Free stuff kills jobs.

Finally someone said it!

I’ve been catching up on some reading lately and saw an article in the Sunday New York Times from November 18, 2012, entitled, “In Apps Boom, Few Are Realizing Wealth in a Crowded Field.”

One sentence shook me at the core. An MIT economist explained how technology was eating up employment. “Technology is always destroying jobs and creating jobs,” said Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the M.I.T. Center for Digital Business. “But in recent years, the destruction has been happening faster than the creation.”

I’ve known this and blogged about it for some time. I’ve discussed it with my big brother, who is an engineer and retired Navy captain with an expansive life experience in technology, including missile defense systems. “I feel like we’re reaching a state of entropy,” I told him. “We’re getting to the point where technology is becoming socially counterproductive. It’s eliminating jobs and performing some functions that are not really adding value, while at the same time providing remarkable advantages.”

Simultaneously, we’ve reached an era when the world expects so much for free, and it just isn’t working. For example, Automobile Club members used to receive trip directions as a courtesy for their premiums and travel agents worked on commission from airlines and hotels. Now we use Google and MapQuest at no charge and no one requests a triptik from AAA. But we also make our own travel arrangements and hunt for deals.

Computers enable customers to do all kinds of jobs for free. Shoppers check themselves out; consumers pay bills and bank online; travelers book airline tickets; drivers pump gas and pay for it at the pump, and investors buy and sell with the click of a mouse. In some cases, like Internet stock trades, automation saves us money. In most cases, it spares us nothing, while costing us jobs and making corporations huge profits.

Recently my wife, Ellen, and I flew out of Detroit Metro airport on a weekday morning. The Delta agent stood with nothing to do, while she pointed dozens of passengers to kiosks so they could process their own boarding passes. We lifted our luggage onto the scale while we paid the airlines $85 in luggage fees. Think about it, we paid extra to work as airline employees.

I predict in time there will be no boarding/baggage agent at all. Think I’m foolish? Is there a teller at the ATM? Who checks your oil and windshield solvent at the gas station? And now, you pay to put air in your tires.

“But,” you protest, “computer technology is creating enormous job opportunities for software developers.” Indeed, there has been an explosion in the sector of computer engineers, according to the latest government data. The New York Times reports there are now more than one million geeks, outnumbering farmers in the United States.

These are highly technical jobs that few can do. How profitable are they? Well, that depends. The New York Times suggests a minority of geeks are making a living by writing  smart phone and tablet applications. Yet, independent developers often put up a life’s savings to develop and promote their ideas.

Meanwhile, Apple is making a fortune on the work of these brilliant inventors, taking 30% of every buck spent on some 700,000 apps that work with the iPhone and iPad. And Apple doesn’t invest a penny for development. They simply wet their beaks at the App Store. It’s a monopoly. Anyone who wants to write an app for Apple’s devices has no choice.

We’ve reached a time when free is an expectation of big business, except when it comes to the prices they charge for consumer goods and services. Yet, creative people continue to be pressed to give away their services and inventions while we chase our tails in search of a better economy.

We used to develop and make things for a good day’s wage. Now we give them away in hopes of a false promise of sharing in some future success. For example, when our sons were young, we spent $2,000 with Encyclopedia Britannica to ensure they had valuable information at their fingertips. Now, there’s Wikipedia, a free, online resource that begs for contributions, because it’s “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” That also means no one can genuinely rely on it, at least not with the confidence Britannica provided. By the way, you can now buy the final print edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. It’s becoming a free online reference. When you search a topic, you’ll see ads alongside content. Commercially-sponsored education.  

We have bought into a virtual world where nothing is real, because it can change in a moment. The same is true for the facts in our record of history. As newspapers eliminate print editions, the final edition is never filed. And this trend will continue as long as we can read electronic newspapers for free.

Free has a price, and sometimes the costs are hidden until they pile up in the backroom, like so many unemployment claims and foreclosures. Every time your grocery store gets you to pay them for the privilege to bag your own groceries, that’s a job you’re killing.

