NetGrrl: Zeitgeist

Current Mood: Alarmed

Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the Internet’s First Amendment — a principle called Network Neutrality that prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you — based on what site pays them the most. If the public doesn’t speak up now, our elected officials will cave to a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign.

Tell Congress to reject the telephone and cable companies’ power grab–and stand up for a free and open Internet

http://www.congressweb.com/cweb4/index.cfm?orgcode=dmwtn&hotissue=3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality

Columbia University law professor Tim Wu popularized the phrase network neutrality as a term designating a network that does not favor one application (for example the World Wide Web) over another (such as online gaming or Voice over IP).[1] Wu claims that the Internet is not neutral “as among all applications” as it favors file transfer over real-time communication.

Network neutrality also designates a contemporary controversy mostly local to the United States regarding the role that government should take relative to Internet access providers providing multiple levels of service for different fees. This controversy, which emerged following regulatory developments in the United States, is extremely complex, as it mixes technical, economic, ideological and legal arguments. In essence, network neutrality regulations proposed by Senators Snowe and Dorgan[4] and Representative Markey bar ISPs from offering Quality of Service enhancements for a fee.

http://www.itsournet.org/2006/08/its_our_net_coalition_reacts_t_1.php

It’s Our Net Coalition Reacts to FTC Chairman Majoras’ Call for a Task Force to Review Net Neutrality

Tue Aug 22, 2006 at 03:24:17

We welcome Chairman Majoras’ examination of Net Neutrality through the newly-formed Internet Access Task Force. We look forward to providing comprehensive input to the task force as it studies this most crucial issue.

We agree that competition is clearly an important issue in the Net Neutrality debate. As consumers know and data from the Federal Communications Commission bears out, more than 99 percent of broadband access is controlled by the phone and cable companies. That does not constitute anything like a competitive market. That is a failed market.

As we’ve said from the beginning of this battle, we do not seek new regulation. We merely ask that Congress reinstate the non-discrimination protections that have always formed the underpinning of last-mile access to the Internet. We trust that the Internet Access Task Force will recognize that Net Neutrality is vital if consumers are to continue to enjoy an open, robust and innovative Internet.

other links:
http://www.handsoff.org/
http://www.dontregulate.org/
http://www.savetheinternet.com/

Current Mood: Angry

Buddy, a 16-month-old Labrador abused and tortured so cruelly he had to be humanely euthanized, has become the poster child of a growing movement to stop animal cruelty in Mississippi.

Support to change the animal cruelty law grows
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
By CHERIE WARD
The Mississippi Press

MOSS POINT — Beth Ladnier of Moss Point is a woman wanting to help change the animal cruelty law in Mississippi.

“After everything that happened with Buddy I decided someone needs to stand up for our animals,” Ladnier said. “For years and years we’ve heard stories like Buddy’s and no one ever does anything. I decided I would.”

For more articles see Mississippi Press

More Buddy help: The Mississippi Press Association Board of Directors have taken up the cause, helping to distribute informations, sample letters to representatives and senators, and house ads newspapers can publish as a community service.

Should Pluto be demoted? What exactly is a planet, anyway?

Should Pluto be demoted? What exactly is a planet, anyway?

08/13/2006
At a 12-day conference of the International Astronomical Union beginning Monday in Prague, scientists will conduct a galactic census of sorts.

Our solar system is suffering an identity crisis. For decades, it has consisted of nine planets, even as scientists debated whether Pluto really belonged. Then the recent discovery of an object larger and farther away than Pluto threatened to throw this slice of the cosmos into chaos.

Should this newly found icy rock known as “2003 UB313” become the 10th planet? Should Pluto be demoted? And what exactly is a planet, anyway? Ancient cultures regularly revised their answer to the last question and present-day scientists aren’t much better off: There still is no universal definition of “planet.”

That all could soon change, and with it science textbooks around this planet.

“Don’t you feel your luck is changing
When everything starts to happen
Put your head right next to my heart
The beat of the drum is the fear of the dark”
– Mother’s Talk, Tears for Fears from their album, Songs from the Big Chair, 1985

Ok, it’s hot. Everyone knows it’s hot. It’s been so hot lately that people will give you a dirty look if you make any comment about it being hot. That look says, “Don’t make me go nuclear on yo’ ass. Yes, we know it’s hot.”

• Not enough readers?: 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school - this is just too sad. (0)