A Geek Apart

As an aside to an ongoing conversation that started at The Emancipator, moved here, and was redefined there, I’d like to continue in a different direction.

I certainly did not mean to simply “side step” the morality and ethical foundation of slavery…instead, I attempted to flat-out dive out of the way of it.

Over at The Emancipator, he is certainly correct about the differences between my described “pseudo-slaves” and actual slaves. I did not mean to downplay the horrible atrocities the happened; no, I meant to illustrate why the South could possibly want to hold onto an idea (slavery) that clearly violates all of the ethical boundaries that led to the establishment of this country.
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Over at my good friend’s blog, he writes about a Civil War tombstone that withstood the wind and water from Hurricane Katrina. He also mentions his conflicting respect for the soldier with disgust of his deeds.

If we can make the assumption that his “cause” was the continued expansion of slavery, I can agree that his cause was wrong.

However, the other big issue of the day, State’s Rights, cannot be overlooked. Recently the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction towards giving the federal government more power, and less to the states. This, as I see it, is a recipe for disaster.

The reason slavery was so hotly debated is that it was easy for the North to abolish slavery. After all, they had been able to recruit and establish a whole class of pseudo-slaves–the blue collar working class–to fuel their economic machine in industry. This wasnt an option for the South. Mention of abolishment of slavery hit at the very economic core of the entire South’s industies.
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So I was warned by my inlaws last night to set my clocks ahead. After watching a horrible movie, “Pulse,” I was irritated, and searching for something really entertaining.

Luckily I stumbled onto a rash of hilarious videos on Break.com, and all was well…except for my clocks. Thanks to having my MacBook synchronized with “apple time,” that clock was correct.

Is it just me, or are we making time more complicated than it needs to be? Although I live in Indiana, and DST is new to us, I used to work for a large multinational transportation company, so I was accustomed to how DST worked.
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An army of students armed with video-enabled cell phones deployed technology to capture alleged police brutality against a fellow student. Most have heard about the incident at UCLA, and many (okay 609,994) have seen the video over at YouTube.

The students used their cell phones to capture video of the incident. While this technique is nothing new, it certainly raises the question of what the police are willing to do when no one is watching, since they were willing to do this on video with dozens of witnesses around.

The same sousveillance (really inverse surveillance) technique has been used in high-profile incidents such as the Rodney King trial, and in more mundane events like the New Yorker that caught a pervert on the subway.
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