I fly a reasonable amount as a passenger (used to fly small private aircraft as well) on commercial airlines and I've seen quite a few planes that come by shockingly close. I was prepared early enough one day to get a reasonable pic out of a cheap little point and shoot here of another aircraft in reasonably close proximity, but this is by no means the closest I've seen planes fly to one another. One time flying over Columbia on this flight we followed *very* close to another large commercial airliner for quite some time. It was hard to get a picture given it was at night with a little point and shoot, but it was close enough for me to see people in windows in-between flashes of lightning. Granted this was in controlled conditions as we were flying almost in formation, but I've also seen planes flash by in close proximity flying in the opposite direction as well. Much closer than the 3-5 mile limit I understood was in place.
Given the increasing amount of air traffic, I would not be surprised to see incidents (not comforting given upcoming travel), but the shocking thing is that the FAA (and the public) is still dealing with a completely antiquated air traffic control system that like other aspects of our national infrastructure is woefully lacking, particularly around large airports.
I liked their use of that highly technical term: "too squiggly".
Yeah, like uncorrelated noise of artifact are too technical details for the Patent Office.
It sounds like they were using this method to optimize the complexity of interfaces depending on the user's level of "confusion". (E.g., when the user is in a state of panic, the graph wizard in Excel could offer three or four styles of graph, instead of 12. One of the Linux makers with Microsoft patent licensing could adapt it to look at such a user and decide "Y'know, you probably don't need the GIMP...") I doubt they've tried anything as ambitious as knowing what the user is thinking.
LOL, no doubt. The sad thing is that there is actually quite robust science related to human machine interfaces using EEG data, but I suspect those are already patented fairly heavily and this is some sort of effort to patent what essentially amounts to nonsense.
I've spent a fair amount of time looking at this problem (as have others with certain agencies who have invested not insignificant amounts of money) and I can tell you that this is pretty much up in the night kinda speculation. Technical issues of obtaining clean EEG signals in a convenient manner aside, the origins of techniques like this to classify comes from the epilepsy literature, where folks attempt to classify interictal seizure spikes, but also from the sleep and awareness literature (both of which have been reasonably successful, yet are still lacking optimal tools). Granted, there are rather dramatic global state changes that occur with different states of consciousness, but this application focuses principally on the awake EEG. Specifically they quote the P300 signal which the FBI and CIA are using (trying to use) for lie detection, but the problem here is that the P300 is only an evoked potential that simply tells you whether or not someone recognizes an input (audio, visual, tactile etc...). So all questions or inputs into the system have to be crafted to understand that one is looking for an evoked potential with no necessary context in place to explain that evoked potential.
So, this is not mind reading per se nor is it a means to break cognitive processing into temporal windows to determine intent in any of those potential epochs. At its very basic fundamentals this is simply a rehash of signal detection theory doing simple Fourier analysis to "classify" brain waves. But the thing here is that there is no science behind using these signals to interpret what one is thinking even with the invocation of Bayesian networks. There are a number of other more promising methods for classifying data that have been in the literature and commonly used by a number of other disciplines that I am surprised have not made it into the EEG literature yet.
In short.... in my assessment, this is a patent proposal without much in the way of novelty or benefit to the problem at hand.
Sooo..... would this mean that the Pentagon could *bogart* all of the power when needed, or reduce power generation at critical times? This is one of the principal complaints about the GPS system as currently structured. There is no doubt that the GPS system has revolutionized much of the developed world and I am not criticizing that. On the contrary, I am just pointing out a possible criticism. After all, if the Pentagon (US government) plays its cards right, this could be a way to ensure that Gap Nations can be provided power to help them integrate into the Economic Core. (brilliant background on theory of Gap Nations and Economic core here ).
As I said in my blog entry about it ('bout 3:00 this morning when we heard about it), I am actually surprised it took this long as it would be hard to quantify how much science has been dependent upon Mario's work or even work that comprised prior Nobel Prize awards. Certainly my science going back to my dissertation has relied on transgenic techniques pioneered by Mario Capecchi and I owe much to him, but more importantly the doors for much discovery made in bioscience over the past several decades would simply not have been possible without Mario's pioneering work.
