Media, Technology, National Security, and more.

Project Censored

2007-05-27T13:57:00.001-10:00

It's been ages since I've blogged. I'm going to try to repair that. Lots going on, my current research is on real-time distribution of p2p video. I obviously can't write on that, but I can write on my explorations and readings. That's coming soon. As well as some of my research on Systems Science.

Project Censored - Every year they post what they believe to be the most important overlooked stories of the year, and like all years, this one is great. It's unfortunate that it's so long, that I can't talk myself into violating their copyright. Three of what I consider the more important stories are:

1. Hunger and Poverty are on the increase in the US. This is what governments are for, why is it increasing? Why are we an exporter of food when this is going on? Obviously, my social philosophy (at this point in time), is based on what I understand to be the Star Trek ideal. A person's basic right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should include, a RIGHT to food, shelter, health care, and school. They don't have to be "equal", but it should be a social safety net. I believe everyone should consider this important, even if it's just for the selfish reasons to not create populations to "culture" diseases like TB.

2. Halliburton is building huge detention centers in the US. Many think they are for dealing with immigrants, but many states are declaring those who protest to be terrorists. Argh! Not to mention that the VPotUS is still making huge gains on his stock, and that a subsidiary sold nuclear tech to Iran.

3. Physicists challenge to 9/11 convenient destruction. WTC 7 housed many Federal Government offices. Including many of the financial records on Enron. Probably too late to get a better investigation, but it does seem like the Reichstag fire (Look it up) to me.

Tribe Reboot

2006-09-24T23:46:00.000-10:00

Logged on to Tribe.net this evening to find that they've rebooted. New management, smaller staff, Orange logo is back, cleaner UI. Hopefully, they'll get rid of censorship. They may have already.

Really good news!

Free energy?

2006-09-16T09:50:00.000-10:00

The Christian Science Monitor has two good articles on renewable energy. One on the govenerment's defunding of Geothermal and Hydro and another on the start of Ocean Power.

It's odd, Hydro is abundant throughout the North Americaian continent, but new technologies are making it safer for fish and the environment. Seems like a good area for research. I guess they just think that they can roll over environmentalists.

I've never seen a Geothermal plant that survived. Here in Hawaii, Pele seems to take them out for fun. That said, it seems to have lots of potential, don't understand why it's not funded.

Ocean waves on the other hand seem like a cool technology. They don't disturb fisheries, and may actually create areas where fish can live w/o being fished, and by default, help us restock the fisheries.

I wonder, however, if the Pelamis (the link at top) will be just a steping stone in the process. It's huge, on the surface (semi-submerged). I wonder how Whales will play with them? The 2nd article suggests that they will be installed in Oregon, I'll be following that to see if the Whales will play with them there.

Here on Maui, about 60% of the diesel fuel is used for creating power for the island. There's a bit of wind that gives us about 6%, and some sugar burning that gives us another 5-6%. The rest is diesel. Seems odd to ship oil from Alaska to Honolulu to be refined and then shipped to Maui. All the shipping burning diesel as well.

There is hope however, I attended a talk a few months ago about Pacific Biodiesel's efforts. One project they were trying to make happen was to grow sunflowers here on Maui, convert it to Biodiesel and have MECO (our electric provider) purchase it for the big generators. Seems like a quick and relativly cost efficent way to sustainability. I've always wondered how to motivate entrenched utilities (or any entities) to reinvest before the lifetime of there existing equipment had expired. Here's a way that doesn't require it. Wow! What a great idea – I hope it happens!

So much to write about, so little time.

2006-08-15T09:04:00.000-10:00

Aloha, I had a hard disk crash that I'm still recovering from. It's likely that everything I've added in the last year will have been lost. I'll get back to writing soon.

A New Wrinkle in Hybrids Does Away With Batteries - New York Times

2006-07-09T10:26:00.000-10:00

A New Wrinkle in Hybrids Does Away With Batteries: prototype hybrid system using hydraulic fluid and a high-pressure pump instead of electrical current and a generator. In this design, energy is stored in a series of pressurized tanks, rather than in nickel-metal hydride or lithium-ion batteries; the energy moves not as high voltage current in copper wires but as hydraulic fluid pressurized to thousands of pounds per square inch.

What a great idea!

