Ahem

What I didn't expect about becoming a father

Here are a few things I didn't fully expect about becoming a Dad:

-you spend a lot of time staring (mainly at the baby, but also sometimes blankly into distance due to tiredness)

-habits and routines are hard to break

-you are never not doing something

-there is no greater sound than your baby laughing

-there is no way to really be totally prepared for your first baby

-it is possible to admire and love your wife even more than you did before

-holding him is a very good upper-body and core workout

-there is a son-shaped gap in your arms that is filled when you hold him

-cliches are true: it really is all worth it

I've been bad, I know

I've once again committed the cardinal sin of blogging - not posting for ages and ages.

I partly blame twitter and Facebook: I'm active on those sites so it feels like there's less time and fewer things to say on the blog.

There's a broader point to be made here somewhere about quantity of communication (twitter, Facebook) versus quality (blog - well, relatively).  We seem to be valuing speed and frequency over reflection and analysis, somehow.

Or maybe that's just me.

Brilliant

I've long loved a book called 'The Art of Travel' by Alain de Botton.  He's a modern-day philosopher who has the underrated gift of explaining complicated things in simple terms.  And he rarely allows his abstractions to become untethered from reality.

Here he is at TED, talking about why we may be suffering from career-envy.  It's quite brilliant:

LOL, etc

I have a tendency to get slightly obsessed with things.  Usually, the object of said obsession is a song or (less frequently) a TV programme.  A couple of years ago, my obsession was focused on The Guardian's podcasts of Ricky Gervais, Steven Merchant and the inimitable Karl Pilkington.  Many a washing-up session would be extended purely so I could listen to more of their banter.

Happily, HBO is turning their conversations into an animated series.  Here's a teaser (obviously not animated) that gives a good flavour of their ramblings.  There's more on the HBO site here.

Lying to Kids

My boy band crushes of 2009

These are a few of my favourite things this year.

As I type this list, my keyboard is flooded with my hysterical tears.

1) Obama (the President)

2) Community (the TV show, not the concept)

3) The Atlantic (the magazine, not the watery expanse)

4) My Garmin (the old one, not the new ones)

5) Obama

 

Top ten tracks of 2009!

Finally, you can all rest easy - the top ten tracks list is here! As in the previous year, I'm taking a dictatorial yet flexible approach to the list: the tracks don't necessarily have to have been released in 2009, they just have to have been listened to by me during the last year. Click on the links for undeniable listening pleasure.

There was so much stuff I enjoyed last year, I thought I'd include the ones that didn't quite make it:

Hayden: Let's Break Up

Luke Vibert: Pretty Old Acid Music

Metric: Help I'm Alive

Blue Sky Black Death: Tokyo Underground

Patrick Watson: Man Like You.  (This is also the only video of the singer performing an acoustic version live from a bathtub).

But there has to be a cut somewhere.  So without further ado, here's the top 10, in dramatic 'last first' fashion:

10. Jay-Z: Empire State of Mind

9. The Gaslight Anthem: 59 Sound

8. Sufjan Stevens: John Wayne Gacy Jr.

7. Richard Hawley: Just Like The Rain

6. Bon Iver: Lump Sum

5. Royksopp: The Girl and The Robot

4. Phoenix: Lisztomania

3. Nitin Sahwney: Days of Fire

2. Antony and Bryce Dessner: I Was Young When I Left Home

1. Doves: Kingdom of Rust

Enjoy!

I was right! Once.

So it appears that not all of my crackpot/numbingly dull ramblings are completely off the mark after all.  After chuntering on pompously a while back about how Obama's election allowed people to feel good about America again, I now have statistical proof from someone who actually knows what they're talking about!

Hoorah for exceptions that prove rules!

Up versus across

I have a new theory (be still, beating hearts). I think that we tend to get 'up' confused with 'across', and vice versa.

What I mean is that we tend to judge absolute things relatively, and relative things absolutely.

