Posts by Enrique Arratia
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Message boards :
Politics :
Political Thread [15] - CLOSED
(Message 309765)
Posted 18 May 2006 by  Enrique Arratia
Post: From Wired.com The Eternal Value of Privacy By Bruce Schneier 02:00 AM May, 18, 2006 The most common retort against privacy advocates -- by those in favor of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale surveillance measures -- is this line: "If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?" Some clever answers: "If I'm not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me." "Because the government gets to define what's wrong, and they keep changing the definition." "Because you might do something wrong with my information." My problem with quips like these -- as right as they are -- is that they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It's not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect. Two proverbs say it best: Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? ("Who watches the watchers?") and "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Cardinal Richelieu understood the value of surveillance when he famously said, "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged." Watch someone long enough, and you'll find something to arrest -- or just blackmail -- with. Privacy is important because without it, surveillance information will be abused: to peep, to sell to marketers and to spy on political enemies -- whoever they happen to be at the time. Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance. We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need. A future in which privacy would face constant assault was so alien to the framers of the Constitution that it never occurred to them to call out privacy as an explicit right. Privacy was inherent to the nobility of their being and their cause. Of course being watched in your own home was unreasonable. Watching at all was an act so unseemly as to be inconceivable among gentlemen in their day. You watched convicted criminals, not free citizens. You ruled your own home. It's intrinsic to the concept of liberty. For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that -- either now or in the uncertain future -- patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable. How many of us have paused during conversation in the past four-and-a-half years, suddenly aware that we might be eavesdropped on? Probably it was a phone conversation, although maybe it was an e-mail or instant-message exchange or a conversation in a public place. Maybe the topic was terrorism, or politics, or Islam. We stop suddenly, momentarily afraid that our words might be taken out of context, then we laugh at our paranoia and go on. But our demeanor has changed, and our words are subtly altered. This is the loss of freedom we face when our privacy is taken from us. This is life in former East Germany, or life in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. And it's our future as we allow an ever-intrusive eye into our personal, private lives. Too many wrongly characterize the debate as "security versus privacy." The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that's why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide. |
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Message boards :
Politics :
Political Thread [15] - CLOSED
(Message 308507)
Posted 17 May 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: While Mexico uses its own army to secure its borders (especially its southern border with Guatemala), it feels that America doesn't have the same sovereign right. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060516-1635-mexico-us-immigration.html Mexico warns of lawsuits against U.S. if National Guard detains migrants By Will Weissert ASSOCIATED PRESS 4:35 p.m. May 16, 2006 NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – Mexico warned Tuesday it would file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops detain migrants on the border, and some officials said they fear the crackdown will force illegal crossers into more perilous areas to avoid detection. President Bush announced Monday that he will send 6,000 National Guard troops to the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, but said the troops will provide intelligence and surveillance support to U.S. Border Patrol agents and will not catch and detain illegal immigrants. “If there is a real wave of rights abuses, if we see the National Guard starting to directly participate in detaining people ... we would immediately start filing lawsuits through our consulates,†Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said in an interview with a Mexico City radio station. Mexican officials worry the increased security at the U.S. border will lead to more deaths. Since the bolstered surveillance at crossing spots in Texas and California in 1994, migrants have flooded Arizona's hard-to-patrol desert and deaths have spiked. Migrant groups estimate 500 people died trying to cross the border in 2005. The Border Patrol reported 473 deaths as of Sept. 30. Sending the National Guard “will not stop the flow of migrants, to the contrary, it will probably go up,†as people try to get into the U.S. with hopes of applying for a possible amnesty program, said Julieta Nunez Gonzalez, the Ciudad Juarez representative of Mexico's National Immigration Institute. Nunez said she planned to ask the Mexican government to send a migrant protection force, Grupo Beta, to more remote sections of the border. The dusty outpost near the New Mexico border has