Update on the Skype Purchase:

Ted Schadler makes the argument for why Microsoft paid $8.5 billion for a service with no business model. He's got some good points.

The Skype Business Model – Sheer Genius:

I love Skype. What's not to like about free phone calls and messaging? But just how do you make money out of it if you're an investor or founder? Wait till Microsoft finds itself looking foolish in front of Apple and then sell it to Steve and the boys for $8.5 billion! Works for me! Or it would had I been smart enough to invent the service. Sheer genius. Now let's just hope that Microsoft doesn't screw it up for us little folks who just like the good service and low cost. (You still have to have some sort of device and an IP.)

Privacy Issue: Online Tax Documents Reveal SSNs

Now this is scary: ZDNet blogger Stephen Chapman explains how easy it is to have social security numbers and other private information stolen by accessing online tax documents. Not only can you have your own social security number stolen but also your children's.

Google Offshores Its China Servers:

It's been all over the news today. Google finally took action in response to its issues with Chinese censorship and hacking by moving its site to Hong Kong.

Will We Get the Health Care Bill We Deserve:

Republicans vow to repeal the bill once they regain the majority, while conservative southern governors, like the nincompoop who holds office in Virginia, plan to take the bill to the right wing Supreme Court.

You Knew It Was Bound To Happen:

Fake H1N1 flu alerts are flying around the web, installing malware on end users' machines. "No, Charlotte, ain't nothin' sacred." You can read about it on ZDNet. The email messages contain a link and ask you to go to a website and "create your personal H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile." The language looks legitimate enough, but when you click the link, you're in for a malicious download. The government doesn't send out email making these sorts of requests. That includes the IRS.

And while we're on the topic, no one is going to give you millions of dollars.

Somebody's having a birthday this month. Now if I could just remember who it is ...?

Don't Twitt Me:

Claire Cain Miller reports in today's New York Times on who's using the hot new texting service, Twitter, and who's not. Turns out adults and not teens make the most use of it. Teens have little interest in the service. According to the article, Twitter seems "lame" to most teens. They're far more interested in announcing who they are on Facebook than reporting every move they make or participating in a broad conversation by "shifting the conversation" in the new texting medium.

Down with PowerPoint:

Thinkers are starting to rethink the notion of using slide presentations. (Yes, I can here you all thinking, "Thank God!") Joe McKendrick writing for Smartplanet remarks on one of the problems: a speaker talking to the screen while the audience watches. There are plenty of other problems. McKendrick reports some of them. Reducing decision making to a bullet list is another.

Jailbreaking iPhones Destined to Destroy Universe!

According to eWeek.com, "Apple claims jailbreaking, or unlocking, its iPhone smartphone could lead to potential cyber-attacks, cell tower manipulation, increased drug deals and the end of the world."

You gotta love technology.

eWeek.com is also reporting that Intel expects a massive movement to Microsoft's new operating system, Win7, during the upcoming year, helping to fuel an economic recovery. Business has generally ignored Microsoft's Vista operating system, with reportedly 67 percent of businesses continuing to use WinXP. (My own employer is, for reasons that completely ellude me, just now upgrading from XP to Vista instead of making the leap directly to Win7.) The Vista operating system got a very bad rap because the hardware requirements to move from XP to it were substantial. And it came about when everyone new the economy was headed for the toilet. Now the question has to be is there enough money for the economy to dump billions into new hardware and software when what people have been using still works.

Interestingly, the hottest thing in computer hardware are the ultra small, stripped down netbooks, which have, by the way, very small profit margins for both the hardware and the software venders. Microsoft is making a Win7 system for them, but once again, the profit margin will be small, and Microsoft faces competition from Linux, including Google's own version to be called "Chrome."

Speaking of "Chrome," I'm using the Chrome browser now. It appears to be much faster both in loading the program and pages than any of the other browsers I use, including Firefox, of which I have been a strong proponent since its early beta days. (I first installed and used Firefox when it was version 0.6 and known by another name.)

Too Good To Pass Up:

Chicago, IL: Cook County Sheriff declares Craigslist biggest pimp of all! Yes, that's right. The sheriff and his department recently busted 76 men and women for prostitution who had been running ads on the Craigslist "erotic services" site. Back in 2007 several Chicago-area men were arrested for running a prostitution ring with girls as young as 15. Seems like there ain't nothin' that can't be pimped.

