Lewis Koch

The new scapegoat for the failed War on Drugs is, of all things, technology. The 120-page December 2000 International Crime Threat Assessment report — created by basically every federal law enforcement agency in the U.S. — is riddled with examples of how computer technology has advanced the cause of national and international crime. Modern telecommunications […]

“The American Petroleum Institute filed suit against the EPA [and] charged that the agency was suppressing a scientific study for fear it might be misinterpreted. . . . The suppressed study reveals that 80 percent of air pollution comes, not from chimneys and auto exhaust pipes, but from plants and trees.” — Presidential candidate Ronald […]

Can it be only eight years since Howard Rheingolds The Virtual Community described the Internet as a place where people could develop and support virtual communities of shared interests and concerns? Where, in the privacy of their homes, people could form a new kind of friendship not hinged on geography? This heady utopian vision drew […]

The world of digital snoops and spooks is a pretty dark space, but Richard M. Smith has illuminated some of its darker corners. It was his work that revealed Amazon.coms gathering of personal information about customers without their knowledge or consent, Microsofts registration practices and RealNetworks underhanded data-gathering methods. In his spare time, Smith identified […]