The new Presidential directive, if approved, would constitute a historic change in policy as radical as President Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive war.

"It is it is our destiny," said General Lord.

Immaculate Destruction

In the brave new search-world of cyberspace, old notions of prominence and placement are less important. The notion of what constitutes good "real estate" for the eye will thus have to shift from the physical/visual relationship with the viewer to the linked relationship among key words.

Video (Games) Killed the Media Stars

This lively and innovative book is about computer code and the legal controls and restrictions on those who write it.

While the digital revolution allows quick and extensive use of these intellectual properties, it also means that their developers face new challenges in retaining their rights as creators.

This is the first book to confront these problems with serious policy solutions. It is sure to become the standard reference for software developers, those concerned with intellectual property issues, and for policymakers seeking direction. It is critical that public policy on these issues facilitates progress rather than hindering it. There is too much at stake.

This is an advance notice. The book isn't for sale until September.

Math You Can't Use

We consider why Russian troops and police, who outnumber the rebels by more than fifty to one, have been unable to eliminate armed resistance in Chechnya.

The Perils of Counterinsurgency [PDF]

How many of the 20th century's greatest engineering achievements will you use today? A car? Computer? Telephone? Explore our list of the top 20 achievements and learn how engineering shaped a century and changed the world.

1. Electrification
2. Automobile
3. Airplane
4. Water Supply and Distribution
5. Electronics
6. Radio and Television
7. Agricultural Mechanization
8. Computers
9. Telephone
10. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
11. Highways
12. Spacecraft
13. Internet
14. Imaging
15. Household Appliances
16. Health Technologies
17. Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies
18. Laser and Fiber Optics
19. Nuclear Technologies
20. High-performance Materials

Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century

Sales of general-interest books are thriving, in sharp contrast to recent downturns in other communications and media businesses, including Hollywood, where movie attendance is in its third straight year of decline; recorded music, in which sales have fallen for four of the last five years; and network television, which has steadily lost viewers.

In fact, for all the talk about the death of "old media" and the ascendancy of the new, digitally fueled media that rule the airwaves and cyberspace, Americans still spend more buying books than they do going to movies or buying recorded music, video games or DVD's.

This may be true, but what the author fails to mention is that the average American -- remember her? From the Presidential campaign? -- has a lot more unread books than unwatched movies, unheard albums, or unplayed games.

Sales aren't everything; those numbers can disappear on scarcely more than a quarter's notice. What really matters is mindshare. And demographics. And if you look at these same sales numbers according to age group, I suspect the glee will fade from the faces of booksellers.

Books Are Back!

This book was published in March by Brookings Press. Excerpts from the first chapter:

Gutenberg may have created masterpieces, but he was primarily out to make a living.

Gutenberg could not have foreseen the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment, the emergence of the nation-state as the dominant political form, the spread of mass literacy, or the rise of representative democracy. Yet all were made possible by the printing press.

Over time, Gutenberg’s invention also changed the geography of language.

These consequences were not inevitable. Movable type presses were available in China as early as the eleventh century, but they were little used and had essentially no influence. The European invention of the printing press transformed Europe because Europe was ready to be transformed.

We are now, potentially, at a similar turning point. Information technology may once again be poised to transform politics and identity. If the print revolution made possible the nation-state system and eventually national democracy, where might the digital revolution lead us? Can it help us create new, and possibly better, ways of running the world?

New systems of global decision making are emerging that go beyond cooperation between states to a much messier agglomeration of ad hoc mechanisms for solving the many and varied transnational problems. No one is planning this system. It is evolving, with many disparate actors who are largely unaware of the roles of other sectors and their relationships to other issues.

The tools are now available to do at a global level what the printing press helped do for national governance -- to decentralize the flow of information, enabling democracy to emerge. The speed and scale at which decision making must now take place has outstripped the capacity of purely electoral systems of democracy to cope. If democracy is to survive globalization, it must attend to the free flow of information.

Innovative solutions often do not look much like the electoral, representative systems that are the usual focus of works on governance. Indeed, there is not much discussion in this book of the formal structures of political decision making. Instead, the focus is on what can be truly new when technology and politics combine to open up the information floodgates, in a time of transformation potentially as great as was the period following Gutenberg’s invention more than half a millennium ago.

The Coming Democracy: New Rules for Running a New World

Perhaps it was inevitable that a group like this would eventually emerge, peddling an energetic but inoffensive variant of hip-hop. But did we have any way of knowing that the results would be so unpleasant?

Clean-Scrubbed Peas Rap in a Phunky Groove

"We have to be more aggressive when it comes to motivating the casual consumer."

There are simply more concerts to choose from. "The pressure on the consumer entertainment dollar becomes very dramatic between Memorial Day and Labor Day."

Clear Channel had hoped to exploit synergies between radio and concerts through advertising and tour sponsorships. Those extra advantages never materialized. Last week, Clear Channel Music announced some steps aimed at getting more people into the cheap seats.

It is not clear whether price reductions will increase demand for tickets.

"The promoter gets 15 percent of the upside and 100 percent of the downside."

"With the increase in the cost of talent, we increased ticket prices. And when fewer people show up, we can lose money on what otherwise would be a great show."

The Trick of Making a Hot Ticket Pay

How do you explain a complex scientific idea simply to non-scientists? What makes the difference between an inspiring science presenter and a droning bore? Where does charisma come from and what use is it?

This is an open competition to "become the new face of science" for the UK. Watch the finalists and cast your vote.

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