Big Brother is Watching

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Was listening to the radio on the way to work and heard that soon we will be able to get commercials tailored to our household and our buying habits through satellite television. I don't know about you but this just kind of makes me wonder how long it will be until those same satellites are retrieving information FROM my television rather than TO it. I don't think I want the broadcasters to know enough about my private life that they could target commercials to my buying habits. (Course in my case I don't buy enough to have any buying habits. )

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), June 11, 2001

Answers

Big brother might be inside your head soon instead of just watching.Scientist have kind of crack the code some ,of how the human brain works.The brain, like a radio, works on a frequency orpossible multible frequencies.It's been found the brain works on FM band waves.No wonder so many people felt so much better when they were getting to hear their favorite music being plaid on FM radio stations instead of that scratchy sounding AM radio some of us had to endure.I'd say from past events this technology might not be used to the best intrest of most.

-- WC (whitebloodcell@owl.com), June 11, 2001.

We rarely watch television so I guess I am safe. I want to know how my television is going to send that information to the satellite anyway. Any ideas?

-- Ardie from WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), June 11, 2001.

People, just unplug it and make it go stand in the cornor. Keep in mind that telephones, though hung up and out of use does not mean that they are dead. Years ago I had a friend who worked in the phone company,s main switching room, nightshift. So for entertainment he would tap into "dead" phones and often told me about the really weird conservations. I am sure it was illegal then and I hope the workings are too advanced to do the same nowdays, but who knows, I,m sure one of you readers does.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), June 11, 2001.

If you have digital satillite, your reciever is constantly communicating with the satillite to provide you with telivision and them with watching habits. Cellular phones are in constant contact with a tower when turned on. If you use a Kroger Plus or other discount card for groceries, your purchases and time of checkout are monitored by the store as marketing info. Your ISP and services as DoubleClick track you on the net and to top it off , for decades , cities have estimated how many folks watch the super bowl by water surges at halftime that indicate bathroom runs (devide the gallons by 4 1/2 to give an estimate of how many flushes happened at the time the football fans were taking a break), so your not even in private there.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), June 11, 2001.

One person in the aero space industry told me of a project he helped on in a west coast grocery store chain where they put transmitters in the grocery cart handles to observe the pattern that a shoper took when purchasing specific items in order to plant "impulse purchases" in their pathway. It is called marketing, but it looks like greed orentiated marketing to me. Thats why the expensive brands are at eye level in the grocery stores or the "one shot items" (nuts and bolts) are allways located in the back of the hardware stores where you must pass the garden hoses, trick (worthless) tools, and other useless stuff to get to what you need.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), June 11, 2001.


Actually big brother (Government) is just a part of it with Heat detecting instruments on planes and helicopters,cameras at intersections,on highways,buildings,drug sensing devices that can tell whether you have drugs in your house or not from police cars,etc. Big Business people are the major players and all in the name of more profit and they don't care about anything except profit and to rule the world,"We must control the masses,for their own good." If they could code your underwear to see how many times you have sex,they would. I would not be surprised to see toilets monitored someday so too tell businesses how much we go to the bathroom and how much toilet paper we use in order to advertise to us at the right time. Any body remember the old TV show "The Prisoner", think back to that show made in the early 70's and remember the big screen wall tv he had that would wake him up to excerise and tell him what he was out of and all the cameras and microphones,etc.

Its all coming someday and the mass of "human resources" will be guided,led,told,etc. 24 hrs a day as to what to wear,work,eat,buy,sleep,drive,etc. and all will be controlled by the have's over the have not's. The only good news is there will small,hidden pockets of resistant people all over the earth that will be gardening,motherearthing,bartering,etc., and they will be called HOMESTEADERS!!!!

-- TomK (tjk@cac.net), June 11, 2001.


Great. If they are taylored to what I need then so much the better. No more stupid commercials for tampons and 70's greatest hits. Maybe when they finally figure out I dont watch the commercials they can taylor them out of my programming.

