Topix is a local forum site that spans the United States, including thousands of cities across the country. It allows users to discuss local news and local issues with one another. As such, it can be a useful tool for gauging public opinion on all sorts of issues, including politics. Recently Topix and Equation Research […]
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Jeff Jarvis has some interesting meditations on the future of our information economy: I have been arguing that vertical industries will be replaced by horizontal ecosystems made up of three layers: (1) platforms that enable (2) entrepreneurial ventures to be created at low cost and risk and (3) networks (e.g., ad networks) that, when needed, […]
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That’s the premise of my latest piece at The Atlantic: Colbert’s stunt is designed to underscore the problems with these ads and the super PACs funding them, and to point out how the controversial Supreme Court decision, Citizens United, is undermining democracy. In a 5-4 decision in January of 2010, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional […]
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Nonconformists are responsible for many of the big evolutionary leaps and bounds in leadership and social evolution. Robin Hanson argues that being a nonconformist is more important than looking like one, writing that “people who are weird about ideas tend to care more about ideas, and so over-estimate how much others care. You can actually […]
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Predicting the future is difficult. We do it anyways because, among other things, it’s fun. It also helps us think about the present, and the way that our evolving technologies are changing the world now. Yesterday I asked whether or not technology could change our most stubborn, stagnant institutions – from corporations to governments. Fortune […]
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The National Defense Authorization Act greatly expands the power and scope of the federal government to fight the War on Terror, including codifying into law the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects without trial. Under the new law the US military has the power to carry out domestic anti-terrorism operations on US soil. “The fact that […]
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Back in 2008 reason ran a long piece on the Ron Paul newsletters which went into a great deal of depth on the story behind revelations of racism and bigotry that were surfacing at the time. The primary focus of the piece was to try to piece together who actually penned the racist screeds contained […]
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The end of 2011 has seen the passing of many famous public figures. The death of Václav Havel, the intellectual and revolutionary who led the Velvet Revolution, comes on the heels of the death of Christopher Hitchens, the famous atheist and writer whose support for the Iraq War distanced him from many on the left. Interestingly, […]
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I’m no longer eligible to make it into the Forbes 30 Under 30 project, which launched today, having just turned 30 this year. Mathew Herper reports that if you’re going to become famous you’re statistically likely to do it by the time you reach 30. I suppose what little scraps of fame I’ve gathered all […]
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Ron Paul has finally spoken out critically of his Republican rivals. The race toward the Iowa Caucuses is heating up. In a startling break with tradition, Ron Paul took a few quick jabs at his Republican rivals on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Friday. Asked his opinion of Michele Bachmann, who Paul had clashed […]
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