The suggestion?  Thumbtacks.

Dictionaries have been removed from classrooms in southern California schools after a parent complained about a child reading the definition for “oral sex”.

Merriam Webster’s 10th edition, which has been used for the past few years in fourth and fifth grade classrooms (for children aged nine to 10) in Menifee Union school district, has been pulled from shelves over fears that the “sexually graphic” entry is “just not age appropriate”, according to the area’s local paper.

The dictionary’s online definition of the term is “oral stimulation of the genitals”. “It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the paper.

A lot of companies would be trapped by the conventions and their legacies of what they’ve built, doing a privacy change – doing a privacy change for 350 million users is not the kind of thing that a lot of companies would do. But we viewed that as a really important thing, to always keep a beginner’s mind and what would we do if we were starting the company now and we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.

Kirkpatrick’s response is spot on:

This is a radical change from the way that Zuckerberg pounded on the importance of user privacy for years. That your information would only be visible to the people you accept as friends was fundamental to the DNA of the social network that hundreds of millions of people have joined over these past few years. Privacy control, he told me less than 2 years ago, is “the vector around which Facebook operates.”

I don’t buy Zuckerberg’s argument that Facebook is now only reflecting the changes that society is undergoing. I think Facebook itself is a major agent of social change and by acting otherwise Zuckerberg is being arrogant and condescending.

Why is Facebook changing their tune?  Money, baby. Money. At first, it might have been helping people stay in contact. Now, however, with 350 million people giving their personal information to the system, Facebook stands to gain…if they can convince everyone who uses their service that they do not need privacy anymore. Kirkpatrick continues:

First the company kept user data siloed inside its site alone, saying that a high degree of user privacy would make users comfortable enough to share more information with a smaller number of trusted people.

Now that it has 350 million people signed up and connected to their friends and family in a way they never have been before – now Facebook decides that the initial, privacy-centric, contract with users is out of date. That users actually want to share openly, with the world at large, and incidentally (as Facebook’s Director of Public Policy Barry Schnitt told us in December) that it’s time for increased pageviews and advertising revenue, too….

…Facebook allows everyday people to share the minutia of their daily lives with trusted friends and family, to easily distribute photos and videos – if you use it regularly you know how it has made a very real impact on families and social groups that used to communicate very infrequently. Accessible social networking technology changes communication between people in a way similar to if not as intensely as the introduction of the telephone and the printing press. It changes the fabric of peoples’ lives together. 350 million people signed up for Facebook under the belief their information could be shared just between trusted friends. Now the company says that’s old news, that people are changing. I don’t believe it.

I think Facebook is just saying that because that’s what it wants to be true.

Just because a service is free to you does not mean you have to give it everything you are. They are trying to make millions off of your personal information. Better, they didn’t have to pay you one red cent for it.

Is that right? Is that fair and honest? Is that in your best interest?

In order to help Tee and his daughter through this diffcult period, Pip Ballantine has set up a fund where anyone who wishes to can chip in. Please consider doing so, if you have the means.

To Tee: We’re here for you, pal. You need anything at all, you let us know.

1. In the words of Evo Terra: “Tee was the first author to make his book into a serialized audiobook delivered by a podcast. And though others soon followed independent of Tee’s actions, his ‘Hey Evo, I have an idea…’ phone call in late 2004 was the genesis of what would become Podiobooks.com.”

An 8-year-old boy was sent home from school and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation after he was asked to make a Christmas drawing and came up with what appeared to be a stick figure of Jesus on a cross, the child’s father said Tuesday.

Chester Johnson told WBZ-TV that his son made the drawing on Dec. 2 after his second-grade teacher asked children to sketch something that reminded them of the holiday.”

Links:

• Taunton Daily Gazette
• RantRave

“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.”

– Ayn Rand

New York (CNN) — Authorities have identified a teenager believed to be suffering from amnesia who was found on the streets of New York two weeks ago.

Police say a CNN viewer in Maryland identified the young woman, who mysteriously turned up in Manhattan two weeks ago, claiming to have no memory of her family, her home or even her own name.

The part that gave one member of my gaming group chills was:

The children’s services agency said the girl recently wrote down the name “Amber” and has responded to it on one occasion, but she has no idea whether it is her true name.

If you’re a fan of certain Roger Zelazny works, you’ll understand the significance.

jacob> i like cake
cmdln> heretic.
cmdln> i like pie
jacob> oh
jacob> oh it’s on

Spaceship!

The plot: your spaceship has broken down four days out of your next port, and you only have two days of oxygen left. You must fix the ship…or die.

From the intro to the game:

The alarm sounds and you’re moving before you even notice the shrill whine. You’ve gone through hundreds of these decompression drills and the movements required are pretty much routine: move the arms, put the torso on, seal yourself in and done! Now, just wait for the all-clear signal that sends you back to bed and the dream about… something, there was a parade, wasn’t there?

A few seconds pass. Something’s wrong – the all-clear should have sounded by now. The alarm, muffled by the spacesuit, is quieter but still there… and is there some hissing also? What’s going on?

The sounds suddenly stop. You notice your heavy breathing, the only audible thing on the ship. The alarm lights are still flashing, though. The realisation snaps you fully awake: no drill. The ship has decompressed: all atmosphere has escaped. If not for your quick reaction to the alarm, you would be dead. A quick check of your spacesuit: all systems nominal, oxygen full: enough for 48 hours. Pity you’re four days away from Nineteen. A quick glance out the porthole reveals the engines have stopped. You’re stuck, alone, adrift in the middle of space in a leaky ship, 4 days away from help, with 2 days of air.

This must be a Thursday

Download the game from IFDB or the game’s web site. If you like it, be sure to comment and rate it on it’s IFDB home page.