Posted on 08/07/2005 2:35:28 PM PDT by naturalman1975
THE head of Australia's nuclear energy agency has called on the owners of an internet satellite program to censor images of the country's only nuclear reactor.
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation executive director Ian Smith said he would ask internet search engine Google to remove the Lucas Heights reactor from its Google Earth program. The online program combines satellite images with aerial photographs and maps to let users zoom in on almost any building in the world.
While Google Earth "censors" the White House with blocks of colour over the roof and the nearby Treasury Department and Executive Office buildings, anyone with a computer and web connection can use the free program to see aerial shots of sensitive Australian sites such as the Lucas Heights reactor, the secret US spy base at Pine Gap, outside Alice Springs, and Parliament House in Canberra.
The satellite image of the Lucas Heights facility, on a 70ha site 40km southwest of Sydney's CBD, clearly shows the layout of the buildings and carpark.
"We're going to ask Google to take it off," Dr Smith told The Australian.
"It doesn't stop somebody who's determined to get the information getting it, but having it on the internet just makes it so much more readily available. We don't want to provide any easy assistance to anyone who wants to interfere with the site."
Dr Smith said the Lucas Heights facility was clearly visible from the road, or from commercial aircraft flying overhead and noted Google's image was about two years out of date.
"The question comes down to, if you put it on the internet, does it go to Pakistan or Afghanistan and make it easy for them?"
Despite the construction of a new reactor and a five-year, $36million security upgrade announced in last year's federal budget, Dr Smith admitted that trespassers could enter the site "if they really want to".
"There's a small area near the middle of the site which is quite secure, but the bulk of our site isn't all that secure," he said.
"We don't have the guarding or the hardware to stop someone from getting in to the site if they really wanted to."
Dr Smith said ANSTO liaised with intelligence agencies to assess threats and met global security standards for storing nuclear materials.
Frenchman Willie Brigitte was deported from Australia in 2003 over an alleged plot to bomb the Lucas Heights reactor, which uses small amounts of uranium to manufacture medicines and for scientific research.
A Google spokeswoman defended the technology, noting the images were six to 18 months old and not detailed enough to zoom in on people. "The same information is available to anyone who flies over or drives by a piece of property," she said.
DigitalGlobe, the US company which sold the Lucas Heights photos to Google, said it did not censor any of its images.
"Although we are very sensitive to the concerns voiced, we are not required to seek permission to image areas around the world," spokesman Chuck Herring said.
Mr Herring said US law banned his company from selling to individuals, organisations or nations - including Iran and Cuba - on the US's "denied party" list. "When we sell it to Google, how they disseminate it over the internet is really up to them," he said.
A spokesman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock downplayed the security threat posed by web-based imaging. "Australian government security agencies are aware of such sites and the information available on them and factor them into their assessments of threat," he said.
do a search of "george bush" in google news.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=george++bush&btnG=Search+News
does that look fair and balanced to you?
google sucks, they dominate search engine results (informational inbreeding), and seem to be developing -- purposely or otherwise -- a hedgemony on internet searches. screw 'em and get ready to short the stock.
That is plain silly since anybody can go to any of several imaging satellites and get the same thing.
OK, I did that. And I found articles that are slanted (from my POV) against Bush. Is it the Google folks? No. My opinion is that these results are a function of several factors:
But this is my opinion.
If your contention is that anyone else can manipulate Google search results for files or images, that I don't dispute.
Just try the following:
Do an image search on Google with safe search turned OFF for the following three individuals (keep the quotes)
"george bush"
"hillary clinton"
"john kerry"
The pictures for the individuals are not always flattering, depending upon POV, and will change depending upon how often the picture gets clicked on and thus affect ranking.
Evening, postaldave.
I think I understand what you are saying regarding the news sources, but the results are what they are, aren't they? Or are you saying there an equal amount of conservative sources and they are not being indexed or searched deliberately?
Regarding human input - that IS why I pointed out the image links. It is a function of hits - for example, I bet Kerry in that green space suit was higher during the campaign than it is now. But that is a function of human input (but not on Google's end, but ours, as in us users/ clickers/ searchers/and surfers).
My opinon. FRegards,
>Or are you saying there an equal amount of conservative >sources and they are not being indexed or searched >deliberately?
i guess that's what i'm saying, i see all kinds of left-wing blogs and other websites as a source but never right-wing sites.
if you do a search of iraq you can't find one positive
news item. nothing? i would think somewhere someone wrote
something positive.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=iraq
Well, FR is one place you can find things positive about Mr. Bush, about Iraq, about our soldiers.
But, as we all know, FR is not indexed in the Google news portion that started off our discussion.
Furthermore, we on FR have pointed out correctly about the lack of the true or whole story in MSM, etc. and many FR users have attempted to provide the truth on thousands of threads over the years. So if you are asking me to find the whole picture about our progess in Iraq, I would refer you back to FR ;)
And you can even use Google to find that:
just add site:freerepublc.com to your search word(s).
sounds good lets try that.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=iraq+freerepublic.com&btnG=Search+News
wow, that didn't work out so well.(grin)
first hit.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/080205.html
that's why i get my news here instead of google.
good night bwteim
Wait, don't put on your pj's yet.
You are not using
"site" in your expression and you are using the google.news
Use this before retiring or upon waking
;)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22day+in+the+life+of+president+bush%22+site%3Afreerepublic.com&btnG=Google+Search
Good night!
Let's see Area 51!
What is that? My humble hut?
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