CNN goes a little nutty over the Obama VP drama... or well, not drama exactly, really just their impatience. Check it out.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Remarkable Woman, Remarkable Speech
I imagine most folks who caught it last night were touched and impressed by Teddy Kennedy's speech at the Democratic convention. He seems to be doing remarkably well for someone who has endured the sort of surgery he recently went through, and he was impressively powerful and clear in his words and presentation. I missed Michelle Obama last night, but I'm watching it this morning, and I'm so pleasantly impressed, but not surprised. She is an incredible person who has achieved remarkable things in her own life, so I think none of us should be surprised she can deliver an incredible speech. If you're up for spending 20 minutes with her, check out the full video below:
From Purple State Blog's Live-blogging of the convention last night:
Another wonderful reaction documented by Saramerica: young girls who aren't interested in politics find Michelle Obama inspiring.
From Purple State Blog's Live-blogging of the convention last night:
"I had thought going into tonight that Ted Kennedy's speech would be the one that could bring Democrats together across the Obama-Clinton divide. I was wrong. Michelle Obama proved herself a dynamic, captivating, and fantastic public speaker. I will post the video tomorrow. If you didn't see her speech tonight, watch it."
Another wonderful reaction documented by Saramerica: young girls who aren't interested in politics find Michelle Obama inspiring.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Water water everywhere and you thought Face-off was just a B-Movie
I am a B-movie fan. I love them. They give me interesting ideas for my own stories and thoughts. Sure they often take a bit more suspension of disbelief then other movies but if you can get there you will experience a fun time.
Face-Off was an initial exception, I just couldn't wrap my head around it the first time I watched it. It took a second watching sometime later to get my suspension to the level I felt it needed to be to enjoy the movie. Well low and behold I need not have suspended anything at all!
You too can get your face transplanted with someone else's! How wonderful! and with an implantable voice synthesizer, you can sound like them too! Electronic Voices
A quick point on bottled water: STOP USING IT! Seriously!
Bottled water in the vast majority of cases is no cleaner or healthier then tap water! There have been numerous instances where bottled water often has been tested as having higher amounts of potentially dangerous bacteria then any U.S. tap water. Not to mention the amounts of particles that come off the plastic itself. Ever notice the interesting taste and smell a bottle of plastic water has when it heats up a bit. Yeah, thats the plastic degrading.
Those are health risks, lets look at the actual monetary costs. Your average 20 oz. bottle of water costs between $0.70 and $1.50 depending on brand and location. The average cost of tap water in the united states in 2000 was between $0.07 and $0.40 per gallon. That is a milk jug of water folks. Inflation has not affected this cost significantly. Modern water treatment plants are top of the line and in most of the civilized world provide perfectly safe drinking water to millions of house holds. No bacteria, no harmful build up of chemicals.
Lets say you live in an older section of town and you have old pipes which do tend to harbor strange tastes smells and potential bacteria. You can get yourself an in house water treatment system that will provide mountain spring clear water for a fractional increase in cost over your standard tap water. These eliminate the 'taste' often associated with with older pipes.
Let's look at the environmental impact. I will just give you this fun fact. Despite the fact that recycling is continually growing through out the country in 2004 only one in six bottles were recycled. Check out some figures: Bottles Bottles everywhere
And you don't have to take my word for it, listen to two one of my favorite two man acts, Pen & Teller, call out the BS.
Bull $%*&
-J.R.
Editorial Note from John:
First, a big thank you to J.R. for a tremendous post. I really enjoyed the combination of two interesting and different topics, and what you had to say on both. If folks click through there are some great links here, and the bottled water issue is one J.R. and I both agree on and have talked through many times in the past.
If you're looking for a little multimedia to drive home the point, check out this video on where some of the plastic that doesn't get recycled goes. Warning, this video and the series that follows it are actually very disturbing. To give a quick synopsis they document a crew sailing out into the Pacific Ocean to document "trash island" a mass of swirling trash (largely plastic) and other debris that swirls around way out in the middle of nowhere unclaimed and unaddressed by governments to date. I posted this a little while back, but I think it really reinforces J.R.'s point.:
Face-Off was an initial exception, I just couldn't wrap my head around it the first time I watched it. It took a second watching sometime later to get my suspension to the level I felt it needed to be to enjoy the movie. Well low and behold I need not have suspended anything at all!