turned into a smugglers haven after the U.S. Border Patrol increased its presence on the Arizona border. Along the border in Nuevo Laredo, Carlos Gonzalez, a 23-year old from Mexico's southern state of Chiapas, was waiting for a chance to swim across the river into Texas. He said soldiers would not stop him getting to a construction job he had lined up in North Carolina. “Desperation gives one a lot of willpower. If they stop me 20 times, I'll arrive on the 21st,†Gonzalez said resting on a street corner outside a migrant shelter. However, Carlos Ferrera, a 27-year-old from Honduras who lost part of his arm in a recent car accident, was worried that the National Guard could push him into dangerous terrain when he crosses to get to an $8.50 an hour landscaping job in Dallas. “The more reinforced the border is the further we will have to go to find places to get in.†Ferrera said. Mexican newspapers Tuesday characterized the decision as a hardening of the U.S. position, and some criticized President Vicente Fox for not taking a stronger stand, though Fox called Bush on Sunday to express his concerns. Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said Tuesday that Mexico accepted Bush's statement that the Guard troops didn't imply a militarization of area, and that Mexico remained “optimistic†that the U.S. Senate would approve an immigration policy “in the interests of both countries.†He noted Bush expressed support for the legalization of some immigrants and the implementation of a guest worker program. “This is definitely not a militarization,†said Aguilar. Salvadoran President Tony Saca said he worried that there could be an increase in abuses against migrants because National Guard troops are trained to handle natural disasters and wars. |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
Privatizing Space Exploration
(Message 306439)
Posted 15 May 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: As long as space exploration is not turned over entirely to private companies it is OK. The problem with complete privatization is that further exploration would depend entirely on the profits to be had. A government run program, although it may not be as economically efficient as a private one, doesn't necessarily expect profits and so is freer to pursue pure science and exploration. |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
We all help SETI for a reason...what is yours? Share your thoughts here.
(Message 295225)
Posted 4 May 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: If we search, we might or might not find Intelligent life out there. But if we don't search, we sure ain't gonna find diddly squat! I'd much rather do some searching. |
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Message boards :
Cafe SETI :
Myth, Legend, Science?(CLOSED)
(Message 290715)
Posted 28 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post:
If one day you hear me... you'll quickly change your mind. I really can't sing, not at all (not even poorly!). |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
We believe in ET, not ID
(Message 290713)
Posted 28 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post:
Amen! |
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Message boards :
Politics :
Political Thread [14] - CLOSED
(Message 290383)
Posted 27 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: DejaVu! Hmmm... I guess I should have looked before posting. Thanks! |
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Message boards :
Politics :
Political Thread [14] - CLOSED
(Message 290363)
Posted 27 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: Back to immigration for a quick second. With all the talk in previous weeks of immigration reform and the demands illegal immigrants are making, it got me wondering: how do these people treat illegals in their own countries? I found this in the San Diego Union Tribune. It talks about Mexico's laws on illegal aliens and how it actually treats them. It is extremely relevant (and an eye opener) in that most so-called "undocumented" people here come from Mexico and this is the country that is loudest in calling for a "fair" treatment of its citizens illegally residing within the USA; it has gone so far as hiring lobbyists to talk to our legislators. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060418-1459-mexico-mistreatingmigrants.html By Mark Stevenson ASSOCIATED PRESS 2:59 p.m. April 18, 2006 TULTITLAN, Mexico – Considered felons by the government, these migrants fear detention, rape and robbery. Police and soldiers hunt them down at railroads, bus stations and fleabag hotels. Sometimes they are deported; more often officers simply take their money. While migrants in the United States have held huge demonstrations in recent weeks, the hundreds of thousands of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico suffer mostly in silence. And though Mexico demands humane treatment for its citizens who migrate to the U.S., regardless of their legal status, Mexico provides few protections for migrants on its own soil. The issue simply isn't on the country's political agenda, perhaps because migrants make up only 0.5 percent of the population, or about 500,000 people – compared with 12 percent in the United States. The level of brutality Central American migrants face in Mexico was apparent Monday, when police conducting a raid for undocumented migrants near a rail yard outside Mexico City shot to death a local man, apparently because his dark skin and work clothes made officers think he was a migrant. Virginia Sanchez, who lives near the railroad tracks that carry Central Americans north to the U.S. border, said such shootings in Tultitlan are common. “At night, you hear the gunshots, and it's the judiciales (state police) chasing the migrants,†she said. “It's not fair to kill these people. It's not fair in the United States and it's not fair here.