Drones, Surveillance, and Facial Recognition: Startup Named 'Sauron' Pitches Military-Style Home Security (msn.com) 124
The Washington Post details a vision of home security "pitched by Sauron, a Silicon Valley start-up boasting a waiting list of tech CEOs and venture capitalists."
In the future, your home will feel as safe from intruders as a state-of-the-art military base. Cameras and sensors surveil the perimeter, scanning bystanders' faces for potential threats. Drones from a "deterrence pod" scare off trespassers by projecting a searchlight over any suspicious movements. A virtual view of the home is rendered in 3D and updated in real time, just like a Tesla's digital display. And private security agents monitor alerts from a central hub.... By incorporating technology developed for autonomous vehicles, robotics and border security, Sauron has built a supercharged burglar alarm [argued Sauron co-founder Kevin Hartz, a tech entrepreneur and former partner at Peter Thiel's venture firm Founders Fund]...
For many tech elites, security is both a national priority and a growing concern in their personal lives... After the presidential election last month, the start-up incubator Y Combinator put out a request for "public safety technology" companies, such as those that produce tools that facilitate a neighborhood watch or technology that uses computer vision to identify "suspicious activities or people in distress from video feeds...." Sauron has raised $18 million in funding from executives behind Flock Safety and Palantir, the data analytics firm, [and] defense tech investors such as 8VC, a venture firm started by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale... Sauron is targeting homeowners at the high end of the real estate market, beginning with a private event at Abraham's home on Thursday, during Art Basel Miami Beach, the annual art exhibition that attracts collectors from around the world. The company plans to launch in San Francisco early next year, before expanding to Los Angeles and Miami...
Big Tech companies haven't deployed tools such as facial recognition as aggressively as Hartz would like. "If somebody comes onto my property, I feel like I should know who that is," Hartz said... In recent years massive investments have driven down the cost of drones, high-resolution cameras and lidar sensors, which use light detection to create 3D maps. Sauron uses lower-cost hardware and tools like facial recognition, combined with custom-built software adapted for residential use. For facial recognition, it will use a third-party service called Paravision... Sauron is still figuring out how to incorporate drones, but it is already imagining more aggressive countermeasures, Hartz said. "Is it a machine that could take out a bad actor with a bullet or something?"
For many tech elites, security is both a national priority and a growing concern in their personal lives... After the presidential election last month, the start-up incubator Y Combinator put out a request for "public safety technology" companies, such as those that produce tools that facilitate a neighborhood watch or technology that uses computer vision to identify "suspicious activities or people in distress from video feeds...." Sauron has raised $18 million in funding from executives behind Flock Safety and Palantir, the data analytics firm, [and] defense tech investors such as 8VC, a venture firm started by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale... Sauron is targeting homeowners at the high end of the real estate market, beginning with a private event at Abraham's home on Thursday, during Art Basel Miami Beach, the annual art exhibition that attracts collectors from around the world. The company plans to launch in San Francisco early next year, before expanding to Los Angeles and Miami...
Big Tech companies haven't deployed tools such as facial recognition as aggressively as Hartz would like. "If somebody comes onto my property, I feel like I should know who that is," Hartz said... In recent years massive investments have driven down the cost of drones, high-resolution cameras and lidar sensors, which use light detection to create 3D maps. Sauron uses lower-cost hardware and tools like facial recognition, combined with custom-built software adapted for residential use. For facial recognition, it will use a third-party service called Paravision... Sauron is still figuring out how to incorporate drones, but it is already imagining more aggressive countermeasures, Hartz said. "Is it a machine that could take out a bad actor with a bullet or something?"
No Trespassing (Score:2)
If somebody comes onto my property, I feel like I should know who that is
If you don't have the legally correct "No Trespassing" signs and fences, then if I have a legitimate reason to be on your property, no you can't bloody know who I am. Whether I'm the mailman or someone on your landscaping crew, go through the proper channels if you want my name.
Of course, that's my emotions talking. I'm not sure about the legality of any of this. It's probably a lot more legal than an unfriendly guard dog (if not protected by a fence and signs), but more chilling.
