Top Of The News - 27 April

1.  Is it Finally Time for Virtual Reality (VR)???

I first came across VR when I read Michael Crichton's "Disclosure" - probably sometime in the 80's. His description of VR was way cool back then and made the technology sound so simple.  Here we are now in 2016 and it would appear VR is finally catching up to Crichton.  You can't read anything about technology these days without seeing something on VR.  Google has Cardboard and Magic Leap.  Facebook has Oculus.  Microsoft has HoloLens.  VR is everywhere, and yet it's nowhere.  I've never had an opportunity to test VR - not even Google Cardboard.  VR kind of reminds me of the 3D craze: the tech nerds love it, but there are still few practical uses for it.

2.  Is TMZ Legit?

TMZ keeps breaking the big entertainment stories.  Its most recent success was Prince's death.  TMZ was also first with the 2009 news of the death of Michael Jackson, broke the story on Mel Gibson's arrest for drunken driving and his subsequent anti-Semitic rant, and posted the infamous video of NFL star Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee in an elevator.  So, you have to ask: are they legit?

This New Yorker article is a great weekend read on TMZ's information gathering methods.

3.  Promposal?!

This is nuts...

American parents are accustomed to being treated like human cash machines during prom season, spending close to $1,000 to guarantee that a high school dance doesn't become an emotional catastrophe. A hundred bucks for tickets, and hundreds more for fancy clothes—even the corsage costs $20. And before any of that begins, your kid wants $300 for a promposal. Wait, a what?

4.  Take a Bite Out of the Apple

Why is this important?  If you own any sort of retirement investment funds or mutual funds, chances are you own some Apple stock.  Apple will rebound, but it's something to keep an eye on.

Apple reported today that its second-quarter revenue fell to $50.6 billion, down 13 percent from the same period last year. That marks Apple’s first year-over-year revenue decline since 2003, after an incredible growth period that started at less than $2 billion in quarterly revenue.

5.  Nuclear Meltdown

"On the night of April 26, 1986, engineers at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in what was then Soviet Ukraine performed a safety test at the plant’s No. 4 reactor. It did not go well."

To contain the mess an aluminum structure is STILL being built.

"The arch, called the New Safe Confinement, is being built — at a cost of at least $1.7 billion — to last 100 years. Inside, the radioactivity levels will be so high that normal maintenance, like painting, will not be possible. So inside and out, the arch is covered in stainless steel, and dehumidified air will be circulated around the structure’s steel trusses to prevent rust."

Check out these haunting images from the aftermath of the meltdown.

What's In The News - 26 Apr

1. Evolving the Game

I don't even watch pro basketball any more, but I'm fascinated by what Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors are accomplishing. These articles (It's a Point Guard's Game and The Golden State Warriors Have Revolutionized Basketball) give an idea how the game is evolving and it's kind of cool.

"When the NBA added the lines in 1979, the players weren't sure what to think. They sniffed and pawed at them like cats with a new toy. Only 3% of the shots they put up that season were 3-pointers."

"Over the next three decades, that number crept higher. When it reached 22%, the growth curve flattened. It seemed that the sport had found its optimal ratio."

"Then the Golden State Warriors came along and blew that assumption to pieces."

"Team executives saw the 3-point line as a market inefficiency and unleashed Stephen Curry to exploit it."

Golden State's coach, Steve Kerr, was in the right place at the right time to get a look at the future...

“Nash and the Suns helped open everyone’s minds, and from that, the creativity really took off,” said Golden State Coach Steve Kerr, who was the Phoenix general manager from 2007 to 2010. “Basketball has so many innovative minds. It was only a matter of time before every advantage of this era would be exploited.”

2. “We are dropping cyberbombs”

Looks like we are going on the cyber offensive with ISIS. Because ISIS is not a "state," (although, they hold a bunch of territory and would like to think of themselves as one) it's ok to use cyber offensive tools against them.

"While officials declined to discuss the details of their operations, interviews with more than a half-dozen senior and midlevel officials indicate that the effort has begun with a series of “implants” in the militants’ networks to learn the online habits of commanders. Now, the plan is to imitate them or to alter their messages, with the aim of redirecting militants to areas more vulnerable to attack by American drones or local ground forces."

3. The Last Frontier

Everyone is focused on the Middle East and Asia, but there is a pitched battle playing out in the arctic and the stakes are high.

"The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic holds a staggering 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil, approximately 90 billion barrels, as well as 30 percent of its natural gas, or about 1,669 trillion cubic feet."

4. Poor Tiger Woods

Tiger will be back and he will beat Nicklaus's record.

"In the 1,303 days between his father's death and the fire hydrant, Tiger set in motion all those things, and when he can finally go back and make a full accounting of his life, he'll realize that winning the 2008 U.S. Open a year before the scandal, with a broken leg and torn ACL, was the closest he ever got to BUD/S. He could barely walk and he still beat everyone in the world. He won and has never been the same. The loneliness and pain tore apart his family, and the injuries destroyed his chance to beat Nicklaus and to leave fame behind and join the Navy. He lost his dad, and then his focus, and then his way, and everything else came falling down too."

5. Global For-Profit Schools

I'm not completely sure how to feel about this. On the surface it seems a little shady, but drilling down into the details you can see how the idea could be a good thing for the students attending and the businesses that set up the infrastructure.

"Investment firm GSV Advisors recently estimated the annual global outlay on education at $5.5 trillion and growing rapidly. Let that number sink in for a second - it's a doozy. The figure is nearly on par with the global health care industry, but there is no Big Pharma yet in education. Most of the money circulates with government bureaucracies."