miamizsun wrote: 
How often does science fiction become fiction?

As long as they don't use the wooden balls, so stupid. 

is it me or does this seem very scary? (i mean the potential for abuse is huge)

U.S. Cities Relying on Precog Software to Predict Murder

 

Who needs the freaky precogs of Minority Report to predict if someone’s likely to commit murder when you have an algorithm that can do it for you?

New crime-prediction software used in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and soon to be rolled out in the nation’s capital too, promises to reduce the homicide rate by predicting which prison parolees are likely to commit murder and therefore receive more stringent supervision.

The software aims to replace the judgments parole officers already make based on a parolee’s criminal record and is currently being used in Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Richard Berk, a criminologist at the University of Pennsylvania who developed the algorithm, claims it will reduce the murder rate and other crimes and could help courts set bail amounts as well as sentencing in the future.

 Zep wrote: 
Obama ? 

Isn't he the guy that hunts down American citizens, ignoring the Constitution and due process and kills them with drones ?

Renditions continue under Obama.

The three European men with Somali roots were arrested on a murky pretext in August as they passed through the small African country of Djibouti. But the reason soon became clear when they were visited in their jail cells by a succession of American interrogators.

U.S. agents accused the men — two of them Swedes, the other a longtime resident of Britain — of supporting al-Shabab, an Islamist militia in Somalia that Washington considers a terrorist group. Two months after their arrest, the prisoners were secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in New York, then clandestinely taken into custody by the FBI and flown to the United States to face trial.

. . . . . .

But they were suspected terrorists, so that makes it all good, right? Right? Am I right? Right? (is this thing on? tap-tap-tap) RIGHT, everyone, this is ok? 
 

 kurtster wrote: 
We live in a country where our choices for President  were Mitt Romney(who I do not care for) or re-elect a child murderer.

Our country picked the child murderer.

 That is when I realized my life is basically over.

 helenofjoy wrote: 

I took your comment, which was obviously directed at me, as a direct charge that I was living a life filled with fear which directly affects all of my thinking and limits my ability to reason properly.  Now that is constructive ?  I think that is more of an attack to be used to dismiss all of my thinking regardless of merit.

Calling something worn out is tantamount to a personal attack now ?

As you wish ...

 kurtster wrote: 
The anger that comes across in many of your posts.  Not just this conversation.  To call my comment a worn out cliche wasn't exactly constructive.

 helenofjoy wrote: 

My reply to you was filled with vitriol ?

and what anger ?

 kurtster wrote: 
Defining the problem doesn't seem to be so difficult - most of us are very aware of what the problems are.  It is only your opinion that my statement is a worn out cliche.  Your fear is obvious in your anger.  If you were not afraid, you would be able to express your thinking without all the insulting vitriol.  You would be able to discuss your ideas in a reasonable, respectful tone.  If you really expect to get people to "see" what it is you see, you may have to change your approach.

 helenofjoy wrote: 
That cliché is so worn out.  I could flip it around and say that is the charge against those who think that Global Warming is the greatest danger facing our planet and worth sacrificing everything in order to combat it.

What is the first step in problem solving ?  Admitting that there is a problem and then defining the problem.

Please make no mistake, at least about me, that I am not afraid.  I am just aware.  A huge difference.

I'll grant you one thing however.  What is scary is that too many are afraid to consider or discuss that things are going wrong or might be going wrong.  Not talking about it is the worst way to go about solving 'the problem'.

EdIt:  If you don't think it is a problem, then never mind.

I think it must be horrible to live a life every day filled with fear-based, negative thinking.  It leaves no room for creative, positive problem solving.  

 ScottN wrote: 
A more appropriate place for this reply ...

And a HNY to you to !

Since you wish to dig up my non partisan remark and make it partisan, I'll grant your wish and continue.

I'll keep it simple and somewhat recent for you.  The turning point for me in my feelings was with Bush and the passage of the Patriot Act.  Its been conclusively downhill ever since. 

What really upset me about the Patriot Act (PA)  was when shortly after its passing, a couple came into the store I was working at the time who were European immigrants and most likely Holocaust survivors based upon the conversation I had with them.,  I don't quite remember how the convo started but obviously 9/11 and the PA were fresh in everyone's minds and still much discussed in public.  They expressed approval of the PA saying that 'we' needed it in order to make America a much safer place.  I countered that it took away too many rights and liberties in the process and they simply replied that it was worth it.  I was floored that people such as these, people who had endured all the worst of what WW II was about and they did not see or care about the rights of Americans in light of 'increased security'.  It immediately made me think about the widely circulated Franklin quote :

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"
.Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

That is one of the biggest lessons of Germany and WW II.  How someone like these two would ignore the parallels of the past and approve of something like the PA really pissed me off.  After throwing back the Franklin quote and receiving blank stares, I just dropped the subject.  But it sharply illustrated the willingness of some and as it turns out 10 years later, the folly and willingnes of so many to ignore the wisdom of Franklin and roll over and gladly accept whatever comes down the hill from DC in the guise of increased safety, regardless of the costs involved. 

During the campaign of 2008, when everyone was saying that McCain would be Bush 3, I kept countering that Obama would be Bush 3 on steroids.  I have stated many times here, that Bush 43 was the most socialist POTUS since FDR.  That was true until recently.  We have a new winner of that award now.

I'll take my dystopian views over your Pollyannish utopian take of our current events, anyday.  I won't be surprised at how things work out.  You are in for a big shock somewhere down the road I'll wager.

as the force and aggression of political leadership progresses, it becomes more difficult to to shield or hide...

it's all one giant continuous war against you...

Senate Rejects FISA Reforms, Delays Vote On Bush-Era Warrantless Wiretapping Program

The Senate rejected three attempts Thursday to add oversight and privacy safeguards to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amendments that authorize the warrantless wiretapping program begun under President George W. Bush, but delayed a final vote on the measure until Friday.

The program, which the Bush administration started without congressional authorization shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, collects intelligence on Americans who are communicating abroad with foreign "targets" designated by spy agencies like the CIA and National Security Agency. Critics, including NSA whistle-blowers, have raised fears that law-abiding Americans' communications are getting caught up in a vast, electronic dragnet of phone calls and emails.