Brian Gongol
Show notes from the WHO Radio Wise Guys - August 23, 2008
How iTunes threatens Communism...Seinfeld shills for Microsoft...the electronic bomb...and a podcast
The Obama VP text: Smart, but is it smart enough?
By building all kinds of buzz about how supporters would be the "first to know" about Senator Obama's running-mate choice, if only they would sign up to receive text-messaging alerts, the Obama Presidential campaign has made a smart move about applying technology to its advantage. After all, who didn't think that the announcement would be leaked first to the news media, or that CNN wouldn't have the announcement the moment it was made anyway? It's hardly like anyone missed out by finding out an hour or two later by checking the news in their e-mail inbox than by getting it immediately on their mobile phone. But in the meantime, the campaign has accumulated a mountain of verifiable voter contacts that they otherwise would've had to pound pavement to get. And let's not forget that the National Do-Not-Call Registry doesn't prohibit political calls. So when November rolls around and the campaign is in need of a last-minute push to the polls, they now have probably thousands of phone numbers on hand that they can use to push people to the polls. But for all the intelligence it has shown about marketing, has the Obama campaign (or the McCain campaign) shown that it really understands the role that technology is going to play over the next five to ten years in changing culture? Sure, "Change we can believe in" is a fine platitude, but which candidate is aware of the problems with the nation's electrical infrastructure? Or the threat of an EMP attack against the US? Or how the law will have to deal with meat from bioreactors and replacement organs from a petri dish (and how Medicare is or is not going to be able to pay for them)? Or of Chinese and Russian cyberwarfare practices that have been actively used against us and against our allies? Or how trade and technology are going to put some people quite visibly out of work, but simultaneously make lots of us better off in tiny ways that we're rarely aware of?
The Register goes on a big diet
The technology that solves problems isn't always the technology you'd expect
Want to save gas? If you're a garbage-collection agency, you don't have to change the trucks. You just have to install GPS so that the trucks take shorter trips.
President gets the LOLcats treatment at the Olympics
Kansas tells Nebraska, "You'll be hearing from our lawyers"
Microsoft plans better cross-site scripting features in IE8
China spends $43 billion, but for what?
There's really very little evidence to suggest that the Olympics will have a durable economic impact on the country. One of the only good things to come from the Olympics is that the world is more aware of the pollution that can barely be distinguished from satire. Chicago is in the process of applying to host the 2016 Olympics, and even though many of the city's suburbs back the effort, it's probably not the outcome that would be best.
Fay drops stunning amounts of water on Florida
"The Three Trailers"
(Video) What would happen if the movie-trailer voice-over guy were cloned. Don LaFontaine is the real deal, but Frank Caliendo and Pablo Francisco are outstanding imitators. But your brain might explode when you see (and hear) five movie voice-over guys in one car.
The T. Boone Pickens Plan
US/Polish missile-defense shield agreement irks Russia
Russia's government is now openly threatening Poland over the deeply complicated matter, which brings to mind John McCain's comment about what's behind Vladimir Putin's eyes these days. And it's unsettling to see how nervous the Chinese government is right now, apparently sabotaging attendance at its own Olympic Games over fears of letting lots of people gather in one place. Nuclear powers with edgy people in charge are unnerving.
At least four states are looking at lowering the legal drinking age
Which probably isn't a bad idea. Setting the minimum drinking age at 21 can hardly be thought to be effectively stopping 19- and 20-year-olds from drinking. Prohibition-style approaches hardly have any evidence of usefulness.
Rising construction prices place pressure on contractors
It's by far not just an American problem -- construction costs in India are through the roof, too. It's a global phenomenon that coincides in a strange way with the trouble in the home-finance industry in the US.
UNI report on how college pays dividends
The obvious financial benefits come in combination with others, like higher levels of civic participation
Futurist thinks Elder Olympics and Virtual Olympics aren't far off
Iowa already has a state Senior Olympics event, and the use of the Nintendo Wii as a physical-rehabilitation tool certainly makes a "virtual" set of games seem plausible.
