in #TodaysReads, Hypercamp, Physics, Safaricom

#TodaysReads: From Light to Matter, Hypercamp & more (19.5.14)

The real reason net neutrality is right Yet another reason for net neutrality and I think one that supersedes them all. Not that the others are wrong but this one is particularly good. I’ve written about my own thoughts on neutrality here.

The ISPs and entertainment companies want to restrict the flow of the Internet for their own purposes. It would make some sense, if they had developed the Internet, but they didn’t. It was paid for by US taxpayers. It was a good investment, as long as it doesn’t get foreclosed on. Funny thing is I don’t remember when we took out a mortgage on the Internet from these guys?

Scientists propose collider that could turn light into matter Because physics is cool and this looks like creating something out of nothing. The method was predicted 80years ago but couldn’t be built until now.

The researchers’ “photon–photon collider,” which they’re describing in a paper that’s being published today in Nature Photonics, works by firing high-energy photons into a field of photons emitted as blackbody radiation. When the photons collide, the researchers believe that a significant number of them will turn from light to matter — more specifically, into an electron and a positron.

What are the specifics of Chinese aid to Kenya? Because no one knows what’s in these contracts yet it should be public information we’re left only to speculation and this article does a poor job of it. And there’s the matter of increasing public debt.

As at 2012, the Kenyan government’s gross public debt stood at 46.6 per cent of the national gross domestic product. This is expected to go high thanks to the recent borrowing spree by the Kenyatta government.

Hypercamp, revisited This is a good idea if someone could implement it. A way to do news that is inclusive and would make it so that you’re not seeing the same stories from every station. If you’re looking to start a new organisation perhaps you could consider doing this.

Why govt won’t touch mobile telecom firm The title should have been why the government won’t touch Safaricom but I’m sure some editor somewhere chickened out or made a mistake. Not a day goes by with out me mentioning this firm. I want to build a company that will one day be acquired by it and then run it. But as how the government gets out of this situation where one company has it by the balls perhaps it’s time the regulator forces the breakup of the company into separate entities: Mpesa, mobile and business/cloud.