Anybody following that fanatic knows better than to trust him as a source without double checking (which one should do with any politician, especially those who are also lawyers.) It's illogical to claim it's can't be a crazy conspiracy theory simply because the "crisis" was horrific to somebody.
Embassy attacks and deaths happen; it's just the way things have been for decades, nothing new. Bush had dozens of them, Clinton had some big high profile ones, Reagan, Carter, etc. They don't usually kill higher-level officials in these attacks so that makes it a little different but it really don't matter a whole lot; those officials are no more important than the underlings we never remember... and we'd not remember this one if it wasn't exploited for political grandstanding (especially during a big campaign season.) More security may not have made a difference... in which case, we'd be in the same situation we are in today; people covering their asses with others demanding perfection and "accountability."
All congress does these days is grandstanding which is why their approval is so high... that is, higher than Castro but lower than Cancer in approval.
Don't forget how Hitler split up his nuclear bomb team and isolated them from each other divided resources to foster "competition" in an effort to apply business think to science; as if everything works like the "free market."
There is no free market - it's so far from it that to use the term is bordering on being silly. I'm not complaining about 1-2% keeping it from a perfect 100% as you seem to think I am; illustrating the FAITH and ignorance of your perspective. It's far more like 50% making it unreasonable to classify as such.
Hell, the closest you have to an actually free market is the black market - which lacks any regulation or limitations other than having to stay underground - but then by definition it's created by the laws it breaks so within it's own definition it has total freedom.
Well, maybe English could use less words (it has the record) and less phrases as well... But I see the term as a more detailed subset under the general term "graft."
Graft tends to make one think of a range of things and at least for me, it makes me think of a range of things which includes today's problems. Usually, I'm not in favor of a new term being created for no good reason-- but corruption is a major theme in human existence and there are many types of graft. If something unimportant such as the color blue gets dozens of names to go with every shade, graft should have at least as many terms.
Some kinds of graft are not as important or may be less important than other kinds-- same with corruption. I don't care if an official abuses their power so they can cheat of their wife- it's a fringe benefit of having power I won't begrudge them a normal outlet for their flaws; nearly all people seeking power do it so they can exercise that power (for good or ill.) We'll say they are corrupt-- well, yes-- but so what, that kind of corruption doesn't matter. No, it doesn't mean we can't trust them to do their job honestly - it is a false analogy to do so. We lack the proper terminology so everything gets lumped into 1 term that covers true EVIL to private mistakes. This becomes part of the argument Orwell makes in 1984 about the use of language to control the peoples' thinking (actually made stronger in his supplement on newspeak)
Guy Fawkes was a heroic revolutionary who failed big time (but also potentially could have succeeded big time.) The oppressive government that he and his co-conspirators opposed was in need of blowing up. Had he acted centuries later... when the government was much "nicer" the Americans and/or French would be celebrating his attempt. The enemy of my enemy is my friend... until the enemy is defeated.
As for fascist, that doesn't mean anything as a term anymore. The real Fascist was Mussolini, who predated Hitlers "Fascism." Mussolini founded the National Fascist Party in the 1920s! He defined it to be a lot like the pro-business mentality that dominates our governments of today. In fact, the British government of the 1500s? was not far from Fascism when you think about it. My understanding of the 5th of November revolutionaries was that they were fighting for religious freedom / influence as part of that long history of Christians killing each other over fictional details.
Guy Fawkes has been a metaphor in one way or another for a long long time. The exact details don't matter; it still was a principled attack against the establishment - that any peoples feeling oppressed can identify with. Oppression doesn't need to applied to be felt; iit is a feeling not a position. You don't have to be jailed to live in fear of being jailed or discriminated against in some other way. A truly free individual who can think on their own is likely to feel the subtle and powerful oppression the majority is ignorant and of their participation.
like NASA WAS. see that word WAS. then you ramble off into the shuttle program decades later. some components were naturally bought.. they didn't mine the ore for all the metals in the Apollo program either...
Protecting buggy-whip makers makes you weak... but that thinking can't extend forever, at some point protecting HUMANS makes you weak and that time is coming into view... it's no longer fantasy science fiction.
You have no free market capitalism; never did. Just as communism was never actually implemented, nether has free market capitalism. All implementations have been far from the ideals and their success is not ever entirely due to their ideology as the FAITHFUL proclaim.