Flashback to the start of the Presidential campaign
In March 2007, it was noted here that only two Presidential campaigns had put any effort whatsoever into their campaign logos. Those campaigns: Obama and McCain. Interesting that those two have emerged as the major-party candidates. Also interesting is that the McCain campaign hasn't come up with a compelling counter-brand to the Obama "O" piece. It's a great brand mark, in that it's used relentlessly (in part because it's a circle and thus doesn't get stretched or squeezed like a rectangle would) and could be used after November 4th. McCain's campaign needs to take its military-style star and put it behind something that suggests "liberty", like (for instance) the head of the Statue of Liberty. It needs to fit in a square so it can be scaled up and down in size, and it needs to suggest something about liberty. The star needs to stay, since it recalls his military service and suggests that someone competent is in charge.
UK could get a per-mile tax
Per-mile driving taxes can be an efficient way of paying for road construction and maintenance, but their usefulness depends upon how those miles are measured. If, as the Brits appear to be considering, those taxes are assessed by freedom-threatening monitors and surveillance tools, then the trade-off probably isn't worth it. But a simple odometer census would be a much smarter and more liberty-friendly way of assessing fees for road use. (This subject is explored in depth in "Ten Big Answers You Won't Get from a Politician".)
Why computer security updates are so important
Microsoft's August security update, which came out a week ago, included at least six different patches to correct security problems that could've allowed crooks to attack users' computers without any warning or action at all on the part of the user. In other words, pure victimization.
Mark Cuban appears to be high bidder for Cubs
For Cuban to buy the team would probably be the best available option. It would have been even better had the Tribune Company decided to keep the team, or if a group of local investors had come in with an organized fan-ownership campaign (in the style of the Green Bay Packers), but the efforts to do so never really got off the ground and Cuban probably understands the importance of the team's mystique as well as any prospective owner could.
Giving people the benefit of the doubt
Tropical storm lands in Florida
Today is self-exam day
Take a minute or two and conduct some basic self-screenings for cancer. Early detection saves lives.
Where's the security clearance requirement for Congress?
Despite access to lots of information, members of Congress are not required to have a security clearance. There's certainly a way to prevent the executive branch from overstepping its bounds and abusing the power to determine what is secret and what is not, and one would think we ought to have some way to ensure that access to America's top secrets can be won just by raising enough money to get elected to Congress.
The worst kind of bomb may not be a nuclear one anymore
While virtually everyone is easily sent into a panic over the possibility of a nuclear or chemical-weapons attack on his or her home turf, the reality is that in 2008, just as much damage -- or perhaps much more -- could be done by electronic warfare. We're already quite well-aware of the use of cyberwarfare by the Chinese government, and of the active use of Internet-based attacks on Estonia, likely by the Russian government. But it's not likely that a lot of people are aware that an attack using an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) weapon could pretty much destabilize the entire US infrastructure. Practically everything relies on some sort of digital technology -- water plants, the power grid, and pretty much anything that moves. The technology exists, and several countries and non-state actors alike have both the capacity and inclination to use weapons like EMPs. Much like the disaster in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, it's a threat we should be well-aware of and sufficiently motivated to do something about. But little about it has reached the public's attention. (Sadly, the closest we've come was probably an episode of "24".) $5-a-gallon gasoline is nothing compared to the kind of calamity that a disabled electrical grid could bring about. Interestingly, it seems that the member of Congress most attentive to the issue is an 82-year-old former research scientist from Maryland.
USDA figures out how to get useful DNA from really old seeds
100-year-old seeds don't usually have the capacity to germinate, but research has found a way to retrieve the genetic information they carry
Plant announces it will produce cellulosic ethanol by next year
That's the stuff that comes from plant fiber, like corncobs and switchgrass. The latest energy bill mandates that the US get a huge amount of ethanol from cellulosic sources over the coming decades. Whether we'll have the capacity as a country to meet the requirements of the bill will remain to be seen.
Flood damage still being repaired in Iowa City
A good idea that's also a sign of the apocalypse
Administrators and teachers are trying to find a way to incentivize attendance and participation at a Des Moines alternative high school by giving students cash rewards applicable to higher education. On the micro scale, that certainly seems like a good idea: It's a basic rule of human behavior that we respond to incentives, and if that incentive is applicable to self-improvement, then it's probably a very practical idea. But on the macro scale, it's a terrible sign. If we've reached a point where large enough numbers of students no longer receive the socialization that allows them to realize the intrinsic connection between education and self-betterment, then we have a real problem on our hands.
Notes from the Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - August 17, 2008
Russia's crony capitalism with weapons...incentives for school performance...nearly-universal broadband access...and a podcast