June 2013
2 posts
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Everyone has something to hide. It might not be illegal, but it might be immoral, or weird, compromising or just embarrassing. And at the same time, everyone has the right to their privacy, ESPECIALLY when they have nothing illegal to hide.
Considering how hidden all this surveillance is and how it’s denied even when we catch them doing it, how can you possibly trust so many unknown people with your secrets and intimate stuff, no matter how big or small?
To put it in an example, 20 years from now maybe you’ll be running for a public spot. Let’s say you’re competent, have good intentions and have a decent chance of being elected or getting the job you’re aiming for. Suddenly, a compromising picture / video / audio, whatever “mysteriously” emerges, with you smoking weed when you were 20, or saying some really dumb shit at the phone, or whatever else I can’t think of now and it ruins your chances.
Then will you still ask what’s the big deal about this?
Bottom line is that it’s naive to think that all this data won’t ever be used with other purposes than what it’s officially collected for. Especially since the agencies that handle it not only have not proven that they’re trustworthy, but have actually done the opposite times and times again.
I’m tired of this silly argument that it’s for our safety. We shouldn’t have to give up our privacy just so NSA, CIA or whoever else can do their job better. At the very least we should know how we are being tracked, followed, tagged. But ofc, that’s not really possible either (unless leaks like this recent ones appear), because hey, then the bad guys would know too. And with this rethoric, government agencies have almost received a blank check in recent times, especially in the US.
It’s just like war against drugs, or piracy. The drug dealers / file sharers will always be ahead, no matter how crazy the measures against them become and the only ones screwed by all this will be the innocent bystanders caught in the middle.
” —May 2013
3 posts
“It is possible that we are rare, fleeting specks of awareness in an unfeeling cosmic desert, the only witnesses to its wonder. It is also possible that we are living in a universal sea of sentience, surrounded by ecstasy and strife that is open to our influence. Sensible beings that we are, both possibilities should worry us.”
—Timo Hannay
April 2013
5 posts
“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”
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“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”
—Steve Furtivk
“Every man has secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
March 2013
2 posts
February 2013
4 posts
“Don’t try to understand women, women understand women and they hate each other.”
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“I don’t want to be thick-witted here. I understand that on some level a democracy generally elects human leaders who will not abuse the spirit of the law. I think Barack Obama is such a leader. That is for the historians to determine. But practically, much of our foreign policy now depends on the hope of benevolent dictators and philosopher kings. The law can’t help. The law is what the kings say it is.”
—Ta-Nehisi Coates on Obama’s Drone Policy (via theatlantic)
“If you take it pretty much for fact (as I do) that in the next five years or so we’ll be able to use apps on our phones not just to translate other languages but to converse with the speakers of those languages, you can’t escape the ramifications for schools. And it’s not just languages and speech recognition that we’re talking about here. It’s new tools and technologies that are being invented at a rapid pace that can replace much of what we do in our classrooms. As I’ve said before here, we live at a time of growing abundance when it comes to the resources available to learn and to function in our lives. It’s amazing and daunting.”
—How Technology Has Changed What Students Need To Learn (via world-shaker)
January 2013
2 posts
“The greatest pain in any man’s heart is to watch a man he once knew turn into a man he was never supposed to become.”
—Jacob Sheets
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