Reverso Wheel of Fortune . . .

The Observer-Dispatch is hosting a new game on its on-line forum: "Reverso Wheel of Fortune."

You know Wheel of Fortune, that 7PM staple on WKTV where contestants take turns guessing the words behind the lines of blank squares . . .

The O-D game is the opposite. You guess which words will produce a line of blanks when you put them into a posting! So far the contestants have come up with one word: "sales."

Of course, the other name of this game is "Censorship." The O-D apparently has software that sniffs out certain words and prevents them from being used. Many readers won't put up with scatological words and will just stay away from forums where they are used. And if the O-D is trying to promote an intelligent level of discussion -- which it seems to be doing -- such censorship is appropriate. After all, their reputation is on the line.

But "sales?" One has to wonder what/who is intended to be protected by screening out that word.

It's all rather amusing . . . until one thinks about the implications!

The internet has been a liberating force for self expression - - but our ever increasing dependency on it for our information also opens an unprecedented opportunity for malevolent forces to control what we see, say, and even think. In Utica, we seem to have a renegade programmer -- or a glitch -- that doesn't like the word "sales. " Funny. In China, Google has cooperated with the Chinese government to screen and filter the results of internet searches -- to return only "government approved" results. Not So Funny.

Now consider what is going on in our schools. "Knowledge" is deemphasized in favor of subjectively judged "performance." It's been years since kids had to memorize anything -- but they are encouraged to look up the "facts" on the 'Net. In an era of "find and replace" programming, history can be rewritten in a few key-strokes -- or entire ideas -- such as "sales" -- can simply disappear. Programmers -- or their handlers -- rule.

Today's reality is fast becoming Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" and Orwell's "1984."