While you watch this expose on TX state legislkature members entering votews for each other, you might have an overpowering and debilitating feeling of cynicism. Then again, you might also not live in TX, so you can relax.

I ask: Does journalism hit any harder than CBS 42 news? I think not. Thanks to co-worker AC.

YouTube - Texas Legislation.

Apparently, NYC has a choice with what to do with its garbage: ladfill or incinerator.  You might have known that already.  But did you know that some people actually favor incinerator?  I couldn;t believe this either, but apparently incinerating is the new recycling- all via "waste to energy" plants.

Link: 12,000 Tons a Day, and What to Do With It - City Room - Metro - New York Times Blog.

A poster promoting a screening of the new HBO documentary "Alive Day Memories" is being viewed by some as advertising for HBO on a public building, and by the library as and advertisement for an event- public information.    A copy is being donated to the library and will be available to library patrons.

Are we so unwilling to believe it could be both information AND smart advertising?

At the Library, Useful Information, or an HBO Ad? - City Room - Metro - New York Times Blog.

Apparently an enormous nuclear reactor in Japan was damaged in a recent earthquake, and is now on fire and leaking radioactive water.  This can only mean one thing- we are about to be invaded by Dimension X, and when the evil Shredder attacks, we'll know where to look so as not to cut him any slack!

So, apparently the roof of the office building my sister works in is on fire [1010wins.com]...she ok and is even joking about all the firemen and news media hanging around.  I'm watching Chopper 4 from my desk and I can see the flames from my office.  Ah, the connected world

CNN is reporting that Wal-Mart will open 400 in-store medical clinics within 3 years and that a survey indicated to Wal-Mart that uninsured Americans would go get routine medical treatments if they had a much better idea of how much the care would cost.   Perhaps Wal-Mart asked some of their 700,000 uninsured employees about that.

I was just thinking about the Don Imus firestorm and all of the people who are dirtecting their resposnes right back at the african american music community, which does plenty of references to "hos" and their hairdos, and certainly regulartly profits from doing so. 

Is this what we are about now?  If this ushers in a new wave of censorship of any kind of media, whatever the race of the performer, we all lose.  More to follow as my mind wraps around this.  See also books by George Orwell.

I read on Slashdot last night that everyone's favorite Korea (sarcasm) conducted a nuclear test.  This is bad.  Mulling this over as I read the NYTimes story this morning, and also Paul Kedrosky's post on the subject, I was thinking that Paul is right in that we should all wonder why a nation as poor as NK would do such a thing.

On the one hand I am reminded of my international relations course, where we looked at  foreign policy scholars who wrote that most of the "crazy dictators" are unwilling to deploy nuclear weapons- their "craziness" render them unaware of realist perceptions of the strategic consequences of their actions.  Rogue states are ultimately realists.    So, we're probably not going to see NK start a war tomorrow.

NK's economy is weak.  Very weak.  Additional sanctions will not help to create a job base or jump-start manufacturing for export, and those seem fairly likely.  However, I would guess that NK doesn't care about this because the sanctions don;t affect their standing in high-margin markets like counterfeit currency, nuclear fuel, arms, and technology markets.  That the profits from such deals never reaches the people is relevant, but only to illustrate that Kim Jong Il is concerned with the survival of his regime. 

This is like a press release or a launch party (forgive the terminology) for an expansioon of product lines.  It seems to me that those countries labeled by the Bush Admionsytration as an "Axis of Evil" have more to gain by harnessing the power of that image than they do from attempts to reconcile with the west.  We've seen this in Iran/Lebanon and Iraq.

I'm no expert, but from an economic perspective it seems like the object of the PR is more to increase demand for its illegitimate commercial dealings than anything else.

Dave Farber's IP list  had an interesting post about the list of prohibited items now appearing on the TSA web site.  KY Jelly is explicitly authorized. 

I wondered what was on the list, and surfed to the TSA's page for "Law Enforcement Officials Traveling Armed."

Excerpt:

Our Office of Law Enforcement / Federal Air Marshal Service would like to remind officers and agents not to transport prohibited items through security checkpoints or onboard aircraft while traveling armed.  Regulations surrounding prohibited carry-on items such as lighters, stun gun devices, replicas of firearms and knives are covered in the training material, as well as information regarding security checkpoint procedures. Particular attention should be given to the prohibition against carrying hazardous materials, such as pepper spray or mace, in carry-on bags.  For more information read our prohibited items section.

So, a gun, but no liquids, lighters, or lip gloss?  Does the TSA worry that a <bad guy> will overpower an Air Marshall, steal the aerosol deodorant from his carry-on, and take over the plane?

Last week, Morgan Spurlock's show 30 Days featured the story of an American IT worker whose job was outsourced to Bangalore.   (the show is on the same premise as Spurlock's Documentary, "Super Size Me" - what if you did <uncomfortable thing> for 30 days?)  The IT worker in question moved to Bangalore for 30 days to see what kind of job he could get.  He got a job not as a programmer but as an operator in a call center.

The show is, in general, very well done and also highly original and thought provoking. 

Today, GigaOm has an  interesting note about Bangalore wanting to be the next city with a wifi cloud.  Last week's episode of 30 Days showed that there are still many many extremely poor areas of Bangalore, that the city is prone to riots and violence- not every day, but if the city can be held hostage by violent mobs when a movie star dies, things are not swell and dandy...

It seems to me that Bangalore has two very different sets of issues requiring attention: creating a nexus of competitive advantage to serve the world's economies highly efficiently, and the jagged divide between its own middle class and the ultra-poor citizens living nearby. 

I'm not usually one to proselytize about poverty, but it used to be pollution that we were exporting.  Now it's jobs and the stratification of societies?