Here, have some insight-by-proxy: Jeff's fulminating against the administration's ideologically loaded appointments to scientific advisory boards -- and the WaPo's milquetoast excusal of this behavior. Go have a look.

It's true that Jeff has lived in Berkeley for the past few years. He's biased -- by this point has probably secretly begun to have opinions about things like organic gardening, if the condition is progressing at a typical pace. But he's also a scientist, studying cell membranes or synapses or some other such nonsense that'll eventually get him burned as a witch.

The new iPod Shuffle doesn't look that appealing to me, but goodness gracious is the Mac Mini a sexy piece of tech. It makes me wish my perfectly-fine desktop PC would spontaneously combust. If you or someone you know is looking for a secondary, web-&-email, get-one-for-grandma-style computer, there's no longer any question about what you should buy.

Oh well. For the time being I'll have to satisfy myself with an iPod -- now that Jobs' keynote is safely over, there's no worry about missing out on an imminent upgrade. Clarendon, here I come! Now if they'd just hurry up and get Linux running on the 4G iPods...

i mean, d.c. is perfectly safe from terrorists. president bush, feel free to take the city's money to pay for your party:

The District of Columbia will pay the overtime costs for all officers from all law enforcement agencies involved in the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration.

The city will pay $11 million from its federal homeland security budget to cover the costs, City Administrator Robert C. Bobb said Tuesday.

"That includes District of Columbia police as well as all other law enforcement agencies that will be coming in to support the district," Bobb said. "As the city's homeland security advisor, I feel that's appropriate."

The city is also seeking permission to dip into its $240 million allotment from the federal government to pay for other costs it is incurring during the inauguration. D.C.'s total cost for the event is expected to be $17.3 million.

District residents shouldn't have to pay those costs from their own pockets, Bobb said.

Other district officials said the federal government should pay for the city's share of the inaugural costs directly.

"The president and Congress saw fit to grant $50 million to New York and Boston for security at last year's political conventions, but they won't lay down a single dime to pay specifically for the inauguration," said D.C. Councilman David A. Catania, I-At Large.

not to mention that tommy, charles and i really are likely to be confined to our house on january 20th: "The Mount Vernon Square-Convention Center station is likely to be closed at some time, Farbstein said, because almost all the inaugural balls will be held at the Washington Convention Center. "

like i said, it's the apartment's roof and a bottle of tanqueray. good times, good times.

Did anyone else hear this piece on All Things Considered yesterday? It profiled some good-hearted folks responding to the tsunami with what the segment's producers termed "grassroots aid". Rather than contributing to a high-profile organization like the Red Cross, these folks are responding to the disaster by seeking out more direct ways to help. Their stated reason is a concern over inefficiencies in large aid organizations.

This seems very NPR, and very naive. Okay, so the folks who're sending nets from one community of fishermen to another are probably accomplishing some good -- but the urge to grassroots-ify everything needs to be reined in. The FBI is warning that scams related to the disaster are already in full swing; I'm afraid that the folks quoted in the ATC piece who're collecting money to send to a Sri Lankan bank account may be getting taken for a ride. With these sorts of ad-hoc partnerships there simply can't be oversight of the same quality employed by established aid organizations with good track records.

There's a tendency to distrust bureaucracies -- certainly I fall victim to it as much or more than most. And given the occasional large-scale charity scandal, it's understandable to have some level of skepticism. But equally important is the fact that the people running those huge charities are professionals who are in a better position to coordinate efforts efficiently and to leverage economies of scale. Grassroots charity is a nice idea, but it seems unlikely to do as much good on a per-dollar basis as cutting a check to the Red Cross. To the extent that that relationship is true, boutique charity -- while still an admirable impulse -- looks unfortunately narcissistic.

happy birthday to me! as several people have put it to me already this morning, "you're now a quarter of a century old!" or "you got a couple more toes in the grave, eh?" yes. well. thanks very much. anyway, the first day of 25 doesn't feel much different from the last day of 24, not surprisingly, so i have very little input about being "officially old" as my sister likes to say. but overall, 24 was a pretty good year, so i'm excited for 25.

additionally, my 24th year was an excellent one for blogging. this site has been around since august 28, 2002, and my first "post" (actually just a gigantic shot of milanese streets from the roof of the duomo) was on september 2nd, 2002, but for the sixteen months or so, it was primarily a photo blog where i could share tales and shots of my year in italy. as it happens, unrequited narcissism only morphed into a "real" blog more or less around the time of my 24th birthday. reading through the archives last night, it was actually pretty interesting to see how amazed i was about the world of blogging, and totally naive about everything else as well. for example, from like, january to march, i am constantly Outraged! at all the Really Terrible Things conservatives were doing, and then i also proceed to get excited about sites like talkingpointsmemo.com and eschaton.

but time went on, my writing style became less idiotic (i think), and whenever anything interesting or good or bad happened, i wrote about it here. so let's review some of the minutiae in catherine's 24th year, blog style: