Any kind of receipt/proof means vote selling, and vote selling means the most corrupt politician owns the public office.
High visibility is relative, in the IR band a speedboat full of pirates is high visibility. The military value of this could be huge. Regardless it looks like all coast guard and search and rescue ships will need to carry drones.
All geothermal energy comes from lava, it's just a matter of how directly you tap the heat. Heat engines run more efficiently with a higher heat difference, but they have to be designed/constructed to -use- that higher heat. If you cool the lava it will solidify into rock, and your expensive lava to electric generator stops working till you drill down to lava again. A lava generator is cheaper to build but has a shorter life span.
The reason encryption hasn't caught on is because the people you want to talk to don't use it. They don't use it because you don't use it. Having a secure VPN from your house to nowhere isn't going to get you secure facebook or email. For this to catch on you'd need to build it into everyone's home firewall/router with autoswitching between secure and insecure mode based on if both ends have this feature.
During the dark ages the countries of europe became unpleasant backwater countries, no rights and constant persecution (of some). During that time the arab nations were open/enlightened countries. It looks like we're heading back towards that. I'm not sure how long this wave of freedom will last in the middle east, it's happening because the money the dictators use to stay in power has dried up. Unfortunately that money is gone for the replacement gov as well, and it's hard to stay in power when you're broke. The arab nations have been complaining about how the west destroyed their civilization with the crusades and plundered their wealth, well now that's about to end. If they really want to restore their people to a leadership role/shining beacon of civilization then now is your chance. Otherwise we're looking at somalia on a huge scale. I'm glad I don't live in europe, that's where the hundreds of millions of refugees will go.
It's not about land use, it's about the cost of land use. If we cover our cities and towns with a large solar panel it would greatly reduce air conditioning energy use in summer and eliminate snow removal in winter while producing energy year round. And no cute bunnies killed in the making. Don't go assuming that just because something uses five times as much real estate that it's bad.
The big question is what will it take till we pull an egypt on these guys. Just how far must the fascists push us till we break out the torches and pitchforks?
It would be extremely ironic if the middle east became the last bastion of freedom in the world while we slip into a fascist/military dictatorship.
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If I transmit through a directional antenna at the satellite your phone uses with 1000x your power the satellite will only see my signal not yours. I don't have to jam -you- to block your phone, only one end of the call.
The jammers are over powering the satellite, not the ground stations. The little tiny solar powered transmitter and its receiver with a big directional antenna have no defense against this.
Getting around government censorship looks to be a growth industry world wide, I suggest we put a lot of thought into how to route around it. Egypt and Libya are extreme examples of this but there will be more. I expect Iran and Saudi Arabia will fight very hard to keep the people down and isolated now that they know what's at stake. And for those who don't think this effects you, just imagine what the christian right in the USA is making of all the middle east/africa mess. If you think Israel has made waves in the arab world just imagine what a christian theocracy with nukes would/could do.
The government makes the laws, I expect it's not illegal to jam subversives. And he could easily have passed a law allowing air strikes on civilians too. His actions are definitely war crimes and possibly violate local laws but I very much doubt he'll ever stand trial for anything.
I expect the power grid was taken out by an air strike, and I expect the Libyan air force has radio direction finding capability. At this point I would think the locals are more concerned with fighting than with giving news reports.
Everybody is running around talking about military intervention, but you're forgetting a basic point: This is an internal matter of a sovereign nation. We might not like what's happening, but going into Libya with guns blazing is just as illegal as doing it to Iraq. There is a long list of people who complain about america running around invading countries for their oil, and yet they will happily stand there and say that the americans should rush into this country and do the same. If you want your opinions and morals to be respected you have to be consistent in them. The people of Libya haven't asked for outside aid.
Home made bombs need to be close, close enough you can just walk over and turn the jammers off kind of range. The reason they haven't done that is because those sites are guarded. At present a military base in the desert is a low priority target so it's being ignored. Once they've smashed the government I expect those bases will change sides without a fight. As the oil is in the hands of the people and the rest of the economy is shut down I expect this will end in a few days without us doing anything.
I almost forgot the shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles. That will end the air strikes.
Or you could fill one of the "rescue" ships with guns going into the country and refugees going out. Arming the populace would be hard to prove and more effective.
What I don't get is how they can extradite him to sweden if he's not even facing charges there. It's going to look really funny when his plane arrives and he just walks away to find a hotel. Shouldn't sweden be required to at least say they plan to file charges?
