Blogcoven » 2008

A year (late) in review

uber — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:08:49 +0000

2008 seems to have generally been regarded as a bad year. It’s interesting to try and consider a universal good or bad quality to a year. I guess the economic crash, which has hit with disturbing speed, has taken a lot of people back. I can’t shake the feeling that people wanted a crisis to come, or at least the media did. It feels a bit like how people spoke about a relief at starting WWI, just to break the tension.

The main thing this year for me has been the thesis. I won’t speak too long on it, but suffice to say that I am now past the time I would like to be while still writing, and so getting increasingly frustrated, especially with myself.

I have never been too good at sticking to only one track, and at one point I was effectively working one full-time job, one part-time and trying to write my thesis. That was too much and I hit December 23^rd little more than a cinder.

Thankfully, the part-time work is now largely finished, and I managed to write some fun software that did a job really well. I get a nice warm glow when code works, especially when it runs a hell of a lot faster than expected.

I wrote the code in Python, which I have to say is a rather excellent language. If there’s anyone out there considering learning to program for doing functional stuff quickly, I think the new version of Python would be a great choice. You can deploy web application stuff to the Google App Engine as well to get it online.

My new job is as a postdoc on a very large research project. It’s a totally different experience for me, since my PhD was individually funded. I am really interested to see what support I can give the students that arrive to the project, and what the advantages are of such a big network.

As we get into 2009, I think I just want to get the writing finished. I have a feeling that it is taking a really heavy toll on me now and that letting it drag on would be a catastrophe. On the plus side, I will be a new man when it’s done.

Change

dixie — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:22:27 +0000

I showed up at my local polling place at 7:00 am yesterday morning. I voted, got my free cup of coffee from Starbucks, did a few hours of work, then proceeded to bite my fingernails as I watched election results come in. Happily, the national election was decided quickly; as I’d guessed, the local measures are taking a little longer to certify.

I am disappointed in California for voting against families, but I am unsurprised. There is a lot of hate, misinformation, and convoluted logic surrounding Prop 8, and it’s all on an issue that is emotional at heart and therefore impossible to argue. I take heart in two things. First, the prop will pass with a far slimmer margin than its older sibling did in 2000, therefore things are moving in the right direction. Second, California has domestic partnership laws that grant all rights of marriage that are within the state’s power to grant. (The federal Defense of Marriage act blocks the rest, and would have done regardless of Prop 8′s outcome.) While “separate but equal” is still wrong, it’s pretty darn equal in this case, and more equal in California than in other states. (J’accuse, Arkansas.) It’s shameful that such a “liberal and tolerant” state voted this way, but it’s not the end of the world.

I am proud of America for electing Obama. Regardless of what happens in his administration, he proved the American dream of equality of opportunity is reality and not merely a yet-to-be-fulfilled promise. I am proud of Obama for focusing on the work ahead and not resting on his laurels, and I acknowledge that racism in America still exists today as much as it did yesterday and the day before. But it is significant that yesterday morning it was possible for anyone but a white guy to become President, but today it is reality.

I am excited about electing a President who ran on a platform of being smart, capable, thoughtful, and articulate, not one of “Hey, I’m a nice guy and I’m just like you stupid people.” I am amused that even cries of “Socialist!” could not prevent Obama from being elected. I am pleased that I got to vote for a candidate and not merely against another, and I am elated that it was possible to run an honourable campaign that enjoyed success. That’s change. It’s good change.

It’s clear that there will be changes, and there is a great deal of information on what those changes might be. I’m looking forward to see how those changes are implemented, and what else lies ahead.

Obama’s Snobbery is Good for African-Americans

uber — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:30:53 +0000

Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans

Election Break

uber — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:26:30 +0000

Urgh, things are going from bad to worse at the moment. In the interim, Hilary Clinton has suspended here election bid. It might interest you to see A visualisation of how things look by demographics by state. Obama is in for the Dems, but he is looking worse and worse as a candidate for the general election. Polls put him at around 1% behind McCain nationally, and that ignore the Bradley Effect, which seems to be in action.

The Race to the Bottom (?)

uber — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:54:52 +0000

There is no shortage of coverage on the web for the Presidential election that is still more than 9 months away. In many ways, it’s the most important election that happens anywhere in the world, it will define the next four years for us all.

As an ardent political armchair-ist, I thought I might post some of the links I read regularly. Some of these sites will no doubt draw ire from right-thinking people, and those right-thinking people are right, but I want to see all sides since I am trying to be a dispassionate spectator. I will divide the space into Red Sites for the Republicans, Blue Sites for the Democrats, Other Sites for non-party and Informational sites for the impartial ones.

You might want to start with the New York Times guide to the Election Primaries.

Informational sites

Political Base a web 2.0 election site designed to let people comment and track issues, candidates and the money.

Open Secrets Presidential 2008 more information on funding and sources of money

Sourcewatch can be a useful resource for finding out about sites you want background for (though it has been accused of bias itself)

FactCheck.org Another issues site, which Dick Cheney accidentally recommended as “.com”

Other Parties

Guide to American Political Parties note that you probably won’t need to know much about any party other than the GOP and the Dems.

Red Sites

Red State Wonkette for the right?

Drudge Report, Matt Drudge is fast on scandal, but has had some embarrassing retractions.

The Cato Institute is a liberatrian think-tank.

Little Green Footballs is a well-read source of rightwinginess.

Michelle Malkin Conservative Cover Girl.

Instapundit, highly influential on the right and in blogging in general.

Blue Sites

Crooks and Liars mainly youtube and other videos of embarrassing moments for mostly right wing people.

Wonkette hates everyone, but hates the GOP more. Angry and acerbic commentary about politics, with some good DC insider info.

Daily Kos Moulitsas might be a Democratic Party shill, but his site is a must-read.

HuffPost Arguably one of the most-read blogs on the web

Think Progress Another good site for videos and sound bites.

TPM Muckraker The scruffier part of a more respectable blog.

Obviously, you can also get information from the Washington Post, NY Times, Wall Street Journal (if they open up), Financial Times, Economist, Spectator and the rest of the main stream media.

If I can find the time, I will follow this up with info on the candidates themselves.