Needs vs Rights

The recent hoopla over the Associated Press's phone record seizure brings up a couple of good questions.

1. Should rights ever outweigh needs?
2. Does having phone records seized even constitute as a violation of Freedom of Press?

Rundown: The basic premise is that an AP reporter has an informant who leaked information on an ongoing operation in Yemen. The feds launched an investigation to determine who leaked classified information to the AP. After interviews failed to identify the leak, the Justice Department authorized the seizure of AP phone records.

AP and others are trying to make the case that the press can not operate freely if informants are afraid to give information to them, as their identities can not remain anonymous.

For the record, if you are in a sensitive position in the federal government, you are not free to share classified information with the press. Just because you are talking to the press, does not mean that you are protected by the rights of a free press. You still have a duty to your country.

Taking a look at the second question first, "was the record seizure even a violation?". This case does not involve the AP being silenced by the feds. So this is definitely not a clear violation of their rights. Does this mean that it might be harder for AP to get future informants to come forward with information that they should not be sharing? Absolutely it does and for good reason. Information is classified for a reason and Freedom of Press has never meant that reporters are allowed access to sensitive information. That is the way of it.

Even if we all agree that the record seizure only makes it harder for news organizations to do a part of their job (that is in no way protected by Freedom of Press), that still leaves another important question. Should rights ever outweigh needs?

The AP is making the case that their right, outweighs America's need to be safe. What are the potential consequences of a trusted member of our government leaking information on an ongoing operation to take down a terrorist group? One potential consequence is that the lives of those involved in the operation could become compromised.

Who's To Blame? The AP is not being investigated and in no way are they at fault. Their informant is very much at fault and must be identified.

AP does need to grow up though. So their records were seized, so people might hesitate before they decide to share information that some of them should not be sharing. Those issues do not outweigh national security. More importantly, their ability to do their job has not diminished. They are still releasing news stories.

Side Note: I find it odd (not really), that so many Republicans who are typically seen as being tough on National Security, are the ones displaying a complete lack of concern for this national security breech. They need to stop their careless attempts to turn every issue into a scandal. They just look weaker as a result.

A Lesson For TV Networks

Well the series finale of The Office has arrived and boy what a great sendoff it was. During the hour long recap episode that aired before the finale, there was an interesting bit about how poorly the first season did in the ratings. They went on to share that if it hadn't been for iTunes sales, the show would probably have been canceled.

This of course led me to think of how fickle networks are today. Very few shows make the cut to continue beyond their first season. Some shows are really great, but simply have not made it into the awareness of its potential base. Firefly is an extreme example of this, as most of its current fanbase did not even hear of the show until years after it had been canceled. We were fortunate to be rewarded for our lateness with a movie.

Lately it has gotten even worse, now some shows are canceled before the first episode had even aired. It is almost as if networks have lost the ability to take chances and be daring. It is a fairly well known fact that when a business has an aversion to taking risk, it is doomed to fail.

How many shows never realized their full potential like The Office was able to?

Make A Card

Random idea today.

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a kiosk in stores that allowed you to design your own greeting cards. Why go through the hassle of trying to find the right card, when you could just make the right card!

Just to make it a little more fancy-dancy, people could log onto a website and take their time creating a card from the comfort of their own home. Once they have their design they can take a code that the website gives them and enter said code into any "Make A Card" kiosk to print it out. This would allow customers to keep all of the cards they create under their online account.

With the "Make A Card" kiosk every greeting card will be perfect.

When Marketing Backfires

There is a new Microsoft commercial that has really stuck with me this last week, and not for a good reason. Before I get into why this commercial is so terrible, how about a quick rundown on what makes a good commercial.

Commercials should inspire the customer to purchase said product. There are many ways to achieve this; you could talk about how great the product is, you could create an edgy commercial that tricks people into thinking the product is better than it is, you could create a commercial that invokes an emotional response in the customer that connects them to the product, etc. There are many ways to create a successful commercial (or any other marketing campaign).

Final Life April 2013

Well the results are in for the first game of Final Life! I ended this round at Lvl. 40. Not to shabby given it is my first time playing, well first time anyone has ever played. In all I think there were some fairly remarkable things that came out of the first go-around. For starters I improved in every category from where I was when the game started. My habits are improving significantly as well; I'm running more, eating less, writing more, and playing less.

One key area that I have improved, is food & alcohol. Fried chicken is off the menu, as it led the charge to two weekends in a row of me losing points (enough to lose levels). Pinot Grigio is also gone, in its place is the much more calorie friendly Chardonnay.

Another area that saw a significant leap, was writing my first book. In the first month of playing Final Life, I wrote more than the previous six months combined. I am confident that I will shatter April's record in May.

Running is a bit trickier to credit Final Life for its improvement, given I am coming back from an untreated knee injury that took years to heal from and that I started improving before I created the game. Regardless, improvement is improvement (and those points add up).