The New Wars

In this excellent TED presentation PW Singer talks of military robots and the future of war, being depersonalised by the massive growth in robotic military hardware being employed in the Iraqi war. Perhaps the motivation of GW Bush to go to war was in part to satisfy battlefield testing of a great deal of new technology that the military industrial empire of America was sitting on. Perhaps it was his motivation when early in his presidency, before 9/11 he absolved American's from war crimes in the theatre of modern war he wanted never to be considered for conviction at the world court.

By introducing mechanical toys and sophisticated robotics into the theatre of war, the forced imitation by the perceived enemy will mean that a condition of mutually assured destruction will also inevitably be reached, the "warning" sounded in the ridiculous "terminator" concept of machines having the logic to notice its masters were the real problem is not the future I see, it is more a wasteland of horrific pollution and scrap metal jungles that inevitably deadlock as attrition sets in.

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Shoe Thrower Release

The Iraqi man who was jailed for throwing shoes at George Bush, after 9 months spent paying for his protest, is being released.

It is farcical to observe how the "free world" respected the right of the man to protest at the already naked emperor of GW Bush's presidency. 9 months prison for pointing out the war criminal in the room.

Risking Unemployment

Unemployment is climbing and is rather bound to get worse. The 2 huge banking bailouts followed by the “Main Street” relief aimed at troubled mortgages will not solve the problem. By bailing out the banking industry, that had become a bit of a ponzi scheme attempting to leverage itself to heaven, the gold bricks have been left in place. The rescue of Ma and Pa Mortgages is well and good, but the future payments are still going to be a problem.

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Global Warming

The rate of global warming since 1886 can be seen in this map.

Leonard Druyan and colleagues at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, US, analysed past weather patterns to determine how well commonly-used climate models performed when replicating this past weather. Source: New Scientist

Map link

The right to bear arms

Political protest is a sign of a healthy democracy.

In America, the Second Amendment gives a citizen a right to bear arms. Right wing protesters carrying assault rifles may be a legal right but is it a legitimate protest? How many presidents has American guns assassinated? On the Right we have Ronald Reagan, on the Left we have JFK. If Reagan had died, perhaps the Right would be a little more sensitive.

Is the right to carry arms relevant in today's world? And is that in fact a valid political protest or just perpetuating the myth that being under the threat of random death is a benefit to anyone?

A man mistaken by a security guard was shot in the back, and left his child without a father. In the back. He kept walking when the guard started to shout at him, trying to get away. He was innocent of any crime. Having a gun does not make you right. It makes you into a potential murderer.

Imprisonment and Torture

The Economic Recovery

Signs of an economic recovery are starting to appear. After recapitalising the financial system, President Obama kept the US economy liquid. This is may have averted more depressing news but as the bankers start to return funds they were lent by the tax payer the question arises, where to now for the US economy?

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Shatner does Palin

A view from before the beginning

Time capsule - from 14 March 1998 when the Carlyle Group started to put pressure on Fanny May and Freddie Mac, how quickly the capital on which Bear Stearns dried up and then went super bad. The blog seems to have stopped just as things started to get nasty for the early "victims" of the credit crunch calamities that followed.