Reference:
When it comes to regulation of the media, trends suggest that today's society is increasingly willing to treat people as psychologically vulnerable to words and images, rather than as capable of handling the exchange of ideas.
Spiked

Notes:

Reference:
Law, Liberty and Government: The notion of liberty present in Bentham's account is what is now generally referred to as 'negative' liberty--freedom from external restraint or compulsion. Bentham says that "[l]iberty is the absence of restraint" and, so, to the extent that one is not hindered by others, one has liberty and is 'free'. Bentham denies that liberty is 'natural' (in the sense of existing 'prior to' social life and as thereby imposing limits on the state) or that there is an a priori sphere of liberty in which the individual is sovereign. In fact, Bentham holds that people have always lived in society, and so there can be no state of nature (though he does distinguish between political society and 'natural society') and no 'social contract' (a notion which he held was not only unhistorical but pernicious). Nevertheless, he does note that there is an important distinction between one's public and private life that has morally significant consequences, and he holds that liberty is a good--that, even though it is not something that is a fundamental value, it reflects the greatest happiness principle.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Notes:

Reference:
Our work with virtual environments has had to confront this issue head on. In one sense, the limitations imposed by our physiology offer an advantage. They force students to deal with the world in ways "real" scientists must – by making inferences from indirect, instrumented observations of phenomena (Winn & Windschitl, 2000). We consider computer-created environments to be transducers of data that lie beyond direct sensory detection.
http://depts.washington.edu/edtech/ticl.htm

Notes:
Direct sensory detection can be seen as mitigating between the individual and the environment, or more between the brain organ and the evironment. Computer-created environments simply add a second layer of abstraction and/or detection.

Reference:
The furor over digital copying is a direct outgrowth of storage improvements. Not until large numbers of songs and videos could be easily stored on personal hard disks did the music and movie industries get seriously worried about the networks that began to connect those disks. Without mass storage, Napster would have been much less relevant.

The expanding capacity of portable drives opens a new front in the entertainment cartel's war with its customers. Song traders don't need to use the Internet anymore. They can hold parties in friends' homes, swapping songs from disk to disk. Soon it will be movies.
Dan Gilmor

Notes:
And it's also what maked p2p viable and attractive to begin with.

Reference:
Israeli scientists have devised a computer that can perform 330 trillion operations per second, more than 100,000 times the speed of the fastest PC. The secret: It runs on DNA.
National Geographic

Notes:
They talk about medical applications. Let's get real. Let's talk about using the computing power to increase information. Gimme a shot of Calculus 3, please.

Reference:
Iraq holds more than 112 billion barrels of oil - the world's second largest proven reserves. Iraq also contains 110 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and is a focal point for regional security issues.

Iraq contains 112 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the second largest in the world (behind Saudi Arabia) along with roughly 220 billion barrels of probable and possible resources. Iraq's true resource potential may be far greater than this, however, as the country is relatively unexplored due to years of war and sanctions. Deep oil-bearing formations located mainly in the vast Western Desert region, for instance, could yield large additional oil resources (possibly another 100 billion barrels), but have not been explored. Iraq's oil production costs are amongst the lowest in the world, making it a highly attractive oil prospect.

During 2001, for instance, nearly 80% of Basra Light liftings, and over 30% of Kirkuk oil, went to the United States, with large importers including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Citgo, BP, Marathon, Coastal, Valero, Koch, and Premcor. During the first seven months of 2002, the United States imported an average of 566,000 bbl/d from Iraq.

Oil industry experts generally assess Iraq's sustainable production capacity at no higher than 2.8-3.0 million bbl/d, with net export potential of around 2.3-2.5 million bbl/d (including smuggled oil). In July 2002, Iraqi Oil Minister Amer Rashid said that Iraq's current sustainable capacity was 3.2-3.3 million bbl/d, and that the country hoped to increase that to 3.5 million bbl/d -- even without help from foreign oil companies.-- by the end of 2003 (Iraq last produced 3.5 million bbl/d in July 1990.

