Maybe more people in the US think of CNN first because they're familiar with 'em. I doubt that BBC programming has nearly as high market penetration as does CNN here.
The BBC site has been head-and-shoulders above CNN, or the Big Three US broadcasting networks, in terms of quality reporting (e.g. not obsessing with "Terror and Love" human-interest stories, generally avoiding rumor-mongering, and bothering to go into depth where useful).
You must have not been listening. al-Qaeda's motives are primarily religious (such as desiring the extermination of Jews and their allies), not economic.
Has it occurred to you that most of the rioters in the Mideast have been pissed off at us, and would be regardless until we agree with the concept that Israel should be exterminated?
Incorrect. Probably close to 50% or more of the 5000 were not collateral damage; they were intended targets. FWIW, bin Laden considers any male American, or male Jew, or male citizen of their allies, an enemy and a soldier whether he serve with a gun or with tax dollars, and perfectly desirable targets.
If you can find the cave entrances, collapsing them would seem to be a reasonable thing to do. Starved to death several years later in the dark is still dead. Or, fill the entrances with cluster bomblets...
You could argue that the real enemies
of the United States are the Arab governments in the Middle East who, in lieu of free speech, insist that criticism be aimed at Israel and the US instead of themselves, and the mullahs who engage in the actual brainwashing.
But it does clearly show bin Laden advocating the killing of Americans. There are people who still believe that he had nothing to do with all of this, and who'd rather pin it on the Mossad. Showing bin Laden as a determined trainer of killers might weaken that argument a tad.
It stops him from acting again. And considering how long he's been at it, and how many enemies he has, his planning and logistics skills are probably significantly better than most. He outlasted a LOT of now-defunct, flashier, groups.
It's rare to rob a bank without actually being in the bank, and without the camera later being able to help identify you (if you shoot everybody, well, it's a bit obvious; if you wear a mask, ditto; if you break in while the bank is closed, ditto; if you do none of these, the witnesses can point out your face). I suppose that somebody could try "remote" robbery by, say, kidnapping the relatives of the bank staff, but that happens rarely, if ever (and ransom drops have their own problems, like having to specify location...).
That's much easier than trying to blanket an entire neighborhood with sufficient surveillance gear to identify criminals.
I'd call telephone dispatch systems critical. Merely doing a DOS attack and flooding an exchange might prevent, say, the 911 emergency dispatch system from working.
And it wouldn't happen without their consent -- as long as people played by the current rules of copyright law. Nobody's holding a gun to their head, saying that they can't create an alternate distribution scheme.
Well, that, plus all the responsible programmers should be fired immediately. And, perhaps, have their names publicized in connection with this incident...
Re:Difference between Soviet and US attacks
on
Robots Go To War
·
· Score: 1
I doubt that they'd locate guerillas hiding underground, ready to ambush troops when they arrive to investigate a empty, boobytrapped bunker.
Re:If it keeps people from being killed...
on
Robots Go To War
·
· Score: 1
It's against al Qaeda, whose leader inherited 300 million dollars, and who prefers to spend it on weapons and training instead of luxury. The Taliban has also received significant backing from Pakistan, almost certainly, since they conquered almost all the country within ten years of their formation...
Hellfire missiles appear to be of the laser-guided variety -- IOW, something has to "paint" the target with a targeting laser, until it impacts. Perhaps these armed Predators have targeting lasers themselves, in order to not require assistance such as spec-ops folks in the area.
You can launch Tomahawks from a ship, but it wouldn't surprise me if they're a bit less accurate than following a laser. In addition, that adds significantly to travel time -- meaning that if you're trying to hit, say, a convoy of suspected terrorists in trucks, well... you've got one heck of a problem.
Apparently, the RQ-1 Predator is made by General Atomics. They claim that it can remain airborne for 40 hours at a stretch, and it can carry a payload of 204 kg. The weight of a Hellfire seems to be on the order of 47 kg, give or take a few depending on model.
