Dogs Calling 911

The tablet for DOGS that will allow service animals to call 911 for their owners

  • Dogs can be trained to use the touchscreen to make calls or send texts 
  • It can also be used if the dog’s owner falls or if they hear them ask for help
  • After the dog uses its nose to push the buttons, a computer connected to the touchscreen can be programmed to call anyone, such as 911 or a family member
  • The FIDO project team say they hope the technology can be commercially available soon for service dogs, but it’s still at the prototype stage

The researchers, who have already developed a vest that lets dogs deliver messages, and send their GPS co-ordinates, developed the touchscreen to train dogs to activate a device if their owner falls or if they hear them ask for help.

The technology could help save lives, particularly those the elderly who are at higher risk of falling.

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Researchers based at the Georgia Institute of Technology trained dogs to approach a large TV-sized touchscreen and use their nose to dial 911 when they hear the word 'help'. Pictured is the touchscreen used, with icons colored in blue and yellow which the dogs can see

The technology was developed by a team of researchers for FIDO project at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dr Melody Jackson, director of the animal-computer interaction lab at Georgia Tech, told CNN: ‘The dog could go over to a touchscreen and touch a series of icons on the touchscreen and call 911 with your location.’

‘We think that, literally, this could change lives, make lives so much better, and be a life-saver.’

She said that service dogs as well as regular companion pets could be use the touchscreen technology.

Dr Jackson and her team said that they realized that both service dogs and working dogs have information that they need to impart to their handlers.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Dr Melody Jackson, director of the animal-computer interaction lab at Georgia Tech, and her colleagues have trained her border collie Sky, as well as other dogs, to approach a large TV-sized touchscreen and use their nose to dial 911 when they hear the word ‘help’.

After the dog uses its nose to push the buttons, a computer connected to the touchscreen can be programmed to call anyone, for example a family member, doctor or 911.

According to Clint Zeagler, a researcher at Georgia Tech, the buttons are colored in blue and yellow because dogs are red-green colorblind.

He says that here are only three buttons on the screen to reduce the chance of accidental calls being made if the dog hits the screen accidentally.

For example, medical alert dogs may need to alert 911 if their owner falls, or a military  dog may need to alert their handler as to what kind of explosive they’ve found.

Dr Jackson, who is also a dog trainer, and her colleagues have trained her border collie Sky, as well as other dogs, to approach a large TV-sized touchscreen and use their nose to dial 911 when they hear the word ‘help’.

After the dog uses its nose to push the buttons, a computer connected to the touchscreen can be programmed to call anyone, for example a family member, doctor or 911.

According to Clint Zeagler, a researcher at Georgia Tech, the buttons are colored in blue and yellow because dogs are red-green colorblind.

He says that there are only three buttons on the screen to reduce the chance of accidental calls being made if the dog hits the screen accidentally.

The researchers are testing what size the buttons should be, what colors they should be and what hardware should be used for the dogs to optimize the technology.

The researchers also developed a wearable vest for dogs that lets dogs deliver messages and even send their GPS co-ordinates.

The researchers also developed a wearable vest for dogs that lets them deliver messages and make calls. Pulling or biting certain features on the vest activate sensors which send signals to a computer in the vest which can make a phone call, send a text or play an audio message

The researchers also developed a wearable vest for dogs that lets them deliver messages and make calls. Pulling or biting certain features on the vest activate sensors which send signals to a computer in the vest which can make a phone call, send a text or play an audio message

The sensors on the vest either have a chew toy for the dog to bite on for a command, or a rope to tug for another command.

These actions activate sensors which send signals to a computer in the vest which can make a phone call, send a text or play an audio message.

An audio message could for example let someone know that the dog has already called for help or that it needs more assistance for its owner.

For example, some seizure alert dogs can sense the onset of seizures, and they’re trained to push their owners against a wall to lessen their fall, and lick their face during the seizure.

The FIDO project team say that they hope these technologies can be commercially available for service animals soon, but the technologies are still at the prototype stage.