In support of the real world where all work has value that should be rewarded, this is my final, free blog for the Dearborn Press & Guide. I will not write for free, unless it’s for my church or a charity. To my family, friends and business colleagues, I’ll continue to post via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. But I can’t support a system that kills jobs.

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts. You deserve paid, professional journalism and commentary. 

Paying for TV isn’t going away. Same story, different URL.

Something happened on election night that flew under the radar of most TV networks. CNN garnered nearly 9 million viewers. But according to TheTVNews.TV, 10 million people chose to get their election coverage via streaming Web video provided by ABC-Yahoo in a joint feed.

This could be the tipping point for what we consider traditional television. You know, you turn it on, select a channel and sit back and watch in your family room courtesy of your antenna, satellite or cable. But now, you can dial up a lot of TV on your tablet, even if you don’t have cable access.

If you watched the University of Notre Dame football game Saturday night, you saw all the promos for ESPN Apps. They allow you to watch the game on the wall and another contest with the app in your lap. This is picture-in-picture on steroids.

The Big Ten Network promotes Big Ten to Go. HBO Go offers similar benefits. If you have HBO with your cable or satellite subscription, you can get the network’s entire archive on your device, whether that's a desktop computer or a smartphone.

And the Apps are free. So, where’s the rub?

Here’s my prediction, within a couple years, ESPN, HBO, Showtime and even broadcast networks will offer to sell you subscriptions directly. They’ll sidestep cable and satellite companies and offer more and more content via the Web, whether you access it through cellular service or a hardline.

Over-the-air broadcasting will make a brief comeback for live sports and events like the Oscars. You’ll put an antenna on your roof while you dish the dish and make Xfinity your x. The Web will connect you with most of your regular shows and you’ll buy the rest on demand and on impulse. That’s why Comcast bought NBC Universal.

One other scoop from my media crystal ball. Since you won’t need a broadcast license or a network to start a show, look for a mini explosion of viral, local programs about news you can use close to home.

It’s not a matter of if, just when. Stay tuned.

Waves of gratitude flow from the box office to your holiday table.

The end of the year has a way of bringing out the worst in some of us. Families get together for the holidays in the name of tradition that sometimes becomes onerous obligation. Often the anxiety starts weeks before, until it climaxes over the giblets, gravy and pumpkin pie, as heartburn and gall deck the halls.

But there’s a movie debuting in the U.S. this December 21 that will give any viewer some perspective on real family problems and an attitude of gratitude. “The Impossible” recreates the gripping, real-world drama of a family that survived the 2004 South Asian tsunami. That’s right, it’s based on the true story of two parents and their three sons who miraculously escape sheer obliteration and savage evisceration at the hands of a most merciless and unpredictable natural enemy. Eight years ago, an undersea earthquake triggered an Indian Ocean tidal wave that wiped out communities in 14 nations and killed over 200,000 people the day after Christmas.

Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor and three handsome and remarkably talented lads deliver riveting performances in depicting the Owens family, the quintet that vacationed in Thailand, only to endure the massive waves that suddenly swelled to 30 meters. The special effects are beyond realistic, the sound design mesmerizing and the search to reunite the scattered family is one of Biblical proportions.

The studio, Summit Entertainment, a Lionsgate Company, sent me an advance review copy of the film for the purpose of voting on upcoming Hollywood movie awards. On the heels of Hurricane Sandy, this true story makes an especially powerful and poignant impact and underscores just how fragile life is and how blessed we are every day we evade tragedy.

So, when any of your relatives says or does something thoughtless this Thanksgiving, Christmas or any other time, be grateful you’re alive to endure their company and appreciate the qualities that make them unique.

Savor every moment, whether rare or burnt to a crisp. Happy Holidays.

Musical rewind: turning time backward is sounding better by the minute

I’m having an affair.

It started innocently enough. Our old receiver/audio controller died and I had to buy a new one to enjoy music and HDTV in stereo. Of course, that meant a digital system as opposed to the old analog setup.  When I plugged our old school turntable into the new device, the sound was thin and scratchy. A little Web research revealed the source of the problem. Digital sound systems don't include preamplifiers in the phonograph jack. In fact, there are no designated inputs for phono.

