Mother Earth, Mother Board, and Instapaper

I came across a link to a 44,000 word “essay” by Neal Stephenson about laying a cable called FLAG from England to Japan. I had read the article before, probably a decade or so ago (it came out in 1996) but reread it on a lark. It’s just as interesting now as it was then, if not even more so. For one thing, I understand a lot more of the article nowadays.

But the real reason I’m posting the link is that it gives me a chance to link to Instapaper. It’s an app for any iPhone OS device that lets you download a copy of an article for later reading, generally with a more mobile-friendly format as well. Highly recommended, it’s how I read almost everything that I link to, if it’s longer than a page or two of text.