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Ever wonder what those mysterious government service fees on your cell phone bill go to fund? Part of it goes toward a newly launched $415 million plan to provide 400,000 rural netizens with some broadband goodness. The Connect America Fund, a Obama-administration supported plan for universal access to broadband, is part of a larger $4.5 billion mission to connect 19 million homes to bit-torrent streaming speeds by 2020. As with any major government rollout, the project is dogged by bureaucracy and industry backlash, but is nonetheless moving forward.

Ever wonder what those mysterious government service fees on your cell phone bill go to fund? Part of it goes toward a newly launched $415 million plan to provide 400,000 rural netizens with some broadband goodness. The Connect America Fund, a Obama-administration supported plan for universal access to broadband, is part of a larger $4.5 billion mission to connect 19 million homes to bit-torrent streaming speeds by 2020. As with any major government rollout, the project is dogged by bureaucracy and industry backlash, but is nonetheless moving forward.

The number of citizens wandering into ditches, on-coming cars, and each other while staring at electronics has "quadrupled", according to the Associated Press. "Look up. Drivers aren't always looking out for you," reads a Delaware traffic safety sign, one of many states that are turning to the magic of PSA billboards as a substitute for state legislatures that have almost universally opposed laws criminalizing "distracted walking." While the Internet is overflowing with hilarious bloopers, such as one man walking into a real-life black bear (video below), distracted walking is a serious problem, and is implicated in the 4.2% rise in pedestrian fatalities in 2010.

The number of citizens wandering into ditches, on-coming cars, and each other while staring at electronics has "quadrupled", according to the Associated Press. "Look up. Drivers aren't always looking out for you," reads a Delaware traffic safety sign, one of many states that are turning to the magic of PSA billboards as a substitute for state legislatures that have almost universally opposed laws criminalizing "distracted walking." While the Internet is overflowing with hilarious bloopers, such as one man walking into a real-life black bear (video below), distracted walking is a serious problem, and is implicated in the 4.2% rise in pedestrian fatalities in 2010.

It's surreal to see an entire startup engineering team that could double as a troupe of volunteer firefighters. Yet, for the growing list of startups that are sending their workforce to the Navy Seal-friendly gym phenomenon, CrossFit, having an entire team of buff employees is surprisingly realistic. "We carry so much more energy throughout the the day after a work out," says Neverware co-founder Joshua Hefter, whose entire team regularly treks down to the Black Box Crossfit Gym in New York. The startup life has "a strong culture around group activity and intensity, and we found that those two things really describe the Crossfit experience."

Would you get off the couch and into the gym if you could watch Desperate Housewives on the treadmill? If so, you're not alone: Netpulse, makers of an interactive entertainment kiosk for gym equipment, has just scored a $15 million C round from August Capital and co-founder, David Marquardt, has joined the board. Netpulse is betting that gym-goers, especially those who need some motivation, will be happier with gyms that allow them to have a custom set of on-demand TV, music, and data tracking to make their 20 minutes of cardio less painful.

YouTube has joined a growing list of social media companies who think that forcing users to use their real names will make comments less of a trolling wasteland, but there's surprisingly good evidence from South Korea that real name policies fail at cleaning up comments. In 2007, South Korea temporarily mandated that all websites with over 100,000 viewers require real names, but scraped it after it was found to be ineffective at cleaning up abusive and malicious comments (the policy reduced unwanted comments by an estimated .09%). We don't know how this hidden gem of evidence skipped the national debate on real identities, but it's an important lesson for YouTube, Facebook and Google, who have assumed that fear of judgement will change online behavior for the better.

One of the "Fathers of the Internet," Vint Cerf, has come out swinging against a hotly contested Wall Street Journal op-ed arguing that the US government shouldn't take credit for inventing the Internet. "Articles like [Gordon] Crovitz' distort history for political purposes and I hope people who want to know the real story will discount this kind of revisionist interpretation," he says, in an interview with CNET.

Proudly anti-gay fast food chain, Chick-fil-A, is denying accusations that it created a fake account of a teenage girl, who defended the restaurant chain through comments on its Facebook page, after a boycott from one of its suppliers. Savvy users ousted the ringer account, "Abby Farle," by proving that her suspiciously wholesome picture was actually a stock image, appropriately named " Pretty Redhead Teenager Isolated on White Smiling Stock Photo". Chick-fil-A flatly denied "impersonating a teenager", but this hasn't stopped nation-wide calls for a (surely entertaining) "kissing day" protest inside of Chick-fil-A's stores on August 3rd.

Cabs can finally take advantage of smartphone features like electronic payments, GPS, and estimated travel costs. Catching a ride with the Taxi Magic app was the most pleasant experience I've had with a cab so far, and it demonstrates that they can compete with lower-cost personal sedan-services like UberX and Lyft. The updated app includes a slick new user interface, scheduling rides for later, and the option to favorites fleet companies and locations. "Taxi Magic, it really makes a difference in business," said my driver, who explained that the app has helped bolster the sagging cab business. Indeed, Taxi Magic, which is available in 39 markets, estimates that their app accounts for 20% of rides in their top fleets.