“In hundreds of American communities, public officials have concluded that the Internet is an essential service. They see that their residents are either offered prices that are too high or are not offered services at all. They are aware that while our nation stumbles in high-speed-Internet adoption, other countries make sure consumers can get connected at lower prices.” But telecom companies are mounting campaigns to block city service. “They argue that taxpayer-funded competition makes the marketplace unfair (ironic, since those firms owe their dominance to government-granted monopolies). Then they claim that cities are too unsophisticated to pull off such projects (so why are they worried?).”
Category: ideas
Company Sues Internet History Keeper Over Copyright (Huh?)
“The Internet Archive was created in 1996 as the institutional memory of the online world, storing snapshots of ever-changing Web sites and collecting other multimedia artifacts.” It’s a great historical record and archive for future historians produced as a non-profit service. But now a company is suing the Internet Archive, saying “the access to its old Web pages, stored in the Internet Archive’s database, was unauthorized and illegal.”
But… But… But We Hate The French, Don’t We?
“The tyranny of name brands. The cult of celebrity. A consumer culture inflamed by advertisers who rely on sex to seduce.” It’s all just so terribly American, circa 21st century, isn’t it? Well, no, it’s all so 18th century French, actually, and a new book points out that, despite the current unpopularity of all things French among a certain sector of the American population, much of our current popular culture and its materialist trappings can be traced back to the influence of Louis XIV.
Do-It-Yourselfers Reinvent Gadgets
“In the digital era, every consumer-electronics product comes with microchips and software programming, and for a new generation of tech-savvy users, these are the raw materials needed to make a digital toy or appliance do tricks that its creators didn’t envision. Sometimes, tinkerers become a consumer electronics maker’s unofficial research-and-development team, with innovations winding up as built-in features down the line.”
Meat In A Lab?
Scientists say that it may be possible to grow meat in a lab, producing as much as the world needs. “With a single cell, you could theoretically produce the world’s annual meat supply. And you could do it in a way that’s better for the environment and human health. In the long term, this is a very feasible idea.”
Giving Up On the Avant Garde?
Margo Jefferson has lost interest in the avant garde. “Is a urinal art? Is elephant dung a fit substance for creating art? Can walking be dance? Is sampling or silence or noise music? Are fractured words and stories truer to the shape of our experience than traditional narratives? Will the virtual and simulated realities made possible by the digital age threaten our identities or layer and expand them? At one time all these things were controversial. Now they are familiar. That’s why I don’t really like to use the words avant-garde anymore. I don’t really believe in them right now. They don’t take in enough variety.”
Internet Justice – Can It Go Too Far?
A woman’s dog poops in the subway and she refuses to clean it up. A fellow passenger takes her picture and posts it on the internet. Soon an internet mob forms, ferreting out details of her life, including where she lives and what she does… “Increasingly, the Internet also is a venue of so-called citizen journalism, in which swarms of surfers mobilize to gather information on what the traditional media isn’t covering, or is covering in a way that dissatisfies some people. But what happens when the two converge, and the Internet populace is stirred to action against individuals?”
Music On The Brain
A study of violinists has shown that mastery of a musical instrument actually causes the human brain to rewire itself to better deal with the demands of the activity. It doesn’t mean that musicians are somehow smarter than the average adult, merely that their brains have been wired for greater manual dexterity than non-musicians. The findings can likely be extended to include other specialized areas of human endeavor, such as athletics.
How Computers Decide Where You’ll Shop
Wondering how companies decide where to locate stores? Now computers decide. “High tech has given a new twist to the old real estate mantra: location, location, location. Ever wonder why sometimes you see two Starbucks coffee shops located within the same block — or right across the street from each other? It’s not by chance. Site selection has been fine-tuned to a digital art. A retailer can now closely analyze all of the sales information that it has to understand the lifestyles and preferences of its customers. Then, companies can combine that info with mapping and demographic software to decide whether it’s worthwhile to open a store at a given location.”
The Language of Empire
Over the last half-century or so, English has risen to become the dominant global language of the era, spoken as the default in everything from international business transactions to air travel. But achieving a global reach doesn’t necessarily give a language long-term staying power, as the Assyrians and the Silk Road traders found out centuries ago. Then again, some languages are kept alive past their political and economic prime by a powerful religious influence. Linguist Nicholas Ostler’s new book delves into all of these factors, and aims to sort out what gives a language its power, and what can take that power away in a heartbeat.