There is some desire for a Jon Udell-esque library bookmarklet (original) for Harvard’s Hollis Catalog (original). A little bit of research, and there you go. It’s not perfect, since Hollis doesn’t seem to use ISBNs as the primary index, but the first book listed on the results page will be the book you’re looking for if it’s in the catalog.

My friend Rob MacDougall has a nifty new blog, which I cannot recommend strongly enough if you are interested in the history of technology. Share and enjoy.

My pal Jamie’s doing a music exchange — burn a CD with your favorite songs of all time on it, send it to everyone on the list, you know the drill. In one of those fleeting moments of personal revelation I sometimes indulge in, here’s mine. (Yeah, that’s a pretty weak excuse for personal revelation.)

Ashcroft has resigned (original). That’s good.

“Listen… There’s another national anthem playing, Not the one you cheer At the ball park.” “We’re the other national anthem, folks, The ones that can’t get in To the ball park.” Available from iTunes, happily enough.

If anyone was paying attention to my list of criteria for judging Bush’s success, it’s been updated.

The Incredibles is really really good, but if you’ve been reading reviews, you don’t need me to tell you that. I teared up a bit, I forgot it wasn’t a live-action movie, yes it really is one of the best superhero movies ever period. I got nothing much to say beyond “Wow, awesome.” Go go go.

The song entitled “Going Through The Motions” on the new Aimee Mann live album (original) is not the song sung by Sarah Michelle Gellar on Buffy during the musical episode. So don’t get your hopes up like I did.

Probably not my last note on this, but quite possibly my last for today: Kerry was not a bad candidate. There was not a magic candidate who would have gotten the Democrats 51% of the vote. Clinton didn’t win because he was from Arkansas, he won because he was an incredibly good campaigner. He might not have won this election. It’s not as if there’s any evidence that a more moderate candidate (and Kerry’s fairly moderate) would have done better. ...

Regarding new directions, I recommend to you David Neiwert, who remembers that the American progressive movement started both inside and outside the cities. But we have terminology issues here. At present, progressive is used as a substitute for liberal. I’m not entirely sure that’s accurate, considering that Teddy Roosevelt wound up a progressive in the end. My personal current bet is that within ten years we’ll have a moderate party and a conservative party. I hedge this by saying that I don’t think civil liberties are a liberal or a conservative issue — see also William Weld and (odd fellow traveller, here) Bob Barr. I think there’s a small chance that neither of these parties will be the Democratic Party. It’s possible that one of them will be progressive. ...