Sunday, January 25, 2004

DaveNet: Alice's Restaurant. 

Arlo Guthrie: "This song is called Alice's Restaurant, and it's about Alice, and the restaurant, but Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant, that's just the name of the song, and that's why I called the song Alice's Restaurant." 

There's a special public list that receives DaveNets via email. 

Susan Kitchens is blogging the Opportunity NASA press conference. 

Pictures from the Top 100 have become pretty interesting. 

Watching Tim Russert interview Wesley Clark this morning, it occurred to me how dysfunctional the system is. I saw the Great Dean Scream another dozen times. I heard the chief of the Democratic Party asked if he thought it was the end of the Dean campaign and he said the obvious -- it wasn't, and it should't be. Then they asked if Clark had screwed up by letting Michael Moore call the President a deserter. Later Russert repeatedly asked Clark to denounce Moore for saying that, but he wouldn't. The system is so perverse that Clark just danced instead of coming out and saying the obvious, yes, he's President, and yes, he got elected without his character getting the kind of examination the Democrats are getting. "So Tim, let's turn it around," Clark might have said, "Why didn't you grill Bush on that during the 2000 election? How did he become President without that getting vetted?" I might go further and wonder how he got the nomination without his military service being fully examined. And then to nail it, ask Tim to play the Dean Scream a few more times. (I'm starting to like it.) If the Republicans cry bloody murder, let's go back and figure out who painted Dean with "angry" label. Yeah, it was the Republicans, in case you were wondering.  

Another comment. The Democratic field this year is incredible. They're all good candidates. If you forget the labels the Republicans, the Clintons and the press have pinned on Dean, he'd be a good leader, a good commander in chief. We probably would get a good health care system, finally. His wife Judy would be a fantastic First Lady. I like the fact that she's more comfortable in sneakers and jeans than in fancy ball gowns. But Kerry is good, so is Edwards, and Clark, even Sharpton and Kucinich are interesting. Lieberman, well, he's more of a Republican, imho. Anyway, it seems a shame to waste a nomination on Dubya.  

Andrew Grumet: "I spent a few hours this weekend writing code to parse the feeds in Find That Feed." 

Dan Gillmor: Wikipedia Shows Power of Cooperation. 

Ed Cone: Lessons from Iowa. 

Don Park: "I am not yet convinced that there exists a workable revenue model behind Orkut but then I have similar opinions about Rovers in Mars." 

Jay Rosen's essay about Davos 2004. It's been interesting to watch posts from Joi Ito and Ethan Zuckerman and now Jay Rosen. I had a lot of the same experiences in 2000. The New Hampshire primary happened during Davos that year, and it was a shock (a good one) when John McCain won it. There were protests, the Internet bubble hadn't burst yet, the Alps are magic, and the sense of power amazing. Also amazing was the frankness with which world leaders spoke, such a difference from their television personnae. BTW, when I first met Zach Rosen at DFA, I couldn't help exclaiming "You look just like your uncle." I bet Zach is tired of hearing that, but he took it in stride. The Rosens are nice people. 

BBC: "Opportunity, the second of two Nasa rovers, has successfully landed on the Martian surface where it will search for signs of water on the planet." 

Philip Miseldine: "Establishing a standard is difficult enough in such a decentralised and egotistic web, without trying to reinvent the wheel and pass through the same obstacle course RSS did to be widely accepted and implemented." 

Ryan Overbey gets it. "This race has a long way to go, but it will be disastrous if we let CNN and Fox News control the message and shape what this election will look like. This year's primaries are our elections- not theirs."