Monday, June 23, 2008

The best news of the day

21% of American atheists believe in God.

In other news, fourteen percent of illiterates can read and write fluently, thirty-one percent of libertarians favour high taxes and extensive government regulation, and nine percent of Vancouver Canucks fans don't feel the need to whip out their cell phones and call their friends whenever they're at a game and the Canucks score.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Creepiness! Unusually, the kind where I'm the object instead of the subject.

As I haven't yet mentioned in this space, I'm currently a candidate for the community representative spot Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation. The election continues until tomorrow at midnight, and it's a fairly safe bet that I won't win (there are a few reasons for this, but I won't go into them because it's not the point of this post).

In what might come as a surprise to people who have experienced my past involvement in different things, I've kept a fairly low profile on Wikipedia. I certainly never posted a picture of myself (though I immediately disclosed my identity, so anybody who had cared could probably have tracked one down). It's traditional for Board election candidates to do so, though, so I uploaded this one, because I thought it was fairly flattering and because I thought it exhibited a representative level of self-satisfaction:

Anyway, some time ago one of my opponents - Greg Kohs, who has a terribly interesting story of his own that I won't go into because that's not the point of this post - suggested that I looked like a young Richard Gere. That led to this homoerotic exchange.

I feel pretty...

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Now for something 50% more different...

...a ranking of the tracks on Paul Simon's Graceland, which has been the subject of a surprising amount of debate in my life recently. My sentiment on this fluctuates based on my mood (for example, I am directly contradicting several of the points I made on Sunday when discussing this), but this is pretty much right:

1. Graceland: Simon calls it probably the best song he ever wrote. I wouldn't go that far (although don't ask me which song deserves the title), but it's the best on the album - a rare case, for Simon, of naming the album after the best song.
2. The Boy in the Bubble: Simon has said that he isn't a political songwriter, but that's sometimes not true. Still, his best political writing comes when he personalizes it, as he does here.
3. You Can Call Me Al: I often feel obligated to rank this one lower because it's so damned catchy, and catchiness seems like the mark of a non-brilliant song to me. But the image of a guy, battered by life, who wants a partner primarily to guard him against reality is a great one.
4. Gumboots: Repetitive and almost irritating musically, but the lyrics are top notch, especially the portions that deal with the least romantic marriage proposal in history ("you don't feel you could love me, but I feel you could", "why don't we get together and call ourselves an institute?").
5. I Know What I Know: Wait a minute - don't I know you from the cinematographer's party?
6. All Around the World: Signs of the times - the talk show host as prophet, the abandoned army post, and the belief in the differentness of our fingerprints.
7. Crazy Love Volume II: What the hell is meant by the image of an archangel named "Fat Charlie" filing for divorce? I don't know, and I don't care - it's brilliant, and I won't hear a word spoken against it.
8. That Was Your Mother: An unexpected Zydeco treat on an album of South African-inspired music.
9. Homeless: Probably the most "African" feeling song on the album, this doesn't benefit as much from the fusion of American and African as the earlier songs do.
10. Under African Skies: I have nothing in particular to say about this song.
11. Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes: Long and boring.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

A rousing and eloquent call for change from the Democratic nominee

Just not the nominee you're thinking of.

Was Gore speaking like this in 2000? Because that's not how I remember it. For my money, this is much better than Obama's DNC speech - outstanding rhetoric, important instances of substance, and (a personal bugbear of mine) respectful towards opponents.

Gore's probably overselling his candidate, but it's pretty tough to argue after hearing this that there aren't important differences between Obama and the status quo, and that Obama wasn't on the right side of those differences.