The World of Politics

When I started this blog, I wasn't too comfortable talking about politics. Consider my coverage of the 2004 presidential election (1 2 3 4). Pretty even-handed, it was, even though I had my opinions. But over the course of 991 posts, I've become more comfortable in my own skin. If you haven't been able to tell, I'm a lefty to the core. (I'm also a lefty to the hand, but that's neither here nor there.) Dennis Kucinich was my dream candidate, but I am left supporting Barack Obama.

It's hard to be 100% excited about a candidate you don't support 100%, but he's much better than the alternative. Yes, this dichotomous thinking isn't helpful for real democracy, but it is realistic. For what it's worth, I think it's a shame that Obama and McCain are still on the ballot in Texas. They both missed the filing deadline, so Libertarian candidate Bob Barr sued. The Texas Supreme Court decided without an explanation that Obama and McCain should remain on the ballot. This stuff makes my blood boil. It's bad enough that people think there are only two parties to choose from, but when the government gets in on the act, it threatens democracy.

Besides Obama and McCain, four candidates are on the ballots in enough states to win the presidency. So how come the news channels aren't going on and on about Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, Cynthia McKinney, and Ralph Nader? It's a vicious cycle, I guess. The newsmedia don't think people are interested in these candidates, so they don't tell people about them. The people aren't interested because they don't know. I think these candidates should be included in the presidential debates, but you know who organizes those debates? The Democrats and Republicans. The two-party system has been very good to them, so they will try to maintain it for as long as they can.

That said, I will be voting for Obama. I happen to agree with him on most issues, and I feel that he can undo the damage that Bush has done for us at home and abroad. While I can understand the frustration that supporters of third parties experience, I don't think it's appropriate for them to refer to Obama and McCain collectively as "McBama" or what have you. Barack Obama and John McCain would be very different presidents, and I am convinced that Obama is the best candidate out of those who are running.

Interestingly enough, I have a connection to Barack Obama. My mom's cousin's ex-boyfriend's friend (or something) went to school with him. My mom's cousin even hung out with "Barry" at least once. That's like five degrees of separation between me and him. I wonder if he knows Kevin Bacon.

Michael Moore is making his latest movie, Slacker Uprising, available on the Internet for free (in the US and Canada). The movie chronicles his campaign to encourage young people to vote (against George W. Bush) in the 2004 election. It's definitely worth watching.

Here are 10 Creatures People Didn’t Think Existed. Then people found out they existed after all.

See historic aerial photographs of (some parts of) the United States at Historic Aerials. The interface is kind of hard to navigate, but it was interesting to see part of my neighborhood as it looked in 1940 (i.e., it wasn't there). You can compare different photos of the same place too.

What is it good for?

My friend Briana has a friend (friend, ex-boyfriend, something, whatever) who's a Marine serving in Iraq. She writes him all the time, and now she's looking for pen pals for everyone in his unit. She asked me to write to the only woman. I thought it was a good idea. Life isn't exactly rosy over there. They live in squalid conditions. It's dangerous. They probably don't get many letters. And the woman is surrounded by 30 guys. Poor her.

I thought about what to write. "Thanks for spreading freedom and democracy?" That's not why they're there. "Thanks for being in Iraq so I don't have to"? Sounds pretty selfish. I don't even know this person, anyway. I wish she didn't have to be there either.

Some people don't even want to write to the troops, Briana told me. Though the occupation of Iraq isn't popular, it's not their fault that they're there. I thought about it some more. It kind of is their fault. I mean, I wish they didn't have to be there, but they brought it upon themselves by joining the military. When you join, you have to expect that you might be needed for war or war-like actions. We haven't been hanging around in Germany and Japan for 63 years just for giggles.

I thought about what would motivate someone to join the military. Nothing came to mind immediately. I think it's rarely because they want to kill people. I have friends who are going to join the Army and the Marines, and another who just joined the Navy. It seems that they want to be part of an institution that they think is honorable, and for some of them, it might be the only viable career choice after finishing school. I know one of them would love to kill lots of people, but he's the exception that proves the rule. (It's not you, Evan.)

