Category: News & Pop Culture

Make a run for the border

From the DMN and Steve Blow:

An interesting story in today’s business section says Taco Bell is opening restaurants in Mexico. The menu will be the same as here. But because its version of “Mexican food” is so unrecognizable to Mexicans, it’s being promoted there as American fast food.
That’s rich since the chain advertises here with Spanish guitars and thick Mexican accents to sell how “authentic” it is.
One nice thing: The company’s slogan will work in both countries — “Make a run for the border.”

Govt. officials hope to block access to maps

As someone who works with GIS in my job, this story in particular caught my attention this morning.
It seems that some local and state entities around the country are trying to block the publics access to GIS maps, siting security reasons.
From NPR:

With Google Earth and GPS, people have grown accustomed to online maps of whatever they’re searching for. But the boom in digital mapping has run into an obstacle. Some government officials are refusing to release electronic maps of what they call “critical infrastructure,” such as water mains and fire hydrants.

There’s so much great information out there to help the general user/member of the public yet there are those in power who are doing all they can to hold on to that information and squash the open sharing of knowledge. Frustrating to say the least.
If I could only get my GIS information to convert to the correct file formats for my GPS unit we’d really be in business – but that may still be a ways off.
Listen to the full story online

Cuban hopes Dallas still votes

Mark Cuban is hoping to stay in the race on Dancing with the Stars tonight, but I think he’s a little worried about the dance and his replacement hip and the fact that the Dallas Cowboys are playing on Monday Night Football tonight.
You can still vote for him, regardless of watching the Cowboys or not. 1-800-vote-411.

There’s a reason it’s a product ‘party’

I started to tell Laurie about this NPR story tonight but I think my typical opening, “I heard this story on NPR today…” turned her off. So I ended up not telling her. Yeah that will learn her – I’ll just post it on my blog instead 😉
Anyways, Marketplace reported this morning on the growing numbers of product parties in recent months/years.

The words “product party” usually conjure up images of old ladies selling Tupperware. But Alex Goldmark discovered there were some out there that managed to be fun — and profitable.

According to the report, twenty-five to 40 percent of all sales at these product parties go to the “comfort specialist.” And by the end of the particular night NPR reported on, where almost everyone made a purchase, hostess Lisa Gillette, a rep for with Jockey, made $1,300. Not bad for a part-time job once or twice a month.
I know I have several friends who are rolling in the money with Arbon and others who are working there way through Mary Kay.
But the whole idea of a product party just brings to mind exactly what the story suggests, Tupperware or Amway. But I spose it’s working for some.
Listen to the story

A Day That Will Not Live In Infamy (But Should)

KERA ran a commentary by local (Midlothian) writer Tom Dodge this morning.
Pretty interesting. In it he talks about the killing of undercover Midlothian PD Officer George Raffield by two MHS students.

October marks twenty years since the world saw a news helicopter aerial video of a body lying face-down in the woods beside a red pickup. It was a young narcotics officer, murdered by Midlothian High School boys.
It was a tragedy but also an important story, important because the victim, George Raffield, was an undercover police officer and the assassins who planned it and carried it out were only sixteen and seventeen years old. It was also a huge story because it signaled to a complacent country during the Reagan “Just Say No” era that drugs were no longer just a big city problem, no longer just an inner-city problem, no longer just a minority problem. Drugs had come to the white middle-class, church-going, family-values-espousing, small-town suburbs.

Even though I grew up in East Dallas, I don’t recall this story personally, but it was mentioned several times in the newsroom when I worked at the WDL. Interesting history considering the impact it left on folks.
Read the full commentary or listen to the story.