The FIDO project team say that they hope these technologies can be commercially available for service animals soon, but the technologies are still at the prototype stage.

But with the vest, a seizure alert dog could also tug a sensor on their vest to call 911.

‘We want to be able to let these dogs communicate with humans very specifically and very clearly so that even a person who isn’t a dog trainer will understand what’s going on,’ said Dr Jackson.

‘If the dog runs up to you and a speaker says, “Excuse me, my handler needs your attention; can you please follow me,” OK, that’s clear.’

The FIDO project team say that they hope these technologies can be commercially available for service animals soon, but the technologies are still at the prototype stage.

What’s Going on?

As Always – Do your research, The Decide for yourself:

Mark Zuckerberg is running the Bucky Fuller agenda

 

“Every time somebody comes up with a universal plan to improve the world, you have to ask yourself this burning question: who will impose the plan? And then you have ask: what are the imposers’ true motives? And you have to remember what a Trojan Horse is.” (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)

Over a period of 50 years, Buckminster Fuller explained his plan for making a better world. He talked about the coming wave of automation that would throw gigantic numbers of people out of work. He talked about the need for a universal system of support, whereby everyone on the planet would be guaranteed, from birth, the essentials of survival: food, clothing, shelter, and limitless free education.

Read this statement by Fuller:

“We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.”

Obviously, Fuller’s plan carries great appeal for many young people, for whom the idea of earning a living is a full-bore horror movie.

Fuller also believed that freeing up the young to “think about new solutions” for humanity and come up with new technology would justify his plan.

Compare Fuller’s agenda with Mark Zuckerberg’s. The Facebook founder recently gave a commencement address at Harvard. Read his words carefully:

“…today, technology and automation are eliminating many jobs…Our generation will have to deal with tens of millions of jobs replaced by automation like self-driving cars and trucks. But we have the potential to do so much more together.”

“Every generation expands its definition of equality. Previous generations fought for the vote and civil rights. They had the New Deal and Great Society. Now it’s our time to define a new social contract for our generation.”

“We should have a society that measures progress not just by economic metrics like GDP, but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful. We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things… And as technology keeps changing, we need to focus more on continuous education throughout our lives.”

By direct statement and implication, Zuckerberg is echoing Bucky Fuller. The threat of automation. Massive unemployment. Guarantee the means of survival for every person. Free education for life. Come up with new ideas that contribute to the progress of the human species.

But as with Fuller, the thorny question about who is going to put this new universal plan into action is sidestepped. It appears the answer is: “the government.”

The most incompetent, bloated, corrupt, conniving force on the planet is in charge.

Doesn’t that fill you with confidence?

There is more. Who, behind the scenes, influences and controls government decisions and policies? A few groups come to mind: Bilderberg; Council on Foreign Relations; Trilateral Commission; United Nations. Fill in others yourself.

These are people we can trust?

And then there is this: what is the overall effect of gifting everyone on the planet with the basics of survival? On balance, does it produce visionaries and determined entrepreneurs? Or does it produce massive numbers of Welfare dependents, who drift in a sluggish space and want, at most, periodic stimulations of adrenaline to relieve their interminable boredom? Do they seek out endless free education, or do they ingest various drugs and sit glued to screens—and occasionally take to the streets to demand MORE?

Are fervent Globalist, Leftist, technocratic academics prepared to offer an honest assessment of the effects of a few billion people living on universal Welfare?

It’s quite convenient that “utopian” thinkers like Bucky Fuller and Mark Zuckerberg avoid these questions.

It’s not a stretch to infer that Zuckerberg views his brainchild, Facebook, as a means to expand the Surveillance State to new dimensions, because a few billion people living on Welfare are a potentially volatile demographic and “need to be watched.”

Is this liberation? It’s about population-pacification, passivity, endless “entertainment,” lowest common denominator, mind control, creating “voting blocs”; and yes, elimination of all borders, and a global superstructure of management for planet Earth. It’s about smaller living spaces, assigned from above, overcrowding in cities, and governments taking over more and more public lands…

This is the reality behind the utopia.

