21st Century

This morning, after President-Elect Obama laid out the key parts of his economic recovery plan during his weekly address, he turned to the Internet and told the country that he intends to "renew our information superhighway." "It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they'll get that chance when I'm President - because that's how we'll strengthen America's competitiveness in the world," he said. Sponsor Last month, we highlighted Obama's use of the Web; his... [Tags: 21st century, adoption, american libraries, audience, century schools]

Depression Envy — Virginia Postrel pokes fun at journalists trying to make a buck off talk of a 21st-century Depression. She concludes:It's not a Depression, folks, and it wouldn't be nearly as fun to think about if it were.... [Tags: 21st century, depression, envy, journalists, virginia postrel]

Night art — MIT Museum's newest exhibit, "Luminous Windows: Holograms for the 21st Century," opens Dec. 5. It features works by six artists from five countries and represents artistic and technical advancements in the field of display holography.... [Tags: 21st century, night art, technical advancements]

John Kerry: Keep the Momentum Going — One thing we know about politics, you are either moving forward, or you are falling behind. The progressive movement had what we want to believe was a seismic win on election day -- but it's really only seismic if it continues to reverberate. So -- here's the next most immediate round: the Republicans aren't resting, they're trying to staunch the bleeding -- sending Dick Cheney out to help out in the runoff election in Louisiana this weekend. I won't repeat that Paul Carmouche needs our help to retain his seat. Putting aside the MN recount and today's GA run-off, this... [Tags: 21st century, carmouche, democrat, dick cheney, election day]

PayPal Brings Allowances Into the 21st Century — A new service, PayPal Student Accounts, allows parents to set up and manage their teenage children's spending.... [Tags: 21st century, parents, student accounts, teenage children]

From Serious Eats Photograph from juverna on Flickr Founded in 1912, the Girl Scouts are pushing their 100th anniversary. But with few camp sites offering internet access and iPhone reception, and first aid badges losing hipness, the organization is fighting to remain relevant. With membership falling, the Girl Scouts hired a management consulting team and came up with one solution: de-emphasize the cookies. Apparently they want to be associated with more 21st century girl power, which doesn't leave room for the sweet snacks. Wait. Shouldn't cookies be associated with every era? And hope? And happiness? Since when does cutting them... [Tags: 100th anniversary, 21st century, badges, century girl, consulting team]

GE Quietly Folds on High Efficiency Incandescent — Old Thomas Alva was no slouch with the elbows in the corners when it came to patent battles or discrediting competitors, and neither are his successors at General Electric. While we generally admire the company, we were not impressed with their announcement a year and a half ago (see GE announces High Efficiency Incandescent Light Bulbs. Why?"In addition to offering significant energy savings comparable to CFLs, the 21st century version of Edison’s bulb provides all the desirable benefits including light quality and instant-on ...... [Tags: 21st century, desirable benefits, edison, elbows, energy savings]

Is networked journalism more passive? — Last week I spoke at the BBC College of Journalism’s Future of Journalism conference about the future newsroom, and the News Diamond specifically. Chair Louise Minchin asked the following question: did these new production processes mean journalists would become more passive? It is a great question. On the surface that’s what would appear to be happening: in posting alerts and blog drafts you are inviting the input of the audience and therefore being more reactive. But that’s only half the story. Journalists who grapple with social media have to be more active in many other ways: digging up stories and leads... [Tags: 21st century, addendum, amp, bbc, braz]

Armageddon Into the Holiday Spirit: Why I'm Thankful for the Apocalypse [Jive Tarkin] — Ah, irony. It is as delicious as turkey. And Thanksgiving - the day we offer thanks for all the things we have - is perhaps the most ironic of American holidays, in that it is immediately succeeded by Black Friday, the day we trample people to death in pursuit of all the things we want (which is more or less how it happened back when it started, with the Indians, too). Yes, as our chubby, gravy-stained hands click the TV away from reports of terrorist attacks and over to football, it is hard not to wonder quietly if the end... [Tags: 21st century, american holidays, apocalypse, armageddon, black friday]

If there was one thing that movie Minority Report gained any recognition for; other than being generally panned, was its Orwellian depiction of our future under constant surveillance. Surveillance that included what we were thinking of doing at some point in the future. More often as not these days the movie title is used in the same way that we have been using George Orwell’s 1984 book about a society without any rights. A society where the government has total control over your movements and you can be questioned at any time. As much as we might like to believe that... [Tags: 21st century, camera footage, camera operator, clear evidence, daily mail]

