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The Bandwidth Tidal Wave

Craig Mundie of Microsoft thinks that Tiger, his video-on-demand operating system, signals a fundamental shift in the computer industry. Ruling the new era will be bandwidth measured in billions of bits per second rather than in the millions of instructions per second of current computers. “We’ll have infinite bandwidth in a decade’s time.” Bill Gates, PC Magazine, Oct. 11, 1994. Read More ›

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Human Rights: Blessed by God or Begrudged by Government

Even as the double-helix discovery, the quantum theory and the development of a polio vaccine have manifested some of man's most ennobling capabilities, the gulags and gas chambers have demonstrated with equal force that scientific prowess alone does not confirm the existence of civilization — if civilization is to be measured by a commitment to protecting human rights. Read More ›

Don’t Kid Yourself, This Was A Biggie

Anti-Democratic feeling was really only anti-incumbent feeling, they declared. In fact, not one Republican incumbent governor or member of Congress lost, only Democrats. A big turnout, if it could be accomplished, would save the Democrats, we were told. But the 39 percent national turnout was two points over average mid-term elections. And in higher turnout states Republicans seem to have made their greatest gains. During the campaign, the actual contents of the "contract" were barely covered by the major media (an oversight now corrected after the election) and were subjected to a negative spin in Democratic television spots. But the "contract" was described in detail over talk radio, computer on-line services and new conservative cable TV programs. Another old political assumption that was dealt a blow is the old Depression-era knock that the Republicans are the party of Wall Street while the Democrats are the party of the little guy. GOP candidates won majorities among working-class voters as well as middle- and upper-economic groups. Big business PAC money, as usual, went overwhelmingly to incumbents and this year that meant Democrats. The first target for a shake-up will be Congress itself, where one of the leaders of reform is Rep. Jennifer Dunn of Bellevue. The House Republican Contract pledged to cut congressional staff by a third, and it should not be hard to do. The Democratic majority typically afforded Republicans only a small share of staff positions. In the House Energy and Commerce Committee, for example, Democrats currently have 180 staff posts and Republicans 17. After a well-deserved one-third cut, there will still be plenty of positions open for Republicans to fill, even permitting them to be more generous to the Democrats than the Democrats were to them. Read More ›

Trouble in Political Paradise

When House Speaker Tom Foley and his GOP challenger George Nethercutt debate next week at the Gonzaga University Law School more than just Spokane will be watching-and with good reason. CPAN’s decision to carry the debate nationwide reflects a growing sense that something almost cataclysmic is happening across the American political landscape from Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts to Tom Foley’s Eastern Read More ›

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Hand holding a wooden frame on sunrise sky background. Care, saf
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The Fallacy of Contextualism

In the last several decades both philosophy and theology have increasingly taken a “contextual turn.” The contextual turn begins with the observation that all of human inquiry occurs within contexts. By itself this observation is perfectly innocuous. It is patently obvious that each of us thinks and moves within certain social, linguistic, and epistemic contexts. We are not disembodied spirits Read More ›

Ethersphere

New low earth orbit satellites mark as decisive a break in the history of space-based communications as the PC represented in the history of computing. Pay attention to much-maligned Teledesic. Backed by Craig McCaw and Bill Gates, it is the only LEO fully focused on serving computers George Gilder “They’ll Be Crowding The Skies.” THUS STEVEN DORFMAN, president of telecommunications Read More ›

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Just the Facts, Please

Here's what did happen. The Board did adopt new statewide science testing standards. Curriculum was left where it had been, in the hands of local districts. Read More ›

Washington, D.C. Panel Explores The Dark Tower

On Saturday, 6 August 1994, a panel of five addressed C.S. Lewis Hoax topics with an audience of about fifty at Mythcon XXV, held at American University in Washington, D.C. Reporting in September Mythprint, Mary Stolzenbach refers to the panel’s “fireworks.” Panel members included (in order of speaking) Joe Christopher, moderator; Sam Konkin, editor of the Southern California Lewis Society Read More ›

Assorted Quotes from Myhtopoeic Discussion

Sam Konkin: We have taken our partisan positions because we’ve been involved in this conflict for five or ten years. If Lewis didn’t write The Dark Tower, who did? (See page 2.) Wendell Wagner: Walter Hooper has managed to create a mess in Lewis scholarship that’s going to persist for decades. John Bremer: In dealing in a scholarly way with Read More ›