I was under the understanding that you had a wink and nod relationship to fans bootlegging your work. What changed this and why? Is it because of all the attention to MP3's or do you honestly think this is hurting you and needs to be addressed?
First off lets not forget something. Corporations are people. They aren't some titanic faceless thing that lumbers in and destroys. They are made up of people, most of whom don't give a rats ass about what is going on as long as they keep getting paid and the boss just leaves them alone.
Now for the main point. You fight a corporation by depriving it of it's source of income. How you might ask? Well you can just not buy the products yourself, encourage your friends and family not too, stage a general boycott, sabotage the production lines, suborn their employees, burn their buildings to the ground and/or stage a armed rebellion. All of these could work but the boycotts are probaly your best bet.
Simply take it on a low level. Don't support a company you don't believe in. Don't like Disney for whatever reason? Don't see their movies, don't buy their products for yourself or your children, don't visit the Magic Kingdom (look it's magic! you're wallets empty), and don't watch their television stations. Remember you are only responsible for what you do and if you support a company that does things you don't like then you are giving them at least marginal approval of these things. If you want to try and convert others then go ahead. Remember that others might not take well to conversion though. If you do want to convert then convert your friends and family. The best way is by example, by the way. Then they will convert others and so on.
Remember a corporation can not function without money and if enough like minded people bought with their beliefs in minds and not just their desires then things will improve. Corporations will bow to public demand if the public demands it. How else do you describe low fat foods or enviromentally friendly (at least on the surface) products? The public wanted them, or thought they wanted them. This assumes the public has a decent grasp of what is good and what is not... this comes from a good education and is another bag of worms entirely.
I can't wait to see traditional media respond to this. "A horrible virus from that insidous Internet thing is out there looking for your children! Details later after some other inane news."
Why do people keep saying "I have the album, therefore I can distribute the tracks indiscriminately, legally!"?
That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is if you have the album that's fine. If you make copies from it that's fine also. Even if you make it available online for others who own the album to download that's fine. Not everyone has software to go from a CD to a MP3 or they don't want to bother. That shouldn't stop them from having it if they own the album. Bottom line: I don't think you should be able to just run around giving out copies of others work for free just because you happen to own it.
My question on the whole mess... how do they know that they downloaded this information? Wouldn't they have to sit and watch the systems to see what's moving in and out? Does this constitute a wire tap which, last I checked, requires a court order? So they happen to have the file available in Napster. What if they own the album in question? They have a right to make a copy of it for there own purposes and then give it to others if they also have the album.
Did the lawyers go to each of these people and say "Excuse me. We checked your computer and you have the songs One, Master of Puppets and Leper Messiah. Do you own these albums and have proof that you paid for them?" I own a decent CD collection and have no proof that I actually paid for them so with this logic I could be arrested for shoplifting or robbery because I can't prove where it came from.
Metallica used to be really lenient about their fans making bootlegs of their music and such. I'm wondering what happened to those times. Probaly realized just how much they were loosing in terms of money. Now by this act they are going to loose even more as they make their fans mad. They have a right to protect their work but this is ridiculous. I'm not spending any more money on them that for sure.
When did clear colored plastic become a trademark? I was at Wal-Mart the other day and say a clothes iron that had clear blue plastic for the water tank (at least that makes sense; you can see the water level). Are they going to sue the iron maker now? I have a clear plastic phone in my closet that is way older then the iMac. Is Apple going to sue them too? Is Apple so desparate to hang on to their market they are suing people over cases? Talk about some people with no clue.
The only difference I've noticed between honest companies and spammers is at least the honest companies will give you a way off the list and give a valid address up front. Not much better then the spammers but every little bit helps.
Why does it matter where you came from? You're not going back there. Does it matter if some relative of yours was famous? No. What matters is what you do with your life not what some relative did with their's.