Beyond Genetically Modified Crops

2006-07-04T09:07:00.000-10:00

Beyond Genetically Modified Crops:
By Jeremy Rifkin
Tuesday, July 4, 2006; A15

For years the life science companies -- Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Pioneer Hi-Bred, etc. -- have argued that genetically modified food is the next great scientific and technological revolution in agriculture and the only efficient and cheap way to feed a growing population in a shrinking world. Nongovernmental organizations, including my own, the Foundation on Economic Trends, have been cast as the villains in this unfolding agricultural drama, and often categorized as modern versions of the English Luddites, accused of continually blocking scientific and technological progress because of our opposition to genetically modified food.

Now, in an ironic twist, new, cutting-edge technologies have made gene splicing and transgenic crops obsolete and a serious impediment to scientific progress.

The new frontier is called genomics, and the new agricultural technology is called marker-assisted selection, or MAS. This technology offers a sophisticated method to greatly accelerate classical breeding. A growing number of scientists believe that MAS -- which is already being introduced into the market -- will eventually replace genetically modified food. Moreover, environmental organizations that have long opposed genetically modified crops are guardedly supportive of MAS technology.

Rapidly accumulating information about crop genomes is allowing scientists to identify genes associated with traits such as yield, and then to scan "crop relatives" for the presence of those genes. Instead of using molecular splicing techniques to transfer a gene from an unrelated species into the genome of a food crop to increase yield, strengthen resistance to pests or improve nutrition, scientists are using MAS to locate desired traits in other varieties of a particular food crop, or its relatives that grow in the wild. Then they cross-breed those related plants with the existing commercial varieties to improve the crop.

With MAS, the breeding of new varieties always remain within a species, thus greatly reducing the risk of environmental harm and potential adverse health effects associated with genetically modified crops. Using MAS, researchers can upgrade classical breeding and reduce by 50 percent or more the time needed to develop new plant varieties by pinpointing appropriate plant partners at the gamete or seedling stage.

While MAS is emerging as a promising new agricultural technology with broad application, the limits of transgenic technology are becoming increasingly apparent. Most of the transgenic crops introduced into the fields express only two traits -- resistance to pests and compatibility with herbicides -- and rely on the expression of a single gene. This is hardly the far-reaching agricultural revolution touted by the life science companies at the beginning of the era of genetically modified crops.

Of course, marker-assisted selection researchers emphasize that there is still much work to be done in understanding the choreography -- for example, between single genetic markers and complex genetic clusters and environmental factors, all of which interact to affect the development of the plant and produce desirable outcomes, such as improved yield and drought resistance.

So, of course, a word of caution is in order. It should be noted that MAS is of value to the extent that it is used as part of a broader, agro-ecological approach to farming, one that integrates introduction of new crops with a proper regard for all the other environmental, economic and social factors that together determine the sustainability of farming.

The wrinkle here is that the continued introduction of genetically modified crops could contaminate existing plant varieties, making the new MAS technology more difficult to use. A 2004 survey conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that non-genetically modified seeds from three of America's major agricultural crops -- corn, soybeans and canola -- were already "pervasively contaminated with low levels of DNA sequences originating in genetically engineered varieties of these crops." Cleaning up contaminated genetic programs could prove to be as troublesome and expensive in the future as cleaning up the viruses that invade software programs.

As MAS technology becomes cheaper and easier to use, and as knowledge in genomics becomes more dispersed and easily available over the next decade, plant breeders around the world will be able to exchange information about "best practices" and democratize the technology. Already, plant breeders are talking about "open source" genomics, envisioning the sharing of genes. The struggle between a younger generation of sustainable agriculture enthusiasts anxious to share genetic information and entrenched company scientists determined to maintain control over the world's seed stocks through patent protection is likely to be hard-fought, especially in the developing world.

If properly used as part of a much larger systemic and holistic approach to sustainable agricultural development, MAS technology could be the right technology at the right time in history.

Jeremy Rifkin is the author of "The Biotech Century" and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

I normally like to quote articles, but I think this is important.

Videos from TED 2006

2006-07-03T14:24:00.000-10:00

BMW has kindly hosted the video of the "TED" talks. (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Each talk is at most 18 minutes, and well worth watching.

I could point you at Al Gore's talk which is in a sense a follow up to his Movie, or I could point you at Tony Robbins talk which has gotten a lot of press, 'caus he explains to Al that he needed more passion (in addition to the Supreme Court).

Hans Rosling also has a great talk about Health and public statistics, and how the world has grown over the last 50 years. New ways to present information and educate.

But I suggest starting with Majora Carter, who is working to improve her community (the South Bronx) in very interesting ways. We need more like her.

The rest of the talks .

Copernicus on LEONARD COHEN: I'M YOUR MAN!

