From Net to Chains

For those who don't know, the freedom of the internet is at risk. A hotword lately has been "net neutrality," though few know what it means. In a bad summary, net neutrality is the protection of the internet from corporations that want privledge in its use. Congress currently has a bill (H.R. 5252 / S. 2686) the would eliminate the internet's protection. The Daily Show explained it best, I think.

When you get on the internet, you send "packets" of information out and receive "packets" back. This is how you get your pictures, graphics, text, all the good stuff you enjoy so much. Net neutrality ensures your packets and Verizon's packets are treated equally. Without net neutrality, the corporations that pay the most money get privledge, and your packets... well, they may get there eventually, they may not. Of course, if you paid more money, then those corporations would like you better. Then your packets have a better chance of getting where they're going. Maybe a site isn't so nice to Comcast, so maybe no packets end up getting to of coming from that site. Oops. Oh well.

Now that's really a rather gross explanation. For a better one, check the link in my Links Collumn to the right of the page; they provide a much better explanation.
Anyway, I just felt like putting something to do with the subject up here.

And Then There Was Hope...

A re-post from a favorite blog of mine: It's Getting Hot In Here.

Stéphane Dion has just been elected the new Federal Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. (Equal to leader of “Democrats” in the U.S.)

Dion was the previous Minister of the Environment for Canada before the Conservative government came into power in February. Dion was also the previous President of the United Nations (U.N.) Conference of the Parties and Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP) on climate change. He lead Canada and influenced many countries in the world to make last year’s U.N. Climate Change Conference in Montreal, Canada, an INCREDIBLE success.

In his victory speech tonight he noted that the number one goal in Canada right now should be sustainability. Thank you Dion. And thank you everyone who voted. Dion is one of the few politicians whom I have been genuinely inspired by. He also is a dedicated supporter to the youth movement, stating at the U.N. last year that ‘the youth may just be the most important constituency here at this conference.’

This new position also makes Dion the Leader of the Opposition, as the Liberal party is the opposition in Parliament. With his dedication to the most important issues, I can only see Canada’s future getting brighter.

By Zoe Caron