While the private sector is making strides toward a paperless office environment, the government appears to be stumbling backward. Last week, the Department of Commerce canceled plans to use handheld devices for door-to-door canvassing during the 2010 census. The devices failed on a surprising number of counts. They could not properly transmit large data files; they did not meet over 400 technical requirements; and they proved too complex for temporary workers to figure out.

Congress held a hearing yesterday on the potential influence of Second Life and other virtual worlds, complete with a screen that showed avatars following the event from that increasingly popular alternate reality.

A few lawmakers showed off their own avatars, including Rep. Ed Markey, pictured here, and experts talked about the benefits of these virtual world—nonprofits, for example, are using them as a way to raise funds and fight for their causes.

Say what you will about Bill Gates, but the Microsoft chairman is undoubtedly a valuable spokesman for science and technology education in this country. Speaking before the House of Representatives' Committee on Science and Technology yesterday, Gates reiterated comments he made last year; telling lawmakers that the U.S. needs to revamp its education program, and make it easier for qualified foreigners to work here. Otherwise, he warned, U.S. companies will not have the science and engineering talent they need to compete on the global scale.

Former Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory physicist Bill Foster has been elected to Congress in Illinois. This brings the total number of physicists in Congress to three. While this doesn’t necessarily ensure a bright future for science in this country, it will surely help the cause to have more knowledgeable and passionate voices in Washington.

That was anticlimactic. A little more than a week after announcing that he was considering running for a recently vacated seat in California's 12th congressional district, tech thinker and Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig announced yesterday on his blog that he wasn't running after all. The reason is simple enough. A pollster showed Lessig that there was "no possible way" for him to win. And it wouldn't be pleasant.

Creative Commons founder, free information advocate and Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig announced today the formation of an exploratory committee looking in to a potential bid for a U.S. Congress seat. He announced his maybe-decision (with a more finalized announcement coming March 1) today on a new Web site, lessig08.org.