ARPANET unveiled
Originally uploaded by sbisson

The box you see here, an Interface Message Processor from BBN in Boston, is one of the very first internet routers. 39 years ago today, ARPA (now better-known as DARPA, with their un-photographable office in Arlington) fired up the ARPANET for the very first time. It was a connection between just UCLA & Stanford, and it wasn’t a permanent connection, but a four-node network over leased phone lines would be active by mid-December of 1969. The famous RFC-1 would govern their initial communications, and eventually evolve into the TCP/IP we know and love today. ARPANET would eventually become the Internet.

A year before they fired up the ARPANET, J.C.R. Licklider wrote in Science & Technology, “What will on-line interactive communities be like? In most fields they will consist of geographically separated members, sometimes grouped in small clusters and sometimes working individually. They will be communities not of common location, but of common interest. In each field, the overall community of interest will be large enough to support a comprehensive system of field-oriented programs and data.”

Pretty darned prescient, don’t you think? Anyhow, raise a glass for the Internet tonight, and for all the people you know because of it.

Yesterday millions of people across the globe marked Diwali, a major Hindu, Sikh and Jain holiday celebrating the victory of the good in every human being over the evil.  To mark this triumph followers light lamps, candles and even fireworks.  The White House celebrated Diwali this past Friday, October 24, with a senior Bush administration official lighting the traditional diya and addressing the Indian American community.

desperate.prayer
Originally uploaded by impactmatt

DCist has the scoop on this one:

“This is one of the oldest, saddest dirty political tricks in the book. Given how crude the flier is, it seems certain it was made by a novice, but it’s still a pretty ridiculous thing to do. In fact, whomever is responsible could wind up facing a Class 1 misdemeanor charge in Virginia for knowingly communicating false information about an election.”

Sleazy. Really, really sleazy. Really, really, really sleazy. If the only way you can win, or even stand a chance to win, is to do it through limiting the legitimate voters and their votes? You’re doing it wrong.

And I think you suck.

CIMG1076
Originally uploaded by uscderrick

If you know anything about the Nats’ Presidents’ Race, you know that Teddy Roosevelt has never managed to win one. But, apparently, his training regimen has begun to expand. See, I hear tell that he ran the Marine Corps Marathon this weekend.

Check out the bib number in the photo above, it’s 28796. If you look up Teddy’s bib on the results, you see that he finished in 6:26:49. Looks pretty well paced, if you ask me, but that last 5K was a killer…

Nice job, Teddy!

Windy City, courtesy of maxedaperture

Take a good look at those pretty leaves while you have the chance; with a wind advisory warning that wind may gust as high as 50mph at times today you can be pretty sure that any of them that are still hanging on will be coming loose. If history is any guide, they’re all headed for my back yard.

American Indian
Originally uploaded by tbridge

I’m sitting just outside the press preview of the newest rotating gallery exhibit at the NMAI this morning. It’s called “Indian/Not Indian” and it’s comprised of the work of controversial artist Fritz Scholder. His depictions of American Indians, beginning in the 1960s and continuing his whole career, were provocative for their thematic matter. Showing alcoholism, and the decline of the Indian Society, as well as more aggressive and haunting figures, Scholder’s work is outside the “normal” purview of traditional Indian art.

The exhibition opens Saturday. We’ll have a gallery up later this week. This one’s not to be missed.

Bumpersticker
Originally uploaded by tbridge

I caught this bumpersticker in the Courthouse parking lot as I headed into the city tonight. It reads, “Pedestrians are never allowed to impede the flow of traffic, look it up!” It seems to be lovingly hand-scrawled onto a bumpersticker blank, then adhesed carefully to his or her sport ute. All I can say is, I hate drivers, pedestrians & cyclists who have chips on their shoulder, but at least this jackhole had the courage to display it for everyone.

Mayor Fenty turns in Obama’s application for the DC primary
Originally uploaded by KCIvey

Mayor Fenty has filed his papers for candidacy for Mayor for his re-election bid in 2010. This will give him the ability to raise money for his campaign and start to fill the coffers for his run. If you’re thinking, “hey wait, 2010 is a long way away!” you’d be absolutely right. But in this day and age of persistent and constant electioneering, he’s right on time.