It is amusing that this story follows directly after a story about Microsoft proprietary file formats.
The Library of Congress should insist that all 'publications' be submitted to it in open formats. What good is it if they have something on file that nobody can read!
Why even have it on any digital media. I want the original records. Screw having computerized copies. This is the nations library, where a copy of everything in its' original form must be.
I have no problem with the card catalogue system. Some things should not change. If someone wants to open the "Digital Library of Congress" then go for it. But leave the original as-is. I can only imagine someone wanting to digitize the Great Library in Alexandria back 2000 years ago that resulted in the great fire. HA! We screw ourselves again.
I must admit, I never watched the show, but I feel sad if it is leaving the air. Enterprise had so much potential, and I was very excited when it first came on the air. But it sucked, and sucked quick. I thought the guy from Quantum Leap would make a great actor for Captin of the Enterprise, but there was no chemistry with the cast. The shows had no excitement. And there was no science.
I hope the next star trek is a good one, set a few years in the future of TNG, so we can still have cameo's. Maybe enough in the future so we get some Voyager cast members.
* Copyright infringement, for profit (illegal reselling of a copyrighted work for which you have no rights).
* Copyright infringement without profit (illegal redistribution, for free).
Would you agree that the second is of a lesser degree. And that it is closer to "free advertisement" (as in: "look, I like this movie/music, I think it's cool, don't you share my view?").
I would go one step further than saying the second is the lesser crime. I would say the second is no crime at all. IF we as a people want to have a free excange of idea's, then we can not tax those ideas. It is like if a library set up a new office of "copywrite protection", so that whenever you wanted to quote a book in a research paper you had to pay a royalty. It is the same stupidity we see with patents being granted for everything from ALL your gene sequences (so no other company can make genetic medicine except the one who owns the patent), to patents like MS wanting to own the internet IP protocol. This hurts society. It encorages greed at public expense. Do we want the day to come, when after a heart attack we are rushed to the hospital and the doctor stands ready to save your life and asks you "did you pay your copywrite fee to Procter and Gamble before we administer the medication". It is no different people, it is one person who says "I own this idea, AND NOBODY ELSE CAN USE IT".
I say, whoever owns the copywrited material is the only peroson with the right to sell it. But if I want to give away copies for free, that is my buisness. It is necessary for a free democoracy. We the PEOPLE need to reconsider these stupid copywrite laws, and realize the ones on the books were written by legislators paid by lobbyists who were paid by the music industry and pharmasutical companies.
So, what will the future be like in 10 years? Will we be an open society, or will we continue to close? Did VCR ownership destroy the profits entertainment companies had in the 80's and 90's? How fast did microsoft grow in the 80's and 90's when all a person had to do to copy a disk was use the "copy" command? These companies grew faster than they will in the future. All they can accomplish by closing society is to kill interest in their product, to turn something which was fun into something frustrating.
Dude, that is all large gluttonous corporations. Their leaders suffer from avarice. The problem is, at some point, it is no longer about a company providing people with a service, it is about one man, or a small group, that gets very greedy. It is what happened to Enron, Arthur Anderson Consulting, World Com, and what is happening in boardrooms all across the USA. It is where competition stops producing new products, or lowering price, but where corporations get so big they use every resource they have to kill the competition.
BTW, didn't the courts order MS to be broken into 2 divisions, the OS division and the applications division? I thought that was going to be the solution.
This is why some things should remain in the public domain. It is like Joe's Brick and Morter company trying to patent roads, what MS is doing.
There are some things that only the public, aka government can do, that we can't trust private companies with.
I bet if government ran the phone companies and telecom, we could get service for pennies on the dollar. How much cost does it take to lay down the infrastructure? How much does it take to pay executives rediculous bonuses? Lets cut out the greed. And at the same time there will be public review.
Re:Ha! You call that a solar death ray?
on
The Solar Death Ray
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· Score: 3, Funny
I also used my HP48SX calculator (running a terminal emulator) to command the telescope to slew. Because of this, I claim the CSO as world's the largest and most expensive peripheral for a pocket calculator.
You are such a nerd. We will have to make you king of the winter carnival.
10 metres of high-precision parabolic polished aluminium
Why aluminum? Is it the most reflective substance on earth?
we had strict instructions to never let the sun fall on the dish
No matter where you point it, you are pointing it somewhere.
