Weekly Recap – Feb 18th to 25th
The Blade Runner Can’t Run, The Dash-Cam Meteor, PS4 – Not just Games, and The New Castro all in this week’s Recap
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Why North Korea’s purported space program poses a threat to the international community
On January 30, 2013, South Korea successfully launched its first rocket with significant Russian help. The culmination of the decade long effort was a direct response to North Korea’s unsuccessful intermediate-range rocket testing in 1998. At the time, the progression of North Korean rocket technology alarmed the South Korean government so much so that South Korea took radical steps to hasten the launch of its rocket. Even so, North Korea’s “military first” approach prevailed and the Northern counterpart was able to successfully launch its rocket on December 12, 2013, beating South Korea by about a month. Even though the successful launch dates differ merely by a month, the South Korean government is facing withering criticism from the press and its constituents for falling so far behind North Korea, a country with GDP that is less a tenth of...
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Microsoft, Google, and Apple: Tech Wars
The story began in 1998, the year in which Microsoft first released its Windows98 system, Apple first introduced its iMac, and Google was founded by two Stanford students. Since then, along with the world-changing development of the internet and high technology, the three companies have entered into a series of battles, struggling for control over different digital areas. Though the mastery of light sabers is not required, the wars in the tech industry today are featuring equal intensity and uncertainty as those a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, with technology and business strategy as their weapons. The Phone Menace As smartphones change the way people find information, consume content and purchase apps, they have become the most coveted devices and the fastest growing market. In 2011, 487.7 million smartphones being sold, more than the...
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Weekly Recap – November 11th to 17th
The Spy Who Loved Me CIA Director, David Petraeus, resigned last week after it was revealed he was having an affair with his biographer. The FBI uncovered the story, working off the original claims of ‘jealousy’ that led them to the woman. Petraeus was a four-starred General with extensive experience in Libya and Afghanistan when he was made Director. He has also come under scrutiny for the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, and whether or not it was a terrorist act. The case raises several questions such as: what does it say about the state of American espionage when the Director of the CIA cannot keep an affair secret? Why did the FBI delve so deeply into a case of a simple affair? And was the affair the real reason for his resignation? Oil Projections Based...
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Drones: A Blessing or a Curse?
It is no secret that the U.S. increasingly uses drones to achieve its counterterrorism goals. During the recent presidential debates, there was no contention over drone usage. Indeed, much of the skepticism surrounding drones appears to have subsided as they have become the Obama administration’s primary tool for fighting terrorism. This is unsurprising considering the lack of serious ramifications stemming from their usage. [1] There are indeed many advantages to using drones. They are much more accurate than other comparable methods due to their ability to survey a target for hours or even days. Their use does not put any American lives at risk, and some findings show that they cause fewer civilian casualties than other methods. Furthermore, they are relatively inexpensive to produce. As such, drones appear to be the ideal weapon for fighting a war that is...
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Occupy WallsTweet
Twitter has often been renowned as one of the best tools for protestors of the modern era. It allows large groups to coordinate, spread information and ideas, and get a message out to a vast number of people very quickly. It was credited with helping Arab Spring protests in Egypt[1] and Tunisia[2], and was even used to assess the effect of NATO airstrikes in Libya.[3] When Occupy Wall Street first started up, Twitter was once again used to coordinate protests and spread information—though not, to the best of my knowledge, to coordinate any airstrikes. Several months afterward, however, the beast that is Twitter seems to have turned on its masters. The NYPD is using protestors’ tweets in order to prove that they had an intention to break the law.[4] Whereas a case might previously have been thrown out...
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