enforcing real laws in a virtual world

I have a friend who's busy writing a constitution for a group in Second Life. As a lawyer, he tries to bring his real-world experience to the virtual, establishing rights and duties in a just, secure framework.

After all, where there's life, there's crime. And where there's crime, there's the FBI.

FBI investigators have visited Second Life's internet casinos at the invitation of the virtual world's creator Linden Lab, but the US government has not yet decided on the legality of virtual gambling.

"We have invited the FBI several times to take a look around in Second Life and raise any concerns they would like, and we know of at least one instance that federal agents did look around in a virtual casino," said Ginsu Yoon, Linden Lab's vice president for business affairs.

Second Life is a popular online virtual world with millions of registered users and its own economy and currency, known as the Linden dollar, which can be exchanged for real US dollars. Yoon said the company was seeking guidance on virtual gambling activity in Second Life but had not yet received clear rules from US authorities. Hundreds of casinos offering poker, slot machines and blackjack can easily be found in Second Life.

While it is difficult to estimate the total size of the gambling economy in there, the three largest poker casinos are earning modest profits of $1500 each per month, according to casino owners and people familiar with the industry. The FBI and the US Attorney's Office for Northern California declined to comment.

They might have not decided on its legality yet, but you can be sure it's not going to be legal for long.

Second Life should declare itself a virtual state operating within whichever extant "real world" government is the friendliest, its citizens subject to their laws, yet semi-autonomous, as in a federal system. They'd probably have to move their servers, but freedom isn't free. (Doesn't necessarily have to cost blood, though.)

The real world isn't ready for virtual reality encroaching on real reality, is it?



Sidebar: And now the virtual world wants its users to have real-world names, for a price.

Update: And then there's the taxation issue. (Via Instapundit.)

the ugliest tie in the world

It's a bold claim, but I'm the sort of tie aficionado with the bad taste and the breadth of neckwear experience to make it.

For those unfamiliar, the whole collection is here. Warning: excessive polyester.

Sam Hunt explains vote on HB 2391, gainsharing repeal

In an email response to my open letter (which I also sent directly to Hunt, among others), he writes,

House Bill 2391 has been approved by the House Appropriations Committee. It is a compromise to replace gain sharing. While I would have liked to see gain sharing stay in place for current members, that is not a part of the proposal. A majority of the employee and retiree organizations who testified in committee gave their support to this proposal. I voted for it as well.

House Bill 2391 represents a 3-year effort to reform the pension plan system a) Public employees, teachers and current employees will give up gain sharing after a last distribution in 2008 b) This will be done in exchange for increased cost-of-living adjustments and improved early retirement benefits.

The last gain sharing distribution in 2008 will provide more than $700 million in project benefit increases after next year gain-sharing is eliminated for all employees.

Then beginning July 1, 2009, all current retirees will get up to a 13 percent increase in cost-of-living adjustments.

New hires in the Teacher Retirement System and School Employees Retirement System will get a choice of Retirement Plan 2 or Retirement Plan 3.

Public employees retiring after age 55 with at least 30 years of service will see improved early retirement benefits.

I thank Representative Hunt for his willingness to communicate with his constituents. I agree that the compromise is better than simply abolishing gainsharing, and I'm glad to see that incoming teachers won't have to be forced into Plan 3, the retirement abyss. However, I would like to see a true rule of 85 instead of the modified version given above. Let's reward those who serve without forcing them to burn down to the last ember.

oh, for the days when I was young and had all kinds of free time

Reach!

Thomas Bartlett calls it "arguably the best college prank on YouTube."

Toxoplasma gondii, cat ladies, and cultural neuroticism

More research is shedding light on how Toxoplasma gondii works. For those who don't recall, T. gondii is the parasite that causes rats to lose their natural fear of the odor of cat urine, causing them to become meth addicts putting them at risk of being eaten, and thus passing on the parasite to a new host.

One scientist thinks the parasite, which infects half of humanity, could even shape entire cultures through neuroticism and schizophrenia. Not sure about that, but if I were a biologist, I'd round up a sample group of "cat ladies" and see if a profusion of the parasite is to blame for their obsessive cat-hoarding. It's a simple, elegant thesis. Probably simply and elegantly wrong, but worth grant money nonetheless. If there's one thing we need in this world, it's a cure for cat ladies.

balance negs and the UN resolution

Regarding the current resolution, a reader writes,

I wanted to use a balanced neg as a strategy for the upcoming state tournament. The idea would be to say that the U.N. should not prioritize either HR over NS or NS over HR but subject decisions to a case-by-case analysis. My criterion would be utilitarianism and the value would be global welfare.

