Apple has long boasted of its culture of innovation, and how this led to such products as the original Mac and the iPod. However, it turns out that, at least in the case of the iPod, Apple had a hidden ally: the US government. During a speech at Tuskegee University, President (and
iPod user) George W. Bush told his audience, "the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod." While we have to gratefully acknowledge the efforts of government agencies such as DARPA in some of the fields mentioned by the President, we also feel obligated to point out the accomplishments of private companies in the US and abroad, including IBM, Hitachi and Toshiba -- not to mention the Fraunhofer Institute, which developed the original MP3 codec, and codeveloped (with Sony, AT&T and others) the AAC format used by Apple in the iPod. Still, we have to bow down before his Steveness; we knew he was well-connected, but until now we had no idea of his level of influence in the area of government research. Hey, Steve, while you're at it, why not get the government to resolve the
display problems plaguing the next-gen video iPod? We're sure they'll get their best minds on it and fix it in no time.
posted Apr 20th 2006 12:24PM
an "electric motor generator" changed in a common sence manner (built) to only metal and magnets materals would convert magnetic energy to turning energy, therefore makeing a new energy source by useing the positive and negative energy of the magnet like the positive and negative of a battery(theory = a nail left on a magnet over night in the morning and taking off the magnet would be able to pick up another nail with magnetizium ,therefore proving magnet energy is any energy) (the electric-motor-generator is the little 99cents radioshack version)
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_motor -----------the small one in the bottom right corner to the right of the battery)
"what i'm saying is a magnet is a battery" same way in use, same electrical way of transportation, and same.
2 - connecting a chain to a big sparket to a small sparket on a big sparket and a chain to the big sparket to a small sparket on a big sparket "repeated" is the formula of power-of-turn or some shit but the power from the first big too small is exstremely amp'ed, fast'ed, more'ed. or at least is the best bike
3- maybe send me a hypothetical problem we're faced with "very good at problem solveing
4- let me know when you've at least seen this email please-"trying to make a better world
5- "with jails off" is the best government
6- dry ice in a container with or without air is a cold bottle-"not sure which one but probally without
7- add a water-turben to an electric cars axile builds the battery while you drive
8-- "not good at spelling"
9- tails on bottle rockets "make all the differants"
Well, if Bush is going to be in the pocket of corporate America, it might as well be Apple's pocket...
George Bush invented the iPod? What will he think of next!?
Makes sense.
Gore invented internet.
Bush invented iPod.
but the gov't research helped a lot tof companies with microdrive players if this is the case...
Well, Al Gore *is* on Apple's Board of Directors.
http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/bod.html
You're kidding right?
He actually tried to take credit in the development of the iPod.
And now we sit and wait for the "C'mon engadget, are you going to report on everything apple does" posts to come out. Interesting story nonetheless though.
You guys need to learn to take a joke. You don't really think he was taking credit for the ipod, do you? He was just trying to get a laugh from his audience.
Bush also is the architect of world peace.
Cough.
And in defining Environmental Responsibility.
Choking cough.
KultiVator
Does this strike anyone else as something that is taken out of context? It sounds like a joke to me. Anyone have the audio? I can almost here a little Bush chuckle afterwards...
"You're kidding right?
He actually tried to take credit in the development of the iPod."
Where did you get that? He said the government, not "HE" funded it, most likely sometime last decade.
Since when Gor invented the Internet? It's so funny that Americans always think they invented everything, then if America invented the internet, how come it's one of the developped countries that has the worse internet services? (drops, and speed). It's an international collaboration that invented what we know as the net... No countries, nor preseidents created the internet but international researchers did in order to communicate knoweledge fast... So here is a little knoweledge.
"No one person invented the Internet as we know it today. However, certain major figures contributed major breakthroughs:
Leonard Kleinrock was the first to publish a paper about the idea of packet switching, which is essential to the Internet. He did so in 1961. Packet switching is the idea that packets of data can be "routed" from one place to another based on address information carried in the data, much like the address on a letter. Packet switching replaces the older concept of "circuit switching," in which an actual electrical circuit is established all the way from the source to the destination. Circuit switching is the idea behind traditional telephone exchanges.
J.C.R. Licklider was the first to describe an Internet-like worldwide network of computers, in 1962. He called it the "Galactic Network."
