28 December 2001

Loose Lips Mike Sanders, who has a thoughtful gentle weblog here, points today to a novel by Claire Berlinski about the experience of going through CIA training. I've just read the first chapter, and I'm hooked: "When she finished, we took our oaths. We swore to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States. I held up my hand with everyone else, and when I repeated the words, I felt profound conviction, a deep thrilling pride... At the end of the day, we were taken to an office to be photographed for the laminated identification badges we were to wear around our necks at all times while in the compound. In the photograph, I appear eager, flushed, excited. A great adventure, my expression seems to say, lies ahead of me. The hopeful woman in the photograph is gone now, of course. Gone to wherever people go when things don't work out the way they planned." This is Berlinski's first novel, but if she didn't say so on the website, you wouldn't guess it. She is a natural story teller, and the narrative carries you along effortlessly. Highly recommended - I'm gagging for more. Userland Blacklisted Dave Winer has, or rather had, a great whois interface. I popped by there this afternoon, but it looks like he's been blacklisted by the kind folks at Network Solutions: The IP address from which you have visited the NSI Registrar WHOIS database is contained within a list of IP addresses that may have failed to abide by Network Solutions' Whois policy. What's the story Dave? Do you have any idea what you've done wrong by them, and whether it's fixable? I hope so, it surely was a pearl. 9:28:03 AM