Fortunately, the past week has been kinda slow. John McCain, of all people, introduced a bill to block net neutrality. If you haven’t seen it, here’s John Stewart’s take on it:

And a kind soul went to the trouble of updating that old, out of date illustration of a world without net neutrality:

Nuclear Test Sites

Now the California Air Resources Board is insisting that automakers make windows more energy efficient. That seems reasonable. A 45% decrease in solar energy entering each vehicle by 2014. Also seems reasonable. A 60% decrease by 2016. Okay, fair enough.

But here’s what the geniuses at the CARB didn’t seem to realize: In order to block solar rays, a glaze of metal oxide must be applied to the windows, which has the unintended side effect of blocking radio signals, including, but not limited to: Cell phones, Wi-Fi receivers, GPS units, garage door openers, and parolee ankle bracelets. Also, it would effectively kill the soft-top Jeep Wrangler, which really sucks since California is home to the famed Rubicon trail, a popular test site for 4×4 vehicles.

According to Autoblog, Honda tried a similar technique about twenty years ago, but quit because of the aforementioned radio signal issue.

Or maybe it was an intended consequence. Hey, kill two birds with one stone, save the environment, and effectively ban texting while driving! Genius. As for (relatively) innocent parolees? Well, hey, gotta crack a few eggs, ya know?

I’m waiting to see if the Federal Communications Commission might have a little something to say about this.

For a plugin that was so easy to set up, it works amazingly well. If you own a supported device, like the iPhone, T-Mobile myTouch3G, iPod Touch, HTC Hero, or T-Mobile G1, you owe it to yourself to try it out. Thanks again to BraveNewCode for making something that just works!

Welcome to Teknocratix, the blog dedicated to discussing technology and politics, and what happens when they meet. More and more, tech and politics are becoming entangled. Politicians stay in touch with constituents on Twitter. Apple and Google are suffering a messy divorce, drawing the watchful eye of government regulators. The growing net neutrality debate could shape the future of the internet as we know it.

Just a few months ago, social networking kept the world informed about the Iranian uprising, despite their state media’s best efforts to block us out. Meanwhile, across the globe, the threat of government censorship looms over Australia.

What does the future hold? Stay tuned to find out. You can follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our Feedburner feed, get updates by email, or if you’re old fashioned, just check in with us here at Teknocratix.com.