Even so, people aspiring to join the Marines should know that they'll be trained to kill without remorse. So, do they deserve my sympathy? I grappled with that question for a little while. It is tough. I could give this woman the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe she was hoping just to hang out in Okinawa and pick up some Japanese. I think few people look with excitement on being sent to Iraq. And even if she did, she might regret it now. Anyway, what's done is done; she's already there. She probably needs some love right now. Marines are people too. That's good enough for me.

I wrote a letter this morning. It's hard to start contact with a pen pal, especially if you don't know anything about her and she's not even expecting a letter from you. In fact, it was easier for me to think of things not to say:

• "What made you want to be a Marine? Do you regret it now?"
• "Have you ever killed anyone?"
• "What are some things you're not allowed to tell me?"
• "Do you miss home? How much? A lot?"

I don't want to depress this person. Instead, I wrote about myself and how I got her name and address. I asked her where she was from and what she was interested in. Now, I will spend a few weeks waiting for a reply. And even though my first letter hasn't yet been picked up from the mail slot downstairs, I've already learned things from this correspondence.

Here's a coincidental link. It's an interactive map showing US military presence worldwide from 1950 to 2007.

One of those demonstration videos: Capturing 3D Surfaces Simply With a Flash Camera.

These are pretty weird: 20 of the World’s Weirdest Endangered Species.

Schmysics

I had a physics test today. I've spent the past few days studying like a madman. Now I am a mad man. I don't think I did very well on the test, you see. I was really nervous, and there was a lot of pressure. 10 questions in 50 minutes. I think I only had time to do about 6. Some I didn't know how to do, so I had to guess.

My last physics class was cool because after each test, they would post the answer key online so you would could compare it to your scratch work and see how you did right away. For today's test, we had to sign and hand in our scratch work, and they'll be grading the exams and posting the answers tomorrow. I guess they're trying to prevent cheating.

I feel that I deserve whatever grade I'll get. I spent as much of the previous 48 hours studying, but it wasn't enough.

But I do have some good news. My Esperanto club was approved today. We had registered for the 2007-2008 year at the very end of that year — so close, in fact, that we didn't get all the way through the approval process. Now we are official for the 2008-2009 year. I just need to straighten out a snafu with the name. (Last year we were "The Esperanto Club at the University of Florida," but for this year, we had to drop the "at the University of Florida" from our name due to new guidelines for student organizations. However, they registered us under the old name, which might get us in trouble. I will have to talk to someone about that.) Pretty soon, we are going to have our first event, I guess. I'll be sure to tell you all about it.

Well, that's it for my 989th post, cats and kittens. I've got to do homework and also eat and stuff. And then sleep. Enjoy these links.

I don't know how many times I've had to comb through the edit history of a Wikipedia article to see who added a certain bit of vandalism. WikiBlame makes it easy to see who added what to an article.

I never realized it, but my own state of Florida has some weird holidays. Grandmother's Day is right around the corner!

If you're like a lot of people, you make yourself lots and lots of coffee. Here are 11 Good Reasons Why Coffee Grounds are Worth Keeping.

The informant

Toward the end of my senior year of high school, all of my teachers knew about my blog. They all happened to mention it to me out of nowhere. I had told a few of them about the site when it was relevant, but I didn't expect the word to get out as much as it did.

I've just learned that this blog was being cited at my high school's faculty meetings since at least my junior year. They apparently found it useful to get an unwitting student's perspective on their policies and the school in general. That's what Ms. Phillips, an assistant principal, assured Mr. Bell, the principal, when he found out that I had said something about his well-known propensity to talk a lot. Don't get mad, it's good information.

It's kind of odd to go back and look at all the stuff they've read about me. They read that I dismissed the new principal's motto as a platitude. In the same post, I said, "It's sometimes fun to see what policies are enforced at the beginning of the school year; usually, the dress code is on the administration's collective mind for a few weeks, and then they forget that you're showing too much skin, young lady." I also described the new tardy policy as "draconian."

Oh my God. Did I inspire them to enforce the rules more strictly? My peers would have been so mad at me if they had known.

