Land of Opportunities

It's been one of those crazy weeks that just blasted past me faster than Discovery Space Shuttle. Now that I look back it seems like it's been bad news after bad news, a week of CNN coverage of explosions in the Middle East, chemical blast in China, Floyd Landis failing his anti-doping test after winning the Tour de France etc etc. However, there was one piece of news (which might be old for the rest of you but I only came across the story this week) that made me cry with laughter.

Last month, in an effort to defend his point about Network Neutrality, US Senator Ted Stevens gave a spot-on description of the internet. Spot-on, because obviously he had no idea what he was talking about and still managed to phrase it in a way that no one will ever forget.
It's so worth reading every one of his words on the subject, the guy is so full of... wisdom... :)

"...the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material...

Ten movies streaming across that, internet, and what happens to your own personal internet? I just the other day got, an internet [sic] was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?"

I don't think there is anything wrong with an 83-year-old man defining the internet like that. I think it is even quite cute. (I should ask Grandma next weekend what she thinks of it... Will let you know.) What I think is incredible though is that this lovely old man is sitting in the US Senate and is trusted with making quite radical changes about the way internet providers charge their users for their services. No wonder America has been branded as the Land of Opportunities. Looks like you really can be anything there if you try hard. I just hope Arnold Schwarzenegger won't decide tomorrow that he would like to try himself at brain surgery.