This is interesting from genetic stand point, if for no other reason so it can shut up racists. Imagine testing them and saying something along the lines of "Well you're descended from a little European genetics and a lot of African." As long as they keep video tapes of their reactions I would be happy. Remeber it's not what you come from and what you've done. It's where you're going and what you're going to do.
Actually one of the main reasons armies switched to rifles was because it takes just a few hours to a few days to teach how to use one. To use a sword or other medieval weapon it takes longer to learn and become useful with it. Don't forget that the pike is still in use in modern armies (the bayonet).
You could always shield the electronics from giving off stray radiation. Of course this still isn't going to work too well when they are using the satellite phone unless it frequency hops (can satellite phones do that now?). I'm sure they have given some thought to this. The biggest problem will be information overload. The soldier will be getting so much information that they will miss something vital trying to pay attention to everything at once. Fighter pilots have the same problem now and have had it as far back as Vietnam (if not farther). They solve it by shutting down every possible thing they can get away with. Will the troops be able to do that or will they get killed by some bare footed peasent with a AK-47 who isn't trying to pay attention to a monitor? What happens if the system crashes? What happens if the enemy breaks into the system and starts running through it and giving false commands? They could re-direct your artillery and air strikes onto your troops as well as feeding all kinds of bad information through the network. It's a good idea and I hope it get's implemented correctly but considering what they chose for the operating system (assuming they aren't just using it for prototype) I'm not going to hold my breath.
So it's isolation to read online but not to read in a library. Does this mean that I can go to the Library of Congress and throw a party so I'm not isolated?
Who put this fool into the position he is in? I would think they would love to get all this information out and on to the web if for no other reason so it isn't lost (in the case of old books). I would even pay to subscribe to a website like that. I can see them saying that they won't do it soon because of cost but to say they won't at all is silly. Of course they will. Maybe not while this guy is around but it will happen.
They could make money off of this by charging for access or just raise my taxes a little. This is something that I would pay more taxes for. Gladly. Or even better take some of my Social Security that I'm paying (and will never see again) and funnel it so that it can pay for a online Library of Congress. At least then I will have something to show for my money. With people talking about online universitys and such is a online Library of Congress really all that far off? (Luddites not withstanding of course)
I feel sorry for the people who admin the server. CNN and Slashdot both post your sight on the same day *shudder*. [bad Scottish accent] "She's going to blow Captain! CNN and Slashdot have both posted us!" [end bad Scottish accent]Someone is working some overtime tonight.
Big X? Hell I'm suprised they didn't put up a big sign that said "Hi mom!" Duty on a base in the middle of the desert can't be all that entertaining. Or maybe the next passover will reveal some joker has put out a sign saying "Aliens land on left runway" or something.
As for the whole Area 51 UFO thing... come on. My favorite video to debunk of the place is a picture of three or four lights in the sky do some really impressive moves. The person who filmed it said "It has to be using alien technology to protect the pilots from G-force and make moves like that." Why? Why can't they be remotely piloted drones? And the moves were something a vectored thrust engine could do (even seen one fly backwards). Why in the world would you put lights on a top secret aircraft that you're trying to hide? It is restriced airspace. No one to run into.
Knew a guy who used to work at one of the air bases near Area 51 as a civilian security guard in the mid 80's. Said he was sitting in his truck one night way out in the middle of no where when a really big bat went screaming by... chased by a F-15. He was seeing what would eventually become the F-117 fighter. The Air Force didn't admit that it existed for another five years. A conspiracy is generally cracked open by this kind of thing. The government can't even hide a presidential blow job. How in the world would they hide something like a alien spaceship that would require many people to work on? (well as usually I've wondered off the topic I was replying to *shrug*)
Basically these are good ideas. It's true that encryption by itself won't keep you safe from a repressive government or evil corporations. The idea that you need friends and people that you can trust is a excellent way to help set up a society. Let's face it. Man is a social animal. We need to be around people. Putting our trust in a software solution to a social problem will not work (which is what this essentially boils down to). You need to trust people or encryption is worthless.
Let's see where this leads and hope that the United States follows Canada's lead and implements some real privacy laws.
