The Inquisitr » United States

Could the US Border policy impact future world events?

Steven Hodson — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:14:32 +0000

There was a lot of hope for the Olympics to come to Chicago. The President and Mrs. Obama did everything they could to help promote their home town win the bid to win the bid for the next Summer Olympics. However it was all for naught as the winning bid went to Rio de Janeiro and while some might point to the recent increase in violent crime in the city that doesn’t seem likely considering Rio de Janeiro’s crime problems,

That does seem to have been the big drawback to Chicago winning the bid is the United State’s border policies. As it is international travel to the US has dropped by 10 percent with much of the finger pointing as to why centering on the country’s current border policies,

“It’s clear the United States still has a lot of work to do to restore its place as a premier travel destination,” Roger Dow, U.S. Travel’s president, said in the statement released today. “When IOC members are commenting to our President that foreign visitors find traveling to the United States a ‘pretty harrowing experience,’ we need to take seriously the challenge of reforming our entry process to ensure there is a welcome mat to our friends around the world, even as we ensure a secure system.”

Source: In Transit – Chicago’s Loss: Is Passport Control to Blame?

One has to wonder if this is a problem that will only escalate as time goes by and more restrictions end up being put in place.

Revel in your redneckness – The Redneck Games

Steven Hodson — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:45:34 +0000

In what was start as a spoof of the 1996 Summer Olympics the Redneck Games has spread across the national landscape of the United States. The games take place in July and include such things as:

Redneck Idol
Battle of the Bands in Redneck Land
Bobbin’ for Pig’s Feet
Redneck Toilet Seat Horseshoes
Mud Pit Belly Flop

Here’s a few pics to let you know what you are missing.

hat tip to Fresh Pics

Detergent suicide not a clean way to end a life

Steven Hodson — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:23:26 +0000

Last year in Japan authorities noticed a grisly new way to commit suicide was becoming a fad of sorts. Called detergent suicide it involved a technique of mixing common household chemical to produce a deadly hydrogen sulfide gas. This fad apparently has begun to find its way into the United States via the Internet.

In Japan at least 500 men, women and children took their lives in the first half of 2008 after following instructions posted on Japanese websites. The instructions described how to mix bath sulfur with toilet bowl cleaner to create the poisonous gas. One site even included an application to calculate the correct portions of each ingredient base on room volume. As well you could download a PDF file containing ready-made warning signs to alert neighbors and emergency workers of the danger.

It was the death of a 23-year-old California man who was found dead in his car behind a Pasadena shopping center that alerted U.S. officials that this detergent suicide had made its way here. The young man’s car doors were locked, the windows rolled up and a warning sign had been posted in one of the windows.

Then in December emergency workers responded to a call at Lake Allatoona in Barlow County, Georgia to body inside a car. Along with the warning sign in the window they also found two buckets containing a yellow substance. these two events were linked until last month when Dr. Paul Pepe, a Texas surgeon connected the dots and issued an alarm. While in all cases so far the victims left a warning sign of the chemical danger Emergency Managers are worried that someone may not and as a result end up killing other innocent people.

"The normal response for an EMS, is they’re going to break open the window," says August Vernon, assistant coordinator for the Forsyth County Office of Emergency Management, who was consulted by the Department of Homeland Security on the danger this week. "And that’s a pretty normal call: someone unconscious inside the car. Fortunately, those people left notes, which is pretty unusual and a good thing."

"Eventually," he adds, "someone isn’t going to leave a note."

Source: Threat Level

Even in death man’s ingenuity never ceases to amaze.

The White House CTO – Web 2.0 need not apply

Steven Hodson — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:56:00 +0000

The Chief Technology Officer of the United States of America.

Damn that’s a pretty heady title to have hanging around your neck. To be the person responsible of dragging the U.S. government kicking and screaming into the real technology present; and prepared for an ever changing technological future, is a hellva job description to try and fill. This is exactly the position that is going to be up for grabs under an Obama administration and is getting a lot of press from within the tech blogosphere.

When this idea of a White House CTO first started making waves through the tech blogosphere we heard names like Lessig to Winer being proposed to fill the position. Now we hear that Eric Scmidt of Google has stated he wouldn’t be interested in the position if offered it (bullshit) and so the guessing carries on. As interesting as this discussion might be it is all centered around the singular idea that whoever fills the job should be a thinker from the Web 2.0 social networking social media world of the web.