Now there was no way my wife, Ellen, and I were going to blow off our collection of vinyl records. Jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, classical, blues, Christmas, even an antique 78 rpm recording of Charles Lawton as Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, circa 1946 on the Decca Records label. Four, 12-inch discs that include music and sound effects to dramatize the literary classic.

So, we’d invest in a turntable. As a former DJ for my college radio station, WAYN 860AM (Wayne State University), I wasn’t satisfied with the belt-drive Sony model available at Best Buy for 100 bucks. After all, this was undoubtedly going to be the last turntable we bought in our lives. Audio-Technica offered a professional grade, direct drive model that included a preamp, standard RCA stereo jacks and USB port. Plus, the turntable included the well-reviewed Audacity software to convert the output of our analog discs into digital files.

Out came Chicago, Stevie Wonder, Maynard Ferguson, Deodato, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Grover Washington, Jr., Miles Davis, Modern Jazz Quartet, Pat Metheny, The Commodores, Chopin, Kris Kristofferson,  Neil Diamond, Dave Brubeck, Joe Cocker and Bob Dylan. And that’s just scratching the surface — no pun intended.

It was like reconnecting with a long lost love. The tactile experience of handling and cleaning an oversized disk; selecting playback speed; dropping the needle on the desired track and flipping the record over for side two unleashed a tidal wave of memories. The sound was real and deliciously imperfect. It was authentic and not virtual like compact discs and electronic files that only exist as ones and zeroes. The jacket art was larger and colorful. I have rediscovered a passion of my youth.

It’s no secret that I’m not the only rejuvenated vinyl addict. J&R, the New York City electronics store, ran a full-page ad on the back of the Arts & Leisure section of this Sunday’s New York Times, promoting classic albums on vinyl. They’re selling The Beatles starting at $20.00 per LP. That’s Long Play record for you new school kids.

In my neighborhood, Dearborn, Michigan, we’re still blessed to have a good old-fashioned local record shop, Dearborn Music. In fact, after 53 years at their iconic location on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Monroe, the store is moving a little West off the avenue to Newman Street across from Sacred Heart Church. The new spot is smaller, but the store still offers its full collection of CDs and LPs, new and used. The Beatles Abbey Road LP is in stock at Dearborn Music for $14.07.

Oh! Darling! I think its time for a vinyl holiday party. 

The call for change must be answered, no matter who wins the election.

There were four political robo-call voice mails to erase on Saturday. I deleted four more on Sunday. The voices were rehearsed and the words uninspired. Never could understand why campaigns pay for these nuisances and couldn’t imagine a voter listening to one, until I’d seen some of the snide and vicious barbs people write to each other about candidates and public policy on Facebook and Twitter. The person-to-person remarks make the negative TV and radio ads look like Sesame Street, with Big Bird debating Elmo.

And when the smoke clears and the dust settles on Wednesday, what we’ll have left is a very divided country. But what’s new? That’s America from the beginning. Acrimonious and apathetic until the stuff hits the fan, or the tea hits the water.  Took years to pass the Constitution. Dixie seceded and more than 750,000 died before the emancipation of slaves and the end to the Civil War. Had a century of segregation before civil rights.  Had more than two years of the Nazi blitzkrieg and the bombing of Pearl Harbor before the self-proclaimed greatest generation stepped up to battle the axis powers. A few hundred thousand Americans served multiple tours of duty in Iraq and we ran up a trillion dollar tab before the second Iraqi war ended, with hardly a peep or a protest from average citizens.

We’ve had assassinations and many attempts during political campaigns and a history of voter suppression. Look how long it took for women to vote. But at no time in U.S. history have we ever had the billions spent on a presidential election that were poured into this one. Will we ever know how much was really spent? Constitutionally, corporations are now considered people. The question is: how will the people cooperate beginning Wednesday morning, November 7, 2012?