Well I think Katz missed a great chance to really make a difference when they offered him a chance to work on the project. He could have been a thorn in their side till they either kicked him off or sidelined him. As for meeting with Katz at all this will probably be used as a P.R. ploy. "Well we met with several people from the online community and talked with them about this program. They seemed satisfied with the direction the program is taking because they turned down a chance to work on the project with us." Maybe make a few piddly changes in the program and point out how enlightened they are to the whole matter. It seems they never really intended to change the program to a large degree or outright cancel it just because they talked to Katz.
This whole thing is insane to say the least. Pinkerton is going to take the line that credit bureaus take. "We just give the information, what the company (school) does with it is their business." It's a cop out and a way to avoid responsibility in the matter while making money. As for keeping the information themselves I have this supsicion they won't purge this stuff. It's too valuable. They can use it when conducting background checks for employers to make them look as if they are being thorough. "Well his criminal record is clear, credit looks good but he did have several people call in about him in high school about dangerous behaviour." Pinkerton is not stupid. You don't stay a profit making corporation for long if you're stupid. This has been thought through and responses have been scripted from the beginning I imagine. For all we know this was filed under "Internet Pundits Attack Program: Counters to same."
Taking the incentive program out only made sense. Maybe they never had full intention of implementing it. It would cost them time and money. After all if this was really anonymously reported how would they know where to send the rewards, etc? It might have been included in the original proposal as something to ax when it went to the bargaining table.
This whole thing will either be scrapped because it's swamped with bogus calls or scorched to the ground from lawsuits. Of course it could also work out that the thing is implemented, teenagers ignore it and never use it and it slips away into the shadows as another failed program. Then again it could work just like they think it will with tremendous success, lower school violence, and make everyones lives a little better because it existed... and maybe some Arab oil sheik's checking account will be transfered to my on accident.
Stephenson, Sterling and other ramblings
on
CFP 2000 Wrapup
·
· Score: 3
Is it me or is Neal Stephenson taking the Bruce Sterling approach? They both write good stories and both throw out some rather interesting ideas.
The idea of small groups using video survelliance to fight their oppresors is a interesting idea as well as the idea of small groups banding together to help each other (see Diamond Age for a full fleshing out). Of course were these small groups are going to get the equipment neccassary is another question.
This is a better way to look at the world then the all pervasive mode of Big Brother. Because when you think about it trouble does come from all sides not just one titanic foe. And to fight it you need to be flexible and have lots of options open to you. The heroic last stand against overwhelming odds might be thrilling and interesting to hear and read about but it sucks as a option. So look and see who your allies are and make use of them. Remember that the enemy of your enemy is also not always your friend.
The idea that people do act better when they are being watched is nothing new really. Why do you think criminals were masks? It's not just so they won't be caught. It's so that people won't see them committing a crime and then shun them and people close to them. How about the old saying that the way to tell how good and honest a person is is to watch and see how they act when they think no one is watching.
Stephenson is throwing off some good mind workers and I can't wait to see where he is heading next.
Well I do question the figure of 60% of the users online being female but I do agree that there are a lot more of them around. My girlfriend uses my computer more then I do sometimes. When I told her I was having DSL installed she started drooling. I think we do need a influx of females to the online community.
[warning: metaphor ahead; take with a grain of salt] It's kinda like the frontier towns. You have a largely male oriented society where you have shootings (flames), range wars (flame wars), bars (hostile chat rooms), brothels (you figure it out), and so on. Then people start bring there wife and kids in from back East and the wives decide to clean the place up and all of a sudden you have a modern city where the bars and brothels and ect. are pushed back to the fringe.
And lets be honest here. If we ever want the media and society in general to take us serious (beyond IPO's and cracker stories)then we need this kind of influence. Personally I welcome it. There will always be the rough parts of town if you want them. There will also be the people who lament the good ol' days but most will be happy and just ignore those.