As usual, the devil is in the details. It’s easy to envision whole generations of empowered visionaries finding new solutions for the planet. But on even a cursory examination, the whole plan sinks into a morass of grotesque consequences.

If you’re up for it, try researching this question: How many government programs, and how much funding, is devoted, in all countries of the world, to authentically stimulating the freedom and power and creativity and independence of The Individual?

A related question: How many college courses around the world teach The Freedom and Power and Creativity and Independence of The Individual?

Answering these questions will give you some idea of governments’ “genuine caring” for individual innovation.

Good hunting.

Zuckerberg is Bucky Fuller 2.0. Unlike Fuller, he has billions in the bank. He has allies in the Deep State. He has the means to push the Fuller agenda.

From the top down.

And as usual, that’s where all the trouble starts. “Here, all you people, this is what you want. This plan will make life easier for you. Don’t you want things to be easier? We will make it happen. It’s our gift.”

The gift sounds appealing. It looks appealing.

Roughly 3200 years ago, after Greek forces failed to penetrate the gated city of Troy during a decade of war, they abandoned the field in apparent defeat. They left behind a giant wooden horse. The Trojans took the beautiful and appealing statue as a trophy and brought it into the city. At night, under cover, a door opened in the horse, Greek soldiers slipped out, opened the gates of Troy, and the rest of the Greek force, which hadn’t really retreated, flooded in.

The gift that wasn’t a gift.

“Oh look, that’s a wonderful idea to make a better future. I’ll take it in. I’ll believe in it…”

The gates of a city; the gates of a mind.

from:    https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2017/06/02/mark-zuckerberg-is-running-the-bucky-fuller-agenda/

Roswell Keeps Coming Back

They were hauling a big creature’: New footage reveals what Deputy Sheriff said he saw at Roswell, in UFO mystery that has baffled experts and conspiracy theorists for 70 years

  • Deputy Sheriff Charles Fogus said he saw a flying saucer at New Mexico crash site
  • Case has confounded experts since 1947, when US military said a surveillance balloon crashed
  • In the never-before released interview, Fogus said he saw aliens who ‘looked like the ones we see on television’ 

A deputy sheriff said he saw he saw a crashed flying saucer and aliens who ‘looked like the ones we see on television’ at Roswell, a newly-released interview reveals.

Deputy Sheriff Charles Fogus rushed to the scene of a crashed aircraft in New Mexico in an incident that still baffles experts and conspiracy theorists after 70 years.

A new book claims Fogus said the UFO was around 100ft wide, and he said he saw soldiers removing dead ‘creatures’ from the scene.

The case has baffled conspiracy theorists for seven decades, in spite of the US military saying it was a balloon which crashed 

Major Jesse Marcel from the Roswell Army Air Field with debris found 75 miles north west of Roswell, NM, in June 1947. The debris has been identified as that of a radar target. The Air Force released a report debunking reports of a UFO crash near Roswell

Major Jesse Marcel from the Roswell Army Air Field with debris found 75 miles north west of Roswell, NM, in June 1947. The debris has been identified as that of a radar target. The Air Force released a report debunking reports of a UFO crash near Roswell

The deputy told Deanna Short, a private investigator from LA, there were between 300 and 400 soldiers on the scene when he arrived with Sheriff Jess Slaughter in July 1947.

In transcripts from a 1999 interview seen by The Mirror, and used in new book UFOs TODAY – 70 Years of Lies, Misinformation and Government Cover-Up, he said: ‘They were hauling a big, a creature.

‘The bodies must have been 5 feet tall. I saw the legs and feet on some of them. They looked like our feet.

‘The skin was a brownish color…. Like they were in the sun too long.’

