Here in New York City, it was a 70-degree, sunny, blue sky day...with a plume of dark smoke rising up from Ground Zero. It was strangely, uncannily, freakishly, disturbingly like that morning on 9/11.

So, when people, let's call them, "Republicans," tell us we should "never forget" 9/11, I try and remind them that some of us simply cannot, whether it's a low flying plane, or a gap in the skyline, or, like today, a fire in downtown Manhattan. I'd actually like to forget; it'd be a nice change of pace. But the city won't let me.

What has been forgotten, of course, is justice.

Still smokin' them out, George?

A new study by Harvard shows that the Internet is having an adverse impact on local news:

Because it reduces the influence of geography on people’s choice of a news source, the Internet inherently favors “brand names”—those relatively few news organizations that readily come to mind by Americans everywhere when they seek news on the Internet.

OK, that may be true. But have you also noticed that local news web sites, generally speaking, suck?

Here's the "News 4 New York" site. What am I supposed to do with all the crap that's on that home page? Here's New Jersey's "Star Ledger" web site. Again, could there be a less compelling interface?

And have you ever tried searching for information on a local news web site? I have, and it's not pretty.

I understand the importance of local news, and why it's a bad thing they're not flourishing on the web. But isn't there some onus on these organizations to at least make the site somewhat interesting and compelling for its readers?

To make it a worthwhile place for us to visit?

Does anyone out there actually have a local news site worth reading?

John Lennon's music is now available on iTunes.

Unfotunately, the dream is over...

Listening to my newly-purchased Plastic Ono Band, it still sounds pretty damn relevant.

I don't believe in magic
I don't believe in i-ching
I don't believe in bible
I don't believe in tarot
I don't believe in hitler
I don't believe in jesus
I don't believe in kennedy
I don't believe in buddha
I don't believe in mantra
I don't believe in gita
I don't believe in yoga
I don't believe in kings
I don't believe in elvis
I don't believe in zimmerman
I don't believe in beatles
I just believe in me...

Peace.

Fascinating and thought-provoking piece in the Science section of the Times today, on the philosophy of reality. Oxford's Nick Bostrom has calculated the probability of our reality simply being a highly involved computer simulation, and, it turns out, the chances are actually pretty good.

I don't claim to understand the math in his paper (and perhaps someone here at the Cafe can put it into layman's terms), but the argument seems pretty straightforward:

A technologically mature “posthuman” civilization would have enormous computing power. Based on this empirical fact, the simulation argument shows that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) The fraction of human-level civilizations that reach a posthuman stage is very close to zero; (2) The fraction of posthuman civilizations that are interested in running ancestor-simulations is very close to zero; (3) The fraction of all people with our kind of experiences that are living in a simulation is very close to one.

So, basically, we're going to either be extinct before we ever reach the "posthuman" stage; or that we will reach it, but not run simulations (which is extremely unlikely, as we already are, with, or example, the advent of the popular Sims video games); or, finally, the number of simulations that will be run with future computing power will vastly outnumber the biological "reality" version of life, so much that, statistically speaking, yes, we're probably living in a simulation right now.

If the argument is true, think of the implications for theology -- the Intelligent Design faction may be getting much more than it ever bargained for...

In fact, it's an idea that I would guess most people wouldn't even want to consider, it's basically that shatteringly consequential to our very essence and being.

Kind of makes you long for the Redpill, huh?

When TPMCafe was revised about a year ago, there were several "hidden" links created (not really hidden...more like, not all that well advertised...).

Two of those provide a great deal of help in keeping up with all the different conversations that happen here, by showing all the latest posts that have been "most recently commented in." It can be difficult, especially for someone new here, to keep track of all the posts you've read, and all the posts in which you've commented.

Thus, the Tracker was born.

A big build up, but it's really very simple.

The first link is a global view of all the conversations that are happening -- click here for the "site tracker." The actual URL is:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/tracker

As you can see, it shows the Type of post (blog, discussion, Election Central, etc), it shows the Title and Author, the Replies (which shows total and "new," meaning how many since the last time you entered that post), and, finally, Last Post. The view is sorted by that last column, which makes this a chronological listing of all the active posts at TPMCafe.

The second link is the same idea, but it's limited only to posts within which you've commented. So I can't provide a link for everyone, because it's a different URL for everyone. But the format is simple:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/user/your_user_name/track

So, if you were Greg Sargent, you would enter the following:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/user/gregsargent/track

And, if you've clicked on the above link, you'd notice that by entering the user name of anyone on this blog, you can see their tracker view as well. You can also get to your own tracker by clicking on My Account -> Track

And that's it. By using these, it's much easier to keep track of everything that's happening at the Cafe. (I guess that's where they got the name...) The one for your personal comments is great for not missing responses to your comments. And the other is especially useful for finding conversations that are going on within the Reader's Blog section of the site, as our blog posts generally fall off the main page fairly quickly.

By bookmarking both of these links, you won't miss a post around here!

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Note: For Part One of this series, "How to Make A Link," please see here.

Bush made a promise:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has quietly shelved plans to hold the Senate in pro forma session this month after the White House agreed to refrain from making any executive appointments during the Senators’ August break.

And I'm sure Democrats will be SHOCKED! when the first recess appointment comes through...