U.S.: Slowpoke of the Internet

The fatboy on the high school track team. The escargot of the information superhighway. You'd expect this to happen to a third-world country, but statistics compiled by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) say America is sandwiched in between nations with cheaper broadband connections. And yes, you read that graph (right) correctly: Iceland and Luembourg carry more households with high-speed per 100 than we, the patriarchs of the Web.

Prospects look so bleak, in fact, that our Web woes have attracted the intervention of the Federal Government. So, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed legislation Tuesday to start annually cataloguing every internet service provider in the country, including subscriber data and advertised bandwidth speeds.

Not only should the data draw a sharper picture of how the U.S. measures up, but bill-proponent Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., wants to target regions lagging behind on high-speed access.

But there's actually more salient reasons for this type of corroboration. The OECD neglects to factor in individuals who have broadband access at work or in their college dorms, says think tanks who favor total Internet deregulation (as opposed to government-controlled bandwidth).

Larry Cohen, The Communication Workers of America (CWA) president, wants to erect a policy now so broadband is guaranteed for everyone.

"Unfortunately, we don't know the full extent of our problem because our data is so poor. We don't know where high- speed networks are deployed, how many households and small businesses connect to the Internet, at what speed, and how much they pay. Without this information, we can't craft good policy solutions. So we continue to fall farther behind," he said.

Nevertheless, the statistic puts U.S. broadband at an unceremonious 15th place in 2006, down from 4th in 2001. And our current slog through cyberspace isn't close to diminishing, either. We're slouches in comparison to South Korea, whose government-regulated ISPs rent Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) to consumers on the cheap. It's evidently working, since broadband connections rate 15 times faster than the average American user. Those Korean's got Seoul, baby!

Other examples pointing to U.S. sluggishness include Paris, whose "triple play" package (Web, TV, phone) costs half as much as our equivalent. Canada has 65 percent of households surfing at blazing speeds, much higher than America's 55. And lest we forget, Japanese users routinely connect with broadband as high as 100 megabits per second.

This renewed interest in widespread net-neutrality arrives about six years too soon. Democratizing the Internet shares its weight of pros and cons, but essentially it means no one company (AT&T, Verizon, etc) can have a stranglehold on how much bandwith is trickled down to the consumer.

Put another way, America finally has the chance to catch up. Yes, even to Iceland and Luxembourg.

Here's a spiffy explainer on the concept of net-neutrality:



Images Courtesy Associated Press, CNN.COM

To sleep, perchance to dream

Before you chance breezing through the pages from that gargantuan Chem textbook at 5 a.m., bleary-eyed and blistering for shut-eye, look around. Is there a pink unicorn preening itself at the foot of your bed? If so, you might be suffering from a psychological disorder triggered by (what else?) sleep deprivation.

Today, the Scientific American Journal says that UC Berkley and Harvard University med schools just uncovered a link between lack of sleep and overemotional behavior, a trend which could easily lead to psychiatric problems like paranoia, ADHD and post-traumatic stress disorder if left unnoticed.

Science researchers stuffed 14 sleep-impaired test subjects into a room, and each handed photographs of an increasingly disturbing nature. Harmless images of empty wicker baskets evolved into more sinister snapshots of tarantulas crawling on human shoulders and burn victims. Meanwhile, every subject's amygdala, or part of the midbrain responsible for interpreting emotion, was monitored to detect differences in awareness while exposed to awkward stimuli.

Long story short, the sleep-deprived amygdala secretes more adrenaline to jump-start brain activity, inducing a sort of heightened arousal that causes everything from elation to outrage in seconds flat. Adds a San Fransisco Chronicle article, that's because the medial prefrontal cortex, which controls logical reasoning, grinds nearly to a halt, making it harder for the brain to distinguish fact from fiction.

The brain goes haywire, the SA article further explains:

"Medial prefrontal cortex is the policeman of the emotional brain," [Berkeley psychologist Matthew] Walker says. "It makes us more rational. That top-down, inhibitory connection is severed in the condition of sleep deprivation. … The amygdala seems to be able to run amok." People in this state seem to experience a pendulum of emotions, going from upset and annoyed to giddy in moments, he says.

