Net Neutrality

So, I was flipping through ArsTechnica yesterday and saw their article about a survey being run around the Senate Commerce Committee regarding Net Neutrality. From the article:

The poll also found that many Americans have no idea what net neutrality is, or why they should care; only 7 percent said that they had even heard or seen anything about net neutrality. When pollsters introduced the concept to poll takers, they described it solely as “enhancing Internet neutrality by barring high speed internet providers from offering specialized services like faster speed and increased security for a fee.” When presented this way, 19 percent of respondents said that net neutrality was more important to them than “delivering the benefits of new TV and video choice,” which received a 66 percent backing.

Now, since I know the majority of you don’t know what Net Neutrality is, let me give you the Wikipedia definition:

The phrase Network Neutrality was coined by Columbia University law professor Tim Wu to describe networks that don’t favor some classes of application (for example the World Wide Web) over others (such as online gaming or Voice over IP).

You can read the full article for further information, and there are plenty of news articles around, but here’s the key: Net Neutrality is essential for keeping the internet as it stands today. The legislation is built to allow internet providers to allot certain speeds to certain services.

Let me explain this as simply as I can. The internet is finite: there’s only so much of it. Right now, if I want, I’ve got access to 100% of the internet. If the internet was not “neutral,” as it is now, then companies like AT&T and Verizon could say: “hmmmm…let’s just allow Andy to use 20% of the internet and use the other 80% for whatever we want, like telephone and television services.” Or even better, “hey, why don’t we have Amazon and eBay pay extra so they can each have 10% of the internet, while forcing everyone else to use and share 20% between themselves.” Why is this bad? Well, because my internet will be slower, and any new companies would be forced to use that limited amount of it until they could afford the premium to venture into the rest of the ‘Net.

Essentially, using the “Information Superhighway” metaphor, it’s like letting big companies with their semis full of products drive across the country on I-70 with no speed limit, but forcing the entire US population to drive along Route 66 (including all the stoplights).

Net neutrality is an important issue. Perhaps not as important as gay rights and an illegitimate war, but important just the same. You need to vote in November so that the internet stays the way it is, rather than favoring the large corporations, thus stifling any and all creativity and competition.

I leave you with a quote from the guy running the Senate Commerce Committee, Ted Stevens:

“They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck. It’s a series of tubes.”

Seriously…this is they guy “leading the charge,” so to speak.

Oh, politics…

Mom called with a bumper sticker she saw on the way home:

“Somewhere in Texas, there’s a village missing their idiot.”

This, of course, inspired me to look for more of the like, plenty of which can be found at the end of a simple Google search:

“‘God’ is not spelled G.O.P.”

“Nobody died when Clinton lied.”

“My child is an honor student.? My President is a moron.”

“Annoy a Conservative.? Think for yourself!”

“One nation, under surveillance.”

“Don’t blame me, I voted with the majority.”

“Re-Defeat Bush in 2004!”

“If you can read this, you’re not the President.”

“My border collie is smarter than your President.”

“Osama still has his job.? Do you still have yours?”

Mmmmm…hobos…

“Yeah. before the role [Venom], I went out and killed a hobo with a hammer just [to] kind of get into [it], and it worked. All of a sudden, people were treating me differently.”

Topher Grace

Les Stroud is my Idol

“Oops…my squirrel is burning…”

— Les Stroud

So, there was a show on Discovery Science Channel in 2004 that’s now being re-run on the regular Discovery Channel called “Survivorman.” We first discovered it as a stripped down, half-hour version of the full-lenth, hour long TV show about Les Stroud (Wikipedia? & Official), a guy who is dropped off in the wilderness with his camera equipment and a pocket knife and then left alone for a week. Recently, the Discovery Channel started showing the full-length versions on Friday nights, so we’re getting to watch a few that we missed, as well as watch the rest of the episodes that we have seen.

It’s just crazy what this guy does… For example, “this week’s” episode, Les is left in Canyonlands, Utah with a mountain bike and his pocket knife. He cannibalizes the bike for parts (uses tubes to drink wanter and stoke fires, uses the inner tube to act as a canteen when he rarely found water, used the frame as part of his shelter, etc.), used ancient techniques to set up traps to catch animals, and built shelters to help withstand the 15 F nights (i.e. cold, if you don’t have a sleeping bag…which he didn’t…).

So yeah, if you can, you should record this show and watch it. Or if you’re at home on a Friday, check out the Discovery Channel. w00t!

P.S. Nathan, next summer, we’re going to get dropped off in Alaska. We’ll have to eat Grizzly Bears to survive. It’ll be stupendous.

Oldiness…

“Wisdom doesn’t automatically come with old age. Nothing does – except wrinkles. It’s true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place.”

— Abigail Van Buren

Happy #24 to me…

I’ll be enjoying today at the lab, then going by the Schlafly Tap Room for dinner with my lovely wife this evening. Overall, should be a good day!

Now, if only I had television to watch, then today would be perfect…grrrrr…

Carlin

A little wisdom from my man, George Carlin:

“So I worship the sun. But I don’t pray to the sun. You know why? Because I wouldn’t presume on our friendship. It’s not polite. I’ve often thought people treat God rather rudely. Trillions and trillions of prayers every day, asking and pleading and begging for favors. ‘Do this; give me that; I need this; I want that.’ And most of this praying takes place on Sunday, his day off! It’s not nice, and it’s no way to treat a friend.”

“I wanted to be a Boy Scout, but I had all the wrong traits. Apparently, they were looking for kids who were trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. Unfortunately, at that time, I was devious, fickle, obstructive, hostile, rude, mean, defiant, glum, extravagant, cowardly, dirty, and sacrilegious. So I waited a few years and joined the army.”

Ahem…

As stolen from Tom Yonker’s Facebook profile:

“However dominant in terms of numbers, Christianity is only a thread in the American tapestry – it is not the whole tapestry. The God who is spoken of and called on and prayed to in the public sphere is an essential character in the American drama, but He is not specifically God the Father or the God of Abraham. The right’s contention that we are a ‘Christian nation’ that has fallen from pure origins and can achieve redemption by some kind of return to Christian values is based on wishful thinking, not convincing historical argument.”

–Jon Meacham, NEWSWEEK Managing Editor, author of “American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation”

Indeed…

Sigh…

“There are people all over Rome dressed up like Romans!”

— Kristen

…time to get back in an American school, kiddo… 😛