As much as Americans complain about negative campaigning, our politics and our politicians are a reflection of our own intellectual character and the quality of the debate we demand. How well do we know the issues? Are we content to indulge our ignorance and volley uninformed platitudes until the next congressional election? The problems that face us are unparalleled in a global marketplace.

Do we have the courage to face them, the integrity to solve them and the ingenuity to transcend them?

Destiny is calling. And if we don’t respond, it won’t leave a message.

We have the technology to filter lies out of politics

In the wake of the second presidential debate, there was significant consternation over the role of moderator, Candy Crowley. When Republican candidate Mitt Romney pointed to a comment by President Barrack Obama and said he wanted it noted for the record, Crowley confirmed the record based on a speech Obama had made in the White House Rose Garden regarding the Libyan terror attack on a U.S. consulate. Unfortunately for Romney, the transcript favored the president.

Facts can be both embarrassing and liberating. The truth shall set you free.  Validation of truth is what these debates have lacked. Instead, networks like CNN have offered real-time trend lines in green and yellow across the screen depicting word-by-word reactions of focus groups viewing the debate. So, as a viewer, I know what independent voters think of a candidate’s comments, but I don’t know if the remarks are actually accurate or convenient fabrication.

We have the technology to superimpose validation on the screen moments after a candidate makes a statement. We can also designate when he or she is in error. When a two-minute time allotment runs out, we have the technology to mute the speaker’s microphone. When a candidate interrupts, we have the ability to cut off his microphone and even mask his image from viewers. When a politician stretches the truth or snaps it in half, production crews can superimpose a Pinocchio nose on the screen. Three Pinocchio’s and you’re out!

The irony is, we have multiple angles and instant replays on a sports play to determine whether the player scored. Was the ball in or out? Was the shot down before time expired? But when life and death decisions like foreign affairs depend on the results of an election, we have to wait days or sometimes years to learn the truth.

But with the billions pouring into elections, don’t expect to see any real journalism in the near future. Tight elections make the media a lot of money. And that’s the truth.

Is instant replay the answer to sports officiating? Be careful what you wish for!

How would you like a job where everything you do is captured by video cameras from multiple angles? Then, that recording is replayed for your customers, supervisors and shareholders. They watch you work task by task and evaluate your performance.

Sounds like a job from hell, right? Welcome to big league professional and college sports officiating. A few weeks ago, our country was up in arms about replacement NFL officials who got a game ending touchdown call wrong. If there’s one thing we learned during the lockout of NFL refs, it’s how good those officials are.

Major League Baseball’s postseason has already had a number of officiating blunders, including a blown infield-fly-rule call in the National League's Wild Card contest between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves. Today, an umpire tossed out New York Yankee Manager, Joe Girardi, after the skipper argued about a call the ump blew on a tag at second base.

Managers kicking dirt on the umpire’s shoes is part of what makes baseball a boy’s game played by men. So, is the human factor that decides bang-bang plays. Everybody likes to jaw about the mistakes officials make in pro sports. We forget all the times the cameras prove the official was dead right when we thought he needed to see his eye doctor.

Yet, the talk today on TBS after Girardi hit the showers early was that something needed to be done about the umpiring mistakes and instant replay might be the answer.

As a former television director, I can confidently tell you cameras lie even more than politicians. Angles can create the illusion of reality that can deceive even the savviest viewer. In fact, we use a term in the business called “cheat”. That’s when actors position themselves in a way that makes them appear to be facing or looking in a different direction than they actually are. I can easily make two performers look like their talking face to face, when they’re really reading cue cards over the other’s shoulder.

Roll that concept into the equation when people scream for more instant replays to decide the results of athletic events. The sad part is that sports were once played for the fans in the stands. Now, they’re all about the TV audience. Players don’t pitch, run, throw, catch, interfere, kick, skate, hold, dribble, stick handle, spear, and shoot in slow motion. But replays painstakingly occur in super-slow-motion, at frame-by-frame rates with stop action freezes to split milliseconds. By the way, there are 30 frames in a single second of video, and each frame has two fields. Not football or baseball fields, but electronically interlaced images.

