I often wonder about the "personalities" of machines and other inanimate objects.

The power of Gotham reveals itself on a regualar basis.  This time, it presented me with an opportunity to do something nice for someone special.      

Marc Halpert sent me a great article the other day about the new New Haven. He started me thinking about all of the great places to visit that I haven’t seen. Which then started me thinking that with an anniversary approaching, it is time for Bill and I to plan a weekend away. Not too far from New York, maybe a few hours’ drive.

What if you could predict all future events? A 19th century French mathematician, Laplace, thought you could. If you can predict the position of billiard balls bouncing on a table applying rules of physics, so you can also predict the position of atoms in the universe. Of course you have to know the exact position of every atom in the universe. I don't even know where my ski socks are, much less every other atom in the universe. So a good theory, but it doesn't work.

Of all the news that crossed my desk this week, this one was especially interesting and a bit scary at the same time. No it's not the new contact lens from Google that will automatically read your blood sugar levels from your tears and alert you...it's Amazon's new patented system called "anticipatory shipping."   Yes...they will ship your stuff before you order it.  

On the morning after our December 3rd Holiday Party (where we named the recipient of our hallowed "Red Bandana" Award, named two new Networkers of the Year and our Foundation handed out four $5000 grants to worthy and appreciative recipients) it came to me that, more than anything else, the characteristic which distinguishes Gotham from other groups, networking or otherwise, is that we have SOUL!SOUL is defined as the Spiritual part of a human being regarded as immortal. In my mind we're not so much immortal as spiritual.

I don't know whether he told them to do it or whether he knew. The answer to the popular question of the last few days -- "Do you think he knew?” -- largely depends on what you thought of him in the first place. What's ironic is that, by most accounts, he's been doing a pretty good job. And don't hold the fact that he has political ambitions against him.