I saw another post regarding this call to action via online publishers. I would agree that it just doesn’t make sense to leave adult content behind a stupid link that reads, “Over 18?”. Yeah, I wonder how many kids are going to click on the other one? Do we leave PlayBoy magazines sitting on the counter at the local convenience store? I think not. The clerk at the counter can and will verify your age before handing you your favorite copy with Paris Hilton on the cover. If websites are to be regarded as an online representation of a brick and mortar establishment, then they should be held to same standards of identification before the burden is pushed onto non-technically savvy parents.

Blogger Power: Safeguard the Web for Children

Please require a password-protected login before allowing even free access to explicit adult content. We understand that selling porn is your business and we respect your right to make a legal living. But understand our legitimate concerns and work with us. You already have the “warning adult content” on your websites. Yet kids, who are not legal customers of your product, ignore the warning. So to prevent them from having direct access to explicit images, texts and sounds, the simplest way is to have a password-protected login. No more “free tours” before a visitor supplies basic information.

Technorati Tags: blogger power, Internet, child protection

The Global Rich List sure showed me an interesting perspective on my own personal standing. My projected salary when we make the move to Phoenix will put us in the top 0.96% of wealth in the world (and I’m not going to make that much). It certainly put some things into a new light since we were just discussing finance this evening.

Technorati Tags: global rich list, poverty

As of late I’ve been stuck in a very focused train of broad ideas. Nihilistic in a nature, yet looking to a higher power for answers. The one thing that I’ve settled on is that I don’t have them, and people with age do — If I listen. The trouble is that I still find myself somewhat socially awkward, especially with strangers, so I don’t posses the courage to just walk up to an elderly person and say, “Would you mind telling me your life story?” The thing is that I truly want to know. I’m convinced that if everyone over 70 wrote their memoirs (and everyone else read them) that the world would be a better place. Life just moves to quick and if we don’t stop, we don’t learn.

Stay with me… I have a point.

Today, at the bus stop, I was approached by a kind looking old woman with a walker-on-wheels-with-a-grocery-basket-thing. She stopped, looked at me, and then said in a very quiet voice, “Can I tell you something?”. I was rather intrigued so I nodded and leaned in.

“How does an astronaut cut his hair?”, she said. I shrug.

“Eclipse it!”

And she walked away. So that’s it then. After all the years that she has seen, she felt it was necessary to share a joke with a stranger waiting for the bus. I loved it. I think I’ve found the meaning of life.

Technorati Tags: jokes