Andrew Sullivan, Barack Obama For President —

If I were to give one reason why I believe electing Barack Obama is essential tomorrow, it would be an end to this dark, lawless period in American constitutional government. The domestic cultural and political reasons for an Obama presidency remain as strong as they were when I wrote “Goodbye To All That” over a year ago. His ability to get us past the culture war has been proven in this campaign, in the generation now coming of age that will elect him if they turn out, in Obama’s staggering ability not to take the bait. His fiscal policies are too liberal for me - I don’t believe in raising taxes, I believe in cutting entitlements for the middle classes as the way to fiscal balance. I don’t believe in “progressive taxation”, I support a flat tax. I don’t want to give unions any more power. I’m sure there will be moments when a Democratic Congress will make me wince. But I also understand that money has to come from somewhere, and it will not come in any meaningful measure from freezing pork or the other transparent gimmicks advertized in advance by McCain. McCain is not serious on spending. But he is deadly serious in not touching taxes. So, on the core question of debt, on bringing America back to fiscal reason, Obama is still better than McCain. If I have to take an ideological hit to head toward fiscal solvency, I’ll put country before ideology.

The Economist, It’s Time —

And this cannot be another election where the choice is based merely on fear. In terms of painting a brighter future for America and the world, Mr Obama has produced the more compelling and detailed portrait. He has campaigned with more style, intelligence and discipline than his opponent. Whether he can fulfil his immense potential remains to be seen. But Mr Obama deserves the presidency.

Wick Allison, A Conservative for Obama —

Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for president. (In fact, I made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there was still hope he might come to his senses.) But I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I disagree with him on many issues. But those don’t matter as much as what Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world. Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers.

Matt Taibbi, My Campaign Memories —

We were all educated in this culture of blame-the-other-sap, and that’s why we Americans are always whining about getting jobbed by someone: the media, Hollywood, Big Tobacco, anybody. But this year, the more the other side whined and pointed fingers, the higher Obama’s star climbed. It’s reassuring to see that someone in this country is finally doing some growing up. Let’s hope that it says as much about us as it does about the presidency.

Barack Obama, Closing Argument —

Good night. I’ll see you at the polls tomorrow.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art,

There’s a good (if lacking in Safari 3 comparisons) overview at Blogoscoped, which notes:

I think it can’t hurt to have more competition in the browser area.

I can’t help but agree. It will be interesting to see how it competes against the Webkit/Safari family of browsers, especially with the upcoming release of SquirrelFish to set new Javascript speed records. Many of the other new Google Chrome features are already in Safari (cough porn mode cough), so I suspect this will turn out to be a good, solid entry into the browser market.

I just hope that the comic isn’t the best thing about the browser.

Darien Library website relaunches with new social features:

John Blyberg, Darien Library’s Head of Technology and Digital Initiatives, has created our website and the connection to our online catalog using open source software, and at his initiative, we are making it freely available to all libraries, as a contribution to strengthening the role of all libraries in their communities.

I’m really happy to see John’s work on SOPAC go live, and not just because I went to middle school with him years ago. The suite he’s developed to allow libraries to integrate internet social media with their internal systems is really amazing. Effective searches need interoperable data to be successful, and SOPAC helps libraries assemble that in an inexpensive, sustainable way.

You can read more about John’s work on SOPAC 2.0 at Library Journal, or right on his website.

Congratulations, John!

The new:

When one of the country’s best-known oilman starts talking about renewable energy sources, you best take notice and listen.

More at pickensplan.com.

(All of the videos are worth watching, but this is the best intro.)

Like cows.

Pirate cows.

Yarr! Mooo!

As you were, then.

I want this site to be clean, tidy, with a high signal-to-noise ratio. But that desire sometimes often nearly always conflicts with my desire to share a whole bunch of neat stuff with you. The desire to centralize online stuff can distort one’s focus. So, I’m trying out a separate Tumblr site (yes, again) to post those links, removed from the main flow of this site.

The name comes from one of my favorite books, which makes copious use of appendices. I think nearly half of the book is appendices and footnotes, and some of them are better than the source material! So, I figured it was about time for my own addendum.

It’s only a few days old, but I’d love to know what you think about it.

Gary helped do that. His creation, along with other people’s creations at the time, led to millions upon millions of creations. The Dragonlance epics. Ed Greenwood helping create the Forgotten Realms, Elminster, and all the rest. Books. Movies, usually bad.

For those of us his creation touched, he changed our lives. He brought me friends and times that I probably wouldn’t have found without him. He created something that anyone could do, and have fun with, and make their own. There’s not a lot of people you can say that about. In truth, I’d rank what he did above what even Woz and Jobs created. Those two created an industry. D&D created worlds.

pamie: I'm... Okay, I'm eating this curry. And it's seriously the hottest thing I've ever eaten in my life. After every five minutes I have to stop eating it because my face hurts and my lips start to swell and I'm drooling.

jessica: Heeeeeee. You know, you sound really upset. I was worried.

pamie: Because I'm crying. But this curry is so good! I'm not kidding; I put the bowl down and wait until I can feel my face again, and my skin is getting kinda blotchy, but after five minutes I crave it and I've forgotten all about the pain. Then I dig in, shovel four bites into my mouth and then: "Flames! Flames, on the side of my face...heaving!"

jessica: Ha!

It’s not a new idea to base legal, educational, or social prescriptions on scientific findings. It’s not a bad idea, either, unless such arguments are based on bad science, or on good science badly applied. But I’m afraid that in today’s educational policy debates — and not just about segregation of the sexes — the density of bad or misrepresented science is high and rising. In self-defense, our society needs to persuade people like Anastasia Rubis that standard deviations should not be so scrupulously avoided.

Tonight, Merrystar pointed me to the Dewey Donation System’s 2008 Book Drive, where you can purchase books for kids who need them and surprise the crap out of some very nice librarians.

Which, all things considered, is both a good thing to do, and pretty damn fun, too.

(Via.)

Kids lie early, often, and for all sorts of reasons--to avoid punishment, to bond with friends, to gain a sense of control. But now there’s a singular theory for one way this habit develops: They are just copying their parents.

Steffen is ready to show the industry what he’s found, and eager to do some real-world testing. But no one in the industry has called.

He isn’t surprised. “When they come across a problem,” he said, “I don’t think their first thought is, Let’s go talk to an astrophysicist. Oh look — here’s one that’s studied extra-solar planets. He’s our guy!”