Binary McCain

In this great new series with Sullivan and Ambinder they discuss McCain's intelligence, and the simplicity of his rhetoric regarding the Iraq war. What Ambinder points out that is true of McCain and has been for the GOP for as long as I have been around to watch the GOP, is that they narrow issues into a binary solution set as a means for control. It's very effective because it is much easier for voters to pick between good or bad than to understand the problem and form a logical solution based on that specific problem. It's not that people are too stupid for analysis, the problem is that we have pretended it is good enough, that it is not necessary to understand and analyze. This is cultural, and this is America's fatal flaw. The world is more complex than binary. It rarely is so simple as either/or. There are an infinite number of solutions and positions, and to frame the debate in such a manner is as good as lying to the people. It is stripping the voice from the people, by obfuscating the heart of the issue. This is done knowingly by McCain and he is choosing this path because of the success it has brought the GOP in the past. It worked against Kerry because he is an extremely intelligent man and enjoys problem solving and analyzing from every angle possible. In doing this he often came off as weak and unsure of himself, but I guarantee you, it will not work against Obama.

Most Accurate Description of Coldplay to Date

Andy Gill put it best...

Their music sounds like Radiohead with all the spiky, difficult, interesting bits boiled out of it, resulting in something with the sonic consistency of wilted spinach; it retains the crowd-pleasing hooks and singalong choruses while dispensing with the more challenging, dissonant aspects and sudden, 90-degree shifts in direction.

Coldplay sparked my interest a long long time ago, and since then they have only disappointed.

A New Kind of Radio

Pandora is a website that allows you to enter in an artist or song name that you like, and based on that it finds similar music, and creates your own little mix for you automatically. It's really interesting to read the descriptions of the music you like as well.

Music = Science = Life = Spirit = Music

Google Reader

I am only posting this because I know that the people who read this are my parents, and Adam... and Adam just posted something on keyboard short cuts so I think you guys will appreciate this too.

Google Reader. Check it out. It takes a minimal amount of effort to set it up, and once you have it set up it gathers all of the new posts from all of the blogs you read every day saving you a lot of browsing time so you can just read everything all in one place. I started using it this week and it really saves a lot of time, and also puts entries in front of your face that you might normally be tempted to just skip over.

iPhone fakers

So the "leaked" iPhone photos I posted were fakes after all, and as we now know there is no video conferencing. With all the hype and buzz the iPhone 3G has fallen short of the expectations of many. The most shocking revelation... white. Is Apple seriously bringing white back already? Will anyone other than junior high girls buy a white iPhone? I just couldn't take someone serious walking around with one of those, but maybe I'm completely wrong on this one.

The Heart of Rap

Talib is a smart smart man.



(Mom and Dad I think you guys would enjoy this too!)

Before Time

If I could have one mystery explained to me it might just be the puzzle that is the flow of time. I'm glad to know some people are working on it.

iPhone 2.0 leaked images

Head over to Gizmodo for more.

Please Don't Shoot Me Down

Kanye doin what he's meant to do... gotta love weezy's guitar riff in there.

NBA Finals

I forgot to make my prediction before game 1 so call me a cheater if you want, but I'm calling the series for Boston in 7 games. I actually anticipated Boston to handle game 1 with more ease, and that was one of Kobe's worst games I have ever seen, so I could see him coming alive and changin it up... but then again Ray-Ray might drop 27 and earn himself his first ring.

Tha Carter III

Tha Carter III has inevitably leaked, I know some are sick of hearing about Weezy, but it's like being sick of MJ during his reign. TC3 isn't rap perfection, it's better. It's more human than a perfect rap album, there are moments that are completely annoying. Milli for example is one of the most intolerable beats I've ever listened to, but Dwayne Carter has created a classic, that will be remembered and listened to incessantly for decades.

The Dap!