As for broadcasters knowing what your buying habits are, they already know it. Unless your paying cash for everything then they know.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), June 11, 2001.


If it ever gets that bad, I'll be cancelling my satellite service and will go back to four local channels...if any!!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), June 11, 2001.

I stopped shopping at Safeway when they instituted their card program. They have two prices on everything: one with and one without the card. With it, they track your every purchase and keep the information in a database so they can purportedly send you customized coupon books. What else are they doing with that data? I don't trust them and I don't trust the government not to seize these types of data sets and use them against us sometime in the future. I stopped using cash and debit cards for the same reason, although I do use a credit card on a limited basis. There are too many people collecting too much personal information about us. Someone is probably even monitoring this forum to watch for "suspicious" activity. After all, we homesteaders are pretty independant and are therefor pose a possible threat to the stability of society.

Big brother IS watching.

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), June 11, 2001.


Yes, but who is watching "Big Brother"?

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), June 11, 2001.


In addition to ALL the aforementioned ways to track us---how about some more things to think about! How about scanners alongside major highways of the usa checkin the cash [ via the metal strip embedded in bills] ya'll are carryin. Scanners in satallites doing the same. Closed circuit tv cameras in your digital tv receiver and of course the "track" of your phone calls both the hard wired phones and especially cells! Sleep well tonite--big bro IS watchin ya'll! Matt.24:44

-- hoot (hoor@pcinetwork.com), June 11, 2001.

First it really makes me nervious when I rent a movie and it says at the first it has been formated to fit my TV. How could they possibly know how big the tv is I'm going to watch it on. Now seriously, I just get the store cards in my other names. I just told Sams; I don't drive, no liscence, no checking account, no credit cards, give them a phony address, and name. Pay for the card with cash, they are not happy but I have the card. The manager told me I would not be able to use checks and I just smiled and asked how in the world could I write checks I didn't have a checking account and only used cash. No one has the right to keep up with how many twinkies I eat.

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), June 12, 2001.

Skip says............. I stopped using cash and debit cards for the same reason,................................skip, how are you buying anything???? Or have you reached the point of totally bartering???

Interesting thread.........spooky.....think I will go cut those metal strips off my cash........all $40 dollars of it. Sure wouldn't want to be accused of being rich.

-- diane (gardiacaprine@yahoo.com), June 12, 2001.


Paranoid people just have all the facts!

-- Dianne in Mass (dianne.bone@usa.net), June 12, 2001.

I just signed up for our local tv stations "MyCast" online weather information service. I had to pinpoint my location on a map and now I get detailed weather info & alerts 4+ times a day. With yesterday's severe weather alerts my email was quite full! MyCast also tells me if the weather will be suitable for the various activities that I might choose to do. I also pinpointed my MIL 90 miles away and my mom in another state so now I know their weather conditions too. I had a few pangs of "Big Brother" worries, but I'm such a weather junkie that it quickly passed.

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), June 12, 2001.


We have grown so accustomed to the abuses of our government, that we make excuses for them.

Approximately a year ago, I heard on the news (I didn;t hear the whol program, just part of it) that the government was proposing all newborn babies have a "chip" put into the heal of their foot. This of course, was to protect the children from being kidnapped. I immediately thought, and still do, that it is just another way for the government to track them as adults. Who knows what other technology would be attached to the "chip", that we wouldn't learn about for years, if ever in our lifetime. Still, it amazes me how many people thought it was a great idea and should be implemented immediately. Many of us are being programmed even as we sleep, and of course their is no hidden agenda.

-- Amber in WA (quillen6@netzero.net), June 12, 2001.


Uhhh, just a little more fodder to digest.

Do the math. Assume 270,000,000 folks (more or less) in the US. Now multiply that by how much data everyone says is being collected. Now figure out how much data storage space all that stuff requires. Now figure out how much electricity is required to run the equipment that stores the data. Now figure out how long it will take to analyze it for useful "information" on a single person/entity.

