w's last gasp

Please don't watch this.

I told you not to watch it.

i look forward to this every year

The AVClub's Year in Band Names...

i was also thinking of getting a cat...

...but not necessarily a tiger.

the untold pigeon battles of world war II...

...are finally revealed in this fascinating obituary of a US Army Pigeon trainer.

kick 'em while he's down

Here's a bunch of ridiculous Bush stuff:

Enjoying a kitten snack.

Kissing the babies.



Ducking a shoe from an enthusiastic Iraqi journalist.



Best of highlights:



And instead of having to laugh and cry at this:

YOUTUBE BOOB ADDRESS - watch more funny videos

that's no moon!

In a surprise move, it looks like Darth Vader has switched paths, going into real estate after making a fortune in the movies.


Read all about it here.

on the right of the op-ed page...

As long as David Brooks stays away from popular culture his column is always worth a quick look.

There was the time last November when Brooks wrote a whole column about how indie rock is destroying America, based not on his own observations, but basically from an article in the New Yorker (!) by their in-house pompous pop music dork Sasha Frere-Jones. (Who exhausts his intellectual talents on such weighty subjects as calling Stephen Merrit of the Magnetic Fields a racist because he doesn't list music by black artists among his favorites.)

In anycase, Brooks has a great column today about the scope of the infrastructure package and the need for new thinking on the whole project. This is the kind of practical, macro thinking that lends credence to Obama's whole centrist "just do what works" philosophy.

Meanwhile Bill Kristol is setting new standards of intellectual laziness and smarmy triangulation by writing a whole column about how, gee, government isn't all bad. You conservatives who just harp on government all the time are such sticks-in-the-mud! Actually, I'm sorry I put that link there. This guy doesn't need any more attention.

the most useful thing you may learn all year...

How to tie your shoelaces.

the coolest job listing ever

According to their website, the Boredoms are hiring a new drummer!

Requirements include living in the Kansai area of Japan, ability to rehearse in Osaka, and, presumably, drumming skills. None of which fits my current profile.

You can see the original posting here. (Scroll down until you see the English.)

hold the jokes

An Op-Ed piece in today's Times calls pirates "enemies of the human race." Several interesting points made about international law and the history of piracy and nation states. But "enemies of the human race"? Just because they had the bad manners to do the stealing and killing outside of convenient legal boundaries?

130,000 boobs lost at sea

I will not even attempt to explain this but will simply refer you to the source, here.

the real left

In addition to an actually funny cover this week the New Yorker has an excellent profile of journalist and New Left icon Naomi Klein. The same way that it's great to see the Daily Show going after liberal orthodoxy on MSNBC, it is great to see a major figure that clearly articulates the value of and need for the radical left.

Also, the article does a great job of pointing out some of Klein's rhetorical problems (i.e. the way she tends to come up with an original explanation for a certain phenomenon, then almost kills it from overuse and application to cases that don't really apply) without throwing out the value of Klein's message. Highly recommended reading if you have a few minutes.

the new fox news

It was funny seeing different publications opine after the election that Obama's win would doom "The Daily Show" to irrelevancy, but some of the Daily Show's best bits were actually about making the left look silly.

So it is exciting to see Jon Stewart going straight after the self righteous ideologues at MSNBC:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

MSNBC Replaces Fox News

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

the first orange president

In lieu of anything truly substantial or interesting today I'll just post the Times' photo of Obama announcing his national security team and make fun of the photographer and editor who, apparently in an attempt to get nice rich blues out of the backing curtains, turned Obama a cheese-puff orange.

Jim Wilson/New York Times

outsourcing everything

Maureen Dowd column's today is one of the few things that has genuinely shocked me in a while. She profiles James Macphereson, the founder of Pasadena Now, an online "daily magazine" for the Pasadena area that is written entirely by workers in India. Macpherson and his wife determine editorial content and direct their reporters in India to write it up.

Town meetings are attended by webcam. Interviews conducted by phone. Workers are paid by the piece, so many use it as a supplementary source of income. All of which is fine and good, but this is the model for a local newspaper? One where the writers not only don't live in the area but have never even been there? As Dowd notes by the end, this model is starting to get looked into by other papers.

