Novelties: Keeping Tabs on the Infrastructure, Wirelessly

Over the last few weeks, President Obama has traveled the country campaigning on the taxpayers' dime trying to sell parts of his Big Jobs Plan.  In order to sell a chunk of that plan - a massive new government spending spree on domestic infrastructure - Obama last week repeatedly cited China's infrastructure spending as the prime example of how the United States is desperately falling behind and needs to catch up:

SEATTLE (AP) — Thousands of bridges around the U.S. may be one freak accident or mistake away from collapse, even if the spans are deemed structurally sound.

The bridge collapse on Interstate 5 north of Seattle this week highlighted the nation’s aging infrastructure and the lack of significant improvements in the six years since 13 people died when a Minnesota span fell. Investigators haven’t determined what caused the failure of a section of the bridge over the Skagit River in Mount Vernon, Washington, after a truck struck some of its steel girders. The collapse followed the commitment of $48.1 billion in U.S. economic-stimulus funds for transportation projects since 2009.

US politicians, particularly Democrats, have been enamored with China's massive infrastructure spending for years now.  I've already taken a few swipes at this misguided affection, but it seems that it - and the underlying assumption that massive new spending on US infrastructure will boost jobs and jumpstart the flagging economy - will again play a prominent role in the 2012 elections.  For example, Massachussetts Senate candidate and Democratic National Convention headliner

More full-service restaurants are incorporating wireless devices with their POS (point-of-sale) systems. POS hardware and software is essential infrastructure at even the smallest modern restaurant operation. POS systems are essentially the [...]

In this year's State of The Union, one of President Obama's proposals was to immediately build a public private partnership to fix the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges in the United States.