Traffic is a good example.  I've often tried to figure out why some people tail-gate. Is it lack of imagination or lack of discipline that makes them discount the obvious dangers in favour of ... well... what, exactly? What advantage could there possibly be?  After all, a car traveling 1 metre behind another vehicle is going the same speed as a car traveling 100 metres behind.  Even if tail-gating leads to cutting in and out, which leads to getting home 5 minutes earlier, the absolute advantage is so negligible that no-one in their right minds would take the risks associated with gaining the sort of time that could be gained by going to sleep 5 minutes earlier.

In other words, there can't be an absolute advantage to tail-gating. No, the only advantage I can think of is relative: they'll beat the other car (or their usual commute time). But I'd bet that the reasoning those drivers use is absolute.They've mixed up absolute with relative, up with across.

We do this in all sorts of ways, particularly when it comes to moral decisions.  No matter what your faith, moral decisions are essentially 'up' decisions, not 'across': the fact that person A killed 5 fewer people than person B doesn't mean it's fine for person A to have killed anyone. (Yes there's the whole element of mitigation, but that doesn't change the fundamental fact that society considers some things absolutely wrong).  But despite this, we usually consider our own morality in relative terms: 'well, I'm not as bad as that guy', or 'everyone downloads stuff illegally'.  It doesn't matter what anyone else does - it's an absolute issue. 

f it was relative, the law would state 'downloading files is illegal unless there's someone else who does it more than you, in which case it's legal'.  Ludicrous as that sounds, that's basically what we tell ourselves when we compare across not up.

I'm trying to identify those parts of my life where I look the wrong way. I now remind myself that driving is an absolute exercise, not a relative one, and I have to say that I'm a much calmer driver as a result. Well, until someone tail-gates me, anyway.

Ah, ads

The Guardian is asking its readers to vote for the best TV ad of the (ahem) 'noughties'.  There is some amazing work on display, some of it more relevant to British audiences, but all of it fantastic stuff and testament to how good advertising can be.

Here are a few highlights:

Excellent article on how much Obama has achieved during his first year (and why he's not getting credit for it):

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/richardson-report/obama-timeline-110309

Up with elites

I wrote a while back about how I am, in some ways, a proud snob. Following on from that, I have a similar confession: I think elites are great.

What I mean is that I believe that some people know more about some things than other people.  And that the opinions of people who know more are worth more.

For some reason, this feels vaguely scandalous to write.

I think part of the problem is that we've confused "everyone's got an equal right to an opinion" with "everyone's opinion has an equal chance of being right". As a result, we've become afraid to point out that a lot of people have opinions that are, quite frankly, worthless.

What worries me is that if you combine an opinion based on ignorance with an ignorant audience, the acceptance of that opinion becomes based on something other than whether it's true or not.  It becomes based on how persuasive the teller is, what platform they're able to use, or how many fear or dreams they're able to tap into. And when you follow that road, you end up with a lie appearing to be true because a lot of people believe it. (Also known as Sarah Palin).

When you lose the capacity to question the validity of an opinion, you risk making nonsense valid.

Dara O' Briain makes the same points. But coherently. And funnily. (With some NSFW language).

Good driving

As part of my ongoing battle against my misanthropy, I'm delighted to report that the overwhelming majority of drivers have been very considerate this week.  I've ridden my bike to work most days, and have been treated on the main to wide berths, patience and good manners. Thanks Toronto drivers!

 

In defense of 'traitors'

There's a saying in the field of market research which is that the worst way to find out what someone thinks is to ask them. 

A classic example of this is why we say we buy things and why we actually buy things. When asked, most people provide rational reasons, such as price or product features. In fact, the overwhelming drivers of most purchasing decisions are emotional, 'irrational' factors ("this fleece gilet makes me feel like a prince amongst men").

You can see the same thing amongst people who voted for Obama, particularly those further left on the political spectrum. One of the main 'rational' decisions people gave for supporting Obama was that he would usher in a 'new type of politics'. Less rancour, more partisanship; less focus on party politics and more on people. Obvious signs of such behaviour would therefore include voting differently to your party, or listening to people from the 'other' party.

And yet when Joe Lieberman votes against the Democratic line, he is vilified for his 'treacherous' behaviour by those on the left. Or when Obama appoints a Republican like Ray La Hood, he gets accused of unprincipled politicking. It makes me wonder how people expect politicians to act differently without, erm, acting differently.

In other words, when most people talked of 'a new type of politics', what they really meant was 'the old type of politics but with policies I like'.  Maybe if we were more honest with what our reasons are, we would be more likely to get what we wanted.

Swine flu, mobile phones and personal responsibility

One thing that's been meandering around my wrinkled little cerebrum during the recent kerfuffle surrounding swine flu is why it's become such a big thing.

The two most commonly stated reasons are that it kills lots of people and it's preventable.  Fair enough. But then I think of mobile phones. I read recently that driving while distracted by mobile phones killed or injured over 47,000 people in the US last year. So it obviously kills people. And if using a mobile phone while driving isn't preventable, I don't know what is.

The only theory I've come up with is that it comes down to taking personal responsibility. The only person responsible for preventing someone using a mobile phone when driving is the person driving. With swine flu, it's easy to blame someone else.  In particular, it's easy to blame governments and bureaucrats, who are the most common Inchoate Rage Catchers (also known as 'well it must be someone's fault other than mine so it might as well be theirs').

Ironically, when governments do try and do something about using mobiles when driving, they usually get accused of running a 'nanny state'.  I would bet that those complaining are usually the same people who complain that 'nothing's being done' about swine flu.

Now, driving while on your phone complaining about swine flu symptoms... that's just wrong.

(pic from http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidfarrant/3620527073/)

Nick Griffin on Question Time

On Dan Brown

I'm obviously not the only one to be horrified by just how bad a writer Dan Brown is.  Click here for the worst 20 sentences chosen by The Telegraph.

Optimism and the internet

On of the things I find laudable about a lot of the internet's innovators is a notable stream of optimism, even idealism.  Google's 'don't be evil', the open source concept, free content, all these things seem to be symptomatic of a broader belief that good will out.

I remember when the internet was first being talked about in the mainstream.  There was much chatter about how it could lead to greater tolerance, because people would be able to read opposing or divergent views more easily and readily.  Instead of just getting your news from The Daily Mail, you'd also be able to read The Guardian.

And yet sadly, the opposite seems to be occurrng, in politics at least.  I read a study once (I know, not very accurately sourced, but this is a blog after all) that demonstrated that people tended to read more of what they believed in online as compared to offline.  In other words, people tend to be exposed to fewer divergent opinions, not more.  I wonder whether this has something to do with the tone of some of the debates in the US. Maybe not.

I know this doesn't exactly chime with my recently-announced determination to stop being misanthropic, but I can't help but wonder if greater use of the internet as the predominant source of information will actually polarize populations more.  Maybe we'll end up looking back at Fox News and think that it actually was relatively fair and balanced.

America: back to not being cool

I have a theory that one of the reasons people outside of the US were so happy when Obama won is that most people really want to like America because they think it's cool.  Like American food, you know it's not exactly good, but it sure is tempting.  

It was very hard for most people to like the US when W was... doing whatever it was he did. So when Obama came in, we were suddenly allowed to like America again, to admit that it was pretty cool after all. We were prepared to forget Dubya, to overlook all that 'lying to Congress and the people so we can go to war' thing, and to gracefully pretend that the startling oddity that is Palin never really happened.

Them came the whole birth certificate thing, and the Muslim thing, and the whole crazy anti-healthcare thing ... and the US was back to being that embarrassing drunk friend at the party that you'd all like to ignore if you possibly could but is making so much noise that you can't help but look. And cringe. And wish they were cool again.