If the USA is broke, then might I suggest a few areas to cut? How about farm subsidies. You are paying a bunch of foreigners to take your food, that's just dumb. And if you could get over the idea of being in charge of everything then maybe you could have a UN army do all the global cop stuff. It would mean no more american sons and daughters getting sent off to third world battlefields, or at least not with american flags on their uniforms so it would be harder to spot them. If you transfered half your army/navy/airforce to the UN then the world would split the cost, and you'd only have to pay a little bit of it instead of all of it. That right there would end your budget deficits. If you taxed gas like europe does there would be plenty of money for renewable energy (and the political will to make it work). Oh yes, and if you had cost controls on your medicare system (like everyone else does, with much lower medical costs as a result), you'd save billions a year. There are many places you can eliminate deficit spending, it's not the how that's stopping you- It's lack of political leadership that's sinking your boat. Your country has spent decades letting the politicians/bankers/oil companies run around unchecked, and now you're finally getting the bill.
Drone army vehicles, it could work. At least until a cyberwar hands control of your battlebots to the enemy, or jamming brings down your comms.
Cargo capacity- NIL. Maintenance costs- HIGH. Fuel required- HIGH. Speed- Low. One RPG in the wrong place- 500 Million gone.
It's very tempting to add features to a vehicle until your basic 1/2 ton jeep turns into a 5 ton apc. as the space shuttle has shown the jack of all trades vehicle design doesn't work very well. Just design it for a job, and have lots more trucks/cars/jeeps/aps's for the other jobs. Having a garage filled with army trucks might sound wrong but it's the cheapest and best way to maximize your effectiveness.
Voter turnout is proportional to how much the voters care about stuff. If the voters don't care then you can do as the lobyists pay you to do. If the people care, then listening to people who give you money is much more of a risky buisiness.
Checksums are just as easy to change as the original vote bits. A better method would be write once memory.
A voting system has 4 requirements: 1-secret ballot, so people can't force you to vote for them. 2-trustworthy/transparent. If you don't trust the system you won't use it. Generally the more complicated the system the less trustworthy (computer = bad). 3-no way to prove how you voted. The rich can't pay the poor huddled masses for votes if the poor can't prove how they voted (also see 1). 4-simple enough that most people can us it.
In the current economy it would be easy to sell your vote, but only if you can prove you voted the right way. Any kind of receipt/proof means vote selling, and vote selling means the most corrupt politician owns the public office.
High visibility is relative, in the IR band a speedboat full of pirates is high visibility. The military value of this could be huge. Regardless it looks like all coast guard and search and rescue ships will need to carry drones.
All geothermal energy comes from lava, it's just a matter of how directly you tap the heat. Heat engines run more efficiently with a higher heat difference, but they have to be designed/constructed to -use- that higher heat. If you cool the lava it will solidify into rock, and your expensive lava to electric generator stops working till you drill down to lava again. A lava generator is cheaper to build but has a shorter life span.
The reason encryption hasn't caught on is because the people you want to talk to don't use it. They don't use it because you don't use it. Having a secure VPN from your house to nowhere isn't going to get you secure facebook or email. For this to catch on you'd need to build it into everyone's home firewall/router with autoswitching between secure and insecure mode based on if both ends have this feature.
During the dark ages the countries of europe became unpleasant backwater countries, no rights and constant persecution (of some). During that time the arab nations were open/enlightened countries. It looks like we're heading back towards that. I'm not sure how long this wave of freedom will last in the middle east, it's happening because the money the dictators use to stay in power has dried up. Unfortunately that money is gone for the replacement gov as well, and it's hard to stay in power when you're broke. The arab nations have been complaining about how the west destroyed their civilization with the crusades and plundered their wealth, well now that's about to end. If they really want to restore their people to a leadership role/shining beacon of civilization then now is your chance. Otherwise we're looking at somalia on a huge scale. I'm glad I don't live in europe, that's where the hundreds of millions of refugees will go.
It's not about land use, it's about the cost of land use. If we cover our cities and towns with a large solar panel it would greatly reduce air conditioning energy use in summer and eliminate snow removal in winter while producing energy year round. And no cute bunnies killed in the making. Don't go assuming that just because something uses five times as much real estate that it's bad.
The big question is what will it take till we pull an egypt on these guys. Just how far must the fascists push us till we break out the torches and pitchforks? It would be extremely ironic if the middle east became the last bastion of freedom in the world while we slip into a fascist/military dictatorship.
The internet is run (owned) by the US government. They really do think they have the right to spy on everyone, everywhere.