You too can get your face transplanted with someone else's! How wonderful! and with an implantable voice synthesizer, you can sound like them too! Electronic Voices
A quick point on bottled water: STOP USING IT! Seriously!
Bottled water in the vast majority of cases is no cleaner or healthier then tap water! There have been numerous instances where bottled water often has been tested as having higher amounts of potentially dangerous bacteria then any U.S. tap water. Not to mention the amounts of particles that come off the plastic itself. Ever notice the interesting taste and smell a bottle of plastic water has when it heats up a bit. Yeah, thats the plastic degrading.
Those are health risks, lets look at the actual monetary costs. Your average 20 oz. bottle of water costs between $0.70 and $1.50 depending on brand and location. The average cost of tap water in the united states in 2000 was between $0.07 and $0.40 per gallon. That is a milk jug of water folks. Inflation has not affected this cost significantly. Modern water treatment plants are top of the line and in most of the civilized world provide perfectly safe drinking water to millions of house holds. No bacteria, no harmful build up of chemicals.
Lets say you live in an older section of town and you have old pipes which do tend to harbor strange tastes smells and potential bacteria. You can get yourself an in house water treatment system that will provide mountain spring clear water for a fractional increase in cost over your standard tap water. These eliminate the 'taste' often associated with with older pipes.
Let's look at the environmental impact. I will just give you this fun fact. Despite the fact that recycling is continually growing through out the country in 2004 only one in six bottles were recycled. Check out some figures: Bottles Bottles everywhere
And you don't have to take my word for it, listen to two one of my favorite two man acts, Pen & Teller, call out the BS.
Bull $%*&
-J.R.
Editorial Note from John:
First, a big thank you to J.R. for a tremendous post. I really enjoyed the combination of two interesting and different topics, and what you had to say on both. If folks click through there are some great links here, and the bottled water issue is one J.R. and I both agree on and have talked through many times in the past.
If you're looking for a little multimedia to drive home the point, check out this video on where some of the plastic that doesn't get recycled goes. Warning, this video and the series that follows it are actually very disturbing. To give a quick synopsis they document a crew sailing out into the Pacific Ocean to document "trash island" a mass of swirling trash (largely plastic) and other debris that swirls around way out in the middle of nowhere unclaimed and unaddressed by governments to date. I posted this a little while back, but I think it really reinforces J.R.'s point.:
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Energy Independence
Some of the most annoying politicking of the current era revolves around "energy independence." Everyone assures us that he or she will break "American dependence on foreign oil." Everyone seems to think this is a good idea and why not? It ties into two strong urges: environmentalism and protectionism. The problem is that energy independence is a totally different goal that, say, producing energy in an environmentally safe way. And as for the protectionist urge to be independent from other nations, well, this strikes me as naive at best.
I read an interesting, if over-stated, editorial about this today. Check it out.
I read an interesting, if over-stated, editorial about this today. Check it out.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Biden Time
Well, turns out it was Biden after all. My first, pre-coffee reaction is one of relief: given all the ballyho about "the pick" I was beginning to worry that it might be someone else. The reaction to Biden's Veephood and Obama's handling of the announcement is uniformly positive. Maybe this will help the jitters among Democratic circles that Obama's campaing is on the wrong track.
I'm pretty pleased with the Pick, since I am a Biden guy from way back. It says a great deal about Obama's judgement that he went with someone like Biden and not a flashier, demographic-pleasing pick, like Kaine, Strickland or Clinton Herself. This gives credence to the idea that Obama will make up for his relative unfamiliarity with statecraft by surrounding himself with the best and brightest. Of course, Bush did the same thing on paper and look how that turned out. I suspect, though, that Obama is a good bit quicker than our Texan friend. All in all, this move will help Obama in the crucial me demographic.
