Dustin Nolte, chief blogger at American Empire, directed me to this post, in which he explains the blog's name.  "The American Empire I think of as being the focus of this weblog is an empire of ideas that starts at one shore and ends at another".  So be it.

Dustin is also a contributor to the Command Post, and suggests that the redesign is not a repositioning.  Time will tell, but I think I was hasty in declaring a shark jump; I owe it to them and the great work they've done to give them time before passing judgement.  They also have a PDA version of their Iraq blog which looks great on my Treo.  So - sorry!

And speaking of SARS (we were, really; that's what drew my attention to American Empire); here's an interesting article in the NYTimes about how China's response to SARS has undermined their efforts to appear progressive.

Philip Greenspun: The Death of the Media Lab?

Matt Webb (Interconnected) and Tom Coates (Plastic Bag) are visiting San Francisco (they're both English), and blogging about it.  They seem to regard the U.S. much as we might regard Mars.  Visit both their sites for some interesting perspectives...

Want to know what Playboy's Playmate of the Month looked like the month you were born?  Aha, I thought so.  Here you go...

Okay, this is funny.  Yeah, it is a Japanese page, but let the pictures load...

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!