Techcordance

Study

Network neutrality rules adopted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission could lead to the loss of more than 340,000 jobs in the broadband industry over the next 10 years, with few offsetting Web content jobs, according to a new study funded by a group opposed to the proposed rules.
If the FCC adopts the net neutrality rules it is now considering, close to 1.5 million jobs across the U.S. economy could be put in jeopardy by 2020, and revenue growth in the broadband industry would slow by about one-sixth during that time frame, said the study, by Coleman Bazelon, a telecom economist with The Brattle Group.
Bazelon predicted that spending in the broadband industry would decrease by US$5 billion in 2011 if the FCC passes formal net neutrality rules, with the number growing in subsequent years.
“The FCC should be careful in developing any net neutrality rules, to not undermine its own goals of promoting broadband and employment,” Bazelon said during a press conference Friday.
Broadband deployment in the U.S. is a “success story,” the study said. About 95 percent of U.S. residents have fixed broadband available, and 98 percent have 3G mobile broadband available, the study said.

Earth Day


Churches around the world are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on Thursday. And while some are taking the call to go green to a whole new level, others are more hesitant. “I think our churches should be the first to push the envelope in terms of reducing our carbon footprint,” Molly Harper Haines, 27, told the United Methodist News Service. “If every church ‘got off the grid’ by installing solar panels or using wind energy (for example), had community gardens to grow food and flowers for decorations … the world would be a different place.”…
Earth Day was created in 1970 by Sen. Gaylord Nelson. Forty years later, environmental groups believe the world is in “greater peril than ever” and that climate change is “the greatest challenge of our time.”
Those words don’t sit well with Reformed Pastor Kevin DeYoung of East Lansing, Mich.
Though not opposed to Christians celebrating Earth Day and thinking through ways to steward the earth, DeYoung believes the Earth Day movement rests on “several debatable premises” like the world being in greater peril than ever. Moreover, the annual observance is also steeped in politics, advocacy and assumed solutions, he argues.

Hidden Tax?

(CNSNews.com) – Economist and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) said he “always believed” the Democrats would impose a value added tax (VAT) on top of all existing, current taxes when they took control of the House, Senate and White House. Armey described the VAT as the most “insidious tax of all.”
In an exclusive interview with Armey on Capitol Hill, CNSNews.com asked, “Paul Volcker, a senior economic adviser to President Obama, and several members of Congress, including Speaker Pelosi, have floated the idea of the VAT tax being implemented on top of current taxes. Would you support something like that? Why or why not?”
Armey said, “Absolutely not. Look, in 1994, I studied – actually, starting in the fall of ’93 – I studied all tax options out there, and I, of course, settled on the flat tax as the best option for a lot of reasons. The Value Added Tax was always the most insidious tax of all, and I always saw that – I’d seen that back in ’77.”