Not A Mystery

Full disclosure right off the bat: I’m a total Google Fan-Boy, even though in my case the term “boy” stopped being appropriate over 50 years ago.

Nevertheless.

I’ve talked before about how Google changed my life, and the life of virtually everyone else on this planet, by ‘organizing the world’s information’ and making it available. But when you have huge changes you also have large unintended consequences.

One of those is the fact of too much information (about ourselves) becoming publicly available. If you have more of your life behind you than ahead of you it’s not as bad as if you have most of your life still to come.

Eric Schmidt, CEO And Resident Adult At Google

So at first blush, Eric Schmidt’s offhand prediction last week seemed a stroke of brilliance.

He predicts, apparently seriously, that every young person one day will be entitled automatically to change his or her name on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites.

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It’s a nice try Eric, but this genie’s already out of the bottle.

Way out.

To me it sounds like Schmidt’s got some bright anthropologists on retainer and is proposing that some sort of digital walkabout for our young people will make the problem go away. But the real point is that this is an issue for everyone, not just our kids.

Spend a few minutes actually thinking about his idea and you quickly come to realize how out of control things have become for most normal (non-geek) people. This new reality can be good or bad, depending on your perspective.

“I actually think most people don’t want Google to answer their questions,” he elaborates. “They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next.”

Let’s say you’re walking down the street. Because of the info Google has collected about you, “we know roughly who you are, roughly what you care about, roughly who your friends are.” Google also knows, to within a foot, where you are … If you need milk and there’s a place nearby to get milk, Google will remind you to get milk. It will tell you a store ahead has a collection of horse-racing posters, that a 19th-century murder you’ve been reading about took place on the next block.

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Meanwhile, our future is undoubtedly known to those same anthropologists whispering in Schmidt’s ear.  It’s that we will all have to adapt. And, some of us will be better able to adapt than others. You can run, but you can’t hide.

Once again, winners and losers.

In my own case, I’m lovin’ it.

And I have only one word for the rest of you…

Just One Word

Encryption.

Ah, the immigration debate ramps up again.

It shouldn’t take a Rocket Scientist to figure out, that by definition, enforcement requires a way to distinguish between the legals and illegals.

Common sense should tell you that the only way to do that on a day-to-day basis is with a National Identity Card authenticated by some form of biometric technology.

Unfortunately we have politicians who don’t agree.

The [reform] blueprint, written primarily by Mr. Schumer, includes a proposal for a Social Security card containing a biometric chip that all workers, including American citizens, would have to present to an employer when being hired.

Conservatives, while supporting stronger enforcement, have long opposed national identity cards, or making the Social Security card a de facto one.

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When they are not blocking legislation, they can listen to Fairy Tales to pass the time. It’s a nice world they live in,  where anyone can just look around and pick out the illegal immigrants.

We Don't Need Secure ID's In Our Fantasy World

And go to Arizona when it’s time for their R & R.

I have an acquaintance  in the packaging industry whose products utilize a super-strong cardboard. You can stand automobiles on boxes made of his cardboard; we are talking here about serious robustness.

Their shipping containers are  used to transport auto engines and heavy machinery.

Sit in your car, raise your hand up to touch the ‘head-liner’ on the inside of the roof, and you are probably touching another of their products.

Because their business was dependent on the (cyclical) auto industry, my acquaintance decided to look into other applications for their product that would be less cyclical.

He came up with the idea of making coffins for people who were planning to be cremated.

Brilliantly non-cyclical.

This was many years ago, and people were still purchasing expensive conventional caskets for their departed relatives despite the fact that they were going to be cremated, casket and all.

Unfortunately (at that time) the funeral industry was not receptive to new, cost-saving, ideas. And it’s not like consumers were demanding cardboard caskets.

His idea died a quiet death.

But times have changed. Cardboard is the New Green.

Google ‘Cardboard Caskets’ if you don’t believe me.

With Better Timing, It Could Have Been 'From Roads To Riches'

Next will be promotions that include casket offsets for people attending the funeral.