Pitchers hurl fastballs well in excess of 90 miles per hour. Speed demons run 40-yard passing routes in less than 4.3 seconds. Pucks clank off crossbars in less than the blink of an eye, and desperation basketball treys are launched as hundredths of seconds tick down. If you think you can officiate a sports contest better than the zebras and the guys in blue, think again.

Sure, there are memorable mistakes like the night umpire Jim Joyce cost Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game, because he blew a call on what should have been the final out. Joyce later cried real tears about his error and Galarraga forgave him. The reason we remember those events is because they are so rare.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer to watch my sports in real time. I can’t imagine baseball being any slower or enduring more breaks in the action of a football game. Besides, if we relied on replays to decide everything, we’d miss the fun of watching all those coaches and managers stomping their feet, waving their fingers and throwing tantrums.

Go Tigers and enjoy the World Series.

Only innovation can really save the car business, and Apple has the juice to do it.

Generations X and Y grew up chauffeured in boring minivans and SUVs. The midsize cars in which these kids munched goldfish and raisins were virtual clones and brands were indistinguishable.  And now we wonder why those same kids aren’t buying cars? They weren’t inspired by Corvettes, Camaros, GTOs, Firebirds, Mustangs, Barracudas and the like. The 1990s and the 21^st century have produced a lot of snoring wheels.

It’s not surprising car guys are predicting that sometime in the next twenty years or so, we may actually see demand for autos decline in the United States. When boomers hang up their keys, you can expect car sales to plummet. Unless, of course, wheels become cool again to their kids and grandkids.

How does Detroit reverse the declining trend? I think the answer is for GM or another carmaker to team up with Apple. The Silicon Valley super-brand has a knack for getting people of all ages to pour money into their products, and dump perfectly good gadgets for newer generations of the same technology. And with its stock value at about $650 per share, the tech giant has the bucks to invest an automotive line of products.

Perhaps an exclusively electric power plant, unlike the Volt, with automated highway capability, active-passive integrated safety technologies to make crashes virtually impossible. Of course, any Apple vehicle would be an icon for design and a real head-turner.

There’s a profound irony here. Steve Job’s adoptive dad, Paul Jobs, was a machinist who Steve described as “a genius with his hands.” The senior Jobs loved to tinker with autos. He’d buy used cars, fix them up and sell them for a profit, frequently schooling young Steve on Detroit style and industrial design.  Deep down, Apple has wheels in its DNA.

I’m only half kidding about Apple marrying an auto manufacturer. There was a time when GM and Ford produced home appliances in addition to cars. Remember the Frigidaire and Philco brands? All that is old is new again. I predict Apple is going to hook up with some other consumer products company. They could probably make anything that works, work better.

Innovative darling, Tesla Motors, is a thriving car company that has designed very hot-looking and expensive electric chariots. The S Model starts at about $50, 000. The carmaker recently announced plans to expand its network of proprietary charging stations to blanket the U.S. in the next two years.  They currently have six power plug-in devices across California that can fully charge a Tesla in one hour. That delivers 300 miles of driving. A half-hour provides 150 miles of Tesla juice. The technology is getting better and electric is going to change the way we think about commuting, especially with gas reaching five bucks a gallon this week in the Golden State.

And Tesla models look nothing like gas-powered clones mainstream carmakers churn out. They’re sexy.

My suggestion is that GM plug into Apple before Tesla or someone else does. I’ll bet Ford wishes they had put Macs in their cars instead of the Microsoft Sync.

Today’s kids pay a bundle for smartphones, tablets and monthly fees for continuous connectivity. If you want them to fall in love with your ride, it has to take them places the information highway can’t. Remember the way the rumble of a 327 V8 engine could send electricity up your spine? America is ready for another jolt of excitement and liberty from mediocre design and paralyzing prices at the pump.

It’s time for Detroit to plug in to what America loves best. It's the power of I, as in innovation and  iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad. Now imagine iDrive. 

