Going through the President's mail

Posted at 12:43 PM on February 8, 2010 by Sanden Totten (0 Comments)

These days a lot of folks have something to say to the President. But why bother? What are the chance of your letter actually being read?

That kind of negativity doesn't stop stop Brett Ortler. He's sent over 50 letters to President Obama and plans to send more. In The Loop brought him into our studio to talk about his correspondence with the President. What Brett didn't know though, was that we also brought in someone with inside knowledge of the President's mailbag who could give him some encouragement and a tip about getting his leaders in the hands of our nation's Commander in Chief.

This interview was part of our latest podcast.

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Letters to Obama - Open-Source Moon Landing - Federal Budget Sing-Along

Posted at 3:00 PM on February 5, 2010 by Jeff Horwich (1 Comments)

Another scintillating episode:

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* Compulsive Obama letter-writer Brett Ortler crosses paths with the White House intern who got to review his work.

* Forget Toyota -- How are our own Big 3 doing? We ask Dave Cole of the Center for Automotive Research.

* Our space NewsNicher laments the (possible) end of the moon program, but Sanden explains how she might be able to go anyway.

* The 2011 Federal Budget Proposal...in song. (video)

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NASA + Wikipedia = OpenLuna

Posted at 10:09 AM on February 5, 2010 by Sanden Totten (1 Comments)

"Space: the final frontier." The folks at the OpenLuna project take that line to heart. OpenLuna is an open source, wiki-based attempt to design a leaner, meaner, public driven moon mission. As with any open source project, they encourage everyone to participate. When they run into questions, problems and challenges, they pose them to the crowd and invite people from every field to weigh in.

With President Obama's recent announcement that the US won't be going to the moon again on his watch, the door is wide open for groups like OpenLuna to pick up where Apollo 13 left off. To see how prepared they are to do it, In The Loop's Sanden Totten called up project manager Paul Graham. Graham says with OpenLuna he hopes to put the adventure back in science.

(A shorter version of this interview will be featured in our latest podcast.)

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With Toyota's troubles, how are American cars doing?

Posted at 11:18 AM on February 4, 2010 by Sanden Totten (0 Comments)

You can't miss it. Toyota's reputation is being trashed by a massive recall of several different models of cars. But for a good while previous to this, Toyota was one of the few car companies faring the recession rather well.

With Toyota on the ropes, this a perfect time for US auto makers to reassert their value, right? Well, In The Loop checked in with Dave Cole, Chairman of the Board for the Center for Automotive Research to see how the big three are doing these days.

(This interview will be part of our weekly podcast)

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NewsTune: The Obama 2011 Budget

Posted at 11:10 AM on February 4, 2010 by Jeff Horwich (0 Comments)

Just what you wanted:
A catchy musical round-up of the White House's 2011 Federal Budget Proposal:

This'll be in the upcoming podcast, o'course...

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NewsTune: an iPad iSong

Posted at 2:51 PM on February 1, 2010 by Jeff Horwich (0 Comments)

...from the latest podcast...

Steve Jobs, meet Roy Orbison.

Lots more videos...

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This Super Bowl will be a game changer . . . for the commercials

Posted at 2:43 PM on February 1, 2010 by Sanden Totten (0 Comments)

For Vikings fans, the game is already lost; the team never made it to the Super Bowl. But for fans of the purple there is another game to watch this Sunday that has nothing to do with touchdowns: the Ad Bowl.

We all know Super Bowl Sunday is the time when companies bring out the biggest, flashiest, most expensive commercials they can muster. But with reports of Pepsi, FedEx and others dropping out of the fray and CBS selling ad slots for cheaper than last year, In The Loop's Sanden Totten wondered if this year would mark the end of the era of spectacular Super Bowl ads.

This segment is part of our latest podcast.

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Gamechangers: Superbowl? iPad? SOTU? George Clooney?

Posted at 5:10 PM on January 29, 2010 by Jeff Horwich (0 Comments)

It's In The Loop for January 29, 2010.

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Rob Crilly, on what we don't get about Darfur; Fausta on why to give a rip about Argentina's central bank; Superbowl ads go bye-bye?; iPad muziks; Comedian Mike Brody

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NewsTune: How could we resist an iPad song?

Posted at 1:48 PM on January 29, 2010 by Jeff Horwich (0 Comments)

When it's Apple, you don't ask why. You buy.

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(Video coming soon.)

This'll be in the next podcast.

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Argentina's Central Bank crisis: Their mess, or ours too?

Posted at 11:25 AM on January 29, 2010 by Jeff Horwich (0 Comments)

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was reconfirmed this week, but it was kind of a squeaker as these things usually go. Lots of folks are wondering if the political pressure he now has on him will compromise the independence he needs to manage the country's money supply and prevent future financial disasters.

In light of that, what's going on in Argentina is all the more interesting. President Christina Fernandez has fired -- or tried to -- the Governor of the Central Bank (their equivalent of the Federal Reserve). It's a big ol' mess. We called up Latin America blogger/podcaster Fausta for more details.

This interview will appear in the next podcast.

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