In The News

Citizens Fight Back with Cellphones and Blogs

Mark Glaser July 28, 2005
In the past decade, advances in technology and communications have changed the way people live, connecting the world as never before. One currently-unfolding change is the way viewers experience the news: According to journalist Mark Glaser, modern tools - weblogs, cellphone cameras (both still and video) - are facilitating a new brand of citizen journalism. In the aftermath of the July 7 and...

In China, Sophisticated Filters Keep the Internet Near Sterile

Tim Johnson July 14, 2005
The spread of the internet in China has played a large role in that country's economic growth, as well as provided a cheap form of entertainment, communication, and learning for those who have web access. But the internet's popularity has not resulted in the open discussion and political reform that Chinese dissidents had hoped for. Rather, the government has concentrated many resources...

Camera Phones Lend Immediacy to Images of Disaster

Yuki Noguchi July 8, 2005
The invention of camera phones has allowed everyday people to capture images of great political and social significance in an unprecedented way, sometimes beating professional photojournalists to the punch. Several survivors of yesterday's terror attacks in London recorded images of bombed subway cars and fellow victims on their camera phones. Their pictures were broadcast to the world on...

China's Internet: Let a Thousand Filters Bloom

Rebecca MacKinnon June 28, 2005
The internet has played a key role in China's opening up to the world. But, as Rebecca MacKinnon writes, the Chinese government has cracked down on online freedom of expression. Thanks to deals with multinational corporations, US technology has facilitated Beijing's campaign to restrict internet discussions on troublesome issues like democracy, human rights, and Taiwanese independence...

Viruses, Security Issues Undermine Internet

Ariana Eunjung Cha June 27, 2005
Designed originally by the US Department of Defense as a limited experiment in communications, the internet was not intended to be the global network it is today. Since the system was originally used by only a small community of researchers and friends, the popularized version was not equipped with the security measures necessary to cope with the enormous number of current– largely anonomous –...

The Wages of Fundamentalism

Peter Watson June 22, 2005
Author Peter Watson cites religious fundamentalism as a major cause of the recent decline of US leadership in scientific research and innovation. To be sure, a renewed interest in the sciences in Western Europe and Asia has helped them to catch up in previously American-dominated fields. Equally influential, however, has been a renewal of religious fervor in the US. Teachers in Kansas are...

In Spite of Offshoring, US Students Can Still Engineer a Career

David Wessel June 20, 2005
A new report by McKinsey & Co. concludes that the nominal demand for engineering jobs in the US will not wane in the next few years in spite of the potential of offshoring. While there are more university-trained professionals in low-wage countries, many of them, according to the report, are unfit for the jobs demanded by foreign employers. Furthermore, it concludes that by the end of the...