Yeah, I know Google can search 1.3 billion _indexed_ web pages in a blink of an eye but it knows what it's looking for. Open ended searches tend to be messy affairs.

Not saying there's nothing to worry about but data collection has to be focused on something in order to produce useful results.

And for what its' worth: I seem to remember that NASA has a serious backlog of data from a number of the solar system probes. So much so that the incoming data is written directly to CDROM as its received. In some of the research/analysis there was as much as a 5 year backlog of data.

Use prudence.

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), June 12, 2001.


This is even more entertaining than the gas price lowering schemes. Keep 'em coming.

-- Steve - TX (steve.beckman@compaq.com), June 12, 2001.

Yeah well did you know that every time you use the public toilets that a sample is automatically siphoned off and checked for drug use and your DNA recorded? Everywhere you go you leave an indisputable trail behind and it is all recorded. Also, when you travel by plane the seat covers get laundered and tested to determine which airline meal you ate, which they do by testing the fart residue.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), June 12, 2001.

I haven't watched tv for over 9 years now. I grew up without for the most part. Once in a great while I happen upon one, it nearly shocks me how fast the images fly by on commercials, not to mention the content they are spewing out. The average watcher is probably desensitized to it. It only takes a little common sense to understand why they make them like that. It seems kind of ironic to call oneself a homesteader yet own a tell-a-vision. Anyone who owns a tv, pays for cable, satellite, etc is supporting the ruination of morals and the promoting of the agenda. Think about it, tv does not exist for your entertainment. If not for the commercials, networks would not exist, except for maybe pbs.

-- nobody (nothing@nowhere.no), June 12, 2001.

Yep, Many good points made. My VCR sure does work better with a TV though.

-- Thumper (slrldr@aol.com), June 12, 2001.

I've found that when I wrap my head in aluminum foil the black helicopters can't read my brainwaves when they fly over. The public toilet thing has me worried though, John.

-- Elizabeth in E TX (kimprice@peoplescom.net), June 13, 2001.

Colleen heres another for you, did you know that in the desire to stop drugs you can lose your land, home, bank accounts, cars, and anything else of value even if your innocent. This is the way it works you rent your home or maybe go on vacation and let a friend stay there and that person is reported to the police as a drug dealer. The police comes in and finds anything there, even a very minute amount, they can take everything you own even if you knew nothing about it. You can take them to court and after years you might win but by then everything you care about is gone and all they have to replace is the (hic) fair market value. That is the way they are funding the fight against drugs. The day I found out this had passed was the day I decided no one was safe. We don't do drugs and I always felt if I found some growing in woods around where we live I would turn it in but now I'm not so sure.

-- Wynema (nemad_72039@yahoo.com), June 13, 2001.

Best policy to deal with the government is avoid them as much as possible. Now I don't consider hemp to be a drug but it is against their laws. If you find it growing on your land, the last thing you want to do is call in the law. Even if they're nice guys, they do have an agenda to follow. They use drug seizure proceeds to buy new fancy equipment more than for the so called 'war on drugs'. I think it's a damn shame that you can get alcohol so easy yet it kills so many, broken many a family, etc. More people died of getting hit by lightning than by hemp. It's a natural herbal medicine and regardless of what the governements studies say, it's harmless. It's useful for many ailments. I use it for it chronic joint pain myself, just as I use alot of other herbs. Alcohol is a closer cousin to drugs than a hemp plant is.

-- April (atobias@yahoo.com), June 13, 2001.

All you getting up in arms over them pesky store cards get a little sense and just give them a fake name. The cashier making minimum wage isn't going to give a damn what name you use.

-- April (atobias@yahoo.com), June 13, 2001.

read in the news yesterday that China is issueing 1.28 billion encoded chip identification cards to its citizens as internal passports. Maybe our store cards are the forerunner to that here.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), June 13, 2001.

