The Cats Trying to Kill Curiosity

[level_head]

I was delighted, as were millions, by the successful touchdown of the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars.  It was a monumental achievement, of equipment working right (thanks to tremendous engineering and science) despite nearly a year’s exposure to extraordinary conditions and extremes in rapid succession. But as Sam Rayburn (48th, 50th, and

Comments

[torakiyoshi]

The question is, why would they? Anonymous, internet terror though they may be, seems to be focused on punishing groups that deserve it, but are beyond the law to receive the punishment (like hacking Sony for their legal, but [i]alegedly[/i] abusive TOS). So what abuse did NASA commit that Anonymous would want to punish?

[level_head]

Ah. According to many, you "deserve it" for what you are -- in a couple of different categories, perhaps an unusual combination. The same can be said of me.

Anonymous is destructive by nature, but portrayed favorably in the media when their targets happen to also be the media's enemies, like the American military, the US in general, and "evil corporations." But when the Obama administration was attacked, suddenly the media were conflicted - the target was the US in general, which they were happy about, but it made their favored one look bad. Many spiked or downplayed the story at first as a result, or noted that they were above repeating information from the hacked materials.

I do not look on them as any sort of force for justice at all; quite the reverse. (This sentence could be construed as talking about Anonymous or the media; I think it works for both.)

===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle

[tuftears]

I think they're mainly bored but intelligent teenagers who have more recipes for destruction than wisdom. -_- I certainly don't view them as some sort of modern day 'Robin Hood'-- I haven't seen them going out of their way to make life better for anyone.

[torakiyoshi]

It would seem the researchers I heard this spring were less well informed than they should have been. Most likely, their research came from those same media moguls.

[eric_hinkle]

Wait, when and how did Anonymous attack Obama?

And why? These guys increasingly sound like the classic "bully drunk on his own power" more than anything else.

[level_head]

Not directly -- but the Wikileaks business made Obama's administration team look bad. Not to mention the successful hacks of the FBI and so on, but those are considerably more distant.

It is easy for his supporters to imagine that Obama dislikes the intelligence services as much as they do - but this is tougher to carry off for the State Department.

===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle

[marmoe]

http://youtu.be/efHCdKb5UWc

[level_head]

Yes, I think that's applicable here. But not in the next sad case - and a post just went up on it.

===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle