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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 3, 2015 10:50:11 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2015 13:15:24 GMT
As disconcerting as this, I am not really shocked by it. (being married to a conspiracy "nut",I guess I've been seasoned for years now).
What does incense me is that with all this technology, why is it not used to apprehend and bring to justice criminals who roam free on our streets, terrorizing residents at an ever increasing rate? We have had an alarmingly high spike in violent crimes here on the local level, many of the crimes having a similar M.O. (multiple armed robberies and sexually violent offenses). I know much of it has to do with having an inept police force (NOPD),but, with all this sophisticated technology available there are only so many excuses that can be made.
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Post by mossie on Nov 3, 2015 14:47:26 GMT
I agree with Casi, the criminals and terrorists are still allowed too much freedom. As are the imams who preach hate and try to influence young minds against us. All these people should be ruthlessly hunted down and neutralised.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2015 15:09:46 GMT
The cleverest tracking device ever invented is the mobile phone with which just about everybody allows their movements to be followed at all times, not to mention having all of their conversations recorded and stored.
What is not clever, however, is that probably about half of the population would be required to efficiently process all of the data collected about the other half of the population. Isn't that what East Germany used to do?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2015 15:32:38 GMT
I think citing "half the population" might be a stretch K2. Given the level of much more sophisticated technology now available, and, the varying levels of oversight and enforcement both from the federal, state and local levels (not to mention the private sectors available for contract),that could be utilized, I think a much more efficicient system could be devised. I'd much rather my tax dollars go toward this rather than the superfluous and ineffective ways in which our tax dollars are being spent.
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Post by mossie on Nov 3, 2015 20:01:07 GMT
Again I must agree with Casi, our newspapers today tell how we have given vast sums to aiding the Syrian refugees through some fancy UN agency etc and nearly half the amount is swallowed up in so called admin. Pathetic, when our 'wonderful' politicians spout about all the money they hand out in so called overseas aid. How much of it is greasing palms, fattening overpaid bureaucrats and slipping into Swiss bank accounts.
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Post by chexbres on Nov 3, 2015 20:16:20 GMT
Every time I read an article about plans to "clean up New Orleans' corrupt police force and politicians", I want to lose my lunch. This will never happen - never in a million years.
The city was founded on graft and corruption - it was the only way to get anyone to move to a place cursed with swamp miasma, disease, cockroaches the size of helicopters, hostile Indians and no hope for a long-term economic future. The wealthy French and Spanish shipped out their ne'er-do-well offspring, shipped in some prostitutes, and apparently bred a long line of people with no moral compass.
It doesn't help to bring in "outside help" in the form of officials who have had great success turning around crime statistics anywhere else. There is something in the water, or the gumbo, or especially in a lot of wallets, that makes good people go bad when they hit New Orleans. Call it The Devil, if you want to - but it's there.
There are lots of people who believe that another Hurricane Katrina would put the city out of its misery once and for all. I have to admit that I'm leaning towards agreeing with them. I'm glad I left years ago, and can't for the life of me figure out why anyone - including my friends and family - insists on staying in New Orleans.
Maybe it would be a good idea for everyone to just up and move.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2015 20:58:44 GMT
I feel as though you have just retold the plot of The Big Easy.
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Post by chexbres on Nov 3, 2015 21:01:51 GMT
I don't know if we saw the same version of that film, kerouac
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2015 21:47:06 GMT
What a tremendously hostile, unsympathetic, distorted, and oh so naiive a response. Actually, while some of your vitriol may be justified, to write off New Orleans in such an angry manner speaks volumes.
I could have posted the same exact sentiment and opinion about at least a half a dozen US cities without naming them but chose New Orleans because I live here and, choose to stay here. And, I do agree with much of what you say yet, I interpret your response as non-objective and overly personal an attack.
For a city this size, take a look at Chicago, Miami, Detroit, Baltimore to name just a few. The same if not more heinous and offensive, for lack of a better word level of ineptitude, corruption and all of what you mention occur in these larger metropolitan areas on a much, much grander scale.
Phew......
Here's hoping you can conjure up some red beans and rice and or a decent bowl of gumbo there n Paris to chill you out cher.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2015 22:11:52 GMT
Port and Starboard being a debate board, I am surprised that anybody would think that people are supposed to agree about topics here.
I would think that it would be better to present clear thoughts about what is wrong with someone else's statement rather than flying into a rage and attacking the entire United States, since it was stated "to name just a few" which implies that the whole country is rotten to the core. Okay, that goes for Casimira.
Regarding Chexbres, I would also say that the presentation of the situation is highly exaggerated and rather ludicrous. While subtropical and/or hostile climates do seem to nurture certain unpleasant behaviours, there are quite a few places that have successfully emerged from their moral and physical swamps.
