Recent Comments:
Hot Seat: Lincoln Wrong to Fight Civil War? {Political Machine Blog}
Dec 27th 2007 12:00AM US Independence War - Patriotic glorifying struggle where the weak were able to overthrow their tyrannical oppressors and be regarded as freedom fighters.
US Civil War - The South lost. So in history the movement was looked at as a "rebellion". Had they won, it would have been as glorified as the war of independence.
My Dad use to always tell me, "those who win the wars get to write the history books". That is a great statement.
This was a situation where a bunch of state felt like their voices weren't being heard in Washington so they seceded, just as the US seceded from Britain. They lost, so instead of an independence war it was a civil war.
Lincoln from a certain point of view could be looked at as a tyrant. These states wanted to peacefully secede for decades but they were not allowed to. Instead of seeing their actions a secessionists, they labeled them as rebellious, which is not right.
Hence, when Lincoln was murdered the man screamed out, "Sic Semper Tyrranus" translated “thus always to tyrants”.
The Ron Paul Money Bomb {News Bloggers}
Nov 5th 2007 1:16PM Awesome. Yes I love how we claim to be this democratic society but at the same time we are still in Iraq when the vast majority of people want to get out of Iraq. Those two facts just don't add up in my mind.
SlySoft claims to have cracked BD+, naysayers fall quiet {Engadget}
Oct 30th 2007 8:58AM Damnit, there goes my excuse for buying DVD's and not yet having a blu-ray player.
Apple not just refusing cash, also refusing Apple Gift Cards for iPhones {Engadget}
Oct 29th 2007 2:02AM If this is really the case, At&t must really be paying Apple a lot of money for this contract of exclusivity. I wonder how much they are getting.
YouTube copyright protection system unveiled {Engadget}
Oct 16th 2007 10:57AM Well played Google. But seriously, copyright owners should really look at Youtube as an opportunity. Get some contracts concerning splitting the revenue from ads, and allow Youtube to show your copyrighted material for you to the world. The copyright owners really wouldn't even have to do anything...
I would imagine piracy would take a big hit. I would argue the biggest draw towards piracy is convenience. Sadly, it is more convenient to pirate a movie than to buy one. If I pirate a movie, I get the file with no DRM which I can play on my computer or any devices I own without a problem. If I buy it, it comes on a disc which I have to keep track of and DRM. If I download it legitimately, again there is just a bunch of DRM issues. But I would imagine streaming it from youtube at will would be pretty hard to beat.
DVD-sniffing dogs awarded medals, returning to NYC {Engadget}
Aug 20th 2007 7:28PM HAHAHAHAHA, wow that was a great comment. Still laughing.
U.S. military turns to competition for robot "surge" {Engadget}
Aug 14th 2007 5:08PM McGinley, there were a lot of anti-war protests, but to be fair, the majority of Americans were in full support of the war. That is no longer the case. What effect the loss of humans lives has played in that regard, I have no idea.
AttilaButurla, you are right. I'm not trying to preach against technological advancement. I'm just saying that new need to be careful as things nowadays are changing so rapidly.
U.S. military turns to competition for robot "surge" {Engadget}
Aug 14th 2007 4:16PM Let me tell you everything that scares me about having a robotic military, putting all terminator jokes aside. I'll break this down into international and domestic concerns. (Btw, I'm not trying to make any political statements here, I don't want this to turn into an Iraqi War debate)
International- Wars will become very careless. Take our military presence in Iraq for instance, one of the reasons that it has become so unpopular, is because the amount of American casualties has now exceeded 3000. This is one of the major reasons that the war has become so unpopular and people just want to leave the country. The idea of soldiers dying is a large deterrent against going into combat. As such, in most cases, only combat that is seen as absolutely necessary is allowed. If combat is not seen as absolutely necessary, then the American people aren't willing to sacrifice our people for the cause, and the politicians can't get away with sending our soldiers into battle.
If however, we have machines doing our fighting, then all of the sudden the government can get away with a lot more. Our government could invade countries, topple governments, change regimes, etc... And there might be very little resentment at home. If Americans aren't dying, the American people would probably care less. Because of this, the politicians would be much less reluctant to go into battle because they know the repercussions at home would not be as bad. Because of this, I feel like our country would more readily commit itself to combat, simply because the political consequences wouldn't be as bad. Imagine if right now, only 10 Americans had died in Iraq. Do you think the Anti Iraqi War cause would be as large? I don't. So internationally, that is what scares me about robotic warriors; our country would more readily result to violence. Even domestically however, I feel like there is also a cause for concern.
Domestic- I believe the second amendment is in place for two reasons. Firstly, in order to have a deterrent from foreign countries invading us. A country would be less likely to invade our country knowing most of the citizens are armed (again I don't want this to turn into a 2nd amendment debate). This might not seem very practical today, but back in the day it was, and maybe in the future it will be again. Secondly, the second amendment is there to protect us Americans against our own government. Go read the writings of Jefferson and Washington. They said it themselves, if in time our government was to become too oppressive, it would be the right and duty of the people to overthrow it, and if everyone is armed, this is a possibility. As such, the US government should always be afraid of becoming too oppressive, in fear that its own people might revolt and overthrow it. In my view that is another important reason for having the second amendment, to keep our own government in check.
But if all of the sudden our military consists of autonomous robots, a serious check & balance has been lost. Imagine this right now, our government was overly oppressive and we the people revolted to overthrow it. Of course there would be a state of emergency and the military would storm the streets in order to stop this. But if in reality the government was too oppressive, and the cause of the people was indeed very strong, it is very likely that the soldiers themselves would not follow the orders from their military commanders. They would see it as their duty as Americans to fight back against the oppressive government. This idea has been apart of our American traditions since our independence, to remove any entity which would endanger our liberties, our own government included. But if our military consisted almost entirely of robots who received orders from only a few commanders and high ranking politicians, our current system of checks and balances against the government by the people would cease to exist. The government could be tyrannical, and there would be little the people could do to stop them. That is also one of my major concerns about having a robotic military.
I doubt many of you took the time to read this, it was very long. I probably wouldn't read something so long myself (or for that matter write something this long), but it has been on my mind the last few days for some reason. I would love to hear all of your thoughts on this manner. I’m sure in a lot of ways, I am incorrect. But does anything think there is any merit to what I have said? Thanks
apc
The Engadget Interview: Sir Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Group {Engadget}
Aug 9th 2007 2:38PM ' By law, no more than 25% of a US airline may be owned by foreign interests and must be under the "actual control" of U.S. citizens '
This is one of the major criticisms of the American Airline Industry. Down to its core it is very anti-competitive. It prevents many airlines that offer better and cheaper service to operate in the US. Of course the legacy carriers wouldn't have it any other way. If you ever get the chance, go to Europe and fly around on their regional airlines. It is a different world from what we experience here in the US.
Power outage halts Samsung's flash memory production, shortages expected {Engadget}
Aug 3rd 2007 3:01PM Yea I would have to agree.
Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. But lets say the plant didn't have power for one day and they couldn't produce anything. If that costed them 54 billion, then wouldn't that imply that, that single plant outputs 54x365=19.7 TRILLION dollars yearly? I don't think that is possible, even for samsung.
apc