"They are under P for pirates."

Apparently the Somali pirates who hijacked the Sirius Star had refused to speak with anyone, until the twelve year old daughter of a BBC reporter called them. 

secret underground lair for sale

Thursday's Times had a profile of the most interesting real estate I've ever seen: over a mile of underground tunnels underneath London, originally built as shelters and covert operations planning center during World War II and since owned by the British phone company BT. There is a bar on the premises. Asking price $7.4 million. Who's in?

your daily obama

From the Huffington Post

ladies and gentlemen, the new New York

The city's open contest to design an iconic New York City bike rack has just announced a winner! It's, umm, this thing:

Read all about it on the official blog of the contest.

More cloning!

Olivia Judson discusses issues in cloning mammoth's in her Times Blog.

Australia?!?

I have no idea why, but I found Manohla Dargis' review of this movie fascinating.

Prop 8 Boycott List

http://www.californiansagainsthate.com/dishonorRoll.html

Tibetan Government in Exile Stays With Conciliatory Approach to China

Ashwini Bhatia/Associated Press

Photo of delegates at a conference of Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala, India. Article in the Times here.

mammoth steaks!

Right after Obama winning the Presidency, wackiest news of 2008:

"Regenerating a Mammoth for $10 Million"

Imagine what we could have done with $700 billion for mammoth regeneration!

hell is... television!

The New York Times says so!

last guy on all the intertrends

I actually encountered a strip or two from the defunct comic "Perry Bible Fellowship" a while back, but yesterday a friend mentioned it to me and I found myself on the page again. Read through all of them in maybe 20 minutes? (an excellent use of time).

One of dozens of gems:

money, bikes, coke

A study indicates higher executive bonuses may actually be detrimental to performance.

Trek introduces chainless bicycles.

Apparently coke heads aren't the tree-hugging environmentalists we all thought they were:

"These people, who have good jobs and drive a hybrid car or cycle to work because they care about the environment, may go to party and do some lines of coke and they are thinking it is no problem," Francisco Santos told The Associated Press Tuesday. "They are absolutely unaware of the ecological impact of their drug taking and we want to change that."

the greatest generation

Well, the debate has been put to rest. The boomers are the greatest generation. Their parents may have overcome the Great Depression, won World War II, and established the US as the preeminent political, economic and cultural power of the 20th century, but as CNBC reports, the US government has currently spent $4.28 trillion to bail out the economy.

"That's $4,284,500,000,000 and more than what was spent on WW II, (my emphasis) if adjusted for inflation, based on our computations from a variety of estimates and sources*."

The US may have got through the 1930s and 40s through hard work, savings and sacrifice, but in true boomer fashion the US will simply buy its way out of this mess. Seems to be going great so far.

オバマ氏万歳！

Japan has traditionally been wary of Democratic Presidents and close to Republican administrations, so it wasn't a great surprise to see this Washington Post article on Japan's lukewarm reception of Obama's victory. (Aside from the town of Obama, Japan, which can't get enough of the guy. Mostly because he represents a celebrity boost, however slight, to their worn out rural economy.)

While this is an extremely complex and thorny issue, and I think the article tackles it as best it can, I can offer my own humble assessment. Although Japan has one of the largest and most well equipped military's in the world, Japan is still under the US's nuclear umbrella, and the Japanese constitution still forbids military aggression as a force of international diplomacy. In addition, Japan seems to have a hard time admitting how dependent it is on international cooperation. The country imports a large amount of its food, it relies on other countries for raw materials to keep its economy going, and while it does have somewhat of a manufacturing base, it is also heavily invested in international trade and finance.

While the article perhaps overstates anti-American sentiment in Japan, I would say that rather the country feels alone in Asia and at the mercy of the whims of the US. Since Republican presidents have generally been more congenial to Japanese interests, Democrats are viewed warily.

Which is the reaction I saw from friends of mine in Japan, whose reactions varied from ecstatic and hopeful to vaguely wary, realizing it was a milestone for the US but wondering how he would treat Japan.

brain food

Excellent Times Magazine profile on the work of writer and thinker Lewis Hyde, and his decades long examination of the meaning of art in modern society, the insanity of copyright laws, and the re-establishment of intellectual commons. His book "The Gift" mentioned in the article currently has 47 holds on it at the New York Public Library. Gerk.

