There are few things as harrowing to someone as buying their 1st new car.  Now I know your thinking, wow, thats kind of harsh…after all buying a new car is supposed to be fun Mike, isn’t it?  Well, Im not sure what its supposed to be, but I do know that its full of pitfalls and disasters awaiting you at almost every turn.  So this wee, in our top story, we talk about what a former new car salesman says you need to do to get the best deal, while not making a complete jerk out of yourself (too late for me I’m afraid).  So listen to get the scoop on buying a new car and getting a good deal…or getting the best deal on your next new car.

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Also this week I talk about a community where the sheriff puts politics and personal gain over public safety, and goes as far as arresting 1st responders who try and aid a woman with a broken neck because they weren’t who the sheriff wanted to respond to the call for help.  And dont forget about This Week in History where I teach you a few fun facts about this week in days gone by.

==Mike James

call me (347)284-6453 thats 347-Bug-Mike

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This week we have another fun show, and talk about this week in history where we learn that not all NFL games are destroyed by bad calls, and that sometimes a charter signed long ago can have endurring impacts on us even today.  I also give you a little known fact about trees and what happens when you carve your name (or that of your special somone) into its trunk.

The news this week is about how some schools seem to think that the Amazon Kindle is a bad tech device because its not able to be setup to read aloud to you if you are blind because that initial setup requires navigating through onscreen menues that do not initially read themselved to you.  As oppossed to all those other tech devices they think are just fine, like all the computers (which do not come pre-set to be accessable to the blind) and of course the standard paper books, which have absolutely no provision to read themselves to you.

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I also cover a science story on why you can remember great jokes and stories…but not who you told them to.  Could it be that your too concerned about how your coming off to others to be bothered remembering who they are?

All that and more on this weeks Mike Thinks News Podcast

So you can’t teach an old dog new tricks…at least not very easily, but according to a new report, you can teach new robots some darn scary tricks.  Now a few months ago, the news came out of a robot powered by organic waste.  You know, was like old vegetation…incapacitated people, those kinds of things.  Combine that with the new discovery that given some basic programing to keep themselves alive and powered up, robots learn, in a startlenginly short period of time, how to Lie, cheat and steal to live.  And here you all though it was a human trait to be a total butthead.

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Also this week

AT&T, your network, UNSECURED

Rodent eating plants

LED…now with carbon

Plug it in, plug it in

Paintball enforcement

Everyone has a run in with the law at some point.  Maybe its you being naughty, maybe its your neighbor being loud, or just possibly you need some help, and the person that comes to your aid, is a public servant who far too often gets associates with being the harbinger of doom…ok maybe not doom, but traffic tickets anyway.  This week in addition to a few tech stories we find ourselves neck deep in stories about the law, and those who enforce it.  As with all things, your opinions may vary…

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Paid by the donut, not the hour

What can brown do for you…err…no thanks

Mini Van Mom

Burning Man BS

Blogging till you need bail

The color of gang war

photo courtesy of davidsonscott15

It happens…not very often when you consider there are hundreds of millions of them out there, but it is a real fact that lithium batteries can go bad.  I don’t mean they start pushing over cows, robbing liquor stores and writing bad checks, but they can go bad, and especially if damages (lets say by a small fall), have a cascading reation and fail in dramatic fashon.  How dramatic you ask?  Lets just say that the picture above while it is an artistic rendering of potential…its not so far from the truth.

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Also this week

iPhone exclusive

Arachnophobia circa 300million bc

Keep on making those mistakes

Solar pay to play

Glasses that look stupid and cost too much

AP shake down

XKCD book

You see them at little league games, you see them at high school gymnasiums and football fields…even in college and your professional team sports they are there, cheer leaders.  But what you didn’t know is that behind the glory, just beyond the poof of the plastic strips of pom pom fluff, there was danger.  When a girl decides to take on the mantel of being a cheer leader, she is doing more than telling the world, hey look at my spirit…she is taking on the most dangerous sport a woman can.  Sure you think lacross is bad, maybe field hocky is too rough, but the fact remains that 2/3 of all serious injuries in womens athletics occurs in a short skirt, with poofy plastic poms.

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Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/podcast

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Also this week

Cablevision DVR win

From myspace the the op ed page

Fakey news sucks

Hydrogen storage solution

You be jamin

Of politics and Hobbits

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heavily modified photo courtesy of DeusXFlorida

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This week I take a look a a nice variety of stories, including one that asks the questions, if your cell phone is stolen by a McDonalds employee when you leave/lose it at the restaraunt (ok fast food market)…does the owner of the store or McDonalds have any culpability?  You may be surprised by my answer!

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also on the show

I before E

Jammie helped by new caselaw

Censor yourself…and your friends?

FTC requires bloggers to disclose pay for post

Got Safe?

HD-DVD…still the #1 High Def Format

Unsolicited text spam

Battery life sucks

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There are many things I really get anoyed with, and one of those things is sequal reliance.  So many times it seems that a movie is made, not because there is a great story to tell, not because someone has a passiona and vision for a new project…nope..its made in an effort to find that most coveted of bovine…the cash cow.  Its been happening in movies and video games for a long time, but I always thought that a few companies were above such shovelware, but alas…I may be wrong.  Pixar is making no less than 3 sequals for 2010.  I hope with all my heart they get all the love and attention that Pixar usually delivers, but I cant shake the sense of dread that something wicked this way comes.

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Sponsor: Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/podcast

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Also this week,

You are what you blog

Et Tu Pixar?

Your dog is lying to you

Hit by a meteor!

DVD cramping music sales

Bye Bye Betelgeuse

The snub of a lifetime

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We all have them…admit it, behind your desk or your television is a pile of wires and cables that could, in theory, trap a small tribe of early homonids.  There have been many attempts over the years to control the rats nest of wires we all hide behind our well dusted entertainment centers, but not ever really works for long.  As soon as one component needs replacing, all your careful planning goes by the wayside as you struggle to find the one wire to rule them all.  HDMI was supposed to help out with this mess, by giving us 1 cable to replace multiple audio and video connections…but with spec 1.4, it wants to be 7 different cables, all with different features for different periferals.  Now you can have super HD, or eathernet or even car spec wiring at your fingertips…but its all called HDMI, and its all set to confuse the crap out of each and every grandmother and father in law you know…be prepared…the calls will come.

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Also on the show ;

Don’t stare, its rude!

Pay per tweet

I screamed Yahoo! I couldnt help but Google over her as she went Bing

Vizio makes it #1

Cheap and crippled Windows

Bog proffits mean big problem?

0.27%

and much more!

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Photo courtesy of On Stage Lighting via Flickr

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So we all have our own opinions…as the saying goes…they are like armpits, everyone has them, and they usually stink.  Sometimes however, and opinion wafts forth upon us with such stench and rechid stupidity and lack of forethought, that it just has to be called out.  This week, it was once again, Sony showing us just how out of touch they are with the rest of us here on the planet Earth.  From CEO Michael Lynton, who uttered a phrase that will forever echo in his professional life…and likely be the point of ribbing by all his colleges for years to come….

“I’m a guy who doesn’t see anything good having come from the Internet. Period.”–Sony CEO Michael Lynton

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In addition to this absurdity I also touch on:

The top 10 tech disapointments

Shuttle crew has problem with a nut

Kids brains organization…no really

Car warranty sellers and alleged scamer gets Rick rolled

SRJC send SND to STDNTS

Intel shenanigans…noooo...I don’t disbelieve that

photo courtesy of  staryprd