Micro-lending

One of my favorite cooking sites (www.101cookbooks.com) pointed me to a micro-lending website in its last post and I thought I'd share. I'm a huge fan of the concept, which is basically, small private lenders (or individuals) either offering loans individually or pooling loans in order to provide entrepreneurs in developing nations (typically) with capital to launch their business. The site Heidi (from 101cookbooks, yes we are on a first name basis) recommends is www.kiva.org - you can offer as little as $25 and it's a loan, not a donation, so you get it back while doing some good. Hooray for everybody.

Save the Internet

Ok I am a little ashamed to admit this, but I wasn't really aware of this issue until a friend sent me a link to this site today. Here's an excerpt:

How does this threat to Internet freedom affect you?

Such corporate control of the Web would reduce your choices and stifle the spread of innovative and independent ideas that we've come to expect online. It would throw the digital revolution into reverse. Internet gatekeepers are already discriminating against Web sites and services they don't like:

In May 2008, the Max Planck Institute released a comprehensive study that found both Comcast and Cox Communications to be deceptively blocking access to peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

In October 2007, the Associated Press busted Comcast for blocking its users' access to peer-to-peer file-sharing networks like BitTorrent and Gnutella. This fraudulent practice is a glaring violation of Net Neutrality.

In September 2007, Verizon was caught banning pro-choice text messages. After a New York Times expose, the phone company reversed its policy, claiming it was a glitch.
In August 2007, AT&T censored a live webcast of a Pearl Jam concert just as lead singer Eddie Vedder criticized President Bush.

In 2006, Time Warner's AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com -- an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme.

In 2005, Canada's telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the Telecommunications Workers Union during a contentious labor dispute.

In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service.

Shaw, a major Canadian cable, internet, and telephone service company, intentionally downgrades the "quality and reliability" of competing Internet-phone services that their customers might choose -- driving customers to their own phone services not through better services, but by rigging the marketplace.

This is just the beginning. Cable and telco giants want to eliminate the Internet's open road in favor of a tollway that protects their status quo while stifling new ideas and innovation.


Seriously, check it out. I think the freedom of information we have right now is far too precious to let be taken away.

This is total BS

Coors to brew far from Rockies

Ok, in all honesty, I rarely drink Coors. But particularly as a girl raised in Colorado, this makes me very sad. I mean, I don't think "Brewed With Pure Trenton Spring Water" has the same ring...

Oh, also, holy censorship Batman!

Where is my mind?

The ADD post.

Indie Artists Drum Up Corporate Ties --- YUCK! Do you really think you can still call your band "indie" at that point? I mean, I know we all gotta survive but wow does that leave a bad taste in my mouth.

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."
-Abraham Lincoln

Netherlands boots tobacco users from bars and restaurants -- even in coffee shops, it's the end of an era *tear*