It’s shocking how much this gets thrown around, yet there are countless people who are alive only because someone from the government showed up to help. A democratic government is no more or less corrupt then the people they serve.
The government does help... I have been helped by the government at times in my life.
But.
That doesn't negate my stance that everything they touch becomes worse, more expensive and we all suffer.
Healthcare? Some people are saved. Healthcare has never been more expensive and the unACA was passed on lie - like your plan, lie - keep your doctor, lie - save $2500/year, etc.
Childcare? They help a handful of people making it more expensive for everyone else.
Lockdowns? Mask mandates? The largest source of disinformation during the COVID "pandemic" was the US Government led by Fauci who has publicly admitted he made up statistics about stuff like "herd immunity" based on polling. Oh, big tech suppressed truth that went against narrative.
Pick any topic and you'll find that while yes, the government does help some people some times... on aggregate? the larger and more powerful and the more interference that comes from government the worse we are.
I'm a centrist and a realist. We won't exist without government. but only an idiot gives the government more power than ABSOLUTELY necessary and all you have to do is look around to see MOUNTAINS of evidence to that simple truth.
or, as you say, "a government is no more or less corrupt than the people they serve". Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. the people they server are corrupted by power... why would government be any different?
While I appreciate the subject matter, I think ignoring the prior art of checklist design and human factors engineering is a big oversight. I don’t know enough about either field to know what tools they are using in the process of designing instruction manuals, time critical check lists, or diagnostic and troubleshooting guides, but I imagine that would be a very good place to start. I will say though that bringing analog checklists into a multimedia world is an intriguing direction, since being able to access an expanded checklist that enables you to see details, infographics, etc when you want to dive into a specific step while also allowing you to track your current place in a process would be pretty cool.
Interestingly, the US Coast Guards only “no fail” mission is providing rotary wing air intercept capability to the air defense network. In the National Capital Region they have helicopters that get scrambled as part of the air defense response to go intercept air targets that a slow and low. Basically anything that it would be hard for a fighter jet to pull up along side and match airspeed with. The Coast Guard helos don’t have any air to air weapons capability, their main purpose is to prevent false positives. They can get real close and relay information to the air defense folks who have access to weapons systems, and also a helicopter suddenly appearing next to you with a signboard saying that you need to turn immediately is a pretty good indicator to a weekend warrior that they are not supposed to be flying there.
Why do you say it isnt a navy crew, and those arent navy uniforms? Not in the USN so not able to tell quickly, but it seems that they are in a mix of the USN NWA Type IIIs, Navy Whites, and then working overalls. They almost all seem to have some sort of rank insignia, though the only ones I can make out are the LT, the CDR or possibly CAPT, and then maybe a cadet to his left?
At the end of the day, the only things that matter are those that you let influence your operational tempo. Unfortunately, a wartime organization that is able to accept a certain level of fatalities in a combat situation has trouble adapting the mentality of "the mission must get done" to a non-wartime footing. Because of the lower stakes for surface vessels, there is a higher chance that the time allocated to maintenance (whether thats fixing running rust, overhauling a piece of equipment, or ensuring crew are trained) is whatever is left in the schedule after their operational needs have been met. Unless a skipper is willing to bet their career on saying "I wont sail until these repairs are done, operational schedule be damned", its not going to change. At the end of the day, someone needs to be willing to say no, and deleverage the commitments. All the services are seeing the "do less with more attitude" creep into senior leadership's thinking, and its causing both human and material assets to be depleted. Its no wonder theres a human resources shortfall - the value proposition is just not what it used to be, and the level of burnout of sailors has only increased.
Making things legible to the state is one of the ever going projects of any state. So while I think it’s important to make sure that refusal to participate in one of these projects doesn’t preclude you from still receiving the services of the state, it’s also isn’t surprising that the state wants to make its constituents more legible to itself. The balance falls in figuring out how to firewall these different functions to prevent certain kinds of identity from making it so you can’t receive the services that are the whole reason why you have a state.
> it’s also isn’t surprising that the state wants to make its constituents more legible to itself
And not just the state, and it's enlisting the help of private companies.
From the article:
> The privacy risks, including the possibility for constant surveillance and data harvesting, will fade into the background when you are about to miss your flight if you can’t skip to the front of the line
Personally, when going to Mexico, I was asked to submit to a photo verification to board the plane. I asked to opt out. I was told it was impossible.
Later, after verification, I realized I was lied to and manipulated: data was obtained under false pretense, under threat of being unable to board, and to top it out, with a lie!
Next time in the airport, I will only unmask to TSA agents, and only those who require I do, never to the gate because as said in the article all it takes is one leak and then it's impossible to undo:
> But as Nick Corbishley, author of a recent book on digital IDs, points out, decisions made in the moment may carry long-term negative consequences: “If biometric data is hacked, there is no way of undoing the damage. You cannot change or cancel your iris, fingerprint, or DNA like you can change a password or cancel your credit card.” Unless we collectively decline to participate in this new social experiment, digital IDs—tied to private demographic, financial, location, movement, and biometric data—will become mechanisms for bulk data harvesting and tracking of populations around the globe. Welcome to the new abnormal.
yeah the nasty thing is the private company loophole works. like the TSA puts in these stupid ass measures everybody hates then is like "oh well you can get clear if you don't like it!"
it's supposed to be illegal for the feds to use private companies to do what they can't but for some reason this hasn't gotten killed in court. literally the agency shouldn't exist nor should airport security like it does now.