2006-07-03T07:36:00.000-10:00

Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.: Leonard Cohen is a total badass. Here's a guy that uber-rockstar and humanitarian-in-chief Bono looks up to. He's a zen Buddhist monk. He's faced down Phil Spector at gunpoint. Janis Joplin used to blow him. He's a poet, a novelist, a songwriter, and a singer.

His songs have been featured in countless movies, from Shrek to Natural Born Killers. Occasionally his music sets the tone of a film so perfectly that the movies would be unimaginable without them – Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller is the best example.

I wrote about this movie, and the writing was fairly lame, If I could write, I'd love to be able to write like this, here a great review of a good movie about one of the best singer / songwriters around!

Could coffee protect your liver against alcohol?

2006-06-15T09:07:00.000-10:00

Could coffee protect your liver against alcohol?: Drinking coffee may shield the liver from the worst ravages of alcohol, a study of more than 125,000 people suggests. The risk of developing alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver dropped with each cup of coffee they drank per day.

Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man

2006-06-15T02:10:00.000-10:00

I own at least one Leonard Cohen album, "The Future". But I really knew nothing more than, he has a great deep voice, and his poetry is unique, crisp, and penetrating. Really, I first heard him on the Soprano's and in the movie "Natural Born Killers".

This evening's second film for the opening of the Maui Film Festival, was "Leonard Cohen I'm your Man", a bit biography, a bit of a tribute, and quite a bit fascinating.

Rufus Wainwright, Bono and others participate in a cool tribute to the man. Rufus and family (as well as many others) cover Cohen's songs in very interesting ways.

I never knew that Leonard was a ordained Buddhist monk. Or, that he was a folk singer who was well known. One of his songs talks about getting a blow-job from Janis Joplin in the Chealsea Hotel in NYC with limo's downstairs waiting.

I get the feeling that it wasn't until late in life that he came to realize how much influence his music has had. And that he could have had a career as a pop star late in life.

I seem unable to convey the spiritual nature of the man, and the movie, just to say, it was well paired with "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior", for Leonard Cohen is one, but very different from Dan Millman. Once again, I can only say, go see it!

The way of the Peaceful Warrior

2006-06-15T01:45:00.000-10:00

I had the great fortune of reading Dan Millman's book over 20 years ago. Seeing "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior" this evening brought back so many memories, and in many ways reminded me of much of my own training, and who I've become over these many years.

Dan and I share a teacher in common, Oscar Ichazo. I don't know if Oscar is the inspiration for "Socrates", but much of Dan's descriptions from the book echo Oscar's work.

While the movie, like most movies made from novels, can't possibly convey the depth of the book, I really liked it, and really felt inspired after the movie.

The story, revolves around Dan during his college years as a very serious gymnast, and how he learns to be just himself. Watching his ego crash and fight it's own destruction brought up memories, and reminders of my recent process adventures. Dan's recovery from his broken leg also reminded me of my own struggle. (I wish I could say I took the challenge on as well as he did, but I'm still here, and things are moving in the right direction).

I wish I could write more about the movie, and less about me, but very little could I say that conveys my experience of the movie. It was good. And, in my opinion, a very good example of the spiritual guide movies we've seen so many of lately. I'd would recommend this far beyond either the Indigo children movie that was so hyped last year or J.Z. Knight's movie, "What the #$*!".

National Security Websites

2006-05-14T10:10:00.000-10:00

I occasionally get asked where did I find that tidbit.

Well, I read a lot of obscure websites and journals, a few that are interesting are:

Stratfor

Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College

CIA Unclassified studies

Loyola University Intelligence Portal

I'll try to add more of these from time to time.

From the Laws of Connectedness to the Power Law of Participation

2006-05-12T11:08:00.000-10:00

From the Laws of Connectedness to the Power Law of Participation:

Laws of connection

1. Connectedness is about joining in

2. Joining in happens automatically when the barriers to joining are low enough

3. Connections form between individuals, not organisations

4. Connections link devices, services and people

5. Connections are two way

6. The value of connections increases based on the number of touch points

7. Connection is a means to an end: the end is participation

Laws of participation

8. Communities form as a natural consequence of connectedness

9. Communities define their own mechanisms, language and etiquette

10. Individuals occupy roles within communities

11. Participation can be active or passive, hub or spoke

12. Declaration is a pre-requisite to active participation

13. Participation is a means to an end: the end is collaboration

Laws of collaboration

14. Collaboration is the achievement of goals by a connected community

15. Goals benefit individual participants, not the community

16. Active feedback is essential to achieving goals

17. Success is proportionate to the number of participants

18. Open collaboration is self regulating

The Atlantic Ideas Tour: Women's Empowerment

2006-05-11T09:25:00.000-10:00

Celebrating 150 Years of The Atlantic | Women's Rights

This is the fifth in a series of archival excerpts in honor of the magazine's 150th year of publishing.

