Larry Lessig and Joe Trippi announced this Thursday what Change Congress will be.
Here’s more from Wired…
The professor wants legislators to promise to do four things which he says will reduce the influence of money on policymaking: To promise not to accept money from lobbyists and political action committees; support public financing of elections; commit to [...]

Check out this article from Newsweek, circa 1995:
After two decades online, I’m perplexed. It’s not that I haven’t had a gas of a good time on the Internet. I’ve met great people and even caught a hacker or two. But today, I’m uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community. Visionaries see a future of [...]

Social media giveth and social media taketh away…
Looks like the former blogger and current McCain aide made a pretty dumb gaffee today by sharing a YouTube video on Twitter, which is basically stream-of-consciousness blogging platform that allows people to share their thoughts, but nothing longer than 155 characters. I’m actually on Twitter as well, and [...]

Seriously, just watch…

From the ice to that jump at the end, this is pretty incredible stuff.
I know one thing, I would want that thing running at me. Yikes!

Here are the stats…
* Contributors: 727,972
* First Time Contributors: 385,101
* Total Contributors – Campaign to Date: 1,069,333
Online Fundraising:
* More than $45 million raised online in February
* More than 90% of online donations were $100 or less
* More than 50% of online donations were $25 or less
* More than 75% of online donors in February were [...]

Amazing…

Here’s more background…
The information reveals a trove of interesting population patterns. By looking at the neighborhoods where the data came from, researchers determined that New Yorkers who engage in global gab tend to be on the high end of the socio-economic scale or struggling to make ends meet. Translation: international business and professional people or [...]

Damn.
He explains why here.

Let’s hope the Change Congress movement can actually gain a foothold.

Here’s more “talk” from Obama…USASpending.gov:
Have you ever wanted to find more information on government spending? Have you ever wondered where federal contracting dollars and grant awards go? Or perhaps you would just like to know, as a citizen, what the government is really doing with your money. The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of [...]

When it comes to fair and open standards that benefit all, Lessig has to be one of the more brilliant minds you’ll ever read or listen to on the subject. Now he’s thinking about running for Congress, but he doesn’t want to just serve…he wants to change congress.
He has 3 things he’s basing that change [...]

That’s how I’m watching the coverage tonight online. It has live video and a very clean layout that features everything you might want to know.
Check it out (note: launches a pop-up window).

Found over at Sully’s place:
One might even wonder if a McCain presidency, combined with a Democratic Congress, offers the best chance for a bipartisan-yet-still-decent emissions-reduction bill to get enacted and stay enacted. (Think Schwarzenegger and health care in California.) I’m skeptical, but it’s not an outlandish argument.
I think we’re all very well aware that the [...]

That’s right. Capture all of it so they can protect us. Jeezus…
From WSJ:
Spychief Mike McConnell is drafting a plan to protect America’s cyberspace that will raise privacy issues and make the current debate over surveillance law look like “a walk in the park,” McConnell tells The New Yorker in the issue set to hit newsstands [...]

And by the way, we should too…
The words “war on terror” will no longer be used by the British government to describe attacks on the public, the country’s chief prosecutor said Dec. 27.
Sir Ken Macdonald said terrorist fanatics were not soldiers fighting a war but simply members of an aimless “death cult.”
The Director of Public [...]

A company called Nanosolar says they’ve cracked the code by creating a way to manufacture solar cells 100x faster and 100x thinner.
From solve climate:
While other companies have been focusing their efforts on increasing the efficiency of solar panels, Nanosolar took a different approach. It focused on manufacturing.
Essentially, they’ve figured out how to print solar cells [...]

They say it’s to stop terrorists.
Well…or empower corporations to keep a closer eye on you.
Either or…
Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric [...]

That’s not technically correct, but it might as well be.
From CNET:
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including “obscene” cartoons and drawings–or face fines of up to $300,000.
That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, [...]

Well, not exactly, but it might help.
This according to a very interesting article in the Wash Post today that details how divorce is hurting the environment…
The analysis found that cohabiting couples and families around the globe use resources more efficiently than households that have split up. The researchers calculated that in 2005, divorced American households [...]

Hey kids, do you like to track suspicious activities and potential terrorist acts?
Then look no further than the Global Incident Map, a Google Maps mashup that shows you where the bad stuff could be going down. Stress “could be.” It also updates ever 420 seconds, and all in all it’s not such a bad [...]

The war drums just started getting a little quieter.
From US News:
In a report sure to further complicate the U.S.-led drive for additional sanctions against Iran, the atomic watchdog agency of the United Nations has given Iran relatively good marks for its recent cooperation in clearing up suspicions over past nuclear work. [...]
The IAEA said it [...]

David Brooks has an awesome editorial on the growing reliance on technology to remember for us, and after the quote below, I’ll have some thoughts about what that means to us as citizens and voters.
From NY Times:
Memory? I’ve externalized it. I am one of those baby boomers who are making this the “It’s on the [...]