While technology & politics are two very common themes in these links, an imbalanced intake can cause serious repercussions. To improve the diet, I’ll be sharing a few links in the next few days, some that you may find rather disconcerting, maybe even shocking. Not food porn (the stuff that seems to be fascinating to most people, clicking pictures of “great-looking” meals), but the actual “industry” that food production has become. Begin with watching a documentary called “Food Inc“. What are you going to do about what you eat?
Author: neil
Interaction
In less than a decade (for those of us old enough to remember), the way we interact with computing devices has been revolutionized. Forget the mouse & keyboard, touch-screens no longer have the “wow” factor to most of us, pinching our mobile/tablet screens not unlike pinching ourselves when touch-screens first came around. What does the future look like?
Investigative Journalism
ProPublica “is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest… by producing journalism that shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them.” The effort led by this group to make public (called “Free the Files“) the amount of behind-the-scenes lobbying money that is spent by non-profit groups (called super-PAC’s) on TV advertisements to prop up their candidates, is entirely voluntary. You may be surprised with some of the findings (25% of the files reveal an astounding $264m in TV ad spending, with the Obama camp buying the biggest share so far!)
Protectionism
The US industry loves to dictate terms to the rest of the world, through its ‘legal’ department, also known as the US Congress. Now that overseas manufacturing (a beast of the US industry’s own making) has beaten them at their own game, they want to change the rules. A recent example: US has slapped higher tariffs on Chinese manufacturers of solar cells (250%). Another example: US agriculture is one of the most subsidized in the world (the recipients of these subsidies being large companies that operate farms, yet they want ‘developing’ countries to stop protecting their food industry.
WYSIWYG
What you see is what you get – Robert Fulghum is one of my favorite authors. I’ve been hooked ever since I read “Uh-oh” over a decade ago. I needed the reminder that is the plot of this latest blog post, & maybe you’ll enjoy it too! (Plan C is most often the best!)
The 1st Black President
Try to keep still ….Richard Pryor as the first black president’s first press meet, way way ahead of his time, & I think almost prescient!
Sexism
The world is awash with the story that Julia Gillard stood up for women’s rights in the Australian Parliament yesterday against the “misogynist” Opposition leader. Here’s an alternate opinion, one that confirms that this tirade had nothing to do with sexism, & everything to do with politics. Keep in mind that her own Speaker was forced to resign yesterday because of his “references” to women’s genitalia, & this was the best show that the PM could put considering she didn’t have a leg to stand on during question time”. She now is down to a 1-vote majority.
Kim DotCom- Updates
I mostly thought of MegaUpload as an illegal site, an opinion I formed (as perhaps you too), entirely without using the site. It’s founder Kim DotCom (yeah, that’s his real name!) ‘s residence was raided & he was arrested by the New Zealand police, with much fanfare a few months ago. The case is throwing up some very interesting facts, besides getting very serious support for MegaUpload from some very respected judicial authorities (yes, they do exist!) in the US. “There has been a trail of illegality by the NZ Police, & the forces who incited this raid (read Hollywood)”.
Where’d You Get That Cool Shirt? This Software Knows
In case you hadn’t already noticed, everyone wants to sell you something. (No, not me, at least, not yet! ;). In the ads race, a company has developed software that can automatically identify SPECIFIC products in visual media, & then serve up relevant advertisements. As this article says, “As one example, the software matched the sunglasses worn by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in an image accompanying a news article about the movie stars to similar pairs available on Amazon. A reader online who hovered a cursor over the object would see the tagged link for the product.”
Go from Middle-Class to Kickass
Another blog that I’ve come across lately is run by Mr. Money Mustache (or moustache, whatever your spelling preferences may be!). The blog has some very interesting thoughts on the modern day employment scene, his personal experiences of going from a relatively highly paid job to retirement at the age of 43, & the strategies he’s employed. May not be for everyone, but won’t hurt to give it a thought, especially in these rather troubling economic times. This article is his personal experience of going from middle-class to kickass“