Larry G. Roberts created the first functioning long-distance computer networks in 1965 and designed the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), the seed from which the modern Internet grew, in 1966.
Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf invented the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) which moves data on the modern Internet, in 1972 and 1973.
By 1983, TCP was the standard and ARPANET began to resemble the modern Internet in many respects. The ARPANET itself was taken out of commission in 1990. Most restrictions on commercial Internet traffic ended in 1991, with the last limitations removed in 1995."
It would be interesting to know if these were what their speach writers wrote or if they were off the cuff. If the writes wrote this fire the writers!
Al Gore:
"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet"
(Internet was already created)
[What he meant: I had people who talked to people who suggested legislation to increase funding for internet research and advancment.]
George Bush:
"the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod."
(Well I guess I can't use my microdrive in my Digital Camera anymore)
[What he meant: government funded research can help create new and inovative products.]
Yes, he did fund it
and Al Gore did invent the internet...
Bob Dole was right when he said that internet was a great way of getting people on the net...
Bloody Geniuses there in Washington D.C.
We know he didn't and he's pretty much a fool for acting like it was him, but really, it's not such a
big deal because everyone knows he's wrong.
(and please seriously note the level of sarcasm [high] in that first part...)
Bush also told us about weapons of mass destruction.
Do you believe ANYTHING he says?
Nobody going to say PortalPlayer?
#11 Paul: Gore inventing the internet was something that was taken out of context, then became a joke around these parts. No need to type out the history of the internet.
Go research it on wikipedia or something.
In the words of dubya himself: "Do what?"
#11: Good job calling Americans ignorant when you yourself don't even know how the saying "Gore invented the internet" originated from.
#11, DARPA invented the internet.
" Since when Gor invented the Internet? It's so funny that Americans always think they invented everything"
Hey Paul, DARPA did invent the net my friend. If you have never heard of the Al Gore story then this whole post is way over your head.
Envy of the US is common so I understand that you can get angry at how great we are.
does anyone else feel their brain melting every time bush makes a joke?
No, but I do feel that sensation everytime the usual band of ignoramuses suddenly become armchair political pundits.....I thought we techies were supposed to be intelligent.
To post #11
If it wasn't for us Americans, all of Europe would be sprechen Sie Deutsches
Yes and I would like to add that all of Asia would be under Japanese rule.
Thankfully America stopped that by being the first to develope the atom bomb, before the evil Nazi's did.
mind you though I don't care or support for Bush.
Bush is useless.
Wow, first I have ever defended Bush I think.
The commentary is way out of line. The government did (and continues to do so) fund basic research that is used in many many consumer products, certainly including the iPod. Bush did not take credit for inventing it, nor did he give the goverment credit for inventing it, but simply pointed out that some of the core technology was funded by the government. ANd that was long, long before MP3. He also did not say he did it at the behest of Mr. Jobs; hell, a lot of the core research done on compression was done when Jobs was a kid.
This is a sad piece of work.
his comment was meant as a joke! please, before blindly falling into bush-bashing, learn to read
This might be the most useless comment I've ever posted, but...
O...M...G...
Oh give it a rest about if it wasn't for America.....America wouldn't have survived the Nazi war machine either if wasn't for everyone contributing to the cause to stop them.
# 11 is right. America is lagging behind the developed world as the internet leader and probably will continue to do so if it doesn't get its finger out its ass.
If George Bush wants to take credit for anything, it should be about that Fiasco they call Iraq and what a Cluster F(#* he's created over there, but what's the odds in him doing that.
I am an American, so this isn't about bashing Americans.
al-CIAduh t-shirts coming SOON!!!
Hilarious!!
Definitely sounds like he was making a joke to me.
People, it was a joke. The President jokes about things. Can't you people recognize a joke when you see one.
Oh, I forgot, to liberals, everything a conservative says is evil and wicked.
Wow... it's too bad these things aren't moderated... if they were, I'd be roughly post #...5. Instead of 22, heh. (watch, some Engadget wise-ass is going to pull my comment just to give me crap, hehe).