Well, what about the "On-Star" feature (or whatever it's called) available in some cars. They know where the car is at anytime (for when it gets stolen), can unlock it for you via satellite (for when you lock yourself out) and can call in a cruiser to tail you (for when you think a suspicious character if following you). No thanks!

-- glynnis in KY (gabbycab@msn.com), June 14, 2001.

oh my, john hill and elizebeth..........thank you for my chuckle for the day.

-- diane (gardiacaprine@yahoo.com), June 14, 2001.

All modern cars are controlled by computer so it's really easy for government people to shine a beam that will kill all the car engines in the vicinity, estra-terrestrials have been doing it for years.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), June 14, 2001.

Eliz.... when you do the head wrap do you put the dull side out or in??? It will make a difference you know! Also it might be more efective with a double layer.......Jim

-- Jim in Mi (hartalteng@voyager.net), June 14, 2001.

Actually...

Wrap first with the foil and then cover with an oven broil bag.

Be sure to test this by walking around outside between 11 am and 2 pm. Shopping center parking lots are a good place to test since THEY are always watching who goes in and out of the stores.

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), June 15, 2001.


Be very careful at the supermarkets, banks, petrol stations etc.

THEY have special computer programs to process the so-called security videos and match your facial features against THEIR database of suspect persons.

Always wear a face mask, halloween is good, but wear it on the back of your head and walk around backwards.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), June 16, 2001.


john, my face IS my mask, I just have all my photos taken with the mask on........then I don't have to wear it when I go out.

-- diane (gardiacaprine@yahoo.com), June 16, 2001.

Would those still sure of your sanity please check on your neighbors; it seems that the chickens or maybe the goats have tied up the people and are at the keyboards themselves.

April, as for the joint pain, go to the store in the jello section and find "Knox Gelatin", its for making jelly and jams but it is also the substance (collegen) that your body needs to make cartledge ( the natural padding between bones). Take about 1/3 teaspoon per day, disolved in water until you get results. Its scraped from the inside of beef and pork hides and is an organic substance with no negative sideeffects.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), June 16, 2001.


mitch, true story??? I have never heard of that.....gelatin for joint pain???

-- diane (gardiacaprine@yahoo.com), June 16, 2001.

didn't I tell you guys you needed to be more suble in ridiculing the humans. Now that mitch has found us out and soon they will send the big guns and we will be back in the COOP. remember, you can fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people some of the time but not all the people all the time?????

-- chicken little (theskyisfalling@chickens.com), June 16, 2001.

Yes Diane, if you will look in the grocery store you will find "Orthol Gel" next to the Knox gelatin, but why pay 8 bucks for the same thing is only a dollar, plus in a month or two your nails will get harder and thicker. Also those of you with allergies, consume locally produced honey to build up an emunity.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), June 16, 2001.

Thank you Mitch, that is a very good idea and it does make alot of sense. I also take some minerals mostly glucosamine sulfate and a bit of silicon which also acts as a lubricant. I use the hemp when my muscles around the joints and back go into spasm and get real tight, which makes it so much more painful. A doctor wanted me to take a bunch of drugs like percocets but I tell you just a few puffs of hemp does the trick and I don't have to worry about a bunch of synthetic chemicals in my body and the drugged out feelings that come from them. Thanks for the tip of another natural and harmless cure.

-- April (atobias@yahoo.com), June 16, 2001.

WAY TO GO GUYS.....FROM STORE CARDS TO JELLO! GET OUT THE FOIL, WRAP ONCE WITH DULL SIDE OUT REVERSE DIRECTION WRAP WITH SHINEY SIDE OUT.AND SMILE YOU'RE ON CANDID CAMERA!

-- Nathan Harris Sr. (barnyard_mini@yahoo.com), June 17, 2001.

Actually Nat, it was about tailored commercials and didn,t I just present one?

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), June 18, 2001.

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