Today PRI released a study on e-voting authored by me and Vince Vasquez. We point out that Internet-fed rumors of conspiracy theories, widespread fraud, and rigged elections are unwarranted and we suggest ways to deal with the real issues involved with electronic voting machines. Press release is here and report is here.

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This month the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide MGM vs. Grokster, the case that could determine whether or not a peer-to-peer (P2P) company can be held liable for illegal activity on its network. The decision is key, but the future is also being shaped by the marketplace. See my column on [...]

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Two employees of PETA, aka “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals” were recently charged with 31 felony counts of animal cruelty after authorities found them dumping the dead bodies of 18 animals they had just picked up from a North Carolina animal shelter into a dumpster. This news might be shocking if [...]

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California began a series of public hearings on the SBC/AT&T merger in Oakland, Calif., last week. While the purpose is to gather public input, in reality, special interests dominate, putting the real public interest at risk.
An hour before the hearing took place, the meeting room was plastered with signs that could have been dusted off [...]

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Last night I went to a screening for the new film Yes, hosted by my ultra-cool friend Mark Pincus. The film was absolutely amazing for a few reasons, the first of which was its prose. The entire script was a poem – the lines rhymed in a Shakespearesque way. As a writer, [...]

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New technologies will allow longer lifespans and greater somatic choice, but some people hope tech will also re-order society. Click here to see what I think.

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I attended a breakfast lecture by Bob Kohn this morning where he discussed his book Journalistic Fraud. He made the case that the NYT and other media outlets distort the news by how they report and what they include and omit.
One interesting example that fits this pattern is a letter/ad that 450 [...]

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The book Freakonomics has been getting a lot of attention recently, and here’s a well done article by Max Borders on the original Freaks.

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Broadband experts gathered in Washington, D.C. this week to discuss the future of high-speed Internet access. Much of the talk centered on Texas, where a major battle recently took place between telecom companies and cable firms.
The focus of the war was a Texas bill that would have allowed telecom companies like SBC and Verizon to [...]

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