A 21st Century Right-to-Know Agenda — The 21st Century Right to Know project, coordinated by OMB Watch, has issued some 70 recommendations to the Obama administration and Congress. The recommendations emphasize the need to move the federal government's information policies into the 21st century by adopting...... [Tags: 21st century, congress, federal government, information policies, obama]

MTA Now Offering Text Message Alerts; We've Already Unsubscribed — The New York MTA has finally joined us in the 21st Century: It's now offering text message alerts when there's a service interruption on your subway line. The set-up process is easy enough, and beyond the cost of receiving text messages, it's free. So why have we already turned it off? Turns out the subway system is a lot worse than you'd think! Maybe today was just an unlucky day, but by 9:30 a.m., we'd already received 11 messages from the MTA warning us about a service problem on the F line. (Going the wrong way, so it might not... [Tags: 21st century, better chance, character limit, downside, e mail]

Dissent Of The Day — A reader writes:I've long shared your  fiscal conservatism. But in the light of the current troubles, I can't say that I fully agree with the priorities you set in your post yesterday. There is a point at which the dangers of fiscal conservatism, in the form of making people suffer fully the consequences of their actions, outweigh the long-term harms likely to arise from vigorous government intervention. You quote Zakaria saying "All of these tools [of governmental intereference] have long-term effects that are extremely troublesome, but they are nothing compared with the potential collapse of the financial system." Not being... [Tags: 21st century, consequences, dissent, economic growth, economist]

Electronic Feng Shui compass — Fortune Compass, LLC has rolled out its hand held electronic Feng Shui compass known by the same name, and has brought the ancient art of Chinese geomancy to the 21st century. I am extremely skeptical of this product, and most of the time Feng Shui is but common sense and good engineering principles when you look at it in a closer manner, after all, who would want to sit underneath a beam in real life? There is a sense of pressure bearing downwards always, and that will definitely affect the concentration of anyone who wants to work. Let’s not even... [Tags: 21st century, ancient art, bearing, chinese geomancy, colleagues]

David Wild: Axl Right, World Wrong: "Democracy" Prevails — Once upon a time in late 1999, Axl Rose played me many of the songs on Chinese Democracy. First he invited me with my family to his house for Halloween. That's a story for another day. A few weeks later, we met in the middle of night in a studio that I believe was then owned by the Captain & Tennille. Having first met Axl just as his career was taking off, he generously invited me and took a few hours from recording to play me some of the music that he'd already been working on for years. Then he... [Tags: 20th century, 21st century, american democracy, axl rose, buzz]

Nokia puts high-speed data on new phone — Users invited to join 21st Century.Nokia's 6260 has announced the company's first phone with support for both faster download and upload speeds using HSPA, at up to 10.2Mbits/s and 2Mbits/s respectively.... [Tags: 21st century, high speed data, hspa, nokia, phone users]

21st century plague discovered by scientists — A new disease that is passed from rats to humans via fleas much like the Black Death has been discovered by scientists.... [Tags: 21st century, black death, fleas, new disease, rats]

Even the universe is getting fatter [Valleywag Calendar] — As Thanksgiving approaches, take a minute to ponder this: some expansion is inevitable. But it isn't just your waistline that is growing. 10 years ago scientists discovered a dark energy that is pushing the universe outwards at increasing speeds. Tonight, get to the meat of one of the biggest physics quandaries of the 21st century with Dr. Eric Linder of Berkeley Labs. Starting at 5:30 p.m., Linder will discuss how dark energy has been linked to supernovas and dinosaur extinction at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. More interested in the dark forces cramping your networking skills? The Executive Sandbox will... [Tags: 10 years, 21st century, berkeley repertory theater, communication skills, dark energy]

Leadership Malpractice — When a health care provider or an attorney is negligent to an extent that deviates from accepted standards of professional practice, and when this negligence causes injury, there can be consequences. He or she can be sued for malpractice. Accountants and investment advisors can also be sued for malpractice, as can other professionals now held to a standard expected on the basis of their training and expertise. In light of this recent history, there is no reason to exempt leaders, people in positions of authority, from analogous accountability. Leaders today are no better and no worse than before. It's the... [Tags: 21st century, accountability, accountants, breach of fiduciary duty, checks and balances]