Tech Policy

If America Is Richer, Why Are Its Families So Much Less Secure?

You might remember my recommendation on Peter Gosselin's stories about the state of economic affairs for American families in LA Times among other things. Kevin Drum now points out that these stories have been collected at one place and accesible without the annoying log-in.  This series, titled  If America Is Richer, Why Are Its Families So Much Less Secure? is definitely worth your time. Please read it.

VOIP Calls Blocked by Rival Carriers, GreenPeace Protesters get Whooped by Traders, 1st Amendment Rights for Bloggers?

Three good articles with a tech policy twist I read via Jeff Nolan's Blog today.

1st up: What rights do bloggers have? Journalists in the traditonal media have rights that protect them from being forced to reveal sources, and other 1st amendment protections. What rights do bloggers have? Isn't blogging, a new form of the free press? According to this article, different states define journalists differently. The author doesn't think that bloggers will receive equal protection. Should they? May become increasingly important issue, as the blog world is digging up more and more of today's mainstream journalisms stories.

2nd, and by far the best story, Greenpeace protestors in London stormed the International Petroleum Exchange. They hoped to halt trading on the day the Kyoto Protocol went into force. What happened instead wasnt what they expected.

The protestors gained unauthorized entrance by slipping a card in the door of the exchange when a trader went out for a smoke.  Soon after the  invaders entered and began screaming with bullhorns and sounding off rape alarms.

“They grabbed us and started kicking and punching. Then when we were on the floor they tried to push huge filing cabinets on top of us to crush us.”

...

Protesters conceded that mounting the operation after lunch may not have been the best plan. “The violence was instant,” Jon Beresford, 39, an electrical engineer from Nottingham, said.

...

“We bit off more than we could chew. They were just Cockney barrow boy spivs. Total thugs,” one protester said, rubbing his bruised skull. “I’ve never seen anyone less amenable to listening to our point of view.”

As Jeff puts it:

Apparently, those folks at Greenpeace never thought to consider that storming a trading floor populated primarily by young, testosterone laden traders might not be a good idea.

Third item is that Vonage claims that other carriers are blocking their customers' voice over IP calls. This is some of the nasty stuff that Frank Field and Lessig talked about could happen if the network operators begin to treat different packets unequally. It will be a less useful thing for everyone.

Daily Show on Blogging

Don't miss Jon Stewart's segment on bloggers. Ridiculously funny stuff.

Jesse's Charts

Take a look at Jesse's Charts.  Lots of interesting information in one place. I look at all those charts, and I am worried about what is going to happen in the next couple of years for the economy as a whole. Jesse looks at the charts and sees opportunities for making money.

"Find the trend whose premise is false, then bet against it."

Very interesting.

A Company of Soldiers | PBS

I just watched the latest Frontline episode titled A Company of Soldiers. Frontline crew spent the month of November 2004 with a company in Baghdad. They have done a very good job of documenting "the life of the ordinary GI in Iraq".  You may be able to catch it  on PBS some other time or online after  Friday.  Watch out also for Frontline's next offering "The Soldier's Heart" which will look at what the veterans go through psychologically.
 

Yellow Pages on A9.com

Do you live in one of these cities?

# Atlanta # Boston # Dallas # Chicago # New York City (Manhattan) # Denver # Los Angeles # Seattle # Portland, Oregon # San Francisco and the Bay Area

If you do, there is a small chance that one fine day when you were taking a liesurely walk in your city or were out shopping, an Amazon vehicles passed on the street and captured all that was going on the curb.
A9, the search and more site of Amazon now has Yellow Pages. They have put images from entire streets on the web. While I like the idea of being able to see the images of a shop or a resturant I may be looking for, I am horrified that they did it just by capturing everything they could observe on the street and putting it on the web. I can hardly believe that this is legal!

The Boston Globe Cites Wikipedia

I've always thought the Boston Globe was a half-assed newspaper. No where in the same league as the Post, Times, or Journal. But today, they sunk to new lows in my eye.

In a backgrounder to the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Hariri , Globe writer Kathleen Hennrikus, cites the BBC and Wikipedia as her sources for the piece. Huh??

Wikipedia is a cool open source internet encyclopedia. Anyone can write anything on any topic. This is a very interesting and widely popular service.  It contains hundreds of thousands of useful and insightful entries. I'm surprised that it works as well as it does. But, the fact remains that anyone can write anything. You can change any text that any previous author wrote at any time.

People have been known to perpetrate lies, and start rumours through Wikipedia entries. This is especially true for a country as heavily contentious as Lebanon.

What the hell is the Boston Globe citing Wikipedia for? Its supposed to be the other way around. Hennrikus should be fired for her sloppy journalism.

Martin Tobias is looking for Energy related B-plans

Martin Tobias, venture capital investor at Ignition Partners, blogs at Deep Green Crystals.

He posted a list of investment areas he's looking for this year:

1. The next big thing in computer Security.
2. IT meets Bio/Pharma/Healthcare
3. IT meets Energy
4. Alternative Energy reduces US dependance on foreign sources of energy (maybe clean and green).

Got any plans?

I've also seen several other VCs looking for energy related plans.

Anup, I know your working with a team on something to do with IT/Energy nexus. Thought this might be interesting for you and your team mates.

Offshoring Math Tutoring

Do you like No Child Left Behind Money going to India? Listen to this NPR story about on-line tutoring and see a demo at Career Launcher, a company involved in this business. Via Prairie Weather.

So You are Living in a Police State...

We have discussed Internet monitoring and Surveillance before. Here is an update: Amy Goodman interviews Robert O'Harrow about his new book No Place to Hide.

Also see a golden oldie!: Enjoy The Police State! from The Daily Show.