I really should have known better. I did not suspect the simple fist pound would create so much hoopla, making headlines at CNN and other news outlets around the world. When Michelle gave Barack the dap, moments before he claimed the democratic nomination, I fell in love with Michelle Obama. It was also another subtle cue among many that Barack Obama is the leader of my generation. It signified to me that he understood my generation, and wasn't a part of the elders who have been leading this country for the last 16 years. As the Seattle Times puts it, "Black people and those younger than 50 are a demographic that in the past few months has come to be known by another name: Obama voters."

Thanks for the link Mom!

Seeing Magnetic Fields

Moyers at His Finest

Moyers proving once again that he is one of the only people left in the media, who actually cares about the media having dignity. If everybody would just watch his show the world would be a better place. His analogy of emotional content as the media's fast food is spot on.

Rap is Back

I know my parents won't get this. I know the chorus might be a little vulgar for some. I know, I know, I know. But I'm telling you, rap is back. It's pretty much been gone since Pac and Big left us, but Weezy is single handedly bringing rap back as a creative art form. He is the Michael Jordan of rap, because not only is he the greatest but he's also getting everybody in the game to step it up to the next level.

He shapes his rhythm and each syllable with complexity, flow and energy that has never been done before.

I present two examples that deserved to be studied at great length.



DJ Khaled has the most annoying voice ever recorded... just get through it, it's worth it.

O'Reily Can Even Make Hillary Look Good

I've spent a lot of time lately being pretty ticked off at Hillary. To make her look like a decent human being all you have to do is sit her down next to Bill O'Reily. Amazing.

Eff

Well we all knew it was coming, but I am feeling pretty down about Hillary's win in Pennsylvania. I just need this to end. As always, Obama showed lots of class tonight. Indiana... dont let us down.

Happy Earth Day!!

I wanted to post something cool for Earth Day but Andrew Sullivan is a professional blogger and cooler than I am so he beat me to it. Check out his post on Earth Art.

Why Bother?

My main man, Michael Pollan has a great article called "Why Bother" in the NYT today as a part of their green issue. I also recommend reading about Bill Nye's home, and watching the video about the very green family titled "Life (Mostly) Off the Grid".

This is MY President

3rd Chimpanzee

1) Read the book
2) I read it, and you know how sometimes if you look at a chimp or monkey you might think "Wow, that looks a lot like a person"? Well, now all people just look like chimpanzees to me, so I just wanted to let you know that you look like a chimp to me. When I look at you I just see a chimp.

Coincidences

I am not a mystical type of person. I'm majoring in Physics cause I like knowing why stuff happens, and having solid logical explanations for things. Lately though I've had a lot of weird coincidences happening to me. I'm not saying I think anything's going on, but it's starting to rattle me a little. The day after I posted Van Gogh's painting, I found a poster of it under my bed. That exact picture. I know it's Van Gogh so it's very famous, but that is weird. Also, today before I went to class I was reading Andrew Sullivan. His post on an atheist's perspective on eternity particularly caught my eye. Then I go to class, and my professor quotes the exact same thing in his lecture titled "A Glimpse of Infinity."

This is really not like me to even notice this kind of thing, but it's got me thinking. I'd love to hear anybody else's coincidences or take on said events.

Van Gogh

Ever since going to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam I have been a huge Van Gogh fan. I don't know why but I didn't see it before. Maybe I'm older or something I don't know. But I love this painting.

KING

The History Channel's show titled King was truly moving, and I loved John Legend's version of "In the Name of Love" that was featured in it.

John Legend performs PRIDE (In The Name of Love)
by ElectricArtists

Nude Remixes

If you haven't already heard, Radiohead made the stems to their song nude available for purchase on iTunes so that anyone and everyone can remix the song. Listen and vote for your favorite remixes here. If you want a perfect stranger of mine reading my life history out loud listen to the hipster runoff remix.

Creation out of Nothing

This quarter I'm taking a class called Physics and Society, and I have a feeling I'll be posting lots of stuff brought up in this class because it's amazing.

