People do not want to do the Worst Case Scenario Evil things you are imagining. If that changes, then that's something to deal with. History is FILLED with people who have all kinds of power to do evil that they never avail themselves of.
I think you need to re-read this statement and turn it around 180 degrees. The vast, vast majority of people in the world, including US Citizens, COULD be terrorists, but they choose not to. The issue is that our government is assuming all of us COULD be guilty, and surveilling us accordingly, against our will -- a response that goes far beyond appropriate. And we still have a Constitution that is supposed to protect us from illegal searches and seizures. If YOU don't like it, repeal the 4th Amendment.
I also suggest you rethink your statement "we have decent people applying the law" with the likes of Eric Holder and John Ashcroft in mind.
You are wrong. Not only did Scalia vote against this, he authored a scathing dissent of the decision -- while Bryer, one of the Court's liberals, voted for it along with the Court's conservative Justices. And it's absolutely beyond question that Martin O'Malley, a diehard liberal who supports issues such as granting in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants and denying law-abiding Marylanders the right to carry concealed firearms (another MD case soon bound for the Supreme Court), has advanced and expanded this database as part of his agenda for over a decade.
...let's not forget that it is deep blue Maryland and Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley, widely considered to be eyeing a run at the Democratic nomination for POTUS in 2016, who took this to the Supreme Court over their own MD Court of Appeals, and who is the one shitting all over the 4th Amendment here. The MD DNA Database has been one of O'Malley's pet projects for years, and he's advocated its expansion and use for this type of thing since he was Mayor of Baltimore.
The real story (and tragedy) is they think that non-pro photographers (writers and amateurs) can do the job.
I don't think they think this. I think they can't justify the cost of creating "real" photos shot by on-staff pro photographers (which come with health care, benefits, taxes, etc.) using DSLRs when "crappy" pics shot by non-pros will do 95% of the time. They can always hire pros as contractors for the 5% of the time they actually need "real" shots -- or license the shots they need from some syndicated source.
Fuck you. This has nothing to do with "hording" or "letting go" and everything to do with irrevocable loss of cultural heritage and the knowledge of a society from 2,300 years ago. The world would be a better place if we rid ourselves of the stupidity and arrogance of people like you.
CISPA was co-sponsored by my asshole Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger (Democrat from Maryland's 2nd District). If you think this is a partisan bill please tell me how it passed with a 2/3 majority and almost 50% of the Democrats in the House supporting it.
Enough with the R versus D nonsense already . . . this is direct evidence that both parties fucking hate your privacy.
Please don't let CISPA's other co-sponsor, Democrat Dutch Ruppersberger, off the hook. He is just as responsible for CISPA as Mike Rogers is. Many of us were gerrymandered into Ruppersberger's 2nd District of Maryland last election (thanks Annapolis!) and are terribly ashamed that our new representative is advancing this abortion of a bill for a vote.
So, if I may -- Fuck You Baltimore County, Maryland -- as much as it pains me to say that about the place where I was born and raised, it is well deserved.
Already the first thing people are talking about is what rights will the government deprive them of.
You're damn right we are. Anyone who's been paying attention to what both parties have been doing to civil liberties in this country post-9/11 is rightly pissed, and knows *exactly* what's coming next. If you don't think there will be gross over-reaction and more curtailment of our rights at ALL levels of gov't, you're either retarded or terribly naive. And if we all don't stand up and say that enough is enough, they'll just keep doing what they're doing, and this country as we once knew it WILL end.
You can't bubble wrap the fucking world. Maybe people will begin to realize that.
I was out walking my dog (about 25 minutes northeast of downtown Baltimore, MD) and happened to be facing the right way (north). I saw a large, very bright light green meteor with a yellow tail streak across the sky, moving east. It lasted about four or 5 seconds and didn't make a sound. It was beautiful . . . I've never seen anything like it!
For the National Digital Newspaper Program, I can assure you that *not* submitting TIFFs as part of NDNP-spec output will fail the Library of Congress DVV (Digital Viewer and Validator) checks.;-) And all big institutions expect you to give them uncompressed, high color depth TIFF masters on other types of digitization work -- that's just the way it is. So yeah, while it's written as a recommendation, in practice it's a requirement. And there is a strong argument to be made that currently, for high-quality raster image files, there's nothing better or more compatible.
We do hear about JPEG2000 lossless being discussed as a replacement for uncompressed TIFF as a master file format, but the format isn't mature and keeps changing as different vendors keep introducing their own "superior" engine. So for now, outside of the NDNP world, everyone uses ImageMagick for JPEG2000 derivatives. I've never seen PNG used in the cultural heritage community -- in fact, I've only seen it used as one would expect -- a GIF replacement for web graphics due to its support for transparency (and previously, its patent-free status).
