Alaska Pipeline ... the board game? I'm thinking of board game called Demagogue. Imagine a game like Taboo where a player draws a card with a policy issue he/she has to get their teammate to guess using only populistic cliches. I think that would sell!
With the obvious intention of currying favor with carriers for free transmission of fromtheheartland.org faster than the speed of life; and - less toungue and cheek- at the risk of subjecting this blog to its first DOS (denial of sanity) attack from commentors and trackbacks: I feel compelled to point to the self-interested chatter that is supposed to qualify as argumentation on behalf of net neutrality.
I'm a big fan of alliteration, but somehow this one had escaped me until I fell across a rather cryptic reference by Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit.com. He seems to be buying into casting this as a battle between titanic telephone and bantamweight bloggers. When you're a lumberjack, everything looks like a tree, so it is unsurprising to see that the author of An Army of Davids : How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths would cast this as yet one more battle cry for the little literati to take up the sling.
It is not that internet architecture and the commercial interests of the relatively narrow band of broadband providers aren't worthy of discussion, but this appears to be an intellectual fait accompli, not a serious discourse. The vast silence in the grassroots blogosphere in the face of such a sweeping regulatory effort made me wonder: where has skepticism of government solutions gone? Apparently if forced to choose between Big Media and Big Government, Glenn Reynolds has thrown in his lot with the latter, or actually with both. The blogoshere ain't leading this charge, they're following the likes of Google's Guru Vint Cerf. The coalition for net neutrality operates under that typically 'understated' rubric of "Save The Internet".
Continue reading "Net neut[e]rality or the wild, wild web? I'm with the cowboys!" »
I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking of maxing out my credit cards for this Reason conference, though sadly, I have no desire to propose to Trey Parker. I wonder if they comp think tankers? Genius, those guys are.
The NASA press aide accused of trying to silence Jim Hansen is defending himself.
Here's a good article on the economics and science of ethanol ... but this one's better!
The New York Post is editorializing on a education union battle taking shape in New York that could have reverberations throughout the country.
Whatever happened to Susan Lindauer?
Cook county raises taxes on smokers ... again!
New York Governor, George Pataki, is proposing the state increase the number of charter schools it allows.
Meanwhile, the city of Boston is taking a shot at municipal Wi-Fi.
The San Francisco Chronicle is worried about floral rights and regulations. Those flowers you buy for your valentine are not green enough, "Flower plantations are like sweatshops ... "
Some evangelical leaders are jumping on the global warming train, "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors."
American media is remaining remarkably quiet on the cartoon clash. The Times supports the american media's refusal to show the cartoons, and the Chicago Tribune goes so far as to criticize the European papers for being to in-your-face about the whole thing.
Meanwhile, Tom Bevan is still waiting for the moderate muslims to speak up.
And, on cue, it appears they are.
Instead of posting a series of entries, each linking to one particular story, I am going to attempt to have one entry a day that will consolidate links to various articles I read throughout that day. This feature will, by no means, be a comprehensive listing of all that's worthy of reading. Rather, consider one man's calisthenic routine.