One thing we went over the other day in lecture is the mass of a bound system, I'll use the Earth and the moon as an example. Conventional thought would tell us that the mass of the bound Earth-Moon system would be the sum of their two masses (M(e) + M(m)). There is also binding energy in the system, in this case the gravitational force holding the Earth and the moon together. Because of the equation E=Mc^2, which says that energy and mass are two sides of the same coin, we know that this binding energy contributes to the total mass in some way. If we wanted to separate the moon and the Earth we would have to pull them apart from each other, or add energy to the system. So in order to get M(e) + M(m) you have to add energy. The bound system has less energy than the separated moon and earth, and because mass and energy are the same thing the bound system also has less mass than the separated objects. Here's the wiki on Binding Energy.

Right now you're saying ok that's fine, so what? Well, what if the binding energy were really big? Enough maybe that it equaled the sum of the masses inside the system? Then you would have a system with no mass. That would be pretty insane for a two particle system, but it would be really crazy if it reflected the total energy/mass of the universe, which is also a bound system. What if the total mass of the universe was zero? My professor then told us about a recent colloquium held at UW which was titled "Why is there something instead of nothing?" and apparently their conclusion was "Maybe there is nothing, cleverly disguised as something."

Far. Out.

McCain: I Was Wrong

I read the Huffington Post daily. It's a valuable source of information, but it often makes me very frustrated. It has reduced much of its content to partisan bickering, which distracts from real issues, and makes intellectual discourse very difficult. I know that the republicans have been doing this for years and democrats didn't respond, so now dems feel entitled to play nasty. But I don't think it does us any favors. The embedded video below was on HuffPost today with the headline "WATCH: McCain Booed during Martin Luther King Speech". This is true, you can see it when you watch the video. But when I watch this video that's not what sticks out. During his speech he acknowledged to a largely black crowd that he voted against making MLK's birthday a national holiday. He admitted that he was wrong, and it was MLK's virtue that he understood that people could be slow to coming to the right decisions. It is those kinds of moments of honesty from politicians that should give people a reason to respect them. McCain is not the best candidate to become the next president, but that's because of important and real issues, not a tough crowd at one of his speeches.

High School Hoops

What I've Been Waiting to Hear

Obama: I'd Hire Gore

Climate change is my number one issue. The consequences aren't as immediate is Iraq, or the economy, but immediate action is required to adequately deal with the greatest challenge in the history of humanity. Obama has acknowledged this issue, but he's mostly touched on it in passing. My passion for this issue has always clashed with my support of Obama. I had faith that his intelligence would require more drastic actions as a president than he would be able to discuss as a presidential candidate, but this was only hope. With all the talk of Obama being a "blank canvas" that people project what they want onto, I was slightly nervous, but every step of the way he confirms to me that he is ready.

It's Good to Be Back

pic i snagged in the quad on my way back from class

Black Browsing: Does it help??

Treehugger has a good article explaining the details.

Stay Strapped

Is This the Greenest City in the World

My German home gets a write up in the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/23/freiburg.germany.greenest.city

A More Perfect Union

Slightly behind the rest of the world with this post, but I couldn't let this one fall through the cracks.

How anybody could watch such a speech, and then question whether he is the best candidate completely dumbfounds me.

In Defense of Food

Some weirdo lent me the book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan a few weeks ago. I read it with moderate interest as I began the book, but more and more I realized Pollan was making sense. The first words and main premise of the book are "Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much." Pretty simple, but sadly in today's world the word food needs clarification. Cheetos don't count (but whyyyy they taste so good!!!). Bananas do count. The produce section counts, the cereal section doesn't count with maybe an exception or two among the hundreds of brands of cereal. In Defense of Food explains how our food became invaded by imitators and why it's bad news bears for us. I was pleasantly surprised by the insightfulness of the book, but I was most surprised by how well it was written. I LOL'ed several times as I was reading it. He actually has a lot to work with because the situation is so ironic in so many ways, I mean we strip all of the nutrients out of wheat when me make flour and then add all sorts of nutrients back into it to try to make it healthy again, we have ice creams and potato chips that make health claims, while the produce sections at grocery stores remain largely unnoticed by shoppers. This book is a must read for anyone who agrees that eating food is a good thing.

