OH! MY! GOD! 1984 in Venezuela? Airships with big brother message...

[originalpckelly]

to patrol Venezuelan skies:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6576413.stm

"Officials in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, are taking to the air in an attempt to make the city safer.

***SNIP***

The 15 metre (49 foot) long air ships are emblazoned with government slogans. Written in bright red are the words: "We watch over you for your security."

Some might worry that this will be intrusive - a big brother in the skies, spying on people the government wants to watch.

But the man in charge of security in Caracas, Ramon Morales Rossi, played down that idea."

:scared:

That's about the freakiest BS I've seen in a long time.

[Selatius]

1. It's no different than US cities installing cameras all over public places.

Then again, if crime in US cities was as high as it is in Caracas, the police would probably do something similar here.

[Missy M]

2. Did you read the whole article?

Caracas is the most crime ridden city in Latin America. It also seems the people are for it if it will make them safer. They are trying to do something to reduce crime, not spy on people.

[originalpckelly]

3. Yes, because the mini blimps only spy on the bad people.

:eyes:

[BayCityProgressive]

5. sounds like a crude way of

doing things that developed nations do to watch over cities. Rather than expensive cameras, more police, ect ect ect they are using these. The potential for corruption is there, just as it is with cameras and other devices in western nations. The quotes are creepy, but they probably don't carry the same creepy meanings there that they do here.

[originalpckelly]

10. Of course, I have to wonder how quickly the suckers will be shot out of the sky.

A bullet will create a hole that will slowly let the helium (or probably hydrogen) out of it. It won't crash to the ground, but it probably won't be that effective.

[BayCityProgressive]

12. I don't really see how this would really be that effective

if you wanted to watch people, Camera's would be more effective in my opinion.

[Missy M]

20. I guess you have never been to an ATM or inside a bank....

gone to a mall, grocery store, department store, office building, parking ramp, government building, some red lights,etc, in this country. Never looked at satellite photos of your house on the internet.:eyes:

[gulfcoastliberal]

4. Relax, we'll soon have our OWN spy blimps, but you won't see them:

Is the US launching a blimp to spy on its population?

Perhaps, though not yet - those who live in fear of an eye in the sky tracking their every move have until 2009 to dig a bunker and set of underground tunnels to the nearest shops. But yes, the American defence contractor Lockheed Martin has been working for three years on a $40m (£20m) contract awarded by the US Missile Defence Agency to build 11 High-Altitude Airships.

The fun, and the speculation, starts once you delve into the technical details. Each airship will float 12 miles (20km) above the surface (in the low stratosphere), be powered by solar panels and could oversee an area of 600 square miles. Put 11 of them over the US with suitably powerful cameras, and they could keep watch on every square metre of the whole country.

But surely the part of the Pentagon which awarded the contract - the Missile Defense Agency - isn't into surveillance of the American people, but their defence from incoming ballistic missiles? That's what its website at mda.mil says. However, delving more deeply shows that the project's aims include being used as "a mobile, retaskable, high-altitude, geostationary long-endurance platform" whose functions "will span from communications and weather/environmental monitoring to short- and long-range missile warning, surveillance, and target acquisition". ("Target acquisition" is what civilians call "aiming a weapon at something".)

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1997490,00.html

[Gabi Hayes]

6. thread of its own....thread of its own. how much worse is it going to get?

[Gabi Hayes]

8. by that, I mean HERE, not in Venezuela

[jeff uppy]

13. But don't you see

the difference between the U.S. blimps and the Venezuelan blimps?

Let me help: The Venezuelan government is made up of kooky socialist do-gooders doing crazy things like sharing proceeds from national resources with the poor, and putting the money supply in the control of elected leaders rather than looters.

We therefore need constant reminding of how spooky they are and how afraid we should be.

[shance]

7. Wow. More propaganda disinformation to side rail Chavez. It never ends....

God forbid Venezuela actually have a good leader.

[NoPasaran]

22. God forbid Venezuela actually have a good leader.

...who wants to remind everyone he's watching them.

[Forkboy]

9. I just heard the other day that the average American in on a camera over a dozen times a day.

Now THAT'S freaky BS. :scared:

[Gloria]

15. Britain is even worse, from I've read. They really are under constant

surveillance everywhere....

[Swamp Rat]

11. Chavez... Bushler... Putin... Kim Jong-il... Muqtada Al sadr... Mengistu... Mickey Mouse

... we quibble about who is the worst leader. Meanwhile, Earth's despots are getting away with genocide.

[Gloria]

14. Drive Southern NM and you'll see the spy blimps surveying the border and

who knows what else?? If I can see them, I bet they can see me....

[genie_weenie]

16. Why should anyone be worried?

after all if you've got nothing to hide...

and if the High King Chavez and his 167 Aides deem it is well and truly good for the Feudal State of Venezuela.

Hussah!

[MadHound]

17. And meanwhile the US has satelites in sychronous orbit a hundred miles overhead

That watch what we all do, record what we do, with incredible clarity and detail. In addition, we have an ever increasing proliferation of cameras in America's public, and private spaces. And don't forget that coming soon to a city near you, your every move will be tracked via your cell phone. Oh, and the Supreme Court ruled today that it is legal for the telephone companies to turn their records of our calls over to the government. And that all of our email is being captured and analyzed by a program known as Carnivore. And on, and on, ad nauseum.

Now who is waging the Big Brother campaign? Those with the blimps, or those with the high tech?

[BayCityProgressive]

18. exactly

this seems like nothing but another stupid smear post.

[Mika]

19. Not to mention the national database on the prescription drugs we take. n/t

[NoPasaran]

21. Synchronous orbit satellites cannot be a hundred miles overhead

They need to be orbiting at 22,000 miles. Even Big Brother can't cancel the laws of physics.

[maine_raptor]

23. Geo-synchronous orbit is a bit higher , MadHound

Something on the order of 22,000 miles higher.

But here's a little something that can hover closer:



The MQ-9-B Predator drone, it can loiter over an area for up to 8 hours, and has both optical and infra-red surveillance capabilities, and can be fitted with Hellfire missiles and laser tracking. (Just the thing to stop all them pesky car chases.)

And don't forget that it is now legal for officers to scan your house from outside, and using infra-red cameras, see just what it is you're up to.

I'm not sure if it's been ruled on yet, but Ground Penetrating Radar is also available for law enforcement use, should they so choose.

I agree with your rant, and as to your question: Does it really matter the means by which the campaign is waged?