And make sure to not leave it pointing in the direction of the only all-black fraternity house on campus. That could start up those nasty black versus nerd wars again. Instead, point it at the Sigma Chi house, those bastards are always burning down their own house... nobody will suspect anything.
Yeah, it is pretty cool to burn something with mirrors alone, but why not throw in magnification? Or does anyone know anything that has been designed similar using magnification?
Isn't that how they got all that pop corn popping?
Man, I would have been happy with just not having to charge the battery, but to be able to run with no charge at all, that's impressive!!!:-)
How about a battery that charges based off kinetic energy. You move, it charges. Take it to the dance floor and write off the cover charge as a buisness expense... you had to power the pc. Hell yeah. Time to break it down!
How is it different from the old toshiba portege's they used to make, that weighed all of 3 pounds and had massive docking stations so when you got home you could have every perephrial attached?
Seems to me it alot adu about nothing. Marketing is getting really slick. They keep selling people the same things, just with new names. Just like the republicans...
We could stop cancer right off, sure several disabilities in a family bloodline and so much more..
Better place to look is with viruses. They are the perfect vessel to carry DNA to specific cells. They can pass all the millions of cells until they find the exact right mix of sugars and protiens sticking out the cell. Yess, this is where the Johnsons live, the house with the window air conditioner sticking out of the left window, and the rusty plymoth dodge in the driveway.
TuPac said you have to operate the easy way. I say nuke the inside of a virus known to attack cell "A", where cell "A" is also the type of cell that gets disease "B". Insert DNA "C" into virus "A" and kill disease "B". It is so simple...
TuPac also rapped about the war in the middle east. But that is another story. Time for some changes.;)
For thousands of years many native americans and those living in the rainforests of South America, along with tribes in Africa knew plants cure diseases.
The USA sent scientists to find these plants. These companies then discovered the compounds in the plants that cure disease. The next step for the company was to copywrite the "discovery", so nobody else could use it.
What does this all mean? Don't get sick. And if you do, don't chew on plants or you might get a court order saying you've violated the copywrite holders rights.
People don't really browse the internet with handheld devices (phones, PDAs, etc) actually attempting to REPLACE their computer.
Most people don't care how it works, they just want it to work. If cell phones can get a good LCD and a halfway fast internet connection, a good percentage of the population will want it. And if people can check their email, some news websites, and play a game or two, what else do they really need their big desktop for? Chances are, if a person knows their email mailbox is empty and responded to everything there, they checked a few websites on the phone, and played a game of tetris, they might not have any motivation to turn on the pc at home.
If you want to browse a page that is designed for 1600x1200 resolutions, chances are that the page ISN'T something you need to check right away, and can wait until you get to your computer.
I don't know of one website that needs 1600 by 1200 to display right. Most websites are made to display fine on a 800 by 600 resolution. I think the day is comming when the lcd's will be good enough that a phone will have a 3.5" screen and be 800 by 600.
There is too much money in telecom for the telcom companies not to respond to what the public wants. They are making money hand over fist. If telcom companies started offering an extra "broadband" service for an extra $25 a month, that would be a huge revenue stream. Add in some cable to connect a laptop to a cell phone, and you will have TONS of people paying for that service.
Reuters is running an article on how flashy web design is impacting the usability of internet-enabled mobile devices... Have we moved away from 56K-modem-oriented design, only to be pulled back in that direction
This is why websites should use Java applets. It is more universal, it does not require downloading the flash player or shockwave. And more phones have built in support for Java.
I have always been anti-Flash and anti-PDF because they require jumping through hoops to get it to work. Not only do you have to instal it, often not even getting the exe file but rather having it instal over the net, but then when you go to some website like espn, they blow up the whole page filled with flash and all sorts of crap. Sometimes all I want is the news, not big ADVERTISING in flash that I can't control or get rid of. So what I do is, I just don't use those websites anymore. And I keep flash off my computer.
Java is the anwser. Applets can do everything Flash can do, and better. Plus, applets give the end user some control to disable them, to not play them.
But I still fail to see why an ISP should face the financial and technical burden of protecting your children.
And I fail to see why the government should go after firestone tires because they blow up and cause cars to roll over. Why should the burden of producing safe tires fall to Firestone?
The point is, just like alcohol or tobacco, or anything that is restricted from minors, the companies that produce the content must pay to protect people from it. You saw it with tobacco advertising to minors. You see it with beer laws, producing all the "WE ID" advertising. It will be no different with porn.