Actually, Maryland is quite affluent and has been relatively less affected by the economic downturn -- due to its proximity to Washington DC. Perhaps it's the latent self-loathing of all of the folks working for the Federal gov't that's being picked up?;-)
(This observation is only partially tongue in cheek and posted by a member of an endangered species, the Maryland Small Business Owner)
Everyone from libraries and archives such as the Library of Congress (hi-resolution uncompressed TIFFs are the designated master file format for the National Digital Newspaper Program and the FADGI Still Image Working Group guidelines for digitizing cultural heritage materials) to document management companies and banks (as bitonal TIFFs are quite tiny compared to bloated garbage like PDF, offer great resolution of everyday office docs and checks, and work with most every imaging software written in the past 20 years). Just because *you* don't use a file format anymore doesn't mean it's useless to others.
Did you watch this video? The two guys who got in were black. I know it's fashionable to hate on whitey and grant him magical unfair advantages at *everything*, but these two dudes just proved that black guys can play that game too.
The main issue is that the prosecutor was an asshole bully and threatened Swartz with 35 years in the big house for downloading publicly-funded scientific articles, and proceeded full speed ahead even after JSTOR asked them to drop it. There was no prosecutorial discretion -- they were threatening to throw the book at him for what was at best a trespassing misdemeanor. Those are the actions of a compassion-less psychopath, and I for one don't think anyone like that deserves to be a Federal prosecutor. We deserve better. So to a certain extent, Swartz's suicide is a completely separate issue.
Why would anyone think that passing a law to make high capacity magazines illegal would ever prevent a dedicated individual intent on shooting people from obtaining one? Millions and millions of them already exist in our country, and now we have an article proving that they can essentially be printed on demand, outside of all channels of registration and government control. The guy in Tucson shot 19 people and killed six of them . . . I'm pretty sure he didn't really care whether or not his mags could only legally hold 7, or 10, or 30, or 100 rounds.
I'm not trying to invalidate your point -- I'm pointing out that gerrymandering is gleefully done by both parties and without apology, not just the side who happens to have the most seats in Congress right now. It is important to note that BOTH parties gerrymander because since they do so, neither has any moral "high ground" to complain about it (and most of the bellyaching I hear about gerrymandering is from Democrats bitching about Texas). Guess what? It is a bipartisan problem. You called the Republicans to task in your example, and rightfully so. As a counter example, Annapolis couldn't get rid of Roscoe Bartlett -- a dissenting viewpoint for years -- and had to resort to gerrymandering (again) to do so -- for the second time. And so, to your point, 87.5% of our Congressman are now Democrats (much higher than the overall percentage of registered Democrats even in MD), and urban DC suburbs are shamefully lumped in with extremely rural Western Maryland. Obviously, because we have a democratic republic versus a true democracy, the actual representation will never exactly match the voter distribution. In politics today, one's "side" only complains when the chips don't fall their way. I can assure you that MD politicians are keeping a very low profile these days regarding gerrymandering, because they're as guilty of it as those in the most red parts of Texas.
Let's not forget that Democrats gerrymander too. Maryland is the Texas of the Mid-Atlantic when it comes to gerrymandering and quashing dissenting viewpoints.
It's just another made-up name to mislead and / or scare the bejeezus out of people. Just like PATRIOT Act (patriot == good, cliff == bad). The world will still be here tomorrow no matter what happens.
Ah, you mean the "terrorists," like the ones Feinstein claims have been caught on US soil? Before that it was the Communists. I'd gladly take on the risk that one of those evil folks might actually, you know, exist, and then actually might be able to do something bad, than allow closed-door, rigged kangaroo courts and further destruction of civil liberties in this country. If you want to wiretap a US Citizen, then get a warrant. Period. Otherwise, go pound sand. I'd rather be truly free and allow for the possible existence of some "enemies" (with a tiny few of those real but the vast majority imagined) than cede my rights in exchange for promised security, but in reality be no more safe.
Transparent, real public court is the only just, acceptable alternative in a truly democratic society. Just because the Executive Branch abuses this judicially-sanctioned power (like it does with so many other powers these days) with or without the oversight of a sham "secret court" does not make it just or acceptable.
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We're past the time to point fingers. We're at a time of action, and divisive posts like this are not helping.
People do not want to do the Worst Case Scenario Evil things you are imagining. If that changes, then that's something to deal with. History is FILLED with people who have all kinds of power to do evil that they never avail themselves of.
