public service annoucemnet

fcc plans net neutrality

this is freaking some people out in the internet world, but it seems like a good thing to me?

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2009-09-19-internet-rules-fcc_N.htm

its a far cry form my idyllic anarchist world, but apparently we are not evolved enough to leave out regulating some seedy greedy mo fo’s…. i am all for keeping the big companies out of controlling the weblines and turning the interweb into cable television 2.0

most of the opposition to the new regulation is AT&T, comcast and other giants while most small businesses and silicon start-ups love the idea. that –to me– speaks volumes.

Oh my … Open source textbooks! why didn´t they have these at DU?

link here

Evolver Academy:2009 Summer Semester $4…

Evolver Academy:2009 Summer Semester

$400 Summer Semester (all 5 courses with certificate of completion)
$120 Individual EA Courses

June 23 – July 20 RU Sirius – ($100 inaugural course)
Transhumanism, Singularities, and Other Far Out Futures

June 29 – Aug 9 Anya Kamenetz
Financial Integrity In Your Daily Life

July 20 – Aug 30 Antonio Lopez
Mediacology: Media Networks, Deep Ecology and the Global Village

Aug 10 – Sept 20 Charles Eisenstein
The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Tell Us Is Possible

Aug 31 – Oct 11 Daniel Pinchbeck
Cultivating Personal Power for the Public Good

http://evolveracademy.com/

Magic “boosts” pupils confidence

Via BBC:

Children taught how to do magic tricks instead of attending standard personal and social education lessons perform better socially, a psychologist says.

Magic requires self-discipline and an ability to empathise with your audience, Prof Richard Wiseman told the British Association Science Festival.

O3b links with Google

Via NYtimes:

Satellite company O3b Networks has linked up with Google and other investors to bring cheaper, high-speed wireless Internet access to areas unlikely to see investments in fiber infrastructure.

O3b stands for “other 3 billion,” a reference to the world’s population that still can’t access the Internet. O3b, which is based in the U.K.’s Channel Islands, said construction is under way on 16 satellites that will drop the cost for ISPs and operators to provide Internet access over 3G (third-generation) and WiMax networks.

Those satellites will provide backhaul capacity, also known as “trunking,” for ISPs (Internet service providers) and operators, essentially moving large amounts of data wirelessly between points where fiber-optic cable has not been dug into the ground, said Greg Wyler, O3b’s founder and CEO.

Developed countries benefited from an explosive laying of undersea fiber cables in the late 1990s, Wyler said. But as those high-capacity networks were created, demand dropped. Many fiber companies went out of business, then their assets were bought on the cheap, fostering the subsequent boom in inexpensive broadband subscription offerings, he said.

But “the emerging markets never saw that exuberance,” Wyler said. “Usage is growing and the demand is growing, but there isn’t the infrastructure to support the demand.”

Digging trenches for fiber networks in underdeveloped countries isn’t financially feasible, so the alternative is developing a low-latency backhaul network in the sky, Wyler said. Up to 40 percent of a mobile operators’ costs are consumed building transmission capacity between its home network and thousands of transmission towers, Wyler said. Laying fiber is expensive, however…