The cybersecurity firm Mandiant was recently purchased for $1 billion. What does this mean for the cybersecurity industry? LA City Attorney Mike Feuer discusses his first 6 months in office. Can you actually be addicted to food? Later, we'll take a look at advertising for award shows.
The $1 billion acquisition of Mandiant. Who’s that, you ask?
The ubiquitous photo app Instagram was bought by Facebook for $1 billion back in 2012. Yahoo bought Tumblr, the popular social network, for $1 billion in 2014. It’s only three days into the new year and already we have a new tech entrant into the $1 billion acquisition club.
The company is Mandiant. Who, you ask. Mandiant is the Virginia-based cybersecurity firm that rose to fame last year when it pinpointed the location of an elite Chinese military unit of hackers that was allegedly involved in hacking U.S. companies. FireEye, a tech company in the Silicon Valley, is the buyer. The generous price tag signals the importance of cybersecurity in our hyper-connected world, but the Mandiant sale isn’t the first major M&A deal in the industry.
Guests:
Anurag Rana, Senior IT Analyst at Bloomberg Industries
George Kurtz, CEO and co-founder of CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm based in Irvine
LA City Attorney Mike Feuer talks Measure D, jaywalking tickets and more
When he ran for City Attorney last year, Mike Feuer promised to make Los Angeles a safer place. His vision included creating a gun violence prevention unit and expanding the Neighborhood Prosecutor Program created by former City Attorney Rocky Delgado.
Guest host speaks with Feuer six months after he was elected as Los Angeles' newest City Attorney on the progress he's made on both fronts. Also, they'll be discussing the enforcement of the voter-approved Measure D, which caps the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the City of Los Angeles to 135.
Thus far, Feuer's office has filed more than 65 criminal cases against dispensary operators and owners.
Feuer joins AirTalk to talk about a variety of issues, from jaywalking fines and parking tickets to Measure D, environmental justice and more.
Interview Highlights:
On the Sergio Garcia undocumented lawyer case:
"I think it's the right thing to do. I think the attorney General of our state, Kamala Harris, was right to join in support with the bar association of his application. You know that California law just changed recently taking his situation into account and I support the ruling and I know that it was a unanimous ruling of quite a conservative Supreme Court."
On the argument that he's here illegally and should not be practicing law:
"As a general matter, I think people who come here as children and who are here in the situation and are here under no fault of their own should be afforded important opportunities, including if they earn it the chance to be lawyers in our state."
On the Beverly Hospital Skid Row patient dumping case:
"One of my top priorities as city attorney is to protect people in our community who are the most vulnerable. Homeless people who have been hospitalized should never be dumped on Skid Row streets. Its inhumane and I will not tolerate it. We have reenergized our office's focus on assuring that patient dumping not be permitted. We are working with the police department and providers on Skid Row to assure this doesn't happen.
"In this instance the hospital was very cooperative once we began discussions with them I was very pleased to see their willingness to change their practices to comport with the best possible practices, and I'm hopeful that the announcement of this resolution today will lead others to come forward if they have been victimized by similar practices so our office can take similar steps to protect them.
On the LAPD's policy of issued expensive jaywalking tickets downtown:
"The principal focus of the LAPD's jaywalking efforts hasn't been with regards to people who are homeless, they principal focus has recently been, in general, to assure that people aren't crossing the street and creating a danger for themselves...I understand that there are many people in the community who didn't even know that if the light has begun to flash but it still says there are 17 seconds to cross the street that as a technical matter, that is jaywalking."
"In other cases though, I know there have been instances, especially in downtown L.A., when several people have been killed by motorists in the course of jaywalking in the past year. So I recognize that there's a public information campaign that needs to be put in place here so that people fully understand how our jaywalking rules work. I also understand the police department's efforts to do everything possible to assure public safety and try to prevent what are otherwise preventable injuries."
On homeless people being issued expensive jaywalking tickets:
"I view problems in communities just that way. As problems that need to be solved. We need to be creative about how we grapple with issues related to homeless people and violations of the law. Simply a day in jail or a fine that can never be paid is not going to solve a community problem. By the same token it is important for everyone, whether they are housed or homeless, not to jaywalk in the middle of the street and cause a public safety problem. Everybody needs to be aware of that."
Click the play button on the top left to hear the rest of our conversation with Mike Feuer.
Guest:
Mike Feuer, Los Angeles City Attorney
Can you actually become addicted to food?
Americans typically pick going on a diet as their New Year's resolution but many don't make it past the end of January. If you're having trouble swearing off the chocolate cake or large sodas, could an addiction to sugar be the culprit?
Science is still split on whether or not people can become clinically addicted to food the same way they can to drugs like cocaine or alcohol. Research shows that humans have a strong reaction to sugar, fats and food additives but is there a difference between a serious love of junk food and an actual addiction? Research shows that eating foods heavy on the sugar and fat light up the same receptors in the brain that affect drug addicts.
Last year, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse spoke publicly about the commonalities between food and drug addictions. Despite that endorsement, food addiction still has not made it into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-V, the influential list of recognized disorders written by the American Psychiatric Association.
What does the current research say about food addictions? Is the brain's dopamine response to food more similar to other non-physical addictions such as love and attraction or to chemical drugs? Have you experienced addiction symptoms when it comes to food?
Guests:
Robert Lustig, MD, professor of pediatrics in the division of endocrinology at UCSF
Barry Levin, MD, Professor of neurology and neurosciences at New Jersey Medical School at Rutgers.
Filmweek: The Best Offer, Interior. Leather Bar., Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and more
Guest host Frank Stoltze and KPCC film critics Lael Loewenstein, Henry Sheehan and Claudia Puig review this week's releases, including The Best Offer, Interior. Leather Bar., Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, Grudge Match and more. TGI-Filmweek!
The Best Offer
Interior. Leather Bar.
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Grudge Match
Guests:
Lael Loewenstein, film critic for KPCC and Variety
Henry Sheehan, film critic for KPCC and CriticsAGoGo.com
Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC and USA Today
Golden Globes 2014: What’s the most effective way to hype an awards show?
Trailers for the Golden Globes and the Oscars have been floating around the internet, circulating on social media, and sneaking in some screen time in preparation for awards show season.
The shows have always been hyped up, but in recent years, the announcement of who will host the shows, contracts for years in advance, and trailers for the big events have become a more important part of attracting viewers.
While ratings for the shows fluctuate and producers attempt to capture audience interest, some shows have proven adaptable and others have floundered. The Tony Awards, for example, have been praised by critics as increasingly entertaining, while the Academy Awards have struggled to find reliably funny hosts.
How far in advance do we want to see Ellen psyching people up for the Oscars? How long should Tina Fey and Amy Poehler be locked into the Globes? Are these multi-platform advertising efforts truly engaging and effective?
Guests:
Barry Adelman, Executive Producer of the Golden Globes
Tom O’Neil, Editor and CEO Gold Derby