Hightower Lowdown
"Everybody does better when everybody does better." -- Jim's dad, W.F. "High" Hightower
In This Issue
Some random thoughts on the 2004 Presidential race
December's Lowdown
The many REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL after Election Day 2008
After casting her ballot for Barack Obama, Amanda Jones said simply, "I feel good about voting for him." Ms. Jones, of Cedar Creek, Texas (a town just south of Austin), is African-American, and what gives her vote some historic punch is that she's 109 years old. Her father was a slave. Her mother was born right after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. She's been through it all--Jim Crow segregation, women's suffrage, the Great Depression, the poll tax, FDR, the civil-rights movement, desegregation, 13 years of George W (five as guv, eight as prez), and now: Barack Obama. This last change fills her with joy, she says.
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Consumerism gets under your skin
A company called Applied Digital Solutions wants to implant a tiny "Radio Frequency ID? microchip in your arm. Why? Because RFID chips will eliminate the heavy burden of having to carry credit cards and remember your ATM numbers. Instead, your arm becomes your card and your ID number-put it under a scanner and your embedded radio chip sends a digital signal to the computer, allowing you to complete your transaction. ADS calls its microchip "VeriPay.?
People lose their credit cards, and "VeriPay solves that problem,? says a corporate PR flack, cheerfully noting that ADS's chip "is subdermal and very difficult to lose. You don't leave it sitting in the back seat of a taxi.?
Subdermal or not, your ID number can still be stolen by a geeky thief who intercepts your radio-transmitted number, then plays it back later to your ATM, emptying your account.
So what if your number is stolen, or you switch creditcard companies? No problem, says the PR guy, just "go to a doctor and have it removed,? adding, "I call it an opt-out feature.?
Since ADS stock has plummeted from $12 a share three years ago to about 40 cents today, I wouldn't entrust two bits to them, much less my arm.