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Sunday, November 9th, 2008
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11:10 pm
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This is interesting. I wonder if it will catch on in the US... We really do need better bike culture in our cities.
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
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11:32 pm
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This is truly a historic night for the country. I sincerely hope that Obama lives up to his immense promise as president.
Both McCain and Obama gave great speeches, I thought.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Friday, October 31st, 2008
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4:17 pm - Marathon Luck
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I've historically had abysmal luck when training for marathons, but usually it has been at least due to overtraining. For the past 2-3 months, I've been training for the New York Marathon and have been careful to train intelligently with plenty of rest and pool runnings days to take the strain off my joints. Now earlier this week (the marathon is Sunday), I started getting pains down the back of my right leg, and then lower back and neck pains. I went to the doctor yesterday, and it seems I have developed disc problems. So I can't run the marathon now and am to wait 2 weeks and see if it improves. If not, back to the doctor, and we'll see about physical therapy. No fun...
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(comment on this)
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| Sunday, October 26th, 2008
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12:39 pm
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Al Qaeda for McCain? I don't think errorists' endorsements should influence whom we vote for, but it is ironic, as the McCain camp was trumpeting the support of some Hamas leader for Obama. The idea that Al Qaeda plans attacks and other moves to influence elections is pretty scary. What is scarier is that I think it would likely succeed.
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(comment on this)
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| Saturday, October 25th, 2008
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10:18 am
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This is kind of interesting. It gives a good indication of Obama's worldwide popularity. Strangely, he seems to be less popular in Africa than elsewhere. Would have thought since his father was Kenyan, he'd have a bit more African appeal.
EDIT: I misread it and thought it was based on polls. It's just a reader poll, which makes a bit less significant. Still interesting, though.
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, October 24th, 2008
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12:49 pm
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I have been putting off updating to Windows XP Service Pack 3 for a while now. I remember that Service Pack 2 caused all sorts of problems for my computer. Is this irrational? I just have the little update symbol sitting on my taskbar, waiting to be pressed. I'd create a backup, but I don't have enough space on my hard drive. I need an external HD...
So, I was just reading up on polling in Massachusetts -- http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2008/10/20/daily50.html. I haven't lived in the Bay State since mid-2006, but last I'd heard, Patrick was creating a number of boneheaded controversies. When did he become popular again?
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
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5:56 pm
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Two weeks until election day, and it seems like the Republicans Party is melting down. The culture war tactics that had success in the last several elections seem to be falling flat. Two recent stories illustrate the inability of many on the right to launch a convincing critique of Obama and the Democrats. These coming in the weeks following audiences accusing Obama of being a 'terrorist,' and 'Arab', or yelling 'kill him!'
I must say that I feel bad for McCain in all this. Although I think he's a fairly pathetic candidate at this point, and his campaign seems to be going off the rails, he seems to be genuinely regretting his pandering to the baser factions on the right. Then again, his campaign stoked this kind of stuff for a while-- it's just gotten out of control. Anyways, we shall see if the Republicans can mount something of a comeback.
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
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4:12 pm
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This is another interesting article arguing that Democratic presidents have had more of a positive effect on the economy than Republicans over the past 60 years. It seems somewhat counterintuitive, since the Republicans seem to value economic growth more than the Democrats (who tend to focus more on social justice issues, etc.). On the other hand, over the period I've been alive, it has been the Republicans who have let spending get out of control, despite their claims to fiscal conservatism. Anyways, it's an interesting article. I guess the argument could be made that correlation is not causation, but it also seems to be something to pay attention to.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, September 15th, 2008
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11:42 pm
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This is a very interesting poll. Who would have thought that the Germans would be getting such good marks for leadership?
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
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1:01 am
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This is an interesting article. I've noticed it of late, as well-- both sides of the presidential race are repeating lies that, even when discredited, don't seem to hurt them. If this is how the campaigns are going to continue playing out, I think McCain is going to win handily-- Republicans have consistently proven themselves much better at this kind of campaigning than Democrats in recents years (Swift Boat comes to mind...).
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, September 5th, 2008
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12:23 am
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This is kind of a funny clip. Watch the guy squirm! The interviewer has some very valid points that Tucker Brown is clumsily dodging. I wonder if the McCain campaign shot itself in the foot or if voters won't care...
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008
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10:54 pm - Liveblogging Palin's speech.
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Palin promised that she and McCain would "lay more pipe[lines]." That's a promise I can vote for.