Technology:

With the world economy in the tank and swirling down the drain, Microsoft is trying to do it's part to get things going again. It's no secret that WindowsXP still dominates the corporate environment, even though the official release of the operating system came out eight years ago.

Microsoft came out with its Vista operating system two years ago and almost immediately became the but of a nifty Mac advertising attack. It solved many of its problems with the release of a major service pack, but with Vista requiring substantial hardware upgrades and IT departments being cut on funding, the operating system still hasn't made major headway into the business community. Plus Microsoft is preparing to release yet another operating system, known as Windows 7, now being beta tested.

So what's the news? Microsoft is starting to very nearly demand that users "get off XP" as reported by Mary Jane Foley in her ZDNet blog. Ouch! So much for the "better mousetrap" theory.

Multitasking on the Way Out?

Andrew Nusca blogs about a new study that proclaims focusing one's attention is far superior to multitasking, at their ZDNet blog, "The Toy Box": "A person who works with complete focus has a major advantage over a workaholic who multi-tasks all day and responds to every interruption, according to a story by tech writer Mike Elgan on InternetNews.com." Nusca refers to Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, Outliers: “Control of attention is the ultimate individual power. People who can do that are not prisoners of the stimuli around them.”

Teachers, artists, and artisans have known this all along. Let's face it, when you try to do two or more things at once, unless you're in an emergency situation, it's because you don't value any of those things very highly.

Photos of the Myanmar Disaster:

For those who can't get enough news about the cyclone/tsunami in Myanmar, The New York Times provides "The Lede" blog site, posting photos sent in by readers, as well as descriptions and comments.

Will a Tech Boom Save Us from a Recession:

Can you even have a tech boom during a recession, might be a more appropriate question. The New York Times reports that Sprint Nextel, Google, Intel, Comcast, Time Warner and Clearwire are partnering up to challenge Verizon and AT&T in the wireless market. These companies are tossing in $14.5 billion dollars to build a network for cell phone users.

The Times quotes Clearwire chairman Craig O. McCaw as stating,

The power of the mobile Internet, which offers speed and mobility, home and away, on any device or screen, will fundamentally transform the communications landscape in our country. We believe that the new Clearwire will operate one of the fastest and most capable broadband wireless networks ever conceived, giving us the opportunity to return the U.S. to a leadership position in the global wireless industry.

In the meantime, the stock market continues to be volatile, with a late Wednesday afternoon "tumble," to use the Times' terminology. The Dow was down 206.48 points and Standard & Poor's 500-stock index dropped 1.8 percent, its worst showing in nearly a month.

Sen. Clinton Vows to Fight On:

The media is awash with predictions that the narrow victory in Indiana coupled with a resounding defeat in North Carolina spelled the end of her campaign. The big key here is a financial one. Once again Sen. Clinton, it turns out, was forced to loan her campaign millions of dollars to remain viable.

If nothing else, this campaign has shed more light on precisely what democracy means in the United States. The vote for these two candidates remains relatively close, both in the popular count and the delegate count. And there are still two states about which no one seems to know what to do, Florida and Michigan. But the money difference is well documented as heavily favoring Sen. Obama. His campaign has consistently set records for its ability to raise money. Sen. Clinton may be able to rally millions of poor white working women behind her, but they haven't funded her the way Obama's supporters have funded him.

Here's the kicker, if Sen. Clinton does not win the nomination and the White House, she will be spending considerable effort over the next few years raising money to repay the loans she made to her own campaign. "Why won't she need to do this if she becomes president?" Well, she will still need to repay the loans, but as president or former president, depending on when she sets out to raise this money, the effort will need be far less. (See The New York Times story.)

Bush Again Calls for Drilling in ANWR:

Bush once again called for domestic exploration for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, despite the fact that oil taken from their would provide little or no relief to current energy problems. Currently, it is believed that the amount of oil would be relatively small compared to current needs, and that it would take too many years to bring the oil to market to have any significant impact. However, oil drilled in ANWR would greatly benefit a few oil men. Can you guess to whom these people are connected?

What the Dude told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag about the best moment of his presidency: "I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a seven and a half pound largemouth bass in my lake." — George W. Bush, May 2006. (I know, you'd really like to have a beer with this guy. Well, the sooner the better.)

China Facts: "Authorities have added 171 new pop culture phrases to China's national language registry." (Source ngm.com)

China: When is the price too high?

