Friday Night Party Line #40.

--Economic down-turn and Open Source.  Will it help or hurt?

--(From David)  "The big things don't love you back.  They take and
take, and never give in return.  They'll drain your blood, your soul,
and never let you go."  The Postman by David Brin.

--If your lifestyle uses a lot of gas and electricity, but you can
afford it, should you change your lifestyle to conserve energy? Say
you like driving Hummers, your house costs a fortune to heat and you
run a hot tub year round. But you have the money, so it has no impact
on you financially?  Is this wrong?

--In his book "Brain Rules" John Medina advocates putting treadmills
in the classroom because exercise improves mental acuity.  He believes
ancient humans walked 12 miles a day and we should too.  Is this
workable?

--Contests held to improve technology dates back to contests in
England to see who could design the best locomotive.  Now, we have
DARPA prizes, the X-Prize and a host of others.  Should there be a
prize for every single societal problem?  Should we have a cure
malaria prize?  A stop homelessness prize?

--(From Jason) Big corporations are using viral media like "leaked
videos" (which are actually produced) like the Kobe Bryant kiddie pool
dunk video from Nike and the "fake" music videos which pretend to be
indie but are actually backed by a major record label.  Are major
commercial and advertising studios intimidated by the amateur video &
audio movement?

--Ask the economist.