Tag: policy

Exodus to the virtual world

Virtual worlds have exploded out of online game culture and now capture the attention of millions of ordinary people: husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, workers, retirees. Devoting dozens of hours each week to massively multiplayer virtual reality environments (like World of Warcraft and Second Life), these millions are the start of an exodus into the refuge of fantasy, where they experience life under a new social, political, and economic order built around fun. Given the choice between a fantasy world and the real world, how many of us would choose reality? Exodus to the Virtual World explains the growing migration into virtual reality, and how it will change the way we live–both in fantasy worlds and in the real one.

Interesting read. Argues that as more people experience virtual worlds, they will demand the apt policy design in games to be applied to the real world. Result: a fun maximizing society.

Cost of Living Decline

The real cost of living isn’t measured in $ and cents but in the hours and minutes we must work to live.

yet we still measure inflation in monetary terms, 10 years later.

Federal CIO

the guy mostly seems to have clue, even though he uses twitter.

Mapping Nonsense

A California lawmaker has introduced a bill that would require all virtual mapping programs to blur out schools, places of worship, government or medical buildings or face hefty fines and possible jail time.

this bill will easily pass because it fights both terrorists and someone thought of the children.

Digital TV Delay

oy, what is this retarded pandering to the luddite crowd? those frequency bands are needed for more efficient purposes.

Sugar Tax

The justification for taxing sugar sodas is that being fat imposes a negative externality.

Obama Infrastructure

President-elect Barack Obama promised to create the largest public works construction program since the inception of the interstate highway system 50 years ago as he seeks to put together a plan to resuscitate the reeling economy.

won’t work as long as money is wasted on unnecessary roads in the sticks, instead of infrastructure where the people and the real economy are.

Kill The CRA

The CRA coerces banks into making loans based on political correctness, and little else, to people who can’t afford them. Enforced like never before by the Clinton administration, the regulation destroyed credit standards across the mortgage industry, created the subprime market, and caused the housing bubble that has now burst and left us with the worst housing and banking crises since the Great Depression.

the moral hazard of “everyone needs to be a homeowner” needs to be stopped.

Is Obama world-wide?

Will he extend the momentum of the campaign to the world? If he can, he will become the greatest political leader in history. And the amazing thing is that its conceivable, because of our new distributed communication tools, it’s possible.

Consolidate Detroit

Washington should not approve any bail-out that doesn’t include consolidation. Clearly, America can’t support 3 functioning automakers. The government should take this opportunity to cut out at least some of the industry’s dead weight. Then next time, America will have to spend taxpayer money saving the jobs of only 2 lumbering, unprofitable firms instead of 3.