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Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

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Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#111

Post by MichaelZuo »

standardUser wrote: post #101
jdewerd wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Standardized testing does not aim to be a perfect evaluation, it aims to be a good enough evaluation that can be made highly resistant to corruption/bribery relative to its qualitative alternatives.

They could divide it into 5-10 different test, administered over the course of several years. Anything but what they are doing now, which sounds like it was custom designed to encourage drug abuse and suicide.

Can you write out the detailed arguments as to how that would be a net benefit?

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#112

Post by FredPret »

It'd be so cool if all our phones & laptops could have globally-unique addresses and talk to one another directly in a big global mesh.

You'd still need cables and satellites to deal with rural areas and to cross oceans, but you couldn't really switch that off.

Free speech would go through the roof!

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#114

Post by FirmwareBurner »

The_Colonel wrote: post #67
bluefirebrand wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The West" is a very murky sort of definition. Arguably the colloquial "Cultural West" is what is on the Western side of what used to be called the Iron Curtain. Poland was definitely on the Eastern side of that.

Iron Curtain was a political, not cultural border. Western civilization usually includes all European catholic countries, i. e. also Poland. (Huntington is a notorious example)

>Western civilization usually includes all European catholic countries, i. e. also Poland. (Huntington is a notorious example)

What about European Orthodox countries? Does civilization only tie to catholic religion?

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#115

Post by chupchap »

FredPret wrote: post #112

It'd be so cool if all our phones & laptops could have globally-unique addresses and talk to one another directly in a big global mesh. You'd still need cables and satellites to deal with rural areas and to cross oceans, but you couldn't really switch that off. Free speech would go through the roof!

Globally-unique addresses are also easier to censor

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#116

Post by alephnerd »

euroderf wrote: post #102

Back in the days before teh interwebz were invented... What if the gov't could shut off political advertising on TV for (say) 48 hours before any national election ? Candidates fall back on print(ed) media and radio. This would cut off many problems (imho). Opportunity missed. And, too late now.

> Candidates fall back on print(ed) media and radio

Back in the day before the interwebz the army would just jail those in the media who didn't toe the line, and curtail access of the printed word.

The internet offered a way to disseminate information independent of other more controlled ways.

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#117

Post by FredPret »

chupchap wrote: post #115
FredPret wrote: post #112

It'd be so cool if all our phones & laptops could have globally-unique addresses and talk to one another directly in a big global mesh. You'd still need cables and satellites to deal with rural areas and to cross oceans, but you couldn't really switch that off. Free speech would go through the roof!

Globally-unique addresses are also easier to censor

If devices talk directly to one another there's very little a central authority could do to censor communication

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#118

Post by alephnerd »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #45
H8crilA wrote: post #40

The craziest thing is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And not only that, the weapons are at the disposal of the local (very high ranking) commanders. It also is a country where the military is really in charge, only occasionally giving back the control to a civilian government. Sometimes people think that Eastern Europe is the most likely place to get nuked, or perhaps some American carrier off the coast of China.…

> in reality it's both Pakistan and India Pakistan’s top brass is anti-India. They’re also somewhat rational. If Pakistan’s nukes are launched, it’s because the zealots took control. At that point, I’m betting on Israel or even one of the Arab monarchies (if not Islamabad itself) [1]. [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Sh...

> Pakistan’s top brass is anti-India

The top brass tried to negotiate a normalization of relations with India in 2019 at the behest of the UAE and Saudi.

It was supposed to be a legacy making policy of the former Chief of Army Staff Bajwa [0] but was scuttled by Imran Khan [1]

There is a bit of Qatar+Turkiye versus Saudi+UAE intrigue in this as well, as Imran Khan leaned pro-Qatar and helped them bypass the Saudi+UAE lead blockade on Qatar [2], which was a no-no for Saudi and the UAE.

Imran Khan had a decent domestic policy, but his foreign policy was basically pissing everyone off - from Saudi to UAE to India to the USA - and was what lead to his demise.

[0] - https://tribune.com.pk/story/2417903/gen-bajwas-india-peace-...

[1] - https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/imran-...

[2] - https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2018-06-...

Re: Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day

#120

Post by muststopmyths »

chrisjj wrote: post #108

> Pakistan has temporarily suspended mobile phone network And not the fixed one?

The intent isn't to block voice calls, but (probably) spreading of misinformation via social networks and group chat apps.

Where the definition of "misinformation" is up to the government.

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