
The Pied Piper of Houston
For 24 hours, Wikipedia blacked itself out, and a few other Internet presences made symbolic gestures to warn people about a world without them. I grew up without anything like the Internet, and yet find it impossible to imagine it gone.
Eastman Kodak, not long ago one of the soundest companies in the world, fell behind in camera technology. Not to worry, making great money selling film, when they invented digital photography decades ago, they buried it because it threatened their film business. Now they’ve declared bankruptcy. Would-be cripplers of the Internet, take notice!
Some Hollywood and other “content providers” still stuck in the past, are trying to get laws to make deep changes in the Internet, hoping to stop piracy of their products. Can’t blame them for that, but they’re doing it wrong.. They should be seeking new ways to sell their products, to “monetize” the Internet, not cripple it. This genie cannot be squeezed back into the bottle.
Ron Paul, the most truthful and clear speaking of the final four Republican candidates, is trying to do that too. Who can help liking the guy, especially compared to the sneaky, carping, pandering, other three?. And who doesn’t dream of a vanished era when the U.S. produced everything it needed, and could ignore the outside world? His cause is valiant because it is so innocent, and hopeless. And the young, who have never known that world, give it a romantic glow, responding to Paul’s sweet song like the bewitched children of Hamlin who followed the legendary Pied Piper into a mountain abyss never to be seen again.
For 24 hours, Wikipedia blacked itself out, and a few other Internet presences made symbolic gestures to warn people about a world without them. I grew up without anything like the Internet, and yet find it impossible to imagine it gone.
Eastman Kodak, not long ago one of the soundest companies in the world, fell behind in camera technology. Not to worry, making great money selling film, when they invented digital photography decades ago, they buried it because it threatened their film business. Now they’ve declared bankruptcy. Would-be cripplers of the Internet, take notice!
Some Hollywood and other “content providers” still stuck in the past, are trying to get laws to make deep changes in the Internet, hoping to stop piracy of their products. Can’t blame them for that, but they’re doing it wrong.. They should be seeking new ways to sell their products, to “monetize” the Internet, not cripple it. This genie cannot be squeezed back into the bottle.
Ron Paul, the most truthful and clear speaking of the final four Republican candidates, is trying to do that too. Who can help liking the guy, especially compared to the sneaky, carping, pandering, other three?. And who doesn’t dream of a vanished era when the U.S. produced everything it needed, and could ignore the outside world? His cause is valiant because it is so innocent, and hopeless. And the young, who have never known that world, give it a romantic glow, responding to Paul’s sweet song like the bewitched children of Hamlin who followed the legendary Pied Piper into a mountain abyss never to be seen again.