Some fascinating links courtesy of this MeFi thread to sites and books looking at the New York of the past.
Copies are evil
Aw, crud. Republican Alaskan senator Ted Stevens has joined the (if you’ll excuse me) idiots backing a bill that would ban the sale of all electronic devices without embedded copy-protection chips, according to this WIRED story. This is a Bad Thing, for reasons which Cory makes clear over at Boing Boing.
Thujone
Thujone — the mystery ingredient that gives absinthe its mystique.
Go Hoosiers!
I’m not much of a sports fan, but after having two parents who went to IU, it does catch my eye when the Hoosiers beat Duke by one point, and move into the final eight.
Nixon was no stoner
Apparently the biggest reason marijuana is illegal in the US today is because Nixon wanted it to be.
Google vs. Scientology 2
Google has replaced the links it removed yesterday after a fight with the Scientology organization. This still shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
More site reorganization
If you’re a regular visitor, you’ve probably noticed by now that I’ve moved things around a bit. Basically, I’m working on simplifying the site, especially the first page that people see when they show up, trying to make things a bit less overwhelming (since I do tend to babble).
In essence, the first page of the site now serves as a table of contents/overview of what’s on the site. The table of contents that used to be on the left hand side of the page now fills the main content area, while the Long Letter blog itself has been moved to its own page. The links listed in the right sidebar have been split between the pages — more general links on the main page, and more blog-related links on the Long Letter page.
Lastly, I was able to set the entry for The Long Letter up so that it will always show a short summary of the most recent five entries in the blog. Clicking on the title of the blog will load the main page, while clicking on the title for the individual posts will jump to that entry on the main page.
Overall I think these will help simplify things. Feel free to e-mail or comment if you’ve got any thoughts on all this, of course.
Putrid weisenheimers
There are people I unquestionably despise. They lack morals, character, and honesty. They change this country’s moral infrastructure. In case you can’t tell, I’m talking about Mr. Michael Hanscom here. Let us note first of all that whenever anyone states the obvious — that Michael’s wisecracks are one of those things that will turn over our country to putrid wisenheimers — discussion naturally progresses towards the question, ‘Why can’t Michael live among us in peace?’
— thanks to Scott Pakin’s automatic complaint-letter generator
But where’s the Green Fairy?
Care to import some Absinthe for your next party? Order now, and save 10 if you order the Moulin Rouge DVD at the same time! Really. I’m not making this up.
How many inches?!?
As if it weren’t bad enough that I’ve been lusting over a 22″ Apple Cinema Display since they came out, yesterday at MacWorld Tokyo they had to go and introduce a 23″ version. Too bad I don’t have a spare $3500 lying around. Also introduced was a new, higher-capacity (10Gb) version of the iPod.