Is there any hope for those of us that used Facebook when it came out then deleted it? Seems like they already have all our data now. My DNA is everywhere and my fingerprints are technically everywhere too. Wouldn’t be hard to get it.
It always works this way, “Oh it’s completely voluntary.”…a few years later “we’ll you can’t keep your job if you don’t.”…a few years later “we’ll throw you in jail if you don’t.”.
It’s important to send the message now that these programs/services are not wanted and should be shut down immediately.
Blanket refusal to get an ID card or passport will get you into trouble in some countries as a citizen (e.g., Germany). Possible fines etc. aside, establishing your ID in a lot of situations will get quite difficult.
Germany requires you to have an ID document from the age of 16. You do not need to carry it however (there are a few exceptions, e.g. if you work in construction or the like where tax evasion/cash in hand is not uncommon).
Inside the EU's Schengen area, the ID is only needed at borders.
Again, once inside another Schengen country, you do not need to carry it around.
I'm not sure if the same rules apply for foreigners though, once they are inside the EU.
From trial and error over the last five years I'd say three out of five airlines will let you board flights using your driver's license as ID. They always complain but they let you through anyway.
ID checks at Schengen to Schengen borders are absent anyway since many years so this isn't a big surprise.
That said: I'm a white man.
These rules apply to everyone by law.
Sadly, the less 'Caucasian' your phenotype is, the more likely your experience with EU security forces will be for them to expect you to carry ID -- despite the above rules.
And boarding a flight with your driver's license if you are not white -- forget it.
Racism is everywhere though. It is just especially painful to see in this context.
The greater point, I think, is that everywhere else in American where I deal with the government I am required to present some form of ID. They even give you a list of a dozen or more valid IDs you can use.
However, arguably the most important interface with the government, voting is a place where I don't even have to validate I am who I say I am.
They don't really care who you are, they only care if you are allowed to vote. At least in theory, of course weird stuff probably goes on every year due to the size of the US.
Your comment about automating autorotations got me interested, and it appears that one UAV company has done a tech demo for it, at least from my cursory search. From what I can tell though the design space would be extraordinarily difficult to fully automate. Management of rotor RPM requires finesse, functioning flight controls and also quick decision making about where and how you are going to land. Usually the automatic flight control system would require either enough battery power to power your servo actuators after an engine failure or a system designed to run in AC power which is generated by your rotor system (which of course means it’s depleting rotor RPM at a time when rotor RPM is what is most important to manage). I think you’d have to design a lot of the aircraft systems with automation in mind, so it really would have to be a new aircraft in many regards, and you’d be unlikely to be able to retrofit an older airframe to do it. I think there’s just too many trade offs to make the system worthwhile in the low margin business of crop spraying, tour rides, or electronic news gathering. Medevac, oil rig transportation or military applications could make use of an automatic autorotation system, but those aircraft also tend to be medium to heavy twin engine aircraft which negates a lot of the need to focus as much on autos when you are designing the overall system.
I’m having trouble digging into their tech stack and can mostly just find advertising copy, but from what I can tell they must be integrating software (run on an iPad) into the flight controls. Which makes this a fancy skin on an automatic flight control system, something that most larger helicopters have to varying degrees. I’m not really sure what the actual product that Skyryse has developed. If they are including the requisite servos to manipulate flight controls into their hardware stack then their business proposition is going to run into the problem of any modifications to the flight control system (both digital and mechanical) to that level will necessitate a new type certificate from the FAA. That makes this system far less modular and turn key then they seem to be selling.
The reason you don’t see small helicopters or fixed wing aircraft with complex autopilot systems coupled to the flight controls is that it’s expensive for a lot of the reasons you want it to be - the reliability, airworthiness and usability requirements that make it safe are also expensive to implement. At that price point it’s usually easier to have a human do all that work, especially for the types of missions those aircraft do. The technology has been there for decades, and there’s probably a reason why it hasn’t trickled down to these sorts of small aircraft yet.
Also, do you really want your flight control system to be entirely reliant on ensuring that the latest update to iOS doesn’t inadvertently brick the app that lets you control your aircraft? Let alone the possibility of someone exploiting a vulnerability in iOS to degrade your flight performance. There’s a reason that flight software is not trivially updated.
Helicopters don’t generally have autopilots but for fixed wing, most autopilots have a serial service port that can fly the device.
It’s not a stretch to go from there to a Bluetooth -> serial adapter. I remember years ago one android app even went to the extent of documenting how to do so.
Most helicopter 135 operators self-limit to VFR only, perhaps this is something like a VFR only autopilot they have in mind?
I love quality tools and products, especially when you have taken the time to find what works for your specific use case or body type. That being said, I started slowly shifting to an attitude that, to paraphrase an over quoted movie, "on a long enough timeline, everything is a consumable". The biggest factor isn't so much buying something for life, but buying a product that 1) matches the lifespan of my usage 2) won't frustrate me with its quality 3) will last a length of time somewhat in line with the improvement cycle of that type of product.