Major companies with deals in Iraq include TotalFinaElf (with estimated reserves of 12.5-27 billion barrels, according to the Wall Street Journal), several Russian companies (Lukoil, Zarubezneft, Mashinoimport, with combined reserves of 7.5-15 billion barrels), China's National Petroleum Company (CNPC -- 2 billion barrels or so); and Eni (under 2 billion barrels).

Iraq's refining capacity as of January 2002 was believed to be over 400,000 bbl/d (although the Iraqis claim 700,000 bbl/d), compared to a pre-Gulf War, nameplate capacity of 700,000 bbl/d. Iraq has 10 refineries and topping units. The largest are the 150,000-bbl/d Baiji North, 140,000-bbl/d (or higher) Basra, and 100,000-bbl/d Daura plants.

Iraq contains 110 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves, along with roughly 150 Tcf in probable reserves. About 70% of Iraq's natural gas reserves are associated (i.e., natural gas produced in conjunction with oil), with the rest made up of non-associated gas (20%) and dome gas (10%). Until 1990, all of Iraq's natural gas production was from associated fields. In 2000, Iraq produced 111 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas, down drastically from peak output levels of 700 Bcf in 1979. Within two years after the lifting of U.N. sanctions, Iraq hopes to produce 550 Bcf., and within a decade, Iraq aims to be producing about 4.2 Tcf of natural gas annually.

Generally, Iraq's policy is to award gas and oil concessions to companies from countries supporting the easing or lifting of U.N. sanctions (i.e., France, China, Russia). Russian companies reportedly are hoping to develop a number of natural gas production and processing facilities in Iraq, including a group of fields in the Misan region of southern Iraq.

Around 85%-90% of Iraq's national power grid (and 20 power stations) was damaged or destroyed in the Gulf War. Existing generating capacity of 9,000 megawatts (MW) in December 1990 was reduced to only 340 MW by March 1991.

In 1998, Iraq's maximum available electric generation capacity was estimated (by Iraq) at around 4,000 MW, with a report in November 1999 indicating that this figure may have increased even further, to 6,000 MW. Despite this increase, power continues to be rationed throughout the country.

Iraq's Electricity Authority reportedly also has signed several other contracts with Chinese, Swiss, French, and Russian companies, to build 3,000 MW of additional power generating capacity. These contracts require U.N. approval, and Iraq has claimed that the United States and Britain are blocking $1.5 billion worth of electrical equipment it has requested.
Energy Information Administration

Notes:
Math: 3 mil bbl/d = 1 bil bbl/yr

Reference:
North Korea's communist ideology has been based on the concept of "juche," or self-reliance. Severe economic problems have, however, forced the country to accept international food aid and embark on a series of limited market reforms.

The designation of North Korea as a state supporter of terrorism by the United States also effectively precludes lending by international financial institutions such as the World Bank.

North Korea relies on two domestic sources of commercial energy -- coal and hydropower -- for most of its energy needs. In 2000, coal accounted for about 86% of primary energy consumption.

North Korea's electric generating capacity is split nearly evenly between coal-fired thermal plants and hydroelectric plants. In 2000, hydroelectric power plants generated about 67% of North Korea's electricity and thermal plants about 33%. The country's thermal generating capacity is underutilized due to a lack of fuels. The country's total electricity consumption in 2000 was only 65% of what it had been in 1991, though it showed an increase of nearly 9% over the figure for 1999.

Prior to 1994, North Korea's nuclear program had been a major concern for regional security, since its graphite reactor technology produced fissionable plutonium which can be used in nuclear weapons. North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1993.

Under the Agreed Framework negotiated with the United States in 1994, North Korea had agreed to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for two new pressurized light-water reactors (which are considered less capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium) and 500,000 metric tons per year (about 3.3 million barrels) of heavy fuel oil to meet its energy needs until the first new reactor becomes operational. KEDO, an international consortium led by the U.S. government (with South Korea, Japan, the European Union, and others), was established to implement the agreement. The European Union joined KEDO in September 1997.