Women's Empowerment
An introduction
by Terry Castle, a professor of English at Stanford. Her books include Boss Ladies, Watch Out!, and Courage, Mon Amie.

Meditations on Votes for Women (October 1914)
by Samuel McChord Crothers
In 1914, as the women’s suffrage amendment languished in Congress, Samuel McChord Crothers, a popular essayist and a Harvard Square–based Unitarian minister, made the case for equal suffrage. (The amendment did not pass that year, however; American women would not win the right to vote for another six years.)

Talent, Opportunity, and Female Aspirations (June 1926)
by Faith Fairfield
Six years after the Nineteenth Amendment had given American women the right to vote, Atlantic contributor Faith Fairfield pointed to an ongoing double standard in other areas.

Equality of Opportunity and Pay (May and June 1938)
by Virginia Woolf
In 1938, Virginia Woolf, a champion of equal opportunity for women and the author of Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and A Room of One’s Own, responded scathingly in the pages of The Atlantic to a written solicitation she had received in the mail asking “the daughters of educated men” to join in the cause against war. What women really ought to lobby for, she argued, is equal opportunity and better pay for themselves.

The Science: Careers for Women (October 1957)
by Helen Hill Miller
In 1957, Helen Hill Miller, a Washington, D.C.–based writer and a correspondent for The Economist, considered the social and psychological obstacles facing women attempting to forge careers in science.

Desperate Housewives (June 1961)
by Nora Johnson
Two years before Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique articulated "the problem that has no name," novelist and essayist Nora Johnson considered the frustrations of the well-educated homemaker.

Feminism's Unfinished Business (November 1997)
by Katha Pollitt
Decades after the women's-liberation movement began the battle to break down gender barriers and put women on a more equal footing with men, social critic and columnist Katha Pollitt pointed out that sexism and gender bias continued to play an insidious–and largely unacknowledged–role in women's lives. She called for a revitalized feminism to rectify the problem.

The Atlantic Monthly is a great rag, and has a long history of getting it right.

Is Internet addiction a real problem?

2006-05-11T09:18:00.000-10:00

Is Internet addiction a real problem?: One problem with the term "Internet addiction" is the looseness of the term as it can be applied to any number of problematic behaviors. The researchers in this case broke the term down into five specific behaviors:

Cybersexual addiction

Cyberrelationship addiction

Net compulsion

Information overload

Interactive gaming compulsion

Really should be, why don't we just get a life?

Colbert at White House Correspondents' dinner

2006-05-01T09:06:00.000-10:00

I argue with friends who post on their blog's political material when that isn't the focus of the blog, we'll I'm going to do it periodically, 'caus my focus includes national security. Also, it's very funny. If your reading this blog, you probably have already seen this, but just in case:
Crook's and Liars has a tiny quicktime of Steven Colbert's performance. Well worth watching.

You Tube has it in three parts.

Jane Jacobs, Urban Activist, Is Dead at 89 - New York Times

2006-04-25T14:51:00.000-10:00

Jane Jacobs, Urban Activist, Is Dead at 89 - New York Times:

Jane Jacobs, the writer and thinker who brought penetrating eyes and ingenious insight to the sidewalk ballet of her own Greenwich Village street and came up with a book that challenged and changed the way people view cities, died today in Toronto, where she lived. She was 89.

'The Death and Life of Great American Cities' (1961)

'The Economy of Cities' (1969)

Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (1992)

The Nature of Economies (2000)

Dark Age Ahead (2004)

She died at a Toronto hospital, said a distant cousin, Lucia Jacobs, who gave no specific cause of death. In her book "Death and Life of Great American Cities," written in 1961, Ms. Jacobs's enormous achievement was to transcend her own withering critique of 20th-century urban planning and propose radically new principles for rebuilding cities. At a time when both common and inspired wisdom called for bulldozing slums and opening up city space, Ms. Jacobs's prescription was ever more diversity, density and dynamism – in effect, to crowd people and activities together in a jumping, joyous urban jumble.

It's interesting that she lived in Toronto, a place that I associate with the some of the best architecture in the world, yet it's a very alive place, with focus on community.

