We hear a lot about community and free expression when it comes to the Web.  From tech bloggers to legal scholars, the boosters spare little praise for the social benefits of technologically connected groups.  Some cyber gurus even go so far as to predict that these new communities are already spawning a new, populist dialogue that will ultimately change the ...

The overarching goal of this site is to question the often giddy, utopianism that accompanies our journey into this new, digital-age reality. I have proposed on a few occasions that battles over issues like copyright are really just proxy wars in a larger, ideological (even semi-religious) cold war between humanistic and techno-centric values.  Behind the overt defenses of online piracy ...

A weekly aggregation of tech stories of note December 11, 2012 Steam Without Boiling Water – Metallic nano particles can be used to produce steam using sunlight without raising the surrounding water to the boiling point. This has huge implications for energy production and other industries that rely on steam generation.  See story at Earth Techling. Classical Musician Reinterprets Video ...

“To keep up even a worthwhile tradition means vitiating the idea behind it which must necessarily be in a constant state of evolution: it is mad to try to express new feelings in a “mummified” form.” – Alfred Jarry – Legal expert and blogger Terry Hart and I had the chance to meet in DC this week, and we were ...

In today’s post about transparency, I stated that TechDirt was among the blogs that criticized the appointment of Representative Lamar Smith as Chairman of the House Science Committee.  There was, in fact, a slew of blogs about the appointment, and I honestly believed I had seen one from TechDirt several days before writing my article.  Editor Mike Masnick wrote a ...