Sigh.

Comments, and my ongoing battles against misanthropy

I have a vile tendency towards misanthropy. 

This tendency, I know full well, is not consistent with being a Christian, so I'm working to battle against it.  As with many struggles, it's an ongoing process with good days and bad days. I've found that the best way to battle against things like this is to take concrete steps; too often we try to change behaviour by willing ourselves to think differently, whereas the best thing to do is usually to act differently.  In that spirit, here are two things I've resolved to do:

-Stop reading comments

The comments section on websites is where reason and restraint go to die. With a letters page in a newspaper or a phone-in segment of a radio station, there is at least some kind of editor whose job is to filter out things that are abusive or wrong. The comments section, however, is usually populated entirely by things that are abusive or wrong. I realised last week that I'm very rarely enlightened by anything I read in the comments section.Instead, I usually end up depressed or angry. So, from now on, I'm banning myself from reading the comments.

-Catch people doing good

If you want sustenance for a misanthropic outlook, it's easy to find (especially in the comments section).  But this is really just another version of theme days - you can see repeated instances of anything if you're looking for it. So rather than trying to find examples of people being stupid, I'm now on the hunt for people doing good things. I'm pleased to say that I've found plenty of instances of that, too.

I think it's too rare that we take note of people doing things that are worthwhile.  Not rising to a bait, letting someone in to a traffic jam (and then forgetting about having done it), those sorts of things. It reminds me of one of my favourite lines from one of my favourite bands (The Weakerthans):

"Somewhere someone's saying they're sorry, someone's making plans to stay".

More updates on the struggle to come.

Computer says no

www.hunch.com is a fascinating site.  It basically helps you make decisions, based on what it thinks you think.

To begin with, it builds up a profile of you, based on answers to a number of questions.  The more questions you answer, the better picture of you the site is able to build. Once you're set up, you can ask it questions like "should I buy a Kindle?" and the answer - your answer - comes back (98% no for me, apparently.  Which is good, seeing as I can't buy one in Canada.

But still. Worth checking out. I think. Let me ask hunch first and I'll let you know.

Internet = wow

I’ve just had a very strange and wonderful internet journey.

 

I was reading The Guardian online and saw that Radiohead had a new song out today (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/aug/05/radiohead-harry-patch-in-memory ).  So I clicked on the link and it sent me to the page on the BBC site that has the story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8184000/8184802.stm.  It is a stunning, heartbreaking song that uses as lyrics comments from one Harry Patch who died just a short while ago.

Harry Patch (I discovered) was a Passchendaele survivor and one of only 4 remaining World War One veterans, and one of the oldest men in Europe. (Incidentally, Passchendaele was also the subject and title of a recent film made in Canada because of the central role that Canadians played in the battle.  The Canadian troops were so fierce that the German troops to nickname them ‘Storm-troopers’: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1092082/ .)

 

Intrigued, I wanted to know more about Harry Patch, so I went to Wikipedia and read his profile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Patch.

 

It turns out that Harry Patch was born in Combe Down.  Combe Down is a small village of under 3,000 people in the South West of England.  It's also where I was born and raised, and where my parents continue to live to this day.  Amazed, I clicked on the link in Wikipedia on Combe Down (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combe_Down) and at the bottom of the page was a list of Grade II listed buildings in the village.  In amongst the list was ‘Nos 83-101 Church Road’.  I clicked on the link to find a picture of 83-101 Church Road, Combe Down on the Heritage England site: http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=444898.  My parents live at 89 Church Road.

Wow.

Do social media have a fundamental flaw?

With Facebook, Twitter et al growing rapidly, there seems to be a concomitant rise in predictions of their demise. The reason usually given is that they can't seem to find a way to make money.  That's obviously a valid reason, although I'd be interested to learn how long it took the telephone companies, newspapers and radio stations to make money. YouTube is still only a few years old, and I remember when I worked at a magazine publisher that it was considered good going if a new launch broke even in 3 years.