Anyway, why do people just quickly scan over an article or paragraph and immediately just post whatever useless garbage that coagulates in their tiny little minds without any real coherent thought? Read... then read again... then comprehend... then read again... understand... the formulate your words carefully... if you still think that Gore *really* believed he invented the Internet or that Bush *really* thinks he or the government actively invented the iPod... get in your car... get on the highway/freeway... drive really fast... really really really fast... now jerk your car into a tree. PLEASE. If you survive, hopefully the brain damage will either A) make you smarter, or B) leave you a total and complete vegetable so we don't have to read your innane tripe.
Paul, #11, you may skip all of my instructions and go to the very last part starting with getting in your car. Geez. Listen to #18, go read Wikipedia or play in traffic or something.
I don't think Dubya meant that the government set out to enable the invention of the iPod; he meant that government funding opened up possibilities that nobody knew were there.
'Course, that doesn't mean he's going to support such funding in the future.
Bush is an idiot, he can't take credit for that.
And as for Yadi who pointed this article out to me, you're nuts if you truly believe this crap.
I bursted out laughing before I even got to the ipod part"
"The government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression..."
Anybody else wonder if Bush has any clue what these three technologies even are?
"Sure. Signal compression. It compresses. Compresses signals. Gets 'em real packed in there. Part of our stratgery. Always was."
Another post to #11: Shut the fuck up, trick. The problem with you foreigners is that you're not read-up enough on the stupid thing our politicians say, resulting in posts like yours.
Plus America did invent the 'net. ARPANET, bitch.
And the reason we have some of the worst access infrastructures compared to other countries? Because our country is huge, our corporations are greedy and slow-moving, and our consumers are lazy and love to settle for the lowest-common-denominator.
Blah.
It was a joke, he was saying that we (taxpayers) spent all this money to help develop technologies only to find out later the developers just wanted to make the iPod. It was a compliment and nod to Apple for their innovation and a JOKE. You people need to get a life, this is nothing like Gore's assertion that his bill was a direct cause for the creation of the internet.
Way to be a blind anti-American, #11.
We (americans) all know that Gore didn't invent the internet, and we generally tend to mock him because he claimed that he did sometime around the 2000 Election. Thanks for the history lesson, though.
#17
Gore did claim that he invented the internet. The full quote from a CNN interview is :
"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system"
"our corporations are greedy and slow-moving"
Not always. They tend to be fast moving when there is a ton of cash to be made... Look at Iraq and Haliburton. They didn't exactly sit on their asses and did nothing for years did they?
As noted above, Gore never claimed to have "invented" the Internet. He clumsily made a reference in which he said he "took the initiative in creating the Internet", by which he meant taking the legislative initiative. As noted in this linked article, he certainly did that.
The pundits around the time of the 2000 election took his statement and blew it totally out of proportion, missing his point (and his true, and real, influence in this area).
Bush's comments? Probably a joke, but undoubtedly spoken with little knowledge of any of the fields he mentioned.
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp
I'll believe Bush invented the iPod as soon as I believe he's intelligent enough to actually use one.
It's pretty obvious he was just making a goofy joke.
Thought a Brit invented the WWW, which of course is what made the internet actually usable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee
This is no surprise. Much of the innovation and research that the private sector taked credit for (and profits from) was done by the government. For example in bio-medical sciences, the majority of pharmaceutical products would not be around if it were not done for the foundational research done by groups like NIH. Big pharma takes credit for developing HIV cocktails and the recent HPV vaccine (sorry, NIH did all the important research for both of those, and pharma companies simply paid relatively tiny fees to then do clinical trials on the drugs and reap mega-profits).
These comments are hilariously bad. Oh, fellow Engadget commenters, are you so wrapped up in blind partisan rage that you don't realize that Bush was delivering a joke? Do you actually believe he was seriously saying that the government enabled the creation of the iPod?
Well, I guess if you're angry enough with Bush to instinctively hate everything that comes out of his mouth, you don't really care whether or not you're accurately representing the context of his statements.
#15, you must've missed US troops fishing chemical weapons out of the Euphrates River, and the currently-released contents of the Baath Party archives, not to mention the Saddam tapes. You also miss the point that the entire point of the invasion was to prevent Saddam from obtaining WMD.
#27, those countries were almost entirely supplied by the US. The British used Sherman tanks, and the Lend-Lease shipments to the USSR were the only thing keeping the Red Army surviving during the early days of Barbarossa. And let's not forget that the design of the T-34 was based on a conceptual American design that a few American tankers, like Patton, contributed to.
