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Wikipedia's $100 Million Dream
An anonymous reader writes "Jimmy Wales recently asked the Wikipedia community to suggest useful, 'works that could in theory be purchased and freed' assuming a 'budget of $100 million to purchase
copyrights.' He went on to say that he has spoken with a person 'who is potentially in a position to make this happen.' Ideas are being collected at the meta-wiki. Some early suggestions include, satellite imagery, textbooks, scientific journals and photo archives." So how about it? What works would you like to see wikified?
A history of Pornography would be very informative.
Gentlemen, the time to accomplish the long-expressed dream of Slashdot has come!
With this funding, I believe that we may at long last be able to open-source Natalie Portman.
Don't worry, Disney's trying to fix that.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
I always wanted to print my own copies. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
They shouldn't have been so vocal about this. Now everyone knows they have a $100 million budget, and every rightsholder they approach is going to put his pinky to his lips and do his best Dr. Evil impression.
hookers and beer!
in fact, forget the beer! ah, screw the whole thing!
You can save space. Or you can save time. Don't ever count on saving both at once. -- First Law of Algorithmic Analisys
>One book per academic subject.
... and in the darkness bind them?
>One for each kind of math.
>One for each kind of music.
>One for each kind of computer science.
>One for masonry, or automotive, or other trades.
Given the state of the US Healthcare system, where politicians suggest that 'the market' should determine whether granny gets her operation or not, I think we should have a How-To series of books on medical treatment. Is your appendix flaring up? That would be no. 17. Tonsils? Tricky, but do-able. That gets lumped in with Tracheotomies (no. 26). A few in the series would be devoted to cancer, such as no. 82: Using Home Cleaning Products as Chemotherapy Agents (includes coupon for Drano) or no. 156B, Power Tools Helpful for Removing Non-Invasive Tumors (coupon for Home Depot included).
Politics would inevitably creep in, unfortunately, renaming Preventing Unwanted Pregnancies to Dammit, Abstinence till Marriage, you slut! and replacing Avoiding High-Calorie Low-Nutrition Foods to Happy Meals Forever!
9) ???
10) Profit!!!
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
Great! then we'd check wikipedia in how to rebuild the world and... wait...
seriously, I imagine printed material from Hustler magazine and the like are a lot cheaper thanks to the contributions of the interweb.
I would still swear I read wiki for the articles though.
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Taking away the last line of defense by digitizing our schoolbooks is just not acceptable. You thing that e-book is going to be stopping bullets?
o otings.textbooks.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/10/20/school.sh
Thanks, guys. Now I can't remember how to spell the word.
$100m buys a lot of killer trees.
You're kidding, right? You, sir, are an economic terrorist. You deprive honest business men of your well-earned money by building tools yourself. How could you even think of doing something like that, you ignorant prick? These people need money to survive and you're just sitting there, handcrafting your own beautiful, precision instruments for yourself?
I am enraged! I feel ashamed for you! I must introduce a Bill to address this unmorality. And I will call it the "Aethera Act." From now on, no one shall be able to produce something, anything, from his own hands if he hasn't gotten the necessary skill to do so. I've already schmoozed my congressbuddies. You'll see, aethera. Your time for hippy, hanky-panky, communistic Free Craftsmanship will be over, I say. OVER!
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
It's too late. They're already claiming that (0.999... = 1)!!! Anyone with eyes can see this is clearly not the case. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to undo some vandalism. These guys are determined to keep replacing my != with =.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
on a plane!