The web is virtually (pun intended in hindsight) humming with Net Neutrality think pieces churned out at a rapid pace, and I sit here wondering why almost no one knows of Tim Berners-Lee.  Like you, dear reader.  Berners-Lee, in short, invented the World Wide Web, and created the first web browser.  At CERN, in 1990.  Here is the very first website: http://info.cern.ch.  While Berners-Lee has lived an illustrious life after his creation, he is completely absent from popular culture in a way that boggles the mind.  Yet the implications and importance of his invention are impossible to understate. His creation greater than the advent of the printing press, and he greater than Gutenberg himself, yet almost no one knows of him.  For all of history, the human race suffered under a dearth of information, now it is submerged in it. I sit here with instant access to all the information known to the world.  Every source, every fact, every theory, without having to leave my seat or go searching through a dusty library.

It’s unbelievable.  More fascinating than the moon landing, the wheel, maybe even the invention of soap.  Before the web, where did most people obtain their news?  Was there a wide spectrum of opinions, provided with an unrestricted comments section?  It was Paleolithic compared to what I have at my command right now.  A comments section itself is revolutionary.  Before the net, people consumed the news in isolation, with no forum to voice disagreement or alternate views.  Now we have lively comments’ sections pointing out errors, directing readers to other sources of info, and ripping apart propaganda.  This all benefits us, the reader.  Never trust a news site with no ability to comment.

The web was developed over a period of several decades in a climate of almost zero regulation.  It has reached its current glorious state only due to the hands-off approach it has received thus far.  If it is to continue its evolution and continue providing the world with the unrestricted flood of information, then hands must remain off of it.  Net Neutrality is a first-step towards government control of the internet.  Just ask yourself what will come after Net Neutrality, do you really think government will stop wanting more control after Net Neutrality?  Laissez-faire!

Techdirt: NSA, DOJ still aren’t letting defendants know they’re using Section 702 against them

Ars Technica: Big Ag+Big Pharma=Big Problems: “McKenna’s crusade is against the rising threat of antibiotic resistance, and it is a worthwhile endeavor. Her description of a post-antibiotic world looks a lot like the pre-antibiotic world, in which roughly a quarter of children died of infectious diseases before their fifth birthday, surgery and chemotherapy were impossible, and a skinned knee could be fatal—and often was. It was a horrifying time to be alive.”

Telegraph UK: Life expectancy has dropped due to antibiotic resistance

Consortium News: America’s Military-Industrial Addiction

Phys.org: How identity data is turning toxic for big companies

Wired UK: The UK’s Kaspersky warning is a reminder: data ignores borders

NFC World: Acuity forecasts a trillion biometric transactions in the cloud by 2022

Forbes: The data center of the future is an empty room

Hemp Gazette: Industrial hemp to return to Wisconsin

The Cannabist: SWAT-style search for marijuana due to tea leaves in trash heads to court 

The Hill: Your tax dollars fund Afghan child rape

Al Jazeera: The Philippines: when the police kill children.  Horrifying state-sponsored murder of civilians under the guise of a ‘War on Drugs’.  The hysteria there has reached such a fever pitch that vague accusations or hints of any involvement in the drug trade brings an automatic death sentence.  Not even children are exempt.

More from Amnesty International: International Criminal Court must open investigation into unpunished child killings amidst Duterte’s War on Drugs.

Christian Science Monitor: ‘I Can’t Breath’ is a clear-eyed, hard-hitting account of Eric Garner’s death.Important example of how police can murder someone in broad daylight, with cellphone evidence, and get away with it.  It will continue to happen as long as the murderers face no consequences.

The Liberty Conservative: Senate will attach controversial surveillance power renewal to must-pass legislation

Forbes: 9 technology mega-trends that will change the world in 2018

Washington Times: Section 702 of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act splits Democrats, Republicans

Business Day: Dressed to kill off unwanted cyber prying

Washington Times: Homeland Security officials botched 900 DACA applications

Business Day: Apple’s Tim Cook calls for privacy, security, humanity at Chinese internet conference

Australian Financial Review: Why China will develop AI faster than anyone else

CityAM: Data is the fuel for AI, so let’s ensure we get the ethics right

The Conversation AU: It’s time to talk about who can access your digital genomic data

NPR: Sexual harassment within the national security community

The Verge: The airport of the future will have extremely complicated lines 

Israel Homeland Security: Massive deployment of facial recognition systems in Moscow

CNBC: Blockchain goes from suspect to potential solution for security agencies

The Hill: There is no military solution to take out North Korea’s nuclear program

WIRED: Here’s the NSA agent who inexplicably exposed critical secrets

The Hill: Growing private sector use of facial scanners worries privacy advocates

Bloomberg: NSA surveillance bill sparks lawmaker debate over ‘unmasking’

Business Insider: Time running out for lawmakers mulling surveillance bills

The Federalist: 12 reasons Congress shouldn’t make lifelong surveillance the price of citizenship

Axios: The most impressive surveillance state in history

DW: Net activists launch digital cybersecurity advent calender

Digital Trends: Your next phone could unlock by reading your lips, ears, or even your heart

Washington Examiner: Pentagon watchdog touts $2 billion ‘profit’ from rooting out waste and fraud

WBUR: Under Trump, US troops in war zones on the rise

Activist Post: Connecticut’s new drone and surveillance program is an Orwellian nightmare

FEE: Meet the special interests keeping marijuana criminalized

ACLU: New surveillance bill would dramatically expand NSA powers

…and more from EFF: House Intelligence Committee’s NSA surveillance bill contains new threats and old 

Washington Post: Apple is sharing your face with apps. That’s a new privacy worry.