During my junior year, one of my teachers puzzledly said to me, "Cruel Joke Soup for the Gloomy Soul"? And Mr. Gordon, the principal during my senior year, sent me an e-mail praising me for my "very fair and accurate assessment" of his reaction to the infamous food fight. But there must have been more than that. The teachers and administrators must have read my rants about their lame field trips and propoganda campaigns. I pointed out their glaring lack of knowledge of teenage slang and blamed them for things they didn't do (incidentally, a fellow student was responsible for that). There are hundreds of other examples. I was full of criticism.

Oh my God. Maybe that's why I wasn't valedictorian??

??????? !!!!

Is it too late to go anonymous? This is only my 988th post.

Oh well. Time for some Ask Jordon.

Tallie Hoe: So if I'm Christian, and I know that the Bible doesn't teach that there is a burning hell, does that make me not a Chrstian?

I don't know. It's all very confusing about who is a Christian and who is not. Everyone has a different definition. "He says he's a Christian but he's actually not. She says she's not a Christian but she actually is." Or maybe... "I'm a Christian, he's a Christian, she's a Christian, we're all Christians, hey!" To answer your question: don't worry about it. Just go out and help some people.

Here's the rarely told story of the Chicago Tribune's "Dewey Defeats Truman" issue.

The timeless bestseller A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates is back in print, and it can be yours from Amazon for only $81. You can preview a few pages from the book to make sure that you like it. Be sure to read the reviews too.

And finally, we have a video of a wind turbine exploding during high winds.

Employment

Last week, my friend Mark tipped me off to a job opening at the Dean of Students Office. They were looking for a webmaster. Mark had been filling in for the job in addition to doing his own job there, so he was pretty busy. I thought I'd send my resume.

My interview with the Interim Dean of Students was today. To be honest, I had been pretty nervous. In my tech writing and speaking class, we're starting to go over resume and job interview skills, so it was pretty timely. I read up on the stuff we're going to cover about job interviews, so I had that stuff in mind today as I went in. Actually, the interview went more smoothly than I could have imagined, and I was hired on the spot!

I look forward to maintaining the Dean of Students Office web site with Mark, who's the database guy, and the graphic designer. Of course, it'll also be great to get to know the friendly faces at the DSO and to learn about some of the inner workings of the university. I also should mention now that opinions expressed herein are not those of my employer but are pretty awesome.

(Frequently asked question: How much does this job pay? I am pretty sure I know, but I don't want to tell you before I find out for dang sure. As with most discussions of salaries, this would be a faux pas.)

Here are some links to hold you over till next time.

From 2004: Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the [U.S. Presidential Candidate] Debates.

Ever wish there was a phone number you could call that could broadcast your voice from a megaphone overlooking a fjord and a village in Norway? Well, now there is: Telemegaphone Dale.

In Germany, 3,000-year-old skeletons found in a cave have had their DNA matched with several living members of the local population. Some families just never move.

Out of it

I am sick. It started yesterday when I woke up with a throat thing. Now I don't have much of an appetite. Luckily, I am not sneezing my brains out as I usually do all the time.

I have a temperature. I have the air conditioner on as hot as it will go, but it still feels pretty cool in here. Now I'm wearing heavy clothing. Also, my tongue is burned because I couldn't wait for my soup to cool down last night.

My roommate has been gone for the weekend, but I've instructed him to stay away longer. In fact, we both think that he got me sick, but I wouldn't want to be hanging around a sick person anyway. You could be a disease vector.

I am into music, and I often imagine what it would be like if I were to have a musical career. What freedoms would I associate with my songs? I know that I would use a Creative Commons license because they help build fan bases and provide free publicity. Brad Sucks is one of the best examples. As I mentioned in my last post, he released his first album under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license, whose requirements are pretty self-explanatory. You can do anything with the songs, as long as you provide proper attribution, use them noncommercially, and provide any derivative works under the same license.

