Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register
 
Dark Shadows
Pages: 1 ... 96 97 98 99 100 ... 102
Send Topic Print
Cry freedom! (Read 249677 times)
b0b
GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server
*****
Offline


The revolution will not
be televised.

Posts: 7464
Battle Creek, Michigan
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1455 - Nov 14th, 2011 at 4:04pm
 
Here's your daily dose of paranoia, just in time for afternoon tea.  Google Mappers have found some very odd constructs out in the middle of some random Chinese desert.

http://www.slashgear.com/massive-networks-of-stripes-appear-in-chinese-desert-14...


-b0b
(...hmmms.)



Edit:  Here's another oddity that was discovered several years ago in a nearby location, showing some sort of massive object that was built and subsequently destroyed:

...
Back to top
 

...
WWW JamesRRogers2  
IP Logged
 
X
Post Whore
FTP Server
******
Offline


Truth Is Treason, In The
Empire Of Lies

Posts: 3903
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1456 - Nov 16th, 2011 at 3:02pm
 
Looks like the US govt. gave their explanation for the pattern above.

Quote:
Newfound Google Maps images have revealed an array of mysterious structures and patterns etched into the surface of China's Gobi Desert. The media — from mainstream to fringe — has wildly speculated that they might be Chinese weapons-testing sites, satellite calibration targets, street maps of Washington, D.C., and New York City, or even messages to (or from) aliens.

It turns out that they are almost definitely used to calibrate China's spy satellites.

So says Jonathon Hill, a research technician and mission planner at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University, which operates many of the cameras used during NASA's Mars missions. Hill works with images of the Martian surface taken by rovers and satellites, as well as data from Earth-orbiting NASA instruments.

The grids of zigzagging white lines seen in two of the images — the strangest of the various desert structures — are spy satellite calibration targets. Satellite cameras focus on the grids, which measure approximately 0.65 miles wide by 1.15 miles long, and use them to orient themselves in space. [Gallery: Mysterious Structures In China's Gobi Desert]

The existence of these calibration targets may seem suspicious or revelatory, but Hill said it really isn't; China was already known to operate spy satellites, and many other countries (including the United States) do so as well. In fact, the U.S. also uses calibration targets. "An example I found just now is a calibration target for the Corona spy satellites, built back in the 1960s, down in Casa Grande, Ariz., [at coordinates] 32° 48' 24.74" N, 111° 43' 21.30" W," Hill told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.

The 65-foot-wide white lines that make up China's grids are not made of reflective metal as many news sites have suggested. "They have gaps in them where they cross little natural drainage channels and the lines themselves are not perfectly filled in, with lots of little streaks and uneven coverage. I think it's safe to say these are some kind of paint," Hill said, noting that if they were made of white dust or chalk, the wind would have caused them to streak visibly.

The calibration targets are larger than might have been expected, he said, suggesting that the satellite cameras they are being used to calibrate have surprisingly poor ground resolution.

Another strange image taken not far away shows a Stonehenge-like arrangement of objects radiating outward, with fighter jets parked at its center. "This is almost certainly a calibration/test target for orbital radar instruments," Hill said. "Since a significant amount of radar return is due to differences in surface roughness, they're probably testing ways of making the areas around planes 'bumpy' enough that the planes are partially masked."

In other words, the Chinese military probably uses radar instruments to send signals down at the target from above, and determine how much radar bounces back to the instruments from the fighter jets, and how much gets scattered by the Stonehenge-like arrangement of bumps surrounding them. From this, the country's radar experts can learn how best to hide China's military operations from other countries' satellites, and possibly get clues for how to find carefully hidden objects in other countries. However, the fact that the planes are made out of metal will increase their radar return and make it very hard to completely mask them, Hill said.

Since the initial reports of these structures became widespread, industrious readers of the gadget blog Gizmodo have spotted a few more interesting structures in China. One, Hill said, appears to be a weapons testing zone, perhaps for evaluating explosives. Elsewhere, a giant grid resembles a Yagi antenna array. Instruments like this can be used for any number of things, such as weather tracking, space weather tracking and high-altitude atmospheric research.

Hill noted that most of these structures are quite closer to each other. "I think we're seeing some sort of military zone/test range, which explains the large amount of equipment and technology in an otherwise remote area," he said. "Sometimes the truth can be just as interesting, if not more so, than the conspiracies that people come up with."
Back to top
 

In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king. - Max Payne
agentx216  
IP Logged
 
Stick
Wootzor von Leetenhaxor
FTP Server
*****
Offline


Stick is back

Posts: 501
Michgan
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1457 - Nov 29th, 2011 at 9:11am
 
I was looking for the Popular Science article Briney had posted and I had to use google.
"popular site:twncommunications.net"
The forum search failed. Cry Freedom!
Back to top
 
Stick N1ck The St1ck  
IP Logged
 
b0b
GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server
*****
Offline


The revolution will not
be televised.

