About many things
June 30, 2010 (Wednesday)
The 1919 storm that devastated Rockport and Corpus Christi was preceded the night before by a beautiful, calm night with a full moon. Mrs. Bertha Harper related to me that she and her sisters were walking home from a party when they paused by the bay and looked out over the calm water with the reflection of a full moon on its face. The next day, devastation and death accompanied a furious hurricane. It was unexpected.
Things are so different today. Alex whirls in the Gulf and computers tell us days in advance where it is likely to head inland. We can not only hear about it from the forecasters, we can actually see it from miles above through the wonder of the satellites.
It’s hard for folks who are not directly involved with high tech devices to believe that those devices can actually do some of things they are said to do. I read that some satellites are so precise that they can read license plate numbers from space. Listening through walls and across streets are common story lines in spy novels and detective stories. The list of spying techniques is quite long indeed.
Aside from the cloak and dagger stuff, security cameras are everywhere. Every day your picture is taken in many places you frequent, like the super market and parking lot. Many times these cameras provide evidence that is very helpful in locating missing people or in solving crimes. So we make the trade, willingly or unwillingly: we swap privacy for security. That’s just the way it is.