New Hampshire GOP withdraws support from Fox News debate for excluding candidates, such as Internet favorite Ron Paul.  This is despite a strong showing in Iowa and record fundraising last quarter.  Dr. Paul is best known for his large Internet following.

The NH GOP released the following statement on their website.

“The first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary serves a national purpose by giving all candidates an equal opportunity on a level playing field. Only in New Hampshire do lesser known, lesser funded underdogs have a fighting chance to establish themselves as national figures. Consistent with that tradition, we believe all recognized major candidates should have an equal opportunity to participate in pre-primary debates and forums.

“This principle applies to tonight’s debates on ABC as well as Sunday’s planned forum on FOX. The New Hampshire Republican Party believes Congressmen Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter should be included in the FOX forum on Sunday evening. Our mutual efforts to resolve this difference have failed.”

“While we understand that FOX News continues to move forward it is with regret, the New Hampshire Republican Party hereby withdraws as a partner in this forum.”

New Hampshire Republican State Committee - Home - NH REPUBLICAN PARTY WITHDRAWS AS FOX FORUM PARTNER

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Tags: Election2008, GOP

Flying well-equipped for business and pleasure gets a bit more complicated on Jan. 1, as the U.S. Transportation Department bars travelers from packing loose lithium batteries in checked luggage.

The move is designed to help minimize the risk that such batteries could overheat and catch fire on board, the agency’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said in a statement on Friday.

The new rules say travelers can bring a laptop computer, digital camera, cellphone and other equipment on board or in checked luggage if their lithium batteries are installed in the items.

And flyers can bring spare batteries in carry-on luggage if they’re stored in plastic bags or if they’re in the original retail packaging. But travelers can bring only as many as two such spare batteries, and each must be packed separately.

Travelers Advisory: U.S. limits lithium batteries on flights - MarketWatch

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More than half of Americans visited a library in the past year with many of them drawn in by the computers rather than the books, according to a survey released on Sunday.

Of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y, the survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said.”

These findings turn our thinking about libraries upside down,” said Leigh Estabrook, a professor emerita at the University of Illinois and co-author of a report on the survey results.

Generation Y biggest user of libraries: survey | U.S. | Reuters

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OLPC off to a slow, but positive start.

At breakfast, they’re already powering up the combination library/videocam/audio recorder/music maker/drawing kits.

At night, they’re dozing off in front of them — if they’ve managed to keep older siblings from waylaying the coveted machines.

Peru made the single biggest order to date — more than 272,000 machines — in its quest to turn around a primary education system that the World Economic Forum recently ranked last among 131 countries surveyed. Uruguay was the No. 2 buyers of the laptops, inking a contract for 100,000.

FYI, the give one, get one promotion is still going on until December 31, 2007.

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Tags: OLPC, One Laptop Per Child, Education

Britain’s Highway Agency is making use of new materials, Fiber-Reinforeced Polymers, to build bridges where they were not previously feasible.

The use of FRP in the M6 Motorway is just one example of how new materials such as glass and engineering techniques such as cantilevered driving-lanes are allowing construction of bridges that are stronger and longer than anything built previously. The Rion-Antirion Bridge in Greece, for instance, links the Pelopponesians to the mainland—a connection first proposed centuries ago. The proposed Messina Bridge would connect Sicily to Italy across one of the most seismically active sea beds.

From the same people that brought you YOU-CAN-SPAM, give you DOPA. The Deleting Online Predators Act has passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The overly broad law would ban, “any site that allows users to edit a profile, chat to users or post personal data as a social networking site”, from libraries and public schools.

The American Library Association opposed DOPA saying,

“Under DOPA, people who use library and school computers as their primary conduits to the Internet will be unfairly blocked from accessing some of the web’s most powerful emerging technologies and learning applications. As libraries are already required to block content that is “harmful to minors” under the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), DOPA is redundant and unnecessary legislation.”

DOPA is championed by the likes of Senator Ted Stevens, who recently referred to the Internet as a “Series of Tubes” that can be clogged by information.

Save Your Space is hosting a petition to be submitted to Congress on September 5, 2006. Not that it will do any good, the only public opinions they listen to are the ones that further their agenda.

May I suggest the slogan, “Keep your congressman off DOPA.”

The Queen of England has honored Johnathan Ive, senior vice president of design at Apple Computers, with the title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).

The title recognizes Ive’s achievements in industrial design as leader of the team that produced not only the iPod but also the iMac, iBook and Powerbook computer lines in his nearly 13-year career at Cupertino, California-based Apple.

The mayor of New Orleans announced that free wifi will be available throughout the Big Easy. Hardware mounted on street lights enable the entire city to be covered. The equipment was donated by Intel, Tropos Networks, and Prontos Networks.

The network will be at a mere 512KB during the state of emergency, but will be dropped to a laughable 128KB afterwards. The speed decrease is the result of a state law that restricts government-owned Internet services.

The US Library of Congress is starting plans for a World Digital Library, with a $3 million donation from Google. They are currently seeking more private funding and plan on building on existing digital projects from around the world.

“We are trying to do a documentary record of other great cultures of the world. How much we will be able to do will depend on how many additional partners we attract,” he said.

Google will work with the Library of Congress to develop stardards for indexing the vast amount of information.

After taking jabs at politics, including the 2004 Presidential election, Jib Jab takes a shot at American consumerism. Jib Jab’s latest, Big Box Mart, is a parody of Walmart and the all too real cost that these big box stores bring.

Entertaining as usual, and sung to the tune of “Oh, Susanna”. Classic stuff.