So, still itching to crack open that Chem textbook? Better wait 'til morning. Unsurprisingly, sleep deprivation is also associated with obesity, daily stress, depression and even heart attacks, says the Center for Disease Control. Yes, losing those 40 winks contributes to slower metabolic rates, increased irritability throughout the day and higher blood pressure - all improving one's chances of cardiovascular disease, according to a Reuters article.

This notoriously affects college students the most, considering they require at least nine hours of sleep average (as opposed to seven for adults).

Think of it this way: Given the dozen or so illnesses associated with sleep deprivation, hallucinating a pink unicorn should be the least of your worries. You're likelier to irritably snipe at friends and peers the next day and give yourself a coronary. In short, lay off the all-nighters, folks.

Images courtesy Reuters, Scientific American

It's probably a great idea NOT to switch channels during these commercials...

We've seen it popping up occasionally in mainstream news, but even the 16 months' forewarning remaining doesn't soften the blow for analog television watchers. But that won't stop Congress from pounding boob tube watchers with a huge televised advertisement blitz next year.

The National Association of Broadcasters announced plans Monday to launch a $697 million public awareness ad campaign alerting current "analogers" that the Federal Communications Commission is upconverting all broadcast signals to digital come February 17, 2009, according to Associated Press.

Congress is meanwhile pitching in $5 million toward publicizing the soon-to-be ubiquitous ad campaigns, yet although this number isn't exactly a groundbreaking collaborative effort, their real generosity is $1.5 billion in consumer coupons so homeowners won't be left, well, signalless when broadcasters convert. $40 in discount coupons will be given to every individual still watching analog TV (i.e. over antenna and not with a cable or satellite company) so they can buy digital-analog converter boxes. According to the Heartland Institute, a nonprofit promoting technological research awareness, each DTV converter runs $80 to $100; thankfully, consumers can apply for up to two $40 vouchers.

In addition to on-air public announcements, NAB will devote over $327 million to news coverage; a "DTV Road Show featuring TV-shaped trucks touting the transition; banner ads on Web sites; and 30-minute shows about the transition," according to a Broadcasting & Cable magazine article. (As an aside, this is shaping up to be the most intensely coordinated ad campaign ever conceived for television - and it's necessary, too.)

A 2005 Government Accountabiliy Office study concluded that roughly 19 percent out of 108.5 million U.S. households (about 21 million folks with 70 million sets) watch TV via airwaves, pointing out that the elderly trend toward this method. Wow, not surprising.

Also not surprising: The switch-over most strongly affects the poor and minorities, which represent a great majority of the 21 million "analogers," according to Scientific American magazine.

The NAB also added that 95 broadcasting companies pledged to run the digital TV ad spots during prime time, a bread-and-butter nightly block where millions of ad revenue per commerical are gained. Of course, sacrificing every broadcaster's cash cow may seem an unhealthy agreement now, but chew on this: no public awareness at all is just plain foolhardy - should a multi-billion dollar conglomerate broadcasters have a vested interest in forfeiting ad revenue now, or should they stand to lose 21 million ignorant analog viewers instead? Gee, it boggles the noggin...

Here's one video advertisement slated to run as part of NAB's ad campaign blitz.

Images Courtesy DTV Answers, www.textually.org

I've got a (cheap) ticket to ride...

Any vehement quibbling about America's swelling traffic problem invariably segues into some argument against overpopulation and, to greater extent, how one bypasses all that nasty congestion. If you're thinking certain city engineers should take a defibrillator or three to our woeful nationwide public transportation problem, you're right. Thankfully, Beijing, China, just cranked out a prototype not only worthy of worldwide acclaim, but of being called an antidote to a planet that refuses to slow down.

The October 7 grand opening of Beijing's $1.45 billion Line 5 underground subway network falls just ten months before the capital hosts the 2008 Olympics, and serves to streamline travel during the highly anticipated summer games. But the railway line alleviates a much more pressing burden - a city so thronged to the gills it had to designate a "No Car Day" two months ago to combat rising air pollution, according to a Washington Post article. The metropolis itself is beleaguered with a population that rivals the entire state of Florida (approximately 17 million), so a cost-efficient subway promises a smoother transition come the flood rush of tourists next summer.

