Alexa Vs Siri -- Walter Mossberg -- October 12, 2016

Thursday Morning Headliness

Rasmussen poll, a 9% shift? -- Trump leads in most recent poll:

The full results from Sunday night’s debate are in, and Donald Trump has come from behind to take the lead over Hillary Clinton.

The latest Rasmussen Reports White House Watch national telephone and online survey shows Trump with 43% support among Likely U.S. Voters to Clinton’s 41%.

Yesterday, Clinton still held a four-point 43% to 39% lead over Trump, but  that was down from five points on Tuesday and her biggest lead ever of seven points on Monday, one week ago.

Bob Dylan wins Nobel Price in literature.

Third war for Mr Obama: add Yemen to Iran and Afghanistan. Obama had called Yemen the poster child for democracy in the Mideast, and was still calling Yemen a success as recently as 2015. Less than 100 days for this president. It will seem like an eternity.

McDonald's new "graffiti" look. Epic fail.

Uber and Lyft are demolishing NYC taxi drivers. In 2014, a NYC taxi medallion changed hands at a price of $1.3 million; now, on a twitter feed, being advertised fro $250,000.

Wells Fargo CEO Stumpf abruptly resigns; Pocahontas goes on tirade; Stumpf replaced by long-time executive.

Amazon will add 120,000 workers during holidays. Amazon has already begun seasonal hiring at two Delaware sites. Why? Halloween candy!

On October 4, 2016, I had some good things to say about Alexa, the voice/personality behind Amazon's Echo. I couldn't quite put my finger on why Alexas impressed me so much. After all, I was quite familiar with Siri. And maybe that was the problem. Walter Mossberg has an essay on why Siri is so dumb. Mossberg has identified the problem and the comments to the article seem to be very, very accurate.

From the AP:

A man wearing body armor and armed with an assault rifle shot two Boston police officers who were responding to a report of a domestic disturbance, before being shot and killed by other officers.

The two wounded officers were hospitalized in “extremely critical condition” early Thursday morning.

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Really? Another Geico Rock Aware Nominee

The headline for this story is different on-line vs the print edition. At the link the headline is "A Grill-Master’s Fishing Getaway." The print edition, and I am not making this up: "On Lake or Ocean, Fishing Is a Form of Relaxation." Wow, if I had the name of the headline writer he/she would be the nominee for the Geico Rock Award for 2016.

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Four Baby Boomers Have Truly Wrecked America

Considering the source, the article is not worth much more than "clickbait" as they say. The headline:  "The baby boomers might just wreck America."

At first I thought they were talking about me and I became quite offensive. Then I noted they were talking about a specific group of baby boomers: George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and then I realized the writer had it exactly right. Those four have done more than any previous president back to Eisenhower to really screw things up. Forty percent of Baby Boomers had no part in placing three of those four, and possibly a fourth, into the White House.

Having said that, one needs to define "wrecking America." The writer does a poor job defining what he/she means by "wrecking America." Except for a few isolated examples. I think America is in as good a shape as it's ever been in.

• Economy: full employment; job market improves monthly; stock market at all time highs
• Social safety net: Social Security still solvent; payout will increase in 2017
• Health care: it seems everyone has access to the best health care system in the world even if they weren't able to keep their own doctor
• Education: it seems everyone has access to the best education in the world, especially at the undergraduate and graduate level; and, admission is guaranteed if you can pass yourself off as Pocahontas
• Cultural: #BlackLivesMatter pales in comparison to the racial discomfort of 1861
• Energy: so much energy, the government keystones pipelines; bans fracking; bans off-shore drilling and even more natural gas / crude oil is discovered/brought to market; now with worldwide glut (vs the OPEC embargo in the 70s/80s); private citizens demand wind turbines/solar farms as long as they are not in their backyards
• Entertainment: second to none, and never better in the history of the US (except perhaps for music of the 60s but I'm quibbling there); so many options, even the NFL is having difficulty competing for viewers
• Military: the military is completely voluntary and sailors, soldiers, airmen are paid well above minimum wage; women have equal access to getting maimed in almost all combat MOS's; eight years of US being at war and almost no one notices (not even the Pentagon, it seems); certainly better than the Vietnam Era
• Personal: interest rates such that almost anyone can buy a luxury car or EV at 0 percent money; gasoline under $2/gallon; a US citizen can choose to live in any one of 50 states and one district; the National Guard is not shooting at university students (Ohio State during the 60's)
• Personal: Roomba to clean your floors; Zumba to learn new dance moves; Siri to tell you where nearest sushi restaurant is

But the writer is exactly correct. I had not thought of his/her evaluation of Hillary and Donald. Both come from an entirely different era. Donald is worried about building cars in America; hasn't said a thing about smart phones. Hillary is personally confused and probably doesn't even know what an "app" is. She, too, is from a different era. But they certainly know how to make money the old fashioned way: know the tax code and funnel foundation money back to the family fortune.

Definitions:

• iGen, generation Z, centennials: 1996 -- 
• younger millennials (part of generation Y, children of baby boomers): 1992 - 1998
• older millennials (part of generation Y, children of baby boomers): 1982 - 1991
• generation X: 1965 - 1982 (no precise dates, late baby boomers)
• baby boomers: 1946 - 1964  

Definitions (from this site)

• iGen, generation Z, centennials: 1996 -- 
• millennials or generation Y: 1977 - 1995
• generation X: 1965 - 1976
• baby boomers: 1946 - 1964
• traditionalists or silent generation: born 1945 and before

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Wal-Mart Entry Level Wages

In this article, it states that Wal-Mart increased its entry level wages to $10/hour earlier this year. When I visited the Bakken a couple of weeks ago, entry level wages at the Williston Wal-Mart were $15/ hour. During the boom, I believe entry level wages were $20 / hour or higher.