TheOutrider on 28/5/2007 at 18:55
And this ties into the "fascistoid suspicion-free general surveillance politics in modern Western Europe" debate... how?
[edit] After giving it a thorough read, I see where you're aiming. Still feels a bit out of place. [/edit]
RarRar on 28/5/2007 at 18:58
I'm so glad I managed to visit East Germany while it was still communist. What an eye opener. Just one of thousands and thousands of tourists but it was so scary when they stopped your car, took your identification, then looked you in the eye long and hard. Why did I feel guilty? I was a tourist, I can't imagine what it would be like to live there. That kind of suspicion and guilt a constant, if unconscious, low-level background every waking moment.
Hey, who else spent their East German marks on really crappy vanilla ice cream sandwiches from street carts before hoofing back to the West?
Anyway, this all reminds me of a rather unlikely book I read a couple of years ago by my favorite SF author Vernor Vinge, (
http://booktruck.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/the-end/) Rainbow's End. In it, there is a big push to digitize all the books in the world but to do it in any affordable fashion, in libraries all over the world they have to feed all the books into a huge shredding machine. As the shredded books move through the system cameras take digital images of all the scraps and advanced computer software analyzes them and reconstructs all the pages. And it doesn't do to just shred one copy and spare other copies. You have to shred them all because the multiple copies provide the necessary error correction.
It was entertaining but, as I said, unlikely since the story did seem highly contrived to elicit horror from book lovers with its images of people in jumpsuits swarming through libraries and emptying shelves into huge noisy hoppers while dejected librarians watch helplessly.
SD on 28/5/2007 at 19:08
Quote Posted by TheOutrider
And this ties into the "fascistoid suspicion-free general surveillance politics in modern Western Europe" debate... how?
You don't think gay rights campaigners being held by police officers so neo-Nazis can punch the shit out of them is a civil rights issue?
Matthew on 29/5/2007 at 11:32
Latest? I say thee nay - supposedly the same laws are still in effect in Northern Ireland, though checking through our version of PACE I still find the police are supposed to have 'reasonable suspicion' for most of their actions.
*Zaccheus* on 30/5/2007 at 18:19
That's the thing, the plans are for the police to be allowed to stop and question anyone even without suspecting the person of anything.
And yeah some of the laws in N.I. have quite rightly been criticized plenty of times.
And I'm not sure if this should make me laugh or cry:
Quote:
[University lecturer] Mark Campbell ... cited the case of a student from Swansea who was arrested and treated as a suspected terrorist after taking a picture of Tower Bridge. The reason for his arrest was because he possessed a book on Islamic Jihad against the West, Mr Campbell said. But this book was on the reading list for one of his university courses, he added.
(
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6704635.stm)
Uncia on 31/5/2007 at 11:10
Quote:
A significant number of people, either convicted of terrorist offences or who have admitted a guilt or who've been murdered or killed in the carrying out of their terrorist offences, have been students at British universities and colleges.
This fails at logic
so hard.
Matthew on 31/5/2007 at 11:50
OHSHI GUYS IVE BEEN TO UNI I COULD SNAP WHAT DO I DO
Kolya on 31/5/2007 at 12:24
Anonymously leak encrypted hints on your plans and whereabouts to one and only one retired police officer who once gave your father a ticket for driving too fast. Here's an example:
"A train leaves New York heading for Boston. 10 minutes later another train leaves Boston for New York, at double the speed. Which train will be closer to New York when they encounter?"
...after all you've been to uni, right?
*Zaccheus* on 31/5/2007 at 19:00
Quote Posted by PROFESOR ANTHONY GLES
A SIGNIFICANT NUMBR OF P3OPLE 3ITHER CONVICTED OF TERORIST OF3NCES OR WHO HAEV ADMIT3D A GUILT OR WHOVE BEN MURDER3D OR KILAD IN TEH CARYNG OUT OF THERE TERORIST OFENC3S HAEV BEN STUDENTS AT BRITISH UNIEVRSITEIS AND COLEG3S!11111!1 WTF
(
http://ssshotaru.homestead.com/files/aolertranslator.html) Courtesy of the AOL Translator
Chimpy Chompy on 1/6/2007 at 07:47
I agree that asking uni staff to spy on students is a little sinister. However I don't quite get the problem with identifying being a student as a common factor between a significant number of terrorists? Surely that's a piece of information worth noting, at least?