This news just in: Don’t let the election blitz block out the local stories you love.

During election season, it’s harder than usual to poke through the clutter with news. Especially if it’s not breaking.

For example, hockey fans, did you know that Detroit Red Wing Hall of Famer Ted Lindsey, will accept a Spirit of St. Nicholas Award from Michigan’s St. Nicholas Institute next week? That’s right. The new organization will honor Terrible Ted for his softer side at a banquet on Wednesday evening, October 3, in Livonia. Lindsey has been humble about the foundation he established in 2001, raising more than $1.5 million to combat Autism and several children’s neurological disorders. The hockey great has also actively raised funds for The Michigan Special Olympics, Canadian Special Olympics, Canadian Alzheimer’s Association and wheelchair hockey.

The same night, the St. Nicholas Institute will bestow its Lifetime Achievement Award on Irene and Wally Bronner, founders of Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Michigan.

If you’d like to attend the banquet and meet Lindsey and the Bronners, as well as a Santa Claus himself, you can learn more at: www.stnicholasinstitute.org.

No matter what you think about the recent political debates on the 47% of Americans who pay no income taxes, there are thousands in the Detroit area who are slipping through the social safety net. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul  (SVdP) is holding its annual Friends of the Poor Walk this weekend so you can help make a difference by walking a mile or two in their shoes. There’s still time to be a walker, sponsor or donor or all of the above. This Saturday, September 29, more than 18,000 walkers across the country will take to the streets to raise money to support the SVdP and its work with the needy in 1,000 locations across the U.S. In Detroit, the walk begins at Milliken State Park downtown at 10 a.m. You can register to pitch in at: www.svdpusa.net/pledgathon/public/index.php.

Here in Dearborn you can call Sacred Heart Church at 313.278.5555 or Divine Child Church 313.277.3110 and they’ll be happy to help you get your donation to the poor and the SVdP.

Finally, don’t forget the historic Redford Theatre is showing Alfred Hitchcock’s classic “The Birds” this Friday and Saturday. One of the stars of the film, Tippi Hedren will appear in person at the event. She’s the mother of actress Melanie Griffith’s who starred in “Working Girl.” Ms. Hedren will sign autographs an hour before each showing of the horror flick. The Redford is a wonderful venue and attendance helps support the Motor City Theatre Organ Society. The group of volunteers saved and operates the theater.  For details, visit: www.redfordtheatre.com.

Now, wasn’t it good to forget about the elections for just a few minutes?

Smart phones create a head down approach to life.

Riding a bike can be hazardous to your health, especially if you’re around people who are connected.

I routinely ride a bicycle for exercise in the summer along the streets and off-road trails around my neighborhood in Dearborn, Michigan. I wear safety gear to protect my head and hands, but there’s no padding to deflect drivers on cell phones or school kids walking with their heads down and locked in on smart phones.

Last week, I took a late lunch and went for my usual 45-minute ride. I go about eight miles, and I’m used to carefully crossing busy main streets. Most drivers are courteous and will stop for me even when they have the right of way. But those on phones will roll right through stop signs. Many will be on the phone and looking in one direction, preparing to turn, while continuing to move right through an intersection and blowing the stop sign. I stay on the sidewalk until I’m confident it’s safe.

I don’t normally see too many young people at lunchtime, but my late departure last week changed that. It was amazing! High school kids can walk for blocks with their heads down, eyes glued to cell phone screens as they obliviously stroll through intersections or up sidewalks. Last week, I watched a long line of kids on their way out of Dearborn High School, each one alone, many looking at devices or listening to music on ear buds. It looked like a line of drones headed home in a trance. No jovial conversations, No one living in the moment absorbed with friends and natural surroundings. Just a somber stroll back to the hive, with an electronic buzz guiding them home.

I stopped my bike for a good minute and observed some 50 kids, no one talking to the other. But half of them were on devices in virtual conversations. Their expressions were glum despite the gorgeous weather on a brilliantly sunny and mild day.

