All the News That Fits…You

Greg Linden’s article, “People Who Read This Article Also Read...” [March] presents personalized news ­article recommendations as the logical extension of the book and movie recommendation systems used by sites like Amazon and Netflix. News, however, is more than entertainment—it largely defines people’s perceptions of the world. News recommendation algorithms based entirely on user preferences are therefore inappropriate. For example, say an algorithm determines that a user enjoys articles featuring mostly positive information about a certain political or religious figure. Would the algorithm then avoid showing negative articles about that figure to that user?

If a handful of personalized news-­aggregation sites do indeed become the public’s primary portal to information on current events, the risk of bias and censorship—inadvertent or intentional—will be tremendous. The role of a free press sometimes includes telling people exactly what they don’t want to hear.

Michael Rutberg, IEEE Member, New York City

Where Have All the Engineers Gone?

The U.S. culture of abundance and short-term thinking is at fault for the dearth of engineers decried in Robert W. Lucky’s column [“U. S. Engineers and the Flat Earth,” Reflections, March]. U.S. society reached a tipping point about 20 years ago, when we became so wealthy as a nation that we stopped deferring our gratification to a future generation and began to believe that we could have it all in our lifetime. Today we lack scientists and engineers who have the persistence to endure the challenges and frustration of difficult but engaging work, because the societal goals have changed. In the 1960s there was a national purpose—to respond to Soviet challenges, win the Cold War, and put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Now we have no overweening objective to drive us except “consume mass quantities” and the ethos of “the one who dies with the most toys wins.”

We need a new Marshall Plan for education that will inspire our youth to strive for goals beyond portable gadgets and flashy video games. Technology drives progress, but technology requires a numerate, ­literate populace, and we are eating our own seed corn if we do not plant the love of knowledge and science early on in the hearts and minds of our young people.

Ross Bettinger, IEEE Member, Seattle

Fighting Obsolescence

I just read “Trapped on Technology’s Trailing Edge” [April]. Until I retired, I worked with military missiles and space applications. One of the techniques engineers use to get around the problem of obsolete parts is to insist that the interfaces meet well-established standards. That way, subsystems can be replaced with new components without replacing the entire ­system—or so the idea goes. Unfortunately, the standards now seem to have a lifetime not much longer than the components’. It is also notable that the standards often change solely for competitive reasons, not because of technical inadequacy.

Norman Worth, IEEE Life Member, Los Alamos, N.M.

Losing our Grip

In “Top 10 Tech Cars” [April], the text concerning the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 states: “The factory did confirm that the cornering grip is more than 1 g—enough to make you feel twice your weight in a perfectly banked curve.” Not correct. The forces add vectorially. If the cornering (centrifugal) force is 1 g, then you must add it to the downward force due to gravity. The resulting force is 1.41 g, directed at 45 degrees to the vertical. This is also the case if the curve isn’t perfectly banked, but if it is, the force is vertical on the rotated car frame, and any car could probably achieve that. It may, however, be a noteworthy achievement to manage this on a perfectly horizontal (unbanked) curve.

Clive Woods, IEEE Senior Member, Baton Rouge, La.

Bye, Bye, Buran

Readers of “Copying NASA’s Mistakes,” the book review by James Oberg about the Soviet space shuttle [March], may be interested in a sequel. On 11 and 12 April 2008, the German news was full of reports about the delivery of a Buran test vehicle to the Technik Museum in Speyer, Germany, where it will be exhibited—a fate more fitting than what befell the vehicle Oberg mentions at the end of his review: being turned into a restaurant.

Edith Borie, IEEE Member, Karlsruhe, Germany