Web Technology, Landfills and “Intellectual Blasphemy”

Web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee predicts that current internet technology will be soon be superseded by more highly integrated applications.

Massachusetts officials hire a “sniff squad” of experts to determine whether landfill odors are too strong for local residents.

1. TECHNOLOGY

Web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee predicts that current internet technology will be soon be superseded by more highly integrated applications.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology Policy Analyst Cord Blomquist on how competition in the computer industry is affected by such rapidly changing technology:

“…the market is growing too quickly and is too dynamic for the merger [of Microsoft and Yahoo] to seriously affect competition. With the domestic online ad market predicted to double in the next two years and global adoption rates of internet service continuing to rise, there is every reason to believe that this rapidly expanding marketplace has room for new entrants such as Facebook, Digg, Wikia Search, Mahalo, or a company that still resides in a dorm room or garage somewhere in the world.”

2. HEALTH

Massachusetts officials hire a “sniff squad” of experts to determine whether landfill odors are too strong for local residents.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Risk & Environmental Policy Angela Logomasini on how far waste disposal technology has come in recent years:

“When I went to visit one of these [state-of-the-art] landfills in Virginia, I had to ask people in the community for directions, but few seemed to know it was there. Finally, one person pointed me to the entrance, which led me down a long road through some woods to the landfill site. It wasn’t unsightly. Even close up, it didn’t smell. This community — like many others — wanted the trash because the landfill company paid them for the use of their land. Such hosting fees enabled communities to upgrade and build schools, buy fire trucks, and even cut taxes.”

3. ENVIRONMENT

Journalism Alexander Cockburn tells of being accused of “intellectual blasphemy” for his skeptical views on global warming.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Doug Bandow on Cockburn and “the consensus”:

“The media keeps reminding us that there is a consensus not only that the climate is warming (and it is), but that mankind is to cause and disaster is sure to result unless we return to a hunter-gatherer civilization, or something like that. It turns out that not all of the dissenters are on the Right. There’s Alexander Cockburn. Indeed, in his own incomparable way, he contends that the scaremongering is benefiting corporate interests.”

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

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