What do you seek in these shelves? - Robin Sloan

The buzz about Google these days is that it’s like America itself: still the biggest game in town, but inevitably and irrevocably on the decline. Both are superpowers with unmatched resources, but both are faced with fast-growing rivals, and both will eventually be eclipsed. For America, that rival is China; for Google, it’s Facebook...But here’s the difference: staring down the inevitable, American pays defense contractors to build aircraft carriers. Google pays brilliant programmers to do whatever the hell they want.

The thinnest tendrils of dawn are creeping in from the east. People in New York are softly starting to tweet.

I will admit that I just want an excuse to put all my favorite people in a room together.