This freaks you out? We're talking about *China*. You know, Tiananmen Square China. It is utterly unsurprising that they're using technology to extend their oppressive totalitarian state that much further.
And what's to stop the technology from being implemented in the United States? Nothing I can see. And yeah, I can see them implementing this in the US. Just a matter of time.
t really doesn't matter to me. As long as the state is fair I have nothing to worry about. When a brutal state arises, taking away one of the few liberties I had, wouldn't make a difference anyway. I have said this more than often: If you don't trust the state now, there are far bigger problems than cameras watching you.
I don't trust the State. Never have, never will. Technology like this has SO many abuse potentials designed right into the system. It's not a question of if it'll be abused, it's a question of when.
I forget who originally said it, but Robert A Heinlein quoted them saying "In a mature society, 'civil servant' is semantically equivilent to 'civil master'."
Keeping track of 'minor purchases'?? Whose business is it that I buy a pack of cigarettes or some condoms or whatever? Why is the government so interested in this petty stuff unless it intends to use this info against me someday? Why does the government have cause to know who I hang with, who I sleep with?
How long until cards like this are used to replace hard currency in order to 'fine tune' the economy and strip the last vestiges of privacy? How long until having legal tender in your possession is considered a crime because 'only terrorists have untracable cash'?
I'm more curious about that SCO / Microsoft deal. Didn't Microsoft buy some of those Unix licenses from SCO or something like that?
I seem to recall they did. What use those licenses are now, though, is anyone's guess. Possible evidence in a fraud lawsuit, ending up in Microsoft swallowing what's left of SCO?
Course, isn't much left of SCO now except Darl's pr0n collection and a bunch of invoices for legal fees...
nother problem is how people blow this out of scale and then react to non believers. They almost go to the point of stating that they should be able to talk to terrorist in the phone without fear of being listened in on by the government. Then when someone disagrees, they get criticized because for not bashing bush enough. It appears that the opposition to the program are just a repeat of the attacks on clinton in the 90's where the other side is crying and grasping for everything they can. They end up with the impression that it is a witch hunt. I side with them on that and do get the same impressions. I also don't see a problem with listening to Americans talking to terrorist in the phone when they killed 3000+ people with one organized plot. It may be giving up a right, but I'm not sure that plotting a terrorist attack free from government attempts to find out about it is a right we should hold dear.
I don't have a problem with a wiretap put on a suspected terrorist. But let's be legal about it and get a goddamned warrant for it FIRST, ok? Let's get away from this feeling that 'the end justifies the means' and that anybody who disagrees with the government is 'an enemy of the state'. And let's stop packing people off to Gitmo as 'enemy combatants' in flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention, and while we're at it, let's also stop packing people overseas to be tortured too.
I realize most of the/. readers are far, if not radical left, wingers, but when Hillary is in the White House, I expect not to see word one going against her. You know it, I know it.
Don't count on that. She continutes on with 'business as usual', and there's no indication she wont, you can bet this old-school Republican will speak out as much against her as I have against the NeoCons.
But let me give you my opinion as a current Federal Employee. I operate under a ton of US Code which have some rather harsh legal aspects to it if I violate them. Sad fact the matter of the day, I am accountable for my actions, be it admin or criminal violations. If this clown violated a ton of US Code, it's Club Fed time. Justice is in deed blind, and regardless of your dripping venom for Bush, people who violate US Code for their personal agenda (gee isn't that what you want Bush impeached for?) need to face the music for their endangerment of gaing intelligence against a sworn enemy of the US.
And there you hit the target. 'Justice' is not blind. It doesn't even need glasses anymore. Any person percieved as the 'enemy' of the Regime is targetted, while the criminals inside the Regime are free to carry on. Somehow, I really don't expect things to be that much different under Hillary, with the exception of more social programs jammed down our throats and paid for at tax payer expense. For instance, let me give you an example. Here in Arizona, we recently got taxed an extra buck a pack on cigarettes with the tax to be used for day care for migrant worker's children. Now, I'm all for bettering the lot of anybody in this country, and day care for those kids means they're not in the fields picking lettuce, which is a Good Thing. But they could have funded it in other ways. Why pick on smokers? Same reason Ohio passed a law that made a guy's child support go to offset any welfare payments made to his ex-wife. It keeps the tax burden down for Joe Sixpack, and it gives the government more money to play with by taxing minorities.
Yeah, in this case it should be Endeavour, but not because it is the 'british spelling', but because NASA said so earlier. To that effect, they could have chosen the Klingon spelling as well.
Works better if you can read Shakespeare in the original Klingonaase...
Lets just hope that armed guards don't rip the image from your screen in the middle of viewing it.
Yeah, it's interesting that they wanna classify everything about the Saturn V, but want everybody to see the Shuttle. Almost as though they're trying to say, "Here, look at this nifty piece of engineering. Please steal it and go broke making it work."
Sadly, I think many Americans could not even imagine the police questioning Bush over the Rove affair, or misrepresenting facts to the UN, or any of the many other scandals I find it difficult to keep up with on that side of the pond.
