Remembering getting a gold star in first grade? Giving blood is sort of like that. All you have to do is lie down for fifteen minutes, and you get to spend the whole rest of the day feeling smug and virtuous because you helped save someone's life.

1875 words yesterday, 147,515 since January 1.

Word count update: 5160 words since July 1, and 145,640 since January 1. Off to a good start for the month.

Who watches the watchers? In a free society, the citizens do. The MIT Open Government Information Awareness project tries to make it easier for citizens to stay informed, by collecting huge amounts of information about all three branches of government in one place. For example, just a few clicks gave me a list of key contributors to Senator John Kerry's campaigns, plus links to his voting record and lots of other information. (No, I don't have anything against Senator Kerry. I picked him because he represents me, and is also running for President.)

The site has gotten a lot of publicity and claims that several features are offline because of heavy traffic. Still, worth a visit and a bookmark.

If you have technology that allows you to maintain a constant connection to the Internet, or to your office, do you have to use it? What are the hidden costs of lost downtime? The New York Times asks if multitasking is addictive. (Free registration required.) Personally, I'm more concerned about the loss of contemplation and thinking time it can produce. Fast decisions are not necessarily, or even typically, the best decisions.

(Link by way of TechDirt.)

In honor of American Independence Day, French citizens placed a red rose at each of the 60,511 graves of US soldiers who died on French soil in the two world wars.