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President Obama’s State of the Union speech certainly hit quite a few high notes for the tech community. There were a half dozen mentions of the Internet, shout-outs to Facebook and Google and a mention of better use of wireless technology.
He certainly set an ambitious goal: “Within the next five years, we’ll make it possible for businesses to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98 percent of all Americans.” What he didn’t say was that his Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman, Julius Genachowski, has sentenced all of those wireless users to a second-class Internet experience by leaving them out of the already vague Net Neutrality order the FCC issued in December.
By taking the short cut to Net Neutrality, Genachowski bought off AT&T, but put into legal jeopardy not only Obama’s National Wireless Initiative. He also the president’s vision of a broadband-charged American economy. There are considerable questions whether the FCC has jurisdiction over high-speed broadband, wired or wireless, and it would need that authority to implement any new

A teachable moment on the Constitution is being muddied by the extreme, lopsided view being presented to Congress by Tea Partiers, led by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.
The organization I lead, the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS), believes that this moment offers a tremendous opportunity to ensure that lawmakers, and all Americans, become more familiar with the genius and richness of our

President Obama called on law makers to forget old divisive ways of doing business and become catalysts for the future in Wednesday’s State of the Union address.
“For the challenges we face are bigger than party and bigger than politics,” Obama said as he described this American moment — a pivotal fork-in-the-road that will either usher in an era of blossoming innovation, or cement our creative decline.
Malia Cohen is the kind of new generation public servant who is vital to the president’s vision. Newly elected to the San Francisco Board of Superintendents, she’s a dedicated bridge-builder, who has friends on all sides of the political spectrum and focuses on the human face of an issue, not the political one.
“It’s not about politics and especially not about ideology. People just want the

Was the President sending a strong message to teachers unions in his State of the Union address? Sure looks that way in the light of day.
What most of us saw and heard was high praise for education. He put it #2, behind “innovation” on his list. Five of his 23 guests were students, and a 6th — Jill Biden — is a community college

The winds of change are blowing over the Middle East from Jordan to Algeria.
A couple of weeks ago, Tunisia became the first Arab nation to succeed in shaking off decades of debilitating dictatorship through a popular uprising that sent shock waves through the entire region.
Egyptians who have long voiced discontent with their government are now taking to the streets in unprecedented numbers demanding change. If Egypt succeeds, analysts agree that a domino effect is likely.
Having withered decades of institutionalized corruption, police brutality and lack of freedoms under despotic regimes, Arab citizenries are finally beginning to believe that freedom and democracy are within reach. Their demands are straight-forward: democratically elected governments that truly represent and serve their citizens, in place of apathetic despots that work against the interests of their own

Yesterday was the first day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, a little mountain village in Switzerland, where each January corporate CEOs, heads of state, and leaders of nonprofit organizations from around the globe gather to reflect upon the state of the world.
I had been to Davos before the financial crisis of 2008, as part of a group of religious leaders who came to discuss interfaith cooperation, but who also began to dialogue with the other participants at Davos about moral values and the economy. Quite honestly, these conversations about moral values and the economy often felt like an extra-curricular activity — with sessions at 7 a.m. on the third floor. But after the economic crisis hit, our values conversations felt more like a necessity, and we were quickly moved to prime time in the main hall.
At Davos 2008, the World Economic Forum convened a plenary session for all its participants on “Values and the Market.” I was on the panel and said that asking when the crisis will end was the wrong question; the right question was,how will the crisis change us? Looking out over a huge hall full of business and political leaders (not my usual audience), I suggested that too often people didn’t believe they had to bring virtue and values to bear on economic decisions — that the market would automatically take care of those

And the dream comes true for one young, idealistic podcast host. After months of campaigning, Dan finally gets a chance to bring Steven Moffat’s (Doctor Who) BBC TV series, Jekyll, to the table for an extended discussion.

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Democratic women did well in the 2010 elections. They held on to more of their seats than their male counterparts, four of the nine new House freshmen are women, and the victories of Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray are largely credited with Democratic retention of the Senate. But the overall number of women serving in Congress went down this year. For the first time.
So what happened? The decline didn’t happen because Democratic women aren’t

For a self-proclaimed minimalist with a minuscule kitchen, Mark Bittman’s had maximum impact. He’s the digital dervish of The New York Times Dining section: his recipes ricochet around the blogosphere, his cooking videos go viral, he’s constantly tweaking his How To Cook Everything app, he tweets and blogs regularly.
And, he pens op-eds exhorting us to eat less meat and embrace a plant-based diet. So, it wasn’t exactly a shock to hear that the Minimalist is moving on, departing from Dining and bringing his “lessmeatatarian,” ‘go-vegan-till -six’ advocacy to the Times op-ed page.
It’s a natural progression, in fact, because Bittman’s actually been touting tatsoi and pushing purslane for more than a