And what is this crap about America lagging behind in Internet penetration? Compared to what, small-area countries? Well, gee, yeah, you compare the per capita penetration of a country some 4000 miles across to a country 1/30th the size, you're going to see a disparity in the statistics. Don't forget geography, too--it's difficult and expensive to wire remote farms and mountainous areas. Geography is the reason Intel is pushing WiMAX so hard.
Engadget, you are really degenerating here.
George W. Bush is the new Messiah... well that's what he thinks anyway ;-)
@ 38 / minus_273: "#17
Gore did claim that he invented the internet. The full quote from a CNN interview is :"
You might want to read up on http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp
#39 minus_273: It seems the media has brainwashed you a bit. I wouldn't rely on one source for all information, especially CNN.
Try reading up on #48's link
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp
#39 minus_273: You are incorrect. You should read up #48's link here http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp
Relying on one source, especially CNN, is VERY foolish. It is especially more foolish to rely on an article that has been published near the election year the individual was running for.
Try reading the Gores full transcript.
Whatever?!?! Bush can bite my butt.
ROFL at all the liberals.
what MICK and Kurt said.
7. You guys need to learn to take a joke. You don't really think he was taking credit for the ipod, do you? He was just trying to get a laugh from his audience.
Posted at 12:45PM on Apr 20th 2006 by MICK
9. Does this strike anyone else as something that is taken out of context? It sounds like a joke to me. Anyone have the audio? I can almost here a little Bush chuckle afterwards...
Posted at 12:47PM on Apr 20th 2006 by Kurt Ramsauer
anyone who believes otherwise is just a tool.
#46:
>You also miss the point that the entire point of the >invasion was to prevent Saddam from obtaining WMD.
No it was that Sadam could deliver WMDs to US soil in 45 minutes. Talk about blind partisan ignorance. Get off the Rush dittohead.
WTFC who has more internet penetration. Christ don't you tards have anything better to car about. I mean internet penetration? It's not even worth arguing over. Now argueing over who has more HDTV free over OTA broadcasts might be something someone actually cares about.
Further, Bush just doesn't know when to quit. He bungled Iraq and Afghanistan, values loyality over competance, leaked clasified information for political purposes, either lied about WMDs or is completely incompetent, bungled Katrina response, HAs run up huge defeciets with nothing to show for it, and has no real chance of stopping Iran as I don't think you can start a war when your approval poll numbers are in the ~30s.
Was it a joke? Who cares? Bush is like that guy on the team that always seems to be in charge but also alwasy seems to royally screw uo everything he touches.
C'mon - you are totally publishing this out of context. Had you taken into consideration the non-verbals (including the LAUGHTER that ensued) you would realize that this was, in fact a joke. Yes, a joke - you know - a story with a humorous climax.
We get it, everyone hates Bush on Engadget and Digg, go vote if you hate the way things are.
Actually, Gore did help to create the internet, along with Bill Bradley of NJ. It was the both of them who championed funding for the development of the web at DARPA. It's safe to assume that without them the project would have died on the vine and there would have been no internet.
Something else that came out of DARPA was the GPS that we commonly use today. Needless to say many things came from the Defense Department with public funding. That's why Bush is an idiot for killing stem cell research. Why doesn't he claim that to everyone? One day, we'll all look back and see how dumb he was and how even dumber that 50% of us voted for him, twice!
Bush was using the government funding to get to this point:
"See, the federal government has got a role to play, in my judgment, in basic research. But the private sector spends twice as much money on research and development that the federal government does. So I think it's important for us to put policy in place to continue that kind of research. If you were to ask the President and the folks involved with the scientific and the engineering departments here, you'll find that private companies are providing research and development money to help meet certain objectives. And one of the things we got to do is continue to provide incentive for corporate America to make these investments. They spend about $200 billion a year. If we want the country to be competitive, if we don't want to fear the future and shape it, then there needs to be incentive for corporate America to continue to make these research and development investments. We do that, by the way, through what's called the research and development tax credit. It's fancy words for saying that if you spend the money there's going to be a -- you'll get a credit on your income. That makes sense to me. It makes sense to a lot of other countries, too, by the way. A lot of countries, in trying to be competitive in this global world are doing the same thing to encourage research and development, because they know what we know, that if you come up with new products and are constantly on the leading edge of change and innovation, the standard of living for the people in the country in which these investments are made goes up."
