Solution to Congress' technological ineptitude: A comic book
Today, the LA Times (by way of the Boston Globe) has a very well-written story that puts technology lawmaking into nearly perfect perspective for those who have no idea how bad things really are. In a story headlined In Information Age, Congress struggles to get up to speed, Jim Puzzanghera writes:
...Congress isn't exactly a haven for the tech-savvy. The alert to rush to the House floor was delivered in low-tech fashion -- by dated pagers clipped to their belts and clanging bells that made the halls of Capitol Hill echo like a 1950s high school....One of the leading gatekeepers for technology legislation, Senate Commerce Committee chairman Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, has been lampooned on TV and tech blogs after recently describing the Internet as ``a series of tubes." The lack of high-tech understanding is so pervasive on Capitol Hill that Vint Cerf, a Google Inc. executive known as a father of the Internet, is considering creating a comic book to show lawmakers how the global network operates.
I searched YouTube to see if it had any such lampooning clips. Sure enough, there's no shortage of material that takes Stevens to task over his lack of technological intellect (a lot of which is brilliantly done by Jon Stewart):
- Senator Ted Stevens Tubes LOL
- DJ Ted Stevens Techno Remix: "A Series of Tubes"
- Jon Stewart asking John McCain about "the Tubes"
- Ted's Tubes
- Series of Tubes
- Tangled up Tubes - my absolute hands-down favorite. A must see. Awe inspiring. What YouTube is made for.
- Internet Pipe Cleaner
- The MegaMix of Internet Tubes
- And here's a completely unrelated Daily Show clip about Ted Stevens that's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
How much do you think an autographed copy of that comic book would go for on eBay?