So we are in a time of change and we need to decide what kind of net we want. Do we want a city that's quite and nothing ever really happens or do you want a city like Moscow where it's crazed, the police are on the take and the Mafia generally runs everything? I vote for something in the center of those two.
Have you ever bothered to do any kind of research into when people can use lethal force (police included)? It is when you feel that your life or the life of someone else it is at risk.
There is a training system that police go through in which they show a video on a large screen and you're supposed to react like it was real. One of the videos is of a man running towards you reaching behind him. I know several cops who have taken this and every single one shot the man after giving warning to stop. The man was reaching for his wallet to give them a card that said he was deaf.
Amadou lived in a bad neighborhood and should have known better then to make sudden moves like that when you have armed men pointing guns at you. Even if he thought he was being robbed he should have waited for the robbers to ask for his wallet. It is a tragedy that this happened and the police officers that did it will have to live with it for the rest of their lives. If this had been a white guy getting killed by white officers or a white guy getting killed by black officers or any combination except black killed by white officer this wouldn't have recieved hardly any press at all. It's hypocrisy pure and simple.
What value does this have? You couldn't sell it to a musuem. They would know what it is and where it came from (being that there are only two of them in known existence). You couldn't really display it around your place as decoration unless you're a real idiot. You might be able to sell it to a private collector but then the collector could never really be able to display it. Using it for crypto would be worthless since it was cracked almost sixty years ago.
So what use is this to steal? Just to say you did it? I could understand if the thief had turned out to be a teenager or something but the guy was fifty! This is on the emotional level with stealing hood ornaments and such. A way to say "Look what I have!" but never really having any practical use for it.
Good one... but the Enigma code was broken several years before that and the war with Germany was in it's last stages by May of '45 (if not finished by that point).
Now there's a scary thought. I used to work security and for some reason the Pinkerton people around here weren't always the brightest bulbs. I shudder to imagine these guys handling military intel.
Slashdot Mirror
I can design a bad product, cost the people who use it millions and get away with it? Sweet...
Now that was funny. I can just see Yoda in drag as a Reverend Mother too.
I was under the understanding that you had a wink and nod relationship to fans bootlegging your work. What changed this and why? Is it because of all the attention to MP3's or do you honestly think this is hurting you and needs to be addressed?
First off lets not forget something. Corporations are people. They aren't some titanic faceless thing that lumbers in and destroys. They are made up of people, most of whom don't give a rats ass about what is going on as long as they keep getting paid and the boss just leaves them alone.
Now for the main point. You fight a corporation by depriving it of it's source of income. How you might ask? Well you can just not buy the products yourself, encourage your friends and family not too, stage a general boycott, sabotage the production lines, suborn their employees, burn their buildings to the ground and/or stage a armed rebellion. All of these could work but the boycotts are probaly your best bet.
Simply take it on a low level. Don't support a company you don't believe in. Don't like Disney for whatever reason? Don't see their movies, don't buy their products for yourself or your children, don't visit the Magic Kingdom (look it's magic! you're wallets empty), and don't watch their television stations. Remember you are only responsible for what you do and if you support a company that does things you don't like then you are giving them at least marginal approval of these things. If you want to try and convert others then go ahead. Remember that others might not take well to conversion though. If you do want to convert then convert your friends and family. The best way is by example, by the way. Then they will convert others and so on.
Remember a corporation can not function without money and if enough like minded people bought with their beliefs in minds and not just their desires then things will improve. Corporations will bow to public demand if the public demands it. How else do you describe low fat foods or enviromentally friendly (at least on the surface) products? The public wanted them, or thought they wanted them. This assumes the public has a decent grasp of what is good and what is not... this comes from a good education and is another bag of worms entirely.
I can't wait to see traditional media respond to this. "A horrible virus from that insidous Internet thing is out there looking for your children! Details later after some other inane news."
Why do people keep saying "I have the album, therefore I can distribute the tracks indiscriminately, legally!"?
