In the meantime, as a distraction, here are some things you might want to click on and check out:

1. Is it possible that all this political rage is not actually about healthcare?
2. I enjoyed the documentary “This Film is Not Yet Rated,” which takes a look at the MPAA’s system of assigning maturity ratings to films, and how it affects the production, distribution and success of movies in the U.S.  The themes were that (A) a small group of anonymous and inaccessible people have significant influence in deciding what becomes a part of our culture, (B) anything that depicts the sexual empowerment or fulfillment of women is dangerous or obscene, and (C) anything that isn’t 100% pro-military, pro-war is dangerous or obscene.

   I know these themes will be shocking to you, so just take a minute and catch your breath.

3. There’s a new federal policy that says cycling and other forms of non-motorized transportation should be treated as equal to motorized transportation when we plan our cities and streets.  Yay! But apparently, this is going to lead to economic catastrophe.  RUN FOR–er, uh, I mean DRIVE FOR YOUR LIVES!!
4. Have you tried playing Glenn Beck Bingo?  It’s a great party game.
5. I really hope none of the commenters on my review of Lierre Keith’s “The Vegetarian Myth” were among the militant vegans who assaulted her at a recent speaking engagement.  Um, you’re doing it wrong.

There now, you almost forgot about my blogging transgressions, didn’t you?

• Have a young one or someone who gets overwhelmed by the language in standard Wikipedia articles?  Try Simple Wikipedia, which only uses simple English words and grammar.
• Jim Hair posted a Youtube video of photographs from his trip to the Inauguration.  He’s got DVDs available too.
• Literal Music Videos – what your favorite artists were really trying to say
• A few new (at least to me) local blogs to check out: Michele is rennovating a cool house here in Richmond, Adrienne is blogging about books and various other things, Cassie is blogging about life at IU East and in Richmond and also has a pet sitting service blog, Nate is looking at technology as a means to community empowerment and engagement, and Jay is writing about outdoor experiential education.  Keep it up, folks!
  
• 25 people to blame for the financial crisis (according to TIME magazine).  Be careful, you might be one of them.

• How DO you end parenthetical statements with emoticons? I’d really like to know.
• Make your own handwriting font – I used to dream about this kind of tool when I was a kid.  Really.
• Wayne County Veg*n Resources – Aaron and Mel FINALLY write a blog together, and it’s actually a great compilation of food/restaurant reviews and tips, especially as they relate to vegan/vegetarian diets.
• I’m on Facebook now, though it’s largely just a rebroadcast of my Twitter feed.  Please don’t ask me to justify this.  I don’t generally respond to requests or event invites there, don’t take it personally, cyber-friends.
• The next time you see one of those flashing LED road signs, you’ll know how to reprogram it to say what you want, e.g. “Zombies Ahead.”

What sites are you obsessing over this week?

• Friday’s episode of On the Media was excellent as usual, but did an especially good job of covering the strange way the 11 PM Eastern network television calling of the election works, cognitive dissonance around the world about electing Barack Obama, and difference between real grassroots organizing and just another marketing campaign. Great stuff.
• Clearing Up Basic Misunderstandings – some interesting post-mortem thoughts on the McCain/Palin ticket from Alan Pavlik.
• Last political links, I promise: What the silence in Grant Park said – yes. The one where she makes her post-election political statement – nicely put. Got to admire the geeks who were behind the flood of website traffic leading up to and on election day.
• Whitewater Valley Artists Consortium – I think I’d known these folks had a group, but just now found their website. Glad they’re here!
• Drama Prairie Dog – can’t stop watching it!

Some topics I’m thinking about, and may eventually blog about:

• The possibilities and problems of pacifism, from a primitivist perspective
• Even though complex relationships bring joy, how do we navigate the complicated privacy and sensitivity issues that come up when we wear multiple hats, and even sometimes have competing internal agendas?
• How to talk usefully about peak oil and relocalization with those who haven’t encountered the concepts before, and who might be personally resistant to exploring them further?
• Where we could set up a Flash Mob event in Richmond?
• Psalm 40:1-3
• The over-saturation of “green” messages, products and events.
• The cultural and economic advantages of having community and retail spaces that take advantage of “swerve,” compared to single-destination lifestyles

How about you…what’s on your mind?