I've seen and photographed many an F-22 in flight. However, the no pictures rule for the F-22 when I was up there was because the plane was in the maintenance hangar with access hatches open and various sensitive gear visible. Those kinds of "looks" are not encouraged right now...
See my other prior posts on this topic regarding why I agree with you... As to treaties for the proposed new JDAF fighter, I also agree that there will likely be no problem so long as the technology in it is home grown. There may even be some technology assistance that could be provided in terms of testing data and such, but the problems I was talking about have to deal more with F-22 sales to other countries than any home grown efforts.
I guess in addition to your propensity for profanity, you also have an inability to read other posts I have made or understand the nuance of the English language. If you will note I said in the original post: "..... if you play your strategy according to tradition." Also I commented in other replies that "The F-22's radar is impressive, but here is the deal... You have to go active to see targets, particularly well concealed targets and that makes you "visible" as well. If the new JDAF fighter can remain "unseen" until it gets up close and personal and is a lighter, smaller and more nimble aircraft, the F-22 may have a problem..
So, while you can revel in your glee at being able to call someone else on the Internet wrong, you have to be willing to take a little as well...
I mean, if you're going to defend your home land, I doubt you will want your defenses shot down by an aggressor before they go after civilian infrastructure.
1) Thus my invocation of "traditional strategy". See my other post where I discussed strategy involved in stealth defense.
2) Can I tell you how much I hate the term "homeland" as a description for everything from national defense to internal security? It is such marketing speak...
The F-22's radar is impressive, but here is the deal... You have to go active to see targets, particularly well concealed targets and that makes you "visible" as well. If the new JDAF fighter can remain "unseen" until it gets up close and personal and is a lighter, smaller and more nimble aircraft, the F-22 may have a problem.
Smaller, faster and quieter can oftentimes triumph over larger and more complex as demonstrated in at least one Naval wargame where an entire US carrier battlegroup lost the game to a couple diesel electric subs built by the Germans.
Well, given that the F-22 has made more than one appearance in Japan, I am certain the Japanese government is interested. However, this raises more than a few issues, specifically related to technology and sociopolitical issues as well. The JDAF (Japanese Defense Air Force) has been so named as it has been a Japanese Constitutional issue that their armed forces are for defense only and not aggression. The interesting thing about stealth technology however, is that it is almost exclusively used for aggression rather than defense if you play your strategy according to tradition.
I got a quick tour of the F-22, but no pictures allowed of the F-22 during my last visit up to Hill AFB and the F-22 is making the rounds and is being explored for possible basing in other countries, but there are technology sales issues with the aircraft as it will be almost impossible to strip the sensitive technologies out of the aircraft and make it "saleable".
Active users?
on
Ask Rob Malda
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Rob,
Q: How many of those one million registered user IDs are active?
Explanation: I have seen a fair number of folks that have defected to other platforms/communities to find resources or tools that Slashdot does not provide. I've continued to hang around as I appreciate what Slashdot has to offer, but are there any plans to change anything?
Gee, maybe that is where Osama Bin Laden has been hiding.:-) After all, Bush had said "He could be hidin in a cave with the door open, he could be hidin in a cave with the door closed". It may also explain why Bush wants to go to Mars so bad...
Hrmmmm.... looking at the "device" from the images on the link makes me think the police overreacted. Come on now.... holding her at gunpoint? Granted, it was likely not the smartest move on her part not to respond about the "device" when asked, but once again, I am dismayed that people are getting owned by fears of terrorism and things and people that look "abnormal".
Reminds me of that guy who dressed up as the alien predator in the UK and got the British police all over him. Anyone have a link to the video of that?
Or how about the Muslim men that were asked to leave a flight because they spoke in Arabic?
Or how about the guy who was not allowed to fly with his breadboard that he was using for prototyping. They let him fly with one in its package though if *that* makes any sense.
Pare said. "Again, this is a serious offense... I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to an airport."'"