Reports of a 'flying saucer' crash circulated at the time, prompting conspiracy theorists to believe aliens had landed

Reports of a ‘flying saucer’ crash circulated at the time, prompting conspiracy theorists to believe aliens had landed

The incident continues to be popular with UFO enthusiasts seven decades after it happened

The incident continues to be popular with UFO enthusiasts seven decades after it happened

The interview features in the book UFOs Today: 70 Years of Lies, Misinformation and Government Cover-Up

The interview features in the book UFOs Today: 70 Years of Lies, Misinformation and Government Cover-Up

Asked if he had seen their heads, he said: ‘Yeh….they were covered. They eyes looked like the ones we see on television and the pictures of them.’

And reflecting on what he had seen, Fogus said: ‘The Great Father didn’t just make this planet…. He made all of them.

‘He put beings on these planets just like he put us on this one. They’re smarter then we are.’

UNSEEN interview with a cop who witnessed 1947 Roswell UFO crash

The book has been published by Philip Mantle, who is a former director of investigations for the British UFO Research Association.

He told The Mirror: ‘It is rare that anyone new adds anything to the Roswell event from an eye witness point of view.

‘If you treat the Roswell UFO crash as a ‘cold case’ investigation then new testimony like this can be invaluable.’

The US Military has consistently denied that Roswell was the site of an alien landing, releasing reports confirming that the object which crashed was a surveillance balloon.

COULD BLURRY LETTER HELP TO SOLVE ROSWELL MYSTERY?

Conspiracy theorists claim a blurry letter seen in a picture could be the key to solving the Roswell UFO mystery.

The photo shows Air Force General Roger Ramey crouching over debris which was claimed to be from the Roswell Crash.

He appears to be holding a memo, which UFO researchers believe could be key in finally unlocking what happened in the New Mexico desert 70 years ago.

At Fort Worth Army Air Field, Major Jesse A. Marcel is seen holding foil debris from Roswell

At Fort Worth Army Air Field, Major Jesse A. Marcel is seen holding foil debris from Roswell

David Rudiak, a UFO researcher, has used modern technology to zoom on the letter

David Rudiak, a UFO researcher, has used modern technology to zoom on the letter

David Rudiak, a UFO researcher, has used modern technology to zoom on the letter.

Alejandro Rojas, a presenter for Open Minds Radio, told Express Online: ‘He [David] says it is clear that there is a reference to a disc and believes he can also make out a portion of a sentence that reads “and the victims of the wreck”.

‘Rudiak says this proves that a disc-shaped craft was recovered.

‘However, perhaps more startling, he says it also corroborates the claims that extraterrestrial bodies were recovered from that wreck.’

The 1947 Roswell incident is one of the most controversial UFO episodes in history.

Today Roswell is a magnet for tourists and UFO theorists, all looking for their own clues

Today Roswell is a magnet for tourists and UFO theorists, all looking for their own clues

A weather balloon,used to monitor nuclear tests, allegedly crashed in the New Mexico desert.

However in a stunning development the military announced the next day that a crashed flying saucer had instead been found.

The statement was later retracted, but not before it helped fuel one of the biggest UFO conspiracy theories ever.

Researchers claim that the military covered up the UFO crash with the later story about the weather balloon.

Today Roswell is a magnet for tourists and UFO theorists, all looking for their own clues.

Another Look at Global Warming

Global Warming

SUMMARY: Global warming is a theory with four components:

1. The Earth’s surface temperature is rising because of human activity, particularly industrial production and personal consumption;

2. Weather extremes we now experience are more destructive than in the past because of this warming effect;

3. If this trend is not stopped, the planet will soon be unable to sustain human life as we have known it; and

4. The solution is government management of all human activity, including the elimination of private property and personal freedom.

We reject the theory of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming for three reasons:

1. It is based on junk science and fraud. In other words, it does not exist. The driving force behind this theory comes from politicians, bureaucrats, and those employed by institutions that depend on government funding. All of these benfit from the alleged solution to the alledged problem.

2. The proposed solution requires crushing taxation, confiscation of private property, and denial of freedom-of-choice. This is contrary to The Creed of Freedom, paragraphs 3 and 4.