According to a 1998 article by the FAS, it also includes a satellite link, meaning that it's providing recon up to the point where it is shot down (if and when that happens). Operating range is listed as 926 kilometers, and at 10-25 thousand feet; FWIW, the General Atomics site mentioned work on a newer version that would have a significantly greater endurance.
For those that own Hellfire missiles, the FAS site also includes a handy-dandy user's guide [PDF] of sorts.
Why do you assume that we trust the government to protect our privacy or freedom?
Governments consist of people -- many of them flawed. Pretty much everything from IRS audit powers to eavesdropping capabilities to law-enforcement networks for sharing information to confiscation laws have been abused, are being abused, and will be abused in the future.
One doesn't have to be particularly swift to be a threat -- the first group of guys some years ago, who tried to collapse the WTC with a truck bomb, included some genius who tried to get a refund on the deposit of the rented truck used (after the bombing).
Ah. So are your credit card numbers, expiration dates, and billing addresses public information?
Oh, and we'll be forwarding every message you ever posted or e-mailed to all your prospective employers. That goes double for all your politically related correspondence; wouldn't want to have controversy in the workplace, would we? And your present one just fired you because you were working on your resume.
And to the World Church of the Creator and the wonderful folks at Stormfront, who'd like to know if you've been associating with non-whites, and to the fringes of the Nation of Islam, who'd like to know who opposes the idea of racially separate states.
Those, er, gentleman's magazines you order? Or even those violent R-rated Hollywood thrillers that you feel that your kids are mature enough to watch? Your pastor now knows. So does the village gossip.
Remember that the government is composed of people -- and people are known to be corrupt and petty from time to time.
Would you post all your e-mail on USENET? And if you don't trust random people in the world, why have such blind faith in the lack of abuses from government employees? (Or, an administration -- punitive IRS audits have been alleged from time to time, by people as diverse as Nixon, IIRC, and Paula Jones).
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe more people in the US think of CNN first because they're familiar with 'em. I doubt that BBC programming has nearly as high market penetration as does CNN here.
The BBC site has been head-and-shoulders above CNN, or the Big Three US broadcasting networks, in terms of quality reporting (e.g. not obsessing with "Terror and Love" human-interest stories, generally avoiding rumor-mongering, and bothering to go into depth where useful).
Maybe put a barcode on rice paper, then. *shrug*
You must have not been listening. al-Qaeda's motives are primarily religious (such as desiring the extermination of Jews and their allies), not economic.
Has it occurred to you that most of the rioters in the Mideast have been pissed off at us, and would be regardless until we agree with the concept that Israel should be exterminated?
Incorrect. Probably close to 50% or more of the 5000 were not collateral damage; they were intended targets. FWIW, bin Laden considers any male American, or male Jew, or male citizen of their allies, an enemy and a soldier whether he serve with a gun or with tax dollars, and perfectly desirable targets.
If you can find the cave entrances, collapsing them would seem to be a reasonable thing to do. Starved to death several years later in the dark is still dead. Or, fill the entrances with cluster bomblets...
You could argue that the real enemies of the United States are the Arab governments in the Middle East who, in lieu of free speech, insist that criticism be aimed at Israel and the US instead of themselves, and the mullahs who engage in the actual brainwashing.
But it does clearly show bin Laden advocating the killing of Americans. There are people who still believe that he had nothing to do with all of this, and who'd rather pin it on the Mossad. Showing bin Laden as a determined trainer of killers might weaken that argument a tad.
It stops him from acting again. And considering how long he's been at it, and how many enemies he has, his planning and logistics skills are probably significantly better than most. He outlasted a LOT of now-defunct, flashier, groups.
...right next to the target, a Taliban transmission tower. After the other employees there had left.
It's rare to rob a bank without actually being in the bank, and without the camera later being able to help identify you (if you shoot everybody, well, it's a bit obvious; if you wear a mask, ditto; if you break in while the bank is closed, ditto; if you do none of these, the witnesses can point out your face). I suppose that somebody could try "remote" robbery by, say, kidnapping the relatives of the bank staff, but that happens rarely, if ever (and ransom drops have their own problems, like having to specify location...).