Go get educated so you can constructively discuss issues instead of embarrassing yourself.
Distributed systems have a downside just as powerful that works against them: Divide and Conquer.
The real issue is separation of powerful influences. Too much narrow thinking prevents people from thinking outside government.
Private political power is the #1 problem today. The founders did nothing to separate private powers, except they didn't have corporations (in name only, they were nothing like they are today - and certainly corporations were NOT people.)
Your small components of government might be more tangible and more connected to citizens; but they are much much weaker! My city got Walmart unwillingly; almost nobody wants them here. How? They spent 10 years harassing and trying to buy influence, ultimately resulting in a lawsuit attack in which the city quickly retreated (terrorism by broken legal system - terrorism is not limited to physical violence.) They probably even stacked the judges in their favor over the last decade... since ours run for office and each time 1 would have way more advertizing than in the past (nobody knew anything about the judges before, now you know 1 person's name for sure.) Local newspaper? Almost non-existent and done by part timers, rarely controversial or deep - and if it were... somehow... they'd be as toothless as our city is when going up against powerful national forces. Even wealthy locals push them around.
They are not quite the same thing. Generally, they are the same thing but I choose to thing of the newer term "regulatory capture" as distinct; a reflection of our modern times.
Today's "graft" is far more systematic and organized, the players a many times more powerful. The fall into despotism combined with modern psychology allowing for more than was possible a century ago. So for me, I see "graft" vs "Regulatory Capture" as the difference between "gang crime" and "union of criminal enterprises."
Graft can be some small group buying off politicians for their selfish little conspiracies but when you have industries of competing crooks working together to get rid of the law -- not completely, but smartly keeping it around for appearances.
Regulatory capture is an old problem that continues to spread but has been around for decades - the direct proof of the corruption has been lacking due to the pathetic press which itself has been captured in a similar way so it can't serve it's regulatory role either.
THEY DO HIDE IT, the direct obvious unavoidable proof is not allowed out in the open and they will wage a political war against anybody who LEAKS such evidence (despite informed and reasonable people knowing all of it beforehand they didn't have the level of proof for the masses that leaks provide.)
No, not the laser weapon program (which will just have the usual amount of fraud) but the DEFENSIVE RESPONSE. Cloud machines will get some serious research as well as water misting, reflective dust or "nano particle mirrors" from filling the air to special paint.
These lasers can't fire long sustained blasts, you just have to dissipate the heat for that short period of time. Visible light lasers are going to be significantly impacted by the AIR and distance to target as well as the humidity.
Not to mention the Geneva treaties which banned blinding weapons along with chemical warfare. Your legit laser weapon shot over a long distance is going to diffuse so that tank at 10 miles away is now the side of city block with blind children. Still preferable to generations of horrific birth defects the nuclear waste (depleted uranium) causes today... Amazing that nuclear waste is allowed as a weapon just because it's not literally a chemical weapon.... If I throw this acid at you really hard... it's a kinetic weapon not a chemical one!;-p
The problem is not technical, it is political. Have you ever done IT? Some of the biggest problems are political there as well.
We just had government shutdown and a terrorist threat to wreak the global economy if this wasn't stopped. If that doesn't convince you how many politically connected powerful people are highly motivated you are just not worth the bandwidth.
Aside from that, the project was heavily outsourced which has a lot of political problems involved as well. If it was entirely in-house like NASA was, it would have been done properly and for less money and would be cheaper to maintain. Just like all the other outsourced potential money pits, there is going to be a rush of vile corporations trying to bribe contracts for them to maintain and update it for as long as the law is active. Every 10 years they'll revise/upgrade the website for a huge amount of money and their screw ups will cost even more money in "support" until they lose the contract... re-incorporate and get the contract back again... or bribe another contract elsewhere while waiting to return again after the next crook is done.
The federal government didn't make a website-- they outsourced the whole thing! Nobody is talking about that!
Government contractors usually cost too much and deliver too little; rarely do they have any real accountability. At least government workers have no incentive to screw things up so bad that politicians (usually a big source of the problem) go around looking to shift blame and sacrifice people and departments in idiotic ways to keep up appearances but not actually repair any real problems; if it existed in the 1st place.
It doesn't matter if the government workers are brilliant or lazy, they don't have an incentive to screw up in ways that have REAL repercussions. Contractors HAVE incentives to screw up and even in criminal ways - they don't get hurt and quite often they come back and get contracts shortly after being caught defrauding the government... or just go find work elsewhere while they grease the wheels of government.
