As much as the rest of the country thinks we are hybrid-driving, granola-eating, yoga-compulsive lunatics, California actually bravely does lots of cool stuff first. We are pioneering stem-cell research and environmental agreements with China while remaining the world's fifth largest economy, and I for one think we are brilliant iconoclasts, not seitan-subsisting hippie trash. In ten years they will be tying cans to the back of a Prius to celebrate trans-sexual nuptials in Iowa. I can't wait to rub it in their faces. As Jello Biafra says- "California uber alles."

I think it's a classic case of laser-disc player. The early adopters in this case have asperger's. Of course, a more usable metaverse built on the premises of SL is totally coming out in three years and you will do everything through it. They just didn't get there with the first one. Already kids are loving MTV's Virtual Laguna Beach, which should horrify us much more than having to pay for your dong. Cause even though I agree it's lame for the uninitiated, we could do way worse than an open-source play-space with its own economy. What's too bad is that it might have been really interesting to watch the economy develop and then see how they would need to regulate it internally. But alas, we do not all have asperger's.

Although Columbia brought him as part of a series of lectures involving Iran, and so I see the merit in his appeareance, I must admit that if I were a student there I would be upset that my tuition dollars were funding his maniacal, anti-semitic drivel. There is a certain reverance that comes with appearing at an Ivy League school and I think Columbia should be more responsible in whom they decide to effectively honor in this way. It's also not as if Ahmadinejad is lacking in fora for his lunatic agenda. Bring me an Iranian woman who drives, I'll happily hear her speak, and be very pleased that an old and revered American institution is paying her.

First of all, they didnt let Dick Cheney go to Ground Zero either and I kind of like how they are resistant to let the space get used for politicking.

And while I agree completely with your statements about free speech, I know that if my tuition dollars went to bringing that guy and his army of loons to my campus I'd be upset. He isn't an academic and shouldn't be given the same weight. Anyone who denies the holocaust has proven themself incapable of being a public figure, and were not a public figure he would be no more to anyone than what I already see: a sideshow.