Re:No Trespassing (Score:4, Interesting)
If somebody comes onto my property, I feel like I should know who that is
If you don't have the legally correct "No Trespassing" signs and fences, then if I have a legitimate reason to be on your property, no you can't bloody know who I am. Whether I'm the mailman or someone on your landscaping crew, go through the proper channels if you want my name.
Of course, that's my emotions talking. I'm not sure about the legality of any of this. It's probably a lot more legal than an unfriendly guard dog (if not protected by a fence and signs), but more chilling.
I'm guessing you have no expectation of privacy on someone's property, or even in public areas around it where this will be marketed; but it is more chilling. What is interesting is how AI can be used for facial recognition by the masses, as some Harvard students demonstrated. [theverge.com] Given teh availability of decent surveillance cameras at reasonable prices, I can see this as the next frontier in home security for people. A security company could certainly afford the computing power and storage needed to build a large facial database; epecially since they could likely sell access to it as well.
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We should just enforce stalking laws -- 300 million counts of stalking sounds like a good cure for this idea of universal stalking.
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My brother was canvassing for Nikki Haley last summer and he got death threats.
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So knackering the FBI, as el Bunko wants to do, won't hinder security? And those nice right wingnut militias will certainly protect your property if they think you have dissed them in any way; don't forget, there are nice people on both sides (what is a nice Nazi, eh?). The knackered FBI won't be there to infiltrate the right wingnut militias because el Bunko thinks they are "his people" and won't hurt him. la Presidenta having loosely controlled private armies that are safe from the Justice Department will
Re: No Trespassing (Score:2, Funny)
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Dang, you waited all of two seconds to post bullshit about "very fine people on both sides". It's been debunked with recordings, and transcripts, even by leftist "fact checkers". It's helpful, though, because it lets us know what whatever you say or believe has a 99.8% certainly of being bullshit propaganda.
I agree with the other commenter, in that it may be related to your cessation of various anti-psychotic meds.
Always be afraid. (Score:5, Interesting)
Citizen's faith in their already-overly-militarized-police has been eroded and now there's an interest in this kind of aftermarket personal security. Some citizens will start paying for the regular police via taxes plus this kind of extra "security". It's the rich, paranoid folk who will be shelling out.
Fear is a powerful marketing method.
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If recent history has taught us anything about security in modern tech startups, and combined with this part:
Hartz said. "Is it a machine that could take out a bad actor with a bullet or something?"
It will probably not take long for a bad actor to hack the system and turn it on the inhabitants using it.
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It's not a coincidence that a significant portion of the US population is now convinced that illegal immigrants are eating people's pets where the reality is legal immigrants are not eating people's pets. Citizen's faith in their already-overly-militarized-police has been eroded and now there's an interest in this kind of aftermarket personal security. Some citizens will start paying for the regular police via taxes plus this kind of extra "security". It's the rich, paranoid folk who will be shelling out. Fear is a powerful marketing method.
Don't worry. Trump will fix that, he promised he would. He would not lie and always does what he says, right?
Be more afraid... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Always be afraid. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is not for "normal" people, but the rich. Basically, the wealth imbalance has reached such a point that the rich are beginning to fear the masses.
I'm guessing that "after the presidential election last month" can be translated as, "Trump almost got assassinated, we need to make sure that doesn't happen to us!"
Re:Always be afraid. (Score:4, Informative)
Don't forget that health insurance CEO or whatever he was getting shot in NY. Suddenly lots of worry about security amongst the executive class.
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And the comments section for the news on that shot healthcare CEO, pretty much celebrating his death.
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Well, if it's that good, it's likely not affordable by the plebes. No, this is aimed squarely at the people who have too much money from screwing everyone over.
And the whole UnitedHealth CEO murder has put the fear into them that they're next. Especially the ones who see who the self-serving one is installing into power. So yes, they're going to make more money off the backs of the workers, and those workers might see that government has basically screwed them over.
It doesn't take a math genius to figure ou
Re: Always be afraid. (Score:2)
"no illegal has ever eaten a pet."