Result: Contractors only add opportunity for more government corruption. Short term savings/benefits are almost always offset later even if you ignore the cost of undermining democracy. Political oversight is focused on the short term as is the corporation. Public workers are usually thinking in the long term, at minimum for their own interests. Plus they are not managed by people looking to squeeze every penny out for themselves before they jump ship in their golden parachute. If a government manager gets too much money they risk prison... and we always have upcoming political wannabes looking to sacrifice them for political gain -- to the point scandals are manufactured for grandstanding... and for future contractors looking to steal tax payer money.
Case point: USPS has been attacked and undermined for years. The inventor of mail service: the UK has privatized the royal mail after years of successful attack. Just watch how much it'll cost their people and under perform... but unlike the royal mail service, they'll budget a good dose of marketing so people feel good about eating more and more shit.
The French seem to not be brainwashed by the propaganda machine enough to harm themselves as pro-WTO trade undermines careers in the global race to the bottom.
When the robots and software start to do significant damage worldwide to jobs (it's only just beginning and some are taking notice) the French will likely be the last holdout.
"Protectionism" is not viewed as bad everywhere; at least the marketing hasn't succeeded everywhere just yet.
I don't think those others are a big problem. Deer perhaps, but I'd think the robot would handle that better overall. Icy conditions probably not bad either, my car already adjusts itself when it is freezing (it does mess up sometimes when it's warmer at the sensor than colder wind swept areas or where the ice hasn't melted but it is a 10 year old car. Given the number of people slipping around during season changes here I'm not convinced people are good at learning to adapt.)
All robot situations will work great but mixing in humans is just asking for trouble; nobody is so ingenious at finding problems than a foolish human.
I can detect the context of avoiding people on their cell phones and adapt or avoid a mother driving a bunch of kids; these robots can't. That is my "near collision state" to avoid. Now in avoiding these risky situations one could be placed into a worse situation - such as NOT speeding when everybody else is speeding and recklessly passing you - every lane change around you increases the risk.
I wonder what happens when in bad road conditions the google maps indicates to drive off a cliff... Some humans have had troubles in those situations.
Google: Our robot cars have better lawyers than your lawyers.
Snowden had a motive which wasn't filtered out in the hiring process because privatization has taken over and THAT is why this was so easily done. In the older days, somebody would have to work at the job for years to gain trust, be desensitized, get promoted and gradually be exposed to objectionable things instead of being horrified and overwhelmed with how bad things are. Moving government jobs to contractors is almost always foolish and expensive in the long term.
Going to military and security contractors is unbelievably idiotic... plus they then go to work for smaller players who could never afford to pay the TRUE COST for the tech, experience, and funding their mega-huge primary customer does at tax payer expense.
Corrupt and extremely idealistic politicians did this; the paranoid had little sway.
"America is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world" -MLK. That was back during Vietnam, things are much worse today.
A little political backstabbing is normal but that does not mean it is ok. When you accept the secret norm so it can become flagrant, you merely raise the bar on what they can easily do or attempt in secret. At least they take a great deal of effort secretly breaking ideals, morals, and laws - why make it any easier for them?
Many crimes and immoral acts happen every day; just because it's not a new freaky kind of crime doesn't mean we don't need to hear about it. I would like to know if the daily murders are migrating towards my neighborhood. Plus, while murder is OLD the victims and situation changes which each one - therefore it IS news.
Real reporters and editors make the decisions and have the resources to filter the data down to what people need to know - dumping data on them to filter is exactly what you should do. A free press has more RIGHT to cause collateral damage than the military does. Think about it. Don't let government scare you with scare tactics into gutting the press with government "security" censorship. Some people may die and that is the price for freedom! The gov would love to blame TRUTH as much as they can so you hate it as much as they do; simultaneously, they justify all their collateral damage as the price for freedom... WAKE UP
Countries spy but who, when, how, frequency, and acceptability differs. In a functional democracy, the public has a NEED TO KNOW because they are the oversight (whether or not they are inept is another matter.) For practical reasons, some of the information has to be temporarily hidden EXCEPT from the people's representatives who must always be kept in the loop. Problem is, they seem to quickly convert nearly every rep... perhaps it's because they tap all their phones? cough...J. Edgar Hoover.. cough cough
Save is an exception to the general rules. The whole concept of "saving" was and is abstract and foreign to the real world for MOST people. Despite the lack of a save metaphor new users learn it QUICKLY. Once you lose your work a few times, you learn to SAVE.