Why is it that airports have special significance? Seriously, think about it. There are many other places with large concentrations of people that we are not spending any money on for security that would be ideal terroristic locations. Would you say that "I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to a college campus"? or how about "I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to an art show"? or how about "I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to a concert"? or "I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to a park"?. Is all this paranoia actually making us safer? I suspect what it is doing is making flying more inconvenient for the traveler, more expensive for the airlines, reducing businesses ability to function and more because let's be honest here.... It is not hard to imagine any number of amazingly effective scenarios that terrorists could use that would be far more effective than focusing on airports, so quit with all of the panic reactions already.
Augmentation of existing senses has been going on for some time now. In particular, there is a very interesting project running through the Office of Naval Research using Navy Seals and a tongue prosthetic designed to impart sonar information to the tongue using electrical stimulii. Technology like this is very cool stuff that at the very least will help with mission specific tasks, but even better allows folks who have one or more senses compromised to continue to function and navigate their worlds.
Ah, I suspect this was either not a meteorite or there is something else going on given that any meteor leaving a 30 meter wide and 20 foot deep crater (meteor being approximately 30 inches wide) is not going to hit the ground steaming hot. On the contrary, it will be cold as ice (or colder) given its composition and time for heating. However, I suppose it could also be a re-entry event from a satellite carrying a toxic payload like plutonium... After all, we have the remnants of many satellites and the debris associated with them still in decaying orbits and you can easily spot many of them. Some satellites particularly those from the former Soviet Union and China have a history of toxic components. Though I suspect we'll know soon enough if it were a satellite, it would have been tracked by numerous agencies and individuals who monitor that sort of thing.
It should be noted that "medical research" (epidemiology, clinical studies etc...) is very different from basic research (mechanisms, pathways, etc...) and the threshold for acceptance in journals that cover basic research is much higher than that for medical journals. i.e. There is significantly higher oversight and peer review criticism over basic research than there is medical research and the two fields should not be confused.
Note that I was talking about size, not efficiency or effectiveness or mission capability. I completely agree with you in the effectiveness of the Mig-25 and would go further in stating that the entire mission design of the Mig-25 including the central direction and control.
Seriously though, Russia has for many decades going back to just after WWII had a predilection for one upping the West in terms of military hardware. They have often defaulted to building bigger engines than just about every other jet fighter (Mig-25), the biggest cargo plane I've ever been in, the An-224 (though there is a bigger 225), bigger submarines (Typhoon class), the Soviet KV Big Turret Tank of 1942 (exception for the German Landkreuzer) and more. Those Bear bombers are pretty damned big aircraft too...
I'm actually not surprised to see weapons like this developed given the nuclear weapon treaties of the past 40 years, but if the participating members including Russia and the US continue pushing nuclear ambitions, we will have lost all credibility here.
Oh, for the love of.... Use Google to find out. A quick search reveals information from In-Q-Tel's own site and from Google's own site of course these investments are all part of In-Q-Tel's mission and there is nothing secret about it. They are quite open about their investments and why they make those investments, so what is the big deal? Also, note that there are other companies initially invested in by In-Q-Tel that Google has acquired.
Further, the claim (again unsubstantiated) that you have a doctorate
Oh, come on now.... using Google is not all that hard, nor is clicking the links that I so thoughtfully already have provided for you. But, so you don't have to click twice, here it is.
So, in other words you're still not able to back up anything you said.
I am leaving it up to the reasonably capable reader to find the references as my understanding of the background comes via first hand knowledge that has no citable sources. Take that for what you value it for, but it is factual and with enough (easy) digging, can be verified.
I don't know much about the history of Google, but Keyhole was a company independent of Google for quite years. I worked for a company that subscribed to its service. Google bought Keyhole years later.
Yes, Keyhole was founded as an independent company in 2001 and was so for about three years prior to Google's acquisition. Furthermore, they had a number of customers ranging from city planning and architectural firms to land management agencies... What is your point?
Your original post is completely worthless, with a bunch of home page links pretending to be citations. Lemme take a shot at your style of online journalism:
I never purported those links to be sources of anything other than who they were, thus the open links. I am well versed in the art of writing with proper citations (would have been hard to get a doctorate without) and I don't need any advice from a spiteful, Slashdot troll with an ID in the 800k range on how to post to Slashdot, thanks.