The Independent: Snooper’s Charter restrictions proposed by government after EU court rules data collection powers illegal

The Mac Observer: iPhone privacy for the paranoid: what you can do

Bloomberg: Facebook judge frowns on bid to toss biometric face print suit

Telecompetitor: Being the product for internet giants raises privacy concerns for consumers

Business News Daily: Cybersecurity and privacy predictions for 2018

FiveThirtyEight: Criminologists are asking Jeff Sessions to release FBI crime data

CBS News: Pentagon decides not to ban the use of cluster bombs

The Globe and Mail: Canada’s spy agencies casting wider net on citizen’s electronic data: report

Cannabis Now: The racial bias of drug-sniffing police dogs

Telesur: ‘Ethnic bomb’ feared as US Air Force confirms collection of Russian DNA

Washington Times: House announces revised bill to continue top foreign surveillance program

The Hill: It’s too easy for government to invade privacy in the name of security

And more coverage of the upcoming Supreme Court decision from The Guardian: The future of American privacy rights will be defined this year

Center for Research on Globalization: Lawsuit aims to uncover how government surveils journalists, targets them with surveillance

Law.com: The impact of the surge of biometric data privacy lawsuits against employers

Bloomberg: Google sued over privacy on behalf of 5 million iPhone users

New York Post: NYPD ignoring court order on Black Lives Matter surveillance

STRATFOR: The surveillance operative lurking in the living room(This is why I prefer my appliances to not have access to the internet)

Jurist: Face the Facts: Facial Recognition Software Should be Strictly Monitored

Herald Keeper: Homeland Security surveillance camera market expected to grow $10 billion over next five years

Deccan Chronicle: US sold $38 billion in military equipment to the world in 2017

ABC News: 801 civilians killed in coalition airstrikes against ISIS

Daily Telegraph: China’s AI pursuit set to alter future economic and military balance of power: report

GlobeNewsWire: TRENDnet launches surveillance camera disguised as ordinary lightbulb

The Psychedelic Renaissance, Awakening, it’s a phenomenon that clearly needs a name.

Vice: Why it feels like you can communicate with nature on LSD

Motherboard: The psychologist leading the psychedelic research revolution

TNW: How a little bit of drugs can make your boss a better boss

CBS San Francisco: California mayoral candidate plans to legalize magic mushrooms

California’s marijuana industry may be in deep trouble

Study: Medical marijuana an alternative to opioids

Russia number 1 in facial recognition, according to DC spycraft techies

Apple’s Face ID got fooled by a 3D-printed face mask

Canadian court rules that spy agencies can continue warrantless cellphone surveillance

NSA’s Ragtime program spied on Americans’ data

Pentagon admits there are nearly 9,000 troops in Iraq

More than 60% of opioid overdose victims were taking the pills for chronic pain

Google AI lets users know about shoulder surfers

The AI arms race may be more dangerous than you think

Army spent $100 million on intelligence system it never used, NSA leak says

The U.S. government says it has the right to track cellphone users’ every movement 

Of course they would do this, just like Real ID: Senate intel chief sees surveillance powers hidden within must-pass legislation

China is a perfect illustration of the real reason for total surveillance: China to triple surveillance cameras by 2020

New details of NSA’s Ragtime program appear in leaked files

Pentagon accused of blocking report on child sex abuse by Afghan allies

Pentagon exposes top secret classified info to public internet

Imgur breach exposes 1.7 million users

Some real talk: The shitshow the NSA has become-another massive leak

They’ll never learn: CIA to continue cloud push in the name of national security

Classified Army and NSA data was stored on unprotected server

CIA and NSA codes are on the web, and the leakers could be in the agencies

Navy officer tried to use the NSA to tap her boyfriend’s son’s phone

Arizona’s facial recognition use worries privacy advocates

Trump administration wants to track the Facebook feeds of foreign visitors

New NSA leak exposes Red Disk, the Army’s failed intelligence system

Security firm was front for advanced Chinese hacking operation, Feds say

Pentagon is downplaying the number of troops in Iraq and Syria: Report

China racing for AI military edge over US: Report

Internet censorship: It’s on the rise and Silicon Valley is helping it along

Thieves filmed stealing Mercedes by hacking keyless entry system

Here are the NSA’s internal grammar advice columns

The Catch-22 that keeps many vets from getting help

Alcohol or cannabis? Science finally reveals which is more harmful

Genetically engineered mosquitoes to be released in 20 states