Much the reverse of much of the United States. When I look at where I live, Maui, I think of Kihei as one long strip mall, where there's lots of condo's, then lots of shops, but much is separate. It doesn't seem to encourage community. Then I look at Haiku, a place where I think of it all community. It really is no better, but it has three major community attractors, and not much else. The energy gets concentrated - and that creates community.

I wonder what she would have thought of Prince Charles's Poundbury Village that seems to be one of the better thought out communities.

Good bye Jane - your influence was amazing!

Simpler and Cheaper Clean Coal Technology

2006-04-25T14:15:00.000-10:00

Simpler and Cheaper Clean Coal TechnologyA Swedish utility is testing a process that could be far more practical than much touted gasification processes.

Gasification, in which coal is converted to a gaseous fuel, is the front-runner as next-generation technology for cleaner coal-fired power plants. Already, a number of utilities, including American Electric Power in the United States and RWE in Germany, are engineering large-scale gasification plants that would capture their carbon dioxide. But one major utility, Stockholm-based Vattenfall AB, is bucking the gasification trend. Last month, it finalized plans for a 40 million euro ($50 million) test of a simpler and potentially cheaper technology called oxyfuels.

- MIT Technology Review

It would be amazing if coal turned out to be the cheapest clean fuel. Solar, Wind, Hydro, GeoThermal, Wave Motion, and others probably don't have much to worry about where they are practical, but this would be great in cooler climates where they may be unavailable.

As far as I can tell, it seems that taking existing technologies and making them more efficient would be a good idea. GE has tackled Wind in a good way. They seem to want to dominate electricity production. That's fine, as far as it goes.

I would think we need to find a technology and financing story that can convince a utility to invest in new equipment when they haven't yet depreciated the existing stuff. I'm sure it's more than tax incentives. I don't know what's required, but who ever figures out the right mix would go a long way to saving the planet. (And probably the American way of life.)

If I were GE/Westinghouse I'd be putting together sales teams to evangelize state and local governments as well as utility companies. I hate the idea that we need to create separate generation companies (like we have on Maui). I just don't understand why it's not in a utility's interest to do it them selves?

Holographic Solar: A novel approach to concentrating sunlight could cut solar panel costs.

2006-04-25T10:24:00.000-10:00

Holographic Solar: A novel approach to concentrating sunlight could cut solar panel costs.

By Prachi Patel-Predd

The main limitation of solar power right now is cost, because the crystalline silicon used to make most solar photovoltaic (PV) cells is very expensive. One approach to overcoming this cost factor is to concentrate light from the sun using mirrors or lenses, thereby reducing the total area of silicon needed to produce a given amount of electricity. But traditional light concentrators are bulky and unattractive -- less than ideal for use on suburban rooftops.

Now Prism Solar Technologies of Stone Ridge, NY, has developed a proof-of-concept solar module that uses holograms to concentrate light, possibly cutting the cost of solar modules by as much as 75 percent, making them competitive with electricity generated from fossil fuels. The new technology replaces unsightly concentrators with sleek flat panels laminated with holograms. The panels, says Rick Lewandowski, the company's president and CEO, are a "more elegant solution" to traditional concentrators, and can be installed on rooftops -- or even incorporated into windows and glass doors.

The system needs 25 to 85 percent less silicon than a crystalline silicon panel of comparable wattage, Lewandowski says, because the photovoltaic material need not cover the entire surface of a solar panel. Instead, the PV material is arranged in several rows. A layer of holograms -- laser-created patterns that diffract light -- directs light into a layer of glass where it continues to reflect off the inside surface of the glass until it finds its way to one of the strips of PV silicon. Reducing the PV material needed could bring down costs from about $4 per watt to $1.50 for crystalline silicon panels, he says.

Solar getting dramatically cheaper, that's a good thing!

'Hip' hijab takes on Dutch prejudices | csmonitor.com

2006-04-16T12:54:00.000-10:00

'Hip' hijab takes on Dutch prejudices | csmonitor.com: 'Hip' hijab takes on Dutch prejudices
A ban on head scarfs in school gym classes spawns the 'capster' and a small business.

SON EN BREUGEL, THE NETHERLANDS

In 1999, while seeking a graduate project idea at the Design Academy of Eindhoven, Cindy van den Bremen found a problem-solving opportunity.

