Shame on you, O’Reilly! August 29, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Elections 2008, Media.1 comment so far
Bill O’Reilly cried foul today that NBC news put a heading under their breaking news banner asking how many houses Sarah Palin brings to the Republican ticket. Fine, low blow, editorialized heading that doesn’t belong on a news network. But then O’Reilly has the nerve to portray Fox News as righteous … sorry, but you can’t give NBC flack for their blunder when Fox runs this. (Yes, I know it’s a montage, but watch the channel once in a while… this splice is remarkably easy on the Fox b.s.) O’Reilly makes me want to weep for the integrity of profession of journalism, in which I was trained.
Not just any woman… August 29, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Elections 2008.2 comments
I don’t know much about Gov. Sarah Palin, but it is already clear that her policies are drastically different from Hillary Clinton’s, that she has minimal foreign policy experience, and a scant political experience in general. It is rather disappointing and sad that McCain thinks that just naming any woman to the VP ticket would attract former female Clinton supporters. Even Republican women are disturbed by the weak partner he has chosen and see through to his “pandering to women” bottom line. As a woman and a voter, I consider such pandering offensive.
Yes, there are those few voices who spin it so that if Palin is a bad choice for VP, Obama with his little experience and just a few years older than her, should be an even worse choice because he heads the Democrat ticket. Hmm… Palin is very likely to inherit the presidency given McCain’s health and age. Do women disillusioned by Hillary’s demise want an inexperienced, pro-life, no-foreign-policy “nobody” to head the country? That’s Hillary’s 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling legacy?
I shouldn’t be this negative this soon, especially as I have to admit I don’t know too much about Palin (hah! seems like that’s another point that McCain can’t push against Obama anymore), but so far there have been very mixed responses from all corners of the political spectrum to McCain’s VP nomination. There was hardly anything the Republican pundits could come up with against Joe Biden.
Very, very odd choice by McCain (who likely has only met Palin once before selecting her… talk about flip flopping yet again, this time on his trust and experience criteria). But then again, who else could have been a formidable VP candidate?
I can’t and won’t launch into a point-by-point comparsion between Palin and Biden, but a few interesting details come to mind: Palin has a son going to Iraq soon, so does Biden. Both paint themselves as family people with strong family values and down-to-earth lifestyles that connect to ordinary people. Oh, yeah, Palin is currently under investigation for wrongfully terminating a government employee on a personal vendetta.
Technology in the next 40 years August 28, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in New Media, Science, Technology.add a comment
I was working at the Intel Developer Forum last week and by the last day I was fairly tired. I didn’t have to be up until 10 a.m. and could have possibly slept in until 11. Instead, I was awake at 7 a.m. and out the door in time to see the final keynote. You can see it here for yousrelf.
There were a few things in particular that struck me – beside the incredible demos about the steps taken today toward the Cingularity (the point in time when artificail intelligence will surpass human intelligence). You should see the vide just for the cool robots that can “see” an apple in front of them and grasp it firmly, yet gently and hand it over to another preson; for the cognitive computer control demo of a video game; for the smart radios that could sense the free wavelengths around them and cell phones that can find a signal by hopping to other wirless devices even if their tower is down; for the nanocomputers (Catoms) of the future – tiny robots that will allow for 3D models and even a shape-and-appearance changing mobile devices. But what I thought was even cooler is the practical applications that each Ph.D. student, reseracher, or Intel intern discussed after their demo. Justin Rattner asked each person how they would make their project a viable, useful part of everyday life or medical research. Fareed Zakaria identifies this practicality as one of the United States’ greatest enduring strengths. Other countries are conducting fantastic research as well, but it is a uniquely U.S. trait to immediately and successfully turn a new idea into a product applicable to real life. It’s taking this vital step that separates the United States still, but it should also continue to stress educaiton in general and the sciences in particular, if it is to stay competitive in the global economy of today.
Another uplifting observation I jotted down was that several of the featured researchers were of minority background and even more of them had recognizable accents. This is another point in Zakaria’s book “The Post-American World” – the United States still attracts the brightest minds from around the globe. But again, the country needs to work harder today to keep this level of technological advancement and attractiveness for the emerging scholars of tomorrow.
Fear and guilt August 27, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Uncategorized.add a comment
I thought I stared death in the face today. It was my grandmother. She gave us a big scare. It was incredibly difficult to go through. It is amazing what thoughts and emotions can keep flying through your mind when you are on the verge of losing a most important person. You think you know yourself until you experience one of these moments and then you are reminded of how you really react in situations of life and death.
I was saddened by the amount of blame pushing I tried to do in light of my overwhelming fear of loss and my constant guilt of putting her in a potentially jeopardizing situation when I should know better.
How fragile life is. How precious. I guess I am keeping this note purposly vague because it is only intended to help me cope.
