Midnight in New York. It’s a Quicktime full-screen panorama; I don’t know if Windows users will be able to see it, but I think so. That whole site is just chock full of goodness. Ten years from now we’ll be looking back on this like we look at ViewMasters today, I imagine. There, that’s my unrepentant futurism for the year. Speaking of futurism, go read the best weblog post of 2004. The year’s early yet, mind you, but damn Rob is smart.
Hey, these pro-family folks want to know what you think about gay marriage (original). Kind of them to ask all of us. You know what to do.
If you start here (original) and read forward, you’ll get an elegant insightful view of the Democratic nomination battle from January 14th to the current moment. Al Giordano predicted Kerry’s surge ages ago, and he was dead on accurate. His insight into the surge as it happened was fascinating.
You don’t really need to go any further than the first paragraph of this story (original) (via Talking Points Memo (original)) to get pissed off: Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The Globe. Apparently the Republicans have forgotten Watergate. Stealing memos, as it turns out, is wrong.
Newsweek breaks the news: Jeff Bezos is funding a space venture. Some dot-com CEOs buy basketball teams; some buy spaceships. Carl’s comment: “I guess he took to heart the analysts who pointed out that Amazon’s valuation required selling to other solar systems.” Oh, and Neal Stephenson is working for the Bezos venture. That’s funky. I was all set to feel smart about pointing out that Elon Musk, who founded PayPal, is also doing a private space company but Newsweek got there first. Alas. Still, it’s kind of a cool way to spend all that money. ...
In honor of the kickoff of the 2004 political season, today’s mashup will be based on the Iowa caucuses, which are exceedingly rich soil in which to plant a campaign seed. You’ve got the obvious basic storyline of selecting a leader in the middle of political intrigue. You’ve got the way the caucuses work; they’re not actually an election. You’ve got the current sitaution, in which the political outsider (Dean) surged against the consummate veteran (Gephardt) until at the very last minute the other veteran (Kerry) takes the unexpected lead — and the other young guy (Edwards) is surging as well. You’ve got Iowa, a state most people ignore except every four years. Fun stuff. Mashers, start your ethanol-fuelled engines!
Horked from Metafilter, but high on the cool factor: MagicGallery.com (original), a collection of vintage magician posters from 1890 to 1930. Those who enjoyed a certain novel should make sure to view this poster (original).
A while back I said I thought it would be cool to set up a Harvard Square wireless weblog. It still would be cool — come to think of it, I should talk to the guys over at NewburyOpen.net (original). They have a little wireless bubble down at South Station, which doesn’t connect to the open Internet but which does have a little isolated bulletin board; they might be interested in the blog idea. ...
Oh yeah — posts will be seldom for the rest of this week, as I am off traveling on business. Parenthetically, there’s nothing quite so amusing as introducing a tech geek to Fry’s for the first time. Sure, I’m jaded by years of bad Fry’s customer service, but newbies don’t know the horrors that lurk beneath the tech megastore surface.
Today we’re gonna mashup Robin Hood. Yeah, there’s a thematic link to last week’s mashup there; it must be the long winter nights getting to me. The core of it all is the old steal from the rich, give to the poor thing — and from there on in it’s all about the variations. Merry Men, Maid Marian, kings away at the wars: what’s not to like? A tip of the hat to GURPS Robin Hood seems in order as well. Oh, and a reminder: there’s a mailing list for the weekly announcement of this writing meme and Game WISH. It’s free, and who doesn’t like free? Now, on to the mashup.