WRONG, wrong, wrong.

This is so many ways from wrong it isn’t even funny but the attitude is a perfect example of the inflated sense of importance that permeates that part of the web. For them everything is about social media and all that other related warm and fuzzy stuff – for them the tech world gravitates around them and their philosophies. Sorry guys but it doesn’t and anyone that thinks so is as narrow minded as the anti-CTO people.

The fact is that the U.S. is losing its place as a leader in the technology fields and it will need a concentrated effort from both government and business to even make it back to the top of the pile let alone take the lead for innovation and excellence. However limiting the filling of what could be one of the more important positions in any White House; now and the road ahead, to someone who might be a shining star in social media but across the broader tech field is a bit player is being extremely short sighted.

Technology isn’t just the Internet and as important as that is it is only a small portion of what a CTO would have to be concerned with. Technology is everything from the hardware to the software to the connectivity (and sharing) of all kinds. It isn’t just limited to making sure everyone in the government has a frikken Facebook page or uses Twitter or writes a blog. For a CTO it is the very infrastructure that all of the government; and citizens, will be using.

Does it work right?

Is it on par with other competing countries around the world?

Does everyone have equal access?

Looking beyond our myopic look at the Internet being the cure for all our ills we need to understand that a CTO cannot; and should not, be solely about that one thing. Dan Farber has a great post today on the subject and provides us with a great list of some of the things that will be a part of any White House CTO’s purview

Protect the Openness of the Internet

Encourage Diversity in Media Ownership

Protect Our Children While Preserving the First Amendment

Safeguard our Right to Privacy

Open Up Government to its Citizens

Bring Government into the 21st Century

Deploy Next-Generation Broadband

Promote American Businesses Abroad

Invest in the Sciences

Invest in University-Based Research

Make the R&D Tax Credit Permanent

Ensure Competitive Markets

Protect American Intellectual Property Abroad

Protect American Intellectual Property at Home

Reform the Patent System

Restore Scientific Integrity to the White House

Make Math and Science Education a National Priority

Improve and Prioritize Science Assessments

Address the Dropout Crisis

Pinpoint College Aid for Math and Science Students

Increase Science and Math Graduates

Lower Health Care Costs by Investing in Electronic Information Technology Systems

Invest in Climate-Friendly Energy Development and Deployment

Modernize Public Safety Networks

Advance the Biomedical Research Field

Advance Stem Cell Research

In the overall view of that list we can see that the Internet is only a part of what needs to be dealt with. As such any person filling that position has to have a broader view of technology than just what the proponents of Web 2.0 and social media would like us to believe. That doesn’t mean that the Internet isn’t important and that it is in dire need of some serious attention but the web is bigger than Web 2.0 or social media regardless of how self-important proponents of the movement like to think. The fact is that the web and its underlying infrastructure in North America; and the U.S. in particular, is in sad shape when compared to the rest of the world.

Alan Patrick from Broadstuff points this out in a post today as well

Work we are doing in understanding the evolution of the Internet implies that one of the biggest drivers of competitiveness going forward will be top class digital logistics. It was ever thus – first class comms have been the hallmarks of great societies from the first Sumerian runners (the SandalNet) onwards.

However, the buildout of the huge pipes in Asia seems to be missing most Western commentators on the Arts Technical except for the odd remembrance. To recap, Korea has built out a very high speed internet system via a combination of government, corporate and consumer collaboration.

Why is this?

Well it boils down to two things in my opinion. The first is a total lack of strong governmental direction and support. I don’t propose that the government take over the whole Internet infrastructure but I do believe that they can strongly suggest to the industries involved that it would be in their best interests to work together and improve what we have. It can do this in many ways that doesn’t require taking ownership. Like Doc Searls says

Regardless of what we do, we must liberate the Net (including the carriers) from telecom reguation. It’s too new, too different, and too important to be shackled by the boat-anchors of the 1934 and 1996 telecom acts — and by addenda to those acts, even if they are meant to improve existing law on behalf of the Net.

