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I love it when my anecdotal observations get a dose of validation. In April of 2006 I blogged about how cell-phone-driving-safety studies dealt only with the distraction they cause drivers, and not the effects of drivers slowing down the whole flow of traffic while on the phone.

A University of Utah study released this week confirms just that:

"At the end of the day, the average person's commute is longer because of that person who is on the cell phone right in front of them," says University of Utah psychology Professor Dave Strayer, leader of the research team. "That SOB on the cell phone is slowing you down and making you late."

As a bonus, my observation that every cable in my house ultimately gets tangled beyond recognition with every other cable has been validated by researchers at the University of California at San Diego who have proposed a simplified model for knot formation. I don't think I could tangle my cables so badly if I deliberately tried to; fortunately I don't have to.

Forbes.com ran a story this week by a couple of marketing-strategists, Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak, on the surging popularity of Ayn Rand's Objectivism, a philosophy centered on rational egoism. Yaron Brook has been doing an amazing job running the the Ayn Ran Institute, especially in his drive to put copies of Rand's novels in high schools. The article calls out a tripling of resources since 2000 (to $7mil), but I would draw the real surge to 2001. I'm sure many people felt the way I did that September, that the ARI was an organization that could best fight for my values in a time when it seems to be so desperately needed.

But this post isn't a advertisement for Objectivism, rather it's about advertising Objectivism. The article is particularly interesting because it offers advice on how to improve the promotion of the philosophy. They are (paraphrased):

• Pick your demographic: conservatives who are fed up with the religious right
• Ask for help from those who already agree with you: business people
• Use traditional mass media: get on TV and in movies (Atlas Shrugged starring Angelina Jolie comes out next year)
• Be positive: state how things ought to be instead of complaining about how things are wrong
• Pick fights: imitate the Republicans by using wedge issues to keep people talking
• Use the Internet: communities formed around blogs are increasingly driving political debate, and now virtual worlds like Second Life are having an impact

Tomorrow, June 26, the SaveNetRadio coalition has called for a national day of silence to protest higher royalty fees that go into effect July 15. The new fees effectively put out of business the smaller Net radio stations.  Yesterday, Adam Curry made a great point about the situation. The increased fees apply to all music by default, but other agreements can take precedence. Therefore, if someone sets up an alternative system for granting performance rights for music, broadcasters could continue so long as they only use music from the alternative system.

Well, Adam already did this a couple years ago.  It's called the PodSafe Music Network. In the spirit of the Internet, it's a route around an obstruction, in this case the RIAA. While most of the content there is indie, there are some big name acts. There are definitely some great acts there that aren't big names but should be, such as Brother Love.

One of my favorite Net radio stations is SOMA.FM's Boot Liquor station. The overwhelming majority of the content on there is no major label content. It's music I haven't heard elsewhere. It's entirely possible for those acts to make themselves podsafe. And I wouldn't be surprised if an artist like Willie Nelson could make his catalog podsafe. This is how we change things on the Internet. It's the PBS model to annoy their listeners until they get enough money.  The Internet model is to stop whining and start routing around: do it yourself. 

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People at Clear Ink are information junkies. I regularly read around 115 blogs and news sites. While I can't guarantee that this is totally healthy... I can tell you that it would be totally impossible without the use of RSS feeds. I know that RSS is still a scary sounding, geeky acronym for a lot of people so last year I wrote a post on how to Explain RSS the Oprah Way, but now the folks at The Common Craft Show have produced this fun, 5-minute, white-board cartoon to help new comers get acquainted with the basics.

Here's a link to the Clear Night Sky RSS feed if you want one to play with.

Time names "you" the 2006 person of the year. "You" meaning bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, and other web content creators. The issue includes some articles to help non-geek readers get their heads around Web 2.0 and Second Life, but as much as I love all this stuff... come on... naming "you" as the person of the year is pretty lame. It reminds me of the rant that Chuck Klosterman did in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs about how the "everybody wins" ethic in 4th grade soccer is ruining our young people.

Anyway, congratulations! You all deserve it, especially Lasse Gjertsen.