Austrian takes pickaxe to Street View spymobile An Austrian old timer could be in a spot of bother with police after he chased a Street View spymobile with a pickaxe, the Austrian Times reports. Google's Orwellian Opels have apparently come out of winter hibernation to continue their invasion of Austria. This didn't go down too well with 70-year-old Hermann Zach, who …
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Let me guess: you're from the States (as I have noticed time and again that the topographical knowledge of the average American is seriously lacking), right? The distance between Austria and Australia is about 15,000 to 20,000 km (just a guess)...
Someone who lives in The Netherlands (which is *not* the capital of Denmark!)...
Now go get your coat and go back to the classroom.
First, I think you meant geography as topography generally isn't concerned with people or politics. That is topography is concerned only with physical attributes of a space and not the drawing of imaginary lines differentiating my dirt from your dirt.
"Let me guess: you're from the States"
Well it isn't like he'd expect you to know where Teec Nos Pos is. That said, it's true general edjumacation isn't a strong suit here in the states but then what would you expect from an education system based on a government monopoly? Given the constant complaining about poor education, I'm amazed by some peoples desire for a government run health care system. Sure it might work in Denmark! or even The Netherlands ;-) but compare gubbermints and ask yourself if you really want Mitch McConnell or Nancy Pelosi pulling the strings.
A colleague once went into a diner in the US of A.
Waitress: <Heavy Drawl> "Gee. I just looove your ack-sent. You must be from Ing-ga-land!"
Colleague: "No, I'm from New Zealand actually".
Waitress: <Smugly> "Gee, doncha know it? I just knew it hadda be somewhere around there!"
Thus were the new rules of geography formed, in which there are only actually two places on the planet. America and "somewhere around England".
Sorry, but if you want to act superior and smug in pointing out the errors of others, you may want to understand the language you are using in your attempt to belittle them..
GEOGRAPHY is obviously what you should have said. In the US, TOPOGRAPHY relates to the physical features of the land. Geography refers not only to the physical features, but also the geopolitical as well. Not knowing the human construct of Austria, therefore has nothing to do with topography, which in the most general description is topographically mountainous.
Yes, Americans knowledge of the world is pretty lousy, but you demonstrate that being an ass knows no bounds.
And, to finish off in your own tone, I assume you would not mind if I refer to you as a lowlife, since you come from the lowlands?
Google is driving around taking pictures... so what? Tourists take pictures all the time... would the elderly gentleman have gone after a tourist snapping photos? I think he would not have, unless he really is a nutter.
Google isn't spying on any one person or group of persons, they are making a ground-level photographic record of what a place looked like at a particular point in time. Imagine if we had this kind of record when the pyramids were being built? Or if you could walk through the streets of London through the ages to see how it has changed?
People are reacting to Google as if they were an arm of the secret service, keeping tabs on their comings and goings, spying on their every move, invading their daily-lives. All of those things might be true of the police-monitored CCTV system in the UK and elsewhere, but IMHO it is certainly not the case with the Google Streetview camera car.
Google may not be an arm of the secret service, but they certainly are on more than speaking terms with them. If it was a ground level photographic record of what a place looked like at a particular point in time maintained by say, the British Museum or American Smithsonian? That would be a lot more innocuous than by a company that "wants to know everything about you", and has a vested interested in keeping governments of all different political bents happy.
I'm fairly privacy conscious, and wish the Founders had put something a little more clear into the Constitution with regards to personal privacy. But in an era when you could walk a hundred yards away from others, check the bushes, and be confident of having a private conversation, it probably didn't come up.
The typical tourist doesn't supply a map to world + dog pointing out those places which might be soft targets for criminal behavior either. I can understand why such an action might provoke a bit of paranoia in people. CCTV on the other hand is the sure sign that paranoia is one of the prime movers in government.
You consider that the "patriot act" allows the US government unfettered access to any data held by a US company, even if that data relates to other countries.
So Google has done the worlds largest data gathering activity on behalf of the US government, and people wonder how they got away with it!
Black Helicopters for obvious reasons
actually i think that topography is a perfectly reasonable term to use in describing the american insular societies lack of understanding of the location of those other places that have shit armies and bad food.
I met a speitc a few weeks ago in Belize who told me he hated the UK because we actually ate grilled tomatoes. I was surprised that this was all he could come up with and concluded that he must just be a moron.
from merriam-webster
: the art or practice of graphic delineation in detail usually on maps or charts of natural and man-made features of a place or region especially in a way to show their relative positions and elevations
Old Giffer: "I noticed this weird car on the road. I told the driver to make a move but he just didn’t listen. So I grabbed my pickaxe and ran after him."
So let's get this straight.
1: He told Google Guy to move (this suggests Google Mobile was stationary).
2: Google Guy "didn't listen" (this suggests the car remained stationary).
3: Giffer "ran after" the apparently stationary Google Mobile and tried to attack it with a pickaxe.
4: Neighbours subdued Giffer.
5: Somehow, Google are the bad guys in all this?
WTF?
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