"Starting on Thursday, Google is going to increase the salaries of gay and lesbian employees whose partners receive domestic partner health benefits, largely to compensate them for an extra tax they must pay that heterosexual married couples do not. Google is not the first company to make up for the extra tax. At least a few large employers already do. But benefits experts say Google's move could inspire its Silicon Valley competitors to follow suit, because they compete for the same talent."

Good on Google for helping to put an end to what I've been calling, "The gayest tax ever levied."

Honestly, I've always had the feeling that the only reason that conservatives object to same-sex marriage is because they like knowing that they are taxing others—a great irony for a party that often runs on a platform of tax cuts. It's not about the sanctity of marriage. It never has been. It's about money. It's always about money.

I think the United States can and should lead the way in finding new energy solutions, and I’m optimistic about our ability to innovate our way to a better future. But we need to get going. Developing new ways to generate enough clean, reliable, low-cost energy could take 10 or 20 years, and then it will take more time to build out a new energy infrastructure.

That’s why I joined The American Energy Innovation Council, a group of business leaders that also includes Jeff Immelt from GE, Ursula Burns from Xerox, John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins, Bank of America’s Chad Holliday, Tim Solso from Cummins, and former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine. The Council has come out with recommendations for U.S. policy initiatives that could help really jumpstart the process of discovering and commercializing new energy technologies.

Anyone else think that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are going to launch the world into a new era through private investment and philanthropy? It's amazing to see these two constantly looking for the best way to allocate their fortunes. It's almost as if they played the global markets like a game, won, and are now trying to figure out what to do at the end of it all. 

I have so much respect for Bill Gates that it can't really be expressed in words. 

It's also nice to see General Electric leading an initiative like this (and I don't say that just because I work for GE), even if they won't get any of the credit.

The United States currently incarcerates a higher share of its population than any other country in the world. We calculate that a reduction in incarceration rates just to the level we had in 1993 (which was already high by historical standards) would lower correctional expenditures by $16.9 billion per year, with the large majority of these savings accruing to financially squeezed state and local governments. As a group, state governments could save $7.6 billion, while local governments could save $7.2 billion.

Good to know the US is still #1 at something, right? China and India got nothing on us.

The real mark of a developed nation is how many minorities you keep in your prisons... right?

First, there are profound public interests in having more energy options. Our national security, economic health and environment are at issue. These are not primary motivations for private-sector investments, but they merit a public commitment.

Second, the nature of the energy business requires a public commitment. A new generation of television technology might cost $10 million to develop. Because those TVs can be built on existing assembly lines, that risk-reward calculus makes business sense. But a new electric power source can cost several billion dollars to develop and still carry the risk of failure. That investment does not compute for most companies.

Third, the turnover in our power system is very slow. Power plants last 50 years or more, and they are very cheap to run once built, meaning there is little market for new models.

It is understandable, then, why private-sector investments in clean energy technology are so small. Yet, while it may make sense for individual companies to make these choices, accepting the status quo would condemn our country to very bad options.

Gates has been talking a lot about reshaping energy policy. I find that pretty refreshing. I wonder if he intends on backing any particular initiatives himself. He definitely has the funds.

I find his argument for why companies haven't embraced R&D for new energy technologies rather convincing. A lot of those same arguments applied, at one time, to the current technologies behind modern computers and the Internet itself. Without government intervention we might not have the transistor (much less the iPad) or the Internet. Perhaps we need an energy policy similar to the telecommunications policy that put a telephone line in every home.

In late 2006, students at a school in Turin, Italy filmed and then uploaded a video to Google Video that showed them bullying an autistic schoolmate. The video was totally reprehensible and we took it down within hours of being notified by the Italian police. We also worked with the local police to help identify the person responsible for uploading it and she was subsequently sentenced to 10 months community service by a court in Turin, as were several other classmates who were also involved. In these rare but unpleasant cases, that's where our involvement would normally end.

But in this instance, a public prosecutor in Milan decided to indict four Google employees —David Drummond, Arvind Desikan, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes (who left the company in 2008). The charges brought against them were criminal defamation and a failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. To be clear, none of the four Googlers charged had anything to do with this video. They did not appear in it, film it, upload it or review it. None of them know the people involved or were even aware of the video's existence until after it was removed.

Nevertheless, a judge in Milan today convicted 3 of the 4 defendants — David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes — for failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. All 4 were found not guilty of criminal defamation. In essence this ruling means that employees of hosting platforms like Google Video are criminally responsible for content that users upload. We will appeal this astonishing decision because the Google employees on trial had nothing to do with the video in question. Throughout this long process, they have displayed admirable grace and fortitude. It is outrageous that they have been subjected to a trial at all.

First China, now Italy. I love the way Google talks to nations. I also fear what will happen when Brin and Page walk away from the company. Somehow I don't think Google's "Don't be evil" motto is going to last forever.

Google is completely right in this case though. Can you imagine what would happen if those who own the servers were responsible for everything that passed through them? The Internet, as we know it, would cease to exist. Cases like this are also a detriment to social media adoption by large brands; already afraid of the legal ramifications of playing with user generated content. They don't want to engage in anything that carries even a small chance of a lawsuit.

We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

Wow.

It's going to be incredibly interesting to see how this pans out. In a lot of ways, Google has the same kind of political power as a world superpower. In some ways, Google may end up having more political power than the whole of the United States. There's really no other company that I can think of that has ever had the ability to negotiate with a country the size of China. What would the Cold War have been like if Google was around? Or would the Cold War have ever existed at all...

And what's going to happen when the whole of China finds the Tienanmen Square Wiki page as a trending topic?