Mao declared he was willing to sacrifice one family to save tens of thousands. A noble idea, especially when the family being sacrificed is not your own. The Chinese are beginning to challenge the philosophy of sacrifice as they begin to realize their sacrifices are not so much about saving "the other" as they are about enriching the few.

Today's New York Times carries a story about a protest in Chengdu, China, "against a $5.5 billion ethylene plant under construction by PetroChina." China is perhaps the most polluted country in the world. Its air nearly unbreathable, its water often unfit even for irrigation.

China possesses about the same amount of water as The United States, but it has almost five times as many people. The Yellow River, the life blood of China, has been dammed more often than any river in the world, often with disastrous results. In the 1990s, the river often failed to reach its mouth.

The origin of the Yellow River, by the way, is in Tibet. And that's what the conflict with Tibet is about, something the American press has completely ignored.

China Facts: "67 percent of millionaires surveyed say they are sacrificing health for money." (Source: ngm.com)

Myanmar Death Toll exceeds 22,000:

Myanmar (also known as Burma) is reporting that the tsunami that struck recently has taken more than 22,000 lives. (See NPR.org) This is the worst tsunami disaster since the December 2004 tsunami which took well over 100,000 lives.

What Can $40 Billion Plus Buy?

Evidently not Yahoo. Speculation abounds. What will Microsoft buy if it has over $40 billion to spend. (See The New York Times story.) Everybody's trying to guess at what stopped Microsoft's big buyout bid of Yahoo, quickly followed by what the company might go after next. It must be terrible to have that much cash burning a hole in your pocket.

Keep in mind that Microsoft's big money makers are its operating system and office suit, both of which may become irrelevant in the near future, according to many prognosticators. Will the next big tech revolution be a Microsoft-less world?

Personal Note: So yesterday I'm driving through the middle of Pennsylvania on the Interstate, when I'm passed by this big four-wheel-drive SUV with police lights on it, but not in use, clearly exceeding the speed limit, and I'm thinking to myself "Who are these guys after?" And I read the insignia on the side of the vehicle, which clearly states, "Border Patrol," and I think, "Wait a minute! What border are these guys patrolling?" 'cause I'm not aware of any borders within the vicinity of where we are and they aren't even heading in the right direction to encounter either of the closest ones.

The vehicle is moving too fast for me to catch the license plate, so I can't determine if this is a U. S. vehicle or a Pennsylvania one, and I think does Pennsylvania even have a border patrol and why would they? Naturally it occurs to me that knowing how Pennsylvanians feel about their New Jersey neighbors the state might want to guard their border with that state, but it seems unlikely taking into account the amount of commerce that transpires between them.

So what was that vehicle doing there?

Webb Bill To Expand GI Bill:

Both sides of the government are in favor of expanding the GI Bill as proposed by Sen. Web (D-VA). Guess who's opposed. Sen. McCain and the current knuckleheads in the White House. Their argument is that if you expand benefits for veterans the guys in the service now will leave active duty to go to college, and then where will the all volunteer military be? Really tells us what the current denizen and the would be occupant think about the guys they conned into the war in Iraq, doesn't it? Of course neither Bush nor McCain had to worry about college or their education, certainly not as a vehicle for improving their lives, and then there's Dick Cheney, spelled "d-r-a-f-t-d-o-d-g-e-r."

The Dude's perspective on history: "You never know what your history is going to be like until long after you're gone." — George W. Bush, Washington, D. C., May 2006.

F.B.I. Raids Special Counsel Office:

The hot topic all afternoon has been the raid of special counsel Scott J. Bloch's office. The rational extends from accusations that Bloch has used his office for political purposes and has refused to pursue investigations that did not find in with the Bush administration's political agenda. According to The New York Times, Bloch has been "a target of a complaint filed by a group of employees who accused him of trying to dismantle his own agency, of illegally barring employees from talking to journalists and of reducing a backlog of whistle-blower complaints by simply discarding old cases."

Oil Closing Near $123:

Buyers in the futures market continue to push the price of oil higher as forecasts show oil going even higher now that summer approaches. (See The New York Times story.)

Microsoft Closing on Yahoo:

Microsoft's pursuit of Yahoo has taken another step to closing a deal to purchase Yahoo. (See The New York Times story.) Some fear this means a monopolistic strangle hold on computing by the software giant, but another possibility should be taken into consideration. Will this be an all or nothing gamble on the part of the computing company whose operating system name, Windows, has come to be synonymous with personal computing for the majority of computer users?

