Richard Dawkins: "As luck would have it, we have just the thing to hand: a ready-made system of mind-control which has been honed over centuries, handed down through generations. Millions of people have been brought up in it. It is called religion and, for reasons which one day we may understand, most people fall for it (nowhere more so than America itself, though the irony passes unnoticed). Now all we need is to round up a few of these faith-heads and give them flying lessons." [9:35 AM]

Today's EGR on the Current Situation is well worth reading. [11:04 AM]

NTK: "So: do you have some minority you'd like to haphazardly blame? Some half-arsed genocidal theory you'd like to insist become global policy? Some simplistic demonisation of a country's recent history that needs to be waved in the faces of everyone you know? Mail it to our hotline on devnull@spesh.com, and we'll pass it on to those who must fill the useless silence which would otherwise be wasted on slow, methodical grief." [10:56 AM]

John Perry Barlow: "Within a few hours, we will see beginning the most vigorous efforts to end what remains of freedom in America. Those of who are willing to sacrifice a little - largely illusory - safety in order to maintain our faith in the original ideals of America will have to fight for those ideals just as vigorously." [11:39 AM]

My project manager was in NYC this week along with some other coworkers. Their hotel was about 200 feet from the World Trade Center. Luckily they were a little further away (55 Water Street) when the planes hit. They were on the streets about 12 blocks away when the second tower collapsed. The scene was pretty much as you would expect: a wall of smoke and dust rushing down the streets, a rain of office paper, panicking people. Everybody in that group is OK but I have one coworker in the city who is still unaccounted for. [Update: She's fine.] [3:00 PM]

[2:30 PM]

Rafe and Dave have lucid coverage of the attacks. Local media is more accessible than the national sites, try Boston.com and WBUR. [12:31 PM]

The Onion A.V. Club interviews Joss Whedon.
"I designed the show to create that strong reaction. I designed Buffy to be an icon, to be an emotional experience, to be loved in a way that other shows can't be loved... I wanted people to embrace it in a way that exists beyond, 'Oh, that was a wonderful show about lawyers, let's have dinner.'" [1:54 PM]

Earth is becoming a greener greenhouse. [11:48 AM]

Why everyone's good at math. [11:21 AM]