Right now, internet porn is like those cigarette vending machines that are stuck in public. It says "Over 18 ONLY", but anyone can use it. And some kids do use it to buy cigarettes. So some states passed laws prohibiting cigarette vending machines.
Society has a RESPONSIBILITY to protect children. I think passing laws which help parents is a positive first step.
5 mod points says that this list wont be accessible to the public, so the average person wont be able to critique the selctions, and that the ISPs will have to pay for the list for the privilege to comply with the law.
There is something called the Freedom of Information Act. Anyone who wants to will be able to see the law, and the banned websites.
I think the real problem will be with keeping up with websites. Porn grows exponentially. It is like having rabbits. You start with 2, in 6 months you have 400, in 2 years you have 5,000,000.
Uh yeah. Like they were forced to see pr0n before?
You have never seen a pop-up window? You click to close one, and 100 others open up? Porn sites love using pop-ups.
Yeah... I know the problem. I always feel the urge to click on Fark's boobies links too.
Try mistyping the link to legitimate websites. Try going to whitehouse, but not the gov domain. Try doing a search on google looking for links to websites about breast disease. You will get porn everywhere. It is so bad, I don't even do a search on google anymore without restricting results to site:edu or site:org.
However, when people rely on the state to "protect" them instead of taking their own responsibilities, I find it stupid
Not everyone is computer literate. Not everyone wants to be computer literate. Some people just want to use the internet as a tool, to find information or communicate. And this law is about kids, giving parents a way to block obscene content.
The laws prevent teens who have a right to know this kind of information without the consent of their parents
Where do you get the idea that kids have rights to do anything without parent consent? Parents can pull thier kid out of public schools, homeschool them, keep them in the house 24 hours a day, and they would not violate one right of the child.
I don't know where you get your ideas from, but parents have an absolute right to pick what their kids will read, what they will watch on tv, and what websites they can see. If a parent wishes to enroll their kid in a church school, and shut any outside access to information, then until that kid turns 18 s/he has no choice.
I know of people with a 12 year old, and they won't let her use the internet for any reason, and when she watches tv, it has to be pre-approved. She is not allowed to date, and she wears clothing her parents buy her. She is also enrolled in a private school, and the parents review the curriculum, to ensure they approve. If the parents don't approve of something, they either will pull their kid out that day, or withdraw altogether. And the parents are 100% in the right.
No system of law enforcement is EVER perfect. The idea is to make it operate as well as POSSIBLE. And if they have my DNA on file, that's just as likely to mean they can eliminate me as a suspect as it is to mean they declare me one
I don't want to be eliminated as a suspect. I want to be presumed innocent until a court convicts me.
Have you ever thought about the abuses in the system? Can you GAURENTEE there will never be abuses? What if our politicians pass laws making certain websites illegal, and people try and access them in an internet cafe. All the police would have to do is go through the internet cafe with a small vacum cleaner. What if abortion is overturned in the courts. Do we want the police swabbing the DNA off coat hangers? And what if I happen to have a combination of genes that is highly concentrated in prisions populations, and some politician decided that gene is a gene all criminals have. How far could they legislate. What could they do?
The point is I don't trust the police or government. It is the healthiest attitude to have. Force the police and governemt to work within the rules that exsists. Police catch people all the time, DNA won't make us any more safe. But the potential for abuse is too great.
And for those who want a DNA database, what about all the "criminals" in prision, on death row who are adamant about their innocence and are begging for DNA testing, and the prosecutors who refuse their requests saying they had their day in court.
I don't get it. How is the potential for abuse any higher just because the sample is DNA? To me, the benefits of being able to solve a years old case based on DNA samples outweighs the risks of abuse within the system. Lets give the cops the tools they need to put the crooks away.
The police have pleanty of tools to solve crimes. They don't need any more. It comes down to one thing. Either we are a free and open society, or we become a police state. If we make the police so powerful, that the People can no longer fight back if the cause ever comes that they need to, what will we be? Will we be no more able to fight for our own freedom than Iraqi people could fight for theirs under a dictator? The reason we limit the power police have is the same reason we limit the power politicians have. It is to protect against the over ambitious, the Joseph McCarthy's of the world. The easier it is for a group to take control of a society, the more likely they will do so. All the police camera's in larger cities, put in place to fight "the war on terror" do nothing but track citizens, not terrorists. DNA is one more way of keeping tabs on people.
