Google Seeks To Plant Antenna Farm In Iowa 98
1sockchuck writes "Google is seeking permission to place satellite antennas on land near its data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The 4.5 meter antennas could be used to receive content feeds from broadcast networks that could be bundled with a high-speed fiber service. The FCC filings were made by Google Fiber, which is currently laying fiber for a high-speed network in Kansas City that will provide Internet connectivity 'at speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have today.'"
Re:kansas? (Score:4, Insightful)
From a progressive point of view, I think it makes perfect sense. The more access to the "real world" these people have, the harder it will be for the echo chamber to hold them.
How long can they remain "backward" if they are able to see the goings-on of the world around them? The fundamentalist mindset you're complaining about requires an echo chamber. This is why cults always cut themselves off from the outside world. The outside world provides too much evidence that the crap they're being fed by their chosen David Koresh or Jim Jones is just that, crap.
I honestly think that getting high-technology out into the country would be a progressive's wet dream. The rural parts of the country are so staunchly conservative in part because of their isolation. I suppose one could argue the opposite, as well, that people in urban areas are more progressive because they're forced to live in close quarters and thus have no choice but be more tolerant of those different from them, whether in looks, opinions, religion, etc.
When I was in high school, there was a Catholic grade school that fed into our public school. It was funny watching those kids, in just a few months, go fucking crazy with the freedom to act and dress that they never had before. Ditto with the kids coming in to our "city" school from out on the farms.
Re:Why would they need permission? (Score:4, Insightful)
Are you nuts, in addition to being uninformed? 15 feet across is *not* a large antenna. And this is a receive-only antenna. You are right, you "don't understand quite how it all works."
This is not news. This is Google seeking a zoning variance. The land is probably zoned agricultural. Iowa zoning authorities have been paying attention to all kinds of tower and antenna placements because of the power generating windmills that are going in. I suspect the "permission" they are seeking is a zoning variance that is no more different that me asking to put a second story on my house, which in my neighborhood requires a zoning variance. *yawn*