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August 3, 2007

Friday links dump-- what my overheated brain clicked on

Dog days links blogging...

Chill: Strawberry Watermelon Agua Fresca Recipe from Elise Bauer's Simply Recipes blog.

Boomerang: It's not over for Coulter. Palm Beach Post.

When it comes to GOP twig Ann Coulter and her Palm Beach voting snafu, the fat lady has yet to sing.

While most expected the conservative pundit to be off the hook for good when the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office punted a voting fraud probe in April, the Florida Elections Commission now is investigating.

Coulter, a constitutional lawyer, voted in the wrong precinct in a Palm Beach town election in February 2006 after registering at an address that wasn't hers.

Nearly neighbors: My blog buddy Doc Searls -- Cluetrain co-author and advocate for customer power -- is moving his family from Santa Barbara to Arlington, Mass., for his second year as a fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center. His blog has followed. New address: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/docsearls/

I'm 26 days older than Doc. We've been emailing for years, but we've never met. After this move, I expect we finally will.

Read: Summer Reading 07-27-07 » This week's roundup of 2007 summer reading. from Rebecca Blood, an incremental list.

Pledge allegiance to Texas: Houston Chron: Students must remember 'God' in Texas pledge

Texas students will have four more words to remember when they head back to class this month and begin reciting the state's pledge of allegiance.

This year's Legislature added the phrase "one state under God" to the pledge, which is part of a required morning ritual in Texas public schools along with the pledge to the U.S. flag and a moment of silence....:

Fly in your drink? Piet Hein Drink Cooler. A $30 stainless steel "ice" ellipsoid. Won't melt, but there's nothing to crunch, either. It's one of many unusual drink links from Grow-A-Brain.

Rant for the full up: Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers. Business Pundit:

How does anyone but me know what I like? Why should I trust the judgement of others over my own? Most importantly... am I the only one out there who thinks this way? Web 2.0 has added almost zero value to my life. I don't need to connect and stay in touch. I don't need to hear what other people are saying. I don't care what news stories are the most read or emailed. I don't need other people to share and tag their... whatever it is they are sharing and tagging these days. I don't want what is popular, I want what is good, and in my experience, those two things only overlap a small percentage of the time.

I'm not knocking the people that want to spend all their time finding out about other people, it's just not for me. And that is why I am asking you, the Web 2.0 community, please please please build something for me. I want apps that make my life easier, not more complicated. I want apps that save time so I can spend fewer hours online and more time doing other things. I don't care about free. I'm willing to pay for things if it weeds out the noise and gives me a stronger signal. Am I the only one who thinks this way? Am I the only one that doesn't care about mash-ups? Am I the only one that wants function over form?

I have enough friends. And I think if I had to watch their every move on twitter all day, I probably need my head examined for some kind of insecurity issue. What I don't have enough of is time. Get me that, and I'll gladly pay for it.

Related: So many sites are inconvenient and free; even if you were willing to pay or click to donate, you can't upgrade past the annoyances: "I'll pay you a penny if you keep that flyout Flash ad out of my face." Even if you're willing to pay the vig, you still get beat up.

Escape: Jay is Games. Square Meal, New classic arcade game. Winners of the free online game contest.

Small talk fodder: The Story Behind the Face on the Bottle. At Modern Drunkard, the history of the Johnny Walker Striding Man, The Miller Girl in the Moon, Mr. Boston and more.

Remembering...Fred Gardner: Ciao, Michelangelo. Making Zabriskie Point

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 10:41 AM | Permalink