Failure of the Watchers?

When personal information continues to aggregate at blinding speeds in the hands of our government, sentient people ask, what is privacy and why should it be valued? Transparency is the manifesto for those on the cluetrain, and many are espousing that privacy is only for criminals. Truly valuable men and women have nothing to hide and therefore freely give away privacy to anyone?

This is fine if you trust the content holders. Google with it's massive usership continues to uphold high whuffie ratings and is considered "trusted" at this point. Microsoft is not. Apple is for now.

This news item about corruption and mismanagement of information technology reminds me of the intrinsic weakness of government systems: all are weak.

"..the District may be unable to reliably answer the most important security questions: which servers were found, how many laptops were connected to them, what was the chain of custody and who had access to them."

Healthy information boundaries should be well thought out, tested, implemented, and reconfigured in today's citizen governemnt democracies.

FBI Criminal Fingerprint Database Merges with Biometric Public Database?

"This had started out being a program to track or identify criminals," he said. "Now we're talking about large swaths of the population -- workers, volunteers in youth programs. Eventually, it's going to be everybody."

Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Technology and Liberty Project

Obviously updating our technology is an imperative. However the power of that new technology questions: are lawful citizens safe, afforded their rights, and have reasonable privacy? Who pays when "mistakes are made"?

Who watches the watchers?

Also, what type of unfair advantages or imbalance of power would be created if democratic nations where far more sensitive to individual rights resulting in more privacy for citizens and extreme aggregation of information in their repressive government counter parts?

iRobot Soldiers Inlist in the US Army

Major contract signals shift from experimental deployment to new use of force. What happens when they become self aware? Deathbots are great when the enemy doesn't have them.

North Korea Needs Segways?

via thedaytheytriedtokillme

banksy

Personal information of 25 million people lost

Guilty of not regularly backing up your files? HMRC doesn't back up it files either apparently.

Living breathing humans known as individual citizens:0 Ministry of Information: -2. Orwellian debacle: Priceless. For everything else there's Socialism.

"They simply can not be trusted with people's personal information,"


In other news I noticed that according to the websitevaluecalculator.com Whuffie blog is worth $71,518,847. How does one cash in on that value?

I am thinking on moving this blog to wordpress.

Quote: Federal Witness Intimidation at Port Authority

"I felt like a character in a Philip K. Dick novel who wakes up and has had his identity completely replaced with a hardened criminal’s and everyone knows but himself."

from post about an encounter while waiting for the subway at I am Not Lying blog

The Halocaust

Dystopian mocumentary about the future of gaming.

via TooMuchNick

Huge Japanese Indoor Ocean

Follow this link to view more images to vacation getaway "Ocean Dome" featuring retractable roof and erupting volcano.

Reminds me of Westworld or Futureworld. I wonder if they have robotic sharks?






Speaking of virtual worlds go on and gander at this indoor ski resort in United Arab Emerites' "Dubai".

Spy Drones: Coming to a Neighborhood Near You!

Good Social Networks Amplify Individuality

The power of the social network is in the individual.

Example: a network of vampires benefits the un-dead and threatens the blood supply of the living by creating conformity. But a one of those vampires having mad tap dance skills, now that's something.

Tick Tock it's the Spy Clock

ACLU "surveillance" clock at 11:54pm when it hits midnight we are in the era of Orwellian 1984 a police state where there is no privacy.

the article sites the Bush Administration's post 911 legislation and "mega-corporations that are willing to become extensions of the surveillance state" as major contributors.

What I don't see is what has to be done to protect privacy. What can be done to turn the clock back?

The Day the Whuffie Started

TrustPlus went live today. Just as Cory Doctorow predicted in Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom. While I think there are those who cheer, and those jeer, I think I might be those who fear. Reps on the net right now are built and established independently with little interference. Remember that whuffie in DOIM was not exactly a good thing. In the book the reader is placed in a dystopian reality by the coldness of digital technology combined with sociopathic behavior and biomodification.

I might immediately note that there appears to be no middle ground or ambivalence in their 6 icon rating system. It looks like you are a small, medium, large minus or a large, medium, small plus. Thats a little draconian. I also note the video (below) uses manipulation by subtly suggesting we should be afraid of trusting the wrong folks.

This is like crack for control freaks. You know the type. The ones who insure their insurance.

Those on the good side of it will think it is great. The question I want to know is how does one get on the bad side?

via nu via mashable

Signs of a Police State?

Elian Gonzolez, Ruby Ridge, Waco alerted many to power issues with our boys in blue. (more like the guys at the top blamed the boys doing the work. But I digress.) Most officers are civilians just like you and I and attempt to treat people as equals. There is always a few bad apples who interpret the laws in a twisted way.

This blogger is thankful for the thin blue line, who does a dirty unpopular, and sometimes thankless job in creating civil order. I enjoy the peace. Thanks guys for the hard work, you are appreciated by me.

However, this story about a women arrested for oversalting a burger raises a few questions. Maybe the officer felt that he was being targeted?

UPDATE:
BoingX2 posts about Pheonix SWAT team home invasion that burns house down.

Avoid Thought Crimes

"Move along, nothing to see here."
Mind control police tape.
via designcrack

Cool site if u r from romania

BETTER FASTER LOUDER

Distopian Romanian web site 2020:

choice quotes:

"..Have you learned nothing from Running Man or Total Recall?"

"2020 will make it easier for you to accept cloning, gene-sequencing techniques, food health-scares and space-tourism."

"It offers you the pre-crime departments of tomorrow."

They even claim to have a manifesto although I cannot find it.

Comfortable Housing Program

China is relocating 250,000 Tibetans to "socialist villages".