As the middle east boils and Egypt joins Tunisia in a public uprising against their governments, world markets grow nervous seeing oil rise 4% today on worry over disruption. Not only is our U.S. stock market giving back it’s gains from the past few days, but the political unrest a half a world away reminds me just how connected our world has become … for the good and the bad.
Neil Cavuto reminded us (audio above), that during times of international turmoil just like back in the 1970 in Iran during the overthrow of the Shah, events can quickly spiral out of control and even bring down the president in the United States. This is of serious concern both economically and politically. (AP video update below)
Adding some follow up video illustrating the chaos …
In the State of the Union address this past Tuesday night, President Obama reflected on the space race as a time American’s found themselves behind in technology and rose to the occasion as Americans competed with the Russians in the frontier of space. “This is our generation’s Sputnik moment,” Obama said. As a result, we need to fund “a level of research and development we haven’t seen since the height of the space race,” with particularly strong investments in biomedicine, information technology, and clean-energy technology.
For those a bit too young to remember, this is the sound being broadcast from a circling satellite that sent chills down the spines of all who were charged with protecting our nation from nuclear weapons.
Although the dream of flying around like the Jetsons has been something many of us believed would be here by now, those at Carter Copters are a bit more serious in developing something that might move us closer to that reality. Their combination of aviation engineering using fuel sipping diesel engines, gyro-plane lift, airplane like speeds and helicopter maneuverability is in my opinion on the right track.
I listened to an interesting EAA interview with founder Jay Carter about their recent flight testing – perhaps an experimental kit is right around the corner?
A comment in President Barack Obama’s State of the Union call for corporate tax cuts and a spending freeze along with good corporate earnings reports have helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average to cross the 12000 mark. Let’s hope jobs follow?
On a totally separate subject, I just heard that singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett fell from a stage during a concert in Sydney Australia and went unconscious. Some say there was a bright flash before he fell and that he had a cut on his head as paramedics rushed him to the hospital.
Wh.gov’s web and social networking team did a great job with enhanced State of the Union coverage, as well as pre and post-coverage tonight. I wish I could say the same for my confidence in President Obama’s leadership and vision for our country.
(SOTU Transcript and Republican response video below the split)
First a positive – it was great to have the Hon. John Boehner behind the President, rather than Pelosi and knowing that there is at least a check to growing government. Second, the mention of Gabby Giffords and the shooting in Tucson was most respectful: "Tucson reminded us that no matter who we are or where we come from, each of us is a part of something greater." Unfortunately that was the last believable component of Obama’s SOTU speech. I had difficulty believing that his focus will be on “jobs” and need to keep us competitive; instead I saw a campaign for re-election starting in earnest – “say the right things.” His bragging about “tax cuts” being passed rang a little weak in my ears … considering his policies require more government and more spending … and therefore more taxes. I think he is being a bit disingenuous taking create for extending taxes cuts.
As for re-inventing America, working smarter and focusing on innovation are all great talking points, but Democrats and Republicans have two entirely different philosophies in how we get there. Obama’s recommendation that we stop subsidizing the oil companies and that they are “doing ok on their own.” This may be true, but instead of removing government, he turns right around and wants to extend subsidies to another industry. Not only is there a disagreement that government should be picking winners and losers … there is a real disconnect in funding business when we don’t have the money in the first place.
For all the polite applause and congress making an effort to show civility to the citizens, there are some serious disagreements as to government’s place in peoples’ lives. Personally I much preferred less political correctness and more political directness of Rep. Paul Ryan’s Republican response (below).
Transcript of President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address below:
So the HP-Palm gadget many though might be the “PalmPad” is not going to receive the blessing of the United States Patent and Trademark Office; they sees the too close to other trademarks? (Palm, Palm Pre, etc) It sort of looks to me as if HP needs to go back to the ‘slate’ devices – maybe the “TouchSlate” isn’t so bad after all?
"Registration of the applied-for mark is refused because of a likelihood of confusion with the marks in U.S. Registration Nos [lists 5 registration numbers]."
"Trademark Act Section 2(d) bars registration of an applied-for mark that so resembles a registered mark that it is likely that a potential consumer would be confused or mistaken or deceived as to the source of the goods and/or services of the applicant and registrant."
"Applicant’s mark PALMPAD is similar to the registered marks PALM because applicant’s mark contains the entirety of the registered marks. Simply adding the term PAD to its mark does not differentiate the marks sufficiently to overcome the striking similarity created by applicant’s use of the registered mark PALM in its mark. The mere addition of matter to a registered mark generally does not obviate the similarity between the marks nor does it overcome a likelihood of confusion under Trademark Act Section 2(d)."
After switching to Verizon’s webOS Mobile Hotspot on my Sprint connected Palm Pre in order to be able to tether my phone, I had all but given up on MyTether. Although I’m not an everyday “tether-er” … having the ability to connect my notebook computer to the Internet in a pinch is important. Thankfully Raja (the developer) has updated his Java coded program and MyTether is working once again. In the email I received, Raja also talked with some encouragement that he is making an effort to program a “C ” version in order to keep MyTether working once webOS 2.0 is installed on HP/Palm devices. I’m hopeful future updates will be successful before webOS 2.0 is ready to be installed on my Palm Pre (that is if it ever becomes available).
Every once in a while an unusual and simple web app catches one’s attention – in this case twbirthday.com. Plug your Twitter name into this site and it creates a Birth Certificate along with “assigning” a Godfather; who is your Godfather? In my case it is my New Hampshire friend Scott Bilik (@sbilik).
Wow, has it been 3almost 4 years of ‘tweeting’ for @richc?
Today marks my daughter Katelyn’s final residency interview (see 2006 White Coat) as she moves one step closer to finding out where she’ll be spending the next few years working (actually it’s a “second-look” interview). It has been an exciting few months watching her travel and listening to her comments regarding the different pediatric residency programs. Most of her interviews have ben in the midwest during the last couple of months and it has been nice having her around more often between interviews. Her interviews have included hospitals in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids MI; Akron, Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland OH; Buffalo and Rochester NY and Lexington KY.
The big day will be Residency Match Day (NRMP) on March 17, 2011 where all M.D. programs around the country participating in the National Residency Matching Program are announced. The exciting day almost makes her NEOUCOM medical school graduation a non-event.
The next important deadline for my daughter is for her to rank the programs she prefers while hoping that they also rank her equally. Besides getting the paperwork submitted by the deadline, she’ll also be getting prepared to spend the month of February working in California at a hospital associated with Stanford University School of Medicine. I can’t believe her school education is coming to an end.
A few words of appreciation from 