Stanley Fish lays out in the clearest possible language the problems with Larry Summers as Secretary of Treasury. (Summary: it's not that he's an asshole, it's that he's an asshole who doesn't understand when and where to be an asshole.)

The New York Times continues their series on poor, poor rich folks with an article on how wealthy Mexicans require bodyguards.

how presidential (lol)

"His messages to advisers and friends, they say, are generally crisp, properly spelled and free of symbols or emoticons."

When will the media deluge of Obama porn end?

Probably when I stop reading it.

more good news?

Maybe that universal healthcare we'll (maybe) get next year can also cover this (potential) cure for AIDS.

q: how come the dust in my apartment never looks this good?

a: I don't spend hours color adjusting it for maximum impact.

NASA, via Associated Press

Red dust around the star Fomalhaut.

first tangibly good thing to come from the obama election

Sarokozy reminds Putin that unilateral aggression is going out of fashion.

make your own ipod speakers!

This is about as Generation O as you can get man: sitting at the nexus between environmentalism, DIY, and iPods are... paper cup iPod speakers!

UPDATE: Tried this yesterday. These suck as speakers.

bad news, good news

And now, from the real New York Times, the next fucking terrifying threat to civilization as we know it:

U.N. Report Sees New Pollution Threat.

The good news:

Princeton economist, New York Times columnist, Nobel laureate, and beardy icon Paul Krugman, who was one of Obama's most incisive critics in the Democratic primary battles (mostly because of his relatively moderate healthcare plan), wrote today that "there’s now a reasonable chance that universal health care will be enacted next year!" Krugman says he hears that "Obama's opposition to mandates was tactical politics," but that he may support a new bill afoot for universal healthcare!

We're gonna need it once those killer brown clouds start showing up.

lefty wet dream fantasy time

http://www.nytimes-se.com/

This is only gonna make next July 4th more sobering.

(Click on "Thomas Friedman" in the upper right hand corner.)


New York Times Special Edition Video News Release - Nov. 12, 2008 from H Schweppes on Vimeo.

Apparently it all comes from these guys.

2008 in historical context

Having turned into a bit of an online news junkie (no furreal, I am working on ways to limit the amount of time spent on news websites), I plow through all of these articles hoping for something well written, something that actually brings new light to current events. If anything, I've learned in the past year or two how amazingly facile and short sighted the bulk of the media pundits are.

They for the most part incredibly intelligent, articulate and well read people who end up more or less saying the same thing as one another. Frank Rich is all well and good, but why in the world would I read a former theater critic's opinions on the world of politics, which basically tell me things I already know?

So I was a bit leery when I came upon this Salon.com article talking about the Obama victory from a historical context. What is so refreshing about this piece by historian Michael Lind is that it outlines how material and technological changes in American history lead to policy changes, which in turn lead to changes in administrations. He is also smart enough to see that people can say and believe one thing while actually doing another: Jefferson actually expanding the power of the federal government (Lousianna Purchase). He also doesn't pretend this is a perfect or even complete theory, but an interesting new perspective on how to view American history.

I would recommend to just read the article, but in a nutshell he posits that the Bush presidency is the tail end of an American era that started with the New Deal, and that we are poised at the brink of a new era, one brought on by the communications boom, but possibly defined by some other form of technology. Again, he's smart enough not to take predictions or reasoning too far.

Also, my favorite line:

I'm talking about the material, real-world manufacturing and utility economy, not the illusory "information economy" beloved of globalization enthusiasts in the 1990s, who pretended that deindustrialization by outsourcing was a higher state of industrialism.

He's a materialist, thank god.

Best Picture I've Seen Today:

Shana Sureck for The New York Times

Connecticut issues its first gay-marriage license. What's wrong with you California voters? You got a problem with other people shouting for joy?

bingo

A little slow, but I just stumbled on this SNL imitation of Keith Olbermann, which I found much funnier than Tina Fey's Palin. Ben Affleck (?!?) absolutely nails his overblown wordiness and pomposity.

exactly

Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com has been beating the dead horse that "Republicans are hypocrites!" for ages now, producing seemingly endless and rambling posts padded with digressions. Today however, he finally busts out a live one: disquieting signs that an Obama administration and Democratic congress may not reverse the expansion of powers of the executive branch.