"Relying on one source, especially CNN, is VERY foolish."
How would it be foolish if it was CNN that interviewed Gore and has the exact transcript? It wasn't CNN reporting on what Gore said, it was Gore saying it directly to CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Would you prefer he refer to second third or fourth had accounts? Did you even read what he posted? His quote from CNN was verbatim to the quote on the snopes link you posted.
I don't know about you, but if someone is interviewed and someone else asks for a quote from said interview, I would prefer getting it from the source.
Now interpretation is something different altogether. The Gore internet thing was just a little jab at those who posted here, but failed to read the full article where Bush is obviously making a joke about the governments role in the creation of the iPod. It seems some people check their reading comprehension and sense of humor at the door in some posts.
So Bush invented the ipod, cool.
Jesus invented the Internet
The internet was invented for PORN.
Well actually this makes sense.
This is what Bush was thinking:
"These idiots! First I told them Osama was responsivle for 9/11, then I told them Iraq had weapons of mass destruction! They'll believe anything! Hey Barbara, I bet you they'll believe me if I tell them I invented the iPod! Yep, these Americans, they're gullible enough for that. As a matter of fact, I think I'll tell them just that."
For Bush to say that government research was used to help make parts of the iPod may very well be correct. However it did not make the marriage of the technologies that make the iPod what it is. So therefor they DID NOT CREATE the iPod.
In any case, it seems more like someone is trying to improve their sagging "approval ratings". Which may very well go to the lowest a President has ever had. But in the first place, how can you even take a word said by Bush seriously. That is like believing the man in Times Square saying the world is going to end on Tuesday. Grain of salt and a yawn.
And for all of you whining about the creation of the internet. It is a known fact that the "internet" was created by the United States Government.
But it is the World Wide Web that lies over the internet, is what we use the internet for. It is the system which is commonly called "the internet", even though the two are different. It just happens to be that the WWW was created by an employee of CERN (a European organization) on a NeXT computer (which was Steve Jobs "other computer company").
So while the US Government created the internet and is used, the protocol for everyone using the internet is through the WWW.
No one individual ever invents anything on their own.
No one can take credit for "discovering fire", "landing on the moon", or the present state of global telecommunications.
Nations need to do a "Google Earth" perspective on where we are and where we have come from.
The real question in my mind is how do we use what we have collectively developed to move forward ...
I am reminded of Carl Sagan's "A Pale Blue Dot"
Instead of our differences, what do we have in common? We have a long way to go, collaborate, and use what we have developed to reach one another.
Uh, yeah. Because *clearly* the only reason to develop microdrives is to create the Ipod. Yeah.
Okay, #11, the U.S. didn't invent the internet. Pardon me, for a moment, while I call the Department of Commerce and have them turn off the root servers.
the US government. During a speech at Tuskegee University, President (and iPod user) George W. Bush told his audience, "the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod
----
nah. this is NOT the reason for the 80% marketshare.. it's hardware software integration. All DAP's have this stuff you mentioned
The govt DOES spend money on research that gets used by private companies to make new products. Its a type of tech welfare program that all developed countries SHOULD and DO engage in. Its no surprise that many governments play an active role in developing their economies. For all the talk about the free market, its been common knowledge for years now that an active government, putting money into research and into opening new markets helps spur private industry.
What is strange is that Bush is willing to expose a little light behind the curtain.
Woah Apple is now EVIL company #1!!!
Al Gore.
Runs Pixar.
Governmant Money.
AHhhhhhhhhhhh
To post #23:
Without France providing a vast majority of weapons for the colonists there would be no America, period.
Sit down blind patriotist.
people freaking out about this is retarded.
It was obviously a sarcastic joke just as Gore's internet comment was taken out of context.
I hate Dubya as much as the next guy but come on people!
Yet no-one ever takes credit for inventing RealPlayer.
Yes, and the leading american fighter, the 'mustang' used British designed engines and was heavily influenced by the spit-fighter.
Thr British & Polish broke the enigma code. Nor was it the US navy who captured a U-Boat, it was the British navy.
The first german defeat was at the hands of the British in north africa.
Jet design was given by the British to the US for 'free' to help the war effort.
60% of all d-day soldiers were "empire" and not American.
