In today’s Charlotte Observer (July 18, 2007), NY Times columnist
David Brooks chats about the differences between President Bush and Leo Tolstoy and their theories of history.

While praising the presidents’ self-confidence in the face of the realities in Iraq, Brooks notes that “Politics is a thin crust on the surface of culture“. David goes on to make an interesting point on how Tolstoy believed that the chaos of everyday experiences is more significant than our leaders policies in shaping history.

I like David’s point about the role culture plays in our views of the past. Policy dilemmas aside, the final say of history is often rich in hindsight and short on the bravado of the times.

Straight on the heels of a few high profile customers dropping their accounts based on the banks illegal immigrant credit card strategy, I find it somewhat ironic how their newest logo work just screams, “designed by committee”. Unfortunately for the chains stockholders they forgot to invite accessible designers to their meetings.

Take a look at the color model on their new logo. Seems oddly difficult to read doesn’t it? Apparently their chief designers forgot that dark on dark color models are not just difficult to read for Average-Man, but they are nearly impossible to interpret by color blind and others with vision impairments.

So what does that have to do with the border you ask? On a related retail note, Taco Bell in their new restaurant designs are moving to larger doors that can better accommodate wheelchairs (and possible larger-framed individuals). While ADA compliance likely drives these decisions, the doors at the new Belmont, NC location are extra wide, like 1.5x a normal commercial doorway.

So, should BofA take their queue from the Chihuahua chain? Only time will tell but the banks woes seem to be mounting which may not be good news for the Charlotte-based brand.

Thank you Al Gore for your persistent and tireless dedication in the fight to stop global warming.

Al Gore’s Recommendations:

1. An immediate “carbon freeze” that would cap U.S. CO2 emissions at current levels, followed by a program to generate 90% reductions by 2050.
2. Start a long-term tax shift to reduce payroll taxes and increase taxes on CO2 emissions.
3. Put aside a portion of carbon tax revenues to help low-income people make the transition.
4. Create a strong international treaty by working toward “de facto compliance with Kyoto” and moving up the start date for Kyoto’s successor from 2012 to 2010.
5. Implement a moratorium on construction of new coal-fired power plants that are not compatible with carbon capture and sequestration.
6. Create an “ELECTRANET” — a smart electricity grid that allows individuals and businesses to feed power back in at prevailing market rates.
7. Raise CAFE standards.
8. Set a date for a ban on incandescent light bulbs.
9. Create “Connie Mae,” a carbon-neutral mortgage association, to help defray the upfront costs of energy-efficient building.
10. Have the SEC require disclosure of carbon emissions in corporate reporting, as a relevant “material risk.”

Watch the testimony on YouTube here.

I attended the NC Science Blogging Conference this past weekend on campus at UNC Chapel Hill.  My thanks to Bora Zivkovic and Anton Zuiker for organizing the con.

In the first session Dr. Hunt Willard, director of Duke University’s Institute for Genome Sciences and Policies reflected on how engaged America was with the space race in the 1960’s when compared with current society.  Another theme of Dr. Hunts presentation was his somewhat unsettled opinion of how blogging could help working scientists.

Early in his presentation, Dr. Willard mentioned Tang, that by-product of America’s space passion, as an example of how engaged the country was with high tech.  Even on our breakfast tables one might say.  A more modern example of space race technology brought down to earth might be GPS car navigation systems, something most people are starting to get a handle on.

It would appear that with genetics, a vastly complex and controversial science topic in America today, one of Dr. Willard’s challenges, especially with his policy role, might be to find his Tang.  While a number of applications for genetics research are being discussed, what one application do you think will make its way alongside Tang in the American vernacular of science and technology?

Blog your thoughts and maybe we can help Dr. Willard find his Tang.

Article tags: sciencebloggingconference tang

GMSV is chatting up Cisco’s vision of automating the ballpark.  In the late 90’s we looked a number of technology angles at the Charlotte Hornets where I was Director of IT.

The bottom line for these stadium technologies is that they are either venue-infrastructure or skybox fodder.  Putting technologies at the seat level is doable, but the payout just isn’t there.  The systems are expensive and the maintenance is through the roof.  If you consider how well ad inventory for these systems has sold in prior trials, you’ll see why Cisco will be buying all their own ad slots.

The angle Cisco seems to be pitching is to promote their consumer facing wifi routers, etc.  Unfortunately for their marketing guns, SMS is where the action is with ballpark automation.  At this point what’s holding things back is more about SMS training for the over 30 set, and creating quick response contests that sponsors can buy into than any “super infrastructure” project.

One area where Cisco could gain traction is with IP telephone.  If they VOIP the concourse they can at least get people past the call quality issue, but home wiring will still be their big challenge since Moms are clearly uncomfortable with orphaned POTS jacks.

Sure Cisco CAN create super fancy infrastructure at the seat level, but they are better off focusing on the back end and using their deployments to showcase reliability to entertainment industry customers, than they are trying to impress Joe Sixpack with touch screens and instant replay.