Actually, it seems that he has now re-licensed his first album under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, which brings me to my point. I believe that the noncommercial clause is unnecessarily restrictive. I would want people to make commercial use of my work. The share-alike provision ensures that no one can have a monopoly over it. You would be able to remix and sell my music, but someone else would be able to remix and sell your remix. Meanwhile, I get the credit for having an awesome song that so many people want to remix. I thus get featured on TV and have lots of sold out concerts. Result: money.

It comes down to allowing equal access for all. I've used Creative Commons-licensed music extensively in all of my videos, and I would feel great if I could allow people to use my work in the same way that I've used others'. I would really be flattered if someone covered my song, remixed it, translated it, used it in a movie, published the lyrics in a book, or transcribed it for the guitar. And if people could do that for every song without explicit permission from the copyright holders, everyone would be better off.

Of course, I have not taken my musicianship to the next level, but if ever I do, I'll know exactly how I want things.

Oh, those dolphins: A wild dolphin in Australia is teaching others how to walk on their tails. Apparently, it was taken into captivity due to illness about 20 years ago and learned the trick there.

Wikipedia has a list of United States Presidents by genealogical relationship. In short: a lot of them were related to each other. I wonder if you'd get similar results for any other 42 white Americans.

In this video, Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig responds to John McCain's planned technology policy.

Darts and laurels

A few months back, I discovered Brad Sucks, a "one-man band with no fans" who had a lot of fans. His only album at the time, 2003's I Don't Know What I'm Doing, was very good, and I think he owes his fan base to the fact that he distributed the album for free under a Creative Commons license that allowed for noncommercial use and remixing.

This week, he released his second album, Out of It. It was the first time I was excited about the release of a new album, maybe... ever? Anyway, it's a short record, but if you liked the first one, you'll enjoy it. You can download it in MP3 format for whatever price you want, including for free. (For the Ogg Vorbis q7 version, Jamendo has a torrent and a direct download link.)

Interestingly, the new album is released under a Creative Commons license that allows commercial and noncommercial use of all kinds, provided that the artist is credited and that derivative works are released under the same license. Incidentally, this license is incompatible with the license Brad used for his first album, which means you can't mash up tracks from the two without permission. Still, it's good that he chose a more generous license for Out of It. He can get away with it since he has so many fans.

I've also heard of this fellow called Girl Talk and how everyone loves him. Unauthorized mashups are his thing. Yesterday, when Waxy.org analyzed the hundreds of samples he used on his latest album, I decided to download it. It's called Feed the Animals, and it's a 53-minute orgy of popular music. There's something for everyone. Recommended.

You know what's annoying? Selling out. I have stopped visiting a number of sites because they were jumping on the money bandwagon and/or acting all high and mighty. At The Sneeze, Steve's running jokes got old fast, and he pretends that his blog is a magazine. I am mad at PostSecret because Frank Warren passes over normal people's secrets in favor of the most scandalous ones, which he then makes money from by putting them in expensive books and music videos. Jessica Hagy of Indexed accepted a book deal. Damn Interesting reposts the same damn articles over and over again... because they're busy writing a book (and sometimes for no apparent reason at all).

Remember a few months ago when I said this?

Jim Davis, the mastermind behind the Garfield empire, has now realized that if you can't beat 'em, you should join 'em. His company is going to publish a book of old Garfield strips with Garfield removed, and the Garfield Minus Garfield guy is going to write the foreword. This is just absolutely nuts... and I count it as a sell-out.

I was going to say that I Can Has Cheezburger was getting very close to the point of selling out. It's run by an actual company now. They've had sweepstakes and have launched sister sites in case this lolcat thing doesn't work out. Yes, I was going to say that ICHC is close... but I just went to the site and saw that I Can Has Cheezburger is now a registered trademark of Pet Holdings, Inc. Whaaa?

To you alleged sellouts: Don't be mad. I used to love you all. You had, and still have, some great ideas. I still have a place in my heart for each of you (except maybe The Sneeze). And hey, there's no such thing as bad publicity, right?

As we all know, good-looking people face so many problems in our society. Fortunately, there's now a social network just for them: BeautifulPeople. To get in, you have to be voted attractive by members who are of the opposite sex. Then you have to pay pretty dang much money if you want full membership. (£69.95 a year? What the heck?)

