On Politics
January 28, 2008 | Governance | People & Society
Worth it:
Kennedy Endorsements of Barack Obama (42 min, and worth it)
The Billary Road to Republican Victory
Races Entering Complex Phase Over Delegates
In Open Nomination, ‘Superdelegates’ May Hold Key to Victory
Clinton’s Camp Seeks Gentler Role for Ex-President
TPMtv: Sunday Show Clinton Pile-On (Snark alert)
A Way To Live
January 25, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
A life. Some projects. A very thoughtful five-minute "game." (Read the creator's statement.) If you want, you can support this life.
Update: I didn't know it at the time I wrote this, but the Wall Street Journal covered the game in today's issue.
iPhone Guitar
January 25, 2008 | Technology
More hacking from today's youth: Hacking the iPhone to make it into a guitar. Amazing.
Feeling very middle-aged this morning.
Head-Tracking VR with Wii Remote
January 25, 2008 | Technology
Super-duper video (5:00) of Carnegie-Mellon student Johnny Lee demonstrating how to hack the Wii remote and sensor bar to demonstrate 3D images from a television screen. Very clear presentation, with several opportunities to say, "Wow!" Really geeky cool. Good job, Johnny Lee.
Bill Clinton uncut
January 23, 2008 | Governance | People & Society
A fascinating CNN video of Bill Clinton, running nearly five minutes, uncut. The reporter asks him a question, and he just goes on and on, and on. He's pissed, but he smiles, and talks and rebuts, and all in all gets down and does some hard-core political jiving.
This video supports my long-held belief that political figures should be allowed in the media only when the clips are a minimum of five or ten minutes, unedited. Soundbites would be outlawed. Then you'd get to see them think, see their character and personality, get a better sense of who they were. Would that not be better? I used to like Bill Clinton. Today, not so much.
Obama: "I have no doubt that once the nomination contest is over, I will get the people who voted for her. Now the question is can she get the people who voted for me?"
From Notio's point of view, the answer is very likely, "no."
On Twitter
January 23, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society | Software | Technology
rentzsch: yay morphed a client meeting into client work-time. "Nothing new to talk about, how about I just keep working?" "Sure." I love sane clients
I never understood Twitter. I checked it out way back when, probably around when it first started, readin' the blogs and all, and I just didn't get it. "Okay, you're supposed to answer the question, 'What are you doing?' – I guess you post from mobile phones or something – SMS, I think that's a phone thing – because posts are limited to 140 characters! What can be said in 140 chars? Well, maybe someone will probably use it."
I signed up for an account though, mostly to landgrab the esteemed and coveted notio member name. I'm not sure I ever went back, even after I read about Twitter taking off and getting popular. I just figured, "I don't really have a modern phone, pretty sure it doesn't do SMS, and gosh ain't the kids just crazy these days with their Internets??"
Then in early January a friend was flying out to Iowa, and he said, "I'm on Twitter BTW. I usually post when I travel." And I said, "What is the deal with Twitter? I just don't get it." He said, "You have to get a desktop client, like Twitterific. Then subscribe to a few people, look at my friends and then look at their friends and subscribe to the interesting ones. You can't use the website this way, you need the integrated view. They're calling my flight, gotta go."
So I downloaded Twitterific, and did what he said, and it only took about half a day, before, suddenly – bing! – the bell rang inside my head. It turns out that keeping Twitterific on the the background is like sitting in a cafe where everyone there is a friend. The 140 char "restriction" drove behavior toward a new style of online banter, sort of a synthetic conversation made up of everyone announcing presence to each other. It's not really better or worse, it's just really different.
I "followed" my friend over two days, as he made his way through his business trip. Here are some examples to give you a sense of the flow:
It's Jan 2nd, can we stop the Christmas music playing at the airport yet?Delayed twice already. Looks like I'm missing my connection.
Can someone at Gate 36 in Cincinatti please tell the woman cutting her nails in public that it is disgusting.
Next to Mike Wallace while checking in at the Marriott.
Shorter than I expected.
DSL line just went down... to the backup we go.
Up and running on the backup DSL. That was a little stressful... but better now than 8:00
Romney has conceded Iowa
They are calling it for Obama here.
Adam Nagourney is an intense typist.
The live band at the Ron Paul party next door is playing "When will I be loved"
Teardown time.
Done. I'm outta here.
Happy to see and hard to beleive but the airport is totally mellow.
