Assorted thoughts (with links)

+ Jason links to Ricky Jay's website, which has a REALLY LONG article on Jay - a magician, sleight of hand artists, and a bunch of other labels in that vein. I need to do some more research on this Jay fellow. It sounds like his 'tricks' are truly fascinating.

+ Nice, full article on the Littoral Combat Ships in today's State . Here are 34 pictures, worth a thousand words a piece ;-)

This is the best direction for the Navy to go: more, smaller ships (though I doubt we really needed two different models...).

+ What if you wrote a really great comment, complete with links and research, and no one cared? I did. Fell flat on Coming Anarchy, so I think I'll reprint it here:

(Extra points if you notice my brithday in the permalink for my comment. Spooky! ;-)

i find this topic [micro-states] very interesting. makes me think of:

+ Neal Stephenson's enclaves/ phyles/tribes
+ The minimal compact: An open-source constitution for post-national states
+ Emergent democracy

I'll grant I didn't draw out comment as well as I might have, but, sheesh ;-)