19. oktober 2006

US Congress may consider taxing online gaming currency Members of the US Congress, just about destroyed by recent polls, are starting to play MMORPGs like World of WarCraft since the real world is too hard for them to tackle. Unfortunately, the alleged suggestion to tax virtual money will not make them any more popular in the virtual world. In a statement announcing the investigation, the Committee said its probe was prompted by the "dramatic increase in the popularity of online gaming". It said it was interested solely in the "universe of transactions" that occur within online worlds such as Second Life. Although an economic value can be put on this trade because in-game currencies do have an equivalent real world value, committee chairman Jim Saxton said its investigation was not being carried out with a view to slapping taxes on this trade. Joint Economic Committee members, however, blame the IRS for the idea, and deny having any plans for taxing virtual money. Gamers remain skeptical. It was just a matter of time, wasn't it? User Friendly has this comment.  5:32:02 PM    comment []  trackback []

Darwin Online Charles Darwin's complete works are online. "I wrote to lots of people all over the world to get hold of the texts for the project and I got a really positive reaction because they all liked the idea of there being one big collection," he told BBC News. Darwin Online features many newly transcribed or never-before-published manuscripts written by the great man. These include a remarkable field notebook from his famous Beagle voyage to the Galapagos Islands, where detailed observations of the wildlife would later forge his scientific arguments.  You can find it all on Darwin Online. It appears to still have a few dead links here and there, but you'll find the text of his personal Beagle diary, as well as lots of other fascinating material. Many assume Darwin basically just wrote On the Origin of Species and maybe they know about The Descent of Man, but nothing could be further from the truth. Darwin was already an accomplished naturalist when he wrote Origin, a reason it was taken seriously immediately, thanks to his immense and detailed knowledge of nature, his enormous collection of samples, his published writings and extensive correspondence with a who's who of the day's foremost scientists. Having all this online is a real treasure chest. 4:18:53 PM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.11.2006; 20:04:29.