However, teammates have raised up the question of, "How exactly would the U.N. decide to choose HR/NS." They also commented that the balanced neg strategy is evading the question put forth by the resolution and does not properly answer it. What do you think of the strategy? Does it or does it not work? If it does, how would I address the "flaws?"

Great questions. Here are a couple considerations.

1. The LD ballot specifically states that the Aff has to prove the resolution true "as a general principle." Same for the Neg. What many Affs are running is a resolutional analysis that in effect adds the words "when in conflict" to the resolution. As a Neg, if I were running a balance case, I'd call them for conditionally affirming.

2. This assumes that "a general principle" means "in the majority of cases." You could grant that the UN will sometimes value NS over HR, or HR over NS, but both scenarios are relatively rare. In most cases, the UN balances its obligations to both by primarily pursuing diplomatic solutions that involve nonintervention. (It has good reasons for doing so, which are the bulk of your case.)

3. The implicit Aff assumption is that it's impossible to truly balance obligations to NS and HR. If you've done the work of warranting #2, then you can either show why their argument is false, or show that their argument is unwarranted. My guess is that beyond #2, they won't have a good reason for why balance is impossible, either logically or empirically.

If these arguments don't convince you, then perhaps you shouldn't run a balance Neg.

Incidentally, the new resolution (for the national tournament) comes out May 15. You can be sure to find analysis here when it's made public.

obligatory NCAA bracket blogging X

The last prediction of the 2006-2007 season: depth and experience trumps superstar power. Florida over OSU, 76-70.

Not that it matters.

Don't bet on sports.

Mariners start strong

Hail, King Felix.

I don't want to say too much after just one win over a sloppy Oakland squad, but... aw, shucks. This is finally it. This is the year the Mariners take the Super Bowl.

I'll show all you whipper-snappers

I'm a 96-year old man, and I've finished my novel. I hear your excuses.

"Who has the time?"

I could die at any time. Hasn't kept me from paragraphing.

"I'm tired."

I invented tired.

"I have writer's block."

A year ago my colon was blocked for three weeks. During that time I finished six chapters and a ship in a bottle. The ideas will make it through, even if nothing else will.

"My novel is based on my life experiences, and it might embarrass people close to me."

You've got a point there. What am I saying? I'm 96. I don't give a damn what people think. Besides, all the people who were close to me are dead.

"I can't find the right publisher."

Afraid of a nasty rejection letter? I could die at any time, but you don't see me quaking in my Barcalounger.

"I would, but I'm busy blogging."

Kids these days.

Web 2.0 pregnable

And apparently we're all at risk.

Update: Fallible, too. Corrects itself pretty quickly, though.

sports fever peaks

It's opening day in the base-ball. Also, there is some sort of contest between two major universities, the Alligators and the Buckeyes of Florida and Ohio, respectively. It is said to involve a hoop, also known as a basket, and a ball, also known as a rock or a pill.

I will miss both to bang a drum, slowly.

the clang of irony

Friends and I are slouched in front of the giant screen at the Cinerama, watching as Shpartans take it to the Persians, when all of a sudden we hear this exchange behind us.

"You're poking me. Knock it off."

[muffled] "I don't know--"

[growling] "Don't shake your head like that. You're f---ing poking me. That's f---ing assault. You'd better apologize."

[quietly, yet not meekly] "I apologize."

We're watching the machoest movie of the millennium as some testosteronehead hyperventilates about assault-by-poking. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not Shparta.

300 reasons to see 300

52 Slow... ...mot... ...ion... seq... uence... s.

38 Pauses at odd... times.

6 Longwinded, often repetitive, somewhat redundant, slightly clever, mostly flatly delivered, philosophically trite, partially inspiring speeches.

3 Minutes not involving gratuitous pectorals.

125 Boils, pimples, warts, moles, protuberances, rashes, and liver spots.

2 Abraham Lincolns locked in a power struggle.

73 Loving closeups.

1 Symbolic hunchback.

HB 1307 no longer applies to high school students

Sad news, as Jeff Nusser reports. Statements from Brian Schraum, Dave Upthegrove, and Kathy Schrier are available on his site.

Nusser, Schraum, and student journalists lobbied the hell out of this issue, and even convinced me to adopt their perspective: that the principal is not a publisher, and that our state law needs to clearly and specifically protect the rights of student journalists, not just in universities.

Nusser writes,

This is a tough day -- a sad day -- but we need to keep fighting. There will continue to be things that we all can do in Washington to fight unjust censorship of student media.

If I can learn what the law really says and abandon false assumptions, maybe others can, too--even nearsighted administrators. If we can't legislate, we can still educate.

wiped back on the map

Remember those Farmers Insurance commercials where things ran in reverse, as crashed cars reassembled, houses undecayed, and a son returned from the dead to rap at the door until the father wished him away and threw the shriveled monkey's paw in the fire?