And remember, timing is everything.

My father’s name was Jack.

When I hear someone say “You don’t know Jack”, I think of him.

This coming Saturday, HBO will air a film starring Al Pacino titled, “You Don’t Know Jack”. But it’s not about my dad, it’s the story of Dr. Jack Kervorkian and the end-of-life debate.

Last week Anderson Cooper interviewed the real Dr. Death, as he’s famously called by the media. It’s a fascinating interview, and indeed I don’t know this Jack at all. There were also several clips of Pacino in what looks to be an amazing performance.

You Really Don't Know This Jack

Cooper, who’s already seen the film, said “No matter what side of the debate you are on, this film is worth watching.”

If I had a TV, this would be at the top of my list.

Al Pacino As Dr. Jack Kervorkian

In the meantime I’m waiting for the DVD.

You don’t need to wait.

Close on the hooves of our Skinny Cow report comes further bovine news from Wall Street, which we’ll put under the category of Fatted Calves.

Fatted calf is a metaphor or symbol of festive celebration and rejoicing for someone’s long-awaited return. It derives from the parable of the prodigal son in the New Testament. In biblical times, people would often keep at least one piece of livestock that was fed a special diet to fatten it up, thus making it more flavorful when prepared as a meal. Slaughtering this livestock was to be done on rare and special occasions. Thus when the prodigal son returns, the father “kills the fatted calf” to show that the celebration is out of the ordinary.

The CDO's May Be Synthetic, But The Meat Tastes Great

Yesterday we learned that Goldman Sachs and John Paulson are accused by the SEC of fattening up a bunch of clueless investors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Goldman Sachs for securities fraud on Friday, charging the bank with creating and selling mortgage-backed securities that were designed to fail.

According to the complaint, Goldman let John Paulson, a prominent hedge fund manager, select mortgage bonds that he wanted to bet against because they were most likely to lose value and packaged those bonds into the “Abacus” investments, which were sold to investors like pension funds. As those securities plunged in value, Goldman and the Paulson hedge fund made money on their negative bets, while the Goldman clients who bought the investments lost billions of dollars.

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Strangely, this whole episode came to light not thru regulatory oversight, but from a recently published book on the financial meltdown “The Greatest Trade Ever“ by Gregory Zuckerman.

Unfortunately, even though the regulators are now on the case, they have come after the gourmets with civil instead of criminal charges.

We’ll take whatever we can get, “Cin cin”.

As far as I’m concerned, all babies look like Winston Churchill.

"Never Was So Much Owed By So Many To So Few"

I’ve never thought of babies as contributing members of society. But now that’s changed.

Parents aren’t just raising adorable kids. They are also producing little human capital units that are likely to grow up, get jobs, pay taxes and raise little human capital units of their own.

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But wait, it gets better.

Turns out that the parents of the capital unit pay lower taxes compared to their childless peers because of the peculiarities of our tax system. However, this is more than made up for by the taxes paid by their kids (capital units) as they grow up and go to work.

So we “breeders” can hold our heads high, knowing we are contributing more to society than everyone else; while our kids are actually moving the freight.

Which, if you think about it, could be a bigger Ponzi Scheme than ObamaCare.

Who wants to tell the Conservatives?

[Note: if you want compare real leadership to "no you can't" statements, click here for Churchill.]

Hard as it may be to believe, I had never heard of David Blaine before today.

Well, I had seen some of his stunts reported in the press, but didn’t have a name or personality to go with the news stories.

But now I do.

Blaine talked about endurance at the TedMed conference that was held a few months ago.

Click Here To See What An Endurance Artist Does For Fun

You can find out what an Endurance Artist is by watching his talk at the TedMed conference that was held a few months ago, but just made available to the general public this week.

Amazing is all I can say. He received a standing ovation, so I’m not alone in my evaluation.

Keep in mind that his lecture goes for exactly the same time that he held his breath.

Question: What has Big Auto learned from Big Tobacco?