No, the bit about hauling Clinton up in front of the Senate to answer the charges of lying under oath pretty much squashed any president getting hauled up to answer for anything.
If you wish to not be in a situation where money decides power, move to a country with a representative democracy, where the representatives are purely chosen via 1 vote per 1 person, and where lobbying money is not allowed.
And which country would this be? And when will the US invade it for 'harboring/training/aiding/abetting terrorists'?
That "dinky little deathtrap" did something that no NASA craft has even come close to since--and with technology from 40 years ago. But, then again, it was designed by real engineers, not the NASA "just treading water until retirement" ass-clowns of today.
Oh, I agree. But that doesn't make the Apollo CM any less dangerous. Yes, it's 40+ year old technology. Think about that for a minute. This was before iPods, before PC's. Compared to the new Orion capsual, the Apollo CM was built with stone knives & bearskins. It did the job. But no way could you ever claim it was safe.
Honestly, I find it hard to believe that these guys doctored their Videos. I could believe photos, but video?
Right. People who can't seem to get their hands on anything more current than a Russian VHS camcorder from 1985, are also doing video edits?
I don't know what I find harder to believe, that these people can't go to a marketplace and pick up a basic consumer mini-dv, or that they have the resources to edit full motion video and yet they produce such really horrible quality output.
Or, grabbing my tinfoil hat, say, certain governments cranking out some propaganda video, 'shopping the hell out of it, and dumping it through cut-outs to the 'enemy' news service so that they play it, to help bolster the certain government's position. Say, justification for a questionable war...
It's getting to the point where the question isn't 'Are you paranoid?' but rather 'Are you paranoid enough?'
This robot could enter a room without having to do that. If it gets blown up - well - it's not as bad as losing a man OR as bad as killing civilians. Furthermore, the operator can operate it calmly because his own life isn't on the line, so the shoot / don't shoot decision is a little easier to make.
If it gets blown up, whether by 'armed insurgents' or just some guy trying to defend his family, the next thing through the door WILL be the grenades followed by a lot of bullets. I really don't see civilian casualties dropping with these devices, and God help the grunts outside, cause they're gonna take fire as well. Do you REALLY expect the neighbors to sit there and 'just watch the light show'? Hell, no, they're going to figure they're next for a visit from the robot...
If this becomes widely deployed it holds the prospect to make urban warfare a lot more humane to the unfortunate civilians that get caught up in the fighting. Like any tool it can undoubtedly be misused, but the fact is that if our guys over there wanted to kill civilians they wouldn't need a little robot to do it for them. If we weren't concerned about civilian casualties we could simply flatten entire cities with artillery like we did in World War 1 and 2. The reason that insurgent tactics work so well is because we're unwilling to do that - as we should be.
The 'unfortunate civilians' are still going to be killed, robots or no robots. And I don't know about you, but I have serious problems with just 'flattening a city' to end all insurgent resistance. Particularly in a 'war' that we shouldn't be fighting in the first place.
No kidding. They've been using UAVs that they can control from pretty much anywhere that actually fire missiles. What makes this different is that it's much more likely to be operating in close proximity to our own troops and known civilians, so there's a greater risk of friendly fire incidents.
I'm just wondering when the contractor is going to start selling these to nutjob law enforcement types like Sheriff Joe Apayo in Arizona. I can just see him using one of these to deliver summonses to people with too many parking tickets and letting the gun go off 'accidently'.
If Abu Ghraib was condoned then why did the people involved get punished for it?
Same reason why Lt Calley was sent to prison for My Lai, and his commanding officer, Captain Medina, was never indicted. The orders came down from MACV, Medina passed them on, and Calley followed them. The fact that the orders were illegal didn't help Calley one bit. Had he not followed them, he would have been court-martialed and discharged dishonorably.
Trust me, the people who really gave the orders are in no danger of prosecution. And on the outside chance they do, they'll be the next generation Ollie North.
But then, if you posted someplace that NeoCons are total whackjobs that need massive amounts of medication to make them sane again, you're likely to get arrested for revealing state secrets...
It's what they came up with that was buildable in the time allotted. Sure, NASA was working on single stage to orbit designs, but they knew SSTO wouldn't be doable until the 90's, and the challange was to get there before 1970. It was a pure case of 'throw enough money at the problem and you'll get results'. And they did. By today's standards, Apollo was a dinky little deathtrap, the men who rode it were no-foolin' heroes.
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And what's to stop the technology from being implemented in the United States? Nothing I can see. And yeah, I can see them implementing this in the US. Just a matter of time.
I don't trust the State. Never have, never will. Technology like this has SO many abuse potentials designed right into the system. It's not a question of if it'll be abused, it's a question of when.
I forget who originally said it, but Robert A Heinlein quoted them saying "In a mature society, 'civil servant' is semantically equivilent to 'civil master'."
Keeping track of 'minor purchases'?? Whose business is it that I buy a pack of cigarettes or some condoms or whatever? Why is the government so interested in this petty stuff unless it intends to use this info against me someday? Why does the government have cause to know who I hang with, who I sleep with?