I'm pretty pleased with the Pick, since I am a Biden guy from way back. It says a great deal about Obama's judgement that he went with someone like Biden and not a flashier, demographic-pleasing pick, like Kaine, Strickland or Clinton Herself. This gives credence to the idea that Obama will make up for his relative unfamiliarity with statecraft by surrounding himself with the best and brightest. Of course, Bush did the same thing on paper and look how that turned out. I suspect, though, that Obama is a good bit quicker than our Texan friend. All in all, this move will help Obama in the crucial me demographic.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Brooks On Biden
David Brooks has a nice opinion piece today in the NYT about the wisdom of picking Biden, yet more fuel on the fire, I believe. At this point I'm basically keeping my fingers crossed because I think Joe is a pretty great pick. Any thoughts to the contrary? Ideas of folks who might rival the strengths of the Senator from Delaware?
Obama/Astley '08
Apparently Barack Obama is brushing aside rumors and a growing rally around Joe Biden as a VP choice, instead announcing that he has chosen to Rick Roll America in the most elaborate "Never Gonna Give You Up" related prank to date. Read more here.
Not familiar with Rick Rolling? Read the wikipedia article on it here, see the Muppets play "Never Gonna Give You Up" here.
Not familiar with Rick Rolling? Read the wikipedia article on it here, see the Muppets play "Never Gonna Give You Up" here.
Mittens Linkage
Matt tossed up a tiny freakout about the Mitt rumors swirling this morning. Here are two links if you want to read more coverage of Time claiming to have the down-low on Mitt as McCain's VP pick:
Huffington Post
Salon.com's War Room
Wow... Mittens would sure change the race, huh? Veep rumors are fun, but is McCain really that um... dull?
Also, if you're on-board for some further interesting VP rumor-related stuff, check out this article I saw on HuffPo yesterday. In the article Adele Stan discusses how floating the possibilities of Tom Ridge or Ole Floppy Face Joe Lieberman may be a tactic the McCain campaign is using to distract while they prepare to pick someone much more conservative as VP. Interesting stuff.
Huffington Post
Salon.com's War Room
Wow... Mittens would sure change the race, huh? Veep rumors are fun, but is McCain really that um... dull?
Also, if you're on-board for some further interesting VP rumor-related stuff, check out this article I saw on HuffPo yesterday. In the article Adele Stan discusses how floating the possibilities of Tom Ridge or Ole Floppy Face Joe Lieberman may be a tactic the McCain campaign is using to distract while they prepare to pick someone much more conservative as VP. Interesting stuff.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Oh, By the Way
I'm back from the South with over a thousand pictures to try and wade through... sometime, and edit and upload, and and and... but in the meantime things are certainly interesting out there in the political world. I've been back since Monday evening, and the presidential campaigns have made a point of giving me lots to blog about.
Hence, it wasn't until just now that I realized I hadn't done any of the photoblogging I was hoping to do post vacation adventures. Hence, meet Mr. Biltmore Koi! He's one of a handful of super huge goldfish I photographed while we were taking a tour of the Vanderbilt estate at Biltmore in Asheville, NC. This guy was remarkably beautiful and in an effort to capture his beauty and girth I took tons of photos. This is one of my favorites, and the only one I've edited for uploading so far.
I've got some fun pictures of smores, adventures in downtown Asheville and other stuff taken early in the trip up on Flickr and over the next week or so I'll try and get more pictures up!
Until then, here's Mr. Koi, and I'll be cranking away with more political yammering, talk of music, etc. soon!
Headline Appreciation
Jake Tapper over at ABC News gets a nod from me today for his headline, "People Who Live in Seven Glass Houses..." and the attached rundown of the current McCain how-many-homes-do-I-owngate.
McCain's campaign again rolled out the arugula today while responding to Obama's campaign releasing an ad on the subject. Oh, what fun.
This should really become an interesting little plot line, methinks. It's just so... rich, no pun intended.
McCain's campaign again rolled out the arugula today while responding to Obama's campaign releasing an ad on the subject. Oh, what fun.
This should really become an interesting little plot line, methinks. It's just so... rich, no pun intended.
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