Flying with box cutters August 27, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Life, Superfluous musings.add a comment
I find it ironic that after the “necessary” tightening of security via a complicated system of color-coded alerts, homeland security overarching mandates to infringe on people’s privacy, wireless tapping and domestic spying, and all sorts of other lawless crazy measures instituted by the Bush administration, I somehow, unbeknownst to me, ended up on a plane outbound from San Francisco with a box cutter in my purse. I was in the city for a business trip that included a lot of showcase set up and I had kept a box cutter in my bag most of the week I spent running around opening boxes of signage and giveaways. I took the knife out of my purse and shipped it back to the office in a parcel full of other materials. But apparently I had a second one burried under the planner, wallet, camera, lotion, tissues pack, gum, etc. etc. etc. Going through the security line, I later realized, I also had a nearly full sanitizer bottle hanging from a keychain locked onto my belt. The only thing they did take away from me before I boarded was a plastic bottle with two sips of water left sloshing at the bottom. They asked if I wanted to drink it before I move on from securtiy or else they had to take it away because it wasn’t allowed on board. Hah.
I slept the whole flight through. I was unpacking the following morning when I realized one fo the orange plastic handle box cutters was still tucked way at the bottom of my purse. And then I remebered the full santizer hanging from my pants’ belt. Wow. We pay with our rights and freedoms. We purchase a fake sense of security.
P.S. The 9/11 hijackers used box cutters… ironic, and a little eery. Of all the things to miss in a security scan!
Healthcare: McCain vs. Obama August 27, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Elections 2008, Healthcare.1 comment so far
The McCain and Obama healthcare plans are starkly different. Here is an NPR program that helps dig into the details and explains what each plan would do for people, employers, and health insurance companies. The interviewee, Jonathan Oberlander, has authored an article in The New England Journal of Medicine detailing the two plans.
Deep breaths and cityscapes August 26, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Life, Reminiscing, Superfluous musings.add a comment
I love big cities. Of course, my definition of a big city is not necessarily commonplace. I grew up in the third largest city in my country, a tourism location on the Black Sea coast, and for European standards it was a bubbling, lively place. But it was only 300,000 at the time I lived there. Today, I consider Seattle “comfortably big” although many would call it medium-small.
Last week I visited San Francisco for the third time. The first was a few years ago as a tourist/on a family roadtrip. It was fun. We passed through and went to all the scenic places. I thought I wanted to live there some day. The second time was for a business trip followed by a long weekend with my love. The city charmed me again but left me with a sense of being too vast and somehow lonely, despite the lots of people in the huge streets. This time it was for a business trip alone and I noticed it was a smelly and dirtier than I’m used to kind of place. It gave me yet another different vibe… the kind that I would enjoy visiting again, to experience the different flavors, different neighborhoods, but I wouldn’t want to live there, no. I guess I yearned for some of the romantic nights that I wish I could relive better this time (the long weekend during the second visit was wonderful but not long enough and would have stayed in a different hotel, closer to the life and people of the heart of the city).
I did thoroughly enjoy the feel of a big city, looking down at the twinkle of long streets lined with white yard-less homes, from the top-floor hotel bar… Taking pictures of the many more skyscrapers than you would believe are downtown from ground level… Breathing in the crips air (after a warm day) walking back from a yummy meal with friends… Riding the ancient and exciting cable car down the steep heels of night-time San Francisco… All of these memories, while I was living them too, have warmed up a corner of my heart for the truly big city again.
The moral of the experience? I miss big cities. I have enjoyed every place I’ve ever lived… some of them have taken a while to grow on me, in some of them I’ve appreciated a sense of coziness. But there is something about the thrill of living surrounded by the energy, the liveliness of people. And perhaps it is time for me to look back towards Seattle, despite the fact that I have gradually grown to like Portland tremendously.
*Disclaimer: There are many varied reasons why Seattle is tugging on my heartstrings right now, it’s just that the trip to San Francisco reminded me how much I miss living in a big(ger) city.
My city… sort of August 5, 2008
Posted by midnightzimadreams in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
It’s a muggy Portland evening. I love it! It reminds me of my home city, Varna, where the summertime is so hot and humid that you can sit outside at a cafe downtown at midnight in nothing but jeans and a T-shirt and be sweating.
There are Capoeira dancers on the lawn in the middle of the PCC campus and I am thoroughly enjoying the beat of their tambourine. I can’t help but think that one day, when I don’t live here anymore, I will miss Portland. I will cherish the memories and probably over-talk-it-up to anyone and everyone who wants to (and doesn’t want to) listen. I can’t help it. It is one of those places in the world (similar to some parts of Australia, in particular Brisbane), that I feel are an incredibly successful mix of U.S. and European lifestyle. It has been a good year and a half.
A story on NPR today talk about how disconnect people are nowadays, how we have fewer confidants and friends, and the author of the book (the interviewee) attributed it to the fact that today we (U.S. folks) move so often throughout our lives that we do not develop a deeply rooted community network. How true. Even just traveling to different places around the world or living somewhere for a few months or a couple of years, I have noticed how attached I can become to a place while remaining miserably lonely from a people perspective. Always wishing for the friends “back home” even though there is no “back home” the way that friends and family are scattered nowadays. Even purchasing a home doesn’t seem to be a lock-in for settling down. It’s all rather unsettling.
But I suppose I take away the charm of all of these different places (and the memories, though that sounds cliche) and that enriches my life as a whole.
