As you might expect, the Foley story is dominating the pundit blogosphere today. The real dirt reporting is being done by the mainstream press, so I don't want to waste space pointing to big sites you probably already visit, but here's what else I clicked:
Think Progress has a timeline of the events in question which I found helpful in terms of perspective.
What's interesting about the timeline is that while Democrats are accusing Republicans of knowing of Foley's proclivities and not doing anything, the Republicans are also casting blame. Their accusation is that whoever started this story also knew about it and didn't say anything until it was politically advantageous to do so.
Tom Maguire subjects the story to his typically intense scrutiny and comes up with a litany of questions. One line that stood out to me was, "Maybe the blog author was an unwitting catspaw, but I would want some assurance that this was not simply a successful attempt to promote a story that wasn't quite ready for the Mainstream Media by laundering it through some blogs (and wasn't that Matt Drudge's ecological niche, back in the day?)." With regard to the role of the Internet, it is interesting to note how the source-blog for the story is now acting as an anonymous tip box - though there doesn't appear to be much coming in.
I clicked through some of the related links at Flopping Aces as well.
Lots of folks are getting a chortle from the Foley quote in this St. Petersburg Times story from 1998. "'It's vile,' said Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach. 'It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction.'" He was talking about Clinton.
Speaking of the St. Petersburg Times, since I was shouting this at the TV screen during Hardball today, I'd also like to point out this note from the editors that explains how they could have known about the story but not reported on it.
Feeling somewhat related to the Foley thing, Authorities seek blogger who posted sex gossip. More specifically, high school sex gossip. It seems unavoidable that teenage sexuality is going to show up online.
Attractors - Good for zone-out telephone meetings. Not that I ever zone out on telephone meetings. I set a challenge for myself to see if I could keep all the balls in play and not let any fall through. It looks like there are a finite number of balls.
Neil Armstrong apparently did not flub the "small step for (a) man" line. Now if they can just do something about that Star Trek split infinitive.
Microsoft's Zune side by side with an 80 gig iPod. I hope this thing works because it looks really promising.
Top ten geek business myths - There's a good chance you've muttered at least one of these under your breath at some point in the past few years.
I thought Lyric plugins were illegal because lyrics are copyrighted. I seem to recall a story of a iPod app that did the same thing. Anyway, this one seems to be getting a good response. The idea is that it automatically finds the lyrics of the songs playing in your media player.
Turning a paper plate and a PC fan into a hovercraft.
How to dismantle an Atomic Bomb - Sure, you could skip this link, but won't you feel foolish if you actually find yourself facing an A bomb one day?
"Does this discovery of soft dinosaur tissue mean that scientists will soon be able to clone a Tyrannosaurus rex? Probably not – most scientists believe that DNA cannot survive for 70 million years. Then again, before this discovery, most scientists believed that soft tissue could not survive for 70 million years either."
When Wi-Fi was young it was more common to read about communal efforts to make a seamless Wi-Fi network. But as it grew in popularity, it became more common to read about security and protecting your signal. Even as municipalities tried to figure out how to bring Wi-Fi to parks and public spaces, Wi-Fi coffee houses complained about moochers. The FON community sounds like a return to/reminder of that sharing spirit. Among other features, they offer a two channel router; "a protected one for your home and a public one for your fellow Foneros." My only concern is the map they offer. Will my ISP use it to hunt me down?
As scandalous as Digg-rigging may be, the idea of setting up a site for people to pay for diggs and then splitting the profits with diggers is a pretty clever idea.
Here's another company offering big money for help from the public on improving their product: Netflix Will Pay $1 Million To Whoever Improves Their Recommendation Engine I'm reminded the word for this is "crowdsourcing."
Tony Stark will be played by Robert Downey, Jr. (Why did I think Tony Stark was black? Did there used to be a black Iron Man? I don't see it in Wikipedia, but I really feel like it was a black character when I collected that comic in the 80s.) UPDATE: Ah ha!
Maps of War - Every now and then I click something that makes me wish the Internet had been around when I was in school. This timeline animation is so clear I think I learned more from watching it than from my entire high school world history course.
Lights off - Stars on - "The City Council of Reykjavik and its neighboring municipalities have agreed to turn off all the city lights in the capital area for half an hour while a renowned astronomer talks about the stars and the constellations on national radio." This already happened this weekend, but seriously, can you imagine?
Zombie Rights March Protested by Pirates
SlimGeek is a stationary bike married to a computer work station. It says "no sweat" but of course, that's the only way to get any real benefit from it. I have a feeling that prolonged use of this thing will result not only in sweat but wearing out the inner thighs on all your work pants. That said, I've often wished I had a stand-up workstation and a treadmill so I could stroll and work at the same time. What would be even better is to hook the computer's power supply up to the pedals so you need to work if you want to work.
Commuter Click: The Unending Torture of Omar Khadr
Speaking of Guantanamo, an Army nurse who worked with Guantánamo detainees with psychological and/or behavioral problems for six months has shared his story with blogger Patterico. We can expect a series of post on the story in the near future. (Patterico is a libertarian/conservative blogger, so presumably this nurse's story will be less sympathetic of the plight of the detainees - or maybe not, we'll see.)
Other Commuter Click: Everything Louder Than Everything Else "There are millions of copies of CDs being released that are physically exhausting listeners, most of whom probably don't know why their ears and brains are feeling worn out." This wasn't going to be a Commuter Click but the more I read, the more I feel like I need to read it again. It sounds like they're saying there's a subliminal info-overdose in modern production. The idea that the music industry could impose subliminal discomfort on millions of people is pretty intriguing.
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