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama gave the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan just a couple of quick paragraphs, buried towards the end of the speech.
Earlier this month came word that the White House would send an additional 1,400 Marine combat forces to Afghanistan. Yet the announcement was met with a shrug from the antiwar movement. Why?
Perhaps it’s because the figure represents a tiny uptick from the additional 30,000 troops the president committed to the region more than a year ago. Or maybe it’s because the president who approved both these escalations is named Barack Obama, not George

Since 1986, the Slow Food Movement has successfully been providing alternatives to Fast Food. Carlo Petrini’s Slow Food motto, good, clean, and fair and accompanying ethic offered an alternative model to a world that was, at the time, mindlessly consuming enormous quantities of corn syrup and supporting agribusiness. The Slow Food Movement asked us to slow down, literally and figuratively, and be more deliberate about how we buy, prepare, eat and share our food.
Slow might have started with food, but businesses as disparate as energy to travel are moving away from the uber efficient, mechanized principles of production and consumption toward an ethic of deliberate and conscientious

Last night, President Obama’s salmon joke hooked the imagination of the American people. You could see it in NPR’s wordcloud, and the tweets and blog posts this morning from commentators far and wide. It’s not hard to understand why–salmon are a part of this country’s history. They saved the Lewis and Clark expedition from starvation, not once but twice; they are tenacious and strong; they are a central part of the Northwest’s culture, spirit, and economy; they provide us with healthy food that makes us smarter; and they bring nutrients from the ocean to feed our ancient forests and western rivers and more than 150 other species in the Pacific

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama created an atmosphere in which the Republicans and Democrats weren’t just sitting next to each other, but one in which we all recognized that there are many challenges we face as a nation and that we must work closely together to move our country forward and “win the future.”
In order to compete in the global economy, we have to create more jobs and strengthen our workforce. We have to cut back wasteful spending and at the same time invest in education, healthcare, and infrastructure to keep up with the rising demand and stay ahead of the competition.
It will be a difficult task to balance, but as the president said, we simply can’t afford to cut spending at the expense of the disadvantaged. We cannot afford to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security because these types of programs not only save lives but also save money.
Many of my constituents are currently

It’s high time for two new dog laws in New York City. Last week the City Council approved two bills aimed at protecting animals.
The council was nearly unanimous in voting against the tethering of animals for more than three consecutive hours in any continuous 12-hour period. Doing so would result in a written warning or a fine of up to $250 for first-time offenders. Repeat offenders could face a $500 fine and a few months behind bars.
“We field roughly 100 calls per day about dogs that are tied up outside — 10 of which are right here in the metro area,” said Robert Misseri, former president and founder of Rescue

For its February issue, Cosmopolitan magazine listed my university’s Lady Gaga class as something that’s “sexy now.” They write, “Finally, an excuse to wear a bustier to study sessions.” Well, as a student of this class, let me tell you — it’s not sexy.
I’m four classes into “Lady Gaga and the Sociology of the Fame,” and every day, someone new demands, “What are you doing in there?” Maybe, like Cosmo, they envision that I clothe myself in bubble wrap and lunch meat as part of my pre-class ritual. Maybe they think I’ll get an excused absence for Gaga’s concert in April. Maybe they think a lot of things that aren’t true.
This is a serious course about the sociology of

Former Vice President Dick Cheney — noticeably leaner but otherwise looking quite well, considering he underwent major heart surgery only six months ago — has been making the rounds once again after having been out of the spotlight for several months.
While still criticizing the Obama administration, albeit with a weaker voice and without so much combativeness and brashness, Cheney seems to be more interested these days in claiming his place in history and in promoting his upcoming book, In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir.
Considering the oft-reported tensions and serious policy differences and disagreements between Dick Cheney and his former boss and especially Bush’s refusal to pardon Cheney’s chief of staff and friend, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, it is not surprising to hear Cheney tell NBC’s Today “I have a bit of the sense that I’m going to get the last word.”
Considering Cheney’s tenacity and displayed resentfulness, “the Darth Vader of the administration” probably will get the last word.
I am willing to bet, however, that Cheney’s last word will not be the word “So?”
I would be very surprised if that little word is even mentioned in his upcoming book.
Why is that little word so significant?
Fast rewind to the March 2008 interview Cheney gave to ABC News’ Martha Raddatz.
Naturally the Iraq war was the main topic, a war that had been raging for five years, a war that had already killed nearly 4,000 and injured more than 29,000 of our men and women in uniform, and a war that had already cost the United States roughly $600 billion.
When Raddatz asked Cheney what he thought about polls that indicated two-thirds of Americans believed that the war in Iraq was not worth fighting and that the cost in lives was not worth the gains, Cheney disdainfully responded with one single word: “So?”
When pressed by the reporter whether he cared about the opinion of the American people, instead of bristling at the suggestion, Dick Cheney tried to emend his response by saying “I think you can not be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.” You know, those pesky polls that merely reflect the will of the people.
That answer, in my opinion, revealed more of Cheney’s character and personality than any of his many grandiose, full-of-gravitas pronouncements. That one little word — “So?” — reflected how little regard Mr. Cheney had for the opinions of those who did not share his bellicose ideology.
Now that

