] PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Cheap Trick Avenue
] instead of Boardwalk? Hernando's Chop Shop instead of
] Reading Railroad?
]
] Black leaders are outraged over a new board game called
] "Ghettopoly" that has "playas" acting like pimps and game
] cards reading, "You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to
] crack. Collect $50."

CNN.com - 'Ghettopoly' game causes outrage - Oct. 9, 2003

] The denizens of Open Cultures want their connected
] collectivism to liberate the world from regulations,
] markets, and intellectual property. But what if victory
] only clears the way for corruption of their beloved
] culture?

yes, I admit... things can go too far. But it's like anything else in life. It requires education and responsibility.

Freedom's Dark Side

] The message is clear: Bottled water is "good" water, as
] opposed to that nasty, unsafe stuff that comes out of the
] tap. But in most cases tap water adheres to stricter
] purity standards than bottled water, whose source -- far
] from a mountain spring -- can be the parking lot of an
] industrial facility in New Jersey. Forty percent of it
] began life as, well, tap water.

What's in your Bottled Water?

] Little by little, we're turning into a planet of techies.
]
] Which should come as no surprise. It has happened before.
] Time and again, attractive new technologies have trickled
] out of the labs and into homes and offices, forcing
] ordinary users to develop skills that once would have
] seemed far too advanced for them. Early automobiles were
] so unreliable that drivers carried tool kits and learned
]
]
]
] to fix the balky machines. Early radio sets were
] handbuilt by avid hobbyists. "This is all part of a
] fairly predictable pattern," said Harvard Business School
] professor Debora Spar, author of "Ruling the Waves,"

We're all geeks now

] The technology world has been preoccupied in recent years
] by the boom-and-bust investment cycle %u2014 the collapse
] of the dot-com bubble, the sharp fall in share prices on
] the Nasdaq stock market, and depressed spending by many
] large corporations.
]
] But there has been no such boom-and-bust cycle in the
] embrace of digital technology and its promise of benefits
] for communication, automation and new forms of art. And
] consumers, rather than paring back, are increasingly
] turning to all sorts of digital gadgets and services
] %u2014 cameras, music players, videodisc players,
] advanced television sets, cellphones, instant messaging,
] e-mail, online shopping, high-speed Internet access.

Digital (Fill in the Blank) Is on the Horizon

] I consider open content as an important development track
] in the media landscape of tomorrow. I define open content
] as content possible for others to improve and
] redistribute and/or content that is produced without any
] consideration of immediate financial reward %u2014 often
] collectively within a virtual community.

blogged for future reading

Open content and value creation

] Your Credit: Personal Information goes public Starting
] July 1st, 2003, the four major credit bureaus in the US
] (Equifax, etc.) will be allowed to release credit info,
] mailing addresses, phone numbers, etc., to ANYONE who
] requests it. If you do not want to be included in this
] release of your personal information, you can call
] 1-888-567-8688. Once the message starts you will want
] option #2 (even though option #1 refers to this email,
] push #2) and listen to the message. Then select the
] option to permanently remove your name.
]
] Be sure to listen closely, the first option is only for a
] two-year period. Make sure you wait until they prompt for
] the option, which opts you out FOREVER. You should
] receive their paperwork in the mail confirming the
] "opting out" in less than one week after making the call.

Federal Observer Articles - Federal Observer

Mitnick is out to prove to the world that he really has changed. He gave BusinessWeek access to his new life through a series of interviews and referrals to his family and friends. And he recounted the long, strange trip of his hacking career, the prison stints, the years on the run, and his attempts to come to terms with himself and society.

Fee Kevin

With much appreciation to crankymessiah for sending me this:

From Defective Yeti:
Last night some friends and I were sitting around drinking beer and, it goes without saying, discussing the Washington State system of taxation. Here in Seattle we have a sales tax, which is a total pain in the ass because (a) you have to pay it (lame), and (b) it means that your average item in The Dollar Store costs some ridiculous amount like $1.31 and you can't figure out the real price of things without resorting to irrational numbers and you have to carry around your spare pennies instead of throwing them at children like you would do in other states. True fact: When 50 Cent was here in concert last week, he was legally obligated to perform under that name "67 Cent." (Whoa, that joke was even worse than I had anticipated.)

Anyhow, we were wondering how much of sales tax revenue goes to health care programs. More every year, we guessed, since, statistically, Americas are becoming ever more out-of-shape. But you got to figure that a lot of that revenue goes to administrative costs and middle-men, not to mention that health care tends to be reactive rather than preventive. We decided that there must be a better way.

That's we came up with this great idea for a General Health Tax: for every dollar you spend you must do a sit-up. Want the new No Doubt CD? No problem: fourteen bucks and two dozen sit-ups, please. Got a two pack-a-day cigarette habit? Well now you have a six sit-up-a-day habit as well. Just bought a brand new Ford Excursion? Fantastic. That will be 50,000 sit-ups over the next 10 years, plus 60 sit-ups every time you fill up the tank -- BET YOU WISH IT DIDN'T GET ONE MILE TO THE GALLON NOW DON'T YOU SUCKA?!

I think we should pilot this plan in Washington state, and then extend it to the entire United States. Conspicuous consumption would go way down, people would have a great incentive to save, and America would quickly come to dominate the United Nations Council On Killer Abs. Plus, what tax payer doesn't want the opportunity to check "no" to "Would you like to do three sit-ups for the Presidential Election Campaign Fund?"

] Is ecstasy harmful or helpful? The answer depends on whom
] you ask.

Uncovering Ecstasy