Constant surveillance of every square inch of American soil, maybe - by cabellero
cabellero on 21/1/2007 at 18:19
I thought about posting this in the other thread about Lockheed Martin, but figured this deserves its own.
Quote:
The prototype is called the High Altitude Airship, or HAA. Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors in Akron won the $40 million contract from the Missile Defense Agency to build HAA in 2003. It is essentially another blimp. A giant one. Seventeen times the size of the Goodyear dirigible. It's designed to float 12 miles above the earth.
.......
The HAA can watch over a circle of countryside 600 miles in diameter. That's everything between Toledo and New York City. And they want to build 11. With high-res cameras, that could mean constant surveillance of every square inch of American soil.
(
http://athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=25082) Link
Apart from being quite scary, it's also quite cool.. I've always wanted my own sky base. How long until we have cities in the sky, powered by solar power? I can't wait.
Qooper on 21/1/2007 at 18:29
Quote Posted by cabellero
I've always wanted my own sky base. How long until we have cities in the sky, powered by solar power? I can't wait.
Or villages at the bottom of the ocean powered by fish (and water, duh!). I don't mean to bring Rapture over to Comm Chat, so I'll stop here.
Anyway what's wrong with cities on land powered by fusion reactors? We'll have 'em in about 50 years or so.
Renegen on 21/1/2007 at 21:42
Yeah, because terrorists and freedom haters are all inside the United States. They're not even trying. 1984 anyone?
SlyFoxx on 21/1/2007 at 21:52
I've got no problem with it...excpet I'll have to start growing my weed indoors.:mad:
Umm...there seem to be plenty of freedom haters in the US already. Most fall under the citizen catagory as far as I can tell.
doctorfrog on 21/1/2007 at 23:33
I, for one, welcome our new gas-bag overlords.
Printer's Devil on 22/1/2007 at 06:55
Heck, why waste all that money? People are only too happy to put themselves under surveillance via YouTube! Police already use internet video as evidence during investigations, so all the Feds really need to do is encourage the public's existing vanity.
Nicker on 22/1/2007 at 08:32
Yeah, but just try finding a "jury of peers" who haven't already emailed links to the evidence to everyone on their mailing list already. Cuts both ways.
Printer's Devil on 22/1/2007 at 17:15
Quote Posted by Nicker
Yeah, but just try finding a "jury of peers" who haven't already emailed links to the evidence to everyone on their mailing list already. Cuts both ways.
"Big Brother" security cases are usually trials by
judge and the nature of the evidence is often kept secret from the defense. The secrecy supposedly protects various sources of vital intelligence from being revealed to enemy states, but it may also prevent people from questioning the quality of the evidence, too (many of Canada's most infamous murder trials turned on some extremely shoddy evidence and unreliable testimony).
Shoshin on 23/1/2007 at 00:03
If they put all of the US under constant surveillance, pretty soon we'll all have jobs as intelligence analysts. And once we're all part of Big Brother, who will Big Brother watch? That's what I want to know.
