Apparently, the old Ben Franklin quote that “nothing is certain but death and taxes” will become applicable in a new way. That’s right folks, governments are beginning to think about taxing virtual assets that people acquire in virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft. I came across this article on cnet.com, which talks about the State of Play/Terra Nova symposium, a yearly conference that is held to discuss the social and economic implications of virtual worlds. According to one of the economist quoted in the article, "given growth rates of 10 to 15 percent a month, the question is when, not if, Congress and IRS start paying attention to these issues." The article goes on to talk about estate taxes, and a report that’s been commissioned for next year by the Joint Economic Committee, which will probably really get the ball rolling on all of this. The article definitely gives the sense that taxing virtual assets is inevitable (I mean, that’s basically the article’s title) and is something we shouldn’t be surprised to see in the future. It’s really interesting to see the wide scope of virtual worlds, how they have economies and other aspects that we typically attribute only to the real world. It will also be interesting to see how institutions in the real world will have to learn to interact will virtual worlds, and how we might reconcile the real and the hyperreal.

Okay, so I'm sure that someone has written about Borat, but I can't find it to attach this to their blog, but I'm going to tie it in with Parental Control, so I figure I'll probably say something slightly new to the blog.

I'm sure that many of you have seen the Borat movie, but I'll still try not to give anything away. And I hope that many of you have seen Parental Control, because after Yo Momma it is the best reality show on television. For those of you who are unfamiliar with its genius, the plot is that there are two parents who are ridiculously unhappy with their son or daughter's significant other. So they interview a slew of willing candidates, choose two of them and then sit at home with the unhappy significant other, watching the son or daughter go on televised dates with the new candidates. After the two dates, the son or daughter has to choose between staying with his or her current significant other or taking one of the new candidates. The show makes me feel ridiculously trashy sometimes, but I can't help loving it. Sometimes I'll even skip meals to stay home and watch it on MTV. I often think to myself, "Why do you like this show?" I think it's because I'm convinced it's not actually real.

I'm glad someone mentioned in class that Murray gets creepy when she fantasizes about audience members providing "support" for characters on ER. But Murray seems to have been right-on in calling that production companies would attempt to blur the lines between entertainment and reality. She writes that as computer & television become further intertwined, audiences will be able to access the virtual world of a television show, complete with remnants of the personal life of each character.

Earlier in this blog someone called attention to LonelyGirl15, three producers' attempt to build hype for a movie by introducing a main character as a real person through the vlogging world. The idea initially seemed to have succeeded (15 million views), but I wonder whether audience members were turned off when they realized they had been duped. LG15's followers thought they were comforting a legit human, while any crazeball comforting an ER patient has willingly suspended his/her disbelief. I'm not sure if the LG15 movie is still happening, but if it is it will be interesting to see whether the hype has a negative or positive effect.