Amsterdam

Before I made it back to Seattle I spent 5 days in Amsterdam. I've never seen anything like it, and it was a ridiculously cool experience. I wasn't expecting any culture shock at all after having lived in Germany for in total a year now, but almost every time I went to a cashier to buy something it took a solid 5 minutes of standing there before the person would even recognize my existence. Other than that, the dutch freaking rock. Highlights were the Van Gogh Museum, water everywhere, Brouwerij 't Ij, the Bij Ons Bistro, Pancake Bakery, and losing in beer pong.

WA Super Del Petition

For my fellow Washingtonians

As you know, the Democratic race at this point will likely depend on Superdelegates. Superdelegates in "Obama Country" who originally supported Clinton have began switching over to Obama's side after seeing their constituents' votes.

Currently, our senators (and superdelegates) Maria Cantwell and Patty Murry support Clinton. However, since Washington was a sizable victory for Obama, with a little work, we should be able to get them to change their mind.

All you need to do is follow this link, click "sign petition", and provide your name, county, and email address.
http://www.petitiononline.com/wasprdel/petition.html

Money Ain't a Thang

Obama raises $55 MILLION in February alone

The people have spoken

Bombing Berlin

Very cool article about graffiti in Berlin.

Laminar Flow

Einstein of the day

A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive. (Albert Einstein, 1954)

There is No Better Form of Entertainment...

... than watching W make a complete ass of himself. I was literally laughing hysterically at another precious presidential moment.

McCain <3 Hagee

I think I just threw up a little

Einstein of the day

It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

AFRICAN american culture

Watch this and tell me you don't see a piece of Africa... I see strange, foreign beauty. I love it.

Wins for Hill but few Dels

Clinton's wins yesterday were impressive. Now I believe what everybody has been saying all along about her, that she's tough, resilient and a good fighter (if not afraid to give some low blows). This is honestly the first time I've seen true strength from her, and it honestly scares me a little. It's not the kind of strength I really admire. Despite her big wins, she wasn't able to chip at the delegate gap by double digits. Given the number of states left it really is mathematically impossible for her to finish with a delegate lead. Now we find out if the country cares about math... why do I have a horrible feeling about this.

Simple Shoes

I love this company...

Words Do Matter

Bias Against Science

I'm reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan which I really like so far, but something popped up to me as interesting, and something I've seen several time before. What I'm referring to is a bias against science.

The quote

"Science has much of value to teach us about food, and perhaps someday scientists will 'solve' the problem of diet, creating the nutritionally optimal meal in a pill, but for now and the foreseeable future, letting the scientists decide the menu would be a mistake. They simply do not know enough."

It's true they don't know enough, which is why I rarely listen to what I read about food, and try to use common sense. But apparently scientists solving the issue of food, would mean the invention of a pill that fulfills all of our dietary needs. I don't know about you, but to me that sounds pretty horrible, and would create a lot of problems. There is a strong bias against science in American culture, assuming that "Science" means weird nerds in lab coats inventing synthesized materials and man made nutrients in an attempt to replace nature's creations. That has nothing to do with "doing" science, but rather manipulating it. Science is the study, and understanding of nature. I study physics because I love nature, and because I want to appreciate it with all its nuances and subtleties. When I have a permanent residence I would love to have my own garden where I grow at least a good portion of my food on my own. That sounds like a really cool thing to do. How those plants would grow is dependent upon chemistry and biology. There is science involved in picking a good spot of land, picking how much sunlight the plants need, how much water they need etc. The practice of doing that is called farming, but science explains why those decisions actually work.

Highlight of the Debate

He's Even a Lefty

On Obama:

“I didn’t think he could play at all, to be honest with you,” Mr. Green said. But “he’s above average,” for a pickup player, Mr. Green said. “He’s got a nice little left-hand shot and some knowledge of the game.”

I knew I related to him for a reason.

