A federal appeals court ruled this morning that the National Security Agency's collection of data on every American's phone call violates the law. Also, a new study recently published by non-profit, Ascend reveals some startling facts about the role that Asians play in Silicon Valley. Then, in “Bibliotech,” author John Palfrey argues that libraries are actually more important than ever, but to survive, they also need to change and adapt.
Appeals court rules NSA phone data is illegal, so why isn’t it stopping the practice?
A federal appeals court ruled this morning that the National Security Agency's collection of data on every American's phone call violates the law.
It's the first time an appellate court has ruled on the so-called metadata program, but the judge declined to take any immediate action, preferring to wait for Congress to act. What are the implications of the ruling as Congress debates reauthorizing the Patriot Act?
Guests:
Josh Gerstein, senior reporter for POLITICO who’s been reporting on the NSA ruling
Governor Brown and others up for a (well-deserved?) raise
How much should lawmakers be worth? How much should the Governor and state legislators be paid?
That question will be taken up Monday by the California Citizens Compensation Commission. Base pay for state senate and assembly members is $97,000 a year. The Governor gets $177,000. That's well below what big city mayors get, and somewhat lower than Governors in New York and Pennsylvania.
What should the commission take into account when approving the next salaries? Comps for the same job in other regions? Responsibilities of the job versus what private sector employees make? Performance of the current officeholders? Peg it to current pay, but adjust for inflation?
Guests:
Dan Walters, political columnist for the Sacramento Bee
Saado Abboud, Ph.D., Principal with Keystone Compensation Group, a compensation consulting firm in Minnesota.
Why Asians struggle to break a glass ceiling in Silicon Valley
A new study recently published by non-profit, Ascend reveals some startling facts about the role that Asians play in Silicon Valley.
Co-authored by former Cisco Systems vice president, Buck Gee, the report shows that, while Asians make up 27% of the professionals working in tech, significantly fewer hold leadership positions: only about 14%. Conversely, whites occupy about 62% of jobs and over 80% of senior leadership roles. Within the two groups, Asian females fared even worse.
While a bias certainly seems to exist in the tech sector, some specialists suggest that young Asian professionals are being taught job skills, but not the social skills necessary for climbing the corporate ladder.
Today on AirTalk, we examine the issue with the author of the study, and the woman who is in charge staffing for one of the largest employers in San Jose.
HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: Asian American Leaders in Silicon Valley
Guests:
Buck Gee, Executive advisor for Ascend, a non-profit pan-Asian organization for business professionals. He helped author the study. He is also a former executive at Cisco Systems.
Kim Marcelis, VP of strategic planning at Cisco Systems, a major networking company and the second-largest employer in San Jose. She is not affiliated with the study and can speak about the challenges facing female Asians.
Natural Disruption: Wildlife in hot pursuit for water
Temperatures are heating up across California, leaving animals having to travel much further for water.
Jason Holley, supervising wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife joins us to discuss how the drought is disrupting natural food chains in our region. We’ll take a closer look at whether wildlife will be able to survive the changing climate and what these changes could mean to our ecosystem. That’s ahead on AirTalk.
Guest:
Jason Holley, Supervising Wildlife Biologist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Don Richardson, Curator, California Living Museum – a ZAA accredited Zoo
Study finds pop music has NOT gotten worse, it’s just your imagination
A recent study by two London universities analyzed the evolution of American music in the past 50 years.
Using computers to analyze over 17-thousand songs from the Billboard Hot 100, they were able to pinpoint the exact years that music changed direction: 1964, 1983 and 1991. The report also challenges the popular belief that music quality has suffered over the years.
Examining popular music over the past 50 years, some trends came to light. In the early 60s, dominant seventh chords, like those commonly found in jazz and blues, had disappeared from charts. The sound was replaced by more aggressive-sounding British rock from The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. British rock would become the sound of the “first revolution.” Funk from the 70s gave rise to the power chords, drum machines and synthesizers that dominated the airwaves in the 80s. By 1991, rap was king.
The study also revealed that the artists who lead each major breakthrough in music would frequently combine harmonic and rhythmic elements present in different genres to create a new sound.
Today on AirTalk, we examine the top songs of each era and try to predict where popular music could go from here.
The evolution of popular music: USA 1960–2010
Guest:
Matthias Mauch, Ph.D., Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow with the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary University of London. He’s also one of the co-authors of the study “The evolution of popular music: USA 1960-2010.”
Why libraries are more important than ever in the digital age
Libraries are endangered. With the rise of the Internet and the ease with which we can get any information online, many are questioning the usefulness of the public library in the digital age.
In “Bibliotech,” author John Palfrey argues that libraries are actually more important than ever, but to survive, they also need to change and adapt.
Guest:
John Palfrey, author of “Bibliotech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google” (Basic Books, 2015). He is also President of the Board of Directors of the Digital Public Library of America