Links of the day

No Autistics Allowed :: Beautifully well written articles and letters by Michelle Dawson describing her struggle for increasing the rights and perceived worth of autistics. Her writing style evokes a lot of emotion from me, due to both its clarity and fluidity, and also for the persistence in her struggle.

Webhosting is a market for lemons :: A thoughtful summary of the webhosting market as viewed from a financial/game theory perspective. It focuses on the concept of information asymmetry.

Well, it's tax season again. Even after adjusting my deductions last year, I'm still getting a sizeable return. Granted I'm happy with getting the money, but my goal was to get all the money I had coming to me in each paycheck, and end up with a zero balance on April 15. I'll have to re-examine my deductions again this year.

Stacey and a couple friends from her class are rehearsing their rendition of "Do You Believe In Magic", not the one by the Loving Spoonful, mind you, but the girly-pop remake by "Aly and AJ", whoever they are. Still, the kids are having fun, which matters more than my love of original versions of 60s tunes.

I decided to take Martin Luther King jr day off from work since Stacey will be out of school that day. She's having a modest-sized sleepover Sunday night (probably 3 other girls), and we'll probably all go hit a movie or something Monday. Should be a fun, hopefully low-stress weekend.

Interesting commentary style on arstechnica

The arstechnica.com website is, so I believed, a tech news site similar to Wired or any of the Ziff/Davis fare. I rarely surf these sites directly, but instead read individual stories from these sites that are linked to from sites like Slashdot.org. I read an interesting story today written by Ryan Paul, that contained an unusual amount of opinion mixed in with the normal reporting. The article was on Internet censorship in China, and is available here.

Here are some of the more interesting comments that pepper the article:

Like most other communist states, China and its government have very little respect for civil liberties and personal autonomy.

Censorship of Internet pornography is rarely effective.

I doubt that censorship and oppression in China will end any time soon,

It's almost as though I'm reading my local paper, The Columbus Dispatch. This article appears today listed on arstechnica's front page under the column "From the News Desk". Despite being declared news, most of the aritcle is either opinion or factual declarations without sources being cited (e.g., "the communist regime has committed its resources to crushing web sites that challenge government authority").

So my question is, did Mr. Paul get paid for this? If so, where can I submit my stream of thought opinions for some extra cash?