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, July 24th, 2008
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11:29 am - Today
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| Thursday, July 17th, 2008
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9:54 pm - Health Care in America
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A pretty damning new report just came out. America really needs to get a grip on its health care system. I think the economic slowdown is just going to expose the holes in the system even more...
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, June 19th, 2008
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5:04 pm - Flying Solo
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A month or so back, my roommate was going to the grocery store and asked if I wanted her to pick up anything for me. As spring was upon us, and Berlin is a city rife with allergies, I asked her to get me some tissue. She came back later that evening with a big bag of small tissues packets (the normal form here in Germany). It was only a day or two later that I noticed something odd, even sinister about the tissue. Emblazoned across the front of each packet was the brand name, "Solo Talent." Was roomy trying to send me a message about my heavy tissue consumption, or was it just a happy coincidence? She claimed the latter was the case.
I subsequently wanted to look for the brand online to see if anyone else had noticed the amusing name and made jokes about it (after all, poorly chosen product names are not unknown in Germany). So I digging around and discovered that there were a few major product review sites with user reviews of products, including the Solo Talent tissue. I assumed that these reviewers would be making jokes about the name but was surprised to discover numerous lengthy (500-1000 words) reviews of the product made completely in earnest. Reviewer after reviewer writes of the tissues strength, it's absorptive powers, and how it does not make the skin of the nose raw from frequent use. The consensus is that the tissue is high quality for low price, bute very reviewer managed to find some details to complain about. Do such things happen in America? To me, this seems very German (hypercritical, never satisfied, and extremely verbose). Anyways, I've been working on a review of Solo Talent using a string of innuendo to hint at the name's double meaning, but it's tough in German. We'll see what happens...
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Sunday, June 15th, 2008
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10:23 pm
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7:27 pm
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I too seldom see good news coming out of Iraq-- less because there is none than because it doesn't sell, I suspect. Anyways, the latest issue of the Economist has a very good piece noting the ways that the situation there seems to be improving. There do seem to be hopeful signs, but the way ahead remains uncertain. I do agree with the closing comments, too, that even if the situation is improving, it does not legitimize the war. Still, it would be great if the violence there can calm down, and a stable government can take over security tasks.
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, June 13th, 2008
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10:59 pm
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My last post of the day. Really. This is a quite interesting article about how using the internet may be rewiring our brains and changing the way we think-- and not for the better. It is a controversial thesis, to be sure, but I also wonder if there's some truth to it. I think there is a trade-off of skills that is developing-- we are less able to focus on a given activity but more able to sift through piles of information. I've heard people comment that the internet is destroying our ability to assess arguments, that it creates a kind of information overload. I don't think I buy this thesis. At least for me, I think the internet opens up whole new avenues for assessing arguments-- suddenly, I have the ability to seek out the backstories right at my fingertips. If I read a newspaper article that seems suspicious, I can try to track down confirmation elsewhere. But maybe this is the point-- we are becoming fact checkers instead of idea creators. I don't know. Having more or less grown up with the internet and having seen the changes it has brought, it seems to have opened whole new avenues for thought. Whether everyone benefits from these avenues is a different question. I guess as someone going back to grad school for history, I am not the norm in terms of reading habits.
But back to the article in question-- I find it particularly interesting that it has a somewhat schizophrenic tone. He talks about how internet use has destroyed our ability to concentrate deeply on reading a book or even lengthy article (and who among us has not seen a 10 page article online and just skipped pages because of the length?), and then he writes an article that bounces from anecdote to anecdote. Is this a stylistic move to illustrate his point, is it evidence in support of his contention, or am I just imagining this?
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(comment on this)
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4:27 pm - The luck of the Irish.
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Big news day. This won't make a huge stir back in the States, but it's going to have all sorts of ramifications over here (though I don't expect to see the Europeans getting as excited about it as they are about the European Cup that is going on right now). By my math, just over 700,000 people just made a huge mess for some 500 million Europe. Ahhh well, least there's still soccer to watch...
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(comment on this)
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3:22 pm
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Well, this seems to be building up to a multi-post day. I guess I just keep reading strange articles online. This is a pretty bizarre one about segments of the political right complaining about Google's choice of holidays to comemmorate by changing the logo on its front page. It's a very strange phenomenon-- seems like a fairly inane thing to make into an issue, especially since Google HAS changed its logo on many holidays. Go figure...
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(11 comments | comment on this)
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