Sure. And none of them poo in the streets either.
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"no illegal has ever eaten a pet."
Sure. And none of them poo in the streets either.
When quoting someone, convention has it that what you quote is what that someone said.
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I wasn't quoting anyone. It's called a "paraphrase."
When paraphrasing someone, convention has it that what you paraphrase is what that someone said.
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thereâ(TM)s an easier solution for that. Make Crime Criminal Again
Will you stop with the virtue signaling? If you're asked to pay for that, you'll cry about the tax cost, so your proposal can only be supported with slavery (in the form of mandatory prison labor/punishing prisoners for not "volunteering" to labor.) Prosecuting and imprisoning people costs money. You claim you don't want to pay for people's cost of living, but you insist we lock them up in a box where you're going to have to do just that.
I have an alternate proposal: If we're going to improve society by pro
Wow, virtue signaling.. (Score:3, Interesting)
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The real problems I see (not in my neighborhood) in some neighborhoods is that crime is high (not just misdemeanors) and no one is doing anything about it. The same criminals keep commiting the same crimes over and over again because our system is broken and letting repeat offenders off the hook.
Right, I see the same thing, it's called wage theft. I was underpaid by over $30,000 and fired while I was seeking a part of those back wages and wound up having to take a settlement for half of that because I was fucking broke.
I'd like for people to feel safe in their surroundings.
You profit from a system which created a bunch of homelessness and drug addiction in order to make the people running it richer. Now you want the victims to be abused further so that you can feel safe. You are lack-of-virtue signalling.
Re:Wow, virtue signaling.. (Score:4, Insightful)
I would be for social justice as much as the next guy but at some point, I'd like for people to feel safe in their surroundings.
We live in a generation that is more secure in our persons and property than any prior generation. However we are more exposed to news violent crime than any previous generation. Even with the uptick in violence in 2020 due to COVID, that was still less crime than we had in 1991, which was the peak of crime in America. I was 30 at the time, and weirdly, it did not *feel* as unsafe then as it does now.
So the problem is that we are more safe, but we feel less safe. It's quite astute of you to observe that the crime you are perceiving is not in *your* neighborhood, because your perceptions of other neighborhoods is *mediated*. By the media. It is true that disparities in violent crime rates persist, but even in urban neighborhoods the crime rate is a fraction of what t was in 1991.
If you want to feel more safe, the answer is to stop consuming media which makes you feel unsafe. If you want to *be* more safe, whatever we started doing in 1991, we should do more of it.
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thereâ(TM)s an easier solution for that. Make Crime Criminal Again
Will you stop with the virtue signaling? If you're asked to pay for that, you'll cry about the tax cost, so your proposal can only be supported with slavery (in the form of mandatory prison labor/punishing prisoners for not "volunteering" to labor.) Prosecuting and imprisoning people costs money. You claim you don't want to pay for people's cost of living, but you insist we lock them up in a box where you're going to have to do just that.
Really? Is that what I claimed? How does hanging a murderer upon admission sound like I want to lock them in a taxpayer box? Think the thief is gonna need a jail cell when I take a take a hand from them instead? Grow the fuck up and formulate an actual response next time instead of being triggered. The point of punishment is deterrence. Time we remember that again.
The cost of being enslaved by criminals in perpetual fear, is far worse than “taxes”.
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How does hanging a murderer upon admission sound like I want to lock them in a taxpayer box? Think the thief is gonna need a jail cell when I take a take a hand from them instead?
Oh right, I forgot you were a total shitbag.
You really should take my advice. Grow the fuck up already and provide a valid retort. The shitbag is the one who robbed the store and gets released the next day to do it again. The shitbag is the one taking money from store owners. The shitbag is the one who clearly forgot why we punish shitbag behavior.
Grow the fuck up and formulate an actual response next time instead of being triggered.
How do you like these apples?
Like I like my responses. Fresh and on point. I was talking about the blatant and obvious crime problems that more liberal policies bring upon themselves. Taxes are another matter entirely and are n
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You really should take my advice.
I should take advice from someone who wants the state to murder for their convenience? Fuck you ten times, buddy.
