Politics

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that enough is enough. The agency has had it with illegal prerecorded telemarketing calls and wants you to solve the problem. The free FTC Robocall Challenge is offering a $50,000 cash prize to whoever creates the best technical solution that blocks commercial robocalls on landlines and mobile phones. For Continue Reading →

Only two of America’s political parties are represented in this year’s “official” presidential debates: the Democratic and Republican parties. That leaves the dozens of alternative candidates out of the show. What’s a third-party candidate to do for some debate time? Hop on a Google Hangout. The Independent Voter Network, an online alternative news outlet geared Continue Reading →

The 2012 U.S. Presidential Election is shaping up to be the most digital election in the history of the country, as Mashable has documented. An infographic underlines how much social and digital media’s influence has grown from the last election in 2008 and how much campaigns are increasingly moving their operations online. In this election Continue Reading →

(Part 1 of this two-part piece can be read here.) After the second presidential debate—mere minutes after—I received a ‘robotext’ from Romney’s camp: “Romney Won the Debate!” My own assessment of the debate aside, it was mildly annoying that I’d have to pay for what I thought was a pointless text. (I would have thought Continue Reading →

Remember that Animaniacs song that names every single U.S. president? The wacky cartoon’s history lesson is still clever, for both kids and adults, kind of like this American Presidents iPad app. What does it do? Gives you bios of all 44 U.S. presidents with beautiful illustrations to match. Why do we like it? It’s not Continue Reading →

In the 2012 US presidential election, it is clear the brief age of political blogs shaping the political narrative has passed and we are now in the era of Twitter. The proof is in Twitter’s big role in shaping the coverage and the winners and losers of this month’s presidential debates. At a seminar on Continue Reading →

Statistics are everywhere these days, and it’s difficult to know which ones to take seriously. Occasionally, a “report” comes out that’s so misleading it presents a teachable moment on how to spot a bad statistic. Last week, Twitter made headlines for claims that users who are exposed to their political advertisements, in the form of Continue Reading →

Would a second Barack Obama term be better for the technology industry, or would it be more prosperous under a Mitt Romney administration? Most technology executives believe Romney’s the better choice, according to a new study. DLA Piper, an international law firm, asked thousands of CEOs, CFOs and other company officers at technology companies, as Continue Reading →

Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. –Helen Keller, in a letter written in 1911 Did you happen to catch the “debate” last week? The monumentally wooden Jim Lehrer spent Continue Reading →

At the end of August this year, the US Department of Transport’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new standards to significantly improve the fuel economy of cars and light trucks by 2025. Last week, we took a look at a range of recent engine technologies that Continue Reading →