Nanobama

nanobama.com: vote for science


From electriclaserpeople.com:

John Hart, and his team of nanofabbers made these little faces from carbon nanotubes, tiny hollow cylinders of carbon that are tens of thousands of times thinner than a human hair, yet several times stiffer and stronger than steel.

Besides being great little campaign giveaways for the nano-scale voting block, John says, "carbon nanotubes and other nanostructures are building blocks for many important technological advances, including high-performance solar cells and batteries, new methods of diagnosing and treating disease, next-generation computer processors and memory, and lightweight composite materials."

That's nanochange we can believe in.

I say, it's full of sincerity right down to the molecular level.

Remember to vote today!

Election 2008 Set to the Music from "Les Miserables"

"Visiting The Hacker Dojo" (Watch on Vimeo)

The First Political Cycle to Inspire Me

I am drinking the free coffee that Starbucks gave me because I told them I voted. I did not have an "I voted" sticker to show the Starbucks cashier, because the polling place ran out; the election workers said no one expected a turnout of four hundred people! The line at the polling station stretched through the parking lot.

There are two main kind of empty gesture votes: to pat yourself on the back, or to feel like you have a voice. Referencing martyrs is a common form of passive-aggressive manipulation. Telling others to make their voice heard when their voice is far too radical for anyone to listen, just because someone sacrificed so they could do so, is like Jewish parents telling their kids they have to stay Jewish "or Hitler has won." People made sacrifices so you could have a choice of whether to do something, and a choice always involves a minimum of two options. I never asked martyrs to saddle me with responsibilities that don't matter to me, or a stake in a group to which I don't feel I belong.

Now I do feel like I belong.

I voted because I care about the issues on today's ballot. I voted in favor of Barack Obama, stem cell research (Michigan Proposal 2), and medical marijuana (Michigan Proposal 1). I voted for the "reality-based community" of science. The mere presence of these three oval slots on the ballot seem science fictional to me, and as I filled them in with black ink, I reeled with a rush of vertigo and future shock. I used to wonder at the plausibility of movies and television shows depicting black presidents who rose from a disadvantaged background to be the leader of the free world. What seemed impossible really is possible.

It is the first political cycle to inspire me.

In 1996 I was a fundamentalist Christian. I debated whether to hold my nose and vote for Dole to vote against Clinton. Instead I wrote in a vote for the U.S. Taxpayer's Party, whose materials used the word "abortuary" and promised to prosecute women and doctors for murder.

In 2000 I was far more disillusioned and apathetic, but I voted for Bush because I still assumed a supernatural being who was infinite in all perfections had ordered me to stop women murdering their children. It didn't make much sense to me any more, but supposedly that was because I was a worm who was stupid and sinful, so I did as I was told.

In 2004 I voted punitively against Bush, even though I was pretty sure I was going to despise the Kerry administration's business as usual in Washington.

I filled in the ovals today realizing just how far my nation had come, but more importantly, just how far I had come. At the age of thirty-four I felt for the first time like this is a country to which I belong. Even if we lose, I have a place on the ballot that I didn't write in. I actually started crying in the voting booth.

(no subject)

Of course they don't get a say in our politics, but I am charmed by some of the celebrations being held overseas:

The Irish village of Moneygall was also trying to claim Obama as a favorite son — based on research that concluded the candidate's great-great-great grandfather, Joseph Kearney, lived there before emigrating to the United States.

At Moneygall's Hayes Bar, an American flag fluttered outside window Tuesday and local band Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys played their rousing folk song "There's No One as Irish as Barack Obama."

In the sleepy Japanese coastal town of Obama — which translates as "little beach" — images of him adorned banners along a main shopping street.

Keep On Flying High

My friends.

I want to share this song with you today. It is from The American Adventure, in World Showcase of EPCOT Center.

The American Adventure

From Untitled Album