In my context I was thinking of my grandfather who fought in both world wars against the very thing that is happening in our western societies today.

Nazism is exactly what I was considering when I posted. How these establishment of police states leads to state sponsored terrorism, which is scarier than fundamentalism in a different way.

Oh, I see. Your one of these people that cheer on the erosion of peoples right to privacy because companies do illegal things. This is best compared to anal fist fucking, you may be a willing participant, but most people would not.

All things considered, that's an oxymoronic statement.

Thinking about all those people that fought in the world wars for our freedom. I wonder if they would have fought if they knew their children would piss every freedom they fought for away in a generation.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - John F. Kennedy

Under the recently passed data retention laws passed in Australia, law enforcement only needs to ask your carrier for the data and they are obliged to provide it.

Any company that works that way is bound to fail anyway. Working people that hard doesn't make them productive, it makes them exhausted and prone to mistakes. Those mistakes compound into needing more time to fix - so it's generally an advanced sign of failure.

That's how they should advertise the job so that more experienced people don't waste their time. It's the same old story once you get there and it takes a lot of social skills and energy to walk away amicably. Most of the time it isn't a happy ending for anyone.

Well, she was the former yeoman to Captain James. T. Kirk, so that's gotta look pretty good on her resume.

I did an analysis of the Australian 2014 National Security Amendments Legislation back in October 2014 and wrote to the politicians to try to stop it. I think that it is relevant here because, well frankly, Australian seems unfortunately blessed with apathetic right wing morons that it makes the construction and passing of such legislation possible and that sometimes they become a template for countries less blessed with these morons.

This legislation contains specific amendments directed at intelligence officers leaking information in light of wikileaks. Any legal opportunity for officers to leak corruption or criminal acts is now a criminal act in Australia and I would imagine that the compartmentalisation of information would allow leakers to be identified.

I am uncertain if such amendments would be constitutional in the US/UK or Canada, but they are law here now. Clearly the doctrine of fighting domestic enemies that corrupt governments, like cancer, from within will no longer be tolerated and the wheels are in motion to close that legality. My interpretation of the legislation is that the ability for these agents to do the right thing to expose criminal acts and corruption will be met with the destruction of their careers and gaol (jail) time.

I'm certain that the portions of the law that can be made legal in other Echelon (5 I's) countries, will be as soon as the constitutional implications are understood. I hope that the mechanisms that wikileaks has created is enough to protect them. I hope there is an opportunity for UK/US and Canadian citizens to stop similar legislation from passing into law in those countries.

If there was any doubt that we were on a slippery slope before the legislations I've read passed into law, then right now Australia's ass is wet and is sliding uncontrollably to being a full blown police state.

You are still the same generation you were born into.

ba dum *tish*!

I'm just curious, have you every been camping or in the bush for longer than a week? I think our parasites are much tougher than we are.

This will occur anyway with the radionuclide releases from the Fukushima accident. That will reduce the birthrate because as more of the radio isotopes get into the food chain and water table more and more pregnancies will fail.

Good call (hey I couldn't resist!), sums up peoples apathy nicely.

Yeah, like no herbivores, peaked oil, overpopulation and all the other things that *scientists* have been warning us about for years.

Our generations will be known as the dithers that were too selfish to do anything whilst there was still a chance.

I thought that if we were going anywhere in the Solar system (which I really hope I can see in my lifetime but I doubt it) that it would be wrapped in a lot of mass. For example I thought ice first because it's water and we would be using it. So if we carry a-lot of water that is what we would be using as shielding. Either that or rocks we can gather up *in* space (maybe a lunar space elevator [a moonstalk iirc?]).

However for our first small ship and given that cosmic radiation may be a lot more energetic than I think and, given that it adds mass to the space craft then why not just go *inside* a big water tank, which would also be your water supply? At first using separate launches with water tanks, however later, maybe a small ice asteroid we capture with a robot and melt - or even carve into, could be a water supply.

Speaking about capturing asteroids maybe we can build a fast, nuclear powered robot ship to explore the asteroid belt remotely and leave robotic mission payloads on large asteroids whilst identifying resources. Maybe when it has built up enough speed we can send it out to the Oort cloud for a look around. I know it sounds science fiction but it is not too far outside our technological capabilities, and, if the world pooled resources to achieve it, something that might bring nations together for a common goal. I know, probably just a fantasy, but I am a geek.

Besides, all children have to start moving out of home sometime.