†Undocumented Central American migrants complain much more about how they are treated by Mexican officials than about authorities on the U.S. side of the border, where migrants may resent being caught but often praise the professionalism of the agents scouring the desert for their trail. “If you're carrying any money, they take it from you – federal, state, local police, all of them,†said Carlos Lopez, a 28-year-old farmhand from Guatemala crouching in a field near the tracks in Tultitlan, waiting to climb onto a northbound freight train. Lopez said he had been shaken down repeatedly in 15 days of traveling through Mexico. “The soldiers were there as soon as we crossed the river,†he said. “They said, 'You can't cross ... unless you leave something for us.'†Jose Ramos, 18, of El Salvador, said the extortion occurs at every stop in Mexico, until migrants are left penniless and begging for food. “If you're on a bus, they pull you off and search your pockets and if you have any money, they keep it and say, 'Get out of here,'†Ramos said. Maria Elena Gonzalez, who lives near the tracks, said female migrants often complain about abusive police. “They force them to strip, supposedly to search them, but the purpose is to sexually abuse them,†she said. Others said they had seen migrants beaten to death by police, their bodies left near the railway tracks to make it look as if they had fallen from a train. The Mexican government acknowledges that many federal, state and local officials are on the take from the people-smugglers who move hundreds of thousands of Central Americans north, and that migrants are particularly vulnerable to abuse by corrupt police. The National Human Rights Commission, a government-funded agency, documented the abuses south of the U.S. border in a December report. “One of the saddest national failings on immigration issues is the contradiction in demanding that the North respect migrants' rights, which we are not capable of guaranteeing in the South,†commission president Jose Luis Soberanes said. In the United States, mostly Mexican immigrants have staged rallies pressuring Congress to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants rather than making them felons and deputizing police to deport them. The Mexican government has spoken out in support of the immigrants' cause. While Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal said Monday that “Mexico is a country with a clear, defined and generous policy toward migrants,†the nation of 105 million has legalized only 15,000 immigrants in the past five years, and many undocumented migrants who are detained are deported. Although Mexico objects to U.S. authorities detaining Mexican immigrants, police and soldiers usually cause the most trouble for migrants in Mexico, even though they aren't technically authorized to enforce immigration laws. And while Mexicans denounce the criminalization of their citizens living without papers in the United States, Mexican law classifies undocumented immigration as a felony punishable by up to two years in prison, although deportation is more common. The number of undocumented migrants detained in Mexico almost doubled from 138,061 in 2002 to 240,269 last year. Forty-two percent were Guatemalan, 33 percent Honduran and most of the rest Salvadoran. Like the United States, Mexico is becoming reliant on immigrant labor. Last year, then-director of Mexico's immigration agency, Magdalena Carral, said an increasing number of Central Americans were staying in Mexico, rather than just passing through on their way to the U.S. She said sectors of the Mexican economy facing labor shortages often use undocumented workers because the legal process for work visas is inefficient. |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
We believe in ET, not ID
(Message 286719)
Posted 21 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post:
Soil is regularly enriched with manure. Does that mean that each time you take a bite out of a tomato or eat a carrot you are eating manure? Nature breaks down manure (cow, steer and chicken droppings) into its components through animal and bacterial action; these become part of the soil and are used by plants to build up and set fruit. You eat this fruit, digest it and excrete what is not any use to you and the cycle begins anew. That's the way it works. Are you going to stop eating fruits and vegetables now? If so, then stop drinking water too, it was urine at one point or another... and don't breath any are, you don't know in what lungs it has been, it might have been in a dog's lungs for all you know. I agree with Jim, a lot of things religion tells you to do or not do has some basis on practical knowledge and early survival. Why do people from middle eastern cultures dress from head to toe? Sun is very harsh on exposed skin. At some point it became part of their culture and/or religion. Today a lot of these customs are just a clutch and sometimes even an anchor on progress. |
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Message boards :
Cafe SETI :
need a little help
(Message 281045)
Posted 13 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: Done, done and done! |
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Message boards :
Cafe SETI :
Back by popular demand...Dante's Inferno Test.