I think you need to re-read this statement and turn it around 180 degrees. The vast, vast majority of people in the world, including US Citizens, COULD be terrorists, but they choose not to. The issue is that our government is assuming all of us COULD be guilty, and surveilling us accordingly, against our will -- a response that goes far beyond appropriate. And we still have a Constitution that is supposed to protect us from illegal searches and seizures. If YOU don't like it, repeal the 4th Amendment.
I also suggest you rethink your statement "we have decent people applying the law" with the likes of Eric Holder and John Ashcroft in mind.
You are wrong. Not only did Scalia vote against this, he authored a scathing dissent of the decision -- while Bryer, one of the Court's liberals, voted for it along with the Court's conservative Justices. And it's absolutely beyond question that Martin O'Malley, a diehard liberal who supports issues such as granting in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants and denying law-abiding Marylanders the right to carry concealed firearms (another MD case soon bound for the Supreme Court), has advanced and expanded this database as part of his agenda for over a decade.
...let's not forget that it is deep blue Maryland and Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley, widely considered to be eyeing a run at the Democratic nomination for POTUS in 2016, who took this to the Supreme Court over their own MD Court of Appeals, and who is the one shitting all over the 4th Amendment here. The MD DNA Database has been one of O'Malley's pet projects for years, and he's advocated its expansion and use for this type of thing since he was Mayor of Baltimore.
The real story (and tragedy) is they think that non-pro photographers (writers and amateurs) can do the job.
I don't think they think this. I think they can't justify the cost of creating "real" photos shot by on-staff pro photographers (which come with health care, benefits, taxes, etc.) using DSLRs when "crappy" pics shot by non-pros will do 95% of the time. They can always hire pros as contractors for the 5% of the time they actually need "real" shots -- or license the shots they need from some syndicated source.
Fuck you. This has nothing to do with "hording" or "letting go" and everything to do with irrevocable loss of cultural heritage and the knowledge of a society from 2,300 years ago. The world would be a better place if we rid ourselves of the stupidity and arrogance of people like you.
CISPA was co-sponsored by my asshole Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger (Democrat from Maryland's 2nd District). If you think this is a partisan bill please tell me how it passed with a 2/3 majority and almost 50% of the Democrats in the House supporting it.
Enough with the R versus D nonsense already . . . this is direct evidence that both parties fucking hate your privacy.
Please don't let CISPA's other co-sponsor, Democrat Dutch Ruppersberger, off the hook. He is just as responsible for CISPA as Mike Rogers is. Many of us were gerrymandered into Ruppersberger's 2nd District of Maryland last election (thanks Annapolis!) and are terribly ashamed that our new representative is advancing this abortion of a bill for a vote.
So, if I may -- Fuck You Baltimore County, Maryland -- as much as it pains me to say that about the place where I was born and raised, it is well deserved.
. . . now in 1080p with 7.1 surround!
Already the first thing people are talking about is what rights will the government deprive them of.
You're damn right we are. Anyone who's been paying attention to what both parties have been doing to civil liberties in this country post-9/11 is rightly pissed, and knows *exactly* what's coming next. If you don't think there will be gross over-reaction and more curtailment of our rights at ALL levels of gov't, you're either retarded or terribly naive. And if we all don't stand up and say that enough is enough, they'll just keep doing what they're doing, and this country as we once knew it WILL end.
You can't bubble wrap the fucking world. Maybe people will begin to realize that.
I was out walking my dog (about 25 minutes northeast of downtown Baltimore, MD) and happened to be facing the right way (north). I saw a large, very bright light green meteor with a yellow tail streak across the sky, moving east. It lasted about four or 5 seconds and didn't make a sound. It was beautiful . . . I've never seen anything like it!
but as I understand the legal precedent there's no Constitutional restriction against the government doing it especially during a state of war.
Refresh my memory . . . exactly when did the US declare war, and against which country?
For the National Digital Newspaper Program, I can assure you that *not* submitting TIFFs as part of NDNP-spec output will fail the Library of Congress DVV (Digital Viewer and Validator) checks. ;-) And all big institutions expect you to give them uncompressed, high color depth TIFF masters on other types of digitization work -- that's just the way it is. So yeah, while it's written as a recommendation, in practice it's a requirement. And there is a strong argument to be made that currently, for high-quality raster image files, there's nothing better or more compatible.
We do hear about JPEG2000 lossless being discussed as a replacement for uncompressed TIFF as a master file format, but the format isn't mature and keeps changing as different vendors keep introducing their own "superior" engine. So for now, outside of the NDNP world, everyone uses ImageMagick for JPEG2000 derivatives. I've never seen PNG used in the cultural heritage community -- in fact, I've only seen it used as one would expect -- a GIF replacement for web graphics due to its support for transparency (and previously, its patent-free status).