Posts: 7464
Battle Creek, Michigan
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1458 - Nov 29th, 2011 at 4:16pm
 
I searched for "Popular" using the forum search and Briney's post was the ninth hit.  I searched again for "Popular Science" and selected the "Match as Phrase" option, and it was the second hit, but only because your last post showed up first.  Here's the link to the thread:

http://www.twncommunications.net/Forum/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1272299877/14#1...

Did you change the date range to "All Posts"?  It defaults to one week, which isn't going to show you much.


-b0b
(...shrugs.)
Back to top
 

...
WWW JamesRRogers2  
IP Logged
 
Stick
Wootzor von Leetenhaxor
FTP Server
*****
Offline


Stick is back

Posts: 501
Michgan
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1459 - Nov 30th, 2011 at 1:18pm
 
Must have been the date range. I was just using the little search in the upper right hand corner which wasn't giving me those options.

Thanks!
Back to top
 
Stick N1ck The St1ck  
IP Logged
 
b0b
GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server
*****
Offline


The revolution will not
be televised.

Posts: 7464
Battle Creek, Michigan
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1460 - Nov 30th, 2011 at 10:20pm
 
Wow, I never even noticed that feature.  ;p

Yeah, it looks like that search just uses the default range of one week.


-b0b
(...learns something new every day.)
Back to top
 

...
WWW JamesRRogers2  
IP Logged
 
b0b
GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server
*****
Offline


The revolution will not
be televised.

Posts: 7464
Battle Creek, Michigan
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1461 - Jan 23rd, 2012 at 10:48am
 
Quote:
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s press secretary Moira Bagley tweeted on Monday that Transportation Security Administration officials were detaining her boss in Nashville, Tenn.

“Just got a call from @senrandpaul,” Bagley tweeted at about 10 a.m. on Monday. “He’s currently being detained by TSA in Nashville.”

Texas Congressman and current Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul – Sen. Rand Paul’s father – placed a post on Facebook about the news as well. “My son Rand is currently being detained by the TSA at the Nashville Airport,” Ron Paul posted. “I’ll share more details as the situation unfolds.”

Sen. Rand Paul’s Facebook page has a post about the incident too. “Senator Paul is being detained at the Nashville Airport by the TSA,” Sen. Rand Paul’s Facebook post reads. “We will update you as the situation develops.”


http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/23/report-tsa-detains-sen-rand-paul-in-nashville/
Back to top
 

...
WWW JamesRRogers2  
IP Logged
 
b0b
GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server
*****
Offline


The revolution will not
be televised.

Posts: 7464
Battle Creek, Michigan
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1462 - Feb 13th, 2012 at 2:03pm
 
Quote:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/13/us-usa-budget-dividend-idUSTRE81C1A420...

Obama's proposal, released on Monday, would raise the taxes investors pay on dividends to the top income tax rate, now at 35 percent, but scheduled to rise to near 40 percent next year.


Fan-frickin'-tastic.  Let's penalize retirees and your "average joe" investor.  That'll help the economy!

I just started building a dividend reinvestment program (DRIP) last year, and a 40% tax rate will most certainly kill off that ambition.  I guess it's back to traditional "buy and hold" for me.


-b0b
(...isn't sure why it isn't just taxed as income anyway.)
Back to top
 

...
WWW JamesRRogers2  
IP Logged
 
The_Fat_Man
Wootzor von Leetenhaxor
FTP Server
*****
Offline


Grand High Overlard

Posts: 910
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1463 - Feb 13th, 2012 at 3:33pm
 
Capital gains tax is WAY to low right now for sure.  Although I think it should be closer to the 20% most people pay on income tax rather than 40%....seems a bit ridiculous.
Back to top
 
sendasteel2000 fatmanlan  
IP Logged
 
Stick
Wootzor von Leetenhaxor
FTP Server
*****
Offline


Stick is back

Posts: 501
Michgan
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1464 - Feb 22nd, 2012 at 8:44am
 
Any Republicans voting in the Republican primary next week?
Back to top
 
Stick N1ck The St1ck  
IP Logged
 
b0b
GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server
*****
Offline


The revolution will not
be televised.

Posts: 7464
Battle Creek, Michigan
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1465 - Feb 22nd, 2012 at 12:05pm
 
Stick wrote on Feb 22nd, 2012 at 8:44am:
Any Republicans voting in the Republican primary next week?


I'll be there, and let me tell you, I am thrilled about our selection of candidates.


-b0b
(...no, seriously.  Thrilled.)
Back to top
 

...
WWW JamesRRogers2  
IP Logged
 
X
Post Whore
FTP Server
******
Offline


Truth Is Treason, In The
Empire Of Lies

Posts: 3903
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1466 - Feb 26th, 2012 at 10:45pm
 
Yes, and Ron Paul will be my write in candidate to the end.
Back to top
 

In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king. - Max Payne
agentx216  
IP Logged
 
MediaMaster
GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server
*****
Offline


Holy Xenu!

Posts: 1884
Detroit
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1467 - Mar 17th, 2012 at 7:13pm
 
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1


Quote:
Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.


Quote:
Given the facility’s scale and the fact that a terabyte of data can now be stored on a flash drive the size of a man’s pinky, the potential amount of information that could be housed in Bluffdale is truly staggering. But so is the exponential growth in the amount of intelligence data being produced every day by the eavesdropping sensors of the NSA and other intelligence agencies. As a result of this “expanding array of theater airborne and other sensor networks,” as a 2007 Department of Defense report puts it, the Pentagon is attempting to expand its worldwide communications network, known as the Global Information Grid, to handle yottabytes (1024 bytes) of data. (A yottabyte is a septillion bytes—so large that no one has yet coined a term for the next higher magnitude.)

It needs that capacity because, according to a recent report by Cisco, global Internet traffic will quadruple from 2010 to 2015, reaching 966 exabytes per year. (A million exabytes equal a yottabyte.) In terms of scale, Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO, once estimated that the total of all human knowledge created from the dawn of man to 2003 totaled 5 exabytes. And the data flow shows no sign of slowing. In 2011 more than 2 billion of the world’s 6.9 billion people were connected to the Internet. By 2015, market research firm IDC estimates, there will be 2.7 billion users. Thus, the NSA’s need for a 1-million-square-foot data storehouse. Should the agency ever fill the Utah center with a yottabyte of information, it would be equal to about 500 quintillion (500,000,000,000,000,000,000) pages of text.
Back to top
 

"Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other."&&&&John Adams&&
WWW  
IP Logged
 
b0b
GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server
*****
Offline


The revolution will not
be televised.

Posts: 7464
Battle Creek, Michigan
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1468 - Mar 18th, 2012 at 1:13am
 
I'm certainly not trying to defend the NSA, but much of that article is absolutely nuts.  A yottabyte of capacity?  That is completely beyond reckoning, even for the NSA.

To put this in perspective, the largest storage appliance made by NetApp is the FAS 6280.  It's an absolute beast and it takes up six network racks in their entirety.  That unit has a capacity of 4,230TB, or 4.23PB.  You would need 231,481,482 of those systems to produce a single yottabyte of storage, and that doesn't include the substantial additional racks (we're talking a few million of them) to provide sufficient parity.  It also doesn't include the insane number of supplementary systems (UPS, power distribution, networking, cooling, etc) you would need for that type of infrastructure.

The list price on a fully-loaded FAS6280 is probably in the neighborhood of a million dollars.  Even if you assume the government gets a substantial bulk purchase discount and only pays $500,000 per unit, you're still talking about 115 trillion dollars, and again, that doesn't include anything but the storage itself.

Here's some nifty math.  A petabyte is equivalent to 250,000 ripped DVDs.  A yottabyte would be equivalent to 250 trillion DVDs.


-b0b
(...could use a FAS6280 at home!)
Back to top
 

...
WWW JamesRRogers2  
IP Logged
 
MediaMaster
GeekCrew Administrator
FTP Server
*****
Offline


Holy Xenu!

Posts: 1884
Detroit
Gender: male
Re: Cry freedom!
Reply #1469 - Mar 18th, 2012 at 2:22am
 
I guess they should have bolded this part:

Quote:
Pentagon is attempting to expand its worldwide communications network, known as the Global Information Grid, to handle yottabytes (1024 bytes) of data.


Better for the drama of the article that they don't point all that out i suppose lol.
thanks for the knowledge bob and the nifty breakdown!
Back to top
 

"Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other."&&&&John Adams&&
WWW  
IP Logged
 
Pages: 1 ... 96 97 98 99 100 ... 102
Send Topic Print