Liberating the web from the telecoms doesn’t necessitate taking over the pipes but it does mean that whoever the CTO ends up being they have to have the bite to go along with their bark. We can’t be just instituting another toothless watchdog branch of the government like we have in the past.

This is a job that is far more important than promoting the cause of Web 2.0 and social media. Sure there is no denying that those things are a part of it all but really they are only a small part of a much larger picture – a much larger need. Whoever is tapped to take the position as America’s tech CTO needs to be someone who has a deep understanding of technology as a whole not just a small part of it. They will need to understand how all the different parts of technology need to be brought together in order to return the U.S. to the technological powerhouse it once was.

Equally so business will need to be made to understand that this is something that is more important than the short term shareholder profits. For too long now the technology sector in the U.S. has been treated like a pig trough for everyone to gouge their unsustanable greed out of. In the end it is the people and the country that has paid the price. This is also something that the White House CTO is going to have to deal with and it won’t be happening on some Facebook page or some intern managed blog.

I have no idea who the Obama Administration will be looking to to take on this job but I sure hope that they don’t just rely on the potifications coming out of the tech blogosphere in making their choice.

Mariah Carey Will Be Back on the Big Screen

Meieli Sawyer — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:30:54 +0000

Mariah Carey did not take her Razzie Award for her Glitter performance to heart– she’s going to be back in December in Tennessee. To refresh your memory, this was the film that prompted Mariah to buy out all the economy class tickets on a plane in order to travel. Have her diva ways improved? Probably not, but let’s hope that her acting skills have. Star reports:

Vivendi Entertainment has acquired domestic distribution rights for Mariah’s road trip drama Tennessee, which premiered last spring at the Tribeca Film Festival. The drama is about two money-challenged brothers who take to the road to resolve their economic and health challenges. Along the way they meet a waitress — played by the one and only Mariah — whose dreams of a singing career have been dashed by a bad marriage.

Are you ready for this one? I might dare to see it, since it’s been seven years since Mariah’s Razzie, and I feel like she deserves another chance. Then again, I also love trainwrecks, so I’ll be happy either way.

Justice in this world: grammar nazis get pwnd

Duncan Riley — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:04:03 +0000

Two grammar nazis who traveled the United States correcting typos and grammar on signs have been found guilty on vandalizing Government property.

Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson toured the United States last spring, wiping out errors as they went along. Every time they corrected a sign, they blogged it, and their infamy delivered them mainstream media interviews at the time. Unfortunately for them though they missed the sign that said “Don’t F*&k with the US Government” and decided to correct a historical sign in the Grand Canyon National Park. Thankfully (or unfortunately) some one was reading their blog who knew the sign, and the value it had.

According to reports, Deck and Herson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to vandalize government property and were sentenced to a year’s probation, during which they cannot enter any national park or modify any public signs. They also had to cough up $3,000 to repair the sign.

Proof perhaps that there is true justice in this world.

Will You Miss “The Rock”?

Meieli Sawyer — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:48:08 +0000

It’s official: Dwayne Johnson has retired his nickname, The Rock, and has asked us to do the same. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, he spoke about his comedy career and his new image to goes along with it:

I’m aware of everything that comes with that nickname, and I just think there’s a lot more you can do without it. But I wanted it to happen naturally, from ‘The Rock’ to Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to ‘Dwayne Johnson’ he said in EW.

I’m going to miss calling someone “The Rock.” Can you just give up a nickname like that? A name change always has the potential of going over as well as Katie Holmes’ change to “Kate” in 2006 (horribly), but then again, if anyone besides Tom Cruise is orchestrating it, there’s a much better chance of success.

We All Knew It Was Coming!

Meieli Sawyer — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:15:11 +0000

An oldie but a goodie. . . Janice Dickinson had been featured with a new puppy recently that was most likely her last friend on earth. She’s been bashing people for so long that you’d have a hard time finding a celeb in Janice’s circle who hasn’t been thoroughly tongue-lashed.

But now, just like I thought, Janice Dickinson’s chocolate lab has also had enough, and was reported missing last week by a pet store that actually cared less about her than all of us– they didn’t even take the time to spell her name right.

It looks like she still refused to give out her pup’s name. Oh, well. I just hope that it was found by someone nicer. That’s probably the only dog who realized that love isn’t always unconditional.