Google to potentially pull out of China

In case you haven't read yet, apparently Google had some Gmail accounts hacked into (or at least it was attempted) of Chinese human rights activists. As a result, Google may stop filtering their searches for Chinese citizens.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

So a few questions:

What is the potential profit loss for Google in this scenario?

Should they have filtered the internet for China originally?

What kind of company steps into their void (American, Chinese, another country; established, new, something in between)?

How does this affect Chinese citizens in the short and long run?

This is your brain (egg), this is your brain on...(broken egg sizzling)…television?

A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (1) reported that children and young adults (8-18 yrs) spend an average of 44.5 hours in front of a television screen, computer screen, media device (e.g., IPOD), or cell phone. Basically, this is their job plus some overtime. Is this the new addiction of the 21st century, or just a changing of the times where technologies for work and play merge?

Source:
1: http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/Executive-Summary-Generation-M-Media-in-the-Lives-of-8-18-Year-olds.pdf

Power to the people?

Jean Jacques Rousseau writes in “The Social Contract” that leaders have 3 different wills. First, their individual wills which strive for self-promotion. Second, the corporate will, what Rousseau calls “vis’a’vis the will of the government” and includes the wills of other leaders. And lastly, the will of the people or sovereign will.

I will posit that in a perfect society leaders silence their individual wills, place the corporate will as a subordinate, and allow the general will of the people to dominate.

Any thoughts on whether the above is something we should strive for and ask of our leaders. Any qualms with the 3 general wills (additions, subtractions)?

Oxford-Style Debates

I've watched a lot of debates on tv and internet (much easier to find on the internet). Here I've found NPR's podcast section for debates on a variety of important and interesting topics:

After I listen to a few I'll comment. I would also like to compare this to how debates are carried out on cable news.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6263392

New Direction for Educators at the U?

Read the attached opinion article from the Star Tribune. Then let's discuss.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/70662162.html?page=1&c=y

Should they be asking students to consider these issues? Should all citizens consider these issues? What would be the arguments against the task force's goals mentioned in the article?

Fish, how do we know what is good?

They all are, they're delicious and that's how we know to eat them. I'm joking of course.

Rosh and I go to dinner on Thursdays and I was looking for a website which offers an assessment of fish species cross-referenced for how and where caught. I'm going to order the Halibut tonight and ask the waiter where it was caught. If he answers the question, I will remain a customer of this restaurant, if he does not, I will not.

NOTE: This article is influenced by Food Inc., a film which was influenced by Michael Pollan who was influenced by Upton Sinclair who also wrote Oil, a book which was made into a movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upton_Sinclair

1) Monterray Bay Aquarium Website
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_alternatives.aspx

Top Tax Bracket: A brief history

Brent and I were discussing this Saturday night. Scroll down near the bottom of this page to see the history of the top tax bracket.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States

How fiscally “responsible” of us to have rates at 80-90% between 1940-1945 when we were funding a war. I’m guessing this was just (i.e., justice) because the top earners were probably those associated with the military-industrial complex and benefiting the most due to the war (probably needs fact checked). Compare that to what Reagan did in 1981 (70% down to 50) and then in 1986 (50% down to 35%) then Bush did in 2003 (Bush: while funding two wars). Fiscally “Conservative”? Someone needs to define this for me, because I don’t get it.

Should journalists have a licensing examination?

Communications is arguably one of the easiest majors at university. Currently in the United States, virtually anyone can become a journalist (while most major at a university in journalism, mass communications, or English). There is no licensing as there are with most other professionals (and those without licensing tacitly favor PhD's). Let's try to imagine how journalism would be different if such licensing existed.