People like you are the reason smart people don't trust the internet.
Given your apparent history of calling people children who don't know what they are talking about (seems to be a favorite), I would advise you to take it easy on calling people out who likely *do* know a fair bit more about certain subject matter than you do and let them inform the community. I've found that it is folks who attempt to muzzle people publicly, without care or knowledge of who they are attempting to quiet by proving themselves more capable or knowledgeable to be the most ignorant.
Note that none of that should be construed as malevolent. Rather, consider it advice from someone who has been around the Internet for a while, has participated in and fostered community, has educated many at the post-graduate level and only wants more respect and quality from the communities he participates in.
I wish this were Wikipedia, because I'd edit your post with about 4 {{citationneeded}}. Google funded by the CIA? Really? What?
The CIA helped Google from the very beginning and has continued to fund Google's spin offs and start ups like Google Earth (Interesting side story with Keyhole nee Google Earth as the revolutionary UI of Google Earth had many in the remote sensing communities picking their jaws up off the floor when they first saw it and realized the implications for everything from temporal analysis to community supported contribution to databases). I can't give you many publicly available references, but do a little research on a company known as Peleus nee In-Q-It, nee In-Q-Tel. Note: I don't see anything necessarily wrong with this arrangement and can see many good things to come out of such an arrangement. In fact, I have been a big supporter of these sorts of cross fertilizations of business and government as long as appropriate ethical guidelines are followed.
Google has in the past had jobs available that required national security clearance.
Sure, but a security clearance can apply to lots of types of data and a diverse group of companies and government agencies. Everything from a basic collateral "secret" clearance (relatively easy to obtain) to "top secret" and compartmentalized programs are being worked on and participated in by people from not just government, but also a number of private companies. No big deal and I would certainly expect Google to have a significant number of folks possessing those clearances.
Slashdot Mirror
I fly a reasonable amount as a passenger (used to fly small private aircraft as well) on commercial airlines and I've seen quite a few planes that come by shockingly close. I was prepared early enough one day to get a reasonable pic out of a cheap little point and shoot here of another aircraft in reasonably close proximity, but this is by no means the closest I've seen planes fly to one another. One time flying over Columbia on this flight we followed *very* close to another large commercial airliner for quite some time. It was hard to get a picture given it was at night with a little point and shoot, but it was close enough for me to see people in windows in-between flashes of lightning. Granted this was in controlled conditions as we were flying almost in formation, but I've also seen planes flash by in close proximity flying in the opposite direction as well. Much closer than the 3-5 mile limit I understood was in place.
Given the increasing amount of air traffic, I would not be surprised to see incidents (not comforting given upcoming travel), but the shocking thing is that the FAA (and the public) is still dealing with a completely antiquated air traffic control system that like other aspects of our national infrastructure is woefully lacking, particularly around large airports.
I liked their use of that highly technical term: "too squiggly".
Yeah, like uncorrelated noise of artifact are too technical details for the Patent Office.
It sounds like they were using this method to optimize the complexity of interfaces depending on the user's level of "confusion". (E.g., when the user is in a state of panic, the graph wizard in Excel could offer three or four styles of graph, instead of 12. One of the Linux makers with Microsoft patent licensing could adapt it to look at such a user and decide "Y'know, you probably don't need the GIMP...") I doubt they've tried anything as ambitious as knowing what the user is thinking.
LOL, no doubt. The sad thing is that there is actually quite robust science related to human machine interfaces using EEG data, but I suspect those are already patented fairly heavily and this is some sort of effort to patent what essentially amounts to nonsense.
