Another Reason Why I Don't Eat Beef

There was one reason a while ago. Now there's another.

Yes, this is just a fraction of the annual US beef production. But I believe there are many more cases of tainted beef that go unreported.

Caucus 2008

It was my first time caucusing, so I didn't know what to expect. Overall, things went smoothly. Here's a play by play:

• Showed up at the nick of time (1:30 pm), though they were fairly lenient about when people could sign in (5-10 minutes even after that deadline).
• They put 4 precincts in this little middle school library. It was hard to hear each precinct head describe the rules as they talked over each other.
  
• There were 120 voters in our precinct, and 9 local delegates. Originally that came out to 6-2-1 Obama, Clinton, and undecided.
• Then, people could change their votes - a few did, most didn't.
  
• We then split up into our representative groups (Obama supporters, Clinton supporters, undecided supporters) and hung around for a bit.
• Then, it was announced that it was 7-2 Obama, Clinton. Apparently, enough undecideds voters got off the fence.
• We then elected people from our group to go to the county convention. 7 primary and 7 alternate delegates. We had a couple more than 7 primary, so people just volunteered to be alternates instead.
• Then, we split.

It took about an hour overall once things got rolling. Kind of a neat way of doing it, given the community nature and the "we elect our delegates" part of it.

Second Life And Changing The Rules Of Capitalism

If you're not familiar with Second Life, the Wikipedia article will get you up to speed. In a nutshell, it's a virtual world where you can build an avatar (virtual character) and interact in the world, including socializing, buying property, doing business, and the like.

A weird pastime, you may initially think. But Second Life has another side to it. Consider that Second Life manages its own economy and resources. For example:

• Second Life has its own currency, the Linden Dollar.
• Second Life controls who can purchase land, including property taxation for the land.
• Second Life also controls how much land there exists for sale, and the quality of the real estate (Private Estates).
• Second Life controls what activities can or cannot go on in the virtual world, including gambling, pornography, and banking.

Sounds like a pretty totalitarian system, right? A "government" of sorts (Linden Labs) controlling most every aspect of life for its virtual residents. Now, imagine if Second Life breaks out of the fringes and into the true mainstream. As in, imagine if everyone you knew spent at least 30-60 minutes a day in Second Life. Now, imagine one company being the gatekeeper to all activities in this virtual world. Even more so, imagine one company being in control what is even virtually possible in this world. What would happen, or could happen, here?

Let's take an example: in the real world, if I have the resources and the labor, I can make cuckoo clocks and sell them in my shop. My shop is limited to whether I can have a license to open it, and the rent to lease it, and the staff to run it, and my clocks are limited by how much time my laborers and I have to put into the clocks, our wood and metal resources, and our skills. Fortunately our government lets us open a shop and sell our wares, since cuckoo clocks are legal, and fortunately there is a market for them (however niche).

Now, let's imagine this same example in Second Life. You may say, "Wow! Think of all the people you can reach with your products in this world!". Well, first of all, opening a shop is limited by whether I can lease or own the virtual property in order to present my storefront in the world. Who decides that? Second Life. Next, I need resources to produce cuckoo clocks. Who provides the resources (in this case, 3D graphic modeling and interaction modeling)? Second Life. Now, I need some people to help me make these clocks. Where do I find them? Second Life (although technically you can model outside of the world, chances are you want someone familiar with the world to build stuff for the world).

What if the modeling tools aren't up to snuff? What if I can't secure a good property? What if all of a sudden a prime location for my store becomes not so prime because of land being created and removed around it? What if the currency exchange rate suddenly changes? In essence, building and selling cuckoo clocks in Second Life is equivalent to doing business in a world where all rules are subject to be changed or broken, including the laws of physics.

Now, you may be thinking, "Ah, but it's not in the interest of Second Life to tick off its users." To some extent, I agree. But I'm sure Second Life will follow the money here, just like the real world: if a big company comes in and says, "Hey, I want to build a giant new store here and I want to advertise it with a big floating airship that you can't avoid seeing anytime, day or night," this is much easier to do in a virtual world than a physical one (no need for fuel, or a physical arsenal of airships, or figuring out how to be truly everywhere in the sky at the same time). I believe, for the right price, Second Life would comply with such requests.

Yes, there is a market of attention here, and people may choose to gravitate away from Second Life if they go too far. But a world (virtual or physical) where the rules can be so easily re-written is not a world that I would feel safe conducting myself in, or doing business in.