HP has come out with a new chip that might have been designed to foster paranoia.^[1] This new chip, the size of a grain of rice, is powered by induction and contains a wireless antenna for data exchange. This just screams localizer in a Vernor Vinge^[2] style. For while this chip is too big to float through the air, and, at a dollar a chip, too expensive to try to saturate a city even if it were small enough to do so, it is inevitable that with time this technology will become cheaper and smaller. The idea has now crossed out of science fiction, and I fear there will be no putting the genie back in the lamp.

1. BBC News. “Tiny wireless memory chip debuts” BBC News Technology 2006-07-17. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5186650.stm
2. Mr. Vernor Vinge. A Deepness in the Sky. ISBN: 0812536355

Once again, I find myself agreeing with Mr. Pat Buchanan. Today, he is asking what in the world we are doing supporting Isreal.^[1] In particular, he references the fact that part of Isreal’s approach to the Palestinian election of Hamas for its government includes destroying power plants. The route they seem to be taking is creating suffering amoung the Palestinian people, included in which are many innocent Christians, by denying them refrigeration, water purification, and air conditioning (in the middle of a desert). He also notes that they have a tendency to target refugee convoys in their war with Lebanon, and that the rest of their actions in this war are questionable considering that Lebanon itself is relatively defenseless.

He is absolutely correct here, Isreal has a right to defend itself, and its neighbors would certainly love to see it wiped off the map. But Isreal goes too far, too often. It must recognize the difference between combatants and non-combatants. The difference between terrorists and those who are not. Yes, that distinction is difficult. But you do not see the United States in Iraq going for the wholesale destruction that Isreal is choosing, even though the challenges facing them are similar. Until Isreal is willing to make these distinctions, we should be questioning our willingness to support them.

1. Mr. Pat Buchanan. “Where are the Christians?” World Net Daily 2006-07-18. http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51116