In fact D-Day could not have happened if Britain had not continued to fight the good fight for 2 years before the Americans joined.
This isn't a criticism. I just wanted to add the point for every angle, there's another. Neither Britain nor the US could have won the war single-handled.
regards
John.
Is it too hard for petttifogging geeks to accept the truth and move on?
"The internet" is not one invention, but many.
Despite the US's late though significant contribution, the Second World War was also a collective effort, though Hitler was basically defeated by the Russians (and I'm a Yankophile Brit), who held down most of the German military for the majority of the war, and whose citizens laid down w-a-a-a-y more of their lives than the Allies.
Bush's scriptwriters can actually produce a good joke.
OK, maybe the last one's a toughie.
Is it too hard for petttifogging geeks to accept the truth and move on?
"The internet" is not one invention, but many.
Despite the US's late though significant contribution, the Second World War was also a collective effort, though Hitler was basically defeated by the Russians (and I'm a Yankophile Brit), who held down most of the German military for the majority of the war, and whose citizens laid down w-a-a-a-y more of their lives than the Allies.
Bush's scriptwriters can actually produce a good joke.
OK, maybe the last one's a toughie.
Well if bush said it, it must be true!
Am I missing something here? What has any version of an iPod done which another better-made (and sometimes cheaper) product has not already done before? How was the iPod either original or innovative? Another case of style (sic) and marketing over content and value?
You have got to be kidding me...this is what is wrong with the Internet, News, and blogging....things get taken out of context. If this was written correctly you can understand that yes he is talking about how the government funded research (gave grant money to companies and universities) on the projects he mentioned but the joke was that it was all for the iPod...which is the joke - knowing that the technology might have originally been seen to have other applications for government use, thus the funding, yet what comes out of the developement and research of this ended up with DAP and iPods....
I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry, But On This "We Invented The Internet" Bitch-A-Thon, Does Anyone Remember Cern (you know......................EUROPE), the labs that first connected two remote standalone systems together electronically?
Oh, And Before I Forget.....
First Computer, British..... Just because we dont shout and scream about our strategic advantages doesnt mean they're not there :D
This graphic explains what Bush is talking about. Many of the components in the iPod were made possible because of basic research funded by the federal government. Much of this basic research was done at government labs, universities, and within companies with funding from the Pentagon, Department of Energy's Office of Science, National Science Foundation, etc. Hosts of other individuals and companies developed that basic research into components, but the initial funding and reseach was supported by the U.S. government.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/images/mp3-technologies.gif
Watch the actual video of the speech (one of my coworkers readily found it online after I bet him it was a joke), it's quite clearly a joke. A very poorly delivered one, but a joke nonetheless. And yes, Gore's comment wasnt, he actually defended what he said.
I rarely come to engadget comment sections any more and this is a prime reason. If it wasn't for a digg or a slashdot, I'd certainly never have given this article a look.
Basic research is something the government of the US has always funded. Even if it is on the sex habits of the South American swamp rat, it is still research and paid by US tax dollars. If that money dried up tomorrow, the cost of everything would rise 100% in short order.
China and most of Europe subsidize much more of their private industry than the US does. Look at France's farmers, for goodness sake!
Bush does know how to use an iPod. He owns one. And the RIAA has attacked him for the "illegal" music he has on his iPod. See, the music on his iPod wasn't purchased digitally. It was all copied from CDs in his collection. So, therefore it's all "illegal". As for the comment he made, jeez... it was definitely a joke.
Flashes back to the commeicals around during the Bush/Gore election...
"I invented pants!"
That colon completely changes the apparent meaning of this statement when put in text form. Watch what happens when I replace the colon with the conjunction "but":
"the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason [. But] it turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod."
Having the quote listed this way is actually more plausible, and it has the opposite meaning from what the left is trying to put into Bush's mouth. Government did fund tons of research into microdrive storage, electrochemistry, and signal compression, and the "one reason" was either for military purposes or to further science in general. But it turns out that the consumer gets a huge benefit as well from those technologies being adapted for the iPod.
This article is nothing more than a left-wing distortion of the truth to try to catch Bush in a "gotcha" similar to the Gore intarweb thing, which, while funny, is arguably untrue as well. I hope Marc posts a correction to this article acknowledging that fact.
OK, I'm no Bush supporter. No not at all. However...