Doesn't matter what symbol is used or what word. Saving is a computer metaphor and could have been any word. Now "Save As..." that is not an exception - millions still do not understand it but use it as SAVE due to past experience. If you could make a bluetooth rabbits foot that saved every time you rubbed it... somebody should be thinking up fun pranks that utilize the webcam to see if you can get users to make faces or do silly actions to get positive results from the machine!
I remember a couple apps that had rewind buttons in them! I don't remember their names... Obviously they didn't rewind in real time because then there would be zero benefit to bothering to buy and learn the computer. I fooled around with most everything in the area as it came out... the early stuff actually DID make you wait because it was hooked into actual tape decks-- The benefit of recording and replaying all your edits was only worth it for a professional -- the COST was totally unjustifiable for most just so you could combine all your edits into 1 automated process so you wouldn't have to sit and wait.... I never could imagine somebody managing to do a whole edit session without actually doing the edits before continuing... especially when so many devices were not perfectly frame accurate on the edits.
We use computers and mice, maybe a track pad. It is one thing to theme something with fluff and quite another to try to simulate historical metaphors while ignoring known methods of user input and popular conventions.
Making something look like a book is a nice touch that is a matter of opinion but making you do the motions of the real world to interact with a computer program using a mouse... that is just idiotic and should be a cause for concern.
Skeuomorphism is great if you are making something tor a target demo that understands some real world item well and would instantly "get it" while you could slowly migrate them to something better suited to the newer technology that is replacing it.
You might want to use VHS tape or film reels as metaphors when introducing video editing in the 90s... But as soon as people can adapt, those metaphors can be chucked for more modern or abstract ones; as Apple and others have done with digital video editing. Some terms like film and reels still remain despite this generation never using or even seeing actual film.
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I contributed a few times and both times an editor jerked me around so I've not bothered since and I was an expert in the topic I was contributing to.
Anybody following that fanatic knows better than to trust him as a source without double checking (which one should do with any politician, especially those who are also lawyers.) It's illogical to claim it's can't be a crazy conspiracy theory simply because the "crisis" was horrific to somebody.
Embassy attacks and deaths happen; it's just the way things have been for decades, nothing new. Bush had dozens of them, Clinton had some big high profile ones, Reagan, Carter, etc. They don't usually kill higher-level officials in these attacks so that makes it a little different but it really don't matter a whole lot; those officials are no more important than the underlings we never remember... and we'd not remember this one if it wasn't exploited for political grandstanding (especially during a big campaign season.) More security may not have made a difference... in which case, we'd be in the same situation we are in today; people covering their asses with others demanding perfection and "accountability."
All congress does these days is grandstanding which is why their approval is so high... that is, higher than Castro but lower than Cancer in approval.
Don't forget how Hitler split up his nuclear bomb team and isolated them from each other divided resources to foster "competition" in an effort to apply business think to science; as if everything works like the "free market."
There is no free market - it's so far from it that to use the term is bordering on being silly. I'm not complaining about 1-2% keeping it from a perfect 100% as you seem to think I am; illustrating the FAITH and ignorance of your perspective. It's far more like 50% making it unreasonable to classify as such.
Hell, the closest you have to an actually free market is the black market - which lacks any regulation or limitations other than having to stay underground - but then by definition it's created by the laws it breaks so within it's own definition it has total freedom.
There has to be somebody from the USA involved... Are they sick of all the stupid headlines never talking about Canadian idiots?
Perhaps this is more clever - a way to ban everything normal and then SELECTIVELY apply the rules - copying what is done with US law.
Well, maybe English could use less words (it has the record) and less phrases as well... But I see the term as a more detailed subset under the general term "graft."
Graft tends to make one think of a range of things and at least for me, it makes me think of a range of things which includes today's problems. Usually, I'm not in favor of a new term being created for no good reason-- but corruption is a major theme in human existence and there are many types of graft. If something unimportant such as the color blue gets dozens of names to go with every shade, graft should have at least as many terms.
