Sarah Vowell Op-Ed Piece on the McCain, Palin and the Republicans
One of my favorite Authors, Sarah Vowell, wrote an Op-Ed piece for yesterday’s New York Times.
The good news is that Governor Palin has sufficient experience in public life to leave behind enough of a paper trail that we can discern her positions on many of the most important issues of the day. The bad news is that after taking this crash course in where she stands, I know that if she were elected I would be afraid to leave my apartment after sundown.
Also…
Despite his consistent party-line voting record, some independents and Democrats still think of Senator McCain as the most palatable, independent-minded Republican. But this is the sort of empty compliment a friend of mine once compared to being called “the coolest Osmond.”
Dicky V’s Basketball Hall of Fame Acceptance Speech
A buddy of mine had a theory. His theory was ‘A boy, a ball, dream, Dick. A boy, a ball, a dream.’ And that was my life. I’m a gym rat. I absolutely love the game. The game has been so good to me.
“Frank Sent This” - 3 Videos for the Airplane Ride
I hadn’t really been using my iPhone to watch videos up until recently…which is good, because it means that I really haven’t been doing a lot of business travel over the past year. (A little bit of background - After several years of being a road warrior in my early career, I’m not much of a fan of business travel anymore.) But I had a trip to Charlotte, NC this week, so I loaded up my iPhone with a bunch of videos for the plane ride.
(Side note: Even a year after purchasing it, the more I use my iPhone the more I love it and the more it becomes indispensible to me.)
Three of the videos from the Ted Conference were excellent in a both educational and entertaining and well worth watching if you get the chance.
Al Gore from 2006 - Speaking about 15 things you can personally do to avert the climate crisis. But the best part of the of this video is the first several minutes where Vice President Gore talks about life after politics. Laugh out loud stand up comedian funny.
Martin Seligman form 2004 - Speaking about positive psychology. Interesting background on the topic. Directly relates to Jane McGonical’s thoughts on Happiness and Game Design. I’m very interested to spend more time at the Authentic Happiness web site.
Ken Robinson from 2006 - Speaking about schools and creativity. This one is also laugh out loud funny…and also extremely informative. Extremely important (i think) for parents who have school age children.
One additional thing that strikes me about each of these three videos is the use of storytelling by each of the speakers as a mechanism for presentation. Each presenter are excellent storytellers, which makes the presentations extremely engaging and enjoyable.
Distractions for August 1, 2008
Malwebolence: The Trolls Among Us - Interesting tangent from NYT Magazine (although not purposefully related) the to whole Comments on Comments discussion.
Carmensita - Bollywood-style video from Devendra Banhart featuring his girlfriend Natalie Portman. I actually like it. Very catchy tune and goofy-fun video.
In Your Face Photography - Meant to post this a while ago, but Mick’s photography business site is up and running.