Wonder what they mean by 'live' 

Next Sunday's West Wing episode is the live debate. The promos almost make it sound like the WW show will be shot live. I don't quite get it, but it sounds intriguing. They've done video before, like when CJ was being followed around for a Dateline-style piece. Maybe that's all they're doing for the debate episode.

An idea for the valid OPML logo 

Dave, just a notion. If you like the concept, you probably should ask somebody who really knows how to do this stuff to do it right.

I had another idea but I wouldn't even know how to comp that one: do a play on a stamp of approval and render the word "valid" or "validated" in rubber stamp style. It could be animated, too.

'Frenzies do not imply bubbles' 

David Cowan, in consultation with Marc Andreessen, on the nature of bubbles. Also check out this new podcast hosted by Eric Olson. The first episode features Cowan, David Sifry and other VCs and aggregator guys talking "entirely too much about Web 2.0," according to Brad Feld.

No identity (or, the night I became a feminist) 

I was going to say something on Friday about girls and math, and I did make a few notes but got sidetracked. Ideas about early socialization kept creeping into the notes, because socialization has to figure in if you're talking about why women tend not to be into math. I started listing my own radicalizing moments -- drifting off into general feminist awakenings, not necessarily related to math. One of them is season-specific.

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, and my brother was 7 or 8, we wore storebought Halloween costumes of Jackie and John Kennedy. It must have been around 1962. As we went around the neighborhood trick-or-treating, the grownups opening the doors thought we were darling and instantly recognized our masks as the famous couple.

Then my brother got sick -- too much candy, probably -- and I had to go on alone. Nobody knew who I was anymore. I'd trudge up to a door with a group of kids and the neighbor would say, "Oh, there's a ghost and a witch, and a skeleton... and a.... ah.... pretty lady!"

I had no identity except in relation to him, and I remember that it made me sad and it pissed me off. All 60 pounds of me grasped the significance of it, and I distinctly remember being able to generalize the incident and see a problem that belonged to my entire gender.

Dropping the virtual graveyard 

I decided against working further on the graphical Iraq body count. I appreciate Hil's work on the icons. I'm just trying to clear the boards for some other things I want to do in my spare time. I really don't need another online hobby thing to maintain. If somebody else feels like doing it, please be my guest.

Did you hear that? 

Reading the comments about Dave's beta OPML validator, it sounds like a shift occurred just in the last week or two. I think OPML adoption just went into second gear. As more and more establishment entities are doing something with OPML, it's getting harder for anybody who might be inclined to dismiss it, to brush it off as a inviable format. So, might as well shrug and get on with it.