PRI's The World: Tech Podcast 233 -- The One with Twittering Taco Trucks

March 02, 2009

OK, I love a good taco, especially one served up by a mobile taco truck in SoCal. I also love Korean BBQ. And while I have not yet consumed the Twitter Kool-Aid, I can definitely see the micro-blogging service's appeal. So, just imagine my surprise and delight when a story pitch that combines all three of these marvelous things crossed my desk a couple of weeks ago. There's no question that the Kogi Korean Taco Truck is the undisputed champion segment of this week's Technology Podcast (WTP 233). But kimchi quesadillas can't just be heard...and so here's a nifty audio slideshow for you:

Right, well you're probably too hungry now to read about the rest of the podcast, but here goes anyway. We start this week's show with a very interesting interview about how the technologies used to capture and distribute photographic images of the war dead have changed over the decades. The idea for this segment was sparked by last week's announcement that the Pentagon is reversing a ban on news media publishing pictures of the flag-draped coffins of soldiers. It will now be left to the families to decide whether the pictures can be published. We speak with documentary photographer David Perlmutter.

We also take an in-depth look at some potentially big news from Iran. The Iranian government allowed reporters inside Bushehr, the country's nuclear facility. The reporters were given a guided tour designed to showcase the beginning of some critical testing of the facility. Iran says its for energy purposes only, while many in the West aren't so sure. We hear from a reporter allowed inside the facility, and hear analysis from Ben Rhode of the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

And it's been kind of a roller-coaster week and a half for the social networking site Facebook. It all started when the massively popular service announced a few "tweaks," to its terms of service. Some felt the tweaks amounted to something quite sinister, claiming that the changes meant that anything anyone posted to Facebook would be owned, well, by Facebook. In perpetuity. Even if you deleted your account. Whew. The Electronic Privacy Information Center was only one of many organizations that threw a fit. Fittingly, Facebook groups against the new terms of service formed, and quickly. Facebook then countered by revoking the new terms of service, and has opted for a more community based approach to how the site is managed and governed. We get a much-needed reality check on the Facebook about-face.

Oh, and by the way, one of the UK's leading neuroscientists, Susan Greenfield, takes a swipe at Facbook and other social networking sites, claiming that they may in fact be bad for kid's brains. Is this just the old "video games are bad for you" argument, only for the Web 2.0 set? You can decide for yourself. I offer you Greenfield's argument in the podcast, but you can get more analysis here and here.

Fittingly, you can find WTP on Facebook and Twitter. Fry your brain along with us. You can hear all of WTP 233 by just clicking below!

(Screengrab from Facebook, naturally)

Comments

[Levi]

I love this show, but had to find a place to add a rebuttal to Susan Greenfield's dismissal of computer games because they lack depth and are merely a 'save the princess' activity. She obviously hasn't engaged deeply in this area or fully examined the wide range of game experiences that exist. To say that games lack the emotional connection people find in books does a disservice to many great stories within games. From the unique story telling style of the Halflife series (anyone who can play Episode 2 and still claim games can't have emotional depth truly has no heart) to the very experimental styles of indie games like Braid, there are many stories to be told. Some games have a strict narrative they wish to tell the player, while others allow the player to make their own story. It's a very different medium than books or movies or radio, and one that is still evolving and growing.

Now, there are of course many games, the majority perhaps, that don't push the player in any narrative sense. There are many that should in no way be played by children. Too often however, the critics only focus themselves upon a select few examples while ignoring many other games with truly compelling, interesting, and fulfilling play.