Some kinds of graft are not as important or may be less important than other kinds-- same with corruption. I don't care if an official abuses their power so they can cheat of their wife- it's a fringe benefit of having power I won't begrudge them a normal outlet for their flaws; nearly all people seeking power do it so they can exercise that power (for good or ill.) We'll say they are corrupt-- well, yes-- but so what, that kind of corruption doesn't matter. No, it doesn't mean we can't trust them to do their job honestly - it is a false analogy to do so. We lack the proper terminology so everything gets lumped into 1 term that covers true EVIL to private mistakes. This becomes part of the argument Orwell makes in 1984 about the use of language to control the peoples' thinking (actually made stronger in his supplement on newspeak)
Guy Fawkes was a heroic revolutionary who failed big time (but also potentially could have succeeded big time.) The oppressive government that he and his co-conspirators opposed was in need of blowing up. Had he acted centuries later... when the government was much "nicer" the Americans and/or French would be celebrating his attempt. The enemy of my enemy is my friend... until the enemy is defeated.
As for fascist, that doesn't mean anything as a term anymore. The real Fascist was Mussolini, who predated Hitlers "Fascism." Mussolini founded the National Fascist Party in the 1920s! He defined it to be a lot like the pro-business mentality that dominates our governments of today. In fact, the British government of the 1500s? was not far from Fascism when you think about it. My understanding of the 5th of November revolutionaries was that they were fighting for religious freedom / influence as part of that long history of Christians killing each other over fictional details.
Guy Fawkes has been a metaphor in one way or another for a long long time. The exact details don't matter; it still was a principled attack against the establishment - that any peoples feeling oppressed can identify with. Oppression doesn't need to applied to be felt; iit is a feeling not a position. You don't have to be jailed to live in fear of being jailed or discriminated against in some other way. A truly free individual who can think on their own is likely to feel the subtle and powerful oppression the majority is ignorant and of their participation.
like NASA WAS. see that word WAS. then you ramble off into the shuttle program decades later. some components were naturally bought.. they didn't mine the ore for all the metals in the Apollo program either...
Protecting buggy-whip makers makes you weak... but that thinking can't extend forever, at some point protecting HUMANS makes you weak and that time is coming into view... it's no longer fantasy science fiction.
You have no free market capitalism; never did. Just as communism was never actually implemented, nether has free market capitalism. All implementations have been far from the ideals and their success is not ever entirely due to their ideology as the FAITHFUL proclaim.
Go get educated so you can constructively discuss issues instead of embarrassing yourself.
Distributed systems have a downside just as powerful that works against them: Divide and Conquer.
The real issue is separation of powerful influences. Too much narrow thinking prevents people from thinking outside government.
Private political power is the #1 problem today. The founders did nothing to separate private powers, except they didn't have corporations (in name only, they were nothing like they are today - and certainly corporations were NOT people.)
Your small components of government might be more tangible and more connected to citizens; but they are much much weaker! My city got Walmart unwillingly; almost nobody wants them here. How? They spent 10 years harassing and trying to buy influence, ultimately resulting in a lawsuit attack in which the city quickly retreated (terrorism by broken legal system - terrorism is not limited to physical violence.) They probably even stacked the judges in their favor over the last decade... since ours run for office and each time 1 would have way more advertizing than in the past (nobody knew anything about the judges before, now you know 1 person's name for sure.) Local newspaper? Almost non-existent and done by part timers, rarely controversial or deep - and if it were... somehow... they'd be as toothless as our city is when going up against powerful national forces. Even wealthy locals push them around.
They are not quite the same thing. Generally, they are the same thing but I choose to thing of the newer term "regulatory capture" as distinct; a reflection of our modern times.
Today's "graft" is far more systematic and organized, the players a many times more powerful. The fall into despotism combined with modern psychology allowing for more than was possible a century ago. So for me, I see "graft" vs "Regulatory Capture" as the difference between "gang crime" and "union of criminal enterprises."
Graft can be some small group buying off politicians for their selfish little conspiracies but when you have industries of competing crooks working together to get rid of the law -- not completely, but smartly keeping it around for appearances.
Regulatory capture is an old problem that continues to spread but has been around for decades - the direct proof of the corruption has been lacking due to the pathetic press which itself has been captured in a similar way so it can't serve it's regulatory role either.
THEY DO HIDE IT, the direct obvious unavoidable proof is not allowed out in the open and they will wage a political war against anybody who LEAKS such evidence (despite informed and reasonable people knowing all of it beforehand they didn't have the level of proof for the masses that leaks provide.)
