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[return to "A lot of population numbers are fake"]
1. AreSho+wb[view] [source] 2026-01-29 14:36:23
>>bookof+(OP)
The population numbers of other countries are only relevant when serving an imperial or colonial enterprise. In a way this article reads somewhat like a mob boss complaining that their accountant is skimming off the top.

If I were a rightful leader of all Nigeria I would make sure those numbers would never be accessible for westerners as it’s the fist thing you need to know when you decide to wage war of any kind against some people.

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2. Reptil+cd[view] [source] 2026-01-29 14:44:51
>>AreSho+wb
Do you really think the outcome of western militaries vs nigeria will be different if Nigeria has a million or a billion people?
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3. AreSho+7e[view] [source] 2026-01-29 14:49:04
>>Reptil+cd
How else are you going to estimate the number of soldiers to send, the overall cost, and the projected return from labor exploitation? How do you think wars are waged and what do you think motivates them?
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4. pjc50+ts[view] [source] 2026-01-29 15:51:16
>>AreSho+7e
Satellite photos?

You can easily get an estimate of the number of buildings and especially vehicles, which tell you two important things. Not to mention that as a matter of course the first thing to do is photograph everything that looks like a piece of military equipment, which has been a purpose of satellite photography from the beginning.

Various kinds of countries get paranoid about letting people have maps or accurate geographic data. This makes very little difference militarily but causes real inconvenience for the locals.

Besides, nobody wages wars for labour exploitation any more. It's all about what's under the ground.

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5. torgin+Bt[view] [source] 2026-01-29 15:54:52
>>pjc50+ts
Yeah, spy sat tech today is likely good enough to track every single person that steps outside in the FoV of the sat in real time.
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6. ben_w+tt6[view] [source] 2026-01-31 09:23:35
>>torgin+Bt
I doubt it's "real time" even now.

That said, my actual experience of processing earth observation satellite images was with scientific data, not spy sats, and in any case it was just over 20 years ago and may be out of date.

What I was working with, any given satellite image capture was a line rather than a rectangle, basically a rolling shutter effect but on a planetary scale and taking ~90 minutes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_broom_scanner

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