Ethical Thought

Franklin over at the Panopticon has reviews the Knitting Man(ual).  Take a gander.

Like many other knitters I often keep an eye out for fellow knitters.  I do not always say anything it is just nice to see others enjoying the same craft that I do.  But lately I have noticed a disturbing trend. Many people that look like the are knitting out of the corner of my eye are really untangling their i-pod ear pieces!  Do they really tangle that easily? the frequency of this happening bothers me a bit.  On the other hand untangling can be a useful skill to knitters too, so perhaps I should not dispair!

Here is an interesting link to an article about researchers looking at human behavior in an unexpected virtual epidemic in the online game World of Warcraft.  It leads to questions about the suitability of using these worlds for future planned research.

Click here to learn more about how the online plague happened by accident.

Here is an interesting question. Is it ethical to use the same methods of scam artists (fooling people into divulging private information) in order to learn more about how to prevent this type of fraud? When people enter medical studies they are usually told that they may be receiving a placebo but not always when that knowledge may change the outcome. How about studies of internet behavior? Do they have similar restrictions?

Library Journal, a library magazine that follows the publishing and library industries closely and publishes reviews and targeted articles, just did a piece on knitting books. The online addendum to the article is available HERE.

I was making a doll coverlet and could not find a pattern so I made a really big dishcloth in a single yarn. ( The pattern, from Mason Dixon Knits, calls for alternating yarns but I just used a simple variated yarn.)

Well I finished Harry Potter.  It was a wonderful book and I am glad I read it.  I guessed correctly on some things and missed others.  All-in-all a lot of fun.

My main concern now is how do we keep this interest in reading alive for the general public? How do we engage children in particular?  One of the joys of this series is that it appealed to all sexes and a wide age group. Is there something else out there that is on its way to similar popularity?