I have one question. How would history be different if DNA technology was avilable in the 1950's, and if all black people were forced to submit DNA. Then government decided to do more than just bug telephones and listen in. The possibilities for abuse are too great.
Usually just being arrested means that you will be fingerprinted and your picture taken.
Isn't this pretty much the same thing?
Here is the difference. If someone steals a database of fingerprints, what can they do with that? But if someone steals a database of DNA, and for example an insurance company gets it, can you gaurentee they won't have different rates just based on the genes you are born with. And what if they discover that gene X, Y, and Z found together cause a 25% increased chance the person with those genes will be a murderer. Do we want a society, where just being born with certain genes is enough to warrent government keeping tabs on that person? I know, I know, if it is for public saftey, it must be okay. Just like major cities are installing 1000's of camera's on streets to keep track of what is going on. And California banned the.50 caliber rifle, which has never been used in a crime that I can think of (although getting a handgun is easier and used in more crimes). It seems to me, that in an attempt to make society more "safe", we are making society more ripe for some dictator to take control. I know, I must be wearing a tin foil hat, because coup's have never happened. I for one completely trust people with power not to get corrupted, ever.
'In California, police will be able in 2008 to take DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony, whether the person is convicted or not, under a law approved by voters in November.
There is something called the 5th amendment, protection against self incrimination.
Here it is, in case people forgot:
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
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Why even have it on any digital media. I want the original records. Screw having computerized copies. This is the nations library, where a copy of everything in its' original form must be.
I have no problem with the card catalogue system. Some things should not change. If someone wants to open the "Digital Library of Congress" then go for it. But leave the original as-is. I can only imagine someone wanting to digitize the Great Library in Alexandria back 2000 years ago that resulted in the great fire. HA! We screw ourselves again.
I must admit, I never watched the show, but I feel sad if it is leaving the air. Enterprise had so much potential, and I was very excited when it first came on the air. But it sucked, and sucked quick. I thought the guy from Quantum Leap would make a great actor for Captin of the Enterprise, but there was no chemistry with the cast. The shows had no excitement. And there was no science.
I hope the next star trek is a good one, set a few years in the future of TNG, so we can still have cameo's. Maybe enough in the future so we get some Voyager cast members.
I would go one step further than saying the second is the lesser crime. I would say the second is no crime at all. IF we as a people want to have a free excange of idea's, then we can not tax those ideas. It is like if a library set up a new office of "copywrite protection", so that whenever you wanted to quote a book in a research paper you had to pay a royalty. It is the same stupidity we see with patents being granted for everything from ALL your gene sequences (so no other company can make genetic medicine except the one who owns the patent), to patents like MS wanting to own the internet IP protocol. This hurts society. It encorages greed at public expense. Do we want the day to come, when after a heart attack we are rushed to the hospital and the doctor stands ready to save your life and asks you "did you pay your copywrite fee to Procter and Gamble before we administer the medication". It is no different people, it is one person who says "I own this idea, AND NOBODY ELSE CAN USE IT".
I say, whoever owns the copywrited material is the only peroson with the right to sell it. But if I want to give away copies for free, that is my buisness. It is necessary for a free democoracy. We the PEOPLE need to reconsider these stupid copywrite laws, and realize the ones on the books were written by legislators paid by lobbyists who were paid by the music industry and pharmasutical companies.
So, what will the future be like in 10 years? Will we be an open society, or will we continue to close? Did VCR ownership destroy the profits entertainment companies had in the 80's and 90's? How fast did microsoft grow in the 80's and 90's when all a person had to do to copy a disk was use the "copy" command? These companies grew faster than they will in the future. All they can accomplish by closing society is to kill interest in their product, to turn something which was fun into something frustrating.
BTW, didn't the courts order MS to be broken into 2 divisions, the OS division and the applications division? I thought that was going to be the solution.
There are some things that only the public, aka government can do, that we can't trust private companies with.
I bet if government ran the phone companies and telecom, we could get service for pennies on the dollar. How much cost does it take to lay down the infrastructure? How much does it take to pay executives rediculous bonuses? Lets cut out the greed. And at the same time there will be public review.
You are such a nerd. We will have to make you king of the winter carnival.
10 metres of high-precision parabolic polished aluminium
Why aluminum? Is it the most reflective substance on earth?
we had strict instructions to never let the sun fall on the dish
No matter where you point it, you are pointing it somewhere.
And make sure to not leave it pointing in the direction of the only all-black fraternity house on campus. That could start up those nasty black versus nerd wars again. Instead, point it at the Sigma Chi house, those bastards are always burning down their own house... nobody will suspect anything.