Yahoo has been a marginal company in recent years as Google has dominated the search and Yahoo's market plan to become a content supplier has been of questionable value.

Microsoft is hoping that Yahoo will increase their potential as a portal for computer users, allowing them to compete with Google in a computing world where the operating system on a computer is of diminishing importance.

Microsoft's most recent operating system release has had questionable sales results. Many users prefer the previous edition of Windows. Apple has seen its share of the market double in recent months, and the Linux world has produced a version of its operating system (Ubuntu) that many users believe is as easy to use and viable as either of those. (Linux already owns a major market share of the server business.)

In addition, Microsoft has been losing market share in the browser wars, where both the Mozilla FireFox browser and the Safari browser have increased market share. Both browsers are rated faster and more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE). As more and more computing is done on line, the browser becomes ever more important.

U. S. Loses 20,000 Jobs in April:

While the loss in jobs is a further sign of how badly the American economy is doing, some see the number as a plus sign due to the expectation that job loses would actually be higher. What's missing here is that the number is somewhat misleading due to the fact that it does not take into account that part-time work took less of a hit than expected. In other words, more people are now working part-time, without benefits. The New York Times reports that "employees working part time involuntarily climbed to the highest level since 1995." Additionally, the Times reports that "The average weekly pay for rank-and-file workers — about 80 percent of the American work force — fell $3.55 in April," and that figure is after adjustment for inflation has been considered.

(Note: Did you catch GW screaming at the press yesterday about the collapsing economy? "I know things are tough!" Uh, yeah, for us regular folk. He inherited millions of dollars. And you thought he'd be a good guy to have a beer with. So how many have you had with him?)

Don't you wish you could do this:

The Federal Reserve is moving to allow banks to use debt as collateral for loans. The New York Times attempts to explain the action in today's paper. The focus is on credit card and student loans. What it comes down to is that the Federal Reserve is guaranteeing your debt. The banks loan you money, and then your government, financed by your tax money, promises to cover your debt. The banks, being in the middle, will be in a win-win situation. They will receive your money (or your house or your car or garnish your wages) while collecting interest, and they will not be accepting any risk because your neighbors will be guaranteeing repayment of the loan through their tax dollars. In addition, the banks will have more money to play with as they themselves can borrow money from The Fed based on your indebtedness to the banks, at a low interest rate, thus allowing them to loan more money at interest rates higher than they are paying.

Guess which shell the pea is under.

Chevron Earnings Soar:

Another oil company reports record profits. Chevron reported $5.17 billion in profit for the last quarter, adding to the bulging coffers of the oil giants (as reported in The New York Times in a Reuters story).

Recent stories focused on a call for a "windfall profits tax" on the oil industry, but there seems little chance such a measure would pass. The attempt to create such a tax during the Carter administration turned into a fiasco. An excellent model exists from the World War II period, but any such tax seems highly improbable in light of the fact that the oil lobby owns both the Republican and the Democratic party.

The gasoline tax "time out for summer" proposal seems to have a greater probability to succeed, but workers would not benefit from an 18.4 cent a gallon reduction. Instead the oil companies would simply keep the money, magnifying their own profit margins on the backs of workers and tax payers.

The Rush to Legal Murder:

Folks like to feel they are powerful. The greatest power is over someone else's life. Can I kill you? Well, not legally, but the government can in my name. The Supreme Court said so just three weeks ago, and now states like Texas are rushing to start whacking people in the voters' names. There's nothing like being able to strut into your local bar with the warm realization that you just murdered a defenseless person (who, by the way, may or may NOT have actually committed the crime of which he's been convicted) especially if that person is, uh … err … "of color." About half the people on death row around the country are African American. (See The New York Times story.)

The Crossover Vote:

Traditionally, voters who crossed voter lines to vote in primary elections for candidates of the opposition party did so in order to promote a weak candidate to run against their own party's candidate. This election season is seeing a new kind of voter perhaps not seen since the Reagan candidacy.

In 1980 and 1984 some Democrats turned out for Reagan, helping him swamp the opposition, although most of the defection actually came from Democrats simply not voting at all.