No, not the laser weapon program (which will just have the usual amount of fraud) but the DEFENSIVE RESPONSE. Cloud machines will get some serious research as well as water misting, reflective dust or "nano particle mirrors" from filling the air to special paint.
These lasers can't fire long sustained blasts, you just have to dissipate the heat for that short period of time. Visible light lasers are going to be significantly impacted by the AIR and distance to target as well as the humidity.
Not to mention the Geneva treaties which banned blinding weapons along with chemical warfare. Your legit laser weapon shot over a long distance is going to diffuse so that tank at 10 miles away is now the side of city block with blind children. Still preferable to generations of horrific birth defects the nuclear waste (depleted uranium) causes today... Amazing that nuclear waste is allowed as a weapon just because it's not literally a chemical weapon.... If I throw this acid at you really hard... it's a kinetic weapon not a chemical one! ;-p
The problem is not technical, it is political. Have you ever done IT? Some of the biggest problems are political there as well.
We just had government shutdown and a terrorist threat to wreak the global economy if this wasn't stopped. If that doesn't convince you how many politically connected powerful people are highly motivated you are just not worth the bandwidth.
Aside from that, the project was heavily outsourced which has a lot of political problems involved as well. If it was entirely in-house like NASA was, it would have been done properly and for less money and would be cheaper to maintain. Just like all the other outsourced potential money pits, there is going to be a rush of vile corporations trying to bribe contracts for them to maintain and update it for as long as the law is active. Every 10 years they'll revise/upgrade the website for a huge amount of money and their screw ups will cost even more money in "support" until they lose the contract... re-incorporate and get the contract back again... or bribe another contract elsewhere while waiting to return again after the next crook is done.
The federal government didn't make a website-- they outsourced the whole thing! Nobody is talking about that!
Government contractors usually cost too much and deliver too little; rarely do they have any real accountability. At least government workers have no incentive to screw things up so bad that politicians (usually a big source of the problem) go around looking to shift blame and sacrifice people and departments in idiotic ways to keep up appearances but not actually repair any real problems; if it existed in the 1st place.
It doesn't matter if the government workers are brilliant or lazy, they don't have an incentive to screw up in ways that have REAL repercussions. Contractors HAVE incentives to screw up and even in criminal ways - they don't get hurt and quite often they come back and get contracts shortly after being caught defrauding the government... or just go find work elsewhere while they grease the wheels of government.
Result: Contractors only add opportunity for more government corruption. Short term savings/benefits are almost always offset later even if you ignore the cost of undermining democracy. Political oversight is focused on the short term as is the corporation. Public workers are usually thinking in the long term, at minimum for their own interests. Plus they are not managed by people looking to squeeze every penny out for themselves before they jump ship in their golden parachute. If a government manager gets too much money they risk prison... and we always have upcoming political wannabes looking to sacrifice them for political gain -- to the point scandals are manufactured for grandstanding... and for future contractors looking to steal tax payer money.
Case point: USPS has been attacked and undermined for years. The inventor of mail service: the UK has privatized the royal mail after years of successful attack. Just watch how much it'll cost their people and under perform... but unlike the royal mail service, they'll budget a good dose of marketing so people feel good about eating more and more shit.
The French seem to not be brainwashed by the propaganda machine enough to harm themselves as pro-WTO trade undermines careers in the global race to the bottom.
When the robots and software start to do significant damage worldwide to jobs (it's only just beginning and some are taking notice) the French will likely be the last holdout.
"Protectionism" is not viewed as bad everywhere; at least the marketing hasn't succeeded everywhere just yet.
I don't think those others are a big problem. Deer perhaps, but I'd think the robot would handle that better overall. Icy conditions probably not bad either, my car already adjusts itself when it is freezing (it does mess up sometimes when it's warmer at the sensor than colder wind swept areas or where the ice hasn't melted but it is a 10 year old car. Given the number of people slipping around during season changes here I'm not convinced people are good at learning to adapt.)
All robot situations will work great but mixing in humans is just asking for trouble; nobody is so ingenious at finding problems than a foolish human.
I can detect the context of avoiding people on their cell phones and adapt or avoid a mother driving a bunch of kids; these robots can't. That is my "near collision state" to avoid. Now in avoiding these risky situations one could be placed into a worse situation - such as NOT speeding when everybody else is speeding and recklessly passing you - every lane change around you increases the risk.