3. The threat of global warming is the bedrock foundation of almost all programs on behalf of totalitarioan government based on collectivism.

Exposing the Myths

Analysis by G. Edward Griffin

Myth 1.

Leaders of the crusade against global-warming have no financial conflict-of-interest because they only care about the environment, but those who challenge their theories do so because they are paid by the fossil-fuel and nuclear-power industries.

ANALYSIS: There is no doubt that the rank-and-file, true believers in global-warming are motivated by a desire to protect the environment, but those at the top are not so naïve. They know that the specter of environmental disaster is a made-up horror story to frighten us into accepting crushing taxes and a global totalitarian system in the name of saving the planet. How do we know that? Because they say so.

Ottmar Edenhoffer, an official at the UN’s IPPC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was a former co-chair if the IPCC Working Group III and lead author of the IPPC’s Fourth Assessment Report released in 2007. His report concluded:

One must say clearly that we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy. … One has to free one’s self from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy…. The climate summit in Cancun at the end of the month is not a climate conference, but one of the largest economic conferences since the Second World War.” (Story) (Cached) (Original in German)

For an eye-opening summary of the meaning of “green” in the environmental movement (it means money), see “Climate Policy as Political Entrepreneurship”, uploaded to the University of Utah website here. (Cached)

MYTH2.
Temperatures have risen since 1998, and reports to the contrary are false.

ANALYSIS: One of the most troublesome facts challenging the theory of global warming is that, even according to UN sources and in spite of data manipulation, global temperatures have not risen since 1998. The dire predictions of increasing temperatures simply have not been validated by nature.

By 2014, this was damaging the credibility of the myth makers and causing skepticism in the public mind. Something had to be done to restore confidence in the global-warming narrative − and, with the Paris Climate Summit scheduled to begin in November of 2015, it had to be done fast in order to have an impact on the proceedings there.

In June of that year, an article appeared in Science magazine, written by a nine-man team at the Environmental Information office of the tax-funded National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This article was exactly what was needed. It said that the reported ‘pause’ or ‘slowdown’ in global warming was an error − and it had data and charts to prove it.

Because this article came with the imprimatur of NOAA, it well served the purposes of the Paris Conference. Afterward, however, it was learned that the article was politically inspired, and the authors had violated numerous principles of scientific inquiry. That was the conclusion of a former top scientist at NOAA itself, Dr John Bates who, in 2014, was awarded a gold medal by the Obama administration for his work in setting standards for producing and preserving climate data.

Bates said that all the scientific standards he had helped to establish at NOAA had been violated to produce a politically useful document at the Paris Climate Summit. The lead author of the article, Thomas Karl, had insisted on “decisions and scientific choices that maximized warming and minimized documentation … in an effort to discredit the notion of a global-warming pause, and rushed so that he could time publication to influence national and international deliberations on climate policy.”

Dr. Bates said that the NOAA team used fraudulent data, applied methods of analysis that overstated the speed of warming, relied on software that was known to be inaccurate, never submitted data for verification by others, and failed to archive the data, making it now impossible to examine. In other words, they lied and then destroyed the evidence.

MYTH3.
Global warming is caused by pollution and weather-modification programs. Therefore, it IS man-made.

2016 Nov 18 from Nikeros
To Ed Griffin:
You don’t believe that Fukushima, nuclear testing, extensive military operations involving gawd knows what, fracking, aerosol spraying of aluminum, barium, strontium and gawd knows what else worldwide and on and on has no effect on the earths climate? Ok fine. I will say no more.

