Google, US policies, cell phone radiation..

There were a few bits about double standards and hypocracy which included Google and US foreign nuclear policy. Most of you must have heard about DoJ's subpoena to Google for a one-month search records, and Google's challenge to that. It's obviously an user privacy issue on grass roots level. I know that the government doesn't want specifics but rather trends from search history to battle paedophilia. But Big Brother society coming out in the open has to start somewhere. For those people who tell me that NSA and other agencies have already been doing that, they have been doing so with stealth. This is one of the first times I remember this kind of issue being public. On the flip side, we have Google's censoring its Chinese portal to comply with the Chinese communist regime. It's business. There are a ton of other businesses out there complying with the local laws. And from what I read, some of it is actually protecting the Chinese public from getting themselves into trouble. Did you hear about a Chinese blogger being arrested and detained after Yahoo! gave the Chinese authorities his information? Which would you rather have? Safety with censors or freedom with the chance of being arrested? I suppose you would like the choice, eh? And recently, with the introduction of Google Desktop 3's new feature of searching across networks by sending the index to Google has sent the consumer privacy groups up in arms. This time I agree. I would not like to send personal private information anywhere online especially if I didn't know for sure who had access to that information.

And then we have dealings with US politics and it's overlap with science. First, reading about the government trying to silence a NASA scientist from not talking about the dire threat of global warming is worrisome. Why? It's scary because what else are they hiding or stifling? You can not hide the truth just because it's harmful or detrimental to your politics. Stupid short-sighted morons. Wait, where have I used that phrase before ;)? Oh, I remember, when I was talking about budgets cuts in NSF funding for scientific research. And oh, the gag order got public and the US administration got embarrassed as they faced public scrunity into the matter. And then we have something that is close to my heart. US and nuclear double standing. I'll stay on course for now. It's about the Bush administration attempt to overturn a 30 year domestic ban on reprocessing nuclear fuel. Get this. It also wants to reprocess fuel from other countries saying that it safer to be done in the US/EU than anywhere else. Now, can you see arguments against this path? I can. Again, do you think the rest of the world are morons? Here is some more information on the issue.

Last but not the least, cell phone radiation damage to the brain. I've always known this as bunk or bull-shit. I guess we'll see if there is any conclusive evidence to support this because so far there has been none. I still think it is an urban myth. Like living by power lines causing cancer. Here is the website for Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome (EMF) on WHO's page.

I guess this is good for now. Food for thought, or discussion.

Tags: Politics, Science, Technology, Internet, News

[Listening to: Dont Want To Stop - Good Charlotte - Alyson (2:40)]