How long until cards like this are used to replace hard currency in order to 'fine tune' the economy and strip the last vestiges of privacy? How long until having legal tender in your possession is considered a crime because 'only terrorists have untracable cash'?
I seem to recall they did. What use those licenses are now, though, is anyone's guess. Possible evidence in a fraud lawsuit, ending up in Microsoft swallowing what's left of SCO?
Course, isn't much left of SCO now except Darl's pr0n collection and a bunch of invoices for legal fees...
I highly recommend a Roto-Rooter for that. No tellin what kinda shit you'll run into...
Could be, they're using FF masquaraded as IE to use IE-only sites.
I don't have a problem with a wiretap put on a suspected terrorist. But let's be legal about it and get a goddamned warrant for it FIRST, ok? Let's get away from this feeling that 'the end justifies the means' and that anybody who disagrees with the government is 'an enemy of the state'. And let's stop packing people off to Gitmo as 'enemy combatants' in flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention, and while we're at it, let's also stop packing people overseas to be tortured too.
Don't count on that. She continutes on with 'business as usual', and there's no indication she wont, you can bet this old-school Republican will speak out as much against her as I have against the NeoCons.
And there you hit the target. 'Justice' is not blind. It doesn't even need glasses anymore. Any person percieved as the 'enemy' of the Regime is targetted, while the criminals inside the Regime are free to carry on. Somehow, I really don't expect things to be that much different under Hillary, with the exception of more social programs jammed down our throats and paid for at tax payer expense. For instance, let me give you an example. Here in Arizona, we recently got taxed an extra buck a pack on cigarettes with the tax to be used for day care for migrant worker's children. Now, I'm all for bettering the lot of anybody in this country, and day care for those kids means they're not in the fields picking lettuce, which is a Good Thing. But they could have funded it in other ways. Why pick on smokers? Same reason Ohio passed a law that made a guy's child support go to offset any welfare payments made to his ex-wife. It keeps the tax burden down for Joe Sixpack, and it gives the government more money to play with by taxing minorities.
Works better if you can read Shakespeare in the original Klingonaase...
Yeah, it's interesting that they wanna classify everything about the Saturn V, but want everybody to see the Shuttle. Almost as though they're trying to say, "Here, look at this nifty piece of engineering. Please steal it and go broke making it work."
No, the bit about hauling Clinton up in front of the Senate to answer the charges of lying under oath pretty much squashed any president getting hauled up to answer for anything.
And which country would this be? And when will the US invade it for 'harboring/training/aiding/abetting terrorists'?
"to boldy go where no geek has gone before..."
Oh, I agree. But that doesn't make the Apollo CM any less dangerous. Yes, it's 40+ year old technology. Think about that for a minute. This was before iPods, before PC's. Compared to the new Orion capsual, the Apollo CM was built with stone knives & bearskins. It did the job. But no way could you ever claim it was safe.
Yeah, he's really a 14/f cunningly hiding out as a 55/m pedo...
Or, grabbing my tinfoil hat, say, certain governments cranking out some propaganda video, 'shopping the hell out of it, and dumping it through cut-outs to the 'enemy' news service so that they play it, to help bolster the certain government's position. Say, justification for a questionable war...
It's getting to the point where the question isn't 'Are you paranoid?' but rather 'Are you paranoid enough?'
If it gets blown up, whether by 'armed insurgents' or just some guy trying to defend his family, the next thing through the door WILL be the grenades followed by a lot of bullets. I really don't see civilian casualties dropping with these devices, and God help the grunts outside, cause they're gonna take fire as well. Do you REALLY expect the neighbors to sit there and 'just watch the light show'? Hell, no, they're going to figure they're next for a visit from the robot...
The 'unfortunate civilians' are still going to be killed, robots or no robots. And I don't know about you, but I have serious problems with just 'flattening a city' to end all insurgent resistance. Particularly in a 'war' that we shouldn't be fighting in the first place.
I'm just wondering when the contractor is going to start selling these to nutjob law enforcement types like Sheriff Joe Apayo in Arizona. I can just see him using one of these to deliver summonses to people with too many parking tickets and letting the gun go off 'accidently'.
Free machine gun for somebody in the neighborhood, as well as some parts for the lawnmower...
Probably just making sure of a good supply of slave labor for companies who do business inside of prisons. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/may2000/pris-m08 .shtml
for starters...
Same reason why Lt Calley was sent to prison for My Lai, and his commanding officer, Captain Medina, was never indicted. The orders came down from MACV, Medina passed them on, and Calley followed them. The fact that the orders were illegal didn't help Calley one bit. Had he not followed them, he would have been court-martialed and discharged dishonorably.
Trust me, the people who really gave the orders are in no danger of prosecution. And on the outside chance they do, they'll be the next generation Ollie North.
I'll save you a spot in the chow line at Gitmo.
It's what they came up with that was buildable in the time allotted. Sure, NASA was working on single stage to orbit designs, but they knew SSTO wouldn't be doable until the 90's, and the challange was to get there before 1970. It was a pure case of 'throw enough money at the problem and you'll get results'. And they did. By today's standards, Apollo was a dinky little deathtrap, the men who rode it were no-foolin' heroes.