Answer: Nothing.

We now know that Big Tobacco knew of the addictive and harmful medical properties of cigarettes for years but kept that knowledge secret, while publicly denying the facts. That story didn’t have a happy ending for either the Tobacco Industry or their customers. The only group that came out a winner were the Trial Lawyers.

Cut to the present. We find the Auto Industry on the verge of introducing a range of new products that will no doubt cause serious injury and death to many of their customers. To say nothing of innocent bystanders (can you say ‘second hand smoke’). Meanwhile they are taking a public position claiming the exact opposite; improved safety.

This week at The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas the New York Times reports that

… to the dismay of safety advocates already worried about driver distraction, automakers and high-tech companies have found a new place to put sophisticated Internet-connected computers: the front seat …

Sir, Please Keep Your Hands On The Wheel, Where I Can See Them

Some people in the auto industry are publicly claiming that they can design complex interactive systems for the automobile so well that safety will actually be improved. While driving, you’ll be able to look up restaurants at your destination, get a stock quote, catch up on email, and even (so help me) tweet your latest thoughts. All without “taking your hands off the wheel”.

If you have some free time you can watch a video interview with Alan Mulally the CEO of Ford Motor Co. discussing these new systems. Before taking over the reins at Ford, Mr. Mullaly was CEO of the Boeing Company where he began his career as an engineer and helped design the avionics in virtually all of Boeing’s commercial jetliners.

Click to Watch Interview With Alan Mulally

Here are some Alan Mulally quotes from that interview:

I really believe that just like in the airplanes, by organizing the information and making it so intuitive and so simple … we are actually increasing the safety, and reducing the distractions.

[On the subject of Heads-Up Displays] … we’re finding out that if you put the information Heads-Down and really simple … that you get 90% of the benefit and it’s better than going Heads-Up and [then] Heads-Down.

The industry believes that the differences between a [highly trained] pilot/cockpit system and an [untrained] driver/dashboard system can be overcome with good engineering and lots of technology. It’s also clear that they are doing significant human factors research to support that assertion. But, inevitably they will have reams of data showing that much of the time that’s not good enough.  Even with both of your hands on the wheel.

And if you believe that just by keeping your hands on the wheel those activities are rendered safe, you must also believe that Pigs Can Fly while they talk on their iPhones.

There Really Is No App For That

To me this sounds like the Big Tobacco story all over again; so come back in 10 years or so after the class action suits have begun and the Attorney Generals are wading thru all that (subpoenaed) human factors data and doing statistical analysis on accident reports.

Where oh where can I buy stock in the Trial Lawyers?

These days there’s no shortage of opinion regarding the size and role of government.

But one thing everyone can agree on; corruption has no place in any government.

In the USA we are lucky in this regard, but many (usually poor) people in developing countries don’t have that luxury.

I’m not talking about the stupidity of an elected official flying to Argentina on taxpayer’s money to visit his soul-mate. I’m talking about people having to pay local officials just to get business permits, drivers licenses, and even having a sick child be admitted to a hospital.

The World Bank has estimated that $1 Trillion are paid in bribes around the world every year.

But what can be done?

Shaffi Mather is a successful young [Indian] entrepreneur, whose goal is fighting the business of corruption in public service, eliminating it one bribe at a time.

And he plans to do it in a totally capitalistic way. It turns out there is a lot of gross margin to be made when you are operating in a $1 Trillion market.

Click On This Image To Watch Shaffi's TED 12 Minute Talk

You can watch Shaffi describe his idea in a 12 minute talk at the TED Conference in Mysore, India which he delivered last month.

In the lecture he begins by describing 298 for Ambulance a for-profit emergency medical service he founded. It operates on a sliding scale payment system that has revolutionized medical transport in Mumbai and Kerala and it is self funded.

That amazing success lends credibility to his even more exciting anti-corruption idea.

If you are like me you will stand up and applaud at the end of the video.

I guarantee it.