That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is if you have the album that's fine. If you make copies from it that's fine also. Even if you make it available online for others who own the album to download that's fine. Not everyone has software to go from a CD to a MP3 or they don't want to bother. That shouldn't stop them from having it if they own the album. Bottom line: I don't think you should be able to just run around giving out copies of others work for free just because you happen to own it.
My question on the whole mess... how do they know that they downloaded this information? Wouldn't they have to sit and watch the systems to see what's moving in and out? Does this constitute a wire tap which, last I checked, requires a court order? So they happen to have the file available in Napster. What if they own the album in question? They have a right to make a copy of it for there own purposes and then give it to others if they also have the album.
Did the lawyers go to each of these people and say "Excuse me. We checked your computer and you have the songs One, Master of Puppets and Leper Messiah. Do you own these albums and have proof that you paid for them?" I own a decent CD collection and have no proof that I actually paid for them so with this logic I could be arrested for shoplifting or robbery because I can't prove where it came from.
Metallica used to be really lenient about their fans making bootlegs of their music and such. I'm wondering what happened to those times. Probaly realized just how much they were loosing in terms of money. Now by this act they are going to loose even more as they make their fans mad. They have a right to protect their work but this is ridiculous. I'm not spending any more money on them that for sure.
When did clear colored plastic become a trademark? I was at Wal-Mart the other day and say a clothes iron that had clear blue plastic for the water tank (at least that makes sense; you can see the water level). Are they going to sue the iron maker now? I have a clear plastic phone in my closet that is way older then the iMac. Is Apple going to sue them too? Is Apple so desparate to hang on to their market they are suing people over cases? Talk about some people with no clue.
The only difference I've noticed between honest companies and spammers is at least the honest companies will give you a way off the list and give a valid address up front. Not much better then the spammers but every little bit helps.
Why does it matter where you came from? You're not going back there. Does it matter if some relative of yours was famous? No. What matters is what you do with your life not what some relative did with their's.
This is interesting from genetic stand point, if for no other reason so it can shut up racists. Imagine testing them and saying something along the lines of "Well you're descended from a little European genetics and a lot of African." As long as they keep video tapes of their reactions I would be happy. Remeber it's not what you come from and what you've done. It's where you're going and what you're going to do.
Actually one of the main reasons armies switched to rifles was because it takes just a few hours to a few days to teach how to use one. To use a sword or other medieval weapon it takes longer to learn and become useful with it. Don't forget that the pike is still in use in modern armies (the bayonet).
You could always shield the electronics from giving off stray radiation. Of course this still isn't going to work too well when they are using the satellite phone unless it frequency hops (can satellite phones do that now?). I'm sure they have given some thought to this. The biggest problem will be information overload. The soldier will be getting so much information that they will miss something vital trying to pay attention to everything at once. Fighter pilots have the same problem now and have had it as far back as Vietnam (if not farther). They solve it by shutting down every possible thing they can get away with. Will the troops be able to do that or will they get killed by some bare footed peasent with a AK-47 who isn't trying to pay attention to a monitor? What happens if the system crashes? What happens if the enemy breaks into the system and starts running through it and giving false commands? They could re-direct your artillery and air strikes onto your troops as well as feeding all kinds of bad information through the network. It's a good idea and I hope it get's implemented correctly but considering what they chose for the operating system (assuming they aren't just using it for prototype) I'm not going to hold my breath.
So it's isolation to read online but not to read in a library. Does this mean that I can go to the Library of Congress and throw a party so I'm not isolated?
Who put this fool into the position he is in? I would think they would love to get all this information out and on to the web if for no other reason so it isn't lost (in the case of old books). I would even pay to subscribe to a website like that. I can see them saying that they won't do it soon because of cost but to say they won't at all is silly. Of course they will. Maybe not while this guy is around but it will happen.
