Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
On Tue, 28 Aug 2001, Bill Stewart wrote:
David Brin's book "The Transparent Society" suggests that you might as well get used to it. Technological change driven by the Moore's Law effects in computing power are making video cameras and computer image processing get cheaper rapidly, so the marginal benefit of using them doesn't have to be very high to outweigh the marginal cost. The real issues are still getting data,
On the other hand, the technology of disguise and the public taste for radical body modification and active clothing all suggest that many of us will soon be denying a useful image to the opposition. Then we won't have to worry until genetic sniffers become popular.
Genetic sniffers, however can probably be defeated by devices that give off clouds of genetically random human biological material.
Didn't John Young note that a large portion of the waste removed from the London underground was human hair and skin flakes? Waste not want not.
Offense and defense back and forth forever.
DCF ---- Marshal de Vaubin -- No stronghold be ever invested stood. No position he ever defended fell.
On Tue, Aug 28, 2001 at 01:56:12PM -0700, mmotyka@lsil.com wrote:
Didn't John Young note that a large portion of the waste removed from the London underground was human hair and skin flakes? Waste not want not.
Sounds like a bit of an urban legend. -Declan
On Wed, 29 Aug 2001, Declan McCullagh wrote:
On Tue, Aug 28, 2001 at 01:56:12PM -0700, mmotyka@lsil.com wrote:
Didn't John Young note that a large portion of the waste removed from the London underground was human hair and skin flakes? Waste not want not.
Sounds like a bit of an urban legend.
-Declan
Someone tell the Travel Channel in that case, they did a story on the London underground, including the Underground (big U) and mentioned this very thing. It was called "Underground London" and unfortunately, the last day they list as an air date is 8/25. Seems they even have a name for the people who have to clean the human debris up...fluffers, if I recall correctly. Brings to mind another occupation that I won't detail here. -ryan
It makes sense that human debris would be a portion of the waste removed, but compared to food items, dead rats, discarded trash and newspapers, it strikes me that it would not be an especially large portion. --Declan At 09:47 PM 8/29/01 -0400, Ryan Arneson wrote:
Someone tell the Travel Channel in that case, they did a story on the London underground, including the Underground (big U) and mentioned this very thing. It was called "Underground London" and unfortunately, the last day they list as an air date is 8/25.
Seems they even have a name for the people who have to clean the human debris up...fluffers, if I recall correctly. Brings to mind another occupation that I won't detail here.
Declan McCullagh wrote:
It makes sense that human debris would be a portion of the waste removed, but compared to food items, dead rats, discarded trash and newspapers, it strikes me that it would not be an especially large portion. --Declan
Having been on the Underground this morning, I think I agree with you! Are we talking about the trains, the stations or the tunnels? Or the upholstery in the trains? Or what turns up in the vacuum cleaners of the overnight crew who fix them up after someone else has already removed all the dead McCrap? Maybe the Chinese Whispers have blown up a boring statistic into something silly.
At 09:47 PM 8/29/01 -0400, Ryan Arneson wrote:
Someone tell the Travel Channel in that case, they did a story on the London underground, including the Underground (big U) and mentioned this very thing. It was called "Underground London" and unfortunately, the last day they list as an air date is 8/25.
So it must be true then? OTOH I know people who have sampled the air in underground stations for spores and bacteria so on. There are a lot of odd organisms down there :-) Ken Brown
Ken Brown bragged:
OTOH I know people who have sampled the air in underground stations for spores and bacteria so on. There are a lot of odd organisms down there :-)
A skivvied MoD scientist from Portland Downs raced past me ogling Buckingham in my red plaid tam and matching sweater, whispered, "you ugly fuck," and sliced a sample of my nose for cloning a least beloved cousin, and my half-blind soused SO yelled at the one-legged runner "Markov, help Bear Hatted Bobby, 'e pelleted him." BHB twitched, 'is nose twitched, by God in truth, in Morse, "cow." If you saw the fighting for seats we saw in the London Underworld you'd nere doubt how much skin and hair is afloat, and the skinning of the tourists with double ugly cashmere and Monty Python legends and Beatle-mania ad nauseum aint odd it's royal history.
participants (5)
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Declan McCullagh -
John Young -
Ken Brown -
mmotyka＠lsil.com -
Ryan Arneson