Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion appeared at the Overture Center this past Saturday. Tune in to the whole show here.
Schneier on Touch Screen Voting
Supporters of touch-screen voting claim it is a highly reliable voting technology, while a growing number of critics argue that paperless electronic voting systems are vulnerable to fraud. In this paper we use county-level data on voting technologies in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections to test whether voting technology affects electoral outcomes. We first show that there is a positive correlation between use of touch-screen voting and the level of electoral support for George Bush. This is true in models that compare the 2000-2004 changes in vote shares between adopting and non-adopting counties within a state, after controlling for income, demographic composition, and other factors. Although small, the effect could have been large enough to influence the final results in some closely contested states.
Is Low Cost WiFi UnAmerican?
We have Big Media to thank for saving Americans from themselves. Just as the notion of affordable broadband for all was beginning to take hold in towns and cities across the country, the patriots at Verizon, Qwest, Comcast, Bell South and SBC Communications have created legislation that will stop the creeping socialism of broadband community Internet before it invades our homes.
Verizon’s Fiber Broadband Pricing (not available here, of course)
5 Mbps down /2 Mbps up = $39 15 Mbps down /2 Mbps up = $49 30 Mbps down /5 Mbps up = $199
Selling to the Department of Homeland Security
Brian Clark takes a look at the opportunities for small businesses in the Department of Homeland Security’s massive $40B budget. I hope some Wisconsin firms are feeding at the trough.
Canadian Oil Sands
Robert Collier visits Alberta’s vast oil sands:
Alberta’s oil sands are destined to be the main supply of foreign oil to the United States for at least the next century. The sands hold proven reserves of 175 billion barrels, second only to Saudi Arabia’s 262 billion, and far more than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s estimated 10 billion.
If Americans want to keep filling their gasoline tanks at a reasonable cost, they will need the oil sands industry to push ahead on its expected path of doubling, tripling and even quadrupling production in coming years.
Nowhere else is the conflict between energy use and ecological cost so stark.
“The oil sands are a big challenge,” Canada’s environment minister, Stephane Dion, who has fought publicly with other Cabinet officials for a tougher line on global warming, said in an interview. “They are sending out a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.
Greenspun on Minivans
Dave bought a new Toyota Sienna minivan and references Philip Greenspun’s wonderful long term article on the minivan culture. Greenspun also correctly points out the terrible economics awaiting minivan buyers.
California Bill Bans RFID in State ID Documents
The bill, which California lawmakers believe is the first of its kind in the nation, would prohibit the use of radio-frequency identification, or RFID, chips in state identity documents such as student badges, driver’s licenses, medical cards and state employee cards. The bill allows for
some exceptions.
RFID, also known as contactless integrated circuits, transmits information wirelessly, allowing scanners to read cards from a distance, typically a few feet. The technology is widely used in building security and inventory-tracking systems, and is being considered for numerous other applications.
The bill, which passed out of the state Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday with a vote of 6 to 1, also would outlaw skimming — which occurs when an unauthorized person with an electronic reading device surreptitiously reads the electronic information on an RFID chip without the knowledge of the person carrying or wearing the chip.
I assume, unfortunately, based on our political leaders initial embrace of the Matrix personal data mining scheme, that we will not be as wise in Wisconsin…
Pepsi’s Interesting Mea Culpa
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The company that Don Kendall built and Roger Enrico grew has an interesting PR problem. |
| Pepsico President Indra Nooyi delivered a controversial commencement speech at Columbia Business School. Pepsi has been backtracking ever since on their corporate website.
I wonder what would have happened to a local truck driver who might have given a similar speech to a High School’s graduating class, or perhaps a mid level manager speaking at a regional business conference? Somehow, I think they would be looking for something else to do. Background on her speech via google. BusinessWeek posted Nooyi’s remarks. Diane Brady refers to Nooyi’s inept analogy. Sugar Water…. |
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Madison Commons Project
Kristian Knutson on the UW Madison J School and Capital Newspapers Project (backed by a $12K grant):
The Madison Commons Project looks promising as a media literacy venture, but there are several questions are raised by its structure. These are asked below the fold.
Rarely do new initiatives result from a top down process. Knutson muses on generating “free content” for the newspaper world.