Huckaee, Obama win Iowa

The night is over and the big winners are Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama. This is a huge win for both of them, as it catapults them - at least for the moment - from underdogs into front-runners. Next up is New Hampshire, where it is still anyone's game.

My own prediction is that Huckabee loses New Hampshire, now that the Religious Right has made their statement, but that Obama probably will take it for the Democratic side. The question of the night will be "Can Hillary remain in the race after two major losses?" The answer will be yes.

What do our Mod-Blog readers think? Did the right men win? Or did short-term thinking make Iowans choose wrongly?

A Different Unity Presidential Ticket

Most of the talk this year about a bipartisan “Unity Ticket” has focused on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Nebraska Representative Chuck Hagel. What if the real “Unity Ticket” for the 2008 election is John McCain and Joseph Lieberman? Lieberman has already crossed party lines (on non-party lines) to endorse McCain and both are known as men of character, who vote their convictions. Also, both are known to be good at working out compromises in the Senate. They could make a credible argument that they are the two Senators most likely to breakthrough the partisanship in Washington.

This only would work to me if they were the Republican nominees for President and Vice-President and if they were running against Hillary Clinton. A Clinton returning to the White House would mean more partisanship in Washington. Also, Obama or Edwards would run as the next generation of leadership vs. the Old generation and a McCain/Lieberman ticket would have a hard time getting people excited to vote for 2 old men when running against a young one.

One Laptop Per Mod-Blogger

Proving yet again that I am an unmarried bachelor who loves technology too much, my OLPC XO-1 has arrived! I purchased one with the Give1Get1 the day after they started accepting orders (and another one for a family member) and the unit arrived yesterday! I took some unboxing photos for those who might be interested.

So far, the device is very interesting. It does not work quite like any computer I have used before (which is saying a lot considering I have worked on Commodore 64s, Apple IIs, Macintoshes, Amigas, IBM PCs of various generations, Linux Boxen, every version of Windows, and many, many more). But I was able to browse the internet and install Doom without too much trouble. Hopefully, this weekend I can take the time to really start to become expert with it.

Should college athletes be paid?

As I was driving in to work this morning I heard this interesting editorial on whether or not college athletes - particularly the football and basketball variety - should be paid. The basic argument is that they are employees of the college or university that they attend - in that they are earning money for the institution - so fair employment practices should be enforced for them. The idea that a college scholarship is 'payment' is poo-pooed and instead it becomes a race issue with all the poor black kids being forced into laboring for the rich white administrators.

I disagree with this editorial on many levels. First this is in no way a slavery or 'kept woman' situation. In our society education is the highest ideal. If you have a good education then you are thought well of - even if you're a complete idiot (e.g. Bill Clinton). But if you don't have a good education then you're not well thought of - even if you're quite successful. In the situation of college athletes, it's a trade off. They get the invaluable education that our society values for performing on the field - something else our society values. I love the NCAA commercials that point out how many thousands of college athlete there are and that the vast majority of them are going pro in something other than sports. That's what college is about after all - training for a profession. As for the ones that do go pro in a sport, they are in training as well. The college level is where they go to the next level in order to be ready for the pro level in their sport. It's necessary for most pro athletes to have this time of preparation before they go pro in their sport. So, the idea that this is some form of slavery is pretty much bunk. The time these athletes spend training and playing in college prepares them for the earning potential they get when they do go pro. It's a pretty fair trade off, if you ask me.

Secondly, have you seen how much college costs these days? It cost me over $80,000 just for my undergrad degree and I graduated 8 years ago - I can guarantee you that the cost hasn't gone down. The best of these athletes are given full scholarships to the institutions they are playing for, which when added up over 4 (and sometimes 5) years usually totals over $100,000. If at 18 I was told that my talent on the field was worth over $100,000 and that in going to that place where my skills were worth that much money I would gain the skills to be worth significantly more than that - I can pretty much guarantee that I would have jumped at that prospect. A scholarship is payment, whether you like it or not. Can you spend that payment at the mall? No, but you can spend the payment you get for the skills earned as a result of that scholarship.

Most schools push the idea of being scholar-athletes to their athletes. By not paying the athletes this idea is furthered. If we start to pay our college athletes then they will simply become athletes without the scholar. In the realm of college, where learning to be a scholar is the first and foremost priority, hiring athletes would not be a positive move.

Extra Lithium Batteries Banned from Checked Baggage

Not sure how this one slipped by without anyone noticing. Apparently, it is not illegal to have an extra battery in your checked baggage for your laptop or digital camera or pretty much anything else. Apparently, it is permitted in unchecked luggage, but only if carried in a plastic bag and even there limits exist.

The claim is that this is to reduce the chance of fire, as lithium batteries have been blamed for a number of otherwise unexplained fires. But I can't help wondering if this is really to discourage use of laptops as entertainment devices on long flights, so people will pay for the little video screens and other extras.

Are you ready for the DTV changeover?

We have discussed it before here, but in informal chats with friends I am finding that most are not aware that 2008 is the last year for over-the-air analog TV. It has been coming for over a decade, but Congress appears to finally be serious about reclaiming the vast analog TV spectrum for emergency responders, and forcing TV companies to take up a smaller spectrum for digital over-the-air (HD) broadcasts. If you have an existing non-HD television, and still get your TV from an antenna, now is the time to start thinking about your backup plan. (If you have an HDTV, look for an ATSC tuner. If you have cable TV, don't worry about it as cable is not affected by this legislation.) The simplest and most effective is to order a converter box for your TV which will switchover digital channels into analog ones. If that is the way you want to go, < the government is offering subsidies to anyone making the switch. Click on over and take a look. Now is the time to sign up, to give yourself maximum time to adjust.

Well done, Planet