http://centristcoalition.com/blog/clark/ Here's an independent's blog for Clark. Worth a look.

10:43:21 PM    

Fully half of my charitable contributions every year go to this group...not as well known as some, but deserving of everyone's attention. Talk about teaching someone to fish, and thus feeding him/her for a lifetime...God bless them.

Don't have a cow--you can have Heifer.org!. This season's first holiday miracle just happened--my catalog from Heifer International (online at www.heifer.org.)

The miracle is that I am thrilled to see it.

I remember how pleased my mom was when she discovered this way to give her present-showered grandkids the gift of helping poor families. She didn't have to hit malls, wrap packages, or spend a lot to give an unforgettably special present. My kids were old enough to be thrilled by the idea.

OK, I admit it, I'm also smiling at this photo of a little boy holding a baby duck in his hands (it's bigger in my catalog).

Go check them out--and you'll be smiling too.

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"Passing on the Gift" is a key component of Heifer International's program. Participants give offspring of their livestock to others, in an ever-widening circle of hope. Here, a woman in India passes on a goat in a ceremonial setting. Photo credit: Darcy Kiefel Copyright: Heifer International Just $10 lets you give a share of a goat. ...$20 buys a flock of baby chicks. ...or, for that special someone, $25 buys a share in a water buffalo. Each price represents "the complete livestock gift of a quality animal, technical assistance, and training," says my catalog.

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[Betsy Devine: Funny Ha-Ha or Funny Peculiar?]

9:55:29 PM    

Disgraceful...like blowing up the Buddha statues in Afghanistan. This is history - whatever your opinion of Michael Robertson.

Vivendi to Destroy MP3.com archive. Vivendi Universal recently sold the MP3.com domain to CNET. That in and of itself is a yawner. MP3.com doesn't really fit the Vivendi profit model, so it's understandable that they're dumping it. Why this matters is they're not selling the archive, containing more than a million songs by 250,000 artists. As of December 3rd, they're destroying it. [kuro5hin.org]

9:47:05 PM    

"'FreeCiv' and its Discontents -- Policy Lessons from Open Source Games: A Case Study".

At Politech, an essay by Solveig Singleton, "'FreeCiv' and its Discontents -- Policy Lessons from Open Source Games: A Case Study," considers the open source movement with respect to the development of computer games.

The essay is worth a read for its attempt to take the practical example of computer games and consider its implications for policymaking and the open source movement. OS development, according to Singleton, has not taken off in the gaming industry precisely because the kind of processes required for developing games do not lend themselves to an OS model.

Singleton argues that this means government should not promote open source models. In particular, he writes that there should be no requirement that software produced with government funding be OS, and further that government software procurement policies should not mandate a preference between open and proprietary models.

I am not convinced by Singleton's conclusions. But I do think he makes some useful points and, more importantly, demonstrates the need to understand information policy within the context of particular social activities through which people produce, distribute, and consume information.

[commons-blog]

9:44:22 PM    

The Key to Genius. Autistic savants are born with miswired neurons -- and extraordinary gifts. Now researchers are using breakthrough science to expand our understanding of the brain. By Wired magazine's Steve Silberman. [Wired News]

9:39:25 PM    

The penguin is mightier than the sword. "Bloom County" cartoonist Berkeley Breathed talks about bringing Opus back to the nation's comics page to rip Garfield (and maybe George Bush) a new one. [Salon.com]

9:13:46 PM    

And I Was Hoping for Thomas Paine.

Which Founding Father Are You?

[commons-blog]

8:54:55 PM