The Camera Age We are living in a world of cameras. Not only do most of us have a pretty good camera built into our cell phones, but we have them on our doorbells, in our cars, in most stores and throughout our roads. In the future when they name eras, the one we are living in now might be named the Camera Age. All these cameras have good points and bad. Almost everyone who comes across anything strange or unique is now able to take a photo of it for the rest of us to see, and does many times. Not all of these photos are strange as the photographers may think, so many of us are subject to having to look at uninteresting photos on our Social Media page. That is one of the downsides. People have gotten into the habit of posting too many personal photos. When I was a kid, the joke was if you visited someone, they would pull out their photo album or if they had money in those days, they would show home movies using a projector. Comedians used to make jokes about these boring movies. Those things have moved to the internet in many cases. Many people are happy about this because when they visit, the chances of someone pulling out a computer to show you published photos seems to be less than the old days. Not everyone will agree with this statement, but this is how it seems to me. The government loves cameras. Some believe it is because they are supposed to prevent crime. This was proved not to be the case. The crime numbers are surging and even with cameras everywhere. The real reason the government loves cameras is they generate revenue. There are red light cameras, speed cameras, stop sign cameras and even right turn cameras and each is set to a computer to generate a ticket with a fine. Why is it many of the speed cameras don’t even put the speeding ticket points on your license? Could it be because the government wants you to continue driving and speeding so you have to pay even more tickets? Some state legislatures have started to call some types of cameras unconstitutional. In 2019 a bill was signed into law in Texas prohibiting cities from operating photographic traffic camera systems that record people speeding or running red lights and issuing fines. I think the point is a judge should decide the guilt and punishment. Some places in the country decided they could use the cameras to catch criminals. The idea was to use face recognition software to tell them who the person was. It was leading to the arrest of too many innocent people. Even worse, if that is possible, one university claims it can use a special facial recognition software package to predict who will become a criminal. Shades of Minority Report. Can you imagine how controversial that is? I think it is just a matter of time before the word of the government is broken, if it has not been already, that traffic cameras would not be allowed to be used in civil cases. I know the rule was lifted in one case in Ireland in a matrimonial. There are plenty of other cameras around which belong to private store owners and such where evidence can be subpoenaed in civil cases. These have presented attorneys and investigators with many new channels of information they can acquire. Sometimes even a photo is not enough even when a photo is taken of a criminal. Take for example a photo which was taken of a subway attack by a homeless man. As of the writing of this article, he is still on the loose a month later and even if caught, will probably be released because the attack happened in New York City where most criminals are released without bail on the same day they are caught. Many cell phone cameras have been aimed at the sky lately. It is amazing how many objects are in the sky which seem strange to many of us. Most are not unusual, but present as unusual because they are taken of objects like planes at strange angles where things like wings cannot be seen. Clouds partially covering planes sometimes hide the identifying features of a plane. Then there are those meteors which constantly hit the earth’s atmosphere burning up before hitting the ground and expended satellites and parts which also fall out of the sky. On top of all that there are thousands of satellites reflecting light and the International Space Station. There are also unexplained objects which we call UFOs, which stands for Unidentified Flying Objects. Many believe they have taken photos of these craft. How many times have we read a strange creature was washed up on the beach and someone took a photo of it and posted it? Most of the time, it is just a rotting carcass of an animal which would have been recognizable before it started to disintegrate. There are also quite a few photos which have been taken of what look like creatures, but were really fish of some kind with horrible looks. Sometimes a fish which is hardly ever seen because it lives in such deep water gets washed up after it dies and lands up on a beach somewhere. One of the problems with all these devices which contain cameras and even microphones is they can be hacked and set to spy on us. If this happens don’t expect to see a light showing they are on, because in many cases that light is also hacked. Lately, many of us have cameras everywhere. We have Echo devices, Portal Devices, Cell Phones, computers, and tablets, all presenting tempting targets to those who want to have fun at your expense or just want to watch you for some nefarious reason, perhaps to rob your house or blackmail you if you are in a position of power and are perceived to have money. Once cameras became digital, it changed everything in our lives. It gave us greater views as we were driving and allowed us to carry a camera in our cell phone which was readily available to get that once in a lifetime photo which would have been missed before. It also made taking photos free. Once our cell phones were purchased all the photos we wanted to take, were available at no expense to us. For you camera buffs this was incredible and now the cameras in cell phones have become as good and better as some individual cameras. As I said there are some pluses and minuses with all the cameras and not everyone will feel the same way about having cameras everywhere.
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