All communications technology comes with its share of hazards. But I predict today’s small-screen hyper-connectivity will produce poor vision, sore necks and a decline in conversation.

Hopefully, the person-to-person contact doesn’t occur because people are literally running into each other. Heads up out there!

Food for thought: Organic vs. non-organic farm products battle for bucks and buzz.

The radio blared the morning’s headlines. The CBS network news on the hour is part of my daily wake up routine. This week I heard a story that stunned me.  “Study shows organic food no more nutritional than standard products. Little evidence it makes a significant impact on health.” Many newspapers and TV networks reported it, as well.

I couldn’t believe it. “How did that get past the editor?” I thought. Of course not, people don’t eat organic foods to increase nutrition, they pay more for it because it’s not chemically enhanced. Fewer pesticides, antibiotics, hormones or other “better- living-through-chemistry” additives. That’s why I eat them.

When you dig deeper into the recent Stanford University study, indeed the results are revealing. Organic food is 30 percent less likely to contain detectable pesticide levels. Also, when bacteria appear in poultry or pork, non-organic meats are riskier. They’re 33 percent more likely to be resistant to a variety of antibiotics. Organic foods not more nutritious?  Maybe not, but do you like more robust bacteria in your food?

Despite the details, for some reason, the headline said organic foods weren’t healthier. 

Was that the food lobby and marketers pushing the spin? Can’t say, but the real devil is in the details. Organic foods make up less than five percent of the retail market. Have you ever bought organic dairy products and wondered why the expiration date for them is several weeks away, while the abundant, standard dairy products usually expire in a week or ten days? It’s true. Could it have something to do with the hormones that cause cows to produce 15 percent more non-organic milk? I don’t know, but it’s a question I’d like to hear a journalist ask.

A PBS-TV special program, “The Blood Sugar Solution” reveals a theory that toxins in our environment, including foods, are contributing to childhood obesity, diabetes and adult obesity. Best-selling author, Mark Hyman, MD, has testified that these contaminants prevent the body from functioning and metabolizing foods properly. Hyman reports unborn children have more than 200 toxins in their umbilical cord blood. He believes these are playing a role in unhealthy, overweight infants as they grow bigger and fatter.

With so much attention on the cost of healthcare, this topic deserves more exploration. But we’re not likely to get it from media or medicine. There are too many ad dollars at stake and no profitable prescription drug or procedure to cure the problem. It’s simply about making good choices and preventative medicine. There are also major players in the chemical industry with a lot on the line. It’s up to us to read more than the headlines. Analyzing food-packaging labels in detail is important, too.

A Dow chemist once told me most people have such a high level of food preservatives in their bodies that they don’t really require embalming when they die. That’s one of the cost-saving benefits of eating chemically enhanced food.

Bon appétit. 

Don't hedge your bets on the elections, pull the lever and make it a sure thing.

As we roamed around the 2012 Detroit Jazz Festival and the Hamtramck Labor Day Festival, my wife, Ellen, and I had a blast people watching.

But then a thought crossed my mind. How many of these folks will vote this November? How many of them are informed about the issues?

Last weekend, we spent some quality time with our two, twenty-something sons and a few of their friends. A couple of them said, “Why bother voting for President? A few states will decide everything in the Electoral College.”

There’s no arguing America’s founding fathers wanted a hedge on democracy. In fact, they didn’t want a democracy at all. The Constitution creates a representative republic. They really didn’t trust the voters to choose the President.

But state and local elections feature referenda that allow citizens to cast a ballot for or against specific laws. It’s our best example of pure democracy and a great reason to go to the polls.

The diversity of faces in the crowd this Labor Day weekend was impressive. Men and women in saris, a Turkish food stand, sizzling kielbasa and pierogi, Belgian beer, Latin and African-American jazz artists and a Bosnian buffet said more about the challenge of uniting America than any words I could string together. But the ethnic mix made me think of my own immigrant parents and how much they valued their American citizenship and the right to vote.