Too Long on the Trail

I respect John McCain a lot. Probably much more now than I will after the general election, but at the moment I still respect him a great deal. I'm saying that because I am not posting this video in an attempt to point and laugh at McCain and say "wow he really is taking the Bush legacy to heart, he's a bumbling mess just like W." The campaign trail is a psychologically and physically brutal experience for the candidates, but so is being president. If McCain keeps to slip as he gets more and more fatigued from this process, what kind of president could he be?

Are You Serious?

http://opticalillusions4kids.blogspot.com/

Home Sweet Home

It's official, I'll be back in Seattle on March 17th.

Smart Parking

I jacked this image from google, but I see this pulled by smart parkers all the time in Freiburg, and every time I see it, it makes me want to own a smart car.

The Hungry

Oh Russert, Oh Russert

While the debate was pretty interesting, none of the answers from Obama or Hillary were nearly as revealing as Tim Russert's questions. At first he was just being a tool to Hillary, and at the beginning I thought the debate was framed unfairly against her, but then he really out did himself with his Farrakhan number.

No End In Sight

I finally watched No End In Sight. It was very informative, revealing a lot of information about the decision making process on how the war has been conducted. It really shows, that it isn't simply that we've had a president who makes bad decisions. Most of the time he can't even be bothered to take the time to understand the problems, or read a one page summary of the state of Iraq before dismissing it as guess work. He's genuinely disinterested in the matters that mean life or death to hundreds of thousands of people.

Olbermann Sometimes You Suck

This Olbermann clip is really frustrating, why can't he point out the blatantly obvious?



1. It is different when Stewart tells a joke that incorporates the names Hussein, Obama, Hussein and Hitler than if Coulter were to do the same for a number of reasons. The most important is the actual subject of the joke. There's no problem with pointing out the obvious similarities of Obama's name to Sadaam Hussein and Osama. Stewart said that Barack has accomplished a lot by overcoming that obstacle. It wasn't just random association with the name in an attempt to confuse people which is which or to associate their beliefs with one another which is what Fox news and Mitt Romney repeatedly did. So no, Olbermann, you are wrong, there is absolutely no problem with Stewart's joke.

2. Fred Armisen's "Fauxbama" performance was visually almost perfect. The dialogue and body language is another question, but it was in no way absolutely necessary to have Obama played by an African American, Armisen pulled it off really well.

Why It's OK to have Republicans for Obama

Why do many Republicans like Obama? He's got to be politically center if Republicans like him right? For some reason when polled people identify him as being left of Hillary, but Republicans despise her, so what's going on? Can I still like Obama despite the fact that Republicans do?

In terms of stated policy, Obama and Hillary are nearly identical. The two major policies that they differ on are Lobbyist/PAC money and whether or not to mandate health insurance in their universal health care plans. Lobbyist influence in Washington is the corrupting force that prevents our government from representing the people. This is (finally!!!) a no brainer issue that Republicans and Democrats can unite on. Democrats can agree on this without losing any liberal cred, so no worries.

What is truly fascinating is that Republicans are coming to the candidate, whose only criticism from Nader was essentially that he's not substantive enough in his speeches and therefor doing a disservice to the ideas that they stand for... yes they. Obama is making it possible for Republicans to find common ground with the someone as left as Ralph. If I had a large readership, I would never be writing this out of fear that it would scare away Obama's conservative supporters.... but I don't!

The last reason why so many Reps are sympathetic to Barack is that he is a genuine alpha dog, and Reps love them some alpha dogs. No matter what Kerry's policies were, they could never in a million years support him, which is too bad because his thoughtfulness is what makes him a great man. To many of the GOP though, if you come off as looking like you consider another perspective on an issue, you are weak, indecisive and incapable. Obama manages to be thoughtful, but always confident, and always "sticking to his gut". Dems, it's OK to have the cool kid be president. This cool kid would stick up for the Chess team if need be.

Best of Andrew Sullivan

This man is amazing, and if you don't read his blog daily then I feel sorry for you. He just got back from a week off, and man did he come back.