They could make money off of this by charging for access or just raise my taxes a little. This is something that I would pay more taxes for. Gladly. Or even better take some of my Social Security that I'm paying (and will never see again) and funnel it so that it can pay for a online Library of Congress. At least then I will have something to show for my money. With people talking about online universitys and such is a online Library of Congress really all that far off? (Luddites not withstanding of course)
I feel sorry for the people who admin the server. CNN and Slashdot both post your sight on the same day *shudder*. [bad Scottish accent] "She's going to blow Captain! CNN and Slashdot have both posted us!" [end bad Scottish accent]Someone is working some overtime tonight.
Big X? Hell I'm suprised they didn't put up a big sign that said "Hi mom!" Duty on a base in the middle of the desert can't be all that entertaining. Or maybe the next passover will reveal some joker has put out a sign saying "Aliens land on left runway" or something.
As for the whole Area 51 UFO thing... come on. My favorite video to debunk of the place is a picture of three or four lights in the sky do some really impressive moves. The person who filmed it said "It has to be using alien technology to protect the pilots from G-force and make moves like that." Why? Why can't they be remotely piloted drones? And the moves were something a vectored thrust engine could do (even seen one fly backwards). Why in the world would you put lights on a top secret aircraft that you're trying to hide? It is restriced airspace. No one to run into.
Knew a guy who used to work at one of the air bases near Area 51 as a civilian security guard in the mid 80's. Said he was sitting in his truck one night way out in the middle of no where when a really big bat went screaming by... chased by a F-15. He was seeing what would eventually become the F-117 fighter. The Air Force didn't admit that it existed for another five years. A conspiracy is generally cracked open by this kind of thing. The government can't even hide a presidential blow job. How in the world would they hide something like a alien spaceship that would require many people to work on? (well as usually I've wondered off the topic I was replying to *shrug*)
Basically these are good ideas. It's true that encryption by itself won't keep you safe from a repressive government or evil corporations. The idea that you need friends and people that you can trust is a excellent way to help set up a society. Let's face it. Man is a social animal. We need to be around people. Putting our trust in a software solution to a social problem will not work (which is what this essentially boils down to). You need to trust people or encryption is worthless.
Let's see where this leads and hope that the United States follows Canada's lead and implements some real privacy laws.
Well I think Katz missed a great chance to really make a difference when they offered him a chance to work on the project. He could have been a thorn in their side till they either kicked him off or sidelined him. As for meeting with Katz at all this will probably be used as a P.R. ploy. "Well we met with several people from the online community and talked with them about this program. They seemed satisfied with the direction the program is taking because they turned down a chance to work on the project with us." Maybe make a few piddly changes in the program and point out how enlightened they are to the whole matter. It seems they never really intended to change the program to a large degree or outright cancel it just because they talked to Katz.
This whole thing is insane to say the least. Pinkerton is going to take the line that credit bureaus take. "We just give the information, what the company (school) does with it is their business." It's a cop out and a way to avoid responsibility in the matter while making money. As for keeping the information themselves I have this supsicion they won't purge this stuff. It's too valuable. They can use it when conducting background checks for employers to make them look as if they are being thorough. "Well his criminal record is clear, credit looks good but he did have several people call in about him in high school about dangerous behaviour." Pinkerton is not stupid. You don't stay a profit making corporation for long if you're stupid. This has been thought through and responses have been scripted from the beginning I imagine. For all we know this was filed under "Internet Pundits Attack Program: Counters to same."
Taking the incentive program out only made sense. Maybe they never had full intention of implementing it. It would cost them time and money. After all if this was really anonymously reported how would they know where to send the rewards, etc? It might have been included in the original proposal as something to ax when it went to the bargaining table.
This whole thing will either be scrapped because it's swamped with bogus calls or scorched to the ground from lawsuits. Of course it could also work out that the thing is implemented, teenagers ignore it and never use it and it slips away into the shadows as another failed program. Then again it could work just like they think it will with tremendous success, lower school violence, and make everyones lives a little better because it existed... and maybe some Arab oil sheik's checking account will be transfered to my on accident.
Is it me or is Neal Stephenson taking the Bruce Sterling approach? They both write good stories and both throw out some rather interesting ideas.
