The RP’s Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Tech

This may be news to you (it was to me) that Viacom and DirecTV are feuding over carriage fees. Now escalation has taken the form of Viacom blocking episodes of the Colbert Report and Daily Show from view by DirecTV customers by removing them from their websites. [GIGAom]

New York City is turning old pay phones into WiFi hotspots in a move that is genius in reducing waste and ingenuity. [GIGAom]

This is far from being current news, but it is interesting. You may or may not be familiar with the Soviet’s Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. Here is some info on the bomb itself. Check out the chart in the link that compares the expolsion of the Tsar Bomba to the bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima. Terrifying. [chart]

Amazon wants to offer same-day delivery. In an effort to make this possible they are building many more packaging centers. [Slate]

Why US wireless carriers are some of the biggest threats to innovation. [The Verge]

Firefox dev claims “everybody hates Firefox updates”; Mozilla has handled the rapid release process poorly, and that by pushing a “never-ending stream of updates on people who didn’t want them” people have been driven to Chrome with its simpler, no-fuss update process. [Neowin]