Series of Tubes

About

On June 28th, 2006, former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens told the world, “The internet is not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes,” among other odd choices of wording while trying to criticize an ammendment that would have prohibited ISP’s from charging for a tiered internet structure.

The entire internet was listening. Fark, BoingBoing, Wired, and essentially everyone whose livelihood and/or recreation relies on the internet promptly gave their two-cents on the matter. (See the Wikipedia link in the header for more details.)

On July 14th, 2006 “DJ Ted Stevens Techno Remix: A Series of Tubes” video created by Gavin of 13tongimp.com was uploaded to Youtube. The video currently has over 3.7 million views.

Conclusion

Senator Stevens was almost right with his “tube” analogy, but among other things he seemed unable to comprehend the idea of information packets. He is also quoted as saying, “my staff sent me an internet” which helped to contribute to the already popular “Internets” meme coined by the equally inept George W. Bush.

Both are examples of politicians who had the power to make important decisions regarding our current means of communication, yet failed miserably to understand it.