Brian Gongol
It shouldn't take a lecture from the Facebook kid to tell political leaders to back off regulation of the Internet
One of the problems with the political echo chamber is that politicians get so far removed from ordinary life that they don't even recognize the ordinary things that are patently obvious to the people doing the actual work of the world. While it's not necessary that everyone in office use every tool they might potentially regulate (like Senator Chuck Grassley uses Twitter), some of them are so far removed from reality that they then only listen to people they think are the "big names" in the private sector, instead of bothering to get actual knowledge and first-hand research. The result can then be that they build regulations that favor the big institutions instead of making sense for the economy at large.
The beauty of the throwback baseball cap
Here's an inexplicable: If (seemingly) everyone understands the appeal of things like throwback or retro baseball caps -- from as much as a century ago -- then how come so many businesses are eager to toss out their "legacy" names, logos, and images just because the new management feels the need to stamp it as "theirs"? Why, for instance, did United toss out the iconic "U" logo in favor of the much less-recognizable Continental logo after the two airlines merged? Why must egos be so fragile?