One of those university projects: Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene.

How much of the things you remember actually happened? A recent (or not recent, I can't tell how old the article is) study suggests that creating false memories is pretty easy.

Speak to me

"What is your favorite branch of engineering and why?"

With that, I had three minutes to outline a three-minute speech. I took the prompt as I left the classroom and went into the hallway to work. I had enough time. Computer engineering would have to be my fave, of course, since I'm a computer science major. As I was practicing making impromptu speeches, I had realized that you can make anything about computers.

Computers have had a profound effect on engineering and science, and also, programming has allowed me to think more logically and analytically.

I spoke clearly, but I really wasn't sure of what I was saying. I think my hands were shaking also. I did manage to restrain myself from saying "um." I had to cut it short and bail after almost running out of time.

It took me a while to calm down after that. Right after my tech writing and speaking class, I was due to be at the Talk to Me Language Cafe, an event where speakers of several languages would teach people to say some basic phrases. (I'm starting an Esperanto club, and our faculty advisor got Esperanto to take the the place of Spanish in the program.)

It really was like a cafe. There were a few tables set up, and coffee and cookies were served. Passersby could meet with a speaker of Turkish, Italian, Czech, Chinese, Japanese, sign language, and (of course) Esperanto to learn some basic phrases. Most people I talked to hadn't heard of Esperanto but were interested in the idea. (The people who had heard of it either had a friend who was interested or had lived in Europe.) When I mentioned how popular Esperanto was around the world, people were surprised that they hadn't heard of it before. It was a great chance to plug our group.

I was there for about two and a half hours, but it didn't seem that long. Then, Mark took over for an hour while I had class, and after that, I returned for the last few minutes. We ended up giving out 24 copies of a "What Is Esperanto?" flyer and 21 copies of a flyer with basic vocabulary and grammar. Most people received one of each; a few left before I could give them any. I'd say we talked to 25-30 people.

Mark and I each got interviewed by journalism students who needed material for an assignment. One of the ones who talked to Mark later arranged an interview with me. She said she was going to cover the language cafe in general but discovered Esperanto and decided to make it the focus of her story. We talked for about 20 minutes, and I enjoyed it. She also said she'd try to get the story published. That almost certainly means she'd shoot for the widely-read Alligator (which I have decided not to write an editorial column for due to a lack of ideas).

What's next for the Esperanto Club? We're going to have a talk introducing Esperanto to anyone who's interested. But we won't be able to book a room until we're officially approved for this year... whenever that will be.

Here are some free (as in freedom) fonts listed by license and where to download them.

More and more people are using Wi-Fi in their homes nowadays. Some people like to share their connection with their neighbors, and that's where sharemywifi.com comes in. It's a geographical listing of Wi-Fi access points that their owners want to share access to.

Finally, we have 3 Controversial Maps.

Breathe

Last night, as I was trying to go to bed, my heart was racing. I wasn't sure why.

There could have been a lot of reasons. It might have been the cheeseburger, french fries, cookie, brownie, and Gatorade I had for dinner. It might have been that my roommate was getting sick and I was trying to fight it off. It might have been that somebody took the dry erase board off my door and chucked it at the bike rack outside. Who would do such a thing? I suspected everyone at first. I thought someone might have something against me, but the consensus around here is that it was a random act of drunkenness by a stranger.

It might have been things in the future, too. I was anxious about having to give an impromptu speech in my tech writing/speech class. I would have to choose one of three topics presented to me, and I would have three minutes to come up with a three-minute speech. I was also nervous about teaching people simple phrases in Esperanto, a language I'm not entirely fluent in. (Both of those things are tomorrow, by the way.)

I felt like a wreck. Actually, I just felt really awake. I lay in bed for an hour or two, trying to figure out how to calm my nerves. I got up for a drink of water. I played the guitar a little. Finally, I decided to go out to the common room and hang out there till I got tired. I was chatting it up for about 45 minutes. Since I had class at the asscrack of dawn, I decided I should finally go back to bed. And when I got there, I didn't feel my heart pounding.

Why did it happen?

