News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by Abishek_Muthian on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @12:22PM (#19616266)
>In recent years, the Islamic State group gutted archaeologically important Iraqi sites in Mosul and Raqqa and Syrian sites in Aleppo and Palmyra.

Not to forget Buddha of Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

It is disheartening to think that, these sites & artefacts which were preserved for thousands of years are destroyed during our lifetime.

Perhaps because of its familiarity we value it higher, but powerful people in several parts of the world have been systematically destroying historical objects of value to a culture or civilisation to push forward their ideology.

Edit : Edited to be succinct.

Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by dredmorbius on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:33PM (#19617655)
Not specific to time, place, or ideology.

Example, Qin Dynasty China, Burning of books and burying of scholars (213 BCE):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_books_and_burying_o...

Or the destruction of the Mayan codices by Bishop Diego de Landa in July 1562:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices

Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by rixed on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @01:34PM (#19617088)
Not to forget, even if it does not fit that little theory, Ur Ziggurat and the many other important loses in Irak (see for instance http://www.uruknet.info/?p=58169).

Of course in that case, the ideology that prevailed was "one can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs", which is more palatable to us that Isis ideology of course, but in the long term that makes little difference I'm afraid.

Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by empath75 on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @01:32PM (#19617066)
> Not to forget Buddha of Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

That was the taliban.

Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by Abishek_Muthian on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @09:25PM (#19620858)
Yes it was, I added it as example of sites of historical significance destroyed in our life time.
Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by microcolonel on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @12:47PM (#19616567)
> Perhaps because of its familiarity we value it higher, but powerful people in several parts of the world have been systematically destroying historical objects of value to a culture or civilisation to push forward their ideology.

This is a particular feature of utopian ideology; marxists, islamists, fascists, etc. seek to carve utopia from reality, and the artifacts which prove that there's something else are just in the way. A look at what's preserved in Taiwan should make you weep to know what was lost just a little bit to the west.

Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by dredmorbius on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:42PM (#19617732)
It seems far more generalised than that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning

Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by Abishek_Muthian on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @01:05PM (#19616738)
I guess a less violent form of it practised by every country, even the democratic ones is falsifying history text books from grade school.
Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by dredmorbius on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:46PM (#19617781)
Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by microcolonel on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @01:30PM (#19617046)
Yeah, Canadian grade school history textbooks are a joke. Be a good parent, don't let your kids get all of their historical education from your school district's standard textbook. :- )
Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by dredmorbius on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:42PM (#19617742)
Specifics might aid your argument.
Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by microcolonel on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @06:35PM (#19619652)
In my experience, there was no mention of the broader historical origins of Canada, the focus was generally on a) stories framed to make French Canadians look interesting and blameless (especially long sections on coureurs de bois), and b) stories of amicable arrangements with native Americans, conveniently away from the various times the public's government has broken promises to various communities in Canada.

I'm an adult, why would I have the worst history books I've ever read, which were on loan from the school when I was in school, in my personal library to share specifics from?

Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by dredmorbius on Wednesday April 10, 2019 @12:33AM (#19621864)
Thanks for the first.

I'd not made any demands to the latter point, though there are times when keeping a spectacularly bad example around for debate, discussion, or reference can prove handy.

I'd put specific store in rough order "steelman" or best-case defenses or arguments for the indefensible, officially sanctioned references (as with textbooks), or with particularly poular bad examples, even if not particularly cogent.

Knowing your enemy, testing your own beliefs and biases, and walking into battle fully armed, are all benefits.

You don't need to find endless such examples (see also: Gish Gallop), but a carefully selected few can be exceedingly useful.

This applies to other areas as well, tech included.

Re:Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial a... by microcolonel on Wednesday April 10, 2019 @09:53AM (#19624609)
> Knowing your enemy, testing your own beliefs and biases, and walking into battle fully armed, are all benefits.

Sure, to be clear, I grew up with two older brothers and a younger sister, in three different major cities, in three different provinces in Canada, and the history curriculum has largely lacked much particular detail. My history curricula, and that of my brothers, included little or no international history, ancient history, or national history. The main topics of every history textbook (the only source for each curriculum, in my experience) I've seen in Canada (including my brothers', for years I didn't attend in a given school district) have been an obscure subset of clean indigenous stories, and a handful of stories about early Québec.

I'm not saying these history textbooks are especially bad among government school history textbooks, but that they are bad in a general sense, and fail to give much perspective on the origin of the tapestry of nations in Canada, or the story of our legal and governmental traditions.

A better job could be done with an in-depth reading of a mature historical author's work, the kind of thing you would read if you had a personal interest in understanding the history of something.