Free Republic

That’s the claim at least from this new paper. That your iPhone, or more exactly your smartphone, uses more electricity than a refrigerator does. Do note though that it’s not actually the phone that does this: it’s the entire infrastructure that supplies it with the ability to be smart that does. All those data centres, running the WiFi and mobile networks and so on. In fact, the claim is that IT now uses 10% of the world’s electricity: The global digital economy, also known as the ICT system (information-communications-technologies), sucks up as much electricity today as it took to illuminate...

I’ve argued many times that the politician Mitt Romney most closely resembles is John Kerry, primarily due to the Mittster’s legendary penchant for flip-flopping, a trait Kerry is also known for. I stand by my Kerry comparison, but Jonah Goldberg has an excellent point when he compares Romney to another Massachusetts politician: Michael Dukakis. Meanwhile, the Republicans seem to have become Dukakified. It was Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, who insisted that the election should be entirely about “competence, not ideology.” Romney has avoided saying that in so many words, but it’s certainly how he’s campaigning. After running to the right in...