The Dutch Commission of Equal Treatment had recently ruled that high schools could prohibit Muslim girls from wearing head coverings in gym class. Girls were advised to wear turtlenecks teamed with swim caps. But some were ignoring the sartorial advice, preferring instead to skip gym all together.

At about that time, the Dutch were beginning to become disillusioned with multiculturalism - a trend that was to intensify in the next few years with the death of maverick anti-immigrant politician Pim Fortuyn and the murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a radical Dutch Islamist.

Capsters

It's interesting that both cultures (Islamic/Dutch) are accepting modern design. Makes one wonder what all the fuss is about.

If I was a modern business leader, needing to be dressed formally all the time, I'd investigate Iranian fashion for men. It looks great.

Triple Boot via BootCamp - OnMac.net Wiki

2006-04-15T06:53:00.000-10:00

Triple Boot via BootCamp - OnMac.net Wiki: This procedure allows you to triple boot OSX, Windows XP and Linux. It has been sucessfully used to setup a macbook, but is untested on the imac/mini. Therefore if you try this you do so at your own risk.

Protein burns fat, suppresses hunger | Science Blog

2006-04-13T09:13:00.000-10:00

Protein burns fat, suppresses hunger | Science Blog: A team led by a Canadian researcher has discovered a process by which a small protein acts directly within muscles to increase the body's metabolism to burn fat while simultaneously suppressing appetite. These findings suggest that the protein, known as the ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), could play a key role as a weight loss agent.

Perhaps Atkins and the Zone were right after all.

Women in the workforce | The importance of sex | Economist.com

2006-04-13T09:12:00.000-10:00

Women in the workforce | The importance of sex | Economist.com
: A woman's world

What is clear is that in countries such as Japan, Germany and Italy, which are all troubled by the demographics of shrinking populations, far fewer women work than in America, let alone Sweden. If female labour-force participation in these countries rose to American levels, it would give a helpful boost to these countries' growth rates. Likewise, in developing countries where girls are less likely to go to school than boys, investing in education would deliver huge economic and social returns. Not only will educated women be more productive, but they will also bring up better educated and healthier children. More women in government could also boost economic growth: studies show that women are more likely to spend money on improving health, education, infrastructure and poverty and less likely to waste it on tanks and bombs.

Beverage Creates a Buzz - Los Angeles Times

2006-04-13T09:10:00.000-10:00

Beverage Creates a Buzz - Los Angeles Times: Coca-Sek, bottled by a Colombian tribe, gets its kick from coca leaves. The not-so-soft drink has stirred debate about drugs and sovereignty.

By Chris Kraul, Times Staff Writer
April 12, 2006

INZA, Colombia – Call it the "Real Thing." Indians in this remote mountain village in southern Colombia are marketing a particularly refreshing soft drink that harks back to Coca-Cola's original formula, when "coca" was in the name for a reason.

Advertising posters here describe the carbonated, citrus-flavored Coca-Sek as "more than an energizer" – a buzz that just might be provided by a key ingredient, a syrup produced by boiling coca leaves.

Friends who've tried chewing coca leaves tell me that this isn't Cocaine, but it's quite pleasant, and loaded with vitamins' and minerals.

Fries With That? - New York Times

2006-04-12T23:21:00.000-10:00

Fries With That? - New York Times: Published: April 13, 2006

Sometimes it's all too easy to lose perspective in the modern world. On Tuesday, The Times reported that McDonald's has begun experimenting with a new way of routing menu orders at the drive-through window. The voice you hear at the squawk box comes not from an employee inside the restaurant but from a call center hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away. The order is then relayed to the front of the very restaurant where you are bodily present and filled as usual. A man who wants a Big N' Tasty in Wyoming and a woman who wants an Egg McMuffin in Honolulu may be placing their orders with the same teenager in California. Several customers, told of the fact, seemed taken aback.

And yet where is the surprise? There you sit, perhaps miles from home, idling in a car that was manufactured almost anywhere, burning gasoline refined from a substance pumped out of the ground who knows where and shipped, in all likelihood, across the ocean to be trucked to the station where you last filled up. Meanwhile you're talking to your best friend on your cellphone — and who knows how that works or where those signals go? — or listening to satellite radio beamed down from space. Yet what's really on your mind is the food they're getting together for you inside that McDonald's, made from cattle that once lived anywhere and potatoes that grew someplace else, all of it relayed from some way station in the McDonald's supply chain.

Yes, a long-distance call center for a drive-through window is something to marvel at. The real wonder is that the call center isn't in Bangalore.

Just in case you were thinking that you could work at McDonalds when your job is outsourced.