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If you would like to help Israel’s remarkable entrepreneurial breeding ground at Jerusalem College of Technology and also have the most delicious possible tour of the holy land, I commend to you the unique wine tasting tour that tech venture capitalist Jon Medved and friends have organized for this fall. Remember when “Kosher wine” had almost nothing going for it but its religious approval–and then only if you were Jewish? (I won’t mention any labels.) Those days are over. In Israel recently I was treated to some of the most excellent vintages I’ve ever enjoyed. Some has been grown on the famous slopes of the Golan Heights. Several vintages from Yarden vintners already have an international following. George Gilder recently Read More ›

Larry Irving and Bruce Mehlman of the Internet Innovation Alliance pick up our Exaflood theme in today’s Washington Post. The impending exaflood of data is cause for excitement. It took two centuries to fill the shelves of the Library of Congress with more than 57 million manuscripts, 29 million books and periodicals, 12 million photographs, and more. Now, the world generates an equivalent amount of digital information nearly 100 times each day. The explosion of digital information and proliferation of applications promises great things for our economy and our nation, as long as we are prepared. -Bret Swanson

With 50% of the federal information technology (IT) workforce eligible for retirement, according to a report from Baseline, it’s now clear to me why the government does a terrible job of keeping up with technology. That figure means most of the guys responsible for developing and supporting the technical infrastructure of our government are 65 years old or older and lived half of their lives before the microprocessor was even invented. Compare this to the private sector where most the innovators are plus or minus my age, 27, and like me started programming when we young, in my case 8. For the most part, these generations see technology and innovation very differently but the consequences are that this generational gap has made the government – and military in particular – a technical wasteland and that costs us in both lives and money.

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Big news from the climate catastrophe caucus these last few days. As you know by now, toward the end of last week Mr. Al Gore declared a “full-scale planetary emergency.” You may have missed the particulars as Mr. Gore was imploring you to exploit the “space resource” and you were mobilizing and evacuating your family to the backyard escape-pod. Well, Sir Nicholas Stern of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has the whole story. In a 700-page report, Sir Nicholas says that carbon dioxide could kill 40% of the species on earth and, oh yes, cause a Global Depression and the disappearance of 20% of world GDP — every year. Thankfully, it will only cost us $450 Read More ›

Globalization, health care, human capital — the supposedly infamous and definitely ingenious Michael Milken covered it all in a wideranging presentation at Telecosm X, his first return to the conference since Telecosm I in 1997. A few weeks ago we cited a great Wall Street Journal column he wrote, and here are a few related morsels from his speech: — Global life expectancy has grown from 31 years in 1900 to 66 years in 2005. — It will probably grow 30 more years in the 21st century. — A child born today will, on average, live to be 110. — There will be more English speakers in China by 2025 than in all other nations. — In 1820 China was Read More ›