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August 6, 2005
I found this visual display of quantified lives affecting. Personally, I don’t think any conclusion follows from it: If you support the war, it’s a record of sacrifice; if you don’t, it’s an accounting of futility. But either way it’s a reminder.
Before you complain that it doesn’t show Iraqi deaths, read the “About” pages. (Thanks to Salon for the link.) [Tag: iraq]
Another reminder: What would an animated map of Hiroshima look like 60 years ago?
August 5, 2005
Rick Santorum says something sensible about “Intelligent Design.”
Bob Novak walks off “Inside Politics” and gets suspended by CNN.
One more such event and I’m going to start preparing for The Rapture. (In my case, that means buying heavy weapons and downloading all the music I want.) [Tags: RickSantorum BobNovak]
August 3, 2005
While I’m on the topic, Thomas Friedman today in the NY Times has decided that muni wifi is a good thing, that Andrew Rasiej by implication would do good for NYC, and that Howard Dean was onto something with that Internet stuff. [Technorati tags: wifi AndrewRasiej nyc]
August 2, 2005
The NY Times today runs this photo of Mitt Romney, our GQ-perfect governor, in his office. Can you spot what’s wrong with it:
As I believe a letter in the Boston Globe pointed out, the framed photos of his lovely family are all facing out from the desk, perfect for photos opps but leaving Mitt staring lovingly at the backs of the frames.
A fitting picture of Mitt as just yet another political phony… [Technorati tags: MittRomney]
The city of Denver plans on building a 52-square-mile wifi network even though the state of Colorado has passed a law ( SB 152) making it illegal for municipalities to offer telecommunications services. (Pennsylvania passed a similar law after Philadelphia announced its plans to provide muni-wifi, but the bill exempts cities that began within a particular, short deadline.) It seems that Denver will use the network for its own city services, at least initially cutting off public access to it because the Denver legislature is owned by Qwest.
During the Howard Dean campaign, some on the informal board of advisors on tech policy argued fiercely that, on free market principles, the government shouldn’t even give incentives to provide broadband to underserved parts of the nation. I disagreed then and I disagree now. (By the way, this shows you just how much Howard Dean supporters were all a bunch of socialist, anti-capitalist, commie bastards.)
I accept that any networking service that a municipality provides is likely to be less than optimal. The government will make the wrong choices about the technology, how to deploy it, how to charge for it, and how to maintain/upgrade/retire it. Governments just aren’t as smart as markets are about these things. But I still like muni-wifi for three reasons:
First, having ubiquitous, always-on connections available throughout a city adds a layer of infrastructure — information and connectedness — that may have transformative social effects.
Second, having that infrastructure available regardless of the area’s economic status may have transformative economic effects.
Third, it is not incompatible with offerings from the free market.* If Qwest, say, has a better product — more bandwidth, better service, better security, etc. — then the market will be willing to pay for it. If the municipality can’t keep its network up to date, then let Qwest make money charging for the latest and the greatest.
Bring on the muni-wifi! [Technorati tags: wifi denver]
*For the moment we’re pretending that telecommunication services are offered in a free market. Haha.
July 30, 2005
First: The video.
Second, the question:
1. He is cracking up as his policies fail and his supporters desert him.
2. It’s his inner frat boy escaping.
3. He’s led a life of assumed privilege, so when he doesn’t get his way, he acts like a spoiled teenager.
4. It’s his way of saying “America is Number One!”
5. We all know he’s thinking it, so why not just come out with it?
6. Because he’s the President, dammit!
July 26, 2005
The Bush administration continues to refuse to release photos and videos of Abu Ghraib that, by all accounts, show far worse scenes of torture.
We need to know what happened. We’re Americans. We’re supposed to believe in the power of truth. [Technorati tags: iraq bush AbuGhraib]
July 20, 2005
Scott Bradner takes apart the latest FCC report on the state of the nation’s broadband and finds that it’s not exactly on the Straight Talk Express…especially if you think 200kbs second isn’t quite what we mean by broadband. True, after redefining it to 1/5th the speed most people consider to be a broadband minimum, the report this year talks about “high speed” access instead of “broadband,” but the FCC chairman then went out and touted the happy growth of “broadband deployment” by ignoring the difference in scale from last year to this year. [Technorati tags: fcc ScottBradner]
July 15, 2005
Personal Democracy Forum has a really interesting article by Kate Kaye on a study of how the US Congress views email. A sample:
…the majority of Congressional offices don’t respond to constituent email with email; in fact just 17 percent of House offices and 38 percent of Senate offices use email for this purpose. As it turns out, most survey respondents who don’t use email to respond worry that their messages could be altered and forwarded, thus misrepresenting their bosses’ positions.
July 14, 2005
Hillary, I know you think you can count on my vote if you get the nomination. But you can’t, not if you keep up this relentless stream of irrelevant, pandering idiocy. [Technorati tags: HillaryClinton GTA]
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