Friday, August 22, 2008
Popular/ist candidate?
I haven't seen many lawn signs for the '08 election yet but today I saw three - not one or two but three - and they were all for "Barr '08" proclaimed in very large distinctive letters.  I confess that I thought they were some kind of odd nickname for Barack until I saw this article featured on Newser.  Given the extremely small sample, perhaps I shouldn't make too much of this but it might mean something interesting.  Should we start paying more or at least as much attention to Bob Barr as was paid to Ross Perot?!

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 2:19 AM

Sunday, July 27, 2008
The TV Effect
Thanks to a comment from prolific blogger friend Dustbury about my post on the Kennedy-Nixon debates and the effect of Nixon's discomfort that resulted in a sweaty upper lip, I've been thinking about the effect that television will have on this year's election.  I wonder what impact it would have were we all suddenly required simply to listen to Obama and McCain without seeing them?  I've tried listening with my eyes shut and I have to say that I don't like either of them that way.  Obama sounds too rehearsed and McCain sounds too edgy.  On the other hand, if how a candidate looks on television is irrelevant, presumably so are their tones of voice.  I suppose what they write could be a valid measure of the men but there are ghostwriters these days and Obama is known to be more facile with the pen/keyboard anyway.  I still don't know what one is supposed to use to measure and/or judge these two against each other.

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Permalink | 5 comment(s) | posted by jau at 10:19 PM

Monday, July 21, 2008
Over the moon

Amazingly it's been 39 years since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. I wonder whether it was one of those nights like last night and tonight when the moon looked very low, huge, full and bright orange. More photos at boston.com.

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 2:35 AM

Sunday, July 20, 2008
Newser
I'm not sure if I like the barrage of images but maybe I do. I definitely like the hover-and-read feature. Newser.com is an interesting development in news sites and at least it makes a distinction between hard and soft news and, more importantly, allows you to select your own percentage of hard and soft. Not have to read about Ben Affleck having a baby in the same breath as economic issues would be refreshing. Of course one could probably make a case for all news being essentially entertainment but that would be a different subject. Anyway, newser seems worth a try.

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Permalink | 2 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:57 AM