I thought that “The End of The World as We Know It” had already taken place earlier this year. And I was right of course, but for the wrong reason.

Silly me.

“Googled” by Ken Auletta, does describe the end of the world as we know it. But it’s not a financial meltdown, it’s a media meltdown.

And because you can get the book in both Kindle and Audible formats in a matter of seconds, I’m recommending it as a Procrastinator’s Delight for a really last minute Holiday Gift.

Much More Than A Verb

From Publisher’s Weekly:

Two Googles emerge in this savvy profile of the Internet search octopus. The first is the actual company, with its mixture of business acumen and naïve idealism … its brilliant engineering feats and grad-students-at-play company culture; its geek founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page … The second Google is a monstrous metaphor for all the creative destruction that the Internet has wrought on the crumbling titans of old media, who find themselves desperately wondering how they will make money off of news, music, video and books now that people can Google up all these things without paying a dime …

It’s been a while since I read a great ‘behind-the-scenes’ look at the birth of a technology company. But this is not just any tech company.  Google has in many ways changed our reality. And no, I don’t think I’m exaggerating.

Consider for a second what Google has put at our fingertips, under the seemingly simple term: Search. You can ask virtually any question on virtually any topic and have an answer in a few seconds. You can enter an address in most parts of the US and many parts of Europe and within seconds have a satellite map of the street, and then a view from a car driving down that street. You can, or soon will be able, to search virtually every book that’s ever been written. You can type a page in one language and have it instantly translated into another language.

‘Search’ really is organizing all the world’s information and making it available.

We take it for granted, but the implications of Search are staggering when you think about it. Some have derided Google because ‘all they can do is search’. That misses the point entirely.

Before Google search platforms were not automated. They could never have kept up with the growth in the web. Before Google search results were bought and paid for by advertisers. Google did away with that and made the results as ‘unbiased’ as possible.

[Before I read the book I thought that Google Page Rank was named after an algorithm that ranked a website on how often the pages were referenced. That was partly true, but in fact the 'Page' in the term was just taken from Larry Page's name, since he came up with the algorithm.]

“Googled” gives you the real back-story on Search and Google’s mind-set. Until recently the company pretty much flew under the radar. But that’s changing, and Google are now under tremendous scrutiny around the world by governments and a variety of business interests. This book will help you understand the thinking both at Google and their adversaries on any number of important issues. And these issues effect all of us.

But in fact “Googled” is even more about a change in the media landscape that is unfolding, and will continue to unfold for many years to come. It’s how we get our news, our entertainment, and communicate with other people. Business and cultural models that have been around for a hundred years are collapsing. That’s what’s perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book for me.

In a way the world is choosing up sides, and Googled helps explain the coin toss.

So did you want to Kick or Receive?

Since the Great Recession started in 2008 the Brits have been at the leading edge of economic engineering. For a while it looked like Gordon Brown was going to get a Nobel Prize in economics, but he peaked too soon.

No matter, there’s a second chance for Gordon and it looks promising.  In that popular phrase often used by London newspapers, NotAMystery “can now reveal” Gordon’s plan.

Part one of the plan was leaked several weeks ago, when the Telegraph reported a new government plan to incentivize recycling:

People will accumulate points for the household waste they recycle and be able to use the points to claim up to £130 a year in vouchers from major retailers like Marks & Spencer and Tesco.

In The USA We'd Call It "Bucks For Bags"

Part two of the plan came clear just two days ago with reports that the UK Treasury is preparing to tax bank bonuses:

Alistair Darling is drawing up plans to face down the country’s top bankers by taking the “nuclear option” of a windfall tax on their bumper bonuses as part of measures aimed at the super-rich.

So there you have it. A tax on the bankers who rubbished the world economy used to finance a rubbish cleanup we can believe in.

If only Robin Hood were around to administer the plan.

Better Than Pitchforks?

After all, he was a Brit too.

Note for accuracy: The “Bucks for Bags” program originated with the Tories, but we are confident Gordon can push them off the front pages and capture the moral high ground.