• Hospitality for the Coming Age: Sharing in the midst of scarcity: Anna Lisa’s new blog chronicling her ministry formation work around sharing resources – food, listening, time, hope – when such things are scarce. Brand new, ready for your comments!
• indexed: astute and sometimes funny observations about the state of the world, presented as simple diagrams on index cards.
• Project 10 to the 100th: Google is giving away $10 million for good ideas – anyone want to partner on a submission?
• FAIL Blog: Pictures and Videos of Owned, Pwnd and Fail Moments: in the tradition of lolcats, some really funny and scary stuff here, like this abomination of truth in marketing.
• Found Magazine: random bits of other people’s lives found, scanned, and posted to the web. Wow.

• Dave Pollard’s process flowchart for blogging [GIF]
• travis poling, the blog – A new blog by Travis, who’s taking blogging to a new level
• Bikes as Transportation – A new blog by Mark, locally based but globally appealing:
• Three great local/regional food blogs I’ve come to know recently: Middle West Meals, Indieats, and Going Local.
• Indianapolis Startup Weekend – anyone want to go start up a tech company together?
• When Gmail Goes Dark – or, “why it will be a long time before I depend on Google Apps for mission critical business tasks”
• Fun with FOIA – scans of various internal forms used by the National Security Agency. I love that stuff.
• ChaCha – human-powered search engine accessible via SMS text message – great for parties.

• Smaller Indiana, a social networking site for Indiana people, with an apparent trend toward IT/design professionals. It’s built on Ning, which I’m considering as a platform for a few projects. But mostly I’m just excited to see social networking applied at a more regional/local level – a great trend.
• If you enjoyed Thought to Exist in the Wild, you’ll enjoy this bit of satire: San Diego Zoo, Prison Merge. Yeah.
• The Emergency Party Button – oh yes, I will build this some day soon. They even got the music right.
• What You Do Counts – National Geographic selected this film by an Earlham College student as a finalist
• Someone took the time – a lot of time – to create an interesting map of humanity.
• Wired says you can keep your SUV, don’t bother paying for organic food, forget about the spotted owl, etc. because reducing carbon emissions is the only real battle that matters. Hmm.

• Do you depend on Gmail or Google Calendar? Did you know they’re not ready for production use yet?
• The Rockridge Institute, a progressive think tank (THE progressive think tank for many) abruptly closes its doors because there wasn’t enough money coming in. But as a part of their exit, the description of “The Big Job” to be done is compelling, and so life goes on.
• I love a good idea I’ve never heard of before, and this place has lots of them
• Can you survive for 24 hours without your computer? I didn’t think so.
• One of the best YouTube videos I’ve seen in a long time: An Engineer’s Guide to Cats
• The Palladium-Item will be updating its website this week – and once again wiping out any archive of past reader discussions in their forums. I can’t decide if this is a blessing or a shame, and it’s probably both. I hope the new beginning represents a new mode of conversation, but I won’t hold my breath.

• Popping Culture Blog by Michelle Manchir: Michelle’s journalistic efforts at the Palladium-Item are some of the more refreshingly comprehensive and useful to come along in a while, and her blog entries are turning out to be similarly insightful.
• Peter Suber of Earlham College Gets Win for Open-Access at Harvard: Peter was a professor of mine at Earlham, and is one of the most interesting and intelligent people I know. He’s been working hard at making scholarly articles available for free online, and this news is certainly a great milestone for that effort.
• WayNet.org allows organizations without 501(c)3 status to apply for fee-waived membership: Now you don’t need to have a letter from The Man if you’re a low-budget not-for-profit organization wanting to join this Wayne County community network association.
• The Palladium-Item is revising its forum posting policy so that it holds its online users to some of the same standards as its letter writers in the print edition. And yet despite some heroic efforts, as I predicted in 2005, the forum remains something of a drowning pool where trolls go to feed.
• Check out my Summersault Weblog entry on adding a free chat room to your website. Any questions? Come ask me in the chat room at live-richmond.com.
• I am searching for the medical term for “an irrational fear of velociraptors” – anyone?