1.


2.
The View From Obama's Window

3.
Andrew:

The deepest question in this election is how America interacts with the world. If you care about this country, you will care about America's isolation, awful p.r., stressed military and growing debt under Bush-Cheney. Sometimes it helps to see things a little from the outside.

4.
The documentary Freeheld looks beyond powerful, and hugely important in accomplishing change in society.

The Daily Oscar Show

Stuff like this I feel funny for posting because it's everywhere, but if you haven't already seen it you gotta watch it!

On Nader

My feelings exactly. I really struggle with people bashing Nader. No, I don't think any of his presidential runs have helped the nation, but I also highly doubt that there is another person on this planet who cares more about making America a better place. In no way is this man a failure. Where would we be without everything he accomplished before the year 2000?

Vanderslice

Last night I saw John Vanderslice at the White Rabbit in Freiburg. It was an excellent show. Vanderslice came off as the ultimate nerd rocker, and a very talented dude. The venue was pretty much just a bar, with cave-like, curved white ceilings and one end designated as the stage. I sat on the ground pretty much underneath Vanderslice's microphone. For the encore, the band went into the middle of the crowd, completely unplugged as everyone huddled around.

Lyric of the Day

I can play basketball with the moon, I got the whole world at my feet

-weezy

Best of Barack

Typical Adam sends me the naked pic of Barack. And I quote "David Hasselhoff's got nothing on him."

1000 Years Zähringen

No big deal, but the neighborhood I live in, Zähringen, turned one thousand years old this year.

The Kölsch Meter

I am seriously regretting not having my camera with me last night, but we ordered one of these, a glorious meter of fine Kölsch beer. Just one of the things I love about living in Germany.

Ed

Ed Begley is quite an extraordinary guy. I just love how he pulls this stuff straight from his brain. He's the epitome of the eco-nerd. Baller.

Texas

Whoever said Barack couldn't do well in Texas is about to eat their words. At the debate last night the crowd was clearly pro Hillary and Barack, but only Hillary was able to summon boos from the crowd that is supposed to be her savior in this election. She did have a very strong debate in my opinion though. I was very impressed with her passion about health care. That was another very genuine moment coming from the woman who continually struggles to be just that. I had another one of those moments last night watching the debate, where I realized how lucky democrats, and America are this 2008 election.

Obama is constantly being questioned for his ability to stand up to political attack machines. Last night he did just that. When Hillary came after him about his health care plan, accusing him of wanting to leave 15 million uninsured, he came back loud and clear. Both of them are offering plans they think will best insure everyone, and they have fundamentally different opinions on how that goal should be accomlished. To accuse someone of having a different goal, or desiring to leave 15 million uninsured based on differing opinions on how that goal should be accomplished is misleading, and a form of politics that should not be tolerated. Obama fared very well for himself against such attacks, and repeatedly took the high road without letting these attacks go unchallenged. While I respect both, the differences between these two candidates are profound.

The Future of Prosthetics

From the inventor of the Segway comes a new breed of prosthetics. Very incredible stuff.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/video?id=221

Thanks Adam for the link!

Taxi To the Dark Side

I just watched this film based on Bill Moyer's recommendation. It is a truly saddening and heart wrenching film. Watching the applause to Bush's words "One by one the terrorists are learning the meaning of American justice" I was suddenly drawn back to the videos I watched in school of the parades for Hitler as he rode through the streets of Germany. I remembered watching in awe that people actually celebrated such pure evil. It became to me glaringly apparent, that just as Bush has often said about himself, history will be his judge. I think it will be an even harsher critic than any he faces today.

Tale of three speeches

Hillary and McCain are now both on the defensive.... and delivering very similar messages.

10 In a Row

Thank you Wisconsin and Hawai'i!!! With numbers and momentum piling on Obama's side Texas is looking to be within reach.

Superman!!

Best of Barack

good work adam

Happiness

What is happiness?

