So is Buzz Aldrin gonna be posthumously indicted?
What, he’s still alive. I was convinced he died a few years ago.
Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law
21–30 of 58 posts
Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law
#22Good to know people are spending their time working on such important issues.
Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I had to guess, I’d expect such a referendum to return a “join America” result and then for almost everyone to be surprised that doing so means (1) losing the Queen, (2) losing the Pound, and (3) losing essentially all gun restrictions.
Wouldn't becoming part of Canada technically fulfil the "join America" goal and allow the Queen to be kept?
“America” is often shorthand for “USA”, and @Daho0n said “US state”
Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law
#24Just reading the headline leads me to the immediate reaction: Who cares about a U.S. law outside of US jurisdiction? If the U.S. wants other countries to follow the same rules they need to make international treaties like the outer space treaty from 1967. That requires actual diplomacy of course.
Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law
#25In other news, the entire Universe is a nature park according to the town council of Nowhere, Wyoming. Just kidding. But what's the point of legislating things beyond our control?
A couple of reasons. 1. Your nationals can be expected to follow your laws. 2. You can use this as a stepping stone to asking other countries to normalize their laws to be similar to yours, or for a treaty negotiation, or for a UN decision. The principle of this law isn't a bad one, and it should be extended to other early artifacts of lunar exploration.
> You can use this as a stepping stone to asking other countries to normalize their laws to be similar to yours
You are certainly correct, if maybe only in theory. At the rate things are going, good luck with any country freely harmonizing anything with the USA. The USA is more likely on a steady course of becoming increasingly less relevant to anyone but themselves.
A different president is not going to change that. The country's international policies (current and past), in particular its use of their relative economical and military power imbalance, have been abusive for way longer than just this last president. Ordinary citizens around the globe have become increasingly more aware of this, often from experiencing its unpleasant consequences. It already has become harder for many foreign politicians to keep giving in to US power play, to how it essentially treats the rest of the globe as its own territory. Expect things to get a lot harder for the USA.
Meanwhile, a growing group of people looks at the USA's internal affairs, wondering why on earth anyone would take any guidance or example from such a nation. I guess that plenty of US citizens will blame that all on the last president (certainly in part for very valid reasons), but the problem extends way beyond that. Regretfully, the USA just can't stop itself, for what it does internationally (mostly unknown to its own citizens).
Feel free to shoot the messenger .. it won't matter.
Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law
#26Just reading the headline leads me to the immediate reaction: Who cares about a U.S. law outside of US jurisdiction? If the U.S. wants other countries to follow the same rules they need to make international treaties like the outer space treaty from 1967. That requires actual diplomacy of course.
Any party that wants to coöperate with U.S.A. companies on extraterrastial activities must agree to not tarnish those footsteps, and U.S.A. companies are required by law to require those agreements. — that is how they enforce it.
Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law
#27Just reading the headline leads me to the immediate reaction: Who cares about a U.S. law outside of US jurisdiction? If the U.S. wants other countries to follow the same rules they need to make international treaties like the outer space treaty from 1967. That requires actual diplomacy of course.
The article points this out. This particular law only relates to companies working with NASA on lunar projects to protect American landing sites. It can be seen as a "small step" (pun intended) to creating something larger like the World Heritage Convention, via diplomacy as you say.
On the contrary, this is a small step towards putting the moon surface under US control. It is pretty clear, at least in my opinion, that the end goal is to disregard the entire "common heritage of humanity" narative. That was all fine and dandy when we all knew the moon was too remote to do anything about it. Now that technology allows to at least entertain the idea of exploiting the moon as a ressource, it is time for empires to drip their toes to test the waters…
I cannnot believe that those types of claim and the advance of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program is entirely a coincidence.
Of course, the situation will slowing evolve for decades before anything concrete comes out of it. And I do think the "common heritage" claim, even if doomed to fail eventually, tend to slow down the conquest by national powers. The situation in Antarctica is illuminating in this regard.
Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law
#28Just reading the headline leads me to the immediate reaction: Who cares about a U.S. law outside of US jurisdiction? If the U.S. wants other countries to follow the same rules they need to make international treaties like the outer space treaty from 1967. That requires actual diplomacy of course.
> Who cares about a U.S. law outside of US jurisdiction? Alas, Julian Assange for one, as an Australian citizen, indicted for breaking a US law while not in the US. The recent UK court decision not to extradite him to the US nevertheless in no way disputes US standing nor jurisdiction, and he remains in custody while the US appeals. So, we're all living in America.
Hew Raymond Griffiths is an even better example. He actually got extradited and convicted.
Australian court agreed to treat his activity as having taken place within US jurisdiction despite him never leaving Australia.
Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law
#29How long before it gets erased for being called a monument to white supremacy?
Re: Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon is now protected by U.S. law
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn't becoming part of Canada technically fulfil the "join America" goal and allow the Queen to be kept?
“America” is often shorthand for “USA”, and @Daho0n said “US state”
If it was a UK referendum it would simply say "America" and leave it to after to work out what that actually meant! ;-)
[Edit: I can just imagine the slogan of "America means America"]