This year, according to The New York Times, as much as 10 percent of the Republican voters are actively supporting one or the other of the Democratic candidates, turning away from Sen. McCain because he seems nothing more than another version of the worst administration in modern history.

The Dude on the good ol' days: "But I also made it clear to [Vladimir Putin] that it's important to think beyond the old days of when we had the concept that if we blew each other up, the world would be safe." George W. Bush, Washington, D. C., May 2001.

China Facts: "Urban Chinese earn more than three times as much as those in rural areas, the highest income gap since the start of reforms in 1978. (Source: ngm.com)

Chinese Learn Stocks Can Fall As Well As Rise:

The Washington Post reports on the hard lessons learned by Chinese investors, especially small investors who bet their life savings on the Chinese stock market. (See the story.) For sixty years, the Chinese have lived under the assumption that their government would back them up. Not so with the stock market.

Strange Bedfellows:

Bill Gates once declared that Rupert Murdoch was the man he feared most in the world, commenting on something about the latter's principles and ruthless business tactics. The latest news is that Murdoch's News Corporation might join with Gates and company in a hostile takeover of Yahoo, which has been resisting Microsoft's bid for the company.

As The New York Times puts it such a joint venture "would create a behemoth that would upend the Internet landscape." Precisely in what direction the landscape would tilt, however, isn't exactly clear. Microsoft, in large part, has become monolithic by buying out competition. When it couldn't buy out competition, it created imitations and built them into its operating systems, which is decidedly different from giving software away. (Note: When software is built into the operating system and you have to buy the operating system, the software is not given away; you pay for it along with the operating system.)

Microsoft itself, like the rest of the western world's economy, is in a dangerous place. It's newest operating system has had mixed results. Revenue from sales has generally been good, but adaptation by business and government has been sluggish, with most sales coming from new computer sales. In the meantime, it appears that Microsoft will rush to put out its latest operating system (currently called "Windows 7"). Google has placed enormous pressure on Microsoft, along with the advent of "social networking."

So is Microsoft betting the ranch?

Bush Reduces Length of Duty:

The White House announced tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan will be reduced from 15 months to 12 months, corresponding more or less to the amount of time Bush has left in office. However, the White House also stated that there would be no reductions in the number of troupes in those two regions.

What the great man had to say six years ago: "And so, in my State of the—my State of the Union—or state—my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation—I asked Americans to give 4,000 years—4,000 hours over the next—the rest of your life—of service to America. That's what I asked—4,000 hours." — George W. Bush, Bridgeport, Connnecticut, April 2002. (Will we learn that this man, like Reagan, has Alzheimer's, after he leaves office?)

Signs of the Times:

Paris has long been the scene of protests, and the latest is focused on the Olympics over China's relations with Tibet. The New York Times reports that "thousands of people from around Europe, many with Tibetan flags, massed to protest the relay and deny China the promotional boost it hoped for in the runup to the games." The torch, which is supposed to never go out, did go out several times, and in the end the police transported the torch by bus on its last leg through the city.

Over 3,000 police were deployed to prevent interruption to the procession, according to the Times. On Sunday in London, dozens of people were arrested after "a tumult of scuffles" broke out.

China has ruled Tibet for decades now, but the Olympics have finally brought attention to the situation that hasn't existed before. (At this point, one wonders if today's protesters would have been the same people carrying around Mao's Little Red Book if this were forty years ago. Idle speculation, I suppose.)

The following from the Times article almost seems to have been written for a movie script:

A helicopter circled above as rival teams of onlookers, cheering supporters waving Chinese flags and protesters responding with chants demanding “freedom” for Tibet, crowded behind metal barriers lined by paramilitary police officers. A small truck decorated in the Olympic logo and carrying a percussion band was almost inaudible.

In the meantime, a large portion of the world stands on the brink of a major food crisis, with riots having already taken place in several countries around the world. Paul Krugman addresses the issue in the Times' op-ed pages, concluding that "Cheap food, like cheap oil, may be a thing of the past."

As the leader of the free world put it, "Part of the facts is understanding we have a problem, and part of the facts is what you're going to do about it." — George W. Bush, Kirtland, OH, April 2005. (We must all be pleased to know that our leader is so cognizant of the definition of "facts." Now we understand that WMD thing.)

