The FCC and the “Pre-Internet”

Network neutrality has dominated broadband policy debates for the past decade. While important, network neutrality overshadows other policy levers that are equally important to the goals of better, cheaper, and more open broadband service. This lack of perspective has historical precedent—and understanding this history can help refocus today’s policy debate. In the 1960s and 1970s, telephone companies threatened the growth of the nascent data industry. The FCC responded with a series of rulemakings known as the “Computer Inquiries” proceedings. In the literature, Computer Inquiries enjoys hallowed status as a key foundation of the Internet’s rise. This Article, however, argues that Computer Inquiries is less important than it seems. A series of lesser-known FCC proceedings was more important to the development of the “pre-Internet”—a term I use to describe the ancestral data networks that ultimately evolved into the Internet. When viewed in historical context, Computer Inquiries did not create growth, but instead reflected the growth that the pre-Internet proceedings had already unleashed. Computer Inquiries, however, contributed to the pre-Internet in other ways that the literature overlooks. Specifically, it became a crucial source of information that influenced the more important pre-Internet proceedings. Understanding how the FCC helped build the pre-Internet also provides important lessons for today’s modern policy debates. One implication is that today’s open Internet depended not upon “light touch” restraint, but upon aggressive regulatory enforcement over many years. It also illustrates how the current policy debate focuses too narrowly on network neutrality rules to the exclusion of other proceedings and policy levers that can construct a larger “habitat” of innovation

The Policy Origins of Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi technology has become a necessary foundation of modern economic and cultural life. This Article explains its history. Specifically, it argues that Wi-Fi owes its existence and widespread adoption to federal policy choices that have been underexplored in the literature. Wi-Fi’s development is often portrayed as an unexpected and lucky accident following the FCC’s initial decision in the 1980s to allow more unlicensed and experimental uses. This view, however, obscures the more fundamental role that federal policy played. For one, the rise of modern Wi-Fi was the product of a series of policy decisions spanning decades. In addition, the FCC’s policy design itself is also an underappreciated part of Wi-Fi’s story. These policies were (eventually) crafted in ways that maximized innovation and leveraged the generative power of the unlicensed spectrum “commons.” Specifically, the policy designs featured technical rules that lowered entry costs by being administratively simple and generic and by rejecting specific technological requirements despite incumbent pressure. Understanding this history has implications for modern spectrum policy debates as well. In particular, it helps illustrate why Wi-Fi succeeded while other efforts to encourage unlicensed technologies have failed. It also provides normative justification for the FCC’s most recent efforts to significantly increase unlicensed spectrum

The FCC and the “Pre-Internet”

Network neutrality has dominated broadband policy debates for the past decade. While important, network neutrality overshadows other policy levers that are equally important to the goals of better, cheaper, and more open broadband service. This lack of perspective has historical precedent—and understanding this history can help refocus today’s policy debate. In the 1960s and 1970s, telephone companies threatened the growth of the nascent data industry. The FCC responded with a series of rulemakings known as the “Computer Inquiries” proceedings. In the literature, Computer Inquiries enjoys hallowed status as a key foundation of the Internet’s rise. This Article, however, argues that Computer Inquiries is less important than it seems. A series of lesser-known FCC proceedings was more important to the development of the “pre-Internet”—a term I use to describe the ancestral data networks that ultimately evolved into the Internet. When viewed in historical context, Computer Inquiries did not create growth, but instead reflected the growth that the pre-Internet proceedings had already unleashed. Computer Inquiries, however, contributed to the pre-Internet in other ways that the literature overlooks. Specifically, it became a crucial source of information that influenced the more important pre-Internet proceedings. Understanding how the FCC helped build the pre-Internet also provides important lessons for today’s modern policy debates. One implication is that today’s open Internet depended not upon “light touch” restraint, but upon aggressive regulatory enforcement over many years. It also illustrates how the current policy debate focuses too narrowly on network neutrality rules to the exclusion of other proceedings and policy levers that can construct a larger “habitat” of innovation

