Gates Said What?

People in Boca Raton and around the world will increasingly interact with computers using speech or touch screens rather than keyboards, according to Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates. Or at least that’s what Gates said recently to about 1,200 students and faculty members at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

In fact, Gates said that in five years Microsoft expects more Internet searches to be done through speech than through typing on a keyboard.  The remarks came on Gate’s final stop of a farewell tour before he withdraws from the company’s daily operations in July.

Indeed, perhaps now is a good time for Bill to say bon voyage.  If he truly thinks that the world is going to sit there (and with the rest of world literally listening) talk one’s way through the Internet, then it’s time for him to take a long rest.

Touch screens primarily -- maybe.  Speech primarily -- not a chance.

“It’s one of the big bets we’re making,” Gates said.

Gates should cash out if he’s betting the Microsoft farm on this notion.  The noise alone makes it nonsense.

Woof?

As if Boca Raton cat lovers needed another reason to look condescendingly upon dog lovers -- another perhaps more concrete reason has come from, of all places, heart research.

Kristen Cruz from the Palm Beach County American Heart Association office tells us that in a Minnesota study, cat owners had a decreased risk of death from heart attack or other cardiovascular diseases, including stroke. 

Researchers analyzed data from more than 4400 participants who participated in the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Study.  Researchers concluded, “cats as pets may represent a novel strategy for reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases in high-risk individuals.”

Researchers found no such correlation in those with a pet dog. 

Meow!

In the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) first economic ranking of all 50 states, Florida was ranked the 14th best state in the nation.  The study credits this to Florida’s lack of income or estate taxes, low business taxes, and Florida also being a right-to-work state (workers not being forced to join a union).

The report, Rich States, Poor States: ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index was a collaborative effort from authors Dr. Arthur Laffer, nationally recognized economist, and Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal.

According to the authors, Florida could have done better than 14th by lowering its property and sales taxes, as well as its minimum wage and workers’ compensation costs. The state’s tort liability system was also a concern.

Still, the report says that Florida had the highest rate of domestic migration of any state in the country with over 1.6 million residents of other states relocating here over the past 10 years.

What the report doesn’t seriously address is that the tort liability system is grotesquely out of control, not merely a “concern.”

Also that those 1.6 million citizens coming to Florida created a meteoric rise in property values, and hence collected taxes - and that coupled with spend thrift government - all combine now to make the 14th ranking an interesting but academic exercise.

In fact, the ranking is virtually irrelevant unless and until some sanity returns to government in its spending - which can only realistically happen with a reduction in the expectations by citizens of government.

Problem with that is that, and with each election, the winners sweep into office “to get ours.”

And whether generated by conservatives trying to buy government (or flag waving support, which is the same thing), or by liberals trying to buy government (or policy generating support-which is the same thing) - the bottom line remains - “getting ours.”

In the process, we’ve created a culture - and as that then translates into public policy - which enthusiastically embraces the attitude that life is woefully unfair, that everyone is a victim, and that we need to prevent becoming a victim - apparently at any and all costs.

So we can “get ours”

As cartoon character Pogo noted: “we have met the enemy, and he is us.”

We’re the 14th ranked “us.”  And the Number One enemy.