"...to be happy before anything happens, to have a happiness that's not contingent upon the next good thing that's going to happen but to actually be at rest with what is happening right now."

zeeeeennnnnnnnn

The Future Belongs to Radiohead

In case you didn't already know.

Be Kind Rewind

This movie looks like it will be seriously cool. I can't wait to see it... I mean, Jack Black is magnetized, it doesn't get better than that.

Reading a Book by its Cover

As we've been told by the NY Times Barack Obama is a Mac and Hillary a PC. In terms of their website design this is pretty clear, luckily however Obama isn't limited to 9% of the voting public. Their websites really reflect this (slightly) oversimplified view. It is cool to like Obama. Hillary is kind of square, but she's strong in her own rights, and is clearly something more aligned with what the world has been used to in the past.

I'm not really trying to point out anything substantive though. When it comes down to it, BarackObama.com makes me go "oooh ahhhh" in a way that is iPhone-esque. When I go to HillaryClinton.com I feel like I'm suddenly in a very cold place, where I won't be able to edit music, and the one cool thing about it (iTunes/Change) is stolen from the other camp, and won't work quite as well as it does in the original system.

Best of Barack

Balllllllliiinnnnnn

Project Implicit

Harvard's online test that tells you who your subconscious would vote for.

My results:

Whoa

iAno

Democrats Abroad - Germany

Here are the results from the Democrats Abroad (Germany) Primary vote:

In-person voting tally: Obama won with 69% of the vote to 31% for Hillary, which seems to confirm the trend from the other German cities and what just happened in the Potomac Primaries.

Interestingly, Hillary evenly split the male/female vote (9/9) while Obama garnered slightly more female votes than males (20/18).

Hillary also did roughly all well with the 20-somethings, but had no 30-something votes compared to a strong Obama count.

Also, curiously, Obama did better in the 60+ vote – perhaps the sample size of 56 would be considered not statistically significant by pollsters.

Best of Barack

awwwwwwwwwww, thanks mom!

America's Inertia

The trickle is turning into a massive flow. American democrats were pulling a balancing act with Clinton hanging on one arm and Obama the other. More and more people are jumping to Barack's side and pulling the nation in his direction. John Lewis, a Clinton supporter and prominent figure in the African American community, is now saying that as a super delegate he will likely vote for Barack Obama, so as not to act in conflict with the process of democracy.

As Josh Marshall points out, the argument of whether or not super delegates can legitimately counteract the votes of the American public, is an argument that will never fully sprout. About half of the supes are still uncommitted, and the only possible explanation for that is that they are waiting for the rest of America to firmly establish who their candidate is. Once it is undeniably obvious, they will not deny the rightful candidate of the nomination.

aka bye bye Hillary

Surfing in Munich

Thanks Adam for the link to the stellar slide show of surfing in Munich. My favorite part is when the big rafts float down the river and the surfers taunt the drunken Germans and the drunken Germans sing, and yell back. That is the spirit of Germany that I've come to know and love.

Best of Barack Image Contest

so far i'm winning the contest

Charge your MP3 Player by dancing to its music!

This is such a cool idea! It isn't gonna be able to generate tons of power or anything, but iPod and cell phones could run off it for sure.

A nanotech invention by a US research team offers an intriguing glimpse of the future: slip on some nanowire-embedded clothes, plug your MP3 player or cellphone into them, and as you dance or walk around, your outfit generates enough power to run the gadget.

Best of Barack Image Contest

I put up the original Best of Barack Image Contest stuff as a joke, because I found some sweet pics of Barack, and I thought that literally nobody was reading this stuff. But now that I've checked the comments, and have found that at least two people have read my blog at some point, maybe you guys would be willing to participate!! So if you have a sweet pic of Barack either that you found or made yourself send it to me!

OBAMA WINS VIRGINIA

next up.... the nomination.

I've now seen about giga-many people call the nomination going to Obama, including Penn from Penn and Teller which was interesting. All this stuff about Clinton stealing it away through super delegates is interesting, but can you imagine anything being more hypocritical of the DNC? I just don't see it happening.