"Here's another interesting example of where basic research can help change quality of life or provide practical applications for people. The government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the Ipod."
Where in that statement does he say that either he himself, or the government itself invented the iPod?
It's actually quite true that government research helps improve our lives. Radar and Jet engines are just a couple of examples of government research aiding our lives.
Just because Bush said it or one of his speach writers wrote it doesn't make it any less true.
The graphics located used on this page:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/aci/index.html
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/images/mp3-technologies.gif)
shows pretty clearly what parts of the iPod were developed by government funding. Mind you, some are a little tenuous at best, but a case could indeed be made that if it were not for the research done on those parts, the iPod would not be what we have now.
Hahaha. I hate Bush. Hate him a LOT. But this was clearly a joke.
1 it's 'Spitfire'
2 "Neither Britain nor the US could have won the war single-handled." You forgot the Soviets. They took the brunt of it. So in order of descending importance, the contributors to defeating Nazism were (i) Hitler's crap strategy (ii) awesome Soviet resistance (iii) lend lease (iiii) Churchill and enigma
3 "If it wasn't for us Americans, all of Europe would be sprechen Sie Deutsches": no, Russian, and I, for one, am grateful.
4 If it wasn't for us Brits, all of North America would be speaking French i.e. Russian.
Marxist socialism impoverishes the poor too. God bless George Bush and his quite funny ironic iPod joke.
It is unnecessary for DARPA to fund the IPOD directly but please recognize that DARPA funds TONNES of American computer science and electrical/computer engineering which made much of this possible. Without public research and with the public/private partnerships America would not be doing so well. So next time you criticize the industrial-military complex remember that consumer electronics are directly affected by this.
DARPA cut tonnes of CS funding this year so watch out.
Wow.
Godwin's Law in only 1 hour and 15 minutes.
On comments for a story about iPod.
On Engadget.
Well, I guess it was also about Bush, so...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
Boy, there sure are a lot of Bush defenders here, all spinning the same identical story: that it was all a joke. Here again is what our laugh-a-minute joke of a President said:
"George W. Bush told his audience, 'the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod.' "
Electrochemistry, microdrive storage and signal compression? That's some DRY humor, there, folks... in fact, I'm hard-pressed to find a punch line. That is, other than our iPresident.
A couple of others have correctly pointed out that THIS WAS A JOKE.
After he said it, he and the audience laughed. It was even linked up on the Drudge Report.
But hey, what's another media-created falsehood to bash Bush? Put it up there along with those "fake but accurate" CBS documents...
Just a clarification for #46. Tim Berners-Lee invented http (hyper text transport protocol) in the context of his work at CERN to help physicists share the mountains of data they collect in particle physics experiments. It remained just another impenetrable protocol for the network cognescendi until the creation of Mosaic which put a graphic interface on the protocol. That made it possible for the multitudes to easily do something on the network besides send and receive email.
Of course Mosaic was created at the University of Illinois at Urbana in the USA. The leader of that effort, Mark Andriessen, went on to found Netscape with James Clark in Silicon Valley. That effort spawned Mozilla, Firefox and just about any browser that you are likely to be using if you have a choice.
Of course it shouldn't be a surprise that there was such a dominant role for American companies, institutions and individuals in the creation of the Internet. The USA has been dominant for more than a few decades. But this prominence has to be denied by espresso sipping, Gitanes smoking, beret wearing pundits who declared the end of American relevance long before the Internet. It makes no sense so it must not be true!
n.b. I enjoy espresso, ocassionally Gitanes and have been known to wear a beret and enjoyed my visit to France.
The comment Bush made about the iPod was not a joke, he was talking about government advances in technology that have benefited corporate innovation. It wasn't meant to be a joke. The sad part is where he made such a direct A to B association from government research to the iPod when there really is no DIRECT link between the two even though I'm sure technologies invented in the past have had influence on the iPod technology.
Whats really sick is that it's apparent he was trying to associate himself with something popular (iPods) in order to cast a better light on himself. I can just see his advisors sitting around a table trying to think of ways to inflate his sagging approval numbers, coming up with the strategy and saying "hey George, just say iPod a lot and people will like you more".
One of the most comprehensive and objective recounts of Al Gore's actual involvement with the Internet is here:
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_10/wiggins/index.html