I wonder what happens when in bad road conditions the google maps indicates to drive off a cliff... Some humans have had troubles in those situations.
Google: Our robot cars have better lawyers than your lawyers.
Snowden had a motive which wasn't filtered out in the hiring process because privatization has taken over and THAT is why this was so easily done. In the older days, somebody would have to work at the job for years to gain trust, be desensitized, get promoted and gradually be exposed to objectionable things instead of being horrified and overwhelmed with how bad things are. Moving government jobs to contractors is almost always foolish and expensive in the long term.
Going to military and security contractors is unbelievably idiotic... plus they then go to work for smaller players who could never afford to pay the TRUE COST for the tech, experience, and funding their mega-huge primary customer does at tax payer expense.
Corrupt and extremely idealistic politicians did this; the paranoid had little sway.
"America is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world" -MLK.
That was back during Vietnam, things are much worse today.
A little political backstabbing is normal but that does not mean it is ok. When you accept the secret norm so it can become flagrant, you merely raise the bar on what they can easily do or attempt in secret. At least they take a great deal of effort secretly breaking ideals, morals, and laws - why make it any easier for them?
Many crimes and immoral acts happen every day; just because it's not a new freaky kind of crime doesn't mean we don't need to hear about it. I would like to know if the daily murders are migrating towards my neighborhood. Plus, while murder is OLD the victims and situation changes which each one - therefore it IS news.
Real reporters and editors make the decisions and have the resources to filter the data down to what people need to know - dumping data on them to filter is exactly what you should do. A free press has more RIGHT to cause collateral damage than the military does. Think about it. Don't let government scare you with scare tactics into gutting the press with government "security" censorship. Some people may die and that is the price for freedom! The gov would love to blame TRUTH as much as they can so you hate it as much as they do; simultaneously, they justify all their collateral damage as the price for freedom... WAKE UP
Countries spy but who, when, how, frequency, and acceptability differs. In a functional democracy, the public has a NEED TO KNOW because they are the oversight (whether or not they are inept is another matter.) For practical reasons, some of the information has to be temporarily hidden EXCEPT from the people's representatives who must always be kept in the loop. Problem is, they seem to quickly convert nearly every rep... perhaps it's because they tap all their phones? cough...J. Edgar Hoover.. cough cough
Save is an exception to the general rules. The whole concept of "saving" was and is abstract and foreign to the real world for MOST people. Despite the lack of a save metaphor new users learn it QUICKLY. Once you lose your work a few times, you learn to SAVE.
Doesn't matter what symbol is used or what word. Saving is a computer metaphor and could have been any word. Now "Save As..." that is not an exception - millions still do not understand it but use it as SAVE due to past experience. If you could make a bluetooth rabbits foot that saved every time you rubbed it... somebody should be thinking up fun pranks that utilize the webcam to see if you can get users to make faces or do silly actions to get positive results from the machine!
I remember a couple apps that had rewind buttons in them! I don't remember their names... Obviously they didn't rewind in real time because then there would be zero benefit to bothering to buy and learn the computer. I fooled around with most everything in the area as it came out... the early stuff actually DID make you wait because it was hooked into actual tape decks-- The benefit of recording and replaying all your edits was only worth it for a professional -- the COST was totally unjustifiable for most just so you could combine all your edits into 1 automated process so you wouldn't have to sit and wait.... I never could imagine somebody managing to do a whole edit session without actually doing the edits before continuing... especially when so many devices were not perfectly frame accurate on the edits.
We use computers and mice, maybe a track pad. It is one thing to theme something with fluff and quite another to try to simulate historical metaphors while ignoring known methods of user input and popular conventions.
Making something look like a book is a nice touch that is a matter of opinion but making you do the motions of the real world to interact with a computer program using a mouse... that is just idiotic and should be a cause for concern.
Skeuomorphism is great if you are making something tor a target demo that understands some real world item well and would instantly "get it" while you could slowly migrate them to something better suited to the newer technology that is replacing it.
You might want to use VHS tape or film reels as metaphors when introducing video editing in the 90s... But as soon as people can adapt, those metaphors can be chucked for more modern or abstract ones; as Apple and others have done with digital video editing. Some terms like film and reels still remain despite this generation never using or even seeing actual film.