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Dean Baker, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, rants about this frequently. He's written a boo
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That absolutely must change. When a person is convicted of 34 felonies, his job is not a reason to escape prison, or to have the DoJ destroy all evidence of his crimes. Punishment of convicted felons must be the priority and that, must be written into law.
The GOP has always promised to be 'tough on crime', so I know those laws will be approved by congress, soon.
Unequivocally Evil (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder why, exactly, these folks named their company after an explicitly malevolent entity. Sauron represents malice, control, and subjugation. There are any number of other names you could have picked that represent all-seeing protections that aren't explicitly evil.
It's a shame that evil people are not even trying to hide that fact any more.
Re:Unequivocally Evil (Score:4, Insightful)
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The only think Thiel can do is make money. Since he makes it by taking it from others without returning adequate value, that ios nto a valuable skill for society at all. Quite the contrary.
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It's not even competent evil, he couldn't even keep track of a couple of fucking hobbits right under his nose.
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Re:Unequivocally Evil (Score:5, Funny)
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It's a shame that evil people are not even trying to hide that fact any more.
I much prefer it over sneaky whitewashed evil that hides behind positive corporate messaging and cheerful ukulele music.
See also Jaguar's "it's good to be bad" marketing campaign from a few years ago.
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Hmm...it's still better than the brand new recently released "its good to be gay and weird" marketing campaign that's out there now.
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Nothing of the sort, my dear chap!
Sauron is a misunderstood tragic character, fighting for diversity by introducing new species to Middle Earth! For example orcs, who only want to take care of their families! And somehow these evil elves and people do not understand! The orcs are simply neurodivergent!!!
Source: Rings of Power
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I wonder why, exactly, these folks named their company after an explicitly malevolent entity. Sauron represents malice, control, and subjugation. There are any number of other names you could have picked that represent all-seeing protections that aren't explicitly evil.
It's a shame that evil people are not even trying to hide that fact any more.
I'm guessing we're less than a year away from Sauron's redemption arc. Disney's popularizing the concept of hero-izing their villains, and based on the way Amazon is handling Rings of Power, it can't be long before we see it happen with Sauron. These guys were just ahead of the curve.
Though in all honesty, that was my first reaction to the name as well. Naming your company Sauron, especially if you're basic service is "security," is like making your company motto, "Evil, for your safety." Can't wait for the
Defending against Creativity. (Score:2)
pitched by Sauron..
Normally I find myself fighting against the idiocy of excessive patent, trademark, and copyright abuse.
But every now and then I find myself being forced to fight for Creativity to return again, by suing every dork, nerd, and geek who walks into the VC meeting with some fucking sci-fi reference as The Name because they can’t manage to think of anything creative on their own.
Of all the topics you could have asked an LLM to nonsensically spew out a creative answer for..
Easy!!! Easy ... very easy! (Score:1)
Just drop some of those Ring door bell gadgets into a volcano. I think there are some on Hawaii!
Problem solved.
Just move (Score:3)
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Yes (Score:4, Informative)
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There are criminals in low-density housing: Those suburbs with 1/2 mile driveways and 3-storey homes suffer crime too. Those criminals don't attack their neighbours. The problem is, there are different types of criminals in different suburbs. Most people care only about the neighbourhood criminal, or I should say criminals, since high-density housing guarantees there's more than one.
Re: Just move (Score:2)
Was true in the 1970's, but those days are gone. I would suggest that was possible in a more socially homogenous society . Immigration, pandemic, and poverty has definitely changed that.
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Re: Just move (Score:2)
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Re: Just move (Score:2)
Re: Just move (Score:2)
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This is a bit off-topic, but where in Central Europe? I've spent a bit of time in the Czech Republic, and if I can overcome the language barrier I'd consider moving. Good transport, health care, food, beer. Skiing in the winter, hiking in the summer. Easy rail links to other European capitals if you feel like a break. Local people on a local wage aren't "rich" but they seem to be able to to afford to eat at restaurants etc.