ANALYSIS: The anthropomorphic mantra of most global-warming proponents is that the “man-made” cause is CO2. Period. They claim that CO2 is the byproduct of industry and consumption and that it produces a “carbon footprint”. Therefore, they seek expanded government power and funding to reduce CO2. That’s the basis for all the carbon-tax and regulatory nonsense. None of these people are talking about taxing or regulating “Fukushima, nuclear testing, extensive military operations, fracking, aerosol spraying of aluminum, barium, strontium and gawd knows what else”. They talk only about CO2, the non-toxic greenhouse gas that does NOT cause global warming. The global-warming hoaxers are very good at lumping together pollution (which is real) and man-made global warming (which is not). They are countng on us to fall for the trick and fail to see that these are two entirely different issues.

from:    https://freedomforceinternational.org/position-statements/global-warming/

Some Predictions for 2017

Hogue Predictions for the New Year 2017, Five Future-Altering Events the “Fake” Mainstream News isn’t telling you about

Click on the cover and see how you can receive the expanded edition of this forthcoming book.

DATELINE: 06 January 2017

An Overview of what John Hogue forecast on Coast to Coast AM 1 January 2017

I spent the last hour remaining of the first day of the new year with George Noory where I laid down some basic forecasts and themes about the major milestones for 2017. Here’s an overview about my hour posted by the Coast folks. If you want to read their full overview of all the guests that night, click on George Noory:
Here’s a full list of milestones, I only had time to talk about half of these on the show:“Prophecy scholar John Hogue joined the show in the second hour and spoke about an economic boom in 2017 with the dollar getting stronger. However, the interest rates will rise and create stress with other currencies, he noted. An eclipse in August, he cited, will have a “catalytic effect” on Trump. There’ll be some significant natural disasters in the latter half of the year, and Trump may come round to accepting that climate change is real, he continued. If Trump survives the first two years, Hogue remarked, he’ll likely be re-elected, as he’s an echo karmically of Ronald Reagan.”

***

(1) US Economic Boom in 2017.
(2) Boom ends in autumn with signs of an inflationary “Greater” Depression approaching in 2018.
(3) Significant natural, political and economic disasters overtaking the United States after the Grand Eclipse of 21 August give the American people the opportunity to nationally redefine themselves and their dreams. The Great American Eclipse of 2017 will certainly have that impact on your president. He will be changed.
(4) The “second” Cold War that Obama and the neocon, neo-liberals started in 2014, Trump ends in 2017.
(5) US aid Russians defeating ISIS by summer of 2017. After that a new, full-scale war between Turkey and the Kurds is possible.
(6) America, by not leading in Climate Change reduction, ends the American Century once and for all by 2019, never to be the superpower hegemon again.

(7) As early as the end of 2017, or as late as a year later, Trump will about face on climate change. The economic crisis, personal losses from climate-change related disasters will make him a convert. If this change of mind happens in time, Trump has a chance to make the US a leading power again. Otherwise, if delayed into 2018-2019, the Chinese Century will be in full swing and the US will be a follower not a leader in future history’s key events from now on, its days of empire fading slowly in the next decade.

from:    www.hogueprophecy.com/2017/01/new-year-2017-predictions-2/

Protecting Privacy

The Imperative of Anonymity

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Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, was sentenced last week to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.  His crime was creating a piece of software that allowed completely anonymous market transactions between individuals or groups of individuals.

Anonymous market transactions have existed since the beginning of human commerce.  In nearly every instance in which a major corporation chooses a parcel of land on which it intends to build a manufacturing or distribution facility, it uses a dummy corporate entity as the purchasing agency.  It does this for sound competitive reasons.  If a competitor knew, in advance, the plans of a competing organization it could anticipate and react in ways to stifle the new development.  Likewise, a company that plans to get into the computer market place would usually contract and buy components anonymously for the first build.  This way the company can surprise its potential competitors and hopefully gain a market edge.  There are thousands or other examples where anonymity is necessary for a healthy competitive business environment.  Even individuals benefit from anonymous commerce.  Many individuals prefer anonymous purchases to prevent sellers from aggregating information about them, which generally results in unwanted and annoying solicitations.  Millions of people buy stocks and other commodities in the names of trusts or blind corporate structures for sound business and personal reasons.  Even charity frequently requires anonymity.  The Benefactor may not want publicity, or, for a personal reason does not want to be associated with the entity they are benefitting.  Or they simply are modest, or they don’t want to publicize their wealth for obvious reasons.  Secrecy and anonymity are essential for a smoothly running financial universe.  This has been the way of the world of commerce for thousands of years.

