Technology

Net neutrality sounds abstract, but it’s pretty simple: It's about the Internet being a level playing field for everyone who wants to use it as their own printing press. You put a server online for your business or cause, etc., you should have the chance to deliver your message as fast as anyone else. No one should be able to pay for privileged support.

The people who run the infrastructure of the Net are Internet Service Providers, many of whom are large telecoms. They're not really private companies, in that they use public properties to get a signal from one place to another. For example, they have to run wires through public "rights-of-way,” or they need to use public airwaves for radio-style communication. Read more...

I try not to listen to talk radio, but sometimes it's just there and, almost always, it seems like it's there merely to drive me insane. I want to call in and wait my turn in the queue with 200 other angry people, most of whom I don't think can even spell queue. Then I take a deep breath and remember that talk radio is slowly ruining the Republican Party.

Members of the energized right are spending time yelling at the top of their lungs about any number of perceived assaults on their values while politically motivated individuals on the left are utilizing new-media tools at a rate that should be alarming to conservatives. Others have expounded on the advantage liberal activists have gained from embracing the Web, including in fundraising and GOTV efforts, but few have noticed how a reliance on talk radio has provided diminishing returns for Republicans seeking elected office. Read more...

This election season, Americans are utilizing new Internet technology to vastly expand their ability to participate in our democracy. From Internet fundraising to last week’s introduction of You2Gov.com, our government is starting to adopt a form of direct democracy envisioned by the Founding Fathers that was previously impossible to carry out. People are using the ’net as their own printing press, giving them a voice and a reach they’ve never had before.

In the fullest expression of direct democracy, every citizen would vote on every piece of legislation; representative democracy was, until now, the best compromise. However, the dynamic has been transformed: the new challenge is how to give many millions of citizens a voice in government without overwhelming the system. Read more...

It hit me today, seeing headlines in The New York Times for the second day in a row about profoundly good news, that with all the problems and gloom polls show Americans correctly perceive that we have much to be thankful for. No, this is not happy talk, no list of blessings for the holiday. I just want to draw your attention to two bright lights -- good news in Iraq and the fact that scientists are now able to draw stem cells without destroying embryos. Read more...

Remember the CNN/YouTube debate? It was only a week ago, but now that it has so vastly changed the nature of presidential debates — so much so, in fact, that we can hardly remember the older, stodgier variety — it should be noted that the Republicans have seen the future and said, "No thanks."

The GOP faces the 'Tube on Sept. 17; invitations went out last week, and so far it looks as if "scheduling conflicts" may keep Rudy Giuliani from getting there, as much as he would love to. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) watched the Democrats squirming before a gay couple asking about marriage, a snowman and a grown man cradling a gun the size of a Labrador retriever and calling it his "baby." McCain, who fought off torturers in a prison cell for nearly six years during the Vietnam War, said taking questions from a snowman is "frankly inappropriate." Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said "the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman."  Read more...

10. Do Democratic primary voters really want candidates like John Edwards and Barack Obama who speak fondly of the Great Society? In a word: yes.

9. Why do we demand from government absolute security against terrorism but are so tolerant about other government negligence that can also result in random harm, such as the broken steam pipe that resulted in injury and death in New York City? Mayor Bloomberg pays no price for failing to maintain an aging and dangerous infrastructure, but would be heavily criticized if the damage were done by terrorists.

8. Isn’t it a risky strategy for a candidate’s wife, Elizabeth Edwards, to attack another candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton? Can’t John Edwards do his own attacking?   Read more...

It's nice to know we have something in common with the Russians. And what, you might ask, is that?

Well, I appreciate the question. What we have in common is technical people ... geekskies. In both languages, their slogan is "If it ain't broke, BREAK it."

I speak, of course, of the Space Station, where things were going just fine until U.S. astronauts installed that solar panel "upgrade." Then the Russian computers crashed. Of course they crashed.

Until they undid the damage — we THINK they did, anyway — officials were falling all over themsleves to deny the gazillion-dollar Space Station might have to be abandoned. Which meant, of course, they were drawing up plans to abandon the space station.  Read more...

There is too much hatred, derision, disrespect, smearing, slander, polarization, division and bigotry that has infected American politics and American media.

What Don Imus said about the Rutgers women's basketball team was only the latest example of a sickness that is spreading — and in certain corporate boardrooms even encouraged as good for business.

This problem is far larger than Imus, the idea that it's profitable, beneficial or cute to spit hate, venom, or ugliness in our politics and media. Read more...