I can totally see the appeal of leaving them in place for Obama, the guy can wave in all the common sense legislation we've been waiting for with the flick of a pen! It's still edging closer and closer towards dictatorship though, so I'd rather go with separation of powers, thank you. Let's hope the former constitutional law professor will do the right thing. On the other hand, maybe a President-for-life Obama could make hoverboards a reality by 2015, as we were all promised.

barack obama eats dog meat

The UK Telegraph has Barack Obama Fun Facts!

i actually kind of like the new york post

Rupert Murdoch's omnipresent rag has started to grow on me recently. They're still ridiculous, but at least somewhat consistent in their knee jerk populism and phrasemaking. "Obama" has already been shortened to "Bam", (although they sometimes use the more trimmed down "O"). Also, this article on an abortive press conference with assistant Treasury Secretary Neel Kashkari, where the guy won't answer detailed questions on whats happening with our 700 billion.

word.

One super easy thing that President Obama can do that won't require major legislation to enact: shut down Guantanamo.

http://closegitmo.com/

Bill Kristol is funnier than Andy Kaufman

Ever since the Times picked him up as a columnist at the beginning of the year I've developed a weird compulsion to read right wing windbag Bill Kristol's column every Monday. At first I thought there might have been some deeper reason behind his selection than a feeling that the Times needed another conservative on its Op-ed page, but after just two or three columns the guy had completely outed himself as a political hack, obsessed with the glint and shine, and the feints and jabs of politics and not the actual engagement of ideas. At least Maureen Dowd has the good grace not to align herself with any one party or candidate, and spew her scorn pretty much everywhere.

I kept on giving the Times' editorial board the benefit of the doubt, that this guy was more than a weenie obsessed with politics as a popularity contest and actually had some kind of intellectual or ideological basis for his bullshit. Then a column in early June just blew me away, where he slammed Obama for a full column on being an elitist on the basis of a commencement speech he gave at Wesleyan. Bitteness? Guns? Clinging? Nope, Obama had extolled community service as a way to serve one's country, but hadn't mentioned the military.

Unfortunately Kristol spent his youth as neither a community organizer OR as a volunteer in the military, but at that elite-iest of East Coast elite institutions, where he received both his B.A. and his Phd. Sigh.

And as a recent New Yorker article revealed, in addition to being "Dan Quayle's brain", this guy was one of the people largely responsible for pushing Sarah Palin into the VP spot. Oh yeah, and he loves Fred Thompson.

So what would Kristol's sage advice to the conservative movement be after the electorate soundly rejected the Republican party on Tuesday? How can they now adequately reconcile the social conservatives with the fiscal conservatives and policy hawks, who all seem to be at one another's throats? How can conservative free market ideology reconcile itself to the bailout? How can conservative ideology best improve the economy and advance US foreign policy?

Any of these would be ripe topics for a column from a conservative pundit after Tuesday, but instead Bill Kristol gave us 800 or so words on why Obama's public choice of a puppy for his daughters is his greatest political coup, and may ensure Democratic dominance for eight years.

I get it. Bill Kristol is living performance meta-comedy on a level that even Andy Kaufman couldn't conceive of. He is just throwing out the most ridiculous shit ever, just waiting for someone to call him on it, just toe-ing on the inside of apparent sanity so people will take him seriously. He got me. So if you'll excuse me I think I'm gonna go read Paul Krugman's ideas on how to fix the economy.

that's what i thought!

There's a piece in yesterday's The Nation that articulates my feeling of cautious optimism about the Obama administration. Besides all the obvious good qualities of equanimity, a sense of gravity about our current situation, a clear intelligence, and a rhetoric free of personal rancor (not to mention being hot as sin with a gorgeous family), I've always though that it is the Obama campaign machine that might just give this administration real power. Politics can compromise and corrupt the smartest and most principled people, with solid organization we may stand a chance.