Who's In Who's Out: A Look at Access to Employer-based Retirement Plans and Participation in the States

With the aging of the nation's population, a continuing decline in the availability of traditional pensions, and concerns about the future of Social Security, many workers in the United States worry that they won't have enough money set aside for their retirements. The Employee Benefit Research Institute's 2014 annual Retirement Confidence Survey found that only 22 percent of Americans are very confident that they will have enough money for a comfortable retirement, while 36 percent are somewhat confident. Twenty-four percent are not at all confident.In addressing these concerns, policymakers have emphasized the need to expand access to what are known as employer-sponsored defined contribution plans, such as 401(k)s. The ability of employees to contribute directly from their paychecks and the use of features such as automatic enrollment make the workplace an effective place to encourage saving. These employer-sponsored plans are how Americans now accumulate the vast majority of their private retirement funds, but large gaps in coverage exist.Today, only about half of workers participate in a workplace retirement plan, according to an analysis of data compiled by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Overall, 58 percent of workers have access to a plan, while 49 percent participate in one. Looking at the numbers a different way, more than 30 million full-time, full-year private-sector workers ages 18 to 64 lack access to an employer-based retirement plan.To help more people save for their later years, lawmakers in Congress have introduced retirement savings initiatives. Separately, President Barack Obama unveiled his "myRA" program in 2014 with a similar goal. As of Nov. 4, 2015, people without retirement plans can sign up to save through myRA. States are also acting to increase retirement savings. Lawmakers in more than half of the states have introduced measures to either create or study state-sponsored retirement savings plans for employees who don't have access to such a plan in the workplace. Illinois, for instance, established the Secure Choice Savings Program, which will start enrolling certain workers in new payroll-deduction retirement accounts by 2017. Washington state has created a marketplace in which small employers and the self-employed can shop for retirement plans

Far Above The Rolling Campus

https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/student_scholarship_posters/1057/thumbnail.jp

Gamma Knife Radiosurgery for Acromegaly

Acromegaly is debilitating disease occasionally refractory to surgical and medical treatment. Stereotactic radiosurgery, and in particular Gamma Knife surgery (GKS), has proven to be an effective noninvasive adjunct to traditional treatments, leading to disease remission in a substantial proportion of patients. Such remission holds the promise of eliminating the need for expensive medications, along with side effects, as well as sparing patients the damaging sequelae of uncontrolled acromegaly. Numerous studies of radiosurgical treatments for acromegaly have been carried out. These illustrate an overall remission rate over 40%. Morbidity from radiosurgery is infrequent but can include cranial nerve palsies and hypopituitarism. Overall, stereotactic radiosurgery is a promising therapy for patients with acromegaly and deserves further study to refine its role in the treatment of affected patients

Rat Pancreatic Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinase, a Novel Regulator of Cholecystokinin Receptor Affinity

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72322/1/j.1749-6632.1994.tb44089.x.pd

The Risks and Rewards of Network Neutrality Under § 706

Article published in the Michigan State Law Review

Time-Gated Topographic LIDAR Scene Simulation

The Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Image Generation (DIRSIG) model has been developed at the RochesterInstitute of Technology (RIT) for over a decade. The model is an established, first-principles based scene simulationtool that has been focused on passive multi- and hyper-spectral sensing from the visible to long wave infrared (0.4 to 14 µm). Leveraging photon mapping techniques utilized by the computer graphics community, a first-principles based elastic Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) model was incorporated into the passive radiometry framework so that the model calculates arbitrary, time-gated radiances reaching the sensor for both the atmospheric and topographicreturns. The active LIDAR module handles a wide variety of complicated scene geometries, a diverse set of surface and participating media optical characteristics, multiple bounce and multiple scattering effects, and a flexible suite of sensormodels. This paper will present the numerical approaches employed to predict sensor reaching radiances andcomparisons with analytically predicted results. Representative data sets generated by the DIRSIG model for a topographical LIDAR will be shown. Additionally, the results from phenomenological case studies including standard terrain topography, forest canopy penetration, and camouflaged hard targets will be presented