NASA can hear you talking to yourself

I really liked Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. I thought the science fiction was compelling and original. And now, come to find out, Doctorow was right on the money with his tech the whole time!

It appears that NASA has discovered a way to actually record sub-vocalization — talking to yourself. According to Gizmodo, they want to use it to control rovers and such. Me, on the other hand? I want to use it to talk to the dead.

NASA Develops Subvocal Speech Detection

ARIA Sweeping Results

Here’s a little something from journalist Peter Martin down under on the latest trending in CD sales in Australia. P2P a sales tool? Naaah…

Forget the spin! It’s a record record

Cowblogging

I find this immensely amusing.

In an episode that shows both the promise and peril of a corporate embrace of blogging, Richards helped Dr. Pepper/Seven Up run a blogcentric campaign last spring for its new milk-based drink, Raging Cow. It started a blog for the cow–”the cow had his own site,” says director of corporate communications Mike Martin (who’s a little fuzzy on bovine anatomy). Then it screened hundreds of young bloggers to find a suitable group to help promote the drink. Dr. Pepper flew the five winners and their parents to Dallas to try the product and gave them several hundred dollars in Amazon gift certificates.

While Martin says the campaign was a success, it provoked an angry backlash in the blog world, where the relationship between the company and the blogs was seen as crassly commercial and poorly disclosed. “A case of crude corporate cluelessness,” wrote one widely read pundit and law professor. Todd Copilevitz, director of interactive strategy at Richards, admits the company should have had the bloggers repeat disclosures more often.

This, from an article on the ever-blurring line between blogging-as-teen-journal and blogging-as-commercial-outreach on FastCompany that does a great job of innitiating those new to blogging on the dangers and opportunities therein.

One of the issues I find most intriguing from an advertising and public relations perspective is the meta-ad. Blogs may be great for corporations to decrease costs and increase what they’re saying is communication with their customers, but as Curt’s said time and time again, blogs are tragically under-equipped to handle discussions, which may pose a challenge when the hype dries up. Are these blogs really successful at communicating with customers, thus driving support for the organization? Or is the support there simply because the organization has jumped on the weblog bandwagon?

Jews and Tempo

As a rule, I think the Jewish people have a problem with tempo. I swear, every single Jewish tune I hear starts slow, and gets so fast you can’t see straight. What is the deal here — can’t these people count?

In other news, Kira and I grew up with the Klines… a Jewish family with a particularly enthusiastic case of tempo. Now, the younger sister Shira is selling it on the open market! This is very, very cool kids music for all occasions.

All occasions that happen to be Jewish.

Way to go Shira! You are AWESOME!

Shirlala.com

Dean on “Meet the Press”

This is a damned important distinction:

MR. RUSSERT: But you yourself believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

DR. DEAN: I did, because the president told us. And I’m inclined to believe presidents in most circumstances. I think most Americans, Democrats or Republicans, ought to believe the president of the United States when he does something as serious as send us to war.

Whatever your position on the war and the justification behind pursing such, this very point is another leading indicator in the unravelling of public trust in the presidency by the left. Those in the 45% approving of the Bush administration’s actions may not be so affected, but those on the other side have been pushed one more inch. Because in their hearts and minds, it’s not as safe today as it was yesterday to trust the words of our leader.

This, in my view, will be Kerry’s biggest hurdle. How do you tell a populace that you’re the guy to follow when every prior leader in the past 25 years has been, in some fashion or another, accomplice in the degradation of The American Presidency, one right after another?