I've spent a fair amount of time looking at this problem (as have others with certain agencies who have invested not insignificant amounts of money) and I can tell you that this is pretty much up in the night kinda speculation. Technical issues of obtaining clean EEG signals in a convenient manner aside, the origins of techniques like this to classify comes from the epilepsy literature, where folks attempt to classify interictal seizure spikes, but also from the sleep and awareness literature (both of which have been reasonably successful, yet are still lacking optimal tools). Granted, there are rather dramatic global state changes that occur with different states of consciousness, but this application focuses principally on the awake EEG. Specifically they quote the P300 signal which the FBI and CIA are using (trying to use) for lie detection, but the problem here is that the P300 is only an evoked potential that simply tells you whether or not someone recognizes an input (audio, visual, tactile etc...). So all questions or inputs into the system have to be crafted to understand that one is looking for an evoked potential with no necessary context in place to explain that evoked potential.
So, this is not mind reading per se nor is it a means to break cognitive processing into temporal windows to determine intent in any of those potential epochs. At its very basic fundamentals this is simply a rehash of signal detection theory doing simple Fourier analysis to "classify" brain waves. But the thing here is that there is no science behind using these signals to interpret what one is thinking even with the invocation of Bayesian networks. There are a number of other more promising methods for classifying data that have been in the literature and commonly used by a number of other disciplines that I am surprised have not made it into the EEG literature yet.
In short.... in my assessment, this is a patent proposal without much in the way of novelty or benefit to the problem at hand.
Sooo..... would this mean that the Pentagon could *bogart* all of the power when needed, or reduce power generation at critical times? This is one of the principal complaints about the GPS system as currently structured. There is no doubt that the GPS system has revolutionized much of the developed world and I am not criticizing that. On the contrary, I am just pointing out a possible criticism. After all, if the Pentagon (US government) plays its cards right, this could be a way to ensure that Gap Nations can be provided power to help them integrate into the Economic Core. (brilliant background on theory of Gap Nations and Economic core here ).
As I said in my blog entry about it ('bout 3:00 this morning when we heard about it), I am actually surprised it took this long as it would be hard to quantify how much science has been dependent upon Mario's work or even work that comprised prior Nobel Prize awards. Certainly my science going back to my dissertation has relied on transgenic techniques pioneered by Mario Capecchi and I owe much to him, but more importantly the doors for much discovery made in bioscience over the past several decades would simply not have been possible without Mario's pioneering work.
Dave,
I've seen and photographed many an F-22 in flight. However, the no pictures rule for the F-22 when I was up there was because the plane was in the maintenance hangar with access hatches open and various sensitive gear visible. Those kinds of "looks" are not encouraged right now...
See my other prior posts on this topic regarding why I agree with you... As to treaties for the proposed new JDAF fighter, I also agree that there will likely be no problem so long as the technology in it is home grown. There may even be some technology assistance that could be provided in terms of testing data and such, but the problems I was talking about have to deal more with F-22 sales to other countries than any home grown efforts.
I guess in addition to your propensity for profanity, you also have an inability to read other posts I have made or understand the nuance of the English language. If you will note I said in the original post: "..... if you play your strategy according to tradition." Also I commented in other replies that "The F-22's radar is impressive, but here is the deal... You have to go active to see targets, particularly well concealed targets and that makes you "visible" as well. If the new JDAF fighter can remain "unseen" until it gets up close and personal and is a lighter, smaller and more nimble aircraft, the F-22 may have a problem..
So, while you can revel in your glee at being able to call someone else on the Internet wrong, you have to be willing to take a little as well...
I mean, if you're going to defend your home land, I doubt you will want your defenses shot down by an aggressor before they go after civilian infrastructure.
1) Thus my invocation of "traditional strategy". See my other post where I discussed strategy involved in stealth defense.
2) Can I tell you how much I hate the term "homeland" as a description for everything from national defense to internal security? It is such marketing speak...
The F-22's radar is impressive, but here is the deal... You have to go active to see targets, particularly well concealed targets and that makes you "visible" as well. If the new JDAF fighter can remain "unseen" until it gets up close and personal and is a lighter, smaller and more nimble aircraft, the F-22 may have a problem.
Smaller, faster and quieter can oftentimes triumph over larger and more complex as demonstrated in at least one Naval wargame where an entire US carrier battlegroup lost the game to a couple diesel electric subs built by the Germans.
