Thinking Outside the Box

Why Should We Celebrate Data Privacy Day? Are you celebrating Data Privacy Day today, January 28, 2021? No? Well, here's why you should.... I would not be at all surprised if most people have not heard of Data Privacy Day; after all, it's only been around since 2007, where it was initiated by those ever-so-much-more progressive Europeans (so says  wikipedia ). And as such, it has not made much a dent in our public consciousness or social media here in the United States -- except perhaps when there's some huge data breach, and everyone rushes to search to see if their online identities have been compromised.  Because I do suspect most of us know someone who's had that happen to them, right? Heck, it's even happened to me, when I was more lackadaisical in my online activities, and did not practice proper online hygiene. But when it comes to people having their credit cards stolen (virtually), they will snap to attention. And this is the connection for most people: da...

A bill currently being considered in the Colorado House exemplifies a deep concern I have with corporate influence on our government, and calls out public scrutiny. HB19-1037, the " Colorado Energy Impact Assistance Act" is ostensibly about the retirement of coal-fired power plants owned by public utilities in Colorado, and the economic impact this will have on the communities that are heavily dependent on employment related to them. As climate change barrels down upon us, anticipating the issues associated with closing such plants is certainly a legitimate concern. But this is not a good bill because it shunts all costs onto the customers and does not mention the role of the regulated utilities responsible for the construction of the plants. Those corporate utilities and their managers, Xcel in particular, should be made to bear their fair share of the responsibility for the construction of those plants and their unwitting impact of their environmental effects and how thei...

Last Sunday, December 16, 2018, the Sunday New York Times published an inspiring story, which touches on many themes; you can read it at:  Retraining Workers for New Jobs and New Lives After Prison and Addiction What struck me about the article was: how the twin problems of drug addiction and doing prison time are a common, downward spiral in much of rural America how few public resources there are to deal with it the success of the hero of the story, Tony Simpson, exemplifies a winning strategy to deal with these twin problems that could be replicated elsewhere Basically, Mr Simpson, a local entrepreneur, already successful in another line of business, developed his own plan to help turn around his community: create a company that can export a product (trailers), train local people coming out of prison and/or drug rehab to work in it, and spend money and time -- a lot of money and time -- providing programs of assistance in doing just that. The goal of the program, w...

In reference to this online article,   "Montana Becomes First State To Set Its Own Net Neutrality Rules"   it states that "An unidentified spokeswoman for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and USTelecom, which represents the broadband industry, complained about the executive order..." My response in reaction to your response is: GET A CLUE! Destroying the principle of net neutrality is blatantly wrong, and the informed American public is well aware that this is nothing more than a power grab by a corrupt administration to privatize the Internet, which, in reality, is a public commons. The Internet was conceived, built and fostered through the use of public funds and academic institutions who freely shared the knowledge and skills to create it. (see  Where Wizards Stay Up Late , Simon & Schuster, 1999) It is the greatest commons ever created by humanity.  This attempt by a captured federal regulatory body, the FCC, t...