Podcast 291

Time Machine. Take a break from the thrum of the daily news cycle, climb aboard The Bob Davis Podcasts Time Machine. If you could go back to anytime in history, where and when would you choose? Live from the Living Room of the Broadcast Bunker. If you love to read history, sometimes don’t you wish you could open a book, and go to the era written about? What eras and places would you visit and why? The 1920’s, Civil War, Ancient Greece, China about 600 years ago or India nearly a thousand years ago. What about Chicago in the 1890’s. Most people pick different eras for different reasons, and the times they pick to visit or to live in, are often windows into their personalities. Did people in different time periods understand what was happening in their world any more than we understand what is happening in ours? If we were to visit those times, even knowing what happened, let alone detailed knowledge of history, how would our own perceptions about a time change? How great would be to be able to visit the street you grew up on at different times, and see if it lives up to your memories. Another difference is age, as it relates to the times people want to visit. Younger people these days are interested in the 1970’s, even though not every house had brown shag carpeting, egg shell hanging chairs, and a brand new Admiral Color TV. Even the most recent eras in our history seem like they happened a million years ago. Believe it or not, cell phones were still physically huge in the 1990’s, and got really hot after about ten minutes of talking. And what about visiting the future? How far forward would you go, and what do you think you would find there? (Editor’s Note: My head hurts.) Sponsored by My Complete Basement and DepotStar.

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Podcast 281

Live From The Living Room. There’s no plastic wrap on the furniture, but The Bob Davis Podcasts is live from the living room, updating you on the last few stories of 2014. No, there are no countdown lists, best of’s, worst of’s, rankings or other nonsense to tell you how ‘special’ 2014 was, in its final hours, as we head to the New Year’s this week. Remember all those sale price deals from Black Friday? With the Christmas season over, the returns begin. Retailers now take your return, put it in a box, and send it to an online liquidator, which sells it for pennies on the dollar. While retailers moan and groan about Internet sales, they continue to follow business and customer service models that seem like they’re from the 1980’s, let alone 21st century. Making customers traipse across town to find items they need now, offering discounts only after you send in the rebate, not having items in stock, and of course, not seeming to care when customers find the sweater they paid 150 dollars for on some online liquidator for 20 dollars. Did you watch Sony’s The Interview on You Tube? If you did, or tried to, you discovered the hoops you have to jump through to see it. Now iTunes will feature the ‘controversial’ and critically panned comedy about the assassination on North Korea’s ‘Leader’, Kim Jong Un, and you can rent it for 5.99. Wonder if Sony’s intention all along was to bypass the theaters to be able to release first run films to VOD? Jeb Bush as ‘surged’ to the ‘top’ of all potential Republicans candidates for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, and here come the articles extolling his so called conservative virtues. Do we really have to ask whether Bush is conservative? Are Republicans going to fall for this trick again? (Editor’s Note: Probably? Yes.) What’s needed is a radical reduction in the scope, size, cost and power of all government. The new technologies want Low Entropy systems, and Government is one of the highest entropy systems known to man. Jeb Bush will not ‘make government work’ any more than Barack Obama did. And speaking of the President; Despite the departing Congress’ effort to remove funding for Obama’s immigration ‘executive memorandum’ on immigration, the White House is spending at least 50 million dollar to hire a thousand federal employees and set them up in a building near Washington to process all the illegals effected by the order. Yep. Don’t use existing bureaus because that might actually make sense. But don’t worry, Bush III will fix that. Finally, MSNBC acknowledged it has a terrible year (because it blows), and the network will begin offering digitally delivered programming, mostly sports. Bob Davis has already predicted the network will go all sports soon. Not only is the retail model ‘so 1999’, so is the model for talk radio, and cable television news services. Sponsored by Depotstar.

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Podcast 228

Predicting the Future. Are TV shows and movies predicting the future? How do humans predict the future? On Wall Street they use computers and physics to create algorithms to tell traders what is happening across a wide spectrum of the market, and help make trading decisions. Other traders and analysis use models and theories like the Elliot Wave Theory, The Dow Theory and other technical analysis disciplines. Some people prefer Astrology, Tarot and other forms of Divination. Some suggest humans don’t predict the future well at all. Aside from the idea we are writing history as it happens, not living it as it is fated, it’s fun to ask whether movies and TV shows have some ability to predict the future, whether the writers and producers of those movies know it or not. Why do we resonate – internationally – on certain movies. ‘Titanic’ was a hugely popular movie, right before 9/11. A whole slew of movies at the end of the 90’s – from American Beauty and Magnolia to Fight Club and The Matrix – seem to predict a much more chaotic and unpredictable world than what we were experiencing during the Clinton Era. Would anyone argue we seem to be living in a world that is increasingly chaotic and unpredictable? Did the movies ‘predict’ it, or ‘depict’ it subconsciously? Or are these movies a subtle form of propaganda, pushing us subconsciously toward this kind of world? Finally, there’s TV. The shows we love. The shows we binge watch. House of Cards, Homeland, Breaking Bad, MadMen, and The Walking Dead. Shows that seem to be depicting a world where people in authority have short term, selfish and cynical views on how to manage, are just managing a government seconds from catastrophe, are losing their grip on reality, or are literally running from crowds of zombies. With the Ebola and Enterovirus outbreaks, border security in question, presidential security in question, thousands of thugs loose in the desert beheading people and keeping western governments at bay, economies slowing down, and confusion about what comes next, it makes you wonder. Will a new era break through, creating chaos and washing away the old, or will be it brought through by people who are free to innovate and solve problems? It’s up to us. Sponsored by Baklund R & D.

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