Re: Just move (Score:4, Insightful)
I was quite liberal and accepting of "immigrants" until I saw this shit happening in my city (> 1million people). Sword murders? Especially against women? Arabs, Afghanis, usually. Murder on the Basketball court? Human trafficking? Africans. Africans in particular think the entire world is their garbage can. Eat fast food, drop it where they stand or throw it out the car window. Want to know why it takes a village to raise an african child? Because the parents are absent. The men ony come home to fuck and the women have a baby every year. Multiply by the number of wifes. Hey, a Somali born Canadian friend of mine, who came to visit me last summer said "Holy Shit! How can there be so many kids under the age of 10 running around out there? Note: He's from Africa and even he was shocked. The neighbourhood around me changed over the last 6 years, I've seen this behaviour first hand. Don't make me go on. It gets worse.
I'll leave the pandemic and increased poverty for another time.
So come in from 10 minutes outside the city to where it's still the 1970s and see how it works in 2024.
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I made no aspersions. What I wrote is my observations. Try reading a newspaper. All that stuff happened. I don't take it personally. Have a nice day,
You are correct but sometimes life takes u places (Score:2)
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Even in Baltimore, if you live in the right neighborhoods you're very safe. I had elderly relatives living in Federal Hill for many years and they felt completely safe walking to in from the Inner Harbor evenings.
Re: Just move (Score:2)
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Yup, we live in a small town in N. Calif. that's like that. We don't lock our front door unless we're going to be away for a while, kids leave bikes and scooters on their front lawn, people know and socialize with their neighbors. But I think that's only possible in a small community where there isn't a huge disparity in wealth.
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INdeed. The time wasted thinking about it alone already makes moving worthwhile. I mean, if a country is this broken, it is time to give up on it.
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Most of the people who want these things have little to no need for it. The rich love the idea of having powerful security around themselves regardless of the actual threat level they face. Selling excessive security to a rich person is easier than selling excessive engine power to a car enthusiast (especially because the rich person can always afford it).
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A big step we could take toward reducing property crime is getting serious about treating drug addiction. You can't leave your bike on your lawn in a lot of rural US now because of opioid addicts, many of whom got hooked by medically sanctioned opioid use and then turned to street drugs. 80% of heroin users started on prescription drugs.
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In my entire life living in the US, I can't recall a single case of someone coming onto my property for the purpose of committing a crime (not counting scammy salespeople coming to my door to try to sell me things). Not once, in any of the places I've lived. I don't think I'm alone in that.
There's a whole industry trying to convince you to be scared so they can sell you things. And then there's a whole political movement trying to convince you to be scared so you'll vote for them. Don't pay any attentio
Re: Just move (Score:2)
Wrong solution (Score:5, Insightful)
A much better option is to build a community that doesn't require this level of security to feel safe.
There are a few of course (Score:2)
Re:There are a few of course (Score:5, Insightful)
If you can afford this level of security, and your community is unsafe enough to justify it... then we're probably talking about a place with a significant wealth disparity and culture and laws preventing class mobility.
It's really easy when you have 'stuff' to want to protect it and demonize those who have nothing and want some. They just didn't work for it like you did, right? Never mind that a lot of that wealth was inherited or gained through inherited connections. Never mind that the opportunities you had are outright blocked to others.
You can protect yourself from the current state of affairs, but you have to put in at least equal effort towards building a future where that protection isn't necessary, otherwise you're a sociopathic parasite.
Perfection (Score:4, Funny)
Such a society exists, in North Korea. Zero crime, there.
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But that could cost almost as much and not make the rich people feel like space royalty lording over a world of impoverished peasants, and that's no fun!
Amazing change over 40 years (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was a kid, we had people ring our doorbell once a day on average. About 25% was solicitations, about 25% was religious evangelists, about 25% was people we knew, and about 25% was business transactions (renew newspaper subscription / insurance agent who "couldn't wait for the mail to get a signature" / lawyer / work colleagues having a weekend planning meeting / etc.). I myself did a lot of solicitations with door-to-door Boy Scout fundraisers.
The most important thing about this world that I grew up: We trusted our neighborhood and our society.
