Like, say, placing the emergency generators on the hills right next to it, nothing bad would have happened. Of if they had spend the extra $100.000 that would have cost for hydrogen valves, the buildings would not have exploded.

The problem is not that nuclear cannot be made safe. The problem is that the people doing nuclear cannot make it safe. And as these are also the people doing waste storage, this will remain a serious issue for the next, say, 1 million years or so. The combination of greed and stupidity found in nuclear planners is absolutely staggering.

Rights are nothing but words until they are backed up by someone with the power to enforce them. Generally, that means whoever has sovereignty of an area; in our case that would be the state and federal government.

You miss the point. With software, the agreement generally is that you may use but NOT distribute or copy the software. That right is reserved by the maker.

With the truck, the agreement is that you use, but NOT paint the truck red. Joey reserves that right for himself.

In either case, the owner of the property has the right to be pissed off if you "take" their rights. Not sure why you're arguing this, the law is sort of clear on it.

Perhaps you could clarify. Im not clear how putting all of Europe and half of South America between you and Ecuador makes it easier to get there. Its a ~15 hour flight to China, and he got all the way there before they began the process of revoking his passport. How exactly would he not have already been in Ecuador if he had gotten a direct(ish) flight?

More to the point, theres a timeline here that you should acquaint yourself with.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...
Big details are that Snowden was in Hong Kong before we were even looking for him, and he remained there for a full FOURTEEN DAYS. Thats an odd way to get to Ecuador-- particularly considering he didnt even broach asylum with Ecuador until he arrived in Moscow eighteen days after the June 6 revelation.

The idea that he was taking a circuitous route because the goal was Ecuador is pure fantasy.

He had a choice to not cooperate with the most belligerent, imperialistic, and repressive government in Eurasia right now.

Talking about NSA "invasions of privacy" is a bit ironic when you're cooperating with a country that is literally invading other countries.

Nuts and Volts as well as Circuit Cellar are good hardware zines. Nuts and Volts is a little lighter than CC but I like them both.

He passed through two incredibly repressive countries in his travels, for the most circuitous itinerary ever. And as I recall, the offer from Argentina wasnt even out there until after he got to Moscow.

Im not clear why anyone thinks im defending the NSA. Im not. Im talking about how backwards and hypocritical Snowdens actions are at this point.

So the US is enough of a "Big Bad" that its worth Snowden risking his life.... so he flees to an even Bigger Bad, and cooperates with their propaganda machine.

No choice my foot.

Im not going into the validity of what the NSA does or attempting to justify it; thats a complicated discussion and Im actually not too happy with the state of surveillance in the US.

My point is that Snowden is an utter hypocrite at this point-- he chose to get buddy-buddy with countries that are far worse than us. Its pretty hard to defend his choices in where he fled to.

Hes not saying "dont do that", hes saying "dont be an obnoxious obstacle when this stuff comes up." Tell them theyre doing it wrong, if they insist, fulfill the request to the best of your ability, and make sure you have records of where you told them they were doing it wrong.

If you just constantly obstruct, theyll get rid of you and find someone else to implement their dumb idea, and chances are that person will make it worse.

Snowden's supposed MO is that he was willing to risk the ire of the US and throw away his cushy life because of how bad the NSA was. Now hes in bed with the Russians, and you want to say "maybe he got scared"?

Come on, hes the one who is supposedly in the know about this stuff, hes the one who chose Moscow. Youd have to be a special kind of stupid to have a security clearance, contract for the NSA, and not know how repressive Russia is.

We arent Russia, no matter how much you might try to paint it that way. None of the people you mentioned own the media, no matter how much they adore Obama. You wont be arrested for insulting or protesting Obama. You wont be arrested for reporting on his failings; there are huge websites dedicated to it.

Nice false equivalence, tho.

He chose to flee to the two countries with the BIGGEST free speech / surveillance issues in the world-- China and Russia-- after publicly blowing the whistle on much lesser instances in the US.

I mean we're throwing a fit about the NSA's capturing of "metadata". China just snorts up every bit of cell and internet data that goes in or out of any ISP or carrier, and they barely attempt to hide it. Im sure Russia is pretty close.

So yes, he had a choice, and he made it about 8 months ago, and it was a remarkably bad one.

In this thread: Geeks attempt to use technical devices to create legal loopholes, discover that that doesnt work.