BobHarris.com - Save the Internet in less than ten minutes

Books! Actual books!

"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... his comic timing never fails"

-- The Wall Street Journal

"Pulls you in like a good sports story"

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"

-- New York Newsday

"A surprisingly touching memoir"

-- Entertainment Weekly

"Snappy and informative"

-- Associated Press

"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."

-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."

-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."

— New York Observer

"Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”

— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

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Save the Internet in less than ten minutes

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Monday, 12 June 2006

Now that an open, egalitarian Internet has become an essential part of our lives, the big telcos naturally want to screw with it, creating a system where bigshots can buy a wider pipe than start-ups, and therefore you, the user, don't get the choices you're used to. Naturally, their hired tools in Congress are now threatening to screw the Internet up good and proper.

If they get their way, the telcos make money, and everybody else gets a crappier Internet. (Which, in turn, might even mean the telcos make less money in the long run.)

The fight has currently reached the Senate. Josh Marshall and the fine folks at Talking Points Memo are compiling a list of the public positions of each member. At this writing, twelve senators (all Democrats, incidentally) support net neutrality. Three (all Republicans) are on record as against it.

Thirty-one senators are listed as "finger in the wind," with no public position, and the remaining fifty-four have yet to be contacted.

Want to keep the Internet the way it is? Here's what you can do:

Visit SaveTheInternet.com. Read the FAQ.

Then call your senator (find their numbers here in about five seconds) and bug the crap out of them not to screw with the 'Net. If you find out where one of the "unknowns" stands, get back to Josh about it so the other kids in the class can build on what you find out.

It'll only take a few minutes, and it'll do some good.

(Unless, of course, you really like your phone company, and you consider them noble and selfless humanitarians. In which case, you're not with Sprint. I can tell you that.)