Actually, Maryland is quite affluent and has been relatively less affected by the economic downturn -- due to its proximity to Washington DC. Perhaps it's the latent self-loathing of all of the folks working for the Federal gov't that's being picked up? ;-)
(This observation is only partially tongue in cheek and posted by a member of an endangered species, the Maryland Small Business Owner)
Who on earth uses Tiff anymore?
Everyone from libraries and archives such as the Library of Congress (hi-resolution uncompressed TIFFs are the designated master file format for the National Digital Newspaper Program and the FADGI Still Image Working Group guidelines for digitizing cultural heritage materials) to document management companies and banks (as bitonal TIFFs are quite tiny compared to bloated garbage like PDF, offer great resolution of everyday office docs and checks, and work with most every imaging software written in the past 20 years). Just because *you* don't use a file format anymore doesn't mean it's useless to others.
5. Be white.
Did you watch this video? The two guys who got in were black. I know it's fashionable to hate on whitey and grant him magical unfair advantages at *everything*, but these two dudes just proved that black guys can play that game too.
Tell that to the Jews. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Germany#The_1938_German_Weapons_Act
The main issue is that the prosecutor was an asshole bully and threatened Swartz with 35 years in the big house for downloading publicly-funded scientific articles, and proceeded full speed ahead even after JSTOR asked them to drop it. There was no prosecutorial discretion -- they were threatening to throw the book at him for what was at best a trespassing misdemeanor. Those are the actions of a compassion-less psychopath, and I for one don't think anyone like that deserves to be a Federal prosecutor. We deserve better. So to a certain extent, Swartz's suicide is a completely separate issue.
Why would anyone think that passing a law to make high capacity magazines illegal would ever prevent a dedicated individual intent on shooting people from obtaining one? Millions and millions of them already exist in our country, and now we have an article proving that they can essentially be printed on demand, outside of all channels of registration and government control. The guy in Tucson shot 19 people and killed six of them . . . I'm pretty sure he didn't really care whether or not his mags could only legally hold 7, or 10, or 30, or 100 rounds.
28 gun deaths per day is a steep price for our society's inability to distinguish between anecdotes and statistics.
Indeed. I wonder how many would there be per day if the War on Drugs was ended?
I'm not trying to invalidate your point -- I'm pointing out that gerrymandering is gleefully done by both parties and without apology, not just the side who happens to have the most seats in Congress right now. It is important to note that BOTH parties gerrymander because since they do so, neither has any moral "high ground" to complain about it (and most of the bellyaching I hear about gerrymandering is from Democrats bitching about Texas). Guess what? It is a bipartisan problem. You called the Republicans to task in your example, and rightfully so. As a counter example, Annapolis couldn't get rid of Roscoe Bartlett -- a dissenting viewpoint for years -- and had to resort to gerrymandering (again) to do so -- for the second time. And so, to your point, 87.5% of our Congressman are now Democrats (much higher than the overall percentage of registered Democrats even in MD), and urban DC suburbs are shamefully lumped in with extremely rural Western Maryland. Obviously, because we have a democratic republic versus a true democracy, the actual representation will never exactly match the voter distribution. In politics today, one's "side" only complains when the chips don't fall their way. I can assure you that MD politicians are keeping a very low profile these days regarding gerrymandering, because they're as guilty of it as those in the most red parts of Texas.
Let's not forget that Democrats gerrymander too. Maryland is the Texas of the Mid-Atlantic when it comes to gerrymandering and quashing dissenting viewpoints.
It's just another made-up name to mislead and / or scare the bejeezus out of people. Just like PATRIOT Act (patriot == good, cliff == bad). The world will still be here tomorrow no matter what happens.
Ah, you mean the "terrorists," like the ones Feinstein claims have been caught on US soil? Before that it was the Communists. I'd gladly take on the risk that one of those evil folks might actually, you know, exist, and then actually might be able to do something bad, than allow closed-door, rigged kangaroo courts and further destruction of civil liberties in this country. If you want to wiretap a US Citizen, then get a warrant. Period. Otherwise, go pound sand. I'd rather be truly free and allow for the possible existence of some "enemies" (with a tiny few of those real but the vast majority imagined) than cede my rights in exchange for promised security, but in reality be no more safe.
Transparent, real public court is the only just, acceptable alternative in a truly democratic society. Just because the Executive Branch abuses this judicially-sanctioned power (like it does with so many other powers these days) with or without the oversight of a sham "secret court" does not make it just or acceptable.