Best of Barack!

I love this pic. In a recent interview he said that he always does well in primaries when he plays basketball the morning of. What a baller.

Best of Barack Image Contest

Today's Winner is

$500 for 32GB???????

Are you effing kidding me?? Is this not nuts? I thought you were supposed to laugh at how expensive memory was in the past, not the present. I give this 6 weeks till prices drop cause that is just stoooooopid.

super duper

I dont know why I haven't written anything about Super Tuesday yet. I mean, I am pretty pumped at how well Obama did, but I can only maintain a level of suspense and anticipation for so long. I just want him to take Hill out already. After surviving tuesday, he's in a pretty good position though, considering how much more money he's got to spend on ads than Hill does at this point. Considering where they each started from before their campaigns, he is royally kicking her ass, which just goes to show you that his message is winning. And that means that the only reason he isn't completely dominating is because he can only reach so many people at a time, and that ultimately, among the people who are somewhat informed about this election Obama is the clear winner, and Hillary is the winner among those who aren't paying any attention, and the few hard core democrats who will do whatever they can to piss of the GOP. Hillary is the new Bush.... let's hope the message reaches enough people.

F-ysics

jeeeeeesus physics is kicking my ass. in the beginning it's 30 sec of work for an hour of satisfaction and brain tickling, and now it's about 4 hrs of work for 10 sec of brain tickling and this ratio is just effed up.

Fastnacht

Yesterday I observed the German holiday Fastnacht. It was a lot of fun. I got about 30 different explanations about the holiday from my German friends and host family, and I thought I was completely confused about it, but then I checked it out on Wikipedia, and it turns out, it's about as complicated as I understood it was. So, it wasn't just a language thing.

Basically we watched the parade where they marched all of the winter spirits away, and then there was a giant party with plenty of alcohol in the middle of the city. It was really fun to watch a place, that I'm not gonna lie, is usually kind of up tight, become completely chaotic and wild.

I watched the movie Bodysong yesterday, and I'm reading The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond, so of course the whole time all I could think about was the human animal, and why we do all the bizarre stuff we do blah blah blah. That's the problem with Diamond, he just messes with your head, and then you can't just mindlessly enjoy watching witches and liquor flow through the streets.

Our Only Hope

Badass Physics Applets

I was doing some hw today and needed some help graphing vector fields. I found this awesome site with tons of physics applets. It's pretty effing cool if you're into that kind of thing.

WTF Jobs?!?!?!

Yes the MacBook Air is one of the sexiest tech items this world has ever seen, but this year's Macworld, continued what is becoming a deadly trend for Apple. What made the iPod the biggest tech success in the world today? Was it the design, was it sex appeal, was it the logo, was it the "oooh shiny thing!" factor?? No, It was functionality combined with an innovative and effective user interface at reasonable price.

Apple started drifting away from a focus on functionality and features, and has honed in entirely on glitz, glam, and sex appeal with the iPod touch. The MacBook Air is yet another Apple product that sacrifices functionality for a pretty design. What is the point of having a pretty little box, or a beautiful touch screen display, when it doesn't do what you need it to? At 1800 bones this machine has got to be able to function as your one and only computer, but with only 80 gigs, and no optical drive you're going to find yourself shelling out hundreds more on essential computing ad-ons pushing the price to somewhere around $2300. This just isn't practical when the MacBook and MacBook Pro are in the picture. Especially considering the MacBook pro starts at 2 grand, and is still a very compact computer.

The iPod touch suffers from this same flaw. No matter how cool the screen is, no matter how fun the multi-touch user interface is, only tech geeks are going to be willing to spend 400 bucks on 16GB. If Apple doesn't shape up quickly and make products that (god forbid) are maybe a little less sexy, but maintain the great user interface and have respectable specs at a decent price, the future of Apple will not be so bright.

I'm Back

So it's been over a month since my last post which is completely unacceptable by blogging standards. I would feel guilty about it buuuuuuut nobody reads this anyways.