May 27, 2009 (US Lags in Broadband Impede Economy)
Apparently, the FCC will release its comprehensive rural broadband strategy today
http://twurl.nl/kc62yw
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY MAY 27, 2009
TRANSITION
Obama Integrates Security Councils, Adds New Offices
Trying to Tame a Presidential Appointment Process 'Gone Bonkers'
BROADBAND
US Lags in Broadband Impede Economy
Why Isn't Wireless Net Access Available Everywhere?
Bringing Broadband to Rural America
Big Issues at Stake in FCC Broadband Inquiry
Massachusetts Broadband Institute Unveils Interactive Survey
The New UTOPIA: Transforming Failure Into Success
Subscribers Hold Broadband Provider Accountable for Slow Service
Netbooks Could Drive Big Data Usage
Sony Pictures CEO: Internet needs regulatory "guardrails"
OWNERSHIP
FCC Publishes Denial of News Corp. Waiver Challenge
Russian Firm Invests $200 Million in Facebook
Shanghai Media Group plans spin-offs in bid to reform
Hollywood's latest challenge: Getting foreign broadcasters to buy shows
A foreign-film fadeout
Judge Sotomayor Has IP Background
Court says no exclusive cable rights in apartment buildings
ADVERTISING/MARKETING
Cable Industry Weighs Its Approach to Targeted Ads
Google Connects Offline Behavior To Digital Marketing
Telecoms Dialing Up Online Spend
Google increasingly battles Facebook in search
FDA warns of TV drug ads' distracting music, images
Television ad sales may trump tough times
QUICKLY -- Reform groups to FCC: more TV content ratings, please!; Spam now 90 percent of all e-mail; Magazine, Newspaper Readers Aging at Accelerated Rate; To The Rescue: Newspaper Content Cops; Schedule for the Assessment of HIT Policy Committee Recommendations; Gitmo and Waterboarding Drive the News; Lessons learned from a tech-free day
TRANSITION
OBAMA INTEGRATES SECURITY COUNCILS, ADDS NEW OFFICE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Spencer Hsu]
President Obama announced yesterday that he will merge the staffs of the Homeland Security Council and the National Security Council to speed up and unify security policymaking inside the White House. The combined national security staff, about 240 people, will report to national security adviser James L. Jones. The White House also will add new offices for cybersecurity, for terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction, and for "resilience" -- a national security directorate aimed at preparedness and response for a domestic WMD attack, pandemic or natural catastrophe, officials said.
http://benton.org/node/25547
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TRYING TO TAME A PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENT PROCESS 'GONE BONKERS'
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Joe Davidson]
The list of presidential appointees is long -- very long -- and the appointment process, particularly for jobs that require Senate confirmation, can take months. In the meantime, agencies and the public they serve suffer from lack of leadership. There's one sure way to help speed the appointment process for the many jobs that don't rise to the level of the High Court, and that is to cut the number of appointees. Edward Gresser -- author of the Democratic Leadership Council's new paper called "An Easy Fix for the Appointment Crunch" -- says "the Senate should stop confirming any deputy secretaries, undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, deputy undersecretaries, bureau heads, general counsels, and chief financial officers." He suggests that by reserving confirmation for Cabinet secretaries, heads of independent agencies and inspectors general, Congress would "preserve the Senate's constitutional role in confirming genuinely senior administration officials." The current system "serves the American people very badly," he added in an interview. He argues that the sluggishness of the process damages the process of government, and makes it hard to define and implement government policy.
http://benton.org/node/25546
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BROADBAND
US LAGS IN BROADBAND IMPEDE ECONOMY
[SOURCE: New America Media, AUTHOR: Khalil Abdullah]
America's 42 million low-income residents will only marginally participate in a "knowledge economy" unless Internet access to job training skills is increased, according to Dr. Eileen Applebaum, director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University. At a symposium entitled "Economic Empowerment for Low-Income Workers Through Broadband Training," Applebaum joined other panelists who touted the necessity of an aggressive expansion of U.S. broadband capacity. The United States currently ranks fifteenth in the world, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Broadband measurements assess the rate of speed with which information can be uploaded, transmitted and received. Critical services like telemedicine, for example, which utilize a system's capacity to send and receive large volumes of data, are dependent on the availability of broadband. While corporations and institutions can afford the cost of broadband systems that use fiber optics, satellite, or cable, many Americans still access the Internet through telephone dial-up services at a far lower rate of speed.
http://benton.org/node/25538
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WHY ISN'T WIRELESS NET ACCESS AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE?
