User:Mr. Billion
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"You are not normal. If you are reading these pages , you probably belong to the minority of the world’s population that has a steady job, adequate access to social security, and enjoys substantial political freedoms. Moreover, you live on more than $2 a day, and, unlike 860 million others, you can read. The percentage of humanity that combines all of these attributes is minuscule."~Moisés Naím, "Dangerously Unique"
"One in five people in the world—more than 1 billion people—still survive on less than $1 a day, a level of poverty so abject that it threatens survival. Another 1.5 billion people live on $1–$2 a day. More than 40% of the world’s population [living at or below $2 a day] constitutes, in effect, a global underclass." ~UN Human Development Report 2005
It's sometimes hard to see things that are so huge they should be obvious. More than a third of the world's potential labor force is unemployed or underemployed, and about 56% of the world (according to Freedom House) is either "partially free" or "without personal freedoms." Other things, like the Darfur conflict and the continuing struggle in Afghanistan are all too easily forgotten. Wikipedia, like all other systems, is subject to systemic bias. Let's work to overcome that.
- ^ Naím was referring to the pages of Foreign Policy magazine, but his words also apply pretty well to the pages of Wikipedia.
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[edit] About me
About me
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The user name originates from a certain Calvin & Hobbes strip taking place in the classroom in which Calvin attempts to solve a math problem and slips into his Tracer Bullet fantasy world, concluding that the only possible "culprit" is "Mr. Billion."
As long as you're here, clicking here gives hungry people food. Just click the button. It provides a small benefit, but it also requires next to no effort, so hey, it couldn't hurt.
It would be good to think about this, too, though. According to a joint Action Aid/Oxfam report, only about a fifth of international aid makes it to where it's intended to go. (I'd be interested in reading the report itself.) Some wealthy countries have actually reduced their international aid budgets since the 1970s. Perhaps a better way to help the less fortunate would be to petition your representatives in your respective Congress or Parliament to address these issues.
[edit] Random Comments, Thoughts, And Other Stuff
Mr. Billion's excogitations can now be found on his Talk page. You can leave a message by Clicking Here.
[edit] Useful Links
[edit] Fun Stuff
[edit] Stuff to do
You could work to improve the articles on the list of featured articles English Wikipedia should have to Featured Article status. There's currently (00:37, 9 January 2006 (UTC)) about eight articles that are especially in need of cleanup: Akbar, Johann Gutenberg, Hippocrates, Pythagoras, Andes, Latin America, Miguel de Cervantes, and Niccolò Machiavelli.
Or you could work to counter systemic bias or do some other necessary tasks around Wikipedia:
WikiProject Countering systemic bias open tasks This project creates and improves neglected articles.
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Here are some tasks you can do:
- Wikify: Mor-Taxan, General Placido Vega y Daza, Timothy Morss, Backlog...
- Cleanup: Special:Whatlinkshere/Category:Cleanup from July 2005, Albany Movement, Special:Search/Cleanup from July 2005, Backlog...
- Stubs: Roy A. Tucker, Santa Cruz de Tenerife (province), Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, Spectral class, Sportscaster, Krško, More...
- Verify: Hipster (1990s subculture), Banu (Arabic), IMBEWU, Al Sharpton, Excitatism, Suzlon Energy, Backlog...
- Update: List of United States House committees, Non-Manufacturing Business Activity Index, Armenian Power, SIDPERS, AmBX, More...
- Neutrality: Iraqi Security Forces, Kristin Nelson, Adam Beattie, Bobby Bland, Martha Chávez, Jewish Bolshevism, VKB, Backlog...
- Copyedit: Kandahar, Pearse Jordan, History of Baku, Aziz Abdul Naji, Chocolate City Records, Teachings of Falun Gong, More...
- Merge: Steady state theory, Faculty of Forestry and Geomatics of Université Laval, Univision.com, Military of Iraq, Pi, Backlog...
- Style: Sarkar (film), Sting and Lex Luger, Newsbreak Magazine, Production logo, Peer exchange, More...
- Expand: Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple, The Curse of Yig (short story), Erotica, Harivamsa, More...
- Requests: Lam ploen, Amenable set, Literature by region, Top-coded, Nattura, Bidding function, Transient evidence More...
- Mediation Cabal: Robert Gray, Joie de Vivre, anarchy battlefield, Almeda University, Global warming, More...
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Cleanup backlogs - Review recent overhauls - Active fixup projects - Maintenance projects - Maintenance COTW: be merged
[edit] Neat Links
The Web is a bewilderingly vast memepool.
Feel free to add any links that you think are exceptionally interesting.
- http://www.keo.org -- Orbiting time capsule to be launched in 2008 or 2009. Anyone in the world can send his or her own message forward in time 50,000 years. Kick ass. You can send a message until the end of 2008.
- The Newseum -- An excellent news and history resource.
- Abandoned and little-known airfields.
[edit] Games
- Don't you DARE stack the cats.
- Whack-A-Cyclops Great game. The others on the site are also pretty good.
- A great collection of games.
- Orisinal is a collection of delightfully innocent, whimsical games. This one I find particularly beautiful. Peace.
- 3dpong and curveball
- blocks
- snowcraft