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Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace (2012)

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Re: Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace (2012)

#51

Post by dogma1138 »

anigbrowl wrote: post #38
morganvachon wrote: post #18

A nitpick (beyond the spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors throughout): The part about "most states in the Union require 24 hours before reporting a missing person" is nothing but a Hollywood trope. The fact is, most agencies require a missing person to be entered into their respective state's database within a few hours of the report. I can say unequivocally that Georgia has a two-hour window, as I've entered m…

It's a trope with a basis in fact - that used to be the standard until relatively recently. I have had occasion to file 2 missing person reports and both times I was told on my first call that the person hadn't been gone long enough to justify a report. Both incidents were >10 years ago and obviously things have changed since then.

Depending on the agency and the situation there could be also very different policies regarding this, however I couldn't find a single regulation stating that there's a 24 hour period or that it had been changed.

If you say that an 17 yr old didn't came home they might say it's more likely that they are spending the night at a friend while a 9 yr old kid that didn't came home from school will spark an ember alert very quickly.

But in general the police cannot actually prevent you from filing any type of a report, you can go to any police station and a file a report that aliens have abducted your cat.

Re: Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace (2012)

#52

Post by aaron_m04 »

leroy_masochist wrote: post #8

It's a really interesting topic and I'd say I was disappointed by the article for several reasons: 1. Very outdated in terms of the extent to which people hiding today would leave a digital signature. The article literally suggests leaving no available photographs of you, to the point where acquaintances have to work with a sketch artist to put your picture out. 2. Some very naive suggestions for jobs to take while o…

> Made-up tinfoil-hat "facts". For example: "Satellites can bounce LASER light off of your windows and, by measuring the minute distance differences between a vibrating window and the satellite, reconstruct your speech -- from orbit!"

I agree that this is untruthful, but speech reconstruction _is_ possible if the distance is much smaller (across the street, rather than dozens of km up in the sky).

Re: Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace (2012)

#53

Post by kentt »

mirimir wrote: post #44

Although it's quite dated, I'm willing to accept the author's claim that he originated much of the "how to disappear" stuff. And so I'd love to give him my $5. But perhaps ironically, Smashwords (the bookseller) only accepts PayPal and credit/debit cards. However, if some kind person would gift it to me, I would reimburse the price via Bitcoins :)

Sure, I can do that for you, though I guess you'll have to trust me. 18ajA8Joq6MrCP3VfXcZcsxYLgW5Man52W

Re: Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace (2012)

#54

Post by laichzeit0 »

peckrob wrote: post #40
thrownaway2424 wrote: post #33

I really enjoyed this article just because it reminds me so much of the early internet: wall-to-wall libertarian derangement. UCC 1-207. Sovereign Citizenship. And it got slashdotted by this link. Really takes me back.

I was just thinking that while reading this and enjoyed it for much the same reason. Everything about this page - the loose writing style, the borderline paranoia (although, given the subject, perhaps not without reason) and the antiquated - but perfectly readable - layout. It just screams early Internet. You can even pull up the source code and tell that, more than likely, it's hand edited. It's like stepping back i…

Ok you had me until 9600. If you said 28800 well.. :)

Re: Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace (2012)

#55

Post by linkydinkandyou »

seibelj wrote: post #43
samstave wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You left out the part where the cops with an IQ Cops are incapable of servicing the greater need any further the system is broken.

Reddit would be a better place for comments like this. HN is for reasonable discussion

Or Quora! They're all about knee-jerk cop-hate!

Re: Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace (2012)

#56

Post by mirimir »

kentt wrote: post #53
mirimir wrote: post #44

Although it's quite dated, I'm willing to accept the author's claim that he originated much of the "how to disappear" stuff. And so I'd love to give him my $5. But perhaps ironically, Smashwords (the bookseller) only accepts PayPal and credit/debit cards. However, if some kind person would gift it to me, I would reimburse the price via Bitcoins :)

Sure, I can do that for you, though I guess you'll have to trust me. 18ajA8Joq6MrCP3VfXcZcsxYLgW5Man52W

Done. My email and Keybase proof are in my profile.

Thanks :)

Re: Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace (2012)

#57

Post by kentt »

mirimir wrote: post #56
kentt wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, I can do that for you, though I guess you'll have to trust me. 18ajA8Joq6MrCP3VfXcZcsxYLgW5Man52W

Done. My email and Keybase proof are in my profile. Thanks :)

Thanks. I've sent the book as a gift just now.

Re: Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace (2012)

#59

Post by reality_czech »

"I wish you the very best and hope that some of these suggestions and contact references prove helpful though most of it, I'm afraid, is probably unworkable, silly suggestions that won't help you one bit"

So the author himself admits that this is a bunch of silly nonsense that won't help you at all. For some inexplicable reason the article continues past this point.

Re: Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace (2012)

#60

Post by megablast »

aaron_m04 wrote: post #52
leroy_masochist wrote: post #8

It's a really interesting topic and I'd say I was disappointed by the article for several reasons: 1. Very outdated in terms of the extent to which people hiding today would leave a digital signature. The article literally suggests leaving no available photographs of you, to the point where acquaintances have to work with a sketch artist to put your picture out. 2. Some very naive suggestions for jobs to take while o…

> Made-up tinfoil-hat "facts". For example: "Satellites can bounce LASER light off of your windows and, by measuring the minute distance differences between a vibrating window and the satellite, reconstruct your speech -- from orbit!" I agree that this is untruthful, but speech reconstruction _is_ possible if the distance is much smaller (across the street, rather than dozens of km up in the sky).

> The pinnacle of laser surveillance (which is actually a real thing) is measured in the hundreds of meters.

You skipped the very next line, which says exactly this.

On top of that, while I don't think satellite laser listening tech exists, we don't in fact know what they are capable off.

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