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Cliff Kuang]
4G networks, which will use the 700-MHz spectrum that the government auctioned off last year, promise to blanket every medium to large city in Net-ready radio waves. It's about time. Cell phone companies have been asleep at the wheel for years, loath to upgrade to expensive new networks when their old ones "work just fine." The iPhone slapped them awake. Before Apple's smooth-talker, portable broadband didn't look juicy enough to chase—cellular data usage was slim. But the typical iPhone owner uses five times more data than the average cell user. "It took Apple and its ecosystem of apps and interactivity to prove the pent-up demand for ubiquitous broadband," says Ashvin Vellody, senior vice president for enabling technologies at communications research firm Yankee Group.
http://benton.org/node/25537
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BRINGING BROADBAND TO RURAL AMERICA
[SOURCE: Walden University, AUTHOR: Cindy Waxer]
If broadband access is catching on in mainstream America, why are so many rural communities getting left behind? In fact, 19,000 communities across the nation currently don't enjoy broadband connectivity. It's a digital divide separating rural and urban America that illustrates more than simply techno-inequality. Broadband connectivity spurs economic growth, supports continuing education, delivers job training, provides job search opportunities, and grants the U.S. a competitive advantage in today's global economy. The bottom line: Rural America simply can't afford to live without broadband access.
http://benton.org/node/25536
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BIG ISSUES AT STAKE IN FCC BROADBAND INQUIRY
[SOURCE: Cable360Net, AUTHOR: Peter Shapiro]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission's Notice of Inquiry on a National Broadband Plan asks some 500+ question related to broadband deployment and use, but some questions -- on operator structure, competition, and privacy -- appear to invite comments that could have broader strategic implications for cable operators.
http://benton.org/node/25535
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MASSACHUSETTS BROADBAND INSTITUTE UNVEILS INTERACTIVE SURVEY
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Andrew MacRae]
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (D) on Tuesday designed the Massachusetts Broadband Institute as the "eligible entity" for receiving broadband data funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In addition to the institute, a non-profit entity, serving as the entity responsible for receiving broadband data funding from the federal government, the officials said that the institute would be responsible for "aggregating the commonwealth's applications to the NTIA to "ensure a balance portfolio of the state's needs reaches the NTIA." In an interactive survey, Massachusetts residents and businesses are asked to provide information about the speed, price, availability of the broadband that they receive at their location. In addition, residents are invited to comment on their service.
http://benton.org/node/25523
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THE NEW UTOPIA: TRANSFORMING FAILURE INTO SUCCESS
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
Whenever anyone tries making an argument against municipal broadband and/or open networks, more often than not it starts by citing UTOPIA as the poster child for failure, the example given for why other cities shouldn't pursue plans to wire themselves. And in many ways, UTOPIA -- the audaciously named, multi-city municipal wholesale-only full-fiber build in Utah--has been a cautionary tale. Started in 2002, the network still doesn't cover any of its pledging cities in total, it's not yet financially self-sustaining, it's already over $150 million in the hole, and it has struggled to attract service providers, especially any big names. As Paul Larsen, Economic Development Director for Brigham City and member of UTOPIA's Executive Board, put it last week, twelve months ago they were discussing what color UTOPIA's casket was going to be. But the last twelve months have seen the beginnings of a dramatic turnaround for UTOPIA, starting with the introduction of Todd Marriott as their new executive director last May.
