Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Tha #1 Stunna Like an Olympic athlete, Paul Krugman has been taking on all comers this week: Tucker Carlson, Kudlow and Cramer, Ben Stein, Joe Scarborough, and Bill O'Lielly. Check out the transcripts at the Krugman Archive (August 9 and 10). I especially recommend the video of Krugman explaining simple facts to the dopey Tucker Carlson. I did manage to catch the full CNBC broadcast of Krugman and O'Lielly with Tim Russert. I fully agree with Bob Somberby's assessment of the show. I don't know what was more depressing: (1) O'Lielly's deeply stupid and rude rants, (2) the bare fact that he was presented as a peer and equal to Paul Krugman (a professor of economics at Princeton), or (3) the fact that Tim Russert never intervened or tried to maintain order in the face of O'Lielly's bullying tactics. 12:23:02 PM    comment [] Bush Quote-o-the-day The AP tells us about Bush's recent campaign stop in Northern Virginia (hmmm... he needs to visit VA?): Bush criticized Kerry's plan to eliminate the tax cuts for those making more than $200,000 a year, saying that the "the rich in America happen to be the small business owners" who put people to work. Bush also said high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy because "the really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway." Asked about that comment, Jonathan Beeton, spokesman for Kerry's campaign in Virginia, said "George Bush can speak with authority about really rich people. ... That's his base, so I'm sure he knows what he's talking about. But that doesn't make it right." God forbid that Bush would have to explain trickle-down economics or even why it's not worth it to try to close loopholes in the tax laws and to help the IRS enforce existing laws. It's all so complicated. [Via DKos. Thanks to EA.] 12:03:58 PM    comment [] Smart Shopping Carts Imagine shopping carts that tell you what you need to buy at the store ... that direct you to the specific aisle and location to find your items ... that tell you not to buy that item because of your diet ... that order the deli to slice some turkey for you when you arrive and tell you when to pick it up ... Soon, Eweek reports, such intelligent shopping carts will be a reality. All they need to do is add some rudeness and backtalk to the conversational programming, and some invasive security and monitoring features, and we'll be shopping in a Dickian Supermarket. Oh wait, they are already figuring out how to add the latter: Some concepts that are on the purely theoretical level include inch-by-inch cart tracking, so that retailers could learn which shoppers paused at which displays and then took which action. How many people looked at certain products, read their labels and then put them back? The system's security method is less restrictive than the nonmobile self-checkout method, which is why it's supplemented by periodic, full-cart re-scans. Dusty Lutz, product manager for NCR FastLane by NCR Corp., said he has concerns about how consumers will feel about those security audits. "That's a pretty punitive security system," he said, pointing to the randomness and that the entire cart needs to be emptied and re-scanned. All they need to do now is add the backtalk. [Via Coast to Coast AM] 12:20:24 AM    comment []

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