Linkage XXIII

White House Goes Green Well, not really. But they have embraced recycling. Sadly No breaks down the President's Veteran's Day push-back speech and shows that large parts of it are exactly the same as a speech he gave in October.

Progress Take a look at this, a 1975 500kb hard drive! (It's huge). I know it's lame to be amazed by stuff like this, but I am. I still remember buying my first 30mb hard drive in 1990 for $500. I was feeling pretty slick because I'd gone the whole way and not settled for the 20mb drive. It was nine inches square, 3 inches tall, and the fan sounded like a jet engine. (via BoingBoing).

On to Tucson Mark Sarvas keeps a wonderful L.A.-centric literary blog called The Elegant Variation. He is also preparing to ride a century (a 100+ mile bike race/ride) for the first time. His account of his training and his first brush with being an athlete as a man in his forties is both humble and moving. Good luck, Mark.

Old Skool Meets New Skool From BoingBoing, How to make a duct tape iPod case.

One Nation, under... nothing? Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution links to the 1796 Treaty between the U.S. and the Bey of Tripoli, whose ships (the Barbary Pirates) had been hassling American merchant ships. He quotes the eleventh article of the treaty, which begins, "As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion...". Hmm. The "Christian America" types like to tell us we have departed from the intentions of the Founders. Well, here are their intentions, in their own words, and they seem pretty clear to me.