http://benton.org/node/25534
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SUBSCRIBERS HOLD BROADBAND PROVIDER ACCOUNTABLE FOR SLOW SERVICE
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
Two California residents have filed a potential class-action lawsuit against satellite broadband provider HughesNet for allegedly advertising higher speeds than it delivers. They allege that HughesNet promised broadband speeds of between 1 and 3 Mpbs, but actually offered speeds far slower. They also allege that the company imposes low bandwidth caps and throttles users who exceed the limits -- in some cases preventing them from getting online for days at a time. In the lawsuit, filed in federal district court, they seek to represent approximately 80,000 California residents who have subscribed to HughesNet since 2005.
http://benton.org/node/25533
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NETBOOKS COULD DRIVE BIG DATA USAGE
[SOURCE: Unstrung, AUTHOR: Dan Jones]
Netbooks could drive up mobile broadband usage up in the coming years. Pyramid Research is recommending that operators do what they can to support netbook sales. "There is growing evidence that netbooks are catching on with the under-21 crowd; if that trend develops, the adoption rate for netbooks could accelerate even more, which means these cheap and approachable devices could have a huge impact on how network operators make money off their services," Laux adds. The relatively inexpensive nature of these small laptops also makes them appealing in "lower-income countries" in the Asia/Pacific region, the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Pyramid believes that netbooks will hit "mass-market shipments" in 2010 as the average price of the mobile PCs falls below $350.
http://benton.org/node/25532
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SONY PICTURES CEO: INTERNET NEEDS REGULATORY "GUARDRAILS"
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: John Timmer]
Shortly after saying that he saw nothing good in the Internet, the CEO of Sony Pictures penned an editorial in which he defends his original statement using a series of awkward metaphors that suggest that a heavily regulated version of the Internet would be OK in his view.
http://benton.org/node/25531
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OWNERSHIP
FCC PUBLISHES DENIAL OF NEWS CORP WAIVER CHALLENGE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Late Friday, the Federal Communications Commission released on order denying a challenge to New Corp's ownership of WNYW-TV (NY) and WWOR-TV (Secaucus, NJ) and the New York Post. The challenge had been lodged by the United Church of Christ and Rainbow/PUSH but, because the organizations did not file a petition to deny those grants in 2006, the FCC concluded that they lacked standing to challenge that on reconsideration and denied the petition. Apparently, the FCC made the ruling on January 15, 2008 and took 16 months to share the decision with the public. As part of the order released Friday, Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein put their two dissents in, dissents that Adelstein pointed out were "inexplicably" not included by the (Kevin Martin-controlled) commission in the October 2006 order. Chairman Copps called the 2006 decision woefully deficient, saying there had been no "serious" public interest analysis of the waivers before they were renewed. He added an update for the 2008 decision, renewing his dissent and pointing out that in the interim News Corp. had bought the Wall Street Journal, operating two of New York's most popular TV stations and two of its most popular newspapers.
http://benton.org/node/25530
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RUSSIAN FIRM INVESTS $200 MILLION IN FACEBOOK
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Mike Musgrove]
Facebook has gotten $200 million from a Russian investment group in exchange for a small stake in the nation's largest social networking company. The deal places the value of the site at $10 billion. Digital Sky Technologies, with headquarters in Moscow and London, will get a 1.96 percent stake in the company for its investment. It will not have a seat on Facebook's board. The deal places Facebook's estimated net worth at less than the $15 billion Microsoft valued it at nearly two years ago when it sought to make an investment, but far more than Facebook had valued itself. In 2007, the company estimated its worth at $3.7 billion.
http://benton.org/node/25544
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SHANGHAI MEDIA GROUP PLANS SPIN-OFFS IN BID TO REFORM
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Kathrin Hille]
Shanghai Media Group, China's second-largest broadcaster, is planning to spin off several units and list them over the coming two years, in an ambitious push for further reform of the country's state-owned media. The group, which is controlled by the Shanghai municipal government and had revenues of Rmb6bn ($875m) last year, was now seeking to introduce private equity investors in several of its businesses and take some public later. China has privately owned Internet companies and television content providers, but the government insists that all traditional media must remain state-owned.
