So are you getting ready?  The Matrix Revolutions opens this Wednesday.  Everything that has a beginning, has an end...

Oh, and mark your calendars.  08/06/04.  Alien vs. Predator.  Yeah.

Lawrence Lessig in Wired: The New Road to the White House.  "How grassroots blogs are transforming presidential politics."  And you thought blogs were just something silly Ole did to fill up his time :)

Joi Ito relays an interesting snippet from George Bush (Sr.)'s memoir, published in 1998:  "Trying to eliminate Saddam...would have incurred incalculable human and political costs...  Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."  Wow.  I wonder if his son read this?

Oh yeah, I think invading Iraq was the right thing to do - more than ever.

Citizen Smash has an interesting take on the recent "good" economic news: wishing the worst.  If you're a Bush-basher, what do you do?  Root for the economy to take a nose dive?

GNXP has an interesting map showing the worldwide probability of not reaching 40.  (Sort of a backwards take on life expectancy.)  The top 34 countries are all African.  In some countries the probability of not reaching 40 is over 50%!

The Economist surveys Google's IPO aspirations.  "Google is now more than a business:  it is a cultural phenomenon.  But where will it be in a few years?"  I predict it will be a big IPO, but overvalued; it is hard to see them justifying a $10B+ valuation based on economics...

And Google was/is considering a merger with being acquired by Microsoft.  That would be horrible.  I'm not a Microsoft basher by any means, but we need more interesting technology companies, not less.

Could the entire universe be a hologram?  This Scientific American article considers the question.  [ via Xeni Jardin, who titled her post "hack the universe" and concluded "If the universe is a vast two-dimensional plane of information -- then it can be hacked." ]

Check this out!  The Old Sow Whirlpool.  "I didn't mind so much getting’ caught in it.  What I resented was havin’ to row uphill to get out."  Awesome!  [ via Wired ]

The WP has a positive review of Panther, Apple's new OS.  I just upgraded my iMac and I like it, too.  Aside from the cool functionality (I already wish Windows had Exposé) it is noticeably faster, too.  When was the last time a new OS version was faster?

Diego Doval has a great introduction to weblogs.  This is where I'll send people when they ask "hey, what's a blog?" :)  He also has a great introduction to syndication.  Great stuff!

Just about every cell phone has a camera, right?  Well, how about a TV, too?

Business 2.0 has an interesting list: 10 Technologies to watch in 2004.  (I copied it to my site because of their paywall).  Unlike many of these lists, I agree with this one.  The one thing I'd add: "video-on demand becomes real".

Designtechnica has a great survey of the known networked media devices.  Very helpful!  (but this list is probably already out of date...)  [ via Matt Haughey ]  I kind of agree with Matt that there isn't one device which has all the characteristics I'm looking for - yet.