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Massive, Illicit Bust of Edward Snowden Stuck to a War Monument in Brooklyn

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301–310 of 374 posts

Re: Massive, Illicit Bust of Edward Snowden Stuck to a War Monument in Brooklyn

#301
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only works because it found exact versions of that same picture on different websites and looked at the text of those sites and saw that the name "Barack Obama" was in the text of all those sites so it did an image search for "Barack Obama". Like I said: it searches for exact picture matches. If you took your own picture of Obama that had never been posted online before and did a reverse image search, it wouldn'…

Obviously it works better if it can find the exact image, but I don't think that's all that it's doing. For example, here's a picture of the Golden Gate bridge that I took myself from Angel Island, never before uploaded to the Internet: http://bit.ly/1HJy0oL It couldn't get the query, but it does get similar images, including at least one other that's also of the Golden Gate bridge. I unfortunately don't have any per…

For the Obama one toward the bottom of the page there is the section "Pages that include matching images", so it did find the exact original image. I knew it would match even cropped images, but apparently it can also handle slight rotation and some color changes.

Re: Massive, Illicit Bust of Edward Snowden Stuck to a War Monument in Brooklyn

#302
post #39
post #35

Seeing them cover this thing up is a hideous moment in our history: https://vine.co/v/eBBvedaHtBz . Shameful that something so harmless is immediately covered up (quite literally) because it challenges the state. The U.S. is getting scarier by the day, folks.

>The U.S. is getting scarier by the day, folks. It really is. The facade of democracy is very quickly being peeled back to reveal something utterly terrifying. The response from the people has been the most disappointing and depressing thing though. The random sampling in NYC, of all places in the US, by Oliver's show was a brutal reminder of the mindset of the average person there.

Not sure why HNers were so disappointed with people's response to Snowden in NYC. Isn't it easily possible that out of 200 people they questioned, only 10 didn't know about him but they of course edited out 190? That's how these comedy news shows work.

Re: Massive, Illicit Bust of Edward Snowden Stuck to a War Monument in Brooklyn

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snowden's a hero and deserves his place on that memorial. This whole deal with the people putting up a statue of a hero and the government tearing it down? Not what America's supposed to be about. Combine that with the fact that most of the senators who voted for the Patriot Act probably read 1984, and didn't object to the obvious propaganda in the name Patriot Act? Not what America's supposed to be about either.

Shouldn't the American way involve a vote or some other involvement of the democratic process at some point? Is America now all about individuals just doing whatever they want, and if somebody doesn't like it, too bad?

Didn't George W. start this trend with his "The Constitution is just a Piece of Paper" and "Unitary Executive" jokes? I thought we gave up that whole "voting" thing when 9/11 changed everything.

Re: Massive, Illicit Bust of Edward Snowden Stuck to a War Monument in Brooklyn

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a matter of record that the US prevented him travelling after he got to Hong Kong. Your original comment claims he was a double agent for China and Russia. Now you speculate that he was a failed wannabe Chinese asset. Wild speculations aside, you might want to consider the revelations on their own merits rather than a ham-fisted smear against the source. The fact remains that they have been confirmed as true and…

> It's a matter of record that the US prevented him travelling after he got to Hong Kong. Also, bull!@#!. _CHINA_ prevented the US from traveling after he got to Hong Kong. If the US had its way, then Snowden would be in jail right now. CHINA prevented him from traveling after he got to Hong Kong. The US had very little power over the whole issue at that point. There are other parties at play here.

[citation needed]

Re: Massive, Illicit Bust of Edward Snowden Stuck to a War Monument in Brooklyn

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a matter of record that the US prevented him travelling after he got to Hong Kong. Your original comment claims he was a double agent for China and Russia. Now you speculate that he was a failed wannabe Chinese asset. Wild speculations aside, you might want to consider the revelations on their own merits rather than a ham-fisted smear against the source. The fact remains that they have been confirmed as true and…

> Wild speculations aside, you might want to consider the revelations on their own merits rather than a ham-fisted smear against the source. The fact remains that they have been confirmed as true and are therefore not some kind of black propaganda. Fair enough. I'm more interested in the political implications anyway. So what do we do about Swatters? Metadata collection seems to be the only useful tool against them.

Swattings still happen on a regular basis despite pervasive metadata collection. Is your argument that we're not collecting enough to stop them?

Re: Massive, Illicit Bust of Edward Snowden Stuck to a War Monument in Brooklyn

#307

It's interesting to see that these people (1) installed the bust in such a way that it can be easily removed without damaging the existing structure and (2) went to great lengths to ensure that the new design is honoring the aesthetics that were already in place. One can argue otherwise, but I think this is a very creative and considerate form of protest which btw is also non-violent.

Snowden's a hero and deserves his place on that memorial. This whole deal with the people putting up a statue of a hero and the government tearing it down? Not what America's supposed to be about. Combine that with the fact that most of the senators who voted for the Patriot Act probably read 1984, and didn't object to the obvious propaganda in the name Patriot Act? Not what America's supposed to be about either.

I take it that the part about people erecting a statue of someone who they think is a hero and the government tearing it down is part of the art / political statement.

Re: Massive, Illicit Bust of Edward Snowden Stuck to a War Monument in Brooklyn

#308
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so. If it is something unauthorized they probably would have removed it in due time. I.e., they would have taken a couple of days to hire professionals to do it. Now they immediately cover it up so that no-one can see it while they arrange for its removal. Why? Obviously they do not want anyone to look at it before it is removed. But why not? It is certainly not offensive in any way. It may prove to be…

"Not offensive in any way.." That' certainly subjective. Comparing Snowden as a war hero could be offensive to those that actually fought in wars. If they put it in the Nathan Hale statue at CIA, now that would be ironic. I'm on a the fence about Snowden, however disrespecting a war memorial to prove a point seems to border on tasteless. How about putting a Snowden statue in front of an AT&T store; that would be bett…

It's also arguable that what they did was disrespecting a war memorial. Today's wars are fought increasingly without conventional military units or weapons. I personally wouldn't consider Snowden a war hero, but I do consider him a hero, and I wouldn't begrudge people the opinion that he is indeed a war hero.

Re: Massive, Illicit Bust of Edward Snowden Stuck to a War Monument in Brooklyn

#310
post #3

It has already been covered over with tarp and the letting removed[1]. It's a wonderful piece of work with excellent sentiment behind it. Unfortunately it doesn't suit the government and mainstream media narrative, so I'm sure the act of its erection will be decried as liberal terrorism and vandalism, the piece taken down and Snowden-related news once again brushed over. [1] http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brookl…

I like part of Ruth Goldstein's, one of the park conservancy founders, response in that article. While I am fairly confident that asking and trying to go through legitimate channels to get the bust put up would not of worked, what she said makes me think there are at least people who would consider it, although probably not high enough in power structures to actually get it done. “The park is such a symbol of America…

I notice the author of the article is "Sasha Goldstein", I wonder if Ruth and Sasha are related.

Also, I wonder if Sasha would be pinged by the government about who is behind the act, and if Sasha would give them up, adding some irony(?), referencing 1984.

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