As Nicholas van Hoffman writes:

Obama's nationwide ground operation is the ideal instrument for making members of Congress vote the national interest, not the special interest, when major legislation needs to be enacted. It can keep the heat on in every Congressional district and every state and convince a wider public to accept unpleasant and difficult measures, such as a serious energy conservation program...

The conversion of the Obama campaign organization, which is composed of volunteers with lives of their own, into a tool of governance cannot be done with the top people sending down orders to the rank and file. For the organization to go out and sell the public on the Obama program, the people in the organization will have to be sold themselves--which means communication from the bottom up as well as the top down.

The first internet government? Dispersed funding, direct feedback from your supporters, and able to organize large groups of people at once? If we hadn't seen it during the campaign I wouldn't have believed it.

While I do agree with von Hoffman on the ability of an organization like this to effectively mobilize people (an organized left? Holy shit!?!) I am more skeptical of his apparent faith in the structure of this kind of organization to respond coherently to Obama's proposals.

Take his enthusiastic support for ethanol made from corn, a bio-fuel that sounds nice until you factor in the incredible amount of farm-land, fresh water resources and, uhh, regular fuel required to produce it. Obama has admitted supporting it because of the influence and power of the corn lobby. I know if he proposes any major energy bill that is highly dependent on ethanol I would oppose it, but what about all the Obama-maniacs we saw dancing in the streets on Tuesday night? (Okay, I danced a little.)

This does come back to the original point van Hoffman is making, which is that a strong, dynamic organization is an enormous asset to an Obama administration that tries to pass wide ranging progressive legislation, without getting bogged down by competing interests. Fingers crossed.

great non-Obama news photography

The four wives of the former king of Bhutan. Who are all sisters.

Found this incredible photo in a Times (British that is) article on the coronation of the new king of Bhutan. (To see this and other photos click on the slideshow to the right of the article.)

Obama already seizing power of key noun/verb pairs

We're still not sure what an Obama administration will look like, but I don't see how this plan for required community service can be a bad idea. This idea of a national program for community service as an alternative to military service occurred to me (and probably just about every other undergrad in the world) back in college, it is great to see it so close to becoming a reality.

And also, "change.gov"? How did Obama manage to associate himself with one of the most basic words in the English language? It's hard to say something like "oil change" or "a dollar and change" without conjuring up that omnipresent popping into your head.

Also, my friend Jim posted a link to a great series of maps that do a much better job of conveying what the electoral map should look like, adjusted for population of states. I don't really understand this one, but it sure is pretty:

Awesome.

This image neatly ties up a few of the loose strands of thinking I've had over the past two days:

Jonathan Horowitz's Obama '08 (2008).
Photo: Courtesy of Gavin Brown's Enterprise

Who'da thunk it.

let the disillusionment begin

Hey American left, remember women-aren't-as-smart-as-men-Africa-is-UNDER-polluted-ex-Treasury-Secretary-ex-Harvard-President-deregulation-cheerleader Lawrence Summers? Guy is on the short list of nominees for Obama's Treasury Secretary.

Guess everybody was too busy speculating on the choice of first puppy to notice that one.

other fallouts from november 4th

Amid all the election night hoopla you may have missed these tidbits:

My (old) district's congressman, moderate Republican Chris Shays, lost his reelection campaign, officially making New England entirely blue, with a few, umm, gray spots?

My (current) district's congresswoman, Yvette Clark,went to the same hippie-ed out little liberal arts college as me.

Michigan legalized (medical) pot. California shot down gay marriage. Al Franken is still trying to get into the Senate. No news yet if the union is getting any more perfect.

And oh yeah. Obama!

everybody!

Two years ago, while watching Japan's most contentious parliamentary elections in decades I remember telling my friends in Japan about Barack Obama, who had just announced his candidacy. They were interested but incredulous that America would elect a man with such a complicated background, so unlike the image of the US.

Well, in all the hullabaloo flying around today somehow I was most moved by the images of people all over the world celebrating an American election, and hopefully a newer, better chapter for America, and the world.




And as if we needed anymore reasons to like this guy right now, a major inside piece about both campaigns came out today, where Obama is quoted as saying:

"...we can't solve global warming because I fucking changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective."

obama! is gonna! be the next president! of the united states of america!