I have not given up hope for New Orleans, but I understand both refugees who have given up and also transplants from other places who have the energy of converts. But no, you will not agree on the situation.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2015 22:26:28 GMT
I chose New Orleans because as I stated, it is what I am most familiar with. Then, I cited other US cities that I am familiar with to some degree, mainly in an attempt to redeem New Orleans to at least some degree. I need not have even cited New Orleans to drive my opinion but, felt it useful in that it is a situation I am familiar with. Exaggerated is putting it mildly to come back and attack NOLA when that wasn't even the point of my post!!!
I did not attack any European cities however, if one wants to "go there", then take a look at London, Paris, Rome, to name just three. Then, take a look at Sweden, which has become The Rape Capital of The World.
My main objective was to attempt to illustrate how flawed the system is and address the original OP. The best way to do that in my eyes was to cite what I personally have experienced and have first hand knowledge of and not attack any one place.
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 4, 2015 7:51:10 GMT
Although I'm a great one for digressing in a thread and have been guilty of it many times I think the original post still has some potential in it and I'd like to see it progress further. I agree that New Orleans may not be the best place to live but I also agree that for some the city has its attractions, plus for those and/or others there may be no alternative as they can't just up sticks and move. I bet some actually move there on purpose.
Anyway, as regards facial recognition, it is really still in its infancy as is not so easy as when you watch CSI etc. The still pictures you see when a crime has been committed taken from street cameras are invariably obtained by a person scrolling through hours of it to find the right one. You can't really yet just plug in a face and the system throws up all those incidents/places where that person has been. It is a labour intensive and manual process. Besides the fact that CCTV cameras are often of poor quality and are easy to fool by wearing hoods, hats etc.
Mobile phones are, as said by K2, the things you can easily be tracked on. Same with credit card transactions or any card like store cards. It is obvious that if going through a border you will be logged so there is nothing inflammatory about that. Wifi points will do the same, but to find someone you have to know which wifi point they logged on at or manually go through them all.
As regards phone calls and key words, certainly it exists but I would expect there are that many key words resulting in that many calls being recorded or flagged you'd still need to have a human know who or what he or she is looking for. In short, yes, many, many places I go or things I do are detected. In normal day to day life it is very difficult to avoid it and drop off the radar. A number of experiments have taken place where someone like a journalist has tried to do so and others have been tasked to find him. Bear in mind that also the lack of detection, a black hole where someone is avoiding coming to notice, also has information value in itself. If you want to do something wrong but you also live to a certain pattern, you have to find a way to continue that pattern and also do the thing you want to do otherwise a change or absence can be indicative of something.
Last thing, generally I think it isn't the real time watching that is the problem, it is the recording of that information, the length of time it is kept and who can access it that is. E.g. my phone call using certain key words may be detected. It may be recorded. But if it either a) can't be accessed or b) is only retained for a short period of time before being erased, then I'm fine.
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Post by chexbres on Nov 4, 2015 8:07:11 GMT
casimira - I wasn't getting personal with you, and am sorry if you felt that way. I was getting very personal with New Orleans, where I lived all my life until a few years ago. Sorry if I went off on a rant and offended anyone.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2015 12:07:24 GMT
Anyway, to make sure we are on track, I would just like to say Al Qaeda and Islamic State. That ensures that the NSA and a dozen other agencies around the world will now be watching this thread for sure, for our greater security. All of our IP addresses have just been thrown into a big basket so that background checks can be made on us and our families. I hope everybody is feeling better now.
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Post by questa on Nov 4, 2015 13:30:08 GMT
K2...you are not the Messiah, you're just a naughty boy!
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 4, 2015 17:05:30 GMT
Well, first of all Blackstone Consultancy is trying to whip up paranoia in order to sell their services. I'd be more nervous about allowing them, with their Blackwater sounding name and scare tactics, into my life than I would of the random, mostly discarded data that's routinely collected on me.
Second, as Kerouac and Mark point out, there is no way for the oceans of data to be monitored to the point that we boring regular citizens would ever be pinpointed. That said, I admit to some mild paranoia about what I google and whether or not it would flag me, as Kerouac brings up in #14.
In regard to: ...all this technology, why is it not used to apprehend and bring to justice criminals ... -- there must be piles of data on any person who is officially a criminal, i.e., has been tried and convicted of a crime. But probably the bulk of crime is committed by people who manage not to get caught, or if they do, may not even make it to trial. So they would be no more targeted for surveillance than the rest of us.
Even as we bemoan all the info captured and presumably stored on computers about us, we also enjoy the relative convenience of calling the bank, the airline, the doctor etc. & not having to repeat every detail of our relationships with those entities.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 30, 2021 11:01:08 GMT
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