Incidentally, the class was my physics lab. I didn't think there was anything worse than having physics lab at 7:25 A.M. on Mondays. But when I got back to my room after the lab, I realized that there was. The fire alarm had gone off right after I left.

I think I'm going to write a column for the student newspaper as I said that I might. I'll send them one, and I guess they'll run it if they like it. Another follow-up from my last post: equal time. Fraternities and sororities do good things. They work toward charitable causes and provide strong friendships for their members.

BugMeNot is a convenient site where you can submit (and look up) login information for sites that require free registration (usually newspapers' web sites that make you register before you can read the articles). Even though BugMeNot does not keep logins for Facebook, Facebook censors mentions of BugMeNot on its site.

Here are 10 mispronunciations that make you sound stupid. Of those, I'm only guilty of mispronouncing "jewelry."

Unfortunately, some people suffer from the delusional belief that photographing buildings from a sidewalk is a crime. Here are the details of just one encounter between a photographer and an irate security guard.

Eddy

The fall semester is starting nicely... well, as nicely as school can go. The freshmen are getting advice, clubs are starting to meet, I've been practicing the closed-mouth yawn, and fraternities and sororities are recruiting. Well, you know, they were. They do it early, and then... it's this whole process.

A distinguished professor came to speak in the common room in my dorm the other day, but I was so not there. I remembered his name from last year's freshman orientation. I could have sworn I mentioned him in my original post, but I guess it didn't. At the orientation, he gave a talk to us where he said we would have a horrible college experience and fail all our classes. He was... acerbic. Not a fun guy at all. I can't imagine what "advice" he gave the people on my floor this time.

I don't really see the point of fraternities and sororities. They almost seem to exist for the purpose of making money. You're basically paying lots of money to have friends and do stuff. I can do that for free. I read The Ritual of Kappa Sigma on Wikileaks. The quasi-religious rituals were pretty ridiculous, the anti-atheist discrimination disgusting. Then there's the hazing and the dangerous partying. But probably the biggest problem I have with these groups is that they dominate campus politics. Whenever one of my friends joins a fraternity or sorority, a little piece of me dies. At least two of them have done so this fall. But I recognize that they probably have good reasons for joining, and it's their decision to make. I'm not just saying that because they both read this blog. (Okay, maybe I am, but it really is their business and not mine.)

One of the aforementioned friends, Adam, recently reminded me that I should write for the Independent Florida Alligator, the most popular student newspaper at UF. Today, they were having an open house, so I went off campus to stop by. The place looked pretty familiar, which means I've probably passed by and looked in the window before. They work out of a pretty small space with issues from throughout their 100-year history hanging up all over the place.

I was directed to the sports editor, who I guess is also in charge of editorial columns (or "eddies"). Having no little experience writing for a newspaper (I remember in mid-sentence that I submitted an article or two to the online-only, now defunct Pompano Pulse), I received some advice on what it takes to write an editorial column. Basically, I would just have to write about things that everyone can react to. On this blog, I basically write about two things: things I do and things I think. A column would be all about the things I think based on the things I have done. Can I write like that? Can I reach out to lots of college students? Can I do it on a weekly basis? Can I keep to 600 words? Can I write extremely short paragraphs?

Maybe.

I'm supposed to send the guy some samples, but I'm not sure if I have any blog posts that would fit the bill (my last post notwithstanding). I'm not used to writing where money is at stake. The Alligator is a business. They need writers that the students can connect with because then they get a greater circulation and sell more ads. Could I have fun writing in an environment that's all about the deadline and the bottom line? I'm not sure.

In a world where movie trailer voice-overs were boring... one man redefined an industry. Now, Don LaFontaine, the man who lent his deep, gravelly voice to thousands of movie trailers, has died at 68. Here's an interview with him. (From the archives: I linked to a video featuring LaFontaine and other prominent voice-over artists on August 28, 2005.)

This month marks the 25th birthday of GNU, a free operating system that has achieved relatively widespread popularity bundled with the Linux kernel. Now, the Free Software Foundation, which sponsors GNU, has released a short video of British comedian Stephen Fry explaining GNU to you. (The video is in Ogg Theora format.)