Isn't that how they got all that pop corn popping?
Just be happy you did not lose your gonads playing with your chemistry set.
This toy kinda reminds me of what I used to do as a kid with a magnifying glass. It was an easy way to set leaves on fire, among other things...
How about a battery that charges based off kinetic energy. You move, it charges. Take it to the dance floor and write off the cover charge as a buisness expense... you had to power the pc. Hell yeah. Time to break it down!
Exactly how fast must the chipmunk spin the exercise wheel for you to be happy?
How is it different from the old toshiba portege's they used to make, that weighed all of 3 pounds and had massive docking stations so when you got home you could have every perephrial attached?
Seems to me it alot adu about nothing. Marketing is getting really slick. They keep selling people the same things, just with new names. Just like the republicans...
Man, my plastic fuck doll is made of the same thing. And I have never gotten 10 hours from her.
Better place to look is with viruses. They are the perfect vessel to carry DNA to specific cells. They can pass all the millions of cells until they find the exact right mix of sugars and protiens sticking out the cell. Yess, this is where the Johnsons live, the house with the window air conditioner sticking out of the left window, and the rusty plymoth dodge in the driveway.
TuPac said you have to operate the easy way. I say nuke the inside of a virus known to attack cell "A", where cell "A" is also the type of cell that gets disease "B". Insert DNA "C" into virus "A" and kill disease "B". It is so simple...
TuPac also rapped about the war in the middle east. But that is another story. Time for some changes. ;)
For thousands of years many native americans and those living in the rainforests of South America, along with tribes in Africa knew plants cure diseases.
The USA sent scientists to find these plants. These companies then discovered the compounds in the plants that cure disease. The next step for the company was to copywrite the "discovery", so nobody else could use it.
What does this all mean? Don't get sick. And if you do, don't chew on plants or you might get a court order saying you've violated the copywrite holders rights.
Most people don't care how it works, they just want it to work. If cell phones can get a good LCD and a halfway fast internet connection, a good percentage of the population will want it. And if people can check their email, some news websites, and play a game or two, what else do they really need their big desktop for? Chances are, if a person knows their email mailbox is empty and responded to everything there, they checked a few websites on the phone, and played a game of tetris, they might not have any motivation to turn on the pc at home.
If you want to browse a page that is designed for 1600x1200 resolutions, chances are that the page ISN'T something you need to check right away, and can wait until you get to your computer.
I don't know of one website that needs 1600 by 1200 to display right. Most websites are made to display fine on a 800 by 600 resolution. I think the day is comming when the lcd's will be good enough that a phone will have a 3.5" screen and be 800 by 600.
There is too much money in telecom for the telcom companies not to respond to what the public wants. They are making money hand over fist. If telcom companies started offering an extra "broadband" service for an extra $25 a month, that would be a huge revenue stream. Add in some cable to connect a laptop to a cell phone, and you will have TONS of people paying for that service.
This is why websites should use Java applets. It is more universal, it does not require downloading the flash player or shockwave. And more phones have built in support for Java.
I have always been anti-Flash and anti-PDF because they require jumping through hoops to get it to work. Not only do you have to instal it, often not even getting the exe file but rather having it instal over the net, but then when you go to some website like espn, they blow up the whole page filled with flash and all sorts of crap. Sometimes all I want is the news, not big ADVERTISING in flash that I can't control or get rid of. So what I do is, I just don't use those websites anymore. And I keep flash off my computer.
Java is the anwser. Applets can do everything Flash can do, and better. Plus, applets give the end user some control to disable them, to not play them.
And I fail to see why the government should go after firestone tires because they blow up and cause cars to roll over. Why should the burden of producing safe tires fall to Firestone?
The point is, just like alcohol or tobacco, or anything that is restricted from minors, the companies that produce the content must pay to protect people from it. You saw it with tobacco advertising to minors. You see it with beer laws, producing all the "WE ID" advertising. It will be no different with porn.
Right now, internet porn is like those cigarette vending machines that are stuck in public. It says "Over 18 ONLY", but anyone can use it. And some kids do use it to buy cigarettes. So some states passed laws prohibiting cigarette vending machines.
Society has a RESPONSIBILITY to protect children. I think passing laws which help parents is a positive first step.
There is something called the Freedom of Information Act. Anyone who wants to will be able to see the law, and the banned websites.