Well, given that the F-22 has made more than one appearance in Japan, I am certain the Japanese government is interested. However, this raises more than a few issues, specifically related to technology and sociopolitical issues as well. The JDAF (Japanese Defense Air Force) has been so named as it has been a Japanese Constitutional issue that their armed forces are for defense only and not aggression. The interesting thing about stealth technology however, is that it is almost exclusively used for aggression rather than defense if you play your strategy according to tradition.
I got a quick tour of the F-22, but no pictures allowed of the F-22 during my last visit up to Hill AFB and the F-22 is making the rounds and is being explored for possible basing in other countries, but there are technology sales issues with the aircraft as it will be almost impossible to strip the sensitive technologies out of the aircraft and make it "saleable".
Rob,
Q: How many of those one million registered user IDs are active?
Explanation: I have seen a fair number of folks that have defected to other platforms/communities to find resources or tools that Slashdot does not provide. I've continued to hang around as I appreciate what Slashdot has to offer, but are there any plans to change anything?
Oh, and congratulations on 10 years.
Gee, maybe that is where Osama Bin Laden has been hiding. :-) After all, Bush had said "He could be hidin in a cave with the door open, he could be hidin in a cave with the door closed". It may also explain why Bush wants to go to Mars so bad...
Hrmmmm.... looking at the "device" from the images on the link makes me think the police overreacted. Come on now.... holding her at gunpoint? Granted, it was likely not the smartest move on her part not to respond about the "device" when asked, but once again, I am dismayed that people are getting owned by fears of terrorism and things and people that look "abnormal".
Reminds me of that guy who dressed up as the alien predator in the UK and got the British police all over him. Anyone have a link to the video of that?
Or how about the Muslim men that were asked to leave a flight because they spoke in Arabic?
Or how about the guy who was not allowed to fly with his breadboard that he was using for prototyping. They let him fly with one in its package though if *that* makes any sense.
Pare said. "Again, this is a serious offense
Why is it that airports have special significance? Seriously, think about it. There are many other places with large concentrations of people that we are not spending any money on for security that would be ideal terroristic locations. Would you say that "I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to a college campus"? or how about "I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to an art show"? or how about "I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to a concert"? or "I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to a park"?. Is all this paranoia actually making us safer? I suspect what it is doing is making flying more inconvenient for the traveler, more expensive for the airlines, reducing businesses ability to function and more because let's be honest here.... It is not hard to imagine any number of amazingly effective scenarios that terrorists could use that would be far more effective than focusing on airports, so quit with all of the panic reactions already.
Oh and since Daddypants did not read emails prior to hitting publish here is the fixed link for TFA.
Augmentation of existing senses has been going on for some time now. In particular, there is a very interesting project running through the Office of Naval Research using Navy Seals and a tongue prosthetic designed to impart sonar information to the tongue using electrical stimulii. Technology like this is very cool stuff that at the very least will help with mission specific tasks, but even better allows folks who have one or more senses compromised to continue to function and navigate their worlds.
Mod parent up.
Ah, I suspect this was either not a meteorite or there is something else going on given that any meteor leaving a 30 meter wide and 20 foot deep crater (meteor being approximately 30 inches wide) is not going to hit the ground steaming hot. On the contrary, it will be cold as ice (or colder) given its composition and time for heating. However, I suppose it could also be a re-entry event from a satellite carrying a toxic payload like plutonium... After all, we have the remnants of many satellites and the debris associated with them still in decaying orbits and you can easily spot many of them. Some satellites particularly those from the former Soviet Union and China have a history of toxic components. Though I suspect we'll know soon enough if it were a satellite, it would have been tracked by numerous agencies and individuals who monitor that sort of thing.
It should be noted that "medical research" (epidemiology, clinical studies etc...) is very different from basic research (mechanisms, pathways, etc...) and the threshold for acceptance in journals that cover basic research is much higher than that for medical journals. i.e. There is significantly higher oversight and peer review criticism over basic research than there is medical research and the two fields should not be confused.
Note that I was talking about size, not efficiency or effectiveness or mission capability. I completely agree with you in the effectiveness of the Mig-25 and would go further in stating that the entire mission design of the Mig-25 including the central direction and control.
