What if I could get the news on my iPod each morning before I wanted to run.  What if I could get the right ammount of information on there, so that I don’t have to miss out on the last 10 minutes of the news when I get home and want to get ready.  Here’s the idea:

You create a network of news tidbits.  You break the news down into as small as segments as you can ie, news about each different sports team is broken down into 30 second clips and therefore rather than having to listen to 2 minutes worth of information I don’t care about, I just choose which teams or sports I want to hear about.  The same can be done with weather, local news, world news, business news, really anything.  The information is then broken down into very specific 15 second- to 1 minute clips and you select which items you want downloaded, and how long you want the podcast to be.  The program then selects the items you want and creates a news station that is just for you and only has the news you want on it. 

Each morning the podcast is automatically downloaded to your iPod and all you have to do is grab your iPod and run! 

Who knows you could even include some encouragement on there from sponsored partners.  Also, I bet you could play ads to help with the revenue.  People would put up with some ads, just as long as it wasn’t more than say 30 seconds per 10 minutes or so.  Plus the web portal where you select your news can have ads.  Maybe you could charge a small fee as well.  The details can be worked out later.  For now,  who wants to help me build this? :)

What it appears from the leaked Google screen shots, is that they will offer a way for you to keep track of your records and based on the records on information that is in the Google Health portal, you will be able to search for the most relevant information.    We’ll see how useful or widespread these initiatives will be, but what these articles really got me wondering about was how much information do people trust to Google (or Microsoft for that matter).

I was talking with a friend about if we would each trust Google with our medical records and at this time I am still skeptical that I would, however it may just be a matter of time.  People were nervous about online banking when it started, but now, by my generation at least, people don’t even think about using the internet for their banking.  I trust Google Checkout because of my bank protecting me, in case information were to be stolen and used.  My bank would be able to help solve the problem, but not Google.  Yet my banking is done online, so where’s the trust level difference come from?

Now Google is getting into, docs and spreadsheets that entire companies could technically run on if they wanted to save some money.  They are trying to buy the wireless spectrum, which I haven’t researched enough, but I would imagine that giving them access to quite a bit of cell phone data and information.  And now, health care, yet another thing that people are nervous about sharing with other people.  So is it just a matter of time before we accept this and start sharing all of our information with someone like Google, or is it a major hurdle?

If the world really is becoming flat like some people say then I think it will only be a matter of time before we think it was silly for us to be nervous about putting this info online.

That changed when Joey Chestnut ate 66(!!!) hot dogs in 12 minutes today to outdo Kobayashi’s 63 (The previous Nathan’s record was 54).  Since the event is on the Fourth of July many American’s have been upset about a Japanese contestant dominating the American’s and were very happy to see Joey Chestnut bring back the "Mustard Belt" to America.

The announcers today were taking themselves a little to serious though, here were a few of the quotes that had me wondering why I was watching this event.

"This could be what this country needs to get back on the right track: the mustard belt coming home to America."

"Google the word "hero" tomorrow and you’ll get Abe Lincoln and Joey Chestnut."

"This could be the greatest moment in American Sports history."