Laura at Apartment 11D has a nice post on the non-voluntariness of having children. Of course, in some non-trivial sense having children is a choice. but it is not a choice like the choice of what career to have, or what breakfast cereal to have. She says:
Five years ago when a few savvy instructors rushed to integrate the Web into their teaching and put their syllabi online the idea exchange so crucial to academia was alive and well in the teaching realm of our work. A few years later, witness how various password-protected courseware adopted by so many campuses is making it increasingly impossible to see others’ teaching materials. Sure, some people may not want to share their syllabi, but I suspect many wouldn’t mind. Regardless, the increasing proliferation of these services makes the teaching side of our work less and less visible to a wider audience. So while blogs may be opening some aspects of teaching, courseware is closing others.
Oxford University Press has put a large number of recent books in economics, political science, philosophy and religion online here. Unfortunately you need to subscribe, or be part of an institution that does, to get to most of the best parts, but for those of us with computers attached to university networks, this is an incredibly good service. (Hat tip: Michael Green, and to Enthymeme in the comments for reminding me where I saw this.)