I think the real problem will be with keeping up with websites. Porn grows exponentially. It is like having rabbits. You start with 2, in 6 months you have 400, in 2 years you have 5,000,000.
You have never seen a pop-up window? You click to close one, and 100 others open up? Porn sites love using pop-ups.
Yeah... I know the problem. I always feel the urge to click on Fark's boobies links too.
Try mistyping the link to legitimate websites. Try going to whitehouse, but not the gov domain. Try doing a search on google looking for links to websites about breast disease. You will get porn everywhere. It is so bad, I don't even do a search on google anymore without restricting results to site:edu or site:org.
However, when people rely on the state to "protect" them instead of taking their own responsibilities, I find it stupid
Not everyone is computer literate. Not everyone wants to be computer literate. Some people just want to use the internet as a tool, to find information or communicate. And this law is about kids, giving parents a way to block obscene content.
This law is badly needed.
Where do you get the idea that kids have rights to do anything without parent consent? Parents can pull thier kid out of public schools, homeschool them, keep them in the house 24 hours a day, and they would not violate one right of the child.
I don't know where you get your ideas from, but parents have an absolute right to pick what their kids will read, what they will watch on tv, and what websites they can see. If a parent wishes to enroll their kid in a church school, and shut any outside access to information, then until that kid turns 18 s/he has no choice.
I know of people with a 12 year old, and they won't let her use the internet for any reason, and when she watches tv, it has to be pre-approved. She is not allowed to date, and she wears clothing her parents buy her. She is also enrolled in a private school, and the parents review the curriculum, to ensure they approve. If the parents don't approve of something, they either will pull their kid out that day, or withdraw altogether. And the parents are 100% in the right.
I don't want to be eliminated as a suspect. I want to be presumed innocent until a court convicts me.
Have you ever thought about the abuses in the system? Can you GAURENTEE there will never be abuses? What if our politicians pass laws making certain websites illegal, and people try and access them in an internet cafe. All the police would have to do is go through the internet cafe with a small vacum cleaner. What if abortion is overturned in the courts. Do we want the police swabbing the DNA off coat hangers? And what if I happen to have a combination of genes that is highly concentrated in prisions populations, and some politician decided that gene is a gene all criminals have. How far could they legislate. What could they do?
The point is I don't trust the police or government. It is the healthiest attitude to have. Force the police and governemt to work within the rules that exsists. Police catch people all the time, DNA won't make us any more safe. But the potential for abuse is too great.
And for those who want a DNA database, what about all the "criminals" in prision, on death row who are adamant about their innocence and are begging for DNA testing, and the prosecutors who refuse their requests saying they had their day in court.
The police have pleanty of tools to solve crimes. They don't need any more. It comes down to one thing. Either we are a free and open society, or we become a police state. If we make the police so powerful, that the People can no longer fight back if the cause ever comes that they need to, what will we be? Will we be no more able to fight for our own freedom than Iraqi people could fight for theirs under a dictator? The reason we limit the power police have is the same reason we limit the power politicians have. It is to protect against the over ambitious, the Joseph McCarthy's of the world. The easier it is for a group to take control of a society, the more likely they will do so. All the police camera's in larger cities, put in place to fight "the war on terror" do nothing but track citizens, not terrorists. DNA is one more way of keeping tabs on people.
I have one question. How would history be different if DNA technology was avilable in the 1950's, and if all black people were forced to submit DNA. Then government decided to do more than just bug telephones and listen in. The possibilities for abuse are too great.
Here is the difference. If someone steals a database of fingerprints, what can they do with that? But if someone steals a database of DNA, and for example an insurance company gets it, can you gaurentee they won't have different rates just based on the genes you are born with. And what if they discover that gene X, Y, and Z found together cause a 25% increased chance the person with those genes will be a murderer. Do we want a society, where just being born with certain genes is enough to warrent government keeping tabs on that person? I know, I know, if it is for public saftey, it must be okay. Just like major cities are installing 1000's of camera's on streets to keep track of what is going on. And California banned the .50 caliber rifle, which has never been used in a crime that I can think of (although getting a handgun is easier and used in more crimes). It seems to me, that in an attempt to make society more "safe", we are making society more ripe for some dictator to take control. I know, I must be wearing a tin foil hat, because coup's have never happened. I for one completely trust people with power not to get corrupted, ever.
There is something called the 5th amendment, protection against self incrimination.
Here it is, in case people forgot: