This line of paranoid thinking sprang out of a lightning strike close by
- which is why I cut the 15-mile run short by 5 miles, not wanting to
meet the storm that was barreling in.
Today I used a web app that uses GPS, time splits and Google Maps to create a map showing where you've been, how long it was, how fast you did it, and how much you climbed:
You can see it here. For that matter so can anyone else, since its visibility is set to "public."
But even if visibility wasn't set to public, would my route be visible? Just how much information does my iPhone transmit and who gets to see it? Do you feel a very pronounced sense of unease when you are about to answer the question "Do you want to share your location information with X?" ?!
This line of paranoid thinking sprang out of a lightning strike close by - which is why I cut the 15-mile run short by 5 miles, not wanting to meet the storm that was barreling in. Yesterday's flash flood experience in the canyon was still fresh, after all.
The search for Harsha Maddula, a Northwestern University student, who drowned last week, was focused on Wilmette harbor - the location where his cell phone last sent a signal form. In an instance like this, sharing your location information with a web or phone service provider is a pretty good thing.
Question: When does it become a not-so-good thing?
Answer: When you become designated as a terrorist or enemy of the State.
As of September 25, 2012 the Obama Administration has authorized 294 drone attacks in Pakistan alone1 with some of the casualty figures listed below:
Watch this delightful documentary - brought to you courtesy of military.com - of a recording of a Hellfire missile obliterating Bad Guys in Iraq. Kudos to the whimsical sound engineer:
Drone strikes represent another deep wound in the quickly-dying esteem of America in the world, on a number of grounds:
Today I used a web app that uses GPS, time splits and Google Maps to create a map showing where you've been, how long it was, how fast you did it, and how much you climbed:
 |
| Today's run: 10 miles, with 306 feet of climbing, first 5 miles in 45 minutes, the second 5 in 41. |
But even if visibility wasn't set to public, would my route be visible? Just how much information does my iPhone transmit and who gets to see it? Do you feel a very pronounced sense of unease when you are about to answer the question "Do you want to share your location information with X?" ?!
This line of paranoid thinking sprang out of a lightning strike close by - which is why I cut the 15-mile run short by 5 miles, not wanting to meet the storm that was barreling in. Yesterday's flash flood experience in the canyon was still fresh, after all.
The search for Harsha Maddula, a Northwestern University student, who drowned last week, was focused on Wilmette harbor - the location where his cell phone last sent a signal form. In an instance like this, sharing your location information with a web or phone service provider is a pretty good thing.
Question: When does it become a not-so-good thing?
Answer: When you become designated as a terrorist or enemy of the State.
As of September 25, 2012 the Obama Administration has authorized 294 drone attacks in Pakistan alone1 with some of the casualty figures listed below:
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that between 391 – 780 civilians were killed out of a total of between 1,658 and 2,597 and that 160 children are reported among the deaths. The Bureau also revealed that since President Obama took office at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims and more than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners, tactics that have been condemned by legal experts.
Watch this delightful documentary - brought to you courtesy of military.com - of a recording of a Hellfire missile obliterating Bad Guys in Iraq. Kudos to the whimsical sound engineer:
Drone strikes represent another deep wound in the quickly-dying esteem of America in the world, on a number of grounds:
- The Geneva Conventions define the range of actions that are legal in a state of war. Because the United States is conducting a "War on Terror" it claims the right to sidestep the rule of law in that no nation-state is defined as a combatant and therefore no "war" is actually taking place.
- The use of targeted assassinations - of which the United States is the leading culprit - is illegal. It does not allow the victim access to the rule of law, or one of the rights we take for granted, innocent until proven guilty.
- The use of targeted assassinations against a United States citizen - takes this approach to a new extreme. On September 30, 2011, Obama authorized the assassination of the American-born cleric, the killing of Anwar al-Aulaqi, in Yemen.
Why worry? We're talking about terrorists - not ordinary people like you and me! But that raises the big, BIG question:
Who decides who is a terrorist?
And this is where the genie comes out of the bottle: it's one thing to have the American government label you as a terrorist, but drone technology is spreading fast, so if anyone else decides you're the enemy, what's to step them from taking you out? It seems the US long ago abandoned the moral high ground, and the precedent is set for anyone else with drone technology to use it indiscriminately.
Drones are also getting quite small. After 911, I idly wondered if the next terrorist attack might be on Rumsfeld, Bush, Cheney and Rice - with model airplanes (aka "drones"). I idly wondered about this in print - then wondered - in that wonderful time when Americans happily gave up their civil liberties in an orgy of fear mongering and bloodlust for revenge - if my name had made it onto a "list." What does it take to get your name on a list - the CIA's, Al Qaeda's, Israel's, your next door neighbor (because your next door neighbor can get their own drone).
This sounds painfully familiar because it is: since the first use of the atomic bomb in 1945, we've been held hostage by our fear of nuclear annihilation; fortunately that fear has led to efforts to prevent its use again. But it seems that curtailing the use of a much-easier-to-acquire technology is - at the very least - going to require some moral leadership by those who already have it. And on that account, it's completely missing.
And this is where the genie comes out of the bottle: it's one thing to have the American government label you as a terrorist, but drone technology is spreading fast, so if anyone else decides you're the enemy, what's to step them from taking you out? It seems the US long ago abandoned the moral high ground, and the precedent is set for anyone else with drone technology to use it indiscriminately.
Drones are also getting quite small. After 911, I idly wondered if the next terrorist attack might be on Rumsfeld, Bush, Cheney and Rice - with model airplanes (aka "drones"). I idly wondered about this in print - then wondered - in that wonderful time when Americans happily gave up their civil liberties in an orgy of fear mongering and bloodlust for revenge - if my name had made it onto a "list." What does it take to get your name on a list - the CIA's, Al Qaeda's, Israel's, your next door neighbor (because your next door neighbor can get their own drone).
This sounds painfully familiar because it is: since the first use of the atomic bomb in 1945, we've been held hostage by our fear of nuclear annihilation; fortunately that fear has led to efforts to prevent its use again. But it seems that curtailing the use of a much-easier-to-acquire technology is - at the very least - going to require some moral leadership by those who already have it. And on that account, it's completely missing.
Today's run: 10 miles, with 306 feet of climbing, first 5 miles in 45 minutes, the second 5 in 41. 3 weeks until the Amsterdam Marathon. One week (average, with 4 strikes/month in 2012) until the next American drone strike.
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_attacks_in_Pakistan
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