But I think it's worth asking if there's a fundamental problem for web 2.0 companies beyond business plans.  I'll admit that it seems pretty unlikely, but I wonder whether the whole concept of having to populate sites will itself turn out to be a trend.

Most social media sites now seem to be at the mercy of two basic human traits: narcissism (or, more charitably, the desire to connect to others) and laziness. Currently, the need to connect is winning, and social media is booming.  But I wonder whether we'll look back to now at some point in the future and marvel that we ever thought people would put in the effort to update other people's sites.

Just a thought.

On Twitter (2)

(I chopped this post in two as a sort of homage to the word limit).

2) It seems half-baked

It strikes me that Twitter doesn't seem like a fully-formed or thought-out service, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, most services want you to grow your networks, and get more useful as you do. Most companies in general are designed to 'scale' successfully.  Twitter doesn't (at least in terms of the website).

With Twitter, the more people you add to your network, the less useful the website becomes.  The service gets more useful, but the site doesn't. So off everyone trundles on to other companies like Tweetdeck, which help mitigate the problems that Twitter has created. I know people burble on about 'eco-systems' and the like, but the fact remains that it's a service that doesn't work well when people do what they're supposed to do. That seems half-baked to me.

The second reason is that it isn't very easy to use. Signing up and all that is straightforward, but beyond that, it's pretty clunky. Answers aren't linked to questions, it operates on its own schedule not the users', the whole 'secret code' thing of hashtags, RTs and Ds is horrible, and it's hard to filter the stream in genuinely useful ways, meaning you have to trawl through a lot of rubbish before you find the interesting things.

It's not that any of these are terrible in themselves, it's just that they seem like things that would have been sorted out before a product was launched.

Or maybe I don't get it.  After all, I am the same visionary who ranted about YouTube and MySpace, missing the point almost entirely. (Cartoon by the always-brilliant www.toothpastefordinner.com)

 

On Twitter (1)

I've been using Twitter for the last few weeks or so, about a year after the cool kids started. I joined because I thought it would be the only way I could understand why people used it - there didn't seem to be any compelling reasons from the 'outside'.  Here's what I think so far:

1) It provokes disproportionately extreme reactions

For some, their embrace of Twitter seems so feverish that it makes you imagine that they delineate their lives in a BT and AT phase. For these Twitterados, the service is all that the web should be: fast, informative, easy, enlightening.

Twitter seems to make other people angry. It provokes comments more related to personality than service, such as 'narcissistic', 'vapid', and leads people to make suggestions as to the limited social capacities of its users.

I have a theory that both reactions come from the fact that a lot of social media end up being advanced version of school. There's an element of those who 'get it', and those who don't, with a certain snobbery emanating from those in the know. The number of friends, connections or followers you have 'proves' how popular or unpopular you are(n't).  The website (?) 'how long have you been on Twitter?' was surely written by and for those eager to show that they were ahead of the curve.

I find myself swinging between two extremes of thinking that it's either a) brilliant or b) a symbol of a declining civilization, twittering while all else burns. It's probably neither.

Mind the gaps

I've been thinking a lot about gaps recently.  Gaps as in things not there, left out, held back.

In music, for example, it's often what is left out that gives a song its impact.  Compare the two versions of 'Brandy Alexander' by Feist and Ron Sexsmith, and you'll see what I mean.  The beauty of Feist's version is that it's so sparse and 'gappy'.

I think gaps are crucial in relationships as well, in the sense of what's not said.  There's a great section in 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' by David Sedaris (one of my favourite ever books) about his partner restraining himself from making a cutting remark.  Sedaris says that he thinks that's what love is: not saying hurtful things that you could say.

I have a theory that you begin to appreciate gaps more as you get older. Maybe you become less capable of dealing with constant inputs, or maybe it's a question of greater discernment through experience, I don't know.  

