iDallas!

Bill Moyers recently received the fourth annual Global Environment Citizen Award from the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School (wow, that’s a mouthful), and in his acceptance essay he paints an interesting and somewhat infuriating and a bit depressing picture of the grip Christian ideas has on today’s America. Go read it now and tell everyone you know!

An interesting article that breaks down the red state/blue state concept we’re all so familiar with into red county/blue county terms. If you’re too short on time to read, it turns out that most blue states are actually predominantly red when viewed by county. Likewise, most red states have some large blue sections. The blue sections turn out to be mostly the major cities. The author then argues that the Democrats need to focus more on ‘urban issues’. It’s worth reading even if you don’t agree with all of the points made. I think there’s some real wisdom in there.

Oh, and by the way, I’m really sick of all these “It’s the [Blank], Stupid” slogans and titles. It wasn’t that funny or insightful the first time.

Liberal intellectual types have begun the hunt for the conspiracy that resulted in Kerry losing to the silly little man we call Bush. I enjoy entertaining these notions that the system is corrupt and Americans as a whole don’t really prefer morals to facts just as much as the next guy, but what’s it really going to change even if it is true? Idealists of today do not push changes through the system. You have to be a realist or a pragmatist or whatever you want to call it. The American world is governed by fear and greed, plain and simple. Reason does not generally come into it. It’s easy to sit here and talk about past events in this abstract nature without proposing any sort of action, and that’s just what I’m going to do. I’m not the guy you should be looking to for suggestions of action, anyway.

Bill Gates seems to think interactivity will save the television industry. He seems to think splitting the television screen and showing text ads on one part and the program itself on the other will make everyone happy. Uh, wot? Like the writer of the linked article, I would be appalled at such a monstrosity. I already have trouble standing most tv programming and the times when I do watch TV, it is generally to NOT make any decisions. I already have to navigate endless ‘interfaces’ just to get through my day now. I don’t want to have to work for my mindless entertainment. I mean, c’mon. Like the article says, only better programming will save television. I feel like there has already been a bit of an improvement in the past few years, perhaps pushed along by HBO, and hopefully the trend will continue.

The FDA has approved an RFID chip designed to be implanted in humans. RFID chips are the things used by major store chains to track inventory electronically… sort of a digital barcode. The chip is intended to be used for medical purposes, and I do see some benefits there, but it sounds like they haven’t put a lot of thought or effort into the privacy issues. There’s some interesting commentary on Ars Technica. Apparently, the Bush administration plans to push for RFID-based passports. Somebody save us from our country, and quick!

A study conducted by the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm has found that the longterm (10 or more years) use of cell phones can dramatically increase the risk of developing a benign tumor on the auditory nerve. If this study is corroborated by more evidence I predict the market for cell phone headsets will grow very quickly.