Lockergnome

Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, a leading publisher of award-winning news and information Web sites, today announced the launch of the Global Power Barometer (GPB), a tool that measures which nations, ideologies or movements are most powerful based on how successfully they influence global opinion and events.
Located on PostGlobal, washingtonpost.com and Newsweek.com’s panel blog on international issues, the Global Power [...]

If you’re reading this article, chances are you enjoy using technology (or at least a computer, obviously). But there are some people out there who don’t like where the world is heading. While scanning the headlines in my RSS reader today, two jumped out at me. The first headline is: Experts believe violence could accompany [...]

Sometimes technology makes a profound change in how something is done and once in a while a story comes along that doesn’t get much (if any) attention. This story about GPS controlled air drop tests conducted by the US Army and US Air Force is one of them. It may not seem like a [...]

If you’re not familiar with youtube.com, you’re missing a real treat. Thousands of videos are uploaded by people and shared for your viewing pleasure. Some aren’t so great, and some are plain stupid, but there are some real gems. I’ve gotten to see some music videos that I haven’t seen in years.
But now the [...]

There comes a point in any discussion where it suffers from photon death, for lack of a better term. The discussion, of course, continues long after this point, but it is going to remain limited to something that generates nothing but heat.
We have cliches for this, of course. “Generates more heat than light.” “Beating a [...]

Looking through Google News this morning a couple of articles about Google jumped out at me. When you’re the top dog, everyone wants to take a bite - and it seems there are some hungry people out there. The first one was about a Belgian company filing a lawsuit over search terms offered by Google [...]

An update on my previous post about network neutrality. Yesterday, May 2nd, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced the Network Neutrality Act of 2006. To read the full text of his proposal click here (PDF File). To learn more about net neutrality and what you can do, visit savetheinternet.com and let your Representative in Congress know [...]

There is certainly much scapegoating of illegal immigrants by those who practice the politics of cultural conservatism, attempting to preserve some illusory impression of an essential American culture, which they perceive as under threat by increasing diversity. However, for the rest of us, who care not about such inconsequential issues, we on the Left, who [...]

As we all know, www equals World Wide Web. So it’s not surprising that conflicts come up where the laws of one nation conflict with the laws of another for Internet users. This article at Ars Technica illustrates just such a legal case.

The blog to book phenom, Julia and Julie, which I blogged about last August at Writer’s Edge has won top prize in the lulu.com-sponsored Blooker Prize. The Book Standard’s intriguing Blogs and Bestsellers: One and the Same? suggested: If anyone is sure to have a real blog-to-print success story, it may be Julie [...]

If you haven’t been paying attention to the news lately you might be missing the growing controversy over network (or Net) neutrality. You can read more about it here and here. So what is Net neutrality, you might ask? Well this Wikipedia article gives a good explanation of the term.

March is Women’s History Month, and who better to read about than the women who have made history in writing! For example, did you know the first recorded writer was a woman? Around 2500 B.C., Enheduanna of Sumeria, now southern Iraq, recorded her poetry in cuneiform on clay tablets that withstood the test [...]

Well, are you? A recent article from Mike over at Techdirt.com explains the ins/outs of this hot question. Hey, and what a surprise, just like everything concerning our government, the Internet, laws, and money, the space between legal and illegal is more gray and vague than John Madden. This puts our federal government in a convenient [...]

The RFID tag is coming! As they become common and soon will become part of our lives (whether we like it or not I might add) this article shows that there are a lot of questions and concerns that still need to be addressed. The scenario in the story should be a real eye opener [...]

A banana republic is one of those places where 1 in 5 of the dollars spent by the government is borrowed, the trade deficit exceeds 6% of GNP, and the president funds the state with a printing press in the basement.
What brings things to a head is usually a sudden loss of confidence; some big [...]

Romance blossoms on the Internet, but there is still public concern about the safety of online dating. There is now broad public awareness of the online dating world, and the Internet users who are actively seeking dates have found a variety of ways to pursue their romantic interests online. The Pew Internet Project just [...]

Insiders say that the FCC will soon announce its decision to uphold the $550,000 fine against CBS for Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction.
I usually don’t send out pure opinion pieces, but let it be said: There is not one person anywhere who can give you a good reason why it’s OK to show a man’s chest [...]

As many of you are probably aware, the winter Olympics are going on right now in Torino Italy. Amidst the marketing and hype there are actual sporting events taking place. I try to watch when I get a chance as I enjoy bobsledding, ski jumping, and downhill skiing. At times it seemed like it was [...]

As the pace of modernization accelerates around the globe, so too has computer usage and access to the internet. The latest Pew Global Attitudes poll found substantially more people using a computer and going online now than in 2002. And it is not just the young who are increasing their use of technology; in many [...]

I am having a bit of a ramble around the demise of mass media, why it happened in the first place and how our digital world is impacting on what we consume and how.
So I came across an interesting book by Lizabeth Cohen - Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Dept. History Harvard [...]