Something.

Anyhow, Google Maps is now the place to see New Orleans as it was, not as it is or will be.

In the images available Thursday, the cranes working to fix the breach of the 17th Street Canal are gone. Blue tarps that covered roofless homes are replaced by shingles. Homes wiped off their foundations are miraculously back in place in the Lower 9th. So, too, is the historic lighthouse on Lake Pontchartrain.

In all fairness, not everything is shiny and new; the Lower 9th Ward is still largely destroyed, casting doubt on any sort of Orwellian Google conspiracy.

a Plague of doubt

Just over a week ago I finished Narcissus and Goldmund. It wasn't my favorite novel, but I found its depiction of the Plague particularly terrifying. Now, in another bit of synchronicity, last night I watched Children of Men for the second time, and then read a Richard Nokes' fantastic piece on teaching The Decameron this morning.

By the time this exercise is finished, students have a tiny, thought-experiment taste of the trauma of the plague. Suddenly, the idea that you might need to tell stories to reconstruct your life doesn't seem all that absurd. The opening story of The Decameron, about Ser Cepperello, transforms from a story about esoteric questions about grace and faith into a more pointed story about the questions that must have confronted Europeans after these plagues -- Did my loved ones who were not especially faithful go to Heaven? Has God abandoned us? If we had just prayed for intercession to a different saint, would God have spared us?

You've got to be careful about these sorts of exercises. It would be easy for sadistic personalities to use them as an excuse to psychologically torment students. If every class is an emotional spectacle, the effect can be dulled by over-use. Still, I've found it is one way to help students connect with the book on a deeper level. It never seems frivolous to them again.

I haven't read The Decameron--a gap in my education I hope Dr. Nokes will forgive--but will soon. I have a hunch that, much like Children of Men and Narcissus and Goldmund, its lasting value isn't in the answers it seeks, but in the questions it raises.

mmmmore miraculin

Radley Balko updates the "miracle fruit" story I noticed in February, and includes a link to purchasing the strangest of experiences.

when in doubt, throw it out

When you keep dabbing from the same cosmetics, and a horrific rash blooms on your face meat, don't come crying to me.

Microbe growth in makeup can cause skin irritations and infections, explains Paula Begoun, the author of "Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me." The worst offenders are liquid cosmetics, which build up bacteria more quickly. Keep mascara for a maximum of three months; other liquids and creams (eyeliner, foundation) for no more than a year. Powders (eye shadow, blush) can be used safely for up to two years.

Click through to learn when to junk mattresses, pillows, perfumes, fire extinguishers and more.

obligatory NCAA bracket blogging IX

Two games today, but I'm going to miss both thanks to a marathon of manly movies. (Reviews up tomorrow.)

Since sports pundits require the short term memory of Lenonard in Memento, here are today's guaranteed predictions, forgetting the past and forging boldly into the future.

Georgetown v. Ohio State
Ohio State might outmatch the Hoyas in sheer athleticism, talent, strategy, endurance, media savvy, fan base, mascot accessibility, pep squad buoyancy, and waterboy efficiency, but after the UNC collapse late in regulation and overtime, is there any doubt that Georgetown is divinely favored?

Georgetown 70, OSU 66

Florida v. UCLA
Re-match. Re-match. Re-match. Re-match.

UCLA takes it. This is just not Florida's year, and this is a much better UCLA squad. The Bruins aren't just gunning for revenge, but respect, for themselves and for the Pac 10.

Re-spect. Re-spect. Re-spect. Re-spect.

UCLA 74, Florida 71

don't ask me to change your grade

Especially if you're a principal, superintendent, or board member in Louisiana. For that matter, don't harass or intimidate me when too many students flunk my class--or I'll walk away with $1.4 million.

The jury of four men and five women deliberated almost four hours before finding that the school board, superintendent and the principal at West Feliciana High School had harassed Paula Payne, violated her First Amendment rights and retaliated against her.

The backstory, from an earlier piece:

In court Wednesday, and on the stand, was the West Feliciana principal Michael Thornhill. Thornhill testified that he asked his English teachers to, quote, "adjust" the scores of the students, 70% of which failed a standardized test back in 2004. Payne maintains in her civil suit that changing the grades is illegal and she was fired for refusing to do so.

Obviously, something's horribly wrong when 70% of a class fails a subject. But accountability isn't just a buzzword or a mask for lower expectations. Kudos to Payne for sticking it out and ultimately proving to the federal courts that teachers, like students, don't doff their rights at the schoolhouse door.