http://benton.org/node/25543
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HOLLYWOOD'S LATEST CHALLENGE: GETTING FOREIGN BROADCASTERS TO BUY SHOWS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Joe Flint]
At this year's annual TV bazaar know as L.A. Screenings, fewer media executives from abroad made the trip to L.A. to buy programming from U.S. studios -- and those that are here are spending less. It's just the latest setback for studios, which have been suffering from a steep decline in DVD sales. Because the vast majority of programs produced by the Hollywood studios for the networks are made at a loss, foreign sales have been an important factor in recouping the costs of production.
http://benton.org/node/25542
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A FOREIGN-FILM FADEOUT
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Robert Koehler]
If you live in the United States, chances are you have never heard of some of the best international films. Foreign-language movies by world-class, award-winning directors whose careers are the subject of global acclaim are a fading presence in US cinemas, if not absent completely. They have seen few - in some cases none - of their films given a wide American release. And these three are only a few of those whose films have played on the world's biggest festival stages - from Cannes to Venice - yet are virtually unknown to American audiences.
http://benton.org/node/25541
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JUDGE SOTOMAYOR HAS IP BACKGROUND
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
You're probably not learning this here: on Tuesday, President Obama nominated US Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. What you might not have heard/read is that Judge Sotomayor has a background in intellectual property litigation -- as an associate and partner at the Manhattan law firm Pavia & Harcourt and as a judge on the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. As a district court judge in 1997, Judge Sotomayor heard a case brought by a group of freelance journalists who claimed various news outlets including the New York Times and Time violated copyright laws by reproducing their work on electronic databases and archives such as Lexis-Nexis without first obtaining their permission. Judge Sotomayor ruled against the freelancers, arguing that the publishers were within their rights under the Copyright Act. The appeals court reversed Sotomayor's decision, siding with the freelancers, and the Supreme Court upheld the appellate ruling 7-2.
http://benton.org/node/25528
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COURT SAYS NO EXCLUSIVE CABLE RIGHTS IN APARTMENT BUILDINGS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Nedra Pickler]
The US Court of Appeals in Washington has upheld a Federal Communications Commission ruling that cable companies cannot have exclusive rights to provide service in apartment buildings that they wire. The decision will end exclusive agreements that allowed companies to exchange the wiring of multiunit buildings for the exclusive right to provide service to all the residents.
http://benton.org/node/25527
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ADVERTISING/MARKETING
CABLE INDUSTRY WEIGHS ITS APPROACH TO TARGETED ADS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Vishesh Kumar, Sam Schechner]
With the recession squeezing ad budgets, cable companies are redoubling their efforts to mimic Internet advertising, in part by offering a way to target ads at selected groups of consumers. But the industry is divided on the best approach for delivering such ads. Canoe Ventures -- a project of the country's six largest cable operators -- is poised to launch its first ad-targeting product, called community addressable messaging. The technology will allow advertisers to select cable households within particular areas that have demographic factors, such as income, in common. Canoe is made up of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Cablevision Systems Corp., Charter Communications and Brighthouse Networks, which together have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the venture. It is in talks with several cable networks to roll out a scaled-down version of its ad-targeting technology this summer. Meanwhile, National Cable Communications, an industry group that sells local ad spots for cable operators including Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable, along with a number of smaller operators, has created a browser-based software that allows advertisers to buy swaths of households, based on criteria such as income, ethnicity and geography, from 2,900 zones across the country.
http://benton.org/node/25545
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GOOGLE CONNECTS OFFLINE BEHAVIOR TO DIGITAL MARKETING
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Laurie Sullivan]
As car sales continue to plummet, marketers are tasked with convincing a smaller pool of consumers to buy. Tie that to reduced marketing budgets, and the challenge to tie offline consumer behavior with online digital marketing has become somewhat overwhelming. While greater adoption of digital tools, longer search queries and user-generated content have prompted great change, the biggest problem that automotive marketers face has been connecting offline purchases with online efforts. "We now understand the types of keywords people use at specific points prior to purchase," says Davang Shah, head of automotive marketing at Google. "Six months prior to the purchase, we see roughly 56% of the auto searches buyers conducted were on non-branded search terms such as fuel efficient or hybrid sedan." Interesting is the shift from six months to one month prior to purchase. Fifty-two percent of auto searches were branded, meaning search terms shift to specific makes and models. It can guide the process by which marketers are connecting with consumers at different points within the purchase process.
