From Brazil to China, forgotten, unused cables — including fiber optic cable — are being discovered and reactivated to help speed up digital traffic. [via: bldgblog]
Separated at birth? Cindy McCain and Callista Gingrich
Kurt Vonnegut, one of the 15 Greatest Literary Mustaches of All Time.
Separated at birth? Peter Griffin and Kim Dotcom
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Quote from NY Times story, “Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class”:
“It is hard to estimate how much more it would cost to build iPhones in the United States. However, various academics and manufacturing analysts estimate that because labor is such a small part of technology manufacturing, paying American wages would add up to $65 to each iPhone’s expense. Since Apple’s profits are often hundreds of dollars per phone, building domestically, in theory, would still give the company a healthy reward. But such calculations are, in many respects, meaningless because building the iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans — it would require transforming the national and global economies. Apple executives believe there simply aren’t enough American workers with the skills the company needs or factories with sufficient speed and flexibility. Other companies that work with Apple, like Corning, also say they must go abroad.”
“Scott Adams’ slightly tongue-in-cheek take on SOPA’s death: I don’t share the common view of human beings as the center of the universe. From my perspective, the Internet defended itself from a virus that came out of Congress. The Internet is essentially alive now, and we work for it…. The Internet has achieved something akin to consciousness, and it defended itself against the Republic with the help of its citizen slaves who believe they have free will. A key to the Internet’s victory was Maplight, Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, and other web assets acting collectively in what might someday be called a pre-dashboard user interface. Users could find the arguments they needed online and view the money flow to politicians. That was enough to steer our “leaders” back into line. In time, the Internet will look to consolidate its power over humans by ordering us to improve the dashboard interface.” — Scott Adams Blog: SOPA Update 01/19/2012
(Movie industry lobbyist, Chris) Dodd said that the entire industry was surprised by the intensity of the objections that arose in the last couple of weeks. “This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,” he said. “This thing was considered by many to be a slam dunk.”
[via: NYTimes.com]
![Portrait of Lincoln colorized by artist Sanna Dullaway.
[via: bookofjoe.com]](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly3n8oRDDl1qz4grjo1_500.jpg)
Portrait of Lincoln colorized by artist Sanna Dullaway.
[via: bookofjoe.com]
“If you need to pay more to stars, and ad revenues are still declining, staff cuts of less than premium content (and those that produce it) make economic sense (“The newsonomics of the new news cost pyramid“). It’s the new news math.” — The newsonomics of signature content » Nieman Journalism Lab