It's got its own vibe, doesn't it? Poetic, in a way. I had a real sense of what was going on in his life. A tight connection, over two days. And each of those "tweets" was read in-line with several other folks on-going comments and announcements. When people subscribe to each other's tweets you often see people reply to each other, in public, using the "@" to cue the recipient, as in, "@notio are you making a point?"
All this just goes to say that Twitter is an interesting place to play, and I missed it the first time because I tried to box it into existing mental models. On its own terms it's radical and super-interesting. For instance, back to that quote from the beginning:
rentzsch: yay morphed a client meeting into client work-time. "Nothing new to talk about, how about I just keep working?" "Sure." I love sane clients
Anyone who has ever worked in a professional services capacity will recognize several nuggets of humorized truth in rentzsch's tweet. It conveyed to me a complete emotional state. I laughed out loud, smiled, and when I happened to see Twitterific ask, "What are you doing?" I wrote, "Writing about twitterific"
On Brazil
January 20, 2008 | Arts & Culture
When I was at the Unbroken Chain conference someone brought up the movie Brazil and when they learned I hadn't seen it the whole room became animated with encouragement: "Oh man! You have to check it out! Wow, never seen Brazil... Dude, it's awesome, you won't believe it."
Well, okay then. We watched it last night. What struck me was the similarity to the Bush administration. Even Wikipedia alludes to it:
Brazil's bureaucratic, totalitarian government is reminiscent of the British government depicted in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, except that it has a buffoonish, slap-stick quality totally lacking in that particular novel.
Certainly the most unusual movie I've seen in a good long time. A more engaging plot – in fact, discernible – than Eraserhead. For cinematographic scope, Prosper's Books was probably stronger. If those two didn't throw you off, you'll enjoy Brazil.
Running Out of Ideas?
January 17, 2008 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | Life | Software
Amusing one-line review of Handmeon, pointing to the Boston Globe article:
Handmeon.com is a cool idea, perhaps showing that Web 2.0 entrepreneurs may be running out of ideas.
Well, I laughed out loud. He goes on to say, "Actually, I do think it's a pretty interesting social experiment." Thanks Pito, for taking a look.
In Praise of Melancholy
January 17, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
Ours are ominous times. We are on the verge of eroding away our ozone layer. Within decades we could face major oceanic flooding. We are close to annihilating hundreds of exquisite animal species. Soon our forests will be as bland as pavement. Moreover, we now find ourselves on the verge of a new cold war.
But there is another threat, perhaps as dangerous: We are eradicating a major cultural force, the muse behind much art and poetry and music. We are annihilating melancholia.
My favorite line: "One would think that Keats's life would have fostered bitterness in him, but he remained generous in the face of his difficulties. He didn't flee to the usual 19th-century escapes: Christianity or opium..."
Technolust, defined
January 15, 2008 | Products & Opportunites | Technology
FDA Says Food From Cloned Animals Is Safe
January 15, 2008 | Business & Commerce | People & Society
After years of debate, the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday declared that food from cloned animals and their progeny is safe, removing the last government hurdle before meat and milk derived from copies of prize dairy cows and superior hogs can be sold at grocery stores.
Tuesday’s decision means cloning technology could move into commercial use a mere decade after the world learned of the existence of Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, in Scotland. To create Dolly, scientists took an unfertilized sheep egg and removed the genetic material. They then inserted the genetic material from an adult cell. Machinery within the egg somehow reset the clock on the adult genes, and the new cell, after implantation into a surrogate mother sheep, developed into Dolly.
This technique has since become routine in laboratories, with clones produced in numerous species — not including humans, so far as is known.
At a time when population growth is the biggest driver of all the world's major problems (poverty, resource scarcity, drought, global warming, species extinction, civility entropy, etc) the last thing we need is to perfect and assimilate cloning.
Coming up next: Perfect Twins!! Is it safe to clone your own children? We report, you decide!
The Game Was Completely Up
January 14, 2008 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce
In 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,” says a person who was there.
Sigh
January 9, 2008 | Governance | People & Society
Oh well. It's not over yet.
About the polls: IMHO "Strategic" voting doesn't work. Vote for who you want to win. Trying to game the system always fails.
Net-net: The Republicans are relieved, they might get to run against Clinton in the fall. She would lose in a Clinton vs. McCain contest.
Finally, they didn't randomize the order of the candidate names!?!? That's got to matter.
A photo of where I spent election night.
My Home Town
January 7, 2008 | Governance
Could Be Game Over
January 7, 2008 | Governance | People & Society
Hillary Clinton sez:
Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act,” Mrs. Clinton said [...]. “It took a president to get it done.”