http://benton.org/node/25518
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TELECOMS DIALING UP ONLINE SPEND
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Mark Walsh]
Even during the Great Recession, online ad spending by the telecommunications industry has remained strong. Indeed, the downturn has fueled competition for unlimited, fixed-rate cell phone calling plans and boosted advertising as a result. At the same time, high-profile campaigns for competing smartphones like the forthcoming Pre, iPhone, BlackBerry Storm and Google Android-powered phones has also buoyed online spending in the category.
http://benton.org/node/25519
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GOOGLE INCREASINGLY BATTLES FACEBOOK IN SEARCH
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Jay Alabaster]
Google has long been the king of search, dominating rivals including Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. But it increasingly sees social networks such as Facebook as challengers to its search engine. As people search out advice online for everyday, personal decisions, the standard list of links served up by Google is not seen as intimate or trustworthy. For decisions such as choosing a restaurant or a day care provider, social networking sites or known review sites have an advantage, said Google Group Product Manager Ken Tokusei. Such sites offer information from friends or acquaintances, and Tokusei said users tend to trust that information more. This puts Google's results at a disadvantage.
http://benton.org/node/25529
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FDA WARNS OF TV DRUG ADS' DISTRACTING MUSIC, IMAGES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Lisa Richwine]
Television ads for drugs and medical devices should avoid distracting images and music that can reduce viewers' comprehension of potential side effects, the Food and Drug Association advised in guidelines proposed on Tuesday. Advertisements also should use similar type styles and voice-overs when conveying benefits and risks, FDA advised. The guidelines follow complaints that manufacturers use various techniques in their widely seen television ads and other promotions to downplay risks while emphasizing potential benefits.
http://benton.org/node/25525
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TELEVISION AD SALES MAY TRUMP TOUGH TIMES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: John Consoli]
Despite the troubled economy, most advertisers are not drastically cutting their national TV ad budgets for next season, which might bode well for the broadcast networks -- if they don't take hard-line positions regarding rate increases. Although many analysts project "upfront" sales for the bulk of advertising slots next season could slide by 20 percent or more compared with last year, most media buyers said the slippage might fall in the 5 percent-8 percent range. Even if the money is not allocated in the upfront negotiations currently underway, they added, it will get spent in the "scatter" market, i.e. closer to a show's airdate. Last year's upfront take floated around $9 billion, and most buyers said this year's total will range between $8.2 billion and $8.5 billion.
http://benton.org/node/25526
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QUICKLY -- Reform groups to FCC: more TV content ratings, please!; Spam now 90 percent of all e-mail; Magazine, Newspaper Readers Aging at Accelerated Rate; To The Rescue: Newspaper Content Cops; Schedule for the Assessment of HIT Policy Committee Recommendations; Gitmo and Waterboarding Drive the News; Lessons learned from a tech-free day
REFORM GROUPS TO FCC: MORE TV CONTENT RATINGS, PLEASE!
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
The Federal Communications Commissions' Notice of Inquiry on content blocking and filtering devices is done, with all comments and replies to comments filed. And judging from the latest statements, a key question is whether the FCC's required report to Congress on this matter will encourage lawmakers to expand the TV ratings systems used by the statutorily required V-Chip. Reform groups say they want the government to expand the scope and power of the V-Chip, especially when it comes to commercials.
http://benton.org/node/25524
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SPAM NOW 90 PERCENT OF E-MAIL
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Lance Whitney]
Spam now accounts for 90.4 percent of all e-mail, according to a report released Monday from security vendor Symantec. This means that 1 out of every 1.1 e-mails is junk. The report also notes that spam shot up 5.1 percent just from April to May. Symantec's May 2009 MessageLabs Intelligence report reveals other disturbing trends, as well. Rather than just hijack disreputable Web sites, cybercriminals now favor older and well-established domains to host their malware. The report says 84.6 percent of all domains blocked for malicious content are more than a year old. One type of domain now especially vulnerable to threats is social networking, since most of the sites' content is created by users.