We know. We know you love Barack Obama.

There are so freaking many songs for this guy.

kghhkjfdgkjhfadkjhfdakjhfdg!!!!

yup. barack. freaking. obama.

fingers crossed (double... triple...)

Was canvassing in West Philly today, knocking on doors in a neighborhood where I didn't see a single white face, and the reaction to Obama volunteers ranged from mild acceptance ("You guys again? I voted this morning!") to ecstatic ("It's gonna happen!") Aside from all the canvassers with clipboards there were several cars out blasting hip hop for Barack, a few sound-trucks telling people to get to the polls and at least one guy who had taken the initiative to get a megaphone and

Did not meet a single person who wasn't planning to vote.

I am really trying not to let reports like this get me down.

Landslide baby... landslide...

election day eve!

The Times says stretching is bad for you.

I'm ticked I missed this documentary about the rise and fall of Lee Atwater.

Oh, and all of these kids really want you to vote tomorrow:

we're all making do...

Thank god for the New York Times, letting us know how these hard times are touching even the highest echelons of America. Why, families of Lehman Brothers employees are having to go without baby lamb chops at their holiday parties! Not because they can't afford it, but well, how would that look?

In trying times like these it is truly heartwarming to know that while the rich may still be swimming in dough , at least they have the good manners not to rub our faces in it.

hope-y halloween!

My dad went nuts again on the pumpkin this year:

basketball in space

Or something. This sounds more confusing than quidditch.

it's november 4th

There have been reports of flyers being distributed in some communities telling people they should vote on November 5th.

But it's cool, once you get to the electronic voting booth you just have to make sure the machine is properly calibrated so it doesn't flip your votes to the other party. It's as simple (ahem) as this:

But at least early voting seems to be going well.

powered by hope

I really don't like a lot of the sneering and snark flying around (I'm talking to you Rachel Maddow), but I did take a perverse pleasure in this Times profile of McCain campaigners on college campuses. Favorite part:

[Chairman of Gators for McCain] Mr. Simmons was stopped midsentence while walking through campus recently and talking on his cellphone. “What is that, a robot?” he said, exhaling noisily. “The Obama campaign has a robot set up in the plaza. It’s holding a sign that says ‘Powered by hope.’ Which I don’t think is entirely accurate.”

While I'm not ready to place faith in an Obama victory yet and am waiting to see if he can actually accomplish all this stuff he's setting out to do (my personal wish-list: building a US sustainable energy industry, universal healthcare, and trolley-cars on every street. By 2010 please, thanks!), at least this New York Magazine article brings gives an inkling of what an Obama administration would look like. At least it looks like they're doing the homework, and then some.

Also, my favorite paragraph:

...the unconventional way he ran for office, the whole bottom-up movement thing, may grant him a degree of independence unique in modern history. “Personally, I think the depth of the Obama realignment is being underestimated,” says the Republican media savant Stuart Stevens, who helped elect Bush twice. “They have basically invented their own party that is compatible with the Democratic Party but is bigger than the Democratic Party. Their e-mail list is more powerful than the DNC or RNC. In essence, Obama would be elected as an Independent with Democratic backing—like Bernie Sanders on steroids.”

Also, these kids:

q: how to steal an election? (a: in lots of little pieces)

As I mentioned yesterday, electronic voting machines look to be headed for a heap of problems on November 4th (and are already causing problems), but that's not the only problem; the placement of the checkbox for President on North Carolina ballots is reportedly so confusing that in 2004, 90,000 people who went to the polls inexplicably did not vote for President. As that Huffington Post article notes, confusing ballots disproportionately affect the poor, the elderly, and first-time voters.

The article also describes how George H.W. Bush won the 1992 North Carolina race by less than 1 percentage point, and this year looks to be just as close. People are already starting to predict landslide for Obama, but considering the wash of dubious reports emerging from potential swing states (11,000 absentee ballots not mailed in Colorado, the White House pressuring the Department of Justice to have 400,000 new voters reregister in Ohio) I would be surprised if it's that simple.

