Wise Guys on WHO Radio - June 11, 2016
Please note: These show notes may be in various stages of completion -- ranging from brainstormed notes through to well-polished monologues. Please excuse anything that may seem rough around the edges, as it may only be a first draft of a thought and not be fully representative of what was said on the air.
Your role in cyberwar
British intelligence exec: The "Internet of Things" is too attractive for terrorists to resist
And they'll try to exploit its inevitable security shortcomings to try to do massive harm to society
Street-smart social media
Marketing company claims research shows big drop in time spent on social-media sites
Whether that's correct analysis or suspicious data is worthy of further investigation. It doesn't particularly seem like people are spending less time with social media, but there's also the possibility that people are getting real about the huge amount of time that they're devoting to what is fundamentally non-productive activity. The advice remains: Less time with Facebook, more time with book-books.
Dispatches from the flying-car future
Laugh about it if you want. Call it frivolous if you must. But recognize that labor-saving devices make our lives better all the time and they soon enough just become part of the background of daily life and we hardly ever acknowledge how much time and effort are being saved by everything from crock-pots to dishwashers.
Money and technology
Gawker Media files for bankruptcy
Rather than try to pay $140 million to Hulk Hogan after losing a lawsuit to him over invasion of privacy, the company just hopes to sell itself to Ziff Davis after getting bankruptcy protection. Gawker has made serious errors in judgment before, so perhaps it isn't surprising that a bad call has landed the company in today's trouble.
(Non-traditional) gadget of the week
Tattoo artist loses arm, gets prosthetic tattoo gun
Space
80% of North Americans can't see the Milky Way at night. It's often harder to see in Midwestern cities, but usually not impossible. Out in the country, it's practically a given that you'll see this remarkable feature of our natural universe.
Listen again on-demand
- Podcast of this episode - segment (Gawker, social media, and challenges to free speech today)
- Podcast of this episode - segment (A bionic arm customized for a tattoo artist)
- Podcast of this episode - segment (Are we really spending less time on social media?)
- Podcast of this episode - segment (Laundry-folding robots are coming, and don't make fun of them)