"If somebody comes onto my property, I feel like I should know who that is," Hartz said. What I really hear in that quote is this: we no longer trust the strangers in our neighborhood. When that happens, our societies will crumble. (This is not hyperbole. Every one of us depends on strangers to make our lives better; we just don't see them. The people who grow our food, build our homes, maintain our streets, manufacture our goods, and so on and so forth. This trade should not be just quid-pro-quo; working together for everybody's betterment maintains our trust that society is working in our interests. But when the message we hear daily is that the "47%" or the "basket of deplorables" is the enemy, we replace that trust with paranoia, that our neighbor is conspiring to work against us. This friction, if left unremedied, is what transpires the rise of autocrats and the downfall of democracies.)
Re:Amazing change over 40 years (Score:5, Insightful)
This is very true. In many cases, I think, people literally don't *know* who their neighbors are-- they've never met them, which makes it difficult to trust them.
An increasingly large majority of Americans have now chosen to live in the suburbs. There aren't a lot of local businesses (people either work remotely or commute to work, and they shop either online or in a big-box store). There's a lack of what sociologists call "third spaces" (places that are neither work nor home, and that exist primarily for the purpose of meeting your neighbors). You can't walk anywhere. In many cases, there are no sidewalks. If you decide to engage in the quaint pastime of "going for a walk", you get side-eye from passing cars, since they're sizing you up as a potential threat. There are signs everywhere warning you that you're being watched and that "We Call Police!"
There are exceptions, of course, but the environment I am describing is becoming the norm. And that I think is the real story here.
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What I really hear in that quote is this: we no longer trust the strangers in our neighborhood. When that happens, our societies will crumble.
And that is exactly it: Societies are built on trust. If that trust is eroded, like some politicos like to do for example, society stops working and things got to hell. As there is profit in creating, amplifying and fostering mistrust and fear, some people have no inhibitions doing it in their thirst for power. A society incapable of keeping these assholes under control has no future.
Re: Amazing change over 40 years (Score:2)
You know what's really wild, watch this Christmas movie, there's a Halloween scene everybody should watch.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt003... [imdb.com]
https://www.filmboards.com/t/M... [filmboards.com]
Try not thinking of this while you watch it. I mean the bonfire in the street alone... then the cross dressing, throwing wet flour in someone's face, throwing a dummy in front of traffic, and nobody got shot?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]
This will be a gold mine (Score:4, Insightful)
Recent events lead me to suspect Sauron could make a fortune by having a booth at the next few health insurance investor conferences.
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Part of me wants to see health insurance executives having armed killbots following them around at all times like the villains in Elysium, but the more realistic part of me knows they're just going to end up with dudes with guns following them around like ordinary fossil fuel executives :-\
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I think this is really going to get interesting when the drone tech they're developing in Ukraine inevitably makes its way downhill to average people.
The words you are looking for for (Score:2)
Are "make a killing".
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Well played, sir. Well played indeed!
War is profitable (Score:2)
Corporations have always made out like bandits during times of war. So hey, here's an idea - let's make sure there's ALWAYS a war EVERYWHERE! Let's turn citizens of all stripes and across all socio-economic boundaries into warring factions, because PROFIT$!
Let's sow paranoia, economic division, political division, cultural division. Let's create as many bogeymen and straw men as we can, and make "othering" not only reflexive, but fashionable. Pump up the ol' monsters-under-the-bed hype - hell, we might even
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Old idea. And, obviously, we have always been at war with Eurasia.
easy to mess with (Score:2)
As a kid/teen I think I might have spent time messing with a system like this. If I saw drones at my neighbors house lighting things up at night, I might do something to bring them out over and over until they fail. You can bet sensors that get covered, or sprayed with something, or hit with a paint ball, do not work as well. If you do all of this stuff at the same time what happens?
I don't want to TP your house, just your security system. Look, its the pizza guy again.
Re: easy to mess with (Score:2)
Not so hard to do (Score:3)
I bought some high resolution outdoor security cameras with good night vision for under $60 each recently. They are PoE (power over ethernet), I mounted them at the corners of my house and ran ethernet cables from them through the attic to a cheap PoE-capable switch that is attached to my home network.
