Big Brother News

Let's face it, when someone pries into your personal life or tries shut you up, you don't like it. Maybe this is something particular to Western societies, what with the long tradition of tolerated dissent (as long as you don't pose an actual threat to the people in charge). Most people who consider the First Amendment to be a good idea are a little afraid of corporations and governments that spend too much time trying to shut down the public exchange of information (see this article about self-serving wikipedia manipulation). That's why there are so many people happy about Karl Rove retiring. In addition to being a political operative whose demagoguery was only outdone by the vice president himself, Karl Rove was an expert at manipulating public opinion and running roughshod over our unalienable rights. There's nothing wrong with PR, mind you. It simply has to be balanced by some kind of ethical code. "Win at all costs" is not an ethical code. Take the various Bush administration wiretapping scandals, for example. It's very hard to violate the basic precepts of constitutional law, lie about it, and be indignant when other countries who state openly that they don't care about privacy at all and actively want to control their population indicate they are going to do the same. I mean, c'mon, China even restricts what's allowed to come up on Google searches (which may end up hurting Google's popularity in the long run). Americans aren't even sure if they like undercover journalists. How did wiretapping get to be okay?

Hot Enough For Ya?

In the wake of the Russia's titanium flag stunt, more information about why the polar icecaps are melting has come to light. A new study says that coal buring in the U.S. earlier this century was a major cause of global warming. Not only because of the carbon release, but also because the increase particulate matter in the air causes climatic change that has also been attributed to affecting the Atlantic hurricane season (or warming in the polar regions). You'll remember debates earlier this summer about using coal to power the U.S. Capitol. Despite new information coming out almost daily about increased global warming, I expect that the naysayers and brown nosers will have their way for some time

Twenty thousand leagues under the melting polar dead zone

In a short-sighted land grab, a couple of Russian scientists planted a titanium flag under the melting polar ice caps. While I would normally laud such an obviously worthwhile endeavor, I find other ocean-based news stories to be more alarming. I mean, sure, a high-stakes legal battle over one of the bigger oil reserves in the world is news, but what about the formation of a huge dead zone off the coast of Oregon or killer squid invading Monterey Bay. While the former isn't yet traced back to global warming and the latter will only result in the disappearence of fish sticks (a long time coming, in my opinion), you can't deny any longer that there will be some serious consequences due to global warming. Even if you aren't in the firing line for the next round of Mother Nature's revenge, I still think it's good that some people are planning ahead.

Data Presentation

For those of you who haven't gotten on the Tufte bandwagon, or don't see why you should, here's why: As people who are presented with an ever-increasing amount of information every day, we have to find a way to make this data orderly and comparable. In my own two fields of study, psychology and public relations, this is painfully apparent. People far too often are experiencing information overload to the point where their ability to make decisions is impaired. This is big stuff. Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize for his work on this subject. This is what Edward Tufte is all about. Below are two examples of his work. Data Analysis for Politics and Policy Power Point is Evil

Sparklines

If you don't know Edward Tufte by now, you should. Read about sparklines here so you can start making better use of your data.

Wii

Nintendo announced the "Wii Zapper" today, essentially a gun-type mount for the current Wii controls. They made this during akeynote address where they touted the fact that the video game market is making much greater inroads with older and female consumers.

They did this at a iPhone-style keynote launch, but with a twist - everyone at E3 gets to try out the Zapper on actual games.

This is a good move that will generate no small amount of press for Nintendo, but overall the games that they announced seemed to be mostly shooters and hack-and-slash games that the Wii isn't really considered the primary platform for. I mean, I'd love to see my girlfriend play Ghost Squad again, but how many other people are looking for that experience? This also sort of undermines the idea that this E3 was the "coming out party" for the video game industry. It is getting greater market penetration with older consumers, but it doesn't appear that Nintendo was going after the older demographics.

They also have invited a couple of blogger-types up to explain how some of their new controllers work.

Furthermore, they talked about the new "Wii Wheel" and online MarioKart play that will be upcoming.

Stay on message

How many times have you seen some blowhard on television go on a ill-advised tirade that blows in up in their face? Well, Michael Moore went on a real doozy of a rant on CNN. However, it looks like he came prepared. What I think made this so effective is that he was prepared for the usual SituationRoom "schtick": Bring a guest on, show them a clip that attacks them or their message in some way, and have Wolf Blitzer follow it up with a few prearranged questions. However, Moore's people briefed him very well on what he was going to be up against. It was probably made easier by the fact that the "attack" segment had aired several times earlier during the week. Kudos for taking the time to review that segment ahead of time.