How To Do What You Love

The most dangerous liars can be the kids’ own parents. If you take a boring job to give your family a high standard of living, as so many people do, you risk infecting your kids with the idea that work is boring.

Most people are doomed in childhood by accepting the axiom that work = pain.

All parents tend to be more conservative for their kids than they would for themselves, simply because, as parents, they share risks more than rewards. If your eight year old son decides to climb a tall tree, or your teenage daughter decides to date the local bad boy, you won’t get a share in the excitement, but if your son falls, or your daughter gets pregnant, you’ll have to deal with the consequences.

The Problem with Webcasting provides a nice overview of the new webcaster’s (copy) right that is being pushed by the U.S. WIPO delegation.

There’s a new restriction on content waiting in the wings–a “webcaster’s right” that allows websites to control the dissemination of content they put up. With this new privilege, they’ll be able to prevent retransmission even if the copyright on that content is owned by somebody else–even, in fact, if that content was in the public domain.

I don’t do much gaming these days so maybe Second Life is well known and I just missed it. It certainly is an interesting concept. Instead of paying a service fee, users pay what essentially amounts to a land tax on the virtual land they own.

Become a part of history by purchasing land and developing your own piece of Second Life. The Pricing and Fees are simple; you pay $9.95 a month plus a Land Use Fee proportional to the amount of land you own.

Linden Lab’s Terms of Service agreement recognizes Residents right to retain full intellectual property protection for the digital content they create in Second Life …

The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world currency, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online currency exchanges.

What is your dangerous idea? from the Edge.

Answers to that question from 120 thinkers. Warning, it is quite long but very interesting.

The Wikipedia Foundation is having trouble meeting its fundraising goals.

Do you use Wikipedia? Then why not give them a little bit of money. It’s easy.

A Personal Appeal from Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales

Wikimedia Fundraiser 2005 Q4

This picture is from an article that was in the UWO Gazette a couple of weeks ago. Apparently people at UWO go through about 4000 paper coffee cups a day.

So the Canadian Federation of Students is holding referenda at Universities in Ontario asking if students believe tuition fees should continue to be frozen. Students at UofT have already voted 98% in favour. The vote at Western happens today.

Asking students if they think tuition should be reduced is like asking the NRA if they think guns should be banned. The result is a foregone conclusion.