Japan signed a contract in May 1999 committing to provide its $1 billion contribution to KEDO to fund the new light-water reactors, an action which had been delayed by North Korea's missile test in August 1998. The project was expected to cost a total of $4.6 billion, with South Korea providing the greatest share of funding at $3.2 billion. The United States and the European Union also had pledged to contribute funds.

With the North Korean admission in early October 2002, according to press reports, of its violations of the Agreed Framework by pursuing a program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, the light water reactor project is currently stalled.
Energy Information Administration

Notes:
It strikes me that North Korea is of much greater concern as a supporter of terrorism and terror tactics than is Iraq. Kim appears more than willing to sell to terrorists and does not present such an ideological challenge as Hussein does to the islamic radicals. Kim is a merchant, while Hussein is a Sunni.

If Kim were to normalize relations with his neighbors and the capitalist economies, his economy would be a 3rd-rate backwards agricultural endeavor. The quickest way to even the field is to threaten and , in the end, take everyone else down a few notches.

Perhaps that's the point: there is much more to be gained by increasing influence in Iraq than in North Korea. But beware. Real danger comes not from those who have something to gain but from those who have nothing to lose. Currently Hussein has something to gain. What will happen when he has nothing to lose?

Reference:
Researchers at an American university have produced a nanoscale device that can sense magnetic fields more than a hundred times weaker than current techniques allow. If applied to hard disks this could increase storage by a factor of up to a thousand, they claim, effectively turning today's 200-gigabyte disks into 200-terabyte devices.

...density has been doubling each year since 1997. At this rate, the one-petabyte -- one-million-gigabyte -- disk will arrive shortly before 2010: by comparison, the world disk drive production in 1995 totalled 20 petabytes.
ZDnetUK

Notes:
If the availability of reasonably-priced storage is what provided the context for the spread of P2P, what will a context that is 10^3 more dense inspire?

Or will the trick be the shrinking of the context of storage? Combined with the DNA computer (see below), eyeglass PC with a one-hand input device and wireless connection becomes pragmatic.

Reference:
Let me tell you how it will go:
....
Just thought I should let you know.
Aaron Swartz

Notes:
Marvellous vision in a nutshell. It might make too much sense.

Reference:
...they are trying to convince every other nation on the planet that the United States is the Mother of All Rogue States, run by mad thugs in possession of 15,000 nuclear warheads they are willing to use and spending, as they already are, more on death-making capacity than all the other countries on the planet combined. In other words, they want the rest of the world to think that we are the ultimate weaving driver. Not to be trusted, but certainly not to be messed with either.

By these terrible means, they will create a world where war conducted by any country but the United States will seem simply too risky and the Great American Peace will begin. Unregulated Global Corporatism will be the only permissible ideology, every human will have access to McDonald¹s and the Home Shopping Network, all ³news² will come through some variant of AOLTimeWarnerCNN, the Internet will be run by Microsoft, and so it will remain for a long time.
John Perry Barlow

Notes:
I think Barlow is correct that Cheney is the driving force in this administration, and I accept Barlow's assessment that Cheney is very smart.

What I distrust about this strategy of imposing a Pax Americana by being the crazy m.f. is that it requires us to continually up the ante in terms of craziness -- they've gotten use to this week's antics, so what's next?

I also agree with Barlow that the prime motive is to support the spread of global corporations. However, I think that this is misguided, for at least two reasons. First is that there is not systemic parallelism between America (or any national government) as a world dominator and global corporations. Second is that the business of governance is entirely different than the governance of business.

The alternative direction is for the government of the US to become the prime player in a coalition of global governments that take seriously the task of balancing the power of corporatism. It won't happen, if only because the myth of national pride believes that these corporations are still American.