I wonder whether we're in danger of filling our space with things like Twitter, texting, camera phones, iPods, etc.  When faced with a gap, we tend to lunge to fill it, and those things fill gaps really well.  But I wonder whether we should instead be holding ourselves back, minding the gaps.

The internet: still crazy after all these years

It's easy in this day and age to think of the internet as a collection of cool and helpful tools to make our lives more like those we find in the pages of our favourite magazines.

How refreshing it was then to come across a reminder of the sheer oddness that still abounds.

I found this site a while ago (goodness knows how), and it has a hypnotic effect on me because it's so bonkers.

I absolutely love it.

http://stargods.org/

My friend just published a cookbook!

An old friend of mine just published a cookbook  - 'The Vicar's Wife's Cookbook' - and it looks fantastic!  I went on a camping holiday in France with her and her husband (the aforementioned vicar) many years ago, and I can still remember a meal she cooked for us. Steak with squeezed lemon, and a salad made of rocket, blue cheese and plums.... delicious.

I want this book! (How's that for a subtle birthday hint, Mum?).

There's a review of it here, and you can buy it here.

 

The face of a boy hearing for the first time

“This photo was taken by photographer Jack Bradley and depicts the exact moment this boy, Harold Whittles, hears for the very first time ever. The doctor treating him has just placed an earpiece in his left ear. Date unknown.":

Uh oh

Just a thought

There have been a few  stories recently about 'surprising' pieces of good news in the economy (growth in housing starts in the US, CPI increases in Canada, etc).  Those that are professing themselves surprised are economists.  Presumably the same economists who failed to predict the current recession.

Maybe the only surprise is that we still expect economists to always get it right, despite the fact that the vast majority of them failed to see any of the recessions since the 1930s.

Just a thought. 

What happens when you lose your password

1) You don't update your blog for ages

2) You feel guilty for not updating your blog, but aren't quite sure why

3) You make sporadic attempts to remember the password, but fail

4) You get all confused because you also have a work blog and typepad thinks that it's the only blog you have and you can't remember how to get typepad to see you as 'personal David' not 'work David' (there's a metaphor waiting to happen)

5) You get distracted by signing up to Twitter, 18 months after the cool kids did

6) You finally sort it out by remembering how to get typepad to differentiate between your 'selves' and reset your password

7) You feel relieved

8) You feel pressure to update again regularly

9) You realise that you are social not-working and decide to stop

[The sound of stifled giggling]

From today's issue of the august New York Times:

   "In the scale of embarrassing place names, Crapstone ranks pretty high. But Britain is full of them. Some are mostly amusing, like Ugley, Essex; East Breast, in western Scotland; North Piddle, in Worcestershire; and Spanker Lane, in Derbyshire.

Others evoke images that may conflict with residents’ efforts to appear dignified when, for example, applying for jobs.

These include Crotch Crescent, Oxford; Titty Ho, Northamptonshire; Wetwang, East Yorkshire; Slutshole Lane, Norfolk; and Thong, Kent. And, in a country that delights in lavatory humor, particularly if the word “bottom” is involved, there is Pratts Bottom, in Kent, doubly cursed because “prat” is slang for buffoon".

I remember many a happy hour at the back of geography class poring over maps looking for such gems.  Happy days.  

Hope

More than anything else, this is why I admire Obama so much.

Words I like (part 3)

Loll

Surround

Seldom

You may proceed.

   

Business and goodness

Goodness And Happiness - Why Generosity Is The Future Of Marketing Strategy

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: digital planning)

Top 10s of 2008!

I know, I know.  You've barely been able to contain yourself during these last few weeks, waiting, wondering when my top 10 music lists would be posted.  Well, your wait is over, dear reader.  As with last year, I retain the right for a tune or album to be in the list that wasn't actually released in 2008.  My rule is that I had to have been introduced to it this year.  Because it's important that you know that, obviously. Thanks to the brilliance of Owen, all of the top ten tunes have links so you can hear them if you don't know them.

