While Austin, TX was still searching for its serial bomber, various guests on CNN were of course speculating about the assailant’s level of expertise (perhaps even formal training) due to the technical sophistication of some of the explosive devices. Cynically, I thought, “Or he has YouTube.” For years, the internet industry, led by the major platforms, has invoked free speech ...

In late November of 2011, one of the hottest-trending, internet-related topics was the campaign to stop the SOPA/PIPA bills. In early/mid 2017, the noisiest issue was “net neutrality,” as FCC Chairman Pai made good on his promise to reverse the 2015 Open Internet Order. In both cases, the public was served volumes of emotional hyperbole, created by vested interests, used ...

A chemistry is performed so that a chemical reaction occurs and generates a signal from the chemical interaction with the sample, which is translated into a result, which is then reviewed by certified laboratory personnel. Okay, that’s not really free-verse poetry, but I thought maybe if I laid the words out as if they were, it would help convey something—anything. ...

When Black Panther opened last month and proceeded to set records at the box office, it just so happened to be 200 years, almost to the day, after Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Tuckahoe, Maryland. The significance of this particular symmetry might be observed through any number of lenses, including those distorted by presentist emotions, which tend to ...

Is the internet broken yet? I suppose if you’re reading this, it isn’t. And if you’re not reading this, you’re looking at something else. On the internet. Yesterday, the House passed the hotly-contested FOSTA, which is now the acronym for the anti-sex-trafficking legislation that combines the earlier bill SESTA with various amendments. Eric Goldman has called the progeny a Frankenstein, ...

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