A Yuletide Apocalypse

3 College Students Arrested in Alabama Church Fires - New York Times: “Three college students from the prosperous suburbs south of Birmingham, two of them 19 and one 20, were arrested today in the burning of nine Baptist churches in rural Alabama last month that federal officials say was a prank that spun out of control.”

But a witness, unidentified in the affidavit, told agents that Matthew Cloyd said he and Mr. Moseley “had done something stupid,” adding that it was something Mr. Moseley had done “as a joke and it got out of hand.”

…the three had been out shooting deer in Mr. Cloyd’s S.U.V. prior to the fires.

(Via nytimes)

Enough to make you sick…

Planet Mozilla

Now, to say “we’re just making software for the users, aw, shucks, and we don’t like to think about the money part” might make it sound at first blush like we’re all eating granola, wearing tie-dye shirts, and walking around with socks and sandals. However, I think even the staunchest of objectivists will be able to get behind what we’re doing when I express it this way: We are making great software that is meeting the needs of users, we are ensuring the vitality of the internet economy by promoting competition and choice, and we are being rewarded for succeeding to a degree that seems amenable by those willing to partner with us.

A great post by Mike Beltzner over on foundation.

Raises some interesting questions that I’ve been wondering about since I took intro Microeconomics last term, regarding how profit and incentives and corporate structure (ie. profit vs. non-profit) work in the software/web/tech industry, especially with the rise of open-source as such a big deal. But also how non-profits work (if they work) or if they’re a good way to do things. After hearing the way Mike raves about the culture and atmosphere over at Mozilla it doesn’t sound like such a bad idea…