Clearing the Tabs

A few notes about what lingers in open tabs, but won't make it into full fledged posts.

Last Tuesday a Senate committee grilled execs from high tech companies about their complicity in China's censorship of the internet. The headline raises the possibility of new legislation which I doubt will happen, particularly this year. Steven Dell loudly pushed for Bush after Kerry took on the issue of outsourcing in 2004. Given that Chinese dissidents do not vote in our elections, I don't see Congress risking the wrath of people who, in the modern version of the old saw, create pixels by the trillions. Still, it is good that Congress is at least showing an interest.

I'm only halfway through this transcript of a Pew Forum program on religious voters and the 2008 elections, but it's definitely worth the time. If nothing else, it's notable for taking on the subject without the participate of U Akron's Dr. John Green.

Paul makes a good point about the election. Obama is beset by as many opponents as Hillary Clinton is. She has Chris Matthews, but he has Rush Limbaugh, etc. (I would add to Obama's list much of the bloghersphere, led by the egregious Taylor Marsh, plus the knuckle-draggers who keep forwarding the Muslim emails.) But Obama doesn't whine about it. He doesn't send emails to contributors stoking their sense of injustice either.

The Pages have featured some breathless dispatches about the promise of nanotechnology in the past. There are downsides -- there always are. One is that nanotubes may act like asbestos fibers in the lungs. This is more a manufacture problem than an end consumer problem. Once nanotubes are incorporated into an electronic device, they are unlikely to get out. The problem on the manufacturing side is that nanotubes are, well, really really small, so workers need some pretty high-end filtering equipment to remain safe.

A poll-watching, number crunching blogger I've not heard of before has an interesting piece about whether Jews are "drifting to the right" politically. One question left open by the post -- are secular and religious Jews heading in opposite directions? In other words, are Jews acting like pretty much everyone else? (h/t Ezra Klein)

Finally John Spinelli ePluribus Media put together an Ohio politics crossword puzzle. A decent puzzle master lives for unusual four-letter words (think esne, ibis and oort), so I'm a natural at 26 down.