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On my way home today from the BART station and saw this billboard advertising a themed hotel in Las Vegas. I'm not sure if this is done on purpose or not but the billboard basically appears to show some guy wincing as he gets sodomized by a very enthusiastic woman. I know that Vegas is supposed to be "wild" but I didn't think this was the sort of thing they refer to that should "stay in Vegas".
Just saw this site, called If The World Could Vote, and while it's not exactly statistically rigorous their results do show a couple of interesting things:
In only two countries does McCain win outright: Albania and Macedonia (those great exemplars of liberal democracy)
McCain only keeps it close (better than 40% showing) in five countries: the two mentioned above, plus Iraq (I put that down the troops), Lesotho, and Venezuela (of all places)
In Georgia and Israel (two places were McCain has put himself forward as a true friend of those nations, and painted Obama as either naive or outright hostile) he's beaten 62 to 38% and 64 to 36% respectively. Which is extremely interesting. Obama wins overall by an average percentage of 90% (even removing small sample sizes of say less than 100 votes).
We can only hope that the US (listed at 79 to 20% for Obama) actually follows this track.
link courtesy of Iain Hamp
For you folks that live in San Francisco, you can find out where your polling place is going to be next Tuesday Nov 4th. For the love of all that is good and holy on earth, please vote and - I'm not ashamed to say it - vote Obama. We've come too close, America, let's make it count!
Man, I am really getting crazy with all these media posts lately! Anyway, last night's Colbert Report was a work of such subtle satirical genius that it may actually affect the election as well as the pull of the moon on the tides. To my mind the key line was:
"[I am endorsing Obama], that doesn't mean I'm going to vote for him! There are a lot of things you can endorse but not do anything to support." With the caption Like the Constitution.
Close second:
"[McCain] just needs to do something to prove that he has the judgment to lead and knows where this country wants to go ... Senator McCain, you need to endorse Barack Obama, now that'll make you look like a Maverick!"
I was walking to the Mission last night when I saw this graffiti on a metal panel on the sidewalk. In the dark it looked like the view of an actual koi pond. It's times like this when I love graffiti.
I was talking to my Dad the other day and he mentioned that my little sister has become a minor celebrity in Shanghai.
aside: I should preface this by saying that she had called me the other day to tell me that her language teacher had put her name forward for a small role on a popular daily soap opera. She was supposed to play the role of the new foreign wife. After getting over the shock of seeing an actual black person in their studio, the producers gave her the job.
She has since appeared in only one episode, but apparently to a modest viewership of roughly 300 million people. Since the show she's been accosted on the street by erstwhile fans many times and was even told (by no less personage than a university professor) that she hoped my sister's issues with her mother in law would soon come to an end. It's another example of the strange disparities between the modern image of China and the essentially simple nature of it's population. Still it's amazing to think of the modest viewership of my sister's show as being the equivalent of every man, woman and child in the United States.
Well I've been relatively quiet here (with the exception of a few things) lately, and that's because I just started a new job. About 10 days ago I started at my new company, which I shall refer to LiteBrite Inc. It's a much smaller company (by two orders of magnitude!) and quite a change from my days at Faceless Corp and NewCo. At the end of my first week, they had their monthly site lunch wherein they bought pizza for everyone and announced the monthly birthdays and introduced the new guys (that'd be me). That's not the only thing, mind you, they have quarterly picnics, they take time off during the day to go work out, they play soccer on Tuesday lunchtime. Everyone (mostly) is very nice, and very enthusiastic. It's sort of creepy, kind of like living in a small town where everyone smiles all the time. I think it'll take a while to get used to, but in the meantime I'll do my best to keep you all posted on what happens.
God bless you, Alec Baldwin!
link courtesy of Capt. Excitement
more in case you are into Amy Poehler:
On September 12th 2001, I stood outside my house in a neat little sub-division in Chandler, Arizona staring up at the sky at dusk. The sky was empty, and clear. Occasionally you could see the blinking red trail of jet fighters on sortie over the valley. Tears were rolling down my cheeks for several reasons. The day before I had awoken (like many people) to images planes, towers, smoke and bedlam. Standing there right then, knowing who had perpetrated this crime, I know that life was going to get much much harder for me and my family. The thought of my little sister getting harassed the next day on her way to classes, or walking around on campus had me in a panic. I feared a massive backlash, and a future in an internment camp.