Yes, I said cost-efficient. Beijing slashed fares to roughly 27 cents per-commuter per-ride, so the whole shebang costs around the price of a pack of bubble gum. The powerful 27.3 km rail line not only outclasses any form of Western transportation, but packs an impressive medley of LCD-panel ticket centers, information terminals, air conditioning, handicapped accessibility, onboard flatscreen televisions and a ubiquitous wireless surveillance system monitoring platform and subway car traffic.

Here's a brief 360-degree panorama around the interior of one passenger car:



That's not all, fellow flummoxed college commuters. The Beijing Subway line plans to overhaul its entire public transportation system by 2020 - which includes jacking up the number of public transportation users from 30 to 40 percent by 2010. City officials are shooting for the largest subway network in the world at a projected 561 km - larger than the London Underground - to justify thrusting railway lines into every conceivable part of the clogged and overwhelmed city. And that's including the newly-constructed Olympic Park - the bustling centerpiece for all Olympic-related activities.

Since Beijing's facelift coincides with Olympic preparations, arguably equally congested cities might use that kind of an incentive to revamp their own ailing public transportation infrastructure. Heck, the Second Avenue subway line in New York City has been a project bubbling since the Roaring Twenties, but constantly derailed ever since, according to a New York Magazine article.

Does it really take a bid to host the Olympics to spur traffic reform in America's most gridlocked cities? Paging the 2020 Olympics...

Images courtesy www.Treehugger.com

Livin' it up in the United Arab Emirates (such a lovely place)

Move over, Disney World. And, for that matter, the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower, Taipei 101, sports stadiums, existing garish hotels, or any other man-made artifice that at one point made humanity marvel at its sheer ingenuity.

Within the next half-decade, a single city stands poised to conquer and dwarf every identifiable landmark on Earth - and in record time. Dubai, a city located in the heart of the United Arab Emirates, is quickly transforming into a boomtown for tourist attractions and breakneck development. Development which, according to a U.K. Sunday herald article, wouldn't happen without the thousands of foreign laborers toiling under massive skyscrapers in the blazing Persian Gulf sun.

Yes, amid all the construction cranes, a half-built theme park dubbed Dubailand, and a chain of unfinished luxury islands modeled after the entire world are South Asian, Pakistani and other migrant workers sweating in sweltering desert heat and earning little dinero in return. That's right: the average foreign construction worker earns about $1 an hour, according to an August New York Times article.

Of course, that's only counting the workers who actually get paid.

The Sunday Herald's description is bleak:

"The sprawling, heat-blistered labour camp of Sonapur is a squalid home very different to the air-conditioned luxury enjoyed by the British expatriates. Workers sleep eight to a room in ugly dormitory blocks festooned with washing hung out to dry, shuttled by fleets of battered buses past the Starbucks and bars to building sites ringed with barbed wire where they toil for 12 hours or more, six days a week."

Thankfully, the laborers slogging through some of the worst working conditions in the entire world comprise roughly 99 percent of the workforce, or 4. 5 million foreigners. The cost of catering to upper-crust Shiekhs, Americans and other far-flung businessmen pouring petroleum money into Dubai just became a little easier. That's because a couple-thousand workers walked off a few-dozen construction sites last year, leading the UAE Labor Ministry to fork over back wages and improve worker's camp conditions. But unfortunately, the NYT story claims that laborers have "no right to unionize and no chance at citizenship."

Should globalization really come at such a terrible price? There's nothing more disheartening (or ironic) than to see blatant exploitation of labor used to build vacation resorts and travel hotspots sure to attract the wealthiest families on the planet. If so, bigwig executives can surely expect such a furious bottom-rung militancy to continue.

In about ten years, when most FAU graduates have advanced to suburbs and median-income jobs, and the hot topic 'round the household is a debate between shuffling the kids off to the newly-opened Dubailand or boring ol' Disney World, would the parents remember the cheap foreign labor that took to create it? Would they remember all the blistered hands that fashioned a desert paradise?

Images Courtesy BusinessWeek, NY Times, Burj-Dubai