The New Big » privacy http://thenewbig.com Small pieces of the new big world Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:32:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Fighting the Power http://thenewbig.com/2007/08/09/fighting-the-power/ http://thenewbig.com/2007/08/09/fighting-the-power/#comments Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:29:57 +0000 stumax http://thenewbig.com/2007/08/09/fighting-the-power/ SGVTribune.com - Photo Gallery

This is my brother, Scott. My brother rocks.

My brother has been a loyal, enthusiastic, and productive employee of Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena for years. He built important chunks of the software that lets the robots exploring our solar system and scientists here on earth talk to each other. He’s currently the lead driver of the Mars rovers.

However, Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 says that my brother has to let “any investigator” at “any federal agency” have access to “any information” about him that they deem the slightest bit interesting. If he doesn’t consent to this egregious violation of his civil liberties, he’ll lose his job.

So, he’s organized HSPD12JPL.org in order to fight back.

I don’t have the words to express how infuriating this situation is. Suffice it to say that I’m as pissed off at this stupid directive as I am proud of my little brother. And that’s saying something.

Do me a favor, would you? Just click to watch this short video, and maybe read a little bit at HSPD12JPL.org, just so you know what’s going on. And then ask yourself: do you want NASA and other publicly funded institutions to lose some of the top engineers and scientists in the world on account of some tinpot dictator with delusions of grandeur? If not, then you know what to do.

More Big Things

]]> http://thenewbig.com/2007/08/09/fighting-the-power/feed/ 1