Meet the next Vice-President of the United States.
Later: there have been stories circulating on the Net saying that YouTube is removing copies of this footage. So far (Saturday 27 October, 10am GMT) this copy seems to be still going. But in case it disappears, there’s another copy here.
Neat, eh? From Hack a Day
Watching McCain posturing as the saviour of the US economy this evening I was reminded of this post by David Weinberger.
McCain’s suspending of his campaign is so very odd that I find myself looking for psychological, and not just political, explanations. So, try on this armchair psychoanalysis, keeping in mind that I’m just making this stuff up:
First, assume that McCain is desperate. When Fox puts you at 39%, desperation becomes reality-based thinking. Second — and this is the unpleasant part — imagine that McCain has had the thought that many of us had had: A terrorist attack in October would shake up the entire electoral chessboard, and might well favor the Republicans. (Yeah, yeah, I don’t think it should it, either.)
Now, no one wants a terrorist attack (except, um, the terrorists), including John McCain, of course. But we’re talking psychology here. So, could it be that McCain is reacting to the financial meltdown as if it were a large-scale terrorist attack because deep within him, he’s waiting for the crisis that saves him, the crisis that lets the aging warrior put on his flight suit one more time?
After all, the subtext of his “putting country first” trope isn’t patriotism but heroism. Heroes need crises. McCain’s brand of heroism consists of sacrifice: He gave up 5 years of his life in North Vietnam, and now he’s willing to give up campaigning.
McCain’s political problem is that in this case, his self-sacrifice seems unnecessary and can be taken as panic or cowardice. It seems like sacrifice for sacrifice’s sake. He thus runs the risk of voters turning away from the hero-without-a-cause to the leader who has one.
Good evening, my fellow Armenians. This is an extraordinary period for America’s economics.
Over the past few weeks, many Americans have felt anxiety about their finances and their SUVs. I understand their worry and their frustration.
We’ve seen triple-digit swings in the stuck market. Major financial institutions have teetered on the ledge of collapse, and some have failed. As discertainty has grown, many banks have restructed lending, debit markets have frozen solid, and families and businesses have found it harder to get money from the ATM.
We’re in the midst of a serious financial crisis, folks, and the federal government is responding with decisive reactionariness.
We boosted confidence in money marketing mutualities and acted to prevent major investors from intentionally driving down sticks for their own personal gain.
Most importantly, my administration is working with those assholes in Congress to address the root and branch behind much of the destability in our marketplaces.
Financial assets related to home mortgagees have lost value during the house declination, and the banks holding these assets have destricted credit. As a result, our entire ecology is in danger.
So I proposition that the federal government deduce the risk posed by these troubled assholes and supply urgently needed moolah so banks and other financial institutions can avoid collapse and resume screwing the public in the time-honoured way.
This rescue effort is not aimed at perverting any individual company or industry. It is aimed at preservating America’s overall economics.
It will help American consumers and businesses get debit to meet their daily needs and create jobs for the good ol’ boys. And it will help send a semaphore to markets around the world that America’s financial system is back on truck.
Gawd help America. Thank you and good night.
From the 10 Downing Street Twitter feed:
PM and Premier Wen of China exchanged warm congratulations on the UK and China’s Olympic performances ahead of a bilateral meeting tonight.
I love tag cloud generators. Wordle, created by Jonathan Feinberg, is the nicest I’ve come across. This is a cloud from some transcripts I’ve been doing for the just-launched Arcadia Fellowship Project, for which I’m Academic Adviser.
Well, just watch this.
I’m tired of hearing people pay obesience to John McCain because of his, er, heroism. Whatever principles he once may have had have already been jettisoned in the interests of getting elected. Besides, a guy who could offer this religious crackpot to his country as a potential president needs to be certified, not elected.
While browsing I came on what his agent describes as Clay Shirky’s ‘Must Read’ list.
Rise of the Stupid Network, David Isenberg — Why the Internet works
End-to-End Arguments In System Design, J.H. Saltzer, D.P. Reed, and D.D. Clark — How to Design for the Internet
Worse is Better, Richard Gabriel — Why weak but flexible systems beat strong but inflexible ones
Logic of Collective Action, Mancur Olson — Group coordination costs as a key aspect of organization design.
Good Morning Silicon Valley is spot on. It’s not about phones, it’s about philosophies.
It comes down to closed vs. open. In political terms, the Apple environment is like Singapore, where some freedoms may be ceded in favor of providing a pleasant and orderly experience, and Google, with its Android platform, is like a loud and messy New England town meeting. Apple has one iPhone, a tightly controlled App Store for third-party programs, and a touchscreen design that favors consumption of iTunes entertainment. The G1 is but the first of many Android-based devices to come, all of which will be served by the wide-open Android Market, and its design, featuring a real keyboard, leans toward typing-oriented functions like mail, messaging and mobile search, not coincidentally all Google strong suits. If you’re already happy in the Apple ecosystem, or with an “it just works (most of the time)” approach to tech in general, and you’re in the smart-phone market, there’s probably not much that Android handset manufacturers can come up with that will tempt you away from the iPhone. If you’re already happy in the Google ecosystem, then the tight integration of Google applications and services and the breadth of third-party development possibilities will make an Android-based phone more appealing. At the core, the iPhone and the Android phones may not really be the direct competitors they’re made out to be, but rather comparable alternatives whose appeal depends mostly on whether your tastes and needs put you in the closed or open camp.
Walt Mossberg’s useful first impressions are here.
Meanwhile, Google has been posting demo videos like this on YouTube.
Excuse the variation on the Dorothy Parker Walter Kerr joke*. Also, non-photographers and all readers infuriated by gadgeteering, please look away. Those of us who follow these things have been pondering the extent to which Leica seemed to have lost the plot. Its moves into digital cameras have been, to say the least, patchy. And its flagship M8 model was beginning to look a bit outmoded with the launch by Canon and Nikon of ‘full-frame’ (i.e. 24x36mm sensor) digital SLRs. My expectation was that we would soon see a full-frame M9 limping into sight.
But it now turns out that Leica was switching strategy and going for the very top end of the professional market — the folks who use Hasselblads for magazine and advertising work. Yesterday news leaked out of the Leica S2 series — a DSLR with a 37 megapixel sensor. That’s equivalent to the sensor in the Hasselblad HD3-II (£18,265.00 exc VAT to you, Sir).
Needless to say, there’s no pricing available yet for the new Leica product. But the old rule applies: if you have to ask the price then you can’t afford it.
*FOOTNOTE: Hmmm… I’d always been led to believe that “Me No Leica” was Parker’s verdict on the theatrical adaption of Isherwood’s I Am A Camera. But this source, among others, attributes it to Walter Kerr. Still, it was a good line, no matter who said it.