Quote of the Day

"You don't need to boo, you just need to vote."

- Obama at a campaign rally in Sarasota, FL as the crowd booed at the first mention of John McCain.

Undecided?

As Election Day approaches, there continues to be discussion about undecided voters. In a piece from last week's New Yorker, David Sedaris asks the question many of us have been asking: how can one be undecided in this election?

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

That's definitely funny, and a big part of me agrees. But perhaps it's also a bit harsh. A recent op-ed in the NY Times adopts a different perspective by articulating the undecided voter phenomenon as a reflection of the neuroscience and psychology of decision-making. It argues that many such voters have actually made a choice that has not yet gained enough confidence to reach the threshold of consciousness.

This might seem to rescue undecided voters from the accusation that they are out-of-touch or foolish. But I must admit, it remains puzzling to me how these "implicit choices" that ultimately mature into votes could be without intensity, force, or passion for so long when there is so much at stake.

Voted: Yes

I just filled out my absentee ballot—feels really good. Now go get this feeling yourself!

Mass voters: note Question 2.

Planet Earth cinematographer:

"Nobody should have to live one month in poo."

News, yes--but paper?

The Christian Science Monitor just went totally web-based.  Maybe their new slogan could play subtly off the New York Times': "All the News That Would Be Fit to Print, Except We're So Over That Tired Business Model, Web N3wzP@p3r FTW!!!11"

23/6: Some of the News, Most of the Time

23/6 has done some really funny coverage of the debates using video editing, including their latest video "Synchronized Presidential Debating"

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

If you haven't seen their earlier videos, they're definitely worth watching:

First Presidential Debate in a Minute
Second Presidential Debate in a Minute
Third Presidential Debate in a Minute
VP Debate in a Minute

T Minus 7 Days

Via Andrew Sullivan: Obama at his most electrifying. Compare to any five minutes of McCain

Of Mice and Memory

There is a lot of interesting work being done on manipulating memory processes in mice. This article recounts effective attempts at restoring memory function in mice with Alzheimer's by increasing the activity of the enzyme Uch-L1.

Research is also being done on mice with the opposite goal in mind: the erasure of uncomfortable memories. Check it out.

Advances in Printing

First of all, props to Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the mechanical printing press and namesake of an awesome website. A more recent advancement in printing technology is 3-d printing, which is especially interesting because printers are themselves 3-dimensional. Lo and behold: this past May a 3-d printer replicated itself. From RepRap.org: 

"Not counting nuts and bolts RepRap can make 60% of its parts; the other parts are designed to be cheaply available everywhere. This is an interesting coincidence: we can make 60% of our proteins; the other parts are evolved to be cheaply available everywhere..."

The next version of RepRap will be able to manufacture its own electric circuitry. The Mary Shelleys out there are already picturing a world overrun with Erector sets gone bad; having grown up with a deep knowledge of how easily LEGO robots break, I'm quite optimistic that's a war humanity would win.

Bachmann's Creepy Non-Apology Apology

In an ad "apologizing" for the egregious interview posted earlier, Rep. Michelle Bachmann draws a stark distinction between government and freedom. This doesn't distance her from earlier comments linking left-wing views and anti-American sentiments; it further paints liberals as anti-freedom, anti-children, and as somehow working against the greatness of America.



"I may not always get my words right, but I know that my heart is right."

Obama-McCain Dance-Off

Enjoi

Promising News from FiveThirtyEight.com

After incorporating recent polling information, FiveThirtyEight.com is putting Obama's chances of victory at 96.3%:

FiveThirtyEight's composites of polling in battleground states:

Colorado: Obama +6.3
Florida: Obama +2.8*
Iowa: Obama +13.7
Indiana: Obama +1.6*
Missouri: Obama +1.7*
North Carolina: Obama +1.7*
Nevada: Obama +2*
Ohio: Obama +3.6*
Pennsylvania: Obama +10.7
Virginia: Obama +6.8

The Bad news: Asterisks mark states where Obama's lead (according to this composite) is within the margin of error.

The Good news: Even if McCain wins every single one of the asterisked states, he won't reach 270 unless he also wins Pennsylvania's 21 EVs.

Unusual and Cruel

Sarah Palin in a recent interview for People:

Alicia in New York City asks, Do you think about having more children?
SP: No-o-o-o. We got our starting five. That's the final five.

Alicia also wondered if you had any more unique names up your sleeve.
SP: We did. We never got to get our Zamboni in. I always wanted a son named Zamboni.

"Zamboni Palin." It has a nice ring to-oh wait no it doesn't. That's just horrible. Growing up is hard enough without being named after a brandname for a gargantuan machine that smooths ice. "Maybe it has another meaning," I thought. Nope.

Zam•bo•ni
trademark
a brand of machine that smooths the surface of the ice on a rink

As long as you're going for a brandname, why not choose something a little softer, like "Kleenex?"

Confessions of an Ideologue

Alan Greenspan today conceded the limits of his free-market ideology in his testimony before members of the House Committee of Government Oversight and Reform:

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.

Referring to his free-market ideology, Mr. Greenspan added: “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”

Mr. Waxman pressed the former Fed chair to clarify his words. “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Mr. Waxman said.

“Absolutely, precisely,” Mr. Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.”

This is an impressive acceptance of fallibility from one of the most prominent free-market ideologues of our time. As the article posted below suggests, we shouldn't let the apparent failure of one ideology result in an intensified embrace of its opposite. Greenspan's comments shouldn't fuel a potentially misguided crusade against deregulation in all its forms, but rather invite a more thoughtful consideration of the limits of economic ideology in general.

The Problem with Ideology

This post from Megan McArdle is one of the few treatments of the financial crisis that is aware of the general problem of ideology in the face of a complex system.

Some things never change—there will be bubbles and crashes, hindsight will be 20/20, and we will forget lessons hard-learned by our ancestors.

Words of the Day

From wordsmith.org, this week's WotD theme is "Words that appear to have been coined after the 2008 US presidential candidates." So far we have...

• obambulate
• bidentate
• palinode

The first two are clever, but the third—ah, wonderful. However did I miss the etymological joke of Sarah's last name, as she opposes Change Incarnate?

(N.B. "Change Incarnate" is not Obama's actual slogan, but it should be, clearly.)

Smackdown

There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you’ve got 100 kilos of heroin in the trunk of your car. Just to be near it, to smell it. Driving along at 120 mph in France somewhere and thinking: “I know what I’ve got in the car.” Police stopping beside you. A gun under my seat. Wouldn’t think twice about shooting them. Taking the risk. At the end of the day that’s why I became a drug dealer. Not the money or the power, but the buzz.

That's from an interview with Suleyman Ergun, formerly the "world's most prolific and powerful seller of smack," in Vice Magazine.

Lessons: 1) I think I lack a certain business acumen, 2) we're all just looking for our rush, and 3) "if you don’t have money, you have nothing."

Enjoy Your Life

Chatlos just pointed me in the right direction. I had been worrying, but now I don't have to!

A Good Read, Mind You

Just read an awesome article in The Atlantic. I don't even know which way to start thinking about it--psychologically, socially, psychologically...

Anyway, maybe you'd better just read it.

Censure Bachmann!

Michele Bachmann's comments on Hardball:

I found a link to Censure Bachmann, an online petition to do just that and collect donations to support her opponent in the congressional race. I put the following in the comment box:

It is appalling that member of Congress could knowingly or unknowingly confound being anti-American with thinking, hoping or believing America could be different—perhaps better—than it is now. What is she doing in Washington? How can she legislate if the only thing she wants is exactly what we have? With what eyes does she view the country and see no flaws nor suspect she's missing them?