That's much easier than trying to blanket an entire neighborhood with sufficient surveillance gear to identify criminals.
Ouch. Sounds like you'd need a BFG then, at least to deal with the nastier processes...
I'd call telephone dispatch systems critical. Merely doing a DOS attack and flooding an exchange might prevent, say, the 911 emergency dispatch system from working.
And it wouldn't happen without their consent -- as long as people played by the current rules of copyright law. Nobody's holding a gun to their head, saying that they can't create an alternate distribution scheme.
'sides which, the DMCA has explicit exemptions for reverse-engineering for the purposes of compatibility, if memory serves.
Well, that, plus all the responsible programmers should be fired immediately. And, perhaps, have their names publicized in connection with this incident...
I doubt that they'd locate guerillas hiding underground, ready to ambush troops when they arrive to investigate a empty, boobytrapped bunker.
It's against al Qaeda, whose leader inherited 300 million dollars, and who prefers to spend it on weapons and training instead of luxury. The Taliban has also received significant backing from Pakistan, almost certainly, since they conquered almost all the country within ten years of their formation...
Hellfire missiles appear to be of the laser-guided variety -- IOW, something has to "paint" the target with a targeting laser, until it impacts. Perhaps these armed Predators have targeting lasers themselves, in order to not require assistance such as spec-ops folks in the area.
You can launch Tomahawks from a ship, but it wouldn't surprise me if they're a bit less accurate than following a laser. In addition, that adds significantly to travel time -- meaning that if you're trying to hit, say, a convoy of suspected terrorists in trucks, well... you've got one heck of a problem.
In Iraq, for instance,, as well as the Balkans.
Apparently, the RQ-1 Predator is made by General Atomics. They claim that it can remain airborne for 40 hours at a stretch, and it can carry a payload of 204 kg. The weight of a Hellfire seems to be on the order of 47 kg, give or take a few depending on model.
According to a 1998 article by the FAS, it also includes a satellite link, meaning that it's providing recon up to the point where it is shot down (if and when that happens). Operating range is listed as 926 kilometers, and at 10-25 thousand feet; FWIW, the General Atomics site mentioned work on a newer version that would have a significantly greater endurance.
For those that own Hellfire missiles, the FAS site also includes a handy-dandy user's guide [PDF] of sorts.
Only if it's sold are marketed primarily as a circumvention device, which isn't what they're doing.
Of course, if you try to sell your own, and suggest this as a major feature, then you would be violating the law. But Sony isn't, yet.
Why do you assume that we trust the government to protect our privacy or freedom?
Governments consist of people -- many of them flawed. Pretty much everything from IRS audit powers to eavesdropping capabilities to law-enforcement networks for sharing information to confiscation laws have been abused, are being abused, and will be abused in the future.
One doesn't have to be particularly swift to be a threat -- the first group of guys some years ago, who tried to collapse the WTC with a truck bomb, included some genius who tried to get a refund on the deposit of the rented truck used (after the bombing).
Ah. So are your credit card numbers, expiration dates, and billing addresses public information?
Oh, and we'll be forwarding every message you ever posted or e-mailed to all your prospective employers. That goes double for all your politically related correspondence; wouldn't want to have controversy in the workplace, would we? And your present one just fired you because you were working on your resume.
And to the World Church of the Creator and the wonderful folks at Stormfront, who'd like to know if you've been associating with non-whites, and to the fringes of the Nation of Islam, who'd like to know who opposes the idea of racially separate states.
Those, er, gentleman's magazines you order? Or even those violent R-rated Hollywood thrillers that you feel that your kids are mature enough to watch? Your pastor now knows. So does the village gossip.
And so forth...
Remember that the government is composed of people -- and people are known to be corrupt and petty from time to time.
Would you post all your e-mail on USENET? And if you don't trust random people in the world, why have such blind faith in the lack of abuses from government employees? (Or, an administration -- punitive IRS audits have been alleged from time to time, by people as diverse as Nixon, IIRC, and Paula Jones).