The idea of small groups using video survelliance to fight their oppresors is a interesting idea as well as the idea of small groups banding together to help each other (see Diamond Age for a full fleshing out). Of course were these small groups are going to get the equipment neccassary is another question.
This is a better way to look at the world then the all pervasive mode of Big Brother. Because when you think about it trouble does come from all sides not just one titanic foe. And to fight it you need to be flexible and have lots of options open to you. The heroic last stand against overwhelming odds might be thrilling and interesting to hear and read about but it sucks as a option. So look and see who your allies are and make use of them. Remember that the enemy of your enemy is also not always your friend.
The idea that people do act better when they are being watched is nothing new really. Why do you think criminals were masks? It's not just so they won't be caught. It's so that people won't see them committing a crime and then shun them and people close to them. How about the old saying that the way to tell how good and honest a person is is to watch and see how they act when they think no one is watching.
Stephenson is throwing off some good mind workers and I can't wait to see where he is heading next.
Find something with one syllable like "geek" before you go "girl profiling." How about Greek? Grrl plus geek. (yes, I'm kidding)
The truth is out! I wasn't paying attention in High School English.
Well I do question the figure of 60% of the users online being female but I do agree that there are a lot more of them around. My girlfriend uses my computer more then I do sometimes. When I told her I was having DSL installed she started drooling. I think we do need a influx of females to the online community.
[warning: metaphor ahead; take with a grain of salt] It's kinda like the frontier towns. You have a largely male oriented society where you have shootings (flames), range wars (flame wars), bars (hostile chat rooms), brothels (you figure it out), and so on. Then people start bring there wife and kids in from back East and the wives decide to clean the place up and all of a sudden you have a modern city where the bars and brothels and ect. are pushed back to the fringe.
And lets be honest here. If we ever want the media and society in general to take us serious (beyond IPO's and cracker stories)then we need this kind of influence. Personally I welcome it. There will always be the rough parts of town if you want them. There will also be the people who lament the good ol' days but most will be happy and just ignore those.
So we are in a time of change and we need to decide what kind of net we want. Do we want a city that's quite and nothing ever really happens or do you want a city like Moscow where it's crazed, the police are on the take and the Mafia generally runs everything? I vote for something in the center of those two.
Have you ever bothered to do any kind of research into when people can use lethal force (police included)? It is when you feel that your life or the life of someone else it is at risk.
There is a training system that police go through in which they show a video on a large screen and you're supposed to react like it was real. One of the videos is of a man running towards you reaching behind him. I know several cops who have taken this and every single one shot the man after giving warning to stop. The man was reaching for his wallet to give them a card that said he was deaf.
Amadou lived in a bad neighborhood and should have known better then to make sudden moves like that when you have armed men pointing guns at you. Even if he thought he was being robbed he should have waited for the robbers to ask for his wallet. It is a tragedy that this happened and the police officers that did it will have to live with it for the rest of their lives. If this had been a white guy getting killed by white officers or a white guy getting killed by black officers or any combination except black killed by white officer this wouldn't have recieved hardly any press at all. It's hypocrisy pure and simple.
What value does this have? You couldn't sell it to a musuem. They would know what it is and where it came from (being that there are only two of them in known existence). You couldn't really display it around your place as decoration unless you're a real idiot. You might be able to sell it to a private collector but then the collector could never really be able to display it. Using it for crypto would be worthless since it was cracked almost sixty years ago.
So what use is this to steal? Just to say you did it? I could understand if the thief had turned out to be a teenager or something but the guy was fifty! This is on the emotional level with stealing hood ornaments and such. A way to say "Look what I have!" but never really having any practical use for it.
Good one... but the Enigma code was broken several years before that and the war with Germany was in it's last stages by May of '45 (if not finished by that point).
Now there's a scary thought. I used to work security and for some reason the Pinkerton people around here weren't always the brightest bulbs. I shudder to imagine these guys handling military intel.