Technology:

Yahoo again rejects Microsoft's buyout offer. At the heart of the problem is that Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo with Microsoft shares, and the value of the shares have been falling. The Times reports Yahoo CEO in a letter to Microsoft CEO Ballmer, "the result of the decrease in your own stock price, the value of your proposal today is significantly lower than it was when you mae your initial proposal."

Microsoft, which has been having difficulty convincing businesses and governments to switch to its newest operating system, Vista, is coming closer to the release of yet a newer operating system. For more than a dozen years now, Microsoft has existed in fear that the computer operating system might become passé, that computing would all be done within a web browser. This fear lead to the development of the Microsoft Web browser, Internet Explorer, which was built into Microsoft's operating system and given away for free.

As Web browsers like FireFox, Safari and Opera make headway into the browser market, browsers which are independent of specific operating systems, running on Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD, and Unix, Microsoft's fears are beginning to be realized.

Crude Hits $110/Barrel; Gasoline $3.25:

Yesterday saw new records in petroleum energy costs. Best guess is that oil will peak around $150 per barrel, with gasoline topping out somewhere between $4.50 and $4.80 per gallon this summer. Diesel fuel, the energy that moves American business, will climb even higher, contributing to the growing economic crisis.


Death of the Internet:

Forecasts are bleak for bandwidth capacity. Within three years, experts are claiming we will be in the same kinds of log jambs that auto commuters face driving back and forth to work unless service providers step up efforts to increase bandwidth. The culprit—video and pictures. YouTube, now owned by Google, is reported to use "as much bandwidth as the entire Internet did in 2000" (Steve Lohr, New York Times). In addition, it has been estimated that at least one out of four people now watch some TV over the Internet.

Your Environment Under Attack:

Today's Washington Post reports on the latest shenanigans by the administration to limit the government's abilities to fight for a cleaner environment:

Administrator Stephen L. Johnson also said he would push Congress to rewrite the nearly 37-year-old Clean Air Act to allow regulators to take into consideration the cost and feasibility of controlling pollution when making decisions about air quality, something that is currently prohibited by the law. In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled that the government needed to base the ozone standard strictly on protecting public health, with no regard to cost.

Just when we all thought the country was moving to work toward a cleaner, safer environment, the current administration is once more attempting to side track efforts in order to pad big business's next quarterly statement.

Three Party Solution:

Since 1968, the U. S. has been flirting with solving its electoral problems with a three party solution. Currently, the Democrats are busy shooting themselves in the foot once again in the same fashion they did so successfully in 1924, 1968, and 1972. This time around, they seem to have found some new wrinkles: Florida and Michigan. Whatever the outcome in determining how delegates for these two states will be alloted, it seems unlikely to satisfy the supporters of the respective candidates, who seem to be about equally divided. No wonder is John "I-wanna-be-Bush" McCain is smiling in the wings.

Speaking of brilliant thinkers: "The march to war hurt the economy. Laura reminded me a while ago that remember what was on the TV screens—she calls me, 'George W.'—'George W.' I call her, 'First Lady.' No, anyway—she said, we said, march to war on our TV screen." — George W. Bush, Bay Shore, New York, March 11, 2004.

On a Personal Note:

My father would have been 90 years old today if he had not died a little less than three months ago. The plan was to have a big family celebration for him. Dad was fond of saying, "You have no idea how bad things can be," while referring to the Great Depression years. The poverty and hardship he experienced then seemed to rank higher than even World War II—he landed at Normandy on the second day of the invasion.

He had a successful marriage of over 62 years, and two children who seemed not to have embarrassed him too much. I can see him now, shaking his head with a big grin on his face and muttering, "Oh, brother!" Happy birthday, Dad.

"History Is Going to Judge Us All":

Bill Delahunt (Dem. MA) is quoted in today's New York Times after Bush's veto of a bill that would limit the C.I.A.'s practice of torturing people, including waterboarding.

In his weekly radio propaganda message, Bush stated that "this is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe.” However, no evidence has ever been released to "prove" that torture has stopped even one terrorist attack of any sort. We only have the administration's assertion that this has occurred.


Eat like an American:

World-wide, food consumption is up, but so is the cost of eating. The world's population is growing, rather than stabilizing. The "Green Revolution" of the 1960s that staved off world-wide starvation is meeting its limits. In addition, people simply want to eat "better."

What does it mean to "eat like an American"? Consider this: in order to produce a pound of beef protein, three pounds of grain protein must be consumed by the head of beef. In other words, in order for you to receive a pound of protein from a steak, the cow that produced it had to eat three pounds of grain protein that a person could have consumed.