And a commenter at Andrew Sullivan's responds:
That's right. It wasn't the courage of King and local Montgomery residents standing up to legalized white supremacy in their hometown that began to change America, it was the white man. It wasn't Rosa Parks who had enough and refused to sit in the back of the bus that got things started, it was the white man. It wasn't John Lewis and others facing down billy clubs and tear gas in Selma, it was the white man. [More]
If this story gains momentum in the next news cycle, coupled with a strong NH Obama win, it could be bad news for Hillary.
Emotive Politics Mediascape
January 7, 2008 | Governance | People & Society
Beyond his policy positions and rhetorical mad skillz, Barack Obama is setting a new standard for excellence in mass communication propaganda. Go to Barack TV and check out the "Generation Obama" video. It's just under 15 min long, documentary style, and a fascinating example of aspirational politics.
- It opens with organizing a student meeting, generating questions for a conference call. It then moves to student discussion of the Virginia Tech meltdown. The question crafted for the conference call is about international relations.
- 4:00 - Students sitting around telling their story. All student conversation; no narration or voice-over.
- 6:00 - Today's college sophomores were seven years old at the time of the Oaklahoma City bombing, 11 years old at the time of the Columbine murders, and 13 years old on 9/11/2001. Video continues with their stories about 9/11 - all their ideas and opinions.
- 7:30 - Back to Virginia Tech. Students discussion the loss of safety.
- 9:00 - Serious mood is broken to outright humor as a student acts out and mocks Barack's 2004 speech. Making fun of him! Produced and promoted by the campaign—would Clinton ever make fun of herself?
- 10:00 - Obama appears for the first time, and we're into some stump speech territory.
- 12:00 - Barack backstage with the students, joshing about cell phone photos. This short film shows students learning the operations of political operations—how to move the people and levers of democracy. This is a legacy of the Dean campaign: increasing activism. Students trying to make sense of the world—struggling to find the right response; not simply black and white reactions. Students trying to make a difference—willing to put themselves out there and have fun at the candidate the meet 'n greet. Politics is fun people.
It was filmed on April 19th, but has only just now entered rotation, taking an implicit or subconcious position that he's been a consistent candidate, the same person since Spring. All of this is powerful political propaganda. Motivational, educational, instructional. The campaign filmed all this raw material and have been producing it in due time, rolling it out when the time feels right. It's a very powerful media strategy, deploying raw media material as the situation dictates. This one models active, positive, and good student behavior. Nearly zero specific policy discussion - you can read the data on the website. This was all emotion. Closing the sale.
I have been an Obama supporter since March or April last year, which you may have first noticed as a semi-amusing blog post:
"I heard you wanted an Obama bumper sticker," he said, as he handed me the goods. I nearly fell over. "Wow! This is like a precious commodity!," I exclaimed. "Yeah, they're really hard to get," he said. I said, "I went on the website, and I couldn't believe they weren't selling them." Then Dave said, "Yeah, I was talking with Graham, and he said you wanted one." I laughed out loud. "You were talking with Graham?!?!?" Like, this is the modern political campaign. Including intrastate backchannel discussion about getting Michael J. his Obama bumper sticker? My mind reeled. "Yeah," he said, "I came a couple of times last week, but you weren't here." Three words: O. M. G. I'm thinking, here's this guy, walking the streets of Hanover, searching for Michael J., with a single Obama bumpersticker in his hand! It's like they invented some weird, inefficient, but personal, and effective, distribution mechanism.
They have long been people-powered at the grass-roots, with advanced technology (targeted CRM, portable video, web distribution, online fundraising), expressing the messages that their own audience puts in their own words!. And now everyone else is paying attention. No need to say much in person, now. Show up and inspire, support the detail online. Stay connected on a human level. Voice your campaign with your audience's own words and faces.
So, he's getting my vote this round. It's brilliant, daaahling.
On The Obama Iowa Win
January 4, 2008 | Governance | People & Society
Nine percentage points. That's a strength you can't overlook. Look at the diversity in the slices:
- Obama beat Clinton among women 35% to 30%
- Obama beat Edwards among voters in union households 30%-24%
- Obama beat Clinton and Edwards among voters of almost every income level (Obama and Clinton tied among voters who make $15-30,000)
- As many voters age 17-29 as voters 65 and older participated last night -- in previous years senior participation has been 5-times greater than younger voters.