By Deepak Chopra and Annie B. Bond
Let Synchronicity be Normal
At truly synchronous moments, the universe is embracing you, and you see who you really are. Leaders are expected to produce results, so it’s not surprising that the greatest leaders share the secret of synchronicity. They rely on invisible powers to come to their

We’ve all heard or even used the old saying to describe something impossible, “If pigs had wings, they’d fly.” Now, thanks to genetic modification, pigs can fly.
In a groundbreaking development at the Veterinary Sciences Division at Queens University Belfast, Ireland, research specialist Dr. Kevin O’Farrell has successfully combined the DNA of a pig and an eagle to create a flying pig, or a “peagle,” as O’Farrell has dubbed the new critter.
O’Farrell was jubilant as “the little porker, Molly, began flapping her wings and straight away flew out of the laboratory, down the hallway and out the front door!”
Belfast citizens were shocked. “I couldn’t believe me eyes,” exclaims waitress Catherine Cassidy. “That white and brown pig passed right overhead, and fast, too, making both pig and eagle sounds! I nearly wet meself!”
Shoe repair store owner, Gilbert Fitzpatrick, was just leaving his shop when “both pig and bird poop fell from above to the street in front of

There is simply no understanding the prevalence of gun violence in America – as evidenced by the recent attempted assassination of a congresswoman during a mass shooting – without discussing the nefarious role played by the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Once an organisation primarily concerned with the education and training of sportsmen, in a coup that came to be known as the Cincinnati Revolt in 1977, hardliners took over the leadership and believed that any gun regulation would take us down a slippery slope to Khmer Rougism.
In the years since, unlike the US in the wake of the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy – or for that matter Australia after the Port Arthur Massacre – the response to senseless gun violence has been to discuss everything from the rhetoric on our airwaves to the weather outside.
But any public conversations regarding restricting who has access to guns has been considered verboten (although, thankfully, this time some cracks are beginning to show).
This is largely because the NRA’s duping its own members, which we’ll discuss below, and coming to the realisation that the real money was in actually protecting the rights of gun manufacturers, which we’ll discuss in Part II of this series.
If the NRA leadership is not radical, they certainly see the benefit in playing radicals on TV in order to enrich their financial benefactors who produce and sell the weaponry of death.
In the 1990s, in a climate of fear and paranoia that produced the Oklahoma City bombing, they were all too happy to refer to the government authority that tries to enforce gun laws, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms (ATF), as “jack-booted thugs”. This led former president George

I haven’t yet commented on Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, nor on the Republican response, but, then, what more is there to say?
TNR’s John Judis thinks it was President Obama’s best speech as president. I do not agree, though I’m hard-pressed to name a better one. Not because I thought his SOTU was all that great but because he hasn’t exactly given many memorable speeches as president.
Content-wise, I suppose a lot depends on what you think of Obama’s economic nationalism, the core theme of Tuesday’s speech. The world is moving ahead and America is in

In Tuesday night’s speech, the President set out a bold agenda for our nation, an agenda that will focus on growing our economy, growing jobs, and growing opportunity for the middle class. I was happy to hear that the President and I agree: The foundation of our future economy will be built on investments in higher education and in scientific research and development. Innovation in technology and clean energy will be the keys that unlock unlimited opportunities for future generations of Americans, and allow us to maintain our status as the leader of the global economy.
President Obama’s vision is underlined by the investments and growth we see here in the 21st Congressional District, and it’s no coincidence that he has made two trips to our region in the past 16 months to highlight what we are doing here as a model for the

My wife likes to tell this one story from when she was in high school, and she asked her U.S. History teacher why the class wasn’t learning more about the Indians. “We don’t have time for the Indians,” he responded. “We have an AP curriculum to get through.”
Had I been as inquisitive as my wife when I was a teenager, I would have received the same