2001.04.29
A very interesting information toy: interconnected.org, aka Dirk, the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. (The name is a reference to a character and stated belief system in some Douglas Adams book.) Dirk asks people to state the connection between two objects or concepts. For example, "socks" is related to "feet" because "that's where you wear them", "white" because "a baseball team", "bill clinton" because "the first cat of the united states of america is named socks", etc. The cool part is you can then enter any two concepts, no matter how disparate, and it will try to find a connection between them-- and often succeed. The server is a bit slow these days, but it's still a great site. For example, "socks" is related to "atari" with the following path:
| socks | ||
| she has a cat named socks, what more proof do you need that she is a witch? | hillary clinton | |
| by golly, it looks like the alt.bible.prophecy mob are out to get her. Grow up, people! | bible | |
| Genesis is the first book of the Bible | genesis | |
| the SEGA Genesis is a system that will allow you to play video games | video games | |
| atari was one of the first big video game companies | atari |
Joke of the Moment
A Peruvian military jet on anti-drug patrol recently shot down a Cessna seaplane carrying American missionaries.
Asked to justify the shootdown, a senior military officer responded that the Cessna had been carrying "the opiate of the masses."