For those who don’t remember the struggle, voting seems more like a quant custom than the voice of the people. But it’s the people who choose the judge, the dog catcher, the county clerk, the state reps and the mayor and governor. And those are the folks who levy the fines, impose the fees, decide the zoning and impact the salaries and policies of local law enforcement. Now, if you don't’ care about those issues, don’t bother voting.

As for the Presidential election, the Electoral College is a peculiarity that deserves United Nations observers, but it’s part of our Constitution and has been since the beginning. If you don’t bother voting, there’s always the possibility that a powerful majority will one day amend the Constitution to eliminate voting for President as we know it.

Sound ridiculous? Sure, but freedom is something that must be protected and defended. There’s a lot of sentiment in this country about supporting the troops that sacrifice so much and risk everything to guarantee our freedom. To honor their service, we should seriously exercise our voting rights and do what we can to protect the inner workings of our nation. We owe it to them to be well-informed voters, too, on all the issues on our ballots.

Finally, Presidential elections are about more than who wins or loses. They’re about consequences like Supreme Court appointments and forward-looking legislation, even war and peace. The more votes a President receives, the more political capital and power he or she has. A squeaker election usually means a divided Congress that reflects a divided country. But that’s not how you get change, especially when change is required.

We’ve got two months to do our homework to prepare for the polls. Remember, we’re the change we seek.

Everybody with a smart phone or tablet is a reporter in the global news business.

Do you remember where you were when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon? Where were you when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated? How did you first learn of the Martin Luther King Jr.’s slaying?

For baby boomers, these watershed events were also media bonfires. In other words, the world gathered around radios and televisions for live broadcasts of the unfolding details. They read in-depth coverage in the morning and evening paper and full-length features in magazines. Breaking news had a way of uniting people, at least in the shared experience of discovering the information. Millions and even billions simultaneously huddled around broadcasts and read the same publications on the way to work or back home or in their dentists’ waiting room.

However, the children of boomers are all journalists. And none of them saw Lee Harvey Oswald gunned down on live TV. They receive bulletins and alerts on smartphones sometimes faster than mainstream media. I was aboard a Chicago River tour boat on Saturday, taking in the windy city’s architecture with my family. Our younger son elbowed me and showed me his smartphone screen. It said, “Neil Armstrong First Man on the Moon Dies.”

Earlier that same afternoon while walking along the Miracle Mile, my older son’s fiancée expressed her dismay with the Today Show on Friday. She lives in Chicago, so she’s used to watching NBC’s morning fare on tape delay. Unfortunately, the newscast is also prerecorded. Her iPhone vibrated to announce the Empire State Building shooting. It wasn’t until several minutes later that NBC went live to report the tragedy. Just not fast enough in today’s 24/7, always-on news cycle.

When I studied electronic journalism at Wayne State University in the late 1970’s, there were wire machines in the classrooms, fed by the United Press International (UPI) and the Associated Press (AP). Occasionally, one of my instructors would run to the machines when they chimed bulletins, flashes and alerts. All my teachers were working editors, reporters and executive producers.  They knew real-life breaking news was something only a professional experienced. For a journalism student, the classroom wire service was the next best thing. I remember one day, the professor tore the wire copy off the machine seconds after it chimed. He slapped it face down on the photocopier and instantly printed 12 copies, one for each of us in the class. We were in the midst of typing up a rundown for a newscast. He briskly walked into the room with the copy and announced, “this just in” as he tossed the bulletin in front of each of us. We had to shuffle our plans and reorder the events of the day. We were learning news judgment and how to manage information.  We gained insight into developing leads, story angles, following up details, identifying sources and corroborating facts.

Today, your son or daughter, neighbor, work colleague or the passenger next to you on the bus, subway or plane is a journalist, re-reporting information that arrives very hot off the wire. Billions of people today are experiencing breaking news all by themselves or via social networking. We’ve lost the collective journalistic bonfire we once gathered around to feel the warmth of mutual interest and smell the smoke of sizzling, hard news. Now, each of us will have his or her own point-of-view on historic events, developed in 140 characters or less. Whether the information has been validated or not.