Yah I know this is old news, but I was busy with the Presidential Candidates for 2008 when he won the Prize. Al Gore was the best Presidential Candidate we never elected. Or at least the Supreme Court never allowed to be President.

I believe that one of the most obnoxious slanders of Al Gore was the ridicule he received about his statement that he invented the Internet. When in fact he advocated for and helped sign the bill that DID create the backbone of the Internet.

 In the 1970s universities and the military had access to 2 long distance telephone lines that had been put up and paid for years before. These lines were termed WAIS lines and WAIICS lines that only the military and universities had access to transmit data around the country for free or dramatically reduced rates. This was when there was only one telephone company, AT & T. Though it was only a few years from being broken up into the Baby Bells.

Al Gore, in the early 80’s shepherded a bill through congress that opened those lines to commercial activity forming the backbone of the modern Internet. As a user, you only pay for the telephone connection to your ISP, not the connection between your ISP and other ISPs your Internet travels will use. This birthed the Internet, as we know it. It was a tough bill to pass. The Military, the Universities, and AT&T opposed it! But it was passed and that led to the expansion of the ARPnet into the Internet that we know today. Without it the Internet would have been too expensive for any private citizen to use.

Yeh and Thank YOU Al Gore.!!! Congratulations on your Nobel Prize. You deserve it sir.