Who's your daddy? FOAB! :-)
Seriously though, Russia has for many decades going back to just after WWII had a predilection for one upping the West in terms of military hardware. They have often defaulted to building bigger engines than just about every other jet fighter (Mig-25), the biggest cargo plane I've ever been in, the An-224 (though there is a bigger 225), bigger submarines (Typhoon class), the Soviet KV Big Turret Tank of 1942 (exception for the German Landkreuzer) and more. Those Bear bombers are pretty damned big aircraft too...
I'm actually not surprised to see weapons like this developed given the nuclear weapon treaties of the past 40 years, but if the participating members including Russia and the US continue pushing nuclear ambitions, we will have lost all credibility here.
Oh, for the love of.... Use Google to find out. A quick search reveals information from In-Q-Tel's own site and from Google's own site of course these investments are all part of In-Q-Tel's mission and there is nothing secret about it. They are quite open about their investments and why they make those investments, so what is the big deal? Also, note that there are other companies initially invested in by In-Q-Tel that Google has acquired.
Further, the claim (again unsubstantiated) that you have a doctorate
Oh, come on now.... using Google is not all that hard, nor is clicking the links that I so thoughtfully already have provided for you. But, so you don't have to click twice, here it is.
So, in other words you're still not able to back up anything you said.
I am leaving it up to the reasonably capable reader to find the references as my understanding of the background comes via first hand knowledge that has no citable sources. Take that for what you value it for, but it is factual and with enough (easy) digging, can be verified.
I don't know much about the history of Google, but Keyhole was a company independent of Google for quite years. I worked for a company that subscribed to its service. Google bought Keyhole years later.
Yes, Keyhole was founded as an independent company in 2001 and was so for about three years prior to Google's acquisition. Furthermore, they had a number of customers ranging from city planning and architectural firms to land management agencies... What is your point?
Your original post is completely worthless, with a bunch of home page links pretending to be citations. Lemme take a shot at your style of online journalism:
I never purported those links to be sources of anything other than who they were, thus the open links. I am well versed in the art of writing with proper citations (would have been hard to get a doctorate without) and I don't need any advice from a spiteful, Slashdot troll with an ID in the 800k range on how to post to Slashdot, thanks.
People like you are the reason smart people don't trust the internet.
Given your apparent history of calling people children who don't know what they are talking about (seems to be a favorite), I would advise you to take it easy on calling people out who likely *do* know a fair bit more about certain subject matter than you do and let them inform the community. I've found that it is folks who attempt to muzzle people publicly, without care or knowledge of who they are attempting to quiet by proving themselves more capable or knowledgeable to be the most ignorant.
Note that none of that should be construed as malevolent. Rather, consider it advice from someone who has been around the Internet for a while, has participated in and fostered community, has educated many at the post-graduate level and only wants more respect and quality from the communities he participates in.
I wish this were Wikipedia, because I'd edit your post with about 4 {{citationneeded}}. Google funded by the CIA? Really? What?
The CIA helped Google from the very beginning and has continued to fund Google's spin offs and start ups like Google Earth (Interesting side story with Keyhole nee Google Earth as the revolutionary UI of Google Earth had many in the remote sensing communities picking their jaws up off the floor when they first saw it and realized the implications for everything from temporal analysis to community supported contribution to databases). I can't give you many publicly available references, but do a little research on a company known as Peleus nee In-Q-It, nee In-Q-Tel. Note: I don't see anything necessarily wrong with this arrangement and can see many good things to come out of such an arrangement. In fact, I have been a big supporter of these sorts of cross fertilizations of business and government as long as appropriate ethical guidelines are followed.
Google has in the past had jobs available that required national security clearance.
Sure, but a security clearance can apply to lots of types of data and a diverse group of companies and government agencies. Everything from a basic collateral "secret" clearance (relatively easy to obtain) to "top secret" and compartmentalized programs are being worked on and participated in by people from not just government, but also a number of private companies. No big deal and I would certainly expect Google to have a significant number of folks possessing those clearances.