Then I installed some open source video recorder software on a little mini-PC that costs about $150. I've got full live video coverage of my property with motion and object detection, time-lapse and video recording, total cost was about $600 for off-the-shelf hardware. I installed a free dynamic DNS, and I can get the live feed on my laptop or cellphone from anywhere.
So this Sauron thing is not much of a stretch, and it sounds like an expensive scam for the uninitiated. I could export snapshots of detected people off to an online service that can do facial recognition, and turn on spotlights that illuminate intruders at night if I wanted. But bad actors who want to intrude will wear hoodies, hats, masks, glasses etc. to obfuscate or hide their features so I am skeptical that they could be recognized reliably.
Re: Not so hard to do (Score:2)
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>> will not last more than about six months to a year
And you know this how? Show evidence. The cameras are weathertight and mounted under eves.
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Nah, I've been running what are now $40 cameras from China on my house for a decade. They were a bit more expensive when I got them. I expanded the system a couple of years ago with actual $40 cameras, and they're still running too.
There's pretty much nothing that can go wrong with them, especially if you mount them under your eaves for some protection from the elements... but I have one mounted completely exposed and it's never had a problem either.
There's a reason why one of the explicit tenets of (Score:2)
ancient society was to be kind to travelers. In greek myth, this was the concept of Xenia. It was the custom of ritualized friendship, if travelers came to you you were expected by the society and the gods to treat them with hospitality. This was one of the foundational underpinnings of greek society, and probably one of the reasons it excelled as a culture over a millennia.
My, how far we have come.
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It probably depends. Much of what we know about ancient peoples' social behavior comes from cities, but in fact if we go back 2000 years perhaps one in twenty humans lived in a city. So justice in a city, run by an aristocracy and imposed on the commoners, was no doubt harsh. But if you lived in a village of a hundred people or so all of whom were closely related by family, I suspect justice would have been a lot more flexible.
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Look at the Amish: A person is related to half the town and belonging to a tribe is essential to survival. But there's plenty of crime: The lack of police, judges and prisons, means "shaming" is the only punishment and bad behaviour is often repeated. In addition, tribal life is very authoritarian and that conflicts with the human need to hide wealth from the rest of the tribe, and to enjoy a multitude of hedonistic 'sins': Disobeying such 'laws' is unavoidable. For the most part, elected government mi
Please! No! (Score:2)
At the present time, civilians are not bound by the Hauge Conventions on weapons and ammunition. I would consider it a huge step backwards in civilians rights to self defense if we were restricted to "military style" hardware.
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An international law does not guarantee you a right to owning anything. The US already stops you owning grenades and rockets (both WMDs). You cannot defend 'yourself' using those weapons.
You can be damn certain the ruling-class don't want to be watched by ordinary citizens, don't want a "bad actor" belonging to them, countered "with a bullet". That power will be limited to their richest, sorry, closest friends.
This equipment is not for you and it's comical to see a US-ian declaring international law gi
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... were restricted [from] "military style" ...
No. I had it right the first time. I'm not restricted _to_ military ammunition by international law (or US law). But then the US never ratified the 1899 convention and our military only voluntarily complies.
This equipment is not for you
No. It's not for you. You may not have constitutional rights in your country. But I have them in mine.
Something wrong with a civilized society. (Score:2)
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Maybe don't live in a neighborhood of criminals? (Score:2)
I wouldn't want my neighbors employing such crap, it's a sign that they don't trust anyone near their own home, and that they'd likely have little restraint if anything happens. (I.e. They have n
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>Why would you want to live in a house that needed to have state of the art military style protections?
In my case, I'm an IT geek and would do it for the shits and giggles.
The First Purge (Score:2)
Data point (Score:2)
On a quasi-related note, searching Temu for "This side towards enemy" yields a neat little claymore-themed doorbell if you need a fun stocking stuffer.
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Obviously. But far too many people cannot distinguish between their hallucinations of how things work and actual reality. They think their hallucinations are literal fact. Ans that makes it easy to exploit them, like these people here do.