Americans don't just eat beef, of course. In fact we eat more chicken than any other kind of meat, but we do eat far more meat, food at the top of the food chain, than is good for us, not to mention necessary.

And world-wide, people are attempting to emulate Americans, resulting in a consumption rate that is exceeding production. Today's New York Times addresses the issue:

“Everyone wants to eat like an American on this globe,” said Daniel W. Basse of the AgResource Company, a Chicago consultancy. “But if they do, we’re going to need another two or three globes to grow it all.”

While inflation in the most prosperous countries, like the United States, is the inevitable result, starvation will be the result among the poorest countries.

Technology:

An "M.I.T. professor, says cellphones offer another way for the Facebook generation to share every life experience the second it unfolds." — Today's New York Times reports in a lengthy article on texting and teens.

One brief account reveals a teen who texts while driving, admitting that he sometimes looks up to realize that he isn't sure where he is or how he got there. Another tells of a daughter, while in Paris with her mother, answers every cell phone message, whether verbal or text, not because her friends want to actually talk about anything, but just to respond that she is in fact in Paris with her mother: "[H]er daughter’s friends didn’t even really want to talk. “'They just want to know where you are,'” Ms. Turkle said. “'It’s a new sensibility.'”

Actually, there isn't much knew about the sensibility, only the technology in use. The basic need that inspires this reaching out to others just at the age when teens are beginning to separate from parents isn't new, just the mechanism for doing it is.

Perhaps the most telling moment in this story comes in the last paragraph, revealing much that is both true of the new technology and probably about the technology that we humans have always invented: “'No one is teaching kids how to use these things,'” [Mr. Hampton] said. “'But in fairness, adults don’t know how to use them, either.'”

All of this particular kind of technology is perfectly suited for teens, who feel compelled to reach out and make contact, to seek acceptance, but to avoid any sort of serious commitment.

Would You Buy a Used Car from This Turkey?

Gail Collins rips on America's favorite drag queen, His Honor da May-errr!, in today's New York Times, pointing out with glee that Rudy's primary concern in protecting America is in protecting Rudy and further pointing out that he doesn't always do such a good job of it, at least not when it comes to hiding his indiscretions (womanizing, associating with known felons) from the press. That seems to happen when you use lots of taxpayer moneys.

Here's a tidbit that you just gotta love:

When he was mayor, he got a whole lot of … [security]. The city was at one point paying for police guards to protect and transport not only Rudy, his children and his elderly mother, but also both his wife and his mistress. Really, they were this close to assigning a detail to the family retriever and a springer spaniel he was courting down the block.

(Gail Collins "Rudy's Security Blanket"1 Dec 07)

And then there's this:

The conflation of the safety of Rudy with the safety of New York reached its peak on 9/11, when the entire public security leadership of the city left ground zero in order to protect the mayor in his walk uptown. [In] … the aftermath, … he tried to postpone the mayoral election under the theory that the factor most critical to our survival was his continued presence at the helm.

(Gail Collins "Rudy's Security Blanket"1 Dec 07)

And we all thought it was Bush who was most likely to suspend the Constitution in order to remain dictator for life.


Technology:

Yes, I finally did it; I downloaded and installed SeaMonkey, Mozilla's successor to the Netscape and Mozilla Web suits. I have to admit that I put it off for a long time, figuring any software with a name that weird must be suitable only for the online gaming crowd. Guess I was just bored one day.

The installation went perfectly, and all my settings were transferred. In short, it runs great, just in case you've a mind to try a slightly different Web experience. The suit includes a browser, editor, RSS feed, chat, and my favorite, a very quick and nimble news reader/email client. All the stuff that I learned to love in Netscape, but never seemed to work right for me in the Mozilla suits.

How Technology Is Used:

Here's one for the books (to coin a phrase): In a recent posting we noted some differences between the generations in how technology is used, responding to an editorial published in a ZifDavis publication. Today's New York Times adds a new wrinkle to the formula. (No one claimed we didn't love a mixed metaphor.)

In Missouri, a 47-year-old mother used a fake MySpace blog to attack a 13-year-old girl, who lived only four houses away, urging the girl to commit suicide, which she did. Currently, it appears, there are no laws to prohibit this, although one would think otherwise.