TOP TEN TUNES:
10.  Poses; Rufus Wainwright
9.    Cologne; Ben Folds
8.    ManWoman Boogie; Q-Tip
7.    Hearts on Fire; Cut Copy
6.    Blue Ridge Mountains; Fleet Foxes
5.    Time to Pretend; MGMT
4.    A&E; Goldfrapp  
3.    Your New Twin Sized Bed: Death Cab for Cutie
2.    Mirrorball; Elbow
1.    Dream Job; The Dears

TOP 10 ALBUMS:

10.    Cut Copy; In Ghost Colours
9.      The Dears; Missiles
8.      Hayden; In Field and Town
7.      Death Cab for Cutie; Narrow Stairs
6.      The Streets; Everything is Borrowed
5.      Sigur Ros; Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Enadlaust
4.      Fleet Foxes; Fleet Foxes
3.      TV on the Radio; Dear Science
2.      Coldplay; Viva la Vida
1.      Elbow; The Seldom Seen Kid

 

Snowpocalypse!

There's a big snow storm headed to Toronto today, and someone creative at the weather centre said that it was a 'snowmageddon'.  I somehow misinterpreted that as 'snowpocalypse'.  Either way, it's extremely exciting!

SNOWCOPALYPSE!  WE'LL SELL YOU BOTH WINTER BOOTS, BUT YOU'LL ONLY NEED THE TOES!" (or something).

Nut fight!

I know I should have come up with something better for my first post in a while, but hey ho.  Anyway, it's still a wicked picture.

We're really not that important

“It’s ridiculous to ask people to wait a couple of minutes,” said Sergei Krupenin, executive director of marketing of DeviceVM, a company that makes a quick-boot program for PC makers. “People want instant-on.”

Really? "Ridiculous"?

Maybe we should just learn how to wait for 2 minutes.  More article here.

Things I have learned from the internet (1)

1) Cats are often hilarious.

2) People polarize precipitously.

3) People think their views are important.

And if Obama doesn't win...

"That one" won

I know this is a bit overblown, but I find it difficult watching the US presidential debates. It's a very similar feeling to watching England play football: I'm worried about it going badly. Mind you, recent debates have been more like watching England 5 - Germany 1, or at least one of those 'hey, we didn't do so badly after all' matches. It now seems to have reached the stage where at the very least it would be a surprise if McCain won. If Obama wins, one of the best things about it (and there are many) is that it would discredit the kind of barrel-dredging awfulness that has characterized Republican campaigning since Lee Atwater et al.

There's something fundamentally depressing about a call to the lizard-brain, and something fundamentally un-Christian, in my view. Which makes it all the more depressing when it's conducted by people calling themselves followers of Christ. Somehow, I can't imagine Jesus being OK with hinting that Obama is somehow 'not American' (i.e. either Muslim or - worse - liberal), which is what Palin/McCain has been doing.  It seems contrary to everything He said and did. I honestly don't know how you can square running "one of the most appalling campaigns we [New York Times] can remember" with a Christian faith.

On a lighter note, Radar magazine has a few good explanations on why McCain pointed to Obama in last night's debate and referred to him as "that one". (Poster from www.barackobama.com).

Not even attempting to remain entirely rational in my support for Obama

Frankly, given the sinful mendacity of the McCain-Palin campaign, I'm fast wondering whether rationality has much place in this race anymore.  One of the things I most admire about Obama though, is that I know he will keep making rational points. And keep hugging children, as detailed in this blog, Yes We Can (hold babies).

Wow

Here's an example from a collection of 38 of the most incredible photos I've seen in ages (even including mine... ahem).  They're by a photographer called Yann Arthus-Bertrand, who's exhibiting 150 4' by 6' images all taken from above.

 

The painful truth

I am, as long suspected, a complete cliche.