- Obama beat Edwards and Clinton among voters who want change (51%-20%-19%)
- Despite countless attacks and hundreds of thousands of dollars in negative mail, TV, and radio, Obama beat Clinton and Edwards (34%-30%-27%) among voters who say health care is the most important issue
- Obama won among those who said the economy was the most important issue (36%-26%-26%)
- Obama won over Clinton and Edwards (35%-26%-17%) among those who said Iraq was the most important issue
- Won across the ideological spectrum – winning among liberals, moderates and conservatives
- Won among high income and lower income voters among voters with household income below $50,000 (34%-32%-19%) and among those over $50,000 (41%-19%-28%)
If you live in NH and are undecided, please spend ten minutes watching this Obama propaganda piece. I say that with affection: I've supported this guy for nearly a year, and I continue to be very optimistic. If you are on the fence please have a look. If you're tossing a coin, do me a favor and just vote Obama.
On the video: Forgive the foolish mistake of the "Dartmouth University" (s/b "College") caption. Most of the footage was shot in the fall, demonstrating (by showing not telling) that they had a consistent message months ago. They don't have to explicitly say that Clinton changes her mind about everything every three weeks. It's also nice to reminisce about the warmer weather, so it's pleasant to watch.
If you want a shorter taste, watch this three-minute excerpt of the pre-caucus "closing" speech. Tell your friends: Vote.
Real-Time Democracy
January 3, 2008 | Governance
C-span live at an Iowa caucus! It's amazing, watching people stand up, hold their hands up, count up a number, point to the next person to count, and drop their hands. Riveting, truly.
Update, from NY Times
7:54 p.m. | Our colleague Ashley Parker, who is in Des Moines at the Plymouth Congregational Church, Precinct 73, said the official count for tonight was 454 people, which the caucus chairwoman said was “a record for participation.” In the first round, it was 217 for Mr. Obama, while Mrs. Clinton was six short of the 68 she needed to crack the 15 percent viability. They were out in the hallway, trying to make deals.
She couldn't meet 15%?!? They were out in the hallway, trying to make deals. This is the moment when strong-arm politicos go to the mat.
Gruber: "Huckabee: The candidate for people who think George W. Bush has relied too heavily on science and reason."
Handmeon Update
January 2, 2008 | Business & Commerce | Life
Here's a status (promotional) update (flogging) on (of) my project (startup) to change the world, Handmeon.
We got great press during the holiday season, including the Boston Globe, Vermont Public Radio, Seven Days, and the Valley News (broken link; left here for posterity).
Jeff had an epiphanette while in dialogue at GiftHub.org which we're discussing internally, and this might lead to some ground-breaking organizational structures.
We received some good traffic from the media, and a good round of registrations. People who like it seem to really like it. We're looking for more members, so stop by, explore a little, and see if it's something that resonates with you.
Iowa Caucus Closers
January 2, 2008 | Business & Commerce | Governance | People & Society
I had my hair cut today, and the stylist told me she supported Barack Obama in the NH primary. We chatted about that, and I asked her if she had considered Hillary Clinton. She said, "Well, it's funny, because when I first heard she was running I got really excited. People came into the salon and we would talk about it — a woman president! Sometimes, I would close my eyes, and just imagine what it would be like, what it would mean, to have a woman president. And I would just feel great — [she relaxes and collapses her shoulders, rolling her eyes up all aflutter, as if in a dreamy dream] — and then I would open my eyes and it would be Hillary, you know? And I just got sick to my stomach, thinking, 'I'd have to listen to that woman for the next eight years.' It was like, 'no way.'"
In honor of Lisa, here's Hillary's closing TV ad for the Iowa caucus:
And here's Barack Obama's:
How about this Obama propaganda ? Marching music? Check. Aspirational imagery? Check. Oratorical escalation? Check. (Still, I'm voting for the guy.)
John McCain is the only credible Republican nominee:
On Holiday Travel
January 1, 2008 | People & Society | Travel
Patrick Smith is a commercial airline pilot, and the author of Salon.com’s weekly Ask the Pilot air travel column (and book of the same name). He's written an excellent essay for the NY Times on The Airport Security Follies.
Gift Hub takes it a step further, pointing out that this is not actually security screening, but obedience training.
MBA in Guesswork
January 1, 2008 | Business & Commerce | Technology
Good quote from a commencement speech by Bruce Eckel:
Management is much harder than technology because it involves virtually no deterministic factors. It's all guesswork, so if you don't have good intuition you'll probably make stupid decisions.
