As I said in an earlier post, the only election-night coverage I watched was the Comedy Central special and Obama’s speech on C-SPAN. This morning, though, I flipped back and forth between MSNBC and CNN while feeding and walking the floor with SteelyKid (when she’s fussy, she won’t tolerate me standing still to read blogs).… Continue reading Thank God for the Internet
The Morning After
Some commentary on the night just past. This will be somewhat scattered, as I stayed up until 1 to hear Obama and read the celebratory postings at my favorite left-leaning blogs: — As much as I believed what folks like Nate Silver were saying, I was still afraid that it would somehow all go wrong,… Continue reading The Morning After
Yes, He Can
Heart-warming morning thought: SteelyKid is going to grow up in a world where “Can a black man be elected President?” will be considered a stupid question. That’s worth a smile: Hell, that’s worth some dancing in the streets:
links for 2008-11-05
The Supreme Court’s 100 percent dirt-free exploration of potty words. – By Dahlia Lithwick – Slate Magazine "Perhaps it’s true that the Supreme Court can take away our F-bomb. But they cannot touch our dirty, dirty minds." (tags: US politics language law society culture) Watching the election. – By Troy Patterson – Slate Magazine "I… Continue reading links for 2008-11-05
Non-Election Live Blogging
It seems like everybody with a blog has put up a live-blogging/ open comment thread about the election. I can’t really type fast enough to compete in this sort of thing, and anyway, it seems cruel to leave foreigners and apolitical types out of the fun. So, for the benefit of those who can’t vote… Continue reading Non-Election Live Blogging
Stop Hitting Refresh!
There aren’t any results yet. Turn off the computer. Go vote. Already voted? Watch some silly videos. Eat a sandwich. Do some freakin’ thing. Just stop reloading FiveThirtyEight and Talking Points Memo, already.
Dance Like a Monkey
As you know, even if you’re not Bob, I promised to “dance like a monkey” if my DonorsChoose challenge passed $6,000 in donations, which it did. Thus, I am obliged to dance like a monkey. You might think this would be a simple matter of capering about in a loose-limbed, vaguely simian manner, but it’s… Continue reading Dance Like a Monkey
links for 2008-11-04
Fafblog! the whole world’s only source for Fafblog. ""All we really need is some kind of simple technological solution," says Giblets, "like a garbage-powered weather machine or a synthetic source of God."" (tags: fafblog science environment silly blogs) McCain Refusing To Tell Voters What’s In Box Unless Elected | The Onion – America’s Finest News… Continue reading links for 2008-11-04
The Importance of Temperment
Kevin Drum is amused by a historical comparison: THEN AND NOW….In 2004, everyone complained that John Kerry was an old-media plodder who didn’t react quickly enough to conservative attacks. What a dunce! In 2008, everyone is praising Barack Obama for keeping his composure and not letting conservative attacks knock him off his message. What a… Continue reading The Importance of Temperment
Quantum Computing Candidates: Liquid State NMR
Continuing the series of descriptions of candidate technologies for making a quantum computer (previous entries covered optical lattices and ion traps), we come to one that’s a little controversial. It’s the only remaining candidate I can describe off the top of my head without doing some more background reading, though, so I will plunge ahead… Continue reading Quantum Computing Candidates: Liquid State NMR