http://benton.org/node/25522
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MAGAZINE, NEWSPAPER READERS AGING AT ACCELERATED RATE
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Nat Ives]
Reading makes you older! Check that. The average age of magazines' readers is catching up with the overall population. The median age of adults in the U.S. increased 1.3 years to 45.2 since spring 2004, according to the spring 2009 Mediamark Research report. But adult readers at the nearly 200 publications and publishing groups tracked in both studies saw their median age rise 1.6 years to 44. About 56% of the titles tracked in both years posted age increases higher than the general adult population's. The audiences at many titles, moreover, are getting older fast. The median reader age rose 3.7 years at the Sunday Chicago Tribune, for example, 3.9 years at Car and Driver, 4.1 years at U.S. News & World Report and 4.9 years at Penthouse, according to the research.
http://benton.org/node/25521
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TO THE RESCUE: NEWSPAPER CONTENT COPS
[SOURCE: Forbes.com, AUTHOR: Evan Hessel]
It's a publishing paradox. Newspaper executives complain that bloggers and small Web sites are stealing their content and, as a result, their advertising revenues. Yet each day, their publications post the raw text of thousands of articles, free for anyone to copy and repurpose. Two young tech firms are building tools for protecting journalism from digital thieves.
http://benton.org/node/25516
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Bill would fund Internet safety education
BILL WOULD FUND INTERNET SAFETY EDUCATION
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Laura Devaney]
Sen Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has introduced Internet safety legislation that, if passed, would authorize roughly $175 million--$35 million a year for five years--for Internet safety education and training to help make children, parents, and educators aware of proper online behavior and the dangers the Internet poses. The School and Family Education about the Internet (SAFE Internet) Act would "create a grant program to support existing and new Internet safety programs that meet guidelines based on the cyber safety strategies found to be most effective."
http://benton.org/node/25520
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SCHEDULE FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF HIT POLICY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS
[SOURCE: Department of Health and Human Services, AUTHOR: David Blumenthal]
The Health Information Technology Standards Committee has created three workgroups or subcommittees to analyze the areas of clinical quality, clinical operations, and privacy and security. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology will establish priority areas based in part of recommendations received from the HIT Policy Committee regarding health information technology standards, implementation specifications, and/or certification criteria. Once the HIT Standards Committee is informed of those priority areas, it will direct the appropriate subcommittee to develop a report for the HIT Standards Committee, to the extent possible, within 90 days. Upon receipt of a subcommittee report, the HIT Standards Committee will review the recommendations and advise the National Coordinator.
http://benton.org/node/25517
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GITMO AND WATERBOARDING DRIVE THE NEWS
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
Last week, with terrorism registering as the No. 1 story for the third time in little over a month, a clear trend emerged: The complex, visceral and increasingly politicized issue of how to combat the terror threat is now leading the mainstream news agenda, even pushing out the economy. For the week of May 18-24, the subject filled 19% of the newshole in the News Coverage Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Two major events drove the coverage: The Democratic-controlled Congress rebuking Obama by refusing to fund the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison and dueling speeches by Obama and former Vice-President Dick Cheney that much of the media treated like the national security equivalent of Ali-Frazier.
http://benton.org/node/25540
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LESSONS LEARNED FROM A TECH-FREE DAY
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Mike Cassidy]
Twelve hours with no technology -- no iPods, no cell phones, no video games, no DVDs, TVs or PCs. That was the challenge for a senior English class studying "Brave New World." What were the results? Students talked about how consuming tech conveniences can be. They shared stories of how they occupied themselves while gadgetless. A car was washed. A salsa was made. A book or two was read. Some songs were sung. A texting session was replaced by a face-to-face conversation. And a lesson was learned. One that wasn't lost on a class of students in the midst of graduating into a brave, new world of their own.
http://benton.org/node/25539
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