Many of those things did not come to pass, but prejudice increased, and a sense of not belonging did too. I could ignore it most of the time, not thinking about being pushed to the edges of civic life. As Obama battled through the primary season, I was saddened that this man who was in some ways like me was pandering to the middle, but knew these were the vagaries of presidential politics. When he emerged as the Democratic candidate I thought about canvassing for him, but as rumors of his being a Muslim came out, it occurred to me that my campaigning for him could be a liability. I found myself becoming ashamed of who I was for a moment, and then got angry; angry that I was being made ashamed for something there was no shame in; angry that I was forced to stay on the sidelines of a crucial election; angry that after all the effort to become a citizen, I was being told I would never be a part of this country, that my presence was tolerated so long as I kept quiet.
So it was nice to hear someone finally stand up and point out how unacceptable all this talk of Obama's being Muslim is. That it is an open slur, to imply Muslims constitute some kind of a fifth column, or are incapable of being good Americans. It was such a relief that I sent an email to CNN to express my gratitude.
UPDATE 10/19/08: Colin Powell has endorsed Obama on Meet the Nation, and had this to say on the "Obama is Muslim" trope:
"I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the [Republican] Party say... such things as 'Well, you know that Mr Obama is a Muslim'."Well the correct answer is, 'He's not a Muslim, he's a Christian, he's always been a Christian'. But the really right answer is, "What if he is?' Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is 'No', that's not America."
On my back from Phoenix last week, I had a quick visit to the "smallest room", as they say. I saw this written on the inside wall of my stall and had to take a picture. Judging by the numbers, the Palin "bounce" was more of a full McCain eclipse, making this terribly appropriate.
It's taken me a few days to post about this because I've been out of town visiting my cousins in NYC ("Come Mr Tally man, tally me banana!"), before starting the new job on Monday. I have been twittering but I haven't figured out how to post those updates to the blog yet but I will soon... but I digress, because this news is fairly significant.
Chip-maker AMD has signed an agreement to split it's operations. AMD will apparently become a design company, while spinning off it's operations and manufacturing into a separate company. That manufacturing company (with the uninspired placeholder name, Foundry) will be partly owned and apparently wholly operated by the Abu Dhabi-owned company Advanced Technology Investment Company.
This remarkable not just because this is another semiconductors company is getting away from doing their own manufacturing. It is also remarkable because of the new owners. There has been a shift in the United Arab Emirates to diversify their economy and move away from oil. This move has been seen in the rise of Dubai Ports World as a major port operator that came extremely close to operating American ports (before the deal was scuttled by a xenophobic and panicked Congress), and now a surprising move into semiconductors. The deal is subject to approval from the Federal government due to technology transfer issues, and may not go forward in its current form. That doesn't make it any less important. This signaling of an earnest effort to branch out from the petro-economy is heartening to me in a way. Firstly, there is the fact that some people on the Arabian peninsula are hedging against the end of oil, which is a stunning admission. Secondly, there is a move towards high tech industry which implies a shift in attitudes towards education (always valued, but so far usually just outsourced). The question now is, how serious is this? The capital outlay suggests it's serious as a heart attack - this is not throwaway money, and failure here would have wide ranging effects in the technology sector (as would success for that matter).
I am hopeful that it is at least a modest success. While I don't want to overstate the stakes, I feel like the success or failure of this venture could affect the speed with which the Middle East will start moving more fully into full engagement with the wider world. A speed which will move it further away from the unbalanced consumerism that is prevalent in the Persian Gulf to a more productive model. With any luck that may push them to encourage it in their poorer neighbors to the east and west.
This sign expresses the rage at having to bail out the Wall Street "fat cats" (who else hates that expression? I might have to blog my disdain for it). I don't care what This American Life might say, I won't change my mind about this. I think we need to have them dance the little lame piggy dance for our money - in their boxers - in the middle of the street. bastards.
link courtesy of PhatMunkay
No longer am I chained to either Faceless Corporation or NewCo. Handed in my badge and my gun an hour ago - I'm off the case. And boy am I grateful. Thanks my friends who I met and got to know there, you've taught me a lot and made the time go by more quickly. If you are reading this Capt Excitement, the Kid, Hatchet Face, Yes Man, Fat'n'happy and the rest, thank you and good night.