(Message 281044)
Posted 13 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: What level of Hell are you destined to reach. Level 3! Me likes them doughnuts! And pizza, and potato pancakes (Kosher), and stuffed grape leaves, and... Oh! And bacon, can't get enough bacon! Ahhh... excuse me, got to go find something to eat. |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
New Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Begins
(Message 281008)
Posted 13 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: Optical SETI?!!! Nice!!! YEAH! |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
MIT group develops 'mind-reading' device
(Message 280496)
Posted 12 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: let's get back on 'track' . . . Most interesting! Just recently I was watching a Psychologist or Doctor (Discovery Health?? Can't remember) talking about how they help people with Autism by teaching them how to read people and social environments. I guess a gadget like this would give them an additional tool to rely on, make the task of reading others a little easier. |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
MIT group develops 'mind-reading' device
(Message 280486)
Posted 12 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: Doc: "Don't tell me anything. Quiet! I'm gonna read your thoughts. Let's see now. You've come here from a great distance?" Marty: "Yeah, exactly." Doc: "Don't tell me! Uh, you want me to buy a subscription to The Saturday Evening Post?" Marty: "No!" Doc: "Not a word! Not a word! Not a word now! Quiet. Uh, donations... You want me to make a donation to the Coast Guard Youth Auxiliary." Marty: "Doc, I'm from the future. I came here in a time machine that you invented. Now I need your help to get back to the year 1985." Doc: "By God! Do you know what this means? It means that this damn thing doesn't work at all!" |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
Tenth planet.
(Message 280421)
Posted 12 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post:
Ha! Now there's an eye opener! From the second link: "...Pluto beseeches the masses to look inward (and to their subconscious) to see what's there. It may be scary, but Pluto doesn't care. This Planet knows how to push buttons..." It would seem that planets not only "influence" our life and future by their mere presence and position in the sky at one time or another. Now it turns out that they do it consciously, like they are some sort of scheming entities. What a hoot! Thanks for the links! |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
Tenth planet.
(Message 280363)
Posted 12 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: I do not believe in Astrology and Horoscopes but there some that do. I wonder what Astrologers are going to make of the 10th planet? Could be fun to watch ;-) I don't pay much attention to Astrologers. But, do they use Pluto? And I don't mean the commercial folk of Cosmo-type magazines, I mean the more "serious" ones. If they do, then I guess they'll have to introduce whatever other objects are declared as planets into their "calculations". Either that, or come up with some argument as to why the object is not really a planet. |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
Tenth planet.
(Message 280333)
Posted 12 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: Come on, Pluto and Xena are clearly Kuiper belt objects. Pluto is not a planet, it's been perturbed into an eccentric and closer orbit than other KBOs. We'll know much more when the Pluto probe gets there...years from now. Agreed. However, I wonder if the upcoming fly by (New Horizons) will open up the debate once the data starts flowing in... |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
Science in the Qur'an
(Message 280066)
Posted 12 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
Science in the Qur'an
(Message 280064)
Posted 12 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
Science in the Qur'an
(Message 280063)
Posted 12 Apr 2006 by Enrique Arratia
Post: Hey, Enrique, I actually had posted a specific treatment of each bullcrap statement with some supporting evidence lo-o-o-o-ong ago (having no petience for an in-depth treatment), but it got quickly buried with repeat posts of 'How did he know 600 years ago?!?' and the answers to it. Yes, I remember that post, good compilation actually. I guess you can still access it through your message history and post it again if you wanted. But what's the point really? I know you were the one saying that god doesn't exist, but I wasn't pointing your way intentionally, it was just the first thing that came to mind (I guess that's why I added the 'punch lights' out bit too). I second Robert, this thread is closed. And agree with Dogbyte's assesement: Troll threat level:SEVERE |
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