Best Careers 2008

US News and World Report recently published an informative article on the Best Careers for 2008. Most or all of it was written by Marty Nemko, who might be familiar to radio listeners in the SF Bay area -- he has a radio show on KALW.

Thought Police, Part 1

Today I heard an interesting and disturbing segment on NPR's media criticism show, On the Media.

Perhaps you saw the Tom Cruise (ugh!) movie Minority Report? There's a scene in which his character is in a shopping mall, and ads are being targeted to him as he walks around. The mall has his identity and displays messages and ads related to past buying history.

Pretty creepy, eh? Well various companies (see this one) can now beam ads right at you using something called hypersonic sound projection.

And there are lie-detector technologies being developed that can essentially read your mind at a distance of up 10 feet, using infrared technology.

Thankfully an organization named The Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE) is on the case.

What can you do? Of course you can donate money to organizations such as CCLE. Also, keep your eyes and ears open for legislative issues in the U.S. Congress so you can write to your representatives. In many cases your faxes, phone calls, and emails are counted by legislative staffers, so the rep has sense of pro and con votes from the citizenry.

You've been warned...