As I was canvassing for Obama in Pennsylvania this past Sunday, knocking on doors of registered voters, letting them know when and where to vote and hoping to sway undecideds to vote Democratic, one guy asked me why I was out there, because "you know he's already got it in the bag." After the above reports, and seeing things like this I'm not so sure, which is why, after casting my vote on the 4th, I'll try to get down to Pennsylvania to help make sure Obama supporters get down to the polls.

You can find out how to get involved here: http://pol.moveon.org/obama/office.html
and get rides to Philly here: http://www.cbidems.org/bus-trips-to-philly

It's a lot easier than you think and you'll be glad you did.

In case you doubt the gravity of what is at stake, here's a video of what dancing will look like under the McCain-Palin administration:

robots edging into politics, war

In the wake of hanging chads and other pesky physical impediments to expressing the will of the electorate, 24 states have switched to electronic voting, courtesy of touch screen voting machines from the folks at the cyberpunk-esque iVotronic.

But according to a post in today's Machinist, early voting in West Virginia, Texas, and Tennessee has revealed a myriad of problems in the system, from the mildly annoying way a slipped finger can result in a wrong vote to the straight up terrifying reports that some machines have simply switched Democratic votes to Republican or even Green party votes. (There have also been reports of Republican vote flipping to Obama).

In other robot news, an article in today's times about how the US has generously stopped sending troops unannounced into northern Pakistan and politely just bombing targets from the air casually mentions that the aircraft used are RQ-1 Predator "drones". Which means that the three person crew doesn't (and can't) even enter the aircraft, managing all the killing from a remote location. I'm no expert, but somehow I don't see this guy winning any hearts or minds:

everything I know about economics I learned in middle school

Amid all the schaudenfraude of AIG heads getting their multi-million dollar bonuses stripped and the defrocking of high priest Greenspan there have been a slew of pundits spewing all sorts of nonsense about how a recession will lead to people spend more time with family, value the important things in life, make a lot of us happier, yadda yadda yadda. That's not the first thing that springs to mind when you can't make house payments, and living on the street looms as a very real possibility. (I don't know about you, but New York is bloody cold right now.)

But sticking out from the cluster of financially comfortable pundits trying to console themselves with studies and figures was Margaret Atwood's eminently sensible Op-Ed piece in Tuesday's Times. This is the sort of thing that restores my faith in good writing, how two people can set out to make the same points, but only one packs any rhetorical punch. I am biased though, since I'm a huge fan of explaining political and economic behavior in analogies to middle school.

voting: just the price of a cup of coffee!

I hope the first order of business under the magical healing umbrella of the Obama administration is to eliminate studies like this.

At least come November 5th we won't have to deal with nonsense that conflates buying crap with voting. The weird thing about these 7-11 and Baskin-Robbins "pick the president by buying some of our shit" campaigns is not that they exist, but that they are only half joking. From the "7-Election" home page:

"7-Election Voters have successfully predicted the last two presidential elections - so cast your vote today, with cream and sugar!"

I take my coffee like my presidential candidates, thank you very much.

circuses

Apparently the mastermind behind one of my fondest childhood memories is retiring. Profile in the Times yesterday of Paul Binder, founder and ringmaster of "The Big Apple Circus".

So the big story for the next two days looks to be that the GOP went a little overboard dressing up Caribou Barbie, spending around $150,000 on outfits for Palin and her family since her VP nomination.

Also here is a video of Japanese chimp celebrity Pan-kun learning to ride a segway:

kicking and screaming

I've finally given up and surrendered to the 21st century. I always kind of had an antipathy for blogs, especially when they first debuted as forums for people to post a new picture of their cat for every day of the week.

After being invited by a friend to start a blog as a record of our time as American ex-pat's I wrestled with my blog as a platform for the kind of long form essays I was getting into at the time. (I'm Still In Japan). Once I left Japan I've tried to continue the thing with "Windowsills", but for a variety of reasons haven't been able to keep up with it.

In the meantime I've become a solid addict of a variety of internet sites, and got really into posting links in my gmail chat away message. Now that I'm straining against the space of that every day figure I might as well go ahead and start one of those blogs I used to hate: straight up aggregations of the detritus floating around the internet I find vaguely interesting and putting them in one place. So voila, "minor aggregations".

I'm drawing the line at Twitter though. That shit just looks manic.