Commentary on Popular Science (May)

Nerdular Nerdence (Popular Science) has a section called "Soapbox" in which various people rant about stuff. Oftentimes I disagree with many of the things stated.

I really disagree with "Science Friction: Tempers Rising" in the May issue. Gregory Mone claims that "... the naysayers - like Danish statistician Bjørn Lomborg, whose best seller The Skeptical Environmentalist argues against gloabal warming - who appear to be cleaning up . . ." in response to Michael Crichton's assertion that "Any scientist who has doubts ... will be wise to mute their expression." This might be the oddest assertion in the article. How much did Gregory get paid to write that article. published in a magazine owned by one of the largest media conglomerates in the world? A search on Google News for "global warming does not exist" turned up 0 documents. The same search for "global warming exists" turned up infinitely more documents, percentage-wise. Now, that infinite percentage was only three hits, but one of them was from CNN. So let's see. The naysayers are cleaning up, and yet they have absolutely no representation in the news media. The oppressed in favor of global warming get on CNN. Um, yeah, sure, Gregory, the naysayers are overrepresented.

Another one. "You deserve your RiVo." Cory Doctorow argues in defense of radio recording devices. He claims that, "In a free market, you are also free to fail." That is true, but that doesn't mean that you don't have a right not to be stolen from. Whether or not it is fair, all of the major labels belong to the RIAA and they own the music. If RiVos come out for digital radio, the RIAA will most likely revoke the licenses of stations to broadcast their music. Would you rather have radio where you don't get to choose what you listen to, or radio that doesn't exist?

Let's look at this from a Kantian perspective. What would happen if everyone stole music, if stealing music were a universal law? Music companies would go out of business, and music would cease to exist, at least in a recorded form. Therefore, stealing music, including recording it off of the radio, is wrong.

The only thing that I might possibly see as an exception to this is the recording of talk radio. Oftentimes I find that I need to go do something else while listening to the radio and inadvertently miss something. I want to be able to rewind and hear that again.

On a more positive note, the article about DefCon was good. And so was the one about the Earth "Attacking". And What's New was good. Not the best, but okay.