This necessity for anonymity, however, has attracted criminal elements for as long as anonymity has existed.   A benefactor making a large contribution can create an offshore corporation using proxies to hide his identity.  So can the Sinaloa Cartel when they want to hide a substantial monetary transaction.  So can anyone engaged in illegal activities.  This is the nature of the beast we call society.  Society has always had criminal elements. It always will.  But we somehow live with it and survive.  How did we arrive at a place where a bar owner is not arrested when his patrons make shady deals in his booths while having dinner, but we sentence a man to life imprisonment because he creates the same environment on the internet?  Am I the only one here who sees the insanity of this?

The tradition of anonymous speech has existed for millennia.  The founding fathers of America published numerous papers using pseudonyms, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the rights to anonymity.   Even the right to anonymous political campaigning was established in the U.S. Supreme court in their decision in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections commission (1995), with the majority opinion writing: “Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority”.

Law does not only protect anonymity, it, in many cases requires and enforces it, for example: in laws regarding voting in free elections.

Society cannot function without the option of anonymity.  Anonymity is necessary for the existence of privacy and freedom.  Personal anonymity provides irreplaceable benefits for the individual:

Oppressive political regimes have existed since government was first invented, even within democratic countries.  Dissidents within these countries cannot speak openly about political abuses, such as racial, religious or cultural oppression, without serious risk to themselves, their families and their friends.  Without the possibility of anonymously distributed information, the world at large would never perceive the reality of the regime in power, and repression would continue or increase unnoticed by the world.

In anonymous discussions, issues of race, gender, social status and other factors, which are generally judged, disappear.  What people perceive is a person’s intelligence, humor, eloquence etc.  People therefore feel, and are treated, more equal.

Anonymity allows a person to open up and reveal important or delicate issues about themselves that they could not, because of shame, shyness, etc., otherwise disclose.  This opens the door for help and assistance in some cases.

Whistle blowers that reveal dangerous, illegal or unjust situations within corporations and other agencies require anonymity to prevent being punished for revealing the problem

Witnesses to crimes are overwhelmingly afraid of retribution.  Without the guarantee of anonymity, many crimes would go unsolved.

Anonymity frequently fosters honesty.  Many studies have shown that people speak more openly and honestly if they know they will remain anonymous.

These and uncountable other benefits of anonymity are guaranteed by law. The right of individuals to engage in anonymous communication was established in 1999 by the U.S. District court of Northern California.  The court’s opinion was: “People are permitted to interact pseudonymously and anonymously with each other so long as those acts are not in violation of the law. In addition, the law guarantees publishers the right not to disclose the names of the readers or users of a publication.  In 1953, the Supreme Court of the U.S. stated:

Once the government can demand of a publisher the names of the purchasers of his publication, the free press as we know it disappears.  Then the spectre of a government agent will look over the shoulder of everyone who reads.

Does this “spectre” sound familiar to anyone?

The Internet was not designed with the concept of anonymity in mind.  Each and every communication has an IP address attached to it, which uniquely identifies the specific computer, smart phone or mobile device that sent the communication.  At the inception of the Internet, no one dreamed that it would virtually replace every other means of communication and would become the platform upon which society would restructure itself.  It is a major flaw that has never been sufficiently resolved.  Attempts to correct this massive flaw have met with disaster.  Napster was sued and had to shut down. Kim Dotcom was invaded by the U.S and fighting extradition. Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison (just to name a few)

Is this what we have come to?  A fearful government, panicked about the criminal elements of society using what they have always used, only now on a more massive scale, choosing to oppress the general law abiding population by removing yet one more freedom that has been guaranteed to us by law?

john mcafee

 

Well, I am not standing for it.  I am speaking my mind, which, if you look into yourselves deeply enough, I believe you will agree with me.

Why is no one else speaking out?

from:    http://www.whoismcafee.com/ross-ulbricht/