[svfig-open] state police or police state?

[Kevin Appert]

Let's hope Caltrans doesn't read this!!!

"<http://www.thesun.co.uk/>The Sun is reporting that the UK government has 
<http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2003391098,00.html>plans to put a 
computerised spy in every car
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/08/26/1327234.shtml?tid=158&tid=99

Older stuff:
(Maybe we can give all the homeless surplus UK vehicles to track them 
better!  No sillier than any of the rest of this stuff.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 10:41:59 -0700
>To: alanf2 at earthlink.net , jaffe at roses.stanford.edu , geoperry at blaze.rxcbc.org
>From: Kevin Appert <forther at comcast.net>
>Subject: Warning - Mountain Climbing May Be Hazardous To Your Health
>
>Amusing "news" stories mentioned on NPR's "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" 
>radio program:
>
>Tree Kills SUV
>http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/6568633.htm
>
>Saddam as a gaudy Elvis Presley, the posters show his beaming face pasted 
>atop the body of a tarted-up Zsa Zsa Gabor, a voluptuous Rita Hayworth and 
>a brazen Billy Idol.
>http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/3452.htm
>
>The British have gone one step farther than the rest of the European Union 
>in implementing EU safety regulations.  They are putting signage on 
>Mountains, warning that mountain climbing is dangerous.   I wonder if they 
>are going to mark the (literal) mountains of wasted food created by goofy 
>EU ag policy.  There wasn't a link I could find easily so you need to go 
>to the show page and listen to the segment titled "Opening Round" -
>http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/thisweek.html
>Opening Round
>Instead of Paula Abdul, it's Abdul Paula; Warning signs where the air is 
>thin; Can an earache really travel that far?
>
>
>I'm gonna get a Pogo Radio Yourway recorder so I can time-shift  "Car 
>Talk", "What Do You Know?", "Wait Wait", and "Says You"  out of respect 
>for your tax dollars spent to bring them to 
>me!  Thanks.   http://www.radioyourway.com/
>


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


>Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 10:07:31 -0700
>To: alanf2 at earthlink.net , geoperry at blaze.rxcbc.org , 
>jaffe at roses.stanford.edu , svfig-open at zork.net
>From: Kevin Appert <forther at comcast.net>
>Subject: It's 1984 (a few years late)
>
>I think we need professional "viewers with alarm".  They could go through 
>the paper and "view with alarm" the more alarming stories.
>Do we have them already?  TV pundits?  The Center for "Science" in the 
>Public Interest?  And so on...
>Here's a start of things to be alarmed about if you're looking for a gig:
>
>========================================
>========================================
>
>Gov't Proposes Massive Homeless Tracking System
>
>Posted by michael on Tuesday August 19, @04:12PM
>from the bagged-and-tagged dept.
>Chris Hoofnagle writes "The Dept. of Housing and Urban Development is 
>proposing a massive system of tracking for homeless people
>and others who are served by shelters and care centers. The system will 
>track people by their SSN, and will collect health (HIV,
>pregnancy) and mental information. Secret Service and national security 
>agents can gain access to the database by just asking for it!
>EPIC has released a fact sheet on HMIS, and the public can comment on the 
>guidelines until September 22, 2003, but no electronic
>comments are being accepted."
>
>  Your Rights Online : Microsoft Tracking Behavior of Newsgroup Posters
>http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/19/1714226&mode=thread&tid=103&tid=158&tid=99
>
>========================================
>========================================
>
>Posted by timothy on Wednesday August 20, @02:29PM
>from the target-market dept.
>theodp writes "Ever get the feeling your Usenet newsgroup list is being 
>watched? By Microsoft? If so, consider yourself right. An
>interesting but troubling CNET interview with Microsoft's in-house 
>sociologist goes into how the software giant is keeping a close eye
>on newsgroups and other public e-mail lists, tracking and rating 
>contributors' social habits and determining "people who the system
>has shown to have value." Those concerned that it's not a good idea for 
>computers to track their belongings and whereabouts are advised that they 
>may ultimately have to fragment their identities, keeping multiple IDs and 
>e-mail addresses."
>http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/08/20/1254232.shtml?tid=109&tid=126&tid=158&tid=187&tid=95&tid=99
>
>
>
>========================================
>ED FOSTER'S GRIPELOG
>The Reader Advocate Column
>========================================
>
>Will the Blaster Worm Make Windows Updates Mandatory?
>
>Thursday, August 21, 2003
>By Ed Foster
>
>It's a depressing irony, but the creep who wrote the Blaster worm may very 
>well have done Microsoft a tremendous favor.  After all, what better 
>argument could the folks in Redmond have been handed to do what they've 
>always wanted to do - namely, force users to accept automatic Windows updates.
>
>[[[ it goes on like that.  If you want, I'll email you the whole thing or 
>you can read it at http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/section/Columns.]]]